The post-draft, post-free agency NBA team power rankings

Hope you weren't expecting to see another team in this top slot. The reigning champs will enter the 2025-26 season as the heavy championship favorites, and have locked up MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, All-NBA wing Jalen Williams, and rising star Chet Holmgren to long-term deals, max contracts. This basically guarantees that the Thunder have the best Big Three in the NBA for the rest of the decade.

After taking the eventual champs to seven games in the second round of the playoffs, the Denver Nuggets went out and addressed their biggest issue from the past few seasons: depth. They shipped Michael Porter Jr. to Brooklyn for Cameron Johnson, giving them a similar shooter and better defender. They also signed two legitimate wings in Bruce Brown and Tim Hardaway Jr. Finally, they found a good backup big man in Jonas Valančiūnas. Having the best player in the world and having an A-plus offseason gives the Nuggets the best shot at dethroning the Thunder as NBA champions in 2025-26.

Outside of the Thunder the Rockets are the franchise that is best set up to compete in the present and far out future. They acquired future Hall-of-Famer Kevin Durant and signed Dorian Finney-Smith and Clint Capela in free agency, and still have the assets to make a strong offer for the next big superstar to hit the trade market (Giannis Antetokounmpo, Devin Booker, etc.). They are squarely in the legitimate contender tier, but, at the same time, are going to be quite reliant on an oft-injured Durant for late-game offensive creation. 

While their performance in the playoffs will ultimately determine the legacy of the Cavaliers' core four - Donovan Mitchell, Evan Mobley, Darius Garland and Jarrett Allen - the team should once again be a Juggernaut in the regular season. They've essentially returned the exact same team that had an Eastern Conference-best 64-18 record, swapping out Ty Jerome and Isaac Okoro for Lonzo Ball. Ball, in theory, should be a better playoff player than those two if he can stay on the court. Cleveland hopes that continuity will set them apart in the East in 2025-26.

Speaking of continuity, the Knicks are running back the same squad, plus two key bench players: the "Dancing Bear" Guerschon Yabusele and Jordan Clarkson. Speaking of the bench, they also swapped out the ever-rigid Tom Thibodeau for a more flexible coach, Mike Brown. While Brown is a bit of a parallel move, he will certainly utilize his depth more than Thibs, who, if he had the choice, would play his best five players 48 minutes a night. 

Let's just take a big chill pill when it comes to the Lakers. Unless LeBron James gets bought out or traded - both of which seem very unlikely this offseason - they're going to have two of the best 10 players in the NBA, plus Austin Reaves and newly signed reclamation project Deandre Ayton. They're going to win a lot of games, and nobody is going to be thrilled to match up with them in the playoffs, especially now that Luka is supposedly in the best shape of his life. Heck, I plan on betting a pretty penny that Luka wins his first MVP this season. Lakers overs all day.

The T'Wolves have made back-to-back Western Conference Finals appearances, but have been sent home packing in five games each time. They have an ascending superstar in Anthony Edwards and a team of defensive-minded, tough-nosed dogs around him. Unfortunately, they lost Nickeil Alexander-Walker in free agency and Mike Conley will be 38 years old, so they will need a couple of their young pups like Terrence Shannon Jr., Jaylen Clark and Rob Dillingham to step up and produce in order to get back to the Conference Finals again.

Man, the West is LOADED. The Clippers took the Nuggets to seven games, who then took the Thunder to seven games, so you could argue that the Clippers were the third-best team in the Western Conference and possibly even the NBA last season. Yet, they're starting the season eighth in these power rankings simply because they're going to be overly reliant upon Kawhi Leonard's health and James Harden's (16th season) maintaining his All-NBA production.

The Magic made the first big splash of the offseason, acquiring stud two-guard Desmond Bane from the Grizzles, which will finally give them a sharpshooter on the perimeter to space the court for Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner. This was clearly a "let's level up" move, and they paid a pretty penny for it (four first-round picks, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, and Cole Anthony), and I expect them to be a contender for Eastern Conference supremacy. 

The Warriors are literally the only team that hasn't made a move this offseason, mostly due to the Jonathan Kuminga restricted free agency situation. Once that clears up (he'll almost certainly be sign-and-traded), most people expect the Dubs to make some moves around the edges like signing Al Horford. Even with Jimmy Butler having a full offseason to build chemistry with Stephen Curry and Draymond Green, Golden State, as currently constructed, probably has a second-round ceiling.  

Look at Nico Harrison and that unearned ear-to-ear grin. Looks like a guy who made the biggest blunder in NBA history (trading Luka Doncic) and won the lottery a few months later and getting the opportunity to draft a generational prospect (Cooper Flagg). The Mavericks actually have a pretty interesting team and awesome front court, adding Flagg to Anthony Davis, Dereck Lively II and Daniel Gafford. Their weak spot is the point guard/playmaker position until Kyrie Irving returns, but they are taking a swing with D'Angelo Russell. If he can be a reasonable facsimile of Irving for the first half of the season until Kyrie returns, this could be a dangerous team entering the postseason.  

The Pistons were one of the best feel-good stories of the 2024-25 season and had the Knicks on the ropes in the first round of the playoffs. Cade Cunningham was an All-NBA performer and many of their young players like Jalen Duren showed some serious promise moving forward. This offseason, they effectively replaced Malik Beasley and Dennis Schöder with Duncan Robinson and Caris LeVert. With some continued improvement from their core of Cunningham, Duren, Jade Ivey, and Ausar Thompson, they can easily be a second-round team and very tough out in the playoffs.

Call me crazy, but I could see this year's 76ers being the "nobody believes in us" team. Injuries crippled them last season. Joel Embiid is suddenly a complete afterthought due to his injury history despite being an MVP frontrunner for the majority of the 2020s. Tyrese Maxey, Quentin Grimes, VJ Edgecombe and Jared McCain should make for an electric backcourt. And Paul George seriously cannot be as bad as washed as he looked last season. Maybe this season, their injury luck evens out and they're more like the fringe contender people expected them to be last season.

After landing the second pick in the 2025 NBA Draft, the Spurs opted to select Dylan Harper instead of offering the pick up to the highest bidder in an attempt to fast-forward their timeline around Victor Wembanyama. It was probably the right move from a big picture standpoint as a young nucleus of Wemby, Harper and Stephon Castle is about as good as it can get. However, part of me wanted to see them push their chips to the center of the table and accelerate getting Wemby some serious postseason experience. As currently constructed (remember they have De'Aaron Fox, Devin Vassell and others), the Spurs should at least be a play-in team and could outright make the playoffs if Wemby makes another leap into top-10 player range. 

After a shocking the NBA by signing Myles Turner and waiving and stretching Damian Lillard's contract (over the next five seasons), it's safe to say that the Milwaukee Bucks are ALL-IN. It's also safe to say that, unless Giannis Antetokounmpo can summon a 2018 LeBron James-type of season-long performance next season, this Bucks team probably won't make it out of the first round, let alone contend for the Eastern Conference Championship. As historically great as Giannis is, 2018 LeBron was the greatest player I've ever seen play basketball, so Giannis would need to make another leap to get there.

The Hawks had an excellent offseason and should be a frisky Eastern Conference playoff team this year. In addition to signing Nickeil Alexander-Walker, they made the best trade of the offseason by taking advantage of the Pelicans' ridiculous trade offer to give away an unprotected 2026 first-round pick to move up a dozen or so spots in the draft to select Derik Queen. With the strength of the Western Conference, that pick could very well land in the top five of what is supposed to be an absolutely loaded draft class. 

Before their sneaky (and essentially free) acquisition of Norman Powell, I was ready to hold a funeral for Heat Culture. They had a roster built around Bam Adebayo and Tyler Herro without much in the way of rising stars on their roster. Adebayo and Herro remain underqualified as the two best players on a contending team, but when you add in Powell, and add in Andrew Wiggins and Davion Mitchell, then account for Erik Spoelstra's wizardry, and suddenly you have at least the outline of a team that could be a tough matchup for any team in the East. 

Consider me bullish on the Celtics this season. They'll likely be without Jayson Tatum the entire season while he rehabs his Achilles. And they had to trade away Kristaps Porzingis and Jrue Holiday for tax purposes. And they let Al Horford and Luke Kornet walk in free agency. But...they still have two excellent wings in their prime in Jaylen Brown and Derrick White, the reigning Sixth Man of the Year in Payton Pritchard who could excel with a greater role, and an absolutely insane head coach hellbent on winning every game and squeezing every drip out of life in Joe Mazzulla. Assuming good health, I just can't see that core missing the playoffs in this relatively weak Eastern Conference next season.

For a minute, it seemed like the Grizzlies were about to blow it up after they dealt Desmond Bane for a bunch of draft picks. However, held onto Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, and after that, they gave Jaren Jackson Jr. a huge extension and drafted a very intriguing wing in Cedric Coward, whose body, wingspan, and fast rise in the draft give a bit of a whiff of Kawhi Leonard. While they won't contend in the West, they will be decent enough to be in the play-in range and possibly playoffs (which is actually something to be proud of this season!)

Life ain't always fair. The Pacers had a legitimate shot at winning the championship before Tyrese Haliburton tore his achilles. They probably would have entered the 2025-26 season as the favorite in the Eastern Conference. And they probably would have re-signed Myles Turner instead of letting him walk after the Bucks outbid them. Now, they'll be in the middle of the pack at best until Haliburton hopefully returns at full strength in 2026-27.

The Blazers made a couple of interesting moves this offseason. First, they traded Anfernee Simons for Jrue Holiday. Holiday will provide them with some needed leadership and elite defense (two skills Simons lacked). Then, they made a shocking, yet intriguing draft night deal for Yang Hansen - a super-skilled, but vastly unknown center from China. Finally, they bought out malcontent Deandre Ayton, paving the way for Donovan Clingan and Hansen to more minutes. If the Blazers can continue to grow upon what they were building at the end of last regular season, they could easily be in the mix for a play-in spot come next spring.

As described in the Hawks' slide, the Pelicans made one of the riskiest trades in recent NBA history, moving in the draft to select Derik Queen and giving away their unprotected first rounder in next year's draft. Perhaps Queen will be a stud and will team up with the team's other first-round pick, Jeremiah Fears, to form one of the NBA's best pick-and-roll combos. I hope it happens, but the problem is, those two probably won't drive winning for at least a few seasons. That means that Zion Williamson, Trey Murphy, Herb Jones and newly acquired Jordan Poole had better all stay healthy and mesh together to ensure that New Orleans doesn't miss the playoffs and potentially hand over the pick that becomes AJ Dybantsa, Darryn Peterson or Cameron Boozer because that would be an absolute catastrophe. 

Suns owner Mat Isbia is the walking definition of "new owner syndrome" and has turned a Finals contender into a bizarre collection of players that will be grasping for a play in position, likely from the outside looking in. This offseason has been a busy one for the Suns. They've traded Kevin Durant for Jalen Green, Dillon Brooks and the pick that became Khaman Maluach. They also traded for big man Mark Williams. Finally, they inked Devin Booker to a max extension. Maybe Green makes a leap, or Maluach or Williams is much better than expected immediately, but those seem more like pipe dreams than reality for this coming season in Phoenix.

What a clown show of an organization. It's like they are literally trying to finish in the Play-In every season. Do you realize that over the past few seasons, they've traded away DeMar DeRozan, Zach LaVine, Alex Caruso and Lonzo Ball without receiving any strong draft capital in return? What are they doing? Why did they sign Patrick Williams to a five-year, $90M deal last summer? Who was offering him even half of that? Why didn't they trade Nikola Vucevic when he had first-round value? 

As of this writing, they haven't signed restricted free agent Josh Giddey to a contract, but are expected to do so at some point this summer. Hopefully they at least learn their lesson about leverage and don't overpay Giddey because nobody else has cap space right now.

The NBA has had some really bad owners, and, despite not having any major organizational or personal scandals, Vivek Ranadivé, is etching his face onto the Mount Rushmore of terrible owners. He's incredibly impatient and has fired legitimately good coaches (Mike Malone, Mike Brown) and general managers (Monte McNair), and traded away two elite point guards (Tyrese Haliburton and De'Aaron Fox) in exchange for two offense-only players who don't drive winning in the playoffs (Domantas Sabonis and Zach LaVine). Ranadivé needs to let the people he hires do their jobs and step way back if he ever wants to have success. Otherwise, I can't see the Kings winning a playoff series the rest of the decade.

For the first time in a long time, the Hornets' arrow as a franchise is pointing up. They drafted a couple of really solid players in Kon Knueppel and Liam McNeeley. They moved on from the perpetually injured Mark Williams. And they acquired Collin Sexton for essentially nothing. Now, they can see if their core of LaMelo Ball, Miles Bridges, Knueppel and McNeeley has the juice to make a run at the Play-In. If not, they can consider flipping Ball and/or Bridges for additional draft capital and continue the rebuild.

The best move the Raptors made this offseason was getting rid of President/GM Masai Ujiri. After winning the 2019 NBA Championship on the back of an all-time high-risk, high-reward trade for Kawhi Leonard, Ujiri had totally lost his way and made a series of perplexing trades and signings that all but guaranteed that the Raptors would remain on the hamster wheel of mediocrity for the entirety of the 2020s. 

It's a slow rebuild - you can thank John Wall's achilles and former GM Tommy Sheppard's pea-brain decision to give Bradley Beal a supermax with a no-trade clause for that - but at least they're taking steps in the right direction. This offseason, they landed Tre Johnson, a flamethrower shooting guard with Ray Allen's upside, in the draft and acquired CJ McCollum in a deal for Jordan Poole to give themselves another adult to help mold some of their young talent. 

Jordie Fernandez was such a good coach last season that he kind of screwed up the Nets chances at getting a pick at the top of the lottery. This offseason, the Nets front office seems intent on making sure that that doesn't happen again. First, they traded their best all-around player in Cameron Johnson in exchange for Michael Porter Jr. and a 2031 first-rounder. MPJ will provide some scoring pop but not much else. They also let D'Angelo Russell walk in free agency. Next, instead of consolidating their five first round picks and trading for another piece or up in the draft, they became the first team in NBA history to select five players in the first round. And the five players they selected are all fairly raw projects. The goal this season is to figure out whether any of these rookies are studs and to finish with one of the worst records in the NBA ahead of a loaded 2026 draft class.

So much for Austin Ainge's "we're not tanking" proclamation a few weeks ago at his introductory press conference. Since that statement, the Jazz have drafted Ace Bailey (a massively talented, but extremely raw 18-year-old), traded Collin Sexton for Jusuf Nurkic (huh?), bought out Jordan Clarkson, and traded John Collins for essentially nothing. The Jazz will be horrendous again this season and probably trade Lauri Markkanen at some point by February's trade deadline.