It's NBA Power Rankings time (at last)

The Committee (of One), which was founded way back in the 2002-03 season, has assessed and sorted the league's 1-to-30 landscape as only it can on the eve of Opening Night

There has been a push in NBA punditry in recent years to try to find a new lens through which to evaluate and order the league's landscape.

Tiers is the trendy way to do it.

To which we say: Why try to reinvent such a reliable and popular wheel?

With apologies to Jayson Tatum, please allow The Committee (of One) to not-so-humbly announce that this Substack is sticking with traditional Power Rankings. We'll continue to publish them on a monthly basis, as established in our maiden season on this platform, stemming from a desire to take broader, periodic looks at the league as opposed to our old weekly pulse takes at ESPN.

Yet the overall mission remains unchanged: Establish an order separate from the standings that measures big-picture potential and expectations alongside short-term results. Injuries and other off-court developments, positive and negative, are factored in as well — with a dash of Committee whim mixed in.

In this particular edition, right before the regular season begins, offseason business and training camp injuries factor in heavily in advance of actual wins and losses. The goal from here will be to publish an updated 1-to-30 ladder around the same time each month for the rest of the regular season.

We ask, as always, that you register your quibbles or any other pertinent thoughts in the comments section below so we can respond and expound upon our thinking.

PS — Rankings posts, remember, are incredibly long. So click on the headline to get the web or app version instantly if it proves too unwieldy to consume as an email.

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1️⃣ Denver Nuggets

It's not just Michael Malone. The Committee (of One) is equally annoyed about
how little October talk there's been about the defending champs, who naturally top this ladder as defending champs should. The Nuggets have all season to work on developing the depth to replace the departed Bruce Brown and Jeff Green and, remember, just mowed through the playoffs with a record of 16-4. Gonna go out on a limb and suggest that Nikola Jokić probably should have appeared in this TNT graphic touting Tuesday night's games when Boston isn't even playing Tuesday night.

Last ranking (April 4): 3

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2️⃣ Milwaukee Bucks

Having one of the world's best players means you're always under pressure to please him. The Bucks, to their credit, clearly understand and accept this and just traded for Damian Lillard as if Giannis Antetokounmpo is Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Lillard is the modern-day Oscar Robertson. If the Dame gambit doesn't lead to a championship — or if Giannis ends up leaving town later anyway like Kareem did — Bucks officials can console themselves with the knowledge that they did everything humanly possible to try to convince him to stay. It says here, FWIW, that Lillard’s ability to raise Milwaukee’s offensive ceiling outweighs what the Bucks will lose defensively without Jrue Holiday.

Last ranking (April 4): 1

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3️⃣ Boston Celtics

The Bucks, again, have the higher ceiling on this scorecard and earned the No. 2 slot with the splashiness of the Dame trade … but I really like what the Celtics have done. They were as aggressive as they could be without breaking up The Two Jays (and even swiped Holiday in the process). As risky as it was to change everything around Tatum and Jaylen Brown, I applaud Boston for its willingness to make those dice rolls after a run of seven close-but-no-title seasons. Especially when the early glimpses of Kristaps Porziņģis in Celtics green have been so promising.

Last ranking (April 4): 2

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4️⃣ Phoenix Suns

How is it possible that Devin Booker is the lone member of the Suns' 2021 Finals team still playing for them? How is anyone going to guard these guys if Booker, Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal stay reasonably healthy? How high is the Suns' ceiling if new coach Frank Vogel can fashion any semblance of a Vogel-esque defense out of this roster? (How can we gloss over the health issue when Durant has played in only 35, 55 and 47 games over the past three seasons?) The desert is where you'll find some of the league's most intriguing questions.

Last ranking (April 4): 6

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5️⃣ Los Angeles Lakers

To be clear: The Committee does not see the Lakers as the fifth-best team on the league as of Oct. 23. This ranking is based more on how we feel about the state of the roster along with their summer business, although those reviews tend to be rather polarizing. Either you're really high on all the newcomers and re-signings or you think this team is wildly overrated now. Count us among the impressed while also cautiously wondering if the Lakers will be good (and healthy) enough in the regular season to make their playoff route out of the West easier. The numbers on LeBron James, meanwhile, knock you back every time someone says them out loud: Season No. 21 ... turns 39 in December ... with an average of 22.2 games missed across his five seasons as a Laker.

Last ranking (April 4): 12

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6️⃣ Miami Heat

Losing in the NBA Finals is painful enough and Miami's empty offseason, if you're grading objectively, was realistically worse given that the Heat reached those Finals as a No. 8 seed playing without the injured Tyler Herro. I simply can’t drop them lower than No. 6 to start the season when this team was one shot away from reaching the NBA Finals three times in Jimmy Butler’s first four seasons on South Beach. No team in league history is more adept at making The Committee eat harsh words in these rankings. It won't be immediate and there will much criticism to absorb in the short term after the Heat traded for neither Bradley Beal nor Damian Lillard, but I'm betting on them to acquire a new starry sidekick for Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo sooner rather than later. Pat Riley and Co. always find a way.

Last ranking (April 4): 14

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7️⃣ Golden State Warriors

Were we seduced by past performance here? Fair question. It is still difficult to process, months later, that the Warriors had a worse road record last season than all but three teams: The same Pistons, Rockets and Spurs who posted the three losingest records in the league in 2022-23. Stephen Curry, approaching his 36th birthday in March, ranks as such a sure thing that readers of The Stein Line just selected him as the league's second-best player behind Denver's Nikola Jokić. The problem: There are question marks lingering about so many other key Warriors, from Klay Thompson (how will he be affected by slow-moving talks on a contract extension?) to Draymond Green (he's missed all of training camp due to an ankle injury) to Andrew Wiggins (he played in only 37 games last season) to newly acquired Chris Paul (he turns 39 in May and doesn't appear to be thrilled about the prospect of playing off the bench).

Last ranking (April 4): 9

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8️⃣ New York Knicks

It is widely presumed that the Knicks will be at the front of the line for the next star-level player who surfaces on the trade market (Karl-Anthony Towns? Donovan Mitchell? Joel Embiid?) but the team they have in the meantime continues to look incredibly stable, solid, pick-your-preferred-adjective to convey sturdiness. They went 37-22 last season once Coach Tom Thibodeau nailed down a nine-man rotation and have swapped out Obi Toppin for Donte DiVincenzo. Many Knicks fans read this newsletter, so you please tell me: Are you comfortable with the team's patient, unspectacular course?

Last ranking (April 4): 10

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9️⃣ Cleveland Cavaliers

Much of the good vibes generated by a 51-win season and their greatest success without LeBron James on the roster since way back in 1992-93 were wiped out by a meek showing in the first round of the playoffs that resulted in a five-game exit in Round 1 against the lower-seeded Knicks. The Cavaliers, as a result, enter the new season feeling a good amount of angst. Maybe it's not quite Philly or Miami levels of pressure … or maybe it is. Donovan Mitchell can become a free agent in the summer of 2025 and the current marquee quartet of Mitchell, Darius Garland, Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen is about to get really expensive.

Last ranking (April 4): 5

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🔟 Philadelphia 76ers

While Milwaukee and Boston spent the summer fortifying their rosters, Philadelphia surged into an early league lead in the Drama Standings thanks to James Harden's standoff with longtime ally Daryl Morey. The 76ers actually went an impressive 15-9 in games without Harden last season, but who knows A) how long it will take for Morey to find a Harden trade he’s willing to make, B) how soon before the Sixers just ask Harden to stay home to wait for that deal, C) how Joel Embiid will react to the ongoing saga and D) whether Embiid stays healthy enough to match the 66 and 68 regular-season games he played in each of the past two seasons to account for his two most active seasons. Quite a situation new coach Nick Nurse has walked into.

Last ranking (April 4): 4

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1️⃣1️⃣ Minnesota Timberwolves

My old friend Zach Lowe, presumably swept up in all of the summer’s Anthony Edwards hoopla, has anointed this team his favorite to win the NBA's inaugural In-Season Tournament. And you won't believe what we're going to print about the Timberwolves in the Tuesday Newsletter Extravaganza tomorrow. If nothing else, provided that they enjoy much better health this season after Karl-Anthony Towns was limited to 29 games last season, I think it's reasonable to expect the Wolves to be the very strong regular-season team many of us predicted when they initially traded for Rudy Gobert.

Last ranking (April 4): 19

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1️⃣2️⃣ Memphis Grizzlies

It speaks to how much talent that the Grizzlies have amassed that they remained such a popular pick to win the Southwest Division even with suspended Ja Morant having to miss the first 25 games of the regular season. Most of those picks, mind you, were registered before Sunday’s news about Steven Adams needing season-ending knee surgery. The Committee, even before the bad Adams news, was cautioning that trading for Marcus Smart does not automatically propel the Grizzlies, as oft-suggested, to greater heights than the Tony Allen acquisition from Boston did. Not in an absolutely stacked Western Conference and not when Brandon Clarke (Achilles) is also still recovering from injury.

Last ranking (April 4): 7

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1️⃣3️⃣ Sacramento Kings

Harsh as it is to suggest that the Kings might have been a One-Hit Wonder last season, it's a premise that only they can disprove. Such is the inevitable skepticism, fair or not, that Domantas Sabonis, De’Aaron Fox and Co. will face from some precincts after those 16 seasons without a playoff berth that preceded last season's surge to No. 3 in the West and the (mostly) favorable health that the Kings enjoyed last season. Just don't be surprised if the league's best offense is even more prolific this season as they expand Keegan Murray's role and welcome in a rookie (Sasha Vezenkov) we’re irrationally intrigued by.

Last ranking (April 4): 8

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1️⃣4️⃣ Oklahoma City Thunder

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is universally regarded as one of the league's 10 best players. Chet Holmgren might be Victor Wembanyama's foremost challenger in the Rookie of the Year race in his injury-delayed debut season. Josh Giddey, Jalen Williams, Lu Dort, etc. — this will be as watchable as any Thunder team since Durant's last season in town. It might even make a run at 50 wins, too, although there is always a level of concern when so many pundits are touting the same team as a surprise team.

Last ranking (April 4): 18

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1️⃣5️⃣ LA Clippers

This will be remembered, no matter what happens on the floor, as the Clippers' final season as Lakers' co-tenant at what The Committee can't stop itself from calling Staples. This is also Year 5 for the Kawhi Leonard/Paul George partnership ... after they were healthy enough to play in just 104 and 141 games, respectively, over the past three seasons. More and more lately, probably because the Kawhi/PG tandem has been such a tease to this point, this strikes me as the one team outside of Philly that James Harden can really help.

Last ranking (April 4): 13

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1️⃣6️⃣ New Orleans Pelicans

The Pelicans are as hard to assess as any team entering the season. Zion Williamson is back and theoretically makes this team as dangerous as it's ever been since New Orleans was welcomed back to the NBA in the same season (2002-03) that this Committee debuted. The problem, as ever, is that there's no dodging the reality that Williamson has played in a mere 29 games over the past two seasons. Or the fact that Williamson and Brandon Ingram have played in less than 100 regular-season games together in their four seasons as teammates. The Pels have already dealt with their share of health woe in the preseason to complicate prognostications (and dampen spirits) further.

Last ranking (April 4): 11

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1️⃣7️⃣ Atlanta Hawks

Trae Young averaged 26.2 points and 10.2 assists last season ... figures matched over the course of a whole season by only five players in league history: Oscar Robertson, Tiny Archibald, Michael Adams, Russell Westbrook and James Harden. Yet Young finds himself right at the top of the league's list of Prove It To Us players after two seasons of heavy criticism in the wake of the Hawks' unexpected run to the Eastern Conference finals in 2021. Let's see how much a full season of Quin Snyder's coaching, after Atlanta hired Snyder expressly to lift Ice Trae, can make a difference here.

Last ranking (April 4): 20

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1️⃣8️⃣ Indiana Pacers

The Pacers were 26-22 when Tyrese Haliburton and Myles Turner both played last season. They have since signed Haliburton to a max contract extension potentially worth up to $260 million ... and Turner recently proclaimed himself to be one of the league's top five centers. Whether or not you buy Turner's claim, it seems safe to suggest that the Pacers are a team to watch in an Eastern Conference that should have at least one playoff spot up for grabs. After signing Bruce Brown away from Denver, signaling Buddy Hield is available via trade and with All-Star Game hosting duties looming in February, this is sure — if nothing else — to be a franchise in the news.

Last ranking (April 4): 25

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1️⃣9️⃣ Orlando Magic

The Magic, like the Pacers, are a popular pick to take a leap into the East’s top eight, which is largely a nod to the potential already flashed by Paolo Banchero (who doesn't even turn 21 until Nov. 12) and Franz Wagner (who just helped Germany on an improbable run to the FIBA World Cup crown). Whether it actually happens for Orlando, after just two trips to the playoffs in the last 11 seasons, will likely hinge on the quality of guard play it generates and how it addresses its larger need for more dependable perimeter shooting.

Last ranking (April 4): 22

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2️⃣0️⃣ Dallas Mavericks

Who is the third-best Maverick? Even if you're sure it's Grant Williams, one also wonders: How many Mavericks not named Luka Dončić or Kyrie Irving could start for a team with true title aspirations. Even if Dončić and Irving click as a tag team in their first full season together — and even if Dallas can shake off the effects of the longest preseason trip in league history — you will struggle to find anyone projecting the Mavericks to finish any higher than ninth in the West based on the current evidence.

Last ranking (April 4): 21

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2️⃣1️⃣ Toronto Raptors

Darko Rajaković has not only been asked to replace a ring-winning Nick Nurse in his first NBA head coaching gig but also take over a squad that features three prime players (Pascal Siakam, O.G. Anunoby and Gary Trent Jr.) who are not contracted to be Raptors beyond this season (with Anunoby widely expected to decline his 2024-25 player option to opt for free agency). The new coach, to compensate, will undoubtedly be counting on a significant leap from Scottie Barnes and copious amounts solidity at both ends from Committee favorite Jakob Poeltl.

Last ranking (April 4): 16

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2️⃣2️⃣ Brooklyn Nets

This summer might have set a new record for Ben Simmons Is Back headlines. (Did you see, for example, this recent enclosed cover of Esquire Australia?) Let's hope the headlines are true for once. We're suckers for a good comeback story ... especially when it involves a lefty. Of greater significance: It’s difficult to envision Brooklyn avoiding a slide without a significant (or at least notable) contribution from Simmons. Also: Please forgive The Committee in advance for our inevitable guilt in overusing Mikal Bridges' "Brooklyn Bridges" nickname.

Last ranking (April 4): 15

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2️⃣3️⃣ Chicago Bulls

The Committee spent time in three foreign countries in recent weeks and saw Chicago gear everywhere we looked … which is another way of saying that Michael Jordan's worldwide influence remains plenty tangible more than a quarter-century removed from his six-ringed run with the Bulls. Stateside relevance, by contrast, is much harder to quantify for a team that — with lead guard Lonzo Ball already ruled out until next season — inspires more curiosity about potential tear-down trades featuring Zach LaVine or DeMar DeRozan than projections about what it can do on the floor.

Last ranking (April 4): 17

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2️⃣4️⃣ Utah Jazz

If you want to write #thisJazz off … go ahead. The Committee prefers to see this team as a classic example of what makes the West so difficult to handicap after Utah proved so much more competitive than expected last season. We're not exactly sure how John Collins will mesh with Lauri Markkannen, but it seems safe to suggest that the Jazz will be a very well prepared tough out under Will Hardy that, with Danny Ainge in charge, will also surely be pursuing more trades after shipping out Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert.

Last ranking (April 4): 23

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2️⃣5️⃣ San Antonio Spurs

The Spurs will not win 56 games in Victor Wembanyama's rookie season like they did when Tim Duncan showed up, but that's because those Spurs also had David Robinson and a team around them poised to contend. Yet we've seen enough from Wemby in the preseason to confidently declare that he will be the Rookie of the Year. We’ve also seen enough from him alone to lift the Spurs out of the Bottom 5 in a nod to the excitement that awaits. Forget about whatever you remember from summer league. The 19-year-old has already achieved must-see, drop-everything-to-watch-him status.

Last ranking (April 4): 29

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2️⃣6️⃣ Houston Rockets

We've been getting this question a lot lately: How much of a leap can Jalen Green, Alperen Şengün and the Rockets take this season after maneuvering to acquire Fred VanVleet and Dillon Brooks and hiring Ime Udoka as coach? The Committee has at least 11 teams in the West ahead of them and possibly 12 depending on how closely Utah follows last season's script. One key area for improvement right off the bat: Both VanVleet and Brooks shot below 40 percent from the field last season.

Last ranking (April 4): 28

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2️⃣7️⃣ Detroit Pistons

We heard over and over again last season that the Pistons declined to trade Bojan Bogdanović in part because they were so determined to field a competitive roster this season. Has Detroit achieved that goal? Even with Cade Cunningham's spectacular return to full-speed hoops with USA Basketball over the summer and the splashy hiring of Monty Williams as head coach, finishing merely ninth or 10th in the East to crash the Play-In tournament still feels decidedly out of reach.

Last ranking (April 4): 30

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2️⃣8️⃣ Portland Trail Blazers

While true that the Trail Blazers declined to give franchise legend Damian Lillard the trade to Miami he wanted, it's hard to argue with the results when they came away with Deandre Ayton, Robert Williams, Malcolm Brogdon, Toumani Camara, first-round picks via Golden State (2024), Milwaukee (2029) and Boston (2029) and two more pick swaps with the Bucks (2028 and 2030). Instinct tells us that the Blazers will stay in the headlines, too, with Scoot Henderson at the forefront of the Rookie of the Year race and Jerami Grant, Brogdon and Williams sure to generate considerable trade interest.

Last ranking (April 4): 27

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2️⃣9️⃣ Charlotte Hornets

The Hornets begin the post-Michael Jordan Era fingers-crossed hoping LaMelo Ball plays roughly twice as often as last season (just 36 games) … and that Brandon Miller was the right choice with the No. 2 overall pick ahead of Scoot Henderson. I hope you will read my recent column on Jordan's confounding 13-year run as a sub-.500 owner ... and I can't help but wonder how many more Hornets fans feel like SB Nation's James Dator described in this column after the recent revelation that an arrest warrant was issued for Miles Bridges after he allegedly violated a protection order while still on suspension in the wake of domestic violence charges that kept him out of the league throughout last season.

Last ranking (April 4): 26

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3️⃣0️⃣ Washington Wizards

Bradley Beal and Kristaps Porziņģis have relocated to title contenders and the Wizards, at last, are finally starting over. Newly extended Deni Avdija (entering his fourth season) is the top Wizard in terms of seniority in the nation’s capital and newly acquired Jordan Poole, judging by his preseason shot profile, is apparently determined to try to win the scoring title. The greater likelihood: This will be the team with the NBA's worst record.

Last ranking (April 4): 24