It's an NBA Power Rankings Tuesday ... for the first time this season

How does nearly 6,000 words' worth of musings from The Committee (of One) sound to spice up your Opening Night? (If that is too many for you ... apologies. Got swept up in the spirit of the thing)

I lied.

On Opening Night Eve, I promised you 4,000 or so words from The Committee (of One) to properly ring in a new season with a vintage serving of NBA Power Rankings.

When I finally got a chance to chef it up for you Tuesday after a wild Rookie Scale Contract Extension Deadline Day, I ended up writing nearly 6,000 words.

Guess I am more excited about my 32nd consecutive season on the NBA beat than I realized.

You guys surely know the drill by now. As established during our maiden full season on this platform in 2021-22, our preferred rhythm here calls for publishing rankings on a (roughly) monthly basis. These are broader periodic looks at the league as opposed to our old weekly ESPN pulse takes (which ESPN happens to assemble nowadays with a double-digit armada).

Yet the overall mission remains unchanged: Establish an order independent of 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 some sprinkles of Committee whim mixed in.

We don't always achieve our goal of publishing an updated 1-to-30 ladder around the same time each month during the regular season, because unforeseen stories/shifting project timelines have a habit of derailing such plans, but it's always enjoyable to turn back the clock and immerse myself in Power Rankings mode to make sure we never forget how to do this.

You are asked, as always, to register your questions, quibbles or any other pertinent thoughts in the comments section below so we can respond and expound upon our thinking.

PS — We did hope to have this published before the Boston Celtics' Ring Night dismantling of the visiting New York Knicks … but the Celtics' performance only amplified how much the reigning champs deserve to open the new season as an undisputed No. 1.

PPS — 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.

---

The Stein Line is a reader-supported newsletter, with both Free and Paid subscriptions available, and those who opt for the Paid edition are taking an active role in the reporting by providing vital assistance to bolster my independent coverage of the league. Feel free to forward this post to family and friends interested in the NBA and please consider becoming a Paid subscriber to have full access to all of my posts.

As a reminder: Tuesday editions, on this and every Newsletter Tuesday, go out free to anyone who signs up, just as my Tuesday pieces did in their New York Times incarnation.

---

1️⃣ Boston Celtics

As recently as early September, when we trotted out our first-ever conference forecasts from The Stein Line 100, I had talked myself into the idea that the defending champions were legitimately vulnerable to losing their hold on the East's No. 1 seed. Then it began to sink in anew over the next six weeks that the Celtics won the East last season by a laughable 14 games — which was a margin unseen in any conference since (gasp) Golden State's 16-game edge over Phoenix way back in 1975-76 — and before going 10-2 in the playoffs in games Kristaps Porziņģis missed last spring. No one knows how soon we'll see Porziņģis this season, but that's about the only real cause for concern when looking at the Celts in Year 3 under Joe Mazzulla ... unless the sudden For Sale status of the franchise proves more unsettling than anticipated. Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown no longer shoulder the burden of repeated playoff failures and both should benefit from their own distinct doses of Olympic dissing. This team has to be a contender for the most automatic preseason No. 1 in the history of The Committee (of One).

Last ranking (April 16): 1

---

2️⃣ Oklahoma City Thunder

There figures to be two distinct seasons in the Western Conference. The regular season will feature 13 teams vying for eight playoff spots and one team in Oklahoma City that is heavily favored to post the best record. Then we'll proceed to the postseason, where matchups matter most and the Thunder will have to prove they are as dangerous as they look. Make no mistake, though: They do look damn dangerous, especially defensively, after adding Isaiah Hartenstein and Alex Caruso to a 57-win team that played Dallas very close in Round 2 of last season's playoffs. The Thunder are already dealing with various injury issues (most notably Hartenstein's fractured left hand) after enjoying mostly good health last season. But it is no accident that you are seeing OKC so widely forecasted to post the West's best record. The Thunder insisted on letting Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the young core around him gain some playoff experience and then using what they saw in the playoffs as guidance for the roster moves to follow. Then, like Philadelphia, they expertly achieved their offseason aims by acquiring two players who suit them perfectly. The hype would appear to be justified; doubly so if Jalen Williams ends up joining SGA at the All-Star Game in San Francisco.

Last ranking (April 16): 3

---

3️⃣ Dallas Mavericks

Is this the season that the Luka Dončić-era Mavericks finally secure a top-three seed in the West and set Dončić up to win his first Most Valuable Player trophy? Yes ... this Committee thinks so on all of that. Opinion is mixed leaguewide about how much Dallas actually helped itself with the offseason acquisitions of Klay Thompson, Quentin Grimes and Naji Marshall — to offset the departures of Derrick Jones Jr. and Josh Green — but there is no disputing that the Mavericks look fairly certain to benefit from a full season of P.J. Washington and Daniel Gafford ... plus the expected Year 2 leap for Dereck Lively II. I personally think Thompson is going to thrive whether he's playing off Dončić or Kyrie Irving; we simply didn't get to see it during Thompson's first preseason as a Mav because Dončić was nursing a calf injury. What would worry most me, if you forced me to throw on some Mavs goggles, is the mere fact that just getting back to the NBA Finals, in #thisWest, is almost as hard as winning the championship itself. Too many things can go wrong and too many other teams are in the way.

Last ranking (April 16): 5

---

4️⃣ Minnesota Timberwolves

If history repeats itself, Minnesota will not win another playoff series until 2044 after last season's unexpected run to the Western Conference finals. The Committee, of course, is being glib here: We are high on the Wolves and have remained so even after the stunning late-September trade that dispatched Karl-Anthony Towns to New York. That means I'm counting on Anthony Edwards to take another step (and increase his across-the-board efficiency) and that I co-sign the notion that Chris Finch can make Julius Randle's transition to the Twin Cities as smooth as possible as a well-chronicled Randle fan. Finch and Donte DiVincenzo are my preseason picks for Coach of the Year and Sixth Man, respectively, which should tell you that The Committee expects the Wolves to continue to be one of the West's top contenders.

Last ranking (April 16): 4

---

5️⃣ New York Knicks

I fear that I liked the Knicks better in September at the time of The Stein Line 100 ... before the Towns trade (and without factoring in Tuesday night's 132-109 spanking in Boston at all). Questions abound now about Towns coping with the withering Gotham spotlight, why in the world Mikal Bridges messed with his shooting form and the steady erosion of the Knicks' depth thanks to various injuries and what they had to surrender in the deal with the Wolves. The WNBA's Liberty might have just won New York's first pro basketball title since the Nets were crowned ABA champs in 1976, but they didn't take one ounce of pressure off the Knicks thanks to a title drought that, at 51 years and counting, is almost as old The Committee.

Last ranking (April 16): 6

---

6️⃣ Denver Nuggets

It would be dumb to get too far down on the Nuggets. Nikola Jokić is widely regarded as the best player on the planet and has played 79, 69, 74, 72 and 73 games over the past five seasons ... three of which resulted in MVP awards for the hulking Serbian. Yet the reality is that Jokić turns 30 in February and will see only one other All-Star in the Nuggets' locker room on Opening Night: Newly signed Russell Westbrook ... last an NBA All-Star in the Walt Disney World bubble season of 2019-20. The Nuggets insist that they let Bruce Brown and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope leave town without compensation to retain the financial flexibility to re-sign Jamal Murray and Aaron Gordon to big-money contracts, which they've done, but it is hard not to look at this franchise from the outside and the untested bench Denver has assembled to support its championship core and come away feeling as though ownership was satisfied with one ring and takes advantage of the fact that Jokić does not publicly apply pressure or betray frustration about the state of the roster. Michael Malone, by contrast, does not mince words and certainly caught The Committee's attention the other day when he was asked if he senses a desire among his players to avenge the disappointment of last season's second-round exit to Minnesota. "I haven't seen it," Malone said.

Last ranking (April 16): 2

---

7️⃣ Philadelphia 76ers

I can't remember the last team that met all of its offseason objectives as cleanly as the 76ers just did. They used the salary-cap space they created by convincing Tyrese Maxey to hold off for a full year on signing a new deal to lure Paul George away from Clipperland. They then duly re-signed Maxey to his expected max deal and filled out the roster with too many shrewd bargain signings to count. The Sixers even struck a deal with the city on a new arena to swiftly make the threat of a move to New Jersey go away. Everything they could have possibly wanted to do got done ... but Philly is starting the season with both Joel Embiid and George on Injury Watch (and unavailable for Wednesday's curtain-raiser against Milwaukee) due to their respective knee injuries. Which inevitably makes you question how the best team that has ever been assembled around Embiid can possibly stay healthy for an entire playoff run. Fun game to play with your friends: How many games do you think Embiid will play in the regular season now that he's saying he never plans to play both ends of a back-to-back again?

Last ranking (April 16): 9

---

8️⃣ Milwaukee Bucks

A full training camp for Damian Lillard. A full season for Doc Rivers as coach. An inspired Giannis Antetokounmpo after his first taste of the Olympics. The Bucks can point to all of that as reasons to believe they are still an Eastern Conference contender. It's also true that they did very well in the minimum-signings market with the additions of Gary Trent Jr., Taurean Prince and Delon Wright. Yet there is no escaping the reality that they have endured two consecutive postseasons without seeing a healthy Giannis and face inescapable injury worry about Khris Middleton's ability to come anywhere close to the 70 games that Middleton recently announced represent the minimum for him to declare this a successful season. The Bucks have likewise watched the competition around them in the East's upper reaches only get stronger while the core of this roster only gets older. I do believe that the Bucks have the potential to be a much tougher playoff out than forecasted — so long as Antetokounmpo is finally healthy again in the spring — but the number of rival teams that have started to lust anew for Giannis based on the idea that the Bucks are headed for some sort of dismantling is difficult to ignore.

Last ranking (April 16): 13

---

9️⃣ Phoenix Suns

If the Suns improve to the degree that many of our colleagues are suggesting, Mike Budenholzer is going to be a top Coach of the Year contender in his first season coaching the team he grew up watching. It has become almost reflexive for NBA pundits to proclaim that Budenholzer's arrival, combined with the signing of true point guard Tyus Jones, is going to elevate Phoenix to the contender status that free-spending owner Mat Ishbia has been expecting. The Committee would argue that the Suns' fortunes, however, depend most on A) Budenholzer's ability to convince the star trio of Kevin Durant, Devin Booker and Bradley Beal to embrace the 3-point shot far more often than they did last season and most crucially B) coax more than 53 games out of Beal. With no salary cap on coaches, Ishbia had the wherewithal (and gumption) to dismiss Frank Vogel one year into a five-year deal and sign Budenholzer to an even more expensive five-year deal. Yet the Suns' roster-building restrictions, given their luxury-tax bill, are far more unforgiving and make it a must that Beal and center Jusuf Nurkić make major contributions for Phoenix to live up to the lofty billing it has been getting.

Last ranking (April 16): 7

---

🔟 Orlando Magic

The Magic's offseason was too play-it-safe for some. Kentavious
Caldwell-Pope is the only marquee newcomer; re-signing so many of their own guys from a plucky 47-35 squad (Franz Wagner, Jonathan Isaac, Wendell Carter Jr., and this week Jalen Suggs) proved to be the clear focus. The obvious follow-up questions: Will the presumed next step for Paolo Banchero be enough to keep the Magic moving forward? And: Can Wagner fix his long-distance shooting for a team that teetered way too close to the league's bottom five in key categories from deep to be a real playoff threat? And: Can Jamahl Mosley continue to coax such dogged defense out of a young team? Fifty wins and Coach of the Year consideration figure to be in play if the answer to at least two of those three questions is yes.

Last ranking (April 16): 15

---

1️⃣1️⃣ Indiana Pacers

The Pacers are fresh off a Cinderella trip to the Eastern Conference finals and vowing to keep playing at a breakneck pace that makes them unique and difficult for teams to prepare for on short notice during the regular season. They're also about to enjoy their first full season of Pascal Siakam and can reasonably hope that the Olympic experience helps Tyrese Haliburton take the next step. All that said: The Committee feels compelled to keep pointing out that the East, at least from 1 through 8, is pretty daunting even if the depth of the conference as a whole doesn't come close to the stacked West. This threatens to impact the Pacers as much as anyone in that top eight, since a crash after a conference finals run — as seen with last season's Lakers, Dallas in 2022-23 and, of course, Atlanta ever since its surprising surge to the NBA's Final Four in 2020-21 — is not exactly unheard of. A beautiful pro basketball renaissance is underway in Indy, thanks largely to Haliburton and his pal Caitlin Clark's fine work with the Fever, but this is a critical season for the Pacers to see if they can keep the momentum going. Might be easier said than done.

Last ranking (April 16): 16

---

1️⃣2️⃣ Cleveland Cavaliers

The Cavaliers are a trendy pick to finish higher in the regular-season standings than teams that made flashier moves like New York and Philly. The Committee is less sure about such grandiose visions ... especially after Cleveland just lost Max Strus for six weeks. Even if the Cavaliers enjoy reasonably good health (Strus aside) ... why is it considered such a sure thing that the duos of Donovan Mitchell and Darius Garland and Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen will snap together more smoothly than we've seen them mesh in the past? Fit issues persist here even with a new head coach (Kenny Atkinson in for J.B. Bickerstaff) to address them. That the Cavaliers won 48 games last season despite Mitchell (27 games), Mobley (32) and Garland (25) all missing significant time might say more about the underrated job Bickerstaff did and the suggestion that having someone missing from their not-so-perfectly matched Core Four tends to help rather than hurt. Maybe this is the season that one of them (presumably Allen first) finally gets traded.

Last ranking (April 16): 17

---

1️⃣3️⃣ Golden State Warriors

Deeper and cheaper. That's the way one rival executive described the Warriors after their offseason shuffling. As an incurable basketball romantic, I didn't want to believe that Klay Thompson was as disenchanted with life Golden State as we learned after his departure and still struggle to believe he's a Dallas Maverick even though I see him all the time now as a resident of the same city. But the basketball pragmatist within me thinks that the Warriors emerged from the difficult divorce with a better overall roster for short-term competency while they continue to chase a significant trade to try to find a new in-his-prime sidekick for Stephen Curry. Provided Draymond Green is much more available than last season and Brandin Podziemski makes the step that had Warriors management so reluctant to surrender him in offseason trade talks, this should still be a playoff team. With Curry as the focal point, it should also still be plenty watchable .... although that stubborn basketball romantic we referenced is also having trouble believing that No. 30 turns 37 in March.

Last ranking (April 16): 14

---

1️⃣4️⃣ New Orleans Pelicans

"Straight vengeance." That was Zion Williamson's description, when asked by The Athletic’s Will Guillory, to sum up his mindset for the season. Williamson played a career-high 70 games last season, which helped the Pelicans win 49 games — most in New Orleans since the Chris Paul days. Yet the Pelicans' ongoing residence in the West, on top of their glaring need for a front-line center, makes it difficult to proclaim that they're going to break into the 50s. Especially when Brandon Ingram is still on the roster after it was an open secret throughout the league that Pelicans had hoped to trade him during the offseason. This is a roster teeming with talent and is presided over by a front office known to be searching for a center after its recent big swing for Dejounte Murray, so we're bound to be talking about the Pels often this season. Projecting what kind of season it will be is the hard part.

Last ranking (April 16): 12

---

1️⃣5️⃣ Miami Heat

Nothing slams home the idea of how solid this East is — at least from No. 1 to No. 8 — like seeing so many preseason prognosticators list the Heat as the team most likely to finish in the No. 8 slot. That's where they landed in The Stein Line Top 100 community forecast we commissioned in September, but The Committee has to admit: We still get nervous writing them off. I know there are suddenly very loud questions about Jimmy Butler's future and even louder concerns about how little Miami was able to get done in the offseason to upgrade its roster, but I can't shake the idea that the Heat — with Erik Spoelstra somehow still in search of his first Coach of the Year award — will find a way to be the proverbial Lower Seed No One Wants To See come playoff time. Remember: Butler was unable to play in the playoffs because of a freakish knee injury he sustained when Philadelphia's Kelly Oubre Jr. landed on him. If the Heat are reasonably healthy in April, I certainly wouldn't want to play them ... no matter how strongly you believe that there isn't enough around Butler, Spo and Bam Adebayo to show them as much respect as The Committee keeps showing them.

Last ranking (April 16): 10

---

1️⃣6️⃣ Memphis Grizzlies

It has become popular — maybe even commonplace — to bill the Grizzlies as a certain top-six seed as well as a sneaky sleeper threat to win the West. The Committee is much more cautious when it comes to Memphis' prospects because a health bounceback cannot just be assumed after a season in which the Grizz set an NBA record for the highest number of players employed (33) and the most starting lineups used (51) since lineup tracking began in 1970-71 … all because of nearly 600 man-games lost to injury. Maybe Ja Morant and Co. will indeed enjoy much better fortunes on the health front this season, but they have to show us first. There's simply no forgetting that, as my fellow Substacker Justin Kubatko points out, last season's Grizz were only the eighth team in league history to crater from a 50-win season to a 50-loss season. Let's see some sustained health rather than just assume it.

Last ranking (April 16): 22

---

1️⃣7️⃣ Los Angeles Lakers

The Committee wants to believe that the LeBron James and Anthony Davis witnessed on the Olympic stage suggest that the Lakers still have two elite players who can A) enable Hollywood's glamour team to make some playoff noise and B) make it feel as though there is something substantial to watch in Lakerland this season beyond the historic father/son storyline that clearly turns some of you off. The math problem: LeBron and AD combined to play 147 games last season and it still didn't get the Lakers any higher than seventh in the West. Is AD really going to play 76 games again? Is LeBron, who turns 40 on Dec. 30, really playing 71 again? Flexibility to make moves beneath the second luxury tax apron is almost nil, so first-year Lakers coach JJ Redick doesn't have much alternative but to lean heavily on his two Olympians and hope there is enough internal improvement around them. The fact situation at hand, however, suggests that the Lakers are likely heading for their 12th season out of the last 13 in which the purple and gold finish seventh or lower in the West. (Having just one top-six finish in the past 12 seasons has to be one of the craziest stats in the league as it is.)

Last ranking (April 16): 11

---

1️⃣8️⃣ Sacramento Kings

I am trying not to overreact to the Kings' 0-5 showing in preseason play. That's not really why they landed down here; it stems more from the West's overall depth and ongoing concern about Sacramento's limitations in terms of size and rim protection. The Kings should eventually be dangerous finishing games with DeMar DeRozan now teaming up with fellow strong closer De'Aaron Fox, but there will be fit questions until they find some flow and chemistry. Ditto for the forthcoming array of questions about defense. As in: Can Mike Brown really keep this group in the league's top half in defensive efficiency (something he amazingly pulled off last season) when the marquee newcomer is so offensive-minded?

Last ranking (April 16): 18

---

1️⃣9️⃣ Houston Rockets

The Rockets launched a season of high expectations Monday by committing nearly $300 million in contract extension dollars to Alperen Şengün and Jalen Green. Those two are the standouts from a deep group of promising under-25 players, including prized rookie Reid Sheppard, who have generated no shortage of buzz about the Rockets and their potential emergence as the West's surprise team under hard-driving coach Ime Udoka. In case you missed it: In the recent computer simulation of the 2024-25 season churned out by my pals at Strat-O-Matic, Houston went 47-35 to post the best record among Texas teams.

Last ranking (April 16): 19

---

2️⃣0️⃣ Atlanta Hawks

It is difficult, on one hand, not to keep chastising the Hawks for signing Dejounte Murray to such a team-friendly contract extension after giving up so much to trade for him ... and then shipping Murray out in June because trading Trae Young instead proved impossible. But Atlanta does appear to be in a better place than it was for much of last season with some promising young players beyond the 26-year-old Young (No. 1 overall pick Zaccharie Risacher, newly acquired Dyson Daniels and Onyeka Okongwu) and after getting a contract extension done Monday with prized forward Jalen Johnson after constant rumbles all weekend that a deal was unlikely. The Hawks appear destined to finish ninth in the East, which would remarkably result in a fourth successive trip to the Play-In Tournament, but a measure of hope has been restored after a 2023-24 campaign rife with hopelessness.

Last ranking (April 16): 21

---

2️⃣1️⃣ LA Clippers

Something that escaped The Committee's attention until our pal John Hollinger of The Athletic pointed it out recently: The Clippers have the league's longest active streak of winning seasons at 13 in a row. Of course, with Kawhi Leonard out indefinitely to start the season and Paul George now in Philadelphia, it will take all of Tyronn Lue's coaching magic just to get this group to 42-40 to extend that run. Even if you buy the notion that James Harden can expand his game in George's absence ... and that Lue is one of the league's best coaches ... and that the arrivals of Derrick Jones Jr., Kris Dunn and Jeff Van Gundy's as Lue's top assistant will have a dramatic effect on the defense ... optimism is in short supply with Leonard still plagued by the same knee issues that limited him to two games in a first-round loss to Dallas six full months ago. You inevitably conclude now that the Clippers let George go because A) they know Leonard is going to struggle to live up to the three-year, $153 million contract extension he signed in January and had to start launching a reset and B) they hope that the new Intuit Dome can be this season's superstar … for as long as arena hoopla can conceivably last.

Last ranking (April 16): 8

---

2️⃣2️⃣ San Antonio Spurs

The Committee fully expects Victor Wembanyama to win Defensive Player of the Year honors and challenge for All-Star and All-NBA status because the new Spurs will flirt with a .500 record. They'll undoubtedly fall short of that with a win total somewhere in the 30s — and surely want to fall short to ensure they can add another top draft pick in June — but Wemby and Co. are widely expected to be a much more competent operation in Year 2 with veterans Chris Paul and Harrison Barnes coming to town to inject the Spurs' starting lineup with some much-needed veteran know-how. There will naturally be questions about the future of Gregg Popovich as he begins his 29th season in charge — and with his 76th birthday looming in January — plus how much CP3 has left at 39. But all the best questions you can ask about San Antonio center around Wemby and how much he's going to show us as a 20-year-old. (Wemby, remember, doesn't even turn 21 until Jan. 4).

Last ranking (April 16): 23

---

2️⃣3️⃣ Chicago Bulls

I wrote about this Sunday and suspect I will keep saying it: The Bulls absolutely fascinate me. They need to tank. Everybody knows it. They will have to surrender their first-round pick to San Antonio as part of Chicago's original deal to acquire DeMar DeRozan if it falls outside the top 10 in the lottery in May, which means that the Bulls have to finish with the league's sixth-worst record to be absolutely sure they don't slip far enough in the lottery to lose it. But how on Earth can they be that bad with Zach LaVine back from injury to reunite with Nikola Vučević and both Josh Giddey and the resurrected Lonzo Ball joining Coby White in the backcourt and more than five other teams out there expected to tank? The Bulls, if not must-see, are absolutely must-monitor.

Last ranking (April 16): 20

---

2️⃣4️⃣ Toronto Raptors

The Raptors are entering their sixth season since winning the first championship in franchise history but let's face it: That title in 2018-19 with Kawhi Leonard emerging as the King of Canada feels much, much longer ago. While that title run also transformed Masai Ujiri into Canadian royalty, Toronto's lead executive seems to understand that restlessness is bubbling among the Raptors' rabid fan base amid some undeniable skepticism that a Scottie Barnes/Immanuel Quickley/RJ Barrett core has the sort of ceiling that those fans crave (and even demand) after what the Kawhi-led Raptors achieved. "We will win again here," Ujiri announced recently, suggesting he feels an urgency to improve. "If you don't win, you are irrelevant."

Last ranking (April 16): 26

---

2️⃣5️⃣ Charlotte Hornets

The Hornets could be a stealth contender for a Play-In Tournament spot in the East simply because — unlike most teams projected to finish in the bottom six of what still inspires Leastern Conference jabs — they actually want to win some games. If LaMelo Ball can finally stay on the floor and if Brandon Miller makes a leap and if new coach Charles Lee lives up to billing ... can Charlotte overcome the Ghost of Michael Jordan (ineffective owner version) and win 35 games? That doesn't seem unreasonable in #thisEast … although we should caution that Ball has only managed to appear in 58 games over the past two seasons.

Last ranking (April 16): 28

---

2️⃣6️⃣ Detroit Pistons

The Pistons, like the Hornets, are a team projected to land among the dregs of the East that would like to be as competitive as possible. The Tigers just made the baseball playoffs for the first time since 2014. The Lions are as respected as a franchise as they've ever been in the modern NFL. The Pistons, by contrast, are more than overdue to muster some respectability after a campaign that featured a 28-game losing streak (to establish a new and unwanted single-season NBA record) and 16 seasons in a row without a single playoff victory. Merely wanting to win, mind you, is not quite enough — even when you're surrounded by teams that will be happily tanking. Cade Cunningham and Jalen Duren badly need help just to get this team into the 30s win-wise and that means banking on solid contributions from newcomers (candidates include Tobias Harris, Tim Hardaway Jr., Malik Beasley, Paul Reed and Simone Fontecchio) and, more importantly, some dependability from younger Pistons like Jaden Ivey, Ausar Thompson and Ron Holland Jr.

Last ranking (April 16): 30

---

2️⃣7️⃣ Utah Jazz

For two straight seasons, Utah has played .500 basketball for about 50 games — they started each of the past two seasons under Will Hardy, to be exact, at 26-26 — before abruptly turning its focus to the lottery. In an even tougher West and with the NBA Draft's Class of 2025 projected to be quite deep by talent evaluators leaguewide, it seems safe to expect the Jazz to struggle to make their playoff masquerade last 40 games this time. (Let's face it: The fact that their first-round pick in June goes to Oklahoma City if the Jazz somehow fall out of the top 10 in the lottery ensures that sort of approach.) At some point, though, Utah is going to have to find a second star to pair with Lauri Markkanen, who remained a Jazzman and just signed a lucrative five-year contract extension in August after Golden State (and others) tried to pry hm away. You will have to keep your eye on the Jazz this season, no matter what happens on the floor, because CEO Danny Ainge already stated publicly in April that this franchise is "ready to go big-game hunting" at the first opportunity ... and because there are veterans on the roster (like Collin Sexton, Jordan Clarkson and John Collins) bound to come up in trade chatter between now and February.

Last ranking (April 16): 24

---

2️⃣8️⃣ Portland Trail Blazers

During his recent Basketball Hall of Fame induction speech, Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups reminded the audience that his early years as a player played out well shy of HOF standard and added: "My coaching journey has started off a little bit like my playing journey. It's been a little rough, but I feel the same way as a coach as I did as a player. I will win, maybe not immediately, but definitely." Admirable as the public confidence and defiance sounded, Billups surely knows that he's in for his roughest season yet. After 27, 33 and 21 wins in his Billups' first three seasons in the Pacific Northwest, Portland will be trying to post the league's worst record ... and thus secure the highest number of Ping Pong balls for the Cooper Flagg lottery in May. The Blazers are also determined to help Scoot Henderson rebound from a worrisome rookie season and launch rookie center Donovan Clingan's career to a better development start, but Billups won't be able to even try to start winning until Year 5 of his coaching career, since he is currently presiding over one of the two teams in the West (along with Utah) that won't even try to pretend it can sniff the playoffs.

Last ranking (April 16): 27

---

2️⃣9️⃣ Brooklyn Nets

It won't win him any Executive of the Year votes, but Sean Marks did score some creativity points recently by describing the current state of what the Nets are doing as "this build" rather than using the R word (rebuilding) out loud. The good news: Brooklyn has regained control of several of its draft picks by parting with Mikal Bridges and wisely conceded that "this build" was the only realistic course forward after the Kevin Durant/Kyrie Irving/James Harden Era imploded so spectacularly. The bad news: It's going to be l-o-n-g road back to getting anywhere near where they were talent-wise with those three. Brace yourself, in the short term, for constant trade speculation involving various Nets vets and lots of Cam Thomas. Did you see where our recent Strat-O-Matic computer simulation for the season ahead promised a 62-point game for Thomas in March? It could really happen.

Last ranking (April 16): 25

---

3️⃣0️⃣ Washington Wizards

If you're a Wizards fan, hopefully you enjoyed Monday's signing of Corey Kispert to a very reasonable four-year, $54 million contract extension. It might be their last win for a while. No team on the map will be trying to Sag For (Cooper) Flagg harder than the Wiz, who have already parted with the in-demand Deni Avdija and Tyus Jones and figure to stay in the news this season largely through the reports that circulate about potential trade relocations for Kyle Kuzma and Jonas Valanciunas. The patience of Wizards fans is bound to be tested like never before — which is saying something — with a Jordan Poole-centric offense looming and Wiz exec Will Dawkins announcing recently that rebuilding has four (FOUR!) stages: Deconstruction, laying the foundation, building it up and then fortifying what they've built.

Last ranking (April 16): 29