NBA Power Rankings: Where All 30 Teams Stand Entering 2024 Preseason

Andy Bailey Featured Columnist IV

NBA Power Rankings: Where All 30 Teams Stand Entering 2024 Preseason

FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via The draft, free agency and plenty of trades are behind us. The NBA preseason is officially here, and it's time to sort through the entire league as exhibition games get going.
Of course, since we've yet to see any of these reworked (and in some cases, overhauled) rosters, power ranking all 30 teams is almost pure projection. But the criteria that guided this exercise throughout 2023-24 is still in place.
Based on team and individual numbers, championship chances, recent performance (which, for today's purposes, means last season) and loads of subjectivity, this is how the league breaks down right now.

Stephen Gosling/NBAE via Since the start of the 2018-19 campaign, the Washington Wizards have the second-worst winning percentage in the NBA. And by the end of this season, they might have a worse roster than they've had at any point during this stretch.
As long as Malcolm Brogdon, Jordan Poole, Kyle Kuzma and Jonas Valančiūnas are playing, they might have the occasional night of peskiness, but all four have to be considered trade candidates for a team that should be angling toward better lottery odds.
For the Wizards, 2024-25 should be about growing pains for Bilal Coulibaly, Alexandre Sarr and Bub Carrington, and the potential to add Cooper Flagg to that group.

Melissa Majchrzak/NBAE via Because of how late into the summer he signed his extension, Lauri Markkanen isn't eligible to be traded this season.
But that doesn't necessarily mean the Utah Jazz will be above the tank race. In fact, it almost certainly doesn't.
Utah can still improve its lottery position by moving one or more of Jordan Clarkson, Collin Sexton or John Collins. And there are six first- or second-year players who could get meaningful rotation minutes.
Expect to see plenty of Keyonte George, Taylor Hendricks, Brice Sensabaugh, Cody Williams, Isaiah Collier, Kyle Filipowski and the losses that will come from playing them.

Gregory Shamus/ The Detroit Pistons have been far and away the worst team in the NBA over the last 15 seasons, and they somehow found a new low in 2023-24.
Detroit lost a franchise record 68 games, and it's bringing back most of the core pieces who authored that historically bad campaign.
Still, it feels like there's no way to fall further. J.B. Bickerstaff, who's coming off a successful run with the Cleveland Cavaliers, is replacing Monty Williams as head coach. Tobias Harris, Tim Hardaway Jr. and Malik Beasley should add some competence to the wing rotation.
And there's still time for Cade Cunningham to develop into a helpful lead playmaker, especially with a solid rim-runner in Jalen Duren to grow alongside him.

Steph Chambers/ The Portland Trail Blazers are another rebuilding team with a handful of movable veterans.
In their case, it's Deandre Ayton, Jerami Grant, Robert Williams and maybe even Anfernee Simons (just because the sharpshooting guard likely has more trade value than any of the above).
However, even if Portland can't find takers for some or all of the vets, it should spend most of the season tracking toward a top 5-10 pick in the 2025 draft.
Expect a healthy dose of Scoot Henderson, Shaedon Sharpe and Donovan Clingan. And while those minutes pay off down the line in terms of their development, they should also lead to plenty of losses in the short term.

Michelle Farsi/ The Brooklyn Nets' position is awfully similar to Washington's. There are useful NBA veterans on this roster, but Dennis Schröder, Cameron Johnson, Dorian Finney-Smith are all probably best suited as a fourth or fifth starter on a good team.
The Nets aren't that, in part because they could start all four.
All of the above should be on the trading block (if they aren't already). And Brooklyn should be shamelessly chasing losses.
The one potential wrinkle that might get in the way of all that is Ben Simmons truly being all the way back to his pre-injury self.
"I think people forget me as a player when I'm healthy," he said on media day. "I'm pretty good, right?"
Right. The healthy Simmons was one of the league's best defenders and transition playmakers, but we haven't seen that player since 2021.
Another appearance is probably unlikely, but if it happens, and those veterans stay in place, Brooklyn might be frisky enough to push for a play-in spot. It might also boost Simmons' trade value enough to move him.
Winning is probably the least probable outcome, which is why the Nets are this far down the rankings.

Grant Halverson/ This take isn't exactly out on a limb, but this Charlotte Hornets season hinges on the availability of LaMelo Ball.
After he appeared in just 58 games over the last two seasons, it's fair to worry about it. And if that trend continues, the Hornets can probably count on another high lottery pick.
If Ball can stay healthy and on the floor, his volume three-point shooting and playmaking can juice the offense, speed up the development of Brandon Miller and generate plenty of open dunks for Miles Bridges.
On that timeline, Charlotte has an outside shot at a play-in berth.

Michael Reaves/ The trend continues with another team that should be looking to move some mainstays. For the Chicago Bulls, it's Zach LaVine and Nikola Vučević who should be being shopped around the league.
If they can move either or both, Chicago might be able to enter the tank race in earnest. If not, we could be looking at another Bulls campaign that finishes with them hovering around the play-in tournament.
But while mediocrity can be tough for fans to endure, there are some reasons for genuine optimism among the team's younger core.
Josh Giddey has shown a lot of upside as a pre-injury Ben Simmons-like playmaker who isn't afraid to shoot. And he's still turning just 22 years old in October. Combine him with incoming, high-flying Matas Buzelis, and it's hard to fault the Bulls faithful for getting their hopes up.

Richard Lautens/Toronto Star via On media day, Toronto Raptors president Masai Ujiri said he'd describe the expectations for this season with the word "rebuilding."
Starting center Jakob Poeltl came right out and said: "It makes no sense for us to try to win every single game as much as we can and sacrifice development."
So, even if Toronto's young core includes some players who'll help the team be competitive on any given night—like Scottie Barnes, RJ Barrett and Immanuel Quickley—knowing it isn't too concerned with winning is hard to ignore for an exercise like power rankings.
The best version of this team probably includes ahead-of-schedule versions of the three players above and a finish around eighth or ninth place in the East, but trades, load management and overly conservative timelines for injury recovery should prevent that.

Kevin C. Cox/ It was clear pretty quickly that the Trae Young-Dejounte Murray partnership formed by the Atlanta Hawks in 2022 wasn't going to work. There wasn't enough playmaking responsibility to go around, and the latter didn't cover for the former's defensive shortcomings the way some expected him to.
It still took two years to break up the duo, but the tardiness is excusable, to a degree. It's hard to pull off a trade in the NBA, and making the decision late is better than not making it at all.
Young is still a superstar-level offensive engine. And now, the rest of the roster better suits him.
There's plenty of potential shooting and defensive versatility from Jalen Johnson, De'Andre Hunter and 2024's No. 1 pick, Zaccharie Risacher.
There's a great rim-runner to operate in the pick-and-roll with Young in Clint Capela.
And the departure of Murray should mean more minutes for Bogdan Bogdanović, who showed his ability to take on a bigger role for the Serbia national team in Paris.
There's still some development to happen for the younger players before these new-look Hawks are anywhere near contention, but at least they're headed in the right direction.

Joe Scarnici/ The Los Angeles Clippers found themselves in a tight spot (at least for the next couple seasons) when Paul George bolted for the Philadelphia 76ers.
Because L.A. was over the cap with or without him, it didn't really have a meaningful way to replace him. Cap exceptions and minimums brought some intriguing rotation players, like Derrick Jones Jr., but the Clippers are now, quite clearly, going to have to rely more on Kawhi Leonard and James Harden.
And while both can still provide superstar production, it's fair to wonder how consistently they do it. Harden is 35 years old. Kawhi has one of the most robust injury histories of any star in the league, and he had an offseason procedure on his knee.
If either or both aren't clear All-Stars, the Clippers might struggle to make the playoffs.

Ronald Cortes/ I've spent much of this summer pounding this number into your heads. But since I may not have many more chances to do it, here it is one more time.
In 2023-24, when rookie Victor Wembanyama was on the floor with Tre Jones (an actual point guard) and Devin Vassell (a competent three-and-D wing), the San Antonio Spurs were a whopping plus-10.2 points per 100 possessions.
Wemby is already an All-Star-level talent. And when he's part of logical lineups (as opposed to experiments intent on turning Jeremy Sochan into a point guard), the Spurs can compete with just about anyone.
Now that Chris Paul and Harrison Barnes are around, those logical lineups should be more common. And San Antonio might even be in the mix for a top-10 finish in the West.

David L. Nemec/NBAE via After going 41-41 in 2023-24, the Houston Rockets can realistically expect to make a push for the postseason this season.
Alperen Şengün is already a fringe All-Star and one of the best passing bigs in the league. There's star upside in both Jalen Green and Jabari Smith Jr. And several others still on rookie contracts, including Amen Thompson and Cam Whitmore, look like they'll be, at the very least, helpful rotation players.
The biggest X-factor that might differentiate this squad from last season's, though, is incoming rookie Reed Sheppard.
With veteran Fred VanVleet in the starting lineup, there may not be a ton of minutes available for the 20-year-old, but he boasts a skill Houston needs.
In 2023-24, the Rockets were bottom 10 in three-point percentage, and Sheppard just shot 52.1 percent as a freshman for Kentucky.

Carmen Mandato/ Jimmy Butler's potential free agency could be looming over the Miami Heat all season. This situation has shown up for plenty of teams in the past, and it often leads to tension.
But there's another route Butler and the Heat can go after Miami declined to extend him. He is now playing for his next contract, and it might be the last big one for the 35-year-old star.
If that means we get more appearances from "Playoff Jimmy" in the regular season, Jaime Jaquez Jr. takes a step forward in his development, Bam Adebayo keeps playing like an All-Star and Tyler Herro keeps scoring and hitting threes at high volume, Miami could exceed expectations again.

Layne Murdoch Jr./NBAE via There are a couple different ways you could look at the situation facing the New Orleans Pelicans.
The glass-half-empty take is that they they're already doomed by not having a starting-caliber center. For the half-fullers, this roster conundrum presents New Orleans with an opportunity to start one of the most intriguing lineups in the NBA.
On media day, head coach Willie Green said he's not committed to starting a traditional center. That may give us plenty of minutes with Dejounte Murray, Brandon Ingram, Herb Jones, Trey Murphy III and Zion Williamson all together.
And while that group (or one with CJ McCollum in place of anyone but Zion) may get dominated on the boards and struggle to keep opponents out of the paint, it should be able to put up points of its own in droves.
A trade to land a big before February still feels like a very real possibility, but New Orleans can still win on speed, versatility and the star power of Zion.

John Todd/ This version of the De'Aaron Fox-and-Domantas Sabonis-led Sacramento Kings really hasn't been around for long, but it was already starting to feel like the ceiling might not be much higher than the first-round exit they had in 2023.
So, despite the fact that he's now 35 and has typically had a negative impact on his teams' point differentials, it's hard to fault Kings fans for being excited by the addition of DeMar DeRozan.
He's still a consistent 20-point-per-game scorer. He and Fox will make up perhaps the league's best crunch-time one-two punch. And he's become an underrated playmaker over the last six years. With DeRozan, Sabonis and Fox all on the floor, defenses will have a hard time knowing where the creation will be coming from.
Add a breakout from Keegan Murray to the mix, and we might get one of the league's best offenses from the Kings.
There are still real concerns about the defense. Shortcomings on that end will probably keep them in the middle of the West's standings, but the Kings absolutely have a shot to get back to the postseason.

Justin Casterline/ It feels like the Indiana Pacers, who made it all the way to the Eastern Conference Finals in 2024, have sort of been written off by most fans and media as a real contender in 2024-25.
Given some of their injury luck in the playoffs (Giannis Antetokounmpo didn't play in the first round, and the New York Knicks were decimated by the end of the second) and the way teams like the Knicks and Philadelphia 76ers beefed up this summer, the lack of attention for Indiana is understandable.
But the Pacers still have one of the game's most productive lead playmakers in Tyrese Haliburton. The adjustment period for Pascal Siakam should be over. Myles Turner is one of the league's steadier three-and-D presences. And several young(ish) players, like Andrew Nembhard, Obi Toppin and Bennedict Mathurin, could take steps forward this season.
Indiana should be, at the very least, a pain for the East's juggernauts.

Ezra Shaw/ Even with the loss of Klay Thompson, the Golden State Warriors had a good enough offseason to be considered a better team in 2024-25.
Kyle Anderson is a unique playmaker and one of the game's most consistent defenders. Buddy Hield can at least replace the shooting volume Thompson brought.
De'Anthony Melton is a high-end three-and-D wing who'll bolster the team's backcourt depth. And several young players, including Jonathan Kuminga, Brandin Podziemski and Trayce Jackson-Davis, are clearly on the upward slopes of their development.
But being better than the 2023-24 Warriors doesn't necessarily make this version of Golden State a contender. To get there, Stephen Curry will need one more MVP-like campaign and Draymond Green will have to avoid getting suspended.

Kevork Djansezian/ On a recent episode of , Los Angeles Lakers head coach JJ Redick revealed his starting lineup would be D'Angelo Russell, Austin Reaves, LeBron James, Rui Hachimura and Anthony Davis.
And that shouldn't be too surprising. That group features plenty of playmaking, multiple three-point threats and one of the best and most versatile defenders in the league. In the 24 games L.A. started with this group in 2023-24, it went 18-6 .
So, one might assume better health for a supporting cast that was often hurt last season could vault the Lakers right back into contention.
The thing is, LeBron and AD had great injury luck in 2023-24. LeBron will turn 40 this season. And there's a reason several of those supporting players were signed to minimum contracts in 2023.
There is enough talent here to get back to the playoffs, but expecting the Lakers to upend contenders such as the Oklahoma City Thunder, Denver Nuggets or Dallas Mavericks is more of a stretch.

David L. Nemec/NBAE via Even without the addition of Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, the Orlando Magic would have been one of the most exciting young teams in the NBA for this coming season.
They feature two of the game's better up-and-coming playmaking forwards in Franz Wagner and Paolo Banchero. Jalen Suggs and Jonathan Isaac can both perform at an All-Defense level on that end of the floor. Wendell Carter Jr. is a solid, multidimensional 5. And Cole Anthony can swing a game with his scoring from the bench.
But Orlando did land KCP. And his low-usage, smart, defense-first game makes him a near-perfect fit in lineups with Suggs, Wagner, Banchero and Carter.
Even with the improvements made by some other Eastern Conference powers, a top-four finish is in play for the Magic.

Justin Ford/ After a gap year in which Ja Morant was limited to nine games by a suspension and shoulder injury, the Memphis Grizzlies should be right back in the mix for a top-four seed in the West.
Morant is back, and the trio of him, Desmond Bane and Jaren Jackson Jr. is a proven regular-season wins machine. Adding Marcus Smart to those three gives the Grizzlies more defense and playmaking than Dillon Brooks provided before going to the Houston Rockets.
And though it's unusual for rookies to make an impact, Zach Edey won't be asked to do a ton beyond take up space and finish close looks created by Morant.
With those five starting games and solid role players such as Luke Kennard, Santi Aldama and Brandon Clarke coming off the bench, Memphis should be right back in the mix in 2024-25.

Nick Cammett/ After hiring Kenny Atkinson to replace J.B. Bickerstaff on the bench, the Cleveland Cavaliers are betting on a coaching change and roster continuity to take them to the next level in 2024-25.
And given the ages of some of their most important players, it's a fair bet to make.
Evan Mobley and Darius Garland are 23 and 24, respectively. Both are a few years shy of their primes, and Donovan Mitchell and Jarrett Allen are right in the heart of theirs.
If Atkinson can figure out a better way to stagger substitutions to mitigate the defensive weaknesses that come from starting two small guards or the offensive ones that come from starting two non-shooting bigs, Cleveland could be a decent sleeper pick to make the conference finals.

VALERIE MACON/AFP via The Minnesota Timberwolves eliminated the then-reigning champion Denver Nuggets and made it to the Western Conference Finals last season, in large part because of their massive front line that could at least bother Nikola Jokić.
Just last week, they traded away a key piece of that formula in Karl-Anthony Towns.
And while it's not terribly difficult to wrap your head around the logic (Minnesota is a little deeper and no longer tied to KAT's massive contract going forward), it's hard to think they didn't get just a little worse this summer.
Julius Randle is a much trickier fit alongside Anthony Edwards and Rudy Gobert. He'll take the ball out of Ant's hands from time to time, and he can't space the floor like Towns did.
Donte DiVincenzo should be easier to plug in, but he may not spend a ton of time with the starters.
Of course, the T-Wolves should still be good. They might even be great. Edwards is a superstar on the rise, and Gobert is still one of the game's best defensive anchors. But again, a return to the conference finals just feels a bit less likely in the wake of this trade.

Stacy Revere/ There was a lot of talk about the Milwaukee Bucks being overlooked at media day, and it's not hard to see why fans and reporters may have mostly moved on from thinking about this team as a bona fide contender.
They've been knocked out of the playoffs in each of the last two first rounds. Brook Lopez, Khris Middleton and Damian Lillard are all in their mid-30s. Middleton had surgery on both ankles this offseason. And after Bobby Portis, there are questions about the effectiveness of the bench.
Of course, though, Milwaukee still has Giannis Antetokounmpo smack-dab in the middle of his prime.
Over the last six years, he's averaged 29.5 points, 12.0 rebounds, 5.9 assists, 1.2 blocks and 1.1 steals. And had he been healthy for the 2024 playoffs, it's a lot harder to imagine the Pacers winning that first-round series.
On raw talent alone, the Bucks are still one of the best teams in the East. And if all those veterans are healthy in the spring, they'll have a chance for another deep run (their first since winning it all in 2021).

Christian Petersen/ After failing to meet regular-season expectations and getting swept in the first round of the playoffs, plenty seem to be out on the Phoenix Suns as 2025 title contenders.
With little to no flexibility, though, they somehow had one of the league's better offseasons, adding Tyus Jones and Monte Morris to the backcourt and upgrading at the backup center spot with Mason Plumlee.
Traditional playmaking was a weakness last season, and Jones and Morris now have that covered. And even with all their struggles in figuring out how to play with each other, the Suns still won 49 games and outscored opponents by 7.5 points per 100 possessions when Kevin Durant, Devin Booker and Bradley Beal were all on the floor.

Sam Hodde/ After a surprising run all the way to the NBA Finals, the Dallas Mavericks didn't make many dramatic changes this offseason.
For the second year in a row, their three most important players will be Luka Dončić, Kyrie Irving and Dereck Lively II.
Luka will still be one of the highest-volume scorers and playmakers in the league, but the additions of Naji Marshall and Quentin Grimes probably don't represent massive upgrades over Derrick Jones Jr. and Tim Hardaway Jr.
But there was one splashy move, even if the incoming free agent is well past his prime. Klay Thompson is now a Maverick, where a streamlined role could extend his Hall of Fame career.
Dallas shouldn't want the 34-year-old to stop moving off the ball. That's a wrinkle that could make the Mavs offense more dangerous than it's been in the past. But Luka can also create some of the easiest threes Thompson's ever taken.
The Slovenian point man can create threes as often and effectively as anyone in the NBA. And if Thompson is simply ready to catch-and-shoot (something he's never had a problem with), he's going to hit a lot of threes in 2024-25.
He won't make the defensive impact he did during his prime, but Lively, Marshall and Daniel Gafford can help on that front.
Dallas isn't dramatically better than it was in 2023-24, but it didn't really need to be to stay on the title contender's tier.

TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP via After clearing their roster almost down to the studs this offseason, the Philadelphia 76ers re-signed Tyrese Maxey, landed Paul George and then filled out a strong supporting cast with minimal flexibility for doing so.
They now enter the season with a perennial MVP candidate and perhaps the league's best scorer in Joel Embiid, two stars who complete a perfectly fitting big three alongside him and likely the highest expectations of the Embiid era.
The 2022-23 MVP has yet to make it past the second round in his career. And after this offseason, it's hard to come up with reasonable excuses for them falling short again.
Sure, wonkiness in the standings could lead to a tough second-round matchup against the Boston Celtics or Knicks, but it's simply time for results from Embiid's Sixers, regardless of who's put in front of them.

Matthew Stockman/ Much was made of the Denver Nuggets losing KCP, and it's fair to worry about talent walking out the door.
However, moves like this are going to become the norm around the NBA under this new collective bargaining agreement, and Denver is better equipped to handle the loss than it's being made out to be.
Christian Braun is younger and better equipped to take on bigger defensive assignments. There's plenty of untapped potential from the likes of Peyton Watson and Julian Strawther, too.
But what really sets the Nuggets up to stay on the contenders' tier (and maybe even better than they were last year) is the upgrades they made to other spots.
Even if a developing Braun turns out to be a slight step back from Caldwell-Pope, Russell Westbrook should be significantly better than Reggie Jackson (who was tied for 545th out of 572 players in wins over replacement player last season). And having Dario Šarić in place of a revolving door at backup 5 should help, too.
Most importantly, though, Denver still has the best player in the world in Nikola Jokić and three supporting players who fit him perfectly in Jamal Murray, Michael Porter Jr. and Aaron Gordon.

Adam Pantozzi/NBAE via Despite entering the season as the second-youngest team in the league, the Oklahoma City Thunder secured the top seed in the West in 2023-24.
They easily could've justified keeping the group together and just banking on internal development for a better season.
Instead, OKC added two of the league's best role players (Isaiah Hartenstein and Alex Caruso) to the young core of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Chet Holmgren and Jalen Williams. They also re-signed developmental success stories Isaiah Joe and Aaron Wiggins.
And while they may still need some more playoff scarring to be considered favorites in a series against other contenders, the Thunder look designed to pile up regular-season wins.

Maddie Malhotra/ With Kristaps Porziņģis out for the first couple months of the season, the Boston Celtics could get off to a little slower start than they did in 2023-24, but they're still the obvious pick for the top spot here.
They just went 16-3 in the playoffs on the way to the championship. They had the fourth -highest regular and postseason point differential in NBA history. And they spent the summer securing their rotation for a run at a repeat title.
Even without one of the heliocentric superstars vying for MVP every year, the Celtics have the best in the NBA. You don't necessarily need a top-five guy when your best player (Jayson Tatum) is top 7-15 and the next four or five players in your organizational hierarchy are top 50.
Boston plays smart, together and hard. And it will likely overwhelm opponents again this season. That doesn't make them a foregone conclusion to win it all, but the Celtics are the clear favorites.

X