NBA Power Rankings – Preseason Picks
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Golden State Warriors
The Warriors brought everyone important to their team back, while adding All-Star center DeMarcus Cousins to the roster. Golden State will be the team to beat yet again, and nobody even looks close barring a major injury.
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Boston Celtics
Boston was so close to beating LeBron James and the Cavs last season for the Eastern Conference Championship, even without All-Stars Gordon Hayward and Kyrie Irving. With both back healthy for this season, the Celtics have a stacked roster of current stars and phenomenal young players looking to get to the finals for the first time since 2010.
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Houston Rockets
Houston was the closest team to the Warriors last year, but lost key pieces in Trevor Ariza and Luc Mbah a Moute while adding Carmelo Anthony for the upcoming season. Their defense will likely not be the same. Can Chris Paul and James Harden carry the Rockets back to last year’s success?
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Toronto Raptors
Toronto traded for MVP-candidate Kawhi Leonard this offseason in an attempt to get over the hump that kept appearing with DeMar DeRozan. If the pieces fall into place, the Raptors will be major competition for anyone in the East.
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Philadelphia 76ers
Philadelphia is running back what they had last year, but hope to have improvement out of their “Big 3” of Fultz, Simmons, and Embiid. The latter two will likely be All-Stars and lead the team to 50+ wins, but if Fultz can become a decent shooter, this team can be very good this season.
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Utah Jazz
Utah surprised everyone last year with Donovan Mitchell and making the playoffs. The team brought most of its rotation back, and hopes to improve internally for the upcoming season. If Defensive Player of the Year Rudy Gobert can stay healthy, the Jazz will be a top team in the West.
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Oklahoma City Thunder
The Thunder may have created addition by subtraction in trading Carmelo Anthony to the Hawks. It also helps to get a great backup point guard in Dennis Shröder in the trade. Oklahoma City resigned Paul George, and are looking to make a run at Golden State in the stacked West.
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Milwaukee Bucks
By getting rid of the worst coach in the league, Jason Kidd, and acquiring Mike Budenholzer as their new head coach, the Bucks will be a much better team this season. Plus, Giannis Antetokounmpo will have one more year of NBA training under his belt to dominate the league.
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Indiana Pacers
The Pacers took the league by storm last year, outperforming ESPN’s projected win total of 32 by 16. Victor Oladipo became a star and Nate McMillan showed that he is a very good coach. Indiana will need improvement from Myles Turner and Domantas Sabonis if they want to replicate their success from last year.
10. Denver Nuggets
Denver invested in its young core heavily this offseason, giving Gary Harris and Nikola Jokic extensions. They finished just one game shy of making the playoffs and hope to push in with improvement from Harris, Jokic and Jamal Murray this season.
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LA Lakers
The Lakers made the biggest splash of free-agency by signing LeBron James. LA also signed a bunch of odd fit players like JaVale McGee, Lance Stephenson, and Rajon Rondo. The Lakers will need a lot of improvement out of Lonzo Ball and Brandon Ingram or they could be on the outside looking in when playoffs come.
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Portland Trail Blazers
Portland is stuck in the middle ground of not being good enough to be a contender, but having good enough players that tanking isn’t an option. The Blazers should be a playoff team, but need good years from their role players to make it in.
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New Orleans Pelicans
New Orleans lost DeMarcus Cousins to the Warriors, but looked like a different team without him after he went down with an achilles injury. The Pelicans need Anthony Davis to play at an even higher level to go anywhere in the West.
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Washington Wizards
Washington’s players always seem to think they are underrated by the fans and the media, then go out and perform exactly how we think they will. Austin Rivers seems to think the Wizards are contenders in the East this year, but a team with Dwight Howard as a starting center hasn’t won a playoff series in four years.
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San Antonio Spurs
The Spurs finally shipped Kawhi Leonard out and got a perennial All-Star, DeMar DeRozan, back in exchange. San Antonio will likely feature a lot of mid-range shots between DeRozan and LaMarcus Aldridge, and will need a lot of luck to sneak into the playoffs.
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Minnesota Timberwolves
The Jimmy Butler Saga continues to plague the Timberwolves into the start of the regular season. Minnesota needs to trade him soon, so they can get something in return to help them now, because they need it. The team is struggling going into the season, and without Butler, doesn’t look like they will make it to the postseason.
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Miami Heat
The Heat are looking to make a push for the Eastern Conference Championship, but they have no star player to do it with. Pat Riley won’t tank, but he doesn’t have potential All-Stars on the team. Miami desperately needs to trade for a star to get out of mediocrity this season.
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LA Clippers
The Clippers have a blend of really good role players. It just won’t be good enough to make the playoffs in a deep West. The only way this team makes a playoff push is if they manage to stay healthy, impossible with Danilo Gallinari as a key player, and teams above them have the injury bug.
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Memphis Grizzlies
The Grizzlies have a surprising amount of young talent, especially with fourth pick Jaren Jackson Jr. coming in this season. Jackson Jr. will likely see a lot of minutes to develop alongside Marc Gasol, which will be great for him, but the team won’t make the playoffs or even be remotely close this year.
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Dallas Mavericks
Dallas is a bit better than a fair amount of Eastern Conference teams, but their record this year won’t show it as they will get beat up in the West. Rookie Luka Doncic had a great preseason and will look to take that into the regular season, but the Mavericks won’t be doing a lot of winning this season.
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Detroit Pistons
Detroit hired last years Coach of the Year Dwayne Casey after he was fired from Toronto attempting get back into the playoffs. The team just doesn’t have enough depth on the wing to compete with other teams around the league. Blake Griffin and Andre Drummond are great in the post but the Pistons desperately need to find someone to get them the ball so they can go to work.
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Charlotte Hornets
Charlotte realized that a Dwight Howard experiment would never work so they shipped him out this offseason. The team needs to figure out how to get good players so Kemba Walker isn’t stuck on his couch come playoffs every year of his career.
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Brooklyn Nets
Brooklyn looks to finally be making it out of the purgatory that Boston caused them from the Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett trade in 2013. The Nets have a bunch of quality young players going forward and will finally have their own first round pick for the first time since 2013. They just won’t win a lot of games for a few years while they continue to rebuild.
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Chicago Bulls
Chicago seems to be going all in on young players that have good offensive talent but play no defense. Jabari Parker recently said “They don’t play pay players to play defense,” which may be true of the Bulls and that hasn’t gotten them very far the past few years. This team may put up a lot of points this year but will likely be the league leader in points allowed.
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Phoenix Suns
The Suns are looking to get out of tank mode and start winning more games after taking DeAndre Ayton first overall in this year’s draft. An injury to Devin Booker will likely hinder the team to start the season, but Phoenix has the talent to compete with most teams in the league, they just need to figure out how to start winning some games.
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Cleveland Cavaliers
Cleveland will have to find a way to fill the void LeBron James left. The Cavs still have an All-Star in Kevin Love, but they don’t have anyone else on the team to do much of anything at this point. Collin Sexton will be running the show for the team this year, which won’t translate into many wins.
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New York Knicks
The Knicks looked like they could make a few trades and make a playoff push last season until Kristaps Porzingis went out with a knee injury and they proceeded to go 1-16 over their next 17 games. The team won’t be winning many games again this year with Porzingis out until at least January.
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Orlando Magic
Orlando doesn’t seem to have any idea what it is doing in the post Dwight Howard years, which has been way too long to not know what you are doing. The Magic need to hope Jonathan Isaac and Mo Bamba will becomes stars and take them out of the category of being terrible without actively trying to be terrible.
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Sacramento Kings
Sacramento is another team that seems to have no idea what they are doing. Marvin Bagley III could put up a lot of points and rebounds this year. Will it translate into any wins? De’Aaron Fox has shown clutch shooting, but this team will likely not be in many situations for him to use that this year.
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Atlanta Hawks
Atlanta will be terrible this year. They traded away Dennis Shröder for Carmelo Anthony and immediately bought him out. Trae Young will likely be a great player in the future but will struggle mightily this season which, in turn, will also cause the Hawks to struggle.