Jake Ruderman ’26 & Ben Kuchipudi ’25
Sports Editors
With the NBA season kicking off this week, let’s take one last look ahead by sorting all of the teams into tiers, based on where we’re projecting them to finish in the standings, (and compete for the championship).
The Western Conference can be divided most accurately into four tiers of teams: the Bona Fide Contenders, the Could-Be Contenders, the Play-In teams, and the Rebuilding teams. The first tier is the Bona Fide Contenders, which consists of the teams that have the best chance of contending for the NBA championship. Without a doubt, this tier starts with the Denver Nuggets, the reigning NBA champions, who looked borderline unstoppable during their run last year and are poised for multiple years of dominance. It’s quite simple really: if you have Nikola Jokic with this deep of a supporting cast, then you’re a bona fide contender for sure. The next clear contender is the Phoenix Suns, who have cashed their chips in and are ready to contend right now. While this team is seriously lacking in depth, they are led by two proven playoff killers in Kevin Durant and Devin Booker, who can fill the gaps come playoff time. A lot is riding on Bradley Beal’s play, and injury risk is always a concern for KD at this stage of his career, but if he’s healthy come playoff time, the Suns can make some serious noise. The Los Angeles Lakers round out the top-tier contenders, having righted the ship after an up-and-down last few seasons. The Lakers added to their depth this offseason and should be able to support Lebron and AD enough to contend, especially with the emergence of Austin Reaves. Like the Suns, the Lakers are a serious injury-risk team, but are as good as anybody with a full roster in the playoffs.
The Could-Be Contenders group consists of teams that are on the verge of being serious championship-caliber teams, but aren’t quite on the same level. The Sacramento Kings, Golden State Warriors, and Oklahoma City Thunder make up this tier, with a half appearance from the Memphis Grizzlies. Both the Kings and Warriors had strong seasons last year that ended in heartbreak, and both will look to return this season as serious threats. The Kings will look to continue their development and build on last year’s success; with playoff experience now under their belt, the Kings’ young guys are poised to take a leap and could set themselves up with a deep playoff run. The Warriors are the antithesis of the Kings, with multiple aging, but thoroughly proven stars transitioning into the latter half of their careers. The Warriors’ young guys are raw and unproven, and would need to improve if this team has any chance of contending. But, it’s still too soon to count out the Curry-Klay-Draymond trio from making one last ride. The Thunder are the sneaky, major-improvement team to look out for, with an incredibly deep, young roster, led by superstar Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. The Thunder were fun and frisky last year, and will look to strengthen their defense alongside Chet Holmgren’s debut. This Thunder team might be the rare perfect-storm that contends way ahead of schedule, and has serious upset potential as long as their young guys continue to improve. Rounding out this tier is the Memphis Grizzlies, whose season projection is nearly impossible to forecast. The Grizzlies’ roster is a great mix of depth, veterans, and young stars in their prime, but lacks certainty for one reason: Ja Morant. Morant will be suspended for the first 25 games of this season, and whether or not he can return in peak form will dictate whether the Grizzlies are borderline contenders or have no chance at all.
The Play-in tier is the most difficult to predict of all, mainly because of its injury uncertainty. The Mavericks, Timberwolves, Pelicans, and Clippers are all teams that have the star power and depth to make the play-in, but because of their recent injury history, are impossible to count on. It’s likely that whichever of these teams is able to stay the most consistently healthy will end up with the #7-8 seeds, while the remaining two will be left for the #9-10 seeds.
The final tier, the Rebuilding teams, is made up of the teams that have little to no shot at making the playoffs this year: the Utah Jazz, Houston Rockets, Portland Trail Blazers, and San Antonio Spurs. The Jazz are in no-man’s land roster-wise, but have a treasure trove of draft assets they could call upon at any time, while the Rockets, Trail Blazers, and Spurs all have young, promising players amidst otherwise mediocre to poor rosters. All three of these teams seem to be trending in the right direction rebuild wise, but in a loaded Western Conference, someone’s gotta finish in last place, no matter what.
Now, let’s head to the East with the bonafide contenders. It’s pretty obvious which teams are in this echelon, as the Milwaukee Bucks and Boston Celtics each made huge moves this offseason. The Bucks shocked the NBA when they traded for Damian Lillard, and with Giannis, they have the best one-two punch in the league. The Bucks were embarrassed by the Heat in the first round last season, but the Bucks should be title favorites once again.
As for the Celtics, they also fell to the Heat in the playoffs, but they upgraded from Marcus Smart to Jrue Holiday as well as adding Kristaps Porzingis. The problem with them is that they lost three major bench players, but they arguably have the best starting five in the league and the high end talent should take them far.
The next tier is the teams that “may be able to make a run.” The teams in this tier are the Cleveland Cavaliers, New York Knicks, Miami Heat, and Philadelphia 76ers. The Cavs disappointed last season, losing to the Knicks in five in the first round, but they are still a young team and should be able to run it back next season. With Donovan Mitchell leading one of the deepest teams in the league, the Cavs should be expected to make it far this season.
The team that punked them in the first round, the New York Knicks, are also running back pretty much the same team as last year sans Obi Toppin. As long as Jalen Brunson and Julius Randle can continue playing at an All-Star level, the Knicks have a good chance to make it to the conference finals for the first time since 2000.
The Miami Heat became the meme of the offseason after somehow not landing Damian Lillard when he was begging to go there. Not only that, but they lost Gabe Vincent and Max Strus in the process, two key starters that are hard to replace. However, they are still the Miami Heat, and like they’ve done in previous years, Jimmy Butler and Erik Spoelstra could claw their way to a conference finals or NBA Finals appearance. I don’t think it will happen this year though.
The Philadelphia 76ers might have had a more tumultuous offseason than the Heat, as James Harden is still on the team after months of trade demands and shots at general manager Daryl Morey. He wants to go to the Clippers, but they are unwilling to trade Terance Mann for some reason. Besides adding Kelly Oubre Jr, the Sixers haven’t really done much to surround MVP Joel Embiid with talent, and you have to wonder after years of playoff futility if enough is enough and Embiid finally asks out of Philly. They’ll be competitive as long as he’s on their team, but this might be their last chance to do so with the current core.
The next tier are play-in teams. The teams here are the Indiana Pacers, Atlanta Hawks, Brooklyn Nets, and Toronto Raptors. The Pacers are my breakout team in the East, as they were a top five team in the East before Tyrese Haliburton’s injury, and with him back and a talented team, they can make noise this year.
The Atlanta Hawks seem like they’re in the same spot every year. Trae Young and Dejounte Murray can lead them to the postseason, but their ceiling is a second round exit at most every year.
Brooklyn traded both of their stars last season, but they’ve done a great job of staying competitive with Mikal Bridges as the star. If Ben Simmons can get back to All-Star form, the Nets can play spoiler in the East.
Next up are the teams in no man’s land. Toronto is another team who’s been in neutral for a few years. Pascal Siakam and Scottie Barnes can lead them to wins, but Fred VanVleet is gone and that could cost the Raptors some wins this year.
The Orlando Magic haven’t been close to contenders since Dwight Howard was leading the team, and once again they’re one of the youngest teams in the NBA. Breakouts from Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner could make the Magic threats, but they are realistically a season away from playoffs.
The Chicago Bulls are probably in the worst spot in the league. They’re paying three veterans, DeMar DeRozan, Zach LaVine, and Nikola Vucevic over $30 million annually, but they aren’t good enough to make it far in the playoffs. This could be their final year with this core before blowing it up.
Finally, these are the teams who will tank. The Detroit Pistons were the worst team in the league, but they fell all the way to the fifth pick. Even with this bad luck, Detroit has tons of young talent and they will be a fun team to watch, even if they lose a lot of games.
Five years after they should have started a rebuild, the Washington Wizards finally blew it up. Players like Jordan Poole and Kyle Kuzma will put up exorbitant numbers, but that won’t lead to many wins due to the rest of their roster being… underwhelming at best.
The Charlotte Hornets are the most volatile team in the NBA. It seems like every player has been involved in a crime or a controversy. Guys like Brandon Miller, Miles Bridges, PJ Washington, and Kai Jones (cut) are guys who are young and talented, but extremely volatile. Charlotte simply doesn’t have a good enough team to compete.
Final Standings : Ben
- Milwaukee Bucks
- Boston Celtics
- Cleveland Cavaliers
- Philadelphia 76ers
- New York Knicks
- Miami Heat
- Indiana Pacers
- Brooklyn Nets
- Atlanta Hawks
- Toronto Raptors
- Orlando Magic
- Chicago Bulls
- Detroit Pistons
- Washington Wizards
- Charlotte Hornets
Final Standings: Jake
- Denver Nuggets
- Phoenix Suns
- Los Angeles Lakers
- Sacramento Kings
- Oklahoma City Thunder
- Memphis Grizzlies
- Golden State Warriors
- Minnesota Timberwolves
- New Orleans Pelicans
- Dallas Mavericks
- Los Angeles Clippers
- Utah Jazz
- Houston Rockets
- Portland Trail Blazers
- San Antonio Spurs
Featured image courtesy of NBA.com
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