NBA Power Ranking - 2025 Preseason
Look at projections for the upcoming NBA season and who has the best shot at the title​
By Grant Lang
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The NBA is back. Well, not yet actually. It's almost back, but there is still a ways to go. The season is coming up and where next season will go has some major question marks surrounding it, whether it is about the Thunder repeating, Cooper Flagg and the Mavs success, or the Lakers and Luka Doncic's new conditioning regime. This article aims to talk about the top 5 teams in the upcoming season and the projections for each of them respectively as the season inches closer.
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Teams like the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Lakers offseason have been marked with major acquisitions, as well as blockbuster signings by the Bucks for Myles Turner and the massive trade between Orlando and Memphis for Desmond Bane which involved a whopping 4 first round picks. How either of these signings go down remains to be seen, but overall there has been some major roster turnover this offseason as well as some major moving pieces in the draft that will change teams depth charts for quite some time.
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All that being said, let's get on with the power ranking for the upcoming season.​​
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1: Oklahoma City Thunder
Record Prediction: 67-15
The champs are still on top even one season after. Nobody has a clean shot at taking down the Thunder next season. Sure, they were taken to game 7 twice during the playoffs, but they got better and more experienced over the offseason and now have the winner DNA that they were seriously lacking in prior to this and last years playoffs. SGA will likely be the frontrunner to repeat MVP, and the Thunder will still be improving from the offseason additions of Thomas Sorber and the return of Nikola Topic following his season long injury over last season. The Thunder have all the depth they will need, but there is a chance that they make a trade near the middle of the season to offset the cap hell they will be in 2 seasons from now. All that being said, I would give the Thunder a good shot at repeating their title next year and put them as the frontrunner in the league going into next season.​
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2: Denver Nuggets
Record Prediction: 56-26
They will always be a threat as long as they have Jokic and Murray, but this season that threat is going to be turned up even more. I do think the Nuggets are a volatile team in the sense that you don't really know what you can expect out of them. Some nights, they will control a game from start to finish, and others they will win off luck. That being said, they took the defending champs to 7 games and got better over the offseason. It's championship or bust for the Nuggets right now -- they basically own zero draft picks for the next 6 years and if this team they have flames out, they are in big trouble. That being said, this is an elite team with Cam Johnson, Murray, Gordon, Jokic, Braun, and the new depth additions they added in the offseason like Bruce Brown.
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3: Cleveland Cavaliers
Record Prediction: 56-26
Damn. This team is so strange. They win games, but I never feel confident about their abilities in a playoff series. They just lack a certain aura to them that you see in all the teams on this list, and they haven't been able to put it together despite their great records. They are going to win regular season games, but unless they make an actual trade that changes the way the team operates, I believe they will be stuck where they are. However, this team really is just one piece away. One mid-season trade and they can all of the sudden be the favorite to win the title, even over the OKC Thunder. However, as of now, the team just lacks the x-factor that will make them a championship contender. They are going to win plenty of games, but whether it will amount to anything at all remains to be seen.
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4: New York Knicks
Record Prediction: 54-28
This team has pretty much all of the same issues that the Cavaliers have. Let's be honest for a sec: nobody in their right mind thinks Jalen Brunson and Karl Anthony Towns are good enough players to be the top 2 options on a championship winning team. They lack the same DNA that the Cavaliers lack and even if either of the 2 teams make it to the finals, my hopes are not that high for them in said series. On top of that, the coaching change is going to end up working against them. Mike Brown is a fine coach, but I did not see the logic in firing Thibs only to replace him with a lateral move. At least the Cavaliers have Kenny Atkinson, who is an actual interesting coach that can possibly lead them to a title. Mike Brown is not that guy, even after his COTY stint in Sacramento. That being said, Brunson is still an excellent player and their starting 5 is one of the strongest in the league. They are going to beat down on weaker teams but struggle against stronger ones, similar to last year.​
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5: Houston Rockets
Record Prediction: 54-28
My gut is telling me to put this team above the Cavs and the Knicks, but I don't feel comfortable taking a risk like that when we have no idea how this team is going to play out. The Rockets had a very solid season last year, and then they added Kevin Durant in the offseason. Not only did they add Kevin Durant, but they also added Dorian Finney-Smith, Josh Okogie, and other contributors that will play a major part in the Rockets success the upcoming season. All of this sounds great, but collecting old players is a volatile process. If KD get injured or underperforms throughout the season, all of the sudden the trade looks way worse from Houston's perspective. I will say that this team contains the x-factor that teams like the Knicks and the Cavs lack, but the truth is that there is a chance that this team flames out in the regular season similar to how the Suns did 2 seasons ago: everyone expected them to be contenders and they got swept in the first round. I've got high hopes, but 5 sounds like a fair spot for this team.