Midst-of-Free-Agency NBA Power Rankings

After the first couple of days of free agency, there aren't a lot of big free agents still on the board. Looking at the Hoops Rumors' Top 50 Free Agents list, only 6th-ranked DeMar DeRozan remains unsigned in their top 10, and just Miles Bridges (#12), Tyus Jones (#15), Gary Trent Jr. (#18), Isaac Okoro (#20), Caleb Martin (#21), and Buddy Hield (#24) remain from the top 25. Kevin Pelton's "best remaining top 10" is pretty much the same. He lists LeBron James, but we all know LeBron isn't leaving LA. There's an outside chance DeRozan could move the needle for a contender (Miami has been floated, but they'd need a lot of gymnastics to get it done), but aside from him, I'm really only super intrigued by Jones and Martin. Beyond them, there aren't a lot of needle movers. Brandon Ingram and/or Lauri Markkanen may be on the move, but those kinds of trades will likely take awhile to suss out. In other words, it's the perfect time to do an NBA Power Rankings! We'll start at the end.

30 - Brooklyn: Now that they have their 2025 draft pick back, they are in full-on tank mode. They'll try to get the No. 1 pick, and if they land it, plus being free of Ben Simmons and other expiring contracts that could clear as much as $80 million for next summer, the 2025-26 season could be a whole different story. But first, one more season of pain.

29 - Washington: The funniest thing to happen in awhile is Alex Sarr refusing to work out for Atlanta because he thought he'd get more playing time if the Wizards drafted him, only for the Wiz to turn around and sign Jonas Valančiūnas. Oops!

28 - Detroit: Given how bad they were last year, and how they keep ending up with the No. 5 pick, my guess is they'll work to avoid having the worst record in the NBA. Getting a competent head coach who's not full of himself should help.

27 - Utah: It looks like Utah is tanking. They could slip under Detroit here if so, but for now they still have Markkanen, and an excellent head coach

26 - Portland: They have three centers capable of starting and three point guards capable of starting. I liked the Deni Avdija trade though. Malcolm Brogdon continues to pay the karmic price for refusing to go back into Game 7 against Miami.

25 - San Antonio: The road to respectability starts now. I'll never like Chris Paul, and the truth is he was forced to sign with San Antonio because no good teams want him, but it'll still be fun to watch him and Wemby.

24 - Chicago: The Bulls are going in the other direction, but there's still enough good players here that they won't be at the bottom. I think.

23 - Toronto: This is the third straight season where I just have no idea what the Raptors are doing. They seem convinced that Scottie Barnes is a franchise player. I disagree, and also think he was a courtesy All-Star and that Derrick White deserved his spot, and I wonder if he'd have gotten that big contract without the All-Star nod. Dude owes Adam Silver a big gift basket. Silver just wanted a guy from one of the largest NBA cities in the game.

22 - LA Clippers: I agree with not re-signing Paul George. He's 34, has never won anything, is often hurt, and faded badly in the first round. He shot 10-for-31 in Games 5 and 6 as Dallas blew the doors off the Clippers. The problem, similar to when the Red Sox let Xander Bogaerts walk, is that the Clippers didn't have an adequate Plan B. Now, their only hope for escaping the play-in is Kawhi Leonard playing a full season. Forgive me if I'm not holding my breath.

21 - Charlotte: I believe in Charles Lee, and the new front office has made a lot of smart moves, including picking up Josh Green for free. I don't really like Josh Green that much as a starter, but free is free, and he's certainly a quality rotation player. I like the Vasilije Micić pickup too, and it'd be hard for LaMelo Ball to be more injured this season than he was last season.

20 - Atlanta: I think the Dejounte Murray trade is addition by subtraction, and that Dyson Daniels will be the perfect backcourt partner for Trae Young. But the Hawks need to do more. They can start by trading Clint Capela and finding someone actually interested in playing defense.

19 - Golden State: The dynasty is over, and they'll be right back where they were this past season – fighting for a play-in berth – and that will only be if Stephen Curry turns in another spectacular season.

18 - Houston: I still don't see the vision. They have too many guys who want playing time, and not a clear enough vision of who deserves it. Them re-signing Aaron Holiday is a bad sign. He was already the 10th man last season, and now they have Reed Sheppard to work into the mix. But coach Ime Udoka seemed to love Holiday, and it looks like once again he'll take minutes away from a more deserving player. Color me unimpressed.

17 - Miami: They have done nothing of substance, and may lose Caleb Martin. At this moment, they're close to a crisis. I know I wouldn't want to coach Jimmy Butler in a contract year either, because he's going to be trying to score 35 a night, no matter what it does to his team. You want to say the Heat always have a trick up their sleeve, but the best trick they've turned in the past few years was acquiring Terry Rozier, and the initial returns on that were quite poor.

16 - New Orleans: To start, I don't like Dejounte Murray. I think he's a bad chemistry guy, and his defense went south the second he got paid. And similar to the bad fit in Atlanta, I don't like his fit next to CJ McCollum, and I would rather start Herb Jones there. Also, they don't have a center. Every player on their roster at the moment is 6'9" or shorter. And they are now openly trying to trade Brandon Ingram. Their ceiling is definitely higher than this, but at the moment, the Pelicans are a mess.

15 - Phoenix: They're in this spot kind of by default. I initially had them four spots lower. If Houston and New Orleans can figure out who they are, they could easily pass them. The Catch-22 for the Suns is that they need Kevin Durant to play as many games as possible just to get a good seed, but if he does – like he did in playing 75 games last season, his most since 2018-19 – he'll be too tired to play defense in the playoffs. Just like he was this past season. And they have no real avenues to improve. Mediocre purgatory. The only good news is that Durant's deal is up after the 2025-26 season.

14 - LA Lakers: You can be hopeful that JJ Redick will be a good coach, and they had a good draft. They believe in Max Christie, and if he stays, Gabe Vincent figures to make more of an impact. But they still haven't made a big swing, and unless they can get DeMar DeRozan, it may be hard to find one. The Lakers have more options than the Suns do, and I'll always believe in LeBron James more than Durant, so that tips the scales here, but honestly, this is another team that New Orleans should leapfrog if they can figure out how to properly construct a roster.

13 - Sacramento: Odd couple of years for Sacramento. They were ahead of their skis two seasons ago, and then fell flatter than they should have last season. This spot, the six seed, is where I feel like they truly belong. Fully a playoff team, and fully capable of ripping into the Conference Finals if things break right for them, but still never a favorite, never dominant.

12 - Memphis: I honestly want to put them higher, and if the vibes feel right when training camp opens, I may have do just that. I still very much believe in Memphis. To call last season a nightmare doesn't adequately cover it. Memphis played 33 different players last year. The Celtics played 19, for comparison's sake. Ja Morant played nine games. Marcus Smart played 20. Desmond Bane played 42. And Memphis still grinded to 27 wins. Give me a full season of those three, plus Jaren Jackson Jr., and a second shooter to help space the floor, and you've got a 50-win team. Add in Zach Edey, Brandon Clarke, Vince Williams Jr., and GG Jackson (one of the silver linings of their disastrous season is finding a solid rotation player in GG), and you have a solid, solid team. And if that team comes out with a chip on its collective shoulder, watch out.

11 - Cleveland: Full respect for Donovan Mitchell and this crew, but at this moment, I think they've been leapfrogged, and it may be a down year as they adapt to Kenny Atkinson and figure out if Darius Garland is going to be capable of playing credible defense long-term, and what do when they realize he can't. The Mitchell flying the coop to the New York area meter has never been lower, because with his new extension and the Nova Knicks fully ingratiated, the only option is waiting until after this season and orchestrating a trade to Brooklyn, and honestly, why would you? The Nets are giving Brooklyn a bad name.

10 - Milwaukee: We're at the point where Nicolas Batum chose the Clippers over the Bucks. That is a very sad state of affairs. I'm tempted to drop Milwaukee below even Cleveland here, and such a thing happening would not surprise me. But as bad as Giannis the GM is (and he's really, really, really breathtakingly bad), I still have to pay the tiniest bit of deference to Giannis the player.

9 - Philadelphia: Some people never learn their lesson. I get it, the first modern Big Three of Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, and Ray Allen immediately won a title. The second – LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh very quickly won a title as well. Kevin Durant to the Warriors was essentially a big four, but the Warriors also didn't need him. Any other Big Three iteration has failed miserably, and this one will too.

This team has a lot of talent and will win plenty of regular-season games, but I don't think Philly gets out of the second round with this roster. As I said above, Paul George faded badly in the playoffs, and is also rarely healthy. Joel Embiid is rarely healthy, and also faded in the fourth quarter multiple times in the first round. And with the Sixers losing De'Anthony Melton and seemingly Kyle Lowry as well, they likely won't have a stalwart defender to pair with Tyrese Maxey, and he will get cooked on defense when it counts, just like he was cooked and fried by Jalen Brunson in the first round. And that's before we get to the lack of depth, which looks a lot like last year's Phoenix Suns team. You'd think that team would serve as a cautionary tale and not a team to emulate, but the Sixers happily signed up for the same type of roster construction, and many in the media are patting them on the back for doing so.

8 - Orlando: This Orlando team is coming. They got their first taste of playoff action last season, and you can bet that they are going to come back hungrier. I fully believe in Paolo Banchero, he is a problem. The question is can the others come with him? I love the Kentavious Caldwell-Pope signing, and I really like Jalen Suggs as well. Like I wrote last season, a lot of their development hinges on Franz Wagner. But he doesn't have to improve much. He shot 9-for-34 from three in the first round against Cleveland, and they still made it to Game 7. KCP will help with that. Suggs being fully recovered from his hand injury should help as well. These guys play D. I wish they had upgraded at center, and think that is probably the final step for them, but I bet Washington will trade them Valančiūnas if they want that down the line.

7 - Indiana: This is the fifth straight Eastern Conference team. I think the top of the West is deeper than the top of the East, but the East's second tier is a cut above that of the West, as a lot of the Western second-tier teams are either built wonkily or relying on graybeards. Like Orlando, I think the continuity that this Indiana team is building is going to outstrip Philly's mercenary team-building strategy. This is a team, and they made it to the East Finals with Tyrese Haliburton playing at far less than 100%, and with Benedict Mathurin not playing at all.

I like the moves so far this offseason. They brought back Pascal Siakam and Obi Toppin on reasonable deals, and I actually like replacing Jalen Smith with James Wiseman. It was clear that Smith was an odd fit because Indiana wanted their backup bigs to bang in the paint, and Smith spacing the floor didn't help in that regard, which is why Isaiah Jackson ended up taking his minutes in the playoffs. Wiseman was perfectly servicable on an awful Pistons team, and Monty Williams screwed up that team so bad I can't hate on any individual player there last year. Wiseman did put up a 20 points - 13 rebounds double double against Joel Embiid and the Sixers last season, and will be just 23 this season. He still has not been in a good NBA situation, because the Warriors buried him when he didn't succeed immediately and Detroit has been a mismanaged disaster. Maybe he'll never be good, but this is almost certainly the best situation he's had to prove he can or can't.

In any case, please don't sleep on this Indiana squad – I could see Orlando, Philadelphia, Milwaukee, and Cleveland getting all jumbled up from spots four to seven, but in my book, Indiana is pretty clearly in the driver's seat for the three seed.

6 - Denver: I could squint and put Indy in the group of title contenders, and I could squint and take Denver out of that group as well. To me, there is a fuzzy line between the two. What worries me most about Denver – more than its very obvious cheapness – is that of all the contenders, Denver's GM (Calvin Booth) and coach (Michael Malone) seem to be the most out of sync.

During their title run, their top eight in the NBA Finals in terms of minutes played had just one young guy – Christian Braun. Booth responded by letting Bruce Brown and Jeff Green walk, so that Malone would play Peyton Watson and the other young guys more. What did Malone do in the second round this past season? He buried Watson, and once again it was just Braun in the top eight for young guys, as Justin Holiday and Reggie Jackson got the bench minutes that I think Booth wanted young guys to get. Now, KCP and Jackson are gone, and it certainly wasn't an immediate priority for the Nuggets to re-sign Holiday.

Malone very clearly wants to play veterans. Booth either does not want to, or isn't being allowed to spend for them. Either way, the Nuggets are now perilously thin, and as such are even more dependent on the frail Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Jr. As such, it's just impossible to have them in my top five here. They are doing Nikola Jokić a disservice, and I'm curious to see how long he puts up with it.

5 - New York: Plan A almost went to plan, and then Oklahoma City swooped in and signed Isaiah Hartenstein. Now, the Knicks' starting center is Mitchell Robinson once again. I love Mitchell Robinson. He is my favorite Knicks player ever, and despite them being a New York team, there is no shortage of players for that list. But coach Tom Thibodeau doesn't seem to share my enthusiasm. He buried him behind Hartenstein in crunch time last season, and ran Robinson into the ground. The list of athletes in any sport who have needed two ankle surgeries in less than six months is probably a very, very short list.

Last week, the word out of New York was that the Knicks were going to sign Hartenstein and trade Robinson. Now, they are reliant on Robinson, and may end up playing Julius Randle at the five when Robinson is on the bench/unavailable. That is suboptimal, to say the least. This Knicks team is suddenly very deep at the other four positions, but center is now clearly a work in progress, and it's an important thing. The Knicks are not a good shooting team, and Mikal Bridges doesn't solve that problem. The reason they made it as far as they did is because they led the NBA in offensive rebounds per game both during the regular season and the playoffs. Maybe the strategy of crashing the glass is more important than the talent of the players doing the crashing. We're about to find out, especially if Robinson gets hurt again. Either way, the Knicks are going to be a force to be reckoned with, and they are going to be relentless. It's going to be a fun team, and Knicks fans are right to be excited about them.

4 - Minnesota: I love the Rob Dillingham addition, and I love letting Kyle Anderson go. Kyle Anderson deciding that it was Kyle Anderson Time was one of my least favorite things about a highly entertaining Minnesota team. Anthony Edwards is going to be better, and this will be year three together for this gigantic group. I don't love putting them behind Dallas, but I think deference has to be paid to Dallas since they wiped the floor with them in the Conference Finals.

3 - Dallas: I like the moves Dallas has made, bringing in Quentin Grimes, Naji Marshall, and Klay Thompson in place of Derrick Jones Jr., Josh Green, and Tim Hardaway Jr. This is what the Mavs need to do. They have the formula, and they just need to tinker with it. What they've done with these moves is find better three-point and free-throw shooting:

I didn't add a header (sorry, I'm tired) but these are 2023-2024 regular season stats. Essentially, the Mavs have not changed the age mix of these three players, nor their volume of responsibility. The outgoing players shot better from two-point range, but I think you could easily argue that that was due to the construction of the Mavs' offense, and that new guys Grimes, Marshall, and Thompson will have improved 2P%'s this season. But the meaningful difference is getting better shooting from three and from the line, because those margins cost the Mavericks dearly in the NBA Finals versus Boston.

This is very smart and thoughtful roster building on Dallas' part, even if I think in crunch time it might be hard to play Luka, Kyrie, and Klay together, because that is a lot of vulnerable defenders at once. Will this be enough? It may be, it may not, and honestly they could win or lose for other reasons entirely, but the point is that Mavs management is putting the team in a position to improve, and that's all you can ask of a front office.

2 - Oklahoma City: Getting Hartenstein and Caruso are two no-doubt moves that lift OKC into a higher stratosphere, and I think they are now undoubtedly the favorites to win the West. And they won the West last season without them. The contracts for Aaron Wiggins and Isaiah Joe help clarify whose roles are whose is very, very helpful. Now they have continuity and clarity of role, and the experience of their playoff run.

They are going to be tough to beat. Unless they let Lu Dort play 35 minutes per game in the playoffs like they did against Dallas. Then all bets are off, because he is not good enough to play that much. Remember when he airballed an off-balance three that he took with 20 seconds left on the shot clock in the final minutes of Game 5 vs. Dallas? I know I do!!!! Hopefully, they'll avoid doing that this coming season.

1 - Boston: The champs are here! There's not much to say. Brad Stevens got his extensions done for Jayson Tatum, Derrick White, and Neemias Queta, and he re-upped Luke Kornet. Hopefully, the extension for Sam Hauser is coming, but either way, he's locked in for this upcoming season. Baylor Scheierman is an ideal Svi Mykhailiuk replacement, not a Hauser replacement. For this season, anyway. My hope is they'll keep both. They may lose Oshae Brissett, Xavier Tillman, and Svi, but I think that's good. You need a little new blood each season to keep things fresh and energized. Those moves likely won't come for a bit, as these are roles that don't feature plus money or plus opportunity, and that's OK. We'll see what the market looks like in a few weeks, but for now, the C's are back and ready, and have the best shot to repeat as champs since the 2016-2018 Warriors. Let's ride!