With the New York Knicks crowned champions and parading down Broadway, the other 29 teams can now focus on what’s next. With the 2026 offseason set to begin with the NBA Draft on Tuesday and Wednesday, let’s take a look at which teams project to have the best and the worst futures.
The general idea is that if you were to pick an entirely new team to root for, which team would you pick so that you would have the most enjoyment for the next five or so years?
The factors I considered when ranking these
teams include: how likely is the team to win the championship?, how many regular season and playoff wins will they give their fans to enjoy?, how many draft assets, current and future, do they have to build or rebuild their team?, and do they have a superstar or young player with the potential to be a superstar on their roster?
I’m sure there will be plenty of disagreement with my rankings, whether I have a certain team too high or too low, so let me know how stupid I am down in the comments.
1. San Antonio Spurs
The Spurs were so incredibly ahead of schedule this last season. They were projected to win 43.5 wins before the season and ended up blowing that number out of the water with 62 wins and a trip to the NBA Finals. While they did lose in five games to the Knicks, they still project to be one of the best teams in the NBA for years to come.
San Antonio has the best young superstar in the NBA, Victor Wembanyama, who at age 22 is already one of the best players in the league. They have an incredible amount of young talent around Wemby, including fellow lottery picks Stephon Castle and another potential star, Dylan Harper.
The only issue they currently have is De’Aaron Fox’s four-year, $221 million contract after playing so poorly in the Finals. This will not be an issue now, with most of San Antonio’s best players on rookie deals, but they will likely need to trade Fox away before guys like Wembanyama, Castle, and Harper get expensive.
The combination of the Spurs’ incredibly young and talented roster, Wembanyama especially, while being currently tied for the best odds to win the 2027 title, puts them at the top of these rankings.
2. Oklahoma City Thunder
Sitting narrowly behind the Spurs are the Thunder. The two teams that won the most games in the 2025-26 season are currently tied for the best odds to win the 2027 championship.
If the Thunder don’t make any cost-cutting moves, they will owe a luxury tax bill upwards of $210 million on top of the almost $260 million in player salaries they have on the books. If they want to get under the second apron, they will have to move on from players like Isaiah Hartenstein and Lu Dort. If they stay at their current salary level, making in-season trades will become very difficult, if not impossible.
OKC has the draft assets and cost-controlled players like Ajay Mitchell and Jared McCain to keep its team intact while also being affordable under the second apron, but its stockpile of first-round picks is not as unwieldy as it once was.
A case could be made to put the Thunder at the top of these rankings, but the Thunder just have a few more questions to answer than the Spurs do, which lands them at number two.
3. New York Knicks
Each of these teams in the top three could be interchangeable with their ranking. While the upside for the Spurs and Thunder is rooted in players and picks, the case for the Knicks being this high is more of a subjective one.
They don’t have the draft assets or young players like some other teams, but they are coming off of one of the most joyous playoff runs in the history of sports. That feeling will likely carry over into next season as they attempt to defend their title.
The second apron will likely cost them players like Mitchell Robinson and Landry Shamet, but with Jalen Brunson on his below-market deal, the Knicks will be able to retain their top-five players while still having flexibility to add smaller pieces to replace the bench pieces they might lose.
Ultimately, the Knicks are the reigning champions who will be running back their team for at least another season, if not longer. Given that, the third spot on this list is the lowest they can be.
4. Boston Celtics
The next five teams on this list could all arguably be put in this spot. The reason I have the Celtics is that they have proven to be able to put together a high-quality team almost regardless of circumstance.
Boston has won 50 or more games in five straight seasons, including last season, in which they were missing Jayson Tatum for most of the year. They are also just two years removed from winning the championship in dominant fashion.
The Celtics have also been one of the teams on the list to potentially trade for Giannis Antetokounmpo and are seemingly the only team that would be able to trade for him while still being able to compete at a championship level, with Jaylen Brown likely being the main trade chip.
The only downside with the Celtics is that they may look to stay below the luxury tax next season to reset the repeater tax, which would greatly hamper their ability to improve the team for next season while saving ownership a boatload of money.
5. Minnesota Timberwolves
Despite a disappointing regular season, an unceremonious end to their playoff run in the second round, and little to no draft capital, the Timberwolves are still in as good a spot as any team moving forward, including a superstar player entering his prime, talented young pieces like Jaden McDaniels and Naz Reid ready for larger roles, and few players on above-market rate contracts.
The Wolves have been one of the most successful teams in the NBA for the past five seasons. While they do not have an NBA Finals appearance to show for it, they are the only team to make the playoffs each of the last five seasons and win at least one round in each of the last three.
Their previous playoff success and the ever-growing superstardom of Edwards are the main reasons for optimism moving forward. The Wolves still have a lot of questions moving forward, including what to do with Julius Randle after an excruciatingly bad playoffs, but they have proven to be an extremely competitive team, even with an ill-fitting roster.
6. Los Angeles Lakers
Like many teams around them in this area of the rankings, the Lakers have a superstar in Luka Dončić, but do not have many draft assets. What they do have, unlike many other teams, is financial flexibility and potentially cap space this summer.
LeBron James and Austin Reaves are both set to be free agents. While losing James, and especially Reaves, would be a big hit for the team and the fan base, it might be the reset the Lakers need as they build around Dončić.
What the Lakers do with that flexibility, and if they can retain one or both of James and Reaves, this offseason will determine whether they rise or fall in these rankings come the start of next season.
7. Denver Nuggets
Nikola Jokić is the sole reason the Nuggets are this high, and the good reason. The three-time MVP and one-time Finals MVP continues to stack up historic seasons as he has finished in the top two in MVP voting each of the last six seasons and in the top ten each of the last eight.
The downside is that Denver had a spectacular flameout against the Wolves in the Playoffs while having the fewest draft assets in the NBA to improve the team. They also have an owner seemingly unwilling to spend big money on the team, which may cost them Peyton Watson in free agency this offseason.
The Nuggets still have the fifth-best odds to win the 2027 title, so they can’t be put lower than seventh on this list, but they seem to be on thinner ice than any other time in the Jokić era.
8. Detroit Pistons
It’s really tough for me to square the 60-win regular season with their performance in the Playoffs. The 60 wins signal that Detroit was a championship-caliber team, but at no point during the postseason did they look like one.
In the end, the Pistons did win a ton of games last season, including a Playoff series. They also have a more-than-solid young superstar in Cade Cunningham, plenty of financial room to add talent and salary, and they also have all of their draft picks to upgrade their roster.
9. Houston Rockets
These next three teams have talented rosters, but all have large looming questions to answer. For the Rockets, it is what happened to their locker room in the second half of the season. Watching them both in person and on TV, it seemed like everyone involved hated playing with each other.
Losing both Fred VanVleet and Steven Adams was a huge blow to the team’s chances in the Playoffs. An offseason to refigure the roster should help to fix the positional deficiencies they had by the end of the season, but the flameout in the Playoffs against a Laker team missing both Dončić and Reaves leaves a really poor taste in everyone’s mouth.
Unlike many teams in this area of the rankings, the Rockets do have plenty of draft capital they could trade to help improve the roster. Also, unlike other teams, their best player will be 38 years old next season and just missed five of his team’s six Playoff games.
10. Cleveland Cavaliers
Similar to the Timberwolves of the past couple of seasons, the Cavaliers were disappointing during the regular season, but did enough during the Playoffs to make the Eastern Conference Finals before being absolutely decimated by the Knicks. The Darius Garland for James Harden might end up being the correct move for the Cavs, but it did move up the team’s timeline somewhat significantly.
Kenny Atkinson might disagree, but Cleveland, as currently constructed, will need to improve on their current roster to jump into true championship-contender status. What makes it tough is that if Harden opts in to his $42 player option, the Cavs will enter the offseason over the second apron with multiple roster spots still left to fill.
The Cavaliers could look significantly different heading into next season. How they navigate this offseason will determine whether they are a whole lot higher or lower on this list 12 months from now.
11. Indiana Pacers
The main reason the Pacers are not higher is a small bit of skepticism that they can replicate the type of team they were two seasons ago, when they came a win away from winning the title. Most of my worry would be with Tyrese Haliburton’s health and how quickly he can return to his 2024 and 2025 form.
Giving up a pair of first-round picks, including what ended up being the number five overall pick, for Ivica Zubac is a tough trade, although Zubac should be a good fit for the Pacers, who lost Myles Turner last offseason. The Pacers, injury report willing, should once again be one of the better teams in the East and have most of their picks remaining to re-tool their roster if needed.
12. Utah Jazz
The Jazz are the first team on this list whose ranking has as much or more to do with their assets and the future of their roster.
I don’t know how good they will be this upcoming season, but they have a very talented roster that includes Jaren Jackson Jr, Lauri Markkanen, Ace Bailey, and the number two overall pick that is most likely to be either Darryn Peterson or Cameron Boozer. Utah also has extra draft picks that could come in handy as the team gets more expensive.
Utah does have contract negotiations with Walker Kessler and Keyonte George that have already seemed to hit a bit of a snag, which will likely be a large focus of their summer after next week’s draft.
13. Dallas Mavericks
If I had done these rankings before the NBA Draft Lottery in 2025, I think the Mavericks would have been dead last. With the trade of Luka just months prior, the Mavs fan base was in one of the worst spots imaginable.
While the pain from losing Luka is probably still felt in Dallas, winning the Cooper Flagg lottery has helped heal those wounds at least a little bit. Replacing Nico Harrison with Masai Ujiri and moving on from Jason Kidd have also likely improved the vibes in Mavs land.
The Mavs are still in rebuilding mode and will need to continue to stack talent on their roster, but Flagg is as good a rebuild head start as a team could ask for. It will be interesting, especially from the Timberwolves lens, to see if Dallas trades Kyrie Irving or decides to hold on to him
14. Charlotte Hornets
For the first time in a long time, things seem to be looking up for the Hornets. Kon Knueppel had an outstanding rookie season, setting 3-point records all over the place as Charlotte finished the season going 28-10 in the second half of the season.
Along with a solid roster that should compete for a top-six next season, they are also among the teams with the most draft capital in the NBA, including the 14th and 18th picks in this year’s draft. They are still a move or two away from contender status, but things are looking up in Charlotte.
15. Washington Wizards
Last month’s Lottery results played a big role in the ranking for many teams, none more so than the Wizards, who won the number one pick. They will likely select AJ Dybantsa and add him to their young core that includes Alex Sarr, Bilal Coulibaly, and others.
The weirdest part about the Wizards’ roster is the trades for Anthony Davis and Trae Young. It’s hard to fault them for buying low on two former All-NBA players, but their fit with a team that seems to be rebuilding is an awkward one. Young has also indicated that he is going to decline his nearly $49 million player option, but that might not be the right thing for the Wizards.
Washington is likely still years away from competing, but Dybantsa (or whoever they take) alone puts them in the top half of this list.
16. Philadelphia 76ers
I think the 76ers best represent the middle-of-the-road team in the NBA. Like they did this last season, they should again have a pretty solid team that can compete and in the Playoffs, but it’s tough to see the path to greatly improving their team that got swept by the eventual champion in the second round.
Joel Embiid and Paul George make a combined $110 million, which makes building around the team’s two young stars, Tyrese Maxey and VJ Edgecombe, a bit precarious. Embiid and George are still good to great players, but due to injuries and age, neither will likely live up to their lofty salaries.
17. Portland Trail Blazers
The Trail Blazers had a nice bounce-back season as they made the Playoffs for the first time since trading Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum. They also have access to future Milwaukee Bucks picks, which have a chance to be super valuable if/when the Bucks move on from Antetokounmpo.
The worrying part is the new owner, Tom Dundon, who has been cutting costs left and right to a worrying degree. Maybe that worry will become unfounded as Dundon’s Carolina Hurricanes did just win the Stanley Cup, but the concern is that when the Blazers’ roster requires spending extra money, ownership might not be willing to do so.
18. Atlanta Hawks
The Hawks had two chances at a top-four pick in the lottery with both the Pelicans and Bucks picks, but neither came through. Still, they had had a solid 2025-26 season and took two games off the Knicks in the Playoffs, something no one else was able to do. With no standout asset or superstar, though, the Hawks are in the bottom half of the fan rankings.
19. Memphis Grizzlies
Speaking of the Lottery, after fullying bottoming out and embracing the rebuild following the trades of Desmond Bane and Jaren Jackson Jr, the Grizzlies won the number three pick and will likely end up with either Cameron Boozer, Darryn Peterson, or Caleb Wilson.
They also have a ton of extra draft capital after liquidating their roster, and still have one more trade to make with Ja Morant still on their roster. They have done a good job getting value with their trades, but they can’t be any higher on this list as they project to be one of the worst teams in the NBA next season.
20. Golden State Warriors
The Warriors are a very difficult team to rank. Recently re-signed head coach Steve Kerr said it best when he called his team a “fading dynasty.” Steph Curry and, to a lesser extent, Draymond Green are still great players, and the Warriors will get Jimmy Butler back healthy next season, but lack the roster depth beyond their top players.
Maybe the Warriors can swing some crazy transactions this offseason. There have been rumors of LeBron heading to Golden State if he leaves the Lakers. Even so, this current version of the Warriors seems far away from competing at the highest levels in the Western Conference, and the future seems rockier than it’s been in over a decade.
Curry still being on the roster keeps the Warriors out of the bottom ten, as fans can still watch their franchise legend play great basketball on a good but not great team.
21. Los Angeles Clippers
The Clippers are also a very difficult team to rank. They made a home run trade, swapping Ivica Zubac for Benedict Mathurin, who ended up being the number five overall pick in a great draft, and a future Indiana first-round pick. The James Harden for Darius Garland trade also made a ton of sense for them.
The Kawhi Leonard Aspiration scandal and the penalty they will possibly receive from that still looms over the franchise. The Clippers feel like a team stuck between competing and a rebuild. Maybe a potential trade or not of Leonard will signal which way they plan to go.
22. Orlando Magic
I could be ranking the Magic too low, given that most teams do not have a trio of players at the same caliber as Paolo Banchero, Franz Wagner, and Desmond Bane. Unfortunately, Orlando’s talent only translated to 45 wins and the eighth seed.
While the Magic likely would have upset the Pistons if not for an injury to Wagner, their offense performance in Games 6 and 7 was so putrid it signals that something needs to change in Orlando. The problem is that already sent out multiple draft picks to acquire Bane and are already bumping up the second apron, which makes improving a roster during the season nearly impossible.
23. Toronto Raptors
The Raptors feel like a team stuck in the middle. A solid enough roster that won 46 games and took Cleveland to a Game 7, but they lack a true superstar who could carry a team through the playoffs, and will be paying Brandon Ingram, Immanuel Quickley, and R.J. Barrett a combined $102 million next season. They don’t have any extra future draft picks, but have all of their own as well.
With the new lottery rules, maybe being stuck in the middle isn’t so bad anymore.
24. Brooklyn Nets
Likely the biggest loser on draft night (along with the Pacers) was the Nets. They finished with the second-worst record in the NBA and ended up with the sixth pick to show for it. On top of that, their roster is devoid of any standout talent and is a long way away from putting together a quality team.
On the bright side, the Nets have the best treasure trove of draft assets available to them, with multiple first-round picks coming to them each of the next few years. That saves them from the bottom of the fan rankings, but it still projects to be a long time before the Nets can turn that draft capital into an actual winning team.
25. Chicago Bulls
The Bulls finally bottomed out and cleaned house. It is a welcome sign for a franchise that has been stuck in the Play-In tournament for far too many seasons. Next season, Chicago will have a new front office, a new coaching staff, and what at the moment seems to be one of the least talented rosters in the league.
The saving grace is that the Bulls got lucky on lottery night and have the number four pick, a great spot to be in a draft that appears to have four top-tier prospects. They also have the number 15 pick in this year’s draft, but that is the only extra first-round pick they currently have from another team.
While the teardown is a welcome sign, it also came a year or two too late. Now with the new flattened lottery odds, it may be tough for the Bulls to add talent after this year’s draft.
26. Phoenix Suns
The Suns had a very successful 2025-26 season, given the expectations. They won 45 games and made the playoffs before being swept out by the Thunder. It was likely a welcome sign for Suns fans that the team rebounded after the disaster of the season prior.
Still, the Suns are still recovering from the Kevin Durant trade in many ways. They have multiple of their first round draft picks that are out the door and did not receive nearly as much value from the Rockets as they sent out for Durant a few years prior.
The half-decent team they put together keeps them out of the cellar of the fan rankings, but still might be a rough few years ahead for the Suns.
27. Miami Heat
While the Heat might be in a pole position to trade for Giannis, everything else about where their franchise is going does not inspire confidence. Their roster is okay, as they won 43 games last season, but it is fairly uninspiring past Bam Adebayo. Even if they do swing a Giannis trade, I don’t see how they are able to put a quality team around him and Adebayo with what is left.
If the Heat do acquire Antetokounmpo, I will revisit this ranking. Until then, not really sure what the plan is down on South Beach.
28. Milwaukee Bucks
It made sense for a while for the Bucks to wait until the last possible moment to part with Giannis, but now feels like the right time. The Bucks are still many years away from controlling their own first-round pick, and their roster is in really rough shape talent-wise.
If Milwaukee does move on from Giannis, their ranking could move up if they get a good package back, but could also hit rock bottom if the Heat’s reported offer is all they get. If they do hold on to Antetokounmpo heading into the season, things might get ugly.
29. Sacramento Kings
I’m sorry, Kings fans. They do have some extra draft picks, including the Timberwolves 2031 first-rounder, and Domantas Sabonis could get a half-decent return in a trade, but with this being the fan rankings, I kinda have to put the Kings about as low as possible.
It feels that until the Kings get new ownership, nothing is going to change.
30. New Orleans Pelicans
The Pelicans have some talent on their roster, but as we saw this last season, it just does not work well together. Zion Williamson, mostly due to injuries, has not lived up to the hype for him coming into the NBA, and probably needs a change of scenery at this point.
We will see if Williamson, Dejounte Murray, Trey Murphy III, or Herg Jones are on the move this summer. Maybe with the new lottery rules, the Pelicans will elect to keep much of that talent on the roster to avoid finishing at the bottom of the standings.
With a better-run organization, there would be some hope that they could either turn things around with this roster or flip certain pieces into better-fitting ones, but that’s the problem. Ownership does not seem invested in turning the team around, and the front office has made many poor decisions, including trading away the team’s first-round pick before a 26-win season.
