At long last, it's time for the real thing.
The NBA pre-season is behind us, and the 82-game grind will begin in earnest on Tuesday, beginning with the Boston Celtics taking on the Detroit Pistons (3 p.m. ET / noon PT) to tip off a tripleheader on Sportsnet, Sportsnet 360 and Sportsnet+.
While the end of teams’ benches are still being figured out with the regular season quickly approaching, the 30 rosters are essentially set.
Here’s a snapshot of the league, divided into six tiers:
Tier 1: Title or bust
New York Knicks, Oklahoma City Thunder, San Antonio Spurs
Of the 30 teams in the NBA, only these three come into the season with definitive championship-or-else aspirations.
The defending-champion New York Knicks return with much of the same roster that saw them break their 53-year championship drought in June. While Andre Drummond is certainly no Mitchell Robinson at backup centre, and there’s issues to be resolved regarding extension talks with Karl-Anthony Towns, the Knicks remain a team that should be considered top of class in a revitalized Eastern Conference.
As for the Oklahoma City Thunder and San Antonio Spurs, these two juggernauts are, simply, the best teams in the league. The Thunder likely feel like they were robbed of a chance to defend their 2025 title because of the injury to Jalen Williams, and the Spurs are now a whole season more mature after their surprise run to the Finals. The rest of the association better be ready, because these two teams have good reasons to be pissed off and are champing at the bit to prove their dominance.
Tier 2: Legitimate squads (balanced edition)
Boston Celtics, Cleveland Cavaliers, Denver Nuggets, Detroit Pistons, Houston Rockets, Indiana Pacers
A caveat to these next two tiers: it’s better to think of these 10 teams as more on the same level with each other, but it’s split this way because during the regular season, consistency within your roster works better than volatility.
These six squads are far from perfect, but they feature enough high-end talent and depth that making the playoffs should be a breeze, and their actions will be judged come spring.
To highlight a few, the Boston Celtics may have made a questionable move to deal Jaylen Brown and bring in Paul George, but a full season of a healthy Jayson Tatum is still a very good thing.
The Denver Nuggets have continually shed pieces from their 2023 championship — the latest being Peyton Watson to the Cleveland Cavaliers — but when you have Nikola Jokic, you have a consistent way to win every night.
Lastly, the Indiana Pacers might seem like a strange fit here, but let’s not forget that they might have been a Tyrese Haliburton injury away from taking Game 7 of the 2025 Finals, and that dude is now back.
Tier 3: Legitimate squads (flawed-but-high-ceiling edition)
Los Angeles Lakers, Minnesota Timberwolves, Philadelphia 76ers, Toronto Raptors
It should be pretty obvious why the Philadelphia 76ers and Toronto Raptors are at this level. As talent-laden as both teams appear to be, we just don’t know about the availability will look like for older and injury-prone players like LeBron James, Joel Embiid and Kawhi Leonard. It’s easy to picture both the Sixers and the Raptors in the Eastern Conference final before any of the real games have been played, but what about when the season is in the doldrums of February?
For the Los Angeles Lakers, it’s a matter of whether they can even guard a chair. The Timberwolves made a big gamble trading for LaMelo Ball, a mercurial talent who, some would argue, has never played a serious game of basketball in his entire life.
Tier 4: Have to see it to believe it
Atlanta Hawks, Charlotte Hornets, Dallas Mavericks, Miami Heat, Orlando Magic, Utah Jazz
Of the six teams in Tier 4, the Miami Heat likely jump out the most.
The acquisition of a top-five player like Giannis Antetokounmpo would dictate that they be bumped up into one of the three other levels, but skepticism for the Heat has arisen because of Antetokounmpo’s lack of availability the past two seasons and Miami’s roster in general. Sure, the Heat should be a tough, defensive-minded team, but how effective will they be on offence?
That same question lingers for the Orlando Magic and their anemic offence.
For the other teams, it really is a matter of, show us. The Atlanta Hawks’ incredible run from late February onwards could have just been a flash in the pan, the Dallas Mavericks may still be just Cooper and the Flaggs even with Kyrie Irving returning, the aforementioned Ball may have actually been the engine that made the Charlotte Hornets go and the Utah Jazz, on paper, have talent and Will Hardy is supposed to be a good coach. Show us.
Tier 5: Play-in all-stars
Golden State Warriors, Memphis Grizzlies, Phoenix Suns, Portland Trail Blazers, Washington Wizards
With all due respect to the other teams here, we’re just going to talk about the Golden State Warriors.
Stephen Curry, unquestionably the greatest shooter to ever touch a basketball and probably a top-10 player of all-time, looks headed to the play-in tournament for a fourth straight season. Loyalty is great and it’s nice that it looks like Curry wants to finish his career playing with just one team, but for the sake of all hoops lovers, can we please get this man on a team that’s guaranteed to make the playoffs?
We need Curry in high-leverage situations again, and the play-in just ain’t that.
Tier 6: Relegation zone steel-cage death match
Brooklyn Nets, Chicago Bulls, Los Angeles Clippers, Milwaukee Bucks, New Orleans Pelicans, Sacramento Kings
The most interesting thing about this stinky six-pack is not that they’ll actually have to try to win basketball games to get out of the new anti-tanking relegation zone this season, it’s that there’s one team – the Brooklyn Nets – who might just try to tank even harder because of circumstances.
Brooklyn could have its first-round pick swapped by the Houston Rockets in the coming 2027 draft, so it would behoove the Nets to just do what they do and lose a whole lot.
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