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Welcome to Sports Illustrated’s first regular season edition of the 2026–27 NBA championship power rankings!
If you’re new here, I launched these rankings last season with the goal of providing updates on the teams most likely to be left standing when the postseason kicks off. The regular season is famously a bit of a slog; there’s lots of fun to be had between October and April, but what matters most is the outcome of the games that take place in May and June; how the title race morphs over the span of six months is fascinating to track.
The preseason edition of these power rankings included 12 teams and cited the Knicks, Spurs and Thunder as the top three threats to win the 2026–27 championship. With the regular season underway, things have obviously changed quite a bit on multiple fronts. Some teams have gotten off to hot starts out of nowhere, others have stumbled unexpectedly and (of course) the injury bug has reared its ugly head.
To paint an accurate picture of the championship race at this stage, we’ll try to balance results of the first handful of games with the reality that every contending team needs to check certain boxes such as employing a Tier 1 superstar while putting forth good performances on both the offensive and defensive side of the ball. Let it serve as a temperature check of sorts on which teams you should be paying attention to right now if you’re looking ahead to June.
We’ll start by briefly listing the teams who didn’t make the cut before breaking down the 10 squads who have shown what it takes so far to win a title in the modern NBA. Enjoy SI’s championship power rankings after the opening two weeks of the year.
These teams were expected to be bad and are, in fact, bad. They’re miles away from contention of any type.
Squads that have shown some good habits in the early going and won games, but have to keep it rolling to be taken seriously. It’s not yet clear if these are middling teams who got off to a good start or budding contenders laying the bones for a playoff push. We’ll be keeping a close eye for inclusion in our next round of rankings to determine which is which.
The “I can’t believe they’ve lost so many games already” crowd. The Heat and Nuggets are obviously the more disappointing of the quartet given their superstar talent. The Suns and Jazz were both supposed to be playoff teams in their own rights, however, and currently occupy the bottom of the conference standings. Regardless of expectations, they’re all massive letdowns so far and need to turn things around A.S.A.P.
The injury bug has crashed into the NBA like a runaway train and these teams have been among the most affected. As a result it’s difficult to justify placing them in contention rankings until their star players return from injury or we get a larger sample size of how they’re going to play without those stars.
Notably, the Thunder are included in this section instead of the top-10 rankings. I have plenty of faith in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander to lead OKC to a lot of wins—but it is nearly impossible for any team to withstand the loss of three starters and still contend for a title. Chet Holmgren will return in a few months but Jalen Williams is definitely done for the year and Cason Wallace probably is, too. The Thunder could prove themselves worthy of inclusion as the season goes on, but that level of attrition means they can’t be afforded the benefit of the doubt from the outset.
The Cavaliers get their own section because of how terrible their start to the year has been. A championship contender on paper with enough talent to convince this writer they could win the East, Cleveland’s opening stretch has been deeply unserious. A blown 29-point lead to kick off the year in Philadelphia, two straight losses that featured double-digit deficits against a Thunder team missing over half its starting lineup ... the vibes are horrendous. Nothing about their games so far suggest this is a team any different than last year’s squad that showed the world they were not made of the right stuff when going up against truly elite competition. Resilience and an ability to swim against the tide when things aren’t going well are hallmarks of great teams; until the Cavs show a glimpse of that quality, it will be impossible to take them seriously.
Now, onto the main course...
Why they’re contenders: The Raptors have an injured star of their own who may return sooner rather than later in Kawhi Leonard, but Toronto is a defensive menace of a team that doesn’t need Leonard to terrorize opponents when Scottie Barnes is in the lineup. Barnes is making enough of a leap to believe he’s the best player on the roster as he guards every position at an elite level with better offensive performances seemingly every night. The sixth-year forward is averaging a career-high 23.5 points per game (despite a hilariously bad 15.4% mark from three) and is getting to the line nearly twice as often as last season.
There still isn’t enough scoring without Leonard on the court overall, and the defense, while still stingy, has gotten blitzed by superstar talents a few times the last couple games. Yet it’s hard not to be optimistic considering the Raps still rank first in turnovers per game—a better indicator of a defense’s big-picture performance than Luka Dončić dropping 45 or Nikola Jokić putting up another 30-point triple-double. They’ve shown enough without Leonard to squeak in here.
Why they’re contenders: You can make a valid case that the Timberwolves deserve to be in the injured stars section, but I liked what I saw out of Minnesota pre-Anthony Edwards knee surgery enough to slip them in at No. 9 in these rankings. His offensive partnership with LaMelo Ball was as successful offensively as we all thought, and the three-point rate between the two of them might end up higher than any star tandem in the NBA.
That can lead to dangerous variance, leading to the most sustainable part of the Wolves’ early success: rebounding. The whole roster is crashing the boards with reckless abandon. The Wolves rank third in rebounds per game thus far despite losing both power forwards over the offseason. Such dedication to rebounding can overcome a lot of other flaws, particularly when paired with a high-octane offense. We won’t get the true measure of this Minnesota squad until Edwards is back, but right now things look much better than anyone would have guessed at the two-week mark.
Why they’re contenders: The Trail Blazers’ offseason strategy actually... worked? Before Ja Morant’s hamstring injury, Portland enjoyed a collection of players who were all elite at one thing—Damian Lillard the three-point deadeye, Morant the slasher, Deni Avdija the big-bodied foul-drawer, so on and so forth. Usually the best NBA teams collect players with overlapping but still complementary skill sets; the Blazers have a bunch of guys who don’t overlap at all yet still help open the floor up for each other, with enough good defenders to mix in to hold it down on that end.
The end result is a team with enough firepower to rank top-five offensively and just enough stiff defenders to rank top-10 on the other end. It’s a very delicate balance given their reliance on older veterans like Jrue Holiday and Robert Williams, but one they’ve struck so far. Also, Donovan Clingan is awesome and his “Cling Kong” nickname even better.
Why they’re contenders: The Celtics still have a lot of work to do on the court but on paper they check the contention boxes: a superstar scorer (Jayson Tatum), a rangy cast of strong defenders and shooters, a great head coach and two big centers who can protect the rim at a high level. That is a recipe for strong play on both ends and a lot of regular season wins. The question is if the Jaylen Brown trade robbed Boston of its ability to go toe-to-toe with more talented rosters.
So far that’s proven a valid concern. The C’s two losses so far have come due to Tatum having an off shooting game (opening day against the Pistons) or gets into foul trouble (loss to Rockets on Monday). They’re still searching for exactly how to keep up with opponents when their star wing can’t save them (and the Mitchell Robinson experience has been bad, which must change to seriously compete). Still, the Celtics are proving capable of giving themselves a puncher’s chance against even the best teams in the league while going through an unusual dry spell from deep as a team (13th in three-point percentage after finishing top-10 in each of the last four seasons).
Why they’re contenders: The defending champs got off to a rocky start to the year. Things are beginning to even out. Since the Knicks opened the season with three straight losses, they’ve gone 3–1 while ranking first in offensive rating and 10th in defensive rating. The biggest sign they’ve gotten right: An absolute demolition of the Bulls on Wednesday night that featured an 84-point first half.
The book is out on how to defend New York after a title run but this roster was never really unguardable. It was just talented, gritty and clutch. That means they won’t overwhelm fellow contenders but they’ll win just as often as they lose against those kinds of opponents. The sun will shine brighter in Manhattan once Mikal Bridges snaps out of his ice-cold start to the championship defense campaign, if anything.
Why they’re contenders: Luka Dončić is pretty great, man! The Slovenian superstar put together an MVP-caliber start to his season, reinforcing his reputation as one of the NBA’s great scorers by averaging an utterly ridiculous 38.5 points per game while showing off a renewed focus on the defensive end. Around him, the Walker Kessler acquisition is looking like it was worth the price and the impact of a complementary supporting cast for Dončić’s specific skills is boosting the whole roster.
How Los Angeles performs when Dončić finally cools off following this preposterous heater will give us the true measure of the team. For now, their iffy overall defensive numbers (No. 20 in rating so far) prevents them from getting much higher on this list.
Why they’re contenders: The Pistons’ offseason moves have led to the result the front office was hoping for: An easier life for Cade Cunningham offensively while the roster retains its defensive identity. Cunningham should be seen as an early MVP candidate with a nightly stat line of 24.0 points, 7.6 assists and 5.6 rebounds on career-best efficiency. His role on the other end for Detroit’s No. 1 ranked defense shouldn’t be overlooked, either.
Detroit has big wins over fellow contenders like the Celtics, Heat and 76ers already. The offense already looks miles better than last year despite mediocre advanced stats—and all this happening almost entirely without Jalen Duren paints the Pistons in a very positive light after he got hurt in the second game of the season.
Why they’re contenders: The Rockets have seen early growth from key young players all over the roster, from offensive engine Alperen Şengün to deadeye three-and-D wing Jabari Smith to defensive dynamo Amen Thompson. Kevin Durant remains Kevin Durant. Fred VanVleet looks excellent for a 32-year-old coming off a torn ACL, and Marcus Smart is proving to be one of the best value signings of last offseason. Basically everything is clicking for Ime Udoka's squad and the result is a tremendous defensive squad with a fierce sense of pride paired with a layered offense that can slice apart an opponent several different ways.
Three-point shooting still looms as a big-picture question given they rank fifth in percentage but only 15th in triples per game. If a team doesn’t shoot a lot of threes, they have to shoot accurately, and as a whole, Houston’s rotation has more questions than answers in that regard. That doesn’t take away from the Rockets’ great start as they rack up early wins with physicality and skill.
Why they’re contenders: The 76ers couldn’t have asked for a better start to a pivotal season. The star-studded lineup is falling in line behind the incredible scoring skills of Tyrese Maxey, averaging a cool 28 points per night. Jaylen Brown and LeBron James have made themselves right at home. Joel Embiid is as healthy as could be hoped. Key reserves Anfernee Simons and Dean Wade appear to be useful at worst and indispensable at best. The defense has held up its end of the bargain while the offense rounds into form.
There’s very little to complain about. Philly has notched good wins over good teams and the only loss came to a very respectable Detroit squad. Adversity will come, and how this newfangled roster approaches it will prove a valuable data point in the long run. For now, it’s a Sixers dream.
Why they’re contenders: The Spurs employ the best all-around player in the NBA in Victor Wembanyama and that’s enough to consider them on the shortlist of favorites. Wemby started his fourth season slow but got on a roll and unveiled the terrifying heights his dominance can reach just this week with an eye-popping 52-point, 24-rebound, eight-block performance to drag San Antonio to a win over the Mavericks. It was a magnificent showing from the young superstar.
The rest of the roster is still rounding into form a bit but the Spurs are still one of only three teams to rank top-10 in both offensive and defensive rating along with the Celtics and Rockets. Of that trio, only San Antonio can boast a bona fide MVP favorite. The Spurs have as high a floor as any contender in the NBA and Wemby gives them a ceiling no one can match right now.
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