Oklahoma City Thunder — 98.4
Cleveland Cavaliers — 96.1
Denver Nuggets — 95.7
Houston Rockets — 94.2
New York Knicks — 93.8
Minnesota Timberwolves — 92.9
Orlando Magic — 92.1
Los Angeles Lakers — 91.4
Golden State Warriors — 90.8
Detroit Pistons — 90.3
DUNKMETRIC is my weekly NBA power ranking, built on per-possession efficiency. The full 30-team ranking is live at dunkmetric.com, updated every Tuesday.
San Antonio (DM: 13th, consensus: 2nd): The record says 62 wins; the per-possession efficiency never fully backed it up, and then the Finals exposed it — over-reliance on the perimeter shot, foot off the gas, gone in five. The core is 22 and under, and the current plan is a three-guard starting lineup with genuine defensive questions. Youth plus a defensive experiment is a variance cocktail. The preseason prior prices in regression, not a repeat.
Philadelphia (DM: 19th, consensus: 4th–7th): Best starting five on paper — the model’s least favorite phrase. LeBron James and Jaylen Brown have never shared a court with Joel Embiid, and the prior is built on what five-man units have actually done per 100 possessions, not what they project to do. Add Embiid’s health history and the oldest star core in the East, and 19th is what the math says until the minutes exist.
Golden State (DM: 9th, consensus: 18th–20th): The consensus sees age; the model sees a team whose closing per-possession numbers graded top-10 while the record lagged behind. Efficiency is stickier than narrative — veteran cores with proven two-way profiles don’t fall off a cliff in one summer. Ninth is the model’s way of saying the obituary was premature.
Primary sources: DUNKMETRIC Week 1 rankings; Basketball-Reference; The Athletic preseason power rankings; Vegas preseason ratings; StadiumRant preseason rankings.
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