NBA Rankings - Preseason

It has been 7 years since a team has repeated as NBA champions, so even though the Boston Celtics were dominant in last season's playoffs, they still aren't guaranteed to do it again. There are a couple of teams with young rising stars, and several with former MVP winners, that all look poised to give Boston a challenge this season. Dallas was the hottest team at the end of the regular season last year, and took that momentum all the way to the NBA Finals, and with one of the greatest young players in the game leading the way, they are starting this season as my pick to win the 2025 championship. Here are my full preseason rankings:

				Record		Proj
Rank	LW	Team	Rating	W	L	W	L	Seed
1	6	Dallas	-9.253			64	16	W1
2	8	Indiana	-7.523			61	19	E1
3	13	Milwaukee	-6.24			58	22	E2
4	4	Denver	-5.707			55	25	W2
5	18	LA Lakers	-5.362			55	25	W3
6	11	Phoenix	-4.236			51	29	W4
7	1	Boston	-4.219			54	26	E3
8	12	Sacramento	-3.585			50	30	W5
9	2	Oklahoma City	-3.274			50	30	W6
10	3	Minnesota	-3.131			49	31	W7
11	14	Philadelphia	-2.886			50	30	E4
12	7	New York	-1.929			47	33	E5
13	24	San Antonio	-0.59			42	38	W8
14	16	Cleveland	0.1474			41	39	E6
15	5	New Orleans	1.0274			37	43	W9
16	23	Utah	1.1792			37	43	W10
17	10	Golden State	1.8916			35	45
18	21	Atlanta	2.2563			36	44	E7
19	9	LA Clippers	2.5489			32	48
20	29	Detroit	2.8345			34	46	E8
21	19	Miami	3.6009			31	49	E9
22	17	Houston	3.6563			30	50
23	15	Orlando	3.9349			31	49
24	28	Washington	4.001			31	49	E10
25	25	Toronto	5.0643			27	53
26	27	Portland	5.198			25	55
27	22	Brooklyn	5.6578			26	54
28	20	Chicago	6.5938			23	57
29	30	Charlotte	7.9831			21	59
30	26	Memphis	8.0526			19	61