Welcome to a fresh set of HoopsHype Power Rankings! As always, these involve a proprietary mix of science, magic, herbs, and spices; they’re both reflective of the standings and forward-looking.

I’ll be referencing many of the major trades that took place last week; for more detail, check out my exhaustive (and exhausting) trade grades. For now, though, let’s take stock of where everyone sits as we approach a sorely-needed All-Star break.

Oklahoma City Thunder

The Oklahoma City Thunder have the best record in the NBA and just got back a seven-foot trebuchet who’s equally comfortable launching three-pointers into the net or opposing shots into the seventh row.

Real playoff concerns remain: there isn’t a ton of playmaking on the roster, and only Isaiah Joe causes panic as a movement shooter. But you can’t ask for a better regular-season performance than what we’ve seen so far. Let’s not waste time here.

Cleveland Cavaliers

A playoff matchup with the Celtics looms large, but the Cavs are running away with the East and made by far the biggest move in the conference.

De’Andre Hunter isn’t a perfect player, but he is a perfect fit for a Cavs team that desperately needed his strengths (on-ball defense, scoring) and can mitigate his weaknesses (off-ball defense, passing). He might even be able to play a little small-ball power forward, giving the Cavaliers more optionality in the playoffs.

Boston Celtics

The Celtics watched all the mayhem happening last week, looked in the mirror, and smirked. “Nah, we’re good.”

Truthfully, while they likely didn’t have the ability to make a major swing anyway, it’s easy to understand their confidence. Some regular-season inconsistency aside, why shouldn’t a team that steamrolled through last year’s playoffs try to do so again? An offseason roster shake-up is inevitable thanks to the league’s new CBA, but that’s a problem for the summer. Right now, the championship still runs through the TD Garden.

Memphis Grizzlies

What do we do with the Grizzlies? They keep winning, but it does feel like they mostly just take out the trash – the Grizz are 6-9 against teams with a Top 10 net rating, a far worse mark than rivals like Houston, Minnesota, or Golden State, much less the Big Three at the top of the table. They have the 13th-best point differential against such teams, too.

Health is a reason for that, to an extent, but I’d like to see the Grizzlies rise to the level of their competition more often. Their fourth-place ranking here has as much to do with uncertainty all around them as it does with the Grizzlies themselves.

Denver Nuggets

The Nuggets were one of four teams to opt out of the trade deadline, deciding to roll with a core that has been rocking of late. Since I had to buy a new calendar, the Nuggets are 17-6 with the second-best net rating in the league –  including a Top 3 offense and above-median defense.

Jokic is comfortably averaging a triple-double and nearly two steals per game, but that’s old news. More interesting is that the Nugs’ much-maligned bench has actually held its own of late. We’ve even had real Zeke Nnaji minutes!

Houston Rockets

The Rockets finally ended a tough recent stretch without Fred VanVleet and Jabari Smith Jr. with a win over the hapless Toronto Raptors. The Rockets have proven their upside – 15-8 against Top 10 opponents, including statement victories over every team ranked above them in these power rankings.

But they’ve also proven to have a basement-height floor. Their horrendous shooting means they have to scratch and claw for every win. Their recent slide to the fifth seed threatens their playoff berth; they’ll need to right the ship to stay out of the play-in mess, where a couple of bad shooting nights could ruin what’s been a feel-good season so far.

New York Knicks

As much as Knicks fans might want to pretend otherwise, next year was always going to be their best chance at a championship.

But it sure was difficult to watch the Celtics absolutely massacre Karl-Anthony Towns in the pick-and-roll over and over in their recent blowout victory over New York to the point that KAT had to lick his wounds (and those wounds are substantial – Towns clearly isn’t 100 percent) on the bench:

Mitchell Robinson’s return date is still murky, but it can’t come soon enough for a Knicks squad that needs an off-speed pitch on the nights when Towns at center isn’t working defensively.

Los Angeles Lakers

It’s good to be the king.

A week removed from the stunning Anthony Davis/Luka Doncic trade, the Lakers are all smiles after Doncic’s debut last night. Although Doncic was a little rusty (1-for-7 from deep), he sure made teammate Jaxson Hayes (playing with a new lease on life after the Lakers nixed the Mark Williams trade) happy:

That’s the smile of a man who knows his numbers are about to go way up.

There are plenty of short-term fit questions, but the Lakers were absolutely rolling before the trade deadline anyway. With Davis, without him, with James, without him, with Doncic, without him: Los Angeles keeps winning. They’re now 10-1 in their last 11 and trying to solidify home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs.

Indiana Pacers

The Pacers are 13-4 since the new year started, riding a defense that’s been even better than their ninth-ranked offense. Andrew Nembhard’s been fantastic, Pascal Siakam has been an off-ball menace, and Tyrese Haliburton’s three-ball has been money. There’s a lot to like.

Encouragingly, the team’s defense has been strong even without shooting luck; opponents are hitting right around league-average against them from deep and at the rim. If they can clean up some recent rebounding woes, the Pacers (who notoriously tend to give elite teams fits with their frantic playstyle) might have another playoff run in them – but this one won’t be as much of a surprise.

Minnesota Timberwolves

The Wolves are fighting hard to avoid the play-in, but their underlying stats are better than their record suggests. Since January 1st, the Wolves have the seventh-ranked offense and eighth-ranked defense.

Free throws have been key to the team’s success: they’ve made more free throws per 100 possessions than anyone else in 2025, and they’ve been nearly as adept at avoiding giving them out to opponents.

On an individual basis, Rob Dillingham’s emergence as a bench firecracker has brought some much-needed verve to the reserves, and Naz Reid has rediscovered the form that made him 6MOY last season. Per Tankathon, the Wolves have the easiest remaining schedule in the West; there’s a chance they can rip off a real run to close the season.

Los Angeles Clippers

I didn’t verify this, but I’m 100 percent sure the Clippers lead the league in winning streaks followed by losing streaks; they never alternate wins and losses like a normal team. Any given week, the Clippers could like dark-horse contenders or G-League alternates.

Kawhi Leonard has cracked 30 minutes in each of the last two games he’s played, a sign that the team is feeling more confident about his health. He isn’t the Klaw of old yet and might never be, but his ability to round back into an All-Star offensive force is one of the West’s most intriguing under-the-radar storylines.

Golden State Warriors

Jimmy Butler has been an instant lightning bolt for the Warriors, drawing 13 and 15 free throws in his first two games – manna from the heavens for a Golden State team previously allergic to freebies.

The biggest beneficiary of the Butler move has been Steph Curry, who looks joyful on the court again for the first time in months. Curry dropped 38 and 34 points in his two games with Butler while shooting over 50 percent from the field both times. No offense to Draymond Green, but Curry must love having a short-roll option who is looking to score, not just to pass:

There are still lingering fit questions that can’t be answered until Jonathan Kuminga returns, but the Warriors have no regrets so far.

Detroit Pistons

What a season for Pistons fans so far!

The JB Bickerstaff effect is in full bloom. The Pistons are defending their exhaust pipes off (third in defensive rating in 2025) and attacking the offensive glass behind the efforts of one Jalen Duren, who is beginning to round into form as a two-way force.

The team’s motor, of course, is Cade Cunningham, who has earned his first All-Star berth. Cunningham is putting up silly box score numbers, but it has resulted in wins – the Pistons are currently in the sixth seed, clear of the play-in.

Malik Beasley is making a run for Sixth Man of the Year, Tim Hardaway Jr. has hit his threes, and Ausar Thompson is your favorite defender’s favorite defender. The Pistons are – finally! – on the rise.

Sacramento Kings

It’s too early to tell how the additions of Zach LaVine and desperately needed backup big Jonas Valanciunas will gel with the remaining core, but at least the Kings will be fun again.

The key to their success? Malik Monk’s ability to lead the team sans Fox. He had performed excellently in his chances to run the offense without Fox to this point, but seeing if he can bring it against starting units every night as the lone wheelman should be fun.

Monk is one of the most vicious in-game dunkers in the league, but more quietly, he has developed over the years into Sacramento’s best passer. Having an aerial threat like LaVine in the mix should make for some nice highlights:

Monk has come a long way from Charlotte’s doghouse, and this will be his chance to prove he can be a consistent starting point guard.

Milwaukee Bucks

As previously constructed, the Bucks’ glass ceiling was far lower than people realized – they have the second-worst net rating against Top 10 teams in the entire league! The Raptors, who are 3-20 against such teams, have a better net rating. The Pelicans, who are 2-21 and have battled biblical health problems, have a better net rating.

Something had to change. I’m not sure Kyle Kuzma is the answer, but praying for a miraculous return to health from Khris Middleton definitely wasn’t. Early returns on the trade are mixed, but with Giannis Antetokounmpo out, the whole team’s balance is off.

Miami Heat

The sun has emerged from behind the clouds. Bigface Coffee will need to grind its beans elsewhere (or whatever; I’m not really a coffee guy), as Jimmy Butler has taken his talents to San Francisco.

The team isn’t better without Butler, but it does have a clearer path forward: play the young guys and figure out which lineup combinations can work (more Kel’el Ware and Bam Adebayo together, please). That said, they are all-in on a playoff chase this season to avoid giving up unprotected firsts in 2026 and 2028. It’s a narrow tightrope to walk.

Phoenix Suns

The Suns are stuck in a tough place.

They’ve lost four of their last five, and the one win was in overtime against a terrible Utah team, thanks to some miraculous Grayson Allen threes. Kevin Durant has floated in and out of the lineup, Bradley Beal is coming off the bench (when he’s healthy), and team leadership could not land a needle-mover at the trade deadline and angered Durant by involving his name in trade rumors.

At the season’s start, I thought the Suns would be a breakout team. They still have 30 games left to turn things around, but right now, they have an uphill battle to make the play-in, much less go on a playoff run. Basketball-Reference gives them a paltry 3.9% chance of making the playoffs, which is an unbelievable failure for a team that hoped to have home-court advantage in at least one round.

Something drastic will change in the Valley this summer.

Dallas Mavericks

Poor Mavericks fans have had enough people raining on their dreams of a parade since the Doncic trade and subsequent, immediate Anthony Davis injury (five of the Mavs’ top six big men are hurt – get ready for a whole lot of Kylor Kelley!).

To focus on something positive, Max Christie (the other player in the Doncic/Davis deal) has been awesome so far! He’s scored 15, 15, 23, and, yes, 15 points in his four games in Dallas, looking like he might be more than the 3-and-D wing that many (including me) had pigeonholed him as in Los Angeles.

It’s hard to find two-way role players and even harder to find them young and cheap. Christie, who turned 22 yesterday (happy birthday!), is on an excellent contract for several more years. He probably won’t average 17 points for the rest of the year, but he’s had some encouraging signs. I loved this schoolyard-bully play against the Rockets, in which Christie takes the ball in transition, sees the stalwart Dillon Brooks walling his way, and smashes through him like the Kool-Aid man:

Christie isn’t a particularly big guy, but he’s playing with newfound force this season. No, he won’t replace Doncic, but neither was he a throw-in. The Mavericks wanted Christie. It’s easy to see why.

Atlanta Hawks

It’s been a rough few weeks since we last checked in on Atlanta. First, a shoulder injury prematurely ended Jalen Johnson's breakthrough season. His absence has tanked the Hawks’ offense, particularly when Trae Young has been on the bench, and the team hit an 0-8 skid at the end of January amidst a brutally packed 12-day stretch of schedule.

Then came the trade deadline, in which the Hawks sold high on De’Andre Hunter, sold extraordinarily low on Bogdan Bogdanovic, and brought in three new faces in Terance Mann, Georges Niang, and Caris LeVert. The moves reportedly did not please Trae Young.

But finally, some rare bits of good news: Young was named the injury replacement for Giannis Antetokounmpo in the All-Star game and then was named Player of the Week. The Hawks have won three in a row and four of their last five since ending that losing streak.

That’s a whole lot of drama for a team that is once again knee-deep in the play-in muck!

Orlando Magic

Who knew that Jalen Suggs, not the Magic’s two wing stars in Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner, was the team’s most important player?

Suggs has only played one game for the Magic since January 3rd, an eight-point victory over a Detroit Pistons team smelling blood and hungrily eyeing them in the standings. Taking that away, Orlando is 4-14 since then, many of those games with at least one of Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner. Some of those losses are inexplicable, including one to Toronto, two to a red-hot but still below-average Portland team, and one to the Jazz. Yikes.

Please, for the love of good basketball, get this team some shooting in the offseason.

Portland Trail Blazers

Look at Portland sitting near the middle of these here power rankings!

At 10-3 in their last 13 games, Portland has had playoff form of late. Their defense is particularly strong, led by the snarling ferocity of Toumani Camara, Deni Avdija, Matisse Thybulle, Robert Williams, and Donovan Clingan. Scoot Henderson has looked like a competent NBA point guard (albeit mostly against backups), and even Deandre Ayton has had some shining moments!

The Blazers have quietly become one of the league’s most enjoyable watches. This run likely isn’t sustainable (two big losses to Minnesota and Denver may have already spelled the end), but it sure has been fun.

San Antonio Spurs

The De’Aaron Fox/Victor Wembanyama fit will be a work in progress, particularly given San Antonio’s odd roster construction – the team has been starting Chris Paul and Devin Vassell with Fox in smaller three-guard lineups. Wembanyama has had a lot to do defensively.

While they made the trade with an eye toward the future, if the Spurs want to make an impact in the present, they need to start winning games. A brutal last-second loss to the Charlotte Hornets has been the low point of an ugly 2025. The Spurs are 5-12 in their last 17 games, with the league’s fourth-worst net rating. They have significant ground to make up if they want to give Wemby a taste of the postseason.

Brooklyn Nets

Someone needs to stop Jordi Fernandez.

It almost doesn’t matter who you put in front of this man; he just keeps winning games he’s not supposed to win. For a while, it looked like the front office had taken away all his best toys in the Dennis Schroeder and Dorian Finney-Smith trades, particularly with leading scorer Cam Thomas still injured, resulting in a 2-13 skid.

But Fernandez adjusted, and the Nets – the Nets! – have won five of their last six, including two wins over the Houston Rockets. It’s seemingly a different player starring every night – D’Angelo Russell, then Keon Johnson, then Cam Johnson, then Nic Claxton, etcetera.

Brooklyn should be the least watchable team in the league, but instead, they just keep making lemonade out of lemons.

Philadelphia 76ers

News that Joel Embiid likely needs another surgery doesn’t shock anymore; it simply depresses.

Tyrese Maxey has been on a hot streak in 2025, shaking off his inefficient start. New addition Quentin Grimes will help shore up the guard position, and Guerschon Yabusele continues to impress. But without Philly’s big man in the middle at something resembling peak form, it’s all just porcine lipstick.

Chicago Bulls

It is a cruel irony that the team’s biggest reward for trading away its best player (Zach LaVine) was the removal of protections on its own draft pick this year. That means that the team can now freely strive for the 11th-worst record in the league (and the corresponding play-in berth and likely loss) without feeling pressure to drop to 10 and try to keep their pick.

In a weird way, the LaVine trade has freed Chicago to make even worse future decisions.

Then again, they may fall into the high lottery, anyway. The Bulls built up a 24-point lead in the third quarter against Golden State and managed to lose by 21 points anyway. This team is well below average.

One bright spot: the wildings of rookie Matas Buzelis, who is picking up craft and a body count with each new game. He has tried (and often failed) to do some audacious things on the court, but his willingness to dunk everything has had some sweet rewards:

Toronto Raptors

It’s very easy to miss the trees for the forest with the Raptors. They have been an overwhelmingly terrible basketball team, as their 16-37 record will convey at a glance. The recent trade for Brandon Ingram, a 27-year-old expecting a hefty contract, raised eyebrows.

But there have been some silver linings in an injured-riddled, lost season. RJ Barrett’s playmaking took a major leap. Ochai Agbaji has been a 3-and-D reclamation project success story, and he’ll make the tail end of my Most Improved Players list. Rookie Jamal Shead is an on-ball defensive demon. In fact, the Scottie Barnes-led Raptors had been one of the best defenses in the league until the current four-game losing streak.

For Barnes himself, the team has funneled even more responsibility his way in his fourth season, with uneven results. But with a high 2025 draft pick coming and an undeniable amount of talent around Barnes, next season could be the start of a big Toronto turnaround.

Frankly, it had better be.

Charlotte Hornets

The Hornets tried to sell high on their young center, Mark Williams, only for the Lakers to turn around and fail him on his physical.

Charlotte has appealed the Lakers’ finding, setting up a potentially precedent-setting ruling from the league. I’m not sure what to make of this team until we know whether the Hornets are moving forward with Williams or the Lakers’ sharpshooting rookie Dalton Knecht, but either way, the Hornets are still in the early stages of their rebuild.

Utah Jazz

The Jazz were actively involved at the trade deadline but made no major moves, opting to use their space to accumulate more second-round picks (although we should note they were able to turn three middling-to-bad firsts into the Suns unprotected 2031 pick a few weeks ago, a clever bit of alchemy).

On the court, the Jazz allowing two Grayson Allen threes in the last seconds of a game against Phoenix, snatching defeat from the still-hungry jaws of victory, was a microcosm of their entire season.

New Orleans Pelicans

Even a red-hot Trey Murphy and healthy Zion Williamson can’t propel the Pelicans to a win – the Pels have lost nine in a row, many in dispiriting fashion.

We should spare a word for Murphy, however. The bouncy shooter is averaging an absurd 26/6/4 on pristine shooting splits: 49 percent from the field, 40 percent from deep, and 89 percent from the line (and he’s drawing nearly six free throws per game, an excellent mark).

The Pelicans won’t have a lot of positive memories from this season, but they should leave it feeling good that they have a burgeoning perimeter star in Murphy and a nice lottery selection in their pocket.

Washington Wizards

The Wizards are, without question, the worst team in the league, but that’s where they expected to be, given the overwhelming youth on the roster. While it’s hard to project just how good their young guys will eventually become, moving on from Kyle Kuzma (and, to a lesser extent, Jonas Valanciunas) will certainly open up more opportunities for them to test their boundaries.

I’ll be monitoring Bilal Coulibaly's performance for the rest of the season. In Kuzma's absence, he’s generally taken on a far greater usage burden.

For more from Mike Shearer, check out his irreverent blog Basketball Poetry, where he deep-dives the NBA several times per week.

This article originally appeared on Hoops Hype: NBA Power Rankings: A post-trade-deadline check-in