The 2026-27 NBA season has barely begun, so the most useful standings are still last season’s. The Knicks enter as defending champions, but an early power ranking places Oklahoma City ahead of them. That is the opening-week tension: New York owns the trophy, while the Thunder remain the team everyone is measuring against.[1]
The champions have continuity on their side
New York returns nine of its top 10 players by playoff minutes per game. That is a substantial head start for a title defense: the Knicks can refine familiar lineups while other contenders work out new roles. Yahoo Sports puts a No. 1 seed within their best-case range, though its preview also flags the possibility of a slide into the play-in if regular-season focus or defense slips.[8]
One lineup worth tracking swaps Landry Shamet in for Josh Hart alongside Jalen Brunson, Mikal Bridges, OG Anunoby and Karl-Anthony Towns. Yahoo notes that the Shamet version logged just 161 minutes together over the previous two seasons. The idea is clear—more perimeter spacing—but that limited sample is a reason to watch the lineup, not declare it solved.[8]
Oklahoma City and San Antonio set a Western benchmark
The Athletic’s opening power rankings put the Thunder above the champion Knicks. San Antonio’s case for joining that top tier starts with Victor Wembanyama: the Spurs posted a plus-17.0 net rating with him on the floor last season, the second-best figure among rotation players cited in ESPN’s preview. Five of the six leaders in that measure played for Oklahoma City.[1][3]
That comparison captures both San Antonio’s promise and its challenge. Wembanyama’s minutes already produced elite results; Oklahoma City had several players at that level of on-court impact. For the Spurs, the early test is whether they can sustain their edge across a full game, not merely when their centerpiece is on the floor.
Cleveland’s three-point math needs repairing
The Cavaliers finished last season 15th in defensive rating after four straight top-10 finishes. Opponents made 14.2 three-pointers per game against them, the fifth-highest total in the league. Cleveland made only 10 more threes than its opponents over the entire regular season; the season before, that margin was 199.[3]
Those figures give Cleveland a more precise early-season target than simply “play better defense.” Watch the quality of shots it allows beyond the arc and whether its own shooting restores a meaningful margin. A few games cannot settle either question, but the three-point ledger will show whether last season’s weakness is carrying over.
Toronto’s climb would reshape the East
Toronto went 46-36 and finished fifth in the East last season. The Athletic’s early projection has the Raptors rising to third. That is a meaningful leap in a conference with a defending champion and a Cleveland team trying to regain its defensive footing.[1]
Scottie Barnes is central to that forecast. Yahoo’s Atlantic Division preview highlights his ability to move between on-ball work and supporting duties on offense while providing high-level defensive versatility. Toronto does not need an opening-week proclamation; it needs sustained evidence that last year’s fifth-place finish was a floor rather than a ceiling.[8]
The West’s middle is already crowded
Phoenix finished 45-37 and seventh in the West last season; Portland went 42-40 and finished eighth. Yet The Athletic projects them ninth and 10th, respectively, in its 2027 playoff forecast. Those are predictions, not current standings, but they illustrate how little room there may be between a respectable record and another play-in fight.[1]
At the top, the Thunder and Knicks supply the headline debate. Underneath it, the season’s first meaningful numbers will come from Cleveland’s three-point differential, San Antonio’s minutes without Wembanyama and the gap between Toronto’s ambition and its place in the East. Opening-week standings will change quickly. Those tests should last longer.
References
- NBA Power Rankings: Knicks are the champions, but not quite No. 1 – The Athletic — https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7702165/2026/10/19/nba-power-rankings-week-1-thunder-knicks-raptors
- 2026-27 NBA season preview: Rankings, predictions, odds – ESPN — https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/49998634/2026-27-nba-season-preview-rankings-predictions
- 2026-27 NBA Season Preview: Celtics, Knicks, Raptors, Sixers, Nets (Atlantic Division) – Yahoo Sports — https://sports.yahoo.com/nba/article/2026-27-nba-season-preview-celtics-knicks-raptors-sixers-nets-atlantic-division-023439106.html
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