NBA Power Rankings: Who holds the top spot on NBA Opening Night?

After a long and chaotic offseason, basketball is back. The Los Angeles Lakers and Denver Nuggets will be the first game of the season, followed by the Golden State Warriors and the Phoenix Suns.

We've already shared win predictions, award picks and Rookie of the Year and MVP rankings and in the last of our preseason prep, we're ranking all 30 teams. Bookmark our NBA Power Rankings hub and keep checking in all season to see who is riding and falling.

NBA Power Rankings: Final preseason edition

Jordan Poole might lead the league in scoring but that's not going to be a good thing for their win-loss record. This looks like the worst team in the league right now.

The Trail Blazers aren't going to be good this season but, with Scoot Henderson, Anfernee Simons and Shaedon Sharpe pushing the ball in transition, they're going to be fun.

I look at this roster and see some talent but also a structure that may play to the worst habits and tendencies of LaMelo Ball and Brandon Miller — a lot of forced shots and contested jumpers, a few highlights but struggles at both ends and a whole lot of losses.

The Utah Jazz were surprisingly frisky in the first half of last season but the rest of the Western Conference got better and the Jazz mostly got younger with rookies Taylor Hendricks and Keyonte George entering the rotation. I think they take a step back before a big step forward.

The Detroit Pistons have a lot of talent on the roster and the return of Cade Cunningham and the addition of Ausar Thompson can't be overstated. But I think they still have another year of struggling and learning before they're ready to push for a playoff spot.

The Houston Rockets added veteran talent and a new coach in the hopes of pushing for the playoffs. But that coach turned out to be a chaos agent in Boston and there are so many bad habits deeply ingrained in so many young players it could take a while to really turn this ship around.

Victor Wembanayama is the story, but not the whole story. The Spurs have a solid starting point in Tre Jones, a pair of reliable two-way wings pushing the edges of stardom in Devin Vassell and Keldon Johnson, the upside of Jeremy Sochan and some reliable veterans in Cedi Osman and Doug McDermott to help hold it all together. Wembanyama is an engine but a lot of the pieces are already in place.

The Raptors could be much better than this but I'm skeptical and ranking them this low is a hedge that early season struggles push them toward becoming trade deadline sellers and moving Gary Trent Jr., Pascal Siakam and/or OG Anunoby before the season is over in favor of a rebuild.

The Bulls make me sad. There are talented interesting players here. But they make no sense together and I don't see any way it works. They steal some wins on talent alone, enough to push them out of content for the worst record in the league but not nearly enough to matter.

Like the Raptors, the Hawks could turn out to be much better. But bad vibes abound and I think it's just as likely they struggle and feel the need to make some dramatic changes, up to and including shopping Trae Young.