Welcome back to Sports Illustrated’s weekly NBA championship power rankings.
In case you’re new here, the premise for these rankings is as follows: At the start of each NBA season there are, realistically, about 10 teams that could make a run at a championship. By the last stretch of the season those teams have made themselves known. We endeavor to separate the pretenders from the contenders and rank those contenders based on our faith in their ability to win 16 playoff games and raise a banner when it’s all said and done.
