{"id":41458,"date":"2025-08-02T09:06:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-02T09:06:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/41458\/"},"modified":"2025-08-02T09:06:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-02T09:06:11","slug":"nbas-3-most-overrated-and-underrated-teams-starring-celtics-spurs-nuggets-and-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/41458\/","title":{"rendered":"NBA\u2019s 3 most overrated and underrated teams, starring Celtics, Spurs, Nuggets, and more"},"content":{"rendered":"

The dog days of the NBA offseason have set in. Just about the only thing hanging over the league right now is the frozen restricted free agent market keeping four young players from agreeing to new deals<\/a>. It\u2019s brought the rest of the NBA\u2019s summer activity to a halt with it. There\u2019s still plenty of time left for a big trade or two before training camps open league-wide on Oct. 1, but for now it feels like we have a pretty good handle on the hierarchy of the league heading into next season. <\/p>\n

ESPN dropped a way-too-early power rankings for the 2025-26 season<\/a> this week. A nine-person panel of writers came up with consensus rankings entering the season, and it does a great job outlining what the championship race, tank race, and middle-class of the league all look like. Of course, reasonable minds can disagree over the exact placement of these teams.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ll have our own rankings closer to the start of the new season. For now, here are the teams we think are overrated and underrated heading into the season, based on ESPN\u2019s rankings. <\/p>\n

Underrated: No. 3 Denver Nuggets<\/p>\n

The Nuggets check in behind the Thunder and Rockets in these rankings. OKC deserves to be the favorite entering the season, but to me the Nuggets are their biggest competition. Denver nailed the offseason by adding Cam Johnson, Bruce Brown, Tim Hardaway Jr., and Jonas Valanciunas. A team that was so reliant on under-developed young players finally has the veteran depth it always needed. The upgrade from Michael Porter Jr. to Johnson is also a substantial one: if Johnson was one of the league\u2019s most efficient scorers with Cam Thomas passing him the ball in Brooklyn, just imagine how he\u2019ll be playing off Nikola Jokic\u2019s gravity. Of course, this all comes back to Jokic, who has been the best player in the league for five years running and is showing no signs of slowing down. The Nuggets have a real chance to win the championship with a better supporting cast around their mega-star, and to me it makes them the league\u2019s second-most-likely champion entering the season.<\/p>\n

Overrated: No. 13 Dallas Mavericks<\/p>\n

Kyrie Irving is very likely out of the year as he rehabs a torn ACL. In his absence, Dallas has a notable lack of ball handling, with free agent addition D\u2019Angelo Russell and holdover Dante Exum being the only things resembling a point guard on this roster. ESPN has the Mavericks as the 8th best team in the West, ahead of the Grizzlies, Spurs, and Trail Blazers. My guess is two of those three teams finish with a better record than Dallas, and the Mavs will be back in the lottery this season. Cooper Flagg is going to be awesome as a rookie, but it\u2019s important to remember he\u2019ll be the youngest player in the NBA this season. The Anthony Davis-Dereck Lively II front line is super intriguing, but I\u2019m a bit worried about the spacing, as well as AD\u2019s consistently inconsistent availability. This is likely going to be among the worst three-point shooting teams in the league, and I\u2019m not confident that the defense can make up for it. I laid out my preferred road map for the Mavs after they won the lottery for Flagg<\/a>, and I still believe Dallas should take more of a long-term view of their build around their new star.<\/p>\n

\"Milwaukee<\/p>\n

Photo by Justin Casterline\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Overrated: No. 14 Milwaukee Bucks<\/p>\n

The Bucks\u2019 attempt to keep Giannis Antetokounmpo happy this summer was equal parts desperate and creative. Waiving Damian Lillard<\/a> (and stretching his cap hit over five years) to sign Myles Turner was a move no one saw coming. Turner is a natural replacement for Brook Lopez (now a Clipper) as a stretch-five next to Giannis, and at age-29, he should have plenty of good years left. I\u2019m just not sure if it\u2019s really moving the needle enough to make the Bucks the No. 6 team in the East, as ESPN predicts. Milwaukee has nothing resembling a starting point guard on this roster: Cole Anthony, Ryan Rollins, and Kevin Porter Jr. each provide a different skill set, but it\u2019s not making up the loss of a healthy Lillard. The wing room here is pretty terrible too barring a major bounce-back season from Kyle Kuzma, who was awful last year. Depth is more important than ever in the NBA these days, and unless Giannis gives the Bucks 82 games of super-human play, I don\u2019t see how this team gets a protected playoff seed in the East.<\/p>\n

Underrated: No. 16 San Antonio Spurs<\/p>\n

The Spurs are ready to make a push up the Western Conference standings. Victor Wembanyama is reportedly ready to go after a blood clot in his shoulder ended his season early last year, and he\u2019s poised to certify himself as a top-10 player in the world in Year 3. Wemby only played five games with De\u2019Aaron Fox before the injury last year, and a full season of Fox should be highly beneficial for San Antonio. Stephon Castle should be better in Year 2 \u2014 can he improve as a shooter even a little bit? \u2014 and Dylan Harper is an instant impact rookie in my eyes. Luke Kornet and Kelly Olynyk give San Antonio more front court depth and lineup flexibility than they\u2019ve ever had in the Wemby era, and for once it feels like this team can hang tough when its 7\u20195 French superhuman goes to the bench. This ranking has the Spurs at No. 10 in the West, and I think they will easily be better than that.<\/p>\n

\"2025<\/p>\n

Photo by Brian Babineau\/NBAE via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Overrated: No. 17 Boston Celtics<\/p>\n

The Celtics<\/a> won\u2019t just be missing Jayson Tatum as he recovers from a torn Achilles this season, they will be missing Kristaps Porzingis, Jrue Holiday, Al Horford, and Kornet, too. This has to be the worst front court in the league with Neemias Queta and Sam Hauser slated to start, and Luka Garza probably playing big minutes as a backup center. The Celtics are already lying the groundwork for a stealth tank that can get them a premium draft pick while Tatum recovers. Don\u2019t be surprised when Jaylen Brown and\/or Derrick White get shutdown early, Boston bombs the second half, and crosses its fingers for some good luck on lottery night. I do not think the Celtics are making the playoffs.<\/p>\n

Underrated: No. 27 Charlotte Hornets<\/p>\n

Oh no, I\u2019m talking myself into the Hornets again. I was high on the Hornets last season, and that totally blew up in my face. For Charlotte to take a leap up the standings this year, LaMelo Ball has to stay available and play a little less selfishly, Brandon Miller needs to take a leap, and Kon Knueppel needs to be an instant impact rookie. I can see all of those things happening, and in a down year for the East, I think the Hornets can win more games than it feels like entering the year. Adding Collin Sexton for nothing for a nice move for the bench, and last year\u2019s top-10 pick Tidjane Salaun can\u2019t be any worse than he was as a rookie. The big rotation scares me, but I could see Charlotte being a little more competitive than this with a solid young head coach in Charles Lee, and enough shot-creation and shooting to build a decent offense.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The dog days of the NBA offseason have set in. Just about the only thing hanging over the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":41459,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[1203,49,48,5939,2185,700,2170,6523,459,5726,29571,694,6528,82,21760,29573,6525,29572],"class_list":["post-41458","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-and","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-celtics","tag-com","tag-front-page","tag-more","tag-most","tag-nba","tag-nuggets","tag-overrated","tag-s","tag-sbnation","tag-sports","tag-spurs","tag-starring","tag-teams","tag-underrated"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41458","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41458"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41458\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}