Offseason Power Rankings: Knicks lead the way in the East

Karl-Anthony Towns, Jalen Brunson and the Knicks reigned supreme in the East — and the NBA overall — last season.

•

Download the NBA App

2026 Free Agent Tracker

Every reported deal for all 30 teams

The Eastern Conference has been the lesser conference (with a losing record against the West) in 24 of the last 27 seasons, and the West has also won 17 of the 27 championships over that stretch.

But the

reigning champs

reside in the East, which also had more teams (10) with winning records than the West (nine) last season. The West had the regular-season edge overall, but the East’s winning percentage in interconference games (220-232, .487) was its fourth-best mark over those 27 years.

And given the way the offseason has gone, the East may be in position to have its best season since Michael Jordan was still with the Chicago Bulls.

A quick recap, with the offseason movement having slowed down …

Jaylen Brown and LeBron James

are joining forces

with Tyrese Maxey and Joel Embiid in Philadelphia.

The

Celtics traded Brown

, but they should have a healthy Jayson Tatum for the entire season.

The Miami Heat

traded for Giannis Antetokounmpo

.

Three Thunder rotation players made their way to

the Hawks and Pistons

, while

Julius Randle also came East

with nothing of significance going back to Minnesota.

Kawhi Leonard is (maybe?)

returning to Toronto

Tyrese Haliburton is healthy and set to return to the team that won the East 14 months ago.

Trae Young and Anthony Davis will be suiting up for the Wizards, who also

added No. 1 pick AJ Dybantsa

Last season’s eight playoff teams should all be good or even better. The Heat lost in the SoFi Play-In Tournament, but were 43-39 and added the conference’s best player. The

Hornets retooled

, but should remain competitive, and the Pacers should be back in the mix after a gap year.

That gives us at least 11 teams looking to make the playoffs, with Washington still a bit of a wildcard. How they all stack up is anybody’s guess, but below is a preliminary guess as we head into August.

Note:

For these offseason rankings, we’re looking at each conference separately. We’ll have Western Conference rankings next Monday. All stats refer to the 2025-26 regular season unless otherwise noted. “Last week’s rank” is based on how teams finished in the playoffs, Play-In and regular season.

Previously…

May 18:

Playoff Power Rankings: How the 4 conference finalists stack up

This time last year:

Offseason Power Rankings: Cavs, Knicks leading the way in East

The archive:

NBA.com Power Rankings

OffRtg

:

Points scored per 100 possessions (League Rank)

DefRtg

Points allowed per 100 possessions (League Rank)

NetRtg

Point differential per 100 possessions (League Rank)

The league averaged 114.8 points scored per 100 possessions and 100.2 possessions (per team) per 48 minutes last season.

NBA.com’s Power Rankings, released every Monday during the season, are just one man’s opinion. If you have an issue with the rankings, or have a question or comment for John Schuhmann,

contact him via Bluesky