The 5 NBA Teams That Will Improve the Most Next Season
Improvement is usually a nuanced, relative concept in an NBA where every team has different goals and timelines.
That's not the case here, where all we care about is win totals.
We're leaving aside the rebuilders who shed salary and hoarded picks, technically improving by their own asset-hoarding standards. This is all about the squads that added talent and intend to use it as the competitive gods intended: as a means to climb the standings.
Whether due to better health luck, internal improvement, outside additions or a combination of all three, the handful of teams here are poised to blow away last year's records.
Philadelphia 76ers
1 of 5
The same health risks that wrecked Joel Embiid and Paul George's 2024-25 continue to hover over the Philadelphia 76ers' veteran stars. If anything, they're a little scarier because both have undergone knee operations since the end of last year.
It's still hard to imagine the team posting another win total in the 20s.
Even if those two combine to miss another 100-plus games, the Sixers won't be as incentivized to pack it in as they were last year. Philadelphia had to tank pretty hard to keep the top-six-protected pick it owed the Oklahoma City Thunder in the 2025 draft. The Sixers pulled it off with a little luck, but the conditions are different now.
OKC will get the 76ers' 2026 first-rounder unless it falls inside the top four, which means any tanking effort would have to be more serious and start even earlier. It's just not realistic for Philly to toss away two consecutive seasons after maxing out Tyrese Maxey and George, not to mention extending Embiid through 2029.
Jared McCain should be able to turn in a full year, as should restricted free agent Quentin Grimes. Maxey could take another step forward.
If the Sixers merely avoid the worst luck possible, they'll add 10-15 wins to last year's total of 24. And if they actually have some good fortune, they could pile up over 30 additional victories.
Toronto Raptors
2 of 5
You don't have to love the Toronto Raptors' collection of moderately overpaid starters or concerning lack of spacing to feel confident they'll blow past last year's 30 wins.
In a weakened East, that would have been a low bar to clear for a team that seems intent on chasing a playoff spot while currently sitting right at the tax line. It also helps that Brandon Ingram might play in a basketball game or two for Toronto this season, something he failed to do after coming aboard via trade last year.
Even if Ingram has yet to prove he's a first option on a good team, he's a former All-Star in his prime—one who seemed to address a key weakness by finally getting up threes at decent volume before injury ended his season early.
Immanuel Quickley never really shook the injury bug either, and he's a great bet to put up a career year after averaging 17.1 points and 5.8 assists in 33 games last season.
Scottie Barnes seems likely to take another step forward. Gradey Dick and the handful of rookies who logged significant minutes a year ago might follow him. And overall, the Raptors are going to give almost every rotation minute to players in their early-to-mid 20s. Assuming good health, this team will almost always have five men on the floor who are at or near their primes.
That should be good for at least 40 wins, 10 more than last year.
New Orleans Pelicans
3 of 5
Purposeful tanking is out of the question, as the New Orleans Pelicans removed their safety net by trading away their unprotected 2026 first-rounder on draft night. That pick, which went to Atlanta in the deal for Derik Queen, is actually the worst of New Orleans' or the Milwaukee Bucks. If the Pels suffer myriad injuries again and sink toward the bottom of the West, their only shot at salvation would be an even bigger catastrophe in Milwaukee.
Aside from the lack of incentive to lose by design, the Pels simply can't endure a second straight season of pervasive injury. Fate can't be that cruel twice in a row.
Zion Williamson is a separate issue; he should be expected to miss 50-plus games until he changes the narrative by staying healthy. Trey Murphy III and Herb Jones should be able to provide more than 53 and 20 games, respectively.
Even if Jordan Poole's swashbuckling shot selection and turnover woes aren't your cup of tea, he'll easily provide more production than Dejounte Murray did a year ago. While Murray himself may not contribute until 2026 as he recovers from a torn Achilles, it's encouraging to note that he's already dunking in rehab.
The West is a minefield, and the Pelicans probably won't be a playoff team. But they suffered through a hellish season last year that only resulted in 21 wins. They could double that number without much trouble.
San Antonio Spurs
4 of 5
The San Antonio Spurs won the minutes when Victor Wembanyama was on the floor last year, posting a plus-2.3 net rating. For context, the 47-win Indiana Pacers outscored opponents by exactly that differential.
Even more encouraging, the Spurs' most-used lineup featuring Wemby was a superb plus-12.3. That indicates massive upside if San Antonio gets decent health from Wembanyama and surrounds him with something close to the level of supporting talent it did in 2024-25.
We know, though, that Wembanyama is a great bet to improve in his third season. He'll presumably play more than the 46 games to which he was limited by deep vein thrombosis in his shoulder, and it just feels silly to expect no growth from a generational superstar entering his age-22 season.
In addition to Wembanyama looking like a top-five MVP candidate, the Spurs will also get a full year of De'Aaron Fox and a theoretically improved Stephon Castle. Don't rule out a career year for Devin Vassell, who could easily crack 20.0 points per game in his age-25 season, and definitely don't discount the value Luke Kornet can bring as easily the best backup big of Wembanyama's brief tenure with the team.
San Antonio won 34 games last year, despite getting zero from Wemby after the All-Star break and injury-limited contributions from Fox.
Fifty victories seems a reasonable ceiling, but why put a cap on what Wembanyama can do in his third season?
Orlando Magic
5 of 5
If the Orlando Magic don't smash last year's total of 41 wins, something will have gone terribly wrong.
From inevitable improvement by potential fringe MVP candidate Paolo Banchero, to the massive offensive additions of Desmond Bane and Tyus Jones, to the return from injury by starting point guard Jalen Suggs, everything about Orlando screams a leap is coming.
Note, too, that Banchero lost nearly half of last year to injury. Franz Wagner was playing like an All-NBA first-teamer until he also went down with an oblique strain early in the year. Those two combined to appear in just 106 games, only 40 of which featured both together.
The Magic's defense is a true "set it and forget it" known commodity. If head coach Jamal Mosley has settled one thing, it's that he can coax maximum effort out of his teams on D. And Orlando has the personnel, led by Suggs and super-sub Jonathan Isaac, to channel all the effort into supreme stopping power.
The Magic finished second in defensive efficiency in each of the last two years and would stun the NBA if they landed outside the top five in 2025-26.
Teams that are truly elite on one end and average on the other tend to win at least 50 games and are sometimes much better than that. Last year's Knicks (fifth on offense, 15th on defense) racked up 51 victories. Cleveland (first on offense, 13th on defense) won 64.
Expect the Magic to fall somewhere in the middle of that range in a breakout year.
Stats courtesy of NBA.com, Basketball Reference and Cleaning the Glass. Salary info via Spotrac.
Grant Hughes covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Bluesky and subscribe to the Hardwood Knocks podcast, where he appears with Bleacher Report's Dan Favale.
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