I made these 30 bold preseason predictions before a single game tipped off, and now that the 2025-26 season is in the books I have to look myself in the mirror and grade every single one. Some of them landed like a Stephen Curry step-back. Others landed like a brick off the back iron. I am not here to make excuses. I am here to own it, because the only way I climb out of this slump is by swinging harder and telling the truth about what actually happened on the floor.
The New York Knicks prediction sits at the top of the list with an A+. I said they would finish third in the East during the regular season but still reach the Finals. That is exactly what unfolded. Mike Brown took over, the growing pains showed up in November and December, yet once the playoffs started this group became the most statistically dominant postseason team in league history. An 11-game winning streak to close it out does not happen by accident. I watched them dismantle opponents with physicality and spacing that no one in the East could match. That prediction was not lucky. It was built on understanding how quickly a roster with that much talent can gel once the regular-season noise fades. Now they sit one series away from ending the 1973 drought. Next season they will enter as clear Eastern favorites again, and the regular-season record should climb because the chemistry under Brown is no longer a question.
The Atlanta Hawks grade lands at A+ as well. I called for Jalen Johnson to make All-NBA third team, and the kid delivered career highs of 22.5 points, 10.3 rebounds, and 7.9 assists while taking over as the franchise leader after the Trae Young trade. That is not a modest step forward. That is a do-it-all forward announcing himself as the face of the franchise at age 24. His playoff numbers dipped, but that is normal when the spotlight tightens. Atlanta now has a clear direction built around Johnson instead of perpetual lottery mediocrity. Next year they will hover around the play-in line with real upside if the supporting cast stays healthy.
The Denver Nuggets prediction also earned an A+. I said two Nuggets would make the All-Star team, and Jamal Murray finally broke through with the best regular season of his career at 25.4 points per game and fifth in the league in made threes. Nikola Jokic was never in doubt. Murray’s first All-Star nod and first All-NBA selection proved the point I had been making for years about his growth. Yet the postseason told a different story. Murray shot 36 percent in a first-round exit to Minnesota, and now the front office is taking calls on everyone except Jokic. That is the brutal reality of trying to build around one transcendent player. If Denver cannot surround him with better complementary talent by October, the window narrows again in 2026-27.
Toronto earned the final A+ I will detail here. I predicted a top-six seed despite the low ceiling narrative, and the Raptors delivered a winning record for the first time in four years and the five seed. Their floor proved higher than most expected. The first-round exit does not erase the progress. Now the question is raising the ceiling, and a healthy Brandon Ingram would have changed the playoff outcome entirely. Toronto enters next season with stability they have lacked since the championship window closed.
I have been staring at these grades the way I stare at every prediction that refuses to cooperate with the obvious, and the longer I sit with the full list the clearer it becomes that the biggest surprises came from teams I expected to take larger leaps. The Oklahoma City Thunder prediction of a repeat Finals appearance only managed a B because injuries derailed the regular season, yet they still reached the conference finals. That is not failure. That is a young core learning how to manage load and expectations at the highest level. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s continued dominance kept them dangerous even when the supporting cast faltered.
The Boston Celtics grade sits at a C because I predicted a return to the Finals and instead watched them settle into a first-round exit after key rotation pieces aged out of their primes. Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown remain elite, but the supporting cast no longer matches the construction that won a title two years earlier. Next season they will need to decide whether to retool around those two or start over, and the wrong choice will drop them out of the top four in the East.
I watched the Milwaukee Bucks closely all year after predicting another deep run for Giannis Antetokounmpo, and that grade lands at a D. The regular season was a disaster marked by inconsistency and defensive lapses. Giannis carried them into the playoffs, but the supporting cast could not hold up. If Milwaukee cannot fix the perimeter defense and find reliable shooting around their superstar, 2026-27 looks like another play-in fight rather than a championship chase.
The Los Angeles Lakers prediction of LeBron James leading them to a top-four seed earned a C-. LeBron was brilliant again, but the roster construction never matched the hype. Anthony Davis missed time, and the young pieces did not develop fast enough. Los Angeles will enter next season with the same questions about sustainability around their two stars.
I keep coming back to the fact that my boldest calls on the bottom of the East paid off while several Western Conference predictions missed because of injury luck. The Golden State Warriors grade is a B+ after I said they would miss the playoffs entirely. Stephen Curry’s return kept them competitive, and they squeezed into the play-in. That is not the dynasty of old, but it is proof that Curry still bends the math of an entire season.
The Phoenix Suns prediction of a play-in appearance after the Kevin Durant trade landed at a C because the new construction never clicked. Devin Booker carried too much, and the defense collapsed in March. Phoenix now faces another offseason of hard decisions around an aging core.
I said the Philadelphia 76ers would finish with a top-six seed after adding depth, and that grade is a D because Joel Embiid’s availability issues again defined the season. The regular-season record suffered, and the playoffs exposed the same flaws that have haunted them for years. Unless the front office finds a way to keep Embiid healthy for 65-plus games, the Sixers risk another early exit in 2026-27.
The Chicago Bulls, Charlotte Hornets, and Washington Wizards all received passing grades on low-end predictions because I expected modest improvement and received exactly that. None of them threatened the play-in, yet none collapsed into historic losing streaks either. Those franchises are in rebuild mode, and my expectations stayed realistic.
The Indiana Pacers grade is an A- after I predicted a bounce-back into the top six. Tyrese Haliburton’s return fueled a strong regular season and a second-round appearance. Indiana now has momentum heading into next year if they can add one more defensive piece.
I have watched this league since before most of these players were born, and the pattern that keeps repeating is simple. Teams that identify their best player early and build everything around him rise faster than teams chasing multiple stars. The Knicks, Hawks, and Nuggets all followed that script this season. The teams that ignored it are already making calls about their rosters.
Next season will test every one of these grades. The Knicks will be favored in the East. The Hawks will try to turn Johnson’s breakout into sustained contention. Denver will decide whether to blow up the supporting cast around Jokic. Toronto will hunt for ceiling-raising moves. The rest of the league will adjust accordingly. My predictions will be graded again in twelve months, and I plan to swing even harder the next time around.
