Keeper Core Tiers: 2025

Using the same methodology as we did in 2019, here are the keeper cores ranked by pure stats! Math never lies! We did move around some teams though, as context matters. Also, we did look at keeper cores in 2023 as well... so see what has changed in five or two years! Note: Somehow, SPDE and CHMK are back atop these keeper core rankings, five years later, after total rebuilds from both! [ 2019 Keepers | 2023 Keepers ]

T I E R 1

SPDE (24 points)

After hitting jackpot with Victor Wembanyama and Chet Holmgren’s rookie seasons, we can’t overlook Tyrese Maxey’s All-Star campaign as well. Add in the additional backcourt of Devin Booker and Tyler Herro and that covers SPDE on offense and defense. On top of that, Josh Giddey is about to triple-double every night in Chicago, so that just elevates the best keeper core by far in SlamNation. Average age? We’re can’t even tell because the future for SPDE is so bright…or dark, as Wemby and Chet block out the sun for the rest of the league. [Edit: Made a mistake, the sixth keeper is actually Walker Kessler, so basically SPDE is not letting anyone score at the rim, ever.

T I E R 2

ILCN (23)

Carrying over all six keepers from last season, ILCN features Luka Doncic, Donovan Mitchell, and Paolo Banchero as their NBA team’s number one studs. Does Darius Garland or Jaren Jackson Jr. ever make an All-Star team again? Maybe not… Garland had an injury filled year while Jackson desperately needs Morant back to return to his former standing. A semi-lost season left Shaedon Sharpe still a mystery, but he could easily establish himself as Portland’s best player soon. Overall, the one-two-three punch of this team is unmatched from the teams below them.

CHMK (23)

With all the Jalens cashed in, CHMK now has Anthony Edwards, Alperen Sengun, and Bam Adebayo—now the longest tenured Monkey— leading the way for a still evolving keeper core. Evan Mobley and Amen Thompson have a lot of upside to explore, and while neither could hit much offensive growth, they are defensive demons. The only question about this core is Jamal Murray and his oft-injured status. Still, any team with Edwards and Sengun is more than set for the a bright future.

T I E R 3

KSKT (22)

The defending champs return all six keepers from last year and they showed the this core can win championships—when healthy. Tyrese Haliburton elevated himself to top tier status, and Cade Cunningham may follow this season. Zion Williamson, Michael Porter Jr., and Kristaps Porzingis are all huge injury risks, while Anfernee Simons isn’t exactly Mr. Durability himself. Still, this team is very young and only entering their primes. We would push them up higher due to age, but the injury stuff is perhaps too much to count on year after year—except for their championship last year!

SCRM (23)

This team isn’t like the other teams above them, with keeper cores brimming with upside and productivity. SCRM uses the rim attacking duo of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Giannis Anteokounmpo to position themselves up this high—two MVP candidates will do that—while ex-MVP types Kawhi Leonard and James Harden are around as super vet difference makers. Fred VanVleet is a nice fit here as his low percentages are mitigated by the entire roster, and the pre-draft trade for Jalen Duren could net a starting center for this always title chasing team. Note: We moved SCRM down a notch due to the age of the Clippers duo.

SWMP (22)

The many headed center trio for SWMP has finally been diversified, leaving behind Nikola Jokic and Deandre Ayton in the middle. With four wings to flank them in Paul George, Jalen Williams, Jalen Johnson, and Zach LaVine, SWMP is very versatile—albeit arguably lacking a point guard. Rumors had Ayton or LaVine on the move this offseason, but in the end both were retained. With only George on the wrong side of thirty, SWMP has maintained its elite keeper core status.

BUFF (22)

After a huge in-season trade off of homegrown Anthony Edwards, BUFF rode some mega vibes all the way to a Finals appearance last season. Their new leader is Jalen Brunson, who has pre-draft acquisition Coby White behind him, with a fleet of forwards—Mikal Bridges, Brandon Ingram, and Kyle Kuzma—surrounding Domantas Sabonis. The future is looking very bright for BUFF as they have an all-under thirty team that looks balanced and deep. They’re still very offensive heavy but as they showed in the playoffs last year, that can work!

SOUR (22)

Olympic hero Steph Curry still rates as one of the best in the game and he just got a lot of scoring help in Immanuel Quickley and Miles Bridges—both draftees from last season—to bolster the offense. Scottie Barnes made an All-Star appearance last season while pre-draft acquisition Dejounte Murray and old hand Jimmy Butler should bring their all-around game to help the center-less SOUR squad. Never one to rest on their laurels, we expect half this team to change over during the course of the 2025 season.

SBUK (22)

Not much changes in SBUK-land, with only Desmond Bane adding onto a core that is usually rock steady—and Bane was acquired during the 2024 draft. Signs of age are coming for SBUK though, as Kyrie Irving, Rudy Gobert, and especially CJ McCollum are getting a little long in the tooth. Hopefully Franz Wagner can find his three point stroke again as he was a real bright spot after his rookie season.

T I E R 4

MELO (21)

Striking gold with Brandon Miller in last year’s draft really bolstered MELO’s core. We can’t overlook their drafting of RJ Barrett as well, as Barrett could have a better chance to shine in tanking Toronto. Jaylen Brown and Pascal Siakam are rock solid All-Stars—more in Brown’s case—while Kevin Durant is, well, still Kevin Durant. Nikola Vucevic is quietly thirty-four years old but still throwing up good counting stats and the memory of Andrew Wiggins and James Wiseman as keepers are long gone.

FUNK (20)

Once flanked by Trae Young and Karl-Anthony Towns, Jayson Tatum is now the lone franchise star amidst a smattering of very good role players. Devin Vassell is another crafty scorer, OG Anunoby and Myles Turner provide defense, while Trey Murphy III and pre-draft trade acquisition Lauri Markannen will spread the floor with plenty of shooting. All the adds up to Tatum plus nothing to get too excited about, barring some more franchise type additions.

T I E R 5

TRUO (19)

A late breaking trade for Jonathan Kuminga adds some more upside to TRUO, but waiting on Kuminga could take some more time. Luckily, Jalen Green has seemingly finally arrived, and he’ll pair with De’Aaron Fox to be a great backcourt. Cam Thomas will get a ton of garbage stats this season too, while Keegan Murray is developing nicely as a role player. And whatever you feel about Julius Randle as an actual NBA player, there’s no doubting his fantasy production. TRUO’s core could easily be ranked higher if Green continues his ascent.

FJUB (18)

A total team makeover has FJUB somehow still near the bottom of the keeper rankings. However, this team now looks a lot younger and a lot better from last season with Jerami Grant, Brook Lopez, and Terry Rozier out the door. Karl-Anthony Towns and Trae Young headline the new FJUB, with Collin Sexton and new pre-draft trade acquisition Bradley Beal adding some offensive punch. Herb Jones and Isaiah Hartenstein—the only free agent to be selected as a keeper—are indispensable NBA players but their fantasy value isn’t nearly as high.

SQSQ (18)

Where does the Laker duo of LeBron James and Anthony Davis lead? Together they are still very productive and quite fearsome—and had a great year last season—but the other keepers definitely look more like a championship chasing core, rather than a rebuilding one. DeMar DeRozan (35 years old), Jrue Holiday (34), and Buddy Hield (32) all easily into their thirties. The franchise savior was supposed to be Scoot Henderson but his struggles have been, well, struggles. Does SQSQ pivot to youth this season or take another swing at contention?

T I E R 6

UFOS (15)

Almost every keeper UFOS took through the dispersal draft had an off season last year—with the possible exception of Jabari Smith Jr., who is coming along nicely. Damian Lillard needs a bounce back year, as does Jordan Poole, while Jarrett Allen and Nic Claxton need health on their side. The last keeper, Onyeka Okongwu still can't beat out Clint Capela for a starting job, but he projects as the same type of big man aas Allen and Claxton. This team was young and talented going into the 2024 season and they could still be in 2025, if you squint a little. All those big men will need to be diversified at some point, but for now it's just collecting talent for UFOS as they head into their second year.

ABCX (15)

Kelly Oubre Jr. again?! After a winless season, ABCX will need to sell some tickets this year, and maybe Oubre Jr. is a great looking guy, but people are paying to watch basketball! The good news is that there’s fresh hope for injury-less seasons from Ja Morant and LaMelo Ball, while Bennedict Mathurin and Jaden Ivery inject a bit of hope for this team in the form of untapped potential. Jonas Valanciunas has been with this team for three seasons now but his sell by date has to be gone after this season, right? We need upgrades across the board here, and some serious doctoring for Morant and Ball’s reputation.

Pre-Draft Trades: 2025

While there weren’t a whole lot of pre-2025 draft trades--unlike last year--there were the usual shifting of keepers around as Jalen Duren, Jonathan Kuminga, Bradley Beal, and Coby White were all moved to other teams for mid-round draft picks. Duren and Beal netted RD3s while Kuminga and White were sold for RD4s. The standard is now to attach a RD6 to those players, which is hell for the SlamNation interns to process—but we are a professional league so we get it done!

Aside from those four player-for-pick trades, the only other exchange was between SOUR and FUNK, who did a clean swap of Lauri Markannen and Dejounte Murray. Both are about the same age and solidly in their primes. Markannen signed a big contract with Utah this offseason, securing his future there, while Murray was traded to New Orleans, which should negatively impact his scoring but up his assists and presumably defense by quite a bit.

While rumors swirled of bigger moves, in the end it was just some light business before the rookie draft!

Keepers 2025

Draft Order 2025

And it's our sixth year using draft slots! If you have questions about how this was calculated, these links should help: Draft Slots in RD1. Remember, RD2-6 are slotted in Power Ranking order #1-16, with snaking from RD3 and on. [ New Post-Season 2.0 | Power Ranking 2024 | Draft 2024 Sheet ] *Note these draft slots and picks don't account for trades.

(Note: FUNK gets RD1.1 pick due to seeding rule, and TRUO gets RD1.2 due to the same.)

2024 Championship: Original Glazed

In a matchup that was closer than the final score indicated, third-seeded KSKT took out fourth-seeded BUFF in the 2024 Finals, acquiring the championship for Krispy Kreme Team! Up through Friday and Saturday, the matchup was a back and forth, even as BUFF piled up the Games Played. Heading into Sunday, it would be seven players on-deck for KSKT to wrap up a title. In the end, even with Cade Cunningham a scratch, Zion Williamson pulled through with a huge 36 PTS, 6 AST, and 13/14 FT% performance. That, along with Paul Reed’s two blocks, really sealed the deal for KSKT.

For KSKT, it was a glorious playoff run as Williamson, Tyrese Haliburton, and Cunningham all came together for the stretch run. We always knew that KSKT mainly needed health to contend, and this was the year it all came together, as championship week also featured Kristaps Porzingis, Anfernee Simons, Michael Porter Jr., and D’Angelo Russell playing their hearts out. The real secret sauce of the matchup was KSKT winning both percentage categories, which was too big a challenge for BUFF to overcome.

For our youngest owner to take a title with the youngest SlamNation core seems very fitting!

How did they acquire this core? Well, since entering SlamNation as the sole owner of a franchise in 2021, Matt has steadily risen the ranks, valuing a strong foundation over early success. With their training from helping run dad’s SQSQ franchise, GM Matt clearly had a vision for his Krispy Kreme Team. That first year, KSKT only notched six victories but already had the core of his future title winning team in place with Williamson, Porzingis, and Porter Jr., on-board via the dispersal draft. That year’s RD1.4 pick by Matt was Haliburton, and after SQSQ won the 2021 Toilet Bowl, KSKT got the 2022 RD1.1 pick due to the SWMP Rule. That first overall pick was used to take Cunningham, and the 2022 season also featured grabbing Anthony Simons as a FAAB pickup.

As for trades, in 2021 KSKT moved a future RD1, basically for Clint Capela and Keldon Johnson, which resulted in it being a future RD1.4—which was used by CHMK to take Richuan Holmes. Aside from that, most of KSKT’s other moves were around the edges, as GM Matt had a penchant for acquiring multiple picks for each draft and drafting a slew of players each year.

However, as we can see, all of KSKT’s core is homegrown, and they had their foundation set up from nearly the start. It was only a matter of waiting for some seasoning—and health—for KSKT to make a title run. Their first playoff run, last season, was after a 16-4 season that saw them win the regular season crown. (Note: KSKT is 44-29-1 in four regular seasons, good for seventh best owner winning percentage in Slam, out of thirty owners.) Unfortunately, they were upended by FJUB in the semifinals. This time, KSKT got it all right, taking out defending champion SOUR in RD1 and then taking care of business from there on out, including eliminating SQSQ—who had already taken out heavily favored SCRM in RD1—for their Finals shot.

It’s wonderful to see such great ownership rewarded by a title, and with the way this roster is constructed—and the emergence of a thrilling backcourt—KSKT could look for many titles in future years, congrats!

As for BUFF, making it into the Finals was no small accomplishment. It’s been eleven years since BUFF last made the Finals behind a Tim Duncan led team that barely lost the title to 100 Acre Wood Heffalumps—three points literally decided the title. That loss sent BUFF on a seven year decline before they started to build some respectability back four seasons ago—they’ve had a regular season record of 37-36-1 and last made the playoffs in 2021 with a 0.500 record.

All those down years did result in some talent coming back via the draft, as BUFF managed to acquire Brandon Ingram (2017 RD1.2), Trae Young (2019 RD1.4), and Anthony Edwards (2021 RD1.6) with top selections. Young and Edwards were both eventually traded, while Kyle Kuzma was also a 2021 draft pick, at RD4.8. A huge win for GM Roger was grabbing free-agent Domantas Sabonis in 2018. That was also the year Klay Thompson came on-board as a keeper, in exchange for Khris Middleton.

Still, nobody expected this BUFF team to be in contention for a title but here they were, slugging it out with the best, as new trade acquisition Jalen Brunson was having some huge games. The additions of Brunson, Mikal Bridges, and Jalen Duren really fleshed the depth out on this team, and there’s a world where a healthier Brandon Ingram might have tipped the balance. In the end however, getting to a Finals was a huge win for 2024 BUFF, and we hope to see them in the title hunt again next year!

(Full stats)