2026: One Month In

What an exciting NBA year already! Remember that we have new postseason and draft lottery rules. Apparently, some owners had no idea what the final changes were. And let me remind everyone to use their IR slots! Anyway, let’s take a look at how our current season is shaping up. [ ODE 2026 ]

TIER ONE

SPDE Spade (4-0)

CHMK Chunky Monkeys (3-0-1)

SBUK So Buckets (3-1)

SCRM Screamin Eagles (3-1)

FJUB Fat Jubas (3-1)

We could say that SPDE belong by themselves in a single team top tier, but a big injury to say, someone very very tall, could drag them back to the pack. For now however, they are the undisputed team to beat. And it’s not even close… Edit: Wemby is indeed hurt, and SPDE grabbed Luke Kornet for $20 FAAB. In all seriousness, we hope Wemby comes back soon because he's so fun to watch! And I don't want him to be another injury plagued big!

CHMK is also undefeated, and has everything clicking for the most part. We don’t see them falling out of top contention status for the rest of the season. It looks like the big-ball build is gonna work out! At least in the regular season. 

SBUK has some long term riser potential, pending Kyrie Irving and Joel Embiid’s health, but they are also concerningly ranked very in combined ODE. We’ll find out in another month if their fast start is real or not. Note: Ace Bailey has finally shown flashes, phew!

Speaking of rookies, SCRM’s Derik Queen has been doing some very interesting stuff down in New Orleans and there’s already plenty of evidence that Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Anthony Edwards are enough to give SCRM a sturdy title defense all season long. Long live the king!

FJUB has started off strong, with Kyshawn George being an early season revelation. However, injuries to Trae Young and OG Anunoby will put a dent in their short term upward trajectory, even as free agent pickup Brandon Williams is really starting to gain a nice role in Dallas. With pre-draft trade pickup Trey Murphy finally shaking off a cold start, FJUB could be dangerous once they are at full strength.

TIER TWO

MELO Melo My Mind (2-1-1)

SQSQ Squirtle Squad (1-1-2)

ILCN IL Conceived (2-2)

SWMP Swamp Dragons (2-2)

FUNK Funk Coalition (2-2)

This early on, there’s not a whole lot of separation between two or three wins, but for the purposes of this article, we’ll pretend these 0.500 teams are in a tier of their own.

MELO has a nice win over SBUK to hang their hat on and the (kind of shocking) glow up of sophomore Stephon Castle to give them an all-everything player to take over the injured Brandon Miller’s role. With Jaylen Brown, Kevin Durant, and Pascal Siakam all cooking, this team should be headed for bigger things once Miller comes back.

With one more tied matchup, SQSQ could break the single season record for ties. That’s pretty cool! By picking up a win versus SOUR last week, SQSQ also gets in the win column for the first time this year. It’s been tough sledding for SQSQ as it’s been James Harden and a whole bunch of underperformers—looking at you Derrick White and Payton Pritchard—while LeBron James and Anthony Davis chill out on the bench, so we’re not sure which way this team will be headed in coming weeks.

We’re focusing on ILCN for this week’s Game of the Week but we’ll just say that this team has too much top end talent to be a mere 0.500 team. Look for them to get closer to contention status, barring bad health. Note: We're still waiting on the Matas Buzelis fantasy explosion...

Similar to ILCN, SWMP has beaten the bad teams and lost to the good ones so far. Every week has been close though, as SWMP has either won 5-4 or lost 4-5. The continued absence of Jalen Williams and Paul George are big factors of course, but Nikola Jokic is basically a team unto himself. Add in Jalen Johnson as a versatile sidekick and those two should keep SWMP afloat.

Another 0.500 team that has no wins against winning teams, FUNK was recently rated the worst combined ODE in the league, but has also been chock full of surprise as a team of semi-competitive youngsters. Even with VJ Edgecombe cooling off significantly—plus Dylan Harper hitting injured reserve—the rise of Kon Knueppel has been the latest bright spot for a team that’s punching above their lack of experience. Also, is this Reed Sheppard we see playing crunch time in Houston?!?

TIER THREE

KSKT Krispy Kreme Team (1-3)

MEMM Memphis MonStars (1-3)

SOUR Sour Snails (1-3)

BUFF Buffy (1-3)

We were worried about KSKT being winless to start the season but they secured a win against BUFF last week. With Tyrese Haliburton gone for the year and Zion Williamson already Zion-ing, this team is not going to be 100% this year. However, Cade Cunningham and the scoring of Michael Porter Jr., Norm Powell, and Andrew Nembhard should be enough to take KSKT out of the cellar soon. We think.

Securing one win out of the gate—almost two!—has to be a boon for new team MEMM. With injuries galore up and down the roster, plus the bad attitude of Ja Morant, it must be a relief for this budding franchise to at least get in the wins column so fast. MEMM's best player has been thirty-five year old Nikola Vucevic so far, but with Morant and Kawhi Leonard not yet pulling their weight, a second win could be further off in the distance.

When was the last time SOUR started off this poorly? The eternal big bad of SlamNation is showing some weakness early on, even as they’ve unearthed young gems like Ajay Mitchell, rookie Ryan Kalkbrenner, and soon to be G-League MVP Yang Hansen. Steph Curry is as explosive as ever and the wing combo of Deni Avdija and Miles Bridges might be the most underrated fantasy duo around. We’re not worried for SOUR at all this season, as they are sure to rise up in the standings soon.

BUFF’s lone win this season has been against FJUB, which is a quality win that none of the other teams above them in the rankings can say they have. Post-draft acquisition Lauri Markkanen has been on absolute fire to start the season and with Coby White back in the lineup, BUFF could look to take off soon—assuming Jalen Brunson is not too hurt. BUFF has a lot of depth and usable players across the board and we'll find out how they really measure up this next week. A statement win versus SCRM could prove that they belong up a tier.

TIER FOUR

ABCX Another Bad Creation (0-3-1)

TRUO Truo Thien (0-3-1)

Well this is certainly interesting. Our two remaining winless teams both have a tie! ABCX has been closer to a win though, coming just a few 3PT short of beating FJUB recently, but “almost” isn’t enough. Which of these two teams can pick up a win first? Please don’t tell me we’ll be on winless watch for too long!

ABCX is missing LaMelo Ball, as usual, but the new look backcourt of Josh Giddey and Keyonte George have been spectacular. The swap of Giddey for Ja Morant seems to have been a win and even though there’s not much going on in the frontcourt besides Ivica Zubac, at least there’s a whole crop of young guards to push the ball and play at a fun pace.

As for TRUO, they have five backup centers on their roster, averaging between 3.7 and 9.8 points. Of course, the centers that matter here are the sophomore duo of Kel’el Ware and the just returned Zach Edey. Both should average low end double-doubles. The bright spots on this team are Julius Randle’s hot shooting, Shaedon Sharpe’s offense, and hopefully the healthy return of De’Aaron Fox. There’s not a lot of help coming off the injured list so TRUO will have to really fight to get out of the cellar.