2026 Playoffs: Byes and Good Byes

End of the season, and we'll start with the teams that are out of the first round, namely the four teams that earned byes, and the four teams that are eliminated from the playoffs altogether, aka the good byes! Recall our new postseason 3.0 rules and how every did at the end of the year! [ Middle Eight |  Midseason Tiers ]

TeamID - Abbrev - (2026 Record)

#1 ILCN (13-4)

ODE: 1/2/16

It all came together for ILCN this season, as they won the regular season crown on the last week of the season, posted their best regular season record ever, and is now entering their sixth playoff contest as the top dog. With a healthy trio of Luka Doncic, Donovan Mitchell, and Paolo Banchero, ILCN’s first ranked offense is humming. The difference this year is that ILCN can play defense too, as they are top-two ranked in REB and BLK. The additions of Rudy Gobert and Jaden McDaniels were huge this year, as the two Timberwolves helped take ILCN to a top-two ODE defense as well. In addition to all that, GM Frank drafted rookies Jeremiah Fears and Egor Denim, while getting good seasons from youngsters Matas Buzelis and Jaime Jaquesz Jr. as well.

While we’d like to have seen an all-in trade, this is unquestionably a roster that is still good enough to win the title, even with Jaren Jackson Jr. and Darius Garland unlikely to make postseason appearances. If the explosive offense and counting stats of Doncic, Mitchell, and Banchero stay healthy, ILCN is the team to beat this postseason.

Note: ILCN’s four losses have come against FJUB, CHMK, SQSQ, and FJUB again, all of them top contenders for this year’s title so it’ll be a bit of a revenge tour for ILCN as well if they can pull off a successful championship run.

#2 FJUB (12-5)

ODE: 8/3/9

It didn’t take long for FJUB to bounce back from missing the playoffs last season—only their second miss in seventeen seasons. A regular season crown was even in the sights of FJUB, before a narrow WK17 loss and a late season stumble that saw them lose two of their last three. However, their lone win over that period was over ILCN, the regular season crown winner, so that must be good for morale.

So, how did FJUB leap back into contention so fast? Well, they had some breakout seasons from Kyshawn George and Peyton Watson that really juiced their depth. The pre-draft addition of Trey Murphy also gave them an offensive spark to go alongside Karl-Anthony Towns—and Trae Young, when he was playing. The tough defense is still here, as FJUB ranked as the third best defense in the league, behind a league leading STL and solid BLK and excellent REB.

This team was rocking and rolling so much that GM Eric went for a win-now move, shipping out Zaccharie Risacher to MEMM for Kawhi Leonard in early January. Leonard could be the title difference for FJUB this year, as he has looked like prime Kawhi for months. With a roster full of long two-way wings, Towns in the middle, and whoever can bring the ball past half court, FJUB is looking like a strong contender for their third SlamNation title.

#3 SQSQ (11-4-2)

ODE: 6/6/3

SQSQ has the best cumulative regular season winning percentage over the last two seasons and they are poised to make some noise in the playoffs. Sound familiar? Long a regular season powerhouse, SQSQ has been prone to upsets over the years, so this new format of a first round bye might be the best blessing for them. Coming off seven wins in their last eight, SQSQ certainly seems to think they can win it all this year. Right before the trade deadline, they exchanged an injured Anthony Davis for a healthy Bam Adebayo, setting the stage for a title run that has them not only healthy, but extremely dangerous.

The old guy crew of LeBron James, James Harden, and DeMar DeRozan are iron men, and they’ll have a fully healthy roster to work with. Super glue man Derrick White can do it all and Payton Pritchard, Kevin Porter Jr. and Saddiq Bey are underrated offensive add-ons.

Our Games Played leader is also very well balanced, with their only weakness being FG%, while everything else hovers average to above average. Substituting Adebayo for Davis should really help across three categories, at least. The prerogative for SQSQ is to win now, and we love that they made a big move to do so. If heart was being measured, this is the team we want to see win it all this year, or at least to make their first Finals appearance. Let’s go Squirtles!!!

#4 SPDE (12-5)

ODE: 5/5/1

Another team entering the playoffs on a hot streak, SPDE has won six of their last seven and have an outrageous combined ODE to show off, as they are not only top-five on offense and defense, but somehow the most efficient team in SlamNation as well. SPDE can put up points without turning the ball over and then there’s their league leading blocks and outrageous percentages in both FG and FT to start off every matchup with a huge advantage. Their only losses on the season have been against top tier teams and three of those were when Victor Wembanyama was out.

With Wemby back in action, anything is possible, even if the three tower trio of Chet Holmgren and Walker Kessler—out all season—aren’t quite all there. Jarrett Allen and Naz Reid are just perfect as defense and offense options in the middle though, giving SPDE the tallest team ever.

However, it’s the smaller guys on the team that has given SPDE their contending gas this season. Tyrese Maxey has been healthy and an absolute terror this year, giving Devin Booker a running mate and teaming up with Immanuel Quickley to fuel plenty of offense for SPDE. The duo of Maxey and Quickley really are something, and don’t look now but Jrue Holiday is back and also doing some interesting vet things.

While Booker is ailing a bit, the health that matters here is Wemby and Maxey, and with those two and an interesting collection of pieces, SPDE could be the dark horse to win this year’s ring, or to at least get to their second Finals ever.

#13 FUNK (5-12)

ODE: 13/16/12

After treading around in mediocrity for a few seasons, FUNK blew up their keeper roster and went all in on the 2026 rookie class. After successful seasons by Cooper Flagg, Kon Knueppel, VJ Edgecombe, Cedric Coward, and Derek Harper, the youth movement has been supercharged. While FUNK closed out the season losing five of their last six—and lost a playoff spot as well—their metric for success this year was solely development.

Alongside those rookies, FUNK also had youngsters Reed Sheppard, Jabari Smith Jr., and Anthony Black really spark the team as well. Now comes the next phase of rebuilding: which rookies to keep for the long term. With a presumably healthy Jayson Tatum coming on board next season, FUNK should have a bright future ahead even as they juggle which of their future stars will be kept and which will be traded away.

On the season, FUNK finished with the lowest combined ODE in the league, as they were last or near last in PTS, REB, BLK, and FG%. The only thing FUNK did well was drop 3PT, which was largely a result of Knueppel nearly leading the NBA in made threes during his rookie year. FUNK couldn’t shoot a lick this year, but they somehow still hit all their targets!

#14 ABCX (4-12-1)

ODE: 11/11/13

We had mostly left ABCX for dead at three-fourths of the season, but as it turned out, they weren’t as bad as predicted. Four wins and a tie ain’t much but that’s still an improvement over last year’s 4-13-1 season. Well, a slight improvement. Still, it’s better than going winless two seasons ago!

Strangely, ABCX wasn’t bad by ODE, ranking just slightly below average in offensive and defensive ODE, with real strengths in REB and AST, likely due to the injection of Josh Giddey—who was exchanged for Ja Morant before the season. In fact, the only thing ABCX was terrible at was generating STL and not exactly generating PTS or efficient FG%, but otherwise ABCX could be respectable at a glance.

Other bright spots include sophomore Donovan Clingan emerging as a double double monster when healthy, Keyonte George showcasing star potential, and a semi healthy LaMelo Ball to provide weekly highlights. Compared to past versions of ABCX, there is some real talent the roster, especially in the backcourt with Ball, Giddey, George, and Benedict Mathurin.

Intriguingly, there’s also Damian Lillard and a late pickup of Jimmy Butler on the injured reserve. Will either veteran be part of ABCX’s keepers next year? We’d guess “no” but it’s nice that these retirement guys can find a bunch of youngsters to hang out with.

#15 SOUR (3-13-1)

ODE: 8/8/8

Now this is a very strange case of a team that looks decent on paper—look at that exactly league average ODE—but somehow stumbled to their worst record ever. Traditional powerhouse SOUR might finally be down in the dumps. However, history tell us that SOUR won’t stay there for long, as after their last cellar dwelling season in 2020, they bounced right back to two Finals appearances, and one title in 2023. Never count out SOUR!

For the year, SOUR was still good at putting up PTS on good efficiency, with a good volume of assists and BLK thrown in. That speaks to a good offensive system, and even with Steph Curry in and out of the lineup, SOUR could rely on new All Star Deni Avdija, a jaw dropping offensive season from Dillon Brooks, the always underrated Miles Bridges, and OKC surprise Ajay Mitchell to generate offense. Avdija certainly looks the part of an offensive cornerstone, and with Scottie Barnes doing wonderful all-around and defensive things, SOUR is not a team bereft of talent at all.

It’s not hard to see how SOUR could climb of the cellar quickly next season, so we’d suggest 2026 was just a blip of a season from them. After all, they were just in the Finals last season as the presumptive favorites, and they have proven to be legendarily dangerous.

#16 MEMM (3-14)

ODE: 15/12/3

Our newest team came out with three wins in their first eight matches, giving MEMM a taste of early success. However, nine straight losses torpedoed their momentum to end the year and MEMM will have to prep for a brighter sophomore campaign. Still, three wins is all previous owner UFOS managed to pull off in two combined seasons and if MEMM can hit four wins next year, they’ll have eclipsed anything this moribund franchise has done since 2021.

We won’t bother looking at ODE for MEMM, as they were dealing from a short deck, as their Games Played was last in the league, and fell apart near the end of the season under a haze of lineup violations. The lone bright spot was their sixth ranked FT%, which maybe says something about MEMM ability to convert on free stuff!


As for the keeper core, there’s an argument that every keeper from their first year could be replaced, save Ja Morant. Even then, the mercurial Morant barely played this season, and Onyeka Okongwu, Josh Hart, Keegan Murray, and new-Celtic Nikola Vucevic could all likely be replaced by better options. We did like MEMM spinning Kawhi Leonard into Zaccharie Risacher, but the former NBA number one overall pick is still only promising at best. Still, getting something of value for Leonard was a step in the right direction.

There is hope on the horizon: With the worst combined record from the last two years, MEMM has a great shot at a franchise talent in the 2027 draft. Securing the likes of Darryn Peterson, AJ Dybantsa, or Cam Boozer would really jump start the inevitable rebuild, or spinning that high pick into more assets.

Overall it was a rough rookie season for MEMM that had them swimming a little out of their depth, but it also provided them with the fuel to do better.