Between the NBA’s tankers (Washington Wizards, Utah Jazz, Charlotte Hornets) and its championship contenders (Oklahoma City Thunder, Cleveland Cavaliers, Boston Celtics), there exists a battle for playoff seeding and either trying to reach the play-in seeds (Nos. 7-10 in both conferences) or avoid falling back into them.
This is primarily taking place in the mighty Western Conference, as 10 of the 15 teams are within three games of the 7-10 seeds.
With only about 10 games to go, which teams should be panicking about making the play-in tournament, which ones should be feeling good about their chances and which ones should set a new goal of landing a top spot in the 2025 NBA draft instead?
It’s time to take a look at the panic meter for the 11 teams with the highest levels of variance to finish the 2024-25 season.
