School's out: Grading every NBA team's regular season

School's out for the summer. With the NBA's postseason set to kick off with the play-in tournament and ensuing playoffs, it's time to hand out regular-season report cards to the league's 30 teams.

The Hawks are play-in bound for the third straight season. But another standout year from Trae Young, breakouts for Dyson Daniels and Jalen Johnson, and a positive campaign from rookie Zaccharie Risacher bode well for the team's development.

The Celtics aren't as infallible or indestructible as last year, and their reliance on the deep ball limits the margins for error. Still, there's a reason they're the bookmakers' favorite to return to the Finals from the East, even with recent concerns about Jaylen Brown's knee.

The outcome of the draft lottery will determine how much of a success this season was for the Nets. A comprehensive rebuild might not be necessary with a proven trio of Cam Johnson, Cam Thomas, and D'Angelo Russell and a talented coach in Jordi Fernandez. It could be worse.

LaMelo Ball played in fewer than 55 games for the fourth time in his five NBA seasons. Despite having the highest usage rate of his career, Ball posted personal-low shooting percentages. Tough decisions lie ahead. It's hard to envision things getting worse for the Hornets.

The Bulls have a knack for finishing ninth, which they've done for three straight seasons. At least the team (somewhat) picked a direction this year, leaning into a quasi-rebuild that shifted the spotlight to Coby White. The young guard seized the opportunity, catching fire after Zach LaVine's departure.

The Cavaliers haven't just exceeded expectations; they've wholly smashed them, recording their second-most wins in franchise history and locking up the No. 1 seed in the East. Team president Koby Altman merits plenty of praise for constructing the league's best offense.

What's there to say about the Mavericks that hasn't already been said? Dallas shockingly traded Luka Doncic for the injury-prone Anthony Davis, who, true to form, promptly got injured. Some of the Mavs' downfall was self-inflicted, and some of it was a mix of bad luck and a rash of injuries. Either way, it was a cataclysmic failure.

There's a lot to unpack here, but failing to surround Nikola Jokic with an adequate supporting cast cost GM Calvin Booth his job. Meanwhile, the Nuggets' persistent inability to find a top gear, coupled with defensive issues, likely sealed head coach Mike Malone's fate.

J.B. Bickerstaff's influence, a trio of sage veteran signings, and the growth of an emerging young core led by Cade Cunningham contributed to a historic season for the Pistons: They're the first NBA team ever to triple its win total from the previous campaign.

The Warriors are 23-5 with Jimmy Butler in the lineup. If this year's priority was to maximize Steph Curry's diminishing prime, Golden State's trade for the veteran defender and playoff-savvy Butler has proven to be a success that significantly boosts the team's postseason hopes.

Ime Udoka preached the importance of toughness and hustle in the offseason, and his team obliged. Thanks to a sturdy foundation built on young stars Alperen Sengun, Amen Thompson, and Jalen Green, you'd assume this is just the beginning of good things to come.

Considering the Pacers were under .500 at the start of January and Olympian Tyrese Haliburton was mired in an uncharacteristically slow start, it's a miracle Indiana finished fourth and secured home-court advantage in the first round.

The Clippers positioned themselves nicely for the playoffs following a red-hot finish fueled by career-defining contributions from Ivica Zubac and Norm Powell and a solid campaign from James Harden, compensating for Kawhi Leonard's absence during the team's first 34 games.

Full credit goes to podcaster-turned-coach JJ Redick, who found early success by centering the Lakers' offense around Davis. Redick then flipped the script following Doncic's arrival, unlocking another level of success and establishing a promising foundation for the post-LeBron James era.

Partly due to a faster pace of play and the introduction of a motion offense, the Grizzlies showed notable improvement on one end of the floor after finishing last in offensive rating in 2023-24. Still, Memphis has gone 13-18 since the trade deadline while struggling against teams with winning records.

Butler's messy exit was the shot, and Tyler Herro's emergence as a No. 1 option - made necessary by the departure - was the chaser. Like most chasers, it isn't quite enough to cleanse the palate of the bitter taste of the Butler episode.

It's been a mercurial campaign for the Bucks, who began the year with championship hopes but stumbled out of the gate with a 2-8 start. Aside from a monstrous year from Giannis Antetokounmpo, they finished middle-of-the-pack in most metrics and were 16-21 against teams with .500 records or better.

The Timberwolves got hot at the right time, winning 16 of their last 20 games. Minnesota finished the season in the top 10 in both offensive (115.7) and defensive rating (110.8), two positive indications for a team hoping to replicate last year's conference finals run.

It's impossible to gauge the Pelicans' ceiling when their preferred starting five of Zion Williamson, Dejounte Murray, Herbert Jones, CJ McCollum, and Brandon Ingram never shared the floor together before New Orleans shipped Ingram to Toronto. Back to the drawing board.

On the surface, the Knicks accomplished their regular-season goals by finishing third and seamlessly integrating Karl-Anthony Towns. However, it's hard to ignore the elephant in the room and its relation to their playoff hopes: They're 0-9 against the Thunder, Celtics, and Cavaliers this season.

To put the Thunder's historic campaign in perspective, only one team in NBA history has recorded a better net rating than OKC's 12.7 - the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls (13.4), who dominated with a 72-10 record en route to their fourth title in six years. Astounding stuff.

Many of the Magic's shortcomings this season can be attributed to long-term absences among their star trio, but the club's abysmal shooting woes from beyond the arc are worth noting. Orlando finished last in both 3-point percentage (31.8%) and total made threes (921).

This season was an unmitigated disaster for the Sixers. Joel Embiid will likely never regain his MVP form, and Paul George has fallen off a cliff (much like Embiid's net rating). The campaign was a major letdown for a team that was expected to win 50.5 games.

Among a litany of issues for the Suns, a poorly constructed roster (despite being the league's most expensive) with glaring depth issues made winning without Kevin Durant nearly impossible. Phoenix was 33-29 with Durant in the lineup and 3-16 with him on the sidelines.

The Blazers were more competitive than anticipated, especially considering the depth in the West and the inadequate contributions from veterans Jerami Grant and Deandre Ayton. Emerging talents Toumani Camara, Shaedon Sharpe, Deni Avdija, and others form a capable young nucleus.

The play-in bound Kings are basically the play-in Bulls of the last two seasons: DeMar DeRozan and LaVine made the 2,000-mile trip west to score freely while slowing the pace for a team with a porous defense. The similarities are striking, which isn't a harbinger of good things.

The absences of Gregg Popovich, Victor Wembanyama, and De'Aaron Fox largely dashed the Spurs' lofty expectations. But the team showed glimpses of developing winning habits, and it has a star-to-be in Stephon Castle and two first-round selections in the next draft, including a lottery pick.

If you're an optimist, the Raptors displayed promising signs and received unexpected contributions from a rookie quartet. If you're a cynic, relying on Scottie Barnes as the primary ball-handler and focal point with the current roster doesn't add up.

The Jazz face a pivotal offseason after keeping hold of a veteran group. In the interim, Will Hardy and Co. tested the limits of the player participation policy and bottomed out with a singular goal in mind: drafting a franchise cornerstone.

If the goal for 2024-25 was to maximize the potential of a young core featuring a rookie trio and Bilal Coulibaly while adding more draft assets and positioning themselves for a run at Cooper Flagg, the Wizards checked all the boxes as their rebuild enters the next stage.