NBA power rankings: Is a new contender emerging out West?

The Minnesota Timberwolves have won six of their last seven games, and Anthony Edwards is excelling as both a scorer and a passer during this stretch.

We’re entering the final months of the 2025-26 NBA season, and action is heating up.

For one, players have started to chirp and fire back at one another as rivalries and stakes intensify. That has led to a tightening in the battle for seeding and positioning in both the Eastern and Western Conferences.

But that hasn’t stopped teams at the bottom of the standings to seemingly sabotage the remainder of their seasons in an attempt to preserve their draft positioning. That apparent tanking, against the backdrop of a loaded NBA draft class, has led to a fairly wide discrepancy between teams at the top and those at the bottom.

Here are USA TODAY Sports’ NBA power rankings after Week 17 of the 2025-26 regular season:

Note: Records and stats through Feb. 8. Parentheses show movement from last week’s rankings.