NBA Future Power Rankings: Top 10 title contenders for next season

The 2020 NBA playoffs have shaken up the league, with two of the top contenders -- the LA Clippers and Milwaukee Bucks -- exiting in the second round.

Meanwhile, new contenders have emerged: the Miami Heat, Boston Celtics and Denver Nuggets.

Where does that leave us for next season?

In this new edition of our Future Power Rankings, ESPN insiders Kevin Pelton and Bobby Marks rank the top 10 contenders for next season.

Here are their rankings and their conversation about the top teams for 2020-21:

The elite contenders

Kevin Pelton: Let's start here -- though they still have to get through a tough Miami Heat team in the NBA Finals, the Los Angeles Lakers remain the favorites to win this season's championship.

The Lakers had the better regular-season record and have lost just three games in the playoffs, though the Heat have the same 12-3 playoff record.

Several Lakers can test free agency, including forward Anthony Davis, but L.A. has the ability to bring just about everybody from this season's team back. Should the Lakers be considered the favorites to win the 2020-21 championship?

Bobby Marks: I would put the Lakers in the pole position when it comes to competing for the championship in 2020-21. That does not mean they will have the best regular-season record, but looking past that, it is hard for me to bet against a team led by LeBron James and Davis.

They will also have better continuity next season. Davis is all but certain to be back on a new contract, and four other potential free agents will likely opt in: Avery Bradley, Rajon Rondo, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and JaVale McGee. The Lakers can use part of their $9.3 million midlevel exception to bring back Markieff Morris.

Which teams pose a threat to the Lakers?

Pelton: I would begin with the two teams we had in the same tier as the Lakers entering the playoffs: the Clippers and the Bucks.

What happened this season? For one thing, I think the facile and reductive conversation about whether this season's championship deserves an "asterisk" has caused us to minimize the unusual circumstances surrounding the playoffs.

According to Dan Feldman of NBC Sports, the Clippers' loss to the Nuggets in the second round was the fifth-largest upset in terms of implied odds on record (including all series since 2001 and some as far back as 1969). The Bucks' loss to the Heat was a bit more predictable but still would have ranked in the top 20 by this measure. When those two results happen in the same round, I think we have to wonder how predictive they really are.

For the Clippers, Montrezl Harrell evidently wasn't himself in the playoffs after missing a month because of the death of his grandmother, a situation that would have played out differently without the quarantine both he and Lou Williams dealt with after returning to the NBA's Florida campus.

Milwaukee lost shortly after leading an unprecedented player walkout following the shooting of Jacob Blake, which affected the Bucks most deeply because of their organization's proximity to Kenosha, Wisconsin.

None of this should take away from what the Nuggets and Heat have done, because they have had to deal with similar adversity, including having multiple players late to the restart. (Starting small forward Will Barton never did play for Denver in the bubble.)

But if we're looking at what's going to happen in totally different circumstances in 2020-21, including at least some form of home-court advantage, l think what we saw from the Clippers and Bucks before they arrived in Central Florida is more meaningful. Do you agree?

Marks: I certainly do not want to diminish what Denver and Miami have accomplished. But we were likely looking at the Bucks and Clippers in the conference finals if the season had not been postponed in mid-March.

It would be hard for me to see the Bucks losing multiple home games as they did to the Heat in the bubble. The same could be said about the likelihood of the Clippers losing Games 5 and 7 to Denver at Staples Center.

For the Bucks, they'll likely bring back most of the team with the best record in the league this season, including two-time MVP and Defensive Player of the Year Giannis Antetokounmpo (even if he does not sign a supermax extension in the offseason).

The big question will be what roster moves general manager Jon Horst can manufacture with little financial flexibility. For trades, the Bucks have point guard Eric Bledsoe, the 24th pick in the draft (from Indiana), the $7 million (non-guaranteed) contract of Ersan Ilyasova and the expiring contracts of Robin Lopez (if he opts in) and D.J. Wilson.

How do the Clippers look going into next season?

Pelton: The Clippers were my pick to win the title until about Game 6 of their series against Denver, and they have the potential to be better next season in basketball terms.

They have to re-sign several key free agents (Harrell, starting forward Marcus Morris and potentially JaMychal Green, who holds a player option for $5 million) but should have a full training camp and 82-game season to build the on-court chemistry that proved lacking during the three losses that ended their season. Paul George will also have a healthy offseason after spending last summer rehabbing shoulder surgeries, which took him off the court for training camp.

Questions about the Clippers center on off-court chemistry, and now they are searching for a new coach. A frustrating loss like they suffered can turn existing fissures (as we saw during the regular season between the holdover players and the newcomers) into cracks. If the Lakers are defending champions, they won't likely have to deal with the same concerns. As a result, I'd give them a slight edge.

Update: Get more on the Clippers parting ways with Doc Rivers here.

The next tier

Marks: The next couple of tiers of contenders are the deepest that we have seen in a long time. In the East, the candidates include the Heat, Celtics, Toronto Raptors, Brooklyn Nets and Philadelphia 76ers.

In the West, the Nuggets showed what they have. And the Golden State Warriors will reappear on the radar screen with a healthy trio of Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green -- and the No. 2 pick in the draft along with other trade assets: a $17.2 million trade exception and a lightly protected first-round pick from Minnesota in 2021

Should the Nuggets and Warriors be considered top-tier contenders?

Pelton: Regarding the Nuggets, I'm not sure. As impressive as their resilience was, Denver was outscored in the first two rounds -- something that's been true of only one other conference finalist since the league went to best-of-seven series in the first round. That team, the 2014-15 Houston Rockets, ended up the eighth seed the next season, so I wouldn't say the success carried over.

Denver's regular-season scoring margin ranked just 11th. While the Nuggets certainly can dramatically improve that mark next season if Jamal Murray continues his hot shooting and Michael Porter Jr. takes another step in his development, I don't think it should be our assumption.

I'm a tad pessimistic about Golden State going forward, relative to expectations. Curry will be 33 by the time the 2021 playoffs begin, while Green and Thompson will both be 32, and the latter is coming off a severe injury and a layoff of at least 18 months. But we'll know more about the Warriors' chances after we see what they do with the No. 2 pick.

If you had to pick a couple of teams for the second tier, who would they be?

Marks: In the East, I am going with my old team in Brooklyn. On paper, the Nets' roster ranks as one of the best in the NBA. With a return to good health for Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, plus Caris LeVert, Spencer Dinwiddie, DeAndre Jordan, Taurean Prince and Jarrett Allen, Brooklyn should challenge Milwaukee for the best record in the conference.

Brooklyn GM Sean Marks has made it known that Joe Harris is a priority to re-sign as a free agent, despite a significant luxury tax penalty. One intriguing question will be how the Nets come together under new coach Steve Nash.

In the West, the Nuggets. The roster will remain mostly intact, and Nikola Jokic and Murray showed franchise-player ability during their postseason run. The Nuggets do still have some decisions on free agents Jerami Grant, Paul Millsap, Mason Plumlee and Torrey Craig.

Pelton: I would go with the two teams from the East finals, the Celtics and the Heat. Quietly, Boston jumped into second in point differential in the entire NBA by taking the seeding games more seriously than other contenders. And we saw the Celtics' success hold up in the playoffs for the most part.

Weighted by minutes played, Boston had the youngest rotation in the postseason this year, so Boston's window to contend remains wide open.

Miami will have a more interesting offseason, with playoff starters Jae Crowder and Goran Dragic hitting free agency. If they leave, the Heat could create $20-plus million in cap space to replace them. Most likely, Miami will look to run it back with big one-year deals for Crowder and Dragic that allow the team to balance contending in 2020-21 with maintaining the ability to chase a max free agent in the 2021 offseason.

Though the Heat's playoff run has been a bit more surprising based on their regular-season results, I don't think it is fluky. This season's success and what the Heat have learned about their team should give Miami an edge over a Brooklyn team with a new coach and Durant returning from an extended absence.

The rest of the top 10

Pelton: Bobby, how do you round out your top 10?

Marks: In addition to this season's East finalists, Toronto and Dallas make my top 10. The Raptors do have some concerns, as they are faced with the free agency of Fred VanVleet, Serge Ibaka, Marc Gasol and OG Anunoby. The team's priority of maintaining cap flexibility for 2021 should not come at the cost of VanVleet. If it does, that changes the conversation.

For Dallas, I'm watching to see if Kristaps Porzingis can stay healthy. We know what Luka Doncic can do, but if Porzingis continues to battle injuries, the Mavericks are probably a lower seed again.

Pelton: I want to wait to see what happens with VanVleet before including the Raptors in my top 10. It's possible Detroit or New York comes in with an offer so massive it's just not prudent for Toronto to match, leaving a massive hole in the backcourt.

I would fill out my top 10 with Dallas and Philadelphia. The Mavericks were sixth in the NBA in point differential during the regular season, so regression to the mean in clutch situations would put them in this group.

I'm less confident the Sixers will be one of the league's top 10 teams, but if we're looking at the upside of becoming a championship contender, the top-end talent is there if a new coach can get everyone on the same page.