It won't be long until the NBA playoffs arrive, bringing with them shortened rotations and increased minutes for top-line stars.

In other words, depth is about to take a back seat. So we'd better acknowledge it while there's still time.

To keep things from getting too subjective, we're using strict criteria to assess each team's depth. That means trimming off players who grade out as break-even or worse by Basketball Reference's box plus/minus, as well as those who haven't played enough to qualify for the minutes-per-game leaderboard. That process will eliminate several players who've had real impacts. We'll note them in our writeups and use them to break ties.

The rankings, though, will ultimately be based on a roster's number of qualified positive BPM contributors.

As we highlight the league's deepest teams, don't be surprised to see more than a few high-end contenders. As much as we like to pretend that depth doesn't matter in the postseason, these rankings suggest that the teams with the most good players tend to have pretty strong playoff outlooks.

Go figure.

5. Indiana Pacers

Positive BPM Contributors (7): Tyrese Haliburton, Pascal Siakam, Myles Turner, Jalen Smith, Obi Toppin, Isaiah Jackson, TJ McConnell

It's good to get the Indiana Pacers out of the way first among our top five, because their depth has fluctuated due to personnel changes during the season. A few of their more suspect inclusions warrant explanations.

For starters, Pascal Siakam hasn't been with the Pacers all season. But Buddy Hield and his positive BPM departed Indiana at the trade deadline, so that's a wash in terms of our total count.

The real surprise is that Toppin and Jackson qualify as two of Indy's seven positive contributors, while Aaron Nesmith and Andrew Nembhard do not. Nesmith is canning 44.0 percent of his threes and spent much of the season checking larger, more physical matchups. Nembhard's offensive game leaves much to be desired, but he's a steady hand as an initiator and a quality defender at the point of attack.

BPM seems to prefer Toppin's high three-point frequency and the value he adds as a transition threat while overlooking his wretched rebounding. Jackson benefits from spoon-fed finishes that have produced a team-best 69.8 true shooting percentage and sky-high free-throw rate.

It's not a stretch to say Nesmith and Nembhard have meant more to Indyh than Toppin and Jackson, but swapping two in and two out still leaves the Pacers at the same overall total.

At any rate, Bennedict Mathurin's absence from the list is more glaring. He's out for the season with a shoulder injury and wasn't perfect before he got hurt. With nearly as many turnovers (97) than assists (119) on the season and some shaky off-ball defense, Mathurin is out of favor with most advanced metrics. His minus-3.5 BPM is the worst among Pacers who played at least 200 minutes.

With that said, Mathurin was often a tough cover, got to the line plenty and averaged 14.5 points in over 1,500 minutes. He certainly seems like a depth piece, but he won't be the first big-minute player to earn that title while also failing to meet our standard for inclusion.

4. Oklahoma City Thunder

Positive BPM Contributors (7): Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Williams, Chet Holmgren, Josh Giddey, Isaiah Joe, Jaylin Williams, Aaron Wiggins

Though he's cooled off since making what felt like every three he attempted over the first several weeks of his rookie season, Cason Wallace is still hitting 41.3 percent of his triples and has appeared in every game for an Oklahoma City Thunder team that could finish with the best record in the West.

The standout rookie doesn't appear in the above list of positive BPMers because he's a -0.1 in that stat for the year, which illustrates two things. First, it's a good indicator that catch-all metrics don't tell the whole story. Second, and most importantly for our purposes, it shows just how deep these Thunder are.

Wallace joins Kenrich Williams, beloved in Oklahoma City for his professionalism and effort, and Luguentz Dort, a full-time starter on the short list of the league's top three-and-D wings, among non-qualified players. Clearly, the Thunder are even deeper than the above list indicates, but that's also going to be true for every team ahead of them.

Everyone knows about SGA and his likely top-two finish in MVP voting, and Chet Holmgren could join him as an awards runner-up behind Victor Wembanyama for Rookie of the Year. Slightly less celebrated: Jalen Williams, who leads the team in fourth-quarter scoring and seems to be on track for at least a half-dozen All-Star games—probably starting in 2024-25.

Isaiah Joe is second on the team in made triples, trailing only Dort. Both of them are above 40.0 percent from three, and while Joe isn't the shutdown menace Dort is, he's tied for the team lead in charges drawn. The other co-leader, Jaylin Williams, is the best per-minute charge-drawer in the league among those who've seen at least 500 minutes of court time.

Giddey's lack of perimeter shooting could make him a liability in the postseason. Wallace might struggle as a rookie in his first playoffs. Even Holmgren could have a hard time against bulkier front lines. Luckily, the Thunder have plenty of backup plans if any of their key guys hit a rough patch.

3. Minnesota Timberwolves

Postitive BPM Contributors (7): Anthony Edwards, Rudy Gobert, Karl-Anthony Towns, Naz Reid, Mike Conley, Kyle Anderson, Nickeil Alexander-Walker

It turns out that paying Naz Reid $42 million over three years to occupy the third-string center spot was a stroke of genius for the Timberwolves rather than a misallocation of resources. With Towns and Gobert missing time recently, Reid was much more than a luxury. His ability to step into a larger role than he's played all season could be the determining factor in whether the Wolves secure the West's top playoff seed.

Alexander-Walker is one of the best two-way reserve wings in the league. He's a suffocating on-ball menace with a 97th percentile Defensive Estimated Plus-Minus figure, and he can also crank out stellar scoring nights when necessary, like he did while racking up 28 points on 9-of-10 shooting in a 118-100 win over the Los Angeles Clippers on March 12.

The starters here speak for themselves. Or at least four of them do. It's notable that Jaden McDaniels, who is still among the most fearsome defensive wings in the league, doesn't have a positive BPM figure this season. He's still a critical piece of Minnesota's first unit, even if the advanced metrics aren't in love with his overall impact.

Trade deadline addition Monte Morris doesn't qualify for the minutes leaderboard. Neither does third-stringer Jordan McLaughlin, whose 48.6 percent shooting from beyond the arc is a major weapon for a Wolves squad that often struggles to score.

2. Boston Celtics

Positive BPM Contributors (9): Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Kristaps Porziņģis, Derrick White, Jrue Holiday, Al Horford, Sam Hauser, Luke Kornet, Payton Pritchard

Nitpickers forced to find flaws in a Boston Celtics team that doesn't have a clear one often cite a lack of depth behind the best top six in the league as a point of weakness. The numbers actually suggest the opposite.

The Celtics are tied for the most positive-BPM contributors in the league, as Hauser, Kornet and Pritchard all grade out as better than average by that catch-all metric. It certainly helps that Boston's seventh, eighth and ninth men often get to play with one or two high-end starters, but one of the biggest keys to this team's success all season has been the high-quality minutes produced by units made up of at least three backups.

Take Tatum, Brown and Porziņģis off the floor at the same time, and Boston still produces a plus-15.6 net rating. The Celtics also handily win the minutes in which Tatum, Brown and Holiday are out of the lineup simultaneously, outscoring opponents by 17.1 points per 100 possessions. Groups that don't have Tatum, Brown or White in the game are a ludicrous plus-27.1.

We're trafficking in small samples here, but there are enough of them to illustrate a point and firmly validate Boston's perch near the top of these rankings: Swap out almost any three of the Celtics' best players, and the guys who take their places don't just get the job done. They destroy the competition.

Oh, and Xavier Tillman, who ranks seventh leaguewide in DEPM, isn't even included among Boston's nine qualified players.

1. New Orleans Pelicans

Positive BPM Contributors (9): Zion Williamson, Brandon Ingram, CJ McCollum, Herb Jones, Dyson Daniels, Jonas Valančiūnas, Larry Nance Jr. Trey Murphy III, Jose Alvarado

The New Orleans Pelicans' relentless push toward a top-four seed in the West is even more impressive when you realize their starting lineup has been outscored on the season. Remarkably, the Pels have a minus-0.3 net rating across 899 possessions with McCollum, Jones, Ingram, Williamson and Valančiūnas on the floor.

That might be the best data point in the case for New Orleans' depth, followed closely by the one that shows lineups including both Williamson and Ingram only post a plus-3.4 net rating. Contrast that with, say, Nikola Jokić and Jamal Murray in Denver (plus-14.9) or Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Jalen Williams in OKC (plus-10.8), and it's clear the Pelicans' first unit and top-line stars aren't as responsible for the team's success as those of other contending teams.

Let's skip over the discussion of fit issues that arise when noting the Pels tend to look their best when only one of Williamson or Ingram is on the floor and instead praise the best top-to-bottom collections of players in the game.

Herb Jones is a flat-out defensive superstar, but Daniels also showed signs of reaching that status before he suffered a meniscus injury. He logged more than 1,100 minutes of disruptive defense while also making plays as a facilitator prior to going down. Nance has often been head coach Willie Green's choice to close games at center.

New Orleans' total of nine positive BPM contributors recently added Trey Murphy III and Jose Alvarado, both of whom qualified for the minutes-per-game leaderboard last week. However, Naji Marshall still isn't in the mix here due to his minus-0.4 BPM. He's been undeniably vital to the team's success, a physical irritant who can change games with his attitude alone.

Believe it or not, the Pelicans are even deeper than it seems.

Stats courtesy of NBA.com, Basketball Reference and Cleaning the Glass. Accurate enterint games March 27. Salary info via Spotrac.

Grant Hughes covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter (@gt_hughes), and subscribe to the Hardwood Knocks podcast, where he appears with Bleacher Report's Dan Favale.