Winning an NBA championship is the ultimate goal for all 30 franchises.

It has managed to elude one-third of this league's teams to date.

Exclude ABA titles—like those held by the Brooklyn Nets and Indiana Pacers—and you'll find 10 organizations that have yet to win it all. They can be found at all levels of the Association, from heavyweight title contenders to unashamed tankers, but we're bringing them together here and ranking them by their 2024-25 championship potential.

10. Brooklyn Nets

The tank is on in Brooklyn.

That became obvious as soon as the Nets turned Mikal Bridges into a mountain of picks, and then used several of those selections to regain control of their next two firsts. The next two drafts, by the way, just so happen to be headlined by blue-chip prospects like Cooper Flagg, Dylan Harper and Ace Bailey in 2025 and then AJ Dybantsa and Cameron Boozer in 2026.

The Bridges trade might only be the beginning of a mass exodus of established talent out of Brooklyn. Any semi-established vet who can attract a win-now shopper should be on the block. This is a full-on embrace of life at the bottom, and if all goes according to plan, Brooklyn will have a top-shelf prospect or two leading its rebuild sooner than later.

9. Charlotte Hornets

If LaMelo Ball stays healthy, the Hornets could be pretty fun this season. Now, they probably won't be good, as they piled up 116 losses over the previous two campaigns, but they should show enough flashes to envision them becoming at least play-in-caliber before too long.

A young core built around Ball, Brandon Miller and Mark Williams appears rock-solid with a chance of perhaps being special if everyone hits their best-case scenario. The ceiling raises even higher if first-round rookie Tidjane Salaün pans out. Who knows, maybe Josh Green even grows his game away from the win-right-now pressure he faced in Dallas.

The outline is forming, and it could take shape rather quickly. Charlotte, though, seemingly recognizes that it's still playing for the future, hence the early investment in the raw-but-intriguing Salaün and the willingness to have Reggie Jackson and Devonte' Graham salary-dumped in Buzz City to acquire additional picks.

8. Utah Jazz

The Jazz made a five-year, $238 million commitment to a 27-year-old this offseason. In almost any other case, that's a move that would be made with maximum competitiveness in mind.

Things could be different in Salt Lake City, where the Jazz have young players to develop and a top-10-protected pick to keep away from the Oklahoma City Thunder. Utah also has veterans who could be shipped out for additional roster-building assets like Jordan Clarkson and Collin Sexton, plus a nagging need for the kind of high-end talent that could sit atop either of the next two drafts.

So, while Utah is now fully committed to Lauri Markkanen (or at least fully committed until he's trade-eligible next offseason), it almost certainly isn't looking to build a big winner around him right away. You could squint and see this club competing for the play-in this season if all of their developmental projects went right, but it's better for the franchise if it's competing for the best draft lottery odds instead.

7. Los Angeles Clippers

The Clippers had their reasons for not giving Paul George what he wanted in free agency. Refusing to do so, though, effectively erased them from all realistic championship discussions.

Granted, they were struggling to win big even with George. Their final tally from the five seasons he spent with Kawhi Leonard featured just three playoff series wins—the last coming in 2021. Despite the annual disappointment, though, at least they could hold out hope for what might happen if their stars ever managed to stay healthy at the right time.

Where can this club find that optimism now? George is gone, Leonard hasn't reached the 70-game mark since he was a member of the San Antonio Spurs and James Harden, who's quickly approaching his 35th birthday, just averaged his third-fewest points (16.6) while posting his third-lowest field-goal percentage (42.8). What was a championship-or-bust roster might now be reduced to fighting for a play-in berth.

6. New Orleans Pelicans

Leave it to the Pelicans to fill their playmaking void with an aggressive move for Dejounte Murray yet still not emerge as obvious offseason winners. They simply can't when the oft-discussed deal for Brandon Ingram never materialized, and their big-man rotation appears to be the Association's worst by a wide margin (Jonas Valančiūnas and Larry Nance Jr. out; Daniel Theis and rookie Yves Missi in).

Ingram is a talented player, but he lacks the volume shooting, off-ball ability and defensive acumen of an ideal costar for Zion Williamson. Even worse, Ingram's presence potentially blocks the path to major minutes for Trey Murphy III, who checks most of those Williamson-complement boxes. And while Ingram and Murphy could theoretically coexist, that could only really happen by reducing the role of Herbert Jones, an All-Defensive first-teamer who just authored the best shooting campaign of his career (49.8/41.8/86.7 shooting slash).

It's tempting to wager on a team this talented figuring things out, but the pieces seemingly come from several different puzzles, and that center rotation is an eyesore. The Pelicans should be in play-in contention, but writing their name in anything other than pencil or erasable ink feels overly ambitious given the depth of the Western Conference.

5. Indiana Pacers

If we can make an objective-feeling subjective stance about this squad, the Pacers might be the first team on this list with less than completely outlandish hopes of making a Finals run.

Granted, a ton would have to go perfect for Indiana to make that happen, but remember, this club just booked an Eastern Conference Finals trip with 2022 No. 6 pick Bennedict Mathurin unavailable and 2023 No. 8 pick Jarace Walker out of the rotation. Plus, two-time All-Star Tyrese Haliburton never quite looked the same following hamstring trouble he first encountered in January.

With a full offseason for Haliburton to get healthy (and experience Olympic triumph) and Pascal Siakam to be fully integrated, Indiana clearly appears on the upswing. The questions with this club stem around the height of its full ceiling. The Pacers can be very good—Haliburton, Siakam and Myles Turner posted a plus-6.3 net rating across their 690 minutes together—but expecting a jump to greatness is asking a lot.

4. Orlando Magic

The higher up the rankings we go, the smaller the gaps get between the teams. Case in point, the Magic and Pacers, who each won 47 games last season, feel more like a coin flip than two teams on different rungs of the ladder.

Still, it seems slightly easier to buy the sustainability of Orlando's elite defense (No. 3 in efficiency last season) than it is Indiana's electric offense (No. 2). The Magic have hordes of long-limbed, energetic defenders, and newcomer Kentavious Caldwell-Pope not only furthers that identity, he also brings championship experience to a young team still rounding into contending form.

The Magic have to squeeze more out of their 22nd-ranked offense (the worst of all postseason participants), but with 21-year-old Paolo Banchero and 22-year-old Franz Wagner leading the charge, it feels fair (if not advisable) to project solid growth on that end. If Orlando can keep all-purpose stopper Jonathan Isaac on the floor and coax a couple of leap years out of its younger support players, this club could be an uncomfortable playoff matchup for anyone.

3. Memphis Grizzlies

This feels either a pinch ambitious or perhaps an undersell. It all depends on whether the return of a healthy Ja Morant can prove that last season was nothing more than a get-healthy gap year for the Grizzlies, who snagged the West's No. 2 seed in 2022-23.

You never want to label a star's lost season as a blessing in disguise, but Morant's absence did force costars Jaren Jackson Jr. and Desmond Bane to assume more offensive responsibilities. They should be better for the experience, meaning this trio—which had a comically high plus-12.7 net rating over 444 minutes in 2022-23—could perhaps prove more potent than ever.

If this becomes a certified Big Three, then Bluff City could be a major problem. Marcus Smart may have been a curious choice for Memphis' attempted acceleration, but he's still an experienced player, dogged defender and capable shot-creator. He'll help this team more often than not. And good luck to the Grizzlies' opponents if second-year forward GG Jackson II and rookie center Zach Edey are ready to roll.

2. Phoenix Suns

A team with as much star power as the Suns should never be allowed to exist as a sleeping giant. Yet Phoenix encountered enough roadblocks during its first go-round with the Kevin Durant-Devin Booker-Bradley Beal triumvirate that it feels like folks are being too quick to write off the kind of club this could be.

You can quibble about this team's injury risks and overall depth, but you have to acknowledge how high its ceiling sits. The Suns had 16 different three-player combinations log at least 400 minutes together last season; all of them outscored the opposition by better than five points per 100 possessions.

Their 10th-ranked offense underwhelmed a bit, but maybe a coaching change from Frank Vogel to Mike Budenholzer and a reworked point guard rotation now featuring Tyus Jones and Monte Morris takes care of that. Their 13th-ranked defense presumably met (or exceeded) expectations and should get a jolt from first-round rookie Ryan Dunn, arguably the top defender in this year's draft.

1. Minnesota Timberwolves

Questioning the Timberwolves was fair game this time last year. Their young players lacked playoff experience. Their roster seemingly slanted heavily toward the defensive end. Their point guard rotation ran painfully thin behind 36-year-old Mike Conley.

Try questioning this team now, though, and you'll get laughed out of any serious basketball talks. The bright lights didn't remotely bother Anthony Edwards or Jaden McDaniels. The offense was just good enough (17th in efficiency) to complement the league's best defense (by a mile). Conley held up just fine, and he's now backed up by No. 8 pick Rob Dillingham.

Minnesota had last season's fourth-most wins and third-highest net rating. The Wolves made their second ever Western Conference Finals appearance, and while they couldn't escape that round, their first two losses in the series were decided by a total of four points.

That's a long-winded way of saying Minnesota earned this ranking, and that's without accounting for further growth from Edwards and McDaniels or the chance that Dillingham makes an instant impact. A special, perhaps never-before-seen season just might be brewing in the Gopher State.