NBA panic meter: 11 teams already worried about playoffs? - ESPN

The 2024-25 NBA regular season is still less than a month old, but it's never too early for teams to worry about slow starts.

Sure, coaches and players might not admit they're panicking. But when a team starts losing, it's hard not to feel a sense of the season slipping away. Take this quote from New Orleans Pelicans star Zion Williamson a few weeks ago:

«It's a high level of urgency but not in a panic kind of way. It's more of a focused, coming-together-as-a-team kind of way. ...I don't think it's a cause for panic. We just need to lock in.»

Williamson was careful to make it clear he and his teammates were not overly concerned — but it certainly sounded like the pressure was creeping in. (Not that it seemed to have much effect, as New Orleans has won just two of nine games since Williamson gave that quote.)

So which NBA teams should be experiencing that sense of (let's just be honest here)… panic?

Let's go through all 11 of the teams that had at least a 35% chance to make the playoffs before the season — based on the average of their preseason BPI forecast and their implied probabilities from ESPN BET — and whose playoff odds have dipped since then, classifying them by just how worried they should be now.

Jump to a panic level:
High! | On Edge | Starting to Worry | Remaining Calm

Note: All odds in this story are as of Monday morning.

Preseason playoff odds: 55.8%
Current playoff odds: 6.1%
Difference: -49.7%

The Pelicans' decline has been dramatic this season, as a team that improved from 21st in net rating in 2021-22 to 10th in 2022-23 to sixth last season, is back down to 28th. The simplest explanation for New Orleans' struggles is injuries: Four of the team's five leading returning players by 2023-24 minutes —