NBA panic meter - Next for Kings, Suns, Pelicans and struggling contenders - ESPN

With the Christmas games in the books, and the calendar flipping to 2025 later this week, things are coming into much clearer focus from a playoff-positioning standpoint.

A few teams that once looked to be in real trouble — the Denver Nuggets and Milwaukee Bucks — have since righted the ship with plenty of help from their MVP candidates. Meanwhile, a handful of others still find themselves with uphill climbs in the standings after getting off to slower-than-expected starts.

In light of that, we bring you our latest edition of the NBA Panic Meter, highlighting the preseason contenders that have seen their Basketball Power Index (BPI) playoff odds decrease at least 10% since the start of the 2024-25 campaign, analyzing both their current probability and the players who need to get rolling in order for them to get on track.

We organized the teams in tiers, based on where they find themselves at the moment.

Jump to a panic level:
Pelicans-level panic | High! | On edge
Starting to worry | Remaining calm (for now)

Preseason playoff odds: 52.9%
Current playoff odds: 0.0%
Difference: -52.9%
Previous tier: High panic!

No team has been more banged up this season than the snakebitten Pelicans, who came into the season hoping to finally see what they looked like at full-strength. But the season was doomed from the jump, as newcomer Dejounte Murray fractured his hand in the season opener. In fact, each of the club's top eight rotation players — Murray, Zion Williamson, Brandon Ingram, Herb Jones, CJ McCollum, Trey Murphy III, Jose Alvarado and Jordan Hawkins — was sidelined at some point over the first two months of play. The Pels are still waiting for Williamson and Ingram to return.

What's next?
Aside from the draft lottery? The