The Athletic released their 2024 NBA Front Office Front Office Survey. They talked to teams around the NBA, asking forty executives in their front office to vote for the best basketball organizations in the league. Executives cannot vote for their own team. The top-five ranking is then changed into points, with a 5-4-3-2-1 point structure.

The top-ranked team this year is, unsurprisingly, the Oklahoma City Thunder, who leveraged their assets into a pile of draft picks and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. The Boston Celtics and Miami Heat were second and third, respectively. Overall, 21 teams picked up at least one point.

The Portland Trail Blazers received no top-five votes, for a total of zero points. They joined a list of zero-point teams featuring the Charlotte Hornets, Sacramento Kings, Atlanta Hawks, New Orleans Pelicans, Detroit Pistons, and Los Angeles Lakers.

Portland did make a cameo on the list. Their transaction with the Washington Wizards played a role in one voter giving the Wizards front office a nod, and one point.

[Michael] Winger’s down-to-the-studs rebuild is still in its early phases, but the moves (including trading Bradley Beal and Deni Avdija for draft capital) earned enough respect from at least one voter to make our list.

As Athletic authors Mike Vorkunov, Sam Amick, John Hollinger noted, not every non-playoff team fell to the bottom of the rankings. The Utah Jazz and San Antonio Spurs received a significant numbers of votes. And former Trail Blazer Sean Marks and the Brooklyn Nets, currently in a play-in spot in the East, received six points.