Early-season NBA records can be misleading. Hot starts fade, slow starts stabilize, and a few teams quietly establish themselves as real threats long before the standings catch up. To measure which teams are truly playing the best basketball right now, RotoWire developed the NBA Momentum Index — a composite power indicator that evaluates how well teams are performing on both ends, not just whether they're winning games.
The Index scores every team on five key performance indicators over a rolling two-week window: Net Rating, Offensive Rating, Defensive Rating, Effective Field Goal Percentage and Win Percentage. These metrics are normalized, weighted, and combined into a single number — the Pulse Score — which reflects current form and sustainability.
This will be updated every two weeks all season. Each update will highlight:
Risers: Teams gaining meaningful momentum
Fallers: Teams losing rhythm or efficiency
Stability Teams: Clubs holding strong with consistent play
This helps track performance arcs, not just standings shifts.
Methodology:
The NBA Momentum Index uses publicly available advanced stats from the current season, calculated across the most recent two-week game window for all 30 teams.
For each team, we collected:
Net Rating (NetRtg)
Offensive Rating (ORtg)
Defensive Rating (DRtg)
Effective Field Goal Percentage (eFG%)
Win Percentage over the same window
Each stat was then:
Normalized to a 0–100 scale.
Weighted based on predictive strength and sustainability:
| Metric | Weight | Purpose |
| Net Rating | 30% | Best overall indicator of true team strength |
| Offensive Rating | 20% | Measures scoring efficiency + shot creation |
| Defensive Rating | 20% | Captures ability to prevent opponent runs |
| Effective FG% | 20% | Rewards teams generating good shots |
| Win % (this window only) | 10% | Adds contextual performance temperature |
These weighted values were averaged into a final Pulse Score, which determines ranking.
The Index will be recalculated every two weeks, comparing new Pulse Scores vs. previous values to track:
Momentum shifts
Breakout teams
Cooling trends
Underlying performance vs. record
| Rank | Team | Win% | NetRtg | ORtg | DRtg | eFG% | Pulse Score | Prev Rank | Rank Change |
| 1 | Oklahoma City Thunder | 0.857 | 17.7 | 119 | 101.3 | 55.9 | 90.7 | 1 | 0 |
| 2 | Phoenix Suns | 0.857 | 15.1 | 123 | 107.9 | 57.2 | 87.9 | 22 | 20 |
| 3 | Detroit Pistons | 1.000 | 9.3 | 118 | 108.6 | 56.6 | 85.4 | 10 | 7 |
| 4 | Denver Nuggets | 0.857 | 12.4 | 123.1 | 110.6 | 56.2 | 83.6 | 4 | 0 |
| 5 | Houston Rockets | 0.833 | 11 | 123.6 | 112.6 | 55.4 | 80.2 | 3 | -2 |
| 6 | Minnesota Timberwolves | 0.714 | 10.6 | 119.8 | 109.2 | 57.5 | 77.6 | 14 | 8 |
| 7 | Toronto Raptors | 0.833 | 7.8 | 117.7 | 109.9 | 55.5 | 76.7 | 13 | 6 |
| 8 | Boston Celtics | 0.714 | 10.7 | 122.3 | 111.6 | 55.8 | 76.1 | 19 | 11 |
| 9 | New York Knicks | 0.667 | 10.6 | 125.2 | 114.7 | 57.3 | 75.1 | 14 | 5 |
| 10 | Cleveland Cavaliers | 0.750 | 8.5 | 121.4 | 112.9 | 55.4 | 74.2 | 16 | 6 |
| 11 | Atlanta Hawks | 0.714 | 6.7 | 115.9 | 109.1 | 57.3 | 72.8 | 17 | 6 |
| 12 | Orlando Magic | 0.714 | 5.1 | 115.9 | 110.8 | 53.3 | 67.4 | 21 | 9 |
| 13 | San Antonio Spurs | 0.625 | 4 | 116.8 | 112.8 | 57.8 | 66.3 | 2 | -11 |
| 14 | Los Angeles Lakers | 0.714 | 2.3 | 115.1 | 112.8 | 56 | 65.9 | 7 | -7 |
| 15 | Miami Heat | 0.571 | -1.6 | 115.9 | 117.4 | 54.7 | 54.7 | 8 | -7 |
| 16 | Golden State Warriors | 0.500 | -0.6 | 111.4 | 112 | 53.6 | 53.1 | 9 | -7 |
| 17 | Philadelphia 76ers | 0.500 | -1.3 | 113.8 | 115.1 | 52.9 | 51.3 | 6 | -11 |
| 18 | Milwaukee Bucks | 0.429 | -3.1 | 113.5 | 116.6 | 56.9 | 49.7 | 11 | -7 |
| 19 | Dallas Mavericks | 0.250 | -4.9 | 105.6 | 110.5 | 51.2 | 37.4 | 26 | 7 |
| 20 | Portland Trail Blazers | 0.286 | -5.8 | 115.8 | 121.7 | 52.5 | 37.3 | 12 | -8 |
| 21 | Utah Jazz | 0.286 | -6.8 | 115.1 | 121.9 | 53.2 | 36.7 | 23 | 2 |
| 22 | Brooklyn Nets | 0.286 | -7.7 | 111.1 | 118.7 | 51.5 | 34.6 | 30 | 8 |
| 23 | Chicago Bulls | 0.167 | -6.1 | 113.7 | 119.8 | 54.3 | 34.5 | 5 | -18 |
| 24 | Los Angeles Clippers | 0.143 | -6 | 113.3 | 119.3 | 53.8 | 33.4 | 20 | -4 |
| 25 | Charlotte Hornets | 0.167 | -7.8 | 110.6 | 118.4 | 51.2 | 30.1 | 18 | -7 |
| 26 | New Orleans Pelicans | 0.143 | -12.3 | 107.4 | 119.7 | 51.9 | 24.2 | 29 | 3 |
| 27 | Memphis Grizzlies | 0.143 | -11.8 | 103.9 | 115.7 | 47.6 | 21.8 | 24 | -3 |
| 28 | Sacramento Kings | 0.143 | -17 | 105.5 | 122.5 | 51.7 | 18.1 | 25 | -3 |
| 29 | Washington Wizards | 0.000 | -19.1 | 109.5 | 128.6 | 53.6 | 11.4 | 28 | -1 |
| 30 | Indiana Pacers | 0.000 | -21.3 | 102.5 | 123.8 | 45.4 | 2.6 | 27 | -3 |
*All metric stats are courtesy of Basketball-Reference.com
Who Are The NBA's Early Leaders in Teamwide Momentum?
When it comes to early season momentum, few NBA teams have fared better out of the gate than the defending champs.
That's because the 
Oklahoma City Thunder are 14-1 (.933) this season, outscoring their opponents by an average of 15.5 points per game, helping them notch the best pulse score leaguewide, at 90.7.
Among the things helping Mark Daigneault's bunch is OKC's league-leading defensive rating of 104.5 and net rating of +15.2, along with the NBA's fourth-best offensive rating (119.7).
All of that equals one hot basketball team, with OKC ranking ahead of another NBA hot starter, in the Phoenix Suns, who are 9-6 and alone in seventh place out West.
To date, the 
Suns have the NBA's second-best pulse score (at 87.9), thanks to Phoenix's sixth-ranked offensive rating (119.3) and ninth ranked net ranking (+5.3).
Those elements allow Phoenix to jump up to the No. 2 spot leaguewide, just ahead of Eastern Conference-leading Detroit Pistons, who are third in terms of pulse scores this week, at 85.4.
So far this year, Detroit's 13-2 (.867) record puts them three games ahead of the 10-5 Cleveland Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference table, thanks in large part to the defense-first play shown in the Motor City.
Through 15 games, J.B. Bickerstaff's team has the second-best defensive rating, at 110.6, while Detroit's net rating (+6.6) is fifth in the 30-team league, helping them secure the No. 3 spot in the league, momentum wise.
Other NBA Momentum Tidbits
Outside of the top three above, the 10-3 
Denver Nuggets (83.6 pulse score) and 9-3 Houston Rockets (80.2 pulse score) round out the current leaders in the NBA, momentum wise.
Denver's .769 winning percentage has been propelled by first-year head coach David Adelman's ability to up the Nuggets' play on both sides of the ball, with the league's second-ranked offensive rating (124.2) and fifth ranked defensive rating (112.3) this season.
In the Space City, Ime Udoka's third Rockets team has lived and died on the offensive side of the court, with the top-ranked team in the league, offensive rating wise, at 125.3, while the Rockets' defense has lagged behind, at No. 13 NBA-wide (113.7).
Still, Houston's solid play out of the gate has been more than enough for the Rockets to hold onto the No. 3 seed in the West, 3.5 games behind the Thunder and a half-game back of Denver.
Who's Struggled Early On?
While NBA success stories like OKC, Phoenix, Detroit, Denver and Houston have been the class of the NBA, momentum wise, the opposite's true of squads like Indiana, Washington and Sacramento.
That's because those three currently have the worst pulse scores of any team, with the Pacers ranking dead-last at 2.6, while the Wizards (11.4) and Kings (18.1) are down bad as well.
Joining those three in the pit of abject basketball horror are teams like the Memphis Grizzlies, who rank 27th leaguewide with a pulse score of 21.8, while the New Orleans Pelicans are 26th at 24.2.
Still, as the NBA grinds towards its quarter waypoint, it seems like the class of the league rests in the Sooner State, while the team the Thunder knocked off in seven games during last year's NBA Finals wallows in roundball mediocrity.
