Ranking Ringless NBA Stars Most Likely to Win a Title First

Ever find yourself sitting around with the homies, carbonated beverages flowing and assorted handheld snacks leaving crumbs everywhere, ranking ringless NBA superstars by the likelihood they will get their first ring? Well, then, you're in luck.

We have the definitive, and inarguable, list of the top five right here.

Superstardom is a subjective concept.

It can be thrown around haphazardly or, sometimes, not enough.

(See: The "There are actually only five superstars!" crowd.) For our purposes, we will consider anyone with an All-NBA appearance under their belt within the past three years a candidate for inclusion.

Figuring out the order of championship likelihood is tougher.

In the end, it is heavily impacted by team situationsby their timelines and title windows.

This exercise will most heavily weight the next five years.

These superstars are by no means the only ones who will get their first ring over the next half-decade.

They are instead the household names most likely to do it firstand at all.

Anthony Edwards' place among the NBA's elite is debatable only insofar as his general ranking remains unclear.

Is he a top-10 player? Or just top 15? That kind of deliberation is indicative of superstardom itselfas is Edwards' 2023-24 All-NBA selection, along with his year-over-year improvement into a genuine offensive engine and potentially best-in-the-game two-way force overall.

In somewhat atypical fashion, the Minnesota Timberwolves have invested everything in maximizing his pre-prime and early-prime years.

The gamble is, to some extent, paying off.

Minnesota made the Western Conference Finals last season, and even after the divisive Karl-Anthony Towns trade, they remain inside the contender's clique.

Whether the version of the Wolves with Julius Randle and Donte DiVincenzo is better equipped than the iteration with KAT to win it all is a separate matter.

DiVincenzo's three-point shot-making and volume are inarguable value adds.

Randle brings more on-ball gravity and playmaking than KAT and can help streamline the development of Rob Dillingham.

Can he space the floor enough around everyone else? And equally critical, do the Wolves even view him as a potential keeper? Or are they holding out hope he declines his player option and leaves, prompting us to frame the trade as Minny's preference to pay DiVincenzo, Nickeil Alexander-Walker (unrestricted) and Naz Reid (2025-26 player option) as much or less than KAT makes alone ($53.1 million in 2025-26).

The Timberwolves' logic can be rationalized and outright supported from a variety of vantage points.

But there is also a real and, possibly, immediate downside.

What if, for instance, their cost-conscious approach extends to Rudy Gobert's future (2025-26 player option)? It gets a lot harder to trust the protracted window if Minnesota endures even a short stretch of changing out multiple starters.

Sticking Edwards here is a vote of confidence in his own sustainability, as well as a bet on at least some of the Timberwolves' gambles paying offmainly the future of Dillingham and their stomach for paying (almost) everyone already in place.

Playing in the Western Conference does yank him down a peg or two.

Ditto for the back-end pitfalls (i.e., how different could Minnesota look as soon as 2025-26).

Overall, though, you have to assign some value to a franchise's multiyear window when the superstar bedrock around which it is built projects to become a mainstay in the top-10-player discourse.

Anyone holding out on Jalen Brunson's superstardom lost what little remained of their skepticism fuel last season.

The 28-year-old is fresh off a second-team All-NBA and, more ridiculously, top-five MVP finishnotables he obtained while recording a multiyear stat line untouched by anyone other than Michael Jordan.

Placing Brunson inside this exercise is tougher when attempting to hash out the New York Knicks' title window.

They have dramatically altered the personnel around their star in the past nine months, adding OG Anunoby, Mikal Bridges and Karl-Anthony Towns while losing Julius Randle, Donte DiVincenzo, Immanuel Quickley, RJ Barrett and Isaiah Hartenstein (via free agency), on top of almost their entire draft-pick stash.

The finished product is not unimpeachable.

Questions about the Knicks' health, depth and defense are front-facing.

All of these issues are playing out in real time.

Mitchell Robinson may not play until 2025 following another ankle surgery.

He may not play for the Knicks again, period, depending on how this year's trade landscape shakes.

Still, this is about more than one season.

At a time when title windows exist on a year-to-year basis, New York's top five will all be under contract long-term once Bridges puts pen to paper on an extension or re-signs during 2026 free agency.

Financial logistics could eventually get in the way.

But the Knicks have seldom shied away from spending, and Brunson's own extension buys the Knicks some additional maneuverability under the second apron moving forward.

In the meantime, at full strength, New York has a top five all in the thick of their primes, with an across-the-board ability to dribble, drive, pass and shoot, and a certified NBA superstar to tie it all together.

If this team stays relatively healthy, the Knicks have opened a multiyear window in which they can win it all.

Donovan Mitchell had a fringe All-NBA first-team case last season before missing too much time to qualify.

Luckily, he didn't need a nod last year to appear here.

He received his firstand by no means lastAll-NBA bid in 2022-23.

The Cleveland Cavaliers' place as title contenders is more precarious than Mitchell's superstar status.

And yet, it probably shouldn't be.

Too often people paint them as some experimental project that's doomed to fail and screwed thereafter.

That's bizarre.

First of all, we don't yet have enough evidence to say Mitchell's partnership with all three of Jarrett Allen, Darius Garland and Evan Mobley won't work.

Injuries derailed last season's collective availability, and this group dominated the 2022-23 regular season when playing togetheramid worse spacing and less familiarity.

But let's say it all goes sideways.

The Cavs are far from stuck.

Each member of their Big Four is under team control for at least the next three seasons.

Cleveland will have the trade cachet to reorient the roster, if need be, around Mitchell.

Sticking him here, at No.

3, invariably has more to do with that as-constructed ceiling and optionality than 2024-25 alone.

Could the Cavs win it all this season? Perhaps.

But they should be in the thick of the same discussion for years to come.

Luka Doncic continues to play out his "first-team All-NBA formality" era.

He has amassed five of those selections before his age-25 season.

Nobody else in league history has ever done the same.

There is a case to nudge him up to No.

1.

And it's an obvious one.

He is Luka freaking Doncic.

And the Dallas Mavericks just made the NBA Finals.

And they have a damn good chance of going all the way next year after (ostensibly) boosting their offensive optionality without torpedoing the defense.

At the same time, there's also an argument to stick him lower.

And it goes beyond playing in the Western Conference.

The logic has nothing to do with Doncic himself.

He has proved more adaptable than other ball-dominant stars.

Both he and the Dallas Mavericks played a lot faster last season , as one example.

Issues of sustainability are more about the Mavs organization itself.

Kyrie Irving is 32 and has a 2025-26 player option.

How much longer will he both be in Big D and operating at a certified co-star level? And while the Mavs' supporting cast is deep, it is not indefinitely high-end.

Klay Thompson turns 35 in February.

Dereck Lively II made meaningful contributions to a contender as a rookie.

That's big-time.

Does it mean he will blossom into the Tyson Chandler of Bam Adebayos? And will it happen soon? Or will it take time? Might his ceiling be lower than we thought? To what lengths will the Mavs travel to keep P.J.

Washington beyond his current contract, which runs through 2025-26? Can he be the third- or fourth-best player on a title-winner? Dallas' single-year championship equity puts most others to shame.

Its long-term sustainability figures to require more shape-shifting around Doncicfar from a deal-breaker, but one that complicates its, and by extension Luka's, cracks at a ring.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander's credentials speak for themselvesat deafening decibels.

He racked up top-five MVP finishes in each of the past two seasons, including a second-place nod last year.

In the process, he has picked up two first-team All-NBA cameos, all by the age of 25.

The list of other active players to accomplish the same feat reads like a who's who of megastars: Luka Doncic (five times), Kevin Durant (five), LeBron James (four), Anthony Davis (three), Jayson Tatum (three), Giannis Antetokounmpo (two), James Harden (two), Nikola Jokic (two) and Kawhi Leonard (two).

Playing at this level, at this age, gives SGA an open-ended individual title window.

And fortunately for him, the Oklahoma City Thunder are operating on that same indefinite timeline.

Established co-stars are pretty much a prerequisite for any championship team.

Oklahoma City may fall a touch short there.

Both Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren are on that track.

Will they attain that status in time? Um, yes.

Because they each may seize those mantles next season.

And they both came pretty damn close to doing it last year.

Nobody should need to hear this, but the Thunder can win the whole damn thing next season.

Isaiah Hartenstein shores up some of their biggest voids, Alex Caruso boosts the half-court spacing and fortifies an already terrific perimeter defense, and Oklahoma City has both the active depth and assets to go get more if necessary.

No team in the league is better positioned to hang a banner at any point over the next few years.

And their unmatched title window renders SGA a fairly easy choice at No.

1unless you're dead certain one of the previous names will snag a ring next year.

Dan Favale covers the NBA for Bleacher Report.

Follow him on Twitter ( @danfavale ), and subscribe to the Hardwood Knocks podcast, co-hosted by Bleacher Report's Grant Hughes .

Unless otherwise cited, stats courtesy of NBA.com , Basketball Reference , Stathead or Cleaning the Glass .

Salary information via Spotrac .

Draft-pick obligations via RealGM ..

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