The NBA is back in our lives, and there is much reason to rejoice. But not all seasons are created equal.
Each new campaign launches with limitless possibility. Then the games begin and reality comes crashing down. Offseason acquisitions don’t fit into the larger puzzle quite as well as expected. Injuries strike key players at the worst time. Some schemes get left behind as the game at large shifts in strategy, while others are so far ahead of the curve they don’t work at all.
Each night the ecosystem of the NBA puts all those factors on display. On some nights everything comes together perfectly and two teams engage in a proper display of basketball, one that puts into reality the concept of the beautiful game. Other nights … not so much. Over the course of 1,200 or so games per season there are going to be plenty of ugly affairs. Games where injury or misfortune or straight-up ineptitude make watching basketball a chore.
We don’t want that for you, reader. Basketball is a joyful concept at its core. A celebration of the majesty that can take place when a group of elite athletes work together for a common goal. More than anything, the sport is supposed to be fun. The best basketball is played when everyone embraces that idea. So, too, is the viewing experience best enjoyed through the lens of fun.
Sadly not every team is fun to watch. It’s a harsh truth but a necessary one to acknowledge given how much inventory each basketball season offers fans. If we are going to spend our valuable time tuning into an NBA game for reasons other than fandom, we may as well prioritize enjoying ourselves while we do it.
Some teams, with rosters poorly constructed or sapped by injury, just aren’t enjoyable to watch play. Conversely, some teams are graced with a natural flow that makes them a fun viewing experience every time. These are the teams we seek to discover as the season begins. What teams are the most watchable?
Here we seek to predict which teams will end up atop the watchability rankings as the season goes on. Thus, for your enjoyment, the five teams we believe will be the most watchable as the season tips off.
New Orleans Pelicans
I hate to be the latest NBA writer to start a sentence with “if the Pelicans can just stay healthy this season …” But I’m going to do it anyway: If the Pelicans can stay healthy this season, they could actually be very fun to watch. Good? That’s a different discussion. But the offseason moves of new team president Joe Dumars add up to a roster filled with chaos potential and, potentially, entertaining offensive output.
Obviously the draw here starts and ends with Zion Williamson, who remains a magnet for eyeballs when he’s on the court. It’s impossible to not watch him as a viewer. He pinballs around the court like he was shot out of a cannon, flying from one end to the other without a thought for who might be in his way. He’ll go over and through any defender. At any given moment he could do something spectacular. Your brain knows it, even if your brain also knows every moment is fleeting with the injury-prone star.
Combine that with the borderline absurd decision-making and shotmaking of Jordan Poole, the continued growth of Trey Murphy III’s visually appetizing game, and the addition of March Madness star Derik Queen, the Pelicans have got something going. If everyone meshes the offense will be varied and prone to either an all-time highlight or legendary lowlight at any given second. And with several significant weaknesses defensively until Dejounte Murray comes back, New Orleans should have to do plenty of scoring to keep pace each night.
There’s a strong chance the Pelicans are simply cursed and repeat last season’s existence as a completely unwatchable team decimated by injuries. But this is the season. This is the season they are fun. Not good. But fun. And thus earn a spot here.
Oklahoma City Thunder
The Thunder were absolutely dominant during last year’s regular season, winning 68 games and setting a record for highest point differential in a single season. But they weren’t all that enjoyable to watch most of the time. Greatness is fun to consume no matter the medium to an extent, but OKC’s particular brand combined with the deficiencies of the roster made for some real ugly matchups. I will not begrudge you if you liked watching the Thunder smother their opponents under the weight of a thousand points off turnovers. There are worse styles of basketball to watch. But outside of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s smooth-as-silk scoring ways, OKC struggled to produce points in a half-court setting, which resulted in a lot of iso basketball and spot-up threes for a lot of good-but-not-great shooters. Not exactly the beautiful game.
This season, that’s going to change. The Thunder should once again be the league’s best defensive unit and force turnovers en masse, leading to plenty of transition highlights. Gilgeous-Alexander will still do his thing as the reigning MVP. But there should be a greater offensive variety thanks to the combined ascensions of Chet Holmgren and Jalen Williams.
Holmgren is ready for a breakout season and showed it during the Thunder’s opening night win over the Rockets. He’s a sweet shooter for a 7-footer and appears to have put on enough muscle that he can shoulder his way into the paint whenever he wants. OKC should also enjoy better rim protection from the big man, leading to plenty of blocks—the most exciting defensive play. Williams already broke out with an All-NBA campaign last season and will miss at least a few games to start this one after offseason hand surgery. But once he gets back on the floor his play style is attractive to the eye, with the athleticism to glide up and down the court and the brute strength to finish inside. Plus a great-looking jumper to boot.
Last season both players were works in progress to an extent and put forth some clunky performances, especially as Holmgren reintegrated onto the floor following his most recent injury issue. The Thunder still dominated because of the sheer talent surrounding them. This season their talents will be further realized and open up OKC’s offensive system, allowing the ball to ping between two very talented offensive players and an MVP. It’ll make for prettier basketball whenever the Thunder can’t get out in the open court, a leap that will cement them high in these rankings for years to come.
Denver Nuggets
Nikola Jokić is the greatest conductor of basketball to ever play the center position and he makes some sweet music. Thus the Nuggets have long occupied a top spot in watchability rankings. Jokić’s talent is so overwhelming and so infectious that even the most run-of-the-mill regular-season game can be enthralling; around every corner lurks the possibility that Jokić’s all-time vision will lead to something you’ve never seen before.
But star power is only part of the equation and the Nuggets have now rounded out the team well enough that they should be pretty watchable when Jokić isn’t playing. Which has long been an issue in Denver. There’s Jamal Murray, of course, the human flamethrower and pick-and-roll maestro. His cold streaks can be brutal to watch, but when he really gets going, the shotmaking is awe-inspiring. Aaron Gordon is always good for a few out-of-nowhere alley-oops and has married his elite athleticism with a tremendous feel for the game; his synergy with Jokić is nearly as entertaining as Murray’s.
Bruce Brown is back to run the bench unit and at his best is a ball of energy Ping-Ponging around on the parquet. More exciting is the addition of Jonas Valančiūnas, who will enter the game for the sole purpose of mashing smaller players in the paint before subbing out. It’ll be a fun throwback play style in short spurts and could lead to some absolutely frantic lineups if rookie coach David Adelman dares to play him with Jokić.
The departure of Michael Porter Jr. will result in a slight drop of ill-advised shots taken per 36 minutes, which is good for the Nuggets and bad for those who enjoy the chaos that flashes of low basketball IQ can produce. But as long as Jokić is out there, the ball will always be moving and that constant flow gives the Nuggets a very high floor of watchability. Their offseason additions to win the minutes without the Serbian superstar means the ceiling is much higher, too.
Houston Rockets
The Rockets initially were much higher on this list. Then Fred VanVleet got hurt. He’s an elite connector who was set to smooth the somewhat bumpy parts of this roster construction.
Houston can certainly still win games without him but this offense feels like it’s going to be clunky in the early going as everyone tries to get into position sans a veteran table-setter.
Still, they have Kevin Durant, who has arguably the most appealing game of any superstar scorer in NBA history. So they get a good boost from that. His feathery touch and the way all of his gangly proportions work in concert to create a perfect jump shot will be his legacy more than anything else when his basketball days are finally over. Pairing him with Amen Thompson, an out-of-this-world athlete even compared to his peers in the NBA, makes for a stellar one-two punch for viewers. Many possessions in Houston will end with either a Durant middy or Thompson slicing into the lane with expert precision and only the faintest idea of how he’s going to score once he gets to the basket. Those are both more fun outcomes than most other NBA teams will enjoy on a possession-to-possession basis.
The other possessions will belong to Alperen Şengün, on the verge of a breakout season after outperforming European contemporaries Luka Dončić and Jokić at Eurobasket over the summer. The Turkish center has something of a strange game. His vertical is almost nonexistent and to this point he hasn’t managed to threaten defenses from deep. Yet Şengün gets the job done anyway with meticulous footwork, elite quickness and a fascinating understanding of angles. Şengün’s layups can come from very funky places but swish all the same. As a standalone factor watching a player with subpar athleticism create points is a chore more often than not. But as a chaser to Durant and Thompson, Şengün’s waging war against his own lack of leaping ability to score against the insane athletes of the NBA is a captivating side quest.
Overarching above all this, the Rockets have a quirk factor: The starting lineup is freaking huge! Thompson was the “shortest” player in the starting five for opening night and he measures 6' 7". Steven Adams joins Şengün and Durant to make up a brick wall of a frontcourt. Jabari Smith Jr. is a 6' 11" shooting guard. We have rarely seen such lineups over the history of the league and definitely not in today’s era of pace and space. So Houston gets extra points in that regard. It’s not the first time we’ve ever seen a lineup like that, but the Rockets are clearly interested in seeing if it can work, so we are, too.
San Antonio Spurs
The Spurs are one of the NBA’s most interesting teams entering the new year thanks to the domineering presence of one Victor Wembanyama. The now-7' 6" Frenchman is a rarity of a human being and will draw eyeballs whenever he plays. The fact that he’s good is a bonus for viewers, and he could be very, very good this season. Defense isn’t always easy to enjoy but Wembanyama’s ludicrous proportions that allow him to defend enormous swaths of the floor is unique, so it’s impossible not to appreciate it. Even with his career still young, it wouldn’t be hard to see Wembanyama go down as one of the most effective defenders in history. That sort of career unfolding in front of our eyes demands our attention.
Helpfully, the Spurs have done what they can to put a fun team around their young star, too. De’Aaron Fox is a blur of a point guard who should make for a deeply entertaining pick-and-roll partner for Wembanyama. Next to him, Stephon Castle is a bulldog defender with a penchant for spinning into the lane and slamming it home. We still don’t know what Dylan Harper will be yet, but the incoming No. 2 pick was an electric athlete and scorer at Rutgers. For those who enjoy 7-foot frontcourts and goofy energy, San Antonio’s offseason signing of Luke Kornet will be very additive in regards to watchability. Not only is Kornet a solid role player with a great understanding of what he needs to do each time down the floor, he’s prone to bouts of silliness amid the seriousness of an NBA game. Lineups with him and Wembanyama will be among the most fun in the league, whether due to the blooper factor Kornet brings or the enthralling nature of a two-man game featuring two centers.
Wembanyama’s never-before-seen combination of size and skill will ensure the Spurs stay watchable for as long as he remains in uniform. But those in orbit around him matter a lot. Unlike many of the more traditional stars, Wembanyama won’t be handling the ball every single time down the floor. The game will still warp around him but things will be funneled to the young center rather than originating with him. For Wembanyama to be at his best, San Antonio’s whole system must work in concert. If it doesn’t then the marvel of watching Wembanyama work to reach his potential will still be worthwhile. But if it does it could result in quite a pretty picture. Our bet is that it will.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as NBA Watchability Rankings: Predicting the Five Most Fun Teams to Watch This Season.