The Teams I'll Be Watching
As John Schumann from NBA.com pointed out earlier this week (always read John by the way), the NBA season is now two-thirds complete. It's tempting to view the All-Star break as the halfway mark, but that is just not the case. We are now officially out of the dog days and into the home stretch. And as we enter it, I thought I'd spend some time talking about the teams I'm most excited to watch as we near the postseason.
There are frankly, a lot of teams that I'm not interested in watching – more than a third of the league. That is partially due to style of play, and partially due to tanking. Tanking is the topic du jour right now, and I want to address it at some point, but I have what I think is a relatively unique idea for it and want to spend some more time with it before I put it down on paper, so that it's not just a hot take when I do.
Let's kick this off. I separated this into five categories. In each category, the team listed first is the one that most embodies that category, with the relevance trailing off as each list progresses.
Tanking into oblivion
Utah Jazz, Sacramento Kings, Dallas Mavericks, Memphis Grizzlies, Chicago Bulls
Utah should be more watchable because they have legitimately good and interesting players, but at this point I don't trust them to ever stop tanking, and so don't see the point in investing any time in watching them. They clearly have no incentive stop tanking, and very plainly lied about their intentions heading into the season, which I really don't care for. Sacramento is hopeless, Kyrie Irving officially isn't coming back, and Memphis and Chicago are directionless.
Style of Play/I Just Don't Like Them
Orlando Magic, Milwaukee Bucks, Los Angeles Clippers, New Orleans Pelicans, Atlanta Hawks, Miami Heat, Golden State Warriors
The race for my least favorite team is neck and neck, but Orlando currently beats Milwaukee out by a little because Milwaukee is so hopeless. Orlando learned nothing last offseason, and they need to change Paulo Banchero's focus. When he was drafted, he got a lot of Jayson Tatum comps, but it's clear that he is more like Giannis Antetokounmpo. Banchero just can't shoot (his 3PT% is down to a near-career low .302 this season) and I don't see that changing. The sooner the Magic admit this, the better. I'm not holding my breath on this season being when they do.
The Clippers are trying to tank and also not tank at the same time. Make up your mind. Also, I couldn't stand Kawhi Leonard even before the Aspiration scandal. The Pelicans are playing all their guys, but have the same record as teams tanking, which is just depressing. Atlanta now has no player who's a legitimate superstar, and are essentially hoping for lottery luck. I was so wrong about this team. I don't understand how I was right about the effect Nickeil Alexander-Walker would have, but the team is still really bad. Mystifying. I'm not sure how Quinn Snyder is still there.
I almost broke out Miami and Golden State into a separate category of teams I sort of begrudgingly watch sometimes because I respect their overall body of work without enjoying the experience of each individual game, but I think down the stretch, it's going to be moot, so I left them here.
Teams I Will Watch But I'm Going to Choose Other Teams if I Have a Choice
Brooklyn Nets, Phoenix Suns, Portland Trail Blazers, Indiana Pacers, Toronto Raptors, Los Angeles Lakers, Oklahoma City Thunder
There are a lot of fun players on Brooklyn, and it seems like they really crushed that Michael Porter Jr. trade. Phoenix I haven't watched much. That may change as Jalen Green gets more acclimated. I really very strongly dislike Toumani Camara, and I'm not a big Deni Avdija fan either, but Portland does have Jrue Holiday and Robert Williams III, so those things cancel each other out.
On the nights when Indiana is really pushing – like any game they play vs. the Knicks, for example – they're still a lot of fun to watch, even without Tyrese Haliburton. But those games have become more rare as the season has progressed and they have realized they can get a top-five pick. They will be a lot better next season, potentially better than they were in 2024-2025. The Zubac-Mathurin trade is a home run for them personnel wise, though I still don't like trading two first round picks for Zubac.
Toronto, LA, and OKC are kind of in the same camp as Indiana – sometimes they're really fun to watch, and sometimes they are a tough watch. I think at this point OKC is having the same season Boston did last season. They're cruising, and so it all seems fine on paper. But much like with Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis last season, the longer we go without seeing Jalen Williams, Isaiah Hartenstein, and Alex Caruso be at 100%, the less likely they are to just snap back into top form for the playoffs. The latter group is younger, so their odds are higher, but I still just remember the slowly dawning realization last season that when Jrue couldn't stay with Jalen Brunson in Game 1 of the second round after taking off the final three games of round one, and how hard it was going to be win if that was real. And it was. OKC may be in for that kind of a playoff run.
Team I Was Genuinely Excited to Watch But I No Longer Am
Houston Rockets
It's getting harder to make the claim that Ime Udoka is an elite head coach. Why is Aaron Holiday still playing 13 minutes per game on this team? Why is Dorian Finney-Smith such a zero this season? Why can't they teach Alperen Şengün (.497/.299/.691 this season) how to shoot? Seriously! This season, 27 players 6'11" or taller have played at least 1,000 minutes. Of them, Şengün has the worst eFG%, and it isn't close. At least Amen Thompson plays great defense. I have no idea why Şengün was an All-Star over Thompson. The NBA media needs to collectively be smarter than that.
But the biggest indictment of Houston and Udoka is that they played a back-to-back against Boston and Charlotte earlier this month, and quit in both games in the third quarter. The Rockets have been a massive disappointment thus far. A month ago, you could point to their road-heavy schedule, but they have now played the same number of home games as the Spurs and Lakers, and just one fewer than Denver. And they are still much closer to being in seventh place than they are second. And because they don't have a ton of ways to make dramatic change in the offseason if they won't/can't trade Fred VanVleet, if they bow out in the first round again, it could absolutely cost Udoka his job. This season, he won't have Jalen Green and Dillon Brooks as easy scapegoats.
Teams I Am Genuinely Excited to Watch
Boston Celtics, Charlotte Hornets, Detroit Pistons, San Antonio Spurs, Cleveland Cavaliers, NY Knicks, Philadelphia 76ers, Minnesota Timberwolves, Washington Wizards, Denver Nuggets
Obviously I am going to be watching the C's, I haven't missed a game since the Bubble. At this point, Charlotte is a close second. I love watching this Charlotte team. It's really fun watching LaMelo Ball on a good team, and now that he's on one, I think it's time to admit that he was never the problem. I also think Coby White is going to be a hand-in-glove fit there. Detroit and San Antonio also bring it every night, and they each have enough depth that it's not the same guys clicking every game, which is fun.
Cleveland, in my opinion, was the biggest winner at the trade deadline. James Harden is a perfect fit there, and getting off Darius Garland without having to trade away a first-round pick was huge. I would be floored if Garland ever makes another All-Star team, but then I didn't really think he deserved to be one either of the times he did. And Cleveland built up their depth with their other trades.
New York and Philly are fun to watch, and I also really enjoy their broadcast teams, and I obviously have a greater familiarity with their teams than West teams. I'm rarely rooting for either team to win, mind you, but they're both entertaining teams to watch this season. I just love Anthony Edwards, and while Minnesota's effort and execution is always a question mark, Edwards is so entertaining that he trumps those concerns.
Washington is probably not a team you would expect to see here, but I really do enjoy their young core. Few duos have grown as much this season as has the duo of Kyshawn George and Alex Sarr:
These are no longer players you have to squint to see the future of. You can see it right now, they are rock solid NBA players who have room to become more, potentially even All-Stars. A lot of people questioned their deadline moves. I didn't. I think George, Sarr, and Tre Johnson are a good core to go with Trae Young and Anthony Davis (or players like them). If Davis doesn't want to play for them, they'll be able to move him, and they'll get more than Dallas did, because Washington won't have any emotional baggage pushing them to just get rid of Davis. That was an all-time headscratching trade by Dallas, and had to be owner motivated. In a vacuum, you just hang on to him.
Anyway, I also like Will Riley, Justin Champagnie, and Bub Carrington as role players on a contending team, and Tristan Vukcevic is kind of frisky too. Bilal Coulibaly can still be a sixth or seventh man on a contending team. And they should get one more high draft pick. I like where Washington is going, and until they get there, the young guys are fun to watch, and George and Sarr especially play with an edge that I like.
Finally, this iteration of the Nuggets are good, harmless fun. They're probably dead in the water at this point for this season, unfortunately. Their planned starting lineup of Nikola Jokić, Jamal Murray, Aaron Gordon, Christian Braun, and Cam Johnson haven't started together since November 12th. More glaringly, since then, they've only had five games where they started four of those five guys. Three of those five games were the final three games before the All-Star break, so maybe they'll finally develop some continuity down the stretch, but it gets late early.