(Approximately) 30 Thoughts On 30 NBA Teams, 2026-’27 Edition
Thanks for joining us for the #KnicksIn5 summer. What began with Clyde Frazier riding down Manhattan’s Canyon of Heroes in the same 1952 Chrysler Imperial that the Apollo 11 astronauts took for their parade route has brought us back here, to the opening night of the NBA season.
For the first time in 53 years, your defending champions are the New York Knickerbockers. Clyde rode in that Chrysler during their championship parade in June. By most stretches of definition and imagination, I am not a parade person.
Nevertheless, I went to the parade. Life advice: Go to the parade.
Two million people in lower Manhattan sounds like a nightmare to many of you, but the estimated 23% of the city that showed up from 6 a.m. onward had a day unlike any other (some of us even took advantage of the early voting day in the city primaries). By scalable comparison, 29% of Raleigh’s pop showed up for the Carolina Hurricanes’ Stanley Cup parade; more on their team’s governing group later, but that looked like a revitalizing time as well, albeit for a team and fanbase that hadn’t waited nearly as long.
Go to the parade.
Taking it all in totality, there were a few moments this summer when I figured now might be the best time to close up this shop, give up the dot-com and let the archives last as long as WordPress would allow them to, which, given the state of most things, probably means we would have until about the end of the decade or so to post and read posts until private equity strikes again, sending us to the Wayback Machine.
After all, if there are main pillars of this site’s existence so far, two of them have been Russell Westbrook and the general existence, which in the actual texts of the posts here I’ve probably most often described as a “plight,” of the New York Knicks. The latter won a championship – do you remember when the New York Knicks won the 2026 NBA championship, which we predicted right here in this very column a year ago? That was awesome – and the former unexpectedly-expectedly retired, closing out a career of spellbinding, quixotic performance unique within the sport.
There is even renewed interest, however muted, of this site’s namesake eventually getting into the Hall of Fame. So, like the Knicks, like Russ, like Robert Horry, and like you, we persist. Happy hunting for your own parade moments, folks, wherever and however you can get them.
Atlanta Hawks: Let’s hear it for the only team to hold a lead over the eventual 2026 NBA champion New York Knicks in a playoff series. At 2-1, it looked like CJ McCollum was going to vanquish the Knicks, a partial tribute to he and his old buddy Damian Lillard’s electrifying playoff runs in the PDX, but it was not meant to be.
As always, shout out to CJ, my fellow September 1991 baby, I wish a hearty wine harvest and comfortable thereafter. Thank you for igniting The Only Playoff Run. In the spirit of this site, he might be the greatest player never to make an All-Star team. We know he’s deserving.
After trading Trae Young – can’t be moved to care if he would’ve made a difference in that series, nope – and handing the keys to Jalen Johnson, the Hawks rolled into last year’s playoffs on fire, winning 19 of their final 24 down the stretch, including eleven straight at one point.
Those Hawks looked like a different style of basketball not fully formed. Every iteration of a post-star team has promise, broths in search of their proteins.
Quin Snyder enters his fourth year at the helm with rising expectations in the league’s most depleted division. Lu Dort arrives with championship pedigree, as does Aaron Wiggins, though if OKC is trading for your future draft picks, you ought to second-, third- and fourth-guess the decision you’re making.
Boston Celtics: All’s well that ends well! The Celtics-Jaylen Brown split does not appear to have ended well. After winning a championship together in 2024 only for Brown to declare last season his favorite ever, the Jaylen-Jayson Tatum buddy cop show that has been playing at TD Garden for the past eight years is no more.
Now, the direction of the team is entirely in Tatum’s purview. Whether that leads to increased Mazzullaball remains to be seen – Boston fell to a lowly fourth in three-point attempt rate last season, as only 46.9% of their shots were threes, down from an NBA-record 53.6% in 2024-’25. Brown himself attempted the fewest threes/shot attempt since his rookie year (26%), so swapping him out for Paul George, a whopping 49.7% of whose shots came from distance a year ago, likely has Mazzulla dreaming of true five-out lineups in which no player save Mitchell Robinson crosses the three-point line. It’s a shame to see such a devout man turning to such diabolical places.
Brooklyn Nets: In that town, right now? Please. Hoping that Julius Randle goes for 40 every night is, though, a readily viable deed.
Chicago Bulls:
This team is not going to be good, but they have a few enticing bigs, including #4 overall pick Caleb Wilson out of UNC, and a coach in Tiago Splitter who has endured adversity. Given that alleged scoundrel Josh Giddey will be running the offense, that experience may prove useful.
Charlotte Hornets: While it doesn’t feel entirely fair for the Hornets to have finally shipped off their former franchise talisman, LaMelo Ball, after the January onward that Charlotte had, it was time for the team to move on in some form or fashion. Despite the fact that Ball played the most games (72) since his All-Star season in 2022, the Hornets shipped him to Minnesota for Naz Reid and draft picks, turning the page on chapters in the books of both the Charlotte NBA franchise and Charlotte municipal traffic enforcement.
Whether they could’ve been a fringy 50+ win team this year feels a bit immaterial given the current focus, which is the continued development of Kon Knueppel and Brandon Miller, the former of whom probably should’ve won Rookie of the Year last season and will have a closer lens on him this year, and the latter of whom probably deserved a closer judicial lens on him after he lent a gun to his teammate at Alabama, who then used it to kill Jamea Jonae Harris in 2023[1].
Both of these dudes are All-Star level talents, either and/or both of whom could get their first nod this year. Coby White slots in nicely as an efficient starter who won’t need the ball as much as his predecessor, with Reid presumably moving into a starting role and Moussa Diabate completing the lineup.
Dennis Schroder arrives as a backup; he should be exactly the kind of veteran presence head coach Charles Lee can continue to utilize down the stretch of close games, which will increasingly turn in the Hornets’ favor. In Lee’s first two seasons, Charlotte has gone from a 19- to a 44-win team, and their coalescence in the final three months of last season should have some carryover. They know and trust each other at this point; it might be time for the Charlotte Hornets to go ahead and be the fringy 50+ win team anyway.
Cleveland Cavaliers: Reports indicate that because they hadn’t traded for James Harden yet, at that time, that the Cleveland Cavaliers looked like an East favorite at this time a year ago. They looked like an East favorite, to some degree, until, with 7:52 left in the fourth of G1 of the conference finals, the Cavs forgot that James Harden has to play both ways, and Landry Shamet revitalized.
Trading Max Strus for Peyton Watson figures to shore up some of the defense without losing too much shooting. Thomas Bryant is back, and Mario Hezonja (!) has returned to the league.
It isn’t even enough for comic sans talisman Dan Gilbert to buy in, at least not yet. The core has returned, but something seems primed to change before-or-at the trade deadline.
Dallas Mavericks: Dwight Powell was on the Dallas Mavericks in the very last XBox 360 game I ever got new, NBA2K15. On Tuesday, the Mavericks waived their longest-tenured member, another unceremonious conclusion to a Dallas tenure. Let’s hope he signs somewhere soon so that we all get the glory of a tribute video upon his return to Dallas featuring many box outs and offensive rebounds.
Denver Nuggets: Sixth Man Of The Year candidate DeMar DeRozan is, along with Dylan Harper, a leader in the clubhouse, and for several good reasons: for the first time in his career, DeRozan will be bench squad full-time; he’s always been a voluminous, yet efficient-enough scorer, and there’s nothing this voting bloc loves more than a shot of espresso who can get you 12 points in eight minutes; and the Nuggets figure to be serious contenders, at least nominally, which means an increased spotlight and less opportunity for empty calorie scoring, at least in theory.
Detroit Pistons: After much hemming and hawing, Jalen Duren came around on the five-year, $200 million extension. As a result, J.B. Bickerstaff and co. can return to the business of attempting to win the East with a shot profile resembling that of the 1963 Boston Celtics. With MVP contender Cade Cunningham at the helm, the Pistons are going to have to figure out how to attack defenses in the playoffs, when the game slows and differentiation in three-point shooting between teams gains a spotlight.
John Collins arrives, a Clippers refugee who adds some spacing – he shot over 40% on a little over 3 three-point attempts per game last season – and whose pick-and-pop game should lend itself to Cade and the further development of Ausar Thompson. Speaking of which: if the jump shot and handle that Thompson has flashed in the preseason stay with any consistency whatsoever, the calculus on this team changes completely.
Golden State Warriors: How much does Steph Curry, buried deeply in the thumping organ that launched both the Warriors and him into a generational stratosphere (and, not for nothing, a new arena in SanFran-proper), want to go full Autumnal Kobe and launch every shot possible, all the time? How many three-pointers could he reasonably get up and maintain something around the 40% shooting rate he’s maintained the past three seasons? 15? 20? The guy is about to be 38, and while we’ve been unusually enamored of aging stars being able to maintain beyond generally-accepted expiration dates, he arrived on campus at Davidson twenty years ago.
Iggy’s retired, Klay’s long gone, Draymond is in line to be the most “eye of the beholder” trade piece in recent memory, and eventually Jimmy Butler’s coming back. This is a team relying on 60+ healthy games – including the playoffs, ideally – of Kristaps Porzingis, a grotesque and unreliable figure, but don’t worry, 40-years-young Al Horford is here. Every year we ask how much more Steve Kerr has left. Is engaging in the tutelage of Yaxel Lendeborg enough?
Houston Rockets: Instantly, the proposition: this is the most dangerous team in the West. Fred VanVleet has won a championship and returns from injury with exactly the kind of burn a team needs from a point guard. Kevin Durant, recently 38 years and counting of him, already inhabits the LeBron territory of “I cannot be the best player on this team and win every night, but I can be the best player on this team and win most nights.” That’s fine: Alperen Şengün and Amen Thompson are here to shoulder a share of the points.
Ime Udoka is putting a lot of responsibility on the craftfully aged Durant, VanVleet coming off of injury and – uh-oh! – Steven Adams, who is suddenly 33. Then again: Reed Sheppard has legitimate Sixth Man aspirations, one leap behind him and with possibly another to come. Among individual players, Şengün needs to be the West tastemaker to be seizing the stake if the Rockets have any chance in this cross-functional era; he is a two-time defending All-Star with All-NBA implications buried deep within his soul.
Tari Eason and Jabari Smith are the youthful hopes and ne’er-do-wells that propel this dream along. It would be the all-time fuck you to literally the entire basketball-watching populace if Kevin Durant won a title with the Houston Rockets, the many withouts built into the proposition.
As all basketball teams are now built on if-if-if, so go the Rockets. If, though, Durant pulls this particular one off, his smile will have earned an extra crinkle.
Indiana Pacers: Instantly, the reality: this is the most dangerous team in the East. Tyrese Haliburton returns to a slightly different setup – where is Benn Mathurin, Hali must be wondering – but one largely not so far removed from putting up a fight in Game 7 of an NBA Finals against what was perceived to be an all-conquering juggernaut. The Pacers carry an unusual number of unknowns into this season, but assuming Haliburton retains his masterly efficient playmaking ability and keeps the Pacers offense rolling, they may very well return to the conference finals. Rematch ahead?
Los Angeles Clippers: Well, these guys will not be holding anything back on any given night. Why bother? Following the Kawhi Leonard investigation and subsequent draft pick forfeiture, as well as his own contract considerations via a player option that came up this summer, Darius Garland is going to be fronting the version of a basketball team largely locked into its roster and with little flexibility. In the extended absences of Brandon Ingram and Max Strus, Garland will be gunning for All-Star consideration. Keaton Wagler is the incoming top-five pick, and Rui Hachimura is constantly hitting over 40% from three. However few and far between, there will be games when the Clippers will be incredible television.
Los Angeles Lakers: This is it. Having co-piloted the purple and gold for the past two seasons with LeBron James, in a post-Buss family world, the Lakers belong to Luka Doncic. The supporting cast includes a newly-reupped Austin Reaves, Jarred Vanderbilt and Walker Kessler, whom Lakers brass decided was worth the rights to four first round picks. His skill set would figure to fit snugly next to Doncic’s, with the absolute ceiling looking something like the peak Harden-Dwight Howard Rockets on offense. Somehow Bronny James is still here, apart from his father: he’s a man now.
Memphis Grizzlies: Grit ‘N’ Grind begat the Ja Morant-JJJ-Bane era, and now the Grizz begin fresh again. In handing the keys to 19-year-old Cameron Boozer, Memphis decidedly turns the page to world-building, hoping vets like Ty Jerome and Jerami Grant can guide what is otherwise a kennel of pups: Zach Edey, Cedric Coward, Jaylen Wells and former South Carolina Gamecock GG Jackson comprise much of the focus of the season ahead. Spiritually always on the Memphis Grizzlies, Isaiah Stewart arrives.
Miami Heat: This Heat season comes down to what Giannis and Bam can do in playing off of each other, which means it might come down to how Erik Spoelstra manages their rotations. It is entirely possible that their dual strengths on both ends get the Heat into the top six, somewhere near 50 wins. With all due respect to Davion Mitchell and short guards everywhere, though, the lack of playmaking lead guard is going to stick in their craw until and unless they address it, ideally before the playoffs. [Totally unrelatedly, to either reality or the NBA’s salary cap: how has James Harden never played for the Miami Heat?]
Milwaukee Bucks: Dealing away arguably the greatest player in franchise history, the guy who used to hitchhike to the arena and run outdoors to practice, has long felt in the cards for the Bucks, who hit a hard reset button this summer. Doc Rivers is gone, with Taylor Jenkins stepping into place; having previously steered a young team to unprecedented heights. This will be an uphill battle for a variety of reasons: Damian Lillard, also gone, is the third highest-paid player on the team and will be making $22.5 million of that sweet New Fortress Energy and Vornado money until the end of the decade; Myles Turner is the best player on the team(?); and Kyle Kuzma thinks he’s the best player on the team(!). So begins a period of the Milwaukee Bucks’ history in which nearly making the playoffs may end up being the best memory of a five-year stretch.
Minnesota Timberwolves:
[A prayer]
LORD,
Please bless the good people of Minneapolis and St. Paul,
For if LaMelo Ball decides to throw snow tires on a Cybertruck
and go sludging around parking lots in public parks,
They will know no peace.
Haven’t they been through enough?
Amen.
New Orleans Pelicans:
(Here is Ben Mathurin btw)
We’re all awaiting Zion. In this case, it is a Zion that may never arrive fully-functioning. The times on the bench and away from the game are now so numerous that the glimpses and stretches of promise fulfillment have overwhelmed the expectation entirely. All Zion Williamson has now, and likely for the remainder of his time in New Orleans, is the idea of salvaging the promise.
New York Knicks: This team will not go 0-82, but they could, and I would be no less an enthusiastic supporter. Bled across each chamber of my heart and in all fibers of my being:
I hope every sports fan, including you, gets a moment like that at least once in their lives. By that, I mean this: lose all hope, minus 1%. Abandon it *almost* completely. Let it lose you, too. Make giving up your team the fool’s errand, but don’t make giving up the sport entirely the heroic deed. Stay in the game you adore enough to know how your team is doing. If you can, remember why you love the sport itself, and work backward. If you time things right, the love of the game and the love of the team will create a gorgeous eclipse that, only then, escape the trappings of what you know is possible, relatable, and easy to describe.
At some point, that Venn-Diagram ceases to exist, and the New York Knicks went careening past that point during the 2026 playoffs at such a pace that we’ll still have to be explaining just what it is that we saw for a spell or two. James Harden at the center of a historic collapse is one thing; the shortest All-Star taking it all the way to the tallest All-Star is quite another.
Following a coaching search initially ripe with embarrassment as the Knicks cycled through candidates in the wake of canning Tom Thibodeau, Mike Brown came in, turned everybody’s minutes down a bit and pulled off the Mike Keenan, winning a long-awaited title for a Madison Square Garden franchise in his first season at the helm. Unlike the subsequent falling out between Keenan and the Rangers in 1995, however, Brown returns with a largely stocked cabinet, prepared to make a run at the repeat.
Via an almost immediately post-title radio appearance, The Knicks Incorporated announced that the team found going into the second apron “suicidal,” which is the brand of extreme and sensational language people in power co-opt in moments of desperation. It’s also a bit of rare honesty. To the governing class, spending more of their own money is suicidal – it’s everyone else who needs to be spending to keep the wheels greased.
During the NBA lockout following the 1998 season, Patrick Ewing famously blessed us with “NBA players make a lot of money, but we spend a lot of money, too.” Mitchell Robinson is gone, the key second apron casualty, leaving a backup center role that is the Knicks’ biggest weakness. NBA governing groups make a lot of money; what if they spent a lot of money, too?
Don’t worry, though: the rest of the good time gang returns. Jalen Brunson, Karl-Anthony Towns, Josh Hart, Mikal Bridges and the bench mob know they have a target on their backs. Because they can’t get over their own habitual weirdness, the team via, ahem, Him Rollin’ issued a statement regarding the pausing of contract extension talks for both of them, after the principal involved.
They don’t care. They are the defending champions. There haven’t been defending conference champions, even, since Kevin Durant was on the Warriors. They don’t care. They are the best team in the East. They’ll get every team’s best shot and lose a couple of otherwise inexplicable blowouts. They don’t care. They are the home team that brings the Garden on the road.
With salary cap nuances and player health top of mind, winning two titles in a row is inching toward an unreasonable ask; winning two conference titles in a row might end up being the new standard, and this is a team that can and will do that. Big questions await, specifically regarding the center position ahead of the trade deadline and the contract situations after that. They don’t care. The New York Knicks will win the East, breaking one streak but maintaining another.
They will repeat as NBA Cup Champions, however, and Jalen Brunson will be the Clutch Player Of The Year again.
Oklahoma City Thunder: Following an all-time conference finals in which they, as defending champions, lost in a seventh game on their home floor, OKC figures to return attempting to rip the torch back. After all, their 2025 title was the culmination of two decades’ worth of Sam Presti promise and delivery, albeit in staggered and staggering fashion. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is a two-time defending MVP and, on any given night, the baddest man walking. This is supposed to be their time.
Who do the San Antonio Spurs think they are? They had their five championships in fifteen years. Sure, Isaiah Joe and Lu Dort are gone, but talking about them is having already forgotten about the other Jaylin Williams on the roster. The other Jalen, SGA and Chet Holmgren are essentially locked in through 2031. If any team has been almost ritualistically built for a flattening of responsibilities across current available resources, it is this iteration of the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Point being: Chet is going to have to step up to Wemby and average more than his height in a series between those two teams if the Thunder should expect to retain their place on the West mantle. Giving credence to the fact that there haven’t been repeat champions since 2019, this core seems too good to leave their legacy in the singular. As the series extend in the playoffs, and especially in the West, every recouped game matters. This isn’t to suggest that not making the Finals a season ago was their goal, but rather that the extra on-court time on the players’ bodies adds up. In an NBA of infinitely-thinning margins, the extra two weeks of rest from having missed last year’s Finals may well be a fringe benefit for the Thunder this season.
This version of the Thunder would, then, figure to have a solid-but-not-spectacular regular year, a win total in the low-60s being just solid for them, only to turn up the intensity in the postseason. Something about this group, though, suggests they want the one-seed again. San Antonio proved home court advantage didn’t matter in last year’s playoffs, but the Thunder will look to send a message that they are not yet to be overlooked.
The majority of minutes here remain under the age of 30. The postseason runs have begun to stack, but there is plenty of mileage left on the collective tires. Mark Daignault has another year of tape on Wemby, albeit one in which he went 4-8 against Mitch Johnson and the Spurs. OKC isn’t done yet. Jalen Williams returns, as do full-year versions of Jared McCain and Ajay Mitchell. This team is simply too deep to choose against on most nights.
A year following a disappointment they should’ve seen coming and adjusted for, the Oklahoma City Thunder will return to the NBA Finals, claiming their second championship in three years. Only then do the financial spreadsheets start pushing this team toward its demise.
Orlando Magic: This is getting into make-or-break territory for the Paolo Banchero-Franz Wagner pairing. One coach, Jamahl Mosley, is already out, and Sean Sweeney, most recently of the Spurs, gets his first shot as a head coach in the NBA. While both of his leading men have missed games the past two seasons, it is the defensive fit that stands as the biggest challenge.
The Magic brought Desmond Bane in a year ago to shore up some of that responsibility, shooting an admirable 48/39/91 split along the way, but Orlando only won 45 games. Though they took the Detroit Pistons to seven in the first round, underwhelming during the regular season and stumbling into that matchup should be a wake-up call for a team that, on paper, sees itself as a top four squad in the conference. If they are again hovering around .500 at the trade deadline, the Magic could be movers again.
Philadelphia 76ers: At most, this core has two shots at a title run. Age, current contracts and the expected extension for Tyrese Maxey have this version of the Sixers on a hard timer, but the run to that particular buzzer should prove to be captivating.
Balancing the minutes of LeBron James, Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey, VJ Edgecombe and Jaylen Brown will be a test for Nick Nurse, given each players’ various injury histories and perceived on-court limitations (see: Jaylen Brown driving, or not, with his left hand).
Losing Ariel Hukporti for the season in the first preseason game, against the very team with whom he just won an NBA title (the New York Knicks, who won the 2026 NBA Championship), is a rough blow to a team that desperately needs its presumptive core healthy -specifically- come the playoffs.
Watching LeBron James play basketball will never cease to be a gift; one of the more incredible parts of his journey has been his actual evolution as a player, and how he reaches the final stages of that process with this team surrounding him, expressly stating that he wants to act as a mentor, will be a fascinating scene to watch unfold.
There will be nights when LeBron is playing center out of necessity, which may be something like the best of all possible worlds. Inverting James and Embiid is a possibility on either end of the floor as well, freeing the latter to save his body against some of the league’s stouter bigs.
Phoenix Suns: This year, we find out how much Devin Booker trusts Jalen Green, together. The clock is already ticking on Booker, whose current contract concludes with a $68 million player option next year, in what will be his age-33 season. Though they figure to be decent in what will be a tortuous West, the rest of the Suns roster is why Kevin Durant feels empowered to run at Mat Ishbia on social media. Also, this is where Miles Bridges ended up rather than out of the league at the very least, which is why the rest of us should feel empowered to run at Mat Ishbia on social media.
Portland Trail Blazers: A year after Chauncey Billups found himself in the threatening gumbo of a RICO gambling investigation, new governor Tom Dundon rolled into town fresh off of winning a Stanley Cup on the other coast with the Carolina Hurricanes – full of promise, in other words, in the eyes of Portland fans willing enough to ignore his long track record. Immediately he began to look at the franchise with a consulting lens, started cutting things like the second mascot, and brought in distressed asset (certainly, in his eyes) Ja Morant. With a returning Damian Lillard and Jrue Holiday helping to guide the ship, the best-case scenario involves Morant and he staying healthy enough to help out Deni Avdija, who’d rather we all not talk about his IDF background.
Sacramento Kings:
Until very recently, both of Elfrid Payton and Ben Simmons were on the Sacramento Kings. Seek Darius Acuff highlights if you must, and hope Domas Sabonis achieves freedom. Zach LaVine’s $48 million player option is a prison, and the Kings may try to buy him out anyway. Do not watch this team if you are in search of the good ball.
San Antonio Spurs: Victor will return with a vengeance. Having already overwhelmed their chief rivals in the Thunder in a conference finals Game 7 on the road, San Antonio knows it is a championship-level team. Mitch Johnson into his second full year in the toughest follow-up gig since Phil Jackson left [choose your fighter], and the Spurs’ Finals experience should further equip him with tools to counter.
What remains in question is how to split the difference between Dylan Harper, who had a breakout playoffs and was an especially effective rookie in the Finals, and De’Aaron Fox, whose play warrants a starting role most of the time and whose contract warrants a starting role all of the time. Fox had a notably underwhelming Finals; in his restless dreams, he sees OG Anunoby chasing him down with a completely blank face, visions of The Devil Wears Prada 2 in the backs of his eyes. It is lonely going in for a layup on a breakaway, lonelier still when you end up in Iguodala territory.
Toronto Raptors: Imagine having an “environmental company” set up a fake sponsorship, and the story about it being fake being a scandal that undoes an entire NBA franchise. Imagine doing that a few times over, even, for the love of the game. Now imagine a full-scale investigation featuring you and, for better and worse, your favorite uncle. Kawhi Leonard is The Stranger; he is Charles Bronson in The Great Escape. The Los Angeles Clippers, whatever happened there…anyway, he’s here to lead Scottie Barnes and the bunch on another trip through the Eastern Conference, in which he has only ever spent a single season in his career. Surely, he saw Collin Murray-Boyles put up 14 per game in the first round series against Cleveland last year and felt inspired. There is a version of this team that makes the Eastern Conference Finals. That almost certainly and solely depends on Kawhi.
Utah Jazz: Stay with me on this: the pieces here are a bit mismatched but have spark. Rookie Darryn Peterson joins Keyonte George, Jaren Jackson Jr., Lauri Markkanen and, eventually, Jusuf Nurkic in the starting lineup, the latter recovering from a broken toe. Will Hardy is going to have to deal with an extremely light center rotation in light of the Nurkic injury and having traded Walker Kessler to the Lakers, but there is enough talent here for Utah to be competitive against any team on any given night, as well as hanging around the fight for the play-in.
Washington Wizards: Last year, DeAndre Ayton, number one overall pick in the 2018 draft, played with Luka Doncic, the number three pick in that draft, and will play with Trae Young, the number five pick in that draft, with the Wizards this season. Wendell Carter Jr., Kevin Knox and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander are now on notice: DeAndre Ayton will be coming to your team.
[1] Credit where it’s due for getting Miles Bridges up and out of Buzz City.
