6 Budding NBA Teams You'll Want to Watch This Season
Nobody likes a bandwagon fan. You know, a person who jumps on board a particular team's gravy train once said train gets rolling. Someone whose allegiances can be swayed by a passing breeze, like Drake sitting in front of an oscillating Dyson Airblade.
Not that there's anything wrong with taking up one squad or another as a personal favorite. After all, rooting for an exciting, young team that can actually win games is infinitely more fun than, say, hoping and praying that your old, decrepit club can put up an entertaining fight rather than get steamrolled from night to night.
(I'm looking at you, Los Angeles Lakers faithful.)
Whatever the case may be, it never hurts to get ahead of the curve when scoping out the NBA landscape. That way, if you're going to hop onto another bandwagon, you can at least be sure that you won't be the last one on.
With that in mind, here are six squads to consider getting in on early, be it because they are sleepers for this season, could be in the conversation in the years to come and/or should just be fun to watch.
Denver Nuggets
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It seems like so long ago that the Denver Nuggets were League Pass favorites.
They were young and deep and loved to run their opponents off the floor. Not only did the Nuggets not have a bona fide star, but the one they did have (Carmelo Anthony) was traded for so many quality pieces amid such acrimonious circumstances that the team was bound to be among the NBA's most enjoyable.
Then Denver flopped in the playoffs (again), George Karl was ousted, and Masai Ujiri, the man who built that fun-and-gun squad, went to Toronto. The changeover up top would've been enough to nudge the Nuggets out of the playoff picture, even without the injury bug invasion that ensued in 2013-14.
Despite all of that, the Nuggets managed to win 36 games under first-year head coach Brian Shaw. All signs point to them improving on that performance this season.
Arron Afflalo's back, alongside fellow borderline All-Star Ty Lawson. Danilo Gallinari and Nate Robinson have both recovered from their respective knee injuries. JaVale McGee is on the mend. Most exciting of all, Kenneth Faried is coming off a summer during which he shined for Team USA and signed a lucrative extension.
Defense doesn't figure to be Denver's strong suit, not after dropping from 11th in defensive efficiency in 2012-13 to 21st last season, per NBA.com. But if Shaw lets his guys get out and run, the Nuggets should have no trouble piling up points in transition and making the most of their Mile High home-court advantage.
Toronto Raptors
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As mentioned earlier, Masai Ujiri left behind a good situation in Denver for what turned out to be a great one with the Toronto Raptors. Like his Nuggets in 2012-13, Ujiri's Raptors emerged as one of basketball's best feel-good stories on the way to snagging a No. 3 seed in the playoffs...and bowing out in the first round.
The Raptors remain the out-and-out favorites to claim a second consecutive Atlantic Division crown, in part because their competition is substandard, to put it lightly. But Toronto owes its primacy therein much more to the return of a core group that went 42-22 after Rudy Gay was traded and should only improve with more experience, both individually and collectively.
Jonas Valanciunas is due for a bona fide breakout in year three—perhaps even one that'll force Charles Barkley to learn his name. Terrence Ross emerged as a deadly three-point threat last year. DeMar DeRozan was an All-Star, and Kyle Lowry, who re-signed for four years and $48 million, certainly should've been. Lou Williams and James Johnson both project as quality contributors off the bench, while the Brazilian duo of Bruno Caboclo and Lucas "Bebe" Nogueira should be fan favorites, if only because most of their experience will come during garbage time.
Breaking up the Chicago-Cleveland pairing atop the Eastern Conference will be a tall order, but with the Washington Wizards already reeling from another injury to Bradley Beal, the Raptors look like the best bet to upset the presumed order—if not inject themselves into it.
Detroit Pistons
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The Detroit Pistons will be looking to do what the Raptors did last season.
That is, end a lengthy playoff drought. This once-proud franchise hasn't sniffed the postseason since 2009, when LeBron James' Cleveland Cavaliers sent it packing after all of four games.
Five years (and five coaches) later, the Pistons finally appear poised to make some noise again. For all of his front-office follies, former general manager and franchise legend Joe Dumars didn't leave the cupboard bare for Stan Van Gundy. The trio of Josh Smith, Greg Monroe and Andre Drummond makes for an awkward fit, but Van Gundy has shown this preseason that he's more than willing to stagger their minutes, especially if it means fewer outside shots for Smith.
"He has an understanding of how he needs to play for our team; it's the discipline to do it,'' Van Gundy told The Detroit Free Press' Perry Farrell. "He's a smart guy. He knows and he's not trying to fight you about anything. We need to put him around the basket and at the elbow area, where he can use his strength.''
The bigger piece of the puzzle, though, is Drummond. The UConn product has All-Star written all over him after a season in which he averaged 13.5 points, 13.2 rebounds and 1.6 blocks and a summer spent bathing in Team USA's Midas touch. The thinking is that Van Gundy should be able to mold Drummond into a franchise cornerstone, just as he did with Dwight Howard in Orlando, even more so now that Detroit actually has some perimeter shooters of whom to speak.
At the very least, the Pistons should be well worth watching for the emergence of Drummond as one of the NBA's next great centers.
Minnesota Timberwolves
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No NBA team has gone longer without a playoff appearance than the Minnesota Timberwolves. It's been a decade since Kevin Garnett, Sam Cassell and Latrell Sprewell sparked the T-Wolves to their first and only Western Conference Finals, wherein they lost to the Lakers.
That drought doesn't figure to end during the 2014-15 season, to put it mildly. Flip Saunders did well to flip Kevin Love, Luc Richard Mbah a Moute and Alexey Shved for Andrew Wiggins, Anthony Bennett and Thaddeus Young, but this squad is still light-years away from postseason participation in the ever-crowded Western Conference. This campaign will be replete with growing pains for Minny, which lacks much in the way of cogent veteran leadership to mentor many youngsters at Saunders' disposal.
That being said, this team should have little trouble filling its fair share of highlight reels. Among Wiggins, Bennett, Young, Zach LaVine and Corey Brewer, this team is replete with athletic wings and forwards who can run the floor and rock the rim.
And who better to feed them the rock than Ricky Rubio, a premier passer who has yet to sign an extension to stay in Minneapolis long-term?
Such a style would be nothing short of poetic, given this team's seemingly never-ending transition from Western Conference bottom feeder to team of the future.
Milwaukee Bucks
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While Wiggins is toiling in the Land of 10,000 Lakes, Jabari Parker, the No. 2 pick in the 2014 NBA draft, will be busy plying his trade one state over with the Milwaukee Bucks.
Parker would be enough to make the Bucks must-see League Pass TV all on his own. The Chicago native came into the league with the chops of a go-to scorer and has already delivered to some extent by notching double figures in each of his preseason appearances.
But Milwaukee's promise extends far beyond the point-producing exploits of one precocious kid.
There are also the adventures at point guard of another teenager, the 6'11" Giannis Antetokounmpo; the return of Larry Sanders, a budding Defensive Player of the Year candidate as recently as 2012-13; the growth of Brandon Knight, who, like Parker, was a Gatorade National Player of the Year in high school; and the arrival of Jason Kidd, who strong-armed his way out of Brooklyn over the summer.
"I think once [the Nets] OK'd the talk to Milwaukee, that just showed, whatever you want to call it, rumors or no rumors that they wanted to fire me in December had to have some legs," Kidd told ESPNNewYork.com's Ohm Youngmisuk.
Kidd should be under no such pressure to win right away in Milwaukee, given the youth of the Bucks roster. But there's quite a bit of talent on hand in Brew Town, and if Kidd can find a way to fit it all together, the Bucks could be back in the business of winning basketball games much sooner than expected.
New Orleans Pelicans
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It's a testament to the strength of the Western Conference that the New Orleans Pelicans are considered fringe playoff contenders.
Yes, those same Pelicans who are led by two All-Stars (Anthony Davis and Jrue Holiday), two other borderline All-Star talents (Eric Gordon and Tyreke Evans), one of the NBA's pre-eminent stretch 4s (Ryan Anderson) and a premier defensive center (Omer Asik).
Granted, New Orleans could leave behind the fringes in a hurry if it can actually stay healthy. Each of its core players missed at least 10 games last season, with Holiday and Anderson combining to play just 56 games between them.
As The Times-Picayune's John Reid wrote, that group should have no trouble scoring points, so long as they can, you know, play together:
"They clearly have offensive firepower. Power forward Anthony Davis has shown more ability in the preseason to make pull-up shots from mid-range and also overpower frontcourt players in the post. ... Point guard Jrue Holiday's has demonstrated ability to drive and shoot. Starting shooting guard Eric Gordon has been aggressive toward attacking the basket. Power forward Ryan Anderson has been splendid stretching defenses with his 3-point shooting ability.
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In short, as head coach Monty Williams told The Times-Picayune, "Health has given us more weapons."
Which other teams belong on this list? Tweet me your picks!
