2015-16 NBA Schedule: Breaking Down Top 10 Games of the Season
The NBA released its 2015-16 schedule on Wednesday, which means it's time to get way too excited about games that are months away.
The contests that open the season and Christmas Day games had already been leaked in recent days, but the full release gives us the dates for some of the biggest contests on the calendar overall. Matchups between top picks, renewals of heated rivalries and championship previews adorn the schedule. The great thing about the NBA's glut of talent is that there is never a night lacking an intriguing matchup.
That said, some games are still better than others. What follows is a list of the 10 best matchups on the NBA docket. Now, keep in mind, the game itself isn't the only factor in judging which are the best. Free-agent moves, ongoing rivalries and plain old fun matter too.
With that in mind, click through to see the biggest games on the 2015-16 calendar.
Oct. 28: Oklahoma City Thunder vs. San Antonio Spurs (8 p.m. ET, ESPN)
1 of 10
Bad news for Stephen Curry: The last two non-LeBron James MVPs suffered debilitating and recurrent injuries to their bodies in the following season. Derrick Rose famously tore his ACL and began an odyssey that is still ongoing. Kevin Durant suffered a Jones fracture and has since undergone three procedures on his foot to fix the problem.
While this isn't as serious as Joel Embiid's navicular bone fracture, it's a pretttttty big deal.
Durant, who has not played since last February, will make his return to the floor Oct. 28 against the Spurs. These Thunder are not the same team Durant left. Russell Westbrook became a one-man wrecking crew for the season's stretch run, nearly averaging a triple-double for the final two months while playing without Durant and Serge Ibaka.
The Durant-Westbrook pairing is already the most overanalyzed dynamic in the league. Things are only going to get worse now that Westbrook's had his moment to be the alpha while Durant was out mending an injury. With Durant hitting free agency next summer, every slight bit of turmoil will be viewed as his ticket to D.C. or Los Angeles.
More than any psychoanalysis, it'll just be nice to see Durant play basketball again. He was challenging LeBron's mantle as the best player on the planet before going down, finally emerging as a good creator to go along with his otherworldly scoring ability.
We don't know how Durant's body will withstand the first major injury of his career. It could be a Michael Jordan-esque blip or could ultimately be the thing that removes his cornerstone value.
Let's hope it's the former.
Oct. 30: Cleveland Cavaliers at Miami Heat (7 p.m. ET, ESPN)
2 of 10
LeBron James' first return to Miami will always be the most memorable. Eyes and ears were glued to every reaction—positive or negative—and the Heat's win was one of a few bright spots in an otherwise dark season.
The 2015-16 iterations of these matchups may actually be interesting from a basketball sense. Miami has reloaded in the post-James era, acquiring Goran Dragic to run the point and unearthing Hassan Whiteside from the scrapheap. With the Bulls back to the drawing board under new coach Fred Hoiberg and no other East teams making major moves, one could argue the Heat are Cleveland's biggest competitor in the East.
Of course, there is still a ton of work to be done. The Heat's best bench piece at the moment is Mario Chalmers—who is on the trade block, per the Miami Herald's Barry Jackson—or Justise Winslow, who is a rookie. Josh McRoberts may re-emerge as the playmaking 4 Miami hoped it signed last offseason, but until he proves he's healthy, there are going to be questions.
At the very least, it'll be a fun little matchup after all of that speculation about Wade spurning the Heat to join the Cavs this summer came to the forefront. As flawed as Miami's roster is, these may be the East's two best teams.
Nov. 4: Golden State Warriors vs. Los Angeles Clippers (10:30 p.m. ET, ESPN)
3 of 10
For rivalries to be relevant, their teams have to be the same. Sure, Celtics-Lakers comes with a drove of historical connotations, but right now it has all the excitement value of a Milwaukee-Toronto snoozer on a Tuesday night. Rivalries need animosity; they need battles—not just in the distant past but ones actually relevant to the players on the roster.
You can tell a real rivalry from one manufactured by pregame hype from the moment the ball tips. Never has the laundry the players are wearing mattered less; it's the players inside the cloth who push games to relevancy.
For my money—and yours—the Warriors and Clippers have had the NBA's best rivalry for a few years running. The animosity of the Memphis-Los Angeles rivalry has (slightly) faded as the Grizzlies left the championship scene, but their replacement is even better.
There's another old-school tough guy who hates Blake Griffin (Andrew Bogut). There are hard fouls that straddle the line between competitive and dirty. There are games when players get ejected on Christmas. Do you know how hard it is to be thrown out of your job when working on Christmas?
The best part of the Clippers-Warriors rivalry? The games are actually fun. The Memphis Grizzlies' grit-and-grind style tends to lead to foul-heavy slogs even if you appreciate the competitiveness. These are games between two teams that hate one another that actually play beautiful brands of basketball; it's like a Spurs vs. Spurs scrimmage combined with NBA Street, and it's glorious.
Adding even more intrigue this year are Lance Stephenson, Josh Smith and Paul Pierce, who will add a layer of toughness and unpredictability to an already volatile formula.
Nov. 11: Los Angeles Clippers at Dallas Mavericks (8 p.m. ET, ESPN)
4 of 10
From a basketball perspective, we could probably list 100 games we'd rather see. The Clippers are a championship contender; the Mavericks are headed for a top-10 pick. It'd be a surprise if the Clippers weren't favorites by at least a half-dozen points.
From a personal interest standpoint, all I know is I'll be glued to the pregame intros. Dallas for the most part is considered a lottery team thanks to the now-infamous DeAndre Jordan fiasco. Jordan initially came to a verbal agreement on a four-year max contract with the Mavericks in free agency before waffling in the final days before the moratorium, per ESPN.com.
The situation culminated in one of the oddest days in NBA free-agency history, with members of the Clippers camping out at Jordan's house as the Mavericks desperately tried to steer him back into the fold. Successful from a Clippers perspective, frustrating to the Mavericks and hilarious to anyone without a vested interest in the situation, Jordan's free agency stands out as the most memorable of the offseason.
"You can get caught up in the glitz and the glam of the process,” Jordan said in July, per Lee Jenkins of Sports Illustrated. “But you can’t take any of that process onto the floor, and once it slows down, you think about the basketball again. You think about where you can play the best basketball."
There's no question Jordan will receive one of the worst—if not the worst—receptions of the season. Dallas crowds are typically among the best in the league as is, and Jordan's spurning of the franchise, which arguably put the final nail in the coffin of the Dirk Nowitzki era, isn't going to be treated kindly.
Maybe just, like, flip back and forth when the actual basketball is going on.
Nov. 11: San Antonio Spurs at Portland Trail Blazers (10:30 p.m. ET)
5 of 10
LaMarcus Aldridge spent nine years in Portland. He helped bridge the gap between the Jail Blazers era and today, giving the franchise a cornerstone it could be proud to market. Five of the last seven seasons included playoff appearances.
By any rational account, Aldridge should be cheered when he finally returns to the Moda Center.
Yet sports fans tend to veer on the other side of rationality.
Nine good seasons or not, Aldridge still left. And he left hard, one of four starters from last season's team to find greener pastures elsewhere. Had it not been the NBA's worst-kept secret that Aldridge was leaving, then perhaps Robin Lopez and Wes Matthews would have considered staying and perhaps the Blazers wouldn't have sent Nicolas Batum to the Charlotte Hornets for Aldridge's apparent replacement, Noah Vonleh.
Maybe the band will get back together for another playoff run. After all, the Blazers were a sneaky title contender to some before Matthews went out with an Achilles injury.
Still, none of that happened. Aldridge was always leaving, and he found a better home in San Antonio. The Spurs are arguably the title favorites, while Portland's revamped its roster around low-cost young talent. There's no question about which side came out the better. The Blazers are on a one-way ticket to Lottery City, while San Antonio may hoist the Larry O'Brien Trophy.
That alone is enough to take a solid nine-year relationship and turn it into a sea of festering resentment. (As a personal aside, I think there will be more cheers than boos for Aldridge. Blazers fans are generally good with their ex-players whenever they return, and a majority of the fanbase realizes this departure was a long time in the making.)
Nov. 23: Philadelphia 76ers vs. Minnesota Timberwolves (8 p.m. ET)
6 of 10
Yes, you read that correctly. Legitimate interest in a Philadelphia 76ers game for actual basketball reasons. While D'Angelo Russell was the No. 2 overall pick, his and Karl-Anthony Towns' first head-to-head isn't all that intriguing because they play different positions. Towns and Russell will have very little (if any) on-court interaction.
Towns and Jahlil Okafor, though, should spend most of their minutes defending one another. They never got to have their highly anticipated championship game match after Wisconsin ousted Kentucky in the Final Four, but the two best bigs of the 2015 class will have no way to avoid one another Nov. 23.
The careers of Towns and Okafor are always going to be intrinsically linked. For most of the 2014-15 season, Okafor was the no-doubt-about-it No. 1 pick. It looked like a given. Then Towns, whose counting stats paled in comparison to Okafor's and who didn't really turn it on until the season's last couple of months, suddenly leaped to the forefront.
By draft night, some were wondering if Okafor would fall all the way to New York at No. 4.
In the here and now, it'll be interesting to see where both players are when they meet. Okafor's going to have a chance at instant stardom. The Sixers have a bare-bones roster, and they're going to want to see if Okafor and Nerlens Noel can make a feasible frontcourt. He's undoubtedly the Rookie of the Year favorite, especially given his offensive prowess.
Towns will have to contend with veteran Nikola Pekovic holding the starting gig at center, and even Gorgui Dieng will carve into his time. No one expected Towns to be an instant stud, but narratives will work in a funky way if Okafor starts out hot.
Dec. 25: Cleveland Cavaliers vs. Golden State Warriors (5 p.m. ET, ABC)
7 of 10
There is a school of thought among Cavaliers fans that says their team would have won the NBA championship if Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love were healthy. That theory will be put to the test on Dec. 25 when the Cavaliers and Warriors go head-to-head for the first time since the Finals.
Both teams look largely similar to their predecessors. Cleveland spent most of its offseason focused on retention, signing most of its free agents to long-term deals. Veterans Mo Williams and Richard Jefferson were its biggest outside additions thus far, though the trade exception acquired from Portland for Brendan Haywood is an intriguing chip.
The Warriors' most notable move of the offseason was jettisoning David Lee to Boston for Gerald Wallace, whom they later flipped for Jason Thompson. Thompson is a solid NBA veteran who will fill the role Lee played last season, even if he's not capable of matching Lee's peak.
Given the NBA's near-constant state of roster flux, this is about as close to a legitimate title rematch as you can get.
Still, the iteration of the Cavs that shows up will be far different than their Finals version. Those Cavs could barely appropriate a cogent offense when anyone other than LeBron James touched the basketball. These Cavs will have three of the NBA's 20 best offensive players on their side, now with a far better relationship than the one they shared a year ago.
Both Golden State-Cleveland matchups have Game of the Year potential.
Jan. 18: Houston Rockets at Los Angeles Clippers (10:30 p.m. ET, TNT)
8 of 10
Play out the Rockets-Clippers playoff series 100 times, and the Clippers win 98 or 99. Ahead 3-1 with all the momentum in the world, they had three chances to close it out. In Game 6, their lead stretched to as many as 19 points, and they were up 13 going into the fourth.
What followed was one of the worst collapses in NBA history. Houston came roaring back with a 40-point fourth quarter in Los Angeles and finished the job in Game 7 to make the conference finals.
The loss seemingly confirmed every narrative about the Clippers: That they weren't tough enough. That Chris Paul doesn't have what it takes to lead a team to a title. That Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan are a deeply flawed frontcourt whose weaknesses are exposed over a seven-game series. That Doc Rivers failed miserably to bring in viable bench talent.
Fast-forward a few months, and the Clippers are once again viewed as being far more likely for a Finals berth. Jordan's wishy-washy summer may have angered the world, but it still resulted in his sticking around. Lance Stephenson, Paul Pierce and Josh Smith are also along for the ride, the lattermost parlaying his Clipper-killer tendencies into being an actual Clipper.
The Rockets added their own notable piece in Ty Lawson but are nonetheless a clear fifth among Western Conference behemoths. If their general disposition isn't surliness next season, it would be shocking. Here's a conference finalist that added a (perhaps former?) borderline All-Star and was somehow shuffled to the back of the pack.
Throwing this game on as the capper to the Martin Luther King Jr. Day extravaganza was a smart call by the NBA.
March 19: Golden State Warriors at San Antonio Spurs (8 p.m. ET, ABC)
9 of 10
The Warriors are no longer the unimpeded best team in the West. That much is clear. The Clippers finally have a bench, the Thunder will be healthier and the Spurs—ohmygod the Spurs.
Long the NBA's bastion of continuity, the Spurs dipped into the free-agency market and—what do you know—came out with its best player. LaMarcus Aldridge not only pushes San Antonio into the championship picture, but also provides a bridge to the future. Aldridge and Kawhi Leonard will be the pillars of the franchise the moment Tim Duncan steps away (if that ever happens).
In the here and now, his acquisition merely shifts the West's axis of power. Aldridge's signing came along with below-market deals for Danny Green, Manu Ginobili, Duncan and the coup de grace, David West. West left more than $11 million on the table to sign with San Antonio, which is both admirable and a move I'd never, ever make in a million years.
As we previously noted, this version of the Warriors is on par with last year's at best or a slight step down at worst. There won't be any punches thrown or technical fouls or anything of the sort anytime these two teams meet. It will just be well-played basketball from coaching staffs and players who respect one another.
Sometimes that's even better than the all-out donnybrook.
April 9: Cleveland Cavaliers vs. Chicago Bulls (8:30 p.m. ET, ABC)
10 of 10
For all of their internal turmoil, the Chicago Bulls are still one of the Eastern Conference's four best teams. Some, most of them Bulls fans, would even argue the team is better now that it has replaced taskmaster Tom Thibodeau with offensive guru Fred Hoiberg. (At the very least, we can all agree things will be better at the team cafeteria.)
While we have no idea how Hoiberg will translate to the pro game, the tools are in place for another 50-win outfit. Derrick Rose will be in Year 2 of his return to full-time action, Joakim Noah will have had the whole summer to rest his ailing body, and the team has retained most of its biggest contributors. Things could be even better if the Bulls unload one of their big men for a wing defender who can stretch the floor.
As it stands, though, the Cavs and Bulls still have the East's best rivalry. Their shared history goes back to James' final season during his initial run in Cleveland, transfer to Miami and bounce back to Cleveland. It was Rose who won MVP during the height of LeBron haterdom, and the Bulls may have unseated James' reign of Eastern Conference terror if it weren't for injuries.
Either way, Hoiberg adds a new dynamic to the rivalry. If he's able to keep the Thibodeau defensive concepts and add wrinkles to the offense, Chicago could be right up there with Miami and the Atlanta Hawks as Cleveland's biggest challenger.
Follow Tyler Conway (@tylerconway22) on Twitter.
