Something positive about every NBA team, Pt. 1

The Eye of Aldhani, Toronto’s disgusting defensive frontcourt, the Spurs fixing a weakness, and much more

Continuing a tradition I started back in 2022, I’ve written Something Positive about every NBA team. I’m scratching out reasons for genuine on-court optimism, something that should make fans’ hearts feel full. Or at least a $20-at-the-gas-station level of not empty.

As always, I’ve broken it up into three parts. We’ll do reverse alphabetical order to represent those of us who always had to line up last for lunch.

Washington Wizards

Reason for optimism: AJ Dybantsa, duh

The Wizards are here, and they’re going to be fun, dammit!

For all I’m interested in Trae Young and Anthony Davis’ yin-and-yang chemistry, a potential star turn from Alex Sarr, and the development of Kyshawn George, Tre Johnson and Will Riley, we’re here to see the Number One Pick.

Dybantsa averaged 25 points in two Summer League contests (don’t look at his field goal percentage), rampaging to the rim and drawing heaps of fouls. He won’t do nearly as much ballhandling this season as he did in Vegas, but expect the team to feature him heavily as a slashing attacker.

The league has been slavering over Dybantsa for years. Washington was the team lucky enough to nab him. Now, we’ll see what all the hype is about.

Utah Jazz

Reason for optimism: Winning basketball!

For the first time since Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert broke up, the Jazz will be actively trying to win basketball games for an entire season!

I’ve mentioned several times how excited I am to see what coach Will Hardy can whip up now that he’s unleashed. The Jazz’s offense promises arson, as Lauri Markkanen, Keyonte George, Jaren Jackson Jr., and rookie Darryn Peterson are all threats to score off the catch or with the ball in their hands.

I’m not sure returning center Jusuf Nurkic, who went underappreciated last season and will do so again as soon as this sentence, is really capable of covering up the defensive holes left by the rest of the starting lineup. The flip side is that means we’ll have a lot of barnburners in Salt Lake City. Tell the SLC firefighters to prepare themselves.

And you know what? Now I feel guilty, so here’s a nice no-look hook pass from Nurk:

Utah is at the most purely fun part of a team’s trajectory: talented enough to win some games, young enough to forego expectations.

Toronto Raptors

Reason for optimism: The Kawhi/Barnes/CMB frontcourt

I’m gonna go ahead and assume that the Kawhi Leonard/Brandon Ingram trade happens. All the reporting framing the NBA’s forthcoming cowardice around the Aspiration scandal makes me think that Leonard will get off scot-free, in which case the trade should consummate as planned.

Can Kawhi’s return to the Raptors herald another championship? If it does, it’ll be on the back of Toronto’s terrifying defensive trio in the frontcourt.

Scottie Barnes turned himself into a top-10 defender last season, particularly as a helper. Collin Murray-Boyles fills the gaps, doing a little bit of everything at a very high level. In almost 1,300 possessions, a not-insignificant amount, the Raptors allowed just 106.8 points per 100 possessions (96th percentile!) with Barnes and CMB sharing the floor.

Even past his prime, Leonard is still elite. Imagine adding The Klaw to that mix!

While Raptors’ front office fetish Jakob Poeltl will still play plenty of minutes in the middle, expect this grouping to close a whole lot of games in impressive fashion.

San Antonio Spurs

Reason for optimism: Tobias Harris (yes, really)

I’m jealous of Spurs fans. Their skies are bluer, the weather more temperate, the flowers more fragrant without triggering any allergies. Life is just a little bit sweeter when you’ve got Victor Wembanyama, Dylan Harper, Steph Castle, and a stable of useful, productive veterans to back them up.

Harris is the newest stallion, and he gives the Spurs exactly what they didn’t have last year: a true power forward with the strength to bang down low and create for himself. If San Antonio needs pure shooting, they can always toggle the Julian Champagnie switch (Champagnie has long been one of my favorite role players in the league!), but there were times last year when the Spurs’ lack of big-man beef reverberated.

Harris’ defense, in particular, has become an underrated commodity. Playtype analysis is prone to small sample issues, but Harris allowed fewer points per possession in isolation than Bam Adebayo and fewer PPP on post-ups than Wendell Carter Jr. (who was last seen robbing Jalen Duren of millions of dollars). He’s legitimately good on that end, in addition to his more well-established scoring qualities.

The playoffs are all about optionality, and coach Mitch Johnson decided he didn’t like the taste of the Luke Kornet/Wemby French Vanilla coffee creamer. Consequently, the Spurs had only one pitch. While it was a hell of a fastball, you can’t throw nine innings without some kind of change-up. Harris won’t be important every night, but he’s a beloved locker-room leader who fills a needed on-court niche and makes San Antonio even more well-rounded.

Scary thought for the rest of the West!

Sacramento Kings

Reason for optimism: A brand new (old) team

People ignored Sacramento last season, for good reason. They were as bad as everyone expected except for when they got (relatively) hot near the end, hurting their lottery odds.

But part of the reason they were so abysmal was gawdawful health luck. Keegan Murray, Zach LaVine, and Domantas Sabonis combined to play just 81 games and exactly zero minutes together. That’s three-fifths of the projected starting lineup!

With those three back, the Kings have a far more competent supporting cast to put around tantalizing rookie point guard Darius Acuff. While I don’t expect Sacramento to be good, I’ve already predicted a Keegan Murray breakout year. If Murray gains some motion, Nique Clifford builds on an up-and-down rookie campaign (after the All-Star break, he averaged 13/5/4 while shooting 36% from deep) and Acuff fills up the stat sheet, Sactown could be a sneaky-decent League Pass team. Best case? LaVine and Sabonis build their trade value and change employers at the deadline, paving the way for a full-blown youth movement.

Also, Dylan Cardwell, another victim of the injury bug, will be back. Dylan Cardwell rules.

Portland Trail Blazers

Reason for optimism: Ja Morant

I don’t understand Portland’s roster, which is comprised entirely of point guards, centers, Toumani Camara, and Deni Avdija. I have to believe they make a rebalancing move at some point. And Blazers fans are sick and tired of hearing about their new owner’s thriftiness.

But if you want the glass-half-full view, it’s this: for all his myriad issues, there are maybe — maybe! — two NBA players more fun to watch play basketball than Ja Morant. Perhaps he’s left his troubled past behind. Perhaps a fresh start is what he needed to reinvigorate a career that seemed destined for superstardom not long ago.

The fit between Morant and Avdija might be a little weird, but both players like to run. Morant is an underrated passer, and Avdija will benefit from another ballhandler next to him. There could be some more-than-meets-the-eye magic here, especially if Damian Lillard can find anything resembling his previous All-Star form.

Again, I understand all the problems this roster has. But there’s undeniable upside, too. I don’t know how often it all comes together, but when it does, well. You watched Andor, right? (Do so, if you haven’t.) There’s a climactic scene in the first season that takes place under “The Eye of Aldhani,” which is essentially the universe’s most incredible meteor shower:

It’ll be like that.

Phoenix Suns

Reason for optimism: Contract-year Jalen Green

The right answer here is Khaman Maluach, who looked like a completely new player in Summer League (and SL has never misled people before, no sirree).

But an underrated storyline outside of Phoenix: Jalen Green will be entering the last guaranteed year of his contract. He has a player option for 2027-28, but 20-point scorers in their mid-20s don’t opt into those unless something has gone dramatically awry.

Green kind of reminds me of Jonathan Kuminga in some ways. He came into the league wanting to be Kobe Bryant, but focused only on the shot-taking part of the equation. Every year since (at least, up until last year), he’s incrementally improved in other areas. If he’s ever going to put it together into a more appealing total package, though, it has to be this season. And it should be! Nothing focuses the mind quite like tens of millions of dollars.

Green was injured for much of last year. He’ll have to battle for playing time in a crowded guard rotation. But there aren’t a lot of NBA players capable of in-game athletic feats like this:

The Suns are hoping to win games right now. In a league without guaranteed victories anymore, thanks to the paucity of tanking teams, they’ll be hard-pressed to meet even last year’s modest success unless Green surpasses expectations.

Philadelphia 76ers

Reason for optimism: Joel Embiid, luxury item

The 76ers had such a wild offseason that they turned a former MVP into a Rolls-Royce: yeah, it’s super nice, but you don’t really need it to drop off the kids and go to the grocery store.

For the first time in a decade, the team’s night-to-night success won’t ride solely upon Embiid’s rickety knees, fragile orbital bones, and palsied face (man, this poor guy).

LeBron James, Tyrese Maxey, Jaylen Brown, and VJ Edgecombe provide a complementary mix of size and skills in the starting unit. Dean Wade, Dominick Barlow, Justin Edwards, and Adem Bona bring defensive energy off the bench, Anfernee Simons and rookie Labaron Philon are trebuchets, and if there’s anything left in Kentavious Caldwell-Pope’s tank, playing next to former teammate James will ignite it.

Who could have seen this roster overhaul coming? The 76ers are deeper at the top and the bottom of their roster than they have any right to be. Who knows, maybe Nick Nurse won’t run his starters out there for 40 minutes a night now. (Just kidding. He absolutely will.)

Orlando Magic

Reason for optimism: Sean Sweeney

While Jamahl Mosley has his strengths, it was clear that his time as the Big Kahuna in Orlando was over. Sweeney, the new coach, is regarded as one of the league’s brightest young minds. He comes over from San Antonio, hoping to bring some of the Spurs’ success with him.

Sweeney has challenges to navigate. Paolo Banchero, Franz Wagner, and Jalen Suggs are never healthy at the same time. Bam Adebayo shot more three-pointers per game last season than Desmond Bane, the rotation’s only great shooter (I didn’t expect to use Adebayo as a comparison point so often in this piece). The team lost its defensive identity last season.

But people in the league love Sweeney, and he has a lot to work with here. Fit issues can always be overcome by sheer talent. Sweeney can’t control health, but even with the roster’s lack of marksmanship, simply establishing a base offense with a little creativity would go a long way.

This might be the last, best chance to coax a superstar out of Banchero or Wagner. Sweeney has as good a shot as anyone.

Oklahoma City Thunder

Reason for optimism: A healthy Jalen Williams

The Thunder dominated the first third of last season without Jalen Williams and nearly made it back to the Finals while getting virtually nothing from their second-best player (and arguably less than that from their third, although that had nothing to do with health).

With a full summer under his belt to get his hamstrings right and his feet back under him, there’s no reason to think Williams can’t bounce back from his disastrous fourth season.

Can he regain his All-Defensive form? Is that pesky three-pointer coming back? How will he balance his offensive responsibilities with the emerging Ajay Mitchell and the Thunder’s many other mouths?

Questions remain, but I’m not particularly worried. As much of a disappointment as the Thunder’s postseason was, they were a few shots away from a dance with New York and are basically getting a brand-new All-NBA player back in the rotation. That’s a pretty solid reason for optimism.