The NBA is difficult to follow religiously. With a regular-season lasting from Halloween to April and 82 games to keep track of, there is little shame in admitting to being a fair-weather fan or somebody who waits for the playoffs to get really involved.
I am plenty guilty of this. Geography dictates I should be following Donovan Mitchell and the Utah Jazz, but instead I usually stick to endlessly entertaining NBA Twitter until a worthy underdog bandwagon forms in late April.
This is a column for similar people who need a storyline to follow, those who have lost interest in the XFL and just can’t find allure in MLB’s spring training (or regular season).
Personally, I’ll be pulling for the Memphis Grizzlies through the end of the season. Memphis has a unique appeal to the Palouse, having drafted former Gonzaga small forward Brandon Clarke in 2019.
Despite a recent quad injury, Clarke has thrived under the radar as the sixth man for a young and exciting Grizzlies team. Among rookies, Clarke ranks second in total rebounds, third in blocks and second in player efficiency rating (a stat trying to holistically quantify a player’s contributions) only to Zion Williamson, who has played 34 fewer games.
If an exciting homegrown talent isn’t enough to sell the Grizzlies, feel free to pick any of the other pieces of Memphis’s youth movement. The second overall pick for 2019 is point guard Ja Morant, a walking highlight reel of dunks and impossible dimes.
Morant leads all rookies by more than three assists per game and nearly ended the careers of Kevin Love and Aron Baynes with internet-shattering slams.
When fellow lottery pick Jaren Jackson Jr. returns from injury, the Grizzlies will once again be at full strength and in position to add to their three-game advantage for the 8-seed in the Western Conference. With a young core and a playoff spot to play for, Memphis can guarantee you an energetic underdog to root for every night.
If the Grizzlies are a little too unproven for your liking, the Toronto Raptors might be the right balance between the nobody- believes-in-us narrative and proven contender. As the defending champions, they do deserve plenty of respect, but received little coming out of an offseason in which they lost one, if not the best player in professional basketball in Kawhi Leonard.
While lesser teams would resign themselves to happy mediocrity after a championship and such a departure, the Raptors have continued to compete at the highest levels. Toronto went on a winning streak almost stretching from Thanksgiving to Valentine’s Day, and in spite of a recent cooling stretch, there is plenty of evidence to suggest the Raptors will maintain the second seed they currently occupy in the Eastern Conference.
Toronto’s remaining opponents barely crack 0.500 as a conglomerate, and the Raptors are still talented and well-coached without Leonard.
Point guard Kyle Lowry is the same player we have seen for more than 10 years now, but power forward Pascal Siakam is the real difference. He already made a remarkable leap last season to become the 2018-19 most improved player, and he’s followed it up with career highs in almost every category to go along with his first all-star berth.
Rarely do we get the narrative gold of a disrespected defending champ, but the Raptors cleanly fit that bill. Head coach Nick Nurse is currently the only NBA head coach to win the Larry O’Brien trophy in every season he has helmed a team, so fair-weather fans truly have an opportunity to root for further history and a team proven to compete with and even dominate any competition.
If a three-month commitment through the end of the playoffs is too daunting, there are still plenty of teams with something to offer in terms of entertainment.
In the past week, the New York Knicks managed to both notch their best win of the season against the Houston Rockets and alienate their most ardent supporter in filmmaker Spike Lee in an exchange that can only be described as embarrassing for remaining diehards and perfect schadenfreude for everyone else.
In a region treated to the comic mismanagement of the Seattle Mariners and hit-and-miss records of the University of Idaho and Washington State University athletic departments, maybe the bizarre hilarity of the Knicks’ struggles is our best match after all.
Jonah Baker can be reached at [email protected]