Team of Destiny Rankings

There can only be one

You can analyze, stat-dive, and proselytize all you want about which NBA team has the best shot of winning the NBA Finals, but all of that research and debate rings hollow when destiny busts down the door. Only one team can be this year’s TOD— let’s find out who has the best shot.

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Boston Celtics?

This team is 46-12, with the clear best shot at winning the Eastern Conference and making the NBA Finals.

HOWEVER.

There’s a chasm between “best team” and “destiny’s team.” And there’s an even bigger chasm between destiny’s team and Destiny’s Child.

Anyway, nothing about Boston feels destined to me. The C’s are a machine hellbent on destroying all teams in its path but that has nothing to do with the Cosmos, it’s just because they added two really damn good players this offseason in Kristaps Porzingis and Jrue Holiday. You can’t force destiny, and that’s what it feels like Boston wants to do.

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Cleveland Cavaliers?

When a team gets hot for a long stretch— like, hot hot— you should always be wary of the “fizzle,” or the post-hot streak blues. The signs are obvious: maybe the role player from a mid-major who hit 87% of his threes during the hot streak starts shooting like a mortal again. Maybe the whip-fast ball movement that confounded defenses slows to a whip-slow pace instead (is that a phrase?) Maybe an untimely injury wrecks chemistry. Maybe the lucky bounces stop bouncing, maybe the defensive rotations stop rotating. There are endless ways to fizzle.

I thought the Cleveland Cavaliers were beginning to fizzle when they started their post-All Star campaign with losses to Philly and Orlando, then followed those with a wholly unconvincing win against Washington.

But after watching Max Strus hit a 60-foot game-winner last week that tickled the soles of God’s feet, I’m starting to second guess whether any fizzling is taking place. In fact, that win alone almost made me mutter the phrase team of destiny.

Maybe they won’t win it all, but these Cavs are starting to emanate strong TOD aura regardless.

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Milwaukee Bucks?

Absolutely not. If this team ends up being the TOD, we should all be horrified by the message the Universe is trying to send us. Not because Milwaukee’s not good, of course (they’ve won four straight after All-Star) but because I think a team is immediately disqualified from being the TOD if it fires a coach midseason. A man losing his job (after performing pretty well) can’t be destiny, right?

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New York Knicks?

Recently, the Knicks look nothing like a TOD. They’re 4-8 since the start of February with the eighth-worst net rating during that stretch. Riddled with injuries, Tom Thibodeau’s team is barely hanging on to a top-six position in the standings.

But here’s the thing; every TOD needs to go through some strife. It’s called world-building. A team without an inspiring backstory is not destined for a championship. If the Knicks can tread water (stay in the top six) until Julius Randle and OG Anunoby come back, they might approach destiny territory. The undersized second-round pick leading the iconic but troubled team to a title after fighting through adversity during the second half of the season? I’m buying it a little bit…

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Denver Nuggets?

Are you allowed to be a Team of Destiny if you won last year’s title? I’m undecided on that. But I think having the greatest offensive player… ever(?) on your team automatically earns you some TOD cred. Denver is middle of the pack here.

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Minnesota Timberwolves?

Minnesota being mediocre last season greatly strengthens its TOD case. The Rudy Gobert trade looking like a whiff after one season does, too. Patience is a virtue when you’re dealing with destiny and Minnesota showed patience this offseason when it decided to run back the same roster that was such a disappointment in 2022-23.

Two massively important pieces of this roster, Gobert and Karl-Anthony Towns, have been scrutinized heavily by the NBA public throughout their careers. That’s great for TOD lore, too, and so is Anthony Edwards playing for the Wolves because Anthony Edwards living in Minnesota doesn’t make sense. But that’s good. A superstar playing in a city that doesn’t fit him but that he grows to embrace anyway is peak TOD material.

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Oklahoma City Thunder?

This is a damn good young team— but I don’t think it’s quite fucked up enough to be a TOD. A real TOD needs a few wild cards. Some reserved old guys who have seen some things, a few loose screws with questionable pasts, a 10-year vet who isn’t functionally good at anything but has carved out a decade-long NBA career anyway. This team is lacking most of those parts— instead, the Thunder are chock full of young, cool guys. They’re too cool! Give them a couple years to get less cool and we’ll revisit this.

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Phoenix Suns?

Nope. Grayson Allen on the team. Automatic DQ.

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Philadelphia 76ers?

The Sixers could be the ultimate TOD; star player with a history of coming up short gets hurt, everyone counts them out, star comes back and leads the team to a level it’s never reached before? That’s storybook!

The Sixers are good too. Buddy Hield was a great addition and I foresee Tyrese Maxey thriving in the playoffs—the bar is low for Philly point guards, but still.

Unfortunately, Philly might be undergoing too much strife. While another potential TOD, the Knicks, are struggling but have a clear way out of the hole they’re in, Philly might already be buried. I yearn for success for these guys so badly, but these Sixers are not radiating TOD energy at the moment. Pain.

he might be cursed

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Los Angeles Clippers?

LAC is damn good but I think James Harden is so toxic that he’s developed some kind of supernatural ability to defeat destiny and change the course of the Universe. He can single-handedly derail a team from TOD to forgettable.

So… no, I don’t think the Clips are this year’s TOD. Sorry.

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