Why every NBA team can be thankful: Amazing talent, trades that did and didn't happen, lottery luck, more

Thanksgiving isn't exactly a basketball holiday. It's actually the opposite. We eat turkey and watch football with nary an NBA game in sight. The league takes the day off and cedes it to the NFL, giving its teams and players a well-deserved day off for feasting and reflection.

So, with no actual basketball to look forward to on Thursday, we'll have to find some other way to embrace the holiday spirit. With that in mind, let's find something for all 30 NBA teams, no matter how good or bad, to be thankful for.

Atlanta Hawks: The lottery gods

Has Zaccharie Risacher been an especially strong No. 1 pick so far? No. He's shown promise, but he's clearly still a long-term project. Remember, though, the Hawks jumped all the way from the Play-In Tournament to No. 1 to get him. For a team with very little to be excited about so far this season, having a possibly foundational young player in place of a late lottery pick means quite a bit. The Hawks have a long way to go, but they can be thankful the bit of luck they got last May.

Boston Celtics: The rest of the league

Let's take a look at how the Celtics landed their six best players:

• Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown came from a historically bad trade by the Brooklyn Nets.
• Derrick White needed to be moved for the San Antonio Spurs to kick off the rebuild that ended with Victor Wembanyama.
• Kristaps Porzingis needed to be moved for the Washington Wizards to kick off the rebuild that ended with... TBD.
• Jrue Holiday was all set to play for their biggest in-conference competition when the Milwaukee Bucks dealt him to the Portland Trail Blazers without taking any measures to prevent the Blazers from flipping him to Boston later.
• Al Horford was only available because the 76ers overpaid him and proceeded to dump him a year later. As was the case with Holiday, they could do nothing to prevent him from getting flipped right back to Boston.

The rest of the NBA has no one but themselves to blame. They built the juggernaut they're struggling so hard to beat. The Celtics can be thankful for their incompetence.

Brooklyn Nets: Their incredible new coach

In the grand scheme of things, this season has gotten off to the wrong sort of start for Brooklyn. The Nets traded a mountain of draft capital for their own 2025 and 2026 first-round picks back. That's the sort of thing you do when you intend to lose as many games as humanly possible to maximize your return on investment. Jordi Fernandez has been so good that the Nets, now 8-10, might be able to avoid the lottery entirely and reach the postseason. That may not be what Brooklyn envisioned for this season, but landing a coach capable of flirting with a .500 record despite leading a roster designed to lose is a pretty nice silver lining.

Charlotte Hornets: LaMelo Ball's health

LaMelo Ball played only 58 total games over the last two seasons, but he's been healthy this season, and the results have been spectacular. Ball is scoring 31 points per game, up more than seven points from his career-high. He would be just the 15th player this century to hit that mark if he does so all year, and his 14 predecessors are all on Hall of Fame trajectories. The Hornets haven't had a star of that caliber in decades, and as long as Ball's ankles hold up, he's on track to join that very exclusive club.

Chicago Bulls: Their own patience

The entire basketball world lambasted the Bulls when they traded Alex Caruso, one of the NBA's best defenders and the sort of versatile wing that every contender badly needs, for Josh Giddey, a player who couldn't even stay on the floor in the postseason for Oklahoma City. That criticism has thus far been proven right. The Bulls have struggled mightily during Giddey's minutes and mostly treaded water without him. It's hard to be a franchise cornerstone when you can't defend and nobody guards you behind the arc, but fortunately, the Bulls at least had the foresight not to extend him after the trade. That decision probably saved them a bundle.

Cleveland Cavaliers: Pretty much everything

It's hard to find anything to be too upset about when you're 17-1. Everything is going right in Cleveland right now. The offense. The defense. The mascot. The weather. Pick a Cavaliers player out of a hat and, in all likelihood, they're thankful they have him.

Dallas Mavericks: The season doesn't end in winter

We do this every year in Dallas. Last year's Mavericks hung around .500 until they took off after the trade deadline. The 2022 Western Conference finals team split its first 38 games. If the Mavericks panicked every time they started slow they'd have traded Luka Doncic by now. So no, don't worry about the uneven 10-8 start. They'll right the ship and start ripping off victories shortly.

Denver Nuggets: The best player in the world

The entire conceit of this team was a bit ridiculous. The general manager or less went into the offseason thinking, "OK, what if we let one of our starters leave for nothing, replace him internally with three unproven youngsters and then sign a former MVP that has become a pariah for three of his last four teams, things will be fine, right?" No! They shouldn't be! This shouldn't be working. But the Nuggets have the only player in the world who could make it work. You get to do ridiculous things when you have Nikola Jokic. He's holding this franchise together with duct tape and glue at this point.

Detroit Pistons: Their owner's willingness to spend

The surprising competence of the Detroit Pistons thus far this season has been a damning indictment of the coaching Monty Williams did a year ago. The roster isn't all that different. There are a handful of new veteran shooters, and the youngsters are a year older, but otherwise? This is the group that lost 28 games in a row. With a standard NBA coach, they're a pretty normal NBA team. They don't randomly pull former lottery pick Jaden Ivey out of the rotation. No, they empower him as a scorer, and sure enough, it's paid off with a big third-year leap and a buzzer-beater on Monday. Most owners wouldn't have willing to eat five years and a historic salary to get rid of Williams only a year after hiring him. Tom Gores bit the bullet and the results have been encouraging.

Golden State Warriors: Strength in numbers

There was fear coming into the season that the Warriors were too deep. That they had accumulated too many players expecting minutes and shots to maintain harmony in the locker room. Well, there's a reason Steve Kerr's mantra has always been "strength in numbers." That depth has been Golden State's saving grace this season. They're actually winning the Stephen Curry bench minutes this season, which would have seemed like a statistical impossibility at any other point during the Kerr era. Most teams would take a real hit losing De'Anthony Melton for the season. The Warriors can just go down the list and give a few more minutes to the next man up.

Houston Rockets: The Terror Twins

It's rare for a team's most exciting minutes to come when its bench is in the game, but Houston's Terror Twin combination of Amen Thompson and Tari Eason is the main attraction for the surging Rockets. That duo changes the energy of every game they enter, and they've been among the players most responsible for instilling the defensive culture Ime Udoka sought to bring to Houston. That nasty, physical approach to basketball has the Rockets near the top of the Western Conference, and it starts with those two reserves.

Indiana Pacers: The Pascal Siakam trade

Man, the Pacers sure are lucky they traded for a second All-Star last season, huh? With Tyrese Haliburton falling off of a cliff this season, Siakam's presence has been the only thing keeping this team afloat. Lost in the drama of Haliburton's decline, Siakam is having the best shooting season of his career while continuing to bring value as a defender, rebounder and playmaker. Without him, the Pacers would be at the bottom of the East right now.

Los Angeles Clippers: The relative value of defenders

Why are the Clippers 11-8? Their surprising top-five defense. How did they build that defense despite losing Paul George and being otherwise capped out? Well, the NBA simply doesn't value defensive specialists in the way that it does offense-first players. The two additions leading this defense, Derrick Jones Jr. and Kris Dunn, are both making less than $10 million this season. George, meanwhile, has barely played for the 76ers after multiple knee injuries. The Clippers are lucky teams tend not to want to pay perimeter players with offensive deficiencies, because the defense Jones and Dunn have brought has completely revitalized their team.

Los Angeles Lakers: The Raptors and Hornets

The Lakers took a fair bit of flak for hiring a podcaster as their head coach, but it's worth noting that both the Toronto Raptors and Charlotte Hornets interviewed JJ Redick for their head-coaching jobs as well. In another world, their highly regarded young coach wouldn't have even been available to them. But the Raptors and Hornets passed, and even if the Lakers have plenty of roster flaws, their schematic improvement from last year has still been significant thanks to Redick's coaching.

Memphis Grizzlies: The depth they developed last year

Last year's injury-riddled season was a drag, but the silver lining was that it helped the Grizzlies cultivate quite a bit of depth that has served them well this season. Ja Morant has only played nine games this season, but the Grizzlies are still in fourth-place in the Western Conference because players like Scotty Pippen Jr., Santi Aldama and Jake LaRavia grew into real contributors while he was out a season ago. When they're healthy, they'll be able to reap the rewards in full.

Miami Heat: They didn't trade for Damian Lillard

The Heat are decidedly mediocre this season, but imagine for a moment that they'd given away their youth and draft capital to land Damian Lillard. They'd have two declining stars on bloated contracts between Lillard and Jimmy Butler. They wouldn't be enjoying this career year from Tyler Herro or the development of youngsters like Jaime Jaquez Jr. or Nikola Jovic. They wouldn't have the draft picks needed to eventually pivot, which they'll likely do in the somewhat near future. They'd be better, but still not close to Boston or Cleveland barring some surprises. The Heat are on the precipice of a rebuild right now. Their short-term prospects wouldn't be much better if Portland had given them Lillard, but their long-term prospects would be a whole lot worse.

Milwaukee Bucks: The Eastern Conference

The Bucks have needed a five-game winning streak and a major officiating mistake just to get back to .500 this season. In the Western Conference, the vultures would be circling. Frankly, they were in the East as well, but 9-9 in this debacle of a conference is good for the No. 5 seed right now. Does being in the East fix Milwaukee's underlying age and defense issues? No, but the bar is so much lower that the Bucks could at least stumble their way into a playoff season and maybe even a first-round win. That could never happen if Milwaukee was in Nevada instead of Wisconsin.

Minnesota Timberwolves: Anthony Edwards

Minnesota's league-best defense has slipped to No. 12. Julius Randle has proven a shaky Karl-Anthony Towns replacement at best, and Donte DiVincenzo hasn't provided nearly the offensive boost they expected. Jaden McDaniels isn't making shots. Mike Conley's age is starting to show. All of this is to say that things aren't going great in Minnesota. Fortunately, Anthony Edwards is playing at such a high level that things haven't completely fallen apart quite yet. He's nearly doubled his 3-point shooting volume to account for Towns' absence, he's held his defensive level from last season, and not only is he among the league-leaders in clutch scoring, but he's actually pulled in more clutch rebounds than anyone but Nikola Jokic. He's doing everything for a team that badly needs him to.

New Orleans Pelicans: The New Orleans Saints

The Pelicans have been a mess this season. They're so injured that they've had to turn their offensive over to Elfrid Payton (and it almost worked!) Eventually getting some players back will help, but a 4-14 start is going to make a postseason run a tall order. Fortunately, the city and ownership are preoccupied with their football team, the Saints, who started the season off with two promising wins before losing seven of their next nine. The city will express its frustration with the Pelicans eventually, but for now, they at least get a bit of cover from a football team that has long been the big brother in its city.

New York Knicks: Jalen Brunson's generosity

Pretty much everything positive happening in New York right now can be tied back to the money Jalen Brunson left on the table in his contract extension in some way. Would they have been willing to come close to maxing out OG Anunoby if they didn't expect to have some wiggle room coming? They certainly couldn't have traded for Karl-Anthony Towns and kept the team together for the long haul. The Knicks are a sleeping giant right now. The offense is dominating and the standings will soon reflect that. It's all possible because their best player was willing to make a financial sacrifice.

Oklahoma City Thunder: The Los Angeles Clippers

This will be the answer for the next several years at least. What did you expect? The Clippers have already sent the Thunder Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Jalen Williams. They still owe Oklahoma City several more picks. It's the trade that keeps on giving.

Orlando Magic: Franz Wagner's shooting coach

If the Orlando Magic had the Franz Wagner of last season, their offense might be doomed right now. He shot just 28.1% on 3s and saw his efficiency fall even further in the playoffs. That player wasn't ready to replace an injured Paolo Banchero. This year's Wagner? He's done so wonderfully, averaging 23.4 points per game on career-best 3-point volume and roughly league-average efficiency. The Magic are 12-7 despite barely having their best player, and it's largely because someone managed to fix Wagner's shot this offseason.

Philadelphia 76ers: The 15 teams that drafted ahead of them

We haven't had a Rookie of the Year winner drafted after the lottery since 2017, when Malcolm Brogdon ironically stole the trophy from Joel Embiid. This time, it's a Philadelphia rookie shining from lower on the draft board. Just about everything is going wrong for Philadelphia right now except for Jared McCain, the league's leading rookie scorer and early frontrunner for Rookie of the Year (he's listed with -170 odds on Caesars as of Wednesday afternoon). He fell all the way to No. 16 in June's draft, and while some of the 15 teams ahead of them might still be happy with their picks, the 76ers owe each and every one of them a thank you for letting McCain fall to them.

Phoenix Suns: The second apron

Hear me out: yes, the Suns are dealing with the roster-building limitations that come with being a second-apron team. But most of the league is letting the aprons affect the way that they do business, and the newfound thriftiness dominating front offices right now allowed the Suns to sign Tyus Jones for the minimum. They never could have afforded a starting-caliber point guard otherwise. They have one because the teams that could have afforded one were so scared of the financial ramifications of actually doing it to pull the trigger themselves.

Portland Trail Blazers: The dominant Celtics

The Celtics of the past several years have been so good that viable young prospects have completely slipped through the cracks because there just wasn't playing time available. Remember, Payton Pritchard wanted a trade at one point. One Celtic that got one? Dalano Banton, who couldn't find playing time in Boston, but has emerged as solid rotation piece for a rebuilding Portland team with minutes to spare.

Sacramento Kings: Keon Ellis

The Kings really should be thankful for Keon Ellis. He's the only consistently strong defender on the roster, and their net rating skyrockets when he steps onto the floor. They're finally starting to catch on, as they put him back in the starting lineup for the first time this season in Monday's loss to the Thunder, but his limited playing time earlier this season makes this bit of gratitude necessary. Remember you have a star defender making pennies on the dollar, Sacramento. Be thankful for it. It won't last forever, so take advantage while you can.

San Antonio Spurs: The lottery gods

This will be the eternal answer. Who cares if we used it for the Hawks already? When the ping pong balls grant you Tim Duncan and Victor Wembanyama, they are your eternal benefactor. Thank them every Thanksgiving. Thank them every other day too while you're at it.

Toronto Raptors: They've already conveyed the Jakob Poeltl pick

Ironically, the Raptors tanked a lot of last season trying to keep the top-six protected pick they traded to San Antonio for Jakob Poeltl. They failed, but that No. 8 overall pick hasn't hurt them too much yet. Rob Dillingham has promise, but in a weak draft, giving up the No. 8 choice isn't a backbreaker. Had the Raptors kept the pick a year ago, they'd still owe a top-six protected pick to San Antonio this year, which would mean risking a stronger prospect in a deeper draft. There are no fears in Toronto now. They can play out the season in peace. 

Utah Jazz: Ownership's eternal patience

Rarely do you see a rebuild go backward in Year 3, but that's what's happening in Utah right now. After two straight years in which the Jazz were too good to tank, they extended Lauri Markkanen and avoided trading veterans over the summer only to fall to the bottom of the Western Conference standings. That should have been the goal all along, it's just rare to find an owner accept the sort of extended losing the Jazz are likely to now endure as they fix this. Fortunately, Ryan Smith seems comfortable letting Danny Ainge and Will Hardy rebuild this thing slowly and properly.

Washington Wizards: A total lack of expectations

The Jazz have fallen into the tank. The Wizards are really rolling around in it. More than half of their starting lineup is too young to legally drink. The only team they've beaten is the Hawks. Look at this season in a vacuum and the Wizards are an unmitigated disaster. Most teams wouldn't allow this to happen for fear of losing jobs or playing time. Washington is embracing this. The young players have the green light to try just about everything without worrying about criticism because of how low the bar is. That's going to pay dividends down the line.