The Most Fun NBA Teams to Watch in 2024

The NBA is adored around the world for its fast-paced fun and end-to-end drama, and with this in mind, Betway decided to analyze the numbers to see which the most fun team is to watch.

When taking into consideration star power, star players, buzzer beaters, dunks attempted and threes, the Cleveland Cavaliers were crowned the most fun team to watch with a total index score of 3.028 out of 5.

Boasting the third-most Instagram followers (16.667+ million), registering the most 85+ rated players in NBA 2K24 (4), and having attempted the most dunks over the last two seasons (866), were all big factors in the Cavs’ final rankings.

Finishing just behind the Cavs in second place were the Boston Celtics, who had an impressive total score of 2.953. This season, the Celtics have entertained fans while looking like one of the championship favorites.

Like the Cavs, Boston had four 85+ rated players on NBA 2K24 meanwhile they also had the most three-point field goals scored in the last two seasons.

Despite having a down season by their usual standards, the Golden State Warriors are still must see tv and their index score of 2.770 proves this.

With stars such as Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson, it should come as no surprise that the team scored an incredible 2,227 3pt field goal points since 2022/2023. In addition to this, the Warriors boasted more Instagram followers than any other franchise (over 32.52 million).

The Washington Wizards were given the title of the least-entertaining team in the NBA with a score of 0.611 out of 5.

The Wizards are one of just three teams to have no players rated 85+ on NBA 2K24. While their one buzzer beater, 521 dunk attempts, and 1,671 3pt field goal points since 2022/2023 are all below the NBA average.

The Toronto Raptors and Charlotte Hornets didn’t score much better than the Wizards when it came to entertainment. A lack of threes scored, and no buzzer beaters were the main reasons why these teams ranked poorly.

Despite having the phenomenal French rookie Victor Wembanyama, the San Antonio Spurs also found themselves ranked as one of the least entertaining teams in the league, with a total score of just 0.784.

Meanwhile, the Detroit Pistons are having a miserable season, and fans won’t be shocked that they were included in the top five least-entertaining teams to watch, scoring 0.796.

If you would like to see the full study, please visit: https://usblog.betway.com/nba/the-most-exciting-nba-teams-to-watch-betway-study/

Methodology:

This dataset ranks all 30 NBA teams, based on how good they are to watch. To do this, 5 different factors were used. Once the data for the factors was collected, the factors were then normalised, to provide each factor with a score between 0 and 1. If data was not available, a score of 0 was given. The normalised values were then summed, to give each team a total score out of 5. The teams were then ranked from highest to lowest, based on their total scores. 

The factors used are as follows:

• Star Power – The number of followers on Instagram of each NBA team.
• 85+ Overall Players – The number of players on each NBA team with an overall score of at least 85 on NBA 2K24.
• Buzzer Beaters – The number of games where a team has won by a buzzer beater in the 22/23 & 23/24 season.
• Dunk Attempts – The number of dunk attempts by each NBA team in the 22/23 & 23/24 season.
• 3pt Field Goal – The total number of 3pt field goals scored by each NBA team in the 22/23 & 23/24 season.

The factors were indexed as follows:

• All Factors – High values get a high score. Low values get a low score.

All data is correct as of 03/06/24. The ranking data shown is a compilation of multiple data sources and may not be representative of real life. All data is accurate with regards to the sources provided. Data from the 23/24 season includes all games up to 06/03/24.