Fubo News ranks the eight best duos in the NBA for the 2023-24 season. Watch the NBA all season long on Fubo.
The NBA is cyclical, as proven by the league circling back to teams building the best duos in search of a run to the NBA championship. The Boston Celtics in 2007 created the original Big 3, which inadvertently led to the Miami Heat’s Heatles era that flowed into the Golden State Warriors with their three stars. Since then, teams have won the championship with one star surrounded by high-level talent or a pair of All-NBA-worthy players. Entering this season, most of the contenders and favorites to win the championship are built on dynamic duos, with these eight standing out.
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Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray
You cannot start a duos list in the NBA today without the best player in the world and his budding All-Star co-star. Nikola Jokic elevates Jamal Murray, but Murray also takes some pressure off Jokic and elevates his game. When it was just Jokic, he averaged more points and the team petered out of the playoffs early. In the first year with a healthy Murray, the team won the NBA championship with Jokic back in his natural role as a distributor. Jokic could likely make any top-50 player look great, but Murray is who he has and they make beautiful basketball music together.
LeBron James and Anthony Davis
Only three duos on this list have an NBA championship together and have played for at least four seasons together. One of those duos is LeBron James and Anthony Davis. When healthy, these two have proven to be the best two-way duo in the NBA with a championship and a Conference Finals. The Los Angeles Lakers are one of the odds-on favorites to make a run at the championship again this season, primarily because of James and Davis.
Stephen Curry and Draymond Green
This could also be Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson, but this run of sustained success for Golden State has two main building blocks. The elite scoring and play of Curry alongside arguably the best defensive player of his generation and dynamic playmaker in Green make for a nasty duo. When these two are on the court together, Golden State is a championship contender. For their career, they have a 72.5% winning percentage and are 98-47 in the playoffs.Â
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Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard
It might be ambitious to put Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard ahead of duos that have winning experience together. It might be. On the other hand, Antetokounmpo is at worst the second-best player in the league and he is teaming up with the perfect pick-and-roll partner in Lillard, who is coming off his best offensive season. These two might rocket to the top of this list by season’s end.
Kevin Durant and Devin Booker
There are probably three players in the NBA who can flourish in any situation and be comfortable with literally any style of teammate. Two of them are Kevin Durant and Devin Booker, with the other being Durant’s former teammate, Curry. On the offensive end, Durant and Booker complement each other so well with unselfishness, efficient scoring and one thing on their mind when they wake up every morning: hooping.
Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown
The basketball world has been trying to break up Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown for nearly every year they have been together – after their first conference finals, after their second conference finals and after their first NBA Finals appearance, all in six seasons. They are unquestionably the best wing duo in a league that values elite wings, scoring and two-way play. The only thing left for Tatum and Brown to do now is win the championship, which they just might do surrounded by potentially their best roster since being drafted to Boston.
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Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo
Name another duo that is playing together today that has more than 38 playoff wins in the last four seasons. How about one that has been to the conference finals in three out of the last four seasons and the NBA finals in two of those seasons? I’ll wait.
Domantas Sabonis and De’Aaron Fox
This is the least accomplished duo in the field, that is true. They have also elevated each other’s game and took the Sacramento Kings to the playoffs last season. Another full season together will only make the duo even more fortified as one of the best in the league.
Honorable Mentions:
Joel Embiid and James Harden have an argument to be top three on this list, but with Harden looking to bail on his third NBA team for something that looks better, they are not eligible. Injuries hurt Kawhi Leonard and Paul George’s ranking, but the duo are 83-35 (70.3%) when they play together.Â
Not worth mentioning, but here they are nonetheless: Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving. If they play .500 basketball, then maybe we can consider them a top-10 duo in the NBA.
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