This story appears in ESPN The Magazine's NBA Preview issue. Subscribe today! Watch Pablo S. Torre and Bomani Jones debate hoops every day on "High Noon."
Here's a riddle: If the Warriors winning a title is a foregone conclusion, why has the NBA never been more popular? Answer: Because the NBA isn't just a basketball league -- it's a network of 30 prestige television dramas. The spats! The rumors! The infighting! The subtweets! Whiteboard-smashing! Crotch-kicking! Players-only meetings!
So this year we're treating the coming NBA season as what it truly is, by finding the TV drama at the heart of each team and ranking all 30 by how must-watch they will be.