Pick your 5 League Pass teams

[Bring Back Antoine]

So I bought League Pass Broadband for the first time this year, and I bought the version where you pick 5 teams and get all their games since I don't have enough time to watch all 30 teams. But I am struggling with which teams to pick. Please weigh in and help me out!

What I've narrowed it down to:

• Celtics - Gotta have do it since I have roommates who think Hockey is more important
• Bulls - D.Rose back in action
• Thunder - KD is always must-watch basketball
• Miami - No need to compliment them too much, but it's great basketball
• T-Wolves - Huge Rubio fan and hoping he and Love get some shared court time finally
• Warriors - Steph Curry could go off for 50 on any night
• Nets - Gotta see our boys in action
• Pistons - Most intriguing frontcourt in the NBA
• Clippers - Lob City + Doc = 'Nuff said

Go!

[Bosstown]

Dude I'm dealing with a similar issue, I want LP too but i dont know who to pick.

I can't pick the Cs since i'm in Boston and they're blacked out by the local cable company.

But so far I got:

- Heat: Lebron is a fun player to watch...judge me
- Nets: KG and PP...duh
- Clippers: Want to see how Doc does. Maybe not though, if he runs his sets like the Cs in 2007-2013, maybe i'll stay away.
- Warriors: they're going to be good this year.
- Thunder: KD!!!!

The Pacers, Rockets and Pelicans are other teams i want to watch as well. Not sure if I should give favor to the EST and CST teams because I don't feel like staying up until 2am to finish watching a basketball game...i dunno though.

[fairweatherfan]

They've dropped it to 5 now?  I think it went from 8 to 6 to 5 now. 

My picks:

Celtics.  Mandatory.
Warriors.  Most fun team to watch.
Rockets.  Probably second.
Bulls.  Good team, but can be painful to watch when their offense struggles. 
Nets.  If you're willing to watch KG + PP on a different team.  If not, I'd go with the Thunder, T-Wolves, or Pistons.  Maybe the Spurs if you like high-level but unflashy team play.

Miami will be on national TV more than anybody, and will be selected a lot for NBATV's Tuesday game (meaning not on LP).  Plus they're Miami.


EDIT:  Ooh Cleveland and Washington are good picks too, and not likely to be on TV much.  I'm changing my answer to Celtics, Warriors, Rockets, Cavs, and Nets or Wizards (depending on tolerance for KG/PP in enemy jerseys)

[Bring Back Antoine]

Yeah Rockets just missed the cut for me, but definitely an intriguing team. I'm in Boston too, but gonna try using this service to watch the Celtics games: http://www.unotelly.com/unodns/. I got the free trial yesterday, so if you're interested I can let you know how that goes. Probably won't try it tonight tho, I hear there's a baseball game...

Dude I'm dealing with a similar issue, I want LP too but i dont know who to pick.

I can't pick the Cs since i'm in Boston and they're blacked out by the local cable company.

But so far I got:

- Heat: Lebron is a fun player to watch...judge me
- Nets: KG and PP...duh
- Clippers: Want to see how Doc does. Maybe not though, if he runs his sets like the Cs in 2007-2013, maybe i'll stay away.
- Warriors: they're going to be good this year.
- Thunder: KD!!!!

The Pacers, Rockets and Pelicans are other teams i want to watch as well. Not sure if I should give favor to the EST and CST teams because I don't feel like staying up until 2am to finish watching a basketball game...i dunno though.

[indeedproceed]

Orlando
Golden State
Houston
Minnesota
Utah

[KCattheStripe]

Detroit
Memphis
Golden State
OKC
Houston

[bdm860]

I don't know if you have regular cable in addition to league pass, and it's been years since I ever had league pass, but consider national tv games.  Years ago when I had league pass, national tv games were blacked out on league pass.

National tv games:
Celtics – 3 games
Bulls – 24 games
Thunder – 24 games
Miami – 25 games
T-Wolves – 5 games
Warriors – 17 games
Nets – 17 games
Pistons – 2 games
Clippers – 21 games

(And those numbers don’t count NBA TV which you may already get depending your cable situation).

So if you picked the Heat, you’d only be getting 57 games, where if you picked the Pistons you’d be getting 80 games, but both would cost you the same.

With the best teams, like the Bulls, Thunder, Nets, Heat, etc. like 95% of the good games will probably be on national tv anyway.  You won’t be watching Nets vs Heat on League Pass, those are all on TNT/ESPN.  Every single game Miami plays against Brooklyn, New York, Chicago, San Antonio, OKC, LAC, LAL is on national tv, every single one.  If you picked Miami, you’d get one Miami/Pacers game and one Miami/Houston game on LP, those would likely be the only 2 good games, and both will probably be on NBA TV anyways (if you already get that channel).  Most of the time you’ll be watching Miami vs Charlotte or Philly or Phoenix, etc.

Also consider your schedule.  What time do you go to bed?  If you’re in bed by 11pm, you might miss the 2nd half of a lot of LAC and Warriors games.  On the other hand, if you picked all East Coast teams, you’ll have a lot of times when you have 5 games on at once on a Wednesday night all starting at 7:30pm.  Maybe pick 2 East Coast teams, 2 Central teams, 1 West Coast team.  It could help spread things out for you if they’re all playing at home on the same day (which will be a lot of Wednesday and Friday nights).

Now some of these teams I’m not really interested in watching but if I were you based on your list, I might go with:

Celtics (obviously)
Nets (to see our boys play regularly still).
Pistons (most bang for your buck with 80 games on LP)
T-Wolves (most bang for your buck with 77 games on LP)
Warriors (because you get more Clippers games on national tv).

Spreads out the time zones a little (though you'd still have 3 EST teams), and gives you the most bang for your buck.

[Yoki_IsTheName]

Golden State is the top LP team. They are too exciting not to watch everytime.

The other 4...?

Cleveland   - Kyrie of course
Boston      - Automatic
Washington  - Wall and Beal poised for a breakout
Miami       - Everyone plays Miami the hardest

[Celtics18]

I don't think I'm getting League Pass, but my five would be:

Boston
Atlanta
Portland
Denver
Washington

I think . . .

[Fafnir]

NBA broadband's quality was so poor I'm hesitant to buy it again.

I'm still up in the air about just buying a full league pass again too.

[slamtheking]

got to go with the tried-and-true standby answer:

1. Celtics
2. Celtics
3. Celtics
4. Celtics
5. Ok, Brooklyn for old times sake

Who really cares about the rest?

[Lucky17]

This 5-team pass is strictly broadband?

I'm not sure about giving the league my money again. (I cancelled LP out of protest during the strike-shortened season, when they charged full price for 2/3 of a season.) If there's a reduced price for following the C's (and 4 other teams), I may reconsider.

[D.o.s.]

I don't know if you have regular cable in addition to league pass, and it's been years since I ever had league pass, but consider national tv games.  Years ago when I had league pass, national tv games were blacked out on league pass.

National tv games:
Celtics – 3 games
Bulls – 24 games
Thunder – 24 games
Miami – 25 games
T-Wolves – 5 games
Warriors – 17 games
Nets – 17 games
Pistons – 2 games
Clippers – 21 games

(And those numbers don’t count NBA TV which you may already get depending your cable situation).

So if you picked the Heat, you’d only be getting 57 games, where if you picked the Pistons you’d be getting 80 games, but both would cost you the same.

With the best teams, like the Bulls, Thunder, Nets, Heat, etc. like 95% of the good games will probably be on national tv anyway.  You won’t be watching Nets vs Heat on League Pass, those are all on TNT/ESPN.  Every single game Miami plays against Brooklyn, New York, Chicago, San Antonio, OKC, LAC, LAL is on national tv, every single one.  If you picked Miami, you’d get one Miami/Pacers game and one Miami/Houston game on LP, those would likely be the only 2 good games, and both will probably be on NBA TV anyways (if you already get that channel).  Most of the time you’ll be watching Miami vs Charlotte or Philly or Phoenix, etc.

Also consider your schedule.  What time do you go to bed?  If you’re in bed by 11pm, you might miss the 2nd half of a lot of LAC and Warriors games.  On the other hand, if you picked all East Coast teams, you’ll have a lot of times when you have 5 games on at once on a Wednesday night all starting at 7:30pm.  Maybe pick 2 East Coast teams, 2 Central teams, 1 West Coast team.  It could help spread things out for you if they’re all playing at home on the same day (which will be a lot of Wednesday and Friday nights).

Now some of these teams I’m not really interested in watching but if I were you based on your list, I might go with:

Celtics (obviously)
Nets (to see our boys play regularly still).
Pistons (most bang for your buck with 80 games on LP)
T-Wolves (most bang for your buck with 77 games on LP)
Warriors (because you get more Clippers games on national tv).

Spreads out the time zones a little (though you'd still have 3 EST teams), and gives you the most bang for your buck.

Definitely want to watch out for Nationally televised games--and whatever team is in your local market, 'cause League Pass won't cover those either.

Another thing to keep in mind--divisions. Don't want too much overlap there as far as value is concerned.

Personally, I'd go something like:
T-Wolves
Trail Blazers
Warriors
Pistons/Indiana
Celtics--assuming you're not in the NE zone for games.

[LarBrd33]

Fellas just a note... You probably don't need to add teams like the Heat and Bulls.  Check the schedule to see who has the most nationally televised games.  My guess is you're going to see a ton of nationally televised Heat games anyways... prob can use league pass for lesser-televised teams like the Timberwolves.

Edit:  I posted that without reading the above.  Looks like everyone is on the same page.

[fairweatherfan]

NBA broadband's quality was so poor I'm hesitant to buy it again.

I'm still up in the air about just buying a full league pass again too.

I had broadband for 4 seasons (my crappy cable company doesn't carry LP or NBATV), and it was only bad the first year.  By last season I had almost no trouble with it.  Still not getting it this year since we'll probably stink and I have a shiny new mortgage to deal with.