The Five Teams the NBA Doesn’t Want You to Watch This Season

If you want to find out what the NBA thinks of your favorite team, look no further than the national television schedule.

For the second season of its 11-year agreement, the NBA is splitting its prime-time slates across three different networks—NBC Universal (NBC and Peacock), Disney (ESPN and ABC) and Amazon (Prime Video). All season long, NBC will broadcast national games on Monday and Tuesday, ESPN will take the Wednesday slate and Prime Video will wrap up the work week with Friday prime-time games. Later on in the season (in January and beyond), Prime Video will tack on Thursday games, ESPN will add Friday games, and the weekend will be split between Disney (Saturday games on ABC and ESPN) and NBC (Sunday games on NBC and Peacock).

In all, there will be 247 national games broadcast on ABC, ESPN, NBC, Peacock and Prime Video this season. That is significantly up from the 172 national games broadcast two years ago when ESPN and TNT held the rights.

The usual suspects top the list for the most nationally televised games of the season—the Lakers (they are worth $12 billion, in case you didn’t hear), the reigning champion Knicks, LeBron James and the 76ers, and Victor Wembanyama’s runner-up Spurs are all in prime time for a league-high 34 of their 82 games. Not too far behind them are the Thunder (30 national games), Nuggets (28), Warriors (28), Celtics (27) and Timberwolves (27).

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And then there are those other teams. The bad teams. The teams the NBA would rather shield from the public eye. Those teams that would hit “simulate to draft” if this was franchise mode in NBA 2K27, but the league still has an obligation to briefly give them the spotlight.

During the 2026-27 season, five NBA teams will play on national television for the minimum two games this season. Let’s break ‘em down below:

Brooklyn Nets

Michael Porter Jr. averaged 24.2 points in 52 games for the Nets last season. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

2025-26 record: 20–62
National TV games: @ Timberwolves (Nov. 23; Peacock) | vs. Bulls (Jan. 20; ESPN)

Eight miles away from Madison Square Garden, home of the champion Knicks, sits the Nets’ Barclays Center, which hasn’t hosted a playoff game since 2021. The Nets won 32 contests in 2023-24 and have only gotten worse, starting the Jordi Fernández era with records of 26–56 and 20–62.

Nic Claxton is gone from last year’s 20-win disaster, as is Ziaire Williams, but the Nets added Keon Ellis, Julius Randle and Moritz Wagner this offseason to join the rotation alongside Michael Porter Jr. Maybe they can win 30 games this year? There’s motivation to do so since Brooklyn doesn’t have control of its first-round pick in the 2027 draft.

If they do, the casual NBA fan won’t get to see many of them. The NBA gave the Nets two national games—a clash against the Timberwolves, which likely will feature plenty of boos at Target Center directed toward Randle—and a bout against the Bulls in January.

Memphis Grizzlies

2025-26 record: 25–57
National TV games: vs. Rockets (Jan. 18; Peacock) | vs. Trail Blazers (Feb. 6; Prime)

The Grizzlies are one of two teams who won’t have a single non-streaming national television game, as they were swept under the rug for midseason games on Peacock and Prime.

Things aren’t going great in Memphis, which traded Jaren Jackson Jr. in February and split up with former face of the franchise Ja Morant in June. Morant will make his return to Memphis in February, one of the two national games the Grizzlies have on their schedule. Hopefully rookie Cameron Boozer can help turn things around by then.

NEXT: The Biggest Takeaway From the 2026–27 NBA Schedule Release

Milwaukee Bucks

Kyle Kuzma returns for a second full season in Milwaukee. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

2025-26 record: 32–50
National TV games: @ Heat (Nov. 18; ESPN) | vs. Heat (Jan. 28; Prime)

How much does Giannis Antetokounmpo mean to a franchise? Last year, the Bucks had 13 national television games. After parting ways with the two-time MVP in a trade with the Heat, they have two. Both of those prime-time games this season are actually about Antetokounmpo—his first game against the Bucks on Nov. 18, and his first game back in Milwaukee on Jan. 28.

The good news for Bucks fans? All 82 games will be aired free over the air on MY24 and statewide affiliates, which seems about the right price to watch this team.

New Orleans Pelicans

2025-26 record: 26–56
National TV games: @ Spurs (Jan. 14; Prime) | vs. Spurs (Jan. 17; Prime)

The Pelicans will have exactly zero national television games broadcast on American soil. They are heading across the pond for two international games against the Spurs—one in Paris on Jan. 14 and the other in Manchester three days later, which will both be streamed on Prime.

New Orleans mysteriously didn’t do much of anything this offseason after winning just 26 games last season. The Pels will run it back with Dejounte Murray and Zion Williamson leading the charge alongside Trey Murphy III and young pieces Derik Queen and Jeremiah Fears. If it doesn’t work out again, hey, hopefully they have fun on the Europe trip.

Sacramento Kings

Domantas Sabonis has played in Sacramento since he was a main piece of the Tyrese Haliburton trade in 2022. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

2025-26 record: 22–60
National TV games: @ Warriors (Jan. 12; NBC) | @ Nuggets (Jan. 25; Peacock)

The Kings don’t exactly have a rich franchise history of winning, and they are coming off their worst season since going 17–65 in 2008-09. Oof. Once again, we enter a season in which Zach LaVine and Domantas Sabonis will be floated as trade chips at the deadline. Meanwhile, former Kings bench boss Mike Brown just coached the Knicks to a championship and former Sacramento All-Star De’Aaron Fox helped the Spurs reach the NBA Finals. Double oof.

NBC will catch a NorCal clash between the Warriors and Nuggets in January, and the Kings will be streaming on Peacock for a matchup against Denver a couple of weeks later. With all due respect to rookie Darius Acuff Jr., that might be a night might be better served catching up on the latest season of Traitors.

Here’s a list of the nationally televised games for each team:

National TV games for each team in 2026-27 season

TEAM	NBC/PEACOCK	ESPN/ABC	PRIME	TOTAL
Lakers	11	13	10	34
Knicks	11	13	10	34
76ers	11	13	10	34
Spurs	11	13	10	34
Thunder	11	11	8	30
Nuggets	11	10	7	28
Warriors	11	10	7	28
Celtics	10	10	7	27
Timberwolves	10	11	6	27
Heat	9	10	6	25
Mavericks	10	7	4	21
Rockets	11	5	5	21
Pistons	9	5	5	19
Cavaliers	8	6	3	17
Pacers	6	1	4	11
Trail Blazers	7	2	2	11
Hawks	5	2	3	10
Clippers	5	2	1	8
Magic	5	2	1	8
Suns	5	2	1	8
Raptors	3	2	2	7
Hornets	3	1	2	6
Jazz	4	1	1	6
Wizards	4	1	1	6
Bulls	2	1	0	3
Nets	1	1	0	2
Grizzlies	1	0	1	2
Bucks	0	1	1	2
Pelicans	0	0	2	2
Kings	2	0	0	2

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