The Best Duos in the NBA Right Now, Ranked

In an unforeseen turn of events, Damian Lillard is a Milwaukee Buck. After an entire offseason of back-and-forth reports from Woj and Shams essentially  concluding that Damian Lillard to Miami was imminent, the Bucks shocked the entire world today by finally giving Giannis Antetokounmpo a superstar running mate. The move not only bolstered the Bucks' chances of bringing home another title, it crippled the Miami Heat's chances of building on a Eastern Conference Finals appearance. The Heat had its whole plans built off Lillard in a Heat uniform to become the outright favorite in the East but Milwaukee had other plans. 

Dame's pairing with Giannis creates one of the best duos of the past decade. From Kevin Durant and Devin Booker to LeBron James and Anthony Davis, the NBA has numerous superstar duos spread out among the league today. We put together a list of the best duos in the NBA right now. To be transparent, we didn't rank James Harden and Joel Embiid because of Harden's request out of Philly. While he's still a Sixer for now, we expect that to change. 

Honorable Mention: KAT-Anthony Edwards, Julius Randle-Jalen Brunson, Zach LaVine-Demar Derozan. 

This is one of the more underrated duos in the league. They're one of three duos on this list that made the All-Star Game last season as teammates. De'Aaron Fox and Domantas Sabonis led the Kings to the playoffs for the first time since 2006. Do you realize how difficult it's been to break the Kings' playoff drought curse? That in itself warrants a spot on this list. The Kings won't be sneaking up on anyone this year so we'll see how the duo responds with more pressure on them. 

Donovan Mitchell and Darius Garland are the only small guard duo this list. With Damian Lillard now in the East, the chances for Darius Garland and Donovan Mitchell to both make the All-Star team as teammates have decreased but these are both All-Star caliber guards. Mitchell has already established himself as one of the premier guards in the league but Garland should be in that convo as well. Even with an All-Star under his belt, it seems as if he's still flown under the radar to the casual fan. That will change soon. Garland is still only 23 years old and there's plenty of upside for the young guard out of Vanderbilt. 

Let's be real, this duo is aging. They're not at their peak as a unit anymore but they're still elite when it comes to shooting the basketball. In addition to that,  Steph Curry is still one of the top players in the world at 35 years old.. Even after a solid year statistically from Klay Thompson, he struggled in the playoffs especially against in the second round against the Lakers. Klay is still a good player but he's not the player we once saw. This may piss off Warriors fans but we have to accept reality. Steph is shouldering most of the workload for this duo right now. 

It's unfortunate that we will not see the Memphis Grizzlies at full strength to start the year but when Ja Morant returns, they will be a problem. Morant is a top 10 player in the association when he's on the court and Jaren Jackson is the reigning Defensive Player of the Year. The scariest part about these two is that they're both only 24 years old. They have not reached their peak yet and you can expect them to move up this list as the years go on. 

Sorry Heat fans, we know this was supposed Jimmy Butler and Damian Lillard with Bam Adebayo as the third option but the NBA is unpredictable. Regardless, Bam and Jimmy earned everyone's respect as a duo last season if they didn't respect them before. Miami had a lot of unsung heroes on their roster but they were anchored by Jimmy and Bam. They shocked the East, making it to another NBA Finals with a depleted roster. They're still going to be a pain in everyone's side with these two on the roster. 

This has potential to be the highest scoring duo in the NBA. While the Mavericks still missed the postseason after acquiring Kyrie, we'll give them grace. With two ball dominant generational scorers, it's going to take time to create chemistry between the two and the team as a whole. Jason Kidd and company didn't have enough time to get Luka and Kyrie on the same page. We saw a lot of impressive scoring performances from the two but it was often coupled with putrid defense from the Mavs ultimately resulting in a loss. They'll have a full training camp and preseason to learn each other this year. 

When Kawhi Leonard and Paul George are healthy, they could be higher on this list. The problem is, they're never healthy at the same time. Injuries have robbed us of a potential all-time duo. We saw peak Kawhi briefly in the playoffs before his injury. We saw an All-Star Paul George most of the season but we rarely saw them together. Will this be the final year of this duo? How long will the Clippers allow this experiment last? 

This may seem low for LeBron James and Anthony Davis but it may just be reality. They're still two elite players in the game today but the Lakers' great run last season seemed to be because of the team as a whole. There were a lot of times in the playoffs that it was LeBron anchoring the team or AD anchoring the team individually with great play from role players like Rui Hachimura and Austin Reaves. We didn't see enough of AD and LeBron going off together like we saw during their championship run. Could we see that again? Sure. The Lakers will be in contention to win the West and that will still be dependent on the peformance of these two. 

This is by far the most scrutinized duo in the NBA which is ironic because they all they've done is win. Even without an NBA title under their belt, Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown have been a part of many deep playoff runs. They've anchored the Celtics to three of the last four Eastern Conference Finals. Their road just got tougher with Dame going to the Bucks but don't be surprised if they're playing on the biggest stage in June. You can make all the "Tatum is a fraud" and "Jaylen doesn't have a left" jokes but they will be in the conversation when the most important games of the year are played. 

This is a great duo but it's now part of a big trio. A lot of people may bring up the Suns being dominated by the Nuggets last year but I'm not sure if that's fair to use as the deciding factor in evaluating Kevin Durant and Devin Booker as a duo. KD and Book were lights out even after minimal time together. Some may forget that there was very little time for KD and the Suns to mesh following the trade in the middle of the year. Yes, Kevin Durant is one of the easier plug-and-play guys in the league but it still takes time to build chemistry among the entire roster. They will have that this year with a full training camp and healthy KD. 

Who saw this coming? All summer long we heard Dame was going to be on the Miami Heat by training camp. I guess Giannis had other ideas. This duo will be terrifying and the fact they still have Khris Middleton and Brook Lopez next to them makes them even scarier. Giannis has always needed an elite scoring guard that can draw attention from him and score from anywhere on the floor at will. While Jrue Holiday was no slouch, he wasn't as lethal of a scorer as Damian Lillard can be. The Giannis-Dame pick and rolls with shooters like Khris and Brook on the perimeter will be impossible to guard. Remember when everyone dreamed of a Giannis and Steph duo? Well, this is the next best thing. A guard that can shoot from 30 feet paired with a guy like Giannis who scores at will inside the paint is a championship recipe. Of course, we'll let them play a game first before we have them No. 1 but don't be surprised if they're No. 1 by next season. The potential of this duo is terrifying. 

While this is not the flashiest duo on the list, it's surely the most productive. Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray are the best duo in the NBA until someone kicks them off the throne. Denver had a great all-around team last year but what these two did in the postseason to anchor their squad to NBA championship deserves all the respect in the world. They completely ran through the NBA last season without breaking a sweat and dominated a KD-led and LeBron-led team in the postseason.