It's no easy assignment to rank anything about the NBA this early in the season. But there are some one-two punches that project to look outstanding.

Talent always rises to the top, which is why we used USA TODAY's top 100 player rankings to anchor our decisions. But how players elevate each other is equally, if not more, important. Whether it's on the offensive or the defensive end of the floor, it leads to winning basketball. It matters to not just look at counting stats but dive a little deeper for these evaluations.

The good news is that there are plenty of resources available to us on NBA.com and PBPStats that help contextualize how well a duo has played together. These metrics tell us how a team performed when both players shared the court.

Offensive rating measures how many points a team scored per 100 possessions with a given duo on the floor while defensive rating measures how many points a team allowed per 100 possessions with that duo on the floor.

Net rating is the difference between those two numbers. For example, a +10 net rating means that a team outscored opponents by 10 points per 100 possessions when the duo shared the court, while a -10 net rating means the team was outscored by 10 points per 100 possessions.

To reduce the impact of small-sample noise, we adjusted ratings toward the league average. Lineups that played more minutes retained more of their actual performance, while lineups with fewer minutes were pulled closer to average. 

You can check out our individual rankings here. But below are the best duos in the NBA entering the 2026-27 season.

1. NEW YORK KNICKS: Jalen Brunson (6), Karl-Anthony Towns (16)

As the centerpiece of the reigning NBA champions, Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns claim the top spot on this list.

The Knicks outscored opponents by 192 total points when Brunson and Towns shared the court during the 2026 playoffs, per NBA.com. That ranked second-best (behind just Brunson and OG Anunoby, which would have also earned its own spot in the ten best duos if we included multiple pairings from the same team) among all two-man lineups in the playoffs.  

They have found ways to make the game easier for each other. Towns shot 40.2 percent on 3-pointers when sharing the court with Brunson but 35.4 percent when he did not. Brunson, meanwhile, shot 65.7 percent at the rim with Towns on the court and 59.6 percent without him.  

While they still need to figure out a long-term contract extension for Towns, his pairing with Brunson is one that clearly worked down the stretch and warrants the top spot on this list. 

2. DENVER NUGGETS: Nikola Jokić (2), Jamal Murray (21)

The 2023 NBA champions have the most long-standing chemistry of any duo on this list, and it’s not fading: Jamal Murray finally made his first NBA All-Star appearance last season. 

When including the playoffs, via PBPStats, Nikola Jokić and Murray combined to assist each other 344 times last season. That was 100 more assists than any other duo in the league and marked the fourth consecutive season that Jokić and Murray led the NBA in that category.

Using our minutes-weighted stabilization method, the Jokić-Murray duo produced the second-best adjusted offense in the NBA among more than 2,000 two-man combinations last season. It ranked as the best overall in 2024-25. Even though Murray missed the 2021-22 season, they have now finished among the top ten in this category in five of the last six seasons they played together.  

3. OKLAHOMA CITY THUNDER: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (1), Jalen Williams (22)

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is the back-to-back NBA MVP winner but he has an impressive running mate, too. Jalen Williams was very limited by injury last season, but during his last fully healthy season, this duo won an NBA Finals together. 

Under our minutes-weighted stabilization method, the time that Gilgeous-Alexander shared the court with Williams last year led to one of the five best adjusted two-man net ratings (17.0) in the NBA. This was the second year in a row they finished top ten in this category.

Oklahoma City is going to contend for a long time, especially so long as Gilgeous-Alexander and Williams are both playing even close to the caliber of basketball we have seen from them.

4. PHILADELPHIA 76ERS: Tyrese Maxey (14), Jaylen Brown (15)

The fun thing about this duo is we won’t actually know which players on the 76ers will emerge as the most important on the team until later in the season when we’ve seen how they all blend together.

But based on health and age indicators, we can assume that Tyrese Maxey and Jaylen Brown will probably play the biggest roles for Philadelphia. During their Opening Night victory over the Knicks, the 76ers outscored the defending champions by 17 points when these two players shared the floor. 

Maxey and Brown will have their play elevated by playing alongside LeBron James and Joel Embiid. However, as the likely stars of the show, this team will go as far as they can take them.

5. SAN ANTONIO SPURS: Victor Wembanyama (3), Stephon Castle (28)

The future is obviously bright for the Spurs, led by back-to-back NBA Rookie of the Year winners Victor Wembanyama and Stephon Castle. 

Their adjusted net rating during the regular season (14.7) ranked in the top 20 among the 2,000+ two-man lineup combinations. During the Spurs' run to the Western Conference title, Wembanyama and Castle combined to assist each other 62 times. No other duo combined to assist each other more than 45 times in the postseason, per PBPStats. 

Castle is able to take shots at the rim more frequently (41.6 percent vs. 29.5 percent) with a much higher overall shooting efficiency (55.6 eFG% vs. 47.5 eFG%) when Wembanyama is on the court compared to when he is not. Wembanyama has gotten attempts at the rim more frequently alongside Castle (38.8 percent) compared to without him (32.1 percent) as well.      

6. LOS ANGELES LAKERS: Luka Dončić (4), Austin Reaves (32) 

If you were to imagine a perfect teammate for Luka Dončić in theory, it’s probably not Austin Reaves. Their skill sets aren’t as theoretically complementary as they have been in practice.

The Lakers were outscored when Dončić played without Reaves (-0.7 net rating) and when Reaves played without Dončić (-4.8). Yet when they shared the floor, the Lakers outscored opponents by 9.2 points per 100 possessions. The numbers suggest that when they share the floor, something just clicks.

The two players are able to get the most out of each other, and with LeBron James no longer in the picture and Walker Kessler as an ideal post player added to their starting lineup, both could elevate even more in 2026-27.

HONORABLE MENTIONS 

Early returns look fantastic for Edwards and Ball for the Timberwolves, though injuries for Haliburton and Irving have made the Pacers and Mavericks more difficult to predict. We will still need to see more from the Giannis-Bam pairing and the Kawhi-Barnes duo before making a full assessment, too.