NBA media days are in the books for every team, and with that comes the official beginning of the 2019-20 preseason. In other words, time to fire up those training camp storylines and start looking ahead to the regular season, which should be one of the more exciting campaigns in some time with at least 10 teams -- and probably a few more -- that can walk into the first morning of practice with an honest belief that they can be the one holding the Larry O'Brien trophy come June.

Between now and then, of course, there are six months of NBA basketball to take in. As the journey for these teams take shape, which ones are you most interested in following? On a random Tuesday in December, who are you tuning in to watch? To me, the best teams aren't necessarily the most intriguing teams, though there is clearly some overlap.

With that in mind, here are the 10 most intriguing teams for the 2018-19 season, ranked in order.

1
Lakers

Pretty obvious one here. Two of the top five players in the league, by most people's standards, and yet there are a lot of questions about the Lakers. Can they defend at an elite level? What about the depth? Can they shoot? Unlike the Clippers, who in my opinion are far less interesting because we pretty much know they're great, the Lakers have some mystery to them. Perhaps they shouldn't. Perhaps I'm dumb to think a team with Anthony Davis and LeBron James will do anything other than scorch the earth, but I'm just not sure. I'm really interested to see how this thing looks and works.

2
Warriors

I was tempted to put the Warriors No. 1 because seriously, is there anything in sports more exciting than unleashed Stephen Curry? Besides that, one of the most interesting questions in all of sports over the past three years was whether the Warriors actually needed Kevin Durant. To some degree, we will find that out this season. It would be a much truer evaluation if Klay Thompson wasn't going to be out until at least the All-Star break (probably closer to mid-March or even April), but still, there is a wide gap between the limited, perhaps non-playoff team some people think the Warriors will be and the championship-contending team the Warriors still believe they are.    

3
Rockets

One league exec told CBS Sports: "I don't think the Rockets got better. In fact, I think they probably took a step back. But I'm just not a Westbrook guy, so I'm probably the wrong guy to ask." This is the root of the intrigue here. They think they got better effectively swapping Chris Paul for Westbrook, while the perception of Westbrook's impact on high-level winning has taken a major hit the past few seasons. Besides that, the Westbrook-Harden combo is clearly strange.

That said, can sheer talent overwhelm fit issues? Can Westbrook summon a 35-percent shooting season from beyond the arc and commit when he's off-ball and really make this thing work, or are we in for a my-turn-your-turn Westbrook-Harden attack that becomes predictable and ultimately futile?

Westbrook has become such an easy target as a team-killing stat guy that it is going to be fun to pull for him to prove that wrong. Personally, I think the Rockets are being too easily overlooked. Do I think they'll win a title? No. But I think they could be one of those teams that spend six months really getting your hopes up.

4
Celtics

For my money, Kemba Walker is one of the five most exciting players in the league, and now he finally gets his shot on a really good team. But what makes Boston really interesting is the Kyrie Irving factor. Just how poisonous was he? If Kemba comes in and, even with many of the same ball-controlling traits, galvanizes this team in the way Irving couldn't, that is going to say a lot about both of them.

How good can Jayson Tatum really be? We'll get a better idea about that in his third year. Can Jaylen Brown become a star on the rise again? Will Boston make a big move, perhaps for a Kevin Love or even a Bradley Beal? if the Celtics become willing to part with that 2020 Memphis Grizzlies first-round pick, which might be the biggest jewel asset in the league at the moment, things could get really, really interesting in Boston.

5
Pelicans

Zion Williamson, for starters. Just having this guy by himself would be a reason to watch New Orleans. Is he over-hyped? Is he actually a franchise-changing talent? There's a lot of disagreement about Zion in the scouting community in terms of his true superstar potential; even his fellow rookies didn't pick him to have the best career out of the guys in the 2019 class.

Beyond Zion, you have two guys in Lonzo Ball and Brandon Ingram who are even more polarizing across NBA circles. Some people think they're really good and were just being held back with the Lakers; some people think they've been overrated from the start. We'll see.

Either way, this is a sneaky playoff contender in a small market one year after losing a true franchise superstar. That kind of loss, no less the way the whole saga played out, is supposed to bury small-market teams. But David Griffin has come in and done an amazing job, and if he wants, he has the assets to go star-hunting and really turn this Davis loss on its head.

But even as currently constructed, the Pelicans are going to be equal parts fast and fun. They have the potential to be a defensive monster that can switch everything with Zion, Lonzo and Jrue Holiday, who brings his own intrigue as probably the most overlooked star in the league. For my money, the Pelicans are the most intriguing non-title-contending team in the league.

6
Jazz

One of the offseason darlings, the Jazz are expected to take a leap into at least fringe title contention this season. They've always had the defense; now they should have the offense, too. The addition of Mike Conley takes the team-running weight off Donovan Mitchell, who is now free to attack the basket in the added space provided by Bojan Bogdanovic, one of the best shooters in the league. In fact, along with Joe Ingles, Mitchell and Conley, Bogdanovic gives Utah the ability to play four 3-point shooters, and switchable defenders, around Rudy Gobert. That is going to be very tough on both ends.

Also, Mitchell's expected third-year leap after a summer with Team USA is one of the most intriguing individual storylines this season. All the ingredients are there for Mitchell to move into another tier of legit star players.

7
Nuggets

Are the Nuggets in for a regression? Perhaps from a regular-season win standpoint, but in terms of championship contention, will they prove closer this season than they were last season, or will they level off? From an individual standpoint, Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray should be, and need to be if Denver is going to be for real, on an upward track. Jokic needs to be an MVP candidate, and Murray needs to be an All-Star candidate. The continuity in Denver is exciting. Jerami Grant was one of the best sneaky pickups of the summer. Are the Nuggets for real? That's a very interesting question on a lot of levels and layers.  

8
76ers

Can Ben Simmons shoot now? At least a little bit? Has he been capable of shooting this whole time and yet completely shied away from it? For the Sixers to truly enter the realm of elite championship contenders, Simmons has to become more viable in half-court sets, which largely comes down to shooting and committing to cutting, and watching how a guy with all-time talent starts to develop outside the grace period of his first few years in the league is really, really intriguing.

Beyond that, the Sixers don't become super interesting until the playoffs. That's where Al Horford's presence will presumably pay the most dividends, and where we'll really be able to measure the strides this team has hopefully taken with so much top-end roster turnover.

9
Mavericks

The pairing of Luka Doncic and Kristaps Porzingis gives Dallas -- factoring age, long-term team control and potential upside -- perhaps the most intriguing duo in a league filled with star duos. What will Porzingis look like coming off his torn ACL? Will Doncic hit any kind of second-year wall or is the sky really the limit for this 20-year-old?

Dallas was conservative with its offseason moves this summer, and there's a good chance it takes the same approach next summer -- which COULD leave the team with an avenue to max space in 2021 when Giannis Antetokounmpo becomes available. Watching how Dallas develops, starting now, makes that potential pairing a few years from now of Doncic, Porzingis and Giannis a serious option and seriously intriguing.

10
Clippers

This must seem really low on the intrigue rankings for a team that acquired Kawhi Leonard and Paul George, but honestly, I'm just not going to be terribly interested in the Clippers until the playoffs. I know what they are. They're great. Even if they were to struggle for some reason in the regular season, I'd still bet on them in the playoffs. It's a matter of one-on-one, two-way stars. They win in the playoffs. The Clippers will have two of those guys no matter how the ancillary parts develop. I love Montrezl Harrell and Landry Shamet, but I'm not turning on the TV to specifically watch them. There just isn't much intrigue to the Clippers for me, at least not until May. It feels a little like when the Warriors had Durant; not quite the same inevitability, but I feel like I know what they are already, and it's great. The root of intrigue is unknown, suspense, and the Clippers lack in this regard.    

  • I feel compelled to address the fact that the Milwaukee Bucks are not on this list. They just don't intrigue me beyond whether Giannis Antetokounmpo develops some kind of a jump shot. I had one GM tell me Milwaukee should be the title favorite, and I don't necessarily disagree. But that's largely because the East is pretty weak and the West will spend two months beating up on each other. As it stands, only Milwaukee and Philadelphia feel like true contenders in the East, so what is there really to pay attention to with the Bucks? Again, I know Giannis is the obvious answer. But I've seen what he is. If he starts burying 3s at a high volume, I'll start tuning in. Until then, there isn't much suspense to this team. They are what they are: Very good, perhaps great, but not terribly intriguing.
  • Personally, I also feel like the Atlanta Hawks should be on this list. But who are you going to take off? The Hawks are going to be all kinds of exciting with Trae Young, and a lot of capable playmakers around him, creating a system of ball and player movement in the spirit of what the Warriors built. Not nearly as talented, at least not yet, but in the spirit. A lot of people think Cam Reddish was the most talented player in this year's draft. Scouts have told CBS Sports that DeAndre Hunter is going to surprise a lot of people with how much more he has to offer offensively than what he was able to show in a pretty buttoned-up system at Virginia. All the while, the Hawks can have over $70 million in cap space next summer and moving forward. They're a sneaky candidate, with that core of youth and upside, to attract a really big free agent (Giannis?) in the coming years and become a real player.