Live · Period 4 · 8:58
Atlanta Hawks at Orlando Magic
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2026-27 · Regular season
What it costs to watch your NBA team without cable in 2026-27: about $324 in Miami, $524 for the Lakers, and why Cleveland ranks last
WhyNBA priced a cord-cutting season for every market. The DAZN-exclusive Cavaliers rank last for access but land mid-table on cost, from about $324 in Miami to $524 for the Lakers, Nuggets and Rockets.
In this article
The Cleveland Cavaliers open their season Thursday against the Philadelphia 76ers. Plenty of fans in northeast Ohio will spend the hours before tip-off working out which app they need. A ranking published Tuesday by Awful Announcing put the Cavaliers 30th of 30 teams for how easy it is to watch local games in 2026-27. The Pacers, Timberwolves, Spurs and Grizzlies were 29th through 26th. All five sold their local rights exclusively to DAZN after Main Street Sports Group shut down the FanDuel-branded regional networks.
Being hard to watch is not the same as being expensive, though. WhyNBA priced a full regular season for a fan in each market who has no cable or live-TV bundle. The total includes the local package plus the three national streaming services needed for the league’s exclusive national games. The spread runs from about $324 in Miami to about $524 in Los Angeles. Cleveland lands in the middle at about $444.
The bill, team by team
Local prices come from each team’s listed in-market streaming option. Where a team sells a season pass, we use it. Where it only sells monthly, we count six payments to cover late October through mid-April. National games sit on ABC and ESPN, NBC and Peacock, and Prime Video under the 11-year deals that started last season. Streaming all three without cable costs $323.82 for six months: ESPN Unlimited at $31.99 a month, Peacock Premium at $12.99 and standalone Prime Video at $8.99.
| Team | In-market streaming option | Local games for the season* | With ESPN Unlimited, Peacock Premium and Prime Video* |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hawks | Prime Video (included with Amazon Prime) | Included with Prime | $269.88 plus Prime |
| Heat | Local 10 Plus Platinum (free) | Free | $323.82 |
| Celtics | NBC Sports Boston add-on on Peacock | $89.70 | $413.52 |
| Warriors | NBC Sports Bay Area add-on on Peacock | $89.70 | $413.52 |
| Mavericks | MavsTV+ | $100.00 | $423.82 |
| Bucks | Bucks+ | $100.00 | $423.82 |
| Pelicans | Pelicans+ | $105.00 | $428.82 |
| Kings | NBC Sports California add-on on Peacock | $107.70 | $431.52 |
| Thunder | Thunder+ | $109.00 | $432.82 |
| Suns | Suns+ | $110.00 | $433.82 |
| Cavaliers, Pacers, Timberwolves, Spurs, Grizzlies | DAZN (exclusive) | $119.99 | $443.81 |
| Hornets, Pistons, Magic | DAZN (plus over-the-air TV) | $119.99 | $443.81 |
| Trail Blazers | BlazerVision | $120.00 | $443.82 |
| Nets | YES Network season pass on DAZN | $120.00 | $443.82 |
| Bulls | CHSN+ ($20 a month) | $120.00 | $443.82 |
| Jazz | Jazz+ | $125.00 | $448.82 |
| 76ers | NBC Sports Philadelphia add-on on Peacock | $149.70 | $473.52 |
| Wizards | Monumental+ | $180.00 | $503.82 |
| Knicks | MSG+ on DAZN ($30 a month) | $180.00 | $503.82 |
| Nuggets | Altitude+ | $200.00 | $523.82 |
| Rockets | SCHN+ | $200.00 | $523.82 |
| Lakers | Spectrum SportsNet+ | $200.00 | $523.82 |
Why Cleveland ranks last but does not pay the most
The Cavaliers’ problem is that there is only one way in. DAZN charges $119.99 for a standard season pass, $139.99 for the Ultimate tier with multiview and more simultaneous streams, or $19.99 a month. DAZN says it will stream 70 of the 82 regular-season games, 62 of them exclusively. Fifteen games are free with a DAZN account and also air over the air on Cleveland 19, Cleveland’s 43 and the Rock Entertainment Sports Network. Full-season and half-season Cavs United and Foundation Members get the season pass free this year.
What a cable bundle used to hide is the national schedule. The Cavaliers have 20 national appearances: six on ESPN, four on NBC, four on Peacock, three on Prime Video and three on NBA TV. The NBC games are free with an antenna. Everything else needs its own subscription. For a cord-cutting Cavs fan, the national stack costs nearly three times the local pass. That works out to about $32 for each of the six ESPN games if a fan keeps ESPN Unlimited for the whole season.
The Spurs show the other side of the same setup. Victor Wembanyama’s team has 39 national games, including five on ABC and nine on NBC. Add 22 local games on CW San Antonio, and more than 30 games are free over the air. Their DAZN bill is the same $119.99 as Cleveland’s. Their fans just pay it for fewer games that are not free elsewhere.
The cheapest and the priciest
Miami is the outlier. Heat games moved to WPLG Local 10, and the station streams them free on Local 10 Plus Platinum. A Heat fan’s only cost is the national schedule, and with Giannis Antetokounmpo in town that is a big one: 31 national games, including eight on ESPN and six on Prime Video. In Atlanta, the Hawks put in-market streaming on Prime Video at no extra cost for Prime members. The national Prime games come in the same membership.
The top of the table is the big-market cable networks. The Lakers on Spectrum SportsNet+, the Nuggets on Altitude+ and the Rockets on SCHN+ all charge $200 for the season. Those prices also cover a second team: the Avalanche, the Astros, and other programming on the Lakers’ network. Some Spectrum internet and mobile customers get SportsNet+ at no extra charge. The Knicks’ MSG+ now streams through DAZN at $30 a month and bundles the Rangers, Islanders and Devils. A $35 tier adds the YES Network and the Nets.
The NBC Sports regional teams come out cheaper than their sticker price suggests. Celtics, Warriors and Kings games stream as Peacock add-ons at $14.95, $14.95 and $17.95 a month. The 76ers’ add-on is the priciest at $24.95. Because the add-on stacks on a Peacock plan a national-games fan already needs, the extra cost is only the add-on itself.
Few national games, smaller bill
Bad teams get one advantage here. The Bucks, Grizzlies, Pelicans, Kings and Nets each have four national games, so their fans can skip most of the national stack. The Bucks are the clearest example. Bucks+ costs $100 for the season, and the team’s four national games are one on ESPN, one on Prime Video and two on NBA TV. A Bucks fan who buys one month each of ESPN Unlimited and Prime Video around those dates pays about $141 for every game except the two on NBA TV. The Knicks and 76ers have 42 national games each, and their fans have no such shortcut.
A one-year patch
The league is treating 2026-27 as a bridge season. Adam Silver said at the Board of Governors meeting in July: “We’ll cobble together a series of solutions for this season. But then I feel good that we will then have something on a national basis in place for the following year.” The NBA has hired Matt Volk, a former NESN and SportsNet Pittsburgh executive, as general manager of a new local media group. It is preparing to sell a centralized streaming hub for local games. Tom Friend has reported that YouTube is in advanced talks to carry an initial group of 20 to 25 teams for more than $1 billion a year. ESPN and DAZN have confirmed interest, and Amazon has also been linked.
If a hub launches next fall, the five DAZN-exclusive teams are the easiest to move, since their rights are already on a stream with no cable carriage to protect. The teams that own their networks, such as the Lakers, Nuggets, Rockets, Knicks and Wizards, have the most fee revenue to weigh. Until then, a Cavs fan’s season costs $119.99 plus whatever national services they are willing to add, and the bill grows with every ESPN and Prime Video date the team gets.
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