NBA Today: Ranking the top 10 duos in the league entering the 2019-20 season

#4 Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving (Brooklyn Nets)

After years of rebuilding, is Brooklyn finally a contender in the Eastern Conference?

With Kevin Durant set to miss the entire season, Kyrie Irving will be expected to step up his game. Both Irving and Durant are NBA champions who know what it takes to reach the pinnacle.

Both of them have received attention from the media as well as the fans for all the wrong reasons. Irving demanded a trade to the Boston Celtics after explicitly wanting to be 'the man' on a team. After spending two underwhelming seasons with the Celtics, Irving signed with the Brooklyn Nets in the offseason where he will pair up with Kevin Durant.

Loyalty is not the first thing that immediately comes to someone's mind while talking about Kevin Durant. He unceremoniously left Oklahoma City Thunder in favor of Golden State Warriors where he won back to back titles with consecutive Finals MVP honors. After an unsuccessful title defense that saw the Warriors dealing with injuries at the worst of times and Durant himself tearing his Achilles tendon in the NBA Finals, Durant joined the Nets via a sign and trade.

The Nets - who already have solid role players in Spencer Dinwiddie, Caris LeVert, Jarrett Allen, and Joe Harris - will be championship contenders once Durant comes back.

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#3 Russell Westbrook and James Harden (Houston Rockets)

Long-time OKC stalwart Russell Westbrook will join forces with former teammate and friend James Harden

From a statistical standpoint, James Harden and Russell Westbrook can light up any team with insane scoring feats. Two of the best all-round players in the league, their underwhelming outings in the playoffs year after year has been hugely disappointing. They should mesh immediately chemistry wise as they have been teammates before in the Oklahoma City Thunder uniform. However, there's only one ball on the basketball court and being two of the most ball-dominant players in the NBA, sharing it would be taxing, to say the least.

It will be intriguing to see how they will address the elephant in the room, the turnovers and efficiency. Both are known to be highly turnover prone and shoot a low percentage from the field, although Harden is an excellent free throw and three-point shooter.

Rockets have been championship contenders for the last couple of seasons. This season will be no different as they have made some key changes to the roster keeping the core intact. Center Clint Capela will have a feast in the paint with all the lops thrown up his way by Westbrook and Harden. Eric Gordon will yet again be a huge contributor to the team, so will be PJ Tucker, the anchor of the Rockets' defense.