Five NBA teams in desperate need of a brand refresh, including the Mavericks, Thunder, and Jazz

When the Los Angeles Clippers announced a brand overhaul on February 26, it received mixed reviews. Some like the unique angle the Clippers take, with a stronger emphasis on a nautical theme, while others – myself included – think the logo looks like something that would represent a cruise line. Maybe I’ll be interested in it, but I appreciate the out-of-the-box thinking of their creative team to come up with something we’ve truly never seen before from a professional sports team. And a return to the font on the jerseys is appreciated.

With the Clippers changing their logo and jerseys, as well as their color scheme, it got me thinking about other teams around the league that are in desperate need of a brand refresh. This list is by no means exhaustive, because quite honestly, I feel like most of the NBA the jerseys and logos are pretty forgettable, but these are the top 5 teams that should ditch their current rotation of jerseys – and in some cases logo – and go back to the drawing board.

It wasn’t difficult to decide who should be at the top of this list. Two of the Mavericks’ four jerseys have been worn since the 2010-11 season. While there’s plenty of nostalgia in Association and Icon jerseys for Dirk Nowtizki’s illustrious career that included winning the franchise’s only championship, it’s time to put these two to rest. The same goes for the Statement Edition jersey, which looks more like a Summer League uniform than something an NBA team should wear every night.

Redesigning the jersey, and probably the logo, has long been overkill for Dallas, and frankly, it probably should have been done when Nowitzki retired, officially ushering in the era of Luka Doncic. But Dallas has only made small cosmetic changes to its two main jerseys, changing a shade of blue here, a change in the logo patch there. If anything, this year’s City Edition jersey could serve as a starting point for a design refresh. The font is fun, the contrast of black and blue is attractive, and it could work if you changed the base of the jersey to Dallas’ iconic blue and white. Now that a new majority owner has stepped in to oversee things in Mark Cuban’s stead, perhaps one of the things on their to-do list — aside from winning a championship and trying everything they can power to keep Doncic happy and in Dallas – could be to throw out those boring jerseys and bring in something new.

The Pistons have worn some iterations of their Association and Icon jerseys since at least the 2004 championship season, and if they weren’t that great then, they certainly aren’t now. There’s really nothing fake with the Pistons’ two main jerseys, but like many in the league, they’re pretty boring. Especially when you consider that Detroit has one of the coolest throwback jerseys in league history, the teal one with the flaming horse and exhaust pipes to match. Which embodies the “Motor City” nickname that Detroit is associated with, none of the current four bring the same level of recognition to the city, even with the City Edition trying to pay homage to the “Bad Boys” era of team.

The logo is also nothing to get excited about, as it falls into the category of minimalist logos that we’ve been force-fed for years by professional sports teams. The logo wouldn’t be so distracting if there was some creativity with the jerseys, even in years past the Pistons haven’t been particularly flashy with any of their City Edition jerseys. The best was without a doubt the Green uniforms of Sainte-Cécile of the 2022-23 season. At least it’s a departure from the typical red, white and blue color scheme while also serving as an ode to a special part of Detroit basketball history.

Throw out the whole concept. The Thunder’s color scheme is actually a fun one considering they are one of two teams to use orange as one of their primary colors (the Suns being the other). But Phoenix uses its orange much better than OKC, and I wish the Thunder would use it more. The City Edition jersey is a great example of this, the burnt orange pops against the navy filigree jersey and the gold piping on the sides of the shorts and jersey really stands out. But it’s the only memorable uniform in the set. The Association’s white jersey is bland, and if you’re going to put the full name of the city of OKC on a jersey, at least make it more attractive to look at.

The Thunder are one of the most exciting young teams in the league with the potential to be in the championship discussion for a while, so the jerseys worn by Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Chet Holmgren And Jalen Williams should match this level of entertainment. OKC should lean more into the orange and darker blues, ditch the light blue and get a little more creative with it. This probably won’t happen because of stupid uniform rules, but it would be cool if they could just use “OKC” or “Thunder” instead of having to use the full name of the city government.

It’s absolutely absurd to me that a team with a name as cool as the “Wizards” wouldn’t address the sheer silliness of it all. I understand it’s the DC team, so they want to capitalize on the nation’s capital with the patriotic colors red, white and blue. But I’m sorry you can’t become “USA” and be called the Wizards. Or change the team name to something similar. MLB National and NHL Capitals, who share the same city as wizards, or do witchcraft and give us wands, and a wizard mascot with a white beard and end their days. The Gilbert Arenas era Wizards jerseys accomplished this somewhat, but even those were pretty tame.

THE cherry blossom jerseys were by far the most creative City Edition jerseys I’ve seen to date, and it was a nice nod to DC’s iconic cherry blossoms that adorn the city in the spring. Yet this same level of uniqueness never extends to the rest of their uniform base, for whatever reason. If the Wizards move to Virginia, perhaps a brand refresh could be considered, although crossing state lines and changing uniforms won’t be enough to distract from the poor state they’re in currently the product in the field. .

It’s maybe a little harsh considering Jazz literally underwent a complete jersey redesign just two years ago, but not all changes are positive and this is certainly a prime example. The new color scheme is a complete departure from what we’ve come to expect from the Jazz, who have undergone countless jersey redesigns, and somehow their creative team landed on highlighter yellow, black and white. The Jazz is one of five teams (Hornets, Lakers, Timber wolves And Magic) who have five jerseys this season, the fifth being a “classic edition” which is just the purple uniforms from the John Stockton and Karl Malone era, and honestly, that’s what Utah should just go back to. Either this one or the purple mountain range one, as these are some of the cleanest jerseys in the league past or present.

When the Jazz announced the 2022 name change, they stated that purple would remain in their color scheme moving forward. This is a positive sign, but it doesn’t really match the rest of the colors present here. They should ditch the yellow, add purple and just do different iterations of the mountain jersey, or bring back the sunset gradient jerseys. Both of these are better than this current color scheme.