The NBA is back, and the kickoff to the 2025-26 season has already given us some fantastic games and emerging storylines. The season started with an excellent heavyweight slugfest between the Oklahoma City Thunder and Houston Rockets, with OKC prevailing in double-overtime in the league’s return to NBC.
Opening night set the stage for the first full slate of action on Wednesday, when 24 teams made their season debuts. Once the Denver Nuggets and Indiana Pacers take the floor on Thursday night, every team in the league will have at least one game under their belt.
It isn’t wise to overreact to everything you see in the season opener. Nikola Vucevic probably isn’t going to play at an All-NBA level all season like he did in the Chicago Bulls’ opener, and the Utah Jazz likely aren’t going to be beating Western Conference playoff teams all year like they did on Wednesday. At the same time, overreacting is fun, so let’s do it. Here’s our hottest takeaways from the start of the new NBA season.
1. Victor Wembanyama is the best player in the world
Nikola Jokic has held the title of “best player in the world” for the past five seasons. Jokic is only 30 years old to open this season, and he remains as great as ever with the Nuggets having renewed championship hopes. After seeing what Victor Wembanyama did against the Dallas Mavericks, though, it’s totally possible the young Frenchman rips that title away from Jokic before he’s ready to give it up.
Wembanyama had a performance for the ages in his showdown against rookie No. 1 pick Cooper Flagg, finishing with 40 points, 15 rebounds, and three blocks while being +31 on the floor in 30 minutes. Wembanyama cut out a lot of three-point attempts that plagued his shot diet last year (he went 1-of-2 from deep on the night), instead attacking the basket with newfound power on possession after possession. Some of these plays are legitimately mind-blowing.
Wembanyama was channeling his inner Giannis by running over Mavericks defenders at every opportunity. He’s not settling for jump shots anymore; he’s using his 7’5 frame and 8-foot wingspan to dominant near the basket. The fact that he did this against Anthony Davis, one of the league’s best defenders, makes it even more impressive. How is any mere mortal going to have a chance to stop Wemby this season?
It’s widely acknowledged that Wembanyama will be the best player in the world one day. I called him one of the best prospects in NBA history a full year before he hit the draft. Wembanyama is still only 21 years old, and hasn’t even made the play-in tournament yet, let alone the playoffs. There are many examples of all-time greats taking a big leap in their third season, and that sure seems to be happening for Wemby. Whether he’s better than Jokic, Giannis, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, and Luka Doncic right now remains to be seen, but there’s no one in the history of the game who can do what he does. We are witnessing the birth of Wembanyama’s legend, and every game is going to be must-see along the way.
2. The Knicks are the team to beat in the East
The Knicks opened the season against their biggest foe in the Eastern Conference, the Cleveland Cavaliers, on Wednesday night. Both teams were missing key players, and the game was at Madison Square Garden, but the Knicks’ 119-111 victory still showed how good this team can be this year. New head coach Mike Brown had the offense cooking for most of the night, and it wasn’t just Jalen Brunson hero ball this time. Brunson couldn’t buy a bucket from three (1-of-9 on the night), but the bench picked him up, led by 15 points from Miles McBride and some good minutes from second-year guard Tyler Kolek.
Former coach Tom Thibodeau almost never used the bench last year, and it was one of the main reasons he was fired despite leading the team to the conference finals. Brown seemed a lot more flexible with his lineup decisions, going from double-big to no bigs and keep the Cavs on their heels at every turn. The Knicks are firmly in championship-or-bust mode this season, and Brown knows they’re going to need more than six playable guys to realize their dream. This rotation will look even better when Mitchell Robinson and Josh Hart return from injury. There are just so many weapons at Brown’s disposal: both OG Anunoby and Mikal Bridges can handle more offensive responsibility than they had last year, Karl-Anthony Towns is still the best shooting big man alive, and Brunson is always money in the clutch. Anything less than an NBA Finals berth is a failure for the Knicks, and they looked like a Finals-worthy team on opening night.
3. The Hawks’ defense is a problem
The Atlanta Hawks were a popular pick to surge past their typical play-in tier and into the contention mix in the Eastern Conference this season. After watching Atlanta’s defense in the season opener against the Toronto Raptors, that optimism looks misplaced. The Raptors hung 138 points on the Hawks despite only shooting 6-of-25 from three-point range on the night and getting eight fewer free throw attempts. Toronto was getting to the rim at will, and there was nothing the Hawks could do about it.
The Raptors should not be this hard to defend. While Toronto has some talented pieces on paper, their lack of shooting should have opposing defenses clogging the paint and daring them to fire from deep. The Hawks didn’t get the memo. Atlanta looked singularly interested in forcing transition opportunities offensively, but it’s hard to generate those without stops. While most of the Hawks’ main pieces had a nice night in the box score aside from newly-minted $100 million man Dyson Daniels, Atlanta’s offensive production felt empty because the Raptors were getting whatever they wanted on the other end.
I was guilty of believing in the Hawks this year with so much length and athleticism around Trae Young. It won’t matter if they can’t get stops.
4. Giannis Antetokounmpo will have a season for the ages
The Milwaukee Bucks’ season-opening win needs to be taken with a grain of salt because it was against the Washington Wizards, who might not even win 20 games this year. A Khris Middleton revenge game wasn’t going to save the Wiz against Milwaukee, not when Giannis Antetokounmpo was playing like a man possessed on the other side. If this really is Giannis’ last season with the Bucks, he’s going to go down guns blazing after opening the season with 37 points, 14 rebounds, and five assists in only 27 minutes. This is what pure dominance looks like:
Giannis essentially told the Bucks he’s going to reevaluate his future after this season. I really believe that he doesn’t want to leave Milwaukee, but now that his family has reportedly moved to Greece, his sole focus will be on winning championships. It’s too bad the Bucks can’t play the Wizards every night. I still believe Milwaukee will be fighting uphill all season, but Giannis is going to be awesome as always.
5. Baylor’s team context was holding back VJ Edgecombe
I’ve always been high on VJ Edgecombe. Back in 2023, I ranked the best long-term NBA prospects in high school basketball, and had Edgecombe at No. 8 on the list. Edgecombe finished at No. 5 on my final 2025 draft board after an up-and-down freshman season at Baylor that showcased his explosive athleticism and defensive playmaking, but also put his pull-up shooting and rim finishing into question. I can’t stop thinking about what Edgecombe had to work with at Baylor after watching his historic debut for the 76ers. All he did on Wednesday night against the Boston Celtics was put together the highest-scoring NBA debut since Wilt Chamberlain with 34 points, seven rebounds, and five made three-pointers. Watch the highlights here:
Back at Baylor, Edgecombe played in a super-slow offensive tempo next to two non-shooting bigs in most lineups, which cramped his spacing and put more pressure on him to be perfect with how he was attacking the basket. That wasn’t a problem on Wednesday night even during a terrible debut for Joel Embiid. The Sixers pushed the pace with Tyrese Maxey and Edgecombe, and let their athletic young guards thrive. Half of Edgecombe’s 26 field goal attempts came from three-point range (he knocked down five), but he looked fantastic when he was going at the rim. He also showed off his typically great rebounding, and made a lot of small plays to impact winning.
Some players are better in the NBA than they are in college. Edgecombe looks like he could be one of them.
6. The Clippers could be the West team that disappoints
The Western Conference looks so stacked entering the season that some teams are bound to disappoint. The Los Angeles Clippers took an early lead in that department after an opening-night loss to the tanking Utah Jazz in the most shocking result from the first wave of games. The Jazz’s 129-108 win says more about the Clippers than it does about Utah. The Clippers defense from the starting group looked completely pathetic as the Jazz raced out to a 43-19 lead by the end of the first quarter. Big man Walker Kessler was eating on the inside, and an array of young guards (led by Keyonte George and rookie Walter Clayton Jr.) were easily producing quality three-point looks for their teammates. This is all very bad for the Clippers, because the Jazz are going to be terrible this year.
The Clippers brought in Bradley Beal and Chris Paul over the summer to add backcourt firepower, and both looked completely washed. Kawhi Leonard, still in the middle of the Aspiration scandal, only scored 10 points in 29 minutes. James Harden had 15 points and 11 assists, but his defense was terrible, and LA was outscored by 21 points in his 29 minutes on the floor. The Clippers won 50 games last year and pushed the Nuggets to a Game 7 in the first round of the playoffs, but this team is very old and the noise around Leonard’s scandal isn’t going to die down. I expected the Clippers to suck last year and instead they were awesome. Is this the season the bottom falls out?
7. Luka Doncic’s supporting cast on the Lakers needs a ton of work
The Lakers’ opening night loss to the Golden State Warriors exposed just how many holes are in this roster without LeBron James. A newly trim and fit Luka Doncic was sensational in scoring 43 points on scintillating 68.5 percent true shooting, but he got no help. Deandre Ayton, the Lakers’ newly signed big man, continued his history of playing soft on the inside. Gabe Vincent started alongside Doncic and Austin Reaves, and did a whole lot of nothing. The Lakers just lack a degree of size, physicality, and toughness that good teams need. There’s no shame in losing to Golden State, who should be excellent when healthy this year, but it’s wild to consider that LA is basically just punting Luka’s age-26/27 season until they can build a better roster. It’s hard to think this Lakers team is winning a playoff series in the West regardless of how great Doncic is.
