With most of the NBA’s offseason action now in the books, Chris Herring and Kevin Pelton of ESPN identify the 14 NBA “newcomers” whose changes of scenery will have the greatest impact in 2025/26.
There are no surprises at the top of the list, which features new Rockets forward Kevin Durant at No. 1, Magic guard Desmond Bane at No. 2, and Nuggets forward Cameron Johnson at No. 3. However, Herring and Pelton deviate a little from expectations at No. 4 by including a head coach: Mike Brown of the Knicks. As Herring writes, it’s possible no coach in the league will face more “title-or-bust pressure” than Brown in his first year on the job.
Lakers center Deandre Ayton rounds out the top five on the 14-man list, which – outside of Brown – is made up exclusively of players.
We have more from around the basketball world:
- What might NBA realignment look like if the league were to expand to Las Vegas and Seattle? Zach Harper of The Athletic takes a closer look at that topic, exploring scenarios in which either the Timberwolves, Pelicans, or Grizzlies move to the Eastern Conference and considering how the league might shuffle its divisions around in each hypothetical case.
- Former NBA star Tracy McGrady has signed a new endorsement deal to reunite with Adidas, according to Shams Charania of ESPN, who reports (via Twitter) that the two parties are expected to work with longtime sports marketing executive Sonny Vaccaro to revive the ABCD (Academic Betterment and Career Development) Camp. As Charania explains in a follow-up tweet, the ABCD Camp was a youth basketball camp that ran for over two decades from 1984-2006 and featured several future stars, including McGrady himself.
- The St. Bonaventure men’s basketball program will host its first ever pro day on Saturday, October 11 at the NBPA training facility in Manhattan, according to a press release from the school. “The first Bonnies Pro Day is a tremendous opportunity for NBA and G League front office executives to scout our players in a competitive practice and workout environment,” former ESPN reporter and current St. Bonnie’s general manager Adrian Wojnarowski said in a statement.
McGrady has been going Insane lately. Saying he could and is better than Kobe
Maybe put the W pen down McGrady
You couldn’t even get out of the 1st round when you were leading teams
Is Durant better than Bird…..nope
The NBA should do away with all divisions and leagues and just run a 1-30 table where the top 16 make the playoffs and play 1 v 16, 2 v 15 etc. Schedule it so every team plays the same amount H/A of teams who made the playoffs the year before. Simple.
The Zach Harper realignment idea is dumb. Why would you put Golden State and LA in two different divisions? Their is a long-standing rivalry. Why break it up.
Davey J needs to do the math. A home and away schedule with every team means a 58 game schedule. The networks and owners will not go for lost revenue from those 24 games.
Davey J wasn’t suggesting that each team only play each of the other teams twice. You need to reread what he wrote. Also, judging by your comment in the Kawhi Leonard article, you don’t know the difference between THEN and THAN. Two mistakes in one day from you Giants74. Please be better tomorrow.
I’m sure I have made more mistakes. I read his proposal again. It is even more complicated. How do you schedule teams that don’t make the playoffs? Even more important, why change? What is problem with the current schedule? It seems to working.