The Portland Trail Blazers begin their 2025-26 regular season campaign tonight versus the Minnesota Timberwolves. The game starts at 7:00 PM, Pacific time. A preview of the matchup can be found here. In
case you missed our gigantic overall season preview yesterday, it’s right here. Tonight we’ll have our usual Game Day discussion threads, an instant recap after the game, extended analysis following, and a report from press row at the Moda Center from Conor Bergin. With all that posting, you know the season is well and truly underway!
As we prepare for the big event, let’s take a moment to offer thoughts and predictions for the upcoming season, not just for the Trail Blazers, but across the entire league. What are you thinking of and/or reading from the NBA as the season starts? We’ll throw open the comments for your musings and predictions. I’ll prime the pump with a few of mine.
Note that this is less hard analysis–like you’d get about the Blazers–and more impressions and gut feelings. I hope these things are informed, but I’m not going to die on these hills. They’re just impressions I get as the season begins.
Knicks Need a Shift
Plenty of analysts are predicting the New York Knicks to come out of the Eastern Conference this year. I don’t feel it. They’ll be good, but they have a new coach, the ever-mercurial Karl-Anthony Towns, and they’re still looking to integrate and mesh both their starters and bench players. That’s a lot of variables.
If the Knicks are going all the way, I suspect they need to make that big deal with Milwaukee for Giannis Antetokounmpo or–hear me out–some kind of trade with Miami for Bam Adebayo. Otherwise I don’t see them holding up, or gelling together, for 82 games and 4 playoffs series.
California Basketball Nosedives
The Lakers, Clippers, and Warriors are all getting (predictable) preseason buzz. I suspect all will disappoint relative to early expectations. The Lakers are a mess, the Clippers are confusing, and the Warriors are prone to injury. Add in Sacramento remaining in the middle-ground and you have dismal times for California basketball.
If these things come true, I do wonder whether we’re going to see more muttering about the parity era. Los Angeles and New York fizzling isn’t exactly a league office dream.
Good Times for the Upper Midwest
Three solid teams that nobody is talking about are the Cleveland Cavaliers, Detroit Pistons, and Minnesota Timberwolves. I don’t hold out much hope that Chicago will complete the square, but these three cold-weather cities should have a great winter and–at least in the case of Minnesota and Cleveland–emerge into playoffs contention next spring. It wouldn’t surprise me at all to see the Cavaliers come out of the East, nor to see Minnesota (instead of Denver) provide serious contention to the Oklahoma City Thunder in the West.
Yee Hah Texas
It’s also a good time for Texas basketball. Houston feels like they’re for real reals. Everything started coming together last year. I find myself thinking that even if Kevin Durant got injured, the Rockets could ride out the regular season looking pretty good. Durant adds to their attack significantly, particularly in the playoffs, but they don’t need him like oxygen. It’s almost a Buck Williams to the Blazers situation back in 1989.
San Antonio is going to field an exciting young team. I love the versatility of their lineup. If Wemby is healthy all year, they’re going to grow. By next season they could be downright scary.
If there’s going to be a darkhorse overachieving team in the West, I think the Mavericks are a more likely candidate than the Lakers would be. They’re not going to be contenders, but I could see them overachieving.
Philadelphia Crash Out
I like Tyrese Maxey plenty. It feels like the team around him is a ticking time bomb. If somebody is going to crater in the East, Philly seems like a huge candidate.
The analogous team in the West is Memphis. They hang pretty heavily on Ja Morant. I’m not entirely comfortable with that anymore. If there’s a surprise lottery team on the left side of the country, I bet it’s the Grizzlies.
New Orleans Fire Sale?
I can’t for the life of me tell how the New Orleans Pelicans will fare. It’s not likely to be good, but will they have forward progress or are they stuck in misery land? If it’s the latter, one of the fascinating questions of the season will be whether they start a fire sale with some of their talented players. I don’t mean Zion Williamson necessarily, but their underneath crew. They have some good pieces there. If I were an NBA General Manager, I’d keep tossing sidelong glances their way.
Those are my thoughts. What are yours? Share in the comment section below!
