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When the 2025-26 NBA season returns Tuesday, some things will not have changed in years. Though Golden State Warriors guard Steph Curry is now 37, and the Los Angeles Lakers’ LeBron James 40 (and will begin the season sidelined by injury), the two superstars remain undisputed headliners a decade after the first of their four consecutive meetings in the NBA Finals. The sheer wattage of their stardom has barely dimmed, and it's why their teams will meet in one of Tuesday’s opening-night matchups. But the other opening-night tipoff will take place in Oklahoma City, where the Thunder will receive the championship rings they earned by winning Game 7 of June’s NBA Finals over Indiana. Though the league’s old guard, led by Curry and James, remains formidable, the road to the championship trophy now runs through the uber-young Thunder, who spent the offseason signing their young core of stars to long-term deals. Haven’t paid attention to the NBA since the Thunder’s victory parade cruised through Oklahoma City in mid-June? Here’s everything you may have missed to get you up to speed. Who are the title contenders? Recent history suggests the Thunder will not be lifting the trophy again next June: The league hasn't crowned a repeat champion in seven seasons, with Golden State (2017-18) the last to repeat. Yet the Thunder have an extremely compelling case for being prepared to break that streak. They return every consequential member of their rotation from last season’s playoff roster, including Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the reigning most valuable player. That team won 68 games even though injuries sidelined big men Chet Holmgren and Isaiah Hartenstein for about half a season each. This year, they start healthy. By trading for Phoenix’s Kevin Durant in June, Houston announced its intention to challenge Oklahoma City in the Western Conference. The Rockets remain a contender, but their case took a hit in the offseason after point guard Fred VanVleet suffered a knee injury that could sideline him the entire season. Denver, the 2023 champion, has superstar Nikola Jokic in his prime and has surrounded the virtuosic big man with the deepest roster in years. With so much uncertainty as to whether Philadelphia’s star pairing of Joel Embiid and Paul George can stay healthy, and Boston superstar Jayson Tatum set to miss at least a significant chunk of the season after tearing an Achilles tendon in May, the New York Knicks and Cleveland Cavaliers enter as the East’s top contenders. The Knicks have a new coach in Mike Brown, who will be tasked with finding a lineup that truly works. The Cavaliers won 64 games last season to earn the top seed in the East, but injuries contributed to their exit in just the second round of the playoffs. The team that knocked them out, the Indiana Pacers, is widely expected to take a step back after star guard Tyrese Haliburton tore his Achilles tendon during the finals. Key storylines Start in Los Angeles, where Luka Doncic is beginning his first full season with the Lakers following last season’s shocking trade from Dallas. The Lakers are at a transition point in that their future will now be planned around the 26-year-old Doncic’s timeline and prime years and not James, for the first time since he joined the team in 2018. The all-time scoring leader, and an NBA champion with three different franchises, James has done everything possible in his career. But his 23rd season will mark something new, too — the first time he will be playing on an expiring contract. Where that leaves James and the Lakers at the trade deadline, or offseason, remains the subject of intense speculation. In Dallas the first overall pick of June’s draft, Cooper Flagg, will enter the season under high expectations. The 6-foot-9 Flagg averaged 19.2 points, 7.5 rebounds and 4.2 assists in his lone season at Duke while winning national honors for player of the year, and since entering the NBA has added a goatee and more ballhandling responsibilities, because Dallas will be without injured point guard Kyrie Irving until likely the late winter. Flagg won’t turn 19 until Dec. 21. Another former No. 1 pick in Texas, Victor Wembanyama, has been cleared to play again after experiencing blood clots last season. Wembanyama, 21, enters his fourth season in San Antonio under rising expectations. The NBA’s longest-tenured coach, Gregg Popovich, has moved into a front-office role, with former Spurs assistant Mitch Johnson his successor. Johnson knows Wembanyama is a one-man top-five defense, but how will the offense look as it blends Wembanyama, rookie Dylan Harper and veteran guard De’Aaron Fox, once Fox returns from an injury? Injuries in Boston and Indiana and injury rehabilitation in Philadelphia have put the Knicks and Cavaliers seemingly on a glide course to the playoffs in the East, but Detroit, Atlanta and Orlando, which pulled off a huge offseason trade for Memphis sharpshooter Desmond Bane, are seen as up-and-coming threats potentially ready for a breakthrough. But the biggest story in the East centers on Milwaukee, where the Bucks are desperately trying to ensure that star Giannis Antetokounmpo wants to remain with the franchise. League insiders don’t consider an Antetokounmpo trade imminent, but they do consider such a move as having the type of domino effect that could reshape the league and its contenders. New rule Players that fire a “heave” at the end of a quarter won’t see their shooting percentage penalized. A new rule this season changes how some statistics are kept. Plays that begin in the backcourt and result in a shot taken in the final three seconds of the first three quarters, from at least 36 feet away, will count as a team attempt, not an individual shot. Investigation drama In an offseason report by the podcast “Pablo Torre Finds Out,” former employees of a green-bank startup called Aspiration claimed the company’s lucrative but previously undisclosed endorsement deal with Los Angeles Clippers star Kawhi Leonard was brokered as a means for the team to compensate Leonard while circumventing the league’s salary cap — one of the NBA’s most fiercely protected rules. The NBA has hired a law firm to investigation the claims, which if proven could result in a suspension of team owner Steve Ballmer, a team fine and even the voiding of Leonard’s contract. The additional layer to the drama is that the NBA’s All-Star game will be hosted as Ballmer’s year-old arena, Intuit Dome, in February. NBA has its eyes abroad NBA commissioner Adam Silver and his top deputy held meetings this summer in London and Paris aimed at bringing the league’s European expansion plans closer to reality. The NBA has been working on a model that would include 14-16 teams, the majority of which would be permanent clubs in cities like London, Paris and Berlin. Teams could also win their way into, and lose their way out of, the league’s remaining spots, which borrows from the relegation and promotion model that is central to European soccer leagues. The league’s meetings this summer were with private equity firms, political leaders including U.K. Prime Minster Keir Starmer and clubs such as Turkey’s Galatasaray, Germany’s Alba Berlin, and Spain’s Real Madrid. How to watch games has changed New 11-year media rights deals signed between the NBA and broadcast partners NBC, ABC/ESPN and Amazon kick in this season, changing how games will be watched. For NBC, it’s the first time NBA games will air on the network since 2002. NBC and its streaming platform, Peacock, will air 100 regular-season games, NBA All-Star Weekend and playoff games, as well. Peacock will host games on Monday, and NBC and Peacock both will air games on Tuesday. In addition, starting at midseason, NBC/Peacock will air games Sunday night. Only ESPN will carry games on Wednesdays. Starting at midseason ESPN and ABC will also carry night games on Fridays and Saturdays and Sunday afternoon matchups. The third broadcast partner is a new one: Amazon Prime. It will carry games on Friday, and starting at midseason will also air games Thursdays and Saturday afternoon. The biggest change as a result of the new broadcast deals is that for the first time since 1984, Turner Sports and its cable network, TNT, will no longer host games. But TNT’s uber-popular studio show, “Inside the NBA,” will nonetheless live on at ESPN.
