NBA Season: What to Expect This Year

The 2025-2026 NBA season is here. What can we expect for this NBA season? Who will be the contenders and who will be the pretenders for the NBA Championship?

There is certainly one thing true with the NBA and that is the Western Conference is much deeper than the Eastern Conference. Many people believe that the NBA Champion will come out of the West. However, you can’t dismiss the teams in the East.

Let’s get into it.

Nikola Jokic wins MVP

First of all, Nikola Jokic will win his fourth NBA MVP. Jokic should’ve won the MVP last season, but he wasn’t on the best team with the best record. He didn’t make it to the NBA Finals, so for some voters that was enough to not give him the MVP. Jokic is the best player in the NBA. His numbers simply speak volumes for him. When you average a triple-double for the season and don’t get the award you wonder what people were thinking.

Nikola Jokic is the NBA’s best passer. Full stop. The panoramic vision Jokic has to throw absolute dimes to open shooters, cutting teammates, or teammates down the floor can’t be duplicated by his peers. You can close your eyes and imagine one of Jokic’s no look passes. Jokic gives you a certain feeling because of how he plays the game and the unselfishness with which he plays with. Plus he’s the leagues most proficient scorer. Here’s a guy that has taken over 10,000 shots and has a 64% true shooting percentage which puts him at the top of the list that includes 288 players. The other aspect of his game is that he is an elite rebounder and plays defense that is grossly underappreciated in the NBA.

At the end of the season, the Denver Nuggets will win 58 games or more, so that should also be a factor in Jokic getting his fourth NBA MVP. Minus a major injury, Jokic should make more room in his trophy case for another MVP trophy.

Jayson Tatum Comes Back This Season

We have all seen the Instagram video of Tatum running up and down the court. We’ve seen him shooting jump shots and even dunking from a standing position underneath the basket. Tatum has come out and said that he hasn’t said that he isn’t coming back this season. That’s been conjecture with other NBA pundits. However, what we have seen with Jayson Tatum and the speed of his recovery is simply phenomenal. Tatum will be back in March(ish). Maybe even at the end of February.

OKC Will be Better Defensively

Is this even possible? Yes, it is. Last season was a season that showed how unbelievable that Thunder defense truly was. The Thunder defense from last season could be described as somewhere between chaotic and controlled. OKC forced the most turnovers and gave up the least amount of fast break points in the league. When you have players like Lu Dort, Jaylen Williams, and even Alex Caruso who will be locks to win NBA All-Defensive team honors playing high level defense isn’t difficult. The other guy on this team that is great defensively is Cason Wallace. Wallace will be the next Thunder player to get defensive honors from the NBA. He plays defense like a ticked off hornet and will add to the issues that Thunder opponents will have to deal with.

Phoenix Suns Defense will Be Bad

In the 2024-2025 NBA Season there were a small amount of teams that allowed more points on defense than the Phoenix Suns did. This will be the season that the Suns will have the worst defense in the league. The Suns didn’t generate turnovers last season. Plus, the Suns allowed a league worst 68% shooting percentage in the restricted area while trying to have a pack the paint mentality. Defense was almost an afterthought with the Suns last season. Defensive hustle plays were non-existent on some nights. When they chose to play a little defense it wasn’t something that stuck around for 48 minutes. When your team consists of Devin Booker, Grayson Allen, and Jalen Green getting great defense is going to be an uphill battle. First year head coach, Jordan Ott, will have his hands full in turning the defensive woes around for the Suns.

Cleveland Cavaliers Win the East

While this is not exactly a hot take to have the Cavs have really no excuse to win the Eastern Conference in 2025-2026. With Tyrese Haliburton and Jayson Tatum out most of the year while recovering from achilles injuries the Cavs excuses should be few and far between. The player that needs to step up and become that consistent player is Evan Mobley. Mobley is a player that can play great defense and can also get you buckets on offense. However, let’s not forget that Mobley is the defending Defensive POY. His ceiling is as high as anybody in the NBA. If the Cavs get Mobley to step up his game with pushing the ball up court, rolling into easy buckets at the rim, and getting his rim protection the Cavs shouldn’t be bowing out in the second round of the playoffs.

Final Thoughts

There are so many other stories in the NBA this season that it would almost take half the season to get into. However, I’ll mention some of them right here.

What will happen with the Dallas Mavericks? Cooper Flagg comes into a situation that is ready made to win a NBA Championship. Flagg will win the Rookie of the Year and will be spending some time running the point guard position as well. If Anthony Davis can stay healthy and Kyrie comes back from his ACL injury strong then we could be looking at the Dallas Mavericks in the West Finals and the NBA Finals.

Do the Minnesota Timberwolves take the next step in getting to the NBA Finals? It’s going to tough haul to get past a different Denver Nuggets team, the defending champs in the OKC Thunder, a re-tooled Houston Rockets team and an up and coming San Antonio Spurs team. Can Anthony Edwards take his game to a Michael Jordan level? I think Ant wins the scoring title this year, but he needs everyone else to come along for the ride.

Is the hype for the Los Angeles Lakers worth listening to? Once LeBron comes back from his sciatica issue we will see if the Lakers will be able to contend. If the Lakers are going to challenge in the Western Conference they need to get consistent play out of DeAndre Ayton. The former first overall #1 pick needs to show he can truly be that dominant big man that the Lakers need him to be. Ayton needs to rebound, block shots, and when Luka or LeBron gets double teamed he needs to hit that short jump shot. If this doesn’t happen it’s going to another short playoff run for the Lakers.

Michael J. Wilson-The Daily Waiver

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