We’re a little over a month from the start of the NBA season; AKA the time of year when everyone is talking about which players are going to breakout.
Obviously, these types of exercises are very fun because it is nice to see players ascend to new heights. But at the end of the day, the NBA is a competitive league. When one player rises, someone else has to fall. So, this post is going to tackle the ugly side of this equation: who will the fallers be in 2026-27?
OG Anunoby
I freaking love OG Anunoby. I think he’s a borderline top 25 player in the world at this point, and the New York Knicks don’t win the NBA Championship without him.Â
With this said, we have to admit that Anunoby was running pretty unsustainably hot in the 2026 Playoffs. After all, he had the most efficient postseason we’ve seen from a 20 point-per-game scorer.Â
Anunoby is the exact guy you want on your side in a high stakes matchup, but he won’t be a 72.1 percent true shooter, couple this with a potential case of championship hangover, and you have a recipe for regression.Â
Jalen Duren
You know we had to include Jalen Duren on this list. To be specific, in this instance, we are talking about the version of Duren that we saw in the regular season that earned him an All-NBA selection and created this whole debacle with the Detroit Pistons we’re currently seeing play out. I’m sure he’ll be better than he was in the postseason; although, that wasn’t a hard bar to meet.Â
The playoffs exposed some weaknesses that opposing teams can exploit about Duren; akin to what teams did to Domantas Sabonis after the 2023 NBA Playoffs. And if Duren is still on the Pistons, something tells me he won’t be as inspired as he was last year after all the back and forth the two parties have been going through.Â
LaMelo BallÂ
After having the best year of his career, LaMelo Ball was traded by the Charlotte Hornets to the Minnesota Timberwolves. I think the Timberwolves ultimately did the right thing by trading for Ball, but I could foresee a world where his numbers look a little worse.
First off, the Hornets were a very offense-first team (fifth in offensive rating), which helped inflate Ball’s individual numbers. The Timberwolves have some good offensive players as well, but they are more of a balanced group. I also think the Timberwolves will need some time to work out the kinks with all their new pieces, which will take a toll on Ball’s counting stats as well.Â
Nickeil Alexander-WalkerÂ
After signing a lucrative deal last offseason, Nickeil Alexander-Walker was everything the Atlanta Hawks could have hoped for in his first season with the team — winning the Most Improved Player of the Year.Â
However, the way he did it could end up being rather flukey. Alexander-Walker more than doubled his scoring average (20.8 points per game) from the year before (9.4 points per game). A big reason how he accomplished this was by massively upping his 3-point volume, taking a career-high 8.1 attempts per game.Â
This makes sense. To score more points, you need to take more shots. But the thing is Alexander-Walker took more threes, and made them at a higher percentage (39.9 percent). Unless Alexander-Walker magically went from being a solid 3-point shooter to one of the best in the association, I expect his scoring numbers to take a slight hit in 2026-27.Â
Think I’m being a little too hard on him? We already started to see this with his struggles in the first round of the playoffs, where he averaged just 13.7 points per game.Â
Jaylen Brown
Jaylen Brown was a fringe MVP candidate last season, finishing sixth-place in points won in the actual voting. Brown was excellent for the Boston Celtics during the regular season, helping the team thrive without Jayson Tatum for a majority of the gauntlet.Â
However, Brown also benefitted a great deal from the Celtics’ offensive machine. One that has ranked in the top three in offensive rating for the last four years. Now, you could make a whole chicken-or-the-egg argument here with Brown since he was on the team for all those seasons. But the fit on this Philadelphia 76ers team is a lot more clunky with a lot more mouths to feed, and I have a feeling that Brown’s production is going to take a hit because of it.Â
Add us as a preferred source on Google