We're less than one month into the 2025-26 NBA season, and heads are already starting to roll. On Tuesday, the Dallas Mavericks mercifully fired embattled general manager Nico Harrison, albeit roughly nine-and-a-half months too late. According to ESPN's Tim MacMahon, the "fans' animosity toward Harrison was so overwhelming that Mavs players privately complained that it felt as if they had a home-court disadvantage."
At 3-9, the Mavs are tied with the Sacramento Kings for the second-worst record in the Western Conference. They aren't the only West squad that's in panic mode, though. All five of the teams currently sitting outside of the playoff picture are experiencing varying levels of freakouts.
With that in mind, we fired up the NBA panic meter and ranked the teams that should be most concerned with their start to the season.
6. Orlando Magic
When the Magic traded four first-round picks for Desmond Bane this offseason, putting themselves firmly in apron territory moving forward, they envisioned vaulting into championship contention. Instead, they got off to a 1-4 start before rattling off five wins over their last seven games.
Bane, who shot 41.0 percent from deep during his five seasons with the Memphis Grizzlies, is shooting a career-low 30.2 percent on three-pointers this year. The Magic are currently 27th leaguewide in three-point attempts and 29th in three-point makes, which helps explain why they have a below-average offense overall.
Perhaps more concerningly, star forward Paolo Banchero left Wednesday's win against the New York Knicks with a left groin strain and is set to miss Friday's game against the Brooklyn Nets. According to Jason Beede of the Orlando Sentinel, "his return to play will depend on how he responds to treatment," so it's currently unclear how long he'll be sidelined.
The good news is that the Magic play in the downtrodden East. The Brooklyn Nets, Indiana Pacers and Washington Wizards have already dug themselves into a huge early-season hole, and the Charlotte Hornets aren't that far behind. Worst-case scenario, the Magic will just have to beat out one other team to at least make the play-in tournament.
But if they don't begin to resemble the dark-horse contender that many pegged them as coming into the year, it could raise some tough questions about the long-term viability of this core.
5. Dallas Mavericks
Nine months after trading Luka Dončić to the Los Angeles Lakers, former Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison is out of a job. It's now on interim GMs Michael Finley and Matt Riccardi to pick up the pieces and figure out what's next for the Mavs.
Harrison shortened the Mavericks' window of contention by trading Dončić for a package headlined by Anthony Davis, who has missed the Mavs' past seven games with a calf strain. (Anthony Davis? Injured? What a shocking development!) According to ESPN's Tim MacMahon, Mavericks governor Patrick Dumont "has requested medical data indicating" that Davis "is not at risk of aggravating" the injury before he gets the green light to return.
Meanwhile, the Mavericks have been scrambling at point guard as Kyrie Irving continues to recover from a torn ACL. They tried to shoehorn No. 1 overall pick Cooper Flagg into that role before shifting him back to forward in recent games, but head coach Jason Kidd appears to have zero faith in offseason addition D'Angelo Russell.
"Remarkable that Nico did not acquire a good guard this summer so they could win some games," an Eastern Conference executive told MacMahon. "That was such low-hanging fruit."
The good news is that the Mavericks have full control of their 2026 first-round pick if they can't get their season back on track. The bad news is that they've already traded away control of their first-rounders in 2027, 2028, 2029 and 2030, so they can't pull off a prolonged rebuild if they're banking on their own draft picks providing salvation.
4. Sacramento Kings
The Kings didn't exactly enter the 2025-26 season with high expectations. They had the fourth-lowest preseason win total in the West, ahead of only the New Orleans Pelicans, Phoenix Suns and Utah Jazz. In that regard, their 3-9 start to the season isn't a huge surprise.
However, it might be the final straw for this core as currently constructed. Local radio host Carmichael Dave recently said that the Kings "are entering the first phase of an official rebuild," which will take at least two years. He expects them to listen to offers on all of their veterans, including Domantas Sabonis, Zach LaVine and DeMar DeRozan.
The problem is that outside of Sabonis, they already might have missed their window to cash in at peak value.
LaVine is earning $47.5 million this year and has a $49.0 million player option for the 2026-27 season that he'd be insane not to pick up. DeRozan is earning $24.75 million this season, and $10 million of his $25.7 million salary next year is already guaranteed. The Kings aren't likely to receive an, ahem, king's ransom for either player.
Sabonis is their best bet to return a hefty haul. He's under contract through 2027-28 and is set to earn roughly 27-28 percent of the salary cap every year over that span. The 29-year-old is a nightly double-double threat and is one of the best passing big men in the league not named Nikola Jokić. However, he's not a three-point shooter or a rim protector, which begs the question of whether he can anchor a championship-level team.
So, the Kings are already awful and might trade away most of their best players for somewhat paltry returns. What could go wrong?
3. Memphis Grizzlies
From Ben Simmons and James Harden to Jimmy Butler, NBA stars have mastered the art of quiet-quitting in recent years. Ja Morant appears to be the next in line.
Morant got off to a solid start this season, but it took a turn for the worse in a 117-112 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers on Halloween. After scoring a season-low eight points, he told reporters to "go ask the coaching staff" about his struggles, which earned him a one-game suspension from the team.
According to ESPN's Shams Charania, first-year Grizzlies head coach Tuomas Iisalo challenged Morant's "leadership and effort in a postgame exchange," and Morant "responded in a tone deemed inappropriate and dismissive." Since his return, Morant has averaged 16.6 points and 9.8 assists per game across his past five appearances, but he shot only 28.7 percent overall and 17.9 percent from deep over that span.
After the Grizzlies' 114-106 loss to the Detroit Pistons on Nov. 3, Morant took a play right ouf of Butler's playbook from last year.
I asked Ja Morant if he has his usually joy right now.
— Damichael Cole (@DamichaelC) November 4, 2025
“No.”
Morant still has two years and roughly $87 million left on his contract after this season, so the Grizzlies have time to repair their relationship with him. But if he keeps half-assing it, the Grizzlies might be forced to reconsider whether they can continue building around him as a franchise cornerstone.
2. Los Angeles Clippers
Just about nothing has gone right for the Clippers thus far this season.
Kawhi Leonard has missed the past five games with a sprained right ankle and a "significant" right foot strain, according to ESPN's Ohm Youngmisuk. Bradley Beal is already done for the year due to a hip fracture. Relatedly, the Clippers have lost six straight games to fall to 3-8 on the season.
Leonard is set to travel with the Clippers as they embark upon a six-game road trip, although he's likely to miss at least the next few games. The Clippers might get a reprieve Friday against the Mavericks, particularly if Davis doesn't play, but they have a back-to-back against the Boston Celtics and Philadelphia 76ers on Sunday and Monday that could spell trouble for their aging, veteran-laden roster.
The Clippers have plenty of depth even without Leonard and Beal, but they're still searching for the right combination of players to pair together in lineups. Jordan Miller and Kobe Sanders gave them a brief lift Wednesday against the Denver Nuggets before Nikola Jokić went Super Saiyan and dropped 55 points on their heads.
The Clippers owe their fully unprotected 2026 first-round pick to the Oklahoma City Thunder (who else?), so they have zero incentive to tank in case they can't pull out of their early-season tailspin. They still have time to right the ship, but this is hardly the start anyone expected from a team that had a preseason over/under line of 49.5 wins.
1. New Orleans Pelicans
When you trade away a fully unprotected first-round pick on draft night, you better be damn sure that you're going to be in the playoffs that season. The Pelicans appear to have missed that memo.
The Pels have the worst record in the West at 2-9, and star forward Zion Williamson is already hurt, as is tradition. Williamson has missed their past five games with a Grade 1 hamstring strain, although the Pelicans announced Thursday that he has been "cleared to resume on-court basketball activities with contact." Still, it's unclear when he'll be back in the fold. Given the tricky nature of hamstring injuries along with Williamson's history of them, it would behoove them to err on the side of caution.
The Pelicans sandwiched a blowout loss to the Suns with close losses to the San Antonio Spurs and Portland Trail Blazers this past week, but their schedule won't offer much reprieve in the near term. After a matchup against Luka and the Lakers on Friday, they have a back-to-back against the Golden State Warriors and Thunder, followed by a meeting with Jokić and the Nuggets. They'll be lucky not to be 2-13 at this time next week.
That would be less of an issue had they not traded the better of their own fully unprotected 2026 first-round pick or the Milwaukee Bucks' fully unprotected 2026 first-round pick to the Atlanta Hawks for the right to move up 10 spots in the 2025 draft for Derik Queen. Although Queen has impressed in the early going, the Pelicans might have given up a high lottery pick in that deal.
Meanwhile, there's also… this.
Pelicans coach Willie Green was asked if he chose not be announced during introductions. He said, “No.”
— Michael Scotto (@MikeAScotto) November 13, 2025
When asked if he’d prefer an intro, he said, “Whether they announce me or not, I’m fine with whatever the decision was.”
Context: Rarely does a head coach not get introduced. pic.twitter.com/i10q2hbRBU
Very normal things happening in New Orleans this year! Find a new slant.