The NBA season is just over a month away, and we're ramping up our season preview offerings with a look at the most important players on every team, division by division. These aren't necessarily the best players on each team — they're the pivot points, the ones who could make the biggest difference between success and 82 games of grinding frustration. Check out the Atlantic, Central and Southeast, and stay tuned for the rest of the Western Conference Wednesday and Friday this week.
Dallas Mavericks — Cooper Flagg
In theory, rookie phenom Cooper Flagg is joining a veteran time with defined roles and hierarchy, an environment where a lot of pressure will be off, and he can grow organically in a supporting role. In practice, he may be thrust forward a lot more quickly than the Mavericks would like.
Kyrie Irving sure sounds like he's going to miss the entire season after his ACL injury. Anthony Davis has missed an average of 29 games per season over the last four years. Klay Thompson is a savvy vet and perimeter threat, but he's not creating shots for himself or anyone else. D'Angelo Russell will begin the season as the primary offensive creator, after shooting under 40 percent from the field and just 31.4 percent from beyond the arc last season.
This is basically a strong supporting cast without an elite talent that Dallas can consistently count on to be on the floor and ready to make it all go.
Maybe Russell shoots 40 percent from 3 and Davis plays 82 games and Kyrie is back sometime in the Spring. I think it's more likely that every passing game shoves more responsibility toward Flagg for speeding up his learning curve and being ready now. If he is, the Mavs are dangerous. If he's, you know, a normal human rookie who needs a bit more patience, then the Mavs are mired in mediocrity again.
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Houston Rockets — Amen Thompson
Fred VanVleet's season-ending ACL injury throws a major monkey-wrench in the Rockets' championship plans, but it also opens a door for Amen Thompson.
Thompson emerged as a legitimate star last season, averaging 14.1 points, 8.2 rebounds, 3.8 assists, 1.4 steals and 1.3 blocks per game, making First Team All-Defense. He's still just scratching the surface of his abilities on offense, particularly in the halfcourt, but VanVleet's injury is going to give him a lot more opportunities to work as the primary initiator and ball-handler. He has so much untapped potential at that end of the floor, and replacing Jalen Green with Kevin Durant should make things much easier.
The Rockets will miss VanVleet's veteran presence, and Thompson and second-year guard Reed Sheppard are going to make mistakes as they try to pick up the slack. But this also clears the decks for a huge leap for Thompson, potentially a game-changing evolution into someone who can be a difference-maker in their chase for a title, not just this season, but over the next three or four as Durant continues to age out of his prime.
Memphis Grizzlies — Ja Morant
The Ja Morant redemption season did not go as planned. After a tumultuous 2023-24, Morant stayed out of trouble but appeared in just 50 games, with his numbers dropping across the board. The Grizzlies made it back to the playoffs but were swept by the Thunder, and we're now three years removed from their surprising run to the Western Conference Finals and chippy challenge to the Warriors in 2022.
The first piece of this core has been moved, with Desmond Bane traded to Orlando, and this season feels like it might be a make-or-break scenario for the pairing of Morant and Jaren Jackson Jr. They don't need to win it all or even win a playoff series, necessarily. But this team peaked three years ago and everything has felt like a slow slide since then.
Over the past two years, we've seen what the ceiling is on a team built around Jackson and a decent supporting cast. This year has to be about changing the trajectory, proving that they're back on the upswing and brighter days are ahead. If they're going to do that, it has to be Morant — more efficient, more games played in and showing the spark that made this team so exciting to watch.
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New Orleans Pelicans — Trey Murphy III
If you're excited about Skinny Zion, you might be a Pelicans fan. If you're excited about Trey Murphy's surgically repaired rotator cuff and labrum, you might be a sicko.
His breakout was cut short by said injury, but Murphy III absolutely popped last season — 21.2 points, 5.1 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 1.1 steals per game. His 3-point percentage was down as he took tougher shots, but he still hit 36.1 percent after topping 38 percent in his first three seasons. He's still figuring out how to score as efficiently when he's creating so much offense for himself, but he's arguably already at Brandon Ingram's level and with his off-ball skillset and defensive upside, he's a far better fit next Zion.
The Pelicans have a lot of uncertainty and will be counting on at least a few things breaking their way — Zion staying healthy and succeeding with his new physique, Derik Queen and Jeremiah Fears turning out to be NBA players as soon as possible, Dejounte Murray getting healthy at some point, Jordan Poole being like even a mild net positive. But of those, Murphy taking the leap feels like the most likely and potentially the most impactful.
If he really is a Khris Middleton-type, and everything else works breaks their way, the Pelicans could be good. Like really good.
San Antonio Spurs — Victor Wembanyama
Victor Wembanyama is reportedly two-inches taller, completely healthy and fresh off a summer of utterly unique training and transformation. Before he went down last season, he was averaging 24.3 points, 11.0 rebounds, 3.7 assists, 1.1 steals and 3.8 blocks per game, on a 59.4 true shooting percentage. He was in his second season, a strong candidate for Defensive Player of the Year and an actual dark horse in the MVP race.
If he truly is bigger and better this season — and everything seems to indicate that he will be — the Spurs are a playoff team and the kind of terrifying wild card, no one will want to see in the first-round. They're still missing some veteran experience and shooting, and relying a lot on the upside of an extremely youthful supporting cast. But Wembanyama is the kind of player who can single-handedly answer those questions, make everyone around him better and transform this team into something different.