From amazing talent (the Nuggets) to chaos machines (the Pelicans), these are the squads you’ll actually enjoy watching.

The Christmas Day slate, a standard highlight of the annual NBA schedule, is as follows: (All games are on ESPN/ABC, and all times are Eastern) And of course, the season opens Oct. 21 on NBC and Peacock. The Rockets visit the defending champion Thunder at 7:30 p.m., followed by the Warriors visiting the Lakers at 10 p.m.

The Oklahoma City Thunder will try to do something that hasn't been done in the NBA since 2018 — repeat as champion.

The Memphis Grizzlies and New Orleans will play their first regular season game in FedExForum on Wednesday night. Follow along for live updates.

The SoFi NBA Play-In Tournament, as it's officially called, will air this season for the first time on Prime Video, Amazon's streaming service. It's an example of many changes coming to the NBA's television product for the 2025-26 season which begins for Sacramento on Wednesday when the Kings travel to play the Phoenix Suns.

DiVincenzo was acquired by the Timberwolves from the New York Knicks as part of the Karl-Anthony Towns trade prior to the 2024-25 season and had a bit of a down year, averaging 11.7 points per game on 42.2 percent shooting from the field.

Maybe! Those were among the responses The Athletic got this week when it asked its NBA staff for bold predictions for the 2025-26 season. Here’s one prediction for each team as the season tips off: The Hawks finish with a top-10 defense: Atlanta was 19th in defensive efficiency last season and has never finished in the top half of the league in the Trae Young era.