After the traditional summer break, the orange ball is back on track. The 2025/2026 NBA season officially started a couple of days ago for the biggest happiness of basketball fans, depending on who you are following. If fans of franchises like the Brooklyn Nets or the New Orleans Pelicans are expected to live a painful season, some other NBA lovers have great chances to rejoice and dream of a Larry O’Brien trophy. In OKC for instance, but not only.
It would be quite ridiculous to draw an assessment after barely 5 or 6 games played, but some tendencies can be noticed still. In the West, the current champion is pursuing the great 2024/2025 season with 6 victories out of 6 games played. The San Antonio Spurs of French center Victor Wembanyama won all their first games as well and hope to reach the playoffs this year. On the contrary, times are already hard for the Pelicans and the Mavericks, who both rank at the bottom of the Western Conference.
In the East, the Bulls are incredibly ranking first with 5 wins. American Nigerian players Ayo Dosunmu and Isaac Okoro are contributing to this great beginning of the season in Illinois for a franchise that has not been playing the first roles for a while now. Good start for Philadelphia and Milwaukee too, since the teammates of Cameroonian center Joel Embiid currently count 4 wins and one defeat. Not very difficult to do better than last year though for the Sixers. The Bucks, who lost Damian Lillard and Brook Lopez this summer, will try to associate Myles Turner, ex Pacers, with Greek Nigerian power forward Giannis Antetokounmpo in the heart of the game.
Speaking about the Pacers, this is kind of a difficult start for the last finalist of the NBA Finals. Compelled to do without Tyrese Haliburton for the whole season, the teammates of Cameroonian forward Pascal Siakam already lost 5 times in 6 games. Only two teams in the East, the Washington Wizards and the Brooklyn Nets of course, are doing worse.
Guillaume Mahot