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Heat vibes, Alpha Sixers, Doncic domination? Top storylines for NBA preseason
NBA training camps are in full swing, and the first preseason game is nearly upon us.
The Miami Heat will head to Quebec City, Canada, to face the Toronto Raptors Saturday, Oct. 3. Both teams have been revamped, with Miami pulling off the blockbuster to land star forward Giannis Antetokounmpo, while Toronto reunited with Kawhi Leonard.
Those are just two of the teams to have undergone massive changes, and they’re not even the ones that had the most seismic offseason; the Philadelphia 76ers went all-in on their championship window and added LeBron James and Jaylen Brown to Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey and VJ Edgecombe.
While it’s safe to expect veterans to play limited minutes during preseason games, here are five storylines I’m tracking as we inch closer to the 2026-27 NBA regular season:
The vibes are seemingly high in Miami, but how will the Heat offense actually look?
New addition Klay Thompson took the team out on a boat to cruise around Biscayne Bay. Earlier in the month, captain Bam Adebayo and point guard Davion Mitchell organized a players-only week of training they started calling “pain camp,” for all the cardio work they did. Players have said all the right things.
By all accounts, the vibes around the new-look Heat are high. But what will their play look like, in practice? One thing that struck me from the early footage coming from their camp at Florida Atlantic was the pace. Miami led the league last season in that stat, generating 104.22 possessions per 48 minutes. And now with Antetokounmpo, that emphasis on fastbreak offense should only intensify; Antetokounmpo ranked second in the NBA with 5.5 fast break points per game. Antetokounmpo sucks in the defense when he attacks in transition, and his vision allows him to find open shooters.
I expect the Heat to continue to play fast, and I expect Antetokounmpo to put up huge assist numbers, if he stays healthy. The big question here is whether Miami’s shooting holds up and whether it can sustain this style for an entire season.
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It’s Luka’s team now. Can he lead the Lakers to the top of the West?
The Los Angeles offense, at times last season, looked rather disjointed, particularly when both Luka Dončić and LeBron James were on the floor at the same time.
Both are players who thrive when the ball is in their hands, and both are among the game’s best passers. The issue, then, became: what was one supposed do when the other had the ball? Most often, the player without the ball was relegated to standing off to the side, away from the action.
But now with James moving onto the 76ers, the bulk of Los Angeles’ play-making will fall to him. Last season, Dončić led the NBA in usage rate (36.8%), or the number of possessions that end with that player taking a shot or committing a turnover. Dončić also ranked sixth in assist percentage (38.7%), or the rate of teammate field goals a player assisted while on the floor – among all players with at least 50 games.
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Being as ball-dominant as Dončić is (and being as talented as he is when he initiates actions), I suspect both those figures will be even higher this season. I also suspect that, if healthy, Dončić will play his way into the Most Valuable Player conversation even more so than he has in recent seasons.
Shooting guard Austin Reaves is the other play-maker for the Lakers, and one who should excel even further when Dončić takes a blow on the bench. But when both are on the floor, expect Dončić to be the one to orchestrate everything.
I’m not worried about alphas or top dogs in Philadelphia. But Nick Nurse has some work to do.
During 76ers media day, when asked who the “alpha” would be on the roster, newly acquired All-NBA forward Jaylen Brown wasn’t having any of it. “Next question,” he said, with sober indifference.
I understand why the question was asked, but I think framing this team in that way is flawed. This isn’t LeBron James willing the 2017-18 Cavaliers to the NBA Finals. This isn’t Brown taking on the biggest role of his career last season while Jayson Tatum was out, recovering from an Achilles tendon tear. It’s not Tyrese Maxey carrying the Sixers two seasons ago as Philadelphia contended with debilitating injuries.
The reality is this team doesn’t need to worry about alphas or No. 1s, and if that’s where the discourse ever goes to, coach Nick Nurse will have failed. Top to bottom, this Sixers team is as talented as it has been in decades. This is Philadelphia’s best shot to win a title in the Joel Embiid-Maxey window.
The task at hand is to get the new faces (and old, too) to buy into a team mentality that foregoes individual accolades in favor of collective success. In practical matters, James, Brown, Maxey and Embiid may see their scoring averages dip a touch. I think that would be a good sign that things are working. As long as this team stays healthy, and as long as they share the ball, a championship should be within reach.
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Young Spurs seem loose and confident. Can San Antonio learn from last year’s disappointment?
San Antonio’s stars may be young, but they appear to have embraced trolling, to a certain degree. In an interview with GQ, Stephon Castle downplayed the energy at Madison Square Garden during the Finals, calling the first game “underwhelming.” For the most part, I think this is a good thing. I would want my players to be confident and bold.
But talk is just talk, and the real test here is whether the Spurs can become the first team since the 2016-17 Golden State Warriors to win a title the season after losing the NBA Finals.
It will come down to the continued development of Victor Wembanyama, Castle, Dylan Harper and how veteran De’Aaron Fox bounces back from an uneven Finals. But more than anything, the Spurs need to learn from their loss against the Knicks, when they couldn’t close out games because they stopped attacking the paint, became too passive and fell in love with a 3-point shot that wasn’t dropping.
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I think two teams are lurking. Both could be Finals-worthy
It seems like no one is talking about the Indiana Pacers. Tyrese Haliburton is back and healthy, and if not for his Achilles tendon that snapped in Game 7 of the 2025 NBA Finals, we might be talking about them in a very different way. The roster has changed somewhat. And while I think Indiana will continue to miss Myles Turner’s perimeter shooting, I actually think Ivica Zubac is an excellent fit with Haliburton’s passing ability. But there’s still a lot to work out, so the preseason will be telling to see how the Pacers gel with Zubac providing rim protection, defensive rebounding and rim running.
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Out West, I think it’s the Minnesota Timberwolves who are flying a bit under the radar, overshadowed by the Spurs and the Oklahoma City Thunder. But with LaMelo Ball in place, Anthony Edwards finally has another player who can both create his own shot and initiate actions. This should take a huge burden off of Edwards, and it should make Minnesota more consistent against better defenses in the playoffs.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Heat vibes, Alpha Sixers, Doncic domination? Top storylines for NBA preseason
