Jack Tien-Dana

Over the last three years, Paolo Banchero has followed a pretty well-worn path: top-ranked recruit to Duke to first overall pick to Rookie of the Year to All-Star, each year representing a leveling up from the previous one. Last month, Jordan Brand unveiled a personal logo for Paolo Banchero, while he co-headlined a promotional tour through China. A few weeks before that, USA Basketball chairman Grant Hill said that he envisions Banchero as one of the tentpole players on the 2028 Olympic team. He’s been featured in ads for crypto currency and racing movies and entire million dollar enterprises are ready to coalesce him. At this point, the only thing standing between Banchero and global superstardom is himself.

For Indiana to capitalize on their roster's collective goodness, Tyrese Haliburton will have to embrace his individual greatness.

By signing DeMar DeRozan this summer, the Kings are continuing to bet that day-to-day competence is next to excellence. Ultimately, success is best measured in beams, not banners.

To his immense credit, James Harden has been able to come to terms with the fact that he's no longer the prime version of himself. For the Clippers to maintain their spot in the West's creamy middle, Harden will have to reanimate the old him.

To be a star in the NBA, it’s no longer enough to just be good at basketball. The league is too talented and the player pool is too deep. These days, the best players thrive in novel ways and offer something unique that can’t be replicated. Nobody sees the game like Nikola Jokic or moves like Shai Gilgeous-Alexander; Jalen Brunson isn’t necessarily more skilled than, say, Cam Thomas, but he’s infinitely more effective because he deploys that skill in more interesting ways.

Someday, Victor Wembanyama will be the best basketball player in the world. He’ll put up stats you’ve never seen in ways that you’ve never imagined. Soon, he’ll set up a permanent residency atop MVP and Defensive Player of the Year ballots; the only chance someone will have to borrow one of his trophies will be if he gets injured or the voters get bored. Eventually, he’ll wrest control of the league from Nikola Jokic and Luka Doncic. You will buy his shoes.

LaMelo Ball can be hard to take seriously. He treats the streets of Charlotte like Rainbow Road

Last year, the Detroit Pistons lost 28 straight games, a single season NBA record. For each of the last six years, they’ve failed to win more than 25 games. Regardless of how hard they try or which doomed coach frowns on the sidelines, when the Pistons play basketball, they’re basically guaranteed to score fewer points than they concede. They are, definitionally, non-winners.

In some ways, Cam Thomas is one of the best players in the NBA. Since joining the Brooklyn Nets in 2021 (since birth, really), Thomas has been an outrageous, unparalleled shot maker. Name a move–Thomas has it in his bag. The leading scorer in Oak Hill’s illustrious history and the youngest player in NBA history to score 40 points in three straight games, he spins in twisting layups from acute angles and nails preposterous fall-away jumpers from obtuse ones. There’s genius in the way he commands his stocky frame, burrowing through defenses to hunt for shots like a truffle pig. On the right day, there’s not a deadlier scorer alive. The pureness of his game is pharmaceutical grade. He’s the Michael Beasley of Jalen Brunsons, the Ray Allen of Allen Rays.

RJ Barrett has lived a life of mosts. The son of the most powerful man in Canadian basketball, he became the country’s most celebrated youth prospect of his generation. During his one year at Duke, he teamed up with Zion Williamson to form the most exciting college basketball team in decades. And once the Knicks drafted him with the third pick in 2019, he became the most scrutinized player on the league’s most scrutinized team.