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Tim Bontemps
Tim Bontemps
ESPN Senior Writer
- Tim Bontemps is a senior NBA writer for ESPN.com who covers the league and what’s impacting it on and off the court, including trade deadline intel, expansion and his MVP Straw Polls. You can find Tim alongside Brian Windhorst and Tim MacMahon on The Hoop Collective podcast.
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Brian Windhorst
Brian Windhorst
ESPN Senior Writer
- ESPN.com NBA writer since 2010
- Covered Cleveland Cavs for seven years
- Author of two books
Oct 24, 2025, 11:22 AM ET
A thrilling start to the NBA season came to a screeching halt on Thursday, when Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier, Portland Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups and former player and coach Damon Jones were arrested as part of FBI investigations into illegal sports betting and rigged poker games.
Questions remain on the status of those investigations. And while those indictments overshadowed the opening days of the NBA’s 80th season, its first handful of games showed us plenty about what could be next on the court.
With that in mind, we checked in with league coaches, scouts and executives on what stood out across the opening week of the regular season. Nothing, though, matched the buzz around the league after Victor Wembanyama’s evisceration of the Dallas Mavericks Wednesday night — a performance that felt like a warning to the rest of the NBA.
There’s something different about Wemby’s game
Bontemps: Wembanyama, who missed the back half of last season after a deep vein thrombosis diagnosis, had a busy summer off the court. But when he spoke to the media at the start of training camp, he made sure to emphasize that for whatever people saw on social media, he wasn’t spending the summer relaxing.
“I can assure you, nobody has trained like I did this summer,” Wembanyama said. “And this is my best summer so far. I can tell the progress is just incredible. I feel better, I look stronger and the scale says I’m heavier. So, everything is a green light.”
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In the wake of Wembanyama’s impressive 40-point showing in Dallas, those preseason comments now feel like an early declaration of what was to come this season. It could have been taken as Wembanyama being arrogant, but he said it in a simple, matter-of-fact tone, both because it is just what he truly believes, and because he is capable of doing things virtually no one else has ever contemplated, let alone been able to achieve.
After watching him toy with Dallas, there was a clear recognition that if he keeps going like this it’s going to take a lot of luck to slow him down.
“He’s clearly gotten bigger, stronger, more aggressive, playing with more force,” a Western Conference scout said. “And he’s going to take over the whole f—ing league if he stays healthy.”
Windhorst:In the preseason, scouts started to notice something about Wembanyama: In lieu of launching from deep, he was playing bully ball.
After hoisting a whopping 8.8 3-pointers per game last year, nearly half of the 19 shots he was averaging per game and nearly four more per night than during his rookie season, Wembanyama was going the opposite way. He was driving to the basket, looking to establish position and even seeking contact.
play
1:59
Stephen A.: Wemby can take the Spurs to the conference finals
Stephen A. Smith analyzes Victor Wembanyama’s 40-point performance vs. the Mavericks.
Last season only 40% of his shots were in the paint. In the preseason, albeit a small sample size, that number soared to 75%. After averaging six free throws per 100 possessions last season, it leapt to 11.8 per 100 in the preseason.
So when Wembanyama dropped 40 in the season opener in Dallas, stealing the show from No. 1 pick Cooper Flagg’s debut with a tour de force of basket attacks, it verified the hand he started to show the league.
Wembanyama took just two 3-pointers, his fewest in a game since his rookie season. (He took fewer than five 3s once all season.) He had 11 free throws against the Mavericks. That happened once in a regulation game last year.
Said one team source: “He’s relishing playing bully ball.”
After a promising opener, a major question faces the Houston Rockets
Windhorst:After Amen Thompson left the season opener in overtime with cramps, Rockets coach Ime Udoka went with big man Alperen Sengun as the de facto point guard. In the wake of losing Fred VanVleet and the commitment for the still raw Thompson to be the team’s primary point guard, there’s a debate among league executives about whether the Rockets will eventually need to acquire a veteran point guard as a trusty option.
“Their answer is on the roster, I’m a believer in Reed Sheppard and he will step into that role [alongside Thompson],” a veteran executive said. “You can focus on what he can’t do, but I’ve followed him since he was a teenager and all he’s done is overcome doubters. Just give him time.”
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But, again, there’s a debate.
“Sheppard is such a target on defense, it’ll be tough to play him at times,” a league scout said. “He doesn’t have good awareness, he doesn’t show good feel and he’s often out of position. He does have good hands.”
Sheppard defended 11 drives in the Rockets’ opening loss to the Thunder, and he was blown by five times, according to ESPN Research.
Bontemps:Although Houston didn’t win the game, and likely won’t have VanVleet back at any point this season after he tore his ACL last month, the Rockets came out of Tuesday’s loss having earned a ton of respect from the NBA cognoscenti.
That was led by the performance Sengun had. Not only did he have 39 points, but his five 3-pointers on Tuesday were a remarkable contrast to the 21 triples he made all of last season.
“If he does that,” an assistant coach said of Sengun’s shooting, “It’s a game changer for them.”
play
1:05
What did we learn from the Rockets’ loss on opening night?
Kendrick Perkins discusses the Rockets’ loss to the Warriors and how they can learn from their mistakes.
And while rival teams are not expecting Sengun to make several 3-pointers every night, the big man looked comfortable enough that opposing scouts and executives did buy it as a real development.
Sengun also earned plaudits for his vision and shot creation. And whether Thompson, Sheppard or another player is Houston’s answer at point guard, Sengun will spend plenty of time as the Rockets’ offensive hub. Going up against the best team in the league Tuesday night, it produced big-time results.
“He’s way better than I ever thought he would be, and the thing that’s impressive about him is he’s got a really strong command of the game as far as directing traffic,” a scout said. “He’s thinking the game at a higher level than a lot of his teammates.
“They know it, and they’re following his lead.”
A messy offseason gives way to a strong start for Jonathan Kuminga
Bontemps: Kuminga’s contract negotiations as a restricted free agent provided drama all summer long in the Bay Area. But for all the noise that came along with those negotiations, if Kuminga can play like he did Tuesday against the Los Angeles Lakers — playing with energy and effort, sharing the ball and working on defense — he can be more than useful for Golden State.
“He did what he needed to do,” a Western Conference assistant coach said.
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But what stood out about Kuminga’s performance went beyond his box score statistics: 17 points, 9 rebounds, 6 assists and 1 turnover. At least in the eyes of one executive, it was seeing Kuminga playing like someone thriving in his role.
“Forget the shooting. Forget the couple plays where he scored, forget when he guarded Luka,” they said. “But he was playing with a smile on his face. I just haven’t seen much of that from him. It’s always been him having a chip on his shoulder and looking like he’s proving himself. He’s guarding a couple positions, playing hard.
“I think you’ll see more games like that than more DNPs like in the playoffs.”
Windhorst: You won’t see Al Horford Friday night when the Warriors play in Portland; he won’t play back-to-backs and he’s going to have limited minutes by design in the regular season. But while Kuminga’s contract situation dominated the conversation around the Warriors over the summer, Horford’s addition was sometimes overlooked. But not by those in the know.
“Horford was one of the best signings in the league over the summer, it broke our hearts because we wanted him badly,” an Eastern Conference executive said. “And they got him for $5 million.”
Well, $5.6 million, but the point remains. For a team that needs size but craves shooting and versatility, Horford is an ideal fit.
It was one game, but prior Lakers concerns were confirmed
Bontemps: Yes, it was one game. Yes, it was one game being played without LeBron James.
But for the concerns about the supporting cast around Luka Doncic and James this season and its viability to lift this team into contention status, Tuesday’s loss did little to quell them.
Deandre Ayton had an ineffectual 10 points and six rebounds in 34 minutes, and no other player reached double figures outside of Doncic and Austin Reaves. Marcus Smart struggled mightily off the bench. The supporting cast was a combined 5-for-17 from 3-point range and had little hope of doing anything to slow Golden State down defensively.
play
0:30
Shaq delivers personal message to Deandre Ayton
Shaquille O’Neal implores Deandre Ayton to do better after the Lakers’ performance vs. the Warriors.
“Luka is awesome,” one scout said, “and the rest of the team is, ‘who we thought they were.’
“[Reaves] was good until he ran out of gas because he had to do so much, but outside of them I couldn’t tell you who their third best player was.”
With ESPN’s Shams Charania reporting that James is targeting a mid-November return, the Lakers will be without the league’s all-time leading scorer for around 15 games to start the season. Can the Lakers survive in the brutal West until James returns without digging themselves too big of a hole?
“They have a chance because Luka doing that isn’t a one-off performance,” the scout said of Doncic’s 43-point night against the Warriors. “They need some of these other guys to step up. So can they survive it? Yes. They’ll have games where some of these guys hit shots. But you look at their roster, and it’s 1-2-3 — and 2 is out — and then a huge gap.”
An assistant coach put it simply:
“Luka is going to have to do what he did every night just to give them a chance.”
Windhorst:Lakers coach JJ Redick tried to nip the idea that James’ body language was an issue in the bud. He said the day after the opener that James was very active and helpful in the Lakers’ full study after the loss. It was a clear “nothing to see here” maneuver even if it was totally true. Be that as it may, the Lakers clearly miss James on the floor.
“I know it’s crazy to say, but their 40-year-old is maybe still their best transition player,” one West scout said. “When he’s not out there they are less dynamic.”
Doncic might be their centerpiece and offensive leader, and Reaves might improve on his 20 points per game average from last year. But James is still an offensive engine — and his absence is already felt.
“One thing you can say for LeBron that’s been true for more than 20 years,” the scout said, “is he always generates easy baskets for himself and his teammates.”
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