Inside the NBA’s 2025-26 Gamble: Which Teams Will Rise to Glory or Crash and Burn?

If everything falls apart: Edwards shows little signs of progress as a playmaker. Randle endures one of his tottering seasons. That in itself could be enough to drop the Timberwolves a tier below the West’s elite, especially as the Denver Nuggets and Houston Rockets have improved. It might be time to consider trading Gobert, if there are any takers, embracing Naz Reid as the center of the future and building for the time when Edwards is ready.

— Read Ben Rohrbach’s full preview

New Orleans Pelicans

Best-case scenario: Lucy finally lets Charlie Brown kick the football. Zion Williamson puts it all together, playing 70-plus games, making All-NBA First Team, finishing on or just outside the MVP ballot and returning to the All-Star team … where he’s joined by Trey Murphy, who builds on the leap he took last season before tearing his labrum. After playing a grand total of zero minutes together last season, Williamson, Herb Jones and Murphy form one of the league’s most frequently used and potent trios, providing an elevated baseline and support structure that allows youngsters Jeremiah Fears, Derik Queen and Yves Missi to get in where they fit in. Jordan Poole continues last season’s resurgence, Dejounte Murray comes back looking like the star they traded for him to be, and the Pelicans ride a top-10 offense to a top-10 seed in the West — postseason participation that makes the pick debt to Atlanta less onerous.