We. Are. Back.

Welcome, friends. After what has seemed like the longest offseason in basketball history, the official start of the 2026-27 NBA season tips off Tuesday.

A summer full of signings, scrimmaging and scandal has laid the runway for what should be one of the most compelling campaigns in recent memory. Here are five things we'll be paying close attention to.

Can the 76ers sacrifice?

Assuming the new-look 76ers aren't on pace to break every standing NBA offensive record, someone (or multiple someones) will need to concede certain aspects of their game, contrary to what Joel Embiid boldly declared last week. 

We're not going to pay too much attention to their 27th-ranked offense through four preseason games — a plethora of moving parts were at work here — but it's important to note some stylistic changes that should spill over to the regular season. Players like Embiid and Jaylen Brown, who have historically been focal points, have seen immediate changes in their usage rates (28.8 for Embiid, 26.2 for Brown) — particularly Brown, who is seeing almost 10% less of the ball than in his final season in Boston. 

Incorporating LeBron, who I believe is still the most important piece of the equation, hasn't taken as long as I would have assumed. His whopping 42.9 assist rate this preseason is higher than at any point over the past five seasons, which isn't saying much because it's early October, but it's still clear he's trying to ingratiate himself, and the team is bending to his tendencies (Philly led the league in assist rate this preseason). 

What we do have is an idea of how the 76ers will operate. They'll shoot a bunch of 3s and play at an uptempo pace to maximize how lethal James and Tyrese Maxey are in space. More focus will be put on transitional defense than on crashing the offensive glass, and expect a flurry of smart off-ball movement from the Philly 4 to account for their lack of elite individual shooting. The biggest "sacrifices" will need to come from Embiid and Brown. More screening angles, less stationary activity around the nail and blocks for Embiid, less stagnation from Brown. This experiment can work, but only with clear understanding across the board. 

New dynamic duos

One of the joys about the flurry of offseason movement is when the excitement about new star duos becomes tangible. It's even more heartwarming seeing how these partnerships empower one another.

Anthony Edwards and LaMelo Ball are long-lost cousins, bringing new life to the Midwest. Paul George recently spoke about playing with Jayson Tatum and rediscovering a passion for playing that was lost previously. Social media recently captured a moment between Bam Adebayo and Giannis Antetokounmpo where the Heat center urged his new teammate to be more aggressive, taking shots he routinely does behind the scenes in practice. 

But what does all of this look like X's and O's-wise once the real games start and within the context of their teams? How will the Wolves react to the potential staggering of Edwards and Ball from a defensive standpoint? Can George continue to showcase more of a role-playing spirit as he did toward the end of his 76ers tenure — and how does Boston's playmaking tree change alongside Derrick White and Payton Pritchard? In Miami, does Giannis adopt more of a lead playmaker role and does that affect Davion Mitchell's development and expectations? Is there another lever to pull when Miami's floor spacing caves in? What about up north in Toronto, where Kawhi Leonard and Scottie Barnes stem from the same defensive tree — is there enough perimeter versatility to become more aggressive in passing lanes for the others? So many new partnerships, so many new questions.

Is Victor Wembanyama about to take another leap?

What do you do next as a 22-year-old generational talent, coming off the first unanimous Defensive Player of the Year award in NBA history and your first Finals trip? It's hard to imagine how much better Victor Wembanyama can get, but the Frenchman's humble-yet-confident nature, combined with head coach Mitch Johnson's creativity, could yield some tantalizing results.

Perhaps it's due to his sheer presence within a Spurs organization that built its reputation on shared playmaking responsibilities, but Wemby becoming a more involved (and capable) creator is exactly what San Antonio needs with their new three-guard setup. In the preseason, Wembanyama was often seen conducting traffic from the top of the key and the slot, allowing the likes of Dylan Harper and Stephon Castle to slash to the rim and affording the Spurs as much space as functionally possible. There's a clear focus to get him more centralized to San Antonio's half-court scheme, one that will improve his already impressive processor and intangibles. 

Last season, Wembanyama's assist rate (17.0) and assist-to-turnover ratio (1.28) were positive and indicative of growth in a scaled-up role. His preseason figures jumped (24.5 and 1.71, respectively), and this is still without Tobias Harris, who is currently sidelined with a calf issue. Featuring Wemby at the beginning of sets as opposed to having him deploy as a finisher certainly puts more trust in the surrounding talent, but there's enough depth and versatility to raise the Spurs' floor and ceiling by some notches. 

Fallout from the Kawhi-Clippers investigation

The story of the summer has been written, discussed and talked about ad nauseam, but how exactly the league plans on moving on from the Clippers' cap-circumvention scandal — and the potential trickle-down effects for other teams in their dealings — is fascinating. 

Over the years, the NBA has tried to curb nefarious activity, from anti-tanking rules and new measures in place to how injuries are reported, free agency no-nos and everything in between. What hasn't been as much of a focus, at least until now, is how to effectively govern contracts. 

Take Milwaukee's Gary Trent Jr., for example. The veteran wing was one of the league's bottom-40 performers last season while playing on a minimum contract. How he somehow parlayed that production into a new four-year, $64 million deal is a question only a league internal investigation can answer. But the issue isn't as much about why Trent got a payday in 2026 as it is about what went on in the previous years under the guise of smaller compensation. Did anything take place that shouldn't have? 

Will every signing from this point onward be met with doubt and wonder? Are teams still willing to blur the lines between professional and personal if the outcome is adding star talent, boosting the local economy and increasing organizational valuation? It's such a murky lake to wade into, especially considering the Kawhi Leonard fallout, suspensions, fines, and, more importantly, morality and dignity. 

Will new anti-tanking rules work?

Commissioner Adam Silver, the league office and the Board of Governors went to great lengths to curb the tanking epidemic, resulting in an expanded draft lottery, a new lottery ball setup and stricter pick rules. Will it work?

Under the new rules, teams are prohibited from selecting in the top five in three successive seasons. With these updated guidelines, teams like Utah (who selected fifth in 2025 and second in 2026) would be strongly discouraged from tanking, which is refreshing. The Jazz lost starting center Walker Kessler in free agency — and reserve Jusuf Nurkić is sidelined as well — but adding Jaren Jackson Jr. at the trade deadline last season and drafting Darryn Peterson with the No. 2 pick gives them a strong, competitive base to build on.

The general thought process here is that the more often teams show up in the draft lottery, the less they should want to return to the bottom. Let's exclude the Chicagos and Memphises of the world; we're not expecting them to suddenly flip the page and be viable franchises (although I'm much higher on the Grizzlies than the average person). But the Wizards (who had the No. 1 pick in 2026), Mavericks (No. 1 in 2025) and Hornets (No. 4, 2025) all seem to be building toward winning programs. Enough summer business has transpired within those organizations to suggest such, and diving back toward the bottom in some faint hope of landing on another top prospect — in a less-than-stellar 2027 crop — seems suboptimal. 

Where it gets interesting is how the "3-2-1" rule now awards the eighth-placed team in each conference with a lottery ping-pong ball. Those teams would have a 2.7% chance at landing the top overall pick (as opposed to a zero-percent chance previously) — and could potentially alter how teams operate over the final few weeks of the regular season. Does a team sitting in sixth or seventh place, fully aware of its realistic contention chances, take a step back and try for lottery luck? This expansive approach from Silver, while bold and noble, could open up a whole different set of unknowns.