NBA: LeBron James-Luka Doncic combination for LA Lakers among talking points as 2025-26 season begins on Sky Sports | NBA News

Ahead of the NBA’s return on Tuesday evening, here are several key storylines to look out for during the 2025-26 season.

Will LeBron-Luka combination work for Lakers?

The most shocking moment of the previous NBA season came when Luka Doncic, one of the biggest stars in the league, was traded to the Los Angeles Lakers by the Dallas Mavericks.

The stunning move, which saw the Mavs actively seek to trade away a 26-year-old superstar, created a blockbuster pairing of the Slovenian alongside the legendary LeBron James, who is embarking on his 23rd NBA campaign.

The mid-season move failed to pay off in last year’s playoffs as the Lakers went down 4-1 to the Minnesota Timberwolves in the first round, but with head coach JJ Redick having had a full summer to work out how best to utilise the considerable talent as his disposal, all eyes will be on the squad once more.

However, they have already been dealt a concerning blow with James set to miss the start of the season as a result of a sciatic nerve injury.

There had already been great interest in how Reddick and the Lakers hierarchy would handle an inevitable transition to the team being built around Doncic rather than the 40-year-old James, with there having been signs the four-time champion might not be delighted by the situation.

There also remains the question of how long James will carry on playing. There’s little doubt that he could go on playing in the NBA for several more years, but only time will tell whether he retains his remarkable desire to keep going as injuries mount.

Regardless of how it plays out, there is guaranteed to be entertainment both on and off the court in Los Angeles.

Can the Thunder go back-to-back?

A first-time NBA champion was crowned earlier this year as the Oklahoma City Thunder grinded their way to the title after dominating the regular season.

Despite having appeared to clearly be the best team in the league as they achieved a spectacular 68-14 record, the Thunder were pushed all the way to seven games by both the Denver Nuggets and Indiana Pacers on their run to glory.

Those tight series were evidence of just how challenging it is to break through in the NBA, but with some pressure on the young squad now potentially relieved, they will start as favourites to triumph again.

Doing so will rely heavily on reigning regular season and finals MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, whose remarkable ascent to the top of the sport shows no sign of relenting.

While the Canadian has become something of a lock for 30 points a night to go along with a healthy handful of rebounds and assists, pulling off the considerable feat of going back-to-back is likely to require growth from his team-mates.

The key pairing in that regard are Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren, who both played key roles in the title run but still have room to develop their games and to become more consistent.

Any team with designs on dethroning the Thunder will know there is a very high chance they’ll need to beat the reigning champs to do so.

Who can challenge Thunder in loaded West?

While the structure of the NBA ensures that only one team from each conference can reach the finals, there is a clear power imbalance between the East and the West at the moment.

According to the bookies, seven of the top 10 favourites to win the title come from the West, so it’s fair to suggest that if the Thunder can advance to the finals once more, they’ll have overcome their biggest challenge.

The most obvious candidate to challenge them in the West are the Denver Nuggets, who pushed the Thunder to seven games in the conference semi-finals earlier this year.

The Nuggets have the best player in the league, Nikola Jokic, whose talent knows no bounds and enables him to lift the level of his team-mates with remarkable playmaking.

Denver have added some much-needed depth to their squad, with veteran trio Bruce Brown, Tim Hardaway Jr and Jonas Valanciunas all arriving in the summer after the Nuggets had already acquired Cameron Johnson in a trade with the Brooklyn Nets.

If the new pieces fit, which they inevitably tend to around Jokic, the Nuggets are going to be incredibly difficult to beat in the playoffs.

Another team to watch out for are the Houston Rockets, who added Kevin Durant to their young and talented squad over the summer, but have been hit by an injury to key player Fred VanVleet.

Having been beaten in the conference finals for the last two seasons, Anthony Edwards will be looking to take the next step in his development by going one step better with the Minnesota Timberwolves.

There’s also the ever-present threat of Steph Curry and the Golden State Warriors, who will hope they can keep an older squad – featuring Jimmy Butler, Draymond Green and the newly acquired Al Horford – healthy enough to make some noise in the post-season.

Could Giannis be traded?

There have been rumblings over the summer about the future of the man affectionately known as the Greek Freak, with uncertainty growing around how much longer Giannis Antetokounmpo will remain with Milwaukee Bucks.

The two-time MVP remains one of the very best players in the league, but since the Bucks claimed the 2020-21 title, they have won just one playoff series across the four seasons that have followed.

While Antetokounmpo is partially responsible for this, his level has largely remained extremely high, and there’s a feeling that, especially for the last couple of years, the Bucks haven’t surrounded him with enough talent to compete with the best teams in the league.

The 30-year-old provided further evidence over the summer that his powers aren’t on the decline as he led Greece to bronze at EuroBasket, and there would be no shortage of suitors were he to demand a trade.

The problem for anyone considering trading for Antetokounmpo is that the sort of hall required to acquire him might not leave enough talent around him for a team to be able to contend for titles.

It therefore seems unlikely that he would leave Milwaukee during this season, but next summer, when he will be just a year away from having the chance to leave as a free agent, it could be in play.

How competitive the Bucks are this year is likely to be a decisive factor, with anything less than a deep run in the play-offs having the potential to leave Antetokounmpo looking elsewhere to return to championship contention.

A big chance for the Knicks?

While the favourites for the title are clearly in the West, there will of course be a team from the Eastern Conference in the NBA Finals come June, and the Indiana Pacers showed last year that absolutely anything can happen as they pushed the Thunder to seven games.

That rivalry has surely been paused by the devastating Achilles injury Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton suffered in game seven of the finals, which opens the door for a different team to emerge from the East this time around.

Perhaps the most popular candidate to do are the New York Knicks, who were beaten in the conference finals by the Pacers last year but come into the new season primed to make another deep playoff run.

They’ve kept together the core of their team led by star point guard Jalen Brunson, added depth to their bench by signing Jordan Clarkson, and perhaps most significantly, have made a head coaching change as Tom Thibodeau was replaced by Mike Brown.

Thibodeau helped restore the Knicks as a competitive force during his five seasons in charge, but his refusal to use his bench and overplay his starters repeatedly let to his squad being ground down by the end of the season.

The Knicks most obvious rivals to come out of the East are the Cleveland Cavaliers, who have had a similarly stable summer after a hugely disappointing first-round playoff exit followed a superb regular season which saw them go 64-18 to claim the conference’s top seeding.

The Boston Celtics represent something of a wildcard, with the 2023-24 champions hopes of mounting another title challenge resting on whether star player Jayson Tatum can make an earlier than expected return from an Achilles injury suffered in the playoffs.

Flagg set to star as top rookie

There is always excitement around the new crop of rookies that come into the NBA each season, but this year’s No 1 pick Cooper Flagg has long been highlighted as a generational talent.

Hype around the 18-year-old has only been heightened by the fact he miraculously landed with Dallas Mavericks, who had just a 1.8 per cent chance of winning the top pick in the draft lottery.

A fanbase that were on the brink of despair after seeing Doncic traded to the Lakers has been reenergised, with Flagg joining a roster that already includes Anthony Davis and Kyrie Irving, although the latter is expected to miss a good chunk of the season as he continues his recovery from a knee injury.

Flagg is officially listed as a small forward but should be able to fill various roles with his combination of size, strength and skill, and could help the Mavericks make a playoff run this season.

Also worth looking out for is the No 2 pick, point guard Dylan Harper, who gets the opportunity to play alongside 2023 No 1 pick Victor Wembanyama in San Antonio.

Further down the board, there’s Ace Bailey, who the Utah Jazz selected with the fifth pick. He garnered a lot of attention around the draft amid reports he was trying to discourage the Jazz from selecting him, but they did so anyway.

If it weren’t for concerns about his attitude and reliability, a smooth scoring ability that has led to comparisons with Durant would have ensured he went even higher in the draft.

Last but not least, seven-foot Chinese center Yang Hansen has attracted much attention after being picked higher than most expected at No 16 by the Portland Trail Blazers (via a trade with the Memphis Grizzlies).

China’s love of basketball means the 20-year-old will have the opportunity to become an enormous star in his home nation should be manage to make it in the NBA.

Watch Houston Rockets @ Oklahoma City Thunder and Golden State Warriors @ Los Angeles Lakers live on Sky Sports + on October 21, from 12.30am UK time.