Ty's 2025-2026 NBA Season Preview: Wizards, Pelicans, Raptors
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Welcome to day two of my 2025-26 preseason NBA countdown. We are still in the bottom, but things will start looking up soon.
At number 27 I have the Washington Wizards. I can't figure this team out. They had a bunch of youth last season, but now they have added a good amount of veterans. CJ McCollum is on this team now. I don't really know what he brings and what they want out of him, but he's here now. I believe he can still score in bunches, but he was never very good at defense and he is older now. They also traded for Khris Middleton during last season. He is oft injured, but when he plays he is a lethal mid range shooter. He doesn't move like he used to, much like McCollum, and he was never a great defender either. Corey Kispert is still here. He has never really brought much of anything to the NBA. He isn't a scorer and he isn't a defender. They traded for Malaki Branham last season. I always thought he could be a solid pro, but he hasn't figured it out just yet. Maybe with extra playing time he will figure things out. Cam Whittmore can score, but doesn't do much else. Bub Carrington looks to be a bench player during his NBA career. I believe Bilal Coulibaly can turn into a solid player, but he has to shoot the ball better. AJ Johnson was traded with Middleton last season. He is skinny as a rail, but he plays pretty fearlessly. And Alex Sarr was the number two overall pick two seasons ago. He showed some flashes of his high potential, but he is still inconsistent. The Wizards have an odd roster. I have zero clue who they will start and their bench isn;t deep or great. It feels like they're trying to build something, but they are doing it the way I do on 2k, and that never works out all that well for me. This is a 25 win team at best, and their defense is going to be really bad this year.
At number 26 I have the New Orleans Pelicans. Man, they had a weird offseason. But guess what, Zion Williamson is in shape this offseason. I feel like I've heard this all before and he always seems to get injured. The Zion is in shape offseason storyline is becoming wildly similar to the Ben Simmons can shoot threes now offseason story. I will believe that Zion is healthy and ready to play 60 plus games when I see it. I will say, when he is on the floor, he is a matchup nightmare and he can dribble and distribute the ball really well. He just isn't on the floor enough to make it seem viable. The Pelicans now have Jordan Poole. Look, I will always root for him because he went to Michigan and hit an amazing shot in the tournament. But he is a ball hog, a zero on defense and seems to have issues with his teammates. I'm kind of shocked he only lasted in Washington for one season. Dejounte Murray is coming off a major injury, so I'm curious to see how he plays this season when he comes back. It also feels like his mojo left him when he was traded away from the Spurs. It just hasn't been great for him since that trade. Trey Murphy III has all the skills to be an all star and I think that day will come sooner rather than later. I feel like Kevon Looney will bring veteran leadership and a hard working attitude to this team. I like Derik Queen, and I think he will be a solid player in the NBA when he fully buys into getting better. They may have traded too much to draft him though. Herb Jones is a very good, big upside defender. Joe Alvarado is the best pest defender in the league. And Jeremiah Fears is totally unknown to me as an incoming rookie. The Pelicans have a weird roster and players that get hurt way too often. I'm curious to see how Jordan Poole plays here. And I don't buy the Zion in shape hype anymore than I did before. The Pelicans are probably a low 30 win team this year and they will have more questions than answers by the end of the season.
Finally, at number 25 I have the Toronto Raptors. I don't know how they're going to score in bunches and I don't know what they are going to do with all the long limbed players they currently have on their roster. Scottie Barnes is legit. He has all the tools the Raptors wanted when they took him fourth overall in the draft and he seems to be getting better every season. I don't really know what to make of RJ Barrett and Immanuel Quickley. Quickley is good when he plays, but he barely plays. He cannot seem to stay on the floor. Barrett is in his hometown and playing for his hometown team. But he is inconsistent, he is not a very good defender and his scoring is all over the map. Gradey Dick is a nonfactor. I don't buy any of his offseason hype and he seems to be a deep bench NBA player. Ocahi Agbaji has not been able to have his college success translate to the NBA. He is on his third different team at this point. Brandon Ingram just seems to get a little worse every season. It's a bummer because he is one of the few Duke players that I want to see achieve at this level. I hope he finds some of the success he had in New Orleans during his time in Toronto. Jakob Poeltl is too old school for the modern NBA. And their two rookies, Collin Murray Boyles and Ja'Kobe Walter do have some skills, they just need a little time to develop. Toronto is usually good about that, but I wouldn't expect them to see the floor too much this season. Toronto can make a play-in push, but that means they may only have to win 35 games in the East to make it there. I like Scottie Barnes and the rookies, but the rest of the roster is odd.
That's it for today. Come back tomorrow for my next three teams.
Ty
Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing, the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast, and the greatest basketball writer on the internet.