Starting Five v2.1
- danny52615
- Oct 27
- 7 min read
Daniel Waddleton
Oct 28, 2025
THE NBA SEASON officially tipped off one week ago today, and there’s no more fun time than right now when everything is beautifully overreactive. It’s the peak of small-sample-season, where the noise is at its loudest and every breakout feels like a revelation.
Since things are still so early, we’re keeping our first piece of the season all positive. No slander or panic for teams and players that are struggling, just good vibes and encouraging trends.
For our first Starting Five of the season, we’re spotlighting three players and two teams that have stood out despite maybe not being headline topics heading into the year.
And before we announce our starting five, a few honorable mentions: the 3-0 Chicago Bulls, who quietly hold the league’s third-best defensive rating; the 2-1 Charlotte Hornets, who's flashy offensive ranks third in offensive efficiency, and Ajayi Mitchell, the second-year Thunder wing who’s made the most of Jalen Williams’ absence and looks like yet another two-way draft gem unearthed by Sam Presti.
San Antonio Spurs (4-0, +15.6 Net Rating)
The biggest story of the first week has, without question, been the San Antonio Spurs, and more specifically, Victor Wembanyama. Let’s not bury the lead here: Wemby is averaging 31 points, 13.8 rebounds, 2.8 assists, and an absurd 4.8 blocks per game.
When he’s on the floor, the Spurs have posted a 94.3 defensive rating. For context, last season’s Oklahoma City Thunder -- who had the seventh-best relative defensive rating in NBA history and are considered the gold standard of modern defense -- finished at 106.6. One week into the season, Wemby has the Spurs defending like it’s 2004.
How are we sure he deserves so much of the credit? Well, San Antonio is 37.4 points better per 100 possessions defensively with him on the court. Yes, thirty-seven. Even if that number regressed to a third of its current value, it would likely still lead the league among regular rotation players.
Now, at least we all had an idea that Wemby could potentially become a generational defensive presence, but his offensive growth is really what's been scary so far. He’s playing with more aggression and decisiveness, getting into his shots quicker, and attempting more shots closer to the basket. He’s also emerging as one of the greatest vertical threats the league has ever seen, a near perfect match for the downhill guards San Antonio has surrounded him with.
At just 21 years old, he’s already in the thick of the MVP conversation and pushing to be recognized as the best player in basketball. The trajectory is bordering on unprecedented.
Below is a chart that tracks multi-year LEBRON (an all-in-one impact metric) across career games for the games best current players. Wembanyama’s curve doesn’t just keep pace with theirs, it rockets past where they were at the same stage.
Even with all these absurd numbers, they don't do justice to just how jaw-dropping the film is. Wembanyama looks like something out of a science fiction movie, this 7’7 alien with guard coordination, gliding around the court with balance and control that shouldn’t be genetically possible.
This clip is just a one-minute stretch from opening night, in a game where he dropped 40 points and finished a +31 in just 30 minutes.
Now that we got the Wemby love-bombing out of the way, we can give the rest of this 4-0 team it's flowers. The starting backcourt of Stephon Castle and Devin Vassell have a nice blend of downhill creation with movement shooting, while rookie Dylan Harper has impressed as a steady bench spark. This team defense also isn't just Wemby, they have a roster full of players willingly to defend.
I'll admit I was lower on the Spurs’ short-term outlook entering the season but after watching the first week, I’ve recalibrated. This doesn’t just look like a team with a bright future; it looks like a playoff team right now.
. . .
Austin Reaves (4 GP - 35.8 PTS, 6.8 REB, 8.5 AST, 73.4 TS%)
Every time you try to put a ceiling on this guy, he breaks straight through it. I said last season that we were getting dangerously close to seeing him in an All-Star Game, and he's probably going to fast-track that prediction.
With LeBron James and Luka Dončić both sidelined, Reaves has completely taken over the offense and thrived. In the two games without the star duo, he’s averaged 46 points and seven assists on an outrageous 76.9 true shooting percentage.
It doesn’t matter what kind of team you put around him -- one where he plays as a secondary ball handler or one where he runs the show -- Reaves is efficient offense wherever and whenever he gets the opportunity. His pick-and-roll possessions are generating 1.19 points per possession (85th percentile), while his isolation possessions are producing 1.6 points per possession (95th percentile), albeit in a small sample.
The Lakers have posted a 122.2 offensive rating with him on the floor. Helping that is the teams 30.5% free-throw rate spear headed by Reaves himself when he's on the court, both juicing their offensive efficiency and helping their defense by letting them get set more often.
Reaves is offering proof of concept to every team with cap space this summer: he’s not just a secondary ball handler or connective piece. He can drive offense at the highest level, and someone should be ready to pay big for that.
. . .
Lauri Markkanen (3 GP - 34.7 PTS, 8 REB, 3 AST, 66.6 TS%)
We heard rumblings out of EuroBasket that Lauri Markkanen was primed for a resurgence coming off a down 2024-25 season. So far, so good!
Last night’s career-high 51-point performance in a win over Phoenix was the latest example of his shot-making leveling back up. He looks every bit like the catch-and-shoot killer who earned an All-Star nod in 2023-24.
Credit also goes to head coach Will Hardy, who’s finding creative ways to get his hyper-talented forward consistent looks. Despite being a great scorer, Markkanen isn’t some seven foot isolation killer like Kevin Durant, and so Hardy has built a system that gets him the looks he thrives with.
They love to run this wide pin-down to free Lauri for above the break for threes. In this clip, you can see many variations, including a counter where he cuts backdoor when defenders try to top-lock him. Another variation has a guard -- as opposed to the center -- setting the wide pin, forcing a switch that Lauri and his 7’0 frame can punish in the mid-post.
They’ll also mix in a horns set where Lauri comes off a flare screen for a shot, and a secondary action where the screener flips it, allowing him to curl back across the top for a clean look.
And even when Hardy isn’t drawing up anything fancy, Lauri’s been nailing timely, high-degree-of-difficulty shots when Utah needs them most.
The Jazz offense looks sharp, confident, and perfectly tailored to their star's skill set, and Markkanen is rewarding that faith with one of the best starts in basketball.
. . .
Philadelphia 76ers (3-0, +4.8 Net Rating)
The vibes around Philadelphia were bleak before the season even began. Their $51 million man, Paul George, was already sidelined, and $55 million man, Joel Embiid, was opening the year on a minutes restriction. It felt like a Process-era story as old as time, another season destined for frustration and disappointment over what could have been.
Then all of the sudden this preseason pessimism was quickly erased, thanks largely to the explosive arrival of third overall pick VJ Edgecombe, who’s burst onto the scene both figuratively and literally.
Through three games, the Sixers lead the NBA with a 124.8 offensive rating. Their three-headed guard monster of Edgecombe (25 PPG), Tyrese Maxey (37 PPG), and Quentin Grimes (16 PPG) has become this overwhelming onslaught of on-ball creation. In 132 possessions together, that trio has produced a ridiculous 143.9 offensive rating.
It’s worth highlighting Maxey further, because he might be breaking into superstar status. In the simplest of terms: there’s nobody in the league as quick as him who can shoot like this, and nobody who can shoot like him that’s this quick. Combine that idea with the confidence and joy he's playing with, everything just screams stardom.
All of the sudden, the question of this team has become: what happens when Embiid and George return? As fun as this fast-paced, selfless offense has been -- full of twitchy, springy guards flying around the perimeter -- there’s a risk it slows down once the veteran players rejoin the fold. Can the Sixers balance their newfound flow with the isolation heavy styles of an aging, injury-prone duo?
This is a must-monitor team as their pricey headline players make their way back.
. . .
Jonathan Kuminga (18 PTS, 8 REB, 4 AST, 69.5 TS%)
The Golden State Warriors are off to a 3-1 start, with all three wins coming against likely top-eight teams in the West (Lakers, Nuggets, Grizzlies). One of the biggest reasons why has been an unlikely hero: Jonathan Kuminga.
It felt all but certain last spring that Kuminga had played his final game in a Warriors jersey after a turbulent start to his career. When Golden State couldn’t find the right trade, they opted to bring him back, for what many figured would be to restore his value for a potential midseason move. However, a week into the season, they might not be trading him at all.
Kuminga has been everything the Warriors have been waiting for since they drafted him seventh in 2021. He’s bought into his role within their movement-heavy, read-and-react system -- playing selflessly, putting pressure on the rim, and defending like he actually wants to be part of something bigger. The effort and awareness that once came and went has been there every night.
Golden State is 13.9 points better per 100 possessions with him on the floor, and it's not shocking if you've watched the games. If this version of Kuminga is here to stay, it looks like he may have finally found his footing in the Bay just before the clock struck midnight.
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