Greetings, welcome back to Open Floor. I’m headed to San Antonio for the opening night game between the Spurs and Thunder. After a seven-game slugfest in the conference finals, it’s only right that the Western Conference’s top two teams run it back in the opener. That means more Victor Wembanyama vs. Chet Holmgren, which is fast becoming one of the NBA’s marquee individual rivalries.
Speaking of Oklahoma City, congrats to Cason Wallace and the Thunder for getting an extension done this week. Wallace, one of the NBA’s top defensive guards, agreed to a five-year, $139 millon deal. That’s a good deal for Wallace. But it strikes me as a very good deal for OKC, which gets the rising Wallace at a better deal than Keyonte George (five-years, $155 million in Utah) and Ausar Thompson (ditto, in Detroit). The Thunder believe Wallace is primed for a big jump this season. That contract could turn out to be a bargain.
And commiserations to Ben Simmons, who is done for the year after tearing his Achilles tendon. Simmons, who did not play last season, was nearing a (well publicized) comeback in Sacramento and had looked sharp in the preseason. The former No. 1 pick insisted this isn’t the end of his journey. Here’s hoping he is right.
For this issue, I popped into Oklahoma City to chat with Holmgren. It’s been a roller coaster of an 18 months for Holmgren, who followed the high of winning a championship in ’24-25 with his best season in ’25-26. Unfortunately, that season ended with a thud, with Holmgren struggling through the conference finals while getting outplayed by Wembanyama. What did Holmgren take from that experience? How did he grow from it? And what does he really think of his rivalry with Wembanyama? More on that below.
🎙️ Pod Alert 🎙️ On Tuesday, Utah Jazz coach Will Hardy will join the show. After five straight years of sub-.500 records—including back-to-back dismal, sub-23 win seasons—Utah is primed for a breakout year. The Jazz have established veteran talent (Jaren Jackson Jr., Lauri Markkanen), rising young players (George, Ace Bailey) and a potential superstar in No. 2 overall pick Darryn Peterson. Subscribe here, here and here.
Alright, let’s get into it …
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Sports Illustrated graphic
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OKLAHOMA CITY — Chet Holmgren paused, considering the question. Five seconds passed. Then 10. Then 15. It’s early October, and Holmgren is sitting on a table inside the Thunder practice facility, stretching his slender, 7' 1" frame to the floor. For a while, the interview is free-flowing. Holmgren talked about efforts to improve his shot in the offseason. About building more strength. Teams threw a lot of different coverages at him last season, said Holmgren, which is why he committed more time to dissecting game tape.
When the conversation shifts to another subject—Victor Wembanyama—the conversation stalls. Over the last two years, Wembanyama-Holmgren has emerged as one of the NBA’s more intriguing rivalries. They are the Tim Duncan and Kevin Garnett of this era, a pair of elite, two-way, 7-footers. Wembanyama was the first unanimous Defensive Player of the Year last season, finishing runner-up for MVP. Holmgren earned his first All-Star and All-NBA nods. The two clashed last spring in the Western Conference finals. Wembanyama got the better of the matchup, and the Spurs won the series.
Holmgren isn’t interested in revisiting that matchup with the Spurs or with Wembanyama. He learned a lot from that series, he says, “but the takeaways from that are tangible against the other 28 teams, too.” Asked if he relished the matchup, Holmgren said, “I relish every game.” Asked if Wembanyama, who has had some not-so-subtle criticisms of Holmgren over the years, had made the rivalry personal, Holmgren said, “that’s a question for him.” Asked if going up against the Spurs felt different than matchups with the Nuggets, Timberwolves, Lakers or any other conference rival, Holmgren paused.
“I wouldn’t put it that way,” said Holmgren.
How would he put it?
“I don’t know.”
By any metric, Holmgren’s 2025–26 season was outstanding. He averaged career highs in points, rebounds and field-goal percentage. He was one of two players to average more than 17 points and eight rebounds while shooting 55% from the floor and 35% from three. The other? Nikola Jokić. Defensively, Holmgren was brilliant. Opponents made just 44.9% of two-point attempts when Holmgren was contesting—the stingiest of any player who defended at least 400 shots.
The conference finals, though, were a disaster. Wembanyama averaged 27.3 points in that series. Holmgren averaged 10.7. Wembanyama shot 40% from three. Holmgren shot 27.3%. In Game 7, Wembanyama racked up 22 points and seven rebounds. Holmgren collected four and four.
When attacking the offseason, Holmgren has a philosophy: Forget everything that came before it. “Disassociate,” says Holmgren. Win a championship? Forget it. Get outplayed in the conference finals? Throw that in the bin, too. “Disassociate from the emotions of it,” says Holmgren. “What happened is not going to change my approach, how serious and how hard I work at what I do.”
A year ago, Holmgren did just that. Injuries limited Holmgren to 32 games during the 2024–25 season. He got healthy before the playoffs and averaged 15.2 points during the Thunder’s title run. He celebrated the championship. And then got right back to work.
“A lot of that was working on my body,” says Holmgren. “I was coming off a f---ed up injury. I was pretty f---ed up that whole playoff run. And then I was able to get my feet under me that summer and it led to a really good season.”
Read on for the full story ...
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Sports Illustrated graphic
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Chris Mannix’s 2026–27 NBA season predictions:
2027 NBA Finals: Spurs over 76ers in six games
Most Valuable Player: Victor Wembanyama, Spurs
Rookie of the Year: Cameron Boozer, Grizzlies
Defensive Player of the Year: Victor Wembanyama, Spurs
Coach of the Year: Sean Sweeney, Magic
Sixth Man of the Year: Dylan Harper, Spurs
Most Improved Player: Kel’el Ware, Bucks
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Victor Wembanyama’s rise to MVP feels like an inevitability, close to a mortal lock so long as the minutes shackles come off Wemby and he doesn’t miss significant time with injury. I’m not convinced Cameron Boozer will be the best rookie to come out of this class, but his NBA-ready game coupled with plenty of available minutes in Memphis make Boozer an easy pick for top rookie honors. And, yes, for the third year in a row I am all in on the Magic. Sean Sweeney strikes me as just the kind of taskmaster this Magic team needs to claim a top-six spot in the Eastern Conference.
Bold prediction: Kyrie Irving will finish the season in a Pistons uniform. Is this bold? Call it bold-ish. The vibes are good in Dallas but the Mavs don’t have the talent to compete for a playoff spot in a loaded Western Conference. The market will be there for Irving and it says here the Pistons, armed with draft capital, moveable pieces and a couple of interesting young pieces are at the front of it and will enter the postseason with Irving and Cade Cunningham as its 1-2 punch.
Bolder prediction: Nick Nurse will not last the season. It’s not exactly David Blatt-in-Cleveland vibes, but Nurse has a boss (Mike Gansey) who didn’t hire him and two new stars (LeBron James, Jaylen Brown) who never played for him. A 1–3 preseason isn’t cause for concern but this Philadelphia team will need time—maybe a lot of time—to figure out how to play together. Will Nurse be given the rope to figure it out? Or will the 76ers look elsewhere for a coach for a team with a small window to win?
Oddly specific prediction: Jason Kidd will coach the 76ers. It will surely be tempting for Kidd to kick back and collect the $40 million he is owed by Dallas over the next four years, while mixing in some analyst work with ESPN. But if Philly opens up, who better to take over than Kidd? He has a relationship with LeBron James (his former USA Basketball teammate) and Jaylen Brown (a fellow Cal Bear) and the cache as a Hall of Fame point guard and an NBA Finals coach to earn the respect of the rest. A return to the northeast, where Kidd played and coached for many years, with a shot at winning a championship could be of great interest.
Read on for picks from the rest of SI’s NBA staff:
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Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images for Prime Video
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By Liam McKeone
The first thing Blake Griffin does after settling into our Zoom call (following, of course, the opening pleasantries; “El Niño is a buzz word in Los Angeles these days,” he says of the city’s unusually warm weather stretch) is take a trip down memory lane.
“When I was with the Clippers, one day we were in the training room,” Griffin tells Sports Illustrated. “We used to always like to have TVs on in the training room before practice. First Take was on. It was the height of Skip [Bayless] and Stephen A. [Smith], and the topic was our team. They're both just going back and forth, back and forth. We're all sitting there, listening to it and dying laughing. They were both just saying things that were so wrong, and making something out of nothing.
“I remember sitting there just thinking of myself after that, being like, ‘Man. Where do you go to not just hear about what happened last night or whatever the newest debate is, but where do you go to hear what actually matters to sports fans?’ Because there's plenty of shows, and there's shows that do it really well. First Take, I'm not knocking First Take because it's a show that people obviously love to consume. But where’s that show that’s fact-based and delivering information on topics that affects fans?”
A decade later, give or take, Griffin decided to make that show for himself: The Stepback With Blake Griffin. Citing Last Week Tonight With John Oliver and The Tonight Show as inspirations, Griffin approached Amazon with a pitch to create a late-night sports show that dips more than a toe into the comedy waters. With weekly releases on YouTube and Prime Video beginning on Oct. 20, the longtime NBA star plans to tackle the biggest issues in sports today with curiosity and humor in equal measure.
“It’s deep dives on issues in sports that I think are important and that affects me as a fan—whether that's NIL, whether that's analytics taking over so much of sports, whether it's youth sports,” Griffin explains. “Late night is sort of a dying genre in a way, but I wanted it to be late night because there's a live studio audience and there's a comedic element to it. But it's late night for today's world and how the media landscape is.”
Indeed, The Stepback With Blake Griffin is something of a hybrid version of late night. The live studio audience will be present and Griffin will play host, the center of the show’s solar system for every minute he’s on stage with guests revolving around him. But it’s not a weekly reaction to everything that happens, as it happens—which is by design.
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Jesse D. Garrabrant/NBAE/Getty Images
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By Blake Silverman
Here’s a look at each projected starting lineup across the NBA, ranked from bottom to top:
30. Los Angeles Clippers
Projected starters: Darius Garland, Rui Hachimura, Derrick Jones Jr., Brook Lopez, Keaton Wagler
I’m sorry to kick you while you’re down, Clippers fans. If Brandon Ingram was healthy, I promise your starting lineup wouldn’t fall last. It’s unclear how much time Ingram will miss to start the year, but his absence provides more immediate offensive opportunities for Keaton Wagler, the No. 5 pick in the draft. After the league brought the hammer down on the Clippers over the summer following the Kawhi Leonard cap circumvention saga, Wagler’s development has to be the most important thing for the franchise moving forward. Darius Garland should have a good year and Rui Hachimura will help, but Tyronn Lue’s top priority should be getting Wagler opportunities.
29. Milwaukee Bucks
Projected starters: Tyler Herro, Myles Turner, Jaime Jaquez Jr., Ryan Rollins, Kyle Kuzma
Milwaukee enters a new era without Giannis Antetokounmpo. The franchise chose Miami’s future-forward package of young players and draft capital over Boston’s centered around Jaylen Brown. Brown would’ve helped the team stay afloat immediately, but the Bucks made the right move. Unfortunately, that means it will be tough sledding right out of the gate. Tyler Herro brings some juice as he plays for his hometown team and Ryan Rollins could take another leap, but Milwaukee simply doesn’t have the star power anymore.
28. Memphis Grizzlies
Projected starters: Cameron Boozer, Zach Edey, Cedric Coward, Jaylen Wells, Ty Jerome
I’m sorry Grizzlies fans, I really am excited about your team. Until we see Cameron Boozer actually dominate at the next level alongside a healthy Zach Edey, though, this Memphis group resides near the bottom compared to other first fives. Over the offseason, the franchise finally parted with Ja Morant after Jaren Jackson Jr. and Desmond Bane were dealt within the past year. It’s a new era for the Grizzlies and the organization should be excited with a future All-Star in Boozer.
27. Brooklyn Nets
Projected starters: Michael Porter Jr., Julius Randle, Day’Ron Sharpe, Egor Dëmin, Mikel Brown Jr.
The Nets should be better this season after they took Julius Randle’s contract from Minnesota. However, will the presence of Randle and Michael Porter Jr. impact the development of the franchise’s young core? Mikel Brown Jr. and Egor Dëmin’s growth should be priority No. 1. As a rookie, Brown needs to show flashes and prove that Brooklyn made the right decision taking him over other guards they passed on like Darius Acuff Jr., Kingston Flemings and Brayden Burries. As currently constructed, though, the Nets’ lineup can’t compete with the top teams in the Eastern Conference, no matter how nice their new ABA-inspired jerseys look.
26. Sacramento Kings
Projected starters: Domantas Sabonis, Zach LaVine, Darius Acuff Jr., De’Andre Hunter, Keegan Murray
Zach LaVine is on a massive expiring contract and Domantas Sabonis has two years left on his big deal. Maybe this is the year Sacramento moves off one or both of them as the franchise pivots fully into its Darius Acuff Jr. era. The flashy guard’s development is key for the Kings, and you have to hope the surrounding team raises his floor.
25. New Orleans Pelicans
Projected starters: Zion Williamson, Trey Murphy III, Herbert Jones, Dejounte Murray, Yves Missi
It’s a shame that Jeremiah Fears nor Derik Queen are likely to start for New Orleans considering they are two building blocks. New coach Jamahl Mosley will likely experiment with his rotations and opportunities will open up throughout the year. As of now, though, the Pelicans have an odd roster. We’ll see what’s in store for Zion Williamson after this year (or at the trade deadline), but him and Dejounte Murray plus Fears, Queen, Jordan Poole and Bennedict Mathurin off the bench limits offensive chances for each player due to the sheer volume of guys who need shots. The Pels may be better than last year, but the front office needs to choose a direction.
Read on for the full rankings:
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