Early season questions for every NBA team

We tour through the entire league to ask a single game that could be important to their fate in the first 20 games of the season.

Good morning. The MLB sure dodged a three-peat, didn't they? Let's basketball.

The NBA regular season begins on Tuesday. Not sure if you've noticed. With the horizon rushing ever closer, we have a single question for every team for the first quarter of the season that might help explain what will be happening for them this year (or beyond).

The idea is that at the quarter mark of the season – around the beginning of December – we'll check back in on the answers. Who knows? Maybe we'll have questions for the second quarter of the season at that point, too.

Let's dig in.

Atlantic Division

Toronto Raptors
Is the offense significantly above average after adding Kawhi Leonard? Efficient scoring held Toronto back last season – they had an elite defense and decent fundamentals on offense. The only offensive red flag: a lack of three-point shooting. Replacing Brandon Ingram (a second-tier scorer) with Kawhi (an all-timer) plus other rotational tilts could boost the offense from No. 15 to the top-10, which would be a strong indicator of an elite team.

Philadelphia 76ers
Will Jaylen Brown and Tyrese Maxey have equivalent usage rates, or will the offense be skewed toward one of them? Consider me among those who are less concerned about Philadelphia's offense, but the type of offense the Sixers present – and thus how much trouble that gives opponents in the playoffs – will be interesting to see develop. Whether it's more of a JB offense or a Maxey offense will help show us the way.

New York Knicks
Can bench units still stay afloat? It's hard to put much stock in the early season for a defending champ; either they blast out ready to take everyone's heads off (see: Thunder, Oklahoma City, in 2025-26) or ease back into it, knowing the real test comes in April. But the loss of Mitchell Robinson does create a different look once Mike Brown calls on his bench, and while the Knicks' top 13 rotation players all had positive on-court plus-minuses last season, we'll need to see if the right mixing and matching will allow that to continue.

Brooklyn Nets
Is Egor Demin a No. 1 creator? Demin had a nice rookie season and, until we see Mikel Brown Jr. in real action, is Brooklyn's best prospect. But his usage rate was under 19% last season as he deferred a lot of creation to a far-overextended Michael Porter Jr. Demin had a lower assist rate than even Nic Claxton. It'd be good to see signs of whether Demin has the tools to become a team's No. 1 creator or if he projects to be more of a floor manager.

Boston Celtics
Was last season a shooting blip for Derrick White, or a bad signal on his career projection? We all assume White, a career 36% deep shooter, just had an off-year due to happenstance and defenses being able to focus more on him as a threat given the lack of Jayson Tatum, Kristaps Porzingis and Jrue Holiday. It'd be good to get some confirmation of that in the first 20 games.