5 lessons from this NBA season (so far)
We're down to the final (and most important) 0.5% of the 2025-26 season, and we've learned so much.
We're down to the final (and most important) 0.5% of the 2025-26 season, and we've learned so much.
Good morning. Two more off-days until the Finals begin. Let's basketball.
The NBA has held 1,311 basketball games since opening night – I'm counting the damn NBA Cup Final; it happened and it was clearly real given where we are now – and has 4-7 games remaining. We're just about there, though the memory of the season will be defined almost entirely by what still remains. So before we get swept up in the (hopefully) thrilling conclusion, let's take stock of what we learned.
- Strike while your stars are cheap.
The Spurs invested in a team while Victor Wembanyama was still on his rookie deal ... and while Stephon Castle was still on his rookie deal ... and while Dylan Harper was still on his rookie deal. That big trade for the expensive De'Aaron Fox last winter and the free agent signing of Luke Kornet last summer leaned into the temporary nature of the Spurs' financial fortune. Once Wembanyama is on a max deal and Castle and Harper are being paid commensurate with their impact, the Spurs won't be able to splurge on big contracts like that.
San Antonio had a good model for this, of course: the Thunder did the same thing last season, adding Alex Caruso via trade (he then signed a lucrative extension) and Isaiah Hartenstein via free agency. Oklahoma City could do that when they could do that without stripping talent because Chet Holmgren and Jalen Williams were on rookie deals. And the reason we're getting ready to talk about what cost-cutting moves OKC needs to pull off is that Holmgren and Williams are about to see their salaries explode on their rookie extensions, signed in the afterglow of the title triumph last summer.
- When in doubt, fire your coach.
I'm not saying that firing your coach always works out as planned. There's plenty of evidence that treating head coaches as disposable can foment the instability that sinks a franchise's potential. But every rising team has certain inflection points in which there is a real question as to whether a given coach, no matter how good, has squeezed all they can from a given core. Unless that coach is a franchise icon (think Gregg Popovich), go ahead and make the change, especially if changing up the roster is difficult.
