Category: Basketball

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Fueled by their relentless depth and star power, the Oklahoma City Thunder lead the pack in early odds for the 2026 NBA Cup.

The path to the trophy won't be easy, however, with the New York Knicks and San Antonio Spurs looming as short-priced threats right behind them.

As summers inches closer to its end & we move towards the return of the NBA making its return, we take an early look at the latest Emirates NBA Cup odds for this upcoming season.

2026 NBA Cup odds

NBA Cup groups

The league's 30 teams will all compete in randomly drawn groups for the opening round, divided by conference, as listed below: 

🥇: Group winner
🥈: Wild Card

NBA Cup explained

Group Play

Each team will begin the tournament in one of six groups, divided by conference and randomly drawn from tiers based on the previous season's record, to ensure relative competitive balance.

Within each group, all teams will play regular-season games against each other on designated Tournament Nights from October 31 to November 28: Every Friday and also Tuesday, November 25, and Wednesday, November 26.

The records in those games determine who advances to the Knockout Round.

Knockout Round

The Knockout Round is comprised of eight teams, which begins on December 9-10:

• The winners of each of the six groups
• A wild-card team from each conference (the second-place team with the best record)

The Knockout Round is a single-elimination bracket. Teams in each conference with the best record will get home-court advantage in these matchups.

The semifinals and finals take place in Las Vegas on December 13 and 16, with the winner of each conference facing off for the NBA Cup.

Teams that make the knockout round will be awarded portions of an as-of-yet undisclosed prize pool, increasing the further they make it. A Tournament MVP and All-Tournament Team will also be awarded after play has concluded.

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Understanding NBA Cup odds

Sportsbooks will post odds for the NBA Cup during the prior offseason. These odds are adjusted throughout the season as players switch teams, show steady improvement, or are injured. Sportsbooks will also adjust the NBA odds based on handle and liability to certain teams.

NBA Cup odds will usually look like this:

• Los Angeles Lakers +1,300

This means that on a $100 bet, you'll stand to win $1,300 if the Lakers win the tournament. If it's close to the end of the tournament and the NBA has a particularly dominant team, you might see a minus sign (-) ahead of its odds. 

• Denver Nuggets -180

This means you have to bet $180 to win $100 on a Nuggets tournament win.

Above we have listed the American odds. However, these are easy to convert to decimal odds or fractional odds with our odds converter tool. And don't forget to check out our NBA forum if you're interested in chatting with other basketball bettors about NBA odds. 

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Popular NBA futures markets

• NBA championship odds
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This article originally appeared on Covers.com, read the full article here and view our best betting sites or check out our top sportsbook promos.

The Hawks and the rest of the NBA found out their entire regular season schedule today (save for the weeks surrounding the NBA Cup knockout bracket in early December).

Atlanta will open the season in Orlando to take on the Magic on Wednesday, October 21, head to Charlotte that Friday, then open their home schedule the following night against the Houston Rockets.

Other notes: the typical tipoff time for weekday home games will be 7 PM local time — a change from the 7:30 PM times it had been for a number of seasons. Good luck fighting Atlanta traffic for those, but that will be the tradeoff for earlier end times.

The Hawks will also have 10 national TV games between ESPN, Prime and NBC/Peacock. The rest will broadcast on local stations WANF (Atlanta News First) and Peachtree Sports Network (PSN) which can be found for free over the air. Radio broadcasts will continue on Sports Radio 92-9 The Game.

The full schedule can be found below.

Today is the day. The date when the entire NBA schedule is finally released and the roadmap through the 2026-27 season is laid out in front of us. We’ve been receiving crumbs throughout the week, little morsels designed to keep us occupied. The Christmas Day schedule. Opening night. The NBA Cup schedule. A game here, a matchup there. But today we finally get the whole thing, all 82 games sitting there waiting to be dissected, analyzed, and inevitably complained about.

I will note that NBA schedule release day doesn’t carry quite the same juice as it does in the NFL. There’s simply more mystery involved with an NFL schedule. You aren’t playing everybody. Your opponents are determined by divisions, rotations, standings, and a handful of ancillary games that eventually create the 17-game slate. When that schedule drops, there’s some genuine discovery involved.

The NBA is much more predictable. You already know you’re playing every team from the opposing conference twice, once at your place and once at theirs, and the remainder of the schedule is filled with games against your division and conference. There are no shocking revelations when the curtain gets pulled back. Nobody is sitting there stunned to learn that the Phoenix Suns will, in fact, play the Sacramento Kings.

Which is why I love that the Suns apparently understand the assignment. Upon revealing their schedule, they leaned directly into the absurdity of schedule release season and made Dillon Brooks and his stare the centerpiece of the entire thing.

2026-27 Phoenix Suns Schedule Release ft. The Villain 😈

📅: https://t.co/3xzH6RpMDPpic.twitter.com/xiZwZ2WzDA

— Phoenix Suns (@Suns) August 13, 2026

We can still take a look at the schedule in its entirety and start identifying trends, anomalies, how many total back-to-backs there are, which holidays the Suns are or aren’t playing on, along with the longest road trips, longest homestands, and most brutal stretches.

So that’s what we’ll do. First, your annual schedule graphic:

We’ll start with the longest homestand of the season, which comes near the front end of the schedule. The Suns will be home for seven straight games from November 4 through November 15, facing Portland, Orlando, Houston, San Antonio, the Los Angeles Clippers, Charlotte, and the Los Angeles Lakers.

It’s a good way to start the season, and hopefully it’s a stretch that can help propel the Suns toward the top of the Western Conference standings or, at the very least, the top of the Pacific Division. Because they’re going to need it when the end of the season comes around, but we’ll get to that momentarily.

The longest road trip takes place from March 8 through March 17. Phoenix will fly to Miami, then head to Orlando, Chicago, Charlotte, and Memphis before finishing the trip on St. Patrick’s Day against the Los Angeles Lakers. That’s six games in 10 days.

As far as national exposure? 9 games for one of the grittiest teams in the NBA. That’s it.

The Suns have a total of 13 back-to-backs this season. That isn’t the most this year, thankfully, as 13 has them further down the list, as Brooklyn and New Orleans lead the league with 16. The Suns are actually tied with the fewest in the NBA this season.

NBA team total back-to-backs for the 2026-27 season:

BKN: 16
NOP: 16
BOS: 15
CHI: 15
CLE: 15
DAL: 15
DET: 15
GSW: 15
IND: 15
LAL: 15
TOR: 15
ATL: 14
DEN: 14
HOU: 14
MIL: 14
ORL: 14
POR: 14
SAC: 14
CHA: 13
LAC: 13
MEM: 13
MIA: 13
MIN: 13
NYK: 13
OKC: 13
PHI: 13
PHX: 13
SAS: 13…

— Brett Siegel (@BrettSiegelNBA) August 13, 2026

Five of their back-to-backs are home-to-home, four are road-to-road, and four begin at home before heading out on the road. Interestingly enough, there isn’t a single instance in which the Suns play on the road and then return home the following night.

There are also four instances in which Phoenix plays the same opponent in consecutive games. Two of those come at the very end of the season, and that’s where things get brutal. The Suns will play Oklahoma City in consecutive games on back-to-back nights, both in Phoenix. Days later, they’ll play San Antonio twice on the road, with one day separating those games. That is an unbelievably difficult stretch to close the season against two teams projected to sit near the top of the Western Conference standings. Depending on where Phoenix finds itself at that point, playoff seeding could ultimately come down to those games.

Even after the Suns enjoy a beautiful six-game homestand in March, the closing stretch of the season is brutal. Phoenix becomes extremely road heavy late, with five of its final seven games away from home, including the season finale against the Lakers on April 11. March overall is an absolute monster. The Suns play 17 games in 31 days, easily making it the busiest month on the schedule.

The Suns have three different stretches in which they play five games in seven calendar days. The first comes from November 4 through November 10, the second from December 30 through January 5, and the third from March 23 through March 29. That final stretch includes both games against Oklahoma City and one against San Antonio.

There are a few other interesting nuggets buried throughout the schedule as well. The Suns have a back-to-back on December 30 and 31, meaning they’ll spend New Year’s Eve in New York after playing the Knicks. Their earliest start of the season comes on Super Bowl Sunday, when Phoenix plays the Cleveland Cavaliers at 11 AM Phoenix time on February 14 before heading to Washington to play the following night again.

Ultimately, the schedule allows Phoenix to establish itself early before demanding quite a bit from the team late. That seven-game November homestand could become important considering what awaits in March and April. There will be stretches to survive, back-to-backs to navigate, and plenty of nights when the standings add weight to the matchup.

We knew the opponents. Now we know the path. And by April, we’ll know whether the Suns were built to survive it.

A few quirks from the Suns’ 2026-27 schedule:

🏀Longest homestand: 7 games
🏀Longest road trip: 6 games
🏀13 guaranteed back-to-backs
🏀4 sets of consecutive games vs. the same opponent
🏀March is brutal: 17 games, including 6 straight road games followed by 6 straight at home https://t.co/vTfFzBD2hd

— John Voita, III (@DarthVoita) August 13, 2026

We don’t envy the social media departments for NBA teams. Not only do these underpaid peons have to edit videos, create graphics, and track players’ birthdays, anniversaries, and personal bests, but they also have to chase online trends, memorize acronyms, stockpile reactions gifs, and decide which players have “rizz” and occasionally type out the word “dunkmaxxing.”

So when the Golden State Warriors participate in the NBA’s extremely forced Schedule Release Day, they have a tough task. It has to be high-concept, inoffensive, and somehow make describing a basketball schedule interesting, even after the league leaks all the important dates days earlier. This year, the Warriors went with a Scooby-Doo theme.

The case is closed. Opponents exposed. Revealing the Dubs' schedule 🔎@kpnorcal || 2026-27 Schedule Release pic.twitter.com/QPNyDZjS0H

— Golden State Warriors (@warriors) August 13, 2026

It’s fine. Would we have had Jimmy Butler trip the Grim Reaper with a basketball and presumably tear his ACL, only to reveal the Reaper has the head of a Philadelphia 76ers logo and the body of cartoon Joel Embiid? Probably not. Is depicting the date of the Minnesota Timberwolves’ visit to the Chase Center as a line of ants, because of Anthony “Ant” Edwards lame? A little bit.

At least Draymond Green just shines a flashlight on a window with (OKC) Thunder in it while Butler and Steph Curry assault the disturbing logo-headed ghosts. But in a way, this video is a perfect introduction to the 2026-27 team. The construction isn’t all that creative, it centers on some old, slow dudes, and it relies on nostalgia for something that hasn’t been relevant for years.

And as befits this year’s schedule, the video just kind of peters out at the end. That’s just like the season, where the Warriors’s last nine games include a five-game cross-country road trip and back-to-back on the road against the Oklahoma City Thunder.

They’ll play their home opener Friday, Oct. 23 against the Memphis Grizzlies after opening on the road against the Los Angeles Lakers. It’s a gentle start to the season, with a six-game homestand early on and only two games outside their own time zone in three weeks.

January is the kindest schedule month, with 10 home games versus five on the road, though it ends with a home contest against the San Antonio Spurs Jan. 30 and an immediate rematch Feb. 1. That’s followed by their longest road trip of the season, where they’ll play six games in 11 nights and go from Los Angeles to Chicago to the East Coast.

The team has 15 back-to-backs next season, with six at home, five on the road, and four where the first game is at home and the second comes on the road. The Phoenix Suns will be the beneficiaries of two such contests, and will play three of their four games against the Warriors with Golden State on the second night of a back-to-back. That’s slightly above the NBA average of 14.2 back-to-backs, which will force Steve Kerr to choose his spots for Al Horford carefully, as well as Jimmy Butler and Moses Moody if/when they return.

The two toughest B2Bs are probably a road game against the Boston Celtics Feb. 10 after flying from Chicago and the aforementioned duel with the Thunder, who might at least have already clinched their playoff position by then and be ready to rest players.

OKC will be featured in one of the Warriors’ most high-profile contests, when NBC’s “Sunday Night Basketball” returns Jan. 24. They will be playing on NBC 11 times next season, which is the maximum allowed.

They’re on two prime-time Prime Video games during the NBA Cup, hosting the Lakers Oct, 30 and visiting the Spurs Nov. 13. The Warriors also get the Portland Trail Blazers and Sacramento Kings in West Group C, which feels slightly easier than Groups A and B. You may not care about the Emirates NBA Cup, but it may be the Warriors’ best chance at a trophy this season.

Where is the NBA Cup title game happening? The league has left Las Vegas for glamorous Indianapolis, Indiana and Butler University’s Hinkle Fiedhouse, the place they filmed the final game in the movie “Hoosiers.” You know Steve Kerr is excited to finally have the Warriors run the picket fence play, now that Jonathan Kuminga won’t get caught watching the paint dry.

What stands out on 2026-27 Sixers schedule, from back-to-backs to marquee games  originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

In a little over two months, the games will begin in earnest for the 2026-27 Sixers.

Following the NBA’s regular-season schedule release Thursday, here’s a look at what stands out about the Sixers’ slate: 

Homecoming games

LeBron James will visit the Lakers for the first time as a Sixer on Christmas. Jaylen Brown won’t return to Boston in the regular season until the Sixers play the Celtics on Jan. 21. 

Former Sixers big man Andre Drummond will head to Xfinity Mobile Arena with the defending champion Knicks on Oct. 30. Paul George and the Celtics’ first trip to Philadelphia is set for Nov. 10. Kelly Oubre Jr. will be back as a Pacer on Nov. 15. 

Lighter back-to-back load 

The Sixers played 16 back-to-backs last season. For what it’s worth, they fared very well in the second leg of back-to-backs, going 12-4. They’d been 2-13 the season prior.

The team has 13 back-to-backs on its 2026-27 schedule. With 41-year-old James and 32-year-old Joel Embiid on the roster, the Sixers surely won’t mind the reduction. 

Plenty of the Pacers early 

The Sixers saw the Celtics at a strangely high rate to start last year, facing Boston in three of their first 11 games. This season they’ll play the Celtics just once in their first 44. 

The 2026-27 calendar includes three games against the Pacers in the first 20. The Sixers will also face the Pistons twice and the Bulls twice during that stretch. 

Massive national audience 

Many eyes outside of Philadelphia will be on the star-packed Sixers next season.

The Sixers “will reach the 34-game national television maximum for the first time in franchise history this season,” per a team press release. They’ll feature on opening night (Oct. 20 at the Knicks), Christmas (a 5 p.m. ET tip-off at the Lakers), Martin Luther King Jr. Day (Jan. 18 at the Hawks) and Presidents’ Day (Feb. 15 at the Mavericks). 

The Knicks, Spurs and Lakers also have 34 nationally televised games on their schedules.

Road trips and homestands 

The longest road trip for the Sixers is a five-game swing from Christmas through New Year’s Day. 

The team’s longest homestand is four games. The Sixers play six of seven games at home between Jan. 4 and Jan. 16, although the one road game is international (Jan. 10 against the Raptors).

The Sixers’ four-game homestand appears to be nicely timed. It runs from Feb. 5 and Feb. 11, which is the day of the trade deadline. Regardless of how the front office handles the deadline, the Sixers won’t have to worry about any travel. 

A sole mini-series with Magic 

The lone opponent that the Sixers will play twice in a row is the Magic.

They’ll host the Magic, who they beat in last season’s play-in tournament, on Dec. 12. The Sixers will then go to Orlando on Dec. 14. 

Waiting for Western Conference champs 

Late-season games tend to be tricky to be predict. Some teams are far out of contention, some are hampered by injuries, and others are pushing hard for seeding purposes.

Whatever the circumstances, it’s notable that the Sixers will play the defending Western Conference champions two times near the end of the year. They’re set to face the Spurs in San Antonio on March 11 and in Philadelphia on March 21. The Spurs won both late-season matchups over the Sixers in last year’s season series, including a 40-point road victory on March 3.

The news of the majority ownership of the Lakers being sold again – this time from Mark Walter to Bob Iger and Josh Kushner just 14 months after Walter agreed to purchase the franchise and 10 months after Walter officially became the majority owner – sent shockwaves throughout the NBA.

The deal brought more questions than answers. 

Iger answered a few of those questions when he spoke exclusively with the California Post on Wednesday. 

He told the Post he and Kushner intend to honor the agreement made between Walter and Jeanie Buss that stated Buss would remain the team’s Governor for at least the next few years, but added that “if things change, they’ll change.”

Iger shared details about the timing of the deal and how quickly it came together.

But many more questions remain – including what comes next for the Lakers.

Unanswered Questions

Some of those questions can be answered more immediately.

Among them: how franchise superstar Luka Doncic feels about the pending transaction, which will mark the fifth majority ownership he’s played for in the last three years during his tenures with the Mavericks and Lakers.

After the news of the sale was revealed, Doncic posted on social media: “Being a Laker means everything to me, and I’m excited to get back on the court and bring a championship to LA. I’ve gotten used to big changes over these last few years, but I know that no matter what, there is no limit to the potential of this iconic franchise. I look forward to meeting Josh and Bob so we can get to work building something special in LA together.”

Iger told the Post he hadn’t spoken with Doncic as of Wednesday morning, but it appears that’ll soon change. 

Doncic texted Iger and Kushner on Thursday morning and the three of them plan to meet “soon”, a source told the Post.

ESPN reported Thursday Doncic plans to have a video call with Iger and Kushner next week from Slovenia. 

Doncic has spent most of the offseason in Europe and will be hosting his Lakers teammates for a minicamp in Slovenia later in the month.

Beyond that, there’s still the matter of Iger and Kushner officially becoming the Lakers’ majority owners.

Lakers sale timeline pending

The transaction could take several weeks before the Board of Governors approves the deal, with the next board meeting scheduled for September in New York.

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver regularly has a news conference after Board of Governors meetings. 

A league spokesperson didn’t respond to a text message from the Post before publication when asked what the exact date of the next Board of Governors meeting.

Any NBA ownership sale requires approval from at least three-quarters of the Board of Governors.

The Board of Governors approved the sale of the Lakers to Walter on Oct. 30, 2025 – 4 ½ months after Walter agreed to buy the franchise. The Board of Governors approved the Trail Blazers sale to an ownership group led by Tom Dundon on March 30 after Dundon agreed to buy the Trail Blazers in mid-August – 7 ½ months after the original agreement.

And it took five months for the Celtics’ sale to an ownership group led by Bill Chisholm to be approved by the Board of Governors.  

It remains to be seen whether Kushner’s previous experience as an NBA owner could expedite the process.

Kushner became a minority owner of the Grizzlies in 2019 before selling his share to become a minority owner of the Heat in May 2025.

He’ll have to divest his stake in the Heat to take control of the Lakers. 

Beyond that, as Iger put it, it’s “premature to speculate at all about what we plan to do, because frankly, we haven’t made any plans yet.”

Too early to know what this means for the Lakers’ basketball and business operations.

Too early to know what this will mean for the Lakers’ long-term plans and futures. 

The nature of the Lakers’ sale – from the timing and the valuation – is unprecented. 

But what is known is that the franchise is on the precipise of another new era.

It will be here before you know it. The Cleveland Cavaliers have their full schedule for the 2026-27 NBA season, and you have a chance to mark your calendars and prepare for another year of Cavs basketball.

Let’s get a few notes out of the way.

Cleveland will have 17 national TV games. Six on ESPN, four on Peacock, four on NBC, and three on Prime.

The Cavs play on multiple holidays this year, including Halloween (against Milwaukee), New Year’s Eve (at home versus the LA Clippers), Martin Luther King Day (versus the Detroit Pistons), and Valentine’s Day against the Phoenix Suns.

Plan your V-Day celebrations accordingly if you want to watch Donovan Mitchell get into another fight with Dillon Brooks.

🖨️ Print it out and hang it up.@SeatGeek | #LetEmKnowpic.twitter.com/09fMe3voij

— Cleveland Cavaliers (@cavs) August 13, 2026

The season opens on the road against the Philadelphia 76ers on October 22nd. The Cavs play their home opener two days later, on October 24, against the Brooklyn Nets. Cleveland gets a three-game home stand here, hosting the Minnesota Timberwolves and Washington Wizards next.

From there, the start of the season is pretty brutal.

Cleveland plays New York four times before Christmas. Then the 76ers and Thunder twice before Thanksgiving. The Cavs also play the Indiana Pacers and Miami Heat twice each before the New Year. There will be no time for slouching in the ‘ber months.

The Cavs aren’t being viewed as the same juggernaut they were going into last season. There’s a general sentiment that the Eastern Conference has passed them by. From huge splashes from the 76ers, Heat, and Raptors to the return of Tyrese Haliburton and the Pacers. The league isn’t considering Cleveland as much as they did before.

That should be used as motivation. Every game the Cavs play against an opponent who has ‘lapped’ them should be a chance to debunk the narrative. This tough stretch to open the season could be incredibly rewarding if Cleveland hits the ground running.

A few other dates to keep in mind.

Darius Garland makes his return to Cleveland on New Year’s Eve. LeBron James plays in Cleveland on November 6th and March 1st.

And, lest we forget, the Cavs’ first preseason game begins at home on October 8th against the Boston Celtics.

Cue the “Law & Order: SVU” theme music for Jalen Brunson.

During an appearance on the “Today” show on Thursday, the television show’s star and Knicks fan Mariska Hargitay revealed you could see the NBA Finals MVP on screen soon.

“Don’t tell anyone but see him on ‘SVU,'” she whispered to Savannah Guthrie on Thursday. “Don’t tell anyone but we got some things in the works.”

Guthrie knew quickly in her gut it must be true since Hargitay admitted she tells the host “a lot of secrets.”

“I like that! Well, you tell me then, it all comes true,” Guthrie said.

Following the Knicks first NBA championship since 1973, Brunson revealed his offseason plan involved getting on “Law & Order: SVU” alongside Hargitay.

The Knicks star even got approval from “Law & Order” colleague Christopher Meloni, who said he was “absolutely” in support.

“I don’t know if you’ve heard, but he’s a world champion, he can do whatever the hell he wants,” Meloni said.

Brunson and Hargitay have formed a strong friendship over the years.

Hargitay, 62, is a big Knicks fan and holds down courtside seats at Madison Square Garden.

She was along for the crazy championship ride, sharing an emotional moment with Brunson following Game 4 of the NBA Finals when the Knicks came back from a 29-point deficit.

The two hugged on the court and Hargitay was heard saying, “I love you so much, I’m so happy!”

Prior to that, she sprinted onto the court to embrace Brunson’s father, Rick Brunson, who is an assistant under head coach Mike Brown and was a member of the ’99 Knicks squad that reached the Finals.

Hargitay was also on Brunson’s float for the championship parade in lower Manhattan along with her son, August.

Brunson later returned the favor and supported Hargitay at her solo Broadway show “Every Brilliant Thing” in June.

He, along with his wife Ali, visited Hargitay backstage after the show and her husband, Peter Hermann, was also there for the meet-up.

It’s a special bond that even long-time Knicks fan and actor Ben Stiller envies.

“The love that Mariska Hargitay gets from you postgame is the envy of every other Knicks fan, Knicks celebrity fan. She gets a hug after a loss,” Stiller said on Brunson’s “Roommates” podcast with Josh Hart.

On a previous “Today” appearance, Hargitay admitted Brunson is her “inspiration.”

The Houston Rockets and the rest of the NBA are deep into the 2026 offseason, with all the major roster moves and most of the major NBA stories (outside of Russell Westbrook’s recent retirement announcement) concluded at least before the start of the new season.

Players are taking part in their personal workouts, and organizations are preparing for another shot at a championship. That means it is pretty quiet in NBA circles, but that changed Thursday morning with the arrival of the 2026-27 schedule, as the Rockets and the rest of the NBA now know their opening-night matchup, last regular-season matchup, and everything in between.

Like every offseason ahead of the schedule, we know some of the early games. Unlike last season, the Rockets will not take part in the NBA’s opening-night games. Those two matchups will be Boston Celtics vs. Detroit Pistons and Philadelphia 76ers vs. New York Knicks.

The Rockets do know a few of the games they will be playing, including an early-season game in Austin vs. the Western Conference Champions, the San Antonio Spurs. With Thursday’s schedule drop, we now know every regular-season opponent for the Rockets. Let’s take a look at some of the interesting games and break down the key details of the Rockets’ 2026-27 schedule.

What stands out about the Rockets’ 2026-27 schedule

When looking at the Rockets’ schedule for this upcoming season, a few things stand out. The Rockets were the darling of the NBA last offseason, and their 28 nationally televised games reflected that. However, after a disappointing end to their 2025-26 season, the Rockets saw their nationally televised games drop to 21 for the upcoming season.

The Rockets started on the road last season, playing opening night in Oklahoma City against the then-defending champions. This season, the Rockets open at home against the upstart Dallas Mavericks. They should be welcoming back Kyrie Irving as he plays his first regular-season game with Cooper Flagg.

The Rockets have 14 back-to-back games this season, with four of those at home, which is a huge advantage for any team. The Rockets also have a home-heavy schedule to start the season.

The Rockets have 15 of their first 25 games at home, pending the results of the NBA Cup tournament, which could add additional home games to their December schedule. In the Rockets’ first 10 games, they will play 7 against teams that made the playoffs last season.

One of the teams that didn’t make it, the Mavericks, is expected to be much better than last season, and the Rockets face them twice in the first 10 games.

When it comes to the road, the Rockets’ longest road trip of the season is five games, from January 18th to the 26th. The Rockets will also have a stretch of 20 of 32 games on the road from December 18th to the All-Star Break.

The Rockets are hoping that, with a fully healthy roster, they can finally advance past the first round, and that quest begins October 21st at home against the Dallas Mavericks.

Draymond Green has never been shy about challenging the NBA’s power structure, and the Golden State Warriors veteran is now taking aim at one of the league’s foundational economic rules: the salary cap.

Discussing the NBA’s investigation into alleged salary-cap circumvention involving Kawhi Leonard and the Los Angeles Clippers, Green argued that a light punishment should encourage more players and teams to test the system.

The scrutiny around Leonard intensified recently with a report about another sponsorship arrangement involving Daktronics, the company that supplied technology for Intuit Dome.

“If the punishments aren’t steep, everybody should do it,” Green said on The Draymond Green Show.

“If it’s just gonna be a slap on the wrist, then everybody should do it, and every player should be trying to do it.”

Green went further, suggesting the controversy should reopen the entire debate over limiting player compensation.

“Let the punishment be getting rid of the salary cap,” he said.

There is a reasonable labor argument buried inside Green’s provocation. The NBA’s 2026-27 salary cap is $164.961 million, with a second apron at $221.686 million. Star players drive a huge portion of the league’s value, and the system places limits not only on team spending but, through maximum salaries, on what its best players can command.

But Green’s suggestion that everybody should exploit the same avenue if the punishment is weak is harder to defend.

If the Leonard allegations are proven to involve prohibited compensation outside his NBA contract, that would not be a clever loophole. It would be circumvention of collectively bargained rules. There is a difference between finding an advantage inside the rulebook and deciding a rule is worth breaking because the penalty is manageable.

The latter could create an arms race in which the richest owners and teams with the most valuable outside relationships have the easiest time creating hidden compensation.

Eliminating the cap would remove that incentive, but it could create a different imbalance.

MLB set precedent

Major League Baseball provides the clearest American example. MLB has no salary cap, and the enormous spending disparity has become one of the central issues in baseball’s increasingly contentious labor fight.

The Dodgers opened 2026 with a luxury-tax payroll of roughly $415 million, while Miami sat below $82 million. MLB owners have now proposed a $245.3 million cap and $171.2 million floor for 2027, a plan fiercely opposed by the players union.

That does not mean baseball is inherently uncompetitive. Small-market clubs still develop stars and contend, while research has challenged the assumption that salary caps automatically improve competitive balance. That study found more consistent evidence that revenue sharing, rather than a cap itself, helped address disparities between teams.

Still, basketball magnifies the risk of concentrated talent. One elite player can influence an NBA game far more than one baseball player can. Without meaningful spending restraints, a handful of high-revenue franchises could theoretically stack multiple superstars at prices smaller-market teams could not justify.

There could also be consequences for players below the superstar tier. An uncapped market might send even more money toward the very best players without guaranteeing owners become equally generous with role players. Removing the ceiling does not remove each franchise’s appetite for profit.

Green is on firmer ground when he questions why player earnings should be constrained while franchise valuations explode. That argument received another jolt this week when the Lakers were sold for a record $12.5 billion.

But the answer to a restrictive system is not necessarily no system at all.

The more serious conversation may be whether the NBA has the right one: stronger revenue sharing, different maximum-salary rules, less punitive apron restrictions or a larger share of basketball-related income for players.

And if the league concludes that someone crossed the line in the Leonard case, the solution is straightforward: make the punishment strong enough that breaking the rules is not simply another cost of doing business.

The Washington Wizards finally have a team worth watching for more than whoever happens to be visiting Capital One Arena. With AJ Dybantsa beginning his NBA career in the nation’s capital, several home games stand out — especially when another top player comes to town.

Here is a very subjective top five home games to see in person this season now that the 2026-27 schedule is out.

1. Philadelphia 76ers — Wednesday, Mar. 18, 7 p.m. ET

This is the obvious No. 1: Dybantsa vs. LeBron James.

With James now in Philadelphia, this matchup adds to the relative regional rivalry between D.C. and the City of Brotherly Love. At 42, there also aren’t going to be many more chances to see James play in Washington.

While Philadelphia returns on April 2 at 7 p.m., it’s also possible that the 76ers (or the Wizards) could start taking “load management” measures before the postseason.

2. San Antonio Spurs — Thursday, Jan. 1, 5 p.m. ET

Dybantsa vs. Victor Wembanyama on New Year’s Day.

That’s enough to make this one of the year’s best tickets. It’s San Antonio’s only trip to Washington, and the 5 p.m. holiday start makes it a great time to watch an NBA basketball game after celebrating New Year’s Day the night before.

3. Utah Jazz — Friday, Mar. 6, 7 p.m. ET

Dybantsa and Darryn Peterson were the two biggest names entering the 2026 NBA Draft, and now Washington gets its first Capital One Arena look at the two young stars against each other. This is also a matchup between Dybantsa’s current team against an NBA team in the state where he played college basketball last season at Brigham Young.

Utah only visits Washington once, making March 6 the date for anyone who wants to watch what could become one of Dybantsa’s intra-draft class rivalries.

4. Oklahoma City Thunder — Wednesday, Jan. 7, 7 p.m. ET

This is a measuring-stick game.

Rather than another rookie storyline, Dybantsa and the Wizards get to see how they stack up against one of the NBA’s elite teams and the 2024-25 NBA champions. Besides the fact that OKC is a Western Conference team, the Thunder are still a pretty young team, led by Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. It’s like this is the Wizards playing a potential future version of themselves.

5. Golden State Warriors — March 27, 7 p.m.

Stephen Curry is getting older, which means every remaining trip to Washington is worth appreciating. When this game is on a Friday night, and when Dybantsa faces off against Curry (though not directly), this is a good game to circle.

What about the Knicks?

I’ll be honest. The New York Knicks are the defending NBA champions. They’ll visit Washington twice: Friday, December 18 at 7 p.m. and Monday, March 16 at 7 p.m. If I had a sixth slot and really wanted to see the Wizards play the defending champions at home, the December game is the better bet.

That said, Washington will be an underdog to New York either way, and matchups against Western Conference teams are scarce. They just play in D.C. one time a year.

What keeps New York outside my top five is simply scarcity. You get two opportunities to see the Knicks. There is only one home game against Wembanyama, Peterson, Gilgeous-Alexnader and Curry. James on the other hand is the oldest player and still one of the best players in the league, so watch him while you still can.

The 2026-2027 NBA schedule is out, and the Celtics now know where they’ll be from October to April as they look to bounce back from a first-round exit last year. 

While there’s no telling exactly how the year will play out – and which teams will under- and overachieve – it’s already clear that the team will embark on several lengthy road trips that will help shape the trajectory of the season.

The Celtics have one 6-game road trip, three 4-game road trips, and three 3-game road trips on the books. Here are their most difficult road trips, ranked. 

1. December 30th – January 9th: 6-game road trip that includes games against the Chicago Bulls, Utah Jazz, Portland Trail Blazers, Phoenix Suns, Los Angeles Lakers, and Los Angeles Clippers. 

The Celtics haven’t had a 6-game road trip since March of 2025, when they became the first team in franchise history to go a perfect 6-0 in one road trip. They’ll look to replicate that success this winter when they face three Western Conference playoff teams from last year, and a Jazz squad that could be much-improved. The Bulls and Clippers should be easier outs, but there’s no telling how competitive this road trip will end up being. 

2. November 6th – November 11th: 4-game road trip that includes games against the Charlotte Hornets, Milwaukee Bucks, Philadelphia 76ers, and Toronto Raptors

The Hornets, 76ers, and Raptors are all expected to be in the playoff mix this season, and the Celtics will face all three teams as part of their first 3+ game road trip of the season. Philadelphia just might end up being the best team in the East after adding Jaylen Brown and LeBron James in the offseason, and the Raptors are expected to add Kawhi (pending a conclusion to the end of the Aspiration investigation). The fact that Philadelphia and Toronto are on a back-to-back doesn’t make things easier.

3. March 27th – April 1st: 4-game road trip that includes games against the Miami Heat, New Orleans Pelicans, Indiana Pacers, and Cleveland Cavaliers

The Heat and Pacers should both be better than last year now that Giannis Antetokounmpo and Tyrese Haliburton are in the mix. And, the Cavaliers should once again be among the East’s top teams. This trip could end up featuring three Eastern Conference playoff opponents in less than a week.

4. November 18th-  November 24th: 4-game road trip that includes games against the Denver Nuggets, Sacramento Kings, Golden State Warriors, and Washington Wizards 

The Nuggets are no longer one of the perennial teams in the WNBA, but they’re still led by one of the best duos in the game in Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray — and they’re not even three years removed from a title. Golden State is probably not a playoff team, and neither are the Wizards, but both teams should at least be better than they were last year. But the lack of back-to-backs and quality opponents makes this trip potentially easier.

5. February 28th – March 5th: 3-game road trip that includes games against the Minnesota Timberwolves, Indiana Pacers, and Detroit Pistons 

This is yet another trip that features three likely playoff teams, including last year’s top team in the East, the Pacers (with Tyrese Haliburton and Ivica Zubak), and a Timberwolves squad headlined by Anthony Edwards and LaMelo Ball.