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Since the start of the 2021-22 season, there have been 18 games in which a player blocked eight or more shots. Two players have multiple games like that. Brook Lopez has two. Victor Wembanyama has nine. That’s right. He has half of them. By the way, he entered the NBA in 2023. He’s also the only player to have at least 100 points and 18 blocks in the first three games of a season. Wemby’s world.
NBA stock report
The Thunder, Spurs and 76ers (!) are thriving
Every Monday during the regular season, we detail the best and worst trends in the NBA. It can be teams or players or minutia that we’re tracking throughout the league. And sometimes, it’s just a ridiculous moment that caught everybody’s eye. Let’s dive right into the ups and downs of the league, as we look at the latest NBA Stock Report.
📈 Oklahoma City Thunder (3-0). I mean… duh? OKC started its season with Houston, Indiana and Atlanta. It’s not shocking that the Thunder are 3-0. They won 68 games and the title last season. It’s a little shocking that their first two games went to double overtime, since they set the record for double-digit wins last season. Maybe they’re just trying out what a close game feels like? The Thunder look pretty impressive, and they’ve done this without Jalen Williams, their second-best player. We should already be on 74-win watch for them.
📉 Orlando Magic’s offense. The Magic have started 1-2 on the season, and I’ve liked their offense through none of those three games. Despite acquiring Desmond Bane and Tyus Jones this summer, the Magic still have no flow or rhythm to their offense. They don’t share the ball much or have much movement throughout. Less than half of their buckets have been assisted (second-worst in the NBA). Orlando’s offense looks just as constipated as last season.
📈 San Antonio Spurs (3-0). It hasn’t been the toughest schedule with Dallas, New Orleans and Brooklyn, but the Spurs look pretty good across the board. And we have to remember two things here: 1) De’Aaron Fox is still out (hamstring); and 2) you have to pile up wins any way you can in the West. Taking advantage of the easier games is a sign of a team making a move forward. Oh, yeah, and Wemby is averaging 33.3 points, 13.7 rebounds, and 6.0 blocks through the first three games.
📉 Boston Celtics (0-3). We knew this was going to be a much tougher season than anything they’ve dealt with in roughly a decade, but the Celtics are winless after the first week. They are by far the worst defensive rebounding team so far, and they’re likely going to stay there all season. The roster-gutting left them without big men who can rebound. If you want to watch Joe Mazzulla be upset, then check out the questions about the rebounding all season long. He was already frustrated answering that in preseason.
📈 Philadelphia 76ers (2-0). We’re talking baby steps here, and there is a bit of drama with Joel Embiid being frustrated with the minutes restriction. However, the 76ers being 2-0 after their first two games is significant when compared to last season. Paul George hasn’t been in the lineup yet, and Embiid has been limited to 40 minutes total in those first two games. But the backcourt of Tyrese Maxey and rookie VJ Edgecombe has been crushing opponents.
📉 Houston Rockets (0-2). Nothing too alarming for the Rockets, but it is a disappointing start to the season. They had a few chances to ruin the Thunder’s ring night before losing in double overtime. Then they were abysmal on offense against the Detroit Pistons in their home debut. Things haven’t been seamless with Kevin Durant in tow to start the season, and aside from Alperen Şengün making plays, sharing the ball has been rough.
📈 Viral moments. On Friday night, the Celtics were in New York to take on the Knicks. The Knicks won, but a viral moment got much more attention. Jaylen Brown’s spray-on hairline rubbed off onto OG Anunoby’s white jersey.
The Last 24
NBA hasn’t helped players in gambling climate
🗣️ Not enough. The aforementioned Brown spoke out about the NBA’s gambling crisis. “I don’t think they took players into consideration.”
🏀 Harsh reality. Did Chauncey Billups have everybody fooled? Jason Quick recaps a chilling courtroom scene.
🏀 Luka hurting. After a fantastic start to the season, Luka Dončić is now hurt. He’ll be out for a week.
5️⃣1️⃣ Lake Show. The Lakers still don’t have LeBron either. ButAustin Reaves dropped a career-best 51 points against Sacramento.
💪 Freak Diesel? Giannis Antetokounmpo is off to a ridiculous start.He’s channeling his inner Shaq.
🎧 Tuning in. Today’s “NBA Daily” discusses the gambling scandal and some early on-court red flags.
Stream the NBA on Fubo (try it for free!) and catch out-of-market games on League Pass.
BIDS scores
Zion dunked on Wemby; Flagg gets first poster
One consequence of The Bounce not happening on the weekends is we can be left with a lot of big-time dunks to sort through when we get to Monday. With our Bounce Index Dunk System (BIDS), we have two dunks from this weekend to catch up on. We’d do all of the big dunks, but we have to keep this email size down in order for your reading/viewing experience to be maximized.
Just know that the Onyeka Okongwu poster on Chet Holmgren and Miles Bridges dunking all over the Wizards will be judged at a later date. Let’s start with Zion Williamson doing what so few people have been able to do so far. That’s dunk on Victor Wembanyama, which happened on Friday night.
- Convulsion/jump scare: 9/10. This was the first play of the game, and the way Zion bounced off Wemby as he dunked on him made the whole thing entirely startling.
- Bench reaction: 8/10. They immediately jump up, and the entire crowd is with them.
- Dunker reaction: 10/10. Zion walks toward the crowd and flexes both arms. I love the flex after the poster.
- Where is the damn replay? 7/10. Because of the foul on Wemby, we didn’t have to wait long at all. But it was during the replay I realized Wemby didn’t really jump.
- Witness protection scale: 8/10. With the context of how many times Wemby blocked Zion, it’s not nearly as bad. But any time you dunk ferociously on the best shot blocker, it’s massive.
Total BIDS score for Zion: 42/50.
After a slow start in the first couple games, Cooper Flagg finally gave us the big moment we’ve been wanting to see. In last night’s win over Toronto, Flagg had his best game, by far, and a poster dunk over Sandro Mamukelashvili.
- Convulsion/jump scare: 8/10. Not quite enough contact on the play to make it an elite jump scare, but it was a great reminder of how high Flagg gets the ball on these dunks.
- Bench reaction: 9/10. It’s a phenomenal bench reaction. Anthony Davis stomps over to Flagg after the foul is called on Mamu.
- Dunker reaction: 10/10. I absolutely love the reaction from Flagg. He screams and daps up AD. Then he does it again to Naji Marshall.
- Where is the damn replay? 6/10. We didn’t have to wait long at all. A foul was called on the play.
- Witness protection scale: 7/10. Unfortunately, Mamukelashvili is more next to Flagg than in the way. So it brings down the score here.
Total BIDS score for Flagg: 40/50.
Broadcast news
NBA is delivering on TV — at a high cost
We’ve finished our first week in the 2025-26 season, and I have to say I’ve been thoroughly impressed by the new broadcast platforms. Not only do we get “Inside the NBA” on ESPN (but not every week), but NBC did a beautiful job welcoming the NBA back to its airwaves. We also got a great debut from Amazon Prime, as its studio show might already be the best the league has to offer.
ESPN still has its issues with its studio shows and getting fans to think about basketball, rather than think about the personalities on the show. But bringing the “Inside the NBA” crew into the mix can hopefully mitigate quite a bit of that. ESPN has been an 8/10 so far in this young season, while I’d give NBC and Prime perfect scores so far.
The nostalgia of the NBA on NBC, along with its current day talent calling the games and breaking it all down, has felt perfect. Amazon Prime is already way out ahead by having Kevin Harlan and Ian Eagle calling games. But its studio show hosted by Taylor Rooks with Blake Griffin, Udonis Haslem, Dirk Nowitzki and Steve Nash breaking down the league and the action feels top-notch.
In writing about this for the NBA Rewind (my regular Monday column), I felt it pertinent to share these figures for what it potentially costs to follow everything in the NBA and have access to all the games from October through May.
- Eight months of Amazon Prime: $14.99 over eight months for $119.92.
- Eight months of Peacock: $10.99 over eight months for $87.92.
- Eight months of ESPN Unlimited: $29.99 over eight months for $239.92.
- Price of basic NBA League Pass package: $109.99.
The grand total for these four platforms? Minimum of $557.75. Maybe that’s also why the NBA is saying it’s a “highlights-based league?”