Who (and What) is Jumping Out to Start the NBA Season?
First post! Welcome in. Who are a few players drawing eyes as play begins, and what are they and their teams doing to draw attention?
Thank you so much for stopping by! For the first ever post in this space, I wanted to take a look at a few players across the NBA that might be getting overlooked as the driving force behind early storylines. For good reason and bad. Vamos.
Tre Jones, G, Chicago Bulls
The Cardiac Bulls! Stacy King might not survive too many more of these. Scrapping their way to early-season-darling status, these Bulls are built on a few things. Shooting from range, passing, and running like hell. Chicago is top 5 in points per possession in transition, three point percentage, and assists per game, per Cleaning the Glass.
Jones embodies everything the Bulls have suddenly become great at. At the time of writing, he still is shooting over 50% from three (that’s good!) albeit on very low volume. More importantly, he’s been dishing almost 6 assists a game to Chicago’s armada of supernova-ing shooters and forcing more turnovers than he commits (2.3 steals per game to 1.7 turnovers).
His incessant pocket-picking provides even more opportunities to run on a team head coach Billy Donovan has ready to bolt at a moment’s notice. I found it illuminating that Chicago has been top 10 the last two seasons in transition opportunities off of live rebounds - defensive boards where play doesn’t stop, allowing transition to start - but is miles more efficient with those chances this year. Josh Giddey ascending as Australian John Wall is most responsible, but Jones is no slouch as his backcourt mate and is pushing the ball upcourt with the same controlled fervor.
Chicago is still nauseatingly poor at the rim (26th in percentage) and making hay on their opponents missing a lot of threes. If Joel Embiid had any conscience to stop missing fadeaways in the 4th quarter, they’d be one loss worse. That said, they know who they are, and so does Jones. His aggressive pursuit of the ball and control on the break is only additive to what this team’s identity seems to be going forward - haul ass and hope for the best.
Jeremiah Fears/Jordan Poole, G, New Orleans Pelicans
New Orleans has a chance to reach Shakespearean tragedy depths. In trading up just 10 spots to draft Maryland forward Derik Queen at No. 13, they sacrificed their 2026 first-round pick to the Hawks. For those unaware of this macabre development, the Pelicans are 2-6, tied for last in a Western Conference where they and Utah might be the only two dancing into lottery oblivion - without their pick, in a draft where there might be (at least) three franchise-transforming players.
Fears and Poole represent opposite sides of this disaster. Fears, taken 6 picks prior to Queen, has had promising moments. Despite his discouring overall percentages from the field, he’s shown willingness to operate as an independent creator. He’s around the 50th percentile for shots assisted on, impressive in the context of being a 19-year-old guard facing NBA-level defense for the first time. Wet paper bag defense compounds the issues that has New Orleans in this situation, but was expected as a scoring-focused point guard. Divorced from the context of his franchise’s self-destruction, there is the silhouette of an offensive dynamo.
Conversely, Jordan Poole is a perpetuator of the current maelstrom. His basketball id has been overfed. Shooting just 35% from the field overall, Poole has murdered possessions at a rate reminiscent of his twilight in Golden State and worst impulses in Washington. New Orleans traded a reliable, if oft-injured vet (CJ McCollum) at the same position for Poole. For most rebuilding teams, this is a acceptable risk. At best, an appreciating asset to trade for future draft picks. At worst, a tank commander that helps solidify your odds at a high pick. Poole represents neither. Earning $31 million this year and $34 million next, no self-respecting team (Kings are still in play) would add that ballast to their cap sheet. He’s as negative a contributor to winning as you’ll find.
Usually, these two would actually be pretty harmonious. Fears leading the youth movement towards the next (only?) great era of Pelicans basketball. Poole accruing the team an extra second-round pick in the McCollum trade and his otherwise detrimental play facilitating the arrival of Cam Boozer/AJ Dybantsa/Darryn Peterson/other emerging college star. Queen will receive more acrimony for the Pelicans’ gaff as the centerpiece of a catastrophic trade, but these two will be just as responsible for the consequences.
Stephon Castle, G, San Antonio Spurs
Another guard! Only appropriate, as Castle and almost everyone else is in the shadow of the giant being initiated into superstardom in San Antonio. Wembanyama is the story of the nacient season, even in conversations about his teammates. How do they get him the ball? How do they work off of his neutron star gravity on the floor? Castle is at the center of these discussions, with No. 2 pick and fellow guard Dillon Harper battling injuries, and ‘24-25 midseason All-Star acquisition De’Aaron Fox having yet to suit up.
Freshly 21, Castle was the 4th overall pick in a ‘24 draft that panned as being devoid of top-end talent. He won Rookie of the Year, largely for lack of a superior option (sincere apologies to Zaccharie Risacher’s 12.6 points per game). In a stronger draft, the Spurs lucked into Harper as a potential running mate to Wemby. A downhill creator with savvy from the mid-range - 89th percentile shooting two point shots away from the rim, per Cleaning the Glass - Harper’s offensive talent draws attention away from the machinations of his basketball demigod teammate.
Fox appears likely to return soon but will need time to ramp-up, and Harper will likely be out a week or two with a calf strain. Castle has re-assumed his role from the beginning of last year - aspiring point guard on a team without one. The biggest difference is their overall success, and Castle’s comfort in that role despite the talent infusion crowding the picture. Now 5-2 after starting 5-0, San Antonio looks ready to skip ahead a few chapters in the story of their success. Whomever is getting Wemby the ball at the point now become one of the most important stories in the sport.
Castle’s averages are ascending across the board - he has a positive net differential after a being distinctly in the negative last season. He’s as intelligent a defender as advertised at UConn and is beginning to disrupt more passing lanes - he’s averaging two steals, almost double his rookie numbers. Most importantly, as Wemby learns to adjust to gameplans being dedicated to pushing him off his preferred spots, Castle’s competence sets a much higher floor than existed last season in San Antonio. His comfort as a lead guard will further winning for the immediate future in the wake of other star guards’ injuries, and buttress Castles offense-facilitating chops with Wemby in a way that might not have happened otherwise.