Five takeaways from the 2025-26 NBA schedule: New rivalries? Challenging the NCAA?

1. The NBA is cultivating new rivalries

Opening night features future Hall of Famers continuing longtime rivalries — Steph Curry and the Golden State Warriors versus LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers, plus Kevin Durant and the Houston Rockets versus the Oklahoma City Thunder and their fans. But in the first week of the season, the NBA is promoting a new generation of rivalries.

No. 1 pick Cooper Flagg and the Dallas Mavericks face No. 2 pick Dylan Harper and the San Antonio Spurs Oct. 22. The two Texas cities have an underrated beef with one another, which is charged up further by the presence of 2023 No. 1 pick Victor Wembanyama. The Mavericks also play the Thunder in the season's first week, thus facing both their I-35 neighbors.

Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets start the season with three recent playoff opponents in the Warriors, the Minnesota Timberwolves and the Phoenix Suns. The Lakers face the Wolves, who knocked them out of the playoffs last year, in their second game. The New York Knicks lead with their biggest conference rival, the Cleveland Cavaliers, and get the Boston Celtics in their second game. The NBA is front-loading its most highly charged games.

2. The Houston Rockets host some huge doubleheaders late

The NBA started having teams play a baseball-style two-game series in recent years, as a way to cut down on travel. For the Rockets, that development means they have two doubleheaders in the second half of the season that could have an outsized effect on the playoff picture.

March 16 and 18, the Rockets play host to the Lakers, who could be one of their top competitors. Then Houston closes out the year hosting the two-time conference finalist Timberwolves on the final Friday of the season. They also host a back-to-back with the Los Angeles Clippers on the last two nights before the All-Star break.

Those are three tough, high-impact series. The Rockets are fortunate to get them all at home.

3. The West gets Christmas, the East gets MLK Day

While Western Conference teams took eight of the NBA's 10 Christmas Day slots, the NBA's all-day marathon for Martin Luther King Jr. Day is tilted eastward. All four of the games are hosted by Eastern Conference teams, with only two West teams participating.

The Knicks and Cavs play on both holidays, as do the Thunder and Mavericks, a sign the NBA is betting big on Flagg. But the NBA is spreading the television wealth, even if MLK Day isn't as prominent a showcase as Christmas, and they've picked teams that could well be the top six in the East.

4. The NBA is directly challenging the NCAA

There used to be an unspoken tradition that the NBA didn't schedule games the night of the NCAA championship game. That's no longer the case.

Last year, the NBA scheduled two games the same night as the title game. This year, there are five, including a Knicks-Atlanta Hawks game that will appear on Peacock. Perhaps it's because the NFL began aggressively scheduling games on Christmas, previously the domain of the NBA only. Perhaps it's because college players can get paid, leading to a significant number of players withdrawing from the NBA Draft. But it seems the NBA decided that the NCAA is a competitor, not a friend.

5. Big markets don't automatically get national TV games

The Lakers, Knicks and Warriors are tied for most nationally televised games with 34 each, but that's also the number the small-market Thunder are playing. The Timberwolves and Rockets get 28 each, while the Nuggets, Celtics and Cavs get 26, 25 and 24 each. That's four relatively small cities in the top nine. Meanwhile, the Brooklyn Nets, Chicago Bulls and Miami Heat are in huge media markets, and they're playing two, three and five national TV games, respectively.

The New Orleans Pelicans also have only two national TV games, a sign that the enthusiasm for Zion Williamson has officially disappeared. The Pels were on national TV 30 times during Williamson's rookie season. Now they're tied for last in the NBA with three tanking teams and the Toronto Raptors, whose games are televised in a different nation.