NBA panic meter: LeBron, Cavaliers, Pelicans, more teams hit crisis mode early in 2025-26 season

We've officially reached the quarter mark of the NBA season. While plenty can still change over the next 50-plus games, teams and players can no longer dismiss troubling trends as “small sample size theater.” 

For fans of the following players and teams, it might even be time to consider pressing the "panic" button. (All statistics and records are through Tuesday's play.)

PANIC LEVEL 1 | You really had us worried there for a minute: LeBron James

James, who will turn 41 on Dec. 30, looked so old through his first six games that it had his fans grappling with their own mortality. He seemed stiff, slow and played way too upright. The stats backed it up, too (14 PPG and 4.3 RPG with abysmal shooting splits of 41-26-55). In the Lakers' game on Dec. 4 against Toronto, he failed to score 10-plus points for the first time in 1,297 games.

Things were looking grim until the final possession of the Raptors game, when James passed up a chance to reach 10 points and instead zipped the ball to Rui Hachimura in the corner for a buzzer-beating three. He followed that performance with a vintage LeBron outing against the Philadelphia 76ers, hitting clutch shot after clutch shot in the fourth quarter. He finished with 29 points, seven rebounds and six assists, capping the game with his signature “Silencer” celebration.

The shot-making against the Sixers was a reminder that this is still basically his preseason, as he spent the offseason recovering from the knee injury he suffered in the playoffs and missed all of training camp, plus the first 14 games, with a back/nerve injury. His celebration suggested that he’s starting to feel more like himself again.

PANIC LEVEL 2 | We're starting to get a little worried: Cleveland Cavaliers 

Last season, the Cavaliers went 64-18 and had the best offense in the NBA. This season, they are 14-11 and only have the ninth-best scoring offense (118.6) in the NBA. They’re overly reliant on guard Donovan Mitchell, who’s scoring has increased from 24 PPG to 30.5 PPG because of the struggles with his fellow-All-Star teammates Darius Garland (injuries) and Evan Mobley (stagnated development). Big man Jarrett Allen has also missed 10 games as well.

It’s probably all going to be fine and they’ll get rolling again once they all get healthy, but they're lucky they reside in the East, where they're in seventh place. 

PANIC LEVEL 3 | It doesn't get much more embarrassing than this: New Orleans Pelicans

The Pelicans (3-22) infamously traded an unprotected 2026 first-round pick to the Atlanta Hawks to move up from pick No. 22 to No. 13 in last summer’s draft and select Derik Queen. From the start, this looked like a potentially disastrous season for New Orleans if it missed the playoffs — but nobody expected the Pelicans to be tied with the Wizards for the fewest wins in the NBA.

While Queen (12.9 PPG), to his credit, has been a stud, the negatives have outweighed the positives. The season is effectively over, and the Pels could be handing Atlanta a top-three pick in one of the deepest draft classes in years. And if that weren’t bad enough, Zion Williamson (22.1 PPG) is injured yet again and likely has little to no trade value at this point.

Things are ugly in the Big Easy.

PANIC LEVEL 4 | We’re watching a slow-motion car crash: Milwaukee Bucks

The Bucks (10–15) entered the season believing they had the proverbial “puncher’s chance” in the East because they still had the best player in the conference. And while that part is true — Giannis Antetokounmpo is averaging 28.9 PPG, 10.1 RPG and 6.1 APG on 63.9 percent shooting — the Bucks look like a play-in team at best even with him on the court. Without him, they’ve been horrendous (1–7). And now they’re about to be without Giannis for most of the next month as he recovers from a strained calf.

We all know what talk inevitably follows situations like this: speculation about whether Giannis might eventually ask out.

If that day comes, the Bucks will face the monumental task of rebuilding after the loss of a franchise icon — and they’ll have to do so without control of their own first-round pick until 2031. Milwaukee fans might want to go into hibernation until then.

PANIC LEVEL 5 | Five-alarm fire: Los Angeles Clippers 

There must be a palpable sense of panic and embarrassment running through this organization as it simultaneously deals with a cascade of anxieties:

• An ongoing NBA investigation into possible salary-cap circumvention involving payments connected to the company Aspiration and whether those payments may have violated the collective bargaining agreement. (Kawhi Leonard, notably, has escaped most of the scrutiny and continues to receive a generational benefit of the doubt whenever he strings together a few strong performances.) 
• The abrupt, cold-blooded release of Chris Paul, the greatest player in franchise history, in the middle of what should have been his retirement tour.

• A misguided all-in bet on the oldest roster in the league, yielding a slow, uninspiring on-court product and a 6–18 record in a loaded Western Conference.

• Bleak draft control, with the Oklahoma City Thunder owning the Clippers’ unprotected 2026 first-round pick as well as swap rights on their 2027 pick.
  
  This could be the gloomiest outlook a modern-day NBA franchise has ever had. No present, no future, a damning investigation into its alleged cheating, barely any trade assets, terrible PR, and it might hand the Thunder (23-1) two superstars in the next two drafts.