Every new NBA season, I start watching the preseason and early regular-season games with a subset of players I’m most interested in seeing. These aren’t the most talented players, or even the most pivotal ones. But they are what I call “hinge guys” — players who are interesting enough to possibly make a real impact this season but have also shown enough warts that we can’t take this possibility for granted.
Take Reed Sheppard, for example, who I think is by far the most interesting player to watch from the 2024 draft early in this season. Selected by the Houston Rockets with the third pick and beloved by analytics models, Sheppard seemed to immediately validate his selection with a dominant run in the 2024 Las Vegas Summer League. But when it came time to play the actual games, the combination of Houston’s superior depth and Sheppard’s own struggles to be an impactful defender limited his opportunities.
Even the stuff he was supposed to be good at gave him trouble; Sheppard only shot 33.8 percent from 3 and a ghastly 35.1 percent overall, finishing his rookie year with a 9.7 PER.
Fast forward to Year 2, and the Rockets have thinned out the backcourt by trading Jalen Green, Dillon Brooks and Cam Whitmore. Matters became much worse when Fred VanVleet tore his ACL a week before training camp. The Rockets’ remaining options in the backcourt are moving Amen Thompson to guard full-time, playing veteran Aaron Holiday and … Sheppard. It seems the path is grooved for him to play a much bigger role this year.
Can he step up and grab it? Will his shooting and floater game give enough offensive jolt to add some real spacing around a roster that, even with Kevin Durant, seems notably deficient in terms of spacing? (Houston’s top three 3-point shooters by makes last season were Green, Brooks and VanVleet.) Can Sheppard hold up enough defensively for the Rockets to trust him with the second unit, or even with the starters, should Thompson miss any time?
Or will Houston again have to turn to the serviceable floor of Holiday, who has clear limitations but is a good shooter himself and a tough cookie on defense, and leave Sheppard at the end of the bench for another year?
It will be fascinating to watch this play out in real time. A top-three pick usually gets automatic minutes as a rookie, but the third pick also usually doesn’t go to a 52-win team. On paper, Sheppard’s skill set is exactly what the Rockets need, and he should get more rope this season. But they can’t wait for him.
Sheppard is the top name on my list of the most interesting players to watch in October. Throughout the preseason and the start of the regular season, here are 11 other players who aren’t household names whom I’ll be paying very close attention to:
Kobe Bufkin, Nets
Is Bufkin any good? Who can say? The Atlanta Hawks’ first-round pick in 2023 has mostly been injured in the two years since, playing just 27 games as a Hawk before his salary was dropped off into the Nets’ cap space in September. Brooklyn may still decline his $6.9 million option for 2026-27, which must be picked up by late October and feels a little rich based on his career accomplishments. However, the Nets could still come back in the summer of 2026 and offer him any amount up to that and would have plentiful cap space to do it.
The other piece here is that the Nets have no established guards, so there is an open runway to substantial playing time for Bufkin if he can grab it. Defining his role still feels tricky — he’s a good defender but has a slim frame and is only 6 feet 4, and offensively, he’s been “not quite a shooter and not quite a point guard.” Nonetheless, he’s 22 and there’s something here. One wonders if he needs the minutes he’d get in a place like Brooklyn to work out the kinks and develop. This season is his big chance.
Blake Wesley, Trail Blazers
As a Wesley believer in the 2023 draft, it was tough to see a lot of his opportunities in San Antonio go to the demonstrably ineffective Malaki Branham (taken five picks ahead of him). Nonetheless, Wesley didn’t help himself with his offensive exploits (or lack thereof) in his periodic opportunities. Shooting 29.7 percent from 3 is a tough way to build a career. But forget making jump shots: Can we master the layup, please?
However, Wesley can defend, and that is part of Portland’s identity as it tries to make the postseason (we think?) in a crowded Western Conference. The Blazers are also thin in the backcourt, with Scoot Henderson injured and also not exactly locked in as a long-term starter and Damian Lillard out for the season. That could provide a window for Wesley to establish a long-term role after the Washington Wizards unceremoniously bought him out.
There are signs, with his size and lateral quickness on defense allowing him to check either guard spot. But the 22-year-old Wesley has to show some progress offensively, too, where he scored just 15.4 points per 100 possessions last season on 51.0 percent true shooting and sprinkled in far too many turnovers. On a Blazers team desperate for offense, he’ll have to do more.
Jaylon Tyson, Cavaliers
The Cavs will win a ton of games, but they have an Achilles’ heel: their health and depth on the wings. Max Strus is already out for the first part of the season after an offseason Jones fracture, while presumptive starting forward De’Andre Hunter has never played more than 67 games in a season, and his persistently sore knees require constant monitoring. That’s to say nothing of other historically brittle players (Lonzo Ball, Dean Wade, Larry Nance Jr.) likely to be in the Cavs’ rotation.
Enter Tyson. The 2024 draft’s 20th pick didn’t get a ton of attention, with few minutes available on the Cavs juggernaut and a low profile out of college coming from a meh Cal program. However, his college tape and summer league exploits both offer hints that he can be a rotation-caliber fixture for Cleveland this year. The 6-6 Tyson can handle the ball like a guard, shoots well enough to keep defenses honest and shows a plus IQ at both ends. Can he deliver on that promise consistently on both ends, or will the Cavs end up having to find other solutions in the trade or buyout market? Either way, Tyson strikes me as a low-key important player this season.
Jaylon Tyson drives past the Pacers’ Andrew Nembhard during a late-season game in Cleveland. (David Richard / Imagn Images)
Jase Richardson, Magic
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: small guard who can shoot but isn’t a true point guard, coming off a one-and-done season for a major program, drafted by a team in win-now mode where his skill set fits but his timeline may not.
Sound familiar? In June, Richardson was selected 25th by the Magic, but there are a lot of parallels between his situation and that of Sheppard a year ago, including a strong summer league. I think this pick has the potential to be a real win for Orlando because its star forwards do all of the ballhandling and act as de facto point guards, so Richardson’s weaknesses (playmaking, or dribbling with his right hand at all for that matter) shouldn’t come to the fore in this system.
Meanwhile, the Magic were last in the NBA in 3-point shooting last season and can’t play Desmond Bane all 48 minutes. Among healthy Magic players, the best 3-point percentage last season besides Bane’s belonged to Tristan da Silva at 33.5 percent. All at once now: Yiiiiikes. Richardson, however, made 41.2 percent with Michigan State and 83.6 percent from the line. On paper, at least, he can help this team quite a bit. Let’s see how it works in practice.
Jarace Walker, Pacers
Walker, a 2023 lottery pick, has mostly been crowded out of minutes at his best position (power forward) by Indiana’s awesome combo of All-Star Pascal Siakam and high-flying reserve Obi Toppin. It seems like he might finally get some chances on a “gap year” Pacers team that needs to find out what it has in Walker before he becomes extension-eligible next summer.
In particular, the Pacers’ lack of a real starting center could open the door for extensive Walker minutes as a frontcourt reserve — either by playing backup center himself or by playing Toppin as a small-ball center and running Walker next to him. On the other side of the size equation, Indiana also used the 6-7 Walker as a small forward at times last season and could go to that look more often, especially if 2024 second-rounder Johnny Furphy isn’t quite ready to grab the minutes behind Aaron Nesmith (or if the oft-injured Nesmith misses time again).
Walker’s overall play hasn’t set anyone’s hair on fire, but the tape offers little hints here and there of something more: a quick defensive slide, a sweet pass, a show of athletic pop around the rim. Walker also made 40.5 percent of his 3s last season, and while it was only 185 attempts, it was notable for a guy whose shooting loomed as a weakness entering the draft.
Walker played 1,187 minutes last season as an 11th man in a 10-man rotation who was called into service any time somebody missed a game, but his role mostly vanished in the playoffs. The question this season is whether he can prove he’s worthy of something more enduring than piecemeal cameos when the reconstituted Pacers welcome back Tyrese Haliburton and chase a return to the NBA Finals in 2026-27.
Nique Clifford, Kings
Clifford might be the most important non-lottery rookie in 2025-26, because the way the Kings’ roster is set up, he will almost certainly need to play. The 24th pick out of Colorado State provided some encouragement with a strong summer-league performance, where his plus IQ and non-scoring contributions (rebounding, passing, defending) were as expected, while his shooting was a pleasant surprise.
It’s hard to underscore how dependent the Kings are on Clifford making positive contributions this season. They only have two forwards with any size (Keegan Murray and DeMar DeRozan), with the 6-6 DeRozan already forced to masquerade as a power forward. If Clifford can’t cut it, the Kings are left with veteran retread Doug McDermott as their only viable alternative, unless they want to line up either very small (with 175-pound Keon Ellis at small forward) or very big (with 6-8, 245-pound Isaac Jones at power forward).
John Collins, Clippers
One of the most fascinating transactions of the offseason was the Clippers’ swap of Norman Powell for John Collins, allowing the Clippers to play much bigger at power forward than they have throughout the Kawhi Leonard era. The availability of Bradley Beal was the catalyst, but Collins gives the Clippers a different dimension.
So, how does this work? Collins shot 39.9 percent from 3 last season in Utah and is at a respectable 36.3 percent for his career, but we’re talking about a low-volume shooter who needs time and space to get shots away. Nonetheless, as long as he’s playing next to Ivica Zubac, he’ll be asked to stretch the floor. The game changes a bit if he’s getting more minutes with Brook Lopez in the game, because then Collins is freed for the rim runs that made him such a threat next to Trae Young in Atlanta, but as a projected starter, those minutes might not be frequent.
On the team side, are they going to lean into this, or will they just dabble with it and then finish games with Leonard at power forward and somebody like Derrick Jones Jr., Nic Batum or even Beal playing small forward? For a team that has always played with four smalls, going to a lineup with two real bigs feels like a sea change. I want to see how this works.
Ryan Rollins, Bucks
We got a taste of how Rollins could make an impact last season, but now I’m intrigued by how much of a role he can carve out. In particular, I want to see if Rollins — who was deep-sixed from the Bucks’ playoff rotation last spring — can be more of a core rotation guy for Milwaukee going forward, or if he’s going to lose out to veteran retreads such as Cole Anthony and Gary Harris.
He’s on his third team and in his fourth season, but he’s still only 23. In his first opportunities at real NBA playing time last season, he raised eyebrows with efficient shooting and handsy defense. Rollins will have to prove his 40.8 percent 3-point shooting wasn’t a fluke, given the questions about his shooting consistency when he came out of Toledo (he was a second-round pick by the Warriors in 2022), but he also shot 55 percent inside the arc despite lacking plus size or athleticism.
Rollins could also help himself by proving capable of manning the point; he’s a bit in between the two guard spots at 6-4, 180 pounds, and while he shows some comfort making plays off the dribble, he’s not a guy who’s going to get the show organized. That’s fine with the starters in Milwaukee, since Giannis Antetokounmpo will have the ball in his hands most of the time, but as a second unit player, he could help himself a lot by reliably taking on-ball reps.
Ryan Rollins looks to make a pass around Atlanta’s Onyeka Okongwu. (Jeff Hanisch / Imagn Images)
Jake LaRavia, Lakers
The Lakers used a chunk of their midlevel exception to add LaRavia, and there are a lot of reasons to like his long-term fit. He’s only 23, and in his best moments, he’s a big ballhandler who can make open shots (37.1 percent career from 3) and set up teammates with live-dribble passes. He’s also been a pesky ball thief (2.2 steals per 100 possessions last season).
Alas, those pluses haven’t always added up to an impactful presence. LaRavia hasn’t shot 3s at a high volume in his first three seasons and isn’t a very effective paint scorer despite standing 6-8. And while he gets steals from anticipation, he struggles with individual defense on an island.
Can he be a long-term starter, a potential answer to one piece of what a post-LeBron future might look like in L.A.? Or is he just a guy, in scouts’ terms, somebody who can play 20 relatively inoffensive minutes a night but won’t have value as more than a back-of-rotation forward? After struggling to blast his way through a deep lineup in Memphis, he’ll have plenty of chances to answer those questions one way or another this season for a Lakers team that needs him to succeed.
Josh Minott, Celtics
I was high on Minott coming out of Memphis, but he’s spent the last three years marooned at the end of the Minnesota bench while a deep, veteran team chased the top seeds in the West. With a move to Boston, that will not be the case. The one player definitely ahead of him on the depth chart at power forward (Sam Hauser) might end up being traded at some point to get the Celtics under the luxury tax, and the overall depth situation virtually requires Minott to play if he can demonstrate any rotation-level ability at all.
Little snippets from his time in Minnesota indicate that he might deliver. Minott came into the league with a reputation as a non-shooter, but he attempted a 3-pointer every 6.4 minutes in his limited playing time last season. Between the NBA and the G League, he’s shot 85.2 percent from the line for his career. We’re likely to get a much larger shooting sample this season, but it seems likely he can make enough 3s to be viable on the perimeter.
That’s important, because Minott’s thin frame gets pushed around in the frontcourt. However, on the perimeter, he’s very mobile for his size and should be able to handle checking smaller players. The Celtics have him on a two-year deal with a cheap option for next season, but Minott is only 22, and there’s some upside. I’ll be watching closely to see how this movie ends.
Trendon Watford, 76ers
Nobody is talking about this guy, but I think he might end up being an important player. Watford has been difficult to define because he’s not really a floor spacer and not really a “big,” but a lot of his best moments have come as a small-ball center who can make good decisions off short rolls and convert floaters and short shots in the lane.
That might be the case again, as Philadelphia’s center situation seems primed for Watford to play a lot of emergency minutes. While the Sixers theoretically have four centers, one is the brittle Joel Embiid, two are youngsters who haven’t clearly established themselves yet (Adem Bona and Johni Broome) and the other is a near-the-end Andre Drummond, who might also be traded for tax purposes.
Setting all that aside, Watford should also have plentiful opportunities at his more natural power forward spot; he’s actually the only player on Philly’s roster whose best position is the four. (Kelly Oubre or Paul George seems the likely starter there.) That position tests him in other ways — Watford is only a 34.9 percent career 3-point shooter on extremely low volume — but the advanced stats say he’s made a decent impact whenever (and wherever) he plays. If Philly is going to make some noise, he’s a guy who will have to help uplift what was a derelict bench a year ago.
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(Photo of Reed Sheppard: Alex Slitz / Getty Images)
