The games played on NBA Opening Night represent just one of 82 for each team. And in pretty much every case, the roster a team starts a season with won't be the one it takes into the playoffs. If nothing else, there are usually at least some injuries. In some cases, there will be trades or free agent additions that wind up mattering in April and May. It's only one game. The players in a team's starting lineup don't need to define its season.
Yet opening night represents something of a declaration of intent. The players who start your first game represent who you want your team to be at its best. When conditions are optimal, when everyone is hopefully healthy and you've had a whole offseason to prepare, who are the players you plan to lean on? You'll have 81 more opportunities to change your mind, but who a team wants to be can often tell us quite a bit about who that team winds up becoming.
So, with opening night less than a week away, let's look at some of the biggest starting lineup questions around the league. Which teams are still making up their minds, and what are the decisions they're weighing with the 2026-27 season now at hand?
1. Could the Spurs really start all three guards?
Before their preseason debut, the Spurs revealed that Dylan Harper would start alongside Stephon Castle and De'Aaron Fox. Soon after, Fox became a late scratch due to hip and leg tightness. Fox missed the next handful of preseason games, but on Wednesday against the Suns, the Spurs finally got to try it. The results were successful on balance: they went plus-10 in 25 possessions together in a victory. That success is an outlier compared to its performance a season ago.
The Spurs used the trio together for only 54 regular-season and 83 postseason possessions. In those tiny samples, San Antonio got killed. There are diminishing returns on ball-handling. There aren't with shooting. Fox, Harper and Castle are all strong individual creators and relatively weak 3-point shooters. Forcing them to play together cramps the floor for each of them as drivers. San Antonio's season took off last year when it moved Julian Champagnie into the starting lineup. The formula of two ball-handlers, two shooters and one unicorn just took the Spurs to the finals.
Eventually, Harper will start. He's too good not to. Fox, starting a four-year max extension, might be too expensive to bench. Some degree of experimentation with the three guards together was inevitable. The reality here is that Harper and Castle are long-term fixtures and Fox might be untradeable. The Spurs have to at least find out if they're viable together, but last year's success and common sense suggested that they would toy with the trio in small doses. That brief preseason glimmer hints that the Spurs might be willing to push a bit further. We should still probably expect Harper to come off the bench to open the season, but San Antonio made a big change midway through last year, so don't be surprised if Harper's play forces the issue by the spring.
2. Who are the Lakers' wings?
We know Luka Dončić, Austin Reaves and Walker Kessler will start for the Lakers. As for the other two slots? All JJ Redick has told us is that "the other two spots will not be two White guys." Quentin Grimes has started all three preseason games and seems like an obvious favorite for one of the slots. He's the cleanest 3-and-D fit on the roster, and the Lakers need someone to guard opposing point guards. His spot should be pretty straightforward.
The final slot is a bit harder to parse. If it's another 3-and-D wing, which is probably the easiest niche to fit in with all of this ball-handling, then Ziaire Williams would seem to have the advantage. He and Matisse Thybulle both signed for the minimum this offseason, but Thybulle's health history suggests he's best used in a smaller bench role to preserve his body. The Lakers invested more money in Sandro Mamukelashvili, but they might need him as their backup center. And even if they don't, his skill set tilts the starters a bit too heavily toward offense. Jake LaRavia has the incumbency advantage. He started 43 games a season ago, mostly due to injuries elsewhere, and the coaching staff already knows him.
The final answer might play out over a bigger regular-season sample. If someone stands out across 10 or 15 games, or if the lineup data suggests a change is warranted, none of those contenders for the fifth slot have the sort of stature that would make it hard to bench them. The early guess here is that Williams starts on opening night, but the Lakers will mix and match to find who fits best, particularly with Dončić and Reaves.
3. Will the Blazers really start Ja Morant and Damian Lillard?
Rookie coach Micah Nori is essentially on a year-to-year contract with the Trail Blazers. One of his bosses, whether it was head of basketball operations Joe Cronin or owner Tom Dundon, spearheaded the acquisition of Ja Morant, presumably with the expectation that he would be able to bounce back into All-Star form. That probably isn't happening if Morant is coming off the bench, and yet Nori himself has said that pairing him with presumed starters Damian Lillard and Deni Avdija doesn't make sense. That's too much ball-handling and not enough shooting and defense.
In a perfect world, Portland would start a defensive-minded guard between Lillard and Avdija. Jrue Holiday certainly fits the bill, and so does emerging fourth-year guard Scoot Henderson. There are several notable contractual factors to consider. Henderson is headed for restricted free agency. Avdija can be renegotiated and extended next offseason, but only if Portland clears the cap space to do so. Morant bristled against Grizzlies coach Tuomas Iisalo's unconventional rotation strategy a year ago. That doesn't exactly scream "eager to come off the bench for the first time in his career." How any of them will handle iffy lineup choices or a reduced role is a major question.
This is one of the more interesting cases of palace intrigue in the NBA right now. When you're coaching for your job from Day 1, do you aim to appease your bosses, or do you act in what you believe is the best interest of your team, hoping to prove yourself right? The likeliest outcome here is that Portland sacrifices some early games by starting Morant but makes a change if and when it doesn't work.
4. The Pelicans have three bigs for two spots
The Pelicans made a widely-panned trade to nab Derik Queen in the 2025 NBA Draft lottery. He simply is not defensively viable playing next to Zion Williamson. You'd think the solution here would be straightforward: trade Williamson. It frankly should have happened half a dozen times by now. Alas, the Pelicans went out of their way to message that Williamson was staying at the trade deadline last season.
For now, they're stuck together -- at least on the roster. On the court, it seems as though Yves Missi will be one of the starting bigs. It makes sense defensively. He's a burgeoning rim protector with great athletic tools who needs more minutes. But this organization has invested too much in Queen to minimize him with a bench role. And while Williamson's long-term destiny might be the bench, that would have to come on a better team than this. When he's healthy, Williamson is still the best player on this team.
So the options here are to play two ill-fitting players together or split them up in an unproductive way. The eventual Williamson trade can't get here quickly enough, but for now, New Orleans has to navigate these messy dynamics.
5. Will the real Raptors please stand up?
The Raptors are probably this season's most notable example of a team that should be judged on the lineup it closes games with, not the one it starts games with. Collin Murray-Boyles is a better, more versatile player than Jakob Poeltl at this point. He played more than Poeltl in the playoffs. But Poeltl started over him at center in the playoffs last season and will likely do so again this year. As a way to minimize the physical toll of putting the 6-foot-7, 245-pound Murray-Boyles against opposing starting centers given how undersized he is, that's sensible. When it counts, though, he'll be the player on the floor.
The more interesting question here relates to resume vs. fit. RJ Barrett has only ever been a starter. He's a beloved Canadian national who made an iconic game-winning shot in the playoffs last season. He's also on a roster that needs his individual shot creation far less than it ever has. Toronto needs shooting and defense next to Kawhi Leonard and Scottie Barnes. Ja'Kobe Walter brings more of both than Barrett. Given his expiring salary and Walter's ascent, Barrett is an obvious mid-season trade candidate.
The question here isn't about opening night. Poeltl and Barrett almost certainly start alongside Leonard, Barnes and Immanuel Quickley. The question here is how long the Raptors put off starting their best lineup. Will they go all-in on Walter and Murray-Boyles after seeing the roster for a bit? Will it happen in the playoffs? They'll likely close games before they start them, but those two are too good to stay on the bench all season. It's a matter of "if" more than "when" for them.
