The 2025-26 NBA season delivered fans with plenty of storylines, especially with a highly talented rookie class featuring future stars like Cooper Flagg, Dylan Harper, and VJ Edgecombe. As the NBA prepares for the start of the 2026-27 season on October 20, the spotlight is on talents like Harper and Edgecombe taking the next step in their young careers, but there are plenty of other notable breakout candidates.
Last year, six players were named first-time All-Stars, and 14 different players received votes for the Most Improved Player award.
Players always emerge from nowhere every season with breakout campaigns, raising expectations and helping lift their teams to the playoffs. Deni Avdija and Jalen Johnson were perfect examples of this.
Not only will there be a new batch of breakout candidates during the 2026-27 NBA season, but several of these talents will directly impact the title race in the Eastern and Western Conferences.
Could Spencer Jones be the key player to step up on the Denver Nuggets' bench to help get them back to the NBA Finals for the first time since their 2023 championship run?
What about Brandin Podziemski and the Golden State Warriors' quest to try and reach the NBA Finals for a seventh time since 2015?
Are Jabari Smith Jr. and Payton Pritchard destined to emerge as stars for the Houston Rockets and Boston Celtics, respectively?
These are all key examples of potential breakout candidates for the 2026-27 NBA season, but there are five essential young players who are primed to take a massive step forward and directly influence the championship picture.
Spurs to lean on Dylan Harper
Nobody should really be all that surprised if Dylan Harper emerges as the second-best player on the San Antonio Spurs during the 2026-27 season next to Victor Wembanyama. Quite honestly, he already had his breakout in the playoffs by helping the Spurs reach the 2026 NBA Finals.
Out of all the young players in the league, Harper will have the greatest impact on this year's championship race.
Not only is this due to his skills and importance to the Spurs' rotations, but also due to the fact that San Antonio proved to be on the same level as the Oklahoma City Thunder last season. The Spurs being ahead of schedule shocked many, and Harper had his fingerprints all over the team's success.
After looking like an All-Star late in the regular season and throughout the playoffs coming off the bench for the Spurs, there are now massive expectations for the 20-year-old in San Antonio this year. When asked recently during Spurs' training camp about whether he could become the next Michael Jordan or Kobe Bryant, Harper did not hold back his confidence and personal expectations.
“Feel like everything you named, plus a lot of championships,” Harper told San Antonio reporter Don Harris during a sit-down interview. “If you don't have that belief in yourself, and you don't carry that confidence in yourself, then no one else is going to believe you.
“I feel like the dreams and aspirations I have are far-fetched, but I know the work I put in.”
If Harper can build off the success he found in the playoffs, especially against the New York Knicks in the NBA Finals, and he can continue to thrive coming off the bench as a unique, star-like sixth man for the Spurs, then there is no reason why he and Wembanayama can't make this team the best in the league.
No young player has more expectations and potential to help deliver his team a championship than Harper. He is the ultimate breakout player to watch entering the 2026-27 NBA season.
VJ Edgecombe's role with new-look 76ers
LeBron James, Jaylen Brown, Tyrese Maxey, and Joel Embiid are a lot of firepower for any team in the NBA to try and stop when the Philadelphia 76ers are at full strength. Although these four stars will get all the attention and media coverage in Philly this season, VJ Edgecombe, the fifth starter entering his second season in the league, may just be their most important piece to the championship puzzle.
Aside from the fact that the 76ers are an older team who will need younger players to step up and produce over the course of the 82-game season, Edgecombe's two-way dynamic and athleticism make him extremely valuable.
There will be games where Edgecombe goes off for 20-plus points, and then there will be games that he scores in single digits. But the one constant with Edgecombe is his energy and tenacity on the court, which make him a candidate for the league's Most Improved Player award.
According to Maxey, it also makes him essential to the Sixers' core.
“VJ is going to be probably if not our most important player, he’ll be extremely important for us. We’re going to need his youth, we’re going to need the energy every single day, he’s going to have to be the same person every single night,” Maxey said recently, via PHLY Sports' Kyle Neubeck. “Some nights you’re going to have to be 10 points, eight rebounds, four steals, some nights you’re going to need him to get 20 [points], some nights we don’t know what we’re going to need him to do.
“He has to be that steady, that rock every single night, and I think he’s up for it.”
Brown has also shared similar remarks of Edgecombe, recently stating how he “loves” playing with the second-year wing and expects big things as the 2026-27 season starts.
The Eastern Conference is as stacked as it's ever been. Everyone will be chasing the defending champion New York Knicks at the top when the new season begins, yet there are at least five or six teams, including the 76ers, who have legitimate title aspirations. Other than the Brooklyn Nets and Milwaukee Bucks, who are clearly rebuilding, the rest of the 13 teams in the East have a real shot at being in the playoffs.
Edgecombe's production and role will directly impact how good the Sixers can be, which could ultimately result in them winning the Eastern Conference for the first time since 2001.
Will Cason Wallace step up for OKC?
This is a big year for Cason Wallace for a lot of reasons.
Starting with the obvious — the Thunder have until Oct. 19 to decide on whether they will be extending Wallace on a rookie-scale contract extension. Wallace has made it known that he is not paying attention to the business side of things and is only prepared for the upcoming year in Oklahoma City, but whether or not he receives an extension will play a part in how he performs this upcoming year.
Should the Thunder give their young guard a new long-term deal, then he will face pressure to live up to all the hype surrounding him, especially since projections for a possible extension exceed $100 million in total value. If he doesn't get an extension, then Wallace will be entering the final year of his contract and set to hit restricted free agency next summer, where he could have a ton of suitors.
Either way, Wallace will be looking to prove that he is worthy of the nine-figure deal he is rumored to get in the near future.
Another main reason why Wallace is a major breakout candidate pertaining to the championship mix in the NBA is due to the Thunder trading Luguentz Dort, Isaiah Joe, and Aaron Wiggins in the offseason.
Wallace is set to start for the Thunder alongside Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Chet Holmgren, Jalen Williams, and Isaiah Hartenstein this season, putting him in a very similar situation to that of Edgecombe with the 76ers.
Not only will Wallace be leaned on as a 3-point shooter and secondary playmaker off the ball in the backcourt, but the Thunder are also expecting him to build off his All-Defensive campaign from the 2025-26 season.
The Thunder are still very much a championship team that will be at the top of the West standings for many years to come. For them to get back to the NBA Finals, Wallace will need to be an X-factor for his team.
Raptors aren't just Kawhi Leonard, Scottie Barnes
A lot of noise is already being made about the Kawhi Leonard-Scottie Barnes pairing, and rightfully so. These two stars should be a match made in heaven based on how they each play, which instantly makes the Toronto Raptors one of those many threatening teams that will be near the top of the East standings all year.
Add RJ Barrett and Immanuel Quickley to the mix, and all of a sudden, the Raptors have a diverse starting core that has already drawn a lot of comparisons to the 2018-19 team that won the franchise's first championship. Obviously, Leonard has a lot to do with these remarks since he was the one to lead the team over the Golden State Warriors in the 2019 NBA Finals.
All of this is great, but the one player not being mentioned enough who is absolutely in line to have a breakout year is Collin Murray-Boyles.
In 57 games during his rookie season, Murray-Boyles averaged 8.5 points, 5.0 rebounds, and 1.9 assists per game while shooting 57.9 percent from the floor. These numbers may look a little underwhelming, but make no mistake — Murray-Boyles is the real deal.
Article Continues BelowAside from his impact as a do-it-all, small-ball big man, Murray-Boyles is a very smart and diverse defender who can guard any position on the court. Between his high basketball IQ and his physical traits, the second-year forward should emerge quickly as a key secondary player behind Leonard and Barnes.
Someone will need to step up into a bigger role for the Raptors to reach their full potential this upcoming year, and Murray-Boyles should be the player everyone is picking to do so.
Giannis, Heat need backcourt production
As good as Giannis Antetokounmpo and Bam Adebayo are, they alone cannot carry the Miami Heat. Giannis alone is an MVP candidate when healthy, yet he was unable to carry the Milwaukee Bucks over the last handful of seasons since they won the 2021 NBA Finals.
When looking back on the history of the Heat and the teams who made a run to the NBA Finals, one thing sticks out like a sore thumb — strong point guard play. Sure, having guys like LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh, and Jimmy Butler through the years definitely helped get these Miami teams to the championship series.
However, there's no denying the impact that Mario Chalmers and Norris Cole made during the “Big 3” era that led to back-to-back titles in 2012 and 2013. Although Chalmers and Cole were not stars and were nothing more than secondary players in Miami, they each outperformed expectations and were essential to the team's performance in the NBA Finals.
Without Chalmers and Cole, the Heat probably wouldn't have won back-to-back Finals.
In 2020, when the Heat made their Finals push in the NBA Bubble, it was veteran guard Goran Dragic stepping up to be that key secondary playmaker and facilitator in the backcourt. In 2023, it was Gabe Vincent holding this role.
Erik Spoelstra has always leaned on his guards to step up on championship-contending teams, which is why the 2026-27 season figures to be a big one for Davion Mitchell.
The 28-year-old guard put together arguably his most complete season in terms of production and stats with the Heat last year, and his two-way impact is what makes him such an appealing option alongside Giannis and Bam. Not to mention, Mitchell has been in the gym non-stop this offseason and working on his body game because he knows the Heat need him to step up.
“I knew immediately I needed to make a change,” Mitchell said in an exclusive interview with NBA.com during training camp while reflecting on Miami's loss to the Charlotte Hornets in the play-in tournament. “I took one day off, and I literally didn’t do anything, I stayed home. Then I got to work. The next day I was in the main gym, just working on my game. I knew I had to transform something to be the player I wanted to be. I knew getting in shape was definitely the main thing. I knew I had to cut down this weight.
“It was harder last year, I had knee problems. Little things like that because I had so much weight on me. And I’m explosive, so I’m moving all this weight, trying to cut, trying to stop, I’m guarding the best offensive player. It’s a lot of toll on my body. It made is easier to make myself lighter.
“That was the main goal.”
Knowing that he won't be bringing the ball up constantly for the Heat and will hold an off-ball role offensively, Mitchell is doing everything he can to ensure he is ready for the challenges ahead.
He may not be a young, rising star like Harper and Edgecombe, but if the Heat are to be in the championship mix, they will need Mitchell's two-way production at the point guard position.