As the 2025-26 NBA season nears (preseason’s already begun!), the Sportscasting crew banded together to identify one particularly intriguing player for each team, someone whose performance, progress or stagnation could have grand consequences on the short- and/or long-term outlook for their club. Up first is the Southeast Division.
Let’s get to it.
Atlanta Hawks: Dyson Daniels
As the headliner in the Atlanta Hawks’ return package for Dejounte Murray, third-year wing Dyson Daniels delighted in 2024-25. He won Most Improved Player, was named to the All-Defensive First Team and led the league in total steals (229) and steals per game (3.0). Most splendidly, a stellar nickname was established: The Great Barrier Thief.
In year two of this marriage, both he and the Hawks have higher expectations. After an energetic offseason featuring the additions of Kristaps Porzingis and Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Atlanta enters 2025-26 determined to contend in the East. Meanwhile, Daniels aims to build upon a landmark scoring season, setting career-highs in points per 100 possessions (19.5), 3-point shooting (34 percent) and efficiency (54.5 percent true shooting) last year.
Despite those improvements, Daniels is not yet a positive offensive player or threatening scorer. Thirty-four percent from deep on 3.1 attempts per game does not bend defenses while 54.5 percent on twos is solid, if unspectacular. His career-high 54.5 percent true shooting in 2024-25 was 3.1 points below league average.
He does, however, wield some ball-handling and playmaking comfort, which could prove necessary for a Hawks team short on initiators behind Trae Young. Daniels commandeered this role occasionally last season and will probably be tasked with it again in spurts this year. Any progress on the ball could help steady the ship whenever Young is resting, sidelined or away from the action and alleviate one of this group’s foremost concerns.
Atlanta has lofty aspirations for 2025-26. A defensive-minded wing with scoring woes is exactly the archetype playoff defenses love to exploit. Daniels is a good, young player critical to the Hawks’ success, though. His growth or lack thereof is a pivotal storyline as they eye a deep playoff run in an Eastern Conference without a tentpole team at the moment. -Jackson Frank
Charlotte Hornets: Tre Mann
I’m not so sure the fate of the Charlotte Hornets’ season hinges on Tre Mann’s performance. But I am curious to finally see what this guy can do.
After falling out of the Oklahoma City Thunder’s rotation, he was dealt to the Hornets at the 2023-24 trade deadline. In his 28 games with them that year, he averaged 11.9 points (55.2 percent true shooting) and 5.2 assists. Given his age and skill level, many people were excited to see what he was capable of with a full healthy season in Charlotte. Unfortunately, we didn’t get that last season, as injuries limited him to just 13 games.
Tre Mann Hornets bag work pic.twitter.com/fsqUXHxoVb
— Brett Usher (@UsherNBA) July 9, 2025
The good news is he did flash some promising on-ball scoring in that brief stint. Mann hit 51.1 percent of his midrange shots (these tend to be self-generated looks), which placed in the NBA’s 92nd percentile for efficiency. Can Mann turn into a high-end combo guard and join the ranks of guys like Anfernee Simons, CJ McCollum, Jordan Poole, Tyler Herro and Norman Powell, among others? The Hornets agreed to a fair three-year, $24 million extension with Mann this offseason. So, they have plenty of time to figure out if he’s as nice as he’s looked in short spurts. -Mat Issa
Miami Heat: Bam Adebayo
Bam Adebayo is one of the best two-way bigs in the league. He’s a five-time All Defensive Team honoree and a three-time All-Star. Yet there still seems to be something suggesting there’s meat left on the bone with his game.
In 2022-23, he averaged a career-high 20.4 points and also accomplished the rare feat of increasing his scoring output for six consecutive seasons since entering the league. In each of the past two seasons, though, his scoring has declined.
The Heat have asked Adebayo to be a slightly different type of player, involving him in more actions around the perimeter to try and modernize his game. He attempted 62 3-pointers his first six seasons, then 42 in 2023-24 and 221 last season. Credit where it’s due, he did make 35.7 percent of his attempts last season.
In acquiring Norman Powell, the Heat may have acknowledged Adebayo doesn’t have more to give offensively and are happy to have 18-20 points from their big man coupled with elite defense. At $50 million per season, that may be a little light on a team with playoff aspirations.
Does Adebayo want more for himself? Especially with Tyler Herro out through the early part of the season, this is an opportunity to see if his offensive ceiling has indeed been tapped out. -Vivek Jacob
Orlando Magic: Mo Wagner
Before his season-ending ACL tear in December, Wagner was producing like one of the NBA’s best per-minute scorers. That isn’t hyperbole. He scored 24.9 points per 75 possessions on 65.3 percent true shooting, his scoring volume and efficiency only eclipsed by Nikola Jokic and in the ballpark of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Kevin Durant and Karl-Anthony Towns.
Wagner’s low minutes share (18.8 per game) certainly inflated his scoring numbers but we shouldn’t discount his burgeoning offensive leap. He sank a career-high 36 percent of his 4.9 3-point attempts per 75 possessions, providing a putrid Orlando Magic offense with badly needed floor-spacing.
But more than his improved outside shooting, Wagner has grown into a devastating downhill scorer, reaching career-bests last season in rim volume (9.4 per 75 possessions) and an enormous spike in free-throw attempts, up from 7.2 per 100 possessions in 2024 to 9.6 in 2025. He’s a skilled battering ram and one of his team’s most reliable self-creation options.
Orlando’s center depth — Goga Bitadze and Wendell Carter Jr. are both starter-quality players — hasn’t necessitated Wagner to take on a heavy role. Even considering the addition of Desmond Bane this offseason, the Magic must significantly improve on last season’s 26th-ranked offense. If his health permits, Orlando might need to tap into Wagner more frequently this year, especially if the team struggles to jell early offensively. -Ben Pfeifer
Washington Wizards: Tre Johnson
As our own Jackson Frank wrote about Washington in our “1 Question” series, one of the Wizards’ recent draft picks must emerge as an ascending star. While they’ve added plenty of prospects with intriguing potential as winning complementary players, Washington can’t ascend to contender status without primary scoring and creation.
The Wizards, which posted the league’s worst offense last season (minus-8.2 offensive rating), spent the sixth overall pick of 2025 on Texas freshman Tre Johnson, who profiled as one of the draft’s best scorers. Johnson, who converted a scorching 39.7 percent of his 11.5 threes per 100 possessions in college, should boost a Washington offense that ranked 29th in 3-point efficiency (34 percent) last season.
He’s one of the best shooting prospects to enter the Draft in quite some time, bringing elite NBA-quality range, off-dribble shotmaking and movement shooting to the Wizards. Johnson is an underrated passing prospect, as the extreme dearth of scoring on Texas’s roster last season forced him to hide some of his impressive passing vision.
For all of Johnson’s offensive strengths, projecting him as a full-fledged star creator down the line isn’t simple. He doesn’t pressure the rim or score there like many elite initiators do and his decision-making still needs refining. Even as a rookie, Johnson is Washington’s best long-term hope for a difference-making star on offense. Emerging as such benefits not only Johnson and the Wizards but would allow for a more cogent prospect hierarchy to emerge among all their young players. -Ben Pfeifer
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