Predicting NBA's First-Time All-Stars for 2025-26 Season
Every year, the NBA undergoes a process of renewal. Old-timers slip, and younger up-and-comers rise to take their place. Last season, Cade Cunningham, Victor Wembanyama, Evan Mobley and Alperen Sengün made their All-Star debuts.
Who will follow suit to become first-time All-Stars in 2025-26?
One new wrinkle should help us in a selection process overloaded with worthy candidates. In all likelihood, the 2026 All-Star Game will be a round-robin tournament involving three eight-man teams, and one of those will be made up exclusively of international players.
That means the smart money is on at least one of this season's first-timers hailing from outside the United States.
Ahead of the 2025-26 season, let's lay out a few candidates with the right situations and skills to earn their first All-Star stripes.
Chet Holmgren, Oklahoma City Thunder
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It doesn't sound like Jalen Williams, the Oklahoma City Thunder's first-time All-Star last season, is guaranteed to hit the ground running in 2025-26. The defending champs have no reason to rush his rehab from a wrist injury that required surgery over the summer.
If OKC slow-plays J-Dub's return, it'll create a massive opportunity for Chet Holmgren to slot into a secondary scoring role.
Holmgren didn't produce the counting stats you'd expect from an All-Star last season, as he finished with averages of 15.0 points, 8.0 rebounds, 2.0 assists and 2.2 blocks per game. That had more to do with him missing almost three full months of the year following a brutal fall that fractured his pelvis in mid-November.
The Thunder were careful with him upon his return, cutting his minutes from last year's levels, and he understandably never looked quite as mobile as he was in 2023-24.
This season, we should expect the highly skilled big man to up his scoring volume as he puts together an All-Defensive first-team performance for the West favorites.
If Williams misses significant time to start the year, it should be easy enough for Holmgren to crack 20.0 points per game on excellent efficiency. Couple that with double-digit rebounds, a likely spot among the top five in blocks per game and increased volume from long range, and you've got an easy All-Star profile.
Franz Wagner, Orlando Magic
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Franz Wagner's All-Star chances were even better than Holmgren's last year, as the German forward exploded out of the gates and played at an All-NBA level until an oblique injury shelved him in early December.
In the 14 games leading up to his injury, Wagner posted at least 30 points eight times. Though he didn't finish the season on a run that hot, he still wound up with averages of 24.2 points, 5.7 rebounds and 4.7 assists—all of which were career highs.
While the 24-year-old's three-point shooting (under 30.0 percent in each of the last two years) is a major concern for the Orlando Magic's postseason hopes, poor long-range accuracy probably won't hurt his All-Star chances.
His counting stats, likely produced for a team that will be among the East's top four in February, should be more than enough for him to join teammate Paolo Banchero in the All-Star Game.
If the Magic really blow past expectations, there's even a shot they get three entries. Desmond Bane is one of the best active players to never make an All-Star appearance, and he has as good of a shot as ever now that he's playing in the East. Unfortunately for him, Wagner's status as an international player gives him a clear advantage.
Somebody has to join Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Nikola Jokić, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Victor Wembanyama and Luka Dončić on the non-U.S. squad.
Amen Thompson, Houston Rockets
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With Fred VanVleet set to miss the season following an ACL tear, the Houston Rockets will turn to Reed Sheppard and Amen Thompson as their primary backcourt playmakers.
Sheppard is an exciting prospect who'll finally get the chance to spread his wings, but it's Thompson who will make the most of his expanded role.
Last season, the athletic wing seized a starting job just before Christmas and never relinquished it. Most of his contributions came on defense, where he finished fifth in Defensive Player of the Year voting and landed on the All-Defensive first team.
A rangy 6'7" with elite lateral mobility, lightning-quick hands and enough physical strength to cover power forwards, Thompson manhandled everyone in front of him.
Offensively, he has the downhill force and opportunistic nose for transition buckets necessary to pile up easy points. If he improves his long-range accuracy and leverages his physical advantages to create more than the 3.6 free-throw attempts he earned per game last year, a scoring average near 20.0 points is in play.
Thompson is one of the most gifted and promising young players in the league, and he's going to contend for Defensive Player of the Year for the next several seasons.
If he adds anything at all on offense, he's going to barge into the conversation about the NBA's next class of two-way superstars.
Jamal Murray, Denver Nuggets
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Jamal Murray has averaged at least 20.0 points and 6.0 assists per game while drilling over 39.0 percent of his threes in each of the last three seasons. Slow starts and injuries kept him from All-Star status in every one of them.
That has to change eventually, right?
Especially now that his Canadian status gives him an inside track to the international team.
This will be Murray's 10th season (including one he missed with a torn ACL), and it might seem impossible for a player with that many years of service to break through if he hasn't made an All-Star Game yet. There's a precedent that says otherwise, though.
Mike Conley made his All-Star debut in his 14th season, and Kyle Korver did it in his 12th. Both of those players were in their 30s when they finally cracked the roster, while Murray will only play his age-28 season in 2025-26.
Murray has been more statistically productive to this point in his career than either of those players. In fact, he's the only non-All-Star in league history to average at least 18.0 points and 4.0 assists while shooting over 38.0 percent from deep for his career.
The Denver Nuggets are going to be one of the top teams in the West, and Murray is smack in the middle of his prime. He's due.
Desmond Bane, Orlando Magic
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Now he's in an Eastern Conference that won't include 2025 All-Stars Jayson Tatum, Tyrese Haliburton or Damian Lillard, Desmond Bane might not even need to get any better to make his first appearance.
Yes, it seems a little unlikely that the Magic will send three representatives to the Intuit Dome in February, but the field is so thinned out that Bane has to be a consideration.
Last season saw the sharpshooting guard up his assists per game to a career-best 6.1, showcasing facilitation skills that should be useful for a Magic team that doesn't get conventional playmaking from point guard Jalen Suggs. That will be an added bonus to the difference-making three-point threat Bane will add to Orlando's offense.
Since debuting in 2020-21, Bane has attempted 1,979 threes. No one with at least that many triple tries over the last five seasons tops his hit rate of 41.0 percent. Not Stephen Curry, not Klay Thompson, not Tyrese Haliburton. Nobody.
Shooting like that is going to get him noticed, especially if the Magic are as good as advertised.
Stats courtesy of NBA.com, Basketball Reference and Cleaning the Glass. Salary info via Spotrac.
Grant Hughes covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Bluesky and subscribe to the Hardwood Knocks podcast, where he appears with Bleacher Report's Dan Favale.
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