2025 was an exciting year across the entire basketball world, from the Oklahoma City Thunder’s takeover of the NBA to A’ja Wilson winning record-setting fourth WNBA MVP award. 2026 is sure to be another banner year for the sport, and while we don’t know exactly what will happen, we certainly have some ideas. Without further ado, these are Ballislife’s 26 predictions for hoops in 2026.
NBA
1. The Oklahoma City Thunder will repeat as champions, but their path to the trophy will be even more grueling than last season. It will require Shai Gilgeous-Alexander to deliver in a legacy-defining moment against Victor Wembanyama and the Spurs in the Western Conference Finals. As a result, fans will begrudgingly come to respect SGA (and his team) despite their initial reluctance.
2. Giannis Antetokounmpo will be on the Milwaukee Bucks opening day roster in 2026. His lack of commitment to forcing himself out shows he cares more about leaving the NBA with a Kobe-esque one-team legacy than a handful of rings as a mercenary.
3. LeBron James will announce his intentions to retire at the end of the 2025-26 season at some point before the playoffs. Retiring after 23 seasons would be the perfect way for him to ride into the sunset, as opposed to entering the uncertainty and potential of unrestricted free agency in the offseason.
4. Jayson Tatum’s return to the Celtics will spark the team’s run to the NBA Finals. Jaylen Brown has emerged as a true alpha for the C’s this season and the former Finals MVP will have a chance to push a pretty serious agenda with another strong playoff run. Plus, I’m certain Tatum has been replaying that moment he fell to the floor at Madison Square Garden with his Achilles’ tendon riding up his calf for months now. He won’t be short on motivation, but they’ll still lose to the Thunder.
5. The Golden State Warriors will make a desperation splash move in an attempt to maximize whatever they can out of Stephen Curry’s remaining years, whether it’s Anthony Davis or another star who has yet to hit the trade market. And yes, I’m talking an actually big fish here. Not Al Horford.
WNBA
6. The WNBA, however narrowly, will avoid a long-term lockout. The season may be delayed, and we may even lose some games. But both sides have far too much to lose to let an entire season go by the wayside. When the financial ramifications of such a reality become too obvious to ignore, both parties will cave.
7. Caitlin Clark will win the 2026 WNBA MVP Award. After A’ja Wilson snatched the award from Napheesa Collier in the final months of the 2025 season, I have a feeling she won’t be able to avoid voter fatigue regardless of how great she is this upcoming season. It also feels like Collier has a tall order ahead of her in terms of matching her pre-injury output from last season, regardless of how it ended. Like Drake Maye in the NFL, Clark will prove this season that the new(er) guard is inevitable.
8. The New York Liberty will bounce back and win the WNBA championship in 2026. I believed the Aces would bounce back from their disappointing 2024 with a championship in 2025. They did. The Liberty are still a superteam and now they have the added motivation of failure to carry them into next season. They’ll be fine. More than fine.
9. The Atlanta Dream will come back to earth a bit this season. Allisha Gray played out of her mind in 2025 and likely will again in 2026, but their loss to the Fever in the first round of the playoffs proved they are a bit of a paper tiger.
10. The Dallas Wings will select France’s Awa Fam with the first overall pick in the WNBA Draft, passing on the chance to reunite UConn teammates and partners Azzi Fudd and Paige Bueckers.
NCAAM
11. Michigan will win 35+ (counting conference and NCAA tournament) games en route to a National Championship. KenPom’s metrics give the Wolverines a 60% chance or better in 21 of their final 22 games, and that includes contests against Duke, Illinois, and two against Michigan State. Michigan’s most dangerous remaining game, according to KenPom, is against Purdue on Feb. 17, with the Wolverines at 54 percent to win. Undefeated? Maybe. All-Timers? Certainly.
12. The NCAA Tournament will once again be defined by chalk and a lack of upsets, owing to the growing gap between competitive mid-major programs and power conference schools. This, of course, will lead to more exhausting discussions about how the little guys don’t deserve a seat at the table and that March Madness should be reserved for the SEC and Big 10.
AJ Dybantsa Mid Season, 13 games in so far..
23.1 PPG (59%FG, 33% 3PT, 77% FTs)
7 RPG
4 APG
1.4 SPGHow we feeling, is he the best Freshman we’ve seen in the last 10 years??? pic.twitter.com/JGdijF8qLL
— Frankie Vision (@Frankie_Vision) December 28, 2025
13. AJ Dybantsa will track down Cameron Boozer in the Wooden Award race and leave us with a much more interesting conversation at the end of the season than we thought. Boozer’s fast start made him a massive favorite to start the year, but Dybantsa has scored at least 20 points on 50 percent shooting or better in each of BYU’s seven games in December. At this rate, Dybantsa could very easily steal the award from Boozer with a strong conference slate.
14. There will be a shakeup among the projected top 3 picks in the NBA Draft, and one of the collegiate superprospects (likely Boozer) will fall to the fourth pick.
15. Arkansas, led by Darius Acuff Jr., will reach their second consecutive Elite 8 under John Calipari, but they’ll take it a step further in 2026 and reach the Final Four as well.
NCAAW
16. UCONN, to the surprise of no one, will repeat as National Champions. Sarah Strong is just too much to handle and Azzi Fudd is still Azzi Fudd. This run through the tournament will likely end up looking like some of those vintage UConn runs in the 2000s and early 2010s.
17. Iowa will make its first deep NCAA Tournament run post-Caitlin Clark. The Hawkeyes are currently ranked No. 14 in the AP Poll, but Bart Torvik’s metrics actually have them in the top 10 nationally, with both their offensive and defensive metrics ranking in the top 20.
18. Iowa State, on the other hand, will not make a deep run in the NCAA tournament despite featuring one of the nation’s best players in Audi Crooks. Although the Cyclones are 14-0 and ranked 10th in the AP Poll, the Torvik rankings only have them ranked 26th nationally with the 100th ranked adjusted defensive efficiency in the country. That reaks of potential for a slip up in the bracket.
19. Despite the fact an NCAA tournament upset awaits them, Crooks will emerge over Sarah Strong as the National Player of the Year with a strong performance throughout Big 12 conference play. Strong likely has an NPOY or two in her future, but Crooks has been carrying an ISU team that is deeply flawed to results that are seemingly beyond their analytical means and is the nation’s leading scorer to boot.
20. Ahead of the 2026-27 season, USC’s JuJu Watkins will announce that she’s foregoing her final year of redshirt eligibility to enter the draft after what would have been her true senior year had the ACL injury never occurred. Watkins will go the Caitlin Clark route as opposed to the Paige Bueckers one.
Other Bold Predictions
21. The NBA will decide against expansion, which means that Las Vegas and Seattle will have to go the relocation route if they want to bring an NBA franchise to their city. Adam Silver made it clear that it would be a tough sell to the 30 other owners to give up two more pieces of the hypothetical pie.
22. Because the expansion route fails, ownership groups will ramp up attempts to purchase both the Memphis Grizzlies and New Orleans Pelicans. As a result, one or both of those franchises will be sold and relocation could very possibly be on the docket for either of them.
23. Kawhi Leonard will continue to lead the Clippers on a midseason turnaround that gets the team into the Play-In tournament. From there, they’ll move into the playoffs and take the Thunder to six games in the first round before bowing out.
24. Congress will get involved in NIL and eligibility dealings in the NCAA, which will put a stop to professional players dropping back down to college after their careers in the developmental leagues falter.
25. At least one major coaching pillar in the men’s or women’s game (ie. a Gene Auriemma, Tom Izzo or John Calipari) will step away from the sport and ride off into the sunset due to exhaustion with the NIL era.
26. After Nikola Jokic, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Victor Wembanyama miss out on postseason honors due to playing in fewer than 65 games, the NBA will reverse course on the mandatory minimum to allow players in those circumstance to earn All-NBA honors.
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