How I'll cover the 2025-26 NBA season
What to expect when you're expecting this newsletter
Last Night, In Basketball is an independent publication that provides in-depth analysis of what actually happens on the court — covering all 30 teams, throughout the entire season and offseason.
The website and newsletter also depend on reader support.
Purchasing a paid subscription gets you access to features like Three Things I Noticed on League Pass, weekly deep dives into topics of interest, databases for several in-house statistics, and more, while also helping cover costs for things like travel and event coverage, as well as software that provides support for Film Findings videos.
Folks, we did it. We made it through the offseason. Well, almost. Opening night of the NBA season will be here in less than a week, though, so if you ask me, we've made it through the hardest part of the year.
Being less than a week away means that actual games will be on our TV and laptop screens very very soon and that we'll get to dig in as deeply as we ever have around these parts because we'll have a whole lot to talk about every single day for the next 8-9 months.
With that in mind, I want to give you an overview of the plan for this year.
A lot will be the same as it has been in years past, but there are some small changes and some additional offerings this season on top of what I've done in the past: Namely, I'm bringing back the mailbag/Q&A perk for Full Subscribers and allowing Founding Subscribers access to some more stuff (see below for explanations), and I'll thus have more bells and whistles for Three Things and Film Findings thanks to my video software.
In the meantime: Between now and the end of October, I will be offering a 25% discount on the first year of all yearly subscriptions. For a full explanation of the benefits offered with a paid subscription, continue reading below.
Full subscribers ($8/mo or $75/yr) get all free posts, plus:
- Three Things I Noticed on League Pass: A lot of people would like to follow the entire NBA but mostly only have the time or bandwidth to watch their favorite team. If that sounds like you, I’ve got you covered. I do my level best to watch a good amount of every single team so that I can keep up with the whole league and actually know what I’m talking about. So each week, I will scour my game notes and highlight three things I noticed while watching basketball the week before. You might have missed it — but I didn’t. And if you read this feature every week; you can pretend that you didn’t miss it, either. The full Three Things archive can be found here but I’ll also link to a few of my favorite examples from last year's playoffs:
- Weekly deep dive: This is where I dive deep (or at least deep-ish) into a team, player, or leaguewide trend that is worthy of further exploration. Either that or I’ll just write how I feel about a topic that is, shall we say, trending in the NBA discourse. If you’re familiar with my work at FiveThirtyEight and elsewhere (including much of what I’ve written here since this became my primary home for writing about the NBA), you should recognize these types of stories. Here are a few of my favorite examples from last season:
- Access to databases and leaderboards for in-house stats:
- Subscriber Q&A/Mailbags: Once a month, I'll take questions via email and/or on social media and answer them in mailbag form. Those detailed answers will be available to all full subscribers, who will also have priority when it comes to having their questions answered.
Three Things Subscribers ($5/mo or $50/yr) get all free posts, plus:
- Three Things I Noticed on League Pass (Mondays): This tier is new as of last season's move from Substack to Ghost. Benefits are as described above.
Free subscribers get occasional public posts, mostly:
- Film Findings: Throughout the regular season, I’ll use video clips to break down something interesting that happened (or is happening) in the NBA. Maybe it’ll be a specific set. Maybe it’ll be a concept that is making its way through the league. Maybe it’ll be just one player’s performance in a game that stood out for one reason or another. Or maybe it’ll be something else. But it’s going to focus on the stuff that actually matters on the court. Because despite the fact that we hear more about the drama than we do anything else, what happens on the hardwood really is the most interesting part of the NBA. The full Film Findings archive can be found here but I’ll also link to a few of my favorite examples from last season:
Founding subscribers ($150+/yr) get all of the above, plus:
- Ability to request a specific Film Findings topic
- Access to watching schedule and ability to request game notes (in advance)
I’m really excited about all of this, and about what will be my 16th (!!!) season covering the NBA. Whether you are a paid subscriber or a free one, I appreciate your support and your readership — and I plan to keep earning it throughout this season and beyond.
