Every NBA season produces its share of surprises.

The 2024-25 campaign should be no different.

From a surprise scoring champ to a couple of new MVP candidates to the certain son of a certain megastar paving his own path, let's run through 10 surprising scenarios that could all play out during the upcoming season.

Magic Acquire a Perimeter Scorer, Muscle into East's Top 4

After securing the East's No. 5 seed this past season, the Orlando Magic are clearly a team on the rise. They're clearly buying into their own hype, otherwise they would've never thrown a three-year, $66 million contract at 31-year-old role player Kentavious Caldwell-Pope this summer.

As exciting as Orlando's present and near-future look, though, there's probably a cap on its growth. The Magic can only climb so high when their offense routinely drags them down. They were 22nd in efficiency last season (worst among all postseason participants), and they'll need more than Caldwell-Pope's shooting and the ongoing development of Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner to close that gap.

What they really need is a trade for a perimeter net-shredder. Add a sweet-shooting shot-creator to this guard group (Anfernee Simons waves hello), and Orlando could really take-off.

With plenty of draft picks and prospects to shop around, the Magic should be in the running for any high-end, offensive-minded guard who hits the trade market. Look for them to win the bidding war on someone, and look for that addition to fuel this franchise's rise into a top-four seed in the East and a team with a realistic shot of reaching the conference finals.

Lonzo Ball Plays More Games Than He Misses

After missing nearly three years to a knee injury that necessitated three different surgeries, Lonzo Ball looked like he might've been lost to the history books. Even when the rare optimistic report on his rehab surfaced, it was easy to feel skeptical that it would ever amount to anything.

Quite clearly all that work mattered, though, as the two-way connector made his preseason debut for the Chicago Bulls on Wednesday. And this was far more than a feel-good cameo. He looked, frankly, an awful lot like his pre-injury form, making one smart play after the next while converting a couple of long-range looks and wreaking havoc on the defensive end.

More importantly, he was able to just focus on basketball and not worry about the knee.

"That's a positive thing," Ball told reporters afterward. "I didn't feel it at all. I felt like I was moving great. So now it's just about building, just continue to do it night and and night out."

The Bulls will surely be ultra-cautious with Ball. His minutes will be closely monitored, and he may never play both ends of a back-to-back. Still, he looked good enough in his return to believe his comeback could be sustainable. Here's to hoping he suits up more than he sits this season.

The Rookie of the Year Race Is Crowded with Quality Candidates

The 2024 draft, as you may have heard a time or 20, lacked a clear-cut, No. 1 prospect and was regarded as being generally light on star power. Since no one really separated ahead of the talent grab, it's reasonable to assume there might be a similar struggle to rise above the rest in the Rookie of the Year race.

What if the field isn't simply congested by default, though? What if there just happens to be several deserving candidates?

Granted, you might have to down a few bottles of offseason optimism to buy this idea, but perhaps it's actually notable that so many first-year players have hit the ground running this preseason? Zach Edey has controlled the interior, Zaccharie Risacher looks like a three-and-D natural, Alexandre Sarr is putting his summer-league shooting woes behind him and Tidjane Salaün has already tapped into his two-way potential.

The list keeps going, too. Ryan Dunn has potentially positioned himself for a rotation role in Phoenix. Tyler Kolek has done the same in New York. Jaylen Wells might be shooting himself into Memphis' rotation. Kyshawn George has burned fiery hot a few times. Dillon Jones is connecting dots in Oklahoma City. Donovan Clingan has been a beast on the boards.

If even some of these hot starts sustain while some other top prospects like Stephon Castle, Reed Sheppard, Ron Holland and Matas Buzelis get comfortable, this Rookie of the Year race could be more exciting than people think.

Cam Thomas Wins the Scoring Title

Cam Thomas is a bucket. He spent two years at the famed Oak Hill Academy and left as the program's all-time leading scorer. Then, it was on to LSU, where he cooked to the tune of 37.3 points per 100 possessions during his one-and-done collegiate career. Since joining the Brooklyn Nets as the 27th pick of the 2021 draft, all he's done is supply them with 22.8 points per 36 minutes (25.7 this past season).

He's a capital-s Scorer, and he should get the chance to showcase that skill early and often on this mid-rebuild bunch from Brooklyn.

Who is even pushing him for shots on this roster? Mikal Bridges is gone, Dennis Schröder looks like a prime trade candidate and Ben Simmons and Nic Claxton both do their best work on the defensive end. All due respect to Noah Clowney, Dariq Whitehead and Jalen Wilson, but there really aren't blue-chip prospects needing a ton of developmental touches, either.

Whenever Thomas hits the hardwood, he has a chance to feast buffet-style on scoring chances. If he logs enough floor time (last season's 51 starts and 31.4 minutes were both career-highs), he has a non-zero chance of cracking 30 points per night and becoming the least likely scoring champion in league history.

The Thunder Have Three All-Stars

With the NBA's new collective bargaining agreement making it increasingly difficult to keep superteams together, it could be a while before anyone threatens the record of having four All-Stars from the same squad.

Three All-Stars could still be doable, though. Especially if, as in the case of the Oklahoma City Thunder, not all three of those players are paid like stars yet.

The youth-filled Thunder, who have just three players making more than $13 million, just witnessed Shai Gilgeous-Alexander's rise as a full-fledged elite and MVP candidate. What they also witnessed, though, was Jalen Williams crashing the Most Improved Player race and Chet Holmgren hitting the ground running as a redshirt rookie. And since Williams and Holmgren are just 23 and 22 years old, respectively, neither should be anywhere near his peak.

There should be enough shots and touches to go around in the Sooner State for Williams and Holmgren to continue upping their output. It's easy to get carried away thinking how that might look, since Williams just averaged 19.1 points and 4.5 assists while Holmgren posted per-game marks of 16.5 points, 7.9 rebounds, 2.3 blocks and 1.6 threes. Those numbers don't need that much growth to enter the All-Star discussion, particularly if OKC uses the next few months to separate itself in the crowded-on-paper Western Conference.

Cade Cunningham Is an All-Star, and the Pistons Are a Play-In Team

The Pistons have posted the league's worst record in each of the past two seasons. For them to become even remotely competent would be a massive step forward.

Yet, it feels doable—provided you look at this situation through red-and-blue-tinted Buffs.

The offseason additions of Tobias Harris, Tim Hardaway Jr. and Malik Beasley give this group some badly needed spacing. The returning roster is overloaded with potential paths to improvement, and hopefully J.B. Bickerstaff can handle the developmental prospects better than his predecessor, Monty Williams.

This group could collectively progress this season, and if it does, that might do wonders for Cade Cunningham. The top pick of the 2021 draft has managed to approach stardom in less than ideal conditions. With improved spacing, extra scorers and creators around him and the normal growth patterns of a player his age (23), this should be his best season yet.

Cunningham doesn't need to up his output much (22.7 points, 7.5 assists and 4.3 rebounds last season) to enter the All-Star discussion, especially if Detroit proves more competitive. And with the Pistons perhaps less inclined to tank than others—those league-worst finishes netted them just the No. 5 pick in consecutive drafts—they might just have a path out of the East's bottom-five.

Jonathan Kuminga Emerges as Stephen Curry's Co-Star

The Warriors have left few (if any) stones unturned in their search for Stephen Curry's co-star. From their longshot efforts of acquiring LeBron James to their summer courtship of Paul George, they have put some serious elbow grease into what has been a fruitless pursuit (so far, at least).

What if they already have a solution in-house, though? Golden State might seem trapped in a sticky situation at the moment—wanting to win big during whatever's left of Stephen Curry's prime but lacking the talent to do it—but things become infinitely simpler if Jonathan Kuminga makes a leap to stardom.

Granted, that's asking a lot of a 22-year-old who has yet to become a full-time starter and never averaged more than 16.1 points. Still, there have been flashes of greatness (he averaged 23.5 points on 58.7/43.8/76.9 shooting over a 13-game stretch last season), and he might be extra motivated to put everything together now with a potentially massive payday awaiting him next summer.

Kuminga pairs spring-loaded athleticism with some high-end self-creation, and physically, he looks the part of an all-purpose stopper. He needs to harness more consistency on both ends (upping the volume and efficiency of his outside shot would be enormous), but you don't have to squint too hard to see the outline of a two-way star. If the Warriors can bring that out of him right now, their days of contending for the crown may not be finished after all.

Victor Wembanyama Is an All-NBA First-Teamer

Few prospects, if any, have entered the Association with a bigger buzz than Victor Wembanyama since LeBron James came around. And much like James' first NBA go-round, Wembanyama's debut campaign improbably lived up to the hype.

The 7'4" big man became just the sixth player ever unanimously selected as Rookie of the Year. He also paced the league in blocks, made the All-Defensive first team and was runner-up in Defensive Player of the Year voting. And despite having a dearth of talent (not to mention some funky lineup constructions) around him, he still managed to average 21.4 points, 3.9 assists and 1.8 three-pointers.

What could he possibly have in store his second season? Maybe something we've never seen before.

"I don't think I've had one game where I really applied everything. Not one," he told Sports Illustrated's Chris Mannix. "I want eventually to have a wide variety of tools that I've really mastered. I don't want to have a role on the court. I don't want to be the shot-blocker. I don't want to be the scorer. I don't want to be the playmaker. I want to be all of this at once."

That's fittingly spooky stuff for this time of year, but that's the appeal with Wembanyama: a 7'4" phenom who can do everything on the court. Now, he obviously has improvements to make to reach that point (upping his shooting rates, trimming his turnovers), but he's also a 20-year-old sophomore who's already way ahead of the curve. Nothing feels out of reach, including forcing his way onto the All-NBA first team (something it took James three seasons to accomplish, by the way).

Zion Williamson and Ja Morant Receive MVP Votes

Zion Williamson and Ja Morant, respectively the first and second picks of the 2019 draft, were once the talk of the basketball world. Yet, while each has ascended to stardom, neither has quite reached the threshold of a game-changer. Through five seasons, they have just a single top-10 finish in MVP voting between them (Morant was seventh in 2021-22).

For both, the challenge has been more about availability than actual ability. Had they suited up every night for the past three seasons, they would've made 492 combined appearances. Instead, they've hit the hardwood a total of 226 times (99 for Williamson, 127 for Morant). The injury bug has battered both, with Williamson also struggling at times with conditioning and Morant missing time to suspension.

They don't generate as much buzz as they once did, due in no small part to the out-of-sight, out-of-mind phenomenon. They are such prodigious talents, though, that they can still bring the Association to a standstill. Few moments from the 2023-24 season felt more meaningful than Morant's electric return (a 34-point, eight-assist masterpiece punctuated by a game-winner) or Williamson's dominant showing in the play-in tournament (40 points, 11 rebounds, five assists) before a hamstring strain forced him off the floor.

If their disappearing acts are behind them, then superstardom could be ahead. If the only thing we're discussing about them this season is basketball, we'll all be talking about brilliance. There's a universe in which both are steering their squads to top-four finishes in the West and generating MVP voting support along the way.

Bronny James Finds a Niche

The Los Angeles Lakers won't take long to make history by trotting out LeBron James alongside his son, Bronny. ESPN's Shams Charania reported that the twosome could hit the hardwood together "as soon as opening night."

While Bronny's first NBA minutes will be historic, the question is really about what happens next. There is a wide-ranging belief across the hoops world that James' rookie season will be mostly spent in the G League.

"The expectations for Bronny by the fanbase and by LeBron and Rich Paul are not commensurate with the reality of his game," one Eastern Conference executive told ESPN's Baxter Holmes. "If they had any real idea of how far away Bronny is, they just would not have done this."

James' offensive game (his shooting in particular) is, admittedly, a work in progress. But is it that outlandish to think the Lakers might covet his defensive activity at some point this season? It's not like this club is littered with lockdown defenders in the backcourt. Arguably the top three point-of-attack defenders on the roster all have asterisks attached: Gabe Vincent and Jarred Vanderbilt have both encountered injury issues, and Max Christie hasn't played much at the NBA level (fewer than 1,500 minutes over two seasons).

What happens if one (or both) of Vincent and Vanderbilt gets sidelined again? Or if Christie doesn't make his anticipated leap? Is it completely impossible to picture the Purple and Gold calling upon James to fill a role as a change-of-pace defensive disruptor? That shouldn't be the expectation, obviously, but in terms of pleasant surprises, this feels relatively plausible.