There will be plenty of familiar faces donning new jerseys on Monday when NBA media days unfold from coast to coast.
LeBron James and Giannis Antetokounmpo headline a group of six 2026 All-Stars who changed zip codes this summer. In all, 15 players with at least one All-Star selection in the past five seasons are set to take the court for new franchises. (This number includes Anthony Davis and Damian Lillard, who changed teams last season but have yet to play due to injuries.)
To make sense of all that furious player movement, let's run through the eight most intriguing newcomers for the 2026-27 season.
Note: These rankings consider each player's talent, his fit with his new team and other factors such as contract implications and championship expectations. Rookies have been excluded from this list.
1. Giannis Antetokounmpo, Miami Heat
Granted, Antetokounmpo's move to Miami didn't generate as much discussion as Luka Doncic's 2025 trade to the Los Angeles Lakers or LeBron James' latest decision to sign with the Philadelphia 76ers. Yet the two-time MVP deserves top billing from an intrigue standpoint; he was easily the best player to change teams this summer.
In fact, the "Greek Freak" was the only player in the top 12 of this year's NBA Rank who didn't return to the team he played for in 2025-26. And despite an injury-plagued final campaign in Milwaukee, the 31-year-old Antetokounmpo is still in his prime and was an All-NBA First-Team selection in 2024-25.
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For those reasons, Antetokounmpo should face real championship expectations. He's about the same age as Shaquille O'Neal was when he joined the Heat in 2004, a move that paid off with a title two years later. Reaching the Finals at some point over the next four years seems like a reasonable benchmark for Antetokounmpo given that Jimmy Butler III led Miami to that stage in 2020 and 2023.
From a basketball standpoint, the Heat must continue building around a pair of star big men in Antetokounmpo and Bam Adebayo -- a strategic dilemma that's rare for contenders in the pace-and-space era.
Both players possess enough versatility to function together at a high level, but their partnership is bound to look different from any of Antetokounmpo's old Bucks teams or past editions of Adebayo's Heat. Miami could prove to be imposing, clunky or both.