Jalen Duren, Nickeil Alexander-Walker and 8 others who’ve surprised the most this season

One of the Detroit Pistons’ most glaring weaknesses hadn’t just evaporated. It had transformed into a strength. The change was obvious right away.

In November, the Milwaukee Bucks deployed what was once a go-to game plan against Detroit. They pulled Pistons center Jalen Duren away from the basket and into the middle of the court. Duren could leap through ceilings over his first three professional seasons, but his team defense — the communication, the timing, the fouling, the footwork, even the rim protection — looked like that of a young guy. And Duren, who was only 18 years old when he first entered the league, had a good excuse for that: He was young.

He doesn’t appear so unseasoned anymore.

Not long into the game, Bucks point guard Ryan Rollins called sharpshooting center Myles Turner up top for a screen. Duren trekked beyond the 3-point arc with him. Rollins drove left around a Turner pick, but Duren shuffled his feet, cutting off a lane to the hoop. The Pistons call this type of coverage “gold,” an offseason point of focus for Duren, who has to follow the ballhandler and then rush back to the shooter.

In this moment, he nailed the execution. Rollins had no choice but to pick up his dribble and pitch the ball to Turner, who clanked a 3-pointer with Duren sprinting out to him.

“It came down to just watching film, man. Just watching film, seeing where my weaknesses were and kinda just building on that,” Duren said in a conversation with The Athletic. “Once you understand what your weaknesses are, you’re able to work on them.”

Duren slimmed down this summer in the hopes of helping his conditioning. He added to his low- and mid-post game. He improved his handle and now initiates possessions more than ever. But while the offensive growth is in your face, the Pistons are focusing on the other side of the court, where Duren has flipped from a negative to a positive away from the paint and also in it, where he anchors one of the league’s top defenses.

Because of that, Duren leads my 2025-26 NBA All-Surprise Team.

Not every leap this season is necessarily a surprise. For example, the Portland Trail Blazers’ Deni Avdija is a candidate for Most Improved Player but also averaged similar numbers after last season’s All-Star break. Avdija has gotten better in 2025-26, but there were signs of a jump beginning last February.

The All-Surprise Teams are for players like Duren or the nine others below, the ones who made giant strides in at least one element of their game this season. We’ll compile a first and second team. Duren tops the list.

Here is the rest:

First Team

Nickeil Alexander-Walker, guard, Atlanta Hawks

Ten games into their late-season winning streak, the Hawks faced a formidable opponent. The Orlando Magic were on a heater of their own and nearly healthy, which might as well count as full strength by today’s NBA standards. And yet, the Hawks overwhelmed them — with the best signing of the 2025 offseason fueling another victory.

Alexander-Walker went for 14 points in the first quarter, when Atlanta went up double-digits and didn’t look back. He finished with a career-best 41 points on a career-high nine 3-point makes.

Even the Hawks, who gave the 27-year-old a four-year contract this past summer, did not anticipate this level of offense.

Alexander-Walker has more than doubled his scoring average. His defense, the reason he got paid less than a year ago, has remained as pesky as ever. No player in the league lives in a constant, more exaggerated defensive stance, knees bent as if he’s doing squats, ready to spring in any direction.

The 3-point shooting is through the roof.

You want to see progression? Check out Alexander-Walker’s shooting release when he was at Virginia Tech. The ball edged to the side of his dome, his hand below his forehead. Now, he lets go of jumpers from above his hairline, which has allowed him to launch eight 3-point attempts a game this season. And he’s nailing almost 40 percent of those.

The beauty of Alexander-Walker’s improvement is how organic it’s been.

It’s not like the Hawks have handed him duties the Minnesota Timberwolves wouldn’t. They’re just emphasizing him more.

The shooting has opened up the rest of his game. Atlanta does whatever it can to involve him in its actions. He’s a clever mover away from the basketball, a keen relocator in the corners. And he’s gone from underrated bench piece to the top of the scouting report in a year.

Jaylon Tyson, wing, Cleveland Cavaliers

Tyson has a tradition. While flying back from road games, he’ll mosey to the seat of Cavaliers star Donovan Mitchell and bust out the iPad. The two will review the game they just played. Tyson will ask questions. Mitchell will answer.

“Then he had 40 and hasn’t asked me since,” Mitchell wisecracked to The Athletic loud enough for Tyson to hear at the adjacent locker.

Tyson had no choice but to retort.

“Don, I’m the No. 1 option,” he deadpanned. “You’re No. 2.”

The banter was a reference to Tyson’s career-high 39 points on only 17 shots, which occurred in January. He rescued the Cavs that evening, going berserk when Mitchell had an off night and then dishing the game-winning assist to Evan Mobley in the final seconds.

If only for one day, yes, Tyson really did become the Cavs’ first option. Add that to the list of roles he’s filled.

He’s started games, come off the bench, roasted on catch-and-shoot 3s, set hard screens, cut through defenses, guarded wings, guarded guards and crashed the boards. After an underwhelming rookie campaign, he’s hitting 53 percent of his 2-pointers and an unfathomable 46 percent of his 3s. There’s a sophistication to his game that most second-year players don’t show, which Tyson attributes to playing for three different colleges and thus having to learn three different systems.

Earlier this season, Cavs head coach Kenny Atkinson called him a $20 million player. You know the man is balling when the franchise negotiates for him. And against Mitchell’s claims, the two are still studying together on the plane.

“It’s about the reps,” Tyson said. “The film reps, the game reps, being able to play with these guys, understand tendencies.”

Ajay Mitchell, guard, Oklahoma City Thunder

Oklahoma City’s latest developmental marvel was on a two-way contract only a year ago. Now, he’s bound to appear on Sixth Man of the Year ballots.

Mitchell is the rare MIP candidate in his second NBA season. Usually, voters refuse to include someone so young out of principle. As the argument goes, second-year players are supposed to get better.

But what about when they rise from the second round of the draft? Or when they burst through a loaded roster to become one of the defending champs’ most important pieces? Then, some voters could make an exception.

The Thunder may at times feel invincible, but they did enter training camp with one nitpick: The offense beyond Shai Gilgeous-Alexander could turn too stagnant. All-NBA wing Jalen Williams ran the bench units in 2024-25, but Williams was out to begin the season. All of a sudden, the flaw seemed a little more urgent.

Oklahoma City needed another ballhandler. Mitchell hasn’t let go of the role.

The offense has treaded water when Mitchell leads lineups that include neither Gilgeous-Alexander nor Williams. Mitchell has progressed from just an instant scorer, too. OKC will place him next to Gilgeous-Alexander, which gives the MVP help on the second side of the court. The Thunder are outscoring opponents by 19 points per 100 possessions when those two play together, according to Cleaning the Glass.

A dominant team that entered the season as the title favorites is now even scarier.

Neemias Queta, center, Boston Celtics

Queta read the tea leaves.

The Celtics had traded Kristaps Porziņģis and lost both Al Horford and Luke Kornet in free agency. For the first time in his five-year career, he was about to receive serious playing time on a team with playoff expectations — which Boston has since exceeded, in part because of its starting center’s progression.

Queta says his improvement started with that offseason realization. If his minutes were about to increase, then he would need to work on his stamina. He locked in on cardio over the summer, when he also adjusted his on-court routine, incorporating more live reps into his training.

He called up game film with a renewed verve. When he studies defensive coverages, he will pause the video, then try to anticipate all the possible reads from there.

“I understand the multiple possibilities on one possession,” Queta said. “One frame can show you a lot of different nuances. You can have five or six options in just one frame.”

Now, his team defense is better than ever. He’s fighting down low against brute, first-string centers, the types he mostly avoided before. Atop Boston’s long list of surprises is its rebounding, which is a product of its strategy and personnel.

The Celtics crash the glass harder than any other team and have ranked high on the offensive boards, but the true surprise has been in finishing off possessions. They are seventh in defensive rebound rate, second in the NBA since Dec. 1.

Queta leads the charge there.

When the Celtics traded for former All-Star center Nikola Vučević in February, there wasn’t even a discussion about who would start. Queta, who entered the season as a supposed weak point, was the clear choice.

Second Team

Ryan Rollins, guard, Milwaukee Bucks

It would be easy to pooh-pooh Rollins’ numbers. The per-minute production isn’t much different from it was over the first few years of his career. He’s running a chaotic team that has aggressively underperformed its own expectations. And it would be convenient to chalk up a scoring average that’s nearly tripled to circumstances, to argue he’s merely receiving an opportunity on a squad desperate for dribbling and passing.

But that would be wrong. This is not the same Rollins whom the Washington Wizards once released, not even the same one who finally became a fixture in the Bucks’ rotation by the end of last season.

Just look at how the baskets are coming: rarely easily, often off the bounce, regularly because he, not someone else, created them.

Rollins is shooting 40 percent, the same accuracy as Kevin Durant, on off-the-dribble 3-pointers, which places him inside the league’s top 10, according to Second Spectrum. This comes after he took only 20 pull-up 3s over the first three seasons of his career.

Twenty. Total.

Now, it’s a weapon. Especially his stepback, which saves the Bucks’ possessions after they give him the ball with the clock winding down, hoping Rollins will deke his way free for a jumper.

Collin Gillespie, guard, Phoenix Suns

The Suns live in a perpetual state of too many point guards or not enough point guards. Either they have Goran Dragić, Eric Bledsoe and Isaiah Thomas, or they are wedging Bradley Beal into running the offense.

Coming into this season, they were closer to the latter.

Jalen Green, who’s not a distributor but will dance with the basketball, was out. Beyond Devin Booker, there wasn’t much creation. So, the burden fell on three guys: Grayson Allen, who has handled the rock more than ever; Dillon Brooks, who was a contender to make one of these two teams; and Gillespie, the most surprising player on one of the league’s most surprising squads.

Coming into 2025-26, Gillespie had played as many minutes in the G League as he had in the NBA. Now, he’s fourth in the league in 3-point makes.

His spot-up shooting is an intuitive fit alongside Booker. Confidence has been built in the process. If Gillespie notices a sliver of daylight, he’ll hoist a long ball. He’s gone from riding benches to running first units. And the Suns are better off for it.

Keyonte George, guard, Utah Jazz

George’s efficiency has exploded. And yet, there’s an argument to be made that shooting isn’t the main reason for it.

Instead, this is about handle and pace.

The 22-year-old’s 2-point shooting has leapt from 45 percent over his first two seasons to 52 percent in 2025-26. His long-range accuracy is up. But his shots, thanks to his own doing, are easier.

George’s first step has never been so effective. He’s developed second and third gears. Check any of his outbursts from this season — the 43-point breakout against the Timberwolves or his 32 points on 16 shots during an upset of the Cavs — and a theme emerges. Once George gets a half-step advantage on his defender, he’s increasingly comfortable keeping that guy on his hip.

He goes to the rim from there. Or inspires a helper to scramble over from the corner, which opens up a pass. He’s creating space, then proceeding with physicality and smarts.

It’s why the scoring average has jumped from 16.8 to 23.6, why he’s making more shots, and why he gets to the free-throw line so much more.

George’s game hasn’t just improved. It’s matured.

Anthony Black, guard, Orlando Magic

Black, another third-year guard, has a similar case to George. Beyond the shooting, he’s learned to play with speeds.

He’ll race to the hoop, then stop on a dime, only for his defender to slide past him, which opens up a layup that looks more casual than it should. He bolts the other way in transition, when he will attempt to dunk on whoever meets him down low. He’s made a career-best 72 percent of his shots in the restricted area this season.

The breakout — which, no coincidence, arrived in conjunction with a better 3-point shot — began around mid-December. Surrounded by injuries, Black reeled off a series of high-voltage games, which included a 38-point barrage of the Denver Nuggets. From then until he got hurt at the end of February, a 32-game span, Black averaged an efficient 17.8 points.

Black is no longer just a physical, defensive-minded guard. He’s someone who should be a part of Orlando’s future.

Peyton Watson, forward, Denver Nuggets

The Nuggets made a bet back in autumn, when two fourth-year players, Christian Braun and Watson, were eligible for extensions. Given their expensive roster, paying both would require a massive, compensatory transaction.

Realistically, Denver would have to choose either Watson or Braun. Braun won out, inking a new, four-year contract, a logical decision after his breakout 2024-25, when he emerged as a full-time starter and key cog alongside three-time MVP Nikola Jokić. Watson’s minutes, meanwhile, dissipated come the playoffs. He scored only 63 points during 14 postseason games last spring.

Now, Watson will become a free agent this summer. And someone, whether it’s Denver or another fortunate franchise, will make him a wealthy man.

The greatest change from a season ago is Watson’s importance to the Nuggets. He’s now the superior 3-point shooter to Braun. His weakside shot blocking is one of the most valuable traits on the team. Denver’s defense has sunk into the NBA’s bottom 10. The Nuggets need their versatile wing duo of Aaron Gordon and Watson to win the Western Conference.

A year ago, they turned away from Watson in their most important moments. Today, his presence is required.