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Victor Wembanyama led the San Antonio Spurs to a massive win on Sunday, and now they hit the road again to take on the Oklahoma City Thunder in Game 5.

Our NBA player prop projections help you make your NBA picks for this pivotal matchup on Tuesday, May 26.

For more analysis, read our Spurs vs. Thunder predictions.

Spurs vs Thunder computer picks for Game 4

Spurs	Thunder
Champagnie o9.5 points +100	Gilgeous-Alexander u7.5 assists +115
Harper o9.5 points -105	Holmgren o13.5 points +105
Fox o14.5 points -112	Hartenstein o6.5 points -130

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Spurs Game 5 computer picks

Julian Champagnie Over 9.5 points (+100)

Projection: 11.06 points

There's no denying Julian Champagnie is running cold, but he's almost running too cold. The wing is getting a plethora of open looks throughout the game, and he's too good a shooter to keep missing them.

Our model calls for him to break the slump tonight.

span style="font-size: 14px;"🔥/span spanBet champagnie Now at bet365!/span

Dylan Harper Over 9.5 points (-105)

Projection: 10.16 points

Dylan Harper is blossoming into a young star before our very eyes. While he's taken a bit of a backseat scoring-wise in Games 2 and 3, he surpassed 10+ points in the five games prior.

Expect him to reach that milestone in Game 5.

span style="font-size: 14px;"🔥/span spanBet harper Now at bet365!/span

De-Aaron Fox Over 14.5 points (-112)

Projection: 15.87 points

De-Aaron Fox failed to score 15+ points for the first time all postseason in Game 4, but he's still getting the same amount of volume. It was an off night for anyone not named Wemby, and he'll find his touch at Paycom this evening.

span style="font-size: 14px;"🔥/span spanBet fox Now at bet365!/span

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Thunder Game 5 computer picks

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander Under 7.5 assists (+115)

Projection: 6.79 assists

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander will once again be called upon to score with the Oklahoma City Thunder seemingly shorthanded again. San Antonio opted to stray away from double-teaming the MVP last time out, which led to bad shooting nights from his teammates. 

The San Antonio Spurs will take a similar approach and dare SGA to beat them.

span style="font-size: 14px;"🔥/span spanBet SGA Now at bet365!/span

Chet Holmgren Over 13.5 points (+105)

Projection: 14.77 points

There's no denying how bad Chet Holmgen played on the road, but he has a chance to shine in front of the home crowd tonight. Our model expects him to return to form, with his team in desperate need of his scoring.

span style="font-size: 14px;"🔥/span spanBet holmgren Now at bet365!/span

Isaiah Hartenstein Over 6.5 points (-130)

Projection: 7.75 points

Isaiah Hartenstein continues to make the most of his limited minutes, fresh off a 12-point performance. The Spurs are more than happy with Hartenstein shooting, because that means the ball isn't in SGA's hands. This is a very obtainable number for the big man.

span style="font-size: 14px;"🔥/span spanBet hartenstein Now at bet365!/span

How to watch Spurs vs Thunder Game 5

Location	Paycom Center, Oklahoma City, OK
Date	Tuesday, May 26, 2026
Tip-off	8:30 p.m. ET
TV	Peacock/NBC

Not intended for use in MA.
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CLEVELAND - A month ago, Clyde Frazier was sitting in a back hallway of State Farm Arena chatting with a reporter. In a few hours, the Knicks would take the floor for a win-or-die Game 4 against Atlanta. Naturally, the conversation with Frazier turned to the Knicks’ struggles with the Hawks. 

What was wrong with the offense? Should Mike Brown change the starting lineup? How do they slow down CJ McCollum?

Before parting ways, Frazier offered one last thought on the Knicks. 

“They have a lot of pride in there,” he said, “A lot of pride. Let’s see what happens.”

Fast forward four weeks and Frazier is on the court in Cleveland, celebrating the Knicks’ Eastern Conference title.

“They’re on a roll,” Frazier said after New York’s dominant Game 4 win. 

Obviously, Frazier was right about the pride in the Knick locker room. New York is undefeated since the Hall of Famer shared his thoughts on that Sunday in Atlanta. 

And Frazier thinks the best may be yet to come for New York. 

“The last 11 games, the way they’re getting up and down the court, everyone is moving and grooving,” Frazier said late Monday night. 

“Every game they seem to get better and better (with) movement, defense. I think the pace is what’s really changed,” Frazier said. “They can go on runs now, 10 or 15 points, and just blow the game right open. And they weren’t doing that during the regular season.”

Yes, Frazier sees similarities between his title-winning teams and these Knicks. 

“Once we got healthy, we had that good continuity going,” Frazier said of the 1973 champs. “They have 10 guys that are thriving, so it doesn’t seem to matter who (Brown) puts in the game, they come through with what they need.”

It was only fitting that Frazier and Patrick Ewing – two franchise icons -  presented the Eastern Conference MVP trophy to Jalen Brunson. 

Frazier’s message to Brunson was brief: 

“I just told the maestro to keep doing it. He’s very level-headed, always wants to do team-oriented things. He’s very focused,” Frazier said. 

A few feet away, John Starks was taking in the scene. 

“That’s legacy there. Those two guys was pillars of this organization for so many years,” Starks said of Ewing and Frazier. “To be able to see them hand out the trophy, it means a lot.”

Just like the rest of the fan base, Starks, Ewing and other Knicks alumni have been living and dying with every possession this spring. 

“Just a special moment,” Starks said of Monday’s celebration. “I’m happy for those guys because they did it together.”

Starks knows the New York market as well as anyone. He knows the scrutiny that comes with it. No better place to win. No tougher place to lose. He believes this Knick team has the right temperament to handle it all. 

“I think (Knick president) Leon (Rose) and (Knicks Executive Vice President William Wesley) did a great job of putting together like-minded individuals. And that’s what it takes – guys who are not gonna get too high and get too low,” Starks said. “And they cheer for one another and they like one another. So that’s what it takes….Because things can get tough and you got to know who’s in the same boat as you. You don’t want to see guys jumping ship. These guys don’t jump. If the boat’s going to go down, they’re going to go down together.”

Right now, the boat isn’t going down. It’s floating, just like every other Knicks fan who's watched this run. 

MUTED CELEBRATION 

Before the media arrived in the Knicks' locker room, I asked a member of the organization if there was any champagne celebration. “Did you forget that Jalen Brunson is on this team?” they said. 

I don’t know if it was a directive from Brunson, but the Knicks’ celebration was muted on Monday night. There were a few people sipping beers. But it was mostly business as usual. 

“The celebrations were minimal. We really wanna get back to work,” Karl-Anthony Towns said. “We know what happened last time we had the long layoff, so we already talked after the game right away about preparing, getting to practice, back to the work. That’s what’s made us special and it’s what’s gonna give us a chance to win the next series.”

The Knicks had a nine-day layoff between the second round and the conference finals. They struggled to shoot for much of Game 1. They trailed by 22 in the fourth quarter before Brunson led their comeback. 

“We’ll do a better job this time around of just preparing for that kind of situation to happen,” Towns said. “I think obviously the coaches have done an amazing job getting us ready for Game 1, but obviously we didn’t go out there and shoot well. I think I looked up at one point and we were at four percent from three. 

“So, we just gotta figure out a way to get those game-like reps. I think the coaching staff heard us loud and clear. We wanna get back to work and keep the rhythm and also maybe change up the philosophy of how we have those scrimmages… that we didn’t do last time. So I think we’ll be better prepared, but at the end of the day, it’s all about execution, desperation. We gotta bring it Game 1.”

CLEVELAND — Donovan Mitchell has cemented himself as one of the best players in Cleveland Cavaliers’ franchise history in just four seasons. He’s been an All-Star each year and earned a spot on an All-NBA team three times. On top of that, he was the best player on a group that went to the conference finals for the first time since 2018. Even though things ended poorly, that is an accomplishment.

Mitchell signed a contract extension with the Cavs in 2024 and is eligible for another one this summer. He’s guaranteed under contract for one more year with a player option for the 2027-28 season.

Whether he and the Cavs can come to an extension this summer remains to be seen. There’s financial incentives for him to wait until after next season to sign. Players with 10 years of service time are eligible for more money.

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Whether or not he does, Mitchell has made it clear that he loves playing in Cleveland and wants to continue playing for a team that can compete for championships.

“I love it here,” Mitchell said when asked about a possible contract extension this summer. “I don’t know how else to say it. I said it before I signed the other extension. I love it here, and I have no doubt this group can get there, but you know, reports are going to be reports, people are going to be people. But I said the same thing, we have unfinished business.”

Mitchell has embraced Cleveland in a way that star players don’t always do. He mentioned repeatedly during his nearly half-hour press conference with reporters after the Game 4 loss to the Knicks that he feels bad that he let the city down.

“It’s great energy to see in the city when we got to the conference finals,” Mitchell said. “Just to feel that, like that’s amazing. That’s why getting swept like this sucks, because you know, you feel it even driving in, like people are going crazy. Like, I love that. I love that about this place, man. The city deserves a ring, and we just, we just got to keep going.”

The band is staying together in Cleveland.

Despite getting swept in the Eastern Conference Finals against the New York Knicks, the Cleveland Cavaliers have reportedly revealed that they plan on returning head coach Kenny Atkinson, his coaching staff and the front office for the 2026-27 season.

Breaking: Cavs plan to keep Kenny Atkinson, coaching staff, front office together after Eastern Conference finals sweep, @TheAthleticNBAhttps://t.co/EE418WBoyt

— Joe Vardon (@joevardon) May 26, 2026

Per The Athletic's Joe Vardon, there were questions surrounding the organization regarding their future. However, the team ultimately decided to keep everyone around after their first conference finals appearance since 2018, and their first without LeBron James since 1992.

Following the series loss to the Knicks, Atkinson was asked how confident he was in his job security. He said, "Listen, I have confidence, confidence in myself first of all, confidence in the group."

He also stressed that he was proud of what his team was able to accomplish.

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. (AP) — The Los Angeles Lakers have hired Rohan Ramadas as their assistant general manager of strategy and data systems, making the first major move of their offseason to bolster their front office under new ownership.

The Lakers announced the decision Tuesday to add Ramadas, who spent the past nine years working with the New Orleans Pelicans, including the past two as their vice president of strategy and basketball operations. He will be in charge of “basketball analytics and strategic initiatives for basketball operations,” the Lakers said in a statement.

Ramadas is a University of Southern California graduate and a Bay Area native who also spent 12 years working in the aerospace industry.

“Rohan is an important and strong addition to our front office as we further build out our basketball operations resources,” general manager Rob Pelinka said. “His unique blend of career experiences and analytical expertise will further strengthen the strong work already taking place internally within our data analytics and salary cap management teams.”

Pelinka repeated earlier this month that the Lakers intend to add talent to their executive suite in a transformation of the organization under the ownership of Mark Walter. The Los Angeles Dodgers owner bought a controlling stake in the Lakers last year from the Buss family, which had a fraction of Walter's financial resources.

Several of Walter's top executives with the Dodgers have already taken an active role in working with the Lakers. Lon Rosen, a longtime Dodgers executive who previously served as Magic Johnson's agent, joined the Lakers as their president of business operations in February.

The Lakers also intend to hire a second assistant general manager to oversee scouting and player development, Pelinka said.

The Lakers won their second straight Pacific Division title and reached the playoffs for the fourth straight season this spring. Los Angeles then upset Houston in the first round despite the absence of injured superstar Luka Doncic, but was subsequently swept by Oklahoma City in the second round.

___

AP NBA: https://apnews.com/NBA

The San Antonio Spurs take on the Oklahoma City Thunder in Game 5 of the Western Conference finals. The series is tied 2-2 after the Spurs’ Game 4 victory. Oklahoma City is favored with a -192 moneyline compared to San Antonio's +159. The over/under is 216.5.

How to watch San Antonio Spurs vs. Oklahoma City Thunder

• Date: Tuesday, May 26

• Time: 8:30 p.m. ET / 5:30 p.m. PT

• Where: Paycom Center, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

• TV Channels: NBC, Peacock

• Live Stream:NBA League Pass | Follow on Yahoo Sports

Odds

• Spread: Oklahoma City Thunder -5.5

• Moneyline: Oklahoma City Thunder -192 (63.0%) / San Antonio Spurs +159 (37.0%)

• Over/Under: 216.5

Series schedule, results

Game 1:Spurs 122, Thunder 115 (2OT)
Game 2:Thunder 122, Spurs 113
Game 3:Thunder 123, Spurs 108
Game 4: Spurs 103, Thunder 82
Game 5: San Antonio at Oklahoma City (Tuesday May 26, 8:30 p.m. ET, NBC/Peacock)
Game 6: Oklahoma City at San Antonio (Thursday May 28, 8:30 p.m. ET, NBC/Peacock)*
Game 7: San Antonio at Oklahoma City (Saturday May 30, 8:30 p.m. ET, NBC/Peacock)*

* if necessary

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The Western Conference Finals are tied at two games apiece because Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is willing to move the ball, not despite the two-time MVP being forced to move the ball.

Yet, it's still an unexpected approach for the Oklahoma City Thunder.

These Shai Gilgeous-Alexander odds expect Oklahoma City’s role players to be the beneficiaries of his playmaking as he combats the San Antonio Spurs’ defense in Game 5 on Tuesday, May 26.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander prop pick for Game 5

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander best bet: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander Over 7.5 assists (-130 at bet365)

As the Oklahoma City Thunder have lost Ajay Mitchell (out) and Jalen Williams (officially questionable, but proceed as if he is out), the ball has been in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s hands even more. And that is saying something for one of the highest-usage players in the NBA.

The flip side of that is the San Antonio Spurs can devote more defenders to Gilgeous-Alexander, as well. With respect to Cason Wallace and even Jared McCain, they are not the kind of creators or ballhandlers that force San Antonio to worry about them.

Combine those thoughts, and we have a scenario where the ball is both in SGA's hands more often and needs to get out of his hands more often. It is by San Antonio’s design that the two-time MVP has dished out at least seven assists in each game of this series, with seven actually being SGA’s low-water mark thus far.

Gilgeous-Alexander may have averaged only 6.6 assists this regular season and 7.1 through the first two rounds of this postseason, but the Spurs are forcing the issue out of SGA’s hands. If his teammates can hit some shots — more likely at home than on the road — then any number below 8.5 should be quickly bet to the Over.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander same-game parlay

Not many teams in the NBA have the perimeter defenders — not to mention the rim protection provided by one Victor Wembanyama — to force the ball out of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s hands, but the Spurs do. And in doing so, they may be providing the blueprint to remember for years to come.

Gilgeous-Alexander took 23 and 24 shots in the first two games of this series, respectively. That then plummeted to 17 and 15 in Games 3 and 4, respectively. He took just one 3-pointer in Game 4.

San Antonio will not let SGA find a clear path into the lane, and he has never been a good enough 3-point shooter to thrive with volume from beyond the arc.

The Thunder need their role players to shoot better at home than they did on the road. If they do, Oklahoma City can survive with the ball away from SGA.

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The Cleveland Cavaliers could make drastic changes this summer. However, those moves won’t come at the expense of either the front office or the coaching staff. According to Joe Vardon of The Athletic, the Cavs are expected to retain both.

This shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise, despite how things ended on Monday night.

Koby Altman and the rest of the front office have built a sustainable winner. This team has won 50 or more games in four straight seasons and has won four playoff series during that span. They haven’t been able to reach the goal of winning a championship, but that is a major accomplishment for a small-market team that doesn’t have the built-in advantages that the coastal powerhouses do.

Altman took over for David Griffin after the 2016-17 season. During his tenure, he oversaw LeBron James’s final season with the team, a multi-year rebuild, trading for Donovan Mitchell, and the team’s recent ascent back up the Eastern Conference standings.

Head coach Kenny Atkinson will also be back next season for his third season with the team.

It’s easy to blame Atkinson for a lot of this group’s failures in the postseason. Some of the in-game adjustments came too late, and he does bear some of the blame for the team not being able to close out multiple winnable postseason games.

At the same time, Atkinson guided the Cavs through a rocky regular season, navigated the addition of James Harden, and has earned the trust of his team’s star players. This is after revolutionizing the Cavs’ offense the previous year, leading them to a 64-win season, and winning Coach of the Year.

“We’ve done something that we haven’t done since 2018,” Mitchell said after the Game 4 loss to the New York Knicks. “I love Kenny. We love Kenny. We ride with Kenny, and ultimately that’s all that matters.”

Earlier on Wednesday, ESPN’s Brian Windhorst reported that Cavs’ chairman Dan Gilbert is “heavily involved” again with the team after not being as hands-on while dealing with some health issues in previous years. Presumably, both the front office and coaching staff have earned his trust.

We’ll see what moves are made this summer. At the very least, we know that there will be continuity in decision-making and coaching.

In watching this year’s conference finals, it’s apparent how woefully ill-equipped the Sixers were for a deep playoff run. Sure, I will never forget the sheer euphoria of slaying the Celtics after rebounding from a 3-1 series deficit in the first round this spring, but cold water got thrown on that fun quite quickly given how dominant the Knicks were in sweeping them in the Eastern Conference Semifinals.

The Knicks did the same thing to Cleveland and are now back in the NBA Finals for the first time since 1999. In the West, the Thunder and Spurs are preparing for a Game 5 slugfest on Tuesday night in a series that’s destined to go the distance. The Sixers just aren’t able to compete with these teams as currently constructed and it’s becoming more and more clear nightly.

The problems of this Sixers season, and, really, this whole era for the franchise, predate the misfires from former president of basketball operations Daryl Morey, but the executive’s time running the show for the team did little to put them on the cutting edge of the sport. Morey’s time as an assistant in Boston’s front office and then as the lead exec in Houston had at the heart of the NBA’s analytical revolution, a figure who was on the lookout for what the future of basketball would be. The Sixers’ whole setup right now, in contrast, is outdated.

The Sixers and Morey’s quest for a “Big 3” is a relic that went out of vogue a couple presidential administrations ago. Looking at the three teams still standing this postseason in New York, Oklahoma City and San Antonio, the pieces are so different and result in an equation that has a championship answer, unlike what the Sixers are doing.

Sure, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Victor Wembanyama are poised to be MVP candidates for at least the next half-decade and Jalen Brunson is a star in his own right, but these teams are so deep and so well rounded that their bench glue guys are way better out there on the court than some actual Sixers starters and key cogs. Alex Caruso would be, what, the fourth-best player on the Sixers? Miles McBride would have a cult devoted to him here.

The Sixers haven’t prioritized depth in favor of their top-heavy roster, but, just as importantly, they haven’t prioritized the development needed in order to have a comprehensive collection of playoff talent.

No one defines that more than Jared McCain. Now with Oklahoma City, McCain looked like a legitimate building block in his limited action as a rookie in Philadelphia. Injuries derailed him, but he also just fell out of favor in head coach Nick Nurse’s rotation, as the team opted for low-ceiling players with no potential chance to be true risers in the future over McCain.

Now with the Thunder after a deadline deal that the fan base loathed and potentially on the verge of playing in the NBA Finals in his second pro season, McCain has been more than solid off the bench for Oklahoma City. He’s shooting 37.3 percent from deep in about 15 minutes of play per night. Is he going to be a star in this league? I’m doubtful there. Would he have helped the Sixers against both Boston and New York while on a cheap rookie deal with room to grow and mature as a player? The answer to that is unequivocally yes, but the organization was not willing to put him on that type of developmental path in a season where they only ended up as the No. 7 seed in the Eastern Conference.

For the more casual Sixers fan, a player in that mold who’s flown completely under the radar is the Spurs’ Julian Champagnie. The Sixers had him on a two-way contract through the middle of the 2023 season. He was waived after just playing seven total minutes as a Sixer, the Spurs scooped him up and he’s since started every playoff game for San Antonio this year. Champagnie never got a true chance to showcase himself in Philly and is now two wins away from starting in an NBA Finals game.

Under Morey, the Sixers were never good enough contenders to even make a conference finals, but tried their mightiest to do so. That’s valiant, but smart organizations across the league have illustrated that they can shoot for the Larry O’Brien Trophy with much greater accuracy than the Sixers ever could while also cultivating a base of young, cost-efficient players to counterbalance their top star. I have my doubts the next person in charge of the Sixers’ front office will rectify these issues, especially for a franchise that’s going on four-plus decades of mishaps, but here’s to hoping, I guess.

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If you want to go deep in the NBA Playoffs, you'd better bring some quality contributors off the pine.

The Oklahoma City Thunder’s championship blueprint contains plenty of points from the bench, and prediction markets like Kalshi are offering markets on whether OKC’s bench will outscore the San Antonio Spurs' reserves in Game 5 of the Western Conference Finals.

Here are my best NBA picks and Spurs vs. Thunder predictions for this market on May 26.

Spurs vs. Thunder head-to-head bench points

Pick: Thunder bench to outscore Spurs bench — Yes

-245 at Kalshi

San Antonio bench

Key Reserves

• Dylan Harper (13.3 ppg in postseason)
• Keldon Johnson (8.1)
• Luke Kornet (5.1)

The San Antonio Spurs are much more dependent on their starting lineup, especially so in the Western Conference Finals. 

The Spurs bench was logging more than 17 minutes per game for an average of 35.1 points in the first three rounds, but that has tightened to 13.3 minutes/23.5 points in the past four games.

De’Aaron Fox’s absence in the first two games of the series had San Antonio leaning hard into the starting five, but blowouts the past two games have left head coach Mitch Johnson to give his reserves more run. Game 4 finished with 30 points from the bench — a team-high for the series.

Game script for tonight calls for a closer contest, which means San Antonio leans on its starters.

Guard Dylan Harper is the only reserve averaging more than 20 minutes per game in the postseason (25.7). He’s logged less floor time in the past two outings with Fox back while lumbering through an adductor injury.

The Spurs’ starters have outscored the Thunder’s starting five by almost 32 points over the first four games, and we do see a decrease in minutes and a near five-point dip from the reserves when the team hits the road in the tournament.

Oklahoma City bench

Key Reserves

• Alex Caruso (10.3 ppg in postseason)
• Jared McCain (8.8)
• Jaylin Williams (4.7)

The X-factor for this prediction market could be Oklahoma City Thunder guard Jalen Williams. He’s sat out the past two games after reaggravating a hamstring injury early in Game 2, and is listed as questionable for Game 5.

Should Williams sit out, an already thin bench for the Thunder gets thinner due to Ajay Mitchell’s absence (out with calf injury). Cason Wallace has moved into the starting lineup in place of Williams, leaving Alex Caruso, Jaylen Williams, and Jared McCain as the biggest contributors off the bench.

The support staff slumped last time out, shooting a collective 25.5% for a combined 34 points in Game 4. The bench took 27 of 47 shots from beyond the arc with OKC trailing big on Sunday, making only five of those long-range attempts. 

However, Oklahoma City’s reserves have been awesome overall, and topped the postseason with 42.9 average points in 20.2 minutes per game off the pine before Game 4.

I expect them to tighten up with a return home, where the reserves connect at a 44.6% clip during the playoffs. Even with Williams likely out, which depletes the bench, OKC’s “other guys” will continue to contribute.

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New York Knicks fever has hit the Big Apple, and it might just take an arm and a leg for some fans to get inside Madison Square Garden for the team's first NBA Finals appearance since 1999.

Just as soon as the Knicks officially swept the Cleveland Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference finals on Monday, May 26, the demand to be in the building when they face either the Oklahoma City Thunder or San Antonio Spurs pushed ticket prices to levels not seen in recent years for the NBA Finals.

Tickpick announced in the immediate aftermath of the Knicks' Game 4 win over the Cavaliers that Games 3 and 4 of the NBA Finals at Madison Square Garden are "the most expensive NBA Finals tickets on record." The secondary ticket marketplace app said get-in prices at that point were $3,745 for Game 3 and $3,464 for Game 4.

When the offseason rolls around, the internet starts doing some wild things. People get bored. They spend a little too much time in the trade machine. The results can be nothing short of horrifying. Practical thought leaves the body like a soul departing, and what we’re left with are some truly ridiculous trades.

That’s part of the offseason’s oversaturation. Podcasts need topics, national outlets need content, and fans want something to debate. Everybody starts trying to justify bad ideas in the name of conversation.

Mission accomplished, I guess. Because I’m here to take a look at a cpuple of the absolutely absurd trade proposals floating around recently. And these aren’t coming from your local podcast. This isn’t me hopping on Suns JAM Session and tossing out a random hypothetical. No, these are from major national media outlets, and some of them are downright comical.

So let’s go ahead and take a look at a few of the more ridiculous trade ideas making the rounds.

ESPN: Suns trade for Ja Morant

This one comes to us from ESPN, who put together six trades exploring where Ja Morant could ultimately land.

This is a beautifully ridiculous trade.

The Suns would give up four players and two picks for Morant, and I’ve already expressed numerous times how I feel about him as a potential member of the Phoenix Suns. His addition goes against everything Phoenix tried to build this past season, and once you factor in the availability concerns and missed games, it becomes even harder to justify.

What might be the most absurd part of the entire thing, though, is what Bobby Marks notes:

The Suns overachieved last season, and they now are faced with the choice of relying on the same roster or making an aggressive trade for a player such as Morant. Because the Suns would be taking back more salary in the trade, it would hard cap them at the first apron. The restriction could put them in a position to lose free agents Collin Gillespie, Mark Williams and Jordan Goodwin.

So by this logic, the Suns would add Ja Morant to pair in the backcourt with Devin Booker. Jalen Green would still be on the roster, too, meaning three-guard lineups become the norm. Yay!

And that’s where this thing really starts to fall apart. Phoenix would not only be hard-capping itself, but they’d also be knee-capping themselves when it comes to depth. They wouldn’t be able to go over the first apron at $209 million, so once again you’re piecing together the bench with a collection of veteran minimum players and hoping it works.

The viability of bringing back Gillespie, Goodwin, and/or Williams is practically out the window. Booker, Green, and Morant would account for $125.6 million of your cap, which is 76% of it. Oh, and you’re still giving up draft capital to make it happen, which chips away at your future flexibility too.

I’m sorry, this trade is completely unrealistic. It feels like an NBA 2K trade, where you jam assets together until it works for one side and completely ignore what it does to the other.

Vecenie: Malauch to the Hornets

A lot less inflammatory, still not rooted in reality, comes a suggestion from The Athletic’s Sam Vecenie, in which the Phoenix Suns would send out Grayson Allen and Khaman Maluach for Miles Bridges and Ryan Kalkbrenner, or the 18th overall pick.

My first thought when I see a trade like this is simple. Why would Phoenix want to do it?

This feels like something that benefits the Charlotte Hornets far more than the Suns. Charlotte gets more three-point shooting and, depending on how you view the prospects, arguably gets the better young center than the one they selected 34th overall a season ago.

And to be clear, I’m a fan of Kalkbrenner. I did a ton of research on him as a draft prospect last year when Phoenix owned the 29th pick. I thought he made a lot of sense at the time. He had a solid rookie season on a team that gave real opportunities to its young players.

That still doesn’t answer the bigger question. Why would you give up on Maluach this early in his career? And why bring in Bridges, another undersized power forward, on a roster that already needs to prioritize minutes for sophomore Rasheer Fleming?

Then there’s the pick. If the return is No. 18 overall, that’s not much of a trade-off. You’re essentially flipping Maluach, who was taken 10th overall a year ago, for the 18th pick. That’s hard to justify.

This one feels like creating a trade for the sake of creating a trade, then working backwards trying to make it sound reasonable.

I’m still waiting for one of the national pundits to cook up something that feels relevant, realistic, or at the very least includes Jalen Green. Because, quite honestly, he’s the biggest trade chip the Phoenix Suns possess right now. If Phoenix can somehow flip him into something that genuinely helps move the organization forward, whether that’s players, picks, or some combination of both, that’s the route I’d explore. At least from my perspective.

Until then, we watch and wait. That’s the offseason. Everybody starts throwing ideas at the wall, hoping one sticks. National outlets keep the content machine moving. Fans debate every hypothetical like it’s already on the transaction wire.

My guess? None of these mock trades happen. Phoenix has been pretty transparent about wanting to stay measured this summer, and the organization doesn’t feel like a team gearing up for a splashy offseason. Sometimes, the loudest part of the offseason is the internet. The actual moves tend to be a lot quieter.

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The margin for error is extremely slim with the Western Conference Finals down to a best-of-three series heading into Game 5.

That pressure, however, produces a big fat-ass barrel of NBA betting fun when the San Antonio Spurs visit the Oklahoma City Thunder tonight.

My Spurs vs. Thunder same-game parlay for Game 5 adds that enjoyment, at least if you're siding with San Antonio. I’m taking the visitor to cover the spread while getting long-range love from its long and lanky center.

Here are my best NBA picks and Spurs vs. Thunder predictions for May 26.

Our best Spurs vs Thunder SGP for Game 5

SGP leg #1: Spurs +5.5

The injury report is not looking good for the Oklahoma City Thunder. They’re potentially down two key guards, which has forced star scorer Shai Gilgeous-Alexander to carry more of a facilitator role instead of playing off the ball.

The San Antonio Spurs have done a great job keeping SGA out of rhythm on offense and OKC’s role players in check. This one comes down to the wire with San Antonio covering as a road dog: a role that’s produced an 11-6 ATS record this season.

SGP leg #2: Stephon Castle Over 4.5 rebounds

Stephon Castle sits second on the Spurs with 50 rebounding chances in the WCF, which have translated into 19 total boards. He’s snatched five or more rebounds in each of the first three games and while he had just three boards in Game 4, he was in position for 12 rebounding chances.

Projections sit as high as six rebounds tonight.

SGP leg #3: Victor Wembanyama Over 1.5 threes

Victor Wembanyama was more aggressive in his shot selection in Game 4, shouldering the scoring load inside and out. He attempted seven 3-pointers — making three — and has hit two or more triples in three of the four conference finals games.

San Antonio is being protective of his energy on defense, as it tries to save his legs for the offensive end. Wemby is forecasted for at least two 3-pointers in Game 5.

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Get Jason Logan's full breakdown of this game, including his best bet, plus the latest NBA odds, injuries, and betting trends, in his Spurs vs. Thunder predictions for Game 5.

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CLEVELAND — Cleveland Cavaliers head coach Kenny Atkinson has been in the crossfire of many commentators after this playoff run. His comments about analytics didn’t sit well with many, and the team also underperformed in several key moments — including during the Game 1 collapse against the New York Knicks. The coach is going to bear part of the blame when things go sideways like that.

Yet, his players haven’t lost faith in him. At least not publicly. So much so that their star player thinks it’s “hilarious” that Atkinson is receiving criticism for how things ended.

“We’ve done something that we haven’t done since 2018,” Mitchell said. “I love Kenny. We love Kenny. We ride with Kenny, and ultimately that’s all that matters. I know he’s from Long Island, he don’t give a damn. … We’re in it together.”

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Mitchell wasn’t alone in this sentiment.

“He’s the ultimate player’s coach, he gets it, he understands his team,” James Harden said. “I think he did an unbelievable job of getting me acclimated as fast as possible.”

This was a tumultuous regular season for the Cavs. It could’ve gone sideways at many points, but it didn’t. Atkinson deserves some of the credit there. And he does deserve praise for helping the team win two playoff rounds.

At the same time, when things go as poorly as they did against the Knicks, there’s going to be criticism thrown his way. That just comes with the business. That, however, doesn’t mean he deserves the most blame.

“It’s on us,” Mitchell said. “It’s definitely on us. It’s not on Kenny.”