Author: NBA Basketball News, Scores, Standings, Rumors, Fantasy Games

The NBA has reached the point where having ball handling and secondary creation is necessary throughout your five-man lineups. In watching the Dallas Mavericks at any point throughout the season, it was abundantly clear that they lacked that. This June, the Mavericks will start rectifying that with the NBA Draft. While a combo guard with playmaking upside isn’t the first thing you’d think the Mavs should draft, the choice of Brayden Burries might make itself.

The basics

Brayden Burries (born September 18, 2005) was born and raised in San Bernardino, California. Burries was born into a family of athletes, as his father, Bobby, played basketball at Cal State San Bernardino and is a member of the school’s hall of fame. Not to be out done, his mother Hannah played college softball at the University of Tennessee before playing basketball at CSSB as a grad transfer.

Brayden was a consensus five-star guard coming out of Eleanor Roosevelt High in Eastvale, California (just southeast Los Angeles and north of San Diego). After a standout junior year, Burries was selected to play in the McDonald’s All-American Game. Following his senior year, Burries committed to Tommy Lloyd and the Arizona Wildcats. That turned out to be an excellent decision for Burries, who put together an elite campaign.

In just under 30 minutes per game, Burries averaged 16.1 points per game, which was complimented by five rebounds and two-and-a-half assists per contest. Burries had several fantastic performances away from McKale Center. He scored 28, including 20 in the second half, in a road win at Alabama in December. In January, Burries had 29 in a road win at AJ Dybantsa and BYU. Burries finished as an honorable mention All-American (USBWA and Associated Press), first team All-Big 12 team member and one of five finalists for the Jerry West Award, which is given to the best shooting guard in the country.

---

The good

• Burries was an efficiency God throughout the season. Arizona played a system which discouraged three-point shots, as they were bottom five in the country in terms of three-point rate. Even still, Burries was able to get up three pointers on nearly 42% of his shots, making over 39% of them. In the NCAA Tournament, Burries shot 52% from deep while increasing his three-point attempt rate from 42% to 54%. Burries has a good stroke, meaning there should be some scalability here. At just over four attempts per game in college, Burries could reasonably be expected to nearly double his attempts from three in the NBA.

Brayden Burries was impressive in Arizona's Sweet 16 win over Arkansas.

Burries finished with 23 points on 7-11 shooting in the blowout win. pic.twitter.com/HySOwxcP8g

— B/R Hoops (@brhoops) March 27, 2026

• As far as guards go, there are few that clear the glass better than Burries. On the season, Burries hauled in 5.9 defensive rebounds per 40 minutes. In the NCAA Tournament, that number ballooned to 7.3 defensive rebounds per 40 minutes. The former was in the 94^th percentile of guards last year, while the latter was in the 97^th percentile, per CBB Analytics. Burries is not the tallest, but he uses his body well and has a knack for the ball to help finish possessions on the glass.

• On the year, Burries has a 62.3% true shooting percentage, which was 94^th percentile among guards. In the NCAA Tournament, Burries had a TS% of 66.5%, which is truly outrageous. There is no area on the floor where Burries was inefficient. Per CBB Analytics data, Burries shot over 56% from two-point range, including over 65% at the rim, 39% from deep and 80% at the foul line. Those are all green light indicators.

• Burries has shown flashes on the defensive end that make me believe he’ll be a strong defender in the NBA. When Arizona faced Arkansas in the Sweet Sixteen, Burries drew the primary defensive assignment on Darius Acuff. In that game, Acuff scored 28, but was just eight of nineteen from the floor, including a paltry one-for-five from three-point range. Burries has a good frame, plays physically and has the basketball smarts to beat his man to the spot. Is it likely that he’ll be a “defensive stopper” in the NBA? Maybe not. But there’s a level to Burries where he is an excellent point of attack defender on many of the league’s best guards.

The areas of concern

• Because Burries shared the floor with Jaden Bradley for most of his minutes, there were not a ton of chances for him to showcase his playmaking chops. He was solid in the secondary creation role, but in the limited time when Burries was on the floor without Bradley, it looked a bit rough. In the Big 12 this year, only Burries, Honor Huff and Donovan Atwell played more than 1,150 minutes and had fewer than 100 total assists. I think there’s more to unlock here, especially on an NBA spaced floor. Think of VJ Edgecombe, who struggled with a compressed floor at Baylor. There’s some of that here, too.

• With Burries standing at just 6’4”, there are legitimate concerns about small off-guard’s that don’t have play-initiation pop. It’s not an architype that you would necessarily like to draft in the top ten, but those guys can be very productive NBA players. Derrick White and Quentin Grimes are guys like Burries. Those aren’t generational stars, but to varying levels they are both great in a role.

• Burries is an older freshman, as he is nearly 21 years old already. Teams will ding him on this, because of course they will, but that’s not a real issue. it’s not like he’s 25 years old.

Fit with the Mavericks

Burries would be a seamless fit for the Mavericks in both the near and the long term. In the near term, Burries slots in nicely at the two, next to a healthy Kyrie Irving in the back court and as a nice compliment to Cooper Flagg. In the long term, Burries is never a guy you’ll have to worry about fit with. He’s never going to be a guy who needs plays run for him, but he will be one of the biggest connecting tissues on your team. While he won’t fill the point guard role for the Mavericks, it’s safe to assume you can plug him into your rotation for the next ten years.

NBA comparison

Two guys who are pretty good comps are those that I mentioned earlier, Derrick White and Quentin Grimes. If you’d like a more aggressive comp, perhaps Bradley Beal could be out there if he does get a bump from his shot diet. All three of those guys are going to be scoring guards with a sprinkle of secondary creation, something I think is well within Burries’ reach.

Welcome to our Phoenix Suns Season in Review series, where we revisit every player who suited up during the 2025–26 campaign through the lens of expectation, reality, and what it ultimately meant.

Player Snapshot

• Position: PF/C
• Age: 23
• Contract Status: Rookie-scale contract, team has a club option in 2027-2028, UFA in 2028-2029 if not resigned
• SunsRank (Preseason): 10
• SunsRank (Postseason): 8

*SunsRank is based on Bright Side writers’ ranking.

Season in One Sentence

In his sophomore year, Oso Ighodaro showed that there is room to grow, but the prospect has the potential to be something special.

By the Numbers

The Iron Man suited up for all 82 games and had some nice stats.

GP	MIN	PTS	REB	AST	STL	BLK	FG%	3PT%	FT%	DEFRTG	OFRTG	+/- (TOTAL)
82	22.0	6.5	5.1	2.3	0.9	0.7	65.3%	0.0%	45.3%	109.7	114.8	+5.1

The Expectation

Coming into this year, Oso Ighodaro was expected to continue to grow as a backup big and prove that he deserved to be part of the rotation. Last season, the big man saw sporadic playing time and did not get much burn until the season was dust. This had the fans questioning what his role could truly be on the roster, especially with the front court getting two new additions. Would Ighodaro get lost in the shuffle or rise through the cracks to make a name for himself?

The Reality

Well, Ighodaro definitely proved his worth, even if his role did change throughout the year. To begin the year, he was the big man Jordan Ott trusted the most, getting the start with Mark WIllimas getting to game speed. This was a bit too much for Ighodaro to handle, but who else would they throw into the fray, their rookie? Ighodaro dealt with tough matchups against Nikola Jokic and Ivica Zubac to start the season, and it had fans ready to ship the big man away, not even a week in.

That is where it all started to change for Ighodaro, though, as when Williams returned, he found himself in his true role: the backup center. This is where his and Gillespie’s connection began to brew as the duo quickly realized their pick-and-roll would be a feast for opponents. This allowed Oso to find multiple trips to the boom room and get comfortable in the rotation. He also used his passing to make plays for Gillespie.

Oso Ighodaro to Collin Gillespie pic.twitter.com/FPFbBRsiQL

— Mike Vigil (@protectedpick) February 4, 2026

Then, towards the end of the season, Ighodaro began to see starts again as Williams was out for the playoffs. Against a dominant OKC team, the Suns were going to struggle anyway, but without their best big, it was just too much size for Oso to handle.

Throughout the season, Ighodaro proved that, in the right role, he can be successful and was a steal at pick 40 last year. He definitely has areas to grow, too, but for someone who did not have high expectations when he was drafted, he has definitely exceeded them in the eyes of many.

What It Means

There is no hiding that I love what Ighodaro brings to this team. I even made a drop for him on Suns Planet Pod because I’m such a fan of his game. He truly is one of those underrated pieces that may not have the stats to show it every game, but gets better in every performance.

pic.twitter.com/ylmhUnIuir

— BruceVeliz (@BruceVeliz) February 27, 2026

Since the Suns have him under contract for at least the next year, I see him continuing to fight in this rotation next season. With the uncertainty of Mark Williams returning, this means Ighodaro could be in line for a starting opportunity, depending on the other offseason moves.

If Ighodaro can continue to improve, as he stated at the end of the year, by working on his areas of weakness, he could truly mold himself into one of the best bench bigs in the association. He already added some size from last year, so if he continues to get stronger and tune his jump shot, as he alluded to, he can find himself getting picked back up on the club option and landing a comfortable extension.

Defining Moment

Oso’s defining moment came early on in the season when the Suns took on the Indiana Pacers. After a struggling start with getting guys fully healthy, the Suns gave the Pacers the belt. Before people knew they would be tanking, the Suns showed they were in a different class than Indiana this year, and a big reason was Oso Ighodaro.

In this game, he posted up 17 points, 7 rebounds, 3 steals, and 3 blocks while shooting 78/0/60 from the field with a +52 on the court. This is the highest +/- of any Suns player in the play-by-play era and the third highest all-time in the NBA. To achieve something like this, put Ighodaro on fans’ radar, as even though +/- is not the end-all, be-all stat, it showed he could be part of the future in this role.

"Yeah, they brought it up to me."

Oso Ighodaro on Suns teammates noting his +52 in 133-98 win over Pacers.

The +52 is the highest plus/minus by a Suns player in the play-by-play era and tied for third highest by any NBA player in the play-by-play era.

Career-high 17 points.… pic.twitter.com/ePWTEDIhad

— Duane Rankin (@DuaneRankin) November 14, 2025

This gave Ighodaro the confidence, as did the fans, in their second-year project, which was looking better than advertised. In a year where the whole team overachieved, it was great to see the young guys participate in that as well.

Grade: B+

Even if he was not a positive every night for the Suns, I would say Oso showed up for most of them. Not to mention that he was Iron Man and played all 82 games this year, with a team plagued with injuries, that is also a positive.

Ighodaro proved this year that the skepticism around him should not be discussed. Yes, there are areas he can grow, but with every young player, there are, and he will specialize in that this offseason. For the year he had thought, he definitely put trust in him and this coaching staff. Something that is not quite seen with many second-round selections in their sophomore season.

Therefore, I think he deserves a B+ rating for showing more positive than negative. If the plan continues for Ighodaro, he could be a staple of this bench unit and continue working with his Big East partner, Collin Gillespie, to torch opposing teams.

---

The team with the worst record in the NBA had never won the draft lottery since the league reformed the odds ahead of the 2019 draft. The Washington Wizards changed that on Sunday, capitalizing on a truly awful 17-win season that featured blatant tanking to earn the type of lottery luck this franchise desperately needed.

The Wizards haven’t won 50 games in a season since 1978-79. That might be the single most pathetic stat in the NBA, but winning the lottery suddenly gives D.C. some hope. Washington already made a pair of bold trades for veterans during the season, first landing Trae Young from the Atlanta Hawks, then pulling off a shocking deal for Anthony Davis. There’s already some decent young players on this roster, headlined by 2024’s No. 2 overall pick Alex Sarr, last year’s No. 6 overall pick Tre Johnson, and jumbo creator Kyshawn George.

If the Wizards nail the first overall pick, they could turn this thing around pretty quickly in the East. What does “nailing it” actually look like, though? Washington will have several good options in front of them. Let’s go through them, and pick the best one.

Take AJ Dybantsa at No. 1

Our instant mock draft had the Wizards selecting BYU forward A.J. Dybantsa with the first overall pick. This feels like the clubhouse favorite for what the Wizards will do at No. 1, and it would be a sensible and defensible position.

The Wizards can theoretically throw out a lineup with Anthony Davis at center, Alex Sarr at power forward, Tre Johnson at shooting guard, and Trae Young at point guard. Dybantsa slides in nicely at small forward, and his shot creation could make the whole lineup work. Dybantsa is the best in the class when it comes to manufacturing a good look for himself by leveraging a wicked first step, fantastic driving ability, the power to play through contact, and the length and touch to rise and fire over contests. Johnson’s movement shooting would be a natural fit as a floor spacer, Sarr and Davis could eat inside, and Young could put more focus into his off-ball game, which has admittedly never been a strength.

The Wizards really don’t even need to be thinking about fit. They just won 17 games, and then simply need the best talent possible in the door. If they think that’s Dybantsa, taking him at No. 1 makes sense.

Take Cameron Boozer or Darryn Peterson at No. 1

Cameron Boozer is the No. 1 player on our 2026 NBA Draft board. Boozer’s ability to impact winning has been evident since high school, and he was immediately the best player in college basketball as an 18-year-old freshman. He’s five years younger than the second-best player in college basketball, Yaxel Lendeborg. It took a miracle to keep him out of the Final Four this year. All of that has to count for something. Worry about his athleticism at your own peril, but that hasn’t stopped Nikola Jokic, Luka Doncic, and Steph Curry from becoming generational icons. Boozer brings scoring efficiency, extra possessions via offensive rebounding, and playtype versatility that no other prospect in this class can match. Washington should seriously consider taking him at No. 1.

Darryn Peterson was supposed to be the No. 1 pick at the start of the season, but a strange set of injury issues with cramping and soft tissue strains in his lower body dulled his freshman season at Kansas. If you’re pro-Peterson, there’s an easy argument to make that his injury issues shouldn’t be long-term. It wasn’t that long ago that Peterson was dropping 58 points on Dybantsa when they faced off as high school seniors. Peterson’s three-point shooting was much better than advertised when he showed up to Kansas, and if he regains his explosiveness after getting healthy, he could still emerge as the top player in this class.

Peterson spent much of this season as the mainstream No. 1 on most boards. Boozer is the analytics darling who feels like the people’s champ at No. 1. The point is that Dybantsa is nowhere near the consensus No. 1 like Cooper Flagg was last year, and taking someone else with the first pick would be totally fine for the Wizards.

Trade Down

Let’s go back to the 2017 NBA Draft. A younger version of myself wrote that the Boston Celtics had to take Markelle Fultz with the No. 1 overall pick because he was simply too good to pass on.

Whoops. You get what you pay for here, and this website is free to read.

The Celtics made a brilliant decision by trading down to No. 3, drafting Jayson Tatum, and setting up a future championship core alongside Jaylen Brown. The Wizards are likely to have a similar option this year, especially with Dybantsa’s connections in the state of Utah. Jazz owner Ryan Smith reportedly helped bring Dybantsa to Utah Prep for his senior year of high school, and then played a role in him going to BYU. I assume the Jazz would take Dybantsa if they had the No. 1 pick, and I think they would be willing to trade up to get him.

Utah could toss Washington a future pick or two to swap No. 1 and No. 2. Utah could take Dybatnsa, Washington would then choose between Peterson and Boozer, and they would get an extra asset or two out of it. The Wizards could also trade with the Grizzlies (picking No. 3) or the Bulls (picking No. 4) depending on which player they really want, and how much they could get back in the deal.

One player is probably not changing the Wizards’ life unless they turn into a future MVP. Leveraging more future assets as the team moves into more of a win-now phase would be smart business if they’re not totally sold on Dybantsa at No. 1.

What should the Wizards do?

If I was running the Wizards, I would make a trade with the Jazz to swap No. 1 for No. 2. I’d get an extra asset or two, then I would take Cameron Boozer, since he’s the top player on my board.

Trading out of No. 1 set up the Celtics for a future championship run. The idea of the Wizards building their own championship team feels comical because they’re the Wizards, but hey, crazy things can happen in the East.

Boozer was asked about his draft position at the combine, and said “If a team wants to hang a banner in the rafters, I’m definitely the guy.” That should be good enough for the Wizards.

Khris Middleton was shipped to the Dallas Mavericks at the trade deadline in the deal that sent Anthony Davis to the Washington Wizards. Middleton’s inclusion was all about salary. His contract made the money work both ways, and more importantly for the Mavericks, expires this summer. That gives them the financial relief they need as they begin a new era with Cooper Flagg as the focus.

Middleton was a positive for the Mavericks on the court, though. He provided a steadying veteran presence for a Dallas team that spent the entire season in a state of limbo, perhaps even turmoil at times. Some would say he helped a little too much, leading to wins the Mavericks didn’t need, for lottery reasons. Either way, Middleton remained a pro’s pro during his short stretch in Dallas this season.

Season in review

Middleton had a respectable year, his 13th season in the NBA. Over 63 games with the Mavericks and the Wizards, he averaged 10.2 points, 3.7 rebounds, and 2.8 assists per game. He shot 36 percent from behind the arc for the season.

In 22 games with Dallas, he posted similar numbers: 10 points, 3.3 rebounds, and 2.2 assists per game. He did shoot better once he arrived in the Metroplex, though, upping his percentage from deep to 39 percent.

Middleton had a chance to be waived so that he could latch on with a playoff team, but ultimately decided to stay on with the Mavericks. Maybe he didn’t get any explicit interest from a contender, or perhaps he and his management are thinking it’ll be easier to get one last deal in Dallas since they’ll own his Bird rights (more on that later).

Whatever the reason, Middleton provided a veteran, highly professional player for Jason Kidd to deploy through March and April. There was no chance the former Bucks star was going to lift the Mavericks, but he played entertaining ball here and there. I’ve always enjoyed Middleton’s game, the slow rhythm of his moves, the quietness to his game. Those 22 games won’t mean much in the long-term, but they were a fun watch, something desperately needed the dregs of the NBA season.

Best game

Middleton’s best game probably came at the worst time if you wanted the Mavericks to drop in the standings. On March 12th against the Memphis Grizzlies, Middleton scored 35 points, shooting 8-of-10 on 3-pointers. He also had a couple steals and rebounds, propelling Dallas to a win over a team just below them in the standings. As a result, the Grizzlies will have just a few more lottery balls than the Mavericks. But it was a fun throwback game from Middleton.

Contract status

Middleton’s contract ends this season. He is an unrestricted free agent this summer, freeing up roughly $35 million of salary for Dallas.

Looking Ahead

The Mavericks will not be prioritizing Middleton this summer. He may find some suitors across the league who think he has something left in the tank, or maybe he chases another competitive situation, albeit in a bench role where rarely plays. There’s a chance the Mavericks bring him back on a minimum or close to minimum salary so they have a veteran around for what will likely be a young team.

Grade: B+

Dallas needed a veteran who could play competent basketball alongside Flagg and eat minutes, and that’s exactly what Middleton provided. This season started weird, got worse, and continued to be a barely functioning wreck, but Flagg developed and had a good enough season to win rookie of the year. Middleton was a part keeping things afloat for the last two months, and that’s exactly what you want from a veteran nearing the end of his career.

There is a certain amount of arrogance that you have to have when you become the head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers.

When the front office hands you the keys to basketball’s most glamorous franchise, the one draped in 17 championship banners and impossible expectations, you’re not allowed to have excuses. 

That is why what JJ Redick has done in his first two seasons as head coach of the Lakers deserves far more credit and respect than he’s getting nationally. 

In fact, here’s currently getting ridiculed. 

Last-second substitutions aside, let’s be honest about the situation Redick inherited when he was hired back in the summer of 2024. 

Redick didn’t take over the 1996 Bulls or 2017 Warriors. He inherited an aging top-heavy, injury-riddled roster featuring a 40-year-old LeBron James and a walking MRI in Anthony Davis. But Redick was still under constant pressure to win every single night. That’s what comes with the job. 

Oh, and did we mention he had never coached before at any level?

Not in college, not as an assistant, not in the G League. Nowhere. 

Redick went from sitting across the table from LeBron on a podcast talking basketball philosophy, to holding a clipboard and coaching LeBron on the court. 

Everyone thought Redick would fail spectacularly. 

Instead, he won 50 games in Year 1.

Then he followed that with 53 wins in Year 2. 

Not since Phil Jackson had any Lakers head coach had back-to-back 50-win seasons, and Redick accomplished the feat in his first two years ever doing the job. That matters. 

It matters because coaching in today’s NBA is less about X’s and O’s and more about managing egos, adapting on the fly, and convincing millionaire superstars to sacrifice parts of themselves for the greater good of the team. 

Redick already has a long list of coaching accomplishments. He was gifted Luka Doncic in the middle of last season and had to start from scratch on how to get the most out of a roster that had no rim protection. He guided them to the No. 3 seed in the West.

This season, Redick’s greatest coaching accomplishment was convincing LeBron to become the third option. Something he’s never done before.

“I’ve never been a third option in my life,” said James. “So to be able to thrive in that role…that was pretty cool for me at this stage of my career.”

Redick convinced one of the greatest players of all time to be selfless and humble. That does not happen unless a coach has complete trust inside the locker room. 

Despite having “three quarterbacks” Redick got buy-in from three ball-dominant creators to find a way to play together. Normally, that’s a chemistry disaster. Instead, it became one of the more selfless Lakers teams in years. 

“JJ did an amazing job of fitting all that together,” said Lakers GM Rob Pelinka. “It was incredibly impressive.”

Redick spent two seasons coaching without the benefit of practice days. Without roster balance and without a reliable center. It felt like the Lakers were constantly trying to patch leaks in a sinking boat, while simultaneously racing the fastest teams in the league. 

Redick’s decision to switch to zone midway through the season was a great example of adaptability. Early in the season, the Lakers did not have the foot speed to survive in man-to-man coverage. So Redick switched to zone. The players all would later admit that the communication required to play zone sharpened them defensively when they switched back.

Now that’s coaching. 

And when Doncic and Reaves both went down with serious injuries on April 2, the season should have collapsed right there. Any other team would have folded and started booking their tickets to Cancun. 

Instead, Redick recalibrated again. 

He shifted LeBron back to the number one scoring option. He unlocked Luke Kennard, and he unleashed Rui Hachimura. 

Redick understood Kennard’s game from years of watching him dating back to high school and college. Redick did what nine other coaches couldn’t do, and challenged Kennard to handle the ball, create offense, and make reads off the dribble instead of being a spot-up three-point shooter. The result was a triple-double in his first game. A little over a week later, came a stunning 27-point performance in Game 1 of the first round series with the Rockets that sparked the eventual upset. 

Redick helped develop a hesitant and overwhelmed Hachimura into one of the most dangerous playoff shooters the NBA has ever seen. Hachimura shot 56.9% from three during the postseason and looks more confident than at any other point in his career. That’s coaching. 

The season didn’t end the way anyone wanted. A sweep is never how you want to go out.

But without Doncic, the Lakers were trying to survive against the youngest, deepest, and most athletic team in basketball. The reigning Champion OKC Thunder. 

And that’s not an indictment of Redick. If anything, the fact that the Lakers remained competitive at all says more about him than the sweep itself. 

And now, for the first time under Redick, the Lakers will enter the offseason with real financial flexibility and a clearer understanding of their identity. They will have plenty of cap space to spend. They have Doncic as their centerpiece. Most importantly, they have a coach who players genuinely believe in. 

Two years ago, everyone mocked the hire, but Redick is no longer a podcast host pretending to coach. 

He’s a real one.

---

Download The California Post App, follow us on social, and subscribe to our newsletters

After the Lakers were booted from the playoffs by a younger and faster Thunder team, Luka Doncic reminisced about what could’ve been. 

In March, the Big Three were healthy. They had gone on a 15-2 run. They were soaring. 

“We thought we were gonna compete for a championship,” Doncic said.

But those hopes dimmed amid a string of injuries to Doncic (hamstring) and Reaves (oblique), and ultimately came crashing down against a second-round opponent that was deeper and vastly superior on both ends of the court. 

Now a franchise that views anything short of winning a championship as failing needs to hit the drawing board. Lakers’ president of basketball operations and general manager Rob Pelinka shared his vision during his exit interview Tuesday. 

The priority is building around Doncic, but he believes the Lakers can do that while keeping their Big Three together. 

“Of course, we want that core to be back together,” Pelinka said.

There are a lot of moving pieces for the Lakers this offseason, including impending decisions by free agents James, Reaves, Rui Hachimura, Jaxson Hayes and Luke Kennard. Marcus Smart and Deandre Ayton have player options.

One of the biggest dominos will be James.

The 41-year-old reiterated that he’s uncertain about his future after the Lakers’ Game 4 loss to the Thunder on Monday. Pelinka said if James chooses to return for his 24th season, the Lakers would welcome him back. 

“Of course, any team, including ours, would love to have LeBron James on their roster,” Pelinka said. “That’s a blessing in itself just with what he does.”

For that to work, James would need to agree to a significant pay cut from the $52.6 he earned this season. 

James, who averaged 20.9 points, 6.1 rebounds and 7.2 assists this season, proved that he’s willing to sacrifice and do what’s best for the team after embracing becoming the team’s third option this spring. Would the Lakers be able to find a better “role player” than him? No. 

And if James chooses to return, the Lakers would seemingly be the best situation for him considering his family has made LA their home and he has played for the franchise for the last eight seasons.

But before making any decisions, James wants to confer with his wife, daughter and sons, as well as do some introspection over whether he’s still “in love with the process.”

As for Reaves, who’s expected to turn down his $14.9 player option to become a free agent, he has made it clear he loves playing alongside Doncic and wants to keep playing with James. 

Pelinka anticipates a deal working out between the two parties. 

“He started his journey here as a Laker and has made it very clear to us that he wants his journey to continue as a Laker,” Pelinka said of Reaves, who averaged a career-high 23.3 points on 49% shooting from the field, 36% from deep this season. “And we feel the same way. We want his Odyssey to continue to unfold in the Purple and Gold.”

But if the Lakers bring back their core, do they have enough maneuverability to construct a roster that can compete with top echelon teams?

Therein lies the rub.

The Lakers have three first-round picks and it’s no secret they’re going to try and target Milwaukee Bucks superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo this offseason. 

But if there’s one thing they learned from their series against the Thunder it’s that they need more depth. 

They’re too top heavy. The Thunder had 13 players who were playing well. The Lakers were lucky if they had six.

“I think depth is really important, athleticism and youth,” Pelinka said. “We have a lot of components of that on our roster, but we need to add to it.”

The Lakers also desperately need to bolster their defense and acquire more shooters who can spread the court for Doncic. Pelinka hopes to find some diamonds in the rough who they can develop.

He pointed to the fact that Ajay Mitchell was a second round draft pick. Mitchell torched LA with 22.5 points a game while also playing lockdown defense in their second-round series.

“There’s ways to add to your roster if you commit to doing the hard work and commit to the process of adding the right pieces,” Pelinka said.

But for the Lakers, everything starts and stops with Doncic, who averaged a league-leading 33.5 points a game, was third in assists (8.3) and sixth in steals (1.6).

He’s their now. He’s their future.

Pelinka plans to meet with Doncic on Friday or Saturday. He praised Doncic for being open about the style her prefers to play and whom he wants to play alongside.

“We’re in constant communication with him and his team,” Pelinka said of the Slovenian superstar. “I plan on seeing him before he takes off to go home and spend time with his daughters.”

It’s going to be a very active offseason for the Lakers. 

Right now there are far more questions than answers. 

But this much is for sure: The Lakers are going to need to make some major tweaks to be able to compete for their 18th championship. 

“We’ve got to find a way to have a roster that will compete with any team in the NBA,” Pelinka said. “That’s what we do here.”

---

Download The California Post App, follow us on social, and subscribe to our newsletters

We are fully in draft season now.

With a lauded class of athletes entering the draft this cycle — barring some unexpected withdrawals — there will surely be differing opinions for the Hawks at number eight overall.

Let’s do a quick check-in on who different media members project the Hawks to take, pre-combine edition:

Jeremy Woo of ESPN gets us started with a popular Louisville guard:

8. Atlanta Hawks (via New Orleans)

Mikel Brown Jr., PG, Louisville
Freshman

The Hawks’ shrewd decision to trade away the 13th pick in last year’s draft for this one — the better of New Orleans’ and Milwaukee’s selections — didn’t result in a top-four pick but still moved them up five spots in a strong draft. Selecting this early after winning 46 games last season was a positive outcome for Atlanta, no matter where this pick fell. The Hawks lack a true point guard after moving on from Trae Young, and Brown’s perimeter playmaking makes him an intriguing fit if they opt to go in that direction.

Brown’s back injury made it difficult for him to boost his stock in-season, making the predraft process critical for showing teams he is healthy and reminding them of his significant offensive talent. His positional size, shooting ability and passing skills should stand out in workout settings, but he needs a positive spring to work his way further up the board in a guard-heavy lottery, with Darius Acuff, Keaton Wagler and Kingston Flemings all having outstanding seasons. There are still scouts who view Brown’s upside as the highest of the group, but it might take some work for him to leap ahead of the other top guards.

The Athletic’s Sam Vecenie settled on the same player. His blurb:

8. Atlanta Hawks (via NOP)

Mikel Brown Jr. | 6-4 guard | 20 years old | Louisville

Brown’s best flashes were those of a top-five pick. He dropped 45 points with 10 made 3s in a game against NC State, then followed it up with 29 points, six assists and three rebounds against Baylor and 29 points, five rebounds and four assists against SMU. When Brown had it rolling, there was no more dynamic ball-screen playmaker in college basketball. He has range out to 30 feet, and his vision as a playmaker for others exceeds everyone in the class when playing in a screen. If anyone in this deep draft class could average nine or 10 assists per game in the NBA, it’s Brown.

So why does he slip to No. 8? Some negative aspects of his game resemble the issues LaMelo Ball has, while he’s not quite as dynamic as Ball is in his best moments. First and foremost, Brown is extremely wild. The turnovers are an issue. He hasn’t figured out how to moderate his decision-making. Second, his defense is a work in progress. He’s a serious negative in switch situations against stronger players, and his off-ball instincts are hit or miss. Brown’s back injury recurred later in the season, too, causing him to miss the postseason. He got very little time off from the end of his high school season to the start of his college season, going from the all-star circuit directly into the under-19 World Cup and then into Louisville’s preseason. Scouts want to know if Brown’s back is merely a short-term issue from overuse or if it could be a long-term problem.

For a team that moved Trae Young at the deadline and has some pressing questions at the lead guard spot, Brown makes a ton of sense. He’d fit next to players like Dyson Daniels and Nickeil Alexander-Walker, and his shooting ability would help accentuate Jalen Johnson’s driving skills.

And third and finally, J. Kyle Mann of The Ringer’s NBA coverage tapped a different guard prospect:

8. Atlanta Hawks (via New Orleans)

Kingston Flemings (Guard, Houston)

Many in the basketball world cackled at New Orleans’s decision to trade its 2026 pick for the 13th spot in last year’s draft because they saw two things on the horizon: the talent in the 2026 class and the losses that were inevitably in store for the Pelicans. Atlanta didn’t ultimately find a golden ticket, as NOLA avoided the catastrophe of finishing at the bottom of the standings, but it still has a chance to fill a need in a draft chock-full of skilled guards. You could argue that it would be hard for the Hawks to go wrong with the guards that are likely to be available in this range, but in this scenario, Flemings would make the most sense to me. For one, he is greased lightning with a basketball in open space, and the Hawks excel at creating fast-break opportunities with their defense. For another, he’s an underrated playmaker who is just as happy flowing within an offense as he is creating for himself.

---

Do you agree with either of these selections? Who else would be a better pick for the Hawks? Please let me know in the comments below.

The postseason has been tough for Keldon Johnson.

Ever since winning NBA Sixth Man of the Year, he’s struggled to maintain the vitality that earned him the league honor.

This season the Spurs had seven players average scoring in double figures. *Harrison Barnes was 5 points from the Spurs having eight players in double figs, which would have been an NBA first. Ever since then, Keldon’s scoring dropped off.

In his first playoff series versus the Portland Trail Blazers, KJ averaged just over 6 points per game.

Against the Timberwolves, he’s scored 11, 9, 11, and 4 in the first four games. Better, but not stellar.

Last night, Keldon reignited early, bringing a spark off the bench, which is saying a lot considering the game Victor Wembanyama was having.

Johnson’s signasture highlight came on his psterization of Timberwolves big man Rudy Gobert.

It was vintage KJ all night as he scored 21 points on 8 of 11 shooting. He hit one three-pointer and added two steals to that viral block.

Johnson’s emergence couldn’t have come at a better time.

After sitting out the majority of three quarters in Game 4, Victor Wembanyama came out swinging, scoring 18 of his 27 points in the first quarter. He cooled considerably in the latter half of the game, leaving the Spurs looking for scoring.

Although De’Aaron Fox and Dylan Harper played, their participation was a game time decision. With so much uncertainty coming out of the locker room, KJ was a driving force.

It was Keldon who embraced the moment, riding that patented high energy into timeouts and ramping up his team and the crowd, just as he has done all season.

Look for Keldon to continue to bring passion to Game 6, where the Spurs head into hostile territory, returning to the City of Lakes.

A Game 6 win sends the Spurs into the Western Conference Finals for the first time since 2017.

---

Welcome to the Thread. Join in the conversation, start your own discussion, and share your thoughts. This is the Spurs community, your Spurs community. Thanks for being here.

Our community guidelines apply which should remind everyone to be cool, avoid personal attacks, not to troll and to watch the language.

How far are the Philadelphia 76ers away from competing for an Eastern Conference title?

Far enough that they fired firmer president of basketball operations Daryl Morey on Tuesday, May 12, a move that came two days after the New York Knicks unceremoniously dispatched them in a sweep with an average margin of defeat of 22.3 points.

On the surface, the Sixers have some elite pieces that make them competitive in any given game. But the roster has some serious holes and there are a pair of cumbersome contracts that restrict the team’s flexibility.

So as Bob Myers, the architect of the Golden State Warriors’ four most recent NBA titles, conducts a search for Morey’s replacement, there are clear steps that need to be taken to return Philadelphia to the top of the East. Frankly, many of those steps require undoing some of the mistakes Morey made.

Joel Embiid and Paul George are expensive

The largest problems are the contracts of center Joel Embiid and forward Paul George.

Embiid’s three-year, $192.9 million extension, signed in September 2024, kicks in at the start of the new league year. It carries a player option for 2028-29 and essentially pays Embiid, who will be 35 by the time the deal expires, an average of $62.6 million each season.

That’s just the going rate for a former Most Valuable Player and seven-time All-Star. The issue is that Embiid, as hard as he might have worked on his body and health, simply has not been available; over the last three seasons, Embiid has played just 96 of a possible 246 games, or 39%.

When Embiid is healthy and on the floor, he continues to be a matchup nightmare with his strength, shooting and ability to get to the line. But it’s difficult for a team to maximize its roster when so much of the salary cap is devoted to a player who misses as much time as Embiid.

It gets worse with George. He just turned 36 and is under contract for next season, with a $56.6 million player option for 2027-28. And although George had a decent stretch in the postseason, it’s simply too rich a deal for a player with that level of production.

The best course of action would be for the next president of basketball operations to try to offload one of those contracts, with George being the most favorable to move; despite his health issues and lack of consistent availability, Embiid is simply a more proven difference maker.

Focus on depth and development

Then there’s the issue of depth. Coach Nick Nurse shrunk his rotation down to eight men, and part of it was out of necessity. Some of Morey’s moves — trading second-year guard Jared McCain to the Thunder for three second-round picks; cutting Julian Champagnie to make room for Mac McClung; cutting Isaiah Joe to clear a spot for Dwayne Dedmon — robbed Philadelphia of young (read: cheaper) players who can fill out a roster and contribute.

This postseason, McCain and Joe are playing key reserve roles for Oklahoma City and Champagnie has been a steady starter for the Spurs.

The McCain move is particularly painful, as he had flashed promise in his rookie year before injury derailed his season. Would McCain, Joe and Champagnie won the Sixers the series against the Knicks? That’s extremely unlikely, but developing incumbent players and getting them to produce is the sign of a healthy organization. Put another way: the next president of basketball ops needs to restock the bench.

Tyrese Maxey, VJ Edgecombe are valuable building blocks

It’s not all bad news. Guard Tyrese Maxey, a two-time All-Star, is one of the game’s premier shooters and scorers. Rookie VJ Edgecombe has all the makings of a stellar two-guard.

The 76ers, however, should try to find a point guard to facilitate offense for Maxey, who struggled against New York when the Knicks were able to blitz him when he had the ball in his hands. Allowing Maxey to play off the ball more should open up his game, and the offense, overall.

The 76ers are in that wasteland in the middle of the East, the purgatory of being good but obviously not good enough. The positive is that they have a path forward.

Now all they have to do is hire the right person to lead the franchise.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: What's next for Philadelphia 76ers after firing Daryl Morey?

The story of Clint Capela returning to the Rockets begins, as most tragic stories do, with Steven Adams. Steven Adams over the past four regular seasons has played in 138 of 328 possible games. His last fully healthy season was 2022-23 with the Memphis Grizzlies. While Adams has been undeniably effective in the ways he’s always been effective, grabbing tons of rebounds, especially offensive rebounds, controlling the paint, and setting crushing screens, he’s also spent his most recent years not doing that, sidelined with serious injury. So it proved this season, as Steven Adams played in 32 games before going out for the season with an ankle injury requiring surgery.

Obviously knowing this history, during the off season of 2025, the Rockets signed Clint Capela as a free agent, as his time with the Atlanta Hawks had clearly come to an end. It appeared the Hawks weren’t happy with Capela, and Capela wasn’t especially happy with the Hawks.

For the Rockets purposes, though, Capela might have appeared to be an ideal third center. Capela’s athleticism had diminished considerably from his Baby Deer heyday with the Rockets and James Harden, where he seemed to smash down at least five lobs per game, averaging just under 20pts per game, while grabbing a baker’s dozen rebounds and blocking a couple of shots every game. At the time I thought he was one of the more underrated centers in the NBA.

Even in decline, though, Clint’s rate stats have held up pretty well. His per36 in his last healthy season in Atlanta saw him at 16pts/15rbs/2blk with a staggering 18.7% offensive rebounding percentage. (For bench players with lower, and sometimes sporadic minutes, I think per36 gives a better idea of what they’ve done.) Given Capela’s salary, the Rockets evident plan of trying to boost their offensive output via offensive rebounding, and Steven Adams’ typically fragile health, the signing seemed a sensible one. A third center who approached Adams in rebounding skills, particularly on the offensive glass might be handy.

On a per36 basis last season, Capela did the business. He averaged 11pts/13.4rbs/2.4blks. His shot attempts were down to about 8.5 from 12, so there’s a fairly easy explanation for the drop in points. His offensive rebounding rate was the highest of his career at 19.4%, a number that would have lead the NBA in many seasons. Capela has always been good at that, in fact he’s 5th all time, in NBA history, in offensive rebounding rate.

This all would have been fine, and demonstrative of good planning, except for two things. The first is, Capela hardly played, even after Adams was lost for the season after 32 games. The second was that signing Capela hard capped the Rockets, making acquisitions and further signings difficult to achieve. Perhaps so difficult that none, in fact, occurred.

Initially it was easy to see why Capela wasn’t playing much. Adams was playing as well as he ever had, and Capela came into the season looking out of shape, and far less mobile that even in his recent past. But Capela began to find his way back. He looked lighter, more mobile, especially by late winter to early spring. The springiness that characterized his early career was gone, but seemed to be replaced with a real savvy about positioning for blocks, and grabbing boards. He was moving far better than early on, and it would seem the Rockets could use that.

Use it they did not.

It’s hard to say it was because Capela was ineffective when he played, especially later in the season. Although his early minutes were not encouraging, he improved under the care of the Rockets training staff, it would seem. But still he didn’t play. It was as if the Rockets bought a spare car, that very much like their unreliable main car, but when the main car broke once again, they refused to drive the back up car more than around the block twice a week. Ime Udoka’s idiosyncratic approach to the Rockets roster, rotations, substitutions, really, almost anything you care to name, lead to Clint Capela, with the Rockets primary backup center lost for the season, averaging 12 minutes per game, about the least he could play, given typical NBA center minutes for Sengun. This would be the lowest average of his career since he was a 20 year old 25th pick back in 2014.

Even in a playoff series where Alperen Sengun struggled with a re-engaged Deandre Ayton, Capela barely played. The Rockets often struggled to rebound, and were sometimes beaten on the offensive glass, an area where, again, Capela still excels. He didn’t play a single minute after game three.

The cost in roster options was even higher, of course. The Rockets desperately needed another guard or two after Fred VanVleet went out for the season. They wouldn’t get one, and the deal for Capela and subsequent lack of guards, proved to be the key enabler of Udoka’s preferred All Forwards, One Center, attack. An approach that made the Rockets 2025-26 offense so very distinctive.

Given the opportunity cost, and Udoka’s unwillingness to play him, Capela turned out to be a bad signing, through no real fault of his own.

With the offseason hitting Celtics fans much earlier than usual, there’s been a lot of discourse about the team outside of basketball. In particular, Jaylen Brown has been getting more attention than usual. His name has popped up in trade rumors, and fans and analysts alike have been holding a magnifying glass to every comment and action he’s taken since the season ended.

This year, JB was looked at as the definitive number one option for Boston given Jayson Tatum’s absence while recovering from his torn Achilles. At the same time, Jaylen made himself more available to the public than ever before, live-streaming on Twitch throughout the season so he had an extra way to connect with fans and express himself. It was a decision that was likely made with the intention of having a more liberating experience, allowing JB to speak directly to his fans about what was on his mind, but the NBA world has only used it to tear him down so far.

Just a day after being eliminated from the playoffs, Jaylen went on a stream and took a moment to reflect on the season: “Man, this group is a special group. I’m so proud of this group, and the way we played… I’m so proud, and it was the favorite year of my basketball career. One, streaming with you guys, chat, was awesome. Like being able to talk to y’all was like therapy… Just being able to get on here, give y’all the perspective – ‘cause you know these narratives be going left and right – just to hear it from the horse’s mouth. But then also, just being able to be a part of a group that through the uncertainty came to fight, and came to compete, and came and went to war. I’ll take a team like that any day.”

"It was my favorite year of my basketball career"

– Jaylen Brown pic.twitter.com/e5IFF93dWy

— Riley ❄️ (@rileysbetter) May 4, 2026

The clip started to spread later that night and into the next morning. If you’d believe it, nobody was happy with what Jaylen said. Now if you’re looking at that full quote and wondering what people were mad about, I was in the same boat.

The issue that people took from it was that he called it his favorite season.

In their eyes, Jaylen was taking a shot at his co-superstar, Jayson Tatum. JB’s very explicit words got twisted into a supposedly implicit insinuation that it was his favorite season since he didn’t have to share the floor with JT, and that he finally got to be a number one option. If reading that made you roll your eyes, same.

People were also mad that Jaylen seemed “too happy” after an early playoff exit. They said he hopped on the stream too soon after the loss, and was not nearly mad or sad enough about it.

These narratives were given even more life when they were amplified by the likes of Stephen A. Smith, Nick Wright, and even popular Celtics fan accounts on Twitter. To make matters worse, Tracy McGrady, one of Jaylen’s friends and mentors, said that he heard from Brown that JB wasn’t happy with Celtics ownership, a comment that McGrady didn’t walk back until days later.

Cue the annual trade rumors.

Just a day after T-Mac’s initial comments, Brad Stevens gave his exit interview for the team, and addressed the comments directly. He emphasized that he’s been in communication with Brown throughout the season, and that JB has never come to him with any grievances, both parties seeing eye-to-eye.

Later that day, Jaylen went back to Twitch for another livestream. He did so to take all of these stories head on. First, he apologized to Brad Stevens and the Celtics organization, saying that Brad never should have had to address McGrady’s comments in the first place. He re-iterated that he loves Boston, has no issues with how things have been handled, and would “spend the next 10 years in Boston” if it were up to him.

Jaylen also addressed his comments about it being his favorite season: “I got to see it from a day-in, day-out basis where the expectations for this team was to fail. The expectations for this team was to be nothing, and for us to give in and to quit, and this team did the exact opposite. We fought every single day. We fought for everything. I got to see Jayson Tatum come back from an injury – mentally overcome what that takes… this is a part of the reason why it was my favorite year. You got to see all of these guys – all of my teammates grow. I got to see them overcome adversity as a group.”

Jaylen Brown explained why this season was his favorite, listing the growth of his teammates as reasons why, including Jayson Tatum:

“I got to see Jayson come back from an injury, mentally overcome what that takes.”

JB went on to say he wasn’t satisfied w/ how the year ended. pic.twitter.com/fLwtq6TuR3

— Daniel Donabedian (@danield1214) May 7, 2026

The first statement should have been clear enough for those who took the time to listen to it. The second should have removed all doubt. “Should” doesn’t always end up being reality, though.

Narratives sell in the sports world. It seems like these days, some fans find more entertainment in the drama than they do in the actual games. Sports media tends to lean into that, and amplify it for the sake of clicks and ratings.

Unfortunately, I have to give Stephen A. Smith a little more of that attention he craves here. He made comments about JB’s streaming, and his doubling down on the “favorite season” comments, saying that “[Jaylen] needs to be quiet… unless you’re trying to get traded.”

Maybe I’m taking it too far, but to me, it reads the exact same as “shut up and dribble,” which is rich coming from someone whose only success in the sports world comes from commenting on the success, or lack thereof, of the people in a profession which he wasn’t cut out for. Smith makes his money doing the same thing that he’s telling JB not to do, and he lives to control the narratives, something which Jaylen is trying to do for himself.

I found it incredibly unnecessary, hypocritical, and tone deaf.

JB wasn’t a fan either, quote-tweeting the clip with a simple message: “I’ll ‘be quiet’/stop streaming if you ‘be quiet’ and retire let’s give the people what they want”.

I’ll “be quiet” / stop streaming if you “be quiet” and retire let’s give the people what they want https://t.co/uRiHDyvIHo

— Jaylen Brown (@FCHWPO) May 7, 2026

Jaylen also shared a clip from Carmelo Anthony’s podcast where Melo was commenting on Brown’s streaming situation. In it, Anthony had this to say: “Why give a press conference to a company when I’m my own IP? I can go do my own press conference… Streaming is a new press conference. Right? Nobody wanna sit in a room no more and answer on five, six, seven reporters. They wanna get to the nitty-gritty of it and face it face-to-face with your followers and the people who’s actually watching. ‘Cause they’re the ones who’s really gonna ask the real questions. So, I get my message to you, then I get my message to everybody else.”

🎯🎯🎯 pic.twitter.com/IfMAlb70Xk

— Jaylen Brown (@FCHWPO) May 12, 2026

Melo hit the nail on the head. A lot of Jaylen’s message since he came into the league has been about embracing and achieving personal autonomy. He has always wanted to be in control of his own messaging, as well as his own destiny, which is part of why he created his own shoe brand instead of signing with one of the big dogs in the sneaker industry. Melo’s message was one of personal empowerment, which is likely why it resonated with JB.

Athletes have never had more power than they do in today’s day and age. There are a multitude of platforms that give them a voice they didn’t have in years past. Jaylen is far from the only one to take advantage of that.

Fans eat up looks into the players’ personal lives with documentaries like Netflix’s “Starting Five”, a show that followed the lives of five different NBA players in each of its two seasons. Tatum was part of the first season, while Brown was part of the second. Why are we okay with a Netflix director telling the players’ stories, but not the players themselves?

I would understand it more if the players were sharing disparaging comments, or otherwise sharing outwardly controversial or reckless statements when they were taking matters into their own hands, but why are we creating problems out of nothing? We shouldn’t be critical of players for using their voice to tell their own stories. They’re human too. We may just see them as basketball players, but they have lives well beyond the court. It’s not up to us to tell them what they should do with their free time, how they should react to a loss, how they should respond, when they can respond, or what they’re allowed to talk about.

Everyone will have their opinions. I think me telling fans not to comment on things like this would be incredibly hypocritical. All I ask is that if you plan on leaving those comments, try not to read too much into everything. Take a step back and look at these guys beyond the lens of them being athletes, and look at them as people, too.

On its face, the fit between Masai Ujiri and the Dallas Mavericks is perfect. “It’s almost like a match made in heaven,” Ujiri said after being introduced as the franchise’s president of basketball operations and alternate governor last week. “Every single one of us in this world is chosen for something special, and we just have to find it,” he added. “And I found basketball.”

Since he became the first African to run a major sports franchise in the United States as the general manager of the Denver Nuggets in 2010, Ujiri has accomplished everything. After winning Executive of the Year with the Nuggets in 2013, he moved to Toronto and inherited a Raptors franchise unsure of itself. The Raptors were the only NBA team outside the US – one centered in a city that hadn’t won anything since 1993 – and Ujiri had to convince Raptors fans to believe in themselves. He built one of the deepest and most international teams in the NBA after hitting on numerous draft picks and finally swapping franchise cornerstone DeMar DeRozan for pending free agent Kawhi Leonard in 2018.

Less than a year later, the Raptors were champions for the first time in their history, and the culture of Canadian sports was changed. Mavericks fans are hoping Ujiri can perform a similar transformation in Dallas.

Fifteen months after trading cherished superstar Luka Dončić to the Los Angeles Lakers in one of the most unpopular deals in sports history, the Mavericks are ready to move on. The team lucked into the No 1 pick in the 2025 draft and selected this season’s Rookie of the Year winner, Cooper Flagg, but they still finished well short of the playoffs.

“There’s a healing process,” Ujiri said about Mavericks fans’ grief in the post-Dončić era. “Luka is a future Hall of Famer, and that’s the past. In Africa, we say when kings go, kings come. The king went, and we have a little prince here [in Flagg] that we’re going to turn into a king.”

Few talent evaluators are better equipped than Ujiri to surround Flagg with the pieces he needs to be successful. The Mavericks have the ninth, 30th and 48th pick in this year’s draft to try to hit on an OG Anunoby or Pascal Siakam, who both helped to win the Raptors their title after being drafted by Ujiri. Few team builders have a better track record of taking a hopeless organization from the bottom of the NBA to the top, building a championship contender capable of taking down juggernauts; and nobody is better suited than Ujiri to pull the Mavericks out of the deep financial and cultural hole they dug for themselves in the wake of the Dončić trade.

So, why does Ujiri in Dallas feel so wrong?

As much as Ujiri has helped change basketball over the last two decades, he has never allowed the sport to define him. In 2003, while working as an unpaid NBA team scout, Ujiri co-founded the non-profit Giants of Africa, which supplies thousands of young boys and girls throughout the continent with basketball camps and 100 community courts. “Sport doesn’t just unite people,” Ujiri has said. “It breaks down barriers, builds hope and transforms entire communities.”

Ujiri’s humanitarian efforts have been well recognized. He has charmed presidents and prime ministers while being named an Officer of the Order of Canada. Under Ujiri, the Raptors were at the forefront of many social issues, from female empowerment to anti-racism, famously branding the team bus with “Black Lives Matter” after police killed George Floyd in May 2020. In an opinion piece for the Globe and Mailthat same year, Ujiri wrote: “We all came into this world the same way – as humans. No one is born to be racist and none of us sees colour at first. I believe there are far more good people than bad people, but sometimes the good must do more than simply be good. They must overwhelm the bad.”

It’s safe to say the people signing Ujiri’s new cheques may not be as interested in social justice. In 2023, the Mavericks’ majority owner, Miriam Adelson, wrote an op-ed claiming that pro-Palestinian and Black Lives Matter activists are “not our critics. They are our enemies … And, as such, they should be dead to us.”

Adelson has been called the most dangerous owner in professional sports. The widow of casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, she has amassed her fortune primarily from owning the Las Vegas Sands casino and resort company. In late 2023, Miriam Adelson purchased majority ownership of the Dallas Mavericks from Mark Cuban for $3.5bn – a drop in the ocean for the fifth richest woman in America, whose wealth is estimated to be around $35bn.

Adelson is also a Donald Trump mega-donor, the most generous of any sports team owner by some margin. (No individuals donated more money to Trump’s campaign efforts in 2020. In 2024, Adelson gave more than $100m to Trump.) She is also involved in politics outside the US. Adelson helped Benjamin Netanyahu secure the most right-wing government in Israel’s history, although the relationship has since soured, before influencing Trump’s Middle East policy. She and Sheldon were influential in the United States moving its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in 2018, the same year Trump awarded her with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Trump and Netanyahu have gone on to cause havoc across the Middle East: Israel’s military actions in Gaza have been widely described as genocide, while the US has started a war with Iran that has killed hundreds of people.

Ujiri has always been outspoken, albeit with completely different politics from Adelson. In 2018, after Trump referred to Haiti and some African nations as “shithole countries”, Ujiri criticized the US president. “We have to inspire people and give them a sense of hope,” he said. “We need to bring people along, not ridicule and tear them down. This cannot be the message that we accept from the leader of the free world.” He later added that if the Raptors won a championship, “I think we’ll be fine with [only visiting Canadian prime minister Justin] Trudeau.”

In Toronto, Ujiri was shielded by former Raptors governor Larry Tanenbaum, a staunch liberal. Plus, there was a border separating Canada and the United States, who still had a good relationship at the time. Now that he is in a state as red as Texas – in charge of a team as prominent as the Mavericks – there is little protection, even if the team’s fanbase skews Democrat. At the same time, there’s a huge platform for someone as ambitious and politically outspoken as Ujiri to discuss important issues. One has to wonder if he will decide to. After all, other members of the Mavericks have gone quiet after moving to Dallas.

Kyrie Irving was once a walking headline. While his views were often far more dismal than Ujiri’s – he promoted an antisemitic film and very publicly refused to take the Covid-19 vaccine – he was once adamant that speaking out on issues important to him was more pressing than his NBA career.

“Basketball is just not the most important thing to me right now … All my people are still in bondage all across the world, and there’s a lot of dehumanization going on … It’s not just in Palestine, not just in Israel. It’s all over the world, and I feel it,” he said in 2021. But ever since he was traded from Brooklyn to Dallas in 2023, Irving has gone largely quiet – although he has recently shown his support for Palestine – while he works for a woman who is a staunch supporter of Israel.

“Kyrie Irving, even as he focuses on basketball, has liked lots of tweets in support of ending genocide in Gaza. And Mark Cuban has also long been on the record as a huge anti-Trump critic,” Pablo Torre said in a podcast episode dedicated to Adelson. “But ever since Cuban sold Adelson the team … Everybody that I’ve mentioned has pretty much all shut up and dribbled, mainstreaming the image of Miriam Adelson and partying with her courtside, laundering her extremism to the world.”

That’s not to say Ujiri will do the same, and Irving’s actions are proof that Adelson has not outlawed subtle shows of support for causes she does not agree with. Ujiri has the opportunity to make the world a better place from inside the Mavericks, standing on his morals by using his new and improved platform to change the organization – and perhaps the US – for the better. History, of course, is against him. That never stopped Ujiri before.

Victor Wembanyama starred as the San Antonio Spurs moved to within one win of a Western Conference final against the Oklahoma City Thunder by taking a 3-2 lead against the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Wembanyama scored 27 points - including 18 in the first quarter - to lead the Spurs to a 126-97 victory in game five of the best-of-seven series.

His display came after the 22-year-old was ejected for the first time in his NBA career in the previous game for elbowing an opponent, although he did not receive a suspension.

Victory in game six for the Spurs in Minneapolis on Friday would set up a showdown with the Thunder - the reigning NBA champions - who completed a 4-0 sweep of the Los Angeles Lakers.

On whether he was anxious about returning for game five, Wembanyama said: "Very, very much. I mean, I was fresh, feeling good. But honestly, it's hard to tell if it was just getting fired up.

"Obviously, I'm going to be excited with butterflies, you know. So excitement is not something abnormal."

Asked about Wembanyama, Spurs coach Mitch Johnson said: "The one word I'd like to use [is] just mature.

"There's a lot that's happened in the last 48 hours, in the last game, and I think how that young man came out tonight and played in a variety of ways, in a variety of situations, was extremely mature."

The Spurs allowed an 18-point second-quarter lead to slip as Minnesota levelled the game at 61-61 four minutes into the third quarter.

But San Antonio rallied again, scoring 30 of the next 42 points to take a 91-73 lead into the final quarter - and extended that advantage even further.

Throughout the majority of the Lakers’ red hot March, Rui Hachimura was coming off the bench as a key reserve. Two months later, with the season on the line, he was having one of the best games of his career while trying to save the Lakers from elimination.

No one did more for his stock this postseason than Rui. After a regular season with mixed results and changing roles, Rui stepped up after the injuries to Luka Dončić and Austin Reaves and delivered in a big way.

Across the team’s 10 playoff games, Rui averaged 17.5 points per game on 54.9% shooting overall and an absurd 56.9% shooting from the 3-point line. He shot above 50% from three in every game as well, a truly impressive feat.

It all couldn’t have come at a better time for him as he’s set for unrestricted free agency this offseason. After his strong postseason, he’s set for a big payday, and it sounds like the Lakers could be the ones that offer it up.

On Tuesday, Dan Woike of The Athletic wrote a lengthy piece with plenty of great reporting on the present and future of the Lakers. Included in that was a tidbit on Rui and how most expect him to return to LA this summer.

Hachimura could be a priority for the Lakers. The 28-year-old is widely believed to want to stay with the Lakers. He shot 44.3 percent from 3-point range this season and is well-liked inside the locker room.

Rui has definitely found a home in LA after an underwhelming start to his career in Washington. His transformation from a high-volume midrange shooter to a high-efficiency laser from range has been remarkable. It speaks both to the work he’s done on his game as well as the level of comfort he has with the franchise, which President of Basketball Operations Rob Pelinka pointed out during his exit interview on Tuesday.

“From the time I traded for him when he came from the Wizards, Rui has gotten incredibly comfortable here,” Pelinka said. “Comfortable with the coaches and the front office and our systems and what I’ve seen in that, once Rui gets to a point of trust and comfort, then he grows exponentially with his production on the court.

“That’s what I’ve noticed most about him is just there’s a trust factor and comfort level that allows him to be the highest version of himself. That’s really important to keep those pieces.”

It surely sounds like someone who plans on retaining Rui this summer.

The question when it comes to free agents will always be the price point. But if Rui wants to be in LA and the Lakers want to keep him, you’d have to imagine they can iron out a deal that works for both sides.

You can follow Jacob on Twitter at @JacobRude or on Bluesky at @jacobrude.bsky.social.

The Minnesota Timberwolves entered Game 5 in San Antonio with a chance to retake control of their Western Conference Semifinals series. A win would have snatched back home-court advantage, put the Spurs on the brink of elimination, and set up a Friday night closeout opportunity at Target Center.

Unfortunately, none of that happened.

Instead, Minnesota walked out of Frost Bank Center as the victim of another massive road blowout, their second such collapse in San Antonio in this series. And now the Wolves find themselves staring at the edge of the cliff. Not near it. Not wandering vaguely in its direction. Standing right on it.

We all knew Game 5 mattered. This was the hinge game. The winner would take control of the series. The loser would spend the next 72 hours trying to convince themselves that everything is fine while very clearly knowing the opposite. For Minnesota, the frustrating part is that this wasn’t a game where they simply got steamrolled from the opening tip and never found a pulse. They had chances. They had openings. They had moments where the door cracked open just enough for hope to creep in.

Then the Spurs slammed it shut. Every single time.

Quarter 1

The night started about as poorly as it could have for Minnesota, mostly because Wembanyama came out looking like a man who had spent the past two days brooding about his Game 4 ejection. He scored 18 points in the first quarter, putting his stamp on the game immediately and reminding everyone that the Flagrant 2 did not remove him from the series permanently.

At one point, the Wolves trailed by 13, but then Wembanyama went to the bench, and Minnesota actually found a rhythm. The Wolves rallied, cut the deficit to four, and for the first time all night it felt like maybe they had weathered the initial storm. That became the theme of the evening: San Antonio would build a lead, Minnesota would claw back, and then, just as the Wolves seemed ready to steady themselves, the Spurs would punch them back down the stairs.

Quarter 2

The second quarter began with Minnesota trailing by only four, which felt like a small victory considering Wembanyama had just dropped 18 in the opening frame. There was a world where the Wolves took that survival act, turned it into momentum, and started dragging the game into the kind of mud fight that has served them well throughout these playoffs.

That world lasted about two minutes.

The Spurs quickly pushed the lead back to 12, and although Minnesota largely held serve for the rest of the quarter, the offense never really solved anything. Their saving grace was that they did a better job on Wembanyama, holding him to only three points in the period. Unfortunately, it didn’t matter nearly enough because San Antonio’s defense had Minnesota stuck in neutral as the Wolves mustered only 17 points. The ball movement wasn’t sharp. The Wolves were not getting enough easy looks, and when they did get chances, they weren’t consistently turning them into points.

By halftime, Wembanyama had 21 points. The Wolves had zero players in double figures. Ayo Dosunmu led Minnesota with nine points, while Anthony Edwards and Naz Reid each had eight. That is not the box score of a team in control of a massive playoff game. That is the box score of a team searching for someone, anyone, to grab the wheel.

Quarter 3

The Wolves began the second half down 59-47. A 12-point hole on the road in a pivotal playoff game is not ideal, but it is not insurmountable. There was still a chance for the Wolves to make the kind of second-half push that changes the tone of a series. And when the third quarter opened, it briefly looked like they might actually do it.

Minnesota came out of halftime with real force, ripping off a 14-2 run and tying the game at 61-61. Suddenly Frost Bank Center got tight, the Spurs looked a little rattled, and the Wolves appeared poised to take control. With the game tied, Edwards had a chance to give Minnesota its first lead since the opening minutes.

His shot rimmed out.

And it was all downhill from there.

Everything began to unravel. San Antonio answered with an 11-2 run, and the Wolves gave back everything they had just spent all that energy earning. Jaden McDaniels picked up his fourth foul during that stretch, sending him to the bench, and Minnesota’s defense cratered almost immediately. The Wolves tied the game and forced the Spurs to feel pressure, but just moments later, they were watching that pressure boomerang right back into their own chest.

The rest of the third quarter was a disaster. After opening the half on that 14-2 run, Minnesota was outscored 30-12 the rest of the way. That kind of swing is how playoff games turn into crime scenes. It was fueled by all the stuff that has killed the Wolves in this series when things have gone sideways: poor defense, sloppy turnovers, careless possessions, San Antonio transition buckets, and far too many second-chance opportunities where Minnesota simply could not secure the ball and end the possession.

The Wolves had done the work to climb out of a hole, then immediately handed the shovel back to the other guy.

Quarter 4

In the final frame, Minnesota quickly found itself down 93-73.

Still, because this team apparently enjoys putting its fans through emotional turbulence, the Wolves teased one more comeback. They opened the fourth on an 8-0 run, cutting the deficit to 12 with 9:30 remaining. For a brief moment, you could feel the old familiar hope trying to crawl back into the room. Maybe they had one more miracle. Maybe the Spurs would tighten up. Maybe Edwards would catch fire. Maybe the Wolves would find the same late-game magic that saved them in Game 4.

It was only a tease.

The dam broke from there. Minnesota drowned in turnovers, San Antonio turned those mistakes into transition chances, and the Wolves completely lost the ability to keep the Spurs from plowing through them. Every time Minnesota tried to build something, San Antonio had an answer. Every time the Wolves clawed back, they slipped. Every time there was a chance to change the game, they failed to seize it.

And that’s the frustrating part of Game 5. It wasn’t just that the Wolves lost. It was that they were repeatedly handed moments where the game could have shifted, and they could not hold on to the rope.

Now their season is dangling by a thread.

Game 6 is Friday night at Target Center, and the Wolves face elimination. That alone should change the temperature of everything. The luxury of “next game” is gone. The margin for error has been burned. The runway is officially down to one game at a time.

Win at home, and the Wolves earn the right to return to San Antonio for Game 7, where they would have to conquer a building that has been an absolute house of horrors in Games 2 and 5. Lose, and the 2025-26 Timberwolves season is over.

That is the mountain in front of them. And standing on top of it is Wembanyama, swatting away everything in sight.

The Wolves have roughly 72 hours to find answers. They need to figure out how to survive Wembanyama’s opening punches without immediately falling behind. They need to find an offense that doesn’t vanish for full quarters. They need Edwards, Randle, McDaniels, Naz, Ayo, Rudy, everyone, to be sharper, tougher, and more connected than they were in Game 5. They need to rebound with desperation. They need to defend without collapsing. They need to stop feeding San Antonio transition chances with sloppy turnovers. They need to remember the team that stormed back in Game 4 and not the one that let go of the rope in San Antonio.

Because that’s what Game 5 was.

A tug of war.

Minnesota pulled itself back into the fight more than once. Cut 13 to four. Cut 12 to a tie. Cut 20 to 12. Each time, the opportunity was there. Each time, the Wolves had a chance to dig in and pull.

Each time, they let go.

Now there are no more chances to let go.

Friday night, they either grip the rope with everything they have, or the season slips away.

---

Up Next

The Timberwolves will look to keep their season alive on Friday night for Game 6 of this Timberwolves-Spurs series. It is back to another late-night tipoff as the game begins at 8:30 PM CT. Fans can watch the game on Amazon Prime Video.

Highlights