Category: Basketball

The Miami Heat needed shooting. It’s hard to do better than Klay Thompson.

The Heat signed Thompson seconds after he was bought out from the Dallas Mavericks on Friday afternoon. Miami landed him on a team-friendly two-year, $11.5 million deal with a team option on the second season, according to insider Keith Smith. Thompson figures to compete with Tim Hardaway Jr. for the starting shooting guard spot this season, and should be a real rotation piece for a team that hopes to contend in the Eastern Conference.

Thompson is still one of the best three-point shooters in the NBA. He attempted 16.6 three-pointers per 100 possessions last season, which was only topped by Steph Curry and LaMelo Ball. He knocked them down at a 38.8% clip, which is still well above league-average. Thompson isn’t the defender he once was, but he graded out much better on that end than Hardaway Jr. did last season. Klay was a 55th percentile defender in Dallas last year according to EPM, while Hardaway Jr. finished in the sixth percentile in the same metric. Thompson’s one-year defensive true shooting impact was +1.2 according to RAPM, while Hardaway’s was -0.3.

This seems like a great fit on paper. Miami made the biggest swing of the offseason by landing Giannis Antetokounmpo from the Milwaukee Bucks. Giannis might have more downhill rim gravity than any player in the league. There’s really only one way to stop his rumbles to the basket, and that’s by building a wall with multiple defenders. Antetokounmpo has become a good enough passer to kick out in those situations and find teammates. Thompson is a hell of a release valve beyond the arc when Giannis is seeing multiple bodies inside.

Heat fans are already championing this signing as their version of getting Ray Allen back in 2013. All Allen did the next season was hit one of the most iconic shots in NBA history. No pressure, Klay. While I can’t fault Heat fans for getting excited, I tend to think that is way, way too optimistic. Thompson’s fit in Miami feels better on paper than it will be in reality.

Ultimately, I don’t think adding Thompson moves the needle for the Heat all that much.

You don’t fix NBA spacing simply by adding shooters. You fix it by adding shooting to spots on the floor where it didn’t already exist. The Heat were already going to be getting shooting from the two-guard spot whether it’s Hardaway Jr. or Thompson or rookie Ryan Conwell taking those minutes. The reason the Heat’s spacing will likely be poor is because of the pairing between Giannis and Bam Adebayo in the front court, two players defenses will gladly ignore on the perimeter when it really matters.

A shooting leap from Davion Mitchell would help fix the Heat’s spacing. His percentage looks great after making 39.5% of his threes last year. The problem is that he only took 5.3 threes per 100 possessions, making him the 13th highest-volume three-point shooter on a Heat roster last year that finished No. 18 in three-point rate. Pelle Larsson taking a shooting leap would improve the Heat’s spacing. He only made 32.3% of his threes on 4.8 attempts from deep per 100 possessions last year. Andrew Wiggins was better — 41.4% from three on 7.5 threes per 100 — but his shooting volume will have to rise this year too even if it means sacrificing some accuracy.

I just don’t think Miami’s shooting will scare anyone when the game slows down in the playoffs. Giannis will still be seeing multiple bodies in the paint, and unless Bam is ripping seven threes like he did in his 83-point game against the Wizards last season, defenses will be happy to ignore him on the perimeter as a fake floor spacer.

There was a time when Thompson was so devastating as a movement shooter that his very presence could unlock elite spacing. He’s not there anymore. The biggest issue with Thompson is he can’t dribble at all anymore, and that makes him one of the worst two-point scorers in the NBA.

Thompson made 41.8% of his two-pointers last year. The worst qualified two-point scorer in the league last season was Bub Carrington, who made 44.3% of his twos. You can find a few full-time players who were less efficient than Thompson from two-point range last year — Jamal Shead, Sion James, Patrick Williams, Mike Conley Jr., Jordan Hawkins, and Gabe Vincent among players who played at least 50 games last season — but not many. At this point, all opposing defenses have to do is run Klay off the three-point line and he immediately becomes a non-threat.

When Klay is run off the arc, he also tends to turn the ball over a lot. He’s had a passing turnover rate of 16% or greater for each of the last four years. That’s real bad. His 16% passing turnover rate last season ranked in the 19th percentile for all players. He adds no value in the possession game with his rebounding, either, and he’s not causing any havoc on defense these days. He ranked in the first percentile of deflections per 100 possessions, and the fourth percentile of forced turnovers per 100 possessions. Thompson can still execute the assignment to some extent defensively, but he’s not going help you get out in transition or get you any extra possessions.

It’s also kind of shocking that Klay has been below league average in true shooting for every season since 2019 — when he suffered a devastating torn ACL in the NBA Finals and then a torn Achilles while rehabbing. The fact that Thompson is even still in the NBA at age-36 is pretty miraculous, but there’s a reason he’s a buy out guy.

I feel like Hardaway Jr. will be a better fit for the Heat than Klay despite his defensive limitations because he’s a more dynamic offensive player while still being an elite outside shooter. The best case scenario for Miami is that Pelle Larsson or Myron Gardner or Dru Smith or Conwell develops enough to eventually grab those minutes, because they are more well-rounded players than either Klay or THJ.

I had the Heat at No. 15 overall and No. 8 in the East in my updated NBA power rankings after the Peyton Watson trade. I’m not moving them over the Hawks (No. 14) or the Pacers (No. 13) after landing Thompson.

I don’t mean to pour cold water on this for Heat fans, I just still think the Heat have a lot of problems heading into this season. The main reason for optimism is that no one develops diamonds in the rough better than Erik Spoelstra and Pat Riley. I’d bet Miami has one or two more key contributors by the end of the year than they do right now, because Spo will coach them up. For now, it feels like the Heat are a play-in team even with Klay Thompson.

Last season, two players meaningfully made a difference for the San Antonio Spurs when they were on the court vs. when they were off it. The first was Victor Wembanyama, who made the team’s net rating increase by 15.7 points when he was on the court vs. off. That tracks. The second might surprise you, but it makes sense when you think about it.

Julian Champagnie was second on the team in net on/off at +8.5, good enough for the 94th percentile in the NBA. Champagnie’s placement in the starting lineup, replacing veteran Harrison Barnes, was a large reason the Spurs went on the second-half run that got them to 60+ wins. His shooting made it difficult for teams to pack the paint against Wembanyama and San Antonio’s guards. Champagnie provided just enough defense and rebounding to help the team compete in key areas where they were deficient.

But those deficiencies were exposed in the postseason, especially by the bigger, stronger New York Knicks, who beat the Spurs 4-1 in the Finals. Champagnie is hardly to blame for that series, but it proved San Antonio needed to add size to the frontcourt. So this summer the team signed veteran forward Tobias Harris to a two-year $30M contract. At 6-foot-8, 225, Harris brings the size needed to bang inside with bigger players, and the versatility to play on the perimeter. He has become an early favorite to compete with Champagnie for a starting role.

And yet, our readers want Champagnie to remain in the starting lineup, keeping the continuity from last season. That starting (and closing) lineup clicked so well on its trip to the Finals that it doesn’t make much sense to change it heading into next season. In addition, Harris would give San Antonio’s bench even more scoring pop, something it desperately needed last year, particularly in the playoffs.

There is a world where the Spurs could treat Champagnie and Harris like 5th and 6th starters in an MLB rotation sense. When a matchup calls for Harris to slide into the starting five, he can replace Champagnie to size up against bigger teams. Both players can be trusted to close games, and in fact, may do so alongside each other, giving San Antonio even more shooting down the stretch.

One interesting note from the poll is that Dylan Harper only brought in 11% of the vote, despite many calling for him to be promoted to a starter next season. Harper’s time is coming, but he is best suited to be arguably the NBA’s best sixth man next season, and potentially close a few games as he progresses.

Ultimately, this conversation stems from champagne problems. The Spurs are coming off an NBA Finals run; they are young, and they have only added talent. They realistically have 7 players who would start on many NBA teams, and at least three more they trust to be high-level rotation players. That’s why they are +280 to win the NBA Finals on FanDuel. But it’s late August, and it’s fun to think about lineups for the coming year! As it stands today, Champagnie seems to be the fan favorite to keep his starting spot, but that could change when training camp comes around.

Raptors fans come in all shapes and sizes. Some have been here since the start, others when Vince Carter put his arm through the rim, some arrived during the 2019 championship run, and others are just getting into it now. Whether you’re the person who lives for trade rumours, still talks about 2019 like it happened yesterday, or thinks every loss is somehow the coach’s fault, there’s a good chance you’ve seen yourself somewhere on Raptors Twitter (X). So, in no particular order, here are eight types of Raptors fans you’ll find watching the team in 2026.

1. The 2019 nostalgia fan 

This fan is still living in the greatest summer in Raptors history. They remember every moment of the championship run, have The Shot permanently saved somewhere, and will find a way to bring up the 2019 team in almost any conversation. And now that Kawhi could potentially be coming back? They’re having the time of their life.

2. The Bobby Webster “trust the process” fan 

No matter what the front office does, this fan has an answer: trust Bobby. Trade away a young player? There’s a plan. Give up draft picks? There’s a plan. Make a move nobody understands? Don’t worry, Bobby knows something we don’t. They may not understand the move themselves, but they’re willing to wait and see.

3. The “TRADE EVERYONE” fan 

The Raptors lose one game and this person has already opened the trade machine. Nobody is safe. Bad shooting night? Trade him. Bad defensive possession? Trade him. Missed a free throw? Probably time to move him. Somehow, by the end of the night, they’ve traded half the roster and turned three second-round picks into an All-Star. I admittedly could be this type of fan sometimes. 

4. The “we just need shooting” fan 

Every Raptors problem can be solved with one thing: shooting. Bad defence? Need shooting. Too many turnovers? Need shooting. Lost by 20? Should’ve shot better. This fan has probably mentioned three-point percentage at least five times before halftime and has already identified the next shooter Toronto needs to acquire.

5. The “we’re actually contenders” fan 

This fan doesn’t need much convincing. Give Toronto one good win and suddenly they’re looking ahead to the Eastern Conference Finals. Add Kawhi Leonard to the roster and they’re already planning the parade route. Injuries, seeding, roster depth,  none of it matters. They’re winning the championship until someone mathematically proves otherwise.

6. The doomer 

The complete opposite. The Raptors could be up 25 with two minutes left and this fan is worried. A bad first quarter? Season over. A three-game losing streak? Blow it all up. A player misses one shot? Trade him. Somehow, every season ends with the exact same conclusion: “I told you this team wasn’t going anywhere.” At times, I am definitely a doomer fan, something I need to work on this season! 

7. The Darko defender 

You don’t understand the rotation. Darko does. You don’t understand why a certain player is getting 28 minutes. Darko does. You don’t understand why the Raptors just called that timeout. Don’t worry about it. There’s a reason. This fan will defend Darko’s decisions until the final buzzer, and may have a 10-minute explanation ready if you ask.

8. The LeBronto survivor 

It’s been years. They’ve moved on. They’re perfectly healthy and emotionally stable whenever LeBron James comes up: No, they haven’t. They remember the 2018 playoffs. They remember the sweep. They remember that bank shot, that dunk and every other time LeBron made Toronto look helpless. LeBron could be retired for 20 years, would only have amazing things to say about the Raptors, Toronto, and the fans and this fan would still see him walk into Scotiabank Arena and think, “not again.” 

Despite all the differences, arguments and questionable takes, Raptors fans all want the same thing: what’s best for the team. Whether you’re calling for a blockbuster trade, defending every move the front office makes, or still recovering from LeBronto, we’re all watching because we care. And at the end of the day, that’s what makes being a Raptors fan so much fun.

The Phoenix Suns will be one of the more interesting teams to watch this upcoming season for a multitude of reasons. They’re one of the few teams that largely stayed the same and leaned into continuity and development, although they did change 20% of their starting lineup by acquiring Miles Bridges and sending out Royce O’Neale and Grayson Allen.

What makes Phoenix especially interesting is how wide the range of outcomes feels. And yes, you can say that about practically any team in the NBA, especially once you introduce health into the equation. But with the Suns, I genuinely believe there are several different ways this season can go, and we won’t really know what to expect until we see them on the floor.

In my opinion, they could win 50 games. They could also win 30. That’s a massive range, and part of the reason is that Phoenix doesn’t have the kind of top-tier player who can drag a team to 50 wins by himself. This is my entire “Devin Booker is not a superstar” argument personified.

Nikola Jokic, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, and Luka Doncic? Those are players who can elevate an average roster into a 50-win team simply by being present. I think we’re going to see some version of that with the Lakers this season. Booker is a star, and there’s nothing wrong with recognizing that. But there has to be a very specific ecosystem around him for both he and the team to reach their ceiling.

That’s exactly what the Suns are leaning into this season. Team. Not overinflated contracts. Not a handful of high-end players expected to drag everyone else along. A collective approach where the pieces have to fit together and function as intended. And those superstar players I mentioned are the exceptions, not the rule. Not every team has one, and not every team can.

So this isn’t about faulting Booker. It’s about recognizing who he is and the situation Phoenix has built around him. That’s also why health becomes so important. If one part of this roster breaks down, the rest of it could suffer. If one spoke bends, there’s a chance the entire wheel starts to wobble.

The Suns are deep, and I find that encouraging. But they’re also young and inexperienced in several important areas, and we still have to see whether they know how to win close games. That may be the biggest question of all. It’s something we watched them struggle with down the stretch last season: the ability to put teams away when the game tightened late.

There are a lot of different ways this season can go. I’m not shattering any expectations by saying that, but it’s worth recognizing. When you look around the NBA, you can usually get a pretty good idea of where most teams will finish, health notwithstanding. With Phoenix, that feels much harder.

And maybe that’s why the 38.5 win total hasn’t moved much. There is so much codependency within this roster, so much reliance on health and chemistry translating into competitiveness, that it could ultimately become either the reason this team succeeds or the reason it falls apart.

That’s what makes this Suns season so difficult to project and so interesting to watch. Their ceiling won’t be determined by one transcendent player. It will depend on whether Booker, Bridges, Green, Brooks, and the rest of the rotation can consistently amplify one another. If the ecosystem works, 38.5 could look conservative. If it doesn’t, the margin for error disappears quickly. Phoenix isn’t built around certainty. It’s built around connectivity.

“When I came here, I knew the basketball would be good. I did not know how good it would be.”

Bill Walton

The conductor raises his baton, the orchestra readies their instruments, and in an instant, with a downward sweep of the arm, a collection of individuals, each with their own talents and skills, merges into a single thing, a whole greater than the sum of its parts, and for a while the audience is witness to our ability to transcend ourselves and become a part of something more than what we are capable of on our own.

Basketball is music, and the music once ascribed by Johannes Kepler to the heavenly spheres belonged to Boston this year; it was music that you did not so much hear with your ears as feel within your soul.

Again and again, for 48 minutes at a go during the 1985/86 season, the Boston Celtics took the court and put on a display of such transcendence that it left an indelible mark on everyone who saw them at their best.

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The story of this season begins with the acquisition of Bill Walton.

Walton was languishing out in L.A., “I had just spent six brutally long, painful, lonely, disastrous years on the Clippers,” he would later recall. Walton was relatively healthy, but the Clippers were going nowhere on a rocket sled. He wanted out. “I just desperately wanted to have it be fun again.”

His first call? Jerry West. West turned Walton down flat. “I’ve seen your feet,” said West, according to Walton, “I don’t want any part of them.”

So Walton turned to his second choice, Boston. When Walton got ahold of Red, he was in a meeting with Larry Bird. He told Bird that Walton wanted to join the team and Larry said, “Go get him.”

Red then set about the odious task of negotiating with Donald Sterling.

Walton’s request was well-timed. Cedric Maxwell was on his way out. Red had wanted Max to come back to Boston to have his injured knee checked and Cedric’s agent told him that it was a no-go because Max was busy building a house. “Who’s paying for the house?” was Red’s curt response.

At the other end of the deal, Donald Sterling wanted concessions, not from Red, but from Walton. In a scenario that reflected the relative weakness of the player’s union at the time, Sterling got Bill Walton to forego all the deferred compensation he was owed in order for the deal to go through.

“I owe you a fortune in deferred compensation,” Sterling said, according to Walton, “if you want to make this deal go down and you go to Boston you’ve got to leave every dime of that money here with me today.”

“I took that pen, and I signed that paper with as much confidence and bravado as I could possibly muster. I signed it, got up, turned, and never looked back.”

The Team

“This was a starting five for the ages”

Bill Walton

Larry Bird would win the MVP for the third consecutive year in 1985/86, and it’s tough to argue with the logic behind that. He led the league in win shares, despite playing on a team with four other Hall-of-Famers, and for all the highlight reels of his offense, he proved his value at the other end of the court as well by leading the league in defensive win shares. His ten triple doubles led the league, and he led the league in free throw percentage. He led the Celtics in points, rebounds, and assists.

“Here’s a guy who wasn’t the fastest, wasn’t the highest jumper, wasn’t the tallest, wasn’t the strongest, but he was the best,” was Bill Walton’s assessment.

This was the year that Larry walked into the locker room before the league’s inaugural three-point contest and said, “Alright, which one of you guys is finishing second?”

It was the year that, in a revenge game against the Trail Blazers, who served up the Celtics’ only home loss, Larry took about half his shots left-handed on his way to scoring 47 points. “You have to play games left-handed, or do different things, to keep your interest in the game,” Bird recalls with a chuckle. “This stuff really happened,” adds teammate Rick Carlisle, who played with Bird from 1984 to 1987.

The decision to trade Cedric Maxwell for Bill Walton brought Kevin McHale into the starting lineup full-time, as Larry Bird moved to the small forward position. McHale responded by averaging 21.3 points per game on 57.4% shooting from the field. He had developed a low-post game the likes of which the league has seldom seen.

Dan Shaughnessy might have been the person who first described McHale’s low-post office as the “torture chamber,” but regardless of who first applied the term, it was an apt description of McHale’s toolkit of moves that invariably put his defender, no matter how good, out of position. Players guarding McHale would helplessly watch as McHale put the ball in the hoop or send him to the line where he was a steadily improving free throw shooter (the following year he would become the first player in NBA history to shoot 60% from the field and 80% from the line).

McHale’s less serious demeanor was a balance to Bird’s intensity. “I just show up and play,” was Kevin’s stock response to questions about his performance, although this couldn’t have been farther from the truth. McHale put in the work, but he never wanted people to know just how hard he worked, “I did all this work, but I never wanted to tell anybody what the hell I did,” he recalled.

Robert Parish was a steady presence on the court, intimidating on defense, and good for 16.1 points per game on offense. The Centenary product had been drafted three times, despite playing for a program whose existence was essentially denied by the NCAA during his career there. He was selected twice in the ABA draft and finally by the Golden State Warriors, who had traded him because they were enamored with Joe Barry Carroll and saw no further need for his services.

Red wanted Parish because he could run. “I’ve never seen another center run the floor as beautifully,” claims Jackie MacMullan, who covered the Celtics for the Globe.

He was in his tenth season in the pros in 1985/86; for most players at that time, this was about when careers start to wind down, but Parish would put eleven more seasons under his belt, retiring after 21 years in the pros.

The Chief didn’t assemble a gaudy stat line, being in the middle of a 17-year run of double digit scoring averages, but he was a key factor in the Celtics’ league leading opponent field goal percentage. Parish was extremely effective at altering the shots that opponents took. He didn’t lead the team in blocks, McHale did, but his intimidating and largely unmovable 7’-1” presence in the paint prevented a lot of easy buckets.

“If he’s the third best player on the team, you can argue that he would have been the best player in the history of about ten other teams,” says Bob Ryan. “He probably gave up more than anybody,” adds Bird, regarding Parish’s deference to McHale and Bird in terms of buckets and rebounds.

Dennis Johnson made the All-Defensive team for the eighth consecutive year in 1985/86.

A player who was quick rather than fast, DJ’s performance improved when there was more at stake. His playoff scoring was consistently higher than his scoring in the regular season, and he was never afraid of the big moments. DJ had a competitive fire that matched Bird’s, and Larry would claim, years later, that DJ was his favorite teammate.

Johnson was a long way removed from the ‘cancer’ accusation leveled by Phoenix coach John MacLeod. “Joining the Celtics was perfect situation for me,” said Dennis in a 2002 interview, “It was a dream come true to play with Larry, Robert, and Kevin.”

Johnson is perhaps a bit underrated as a contributor to Boston’s success in the 1980s. The Celtics were not a run-and-gun team—even though they led the league in defensive rebounding, they did not push the pace the way other teams in the league did. This meant that DJ’s skills as a ball-handler and a passer were showcased less often than they might have been on a team that spent more time pushing the ball in transition.

DJ’s connection with Larry Bird was the stuff of legend, “They were in sync,” is how Kurt Rambis of the Lakers described it. “I can’t tell you the number of times when he and Larry would make eye contact—Larry’s guy would have his head turned—and DJ would throw the ball right by his defender’s ear,” recalls Rick Carlisle.

“Dennis was just an awesome player,” said K.C. Jones after DJ passed in 2007, “He played hard and he took the big shots.”

The only player in the Celtics’ starting five who hasn’t been enshrined in Springfield was Danny Ainge.

Red wanted Ainge bad enough to go to court to get him.

Danny had been burning the candle at both ends, playing baseball for the Toronto Blue Jays and basketball for Brigham Young from 1977 to 1981. He had worked his way through the Blue Jays farm system, and, partially as a testament to how bad the Blue Jays were in those days, he had spent some of his summer vacations playing for the parent team where he was a serviceable fielder and an underwhelming batter.

His basketball prospects were considerably better. He was the John Wooden player of the year in 1981, a year where he delivered one of the most memorable shots in NCAA tournament history, when he went coast to coast in the waning seconds of the game to deliver a one point win for BYU over Notre Dame that sent the Cougars to the Elite Eight.

After the end of his college season, and after he had signed a contract with the Blue Jays that expressly forbade playing professional basketball, Ainge decided that he wanted to play basketball instead. Red obliged him by picking him with the 31^st overall selection in the 1981 draft.

Then the lawsuits began.

The Blue Jays were unwilling to release him from the contract without extracting one million dollars from the Celtics, as well as an agreement by Ainge to return the bonus money he’d already been paid. After the Celtics lost in court, Red ponied up the cash.

By 1985/86, Ainge was firmly ensconced in a ‘villain’ role with the Celtics.

If fans around the league were, basically, in awe of Bird, intimidated by Parish, incapable of hating the rather lovable McHale, and unable to decipher DJ, that left them one target for taking out their anger at the Celtics’ sustained excellence: Daniel R. Ainge.

It was a role that he relished.

“He was irritating. He was a little gnat. He was bothersome. And boy could he shoot,” recalled Jackie MacMullan. “He gave you everything he had, every minute,” added Bird.

Bill Walton once paid Ainge a compliment by saying, to the rest of the team, “He’s the only one doing his job, because he’s the only one being booed in every arena in the NBA.”

Walton spearheaded the “Green Team”, the internal name for the Celtics’ bench, which donned green jerseys when they played against Boston’s starters in practice. Red had acquired Jerry Sichting in the off-season along with Walton, and Jerry was a feisty point guard who converted his shots at a 57% clip. Sichting and Walton joined established bench contributors Scott Wedman, Rick Carlisle, Greg Kite, and others who anchored the team when the starters were off the court.

“The practices were more intense than some of the actual games that we played,” Dennis Johnson recalled, “we had some real battles—the first and second units going at each other like it was war.”

“Every practice was a fierce competition, and it made us a better team. The second unit made sure that we were always ready to compete, that we were always prepared whenever we stepped out on the floor.”

“They had shooting depth, they had defensive depth, they had rebounding depth. That green team—they were the difference between ’85 and ’86,” claims MacMullan.

The Regular Season

“I’ll never see anything like that again.”

Bob Ryan

The regular season began inauspiciously for the Celtics. They lost the opener to the New Jersey Nets in overtime. The Nets, inexplicably, managed to snatch a pair of victories from the Celtics during the regular season. Only the Nets, Sixers and Rockets managed to beat Boston twice between October of 1985 and June of 1986.

The season featured thirteen and fourteen game winning streaks. The Celtics lost two in a row twice, but never more than that.

At the end of the season, they had won 67 games, including a 40-1 home record that has been tied but never bested.

This was not the most wins in Celtics history—that record, 68-14, belonged to the ill-starred 1972/73 team that had its championship prospects dashed by an injury to John Havlicek in the Eastern Conference Finals.

But the Celtics absolutely dominated their opponents in 1985/86. Their net rating, +9.2 points per 100 possessions, was the best in the league, as was their average margin of victory at 9.06 points per contest. Once again, defense was their calling card, as they held their opponents to a league worst 46.1% field goal percentage. The Celtics capitalized on those misses too, as they were the league’s best defensive rebounding team. Despite playing the toughest defense in the NBA, they were the second-best team in the league when it came to fouls called.

At the other end of the court, they were the second-best team in the league in terms of assists and field goal percentage.

And in terms of assists, while they were the second best statistically, they were, quite possibly, the best ever from an aesthetic perspective. “It’s ballet,” said Dan Shaughnessy. “It was death by a thousand cuts,” adds Peter May, “They took teams apart by passing, and they took great pride in that.”

As good as the Celtics were during the regular season, Danny Ainge would later admit that the team viewed those 82 games as just a prelude, “our minds were, really, always on the Lakers and the NBA championship.”

After a rather embarrassing loss to the Knicks on Christmas Day, in an effort to regain their focus on the grind of the regular season, the team swore off alcohol until they won a championship, although as McHale would later observe, “we found a way to sneak around that rule every once in a while.”

The Celtics punched their playoff ticket on February 28^th, setting a league record that would stand for thirty years.

The Eastern Playoffs

Boston went 11-1 on their way to the Finals. Their sole loss was to Atlanta, which got the best of Boston on their tenth try.

Their first-round opponent was, basically, Michael Jordan.

The Celtics swept the Bulls, but Michael Jordan set an NBA record that still stands by averaging 43.7 points per game.

The Celtics easily handled the Bulls in games one and three, by nearly identical margins of 123-104 and 122-104 respectively, as Jordan had no real help to speak of, but game two was a double overtime affair.

Jordan poured in 63 points, which is also still an NBA record. “I didn’t think anyone could do against us what Jordan has done in the first two games,” Bird said after the double overtime thriller, adding, “I think it’s just God, disguised as Michael Jordan.”

Yet it was a green-teamer that delivered the tie-breaker for Boston, nullifying all of Jordan’s heroics. Jerry Sichting took a pass from McHale at the foul line and swished a fifteen-footer that gave Boston the lead they needed, 137-135 in the second overtime. A bucket by Parish off a rare Jordan miss sealed the deal 139-135.

In game three, the Celtics double-teamed Jordan relentlessly, and held him to just 19 points, with fourteen of those coming in the first quarter—but the world would hear from Jordan again.

Boston’s second round opponent was Atlanta, which featured a lineup of really pretty good players that somehow never quite gelled into a contending team. After winning the first two games at home by a combined 23 points, things tightened up a bit at the Omni. Game three went to Boston by a slimmer 4 point margin, and the Celtics lost game four by a rather embarrassing 12 point margin. Bird and McHale were a combined 12-38.

McHale, for his part, blamed his poor shooting on a hockey game that bored him to sleep—and not even a Bruins game at that. He was watching the Rangers play the Canadiens, “The Rangers are in it, and all of a sudden it’s 5-1. I fall asleep—ten hours asleep. I come to the game. I’m groggy. I play like diddly.”

The Celtics, bent on extinguishing any hope that might have been blossoming in Atlanta, terminated the Hawks 132-99 in the following game.

This brought on a matchup with the Milwaukee Bucks, the number two team in the conference. The Bucks and Celtics had nearly identical offensive and defensive ratings per 100 possessions, although the Bucks had been less fortunate in the wins column, with 57 wins, as compared to Boston’s 67.

During the regular season, the Celtics won all five games against the Bucks, and though, from certain angles, the teams were evenly matched, the series wasn’t.

Boston won three games going away, with Milwaukee putting in a valiant effort in game three, losing by just four.

For the series, Bird led everyone on both teams in points per game, rebounds, and assists. He missed exactly one free throw across all four games and shot 50% from three, taking a rather high for the time 4.5 attempts per game.

Western Playoffs

A funny thing happened on the way to the third consecutive matchup between the Lakers and Celtics.

A Nigerian immigrant, who had spent his childhood playing soccer, not basketball, came between Los Angeles and Boston.

The Lakers must have been flying high. They had beaten Boston in six the year before, they had won 62 games, and they were the top seed in the West. They cruised past the Spurs in the first round 3-0, and the Mavs had been little more than a bump in the road in the second round, overcome 4-2. Facing them in the conference finals were the Houston Rockets, who had notched a 51-31 record despite losing guard John Lucas after 65 games to a violation of the league’s substance abuse policy. Lucas, who struggled with cocaine addiction throughout his NBA career, would get sober once he was out of the league, and now runs a recovery program for athletes.

The Lakers had taken four of five from the Rockets during the regular season, and they must have figured that the conference finals would play out in much the same fashion.

It didn’t.

The Rockets prevailed 4-1. After the Lakers won the first game by 12 points, they proceeded to lose four straight, as the Rockets’ twin towers of Ralph Sampson and Hakeem Olajuwon made Kareem look old and L.A.’s power forward-by-committee strategy deeply flawed.

Olajuwon was in just his second season with the Rockets, but he was averaging 26.9 points per game along with 11.8 rebounds in the playoffs. Against the Lakers he averaged 31 points and 11.2 rebounds per game.

Ralph Sampson, the other half of Houston’s twin towers averaged 20 points per game and 10.8 rebounds per game during the playoffs.

This set up a rematch, of sorts, with the Celtics. In reality, Allen Leavell and Robert Reid were the only players on the Rockets that had been with the team when they’d faced off against the Celtics in 1981.

Actually, the real story wasn’t that the Celtics and Rockets were facing off against each other for the second time in five years.

The real story was the Rockets’ coach: Bill Fitch.

The man who led the Celtics to their fourteenth title was going to be sitting on the opposite bench as they tried for their sixteenth.

This was just the second time that a Finals coach was squared off against a team that he had also coached to the Finals (Alex Hannum coached the San Francisco Warriors to a Finals loss against the Celtics and then coached the Sixers to a Finals victory over the Warriors in 1964 and 1967 respectively).

The Finals

Deprived of a third consecutive Bird/Magic showdown, the Finals were something of a let-down for fans in general; and the games themselves weren’t as compelling as the Celtics’ championship duel with Los Angeles in 1984.

Games one and two went to the green and white in the friendly confines of Boston Garden by scores of 112-100 and 117-95, and it looked like this series was going to play out the same way as the previous three rounds. However, the Rockets proved their mettle in the following contest.

In game three, the Celtics held an eight point lead with 3:18 to go, only to be outscored by Houston 12-2 over the distance. Bird had an uncharacteristically bad night on the big stage, missing 15 of his final 21 shots. The close loss gave the Rockets a great deal of optimism.

“We just had to get over the hump of playing these guys,” Ralph Sampson said after their game three victory. “Didn’t I tell you things would be different in the Summit?” crowed Jim Peterson, adding, “we’re feeling the weight lifted off our chest right now.”

It was down to the Celtics to squash all those hopes in game four.

The Rockets had a two point lead when Bird nailed a three-pointer to give the Celtics the lead. Bill Walton tipped in a miss to give the Celtics a bit of a cushion, and then, for the final minute of the game, neither team scored. The Celtics, whose defense, even in this inspired year, was still better than their offense, locked down the Rockets in a game that Houston absolutely positively had to win.

With 46 seconds to go, McHale anticipated a Mitchell Wiggins pass into Olajuwon, jumped it and deflected it to DJ. Off a Bird miss, the Rockets came out of a timeout and ran a play that rapidly broke down in the face of Boston’s defensive pressure. Ralph Sampson ended up with the ball 28 feet from the basket and a long way from where he felt comfortable. Once again, McHale made the difference. Unable to pass the ball up court due to excellent Celtic coverage, Sampson opted to try resetting the offense by passing the ball to Wiggins, who was behind him. McHale anticipated the pass again, and stuck an arm into the lane, and deflected the ball to Danny Ainge.

“Games like this are why I came to Boston,” said Walton after the dust settled and he was back in the locker room, “This is the thrill of a lifetime.”

Game five was keyed by a brawl that broke out in the second quarter.

In a gross mismatch, Jerry Sichting had gotten switched onto Sampson under the basket. For reasons best known to himself, Sampson decided to take on the barely-six-foot-tall-in-his-shoes point guard, “I thought a foul should have been called,” he said after the game. Sampson, who had about 15 inches of height on Sichting, responded to the alleged foul by elbowing Jerry and then punching him twice.

DJ came in to back up Sichting, as did Walton. DJ paid for his interference when Hakeem Olajuwon lost his temper and punched Johnson in the face, leaving him bleeding onto his jersey.

Referees ejected Sampson and awarded a free throw to Sichting, but the move had galvanized the Rockets. The team felt that pint-size Sichting should have been ejected, apparently for the offense of getting in the way of Sampson’s fist, and that DJ should’ve gotten tossed as well.

They proceeded to dismantle Boston, as the Celtics failed to take advantage of the absence of Sampson. Jim Peterson, subbing for the ejected Sampson, did yeoman’s work, and then shot his mouth off after the game ended, “I guess they wasted a lot of chapagne,” he said, motioning toward the Celtics’ locker room.

The Celtics, of course, didn’t waste that champagne. They simply packed it up and took it back to Boston.

It was uncorked three days later when the Celtics put the Rockets to bed 114-97 in a contest that Houston lost before the opening tip. “They weren’t beating us here, today,” McHale said after the game.

Bird won his second Finals MVP and closed the series with a triple double in game six: 29/11/12 in points, rebounds and assists. He shot 11-12 from the line and notched three steals to further pad his stat line. “I saw him take on five guys at once,” said Houston’s Jim Peterson, “He’s the best.” “He has reached the pinnacle of basketball,” added K.C. Jones. “Nothing Larry Bird does surprises me,” Walton remarked, “and everything he does impresses me.”

McHale matched Bird in points at 29, and nabbed an even ten rebounds. None of the Rockets managed to crack 20 points, and Ralph Sampson, who was showered with boos and hung in effigy by the Garden faithful, managed a meagre eight points on 4-12 shooting.

For the first time in three Finals victories, Larry Bird did not lead all players in points and rebounds. It was Kevin McHale who got the better of Hakeem in a battle of smooth moving front court wizards. McHale edged out Hakeem in points, at 25.8 per game vs. 24.7. Hakeem led all players in rebounds. He would have to wait almost ten years before he made it back to the Finals, where the Dream, whose post moves rivaled McHale’s, would win back to back titles.

Where the Celtics really shined was the lockdown defense played on Ralph Sampson. Sampson went from 20 points per game in the previous round to just 14.8 in the Finals.

While the Celtics failed to put together a perfect season—whatever such a Platonic ideal may look like—they put together what was arguably the greatest season ever, for the greatest franchise in the NBA.

There have been other great teams in NBA history—but there has never been a greater one.

The final words on this season belong to Bill Walton, who was a fan of the game even when he was playing it…

“Thank you, Red Auerbach. Thank you, Larry Bird. Thank you, Boston Celtics.”

I try to use this space to write high-brow (by sports standards) pieces about the Houston Rockets.

Firstly, SB Nation is the best. There is absolute freedom here. I’ve also noticed that you guys are a super bright readership. You want conceptual stuff, or at least you respond positively to it.

That said, if not for unadulterated capitalism, we’d shut ‘er down in August. There is no meat on the bone right now. There is nothing to talk about that hasn’t been talked about.

Since we can’t do that, here are three players the Rockets should consider trading for this season.

Duncan Robinson, Detroit Pistons

You can safely expect shooters on this list.

After Reed Sheppard and Kevin Durant, there remains zero (0) Rockets whom teams are desperate to close out from beyond the arc. Jabari Smith Jr. is a capable shooter at 6’11”, but an open Smith three is a negative outcome for an opposing defense – not a disaster.

If I wrote an article about Sheppard’s outlook on this team, it’d be the second or third time. Having added Marcus Smart, it feels unlikely that he’ll increase his playing time. So it feels likely that leading up to the deadline, it will once again be clear that this team does not have enough reliable three-point shooting to win the math game.

Robinson is not a prolific defender either, but at 6’7″, he’s easier to scheme around than the diminutive Sheppard. He shot 41.0% from deep last year, which was effectively just another Duncan Robinson season. He’s also quietly improved as a ball-handler and playmaker over the years.

Although it’s possible that Udoka just wouldn’t play him either.

Ty Jerome, Memphis Grizzlies

If we’re going to pick nits, there’s a potential issue with every player on this list. You won’t see the name Shai Gilgeous-Alexander or Victor Wembanyama here, so we’ll be looking at quality players with flaws.

Jerome’s biggest issue is that he can’t stay on the floor. Injuries have been a problem for years. Last year, he looked like a fringe star – until his season ended in 15 games.

In those games, he averaged 19.7 points and 5.7 assists per game while shooting 42.0% from distance. That’s a certified hooper. Jerome can play with or without the ball. He’s also got a reputation as a smart team defender who Udoka, at least, shouldn’t loathe with the heat of a thousand suns.

The other downside for the Rockets specifically is that Jerome is a backcourt player. Acquiring him would be tantamount to giving up on Sheppard.

So, if that’s how we’re trending going into the deadline anyway…

Zeke Nnaji, Denver Nuggets

The Rockets have acquired a lot of big men over recent years, but somehow, none of them space the floor.

There’s ample debate around the value of stretch big men. Some will argue that if you’re not a great shooter, it’s not especially useful to shoot.

In a vacuum, there’s some truth there. When you roster both Amen Thompson and Alperen Sengun, a combo big who provides some shooting ought to be useful. Enter Nnaji. He’s a versatile defender who’s hit 34.5% of his threes over his six years in the NBA.

No, he doesn’t meet the “if he gets daylight we’ve failed as a defense” threshold. He could still mitigate some spacing issues this team faces. The Rockets could put four-out groups around Amen Thompson with Nnaji at the 5, and could soak up a few minutes with Sengun at the 4 occasionally as well.

You don’t need high conceptual thinking to see that.

Before I start, I wanted to give some shoutouts to some great resource material that has helped me understand some things better about Jaren Jackson Jr. First, if you haven’t read Parker Fleming’s Substack, he does great work on the Grizzlies, and you can find incredible work from him on Jaren Jackson Jr. This article discussing Jackson at the 5, is great insight.

I also really enjoyed this episode of the Game Theory Podcast with Sam Vecenie, which discussed JJJ and the pros and cons of his play.

Fleming and Vecenie give great insight into Jackson and the flaws in his game. Those flaws have led many, myself included, to believe that he shouldn’t be at the 5. With the trade of Walker Kessler and the signing of Jusuf Nurkic, Will Hardy is going to be left with a tough decision of who should start at the 5 this season. The consensus with Jaren Jackson Jr. from those not as close to the Grizzlies is that because of his flaws, he shouldn’t be starting at the 5. What are those flaws? They can basically be boiled down to two things: rebounding and foul rate.

The question for the Jazz is, are those flaws insurmountable?

The answer appears to be yes.

The question of whether Jaren Jackson Jr. can improve his rebounding is probably a definitive no at this point. Coming into his 9th season in the league, it’s safe to say that he is what he is at this point as a rebounder. Luckily, rebounding isn’t something that only Jaren Jackson Jr. has to worry about. Lauri Markkanen, who is in the 64th percentile in the league as a rebounder, can have a big impact for the Jazz. And having Ace Bailey on the floor can also be a huge boon to the Jazz’s defensive rebounding. Bailey is a huge, athletic wing who shows great rebounding ability and can be a big help as well. With Bailey and Markkanen helping gang rebound, the Jazz should be relatively fine on the defensive glass. Now, this will still likely be an issue. When Utah faces elite offensive rebounding teams, mostly in the playoffs, they might need to think of starting Nurkic. But during the season, and even in the playoffs, they might be fine, regardless.

The other issue is the fouling. When you look at this roster, it looks like the Jazz made their decisions knowing that Kessler might not be on the squad. The Jusuf Nurkic signing looks more and more like an essential one. Not just that Nurkic played well last year, but that he covers the holes in Jackson’s game. If Jackson gets in foul trouble, Utah can put in Nurkic and not lose a beat. And in reality, they will play the same style whether it’s with Jackson or Nurkic. In all likelihood, Utah understood this when they traded Kessler. Learning more about Jackson’s game, he is a vastly better on-ball player on offense than I realized. This post from Parker Fleming’s Substack dove into a game where Jackson dominated against Rudy Gobert and Karl-Anthony Towns.

What Jackson and Nurkic both do that Kessler didn’t is not just run endless dribble handoffs at the top of the three-point line, but initiate offense. Nurkic is more of a passer from the top, while Jackson is a punishing isolation player who can drive to the basket or pull-up in the mid-range. According to DunksandThrees.com, Jaren Jackson Jr. has been in 90+ percentile or higher the last two seasons from the mid-range. Jackson’s game is extremely versatile, so he doesn’t have the elite rim% of players who solely finish alley-oops and make putback dunks on offensive rebounds. He’s more of a center with guard skills that makes life miserable for most traditional centers. He’ll also occasionally grab a rebound and dribble the length of the court. He’s got a lot to his game that can make the Jazz extremely unique offensively.

With Jackson, and in life, it’s important not to get completely consumed by players’ flaws. The strengths of Jackson’s game are what make it hard not to think this Jazz team couldn’t be in the top half of the playoff seeds next season. Utah will have a 5-out offense that will punish opposing weaknesses. Jackson will be a problem every night, whether it’s from his three-point shooting, his mid-range iso, or his rim pressure. On top of Jackson’s personal impact, he allows the Jazz to clear the paint, giving players like Keyonte George and Darryn Peterson space to get to the basket. There’s no question we’re going to see nights where Utah runs up the score, and I personally can’t wait. Jaren Jackson Jr. at the 5, if Utah can minimize his flaws, should have an incredible season. It’s not out of the question to wonder if it becomes his best season yet.

Being a Phoenix Suns fan means being someone who has dealt with trauma, pain, poor decisions, health issues, and bad luck throughout the history of the franchise, and throughout your own existence as a fan.

One thing I think we’ve done a good job of this summer from a Bright Side perspective is not leaning too heavily into any of that. We’re already in the doldrums of the offseason, and there’s no need to constantly look backward when all I want to do is look forward.

That being said, Indiana Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton recently appeared on the Numbers on the Board podcast and revealed that his agent called the Phoenix Suns in an effort to get him drafted with the 10th overall pick in the 2020 NBA Draft.

“And Phoenix? We were calling Phoenix,” Haliburton said. “Cause, like, ‘Y’all need a PG”‘. I was trying to play with Book. Let me go play with Book. And they were like, ‘We’re drafting a power forward’”.

Tyrese Haliburton and his agent were calling the Phoenix Suns, hoping they would draft him, but Phoenix instead chose a PF (Jalen Smith) with the 10th pick in the 2020 NBA Draft. pic.twitter.com/OI8vrbO4Yr

— Khiz (@KhizHoop) August 23, 2026

Ugh, I can’t get away from it.

It remains one of the greatest, and certainly one of the most recent, what ifs in franchise history. That Suns team already had Chris Paul, who would have been the ideal mentor for a young Tyrese Haliburton coming out of Iowa State.

I remember that draft specifically because we had way too much time on our hands. It was the COVID era, and I had recently started writing for Bright Side. Haliburton and Devin Vassell were the two players I was highest on, and we all had the same “what the fuck” look on our faces when James Jones and the Suns ultimately selected Jalen Smith.

To this day, it remains one of those decisions you try not to talk about and try not to think about because of how much it could have changed the trajectory of the franchise. Granted, you can never truly know what Phoenix would have looked like with Haliburton or how his development would have played out within this organization and this city. But the foundation was there for him to become a great point guard who could play alongside Devin Booker for years to come.

To hear Haliburton say that he wanted to come to Phoenix is another kick in the side and another reminder that bad decisions can have long-term repercussions. That’s what makes this particular what-if so painful. It wasn’t some impossible scenario built entirely through hindsight. Haliburton was available. Phoenix had the pick. He wanted to be here. The basketball fit made sense then and looks even better now. Nobody can say exactly how history would have changed, but we know what actually happened. Sometimes franchise-altering mistakes are complicated. This one still feels painfully simple.

In basketball, ‘ball knowledge’ refers to an internet trend where fans remember obscure, random role players from the past. One mentions Lucas Nogueira. Another name-drops Chris Copeland. Everyone in the room death stares at the guy who deems Monte Ellis as ‘elite ball knowledge’.

But what constitutes as Utah Jazz ball knowledge? The Kyle Korvers and George Hills deserve some praise, but nowhere in this stratosphere do they count. Kris Dunn? A cheeky Ian Clark? Maybe. But I’ve done my research, stringing my vote to resurface ‘forgotten’ Jazz players.

Miye Oni

Ivy League Player of the Year Miye Oni always looked like he was one fundamental step away from being a 10+ year veteran in the NBA. However, the promise of Oni’s skillset was enough for Utah to draft him with the 58th pick of the 2019 NBA draft. He was an energetic 6’5 wing who could play the ‘D and sometimes shoot the 3. Oni got more opportunity out of the three second-rounders, others being Justin Wright-Foreman and Jarrell Brantley, in his two-year Jazz stint. He even represented Nigeria during the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.

The offensive inconsistency and foul trouble led to him being booted out of the Jazz rotation and ultimately out of the NBA by Year 3. A year later, Oni went overseas to sign with the London Lions. Now, he plays for the Criollos de Caguas in the Baloncesto Superior Nacional Puerto Rican league. In another universe of the space-time continuum, Miye Oni was the piece the early 2020s Jazz needed to climb the hill and regain their spot in the Western Conference Finals.

Kyrylo Fesenko

Before Bojan Bogdanovic, Kyrylo Fesenko held the mantle of #44. The former Ukrainian big man stood at a massive 7’1” and 280-pound frame. He was selected with the 38th pick in the 2007 draft by the 76ers, who instantly traded his draft rights to the Jazz. Fesenko spent the majority of his five-year NBA career with the Jazz as a physical backup center, defining his expertise by rugged post defense, altering shots and setting screens using his bulky frame. I think we will all love a little Kyrylo Fesenko in our lives. Fes was a great person to cheer for. He dunked hard, and he said the best things in interviews.

Unfortunately, Fesenko couldn’t stick around in the league for long. Legendary Coach Jerry Sloan was publicly and privately frustrated by his fitness levels and struggles to lose weight. His lack of elite stamina kept him off the court—he also gained a reputation for being a lovable goofball whose focus drifted. Don’t we all, Fes.

Just as he entered unrestricted free agency to find a more permanent role than what Utah could offer, Fesenko suffered a torn meniscus in his left knee while playing for Ukraine in the 2011 Eurobasket tournament. Teams like Golden State, which had previously shown interest, backed out of talks, which eventually led him to sign a late-season deal with the Pacers, never finding his true home in the NBA.

Jeff Withey

There is something deeply wrong with me to be this enamored by unathletic 7-footers. He was recognized for his elite shot-blocking ability and interior D. He had a historic college career with the Kansas Jayhawks — setting an NCAA tournament record for blocks and becoming a two-time Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year — and he was drafted 39th overall in the 2013 NBA Draft.

It was in August 2015 that Withey signed a multi-year deal with the Utah Jazz. He carved a role as a dependable third-string center, buried deep in a front-court rotation behind rising star Rudy Gobert and fan-favorite Derrick Favors. Even in limited minutes, his length allowed him to maintain Utah’s rigid defensive identity outside of the Gobert minutes. However, just as the Jazz were in the middle of a playoff run back in April 2017, Withey was publicly accused of a reported domestic violence incident by his ex-fiancée. The charges never resulted in a conviction, but the Jazz immediately deactivated him until further notice for personal reasons, resulting in a swift defeat to the powerhouse Warriors that same postseason.

Following the conclusion of the 2016-17 season, Withey became a free agent and signed a new deal with the Dallas Mavericks. He was another cruel victim of the NBA’s evolving pace-and-space era. Despite being an elite rim-protector, the new era exposed his lack of lateral quickness and offensive versatility. He eventually chose a highly lucrative and successful international career where his traditional rim-protecting role was still highly valuable.

Juwan Morgan

Juwan Morgan went undrafted in the 2019 NBA Draft following a four-year college career with the Indiana Hoosiers. He impressed during the Summer League and earned his roster spot with Utah in November 2019. Morgan spent most of his regular-season tenure either on the end of the bench or with the SLC Stars. No kidding—he earned only 134 minutes, mostly in garbage time. But he’s best remembered by fans for a highly unexpected, emergency postseason insertion.

His definitive moment came during the emergency NBA Bubble. Coach Quin Snyder put on his sicko cap. Out of nowhere, Morgan was given his first career start in Game 1 of the first round, when Mike Conley left the bubble to see the birth of his son. He played tough interior D to battle Denver’s frontcourt and assisted Donovan Mitchell’s 57-point night, despite a 135-125 overtime loss.

But alas, the Juwan Morgan ended just a year later. The Jazz handed out massive, lucrative extensions to stars Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert, along with re-signing Mike Conley. Utah couldn’t afford to allocate qualifying offers or standard roster spots to developmental players like Morgan. His high-end hustle made him a G League standout, and he has now progressed in his overseas career with clubs like Zenit Saint Petersburg in the VTB United Russian League.

Juan Toscano-Anderson

Thrown in as an additional piece of the trade that sent Westbrook to Utah in 2023 (the first time), NBA champion Juan Toscano-Anderson was already on his last legs in the NBA. JTA was most known for his high energy and defensive hustle that earned him playoff minutes in Golden State’s 2022 run. His trademark was the #95, used to represent his childhood home on the 95th Avenue of East Oakland

He became the first player of Mexican descent to participate in the Slam Dunk Contest back in 2022. He was the first player in Jazz franchise history to wear the number #95. Playing in 22 games for Utah post-deadline, Toscano-Anderson averaged 3.4 points in 15 minutes per game.

He provided solid wing defense and transition play, but he struggled mightily with his perimeter shooting. HE shot just 17.4% from beyond the arc. He became an unrestricted free agent after the season ended, and the Jazz had no interest in re-signing the veteran. In 2026, JTA spent the last two seasons playing for Pallacanestro Trieste in the Lega Basket Serie A.

Stephen Howard

Despite going undrafted out of DePaul in 1992, Stephen Howard’s gritty determination in a rookie tryout camp earned him a roster spot where he played three seasons under Jerry Sloan. Fun Fact: Howard was contacted by Midway Games to serve as a physical model for the legendary NBA Jam title. He’s a hidden, unlockable secret player alongside Stockton and Malone. He’s an elite scholar, being one of two players in DePaul basketball’s history to be named a two-time First Team Academic All-American.

Howard’s most notable stint as a Jazzman was when he suited up for the legendary 1997 Jazz, playing 42 games and contributing to the squad that battled Jordan’s Bulls. It’s not much as he could have been playing—stuck behind a crowded forward rotation that put him behind Karl Malone, Ty Corbin, Tom Chambers, David Benoit and Byron Russell.

Howard was never offered a long-term deal. He was stuck in a one-year contract trap after he spent his entire four-year career playing on short-term contracts. He didn’t possess a high-volume offensive game to justify heavy minutes. Rather than scraping by in the US, Howard chose to transition into a highly successful 11-year international career across France, Spain and China.

Tibor Pleiß

I’m gonna be honest, Tibor Pleiß (cruelly spelt ‘Pleiss’ on the back of his jersey) has the coolest name in Jazz history. Nicknamed ‘The Octopus’ due to his versatile tools and endless wingspan, he was one of the most prominent traditional big men in European basketball. The 7’3” German was a two-time EuroLeague champion in the 2021 and 2022 seasons with the Turkish powerhouse Anadolu Efes Istanbul.

His NBA stint began when he was selected 31st overall in the 20210 draft, only transitioning to the NBA for the 2015-16 season with the Utah Jazz. Pleiß didn’t stick in the NBA for long. He was caught in the middle of a massive league-wide tactical shift away from slow-moving 7-footers, combined with Utah’s deep big man depth chart in the midst of Rudy Gobert’s defensive emergence. He only appeared in 12 games, not being able to establish a polished offensive upside or command the touches needed to make up for his defensive or physical limitations.

He was later traded to the Philadelphia 76ers in August 2016, where Pleiß chose to return to Europe rather than grind it out in the G League.

Blue Edwards

“Bluuueeee!” Theodore ‘Blue’ Edwards was an athlete at that. He played four out of his ten seasons with the Jazz, establishing himself as a high-flying fan favorite. Edwards was drafted 21st overall by Utah in the 1989 draft out of East Carolina, carving out a complementary role alongside Stockton and Malone.

That high-flying led him to participate in the 1991 NBA Slam Dunk Contest, where he finished 6th. He played all 82 games of his rookie season shooting an incredibly efficient 51.1% from the field. He peaked during the 1992 season, when he averaged a career-best 12.6 points per game. Edwards served as a defensive and scoring safety valve in Utah’s Western Conference Finals defeat against the Trail Blazers. Beyond the flashy dunks, Edwards ranks 9th all-time in Utah Jazz history with a .516 field-goal percentage.

The shortcomings came on the other side of the court — his lack of defense and glass-cleaning ability didn’t fully align with Sloan’s grit-and-grind identity. 1992 trade rumors began circulating, which visibly bothered Edwards. He missed a defensive assignment in a regular-season game, leading to Sloan benching him and creating a public verbal confrontation on the sidelines. That summer, the Jazz packaged Edwards, Eric Murdock and a draft pick to the Bucks for Jay Humphries. He had a reunion with the Jazz in 1994-95, but was promptly selected by the Vancouver Grizzlies in the 1995 Expansion Draft that same Summer.

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Don’t be shy and let us know your deep pulls in the comments. August is the dead end of the NBA off-season.

At the risk of dinging my cool guy/super athlete online persona, I’ve been playing a lot of Xenoblade Chronicles 2 on my Switch 2 lately. When working as a freelance writer, one is inclined to collect as many contracts as possible, and in my case, one of those contracts is as a video game reviewer. Xenoblade was recently dropped at my desk and into my console, and as the responsible journalist I am, I’ve played many hours of what is a 50+ hour base experience.

One of Xenoblade’s trademarks is the verbal assault that sounds throughout every battle. Each character has a tendency to shout out the name of their attack as they unleash it — not unlike the foolish wand-waving and silly incantations of Harry Potter or Gru whipping out his freeze-ray in Despicable Me — and this can become a bit overstimulating when upwards of six characters are audibly berating a defenseless level 17 rabbit.

It’s a lot of soundbites to layer one on top of another, but one always stands out from the rest when it graces my playthrough: “We’ll beat them with the power of friendship!”

I can’t help but chuckle. That’s just a ridiculous thing to say with a straight face, first of all. But as an NBA obsessive, I know that the phrase “power of friendship” has become something of a buzzword in basketball circles.

It’s become the rallying cry for the New York Knicks, whose Villanova brotherhood turned a collegiate dynasty into an NBA champion.

But may I propose that the Utah Jazz’s greatest strength this upcoming season could be derived from the strength of their brotherly bond? It seems like every day my social media feed is graced by Keyonte George doubled over in laughter. By Jaren Jackson Jr. raving about his new home before cruising off in a vintage Mustang. By Will Hardy taking a trip with some of his stars to visit Lauri Markkanen all the way in Finland.

"you heard us coming through?" 🐎

the boys rode out of Finland in style 🇫🇮 pic.twitter.com/y7ODS6hlqe

— Utah Jazz (@utahjazz) August 22, 2026

There are plenty of basketball-specific reasons to feel optimistic about this Jazz team, but the way they’ve rallied around one another over the offseason has been a sight to behold, and a beacon of belief for a fanbase that has been void of optimism for far too long.

These guys are just having a ton of fun with each other right now.

The Utah Jazz are making a GENERATIONAL run on social media this summer 🤣🤣💜

(Video via @coachwillhardy on IG)@utahjazz@keyonte1george@jarenjacksonjr#TakeNote#NBAXpic.twitter.com/uJQNPZHbxJ

— Utah Azz (@utahazz) August 23, 2026

But they’re not just goofing off around the world. As a matter of fact, everyone in the Jazz organization is working incredibly hard to prepare for the upcoming season. From the All-Star hopefuls to the head coach, and even owner Ryan Smith getting in on the ladder drills.

This is an incredibly good look for a franchise that has been at the forefront of a losing battle over the past three seasons. This is a winning look.

“what you’re seeing is culture…”

everybody’s putting in that work 🤝#TakeNotepic.twitter.com/2qJglG9x68

— Utah Jazz (@utahjazz) August 22, 2026

Now, comparing the Utah Jazz to the New York Knicks is ridiculous at face value, even when qualified by the “power of friendship” moniker. Because, in all honesty, the reason the Knicks won the championship isn’t purely because they’re all best friends — Donte DiVincenzo certainly didn’t think so — but because they had high-level stars like Jalen Brunson, OG Anunoby, and Karl-Anthony Towns who showed up when it mattered most.

We’re a long way from knowing how Darryn Peterson, Keyonte George, Ace Bailey, Lauri Markkanen, and Jaren Jackson Jr. turn out, but this offseason has been an encouraging one for a number of reasons.

Basketball is a team sport, and history suggests that talented rosters can and will fail to succeed without healthy interpersonal bonds and team-wide chemistry. So it’s a good thing that the vibes are high enough to surf out in Utah.

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Calvin Barrett is the Associate Editor for SLC Dunk. Originally from Springville, Utah, he currently lives in Japan and has covered the NBA and college athletics since 2024.

The second apron era of the NBA is here and it’s forcing teams to make tough decisions. The Knicks are no stranger to difficult choices. This offseason, the club did not retain backup center Mitchell Robinson in free agency due to the second apron. 

That problem won’t disappear anytime soon as New York has one of the most expensive teams in the NBA. Looming contract extensions for Karl-Anthony Towns and Josh Hart are on the horizon. A solution to the salary cap crunch is player development and the Knicks will need young players like Mohamed Diawara and Pacome Dadiet to grow into legitimate rotation players in the future. 

Currently, Diawara and Dadiet are set to earn a combined $5.6 million for the 2026-27 season. So far, the development of both players has varied. A second-round pick in 2025, Diawara had some stints in New York’s rotation before being glued to the bench for the latter part of the season and the playoffs. 

Overall, the 21-year old forward was a pleasant surprise. Diawara has a good feel for the game. His three-point shooting was much further along than expected, as he shot 36.9 percent from beyond the arc. The Knicks were impressed enough by the forward to re-sign him to a four-year, $11.2 million contract. He has the potential to be a three-and-D wing for the Knicks going forward. 

Diawara did have a rough showing with New York’s Summer League team in July, but that hasn’t erased all the hints of a rotation player from his rookie campaign.

Dadiet has played just 247 total minutes in two seasons with the Knicks and hasn’t been able to earn any trust. At just 21 years old, Dadiet still has potential to evolve, but time is running out for New York to decide whether to keep him around long-term. The Knicks have two first-round picks over the next four years, so that is another way they could find cheap talent.

With 13 players on the roster, New York is currently $3.3 million away from the $221.7 million second apron. The Knicks will eventually have to sign a 14th player to the roster cutting into that already-thin wiggle room.

Future flexibility

Knicks owner James Dolan made it clear earlier in June that the Knicks will not be going into the second apron, which penalizes teams through various mechanisms. This includes not being allowed to aggregate salaries in a trade or having future first-round picks frozen.

Going forward, New York will be dealing with the second apron for the next few years. The Knicks' starting lineup is particularly expensive, earning a combined $191.7 million during the 2026-27 season. It’s created a salary structure where no one on the bench makes more than $5.5 million next season.

Jalen Brunson and OG Anunoby are both extension eligible in 2027. Brunson’s future salary will be important to watch. The 2026 NBA Finals MVP will earn $37.7 million for 2026-27. After sacrificing some money by avoiding free agency, Brunson is sure to sign for a max contract in the future and could annually earn $60 million or more depending on when he signs a new contract.

To avoid the second apron in future years, New York might have to alter its starting lineup by dealing away a key starter like Hart or Mikal Bridges. That makes it even more important for Diawara and Dadiet to emerge.

Both players provide size on the perimeter, something New York’s current bench is lacking. Currently, New York’s reserve rotation will include 6-foot Jose Alvarado, 6-foot-2 Miles McBride and 6-foot-5 Landry Shamet.

After a short summer break, it’s very possible Knicks head coach Mike Brown opts to keep his starters fresh by limiting minutes and also giving stars like Brunson, Towns and Anunoby the occasional night off. 

In that case there should be plenty of opportunities for Diawara and Dadiet to crack the rotation. But they will need to play well to help the Knicks compete for a championship next season. But their play could also dictate what the future makeup of the team will be years from now.

One constant for the Lakers over the last decade is that the Buss family will create drama. Whether it was coup attempts, firings or general infighting, the siblings have been messy in so many ways.

Much of that has happened under Adam Silver’s watch. While he isn’t responsible for the Buss family, he hasn’t done much to tamp down the flames of a situation threatening to boil over throughout the years either.

Owner oversight, in fact, has not been a particularly strong aspect of his performance as commissioner. Some might say it’s an area he’d Aspire to improve.

All that makes it a bit funny that it sounds like he’s going to attempt to step in and fix the latest, and maybe final, Buss family drama. Tom Friend of Sports Business Journal, in a piece on the recent influx of sales of NBA teams, reported that Silver is expected to try to help calm things down in Los Angeles.

The Lakers’ situation isn’t as clear cut, with sources believing Commissioner Adam Silver — who has always been close with Jeanie Buss — will try to help smooth over the Buss family chaos.

Hey man, good luck!

Based on how he’s handling the situation with Steve Ballmer and the Clippers, is there any confidence that he’ll figure things out? In his defense, it’s different situations with different relationships. He has a much better relationship with Jeanie after years of working together than he would Ballmer, if we comparing them.

But at the same time, what’s he going to say to her? He may have a good relationship with Jeanie, but he also has a good relationship with Bob Iger.

This all just feels like a mess that Silver won’t be able to fix. He had a decade to try to calm things down with the family, if he was really worried about it. All that he’s worried about now is that one of his friends might not be able to buy an NBA team.

Color me skeptical that he’s going to have any luck smoothing things over. It’s way, way too late for that now.

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

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