Category: Basketball

Bucks have ‘done due diligence' on Kings star guard Zach LaVine, per report originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

The Kings are headed toward a full-on rebuild, which might include parting ways with several of their big-name stars.

One of the players includes sharpshooting guard Zach LaVine, who is in his first full season with Sacramento since being shipped to California’s capital from the Chicago Bulls at last year’s trade deadline.

Now, LaVine could be bracing to pack his bags once again.

The Milwaukee Bucks, who have shown interest in LaVine in the past, have done “recent due diligence” on the 30-year-old guard, The Athletic’s Sam Amick reported in a column Friday, citing sources.

LaVine currently is sidelined with an injury, missing Thursday’s game with a thumb injury. HoopsHype’s Michael Scotto first reported back in November that the Bucks had “conducted background due diligence on LaVine.”

LaVine has a $47.5 million cap hit this season, with a player option worth just under $49 million for 2026-27, which makes it “nearly impossible to move him” without attaching draft assets in return, Amick noted.

In 22 games with the Kings this season, LaVine is averaging 20.6 points on 48.6-percent shooting from the field and 38.9 percent from 3-point range, with 3.1 rebounds and 2.3 assists.

Download and follow The Deuce & Mo Podcast

The irony of Steph Curry's Warriors return in first game vs T-wolves this season originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

One more game, one more day. That’s the thinking that consumed Steph Curry’s mind as he looked to return from a strained left hamstring against the Minnesota Timberwolves last season in the second round of the NBA playoffs. His wishful hope fell short.

Without him, the Warriors lost four straight games after holding the Timberwolves off in Game 1 after Curry left in the second quarter. No extra days together, no more games. No more Curry, no more season.

“Everything was kind of aligned for Game 6,” Curry said at his exit interview press conference when the Warriors returned home. 

A wrinkle in the schedule with the Golden State Valkyries’ own playoff run would have given Curry just enough time to recover to try and keep the Warriors’ season alive. The Warriors would have gone three days without playing between Game 5 and Game 6, but that never became reality. 

Now, as the Warriors and Timberwolves are set for their first game against each other this season on Friday night at Chase Center since that second-round playoff matchup, another schedule twist gave Curry ample recovery to return from a quad contusion against the team he so badly wanted to keep competing against seven months ago. Since the Warriors didn’t make it to the next round of this season’s NBA Cup, they finally were given a stretch without any games after a previous jam-packed stretch. 

The Warriors last played Sunday, giving them a four-day stretch without games. Friday quickly became circled as a return date for Curry, and the Warriors kept him home from their recent three-game road trip so he could stay back and rehab at their facilities. They took Monday and Tuesday off before Curry returned to practice Wednesday and Thursday. 

“I’m feeling great, had a good rehab week,” Curry said Thursday. 

Watching from the bench for two games and back at home for three, Curry saw how the Warriors went 3-2 without him. He took note of the good and bad. Curry couldn’t ignore the emergence of new Bay Area cult hero Pat Spencer, as well as some major shifts to coach Steve Kerr’s rotations. 

How the Warriors responded to Curry’s absence put them one game over .500 with a 13-12 record. The hardest part of their schedule where the start of the season was full of road games and back-to-backs is over. A new test is here, beginning Friday night, where the Warriors have nine more games in 2025 to enter the new year consistently establishing the identity they want to lean on. 

“Nobody’s happy with our record. Nobody’s feeling like we’re a day away from being the best team in the league,” Curry said. “But we also know the journey ahead is right there for us.” 

Curry will be back on the court, but another who would love revenge from last season’s playoff exit will not. Draymond Green missed the Warriors’ last two practices because of an excused personal reason and won’t play against the Timberwolves. The defensive ace was honest and critical at the end of last season with how Timberwolves forward Julius Randle played against him, averaging 25.2 points, 6.6 rebounds and 7.4 assists per game in the five-game series. 

Signing veteran center Al Horford also was supposed to be a resolution to the Timberwolves’ size advantage on the Warriors, but he too won’t be playing against them Friday night. Horford, 39, continues to be hampered by right sciatic nerve irritation and has played in only two of the last nine games. 

Outside of Spencer’s shining star, the Warriors added more reinforcements in the two weeks they were without Curry. The Warriors believe they would have been a different team last season if De’Anthony Melton had stayed healthy instead of playing only six games due to requiring ACL surgery. He made his return last Thursday, one year to the date of his surgery.

Curry’s brother, Seth, was signed shortly after Steph’s injury. A handful of other role players contributed to the Warriors’ successful road trip without their superstar. But one with star aspirations who opened eyes against the Timberwolves in last season’s playoffs now appears out of the rotation. 

Jonathan Kuminga was a healthy DNP-CD (Did Not Play, Coach’s Decision) against the Chicago Bulls in the Warriors’ blowout win to end the road trip. Kerr said he and Kuminga talked before Wednesday’s practice and the coach is happy with how he responded. 

“He had a great practice today. We had a talk before practice and he did the things that I asked him to do and I was thrilled about that,” Kerr said. 

Kuminga received two DNPs in the first round against the Houston Rockets, didn’t dress for another game and was also inactive for one after becoming an afterthought in the last month of the regular season. But in the final four games against the Timberwolves, Kuminga averaged 24.3 points on 55.4 percent shooting with a 38.9 3-point percentage. 

Warriors owner Joe Lacob, sources say, referred back to Kuminga’s performances against the Timberwolves on multiple occasions throughout the offseason when discussing the former No. 7 overall pick’s future with the franchise and holding onto him, for the time being.

As always, though, everything starts and ends with the health of No. 30. 

“At the end of practice today he hit me with like a triple combo and made a rainbow three, if that tells you anything,” Trayce Jackson-Davis said Thursday. 

These two teams are on a path of avoiding the play-in tournament already, even with four months remaining in the regular season. A clear top five in the Western Conference of the Oklahoma City Thunder, Houston Rockets, Denver Nuggets, San Antonio Spurs and Los Angeles Lakers has already come to light. The Timberwolves enter Friday as the No. 6 seed, two and a half games ahead of the No. 8 seed Warriors. 

So much has changed and so much remains the same since the Warriors’ disappointing end to last season against the Timberwolves. Between Curry’s return, the unknown of Kuminga and all the other moving parts of this roster, the irony of the first Warriors-Timberwolves game this season is hard to miss.

Download and follow the Dubs Talk Podcast

These five factors will determine if the Warriors can make deep NBA playoff run originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

With 57 games remaining on the schedule, the Warriors have plenty of time to rise or fall this season. As they sit in eighth place in the Western Conference, they remain confident in their ability to finish in the top six, thereby avoiding the play-in tournament.

That confidence has not, however, translated into success. The Warriors’ longest win streak is three games, and they’ll be out to tie that Friday night when they face the Minnesota Timberwolves at Chase Center.

Golden State has yet to win more than five games over any 10-game stretch, and its 13-12 record stands as proof that it has not found a rhythm.

There is plenty of time, however, to recover and climb the standings. Here are five factors that could decide whether the Warriors’ dreams make a deep postseason run:

Keeping Curry, Butler and Green healthy and productive

Golden State projects as no better than a play-in tournament team without Stephen Curry. Jimmy Butler III provides a necessary change of pace contrast that is highly effective under certain circumstances. Now that the defense seems to realize intensity is an essential component, it should get even better the moment Draymond Green returns.

Maintain recent defensive awareness and intensity.

Golden State’s defense during its road trip shifted from mostly good to borderline excellence, with a (99.0 rating that ranks second in the NBA over that short span. Despite the absence of Green, the energy was palpable, with Pat Spencer and De’Anthony Melton baring fangs. If the Warriors, currently second in defensive rating, remain at that level the offense will benefit.

Reaching a positive resolution to the ongoing Kuminga saga

The Warriors tried to move Jonathan Kuminga last summer, and he embraced having a fresh start. Didn’t happen. He signed a handsome contract during training camp, but the investment isn’t looking good. Unfortunately, a trade is the only conclusion for such incompatibility.

The availability of Horford and Melton

Though neither owns star status and both will have their minutes monitored, the availability of Al Horford and Melton is imperative. Horford has appeared in 13 of 25 games, slightly more than 50 percent. If he can push it to around 80 percent over the rest of the season – and be fresh for the playoffs – the Warriors will take it. As for Melton, we saw Golden State dip when he went down last season. He’s Curry’s best sidekick since prime Klay Thompson, and the quiet key to any rise in the standings.

“He’s a guy that understands what this level is all about, and he has a way of making the game very simple,” Curry said Thursday. “He’s a good shooter, can knock them down when he’s open. He can put the ball on the floor, play pick-and-roll, create on the backside. And, obviously, defensively, we know what he does, disrupting the ball. Just a prototypical like NBA two guard that can do a little bit of everything.”

A semblance of consistency from the role players

Green and Butler have been trying to coax the youngsters toward proficiency, and there it was on the road trip. Quinten Post and Spencer provided a boost. Buddy Hield’s missing shot made an appearance. Brandin Podziemski showed signs of recovering from his early-season slumber. Moses Moody, Trayce Jackson-Davis and Will Richard contributed. Gary Payton II continues to search for his best self.

It’s unreasonable to expect the entire crew to be consistently outstanding, but if any two or three can bring something to every game, it’s a win for the Warriors.

Download and follow the Dubs Talk Podcast

In a book about LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers, it’s only fitting that one memorable scene involves a Hollywood star: Will Smith.

Yaron Weitzman’s latest book is titled A Hollywood Ending: The Dreams and Drama of the LeBron Lakers. Suffice to say the plot thickens when Smith goes to the Lakers’ film room to speak to the team in 2022.

Six months had passed since Smith had slapped Chris Rock at the Oscars. Now Smith was participating in a series of celebrity talks to the Lakers, an innovation brought in by general manager Rob Pelinka. According to the book, James asked Smith question after question until a scheduled half-hour visit had ballooned to nearly twice that amount, with fellow Laker Russell Westbrook growing visibly frustrated, frowning in a team photo with Smith.

“You get to see the personal, intra-office dynamics that impact the game that you don’t always think about,” Weitzman says of the scene.

He notes that those who’ve read the excerpt “seem to be cheering on Westbrook” and “latching on to the idea that it was LeBron’s fault, LeBron was a phony.” He points out that Westbrook has played for multiple NBA teams, and in LA, he was “awful on the court, hardheaded, no willingness to adjust his game.”

As for James: “He is the defining, not just basketball player … but athlete of my generation,” says the 37-year-old Weitzman. And, the author adds, “It seemed like the ‘merger’ between LeBron and the Lakers was fertile ground for the sort of reporting and storytelling” that’s fueled by what Weitzman calls behind the scenes drama.

Weitzman is no stranger to dissecting NBA franchises. It’s what he did in his previous book, about the Philadelphia 76ers, Tanking to the Top. With the Lakers, though, the spotlight was more intense. There was the team’s location in America’s entertainment epicenter. There was a legacy of championships won by stars from Magic Johnson to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to Kobe Bryant to Shaquille O’Neal, the last two coached by the legendary Phil Jackson. (Last season brought another addition to the pantheon – Luka Dončić – but we’ll get to him later.) There was the role of the Buss family, especially the late longtime team owner Jerry Buss and his daughter, Jeanie, who succeeded him in the executive office. Then there was what Weitzman called the “merger” between the Lakers and James, who brought a star power all his own – as well as the increasingly powerful agency that represented him: Klutch Sports Group, run by James’ friend Rich Paul.

Related: The Luka Era begins: inside the transformation powering the post-LeBron Lakers

How rare is James’s status in the NBA? The book notes his estimated billion-dollar-plus worth while still on an NBA roster, and his dream of someday owning a franchise. Weitzman tracks the impact of James’ comments to the media – including some much-scrutinized remarks at a press conference after the Lakers’ 2023 playoff exit: “I’ve got a lot to think about, to be honest. Just for me personally going forward with the game of basketball, I’ve got a lot to think about.”

Neither James nor team ownership would talk with Weitzman for the book. He filled in the gaps by reading the news coverage from as far back as 15 years ago, supplementing this by watching documentaries, listening to podcasts and speaking with whoever would talk to him, a list that grew to almost 300. Keep an eye out for the footnotes while reading the book. Weitzman describes them as “like someone winking at the reader.”

On page 54, you’ll find not one but two footnotes relating to Daenerys Targaryen. Why? Bryant is quoted urging Jeanie Buss to emulate the Game of Thrones character in early 2017. That’s when, according to the book, she won a George RR Martin-esque power struggle for control of the team. The next year, James came to LA for four years and $154m.

“The Lakers were in a dark period,” Weitzman says. “They certainly needed LeBron. LeBron saved Jeanie Buss’ legacy by coming there.” He adds that unlike past stars such as Magic, Kobe or Shaq, LeBron came to the Lakers as “a fully formed icon, which they had not had before.”

There were significant if not immediate benefits: A championship in James’ second season with the Lakers, 2019-20 – a season that ended amid the Covid-19 pandemic and the Black Lives Matter protests. It was also a season that saw the death of Bryant and his daughter Gianna in a helicopter crash. Coach Frank Vogel kept the team focused as it played before empty stands in the NBA bubble. It was title No 17 for the Lakers, tying them with the Boston Celtics for the all-time league mark.

Would there be an encore? Pelinka tried to add more talent around James, and in 2021 he brought in Westbrook. Yet the 2021-22 team couldn’t even qualify for the playoffs to defend its title, and Vogel lost his job.

Darvin Ham succeeded Vogel as coach. James continued to dazzle on the court, yet the team struggled around him. The book finds a perfect microcosm: On 7 February 2023, James broke the all-time NBA scoring record, surpassing Abdul-Jabbar, in a game against the Oklahoma City Thunder. There were cheers for James after he set the mark late in the third quarter, and a salute from commissioner Adam Silver. However, as the book points out, it was the Thunder who won the game. The Lakers stood at 25-30, in danger of missing the playoffs once more.

Cue more plot twists. The Lakers traded away Westbrook, and saw their fortunes surge. They made the playoffs, going all the way to the West finals, which Denver swept. It was an encouraging first season for Ham, yet the following season the Nuggets ousted the Lakers again, this time in the first round of the playoffs. The hated Celtics won the title that season, moving them ahead of LA for that record 18th banner.

Parting ways with Ham, the Lakers flirted with UConn coach Dan Hurley before he ultimately turned LA down. The Lakers hired player-turned-podcaster JJ Redick and made a unique decision in the draft: They selected James’ son Bronny at No 54, setting up a rare father-son pairing in the lineup. Then, earlier this year, Pelinka made a league-shattering move, dealing Anthony Davis for Mavericks superstar Dončić, who is already one his way to replacing James as the face of the Lakers.

By that point, Weitzman thought he was finished with the manuscript, which initially ended with Bronny joining James on the Lakers. As they say in Hollywood, get me a rewrite.

“I live in New York. The Lakers were playing the Knicks that night at Madison Square Garden,” Weitzman recalls of the Dončić trade. “I was at the game, then I was driving my way home, saw the tweet – oh my God.”

The book wraps up in where-are-they-now style, giving readers updates on the cast. Among them: The Buss family has sold its majority stake to Mark Walter, the owner of the cross-town LA Dodgers, with Jeanie Buss remaining as governor and keeping 15% ownership.

“I’m curious to see where this goes,” Weitzman says. “Is she going to stay or go? I’m dubious whether she actually can stay … Usually, people who pay the money want to be in charge.”

As for James?

“Playing into his 40s, it’s something unparalleled,” Weitzman marvels. “In the major professional American sports, the four major sports, Tom Brady is the only comparison. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

Warriors' next 20 games could make or break their perplexing 2025-26 NBA season originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

SAN FRANCISCO – There is no betting line, as far as we know, on whether this season’s Warriors can assemble their puzzle pieces, outgrow their inconsistencies and rumble into mid-April as a legitimate NBA championship threat.

If there were such a line, the action would be heavy. Because, 25 games into their NBA season, the Warriors remain among the league’s most perplexing squads.

The next 20 games, beginning Friday night against the Minnesota Timberwolves, should offer a measure of clarity.

Of the Warriors’ next 20 games, 14 are at Chase Center, including an eight-game homestand in mid-January. This is a platinum opportunity to build the kind of momentum that thus far has been elusive.

After closing a three-game road trip with consecutive wins – without Stephen Curry, without full availability of Draymond Green and Jimmy Butler III – the league’s road-weariest team has allowed itself two full days of recovery, followed by two practices that were considered productive and helpful.

Curry, who missed the last three games, practiced both days and is set to return Friday. Butler practiced and is itching for wins. De’Anthony Melton made his season debut on the road and looked like a significant in-season acquisition.

The road trip, according to Curry, offered a glimpse of what’s needed to escape that mediocrity that comes fighting to stay above .500.

“Just playing good basketball, making simple plays, getting organized offensively, that’s what I saw the last three games,” Curry said, including a one-point loss at Philadelphia. “Even after those two rough first quarters we had in Philly and Cleveland, it was getting the ball moving, trying to create advantages, where guys were attacking closeouts, taking advantage of spacing. It seemed like we were just a little bit more organized, even though they weren’t necessarily play calls. It was, if you’re open, shoot it. If you have a driving angle, take it. Get off it. The ball just had energy.

“I know when I’m out there, I try to create the same type of actions. And then you just want guys playing with confidence. And that was what it ended up being like in Chicago.”

The Warriors were exceptional in Chicago, earning their first tip-to-buzzer triumph of the season. The Bulls, however, are in a skid, having lost their last seven games.

Which is why it’s prudent for the Warriors to be cautious when looking ahead. They have alternated between being very good and downright dreadful. They are sitting at 13-12 because they’ve offset some quality wins (at Lakers, Nuggets, at Spurs twice) with perplexing losses (at Pacers, at Kings, Blazers home and away).

And that road trip went through the Eastern Conference, which is appreciably weaker than the West.

The Next 20 begins with four games against Western Conference teams, two of which – the Timberwolves and Phoenix Suns – are above Golden State in the standings. Anything less than 3-1 would have to be profoundly unsatisfying and would pause, if not halt, momentum.

Download and follow the Dubs Talk Podcast