Category: NBA

The Oklahoma City Thunder face the San Antonio Spurs in Game 3 of the Western Conference finals. The teams split the first two games in Oklahoma City. Games 3 and 4 will be in San Antonio. San Antonio is favored by 1.5 points in Game 3. Thunder forward Jalen Williams (hamstring) and Spurs guards De’Aaron Fox (sprained ankle) and Dylan Harper (adductor) are questionable to play.

How to watch Oklahoma City Thunder vs San Antonio Spurs

• Date: Friday, May 22

• Time: 8:30 p.m. ET / 5:30 p.m. PT

• Where: Frost Bank Center, San Antonio, Texas

• TV Channels: NBC, Pea

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

Odds

• Spread: San Antonio Spurs -1.5

• Moneyline: San Antonio Spurs -129 (54.0%) / Oklahoma City Thunder +108 (46.0%)

• Over/Under: 218.5

Series schedule, results

Game 1:Spurs 122, Thunder 115 (2OT)
Game 2:Thunder 122, Spurs 113
Game 3: Oklahoma City at San Antonio (Friday May 22, 8:30 p.m. ET, NBC/Peacock)
Game 4: Oklahoma City at San Antonio (Sunday May 24, 8 p.m. ET, NBC/Peacock)
Game 5: San Antonio at Oklahoma City (Tuesday May 26, 8:30 p.m. ET, NBC/Peacock)*
Game 6: Oklahoma City at San Antonio (Thursday May 28, 8:30 p.m. ET, NBC/Peacock)*
Game 7: San Antonio at Oklahoma City (Saturday May 30, 8:30 p.m. ET, NBC/Peacock)*

* if necessary

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With the Western Conference Finals tied at 1-1 apiece, the series shifts to the Alamo City as the San Antonio Spurs look to regain the upper hand on the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder.

Our Thunder vs. Spurs predictions for Game 3 include no shortage of NBA player prop projections, and we have you covered for the best NBA picks on Friday, May 22.

Thunder vs Spurs computer picks for Game 3

Thunder	Spurs
Gilgeous-Alexander u7.5 assists +102	Harper o11.5 points -109
Holmgren o13.5 points -112	Champagnie u2.5 threes -105
Mitchell u14.5 points -115	Castle u7.5 assists +110

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Thunder Game 3 computer picks

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander Under 7.5 assists (+102)

Projection: 6.24 assists

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has failed to clear this line in seven of his last 10 games, and given the Oklahoma City Thunder's sixth-slowest pace, expect that to continue in Game 3.

OKC also ranks as the second-worst team in offensive rebounding on the road, so Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs should limit SGA's facilitating tonight.

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Chet Holmgren Over 13.5 points (-112)

Projection: 16.02 points

Chet Holmgren has cashed this prop in seven of his last 10, and our computer projects a 18.77% EV advantage ahead of tip-off.

The Thunder have averaged 119.6 points per game away from the Paycom Center this season, and Holmgren should continue to be one of the main beneficiaries tonight.

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Ajay Mitchell Under 14.5 points (-115)

Projection: 12.98 points

Ajay Mitchell has accumulated just 14 points through the first two games of this series, attempting only 13 shots in the process.

The OKC guard has finished below this number in six of his last 10 contests, and an elite San Antonio Spurs defense (third in defensive rating) is set to keep it that way.

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Spurs Game 3 computer picks

Dylan Harper Over 11.5 points (-109)

Projection: 12.57 points

Dylan Harper has really stepped it up in the postseason, averaging 16.4 ppg over his last five matches.

The rookie should continue to light it up against a Thunder defense that allows starting point guards to attempt the most threes per contest.

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Julian Champagnie Under 2.5 threes (-120)

Projection: 2.28 threes

Julian Champagnie has missed the cut on 2.5 threes in five of his last 10 games.

Shooting just 4-for-18 from 3-point range in the Western Conference Finals, look for the third-year Spur to take a backseat offensively tonight.

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Stephen Castle Under 7.5 assists (+110)

Projection: 6.84 assists

Stephen Castle’s assist totals have dipped from 7.4 per game in the regular season to 6.6 in the postseason.

At plus money, it’s worth a look for the Spurs guard, who has cleared this prop in just four of his last 10 contests.

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How to watch Thunder vs Spurs Game 3

Location	Frost Bank Center, San Antonio, TX
Date	Friday, May 22, 2026
Tip-off	8:30 p.m. ET
TV	NBC

Not intended for use in MA.
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After a 109-93 win against the Cleveland Cavaliers on Thursday night, the Knicks are in control of the Eastern Conference Finals with a 2-0 series lead. Game 2 was a balanced offensive attack as all five New York starters scored in double figures. Josh Hart also came alive with 26 points.

Now, the Knicks will look to extend their franchise record of consecutive postseason wins to 10 games. With the series scene shifting to Cleveland, let’s dive into some keys to Game 3.

Hart beat

Game 2 was a moment of redemption for Hart. Relegated to the bench for much of New York’s Game 1 comeback in the fourth quarter and overtime, Hart recovered with 26 points, four rebounds, and seven assists on Thursday night. 

The story of this series so far has been Cleveland’s defensive strategy to have center Jarrett Allen guard Hart. Allen is largely ignoring the New York wing. Hart got off to a slow start, missing five of six treys in the first half, but he went on a run, knocking down four of five trifectas in the second half.

Many of the attempts Hart took were completely open. Cleveland is defending this way to keep the rest of New York’s lineup, including stars Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns, in check. Allen has been able to protect the rim and limit scoring opportunities in the paint by ignoring Hart.

But Hart has shown he is capable. He shot 41.3 percent from the three-point line on 242 attempts in the regular season. The Cavs probably will continue to defend Hart with a center, but after this postseason career night, they might not leave him as wide open going forward. That could open up opportunities for other Knicks on Saturday.

Working the glass

Coming into this series, the Knicks were expected to have a rebounding advantage against Cleveland. However, through the first game and a half, the Cavaliers seemed to control the boards.

In the first half of Game 2, Cleveland dominated the glass, recording nine offensive rebounds to New York’s one offensive board. The Cavaliers had just four in the second half, where the Knicks created some separation.

Towns had a solid offensive night with 18 points. But he also made an impact on defense. The center had 13 rebounds, all coming on the defensive end. Preventing offensive rebounds from Cleveland’s big man duo of Evan Mobley and Allen is crucial to picking up wins in this series. Mobley and Allen combined for just four points in the second half.

Balanced starting five

Game 2 was all about balance for New York. After Brunson took over the series opener, the Knicks got contributions from each of the club’s starting five. New York’s starters each scored at least 14 points.

Cleveland made more of an effort to prevent Brunson from isolating one-on-one against James Harden. The Cavs brought help to stop the Knicks point guard. It created opportunities for Brunson to get his teammates involved.

Brunson finished the game with 19 points and a career-high 14 assists. New York had 32 assists on 44 field goals on Thursday night. Playing together has been a regular occurrence for The Knicks, who have recorded at least 30 assists on four different occasions during this playoff run.

The pass is a larger part of New York’s offensive identity. The Knicks are sixth in assist rate during the playoffs (60.5 percent) among 16 teams during the playoffs. In last year’s playoff run, the Knicks ranked dead last.

It’s safe to say that moving the ball will be important to New York’s continued success.

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After splitting a pair of games at Paycom Center, the Western Conference Finals between the Oklahoma City Thunder and San Antonio Spurs shifts to Frost Bank Center for Game 3.

Our Thunder vs. Spurs props dive into the best NBA player prop values for Friday, May 22, headlined by Victor Wembanyama.

It's all part of our full Thunder vs. Spurs predictions and NBA picks for Game 3 of the Western Conference Finals.

Best Thunder vs Spurs props for Game 3

Player	Pick
Victor Wembanyama	Over 14.5 rebounds	+102
Ajay Mitchell	Over 21.5 points + rebounds + assists	-112
Chet Holmgren	Under 23.5 points + rebounds + assists	-110

Game 3 Prop #1: Victor Wembanyama Over 14.5 rebounds

Victor Wembanyama has been unstoppable on the glass since the second round. Not counting the game in which he was ejected, Wemby has averaged 15.6 boards across his last seven contests.

The big man has corralled 15+ rebounds in six of those seven games, including two straight against the Thunder.

The Thunder have thrown Chet Holmgren and Isaiah Hartenstein at him as primary defenders, but the result has been the same.

Oklahoma City has allowed the fourth-most offensive rebounds per game this postseason, and Wemby has gobbled up 14 of them across his last two outings. 

Game 3 Prop #2: Ajay Mitchell Over 21.5 points + rebounds + assists

Jalen Williams re-injured his hamstring in Game 2, and he's questionable tonight. Given his injury history and risk of re-aggravation, it would be surprising if he took the court.

Ajay Mitchell filled in for Jay Dub admirably in the playoffs, starting six straight games. Mitchell’s usage skyrocketed from 15 to 28.3 in six games without Williams, and his PRAs jumped from 16.3 to 30.2 compared to the four games they played together.

Mitchell has the clearest path to picking up Williams’ vacated production, and I expect him to cruise past his PRA total tonight.

Game 3 Prop #3: Chet Holmgren Under 23.5 points + rebounds + assists

Wembanyama has Holmgren’s number, and he’s locked him down all season. Holmgren averaged a career-best 27.7 PRA in the regular season, but that number plummeted to 19.3 in four matchups with Wemby.

Holmgren has been even more limited in the Western Conference Finals, averaging just 17.5 PRA in Games 1 and 2. 

Wembanyama ranks in the Top 3 in opponent FG% (39.4), opponent points per game (64.3) and defensive rating (98.8) this postseason. He’s expected to be on Holmgren again tonight, impeding the OKC big man once again.

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On Tuesday, Morez Johnson Jr. announced he would keep his name in the NBA Draft past the deadline date, meaning that he is not returning to Michigan for a second season.

We here at Maize n Brew of course support Johnson in all his future endeavors and harbor no ill will towards him. Today, we want to discuss whether or not you think he made the right decision by electing to stay in the NBA Draft.

Johnson spent his freshman season at Illinois, appearing in 30 games and averaging 17.7 minutes per game. He tallied a modest seven points, 6.7 rebounds and 1.1 blocks per game before hitting the transfer portal in hopes of finding a larger role, as the Illini front court was a logjam and playing time would be tough to come by.

Under Dusty May at Michigan, Johnson started all 40 games he appeared in. His usage blossomed, as Johnson averaged 13.1 points, 7.3 rebounds, 1.2 assists, 1.1 blocks and 0.7 steals per game while being a secondary scoring option. He was an excellent free throw shooter at 78.2 percent and was ruthlessly efficient from the field, as he shot 62.3 percent.

Prior to the NCAA Tournament, most mock drafts had Johnson as either a late first-round or an early second-round pick. There was some optimism Michigan would be able to retain him for another season, but that optimism faded after Michigan’s tournament run for the ages. Johnson capped it off with a double-double in the National Championship (12 points, 10 rebounds) at a time when the Wolverines were playing with a severely limited Yaxel Lendeborg.

Even following the NCAA Tournament, Johnson was still only projected as a mid-to-late first-rounder. The beauty of NIL is that player retention has gotten somewhat easier with regards to players going pro. What players would make on the rookie scale in the NBA pales in comparison to what they could be paid to return to college depending on how high the prospect is projected to be drafted.

While Michigan has had success retaining such players in the past, this one just didn’t go Michigan’s way. Several mid-to-late first-round prospects opted to return to school, which caused Johnson to ascend up draft boards. He is now viewed as a mid-first-round pick, with Oklahoma City being a popular mock destination.

As much as Michigan fans are sad to see him go, Johnson has a legitimate argument for why now is the best time for him to enter the NBA Draft. His stock has risen exponentially, and he also plays a brand and style of basketball that relies heavily on athleticism and energy. The NBA values youth and potential over experience. I don’t expect Johnson to develop a reliable three-point jumper any time soon, and there aren’t many other attributes he could reasonably develop in one more season of college basketball.

Do you think Johnson make the right decision to remain in the draft? Let us know your thoughts down in the comments section below.

Tyrese Maxey has done nothing but get better year in and year out. In his rookie season, Maxey was every bit the part of a small guard drafted outside of the lottery. He had a few brilliant flashes, but only started eight games in 2020-21 and averaged just over 15 minutes a night.

While he became a starter in his second season in Philadelphia, the 17.5 points per game that he averaged in 2021-22 were still a far cry from the 28.3 points per game he just averaged this past season. His scoring averages have improved every season as have his totals in lots of statistical departments. There’s a reason Maxey has become such a fan favorite in Philadelphia. He works hard, gets better all the time and isn’t satisfied with just making it to the second round.

But as we head into the offseason, it’s fair to question what kind of ceiling a team built around Maxey and his backcourt mate VJ Edgecombe will have. The Sixers didn’t just get swept by the Knicks due to a lack of depth. Their bench problems might have been the most jarring concern and the single biggest reason Daryl Morey got fired, but their starters were also outplayed by New York’s starting lineup. Therefore, it’s fair to surmise that a deeper Philadelphia roster in seasons ahead could be more competitive in the second round, but still lose in the same round if Maxey can’t ever be the best player in a series of that caliber.

For what it’s worth, during the media session after Game 4 against the Knicks, Maxey did admit that the finger injury flared up again in the Knicks series. He indicated that it had been an issue late in the regular season, then started to feel better by the play-in tournament and in the Boston series, only for it to become a nagging issue against New York. Maxey, the consummate professional he is, did however quickly admit that the finger issue was not an excuse for his inefficient performances against the Knicks.

The big thing the 2020 first-round pick out of Kentucky can take from getting swept out of the playoffs in the second round is the way New York defended him. If Maxey is going to be the straw that stirs the drink for the Sixers in future postseasons, he’ll have to get used to some of the looks he saw from the Knicks and find better ways to combat them.

“I saw multiple bodies every single night, like every single pick-and-roll,” Maxey said of New York’s defense. “It was the trap. Every single Brunson action. It was a trap. Every single time I got downhill. The entire team was in the paint. I was trying to kick out and I gotta really watch because I think this was definitely one of the hardest series I played in for just myself, and I had to be better for my teammates.”

It should be noted that this was probably a first for Maxey when it comes to being the offensive focal point of the Philadelphia attack. Certainly an argument could be made that a lot of respect was paid to him in the 2024 series against the Knicks, but Joel Embiid was playing at a higher level then, having had a 50-point game in that series. In the 2022 and 2023 postseasons in which Maxey was a regular in Philly’s starting lineup, James Harden was also handling the ball a lot.

Heading into 2026-27, there is no doubt that Maxey is going to have to be the primary option for the Sixers offensively, and really the player that makes the entire engine go for the Sixers. Everyone knows at this point that Embiid can’t be counted on to be the team’s best player on a nightly basis. If Paul George is back with the Sixers next season, it’s also abundantly obvious that George is best suited as a 3-and-D wing who isn’t handling the ball a ton. It all went through Maxey for most of 2025-26 and that’s going to have to continue moving forward. The question for Maxey will be if he can continue to improve as the team’s A-lister.

One thing that should be helpful for Maxey is the comfort and peace of mind he can take from knowing that Edgecombe will be a fixture in Philadelphia’s starting lineup for years to come. The two-time All-Star noted that improving his play off the ball will be an area that he’ll look to focus in on during the offseason. Maxey implied that the drafting of Edgecombe started to allow him to handle the ball less in 2025-26 and that continuing to improve as an off-ball guard will allow the Sixers to throw different looks at opposing defenses.

It might feel hard to believe, but Maxey is entering his seventh season in the NBA come the fall. He sure sounded like a leader as well after Philly’s season ended. There’s a lot of focus pointed in Edgecombe’s direction and understandably so. But Maxey made references to the invaluable experience that younger players like Justin Edwards and Adem Bona got having appeared in playoff games for the first time in their careers. There’s no doubt Maxey carries himself like a leader off the court. As we approach the summer, he’ll need to figure out the next step that comes with being at the top of the opponent’s scouting report. 

Through two games, the Western Conference Finals could not be any more evenly matched. The Thunder have outscored the Spurs by a mere two points, with both contests coming down to the wire. OKC made smart adjustments in Game 2, and now the onus is on Mitch Johnson and the Spurs to counter.

Ultimately, this series will be determined in two areas: the number of turnovers the Thunder force, and the matchup between the bigs down low. It’s a battle of strengths between the two teams, and whoever can impose their will should emerge victorious.

Let’s start with the turnovers.

The ball is lava!

So far, OKC has forced 44 turnovers to just 25 for San Antonio, and the Thunder have outscored the Spurs 55-27 off those opportunities.

Stephon Castle has become the whipping boy for San Antonio’s turnover issues, and for good reason: he has thrown the ball away 20 times in the first two games, which accounts for over 45% of their total turnovers and is the most by any player in a two-game span in NBA history. It’s quite evident that his issues have been exacerbated by the Spurs’ depleted backcourt depth, as the sophomore guard has been overburdened by having to be the primary ballhandler with Fox injured and Harper missing at least half of Game 2. If one or both of them are out for Game 3 and beyond, San Antonio will need to put the ball in the hands of Jordan McLaughlin and their wings more often, while being very selective with the types of plays they’ll run in the halfcourt.

One option is to set high screens and attack with speed. This would force the Thunder’s point of attack defender to worry more about getting over screens or switching than going for steals, while also giving the ballhandler an open runway to the paint. Using Wemby as one of the screeners could force OKC’s bigs out of the paint, and even if one of Chet/Hartenstein is still roaming down low, they’ll be forced to rotate and make it easier to throw the Alien a lob.

The following drive from Harper is a perfect example. San Antonio needs to create advantages using simple plays that get the defense scrambling, thus minimizing the potential opportunities for a turnover to occur.

The Spurs also need to get their wings more involved. Even with Julian Champagnie’s shooting prowess, OKC has been comfortable having Chet Holmgren roam off of him because they know he’s the least involved in San Antonio’s offense. They’ve been right so far, and the Spurs need to counter by using him as a screener who can flare out for threes, which could cause confusion for OKC’s defense and create open driving lanes, or force Chet to guard out in space.

San Antonio could put the ball in Devin Vassell’s hands more too, but only in specific spots. He’s not a great playmaker and shouldn’t be relied on to bring the ball up, but he’s one of the Spurs’ best players at attacking advantages. For example, San Antonio needs to hunt Jared McCain and any of OKC’s “bad” defenders whenever the opportunity arises, like what Vassell did below. Involving the Thunder’s bigs should be prioritized since they always play a drop, and any daylight for an open shot is a win for the Spurs offense.

Goliath vs. … goliath?

San Antonio has shot 43-68 at the rim to just 28-47 for OKC — a similar percentage, but the discrepancy in attempts is the bigger story. As usual, Wemby’s presence alone has made the Thunder hesitant to shoot, while his gravity on offense creates easy rim attempts for his teammates. However, his own offensive game has been made harder, especially in Game 2.

Playing Wemby using a traditional big like Hartenstein made it difficult for the Alien to get to his spots in the paint, which wasn’t an issue in Game 1 since he was defended by smaller guards. Even so, San Antonio took advantage by utilizing Wemby on the perimeter to open up the paint. Mitch Johnson used the Alien as a decoy on multiple possessions, with the play below being the best example of some innovative play calling from the Spurs coach.

However, this also resulted in tougher shots for Wemby, as he attempted seven threes and only two free throws as opposed to two threes and 13 free throws in Game 1. There were fewer lob attempts because Isaiah Hartenstein pushed him out of his usual spots, plus being on the perimeter made it easier for The Extender Tony Brothers and company to swallow their whistles. OKC has shown that their game plan to defend pick-and-rolls involving Wemby is to have their bigs show and recover, which gives the Spurs a fraction of a second to throw a bounce pass or lob.

You can see this in the play below, where both Lu Dort and Hartenstein briefly flashed at Castle before the big man recovered back to Wemby.

The Spurs could counter by running double drags, or using off-ball actions that start in the corner. They did just that to open game three in the Wolves series, by utilizing Vassell’s threat as a shooter to get Rudy Gobert to commit, putting Wemby in position for a lob. On the very next possession, San Antonio then used Wemby as the screener and immediately threw the lob, and the defense couldn’t help since they needed to be glued to shooters in both corners.

It’s easier said than done given that this Thunder team is elite at picking off passes, but the Spurs should have enough tape to know exactly when and how they can thread the needle to get Wemby on the roll.

Defensively, OKC used some big-big action to get easier looks at the rim. Chet and Hartenstein connected on multiple lobs, and the Thunder used ball movement and screens to get one going downhill, putting Wemby in no man’s land.

More importantly, playing Hartenstein diminished the Spurs’ dominance on the glass. San Antonio outrebounded the Thunder 61-40 in game 1, and the difference was cut down to just 45-41 in game 2. Hartenstein grabbed eight offensive boards alone, almost singlehandedly raising OKC’s offensive rebounding percentage from 19.7% in game one to 36.7% in game two. Given the Spurs’ injury concerns and their lack of frontcourt size besides Wemby, Harrison Barnes and Carter Bryant should get more minutes to mitigate some of San Antonio’s rebounding issues, and they would likely be matched up with one of the Thunder’s bigs if they decide to go with a twin towers lineup.

Another adjustment the Spurs could make is to have Wemby roam off of Chet in the corners as opposed to Alex Caruso or one of OKC’s guards on the perimeter. This would keep Wemby closer to the rim, and although Chet is shooting 37.8% on almost four attempts a game, he’s a much more hesitant outside shooter than any of the Thunder’s guards and has a slower release too. The other Spurs should sag off Chet and dare him to shoot so they’re not caught flat-footed if OKC makes him a driver like in the play above.

Lastly, the health of San Antonio’s guards and Jalen Williams plays a huge role in the X’s and O’s. Having Dylan Harper would help the Spurs’ point of attack defense and prevent easy drives for the Thunder, which would allow Wemby to stay in the paint more often. JDub would give OKC another body to throw at the Alien, and Fox’s speed on offense would create more room for San Antonio and relieve some playmaking burden from everyone else.

Let’s pray that they all return from injuries soon, as it will only add to the intrigue.

Lakers superstar LeBron James had over a week to reflect on his team’s 2025-26 season ending with a four-game sweep to the Thunder in the Western Conference semifinals. 

It was just the fourth time in James’ career – and the earliest in the playoffs – a team that had him on the roster was swept in James’ 19 appearances in the postseason. 

How James saw it, the Lakers didn’t lose the series to the defending NBA champions because they didn’t match the Thunder’s physicality. Or weren’t prepared.

They simply didn’t match the Thunder in talent. 

“I have the passion and the [aspiration] to host the Larry O’Brien Trophy up every single year, but also have a realization of what particular team I have been a part of in that particular year,” James said during the latest episode of his “Mind The Game” podcast, which he co-hosts with NBA legend Steve Nash. “And understanding this year, we fought and we played to the maximum ability of our team. But ultimately, if we’re being completely honest, we were out-talented.”

The Thunder were without 2025 All-Star and All-NBA third team honoree Jalen Williams during the second round matchup.

But the Lakers had an even more significant absence: superstar guard Luka Doncic missed the Lakers’ entire postseason run because of a left hamstring strain he suffered April 2 in Oklahoma City. 

Doncic was the NBA’s scoring champion for the second time and three seasons, averaging 33.5 points during the regular season. 

He finished fourth in the voting for league MVP, which Shai Gilgeous-Alexander won for the second consecutive season, and will likely be an All-NBA first team honoree for the sixth time in his eight-season NBA career. 

“We were not outworked,” James said. “They didn’t out-physical us. They didn’t outsmart us. I feel like we were just out-talent[ed] by OKC. At the end of the day, we failed in talent. OKC just possessed so much more talent than us. You could tip your cap to them in understanding that.”

With Doncic sidelined and star guard Austin Reaves out for the Lakers’ first four games of the playoffs because of a strained oblique, James led the Lakers to a six-game first round playoff series victory over the Rockets.

The Rockets were without their leading scorer, Kevin Durant, for five of the six games in the series.

James averaged 23.2 points, 8.3 assists, 7.2 rebounds and 1.3 steals in the first round against the Rockets. 

“For our team to win a playoff series, that was a huge accomplishment,” James said. “Obviously my aspirations [are] much bigger than just one playoff series. I’ve won a lot of playoff series and one is never enough. But under the circumstances of what our team went through and what we were going through at that time: AR did come back and was able to play some good basketball like the last few games, but he was still trying to find his rhythm. Obviously, we never got Luka back.

“But for our ball club, under the circumstances that it was in, to win a playoff series in the Western Conference, I give a lot of respect and a lot of kudos to our guys and to our coaching staff of mentally, physically preparing us for that matchup. It was a pretty good season.”

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Some problems have multiple solutions. Other problems have no solution, and that’s why competing hypothetical solutions seem viable to different people.

It’s hard to say which of those two types of problems the Houston Rockets have right now.

The two 2025-26 NBA Western Conference Finalists are lightyears ahead of Houston. Some fans are waving the white flag. Others are annoyed by the white flag that’s blocking their view. Everybody thinks they know what the team ought to do.

It all comes back to “the window”. It’s the ubiquitous metaphor used to describe a team’s title odds in terms of both probability and duration. As it stands, the Rockets have an extremely narrow title window that stands to be open for a long time. The two prevailing solutions to the problem (the problem being that this team has no chance to beat the Thunder or Spurs short of major injuries) are to either widen the window at the expense of length or lengthen the window’s openness at the expense of width.

Let’s simplify. Forget the window. The Rockets are not in the same league as the Thunder or the Spurs. They can either acquire a superstar that might put them in that league, or acquire assets that might keep them just outside of that league for a long enough time to capitalize on some luck (re: major injuries).

What is the solution?

Rockets’ superstar pursuits could be in vain

Firstly, we need to look at the available options. The Rockets cannot manifest a superstar player. Is the right guy even available?

Donovan Mitchell? Pass. Small guard. It would be more prudent from an asset management perspective to see how Sheppard develops. Mitchell and Fred VanVleet in the same backcourt should be a non-starter. Mitchell doesn’t even get the Rockets in the same zip code as the Thunder or Spurs.

Jaylen Brown? A bit more tempting. There are still reservations. Running Amen Thompson as the nominal two guard (while he functions as a wing) allows the Rockets to lean into size. If you bump him to the three to put Brown at the two, now you’re 6’6″ at the two and 6’7″ at the three. Now, you’re not especially large with 6’10″ish Alperen Sengun in the middle.

Is being big the be-all, end-all? Not in general, but for the Rockets, it might be. Ime Udoka wants them to bash and bruise their way to the top. Whether you think he’s an inmate running an asylum or…a warden?… There’s some logic in that approach. The Rockets are extremely unlikely to build the most talented team in the NBA by virtue of the fact that Victor Wembanyama is one of one, and so are the Thunder. Realistically, that’s the entire premise of this article.

Now, if Thompson can continue to develop as a point guard, there’s some appeal here. A Thompson/Brown backcourt is the biggest in the league. That said, based on what we saw in 2025-26, the safe money isn’t necessarily on Thompson as a long-term point guard.

It should also be noted that Brown doesn’t solve many of Houston’s pressing problems. Ball-handling is his biggest weakness. There’s a world where acquiring Brown improves the Rockets’ championship equity while building on their identity. There are likely more worlds where that move gets Houston into the Conference Finals once, only to get stomped by whichever of the aforementioned powerhouses didn’t suffer a major injury.

Take every word written about Brown, apply it to Kawhi Leonard, and then add that he’s old and will probably get hurt. Pass.

Then, there’s Giannis Antetokounmpo.

Entire manifestos have been written on the issue. Let’s keep this brief. Antetokounmpo is comfortably the best player the Rockets could acquire this summer. His inability to shoot makes him a tough sell alongside Thompson (or Sengun, but he’d presumably be in the Antetokounmpo deal).

You could acquire him and then also flip Thompson. For argument’s sake, let’s say you turn Thompson into Trey Murphy III. Let’s say you sign Brook Lopez (yes, I know he’s very old) so that Antetokounmpo has his stretch five.

Fred VanVleet / Trey Murphy III / Kevin Durant / Giannis Antetokounmpo / Brook Lopez. That team can compete with anyone. That’s a real title window.

Yet, it’s probably, shockingly, still not enough to beat the Thunder or Spurs. It could be. It’s feasible. But it won’t make the Rockets the 2026-27 presumptive title favorites. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it. It’s defensible.

It’s the second-best (possible) solution to this (possibly unsolvable) problem.

The Rockets should prioritize the future

I think the smarter move is to continue to build towards the future while fielding competitive teams. The Rockets have the luxury to do that with so many of their future first-round picks coming from other teams.

That doesn’t mean complacency. The Rockets could give the current iteration one more year to see what they can accomplish with VanVleet and Steven Adams back in the fold, or not. Let’s say they do. It seems like they want to.

If the fit issues between Sengun, Thompson, and Sheppard persist, you don’t need to go all in on a sub-top-ten superstar. You trade one of these guys (hint: It’s Sengun, because he’s the one that presents fit issues with both) for a lesser, better-fitting veteran and assets. You keep drafting.

At a minimum, you can build a team that’s a playoff fixture for a decade. That’s not the fantasy most of us lived in before now. The Rockets are picking in the lottery for time immemorial. It’s a foolproof way to build a dynasty!

No, it’s not. Such a method does not exist. As it turns out, even being a playoff fixture for a long stretch is something. There are NBA teams that have not been in that position for a long time.

Here’s the secret: Sometimes, those teams do actually win NBA championships! The ’04 Pistons. The ’11 Mavericks. The ’19 Raptors (who did make a major trade, but spent much longer than the Rockets have with a sub-championship core).

The calculus is basically this: Instead of buying one lottery ticket with a $10 million payout and a 0.000000342% chance of winning, buy ten tickets with a $1 million payout and a 0.05% chance of winning. No, you’re probably not winning either way, but giving yourself a larger number of chances maximizes the odds.

Of course, we can’t quantify NBA title odds as precisely. If you’re reading this and thinking the hypothetical Giannis and Trey Murphy III lineup has better odds than I’m suggesting, fair enough. Ultimately, there’s no singular, clear-cut solution to the problem:

If there’s even a solution at all.

Could a Robert Williams reunion help Celtics address their biggest need? originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

Celtics president of basketball operations Brad Stevens made Boston’s offseason priority very clear in his end-of-season press conference earlier this month.

“One of the things that we’ve got to figure out is how to have more of an impact at the rim, and I think we do need to add to our team to do that,” Stevens said.

Translation: The Celtics will be in the market for big men this summer.

What form that frontcourt pursuit takes is unclear. If Boston wants the most talented big man on the market, it could pursue Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo, whom Milwaukee has made available via trade. But a deal for the two-time NBA MVP almost certainly would require the Celtics to part with superstar Jaylen Brown.

On a new episode of the Celtics Talk Podcast, Sports Illustrated’s Chris Mannix made the case for Boston keeping the Brown-Jayson Tatum duo intact in its pursuit of a big man.

“I don’t think there’s a need to reinvent the wheel here,” Mannix told host Chris Forsberg. “We’re two years removed from winning a championship in Boston, and we’re coming off the most improbable season that I can remember, where your second star (Brown) played like a first-level star.

“So, I think the focus should be on adding to where this team has the most glaring weaknesses, and that is the frontcourt.”

With Nikola Vucevic set to hit unrestricted free agency, the Celtics’ frontcourt currently includes Neemias Queta, Luka Garza and 2025 draft pick Amari Williams. Boston could look to upgrade that group via trade, where it can use a $27.7 million traded player exception created by the Vucevic-Anfernee Simons deal to acquire a big man without having to match salaries. (We explored a few potential TPE options here.)

If the Celtics prefer the free-agent route, they could utilize the taxpayer midlevel exception, which is valued around $15 million. And while this year’s free agent class is relatively thin on big men, there’s one intriguing name in that group: ex-Celtic Robert Williams III.

“You know who’s the one free agent outside of LeBron (James) who was talked about the most when I was in Chicago last week (for the 2026 NBA Scouting Combine and Draft Lottery)? You know who that player is? It was (Robert Williams),” ESPN’s Bobby Marks told Forsberg on Celtics Talk.

“Is he a guy who’s going to play 70 games and give you 30 minutes a night? No. He played 59 games in Portland, 22 minutes (per game). He basically is a specialist as far as what he can do for you, whether that’s protect(ing) the rim, points in the paint.”

The biggest red flag with Williams is his health. He appeared in just 26 games total for the Trail Blazers between the 2023-24 and 2024-25 seasons before appearing in 59 games this past season. He’s never played more than 61 games in a season (2021-22 with the Celtics) and will turn 29 years old in October.

Williams can be a difference-maker when he’s on the court, though: He averaged 6.7 points, a career-high 7.0 rebounds and 1.5 blocks per game for Portland this season and tallied double-digit points in four of the Blazers’ five first-round playoff games against the San Antonio Spurs while holding his own against Victor Wembanyama on the defensive end.

Williams should draw interest from a handful of teams that need big men. But if his next contract is below $15 million per year, the Celtics may want to at least explore reuniting with Time Lord as a frontcourt depth piece while maintaining their ability to make other moves elsewhere.

“He’s in a perfect world for a lot of teams out there: Atlanta, the Lakers, some of those other teams,” Marks added. “But I think that’s a priority for you as somebody from a free agent standpoint — if you can do that, it would be in a perfect world, you get another year of development from some of your younger players.

“You’re going to have two picks (in the 2026 NBA Draft), 27 and 40. Is there an opportunity to move up in the draft? Are you content staying there? So, I do think there’s some optionality as far as some of the trimming around the edges without making a bold type move.”

Williams obviously would come with risk, and his addition alone wouldn’t constitute a successful offseason. But for a team that clearly needs frontcourt help, Time Lord is a known quantity who is worth considering as the Celtics look ahead to the summer.

Darius Acuff Jr. of the Arkansas Razorbacks is perhaps the favorite small-ish point guard on the 2026 NBA Draftboard. Acuff’s offensive case speaks loudly enough to justify high-end lottery interest, but the questions surrounding his defensive effort and shot profile are real enough to split many evaluators. He was Arkansas’ engine as a freshman, scoring efficiently, passing at high volume and delivering some of the biggest late-season performances in the country. The question surrounding Acuff is not whether he can score. It is whether a 6-foot-2 guard can pressure the rim enough, and whether he has the defensive buy-in and decision balance to be more than a regular-season shot-maker.

The basics

Acuff bolstered his standing in draft circles as the 2025-26 season progressed, becoming more of a riser during the SEC Tournament and the Razorbacks’ three NCAA Tournament games. He averaged 23.5 points, leading the conference, in 35.1 minutes per game in his only college season. He shot the lights out from 3-point range, at 44% on the year. That shooting puts him firmly above every point guard on the board save for Kansas’ Darryn Peterson and perhaps Illinois’ Keaton Wagler.

He is a pure scorer more than anything else at this point.

Acuff measured 6-foot-2 without shoes and about 186 pounds with a 6-foot-6.5 wingspan at the NBA Draft Combine, which gives him better length than the average small guard but still places him below the size threshold many teams now prefer for primary ball handlers. His athletic profile is more compact power, pace manipulation, and change-of-speed craft than overwhelming vertical pop. He can get a shoulder past defenders, stop quickly into pull-ups, and play through some contact because of his strength and low center of gravity, but he is not the type of guard who consistently erases mistakes with elite downhill burst.

That distinction matters. Acuff’s combine agility and sprint numbers support a functional mover, not a nuclear athlete, so his NBA separation has to come from handle, footwork, screen craft, and shooting gravity. The long arms give teams a reason to believe the defensive outcome is not hopeless, but the tape concerns are less about tools than engagement, screen navigation, and possession-to-possession awareness.

Strengths

Acuff’s hallmark, the thing that has brought him near the top of draft boards everywhere, is his shot creation with shooting touch. He can make pull-ups from deep, punish defenders who go under screens and shoot off balance without looking rushed. The free-throw and 3-point indicators both back up the touch, and his production suggests the jumper is not just a workout skill.

His second strength is advantage passing out of scoring pressure. He averaged 6.4 assists per game at Arkansas. He is not merely a microwave scorer — his assist volume, low turnover rate for his usage and comfort throwing lobs or hit-ahead passes give him a path to lead-guard status as a pro. When he gets two defenders involved, he can find the release valve quickly enough to punish help.

He also has competitive shot-making confidence. Acuff does not shrink from big moments, and for a smaller guard that matters because his offensive value has to be high-end. The pitch is that he can become the kind of guard who bends defensive coverages with range, tempo, and touch even when the initial action is contained.

Weaknesses

Acuff’s defensive presence is the headline risk associated with drafting him. Multiple scouting reports frame him as a targetable NBA defender because of size, inconsistent effort, poor screen navigation and shaky off-ball awareness. He doesn’t need to become a bona fide stopper, but he does need to compete hard enough to avoid being hunted off the floor. The current concern is that the defensive problems are not only physical; they include attention, assignment discipline and recovery effort.

The offensive translation also has a narrower runway than the raw numbers suggest. Acuff’s size means he must be exceptionally efficient as a creator, and several evaluators question whether he creates enough deep paint touches against length. If he settles for too many floaters and pull-ups, NBA teams may live with the highlights and win the possession math. His passing is good, but because he is scorer-first, teams will want to know whether he can organize an offense when the first scoring read is removed.

There is also a roster-building question. A team drafting Acuff is probably committing to building around his on-ball value while protecting him defensively. That is doable if the offense is special; it is dangerous if he is merely good.

Fit with the Mavericks

First of all, if the Mavericks stay at the No. 9 pick, Acuff will likely be gone, rendering the fit with the team moot, but anything can happen. The Mavs are already desperately small at the guard position. In an ideal world, they would have a chance at a bigger guard, but beggars can’t be choosers, of course.

He would immediately jump every point guard on the roster in terms of gravity, scoring punch and creation, save Kyrie Irving. Getting a hold of Acuff would make an interesting case for seeing what the Mavericks may be able to get in exchange for Irving, but of course, if they were going to trade Irving, 2026 draft picks would be the team’s primary target.

It’s fascinating and a little sad to say that, as desperately as the Mavericks need help at guard, Acuff and smaller point guards like him may not ultimately represent the best fit.

NBA Comparison

Some are saying Acuff reminds them of Stephon Marbury. Neither player is big or explosive, but they’re shifty and physical when attacking the rim. Both Acuff and Marbury initiate and take contact on drives. They step into 3-pointers and mid-range jumpers with similar mechanics behind their shots.

Others have said Acuff is similar to current Utah Jazz point guard Keyonte George, who broke out at the start of his third NBA season before injuries/unethical tanking saw his minutes decline later in the year. I’ve also heard comparisons to Oklahoma City Thunder guard Ajay Mitchell, who more than doubled his scoring from his rookie year (6.5 points) to his second year (13.6) in the NBA.

After an unceremonious end to the 2025-2026 season, it seems as though the Minnesota Timberwolves are heading towards an offseason where every indication is that big changes will be made, with the main focus on the roster.

After getting taken out by the two teams battling in the Western Conference Finals this season in the past two playoff runs, plenty of evaluation will take place this summer on the roster and how to ascend to the level required to take down two teams that look poised to be leaders in the clubhouse for years to come. Nothing is ever set in stone in the NBA, and any number of things could change as time marches on, but it is clear that the Timberwolves need more brains and firepower if they hope to build a true contender around Anthony Edwards.

As the dust settles on another Timberwolves season, our staff picked their most important questions for the team that will be answered before opening night in the fall.

Benny Hughes: What Is Julius Randle’s Value?

I got lucky and was able to have first pick for this, so I opted for the most obvious question that most Timberwolves fans are asking.

After a red-hot start to this year, Julius Randle’s production came crashing down. He had a few rough stretches where his attention to detail waxed and waned, with a promise of consistency once the postseason began. This was not the case as he averaged 16.0 points, 7.5 rebounds, and 2.8 assists per game while shooting 39% from the floor and 24% from three. While it would be disingenuous for Randle to shoulder all of the blame, it is tough to sustain long playoff runs with your second option playing like Randle was this postseason.

You couple this performance with Naz Reid’s playoff emergence and Minnesota most likely looking to retool their front court with Joan Beringer waiting in the wings, and it is not hard to come to the conclusion that it is unlikely for Randle to be on the roster next season.

The bigger question becomes, after much setup on my part, what is his value? The good news is that he is still on a reasonable contract and has shown an ability to produce in the regular season; the bad news is that his value is extremely low after the playoffs. This leads to the larger issue of whether you will have to attach an asset to Randle to get off of this contract, or whether you will be able to get value to re-balance a roster in need of point guard play. I think that as the freshness of the playoffs wears off and the offseason progresses, there will be teams that see the value of a Julius Randle, especially with the new lottery rules punishing the worst three teams in the league with a lower chance of obtaining the number one pick.

I think that a team that is in the 4-10 range (or is in the bottom three and wants to get in the 4-10 range) will see the value of a player like Julius Randle to help them not bottom out. He is still a skilled scorer who can fill it up on any given night. While this isn’t the place you would like to be operating from as a GM, it is still something to consider with any Timberwolves move that is made this offseason.

Leo Sun: What Is “The Core” and Is It Time to Break It Up?

After the Wolves were unceremoniously eliminated in game six, Head Coach Chris Finch took to the podium for his post-game media availability.

“We still have a young core around Anthony, Jaden, and Naz. We’re not planning on going anywhere, but we know we need to keep building this thing out.”

That was his response when asked about some of the younger talent on the team, such as TJ Shannon, Jaylen Clark, and Joan Beringer, in comparison to the San Antonio Spurs youth. Finch made certain to zoom out and mention that though he believes in those young guys, he pivoted to the aforementioned three. That would fall in line with most fans’ beliefs that Anthony Edwards, Jaden McDaniels, and Naz Reid are “the core.”

But what if you zoomed out even further?

Though Rudy Gobert is roughly eight years older than that group, has he not been an integral part of the recent Wolves “Golden Era”? It’s easy to imagine a world where, without Rudy on the team, the Wolves hardly make it past the first round in the last three years, let alone as a top six seed. So, when I pose the question “What is the core?” how would President of Basketball Operations Tim Connelly answer that?

He was the man who acquired Gobert in the first place.

The Wolves are at an important inflection point in their franchise direction. Do they continue to move forward with whatever they deem the core to be, hoping that the trajectory will incline back up in the next couple of years? Perhaps a few peripheral roster adjustments are enough to push them forward towards a championship.

Or was this year a foreshadowing of an incoming decline in the coming seasons? Perhaps the franchise will have to make the painful, but necessary decision to remove one (or more) of the pillars of their core in hopes of building a team that can raise a championship banner.

The Timberwolves aren’t facing a cliff at the moment, but whether or not they will face one sooner than later depends on the conversations the front office is having about “the core.”

Thilo Widder: Is the Front Office Okay Taking a Step Back?

This may be a little too similar to Leo’s and Benny’s, but I think it’s a separate thing entirely.

Do you guys remember the 2018-19 season, when Jimmy Butler blew up the first Wolves team in 20 years to make the playoffs? Do you guys remember the offers that reportedly came in for him?

I do. The Rockets offered four first-round picks and an expiring. The Heat offered the man who would go on to score 83 in Bam Adebayo, alongside some salary filler, and the pick that would become Tyler Herro. Instead, the Wolves took home veteran forward Robert Covington, the 24-year-old Dario Šarić, Jerryd Bayless, and a second-round pick.

It feels like we’re at a similar point today, albeit with somehow more depressed assets in Julius Randle and Rudy Gobert.

Karl-Anthony Towns was 23 when Jimmy Butler was moved, as was Andrew Wiggins. The Wolves could’ve found players to fit the timeline of those two, dip back into the lottery, and then re-emerge like a butterfly from its chrysalis.

Instead, Tom Thibodeau chose job security and took the worst long-term offer that he hoped would guarantee his career as the Wolves’ President of Basketball Operations and Head Coach. It did not.

Tim Connelly and Chris Finch certainly have a far longer leash to work with, but something feels similar. Connelly is in the last year of his deal, and one could argue that while the Towns trade was cap-forced, it was a similar level of prioritizing the now over the future.

Jrue Holiday and Kyrie Irving are popular targets, but both are some of the most overpaid players in basketball. Jrue in particular has an awful deal. Would targeting one of them in a Randle swap make sense? Sure, but it’d be another band-aid to stay afloat in the demonic Western Conference. How do the Wolves get to the tier of the two teams in the conference finals right now? They change. Significantly.

This offseason is, realistically, the last opportunity to reshuffle the deck and still have enough time to convince Anthony Edwards to stick around for the next iteration of Wolves basketball. I hope they take that opportunity, and the lumps that come with it, instead of finding another band-aid.

Either go all in or get off the pot.

*That* is the biggest question I have for this offseason.

Andrew Carlson: What Does Chris Finch’s Style of Basketball Actually Look Like?

For the entirety of coach Chris Finch’s tenure, it has felt like a “first comes the roster, then comes the philosophy” mentality.

While there are through lines, it feels as though there are major themes that arise every season that sometimes come to fruition and sometimes do not.

The Wolves have always been bottom 10 in pick and roll frequency under Finch, and just this past season and in the playoffs, top five in iso frequency. Off-ball movement off of isolations and high screens seems to be bankable.

But “playing with pace” was something that never quite made its way to the full team, namely the star player. “Your turn, my turn” basketball, or the ball getting “sticky,” also continues to be a theme. A lot of that was Anthony Edwards being the scorer that he is, but much of it was due to a weird and off-kilter roster construction.

Anthony Edwards never trusted Rudy Gobert as a roller. Julius Randle had a reckless disregard for the “flow” that Finch talks so much about, paramount to his offense.

Ahead of an offseason that might see those two leaving, with the ability to reshape the roster, I ask:

What philosophy will be laid down heading into the season, with perhaps Finch’s last major chance to really shape personnel around it?

Ryan Eichten: How Many Frontcourt Players Will Get Traded?

The one thing that the Timberwolves’ series loss to the Spurs made clear is that they are just plain not good enough. That is true of the team writ large, but also true for the front-court pairing of Randle and Gobert, who were both ineffective against Victor Wembanyama and the rest of his San Antonio team.

While both are very talented players, especially Gobert, who is on track to make the Hall of Fame, the Wolves have never fully maximized the pairing since trading for Randle and Donte DiVincenzo almost two years ago.

The question for Minnesota heading into this offseason doesn’t seem to be whether or not they will trade one of their starting frontcourt players, but if they will trade both.

While Ranlde’s poor play and attitude against the Spurs stand out, the pairing of Gobert and Edwards has never found the offensive ceiling needed to break through in the Western Conference. Almost regardless of Randle’s status with the team, it may make sense to move on from Gobert, given the Wolves would likely receive a large package in return.

There are merits to trading one or both of Randle and Gobert, and if a Giannis Antetokounmpo trade materializes, McDaniels and Reid may also be on the table. It feels like this offseason will see more change for the Timberwolves than just breaking up the frontcourt and hoping that does the trick.