Former Kings general manager Monte McNair, the 2022-23 NBA Executive of the Year, is joining the Los Angeles Clippers in an advisory role, ESPN’s senior NBA insider Shams Charania reported Monday, citing league sources.
Former Sacramento Kings general manager Monte McNair, the 2022-23 NBA executive of the Year, is joining the Los Angeles Clippers in an advisor role, sources tell ESPN.
In McNair’s last season in charge, Sacramento entered the season with high expectations, but, instead, the team experienced lots of instability.
Less than three months into the season, McNair dismissed Mike Brown despite the coach signing a multi-year contract extension over the summer.
Over a month later, McNair was forced to trade a frustrated De’Aaron Fox to the San Antonio Spurs for star Zach LaVine. Soon after, the organization lost key members of its staff, foreshadowing the end of McNair’s reign in Sacramento.
McNair is a graduate of Oak Park High School, located around 30 miles north of Los Angeles.
McNair is a graduate at Oak Park High School, about 30 miles north of LA. So this is a nice homecoming for him. https://t.co/cfxtrSUzkB
The 2025 NBA Finals return to Paycom Center in Oklahoma City as Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the Thunder host Tyrese Haliburton and the Indiana Pacers in Game 5. Tip-off is at 8:30 PM ET tonight on ABC.
The series is now tied 2-2 after OKC’s 111-104 victory on Friday night. The Pacers opened up with an aggressive start, scoring 20 points in the first five minutes of play. They built an early lead, but the Thunder continued to answer back.
Oklahoma City trailed by seven entering the fourth quarter, but Gilgeous-Alexander stepped up, scoring 15 points in the final four minutes to lead the Thunder to victory.
"I knew what it would have looked like if we lost tonight, and I didn't want to go out not swinging — not doing everything within my power and my control to try to win the game," said Gilgeous-Alexander.
"The guys deserve that much from me."
Gilgeous-Alexander, the 2025 league MVP, finished with 35 points. Jalen Williams added 27 points, while Chet Holmgren contributed 14 points and a team-high of 15 rebounds.
"We got stagnant. Their second shots were a big problem, when you're unable to rebound, it's hard to continue to play with pace and tempo," said Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle.
"We're going to have to dig in, circle the wagons, and come back stronger on Monday. This was a big disappointment, but there's three games left."
Pascal Siakam led the way for the Pacers with 20 points in the loss. Haliburton finished with 18, while Obi Toppin scored 17.
The Thunder vs Pacers series will take place on ABC.
Thunder vs Pacers Series Scores and Schedule:
*All times listed are ET (* = if necessary)
Game 1: Pacers 111, Thunder 110
Game 2:Thunder 123, Pacers 107
Game 3:Pacers 116, Thunder 107
Game 4: Thunder 111, Pacers 104
Game 5: Pacers at Thunder - Mon. June 16, 8:30 PM on ABC
Game 6: Thunder at Pacers - Thu. June 19, 8:30 PM on ABC*
Game 7: Pacers at Thunder - Sun, June 22, 8 PM on ABC*
Want even more NBA best bets and predictions from our expert staff & tools? Check out the Expert NBA Predictions page from NBC Sports for money line, spread and over/under picks for each game of the Thunder vs Pacers series!
Oklahoma City Thunder’s Path to the NBA Finals:
The Thunder are seeking their first NBA title since relocating to Oklahoma City in 2008. The last time the franchise reached the Finals was in 2012, dropping their series against LeBron James' Miami Heat in 5. Here is how they advanced to the NBA Finals:
Oklahoma City swept the No. 8 Memphis Grizzlies in the First Round, eliminated the No. 4 Denver Nuggets in 7 in the Conference Semifinals, and defeated the No. 6 Minnesota Timberwolves in 5 in the Western Conference Finals.
The Indiana Pacers are seeking their first NBA title. The team's last Finals appearance was in 2000, when they lost to the Lakers in 6. Here is the team's path to the Finals:
Indiana eliminated the No. 5 Milwaukee Bucks and the No. 1 Cleveland Cavaliers in 5 games, before knocking out the No. 6 New York Knicks in 6 to advance to the Finals.
There are many ways to make a living in the NBA. One of the most effective in 2025 is shooting 3-pointers at a high rate.
Almost every team uses the 3-point shot as a major focal point of their offense in 2025. Just look at the 2025 NBA Finals between the Oklahoma City Thunder and Indiana Pacers. The Thunder ranked No. 6 and the Pacers were No. 9 in 3-point percentage during the regular season. The Pacers are shooting a league-best 39.3 percent from beyond the arc in the playoffs.
We can debate whether the abundance of 3-pointers in the modern game produces the most exciting product possible, but the fact is teams need to be able to shoot well from 3-point range to maximize their potential.
The Celtics are no strangers to taking 3-pointers. In fact, they set league records for 3-point shots made and attempted per game this past season.
It wouldn’t be a bad idea for the C’s to add even more shooting to their roster in the offseason, and the 2025 NBA Draft is a great place to find those players.
The Celtics own the No. 28 overall pick in the first round and the second pick (No. 32 overall) in the second round of the upcoming draft.
One player with the 3-point shooting talent to make an impact with the Celtics is Kentucky wing Koby Brea.
Learn more about Brea and his potential fit with the C’s below:
Koby Brea might have the prettiest 3-point shooting stroke in the 2025 draft class. He shot 43.5 percent from 3-point range at Kentucky last season — one year after hitting those shots at an impressive 49.5 percent rate for Dayton in 2023-24. Brea made 43.4 percent of his 3-pointers over his five-year college career.
The issue with Brea is there aren’t many other super-impressive aspects of his skill set. He’s not an elite defender. He doesn’t rebound at a high level. His playmaking ability doesn’t fill up a highlight reel.
As our Celtics insider Chris Forsberg explains, Brea is an intriguing draft fit for the Celtics based on his 3-point shooting, but can he improve the other areas of his game?
“Koby Brea as the best 3-point shooter in the entire draft? Finishing his college career at Kentucky, Brea shot 44 percent from 3-point range for the Wildcats during his fifth college season after transferring from Dayton,” Forsberg said, as seen in the video player above. “He has decent size for a wing and provides elite shooting from distance.
“But the rest of his game is light on NBA qualities. Brea is often compared to someone like Duncan Robinson. So if Brea’s 3-point shot transfers to the NBA, he could be a useful rotational presence. Brea is likely to be a second-round pick and could land on the Celtics’ radar if they’re willing to develop the rest of his game.”
A scouting report on NBA draft prospect Khaman Maluach:
Position: Center
Height: 7-0.75(without shoes)
Weight: 253 pounds
College: Duke
Strengths
Maluach’s size is an obvious place to start; he’s a bona fide big man whose 7-6.75 wingspan was the highest at the draft combine.
His youth and potential to make major progress are worth highlighting, too. Maluach began playing basketball in 2019 and represented South Sudan at the Paris Olympics as a 17-year-old. He’ll be 18 on draft night.
While Maluach wasn’t a Donovan Clingan-esque shot blocker in his one year at Duke, he did record 2.5 rejections per 40 minutes and has talent in the rim protection department outside of raw size. Maluach understands the importance of verticality and knows he can help his team through deterring and disrupting drivers.
In the NBA, Maluach looks like he should be able to do more than simply patrol the paint. He slides his feet quite well for someone over 7 feet and isn’t in an automatically hopeless position if he’s switched onto a perimeter player.
Offensively, Maluach largely sticks to his strengths. He’s a serious pick-and-roll lob threat, a skill that shined with Cooper Flagg and Kon Knueppel. And Maluach’s relative lack of basketball experience doesn’t show in his non-dunk finishing. He shot 80.6 percent at the rim, per The Athletic’s Sam Vecenie.
At the foul line, Maluach finished the season with a 76.6 percent mark. He was mainly an interior player and went just 4 for 16 from three-point range, but his touch and that foul shooting success is encouraging.
Weaknesses
Maluach’s freshman year production was not that of a player guaranteed to become a star. Over 21.9 minutes per game, he averaged 8.6 points and 6.6 rebounds. Maluach did very little as a passer, totaling 20 assists and 30 turnovers across Duke’s 39 games.
Maluach had zero rebounds in 21 minutes during the Blue Devils’ national championship game loss to Houston. Defensive rebounding stands out as a weaker area of his game. One reason is he doesn’t possess great lower-body strength or bounce.
Maluach ranked near the bottom in most of the combine’s athletic testing, including standing vertical leap (24 inches). That’s fine for a player of Maluach’s size, but it does seem that he has considerable room to improve at carving out position inside and snagging contested boards.
Self-awareness is a valuable trait in the NBA. With that said, there’s valid big-picture questions about how limited Maluach will be as a professional. Will he one day be able to score regularly in ways outside of lobs and put-backs? Will he be solid in multiple pick-and-roll coverages (drop, switch, at the level) and capable of playing high-quality playoff minutes?
Fit
Sixers president of basketball operations Daryl Morey’s stated philosophy is to take the best player he can. Of course, Joel Embiid’s presence on the Sixers wouldn’t be irrelevant at all if the team wound up selecting Maluach, whether that’s as a surprise pick at No. 3 or later in the draft following a trade down.
If Embiid returns to good health and still has elite prime years ahead of him, there wouldn’t be many minutes available for a player like Maluach. However, with the 31-year-old Embiid’s persistent left knee problems, that world doesn’t appear to be a certainty.
Morey drafted a center in 2024 with the 41st overall pick and Adem Bona had a very positive home stretch of the season, starting the Sixers’ final nine games and posting 15.3 points, 8.6 rebounds and 2.7 blocks per contest. Other second-round center selections during Morey’s tenure include Paul Reed (58th overall in 2020), Filip Petrusev (50th overall in 2021) and Charles Bassey (53rd overall in 2021).
OKLAHOMA CITY — In the wake of Indiana’s come-from-ahead Game 4 loss, Pacers fans were frustrated. Very frustrated. One gentleman approached me while I was still sitting in a media area, and asked if I was writing about the game, and if so did I know how few times Tyrese Haliburton had been to the free throw line (once). My response that "Tyrese doesn't really drive like that" — meaning he doesn't drive with force seeking contact like Giannis Antetokounmpo or even Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Haliburton is more finesse — wasn't the answer he wanted to hear. Nor was my comment that it was called both ways, that the Pacers took just five fewer free throws than the Thunder.
That gentleman's frustration echoed throughout Indianapolis and beyond after the game — Bill Simmons blasted the officiating on his podcast — with much of the ire focused on lead official Scott Foster, who has long been a lightning rod among fans.
Before Game 5, Pacers coach Rick Carlisle stuck up for Foster.
"I think it's awful some of the things I've seen about the officiating, and Scott Foster in particular," Carlisle said. "I've known Scott Foster for 30 years. He is a great official. He has done a great job in these playoffs. We've had him a lot of times. The ridiculous scrutiny that is being thrown out there is terrible and unfair and unjust and stupid."
Carlise did not want to get into specifics on what he was responding to. Foster is one of the highest-rated officials, according to the NBA's metrics. He's seen as fair and consistent, which is why he has worked 26 NBA Finals games across 18 seasons. After Game 4, Thunder coach Mark Daigneault acknowledged that there were a lot of whistles, but he thought the officiating was fair.
"There were a crap ton of fouls. That's why there were a crap ton of free throws," Daigneault said. "I thought the refs did a good job tonight. Both teams shot a lot of free throws. It was physical. That was what the game was. It was a physical game on both ends of the floor for both teams."
One play that Pacers fans focused on was Gilgeous-Alexander's baseline step back jumper to take the lead with 2:23 remaining in the fourth — they wanted him called for using the off arm or a travel.
Should this have been an offensive foul or travel by Shai Gilgeous-Alexander?? pic.twitter.com/TzOYkn8cY9
First, that's not a travel under the NBA's definition, while SGA stumbles, it's a gather and two steps. Second, there is a case that Gilgeous-Alexander could be called for pushing off, although Nesmith sells the contact. That's not the way the officials had called it all game, but the case can be made that they should have called it there. Pacers fans may want to be careful about asking for more calls with off arms because that would fall both ways and Pascal Siakam, among others in Indiana, would rack up more fouls.
Whatever happens in Game 5 of the NBA Finals on Monday night, and going forward, the officiating will be scrutinized. Just don't expect it to be what decides the game.
It's a trade that could see Orlando in the Eastern Conference Finals next season, but did they overpay for Desmond Bane? Four firsts are a lot. However, whether they overpaid will depend on how Bane fits. Is this a first-year Mikal Bridges with the Knicks fit, where the big haul feels like an overpay now? Or, is it more of a Pascal Siakam with the Pacers fit? Time will tell.
We're going to break down the winners and losers from this trade, but let's start by breaking down the trade itself:
Orlando receives: Desmond Bane Memphis receives: Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Cole Anthony, the No. 16 pick in the 2025 NBA Draft, a 2026 pick swap (the highest spot of the Magic, Suns, and Wizards), two more unprotected first round picks (2028 and 2030), and a 2029 first-round pick with Orlando.
Winner: Orlando’s offense
Everything you need to know about Orlando was on display in its first-round playoff loss to Boston: Its elite defense kept the Magic in games, Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner averaged 29.4 and 25.8 points per game, respectively, but did so inefficiently, with true shooting percentages well below the league average. As a team, they shot just 26.3% from 3 for the series. They couldn't score enough to keep up (Boston having a quality defense was part of that).
Desmond Bane is an underrated player and a perfect fit for what the Magic need. First and foremost, he is a knock-down shooter, converting 39.2% of his 3-point shots on 6.1 attempts per game last season. That volume was his fewest attempts per game in four years. He will give the Magic some spacing that Caldwell-Pope did not. Bane also evolved into the secondary playmaker in Memphis behind Ja Morant (and when Morant missed time, Bane was the guy at the top of the scouting report).
He checks all of Orlando's boxes. The idea of a Bane/Banchero pick-and-roll is devastating.
If the Magic can maintain a top-five defense (Bane is a solid defender) and improve their offense from 27th to just league average, this team will quickly become a top-10 net rating team, potentially securing a top-four spot in the East.
Given that we are expecting a down Eastern Conference following Jayson Tatum's injury, Orlando picked the right time to go all-in. The Magic making the Eastern Conference Finals (at least) next season does not seem crazy at all, and adding Bane could be the missing piece to making that leap.
Winner: Desmond Bane
Bane is an underrated player, a guy who, over the last three seasons combined, has averaged more than 20 points and five assists per game. The Orlando Magic are a team on the rise that lacked the shooting and guard play that Bane brings to the table.
Bane is a winner because this is a better situation for him — he is now going to get that recognition. He's plug-and-play in Orlando, he doesn't have to change who he is, and who he is could well make him an All-Star and more. It doesn't hurt that this trade raised his profile.
Loser: NBA Finals
Adam Silver does not like trades during the NBA Finals and Sunday was a good example of why: On a day the league would like the focus on a pivotal Game 5 between the Pacers and Thunder, in an exciting series tied 2-2, the talk instead was whether Orlando overpaid to get Bane. Focused moved away from the game on the court to the transaction market.
There was already a lot of that with the Kevin Durant saga and the Knicks coaching search, but this trade ramped it up. The Finals took a back seat for the day, not the narrative the league wants to see.
Winner: Memphis’ optionality
This feels like the first of a few bold moves by Memphis this summer. Memphis realized that the plan and roster they had weren't good enough. Now, largely thanks to those four first-round picks, they can go a lot of different directions in the future.
For example, in the wake of the trade, there was considerable speculation online that the Grizzlies might use this as an opportunity to tear down and rebuild: Trade Ja Morant and Jaren Jackson Jr., pick up more young players and picks, and start the rebuild process from the ground up. Memphis could go that route, and other teams are watching to see what happens next, but the expectation around the league is more that this is a retooling in Memphis, not a teardown.
Memphis has plenty of other options. They can use those picks — particularly the 2026 pick swap that gives them the best of the Suns and Wizards next season — to add talent through the draft. Or, they can trade some of those picks to go after another star they think would be a better fit than Bane.
This trade, on the face of it, makes a Jaren Jackson Jr. extension less likely because the Grizzlies reduced their cap space in the short term. Now, with those picks, they could make another trade to offload salary, giving them the space to raise JJJ's salary now and then extend him off that number. (Jackson, for his part, may want to play out the year on his $23.4 million contract and then hit free agency, hope he can make All-NBA — he was 17th in the voting this past season — and be in line for a supermax.)
Winner: Phoenix Suns
The Phoenix Suns are seeking a massive haul to trade 37-year-old, future Hall of Famer Kevin Durant. The belief around the league was that they would not get near the return they sought.
Now, if Desmond Bane is worth four first-round picks, what is Kevin Durant worth? It's unlikely to be enough to get the Suns what they're asking — different market, different teams, different situation — but it gives them a little leverage.
The Boston Celtics just completed the most prolific 3-point shooting season in NBA history.
The C’s set league records for total 3-pointers made, 3-pointers made per game and 3-pointers attempted per game. No team values the importance of the 3-point shot more than the Celtics, and it’s a strategy that has produced fantastic results, including a 2024 championship.
Lanier is one of the best outside shooters in this draft class. He made 39.5 percent of his 3-pointers on 8.2 attempts per game for the Volunteers last season. He shot 39.5 percent on 3-pointers in his five-year collegiate career.
Lanier’s ability to knock down 3s at a high rate is among the reasons why our Celtics insider Chris Forsberg believes the Tennessee star would be a good target for Boston in the second round.
“Chaz Lanier loves math. Well, at least the kind of math Joe Mazzulla likes, which is to say: he shoots threes,” Forsberg said, as seen in the video player above. “And he made 41 percent of them as a fifth-year player at Tennessee after transferring from North Florida. Lanier was recognized as the nation’s best shooting guard, and has been compared to Malik Beasley. He moves well without the ball and thrives in the catch-and-shoot.
“If he wants to be more than a bench player, Lanier’s defense will need some work. He’s projected as a second-round pick. So if the Celtics like the pre-draft workout he had with them, he could be an option on Day 2.”
With two winning seasons and one playoff appearance between 1994 and 2013, the Golden State Warriors were locked in the NBA’s junkyard. Incumbent stars wanted out. Available free agents routinely ignored their overtures unless the contract offer included hazard pay. Cool region in which to live, yes, but a profoundly dysfunctional organization.
When Joe Lacob and Peter Guber assembled a group to rescue the franchise from the misguidance of besieged owner Chris Cohan in 2010, they understood the mission. Introduced to crooner Michael Bublé singing the Nina Simone song, ‘Feeling Good (It’s a New Day),” they committed to a dramatic makeover.
New ownership inherited burgeoning superstar Stephen Curry and then raised the franchise’s profile by recruiting individuals such as Jerry West, Mark Jackson and Rick Welts, men of prominence within the NBA. The New Warriors were aiming high and hitting targets.
After posting back-to-back playoff seasons (2012-13 and 2013-14) for the first time since 1994, the Warriors were methodically shedding their image as inept and irrelevant. They were gaining credibility, and their next quest was for competitive and financial prosperity.
Three days after losing a grueling 2014 first-round series to the Los Angeles Clippers in seven games, Golden State dismissed Jackson as head coach. A little more than a week later, Steve Kerr was the new head coach. The move invited skepticism, as much of the roster supported Jackson and was wary of changes likely to come with another first-time head coach.
Winning the 2015 NBA Finals in six games over the Cleveland Cavaliers gave the Warriors their first championship in 40 years and the biggest throne in the room reserved for the league’s elite. The series was clinched on June 16, 2015, with Kerr becoming the third rookie coach to hoist the Larry O’Brien trophy.
To celebrate the 10th anniversary, NBC Sports Bay Area reached out to some of the participants willing to share their memories of that remarkable journey. This is an oral history of the season that dropped the first pillar of what became a dynasty that has made the Warriors the most valuable team in the NBA:
TRAINING CAMP
Kerr brought a staff of veteran assistants, with Alvin Gentry focusing on offense and Ron Adams fine-tuning the defense. After a developmental camp, the Warriors coalesced and set their sights toward a lofty goal.
Shaun Livingston (first season with the Warriors): “You had a group of guys that had been together in this war, this battle going back and forth with, at the time, the Clippers. They were kind of like the top team of the West. OKC, they were fighting for position, fighting for the respect, but they had some continuity; they’d been together a couple years, been in some playoffs. And we had this changing of leadership from the coaching standpoint. You had the newness of Steve Kerr and his staff. Alvin Gentry, kind of the senior associate coach with experience. Steve Kerr’s first time as a coach. It’s an unknown. But then you had this known. Steph is coming. Klay (Thompson) is coming. You had David Lee, former All-Star. Andre Iguodala, former All-Star. Andrew Bogut. You had some veterans mixed with this kind of gasoline, this flame of Steph and Klay, the star power that was rising.”
Adams: “I had analyzed the team coming in here, which I thought they had a lot of potential. Our shortest player was Leandro Barbosa. Barbosa is a big guy. He’s a healthy 6-3. He’s strong. He’s long. That’s the shortest guy we have on our team. So, for a guy who loves length and athleticism and all that, we had an interesting team before the first day of practice. We had this nice roster of length and good athleticism, and on top of all of that, good intelligence. A very smart team.”
Kerr: “It was total chaos. I was really trying to push the idea of tempo and ball movement, player movement. And the players, the first few days, were trying to do that. But as is usually the case in camp, it’s a little wild, even for veteran teams. The first couple of days are a little wild because everyone’s rusty. But because I was a first-year coach and I was trying to implement a lot of this stuff, I was terrified because it was awful. The ball was flying all over the gym.”
Bogut (fourth season as a Warrior): “Steve was probably the hardest on Steph, because Steph plays so free and loose. Which is why he’s so good. But at times, he would turn the ball over. He would tell him, ‘Hey, you’re our guy. We can’t afford having you throwing over-the-head passes that get deflected for transition layups.’ And I remember numerous times Steve would stop practice and get into Steph in front of the group, which, Steph responded to very well.”
CRUCIAL MOVES
Kerr made two significant lineup changes. First, he persuaded starting small forward Iguodala to accept the role of Sixth Man, with Harrison Barnes sliding into the starting lineup.
When Lee sustained a hamstring injury in the preseason finale, Kerr turned to Draymond Green as his replacement. With the Warriors winning their first five games and 21 of their first 23, the changes became permanent.
Livingston: “Andre has started every game of his career before that season. That’s 10 years in the league of starting, and then you ask him to come off the bench? That’s a big domino, right? He’s been an All-Star. He’s a highly sought-after free agent. To come in and put your ego to the side, understanding this could, this could shift your career, that’s a big buy-in. From there, you saw Draymond Green was kind of coming into his own and taking that starter slot. The way that we took off, and the way that we all responded to that move. That slot was David Lee’s, who was a former All-Star. Having buy-in from that standpoint matters. Winning helps, right? Because if we don’t have those wins, maybe it turns out different.”
Kerr: “It wasn’t seamless with Andre. He accepted it. I wouldn’t say he embraced it, but he understood. I told him my vision was that he was sort of like (Manu) Ginobili, who came off the bench, even though he was the second-best player on the Spurs. And I think Andre was at the point of his career where he understood that, and he didn’t worry too much about starting. He wanted to win, but he wasn’t sure it was going to work. It took a couple of months. But once it started to click, it was pretty powerful. Yeah. I mean, when you’re winning like that, the results kind of speak for themselves, and I guess any skepticism kind of fades away.”
(The swap at power forward lifted Golden State’s defense from good to the best in the NBA.)
Bogut: “The thing about Draymond is he observes everything, and he listens. When he’s learning something new, he takes it in. You tell him once he’s got it, and then he’ll watch and learn from that. Our chemistry is not something that we practiced. It was just automatic. He had a great feel for the game, spatial awareness, rotation awareness. If I was out of position or messed up something, he’d have my back, and vice versa.”
Festus Ezeli (third season): “I loved watching the way that they covered for each other, like the IQ, the combined IQ of both is unmatched, and to see them on the floor working was special. Draymond blocking shots, Bogut blocking shots. Draymond is getting out in the passing lanes, getting steals, talking to people, telling them where to go and switching. I’m watching Bogut, this big guy in the middle, blocking shots. I tried to emulate that.”
THE SEASON
The 2014-15 Warriors finished 67-15, the best record in the NBA and the best in franchise history. Curry earned his first MVP award. Thompson joined him in the backcourt as All-Star Game starters.
Livingston: “Just watching this team, the way that they had chemistry, the way there was connectivity, even with the new coaching staff, they already knew what they were capable of. They were already on string. They had a feel for each other. We started probably 10-1 (21-2), and I might be playing 10 minutes a game. I’m like, ‘Damn, do they need me?’ And I’m coming off a season where, where I was starting and had a bigger role. I was observing once I got there.”
Kerr:” It’s not like I didn’t know I was taking over a good team. They had won like 50 games two years in a row (47 and 51) and been in the playoffs. And we knew we were already good. It was just a matter of, could we take the next step and continue the growth that they had already been on. And I think at that point, when we were 21-2, it felt like the identity of the team offensively was forming. And that was really my main goal. When we started, we didn’t change the defense much at all. Mark had really changed the identity of the team, the personnel moves, getting Bogut. Everything was really in place on the defensive end. So, we were really focused on the offensive evolution, just trying to incorporate more ball movement and play through our bigs a little bit more because Bogues and David Lee and Draymond were all such good passers.”
Ezeli: “I remember really enjoying our style of play. Because the year before, we went from this “iso” style of basketball, which was working because we got Steph Curry on the team. With that dude, you just put the ball in his hands. Now, it was like everybody touches the ball. Iguodala throwing lobs to me. Draymond moving the ball to Klay. It was so smooth, the starting rotation, the bench rotations, all those things together were incredible.”
Kerr: “I remember at that stage just thinking, ‘All right, this thing starting to take shape.’ We were tracking the number of passes per game. We were writing it on the board after every game. The next morning we’d come in and watch film, and we write on the board how many passes we had made. And we’re trying to be up over 300. I remember one day we forgot to write it on the board. As soon as we sat down, Steph was like, ‘How many passes last night?’ And I was like, ‘Oh, you guys were actually paying attention to that.’ And so that’s kind of when I realized they understood the power of ball movement and the flow that we were searching for. And it became apparent we were one of the best teams in the league.”
THE JOY OF BROTHERHOOD
On the road to a champagne celebration, there was plenty of singing and dancing and joking and group dinners that forged a unique bond.
Adams: “The most exciting thing about the team at that point in the season, starting with training camp, was how much fun they were having together. Steve is a devotee of (football coach) Pete Carroll and Pete is a marvelous guy, wonderful coach, but his style is one of not thinking too much about the past but thinking about the future and understanding that. The one abiding concept in sport, where I can’t say that I always did as a young coach,h is that it’s got to be fun. Everyone started playing the game because it was fun, right? And Steve really did a good job of capturing this early on.”
Livingston: “We’re tight off the court, making those videos, the bus rides, clowning each other, the group chats, all those things. The team dinners, especially. That’s when we started doing team dinners on the road nightly. And you’re seeing guys that can’t wait to get to the dinners, because we want to be around each other. And that’s uncommon, especially because we spend so much time together.”
Bogut: “Good chemistry is understanding the differences among us. Some people have family life. Some are single and ready to mingle. Some are out in the streets. Some like to play Xbox or PlayStation. Some guys politically are here and some are over there. Harrison and I used to disagree in a lot of things, but we had open debate, discussion, not to a point where we hate each other. It would just be civil, adult discussions, which is what we need in the world today. And most of the squad was like that. We understood that everyone’s different, but on the court, we’re together, and we enjoyed the time together. We spent a lot of time on the road together, restaurants and whatnot. It was a beautiful, beautiful group to be a part of.
“And It was nothing that was coach-driven or management-driven. Most trips there would be about eight or nine or 10 guys coming to dinner. We already kind of had a good group that enjoyed being around each other, had a good laugh, that bulls–t, that goofed off. And I think that’s important. A lot of teams, 85-90 percent of teams, don’t have that. We had that, and it just was special. And I think that actually helped the winning more than the winning part of that process, if that makes sense.”
Ezeli: “At some point, maybe halfway through the season, Leandro Barbosa says, ‘We gonna be championship.’ And we’re looking like, ‘Yo, you can’t say that. You’re going to jinx us.’ But he felt it so strongly, like he had been on some talented teams, he felt it so strongly in the way that we were as a team, like we could play. But then we had this ability to also bounce back from bad times. And we were together. We were eating together. We’re hanging out together, going out together, like everything we always wanted to do together.”
Kerr: “There was just a great vibe with the group, and that was just the quality of the type of people that we had on the roster. Obviously, Steph embodies that. But the new guys, Shaun Livingston and LB were great. LB was just pure joy every day. And I think Andre’s willingness to take a step back early in the season and come off the bench helped in that regard too. Everyone saw the sacrifice that he made. There was an incredible sort of energy that emanated from the group.”
Livingston: “Guys get hired and fired based on results. So, the winning obviously helped. But for me, personally, it took me back to high school. It gave me that feeling of joy again about playing the game.”
ORACLE (or ROARACLE)
The Warriors lost two home games all season, to the Spurs on Nov. 11 and to the Bulls on Jan. 27 in overtime. They finished with a franchise-record 39-2 mark at Oracle Arena. The league’s most decisive home-court advantage was created.
Kerr: “It sounds trite, but we had a great team, a great crowd and a great venue. It was electric in that place. One coach told me that when the introductions would come on, and the Tupac song would come on, ‘California Love,’ and they’re introducing the players, he said, ‘We’re watching that. And we’re just thinking, Man, I hope we don’t lose by 40.’ “
Ezeli: “It was so loud in there we could barely hear ourselves. You’re yelling, ‘Steph screen, right, right,’ and he can’t hear me. So, you just got to play off feel. For us, it became normal. But I think for other teams coming in here, it’s probably jarring. It’s that extra battery that we had in our packs.”
Livingston: “The building just feels like it’s shaking. It feels like it’s moving in there. It’s so loud, and just the amount of fuel that it gave us when we went on a run. There’s a vibe, there’s an energy to the game. And you just kind of see the body language of your opponents would let out. Those shoulders start to slump, heads start to dip, guys start kind of going back and forth, bickering at each other. Coaches calling timeouts back-to-back. And then the crowd, they’re just pouring gasoline on that thing. It’s just, you know, it’s insane in there.”
Bogut: “Just watching the playoff atmosphere of the playoffs this year in San Francisco compared to Oakland, you can’t compare the two. I understand it’s big business and all that, but I think the spirits were working with the Warriors. It was a real special place. The fans there were just great, so I have real good memories of that place. It was an awesome place to play basketball.”
FIRST ROUND VS. PELICANS
Having earned the No. 1 overall seed, rallying behind the slogan “Strength in Numbers,” the Warriors swept New Orleans in the first round of the Western Conference playoffs, toppled Memphis in six games in the conference semifinals, beat Houston and five in the conference finals and, in the NBA Finals, took down LeBron James and Cleveland in six.
Kerr: “Even though we handled New Orleans, it wasn’t easy. We had to come back from 20 down in the fourth quarter in Game 3, and then I think Game 4 went down to the wire. (Pelicans late comeback fell short.) I felt like, in some ways, we were kind of where OKC is right now: Dominant regular season, but you got to prove it now.”
Bogut: “The Pelicans didn’t really pose that much of a threat. They were better than the seed they were, and they played good basketball, but they didn’t have enough and weren’t deep enough to really mess with us. We started to realize how valuable our bench was. Mo Speights, Barbosa, Livingston, they came in and impacted a lot of games. They changed games sometimes. They’d come in with a two-point lead and Mo Speights, ‘Mo Buckets,’ would hit five straight jumpers and we’re up 15.”
Ezeli: “Our bench was just so dynamic. We had Marreese Speights. We had offense. We had defense. Shaun Livingston was like a cheat code; when you put the ball his hands and he’s on the block, that ball is going in the basket. And this is somebody who was coming in for Steph Curry, who is putting the ball in the basket from the 3-point line. We had different styles that we could play.”
9 years ago today…
Steph Curry hits the TOUGH corner 3 to send Game 3 against the Pelicans to OT 🔥
Livingston: “We were bleeding. And the series being down after being the favorites to win, being in a vulnerable position, with Steph, taking shots because of being the MVP and feeling like you have to come through. You’re not playing the way you want to play. We’re all not playing the way we want to play. And you start to hear all the noise, all the shots coming at you.”
Kerr: “Every team that eventually breaks through, you have to have that moment of truth, moment of reckoning, whatever you want to call it. And that’s what we had when they beat us up in Game 3 (a 10-point loss). Everybody was calling us soft and tweeting about us and saying, jump-shooting teams don’t win all that stuff. Unless you’re getting blown out the first couple games, you generally wait to make your big adjustment until at least Game 3, maybe Game 4. And we were maybe a game late in our adjustment to put Bogut on Tony Allen. Ron Adams had suggested it on the flight to Memphis when it was 1-1. But we agreed it was pretty extreme. And then we got blown out. It’s like, ‘Oh s–t, we better do that.’ “
Bogut: “I just let Allen shoot the ball, really, and that’s not his thing. That basically screwed up their spacing, because they had four bodies already running around paint with the Gasol and Randolph, whoever’s guarding them. And then you’ve got me running around not guarding anyone. That just completely screwed up their offense, and they just couldn’t find a rhythm. What that did, and what people don’t realize, is it got Tony out of their lineup. He says he had a hamstring injury. I think he was going to be out of lineup anyway because their offense was so bad.”
Adams: “I think it kind of disoriented Memphis a bit.”
Kerr: “It was, it was the game. It was the seminal moment of that championship season.”
Adams: “It was the biggest game of that sequence of playoff games. It was at the time, and as I look back on it. And it still is, in its own way, a pivotal moment in the success of our team that year in the playoffs. I always think back: What if we had not won that game? What would have been our route, our destiny as a team? What would it have been?”
Stephen Curry closed out the WCSF series with 32 points against the Grizzlies! (2015)
Bogut: “The Houston series didn’t really pose that much of a threat.”
Kerr: “I remember Game 2, where Harden had the ball in his hands down one with like five seconds left, and it just felt like, oh s–t. And then [Steph] and Klay (tied him up). To go up 2-0 was huge. And then we steamrolled them in Game 3. The series actually didn’t feel close. Even though Game 2 was close, it felt like we were in control.”
Adams: “You keep putting this, for lack of a better term, this ‘confidence coin’ in the bank. Each game that we were extracting from these wins, you keep putting it in the confidence bank. That process served us well leading into the championship round. In that we’re a confident team, we kind of knew at that point we could do it.”
When the Warriors, now the betting favorite, lost two of the first three games, they were facing the same challenge they had conquered to oust the Grizzlies. Kerr made another Game 4 adjustment. Following the suggestion of staffer Nick U’Ren, the coach called on Iguodala to replace Bogut in the starting lineup – and be the primary defender on James – with Green sliding over to center. The “Death Lineup” was born.
Kerr: “That’s the whole point of a seven-game series. You have time to adjust. You look at it, you study it, you make your adjustment, and you hope that it works. And in both cases, the adjustments really worked. Putting Bogut on Tony Allen, and then in the Finals, starting Andre for Bogut and going small.”
Ezeli: “I just remember Andre Iguodala before our team meeting for Game 6. Andre’s like, ‘Yo, guys, I don’t have anything else in me, so this is the last game. I’m giving y’all everything I have after this. I’m done all right.’ He was talking about how LeBron just keeps coming.”
Bogut: “We reeled off three in a row to win it. I think just the grind of a series, and knowing that we’re always in it, we learned we’re never out. That you’ve got to knock us out, that we’re not going to fail by ourselves.”
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED
Ezeli: “Winning a championship in Cleveland is the worst thing ever, because there’s nowhere to celebrate. And the first thing that you do when the buzzer goes off, is you’re looking around trying to find somebody to hug. And people don’t realize we did this thing. And that’s why you don’t do this journey alone. They say if you want to go far, you go together. And to be able to do that with my brothers is still a special memory that I have in my heart. It never goes away. And forever, wherever I see them, anywhere around the world, even when we’re 70 years old, we always have those special memories. Those are my brothers.”
Adams: “We tore up that locker room. There’s nothing better than winning on the road. Well, actually it’s better for your fans to win at home if you’re going to win a championship. But it’s pretty sweet winning on the road. The celebration was immense, the guys going crazy and all that camaraderie that achieving something great brings with it. All of that is special. It is such an exhilarating feeling.”
Livingston: “It was just … it was insane. And then getting back to the Bay, you know, seeing the, just the outpouring of our fans, and all they went through, the 40 years without a championship. It was special, man.”
Adams: “It’s the pinnacle. So, when it happens, it has great meaning for anyone involved in it, whoever’s on the team, whatever their association to the team might be. So that will always be really special. And the first one, of course, is the most special, I think.”
Bogut: “Definitely the most special moment of my career. When you win a championship going through, individually, for me, going from a team Milwaukee that you thought never really had a real chance to win a championship; playoffs was kind of our gold medal. Going to Golden State, when I first arrived, was not in a great spot, not a lot of success. Then tasting a little bit of success, but knowing there was a still a bit more that we can get out of this group, then coming in and getting it. Yeah.”
Kerr: “It was honestly the most gratifying moment of my professional life. Just to do that, to win the title in our first year, to see the joy in the locker room and to see that how happy everybody and their families were. Then we go over to Morton’s (prime steakhouse) and have the celebration. All the owners, the happiest group of people on earth at that moment.
“That’s an amazing, amazing liftoff. Yeah, the first of five straight runs to the Finals. Man, I don’t know if we’ll see that again anytime soon.”
The Orlando Magic ignited a potentially wild offseason by acquiring Desmond Bane from the Memphis Grizzlies on Sunday in exchange for a package highlighted by four unprotected first-round picks and a future first-round pick swap.
What does it mean for the Boston Celtics?
Let’s examine the Bane trade through a Boston lens:
1. The East is wide open
The Magic, bounced in Round 1 of the 2025 playoffs by the Celtics, are splurging big with the belief that Bane is the piece that can rocket them to contention in what feels like an extremely wide-open Eastern Conference.
The Magic were a feisty first-round opponent with Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner showing all the signs of blossoming stars. Orlando offloaded Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Cole Anthony — two players that failed to have a positive impact on the Boston series — while bringing back a player who can provide the sort of two-way impact the Magic desperately craved, particularly with his shooting talents.
If healthy, the Magic feel like the sort of team that will push hard during the 2025-26 regular season, trying to show they have truly arrived. Orlando should almost certainly push into the top half of the East playoff bracket next season.
Yes, Orlando gave up a haul of picks, but the Magic are banking that they will be one of the eight best teams in basketball over the duration of those picks. They are pushing all in at a time when it feels like they have a real chance to be in the mix and they’ll see where this young trio can take them.
Ron Chenoy-Imagn Images
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope was largely ineffective in Round 1 vs. the Celtics.
2. A high price tag on talent
While we all wait to see which pieces the Celtics are forced to ship out in order to get below the second apron, it feels like the price tags just shot skyward if teams were to even inquire about players like Jaylen Brown or Derrick White.
Bane is an amazing young player. He’s technically a former Celtics draft pick selected for Memphis after the Celtics utilized the No. 30 pick in the 2020 draft to offload Enes Kanter to the Portland Trail Blazers in a three-team swap. But he doesn’t have the resume of a Brown or a White. So, even at slightly older ages, those players would seemingly require an even greater haul to be moved.
Teams would have to overwhelm Boston with some combination of young talent and future draft assets to even consider moving core pieces of the 2024 title team. And, before the offseason really starts, they have a deal that emphasizes how valuable two-way players are to contenders.
3. Teams looking for that one piece
Set against the backdrop of a Thunder-Pacers matchup in the NBA Finals, there are no shortage of teams that should feel like they are maybe one piece away from being a legitimate contender. All of which could help ensure Boston gets maximum return on any piece it has to move out this offseason.
There’s been speculation about whether the Celtics would have to attach draft capital to move off the contract of Jrue Holiday. Given his age, and with over $100 million in money remaining over three seasons, that might be true. But if there are teams out there that view Holiday as the final piece of their own puzzle, then Boston can try to limit what they need to attach in any deal. Similarly, how much would a contending team that needs shooting splurge to add a Sam Hauser to their rotation given his rather thrifty price tag that fits into a team’s non taxpayer midlevel exception?
If the Celtics must make painful choices to move off talent this summer, then they need to maximize the return in a high-demand marketplace.
Bob DeChiara-Imagn Images
Jrue Holiday has three years left on his contract.
4. The East gets younger
For the better part of the past decade, we’ve focused on Boston’s older rivals. The Heat, the Sixers, the Bucks. But the road blocks for where Boston yearns to get back to, once Jayson Tatum is healthy again, are the cluster of young teams thriving behind a new wave of stars.
The Pacers, the Pistons, and the Magic are the teams to worry about now. Indiana has proven itself with consecutive deep playoff runs. The Pistons still have the ability to take a huge swing if they want to add alongside Cade Cunningham. The Magic now have three dynamic scorers aged 26 and younger.
The Cavaliers are young-ish, but have some tough decisions this offseason about what pieces of their core to carry forward. The Knicks have to figure out a coach and whether they’re going to stick with their own core after a run to the East finals. The future of Giannis Antetokounmpo in Milwaukee remains uncertain. The Sixers haven’t been healthy for a decade. The Heat are just toiling away in Play-In-Ville.
It all adds another wrinkle as Brad Stevens ponders Boston’s next steps. Do the Celtics try to maintain as much of this core as possible and stiff arm these up-and-coming teams? Or do they try to get younger, knowing that’s where the East is moving?
While the Indiana Pacers and Oklahoma City Thunder are still competing in the NBA Finals, the rest of the NBA is focused on the future. For the Memphis Grizzlies and Orlando Magic, that meant making a significant trade on Sunday, according to ESPN's Shams Charania. Headed to Orlando is shooting guard Desmond Bane, and the Magic gave up a lot to acquire his services. Here's a look at how the trade impacts fantasy basketball in 2025-26.
Orlando is sending to Memphis the No. 16 pick in the 2025 NBA Draft, Phoenix's first-round pick in 2026, Magic 2028 unprotected first-rounder and Orlando's 2030 unprotected first, sources said. Pick swap is lightly protected in 2029. https://t.co/DeWziUWLkv
While his scoring average decreased this season, Bane's availability improved after being unable to hit 60 games in either of the prior two campaigns. In 69 appearances, he averaged 19.2 points, 6.1 rebounds, 5.3 assists, 1.2 steals and 2.4 three-pointers in 32.0 minutes. Shooting 48.4 percent from the field, 39.2 percent from three and 89.4 percent from the foul line, Bane was a third-round player in eight- and nine-cat formats. Heading to a team that's in dire need of perimeter shooting may raise his fantasy ceiling, even with Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner due to have the basketball in their hands quite often. Bane entered last season with a Yahoo! ADP of 44; he may go a bit earlier in standard league drafts.
Having a shooter of Bane's caliber in the lineup should improve the spacing for Wagner and Banchero, with the former averaging a career-high 4.7 assists per game this season. Banchero has been a better option for points leagues than category leagues for much of his NBA career, but he did provide top-100 value in eight-cat formats in 2024-25. Also worth watching from a fantasy standpoint will be Jalen Suggs, who was a sixth-round player before going down with a season-ending quad injury in early March. Playing alongside Bane should also benefit Suggs, but he's only exceeded 55 games once in his first four seasons.
Memphis receives:
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope
Cole Anthony
2025 first-round pick
2026 first-round pick via Phoenix
2028 first-round pick
2030 first-round pick
2029 first-round pick swap (lightly protected)
The Grizzlies' decision to part ways with Bane nets the franchise a significant haul in terms of draft capital; are they done, or will some of those picks be used to add a star to the lineup? The 2025 pick gets Memphis back into the first round after sending their pick (18th overall) to Washington as part of the Marcus Smart trade consummated at the February deadline.
As for the players Memphis has acquired, Caldwell-Pope appears well-positioned to slot into the spot left vacant by Bane. KCP struggled in Orlando this season, averaging 8.7 points, 2.2 rebounds, 1.8 assists, 1.3 steals and 1.5 three-pointers in 77 appearances. While solid defensively, Caldwell-Pope's scoring average was his lowest since his rookie season (2013-14). Also, his 34.2 percent mark from beyond the arc was KCP's lowest since 2015-16. He would finish the regular season outside the top-150 in eight- and nine-cat formats. The change of scenery may be a positive for Caldwell-Pope, but he should once again be no better than a late-round option in standard leagues.
Anthony may also benefit from a move, as the 2024-25 season was his least productive in five years with the Magic. Appearing in 67 games, he averaged 9.4 points, 3.0 rebounds, 2.9 assists, 0.9 steals and 1.1 three-pointers in 18.4 minutes, shooting 42.4 percent from the field and 82.3 percent from the foul line. Due to Suggs' injury-related absences, Anthony made 22 starts, but he was not productive enough to become a reliable streamer in most leagues. Anthony finished the season ranked well outside the top-200 in eight- and nine-cat formats, and that does not appear likely to change in Memphis.
In addition to having Ja Morant, the Grizzlies' confidence in Scotty Pippen Jr. increased throughout the 2024-25 season. By the end of his time in Orlando, Anthony was not a lock for rotation minutes, and he may be headed for a similar situation with the Grizzlies.
Orlando Magic President of Basketball Operations Jeff Weltman said this offseason it was time to "turn the page" on the Magic's rebuild and become a win-now team.
On Sunday he did just that, agreeing to a trade that is all-in: Memphis is trading guard Desmond Bane to Orlando for Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Cole Anthony, four unprotected first-round picks and one first-round pick swap, reports Shams Charania of ESPN.
The first reaction to this trade: Bane is a perfect fit for what Orlando needs, but that is a very steep price to pay.
Orlando needs shooting more than anything and Bane brings that, knocking down 39.2% of his 3-pointers last season, and for his career is a 41% shooter from beyond the arc. More than just a gunner, Bane was a secondary shot creator in Memphis who averaged 19.2 points, 6.1 rebounds and 5.3 assists a game last season. Put him next to a healthy Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner and the Magic offense should make a leap from its 27th-in-the-league ranking a year ago, especially with Banchero and Wagner setting screens for Bane (that will be very difficult to defend). Bane is also a solid defender who will fit in with the Magic's elite unit on that end.
Weltman and Orlando surveyed the East, saw that it feels more wide open in the wake of the Jayson Tatum and Damian Lillard injuries, and decided now was the time to push their chips into the middle of the table. Orlando could well be a top-four team in the East next season and a playoff threat.
What is jaw-dropping about the trade is the four unprotected first-round picks.
That's a lot to surrender for a player who has never been an All-Star before, especially in a trade where the Magic had to throw in two quality veterans.
In Memphis, it feels like more moves are on the way, the four picks give them flexibility to make future trades to lower payroll, clearing the way for a massive Jaren Jackson Jr. extension this summer.
\While Bane played a key role in the offense when Ja Morant has been out, Caldwell-Pope steps in as a rock-solid starter at the two and Anthony can be a good first guard off the bench for the Grizzlies. However, it's the picks that give them flexibility to make future trades or use those picks to add depth over time.
It’s about to be a very interesting NBA offseason for the Warriors and Jonathan Kuminga, who will be a restricted free agent at the end of the month.
But what kind of contract can Kuminga expect to sign, whether it be with Golden State or elsewhere? ESPN’s Bobby Marks revealed what he would offer the 22-year-old forward in a piece published Sunday, and he believes Kuminga is worth a three-year, $81 million deal with the final year as a player option.
“Projecting a new contract for Kuminga is like trying to master the Rubik’s Cube,” Marks wrote, pointing to the youngster’s roller-coaster fourth NBA season which featured an undefined role with plenty of breakout performances mixed in.
Marks admits the only thing “guaranteed” for Kuminga is that the Warriors will tender him a $7.9 million qualifying offer before June 29, and Golden State holds the advantage after that due to a predicted lack of spending around the league this offseason.
“A contract that starts at $25 million gives Golden State the flexibility to fill out its roster and remain below the second apron,” Marks wrote.
If Golden State opts not to sign Kuminga to a new contract, it’s likely the team will facilitate a sign-and-trade deal that lands it additional players and/or assets in the process. There’s also the possibility Kuminga agrees to an offer sheet with another NBA team, which the Warriors will have an opportunity to match. Marks lists the Brooklyn Nets as another “best fit” for the young pro.
Regardless of what happens with Kuminga, his contract situation and its outcome will play a big role in how the rest of free agency ends up for the Warriors.
The NBA Finals is still ongoing, but the Memphis Grizzlies and Orlando Magic are already looking forward to next season.
Memphis and Orlando executed the first blockbuster trade of the 2025 NBA offseason on Sunday, with Desmond Bane reportedly heading to the Magic for Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Cole Anthony, four unprotected first-round picks and one first-round pick swap.
Orlando is sending to Memphis the No. 16 pick in the 2025 NBA Draft, Phoenix’s first-round pick in 2026, plus its own unprotected first-round picks in 2028 and 2030. The pick swap is lightly protected in 2029.
Bane, who turns 27 later this month, will join an Orlando team that lost in the first round to the Boston Celtics, with a noticeable lack of offense holding the young roster back. He averaged 19.2 points per game for Memphis last season, shooting 41% from 3-point range over his five-year career. The Magic ranked last in 3-point percentage as a team in 2024-25 (31.8%).
While Memphis is giving up the best player in this trade, the haul of four unprotected first-round picks is a ransom. Caldwell-Pope and Anthony have been consistent veteran guards throughout their careers, too. KCP won championships with the Los Angeles Lakers (2020) and Denver Nuggets (2023), while Anthony has been with Orlando since being drafted in 2020.
The Magic will use Bane to form a strong trio with Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner, especially in an Eastern Conference that will be up for grabs next season. Bane has four years and $163.2 million left on the max extension he signed with Memphis in 2023.
The NBA Finals is still ongoing, but the Memphis Grizzlies and Orlando Magic are already looking forward to next season.
Memphis and Orlando executed the first blockbuster trade of the 2025 NBA offseason on Sunday, with Desmond Bane reportedly heading to the Magic for Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Cole Anthony, four unprotected first-round picks and one first-round pick swap.
Orlando is sending to Memphis the No. 16 pick in the 2025 NBA Draft, Phoenix’s first-round pick in 2026, plus its own unprotected first-round picks in 2028 and 2030. The pick swap is lightly protected in 2029.
Bane, who turns 27 later this month, will join an Orlando team that lost in the first round to the Boston Celtics, with a noticeable lack of offense holding the young roster back. He averaged 19.2 points per game for Memphis last season, shooting 41% from 3-point range over his five-year career. The Magic ranked last in 3-point percentage as a team in 2024-25 (31.8%).
While Memphis is giving up the best player in this trade, the haul of four unprotected first-round picks is a ransom. Caldwell-Pope and Anthony have been consistent veteran guards throughout their careers, too. KCP won championships with the Los Angeles Lakers (2020) and Denver Nuggets (2023), while Anthony has been with Orlando since being drafted in 2020.
The Magic will use Bane to form a strong trio with Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner, especially in an Eastern Conference that will be up for grabs next season. Bane has four years and $163.2 million left on the max extension he signed with Memphis in 2023.
Dwyane Wade’s résumé could have stopped at three-time NBA champion, 13-time NBA All-Star and Naismith Basketball Hall of Famer. But his basketball success has given him access to a wide range of people and opportunities, in ventures involving sports, education, entertainment, food and wine. His post-basketball duties expanded with last month’s announcement that he would join Prime Video’s NBA coverage for the 2025-26 season as an in-game and studio analyst.
Wade is considered one of the best players in NBA history because of his versatility on the court. In his post-NBA career, doing a little bit of everything still defines him.
Wade is the father of four children (and the guardian of a fifth), and he advocates for LGBTQ+ youth in solidarity with his daughter Zaya, who is transgender. He is married to actress Gabrielle Union. He’s a brand ambassador, a fashionista, a podcaster.
He’s a cancer survivor, as well.
With everything, Wade has a personal mission: Help people enter spaces they might not normally have access to.
“Not everyone is going to be invited into that room, so you can hold the door open to see if others can come in,” Wade told The Athletic. “If not, make sure that you’re doing your job, giving back to the people that you hope will walk through those doors.”
It’s been a challenging 18 months for Wade. On the Jan. 30 episode of his podcast, “The Why with Dwyane Wade,” he revealed he had a cancerous tumor removed from his right kidney on Dec. 18, 2023.
Wade admitted he hadn’t been as diligent about getting physicals since his playing days ended, but he eventually saw a doctor after having urinary and stomach issues. What specialists eventually discovered was a three-centimeter mass on his kidney: Stage 1 cancer.
“That moment was probably the weakest point I’ve ever felt in my life,” Wade said on the podcast. “The moments I was by myself, I was struggling.”
Wade, 43, tries to use his private experiences to lead public conversations that could help others, and he wanted to bring awareness to men’s health issues.
Additionally, his experiences with fatherhood have been an ongoing teachable moment. Wade published a book in 2012 sharing stories about his journey as a parent. More than a decade later, Wade works to be a protector for Zaya.
Wade didn’t plan on parenting publicly, but celebrity status and social media have made it difficult — though he has been careful with Zaya. In being her biggest supporter, Wade has tried to be an example for other parents in how to handle attacks on transgender rights and vitriol aimed at their families. Wade’s basketball career is revered in Miami (the nickname “Wade County” is a play on Dade County), but his family moved to California after his playing career in part because he didn’t believe his family would be “accepted” amid Florida’s anti-LGBTQ+ policies.
Wade doesn’t allow hate to change his parenting approach.
“I’m such a proud father, and I try to post my kids,” Wade said. “So, as my child got older and got confident and comfortable with us talking more about her and talking more about her situation, that’s when we did.”
Through his Dwyane Wade Family Foundation, Wade aims to provide resources to marginalized communities. The foundation also assisted in starting Translatable, a digital platform and online community — operated by both Wade and Zaya — that states it’s “a safe space for LGBTQIA+ youth to express themselves and is a resource hub for our parents, families and support systems.”
“We want to put our narrative out there, as well,” Wade said. “We know that other families, other kids, other people will be dealing with this and will go through these things. This is happening in real time.”
Since his cancer diagnosis, Wade has continued to live a busy life. His post-NBA biography includes ownership stakes in five sports franchises: the NBA’s Utah Jazz, the NHL’s Utah Hockey Club, the WNBA’s Chicago Sky, the MLS’ Real Salt Lake and the NWSL’s Utah Royals. Other business partnerships include Versace; his wine brand, Wade Cellars; and PROUDLY, which makes hair and skin products for babies and children of color.
Wade is also the founder of the production company 59th & Prairie Entertainment, and he has served as an executive producer on multiple projects, including award-winning Netflix documentaries ““The Redeem Team” and “The Dads.” Add his new Prime Video duties to his growing list of projects.
“If you see a lot of the investments and things that I’ve done, it’s in the world of entertainment, sports, the different teams I’ve invested in,” he said. “That’s how I can utilize myself, because that’s where my strengths are.
“I wanted to jump right into my strengths when I retired — and then obviously learn other things along the way.”
Wade’s interest in entrepreneurship increased after a shoulder injury briefly sidelined him during the 2006-07 season. His business manager, Lisa Joseph-Metelus, said she considers him a “unicorn.” Wade has his hands on a lot of projects but tries to be intentional about what he attaches his name to, meticulously analyzing potential ventures.
“His curiosity is what drives a lot of the work that we do,” Joseph-Metelus said. “He has no ego when it comes to understanding the process of something or learning or being put in a position where he says, ‘I want to learn.'”
Wade also takes risks, particularly with fashion. Jokes have been cracked about some of his choices. He’s attended Fashion Week events in various cities around the world. He’s worn capri pants and carried handbags when others wouldn’t.
But he doesn’t regret taking chances.
“I looked out in the space, and I didn’t see many people in this fashion space that look like me as a Black American former athlete, someone 6-foot-4 who is a little unconventional when you think of fashion,” Wade said. “No one is doing that, so why can’t I?”
He continued: “Sometimes you have to understand that if you’re comfortable in it, if you’re so confident in what you’re doing, (it’s) going to take people an amount of time before they catch up. It’s OK to be in the beginning phases of doing something. I’ve seen it in a lot of aspects of my life.”
Wade has become a fixture in fashion. He has an apparel deal with Versace. He announced a deal with Swiss watchmaker Hublot more than a decade ago.
Wade also has made inroads — for himself and others — in the food and beverage industry. He visited Napa Valley during harvest season in 2014 and connected with the Pahlmeyer family, then partnered with them to create Wade Cellars. He then started Oakville Cabernet Sauvignon and Three by Wade Red Blend in 2015, to be sold in China.
George Walker III is a Wade Cellars brand ambassador and was the company’s first full-time employee. Walker worked in hospitality in Michigan but wanted to learn how to actually make wine. In 2020, he emailed Wade Cellars to ask about internships.
While there were no internships, Wade Cellars told Walker there was a position available to run day-to-day operations. Walker pivoted and moved to Napa. He’s now been with Wade’s company for five years, and his role has grown to include marketing, social media and market share.
When Walker started, Wade Cellars was in 10 states. By the end of 2021, it was in 44 states.
“(Wade has a) passion for creating space for people that aren’t always represented,” Walker said. “What convinced me was hearing his passion for that, but also just for connectivity in general.”
Walker isn’t the only person in Wade’s orbit who credits the NBA Hall of Famer with providing an opportunity. Chef Richard Ingraham once was a hairstylist for Joseph-Metelus, and also taught culinary arts at Miami Northwestern High School.
Joseph-Metelus reached out to Ingraham because Wade was looking for a personal chef. That connection allowed Ingraham — a non-sports fan who admittedly didn’t know who Wade was at the time — to eventually quit his teaching job and live out a culinary dream. Ingraham credits Wade and Union with helping to start his first company, Chef RLI, a network to connect chefs with celebrities and sports figures.
“One day, (Wade) walked in the door and he was like, ‘Hey, Chris Bosh asked if we knew of any chefs; we told him that you had a company and you put chefs in people’s homes,'” Ingraham recalled. “I was like, ‘Yo, I don’t have that.'”
But neither Wade nor Union took no for an answer. That unexpected nudge was a springboard for Ingraham’s business, and his work with Wade also helped him write two cookbooks.
“Dwyane gave me the latitude to be able to have the time to write these books, to take pictures of food, to prepare the type of food that I’ve prepared,” Ingraham said. “Every single dish in the books is something that has been prepared in this house. … I don’t take those types of things for granted.”
Wade also puts on the When We Gather Food & Wine festivals, which highlight chefs and sommeliers of color throughout the U.S. In September 2022, Wade brought his festival to an Inglewood, Calif., establishment owned by sisters LeAnn and Leslie Jones. 1010 Wine & Events calls itself “the first and only wine bar in Inglewood.”
The Jones sisters had received media attention before, but Wade’s association took their exposure to another level.
“Every time I get to speak about him in the wine space, I love to do it,” Leslie said. “I think that he, better than anyone, has used his platform and used his celebrity (status) to push the Black wine community along.”
“He brought on all Black-owned wine brands to be the vendors,” added Leslie, referring to Wade serving as the first director of culture and vibes during the 2023 Blue Note Jazz Festival in Napa, Calif. “That’s really powerful to me, because it’s not just talking … it’s putting action to it.”
In 2021, Wade was asked to join the executive leadership board for the UC Davis Department of Viticulture and Enology, a program that offers undergraduate and graduate degrees related to the wine industry. Wade, noting the lack of diversity in the field, said he wanted to create a program “where we are able to bring in Black and Brown people so we can learn about the wine industry and understand it.”
Ben Montpetit, Ph.D., associate professor and department chair at UC Davis, said Wade has been a “great partner” for the program. The university in 2023 held an Influencers Bootcamp, a two-day event hosting faculty and advisers from schools around the country, HBCUs included, to learn more about the program and potential careers in the industry. Wade served as host.
“He’s done a tremendous amount of work to help us reach new communities and students who might not necessarily have been exposed to wine in the past (and) might not be thinking about this as a career in the future,” Montpetit said.
The idea of reshaping the culture around him has always appealed to Wade. He made nearly $200 million for his NBA career alone, per Spotrac; that doesn’t include outside endorsements and deals with other companies. Creating opportunities is fulfilling, he said.
Particularly when it can benefit others.
“You know how it is on Thanksgiving when that plate is full? You just keep adding stuff on top of it, or you go back and get another plate,” Wade said. “I’m just getting started. So hopefully, I’m just in the middle ground and this is halftime as a 43-year-old man.”
Kurt Helin
Ron Chenoy-Imagn Images
Bob DeChiara-Imagn Images
Dwyane Wade’s résumé could have stopped at three-time NBA champion, 13-time NBA All-Star and Naismith Basketball Hall of Famer. But his basketball success has given him access to a wide range of people and opportunities, in ventures involving sports, education, entertainment, food and wine.