MEXICO CITY — For decades, talk of an NBA franchise in Mexico was not fringe speculation but a recurring thought experiment in league discourse, especially as the league deepened its ties with Mexican basketball fans and infrastructure as years passed. 

The NBA first staged an international game on Mexican soil back in 1992 — its third-ever matchup outside of the United States — when the Dallas Mavericks and the Houston Rockets faced each other at Palacio de los Deportes in Mexico City. So great was the experience that the league sent the Rockets and, this time, the New York Knicks for another preseason matchup one year later.

Ultimately, Mexico went on to put together a five-year run of hosting exhibition games for the NBA, then welcomed American teams sparsely in 1999, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2009, 2010, and 2012. The first regular-season NBA game to take place in Mexico happened in 1997, and the south-of-the-border country has hosted such games every season since the 2014-15 one, barring the COVID-impacted campaigns.

The arrival of the CDMX Capitanes to the G League only intensified the Mexican belief of belonging, giving fans their closest link yet to the NBA when they joined the NBA’s developmental league in 2021-22 after they were officially welcomed two years earlier, in 2019.

And for a major segment of those supporters — call them dreamers, idealists, or any other optimistic descriptor you can find for them — the ones convinced that an NBA franchise belongs here almost by birthright, the expectation now feels like set-in-stone destiny rather than a mere, perhaps even distant, possibility.

Those fans talk about expansion not as a remote outcome, but as something that could, or for some, should, happen as early as “tomorrow.” In their minds, the city formerly known as Distrito Federal and politically rebranded into — coincidentally or not — much more internationalized CDMX is huge, vibrant, full of passionate fans, and simply the right place for the NBA to land next.

“Mexican fans bring more passion than people think,” said a supporter named Alex, pointing to how soccer culture has translated naturally into basketball fandom.

At different points in time, during press conferences tied to NBA Global Games in Mexico City, commissioner Adam Silver publicly described the city as a potential site for future expansion.

“We think there’s an enormous opportunity to continue growing the game of basketball here in Mexico City and throughout the country,” Silver said in Nov. 2023. “And we also see this as a gateway essentially to the rest of Latin America.”

But even at the height of that buzz, the conversation was not one of imminent commitment to expanding south of the American border. By late 2024, Silver was clear that Mexico City’s place in expansion was still behind compelling proposals from other American markets.

“Personally, I would love to have a team [in CDMX],” Silver said then. “[But it] would be more difficult to expand to Mexico City than it would be to expand to U.S. cities that have very publicly sought NBA teams.

“Being direct, it’s highly unlikely Mexico City would jump above U.S. cities that are currently under consideration.”

Capitanes, for one, keep proving Silver right (in making a strong case as a proper fit for NBA expansion) and wrong (as a team based in a place still far from being an NBA-level hub).

The team’s games take place in cavernous Arena CDMX (opened in 2012 and with a maximum capacity of 22,300) and are packed with families, fans pounding drums, Latin American flags representing the multinational talent showcased on the court, and a level of emotional attachment that does not exist anywhere else in the G League. 

Many Capitanes supporters attending the team’s home opener for the 2025-26 season against the OKC Blue insist the city is ready for the NBA in every way that matters: culture, passion, atmosphere, and symbolic weight. They describe Capitanes games as proof that Mexico City can be a “basketball destination,” a place where fan noise, family crowds, and a growing sense of belonging are enough to convince the league to plant a flag here permanently. 

“Mexico City is ready,” claimed a middle-aged fan named Adrian. “With the team we have, any players would adapt to it tomorrow.” For him and many others, the city’s size, diversity, and infrastructure already solve everything the NBA or outsiders might be worrying about.

“The atmosphere here is special,” said Leo, a longtime fan who attended the opener along with his wife and three kids. “People feel connected to the team. It’s a family thing, and the fans give everything. We already support this like an NBA team.”

The CDMX team steadily leads the league in attendance, and although it took some ruthless and conniving marketing related to LeBron James’ son Bronny to break the all-time record, they destroyed the prior mark — one that already belonged to them — by bringing 19,328 souls to the arena for a developmental-league game held on Jan. 4, 2025 (that ended up not featuring Bronny after all).

Capitanes’ jerseys and all other merchandise sales are unparalleled, and the social engagement the team generates is on another level. They are the only unaffiliated G League team after the Ignite project vanished, but that fact only helped Ciudad de Mexico Capitanes feel like a true national project. 

On the surface, one could believe Capitanes simply has outgrown and outpaced the G League structure. It feels like a leap from a player-development league and its surroundings to a full-blown competition, such as the NBA, is the most natural of moves. So much so, that a Capitanes PR member just confirmed tickets for international NBA games staged in CDMX always fly off of selling platforms the minute they  go up for sale.

To many fans, the conclusion is simple: if Mexico City can fill the building for a one-off game in the middle of the NBA season, it can fill it 41 times a year with a local team calling Arena CDMX home.

But the closer the NBA gets to defining its future, the clearer it becomes that Mexico City’s biggest obstacles are not emotional or cultural. They have everything to do with infrastructural and financial hurdles, and they are, inevitably, deeply tied to the Association’s global strategy. 

People who work inside Capitanes — the staffers, the media members who cover them daily, the executives who deal with the League (NBA or G) on a daily basis, and even the most fervent of super-fans who have earned unique access to all things Capitanes and call themselves Familia Capitan, understand the scale of these challenges far better than the dreamy fans who can only imagine a seamless transition into the largest stages basketball has to offer.

For some around the organization, the idea of a near-term NBA franchise is outright impossible to entertain.

“No,” Capitanes PR staffer Raúl Bravo told SB Nation when asked whether an NBA expansion could happen in the short term. “There are a few reasons. There’s competition from other cities like Las Vegas and Seattle. And even if the NBA called us and said ‘let’s go,’ the financial power needed to operate an NBA team is enormous — more games, more hotels, more staff, more everything.

“NBA player salaries are way above those of the G League players, so the investment would be magnified incredibly, and out of reach.”

The most common thread among insiders navigates the understanding that, beneath the NBA-level arena and the international buzz generated by the team and their approach to roster building in what most consider “the team of Latin America,” Capitanes operate on a reality completely different from what an NBA franchise requires.

When Bravo describes the problem, he is not talking about the fanbase or the Mexican culture being roadblocks on CDMX’s path to the NBA. Bravo is talking about the organization-wide budgets, high-end salaries, top-tier facilities, and fine-tuned logistics needed to be in place in order to make the jump. The gap in all of those areas, sadly, cannot be closed by the immeasurable passion and the emotional pull of Capitanes.

Capitanes head coach Vítor Galbani, in his first season at the helm, framed the gap directly when discussing the day-to-day competitive realities the team faces shortly after earning his first win of the season, in front of the Arena CDMX crowd.

“We have fewer resources than other teams,” Galbani said. “We’re at the mercy of call-ups. Other teams can send NBA players down and bring them back up. We can’t. Our roster is built differently — younger, mostly Latin American — and that makes the challenge bigger.”

Galbani’s view also speaks to a deeper truth that fans still don’t quite grasp: Capitanes are designed as a development platform, not a contender, as independent as they might be.

From the fans’ perspective, there’s a powerful emotional component at play that trumps it all, given the fact — acknowledged and proudly communicated by the organization itself — that Capitanes represents not just Mexico City, but the whole Latin American landscape. 

The feeling, which extends well beyond Mexico’s borders, is what makes Capitanes what it is and has always been, and in the eyes and hearts of most fans, it’s not going anywhere — expansion or not.

“Capitanes, even if they’re not full of Mexicans, represent Latin Americans,” said Gerardo, a fan whose kid is honing his skills at the Capitanes’ underage developmental team. “It’s a platform for the player who wants to reach the NBA and sees Capitanes as a trampoline.” 

The Latin American identity of the team is a core branding element, a selling point for fans, and a genuine pipeline for players with dreams of making it to the NBA or hooping overseas. But if the Capitanes were ever to become an NBA franchise, that identity would disappear almost instantly.

One staff member stated clearly: “There’s no way to keep five Latinos on an NBA roster — the level isn’t there.”

“That core wouldn’t survive,” said Rubén Calderón, who works both for Capitanes PR and NBA Mexico. “It’s impossible. Fans don’t see it — maybe because they don’t understand how the NBA works — but you can’t have five or six Latin American players on an NBA roster unless they’re truly NBA-level.

“There’s not enough Mexican and Latin American talent to keep an NBA team competitive.”

A fellow Capitanes PR member echoed that sentiment: “People don’t see that. Maybe because they don’t really know the NBA level.”

The human contradiction is as obvious as it is disheartening. Capitanes fans love the team for the most part because it represents them, from cultural traits to the region, starting in the northernmost Baja California and spanning all the way down south to Chile’s Magallanes y la Antártica Chilena Region.

“People from Latin American countries — Brazil, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico — they’re not going to fly to the NBA to watch a random game,” says Capitanes superfan Sinuhe Yepez. “But they’d come here and pack the arena to root for their colleagues and to watch teams that come from the United States.

 “They’d be paying a fifth of the cost in CDMX compared to attending a game in the USA, and they’d get the same experience.”

An NBA franchise built in Mexico City would not represent that at all. The Association tipped off in October with a record 135 international players from 43 different countries across six continents.

The Atlanta Hawks, with 10 international players, led the league on that front. None of them was born south of the United States of America.

Multiple media members, including national reporters Erick Aguirre and Mario Alberto Castro, brought this up immediately.

“There would be a loss of identity,” they said. Both agreed that a roster built on Americans, as any NBA roster has its foundation in, would change the heart of what Capitanes currently are.

“You need a Latin icon,” they argued. “A Jaime Jaquez Jr. or a Juan Toscano Anderson. Ideally, someone like [NBA prospect] Karim López.” Without that, they fear fans would lose their rooting anchor and thus their interest in attending Capitanes games and following the team so closely and passionately as they currently do.

None of the conversations above, however, addresses the largest barrier of all: the humongous financial effort needed to make it to the NBA.

Every person inside the organization who deals with logistics on a weekly basis mentioned the facilities problem currently hurting CDMX’s case for landing an expansion team.

“To have an NBA franchise, you need a place where the entire team — offices, staff, medical, athletes — can spend their time and operate,” Calderón said. “Capitanes don’t have that. They train at the Comité Olímpico Mexicano (around 6.5 miles from Arena CDMX). Offices are split into COM and a separate building in the southern part of the city. Capitanes don’t own the arena, and everything is scattered.”

More worryingly, a few staffers revealed that there is nowhere in the city to build centralized facilities akin to what the NBA would require, or at the very least prefer.

“In the Valle de México area, there is no land left of that size,” Calderón said. “Not with the location needed. Around the arena, there’s nothing — you can find train yards, old neighborhoods, and then the poshest in Polanco. But there’s no open space. 

“To build such facilities, you would need to build a new arena with everything in one place, and that means finding land far away from the current location and the city center — let alone the massive investment and the amount of money that’d take.”

It is a view echoed by people who see the team every day, such as Rodrigo Goyeneche, one of Mexico’s most reputed up-and-coming media voices and a longtime analyst for both Capitanes and fellow CDMX basketball team Diablos Rojos of Mexico’s Liga Nacional de Baloncesto Profesional.

“Being fully honest, right now, we’re not ready for something like that,” Goyeneche said. “Not structurally, not logistically. The arena is huge, but the NBA needs more exclusivity. And here, the arena is privately owned and used for concerts and many other events. It’s not built for hosting a team every other day.”

The “exclusivity” of becoming the freshest member of the NBA family would inevitably bring a larger expense with it. Many supporters attend Capitanes games, and surely all of them adore the NBA Mexico Game, but they don’t attend it because it’s cheap — they attend because it happens just once a year. 

Tickets for this season’s Mavericks vs. Pistons game on Dia de Muertos ranged from 850 pesos (around $46 USD ) to nearly 20,000 (approaching $1,090 USD), sitting courtside. Capitanes’ G League games are affordable, with the cheapest tickets available for 50 pesos (less than $3 USD). For a single event, people save, plan, and spend. But a season of 41 home games at that rate, the equation would change entirely. 

“A lot of fans struggle to get to the arena,” one Capitanes staff member acknowledged. “They only come on weekends. Between weekday and weekend sales, the difference is huge.”

Local fans who save for months to attend a single NBA Mexico game, or who buy Capitanes jerseys knowing the player may leave next month, would suddenly face a season with 41 home games and consistently NBA-level prices. Most of them simply could not afford NBA prices or frequency. Yepez, one of the most passionate and active fans of Capitanes, acknowledged he’s stopped attending so many games already for financial reasons and an increase in prices.

“I need to earn a lot of money to afford attending,” Yepez said. “Back then, I got full-season tickets close to courtise for 7,000 pesos. Now, I need to pay close to 2,500 pesos per game to sit in the same area. I’d probably need to sell an eye and a kidney to afford that.”

Goyeneche also pointed out the competitive reality that many fans often overlook when rooting for their home team, which has to do with the developmental nature of the G League compared to the NBA.

“The goal now isn’t to win a championship,” Goyeneche said. “It’s to develop talent. But people want a champion. They want their stars to stay. And with Capitanes, the roster changes every year. Yet the fans still come. That’s unique, but it has everything to do with the core values of the organization.”

While fans would get more familiar with the team’s faces and supposedly know Arena CDMX like the back of their hands, would they be able to pony up the money needed to root for their squad at the court level three times a week?

That tension is reflected in talking with fans who follow the team closely but acknowledge the financial limits already in place while being part of the lesser, more affordable G League. 

Ivan, a longtime Capitanes and Oklahoma City Thunder fan, envisions the dream clearly but understands the barrier.

“There’s still not a big enough basketball fan base in Mexico for the NBA to give the country its own team,” Ivan said. “Capitanes helped grow the fanbase. More people follow the sport now, but there’s a long way to go.”

For Ivan and many others, travel is another point to consider. Flying from Mexico City to Texas doesn’t pose a big challenge. Flights to Cleveland or Toronto, in Ivan’s eyes and pocket, are long and costly.

From a logistics standpoint, the NBA solved the concern years ago. While it’s been proven that travel isn’t an operational barrier these days, for franchise ownership, staff, and operations, the expenses related to it could become unmanageable quickly.

And that is exactly why NBA discourse has pivoted heavily toward planting a flag in Europe rather than exploring home expansion, let alone looking south of the border.

Although Silver said after September’s Board of Governors meeting that the league was on “parallel tracks” regarding potential expansion involving both national and international moves, things appear to have changed of late.

While there has been resurgent buzz about Las Vegas and Seattle in recent weeks, over the past few months, the league has signaled that its most urgent expansion opportunity is not in Mexico or the U.S., but across the Atlantic. The “NBA Europe” project, tentatively targeted for a 2027-28 proper launch, would include up to 16 teams in cities like London, Paris, Berlin, Rome, Milan, Madrid, Barcelona, Athens, and Istanbul. Then, in late December, both the NBA and FIBA made their “joint exploration” of a new league based in Europe official.

The NBA has already hired JPMorgan Chase and The Raine Group to secure investors. The conversations, according to multiple reports, have involved sovereign wealth funds, private equity firms, and ultra-wealthy family groups. The Middle East has shown particular interest, given that it could finally find a way to circumvent the current rules capping foreign passive ownership at 20 percent in NBA teams.

What Europe offers is simple: enormous capital, established sports corporations arriving from the soccer sphere, existing arenas already owned by world-renowned organizations such as Real Madrid, Barcelona, and Bayern Munich, massive markets with a foothold in the continent’s premier competition — the Euroleague — and global investment appetite to tie their names to the NBA. 

According to the NBA’s Managing Director for Europe and the Middle East, the NBA sees a “$50 billion European sports market” and noted that basketball barely captures “0.5 percent of it.” Not to mention, some NBA owners — most notably Knicks steward James Dolan, according to rumors — are hesitant to dilute U.S. media revenue further unless expansion fees are astronomical, while the European model would offer them a parallel revenue stream with no media dilution at all.

None of these incentives points toward Mexico City landing a team for the time being.

The immediate implications of the European move are unmistakable. If the NBA arrives in Europe by 2028, the move could delay U.S. expansion for years. And if ownership groups with the deepest of pockets push billions into the project, Ciudad de México will inevitably slip further away — not because it lacks passion, but because the NBA’s financial thirst will lie elsewhere.

Even the most optimistic insiders acknowledge the financial gap. NBA Mexico managing director Raúl Zárraga, speaking before the 2024 NBA Mexico Game, praised Capitanes’ success in building a collective Mexican and, by extension, Latin American identity.

“When you are in the arena, you’ll see that the people are rooting not for Mexico City Capitanes, they’re rooting for Mexico’s Capitanes,” Zárraga said. 

He also praised their competitiveness, merchandise leadership, and visibility throughout multiple channels. But even Zárraga, with at least some partial, inside knowledge of the NBA’s operations, offered no timeline for NBA expansion into Mexico.

“There’s no plan in action to look for a potential owner or potential group of people dedicated to get a new team in Mexico or in any other place in Latin America,” Zárraga said. “So there’s nothing new to announce or confirm about Mexico being considered.

“It’s a complicated process. You can imagine the international locations, all the different cities, but there is no doubt that many cities will be participating, including Mexico City.”

In the sharpest corners and deepest streets of Ciudad de México, the people closest to the Capitanes project understand that better than anyone. When asked whether an NBA roster could adapt to living in Mexico full-time, staff members repeatedly said yes — but with caveats. 

Calderón said players would “live in good zones, with a good quality of life,” as they do now as members of the G League squad. That said, he cautioned they’d effectively be forced to live in a bubble, having personal chefs, security, private routes, and minimal city interaction. 

Others mentioned that Capitanes already house players in the Polanco neighborhood, one of the most expensive areas in Latin America, hosting the most expensive street in Mexico, and believe that the model could scale to host a full NBA operation.

Idealistic Capitanes fans, meanwhile, don’t deny the challenges; they simply believe everything will sort itself out. Cultural adaptation? “They will adapt.” Travel? “Distances aren’t worse than some NBA-to-NBA trips.” Roster identity? “Capitanes represents Latin America.” Financial strain? “It’s the NBA — they’ll make it work.” Player discomfort? “They’ll live in Polanco.”

These solutions, however, highlight another gap. For an NBA franchise, such bubbles must be permanent, secure, and supported by a full organizational machine, bringing back to the table one more financial hurdle to clear and invest in.

Even the city’s biggest strengths, like Arena CDMX’s size and ambience, come with their own challenges. Bravo pointed out that weeknight attendance is a problem already in the G League.

Some fans, who attend games clad in bootleg clothes available for purchase at pirate-market prices — snapback hats at 100 pesos or $5 USD, and screen-printed jerseys selling at 150 pesos or barely $9 USD — right outside the stadium, admitted that Capitanes games scheduled on working days noticeably have “less atmosphere.”

Going from barely 20 home games to double that figure if in the NBA is an entirely different sales reality.

A longtime superfan from Europe, but who has lived in CDMX for a few years, put the economic tension bluntly. “Tickets for the annual NBA game can cost 20,000 pesos courtside,” he said. “Capitanes’ games remain accessible, but an NBA season? Only if the NBA puts in money to help the organization. With a single owner here, it’s difficult.”

Across interviews, one underlying thread emerged from insiders, journalists, and staff, in that they all agree about the collective desire to keep Capitanes grounded in what they currently are — not an NBA team, but a gateway to the League. 

A development hub for Latin American talent, a cultural point of pride, a bridge between the NBA and a region that hungers for representation in the biggest stages, and is eager to announce itself to the world. A team whose power comes from being different, not similar.

And ironically, that difference is exactly what would disappear in the jump to the NBA.

The players would be mostly from United States towns and come with American upbringings. The structure of the organization would be more centralized, the roster rules won’t allow Capitanes to rotate the cast of Latin talents, the operations would be much more strict, and the culture and atmosphere risk getting under heavy control and within stiff boundaries.

One fan admitted he fears the NBA would water down the true Mexican spirit that currently exists in the arena for a more Americanized audience, and risk the loss of Spanish chants, the charming presence of team mascot Juanjolote and other sponsor-affiliated wild characters, the cameos of paper-built Alebrijes, and the use of other local traditions, tunes, or Mexican descriptions of what’s going on on the court, from coaches’ challenging plays, to (Silencio! Sshhhhh…) tense moments at the free-throw line.

Asked if expansion could maintain the team’s Latin American identity, a fan named Roberto paused before offering his most honest answer.

“It would hurt a little,” he said. “It’d take away part of the fanbase.”

The drums? Might be muted. The Spanish chants? Curated. The fans who love the chaos and identity that make Capitanes a unique entity in the world of basketball would face a polished entertainment product built for global, if not American, consumption.

The people who work inside the organization know this truth intimately. They also know Mexico City is not ready. Not because it lacks heart, but because it lacks the dollars, acres of land, modern NBA facilities, an owner willing — and capable —to fund a multi-billion-dollar project, and a league that sees Europe as a more strategic and profitable next step.

So while Mexico City is closer to the NBA than ever before in history, the NBA, however, is moving somewhere else in its global strategy.

Capitanes may have already proven that Mexico is a basketball country. They have proven that the fans will come to the games, fill the arena with deafening noise, and build a culture that can sustain the sport. What CDMX cannot prove is that the infrastructure exists to support the most powerful league in the world and the business of the NBA — at least not yet.

Until that gap closes, the vision remains what it has always been: an emotion-fueled dream, just out of reach.

Six and a half minutes remained in the second quarter of a dog fight between the Lakers and a shorthanded Dallas Mavericks team. With a timeout, head coach J.J. Redick calls for a switch in their defense from traditional man coverage to zone, leading to three straight stops and pushing a six-point lead to a more comfortable 13 en route to an eventual blowout win behind a triple-double from LeBron James.

LA heads into the All-Star break ranked 23rd in defense, a position that puts a clear ceiling on any hopeful contender. While it’s not a long-term solution, increased zone implementation has given the team a counter to some of the natural defensive liabilities on the roster while simplifying responsibilities.

​When you are a defense ranked in the bottom seven, you clearly need a shakeup not just with personnel but in schematics or style.

​Since playing the Raptors on January 18, the Lakers increased their zone usage to 17.6%, a number that would lead the league by a mile, as revealed in the graphic shown below during Amazon Prime’s NBA coverage.

The team’s zone is allowing stingy 0.86 points per possession and while that’s not a sustainable level of production on that end of the floor, it reveals the new look defense is having some success.

LA mainly relies on a 2-3 zone defense, featuring two perimeter players and three backside players, moving from man-to-man responsibility to defending an area of the floor.

Watch below as the Lakers settle into their 2-3 zone against the Mavs following a timeout. LA, who struggles with dribble penetration, forces the offense to keep moving the ball across the perimeter while shutting off driving lanes and eating up the clock.

It’s a protection against getting beat off the dribble, which happens frequently as the Lakers play a host of slow perimeter players, and it provides certainty about where defensive help comes from. Jaxson Hayes operates from the middle here but shifts across the floor in sync with his team.

“I feel like it gives all of us a better vision of the offense,” Hayes said postgame. “We are all a little back some more, so we all can see and communicate a little better. We’re not just hugged up on our mans. The paint is a little more crowded, so it’s harder for teams that struggle with shooting to score on it.”

The Lakers give up the highest field goal percentage at the rim at 72.4%. One way to alleviate some of the damage is to prevent teams from getting there in the first place.

The Raptors, who came in with the fourth-highest percentage of points in the paint, were held in check and flummoxed by the Lakers’ zone defense.

One of the points of the zone is to force the offense into multiple passes, creating more opportunities for indecision and mistakes. It can be especially useful for two big lineups that otherwise lack foot speed, helping them stay in front of defenders.

Watch below as Redick uses it against the Raptors with a Drew Timme and Deandre Ayton frontline, leveraging their size alongside LeBron James and Jared Vanderbilt.

Once again, as the ball swings on the perimeter, all five guys on the floor shift into their correct positions. The Lakers close out the driving lanes, fly around, and force a tough, contested step back three from Gradey Dick.

“We’ve ran it a few times a game recently,” Redick said after the Toronto win.  “Sometimes it’s hard, both as a coach and as a player, when you run it, and it’s a good possession of defense, and the other team hits an off-the-dribble three, which has happened this week. One game it happened three times and it can kind of deflate you.

“But we think it could be a weapon for us tonight, we talked pregame about something that I certainly wanted to do and we wanted to do as a staff and the players were bought into it.”

A zone, no doubt, has loud weaknesses, and there’s a reason teams go to it in spurts as a change of pace. Zone busters, or high-volume 3-point shooters, also exist across the league, waiting for the open shot opportunities they create for offenses. In addition, teams running zone can give up more offensive rebounds as box out responsibilities become disoriented.

The first hurdle to get over in a defensive scheme is buy-in from the players, something Redick seems to have in this group.

“Yeah, that thing got us going,” Ayton said of the zone. “I think really just talking and communicating, getting the blood flowing, knowing who got your back out there and the coaches seeing what works here. Just seeing different coverages thrown at the team and seeing what they could throw back at us.”

This defense has provided an unexpected jolt for the Lakers and even if it has flaws, it might be enough to keep them going for the rest of the season, especially if health allows their high-powered offense to find a similar groove.

You can follow Raj on Twitter at @RajChipalu

It is NBA gospel to believe that Larry Bird and Magic Johnson, shining stars as they were in the East (and West), enabled the league to rise into the firmament, to become the Goliath it has since become.

Upon their arrival in 1979, they polished pro basketball’s profile, burying its sordid, drug-addled past and paving the way for the Michael Jordans and the Kobe Bryants and the LeBron Jameses.

And verily, David Stern and Adam Silver have said, it is good.

Julius Erving, forever the epitome of decorum and decency, is an unlikely blasphemer. And yet, Dr. J said this entire idea is “bullshit” in the 2025 book “Magic in the Air,” by Inquirer columnist Mike Sielski.

Erving believes that the NBA’s ascension can be traced not to the Bird-Magic bump but rather the league’s merger with the ABA in 1976 – that the resulting infusion of talent and flair led to a quantum leap.

The Good Doctor acknowledged in Sielski’s book that Magic and Bird brought “a great rivalry” from college to Los Angeles and Boston, respectively, where it became white hot. It was, Erving said, “a good story.”

“But truth be told,” he told the author, “I think in terms of the popularity of the league, the league was never more popular than it was after the ABA joined the league. Eleven All-Stars in that first All-Star game were from the ABA. That’s what saved the league.”

Both things can be true, of course. Erving and the ABAers brought talent, style and panache to a league sorely in need of all three. But in migrating to the two most storied franchises, Bird and Magic gave the NBA sizzle beyond measure. And that obscured all else … at least until MJ came along in 1984.

Recent media offerings have brought the ABA’s role in the NBA’s resurrection to the fore, none better than Luke Epplin’s new book “Moses and the Doctor: Two Men, One Championship and the Birth of Modern Basketball.” With a painstaking eye for detail and a novelist’s knack for narrative, Epplin – who in fact once dreamed of becoming a novelist – underscores the impact not only of Dr. J but another ABA alum of note, Moses Malone. And it is artfully framed around the Sixers’ 1982-83 championship run.

“My biggest thing is character,” Epplin, 47, said before a book signing last Tuesday, the day “Moses and the Doctor” was released.

That’s befitting of a man who had trained to be a novelist at Washington University in St. Louis, and who continued to write fiction into his 30s. Then he came to a realization.

“I sucked,” he told those who gathered at the signing, at a bookstore near Rittenhouse Square.

But, he added, “I use the techniques I developed as a failed novelist to write these kinds of stories.”

He did that in his 2021 book “Our Team,” about the Cleveland Indians of the late 1940s, and he does it here. In the process he echoes, at least to a degree, not only Sielski’s book, but also one authored in 2025 by Paul Knepper entitled “Moses Malone: The Life of a Basketball Prophet,” as well as an Amazon Prime documentary released last week called “Soul Power: The Legend of the American Basketball Association.“

And really, what better characters are there than Doc and Moses? What better story is there than theirs? Erving was soaring and elegant, Moses down and dirty. They were perfect complements to one another, a veritable yin and yang.

While apart, their successes were considerable. Dr. J won two championships as a New York Net while keeping the ABA afloat, and Moses established himself as one of the greatest rebounders in history after becoming the first player to make the prep-to-pro jump. Epplin nonetheless argues that their tales were pockmarked with failure.

Malone broke in with the Utah Stars as a 19-year-old in October 1974, then bounced from team to team. Indeed, one of pro basketball’s great what-ifs is how things might have turned out if the Portland Trail Blazers, his first NBA landing spot, had held onto him, given the subsequent injuries suffered by Bill Walton. As it was, Malone never appeared in a regular-season game for the Blazers, who traded him to Buffalo, leading to another what-if: The Braves (now the Los Angeles Clippers) had Bob McAdoo! And Ernie DiGregorio! And Adrian Dantley! And the eternally underrated Randy Smith!

Moses played exactly two games in Buffalo before he was shipped out to Houston, where he blossomed. Even led the undermanned Rockets to the 1981 Finals, at which point he argued that he and four guys from his native Petersburg, Va., could take down Bird and the mighty Celtics. We’ll never know, but certainly the Rockets couldn’t; they lost in six games.

Meantime Erving, acquired by the Sixers from the cash-strapped Nets in the fall of ‘76, was experiencing his own frustrations. As part of a talented but dysfunctional ‘76-77 Philadelphia club, he lost in the Finals to Walton’s Blazers. Then Doc fell short against Magic’s Lakers in the ‘80 and ‘82 Finals as well.

By that point Dr. J was a beloved figure – the sport’s foremost ambassador, a high-profile pitchman and the perfect teammate. Bobby Jones, with whom Epplin spoke for his book, once told me for one of mine that unlike other superstars, Erving was “an encourager.”

“He wasn’t arrogant,” Bobby said. “He didn’t consider himself better than anybody. He worked as hard as anybody, if not harder. Didn’t put anybody down for the mistakes that they made. That’s easy to do at that level, when the game’s on the line or something’s on the line. He knows he can do it, but you’re in a position where you have to do it, and you don’t, it takes strength of character to say, ‘We’re in this together. We win together, we lose together.’ I think that was probably, to me, his greatest quality.”

That is as great a testimonial as any teammate could offer another, but that’s Bobby. And that was Julius. Which is why everyone – and I mean everyone – wanted to see him win an NBA championship.

It’s also why he was beginning to wonder if he ever would. He cried in the Los Angeles Forum’s visiting locker room after the Sixers were eliminated by the Lakers in six games in the ‘82 Finals.

To revisit the Biblical theme: Julius wept.

When Epplin learned of this, it immediately struck a chord. 

“I thought, there’s the break right there: Why is Julius Erving crying?” he told last week’s gathering.

The answer is simple: Dr. J would not be fulfilled without a title. His tale would be incomplete.

Then Moses came to Philly via trade, bringing with him the means of completion and redemption. No longer would the Sixers be bullied inside. No longer would they have to live with inconsistency at center, as had been the case with the eternally entertaining and eternally frustrating Darryl Dawkins. (Caldwell Jones had been around, too. But he was more a complementary piece than the dominating force Moses was, and was ultimately jettisoned in the Malone trade.)

The following spring, back in the Forum, the Sixers finished off a sweep of a Lakers team that by the end was without McAdoo, James Worthy and Norm Nixon due to injury – i.e., two Hall of Famers and a terrific guard.

No matter, though – the Sixers were the best team all year, storming to 65 victories and then nearly fulfilling Moses’ fo’, fo’, fo’ playoff prophecy. (And consider how Moses, famously averse to media interactions, uttered two of the greatest quotes in NBA history – this one, and the one about the dudes from Petersburg.)

It is a testimony to Malone (who died in 2015) and Erving that they were able to meld their talents, that they knew they needed each other at that point in their careers. And it is testimony to Epplin that he was able to deftly navigate this most fascinating period in the history of the Sixers, and the league. That he was able to retell a tale that needs to be retold, for the sake of context. It is inarguable that Bird and Magic brought a great deal to the table, but Moses and Dr. J are among those deserving of a seat, too. In this book, each is given one.

Derrick White is testing the validity of the old NBA adage that it is a “make or miss league.”

Despite enduring a career-worst scoring efficiency season, he is still grading out as one of the league’s most impactful players. This should not be possible. Even in the analytics era, we should still be able to cling to the concept that putting the orange ball in the basket is the key indicator of how good a player and a team is.

However, both Derrick White and the 2025-2026 Boston Celtics are, so far, successfully bending the reality of that widely accepted truth. 

Efficient scoring is typically a staple of the Derrick White Experience. Each of the past three seasons, White has posted a true shooting percentage of 60%, ranking him 24th among guards from the 2022-2023 season to the 2024-2025 season. This season, efficient scoring has elluded him. D White is in the midst of a 52% true shooting season, which would have placed him at 156th among guards over the same three season stretch. 52% is an abhorrent number. But it has not mattered when it comes to impacting winning.

There is no perfect “catch all” metric, however a widely accepted one is Estimated Plus Minus (EPM) that Dunks and Threes created. Again, not perfect, but it typically spits out the best guys at the top of the league each year without many outliers. For example, last season’s top-10 players were: Shai Gilgeous Alexander, Nikola Jokic, Luka Doncic, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Victor Wembanyama, Steph Curry, Donovan Mitchell, Jayson Tatum, Tyrese Haliburton. This season, despite his ice-cold shot-making, Derrick White ranks 11th in EPM. So how is D White doing it? The answer is simple: he’s doing everything else at an extremely high level. Shot blocking, playmaking, rebounding, and of course, making Derrick White plays. 

Let’s quickly zoom in on just how impactful Derrick White has been for the Celtics this season. When White is on the court, the Celtics have a  +11 net rating. This would rank them second in the NBA, slightly behind OKC, who currently have an +11.5 net rating. When Derrick White is off the court, the Celtics have a +1.7 net rating. This would rank the team at 14th in the NBA. That is a monstrous on/off swing of 9.3 points per 100 possessions. For context, let’s compare that on/off swing to the elite of the elite: 

• Nikola Jokic – 15.2
• Shai Gilgeous Alexander – 9.9 
• Cade Cunningham – 7.3
• Luka Doncic – 6.6
• Kevin Durant – 4.6 
• Anthony Edwards – 0.3 

Derrick White is putting up superstar numbers. More accurately, he’s putting up superstar NBA nerd numbers. 

Derrick White agrees. On the most recent episode of Derrick’s podcast “White Noise”, his co-host, Alex Welsh, shared a message that White sent to their group chat. 

“I don’t have All Star numbers, just All-Star impact.”

Derrick White is correct. He impacts the game at not just an All-Star level, but an All-NBA level. Sadly, White’s cold shooting likely cost him his first All-Star appearance. 

Now that we have established the level at which Derrick White impacts winning, let’s examine how he’s doing it. It starts on the defensive end, and it starts with White being the best shot-blocking guard since Dwyane Wade. White is currently averaging 1.4 blocks per game. There are three guards in the history of the sport who have averaged at least 1.4 blocks per game: Michael Jordan (twice), Tracy McGrady, and Derrick White. Even Dwyane Wade reached only 1.3 blocks per game in 2008. And if we’re being honest, T-Mac is six-foot-eight, hardly a guard. In a vacuum, Derrick White providing center-like rim protection is mind-boggling.

Now, when you put it in the context of the 2025-2026 Boston Celtics, you start to understand why advanced analytics are head over heels for Derrick White. While Neemias Queta is doing a wonderful job protecting the rim this season, as soon as he goes to the bench, the Celtics do not have a traditional rim protector. Luka Garza has been a revelation for the Celtics, but he would never be mistaken for a rim protector. Neither would the recently acquired Nikola Vučević.

There have also been large stretches of the season when Joe Mazzulla has opted for no big men on the court. Enter Derrick White. Opposing offensive players are shooting 5.1% fewer shots at the rim when Derrick White is on the court. That puts White in the 97th percentile. That number indicates that players are deterred from going to the rim when Derrick White is out there. Not quite in a Victor Wembanyama way, but in a Derrick White way. When opponents actually challenge Derrick White at the rim, they are shooting 10.4% worse than they typically would. For context, Rudy Gobert is currently forcing opponents to shoot 10.1% worse at the rim. There is no need for a traditional rim protector when you have Derrick White. White has been comfortably the best guard defender in the league this season and has a case for the most valuable defender as well. 

However, the individual scoring efficiency has not been there for Derrick White this season, but he is still helping drive an elite offense. One of the tenets of the 2025-2026 Boston Celtics is taking care of the basketball. Derrick White ranks in the 90th percentile in turnover percentage (while having a career high in usage). Not only does White do an excellent job of not turning the ball over, he also excels at generating assists. Derrick is generating 14.2 potential assists per 100 possessions, which places him in the 95th percentile. It feels as if there are infinite ways D White pushes things forward on offense for the Celtics. The team plays faster with Derrick on the court; their two-point field goal percentage is higher, and they generate more shots at the rim. Derrick White is the skeleton key that unlocks every lineup he finds himself in.  

If a player is going to get traded, they should try to get traded to Derrick White’s team. He will make them feel right at home. Welcome to TD Garden, Vuc.

The last piece of Derrick White’s game that rounds out his superstar impact, is the Derrick White plays. These plays are unquantifiable. Know in your heart that these plays are the final infinity stone in Derrick White’s infinity gauntlet. 

A superhero analogy is the only analogy applicable because the only explanation for Derrick being able to steal this ball is that he’s actually Spider-Man. 

Derrick White is a microcosm of the 2025-2026 Boston Celtics. The Celtics have a true shooting percentage of 57.9% this season. That puts them smack bang in the middle of the league at 15th. Meanwhile the Celtics rank second in offensive efficiency. Joe Mazzulla, Jaylen Brown, Derrick White, and Co. are figuring out how to be an elite basketball team without being an elite shot-making team. Don’t turn the ball over, protect the rim, make the right play, crash the glass, and be willing to die on the court every night. 

For what it is worth, Jayson Tatum has yet to make any announcement about his return to the court this season. He has not ruled out the possibility that he could miss the entire season. That makes sense because any number of setbacks could move his timeline back in an abundance of caution.

However, all outward signs seem to indicate that he’s gearing up for a return in the near future. Some recent news indicates that NBC will be airing a documentary on his comeback journey. In addition, many have speculated about the league’s decision to move the March 1st game against Philadelphia into primetime on NBC. Of course there are other, non-Tatum reasons to flex the schedule, and it doesn’t mean it will be his debut.

So I thought I’d throw this topic out. Keeping in mind that he has said in the past that he wants to return in a home game, when do you think he’ll return?

Here’s a quick look at the schedule coming up:

• Feb 19 – 25: One long road trip out West, with games against the Warriors, Lakers, Suns, and Nuggets
• Feb 27: Home against Brooklyn
• Mar 1: Home against Philadelphia
• Mar 2: Away at Milwaukee
• Mar 4: Home against Charlotte
• Mar 6: Home against Dallas
• Mar 8 – 12: Road trip to Cleveland, San Antonio, and OKC

So let us know in the comments, when do you think he’ll return?

The 2026 NBA All-Star Weekend gave us a lot to chew on. There was Kevin Durant’s alleged burner scandal, an absolutely terrible dunk contest, and a pretty good All-Star Game featuring a Kawhi Leonard takeover and Victor Wembanyama raising the competitive stakes. No one talked about tanking for a few days, and that’s really all the league can ask for.

There’s always some viral moments when the best players in the world gather together for the weekend, especially with the way cameras and microphones are constantly rolling these days. After Sunday’s All-Star Game, Anthony Edwards covered his mouth to make an off-handed comment to Atlanta Hawks star Jalen Johnson. It sure sounded like Edwards, an Atlanta native said “I can’t wait to come home,” and added “y’all got so many wings, and (Jonathan) Kuminga nice, too” I remember interviewing Edwards from his Atlanta high school in 2019 when he could only dream about being America’s biggest NBA star. Now that it’s actually happened, maybe he’s dreaming about returning to his hometown.

Watch the clip here and judge for yourself.

The Hawks acquired Kuminga from the Golden State Warriors at the trade deadline. Atlanta entered the All-Star break at 26-30 in 10th place in the Eastern Conference after trading away Trae Young earlier this season.

Is it panic time for the Wolves? Not yet. Edwards is under contract through the 2028-2029 season. Minnesota has gone to back-to-back Western Conference Finals since drafting Edwards with the No. 1 overall pick in 2020, and they have four more playoff runs with him under contract before he can test free agency.

The NBA hasn’t had a superstar change teams in free agency since Kawhi Leonard did it in 2019. New York and Los Angeles are usually the markets elite players want to end up in, so it’s interesting to hear Edwards speculate about going home to Atlanta. Life is always easier in the Eastern Conference, so maybe that’s part of the appeal.

It’s possible that Edwards is just talking about going home to Minnesota after the All-Star Game here. Maybe he’s talking about chicken wings, not small forwards. If that’s the case, why did he cover his mouth?

Ultimately, Wolves fans have nothing to worry about for now, and Hawks fans can’t get too excited. Edwards is under contract, he plays for a really good team, and he won’t have the opportunity to test free agency for a long time. It’s just another viral moment from this All-Star Weekend.

Not four years ago, the Bucks had an elite on-court product, massively spurred by stability and synergy from ownership on down. Now, despite the recent good form, the team is overall in a much worse spot, and while some of the reasons for that have been beyond the Bucks’ control, many have been within their control. Over the last three or so years, this franchise has made avoidable error after avoidable error, largely culminating in the current product.

What I noticed while investigating these errors is that many share a common theme: a lack of synergy between the franchise’s different arms and, in some cases, power brokers. More specifically, there was either a lack of conviction by the arm with decision-making responsibility to go with its gut, or an arm without that responsibility overruled the arm with it, resulting in a bad decision. Therefore, I decided to dive deep into three examples of this phenomenon in the following areas: coaching hires, injury management, and possibly even the drafting process. Let’s begin with coaching hires.  

A heck of a mess: The post-Budenholzer hiring debacle

The Budenholzer-to-Griffin-to-Rivers fiasco was easily the most consequential example of how a lack of organisational synergy left the Bucks in a hot mess. Whatever you may think in hindsight, it was widely accepted in 2023 that coach Bud’s time had come, and a new voice was needed. The initial search was far-reaching, but in the end, the Bucks’ brain trust settled on three finalists: Nick Nurse, Kenny Atkinson, and Adrian Griffin.

Of course, they went with Adrian Griffin, who would go on to be about as incompetent as one can be in the top job, getting fired halfway through the first year of his three-year contract (yes, I know, 30-13 record; that was not because of anything he did, and I’ll stand on that forever). When you think about it, the only logical explanation as to why they didn’t just wait to fire Griff at the end of the year—when the replacement options would be plentiful—was that he was creating so much tension that it simply could not wait, which is bonkers.

So, who gets the blame for Griffin’s hiring? Marc Stein’s reporting states that Horst wanted Nurse, but Giannis wanted Griffin, and that won out. Now, you might think that’s your answer right there: Antetokounmpo is to blame. Sure, Giannis definitely deserves some blame; knowing his opinion carries such considerable weight, he probably should’ve done more homework. But overall, you’ll seldom hear me criticise a player for doing anything other than their play. My knee-jerk reaction is to blame Horst for not trusting himself, because his instincts about Nurse being the man for the job were probably right.

Then again, in the front office’s defence, the context of the 2023 offseason was clearly very relevant to Horst’s decision-making. The Bucks had just gotten bounced in the first round, and rumors were swirling about Antetokounmpo’s future (almost as much as they were in 2020) because he was extension-eligible. Therefore, it was understandable for the Bucks’ brain trust to both involve Giannis in the process and weigh his opinion so heavily that his preference overrode the GM’s.

Looking back, this leaves you in a pickle when evaluating if there was a “right move” or not. On the one hand, the Griffin era was an abject failure from a team standpoint, and it also led to utter chaos following his ouster. Injuries or not, the team was never going to be a contender under AG (or his replacement), which we sometimes forget is the entire goal behind all of this. On the other hand, assuming the initial coaching hire influenced Antetokounmpo’s decision to sign the extension (which, to be fair, we don’t actually know for certain), the Griffin hire was objectively a successful move!

But let’s move on from that and briefly discuss the Doc Rivers hire in more detail. There were a few options on the table. Nick Nurse had taken the head job in Philly, so he was out, but Kenny Atkinson was still available. Kevin O’Connor’s reporting states that Horst wanted Atkinson but was overruled by the ownership group, who wanted Doc Rivers. So once again, the lack of synergy reared its ugly head. The front office wanted one guy, whom they had already vetted extensively, but were overruled by the ownership group.

Which leads us to where we’re at now. The Rivers hire has gone about as expected. Had Giannis signed the extension under Nurse or Atkinson, the franchise at large would likely be in a much better position right now. However, the reality is that we don’t know if he would have signed under another coach, as crazy as that sounds in hindsight, making Horst’s decision to hire Griffin easily defensible. Who to blame for the Doc hire, though, seems pretty unambiguous. Giannis was not a factor, and Horst had a strong candidate ready to go; unfortunately, ownership decided they wanted to run point on that one, completely bungling it.

Playing with fire: Questions around the injury management of Giannis

I can apply this framework to the situation that has played out with Giannis’ continued calf injuries. In his recent interview with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Antetokounmpo admitted he returned too early from his initial calf injury this season, which we can only assume led to his reinjury about a month ago (at least in part). My question is: knowing what we know about calf injuries, how was there any world in which he returned in anything other than tip-top condition the first time around?

Look, I’ll guess that the 65-game rule for award eligibility had something to do with it from Giannis’ end. Not that it matters, but my personal response to that is blunt: I don’t care. He needs to know that his health is more important than some award (p.s., this is why the 65-game rule is stupid, but I digress). But then there’s the more pressing questions surrounding the game in which he reinjured that calf, the main one being: why was he allowed to continue playing when it was clear he wasn’t right? The broadcast kept pointing it out; those watching could see it. Heck, Doc even admitted it himself!

“I thought he was favoring it for most of the second half. I asked our [medical staff] five different times. I didn’t like what my eyes were seeing, personally. Giannis was defiant about staying in. On that one play, seeing him try to run down the floor, to me, I’d had enough. I didn’t ask, I just took him out.“

And yet and still, Rivers didn’t take him out until right at the end when he couldn’t move? Oh, how noble of him. Doc referred to notifying the medical staff “five different times,” and they also didn’t demand he come out? Huh? Going back through some of Antetokounmpo’s postgame quotes from that night made me incredibly frustrated.

“I don’t like to quit. I couldn’t explode, jog, get on my toes, so I was jogging on my heels. I didn’t have the same explosiveness, but I still felt like I could help. But then at the end, when it popped, I had to get out.”

“I was feeling it [for] a majority of the game, but I did not want to stop playing. But at the end, I could not move, so I had to stop.”

It is baffling to me that he wasn’t taken out the second he felt discomfort (in a random game in a lost season, no less). The man fully admitted he wasn’t feeling right for a majority of the game, was changing his running biomechanics because of it, and people did nothing because they presumably didn’t want to be the “bad guy” and save him from himself. That is crazy to me. What makes Antetokounmpo so great is that he’ll do anything to win, including playing through pain—it’s the Bucks’ duty of care to stand in his way. And judging from these quotes, how could there be any other conclusion than that they failed in that duty of care?

Sliding doors moment: Was Milwaukee about to select Kyshawn George before Jon Horst stepped in?

Something in the media surfaced recently that made me question how the Bucks’ drafting process works and whether that department is another lacking trust and synergy. And I want to be clear upfront that I am putting on my tinfoil hat and 100% speculating here, which I don’t love to do, but honestly, I just had to put this in writing. My question is: how trusted are the scouts, who work exclusively on the draft, to make selections on draft night?

What prompted this thought for me? Well, I listen to the Old Man And The Three podcast. Recently, they recorded an episode with some of the Washington Wizards’ young core: Kyshawn George, Alex Sarr, and Bilal Coulibaly. On the podcast, each player discussed their pre-draft process and the teams they worked out with and/or had interest from. George (14:45–15:03) singled out just one team, Milwaukee, as the franchise he believed was likely to select him:

“To be honest, I had a couple teams that I had really, really, really good feedback [with], and it was kind of my floor, and they didn’t pick me”

“Which team?”

“The team was Milwaukee, actually. I had an individual workout with them; that went pretty well. Had pretty good feedback from them. And then after [they didn’t pick me], I was like, ‘oh, I guess we’re going to have to see.’”

Whether you, like many online, read that as a “promise” from the Bucks or not, it’s clear that, at minimum, there was significant interest. Of course, Milwaukee would select AJ Johnson instead, and Washington would snap up Kyshawn George with the very next pick. Now, hearing that reminded me that the Bucks themselves made an all-access video of their 2024 draft. I rewatched this video out of curiosity and found quite an interesting nugget (2:08–2:17) relating to their picking Johnson, and that was the wording Jon Horst used to announce it:

“With what we see on the board, we’re going to go for a big swing here. We’re going to change the board a little bit. We’re going to take AJ Johnson.”

Again, I have no way of confirming this, but it seems relatively clear that Horst made an executive decision to override the draft board and, by his own admission, “swing.” Recall that AJ Johnson was not seen as a first-round pick by the NBA at large, evidenced by his not receiving a green room invite (unlike Kyshawn George). Would he really have been rated as a first-round guy by the Bucks? Regardless, the pick missed by a country mile and, in hindsight, the Bucks were lucky to get off AJ when he still had “intrigue.”

Granted, teams miss in the 20s all the time, but this one hurt a little extra because we know from George’s own admission that he was nearly a Buck. Ironically, this situation is eerily similar to the 2022 draft, when, per the Zach Lowe Show (51:05–52:05), the Bucks worked out Andrew Nembhard twice and also loved him, only to use their pick on MarJon Beauchamp. To put it bluntly, Milwaukee identified two studs late in the first round who’d each go ~20 spots higher in a redraft, were reportedly at the 10-yard line with both, only to pass on them for two busts who’d go ~20 spots lower in a redraft. Sliding doors, man. Sliding doors.

And sure, this isn’t really the same as the other separation-of-powers arguments I’ve made, as Jon Horst does play a key role in scouting and drafting; these aren’t “separate arms” getting in each other’s way. It also could very well be a one-off situation. But it’s fair to say that scouts, unlike Horst, are singularly focused on the draft year-round, and thus their opinions should hold a lot of weight in this specific area. If Horst indeed overrode the draft board to take a consensus second-round prospect at 23, he’d better have been confident that the prospect would turn out good (or even average!), which they did not. Not even close.

Well, there you have it. I think it’s more than fair to say a lack of synergy and trust from top to bottom in the Bucks organisation has played a key role in their demise. It’s clear that as the franchise approaches another major inflection point in the offseason, that can no longer continue. At the same time, it’s not all bad. The Bucks have made a bunch of shrewd moves around the edges that help to make up for these mistakes. Unearthing Ryan Rollins and AJ Green has, in many ways, saved them. Ousmane Dieng’s first few games have been beyond exciting. Kevin Porter Jr. and Cam Thomas are both flawed but awfully talented. There’s a lot to be excited about, but no franchise runs well when different factions are on different wavelengths.

Guard reinforcements are on the way for the Sixers.

The team is bringing back Cameron Payne for the rest of the season, a source confirms to Liberty Ballers. TeleSport was the first to report the signing. Payne had been playing in Serbia for Partizan Belgrade, reportedly agreeing to a buyout to return to the NBA.

After the dust settles from all the post-trade deadline roster moves, the Sixers will have two standard roster spots open — both currently occupied by players on 10-day deals in Charles Bassey and Patrick Baldwin. It appears Payne will slide into one of those spots. There’s no clear indication if the other spot will be used to convert two-way player Jabari Walker to a standard deal or further explore the buyout market.

Payne came to the Sixers at the 2024 trade deadline (along with a second-round pick) in the deal that sent Patrick Beverley to the Milwaukee Bucks. In hindsight, that move was an absolute steal as Payne provided much-needed offensive juice while Beverley saw an unceremonious end to this NBA career.

The 31-year-old Payne spent last season with the New York Knicks. This past offseason, the Knicks sought to upgrade that role with veteran Jordan Clarkson and former Sixer Landry Shamet. Payne was in camp with the Indiana Pacers ahead of the 2025-26 season, but was waived and then took his talents overseas.

The Sixers traded Jared McCain to the Oklahoma City Thunder for draft capital and also moved veteran Eric Gordon to the Memphis Grizzlies in a salary dump. The team went from a glut of guards to lacking depth as we saw last week when Quentin Grimes missed a pair of games because of illness.

Payne won’t solve all the Sixers’ problems, but he’ll add shooting and can competently run an NBA offense. He’s likely a better guard option than most of the players who were recently bought out. With Tyrese Maxey leading the NBA in minutes and VJ Edgecombe leading rookies in minutes, the team needed a better option than soon-to-be 40-year-old Kyle Lowry. They appear to have one in Payne.

Mikel Brown Jr. had become somewhat of a polarizing NBA Draft prospect throughout the 2025-26 college basketball season. Regarded as an elite shooter prior to his arrival at Louisville, Brown Jr. had been anything but that. Prior to last week, Brown Jr. was hovering at around 30% from three point range, while shooting under 40% from the field. Then in three games, Mikel did this.

Of course, this is a very small sample size and should be weighted accordingly. But as the people around the Louisville program will tell you, this is who Mikel Brown Jr. is. As coach Pat Kelsey said postgame after Louisville’s 82-71 win over Baylor in Fort Worth, “the back of his bubblegum card says he’s a phenomenal shooter. The law of averages starts to work out and the ball starts going in.”

On the court Saturday, it was very clear early on that Mikel Brown Jr. was the best player on the floor. It wasn’t just the offense either, as this steal on Cam Carr in transition was really well done. 

Brown Jr. had several great moments defensively. As The Athletic’s Sam Vecenie pointed out, this was one of the best games Brown Jr. played on the defensive end this entire year. He was able to body up and guard one on one against a few really good Baylor athletes, including Carr and Tounde Yessofou. His five steals were a season high, and it really highlights just how active and engaged Brown Jr. was from the jump. 

The thing that stood out to me, watching Brown Jr. in person for the first time, was just how fluid and smooth he was on the offensive end. His jumper is just remarkably pretty. The percentages are what they are, but if you watch Mikel play basketball you will have no questions with the shot. He’s also really smart with what he can do while driving the basketball. On the very first possession of the game, Brown Jr. drove the lane and looked to pass. However, he committed a turnover because he didn’t get deep enough in his drive, throwing the spacing off. Then when you turn around late in the game, he’s doing this to help stretch the lead.

The score was nice, but then he’s able to manipulate the defense with his eyes, throwing a sweet no look pass out to the corner for an open three.

It all totaled up to a 29-point showing, meaning he averaged a very tidy 37 points per game this week after a 45-point eruption on Monday. I was able to ask Pat Kelsey about Mikel Brown Jr., specifically with his approach to the game. The answer showed a team and a coach that deeply respects their true freshman guard who has quickly become their leader. Kelsey noted how Brown Jr. was really good at staying in his process throughout his struggles, even while recognizing that there was a level of frustration that he was feeling on himself. That’s the joy of shooters though, as you’ve sometimes just got to shoot your way out of it. 

Kelsey continued

[Brown Jr.]’s been the quarterback on the floor. He’s being so much more vocal. I mean [J’Vonne Hadley] said it, I love the ownership that he’s taking on the floor. He’s the young guy, compared to some of these guys that are five or six years older than him in some instances, but he’s speaking up. He’s the primary voice in that huddle many times. Over the last three or four games, there’s been several instances where before I could call the next set, he would come over to me and tell me ‘here’s what we’re going to run,’ and I’d say absolutely. I love that when the point guard takes the ball, what time was the game today, three, and gives the ball back to you safe and sound at five. [He’s] got input, and even if it’s a set I don’t want to run, if he says it, we’re running it. Because I want the rest of the guys to know that that’s the quarterback on the floor. I’m proud of him, he’s growing in so many ways. A great teammate, phenomenal kid, just really proud of his growth.

Full response here.

When you get a coach who talks glowingly about a true freshman point guard, you sit up and start to get excited about what that player can develop into. This class has several of those, with Kingston Flemings and Keaton Wagler right there with Mikel Brown Jr.. For the Mavericks, who are in desperate need of a point guard to be Cooper Flagg’s running mate for the next decade, those words should be music to your ears. It could very well end up being an ice cream draft, where it all depends on what your favorite flavor is. But for my money, there might not be a better fit out there for the Dallas Mavericks than Mikel Brown Jr..

Basketball Hall of Famer Tracy McGrady flashed a look of disdain when recalling last year’s NBA All-Star Game.

“The All-Star Game that we witnessed last year was not an All-Star game,” McGrady told the Guardian. “I don’t know what that was.”

Prior to Sunday night’s contest, the All-Star Game had experienced years of disarray. In an attempt to make the game more competitive, the league replaced the classic East v West matchup and tinkered with multiple formats, including a playground-style selection process with team captains (Team LeBron v Team Stephen); and last year’s four-team tournament that featured a squad of Rising Stars who weren’t yet close to being actual All-Stars.

The results led to glorified shoot-arounds as players gave minimum effort on both sides of the court, eschewing defense while attempting a multitude of uncontested three-point shots and dunks.

Related: From the foul line to the fault line: Deni Avdija, Israel and the collapse of online nuance

In the latest move to increase competition, the NBA sought to entice players with something bigger to play for – global respect. Hence, this year’s “USA v World” format, which featured a three-team tournament between the up-and-coming Team USA Stars, the veterans of Team USA Stripes, and international players of Team World. The round-robin format included four 12-minute games and an overtime with a target score of five.

American-born players once held an imperialistic grip on basketball, particularly during the Dream Team era – Team USA defeated opponents by an average score of 43.8 points at the 1992 Olympics. But the gap between US and international players is closing each year. During the 2024 Paris Olympics, Team USA needed herculean efforts by LeBron James and Steph Curry to hold off France in the final minutes of the gold-medal game. And in the NBA, international players have won every MVP award since 2018, with James Harden the last American-born player to capture the league’s most coveted individual prize.

“The conversation that the international players caught up to us, the American players hear that,” McGrady said prior to Sunday’s tip-off. “It’s not the platform. It’s not the format. It’s the players that change that. So I think mixing it up like this, the world’s going to set the tone, and we’re going to see competitive basketball.” ​

Kevin Durant struck a more conciliatory tone on Saturday. He said that some All-Star games were just as lethargic decades ago.

“I just feel like fans and the media need something to complain about,” Durant said. “I don’t think it’s that big of a deal, to be honest … The last couple of weeks, I’ve watched the intro and at least the first quarter of every All-Star Game from, like, the 70s up until the late 90s. I wanted to see what the big deal was and if it was really that much intensity, like an [NBA finals] Game 7. The intensity the older generation has been talking about, I don’t know if I’ve seen it.”

During last year’s game, Victor Wembanyama appeared upset after his teammate Alperen Sengun allowed Jayson Tatum to throw down an uncontested game-winning dunk. Before this year’s game, the Frenchman said that the USA v World format should encourage the All-Stars to play for pride.

“We’ve seen that many of the best players have been increasingly foreign players,” Wembanyama said. “There is some pride on that side. I guess there is pride on the American side, which is normal. So I think anything that gets you closer to representing your country brings up pride.”

On Sunday, Wembanyama set the tone early by scoring the first seven points for Team World and finishing with a combined stat line of 33 points, eight rebounds, and three blocks in two games.​ His show of effort inspired other players to pick up the intensity, most notably, the 2026 NBA All-Star Game MVP, Anthony Edwards.

“Wemby set the tone, and it woke me up for sure,” Edwards said after Sunday’s games. “It was definitely competitive with all three teams. I feel like the old heads [Team Stripes] played hard too. They were playing really good defense.”

From tip-off of the first game, this year’s All-Star Game (or, technically, games) had a different energy. Players from Team Stars and Team World contested shots on defense, and embraced motion offense instead of a reliance on one-on-one scoring. In the final, the youthful Team Stars dismantled Team Stripes by a score of 41-25, led by Edwards, who finished with 32 points in three games.

Despite the rout, the players competed with purpose, and the league may have finally fixed a long-standing problem.

“I think it was definitely a step up in the competitive department compared to last season,” Durant said after the final game. “Hopefully, we just build upon this, and the weekend becomes more and more competitive. And the fans start to enjoy it more and more.”

Two Knicks appeared on the All-Star “Game” on Sunday.

Neither won the thing, and only one made it to the final match.

This is the first time all season someone involved with New York has failed to win a meaningless title.

Jalen Brunson

On Jeremy Sochan’s addition and what he brings:

“Yeah, I’m very excited to see him. I think he brings a level of toughness. From what I’ve seen, he’s been a great teammate. So I’m very excited. It’s a great opportunity for us and for him.”

On his “holy grail” outside of winning a championship:

“Honestly, I feel like my journey has been very different from most. I’m very thankful for it. It made me work extremely hard. It made me realize the opportunity that I’ve had. I’m still chasing a lot. I write my goals — long-term and short-term — at the beginning of every year, and I keep that to myself.”

On lessons learned from the Eastern Conference Finals loss last year:

“Never looking ahead. You want to focus on the task in front of you. After last year, you can’t just jump right back into where we were. You’ve got to go through the journey all over again. So it’s taking it one day at a time, step by step, not focusing down the road — just being present.”

On Jose Alvarado’s impact:

“He’s had a great impact so far with his energy — who he is on and off the court, what he brings to the table. He’s a great person to be around. He’s already impacting our team and it’s going to be great for the Garden. Fans are going to love him if they don’t already.”

On who he’d want on his podcast:

“I’m a big SVU fan — Mariska Hargitay.”

On who is his most annoying teammate:

“I’m not going to say his name. I’ll just say No. 3 on the Knicks is the most annoying person ever.”

On game-day mental preparation:

“I’m very routine-based. I try to stick to the same routine. My focus comes from preparing — not just game day, but the days leading up to it, the summertime, the work I’ve put in my entire life. Your confidence comes from your work ethic. That’s how I prepare.”

On podcasting advice:

“It’s talking to one of my best friends. We talk about things we want to talk about. We don’t have to answer every question people want us to answer. You can create your own narrative, say things you need to get off your chest. It’s its own platform. It’s something we didn’t think we’d want to do, and now here we are in year three. It’s fun. It’s unique. It’s a great opportunity, possibly life after basketball if we want to continue it.”

On his first NBA field goal:

“It was a dunk against the Lakers. It came off a Julius Randle turnover — Julius and D’Angelo Russell were fighting over the ball. It ended up in my hands, and I did a two-hand dunk, which I never do.”

On the possibility of Jason Tatum returning this season:

“He’s a very dangerous player in our league. Obviously, seeing him go down last year, it sucks to see. You never want to see that from anyone in any sport. But the fact that he’s worked so hard to get to where he is and is preparing to come back, that just speaks to who he is. Basketball fans around the world are excited to see him come back.”

Karl-Anthony Towns

On representing the Dominican Republic and inspiring kids:

“I don’t think it’s pressure. I put the time and work into the gym and my craft, and I feel very confident every time I step on the court. I know this is bigger than me. I’m super happy I have the opportunity to show Dominican kids it’s possible — not only to get a scholarship, but to make the NBA. I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention my mentors who showed me it was possible — Charlie Villanueva, Francisco Garcia, Felipe Lopez, Al Horford. It means a lot that I was able to take their teachings and continue to show the next generation that it’s possible.”

On Dominican culture influencing his game:

“The work ethic, the passion. Dominicans are passionate about family, about food, about having a good time. I translate that passion into my game. Every time I’m on the court or in practice, I’m passionate. I take the work serious. I look for quality over quantity.”

On international basketball and future opportunities:

“I love international basketball. It would be cool to see it grow and operate at a high level. Maybe one day be a part of it. There’s so much talent in the world. Making the NBA as one of 450 players is extremely difficult. Some guys fall through the cracks but have the talent and work ethic. It would be cool to see those guys get a chance to show their talents and live their dream.”

On comparisons between New York and Los Angeles:

“I love both. In New York, I’ve got my family — my father, grandmother, my whole Dominican family, my mom’s side too. In LA, my fiancée’s family is here. Happy mother-in-law solves a lot of problems.”

On the Knicks’ deadline moves:

“It’s unfortunate losing someone like Yabu, who was a big part of our locker room. But I’m glad to see him thriving in Chicago. Jose brings a lot of energy. It’s great to have someone who can jolt the game whenever we need it.”

On playing in the World Cup:

“It was really cool. I think it was the biggest World Cup attendance game of all time. Playing with my mother’s country on my chest, in a different atmosphere, not an NBA game — that’s something I won’t forget. I’m super happy our country got the win.”

On inspiring the next generation:

“It’s special. I’m honored to be in this position to show the next generation that it’s possible — to show them where I’ve been successful and where I’ve made mistakes, so they don’t make the same ones and can take this game and this flag to even greater heights.”

For a league taking L’s left and right this past week, at least the NBA can say they saved the All-Star Game.

A contest that had been mostly a disaster for roughly two decades received a much-needed facelift when it split USA players from the rest of the world into teams, who then played a round-robin of one-quarter games to determine the winner.

Veteran basketball pundits Zach Lowe and Bill Simmons explained on “The Bill Simmons Podcast” that while the NBA has failed to fix tanking, playing-time manipulation and game flow, at least the All-Star Game is watchable again.

“It was a great bit of redemption for the NBA,” Lowe said on the podcast. “It was definitely the world’s better than two years ago when it was 211-180-something, and the five All-Star games before it were dunk, dunk, laziness. This was a fun game. There were fouls, blocked shots, buzzer beaters, and drama.”

“Team Stars” was a group of younger players that wound up winning after they defeated “Team Stripes,” which consisted of LeBron James and a group of veteran faces of the league.

“A huge win for a league that needed a win,” Simmons said while adding that he gave the new All-Star Game “two thumbs up” as the game at one point appeared to be heading toward NFL Pro Bowl status.

Where things get really dicey is tanking, injuries, schedule length and much more, as the league deals with questions about the relevance of the regular season.

Simmons admits he has been hard on commissioner Adam Silver, as the league has clear issues with tanking that he has often left unpunished, as teams like the Utah Jazz and Brooklyn Nets find creative ways to lose games on purpose for a better draft pick.

“If you’re judging [the job that Adam Silver has done as commissioner] by what the league is like competitively, this is about as bad we’ve been in since the early 80s,” Simmons said.

Simmons then goes on to list the problems with the league, adding that the season is too long and the second half of the regular season is mostly meaningless, with the only reason to maintain 82 games being money.

“This is why I was so hard on Silver,” Simmons said. “This is the most important decision of his entire career. If he can’t do this. If he can’t convince two separate groups of people that are tough to convince anything that the season has to be shorter and here’s all the reasons why… This is a crisis now.”

What hasn’t been fixed about All-Star Weekend is the Slam Dunk Contest, as several star young players have refused to participate in recent years, while the league taps G-League-level players to compete, despite them hardly being NBA-level talent.

Mac McClung, who has played in 10 career NBA games, won three consecutive seasons from 2023 to 2025, while Keshad Johnson won this year despite playing in 21 games as a rookie.

We’re about two-thirds of the way through the 2025-26 NBA regular season based upon games played, but the league’s All-Star break always serves as the arbitrary halfway point of the season. The vibes were way down for the Philadelphia 76ers, but we received a welcome respite over the weekend, getting to enjoy VJ Edgecombe shine in the Rising Stars Challenge and Tyrese Maxey’s coronation as one of the league’s top stars. Now, before regular season hoops get back underway, let’s zoom out a bit and take stock of where things stand in the Eastern Conference.

Race to the Bottom

Washington (14-39)
Indiana (15-40)
Brooklyn (15-38)

These teams are going to be jockeying with a handful of teams out West for top lottery odds in what is a stacked 2026 NBA Draft class. The Wizards have positioned themselves to compete next year, trading for Trae Young and Anthony Davis at their low points of their value, and having those former All-Stars sit out the rest of the way. They’ll hope to pair those two with promising youngsters Alex Sarr and Tre Johnson, plus whoever they take in this year’s lottery. The Pacers had always signaled taking a step back this season after Tyrese Haliburton tore his Achilles, even going as far as to let Myles Turner walk in free agency. Indiana did trade for Ivica Zubac at the deadline, but I imagine his sprained ankle is going to take a historically long time to heal. This is another club that will be looking to compete again next season. Meanwhile, Brooklyn is playing more first-year players than a Rising Stars roster. The Nets are on the long rebuild path, and they could be right back in this group a year from now.

Things Went Off the Rails in the Midwest

Milwaukee (23-30)
Chicago (24-31)

These two clubs expected to be in the mix (towards the top half of the playoff bracket in Milwaukee’s case, and solidly in the Play-In in respect to the Bulls), but things have gone terribly wrong. In Wisconsin, Doc Rivers is pointing fingers everywhere except the thumbs pointing back at him, and the Giannis Antetokounmpo most passive aggressive trade request ever was comical, followed by his acting like he was taking the harder loyal path by sticking around. They have a roster built to operate around Giannis that doesn’t work one bit with him sidelined with a calf strain. Their current brand of no-defense will have them continue to lose games the rest of the way. If there’s a silver lining in Chicago, the Bulls finally, finally, finally embraced something of a rebuild, sending out Nikola Vucevic, Ayo Dosunmu and Coby White. They waited too long in all cases and didn’t get too much valuable in return, but maybe now Chicago will lose enough to get lucky in the lottery.

Frisky Futures

Atlanta (26-30)
Charlotte (26-29)

The Hawks actually pulled the trigger on trading away Trae Young, fully embracing building around Jalen Johnson with a longer, more defensive-minded roster. I understood moving on from Kristaps Porzingis given the health concerns, but I’m not sure the Jonathan Kuminga experience would be something I wanted to sign up for. I suppose his value can only go up away from Golden State. Getting Jock Landale for nothing was a good deal, something I wished the Sixers had done. I don’t expect the Hawks to do anything of note this year, but they seem to have a clear vision going forward. Charlotte is one of the most entertaining League Pass teams out there. Rookie Kon Knueppel looks like the real deal, already ranking as one of the best outside shooters in the league. You can really see something with a young core of him, LaMelo Ball and Brandon Miller. I also liked the buy low on Coby White at the deadline. If the Hornets could just excise Miles Bridges, I’d like rooting for this bunch.

Stuck in the middle with us

Miami (29-27)
Orlando (28-25)
Philadelphia (30-24)
Toronto (32-23)

The Heat struck out in having a big star come to South Beach, as shockingly Tyler Herro and Pat Riley throwing his rings on the table wasn’t enough of a trade package for people. Erik Spoelstra is an excellent coach who will keep Miami afloat, but there’s just not enough top-end talent on the roster there to be true contenders. Orlando is one of the more disappointing teams this season. People loved to talk about the Magic prior to the season as a dark horse to come out of the East, but they don’t look anywhere near that level. Paolo Banchero certainly hasn’t taken the next step this season, and Orlando signaled they weren’t making a run by just doing a salary dump at the deadline.

Speaking of salary dumps, the Sixers only subtracted from their rotation earlier this month. Despite pretty good injury health from their injury-prone stars, Philadelphia’s front office didn’t want to push any chips into the middle to improve the current roster. With Paul George now suspended, the Sixers are a major injury or two away from their shallow roster making a real slide down the standings. Toronto is one of the most pleasant surprises this season, with a bunch of pretty good parts coalescing on a solid roster that plays hard every night. The Raptors didn’t do anything major at the deadline; they seem content to let this season play out, and remain in a good position to tweak the roster in future years.

Candidates to emerge

Cleveland (34-21)
New York (35-20)
Boston (35-19)
Detroit (40-13)

The Cavaliers made the splashiest deadline acquisition, bringing in James Harden from Los Angeles. The Beard will certainly be an upgrade over an injured Darius Garland in the present. Was it the right move to trade away a young guard for a 36-year-old to make a push this season? I guess we’ll find out, but Cleveland certainly sensed the East is wide open and decided to go for it.

New York had a slide a little while ago that kicked off a bunch of Karl-Anthony Towns trade rumors. The Knicks have since righted the ship, and they plugged the hole created by Deuce McBride’s injury by acquiring Jose Alvarado. The Jalen Brunson-Towns defensive pairing issues will still present a problem for the Knicks in the postseason, but no one would be shocked if they were the squad to represent the East.

People posited that the Celtics might do a mini-tank this season with Jayson Tatum sidelined with an Achilles tear, but punishingly for Sixers fans, Boston has continued to churn out wins. Jaylen Brown and Derrick White ramped up their usage to good effect, and the front office brought in spare parts to round out the rotation. Management also showed it’s possible to both duck the tax and help the roster, as although the Celtics just made some salary-dumping trades, the swap to acquire Nikola Vucevic might mean their rotation is better than it was a month ago. If Tatum can make an improbable return later on (he recently practiced with the Maine Celtics), Boston would get upgraded to clear favorite.

Finally, Detroit is this year’s Cinderella darling, second best in the NBA in both record and net rating. Cade Cunningham and Jalen Duren are young and ascending, and the Pistons have solid depth and complimentary pieces on the roster. The major argument against the Pistons would be that most of the roster hasn’t done it before in the playoffs (unless by “it” you mean Tobias Harris missing a million threes), but there always has to be a first time for young cores.

How do you size up the East? Let us know in the comments.

There might not be a player on the New York Knicks that represents the team’s identity more than Mitchell Robinson. The backup center has a modest stat line at All-Star break, averaging just 5.8 points, 8.9 rebounds and 1.2 blocks per game. 

Those numbers don’t jump off the page, but Robinson is the secret weapon to New York’s championship hopes this season.

The Knicks are outscoring the opposition by 8.9 points per 100 possessions in Robinson’s 766 minutes on the floor this season according to NBA Stats, which is the second highest net rating on the team, only behind Miles McBride.

If the Knicks are going to reach their goal of making the NBA Finals, Robinson will be instrumental. A solid defender and quality rim protector, the big man has regained his defensive mojo after a slow start.

Even though his defense is effective, Robinson’s super power really is on the offensive glass. 

Among players who have played at least 30 games, he is number one in offensive rebound rate. Teams still haven’t found a way to keep Robinson off the offensive boards, and many of his offensive caroms have led directly to open three-pointers for his teammates.

When Robinson’s on the floor, New York is collecting 40.8 percent of its misses, a number that would be first in the NBA. The Knicks have a 29.3 percent offensive rebound rate when Robinson sits, a figure that would rank 22nd in the NBA. That has helped juice the Knicks' offense, which is ranked third in the NBA, recording 118.9 points per 100 possessions.

Injury history

Robinson brings tools that no one else on the roster can provide, but it’s not all roses with him. 

The eight-year veteran has a significant injury history. 

Robinson has missed 16 games this season -- he sat out the first four games of the season and is not playing back-to-back games due to left ankle injury management. He’s also been out for a total of 139 contests over the previous three seasons.

It’s hard to rely on a player who is unavailable so often. 

Robinson is in the final year of a four-year, $60 million deal. He’s eligible for a contract extension but the Knicks and the 27-year old center did not engage in substantive talks before the season, according to SNY’s Ian Begley.

Contract negotiations between the two sides seem a bit complicated. The seven-footer’s importance to the Knicks is hard to quantify, but the number one question would be if Robinson is unable to play back-to-back games the rest of his career? If not, that puts a cap on how much he can truly earn on the free agent market.

Also, the big man is limited on the offensive end. Some teams intentionally foul Robinson, who is shooting a career-low 40.8 percent from the free-throw line.

At 19.6 minutes this season, Robinson has averaged 21.0 minutes over the last three seasons. 

The Knicks already have Karl-Anthony Towns as a starter at center. Towns is set to make $57.1 million next year and has a player option for $61 million in 2027-28. It would be a significant amount of money to allocate to one position, and with New York brushing up against the second apron, there’s only much more scrutiny on each move the team makes.

Towns and Robinson have played 213 minutes together this season. The pairing has worked for the most part with a +5.4 net rating, but recently, it hasn’t been as successful.

Some of Robinson’s contributions have driven some of New York’s finest moments over the last few years. Robinson was the X-factor in the Knicks’ second round win against the Boston Celtics. He also proved vital in this year’s NBA Cup championship win, recording 15 rebounds, 10 of them coming on the offensive end.

Robinson is such a unique player that the Knicks are probably the best fit for him. With only a few teams having significant cap space, it’s more than likely that Robinson and the Knicks extend their partnership past this season either through an extension or in free agency -- but the playoffs will truly determine his future with the club.

LOS ANGELES — Last week, Jaylen Brown shared an Instagram story that highlighted the Celtics’ record this year compared to last year.

The graphic, created by NBC Sports Boston, compared the 2024-2025 Celtics’ and the 2025-2026 Celtics’ record, net, offensive, and defensive ratings at the All-Star break, ultimately demonstrating how, remarkably, both teams’ on-court success were pretty comparable.

Both Celtics teams held the the second seed in the Eastern Conference at the break, as well as the NBA’s third-best net rating. This year’s Celtics have the better offense; last year’s more veteran team had the better defense.

Almost immediately, Brown’s post was widely criticized, with some fans perceiving it as a shot at Jayson Tatum, who has been sidelined all season due to an Achilles injury he suffered last spring. 

But, Brown was perplexed about how that happened – how a post touting his team’s unlikely success turned into a negative thing.  

“The thing I posted, that was about celebrating our group,” Brown told CelticsBlog in an exclusive conversation. “People make it seem like it was about me, because that’s what people wanted it to be about. But in reality, I’m just so proud of our group. I’m extremely proud.”

Back in July, the last time we extensively spoke 1-on-1, Brown told me that he expected to surprise the world ahead of a season in which few expected the Celtics to be competitive. 

But, even he didn’t know that this level of team success was coming so soon.

The Celtics have the third-best record in the league since December 1st, and a litany of improbable victories. Earlier this month, for example, they blew out the Houston Rockets on the second night of a back-to-back in a game in which two-way player Ron Harper Jr. got his first career start — and the Celtics got a big-time win with Brown and Sam Hauser both sidelined.

So, it fills him with an immense amount of pride and gratitude to talk about the Celtics’ success so far.

“I believed that we were going to be fine, but even to me, it’s like, ‘Damn, we’re the second seed – one of the five best records in the whole league,” Brown said. “Only a few teams have a better record than us in the entire league. We’re a top-five team in the league, coming from the start of the season, when it was [supposed to be] a gap year.”

Brown can’t stop beaming as he talks about his group.

He appreciates that the Celtics have blown previous expectations out of the water, and enjoys gushing about how this season has been playing out.

But, in our lengthy conversation, he never brings up himself – not his own career-best individual season, nor his first-ever All-Star start, which he celebrated in Los Angeles. 

For Jaylen Brown, this season has been about the young guys

What Brown has enjoyed most this season is seeing the Celtics organization at its best — watching unproven players like Jordan Walsh and Hugo Gonzalez tremendously impact winning. In his first two years in the NBA, Walsh had yet to break into the Celtics’ rotation, and Brown, a close friend of his, stayed in his ear, encouraging him.

He broke through this season en route to a career-year highlighted by 20 consecutive starts for Boston. Walsh is averaging 5.6 points in 18.5 minutes per game — both career-highs.

And, Gonzalez, drafted late in the first round and at just 19 years old, quickly became an impactful rotation player. As it currently stands, he has the best individual net rating of any player in the NBA. Few predicted that, at 19 years old, the Celtics rookie would be so impactful, so soon. But he’s been a critical part of multiple victories. 

“As a leader, to see our guys finding their footing and flourishing, I’m prouder about that,” Brown said. “Just to see certain guys unsure about their roles, or their situation, and to see Jordan playing well, Hugo playing well in stretches. Like, they’ve helped us win games. I take pride in that. I’m proud of that.”

He’s especially in awe of the Celtics’ player development program, which, alongside Gonzalez and Walsh, has propelled players like Baylor Scheierman and Luka Garza toward career seasons. He shouted out each of the Celtics’ assistant and player development coaches, people who are integral to the Celtics’ team success, but rarely receive credit in the public eye.

“I’m extremely proud of our group, coaching staff included,” Brown said. “All the guys that put time and effort – Sham [God Shammgod Jr], Da’Sean [Butler], Ross [McCain], DJ [MacLeay] – all our coaching staff have done a really good job of developing guys.”

Brown is also adamant that Derrick White should have been an All-Star, and that starting center Neemias Queta is only beginning to scratch the surface of his ceiling. He’s been thoroughly impressed with how Anfernee Simons carried himself through his 49-game Celtics stint, and with how Payton Pritchard has handled an increased role as one of the Celtics’ primary scoring options. 

So, Brown might just keep posting Instagram graphics that highlight just how good this Celtics team has been playing. 

He emphasized that, alongside Tatum, they lost four other great players this offseason – Jrue Holiday, Al Horford, Luke Kornet, and Kristaps Porzingis.

And, he’s in awe of how the Celtics have adapted in the face of those veteran losses. 

Brown also attributes some of the the Celtics’ success this season to a formative offseason conversation between himself and Joe Mazzulla, in which both candidly discussed their preferred approach for the year ahead.  

“Before the season started, Joe had an idea of what he wanted, how he wanted to coach the team,” Brown said. “I had an idea of how I wanted to lead the team, and we kind of had to meet in the middle before the season even started. We had an idea of how we were going to both work together. Because if we don’t work together, if it would have been me not buying into Joe, none of this would work. Me being able to be on the same page with Joe has allowed us to be in the position that we’re in now.”

Jaylen Brown has found peace

At age 29, Brown understands that words and actions can be taken out of context. That’s part of why he started regularly Twitch streaming — so that he can address things head-on and elaborate on his perspective.

For example, in a recent stream, Brown spoke glowingly about Tatum’s rehab, and shared how much pride he has in his co-star for all the progress he’s made. 

“If you hear me talk about anything in my most recent streams, I mentioned how proud I am of my team, I mentioned how proud I am of JT’s progression,” Brown said. “It’s all that type of stuff.”

Brown still finds it perplexing why his Instagram story had become controversial, though it’s far from the first time something like that has happened in his NBA career.

After a screenshot of his Instagram story blew up online, he ended up Tweeting it on his own account, with a simple caption emphasizing why he had highlighted those statistics: “I’m proud of this group and staff / office looking forward to 2nd half go Cs.”

But, at this point in his career, he doesn’t worry too much when these kinds of things happen.

Tuning out the outside noise has brought him an inner peace. 

“People have always tried to pick apart everything that I said,” Brown said. “And over the course of my career, I’ve tried to be very meticulous about it. I try to say as little as possible, I try to make sure that I’m not saying anything that’s gonna stir the pot. Now, I’m at this point in my career, and I’m like, I could care less.” 

“People are going to infer whatever they want. It’s not in my control… I say how I feel. I say what I’m proud of. And, I’m proud that our team is doing great.”

What Brown does want to talk about is how incorrect the pundits and analysts were about how good this Celtics team could be. 

“We were supposed to be tanking, that was the talk,” Brown said. “To be in the top five teams in the league? I’m proud of that. I’m extremely proud. Ain’t nobody can tell me nothing.” 

It doesn’t matter how outside people might perceive that sentiment. 

“I feel like the most peaceful I’ve felt this season is because I just stopped caring about all that stuff,” Brown said. “And that’s why I feel like I’ve been at the most at the most peace I’ve ever been at in my career, because I just stopped giving a fuck about what the media or what people feel about what I gotta say, or, you know, if they feel offended by something I said  – whatever. I said it with the right intent. I said it to highlight something that I feel like is important to highlight.”

And, in this case, he won’t let the world forget about how wrong people were about this Celtics team. 

“Everybody was calling it a gap year,” Brown said. “How do you go from a gap year to top five in the East? That’s a big jump. That’s not a small jump. People want to skip over that. I’m not gonna let you skip over it. That is a big deal.” 

Most importantly, he thinks this Celtics team is only going to get better as the year continues. As it currently stands, they hold a half-game lead for second place in the Eastern Conference, with Tatum’s potential return looming.

And, he wants to keep talking about how they’re doing the improbable.

“I’m proud of our group,” Brown said, beaming. “And I would yell it from the top of this house.”