Category: NBA

There might be no one enjoying this Knicks championship more than Jose Alvarado.

During Thursday’s ticker-tape parade in Lower Manhattan, Brooklyn native Jose Alvarado grabbed a boombox and a microphone and began appealing to the thousands of Knicks fans who turned out for the franchise’s first ever parade up the Canyon of Heroes.

“We brought the trophy home. Let’s party, baby, let’s party. Knicks in five,” Alvarado professed into a microphone while standing atop a float.

"We brought the trophy home. Let's party, baby, let's party."

Jose Alvarado is PUMPED to be celebrating with the crowd pic.twitter.com/Iy5847VZUh

— NBA (@NBA) June 18, 2026

The victory goes even deeper for Alvarado, who grew up a Knicks fan and starred at Christ the King high school.

Alvarado’s roots and New York pride have endeared him to Knicks fans since his arrival to the team. He was born in 1998, one year before the Knicks’ last appearance in the Finals in 1999.

Alvarado is making his second appearance at a New York parade in just one week. On Sunday, the day after the Knicks clinched their first championship in 53 years, Alvarado attended the Puerto Rican Day Parade, appearing on a float alongside New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani in Brooklyn. Teammate Jordan Clarkson joined in the celebration, as well.

Alvarado won the championship in his first season with his hometown team. He spent five years with the New Orleans Pelicans before being traded to the Knicks in February. Though he had a limited role throughout the Finals, Alvarado came off the bench in Game 4 with an impressive performance, hitting multiple threes to help erase a 29-point deficit and give the Knicks the largest comeback in NBA Finals history. He also appeared in the closeout Game 5. 

While the 2026 championship is the third in Knicks history, this is their first parade. There were no parades following the 1970 and 1973 Finals. The turnout for Thursday’s parade reportedly reached over 1 million revelers.

A week that once brought excitement and hope to Detroit Pistons fans now carries a different feeling: low-stakes curiosity.

For the first time in years, the Eastern Conference’s No. 1 seed can finally say it has escaped the NBA cellar.

Thanks to Trajan Langdon’s savvy deadline deal with the Minnesota Timberwolves, Detroit enters draft night with the No. 21 pick, a selection that could hold value in a class loaded with first-round talent.

This year’s draft is shaping up to be one of the most intriguing in recent memory, featuring elite prospects at the top and growing speculation that stars could be on the move.

So, for the fans who learned to love the draft during the lean years, don’t worry – we’ve still got you covered.

1. Washington Wizards: AJ Dybantsa (BYU)

Washington will and should turn over every stone when it comes to making the right decision here – but all roads should lead back to Dybantsa. It’s hard not to get excited for everything he brings to the table as a prospect. 

The freshman from BYU has the ready made talent to contribute immediately next season but also a ceiling that is as high as any. His 25.5 points per game led the nation and he does it in a variety of ways. He moves fluidly at 6’9 and uses his feet insanely well to get clean looks at the rim. The shot is OK right now but should improve quickly. 

His frame will need to fill so he can be more physical at this level but the whole package is there. If the Wizards take Dybantsa, they’ll add him to an interesting roster filled with young talent and aging former all-stars (Trae Young, Anthony Davis). I’d be very interested to see how he fits alongside that group.

-Flores

2. Utah Jazz: Darryn Peterson (Kansas)

There has not been a prospect more polarizing in quite some time. With a high school highlight tape that few can rival, Peterson came into his freshman season in the driver’s seat to go first overall. His alarmingly bizarre load management saga makes Dybantsa the safer pick at one, but there is no denying the overall talent here.

Peterson comes in with a case for the best shot making prospect since Kevin Durant and brings elite athleticism, coupled with flashes of great passing and defensive instincts. If questions about his character, competitiveness, and durability can be answered, then Utah gets the alpha scorer it needs to complete its rising young core.

-Sturm

3. Memphis Grizzlies: Cam Boozer (Duke)

In one of the more loaded tops of the drafts we’ve seen in years, Boozer may have the highest floor. The question is whether the best version of him matches what you’d think of others at the top, and to me – it’s a no. But that doesn’t mean he won’t be a big part of winning teams. 

A high level competitor at every level he’s played so far, he should come in and immediately make his team better in multiple ways. He’s not a physical specimen nor a freak athlete, but he just gets the job done on both ends. 

Boozer brings in an old school style, often orchestrating the Duke offense with his back to the basket this season. A great passer, he’ll be able to quickly come in and make every shooter on the team a bit more comfortable. 

The question will be how effective can Boozer be in the modern NBA with his style of play? He did not show much as an athlete or as someone who can find his own shot, but does Memphis just end up valuing the rest more? We’ll see. 

-Flores

4. Chicago Bulls: Caleb Wilson (North Carolina)

Wilson is largely viewed as the last player in this draft with a realistic to good chance of being on multiple all-star teams. There is a lot to like starting with his measurables, as he has a legitimate argument as this draft’s best pure athlete at 6 ’10.

Wilson and North Carolina flamed out at the end of the year with injuries and a lack of team success, but there was a brief period in which there was real chatter about Wilson supplanting Boozer as the first big taken. He has shown enough glimpses of shot making ability and fluidity with the ball in his hands at his size to make GM’s salivate over what his ceiling could be. He also projects as a high-level rim protector with his length and leaping ability. There is a world where the freshman hits his ceiling and could be the best player in this class. 

The problem is that Wilson possesses a distinctly lower floor than the other prospects in the top 4. He lacks a true skill that he can hang his hat on coming into the league, whereas Boozer (passing and post scoring), Dybantsa (dribble drive ability), and Peterson (shot making) all bring a real attribute that will translate from day one. Wilson got almost all of his points from rim running, transition, or posting up on the block in college. Post ups are a rarity in the NBA unless a player can prove it is an extraordinarily efficient play a la Jokic or Tobias Harris, so Wilson will need to show other ways to score early on. Additionally, he will likely need to add weight to his frame to play center full time, yet he does not currently shoot it well to be a consistent four man.

There will be questions of what the best lineup around him looks like. Simply put, Wilson is more of a blank canvas than many other prospects in this class. The Bulls will need to bet on their player development program to get the most out of him. 

-Sturm

5. Los Angeles Clippers: Keaton Wagler (Illinois)

Wagler bursted onto the scene this season for Illinois to the surprise of everyone, maybe other than the man who recruited him, Brad Underwood. It’s rare these days to see a kid go from a 3-star high school recruit to consensus top-10 draft pick, but Wagler proved he was built for it every step of the way this season. 

The freshman averaged 17.9 points, 5.1 rebounds and 4.2 assists this season and was the catalyst to their Final Four run. Another guy who doesn’t pop off the screen with his athleticism or frame, Wagler plays a methodical style that works so well because of his high level shot making ability. At 6’5, he can shoot over defenders but is also crafty enough to get to the rim without having blistering quickness. 

His archetype will remind the Clippers of another tall, slender guard that they drafted and traded too soon in a package for Paul George in 2019. Not to say the expectations would match that of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander coming in, but you’d think LA would want another shot if Wagler proves to be cut from a similar cloth. He’ll need to add some meat to the bones if he wants to score with the same efficiency as in college, but at this point, it’s hard not to believe in the kid.

-Flores

6. Brooklyn Nets: Darius Acuff Jr (Arkansas)

The Nets have drawn unfortunate lottery luck yet again, as they sit on the outside looking in at the chance to draft one of the consensus tier one players in this year’s class. After taking several players who were more projects in 2025, look for them to take a swing on a player who likely possesses the most star potential in the draft outside of the top four. Not to mention, his college coach has a track record of churning out all-star guards.

Acuff is as dazzling of a scoring lead guard as we’ve seen in years, as he took college basketball by storm with a series of video game-like offensive statlines. If it all breaks right for Acuff, he could legitimately be the primary creator on a winning team.

The 2 main knocks on the Detroit native are his size and defense. Can he get his spots consistently against NBA size and length? Will his defense improve to be at least serviceable on that end? If those answers are yes, then you are looking at a legit offensive engine for an NBA franchise. A comparison I like for his ceiling is Allen Iverson with three point range. If the answer is no to one or both, then he may end up at a range between a Trae Young chucker type, to heatcheck bench guy. For the Nets – who have been floundering for years in a post Kevin Durant era – Acuff represents the best shot at them bringing in a star in quite some time. At this point in the draft, it may be worth the risk. 

-Sturm

7. Sacramento Kings: Mikel Brown Jr. (Louisville)

Sacramento would be happy to pick up a dynamic scorer like Brown after falling in the lottery this year. The back issues that plagued the start and end of his freshman season –  and dropped him on draft boards early on – seem to be behind him.  

The 20-year old averaged 18.2 points and 4.7 assists for Louisville this season. He’s advanced on offense, using his size and savvy to dominate ball screen situations. He can get hot at any time too; dropping 45-points vs. NC State by 10 threes in the process in his last game of the year before shutting it down. He can be chaotic at times with the ball offensively, so he’ll need to clean up some of the decision making at the next level.

The Kings are in desperate need of a youthful spark in the backcourt (or anywhere really). Brown has serious upside and may end up being a steal after it’s all said and done.

-Flores

8. Atlanta Hawks: Kingston Flemings (Houston)

Flemings is a guy who flies under the radar a little bit compared to Peterson, Acuff, and some of the other freshman guards in this class. When you watch him play, his game is not the flashiest and he is a tad undersized for today’s point guard. But the guy is just flat out efficient. He can get to his spots with relative ease, and fills it up at all three levels. He boasts an incredible assist to turnover ratio for a freshman playing in one of the most competitive conferences in the country. He was asked to have the ball in his hands a lot and often delivered for a national title contender. Flemings has the feel of one of those players who we may look back on in a few years and go “how did he fall all the way to 8?”

The Hawks would be elated to get someone like Flemings here due to the optionality he gives them both now and later. The team took off after it acquired CJ McCollum, as he fit perfectly with their roster as a primary scoring option and secondary facilitator. With Jalen Johnson and an army of defenders in tow, the Hawks need a guard who can make things happen with the ball in his hands, especially with McCollum about to hit free agency. Flemings could feasibly step into the McCollum role if they wanted to use his salary elsewhere. Or, if they kept both players on the roster, he could become a part of a formidable three guard rotation along with Nickiel Alexander-Walker. He possesses the ability to play alongside either due to his defensive abilities. 

-Sturm

9. Dallas Mavericks: Brayden Burries (Arizona)

When the Mavericks landed the No. 1 pick and Cooper Flagg last year, it accelerated their rebuild and shifted the timeline of the franchise. With a suddenly youthful roster, Dallas should prioritize adding players who can contribute immediately.

Enter Burries.

Burries appears to have one of the narrower draft ranges in this class. His polished skill set and NBA-ready traits should allow him to make an impact right away, making it unlikely he slips out of the lottery. Wherever he lands, he will likely have an opportunity to earn minutes early.

This season, Burries averaged 16.1 points while shooting 49.1 percent from the field and 39.1 percent from three-point range, helping lead Arizona to the Final Four. At the combine, he measured 6-foot-4 with a 6-foot-8 wingspan and projects as a starting-caliber two-way guard at the next level.

Burries was easily the best shooter on an Arizona team that struggled from the perimeter. He also brings a tenacious defensive mindset that should translate quickly to the NBA.

His limitations as a creator are worth noting, but he may never be asked to run an offense. Instead, his value lies in his ability to impact the game on both ends of the floor. A high-level two-way role player, with the potential for more, should be the expectation.

-Flores

10. Milwaukee Bucks: Yaxel Lendenborg (Michigan)

Though Lendenborg’s teammate Aday Mara has been mocked here often, it would be difficult to see the logic there for the Bucks regardless of whether or not they have Giannis Antetokounmpo on the team. Mara is the best rim protecting prospect in this draft, but does little else to boost Milwaukee beyond that.

The case for pairing Lendenborg with Giannis is fairly easy. He can guard all five positions, and showed some ability to be a secondary playmaker during his last collegiate season. His median projection profiles as a guy who can be a jack-of-all-trades wing who impacts winning at a high level in multiple ways. His three point percentage has gone up every year, and he boasts good mechanics on his shot. He rarely turns the ball over and passes the ball well for his size and position. There are few holes in his game, and he would be able to step in from day one as a high level role player on a good team. Simply put, he has the ability to make the Greek Freak’s life easier.

Without Giannis, Lendenborg still represents one of the best upsides at this point in the lottery for a team that would be looking to pivot into rebuilding mode. Despite being an old man by NBA draft standards at 24, Lendenborg is unique in the fact that he has not been playing basketball for very long, and only played one year of high level competition. Each year, he has expanded his game which one could reasonably predict should continue to happen in the pros. Two years ago, Lendenborg was viewed primarily as a center, last year he was a point-forward on a national championship team. If the Bucks decided to hit the reset button, Yaxel could be an interesting player to see what you have with the opportunity for higher usage. At worst, he could become a valuable trade chip down the line if he becomes less of a star and more of a role player. 

The only concern with Lendenborg are recurring questions regarding his maturity. His best fit would be in an established organization like the Heat or Warriors for that reason, so this would be a big bet on Milwaukee’s culture. It may be worth the risk at ten.

-Sturm

Bonus

21. Detroit Pistons: Cameron Carr (Baylor)

Trajan Langdon has his work cut out for him in what will be the most important offseason for Detroit in decades. You’d have to think if the roster construction is a puzzle, this year’s pick would be just a smaller piece of it. But if Detroit stays at No. 21 and can land an immediate contributor, it could change their short term fortunes as well.

There may be a slim chance Carr ends up falling this far after a strong combine performance and skillset that will be hard to pass on. Last season at Baylor, Carr averaged 18.9 points per game on 49.4/37.4/80.1 shooting splits. His combination of length, athleticism and shot making are traits all teams covet in today’s game –  especially a Detroit team that lacked offensive firepower in the postseason. 

-Flores

Double Bonus – Pistons Mock Trade

Detroit moves up 6 spots to grab Morez Johnson (Michigan)  

Detroit Receives: Pick 16

Memphis receives: Pick 21, two future second round picks, Marcus Sasser

Morez Johnson continues to move up mock drafts, and looks less realistic for the Pistons to draft at 21. As for why Johnson would be a good fit in Detroit, read more here. By making this trade, it allows the team the chance to move up and nab the former Wolverine. This in turn, gives Detroit flexibility to use one of Jalen Duren or Isaiah Stewart in a trade later this summer. As rumors linking the team to Trey Murphy III, Kawhi Leonard and others heat up, the opportunity to use one of its bigs in a potential deal in order to preserve other assets would be a welcome sign for Detroit’s front office. 

-Sturm

With there being nearly 3,000 comments between the current Lounge thread and the NBA Finals thread, it seems you all like to talk! I am glad, I want you to hang out here. A couple of notes:

1. With regard to content moderation: I have no say. SB Nation has made a big push and we want y’all here, but the terms of service are pretty broad and the latitude given to the mods is also broad. Just don’t get banned please :).
2. Use the FEED. While I very much appreciate these threads, my bosses have asked me to try to direct daily questions, debates, etc. to that location as it’s higher up on the main page.

Now that’s out of the way, on to the topics for the month. This thread starts about 5 days before the NBA Draft. That’s going to be wild, rumors are simply moving like mad at this point and half our online fanbase is terrified Nate Ament is going to be the pick at nine. I just can’t see that.

I would be happy with any guard. I would accept a trade back. But what I DO hope is for an active day one (remember they split this thing into two nights for reasons beyond me). What’s your hope?

Free agency comes next, but I expect it to be tame. There’s no open money really. Dallas will make moves, though, they have to.

After that, it’s my favorite event in NBA Summer League.

Enjoy the peace.

The New York Knicks are NBA champions, and today New York City gets to celebrate. Fifty-three years after the franchise’s last title, the Knicks will parade through Manhattan with the Larry O’Brien Trophy in tow.

This thread will serve as our watch-along and open discussion throughout the day. We’ll update this post throughout the parade with highlights, quotes, and notable moments.

Schedule & Route

Time: The parade officially begins at 10:00 a.m. ET.

Starting Point: Battery Park and Bowling Green in Lower Manhattan.

Route: The procession will travel north along Broadway through the historic Canyon of Heroes.

Ending Point: City Hall Plaza.

City Hall Ceremony: Following the parade, an official ceremony will be held at City Hall, where Mayor Zohran Mamdani will present the World Champion Knicks with the Keys to the City.

Important Information

Viewing Areas: The NYPD has announced that designated viewing pens along the parade route reached capacity early this morning. Access to the route is being strictly monitored and remains subject to crowd limits.

Security Restrictions: All viewing areas require security screening. Fans are encouraged to travel light, as bags, backpacks, umbrellas, folding chairs, strollers, and coolers are prohibited.

Transit & Traffic: Several MTA stations near the parade route, including Wall Street (4, 5 trains) and City Hall (R, W trains), are closed or experiencing service disruptions. Vehicular traffic and street parking throughout Lower Manhattan are heavily restricted, and significant congestion is expected throughout the day.

On TV

MSG Network is providing live TV coverage of the New York Knicks championship parade. Their end-to-end broadcast of the Canyon of Heroes celebration in lower Manhattan begins at 9:30 a.m. ET.

Go Knicks!

Mitchell Robinson made sure he arrived at the Knicks’ championship parade in style.

The Knicks center showed up Thursday in his tricked-out white pickup truck with orange interior, bringing one of his most recognizable off-court passions into the middle of New York’s long-awaited title celebration.

Robinson showed up behind the wheel and then had someone else driving once the parade kicked off as he parted in the bed of the truck.

Mitchell Robinson and truck on their way ( Claudia Giunta) pic.twitter.com/jR0Jk9eGuF

— New York Basketball (@NBA_NewYork) June 18, 2026

The customized ride was hard to miss as Robinson arrived for the parade, with the bright orange look fitting naturally into a day filled with Knicks colors across Lower Manhattan.

Asked why he wanted the truck involved, Robinson said it felt right for both the occasion and who he is.

“Because of the orange theme — I thought it would be good for the truck and also, you know, my personality,” Robinson said.

It was a fitting parade entrance for one of the Knicks’ most distinctive characters.

Robinson, 28, has become known around the team not just for his rebounding and rim protection, but also for his love of trucks, country music and a personality that stands out from the usual New York athlete mold.

The Pensacola native has long leaned into that side of himself, and Thursday’s parade gave him the perfect stage for it.

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Follow The Post’s live updates from the Knicks Championship parade for the latest city chaos, celeb sightings and sports reaction.

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Robinson played an important role in the Knicks’ title run, even if his work did not always show up in the loudest parts of the box score.

The 7-footer gave New York size, defense and physicality throughout the postseason, doing much of the dirty work inside as the Knicks battled their way to the franchise’s first NBA championship in 53 years.

He gave the Knicks important size and rebounding against a Spurs frontcourt led by Victor Wembanyama as New York closed out the series.

Thursday, though, Robinson’s biggest contribution was impossible to miss before the parade even got going.

The truck matched the moment.

For the next month before the 2026 NBA Draft, we’ll take an in-depth look at different prospects here at Liberty Ballers and try to figure out which players would be the best fit for the Sixers at No. 22. Next up in this series is Houston’s Chris Cenac Jr.

By this point, we’ve all been frustrated with the rotating door of failed attempts at front court depth behind Joel Embiid from the Sixers. In recent years, it’s been a lot of players who are at best good on one end of the floor but a liability on the other end. With Embiid’s lack of availability only increasing, Philly could use a big that could not only solve its problems when he’s not on the floor, but also potentially play next to him. The good thing is, the answer to that problem might be staring them in the face next week.

Profile

2025-26 Stats: 37 games, 24.8 minutes, 9.5 points, 7.9 rebounds, 0.7 assists, 1.4 steals, 0.5 blocks, 48.5% FG, 33.3% 3P, 62.1% FT

Team: Houston Cougars

Year: Freshman

Position: PF/C

Height & Weight: 6’11” | 240 lbs

Born: January 31, 2007 (19 years old)

Hometown: New Orleans, Louisiana

Strengths

Let’s start with the most obvious thing Cenac has going for him, which happens to be a great fit for Philadelphia. He’s a very good rebounder having averaged close to eight rebounds per game is just under 25 minutes per game. Per 40 minutes in college, he was averaging a robust 12.7 boards. Simply put, when Cenac is on the floor, offenses aren’t getting second chances off of missed field goals and free throws. His productive rebounding can be traced back to strong instincts, physicality and a relentless motor. That’s the kind of stuff that not only earns you more playing time, but endears you to a fanbase as a rookie. At 6’11” and 240 pounds, he’s certainly ready to come in and start grabbing rebounds off the bench for an NBA team at the very least.

Next is his athletic ability. Cenac isn’t just a halfcourt player who hauls in defensive rebounds. He can run the floor and finish as a lob threat while also finishing off the dribble in pick-and-rolls when he is in halfcourt sets. While a lot of his athletic ability did not necessarily translate to a lot of blocked shots in college, he certainly possesses the traits to be a good rim protector and he’s also athletic enough to guard on the perimeter when drawn out that way.

Speaking of things that you have to watch in Cenac’s game more than simply look at the stats for, he’s a willing jump shooter with enough fluidity in his mechanics to make you think those percentages above can improve. He took about 2.5 threes per game at Houston so it’s certainly not foreign to him to get shots up from deep and in some of his highlights, he looks pretty comfortable already as a face-up jump shooter in the midrange area. He’s not just one of those guys who gets drafted in the first round purely on athletic ability who has a broken jumper. It looks fixable but the encouraging thing here is that he seems cognizant of the importance to continue to develop his jump shot.

Weaknesses

Whether it was taking too many outside shots in certain games with an underdeveloped jumper or just making some bad decisions, at nearly seven feet tall, you’d like to see a better field goal percentage than 48.5%. While he’s ready right now to rebound in the NBA, he could probably afford to add about 20 pounds of muscle which would likely make him a more viable post scorer and make finishing in the paint in halfcourt sets a little easier.

Another problem that likely kept his minutes per game average around 25 is his tendency to pick up fouls. He averaged 2.3 fouls per game in the 25 minutes per game that he played last season at Houston. That’s about one foul in every 10 minutes of action. Do the math and while Cenac has the upside to become an NBA starter, if he’s fouling at the same rate that would have him averaging four fouls every 40 minutes which could mean some foul outs on certain nights.

He could also benefit from good coaching that boosts his basketball IQ. In watching a lot of his film, Cenac appears to drift into midrange areas too frequently offensively instead of cutting to the rim. That’s perhaps one factor that led to a lower field goal percentage than you’d like from a big man in college. Defensively, he would occasionally get mixed up with the other big man who he was playing with on who was guarding the stretch big and who was hanging around the rim.

Positional Fit

Cenac could come right into the NBA and play power forward today. He’s certainly comfortable enough guarding the perimeter and runs the floor better than a lot of NBA centers, which makes him more of an instant fit at the four. However, he’s certainly the kind of player that could grow into more of a center during his rookie contract. Perhaps by year two or year three in the NBA, Cenac is strong enough to score in the interior and defend just about any NBA center. He fits into an NBA frontcourt one way or another. Whether that’s as a power forward or a center likely depends on the team that drafts him.

Draft Projection

SB Nation Mock Draft: No. 20, San Antonio Spurs

Cenac lands at 20^th overall in this mock draft, so he’s a very viable target for Philadelphia in the first round. Often times, teams in the late teens and early 20s are in that tier below the league’s true contenders drafting in the late 20s. Therefore, do certain teams prioritize their current rosters a bit more in hopes of landing more immediate help? As that school of thought pertains to Cenac, would a team that likes its power forwards opt not to take Cenac due to some concerns that he could come in and play center right away?

The fit with the Sixers is good enough to make me wonder if Mike Gansey and company would consider moving up for him to ensure he lands in Philadelphia. If Cenac had a strong rookie season, you could certainly argue starting him next to Embiid by the end of the regular season and in the playoffs would make a lot of sense. Embiid’s athleticism has dwindled and so having a big man on the court with Embiid who could defend the perimeter adequately and rebound well should raise the team’s floor defensively.  Regardless of how quickly Cenac could become a starter for the Sixers, he could be someone that could play with Embiid in the short term and replace Embiid in the long term and that should have everyone in the organization interested.

We are less than a week away from the 2026 NBA Draft, which means things are more or less feeling finalized as far as predictions go. Granted, nobody’s predictions are going to be perfect — there will inevitably be some trades, some unexpected selections, and other fun surprises. That could turn out to be true for Caleb Wilson and Henri Veesaar as well, but there’s a lot more uncertainty around Veesaar that could make things interesting.

That said, let’s take a look at where both players are currently projected to get drafted. We will tap into HoopsHype.com, who did an aggregate mock draft based on the following sources: ESPN, NBADraft.net, CBS Sports, The Athletic, Bleacher Report, Babcock Hoops, SB Nation, USA Today Sports and No Ceilings.

Caleb Wilson: No. 4 overall to the Chicago Bulls

While there was a lot of talk that UNC star Caleb Wilson could get drafted higher than fourth, it seems like a lot of that talk has cooled down. The most likely scenario is that Wilson will hear his name called by the Chicago Bulls on draft night, a team that is going through both an organizational and roster rebuild.

Should there be no surprises and Wilson ends up in the Windy City, he will be one of very few players on the roaster that is guaranteed to be there within the next year or two. Executive Vice President of Basketball Operations Bryson Graham seeks to do everything he can to return the Bulls to relevance in the NBA, but in order to do so he will have to completely overhaul the roster. Wilson will be one of two first-round picks for the Bulls assuming that they do not trade their No. 15 pick. He could end up becoming a star in Chicago, but that’s only if Michael and Jerry Reinsdorf are finally ready to start taking this franchise seriously again. Though, let’s be honest: Wilson may end up becoming a star anyway.

Henri Veesaar: 29th overall to the Cleveland Cavaliers

The situation with Henri Veesaar feels a lot more fluid than the situation with Wilson. Media outlets seem pretty convinced that Veesaar could end up being one of the final first-round picks, but deciding which team he could go to is tricky. Some outlets had him going to the Dallas Mavericks, but if we’re going off the aggregate that Hoops Hype created, the Cleveland Cavaliers would be the landing spot, which would guarantee that Veesaar plays a bench role at best.

The Cavaliers already have Evan Mobley on their roster, who is currently one a five-year max rookie contract that lasts until 2030. They also have Jarrett Allen at the center spot, whose contract goes until 2029. Things aren’t especially impressive being either guys, so there’s definitely a world where Veesaar sees a reasonable amount of playing time behind Allen at the very least. It’s hard to imagine that he’d spend time at the four, but who knows? Players are expected to be versatile in the NBA, but it’s hard to imagine Veesaar playing anything but the five.

Either way, should the Cavaliers draft Veesaar, he’d be a solid three-level scorer and solid passer for a playoff-contending team. Oh, and he’d face Caleb Wilson often in the Central Division. Who doesn’t want that?

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The NBA Draft is June 23-24 in Brooklyn, NY. The event will be broadcasted on ESPN. What do you think of where the two Tar Heels are currently positioned in the mock drafts? Let us know in the comments below.

Depending on how the board falls, St. John’s forward Dillon Mitchell could be available when New York is on the clock on draft night next week. Should the Knicks consider him with their 24th, 31st, or 55th selection?

The Basics

• School: St. John’s (transferred from Texas, then Cincinnati)
• Position: Forward
• Height: 6’6.75” (barefoot) | 6’8” (listed)
• Weight: 202 lbs
• Age: 22 (October 3, 2023)
• 2025-26 Stats: 8.3 PPG, 7.0 RPG, 3.0 APG, 1.6 STL, 55.9% FG, 49.4% FT
• Projected Draft Range: Mid-second round to undrafted

The Numbers

Mitchell’s production does not jump off the page like that of teammate Zuby Ejiofor’s did at St. John’s, but his profile is built more around his tools and energy than his raw scoring numbers and a plug-and-play profile transitioning from college to the NBA.

He averaged 8.3 points, seven rebounds and three assists per game for the Red Storm, giving Rick Pitino a high-motor forward who could defend, rebound, cut, run and finish without needing plays called for him. In St. John’s Sweet 16 loss to Duke, Mitchell scored 13 points on 86% shooting, showing the type of efficient, low-usage role that gives him an NBA pathway, although that will only happen after he spends some considerable developmental time in the chamber.

The passing is probably Mitchell’s calling card on offense, as he finished his senior campaign with 111 assists to only 37 turnovers, a great 3:1 ratio for an athletic forward whose offensive reputation has mostly centered on rim running, cutting and transition finishing.

SNY’s Ian Begley reported on Wednesday that the Knicks brought Mitchell in for a pre-draft workout, alongside UConn forward Alex Karaban. That matters because New York owns a second-round pick (No. 55), which fits the range Mitchell is expected to hear his name, unless he goes all the way and ends up signing a two-way, UDFA contract after the draft is over.

Skills That Pay the Bills

• Elite Athleticism: Mitchell is a rare vertical athlete. He runs the floor hard, jumps quickly off the ground, and can finish above the rim in transition, off cuts and on putbacks.
• Cutting and Play Finishing: His best offensive role is simple, as he’s adept at moving without the ball, finding dunker-spot openings, attacking backdoors and finishing plays created by guards. He does not need high usage to create value, as he’s a high-activity player.
• Defensive Versatility: Mitchell has the feet, mobility and athletic profile to defend multiple spots. He can navigate screens, switch in certain matchups and use his quickness to stay involved away from the ball.
• Rebounding Motor: He averaged seven rebounds per game and has posted more than two offensive rebounds per game in back-to-back seasons. His second jump and activity help him create extra possessions.
• Passing Growth: Mitchell’s senior season showed legitimate progress as an offensive connector, removing any concerns about him turning into a pro offense-stopper. He can make quick passes from the interior, hit cutters and move the ball without forcing plays.

Concerns

• No Reliable Jumper: This is the biggest issue, and not precisely a small one. Mitchell does not space the floor and his perimeter game remains underdeveloped, with the forward attempting 57 three-pointers in 144 college games across four seasons for an average of 0.4 3PA per game, hitting them at a horrid 19.3% clip. That limits lineup flexibility and makes his offensive role narrow in the current NBA economy.
• Free-Throw Shooting: His career free-throw percentage sits below 50%, which raises real questions about his touch and late-game playability alongside his non-existent long-range shooting.
• Limited Self-Creation: Mitchell is not a player who manufactures offense, mostly because of his shooting issues. He needs to play under a heavy structured offense, take advantage of spacing, and have elite playmakers around him to maximize his athletic tools and find him open.
• Tweener Role: He is 6’6.75” without elite length for a forward and does not shoot well enough to play a clean wing role. His NBA value depends on defending, rebounding, cutting and finishing at a high level.

The Knicks Fit

I don’t need to tell you how Mitchell fits the Knicks if you just read where the kid is coming from. New York just won their first championship since 1973, and Mitchell spent his final college season at St. John’s, playing home games at Madison Square Garden, and making this the ultimate good-story draft pick if NYK uses the late second-round selection on him or simply adds him to one of their two-way slots if he’s still available after the second day is over.

There is also real St. John’s history with the Knicks. New York drafted Mark Jackson out of St. John’s in 1987, and Jackson became NBA Rookie of the Year with the franchise, although the comparisons here are virtually non-existent. The other famous connection, and one still due for fix, is that with former Red Storm forward and Queens-born-and-raised Ron Artest, whom the Knicks passed on in 1999 when they selected Dunk-of-Death casualty Frederic Weis one pick before Artest went to the Chicago Bulls.

Mitchell would not arrive with Jackson’s or Artest’s profile or expectations—and he should definitely not be treated like that kind of prospect—but the local connection is there.

From a basketball standpoint, Mitchell fits only if the Knicks are comfortable taking a developmental bet, even late in the draft. New York already has physical wings and forwards in OG Anunoby, Mikal Bridges and Josh Hart, while Karl-Anthony Towns gives the team offensive firepower up front. Mitchell would need to earn minutes through defense, rebounding, pace and energy, and he won’t do anything to improve the offense, not being even close to Hart’s already-subpar shooting.

NBA Comparison

• Best-Case Comparison: Derrick Jones Jr. (Explosive cutter, finisher and defensive athlete without a lot to offer on offense)
• Median Outcome: KJ Martin (Vertical athlete who runs, cuts and finishes near the rim but not far from it)
• Low-End Outcome: Keita Bates-Diop without the jumper (Forward body, defensive chops, can’t hit a shot)

The Verdict

Pass at 24th and 31st. Consider him at 55th: Mitchell is not worth a first-round pick, whether that’s No. 24 or No. 31, unless the board completely collapses and the Knicks are convinced his jumper will develop, which is far from guaranteed. The athletic tools are obvious—Mitchell can run, jump, defend, cut and finish—but the shooting concerns are too big to ignore. A forward who does not space the floor and shoots below 50% from the free-throw line needs to be excellent in the margins to stay on the floor. Mitchell has some of those margins covered, especially with his cutting, rebounding and defensive versatility, but he still projects as a developmental player. Let him go past 55th, and with just five more picks remaining, there’s a good chance he goes undrafted, and the Knicks can ink him after he becomes a UDFA.

Read all our draft profiles here.

Go Knicks!

Looks like Mike Brown liked the no sex joke.

The Knicks’ head coach wore a shirt alluding to James Dolan’s joke about abstention during the team’s 10-week NBA playoff run that culminated with the the ticker-tape parade Thursday.

Brown showed off the shirt after while joining in on a rendition of “Who Let the Dogs Out” with a nearby crowd Thursday morning, and was jumping for joy before boarding a bus.

His shirt is in reference to the Knicks’ owner’s 15-minute speech to the players before the playoffs about making sacrifices for 10 weeks to win a championship, including giving up sex.

“I had this idea that maybe you should give up sex for the next 10 weeks,” Dolan told the Knicks before the playoffs on April 3. “You don’t have to give up sex for the next 10 weeks, but like Spartans — do you know what Spartans are? — they denied themselves to gain an edge. Get the edge.”

Brown is not the first to reference the joke, which was released to the public Monday.

Mikal Bridges also joked about it on his NSFW Instagram live earlier in the week.

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Follow The Post’s live updates from the Knicks Championship parade for the latest city chaos, celeb sightings and sports reaction.

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The Knicks hired Brown as Tom Thibodeau’s replacement in July 2025 due to his “championship pedigree.”

It’s safe to say it was the right choice as Brown led the Knicks to a 53-29 record during the regular season and one of the greatest NBA Playoff runs in history, winning 13 straight games during one stretch and the team’s first NBA Finals since 1953 when they downed the Spurs in five games.

It’s basketball blasphemy.

City Hall goofed during the Knicks victory parade Thursday when it displayed a massive banner for little-known forward Dillon Jones with legendary center Patrick Ewing’s retired No. 33 jersey number.

Fans were shocked and outraged by the Mamdani administration mishap as critics said you’d have to be from Mars – or a phony fan – not to know 33 is a sacred number for the Knicks that belongs forever to the Hall of Fame center.

“They must be trying to rile us up,” said Knicks faithful Allister. “You’re supposed to double-check your work and then double-check the double check. How do you mess that up?” 

Never really saw him in a jersey so just realized this — Dillon Jones is listed on the Knicks roster with Patrick Ewing’s retired No. 33 pic.twitter.com/OlXBPoDVxH

— Jared Schwartz (@jschwartz115) June 18, 2026

Construction worker Marquis Diaz was floored over the gaffe.

“You can’t be a New Yorker and you don’t know who owns No. 33,” Diaz said. “That’s why his number is retired – number of a legend.”

The banner was part of a series naming the Knicks roster that decorated City Hall for a ceremony that saw Mayor Zohran Mamdani present the hometown champions with keys to the city.

“I think that’s ridiculous,” Seagate resident Denise Cosenza said. “They should have done their homework especially since Ewing is so involved with the team.”

Another fan who identified himself as Curtis simply called it “blasphemy.

“Pat made this city what it is,” he told The Post.

Ewing was a Knicks icon, considered one of the greatest players in franchise history over 15 seasons in New York. His No. 33 was retired in 2003 and now hangs from the rafters of Madison Square Garden.

Jones, 24, was active for just seven regular-season games this year for the Knicks, his third NBA team since he was drafted by the Oklahoma City Thunder in 2024. 

He played for the Washington Wizards before joining the Knicks last year — wearing No. 1 at MSG and No. 2 with the development league Westchester Knicks.

But Jones did wear 33 during preseason games while ballin’ for the Wizards before he was cut and picked up by the Knicks.

Still a mystery is why that was the number — of all numbers — chosen for his City Hall banner, as captured by The Post’s Jared Schwartz.

“Epitome of Knicks parade fail,” one fan wrote on X.

“They need to take that s—t down now,” lifelong Knicks fan Ronel B. said. “Pat is the one who set the tone, who laid the bricks to get to where we are today, so to do him like that is just crazy and disrespectful.”

And a third chimed in, “someone’s getting fired.”

While Ewing last suited up for the Knicks in 2000, he was ever-present during the team’s championship run this year, and was in San Antonio as the team clinched the Finals over the Spurs on Saturday in Game 5.

The legendary big man celebrated the team’s first title in 53 years as he held the Larry O’Brien trophy alongside Jalen and Rick Brunson.

Jones, meanwhile, did not suit up during the playoff run, and last saw the court for the Knicks back on April 12 in the regular season.

The 2024 first-round pick also earned a ring with the Oklahoma City Thunder last year, for whom he made 10 appearances in the postseason.

Additional reporting by Craig McCarthyand Georgett Roberts

The San Antonio Spurs came up short in the Finals, but it’s unfair to call the season a failure because of the growth shown and the bonds strengthened in 2025-26. Fortunately, for them, their mighty nucleus is still in its infancy and with proper development, they will have more opportunities to raise the Larry O’Brien trophy.

In many cases, humiliation is one of life’s greatest teachers, and the Spurs must be feeling some of that after folding late in each of their four Finals losses. It’s what the team felt 13 years ago in 2013 when they let a title slip away in Miami, but it made them stronger and more determined the next season when they went on the warpath. 

Those Spurs, who celebrated their 12th championship anniversary on Monday, were at the time recognized for their selfless style of play and determination, but in terms of being viewed as truly great, they quickly fell into the shadow of the dynastic Warriors, who built on that style and would dominate the rest of the decade, led by a much more socially outgoing superstar. (But maybe they’ll get more respect in the future, like old films that were under appreciated at the time but later become cult classics.)

Like their 2013 counterparts, the current Spurs team now knows that being good is not good enough. Sixty-two wins may not happen every year, but there was a point in time in the in 2025-26 season in which Spurs fans started expecting to win every game, and that needs to be the standard going forward. 

The front office and Coach Mitch Johnson are likely already examining what areas need improvement. Among the things the Spurs will be addressing in the offseason, here are the changes and adjustments I’d like to see that could significantly raise their potency and be the difference between them hosting their own parade and going home empty-handed.  Let’s review.

1. Passing 

The Spurs were not a bad passing team, logging the second highest potential assists in the playoffs (45.7), but they were unremarkable in the playoffs as they were 12th of 16 in passes made and in the middle of ball security. Keep in mind that the greatest strength is the pass because it is faster than the dribble. The Spurs’ offense was too reliant on dribble penetration, while the New York Knicks ran more motion. 

Additionally, the 2024-25 Knicks did not look this sharp offensively under coach Tim Thibodeau as they did with Mike Brown, a former Spurs assistant, who helped them win a championship. The Knicks that lost against the Indiana Pacers in the 2025 ECF made 25.8 less passes per game than this year’s champs. One of the biggest effects this had was saving some of the juice in Jalen Brunson’s legs for clutch time.

More passes could help Victor Wembanyama because a good chunk of his offense starts with him dribbling down from the perimeter. Greater effort is exerted getting past a man in a defensive stance than slipping past someone who is trying to pay attention to the ball while guarding an off-ball player. 

Furthermore, it’s hard to have witnessed the Beautiful Game Spurs and think the current ball movement is enough. In 2014, they passed the ball 44 more times than the current squad, which makes them a completely different team. 

Think of the swift first step De’Aaron Fox, Stephon Castle and Dylan Harper have. Putting them in a system with more ball movement could make their jobs easier with more catch-and-go moves, ensuring they see less help defenders. 

One of the reasons the 2024-25 Indiana Pacers ripped through the East was because they averaged 318 passes per game, which was 49.4 more than the next East team (Orlando Magic), and 70.7 more than the Oklahoma City Thunder in the Finals. The Pacers lost in the finale, but who knows what happens if Tyrese Haliburton doesn’t pop his Achilles tendon? (Count yourself lucky, Chet Holmgren.)

With the right buy in and coaching, this adjustment can be done without the players sacrificing much of their identities. 

2. Covering the 3-point line 

The paint will always be the heart of the defense, but the importance of the 3-point line increases each year as the average attempts rise. On top of that, with respect to past eras, this one is the hardest to guard in since lots of carrying violations never get called, which is a ridiculously unfair advantage, and there are more areas of the half-court to cover.

Coach Johnson explained to me at All-Star weekend in the scrum that some of the reasons for so many open to wide-open 3-point attempts come from offensive rebounds, transition and unscripted plays. Some stuff is almost impossible to help unless the team is going to be perfect in other areas.

Nonetheless, teams can save themselves about 10 points per game by defending in the half-court with more attention to detail, and the Spurs are no different. One of the big mistakes made league wide is the corner defender standing in no man’s land. When the pass is made to his man, most times either an open shot is taken, or the hard close out causes a breakdown. This can be avoided by letting the backline defender, in a lot of cases Wembanyama, take care of it. 

Additionally, drop coverage should be used only on players who aren’t threats outside of 10 feet from the rim. The second defender has to play at the level of the screen against dynamic scorers in case a switch has to be made on the perimeter. 

Better corner and screen-roll defense plus staying home at important moments, like the last five seconds of Game 4 of the Finals, are about trust. Being out of position doesn’t just lead to an open jumper for the other side as it can cause a straight line to the hoop, too. Doubles can’t happen in the last four-to-five minutes when it’s a tight game or they are trying to preserve a lead. 

And then there’s the cardinal sin: fouling 3-point shooters. One of the Spurs’ goals next season should be to commit the least amount of these. It’s such a serious concern that every player should be fined $1,000 every time they do it and double that in the playoffs. Those three 3-point fouls Harper, Castle and Fox committed on Brunson in the second half of Game 5 probably brought Spurs fans somewhere to their knees.

The Spurs will solve a great deal of the fouling part by staying down and keeping their arms vertical.  

3. More close range action for Wemby

Ok, fine. I’ve been spoiled by tapes of David Robinson and saw Tim Duncan. How can you blame me, especially when they have a real successor?

Wembanyama had big-time moments in the playoffs, but there is still work to be done. He shot 42.5 percent in the paint non-restricted area in the playoffs and made 28.3 percent of attempts outside of the lane in the Finals. He naturally plays like a taller Kevin Durant but some of the outside shots happened because his body isn’t strong enough yet to take advantage of guys like Karl-Anthony Towns and Mitchell Robinson.

Preferably, the strategy would be more post play when his body is ready, but to be clear, he doesn’t need to turn into Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Yet, he should some day be good enough to where he can go to it as an adjustment and score a bucket every time.  

This could positively affect the teams passing because he’d be such a mismatch that he would unfasten coverages as soon as he catches it close, and then hit the open man on the move. Having this in the arsenal would help take him from a great player today to one for the ages.

Great post players are usually more dangerous on the second catch, and with his size advantage passing over the top, imagine Wembanyama getting the ball back while his defender isn’t looking. Shaquille O’Neal thrived in those moments created by the triangle offense.

This year, the Spurs’ post-up frequency was 1.7 percent in the playoffs. Unfortunately, the NBA’s tracking data for post-ups only goes as far back as 2015-16, but interestingly, the Spurs were first in frequency that season at 14.5 percent. They fell in round two to the Oklahoma City Thunder that year, but made the Western Conference Finals in 2016-17 against the overkill Golden State Warriors, while running nearly a third less post-ups. So, there are other avenues aside from the post to get Wemby more looks at close range, like getting him involved more at the elbow and nail, or using him at the dunker spot.

It doesn’t matter how it happens. He needs to impose his size more inside the arc.

The NBA draft is under a week away, which means we’re under two weeks away from one of the league’s most active transactional periods: the start of free agency on June 30th. While NBA insider Chris Haynes recently cast some doubt on this, Bucks co-owner Jimmy Haslam previously stated the Bucks would like to have Giannis’ future resolved by the draft. The Greek Freak can’t technically sign an extension until October, but if the Bucks tell him they’ll offer it once he’s eligible, then they can operate accordingly. If he signals acceptance, commit to having him in Milwaukee moving forward, and if he doesn’t, trade him for the best package. Or they could just not offer the extension at all and trade him.

The business implications of that move aside, the main basketball argument that makes the most sense for moving on is Giannis’ increasingly worrisome injury history. However, that may drive down offers from rivals, and is it worth trading your franchise legend for 75 cents on the dollar coming off an injury-plagued season? Alternatively, with a new coach in place and the assets to upgrade around Giannis, taking some pressure off him could negate his injury woes somewhat while also returning the Bucks to the playoffs.

That’s what we’re looking at today: how could GM Jon Horst revamp the roster while keeping Giannis, who we’ll assume would extend if Horst made another Jrue Holiday/Damian Lillard-type splash? They appear ready to do something, with or without the big fella: Brett Siegel of ClutchPoints said yesterday that he expects the Bucks to be “one of the most aggressive teams” on the trade market, though in the context of a Giannis trade. He also stated that Ryan Rollins is the only player on the roster off the table.

It’s possible that they’re looking at win-now moves as well as rebuilding ones. Everyone and their uncle has written about the latter, but few are talking about the former. The reality is that the Bucks have every capability of being a buyer this offseason with what they have on hand.

The Bucks’ assets

Once again, Horst has a bevy of first-round picks available to trade, despite every pick from 2027–31 being property of other teams after trades for the aforementioned guards. He can currently only offer his 2031 and 2032 first-round picks, but after the Bucks make their first-round pick at 10 overall next week, he can trade that player plus his first- and second-rounders in 2033. So, once any trade can be made official involving any of their 2026 or 2033 picks, Milwaukee’s best package of draft assets is three first-round picks and a swap.

Many fans are loath to give up additional firsts to acquire another star-level talent that will convince Giannis to extend, as he did in 2020 and 2023. And while the Bucks have succeeded in finding young talent on two-way deals recently, since drafting Donte DiVincenzo at 17 in 2018 (definitely a hit), they’ve had just two first-rounders since at 23 and 24 overall, both misses. It’s harder to find talent in that range, so the prevailing sentiment seems to be to hold onto the 10th pick.

That spot doesn’t often bring in a difference maker, but in this loaded draft, it seems likely Milwaukee will end up with someone quite promising. We spent a few weeks conducting a community mock draft with the Bucks selecting Michigan’s Yaxel Lendeborg with their 10th overall pick… if that’s where they’ll draft. One rumor says Milwaukee is operating as if they’ll have three firsts next week. For now, let’s go with what they can offer on draft night: a maximum of three first-round picks—including whoever is selected at 10 on behalf of a trade partner—and one first-round pick swap.

Recall that Lillard was obtained for one first and two swaps in 2023, plus Holiday. Holiday cost Milwaukee three firsts and two swaps in 2020, plus Eric Bledsoe and George Hill. Each of those players was necessary to make the deals legal. Though Milwaukee has similar draft capital available now as they did six years ago, those players had plenty of value when traded: Holiday and Bledsoe were both coming off All-Defense selections, while Hill led the NBA in three-point percentage.

The Bucks’ main salary-matching pieces—Kyle Kuzma and Bobby Portis—don’t hold that same value, at least not on the floor. But their contracts could both expire next summer: Portis can opt out in a year and hit the open market the same time as Kuzma. That has a different sort of value; one that might help the Bucks acquire draft picks, as I’ll explain tomorrow.

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But again, these are the questions: do the Bucks touch their draft stockpile again for another big-time roster upgrade, especially if they decide to keep Giannis? If they open the pick cupboard, how much are they comfortable giving up? Will it be enough to return to the postseason picture next year?

First, let’s level set. You might recall that Houston sent out the very same no. 10 pick in last year’s draft in the Kevin Durant trade. They also traded away Jalen Green, Dillon Brooks, David Roddy, and five second-round picks. Durant was about to turn 37 and relatively healthy, so if you’re interested in Kawhi Leonard right now, I’d imagine the package would be similarly steep. Not to mention the Bucks would need to add AJ Green or Myles Turner alongside Kuzma and Portis to make the deal legal. Anyway, onto some better names…

Trey Murphy III

Here’s a longtime favorite of Bucks fans on trade machines. Reportedly, the Pelicans—who are without a first this year—are trying to acquire a lottery pick. And they have someone specific in mind who’s in the top-10 neighborhood. That should pique Milwaukee’s interest, because there’s a very real chance that whoever is selected 10th never becomes as good a player as Murphy, or the other players we’ll discuss.

New Orleans controls all of their future firsts, so they probably would prefer to trade future picks—and it may take a few—to get into this year’s lottery rather than trading from the roster. That means Horst might need to sweeten the pot. Kuzma’s expiring salary is enough to satiate trade rules, but is no. 10 enough for a sweet-shooting 26-year-old that averages 21 a game? If not, maybe swap rights on one of Milwaukee’s 2031–33 firsts does the trick.

Or perhaps New Orleans would like two picks in this year’s first round. I’ve written a bit about how Oklahoma City (who own no. 12 and 17) and Charlotte (no. 14 and 18) are who to call if Milwaukee wants to move down for multiple picks, and I’ve read OKC is interested in moving up. Sending no. 10 to the Thunder while the Bucks preserve their picks in 2031–33 and route two 2026 picks to the Pelicans might get a Murphy deal over the line. And get Giannis to sign on the dotted line in October.

Michael Porter Jr.

MPJ broke out last year in Brooklyn, and maybe his presence could also convince Giannis to extend. He was connected with several teams—never with the Bucks—around the deadline before the Nets decided to keep him. Now he’s on a $40.8m expiring contract, and could be eligible to extend with a team that acquires him after six months. Again, Portis plus Kuzma works, and saves Brooklyn $5.8m next year (not that they need it). But MPJ will likely have many suitors this offseason, and would the Nets, who have long had eyes for Giannis, want to do anything that keeps him a Buck? To convince them, I think no. 10 might be necessary, and hopefully not much more. They’d then have two top-10 picks on their roster next season.

Brandon Ingram, Lauri Markkanen, Franz Wagner

Packaging Kuzma and Portis would work as salary matching for Ingram, and if one of Trent/Harris/Prince opts in and is included, Markkanen. I imagine the latter would definitely require giving up a future first, though I don’t think either guy is worth no. 10. Plus, the on-court fit with Giannis isn’t as good. The only other player I’d group among the win-now acquisitions in this article is Wagner, but I don’t think Orlando is ready to call off their Wagner/Paolo Banchero frontcourt experiment yet, and Wagner played just 34 games last season.

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Tomorrow, we’ll take a look at trades that won’t require the Bucks giving up picks, and would make at least some sense regardless of whether Giannis remains. But let’s close with a poll today to get your opinion on once again trading first-rounders. You can select multiple options, but obviously, don’t select any of the draft picks if you vote “none of the above.”

Let the parade festivities begin.

Two hours before the start of the Knicks’ ticker-tape championship parade, fans already started the “F–k Wemby” chant.

There was also a doll dressed as the Spurs forward being tossed around the crowd.

Victor Wembenyama became the latest New York villain after he shoved beloved Knicks captain Jalen Brunson in Game 3 of the NBA Finals.

It didn’t help that the Frenchman had 32 points with eight rebounds, six assists and three blocks in the Knicks’ only loss of the series on the same night.

The fans then chanted the same “f–k Wemby” line during Game 4 at MSG.

“I guess,” Wembanyama said when asked if he’s being vilified by the Knicks fans. “I’m nowhere near Trae Young-level, though.”

Enormous crowds have already shown up for the parade celebrating the Knicks’ win, with viewing areas already full, per the NYPD.

“It may well be the largest parade in New York City history,” Mayor Zohran Mamdani said.

The parade will feature floats with every member of the championship team, the coaching staff, and past Knicks icons Walt “Clyde” Frazier and Patrick Ewing.

Celebrity row staples such as Ben Stiller are also expected.

The parade will begin at 10 a.m., but folks looking to watch from home or work can tune in on the New York Post Sports YouTube page.

Knicks fans have waited a long time to see their team parade through the Canyon of Heroes, but on Thursday that dream has become reality.

As fans flooded the streets of lower Manhattan — many arriving in the very early morning hours — let's take a look a some of the top moments as the Knicks and their fans soak in their NBA title.

You can watch SNY's coverage of the parade here.

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"I straight up cried."

Knicks fans tell @ChelseaSherrod how they reacts to OG Anunoby's game-winning tip-in in Game 4 of the NBA Finals pic.twitter.com/wdknDrCHYP

— SNY Knicks (@sny_knicks) June 18, 2026

Mitchell Robinson is in his truck at the Knicks' parade 🔥 pic.twitter.com/NKHZvMSsAg

— SNY Knicks (@sny_knicks) June 18, 2026

They're throwing a Victor Wembanyama doll around at the Knicks' parade 😭 pic.twitter.com/vzrGEbKSRH

— SNY Knicks (@sny_knicks) June 18, 2026

City Hall is all dressed up to celebrate the champs.

All the 18 members of the Knicks roster have a banner 🧡💙

(A thread) pic.twitter.com/s5Dp7mYp17

— SNY Knicks (@sny_knicks) June 18, 2026

THE LARRY O'BRIEN TROPHY IS HERE pic.twitter.com/ArIpOwsFQB

— SNY Knicks (@sny_knicks) June 18, 2026

THE KING OF NEW YORK.

Jalen Brunson carries his daughter along the parade route pic.twitter.com/4euuGrWb7n

— SNY Knicks (@sny_knicks) June 18, 2026

The ticker tape is ready. pic.twitter.com/wCuLJcSfbX

— SNY Knicks (@sny_knicks) June 18, 2026

"MIKE MIKE MIKE!"

Mike Brown at the Knicks' parade in a "10 weeks" shirt pic.twitter.com/NI2h8QuS6k

— SNY Knicks (@sny_knicks) June 18, 2026

Mitch and his truck 🔥 pic.twitter.com/yf2r0qzjqI

— SNY Knicks (@sny_knicks) June 18, 2026

🚨 THE NBA CUP TROPHY HAS MADE IT TO THE PARADE 🚨 pic.twitter.com/VkdoLls2dh

— SNY Knicks (@sny_knicks) June 18, 2026

Tyler Kolek confirmed that he is on the Knicks after an encounter with security at the parade 😭

(via @tyler_kolek, @bansky) pic.twitter.com/5Fksc9tHmB

— SNY Knicks (@sny_knicks) June 18, 2026

THE NBA CHAMPION NEW YORK KNICKS TAKE THE STAGE AT CITY HALL pic.twitter.com/8pUQPPPWN4

— SNY Knicks (@sny_knicks) June 18, 2026

Today, New York City celebrates its champions, as the victory parade for the 2026 NBA champion Knicks will be held in Manhattan. It will be the culmination of a two-month long stretch of play, the likes of which New York has not seen from any of its teams in any of its sports in quite some time, as the squad steamrolled their way through the playoffs en route to their first championship since 1973. And just about everyone—from the longtime fans who have suffered through years of heartbreak and pain to the newbie fans joyfully jumping on the bandwagon—has been swept up in the mayhem of the Knicks and their unlikely march into the history books.

That includes many of us here at Amazin’ Avenue. Joe Sokolowski used the most recent This Week in Mets Quotes article to write a heartfelt treaty about experiencing the highs of this playoff run with his father. I first wrote about the Knicks when they were on the verge of clinching their way into the Finals and I didn’t really want to write an actual recap of another crappy Mets game. Then, prior to the beginning of the series against the Spurs, I wrote a more serious piece bemoaning the inability of the other blue and orange team we focus on around these parts to achieve the same kind of extended success that we’ve seen at Madison Square Garden over these past few years.

That latter article offered a somewhat more fatalistic outlook on how the success of the Knicks commented upon the failures (both new and old) of the Mets. And many of the feelings expressed therein are ones I still feel two weeks later. But now that the Knicks have finally reached the mountaintop, I think it’s only fair that I offer a culminating piece to this unofficial trilogy of mine—one that provides the more positive takeaway from all of this. Because if there’s one lesson I’ve learned from this Knicks run that I can take and apply to them, the Mets, and any other sports team that you or I may root for, it’s this: the pain and suffering is all worth it in the end.

I didn’t necessarily always know for sure if that statement would prove to be true. I speak as someone born in 1993, and I imagine my experiences mirror those of a lot of fans in my relative age range: those of us who were born too late to experience some of the great moments in our franchise’s histories, but also early enough that we have now spent decades of our lives waiting for our turn to finally know what it’s like to see our team win a championship. As a Mets/Jets/Knicks fan who has been consuming sports religiously for two decades now, the idea of actually seeing it happen has usually felt entirely unattainable, as the experience of rooting for my three primary teams was rooted almost solely in heartbreak. And when I allowed myself to dream about some distant future in which things actually broke our way for once, some part of me had to wonder: can the joy that I would experience in that hypothetical scenario actually make up for all the years I spent living with an entirely irrational level of stress and disappointment over the stumblings of these three teams?

Sure, I know the people who have actually gotten to see their squads win it all—including fans who are older than me and were around to see the 1969/1986 Mets, the 1970s Knicks, the 1968 Jets—would tell me that it would be worth it, but that was their experience; that doesn’t necessarily mean it would be mine. And of course, I would also think about the Red Sox and Cubs fans who lived full lives hoping that they would one day get to see their respective franchises’ curses lifted, the ones who died before seeing that dream realized. Some part of me had to wonder if I was destined to suffer a similar fate—not just for one of my teams, but for all three of them.

Well, the jury’s still out on the Mets and Jets, but as of June 13, 2026, I can now say that I have seen one of my teams win a championship. And I can now say that it was worth it. But I don’t really think that suffices. I think it’s important to really reflect on why it was worth it—because I think the specific reasons are different than what I might have imagined they would be when I first started watching sports as a 12-year-old boy and in the years to follow.

Like many, most of my sports fandoms were originally rooted in the people around me—my grandmother instilled my love for the Mets, and my father cursed me with Jets fandom (incidentally, the Knicks are the one team for whom I didn’t really have that initial outside influence, but I certainly wasn’t going to root for the Nets when their games aired on the same network as the goddamn Yankees). Still, for a large portion of my life, these fandoms were largely an isolated experience, something that offered small and brief periods of comfort while dealing with the deepest throes of depression and isolation. We don’t need to linger too much on these dark years—this is supposed to be a celebratory piece, after all—but suffice to say that during these times, there wasn’t a whole lot to look forward to, and not many people to share victories and (mostly) defeats with. The dream of a championship from one of my teams offered a small but meaningful reason to keep going, to keep struggling through the rough times. It was a dream destination that made the trials and tribulations of the journey just a little bit more bearable.

Over time, this changed—thanks in no small part to this very site and its community. I met the woman who would become my wife while we were both anonymous posters in the comments section (and subsequently got to indoctrinate her into Knicks fandom). I made several other friends from this site and through my participation on it who would form such a large basis of my consumption of sports. I no longer lived and died by these moments alone—now I got to share the joys and sorrows with others. And that did fundamentally change my relationship with sports, and all for the better.

And lord, there has been so much of that shared joy over these past few months—and not just with my friends and family. Living in Washington DC, I have spent most of this Knicks playoff run outside of the city in which the magic was happening. While there were obvious drawbacks to that, there was also the advantage of coming upon other Knicks fans in foreign waters and having those brief moments of recognition and acknowledgement of these fellow travelers. A large group of Knicks fans congregated in a bar in Arlington, Virginia during these playoff games, with the number of attendees rising higher and higher as the playoff run deepened until both the inner and outer areas of the establishment were filled wall-to-wall in a sea of orange and blue. All of these expatriates—people whose lineage hail from the greater New York area, whose lives have brought them to an entirely different area of the country but who still represent their roots through their fandoms—came together and experienced the thrills of a Knicks championship run with the only people in our corner of the world who could truly understand what it meant. My wife and I got to see some of the most memorable highlights of the playoff run in this setting—from the Eastern Conference Finals clincher to the dramatic Game 4 comeback against the Spurs, culminated by a tip-in basket by OG Anunoby which will live right up with the Buckner error in the pantheon of all-time great New York sports moments.

But still, nothing could quite compare to experiencing the joy of Knicks mania in New York City itself—something my wife and I did get to experience this past Saturday, the day the 53-year drought officially ended. We journeyed throughout Queens early in the day in our Jalen Brunson and Josh Hart jerseys and screamed “KNICKS IN 5” at virtually every single one of the dozens upon dozens of people who were also geared up in Knicks attire. And then there was the game itself, which we watched at Fifth Hammer Brewing Company in Long Island City amidst a massive crowd of fellow fans. Like every single game in the Finals, it was a tense affair in which the Knicks spent most of the game down by a lot and needed to fight tooth and nail to come back. But when the final whistle sounded and it was all over? Utter pandemonium ensued. The loudest cheers I’ve ever heard in my life. Some people cried. Some people hugged. Some people took their shirts off. Some people did a combination of all three. I mostly just stood there with my arms held up and a huge, stupid smile on my face, not quite able to believe that it had actually happened after all these years.

And later on, when we finally left to begin making the trek home, it was clear that the celebration was just getting started. Cars were honking. People in the streets were screaming and dancing. I took a selfie with a complete stranger. And when we entered the subway to head to Grand Central, the entire car was shaking with people cheering and banging the walls. The jubilation continued throughout our entire journey home, and it really hasn’t stopped in the days since then.

All of these moments—and countless more I don’t have the time or space to describe—were what made the wait worth it to me. It wasn’t necessarily just the vague sense of accomplishment one illogically feels when their team wins through no effort of one’s own—though that was there, of course. It was those communal moments of joy and connection, both with the people I already know and love and with the people I had never met before and probably will never meet again. It was the shared humanity that we all experienced, the feeling of being really and truly alive. Those kinds of moments are all too rare in life, and sports are one of the few things that are capable of giving them to us—particularly when the collective angst of a city is relieved through the end of a drought that many thought would live on forever. Mayor Zohran Mamdani perhaps put it best: “Oftentimes this kind of unity comes in moments of tragedy. And to see it coming now in a moment of joy, it’s something I’ve never seen before across our city.”

Right around now, someone reading this probably feels the need to remind me that, sir, this is a Mets website. And look: As meaningful as this Knicks championship was, and as much as I would love to one day see the Jets get there as well, the Mets have always been and will always be the team for whom I have the biggest emotional attachment. They are the Alpha and the Omega, and a prospective championship from them is my great white whale. New York City may never react as strongly to a sports victory as they did to this Knicks victory, but as for me, the Mets winning it all and ending their own lengthy title drought would give me a satisfaction that would know no equal. As fun as it was to convert my wife to Knicks fandom and experience their achievement with her, it would pale in comparison to being able to jointly celebrate a World Series victory for the team whose existence is the very reason we found each other.

And yet, there is still likely to be a journey of struggle and sadness to get to that point. There still exists the possibility that we may never get there. And many may still wonder if the wait will ever be worth that. But I personally will not wonder that anymore—because the Knicks showed me that it is. Whether you are just as big a Knicks fan as I am, an innocent bystander, or anything in between, hopefully you were able to examine what this team was able to accomplish for this city, and hopefully you came to the same conclusion that I did.