Category: NBA

He’s already home. Mikel Brown Jr. will tell you that, he’ll tell Tracy McGrady that, he’ll tell Vince Carter that — and next, he wants to let Jay-Z know.

When the Brooklyn Nets drafted the Louisville point guard sixth overall, they didn’t just get a long-sought guard to run the offense. They brought in an 18-year-old who was raised on the borough’s soundtrack long before he ever put on the jersey.

Appearing on a recent episode of the Cousins podcast alongside NBA legends Tracy McGrady and Vince Carter, the rookie gave Nets fans an intimate look into his connection to Brooklyn’s Finest.

Despite being born in 2006 (a full decade after Reasonable Doubt dropped), Brown Jr. made it clear that his knowledge of Hov’s catalog isn’t a surface-level trend. It’s a lifestyle passed down from day one.

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Passing Down the Blueprint

During a recent sit-down on Cousins, the conversation drifted away from summer workout routines and straight into hip-hop. McGrady brought up a detail that caught him off guard given the rookie’s age.

“We was talking about some music and you said Jay-Z was your favorite artist,” McGrady said. “And I want to know how, because you a young fella. When you were born, what year were you born?”

“2006,” Mikel Brown Jr. replied.

“Oh my gosh, yeah,” McGrady said. “Jay-Z had been out 10 years already. So how you got involved, how you got connected and hooked up with Jay-Z, bro?”

“My father, pops put me on,” Brown Jr. said. “Car ride, car ride, me in the front seat at the age four or five, blasting Hov, blasting Blueprint, blasting Reasonable Doubt, Black Album, Blueprint 3, all of it, KingdomCome, all of it.”

McGrady stepped in to test the young guard’s catalog knowledge: “What is your favorite album from Hov?”

“The best album is the Black Album,” Brown Jr. said. “My favorite album, because I mean it came out in 2009, Blueprint 3 is my favorite album.”

“What’s your favorite cut on there?”

“‘Already Home’,” Brown Jr. replied instantly. “‘Already Home’. ‘Already Home’… Every time it comes on, like if I’m shuffling my music and it comes on, I’m already like I start jamming, I promise you I start dancing.”

McGrady started and Brown Jr. joined:

“They call me a camel”

“But I mastered the drought, what the f— I’m an animal”

“Half-man half-mammal”

“My sign is a Sag, this is just what I plan to do”

“Oh he a fan, he a fan,” T-Mac said.

He didn’t stop at the lead single. MBJ began running through his tracklist rankings.

“You know that it got ‘Already Home’, ‘Reminder’, ‘A Star is Born’… ‘Real as It Gets’ is the most underrated song on that album,” MBJ mentions.

“No, it’s the BEST song on the album!” McGrady insisted.

“You think so?” asked MBJ

“Him and Jeezy…” McGrady said.

“They don’t miss though, them two don’t miss,” said Brown Jr., before T-Mac brought up the duo’s reunion at the Extra Innings Show on July 12.

“Don’t even get me started, cuz I’m gonna get mad now. Don’t even… I’m get mad, bro, I’m gonna get mad, bro,” MBJ said.

“Duty calls, man. Duty calls in Vegas, young fella” T-Mac emphasized as the trio laughed.

For the incoming guard, the full-circle moment of landing with the franchise Hov once helped bring to the borough isn’t lost on him.

“It’s crazy, what a coincidence, me getting drafted in Brooklyn and Jay-Z being my favorite artist,” Brown Jr. said. “It’s… it’s nuts.”

“You going to get a chance to meet Jay, bro,” McGrady said.

Nets legend Vince Carter closed out the segment with a promise that every rookie landing in Brooklyn dreams of hearing.

“He gonna be there, especially when he gets wind of this, oh yeah. We’ll make it happen for you regardless.”

MBJ understands the culture and the soundtrack of the borough he now calls home. If the Knicks currently own the heart of the city, then No. 0 is walking into Barclays with his own blueprint. We’ll see if he can help get the Nets there — with or without Jay-Z watching court side.

Mikel Brown Jr. is going to fit in perfectly in Brooklyn 💎

The generational gap between himself and @Tmac_213 being bridged over their shared love of Jay-Z's music is incredible, with the two spitting lyrics from "Already Home." 🔥 pic.twitter.com/EdG0EM6zzW

— Cousins with Vince Carter & Tracy McGrady (@VinceAndTmac) July 30, 2026

The Brooklyn Nets announced the signing of Moe Wagner Friday morning, giving them 15 guaranteed contracts and more significantly. almost certainly ending their off-season. The two-year, $19 million deal, effectively exhausts their cap space for the 2026 off-season and puts a period on their summer moves, barring a big exclamation point as surprise. And yes, Michael Porter Jr.’s extension needs addressing but he is under contract next season and even if the two sides think a trade might be wise, that’s more likely to happen around the deadline.

As Yossi Gozlan of Third Apron tweeted about the 6’11” 29-year-old’s deal…

The Nets held off on this signing to see if they could spend $14 million in cap space first.

By officially signing Moe Wagner, they’re down to $4.5 million in cap space and have the $9.4 million room mid-level exception as well.

They can take both into the season. https://t.co/x1zSlygR2R

— Yossi Gozlan (@YossiGozlan) July 31, 2026

That means Sean Marks & co. can use the MLE at the February trade deadline, giving them some additional flexibility. Gozlan said the Nets could use their remaining cap space to give MPJ a raise this coming season from $40.8 million to $45.7 million then extend him at a much lower salary.

Any option to improve things down the line is welcome to fans. Here’s why:

The Nets live in a tough neighborhood. We’re not talking about Prospect Heights in particular or Brooklyn in general. It’s the NBA’s Eastern Conference and the Atlantic Division that’s so dangerous, particularly for fans who have sat through two years of tanking and before that two years of collapse as the Big Three went their separate ways.

A walk through the East requires peering anxiously at every corner. Peril lurks everywhere. The New York Knicks are defending champs; The Philadelphia 76ers acquired one All-NBA player, Jaylen Brown, in a glorified salary dump then signed another, LeBron James, for gods sake, to the vets minimum. The Miami Heat traded for Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Toronto Raptors will (likely) see the return of Kawhi Leonard. Speaking of returns, the Indiana Pacers are anxiously awaiting Tyrese Haliburton, last seen in the 2025 NBA Finals.

Yes, it’s daunting. While the Nets are no longer tanking — it would make no sense with the Houston Rockets likely to have their pick in the 2027 Draft, which gets awful reviews on top of that — the rebuild is ongoing. They are likely to have once again the youngest roster in the league, with an average age not much higher than the 23.3 years old they registered last season. Indeed, they were the youngest player in the NBA in more than 20 years. They may also lead the league in cap space as well as well as future draft picks.

Their big positives in the off-season so far have been the acquisition of Julius Randle in the Nic Claxton trade, and Mikel Brown Jr. in the draft as well as Egor Demin’s development. They also added some veterans, like Wagner and Keon Ellis who have defensive cachet. On the other hand, they had to be disappointed at the development (or the lack thereof) of the final three picks of the 2025 Draft. And although they’re happy with who they got with the 8th and 6th picks in the last two drafts, bad luck in the lottery still stings.

Bottom line, though, is that they did not stray from their organic path: using an accumulation of draft picks plus development and good fortune to create a cap environment that will permit them to be opportunistic when big players become available … without having to worry about luxury taxes, repeater taxes, the first or second aprons. And they will not make big acquisitions unless it will, as Marks has said, “automatically and absolutely change the trajectory of your team.” There’s no desire, he’s also said, to be stuck in the purgatory of a sixth or seventh seed. There’s also a few requirements for individual acquisitions: positional size, versatility, athleticism and high character …. Jordi-ball … that became evident. ( You’d have thought Peyton Watson might have been an ideal addition, particularly with the team’s highest paid player opening recruiting him. Not so. He apparently doesn’t meet that “automatically and absolutely” qualification and he probably will be expensive.)

There should be no surprise that the Nets did what they did — or didn’t do — this off-season, whether you agree or disagree. As C.J. Holmes in the Daily News noted this week in quoting Marks in various summertime venues.

Here’s what he said after the Nets fell to the sixth pick in the draft lottery. No rush.

“For us, it’ll still be about having patience,” he said in Chicago. “But at the end of the day, we’ve got optionality, we’ve maintained flexibility, we’ve got the cap space and assets. So I think the word would be opportunistic.”

At Summer League, he reiterated the stance.

“Something we’ve always prided ourselves on with how we’ve built is not using up all our flexibility. … I like the roster we have. … I don’t think we’re in any immediate rush to do anything and add more pieces,” he said in Las Vegas.

The plan for the future depends a lot on the franchise’s faith in Jordi Fernandez. They are all-in and in his speech to the citizens of his hometown of Badalona, Spain, he intimated the feeling is mutual. He said he wanted to retire from coaching in Brooklyn. Considering that he’s 43 years, that’s quite the commitment.

One has to assume that the Nets brass is looking for a scrappy team this season in the mold of their coach, one led by two players won’t be able to buy a drink legally in New York until well into the season and two other players who can put up 20 a game with ease but whose excess baggage fees have been high. (We generally think the acquisition of Randle has been underrated. So did a vast majority of the fan base as our poll showed.).

The franchise understands that the rebuild is getting old in a lot of ways, but so far the fanbase seems generally patient. That’s a good thing because it will be needed.

• Is Nets’ offseason over after officially announcing Moe Wagner signing? – Erik Slater – Clutch Points

On July 1, 2018, LeBron James announced he was signing a four-year $153.3 million contract to play basketball for the Los Angeles Lakers.

At the time he announced this move, there were no other superstars coming with him, and no immediately clear path to him extending his personal streak of making eight consecutive Finals. No, he’d be “going at it alone,” joining a roster of mostly unproven young players — some high lottery picks, some deeper draft/undrafted steals — and a few holdover veterans in an attempt to steward them into the next era of what many hoped, but even more doubted, could be the next Lakers champion.

Nearly eight years to the day, on June 30, 2026, LeBron James announced he would continue his career into a 24th campaign, but on a different team, leaving the Lakers after the longest uninterrupted stint of his Hall of Fame career. Unlike when he arrived, James was leaving a team that had a superstar already in tow, which, not coincidentally, helped to facilitate his decision to move on by essentially replacing him in both importance and status as the Lakers’ best player.

In the 2,291 days between LeBron’s announcement of his arrival and his decision to leave, he and the Lakers had their ups and downs, to be sure, but ultimately accomplished just about everything anyone could have realistically expected.

Individually, LeBron was named to eight All-Star games, one of the three All-NBA teams seven times, had three top-10 finishes in MVP voting (including a second place finish in 2020), passed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to become the NBA’s all-time leading scorer (and, more broadly, the league’s oldest player to accomplish essentially anything of meaning in an individual game or average across a season), and won the Finals MVP. And, as a team, the Lakers won the organization’s 17th championship by claiming the 2020 title and won the inaugural In-Season Tournament/NBA Cup in 2024.

Whenever his career is over, his jersey will hang in the rafters and that’s that.

I’ll add, too, that while the 2019-20 season was the one where LeBron and the team experienced their most success together, it also doubled as one of the hardest for the organization, its fans, and, generally, the world. With the death of franchise and sports icon Kobe Bryant in January and then the COVID-19 shutdown in mid-March, LeBron put the franchise on his broad shoulders, serving as a leader both on and off the court to help stabilize the organization in ways that go beyond just basketball. I don’t know if there was a single player in the league I would have wanted more leading the team than LeBron during that time and I’ll always be grateful he was with the team to carry the burden that he did.

In bringing it back to the court, though, maybe fans wanted more. Some always will, of course. More titles, more regular season success, more consistent deep playoff runs…just more. But, in the eight years LeBron spent in Los Angeles, not a single team repeated as champion. We never saw a repeat Finals matchup or, even less so, a single team make the Finals in back-to-back seasons — though the Warriors, Celtics, and Heat each made two Finals in that stretch.

Maybe the Lakers could have been one of those teams that made more than one Finals run or bucked the trend and won a second, or even went back-to-back. They were certainly on track in 2021. But a Solomon Hill dive for a loose ball into LeBron’s legs and then an Anthony Davis sprained knee ended that idea. Then, later that summer, the ill-fated trade for Russell Westbrook essentially spiraled the team backward, undermining their championship chances long enough for the internal belief in the LeBron and Davis duo to erode to a point where the front office would no longer sacrifice assets that could possibly get them over the hump.

Whoever you want to blame for this, you’re likely to be correct.

The stars — LeBron included — either couldn’t stay healthy or couldn’t lift a flawed group of role players high enough to get past Denver to really make a sustained push to another title. And even though LeBron reportedly bought in and signed off, it was front office who both executed the disastrous Russ trade and then ultimately decided they would neither sacrifice more future assets to either get out of his deal earlier nor try to grab the sort of reinforcements LeBron and AD needed after it was clear the remade group they did build wasn’t good enough to get over the top.

And to the degree Jeanie Buss could have stepped in from her ownership role to alter the course charted in any way, it never happened, allowing Rob Pelinka to divest from a LeBron-led team to one that actively sought out its next superstar instead — something, to his credit, he did better than anyone could have ever imagined when he was able to flip Davis for Luka Dončić.

Which brings us to present day.

I, for one, have no hard feelings towards LeBron, or even his “camp” of Rich Paul and the more Bron-centric media talking heads who have been taking subtle (and sometimes not-so-subtle) shots at the Lakers in the wake of LeBron leaving for Philly. As I said up top, LeBron did everything I could have ever expected him to, and did it with a level of commitment to both his teammates and the franchise that you’d want from your best player. And while hearing the jabs from those around him is both annoying and somewhat predictable, it doesn’t sour my view of James himself or his time here.

From my POV, things weren’t always perfect, but they never are — not with Kareem, Magic, Shaq, or Kobe before him. But, just like those superstars who came before him, on most days, I knew exactly what I was getting from LeBron, and he delivered it with a spirit, joy, and love of the game that I always appreciated.

I know there are some who feel differently. Some, actively and derisively so. And I’m not here to tell you how to be a fan or who to like/cheer for. That’s how it goes with sports fandom — and especially how it goes with a fanbase as big as the Lakers’. There’s going to be a much wider range of opinions and like any other huge group of people, we’re not a monolith and there’s no one single opinion about any single player that every person will hold as their undeniable truth.

That said, I think we can all agree that with LeBron now gone, the pivot is here to Luka Dončić as the undisputed face of the franchise and the singular superstar this team will rise and fall with. And I, personally, am excited about what this means for the team and the franchise moving forward. LeBron leaving can mean different things to different people, but it’s undoubtedly an opportunity for Dončić to put his stamp on the Lakers in the singular way that his personality and game dictate.

This is something that never could have happened with LeBron here. He knew it, Luka knew it, Pelinka and the front office knew it, and so does everyone else. Which means it was probably time for this change to happen and goodbyes were in order.

So, goodbye LeBron. Much success to you in Philly. Except when you play the Lakers.

You can follow Darius on BlueSky at @forumbluegoldand find more of his Lakers coverage on the Laker Film Room Podcast.

The Houston Rockets, along with the rest of the NBA, are in the middle of their offseason. Players are doing their individual workouts, coaches are going over their training camp and start-of-season plans, and the front office is, as usual, thinking ahead about how to improve their teams.

Late July through Early September are usually the slowest time of the year for the NBA as the next big event is training camp, which usually takes place the last week of September or the first week of October.

Some players host basketball camps for their local communities, which allow fans to work out with an actual NBA player. For instance, Jabari Smith has held a basketball camp each season he has been in the NBA.

Other off-court events take place throughout the Summer as NBA players and teams host a range of functions, from park renovations to back-to-school charity events.

The Rockets organization has always been active in the community year-round. They have renovated multiple parks, hold charity events to benefit the Boys and Girls Clubs throughout the city, and hold food drives every holiday season.

The Rockets will hold their annual Back-to-School Bash in partnership with the Houston Parks and Recreation Department. The event took place at Sunnyside Community Center and featured a backpack giveaway and school-supply distribution for up to 1,000 students, courtesy of Reliant and the Rockets.

Each backpack will include a Chick-fil-A and a Pizza Hut voucher, along with beverages from Gatorade and Aquafina for the event.

There will be appearances by Hall of Famer and Comets legend Cynthia Cooper and Rockets legend Rafer Alston. Rockets staff will conduct basketball clinics, and students can receive complimentary health and dental screenings without the need for insurance, courtesy of Children’s Memorial Hermann Hospital.

Students will also be able to receive services from Franklin Beauty Institute and Sparkle Spa Bus. This is a great event that provides families with school supplies and essentials they will need for the upcoming school year. The event also brings the community together and gives the Rockets orginization the oppurtunity to interact with the fans who support them all season long.

The Sixers are the talk of the NBA. Who would have thought that would have been the case just over two months ago when the euphoria of eliminating the Boston Celtics had been quickly erased at the hands of another rival in the New York Knicks? Well, here we are and almost half of the schedule for the Sixers next season will be seen by a national audience.

It’s really a 180 from a vibes standpoint. The Sixers haven’t even played a game next season, and won’t for about three more months, but basketball fans both inside and outside of Philadelphia are fascinated by what’s about to happen with the team. By now, we’ve all seen the concerns and doubts expressed about why it won’t work out for Philly in 2026-27. “There’s only one basketball! Look at those usage rates!” Maybe those concerns will be validated when the season starts.

There is probably some truth to the fact that the LeBron James experience is at its apex from the day he picks your team in free agency and after that things get chaotic and James becomes a de facto GM of his new team. But if there’s any fanbase that deserves to overlook those norms, it’s Sixers fans. Joel Embiid has had just about every injury imaginable in his career and some of them have just been bad luck at the wrong times in the playoffs. Philadelphia has had countless executives try over and over again to put the right players around Embiid to make a serious run at an NBA championship.

Now, it’s not just about surrounding Embiid with talent, but it’s about how good the Philadelphia 76ers are at basketball. The entire team is coming together in a way that is forcing pundits around the country to look at the organization in a different lens and that wouldn’t have necessarily happened with some of the other teams James was considering in free agency. Even without James, the mood around the Sixers had already shifted in a positive direction thanks to the Jaylen Brown trade. Getting off Paul George’s contract to bring in a player who’s significantly younger and significantly better than George was a massive shot in the arm for the fans.

Then factor in that a player who is widely-regarded as the second-best to ever play basketball and certainly the best player of the 21^st century just chose to finish his career as a Sixer, and how can you be on cloud nine for the next couple months until the games start counting for real? Nothing counts right now and that’s why it’s the perfect time to bask in the spotlight for a few months because it’s a spotlight that no one saw coming.

Provided Philly can live up to the hype, it’s a spotlight that will stay on the franchise certainly for as long as James is a 76er. But what’s the best part of all of this? It’s that the Sixers should be able to sustain success well after James is done playing. They already have a promising backcourt with Tyrese Maxey and VJ Edgecombe and we know that Maxey’s connection with James played a key role in James picking Philadelphia. Set to turn 26 at the start of the season, Maxey is only just entering his prime. If he was able to lure James to finish his career in Philadelphia, think about the positive ripple effect he could have on the franchise when it’s time to court the next big superstar towards the end of the decade.

Mike Gansey has really hit a grand slam in his first offseason as president. It’s now up to Nick Nurse and the players to make it all work on the court. But thanks to Gansey’s heavy lifting in the two months he’s been on the job, people all over the country are viewing the Sixers in a far more positive light than they ever have. That’s worth celebrating when you consider how often the Sixers are a national punchline.  

Minnesota Timberwolves guard LaMelo Ball and his manager are facing a lawsuit alleging they skipped paying rent on a luxury apartment in Charlotte, North Carolina.

The lawsuit filed in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina Superior Court and obtained by USA TODAY Sports adds to the allegation that Ball and his manager, Jermaine Jackson, owe Agape Property Management hundreds of thousands of dollars.

In May, Agape Property Management – a company tied to former Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton's family – accused the two of owing $164,700 on a 3,000-square-foot apartment with a $15,000-per-month rent. In 2020, Ball and Agape Property Management Group secured a deal for the 2022 NBA All-Star to rent two luxurious apartments in a posh uptown Charlotte condominium complex.

Ball lived in one unit and Jackson lived in another apartment. Ball bought Jackson's condo for $2.47 million and continued to lease the apartment to Jackson, who allegedly failed to pay the rent.

The new lawsuit alleges that Ball is responsible for the rent that Jackson occupies and owes more than $181,500 in unpaid rent, plus $90,000 in homeowners association fines.

According to the lawsuit, Ball remained legally responsible for the lease after Jackson moved into the unit. The filing claims the pair owes more than $181,500 in unpaid rent, along with more than $90,000 in homeowners association fines.

"The Defendants' failure to pay rent while failing to leave the premises has caused the Plaintiff substantial and potentially long-lasting harm including HOA non-compliance fines, lost rental income, and other monetary damages," the lawsuit states.

The 24-year-old Ball spent six seasons with the Charlotte Hornets before he was traded earlier this month with Josh Green to Minnesota for forward Naz Reid, a 2033 first-round pick, three second-round picks, and three future first-round pick swaps. The four-team deal also included the Brooklyn Nets and Chicago Bulls.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: LaMelo Ball faces lawsuit alleging more than $181K in unpaid Charlotte rent

The Warriors have a problem. 

After standing pat this offseason, they’re allowing the end of Steph Curry’s career to swirl the drain. It’s obvious as things stand they have no chance of competing for an NBA championship. 

But there’s light at the end of the tunnel. 

At the February trade deadline, they’re going to have some leverage with about $100 million in expiring contracts, including Jimmy Butler’s $56.8 million, Draymond Green’s $27.7 million and Kristaps Porzingis’ $20 million, minus his partial guarantee for next season. 

So, maybe they could make a big trade. Or maybe they could set themselves up for a big free-agency acquisition next offseason. That’s a lot of maybes for Curry, who’s on an expiring contract himself and is eligible for a two-year, $136.7 million extension on Aug. 29. 

But the Warriors may have an even bigger problem. 

Do stars want to play for Golden State? 

Ten years ago, Kevin Durant made a decision that tainted his legacy. 

He left the Thunder for the Warriors in free agency in 2016, joining a team that had reached the NBA Finals two straight seasons and won a championship in 2015 behind Curry, Green and Klay Thompson.

Durant went on to win back-to-back championships with the Warriors in 2017-2018, including being named Finals MVP both seasons. 

Even though he played a major role in the Warriors’ dynastic run, his decision to join a team that was already atop the mountain drew the ire of detractors. He has been accused of being a sellout. Pundits question whether he could win without Curry, especially since he hasn’t made it past the second round of the playoffs since leaving the Warriors in 2019.

Durant’s experience made a resounding impression around the league. 

So much so that when LeBron James became an unrestricted free agent this summer, Green believes concerns about how teaming up with Curry would negatively impact his legacy played a major role in him deciding not to come to Golden State. 

“I ultimately don’t think Bron was ever able to get over the history,” Green said on his podcast, “The Draymond Green Show.” “And I understand it. I get it. What we ultimately always knew is that’s the hurdle to get over.

“We live in a day and age where everybody who doesn’t have anything to say has something to say. So, he’s going to get crushed if he comes to the Warriors. ‘Aw man, he went to team up with Steph. Aw man, you had to go to them, dah, dah.’ And I think ultimately that weighed in on the decision a lot. That played a big role in the Warriors not landing LeBron.”

Obviously, James was in a completely different position than Durant. 

He has already won four championships. He’s considered one of the greatest players of all time. James’ history with the Warriors includes playing against them in four straight Finals from 2015-2018, including completing the greatest comeback in NBA history when he overcame a 3-1 series deficit in the 2016 Finals to lead the Cavaliers to their only title. 

But he apparently still had concerns. 

It makes you wonder if all superstars are worried about how joining Curry would impact their legacies. 

It’s interesting because Curry and the Warriors are in a completely different position nowadays. They’ve missed the playoffs two of the last three seasons. Curry is turning 39 in March. They’re far from being the team to beat. 

But does Curry’s legend loom so large that superstars don’t want to play alongside him? 

Durant was labeled as a villain after he joined the Warriors. James clearly feared he’d be viewed a certain way if he teamed up with his former greatest rival. 

Curry is obviously no longer in his prime, but he’s still one of the league’s best players. Last season, he averaged 26.6 points on 46.8% shooting from the field and 39.9% from beyond the arc. He was the oldest point guard in NBA history to be named a starter on the All-Star team. 

He’s the greatest shooter of all time. He changed how the game is played. He may be inching toward the end of his career, but he’s still very much him. 

In a league where perception dominates narratives, does that mean guys don’t want to team up with him? That hasn’t been the case for other superstars, such as James. But Curry has been with the same team for 17 years, while James just joined his fourth team. 

There’s something different about playing alongside Curry on the Warriors. 

That’s an issue for the Warriors, who are under a lot of pressure to extend Curry’s championship window.

It would be deeply upsetting for them to squander the sunset of his career. He put them on the map. They owe it to him to do everything in their power to make sure he’s still playing meaningful basketball. 

But even though Curry is one of the most likable guys in the league, playing alongside him comes with a unique set of issues. 

And for other superstars, that may be a deterrent. 

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I still have a lot of unanswerable questions bouncing around in my head about the Boston Celtics and thought I’d go to the smartest minds in the game for answers (our staff)!

The first question I had was about play style: How different will the Celtics play style be next year with Jaylen Brown gone? (If at all)

Below are the staff’s answers.

Ian Inangelo

I really don’t see the play style changing much without Brown next year. In my mind I think Boston will have a similar play style with Tatum just stepping in. Tatum will be the driving force of the offense and do most of the creating with Payton Pritchard, Paul George, and Derrick White as back up options. Three pointers might increase more with Brown’s departure as he was known for his midrange game but it shouldn’t change the offense that much. The defense shouldn’t take a step back either, making that a priority on top of rebounding which should be improved thanks to the addition of Mitchell Robinson.

Trevor Hass  

I think the play style will be very similar to this year, with Jayson Tatum sliding back in as the alpha and Derrick White and Payton Pritchard handling the ball even more in Jaylen Brown’s absence. I do think they’ll attempt fewer 3-pointers per game next season and try to diversify their arsenal. More paint touches and post-ups for Tatum would be a welcome addition.

Steve Hooper 

I’m not sure right now. The fact that we still have so many young wings on the team I would hope the the pace will be high and similar to the regular season last year. If the pace is slow, I think that is bad news for Boston. If the ball isn’t zipping around the key and finding paint touches, we might be in a for a long year.

Jake Issenberg

Last season the Celtics started to scratch the surface of maximising their advantage in the possession game. They did this by emphasising offensive rebounding and continuing to minimise their own turnovers. Then Brad Stevens doubled down. He sent out Jaylen Brown who was the one weak link in the turnover aspect of their identity. The Celtics also signed one of the best offensive rebounders of all time in Mitchell Robinson. The final piece of the Possession Maxxing identity for the Celtics is forcing their own turnovers when on defense. Paul George and Robinson are elite in this category as well. I expect Mazzulla to crank up the ball pressure in a way we haven’t seen during his tenure until now.

Nate Moskowitz

Offensively, I don’t believe the personnel changes are drastic enough to force a major shift in the way they look to attack. To amplify Mitchell Robinson and Paul George’s skill sets I think we can expect them to lean into some additional pick and roll possessions along with more pull-up threes, but they ranked high in both of those categories already.

The biggest change that I envision is on the defensive end. I feel confident about that being a real strength for this group. They could benefit a lot from turning up the pressure and taking a few more risks each game. They have young wings that can get into ball handlers and make them uncomfortable, and then there’s the off-ball defensive playmaking of White, Tatum and George. Pair all of that with rim protection from Queta and Robinson and you’ve got a versatile and disruptive group. They’ll miss Jaylen’s point of attack defense against some of the top perimeter options, but that’s the role you’d ideally like to thrust Hugo and Walsh into anyways.

Grant Burfeind

I think this is the first time we’ll really get to see Tatum with the keys to the car. We’ve seen flashes over the years, but this is the first season where there’s no debate about whose team it is. I’m really curious (and optimistic) about what that does for him. My hope is we get the best version of Tatum yet. More usage, more responsibility, and a legitimate MVP push.

Beyond that, I think this team is going to wreak havoc defensively, and I am HERE for it. Brad may not have gotten the rim punisher he was looking for in PG, but he got his rim denier in Mitch Robinson. Between Mitch and Queta down low coupled with White, Tatum, and George on the perimeter, I think the Celtics will guard their yards, dominate both ends of the glass and give themselves a chance to win a lot of ugly games.

Jeff Clark

Last year when Brown was given the opportunity and burden of being the number one option, he had his most productive year, but (as many have pointed out) some struggles with efficiency. At a high level, I could see Tatum going through some similar struggles as his usage increases and he can’t hand things off to Brown anymore. Jayson is more than capable of carrying the offensive load, but that can also wear you down over a full year as well. The good news is that Tatum is a more naturally gifted passer and play-initiator than Jaylen is (though he made strides every year in that department). I wonder if that takes enough burden off of Derrick to help him regain his shooting touch. It will be also interesting to see how many “layups and dunks” we can get out of our rim attacking bigs out of the pick and roll.

Defensively I could see them leaning even further into having waves of young and athletic wings to throw at teams with multiple looks. I’m pretty excited to see the center rotation now that they’ve added Robinson to the mix as well.

Robby Fletcher

As much as outside voices love to bash Boston’s tendency to fire from beyond the arc, I don’t think they’re quite prepared for how much more 3-oriented they’ll be without Jaylen Brown.

Brown’s mid-range scoring was instrumental to last year’s offensive success. Boston as a team was fifth in the league in mid-range attempts, mostly generated by Brown, Derrick White and Payton Pritchard before Jayson Tatum returned. Between the addition of Paul George, an excellent 3-point shooter, and Mitchell Robinson, a dominant offensive rebounder, I’m expecting Boston to continue working its rotation-forcing drive-and-kick game to attack from distance and look to generate extended possessions through their improved frontcourt.

Ryan Paice

I’m of the same mind as Robby; Boston’s going to lean even more heavily into its already 3pt-heavy offensive approach. But not by design. One of the Celtics’ weakest aspects since losing Jrue Holiday has been its lack of a strong tertiary playmaker who can reliably beat an opponent’s defense off the dribble when the first options can’t. Unfortunately, one of the results of that weakness is a higher number of desperation 3s. Even more unfortunately, I think that weakness gets even worse this year without Brown.

Now, to be fair, Tatum is a better primary playmaker than Brown. And Pritchard will slot in as a decent secondary option, as he did behind Brown last season. Nevertheless, I think Brown’s a superior #2, and I’m not sold on White and George as tertiary playmakers — especially White. It was tough watching him struggle to gain an advantage on offense against the Sixers in the first round. Maybe George can excel as a tertiary playmaker in the C’s system, but his lack of availability has been a huge concern in recent years. If White continues to struggle from 3pt range and George struggles to stay on the court, I wouldn’t be shocked to see the team launching more last-minute, desperation 3s than anyone would like to see.

Mike Dynon

If Jayson Tatum returns to point forward duties, probably not much different. Still expecting plenty of threes, because that’s the league now. I do hope the Celtics ramp up the pick and roll, because with Mitchell Robinson joining Neemias Queta, Boston now has two legit high fliers to get up and throw it down.

Rich Jensen

I’m hoping that the ball is a bit less sticky. Two years ago, in his last full season, Jayson Tatum’s averaged 3.71 seconds per touch, less than Jaylen Brown’s 4.17 seconds that season, and even more significantly less than his average of 4.34 seconds per touch this past season.

The C’s were better at passing the ball this past season than the season before, but they were still pretty pedestrian when it came to passing and generating assists. I’m hoping that a lineup of Jayson and Friends will move the ball a bit more freely than last year’s lineup of Jaylen and Friends, based on Jayson’s larger toolkit as a passer and facilitator.

Your Turn – How would you answer this question?

Welcome to Pounding the Rock’s 2025-26 player reviews! The series will look at the players who finished the season with the San Antonio Spurs on guaranteed contracts and who played consequential minutes and/or a vital role (so no two-way players because we hardly saw them this year, no players who were traded away, and none of the deep bench centers, since they were both irrelevant and are now all gone).

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Luke Kornet

2025-26 stats: 68 games, 21 MPG, 6.5 points, 6.1 rebounds, 1 block, 64.3 FG%

Contract Status: 3 years, $29.7 million remaining (team option for 2028-29)

Age: 31

Following the 2024-25 season, the Spurs knew their biggest weakness was size and production behind Victor Wembaynama. After trading Zach Collins as part of the De’Aaron Fox trade, losing Charles Bassey to yet another knee injury and finally Wemby to deep vein thrombosis, they were left scrambling for size, resulting in the signing of Bismack Biyombo and more than enough small ball. It was fine since the postseason became a far reach without Wemby (although to the remaining players’ credit, they never stopped trying), but the Spurs would have to get better at backup center if they wanted to reach new heights this season.

They did just that with the under-the-radar signing of Luke Kornet — a veteran, championship-winning center from the Boston Celtics — on a team-friendly deal. Not much was made of it at the time, but it was soon seen as one of the best pick-ups of free agency. Not only was the Spurs’ defense drastically improved overall, but there was much less drop-off when Wemby left the court compared to previous seasons thanks in part to Kornet’s size and underrated (if unspectacular) rim protection. Players who thought they had a free lane to the basket once Wemby left the court quickly learned otherwise. (It may have been less daunting, but certainly not free.)

Kornet especially got to shine early in the season, with Wemby missing 12 straight games between November and December with a calf strain, followed by 6 coming off then bench on a minutes restriction, resulting in Kornet starting for 17 of 18 games (he missed one of his own). In those games, the Spurs went 15-2 with Kornet’s numbers remaining consistent on a per-minute basis without much drop-off as a team. One of his best performances of the season came in that time frame, with a 20-12 double-double in a win in Washington, and of course there was his best play of the regular season: a game-winning, buzzer-beating block of Franz Wagner in Orlando.

He continued to be steady and productive even back in a bench role for the rest of the regular season, with his main weakness being availability (he missed 14 games with various ailments, fortunately without too much overlap with Wemby). However, the playoffs were another story, as he (and seemingly every other bench player not named Dylan Harper) saw his production plummet as the strength of opponent rose, likely skewing his final grade here a bit.

After three straight games scorning in double figures and posting a positive plus-minus to open the playoffs against Portland, his highest scoring game the rest of the way was 7 points in a Game 5 loss to Minnesota (the Wemby ejection game), and the only time he posted a positive plus-minus in a non-blowout game was Game 7 against the Thunder, but what a big game it was. Even though it wasn’t a huge night statistically for Kornet, he provided perhaps their most important play of the postseason: a chase-down block of Isaiah Hartenstein in the fourth quarter that sucked the life out of the Thunder as they made a last ditch effort to come back while Wemby sat with foul trouble.

It’s a play that helped the Spurs win the Western Conference Finals and will go down as one of their best postseason blocks ever, etching Kornet into Spurs playoff lore. Unfortunately, that momentum didn’t carry over to the Finals — for Kornet or the Spurs.

Looking ahead

Kornet will likely play the same role next season: backing up Wemby. There won’t be much doubt in the regular season, but the Spurs will need better production from him (and again, the entire bench) in the playoffs if they hope to win a championship, especially considering exhaustion appeared to play a big role in their Finals loss. Also, it may not be immediate, but Kornet will eventually be looking over his shoulder with the Spurs going for size in the draft with Jayden Quaintance and Tarris Reed, the latter who is healthy and possibly NBA-ready if he gets hurt or his production stumbles.

Kornet’s contract makes him a very tradable asset should the Spurs see the need to shake things up at any point in the next few seasons, but it also gives them a very productive bench player on the cheap in a time when they’ll have to start making some tough financial decisions. He was arguably the best backup center in the league last season by providing exactly what they needed: solid minutes to back up and even replace Wemby at times without a massive drop in production. Expecting much more from him is a stretch, but simply hoping it carries over into the playoffs doesn’t seem like too much to ask, especially from a player who has won a championship playing the same role before.

Top Performance

14 points, 10 rebounds, 2 blocks in Round 1, Game 3 @ Portland Trail Blazers

While Kornet had games with bigger numbers early in the season when Wemby missed extensive time and more memorable moments (such as the Wagner and Hartenstein blocks), this was by far his most important performance for the Spurs, with Wemby out with a concussion and the series tied 1-1 heading out on the road. While Wemby only ended up missing one game, Kornet’s stabilizing performance was certainly reassuring in an uncertain time and helped put the Spurs back in the driver’s seat with a crucial 120-108 win.

Final Grade: B-

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Up next: Dylan Harper

Previous Reviews

Jordan McLaughlin

Carter Bryant

Somewhere in Oklahoma City right now there’s a front office that understands something the rest of the league is still catching up on. Seventy-three wins isn’t a number. It’s a dare. And this year the Thunder walked right up to it, put their hand on the door, and found out the same thing Dub Nation found out a decade ago. The record doesn’t just test your talent. It tests what’s left of you in the postseason.

Ten years ago the Warriors ran a 73-9 season that nobody has sniffed since, chasing history for six straight months while the whole league lined up to see if the Dubs would flinch or crack. They eventually fell short in the when it actually counted, when a 3-1 Finals lead evaporated against a Cleveland team that pulled off a miracle, and every talking head in America got to spend a summer calling the greatest regular season ever played a punchline. Nobody remembers the 73 wins the way they remember the collapse. That’s the tax folks. Chase the ghost and if you don’t finish the job, the ghost chases you back.

So when Oklahoma City opened this season 20-1, then 24-1, matching GSW’s pace game for game a decade later, I’ll admit there was a part of me that wanted to see it happen. Not for them but for the conversation. Let somebody else carry that weight for a change. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander did, standing at a podium in Vegas, telling reporters the record means something to him and his group because winning matters “no matter what form it looks like.” They fell short of the record, but at least had the idea of the repeat fresh in their eyes. OKC responded the way champs do. They swept the Suns and the Lakers, rolling into the Western Conference Finals looking every bit like the machine that was supposed to run this whole league over for the next five years.

And then, right on cue, San Antonio showed up and ruined their back-to-back dreams. Spurs in seven, Thunder’s Finals repeat bid buried before the calendar even hit June, San Antonio marching on to face the Knicks for the whole thing while Oklahoma City packed lockers early for the first time since they climbed this mountain.

OKC was missing their 2nd best player who dropped 40 in Game 5 of the NBA Finals all series and their best shot creator off the bench. Incredibly important.

But the discourse after 2015 ruined how people talk about this sport forever so that's that.

— olddirtybaroo (@olddirty_baroo) May 31, 2026

I know that feeling. Dub Nation built a statue to the 73 wins and then had to watch somebody else hoist the trophy that summer too. So let me be the first team from the other side of this specific heartbreak to say it plainly: welcome to the club nobody wants a membership card for. You built the best regular season we’ve seen since ours. You still walked out of the postseason owing more than you won. The house always finds a way to collect on that kind of debt, and it doesn’t care how many national TV games you won along the way.

The Thunder don’t get to chase 73 wins and repeat titles and skip the part where it humbles you. Nobody gets that discount. We know exactly how loud the outside noise gets when you’re the best team in basketball for the regular season and somehow still be humiliated in the end. It’s the worst kind of quiet, the one where everything you spent seven months building gets rewritten in two weeks.

VIDEO: Earlier in the season Jalen Williams said OKC would beat the 2017 Warriors and the 1996 Bulls.

Today OKC players are booking their trip to Cancun.

Life comes at you fast. pic.twitter.com/rIssZNaQ4n

— SLO HOOPS FAN 🇸🇮 (@SloHoopsFan) May 31, 2026

But here’s the other half of it: Get up. GSW did. It took real work and a full year of people doubting whether that Warriors core still had a beating heart in it, and they came back and buried the noise under a parade. That’s the only way this story ever gets rewritten. Not by chasing a number. By going back to the mountain and finishing the job the second time, when everybody’s already decided you can’t.

Prove you’re the dynasty everybody thought you were. Or fade into the background like all the other would be dynasties who were exposed as one and done.

LAS VEGAS — The lights are bright, the stars are both on and off the court, and there are games being played by NBA players in both college- and high school-sized arenas. There’s nothing like the NBA Summer League. From seeing Buffalo Bills wide receiver Keon Coleman, walking past star NBA broadcasters Mark Jones and Michael Grady, to casually striking up conversations with DeMarcus Cousins and Jeff Van Gundy, it’s not only a spectacle but also a hodgepodge of some of the most important people in the hoops and media worlds.

Coming into the event, I didn’t know what to expect except for one thing: a lot of networking opportunities. With the games being of minimal consequence compared with regular-season and playoff games, and with all 30 teams playing, most reporters, agents, and members of NBA organizations view Summer League as an opportunity to grow their personal networks and build on already established relationships.

In my first two months since graduating from college, I’ve found that searching for full-time media positions is no fun, let alone easy, and the best way to do it is by building relationships with people, something I’ve been doing since I was a freshman at Syracuse University. I was excited and prepared for the chance to meet so many people I could learn from as I looked for ways to navigate an industry with no linear path.

In a career as competitive as sports media that continues to shrink by the day, connections are everything. In Vegas, I was told by an NBA executive who worked in media for nearly 20 years that if you want a chance to make it, you need to work hard, outlast people, and, most importantly, be someone people want to work with. In most industries, doing those three things would guarantee success, but not in media.

You have to get your name out there. ESPN NBA Insider Shams Charania hasn’t gotten the top scoops for years just because he’s a great writer and broadcaster; it’s because of the relationships he’s built, and the NBA Summer League is the perfect place to make more of them.

No matter who you are, people will most likely talk to you for at least a few minutes if you’re aware of the time and place. You can make an impression on anyone you meet.

Knowing the value proposition of going to Summer League when I had Southwest points and time at my disposal, I did not take this opportunity lightly. At the NBA Summer League, the games come second; meeting and building relationships with people come first. I didn’t just spend time dissecting Koby Brea’s three-point percentage or analyzing Khaman Maluach’s ability to be a force in the paint; I spent hours dissecting who the people were that I wanted to talk to at Summer League in preparation for making my interactions memorable. I even made a plan for how I wanted to introduce myself and the specific questions I wanted to ask certain people.

Sorry about the bad handwriting.

I tried to make every interaction I could have with people as intentional and specific as possible. A lot of people want to talk to a lot of people, especially NBA reporters.

Here’s a question I wanted to ask NBA Insider Chris Haynes that I thought could be really helpful for a young journalist to know. It ended up paying off, as he said I had an “unforgettable first impression.”

To have not only productive but also memorable brief conversations that can turn into relationships, you need to demonstrate to people that you know who you’re talking to and that you want to actually get to know them, not just get something out of them. This becomes especially important when you are starting your career and are not established in the industry.

Along with building new relationships, fortifying older ones is just as important. Getting to see people in person whom you’ve only spoken to on Zoom or FaceTime is a signal that you are eager to build on the connections you’ve made when you weren’t able to see them in person. The impression of approaching people and finally connecting with them after only meeting virtually is especially important and impactful when you are young, just getting started in the sports media industry, or both.

Getting in contact with, let alone making an impact on, executives, agents, or reporters who cover the NBA year-round is already a hard enough task, and being physically around the people who help tell the stories of the game can make you more memorable.

It’s one of the only times on the NBA calendar that the most important people for reporters to interact with aren’t the players. It may be the beginning of many relationships with players, but there isn’t another time when as many executives, agents, and other reporters are within the same mile radius.

While it may seem counterintuitive, you become a better writer by listening. You learn more stories when you introduce yourself to more people, and your coverage gets richer the more perspectives you have. At NBA Summer League, your next byline can improve by talking to other people who publish bylines, not just the athletes who play on the hardwood.

That’s the hidden value of Summer League. The games will end, the box scores will be forgotten, and the next NBA season will take over. But the conversations, relationships, and lessons learned away from the court can have a lasting impact. For someone trying to break into this industry, the biggest opportunities aren’t always found by watching the action. Sometimes, they come from being eager and willing to show up and listen.

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I consider myself something of a modern day basketball historian. With the rise of the internet and misinformation, it’s easy for people to get caught up in the hoopla of social media and miss parallels to the past that teach us so much about basketball and life.

That’s what got me thinking about the San Antonio Spurs’ shocking NBA Finals run and their stunning collapse to the New York Knicks.

San Antonio had the Knicks on the ropes in Game 4. Twenty-nine points up. First quarters won by a combined 57 points across the series. Wembanyama blocking shots like he was swatting flies off a porch. And then it slipped, the way these things always slip when a team hasn’t lived through the moment enough times to trust it.

Final result, five games, Knicks banner number four hanging in the Garden by fall. Jalen Brunson walking off with Finals MVP and a stat line that read like a man who’d been rehearsing this exact night since he was a kid shooting in his driveway.The Spurs went home with proof they belong, proof the timeline is real, and, if history is any kind of teacher, proof of how easy it is to waste both.

According to ESPN Analytics, in the 4 games the Spurs lost in the NBA Finals, they had a…

— 91.6% chance of winning Game 1 up 13 points midway thru the 3rd
— 72.8% chance of winning Game 2 up 2 points with 1 minute left in the 4th
— 99.6% chance of winning Game 4 up 20 points… pic.twitter.com/WkOw0shz7W

— Tomer Azarly (@TomerAzarly) June 14, 2026

Spurs youth really showed in this series. They’ll be back, but they better be ready

— David Trink (@palejustice55) June 14, 2026

We’ve seen this movie before. Go back to 2012, a Thunder team built on a rookie scale contract and a prayer, Kevin Durant still growing into his frame, James Harden just getting his beard activated, and Russell Westbrook playing like his hair was on fire. Nobody had that team penciled in for a Finals, and they went anyway, right through the Lakers and the Spurs and the Mavericks.

That’s the part San Antonio just lived. Wembanyama is 22. Stephon Castle is 21. De’Aaron Fox barely got there and is still learning how his game fits inside a team that wasn’t built with him in mind yet. This is a group that shot out of the West at 4-3 over Oklahoma City and took the eventual champion to five games.

Flashback to how Miami unraveled the Thunder. The Heat had LeBron in his prime, Wade still Wade, a roster that had already been humbled once and come back meaner for it. The end result: Heat in five.The lesson OKC took from that series wasn’t written down anywhere, but it should have been tattooed on the locker room wall: young talent might you to the door once. It does not automatically walk you through it again next year, or the year after that, or ever.

That’s exactly where the Spurs are standing right now, whether anyone in that building wants to admit it. San Antonio now knows what it feels like to blow a 29 point lead on a national stage, to watch a grown men in orange and blue outsmart and bully them into playing out of character. You cannot manufacture that kind of film session. You have to bleed for it, and now they have.

Spurs might be the least clutch team of all time. This is generational choking.

— Ballsack Sports (@BallsackSports) June 14, 2026

From @TheAthletic: Victor Wembanyama’s first NBA finals experience was tough and emotional. He left the court without shaking Knicks players’ hands after the Spurs lost. “It’s painful. But I’m not running away from that,” he said. https://t.co/pUbZ2gb4Ig

— The New York Times (@nytimes) June 14, 2026

Nobody in Oklahoma City believed a fall was coming in the summer of 2012. Why would they? Their core was in their early 20s.The whole basketball world assumed OKC would run it back five or six times over, showing up again and again with more mileage and less rust. Instead the front office traded Harden that same offseason, injuries piled up in the years after, Durant walked in 2016, and that specific version of the Thunder never got back to a Finals. No single move explains all of it. One great run became the assumption instead of the foundation, and everything after that got a little easier to lose.

San Antonio’s got a core this specific, this young, this obviously built around a seven footer who moves like he’s got no business being that big, and the margin between running it back next June and becoming a “remember when” story is razor thin. What happens next comes down to the next fourteen months. The vets they bring in have to teach something instead of just filling a roster spot. This exact group has to get another shot before somebody else’s timeline swallows theirs whole.

History doesn’t owe young, exciting teams a second trip. It only owes them the first one, the trip that gets people talking and eventually ends up in every “remember when” conversation whether or not anything ever comes of it. What happens after that is on them.

Ask the 2012 Thunder how that part goes if you don’t believe me.

Why?

Because you just can’t get enough Johnny Dawkins.

On Thursday, we looked back at Johnny D’s masterful play against Notre Dame in 1986, where he blocked David Rivers at the buzzer to preserve a one-point Duke victory in Cameron.

This play is from his NBA days with the Philadelphia 76ers.

He hits a clutch shot here to boost the Sixers past the Portland Trailblazers, 104-102. Dawkins had 23 points and 10 assists. He was a terrific player before injuries caught up to him.

Also on the Sixers: former Blue Devil Mike Gminski, Charles Barkley, former NC State star Charles Shackleford, and Manute Bol. It must have been an amazing locker room.

Also in the game, but we didn’t spot him here: Alaa Abdelnaby, who was with the Portland Trail Blazers. Portland also featured Maryland star Buck Williams, who is wearing the goggles. You’ll see him guarding Bol.

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The Warriors’ rival report has it’s final opponent in the crosshairs down in L.A. but it ain’t the Lakers. The Clippers are the one Pacific team whose offseason can’t really be graded yet, because the trade that defines it hasn’t actually closed. Before Golden State gets to the part of the summer where every team’s roster feels settled, it’s worth checking in on the one division rival still waiting on the league office to tell them who’s actually on their team.

On paper, the moves are straightforward enough. Quiet business: re-signings, a small trade for center Johni Broome, a two-way deal for center Jamarion Sharp. The one that actually reshapes the roster is the deal sending Kawhi Leonard to Toronto for Brandon Ingram and Gradey Dick, along with a package of picks. Everyone covering the team, from beat writers to fan sites, has spent July writing rotation projections that assume this trade is basically done.

It isn’t. The Clippers and Raptors agreed to it on June 30. Nine days later, both teams announced it was on hold. The Clippers built a roster the league hasn’t signed off on yet. The holdup is an NBA investigation into whether the Clippers circumvented the salary cap to pay Leonard, tied to a since-collapsed endorsement deal with the company Aspiration.

"If I'm the Toronto Raptors, I'm finding a way to get up out of this deal. I'm finding a way to back out."@KendrickPerkins does not want the Raptors to go through with the trade for Kawhi Leonard 👀 pic.twitter.com/48mEzgXXdn

— NBA on ESPN (@ESPNNBA) July 30, 2026

ESPN’s Baxter Holmes reported that the case could stretch into 2027 if the Clippers and the players’ union can’t agree on any findings or proposed punishment. Commissioner Adam Silver has said the investigation needs to wrap before next season starts, but has also acknowledged it’s already gone on longer than he’d hoped. The union has said it won’t hesitate to fight any penalty it sees as unsupported by evidence, and the Clippers have maintained from the start that they never funneled money to Leonard at all.

Meanwhile, basketball analysis has largely moved forward as though the trade is inevitable, projecting Brandon Ingram into the starting lineup and Gradey Dick into the wing rotation before the league has approved any of it. 213hoops’ Robert Flom took the more grounded approach, and it’s probably the more useful one for a fan base trying to figure out what to actually expect this season.

Flom placed the Clippers somewhere in the 9-to-12 range in the West regardless of how the roster shakes out, clearing only the Kings and Pelicans with real confidence. He projected a win total anywhere from the low 30s to the mid 40s, called this the first Clippers season since 2018 without real playoff expectations, and suggested that’s actually not the worst thing, since it might make the year more fun to watch without the pressure of a playoff push riding on it.

So the Clippers enter the season with two different stories running at once. One is a basketball team quietly preparing for a future built around Brandon Ingram, assuming the trade becomes official. The other is a franchise waiting on a law firm and a players’ union to decide whether that trade, and the season built around it, is even allowed to exist as constructed.

Every other team in the Pacific spent the summer answering questions about its roster. The Clippers are still waiting to find out what theirs officially is. Until the league closes the investigation, every projection comes with an asterisk. The Warriors won’t know exactly what they’re preparing for until the NBA decides which Clippers roster is actually allowed to exist.

Victor Wembanyama returned to Nanterre, a suburb of Paris, France, where he played basketball as a teenager. He was there as a guest of honor in the unveiling of a refurbishment to the basketball court.

Victor Wembanyama at the new court ceremony in Nanterre, France. Even catches a lob from a young fan #nba#porvida#sanantonio#gospursgo (via The Manila Times) pic.twitter.com/6e4eFZfyby

— JeffGSpursZone (@JeffGSpursZone) July 30, 2026

Per a Spurs press release:

“The San Antonio Spurs revealed a newly refurbished basketball court in Nanterre, France, commemorated with a youth basketball clinic and appearance from Spurs player Victor Wembanyama. Presented by Ledger, the court is part of the Spurs ‘Play Paris’ program, which was launched in 2025 in honor of the organization’s continued commitment to inspire the next generation of elite athletes and provide safe, accessible play spaces across France.“

R. C. Buford was also on hand for the ribbon cutting and the center court logo reveal. The Spurs along with Ledger have launched the “Play Paris” initiative in 2025, a program built to inspire the next generation, provide access to play and create a lasting legacy within the community.

“The opening of this court reflects what Play Paris is all about – honoring legacy and creating opportunities for young people to come together through basketball. Nanterre has helped shape France’s basketball culture in a meaningful way, and we’re proud to invest in spaces where the next generation can continue to develop, build confidence and feel connected to the game that unites us globally.”

This is sick https://t.co/ILBBH0HuoBpic.twitter.com/sCNjiDr1dZ

— Josh Paredes (@Josh810) July 30, 2026

The court design features Nanterre 92’s signature green and black. The court is open to the public and will host tournaments, youth clinics as well as free play.

Ariel Wengroff, EVP of Marketing & Communications at Ledger stated,

“The best partnerships are built on shared values, and this court is proof of that. Ledger is a French company with a global community — when the Spurs came to us with the Play Paris initiative, supporting a project rooted in our home country was an easy yes. We’re proud to help bring this space to life for the young athletes of Nanterre, where they can build the confidence and wellness that are the foundation of any bright future.”

Raphael Adam, mayor of Nanterre, succinctly linked the partnership stating,

“Ever since you welcomed a child from Nanterre, an unbreakable bond has been forged between our city and the legendary NBA franchise, the San Antonio Spurs. This court stands today as a symbol of that connection—a source of pride for Nanterre and its residents.”

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