Category: NBA

Good day, Pounders. I was scrolling through social media and found this post:

I remember early in Wemby’s NBA career seeing him enter press conferences with a book. I have asked a few times what he was reading and considered reading along. I found his creating a book club with the Spurs to be on par with his personality.

As a high school teacher, I tend to look for summer activities to keep me from binge watching television for two solid months. So here is my proposal — let’s start a PtR book club.

Who’s with me?

My first proposal is Expensive Basketball by Shea Serrano. Previously I have read his 2017 book Basketball (And Other Things). Serrano’s writing is humorous and informative, hard to put down once you get into his flow. The chapters are short, most are 10-12 pages, so we can break it up over a few days/weeks.

The first chapter of Expensive Basketball is “The Erosive Terror of Tim Duncan,” which seems like a good omen.

If you are interested and have any books to add to the list for consideration, please join in the comments.

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Kristaps Porziņģis, Warriors reportedly have ‘growing momentum' toward new deal originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

With the 2025-26 NBA season officially over, it’s time to shift gears to what is a pivotal offseason for general manager Mike Dunleavy and the Warriors.

One of the biggest offseason questions for Golden State is what the organization will do with center Kristaps Porziņģis. ESPN’s Anthony Slater reported Wednesday, citing team and league sources, that the two sides are progressing toward a contract resolution.

“The Warriors, team sources said, want to bring back Porziņģis but prefer it to be on a short-term deal at a reduced rate from the $30.7 million he played for last season,” Slater wrote. “There is growing momentum toward a deal to bring Porziņģis back, league sources said.”

Porziņģis was on an expiring $30.7 million contract and is slated to become an unrestricted free agent this offseason. The 30-year-old originally signed a two-year, $60 million extension with the Boston Celtics in 2024, then was acquired by the Atlanta Hawks in July 2025 in a three-team trade.

Golden State acquired Porziņģis in an NBA trade deadline deal with the Hawks in exchange for forward Jonathan Kuminga and guard Buddy Hield in February.

In 15 games and 11 starts with the Warriors, Porziņģis averaged 16.1 points, 5.3 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 1.1 blocks per game.

Keeping the 7-foot-2, 240-pound big man would make a lot of sense for a Golden State team that needs more length and size on its roster.

Porziņģis, with his ability to stretch the floor as a 3-point shooter, offers a unique skill set that makes him a solid fit alongside Warriors stars Steph Curry, Draymond Green and Jimmy Butler.

With momentum building toward a new deal between the two sides, and with Golden State’s front office expressing high interest in a reunion, it will come as a surprise if Porziņģis is not on the Warriors’ roster come next season.

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There have been 75 first-round picks in the long, 80-year history of the New York Knicks.

Some of them have been iconic. Some of them made the Hall of Fame. Some of them went on to be known as something other than a Knick. And, as we all know, a lot of them were pretty forgettable.

There’s an exclusive list of those 75 within Knicks lore. In the first 79 years of the franchise, only eight of them had ever won a title with the franchise that drafted them, all between 1965-72:

Bill Bradley (2nd overall, 1965)
Dave Stallworth (5th overall, 1965)
Cazzie Russell (1st overall, 1966)
Clyde Frazier (5th overall, 1967)
Bill Hosket (10th overall, 1968)
John Warren (11th overall, 1969)
Dean Meminger (16th overall, 1971)
Tom Riker (8th overall, 1972)

But now, as we bask in the glory of the end of a 53-year title drought, a ninth name has been added to the list.

Pacôme Dadiet was born on July 27, 2005, in Aubagne, France, a decent-sized town of 50,000 in southern France, just a few miles from the Mediterranean coast and the city of Marseille. Basketball ran in the family. His older brother, Maxence, represents their dad’s home country internationally, representing Côte d’Ivoire.

As one of the four foreign-born players on the roster, his journey to this moment was a lot different than most. He didn’t go through the American AAU and high school circuits before embarking on a college career, he played for youth clubs as a teenager and built his NBA stock overseas.

In fact, from the age of 6, he played in the Saint-Charles Charenton development program, similar to the way the big European soccer clubs do with young players. By the time he was in his teens, he was rubbing elbows with some of the best young talent in France, including future teammate Mo Diawara and lottery pick Tidjane Salaün.

He moved on in 2020, joining the youth program of Centre Fédéral before eventually joining Paris Basketball in 2021-22, where he was a star for their U21 team at just 16. In that season, he was even recalled for eight games to play sporadic minutes for the premier club in LNB Pro A as one of the youngest players in Europe.

His upward trajectory was stalled when he looked to leave France as a whole, signing with Ratiopharm Ulm in Germany, but his debut was delayed several months due to a contract dispute. He was also relegated to their farm team, which played in Germany’s third level of competition.

In 2023-24, he finally got a chance to be a regular starter for a strong European club, and while his stats didn’t pop out, he fit the mold of what teams were looking for in an international player: a raw, versatile wing with all the right physical traits.

After Victor Wembanyama and Bilal Coulibaly went in the lottery in 2023, there was a run on top French talent in 2024, with Alex Sarr, Zaccharie Risacher, and Salaün all going in the top 10. Add in the non-French prospects going in the lottery, like Matas Buzelis and Nikola Topić, and the conditions were right for Dadiet to slip into the first round, so after the Knicks traded out of No. 24 (and later No. 26), they decided to use their first first-round pick in three years on Dadiet at No. 25.

The Knicks have had a history of drafting French natives in the first round, a history that has, unfortunately, been pretty bleak. Frédéric Weis is one of the most infamous picks in franchise history, selected 15th overall in 1999 just after the team’s improbable run to the NBA Finals. We all believed in Frank Ntilikina, who was picked eighth in 2017, but he was out of New York after his rookie contract.

It didn’t help that the team’s aversion to the second apron contributed to them drafting Dadiet. He agreed to a buyout with Ratiopharm Ulm to immediately sign with the team instead of being a draft-and-stash, and as such, the team asked him to take just 80 percent of his Year 1 slot value, the absolute minimum, to save $900,000 against the salary cap.

He agreed to the move, one that’s relatively unprecedented, and it resulted in the Knicks being able to acquire Karl-Anthony Towns. How about that?

Dadiet had a quiet Summer League, and it was pretty clear that he wasn’t going to play much as a rookie, especially with Tom Thibodeau as coach. He was raw, he wasn’t really ready, and his minutes were limited, even if he was technically in the Opening Night rotation in the 2024-25 opener against Boston, albeit briefly.

In his first two seasons, it’s been more about what he’s done down in the G-League and over the summer. He had consecutive 30-point games down in Westchester in March while occasionally suiting up for the big league club.

Over the last two seasons, Dadiet has only played in 47 games, scoring just 78 points. He’s scored double figures just twice, and one was in a garbage-time barrage in Denver. Even in this postseason, where he’s played seven games and has put up a higher points-per-game average due to just how many blowouts the Knicks had, he didn’t log a minute in the NBA Finals.

He still has two years remaining on his rookie contract, but even as the first two years of his NBA career haven’t resulted in much, he’s made some history.

Because newly drafted players come into the league much younger than they did in the 1970s, Dadiet is the youngest NBA champion in Knicks history, barely beating out his countryman Diawara. He’s not able to buy a drink in the United States until late July.

He’s also added his name to the list of Knicks’ first-round picks to win a title, a list that includes a legend of the game in Clyde Frazier. He also now has a 12.5% chance of becoming a senator like Bill Bradley, if the rules follow accordingly.

Congrats, Pacôme!

–

(P&T will be doing player-by-player article tributes over the next few weeks to commemorate the special team that ended our long, half-century nightmare)

Seeing the New York Knicks become world champions for the first time since 1973 with my own eyes was easily the most chaotic 24 hours of my life — and perhaps the best.

The drama absolutely wasn’t limited to the San Antonio Spurs hardwood as New York’s orange and blue heroes pulled away in the dying seconds to win Game 5, 94-90 in an explosive 16-point comeback.

Diehards who made the last-minute trip to Texas endured travel nightmares — and a share of distasteful fans who didn’t quite extend southern hospitality after the loss.

Bad actors behaved in a deplorable manner, just as pseudo-Knicks fans did terrible things in NYC to Spurs faithful.

I saw a lunatic in a white pickup truck laugh and point a gun at two Knicks fans minding their own business waiting to cross a street — and other New Yorkers told me they got egged like Victor Wembanyama during the finals while in Manhattan, among more stupidity over a damn game. 

What did the group do? They sprayed a bottle of champagne and smoked cigars on the San Antonio Riverwalk as if nothing had happened. 

The duo briefly held at what the driver thought was a humorous little gunpoint incident shook it off right after too. Some true and good-hearted Spurs fans — like the vast majority Saturday were — even waited with them until their car arrived.

No New Yorker cared about the nonsense, which plenty back in the Big Apple were equally, if not more, guilty of that night.

The Knicks were finally kings of the NBA again.

That’s what I’ll remember about my impromptu and haphazardly planned trip, one that cost a pretty penny but was still a discount compared to a good seat at Madison Square Garden.

I don’t care about the 4 a.m. wakeup call and early bird flight to Dallas Saturday, where a good friend of mine drove us the next four hours down I-35 to the greatest live game either of us ever witnessed. 

We stopped at a Buc-ees 146 miles north in Temple and saw several other Knicks fans en route to the Doobie Brothers’ beloved city as part of New York’s takeover. 

After road tripping the four hours back to Dallas Sunday morning, it’s an afterthought that my 3:36 p.m. flight home landed almost exactly 12 hours later at around 3:36 a.m. 

We had a series of nightmare delays, starting with air traffic control issues, then weather, and finally hearing our pilot “rejected” the plane we were supposed to take.

But hey, 12 hours is a lot quicker than 53 years.

More than thinking about the aimless time wasted and changing terminals at Dallas-Fort Worth, my mind goes to the tons of Knicks gear I saw throughout the airport of happy fans heading back home — eventually, that was.

Everyone you passed had a smile and offered a fist bump — high-spirited TSA officers in Dallas gave me a Knicks cheer and high five as well. Plus, I struck up fantastic conversation with fellow fans waiting for the same flight.

I must have heard “are you going to the parade?” at least a dozen times.

We were all overjoyed, chatting about coach Mike Brown’s fabulous core, including the legend himself, Jalen Brunson, who is expected to return next season when the banner goes up at MSG. 

Nobody was thrilled about being stuck, but if you have to be in an airport for hours, doing it with a unanimously united bunch of New Yorkers is the way to go.

Knicks lovers overran the Alamo Saturday afternoon as you couldn’t turn a corner in San Antonio without seeing team gear at Riverwalk bars, restaurants, hotels, or, truthfully, anywhere.

It carried over at the Spurs’ home court inside the Frost Bank Center, where New Yorkers owned the noise factor and booed Wemby during warmups to an almost ground-shaking decibel level. 

Just about my entire section in the rafters was filled with journeying Knicks fans, standing with palpable nervous energy almost the whole game, eager to witness long-awaited history.

I’ll never forget the pure elation on the away crowd’s faces when OG Anunoby hit the title-clinching free-throw with 7.7 seconds to go. 

Seeing the Larry O’Brien trophy hoisted at mid-court was a family affair as owner James Dolan got a fever pitch of electric praise from the huge crowd that remained. 

Strangers in the stands cried, hugged, shook hands and offered congratulations to one another as if it were a personal achievement like delivering a healthy baby or getting a major promotion at work.

If you yelled “Go New York Go New York Go!” on your way out of the arena, 50 voices would send it back.

It gave you chills — and a glow that will last much longer than memories of the grueling voyage there and back.

Two Max, or not Two Max? Celtics face difficult roster decisions originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

As the Boston Celtics plot what the core of their next title team might look like, the pursuit of any marquee talent on the trade market doesn’t necessarily answer the biggest question facing the team. 

Is it still feasible to have two max-money superstars as the long-term centerpiece of a championship roster?

Whether it’s leaning into the familiar superstar tandem of Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, or any new-look superstar duo as rumors swirl about Boston’s potential pursuit of Giannis Antetokounmpo, the Celtics are navigating the math problems created by a prohibitive new collective bargaining agreement. 

The Celtics already felt the CBA squeeze last summer. Boston got ahead of the crunch and delivered the 2024 title season by building a deep and expensive roster. The team is now paying the late fees on that splurge, not in dollars but in diminished depth. Boston had to watch key pieces from that title team walk away, and traded others, to shimmy down off the second apron last summer. 

The Celtics can reset the pesky repeater penalties that make sustained spending nearly impossible by staying out of the luxury tax again this season. That’s a rather annoying hurdle for a team that has superstar players in their prime and yearns to build the best core around them immediately. Stomaching two max contracts — and putting a strong cast around them — becomes easier in the two years after the reset button is hit, but the new CBA is setting up a cycle where it’s basically impossible to splurge for more than those two seasons (teams pay the steep repeater rates for being in the luxury tax in three of four consecutive seasons).

Before last summer’s teardown, the Celtics were staring at a projected $540 million roster cost. Brad Stevens won Executive of the Year, as voted by his peers, in large part due to maintaining a competitive team despite chopping over $350 million off the books.

And while Boston’s younger players thrived throughout the 2025-26 season, and the team displayed unexpected depth while finishing second in the East, the absence of those veteran players was accentuated as Boston came unglued and kicked away a 3-1 series lead against Philadelphia in Round 1 of the Eastern Conference playoffs.

That delivered the Celtics to this latest offseason crossroads. For the better part of the past half-decade, it’s been a no-brainer decision to build the best possible team around the Jays core. Now, Boston has to ponder if that’s still the most prudent path. 

Roster building gets a lot more complicated when two players account for 70 percent of the salary cap.

The question becomes, in what feels like a new parity era of basketball, are teams better off building around one big-money star? And are the most valuable players in the league now the superstars that only command, say, 25 or 30 percent of the cap?

The spotlight on roster building is brighter now in the aftermath of the Knicks’ title season. New York has one max-money player in Karl-Anthony Towns, who commands 34.6 percent of the cap next season. Jalen Brunson only accounts for 22.9 percent of the cap after agreeing to a team-friendly extension in 2024 that could have been far more lucrative if he had waited another season.

Brunson has been celebrated for giving the Knicks financial flexibility, though his decision had plenty of other factors — including injury risk management and the potential to get back to the table and negotiate a true max deal sooner. Undeniably, Brunson’s lower salary has allowed the Knicks to build out a deep roster with OG Anunoby (25.8 percent of the cap next season) and Mikal Bridges (20.3 percent of the cap next season) also on reasonable deals. The Knicks swung big on those two trades and were rewarded. 

New York will start to feel the squeeze of the tax moving forward, particularly if it yearns to keep all the pieces of its championship core. But the construct of the team this past season begs the question of money allocation.

Which brings us back to the Celtics. It’s somewhat maddening that Boston built a homegrown core and is essentially being penalized for those players becoming All-NBA talent. The league should take measures in future CBAs to limit the tax penalties on teams that draft and develop. But that’s not going to solve the current roster riddle.

Neither does trading for someone like Antetokounmpo. The presence of any two max-contract players leaves the Celtics tiptoeing around the tax line this season. They could potentially scale above the tax to start the year, assess their title chances, and plan to dip back below the tax line before season’s end.

But the reality is that Boston — and the rest of the league as well — is now limited in how it can build around two stars, and teams are going to ride a wave of spending to avoid apron penalties and brutal tax bills. 

Whether the Celtics keep the Jays core, or pursue Antetokounmpo or any other max-money star, they will be banking heavily on internal development of younger players. Guys like Neemias Queta, Baylor Scheierman, Hugo Gonzalez, and Jordan Walsh might need to make another leap beyond the large strides made last season and greatly outkick the value of their current contracts. There are tougher choices about the futures of players like Derrick White (18.4 percent of the cap next season) and Sam Hauser (even at only 6.6 percent of the cap next season). 

The Celtics have access to both the mid-level exception and a big-money traded player exception that could allow them to add impact talent this summer. But just how much they can spend must be balanced against the need to avoid the tax again. It’s a funky jigsaw puzzle, but one that won’t get easier to solve until next summer. 

No one wants to wait, though. Not with the Jays in their prime. Not with Tatum healthier after missing much of last season while rehabbing from an Achilles tear. Not with the Knicks parading around Manhattan with their first title in a half century.

The Celtics have intriguing choices to make this summer. So much of the attention will fall on the names of potential pursuits, especially given the megawatt star power of someone like Antetokounmpo. But this puzzle is bigger than that one piece. It’d be a lot easier to make that sort of move if the Celtics were in position to spend big to maximize what might be a limited window of a player on the backside of his career.

Boston’s path back to title contention hinges heavily on figuring out a math problem that the entire NBA doesn’t quite have an answer to yet.

Warriors reportedly consider Clippers star Kawhi Leonard win-now trade to make originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

The Warriors could take another crack at pursuing an NBA superstar they targeted before the league’s Feb. 5 trade deadline last season.

Golden State reportedly discussed a trade with the Los Angeles Clippers for forward Kawhi Leonard in the final days ahead of the deadline before Clippers team owner Steve Ballmer stepped in and essentially killed any potential deal.

However, ESPN’s Anthony Slater reported in a story published Wednesday that, despite Ballmer still firm in his preference not to deal Leonard, the Warriors once again view the seven-time All-Star as the ideal win-now move this offseason.

“Team sources continue to indicate [Leonard is] the type of established wing talent they would pursue in a win-now maneuver, depending on the price point,” Slater wrote. “The problem: League sources said Ballmer has maintained a firm stance against a Leonard trade, preferring to continue building around his star forward.”

The soon-to-be 35-year-old averaged a career-high 27.9 points, 6.4 rebounds and 3.6 assists per game on 50.5-percent shooting from the field and 38.7 percent from 3-point range in 65 games with the Clippers during the 2025-26 NBA season.

Leonard instantly would provide Golden State with one of the most lethal scoring tandems in the league alongside Steph Curry if the Warriors were to make a deal with their Western Conference rival, but for now, it seems unlikely.

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Where Warriors, Kings sit in post-NBA Finals power rankings ahead of 2026 draft originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

The best part of the New York Knicks winning their first NBA Finals in 53 years is knowing that they earned it. The grit and diligence on display when faced with peril was as astonishing as any champion in any sport in recent memory. They ate deficits for dinner.

The worst part of the Knicks winning it all is we’ll spend an eternity hearing about New York supremacy. It will be loud enough to obscure the San Antonio Spurs’ miscues, the Oklahoma City Thunder’s misfortune and the Cleveland Cavaliers sucking their collective thumb.

But with the 2026 NBA Draft arriving next Tuesday, followed a week later by free agency, all 30 teams are exploring paths to improvement. Each has studied its roster to determine offseason priorities, which we attempt to address in the almost-summer Power Rankings:

30. Washington Wizards

Tanking regulars acquired established but flawed stars Trae Young and Anthony Davis. Priority should be to keep both, allowing their abused fans to dream of the NBA playoffs.

29. Sacramento Kings

Watching Mike Brown and De’Aaron Fox in the Finals had to hurt. It should have. The front office priority is to do something that follows logic, like add a quality point guard.

28. Brooklyn Nets

Chasing lottery luck instead of wins has kept them in the NBA swamp. Jordi Fernandez is a terrific coach. Time to use cap space and the No. 6 pick to give him a respectable roster. 

27. Chicago Bulls

Their baffling FO (Kings of the East) has shed good coaches, good players and loyal fans. The priority for the new GM is to rebuild with enough savvy to prove real change is here. 

26. Memphis Grizzlies

Ja Morant, the last piece of a once-formidable group, must go even though his value has plummeted. The FO, with the rebuild already under way, knows the assignment.

25. Milwaukee Bucks

Giannis Antetokounmpo is the most attractive trade chip in the league. A two-time MVP should be enough to launch a rebuild with promising youngsters and a couple culture-shifting veterans.

24. Dallas Mavericks

Proven architect Masai Ujiri needs only his phone and two years. Kyrie Irving with Cooper Flagg is a fine start. Now keep Dereck Lively II healthy and add some shooting.

23. New Orleans Pelicans

Here comes Jamahl Mosley to revamp a 23rd ranked defense. With no first-round pick, the priority is internal improvement and keeping Zion Williamson healthy and productive.

22. Phoenix Suns

Rookie coach Jordan Ott was impressive, guiding them to 45 wins. They have enough firepower to match that – if they reduce turnovers. They could use stronger paint presence.

21. Los Angeles Clippers

They went from awful to scary last season before landing on mediocre. Coach Tyronn Lue is secure, but Kawhi Leonard’s future, there or elsewhere, will be pivotal.

20. Utah Jazz

After so many years of overt tanking, they’re put together a long, athletic roster built to compete for the playoffs. They have a long way to go, but the turnaround is in view.

19. Charlotte Hornets

They generated enough momentum last season to excite the fan base. They’ll compete if LaMelo Ball plays smart. Add a strong defender, they could make the playoffs.

18. Portland Trail Blazers

Tiago Splitter coached wonderfully but got no love from the frugal new CEO. The entire league is curious to know if this franchise will prioritize excellence or cost savings.

17. Miami Heat

Eric Spoelstra kept them competitive, but if they can add Giannis to Bam Adebayo while re-signing Norman Powell, they’ll have a top-four roster in the East.

16. Golden State Warriors

The second half of the season exposed a flimsy roster behind Stephen Curry and Jimmy Butler III. Shot creators and a POA defender are wanted, but two-way wings are needed.

15. Toronto Raptors

The young core, led by Scottie Barnes, showed signs of real progress. The defense is superb, but the offense needs more deep shooters; they were 21st in 3-point percentage.

14. Philadelphia 76ers

Love the backcourt, but Bob Myers and new GM Mike Gansey must decide whether to pray for Joel Embiid’s health, or a miracle that delivers a way out of his mega contract.

13. Orlando Magic

Moseley was undone by injuries and poor shooting, so Sean Sweeney brings a new voice to a roster the FO surely knows is limited by inadequate shooting. Can they find it?

12. Los Angeles Lakers

Their limitations mostly trace to the holes in their defense. The must address that while also getting desirable contractual outcomes with LeBron James and Austin Reeves.

11. Atlanta Hawks

Trading Trae Young was the right move. They have two first-round picks, solid talent and superior athleticism. Adding size and re-signing veteran leader CJ McCollum are priorities.

10. Indiana Pacers

Losing Tyrese Haliburton sank last season, but his return puts them back in the playoffs. With Ivica Zubac replacing Myles Turner, can the FO find a reserve stretch-5?

9. Cleveland Cavaliers

They learned that no matter where James Harden goes, his game shrinks in the playoffs. That can’t be minimized. But this team aches for an elite perimeter defender.

8. Houston Rockets

They tried to patch over the loss of Fred VanVleet and realized it didn’t fix the hole. His absence strangled the offense, especially in clutch games. If he returns healthy, look out.

7. Denver Nuggets

They were 27-9 when Aaron Gordon played, 27-19 when he did not. Expect a big-ticket player to be bounced, but their fix is a healthy AG and a legitimate two-way wing. 

6. Boston Celtics

Joe Mazzula was named Coach of the Year before his one-dimensional offense went one-and-done in the playoffs. This is an issue no matter what the FO does with Jaylen Brown.

5. Minnesota Timberwolves

Julius Randle beats the world one night, curls into a ball another. If he is their No. 2, Anthony Edwards is handicapped. Fix that, and the Wolves can join OKC and San Antonio.

4. Detroit Pistons

Cade Cunningham is for real, but none of his teammates fit the No. 2 role. The FO must find a floor-spacing shooter because several No. 3s don’t equal a No. 2.

3. San Antonio Spurs

The best team in the league in the second half of the season tried and failed to jump the line to the top. As they await maturity for the tyros, their priority is to add another shooter.

2. Oklahoma City Thunder

A healthy Jalen Williams away from the Finals, OKC is built to reload while unloading. Isaiah Hartenstein’s team option forces Sam Presti to make a tough decision.

1. New York Knicks

Great fusion of pizazz and fundamentals. Synergistic top eight. Hoping Jalen Brunson set an example for teammates by sacrificing $$, the priority is to maintain continuity.

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Three best wings Warriors could take with No. 11 pick in 2026 NBA Draft originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

Skilled wings are every team’s dream entering the NBA draft. The position doesn’t run deep this year, which puts the Warriors in an interesting spot. 

Their own top two wings, Jimmy Butler and Moses Moody, will begin next season on the shelf as they recover from knee injuries. Will Richard can play up as a wing, as can Brandin Podziemski in certain lineups. Gui Santos bettering his outside shot allows him to play down as a small forward, too. 

Simply put, the Warriors need help on the wings, as they do with most spots on the floor right now. The top wings in the draft all provide a little something different, with differing levels of readiness and differing heights of their ceilings. So, here are the top three wings for the Warriors with the No. 11 pick in the 2026 NBA Draft.

Yaxel Lendeborg, F, Michigan 

There are a handful of reasons why Lendeborg is seen as a natural fit for the Warriors. They’re one of the teams that maybe wouldn’t mind using a lottery pick on a 24-year-old rookie. Lendeborg has NBA size at 6-foot-9 and 241 pounds with a wingspan of a little over 7-foot-3. He finished off his college career in perfect fashion as a national champion in a storied season, individually as well. 

The Consensus All-American would obviously be on the older side as a rookie, but he also has shown growth and continued development throughout his unique path to get here. After three years in junior college, Lendeborg was a two-time AAC Defensive Player of the Year at UAB, where he was a rebounding machine. Then, in his one season at Michigan, Lendeborg showed vast improvements as a shooter and the ability to play multiple positions. 

Lendeborg could have been included in our “big man” section, but he believes the 3 is his best position and he did just shoot 37.2 percent on 4.5 threes per game at Michigan with an 82.4 free throw percentage. He says his upside is yet to be fully seen, and now it’s up to the Warriors if they believe that to be true. 

If so, Lendeborg does check all the boxes for them. 

Cameron Carr, SG/SF, Baylor 

For those who question Lendeborg’s upside, Carr is the perfect combination of a prospect with huge potential and the ability to still help in the now. As Lendeborg put a stamp on a sensational senior season at Michigan, Carr was one of college basketball’s breakout stars as a redshirt sophomore. Again, at 21 and turning 22 in late November, Carr brings balance to the present and future. 

His college career began in disappointing fashion. Carr played in only 18 games for a total of 102 minutes during his first two years at Tennessee and then left the program during his second season. A change of scenery at Baylor saw him burst onto the scene, averaging 18.9 points and 5.8 rebounds per game. He dropped 28 points in his first game at Baylor and had 15 games of 20-plus points. 

Carr is 6-foot-5 with a massive 7-foot-1 wingspan, giving him all the tools to be a perfect 3-And-D player. It’s easy to see him as a top-notch 3-point shooter with his picturesque shot and length. That was on full display at the combine when Carr played in one scrimmage and impressed everyone with 30 points, seven rebounds and six 3-pointers. 

While he will need to add strength to his lanky 184-pound frame, Carr uses his 42-inch vertical leap to throw down dunks in transition, and he can be an impact defender with his length as a shot blocker and overall disruptor. 

Nate Ament, F, Tennessee

Welcome to the ultimate boom-or-bust prospect of this year’s draft. How many players can handle the rock and shoot off the dribble at 6-foot-10? It’s clear why Ament was a top high school recruit, and why he’s now an enigma in the lead-up to the draft. 

The idea of Ament is what has kept him in lottery discussions as a possible top 10 pick, not how he played as a freshman at Tennessee. Ament averaged 16.7 points and 6.3 rebounds per game, but he shot a lowly 39.9 percent from the field and 33.3 percent behind the 3-point line while having just three more assists than turnovers. He scored 20 or more 11 times last season, and also missed all his threes in 12 games. 

Ament is 19 and turns 20 in late December. Teams with years to let him learn through mistakes and see him blossom into who many thought he would be at Tennessee could jump at the opportunity to add Ament. Others could easily be scared away. 

Where the Warriors land in his camp will say everything about how they view the franchise going forward. Another option could be trading down and seeing a wing like Texas’ Dailyn Swain or Mexico’s Karim Lopez still available.

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There’s a lot of intel out there with the NBA Draft just a week away. Here’s a look at all the latest stories revolving around the Jazz.

It’s a three-player race for the Jazz at #2

Tony Jones recently reported on the Jazz decision-making process and who they’ll be picking come draft night. According to Tony Jones:

The Utah Jazz are “genuinely torn” between selecting AJ Dybantsa, Cameron Boozer or Darryn Peterson one week away from the NBA Draft, league sources told The Athletic.

Jones goes on to describe what the Jazz like about each player:

Through the draft process, according to league sources, the three prospects have stood out in different ways. Dybantsa, at 6-foot-9, is maybe the most physically imposing of the three, relative to his position. The former BYU star is capable of playing both wing positions, and he’s the giant shooting guard/small forward that almost every team covets. The Jazz are drawn to Peterson’s ability to score at a high level. They love Boozer’s ability to pass, rebound and process the game at a high level.

That Boozer is firmly in the mix at No. 2 is a testament to how much the Jazz like him, being that he isn’t a clean positional fit. The Jazz already have Jaren Jackson Jr. and Lauri Markkanen at his position, but Boozer is so talented that it may not matter for the Jazz. They may take him and worry about fit after.

The thing you can most take from this is that the Jazz have a choice between three great prospects, obviously dependent on what the Wizards do. Jones mentions that the Jazz weren’t surprised by Peterson’s decision, and even anticipated it to some level. They’re no stranger to this, and if they are confident that they can sell their organization to any prospect … and Peterson.

Utah’s front office is confident in its ability to sell prospects on the organization’s culture once that drafted prospect is in the building. The Jazz believe this situation won’t be any different.

But this is probably a non-issue, we know that Peterson has said he’s fine being drafted by the Jazz.

The Agent Issue

What is likely the biggest issue, and something we’ve heard more of lately, is that Peterson’s agent might be trying to dissuade Peterson from the Jazz. Why? He’s the same agent as Keyonte George, who is going into a contract season. From Jones:

Behind the scenes, there is some concern on Peterson’s side that he and Jazz point guard Keyonte George share the same agency. But the Jazz firmly believe the two can play together. The teams advancing deep into the playoffs enforced that belief by simultaneously playing multiple ball handlers.

This is definitely the core of everything we’ve seen about Peterson apparently not wanting to go to Utah. In reality, it all likely derives from his agent (which is almost always the reason for all of this). And it may not even necessarily be only about Darryn Peterson. With Keyonte George coming into a contract season, it makes sense that their shared agent would want to help George earn the maximum amount possible.

But like Jones says, there should be no shortage of opportunity for both Peterson and George. Jones mentions that Utah doesn’t have a starting-level shooting guard on the roster and Peterson would be in line for big minutes. The other element that makes things interesting for Utah is that at all times they can make sure that one of Peterson or George is on the floor running the offense.

Mark Cuban has admitted why the Mavericks completely whiffed on letting Jalen Brunson walk to the Knicks.

“It was really, really simple. We didn’t see JB, as what he would become,” Cuban, the owner of the Mavericks from 2000 to 2023, said in a recent appearance on “House of Haymaker.”

Brunson spent four years with the Mavericks, averaging more than 15 points per game only in his final year, the 2021-22 season.

Dallas had an option to extend the guard for $55 million prior to his breakout season, but opted to wait to see if his value would change after the year.

Cuban said he thought he would have a chance to match other teams’ offers, but Brunson accepted the Knicks‘ four-year, $104 million deal before talking to the Mavericks.

“He showed that star potential when Luka [Doncic] got hurt, and he won those games against Utah for us, but we were trying to get a star to put next to Luka, and JB’s star had not risen yet,” Cuban said.

It’s safe to say Brunson’s star has risen now after he just won the NBA Finals MVP in the Knicks’ first NBA championship in 53 years.

The former Villanova Wildcat averaged 32.6 points, 4.6 assists, 4.2 rebounds and 2.0 steals per game in the Finals, including a 45-point night to seal the series in Game 5.

That mirrors the success Brunson had during his entire stint with the Knicks, as he has averaged 26.3 points, 6.8 assists and 3.4 rebounds in 284 games with New York.

The guard was a part of the championship run in more ways than one; the court, though, he turned down approximately $113 million in guaranteed money when he signed a four-year, $156.5 million contract extension in 2024.

This allowed the Knicks to afford guys like OG Anunoby, Mikal Bridges and Karl-Anthony Towns.

Kentucky Basketball may be on the verge of one more big-time recruiting win to cap off the 2026-27 roster.

The BBN learned recently that Kentucky was making a push for international prospect Nikola Kusturica, a 6-foot-9 wing from Serbia who is already firmly on NBA radars. While the Wildcats are in the mix, Gonzaga was thought to be the leader, as the Zags have a bigger need right now, and they’ve been on him for longer.

Well, there may have been a shift in this recruitment, as 247 Sports’ Travis Branham just logged a prediction for Kentucky to land Kusturica with a confidence level of 7. This would be a massive late addition for Mark Pope and Co. that would keep his recent hot streak going after the offseason got off to a rough start.

Back in the 2025 FIBA U16 EuroBasket Tournament, Kusturica averaged 20 points, 7.7 rebounds, 3.4 assists, and 2.1 steals per game while shooting 49.5% from the field and 30.8% on 3-pointers across 25.6 minutes per game. He was named MVP of the tournament and is now being projected as a lottery pick in the 2028 NBA Draft.

NBA Draft Room currently has Kusturica projected to go No. 2 overall in the 2028 draft. That tells you just how highly thought of he is already. And because he has to play two seasons of college basketball — he just recently turned 17 — there’s a good chance he’ll become a star player for some lucky program before he leaves for the NBA.

And Kentucky may just be who he decides to play for.

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Bronx rapper Fat Joe saw something this weekend that he never thought he would see in his lifetime. 

But those dreams came true Saturday night when the Knicks hoisted the Larry O’Brien Trophy after defeating the Spurs in five games for their first NBA championship in 53 years.

Fat Joe went on “The Beat with Ari Melber“to talk about his experience during Knicks fever.

While Fat Joe is happy that the team he supported for most of his life is now on top of the basketball world, what stuck with him most was how the title brought New York together.

He pointed to a moment when he heard the city sing Jay-Z and Alecia Keys’ famous song “Empire State of Mind” after the Knicks finally brought home the crown with a 94-90 win in San Antonio.

“When you’ve seen thousands, maybe a million fans at one time singing that, man, it’s like a dream come true,” Fat Joe said on MS Now.

Knicks fans across all five boroughs took to the streets to celebrate the victory. The lesson Fat Joe took from the long wait was that it takes a lot to become a champion. 

“The lesson is, you can’t buy a championship,” he said. “You can’t waltz, you can’t get lucky. You’ve got to earn your way to a championship. And it’s just like when we won, Mr. [James] Dolan gave that speech where he was like, ‘I’m sorry, New York, I was trying,’ you know, ‘I’m sorry it took so long to win this chip.’ That’s how hard it is to be a champion. You’ve got to beat the very, very best.”

The rapper also credited more than just the players for bringing home the trophy.

“But I want to thank everybody, man, for fighting hard — and the fans, man, we went out there. We went to Cleveland. We went to Atlanta. We went to San Antonio. I mean, by the thousands. There was so many New York fans all over,” Fat Joe said. “I like to think we willed them some way or another. We willed them. Like, whenever they had doubts, or whenever it was down, we was like, yeah, let’s go.

“These scenes in New York City will never get replaced.” 

Fat Joe was a prominent member of Madison Square Garden’s celebrity row. The rapper traveled to most of the away games as well. 

He ran into trouble in Cleveland when the Cavaliers revoked his courtside tickets for Games 3 and 4. Fat Joe was told that “New York Knick fans can’t sit courtside.”

Luckily for Fat Joe, he saw his team clinch the title in San Antonio without any issues.

The city will celebrate once more on Thursday as the Knicks’ parade will start at Battery Park and end at City Hall. 

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The 2026 NBA Draft is just around the corner, and the Golden State Warriors are back in the lottery, holding the No. 11 pick. It’s a position where elite talent is occasionally available … two-time MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was a fairly recent No. 11 pick, as was Warriors franchise legend Klay Thompson.

While the Dubs are actively scouting potential players — many signs point to Michigan star Yaxel Lendeborg — there’s also the possibility of trading the pick. We all know that the Warriors will be star-hunting this offseason, even if the Giannis Antetokounmpo rumors have calmed down significantly.

So we want to know your opinion: should the Warriors trade the pick and add some young — but unproven — talent? Or should they trade it in pursuit of a more win-now player? Let us know!

According to Tim MacMahon on Utah ESPN 700 Radio, Walker Kessler has received an offer from the Utah Jazz for a 5-year, $ 140 M deal, but apparently it wasn’t enough.

MacMahon was asked if he thinks that Kessler wants to play in Utah, and he responded: “… for more than 5 years, $140M.” It also sounds like there are some real frustrations with how the Jazz have gone about his contract situation. Apparently, the Jazz feel that they can have any hurt feelings improve over time once the contract is signed.

To be honest, it’s a pretty surprising attitude from Kessler, who has shown a lot of potential but not necessarily some concrete production. Utah is right to hold strong in this situation because the worst thing they can do is start handing out max deals to every player on the team. They already have big contracts with Lauri Markkanen and Jaren Jackson Jr., they have Keyonte George coming up, and then who knows what happens with Ace Bailey eventually.

We know from Sam Amick that there are teams interested in Kessler, like the Lakers, the Hawks, and others, so it’s not like the Jazz don’t have options. If Kessler is trying to force his way out, he may get just that, but don’t be surprised if he ends up in places he didn’t expect, like Donovan Mitchell in Cleveland.