Category: NBA

Ben Stiller has an incredible Hollywood resume as an actor, producer, director, and writer. But first and foremost, he’s a Knicks fan.

A staple at Madison Square Garden throughout the regular season and playoffs, Stiller has also been cheering on his Knicks on the road during the postseason, as he was in the building in Indiana for Game 4 against the Pacers, sitting next to fellow actor and diehard Knicks fan Timothée Chalamet.

Stiller and Chalamet have become quite the tandem when it comes to cheering on the Knicks, and Stiller explained on The Putback with Ian Begley, how he and Chalamet have formed a bond over their beloved team.

“We met each other over the years a few times and I’m a fan of his, he’s a great actor, always seemed like a nice guy,” Stiller said. “Saw him at some Knicks games and then we were at the Detroit series and were both looking to go to Detroit, so we decided to go together and got to know each other.

“Genuine Knicks fan through and through. New Yorker, New York kid, and has a true appreciation of the game and no trouble calling out the refs during a game, too.”

While sitting courtside in Indiana, Stiller and Chalamet, along with Spike Lee, were the subject of a WWE-style roasting by TV personality and former Indianapolis Colts punter Pat McAfee.

"We got some bigwigs from the big city in the building. Spike Lee is here. Ben Stiller is here. Timothée Chalamet is here. Let’s send these sons of bitches back to New York with their ears ringing," McAfee said to pump up the crowd during the fourth quarter of Game 4.

Stiller was able to get a good laugh out of it, though, saying on The Putback that Indiana had an ‘amazing, amazing atmosphere,’ and that McAfee should head to the Big Apple for Thursday night’s Game 5.

"I have to say, I was not familiar with his game. I did not know that was coming," Stiller said.

"I did know that Timothée has been on his show and I was like 'Oh, that’s your boy, that’s your guy,' so then when that happened I was a little bit like 'Whoa, okay.' But the WWE aspect, I get it. It’s just not the way it happens in New York.

"He should come to the Garden for Game 5. They’ll put him up on the screen and they’ll show him punting the ball, and everybody will give him a nice cheer. That’s how we do it in New York.

"But I get it. It was fun. I feel like he was just trying to get the crowd riled up. It was a little bit out of the blue… it just seems a little cartoonish, but then again it goes with the WWE."

Knicks fans can certainly expect to see Stiller and Chalamet on Thursday night at Game 5, as the Knicks look to stay alive and flip the momentum in the series, with Indiana up 3-1 in the best-of-seven set.

Any chance we’ll get to see the two actors mic’d up during the game?

"They don’t want to do that," Stiller said with a laugh. "I’m telling you."

You can watch Stiller's full appearance on The Putback by clicking here.

Report: Kuminga could return to Warriors due to financial restrictions originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

Even though all signs thus far indicate Jonathan Kuminga likely will leave the Warriors this summer, the finances could make that tricky.

The Athletic’s Anthony Slater noted a few interesting wrinkles to the situation and why he believes the best possible outcome for all parties would be for Kuminga to remain in the Bay.

First, with Kuminga expected to earn at least a 20 percent raise as a restricted free agent, a new deal would put Golden State over the cap. But the incoming salary would only count as half of Kuminga’s outgoing salary, as noted by the “base year compensation” rule in the CBA.

So, as Slater notes, if Kuminga’s new deal starts at $30 million, which is what his next team would absorb it as, the Warriors would look at a $15 million incoming match.

As a restricted free agent, Kuminga could sign with Golden State or sign an offer sheet with a team with cap space. The Warriors would have the right to match.

A sign-and-trade is also a possibility. But as Slater pointed out, the base-year rule in addition to the first-apron cap “significantly limits” the number of realistic sign-and-trade opportunities for the Warriors.

“The Warriors’ front office, Kuminga’s representatives and the league are expected to explore all options into July,” Slater wrote. “But team sources have been hinting that, because of these market and financial restrictions, there’s a likely world where the most obvious and prudent path is for them to bring Kuminga back and figure the rest out later.”

After numerous DNPs-CD (Did Not Play, Coach’s Decision) to begin Golden State’s postseason run, Kuminga re-emerged into Steve Kerr’s rotation when Steph Curry went down with an injury and reminded the Warriors and the rest of the league of his talent and athleticism.

And that talent and athleticism might be on a one-way trip back to the Warriors.

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Celtics player spotlight: Will Neemias Queta fill void in frontcourt? originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

Neemias Queta has been a good find for the Boston Celtics as an effective center off the bench.

After putting in the time to improve his skill set in the G League over the first three years of his career (51 total games in that span), he was a full-time NBA player during the 2024-25 season.

Even though Queta played more games and minutes this season than at any point in his pro career, he still was the third or fourth center on the roster most nights. A lot of that was due to the Celtics’ depth. On most other teams, Queta could have been a No. 2 big man.

Luckily for Queta, the upcoming season could see him take on the largest and most important role of his Celtics tenure.

As we continue our “Celtics Player Spotlight” series, let’s recap his 2024-25 season and analyze how he fits into Boston’s lineup for 2025-26:

2024-25 Season Recap

Queta brings great energy and hustle to the second unit. After playing in 28 games for the Celtics during the 2023-24 campaign, Queta saw action in a career-high 62 games and made six starts (zero in his first four seasons). He also appeared in four of Boston’s 11 playoff games.

He averaged 5.0 points, 3.8 rebounds and 0.7 blocks per game, while shooting 65 percent from the floor in an average of 13.9 minutes per game. He tallied seven or more rebounds in 17 games.

Queta does not stretch the floor as an outside shooter, but he does have a soft touch around the rim and enough size/length (7-foot, 250 pounds) to provide good interior defense.

Contract details

Queta just completed the first season of a three-year contract. He has a $2.35 million salary cap hit for the 2025-26 season, per Spotrac.

Potential roles for 2025-26

Scenario 1: If Luke Kornet signs elsewhere, Queta could step into his role

Veteran centers Luke Kornet and Al Horford are both unrestricted free agents this summer. Queta is more similar to Kornet than Horford because he’s more of a low-post scorer and can finish on lobs at the basket. Neither Queta nor Kornet shoot 3-pointers like Horford.

Kornet had a really good season, and it’s possible that he could receive a better contract offer from another team, especially given the Celtics’ second apron difficulties. If Kornet were to depart, Queta could step into that role and see his minutes increase to 18-20 per game.

One area where Kornet shined was on the offensive glass. His 2.6 offensive rebounds per game were at least one more than any other player on Boston’s roster this past season. If Queta did step into Kornet’s role, he would have to be active on the offensive glass and help give the Celtics more second-chance opportunities.

Scenario 2: Lack of frontcourt depth gives Queta more opportunities

If Kornet and/or Horford don’t return, and if Kristaps Porzingis misses more time due to injury next season, it’s possible that Queta could see a fairly significant increase in his role.

Frontcourt depth could be one of the Celtics’ biggest weak points next season. Not only could they lose one or more of their centers in the offseason, their No. 1 rebounder — Jayson Tatum — could miss most or all of next season as he recovers from Achilles surgery. Porzingis has played in 99 of a possible 164 regular season games since joining the C’s.

Queta should see an uptick in minutes in 2025-26 regardless of which offseason moves are made in the next few months.

Final thoughts

Queta is signed for two more seasons with a salary cap hit of less than $3 million per year. He has a very team-friendly contract, so it would benefit the Celtics tremendously if he could make a larger impact in a more important role next season.

He doesn’t have to score 10-plus points to be effective. Making his presence felt as a rebounder and a reliable interior defender would likely be good enough.

How Draymond Green's Shaquille O'Neal handshake pokes fun at Charles Barkley originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

Death, taxes and Draymond Green roasting Charles Barkley.

On the latest episode of “The Draymond Green Show with Baron Davis,” the two discussed the origin of the “four-ring” handshake that TNT’s Shaquille O’Neal and Green do on “Inside the NBA.”

“It was always to pick on Charles [Barkley]… it’s so fun picking on Charles,” Green said. “And Chuck’s such a good sport about everything and funny as hell.”

It all started around the time Green made his “Inside the NBA” debut during the 2021-22 NBA season and O’Neal went around asking the analysts how many rings they had.

O’Neal, who won four rings — three with the Los Angeles Lakers and one with the Miami Heat — asked Kenny Smith, who earned two of his own with the Houston Rockets and then Green.

Green noted that the bit began when he had three rings but then earned the fourth title a few months later when the Warriors defeated the Boston Celtics in six games, which led to the current handshake.

“That’s just kind of how it came about,” Green said. “Me and Shaq throwing up our fours… so that’s our thing, you know. Four rings, baby.”

Green’s co-host Davis came to Chuck’s defense, calling him a legend and saying the analysts needed to leave Barkley, who is famously ring-less, alone.

Green went on to give Barkley and the rest of the TNT squad their flowers.

“Chuck’s one of the best, though, man,” Green said. “I’ve been so fortunate to be around those guys, talk basketball with those guys. I’m extremely grateful.”

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O'Connor: NBA sources view Dylan Harper as a franchise-changing talent originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

Cooper Flagg is the crown jewel of the 2025 NBA Draft class, a projected No. 1 overall pick with multi-time All-NBA potential.

But don’t sleep on the next-best player in the draft.

Rutgers guard Dylan Harper currently projects as the No. 2 pick in the draft behind Flagg, and with good reason: The 19-year-old averaged 19.4 points, 4.6 rebounds and 4.0 assists per game for the Scarlet Knights last season and has significant upside as a two-way guard in the NBA.

The Boston Celtics have no shot at landing Harper with the 28th pick in the first round. But could they land the Rutgers star via trade? In Part II of his “Offseason Path” series, our Celtics Insider Chris Forsberg laid out a bold scenario in which Boston sends Jaylen Brown to the San Antonio Spurs in exchange for the No. 2 pick and a combination of young players such as Devin Vassell and Keldon Johnson.

Boston trading Brown — a four-time All-Star who is set to be the team’s No. 1 option while Jayson Tatum recovers from Achilles surgery — would be a very bold move, and the Celtics likely would explore several other avenues to trim their payroll and get under the NBA’s second apron before deciding to part with a franchise cornerstone.

But if trading Brown means bringing back a player like Harper, Celtics president of basketball operations Brad Stevens may have to consider it. Yahoo Sports’ NBA insider Kevin O’Connor shared what he’s hearing about Harper during NBC Sports Boston’s The OffC’season special Wednesday.

“If the Spurs made an offer you can’t say no to, well, Dylan Harper might be the great point guard next to Jayson Tatum,” O’Connor told Forsberg and co-host Drew Carter.

“I like Harper a lot. … The jump shot, in the context of San Antonio, I worry about, because they have Stephon Castle and De’Aaron Fox there. But for Boston — let’s just say, theoretically, that’s what happened — I would love Dylan Harper, surrounded by space in the Boston Celtics’ ‘Mazzulla Ball’ system, with Tatum by his side and those guys sharing the ball together.”

The Celtics have leaned heavily on 3-point shooting under head coach Joe Mazzulla, and Harper shot just 33.3 percent beyond the arc at Rutgers last season. But Harper’s shooting can always improve, and Boston would benefit greatly from his playmaking abilities.

“Harper can play off-ball, but the shooting — it’d be a little less important for him in Boston than it would be in San Antonio, where they need shooting around Victor Wembanyama,” O’Connor said. “But for the Celtics, man, I can’t imagine. He is so good at getting downhill, a foul magnet, great playmaker on his drives to the basket. He would be a haul.”

So, what’s the ceiling for Harper?

“A lot of people around the NBA — like, everybody has Cooper Flagg for the most part ahead of Dylan Harper — but there are a lot of people who consider Dylan Harper a can’t-miss prospect, a guy who can change a franchise,” O’Connor said.

“I’m not quite on the same level with him, but I do think at a minimum, he’s going to be a good player for a decade in the NBA.”

The Spurs ultimately may decide to keep the No. 2 pick and create a three-headed monster of young talent in Wembanyama, Castle and Harper. But that would make for a crowded backcourt with Fox also in the mix, so it might be worth keeping an eye on San Antonio as the June 25 draft approaches.

Check out more offseason analysis from Forsberg, O’Connor and Carter below:

Report: Nets not expected to prepare Kuminga offer sheet originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

The Brooklyn Nets aren’t expected to prepare Jonathan Kuminga an offer sheet this summer.

With the Warriors forward set to become a restricted free agent this offseason, there were several rumors that the Nets would make an offer given their salary-cap situation. However, that doesn’t appear to be the case.

“There is not a current expectation that the Brooklyn Nets are preparing an offer sheet for Kuminga, but there are signs Brooklyn could be willing to use its open cap space as a vehicle to execute multi-team trade scenarios this summer,” The Athletic’s Anthony Slater reported.

“That could open up several avenues and possible suitors for Kuminga, one of the market’s most intriguing names. The Warriors’ front office, with the help of new cap specialist Jon Phelps, showed some creativity last summer, routing Thompson’s departure into a six-team sign-and-trade that delivered Buddy Hield and Kyle Anderson (after generating the space for De’Anthony Melton).”

The 22-year-old has all of the physical talents to become an elite NBA player, but he has struggled with consistency during his tenure with the Warriors. With Golden State committed to building around Steph Curry, Draymond Green and Jimmy Butler next season, it doesn’t seem likely that Kuminga will fit into those plans.

After trading for Butler, Kuminga fell out of the rotation almost entirely, seeing significant game action only after Curry went down with a Grade 1 hamstring strain in the Western Conference Semifinals.

Given the 22-year-old’s contract situation, it’s more feasible for a sign-and-trade deal to materialize, and it’s possible that Golden State could get some solid players in the exchange.

The Warriors selected Kuminga with the No. 7 overall pick in the 2021 NBA Draft with the expectation that it would take time for him to develop into an elite-level player. While he has flashed brilliance at times, it’s clear that the “two-timeline” approach owner Joe Lacob envisioned isn’t working out.

With Curry continuing to play at a high level, it’s clear that general manager Mike Dunleavy and the rest of the Golden State front office are looking to acquire more complementary pieces to fill out the roster.

Only time will tell if Kuminga fits into those plans or not.

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The definition of success is subjective, ephemeral. But in today’s sports zeitgeist, it’s becoming less so: “rings culture” dominates all, serving as the wall into which any nuanced conversation inevitably crashes: “But did they win?” Of course, each NBA team enters the season every year with the same goal: to hoist the Larry O’Brien trophy. But only one team can every year, so does that make the other 29 failures?

The Minnesota Timberwolves present an interesting counterpoint: their fanbase is, no doubt, deeply disappointed this morning after a harrowing blowout loss in Oklahoma City, which means the team came up short of the NBA finals in devastating, decisive fashion for the second year in a row. On the other hand, they’ve made back to back Western Conference finals for the first time in team history, gone from league laughing stock to bona fide perennial contender, and have one of the most exciting young stars in basketball, 23-year-old Anthony Edwards.

Related: Would the NBA’s transatlantic expansion strip the soul of European basketball?

Edwards has fallen victim to a classic conundrum for a young, fast rising star athlete: disappointing people by not quickly enough becoming a thing he never asked to be. In his case, that’s “face of the league,” an idea foisted upon him almost instantaneously by an NBA public wooed by the guard who plays a bit like one Michael Jeffrey Jordan. Edwards’s popularity grew rapidly, due to his Jordan-esque explosiveness, propensity for highlight dunks, and sparkling charisma. The devil-may-care Edwards has spoken on the record, several times, about not being particularly interested in being the “face” of the NBA, a plight LeBron James (whose team Edwards recently sent packing for the season) says he empathizes with. “I understand,” James, who has served as the face of the NBA for two decades, told the Los Angeles Times recently. “I completely understand. There’s this weird energy when it comes to that.”

Charles Barkley recently made some somewhat controversial comments on the subject. “Don’t try and make Anthony Edwards the face of the NBA,” Barkley said. “You can’t give [the title of face of the NBA] to people. They have to take it.” It certainly seemed, in moments throughout the postseason, like Edwards was doing exactly that, wrestling the title from his elders inadvertently or otherwise. His dismantling of a Los Angeles Lakers team spearheaded by James and Luka Dončić, who sent Edwards and the Timberwolves home last season, was decisive and damned impressive, showcasing his newfound basketball maturity and growth as a playmaker. And while his team lucked out when the Warriors’ Stephen Curry was ruled out of the Western Conference semi-finals with a hamstring injury, you can only play the team in front of you, and Edwards & Co made quick work of Golden State, too.

The Timberwolves had lost a cumulative two games through two series until they ran into the freight train that is the Oklahoma City Thunder. The Thunder’s historically great defense brutally exposed Minnesota’s flaws, and they were the first team to make Edwards look every bit of what he really is: 23 years old. It’s easy to forget when young stars come into the league after a single-year in college that, even five seasons into their NBA tenure, they’re still so very young. But Edwards is young, and while it was another whimper of an ending to his playoffs, the fact that he already has two conference finals runs and marked improvement as a player under his belt should serve as encouragement. He showed flashes of his newfound maturity, and flashes of the years of work left to reach his sky-high potential, in this playoff run. Edwards’s time will come. But it’s not here yet.

The Thunder are a young team, and they will probably stand between Minnesota and a place in the NBA finals for some time to come. But it would be wrong to place the blame for the Timberwolves’ playoff exit at Edwards’s feet. The team has a lot of existential (and financial) questions to answer this summer. For starters, there’s Julius Randle, the player Minnesota took a gamble on when they traded Karl-Anthony Towns to the New York Knicks last October. Randle, who has a checkered playoff résumé to say the least, had a rocky start in Minnesota, but rounded into form after the All-Star break and had a scintillating star turn in the first two rounds of the postseason. The conference finals, where he scored fewer than seven points in two games and looked lost for much of three of them, were a different story. Randle is on an expiring contract with a player option this summer, and the Wolves will have to take another gamble in guessing which version of Randle is to come, and if there’s a place for him moving forward.

Naz Reid, a beloved fan-favorite and former sixth man of the year, may have cost himself a pretty penny with his disappointing showing throughout the playoffs, but he’s still expected to forgo his bargain $15m player option and enter free agency this summer, another tough call for the Timberwolves to make. Nickeil Alexander-Walker (who, as ESPN is quick to remind us, is MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s cousin) is also a free agent this summer, and has likely earned himself a bit of a pay bump over the course of his stint in Minnesota. Then there’s Rudy Gobert, whose albatross of a contract would most likely be difficult to move, even with his multi-time Defensive Player of the Year bona fides. But he’s been a clunky fit with Edwards, is a general liability offensively, and was mostly played off the floor by Thunder. Tim Connelly, the president of basketball operations the ‘Wolves wooed away from Denver, has done a mostly bang-up job to this point in Minnesota. But if he wants to steward Edwards’s potential, he has difficult decisions this offseason.

No one wants to see their favorite team outclassed in the manner the Timberwolves were in Oklahoma City on Wednesday evening. And the summer ahead is a murky one for the direction of the franchise and its roster. But to go from the butt of every NBA joke, whose claim to fame, for many fans, was either alienating Kevin Garnett or passing, twice, on Stephen Curry in the draft, to a perennial championship contender with a budding homegrown superstar, is a win. Or, one might say, a success.

How SGA can achieve rare Steph feat with OKC NBA Finals win originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and his Oklahoma City Thunder are on a historic run to the 2025 NBA Finals.

After leading the Thunder to the NBA’s best 2024-25 regular-season record behind his proficient play, Gilgeous-Alexander was awarded the NBA Most Valuable Player award.

And by sweeping the Memphis Grizzlies in the first round of the Western Conference playoffs, knocking out Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets in seven games and then dominating Anthony Edwards and the Minnesota Timberwolves in five games to earn a trip to the 2025 NBA Finals, Gilgeous-Alexander now has an opportunity to achieve a rare milestone last completed by none other than Warriors superstar Steph Curry.

If Gilgeous-Alexander and his guys can defeat either the Indiana Pacers or the New York Knicks on the biggest stage in basketball, the 26-year-old guard would become the first player to win NBA MVP and the Finals in the same season in 10 years.

Curry and the Warriors dynasty won their first championship during that 2014-15 season, when he averaged 23.8 points on 48.7-percent shooting from the field and 44.3 percent from distance, with 4.3 rebounds, 7.7 assists and 2.0 steals in 32.7 minutes through 80 regular-season games.

The Warriors guard won his first of two NBA MVPs that year, and his second in the following season.

Gilgeous-Alexander has put on a show through 16 playoff games with the Thunder, averaging 29.8 points on an efficient 47.1 percent shooting, with 5.7 rebounds, 6.9 assists and 1.6 steals in 36.5 minutes.

And now, he’s four wins away from being in the same company as the greatest shooter of all time.

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Why Draymond doesn't view Giannis as greatest modern power forward originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

Draymond Green explained his reasoning for why Milwaukee Bucks superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo isn’t the greatest power forward of this era.

The Warriors’ power forward was asked if he agreed or disagreed with the assertion that Antetokounmpo is the best player at that position right now.

“I’m going to disagree,” Green told Baron Davis on “The Draymond Green Show.” “And the reason I disagree is this. Giannis has played in an era where it kind of became positionless basketball. And I don’t necessarily think that Giannis is a power forward and has been [during his career]. And that’s why I disagree with that.

“Because Giannis is one of the greatest players of this era, and the game was kind of positionless. What made people start calling Giannis a power forward is because you had to start putting power forwards in the center [position] on Giannis [to guard him].”

Antetokounmpo possesses one of the NBA’s most versatile skill sets, able to penetrate to the rim while also serving as the primary ballhandler. Few players in the league’s history have possessed such a unique combination of size and speed, making it a special challenge to build a team around him.

Green understands this, and the way the Bucks have surrounded Antetokounmpo with shooters might lead one to believe he was playing as a power forward.

“The team that you build around Giannis because his skillset is so great driving and getting downhill, that you put a lot of shooting around him,” Green told Davis. “So then when people look at the game, they’re like, ‘Oh, well Jrue Holiday must be this position, and Chris Middleton must be this position, and Brooke Lopez is the five,’ ok great, so Giannis is a power forward.

“But if you look at the great power forwards. Giannis doesn’t play like Tim Duncan; Giannis doesn’t play like Kevin Garnett. So, I think people are being lazy and don’t understand what they’re looking at, and so they pigeonhole him into the power forward position. And I just don’t think that’s very accurate.”

The modern game of basketball relies on players like Antetokounmpo, who can effectively play multiple positions. Instead of rigid positions and offensive sets, players are expected to have versatility. Essentially, the game has broken down into long-range shooters (mainly guards) and interior players (forwards and centers) who can also move the ball and take shots from beyond the arc.

The evolution of the game makes historical comparisons at each position tenuous at best. Just looking at a shot chart from 2005 versus 2025 shows how dramatically things have changed.

Green is a student of the sport, having started his career when his teammates Steph Curry and Klay Thompson revolutionized the 3-point shot. So, he’s well aware of the seismic change the NBA has undergone in the past decade, with a shift towards more positionless basketball.

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How 2025 NBA Draft withdrawals might impact Celtics' draft strategy originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

Wednesday was the deadline for players to withdraw from the 2025 NBA Draft and return to college basketball for the 2025-26 season, and a bunch of them ultimately made that decision.

Here’s the list of players ranked in ESPN’s top 100 list that decided to go back to school, per Jonathan Givony:

• 26. Yaxel Lendeborg (Michigan)
• 31. Alex Condon (Florida)
• 38. Tahaad Pettiford (Auburn)
• 41. Milos Uzan (Houston)
• 42. Boogie Fland (Florida)
• 43. Labaron Philon (Alabama)
• 44. Isaiah Evans (Duke)
• 46. Darrion Williams (NC State)
• 51. Miles Byrd (San Diego State)
• 56. Karter Knox (Arkansas)
• 58. Mackenzie Mgbako (Texas A&M)
• 64. PJ Haggerty (Kansas State)
• 72. Otega Oweh (Kentucky)
• 80. Bruce Thornton (Ohio State)

“Not only did we see the lowest number of early-entrant candidates (106) in a decade, but another dozen or so draftable prospects withdrew at the deadline, making this one of the shallowest second rounds we’ve seen in a few years,” Givony wrote Thursday.

How do these withdrawals impact the Celtics? Well, many of the players in the list above could have been targets for the C’s, who own the No. 28 overall pick in the first round and the second pick of the second round (No. 32 overall) in next month’s draft.

For example, recent mock drafts from Sam Vecenie of The Athletic and Adam Finkelstein of CBS Sports projected the Celtics taking Alabama wing Labaron Philon, but he has since decided to go back to the Crimson Tide for another season.

Alex Condon was another popular mock draft pick for the Celtics at No. 28. The Florida big man played a key role in the Gators winning a national championship this past season, and he decided earlier this week to return to Gainesville for his junior campaign.

Why are so many players going back to school? The rise in NIL (Name, Image and Likeness) deals is definitely a factor. Players who are likely to be drafted late in the first round or early second round can stay in school and potentially earn more money there than they might as a rookie in the NBA.

Celtics president of basketball operations Brad Stevens told NBC Sports Boston’s Chris Forsberg earlier this month that the depth of this year’s draft class could be impacted more by NIL than any other in his Boston tenure.

“I think this year’s draft class more than any ever has been affected by the NIL and affected by the new pay-for-play,” Stevens told Forsberg on May 20, as seen in the video player below. “I think people in college, whether they’re saying it or not, got ahead of the new NIL restrictions and kept people in school. And then there’s a lot of people deciding whether they’re going back or not.

“I think this draft more than any other will probably be affected by that, as far as the back end of the draft and even into the late first round. People will have really hard decisions to make. ‘Do I come into the NBA and make this much money slotted for this many years, or do I take a huge payday from some school?’ That’s the world we live in.”

Stevens later added: “The money can be higher in some of these schools than the bottom of the 20s in the draft.”

NIL isn’t the only reason for players to stay in school. Some of them like the college experience, and some of them might want to go back to improve their skills and be a higher pick in the future, etc.

NIL could actually end up being a positive for the NBA because players who remain in college for longer would, in theory, have a more well-rounded skill set when they eventually make the jump to the pros.

So, what’s next for the Celtics after so many players in their pick range decided to return to college?

The Celtics’ biggest need is in the frontcourt. Al Horford and Luke Kornet are unrestricted free agents this offseason. Kristaps Porzingis has one more year on his contract and has been injury prone most of his career. Therefore, it would make sense to target a center, preferably one who can stretch the floor as an outside shooter.

A strong case could also be made to just draft the best player available. The Celtics need talent, especially players who can score, with Jayson Tatum potentially missing most or all of next season as he recovers from Achilles surgery. Big men are important, but guards and wings win you games in today’s NBA.

Looking for the best player available who can contribute right away is probably the ideal strategy for Boston. A long-term development project doesn’t make sense for where the C’s are right now.

Overall, this is a very important draft for the Celtics. They have an expensive roster as a second apron team. The best way to maximize you roster’s depth around high-salary veterans is to draft good players who are on cheap rookie contracts. Valuable players like Jaden McDaniels, Christian Braun, Andrew Nembhard and others have been found late in the first or second rounds in recent drafts.

Can the Celtics find a similarly effective player at No. 28 or No. 32? That is one of Stevens’ challenges over the next month.

The Path, Part III: Can Celtics pull off their own ‘Golden State Bridge'? originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

Editor’s Note: As the Celtics enter a critically important offseason, Chris Forsberg is exploring three different paths Boston can take this summer, each with their own pros and cons for the short- and long-term future of the franchise. Part I involved “threading the needle.”Part II featured a “full reboot.” The final path: a “Golden State Bridge.”

Let’s start this final entry with a brief rant. 

If we learned anything from our deep dives into Boston’s potential offseason paths, it’s that the NBA really screwed up by not rewarding teams for developing homegrown talent in its latest collective bargaining agreement.

The Celtics find themselves with excruciating offseason choices, most notably having to potentially move core players drafted and developed.

Instead of being rewarded for building organically, Boston has been handcuffed by the accolades of its draftees. Instead of offering some sort of incentive for teams to build through the draft, the NBA is penalizing the Celtics because their stars were deemed to be among the 15 best players in the league, which maximized the percentage of the cap they were able to sign for on new deals.

The new CBA makes it virtually impossible to build a sustainable roster around two supermax players earning 35 percent of the cap, which will be the case with Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown this summer when Tatum’s extension kicks in.

The NBA should consider offering some sort of tax exemption to teams that don’t simply purchase significant parts of their roster. If you want to protest that Boston did such by adding Kristaps Porzingis and Jrue Holiday to set up their title win, we’d push back that two other homegrown products were at the centerpiece of those deals in Marcus Smart and Robert Williams III.

The constraints of this new CBA are going to leave teams hoping that their stars don’t hit All-NBA status or earn other season awards, because it will further complicate the financial puzzle. Instead of embracing successes, fanbases are left celebrating snubs. It’s absurd.

But we digress. The same CBA that is trying to tear Boston’s championship core apart also might produce the sort of league-wide parity that could help the Celtics acquire the necessary parts to chase Banner 19.

For Part 3 of this series, we’re pondering a path where teams craving their own slice of Boston’s championship DNA might help build a bridge to the next championship team.

And we’re hunting for hints with the 2022 Golden State Warriors. 

Objectives of this path:

• Maintain much of the core, but understand the bumps ahead.
• Use interest in veteran pieces to generate future assets.

The road map:

• Maintain a core of Tatum, Brown and Derrick White.
• Load manage the stars over the next two seasons and lean into youth.
• Focus on returning to title contention for 2027-28 season.

Why this path makes sense:

In Part 1, we pondered threading a needle where the Celtics keep much of the core but attempted to stay afloat through Tatum’s rehab. In Part 2, we pondered a more nuclear option in which the team dismantled the core but prioritized getting the long-term financials in order.

Path 3 here tries to do a little bit of both, and — a bit ironically — seeks to replicate what the 2022 Warriors did before upending the Celtics in the NBA Finals that year. 

Essentially, the Celtics would embrace the reality that the next two seasons could be bumpy, but all eyes would be on giving this core another chance to tap into their championship DNA in the 2027-28 season. 

Why this path might not make sense:

Even while preserving a Tatum/Brown/Derrick White core, there is little room to work with on the fringes.

Two of those players will be over the age of 30 by the time that 2026-27 season starts. What’s more, there are still obstacles to getting out of the tax long-term, and Boston has to nail its draft and development along the way.

In a way, it’s threading an even more fine needle than we pondered in Path 1.

Before we travel down this path…

Let’s zip through three paths we didn’t choose for this series, but that we spent way too much time considering along the way:

1. The ‘Get more Derrick Whites’ path

No, we’re not cloning him (unless you’ve got the technology to do that). We’re trying to make a bunch of trades that bring back versatile, budget-friendly players who could blossom in elevated roles.

Alas, Boston’s most tradable assets make too much money to swing those sort of deals, at least without taking back bulky expiring salary in the process. It’s nearly impossible to find deal that brings back a Deni Avdija or a Tari Eason that works for both sides. 

2. The ‘We’re getting the band back together’ path

You knew were weren’t doing this entire series without concocting a way to get Robert Williams III back in green.

In this scenario, the Celtics move on from both Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis but open pathways to (eventually) bringing back Smart and Williams III.

Preposterous? Both Smart and Williams III will be free agents after the 2025-26 season and should command less than their current contracts. The Celtics also could generate a disabled player exception this year if a league-approved doctor determines it’s more likely than not that Tatum will not play in the 2025-26 season.

The DPE is typically worth half the value of a player’s salary but is capped at the non taxpayer midlevel, or roughly $14 million. It can be used to sign a free agent or trade for a player in the final year of his contract, and — well, well, well — Williams III checks all those boxes. (Let’s ignore the fact that Boston would still have to pay the tax on that addition.)

Bottom line: It’s possible and you can’t convince my nostalgia-loving heart it’s not.

3. The Pritchard/White path

The Celtics blow up the core to build around the only duo in franchise history to produce a 40/40 game. OK, let’s get refocused here. 

About that ‘Golden State Bridge’…

It’s hard to draw too much from how the Warriors navigated their own bridge period. Golden State benefited from getting a robust return when Kevin Durant left to join the Brooklyn Nets. While D’Angelo Russell didn’t exactly pan out with the Warriors, he was flipped to Minnesota for Andrew Wiggins, who was a vital piece in Golden State’s 2022 title run (as Celtics fans know too well). 

What it does hammer home is how getting some sort of youthful return for outgoing pieces could be vital in the long-term quest.

In Part 1, we wondered if the Celtics could take on the money of someone like Daniel Gafford or P.J. Washington while moving Holiday to Dallas. In this path, the goal is hoping teams fold in a prized young asset (or draft pick) as the Celtics get off Holiday’s money. 

Here’s where parity needs to come into play. The Celtics need teams to be willing to splurge a bit — even on a 35-year-old Holiday — to maximize the return (and also limit what the Celtics might have to spend in draft assets to move his money). 

Doing that without eating a large, cumbersome salary isn’t easy. You might have to spend a draft asset just to get another team to take on some of the incoming money. And the teams that might yearn for Holiday’s services, such as the Mavericks, Lakers, and Clippers, don’t have the young pieces to send out.

The bigger theme here is patience. Maybe Brown elects to pursue surgery on his knee and is paced through the 2025-26 season while Tatum rehabs for the entirety as well. There’s a chance for an earlier launch with the 2026-27 season, but even that campaign could be about staying under the tax and making sure everyone is back near their full powers.

Maybe it’s as simple as Boston trying to generate as many 2026 draft picks as possible, both while enduring their lumps next season but also trying to fetch that as a primary return in all their dealings. 

There are other pain points, too. Al Horford would be north of 40 before the team is ready to compete again. Could the team splurge to keep Luke Kornet around long-term? Sam Hauser could be a cap casualty along the way as well — an unfair reality after being developed as an undrafted talent.

Essentially, this path puts the pressure on Brad Stevens to accumulate assets in the short term before a hard relaunch around an older core. Like everything in this series, it’s not without risks. 

But the Warriors at least showed there’s a pathway back to title contention, even if you have to take a big step back to get there. 

Warriors announce Podz underwent surgery on left shooting wrist originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

Warriors guard Brandin Podziemski underwent successful debridement surgery on his left shooting wrist Tuesday in Los Angeles, the team announced.

He is expected to make a full recovery and be ready for the start of training camp in October.

Debridement surgery is a procedure where damaged, dead or infected tissue is removed from a wound to promote healing. It’s unclear when he first had issues with his wrist, and the Warriors never announced a wrist injury for Podziemski, who suffered a broken nose, an abdominal injury and a back injury last season.

Podziemski became a key part of coach Steve Kerr’s rotation toward the end of the 2024-25 regular season. The 22-year-old started the final 23 games for Golden State, averaging 15.6 points on 46.2-percent shooting from the field and 43.1 percent from 3-point range, with 5.8 rebounds, 3.3 assists and 1.1 steals in 30.1 minutes.

But the young guard struggled mightily throughout Golden State’s postseason run, shooting just 36.4 percent from the field and 32.8 percent from downtown in 32.1 minutes through 12 games (11 starts).

The Warriors announced last week that young guard Moses Moody also underwent successful surgery to repair a torn Ulnar Collateral Ligament (UCL) in his right thumb. Moody underwent the procedure in Los Angeles and, like Podziemski, is expected to make a full recovery in time for the start of training camp.

It appears Steph Curry might not have been the only one banged up during the Warriors’ playoff push.

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The Oklahoma City Thunder "have a lot more work to do" after reaching their first NBA Finals since 2012 with a win against the Minnesota Timberwolves, says Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.

The NBA's Most Valuable Player (MVP) scored 34 points, seven rebounds and eight assists in the 124-94 victory as the Thunder won the best-of-seven Western Conference finals series 4-1.

The Thunder remain on course for a first NBA title, having been beaten by the Miami Heat in 2012.

"This is a step in the right direction but we have a lot more work to do to get to our ultimate goal, so let's buckle up and get ready," said Gilgeous-Alexander.

"That's all that I'm focused on. This isn't the end of our road."

The Thunder will host game one of the Finals next Thursday, when they face the winners of the Eastern Conference finals between the Indiana Pacers and the New York Knicks for the NBA title. Indiana lead the series 3-1 with game five on Thursday.

Gilgeous-Alexander joins Steph Curry, LeBron James and Kobe Bryant as the only players in the past 20 years to reach the Finals in the same year as winning the MVP.

The 26-year-old Canadian, also named Western Conference MVP on Wednesday, is on course to become the first scoring champion since Shaquille O'Neal in 2000 to win an NBA title in the same season.

Chet Holmgren added 22 points while Jalen Williams also scored 19 for the Thunder, who are the youngest team in the NBA Finals since the Portland Trail Blazers in 1977, with an average age of 25.6 years.

Gilgeous-Alexander added: "These guys really make me feel like I'm a kid playing AAU basketball, like I'm 15 years old again.

"It's just fun. That's what makes us really good. We have so much fun being out there together."

Meanwhile, the Timberwolves saw their season end in the conference finals for the second year running, having lost to the Dallas Mavericks last year.

"They dominated the game from the tip," said Anthony Edwards, who scored 19 points for the Timberwolves, who were led by Julius Randle with 24 points.

"I tip my hat to those guys. They came ready."