Category: NBA

Mike Gansey reflects on Sixers' whirlwind offseason: ‘It's just crazy in this NBA'  originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

Mike Gansey had high ambitions entering his first offseason as the Sixers’ president of basketball operations.

By his own admission, however, there was no surefire master plan to first trade for All-NBA wing Jaylen Brown and then sign all-time great LeBron James on a veteran’s minimum salary. 

“I didn’t know how it was going to go,” Gansey said Thursday after Brown’s introductory Sixers press conference. “(James) obviously had a lot of great options. I didn’t know what he was going to decide. But I thought maybe after Jaylen, we had a better chance. I guess that was all we needed. 

“And our players were obviously the biggest recruiters. … Our ownership is obviously great with that as well. I think after the Jaylen (trade), I don’t want to say it got real, but at least we had a chance to be in the mix.”

James wound up choosing the Sixers over a group of teams that included the Cavs, Heat and Warriors. The 22-time All-Star has inked a two-year contract with a player option in the second season.

Gansey was glad to pounce on his opportunities to assemble a star-filled lineup. He noted that the Sixers now have two former NBA Finals MVPs (Brown and James) and two former regular-season MVPs (Joel Embiid and James). 

“It’s just crazy in this NBA,” he said. “You don’t know what’s going to happen. For me, it’s just, ‘Hey, I’m going to pick up the phone. I’m going to try to get involved in everything I possibly can.’ See what’s out there and be aggressive and be creative. Fortunately for us, this is where we landed.”

While Gansey is eager to watch the Sixers in action, he highlighted that the team is 0-0 and will require time to gel. Brown struck similar notes in his press conference.

“I’ve been around a long time,” Brown said, “long enough to know that what you have on paper doesn’t really mean (anything). It can if you put the work in, but if you allow distractions, if you allow the media to get into your locker room, if you allow certain things and the personalities don’t work, it could be a detriment.

“So I’m aware that it could go either way. It just takes an amount of work, and the transparency and leadership can really guide this thing or not.”

Gansey still clearly has valid reasons to believe that the 2026-27 Sixers have enormous potential.

“I think we have great (top-end) talent,” he said, “but also getting Anfernee Simons, Dean Wade, (Ariel) Hukporti, having Dominick Barlow, getting Labaron (Philon Jr.) in the draft. I’m just excited to see how it looks — the combinations, the lineups, the versatility we have. When you have the talent, it’s exciting, and then trying to figure it out is the hard part. But I’m excited to see what’s ahead.” 

Gansey also views Embiid’s summer as a major source of optimism. 

After grinding through another injury-riddled season last year, the 32-year-old big man recently posted photos of himself working out with teammates on social media.

“He’s just been himself, man,” Gansey said of Embiid. “I remember when I got the job, I went over there and he was like, ‘I want to have a great year. I want to play a lot of games. I want to be All-NBA Joel.’ He’s talked the talk and now he’s walking the walk. He’s lost some weight; you saw the pictures. He’s been in the gym. He’s doing all the right things and he’s super motivated.”

Of course, Embiid is not the only Sixer itching for the start of the season.

“Talking to (head coach Nick Nurse), he’s excited,” Gansey said. “It’s just like a kid in a candy store. He’s like, ‘How are we going to put this thing together and see if works?’” 

The free agency dust is finally starting to settle in Sixers land after a blockbuster trade for Jaylen Brown and the signing of LeBron James. Thus far, the Sixers have signaled they’re heading into the season with their current group at 14 roster spots. Now, we’re getting an idea of what’s to come, with ESPN’s Dave McMenamin and other insiders reporting on the league’s top remaining free agents.

Per McMenamin, the Sixers “have been in contact” with Love’s agent, Jeff Schwartz, since signing James. He also shared that Love has interest in pairing with James, but has also maintained a strong relationship with Utah Jazz coach Will Hardy, with whom he played last season. As things stand currently, the Jazz roster is full.

The Sixers could bring Love aboard, albeit at a later date. They lack the cap space below the first apron to fill their 15th and final roster spot as currently constructed. However, they can sign Love to a prorated contract in mid-December without any roster turnover if they choose.

This isn’t the first time Love has had interest in joining the Sixers. In February of 2023, the Sixers were among the final two teams he decided between fresh off a buyout with the Cleveland Cavaliers. Love would go on to sign with the Miami Heat. He spent two and a half years there before being traded to Utah in 2025 in a multi-team deal that brought Norman Powell to Miami. Love spent all of last season with the rebuilding Utah Jazz, averaging 6.7 points, 5.8 rebounds and 1.8 assists on 39.7 percent shooting and 37.3 percent from three in 16.6 minutes across 37 games. He started five games.

At age 37, Love’s best years are certainly behind him. However, you could argue that the Sixers could do worse with their final roster spot. Love can still shoot the three and is an effective rebounder (his per-36 rate was 12.6 rebounds per game). With the backup center spot occupied by Adem Bona and Ariel Hukporti, he’d bring a different skillset to the mix if the Sixers wanted floor spacing over rim protection and athleticism. By all accounts, he’s also a good presence in the locker room, beyond his relationship with James.

For now, it appears unlikely Love will join the Sixers due to roster and salary cap implications. However, there’s a chance we could see this move come to fruition mid-season as a straight-up signing or if the Sixers make another transaction within the next few months if Love remains unsigned.

For the final roundtable, I asked the staff to come up with a wins prediction. We will all forget about this in the Fall, but as of today this is where we stand.

Ian Inangelo

Even without Brown, I think this Celtics team will have similar success to the team last season. This team is built to have success around Jayson Tatum who could put up a MVP level season next year. The depth around him is still the same minus Paul George who could see new life in a different situation and in a system that suits his skill sets better. We could also potentially see a leap from Pritchard and a bounce back from White which will make the offense even better. My final conclusion: 52 Wins.

Trevor Hass

The Celtics have eclipsed 50 wins each of the last five seasons, and that trend will continue this season. There’s no reason to think the number will increase or decrease significantly. I say they go down slightly from last year’s 56 and end up 53-29 to earn the No. 4 seed. If Paul George stays healthy and plays at a high level, I could see that number going up slightly.

Steve Hooper

The Eastern conference has leveled up in a big way. That means I don’t believe we will get near that 56 win mark again. I think 49 wins is about where I land right now.

Jake Issenberg

The Celtics have been a regular season wins machine under Joe Mazzulla. Never falling below 56 wins. I will say it again for those in the back. Last season the Celtics ranked second in the entire league in offense, while also ranking fifth in defense. The Celtics followed this up by addressing their glaring hole at back up big man by adding Mitchell Robinson, they get Jayson Tatum back, a guy who was selected to four straight 1st Team All NBA teams, and added Paul George who is still really good at basketball. To win in today’s league you need depth, defense, shooting, and top end talent. The Celtics tick every box. In last year’s Eastern Conference this team would have cracked 60 wins comfortably. Given the improved depth of the conference, I’m pegging this team for 57 wins.

Nate Moskowitz 

I’m predicting 58 wins. That feels slightly high as I type it, but I believe in the system to always stack wins in the regular season. Tatum is back with a healthy offseason. Robinson improves the big rotation. Hopefully you can get enough games out of Paul George, and when he’s out, internal development should help to improve on their record from last season.

Jeff Clark 

I don’t think you can do a simple math problem using last year as a starting point and reducing wins for Brown and adding them for Tatum and Mitchell Robinson or whatever. The whole calculus has changed around the league has a lot less incentive to tank. I think wins will be a lot harder to come by. On the other hand, the Celtics and Joe Mazzulla’s system are very good at cranking out regular season wins. Tatum will have something to prove. The young guys will all be looking to level up and will simply out-work a lot of opponents. So I think I’ll go with a conservative but healthy 53 wins. (I may talk myself into a higher number by training camp, but ultimately the season will be measured on the playoffs.)

Grant Burfeind 

I’ll go with 55 wins. This roster is obviously going to look different, but I still think there’s a lot working in Boston’s favor. Joe Mazzulla has established an identity with this team, and everyone walking through the door knows exactly what’s expected. Tatum gets the offense to himself, Paul George gives them another proven shot creator and defender, Mike Conley feels like the perfect steady veteran to help keep everything organized over an 82-game season. I could keep going but it’s a long offseason so need to save some words for later.

I also think this team is going to defend at a ridiculously high level. White, Robinson, George, Tatum, the young kids…that’s a lot of length, rim protection and defensive IQ. They may not score quite as effortlessly as last year’s group, but I don’t think they’ll need to. Fifty-five wins feels about right. And if that comes with Banner 19 instead of 56 regular-season wins (last year’s total)? Sign me up.Robby Fletcher  [4:08 PM]
Boston surprised everyone (myself included) with their 56 wins last year. This season, it shouldn’t be a surprise to see them pass 50 wins again.

The East is more competitive this time around, and Boston has new additions that need to prove they can stay available for the majority of the season, but they have depth, balanced scoring and a central star in Jayson Tatum that will have the ball in his hands more than he ever has in his NBA career. This is a good team. I’m going with 53 wins, a slight tick down from last year but a result that should get them in the top-4 of the standings.

And if you’re wondering, yes, these guys will hit on the 40-20 rule.

Mike Dynon

56 wins. Keeping it simple. They did that with only one Jay (mostly), why can’t they do it again with the other Jay? There’s also room for improvement with Tatum (being 100% healed), Hauser/White shooting (return to normal), growth of all the young guys, and Mitchell Robinson improving an already strong defense. I hope to be pleasantly surprised by Paul George.

Rich Jensen

I’ll go with 57 wins; While it’s true the rest of the East hasn’t sat still, the C’s haven’t either. They have a relatively inexperienced roster that is still on a path of year-over-year improvement.

Bobby Manning

I’ll come in lower at 52 wins, still in line for a top-four seed and maybe even higher if there’s greater competition throughout the conference. That’s taking into account the extraordinary health the Celtics had on their way to 56 last year, the tanking that undoubtedly aided it as well alongside the expected absence of Paul George, Mitchell Robinson and even Jayson Tatum at times for load management. This team still has the depth to dive deep into the 50s, but lessons learned from last season will probably lead the team to taking a longer outlook toward April rather than shooting for the highest seed possible.

Your Turn – How would you answer this question?

We are a week away from the NBA schedule release, according to recent reporting from NBA insider Marc Stein. Which means it’s time to look ahead to the most anticipated Phoenix Suns matchups. Sure, we don’t know the schedule, but we know who the opponents are, so let’s take a crack at projecting the spiciest matchups based on last season’s games and Phoenix’s history against other franchises.

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Building off some exciting games in the Luka Doncic Lakers era

Playing five times last year, the Phoenix Suns faced only the Thunder more often than the Lakers last season (if you include the postseason, 9 times against OKC last season). In five matchups, the Suns took the season series 3-2, with two of the five games coming down to the final possession.

With LeBron James on the Sixers, Devin Booker and Luka Doncic become the matchup’s headliners, just as they were when Doncic was on the Mavericks and the two built a rivalry after Dallas beat the Suns in a dramatic second-round series in 2022.

Divisional rivals, the franchises have met 13 times in the postseason, with the most recent matchup coming in 2021, when Phoenix won in six games. After a second straight 50-win season, Los Angeles revamped its roster around Dončić and Austin Reaves, signing Walker Kessler, Sandro Mamukelashvili, Quentin Grimes and Collin Sexton.

Against Booker, Doncic consistently brings his best, averaging three points per game more than his career average. Booker also scores more than his career average when he plays against Luka.

Can the Suns have more success against the champs?

The Suns swept their season series against the Knicks last season. While Finals MVP Jalen Brunson didn’t play in the second matchup, when he suited up for the first contest, strong play from Devin Booker late and a 20-point first half from Dillon Brooks catapulted the team to victory over the eventual NBA champions.

Phoenix went 7-11 against the top three seeds in the Eastern and Western Conferences during the regular season and was swept by the West’s top-seeded Thunder in the first round of the playoffs. The Knicks were the only one of those six teams against which the Suns had a winning record.

Despite big man Mitchell Robinson leaving to join the Celtics, New York’s roster remains mostly unchanged, with the team retaining key free agents Landry Shamet and Jordan Clarkson. The team’s performance against the defending champions could potentially be used as an indicator of its ceiling during the 2026-27 campaign.

Looking for revenge against Portland

For nearly the entirety of the regular season, the Suns sat as the seventh seed in the Western Conference, but they didn’t finish seventh despite having the West’s seventh-best record. Phoenix has Deni Avdija and the Portland Trail Blazers to thank for that.

In the West’s 7/8 Play-In game back in April, the Blazers stormed back from a double-digit deficit to capture the seventh seed from Phoenix in one of the most memorable Play-In games ever. All-Star Deni Avdija scored 41 points for Portland, outdueled Booker, and forced Phoenix to play a second Play-In game to secure its playoff spot.

Along with getting revenge on Portland for snatching the seventh seed and extra rest from Phoenix before the playoffs started, the Suns will have another reason to seek revenge: newly acquired Ja Morant hit a game-winner against them last year as a member of the Grizzlies. Victories against Portland next season would be get-back opportunities against a squad and key players who were responsible for heartbreaking losses.

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Of course, every season produces a handful of games that nobody circles in August, but everyone remembers by April. That’s the beauty of an 82-game schedule. Storylines emerge where you least expect them. Still, these are the matchups that immediately stand out. Rivalries, revenge, measuring sticks, and familiar faces in new places. The schedule release will give us the dates, but the intrigue is already there. Now it’s simply a matter of seeing which of these games helps define the Suns’ next chapter.

Jack Kayil is officially a draft-and-stash prospect.

The Knicks’ second-round pick (No. 39) is heading back to Europe.

He signed a new five-year contract with Alba Berlin, the German team he played with last year.

“Last season was super successful and I enjoyed a lot — that’s why I’m all the more excited to stay in Berlin,” Kayil said in a statement, originally posted in German. “Can’t wait to pick up where we left off. The NBA is and remains a big dream of mine — and ALBA is the right place for me to continue that path. The club has already helped me take the decisive steps in this direction. I’m just happy and grateful to be back in this incredible environment.”

The Knicks will retain Kayil’s draft rights.

The 20-year-old Kayil was with the Knicks at Summer League, where he expressed his desire to stay with the team rather than be stashed overseas.

“My goal is to play in the NBA,” Kayil said. “That’s why I went into the draft. …It’s not my decision, so I’m just trying to show myself in the best way, and it is what it is. I’m super happy I also got drafted, and we’ll see what happens in the next days, weeks, whatever.”

The Knicks seemingly didn’t feel like he was ready to contribute next year, though.

Kayil likely would have had to sign a two-way deal and spend time developing in the G League.

He averaged 8.8 points — on 34.2 percent shooting from the field and 22.7 percent shooting from 3-point range — along with 3.5 assists and 3.0 rebounds in the four Summer League games he played in Las Vegas.

A playmaking point guard, Kayil helped Alba Berlin win the Bundesliga championship last year — recording 10 points, three rebounds and a steal in the title game against Bayern Munich.

“Skillwise, he’s still a work in progress, but his athleticism and toughness give him a chance someday soon to be an NBA player,”  Fran Fraschilla, ESPN’s college and overseas basketball analyst, previously told The Post of Kayil. “I’m guessing that the Knicks think he needs a little bit more seasoning. I would be surprised if he was on the roster, but he wouldn’t embarrass himself. But he’s not ready to be a contributor on an NBA championship team. 

“He’s improving. He’s headed toward being an NBA player. I don’t know that he’s there yet, but he certainly made a big step this year, winning a championship. He was a focal point as a 20-year-old on a team with men, grown-ups.” 

The Knicks still have all three of their two-way contract slots available.

Kawhi Leonard and the Los Angeles Clippers are still under investigation for an alleged “no-show” agreement with a now defunct company, Aspiration, to funnel extra compensation to the player in a deal viewed as salary cap circumvention.

But another company may have had similar, previously undisclosed dealings with Leonard, according to a report by the podcast “Pablo Torre Finds Out.”

Daktronics, the company that designed the Clippers' video board inside the Intuit Dome where they play home games, reportedly had an agreement and partnership with Leonard.

Torre's podcast cites multiple anonymous sources inside the Clippers and Intuit Dome project. A person who was previously under contract with the Intuit Dome project alleged the sponsorship "was 1,000% a way to circumvent the salary cap. It was funneling money from the Clippers through Daktronics back to Kawhi."

USA TODAY reached out to the Clippers for comment on Thursday evening.

The podcast asked Daktronics to confirm if Leonard had an endorsement deal, but the company directed them to a spokesperson for a crisis management firm who said, “My understanding is Daktronics doesn’t have a deal with Kawhi right now.”

Asked for clarification, the spokesman said “I don’t know what the company wants to say, or can say, given the Wachtell investigation and all that,” referencing the investigation into the alleged Aspiration deal.

Leonard’s seven-year tenure with the Clippers appeared to be over this summer as he was going to be traded to the Toronto Raptors on June 30.

That trade has since been halted because of the investigation that involves Leonard, Clippers owner Steve Ballmer and Leonard's uncle/advisor Dennis Robertson. The Clippers would’ve received forward Brandon Ingram, guard Gradey Dick, two unprotected first-round picks (2031, 2033), two second-round picks (2030, 2033) and a 2027 first-round swap in the trade.

NBA commissioner Adam Silver previously told reporters in mid-July that his timeline for the investigation to conclude would be by the end of the summer.

“As I've said previously, we all have an interest in wrapping this up,” Silver said. “... I am hopeful it will wrap up this summer and that will continue to be the goal here."

The investigation is being run by an external law firm but the findings will be presented to Silver, who will then decide on any potential discipline.

Lawrence Frank, the Clippers' president of basketball operations, provided some of the last public comments from the organization regarding the investigation on June 23.

“I can’t comment on the specifics of the investigation, but what I can say is we did not do what we are accused of doing,” Frank said. “The investigation has had no impact on how we go about our business. We just continue to go about our business as normal.”

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Report alleges Kawhi Leonard had second undisclosed partnership

Knicks second-round pick Jack Kayil announced on Friday that he will play this coming season overseas rather than sign an NBA contract to join New York.

"The NBA remains my big dream – and Alba is just the right place for me to continue on this path," said Kayil, selected 39th overall by the Knicks in the 2026 NBA Draft.

The 20-year-old guard showed promise during the NBA Summer League. But it was always going to be difficult for New York to sign Kayil to a standard NBA contract while also remaining under the second apron in team salary. Kayil was eligible for a two-way contract, but he would have had to pay the buyout of his contract with Alba Berlin and also would have had to accept a significant pay cut to sign the two-way contract.

The plan heading into free agency was that Kayil would remain overseas this season to develop his game. The benefit of a large playing role overseas – and the Knicks’ financial limitations – outweighed the opportunity to be in the NBA this season.

With Kayil heading overseas, the Knicks have just 13 players under contract. They also have three spots for two-way players.

New York’s other second round pick – Tyler Nickel – also remains unsigned. There are reports that Nickel is considering going back to college, but league sources say he is all in on starting his pro career. Nickel is eligible to return to college in 2026-27 thanks to a recent ruling allowing players in Nickel’s class to return to school.

Nickel could presumably make much more money in NIL deals than he would make on a two-way contract. The Knicks could sign Nickel to a standard NBA deal via the second-round exception, but if they did that, they would not have enough money to sign a third center on a veteran’s minimum contract.

The Knicks targeted Mavs center Moussa Cisse for this role, but the Mavs matched New York’s offer to Cisse in restricted free agency. Prior to signing Cisse to an offer sheet, New York pursued multiple trades for centers.

In recent weeks, the Knicks have also been in touch with several free agent centers who could fill the third center role. Logic tells you that if they wanted to sign one of these centers on a guaranteed one-year deal, the Knicks would have done so already.

The Knicks have enough room to add eight players on training camp contracts. If they don’t trade for a third center or sign a center who gets unexpectedly waived due to a roster crunch, you can expect the Knicks to bring in multiple veteran centers to compete for the third center spot. 

There was a big part of me that dreaded LeBron James’ return to the Eastern Conference. The years of LeBronto, and the idea of James in his twilight years snuffing out the Raptors’ playoff hopes in infancy was almost more than I could bear.

Maxey, Edgecombe, Brown, James, and Embiid. Lord have mercy.

But then, Shams Charania made something clear: LeBron James would not just be playing power-forward for the Sixers. Rather, he’ll be slotting in at the point guard for at least a significant amount of time. This means that the 76ers’ lineup may actually be James, Maxey, Edgecombe, Brown, and Embiid. This is a game changer. And not just for the 76ers, but for the Raptors as well.

Shams Charania on LeBron James’ role in Philadelphia:

“I do expect him to play a significant time as that initiator, the game manager, the point guard of this team that sets the table for Tyrese Maxey, Jaylen Brown, Joel Embiid, and VJ Edgecombe” pic.twitter.com/ZDl78YqJ4X

— NBABase (@TheNBABase) July 28, 2026

People deemed successors to LeBron have frequently fallen short in some way. Paolo Banchero and Zion Williamson both haven’t quite developed into the archetype of unstoppable point forward, but I would argue that Scottie Barnes is closer to what LeBron is archetypically — a do-it-all forward who rebounds and passes as well as scores — than any of these score-first bigs that usually get compared to LeBron.

Since the end of the regular season, I’ve been an advocate of giving Scottie Barnes official point guard status; in a short sample size at the end of the year, Barnes showed that he was more than capable of dishing out assists as needed when Immanuel Quickley was out. In his Instagram bio, Scottie still proclaims himself to be a “6’9 PG”, and I wonder why this hasn’t been made explicit yet?

As Scottie is breaking out as a developing scorer and as one of the league’s premier defenders, I feel like his ability to facilitate an offence shouldn’t be thought of as an afterthought, lumping him into the “point forward” group. LeBron James, who famously played every position at least once in his career, saw one of his highest highs playing PG for the LA Lakers in 2020, leading the league in assists with 10.2 per game, and coming second in MVP voting. That was, in my view, one of his finest seasons in a very storied career. Am I saying that slotting Scottie in at the one is going to be what finally turns him into a superstar?

Yes. I think it just might.

Scottie Barnes is not LeBron James — and really, no one is — but allowing Barnes to focus on parts of the game that feel most natural to him could allow him to develop even more effectively than having him try to straddle multiple roles. The Raptors already understand that part of the key to unlocking Barnes is to remove some of the scoring load from his shoulders, but signs are pointing to a further shift of responsibilities being the thing that could change the trajectory of this team for the better.

The forward at point guard experiment doesn’t always work, and there is a need for true facilitators. But Scottie Barnes is not just any forward. With the Sixers paving the way, will success with LeBron as floor general make the Raptors reconsider how they’ve been using Barnes?

The San Antonio Spurs ranked No. 13 in our preseason power rankings last year. It felt like a reasonable placement for a team that had not made the playoffs the last six seasons. Instead, Victor Wembanyama led them all the way to the NBA Finals, where they suffered a devastating five-game loss to the New York Knicks despite leading for 72% of the total minutes during the series.

Despite a bummer of an ending, it was obviously a wonderful year for the Spurs. Victor Wembanyama morphed into arguably the best player in the world, and proved that he could drive winning at the highest levels by leading his team to an upset victory over the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder in the Western Conference Finals. Wembanyama turns 23 years old in the middle of next season, and he’ll be the presumptive favorite to win his first MVP. Only the Thunder are ahead of the Spurs in our way-too-early power rankings for the 2026-27 campaign.

The scariest thing about Wembanyama is he still has so much room to get better. To me, the biggest thing that would help him level up again is figuring out a signature shot in the mid-range that he can always lean on when he doesn’t want to chuck a three and can’t get all the way to the rim. In the playoffs, Wemby took a decent amount of mid-range shots, with 28% of his field goal attempts coming on non-rim two-pointers. The problem is he only made 35% of those shots. Wemby obviously has good touch — he’s an 82% career free throw shooter, and 34% career three-point shooter — so I tend to think he can get a lot more accurate from the mid-range in time.

A video circulated from the Spurs’ offseason workouts, and it should terrify the rest of the NBA. Wembanyama might be figuring out his mid-range game in the most unstoppable possible style: by mastering Dirk Nowitzki’s go-to fadeaway.

Victor Wembanyama busting out the "Dirk Fade" in practice 🔥

(Via @spurs) pic.twitter.com/EOVyoaGKn7

— NBABase (@TheNBABase) August 5, 2026

There’s a world where that shot could be as unstoppable as a skyhook for Wembanyama. It’s going to be impossible to contest, and it gives him enough room to square his shoulders to the basket for a shot. The fact that Wemby is now strong enough to win the positioning battle on the ground against his man only makes this even more enticing. If Wembanyama can hit this with any consistency, it’s going to give him even more scoring versatility for when the game slows down in the playoffs.

Wembanyama worked out with Dirk’s old trainer Holger Geschwindner in 2021 where they worked on pivot steps, stride length, and balance. He’s spent time this summer working out with Hakeem Olajuwon.

Wemby could still be a few years away from his offensive peak. Right now, it feels like he’s about as dominant defensively as anyone has ever been. It’s easy to imagine Wembanyama and Dylan Harper and Stephon Castle reaching the NBA Finals year after year, but the reality is that the NBA hasn’t even had a repeat conference champ since the 2019 Golden State Warriors. Everyone thought LeBron James would be in the Finals every year after he made it for the first time in 2007. It turns out James had to leave Cleveland for the Miami Heat before he made his next trip in 2011 … where he lost to Nowitzki’s Dallas Mavericks.

Wembanyama should be adding to his offensive arsenal every offseason. Beginning to integrate a Dirk fade into his game would be the best possible start.

On Thursday, Spurs legend David Robinson turned 61. That’s also 39 years since he moved to San Antonio. Nearly four decades in The Alamo City. Robinson was originally drafted in 1987 as the first overall pick, but because of his active-duty commitment to the United States Navy, he did not suit up until the 1989-1990 season.

Over his illustrious career, The Admiral accrued many awards starting in 1990 with the NBA Rookie of the Year. He was the league’s rebounding leader (1991), blocks leader (1992), and scoring champion (1994) on his way to picking up the 1995 NBA Most Valuable Player award. He also picked up Defensive Player of the Year honors in 1992, just one of five players to all-time to receive MVP and DPOY during his career.

Robinson is one of nine players to ever score more than 70 points. His 71-point game came on April 24, 1994.

Robinson is also one of four players in recorded NBA history to capture the elusive quadruple-double, tallying 34 points, 10 rebounds, 10 assists, and 10 blocks on February 17, 1994.

The Admiral displayed the greatest humility in 1997 as he relinquished his leadership of the San Antonio Spurs to Tim Duncan. Together they brought in the Spurs first championship in 1999. Robinson continued to hand the baton until 2003, when the Spurs next generation was poised to take over.

Robinson had the rare distinction of going out on top. In 2003, he played his final NBA game. It was Game 6 of the NBA Finals, and the Spurs won their second title. The game took place on Father’s Day, June 15, and he walked off the court for the last time with a trophy by his side.

In addition to his NBA accolades, Robinson was a member of the 1992 Olympic “Dream Team” and won two gold medals, the second coming in 1996.

Since retiring, Robinson has continued to make San Antonio his home. He’s been an ambassador, a philanthropist, and a leader in educational pursuits. He can be seen dining at local restaurants, hosting events, and making appearances throughout the city. He remains a fixture at Spurs games. He’s had seats in the second row for years, but during the 2026 postseason, he moved around and sat with other former members of the Spurs as they made their first Finals run in a dozen years.

Robinson help set the tone for Spurs Culture. He brought a grandness and composure to the team, the city, and the sport. And he is the ever present reminder that the Spurs stand tall and have class.

Happy belated birthday, Big Dave.

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Out of all the players participating in Cleveland Browns training camp this offseason, Denzel Boston has certainly received the most excitement from both local and national media members. Between his physical tools and playmaking abilities, expectations are soaring for him going into the 2026 season. But is the conversation surrounding him warranted?

Already in camp, he has shown he excels at winning contested catches and creating mismatches against the defensive backs. Media members who have watched him every day at training camp have been astonished by how hard it has been for the defense to cover him. 

A quick smattering of the hype surrounding Boston, via social media:

Friend at Browns practice today said watching Denzel Boston was a religious experience

— Ian Hartitz (@Ihartitz) August 5, 2026

Cleveland takeaways:

🔸Denzel Boston
🔸Rookie WR Denzel Boston
🔸Browns’ second-round draft pick Denzel Boston
🔸No. 12 for the Browns, the wideout
🔸Boston, the kid from Washington
🔸that big rookie receiver, Boston
🔸Denzel Boston

— Benjamin Solak (@BenjaminSolak) August 5, 2026

If there’s any Denzel Boston stock left to buy, you should consider buying some.

— Zac Jackson (@AkronJackson) August 5, 2026

Best player at Browns practice today?

Denzel Boston. Three Touchdowns already. Just too big to cover

— Max Loeb (@loebsleads) August 5, 2026

The Denzel Boston hype is real..

Been DOMINANT in..
OTAs ✅
Minicamp ✅
Training camp ✅

Legit threat in the RZ, tremendous hands & a fluid mover for a 6'4 behemoth

Grab a share or 2

He & KC Concepcion should be 1A & 1B for years 🚀 https://t.co/MnF6qaHp03pic.twitter.com/J3itB6H9l2

— Gridiron Nerd (@GridironNerd) August 5, 2026

Needless to say, Boston is the talk of Cleveland.

As exciting as it is to see a young player with such promise so early on in training camp, solid reps in camp are not the same as production in an actual game. It’s important to manage expectations because his impact as a receiver will depend on how a number of factors play out during the season. The uncertainty at quarterback and with the offensive line will have a significant impact on the offense as a whole, including the level of production Boston is ultimately able to generate. For now, cautious optimism is the most reasonable approach.

Let me know what you think in the comments – Has Denzel Boston earned all the hype, or is it being exaggerated?

Shoutout to Texanstros.

This article was their idea. Perhaps the best idea I’ve had during my time with The Dream Shake was to solicit the comments section for article ideas. I’ll be using a few of your suggestions.

Stros (can I call you Stros?) suggested a piece on how badly the Rockets might miss Jalen Green and Dillon Brooks. This is a modified version of that idea. Why? Because this Dream Shaker doesn’t really miss Green:

But he badly misses Brooks.

Rockets (may have?) missed Brooks last year

It’s a bit difficult to make the statistical argument that the Rockets missed Brooks last year.

In 2024-25, they had a 110.3 Defensive Rating, which was fifth in the NBA. Last season, they were 112.1, which was sixth.

That’s not an entirely inconsequential differential, but it’s not a gulf either. Besides, it’s hard to make the causal link directly to Brooks. His absence was likely a variable (more on that later), but who can say for sure?

Per CleaningTheGlass, each of the Rockets’ top-5 lineups in 2024-25 featured Brooks. That could be something – except four of them featured Jalen Green as well (although, for what it’s worth, the best one did not).

Per databalllr, the Rockets were +4.2 when Brooks was on, and +7.6 when he was off. That’s no help.

Are we sure Brooks even made the Rockets better?

Brooks’ impact was intangible

Brooks is your prototypical “the stats don’t capture his impact” guy.

It’s an issue when you’re routinely tasked with guarding the other team’s best player. The numbers will say you’re not a good defender, because the league’s best players can’t be defended. If Shai Gilgeous-Alexander drops 40 on Brooks, he would have dropped 48 on a lesser man on the same night, and nobody cares.

Which may explain why Amen Thompson’s Defensive Box Plus/Minus (DBPM) dropped from 2.6 in 2024-25 to 1.0 last season. In Brooks’ absence, he was responsible for guarding star players far more often:

What, you thought Kevin Durant would do it?

When Thompson is guarding the SGAs of the world, he’s less available to play passing lanes and hunt weakside blocks. He’s at his best when he can operate as a free safety. Hopefully, the addition of Marcus Smart will lessen some of his on-ball defensive burden in 2026-27.

That’s just one way that Brooks was an adhesive for this team. After years of watching P.J. Tucker and Trevor Ariza camp out in the corner like they were waiting for Wrestlemania tickets, it was almost jarring to watch Brooks’ forray into shot creation. Yet, that multiplicity of skills was part of his value. Brooks’ ability to function as a “break in case of emergency” bucket getter had extra value when he was such a strong three-and-D wing otherwise.

Finally, there’s the “je ne sais quoi”. In 2024-25, Brooks, Ime Udoka, and Fred VanVleet were a three-headed monster. VanVleet actualized Udoka’s vision of low-risk, low-reward offense that only works (?) if you defend harder and play meaner than everyone else. Brooks actualized the defending harder and playing meaner part.

Again, there’s hope that Smart can fill that void. It should be noted that Brooks has changed since leaving Houston. During his last season with the Rockets, he averaged 14.0 points per game while shooting 39.7% from three-point land. Last year with the Suns, he hit a career-high 20.2 points per game, but the shooting slipped to 34.4%. He just signed an extension with a $24.3 million Average Annual Value (AAV), which is probably too much money for Dillon Brooks.

The Rockets miss the old Dillon Brooks, straight from the go Dillon Brooks, etc.

Unless you think he’s a viable 20-a-night guy. From this vantage point, that looks like something a team whose first-round picks it would be nice to own in 2027 and 2029. Perhaps Brooks is still helping the Rockets, along with Green.

But as a 14-point scorer, three-and-D, occasional creator, spiritual leader? Brooks was worth his weight in gold:

No matter what the numbers say.

This NBA offseason, as expected, was tumultuous.

A Top 5 player in Giannis Antetokounmpo was traded to the Miami Heat. Another All-NBA selection in Jaylen Brown also is on the move — and in his case to the Philadelphia 76ers, a division rival of the Boston Celtics, no less. And the game’s greatest icon of this generation, LeBron James, is joining his fourth different team in what will be his record 24th NBA season. He’ll join Brown in Philly.

And those were just some of the moves.

With most of the major free agency moves completed and with the NBA draft well in the rearview mirror, here are the USA TODY Sports NBA offseason power rankings:

NBA offseason power rankings: Top 10

1. New York Knicks, 53-29 (regular-season record in 2025-26)

2. San Antonio Spurs, 62-20

3. Oklahoma City Thunder, 64-18

4. Philadelphia 76ers, 45-37

5. Detroit Pistons, 60-22

6. Denver Nuggets, 54-28

7. Minnesota Timberwolves, 49-33

8. Houston Rockets, 52-30

9. Cleveland Cavaliers, 52-30

10. Los Angeles Lakers, 53-29

The defending-champion Knicks stayed mostly pat though they did lose Mitchell Robinson, but it nonetheless remains that everyone is looking to catch them. The biggest movers here, however, are undoubtedly the Sixers, who overhauled their roster after those Knicks swept them in the conference semifinals; Jaylen Brown and LeBron James suddenly give the Sixers one of the most stacked starting lineups in the league. Now, can they stay healthy?

One interesting team in this group is the Timberwolves, who clearly understood that Anthony Edwards would need more help with shot creation and ball handling. Out are Julius Randle and Naz Reid and in comes LaMello Ball in what could be the biggest feast or famine move of the offseason. And then there’s the Lakers, who lost James and went all-in on Walker Kessler. These moves are all about building around Luka Dončić and Austin Reaves, but the new pieces may need time to jell. Even then, it’s not immediately clear if Los Angeles actually improved.

NBA offseason power rankings: Nos. 11-20

11. Boston Celtics, 56-26

12. Miami Heat, 43-39

13. Toronto Raptors, 46-36

14. Indiana Pacers, 19-63

15. Atlanta Hawks, 46-36

16. Portland Trail Blazers, 42-40

17.Orlando Magic, 45-37

18. Utah Jazz, 22-60

19. Chicago Bulls, 31-51

20.  Phoenix Suns, 45-37

While the Heat did nab the best available player and a genuine Top 5 talent in the league in Giannis Antetokounmpo, this is still a roster that has some flaws; Miami should shine defensively but shooting and shot creation remain an issue. For the most part, people appear to be sleeping on the Pacers, who may have very well won the 2025 NBA Finals had star point guard Tyrese Haliburton not ruptured his Achilles tendon early in Game 7. Haliburton will be back and Ivica Zubac shores up Indiana’s presence down low.

The Jazz are another interesting team and now we can see the fruits of their tank job. Adding Darryn Peterson with the No. 2 pick and last year’s trade acquisition Jaren Jackson Jr. having an offseason to settle in makes Utah a top candidate to see the biggest win improvement next season. And the Bulls could also be quiet contenders, after adding No. 4 overall rookie Caleb Wilson and Norman Powell and hiring Tiago Splitter as head coach.

NBA offseason power rankings: Nos. 21-30

21. Golden State Warriors, 37-45

22. Charlotte Hornets, 44-38

23. Dallas Mavericks, 26-56

24. Washington Wizards, 17-65

25. Los Angeles Clippers, 42-40

26. Memphis Grizzlies, 25-57

27. New Orleans Pelicans, 26-56

28. Milwaukee Bucks, 32-50

29. Sacramento Kings, 22-60

30. Brooklyn Nets, 20-62

The big question here is about the Warriors and their decision to run it back. Jimmy Butler appears likely to start the season sidelined, and Golden State essentially doubled down on this build. Rookie Yaxel Lendeborg should be a nice player, but this aging, injury-prone team may once again struggle to get out of the play-in. The Wizards are another team that appears to be on the ascent, but questions remain about Trae Young and Anthony Davis and how their veteran presence will fit with this young team that just landed No. 1 overall pick AJ Dybantsa.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: NBA power rankings after wild offseason moves: Where do LeBron's 76ers land?

NBA history spans 80 seasons, and as CelticsBlog readers well know, the Boston Celtics have won a league-high 18 championships. This month, we are recapping each of those title years.

If the Boston Celtics were ever going to have their championship streak broken, 1962 was the year. Playing just two playoff rounds doesn’t sound too demanding, until you look at the details.

First, you play your biggest rival, led by a 7-foot-1 behemoth who averaged a 50-piece during the regular season. Also, a brawl breaks out in Game 5. In the second series, you face a superstar duo that averages 70 points per game. One of those two stars hits you with a Finals-record scoring performance. Both series go to Game 7, and both of those are in doubt until the final buzzer.

Was it too easy to win a title back then? Doesn’t seem like it.

The regular season

The schedule was increased from 79 to 80 games, which gave the Celtics a chance to win an extra game. So they did, compiling a 60-20 record, the best in league history to that point. They built a 23-3 record during the first two months and closed the season winning 13 of their last 15.

Bill Russell earned his second straight Most Valuable Player award and third overall, but again was second team All-NBA behind Wilt Chamberlain. The Dipper certainly had the stats, scoring an astounding 50.4 points per game and pulling down 25.7 rebounds nightly. Free-throw shooting was normally his Achilles heel, but this season he made career highs of 10.4 makes on 17.0 attempts for 61.3%. Chamberlain even averaged 48.5 minutes per game, with the extra .5 coming from overtime periods.

For the Celtics, Bill Sharman had retired but Sam Jones was more than ready to take his place. Sam’s minutes and production had increased each season, and in this fifth year of his career he averaged 18.4 points and was named an All-Star. In the postseason, Sam rose to 20.6 ppg.

Filling Sharman’s roster spot, Auerbach signed Carl Braun, a 6-foot-5 veteran guard and five-time all-star who’d been with the New York Knicks for 12 seasons and made the Finals just once. Braun played sparingly but was reliable and filled a need. This type of player acquisition was a habit for Auerbach, with good results.

Eastern playoffs

By winning the Eastern Division for the sixth consecutive season, Boston had its sixth straight first-round bye before meeting the rival Warriors. The series schedule alternated between each city, and as common back then, the home team prevailed each time. The Celtics won blowouts in Games 1 and 3 while the Warriors grabbed close wins in Games 2 and 4. The crucial Game 5 was set for Boston Garden.

The Warriors weren’t intimidated, and the result was several pushing matches, and a few punches thrown during the 48 minutes. The two main bouts were Chamberlain vs. Sam Jones and burly Celtics forward Jim Loscutoff vs. 6-foot Guy Rodgers. In both cases, the smaller man defended himself by swinging a photographer’s stool. Tommy Heinsohn ended up the only player ejected. No one was suspended. Most importantly, in the end, the Celtics won by 15.

The inevitable Game 7 was in Boston and was tense and close all the way, but the key lesson was if you’re facing a player who averages 50 points, it’s good to have Bill Russell. The MVP held Chamberlain to only 22 points for the game, while scoring 19 himself, including five straight free throws during crunch time. Both big men tallied 22 rebounds. With one second remaining, Sam Jones buried a tie-breaking jumper from the top of the key. The Celtics were back in the Finals for the sixth straight year.

(Video has no audio.)

NBA Finals

For the first time since moving from woodsy Minnesota to glitzy Los Angeles, the Lakers made it to the Finals. Their 70 PPG duo was forward-guard tandem Elgin Baylor and Jerry West, still today two of the greatest the NBA has seen. The Lakers were actually in the Garden to witness the dramatic ending of the Eastern Final. They had arrived early, anticipating Finals Game 1 would happen in Boston. They had no way to know that the ending of their own series would be even more nerve-wracking.

Game 1 in Boston went to the home team when the Celtics outscored LA 66-42 in quarters two and three. The Lakers regrouped and took Game 2 by seven points, aided by a large free-throw advantage, 37 of 42 compared to Boston’s 16 of 28.

One you’d like to have back

The series shifted to Los Angeles, and the Lakers got a Hollywood ending as Jerry West lived up to his Mr. Clutch nickname.

Game 4 was a must-win for the Celtics, and they held the Lakers to their lowest total of the series, 115-103. Now tied 2-2 and going home for Game 5, the Celtics felt back in control.

They weren’t. Baylor walked into Boston Garden and delivered a superhuman 61-point Finals-record performance. He shot 22 of 46 from the floor and 17 of 19 at the line with 22 rebounds. Lakers 126, Celtics 121.

Down 3-2 and faced with a do-or-die situation on the road, Sam Jones demonstrated again that his time had come. Sam buried 17 of 27 shots for a game-high 35 points and Boston evened the series, 119-105. The Celtics had displayed grit and will honed by four championships. The Lakers had let their best chance slip away.

Game 7 was excruciatingly close – tied after the first, third and fourth quarters, and with 13 lead changes over the entire contest.

Turning point

Sam Jones scored just two points in the first half of Game 7, but he poured in 20 during the second half and five more in OT. The Celtics wouldn’t have won in 1962 without Sam’s heroics, and he became well-known for always delivering in crunch time.

It was almost over when…

Game 7, tie score, last possession of regulation, the championship on the line. In your driveway and in your dreams, the shot always goes in, but not for LA’s Frank Selvy here.

If that shot had gone in, all of NBA history would’ve been drastically changed. No eight-peat, Lakers would have the most titles now, Russell wouldn’t be 10-0 in Game 7s, and more. Instead, the Celtics survived and won in overtime.

The heroes we needed

• Russell scored 30 points (including 14 of 17 free throws) and tied his own Finals record by grabbing 40 rebounds while playing all 53 minutes of Game 7.
• Three Celtics had fouled out trying to stop Baylor, so in OT Red turned to little-used Gene Guarilia. The 6-foot-5 forward in his third season played only 6 minutes in the entire series, but he was just scrappy enough to force the tiring Baylor into a couple of misses. Guarilia also snagged an offensive rebound and assisted on a Russell dunk.
• Playing on an injured leg, Frank Ramsey still managed to score 23 vital points, including 15 of 16 free throws. Ramsey was always known as a crafty veteran.
• The final score was 110-107, with Bob Cousy tricky-dribbling and zigzagging across the court to run out the clock. Banner #5 was secured.

Notable facts and stats

• The Celtics became the first NBA team to win four consecutive titles.
• Russell played 338 of 341 minutes in the series. He led the Celtics in scoring at 22.9 per game, and rebounding, averaging 27.0, while adding 5.7 assists per game.
• Baylor averaged 40.6 points and 17.9 rebounds across the seven games. West added 31.1 points per game.

Banner Years continues Monday with a review of the 1962-63 season and the road to winning Banner #6.

The NBA recently found itself arguing with a medical journal, and the league office doesn’t usually bother punching down at a sample size of nineteen unless something in the findings stings.

The paper, published late last month in the Orthopaedic Journal of Sports Medicine, examined nineteen NBA players who ruptured an Achilles tendon over the past decade and found that in the ten to fifteen games before the tendon gave, they were logging more minutes than their norm: twenty-nine a night against a season baseline of twenty-seven and a half. The league’s director of sports medicine answered with methodological objections and an internal review that found no such relationship. The authors, to their credit, had listed their own limitations first. Nineteen players. No control group. No causal claims. Patterns “temporally associated” with injury, and nothing more.

The detail worth keeping is quieter than the fight. The injured players’ seasons were ordinary by the measures available: career-normal playing time and career-normal distance. The clearest pattern appeared in the short window before the rupture. Which raises a possibility the paper is careful not to promise: sudden changes in work may matter differently than season-long volume.

That pattern felt uncomfortably familiar in Dallas, where February has been writing Kyrie Irving’s story since the night it delivered him here, and where the story’s fifth chapter already has a time stamp.

What the minutes can prove

Before anyone reaches for a pitchfork, the honest part has to come first. Tearing the Achilles and the ACL are two very different injuries.

In 2017, researchers examined 83 NBA players who tore an ACL across three decades. The players had logged an average of 17.1 minutes in the games in which they were injured, compared with a season average of 23.5. That comparison carries an obvious limitation: a torn ACL tends to end the night. Even so, the narrow finding is worth respecting. Three decades of NBA knees do not support the simplest fatigue story, the one in which a ligament usually gives way only after an unusually heavy night.

Kyrie’s tear offers no cleaner version of that story. March 3, 2025, against Sacramento, nine minutes and twenty-five seconds into the game. First quarter. This was not a ligament failing at the end of forty hard minutes.

The tear itself resists a clean explanation. The research finds firmer ground on the other side of it, where the question becomes what shapes the player who comes back.

A 2025 study followed sixty-seven NBA players through twenty years of ACL tears. Eleven never made it back; those players skewed older and were more likely to have suffered injuries involving more than one ligament. Among the fifty-six who returned, age at the time of injury and greater minutes played before surgery were associated with a larger decline in player efficiency rating. The returners lost about three points of PER while matched healthy controls lost almost nothing, and lower post-return efficiency was associated with less favorable salary movement.

The minutes cannot convict Dallas of the tear. They still belong in the prognosis.

Dallas could not change Irving’s age. It did choose his minutes. But those minutes make sense only inside the relationship that preceded them, one in which Irving kept becoming whatever the franchise needed. By February 2025, as every other plan collapsed, Irving’s willingness to put on a cape and save the season had become a doomed campaign’s last bit of infrastructure.

February 2023: The discount

The Februarys started long before the tear. Dallas traded for Irving on February 6, 2023, sending Spencer Dinwiddie, Dorian Finney-Smith, an unprotected 2029 first-round pick and two seconds to Brooklyn, a price widely read at the time as below market for a player of his gifts. The discount was the risk. He arrived carrying everything the previous few years had attached to him, and that first partial season ended with no playoffs and a partnership still looking for its rhythm.

Sitting in the nosebleeds for Irving’s first Dallas home game, yours truly. Looking at the names in the Mavs box score for that game makes it feel like forever ago. Christian Wood; “people forget about Frank”; and two minutes of JaVale freakin’ McGee.

The incredible fourth-quarter comeback was a sight to behold. Irving spearheaded it with 24 of his team-high 36, only to see a backcourt miscommunication cost the Mavs a chance at a miracle win. The game of hot potato signified two stars, both willing to defer, and, in retrospect, may have been a sign of the great chemistry that was about to develop.

February 2024: The proof

The backcourt rhythm between Dončić and Irving began the 2023-2024 season at a solid level but kicked into high gear in February of 2024. Exactly one year after the trade became official, Irving returned to Brooklyn and scored 36. Dallas went 8-2 in the ten February games he played, with Irving averaging 27.7 points and shooting 55.4 percent from the field. That month offered the first sustained glimpse of the team that would reach the Finals.

2024 showed us how Irving has always been deployed best: as one of the finest championship-level second options the game has ever seen. The backbreaker against stretched-thin defenses. The secondary creator. The closer who entered the fourth quarter with his best fastballs saved for when the game was on the line. We saw all of it that year, and what felt like the beginning of several contending seasons became, tragically, a one-off memory sealed in amber by the inexplicable act that followed.

February 2025: What Dallas needed from him

The timeline of the tragedy matters because the infamous trade that ended an era just as it was getting started did not take a working Luka Dončić off the floor. His calf did that on Christmas Day, and he never wore the uniform again.

For the five weeks after Christmas, the carrying job was Irving’s. He missed five games of it himself in early January, first with an illness, then with what the team listed as a lumbar sprain, and returned on January 14 to the same assignment: holding the team together while the franchise player rehabbed and relief was supposedly coming. Then the first weekend of February, Nico Harrison traded the rehabbing franchise player for Anthony Davis, a thirty-one-year-old with an injury file, in a window Harrison insisted existed to win now. The reunion with his friend and backcourt mate, the one Irving had spent a month propping the season up for, never came. What arrived instead was three quarters of his replacement.

Davis debuted February 8, left late in the third quarter with what was later diagnosed as a left adductor strain, and the win-now roster was suddenly a thirty-two-year-old point guard and whatever was left standing.

In practical terms, Irving’s assignment became keeping the season afloat until Davis healed. From February 4 forward, his minutes jumped to 39.3 a night, and his usage climbed with them. His first five games after the trade, inside nine days: 41:51, 39:51, 41:36, 43:46, 39:59. The one night his usage rate eased came February 8, down to 20.7 percent, because for three quarters there was someone else to carry the offense. Two nights later Irving played 43 minutes and 46 seconds of an overtime loss to Sacramento.

You can watch the load climb every time the franchise lost a reason for restraint. Before Luka’s Christmas injury, Irving played about 35 minutes a night. From Luka’s injury to the trade: about 37 and a half. From the trade forward: 39.3. Across the first five games, as Davis arrived and vanished, more than 41. Two more minutes for every hope subtracted.

Sacramento, it turns out, was present at both ends of this.

Run his final ten healthy games through the Achilles paper’s method, borrowed here as vocabulary and nothing more, with the injury game removed from his season baseline just as the paper removed it. That cohort ran about a minute and a half over its norm before rupture. Irving’s baseline was 36.6 minutes; his final ten healthy games came in at 39.3. A jump of 2.7, at 32, with fourteen NBA seasons on the odometer.

His efficiency dipped as the minutes and the creation burden climbed: true shooting of .578 across that window, against .594 for the season.

The changing job showed even more clearly on February 12. Forty minutes, roughly a third of the team’s possessions, and not a single assist, the night a point guard completed his conversion into a scoring appliance.

Davis returned March 24, three weeks after Irving’s knee gave out while giving all he could to keep the season’s pulse.

February 2026: The accidental mercy of a lost season

One year later, February delivered the opposite order.

The early public timeline wandered from December to January to sometime after the All-Star break. No official date ever came. Harrison had already been fired. Davis became a Wizard at the February deadline. And on February 18, 2026, Dallas announced that Irving would not play at all that season.

Irving did not contest the shutdown publicly. He called the decision “the right one,” thanked the organization, and pointed toward the following season. He accepted the closed door even as his rehabilitation advanced.

So the franchise’s last two Februarys read as a matched set. On February 10, 2025, Dallas wrung 43 minutes and 46 seconds out of him in an overtime loss. On February 18, 2026, it announced that it would ask him for none. The man who spent him and the man he was spent for were both gone before he could possibly have suited up.

Hold the two Februarys next to each other. Desperation overclocked him. A lost season protected him. Neither posture began with the knee. Both began with what the franchise needed.

And by accident, the lost season may be the kindest thing this organization ever did for him. He had reconstruction surgery on March 26, 2025; by the time the regular season opens he will be nearly nineteen months removed from it, in his second postoperative season by the calendar. The research on NBA comebacks puts the average return at about a year, then half a season of availability, then something resembling the old self in year two. The second postoperative season is the point at which one NBA cohort’s average efficiency had recovered to its preinjury level. That is encouraging context, not a promise. His first season back will still be his first season back.

Two things about his time here can be true at once. When Dallas traded for him, the fear was what he would do to a locker room. That fear inverted so completely it became the best thing about him, and anyone who watched the 2024 Finals run knows it. It kept inverting through the lost season. Dallas Sports Journal reported watching him run footwork drills and post sessions with Cooper Flagg in practice while injured. Flagg told ESPN that Irving “stepped in as a great vet for me” during the stretches of a 26-56 rookie season that shook him. Irving’s review of the kid: “He’s chasing history.”

February 2027: The open question

And yet the question underneath this season is the one Dallas has twice answered for itself: will immediate need again determine how much of Kyrie Irving it spends? He is 34, and the offseason did not produce a proven conventional organizer of the offense. Dallas appears prepared to run more of the offense through Flagg, with Irving working more often off the ball. Naji Marshall is also expected to absorb some of the initiation. That plan protects Irving only if the young roster learns quickly enough to keep every wobble from landing back in his minutes. A developmental gamble, with his workload waiting to absorb the mistakes.

The 2027 trade deadline falls on Thursday, February 11, at 3 p.m. Eastern. Other teams have inquired, and Dallas has reportedly shut down those conversations. The organization has framed Irving as a long-term complement to Flagg; for now, the franchise wants to see him healthy, mentoring, rebuilding trust in the knee one clean landing at a time. If those interests eventually point outward, Dallas could convert what remains of the Luka era into a piece of the next one. The trade deadline looms, but a trade is only one possible answer.

The more immediate answer will be written in his minutes, his back-to-backs, and how often a young offense makes him the emergency exit. For the fifth February in a row, the month will force Dallas to declare what it needs from him. Whether Ujiri and Schmitz fill the blank with a trade, a protected role, or another emergency will tell you whether the new regime learned anything from the Februarys it inherited.

Irving is the last headliner from the last Dallas team anyone fully believed in.

Orthopedists use a questionnaire built around joint awareness after ACL reconstruction. Its ideal is a knee that recedes from consciousness. The feeling of being on autopilot. An afterthought, merely part of the intended athletic motion.

All season, the league will be noticing. The minutes. The back-to-backs. The first hard plant in traffic in a January game that does not matter.

Five seasons, five Februarys

There is a reason this calendar frame feels personal.

My first long-form piece asked readers to savor the season back in 2022, no matter how it unfolded. Kyrie Irving arrived less than four months later. Four Februarys into this role, every one has become a Kyrie chapter. The fifth is already waiting on the calendar.

And, if we are honest, the redemption arc setup was likely the only door through which he could have arrived in Dallas blue. Without the Brooklyn COVID-era drama, there is no trade, certainly not at that price. Dallas has rarely been the city top-tier stars choose in July. It became the city that answered the phone that February in 2023.

I do not know whether he will be a Maverick past February 11, and anything beyond speculation would be dishonest. What I know is what this season offers: a new front office, a new coach, a young roster worth being curious about, and the possibility that basketball in Dallas may feel exploratory, riveting, and fun again. Somewhere inside it is a thirty-four-year-old guard on a rebuilt knee, approaching the fifth February of a ballad that has given this franchise everything it asked for.

Four Februarys asked something different of Kyrie Irving: arrive under suspicion, prove the wager, carry the wreckage, accept the shutdown. He answered each one.

The fifth February will give Irving and the Dallas Mavericks the chance to decide how they can best help each other…one more time.