We know what Utah's backcourt of the future will look like — Darryn Peterson and Keyonte George.
That is more set in stone than ever after George and the Jazz agreed to a five-year, $157.5 million extension of his rookie contract, a story broken by ESPN’s Shams Charania and Tim MacMahon and since confirmed by other reports. NBA insider Jake Fischer says the true contract value, excluding incentives he may or may not earn, is $155 million. The deal does not kick in until the 2027-28 season (George will make $6.6 million this season in the final year of his rookie deal).
George, who had emerged as part of the future in Utah long before the lottery balls bounced its way, gets starting point guard money at more than $30 million a season. Utah locks up a player who, if he continues to grow on his current trajectory, will be a good value at this price.
George joins Victor Wembanyama and Amen Thompson as the first players from the 2023 draft class to sign rookie extensions.
George, the No. 16 pick in 2023 out of Baylor, averaged 23.6 points and 6.1 assists per game last season, while shooting 37.1% from beyond the arc in the 54 games he played on the tanking Jazz. His production has steadily improved each of his three NBA seasons, although his perimeter defense remains a serious concern. That said, George emerged as part of Utah's future long before last year's lottery.
That lottery brought in No. 2 pick Peterson, who showed his star potential at both the Salt Lake City and Las Vegas Summer Leagues.
How Peterson and George will mesh as a backcourt where both can handle the ball and create, and both can shoot, will be a work in progress this season for coach Will Hardy. But mesh that backcourt with Lauri Markkanen, Ace Bailey and Jaren Jackson Jr. and this could be an interesting team in Utah this season.
(Original Caption) New York: The N.Y. Knicks' bench is a most happy place as they build up a big lead in the second game of their playoff series against the Chicago Bulls. Coach Rick Pitino joins Patrick Ewing (L) and Mark Jackson in the laughter as the New Yorkers evened the series at a game apiece, winning 114-97.
We’re in the home stretch, folks.
September brings a bunch of things. School for many young people (it was personally August for me up in State College), the start of all forms of football, the stretch run of the MLB season, and the end of a hot summer.
For us here at P&T, all it means is that a new basketball season is right around the corner. Before you know it, training camp will commence in a matter of days, and the Knicks will take the floor for the first time as defending champs in the preseason on October 5.
It’s been an offseason of celebration, but also one of reflection. A reflection on the long journey to get here.
53 years is an extremely long time. As we count down the final weeks to the season opener on October 20, we begin a five-part series chronicling some of the dumbest games, moments, and decisions of the past 53 years that slowly made us all think this day would never come… until it did.
Part I will focus on the downfall of the 1970s dynasty that served as the organization’s standard-bearer, while poor front office decisions and injuries derailed any chance at a soft landing through the late 1980s. We’ll then gradually go through the 1990s in Part II, the dreadful 2000s in Part III, the turbulent 2010s in Part IV, and cap it off with the Leon Rose era in Part V.
With that, let’s begin.
The Downfall of the Golden Era Knicks (1974-80)
Every single championship-caliber operation has to disassemble. It’s a fact of life. Championship windows do not last forever, and teams will have to eventually say goodbye to players who shaped an entire generation.
Time and time again, teams are presented with the reality of either retaining these aging pieces into their sunsets and risking a prolonged stint at the bottom or making the difficult decisions to trade them as they exit their primes at the risk of angering everyone. This is going to happen to the very Knicks we love so much; it’s inevitable.
The reverberations of the highly successful early 1970s Knicks began not too long after that second championship.
Willis Reed, the captain and two-time Finals MVP, played just 19 games after the 1973 NBA Finals. He was only 31 years old, but a body that had slowly deteriorated over the last several years finally gave out. He played 15 of the first 22 games in 1973-74 before missing the next 56 games. The big man returned for the final four regular-season games and the postseason, but was a shell of himself due to a debilitating knee injury.
He’d refuse to undergo another procedure that June, calling it quits on his career. He’s one of many guys whose bodies failed him, and you often wonder what would’ve happened if he’d played in an era when athletes are healthier than ever because of advances in sports science.
Also retiring that offseason were Dave DeBusschere and Jerry Lucas. The former was still an All-Star and All-Defense recipient, but he hung them up ahead of his 34th birthday. Lucas was already diminished after his brilliant 1972 season and slowly fizzled out of the franchise’s plans by the end of the 1973-74 season.
Without Reed, DeBusschere, and Lucas, the Knicks finished 40-42 in 1974-75 and were swept in the first round by the Houston Rockets. They fell even further in the following seasons, failing to make the playoffs in consecutive seasons until the great Red Holzman was next out the door, stepping down in 1977.
Reed would replace him as head coach and lead the Knicks back to the playoffs in 1978, but soon into the following season, we learned why it’s never a good idea to hire franchise legends into leadership posts. The Captain was fired 14 games into the 1978-79 season and replaced with Holzman again, who’d serve another few seasons as the rest of the guard fizzled out.
A week before that 1977-78 season, Clyde Frazier was shipped to Cleveland for Jim Cleamons. A franchise icon was shipped out as his career faded for a journeyman, a move that still irks Clyde to this day. The final remnant of the Golden Era faded away in 1980, when Earl “The Pearl” Monroe retired at age 36 due to persistent knee injuries. One era of Knicks basketball was dead, but maybe it didn’t have to end that way.
Declining An Opportunity To Purchase Julius Erving’s Contract (1976)
You may recall this already being mentioned in my piece on the worst trades in Knicks history. This, of course, wasn’t a trade, but should’ve been. It’s hands-down the worst decision in franchise history.
When the Nets were among the teams chosen to join the NBA after the ABA merger in 1976, the Knicks demanded that they pay a fee of $4.8 million over 10 years for encroaching on their territorial rights, a request that was sustained by the NBA alongside their $3.2 million fee for joining the league. In total, the Nets had to come up with $8 million just to exist. That’s over $46 million combined in 2026 dollars.
That’s a lot of money for an NBA team in the 1970s, when franchises were commonly worth just seven figures, so the Nets were looking for any reason to not pay some of that cash, prompting them to make an extremely tough decision.
Dr. J made $350,000 during this time, but wanted a renegotiation. As such, the Nets were willing to offload his salary and offered him to the Knicks, then owned by the Graham Paige Corporation and ran by Eddie Donovan in the front office.
The Knicks said no. They chose a few million over a future Hall of Famer.
Philadelphia purchased Erving for $3 million, and the rest is history. The Knicks let a rival get the best incoming ABA talent available and watched him lead the Sixers to a championship in 1983 while spending over a decade as a top-five player in the game. That playoff appearance in 1978? Ended by Erving’s Sixers. As was the one in 1983.
If the Knicks make this move and look past the dollar signs, they’d suddenly pair the aging Frazier and Monroe with one of the greatest small forwards to ever play the game. They were gifted the soft landing that no aging dynasty gets, and just declined it for money.
Trading Maurice Lucas for Truck Robinson (1982)
Another one from the worst trades article, the Knicks traded the prime years of a pretty damn good player for an aging, regressing player at the same position in a one-for-one deal.
The New Jersey Nets sent them a 28-year-old Maurice Lucas as a form of compensation for signing Ray Williams in free agency in 1981. In his one year in New York, Lucas averaged 15.8 points and 11.3 rebounds while shooting 50.3% from the field. It was his best overall season since he was in Portland, but the Knicks never saw him as a long-term option, shipping him to Phoenix for Robinson one year later.
The deal made sense at the time, as he was even more productive than Lucas the season prior, but he hit a hard regression in his age-31 season in 1982-83 and only lasted two seasons in New York, flaming out by age 33. He would hear it from the fans, being nicknamed “Dump Truck” for his startling fall-off.
Meanwhile, Lucas made his fifth All-Star team in his first year in Phoenix as part of a second prime that slowly dissipated a few years later. While Lucas would only have 2-3 years of All-Star-level talent post-trade, it was a helluva lot better than Robinson.
Trading Away The Right To Pick Mark Price (1984)
This was actually something I had no idea about before researching this article, and it might be a bit nitpicky, but the Knicks missed out on a perfect point guard companion for Ewing to sign a role player in 1984.
The NBA was still in the free agent compensation era, so the Knicks had to pony up assets to sign Pat Cummings on June 27, 1984. Ultimately, it wasn’t much: just a 1985 third-round pick and a 1986 second-round pick. The way we view picks nowadays, it’s no biggie.
Except… they could’ve used one of those picks. The Knicks were bad in both of these seasons, but especially so in 1986, which handed the Mavericks the No. 25 pick in the 1986 NBA Draft, the top pick of the second round. They used that pick to select future four-time All-Star point guard Mark Price.
Price would ultimately be flipped for a 1989 2nd, which allowed him to spend the next decade as a big-time foe in the Eastern Conference with the Cavs. He had four top-10 MVP finishes, was an early 3-point innovator, and consistently dished out eight assists a game for his entire prime. Imagine if the Knicks had him at point guard alongside prime Ewing.
Cummings was no slouch for the Knicks, having his best season in New York with a young Ewing underneath him in 1984-85, but injuries cost him 80 total games over the next two seasons as he dwindled into a backup behind the franchise’s next star. Woof.
The Rise and Fall of Bernard King (1985)
Who’s the best Knick ever? I still lean toward Clyde Frazier for the two championships and the personality that he still radiates to this day, but there’s a case to be made for a few people. Patrick Ewing, Jalen Brunson, Willis Reed, etc. One name that’s mentioned as a great Knick, but never in GOAT convos, is Bernard King. What he does have a case for, however, is having the greatest peak in Knicks history.
Acquired for a damn good player in his own right (Micheal Ray Richardson), King got down-ballot MVP votes in 1983 while leading the Knicks to the playoffs in the first year under Hubie Brown. He leveled up his game in 1983-84, finishing runner-up in MVP voting to Larry Bird while single-handedly dragging the Knicks to Game 7 against the powerhouse Celtics in the second round. In 12 postseason games that year, he averaged 34.8 points per game.
He was, pound for pound, the best player in the world the following season. He’d have a few multi-week absences with minor injuries, but he entered late March 1985 averaging over 32 points a night, a mark that would lead the NBA and all of Knicks history. He was well on his way to competing for the first MVP award in franchise history, but it all came to a screeching halt when he blew out his knee against the Kansas City Kings on March 23.
Torn ACL. Torn meniscus. Thigh bone fracture. It was a gruesome injury, one that few (if any) players had ever come back from. Doctors thought his career was over, despite being in his athletic prime.
It was a gut punch for the Knicks, who were already in a horrible season with a 24-47 record when King got injured. It would result in the team drafting Ewing, the next great franchise star, but there was absolutely a world where Ewing would get to play with King, as the even lottery system likely sealed the Knicks’ fate the moment they missed the playoffs.
Bernard King was poised to be the Tommy John of ACL surgeries; however. He eventually returned two seasons later, but he didn’t look the same in six games to finish the 1986-87 season, prompting the Knicks to release him after the season. That was probably shortsighted, as he put together four really great years for the Washington Bullets immediately after.
What could’ve been…
The 1987 NBA Draft Fiasco (1986-87)
When I called Mark Price a big-time foe, it was at least partially facetious. He played on a good Cavs team for a long time, but the Knicks lagged behind the Cavs with their Ewing revival, and the two teams only squared off in the playoffs once: a Knicks sweep in 1995, as Price’s career wound down.
Scottie Pippen is an all-time Knicks foe. He might not be on the Mount Rushmore with Michael Jordan, Reggie Miller, and whatever other flavor of Knick killer you like (my picks are Haliburton and Alonzo Mourning), but he’s a Hall of Famer who routinely beat the Knicks’ butt. His lone playoff series as the lead option went New York’s way in 1994, but he served as the perfect wingman to MJ’s dominance across the 90s.
He could’ve been a Knick, you know.
On November 12, 1986, the Knicks swapped their first-round picks in 1987 with the Seattle SuperSonics to get Gerald Henderson, a former Celtic and father of the best player on the worst team in NBA history. A rebuilding Knicks team appreciated his consistency over 60 games through the rest of the season, but he was waived six games into the following season, exactly 367 days later.
That pick swap was pretty ill-advised considering the team had been among the NBA’s worst for a few years now, but they believed in their young star to help make tangible progress in 1987 along with a smattering of veterans, which included Jawann Oldham, who was acquired for a 1987 Denver first-round pick just two weeks earlier.
As you might’ve guessed, the Knicks sucked again in 1987, losing 58 games and receiving the No. 5 pick in the still-young lottery format. The Denver pick they traded? No. 8. They traded two top-10 picks for Gerald Henderson and Jawann Oldham, who combined to play six games for the team after that season. Great stuff from Gordon Stirling.
Pippen was selected by the SuperSonics at No. 5 overall, but was traded on draft night to the Bulls… for the 8th pick, a 1988 2nd, and a 1989 pick swap. In a cruel fate of irony, the two teams that got their top-10 picks from the Knicks in lopsided deals for crummy veterans engineered an all-time draft night swap, even if one side feels quite resentful about only getting Olden Polynice out of it. If the Knicks had just simply passed on Oldham, they could’ve been the Bulls in this situation.
If they had kept both picks? Maybe instead of Polynice, they drafted Horace Grant (No. 10) or even… Reggie Miller (No. 11). Imagine that. You either could’ve taken the legs out of a future dynasty by taking Grant and Pippen from the Bulls or rewritten the 90s in a different way by taking Reggie.
Silver lining, they at least made a good pick with Mark Jackson at No. 18, but he was out the door by 1992.
Johnny Newman Can’t Force Game 7 (1989 Second Round)
A heartbreaking end to a game against the Bulls in the playoffs? If I had a nickel…
The Knicks won fewer than 30 games in three consecutive seasons from 1985-87, but broke through by sneaking into the postseason at 39-43 in 1988, even if it meant losing in four games to Larry Bird and the Celtics. The following year, the team leveled up even more as Ewing ascended to become one of the best players in basketball, finishing fourth in MVP voting. The Knicks won 52 games and rolled past the Charles Barkley Sixers in the first round to get their first crack at the new look Bulls.
A team they’d be very familiar with over the next decade, Chicago was still a few years off from the otherworldly dominance that made them all-time legends, but their success against the Knicks really began here. Jordan scored 34 in Game 1 to steal it at MSG, and while a big game from Ewing evened it at one game a piece, the Bulls took both at home to push the Knicks to the brink. After winning Game 5, one objective remained. Steal Game 6 in Chicago and get a chance to close it out at the Mecca.
It was dead even in the first half, but Chicago had opened up a seven-point lead after three quarters. Into the final minute, it seemed firmly in their grasp. Leading by four with nine seconds left, the Bulls just needed to play smart on defense, make free throws, and they’d win it. That didn’t go to plan, as the Knicks got a gift from the heavens when Trent Tucker buried a three with six seconds left and was fouled, tying the game on a four-point play.
On the other end, Jordan drew a foul on a mid-range jumper with four seconds left, sinking both free throws and ending his day with 40 points. On the ensuing inbound, some atrocious full-court defense from the Bulls gave Johnny Newman, a 33.8% shooter from distance (a solid mark at the time), a wide-open three in transition to win the game and force Game 7.
He missed it. Bulls win. The season is over.
As many of us know, this would only be the start of the heartbreak that the GOAT and his Bulls would inflict on the orange and blue.
Rick Pitino’s Resignation (1989)
A decade that began with the final light fading from the Golden Age of Knicks basketball ended with a light at the end of the tunnel. Ewing, Jackson, and Charles Oakley were at the forefront of the next era of basketball in New York.
And they had done it with a 37-year-old born-and-bred New Yorker at the helm. Rick Pitino made the NCAA Tournament with Boston University in the early-80s, spent two years under Hubie Brown on the Knicks’ coaching staff, and led an upstart Providence bunch to the Final Four in 1987 before landing his dream job: head coach of the New York Knicks.
His first two years represented progress and the burgeoning of a new force in the Eastern Conference. He was young, the team was young, what could go wrong?
What went wrong is that Pitino handed in his letter of resignation on May 30, 1989, just 11 days after the season ended in Chicago, to return to the college game and coach Kentucky.
A season of optimism to end a turbulent decade ended with a big question: why would Coach Pitino leave? Especially for a college team in Kentucky’s situation. Once a collegiate powerhouse, the program was in utter shambles after receiving NCAA sanctions impermissable payment to recruits and entrance exam fraud. They weren’t even postseason eligible for the next two seasons! Any rebuild would take way longer; who would sign up for this with a great NBA job?
As has unfortunately been the case all too often in franchise history, it was a case of dysfunction.
Pitino and Knicks general manager Al Bianchi hated each other. When Pitino flirted with the Kentucky job that May, something that would admittedly irk any executive, Bianchi showed no intent to keep him. Pitino would later say that the relationship had reached a boiling point, and that he would end up taking the Kentucky job because he couldn’t coexist with Bianchi.
In a twist of fate, Bianchi would be canned just two years later by Hollywood producer and new president of Paramount (who oversaw the Knicks), Stanley Jaffe, who allegedly tried to talk Pitino out of visiting Kentucky in 1989 on behalf of ownership (then Gulf and Western) by telling him, “You need to trust me”. Pitino would later say that, had he known Jaffe would be taking over the franchise shortly, he wouldn’t have taken the Kentucky job.
The delay in said move caused the disastrous tenure of Stu Jackson over the next two seasons that saw the franchise move backwards. When the house was cleaned in 1991, the Knicks ultimately came out on top by getting Pat Riley to elevate them to the next level.
But, as we’ve come to know over these past 53 years, stupid moments like having your head coach on a 52-win team go back to college for a program that got sanctioned to hell is just the tip of the iceberg.
It was a game the Sixers had to have. After a couple of hard-fought losses in New York to open the first-round series against the Knicks, including a controversial Game 2 loss, Philadelphia returned home with its backs against the wall.
For the most part, the first two games of the series followed a similar script. The two teams appeared to be evenly matched, but New York was winning on the margins enough to pull through in tight games. The Knicks appeared to be the hungrier team at Madison Square Garden, getting to more loose balls than the Sixers and doing a better job of creating second chances on offense. The first two quarters of Game 3 were similar in that regard. New York led by two points after the first 12 minutes and by three points at halftime. Embiid appeared to be on his way to another strong stat line, with 17 points at intermission.
But Philly’s star player had 34 points in Game 2 and 29 points in Game 1 and the Sixers fell short in both games. Sensing the gravity of the moment, Embiid raised his level in the third quarter when Game 3 resumed. In just the third quarter alone, he more than doubled his 17 points in the first half, playing all 12 minutes of the period and scoring 18 points on 7-of-8 shooting in the quarter and a stellar 4-of-4 from the three-point line. Suddenly a three-point halftime deficit turned into a 13-point lead at the end of the third.
Embiid was sending a message that the Sixers were not going down without a fight against one of their bitter rivals. One of his many strengths is his free-throw shooting ability which is better than most seven footers. Embiid went 12-of-13 from the free-throw line in the fourth quarter and the Sixers coasted to an 11-point win and trimmed New York’s lead to 2-1 in the best-of-seven opening round series.
The Knicks would go on to win two of the next three and close the series out in six games. But this was very much a back-and-forth series that could have gone either way. Ultimately, the narrative that New York was a little hungrier than the Sixers and willing to go the extra mile and make more hustle plays did win out. But Philly was competitive in every game of this six-game series loss and the Game 3 win for the Sixers was the only game of the six in the series that was decided by double digits.
It’s interesting to look back on this series from 2024 now that we have the additional knowledge of the Sixers getting swept in this past postseason by the Knicks. Perhaps Embiid’s stronger play in 2024 compared to 2026 against New York can simply be attributed to the fact that the 2024 series came one round earlier. Much has been made about Embiid’s body being unable to hold up into the spring for the Sixers to make a deep playoff run with him in the starting lineup.
These two series against the Knicks are a good reason as to why. Don’t forget that Embiid had been out for a good chunk of the second half of the regular season leading up to the 2024 postseason with a knee injury that he sustained in January in San Francisco in a game against the Warriors on Jan. 30. Embiid returned to game action on April 2 and appeared in five regular season games before the postseason began.
I’m not suggesting that the knee injury was a good thing for Embiid. It played a big role in a lost 2024-25 season for the big man. However, recovering from the knee injury and ramping back up for the first half of April before the postseason started, probably allowed him to be more productive against the Knicks than had he been playing 35-40 minutes a night on a regular basis in February and March.
Admittedly, in February and March of this past season, Embiid’s playing time was a bit scattered anyway, but it was clear by the time the Sixers got to the second round of the playoffs that he was running out of gas and the team still needed 12 more victories to win the NBA championship. Stamina and endurance are always going to be questions with Embiid come the spring, but it’s worth reminding you that we’re still less than three years removed from his playoff career high.
Welcome to our Lakers Season Preview Series! For the next several weeks, we’ll be writing columns every weekday breaking down the biggest questions we have about every player the Lakers added this offseason. Today, we look at Sandro Mamukelashvili.
Sandro Mamukelashvili wasn’t on Lakers fans’ radar. That’s why when the Georgian big man joined the purple and gold, it was considered the team’s most out-of-the-box signing of the summer.
With Mamu in the mix, the Lakers now have a different type of offensive weapon than they’ve had in the past. Not only did they acquire a big man that truly fits with Luka Dončić and Austin Reaves, but one who can also space the floor and allow LA to play a two-big lineup. The 27-year-old lefty adds more firepower to an already potent offense.
The 6’9” big is also coming off his best season yet in his career, where he received votes for Sixth Man of the Year. Mamu averaged 11.2 points and 4.9 rebounds per game and shot 38.9% from 3-point range for the Raptors. He played in 80 games and started in 13 of those. It was a season that the incoming six-year forward can build on.
Given that Mamu signed a four-year, $52 million contract, the expectation for him to deliver will be considerably higher. The Lakers’ relatively thin frontcourt also puts added importance on his role.
What is his best-case scenario?
The best case for Mamu is that he becomes a dependable, key rotation player throughout the season, like LaMar Odom during the Lakers’ title runs. Obviously, Mamu is a significantly different player compared to Odom but it would be great if he can have a similar impact off the bench.
Mamu has to thrive in spacing out the Lakers’ offense, which means his shooting numbers have to remain consistent. If he can maintain his shooting percentage from last year, then that will do wonders for a team that runs a heavy pick-and-roll offense. Additionally, him continuing to finish 71% of his shots in the restricted area will be the icing on the cake.
Those numbers matter because that’s the type of production the Lakers need. He has to shoot well for the two-big lineups to be effective. Fortunately, there’s enough data to prove that Mamu can make it work, as he did last season alongside Jakob Poelt, with whom he had a +6.6 net rating in the 112 minutes.
Besides scoring, it would be ideal to see Mamu further improve his already decent ability to read defenses and make quick passes. There’s a reason why the former Raptor is highly regarded for his high basketball IQ. He can take advantage of the defenses with his playmaking through kick-out passes and backdoor bounces.
The best-case scenario for Mamu is to give the Lakers’ offense another dimension while adding a level of versatility and unpredictability that they haven’t had.
What is his worst-case scenario?
The worst-case scenario for Mamu is if he doesn’t perform as well as he did last season. That would be a tough blow for the Lakers, especially after investing in him without much insurance in the frontcourt.
It would be hard to watch Mamu constantly be a liability on defense. There have been scenarios of him being targeted on switches and he’s not exactly the best rim protector out there. The worst-case scenario would be Mamu becoming unplayable in certain situations, particularly when the Lakers need his production.
What is his most likely role on the team?
Mamu will most likely come off the bench. Besides playing alongside Kessler, Mamu will also be tasked with stepping in for him when he takes a breather. The two big men, along with Kevon Looeny, will shoulder the load in the frontcourt.
What sets Mamu apart from his frontcourt teammates is his unique skill set. How he puts it to use will ultimately determine his success in his first season as a Laker.
A high school teammate and childhood friend of LeBron James is now an NBA general manager.
Brandon Weems has been promoted to general manager of the Cleveland Cavaliers after rising through the organization's front office over the past decade, according to multiplereports on Friday, Sept. 18. He'd been an assistant general manager for the franchise since 2022.
Weems played basketball with James at St. Vincent-St. Mary High School in Akron, Ohio. James' agent, Rich Paul, described Weems as "basically like LeBron's brother" during a podcast appearance as James was deciding on a new team this offseason. His presence in Cleveland was seen as a positive recruiting tool for the Cavaliers.
In an odd twist, Weems is replacing one of the men who helped persuade James to sign with the Philadelphia 76ers in July over the Cavaliers, Miami Heat, Golden State Warriors and others. Weems is filling the vacancy left by Mike Gansey, who is now the 76ers' president of basketball operations.
Weems, 40, played college basketball at Walsh University in Ohio and then had jobs for the men's basketball programs at Oakland University, Drexel and Kentucky, where he worked under John Calipari. Weems began working for the Cavaliers as a scout in 2015, according to the Akron Beacon-Journal, part of the USA TODAY Network.
Steph Curry announced he has a new signature shoe on the way. He also used the occasion to make his intentions with the Warriors unmistakably clear.
Curry told CNBC on Thursday that his signature shoe with Li-Ning, the Chinese footwear company he signed a reported 10-year, $400 million contract with after 13 years with Under Armour, will debut early next year. He called the split with Under Armour “mutual” and said he holds no regrets about how it played out, adding that Li-Ning ultimately won him over because “the product reigned supreme.”
The bigger news for the Warriors’ audience came when the conversation turned to his own future. Entering his 18th NBA season with his contract set to expire in 2027, Curry made it clear he has no interest in testing free agency or walking away from the franchise that drafted him.
“I want to be a lifer with Golden State,” Curry said.
He also confirmed something Warriors fans had assumed for months without ever hearing him say it outright: he actively tried to recruit LeBron James to join Golden State this summer, before James ultimately signed with the Philadelphia 76ers. Curry didn’t shy away from admitting it.
“If anybody didn’t try, I think they’d be a fool,” Curry said, adding that seeing a player of James’ stature get to choose his own next chapter was good for the league as a whole.
Curry’s own extension talks remain pending, but Thursday’s comments leave little ambiguity about which side of the negotiation he is approaching from — one that wants to finish his career and build whatever comes next in the Bay Area.
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Good morning! It’s been a busier week around the NBA than I expected. I accidentally started a basketball book club on X (formerly Twitter). Let’s get to it
T-Mac’s Take
McGrady would rather have an MVP than a title
No really!
In a recent episode of his “Cousins” podcast alongside NBA legend Vince Carter, Hall of Famer Tracy McGrady said he would rather have an MVP than a championship. (He does not have either. No shade. I don’t either!) In his explanation, McGrady said the championship is for the collective, the MVP award is for the individual and nobody remembers the 10th or 11th man on a winning team.
It’s so easy to say what we would do in someone else’s shoes. But we have no clue what it took for real. I’m of the belief that a person’s view of winning is often impacted by how they view their own legacy, and T-Mac sometimes feels like a legend without a true legacy.These convos never go well for him.
The discussion of whether winning a championship matters versus winning MVP is an interesting one, because I don’t think they’re the same thing. I agree with Shump.
Ring chasing is the point. I refuse to believe there is a player who doesn’t care about their chances of winning, especially not when they’re in the prime of their careers. Shumpert’s reaction to McGrady’s comment brings to mind something Zach (yep, the Zach who usually writes this newsletter) has mentioned to me in the past: Have we reached a point where winning it all is actually underrated?
Though not a one-to-one comparison, as recently as 2025, Hall of Famer Allen Iverson has said he doesn’t regret not winning. Iverson looks at his own impact on the game and the way he changed his life through basketball as more important than a chip.
So while the rest of us might easily say winning changes everything, these guys have the benefit, the delusion maybe, of looking back on their younger selves a bit kinder and reducing the value of winning. (You also need that delusion to even reach the levels they did. The challenge is in the margins of just playing the game.)
In another viral clip, McGrady said that if you replaced Kobe Bryant with him on the three-peat Lakers, he would’ve had a similar impact. T-Mac averaged 29.4 points in the playoffs from 2000 to 2003; the Lakers three-peated in 2000, 2001 and 2002.
McGrady’s postseason scoring average during those years was tied with Shaquille O’Neal for second, behind only Iverson (30.9). Kobe ranked fourth (26.5).
These convos do make me empathize with T-Mac, though. His body betrayed him, he didn’t have talented teams in Orlando and his coach was Doc Rivers, who routinely gets clowned for choking in big moments aside from the 2008 ring many say he lucked into.
(There’s another world where we can acknowledge there are just too many podcasts and too many takes, thus creating a need to ignore facts, stretch opinions and be unnecessarily harsh.)
The last 24
🏀 Numbers game. Which current NBA players deserve to have their jersey numbers retired? Jason Jones has the list.
In case you missed it, the NBA held its Board of Governors meetings earlier this week. An editor asked my opinion about it all, and I didn’t realize I had thoughts until I did.
Here are my takeaways now that the dust has settled a little:
On the Portland Trail Blazers’ arena dispute: I found it interesting that NBA commissioner Adam Silver said he “would see it as a failure” if the Trail Blazers left Portland. Silver also said he hoped both sides could “lower the temperature” in the negotiations. But it feels like the NBA and other professional sports teams across the country are ignoring the general public’s lack of appetite for financing a sports team’s new state-of-the-art arena.
Silver admitted to wanting to be more “NFL-like” with every fan believing their team can win it. I guess that’s fine. People either love or hate parity. But something I think the NBA should also look at is how the NFL is so popular. The NFL knows its audience and leans into its established culture. The NBA can be having a good day, and the NFL will bust in like the Kool-Aid Man. Gotta figure out how to fight back.
Everybody’s ready to move on from the Clippers investigation and subsequent punishments. Silver addressed Clippers owner Steve Ballmer’s statement accepting the punishment doled out by the league and said he’d spoken to Kawhi Leonard, who is officially with Toronto again. They’re all ready to move on. Understandably so. But people are definitely going to be talking about this for a good while longer. This was huge! It will be interesting to see fan reaction in L.A. at the start of the season.
WNBA future
Part 2 of our Q&A with Annie Costabile
After an extended break for the FIBA Women’s World Cup, the final stretch of the WNBA season is underway, with the regular season ending later next week.
I discussed awards races and more with The Athletic’s women’s basketball writer Annie Costabile earlier this week, but our conversation was so good (and so long!) that I didn’t want to leave anything on the cutting room floor.
With a new CBA in place for a full season, can fans expect teams to fully upgrade their standards/resources by next season?
Annie: Teams have until 2028 to meet the facility standards requirement, and some will push it until then. The Liberty, for example, are in the building phase, but structural framing doesn’t appear to have been started based on a walk-by of the Greenpoint site.
The teams with the biggest resource issues, like the Chicago Sky, Los Angeles Sparks and Dallas Wings are all set to have facilities open by the 2027 season. The Liberty have some flexibility because, even though their Greenpoint location looks like it may not be ready by the start of next season, they still have been leaders in the league in terms of overall resources/operational standards.
What WNBA teams need a drastic overhaul for next season? And in what ways?
Annie: The Sparks, the Sky, the Phoenix Mercury and the Connecticut Sun. I think for the Sparks and the Sky, they have to answer the question of whether or not the vision they had is the vision they want to keep. We’ve seen in L.A. they’ve already fired and hired a new general manager before the season even ended. They could look to continue that overhaul and fire coach Lynne Roberts. The Sky have to confront similar questions of whether or not GM Jeff Pagliocca and coach Tyler Marsh are capable of getting them back to playoff contention. I think what’s slightly different there is the degree of injury the Sky dealt with and what they looked like prior to Rickea Jackson’s ACL injury.
The Sun are obviously relocating to Houston, so that comes with natural change. Then we have the Mercury, and their overhaul, I think, really comes down to the roster. Is Alyssa Thomas still the franchise player? They should not have fallen from championship contention to outside of the playoffs because of one player (they lost Satou Sabally in free agency.) I don’t see a coaching change happening there.
With the women’s college hoops season approaching, I’d like to shift our attention to next season’s highly anticipated 2027 draft class that includes players like JuJu Watkins, Madison Booker and MiLaysia Fulwiley. Who’s a sleeper to watch who could boost their draft stock?
Annie: My mind immediately went to South Carolina forward/center Ashlyn Watkins. I still remember watching her win the McDonald’s All-American dunk contest in 2022 and being in awe of her length and athleticism. She rejoined Dawn Staley’s Gamecocks in June after taking a year off from basketball. If she comes back with an improved shot coupled with her defensive prowess, specifically when it comes to defending at the rim, I think she could end up going in the top half of the first round.
WASHINGTON, DC - OCTOBER 28: Joel Embiid #21 and Adem Bona #30 of the Philadelphia 76ers watch a replay on the scoreboard during the second half against the Washington Wizards at Capital One Arena on October 28, 2025 in Washington, DC. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Scott Taetsch/Getty Images) | Getty Images
With less than two weeks to go until training camp begins, the vibes around the Sixers are still largely immaculate for the time being. However, Thursday’s news that Adem Bona suffered a foot sprain was a reminder of what might prove to be their Achilles’ heel.
Liberty Ballers’ Paul Hudrick reported that Bona suffered the injury during the FIBA World Cup qualifiers and that he’s expected to return to on-court workouts within the first two weeks of training camp. For now, it doesn’t appear to be any major cause for alarm. But if Bona does miss the start of the season for whatever reason, it’ll put the Sixers’ frontcourt depth to the test early on.
Joel Embiid has not exactly been the textbook definition of health throughout his decade-long NBA career. Although he said in the spring that he was feeling better about his oft-injured knee moving forward, he isn’t going to suddenly start playing 82 games. If nothing else, he figures to continue missing at least one game in back-to-back sets and buying strategic rest at other points throughout the regular season.
As a result, backup center tends to be more important for the Sixers than most other teams. And even with a healthy Bona, that looked like the weakest spot of their roster heading into the season.
Bona is the spiritual successor to Paul Reed: a low-minutes chaos agent who can’t stay out of foul trouble. His athleticism and motor have endeared him to Sixers fans, but his 4.7 fouls per 36 minutes over his first two seasons? Not so much. Bona did undeniably outplay Andre Drummond for significant portions of the 2025-26 season and figured to enter this year with the inside track for the backup center job.
Ariel Hukporti, whom the Sixers signed with a portion of their bi-annual exception this offseason, is Bona’s main competition for that role. He’s far more of an unknown, as he served as the New York Knicks’ third-string center for his first two NBA seasons. The 7’0″, 246-pound Hukporti has solid size for a center, but could he hold down the fort as the primary backup if Bona misses time? The jury remains very much out on that for now.
The Sixers might not have much of a choice in the matter, though. After signing LeBron James and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, they’re only about $1.8 million below their first-apron hard cap. They won’t have enough financial wiggle room to sign anyone other than an undrafted rookie free agent until early December at the earliest. (Sorry, Kevin Love.)
Nurse already tinkered with small-ball lineups featuring Dominick Barlow at the 5 last year, so he figures to revisit those. Granted, lineups featuring Barlow without any of Embiid, Bona or Andre Drummond had a net rating of minus-3.3 last season, so those might not be a panacea, either.
Dean Wade is also listed at 6’9″, so he could be another small-ball 5 option. However, he didn’t fare much better in lineups without Jarrett Allen or Evan Mobley last season in Cleveland (minus-2.1 net rating). And while LeBron-at-the-5 lineups are a fun idea in theory, that isn’t the best use of him on either end of the floor. Those lineups would also leave the Sixers woefully short on rim protection.
The Sixers do still have one open two-way spot, so they could (should?) look to fill that with another big man as additional insurance. Granted, players can only sign two-way contracts if they have fewer than four years of NBA experience, so the Sixers couldn’t sign an established veteran such as Love or Kelly Olynyk to such a deal. Their options may be fairly limited in that regard, although none of us should ever doubt president of basketball operations Mike Gansey again after what he pulled off this offseason.
If the Sixers are fully healthy, they should be in the inner circle of title contenders this year. But Bona’s foot sprain was an unwelcome reminder of their lack of depth behind the oft-injured Embiid.
Could that be their undoing, at least early in the year before they’re able to fill their 15th roster spot with a prorated minimum contract? It might largely fall on Hukporti to prove otherwise.
They’re the second-winningest franchise in the NBA with 17 championships. They have a top-four player in the league in Luka Dončić. They’re located in one of the premier cities in the league in Los Angeles.
But a curious pattern has repeated itself this offseason.
Denver Nuggets guard Peyton Watson (8) drives to the basket during the first half of an NBA basketball game against the Dallas Mavericks, Jan. 14, 2026, in Dallas. AP Photo/Julio Cortez
The league’s top available players didn’t show interest in Los Angeles.
After eight years with the Lakers, LeBron James chose to leave in free agency. Jonathan Kuminga took his talents to Minnesota. Klay Thompson decided to go to Miami. Bruce Brown decided to sign with the Knicks.
The Lakers weren’t at the top of Giannis Antetokounmpo’s list of top destinations when it became clear the Bucks were going to trade him. Peyton Watson, who was a restricted free agent, opted for a sign-and-trade deal with the Cavaliers, where he could earn much more money than with the Lakers.
Sure, the Lakers were hamstrung monetarily after re-signing Austin Reaves to a four-year, $180 million deal, the richest contract for a player who went undrafted in NBA history.
And they emptied their treasure trove for Walker Kessler, whom they acquired via a sign-and-trade from Utah on a four-year, $130 million deal, including giving up first-round picks in 2031 and 2033 and first-round pick swaps in 2028 and 2030.
They also largely emptied their pockets on Collin Sexton, Quentin Grimes, Matisse Thybulle, Sandro Mamukelashvili, Ziaire Williams and Jaden Hardy.
But money only tells part of the story.
Miami Heat’s newest signing Klay Thompson speaks during an NBA basketball press conference in Miami, Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2026. AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell
James chose to sign a veteran-minimum deal with the 76ers (two years, $8 million) instead of potentially earning much more in Los Angeles, with some estimates placing him in the ballpark of earning $25 million per year with the Lakers after single-handedly leading them past the Rockets in the first round of the playoffs.
Kuminga opted to sign a two-year, $12.4 million deal with the Timberwolves even though the Lakers had initially offered him a two-year deal worth $20 million.
Thompson, who went to high school in Southern California, grew up a Lakers fan and whose father is a radio analyst for the Lakers, chose to sign with the Heat on a two-year, $13 million deal.
Most recently, Brown signed an Exhibit 9 training camp contract with the Knicks.
Sure, the Lakers have 16 players on standard guaranteed contracts, as well as three two-way contracts. They’re going to need to shed players before Opening Night.
But availability and money are only pieces of this story.
There’s a larger question to be raised.
Why aren’t players clamoring to join the Lakers, as they have in past seasons?
Why wasn’t Los Angeles at the top of Antetokounmpo’s list? Imagine him playing alongside Dončić. Why did Kuminga take less money to join the Timberwolves? His athleticism and perimeter defense could’ve really helped the Lakers.
Jonathan Kuminga of the Minnesota Timberwolves is introduced to the media by President of Basketball Operations Tim Connelly and radio play-by-play announcer Alan Horton on Sept. 10, 2026, at Target Center in Minneapolis. NBAE via Getty Images
What’s happening here?
As for James, he clearly felt undervalued by the Lakers toward the end of his tenure with the team. He also felt as though he had his best chance to win his fifth ring in Philly.
Still, his decision to leave Los Angeles and move across the country from his family sent shockwaves throughout the NBA. Nearly every team clamored to acquire the 41-year-old — who’s arguably the greatest player of all time — at a bargain price.
It all makes you wonder …
Did the Lakers’ treatment of James at the end of his career give other players’ pause, especially considering the team’s past history of revering their superstars? Did the team’s transition from James to Dončić make other players want to see how things play out before buying in? Did the Lakers being sold twice in 14 months make other players feel iffy about coming to Los Angeles? Did the Buss family drama impact things?
There was a lot going on around the Lakers this offseason.
Maybe players simply wanted to join an organization where they stood to make more money down the line. Maybe they just didn’t feel comfortable joining the Lakers, who are clearly undergoing multiple major transitions.
Either way, it makes sense that eyebrows are raised a bit here.
The Lakers have long been one of the NBA’s top destinations.
LAS VEGAS, NV - JULY 14: Nate Ament #15 of the Milwaukee Bucks poses for a portrait during the 2026 NBA Rookie Photo Shoot on July 14, 2026 at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas campus in Las Vegas, Nevada. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and/or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2026 NBAE (Photo by Brian Babineau/NBAE via Getty Images) | NBAE via Getty Images
In many ways, I feel like I know exactly what to expect from Nate Ament this season, but in many others, I have no freaking idea. Conventional wisdom tells you that he’ll spend a lot of the season with the Herd—certainly at the start of the year—but also, lottery picks generally do not play much in the G League. Something has to give. Ament is a unique case because he was picked at that spot based much more on potential than the raw production he showed in college. You’re looking a year or two down the road with him and wondering what he can be when his body fills out. That leaves me… confused.
Ament had an interesting Summer League. It started really slow, with the 19-year-old failing to reach double digits until the fourth game, when he broke out against the Hornets for 23 points on 7/13 shooting. This was followed by an almost game against the Sixers, where he tallied 12 points, seven rebounds, and three assists, but nine of those points came in the opening quarter, only for almost everything to rim out for the rest of the game (or an and-one getting reversed into a charge that seemed… very questionable).
@Bucks fans, be excited @NateAment has added muscle, tightened the handle, and hasn't missed. The Bucks have a real steal on their hands.
I got some exclusive clips from Nate's private offseason workouts with NBA trainer Zachary Gonzalez.
As I’ve written about previously, Ament’s path to minutes at the NBA level will come through finding his niche and keeping his game simple. Right now, his best attribute is probably his catch-and-shoot ability; he shot nearly 40% from deep in Vegas. If he can force defenders to respect him, it will open up his ability to pump fake, drive the closeout, and make the next play. Of course, Ament does struggle to break guys down off the dribble—and I don’t know if that will ever be a strength of his—but he can drive hard left, body the defender, reverse pivot, and shoot a turnaround over his left shoulder. The Virginia native did this move repeatedly in college, and I think it will work at the next level against smaller defenders (of which there will be a good number, given his positional size at 6’10”).
The other part is the defence. It was bad at Summer League—much worse than I expected. That said, it felt like a lot of those struggles came down to over-aggressiveness and poor positioning. With the right training, this is a guy who should be able to iron out those flaws and become a plus on that end. His frame will naturally give him a lot of latitude to recover and contest shots. But yes, it goes without saying that Ament will not touch an NBA floor until he fixes that part of his game. Overall, I can’t wait to see what they do with Ament this year. Will it be mostly G League, or will he get “gifted” minutes because the franchise is prioritising development over wins this season?
Mar 18, 2024; Chicago, Illinois, USA; Portland Trail Blazers center Duop Reath (26) drives to the basket against the Chicago Bulls during the second half at United Center. Mandatory Credit: Kamil Krzaczynski-USA TODAY Sports | USA TODAY Sports via Reuters Con
Every day, we’ll take a closer look at another member of the 2026-27 Phoenix Suns, examining what they bring to the roster and what their role could mean for the season ahead as we count down to training camp and the preseason.
Duop Reath
Center, 6’9”, 245 pounds, 30 years old, 4th season
Was writing a player preview about Duop Reath on my bingo card when we originally scheduled our Player Preview series here at Bright Side of the Sun? Nope. But like champions, we adjust. The Phoenix Suns have signed Reath, and therefore we need to give you an introduction to who he is, what he’s done, and what he could potentially become as a member of this team.
He’s ultimately been brought in to compete for a role at the back end of the center rotation following the injury to Mark Williams. How much he actually plays, or whether he ultimately sticks on the roster, remains to be seen.
But what do we know about him? What has he done in the past? What does the scouting report look like? And what could he potentially bring to the Phoenix Suns? We’ll break all of that down in this Player Preview.
I recommend you start with understanding his journey to the NBA.
Reath averaged 13.3 minutes per game over 146 games with the Blazers between 2023 and 2026. He scored 6.2 points per game with 2.6 rebounds and .4 blocks. He shot 42% from the three-point arc during the 2025-26 season in Portland.
Reath last played for the Blazers on January 18, 2026. On January 29 it was announced that Reath had a stress fracture in his foot and that he had undergone successful surgery. Reath was traded on February 1st to the Atlanta Hawks along with two future second-round picks for Vit Krejci. Atlanta made the trade knowing that Reath would miss the rest of the season. They waived the big Australian four days later. Reath has not played since.
Aside from the competition he brings to the back end of the roster, Reath possesses something that immediately makes him interesting for the Suns. He can stretch the floor. Last season, Reath shot 41.8% from beyond the arc, although the volume wasn’t really there. He went 23-of-55 from deep for the season. For his career, he’s a 35.7% three point shooter, which is ultimately where one of his biggest offensive strengths lies.
If the Suns want a backup big who can stretch the floor when called upon, Reath can fulfill that role. And if you put him in the right corner, he can make you pay. Reath is a career 48.2% three point shooter from that area of the floor.
That ability gives Phoenix another option at center and a different offensive skill set to work with, depending on what a matchup requires.
Another thing Reath brings is the potential to provide mentorship, especially for Khaman Maluach. Maluach is stepping into an increased role this season, with a lot more responsibility being placed on his shoulders to produce with the opportunity in front of him.
Reath may only be around for a short period of time if he ultimately doesn’t make the roster, but there is still value in having him around Maluach during training camp. Reath has experienced a tumultuous basketball journey of his own, and he was born in Sudan, not far from where Maluach was born in South Sudan. That shared background and experience could create a natural kinship between the two. And perhaps that opens the door for some mentorship along the way, with Reath helping Maluach prepare for what lies ahead.
What Needs to Improve
While his ability to stretch the floor is a positive, there is plenty of opportunity throughout the rest of Reath’s game.
He isn’t a great rebounder on either end of the floor. He isn’t a great finisher, nor is he particularly effective defending on the perimeter. Where he does shine defensively is with his rim protection and ability to provide help defense. That creates a challenge if Reath ultimately becomes the third member of the Suns’ center rotation. Phoenix already has Oso Ighodaro, who isn’t necessarily a great rebounder himself, especially on the defensive end. Some of that is understandable because Oso is a switchable big who frequently gets pulled away from the paint.
Still, if you’re subbing Oso out and replacing him with Reath, the rebounding deficiency doesn’t disappear. It could become even more glaring.
Final Word
I love that the Suns brought Reath in to create competition for that third-string center role. It’s a smart way to operate, especially when it doesn’t cost you anything. There could be some ancillary benefits along the way, as I mentioned with the potential mentorship of Khaman Maluach. He gives Phoenix another body, another shooting profile, and another player who can push the final roster spots during camp. Maybe that turns into a roster spot, maybe it becomes a G League opportunity, and maybe it ends there. Either way, Reath gives the Suns something they needed: competition without commitment.
Ultimately, though, I don’t think Reath makes the team. Could he end up on a two-way contract? The opportunity exists because this is his fourth season, the final year he would be eligible for that type of deal. I’d much rather keep CJ Huntley on a two-way contract, focus on developing him, and provide Reath with an opportunity to play in the G League if that path presents itself.
I love his journey. I love his story. And I love how the Suns are approaching this. I simply don’t think Reath is going to have much of an impact on the Phoenix Suns this season. He is this year’s Jared Butler.
BOSTON - 1982: George Gervin #44 of the San Antonio Spurs looks on against the Boston Celtics during a game played in 1982 at the Boston Garden in Boston, Massachusetts. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 1982 NBAE (Photo by Dick Raphael/NBAE via Getty Images) | NBAE via Getty Images
Yesterday, we posted about the Spurs hiring a new Vice President of Technology. Technology is constantly updating, improving, and outright changing with such pace that sometimes we can barely keep up. By “we” I mean people who did not grow up with this level of tech. For example, my first phone was rotary, my first television required getting up and changing the dial to one of the three channels available (four if PBS was coming in on a clear day). We didn’t get cable until I was in 2nd grade. There used to be ONE computer in our school…you get the picture, yes?
I digress. The point is, there was a time when technology seemed so advanced, but now those images and films are trite and simplistic. Or are they.
I found this footage. It sparked a memory of my first trip to HemisFair to see a Spurs game,
This was the announcement for the 1982 Western Conference Finals when the #2 ranked Spurs got swept by the #1 ranked Los Angeles Lakers. The Lakers went on to win the title against the Philadelphia 76ers. 1982 was the Lakers second NBA Finals trip in what turned out to be eight in the 1980s. You read that right, the Lakers made 8 trips to the Finals in the 80s.
The 80s were so dominated by the Lakers and Celtics, it’s hard to remember just how good the Spurs were. With George Gervin as their superstar and Stan Albeck as head coach, they had some solid years.
Anyway, I just saw this footage, got nostalgic, and realized how much the presentation of the game has changed over the decades.
TGIF, Pounders! Have. great weekend.
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LAS VEGAS, NV - JULY 18: Cameron Boozer #27 of the Memphis Grizzlies drives to the basket during the game against the Houston Rockets during the 2026 NBA Summer League Semifinals game on July 18, 2026 at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2026 NBAE (Photo by Mike Kirschbaum/NBAE via Getty Images) | NBAE via Getty Images
Those who make their living evaluating basketball players’ talents and skills presumably have some idea of what they’re talking about. (Most of them, anyway.) That expertise would seem a prerequisite among NBA decision-makers, which is why former players who learned the game at Duke under Mike Krzyzewski (Elton Brand, Trajan Langdon, Mike Dunleavy Jr., Billy King, Danny Ferry) and at North Carolina under Dean Smith (Mitch Kupchak, Michael Jordan, Donnie Walsh) found jobs as NBA general managers.
That grounding presumably comes into play when selecting players for NBA franchises. The league runs America’s most famous professional sports draft, with only two rounds per year since ‘89. Only first rounders receive a guaranteed place and payment, although second round picks increasingly are rewarded with starting contracts.
Plenty of promising players sift down to the second round, notably Duke all-pro Carlos Boozer (2002). Since 2020 Duke alone supplied the NBA with burgeoning second-round stalwarts Vernon Carey Jr., Tre Jones, and Kyle Filipowski.
This past June 12 ACC players were among the 60 draftees. That’s 20 percent of the total. The previous June it was only eight of 60 (13.3 percent).
Over the past two seasons — or since the ACC did its institutional boa constrictor routine, swallowing three more programs to push its membership to 18 – 16.7 percent of the NBA draftees (20 of 120) came from the conference.
Across that 2-year span, Duke supplied 8 of 20 ACC draftees, or 40 percent.
Included among the NBA’s recent ACC-certified talents were four top-10 picks from Duke: Cameron Boozer (No. 3 in 2026) and Cooper Flagg (#1), Kon Knueppel (#4), and Khaman Maluach (#10) in 2025. Since Jon Scheyer took over in 2022 the Blue Devils saw 7 players taken in the opening round.
Otherwise the most highly coveted talents from the ACC were widely distributed.
Second-most No.1s from the ACC over the past two years was UNC with two. Caleb Wilson went fourth in 2026 and forgettable Drake Powell was the 22nd pick in ’25. (One possible factor in Hubert Davis’ firing was his ill-advised judgment in having an injured Wilson participate in a practice, breaking his right thumb as he recovered from fracturing his left hand.)
Rebuilt Louisville supplied the No. 6 pick in 2026 in oft-injured guard Mikel Brown Jr.
The other ’26 ACC first-round selection, the league’s eighth in the last two drafts, was Ebuka Okorie. That he attended Stanford may surprise some people. Yet coach Kyle Smith has quietly built talented units in fielding consecutive 20-win teams since joining the ACC.
In fact, only six league squads won 20 or more games in each of the past two seasons: Clemson, Duke, Louisville, North Carolina, SMU, and Stanford.
Big man Maxime Raynaud, the Cardinal’s 2025 star and the runnerup in ACC Player of the Year voting to Flagg (76 to 4), went to Sacramento in the second round, signed a 3-year, $5.95 million contract, and started 56 times as a Kings rookie in 2025-26.
One difficulty in gaining notice as a Cardinal is Stanford’s modest home court excitement, reflected in the worst attendance in the ACC last year at 3,899 fans per game. Good news: that was up from an average of 2,951 attendees at Maples Pavilion in 2025, the school’s inaugural ACC season. Capacity is 7,233. Maybe Stanford fans have yet to be as impressed as we are with their team’s addition to the North Carolina-based league.
ACCERTIFIED
Players From ACC Picked In 2025
And 2026 NBA Drafts, By School
Madison Square Garden is seen with the Empire State Building in the background in New York City, United States, on August 6, 2026. The multi-purpose indoor arena serves as a major venue for sports and entertainment, hosting concerts, live events, and games for the NBA New York Knicks and the NHL New York Rangers. A digital screen on the arena displays a celebration of the New York Knicks as NBA champions. (Photo by Marcin Golba/NurPhoto via Getty Images) | NurPhoto via Getty Images
On Wednesday, you were all ready to buy one of those hot-off-the-presses Knicks tickets. You hopped onto Ticketmaster, clicked your usual section, and nearly fainted from the price. You clicked a cheaper section. Same unpleasant surprise. Finally, you selected the very worst seat in the house and it hit you: the only way you are going to see the Knicks play at MSG this season is if you sell the family cow.
If this happened to you, no, you can’t get that bony old Betsy back (and now you’re really out of luck for magic beans). But take heart—you might get a refund.
Madison Square Garden Sports said Thursday that it had paused individual-game Knicks ticket sales because of “a mistake in our pricing.” The correct plan: prices will revert to last season’s levels plus an average increase of 12%, and sales will restart after the adjustment. Anybody who already purchased individual tickets at the erroneous prices will be refunded the difference.
The cheapest available seat for the October 20 banner-night opener against Philadelphia had climbed to $1,251, with some upper-deck seats listed above $1,000. If the sticker shock caused a loved one to die of a heart attack, MSG will send you a consolatory pin.
This is the first genuinely ugly collision between the Knicks’ championship and the fans who waited decades for it. We endured terrible basketball for years, finally got the big prize, and then discovered that seeing the banner raised might require a small home-equity loan.
So far, MSG has declined to say how many tickets were sold at the mistaken prices or how much it will refund. MSG corrected the error quickly and is refunding purchasers, which is commendable. But a 12% average increase is also an unpleasant hike in this economy. Mr. Dolan, what is the current price of milk?
PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA - APRIL 30: Derrick White #9 of the Boston Celtics looks on prior to a game against the Philadelphia 76ers in Game Six of the First Round of the NBA Eastern Conference Playoffs at Xfinity Mobile Arena on April 30, 2026 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images) | Getty Images
For the first time since his arrival in Boston, the trade machine came for Derrick White.
After a season of inefficiency, and a shaky playoff exit, the narrative shifted. Boston’s favorite adopted cousin no longer had the same unshakeable trust from all corners of the fanbase. But appreciating White has always required some nuance, and by looking deeper we can understand how important he is and the reason for optimism moving forward.
Judging White solely on raw shooting splits completely misses the mark (pun intended). He can fill up a stat sheet, but his true value has always been about fluidity and intangible impact.
He’s uniquely capable of flowing from the 1st through 5th option on any given night. For many players, that kind of variance isn’t a compliment. But there’s a significant difference between being inconsistent and being scalable, and White has a proven track record of seamlessly expanding or shrinking his role based on matchups or teammate availability.
Last season, that scalability was pushed to its absolute limit. In the absence of Tatum and key pieces from the championship roster, White had less room to lurk in the shadows. His spot in the offensive hierarchy was defined. Forced into the most visible and static role of his career, he shouldered a heavy, unfamiliar creation burden—logging eight games with a usage rate above 30%—and stumbled to a career-low 39.4% from the field and 32.7% from deep. Those efficiency struggles only grew under the postseason lights in the loss to the Sixers.
Yet, if you look beyond the box score, advanced metrics support that he was still deeply impactful. Take Estimated Plus-Minus (EPM), a useful tool for measuring a player’s impact on winning. Even with his lower percentages, White finished the season in the 94th percentile league-wide, a sign that he still influenced winning at an elite level.
There’s a reason why most metrics still love him. White refused to let his offensive workload compromise his defense. He averaged a career-high in steals and blocks, and Boston’s defense was 7.1 points per 100 possessions better with him on the floor. In his minutes they were an elite two-way team. Without him they were a top offense without a defensive identity.
I said before last season that White taking on a larger role was good in the long run, and I still believe that. The experiment wasn’t perfect, but the team greatly overachieved in the regular season with him helping to lead the way. He got valuable reps as a top option, and proved he can easily anchor a bench unit when staggering lineups.
Moving forward, he’s not going to be quite as overextended. Tracking data from last season shows his creation frequency skyrocketed, jumping from 27% to 38% of his total playtypes. This caused a corresponding drop in his time spent spacing the floor, and put a heavy tax on his efficiency. After spending the previous year at an elite +10.5% in Relative True Shooting as an off-ball weapon, his efficiency plummeted to -3.5% below league average under the weight of self-created possessions and added defensive attention.
With Tatum in for a full season, White slides right back into a more natural complementary role. The two have unbelievable chemistry with a two-man game that creates all kinds of issues. One possession you’ll have Tatum screening for White, and then they’ll invert it the next time down the floor.
Playing alongside Tatum simplifies White’s reads as a ball handler. Meanwhile, when White acts as the screener, he can tap into more off-ball shooting and decision-making. Over their last five years together, White sharing the court with Tatum gets a massive +6.3% bump in True Shooting, with his three-point percentage increasing by +4.3%.
We haven’t seen it yet, but I picture Paul George offering a similar type of offensive synergy. Like Tatum, George is comfortable in either role of a ball-screen action. He can pick-and-pop and fire up a three, or he can handle playmaking and creation responsibilities. Last season, George had an equal 41-41% split between creation and spacing playtypes. His scoring versatility should make him another dangerous pick-and-roll partner for White.
The existence of Tatum and George will keep White’s offensive burden tied to the best parts of his game. White is one of the best advantage extenders in the NBA, and thrives when he can attack defenses that are a step behind. Playing off of two creators will allow him to swap a good chunk of self-creation duties for the premium catch-and-shoot and off-screen looks that have made him so lethal.
After a year of being higher in the opponent’s scouting report, when he does need to step up into a larger role, it’s something he’s even more prepared for.
With his optimal ecosystem restored, there’s a strong likelihood White’s jumper not only returns, but that he puts together one of his best offensive seasons as a Celtic.
It’s time to delete the trade machine screenshots and put our #9 jerseys back on.
