Category: NBA

Been moving back to Mexico since I departed from Spain on Wednesday morning. Yeah, that’s more than half a week, but that’s also what happens when you arrive and your place isn’t ready to live in, you have to split time between there and a shared AirBnB place, you have to spend a night in each of the four rooms it has, and finally, on Sunday morning, you move into your original place, only to find out the refrigerator has some issues and you can’t put food in it. Let’s go!

• Josh Hart says the Knicks have officially moved on from celebrating last season’s championship and are fully focused on defending it.

“This year was amazing. But I think all of us, the thing that makes us special is right now we’re looking forward. I think all of us are kind of tired of hearing the congratulations, and we’re ready to get to work. We’re ready to put the work in, grow, build and see where we are at the end of the year.”

• Jalen Brunson had a hilarious reaction after seeing Josh Hart receive his own Yankees bobblehead. “Oh f–k no,” Brunson joked.
• The Knicks have officially turned their final roster spot into a training camp competition. After signing John Konchar and Drew Eubanks, New York also added Bruce Brown, Ochai Agbaji and James Wiseman on non-guaranteed Exhibit 9 contracts.
• The Knicks have paused single-game ticket sales after discovering an internal pricing mistake that led to unexpectedly expensive face-value tickets, including more than $1,000 for Opening Night.
• Former Knicks lottery pick Mike Sweetney has died at age 43. Sweetney was selected ninth overall in the 2003 NBA Draft out of Georgetown and appeared in 119 games for the Knicks.
• Mitchell Robinson revealed he missed his introductory press conference with the Celtics because his younger brother had been hit by a car earlier that morning. Robinson later asked fans to pray for his brother, saying, “Yesterday, around 6 a.m., he was hit by a car.”
• The Athletic included Jalen Brunson among the active players it considers absolute locks to have their jersey retired.

“The Knicks won a championship, and Brunson was their best player. Case closed.”

• SB Nation projects the Celtics to finish first in the Eastern Conference regular season but still considers the Knicks the team to beat when the playoffs begin.
• Jayson Tatum addressed the offseason trade that sent longtime teammate Jaylen Brown to Philadelphia, saying there is no bad blood between them.

The season starts in a month! And with that in mind, we’re slowly going to turn our NBA brains back on and write more things. To get us started, I asked the staff what one thing they’re looking forward to about the season. And it doesn’t have to be centered on the Mavericks.

David: I am ecstatic to see what Cooper Flagg does this season. We all remember the jump Luka Doncic took in year two, and I think we expect a similar leap from Flagg. He may not get to the 28+ points night Doncic did, but his impact in other areas could make it feel like we are watching the same level of player. I want him playmaking, leaning in to his downhill physicality, defending the other team’s best player, and taking every shot the defense gives him without hesitation. There are a lot of questions around Dallas’ roster, but the only thing I care about is Flagg.

Tyler: After the somewhat outside-the-box hire of Dusty May, I’m really looking forward to seeing how different this team operates this season. I think my expectations are for a much more aesthetically pleasing brand of basketball. Whether or not that actually translates to wins, I have no earthly idea. But I will be awfully disappointed if they are a slog to watch like last season.

Michael: This season might be the first since the early 2000’s where I’m looking forward to being surprised by the team and the prospect of what it may become. Even in the Luka Doncic era, it felt a little different – perhaps because he crossed over with Dirk Nowitzki for a moment. Here we have an entirely new coaching staff, a front office of basketball professionals (per se) for the first time in two-and-a-half decades, and a core of young players waiting to show what they will become.

So for me, I’m looking forward to a truly new era in Mavs’ basketball taking shape right in front of us, and I’m excited to see what these players will bring and how they will develop beyond just this season.

Brent: The Mavs have made it clear by hiring Gina Miller that they care about communication and tacitly appear to acknowledge the massive failings of the previous era on that front. When you are needlessly adversarial with the media, as Harrison and Kidd often were, you come across as brutish or petulant or above being questioned.

And yet it is the media’s job to question you constantly it’s going to happen before and after every game. The Uriji/Schmitz/May media interaction-while admittedly still in its honeymoon phase-doesn’t have even a width of that old stink.

And setting aside writing about the Mavericks for just a moment, my appetite as a fan to consume those interviews goes way up when the tone is not downright

Joe: What I’m looking forward to Mavs-wise is if this team and franchise truly pick a direction and to see how they manage that with limited assets? Will they commit to the Cooper Flagg era and try and reload their utility belt of assets to start building around coop or are they trying to maximize this roster because of their lack of assets and limitations in roster building?

Non-Mavs-wise, I am looking forward to the season-long crap shoot that will be the 76ers. I already have tickets to the Presidents’ Day game here in Dallas. I’m so curious to see what this looks like. It’s like you’re taking the KD Nets and multiplying it by 10. The true super team with a floor lower than maybe any super team ever.

Sudarshan: I’m looking forward to a relatively drama-less season. Our past few offseasons have been so chaotic because we were run by toddlers high on a sugar rush. It’ll be nice to have a simple, yet unsuccessful season with adults at the helm now.

The 26-27 season is about clearing all major deadwood and setting the platform once more that we can build around Flagg, Morez, Larry, and even possibly Lively.

In broad league terms, I’m looking forward to seeing how the revised lottery rules change the way teams approach tanking, the play-in and contention. If it blows up in Adam Silver’s face, then all the better.

Matt M.: What fresh Hell awaits this team? As long as I get to watch Cooper Flagg take what I think will be a massive leap in Year 2, I can compartmentalize mostly anything, I think.

I don’t know if I’m as high on Morez Johnson and Sergio de Larrea as some on staff are, but I’m confident that Flagg and whatever incremental improvement in the roster has taken place will net Mavericks fans a watchable product, maybe even at times a team you could call “plucky” or heaven forbid “fun.” Remember fun?

For some reason I want to think Marcus Sasser could be something. If nothing else, he’ll definitely get a chance in Dallas to prove it.

League-wide I’m anxious to see if the basement dwellers are forced to become somewhat watchable as well. I’m eager to see if the changes to the lottery system will make more games watchable.

Bryan: I am pumped for Kyrie/Flagg hoops! With the moves made between the season’s end and the initial free agency surge, it’s clear that the Mavericks are banking on heavy (if staggered) doses of Kyrie and Cooper handling primary on-ball duties for the team.

There is still a trade or two just beyond the horizon with Gafford almost assuredly living out of a suitcase for the next 5 months in anticipation of his next NBA destination, but the team as constructed is weird. Fun weird. Oh, how I’ve missed fun weird. I openly embrace fun weird and welcome all its head-scratching quirks and eccentricities as opposed to the mud-tracking, joy-extinguishing swamp that was the last season and a half of Mavericks basketball.

Give me tall ball with shooting. Give me Kyrie/Sasser/Larry three-guard lineups. Give me Morez on the wing for a couple of plays.

Let’s get weird. 

Philadelphia may have just had the most star-studded offseason since Miami welcomed their big three 16 years ago. The common thread there is LeBron James, who is somehow still doing it nearly two decades after making his first decision. The 76ers, who have an extremely talented young backcourt, added two NBA Finals MVPs to their former regular-season MVP to create the most formidable lineup they have had in this decade. 

When you make moves like those, it is championship or bust. There is no margin for error, and there are no excuses to be made. With as much star power in the starting lineup as the 76ers have, there is pressure to win every night. Even before they signed LeBron James, it would have already been an immensely important year in Philly. But the self-proclaimed best player of all time comes with a set of expectations that no other player in history has. This is the most consequential year in franchise history.

Philadelphia 76ers: Over/Under 50.5 wins (-110/-120)

Last Season: 45-37, lost E. Conf Semis

Key Additions: LeBron James, Jaylen Brown, Anfernee Simons, Labaron Philon, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope

Key Losses: Paul George, Quentin Grimes, Andre Drummond

The 76ers have not made the conference finals since 2001. It is safe to say that if that trend continues this season, it will be a massive failure. They have to win, and win a lot. The books certainly think they will, as they are tied with Boston for the second-highest win total in the Eastern Conference (behind New York, 51.5). My first instinct is that this team will suffer from Joel Embiid and LeBron James’ health and the overwhelming nature with which the crowd agreed that they won the Brown trade. But even if Embiid and James play 50 or so games, Brown just won 56 last year with a lesser roster on his old team. I want to fade the public and take the under on this team’s win total badly, but the talent of Tyrese Maxey and VJ Edgecomb mixed with the experience of their frontcourt, coach, and bench makes it impossible to say they will win fewer than 51 games. 

Prediction: Over 50.5 wins (-110)

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Welcome to Inside the Suns, a deep-down analysis of the current Phoenix Suns team, in which the Fantable — a roundtable of Bright Siders — give their takes on the Suns’ latest issues and news.

Fantable Questions of the Week

Q1: With Williams out injured, who do you give the Suns’ starting center job to?

zenzino: From many comments I’ve seen here, I think that Maluach is a little overestimated and Oso is a little underestimated. Currently, Oso is a better player. Period. Man Man might get the edge on rim protection, but Oso is overall a much better defender with better passing and basketball IQ. Currently.

That being said, I would love it if the coaching staff deemed Man Man ready to start at the beginning of the season. He absolutely has a higher ceiling at the 5 than Oso. I will trust Ott to figure that out and won’t be unhappy if the season begins with Oso as the starter. I’ll just assume Man Man needs a little more time.

I prefer Oso off the bench, and not because I don’t think he’s good enough to start. I like Oso off the bench because I think Oso and CG are really, really good together, and them being part of the 2nd unit makes sense. Stephen at PHNX Suns did a great game tape breakdown video about the tandem, and it is definitely worth watching.

Ashton: I have maintained my stance multiple times that Oso was the firm backup center. Now, he is the Suns’ starting center. Yes, I know, many posters here want their shiny new toy in Khaman Muluch to start. But I am not one of those who believe in KM being the “Second Coming of Center Position” for the Suns. He just plain has to prove it first.

In order of depth chart:

• Oso Igadaro
• KM – The center, the savior
• Small Ball Forwards – of which there are many to utilize in a small ball C offensive scheme. This is where Sheer steps in.
• Koa Peat – Okay, I threw that last one in just to mess with you all. But no issues here if he gathers rebounds, draws fouls, and kicks to the outside shooter. But Koa is not a small-ball center. I just like to give him a shoutout when I can.

OldAz: This is an interesting question, as I could make the case for either one. Maluach provides more size and a more traditional center on defense, as well as more shooting on offense. But who is passing him the ball? On the other hand, his ability to step outside on offense provides more room for Green to get to the rim or Book to work to the mid-range. Oso also worked well last season with Gillespie in the second unit.

Despite all this and my repeated disparaging comments about Oso in the past, I think Oso may be the better fit in the starting lineup. He may be smaller and not provide much offense, but he serves as a connector/passer (point center) that could make for a more effective starting 5 overall. KM would also get to develop with more minutes against the other teams’ backups and would benefit from playing more with Gillespie.

My hope is that Ott uses the preseason and training camp to experiment and see which of these options actually works better, but I suspect he trusts Oso more and that he gives him every opportunity to win the job.

Rod: Going into the preseason games, I’d give the starting job to Oso, but give Khaman roughly equal minutes. If Khaman plays well, I’d flip the script after a few games and give him the starting job. If I were Ott, I’d make it perfectly clear to both of them that the starting spot for the regular season is up for grabs and whoever performs the best during the preseason games wins the job.

My main worry is Khaman possibly getting into early foul trouble. Finding the correct balance of aggressiveness and caution on defense can be difficult for younger players, so this is something I’m going to be watching for during the preseason games. If he shows any tendency to get into foul trouble in the preseason, you know that the foul baiters will be hunting him on a regular basis once the regular season games begin.

Q: What do you think of the Duop Reath signing?

zenzino: The fact that this is a ‘training camp competition’ contract makes all the difference and makes it a ‘why not?’ move. We can speculate whether this is a Mark Williams move, a question about Highsmith’s health, or a little of both. I guess we’ll find out in training camp, which is almost here.

Regarding Duop Reath. He’s been around, playing all over the world, and even won a Bronze medal with the Australian team before landing in Portland.

The good: He plays much bigger than he is, which is good because 6’9” is definitely undersized for a center in today’s NBA. He can get hot from outside and could be a floor-spreading big. He has a very workmanlike mentality, which works well with the Suns’ culture they’re working to solidify.

The not so good: He’s not known for his defense, especially in space and team schemes. He’s not a strong rebounder, which is something the Suns definitely need from their bigs. He was quickly pushed to the end of the bench when the Blazers added Clingan and Hansen.

This is a small-margin move to compete for a spot. It all comes down to where the Suns think they need depth. Most assume Jamaree Bouyea will be the odd man out because of how many guards are on the roster. But every one of those guards was needed last season, and that is, in fact, how Bouyea won our hearts.

While not ideal for Reath, he could also be offered a two-way. This late in free agency, it doesn’t look like teams are beating down his door. I just wonder how much runway Kobe Brea and CJ Huntley are going to be given.

I guess we’ll find out soon enough. Can you believe preseason is just over two weeks away?

Ashton: Every time I hear his name, I hear songs from big bands in the 1920’s. Duop Duop…Duop! Do not think this was lie. When I was 16, I was saddled with a crap Sunday radio shift that included a four-hour vinyl rendition of the big band hour. All I had to do was flip the record. I was asleep more often than not.

I am actually impressed that the Sun’s front office moved this quickly to address a need at the backup center position. Keep in mind that all NBA teams were scrambling to fill backup center positions in a trade market with more demand than available talent. Heck, look at the Lakers’ overpay for Walker Kessler as a starting center because “Thiccic” demanded it.

When Reath played Summer League with the Suns in 2022, there was quite a bit of commentary on the board to sign him to a two-way. Then he had a mini-encore breakout with Portland in 2023, who actually did sign the journeyman (and at 30 years old, his airline miles stacked up, making him a true Journey Man). But the next year, he suffered the dreaded injury that no one wants to hear from the center position. A foot fracture. Will Reath be healthy for 2026-27? The jury is out with me. Also, can he knock off the rust from not playing NBA basketball while he was recovering from surgery?

Duop Reath was buried among a strong frontcourt at Portland. Add in that Rose City’s new owner, “El Cheapo,” sucks and can write a book about how to create a toxic environment while increasing franchise evaluation, and this could be the perfect change-of-scenery scenario for Duop. Okay, he was traded to Atlanta but never played a game and was waived quickly.

So, while I appreciate the depth addition, it really does not move the needle for me on the signing.

OldAz: I always loved him with Portland and what he brought to the game, and despite his age, I love the signing. I knew they needed a third center with Williams going down, but my only hope is that he is truly used as a third center for garbage time and to make sure Maluach and Oso do not get overworked. Maluach needs minutes and every opportunity to fail, learn, and grow. Having an effective third stringer has the potential to eat into Maluach’s minutes when he struggles, and what might be better is to let him struggle and work his way through it. While I love the signing, I really hope Ott navigates this well, with the primary focus being the long-term development of Maluach.

Rod: Reath is an interesting choice and not a move that I saw coming. I really wasn’t expecting the front office to do anything this quickly, but it wasn’t the first time Brian Gregory’s surprised me.

If Reath actually makes the team, I don’t really see him getting many rotation minutes unless there’s an injury or Oso or Khaman gets into foul trouble, so I’m not expecting a lot from him. He does have a respectable three-point shot, though, which means that opponents can’t ignore him.

I’ve heard some fans propose using Fleming as the emergency/third-string center. While that would probably work, I’d rather have him concentrate on learning to play as a power forward in his second year instead of splitting his time between two different positions.

Overall, I like this addition, especially on a non-guaranteed contract. Can’t wait to see how it all works out in the preseason games.

Q3: How badly do you think the Williams injury will hurt the Suns overall?

zenzino: It doesn’t help. Mark’s absence for the last couple of months last season was a significant reason for the Suns’ unremarkable ending.

We haven’t seen him in a minute, so it’s easy to forget how much he added to the team. He ran the floor really well and he got a lot of offensive rebounds and put-backs in a way that Man Man and Oso don’t. Even though Man Man gives us a 7-footer for rim protection, MW is a better overall defender and was much better at moving his feet. Even with a breakout Summer League, Man Man often found himself lost and out of place on defense.

That’s where more experience comes in. The upside is that, whether he starts or backs up Oso, there will definitely be a lot more playing time for Man Man.

I said it last Fantable, and there were objections: get ready for small ball. Especially being down to a two-center rotation, the Suns will be playing lineups with Bridges and even Sheer at the 5, and load up on guards.

Ashton: Did you take the over on the Suns’ season projections on early odds with betting sites? You are going to sweat that bet a little bit more. I just double-checked, and the Suns actually went up a game to 40.5 in total overall wins (DraftKings). I think the loss of Mark Williams is going to be bigger than expected, but apparently, the gambling sites do not think so. I recently predicted on the Fantable that 40 wins sounded about right in the topsy-turvey West, so start considering the under.

I think the impact of losing Mark Williams will be bigger than expected, leaving two centers that could use more time off the bench, who are now thrust into starting roles. Teams will exploit this, and I think Sun fans are going to be seeing more small-ball than they ever have seen before. That is not good.

Look, Williams was hardly the savior in the post, but he was consistent and was certainly missed in the 2025 playoffs. His absence does not make the regular season win total dire, but it will lead to Coach Ott having to come up with some creative line-up solutions. Basically, I expect a different style of play from the “center butterfly effect”.

OldAz: I don’t think it makes a huge impact on their ceiling or their floor. Maybe a couple of games when it is all said and done, and that could be a lot in the tight Western conference, but I don’t think it drops them out of the playoffs entirely. I really like Williams when he is healthy because of his hustle and defensive presence. When paired with another decent forward last season (like when Brooks was healthy), he did well in anchoring the defense. I was hoping for more improvement there with the increased size across the front line.

Now the Suns will be reliant on KM to fill those shoes. Long term, that may be a blessing, but it could be a bumpy ride as he develops. However, with Oso, KM, and now Reath on board, the drop-off in center play is certainly not enough to make that big a difference in their record by the time he comes back and gets back into playing shape.

Rod: I honestly think that depends on how quickly Khaman Maluach adapts to playing meaningful minutes with the big boys. Whether he starts or comes off the bench, his play will determine how much the absence of Williams will hurt the team. We already know about Oso, and I expect him to be a solid contributor, but Maluach is the wild card in the center rotation. If he adapts quickly, they may not miss Williams at all. If not, the Suns could get off to a slow start.

And now the Suns have added another wild card into the mix by signing Reath to a make-good, training camp contract. He may not even make it past preseason, but he could be a solid contributor in certain situations because he adds a credible three-point threat to the center rotation.

Williams will be missed, but I don’t think his absence will have a huge impact on team success unless Khaman can’t handle playing a bigger role.

As always, many thanks to our Fantable members for all their extra effort this week!

Suns Trivia/History

On September 20, 2000, the Suns were involved in the third-largest trade in NBA history, a twelve-player, 4-team deal between the New York Knicks, Seattle SuperSonics, L.A. Lakers, and Phoenix Suns.

In the trade, New York got Glen Rice, Travis Knight, and a first-round pick from LA; Vladimir Stepania, Lazaro Borrell, Vernon Maxwell, a first-round pick, and two second-round picks from Seattle; and Luc Longley from Phoenix. Seattle got Patrick Ewing from New York. LA got Horace Grant, Chuck Person, Greg Foster, and Emanuel Davis from Seattle. Phoenix got Chris Dudley and a first-round pick from New York.

There were a lot of moving parts in that trade, but essentially the Suns got Chris Dudley and a 1st round draft pick for… Luc Longley. Longley’s career stats for his 2 years as a Sun were 7.1 points, 4.9 rebounds, 1.1 assists, and 0.6 blocks per game.

On September 22, 2017, the Suns signed former number 1 draft pick (2013) Anthony Bennett to a 1-year non-guaranteed contract. Bennett, one of the biggest number 1 pick busts in NBA history, lasted only 19 days with the Suns before being waived on Oct. 11.

On this day, they also traded a 2018 second-round draft pick to the Memphis Grizzlies for Troy Daniels and a 2018 second-round draft pick (which did not convey). Daniels played 2 seasons for the Suns, averaging 39.4% from three, playing mostly off the bench. Troy’s best game for the Suns was on December 13, 2017, when he led the team in scoring, putting up 32 points (off the bench) in a losing effort (115-109) against the Toronto Raptors.

On September 23, 1994, after signing Danny Manning and Wayman Tisdale, the Phoenix Suns traded SF Cedric Ceballos to the LA Lakers for a 1995 first-round draft pick (Michael Finley). Ceballos led the NBA in FG% at 57.6% in 1992-93 and had career highs in scoring and rebounding with 19.1 ppg and 6.5 rpg in 1993-94.

Important Future Dates

Sept. 28 – Media Day
Sept. 29 – Training Camp opens
Oct. 5 – Suns @ Pistons (preseason) 4:00 PM
Oct. 7 – Suns @ Bulls (preseason) 5:00 PM
Oct. 10 – Suns vs. Spurs (preseason) 7:00 PM (ESPN2)
Oct. 14 – Suns @ Spurs (preseason) 5:00 PM
Oct. 16 – Suns vs. Jazz (preseason) 7:00 PM
Oct. 20 – 2026-27 NBA Season Begins
Dec. 15 – Most players signed to new contracts can be traded
Jan. 5 – 10-day contracts may now be signed
Jan. 10 – All NBA contracts are guaranteed for the remainder of the season
Jan. 15 – All players signed to new contracts can be traded
Feb. 11 – Trade Deadline
Feb. 19-21 – NBA All-Star 2027

I recently started reading Bill Simmons’ The Book of Basketball, 17 years after it was published and several days after my partner asked why a book about basketball needed to be roughly the length of the Old Testament.

Growing up in Maine and loving all four major Boston sports teams (apologies, New England Revolution fans), I of course grew up reading Simmons. There’s something particularly fun about reading him now, when his NBA arguments from 2009 have had nearly two decades to either age gracefully or get run over by history.

It’s a beast of a book, but most of it is basically Simmons trying to sort NBA history into something that makes sense: who mattered, what championships meant, how careers should be remembered and where everyone belongs.

Naturally, that got me doing the same thing with the Celtics, which led me to Joe Mazzulla.

I have absolutely no idea what bucket to put Joe Mazzulla in.

Four seasons into his head coaching career, Mazzulla has already been an emergency replacement, a guy Celtics fans weren’t sure could coach, the coach of one of the most dominant teams in league history and, most recently, the coach of a team that blew a 3-1 lead for the first time in franchise history.

This would probably be easier to sort through if Mazzulla himself were slightly easier to decipher.

Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, this is Joe Mazzulla we’re talking about.

A brief history of trying to figure out Joe

The strange part about evaluating Mazzulla is that we’ve done this dance before. Or at least, I have.

I wrote about him in April⁠, mostly because the circumstances that made him Boston’s head coach already felt like ancient history. To recap that piece, Mazzulla was 34 when the Ime Udoka situation exploded days before training camp in 2022, inheriting a Finals team and approximately zero grace period to figure out what he was doing.

Boston kept winning, but the question lingered: how much of that success actually belonged to Joe?

Then came the 2023 playoffs.

One talking point you likely remember from that run: the timeouts. Or, more accurately, the non-timeouts. Mazzulla had developed a habit of letting his players work through opposing runs rather than immediately stopping play, which is a perfectly reasonable coaching philosophy until you’re watching a 12-2 run become a 19-4 run and oh god we’re down by 15 now and he still hasn’t called a timeout.

There were questions about adjustments, late-game offense and the strange position Mazzulla found himself in: learning how to coach a championship contender while being judged like someone who should already know exactly how to do it. The Celtics fell behind Miami 3-0, nearly pulled off the first 3-0 comeback in NBA history and then got blown out at home in Game 7.

By the end of the series, the criticism had gone well beyond timeout discourse. The Boston Globe ran a column titled “The Celtics need to move on from Joe Mazzulla,” arguing that Boston’s decision to hand him the job had backfired.

Maybe Boston had asked too much, too soon of a 34-year-old coach learning one of the hardest jobs in basketball on the fly.

Except next year, the Celtics went 64-18 and won the NBA championship.

Suddenly, the guy who seems like he might sit next to you on a flight, ask how deeply you sleep and then offer to “take first watch” had proven he wasn’t merely babysitting an immensely talented roster.

Mazzulla’s whole “give the game what it needs” philosophy stopped sounding like something you’d find printed above the dumbbells at a CrossFit gym (mental note: contact local CrossFit gym about “Give the gains what they need” licensing opportunity) and started looking like a pretty amazing way to play basketball.

By the time I wrote about Mazzulla earlier this year, that was essentially my conclusion: Boston hadn’t planned for him, but he’d come to define the team anyway.

Five months later, I’m considerably less sure I know what the definition is.

Boston has now followed its championship with a second-round exit versus the Knicks (*slams head against keyboard*) and a first-round exit versus the Sixers (*slams head against remnants of said keyboard but a little harder*).

Both losses require context. Tatum tore his Achilles against New York, albeit with the series already tilting toward the Knicks. Against Philly, Embiid unlocked every available power while Paul George found whatever remained of the fountain of youth Brad Stevens buried beneath TD Garden after Al Horford took his final sip.

None of that erases the championship, just like the championship doesn’t erase what came after it. Mazzulla’s results have been extreme enough that you can make him look like almost anything depending on where you decide to start the story.

Start in 2022 and he’s one of the great emergency hires in recent sports history.

Start with the 2023 playoffs and you see a young coach struggling to keep up with Erik Spoelstra as Miami kept pulling the right strings.

Start on June 17, 2024 and he’s a championship coach who oversaw one of the best teams in Celtics history.

Start with the last two postseasons and suddenly we’re talking about two agonizing exits that felt an awful lot like coming up short of expectations.

At some point, evaluating NBA coaches starts to resemble evaluating peekaboo with a toddler. Joe’s gone. Joe’s back! Joe’s gone again. Nope, there he is!

So, is Joe Mazzulla actually a good coach?

Yes.

Probably.

Well, I think so.

The championship counts. So does the team’s identity, the way he handled being thrown into the job and the way his players talk about him. Neemias Queta said this summer that Mazzulla “makes that extra step, extra effort, just to make sure you feel comfortable,” adding: “He worries about people, and that’s why I’m running through a wall for him.”

The playoff failures count, too. The problem is deciding how much weight to give any of it when every piece of evidence feels so extreme.

NBA coaches occupy a strange place in the way we talk about basketball because so much of their work is invisible. A player’s points are in the box score. Shooting efficiency can be measured down to the decimal. There is no box score for “Joe noticed something on film at 1:17 a.m. immediately after Googling whether sharks know when they’re being followed.”

So we fall back on results. Win, and the coach pushed the right buttons. Lose, and why the hell didn’t he push the other ones?

That shortcut is especially dangerous with Mazzulla. He inherited a Finals team, coached the Porzingis-Holiday version into a basketball death machine, lost Tatum to an Achilles tear and now has Brown in Philadelphia and half a new rotation.

He’s also an exceptionally unhelpful narrator of his own career.

Ask Mazzulla about recognition and there’s a decent chance the conversation ends with the inevitability of death. 

Maybe Mike Conley can help. Asked this week for his early impressions of Mazzulla, the 19-year NBA veteran started with, “I thought he was crazy before,” before laughing and clarifying that Joe is, in fact, not crazy. More importantly, Conley said working with him has made him feel like he doesn’t know what he’s doing. “There’s so much for me to learn about the game,” he said. “The way he sees the game is a different lens.”

So we know quite a bit about Mazzulla. We still don’t know exactly what kind of coach he’ll become.

Which is why the next chapter might finally make the previous ones easier to read.

Give this team what it needs

For most of Mazzulla’s tenure, there has been one enormous complication in evaluating him: the Celtics have been incredibly talented.

Coaching great players is still coaching. As Isiah Thomas told Simmons in The Book of Basketball, the “secret” of basketball is that it isn’t really about basketball. Talent only gets you so far if five extremely rich adults would prefer not to spend another minute together.

The 2024 Celtics didn’t have that problem. They were almost absurdly well suited to Mazzulla’s vision: shooting everywhere, multiple ballhandlers, versatile defenders, Tatum and Brown in their primes, Holiday and White locking down the backcourt, Porzingis spacing the floor and Al Horford being Al Horford.

There weren’t many problems that roster couldn’t solve.

This year is different. Brown is in Philadelphia, George is 36, Tatum is returning from his Achilles tear and several younger Celtics will be asked to contribute considerably more.

Asked this week how he envisions the identity of this year’s team, Mazzulla talked about the difference between what a team looks like on the court and what it becomes over the course of a season.

“I think there’s an on-court identity and then an identity that the season creates based on the challenges that are presented to you,” he said.

A Mazzulla answer if I’ve ever heard one, but it’s also essentially the question we’re asking about him. “Give the game what it needs” is a lot easier when the game gives you Tatum, Brown, White, Holiday, Porzingis and Horford.

What happens when it gives you something else?

There’s a version of this season where Boston wins fewer games than it did last year and I come away more impressed with Mazzulla. If he can figure out what this group does well rather than trying to recreate what worked two years ago, that tells me more than another gaudy win total. On the flip side, another great regular season followed by the same playoff problems would make those last two exits a lot harder to explain away.

We already know Mazzulla can coach an excellent regular-season team. We know he can coach a championship team, too.

Asked this week what he took from blowing a 3-1 lead to Philadelphia, Mazzulla started with himself: “How do I have to get better?” But he resisted treating those three losses as a singular referendum, saying he’s still pulling lessons from wins and losses dating back to his first season.

Now he has to apply all of it to something new.

So what do we do with Joe?

My answer? Nothing. Yet.

Slightly unsatisfying answer, sure, but Mazzulla has spent four years making definitive conclusions look stupid approximately six months after we make them.

His first season ended one game from the Finals. His second ended with a championship. The two since have ended too early. Depending on when you checked in, he’s been treated like a novice, a lunatic or a genius, sometimes within the same playoff series.

Maybe this season finally makes the résumé easier to read.

Or maybe Joe wins 54 games, unveils a lineup featuring three centers and no point guard in March, starts making the team study competitive freediving to improve late-game composure, and explains the whole thing afterward by saying he saw a seagull outside the Auerbach Center that morning and “liked its mentality.”

Maybe the mistake was assuming Joe Mazzulla would ever fit into a tidy evaluation in the first place.

In the conversation about great NBA big men, Bill Walton sort of gets an asterisk. Everyone acknowledges his brilliance, but his fragile body, especially his feet, kept him from playing consistently.

Out of 1,148 possible games, Walton played in just 468, meaning that he missed 59.23 percent of those contests.

But when he was healthy, Walton was an astonishing basketball player.

He wasn’t an immense scorer. His best season scoring wise was 18.9 ppg. He was a very good rebounder, averaging 10.5 for his career. He was an excellent passer, too.

But mostly what made Walton great was his understanding that the team’s success was the most important thing, and he was passionate about winning. And it was never more evident than in his third season with the Portland Trail Blazers, when, in 1977, he won his first championship.

As you’ll see in this video, Walton was immensely dominant. He was quick and agile, and he blocked a lot of shots. In one play, you’ll see him do a spin move to bank in a shot well away from the basket.

The most dazzling aspect of his game, though, was his ability to rebound and fire off an outlet pass immediately. You’ll see a bunch of those here. Along with Bill Russell, Wes Unseld, and Kevin Love, Walton was one of the absolute masters of the outlet pass. He made them immediately, fearlessly, and with immense confidence.

And you should note this, too: aside from Maurice Lucas, the other starters were Dave Twardzik, Lionel Hollins, and Bob Gross. Most of you will never have heard of any of those guys.

With Walton as the driving force, that group coalesced into a superb unit. Philadelphia had tremendous talent, but Portland was far more cohesive.

That team was extraordinary and Walton was its driving force. Watch this and you’ll realize why people have to include him in conversations about the best centers of all time.

No other center has ever had a better combination of skills than Walton, and in the 1977 playoffs, we saw just how great he was.

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LeBron James’ wife, Savannah, isn’t done with California sports quite yet.

Despite LeBron no longer being a member of the Lakers, Savannah James officially became an investor with the LOVB volleyball league’s new Los Angeles team.

This isn’t the first time that the James family has been associated with LOVB. LeBron and Savannah’s daughter, Zhuri (who is an avid volleyball fan) kicked off the LOVB Championship in Long Beach in April by delivering a ceremonial first serve ahead.

There’s no doubt that Zhuri was a factor in Savannah’s investment decision. And the two seemed to celebrate this news by dancing on Saturday.

Savannah posted two videos of her and Zhuri dancing to her Instagram Story. They were wearing matching black outfits, and the first video’s caption read, “As long as she’s asking, I’ll be doing all the ticky toks ”.

Savannah James recently celebrated her 40th birthday with family and friends. While LeBron took his talents to Philadelphia to play with the 76ers, Savannah has plenty of reasons to stay rooted to California.

There’s this new volleyball team that she is now an investor for, Zhuri (who is 11 years old) seems likely to stay in California through high school and Bronny is still on the Lakers.

No one expects the Warriors to be NBA champions next season. 

So, will it be a wasted season?

Far from it. 

Not everything can be judged by whether the Larry O’Brien Championship Trophy is hoisted in June. 

The Warriors are playing for so much more than a champagne bath. They’re playing for each other. 
Steve Kerr chose to return as coach because he wanted to finish what he started with Steph Curry and Draymond Green, who won four championships in eight years from 2015-2022, becoming the league’s modern-day dynasty. 

They’ve had each other’s backs for 12 years. They’ve been through wars. They’re brothers. 

Next season is about two players and a coach who have shown a loyalty to one another that’s uncharacteristic in a league where players jump ship at any signs of distress and coaches are cycled through faster than ephemeral social media trends. 

In a world of change, the Warriors stand out. 

And they’re still fun as heck. 

Curry is still the greatest shooter of all time. He became the oldest point guard last season to be named an All-Star starter.

Green remains a thrilling and fiery force on the defensive end, the embodiment of a player who transformed himself from being overlooked into a Hall of Famer through sheer heart and grit.

Kerr is still one of the sharpest minds in the sport, as well as a fearless leader on and off the court. 

Are they the edge-of-your-seat show they once were? No. But are they still fascinating? Yes. 

There are a lot of questions. 

Can they make a move before the trade deadline to become competitive? Can Curry remain the most jaw-dropping player in the league as he turns 39? Can Jimmy Butler return from injury and provide the kind of jolt he did back in February 2025, when the Warriors finished the season with a 23-8 record after trading for him?

The Warriors still have their spark, even though they haven’t gotten past the second round of the playoffs since winning their last championship in 2022. 

We were reminded of that last season. 

Facing elimination in a play-in game against the Clippers in April, Curry and Green tapped into their greatness, channelling what made them the best in the world at their jobs for nearly a decade. 

Curry had 35 points, scoring 27 of them in a dizzying second-half scoring spree. Green held Kawhi Leonard to two points in the fourth quarter. It was a vintage performance. It was magical. 

Those guys still have that inside of them. 

After that game, Kerr was beaming. His joy was palpable. His words were shiver-inducing. 

“For one night, we’re us,” Kerr said. “We’re champions again.”

The Warriors are searching for that feeling again.

It might not lead to a first-place finish, not in a league with teams with young legs and deep rosters chomping at the bit.

But they’ll still have those small moments. 

You know, the times when Curry goes unconscious from the court, leaving Green genuinely smiling and Kerr trying to find the right adjectives to describe the beauty he just witnessed in his postgame news conference.

Or when Green makes a defensive stop and roars, the type of scene that has happened so many times and led to him being called the unequivocal soul of the team. 

Or when Kerr knows exactly what Curry or Green needs to be told in a specific moment, showcasing his rare and piercing ability to connect with people that has turned him into one of the greatest coaches in NBA history. 

Kerr, Curry and Green are playing for something different now. Their success isn’t going to be measured by wins and losses. 

It will be measured by the magnitude of playing for something greater than themselves. By the camaraderie generated over 12 seasons of fighting alongside one another. By the genuine joy that comes from seeing each other shine. By unparalleled loyalty. By the dignity of standing together as their dynasty fades. 

The Warriors may not be one of the elite teams in the league. 

But they’re still one of the greatest shows out there. 

Even though now it’s for different reasons. 

You don’t often see teams double down on rookies at the same position in the draft. It’s even rarer that you see a team make a trade to grab a player at the same position they just drafted. That either speaks to Tarris Reed’s value, the status of Jayden Quaintance’s knee, or how dire the San Antonio Spurs’ need for center depth was. Reed Jr. is set to be the most impactful Spurs rookie, according to a recent poll.

Reed Jr. is coming off his best college season, averaging 14.7 points, 9 rebounds, and 2 blocks per game. He’s a bit of a throwback player with his combination of size, strength, and touch at the center position. He’s more likely to score on an offensive rebound or in the low post than to run the break in transition and soar for a dunk, or knock down three-pointers.

In the summer league, Reed Jr. looked at his best when he was using his 6-foot-10, 260-pound frame around the basket to clear the glass on both ends, or score physically through traffic. His best skill was one that won’t show up in the stat sheet but will make a real impact: setting screens. He helped guards like Ja’Kobi Gillespie get downhill with ease by cutting off angles with his wide frame.

It’s those transferable skills that should make him an immediate impact player for San Antonio. At worst, he’s another big body that the Spurs can use when Victor Wembanyama or Luke Kornet need to rest. At best, he could fight his way into the rotation as a physical presence who can give San Antonio another look from the fundamentally sound Kornet and the genetic freak Wembanyama. Expect him to get a chance to show what he can do early, like Carter Bryant and Dylan Harper had last season.

Quaintance, the 20th pick in the draft, may have a higher ceiling than Reed Jr., but will be recovering from knee surgery to start the season. There has been no timetable for Quaintance’s return yet, and depending on when he’s healthy, it may make sense to shut him down for the season, so as not to thrust a rookie into a playoff push. If Quaintance can play, San Antonio could field one of the scariest defensive lineups in the league, pairing the rookie with Wembanyama, Stephon Castle, and Bryant.

Maliq Brown and Gillespie are underrated pieces of the puzzle. They’re excellent two-way depth who can play niche roles. Brown as a defender and rim runner, and Gillespie as a fourth or fifth guard along with David Jones-Garcia.

San Antonio has an influx of impressive young talent. They are all well behind more veteran players on the depth chart, but could all make an impact at some point in the season.

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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.

Khaman Maluach

Center, 7’1”, 250 lbs., 20 years old, 2nd season

Khaman Maluach enters his second season in Phoenix after a year of “slow-burn” development under his belt. That was always the plan, especially since they traded for Mark Williams on the same night they drafted him 10th overall.

The 10th pick was a key return from Houston in the Kevin Durant trade, of course. “Man Man” is a core piece for this franchise, and will be a popular “breakout” pick among pundits, especially after his terrific Summer League showcase.

Now, with Mark Williams suffering a torn labrum in his left shoulder, Maluach’s development becomes paramount. He and Oso Ighodaro will assume the majority of the minutes at center, and they just added Duop Reath for insurance purposes.

Just how confident will Ott be in Khaman from the jump? I am hoping they view Reath more as a depth piece than a necessary and immediate contributor, although I do like the signing.

What does it all mean for the second-year product out of Duke? Let’s talk about it.

Last Season

Phoenix took their sweet time with Khaman last season. They did not rush him into the rotation as you might see from your typical 10th overall pick. They entered this whole thing playing the long game, understanding he will be a project that takes time to develop. Jordan Ott consistently stuck with veterans or players he could trust throughout the year, which limited the minutes we all wanted to see from Rasheer Fleming or Khaman Maluach.

Khaman only saw 15+ minutes in nine games last season, and cracked the 20-plus minute mark just four times.

“Man Man” had a pair of promising games late in the season, including an 18-point, 14-rebound season finale against the Thunder in game 82, and a 12-point, 9-rebound effort in game 74 of the season against the Utah Jazz in just 19 minutes.

But now, with the injury to Mark Williams, the timeline speeds up quite a bit for Maluach. He will likely be seeing at least 20+ minutes per night, sharing center duties with Oso Ighodaro and newcomer Duop Reath.

Contract and Roster Context

Maluach is on a rookie scale contract, of course. In 2026-27, Maluach will earn a base salary of $6,316,680, while carrying a cap hit of $6,316,680 and a dead cap value of $6,316,680, per Spotrac.

Nothing groundbreaking here for the 10th overall pick in the 2025 NBA Draft.

What He Brings

Khaman Maluach brings a rare blend of massive size, fluidity in his movement, plus the ability to finish with power or finesse. He can alter shots if he’s not blocking them, and serve as a true anchor defensively and a vertical rim threat. Now, we didn’t get to see a ton of it during his rookie year with the Suns, but all of those skills he showcased at Duke are still there.

He just needs to adjust to NBA pace, strength, and spacing. But he has shown those flashes. Most recently, he showcased what he can do during the Summer League, where he earned All-2nd Team honors after putting together a monster stretch of games.

Maluach averaged 19.5 points with a (Summer) league-leading 12.8 rebounds per game, plus 2.0 blocks and 1.3 steals per contest.

The Suns outscored their opponents by 48(!) points during the 109 minutes that Maluach was on the floor during that four-game stretch. He looked every bit the part of a second-year top-10 pick in Summer League. Which is exactly what you want to see in that environment.

Phoenix needs Maluach to be the defensive anchor who can disrupt the West’s elite bigs. He needs to be an elite lob threat for Devin Booker and Jalen Green. He needs to be able to knock down triples at a reliable rate. That’s who the Suns need him to be.

What Needs to Improve

Maluach has plenty of weaknesses, as you’d expect for someone as young, raw, and new to basketball as he is.

He can look lost on defensive rotations on the perimeter at times, or rotate just a bit too late on the weak side. These are habitual things. These are details that he can improve on over time as he improves his instincts and learns the ebbs and flows of an NBA game. It won’t happen overnight. Centers take longer to develop than just about any other position. He will get there if he is committed enough, and there’s no reason to think he is not based on everything this coaching staff and front office have said about him.

ESPN released a Three-year outlook for all 30 teams, and the Suns finished 26th overall. But what stood out was the note in the column, highlighting none other than Khaman Maluach, essentially tasking him as their saving grace. Quite a bold proclamation, though I do generally agree it’s vital he is a “hit,” considering their lack of an abundance of quality, controlled draft picks in future years.

Prediction

I have made it no secret that I believe Khaman Maluach will be the Suns’ starting center this season (even before the Williams injury) and play a huge part in this team’s success. Now, with Williams sidelined it only expedites the process.

Stat Prediction: 77 Games, 9.9 PPG, 8.8 RPG, 1.1 BPG, 55/34/78 shooting

Final Word

We don’t need Maluach to play like an all-star center. He just needs to show up, build trust with the coaching staff and gain confidence in his game.

Consistency and confidence will be the two key traits that Maluach will need to showcase, along with flashes of dominance as a preview of what’s to come in his eventual prime. He has all of the tools to be a special center in this league for a long time. It’s your time to shine, Man Man.

In a new book out next Tuesday, David Rubenstein, owner of the Baltimore Orioles, interviews sports franchise owners across America about what the view is like from the executive suites at arenas and stadiums across America.

Per the promotion, “From the Owner’s Box” examines, “the financial strategies, leadership secrets, and billion-dollar deal-making behind championship franchises through conversations with America’s most powerful owners.” And in the case of Brooklyn Nets Joe Tsai, how being a fan and reacting to fans is a big part of the job.

In an excerpt of the book, New York Post writer Eric Spitznagel, Tsai described first few months as an owner … and the ramifications of making a big move early.

Tsai, 62, knows how quickly an expensive trade can turn an owner into a target. The Alibaba cofounder, worth an estimated $12.1 billion, still takes heat from fans for the January 2021 trade that brought James Harden to Brooklyn alongside Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving.

Durant and Irving had arrived in 2019, before Tsai became controlling owner. Harden was his gamble, acquired at the cost of players and valuable draft assets. The trio never delivered a championship.

“The Harden decision was definitely on my watch,” Tsai tells Rubenstein. “That’s why I’m hated by fans on social media.”

(The excerpt, however, doesn’t make mention of Tsai’s decisions re: Kyrie Irving’s antics during the first months of Tsai’s ownership, including the superstar’s decision not to get vaccinated against COVID or his implicit endorsement of a book filled with antisemitic tropes. Both led to lost time, lost games and a lot of controversy for Tsai. We’ll have to wait for the book to see whether it is mentioned there.)

Rubenstein’s book does address a lesser-known part of Tsai’s legacy, a proposed trade that would test his personal fandom.

In July 2018, while still a 49% owner of the Nets, Tsai heard from Sean Marks about a trade the Nets GM was planning to make, a deal that would send Jeremy Lin to the Atlanta Hawks. Lin wasn’t just a Chinese-American whose LinSanity while a Knick years earlier had ignited pride among Asians and Asian-Americans worldwide. When he bought into the Nests Tsai had called Lin his “favorite player” and a “good friend,” praising his leadership and representation of the underdog.

“Sean, if you trade Jeremy Lin, I will be hated in China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong,” According to the book, Tsai recalls telling Marks “The entire Chinese community will hate me forever.”

Marks replied, “That’s why I’m calling you.”

In the deal, a classic salary dump, Nets traded guard Jeremy Lin, a 2025 second round draft pick and the right to swap second round picks in 2023 to the Atlanta Hawks in exchange for the draft rights to a French guard Isaia Cordinier and a protected 2020 second round draft pick. (For you draft sickos out there, that 2025 pick got moved three more times and wound up back with the Nets and was used last June on Tyler Bilodeau!)

Tsai accepted the rationale but his prediction came true. Asian fans were not pleased that an owner with Chinese heritage had traded a player with Chinese heritage. He was heavily criticized across Asia. Later, Tsai and Lin did business together and Lin joined the advisory council of The Asian-American Foundation, an organization co-founded by Tsai.

As Rubenstein wrote, that episode taught Tsai a lesson.

He realized he needs a way to explain himself to fans, so he opened a Twitter account despite objections from his communications team, according to the book. He promised to discuss sports rather than Alibaba or politics, a promise he has stuck with although he’s not that active on the renamed x.com.

“I need to have a direct channel to communicate with our fans,” he told Rubenstein. “I can’t have the New York Post interpret.”

The book also noted Tsai’s basketball memories include skipping constitutional law classes at Yale to play pickup games. One opponent was future Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who he calls a “decent player.”

His current ambitions require better players, per the book. “We need to win a championship,” Tsai tells Rubenstein. “We need to prove ourselves.”

Still, Tsai admitted ownership supplies a pleasure that running Alibaba cannot.

“I can be chairman of a public company, but there are thousands of public companies. There are only thirty NBA owners,” Tsai says. “When you have something that other people don’t have, it feels pretty good.”

In addition to Joe Tsai, Rubenstein interviewed Clara Wu Tsai for his book and she told him in an interview, separately excerpted on Bloomberg News that Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment is “selectively” interested in other sports investments and see sports as an “asset class” of its own, adding that sports is the anti-AI.

“As you know, sports has become legitimate asset class and they’ve become very good investment,” she told Rubenstein. “Who knew we’d have to develop an anti-AI? Who knew live experiences would become so valuable? Who knew something that was unscripted and unpredictable was something that bring people together in a shared experience would be something that was monetizable and also really valued. But it has happened and sports is some place where that can be manifested.”

Most fans seem to agree that second-year Lakers forward Adou Thiero isn’t quite ready to open the season in the starting lineup.

However, the 2025 second-round draft pick displayed three traits during his brief G League and Summer League stints that suggest he may be less “two years away from being two years away” and closer to being mere months away from permanently stealing LA’s fifth starting spot.

So, while he almost assuredly will not open the season in the starting lineup, it’s a long season, and Thiero is a young player who could develop fast. If he does, these are the most likely reasons he slides past the competition into that starting lineup.

Superhero athleticism and explosiveness

In Adou’s G League appearances, the bouncy youngster often spotted a driving angle and exploded past his defender with such force and speed that most hapless opponents just fouled him. If he didn’t, he ended up watching Adou swing from the rim.

This pattern repeated throughout the California Classic and Las Vegas Summer League tournaments. Thiero’s combo of elite athleticism and strength also showed up on the backboards. In Vegas, the human pogo-stick often jumped so high to chase a board that it looked like he was using a trampoline, finishing the summer averaging 6.2 rebounds per game.

Sure, the G League and Summer League aren’t the league. However, athletes with Adou’s size and strength are rare, even in the NBA.

When he steps onto the court, he is almost always the most athletic player. So, if Adou can keep focusing his elite athleticism on defense and rebounding while finding ways to use his explosiveness on offense, he may improve enough to literally and figuratively leap over the competition.

Speaking of improvement…

Rapid improvement

Thanks to an expanded media package, virtually every 2025-26 G League game appeared somewhere last season. Even so, fans didn’t see much of Adou.

The promising rookie only appeared in 10 games, averaging 22.5 minutes per contest. He also missed his whole rookie-year Summer League. As a result, it was initially hard to get a read on his game.

Sure, the explosiveness was always there. In fact, it sometimes seemed like rookie Adou would hammer down a dunk in the first few plays of every game he entered. He also looked like a viable 3-point shooter last year, completing 10 of his 20 attempts in those 10 appearances.

Still, he looked raw and several years of development away from harnessing his superhero frame and abilities.

Then the 2026 Summer League took place, and things suddenly changed.

While he started slowly, it was clear as far back as the California Classic that Adou hadn’t stopped working since the season ended. Sure, his 3-pointer looked rough all summer, with just one make in 10 attempts in Vegas. But several parts of his overall game looked significantly better.

For example, Thiero’s on-ball defense and disruption looked like they were already at a plus NBA-wing level, a trait that came and went in his South Bay stints. This summer, as soon as he entered games, his relentless pressure regularly forced turnovers or had opposing ball handlers running away from switches.

Adou also looked light on his feet for his size, making it hard for all but the quickest players to get past him. He finished Vegas averaging a healthy 1.8 steals per game.

Perhaps most striking was Adou’s improvement as the summer progressed. Shots blocked at the rim in San Francisco and early Vegas games started turning into timely head fakes and easy lay-ins in later contests.

Adou’s improvement also showed up in ball handling and driving. Early in the summer, the fleet-footed forward repeatedly beat his man with an explosive first step only to dribble the ball off his feet or throw it out of bounds. Too often, those early drives produced a flash of explosiveness, followed too quickly by an unforced turnover.

Surprisingly, within just a few games, we saw this trend begin to change.

Lastly, Adou’s passing reads showed signs of improvement. Turnovers became quick hitters to open corner shooters. It wasn’t flawless. But like other parts of his game, you could see it improve in real time. Adou finished Vegas averaging three assists a game.

Of course, steady improvement doesn’t come without hard work. And achieving true greatness, like earning a starting spot as a second-year player, requires another, almost intangible quality that Thiero may also already possess.

The Eye of the Tiger

At the top of John Wooden’s infamous Pyramid of Success, the winningest college coach of all time placed a seemingly immeasurable quality. Above skill, poise, confidence, and a whole host of other critical traits, Wooden placed something he called “competitive greatness.”

Kobe Bryant sometimes described this ephemeral quality as hating to lose more than loving to win. As fans, we turned that belief, Kobe’s infamous work ethic, and his on-court success into the Mamba Mentality. Even today, that mantra has become as much a part of his legacy as any specific title or season.

But my personal favorite comes from the 1980s cinematic classic, Rocky III. In that iconic sports film, star Rocky Balboa’s former foe and current trainer, Apollo Creed, called the desire to win over anything else, “The eye of the tiger.”

Maybe I’m reading too much into his stern, potent brow or sharp, piercing eyes. But when I look at Adou, I see the eye of the tiger.

It wasn’t there in his G-League games last year, which could’ve been due to extended injury rehab or simply being a rookie. But even when Adou made more mistakes than he should have in his opening Summer League shifts, his face looked completely different from the start.

He looked more than serious. He looked mad. To be honest, he kind of looked like Kobe.

Sure, Adou’s prospects of becoming a high-level NBA player may ultimately lie with his ability to hit open threes at a respectable rate and little else.

But his combination of superhuman physical tools and proven ability to improve quickly with reps gives him a real shot at carving out a long career as a viable rotation player.

And, if I’m reading his steely-eyed gaze and relentless effort correctly, Adou may also employ a little bit of Mamba Mentality, Eye of the Tiger, or good old-fashioned John Wooden-style competitive greatness that accelerates his progress in a shorter time frame than most predict and helps the young man steal the Lakers’ fifth starting spot this season.

Given those three qualities, I’m betting on Adou.

Christopher Plain has spent the last six years as Associate News Editor and Head Science Reporter at The Debrief. Follow and connect with him on X, learn about his novels at plainfiction.com, or email him at christopher@thedebrief.org.

Editor’s Note: It is our pleasure to introduce a second Leo to the Canis-verse. This is Leo Li’s first piece for CH, and he will be adding more insight into all things player development going forward. Please welcome him in the way only Canis commenters can!

Anthony Edwards’ development trajectory since entering the league in 2020 has been a topic of attention for several seasons now, and at first glance, it’s easy to see why. He was a 247Sports consensus 5-star recruit coming out of Holy Spirit Prep in Georgia, receiving comparisons to players like Dominique Wilkins and Dwyane Wade, among other all-stars and all-time greats.

However, after a one-and-done season for the Georgia Bulldogs marked by tantalizing highs and scoring explosions, as well as inconsistencies that exposed flaws in his game, serious concerns emerged about Ant’s decision-making, shooting, defense, and even his mentality and love for the game.

Heading into the 2020 draft (which was viewed as relatively weak), he wasn’t seen as a surefire star bet, and several mock drafts had him going behind future teammate LaMelo Ball, as well as the likes of James Wiseman and Killian Hayes (Kevin O’Connor, what were you thinking?), which seems absurd looking back.

As we all know, Ant would go on to be picked first overall by the Minnesota Timberwolves, and soon bloomed into a bona fide superstar and one of the best players in the sport.

Many would claim that Ant has significantly exceeded expectations, even considering the high pre-draft praise and excitement about his ceiling. I wouldn’t argue too hard against that. Most would agree that he has left the “realistic” or “sweet spot” comparisons of Victor Oladipo, DeMar DeRozan, and Zach LaVine in the dust. Is there any way that the projections were misinformed or unjustified? The red flags were certainly there, but perhaps scouts and fans were too hasty in taking them at face value. Given all the information we had access to pre-draft, is there a way to explain his current success?

All this is to say that, although hindsight is 20/20, was Ant perhaps underrated by many as a prospect? That is what I will be making the case for. By taking a look at the scouting reports and draft profiles, we can see exactly where assessments fell short and use evidence and data to paint a different picture of Anthony Edwards, the prospect.

Ant’s physical profile was universally viewed as a remarkable combination of positional size, explosive power, and quick-twitch burst. Standing at 6’5 with a 6’9 wingspan and weighing a hefty 225 lb, while boasting a 41.5-inch vertical according to BleacherReports’ Jake Fischer, he was unequivocally an athletic specimen; an elite NBA guard’s frame with the power and mass of a running back is extraordinarily rare even among the best of the best, and it allowed him to rise for athletic finishes and dunks frequently (27 dunks in the 2020 season). However, even with respect to the athleticism, I feel some of the nuance regarding Ant was neglected in pre-draft discussions.

The prevailing sense was that he was vertically explosive, big, and fast, which helps him finish at the rim and in transition. However, scouts were still understandably concerned about his ability to score efficiently at the next level. After all, even given these extreme athletic traits, he posted a mere 51.7% true shooting percentage at Georgia, landing in the 13th percentile positionally. So how do you explain his massive improvements as a scorer? It’s easy to chalk it up to any number of factors, but the most important one is a part of his athleticism that tends to fly under the radar, even today.

Prior to the draft, the P3 Peak Performance Project measured Ant’s eccentric force production in the 98th percentile (FYI, eccentric force is the force produced by a muscle during the stretching/lengthening phase, used for deceleration movements). They note that, crucially, this is a trait shared by James Harden and Luka Dončić, players who excel at scoring using change-of-direction, stop-start moves – which is also something that Ant improved at by leaps and bounds, and was key to his ascension into one of the league’s premier scorers.

While Ant didn’t enter the league with Luka-level polish skill-wise or decision-making-wise, the athletic foundation for his current dynamic skillset was already there. Using repeated bursts and sharp brakes is a proven formula for efficient self-created volume scoring at the highest level, and Ant had brakes of the highest caliber on an extremely powerful engine.

While this was already observable during his explosive, fluid downhill forays and several of his off-the-dribble jumpers, most scouts and fans seemed more enamored with his north-south and vertical traits. Part of the reason for this is that the sheer level of shooter Ant has become is, by any stretch of the imagination, a surprise, and not many thought it likely that these qualities could become the basis of an elite, efficient pull-up 3-point shooting game, hence the comparisons to players like DeRozan and even optimistic ones like Wade, whose deceleration qualities are often overlooked.

Ant’s jump shot, which is arguably his most deadly weapon today and a focal point of his skill set, was a question mark going into the draft. His raw three-point percentage at Georgia was certainly uninspiring (29%, 10th percentile positionally), but scouts noted that the mechanics generally passed the eye test, and it was evident that he was able to shoot off the dribble with very little daylight off a bevy of moves.

A free throw percentage of 77% and 60% on non-dunk rim attempts also indicated some level of touch, which pointed towards eventual improvements in jump shot efficiency. Still, becoming a good 3-point shooter, let alone one of the very best in the world, was, nevertheless, a “maybe” even in an ideal situation.

However, it’s important to draw attention to the sheer volume of shot-creation load-bearing Ant pulled off, which is a quality that tends to get underrated. The 18-year-old managed to get up 13.5 3-point attempts per 100 possessions (92nd percentile, around 52% of which were unassisted), on a 45 offensive load (95th percentile).

His ability to shoulder a large offensive burden by generating self-created threes on demand was extremely high. In fact, it’s historically unique for a player of Ant’s level of slashing ability: Ant was the only freshman in Barttorvik’s entire database (which begins in 2008) to post more than 12 3-point attempts per 100 while also dunking 27 times over the course of the season. A special intersection of youth, 3-point creation, and athletic finishing – foreshadowing a similarly unique status in the NBA today.

At the time, his high volume of self-created, often contested jump shots was interpreted by scouts, such as Rafael Barlow for NBA Draft Junkies, as bad shot selection and poor decision-making. Prez of The Strickland believed that to translate to the next level he ought to “learn good shot from bad shot”.

Draft profiles suggested that he should shift more of his focus to attacking the rim and operating more off the ball, while toning down the volume of off-the-dribble jump shots, and that if he failed to do so, he would struggle to score efficiently. Such judgments were premature. Ant was a raw 18-year-old who was stuck on a suboptimal roster – it is only natural that these conditions would lead to several ugly looks.

In a vacuum, yes, Ant should have taken fewer contested jumpers at Georgia if you look at each decision on an individual level. However, self-created jump shot volume is an important indicator of superstar potential, as it speaks to scoring feel, stamina, confidence, and the ability to create offense when the structure of the play breaks down. It can’t be your only skill, but you certainly need it if you want to be among the best.

Far from being a detriment to his NBA career, his aggression in hunting jumpers has translated beautifully, becoming the crux of his impact on the court and a significant separator between him and several of his comps.

Of course, this doesn’t mean that all shots are good shots, and a superstar who can’t find the open man when the defense loads up on him will struggle in the NBA, where his scoring aggression can become a detriment to the team.

But despite popular takes, Ant showed promising flashes as a playmaker at Georgia, and most scouting reports acknowledge as much. He was particularly adept at interior passes, averaging three rim assists per 100 (88th percentile). It was quite conceivable that he could have refined his ability to capitalize on his scoring gravity. If anything, this is one area that he hasn’t quite outperformed expectations in thus far in the league.

Add up what’s been discussed, and what did the Wolves have on their hands in 2020? An extremely young super-athlete who could both dunk on the opposing team’s center and get up 10 threes in a single half, who was used to carrying large offensive loads, who had the stop-start foundation reminiscent of historically great NBA scorers, who showed high-level playmaking flashes, and who had solid touch indicators.

Seems a lot different than how the NBA’s media was making it seem.

This is not to say that scouts were wrong about all of Ant’s shortcomings (defense and some aspects of decision-making in particular), and certain analysts, credit to them, saw the bullish case for his shot creation. But the aversion to Ant’s “hero ball” style at Georgia was a blind spot for many, as it was that tendency to aggressively create jumpers at volume that laid the groundwork for who he is today.

The Wolves are better off today for believing in Ant’s traits, stats, and tape than in the beliefs of those outside the building.