Category: NBA

Coming off a tough Game 5 loss against the Oklahoma City Thunder, the Spurs returned home down 3-2 with their backs against the wall. Game 6 got off to a blazing start for the Spurs, as they outscored OKC 35-22 in the first quarter. With a more aggressive approach, the Spurs drained eight threes in the first, which is the most they’ve scored in a playoff quarter since 1998. However, OKC responded with a 31-25 second quarter and cut the Spurs’ lead to seven. In the third, the Spurs finally were locked in on both sides of the ball, going on a 20-0 run. The Thunder went almost eight minutes without a point. The Spurs outscored OKC 32-13 in the quarter and kept their pace up in the fourth. The Spurs ultimately won 118-91.

Victor Wembanyama led the way with 28 points, 10 rebounds, three blocks, two assists, and two steals. After shooting 4 of 15 in Game 5, Wemby started Game 6 with an aggressive mindset by draining three threes in the first quarter. 22 of his 28 points came in the first half, and he shut down OKC in the paint. The 22-year-old faced a lot of scrutiny after Game 5, but he responded with a reminder that there was a reason he was voted All-NBA First Team. If Spurs fans and NBA fans thought Game 6 Wemby was great, wait till his first-ever Game 7.

1st Quarter highlight tape! Wemby drains a pair of threes alongside swatting Jared McCain’s layup attempt off the glass!

STEPBACK! Wemby pulls out the stepback three over Isaiah Hartenstein for his third three of the quarter!

SPIN CYCLE! Wemby goes to work on Chet Holmgren by spinning off of him for the finish with the left hand!

Majestic! After the Spurs spread the ball around the perimeter, Wemby fakes out Hartenstein and uses his patience in the paint for the easy floater!

CAUTION: AREA 51 APPROACHING. Stephon Castle finds a hole in OKC’s zone defense by throwing up a lob to the sky for the one-handed Wemby jam!

Dylan Harper dropped 18 points (6-9 FG), six rebounds, and four assists in 22 minutes off the bench. After struggling the last couple of games, Dylan dropped his best game in the series since Game 1. Granted, he has been playing with an adductor injury. In Game 6, Dylan looked like he was at least 99% healthy. He showed off that quick first step and burst to the cup like Spurs fans have seen all year, and finished at the rim with finesse. If Dylan is healthy enough to have another game like this, it bodes well for the silver and black. Just a reminder: he’s only 20 years old.

DEFENSE TO OFFENSE! First, look at the hustle and disciplined defense Devin Vassell plays on this fastbreak. Dev stays vertical on the Shai Gilgeous-Alexander layup attempt, and blocks Alex Caruso’s putback attempt! The ball lands in De’Aaron Fox’s hands, and he throws it up for an open Dylan three in transition!

LOB DAGGER! Off the pick and roll, Dylan lobs it up to Luke Kornet for the high slam!

Stephon Castle dropped 17 points (5-10 FG, 7-8 FT), nine assists, five rebounds, and a steal. Steph played with control and shut down his opponents on defense. Ever since Fox returned in Game 3, Steph has only turned the ball over six times and has dished out 28 assists. He continues to play without fear, and his determination to get the paint by any means necessary provides scoring with either a tough bucket or a dime. The 21-year-old’s defense and his control will help determine the outcome of Game 7.

First points on the board! Steph drives into the paint and finds a wide-open Julian Champagnie for three! Julian has been solid these last two games, including 10 points (4-8 3PT), six rebounds, two blocks, two assists, and a steal.

LOOK OUT BELOW! Steph finds Carter Bryant, and he detonates with a two-handed slam!

Corner specialist! Steph finds Julian again open in the corner for the trey!

AND-ONE! Castle gets Jaylin Williams up in the air for the and-one finish!

Another drive, another tough bucket! Steph drives into the paint and finishes over Jalen Williams for two!

Devin Vassell dropped 12 points (4-7 3PT), two assists, one rebound, two blocks, and a steal. It has been said multiple times this postseason, but Dev has taken his game to another level throughout every playoff series. In this one especially, he has shown OKC that he does not fear them, and he continues to make every crucial momentum-building play for the Spurs. Besides his timely threes, he continues to be solid on defense. Whether it has been on the perimeter or in the paint, Dev has made a play. In terms of impact and efficiency, Dev is more than likely to make an impact in Game 7.

D3VIN! Dev knocks down the early three off the Steph dish!

ANOTHER DEV SWAT AT THE RIM! Dev denies Holmgren at the rim and shows him that he is not backing down!

SNIPER! Dev knocks down his fourth three-pointer of the game from the wing in transition!

When the Spurs were on the ropes, they simply returned a heavy blow. They were ready to respond after Game 5. They are showing the Thunder that they will not give up or waver. This was a total team effort on both sides of the ball, somehow more dominant than Game 4. This team’s confidence is through the roof heading to Game 7. Even though the odds are not in their favor with them going on the road and playing in their first Game 7 this season, lack of experience has not stopped this train. On Saturday, Spurs fans will witness if this young and resilient team can punch their ticket to the NBA Finals.

Finally, here are the full game highlights.

The best two words in sports: Game 7. This Saturday at 7:00 P.M. (CST) on NBC/Peacock, the Spurs face their toughest game of the entire postseason.

Anti-tanking passed nearly unanimously, but the Memphis Grizzlies were the lone holdouts.

The new rules are proposed to get the NBA’s teams to be more competitive – to stop sitting their top players in an attempt to have a worse record and better chances at landing a top draft pick.

The Grizzlies voted against the new “3-2-1” anti-tanking proposal due to the provision prohibiting teams from securing top-five draft picks in three straight seasons, per ESPN.

When the Grizzlies finally gave up on Jaren Jackson Jr.’s pairing with Ja Morant as playoff contenders earlier this year, they moved their star center in a trade that netted them three first-round picks.

They will receive the highest pick first-round among the Jazz, Cavaliers and Timberwolves next season, with Utah being the weakest link of the trio this past season.

Utah will No. 2 overall in the 2026 NBA Draft and also selected Ace Bailey No. 5 overall last season.

After acquiring Jackson, it’s possible the Jazz are a solid team for the first time in nearly a decade, but the Grizzlies acquired that 2027 pick with the hopes that it lands in the top five.

If Utah does have a bottom-five record, due to the new rules their pick would be executed as the sixth overall pick in the draft, despite the Grizzlies owning it.

The Grizzlies have had a tough go of it over the past few years, as Morant has dealt with off-court issues, including a suspension, and they’ve fallen apart in two of the last three seasons.

Memphis ended the season with a 25-57 record, though they played well the year before, finishing 48-34.

Their 2023-24 record was a disappointing 27-55.

There is also a chance that the Grizzlies opt to uproot their franchise by trading Morant and attempting to tank for a better draft pick next season, though the new lottery odds make this significantly less likely.

The worst three records in the NBA previously had a 14 percent chance of the top draft pick, which has been reduced to 5.4 percent with the new rules taking effect immediately.

The fourth- to 10th-best records will have an 8.1 percent chance to land the top pick.

The Grizzlies had even caught some strays from LeBron James, who said that his least favorite place to play was Memphis, an opinion that has been talked about around league circles for years.

Memphis had the worst attendance in the NBA last season.

The Knicks are only four wins away from their first NBA championship since 1973, a long, aching wait that’s tortured generations of fans. Falling short of that goal, even to a Western Conference juggernaut in seven games, would be a disappointment offering no consolation prize to the mecca of basketball.

Still, it’s important to note that what the Knicks have accomplished on this run is nothing short of historic, no matter how it ends. They’ve already etched their names in the record books, whether a ring comes with it or not.

Since losing Game 3 of the first round in Atlanta, New York has rattled off 11 consecutive playoff wins, taking three straight against the Hawks before sweeping the 76ers and Cavaliers. That’s tied for the third-longest postseason winning streak in NBA history. One more win would tie the 1999 Spurs at 12, and three would pass the Warriors at 15. 

The wins alone are impressive -- over a Hawks team that had the third-best record in the NBA post-All-Star break, a Sixers team that had just toppled the Celtics with their three stars, and a Cavs team that has been a perennial top seed and acquired James Harden ahead of the deadline. 

But the way the Knicks have won has been in a category of its own.

New York avalanched these teams, with 10 wins coming by 11 or more points -- they beat Atlanta by 16, 29, and 51, before two additional 30-point victories over Philadelphia and another against Cleveland.

The degree to which the Knicks are skating by in the postseason is unmatched -- their 262-point differential in their 11 consecutive wins is the largest in any 11-game span in NBA history, regular season or postseason.

We’re at the stage where the competition is at its fiercest, every flaw is magnified, and the Knicks managed to look more dominant than any team ever. They also broke a few more records on the way.

No team has ever led by 47 points going into halftime of a playoff game until these Knicks did it against the Hawks in a closeout Game 6. A couple of games prior they tied the record for the most threes in a postseason game with 25.

Then there was Game 1 against Cleveland, when New York fell behind by as many as 22 points in the fourth quarter before improbably coming back and winning in overtime. That was the second-largest fourth quarter comeback in the history of the NBA playoffs, amid a streak of the greatest string of blowouts in the postseason.

The individual accolades haven’t met these standards after multiple record-breaking feats by Jalen Brunson in previous playoffs, but that’s kind of the point. The Knicks are truly playing team-first basketball, with each individual sacrificing to be the most optimal versions of themselves in pursuit of winning.

They haven’t even done it in one particular way. It took mid-series adjustments against the Hawks and Cavs to continue this run unabridged. Now the Knicks are in the Finals for the first time in 27 years, as the first NBA Cup Champions to do so, and the first team in franchise history to pull off multiple sweeps.

These things may not mean much at the moment to Knicks fans salivating over the Larry O’Brien trophy, and even less so if the Knicks were to lose. But after decades of toiling, failed promises, and broken rebuilds, it should.

Should New York fall short in the Finals, as tragic as that outcome would be to some, it shouldn’t take away from the magnitude of the run that got them there. Few teams have exhibited this type of command over a conference in such style, and that should be commended.

More than the streak and insane blowouts, the real history is the Knicks managing to break a quarter-century curse and rebuild themselves back into a contender with good management while finding the superstar hidden in plain sight. 

As we sit staring down another long Minnesota offseason, waiting for October to arrive and Timberwolves basketball to finally return, our minds inevitably drift toward the future.

That’s what NBA offseasons are for. They are five months of hope, speculation, trade machine screenshots, and fan bases convincing themselves that one move, just one move, is all that stands between them and a championship parade.

For Timberwolves fans, that process has already begun. The wounds from the loss to San Antonio are still fresh. Watching Victor Wembanyama dismantle Minnesota over six games wasn’t exactly a relaxing experience. Neither was watching Oklahoma City continue to establish itself as one of the premier powers in basketball. As Wolves fans survey the landscape of the Western Conference, one thing becomes abundantly clear: standing still is probably not enough.

The Wolves are good. Very good. They have five playoff series victories in three seasons to back up that claim. Anthony Edwards has established himself as one of the premier stars in basketball. Jaden McDaniels remains one of the league’s most versatile defenders. Rudy Gobert still anchors an elite defense. And yet despite all of that, Minnesota finds itself looking up at San Antonio and Oklahoma City and wondering how exactly it closes that final gap.

That’s where the offseason rumors begin. We’ve heard the Giannis Antetokounmpo whispers. We’ve talked about Kyrie Irving potentially becoming available if Dallas fully embraces the Cooper Flagg era. Now the latest name making the rounds is Zion Williamson, a player who somehow manages to be both one of the most tantalizing and terrifying trade targets in basketball at the exact same time.

Honestly? I understand why Wolves fans are intrigued. I also think it’s probably a mistake.

Zion entered the league as the No. 1 overall pick in 2019. He is still a player who, when healthy and engaged, can look like a force of nature unlike anything else in basketball. We’ve seen it firsthand. Wolves fans have watched Zion put his shoulder down and head downhill toward the basket looking less like a power forward and more like a runaway freight train.

He’s one of the few players in the league who can consistently generate efficient offense simply through sheer physical dominance. Pair that type of player next to Anthony Edwards and it’s easy to see why fans start daydreaming. You suddenly have two players capable of collapsing defenses. Two players capable of living at the rim. Two players capable of making life miserable for opponents.

When you start imagining a playoff series against Oklahoma City or San Antonio, it’s easy to picture Zion bulldozing his way through defenders while Edwards attacks from the perimeter. It’s easy to convince yourself that maybe this is the move that finally gets Minnesota over the hump.

That’s the seductive part of the argument. The problem is that every Zion discussion eventually runs into the same brick wall.

Reality.

There is a reason the Pelicans would even entertain moving him. Teams don’t trade players with Zion’s talent level because they want to. They trade them because something isn’t working.

For years, New Orleans has been waiting for Zion Williamson to become the centerpiece they envisioned when they drafted him. For years, they’ve been waiting for the fully realized version of the player that appears in highlight reels and All-Star discussions. And for years, they have largely been left waiting.

The injury history is impossible to ignore. The conditioning concerns have never completely disappeared. Questions about motivation continue to follow him around like a shadow. At some point, we have to stop treating those concerns as temporary obstacles and start acknowledging that they are part of the player profile. This is who Zion is right now: a tremendously gifted player whose availability remains a major question mark.

That’s where my hesitation begins. Because trading for Zion requires betting on the absolute best-case scenario. You’re betting that a player who has struggled to stay healthy suddenly becomes healthy. You’re betting that a player whose conditioning has frequently been questioned suddenly becomes fully committed. You’re betting that a player who has spent years frustrating one franchise suddenly arrives in Minnesota and immediately becomes the best version of himself.

Maybe it happens… but that’s a lot of maybes.

More importantly, it’s asking the Timberwolves to solve a problem that another organization has spent years trying unsuccessfully to solve. Historically speaking, that hasn’t exactly been Minnesota’s specialty. How many times have we seen this franchise convince itself it could be the place where another team’s reclamation project finally worked out?

Michael Beasley. Ricky Davis. Antoine Walker. D’Angelo Russell. Even Derrick Rose, as successful as that reunion briefly became. Some worked better than others. Some provided memorable moments. Some even became fan favorites, but none fundamentally altered the trajectory of the franchise.

The Timberwolves have spent much of their existence talking themselves into upside, potential, and what a player could become. More often than not, those gambles have failed to deliver the transformative impact everyone hoped for.

Now, to be fair, this organization is different than it was during many of those years. Anthony Edwards has changed the expectations. Tim Connelly has dramatically improved the talent evaluation process. The Wolves are no longer the dysfunctional franchise they once were. But even with all of that acknowledged, I still struggle with the idea that Zion Williamson suddenly discovers basketball enlightenment simply because he changes zip codes.

Especially when there’s a compelling argument that Minnesota would be better off investing in the player it already has. Because if we’re being completely honest, a Zion-for-Julius Randle discussion isn’t really about talent. It’s about trust.

Zion is younger. Zion is more explosive. Zion probably has a higher theoretical ceiling. But Julius Randle has something Zion doesn’t possess: Availability.

That’s not a small thing. Availability matters. Particularly in a Western Conference where every playoff series feels like a war of attrition.

Randle’s postseason against San Antonio was disappointing. There’s no reason to sugarcoat that. The Wolves needed more from him. There were stretches where he disappeared when Minnesota desperately needed a secondary offensive star. But over the course of the season, Randle also showed why the Wolves acquired him in the first place. When he’s engaged and playing his best basketball, he gives Minnesota another player capable of generating offense when everything breaks down. He can bully smaller defenders. He can create his own shot. He can facilitate. He can take pressure off Edwards.

The frustrating part is that version doesn’t always show up. But at least you know he’s going to be on the floor. That’s not something you can automatically assume with Zion.

And ultimately, that’s why I keep coming back to the same conclusion. Even if Zion has the higher upside, the probability distribution of outcomes is heavily tilted toward disappointment. There’s simply a much greater chance that this move makes Minnesota worse than there is that it turns them into champions.

Perhaps the biggest issue of all is that it doesn’t actually solve the Wolves’ biggest problem: the point guard position. Trading Randle for Zion doesn’t recalibrate the roster and improve the ball handling. It doesn’t address the fact that Mike Conley is no longer a reliable starter and that Minnesota still lacks a true long-term answer at lead guard.

A Randle for Zion traide is essentially swapping one power forward for another and hoping the rest sorts itself out. Which is why, as controversial as it may sound, a Kyrie Irving discussion actually makes more sense to me. Not because Kyrie is without risk – far from it. Age is a factor, the injury history is real, the contract isn’t small, but at least the move addresses an actual weakness.

Kyrie immediately changes the geometry of the offense. He punishes teams for loading up on Edwards. He gives Minnesota another creator who can generate offense late in games. He allows Naz Reid to potentially slide into a larger role while maintaining balance throughout the lineup. You can argue whether it’s the right move. You can argue whether it’s realistic. But the logic is clear.

With Zion, I’m not convinced it is.

At the end of the day, this is why Tim Connelly gets paid the big bucks.

The Wolves are entering a fascinating offseason. They have enough talent to compete. They have enough flaws that standing pat feels dangerous. They’re operating within financial constraints. They’re navigating an increasingly brutal Western Conference. Every decision matters. Every move carries risk.

And while Zion Williamson is undoubtedly one of the most intriguing names that could become available, I keep coming back to the same question: does this move actually solve Minnesota’s problems? Or does it simply replace one set of questions with another?

From where I sit, the answer feels pretty obvious.

The temptation is understandable, the upside is intoxicating, but championships are usually built by making smart decisions, not by chasing the most exciting possibility on the board.

For now, I’ll pass on Zion.

In recent years, I’ve come to wonder whether I’m on the autism spectrum.

Then again, I kind of think everyone’s on the spectrum now. That could be selection bias – I’m mildly autistic, so I gravitate to mildly autistic people. It could be a reflection of bastardization of diagnostic and clinical language. It could also just be accurate.

One symptom of autism is “a profound, often unwavering commitment to fairness, equality, and moral correctness”. I used to find this annoying. It felt like a sneaky way of virtue signalling. “Oh no, I have a neurodevelopmental disorder that makes me a really good person!“. Now, I feel like it’s another symptom I might endorse:

Because I am absolutely seething about the NBA’s new anti-tanking reforms, even if they might benefit my beloved Houston Rockets.

New NBA tanking rules patently unfair

So, the Memphis Grizzlies acquired three future first-round picks from the Utah Jazz in exchange for Jaren Jackson Jr. The new rules state that a team’s pick can’t convey in the top five for three consecutive seasons. The Jazz have picked in the top five for two straight years, so now, their 2027 pick can’t land there:

Even though the Grizzlies own it.

If anyone can locate the iota of sense that makes, someone tell me. I’ve seen some attempts to justify the rule, but they have been feeble.

Some have said the Grizzlies should be punished for trading Jackson Jr. in a deliberate bid to get worse. Hogwash. Teams can’t get younger anymore? This is especially outlandish in an increasingly punitive CBA. So the Grizzlies have to keep Jackson Jr.’s salary on the books, even though they’re not winning, or else they’re punished? The league is bullying one of their smallest markets directly into a space between a rock and a hard place.

“Well, the Jazz acquired Jackson Jr. so they could stop tanking. They likely weren’t sending the Grizzlies a high lottery pick anyway”. Likely true, and incidentally, not the point. Who’s to say Jackson Jr. doesn’t suffer a season-ending injury on day one?

The official position from the league is that they didn’t want to create an imbalance in the value of acquired vs original picks. Sure, but the Grizzlies acquired the pick with the understanding that it held a certain value. The broader point is that you can’t change the rules of a game in the middle of the game. You buy a lottery ticket with the understanding that you probably won’t win the lottery. You would not buy a lottery ticket knowing that it was impossible to win the lottery.

It’s garbage. It’s unfair by any measure.

Does it affect the Rockets?

Rockets could benefit from rule changes

When Rafael Stone traded the second-best player in the history of an old NBA franchise for nothing but draft capital, he had a vision. Just two years later, he would state on record that “the NBA punishes the middle…that’s just the way the system is set up.”

We can safely assume that principle informed his decision-making process.

The rule changes incentivise the middle. In theory, the Rockets also had the rug pulled out from under them. It shouldn’t hurt them, but that’s mere serendipity. Luckily, the teams that owe Houston picks (the Nets, Suns, and Mavericks) are likely to land broadly in the middle going forward.

This could also open up paths for Houston. The fear of regression should be less prominent. If they ultimately decide (re: realize) that Alperen Sengun and Amen Thompson can’t play together, retooling at the expense of a handful of regular-season wins will be more palpable with the flattened odds.

In terms of the NBA viewing experience, this may not even be so bad. Personally, my least favorite era of Rockets basketball since becoming a fan in (roughly) 1998 was the Louis Scola / Kevin Martin era. If the Rockets had a chance of adding a young John Wall to the 2009-10 team that went 42-40, it would have piqued my interest.

Personally, I’ve never considered tanking a major issue. Most of this feels like fear-mongering designed to pander to the gambling companies. Still, nobody should be fiercely opposed to disincentivizing the practice. If you love tanking, you’re weird.

What I am (as it turns out) passionately opposed to is unfairness. There is no rational reason why the league couldn’t amend the rules to “grandfather in” the Grizzlies’ incoming pick.

You don’t need any diagnoses to understand that.

Welcome to our annual Lakers season in review series, where we’ll look back at each player on the team’s roster this season and evaluate if they should be part of the future of the franchise. Today, we continue our series with a look at Nick Smith Jr.

Back in September, when the Hornets waived Nick Smith Jr. and the Lakers pounced to sign him to a two-way contract, he instantly became the latest in a string of “second draft” prospects the team would try to nurture and develop into a contributor who could impact their roster.

As a former first round pick, Smith was the exact sort of player the Lakers have tried to add to their system in the past, targeting pedigree and potential as a potential pathway towards someone who could viably make the main team and possibly even stick in the rotation.

Smith, to his credit, ultimately did turn his two-way opportunity into a standard NBA deal right before the regular season ended. Whether he’s able to turn that end-of-year deal into something more lasting remains to be seen, but after a year in JJ Redick’s system, he at least has a firm idea of what it will take to earn the sort of trust that can allow him to stick.

How did he play?

Though on a two-way contract for most of the regular season, Smith appeared in 30 games for the Lakers and averaged 6.8 points and 1.0 assists on 43.8% shooting from the field and 39.5% from behind the arc. The outside shooting was encouraging, showing a nice ability to hit shots both as a spot-up option and off the dribble, mostly out of the pick and roll.

Smith mostly got chances at the end of games in garbage time, but did show real pop in a couple of longer stints over the course of the year when the Lakers were dealing with injuries. In what was his highlight performance of the year, Smith helped a Lakers unit down all three of Luka Dončić, LeBron James, and Austin Reaves win a road game in Portland on the second night of a back-to-back.

In just under 27 minutes off the bench, Smith connected on 10 of his 15 shot attempts overall, including five of his six shots from behind the arc to score 25 points to go along with a team-high six assists. Playing against a physically strong and stout Blazers defense, Smith used his quickness and off-the-dribble prowess to create separation and get to his jumper over and over again.

Smith would have a similar performance nearly two months later when he again got thrust into the lineup with Reaves out injured, helping the Lakers blow out the Kings with a 21-point effort fueled by 8-of-14 shooting from the field that included five made 3-pointers.

It wasn’t this way all season, of course. Smith did spend the majority of the year racking up DNP-CD’s and was even passed over by fellow former first round pick Kobe Bufkin when the Lakers originally filled their open 15th roster spot. But Smith stuck with it, proved ready to play hard when his number was called later in the year, and ultimately did get his contract converted when the Lakers waived Bufkin before the regular season ended.

What is his contract situation moving forward?

Smith is on a non-guaranteed minimum contract for next season, making it unclear if he’ll be on next season’s roster or not. In the summer of optionality for Rob Pelinka and the Lakers front office, it would not surprise me if Smith’s contract is voided before its June 29th guarantee date in order to generate an additional sliver of cap space for the team to go into the marketplace with.

There’s also a possibility of Smith’s guarantee being pushed back into July where the Lakers would have a better understanding of what their roster construction might be or whether they would need the extra bit of cap space waiving Smith would open up.

Either way, the very nature of Smith’s contract creates uncertainty for his future with the team.

Should he be back?

Smith showed enough potential offensively as a shot maker to consider bringing him back for a longer look to see if he can stick with the team. He’d need to show he can compete harder on defense and become more consistent as a catch-and-shoot player, but I wouldn’t mind seeing him in training camp fighting to make the team.

While I’m not sure it’s possible or if he’d be amenable to it, pushing the guarantee date in his contract back to December or January where the Lakers could essentially give him the chance to make the team with a strong training camp and at least stay on through the initial transaction period that happens on December 15 could be a happy medium for both sides.

This would allow Smith to continue to learn and grow in the Lakers system and show he’s ready for more, but also give the Lakers the sort of flexibility they covet to maneuver as they’d like in free agency and the trade market.

You can follow Darius on BlueSky at @forumbluegoldand find more of his Lakers coverage on the Laker Film Room Podcast.

Welcome to our annual Lakers season in review series, where we’ll look back at each player on the team’s roster this season and evaluate if they should be part of the future of the franchise. Today, we take a look at Adou Thiero.

Over the past several years, the Lakers have been hit-or-miss with their draft picks. Max Christie and Bronny James have been the best selections, but 2023 first-round pick Jalen Hood-Schifino is out of the league and Dalton Knecht remained glued to the bench this year.

Their most recent selection, Adou Thiero, was a player the franchise clearly desired as they moved up twice in the draft to pick him at No. 36.

Now that his first year in the NBA is done, let’s assess how successful it was or wasn’t.

How did he play?

For Thiero, being available to even suit up was a challenge. He missed all of training camp and the start of the regular season while recovering from surgery on his left knee. Thiero also missed time midway through the year after suffering an MCL sprain.

When he was ready to play, minutes were hard to come by. This was a combination of monitoring his health and the Lakers being a win-now team, which doesn’t allow a rookie to play through mistakes.

When he did play, it was usually in garbage time. Thiero only had two games during his rookie year in which he played 20 or more minutes.

Still, in those short stints, he showed promise. Thiero has athleticism and explosiveness that can’t be taught. He leaned on his strengths and lived in the paint. On his 31 shots, 21 were at the rim.

In his limited play, Thiero had some monstrous slams, showcasing the vertical spacing he provides whenever he is on the court.

His defensive moments were an adventure, but he has the speed and strength to eventually become a respectable player on that side of the ball if he puts in the time. Right now, he was at least an active defender.

It was an encouraging sign of where Thiero is in his career that Lakers head coach JJ Redick gave him some run come playoff time. LA was shorthanded with Luka Dončić out during the entire postseason run and Thiero played in both series against the Rockets and Thunder.

He did well in those minutes and didn’t look like a rookie overwhelmed by the moment. Thiero was still able to get to the rim, score and be a ball of energy for the team.

What is the contract situation moving forward?

Thiero is on a rookie deal, so not only is he locked in for next season and a club option after that, but it’s at a modest number at $2.1 million for the 2026-27 season.

This is a standard rookie contract, but it’s great that the Lakers have a cost-controlled player and someone with tremendous upside on the roster.

Should he be back?

Thiero should absolutely return next year.

He is a solid prospect, and given how injured he was and his limited minutes, there is no telling how good he can be. Now that he’s healthy and ready for an offseason in the gym and at Summer League, he’ll have a chance to put in the appropriate amount of time into his game.

The only way Thiero leaving makes sense is if a team like, say, Milwaukee, demands him in exchange for the Lakers acquiring Giannis Antetokounmpo. This is exactly how the Lakers lost Christie, who was part of the Luka Dončić-for-Anthony Davis trade.

This will be a big summer for the Lakers and Thiero. If things go right, he can build off his rookie year and have a huge sophomore season. Now that he’s healthy, he’ll have every chance of making that happen.

You can follow Edwin on Twitter at @ECreates88 or on Bluesky at @ecreates88.bsky.social.

What a roller coaster this series has been. San Antonio and OKC have been taking turns winning over the last four games in blowout (or at least blowout-adjacent) fashion, which makes it really difficult to judge which team holds the edge at any point in time. Having said so, last night went about as well as it could for the Spurs, and we can be hopeful that the success they enjoyed will translate (even if only partially) to Game 7. In the meantime, let’s review some box score stats:

Note: Now that we’ve moved into the postseason, the reference period used for grading changes from the set of regular season games since 2012-2013 to the set of postseason games since 2012-2013. Unless otherwise noted below, this set DOES include play-in games. As of the end of May 28, 2026, this group include 1,200 games.

Factors that decided the game

• The factors deciding this game were really simple. First the Spurs had an excellent foul differential (-7), which allowed them to earn a FTA margin of +13. Even though their FT% differential was mildly negative, they still outscored OKC by 10 from the charity stripe.
• On top of that, San Antonio had excellent FG% (+9.36 percentage points) and 3P% (+11.59 percentage points). The Thunder had a volume advantage from field overall (because the Spurs went to the free throw line far more often), but San Antonio still recorded FGM and 3PM margins of +6 and +5, respectively. As a result, they outscored OKC from 17 from the field.
• From an overall box score perspective, everything else was more or less a wash. The turnover battle was (mercifully) dead even, and the only other notable box score margin was the Spurs edge in defensive boards (+11). However, this latter edge was mostly the byproduct of OKC shooting more often and much less efficiently, resulting in lots of defensive rebounding opportunities for San Antonio.

Rare Box Score Stats

• OKC recorded just the fifth instance in 1,200 postseason games since 2012-2013 in which any team (winner or loser) had FG% and 3P% values no better than 37.23% and 25% (respectively) while shooting at least 91.67% from the free throw line.
• It’s not very uncommon for a player to log 18+ points, 6+ rebounds, and 4+ assists in a playoff game; in fact, it’s happened nearly 2,500 times since the 1996-1997 postseason. However, Dylan Harper became the FIRST player in that period to do so in just 22:04.
• Wemby’s stat line is much rarer, as only 36 other postseason player performances since 1996-1997 have included 28+ points, 10+ rebounds, 2+ steals, and 3+ blocks. However, Victor and Dylan had similar nights in that Victor also set the timing record for achieving these values, with a total playing time of just 28:25.
• SGA recorded just the fourth performance in which a player took 18+ shots and had a plus/minus of -28 or worse in under 28.3 minutes of play.
• Here’s a wild stat to end with: Prior to last night, no team had achieved a playoff performance in which at least 15 players played and everyone had a positive plus/minus.

What are Team Graded Box Scores?

Very briefly, these box scores grade winner-loser differentials for basic box score statistics, with the grade being based on the winning team’s differential relative to other NBA winners during a defined reference period. Think of it like a report card for understanding how a given winner performed relative to other winners. The reference period used runs from the start of the 2012-2013 season to the latest date of play, including only games in the same season category (i.e., regular season and playoff games are not compared to each other).

Data Source: The underlying data used to create these box scores was collected from Basketball Reference. In all cases, the data are collected the morning after the game is played. Although rare, postgame statistical revisions after data collection do occur and may affect the results after the fact.

Want to get more Covers content? Add us as a preferred source on your Google account here.

Former Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier was indicted on new bribery charges on Thursday after federal prosecutors alleged that he accepted $100,000 to manipulate an NBA game. 

Key Takeaways

• Terry Rozier was charged in a Brooklyn court on Thursday.
  
  
• The superseding indictment adds to his wire fraud and money laundering charges. 
  
  
• The former NBA player’s lawyer claims his client’s innocence.  

Rozier was charged in a Brooklyn court through a superseding indictment, which adds to previous federal allegations of wire fraud and money laundering. Rozier, who was arrested in October 2025 as part of an FBI takedown of multiple gambling operations, pleaded not guilty to the original charges and had attempted to have his case thrown out in December that year. 

His attorney, Jim Trusty,told the Associated Press that the latest indictment “just confirms that our motion to dismiss was righteous – new charges, new theories, but all just a sad effort to make something stick.”

Rozier is still out on a $3 million bond. He was placed on leave following his arrest and missed the entire season. The Heat released Rozier at the end of this NBA season.  

The payment plan

Federal prosecutors said in April that they planned to bring new charges against Rozier, which include defrauding the NBA and the Charlotte Hornets, as well as sportsbooks FanDuel and DraftKings. 

The bribery indictment came hours after bettor Marves Fairley told prosecutors that he agreed to pay Rozier and his longtime friend Deniro Laster $100,000 if Rozier left a game in March 2023 early while he was playing for the Charlotte Hornets. 

Rozier removed himself from the contest with a lower leg injury. He was not on the injury report before the game. His early exit allegedly helped a group of bettors cash over $250,000 worth of under bets on his player props. 

The Hornets guard scored five points, recorded two assists, and hit one 3-pointer, all below his season averages and the prop totals set for that game against the New Orleans Pelicans. However, because Rozier recorded four rebounds, going over his betting total, the co-conspirators agreed to a $70,000 payment.  

Laster allegedly met Fairley to collect the bribe money in Philadelphia and then drove to Rozier’s house, where the co-conspirators counted their payment. Some of the bettors included in the scheme were also part of the Jontay Porter scandal that rocked the NBA in 2024.   

Fixing games

Fairley, a social media influencer,pleaded guilty to seven charges, all related to the illegal betting scheme. Fairley allegedly helped fix games in the Chinese Basketball League, the NBA, and college basketball, a scheme that spanned nearly 40 players from 17 NCAA schools. 

He admitted to paying an unnamed NBA player, who prosecutors believe is Rozier. 

“There are some desperate men in this case with terrible criminal records and tons of exposure, and they know what to say to please these prosecutors,” Trusty said about Fairley’s claim.

Former NBA player and assistant coach Damon Jones was also arrested in October for his role in informing bettors of nonpublic injury information on NBA stars LeBron James and Anthony Davis. Jones pleaded guilty in Aprilto betting scheme charges and for helping recruit players to a mob-run, rigged poker game, and he faces sentencing in January. 

This article originally appeared on Covers.com, read the full article here and view our best betting sites or check out our top sportsbook promos.

With all eyes on Game 7 of the NBA Western Conference Final between the Thunder and Spurs we’re looking for insight — the deep, analytic analysis that will tell us whether Oklahoma City has a chance to go back-to-back and potentially start or dynasty, or if Victor Wembanyama will punch his first ticket to the NBA Finals.

We’re also looking to the carpeted stairs of a tastefully decorated suburban home to find out what a trick-shot-making corgi says about it all. Over on Instagram, “aircorg,” otherwise known as “Steph Furry,” has correctly predicted all six games of the Western Conference Finals so far. The corgi knew the Thunder would go up 3-2 before the Spurs answered back in Game 6, which is exactly what happened.

Who is his Game 7 pick?

The canine is calling a Spurs victory in Game 7. That might really make fans in San Antonio feel good, but in looking at the past predictions of aircorg I have serious doubts this pupper has innate psychic abilities. In fact, I think the corgi might be a fraud and this is all just random chance.

Understand that this revelation brings me no joy. We take accusations like this very seriously, and wouldn’t run a story like this unless we were quite sure this corgi was a fraud. So, before you write to my editor, please allow me to show my work.

There have been a lot of predictions from the corgi in recent years, but I chose to use Super Bowl LX as a starting data point. Aircorg correctly predicted that the Seahawks would win, good boy — but moving forward the results were far less compelling. Here are the corgi’s prediction records for each sport, from the Super Bowl moving forward:

NFL: 1-0
NBA: 12-7
MLB/WBC: 0-1
NHL: 7-8
NCAA: 22-10
Soccer: 18-14

Overall: 60-40

A 60-40 split is fine … for a dog. It’s barely better than a coin flip. While aircorg had an impressive run in the NCAA tournament and is on a tear in the NBA right now, the dogs truly struggled in the play-ins and early rounds.

I’m not saying we shouldn’t love the dog, but his ability to make picks is shaky at best. I’m just here to protect you, dear reader, from taking a second mortgage out on your house and wagering it all on the advice of a trick-shot-making pupper.

As the Sixers prepare to make the 22^nd pick in the 2026 NBA Draft, we want to bring up another name that Philadelphia drafted in the 20s within the last decade. It just so happens that Landry Shamet is still playing basketball as the 26^th pick by the Sixers in 2018, now with the Knicks and playing about 15-20 minutes per night off the bench for New York in the postseason.

Shamet’s game logs for the Knicks in these playoff rounds look a bit sporadic — and we’re certainly not attempting to condemn the Sixers for including Shamet in the Tobias Harris trade back in February 2019. It feels like letting Isaiah Joe and Julian Champagnie go for nothing have elicited stronger condemnations from Sixers fans as both Joe and Champagnie have turned into rotation players in the Western Conference Finals. For what it’s worth, Oklahoma City and San Antonio have done a good job developing lots of players so the surges from Joe and Champagnie should probably be mostly attributed to what their current franchises have done for them and not necessarily what the Sixers didn’t do.

But that’s not the case with Shamet. Even though he did not even play one full season with the Sixers, Shamet came right in and did what many would probably like the 22^nd pick in this year’s draft to do for the team. Having played three years of college basketball at Wichita State, Shamet was an instant bench contributor for the Sixers in 2018-19. It was a Sixers team that was (surprise, surprise) coming off a second-round loss in the 2018 playoffs and looking to accelerate towards contention. Shamet would average 20.5 minutes per game in the regular season with the Sixers and shoot 40% from the three-point line and 81.5% from the free throw line. He was looking like a pretty solid use of a late first-round pick.

However, as the 2018-19 season trudged along, Elton Brand felt the team needed more top-end talent and decided to cash in some bench pieces for Jimmy Butler and Harris. The irony is that Philadelphia was eliminated by a Toronto team that was mostly built on the depth it had behind Kawhi Leonard in 2019. Other recent champions like Milwaukee and Denver have seen rotations go 7-10 players deep behind their own superstars. It feels like New York, San Antonio and Oklahoma City are all similarly constructed now. So, Philly’s forever search for more stars doesn’t seem to have aligned with the way the league has trended.

As Shamet’s NBA career continued, he’s mostly been the same player he was in his short time with the Sixers, though he’s dealt with injuries. Between stints with the Clippers, Nets, Suns and now Knicks, Shamet has appeared in 64 playoff games, coming off the bench in the majority of those games. He’s a 37% three-point shooter in the playoffs. This is not an example of a late bloomer or someone who just found his way onto the right roster where he could be developed properly. This is someone who from the day he was drafted eight years ago has been the same useful NBA reserve.

To reiterate, Philadelphia’s trade for Harris and inclusion of Shamet in the trade back in 2019 was entirely understandable. The big mistake the Sixers made was re-upping with Harris on the big contract they gave him in the summer of 2019 when he was a free agent. For as unpopular as Harris was in Philly, he gave them a better chance to win in the 2019 playoffs than Shamet would have.

We’re simply asking the question if you’ve ever found yourself missing a player like Shamet in recent postseasons or if some of those feelings started to introduce themselves during the Knicks series this past season watching Shamet play for New York. Whether you miss Shamet or not, as we sit here eight years after the Sixers drafted Shamet, the Sixers are once again preparing for a draft pick in the 20s in which they hope to get a bench player that can help them build a deeper roster for future postseasons.

New York Knicks center Mitchell Robinson plans to play in Game 1 of the NBA Finals after having surgery for a broken right pinkie finger, according to ESPN.com.

Robinson plans to wear a brace on his right hand. Robinson was injured sometime during Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Finals against the Cleveland Cavaliers and appeared to favor his right during the third quarter.

Robinson finished Game 4 with eight points and 10 rebounds in 18 minutes of action as the Knicks routed the Cavaliers to complete the sweep and earn their first trip to the NBA Finals since 1999.

The eighth-year favorite has been a key contributor for the Knicks off the bench, averaging 5.3 points, 5.5 rebounds, and 0.6 blocks during New York's playoff run.

The Knicks will begin Game One of the NBA Finals on June 3 on the road against either the San Antonio Spurs or the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder.

Federal prosecutors alleged on Thursday that former NBA player Terry Rozier arranged a $100,000 payoff to leave a game early as part of a plan shared with bettors. Prosecutors from the Eastern District of New York filed a superseding indictment hours after co-conspirator Marves Fairley pled guilty to two charges related to the NBA wagering scandal.

Fairley told the court that he paid a player — whom the government has identified as Rozier — for the information. An initial $100,000 payout Rozier was to receive was later negotiated down to $70,000.

Rozier was charged in October with conspiracy wire fraud and money laundering. The government added sports bribery and honest services wire fraud conspiracy on Thursday. According to The Athletic, Rozier’s lawyer denied the claim and said he would pursue a motion to dismiss the case.

“The new indictment confirms that our motion to dismiss was a good one — it’s just new charges and new theories trotted out in the hope that something sticks,” Rozier attorney Jim Trusty said, perThe Athletic.

Rozier pled not guilty to the wire fraud charges in December and was released on $3 million bond. Since then Fairley is the second co-conspirator to change his plea to guilty. Damon Jones, indicted on wire fraud charges in the NBA scandal and a high-stakes poker scheme, pled guilty last month.

More than $250,000 placed in rigged bets

The new indictment also spells out details of NBAPA’s Collective Bargaining Agreement and Uniform Player Agreement, highlighting violations. The new indictment reads that the agreements “required players to ‘refrain from gambling on NBA games, point shaving or other attempts to fix the score or
outcome of an NBA game, or providing confidential team or league information to individuals
involved in gambling.'”

Rozier, then a prolific scoring guard for the Charlotte Hornets, is accused of leaving a March 23, 2023, game early due to a lingering lower leg injury. He shared the information with a friend and gambler, Deniro Laster, who in turn shared it with other gamblers, including Fairley. Laster, Fairley, and “Co-Conspirator 1,” according to court documents, discussed via text Rozier’s plan to exit early and their own plans to use that information to place bets against his statistical performance.

Fairley allegedly also shared the information with co-conspirator Shane Hennen, who in turn passed it along to a network of bettors, resulting in placement of more than $250,000 in “under” bets on Rozier for the game. In addition, two people in Rozier’s “close circle” placed $4,800 worth of bets on Rozier’s “under” totals. Not all of the bets paid, and Rozier ultimately agreed to accept $30,000 less than originally planned, according to the new indictment.

Rozier also allegedly agreed to give Laster part of the bribe.

The Hornets lost the game in question to the New Orleans Pelicans, 115-96. Rozier played 9 minutes, 34 seconds in the game and scored 5 points. During the 2022-23 season, Rozier averaged 21.1 points and 35.3 minutes of playing time per game.

In the new indictment, federal prosecutors outlined the scheme:
In exchange for an approximately $100,000 bribe, ROZIER agreed with co-conspirators, including the defendant DENIRO LASTER, Marves Fairley and Co-Conspirator 1, that ROZIER would withdraw early from a to-be-determined game purportedly on the basis of his injury so that co-conspirators could bet on the information before it became public. ROZIER also agreed to give LASTER a portion of the bribe. LASTER communicated with Fairley and Co-Conspirator 1 using encrypted applications to keep them updated as the anticipated game grew closer. Meanwhile, Fairley and the defendant
SHANE HENNEN lined up individuals who were poised to bet on the inside information once
ROZIER identified the particular game he would withdraw from.

Two other conspirators have NBA ties

About five days after the game, Fairley and Laster traveled to Philadelphia to collect payouts from Hennen for the wagers on Rozier and other “fraudulent” bets. Prosecutors allege that Rozier set up and paid for Laster’s flight. On March 29, 2023, per the filing, “Fairley gave LASTER tens of thousands of dollars in cash as payment for the non-public information that LASTER had obtained from ROZIER and had provided to Fairley regarding ROZIER’s plan to exit prematurely from the March 23 Game.”

From Philadelphia, Laster drove to Rozier’s North Carolina home, and the two counted the money. Prosecutors also detailed information gathered and fraudulent bets made on at least six other games involving co-conspirator Eric Earnest, Jones, and others.

Though all of the defendants and co-conspirators are not named in the latest indictment, Earnest, Fairley, Jones, Timothy McCormack, Long Phi Pham, and former NBA player Jontay Porter are identified. Nine others are identified only as “co-conspirators,” including one who was an NBA player and one who played in the NBA from 1997-2014 and was “an NBA coach since at least 2021.” Three others are relatives of Laster, Hennen, or Rozier.

In addition, court documents reveal that the fraudulent wagers were placed with four sportsbooks, including two that are official sports betting partners of the NBA. The league lists DraftKings and FanDuel as its “official gaming partners.”

Rozier, who was traded to the Miami Heat on Jan. 23, 2024, was placed on unpaid leave by the NBA last October due to the gambling charges. He was waived by the Heat on April 10.