Category: NBA

Kirk Cousins has not been with the Falcons for most of their voluntary offseason work, but the quarterback is expected to take a different approach for the start of mandatory minicamp on Tuesday.

Dianna Russini of TheAthletic.com reports that the team expects Cousins to report for the three-day minicamp. Cousins is under contract, so he would be subject to fines if he misses the minicamp without being excused by the team.

Cousins signed a four-year deal with Atlanta last March, but the Falcons later used a first-round pick on Michael Penix and Penix replaced Cousins as the team's starter during the 2024 season. Cousins is guaranteed $27.5 million in salary this season and the Falcons have said that they are comfortable keeping him on the roster as a backup to Penix.

Cousins has been less enthusiastic about the prospect of staying with the team, but no trade has materialized and moving him may take an injury somewhere else at some point in the summer or fall.

Cousins

After appearing in a career-high 75 regular-season games, Cleveland Cavaliers point guard Darius Garland is not guaranteed to be available for the start of the 2025-26 campaign.

Monday afternoon, the Cavaliers announced that the team's starting point guard will be out for 4-5 months after undergoing surgery on his left great toe. While the expectation is that Garland will be good to go by the start of training camp, that does not precisely align with the timeline provided by the team.

Having averaged at least 20.6 points per game in three of the last four seasons, Garland earned his second All-Star Game appearance and helped lead the Cavaliers to 64 wins and the top seed in the Eastern Conference. In addition to the 20.6 points, he averaged 2.9 rebounds, 6.7 assists, 1.2 steals and 2.8 three-pointers in 30.7 minutes.

In his first season playing for Kenny Atkinson, Garland's efficiency improved. At the same time, his playing time decreased slightly, with the first-year head coach being willing to go deep into his bench throughout the regular season. Garland shot 47.2 percent from the field, 40.1 percent from three and 87.8 percent from the foul line while averaging 2.5 turnovers per game, his lowest average since his rookie season (2019-20).

Unfortunately for Garland and the Cavaliers, a left great toe injury initially suffered in late March flared up during the postseason. It sidelined him for four games, including the first two games of the team's second-round series against the Pacers. Cleveland would lose both of those games, falling into a hole that proved too deep to crawl out of. And in the aftermath of the second-round elimination, Garland and center Jarrett Allen have been mentioned in some trade rumors.

On a potential connection with Orlando, NBA insider Jake Fischer reported on June 8 that there have been no “substantive conversations” between the two franchises regarding a deal involving Garland. One would assume that uncertainty regarding Garland's health would take any potential deals off the table if Cleveland were interested in breaking up its "core four."

Also, Garland's surgery may impact the front office's approach to Ty Jerome, who will be an unrestricted free agent next month. Coming off the best season of his NBA career, Jerome may be in line for a significant payday. However, his importance to the Cavaliers cannot be understated, especially if Garland is not guaranteed to be healthy when training camp begins.

Bethany Donaphin, a former player and now the head of league operations for the WNBA, remembers what it was like to grow up in New York City in the 1990s loving basketball. As a tween she would make it a point during recess to play basketball out on the blacktop.

Donaphin was always the only girl playing, something that looking back was a bold choice. It was a decision that took a ton of confidence and a boat load of risk to participate in a situation where she was the only girl. It took a lot of guts for a 12-year-old Donaphin to want to set herself apart, especially at a time when most girls are looking to fit in.

Donaphin’s early memories resonate for many former and current WNBA players. This idea that young girls always had something to prove and were underestimated when they stepped onto an outdoor court in a park or blacktop at school has been the inescapable reality, the status quo.

This summer the WNBA is looking to challenge that common experience with the launch of their new nationwide initiative “Line ‘Em Up,” which will paint the official WNBA three-point line on outdoor park basketball courts across the United States. The league will launch this officially in New York on Thursday at the outdoor courts of Brooklyn Bridge Park, and later in July the league will take the campaign to Indianapolis for WNBA All-Star Weekend.

“This is so necessary in order to represent the league in spaces that are iconic,” WNBA Chief Marketing Officer Phil Cook told NBC Sports about the initiative. “There's not a basketball player in the world who hasn't spent some time dribbling on an outdoor space, and we, [the WNBA] belong in that space. And women, young women, have been going to the park for as long as park basketball has been happening. They just haven’t had their representation in that space.”

The program has been teased by WNBA players including Atlanta Dream star Allisha Gray, Lynx point guard Courtney Williams, Phoenix Mercury point-forward Alyssa Thomas and Sparks sophomore wing Rickea Jackson in addition to personalities associated with the league including GMA’s Robin Roberts and ESPN’s Arielle Chambers. Last week on Instagram the teases included photos of a mysterious looking blue background which included a bright orange curved line.

Last July at WNBA All-Star in Phoenix was when Cook and his team began having conversations about how the WNBA could lay down its legacy in a tangible and more vibrant way. How could the league create something that’s representative and “replicable” but also represents the work the league has done to grow the game of basketball for women, girls and nonbinary people on a larger scale?

Over breakfast in Phoenix, Cook and his staff discussed how the league could pursue a project that wouldn’t just last during tentpole events including the WNBA Draft, the WNBA All-Star Game, the Commisioner’s Cup, the playoffs and WNBA Finals. The league was looking for something permanent.

The league enlisted the independent creative marketing company JOAN to come up with a campaign that could represent the ways in which the WNBA has attempted to challenge the status quo, grow the game and encourage empowerment of girls and young people everywhere.

Representatives from the marketing agency came back to Cook and his team with the idea to paint a WNBA three-point line on outdoor courts at parks across the country working in conjunction with different cities and parks and recreation departments.

“It’s a very simple replicable idea that we hope every single outdoor park across the country, and every driveway across the country chalks up their three point line in orange chalk,” Cook said.

Beyond New York City and Indianapolis as the first two major places to get these new orange three-point lines, Cook sees a huge opportunity for the league’s two upcoming expansion cities in Toronto and Portland to get involved in the campaign.

All of the league’s current 13 teams including the newest in the Golden State Valkyries have been briefed on the campaign and how they can look to execute painting orange three-point lines in parks within their local communities. As part of the campaign, the league will make a donation to each park that participates in painting an orange three-point line on their courts.

To accompany the WNBA’s launch of the “Line ‘Em Up” campaign, the league enlisted Korean-Canadian director Iris Kim to create a film that would introduce the program and illustrate the need for orange WNBA three-point lines across the country.

The nearly four-minute video includes shots of some of the most famous outdoor parks in the country including Rucker Park in Harlem, Venice Beach in Los Angeles, and two other New York City parks in Dykman and The Cage. Later the film introduces former players Epiphanny Prince, Chamique Holdsclaw and Sue Bird in addition to current Connecticut Sun center Tina Charles, who traveled to New York during Sun training camp to be a part of the film. The four native New Yorkers explain what it was like growing up and playing on outdoor courts and the challenges that came with often being some of only young women.

“Growing up in Queens, NY at that time, it was really hard to be a female to get on the court,” Charles said in the film. “I know I had something to prove. We’ve all been through it. All the greats, all the ones that you’re fans of.”

And that includes Holdsclaw who told the story of how she used to hustle all the guys who underestimated her.

The film also features two New York community leaders in Sharon Bond and Alex Taylor who have both founded and led organizations that try to encourage participation in basketball for women and girls. Both Bond and Taylor explain that having the new orange three-point line painted on outdoor courts is boon for representation and it sends the message that women and girls are wanted in these spaces. Bird ends the film by stating the mission statement of the entire campaign, which is that the next generation of players won’t know a world without a WNBA orange three-point line painted across America.

The campaign represents the very fact that the WNBA has become more mainstream and more accessible in the past few years. The league isn’t distant and it’s much easier now more than ever to understand that the WNBA isn’t going anywhere and will be an institution that stands the test of time.

Donaphin thinks about what it would have been like if she had an orange three-point line to accompany her during those days when she was working hard on her game and often the only girl out there doing it.

“If I had had an orange line while I was going through that process, I think it would have given not just me, but the other kids around me, an understanding that, yeah, what I was doing was completely part of of what any person would do if they if they love something,” Donaphin told NBC Sports. “And that there was a place for me there.”

Check out the new “Line ‘Em Up” website and see if the WNBA's three-point line is coming to a court near you.

OKLAHOMA CITY — Don Nelson was back on an NBA stage, and it was entertaining.

The Hall of Fame coach with the second-most wins in NBA history left his home in Maui to come to Oklahoma City and receive the Chuck Daly Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Basketball Coaches Association and Pacers coach Rick Carlisle. Nelson talked and joked about his innovative offenses, telling stories of playing for the Bill Russell Celtics, having Manute Bol shoot 3-pointers, and coaching Hall of Famers such as Dirk Nowitzki. Nelson talked about player loyalty.

Which led to the former Mavericks coach joining the rest of Dallas in bashing the Luka Doncic trade.

"As a matter of fact, I want everybody to know I'm wearing Luka's shoes, his new shoes from Nike, just got on the market. I'm wearing them in protest for the trade from Dallas," Nelson said. "I think it was a tremendous mistake by the Dallas franchise to trade him, and I want everybody to know that."

For Nelson, when you get a generational player on your team, you don't trade that player away.

"Because I learned from the best. I played a year for Red Auerbach. I played under him for Tommy Heinsohn and Bill Russell," Nelson said. "I had the opportunity on my way, because I always went to the games early to sit and talk with Red, philosophy. And his philosophy was when you have a great player, Bill Russell, [John] Havlicek, Sam Jones, you never lose that player. You keep him for a lifetime. You put his number up and you honor that player and that's been my philosophy.

"If you look at the players I've had over the years, Dirk and [Sidney] Moncrief and all the rest of them that I've coached,... my philosophy was always to honor the great players, not trade them away, but to add pieces to that player and make him and your franchise the best that it could be."

In Dallas, many fans are nodding their heads in agreement. At least they get a reset, thanks to the NBA Draft Lottery ping pong balls, which gave the Mavericks the chance to draft Cooper Flagg.

Nelson shared another amusing story about when the Mavericks — led by his son, Donnie Nelson, as general manager — drafted Dirk Nowitzki.

"I have to say in that draft, Paul Pierce was my favorite player," the elder Nelson said. 'We had Paul Pierce going top three. So we didn't even consider that he would be there. Wouldn't you believe that when No. 9 came up, Paul Pierce was there, and Dirk Nowitzki. I looked at Donnie and I said, 'Oh s***, Paul Pierce is my favorite player. He's going to be a star.' And Donnie says, 'Come on, Dad, you know what we've been doing for the last month.' We were hiding him in Donnie's basement so nobody else could interview him."

The rest is history.

OKLAHOMA CITY — Game 1 of the NBA Finals saw an epic fourth-quarter comeback followed by a Tyrese Haliburton game-winning shot that will live forever in Indiana Pacers lore.

However, as many Pacers comebacks as we have seen this season, Game 2 was a reminder of Indiana's reality: If it continues to fall behind early against Oklahoma City's elite defense — the Pacers will lose the series. Through two NBA Finals games, the Thunder have led for 91:22 minutes to the Pacers 1:53, and that's not a recipe for success.

"Another bad first half. Obviously, it was a big problem, and we just played poorly," Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said Sunday night after the loss. "A little bit better in the second half but you can't be a team that's reactive and expect to be successful or have consistency."

That was the message across the board from the Pacers after Game 2: The 68-win Thunder are too good to keep falling behind by double digits early and expect to come back and win. That has to change, especially at home in the Gainbridge Field House, in front of their fans for the next couple of games.

Pacers All-NBA point guard Tyrese Haliburton raised his hand as the guy who has to lead that change.

"I think I've had two really poor first halves," Haliburton said. "I just have to figure out how to be better earlier in games."

In Game 2, the Thunder dialed back their ball pressure slightly, looking to stay solid positionally, cut off drives, and swarm Haliburton when he did try to get downhill. The result was a too-passive Haliburton, who focused more on getting his teammates going (which didn't happen) than on himself.

"We have to do a better job of getting to the paint," Haliburton said after Game 2. "It's a lot easier said than done. I feel like in the first half we were just moving the ball on the outside and I don't think we had a single point in the paint in the first quarter [they did not]."

When Indiana's offense is clicking, it's very balanced, spread pretty evenly among five or six players — Carlisle called their offense an ecosystem.

"They're more a conceptual team. You have to be kind of a conceptual defense against them," Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. "If you do that, I think it has a downstream effect on everybody against them."

In the face of that, it falls on Haliburton to be aggressive, look for his own shot more, and spark his team. This is the Haliburton we saw in the fourth quarter of Game 2, when he had 12 points on 5-of-6 shooting, but by then it was too late.

"We had some success there," Haliburton said of the fourth quarter. "Me playing off the pitch a little bit more, flying around rather than, if I'm in that high ball screen, which I feel like I am really successful at, that gives them a chance to really load up, pack the paint. They got a couple steals in there. I had some really dumb turnovers tonight."

That has to change at home in front of their fans for Game 3 on Wednesday. The Pacers know they can't keep digging holes against this Thunder team and expect to climb out of them.

OKLAHOMA CITY — Shai Gilgeous-Alexander put on a masterclass Sunday in Game 2 of the Finals. At the same time, the league-best Thunder defense lived up to its reputation, making life difficult for Tyrese Haliburton.

However, the Thunder won Game 2 because of their bench.

That Oklahoma City bench scored 48 points on the night, and it was the bench that fueled the 19-2 second quarter run, which ultimately decided the game.

"I think we just kind of found a rhythm on both ends of the court," Aarom Wiggins said of the second-quarter run that broke the game open. "We were able to get stops, get out in transition, hit a couple shots. Once we kind of got going, you could kind of just feel the energy playing a factor in that."

Praise for Caruso, Wiggins

The Thunder bench was led by Alex Caruso's 20 points and Wiggins' 18. However, it wasn't all about the points, Kenrich Williams had zero of those but had a fantastic hustle shift in the first half that helped in the big run, and he was +15 on the night in just eight minutes of action.

"They were huge tonight. [Wiggins] was huge tonight," Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. "I give him a lot of credit because he was a huge part of our success this season, and in the playoffs, his role has been varied night to night. But he hangs in there. He was huge in the Game 4 win at Denver, in that series. He was massive tonight...

"Great professionalism, great readiness and a huge performance for us in that situation."

Wiggins' ability to stay ready through these playoffs, despite his wildly inconsistent minutes, has impressed his teammates.

"It's the hardest job in the league, I feel like. I think he's underrated..." Jalen Williams said of Wiggins. "That goes underrated. It's really hard to stay engaged and stay ready. For him to be able to do that on the biggest stage he's ever played on and have a really good game, very special player."

"It's impressive to me. He's been exactly who he's been all year throughout the Playoffs," Gilgeous-Alexander said of Wiggins. "Like, sometimes it's 20 minutes, sometimes two minutes, sometimes he gets 10. It's all over the place. No matter what, he finds a way to impact winning for us.

"You need it in the biggest moments. No one-man show can win an NBA championship. For him to rise to the occasion and just be who he's been in the biggest moment of his basketball career is pretty gutsy. Says a lot about the competitor and the man he is."

From his perspective, Wiggins has seen it all, which has him ready for these moments.

"I think I've been in every different position, whether that's having the ball in my hands, being a second, third, fourth option, even coming off the bench," Wiggins said. "Regardless of what's asked from me, I think I've just kind of had experiences."
As for Caruso, Chet Holmgren called him "our GOAT."

"He's one of those guys who you know is going to bring it every single night, whether he's [age] 22 or 30, doesn't matter, he's going to bring it," Holmgren said of Caruso, having a little fun with him being one of the older players on the team. "I feel like as a collective we really feed off of that. Then also his ability to kind of process things that are happening out there and relay it and communicate it to everybody else is really important for us."

"He has a lot of experience and he is really smart," Lu Dort said of Caruso. "Sometimes I feel like he is seeing the game a little differently. He's an unbelievable defender, me as well, so every time we talk about defensive stuff I am picking his brain."

While Wiggins has seen fluctuating minutes during the playoffs, Caruso saw Daigneault limit his minutes all season long, with the goal of having him fresh for moments like this.

"It was difficult just because I am such a competitive guy," Caruso said of his limited minutes this season. "If I'm only playing 15 to 20 minutes, if it's one of those nights where it's 15, we're not playing great, like my instinct is to, all right, coach, leave me in there, let me fix it, let me be the one to help us get out of it...

"At the same time, we won 68 games in the regular season. We had a 12-, 13-man rotation through the year depending on who was hurt, different teams we played. That just comes with the nature of having a really good, deep team."

That depth is why Oklahoma City is back in the series, now tied 1-1 and heading back to Indiana for Game 3.

OKLAHOMA CITY — There would be no comebacks, no end-of-game drama in Game 2. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander made sure of it.

Gilgeous-Alexander put up 34 points (his 13th 30+ game of the playoffs) and had eight assists, but raw numbers undersell how in control of the game he was on Sunday night. With the Thunder setting his picks up higher on the court, he was able to get downhill and find space, but was never out of control — he orchestrated the game. He found passing lanes to open shooters as well as his midrange game again, shooting 9-of-16 from there, plus getting 14 points in the paint. Defensively, he was blowing up Tyrese Haliburton and the Pacers' pick-and-roll all night.

The Thunder clapped back in Game 2 and the result was a comfortable 123-107 Oklahoma City win that evens the NBA Finals at 1-1 as the series heads to Indiana for Game 3 on Wednesday.

This was the performance Thunder fans — and most of the NBA world — expected from OKC in Game 1.

Oklahoma City was the aggressor from the opening tip, and much of what didn't work consistently for the Thunder in Game 1 did in Game 2. Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren started out shooting 6-of-9 from the floor and finished with a combined 34 points and 11 rebounds. It wasn't just SGA, the Thunder as a team shot 21-of-36 (58.3) from the midrange in Game 2. OKC got 26 of its 59 first-half points in the paint (and finished with 42 from there), and the ball touching the paint led to kick-out 3-pointers and good ball movement. Coach Mark Daigneault went to the two-big lineup of Holmgren and Isiah Hartenstein — something he didn't use in Game 1 — and it was +4 in 4:32 on the court.

Then there was the bench scoring 48 points, led by 20 points from Alex Caruso — more than any Pacer — and 18 from Aaron Wiggins, giving OKC a huge lift.

Thanks in large part to that bench, the Thunder extended their lead to as much as 23 and, thanks to another strong defensive performance, never let the Pacers get back in it.

"I just thought we were the aggressor tonight for much of the game, even when we had a lead," Daigneault said. "I thought the guys did a really good job of keeping the foot on the gas, especially defensively. I thought we really amped it up on that end of the floor."

As good as Gilgeous-Alexander was, it was a rough night for Haliburton and the Pacers.

"Another bad first half. Obviously, it was a big problem, and we just played poorly," Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said. "A little bit better in the second half but you can't be a team that's reactive and expect to be successful or have consistency."

Haliburton spent three quiet quarters trying to get his teammates going in the face of the Thunder's pressure defense, but when that didn't work, he became a scorer in the fourth with an impressive 12 points on 5-of-6 shooting. The problem was that it was too late (the other problem to monitor is the slight limp he walked with postgame). Back home for Game 3, the Pacers need him to put his scoring stamp on the game earlier, draw the defense, then find shooters.

Myles Turner gave the Pacers a little boost with a dozen second-half points (16 for the game) and he let loose his frustrations with this dunk.

Indiana needs to find a lot of things with its home cooking: Through two NBA Finals games, the Thunder have led for 91:22 and the Pacers 1:53. Indiana got the split on the road, but they are going to have to be much better at home, the Thunder have proven they can win on the road.

Hall of Fame coach Don Nelson picked up another accolade on Sunday, being honored with the 2025 Chuck Daly Lifetime Achievement Award, handed out by the National Basketball Coaches Association (NBCA).

Nelson, who retired from coaching in 2010 (after coaching Stephen Curry in his rookie season), is the only coach to have at least 250 wins with three different franchises. Nelson is second all time in wins as a coach (1,335) and games coached (2,398).

"History has already reflected Don Nelson's staggering contributions as a cutting-edge innovator and visionary of the NBA game," said Indiana Pacers Head Coach and NBCA President Rick Carlisle. "Back in the '80s and '90s, he made teams adjust to historic pace, liberal 3-point shooting, inverted offense, and disruptive defensive schemes. All this while establishing himself as one of the most compelling personalities in all of professional sports. I'm certain that Chuck Daly would agree that our beloved 'Nellie' is most deserving of this prestigious recognition."

"I'm extremely grateful and humbled to receive this incredible honor and join the exclusive list of coaches who have preceded me," said Nelson. "Chuck Daly was a dear friend of mine and someone I respected immensely due to his class, character, and of course, his coaching ability. He may not have influenced my wardrobe, but Chuck certainly had a lasting impact on my coaching philosophy, style, and most importantly, how I managed the personalities on a roster...

"To say that I'm deeply touched to receive an award that bears his name would be an understatement. This is special."

Nelson was a five-time NBA champion as a player with the Bill Russell-era Boston Celtics who went on to coach for 31 seasons with the Bucks, Warriors, Knicks and Mavericks. He was also the coach of the USA Basketball gold medal team at the 1994 World Championships. He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 2012.