Category: NBA

Two things have made the first 48 hours of free agency unusual for LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers.

First, the Lakers have started slowly. It's no secret Los Angeles entered free agency looking for a center, but players it was linked to have already found new homes with more aggressive teams — Brook Lopez is just across town with the Clippers. Nobody was as aggressive as the Bucks in finding a way to get Myles Turner out of Indiana. Clint Capela is back in Houston.

The Lakers are talking to agents. The names we hear now, maybe they get Al Horford, or maybe Deandre Ayton. You can feel Luka Doncic's eyes rolling.

LeBron not Lakers’ focus

Second, for the first time in his career, LeBron James and his wishes are not the most important thing to his team during the offseason. The Lakers' focus is on transitioning to a team built to optimize Doncic's skills — LeBron is a part of that, but not the primary focus.

In years past, LeBron opted out of the player option at the end of his contract and used that as leverage to persuade the team to add talent. Passive-aggressive statements from him or those around him are the norm.

This year, LeBron opted in to the $52.6 million he is owed — he's a Laker. The franchise doesn't have to do anything to appease him. When opting in, his longtime friend and agent, Rich Paul released this statement to ESPN:

"LeBron wants to compete for a championship. He knows the Lakers are building for the future. He understands that, but he values a realistic chance of winning it all. We are very appreciative of the partnership that we've had for eight years with Jeanie [Buss] and Rob [Pelinka] and consider the Lakers as a critical part of his career.

"We understand the difficulty in winning now while preparing for the future. We do want to evaluate what's best for LeBron at this stage in his life and career. He wants to make every season he has left count, and the Lakers understand that, are supportive and want what's best for him."
That's a little more than passive-aggressive.

Where do Lakers, LeBron go from here?

Combine Paul's statement with the slow start to free agency and…

Probably nothing. LeBron can be frustrated with the Lakers, with the team's transition to a Doncic focus (even if he gets why), and especially with the slow start to free agency, but there isn't some utopia out there, nor is there a simple trade that would get him to a contender at full price.

LeBron wants to be on a contender, he wants to play meaningful games — and meaningful playoff games — and be in the heart of the conversation. Additionally, LeBron has consistently sought to maximize his revenue. LeBron opted and will get paid. That means if he asks for a trade, his new team would have to match LeBron's salary. For example, a lot of fans tried to link him to a return to Cleveland (league sources told NBC Sports the Cavaliers are not that interested, but let's use them as a hypothetical): With a third team, a deal can be made if it's LeBron for Darius Garland and Max Strus Why would the Cavs do that, giving up young players and getting 15 years older (and arguably worse) in the short term to rent LeBron for a year or two. And trading LeBron to Cleveland is a lot less complicated than most other destinations.

LeBron, Paul, and the rest of LeBron's camp reportedly are monitoring the situation. They have every right to be frustrated with how the Lakers have moved through the first 48 hours of free agency.

But where is there a better option?

Which is why, come media day in the fall, expect LeBron in purple and gold, talking championship.

Myles Turner had a lot of teams coveting him heading into free agency — athletic stretch fives who can get you a couple of blocks a game protecting the rim are hard to come by. However, none of those teams had the means to sign Turner, and everyone assumed the Pacers would finally pony up and go into the tax to keep Turner alongside Tyrese Haliburton.

Indiana was not willing to pay. Then, in a cold and bold move, the Milwaukee Bucks stepped up and waived-and-stretched the $112.6 million still owed Damian Lillard — out most or all of next season with a torn Achilles — and used that money to sign Turner to a four-year, $104 million contract.

It's one of the wildest, most unexpected moves we've seen in the NBA since… Paul George and Kawhi Leonard to the Clippers (and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander to the Thunder)?

Who are the winners and losers from Tuesday's wild action? Let's break it down.

WINNER: Milwaukee Bucks (short term)

Every time over the years that Giannis Antetokounmpo has subtly tried to pressure the Bucks to upgrade their roster, hinting he might leave, they have responded. That's how the Bucks ended with Damian Lillard. However, nobody thought they could pull that off again this summer, the Bucks had already traded away most of their future draft picks, and the roster was not deep with trade assets (there isn't a big Kyle Kuzma market).

Tuesday, Milwaukee shocked the league by waiving Lillard to create space to sign Turner. Combine that with them bringing back many of their core players, and this is a team that can be a threat in the East. How does Antetokounmpo feel about that?

Here is Milwaukee's rotation:

• Kevin Porter and Gary Trent Jr. are the likely starting guards, with AJ Green behind them. The Bucks could use one more ball-handling, shot-creating guard if they are going to beat the Cavaliers and Knicks in the playoffs (they have a first-round pick and Kuzma to trade), but this is a good start.

• Kyle Kuzma starts at the three with Taurean Prince behind him.

• Giannis Antetokounmpo — Milwaukee needs MVP-level Antetokounmpo. There are good role players around him, but this is a roster he is going to have to carry in the clutch.

• Myles Turner — an absolute upgrade over Brook Lopez at this point in their respective careers — and Bobby Portis at center. Turner is basically a younger Lopez in terms of style of play. Some fans have questioned how much of an upgrade Turner is over Lopez, but recall when the Pacers and Bucks faced off in the first round of the playoffs, and Turner outplayed Lopez — to the point that Doc Rivers had to pivot and start Bobby Portis. This is an upgrade for Milwaukee.

Any team with Antetokounmpo has to be considered a playoff threat in the East, but there may be enough around him now to get back to the Finals, if things break their way. This is a good set of role players, whether they are good enough to get where the Bucks want to go is a fair question, but this is a team in the mix.

LOSER: Milwaukee Bucks (long term)

The largest waived-and-stretched contract in NBA history before Tuesday was $31 million — waving Lillard is more than triple that number. Every year for the next five seasons, the Bucks will have $22.5 million in dead money on the books — an anchor on their plans.

The Milwaukee Bucks do not control their own first-round draft pick until 2031.

Eventually, the wheels are going to fall off this bus in Milwaukee, and when they do — when Antetokounmpo eventually leaves the franchise (via retirement or to another team) — things are going to get ugly. Milwaukee is like someone just racking up loads and loads of credit card debt. That bill is going to come due, and it will take a long time to pay off. But if Antetokounmpo stays and the team gets back to the Finals, was it worth it?

WINNER: Myles Turner

Turner is a bittersweet winner. He spent 10 years in Indiana — it's the only NBA team he ever played for — and was just part of the greatest run in the franchise's NBA history, all the way to Game 7 of the NBA Finals.

Turner wanted to get paid comparable to other bigs in his range. Pacers' ownership did not want to go into the luxury tax to do it. That's when Turner's representatives got creative and found a team that did — Turner will average more than $25 million a year over the course of the next four years. That's about the going rate for a center of his caliber. It's a good deal.

And Turner jumps to another team with Finals aspirations next season — he will be competing for something.

WINNER: Damian Lillard

Damian Lillard was unhappy in Milwaukee, especially during his first year, when he was away from his family and not winning as much as he had hoped. Now? He couldn't be happier with this outcome. Check out this paragraph from The Athletic:

League sources say Lillard is elated with this decision, as it puts him in the kind of basketball-first position that few All-Star-level players, if any, have experienced in league history. In short, he'll be able to join the contending team of his choosing, either sometime soon or perhaps next summer, without the financial aspect of the decision playing a significant part.

Expect Lillard to take his time making a decision. The two teams that come up first in conversations with people around the league are Miami and Portland, but many other teams could be in play. He's not going to rush this process.

LOSER: Indiana Pacers fans

I feel for Pacers fans. I wish I could buy them all a beer.

What stings is that Turner wanted to stay, but the Pacers' ownership hesitated to go into the luxury tax. That hesitation opened the door to Turner's suitors — including Milwaukee — who were able to get their foot in the door. And here we are, with Turner gone and Tyrese Haliburton likely out all of next season with a torn Achilles.

The positives? One, Haliburton will be back, and while this season now looks like someone will hit the pause button, in two years this team can (and should) be right back in the mix in the East.

Second — this was a brilliant playoff run. Savor it. There are not enough magical moments like this for fans where — championship or not — everything comes together on the court, the team reflects and inspires the community (and the state of Indiana) around it. It's just pure, fun basketball. These Pacers were a combination of high-level basketball and entertaining in a way we all too rarely see. Don't let how it ended spoil that.

There is a running joke on the internet that Mondays during the WNBA season often yield the most drama and news coming out of the league and its players. There's a reason for this: often there aren’t games on Mondays, although there are some weeks this season where there are. But for the most part, Monday is typically a day when the league is dark.

Well, yesterday was an example of that trend in practice. Not only did the league announce that it will be adding three more expansion teams in addition to the two more expansion teams in Toronto and Portland that will debut next season, but there was a trade, a surprise cut from the Golden State Valkyries, and the All-Star starters for the July 19 All-Star Game in Indianapolis were announced.

The league announced that Cleveland would be awarded the WNBA’s 16th team which will begin play in 2028, Detroit would earn the 17th, officially joining in 2029 and then Philadelphia would become the 18th franchise and would begin play in 2030. All ownership groups of these three new franchises paid a $250 million expansion fee, close to five times what Joe Lacob and Peter Guber paid for the Valkyries back in 2023.

Moments after all of that pomp and circumstance at the league office, the Las Vegas Aces traded for NaLyssa Smith which sent a Las Vegas 2027 first round draft pick back to the Wings. And as a result, the Aces had to waive rookie Elizabeth Kitley and veteran Tiffany Mitchell in order to make roster and salary room for Smith.

And then the Valkyries waivedJulie Vanloo, who was away from the team competing in EuroBasket. Vanloo missed her Belgian National team’s gold medal celebration after winning EuroBasket to make sure she was back in the Bay Area as soon as possible. She got news of being released merely moments after landing back in California. While Vanloo struggled at times during her minutes on court with Golden State, there are questions about the timing of the franchise letting her know of their decision before hopping on a long 14-15 hour flight back to San Francisco.

This all happened on a Monday and that’s in addition to the day before where Angel Reese put on another career performance scoring while shooting over 52 percent from the field in addition to 16 rebounds and seven assists, nearly her second triple double. She did all of this while her former childhood idolCandace Parker was in attendance and got her jersey retired by the Sparks prior to tipoff.

Who are the 2025 WNBA All-Star starters?

Before I preview the week ahead, let’s discuss the All-Star starters which were announced on Monday evening. The two highest fan vote getters, Caitlin Clark and Napheesa Collier, were named captains and automatic starters on Sunday. And then a day later, the final eight starters were announced by two different ESPN sponsored shows.

The final eight starters were determined by the weighted combination of fan votes, media votes and player votes. Fan votes were weighed at 50 percent with the media and peer votes counting for 25 percent each.

What jumped out immediately in the league’s weighted voting results was how Clark was ranked by her peers. The players ranked Atlanta’s Allisha Gray first, New York’s Sabrina Ionescu second and then Clark ninth.

This shouldn’t be a huge surprise especially considering that Clark has only played in nine of the Fever’s total 16 games so far this season, and she’s shot the ball very inefficiently (39% overall and 29.5% from three) in addition to averaging 5.9 turnovers. But this also isn’t the first time a very popular player was ranked lower by her peers as Ionescu got similar treatment two years ago and was ranked 19th by the players.

It’s incredibly hard to argue with the eight other starters that were selected. A’ja Wilson is still putting up All-WNBA numbers even if they aren’t as impressive as they were during her otherworldly 2024 MVP season. Gray has put together close to if not the best statistical season she’s had since entering the league in 2017. Nneka Ogwumike earned her 10th All-Star selection on another incredibly efficient start to the season shooting 53.1% on 13.4 attempts per game. She’s been even more efficient than MVP front-runner Collier.

Prior to Ionescu’s recent shooting slump, she and Liberty teammate Breanna Stewart were both putting up over 20 points a game and led their team in the Liberty to a 9-0 start prior to losing Jonquel Jones to an ankle sprain and Leonie Fiebich to EuroBasket.

The Mercury’s Satou Sabally has also put up a career season so far and took the brunt of the scoring load when Alyssa Thomas was out for two weeks with a calf injury. Aliyah Boston has the highest field goal percentage (59.7) among players who play over 25 minutes a game.

And last and certainly not least, Paige Bueckers leads all rookies in points and assists per game and is third amongst rookies in field goal percentage for first-year players who play over 25 minutes a game. She is scoring the eleventh-most in the league and seventh most among guards sitting right below Ionescu and right above Clark.

Who Are The WNBA All-Star Starter Snubs?

The point is, it’s incredibly hard to make an argument against any of these players starting in the All-Star game. The one that maybe there’s an argument against might actually be Clark. Who could have replaced her just based on statistical output alone?

Skylar Diggins comes to mind immediately just based on the fact that she’s the 7th best in scoring and third in scoring among guards. Also, she’s averaging the fourth most assists and is fifth in win shares (2.5) via Her Hoop Stats. She’s fourth in field goal percentage among guards that average over 30 minutes a game (46.3).

Another guard that could have been an All-Star starter is Kelsey Plum who has put up an impressive statistical season so far even as her Los Angeles Sparks continue to struggle in their journey to make the playoffs for the first time since 2020. Plum leads all guards scoring 20.6 points a game and is sixth among guards in average assists with 5.6.

In a league dominated by versatile forwards, it’s not a surprise that there wasn’t enough room for maybe one of the most versatile in Alyssa Thomas. Thomas has put up some of the best numbers of her career, leading the league in assists (9.3) and averaging more points than she did during her 2023 season, the one where Stewart beat her out in the MVP voting. The reason Thomas missed the boat is probably because of the two weeks she missed.

The final player who I think there’s an argument for to be an All-Star starter is Brionna Jones who while she doesn’t score in the 20s like her peers, she’s accumulated 2.3 win shares, the same amount that A’ja Wilson has and a bit more than Thomas and Sabally. She and Diggins are the only players within the top seven in win shares who didn’t become All-Star starters.

It would be shocking if any of these players who weren’t named starters don’t make the final All-Star team. Right now reserves are being voted on by the WNBA’s head coaches and those results will be revealed this Sunday July 6 at 12 pm et. Just a disclaimer, head coaches cannot vote for their own players.

The Week Ahead

Since this week features the Commissioner's Cup Championship game on Tuesday night, there are fewer games to choose from. The league goes on a mini hiatus on Wednesday before picking up again on Thursday. After the Commissioner’s Cup Final takes place in Minneapolis, the majority of the games to watch out for are rematches of recent matchups. Can the Fever get revenge on the Aces and can the Liberty redeem themselves against the Storm with Fiebich back from EuroBasket?

Commissioner’s Cup Final: Indiana Fever @ Minnesota Lynx

(Tuesday July 1 at 8 p.m. ET on Prime Video)

Now that Clark has been ruled out officially, do the Fever have a shot at winning? It’s going to be a tough hill to climb for a team that almost fell to the Dallas Wings on Friday without Clark. This is the right move for Indiana looking at Clark’s long term health, but what makes this matchup worth watching is the very fact that these two teams haven’t played each other yet. The Lynx’s two losses this season came in games where they were outworked by their opponent and allowed at least 20 opponent points off their own turnovers. If the Fever play hard, they have a shot. But if the Lynx value their possessions, this should be a very winnable game and Minnesota would become the first back-to-back Commissioner’s Cup Champions in league history.

Las Vegas Aces @ Indiana Fever

(Thursday July 3 at 7 p.m. ET on Prime Video)

Even if Clark misses this game as well, it will be fascinating to see how much run newly acquired Aces forward NaLyssa Smith gets. The Aces won this matchup the first time around on June 22 with Clark on the floor for the Fever. But this will be the first test the Aces have to see if by adding Smith defenses actually guard her, which could open up more space on the floor. Las Vegas has often struggled when opposing defenses don’t even guard Kiah Stokes and load up on their other players.

Washington Mystics @ Minnesota Lynx

(Thursday July 3 at 8:00 p.m. ET on League Pass )

The Mystics will be looking for a win after dropping their latest 79-71 against the incredibly shorthanded Dallas Wings. But also the Lynx’s second loss of the season came to the Mystics on June 24. While both teams were without their best players in Napheesa Collier and Brittney Sykes, the Mystics still defended aggressively and earned that win by forcing 19 turnovers and scoring 26 points off those turnovers. Can the two-way play of versatile center Shakira Austin stifle Collier at all? If Collier struggles and the Mystics’ defense stays aggressive, I’d say this has the potential to be a really competitive game to pay attention to.

Golden State Valkyries @ Minnesota Lynx

(Saturday July 5 at 8 p.m. ET on League Pass)

The Lynx have a ton of fascinating matchups this week including one against the Valkyries. While Minnesota beat Golden State convincingly around a month ago, the Valkyries have somehow gotten better since they lost players to EuroBasket. (Presumably another reason why they waived guard Vanloo.) Following some New York Liberty struggles, the Valkyries now have the second best defense in the league which has powered them to a 2.7 net rating. Compare that to the -10.7 net rating that Golden State had when the Lynx last played the Valkyries.

Seattle Storm @ New York Liberty

(Sunday July 6 at 1:00 p.m. ET on CBS)

The New York Liberty have been going through it lately, losing four of their last five games as they continued to adjust to playing without 2024 WNBA Finals MVP Jonquel Jones and German wing Fiebich. One of those losses came to the Storm on June 22 when they only lost by 10 points 89-79. While Fiebich will most likely be available for this game and should provide more shooting and defense, it will be interesting to see how the Liberty continue to wade through their schedule before Jones returns presumably after the All-Star break. Can defeating a streaky Storm team get the defending champions back on track?

Despite expectations he would, Giannis Antetokounmpo did not request a trade out of Milwaukee this offseason, waiting for his team to make a bold move to get them back in the mix for the top of the East. Now, Milwaukee has made about as daring a move as we have seen in the NBA — and Antetokounmpo is not happy about it.

In a stunning move, the Bucks waived Damian Lillard, stretching the nearly $113 million remaining on his contract over five years to free up cap space. Lillard is expected to miss most, if not all, of next season as he rehabs from a torn Achilles suffered in the playoffs. This is a cold bit of business that will make Lillard a free agent and will result in $22.5 million of dead money on Milwaukee's salary cap for each of the next five years (this is the largest salary cap stretch in league history). Lillard was set to make $51.4 million this coming season (he still gets all that money).

Milwaukee then used the freed-up cap space from that move to sign Myles Turner away from the Pacers with a four-year, $107 million contract, all of this broken by Shams Charania of ESPN.

Turner had been central to Indiana's run to the NBA Finals, and, as a free agent, he had stated that he wanted to return to the Pacers, the only team he had ever played for in his 10-year NBA career. However, Pacers' owner Herb Simon's fear of the luxury tax (especially after the Tyrese Haliburton injury) cost them a key player.

This is a punch to the gut of Pacers fans, who just came off the high of their team's impressive and unifying run to the NBA Finals, only to have Tyrese Haliburton go down with a torn Achilles, and now to have Turner leave because ownership would not spend like a contender, even when they have a Finals team.

If you think adding Turner and pushing the Bucks closer to contention in a down Eastern Conference was going to make Antetokounmpo happy, guess again. He is a man who values relationships.

All of this leaves a lot more questions, starting with "Is Antetokounmpo unhappy enough to ask for a trade?"

Then there is "How do the Pacers rebuild this roster now by Haliburton's return?" and "Which team is willing to snap up a 34-year-old Damian Lillard coming off a torn Achilles?"