On the latest episode of “The Draymond Green Show with Baron Davis,” the two discussed the origin of the “four-ring” handshake that TNT’s Shaquille O’Neal and Green do on “Inside the NBA.”
“It was always to pick on Charles [Barkley]… it’s so fun picking on Charles,” Green said. “And Chuck’s such a good sport about everything and funny as hell.”
It all started around the time Green made his “Inside the NBA” debut during the 2021-22 NBA season and O’Neal went around asking the analysts how many rings they had.
O’Neal, who won four rings — three with the Los Angeles Lakers and one with the Miami Heat — asked Kenny Smith, who earned two of his own with the Houston Rockets and then Green.
Green noted that the bit began when he had three rings but then earned the fourth title a few months later when the Warriors defeated the Boston Celtics in six games, which led to the current handshake.
“That’s just kind of how it came about,” Green said. “Me and Shaq throwing up our fours… so that’s our thing, you know. Four rings, baby.”
Green’s co-host Davis came to Chuck’s defense, calling him a legend and saying the analysts needed to leave Barkley, who is famously ring-less, alone.
Green went on to give Barkley and the rest of the TNT squad their flowers.
“Chuck’s one of the best, though, man,” Green said. “I’ve been so fortunate to be around those guys, talk basketball with those guys. I’m extremely grateful.”
But don’t sleep on the next-best player in the draft.
Rutgers guard Dylan Harper currently projects as the No. 2 pick in the draft behind Flagg, and with good reason: The 19-year-old averaged 19.4 points, 4.6 rebounds and 4.0 assists per game for the Scarlet Knights last season and has significant upside as a two-way guard in the NBA.
The Boston Celtics have no shot at landing Harper with the 28th pick in the first round. But could they land the Rutgers star via trade? In Part II of his “Offseason Path” series, our Celtics Insider Chris Forsberg laid out a bold scenario in which Boston sends Jaylen Brown to the San Antonio Spurs in exchange for the No. 2 pick and a combination of young players such as Devin Vassell and Keldon Johnson.
Boston trading Brown — a four-time All-Star who is set to be the team’s No. 1 option while Jayson Tatum recovers from Achilles surgery — would be a very bold move, and the Celtics likely would explore several other avenues to trim their payroll and get under the NBA’s second apron before deciding to part with a franchise cornerstone.
But if trading Brown means bringing back a player like Harper, Celtics president of basketball operations Brad Stevens may have to consider it. Yahoo Sports’ NBA insider Kevin O’Connor shared what he’s hearing about Harper during NBC Sports Boston’s The OffC’season special Wednesday.
“If the Spurs made an offer you can’t say no to, well, Dylan Harper might be the great point guard next to Jayson Tatum,” O’Connor told Forsberg and co-host Drew Carter.
“I like Harper a lot. … The jump shot, in the context of San Antonio, I worry about, because they have Stephon Castle and De’Aaron Fox there. But for Boston — let’s just say, theoretically, that’s what happened — I would love Dylan Harper, surrounded by space in the Boston Celtics’ ‘Mazzulla Ball’ system, with Tatum by his side and those guys sharing the ball together.”
The Celtics have leaned heavily on 3-point shooting under head coach Joe Mazzulla, and Harper shot just 33.3 percent beyond the arc at Rutgers last season. But Harper’s shooting can always improve, and Boston would benefit greatly from his playmaking abilities.
“Harper can play off-ball, but the shooting — it’d be a little less important for him in Boston than it would be in San Antonio, where they need shooting around Victor Wembanyama,” O’Connor said. “But for the Celtics, man, I can’t imagine. He is so good at getting downhill, a foul magnet, great playmaker on his drives to the basket. He would be a haul.”
So, what’s the ceiling for Harper?
“A lot of people around the NBA — like, everybody has Cooper Flagg for the most part ahead of Dylan Harper — but there are a lot of people who consider Dylan Harper a can’t-miss prospect, a guy who can change a franchise,” O’Connor said.
“I’m not quite on the same level with him, but I do think at a minimum, he’s going to be a good player for a decade in the NBA.”
The Spurs ultimately may decide to keep the No. 2 pick and create a three-headed monster of young talent in Wembanyama, Castle and Harper. But that would make for a crowded backcourt with Fox also in the mix, so it might be worth keeping an eye on San Antonio as the June 25 draft approaches.
Check out more offseason analysis from Forsberg, O’Connor and Carter below:
The Brooklyn Nets aren’t expected to prepare Jonathan Kuminga an offer sheet this summer.
With the Warriors forward set to become a restricted free agent this offseason, there were several rumors that the Nets would make an offer given their salary-cap situation. However, that doesn’t appear to be the case.
“There is not a current expectation that the Brooklyn Nets are preparing an offer sheet for Kuminga, but there are signs Brooklyn could be willing to use its open cap space as a vehicle to execute multi-team trade scenarios this summer,” The Athletic’s Anthony Slater reported.
“That could open up several avenues and possible suitors for Kuminga, one of the market’s most intriguing names. The Warriors’ front office, with the help of new cap specialist Jon Phelps, showed some creativity last summer, routing Thompson’s departure into a six-team sign-and-trade that delivered Buddy Hield and Kyle Anderson (after generating the space for De’Anthony Melton).”
The 22-year-old has all of the physical talents to become an elite NBA player, but he has struggled with consistency during his tenure with the Warriors. With Golden State committed to building around Steph Curry, Draymond Green and Jimmy Butler next season, it doesn’t seem likely that Kuminga will fit into those plans.
After trading for Butler, Kuminga fell out of the rotation almost entirely, seeing significant game action only after Curry went down with a Grade 1 hamstring strain in the Western Conference Semifinals.
Given the 22-year-old’s contract situation, it’s more feasible for a sign-and-trade deal to materialize, and it’s possible that Golden State could get some solid players in the exchange.
The Warriors selected Kuminga with the No. 7 overall pick in the 2021 NBA Draft with the expectation that it would take time for him to develop into an elite-level player. While he has flashed brilliance at times, it’s clear that the “two-timeline” approach owner Joe Lacob envisioned isn’t working out.
With Curry continuing to play at a high level, it’s clear that general manager Mike Dunleavy and the rest of the Golden State front office are looking to acquire more complementary pieces to fill out the roster.
Anthony Edwards speaks with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander after Minnesota’s playoff exit to Oklahoma City. Photograph: Gerald Leong/EPA
The definition of success is subjective, ephemeral. But in today’s sports zeitgeist, it’s becoming less so: “rings culture” dominates all, serving as the wall into which any nuanced conversation inevitably crashes: “But did they win?” Of course, each NBA team enters the season every year with the same goal: to hoist the Larry O’Brien trophy. But only one team can every year, so does that make the other 29 failures?
The Minnesota Timberwolves present an interesting counterpoint: their fanbase is, no doubt, deeply disappointed this morning after a harrowing blowout loss in Oklahoma City, which means the team came up short of the NBA finals in devastating, decisive fashion for the second year in a row. On the other hand, they’ve made back to back Western Conference finals for the first time in team history, gone from league laughing stock to bona fide perennial contender, and have one of the most exciting young stars in basketball, 23-year-old Anthony Edwards.
Edwards has fallen victim to a classic conundrum for a young, fast rising star athlete: disappointing people by not quickly enough becoming a thing he never asked to be. In his case, that’s “face of the league,” an idea foisted upon him almost instantaneously by an NBA public wooed by the guard who plays a bit like one Michael Jeffrey Jordan. Edwards’s popularity grew rapidly, due to his Jordan-esque explosiveness, propensity for highlight dunks, and sparkling charisma. The devil-may-care Edwards has spoken on the record, several times, about not being particularly interested in being the “face” of the NBA, a plight LeBron James (whose team Edwards recently sent packing for the season) says he empathizes with. “I understand,” James, who has served as the face of the NBA for two decades, told the Los Angeles Times recently. “I completely understand. There’s this weird energy when it comes to that.”
Charles Barkley recently made some somewhat controversial comments on the subject. “Don’t try and make Anthony Edwards the face of the NBA,” Barkley said. “You can’t give [the title of face of the NBA] to people. They have to take it.” It certainly seemed, in moments throughout the postseason, like Edwards was doing exactly that, wrestling the title from his elders inadvertently or otherwise. His dismantling of a Los Angeles Lakers team spearheaded by James and Luka Dončić, who sent Edwards and the Timberwolves home last season, was decisive and damned impressive, showcasing his newfound basketball maturity and growth as a playmaker. And while his team lucked out when the Warriors’ Stephen Curry was ruled out of the Western Conference semi-finals with a hamstring injury, you can only play the team in front of you, and Edwards & Co made quick work of Golden State, too.
The Timberwolves had lost a cumulative two games through two series until they ran into the freight train that is the Oklahoma City Thunder. The Thunder’s historically great defense brutally exposed Minnesota’s flaws, and they were the first team to make Edwards look every bit of what he really is: 23 years old. It’s easy to forget when young stars come into the league after a single-year in college that, even five seasons into their NBA tenure, they’re still so very young. But Edwards is young, and while it was another whimper of an ending to his playoffs, the fact that he already has two conference finals runs and marked improvement as a player under his belt should serve as encouragement. He showed flashes of his newfound maturity, and flashes of the years of work left to reach his sky-high potential, in this playoff run. Edwards’s time will come. But it’s not here yet.
The Thunder are a young team, and they will probably stand between Minnesota and a place in the NBA finals for some time to come. But it would be wrong to place the blame for the Timberwolves’ playoff exit at Edwards’s feet. The team has a lot of existential (and financial) questions to answer this summer. For starters, there’s Julius Randle, the player Minnesota took a gamble on when they traded Karl-Anthony Towns to the New York Knicks last October. Randle, who has a checkered playoff résumé to say the least, had a rocky start in Minnesota, but rounded into form after the All-Star break and had a scintillating star turn in the first two rounds of the postseason. The conference finals, where he scored fewer than seven points in two games and looked lost for much of three of them, were a different story. Randle is on an expiring contract with a player option this summer, and the Wolves will have to take another gamble in guessing which version of Randle is to come, and if there’s a place for him moving forward.
Naz Reid, a beloved fan-favorite and former sixth man of the year, may have cost himself a pretty penny with his disappointing showing throughout the playoffs, but he’s still expected to forgo his bargain $15m player option and enter free agency this summer, another tough call for the Timberwolves to make. Nickeil Alexander-Walker (who, as ESPN is quick to remind us, is MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s cousin) is also a free agent this summer, and has likely earned himself a bit of a pay bump over the course of his stint in Minnesota. Then there’s Rudy Gobert, whose albatross of a contract would most likely be difficult to move, even with his multi-time Defensive Player of the Year bona fides. But he’s been a clunky fit with Edwards, is a general liability offensively, and was mostly played off the floor by Thunder. Tim Connelly, the president of basketball operations the ‘Wolves wooed away from Denver, has done a mostly bang-up job to this point in Minnesota. But if he wants to steward Edwards’s potential, he has difficult decisions this offseason.
No one wants to see their favorite team outclassed in the manner the Timberwolves were in Oklahoma City on Wednesday evening. And the summer ahead is a murky one for the direction of the franchise and its roster. But to go from the butt of every NBA joke, whose claim to fame, for many fans, was either alienating Kevin Garnett or passing, twice, on Stephen Curry in the draft, to a perennial championship contender with a budding homegrown superstar, is a win. Or, one might say, a success.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and his Oklahoma City Thunder are on a historic run to the 2025 NBA Finals.
After leading the Thunder to the NBA’s best 2024-25 regular-season record behind his proficient play, Gilgeous-Alexander was awarded the NBA Most Valuable Player award.
And by sweeping the Memphis Grizzlies in the first round of the Western Conference playoffs, knocking out Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets in seven games and then dominating Anthony Edwards and the Minnesota Timberwolves in five games to earn a trip to the 2025 NBA Finals, Gilgeous-Alexander now has an opportunity to achieve a rare milestone last completed by none other than Warriors superstar Steph Curry.
If Gilgeous-Alexander and his guys can defeat either the Indiana Pacers or the New York Knicks on the biggest stage in basketball, the 26-year-old guard would become the first player to win NBA MVP and the Finals in the same season in 10 years.
A shot at history for SGA 👀
He has a chance to become the first MVP to win the NBA Finals since Steph Curry in 2014-15 😮 pic.twitter.com/a8ktBu3IvX
Curry and the Warriors dynasty won their first championship during that 2014-15 season, when he averaged 23.8 points on 48.7-percent shooting from the field and 44.3 percent from distance, with 4.3 rebounds, 7.7 assists and 2.0 steals in 32.7 minutes through 80 regular-season games.
The Warriors guard won his first of two NBA MVPs that year, and his second in the following season.
Gilgeous-Alexander has put on a show through 16 playoff games with the Thunder, averaging 29.8 points on an efficient 47.1 percent shooting, with 5.7 rebounds, 6.9 assists and 1.6 steals in 36.5 minutes.
And now, he’s four wins away from being in the same company as the greatest shooter of all time.
Draymond Green explained his reasoning for why Milwaukee Bucks superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo isn’t the greatest power forward of this era.
The Warriors’ power forward was asked if he agreed or disagreed with the assertion that Antetokounmpo is the best player at that position right now.
“I’m going to disagree,” Green told Baron Davis on “The Draymond Green Show.” “And the reason I disagree is this. Giannis has played in an era where it kind of became positionless basketball. And I don’t necessarily think that Giannis is a power forward and has been [during his career]. And that’s why I disagree with that.
“Because Giannis is one of the greatest players of this era, and the game was kind of positionless. What made people start calling Giannis a power forward is because you had to start putting power forwards in the center [position] on Giannis [to guard him].”
Antetokounmpo possesses one of the NBA’s most versatile skill sets, able to penetrate to the rim while also serving as the primary ballhandler. Few players in the league’s history have possessed such a unique combination of size and speed, making it a special challenge to build a team around him.
Green understands this, and the way the Bucks have surrounded Antetokounmpo with shooters might lead one to believe he was playing as a power forward.
“The team that you build around Giannis because his skillset is so great driving and getting downhill, that you put a lot of shooting around him,” Green told Davis. “So then when people look at the game, they’re like, ‘Oh, well Jrue Holiday must be this position, and Chris Middleton must be this position, and Brooke Lopez is the five,’ ok great, so Giannis is a power forward.
“But if you look at the great power forwards. Giannis doesn’t play like Tim Duncan; Giannis doesn’t play like Kevin Garnett. So, I think people are being lazy and don’t understand what they’re looking at, and so they pigeonhole him into the power forward position. And I just don’t think that’s very accurate.”
The modern game of basketball relies on players like Antetokounmpo, who can effectively play multiple positions. Instead of rigid positions and offensive sets, players are expected to have versatility. Essentially, the game has broken down into long-range shooters (mainly guards) and interior players (forwards and centers) who can also move the ball and take shots from beyond the arc.
The evolution of the game makes historical comparisons at each position tenuous at best. Just looking at a shot chart from 2005 versus 2025 shows how dramatically things have changed.
Green is a student of the sport, having started his career when his teammates Steph Curry and Klay Thompson revolutionized the 3-point shot. So, he’s well aware of the seismic change the NBA has undergone in the past decade, with a shift towards more positionless basketball.
Wednesday was the deadline for players to withdraw from the 2025 NBA Draft and return to college basketball for the 2025-26 season, and a bunch of them ultimately made that decision.
Here’s the list of players ranked in ESPN’s top 100 list that decided to go back to school, per Jonathan Givony:
26. Yaxel Lendeborg (Michigan)
31. Alex Condon (Florida)
38. Tahaad Pettiford (Auburn)
41. Milos Uzan (Houston)
42. Boogie Fland (Florida)
43. Labaron Philon (Alabama)
44. Isaiah Evans (Duke)
46. Darrion Williams (NC State)
51. Miles Byrd (San Diego State)
56. Karter Knox (Arkansas)
58. Mackenzie Mgbako (Texas A&M)
64. PJ Haggerty (Kansas State)
72. Otega Oweh (Kentucky)
80. Bruce Thornton (Ohio State)
“Not only did we see the lowest number of early-entrant candidates (106) in a decade, but another dozen or so draftable prospects withdrew at the deadline, making this one of the shallowest second rounds we’ve seen in a few years,” Givony wrote Thursday.
How do these withdrawals impact the Celtics? Well, many of the players in the list above could have been targets for the C’s, who own the No. 28 overall pick in the first round and the second pick of the second round (No. 32 overall) in next month’s draft.
For example, recent mock drafts from Sam Vecenie of The Athletic and Adam Finkelstein of CBS Sports projected the Celtics taking Alabama wing Labaron Philon, but he has since decided to go back to the Crimson Tide for another season.
Alex Condon was another popular mock draft pick for the Celtics at No. 28. The Florida big man played a key role in the Gators winning a national championship this past season, and he decided earlier this week to return to Gainesville for his junior campaign.
Why are so many players going back to school? The rise in NIL (Name, Image and Likeness) deals is definitely a factor. Players who are likely to be drafted late in the first round or early second round can stay in school and potentially earn more money there than they might as a rookie in the NBA.
Celtics president of basketball operations Brad Stevens told NBC Sports Boston’s Chris Forsberg earlier this month that the depth of this year’s draft class could be impacted more by NIL than any other in his Boston tenure.
“I think this year’s draft class more than any ever has been affected by the NIL and affected by the new pay-for-play,” Stevens told Forsberg on May 20, as seen in the video player below. “I think people in college, whether they’re saying it or not, got ahead of the new NIL restrictions and kept people in school. And then there’s a lot of people deciding whether they’re going back or not.
“I think this draft more than any other will probably be affected by that, as far as the back end of the draft and even into the late first round. People will have really hard decisions to make. ‘Do I come into the NBA and make this much money slotted for this many years, or do I take a huge payday from some school?’ That’s the world we live in.”
Stevens later added: “The money can be higher in some of these schools than the bottom of the 20s in the draft.”
NIL isn’t the only reason for players to stay in school. Some of them like the college experience, and some of them might want to go back to improve their skills and be a higher pick in the future, etc.
NIL could actually end up being a positive for the NBA because players who remain in college for longer would, in theory, have a more well-rounded skill set when they eventually make the jump to the pros.
So, what’s next for the Celtics after so many players in their pick range decided to return to college?
The Celtics’ biggest need is in the frontcourt. Al Horford and Luke Kornet are unrestricted free agents this offseason. Kristaps Porzingis has one more year on his contract and has been injury prone most of his career. Therefore, it would make sense to target a center, preferably one who can stretch the floor as an outside shooter.
A strong case could also be made to just draft the best player available. The Celtics need talent, especially players who can score, with Jayson Tatum potentially missing most or all of next season as he recovers from Achilles surgery. Big men are important, but guards and wings win you games in today’s NBA.
Looking for the best player available who can contribute right away is probably the ideal strategy for Boston. A long-term development project doesn’t make sense for where the C’s are right now.
Overall, this is a very important draft for the Celtics. They have an expensive roster as a second apron team. The best way to maximize you roster’s depth around high-salary veterans is to draft good players who are on cheap rookie contracts. Valuable players like Jaden McDaniels, Christian Braun, Andrew Nembhard and others have been found late in the first or second rounds in recent drafts.
Can the Celtics find a similarly effective player at No. 28 or No. 32? That is one of Stevens’ challenges over the next month.
Editor’s Note: As the Celtics enter a critically important offseason, Chris Forsberg is exploring three different paths Boston can take this summer, each with their own pros and cons for the short- and long-term future of the franchise. Part I involved “threading the needle.”Part II featured a “full reboot.” The final path: a “Golden State Bridge.”
Let’s start this final entry with a brief rant.
If we learned anything from our deep dives into Boston’s potential offseason paths, it’s that the NBA really screwed up by not rewarding teams for developing homegrown talent in its latest collective bargaining agreement.
The Celtics find themselves with excruciating offseason choices, most notably having to potentially move core players drafted and developed.
Instead of being rewarded for building organically, Boston has been handcuffed by the accolades of its draftees. Instead of offering some sort of incentive for teams to build through the draft, the NBA is penalizing the Celtics because their stars were deemed to be among the 15 best players in the league, which maximized the percentage of the cap they were able to sign for on new deals.
The new CBA makes it virtually impossible to build a sustainable roster around two supermax players earning 35 percent of the cap, which will be the case with Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown this summer when Tatum’s extension kicks in.
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The NBA should consider offering some sort of tax exemption to teams that don’t simply purchase significant parts of their roster. If you want to protest that Boston did such by adding Kristaps Porzingis and Jrue Holiday to set up their title win, we’d push back that two other homegrown products were at the centerpiece of those deals in Marcus Smart and Robert Williams III.
The constraints of this new CBA are going to leave teams hoping that their stars don’t hit All-NBA status or earn other season awards, because it will further complicate the financial puzzle. Instead of embracing successes, fanbases are left celebrating snubs. It’s absurd.
But we digress. The same CBA that is trying to tear Boston’s championship core apart also might produce the sort of league-wide parity that could help the Celtics acquire the necessary parts to chase Banner 19.
For Part 3 of this series, we’re pondering a path where teams craving their own slice of Boston’s championship DNA might help build a bridge to the next championship team.
And we’re hunting for hints with the 2022 Golden State Warriors.
Objectives of this path:
Maintain much of the core, but understand the bumps ahead.
Use interest in veteran pieces to generate future assets.
The road map:
Maintain a core of Tatum, Brown and Derrick White.
Load manage the stars over the next two seasons and lean into youth.
Focus on returning to title contention for 2027-28 season.
Path 3 here tries to do a little bit of both, and — a bit ironically — seeks to replicate what the 2022 Warriors did before upending the Celtics in the NBA Finals that year.
Essentially, the Celtics would embrace the reality that the next two seasons could be bumpy, but all eyes would be on giving this core another chance to tap into their championship DNA in the 2027-28 season.
Why this path might not make sense:
Even while preserving a Tatum/Brown/Derrick White core, there is little room to work with on the fringes.
Two of those players will be over the age of 30 by the time that 2026-27 season starts. What’s more, there are still obstacles to getting out of the tax long-term, and Boston has to nail its draft and development along the way.
In a way, it’s threading an even more fine needle than we pondered in Path 1.
Before we travel down this path…
Let’s zip through three paths we didn’t choose for this series, but that we spent way too much time considering along the way:
1. The ‘Get more Derrick Whites’ path
No, we’re not cloning him (unless you’ve got the technology to do that). We’re trying to make a bunch of trades that bring back versatile, budget-friendly players who could blossom in elevated roles.
Alas, Boston’s most tradable assets make too much money to swing those sort of deals, at least without taking back bulky expiring salary in the process. It’s nearly impossible to find deal that brings back a Deni Avdija or a Tari Eason that works for both sides.
2. The ‘We’re getting the band back together’ path
You knew were weren’t doing this entire series without concocting a way to get Robert Williams III back in green.
In this scenario, the Celtics move on from both Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis but open pathways to (eventually) bringing back Smart and Williams III.
Preposterous? Both Smart and Williams III will be free agents after the 2025-26 season and should command less than their current contracts. The Celtics also could generate a disabled player exception this year if a league-approved doctor determines it’s more likely than not that Tatum will not play in the 2025-26 season.
The DPE is typically worth half the value of a player’s salary but is capped at the non taxpayer midlevel, or roughly $14 million. It can be used to sign a free agent or trade for a player in the final year of his contract, and — well, well, well — Williams III checks all those boxes. (Let’s ignore the fact that Boston would still have to pay the tax on that addition.)
Bottom line: It’s possible and you can’t convince my nostalgia-loving heart it’s not.
It’s hard to draw too much from how the Warriors navigated their own bridge period. Golden State benefited from getting a robust return when Kevin Durant left to join the Brooklyn Nets. While D’Angelo Russell didn’t exactly pan out with the Warriors, he was flipped to Minnesota for Andrew Wiggins, who was a vital piece in Golden State’s 2022 title run (as Celtics fans know too well).
What it does hammer home is how getting some sort of youthful return for outgoing pieces could be vital in the long-term quest.
In Part 1, we wondered if the Celtics could take on the money of someone like Daniel Gafford or P.J. Washington while moving Holiday to Dallas. In this path, the goal is hoping teams fold in a prized young asset (or draft pick) as the Celtics get off Holiday’s money.
Here’s where parity needs to come into play. The Celtics need teams to be willing to splurge a bit — even on a 35-year-old Holiday — to maximize the return (and also limit what the Celtics might have to spend in draft assets to move his money).
Doing that without eating a large, cumbersome salary isn’t easy. You might have to spend a draft asset just to get another team to take on some of the incoming money. And the teams that might yearn for Holiday’s services, such as the Mavericks, Lakers, and Clippers, don’t have the young pieces to send out.
The bigger theme here is patience. Maybe Brown elects to pursue surgery on his knee and is paced through the 2025-26 season while Tatum rehabs for the entirety as well. There’s a chance for an earlier launch with the 2026-27 season, but even that campaign could be about staying under the tax and making sure everyone is back near their full powers.
Maybe it’s as simple as Boston trying to generate as many 2026 draft picks as possible, both while enduring their lumps next season but also trying to fetch that as a primary return in all their dealings.
There are other pain points, too. Al Horford would be north of 40 before the team is ready to compete again. Could the team splurge to keep Luke Kornet around long-term? Sam Hauser could be a cap casualty along the way as well — an unfair reality after being developed as an undrafted talent.
Essentially, this path puts the pressure on Brad Stevens to accumulate assets in the short term before a hard relaunch around an older core. Like everything in this series, it’s not without risks.
But the Warriors at least showed there’s a pathway back to title contention, even if you have to take a big step back to get there.
Warriors guard Brandin Podziemski underwent successful debridement surgery on his left shooting wrist Tuesday in Los Angeles, the team announced.
He is expected to make a full recovery and be ready for the start of training camp in October.
Debridement surgery is a procedure where damaged, dead or infected tissue is removed from a wound to promote healing. It’s unclear when he first had issues with his wrist, and the Warriors never announced a wrist injury for Podziemski, who suffered a broken nose, an abdominal injury and a back injury last season.
Podziemski became a key part of coach Steve Kerr’s rotation toward the end of the 2024-25 regular season. The 22-year-old started the final 23 games for Golden State, averaging 15.6 points on 46.2-percent shooting from the field and 43.1 percent from 3-point range, with 5.8 rebounds, 3.3 assists and 1.1 steals in 30.1 minutes.
But the young guard struggled mightily throughout Golden State’s postseason run, shooting just 36.4 percent from the field and 32.8 percent from downtown in 32.1 minutes through 12 games (11 starts).
The Warriors announced last week that young guard Moses Moody also underwent successful surgery to repair a torn Ulnar Collateral Ligament (UCL) in his right thumb. Moody underwent the procedure in Los Angeles and, like Podziemski, is expected to make a full recovery in time for the start of training camp.
It appears Steph Curry might not have been the only one banged up during the Warriors’ playoff push.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had five of his eight assists in the opening quarter [Getty Images]
The Oklahoma City Thunder "have a lot more work to do" after reaching their first NBA Finals since 2012 with a win against the Minnesota Timberwolves, says Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
The NBA's Most Valuable Player (MVP) scored 34 points, seven rebounds and eight assists in the 124-94 victory as the Thunder won the best-of-seven Western Conference finals series 4-1.
The Thunder remain on course for a first NBA title, having been beaten by the Miami Heat in 2012.
"This is a step in the right direction but we have a lot more work to do to get to our ultimate goal, so let's buckle up and get ready," said Gilgeous-Alexander.
"That's all that I'm focused on. This isn't the end of our road."
The Thunder will host game one of the Finals next Thursday, when they face the winners of the Eastern Conference finals between the Indiana Pacers and the New York Knicks for the NBA title. Indiana lead the series 3-1 with game five on Thursday.
Gilgeous-Alexander joins Steph Curry, LeBron James and Kobe Bryant as the only players in the past 20 years to reach the Finals in the same year as winning the MVP.
The 26-year-old Canadian, also named Western Conference MVP on Wednesday, is on course to become the first scoring champion since Shaquille O'Neal in 2000 to win an NBA title in the same season.
Chet Holmgren added 22 points while Jalen Williams also scored 19 for the Thunder, who are the youngest team in the NBA Finals since the Portland Trail Blazers in 1977, with an average age of 25.6 years.
Gilgeous-Alexander added: "These guys really make me feel like I'm a kid playing AAU basketball, like I'm 15 years old again.
"It's just fun. That's what makes us really good. We have so much fun being out there together."
Meanwhile, the Timberwolves saw their season end in the conference finals for the second year running, having lost to the Dallas Mavericks last year.
"They dominated the game from the tip," said Anthony Edwards, who scored 19 points for the Timberwolves, who were led by Julius Randle with 24 points.
We do this thing as sports fans where we say a team or player can’t win it all, until they do. Some fans wanted to break up Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown in Boston until the organization’s patience paid off with a banner No. 18. It’s not new — there was a time when it was popular to say Michael Jordan couldn’t win the big one — and it’s not just basketball, ask the Philadelphia Eagles’ Jalen Hurts.
There were plenty of fans and some knowledgeable people inside basketball heading into the playoffs who were not convinced that Oklahoma City was any more than a good regular-season team.
All those questions have been answered. Those critics have been silenced.
With a chance to make the NBA Finals on the line, the Oklahoma City Thunder blew out the Minnesota Timberwolves, 124-94, to take the series 4-1. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 34 and was rightfully named Western Conference Finals MVP.
SHAI DOMINATES GAME 5.
⛈️ 34 points, 7 boards, 8 dimes ⛈️ 10th 30+ point game of playoffs ⛈️ WCF MVP
Oklahoma City will host Game 1 of the NBA Finals on June 5. The Thunder will be heavy favorites to win the title, regardless of whether the Pacers or Knicks come to town next week.
While SGA was fantastic and Chet Holmgren added 22 points and Jalen Williams 19, it was the Thunder defense that won them this game, and this series. Oklahoma City came out on Wednesday with defensive pressure that once again had Minnesota on its heels, and the Timberwolves started the game 1-of-11, putting them in a hole.
The Timberwolves shot just 3-of-20 in the first quarter. Minnesota scored 32 first-half points with an offensive rating of 61.5 (compared to 125 for Oklahoma City), and they trailed by 33 at that point. Julius Randle and Anthony Edwards combined for `17 first half points on 17 shot attempts with five turnovers.
While the Timberwolves made a couple of pushes, the game was never in doubt in the final 24 minutes.
Boston Celtics president of basketball operations Brad Stevens has had to make some tough decisions since replacing Danny Ainge in 2021. This upcoming offseason, however, is shaping up to be his most challenging yet.
Will Stevens channel his inner “Trader Danny”? Yahoo Sports’ NBA insider Kevin O’Connor made the case for Stevens to maximize his players’ trade value this offseason.
“I think back to Danny Ainge,” O’Connor told co-hosts Drew Carter and Chris Forsberg on NBC Sports Boston’s The OffC’season special. “Danny Ainge, what did he do when he traded Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce to the Brooklyn Nets? Two things: A, he traded them before they fell off a cliff. Before they aged out and before they were near retirement. And B, he took advantage of a completely desperate franchise in the Brooklyn Nets. That’s why they got Jayson Tatum, that’s why they got Jaylen Brown, that’s why they had 10 straight years of making the playoffs and why they won a Finals.”
Of course, Pierce was 35 and past his prime when he and the Celtics parted ways. Kevin Garnett was 36 and his best days were well behind him.
Boston’s most valuable trade chips, Jaylen Brown and Derrick White, are 29 and 31, respectively. Both are in the prime of their careers.
Trading oft-injured 30-year-old big man Kristaps Porzingis or 35-year-old guard Jrue Holiday seems more realistic, though O’Connor wouldn’t take anything off the table if another general manager calls Stevens with an enticing offer.
“For Stevens, he needs to find the most desperate team,” O’Connor added. “Whether that means Brown or White, or whether it means (Kristaps) Porzingis as an expiring salary, or whether it means Jrue Holiday as the final piece for the Dallas Mavericks and Nico Harrison’s vision. Whatever it is, finding the most desperate team to get the best value back based off of how you perceive your own player.
“That could be a lot of pain. It might mean trading Derrick White. But if the Warriors are going to give you a Mikal Bridges type of deal — like four, five first-round picks — how do you say no? You can’t say no.”
No matter what direction Stevens chooses, all signs point toward an uncomfortable offseason in Boston. The championship window may not be closed, but the window to win it all again with the 2024 core almost certainly has.
Watch the full “OffC’Season” episode below or on YouTube:
After five games on the sidelines, WNBA superstar Caitlin Clark has been freed from her de facto "assistant coach" role. Friday afternoon, the Indiana Fever announced that Clark has been cleared to play in Saturday's game against the undefeated New York Liberty.
Check out Rotoworld’s newly-launched WNBA Player News section, the best place to keep up to date with transactions, injuries, and game results around the W this season!
How did Caitlin Clark get injured?
The Fever announced on May 26 thatClark would be out for at least two weeks with a strained left quadriceps muscle. The reigning WNBA Rookie of the Year has gotten off to a good start to her second season, averaging 19.0 points, 6.0 rebounds, 9.3 assists, 1.3 steals, 1.0 blocks and 2.8 three-pointers in 34.9 minutes.
The exact timing of Clark's injury is unknown. She dealt with a left leg injury during the preseason, sitting out Indiana's May 3 opener against the Washington Mystics. However, that was the first of two games in as many days for the Fever, who face Brazil's national team in Iowa City the following day. Clark was on the floor for her "homecoming," playing 19 minutes and finishing with 16 points, six rebounds, five assists, one blocked shot and four three-pointers in the blowout victory. Clark also played 23 minutes in Indiana's preseason finale against the Atlanta Dream on May 10.
Fever coach Stephanie White said during her availability on May 27 that this injury is not related to the leg issue that Clark dealt with during the preseason. Clark played 38 minutes in Indiana's two-point loss to the Liberty on May 24 and would then undergo an MRI on her quad. The strain would be discovered then, sidelining the point guard for at least two weeks.
How many games did Caitlin Clark miss?
While the initial timeline announced by the Fever meant Clark would miss a minimum of four games, she would miss five. The fifth was Indiana's 77-58 loss to Atlanta on June 10, dropping the Fever to 4-5 overall and 2-1 in Commissioner's Cup competition. The good news for Indiana is that it is still in second place in the East in the cup competition, with New York boasting a 3-0 record ahead of Saturday's matchup.
While New York (+75) would still hold a decided advantage over the Fever (+17) in the point differential category, an Indiana victory would tighten up the race for the top spot in the East.
Who filled in for Caitlin Clark?
When Clark was injured, Fever coach Stephanie White moved veteran guard Sydney Colson into the starting lineup. In the five games she started, Colson averaged 4.0 points and 2.4 assists in 21.4 minutes. Also, she was injured during Indiana's May 30 loss to Connecticut, but did not miss any time beyond the remainder of that contest.
Alsosuffering an injury during Clark's absence was reserve guard Sophie Cunningham, who sprained her right ankle for the second time this season during the aforementioned loss to the Sun. Clark has not appeared in a game since and will not be available for Saturday's game against New York.
The player who benefited the most from Clark's injury was Aari McDonald, who was signed on a hardship exemption on June 1. In three appearances, the 2021 first-round pick averaged 11.0 points, 3.0 assists, 2.0 steals and 2.0 three-pointers in 25.3 minutes, shooting 42.9 percent from the field and 69.2 percent from the foul line.
Indiana won two of the three games McDonald played in, with the lone defeat being Tuesday's loss to Atlanta. Clark's return moved Indiana back to 10 game-eligible players, meaning that McDonald had to be released in a corresponding move. Her brief stint with the Fever may be enough to get McDonald a look from another WNBA team soon.
