Category: Basketball

Hall of Fame coach Doc Rivers is officially calling it quits from coaching, but the NBA lifer will still be around the league in a familiar capacity.

Rivers will join NBC Sports as a NBA game analyst, where he will continue to display his knowledge and expertise of more than 40 years in the league as a player and coach.

The veteran broadcaster will be seen across NBC, Peacock and NBCSN, the NBA announced on Monday, Sept. 21.

“I loved playing the game, I loved coaching it, and I’ve always loved talking about it,” Rivers said in a statement. “I have great memories working with NBC, and I’m excited to be back and share my perspective alongside such a talented team. This season should be a lot of fun. I can’t wait.”

Doc Rivers' extensive NBA resumé

Rivers was selected by the Atlanta Hawks in the 1983 NBA Draft with the 31st overall pick in the second round. He went to play 14 NBA seasons and earned an All-Star selection in 1988, playing with the Hawks, Los Angeles Clippers, New York Knicks and San Antonio Spurs before hanging up the jersey.

Three years later, Rivers stepped back into the league, this time with a suit and clipboard as he coached the Orlando Magic from 1999 to 2003, winning Coach of the Year in 2000. He then agreed to a deal with the Boston Celtics, where Rivers won his first and only NBA championship in 2008.

He went on to coach one of his former teams, leading Clippers from 2013 to 2020 and becoming the winningest coach in franchise history.

He spent the final years of his coaching career with the Philadelphia 76ers and Milwaukee Bucks before his retirement.

Rivers is highly regarded for his 2008 NBA title in Boston, but what he was able to accomplish in Los Angeles could make him the greatest Clipper of all time. Consider this:

Is Doc Rivers the greatest Clipper of all time?

Well before Rivers was named one of the NBA's "15 Greatest NBA Coaches," he played for the Clippers in 1991 following a draft day trade for the No. 9 overall pick in that year's draft, which became Stacey Augmon. Rivers was the Clippers' starting point guard and led them to their first winning season and playoff appearance in Los Angeles at 45-37, a 14-win differential from the previous season. As the Clippers, the franchise had only tallied one winning season prior to Rivers' arrival, their inaugural 1978-79 campaign in San Diego.

Rivers averaged 10.9 points, 3.9 assists and 1.9 steals in 59 games played. He was traded in the offseason to the Knicks just before the start of the 1992-93 season. But it wouldn't be the last time Rivers was a significant part of the Clippers organization.

Decades after he'd been traded from the Clippers, Rivers became their head coach and senior vice president of basketball operations. The Clippers traded for Rivers in 2013, sending the Celtics an unprotected 2015 NBA first-round draft pick in a rare coaching transaction.

Rivers didn't win a championship like he did with Boston, but he helped turn Los Angeles into a perennial playoff team throughout his tenure. For the first time in history, the Clippers were considered the better basketball team in L.A. while under Rivers' direction. In his seven seasons, the Clippers only missed the playoffs once.

Rivers has the best record of among all Clippers coaches with an overall 356-208 record and a .631 winning percentage. Other coaches on that listed include Vinny Del Negro, Mike Dunleavy, Tyronn Lue and Jack Ramsay.

The Clippers are the only NBA franchise that hasn't retired a player's number. There is no jersey hanging in the rafters for Chris Paul, Blake Griffin, Deandre Jordan, Kawhi Leonard, Paul George, James Harden, Elton Brand, Darius Miles, Lamar Odom, Norm Nixon or Danny Manning.

Maybe, just maybe the Clippers will consider No. 25 – or No. 356.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Doc Rivers played one season for the Clippers. He may be LA's GOAT

A recent Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame enshrinee is moving to the broadcast booth and is insisting he’s retiring from coaching.

Long-time NBA lifer Doc Rivers, who most recently served as coach of the Milwaukee Bucks last season and who has more than 40 years of experience in the NBA as a player and coach, will be joining NBC Sports as an analyst for broadcasts during the 2026-27 season, which begins next month.

The move was announced Monday, Sept. 21, in a press release.

Elsewhere, in an interview with the Associated Press, Rivers insisted that he would no longer pursue coaching opportunities, as he transitions to his role in the media, saying he was “absolutely retired.”

And with his new gig, Rivers will join his son, Austin, who is also an analyst for NBC Sports and who regularly appears on broadcasts.

In fact, six of Rivers’ former players — Grant Hill, Tracy McGrady, Brian Scalabrine, Jamal Crawford and his son — are currently part of NBC’s coverage team of the NBA.

Rivers was inducted into the Hall of Fame in August as part of the Class of 2026. Just months earlier, he had concluded his 27^th season as head coach when the Bucks finished 32-50, missing the playoffs.

He ranks sixth all-time in victories (1,194) and fourth in games coached (2,060). He won his only NBA championship in 2008, as the coach of the Boston Celtics.

This won’t be Rivers’ first stint in broadcasting, and it won’t even be his first stint with NBC; he served as a studio analyst during the 2012 London Olympics. Rivers also worked for Turner Sports in 1996 and also worked briefly for ESPN in 2003-04 and 2023, when he had been in between coaching jobs.

“I loved playing the game, I loved coaching it and I’ve always loved talking about it,” Rivers said in a statement that published Monday. “I have great memories working with NBC, and I’m excited to be back and share my perspective alongside such a talented team. This season should be a lot of fun. I can’t wait.”

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: NBA lifer Doc Rivers says he's 'absolutely retired.' Here's what's next

After being signed in August, guard Malachi Smith has now joined the team on a two-way contract as of today, September 21st.

On social media, Smith thanked God before asking where the best places to eat are in the city. It’s this kind of mentality, starving for a chance, that will make Smith fit in well on the Raptors this year.

Thank you Jesus… you get all the GLORY ❤️🙏🏾 Toronto I need some food spots 👀 https://t.co/msFyFLdkXQ

— Malachi Smith ✝️ (@maliworld11) September 21, 2026

Smith played his first season in the NBA last year, having started out in the G League in 2023, and earned the collegiate Sixth Man of the Year award in the West Coast Conference in 2023. He is a shooting guard in the most literal sense of the term: roughly half of his shots last year were from the three point line, and he made 43% of them on solid volume for a bench player on the Brooklyn Nets. More shooting is something that the Raptors could always use, and it seems that between Jamison Battle, Ja’Kobe Walter, and now, Malachi Smith, we’re assembling some solid firepower on our second unit.

In last year’s second-to-last game against the Milwaukee Bucks, Smith was slotted into the starting lineup and exploded for a near-triple-double of 19 points, 10 assists, and 8 rebounds. Now, the last week of regular season basketball is always filled with inflated statlines, but Smith’s facilitation looked solid, making the open passes but knowing when he had to knock down a shot, not turning away from the need to contribute to scoring. In their final game of last year’s regular season, the Nets played the Raptors, where Smith contributed eight points, six assists, and five rebounds, shooting 33% from three.

Smith should be able to contribute well both to the Raps and the Raptors 905, bringing some extra offensive juice to a team that needs to develop itself on that side of the ball.

Jaden Bradley will enter his rookie season in the NBA with some significant job security.

The Toronto Raptors announced Monday that they have converted the former Arizona point guard’s two-way deal to a multiyear contract. Michael Scotto of HoopsHype reports the deal is a four-year contract worth $9.3 million.

The Toronto Raptors converted rookie two-way guard Jaden Bradley to a 4-year, $9.3 million deal, league sources told @hoopshype. This first year of the deal is guaranteed. Bradley was the 50th pick of the 2026 NBA Draft out of Arizona, where he was the Big 12 Player of the Year. pic.twitter.com/2FV8dB6S7J

— Michael Scotto (@MikeAScotto) September 21, 2026

Bradley was selected 50th overall by Toronto in the NBA Draft. By extending a multiyear contract to Bradley ahead of the season, the Raptors are making it known that they plan to utilize the 6-foot guard as a significant role player this year and beyond.

One reason the Raptors opted to announce the deal now could be that they were waiting on the Kawhi Leonard trade to become official after the NBA halted the transaction while it investigated Leonard’s salary cap circumvention with the Los Angeles Raptors. The trade, which was finalized last week, sent Brandon Ingram and Gradey Dick to the Clippers in exchange for Leonard.

More than likely the Raptors had been planning to convert Bradley’s two-way deal for months but couldn’t fully go through with it until the Leonard deal had been completed.

Bradley will compete for minutes at the point guard spot, backing up starter Immanuel Quickley. Toronto also has former Houston guard Jamal Shead on its roster.

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We have completed our 2026 summer project of determining who the biggest Spurs Villain of all time is, and while the result shouldn’t be at all surprising when taking in context with the timing, I’ll admit it wasn’t the result I expected when we first concocted this idea a little over a month ago (more on that below). Beating out Zaza Pachulia (the dirtiest player to ever face the Spurs) to win the entire tournament is the person who played an even bigger role in the franchise’s downturn: the infamous Dennis Robertson: uncle to Kawhi Leonard and destroyer of two franchises (and counting).

Uncle Dennis first came into the purview of Spurs fans during the 2017-18 season, when shocking rumors started to swirl that Leonard was unhappy, claiming that they had misdiagnosed a quad injury — which mind you was unrelated to the Pachulia foul — as a chronic issue. They allowed him to seek a second medical opinion, and away he went to New York for “rehab”, hardly ever returning and even hiding in a closet when Spurs representatives came to check on him. As the negative reports kept trickling out all season, everything was being referred to has coming from “Kawhi’s group”, which we would soon learn was his agent at the time, Mitch Frankel, and uncle and representative, Dennis Robertson.

As rumors kept swirling and the media seemed to be taking Kawhi’s side on everything, the Spurs finally revealed their side of things through Michael C. Wright of ESPN, who wrote in part:

After Leonard and (former agent Brian) Elfus parted ways, Robertson and Frankel took over the day-to-day communication with the Spurs, and the relationship hasn’t been nearly as healthy, according to Spurs sources.

Multiple league sources also told ESPN that the Spurs have grown worried that Leonard’s group has an ulterior motive to fray the relationship and get Leonard traded to a larger market such as Los Angeles (Leonard’s hometown) or New York or Philadelphia (Robertson lives in New Jersey).

By that point, it was clear who was running the show, and we all know what happened from there. (If you really want to relive the whole saga that was 2017-18, go back and check out the entire timeline of events. That was just my second season covering the Spurs here at PtR, and I remember being both honored and terrified that J.R. Wilco gave me that project. But his words were prophetic: he told me we‘d need it to reference back to both for ourselves and to show to doubters in the future, and I still use it plenty.)

It was clear everything evolved around what Dennis wanted, and Kawhi was just along for the ride. That continued to be the case as he allegedly demanded impermissible benefits from at least the Raptors, Lakers and Clippers during 2019 free agency. As we now know, the Clippers acquiesced, much to their own determent, and it didn’t even pay off! The Spurs’ were proven right about Kawhi’s health issues being chronic; the Clippers never reached the finals with him or his desired running mate of Paul George, whom they acquired for future MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. (They reportedly demanded the Spurs trade for George as well, but they said no since they had just gotten LaMarcus Aldridge.)

Uncle Dennis is a villain who helped send the Spurs from seemingly set to keep contending after the Big 3 era to stuck in mediocrity and eventually rebuild mode. Sure, we could say, “but we wouldn’t have Wemby, Castle or Harper now,” and while likely true, the amount of luck involved especially with Wemby can’t be overlooked, and with a different bounce of the lottery balls, the Spurs could still be in purgatory. The fact is many of their sterling records were broken by Kawhi quitting/leaving, such as the streak of 50-win seasons and 22 straight years in the playoffs, and their number of years outside the playoffs grew by 250%, from four to ten before they returned this year.

Now here is where the surprise comes in. Back in the Final Four, I said it was up to the voters to decide if they blamed Uncle Dennis for influencing Kawhi to make all this happen, or if Kawhi was to blame for going along with it. Based on the boos and Kawhi at least publicly being Villain #1 over the last nine seasons, I thought for sure he would win, so the fact that not only did he not make the finals surprise me, but also the finals ending up putting him in a victim role, which is more than a bit ironic.

But that just goes show how manipulative a human being Uncle Dennis is, and you all aren’t wrong. Whether or not the Aspiration Scandal — which had nothing to do with the Spurs — played a role in his victory here is beside the point. He ended up being a terrible role model for his nephew, who was just looking for a father figure and someone to trust after he tragically lost his own. Robertson took complete advantage, all while being so good at keeping a low profile that I had to recycle the same header photo from a few articles ago because it was one of only a handful of photos I could find of him, and this is the only one that either didn’t have text on it from a social media post or wouldn’t come out blurry on our site.

So congratulations, Uncle Dennis: you are officially the most villainous character in Spurs history, and that is saying A LOT considering some of the competition you had to compete with.

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Once again, we want to thank everyone who participated! I know some see this as simply space filler for the offseason, and it would be a lie to say that isn’t at least part of it, but there is also much more to it than that. It gives us something fun to team up on after what can be a very long 9-10 months of covering the regular season, playoffs, draft, free agency and Summer League. It also allows us to let out our creative sides a bit, and it makes for some fun teamwork and conversation during the dull time of the year. A special thank you also goes to Jesus Gomez, Jacob Douglas and Bill Huan for helping with the posts; with my current (other) work schedule, I never would have gotten this done in a timely manner without them.

We’re almost there, Pounders. Media Day is next Monday!

The Toronto Raptors are signing their 2026 second-round rookie Jaden Bradley to a multi-year contract, according to the team on Monday.

Bradley averaged 6.4 points and 3.2 assists in 20 minutes during Summer League. The highlight of his first stint as a professional came during a 15-point performance in a thrilling 94-93 win over the Indiana Pacers.

The six-foot-three guard is the reigning Big 12 Player of the Year. Teammate Jamal Shead won the same award in 2023-24. Bradley also earned Big 12 First-Team and All-Defensive Team honours.

During his senior year with the Arizona Wildcats, Bradley scored a season-high 27 points in a 93-87 win against the Florida Gators. That game also featured Canadian Xaivian Lee, who started for the Gators.

Bradley is likely to make appearances with the Raptors 905 while attempting to earn minutes behind Shead during the early stages of his rookie season.

The Clippers have found the temporary replacement for the franchise’s majority owner/CEO Steve Ballmer. 

John Gibson, a Los Angeles-based lawyer, has been named the franchise’s interim governor and CEO.

The decision came after Ballmer was suspended for one year after the NBA’s investigation into the franchise’s salary cap circumvention allegations for former star forward Kawhi Leonard found that the league initiated “off-court income opportunities” for Leonard with four different companies that also did business with the team.

Gibson is a longtime Clippers season-ticket holder and was a “nationally recognized trial lawyer and litigation partner”, the Clippers stated, at DLA Piper in Los Angeles. 

He’s a graduate of Harvard University and the University of Michigan Law School.

While an individual needs to have an ownership stake of at least 15% to be an NBA franchise’s governor, an interim governor doesn’t need to hold an ownership interest in the franchise, a league source told the California Post, but they must be a director, officer or authorized employee of the team.

Ballmer (99%) and Dennis Wong (1%) are the Clippers’ only known owners.

As interim CEO and Governor, Gibson will oversee the Clippers’ basketball and business operations and represent the organization on NBA governance matters.

“I am honored to take on this responsibility and grateful for the opportunity to serve an organization I have supported for many years,” Gibson said in the statement via the Clippers. “The Clippers have talented players, coaches, and staff, an extraordinary home in Intuit Dome, and passionate Clipper Nation fans who, like me, care deeply about this team. My focus will be on supporting our people, providing steady leadership, and helping the organization continue moving forward.”

Gibson’s appointment came nearly three weeks after the NBA handed down its harshest punishments after a year-long investigation by the law firm of Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz.

Along with Ballmer’s suspension, the NBA issued the Clippers a $30 million fine, forced the franchise to forfeit five first-round picks and suspended president of business operations Gillian Zucker (one year) and president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank (six months).

Ballmer issued a statement last week making it clear he and the franchise was accepting the penalties.

Leonard was forced to pay the NBA $700,000 for restitution for improper benefits provided by the Clippers, while his uncle and former business manager, Dennis Robertson, has been banned by the NBA from all business dealings for five years.

As training camp approaches, the Knicks have a couple final open roster spots to fill before beginning their attempted repeat. Similar to last year, they’ve invited a group of veterans to camp to battle it out for a seat on the bench in the regular season.

Wings Ochai Agbaji, Bruce Brown and John Konchar join bigs Drew Eubanks and James Wiseman as the group working to impress head coach Mike Brown. With camp around the corner and tough decisions left to be made, let’s break down each of these invitees and what they might bring to the 2026 NBA Champion Knicks.

Ochai Agbaji

In an ironic turn of events, Agbaji was a key piece in the trade that landed Donovan Mitchell in Cleveland over New York after an intense summer of negotiations. The 6’5” wing with a 6’10” wingspan was a lottery pick for his 3-and-D potential. Unfortunately, he hasn’t panned out fully, spending his four NBA seasons on three separate teams. 

He’s an active defender, but his shooting has been hit-or-miss. There’s definitely upside as he hit 40 percent of his threes in 2025 and 35 percent in a half-season with the Nets in 2026, but he will have to win out against two more veteran options at his position. 

Bruce Brown

Brown is best known for a massive playoff run in 2023, culminating in a championship for the Denver Nuggets. He has since inked a big deal that’s been used in multiple trades, and his impact waned since splitting with Nikola Jokic.

He was solid returning to Denver last season, still providing steady ball-handling, screening and boarding from the guard position, defensive IQ and the occasional open three. His skillset is extremely valuable to New York as Josh Hartinsurance, but there’s strong overlap with their remaining wing option.

John Konchar

Another jack-of-all-trades, master of none, Konchar has added height on Brown with a similar tenacity on the glass and perhaps more defensively. However, he doesn’t have the same ball handling ability and may be even less dependable spreading the floor. 

There’s no standout performance to point to as he spent close to seven entire years in Memphis, quietly stepping up when called upon. He appears to have an edge coming in, though, as he chose this Knicks offer over multiple suitors, per SNY’s Ian Begley. 

Drew Eubanks

The first of the pivotal center invitees, one of which should end up with a roster spot given the Knicks’ dearth at the position. Eubanks is an eight-year veteran that provides soft finishes and solid defensive positioning, just nothing that jumps off the box score or highlight tape.

He isn’t an athletic marvel or big floor spacer but has been a reliable backup for six different teams.

James Wiseman

Wiseman was a former second overall pick to the Golden State Warriors, vaunted for his athleticism and potential before failing to click with the contender and suffering a waterfall of devastating injuries. He’s played a total of five NBA games over the last two seasons due to an Achilles tear and subsequent waiving by the Indiana Pacers.

But in New York lies a chance at redemption under Brown, who coached Wiseman in the Bay Area. Perhaps a reunion and half-season off to recover could get Wiseman’s career back on track, but it would be surprising if the contending Knicks took a flier over a more predictable veteran here. 

In early July, the Los Angeles Lakers agreed to deal Deandre Ayton to the Washington Wizards in exchange for Jaden Hardy and a pair of second-round picks (2031 and 2032) shortly after Ayton exercised his 2026-27, $8.1 million player option.

While Ayton certainly provided the Lakers with positive stretches of play, his inconsistencies, primarily as a forceful play-finisher and attentive defensive anchor, seemingly rendered him not worth the frustration.

As such, the Lakers sent him out and are content entering the season with Kevon Looney at backup center behind Walker Kessler.

Apparently, Los Angeles was so willing to wipe its hands of the Ayton Experience that it didn’t even expect to fetch a notable return. The fact Washington doled out two second-round picks caught the Lakers off-guard in the best of ways, according to a recent article from Dan Woike of The Athletic.

“I ran this by a rival NBA executive, who spoke under condition of anonymity so they could speak freely about another team’s roster, who felt this was too far down the list,” Woike wrote. “On the surface, the move was a big win for a Lakers team that was looking for outs after Ayton picked up his player option. Whether or not Hardy matters this season, the draft capital brought in was a pleasant surprise for the Lakers’ front office.”

Ayton’s mercurial play and temperament appear to have contributed to the departures from each of his first three NBA homes. The Phoenix Suns spent years trying to address it while the Portland Trail Blazers were willing to buy him out of his previous contract.

The Lakers are the latest team opting to divorce themselves from Ayton and were more than happy to unexpectedly net a couple second-round picks in the process. Maybe his Wizards tenure will be different.

You can follow Jackson on Twitter at @jackfrank_jjf.

Today, Marc Stein reported that New York expects to carry 14 standard contracts rather than 15. That means the five veterans brought to camp (Bruce Brown, John Konchar, Ochai Agbaji, Drew Eubanks, and James Wiseman) are effectively duking it out for one job unless the Knicks clear some cash.

From the latest Stein Line:

“It’s believed that the Knicks will only fill one of the two current vacancies in terms of the maximum 15 standard contracts they can carry starting Opening Night (Oct. 21) unless they make another roster move first that sheds salary.”

At present, New York sits only a little more than $3 million below the second apron, leaving enough room for one additional veteran-minimum contract but not two. With the Knicks needing more help at center than on the wing, it sure seems that Eubanks and Wiseman are frontrunners for the open gig.

But wait! There’s another wrinkle. Stein also reports:

“Brown, furthermore, is indeed a Wiseman fan. The newly crowned champs likewise do appear to have a clear need for a third big man behind Karl-Anthony Towns and Andre Drummond.”

You’ll recall that Brown was an assistant coach for the Warriors when they selected Wiseman second in the 2020 draft. He must’ve helped to evaluate the young player out of Memphis, and perhaps he spotted potential that hasn’t yet been realized on the NBA court. The 6’11”, 240lb big man averaged 11.5 points and 5.8 rebounds in 21.4 minutes across 39 games (27 starts) as a rookie, but his year was cut short by a torn right meniscus. After that, the injury bug continued to chase him through Detroit and Indiana.

Back in 2021, Brown said:

“James—he does stuff on a daily basis that makes you sit back and go, ‘Wow. Did he just do that? Am I seeing that?’ The sky is the limit for him. I don’t know if there’s anything that he’s not gonna be able to do when he reaches his peak.”

If Wiseman lives up to that high praise in New York’s training camp, his former coach is very likely to lock him down for the opening night roster. Meanwhile, while searching for a cover picture, your humble blogger found a few too many images of Mitchell Robinson dunking on Wiseman. Which stung.

Knicks in five.

It’s pretty difficult to imagine that it was just 15 short months ago when the Indiana Pacers had the OKC Thunder in a dangerous place in the 2025 NBA Finals. Everything that happened to this franchise from that moment through the end of the 2026 season felt disastrous. Heck, even this offseason the luck was not in their favor, as they lost a statistical coin flip in the NBA Draft Lottery, which saw them forfeit the fifth overall pick to the LA Clippers.

However, the bad vibes can’t overshadow what this team could look like when healthy. The Ivica Zubac trade, even with the draft loss, should net out to be a big win for the team. Tyrese Haliburton will be back from his achillies tear, and as the year progresses, he should look more and more like the player he was just a season ago. The depth of this team remains solid with guys who got extended burn last year during the injury-doomed year. And lastly, the coaching staff, led by Rick Carlisle, remains one of the best in the league.

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Indiana Pacers: Over/Under 43.5 wins (-120/-105)

Last season: 19-63, 14^th in the Eastern Conference:

Key additions: Ivica Zubac (trade with LA Clippers), Tyrese Haliburton (achillies)

Key losses: None

It seems like this team is primed for a bounce back, even if the Eastern Conference is much harder than it was when they won it in 2025. The starting lineup should be one of the ten best in the league, in my opinion. Zubac should fit nicely with Haliburton, as their two-man game should develop into a real weapon over the course of the season. Andrew Nembhard, Pascal Siakam and Obi Toppin return off the Finals team as well.

I really like the depth of this group, especially in the backcourt. TJ McConnell is one of the better backup guards in the league. Ben Sheppard and Aaron Nesmith got to show off what they can do last year, and I expect the team at large to benefit from the growth they showed last year. The addition of Jay Huff last year could return dividends this season, as well. Plus, maybe Jarace Walker can continue to build off of last year’s growth.

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The Pacers didn’t get a real chance to defend their crown last year, and naturally the rival Knicks took home the title in their absence. Redemption will be on Indiana’s mind this entire season, and I think that helps them return to their winning ways.

Prediction: Over 43.5 wins (-120)