Category: Basketball

With the Finals officially over, silly season is fully upon the NBA. Every team is now in the offseason and the league’s focus turns to the draft, the offseason and the future.

For the Lakers, that means a look at an upcoming free agency that will be incredibly important. One of the first pieces of business the team will need to take care of is Austin Reaves, who will almost certainly decline his player option.

While the most recent reports suggested that Reaves is looking for the max and is expected to have suitors elsewhere around the league, it seems the general consensus around the league is that he’ll remain in LA.

On Sunday evening, longtime NBA reporter Marc Stein reported that the expectation is Reaves will re-sign with the purple and gold in free agency.

The Lakers are widely expected to re-sign Reaves, whose fondness for Lakerland as well as his blossoming backcourt partnership alongside Luka Dončić are regarded as strong lures that suggest the sides will ultimately come to terms on a new pact.

After Austin spent most of the season saying he wanted to be a Laker and wasn’t even looking for the biggest payday possible, his team has tried to regain some leverage. First, they made it clear they were expecting a max deal and, last week, it was reported that the Nets and Pistons could be among the teams to pursue Reaves in free agency.

However, according to Stein, all the signals Reaves put out about wanting to remain in LA may be scaring teams away from making an offer for him.

Yet it is unclear what sort of external interest Reaves will generate after his strong production over the past two seasons … at least partly due to the inherent skepticism that stems from trying to woo him away from the Lakers. Brooklyn and Detroit have been mentioned as potential Reaves suitors, but neither is seen as a certainty yet.

A similar situation played out the last time Reaves was set for free agency. All signs were pointing to him remaining in LA, but in that instance, he was set for restricted free agency, so teams didn’t want to bother tying up cap space only to have him return to the Lakers.

This time, they may see it as a pointless venture to spend time negotiating a deal with Reaves as opposed to working out deals with free agents who actually might want to sign with the team.

If this is how teams feel, then perhaps it means the Lakers can agree to a more team-friendly deal if — or when — Reaves re-signs.

For now, though, it’ll be a lot of posturing from both sides in the final weeks leading up to the start of free agency.

You can follow Jacob on Twitter at @JacobRude or on Bluesky at @jacobrude.bsky.social.

Jalen Brunson could barely find the words.

You couldn’t blame him. The man had just done the one thing he’d organized his whole life around, and he did it as the player few outside his own family ever forecasted would be the one standing there. No longer the overlooked NCAA champion. More than the second-round pick with potential to overcome his measurables. The guy who surprised Utah in the playoffs that one year. Now? Well, now that kid is the champion. The Finals MVP. He told the sideline he had no words, that he was just in awe, and for a few seconds, the kid who always had an answer didn’t have one.

I was sincerely happy for him. I still am. This is one of the great sports stories, and the fact that he isn’t ours anymore doesn’t take that away. We cheered for this guy. We watched him grow up in Maverick blue. He went and did something enormous, and there is real pride in having been there at the start of the pro leg of this journey. There is also, if I’m honest at one in the morning, the ache of what could have been.

Lisa Salters asked him afterward what he’d been telling himself about closing the game out. His confidence, Brunson said, comes from his work ethic. Every time he got the ball down the stretch, he was thinking about the summers, all of them, as far back as he can remember. About being, in his words, “me alone in the gym.” All those hours with no crowd and nothing at stake, cashing out at last on the loudest stage in basketball.

The way he cashed it is the part that should make every doubter wince. San Antonio built a roster engineered to erase a player exactly like him. Length everywhere. Dylan Harper, Stephon Castle, and Devin Vassell hounding the point of attack, long and rangy and athletic, and Victor Wembanyama waiting at the rim as the most terrifying shot-blocker in the league. Brunson gave up size and reach to all of them and beat them anyway. Herky-jerky, start and stop, a half-beat ahead possession after possession, outthinking a defense designed to think faster than he could. He poured in fifteen in the fourth quarter, one clutch shot after another, and there was nothing all that San Antonio length could do about a man who had already seen every counter in an empty gym years before. Too small, they always said. Doubted his whole life. He just kept finding a way.

Charles Barkley has spent years calling him the greatest free-agent signing in NBA history. After tonight, the room finally stopped arguing.

Here’s the hard part. The Dallas part.

This is not a missive about a franchise that should have spotted a legend. He went 33rd for reasons that made sense at the time, and when Mark Cuban shrugged that he had “no idea” Brunson would become this, I’ll grant him that one. Concede the scouting. The malpractice lives in what came next.

By Tim MacMahon’s reporting in The Wonder Boy, Brunson wanted to stay. He was eligible for a four-year extension worth up to roughly $55.5 million, and his family was so eager to put down roots in Dallas that they’d have taken less than the max. The security meant that much to him. He grew up watching his father, Rick, work through a journeyman’s NBA career on one nonguaranteed contract after another, training three times a day every summer just to earn a training-camp look, never sure when a team would move on from him. For a son raised on that, a guaranteed deal in Dallas carried a weight beyond the dollars: it was the safety his father’s career had never once promised.

The front office wouldn’t commit to it. They wanted to keep him movable, to dangle as bait for a co-star next to Luka, and they kept one eye on the luxury tax they’d ducked ever since 2011. So they waited. Through training camp. Past the January window when his camp said he would sign right then. And by the time they finally slid the same number across the table, he had outgrown it. A structuring flub on his rookie deal meant Dallas didn’t even hold the right to match. He walked for nothing. His father’s verdict was that the Mavs could have made the choice hard, and instead they “made it easy.”

Sit with the cruelty of that. This is the precise kind of player the Mavericks spent that entire era clearing cap space to chase in free agency. A natural leader. A low-ego, locker-room-raising winner who makes everyone around him better. They had him. They grew him. And because they could not stop keeping their options open long enough to back the believer right in front of them, they let him leave for the price of a goodbye.

We just passed fifteen years since 2011. You and I both remember how much had to break right that spring, how rare that alignment is, how a whole franchise’s one shining season can hinge on every piece fitting at once. The Knicks just ended a fifty-three-year wait. That is the math that turns this from a grievance into a warning: self-inflicted wounds in roster building are exactly how a fifteen-year drought hardens into a fifty-three-year one.

I have heard it said that the acquisition of Kyrie Irving effectively balanced the scales for having lost Brunson to the wind less than a year prior. To think so is pure folly and underestimates the causality of burning future assets – the 2029 first sent to Brooklyn in the Irving package – to atone for past mistakes. Think about it long enough, and loving the Mavericks post-2011 can feel like the basketball version of 12 Monkeys or Memento. We now bank on the creativity and gem-finding skills of Ujiri and company to save the Cooper Flagg era (itself an unlikely dollop of grace) from the sins of the past.

So let yourself look ahead. Barring something catastrophic, what we watched tonight is a Hall of Fame résumé manifesting in real time. More years of contention. More years leading that franchise. Some will tell you he was already a lock, and that tonight only burned off the last of the doubt.

Somewhere down the line, a kid in a Brunson jersey is going to ask why his guy ever wore blue and white. We had him first. The people who ran the team then couldn’t bring themselves to keep him.

“The Savior of the Broken”

Jalen Brunson pic.twitter.com/XkosrJYRPD

— MC Bets (@MCbets__) June 14, 2026

The Cleveland Cavaliers acquired Dennis Schroder in a deal alongside Keon Ellis with the Sacramento Kings for De’Andre Hunter around the trade deadline. Schroder was more of a salary match for the Cavaliers, but remained a mainstay of the Cavaliers’ rotation during their Eastern Conference Finals run.

All grades are based on our usual expectations for each player.

Regular Season Stats *with Cavaliers*

• 8.2 points
• 2.3 rebounds
• 4.3 assists
• 40.1% FG
• 29% 3PT FG
• 86.1% FT

Schroder is a tough guy to grade. The stat line speaks for itself; the guy had little to no juice for 70% of the games he suited up for the wine and gold. Schroder, after being traded to Cleveland, was putting on his 11th uniform in 12 years.

With a resume like that, it would be fair to expect that Schroder gets moved around for a reason. The idea of Schroder might be more appealing than the actual on-court result. That is how the acquisition resonates with me at the time of writing this post.

Schroder can have his moments on the floor. The 32-year-old guard can still show bursts off the dribble with an ability to get to the cup with ease at times. However, it was once Schroder actually had to score that I found the most frustrating. He would either put too much muscle behind these layups on a good look or throw an errant pass into traffic.

Schroder could not reliably space the floor either. In the postseason, the Cavaliers were reliant on converting on looks from the perimeter. Therefore, the opportunities and clean looks were there for him. Schroder, a career 34% three-point shooter, endured the worst shooting splits of his career with Cleveland. Not only did he have lower volume, 2.1 looks from three, but he also converted just 29% of those opportunities for the Cavs.

How much of this is because he was constantly the playing release valve for Donovan Mitchell and James Harden? Not much. I think that Schroder’s remaining juice is just running out.

Where Schroder stood out on the floor was the energy he displayed. It felt like at various times Schroder would provide the spark needed to wake the Cavaliers from the lull they were in. Every team needs a guy like Schroder, someone who will call them out for sleepwalking through stretches of the game. It was clear that this Cavaliers team and coaching staff respected Schroder’s voice.

While it is unlikely that Schroder will be on the team in 2026-27, as his salary is ludicrous at $14.8 million. The team needed more of what Schroder provided with his voice. His on-court production left much to be desired; therefore, he seems destined to be on his 12th team in 13 years next season.

Grade: C–

The Boston Celtics know they can’t run it back next season as-is.

This past season’s run was admirable. The team managed to salvage Jayson Tatum’s 62-game delay and clinch the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference with 56 wins before the postseason. But their 33.7 percent 3-point shooting clip against the Philadelphia 76ers, coupled with a frontcourt that was railroaded by Joel Embiid, forced Celtics President of Basketball Operations Brad Stevens to carefully assess the shocking first-round exit.

Less than a week after the Celtics blew their first 3-1 series lead in franchise history, Stevens, during his end-of-season press conference, emphasized his desire to “generate looks at the rim.”

Stevens, on behalf of the team’s brass, referred to dunks as the preferred shot over the three. That statement was both a confession of where the Celtics went wrong against Philadelphia and an indictment of where Stevens wants to go moving forward as Boston enters a crucial offseason.

Boston ranked dead last in the playoffs in 2-point field-goal attempts and 25th in the regular season, finishing behind six non-playoff-contending teams. Rolling out Neemias Queta as the starting center, along with Luka Garza on the bench and Nikola Vučević added at the trade deadline, the Celtics struggled throughout their campaign to pressure the rim, and it caught up to them.

The disappointment and frustration in Stevens’ voice during his final meeting with reporters signaled a lesson learned. The problem now is finding a solution, and the early offseason rumblings across the league suggest Stevens has his eye on a 6-foot-11 answer: Giannis Antetokounmpo.

In April, Antetokounmpo praised Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla — midway through his award-winning job as the NBA’s Coach of the Year. The Greek Freak has had it with the Milwaukee Bucks, and the expectation is that Giannis officially departs this offseason. Boston is said to be in the running, although the price of negotiating for a two-time league MVP could put Stevens and the front office in a compromising position with homegrown Celtics star Jaylen Brown.

Brown has been the name linked to trade rumors once again. Four years ago, Boston discussed a potential trade for Kevin Durant with the Brooklyn Nets involving Brown. That triggered feelings of frustration as Brown began to side-eye the Celtics. Now, as the centerpiece in another blockbuster trade rumor implying Boston’s appetite for an upgrade, the relationship between Brown and the Celtics could reopen that very rift.

With at least some idea of what’s happening in Boston’s front office, Brown has already been cryptic about his messaging.

“The neighbors rice always smells better,” Brown posted last Thursday on X.

The neighbors rice always smells better

— Jaylen Brown (@FCHWPO) June 11, 2026

During his latest livestream, Brown vaguely touched on his future by re-asserting his confidence in what’s ahead following his career-best run with the Celtics — he averaged 28.7 points, 6.9 rebounds, and 5.1 assists, shooting over 47 percent across 71 games.

“A lot of people think they’ve seen the best version of me, and you stand corrected,” Brown told his FCHWPO Twitch livestream on Sunday night.

“No matter what the situation is, no matter what the case is, I feel confident in a sense where I’m coming into my physicality, my mental game, my weaknesses are turning into my strengths, and you have not seen the best of Jaylen Brown. I look forward to next season. We’ll see where the chips fall, but I’m excited about that.”

The risk for Stevens and the Celtics could be a rupture beyond repair, regardless of whether or not the team acquires the Greek Freak. Since the Miami Heat are also rumored to be in the mix, there’s no guarantee Antetokounmpo successfully forces Milwaukee to agree to a deal with Boston, leaving Brown’s standing with the franchise in a possibly murky spot.

If Stevens does strike a deal with the Bucks to bring Antetokounmpo to Boston, then it’s water under the bridge. If not, Brown could easily barge to the front office and demand a trade to a place where he’ll be the No. 1 once and for all. It’s already been confirmed that to some degree, Brown enjoyed being in the driver’s seat this past season and views himself as a player capable of doing that full-time.

The Athletic’s Sam Amick and Eric Nehm reported that the Celtics “pose a serious threat” in the Giannis sweepstakes if the 10-time All-Star expresses a willingness to sign a four-year, $275 million extension with Boston. It’s also likely that a third team would be necessary to facilitate any trade for Antetokounmpo, which would also likely become Brown’s next home if that scenario plays out.

So far, the Portland Trail Blazers and the Atlanta Hawks are possible third wheels floated around — both of which offer an unoccupied driver’s seat to Brown.

Some interpreted Brown’s post-Game 7 loss stream as confirmation that he wants to be the lead dog for a team. Others consider that perspective to be overblown and miscontextualized. What isn’t known is how Stevens and the Celtics view Brown’s comments.

In the final three minutes of the team’s season, Brown denied a wide-open Queta of an assist and instead deferred to Payton Pritchard for a corner three. Pritchard’s miss, with a chance to give Boston a lead over Philadelphia in Game 7, proved Brown’s decision to be costly. Stevens’ comments proved that even though Brown doubled down less than 24 hours later on his livestream, his decision doesn’t reflect what the Celtics want.  

It’s certainly difficult to imagine Stevens trading away Brown, the team’s third overall draft selection in 2017, whom Stevens coached for the first five seasons of his career. In 2023, Stevens signed Brown to a five-year, $304 million extension with the Celtics, making him the then-highest-paid player in NBA history.

However, it’s even harder to imagine Stevens staying pat after the Celtics squandered another opportunity at the NBA Finals, in a historically brutal fashion, no less.

Major changes are required this offseason. Not minor tweaks. Three years ago, Stevens blueprinted an overhaul that featured a handful of difficult departures and rewarded the Celtics with their 18th championship banner.

Heading into a season that’ll be significantly more difficult, especially in the East, Stevens understands another big swing — maybe his greatest yet — could supply restoration for the C’s.

SAN ANTONIO – New York fans were a lovely bunch of coconuts during their stay in Texas, congratulating the hosts repeatedly for the Spurs’ shimmering future, checking the views of security guard’s faces to determine if a postgame pogo pit was appropriate behavior in the upper bowl for this sort of San Antonio scenario.

It was. Knicks fans won over their hosts in the same way Knick players won over their hosts. The Knicks managed to jam a dozen of our nation’s most-visible celebrities into a short, five-game series and still emerge without threats of overexposure. Mariska Hargitay is a legend, but it ain’t as if it’s a struggle to find an episode of her television show. And of course Taylor: Ms. Swift would re-issue her appearance in Game 4 if a more productive songwriter’s take were available. As is her right.

Texas was for the punters, the traveling Knicks fans familiar with the upper bowl. Stands at-least half-filled with Knick backers watching the Lawrence O’Brien trophy handed to their Knicks for the first time in the Lawrence O’Brien trophy’s history.

The catcalls in San Antonio after Game 5 were all ball, nothing rude. And the largest chant I was around, organic and fresh and a little unsteady like a sidewalk grocer, was for Leon Rose. The GM! Nobody ever cheers a GM because every sports fan knows they could do a better job than most GMs. And while this may not be correct, sportswriters enjoy promoting the idea so as to retain readership.

Knick fans are familiar with Knick GMs shooting for the top and sending projectile pieces southward and into their own foot. Owners remain but general managers come and go, GMs representing the human element of the sport while in charge of the human element in the locker room and the field.

We won’t argue that Leon Rose’s hiring was typical, he was the NBA’s most-influential NBA agent for the bulk of his pre-Knicks run. Rose helped put together the Miami Heat’s championship Big Three, yet drew applause for daintily stepping aside without conflict or rancor after LeBron James left Rose’s stable of clients to front Rich Paul’s Klutch collective. Rose played college basketball and also used institutions of higher learning to become a dang lawyer. Hardly the picture of the coffee-stained, hapless basketball scout, standing through another Star-Spangled Banner at a VCU game in November.

Knick fans cheered throughout the Star-Spangled Banner in Game 5, nothing runs the blood like a talented youngster belting out a song that’s impossible to sing, and chanted Leon Rose’s name after winning the NBA title. All instinct, continuing with the keen and warming atmosphere that’s carried over the top of these Knicks since falling in Indianapolis in 2025.

Rose and the Knicks didn’t make large player personnel changes after that defeat, he couldn’t, wouldn’t return fair value for his stars and prevented from making large-scale changes due to the team’s top-heavy roster. Few outfits took in as much dismissal and derision as those 2024-25 Knicks, waiting out another successful regular season only to watch as team mainstays Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns turned sieves in the postseason.

They didn’t, though, and not because Rose secured the rights to temerity and strong footwork in a draft night trade. Towns’ bridge iced before his road developed, Brunson was always big on the inside, each only needed time. Rose didn’t hire the pair because of output, he brought them together to build something larger, to learn together and develop.

There were alterations: Malcolm Brogdon was signed by Rose ahead of 2025-26 in the hopes of providing competent reserve minutes at point, but Brogdon retired before the season began in spite of an available roster spot. In February Rose traded Guerschon Yabusele and Guerschon’s guaranteed contract next season for, in effect, Jose Alvarado and the chance to sign (the Queens-raised) Alvarado (who owns a $4.5 million player option for 2026-27) to a longtime deal. Guerschon, meanwhile, will shoot 40 percent from the field as starting center for the Chicago Bulls in 2026-27, a team yet to win an NBA title this century.

All the while, Rose is owed a trillion favors around the league, this transactional transaction bidness. That won’t go away with a championship, the other 29 NBA GMs think each year’s champions are nice and cute but would rather focus on their own five-year plans, championship hopes.

The Knicks ensured any detractor would only scan as sour grapes, the name of an interesting but mostly unwatchable Larry David film. Worldwide villain to billions David Zaslav mostly watched Game 3 from a courtside seat next to LD, yet nothing deterred the impartial fan for falling for the Knicks. Leon Rose’s Knicks, built by a guy who looks as if he needs to “talk to you about a thing.”

As opposed to the last Knicks personnel chief, Scott Perry, who sounds like the sort of guy to keep us in a meeting all morning without revealing a thing. Perry is the picture of executive grace, hard to imagine Scott Perry drafting a force of nature like Obi Toppin with his first ever lottery selection, but that’s where Rose went.

Rose also watched, for two seasons as Knick chief, as Jalen Brunson put up 51/39/82 in JB’s final pair of campaigns with Dallas. Orthodoxy claimed this Mavericks gig as the perfect role for Brunson, a shoot-first undersized point guard who cannot defend and will run out of energy the longer a contest moves along. Leon Rose disagreed with the consensus behind Brunson’s outlook.

Jalen owned no such difficulties putting up points, but Rose saw something in his efficiency that previous spotters may have noticed with Stephen Curry and/or Steve Nash. Simply because a player hasn’t worked 35 minutes a night yet, it doesn’t make them incapable of the feat.

In one of my last stories before 2022 Knicks camp, I reported in Leon's 1st scouting meeting in 2020, he named Dallas reserve Jalen Brunson as a top target. Perry's scouts were stunned. Leon struck out on bringing Melo to NYK as agent but hit grand-slam homer for ages with JB.

— Marc Berman (@NYPost_Berman) June 14, 2026

Rose owed New York one following the Carmelo Anthony fade, securing the bag for his client in 2014 after meetings with then-Knicks prez Phil Jackson, neither side knowing any of it work but neither willing to get in the way of NBA business.

Leon’s first coaching hire in 2020 was Tom Thibodeau, who took the Knicks from a (prorated) 27 wins to (prorated) 47 wins in his first year, making the playoffs behind the Julius Randle, RJ Barrett, Kevin Knox-core Rose and Thibs inherited. The Knicks missed the postseason in 2022 when half the league jumped Kemba Walker’s turnstile, but brought in Brunson to settle all point guard claims in 2022.

See, point guard’s been a problem in New York since these sons of guns traded Walt Frazier to Cleveland, since the days of Ticky Burden, Butch Beard, Jim Cleamons. The team never found a sage guide to work consistently alongside Patrick Ewing, rather past-prime vets and zero-prime clangers like Charlie Ward. Or trading a first-round pick for 36-year old Mark Jackson and Mark’s 19 percent turnover rate.

That a point guard led the Knicks to the title, won Finals MVP, must be the most astonishing part of New York’s championship – at least to the folks who posted on the RealGM message board two decades ago. This city destroys its quarterbacks, and Brunson’s package deal with his father raised all manner of eyebrows. Problem is: Rick Brunson can coach his tail off, and we all saw what Jalen Brunson is capable of in the of a 7’4 Defensive Player of the Year.

If Rose’s brooding presence gave New York its CAA-cultivated edge, Brunson delivered the public grin. He signed contract extensions early, ensuring all the ex-Villanova teammates Rose acquired could continue to work alongside the point guard who took them to an NCAA title. Sure, they combined for a series of enervating cellular carrier advertisements, deadening our senses throughout repeated NCAA Tournaments. But Brunson took less money in sports, the ultimate brand of divinity. Fans never forget these things no matter how much (oft-unavailable, sez this travelin’ sportswriter) rural coverage Brunson and his cohorts promised.

Rose even broke up the Wildcats, somewhat, sending Donte DiVincenzo (and Randle) to Minnesota for Karl-Anthony Towns, one of the league’s most popular and most-polarizing players. Still came out smelling like a red flower, simply because KAT is so irrepressible, so easy to root for. Rose snatched the effusive OG Anunoby from Toronto, overpaid for long reliever Mikal Bridges but so what, the Knicks required Mikal Bridges.

Thibs was let go after 2024-25, MSG broadcasts eliminating its least-liked feature: Tom Thibodeau screaming angry instructions in a silent arena toward the end of a game decided over a half-hour before.

Leon Rose knew he needed Thibodeau, some stern voice ringing in ears when the next coach came aboard. The Doug Collins-cop and Phil Jackson-cop way of leading toward a confession still owns its charms, made much easier when Mike Brown is the second detective to enter the room.

Everyone loves Mike Brown, he’s enough to goose anyone into admitting to a crime they had nothing to do with. That’s all coaching is, chiding a player after a minor indiscretion so as to stave off the likely resultant major screwup. The Knicks chewed on six coaching candidates before – yeah, let’s go here – fate ensured the best one available took the job.

Any NBA coach could have done what was obvious, trim Thibodeau-styled minutes and loosen up the Thibs-styled offense. Brown won the energy of his charges by refusing early wholesale changes outside dropping average minutes per game, making work a little easier, less distracting. Cutting minutes absolutely led to this 2026 title, the Knicks routinely dragged heels throughout the postseason under Thibs, playing five performers over 35 minutes a night is no way to run a modern NBA team.

In the championship run, Brunson was the only one at (exactly) 35 minutes per game. Bridges was never made scapegoat, Anunoby was not dismayed by his status as a third-option. At his lowest point, Karl-Anthony Towns was afforded release in the form of Brown’s old high post plays from Sacramento, nobody was removed from any familiar roles, nobody lost a spot.

Rose made sure of this, as cutting any player after the Indiana loss only creates blame (if deserved), resentment from remaining players. This particular GM was hired to provide swagger, a back-room sensibility with all beaks drained for dipping, but instead Rose found his cubs in the form of his favorite players on other teams. It was as if Rose was under direction, after watching a two decades of Knick ball since the team’s last Finals appearance, to create a team that no NBA fan could refuse.

These charmers owed New York, 53-years without a title is unacceptable for a franchise with as diligent and studied a fanbase as New York’s. Also unacceptable for the less-informed, the ones shouting “Harden sucks.” It is a large city with diverse opinions, each valued.

These Knicks lost but THREE times in the 2026 playoffs, to four teams, in 19 games. Many of these conquests were outrageous blowouts, a ruined evening for those of us NBA fans tuning in for a competitive back and forth. These were somehow fun blowouts, though. The Knicks, Leon Rose’s tell ya what I’ll do-Knicks, never became anything less than beloved.

That’s on the leader, not the boss. Building a championship NBA team is legendary stuff, but building a winner the rest of the world falls in love with? That’s the work of someone in love with his team.

Kelly Dwyer writes about the NBA at kdonhoops.com.

The Knicks' run to a championship was dominant, as they finished with the best point differential in NBA playoff history. 

One characteristic of this team that will define this run will be expecting the unexpected.

From game to game, it was impossible to tell who was going to step up. But there was always a player or two who emerged as an unsung hero. 

Starters like Jalen Brunson, Karl-Anthony Towns, and OG Anunoby were consistent for the most part, but the rest of the club filled in the gaps. 

To go 16-3 in the playoffs, the Knicks needed the entire roster, after depth was one of New York’s largest weaknesses the past few seasons. Last season, the Knicks were dead last in bench scoring during the regular season, and ranked 15th out of 16 teams in the postseason. 

During this year’s regular season, New York’s bench was slightly better, ranking 28th out of 30 teams. But during the postseason, the Knicks reserves became more of a significant factor, ranking eighth out of 16 teams.

Role players came up big in every game of New York’s 4-1 NBA Finals win against the San Antonio Spurs. Landry Shamet scored 13 points with three trifectas in Game 1. Mikal Bridges stepped up with 20 points in Game 2.

Josh Hart had 16 points with four three-pointers, and Jordan Clarkson put up 10 points in New York’s lone loss in Game 3. Jose Alvarado was the unsung hero of Game 4, scoring all of his eight points in the fourth quarter. The backup also gave New York another point guard capable of breaking San Antonio’s amped up defensive pressure on Brunson.

And in Game 5, the Knicks needed Brunson to carry them over the top.

Brunson scored 45 of the club’s 94 points in the championship clincher. But there was still a memorable contribution from the supporting cast. With Towns in foul trouble, Mitchell Robinson played 20 minutes and had 10 rebounds, including an offensive rebound on a missed free-throw in the closing moments. Even third-string center Ariel Hukporti had a key block in the third quarter of the title clincher.

It was like a game of whack-a-mole. One or two Knicks would struggle for a game, but then another role player would emerge. That was the case for New York during the entire playoff run.

There was Miles McBride’s 25-point eruption against the Philadelphia 76ers in Game 4 of the second round. Hart emerged with 26 points and seven assists in a signature Game 2 win over the Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference Finals. Bridges played like a two-way All-Star in the second round and Conference Finals.

The importance of each role player is a reflection of Knicks head coach Mike Brown’s trust of the roster. He wasn’t afraid to go deep into the bench. Second-year point guard Tyler Kolek had a significant role in New York’s NBA Cup championship win against the Spurs in December. Rookie Mohamed Diawara was in the rotation for portions of the regular season.

And after testing different lineup combinations throughout the regular season, Brown was ready to roll with many different players throughout the playoffs. With the grueling NBA schedule and the shift to a faster pace in the league, there’s a need for depth -- and Brown wasn’t afraid to rely on it.

New York’s success is a reflection of the current NBA. Star power is the base from which a title contender can be constructed, but to win big, you need contributions across the entire depth chart.

Welcome to SB Nation Reacts, a survey of fans across the NBA. Throughout the year we ask questions of the most plugged-in Rockets fans and fans across the country. Sign up here to participate in the weekly emailed surveys.

This week’s question asked you to pick a Houston Rockets player to part with. NBA trade rumors are flying now that it is the offseason, and the Rockets always find themselves connected to these things. In addition, we’ve talked endlessly here at TDS about having two non-shooters in Alperen Sengun and Amen Thompson in the lineup. We love both of those guys, but if one of them doesn’t develop a jumpshot soon, the Rockets may have to move one of them. So we asked you which one goes.

Sengun take this in a landslide, and I probably agree. I think if you end up having to choose, you choose Thompson for his capability to defend at a top level. And I think this could be a make or break year for Sengun. He needs some progress with his efficiency, his defense and his shooting, or all bets are off if he remains a Rocket or not.

Even though the season is over, don’t forget to check out our friends over at FanDuel. Odds are already out for next year’s NBA Champion. The OKC Thunder sit at the top with a +250, meaning if you wage $100 and they win, you’ll get $250 back. Our Rockets currently sit as the 10th-best odds at +4000. That’s a juicy bet if you’re feeling positive about the team this year. The defending champion New York Knicks sit at just the fourth-best odds at +750. The Thunder, Spurs and Celtics all sit in front of them.

Thanks for voting! We’ll be back soon with more Reacts!

On Saturday night, the New York Knicks snapped their 53-year title drought.

Nick Nurse and the Sixers—whose own championship drought has now reached 43 years—could learn some valuable lessons from their Atlantic Division rivals.

Jalen Brunson, Karl-Anthony Towns and OG Anunoby led the way for the Knicks on their incredible championship run, but they were hardly the only players who made a major impact. Throughout the playoffs, the Knicks had a handful of reserves come up big in key moments.

Landry Shamet—who wasn’t even a sure thing to make the Knicks’ roster at the start of the season—averaged 11.5 points per game between Game 3 of the Eastern Conference semifinals and Game 2 of the NBA Finals. Jose Alvarado had eight points, three assists and two rebounds as the Knicks rallied from an NBA-record 29-point deficit in Game 4 of the Finals. Miles McBride buried the Sixers with seven triples in Game 4 of the conference semifinals. And Mitchell Robinson averaged 4.8 points, 5.5 rebounds and 0.6 blocks in only 13.9 minutes per game throughout the playoffs.

Brunson, Anunoby, Towns, Mikal Bridges and Josh Hart shouldered most of the load for the Knicks, but they wouldn’t have won a title without those contributions from their bench. That should be a valuable takeaway for Nurse and the Sixers, who leaned far too heavily on their starters throughout the regular season at the expense of developing their reserves.

In today’s NBA, depth is king

Under then-head coach Tom Thibodeau, the Knicks were overly reliant on their starters, much like the Sixers have been under Nurse.

In 2024-25, Hart led the league with 37.6 minutes per game. Bridges was third at 37.0, while Anunoby was fifth at 36.6. Brunson was tied for 14th at 35.4, while Towns was tied for 19th at 35.0. The Knicks were the only team with even three players in the top 20 of minutes per game, much less five.

After the Indiana Pacers ran circles around the out-of-gas Knicks in the Eastern Conference Finals last year, the Knicks parted ways with Thibodeau and hired Mike Brown as his replacement. They did so in part because he worked under Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr, who made a habit of going deep into his bench.

“In terms of the minutes, it’s a philosophy I had,” Brown told reporters ahead of the NBA Finals. “One of the many things I learned from Pop and Steve [Kerr]. Steve was really good at trying to play a lot of different guys. Not only that, a guy that hadn’t been in the rotation for a while, one game [a coach] might throw him out there as a starter. That kept guys engaged or on their toes.”

That wasn’t always a smooth process.

“No, I definitely didn’t see the bigger picture in those moments,” Hart told reporters ahead of the Finals when asked about being benched at times in the fourth quarter. “There was moments I went home and I’m like, ‘Damn, am I ass? Do I suck as a basketball player?’ There was a lot of those moments. Whenever your minutes go down or you get benched, you have that thought process. But for me, it was, okay, how can I build off of it?”

But it did pay off for the Knicks in the long run.

“Now I’m cool with it, sometimes,” Hart added. “Game 1 [of the Eastern Conference Finals], I got benched because Landry was out there hooping, and I was happy about it. But that took a little bit of time and self-reflection to get to that point.”

The Sixers haven’t reached that point yet.

Will the Sixers follow the Knicks’ lead?

Much like the Thibodeau-led Knicks, the Sixers played Tyrese Maxey a league-leading 38.0 minutes per game this past season. He averaged a career-high 28.3 points per game en route to his first All-NBA nod, but that type of workload is not sustainable in today’s NBA, particularly in the regular season.

VJ Edgecombe was second on the Sixers with 35.0 minutes per game. Brunson, who was named both Eastern Conference Finals MVP and Finals MVP, led the Knicks with 35.0 minutes per game during the regular season.

Joel Embiid (31.7 minutes), Kelly Oubre Jr. (31.5 minutes) and Paul George (30.7 minutes) all had their playing time kept relatively in check during the regular season, although that was partially due to injuries. However, Quentin Grimes (29.4 minutes) and Dominick Barlow (23.8 minutes) were the only other Sixers to play at least 20 minutes per game in the regular season.

Jared McCain, whom the Sixers sent to the Oklahoma City Thunder ahead of the trade deadline, played only 16.8 minutes per game prior to that trade. Despite landing on a Thunder team with significantly more backcourt depth than the Sixers, he averaged 18.0 minutes per game for them across 30 regular-season appearances and wound up playing a major role for them in the playoffs because Jalen Williams (hamstring) and Ajay Mitchell (calf) got injured.

Nurse seemingly had McCain on a short leash even though he was working his way back from both a torn meniscus and torn UCL in his right (shooting) hand. He never regained the form that briefly made him the Rookie of the Year favorite in Philadelphia, but with more freedom to make mistakes in OKC, he quickly found his footing again.

The Sixers don’t get take-backs on the McCain trade, but it should teach them a valuable lesson about empowering their reserves more throughout the regular season. They’re going to be top-heavy as long as they have Paul George and Joel Embiid under contract, but they can’t just rely on a six- or seven-man rotation and expect to go on a deep playoff run.

Once the postseason began, the Sixers began leaning even more heavily on their starters. Grimes was the only bench player to play at least 15 minutes per game. Perhaps Nurse didn’t trust the options at his disposal this season, but that can’t happen again next year.

The Sixers might not be as well-balanced as the Knicks’ starting five, but that doesn’t mean they can’t learn lessons from their division rivals. New team president Mike Gansey, who helped build a deep bench in Cleveland, should be emboldened to replicate that strategy in Philly after seeing how much the Knicks’ reserves contributed to their title run.

Unless otherwise noted, all stats via NBA.com, PBPStats, Cleaning the Glass or Basketball Reference. All salary information via Spotrac and salary-cap information via RealGM.

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The Knicks clinching their first championship since 1973 on Saturday brought joy to many, but one of their most recent acquisitions might’ve been the happiest of them all.

Following the Knicks’ Saturday Game 5 victory over the Spurs, 94-90, which sealed their first NBA championship win in 53 years, several clips of Jeremy Sochan celebrating went viral.

One clip showed Sochan, while shirtless, nearly toppling over after trying to climb the giant Larry O’Brien trophy on the floor at the Frost Bank Center, all while his teammate Jalen Brunson was recording an interview with Craig Melvin.

While Jalen Brunson does his GMA interview, Jeremy Sochan nearly eats it trying to climb the Larry O’Brien trophy pic.twitter.com/mhs4RqHN45

— Casey Viera (@Casey_Viera) June 14, 2026

When a shirtless Sochan first tried to climb the display, it began wheeling away, almost sending him to the floor and igniting gasps from the surrounding crowd.

Sochan then successfully climbed the display and posed for a camera before realizing that Brunson was in the middle of an interview.

Sochan then greeted a laughing Brunson and cheered him on for the rest of the interview.

Another clip showed Sochan, still shirtless, and his teammates dancing in the locker room after the game. The camera pans to Sochan eating steak right off the bone.

The party didn’t end on Saturday night. Upon returning to New York on Sunday, Sochan posted a series of stories on his Instagram in the car, still shirtless and wearing his NBA Champions hat and goggles. In one clip, Sochan sticks his head out the window and lost his goggles while not wearing a shirt.

Jeremy Sochan 8:25am update: Back in New York. Still shirtless pic.twitter.com/UwgTZ2bBrI

— New York Basketball (@NBA_NewYork) June 14, 2026

Sochan had limited playing time in the Finals, only on court for the first three minutes of the first half in Game 4 and briefly entering Game 5.

Sochan was guaranteed a ring regardless of who won the Finals, since he was waived by the Spurs in February before inking a one-year contract with the Knicks shortly after.

Indiana men’s basketball alumnus OG Anunoby’s storied NBA career added another accolade this past weekend when the New York Knicks won game five of the NBA Finals to seal a 4-1 series win over the San Antonio Spurs.

Anunoby played a crucial role for the Knicks, averaging 21.2 points per game against the Spurs with a 33-point performance in game four that was capped by the late go-ahead tip-in to complete the largest comeback in NBA Finals history, not to mention his impact on the defensive end of the court.

Tom Crean was in San Antonio to see his former pupil win his second ring too:

pic.twitter.com/bDPhKRW4jg

— Tom Crean (@TomCrean) June 14, 2026

Here’s what you need to know about the Hoosiers today:

ICYMI on The Crimson Quarry

• Indiana football lands commitment from 2027 cornerback Chris Bradley
• Bison Breakdown: What’s the new bar for Indiana football?
• Indiana’s Curt Cignetti and Fernando Mendoza named to TIME Sports 100

What they’re saying about the Hoosiers

• The Indianapolis Star:New Indiana QB Josh Hoover consumes 2 seasons of film to master Cignetti’s offense
• The Daily Hoosier: Former IU basketball player shares letter he received regarding “recent poor behavior”
• PFSN:Football Debate Club Questions Charlie Becker As a Top-15 Pick for the 2027 NFL Draft

Around SB Nation

• Maize n Brew:Recruiting Roundup: Michigan ‘definitely has a shot’ with 5-star CB
• Knicks 94, Spurs 90: Scenes from a championship.
• Land-Grant Holy Land:OSU football adds a 4-star corner, while men’s basketball adds Vandy
• NBA mock draft 2026: Updated projection after NBA Finals ends
• A Sea of Blue: Kentucky Wildcats News: UK Basketball practice begins

If you’re Cameron Boozer, you can more or less relax in the run-up to the draft, because you almost certainly won’t go any lower than #4, and there’s a chance you could go #1.

For anyone outside of the projected lottery picks though, you have no certainty whatsoever. Some guys are going to slip while others are going to rise, and there’s often one guy who got invited to the Green Room who just sits and waits. The saddest example of this may be Florida’s Dwayne Schintzius. Expected to go early in the 1990 draft, he lingered until the 24th pick, finally taken by San Antonio, just one pick ahead of Duke’s Alaa Abdelnaby (keep in mind there were only 28 picks, and that he nearly fell out of the first round).

Since former Blue Devil Isaiah Evans is expected to go somewhere after the 20th pick, there’s just no way to begin to know where he will end up, and of course, he could always be part of a draft-night trade.

For any player, the most important thing is not necessarily how high you are picked, but rather being picked by a stable franchise that has a plan for you.

This story links to a Boston Celtics-focused podcast that talks about Evans being a possible pick for the C’s. Really, that could be a great situation or him. First, he already knows Jayson Tatum, who of course is Duke’s Chief Basketball Officer. He could be an excellent mentor for Evans.

Secondly, Brad Stevens is one of the smartest executives in the league and the Celtics are consistently one of the better teams in the league.

Thirdly, Joe Mazzulla has emerged as an excellent coach, and finally, Boston loves the three-point shot which is Evans’ calling card. He could be a great fit.

Go to the DBR Boards to find Blue Healer Auctions || Drop us a line

Sixers fans weren’t quite sure what to expect when the organization first signed Kelly Oubre Jr. very late in the 2023 offseason. Ultimately, at just a veteran’s minimum salary, it was a home run deal for Philadelphia, as Oubre went on to start in 52 of his 68 regular season appearances that season, plus all six playoff games against the New York Knicks. Oubre’s season earned him a two-year, $16.3 million deal to remain with the Sixers. Although his status as one of the few middle-of-the-road contracts on the roster earned him plenty of spots in hypothetical trade machine scenarios, Kelly has remained a rotation fixture these past couple years.

The perception of Oubre’s game upon arriving in Philadelphia was a good stats on a bad team type of gunner, formed largely from his previous two seasons in Charlotte. Having to accept a veteran’s minimum deal that 2023 summer seemed to awaken something in Kelly. He has since reinvented himself as a complementary, two-way wing. Over the past three seasons, Oubre has defended well across multiple positions, often taking on the toughest perimeter defensive assignment. He rebounded adequately for his position and showed a real knack for finding seams as an off-ball cutter offensively. His “gunner” past also came to serve as a feature, not a bug. During the many occasions when the team was beset by injuries, Kelly was able to scale up his offensive usage to assume more of the scoring burden.

The wrinkle in Oubre’s player profile is his inconsistency as an outside shooter. To his credit, Kelly had the best three-point shooting season of his career last year, finishing 36.0 percent from behind the arc. However, that average mark belied a high level of streakiness to his game. Oubre has a tendency to go through some severe cold spells, something which became an issue during the Boston series this past postseason when he shot 16.0 percent across the seven games and the Celtics defense continued to give him more and more space in order to limit drivers. Whether the Sixers feel there’s still room for Kelly to improve his shot or if they’re willing to live with the inconsistency will be large factors in any decisions to re-sign him.

With Oubre hitting unrestricted free agency, he’ll be one of the more impactful early decisions for Mike Gansey and the new Sixers front office. More than likely, the open market will dictate how the Sixers act. If another team opts to blow their budget to bring Kelly aboard, Philadelphia may be content to let him go and try a younger option with a higher shooting upside. However, if the Sixers can sign him for somewhere around the mid-level exception, it seems like a low-risk move to bringing him back. The team is already thin on the wings even with Kelly, he gets along well with the current group, and meets Gansey’s criteria as a competitive guy who wants to be in Philadelphia. I certainly feel Oubre is a fountain, not a drain.

Kelly is an interesting personality and I admired his ability to do some serious self-reflection and adapt his game to carve out a more sustainable NBA career for himself. We’ll see how the market for him plays out, but I’m hoping he and the Sixers can come to terms to keep him in red, white, and blue.

How about you? Are you ready to part ways with Oubre or hoping he remains a Sixer heading into next season? Let us know in the comments.

The Houston Rockets are expected to make some improvements to the roster this offseason, but it remains to be seen which methods they will use to accomplish that.

The Rockets can make some moves in free agency, but the trade market would bring a bigger splash. Bleacher Report contributor Grant Hughes suggests the trade that would send Jabari Smith Jr., Dorian Finney-Smith, Tari Eason, and a 2027 second-round pick to the Wizards for Anthony Davis.

“Houston adds another veteran star to a timeline that officially pivoted to “win now” when Kevin Durant came aboard while also preserving its ability to put immense size and elite rebounding on the floor at all times. The fit between Davis and Alperen Sengün would be fascinating, even if spacing would be a concern,“ Hughes wrote.

In this hypothetical deal, the Rockets and Wizards would turn this into a sign-and-trade since Eason is a restricted free agent this offseason. Overall, the value isn’t a massive blow to the Rockets. Eason might leave in free agency and Finney-Smith failed to play up to expectations in his first season in Houston. The real loss would be Smith Jr., who was the number three overall pick in the 2022 NBA draft.

Smith is one of the rising defenders in the league, and at just 23 years old, he still has a lot of room for growth in his game. Losing him would be a blow, but if the Rockets feel like they are in win-now mode, swapping him for Davis could be a move that helps Houston in the long run.

Davis’ injury history lessens the value Washington can get in a potential trade, but a healthy version of AD would push the Rockets in the right direction. Davis and Sengün would be a strong pair inside with Kevin Durant, Fred VanVleet and Amen Thompson holding down the perimeter.

TDS community, do you like the idea of trading for Davis? Let us know in the comments section below.

Bill Simmons sarcastically would ‘bet his life' on Warriors signing LeBron James originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

There is a lot of smoke surrounding LeBron James and the Warriors this offseason.

But with NBA free agency still weeks away, it’s unclear if Golden State will successfully recruit arguably the greatest player of all time to the Bay Area for the end of his illustrious career.

While some, including NBC Sports Bay Area’s Warriors insider Monte Poole, who reported Thursday, citing a source, that there at least is curiosity on both sides about a potential union, have been reluctant to predict a change of scenery for James this offseason, others, including The Ringer’s Bill Simmons, believe the 22-time All-Star will join Golden State this offseason.

.@BillSimmons on LeBron James and the Warriors:

"Before we get to Giannis, LeBron, what happens with that is a good one. This one is a really fun one because the Warriors is really in play now, like for real. I really feel like if I had to bet my life on a team, I'd think I… pic.twitter.com/5TE7bulDKJ

— Chef (@CurryForGame) June 14, 2026

“LeBron, what happens with that is a good one,” Simmons told Zach Lowe on the latest episode of his podcast. “This one is a really fun one because the Warriors is really in play now, like for real. I really feel like if I had to bet my life on a team, I’d think I would bet on them . . . I think that would be the move for me.”

James and his longtime Klutch Sports agent, Rich Paul, have not given any public indication as to which path the 41-year-old might take this offseason as he decides whether he wants to either return to the Los Angeles Lakers, where he has spent the past eight seasons, join a new team, like the Warriors, or potentially retire.

It’s no secret that Golden State, led by general manager Mike Dunleavy, will search high and low for roster upgrades this offseason, and with a handful of NBA stars potentially available this summer, perhaps James might be the most intriguing.

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