Category: Basketball

ESPN proposes intriguing Giannis-to-Warriors trade scenario involving Draymond originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

Déjà vu. Here we are once again discussing potential trade packages for two-time NBA MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo.

But after ESPN’s Shams Charania reported Wednesday that Antetokounmpo and his agent, Alex Saratsis, began conversations with the Milwaukee Bucks about the nine-time NBA All-Star’s future with the organization, how could you not?

ESPN did a deep dive into five potential deals Milwaukee could pursue, with a Giannis-to-the-Warriors package included amongst the bunch. But what would Golden State have to give up to possibly acquire the Greek Freak?

The proposal includes the Warriors getting Giannis and his brother Thanasis Antetokounmpo, and the Bucks receiving Draymond Green, Jonathan Kuminga, Buddy Hield and multiple first-round draft picks (2026, 2028, 2030, 2032).

“This would be a Hail Mary trade for both teams.

“Milwaukee could give Kuminga plenty of runway to see if he’s a long-term keeper and reroute Green — a proven winner and still elite defender — to a contender and extract the maximal pick package from Golden State, hoping that some of those outlying picks could be extremely lucrative once Stephen Curry retires.

“For the Warriors, a blockbuster trade would represent an attempt to break out of the funk that has plagued them this season. Adding Antetokounmpo would be a supercharged version of last season’s trade for Jimmy Butler III and create a championship-caliber core, potentially with enough depth behind that star trio to scare the Thunder and the West’s best teams.

“Except for a partially protected pick they owe to the Wizards in 2030, the Warriors still possess all of their future first-rounders. They need to decide whether they’re holding onto those picks to build for a post-Curry future, or whether they want to go all-in to pry open Curry’s championship window one final time,” ESPN insider Zach Kram wrote.

Green, of course, has spent his entire NBA career with the Warriors, anchoring the defense and guiding the team to four NBA championships. His partnership with Steph Curry has been one of the best in recent history, but some things don’t last forever.

Regarding Kuminga, who ended a months-long contract stalemate with Golden State this past offseason before ultimately agreeing to a two-year deal to remain with the team, a split from the Warriors seems likely — whether that’s in the coming months or years.

Throughout his 13-year career, Antetokounmpo has averaged 24 points on an efficient 55.2 percent shooting, with 10.1 rebounds, 6.1 assists, 1.1 steals and 1.2 blocks in 32.8 minutes per game.

Other potential trade suitors included in ESPN’s article included the Atlanta Hawks, New York Knicks, Houston Rockets and San Antonio Spurs.

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Quarter-season check-in: Is Celtics' ceiling higher than we thought? originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

One quarter of the way through the 2025-26 NBA season, it’s time to reset expectations for the Boston Celtics.

Over a span of 10 days, the Celtics have posted wins over Orlando, Detroit, Cleveland, and New York — the four betting favorites to emerge from the Eastern Conference. Half of Boston’s 12 total wins have come against those four teams.

The East is a cluttered mess with no dominant frontrunner. The Raptors and Heat have lingered near the top of the conference while largely feasting on inferior opponents. The Celtics sit an unremarkable eighth in the East at the quarter mark, but that’s due in part to letting some wins slip away against the likes of Brooklyn, Utah and Philadelphia.

The Celtics are one of five teams withs seven or more wins against opponents with a .500 record or better. The others? West-leading Oklahoma City (7-0), East-leading Detroit (8-3), Denver (7-2) and Orlando (7-7).

Boston is 7-2 over its last nine games, and there have been a bunch of encouraging signs.

Jaylen Brown is playing like an MVP candidate. Neemias Queta has one of the best on/off differentials in the entire league (a team-best +15.3). Jordan Walsh has been a game-changer since entrenching himself in the starting lineup with his grit and tenacity. The Celtics have the fourth-ranked offense in the entire league, even as Payton Pritchard and Derrick White struggle to find their typical shooting efficiencies.

Joe Mazzulla is pushing all the right buttons lately, and the Celtics are leaning into small-ball lineups that maximize their skill and versatility. Boston still needs to tighten up its rebounding, which has conspired against a defensive rating that sits in the back half to he NBA, but the Celtics rank seventh overall in halfcourt defense and simply have been gouged by putbacks.

That’s all our long-winded way of suggesting that the Celtics might be more in the mix in this mishmash East than most expected. Trade season officially opens in less than two weeks, and Brad Stevens might be more likely now to seek frontline help (we’ve spent hours in the Trade Machine trying to finagle a reacquisition of Robert Williams III) than sweat Boston’s bottom line.

Hovering above all this is the potential return of Jayson Tatum in calendar year 2026.

It’s impossible to watch the glimpses of his on-court work via his Snapchat stories and not ponder Tatum’s possible return in the second half of the 2025-26 season. He may not be All-NBA Jayson Tatum at that point, and the Celtics will surely bring him along slowly if he does indeed return to game action, but his presence alone changes the ceiling of what’s possible this season.

Combine that with the continued evolution of this current roster, and it’s easy to be optimistic about where this team is trending.

Of course, all of this demands the Celtics stay healthy. Brown has played in all 21 games to start the new campaign despite entering the year with hamstring woes and navigating back spasms during the most recent stretch.

Outside of a Queta ankle sprain, the Celtics have had their core players available for much of the season. The margin for error this year is slim, even when this team is at full strength. A long-term injury to a core piece complicates matters in a hurry.

But the development of some of the youngest players, including Walsh and newcomers Josh Minott and Hugo Gonzalez, have positioned the Celtics well for the future. The C’s look like they have a stable of young wings who can be legitimate contributors on the next Boston title contender. And most have only scratched the surface of how good they can be — while playing on bargain deals.

Maybe that acceleration back to true title threat won’t happen until the 2026-27 season. Maybe Tatum needs to shake off rust and Stevens needs to make a few roster tweaks before Boston is ready for true title-chasing reentry.

But if you entered the season daydreaming about a potential lottery pick, it might be time to at least reconsider the benefits of Boston making a spirited playoff push, even if that lands the team more towards the middle of the 2026 NBA Draft order.

At the start of the season, we were probably more bullish than most on these Celtics, in part because it felt like there was simply too much talent here for them to slide back to the lottery pack. What’s more, the Stevens-era Celtics have long prioritized wins over draft position. A new owner surely yearns to win, too.

A lot still has to break right for these Celtics to stay competitive. Brown has shouldered a heavy burden, younger players can’t get complacent with their progress, and Mazzulla has to continue to maximize the pieces that are available.

But there’s also a clear pathway to being an East playoff disruptor. Even if the Celtics are a bit up and down on the journey to the postseason, no team is going to want to match up against them in April or May, particularly if Tatum is back on the floor.

There’s a lot of work ahead for the Celtics to truly inject themselves in that playoff mix. But how quickly the Celtics dusted themselves off from an 0-3 start and found the combinations that have made them competitive against the best in the East is encouraging.

Encouraging enough to alter the outlook of what’s possible this season.

The Milwaukee Bucks beat the Detroit Pistons 113-109 despite losing the NBA's two-time Most Valuable Player Giannis Antetokounmpo to injury early in the match.

Antetokounmpo, 30, fell to the floor in the third minute and had to be helped off court by his team-mates.

The Bucks trailed by 18 points in the first quarter, but fought back at Milwaukee's Fiserv Forum to claim just their second win in 10 games.

Kevin Porter Jr registered 26 points for the Bucks, with Ryan Rollins adding 22 and AJ Green scoring 11 of his 19 in the fourth quarter to fuel the comeback.

"It was a hell of a win," Bucks head coach Doc Rivers said.

"We get down early, miss wide open, great shots, but we just couldn't get anything to fall.

"And Giannis gets hurt... to fight back, it just shows a lot of stuff about this team."

Detroit remain top of the Eastern Conference after their fifth loss of the season, with Milwaukee sitting 10th.

The Bucks initially thought Antetokounmpo had strained his right calf, but are awaiting confirmation after the Greek power forward had an MRI scan.

Before the match, rumours had emerged via ESPN that Antetokounmpo was "mulling his future" with the franchise.

But Rivers said there had been "no conversations" about a possible trade.

Elsewhere, James Harden and Kawhi Leonard combined for 48 points to help the Los Angeles Clippers end a five-game losing streak with a 115-92 win at the Atlanta Hawks.

Jamal Murray scored a season-high 52 points as the Denver Nuggets beat the Indiana Pacers 135-120 in Indianapolis.

After failing to ward off the Celtics in Boston on Tuesday, the Knicks were not going to let the same happen against the Hornets at home the next day.

Although the Hornets pulled within three after a one-sided second quarter, the Knicks hunkered down and took care of business, defeating Charlotte 119-104 on Wednesday night. 

New York started the second quarter up 15 points, but by the end of the first half, they had just a six-point lead. On the second of a back-to-back, the Knicks could have let the Hornets' get to them, but Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns weren't going to have it. Brunson scored 26 points on 56 percent shooting, a nice bounce back from his season-low performance against the Celtics.

While the Knicks big man scored a game-high 35 points and added 18 rebounds. 

"JB draws a lot of attention. Our team did a good job of utilizing the gravity when he was on the court and getting some good looks, getting some turnovers," Towns said of the team's effort. "I thought we did a great job defensively, making them speed up their game and playing Knicks basketball, which is translate turnovers to offense." 

"We could have easily chalked it up and said we tried," Brunson added. "Continue to fight, continue to stick together. Find a way to make plays defensively, got out in the open court, a good way to bounce back tonight."

Towns shot 13 of 23 from the field (3-for-7 from three) and often dominated the smaller Hornets lineup. But gave credit to the Knicks captain for his offensive outburst.

"When you got one of the best players league like JB, like I said, the gravity he attracts, it allows us a chance to do something special," he said. "Taking opportunities the defense was giving me, while doing that, being aggressive, whether it was scoring or passing to my teammates." 

Reason for Josh Hart starting

Wednesday was Hart's sixth straight game starting. With OG Anunoby out of the lineup due to a hamstring injury, head coach Mike Brown has decided to shift Hart into the starting lineup, but it took some time for the first-year Knicks coach to pull the trigger.

Hart started most of the games last year, but began the season as a bench player. The combo guard/forward has accepted whatever role Brown gives him, but the Knicks coach said the decision was thanks from a push by his staff.

"I rely on my staff. I had reasons why I started [Hart on the bench], but my staff, all of them, was like ‘hey, these are the reasons why it would be better,’" Brown explained. "The reality of it is, I just listen to my staff. If I’m the only one thinking it would be better at that time, then maybe I’m wrong.

"I’ve been wrong before and I’ll be wrong again in the future. That’s what I love about my staff, we have guys who are not afraid…to tell me what they think. I’m not always going to listen to them, but if my whole staff is telling me something, I better open my eyes and ears and figure out what they are really trying to say and maybe follow their lead instead of my lead all the time."

Hart scored 15 points on 4 of 11 shooting with eight rebounds and eight assists in 36 minutes on Wednesday. He's averaging 17 points per game since he was inserted into the starting lineup, while he scored just 12.5 points per game while on the bench this season.

Yabusele's changing role

Guerschon Yabusele has been a solid bench piece in his first year in New York, but his role has seeming changed as the season has gone along. Brown was asked about Yabusele not being used as a ball-screener like he was in the beginning of the season, and the head coach had an explanation for it. 

"Our five is usually the one that’s setting the screens. He’s playing the four right now," Brown said. "There’s a lot of ways he can get involved as the four. For instance, on a made bucket, if he takes it out he’s going to be involved in the action right away. It all depends on where he is and where he’s sprinting to as we’re going down the floor determines how much he’ll be involved. It’s hard to get pick-and-pop stuff with the way we play if you’re not playing that center spot." 

While the Knicks haven't carved out much of a role for Ariel Hukporti off the bench, the second-year center discovered an unconventional way to appease his coaches and teammates on the court.

It was Hukporti himself who capped his playing time in the Knicks' beatdown over the Hornets on Wednesday night, as he fouled out in just 13 minutes of action. And the stat line wasn't pretty -- he scored zero points, committed two turnovers, and failed to record a defensive rebound.

But jammed in between the excessive fouls were a few strong efforts in the paint from Hukporti. To his credit, he blocked a pair of shots from Hornets leaders LaMelo Ball and Kon Knueppel, and Knicks head coach Mike Brown praised the unusual performance by giving him an amusing accolade.

"I don't know if I've ever done this before, and I've been doing this a while, but our defensive player of the game was Ariel," Brown said after the win. "And he had zero defensive rebounds and fouled out. Interesting. Having said that, his impact was huge. He had a couple blocks, 50-50 balls. He went vertical a couple times and changed shots in the paint."

Hukporti's limited production -- he wound up logging a plus-minus of plus-6 -- was also acknowledged by Karl-Anthony Towns, who manhandled the Hornets with a team-high 35 points and 18 rebounds. Towns appreciated his teammate not wasting a single second of an opportunity.

"He used every one of those fouls. I appreciate that," Towns said of Hukporti. "He was special. His ability to come into the game, always staying ready, being a professional, always working on his game. It was a night we needed him. I don’t think we win this game without him making the contributions that he did."

Hukporti, who's actually started twice for the Knicks this season, is only averaging 2.2 rebounds and 0.8 points across 12 games. But, as he demonstrated against the Hornets, some valuable court activity isn't always accounted for.

CHICAGO (AP) — Michael Porter Jr. had 33 points and 10 rebounds and the Brooklyn Nets won consecutive games for the first time this season, beating the depleted Chicago Bulls 113-103 on Wednesday night.

Noah Clowney scored 18 of his 20 points the second half to help the Nets improve to 5-16. Nic Claxton had 14 points, nine assists and eight rebounds.

Josh Giddey had 28 points, 11 rebounds and 11 assists for his fifth triple-double this season for Chicago. The Bulls dropped to 9-12 with their fifth loss in a row.

Chicago played without seven injured players, including rookie forward Noa Essengue, the 12th overall pick in the NBA draft, who will have surgery on his left shoulder and miss the remainder of the season.

Porter followed up on a season-high 35-point effort in a 116-103 home victory over Charlotte on Monday night. Against Chicago, Porter hit four of his five three-point baskets in the second half as Brooklyn pushed back after Chicago narrowed the Nets lead to as little as five.

Nikola Vucevic finished with 16 points and 11 rebounds, and Ayo Dosunmu added 16 points, but Chicago was held to 42.2% shooting and committed 16 turnovers.

Up next

Nets: At Utah on Thursday night.

Bulls: Host Indiana on Friday night.