Category: Basketball

Part I of the series zoomed in on the possibility of Myles Turner returning as Milwaukee’s starting centre. This is certainly an option for Bucks coach Taylor Jenkins to mull over. But it comes with a cost. And when that cost is stunting the development of the player with arguably the most potential on the team—who you just received in exchange for your franchise’s GOAT—you better think twice. Instead, the Bucks might be best served bringing Turner off the bench.

Bench: The mentor

For all intents and purposes, Kel’el Ware is the centre of the Bucks’ universe (at least positionally) and for him to reach his ceiling he needs two things: freedom to own the role and mentorship. Benching Turner unlocks both. As a starter with consistent minutes, Ware can grow beyond the restraints that have capped him so far and reach the otherworldly heights his potential (and name) promises. But that’s not going to happen without the right voice in his ear—and that can’t come solely from coaches (there’s a reason I profiled possible veteran targets prior to the start of free agency).

Enter Turner. As one of the few veterans on this squad—he’s one of just three 30-year-olds—Turner’s value might be at its highest for this version of the Bucks in a leadership role, guiding Milwaukee’s young bigs the way only veterans who have been there and done that know how. That he’s a rim-protecting, floor-spacing big with similar measurables to Ware only makes this role all the more fitting.

While accepting a reduced role might be a tough pill to swallow, Turner knows a thing or two about the importance of mentorship—and working as a team, in the purest sense of the word. In his 2025 Players’ Tribune post, “It Took Me 10 Years to Write This,” Turner wrote effusively about nearly all of his Pacers teammates and the little things they did that contributed to winning. Veteran James Johnson was one of them:

[He] doesn’t really play but he stays impactful, with his veteran leadership and taking the young dudes under his wing. Like, what makes our team effective … it goes beyond elite stars, or elite depth, or even elite work ethic. We have elite role clarity. We have a team that’s a TEAM, and a group that’s a GROUP.

Turner clearly isn’t at the point Johnson was with that Pacers team, but if he truly believes those words he knows a move to the bench is the right one to make.

Mentorship aside, bringing Turner off the bench might just be the best way to maximise his all-around on-floor impact. Turner is at his best when paired with a playmaking guard who sets the table for him. This isn’t just conjecture, either, with Turner also highlighting Tyrese Halliburton’s transformative value to him in his Players’ Tribune post:

I felt like for the first time in my NBA career, I had both 1. a head coach who’s believing in me, and 2. a point guard who’s facilitating for me. And it’s like I was unleashed. 

Right away, I went from 13 ppg to 18 ppg. 33% on threes to 37%. 51% from the field to 55%. And it wasn’t just the numbers — it was so much deeper than that. Like, I don’t know if this will make sense, but it’s the first time where I felt like I had “basketball free will.” I wasn’t just getting told what NOT to do. With Coach and Tyrese, things flowed toward what’s possible. They started to let me engage mentally, not just physically. And when I’m doing that … I feel like I’m who I want to be as a basketball player. 

It was this connection that enabled Turner to convert at least 75% of his shots between 0-3 feet in the four seasons prior to coming to Milwaukee (per Basketball-Reference). With the Bucks—and without an elite playmaker—that dropped down to just 67%. It’s not surprising then that Turner’s overall scoring volume and efficiency nosedived without a true facilitator in Milwaukee; the percentage of two-point field goals he was assisted on reduced from 85% in his final season with the Pacers to 74% with the Bucks. For reference, Ware was at 68% last year—and he’s no shot creator. With these things in mind, Turner seems ideally suited to line up alongside up-and-coming dime-dropper Kasparas Jakučionis, who also figures to be utilised off the bench.

But, unlike Turner, Ware does score off the offensive glass, ranking tenth in the league in total points scored off putbacks (144), just short of Bucks killer Moussa Diabaté (150). Meanwhile, Turner had just 48—fewer than rookie wings VJ Edgecombe and Kon Knueppel. Considering Jenkins’ teams have historically prioritised second-chance points, this is yet another reason Ware should start.

In all, a move to the bench doesn’t mean Turner won’t be a significant part of the rotation. After all, the Bucks are still relatively thin up front, with only Turner, Ware, and Jericho Sims as true bigs. It wouldn’t be surprising to see iterations of this squad with two of those three sharing the court, either. But for the Bucks to truly start their climb back up the Eastern Conference standings, they need Turner to lead—and that might mean sitting down.

Bucks fans, what do you think about sending Myles Turner to the bench? Share your thoughts in the comments and stay tuned for Part III: Cut, coming tomorrow.

What did Mat Ishbia and the Suns pay Devin Booker to do? That’s the question Suns fans need to ask themselves. Instead, everyone has gotten hung up on what they think Mat Ishbia paid Devin Booker to be.

Fan sentiment is that Devin Booker needs to be a “superstar” because he got paid “superstar money”. He needs to make All-NBA teams, he needs to make All-Star teams, he needs to lead the Suns in scoring every night, and he needs to win every close game when it comes down to the wire, because that’s what Kobe did.

Mat Ishbia signed Devin Booker to the market-value supermax contract he had coming his way because the Suns and 29 other NBA front offices think that Devin Booker impacts winning. Mat Ishbia extended Devin Booker to build a title contender. He didn’t extend him so that Booker could win the scoring title (fingers crossed). Or make an All-NBA team (I hope, I hope, I hope). Or even play in an All-Star game (if he doesn’t, we riot). He extended Booker to build a team that can win, and win in the playoffs. The fine print didn’t specify that Booker had to be anything. Jordan Ott can use Booker however he sees fit.

An interesting conversation has come up in the Suns-related content sphere. Gil from the PHNX Suns stream posited whether or not there was “a world in which Jalen Green is the guy who’s averaging 24 plus, maybe around that 25 range.” He also asked whether there should be a “Passing of the Torch where Jalen is the guy who is maybe leading the team in scoring but Booker’s still getting go-to buckets down the stretch.” I have thoughts on that.

So did Ben Garcia from the Locked on Suns stream, who had the following to say about the idea of Booker stepping back in order for Green to grow:

“What if Jalen Green turns into a 25-point per game player and ascends past Devin Booker, and Devin Booker turns into the Big Shot Maker. That is stupid in my opinion because Jalen Green has never shot over 42% in a season.”

He went on to add, “Asking Devin Booker to take a step back, like that’s crazy. No one would ever tell a four or five-time All-Star to take a back seat to a guy who has never been an All-Star, never really contributed to winning.”

Fight. Fight. Fight. Fight.

Ben is caught up in what he thinks Devin Booker should be. It would be crazy to ask Devin Booker to take a back seat in any offense. That’s not what I think Gil meant. I think he meant the Suns would be better if Jalen Green were their leading scorer, and he’s right.

The Suns don’t need Devin Booker to be less involved in the offense; they need him to change the role he plays in the offense. Or the role he’s traditionally played. You don’t have to look any further than last year’s playoffs when Mike Brown asked Karl-Anthony Towns to take on a different role to see the proof of concept. If Jordan Ott did ask Booker to take on a different role in order to impact winning, he wouldn’t be the only coach who’s done so. Calipari at Kentucky asked Book to come off the bench. Kerr asked Book to be the glue guy to bring a collection of great talent into a cohesive team. Two championship-caliber coaches saw the value in Devin Booker’s greatest attribute behind the butter-smooth jumper. Devin Booker is an egoless (super)star who has the team-first mentality and the basketball IQ to adjust his game to suit the needs of the team.

The Suns don’t have to build the team around Devin Booker the way you have to build a team around LeBron or Luka. Teammates don’t have to be asked to fill a narrow role and sacrifice their game in order for Booker to get off his. This is important because the Suns have an optimization problem at the top of the payroll.

Jalen Green did not play as well for the Suns as he played on the Rockets. There are reasons for that. It’s the injury, it’s coming in late onto a team that had already gelled, but it’s also the role they asked Jalen Green to play. Jalen Green’s game didn’t blossom off of Booker’s gravity the way Brooks’ game did. My opinion is that’s because Jalen Green is a one, not a two. It is debatable where Jalen Green falls on the ladder of NBA ones, he hasn’t been an all-star yet, he’s certainly not a better one than Booker, but he was the leading scorer and shot-taker on a Rockets team that landed a two seed and won two play-off games. All four years on the Rockets, Jalen Green took the most shots on the team.

While Booker remains one of the more potent scorers in the league, the eye test tells that something is changing with Booker’s jumpshot. He doesn’t look as confident, he isn’t getting it off in traffic like he used to, he’s hunting fouls because he doesn’t trust it. Beyond the much-talked-about three-point shooting woes last year, Devin Booker put up his lowest field goal percentage since the 2017 season. The year before that, he also put up his lowest field goal percentage since the 2017 season. He covered up for it by putting up a career-high 8.1 free throw attempts a game. In the playoffs, the Thunder took him out of the game. I don’t care how good the Thunder were; when has there ever been a playoff series in which Devin Booker couldn’t get shots up?

Jalen Green, with all his flaws, has young legs. He can get into the lane at will. He can elevate above the crowd. He’s a three-level scorer with elite athleticism that’s tough to stop when the ball’s in his hand. At his best, he’s a score-first guy. The questionable shot selection, the limited playmaking, and the ball-stopping are all a part of his game, but the Suns need him to be aggressive.

This season’s puzzle is an optimization problem. How do you get the most out of Booker while still getting the most out of Green, Brooks, Bridges, and Gillespie? The Suns won’t win as many games as fans expect next season if they get the Jalen Green they had last season. He produced below his career averages in points and assists. Devin Booker is special with the ball in his hands, but so was CP3. CP3 didn’t have to be the leading scorer to be the best player on the floor. Neither does Devin Booker.

If the Suns need Jalen Green to be aggressive, they need Booker to be efficient. There’s hope that the addition of a fourth shot creator in Bridges will force defenses to be less aggressive in targeting Booker, but I’m not optimistic on that front. Running more plays for Booker is going to lead to more of the same from opposing defenses. More contested jumpers, more walk-up threes, more misses, fewer buckets. The Suns can run more plays through Jalen Green, and eventually, the rush-Booker-every-time-he-touches-the-ball game plan won’t make sense anymore. Devin Booker doesn’t need more shots; he needs better shots.

We all know Ishbia is a Michigan man so when I try to prognosticate on what vision he has for his Suns teams I go to the Detroit Pistons. Initially, my mind ran to the Bad Boy Pistons with Booker playing Zeke, but there was another championship Pistons team in 2004. Led by Chauncey Billups, but led in scoring by Rip Hamilton. As of the time I’m writing this, one of them is in the Naithsmith Hall of Fame, and the other isn’t. It wasn’t the leading scorer that got inducted.

Is Jalen Green the perfect fit next to Devin Booker? Maybe not, but unless something shocking happens, Jalen Green is who they have. If the Suns are serious about winning a playoff series this season, they’re going to need to get 25 points a game from Jalen Green because teams are no longer allowing Booker to go off on them. Will there be nights when Booker makes a run at a 50 spot? Of course, there will. But not in the playoffs. The Thunder showed us what’s going to happen in the playoffs. Adding Miles Bridges doesn’t change that. The rise of Jalen Green will.

Booker is one of the most adaptable superstars in NBA history. The Suns should consider what a different role would open up, not just in opportunities for his teammates, but in him finding more space to get his own shot off as well.

Is it time for Book to pass the torch and take up a different role on this team than he has on past teams? I don’t know if that’s what Ott has planned. I just know that if he asks. Book will do it.

For those who don’t follow the NBA, allow me to provide a brief history on the work Bob Myers has done as an executive.

Bob Myers was hired by the Golden State Warriors in 2011 as an assistant general manager. He would be promoted to general manager a year later.

Under Myers’s leadership, the Warriors would go on to draft Harrison Barnes and Draymond Green in 2012. This came a year after drafting Klay Thompson and three years after drafting Steph Curry. They signed future NBA Finals MVP Andre Igoudala to a four-year deal in 2013. They also extended the aforementioned Curry to what wound up being a team-friendly contract, thanks in part to his early career injury history dampening his value.

Those players wound up forming the core of what would become multiple NBA championship teams in the Bay Area. They won the title in 2015. They would’ve repeated in 2016, a season where they went 73-9 in the regular season, had it not been for a historic performance by LeBron James in Games 5-7 of the 2016 NBA Finals for the Cleveland Cavaliers to erase a 3-1 deficit and win the title.

The way the NBA was set up at the time, the salary cap exploded going into the 2016-17 season. The Warriors had the cap space and flexibility in terms of assets (aka, they renounced the free agency rights to Barnes) to convince a former NBA MVP and one of the 15 or so greatest players ever in Kevin Durant to join them as a free agent. The Warriors would go on to win the next two NBA titles and may have won yet another in 2019 had it not been for an Achilles injury to Durant and a torn ACL by Thompson in that Finals against the Toronto Raptors.

Golden State would have a couple down years in the aftermath of Durant departing as a free agent and Thompson’s lengthy recovery (he wound up tearing his Achilles during a workout prior to returning from the torn ACL), but the core of Curry, Thompson, and Green managed to win one last championship together in 2021-22. All in all, they won 4 championships and reached two more NBA Finals in a six year span and became a modern day NBA dynasty. Myers’ leadership and vision was a big part of the reason why the Warriors accomplished that.

Myers would eventually step down as GM of the Warriors and do work in television before taking his next executive job as president of Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment, which oversees operations of the Philadelphia 76ers and New Jersey Devils among other organizations.

The 76ers, well into the post-“Trust the Process” tanking era under former GM Sam Hinkie, had consistently been a good but not great team in the Eastern Conference. As a team, their ceiling was reaching the Eastern Conference semifinals. Joel Embiid is the longest-tenured Sixer, and while he’s oft-injured, he’s an MVP-caliber player when healthy. Philadelphia nailed a late first round pick on Tyrese Maxey, a 2-time All-Star, and the future is bright with VJ Edgecombe, a former high lottery pick.

Teams are always looking to improve, and when the opportunity to acquire a perennial All-Star and NBA champion in Jaylen Brown presented itself, the Sixers were positioned to pounce. Philadelphia sent an albatross Paul George contract and draft picks to Boston to acquire Brown. And while I’m not necessarily saying that move was the reason why Philadelphia all of a sudden became an attractive landing spot for LeBron James, it certainly didn’t hurt Philly’s chances. LeBron, at age 41 and looking to win one last championship before retiring, chose Philadelphia over potential reunions in Cleveland and Miami for what may be the final chapter in his Hall of Fame career.

Myers has been quoted in the past saying that he wasn’t necessarily looking to build superteams in the NBA. The goal is to build, compete, and ideally, each subsequent decision makes you incrementally better. It’s one thing for Myers to tell Rich Paul and Max Kellerman on their podcast that his pitch to LeBron would be that the Sixers gave him the best chance to win. It’s another thing to show your work by making the correct requisite moves beforehand to set up that possibility. It’s easier to show you’re serious about winning when you can point to trading for a perennial All-Star weeks prior as proof.

When you consistently make good decisions, and you consistently build upon a strong foundation, you position yourself to be in the mix for the move or moves that can put you over the top.

Look at the Florida Panthers, for instance. For most of their history as a franchise, the Panthers were a joke. Florida has always had the advantages of having great weather and a favorable tax situation, but when previous management groups there couldn’t get out of their own way and built losing hockey teams year after year, nobody wanted to go South Florida unless the team grossly overpaid or there was no other alternative when it came to being in the NHL.

It wasn’t until the last decade or so where they began to turn things around. It started with the drafting of key players like Sasha Barkov, Aaron Ekblad, and Jonathan Huberdeau to give them a foundation off which to work. They also added a key free agent in Sergei Bobrovsky who gave them stability in net (and would wind up being a key reason of why they won championships)

Once Bill Zito (and eventually, Sunny Mehta) came aboard, the Panthers made a series of decisions that made them incrementally better. Drafting Anton Lundell. Acquiring Sam Reinhart and Sam Bennett via trade. Adding Gus Forsling off of waivers. Signing Carter Verhaeghe after he wasn’t qualified by the Tampa Bay Lightning. Was there a bit of luck involved that they were able to pluck a top pairing defenseman and a top six scoring winger off of the scrap heap? Sure. But by using the data and tools available, you make those smart, calculated risks. And those moves ultimately added to the foundation Florida already had where they were able to move Huberdeau and Mackenzie Weegar for Matthew Tkachuk, which ultimately led to them getting Brady Tkachuk last month.

Smart moves by a smart management team didn’t just turn Florida into a winner. They turned Florida into THE premier destination in the NHL. To where Florida became THE team that everybody wants to go to. Fans might be envious and/or annoyed when Florida, Tampa, and Vegas keep popping up on a player’s preferred trade destination list, but those organizations are there for a reason.

Instead of being annoyed about that though, the other 29 or so organizations should be asking themselves how do I get on that list? What can I do differently to get on that level? Instead of moping around and whining and complaining about the lack of palm trees in Buffalo like a loser, teams should be looking in the mirror and ask themselves what they’re not doing.

Bob Myers might not be a traditional” 200 Hockey Man”, and neither is Sunny Mehta. But the philosophy of continuing to make those incremental improvements and making smart bets is one that can apply regardless of the sport. It’s something Mehta literally talked about in his introductory press conference, and its likely a conversation that came up when Myers sat in on Mehta’s interview to be the Devils general manager.

Once those improvements are made and the team is better off on the field (or in this case, the ice) as a result of it, it opens up the door to larger possibilities.

New Jersey And Being a Destination

The idea of New Jersey being a destination isn’t something new. It’s something that former GM Tom Fitzgerald talked about a lot during his time here.

Fitzgerald frequently referred to New Jersey as a “hidden gem”, and while part of that is the role of used car salesman that comes along with being an NHL general manager, he wasn’t necessarily wrong.

New Jersey has plenty to offer, from its close proximity to NYC, Philadelphia, Atlantic City, and the Jersey shore to what Fitzgerald cited as “the best travel in the league” with so many teams in the Eastern Conference located along the I-95 corridor. If you like golf, there’s plenty of options. If you like world-class restaurants, there’s plenty of options. If you want “city living”, there are plenty of places in Hoboken or Jersey City to take up residence. If you want a quieter lifestyle off the ice, there are plenty of places where one can live in relative anonymity in the suburbs. The practice rink and Prudential Center are under the same roof. I can go on, but you get the point. New Jersey isn’t unique in offering these things per se, but they can build a compelling argument around those things as selling points.

Fitzgerald did succeed to some extent when it came to convincing players to either come to or stay in New Jersey. He ultimately convinced Dougie Hamilton, Ondrej Palat, Brett Pesce, and Brenden Dillon to sign here as unrestricted free agents. He convinced Timo Meier to extend here. Jake Allen and Jacob Markstrom waived no-trade clauses to come here. They certainly took a big swing to try to convince Johnny Gaudreau to sign here. Granted, Fitzgerald might’ve caved in a lot of negotiations where he ultimately offered too much term, too much money, too much trade protection, or some combination of the three, but when one is adding pieces through free agency, that’s the cost of doing business. You either bite the bullet and give the player what they’re looking for or you risk losing the player.

If there’s a critique though, it’s that the Devils haven’t had enough success on the ice to position themselves to be a contender for the truly elite level players when they do become available. They can get players, but they haven’t been able to get the difference makers that move the needle.

The Devils couldn’t get on Matthew Tkachuk’s list when he was available several years ago despite the Tkachuks being cousins with Fitzgerald, and they weren’t on Brady’s list either post-Fitzgerald firing despite Brady’s wife being from New Jersey.

The Devils haven’t been able to get on Dylan Larkin’s list either despite his close relationship with the Hughes brothers.

Ironically, the relationship with the Hughes brothers matters to some extent with Larkin since Quinn is there and Wild are on his list. As of this writing, the so-called Quinn Hughes contract extension to stay in Minnesota that we were told was a mere formality isn’t actually done yet (meanwhile, Quinn has spent most of his time with his brothers in New Jersey this summer but I digress).

Why is Minnesota on Larkin’s list? Aside from the obvious need for a top six center, they were one of the best teams in the league last season. They theoretically have a chance to win right now, even though their roster has taken a step back this offseason. The Devils have to prove they belong on that upper-echelon tier before they get that benefit of the doubt.

Winning matters. Players can make their money anywhere.

It’s why one organization located in a southwestern desert can struggle for decades despite good year-round weather being a selling point (Arizona) while another has done nothing but thrive since entering the league (Vegas).

Ownership matters. Having executives in place who know what they’re doing, who know how to build a winner, and will be aggressive in doing so matters. Having a winning culture matters. It’s why an organization like Vegas is on every player’s wishlist (despite their track record of treating players like a disposable napkin once they’re deemed no longer useful) while an organization like Arizona is, well, no longer located in Arizona.

It’s why teams like Vegas and Florida and Tampa Bay will ultimately be fine despite trading away so many futures. As long as they keep having the right people in place and keep building upon what is already in place, they’ll always have that next guy who will want to come in to replace the guy who ages out.

If it was simply about a favorable tax situation, an organization like the Kraken or Predators would have had nothing but success since entering the league.

Final Thoughts

I realize that my thoughts this week are sort of all over the place, but with the news that LeBron was going to Philadelphia and seeing Bob Myers, who works for HBSE, play a key role in convincing him to go there reassured me that the Devils are likely in good shape. Both with Myers in his larger role overseeing HBSE and Mehta as the Devils general manager.

Of course, its one thing to say you’re going to do these things and another thing entirely to be better. But I view the Devils similarly to how I’d view the Panthers pre-Zito and pre-Mehta, or the Sixers for most of the last decade. Where there are pieces there you can win with and are worth building around, but you need the right people in place at the top of the organization who know how to put the requisite pieces around them to win and will be aggressive when the time is right.

The one ‘yeah, but’ with all of this is that the players wield as much power as they ever have and aren’t afraid to use it. In many cases, not only do they have the no-trade clause, but they also have the power and wherewithal to utilize it to steer themselves towards a preferred destination. Those are roadblocks that even elite teams like Carolina and Colorado have had to navigate, and its certainly possible that even if the Devils do become a perennial contender, that’s something they’ll always have to deal with to some extent. At the end of the day, there will be players who won’t want to come to New Jersey no matter what they do to make themselves attractive to them.

I’m not saying that the Devils will definitely turn things around and join that upper echelon of NHL franchises with Myers and Mehta up top. The NHL is not the NBA, and what Myers accomplished there won’t necessarily work in the NHL. Mehta is still relatively unproven. But I do think there’s something to the idea of consistently making smart decisions and the mindset of “how do I get better today” rather than complacency. I also think there’s something to the idea of nobody is just going to hand greatness to you on a silver platter. If you want to be great, you have to grab the bull by the horns and take what’s yours. Of course, that process is different for players than executives, but the point is that it doesn’t just happen. Be aggressive, like Vegas consistently is, and go get yours.

It may take a little bit of time as Mehta continues to fix the mistakes of the previous regime and continues to reshape the roster, but the Devils are probably in good hands under Mehta and Myers’ leadership.

Spurs legend Manu Ginobili turned 49-years-old yesterday (happy belated birthday, Champ!). Even though he retired in 2018, he’s remained a fixture with the Spurs. From sitting with his family at home games to showing up with Tim Duncan to Gregg Popovich’s retirement announcement (where it was revealed he and Timmy were actively engaged in Pop’s physical therapy and recovery), Ginobili is still a Spur through and through.

The day before his birthday, this snippet of a dialogue between he and fellow teammate Tony Parker was posted:

Manu explained, “I was just giving my opinion as a former player…I was there for three days. And then I spent some time with Brian Wright talking about the team. So I do a little bit of everything but not too much of anything.”

Parker responded by saying, “So basically you are testing you’re testing coaching a little bit to see if you like it and you’re testing the front office, so GM, scout, all that kind of stuff to explain. And so right now, you like a little in both but you don’t want to commit right now because you still want to enjoy your time.”

“Definitely, that’s a great summary,” Manu replied. “I’m trying to contribute in any possible way because I love the organization, everybody in it. I’ve been a part of it for twenty years. so it’s basically my family, too. And I am learning, and then I’ll decide.”

As the Spurs continue to grow and shape a champion caliber roster, there can be no greater support than those who reigned supreme with the first dynasty. And any role Ginobili takes with the organization will enhance the growth of the team and the franchise as a whole.

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Warriors' quiet NBA offseason leads wandering eyes to the summer of 2027 originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

The Warriors’ quiet 2026 NBA offseason already has led wandering eyes towards the summer of 2027. 

Draymond Green on Tuesday returned to the Warriors on a one-year, $27.7 million contract, which is the same deal he turned down in opting out of his player opinion to open more financial flexibility in the team’s pursuit of LeBron James. Once Green’s new contract and De’Anthony Melton’s two-year, $11 million contract with a player option on the second year becomes finalized, the Warriors will be hard-capped to the second apron. 

They technically have three spots available, not including second-round pick Lajae Jones, to fill out on minimum contracts. 

James was the big fish this offseason that couldn’t be reeled in. The free-agent market is barren, and the Warriors’ salary cap situation only allows for cheap deals signed on the dotted line. As the Warriors continue to hold onto their draft picks, running a 37-win team back with reasons for optimism and arguments for the other side on nearly every player is as much about clearing the books for next summer as anything else. 

Bringing back Green, plus having Jimmy Butler’s $56.8 million contract he’s under this season, gives the Warriors $84.5 million in expiring contracts between the two of them. The trend goes much further than just those two. 

Along with Butler and Green, Steph Curry and Brandin Podziemski also are on expiring contracts. Curry becomes extension eligible on Aug. 29. The last time he was extension eligible, Curry took some time and he signed a one-year extension instead of the two years he was eligible for. Podziemski is up for a rookie contract extension he can sign until 3 p.m. PT the day before the regular-season opener. Butler can be extended starting in February of 2027. 

Green is the only of the three who can’t be extended. He did not receive a full no-trade clause in his new contract, but playing as a one-year Bird Rights player essentially functions the same and any trade would need his consent. 

Now, back to the Warriors and next offseason. 

The Warriors only have three players who have guaranteed contracts for the 2027-28 season: Moses Moody ($13.4 million), Yaxel Lendeborg ($6.4 million) and Gui Santos ($5 million). Kristaps Porziņģis has a $20 million player option, Al Horford has a $7.1 million player option and Melton has a player option projected at $5.75 million. Will Richard’s $2.5 million on his third season is non-guaranteed. 

Golden State is projected to have the most salary cap space in the league next offseason with just three guaranteed contracts currently signed.

So, why 2027? 

Inside their own building, Curry, Butler and Green can all be unrestricted free agents, with Curry the most likely off the board because of his extension. Outside the building, there’s a long list of enticing players who are set to be unrestricted free agents. 

Kawhi Leonard is part of that list. So is Michael Porter Jr., Tyler Herro, RJ Barrett, Zach LaVine, and some strong role players like Donte DiVincenzo, Lu Dort, Keldon Johnson, Davion Mitchell and more. 

The real interest is in those who have player options for next offseason in the chance they get turned down and the Warriors are an enticing enough destination for a slew of star names. Those star names include the likes of Nikola Jokić, Kevin Durant, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Karl-Anthony Towns, Rudy Gobert, Kyrie Irving, Brandon Ingram and others. James does have a player option, but he’s stated Philadelphia will be his final destination. 

But the problem is, free agency doesn’t work like that any more. These types of star names rarely make it to the open market, and it’s often about the move before the move, a la the 76ers trading for Jaylen Brown in order to sign James. 

It’s up to you to believe the Warriors will seal the deal with one of the above names or a different disgruntled star who wants out. The laundry list of vanishing names the Warriors have been attached to in recent years will sway you away. The Warriors will rightly argue they added a star in Butler 18 months ago in what was a great trade where only one first-round pick was moved to Miami. That also was a fairly riskless move, where the only real risk was age and injury concern, which blew up one year later.

The reasons for optimism from the roster the Warriors are bringing back in 2026-27 starts with hoping Curry plays more than 43 games. 

It’s hoping Green’s flashes in matchups against Victor Wembanyama, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Leonard and some other stars can be sustained for longer periods, and he doesn’t get as turnover happy. It’s hoping Rick Celebrini has Porziņģis’ health under control, that Melton can play back-to-backs and Horford is the player he was starting on Christmas. It’s hoping Butler returns from injury as close to his past self, and Moody too. It’s hoping Lendeborg really is Day 1 ready and other young players can follow his lead. 

And much of what’s happening now looks to be keen on keeping tabs ahead of what’s possible to happen a year from now.

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Steve Kerr never felt Warriors ‘realistically' were in running for LeBron James originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

The Warriors came up short in their pursuit of LeBron James, and it’s unclear exactly how close they came to landing him.

In Golden State coach Steve Kerr’s opinion, not close at all.

ESPN’s Anthony Slater, in an appearance Tuesday on “NBA Today,” shared what Kerr told him in a conversation after James chose to sign with the Philadelphia 76ers last week.

“I didn’t even think we were realistically in the running for LeBron,” Kerr told Slater. “It’s just that everyone kept saying we were. It never seemed serious to me despite all the reports.”

In the final two weeks leading up to James’ long-awaited decision, there was plenty of reporting that the Warriors were not optimistic about their chances to land the 22-time NBA All-Star, and Kerr’s comments to Slater seemingly confirm that.

Despite initially being viewed as the favorites to sign James once he left the Los Angeles Lakers, other teams, like the Cleveland Cavaliers, Miami Heat and Philadelphia leapfrogged Golden State as the most likely suitors, in the court of public opinion.

And likely, in King James’ court as well.

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The NBA's offseason has reached its next phase. LeBron James made the biggest free agency decision of the year, and now most of the league's major roster questions for the 2026-27 season have been addressed. There could be a few more trades to avoid the NBA's salary-cap penalties, but otherwise the league's major transactions are complete.

But there sure were a lot of impact players on the move this year.

Giannis Antetokounmpo, Kawhi Leonard, Jaylen Brown, LaMelo Ball, Ja Morant, Julius Randle and James were among the former and current NBA All-Stars to switch teams this offseason. While the Knicks largely stood pat after winning an NBA championship, nearly every contender attempting to catch them made notable additions, subtractions or both after eight different title winners in eight years.

From blockbuster trades and free-agent signings to draft-night steals and key extensions, here are the best move made by each of the NBA's 30 teams this offseason:

In the middle of Wisconsin, at a bend in the Wisconsin River named after a grocer named George Stevens, is a smallish town that used to be a hotbed of lumbering and is now a center for insurance and the headquarters of the U.S. operations of the Canadian National Railroad.

In this town there’s a high school, and like most high schools, there’s an athletic director for the school’s sports programs, and that athletic director is Dave Hauser.

Dave was a basketball player at the University of Minnesota-Duluth from 1987 to 1991. At the time, Minnesota-Duluth was an NAIA program, and Hauser was a stand-out player. His teams made the NAIA tournament every year he played, but bowed out in either the first or second round each time. A member of the team’s 1,000 point club, and currently 27^th all time in scoring, Dave played alongside Jay Guidinger, a center who went from the NAIA to the NBA, where he played a couple seasons with the Cleveland Cavaliers, backing up Brad Daugherty.

In 1993, a couple years after graduation, while working as a teacher in the Westfield, Wisconsin, school district, Dave married Stephanie Fermanich, a chemistry teacher in the Green Bay school system; Stephanie is currently an executive director with the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association, which oversees high school sports in the state.

On December 8, 1997, the pair welcomed a son, Sam, into the family.

From fourth grade on, Sam was playing basketball competitively.

Sam grew up in Stevens Point with an older sister Nicole and, eventually, a younger brother, Joey. All three were multi-sport athletes, putting on the uniform of the Panthers at Stevens Point Area Senior High School.

In addition to playing basketball, Sam lettered in football as a quarterback, although he never cracked the starting lineup.

As a high school player, Sam played for his father, who was then an assistant coach, along with Trev Anderson, who was the son of the head coach, but there was no nepotism going on here. Anderson would finish his high school career with 2,360 points, and as a duo, they led Stevens Point to a 100-6 record during their careers to go with a pair of state championships in 2015 and 2016, years when Sam and Trev were joined by Sam’s brother, Joey.

Over those two seasons the team notched a 55-1 record. In 2015, the team trounced the undefeated defending champions, Germantown, 67-51 in the state championship, with Anderson and Hauser accounting for 50 of those 67 points, scoring 25 points apiece. Sam scored SPASH’s first sixteen points in the contest.

The following year, the Hauser boys and Trev put on a season-long clinic. In a perfect 28-0 season, SPASH won every game by double digits, and their average margin of victory was 33 points. On March 19th the team defeated Muskego 89-64, behind 23 points and eight rebounds from Sam, for the team’s second straight state title. They finished the season ranked eleventh in USA Today’s Super 25 ranking of the country’s best boy’s basketball teams.

That season, Anderson and Hauser were joint recipients of the Wisconsin Basketball Coaches Association player of the year honors.

After wrapping up Wisconsin’s high school tournament,on April 2nd, 2016, Sam found himself at the Glenda Dawson High School in Pearland Texas competing in an event sponsored by the U.S. Marines and held in conjunction with the NCAA Final Four Tournament going on that weekend in nearby Houston. Students in the high school were dismissed from their Friday afternoon classes and invited to the gym to provide a suitable crowd for a three-point and slam dunk contest.

Hauser, after a shaky first round, tied for third in the country in the three-point contest. “I was just not making my shots in the first round; they were right there, but they weren’t falling,” he said, adding, “I was really more about having fun with it.”

By this time, Hauser had committed to play basketball at Marquette, located not far from Stevens Point in Milwaukee. He’d also been named the Gatorade Player of the Year for Wisconsin. He was rated a top-100 recruit by Scouts.com, 247Sports.com and ESPN.

Hauser hit the ground running at Marquette, starting 28 of 32 games for the Big East squad, and playing a team high 26.5 minutes per game. His stats as a freshman were a bit pedestrian, but he was primed for a sophomore leap. In his second year, he started all 35 games. His scoring average jumped from 8.8 to 14.1 points per game, and his rebounding average improved from five per game to 5.7.

Sam continued to improve as a junior, when he was joined on the squad by his brother, Joey. Sam was named to the All-Big East second team, and was named the team’s Most Valuable Player. His scoring was up slightly, and he once again started every game—and his shooting percentage splits were stellar. With an overall field goal percentage of 45.9%, free throw shooting at 92.4%, and 3-point field goal percentage of 40.2%, Hauser was carrying on a standard of shooting excellence that he had started to build in high school.

Marquette made the NCAA tournament twice in Hauser’s time with the school, but lost in the first round both times.

After his junior year, at a time when transferring meant sitting out a year, Sam announced that he would be finishing his career with the Virginia Cavaliers.

He missed the 2019/20 season, and suited up for Virginia in the COVID shortened 2020/21 season where he once again started every game, finishing a four-year career with 122 starts in 126 games.

Sam’s fourth year was his best yet. He was named to the All-ACC First Team, and came within an ace of notching a 50/40/90 season as a shooter, falling just .4% short of 90% from the free throw line to go with a 50.3% field goal percentage and a 41.7% three-point shooting rate. He was also named to the ACC’s All-Academic Team.

The highlight of the season was undoubtedly the team’s game against Louisville, where Hauser shot 9-14 for 24 points, to go with eight rebounds and two blocks in a contest that clinched the regular season title for Virginia. “That was an MVP-type performance,” Virginia coach Tony Bennett said after the game.

The Cavaliers made the NCAA tournament that year, but Hauser’s team once again lost in the first round. Hauser had a fifth year of eligibility due to COVID, even though he’d been required to sit out the COVID terminated college season, but he chose to declare for the NBA draft instead.

Hauser sat through both rounds of the draft without hearing his name called. The draft, held on July 29^th, about a month later than usual due to a COVID-delayed start to the previous season, was followed by a flurry of activity as teams looked to sign up undrafted free agents, and Sam was among the players who found himself with a choice of teams to play for.

The Timberwolves, Celtics and Heat all pitched Hauser. Minnesota and Boston had contract offers on the table, while Miami only offered Sam a chance to compete for a roster spot. However, at the time, Miami had an exceptional reputation for developing diamonds in the rough. “I saw what Duncan [Robinson] had done and Max Strus had done,” Hauser said about Miami, adding, “they have a good culture for producing guys like that.”

But the difference came down to the Celtics’ contract offer and especially Boston’s President of Basketball Operations, Brad Stevens. Sam’s mother, Stephanie, who, along with his father Dave, helped him evaluate the offers on the table, said that they put together a list of pros and cons, but that they kept coming back to Stevens. “He just had the old-school, down-home way, and we just liked how he goes about things,” she observed.

“Everything about him was very trustworthy. So, the fact that he saw things in Sam had a lot of value to us.”

Sam signed a two-way contract with Boston that was upgraded to a standard NBA deal the following year.

2024 gave Hauser his first taste of championship ball since his high school days at Stevens Point eight years earlier.

During the Finals that year, Hauser was a key reserve, scoring 8.2 points per game on better than 50% shooting across 15 minutes per contest, as the Celtics landed their 18th championship in a five game gentleman’s sweep of the Dallas Mavericks. The Celtics rewarded him with a four-year $45 contract later that summer.

His role decreased slightly the following year as he appeared in only 71 games as opposed to 79 the championship year, although his spot starts increased from 13 to 19.

With the Celtics’ depleted front court this past season, Hauser jumped to 49 starts, tallying a 39.3% three point shooting percentage on 6.5 attempts per game to headline his role as a solid contributor to Boston’s 56 win campaign.

Six years in, Hauser has more than justified the confidence that Stevens had in his potential when he swooped in on draft night to land the Stevens Point sharpshooter with a phone call and a bit of Midwestern down-to-earth chat.

The late Bill Walton has a unique presence in basketball history. When healthy, he was as good as any center who ever played, and, with the possible exception of Arvydas Sabonis, the best passing center in history.

But injuries caused huge disruptions in his NBA career. He won a championship with Portland in 1977, and after his injury years, came to Boston as a sixth man and helped the ‘86 Celtics become perhaps the best team in NBA history.

His place in history is secure though, because Walton’s career, as disrupted as it was, revealed a man who deeply loved the game, and most of all, the players who played it right.

This video has tells of AI, and clearly it synthesized his voice. However, the words seem to be Walton’s, and he lists the five college players he admired most. And the list makes perfect sense for Walton’s priorities:

• Bill Russell
• Lew Alcindor (aka Kareem Abdul-Jabbar)
• Pete Maravich
• Oscar Robertson
• Larry Bird

He picked Russell for his far-sighted intelligence and for putting winning and the team first.

He favored Alcindor/Kareem for his calm nature and how composed he always was on the court.

He said Maravich was on the list because he imagined a new version of basketball years ahead of its time, yet was still a team player in spite of his statistical dominance.

As for Robertson, what separated him was the way he controlled every aspect of the game. He had size at point guard for his day, vision and poise. Walton said what he admired most was his overall command of the game.

Finally, he talked about his eventual Celtics teammate Larry Bird, saying that he was one of the greatest basketball minds he’d ever witnessed. Bird, he said, never forced a game to revolve around him. The quality he said he admired most was Bird’s immense confidence.

As noted, it’s an AI voice, but the comments, it seems to us, are hugely Waltonesque.

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To help protect college athletes from vices like vodka and Red Bull, the NCAA has long banned advertising of such products during broadcasts of its championship events, including the NCAA basketball tournaments.

The NCAA once even nixed a proposal by 5-Hour Energy to sponsor the name of a bowl game, leading that bowl game to go out of business. But times have changed, starting July 1, when the governing body for college sports opened the door for spirit and energy drink companies to advertise television commercials during NCAA championships.

The NCAA abandoned its previous principles for a reason — money. The NCAA confirmed to USA TODAY Sports it changed its advertising policy as part of its agreement with television companies to expand the NCAA men’s and women’s tournaments from 68 to 76 teams starting in March 2027.

“The NCAA Division I Board of Directors changed these policies to maximize the revenue the Association returns to member schools as they are investing more and more in student-athletes on their campuses,” said Dan Gavitt, NCAA Senior Vice President of Basketball. “The change also brings NCAA Championships in line with most schools and conferences which have been selling alcohol during events and accepting alcohol advertising and sponsorship for some time now. The NCAA will continue to prohibit sports betting and daily fantasy advertising.”

Anthony Bennett. Greg Oden. JaMarcus Russell. Matt Bush. Alexandre Daigle. The list seems to extend to the horizon. 

There are few greater honors in sports than hearing your name called first on draft night. There may be no greater curse, either. When you’re the first player selected and then go belly up, the stink lasts forever.

The top of the class is measured against more than his peers. The public will hold his feet up to the blazing achievements of legends. That’s inconceivable pressure. A seventh pick who becomes a five-time All-Star is considered a triumph. A twenty-fourth pick who makes one All-Star Game becomes the steal of his draft. A scrappy second-round pick who manages to stick in the league earns admiration. 

The first pick? Before he ever scores a point, he inherits every comparison that came before him. He has to justify all the pomp and circumstance. With those expectations preceding his debut, he is almost doomed to disappoint. The top dog is supposed to win a trophy, and not one of those in-season cups. For a decade, Karl-Anthony Towns lived in that oversized spotlight.

When Minnesota selected KAT first overall in 2015, the scouting report sounded like it was describing some mythical creature from the Afghan mountains: a nimble-footed seven-footer with a feather-soft touch, plus rim protection and a keen-eyed passing ability. Many viewed this one-and-done out of Kentucky as a franchise cornerstone ripe for the picking. 

Young Karl-Anthony was supposed to become inevitable. And he mostly delivered. All-Star appearances. All-NBA honors. One of the greatest shooting big men the sport has ever produced.

And yet . . . there were murmurs of concern. Could he maybe, possibly be too soft to win a championship?

That’s the strange voodoo around the top pick. Anything short of a full trophy case can be viewed as a failure. Then you get jerks like Jimmy Butler sticking their beak in.

At an infamous Minnesota practice, Butler played with a group of reserves, embarrassed the starters, and afterward blasted Towns and Andrew Wiggins as soft. The story became folklore and the public sentiment was that Butler’s a killer, KAT’s a stat-filler.

Every time Towns disappeared in a playoff game, the murmurs grew louder. Every weird interview and voice modulation became further evidence that he was an unserious oddball.

Narratives are efficient because they save us the trouble of thoughtful examination. “This guy’s a winner and that guy isn’t.” “This one’s a monster, that one’s a hero.” Once those labels harden, every new piece of evidence is bent to fit them. Wait around for long enough, though, and you might hear the tune change from a minor to a major key (or vice versa).

In the summer of 2024, Towns was dealt to the Knicks in a three-team trade that sent Julius Randle and Donte DiVincenzo to the T’wolves. The response was cautious optimism. Few fans saw the deal as a championship clincher, and some would’ve preferred to keep the outgoing guys. 

The Knicks ended that season with a loss to the Pacers in the Eastern Conference Finals. This June, playing his 11th NBA campaign, Karl-Anthony Towns became an NBA champion. You know all about it, I’m sure I saw you at the parade.

Well guess what? Since Towns was drafted first overall, no other top pick has won the chip. They are:

• Ben Simmons
• Markelle Fultz
• Deandre Ayton
• Zion Williamson
• Anthony Edwards
• Cade Cunningham
• Paolo Banchero
• Victor Wembanyama
• Zaccharie Risacher
• Cooper Flagg
• AJ Dybantsa

That’s it, that’s the list. (And, no, I didn’t bother to check where Fultz is hooping these days.)

Basketball isn’t easy or simple. Championships are not the only measure of greatness. For instance, Robert Horry has a ring for seven of his fingers. Charles Barkley has onion rings.

But championships do carry incredible weight, especially when they arrive after years spent hearing that you lack whatever invisible ingredient separates winners from everyone else. Sure, Jimmy Butler has built a reputation as one of basketball’s fiercest competitors. But Karl-Anthony Towns has a championship. Jimmy? Za-heeeeero. Zilch. Nada.

He who laughs last, laughs best. Even if it’s one of KAT’s weird cackles.

History has a habit of revising and reframing. Cringy flaws are found in longstanding heroes; villains are reconsidered from another perspective. Maybe KAT wasn’t underachieving at all. Maybe he was simply becoming the player everyone expected him to be, just on his own timetable. Waiting to pounce! Like a ferocious—you know.

The burden of being drafted first overall is that greatness is expected, the spotlight is red hot, and professional sports are pretty damn hard. Now that he’s broken the curse, let’s give Karl-Anthony his flowers.

Knicks in five.

Perhaps it’s the LeBron James signing. Perhaps it’s just a gut feeling. 

But either way, Shaquille O’Neal is all in on Joel Embiid this season, even with his extensive injury history. 

On “The Stephen A. Smith” show, O’Neal said that it’s time for Embiid to “step up” but also predicted he’d stay healthy for the first time in a while. 

“He better take some Tylenol, take some shots… I’ll tell you what. I’ll call it right now,” O’Neal said. “He’s going to be healthy this year.” 

O’Neal didn’t just predict Embiid to be healthy. He predicted the center’s going to make a statement on a new-look 76ers squad.

“Joel Embiid is going to dominate this year. You heard it here first. Joel Embiid will be touted as the best big man in the league. He’s passing up the Joker [Nikola Jokic] this year. He’s going to work this year.” 

O’Neal predicting Embiid to remain healthy is certainly a bold statement. Embiid has yet to play over 70 games in a season though he’s been in the NBA since 2014. 

Embiid played in just 39 games in 2023-24, 19 in 2024-25 and 38 last season. It’s been three years since he’s played in more than 60 games.

The center has suffered just about any injury you can think of – from knee to oblique injuries – over his 12-year career. 

When on the court, however, Embiid is a force. 

Albeit in limited time, Embiid averaged over 30 points in a game in three straight seasons from 2021-24 and has kept the 76ers as a perennial playoff contender. 

Embiid won MVP in 2022-23, is a seven-time All-Star and two-time scoring champion. 

With James and Jaylen Brown joining the 76ers, increased pressure is on Embiid to stay healthy and regularly contribute to a team hungry for its first title in 44 years. 

And if Embiid actually stays healthy, you can probably thank O’Neal.

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

This week’s survey puts every Toronto Raptors fan in the shoes of General Manager and Vice-President Bobby Webster.

Assuming the Kawhi Leonard and Aspiration controversy sorts itself out, there’s still plenty of work left to be done in terms of roster construction. With Leonard having turned 35-years-old back on June 29, there’s a small championship window Toronto must quickly take advantage of.

Instead of a specific player, what kind of role or archetype would best serve the Raptors’ ambitions of surrounding Leonard with the best possible team? This could be a late off-season move or an acquisition at the trade deadline.

Cast your vote, tell us in the comments, and we’ll be back soon with more Reacts.

LaMelo Ball is allegedly leaving Charlotte with some unpaid debts.

Court records viewed by The California Post on Tuesday show Ball was sued Monday — just weeks after he was traded from the Hornets to the Timberwolves — over accusations he owes a North Carolina landlord more than $100,000 in missed rent checks.

According to a copy of the lawsuit, Ball and Agape Property Management Group entered into an agreement in December 2020 for the NBA player to rent two swanky units in a fancy uptown Charlotte condominium complex.

Former Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton used to own the spots, The Charlotte Observer previously reported. 

Agape Property Management Group, which is reportedly partly owned by Newton, alleged in the suit that while Ball lived in one of the residences, he subleased the other to his manager and mentor, former NBA player Jermaine Jackson.

The two lived in the units for years, and in May 2024, Ball agreed to buy his place. However, according to the suit, he continued to sublet the second place to Jackson.

Agape Property Management Group alleged in the lawsuit that in ensuing months, Ball and Jackson fell way behind on rent payments for the unit.

“As of July 1, 2026,” Agape Property Management Group wrote in its lawsuit, “the Defendants owed the Plaintiff rent exceeding $181,500.00.” The company also alleged the Ball and Jackson “accrued over $90,000.00 in unpaid HOA compliance fines.”

Agape Property Management Group previously sued Jackson over the matter, and according to The Charlotte Observer, Jackson and his attorney, Christi Hunoval, claimed at a hearing related to the case that the apartment “needed repairs and mold treatment,” and “that’s why he’s lagged in rent payments.”

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That lawsuit, which did not mention Ball, was dismissed on June 3, court records show.

In the latest suit, Ball and Jackson are both named as defendants who are being sued for breach of contract.

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“The Defendants’ failure to pay rent while failing to leave the premises has caused the Plaintiff substantial and potentially long-lasting harm,” Agape Property Management Group wrote in the suit, “including HOA non-compliance fines, lost rental income, and other monetary damages.”

Attempts on Tuesday to reach representatives for parties involved in the case were not successful.

Ball was picked by the Hornets in the first round of the 2020 NBA Draft. He went on to play for the team until he was jettisoned to Minnesota in a blockbuster trade that was agreed to on June 25.