Category: Basketball

The Phoenix Suns lost their second Summer League game to the New Orleans Pelicans 81-75 despite an impressive performance from their second-year big man Khaman Maluach.

Darius Brown II led Phoenix with 18 points while Malik Dia scored 18 points and Jaron Pierre Jr. scored 16 points to lead New Orleans to the win. But the story of this game was Khaman Maluach.

Maluach scored 15 points, grabbed 15 rebounds, blocked two shots, and recorded one steal on 5-for-9 shooting and 2-of-4 from the three-point line. Maluach was the most talented player on the floor from start to finish and did not get enough help from his running mates to pull out a win.

After committing seven turnovers in his previous outing against Portland on Friday night, Maluach was much more poised with the ball and did not produce a single turnover. Through two Summer League games, Maluach has been dominant, showcasing a stronger body, better hands, and improved rebounding. What has been most surprising is that he has also been the Suns’ best three-point shooter on the Summer League roster through two games, shooting 5-for-11 from long distance.

The other young players from the Suns trio have not been nearly as impressive. Koa Peat and Rasheer Fleming only grabbed four rebounds each in the losing effort, while each showed flashes but were not consistently impacting the game like Maluach.

Peat’s performance on Sunday did not match his debut performance against the Blazers. He scored 12 points on 4-of-10 from the field and was 1-for-3 from the free throw line. He committed seven fouls and turned the ball over four times, but was one of the Suns’ main initiators on offense and continued to show an impressive fluidity as a ball handler for a young player his size. What was most disappointing about watching Peat against the Pelicans was that he did not play with the same motor as he did in his debut. There were many times he lacked urgency getting back on defense, leading to Pelicans mismatches and easy baskets.

As for Fleming, he was impactful defensively, recording two blocks and a steal and being a disruptive force creating deflections as usual. However, he continued to be a net negative on the offensive end outside of his offensive rebounding and has yet to provide much optimism about him becoming a good NBA three-point shooter.

To be fair to this Summer League roster, it does not have an efficient score-first player and offensive creator, which is why it has been difficult to watch this team on offense at times. And also why Peat and Fleming have looked underqualified for what this team needs from them. The lack of spacing from Peat and Fleming really bottles up the lane, and it makes it hard for the Suns’ guards driving to the basket when Peat and Fleming both crash in from the corners because they do not want to shoot an open corner three. But this may be the same story in January for the NBA squad, where not a single forward on the roster has proven to be a respectable three-point shooter.

Game Flow

First Half

The Pelicans started fast; Pierre Jr. hit his first two three-point hoists of the game to give the Pelicans an early 6-2 lead. The Suns struggled to find any sort of spacing or rhythm on offense for the second game in a row. Fleming tried to get going early, but after two missed pull-up jump shots in a row and a wide-open missed three from Fleming, he stopped being aggressive in the half-court offense for the rest of the game. The Suns did tie it up at 6-6 after Maluach grabbed the missed Fleming three and powered up for a two-handed slam.

The Pelicans closed the quarter strong after Maluach subbed out, and the Pelicans led 16-12 after the first quarter.

The beginning of the second quarter was a continuation of the first quarter in that both offenses did not perform well, but they did get going eventually. Maluach started the scoring with a two-hand dunk off of a pick-and-roll dime from Javonte Cook. Then Peat started driving downhill, hitting two difficult layups to tie the game up at 18-18. The Pelicans immediately hit back-to-back three-point jumpers, and two layups pushed New Orleans out to a 28-20 lead. The Suns countered with another Maluach dunk, a Fleming corner three, and a Brown corner three to get back within three, down 32-29.

The two biggest highlight-worthy plays from this game came on a back-to-back sequence of defensive plays where Maluach broke up an alley-oop dunk attempt, and Fleming deflected a pass on a lob pass the next play. It’s in these small moments of brilliance that show just how athletic and gifted the Suns starting front court could be one day if they continue to develop.

But that moment was brief, because the Pelicans went on a three-point shooting tear to finish out the quarter, knocking down three three-pointers to go up 41-31 at halftime. The Suns were 2-for-15 from three while the Pelicans finished the first half 9-of-20 to give them the lead.

Second Half

The start of the second half was the most impressive stretch from the Suns’ young core during the entire game. Maluach, Fleming, and Peat all found a synergy playing together as they turned up the defense pressure, opening the half on a 15-6 run.

The half started with multiple Maluach blocks and deflections to create transition opportunities for Peat in transition where he created contact and was fouled multiple times. Then Fleming took over; he grabbed an offensive rebound and finished, then on defense picked the pocket of Pierre and was fouled on a breakaway dunk on the other end, leading to a kerfuffle from Maluach and some Pelicans players that resulted in double technical fouls. Fleming knocked down the free throw, and then Brown hit back-to-back baskets, and then Peat finished off the run with a beautiful old-school-style midrange jumper to cut the deficit to one, down 47-46 halfway through the third quarter.

Unfortunately for the Suns, once Maluach checked out, neither Fleming nor Peat could stop the Pelicans, especially Malik Dia, who attacked the Suns in the paint and knocked down a flat-footed three to give the Pelicans a 62-50 lead. The Suns bench scored a quick four points to close the quarter down 62-54.

The beginning of the fourth quarter was back and forth, with the Pelicans holding onto a high single-digit lead for most of the quarter. The Suns guards Brown and Jameer Nelson Jr. both started to get downhill and attack the basket early in the quarter to keep Phoenix within shouting distance. Dia continued to carry the Pelicans in the second half and kept the Suns from taking the lead.

Down 75-67, with 2:06 seconds left, the Suns went on one final run to try and steal the game in the end. Peat hit another midrange jump shot, followed by a Maluach pick-and-pop three in transition to cut the deficit to three. The Suns got a stop on defense, and Koby Brea decided to pull up from the parking lot to tie the game and missed his sixth three of the day to finish 0-for-6 from three and score just 2 points. The Suns got the offensive rebound, and Maluach rushed another three that airballed out of bounds.

Kobe Bufkin sealed the game for the Pelicans with a driving layup to put the Pelicans up five points, 77-72, and they made enough free throws to seal the game and win 81-75.

Up Next

The Suns’ next Summer League matchup is Monday night, 7:00 pm Arizona time against the Milwaukee Bucks, where the two Arizona Wildcats’ freshman phenoms Koa Peat and Brayden Burries will match up against each other in the NBA.

They may have moved on to the next level, but they remain beloved Dukies. The latest edition of the DBR podcast takes a look at how Cam Boozer and others are faring in NBA Summer League action. There are plenty of interesting stories about Isaiah Evans, Maliq Brown, and guys still hoping for a big NBA shot like Trevor Keels and DJ Steward. 

After the break, Jason and Donald dive into a new trend in recruiting, the kids showing up on campus a year earlier than expected. From Jojo Boumtje-Boumtje at Duke to new recruits at UCLa and Texas, this is becoming a trend. Are they making Two-and-done into a new thing?

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The Cleveland Cavaliers have dropped their first two games in Las Vegas. They fall to 0-2 in Summer League, this time suffering a 103-94 loss to the Detroit Pistons.

Cleveland trailed by double digits early. Detroit’s Chaz Lanier scored 17 points in the opening seven minutes to cause that. The Cavs would eventually get things under control and rally back in the second half. That comeback fell short, just like it did on Friday when the Cavs had a similar loss to the Milwaukee Bucks.

The loss wasn’t the only thing that carried forward, however. Meleek Thomas’s strong showing also translated to Sunday.

Thomas, the 34th pick in the most recent draft, looked impressive as the lead ball-handler today. Cleveland has put him in a position to orchestrate the offense in a way he never could with Arkansas. This increased opportunity is leading to instant results, with Thomas’s playmaking being the biggest takeaway from this game.

Thomas dished 7 assists in the first three quarters. He kept his head up, manipulating the floor and creating advantages at every turn. This one-handed skip pass to the opposite corner was straight up ridiculous. It takes serious creativity to think of this in real-time.

The Cavs are confident they found a first-round talent with the 34th pick. Thomas is proving them right by showing he can do more than catch-and-shoot away from the ball. His patience and composure at point guard were extremely encouraging.

Thomas finished with 30 points, 7 assists, 4 rebounds, 4 steals and only 2 turnovers. Impressive stuff from the rookie.

Nae’Qwan Tomlin was Cleveland’s second-leading scorer with 17 points. Tomlin shot 7-for-10 from the floor and had 4 blocks.

Tomlin and Thomas have been the two standouts for the Cavs. So far, they’re waiting for someone else to step up and provide support. It was a relatively lackluster game from everyone else, with Malakai Branham being the only other Cav to score in double figures.

Detroit was led by Lanier, who scored 25 points on 7-for-12 three-point shooting. Brice Williams joined in on the splash party by nailing 6-of-9 three-point attempts for 21 points. Those two finished with more three-pointers than the entire Cavalier roster.

Polls! America is obsessed with polls. Not Polish people, or metal or wooden tubes that sometimes people writhe upon, but surveys, votes, the heart of the Sports Blog Nation’s Electoral Process. If SBN had one. After a pretty boring, and chalk draft, where few indefensible decisions were made, thus generated little drama, NBA trades and to some extent, free agent signings have come through for us. The ongoing soap opera* that is the NBA has lots of emotive signings, and plots that would seem utterly contrived, if they didn’t, in fact, actually happen.

Let’s start with this one, that asks the SBN reader “Do You Want Your Team To Sign LeBron James”. As you know, LeBron is still the NBA’s leading soap opera* star. LeBron has created little scandal in his 24 year NBA career, and we all know he doesn’t want any drama. LeBron instead demands, requires and utterly insists upon drama. Usually about what he’ll do next. Even at 41 LeBron can keep the soapy audience of the NBA entertained. But what are the results?

Wow. So fans like the drama, but have a clear mandate for NOT signing LeBron James. Where will he go? Maybe Philadelphia? I have no idea, but rumors have been that the Rockets are not interested in bringing James to the Bayou City.

What’s next? How about “Which of the most prominent traded or signed players will have the biggest impact on their team?”. As far as contrived plots go, the Jaylen Brown trade is right up there. As far as something predictable happening goes, Bam Adebayo punching, slapping or “striking” Tyler Herro is the least surprising.

I personally disagree with the results here. I think Giannis will have a bigger impact in Miami. Even if he doesn’t play a lot. It’s difficult to overstate how much better Giannis is than the players in Miami he’s replacing.

I’m sure the 76ers will have far better forward play than they had from Paul George (minus the last few weeks of the season) but there’s a kind car wreck of usage coming for the 76ers. too. Brown, whether he’s a good or bad player analytically speaking, is a high usage player. So to a lesser extent, is Tyrese Maxey, so is Joel Embiid if he plays. The 76ers will also want to feature VJ Edgecombe more as well, I would think. It’s not that there’s “only one ball” so much as “there are only so many shot attempts”. So while I think the 76ers will improve, I’m just not sure how big the delta on offense between Paul George playing well and Brown will be, given likely lower usage. That said, Brown typically always plays, unlike PGOut13Weeks. That’s subject to the usual caveats, but 76 games of Brown WILL improve the 76ers, especially on defense. How much is the question.

Next up? Who wins the Finals? Can you guess what people said? Probably.

I’m not a New Yorker, or a Knicks fan, but that’s downright disrespectful. Seven percent picked the Knicks? Seven? The Knicks will return pretty much everyone except their one key player they actually drafted, Mitchell Robinson. Robinson played great minutes for them, but doesn’t strike me as someone who couldn’t be replaced. The Knicks came within a whisker of sweeping the last three rounds of the NBA playoffs, including the Finals against the favorite (by 4x over the Knicks) Spurs. That seems like it should garner more than 7% of votes.

Guess what? You can put your money where your mouth is, on this proposition, with Fanduel, if you live in a place that allows such things. By “putting your money where your mouth is” I mean, maybe don’t spend more than a fancy sandwich and drink, perhaps? Show that you, too, heart NYC or something, if that is something you choose to do, with Fanduel following this here link.

Finally we reach the Rockets.

I think The Great People Of Rocketsas are being too generous here. That’s us all over, though, generous.

Smart has never been a great player, questionable DPOY aside, but he IS an Ime guy, so hooray for that. If there’s one thing this team needs, it’s an avatar of Ime on the court.

Bogdan Son of Bogdan, or as I like to call him BogBog, looked, ah, washed, last season, and also didn’t shoot well. If a shooter who moves only slightly faster than continental drift can’t shoot, it’s hard to see what he’s good for, no matter how tall he is.

I’d give this signing a “Pandering To Ime For Inexplicable Reasons – C- ”. It’s not an “F”, but you just know that Smart is going to play over better players, often. He wasn’t good last year, a couple of playoff games notwithstanding. I don’t think he’s a misunderstood rebel like Dillon Brooks, I think he’s a 32 year old fake point guard who hasn’t been good in years, and was overrated when he was good, roughly four years ago. Silver lining? Smart spends a lot of time being hurt.

So that’s your check in with the 250 year old project that is SBN NBA internet democracy. Stay cool, Shakers.

*What IS a “soap opera” anyway? Settle down, you, younger readers may not know. How would they? Anyhow, back when people rode dinosaurs to work and women were all “trad” (they weren’t), and there were only three channels of television, there were daily dramas that aired every weekday afternoon. These usually involved the turgid, overblown, schemes, machinations and especially loves and passions of several families. People got married, had torrid affairs, got divorced, and remarried all the time. Since the shows aired in the afternoon, the primary audience at the time was “housewives” (plus the elderly, incarcerated, insane and children) they were sponsored, and often produced, by soap companies, for example Proctor and Gamble (the Cincinnati Soap Monster). These corporations wanted to sell things to women, in large part, soap. Soap was something pretty much everyone watching bought, to clean the dishes, themselves, their kitchen, etc. If the same sort of thing is shown at night, but features truly awful men, expensive settings, and few jokes, it’s not a soap opera, it’s “Prestige TV”.

Earlier this week, we asked fans to vote on which Michigan player selected in the 2026 NBA Draft will have the best rookie season.

• Forward Morez Johnson Jr. was selected No. 9 overall by the Dallas Mavericks.
• Forward Yaxel Lendeborg was selected No. 11 overall by the Golden State Warriors.
• Center Aday Mara was selected No. 12 overall by the Oklahoma City Thunder.

The results are now in, and there’s a clear favorite.

Lendeborg received 76% of the votes, while Johnson received 18% and Mara just 6%.

Lendeborg’s in quite the interesting situation and is set to play a key role on a team with future hall of famers in Stephen Curry, Draymond Green, and Jimmy Butler.

Lendeborg, the Big Ten Player of the Year, has already looked impressive during the NBA Summer League.

Per FanDuel Sportsbook, the Warriors currently have the 13th highest odds of winning the NBA Finals next season at +4500. With those long odds, Lendeborg likely has a better chance of winning NBA Rookie of the Year.

How did you vote this week? Let us know in the comments and come back next week for another edition of SB Nation Reacts.

LAS VEGAS, NV — Morez was on everyone’s mind who made the trek from the DFW area to the desert for the first weekend of NBA Summer League play.

It was our first chance to see Morez Johnson Jr., the Dallas Mavericks’ first-round draft pick, play against some NBA-level talent, while surrounded by some far-fringe NBA talent.

Some of us were convinced on draft night that the Mavericks had reached for Johnson at the No. 9 overall pick. Others, notably including my MMB colleague David Sanchez, who went on the Vegas trip with us, were immediately sold on Johnson’s fit and worth at No. 9, especially in light of the fact that none of the top guards fell that far.

Should the Mavericks have stayed with the more popular logic of “best guard available” with Arizona’s Brayden Burries widely projected as Dallas’ pick and still on the board at No. 9? Or will Johnson, the exact prototype of a Masai Ujiri draft pick, prove out as the better selection? Time will tell, and the irrationality of fandom means it’s never too early to start drawing conclusions.

Six of us, including Mavs Moneyball’s fearless leader Kirk Henderson, participated in our own Basketball Dessert Storm this season. As I write on Sunday afternoon, Kirk and our resident gambling aficionado Tyler Edsel are all that is left of us on The Strip. Truly the sickest of sickos.

Here are some general thoughts on the weekend, with the disclaimer that although we had tickets to Day 3, when the Mavericks played their second game against theLos Angeles Lakers, most of us sat that day out. There was just too much to gamble on, with a pair of World Cup quarterfinals, what ended up being a mere popcorn fart of a fight night at UFC 329, where both the main event and co-main event ended in 1:09 or less, and the ponies. Oh, those most majestic of hooved professional athletes running at tracks all across this great land, delivered live to stream to any interested in placing an honest wager on not just who’s the fastest, but who can get going fast the fastest.

Most of us were posted up at the Westgate Sportsbook all day Saturday, while our resident Mavericks optimist, Michael Harris, flew solo as MMB correspondent at UNLV’s Thomas & Mack Arena that day. Fun fact — his daughter Fynnleagh got her NBA Summer League program signed by Kyrie Irving after Saturday’s 91-70 loss to the Lakers.

There were many such brushes with greatness throughout the weekend. We saw Alabama basketball coach Nate Oates at Eataly in the Park MGM. Kirk saw Arkansas coach John Calipari at the gym at the Aria. We brushed past former Maverick and current Los Angeles Clipper forward Derrick Jones Jr. on the way to the two-story Whataburger attached to the Waldorf Astoria, giving us one more opportunity to reminisce about the incredible smothered fadeaway he hit over Chet Holmgren in Game Six of the 2024 Western Conference semifinals against the Oklahoma City Thunder to put the Mavs ahead 115-110 with less than two minutes remaining.

There is no event or time of year when NBA sickos get to rub shoulders with basketball royalty like they do at Summer League. It really is something to behold. If you’re reading about basketball in the summer months, you qualify. You need to make it a point to get to Summer League in the next couple of years. Not even the food poisoning David and I both got from that trip to Whataburger on The Strip could turn the weekend sour. It was a great time.

Here are some general (mostly) basketball-related highlights and thoughts from the weekend:

• Saturday’s game against the Lakers was a big nothing burger. Johnson’s minutes declined slightly and his production did as well. We’ll get to his spectacular night in Thursday’s 91-80 loss to the Golden State Warriors separately below. This kind of erratic chaos is to be expected in Summer League play, and we’re not taking much of anything away about this.
• Sergio de Larrea is proving to be quite raw. Michael said he liked what he saw from de Larrea in Saturday’s game, but the numbers don’t give you much to be optimistic about. He did shoot the ball better on Saturday, going 2-of-4 from the field, but dished four assists and turned the ball over four times, after going 3-for-14 from the field while dishing five dimes on Thursday. This is a guy who needs to get a hell of a lot stronger with the basketball in his hands if he’s going to realize anything close to being the “steal of the first round”.

• Vsevolod “Seva” Ishchenko has achieved Mavs Moneyball Vibes Darling status after two games. On Thursday, he just had the look of a guy who might be able to survive the transition from ball in the Russian VTB United League. Here’s what our MMB correspondent back home, Bryan Porter, had to say about Ishchenko’s game after Thursday’s loss to the Warriors: “Seva is not yet physically ready for NBA games, but that kid attacks the basket with zero fear, has some craftiness and pace to his drives, and is unafraid to whip risky kick-outs to shooters. Seva’s game and physique both clearly need some fine-tuning, but the bones (and I do mean bones) of a truly intriguing Swiss Army knife role player are there for those with the eyes to see.”

• Johnson looked like the real deal for much of the team’s first Summer League game, even getting the better of his Michigan teammate Yaxel Lendeborg on several occasions along the way. He’s a beast. He did the things you wanted to see him do. He dominated the fringe talent in front of him. He made a living going to the basket and cleaning up the glass. He kept shooting 3-pointers until he made one, as if just to prove to everyone watching that he’s going to put in the work to become at least a league-average shooter after showing some development on that front in his second and final year in the college game. He finished with 27 points on a sizzling 12-of-17 shooting from the field, to go along with eight boards, in 32 minutes on the floor. We’ve seen all we need to see. The hype train’s engines are rumbling.

• Lendeborg on the other end of that game was nearly equally as impressive, though. It’s going to be interesting to see which one of those two former Michigan big men has the better NBA career. Lendeborg finished with 21 points, 10 rebounds and six assists on 8-0f-13 shooting, including 2-of-4 from 3-point range.
• On Friday, we got there in the third quarter of the New York Knicks vs. Brooklyn Nets game to snag good seats for the game between the Memphis Grizzlies and Chicago Bulls, which immediately followed. Mikel Brown Jr. had four points when we got there, but he erupted midway through the third to finish with 20, including three 3-pointers in the game’s final 16 minutes, each more difficult than the last. As good as Johnson was the night before, lamenting that Brown Jr. didn’t fall to the ninth overall pick, as some thought he might before the draft, was a definite talking point in the Uber ride back to The Strip.
• Friday’s main event was Caleb Wilson and the Summer Bulls vs. Cameron Boozer and the Summer Grizz. Both were incredible. Wilson made himself into an immediate Summer League Legend, going unconscious from 3-point range for 21 of his 35 points. He was fading away. He had hands in his face. He recorded five stocks, exactly as many as the much bigger Johnson had the night before for the Mavericks. He looked like a killer. Boozer, though he finished with 23 points and six boards, looked ready to compete for Rookie of the Year in a crowded field as well. He was strong and polished, shooting 7-of-12 from the field and 5-for-5 from the free throw line in the Grizzlies’ 97-96 win.

The value of a $72 day crammed full of basketball may have been offset by heavy losses at the games of chance, but we still netted a great time. The realization dawned on us as we were cashing betting slips at Westgate for England-Norway UNDER 2.5 goals scored, paired with Max Holloway to win the UFC Main Event, that the real wins, perhaps, were the friends we made along the way. NBA Summer League should be on the basketball bucket list of every NBA fan. Make plans for next year. You may even catch a glimpse of a Mavs MoneyBrunch in the wild at Hash House A-Go-Go.

LAS VEGAS — A quintet of former Cyclones are taking part in the NBA Summer League, Joshua Jefferson (Nets), Tamin Lipsey (Pacers), Keshon Gilbert (Hawks), Curtis Jones (Celtics) and Tristan Enaruna (Cleveland).

The schedule for each of the former cagers is the following:

Atlanta Hawks

July 9 – vs. Spurs – 3:30 p.m. (CDT) – ESPN2
July 11 – vs. Nets – 7 p.m. – ESPN
July 13 – vs. Celtics – 5 p.m. – Amazon Prime
July 16 – vs. Grizzlies – 7 p.m. – Amazon Prime

In a 99-63 win against the Spurs on July 9, Gilbert played 20 minutes off the bench. He scored 10 points, pulled down five rebounds, dished out five assists and recorded two steals. He did not play in the Hawks’ 83-76 win against Joshua Jefferson and the Brooklyn Nets.

Brooklyn Nets

July 10 – vs. Knicks – 5 p.m. (CDT) – Amazon Prime
July 11 – vs. Hawks – 7 p.m. – ESPN
July 14 – vs. Kings- 5 p.m. – Amazon Prime
July 16 – vs. Rockets- 3:30 p.m. – ESPNU

Jefferson did not play in the Nets’ 91-65 win against the New York Knicks. He made his Summer League debut as a starter in the Nets’ 83-76 loss to Atlanta, scoring nine points, recording a rebound, an assist and two steals.

Boston Celtics

July 10 – vs. Raptors – 8 p.m. (CDT) – ESPN
July 12 – vs. Hornets – 4 p.m. – ESPN2
July 13 – vs. Hawks – 5 p.m. – Amazon Prime
July 15 – vs. Kings – 7 p.m. – ESPN2

In the 83-80 overtime victory against Toronto, Jones tallied two rebounds, one assist and one steal in 10 minutes of play. His second game is Sunday (today) at 4 p.m against the Hornets.

Cleveland Cavaliers

July 10 – vs. Indiana – 3:30 p.m. (CDT) – ESPN2
July 12 – vs. Detroit – 3 p.m. – Prime
July 13 – vs. Miami – 7 p.m. – Prime
July 15 – vs. New Orleans – 3:30 p.m. – Prime

A member of T.J. Otzelberger’s first team in Ames, the Almere, Netherlands, native scored two points, had three rebounds and one steal to his name in a 99-93 loss to Indiana on July 10.

Indiana Pacers

July 10 – vs. Cavaliers – 3:30 p.m. (CDT) – ESPN2
July 11 – vs. 76ers – 4:30 p.m. – Amazon Prime
July 13 – vs. Raptors – 3:30 p.m. – ESPN2
July 15 – vs. Timberwolves – 2:30 p.m. – Amazon Prime

As a starter in the Pacers 99-93 victory over Cleveland, the Ames native recorded four points, four rebounds and one steal. In a 100-93 overtime loss to Philadelphia, Lipsey again started, and scored three points, dished out two assists and pulled down two rebounds.

Thanks again for the awesome questions everyone. I’m pushing these out pretty quickly for a couple of reasons. A. I have time this afternoon and B. I wanted to clear the deck for summer league content. So let’s just jump right into it.

johnnymost

Can you help me compare the Isaiah and brown trades? The emotional reactions were similar, but other than Thomas’s injury, were the analytics similar? Brad certainly can be cold, but ultimately, he gambled. He got that from Danny. I yield the floor

Good topic. I would say that they are a little bit the opposite in that JB is more of the Kyrie in this scenario (not making a 1 for 1 comparison, remember that “comparison is the thief of joy!). The Cavs felt like they had to move on from Kyrie and the Celtics sent Isaiah and picks for him. It made basketball sense but not emotional sense. Ultimately both sides lost on that one. Time will tell with this one.

I do worry about the cumulative effect of sending out franchise icons (Pierce, Garnett, Isaiah, Jaylen) in cold hearted moves. As much as we all want to believe that Jayson Tatum will retire a Celtic, there’s at least a little bit of doubt now, and that’s sad.

CGREEN34

Should Scheierman start this season at the 3? He looked very solid in a lot of games last year both on offense and defense. He also has a creative streak that I hope we get to see more of this season.

I have never known what to make of Baylor. I set my expectations low early on and in year two he exceeded them, so already he’s a pleasant surprise to me. I’m circling him as a guy that could see an additional leap as a 3rd year guy. On one hand, there are minutes to be had on the wing (George won’t play a full 82 games). On the other hand, there’s a glut of wings that are all competing for minutes. This will be one of the big storylines in training camp to watch. I might actually expand this topic into a “who should start?” discussion post.

New England Guy

Jeff, if we could have world peace, but the trade-off is that the Celtics vs Sixers games this year would not be televised or recorded in anyway, and fans would not be allowed to attend them, would it be worth it?

Wait, you mean we don’t have to watch Jaylen in a Sixers uniform AND there’s peace on Earth? What’s the catch?

PontiacDream

What would have to happen this season for the Jaylen trade to not loom over everything the whole time?

“Just win baby.“ – Al Davis

(Note: While wins in the regular season will help a bit, I think the general consensus will be that this team (and The Trade) will be judged by the playoffs. So yeah, the trade will loom over everything unless they somehow flip George and picks for a few more impactful long term solutions.

Maye The Force Be With You

I’ve read that around the league, the Volume 3 era is being viewed more critically—that rim pressure and shot creation are proving more valuable than simply taking more threes. We may have just seen that when the Knicks closed out the Finals shooting 35% overall and 32% from three. Brad has echoed wanting to attack the rim more, yet The Trade seems to push Boston even further in the opposite direction. Beyond Tatum, who on this roster replaces Jaylen’s shot creation?

Part of me wonders how much Brad was focused on Giannis with those “rim pressure” comments. Like he was setting the stage for that to be the big move. There aren’t a lot of Giannis level rim pressure guys out there, so I guess the answer was to double down on offensive rebounding type bigs (Robinson, Cenac, etc.)

The thing with the analytics era is that there’s no one all-encompassing stat or overarching rule. It is reductive to define it as “shoot lots of 3’s” because sometimes you need to attack the paint. Sometimes, especially in the playoffs, teams take away your best options and you just need a guy that can take and make tough, midrange shots. Jaylen Brown is one of those guys. Maybe Pritchard can fill that role sometimes. Paul George (to an extent) as well. Maybe one of the young wings can develop that as well.

BostonForEva

Regarding Jaylen Brown and not the Celtics. Sixers seem to me to have to many mouths to feed. Embiid, Brown, Maxey, and maybe Edgecombe if he gets better. This seems to me like a disaster in the making.

Knicks had Brunson as the engine and KAT as the supporting cast on offense. Then a LOT of good defensive pieces that were above average on offense.

Sixers have Maxey, Embiid as engines and Brown as the supporting cast on offense. Maxey is above average on defense. Barlow is above average on defense. And that’s it based on analytics. This seems like too many mouths to feed and not enough defense. I think Brown’s game is a horrible fit for the Sixers and I’m not sure why they did it other than wanting more Stars.

Thoughts on the new Sixers team and specifically on the impact to Brown? Also, how happy are the Sixers media and Sixers fans about the trade?

I think they’ll be fine, but you are right that they’ll have to figure things out. Maxey is too good to be the 1B so I hope Philly fans are ready for several seasons of debates over who the 1A guy is (despite it being pretty clear).

I do worry a bit for Edgecomb’s development, but he’s still young and can be fungible for a while. And yeah, you have to factor in Embiid missing at least a third of any season, which makes for some interesting lineup decisions.

Jaylen increases their ceiling, but there’s still a floor to consider as well.

ZeroGame

If you could give Brad truth serum what do you think the answer to the following question would be? “If you knew at the start of the offseason that this would be the outcome if you tried to trade Jaylon Brown, would you still do it?”

I have a feeling that the option to trade Jaylen Brown has been in the back of their minds for years. They would have done it for Durant. It sounds like they at least listened to offers last year. I think the finance math has been staring at them since the CBA was signed and they finally decided that the time was right.

357Dust

Is this the opening day roster?

Could Murphy still be in play?

Will Hauser still be here?

It might very well be. We’re below the tax with 14 players and they have the “optionality” to make more moves at the deadline and next offseason. This might be it.

I think Murphy is a long shot at this point. I also can’t begin to understand what New Orleans is trying to do.

Hauser seems like the most likely to be moved at some point. But he’s also valuable to us and it might make more sense to see how the season plays out and use him as a chip in February at the deadline.

scue

How many years of elite play do you expect from Tatum? He is currently 28, we are trying to clean cap, reset tax penalties, to load up for a future run which could put him on the wrong side of 30.

What do you see as the desired team structure in the future in support of 30 year old Tatum?

Good question. He has a very adaptable playing style. He can do a little bit of everything, but he seems to go up another level when he’s attacking downhill and not shying away from contact. I think he’ll still be in his prime for 3 to 4 more years before he has to start transitioning his game to more of a perimeter style. Ironically enough, one comp would be the current verison of Paul George.

cpelham

The narrative has been that JB didn’t want to return to being 1B in Boston, but he’s acting like he’s really unhappy he was traded. Which is it? Was it his fervent wish to remain in Boston with JT being demoted to 1B or traded? Was his unhappiness invented by the media? Is Brown just defending his pride, folllowing the perception that there was little demand for him? Can you make sense of it?

I don’t want to pretend to know what is or was going on inside of Jaylen Brown’s mind or what his motivations and private thoughts are.

I will, however, use this space to offer up some dot-connecting thoughts I had recently.

We heard Jaylen himself say that there was open communication with the front office at first but then it went sideways (paraphrasing).

We also got reporting recently that Jaylen got a chance to tell a couple of teams that he wasn’t interested in playing there.

I wonder if at first they were keeping him in the loop, but with him reaching out to teams and scaring them off they decided to start excluding him from talks. Might also be why there was so much noise around this (was Jaylen’s camp one of the leaks to the media?). At some point the Celtics might have been like ‘we’re shutting down communication and we will just going to trade him and the team will have 3 years to convince him to be ok with it.‘ And the Sixers were willing. Just a guess.

Thanks again for the questions!

Another Los Angeles Lakers offseason move just became official.

The Lakers announced the signing of free agent guard Collin Sexton on Sunday, July 12 after originally agreeing to terms on a two-year, $19 million contract on July 1. The news comes days after the Lakers officially announced the Walker Kessler trade and their other notable free agent acquisitions of Quentin Grimes and Sandro Mamukelashvili.

Bringing the energy to LA. Welcome to the Lake Show, Collin 💛 pic.twitter.com/ijJYPqFxFX

— Los Angeles Lakers (@Lakers) July 12, 2026

Sexton, originally drafted with the eighth overall pick by the Cleveland Cavaliers in the 2018 NBA Draft, split time between the Charlotte Hornets and the Chicago Bulls last season. He averaged 15.4 points, 3.3 assists, 2.3 rebounds and 1.1 steals per game. In his eight seasons in the league, Sexton has averaged 18.3 points, 3.6 assists and 2.7 rebounds per game.

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Detroit Pistons rookie Ebuka Okorie showed you just about everything you’d hope to see from him during his first Summer League game. Now, he looks to keep the momentum going in game two against the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Okorie scored 20 points and had four assists in his first game as a member of the Pistons. He was able to showcase a reliable 3-point jumper (2-of-4) and his special mix of speed, body control, and spatial awareness to get by his defender and find lanes at the rim. While he still obviously has a long way to go, you could tell that even at the NBA level that burst, coordination, and intelligence is going to be a difference-maker. It needs to be, too, because it’s tough being an impactful guard when you’re only 6-foot-1 without shoes on.

Game Vitals

When: 4 p.m.
Where: Thomas & Mack Center, Las Vegas, Nevada
Watch: Prime Video

Analysis

It’s a good thing Okorie showed up like he did because otherwise the Pistons lineup was pretty dreadful. Bigs were having trouble catching the ball, rebounding, defending, and finishing. The perimeter talent was mostly non-descript.

Isaac Jones, a Pistons two-way player, led the team with 22 points, and did at least do plenty of good things, but he also really struggled on defense. Second-year player Chaz Lanier, Detroit’s second-round pick last season, didn’t really show out like he needed to in a league where he should be far more advanced than the competition. As a catch-and-shoot guy, maybe his game isn’t conducive to taking over in Summer League, but at this stage, you can’t afford to be invisible. Lanier was largely invisible.

Roddy Gayle Jr., an undrafted rookie out of Michigan, mostly acquitted himself quite well, and Drake Allen, undrafted out of Utah State, showed himself to be an NBA (or at least G League)-level defender, if not NBA-level in other areas of the game. Otherwise, it was a bunch of forgettable guys delivering forgettable performances.

The Cavs were in their first Summer League game (a loss to the Pacers), with third-year player Nae-Quan Tomlin and rookie Meleek Thomas with 20 points apiece.

All I want to see tonight is an Okorie that is more aggressive in looking for his own shot and in creating his own offtense. It seemed clear he was looking to be more of a willing passer in Game 1, and it is important to show he can run an offense if he’s fighting to be a primary backup guard for the Pistons. But a lot of those passes went to bigs who could do nothing with them. It also meant the explosive Okorie, who averaged more than seven free throws per game in college, only got to the free-throw line one time. I want more of everything from Okorie, and a little less of everything else from Not Okorie.

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