Basketball News
The Washington Wizards are in East Group C for next season’s NBA Cup, the NBA announced Tuesday.
They’ll play the following opponents during group play:
@ Atlanta Hawks
@ Chicago Bulls
vs. Boston Celtics
vs. Charlotte Hornets
Washington is 1-11 across the first three seasons of the NBA Cup. Their lone win came last November in a 132-113 home victory over the Hawks.
Cleveland Cavaliers guard Keon Ellis, who they acquired this past season, has reportedly signed with the Brooklyn Nets on a guaranteed two-year, $18 million deal, according to ESPN’s Shams Charania.
The Cavs traded for Ellis and point guard Dennis Schroder from the Sacramento Kings for De’Andre Hunter, a move that was widely seen as a win for Cleveland. The 26-year-old Ellis brought a level of defensive intensity and energy that was severely lacking on the Cavs at the time, but he fell out of the rotation in the playoffs.
In 29 games with the Cavs, Ellis averaged 8.3 points, 2.8 rebounds, and 1.6 assists per game on 49.1% shooting from the floor. That shooting percentage is the best of Ellis’ career, though his 35.5% three-point shooting figure was the lowest of any other season.
While this move may look puzzling, the Cavs have a number of free agency fires burning that they are working to figure out. The pending departure of Dean Wade was likely higher on the to-do list than re-signing Ellis, which allowed the former University of Alabama guard to seek out a fresh opportunity.
The rebuilding Nets can offer much more playing time, and the reported contract Ellis signed reflects that. The second year has a mutual option, while maintaining the $18 million guarantee. It is unconventional, but it allows the Nets to re-sign Ellis or move on and open a roster spot. The Cavs are in championship-or-bust mode, and it may not have been as likely that Ellis would see such consistent playing time as he would see on a rebuilding squad.
The Lakers are set to lose one of the best shooters on their roster and in the NBA.
Luke Kennard came to LA at the deadline and immediately provided elite shooting and scoring off the bench. But as an unrestricted free agent this offseason, he is reportedly leaving the Lakers and joining the Suns, as first reported by Shams Charania of ESPN.
Entering the offseason, Kennard re-signing with the Lakers seemed very possible. He spoke fondly about the Lakers during his exit interview, calling the franchise special. From the team’s side, it was reported that the Lakers were interested in retaining Kennard.
The Lakers losing Kennard is a massive blow as he was a very productive player. Also, with LeBron James out of LA, the roster is suddenly missing multiple players who were a part of it last year. With Kennard making so little, this seems like a deal the Lakers could’ve matched. However, that is not the case, and Kennard will continue his career in Phoenix.
During the regular season, Kennard was a laser for the Lakers. He converted on 53.3% of his attempts and made 47.8% of his shots from deep, making him the league leader in 3-point percentage.
During the playoffs, Kennard elevated his game. In Game 1 against the Rockets, he had a great performance, scoring 27 points in LA’s surprising win.
Kennard remained an effective player throughout the playoffs. He averaged 11.5 points, which was higher than his regular-season average of nine points with the Lakers. His shooting from beyond the arc also remained high, making 47.4% of his threes.
Now that Kennard is gone, the Lakers will have to find another player they can rely on for outside shooting to be an offensive boost for the team. Considering how slim the free agency market is, that will be a difficult thing to accomplish.
You can follow Edwin on Twitter at @ECreates88 or on Bluesky at @ecreates88.bsky.social.
The Phoenix Suns entered free agency with one open roster spot and one glaring need, adding shooting to a team that had just traded away two of its best perimeter threats. With Grayson Allen and Royce O’Neale headed to Charlotte, Phoenix needed to replace some of the spacing and bench scoring it lost in that deal while restoring some balance to the roster.
They’ve now done exactly that. The Suns are signing veteran sharpshooter Luke Kennard to a two-year, $13 million contract. The second year is a player option.
Kennard, who is 30 years old, essentially replaces a very similar player the Suns just sent out. Grayson Allen and Luke Kennard were teammates at Duke, although Allen stayed for all four seasons while Kennard declared for the 2017 NBA Draft after his sophomore year. He was ultimately selected 12th overall by the Detroit Pistons. Now he arrives in Phoenix to fill the role vacated by Allen.
While Kennard doesn’t possess the same level of physicality or the ability to get to the rim consistently, he is the better three-point shooter. Over a nine-year NBA career that has spanned five different teams, Kennard has shot 44.2% from beyond the arc. He’s led the NBA in three-point percentage three different times, with his best season coming in 2022-23, when he split time between the Clippers and Grizzlies and shot an absurd 49.4% from three on 4.6 attempts per game. He is a one-dimensional player. He’s a pure shooter.
During the Lakers’ 10-game postseason run this past spring, Kennard averaged 11.5 points while shooting 47.4% from beyond the arc. He’s not going to wow you defensively or protect the rim, and he’s not an exceptional playmaker. His job is simple. Come off the bench and shoot. That’s exactly what the Suns are asking him to do.
What this does to the Suns’ cap sheet is push them back over the first apron, with their projected payroll now sitting at approximately $214.9 million. It also completes the standard roster, as Phoenix has now filled all 15 roster spots heading into next season. The only remaining opening is one two-way contract. That spot could ultimately go to Sam Hoiberg or Corey Camper Jr., both of whom the Suns have already signed to Exhibit 10 contracts.
But at this point, the roster is complete. From a contractual standpoint, they’ve put themselves in a good position. The roster now contains plenty of mid-tier, tradable contracts, giving the organization flexibility as it moves forward. In that regard, they’ve operated the right way. Still, you never know. A transaction could be lurking in the shadows.
The depth chart feels balanced, even if there are still legitimate questions about the team’s defensive viability, where the shot volume will ultimately come from, and what the Phoenix Suns will actually look like during the 2026-27 season.
Now comes the fun part. For the rest of the summer, we’ll do what we always do. We’ll theorize, speculate, and try to figure out what this team can become once the games finally begin.
Could Nic Claxton’s absence be Danny Wolf’s opportunity?
With the Nets trading away their starting center, Wolf will have a clearer pathway to playing more minutes at the five this upcoming season.
“Obviously, it sucks to see Clax go,” Wolf said Tuesday as the Nets started practice for Summer League. “He was one of the leaders of our locker room, a great voice in our locker room, and he epitomized what it meant to be a Brooklyn Net. We’re sad, we’re gonna miss him.
“In terms of my role and how that’ll change, I’ll develop some coaches, do what they ask of me, and just keep getting better. Whatever role I’m thrown into, I can do it to the best of my abilities.”
The Nets swapped Claxton and a second-round pick for power forward Julius Randle and a first-round selection that became Joshua Jefferson. Though Randle, Jefferson and holdover Noah Clowney will make the competition tougher at the four spot, the departure of Claxton could let Wolf see more minutes at the five, backing up new presumptive starter Day’Ron Sharpe.
In preparation, Wolf — who was shut down late in his rookie campaign with an ankle injury — has spent the early part of the offseason trying to get stronger, to battle veteran centers on the boards.
“Starting with my body getting stronger or getting quicker, getting my ankle right. And just even playing now, I’ve never felt more in control or on balance or stronger,” Wolf said. “And then with that, I’d say my finishing and my 3-point consistency. And I’m shooting the best I’ve shot it, and I feel like I’m finishing the best I’ve finished. So, just gotta keep at it. But I know I’m nowhere near where I want to be.”
The proof will be in the pudding as far as any shooting improvements.
But Wolf weighed in at 260 pounds, up almost 10 pounds from a year ago, and he’s banking on strength and experience helping his subpar finishing at the rim.
“You learn something new every day when you work here in the NBA,” Wolf said. “Obviously you have Clax, who’s [spent] six or seven years in the league, and then Day Day is going into his sixth year, you learn from those guys every day.
“When I was in the G-League, I played center at times. Then there were times in the NBA when I was playing center too when those guys were out, and I felt comfortable in the position. I think the added strength is gonna be the biggest thing I do for five minutes at the five. But I’m gonna do whatever the coaches ask me to and just compete.”
As a rookie, Wolf played everywhere along the frontcourt. Coach Jordi Fernández even used him as a point forward and backup playmaker when the need arose.
“For sure. I played one through five this year,” said Wolf. “There were games where Jordi, I went in the game being point guard. And there would be games where I went in as a five. And I feel comfortable all across the floor. The biggest thing for me is defense.”
“I felt comfortable switching one through four last year. I thought I did it at a somewhat high level, and the next thing for me is just having that strength, that confidence to guard fives. And if that comes along, then who knows?”
June 30.
It marks the start of free agency, an event that once meant a lot more in the NBA world.
Nowadays, most star players are moved via trade. The way the NBA works, players are incentivized to sign extensions to create maximum contract value, so even if they aren’t willing to commit for the five years they sign for, they know they’ll make an ungodly amount of money.
The last real mega year for free agency was 2019, which also makes this the unfortunate seventh anniversary of the biggest nightmare in Knicks history.
A month and a half after losing out on the Zion Williamson sweepstakes in the 2019 draft lottery, Knicks fans had their hearts ripped out when both Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving spurned them for the crosstown rival Brooklyn Nets.
It was the definitive low point in the history of this historic franchise. Three years later, to the day, everything changed at 9:33 pm.
It wasn’t some franchise-altering move. With the context at the time, it was just supposed to be a move to stabilize a long-problematic point guard position. The Knicks gave a nine-figure contract to a small, former second-round pick with limited starting experience. It was a gamble, even if the team’s cap sheet did not have a player making a prohibitive amount.
The pundits called it an overpay. They said he was just alright, but not worth his contract. He himself said on his first media day that he just wanted to help contribute to winning, that he was not a savior of any sort.
Well, in proving himself wrong, he proved every basketball fan in the world wrong.
Jalen Brunson was born on August 31, 1996, in New Brunswick, New Jersey. His mother, Sandra, was a Division I volleyball player at Temple, while his father, Rick, was an NBA journeyman. When Jalen was born, Rick was starting his pro career with the Adelaide 36ers in Australia, meaning that he didn’t meet his son for a while. Leon Rose, in fact, held him before his own father.
Growing up, the Brunsons would be on the road a lot. Rick would play in several different countries and a handful of NBA teams by the time his career wrapped up 10 years later. He spent the 1998-99 season with the Knicks, where Jalen met guys like Patrick Ewing, Latrell Sprewell, Allan Houston, and Tom Thibodeau. While we haven’t been regaled with his experiences in other locker rooms as a kid, his time in New York seems to have shaped him.
Rick would return to New York for 15 games at the end of the 2000-01 season, but other than that, the Knicks were just a small stop on his tiring NBA career. By the time the 2006-07 season rolled around, he had an opportunity to play with his hometown Philadelphia 76ers. With the Brunsons residing in South Jersey, for the first time, they’d have a real opportunity to be together all season.
And then, Rick was cut. Jalen was 10 years old, and he’s stated in interviews since that he remembers holding back tears, hearing his father was hanging it up. At that point, one Brunson’s NBA journey was over.
The other’s was just beginning.
“I don’t want you to live how I lived,” Rick told Jalen that night, according to a 2015 Sports Illustrated feature that I highly recommend reading for more on Jalen’s upbringing. “If you really want to be a ballplayer, listen to what I tell you, and you will take a different route.”
From there, Jalen would train relentlessly. His father would work him ragged, berate him at every turn, bully him into being a better version of himself. He made the righty Jalen play left-handed; he disciplined every last bit of self-righteousness, ego, and selfishness out of his son.
Even as someone with plenty of athletic genes from his parents, Jalen needed thousands upon thousands of hours of work to get to this point. He couldn’t just coast onto Big Boards because of his traits. The Brunsons moved from South Jersey to Chicago in 2010, when Rick got the job as an assistant coach on Thibodeau’s staff. This is where his son’s basketball journey really began.
At Stevenson High School, he was a star by the time he was a sophomore. He dropped 57 points in a game as a junior. In his senior year in 2014-15, he was the best player in all of Illinois, leading Stevenson to a Class 4A state championship. Despite his small stature, his downright dominant play led to him being one of the highest ranked recruits in the nation.
Ranked as a five-star by 247Sports as the No. 31 overall prospect in the nation, Brunson was still behind the likes of Malik Newman, Isaiah Briscoe, Derryck Thornton, Juwan Evans, and Tyler Dorsey as a point guard. The only players in front of him in general that ever did anything in the NBA were Ben Simmons, Brandon Ingram, Jaylen Brown, and Jamal Murray. Even Iso Zo was in front of him!
It’s hard to call a five-star recruit with an NBA father doubted, but he was clearly seen as beneath all these guys. Just more fuel to the fire, as he picked Villanova over Illinois for his next step in college basketball.
Right off the bat, Jay Wright did something that he rarely ever does. He started the true freshman right away, only bringing him off the bench one time against an undefeated Xavier team to start Big East play in December. He made 39 starts as a freshman, posting modest numbers and being named to the Big East All-Freshman Team. His impact would be limited in the big games, as he only played around 23 minutes a night during the NCAA Tournament, but he emerged as a national champion.
As a sophomore, his responsibilities increased. He averaged 14.7 points and 4.1 assists as the second leading scorer on one of the best teams in the nation, being named First-Team All-Big East.
He was a steady force for the Wildcats all season long, but faltered in the NCAA Tournament, being held down with the rest of his team in an embarrassing second-round exit to Wisconsin. Repeating is hard, but with Brunson’s stock not super high, he decided to return as a junior.
His junior season was the stuff of legend. Named a Preseason All-American, he came out firing for a Nova team that started 13-0. 25 against Tennessee, four Big East games with at least 27 points, and a 31-point masterpiece against Providence in the Big East Championship Game.
Soon named the Naismith Player of the Year for his stupendous efforts, he took it into March Madness. Two so-so games in the first two rounds saw Villanova’s depth get them to the Sweet Sixteen, only for Brunson to drop 27 to beat a game West Virginia squad with Jevon Carter.
He took a backseat from there, scoring 15, 18, and just nine in the final three games while setting up for his teammates, Donte DiVincenzo and Mikal Bridges, to claim his second national championship. Finally, he’d go on to the NBA to redeem his father’s disappointment.
But once again, he was doubted.
Despite being the best player in college basketball, he slid out of the first round. It wasn’t unusual to see this, given how Kansas’ Frank Mason fell similarly in 2017, but it was still disappointing. He proved how good he was, yet waited patiently while three of his teammates and the likes of Chandler Hutchison, Landry Shamet, Džanan Musa, Elie Okobo, and even the same Carter he outdueled in the Sweet Sixteen went over him.
His drop finally ended at No. 33, when the Dallas Mavericks added to their haul of Luka Doncic by drafting the proven winner. It would simultaneously be their biggest heist… and their biggest failure.
Playing time wasn’t guaranteed. Not only would Doncic be the team’s future at guard, but they spent a lottery pick on Dennis Smith Jr. the year before. He spent much of the year on the bench, but he got sporadic starting opportunities when Smith was injured.
Things changed, though, when Smith was jettisoned to New York in the Kristaps Porzingis trade. Brunson immediately got more playing time and started alongside Doncic for the final two months, while also learning from the retiring Dirk Nowitzki out the door, a consummate leader and professional. In a March game against the playoff-bound Spurs, he scored 34 points on just 16 shots.
It seemed like his future was bright, but he hit a snag in 2019-20. A reworked Mavericks team prioritized surrounding Doncic with off-ball shooters and defenders, prompting guys like Tim Hardaway Jr. and Delon Wright to get more opportunities. Couple that with a late-season shoulder injury, and it can be argued that Brunson had a sophomore slump, averaging fewer points and fewer minutes in just 57 games.
But the best can make the best of a bad situation, which is exactly what Brunson did. Despite spending much of his third season as the team’s sixth man, he took his game to another level and made himself indispensable. When he got extended minutes, he showed up. When the team entrusted him with closing games, he made the right plays. He finished fourth in Sixth Man of the Year voting in 2020-21, but the Mavericks crashed and burned in Round 1.
At this point, entering his fourth season, Jalen had completed the mission statement. He was a real player for an NBA franchise, something that Rick was never able to accomplish. He had a real future ahead of him. The Mavericks inserted him in the starting lineup in mid-December 2021 after Doncic went down with injury, looking to see the kind of spark he could provide.
He’d never be put back on the bench.
In the final 55 regular-season games, he averaged 17.1 points and 4.8 assists on 50.6/39.2/86.9 splits. By the time Luka returned a few weeks later, Jason Kidd didn’t dare put him back on the bench. In December, Brunson’s camp went back to the Mavs brass to try and get a $55 million extension done after the two sides couldn’t agree in the offseason.
Dallas said no.
After the trade deadline, Dallas was finally willing to give their burgeoning young guard that extension.
Brunson said no.
Come playoff time, Doncic was once again sidelined with a calf injury, handing the reins to Brunson to start the playoff run against Donovan Mitchell and the Utah Jazz.
With a certain front office contingent in the stands, Brunson scored 24 in a close loss in Game 1. Two days later, he dropped 41 to even up the series. He scored another 31 in a Game 3 win. Even when Doncic returned, Brunson was the catalyst in a six-game series win, averaging 27.8 points a game.
Another 28-point outburst in Game 3 against Phoenix won a crucial swing game. He scored 24 in a blowout Game 7 that sent that franchise spiraling. Even in a doomed five-game series against Golden State in the Western Conference Finals, he had 31 in Game 2 and walked off the floor after the best 18-game stretch of his NBA career after Game 5 with his future unknown.
As he entered free agency, his market had ballooned. In June, the Knicks made it clear that they wanted to bring the Jersey native home. They hired Rick as an assistant on Thibodeau’s staff, they maneuvered around the draft to clear cap space.
For a team coming off a disappointing 45-loss season and a failed Kemba Walker experiment, they had three options. Blow it up by trading Julius Randle and go back into a rebuild, continue to build methodically, or go star chasing.
They wanted to do No. 3, probably, but they didn’t want to go all-out for Donovan Mitchell or Dejounte Murray. I wouldn’t call Brunson a consolation prize, but that’s what the media probably believed.
In a sweepstakes that the NBA later constituted as tampering, Brunson chose New York four years ago to this day. Four years, $104 million. He considered returning to Dallas on a buffed-up deal and even flirted with Pat Riley down in Miami, but home was calling.
It was immediately called an overpay by every pundit out there. CBS Sports said he was a clear bust candidate. Nick Wright called it the saddest sweepstakes ever. Stephen A. Smith said he wasn’t the answer. Bill Simmons said he wasn’t a marquee talent.
More doubters, more people he had to prove wrong.
When he was introduced, he didn’t promise anything special. He didn’t promise to be a savior. He just wanted to bring stability and progress to a franchise that had not had a stable starting point guard in a decade and a half.
Things started pretty well. It was abundantly clear that this was the best point guard the team had in a long time, but it wasn’t anything special… yet. He recorded three consecutive 30-point games in November 2022, but the Knicks lost two of those games.
We all have different answers for when we thought Brunson might just be different. Some say they knew as early as his 27-13-7 masterpiece against Charlotte in October. My answer? When he capped a brilliant 30-point effort against the Bulls by crossing Alex Caruso out of his shoes:
He just kept hooping. 38 against San Antonio, 44 against Giannis and the Bucks. In 15 games in the month of January, he averaged 28.7 points on 44.7% from downtown. He kept it going with 41 in an overtime loss to the Clippers. The Knicks were good, but not great yet. He was snubbed from both the All-Star Game and All-NBA in Year 1, but showed that the sky was the limit with 48 against the Cavaliers in late March.
His first playoff run as a Knick started innocently enough with a solid series against an overmatched Cavs team, but he got enough support around him that he didn’t need to be legendary. But against Erik Spoelstra, Jimmy Butler, and the Heat? He was all alone, and he rose like a phoenix.
30 in a Game 2 win.
32 and 11 in Game 4.
38-9-7 in a Game 5 win.
In Game 6, he dropped 41 points on 14-for-22 from the field and 5-for-10 from three. The rest of the team shot 26.5% from the field and 5-for-25 from deep. He had absolutely no help.
By the end of it, Spoelstra sang his praises. A man who’s led some of the best teams of the modern era and seen transcendent talent after transcendent talent called Brunson the truth.
It was an endorsement we hadn’t quite seen yet. Sure, Kendrick Perkins and a few other small voices stated their belief, but the consensus going into 2023-24 was that he wasn’t good enough.
While it was now clearly his team after Randle’s playoff escapades, nobody believed he was a No. 1 option. In December 2023, Inside the NBA ran a segment about the Knicks stagnating as a good but not great team in the East.
For some ridiculous reason, Becky Hammon decided to turn it into a spiel about why small players can’t win a championship. Nevermind the fact that the discussion was merely about how the Knicks get to the top of the East and that she later said that Joel Embiid qualified as a 1A because of his size while being unable to get past the second round, but that’s besides the point.
For the rest of his career, this clip would be used whenever he struggled, failed, or fell short. No exceptions. The only way he could stop it was by winning.
That’s not to say he didn’t try initially, though. His second season with the Knicks was even better, averaging a blistering 28.7 points and 6.7 assists with good efficiency, carrying an undermanned team that missed both Randle and OG Anunoby for much of the second half to the East’s No. 2 seed with limited offensive help.
He made his first All-Star team, was named Second-Team All-NBA, and even came fifth in MVP voting. As the season progressed, you could see the star that was burgeoning in front of us. He scored 50 with the most efficient second half in the history of the sport against Phoenix early in the season.
He dropped 61 in a loss to the Spurs late in the season, where Victor Wembanyama dropped 40/20 and an exhausted Brunson not only failed to break the franchise’s single-game points record, but ran out of gas at the end of the game.
40-point games were the norm in the second half. He sustained a scary knee injury in March in Cleveland, but was back on the floor five days later. With the world collapsing around him, he put up the best individual season by a Knick in decades.
In the playoffs? Superman put on his cape again. After struggling in the first two games against Philly, the same team that ended his dad’s NBA career, he averaged 41 points and 10 assists in the final four games to send them home.
Against Indiana, he did his best to overcome more and more injuries, destroying the team around him. Two more 40-balls later, the series was tied at three heading into a Game 7 at MSG, but the injury bug finally caught up to him. Already without Randle, Anunoby, Bojan Bogdanovic, and Mitchell Robinson, and with both Josh Hart and Isaiah Hartenstein badly hurting, Brunson fractured his hand on Tyrese Haliburton’s kneecap in the third quarter.
His season, and the team’s season, was over.
Around that time, he also learned he was snubbed from the 2024 Paris Olympics’ roster in favor of guys like Haliburton and Jayson Tatum. Once again, he was passed over for people he had outplayed. The fractured hand would’ve likely kept him off regardless, but he was never even considered.
By the time he put the orange and blue back on the following season, the team was totally different. DiVincenzo and Randle were gone; Karl-Anthony Towns and Mikal Bridges were here. Never again would they allow themselves to be caught with their pants down without any star power.
Brunson’s usage would never be as high as it was in 2023-24 again, so you didn’t see the weekly 40-piece as part of his diet. He had just three of them all season long, but one of them was a 55-point masterpiece against Washington in late December.
But being a facilitator wasn’t his biggest strength. He had a 17-assist game in November, but only had one other game over 12. His season was more about consistently maintaining his 26-point scoring average and his exploits as the NBA’s Clutch Player of the Year, consistently bailing out a team that wasn’t deep nor schematically superior enough to dominate.
He finally donned his cape again in the playoffs. With every possession so crucial, Thibodeau’s offense ground to a halt, and they relied on him to bail them out. He scored 30 in five of the six games against Detroit, most notably his 40 in the closeout Game 6 that sent Ausar Thompson flying and the Pistons home.
He didn’t have to do too much in a Boston series that was more focused on relentless defense and grit, but he outdueled Jayson Tatum with 39 in a Game 4 win that broke the defending champions’ spirit.
In a rematch against Indiana, he scored 79 total points in the first two games, both losses. Despite averaging 30.7 points on above-average efficiency for a guard, Indiana’s offense wrecked a helpless Knicks defense, sending them home in six games.
With three failed playoff runs, there were serious doubts creeping in about Brunson’s ability to be the best player on a championship team. Sure, the media had been saying this for years, but even the fanbase was starting to worry. For the first time in several years, mock trades were beginning to get a new 1A. Those Giannis rumors in the offseason didn’t help.
A tumultuous 2025-26 season didn’t help. Recurring ankle injuries made the 29-year-old a step slower and less consistent. His shot wasn’t falling as often as before. The new Mike Brown system had players around him questioning their roles, leading to uncertainty all around. The highlight of the regular season was the run to the NBA Cup Final, where Brunson took home NBA Cup MVP.
He still made Second-Team All-NBA, but after gaining the respect of so many in the prior two years, the media began circling again as the Knicks scuffled early in the postseason.
They called Cade Cunningham better. They called Tyrese Maxey better. They called Haliburton better. Multiple reporters posted All-NBA ballots that even had the likes of Chet Holmgren, Deni Avdija, Jalen Duren, Jalen Johnson, and Derrick White over him.
The PR machine had flipped, no more so than his failed late-game execution in Games 2 and 3 against Atlanta. His entire Knicks tenure had been defined by always being the best player on the floor in the clutch.
We all know that something big happened in the locker room after that Game 3, but you also have to think of the switch that flipped mentally for some of these players, some of the realizations that they made.
If this is how they went out, what would happen next?
For Brunson, he knew this franchise was still his, but he surely thought of everything around him. Would another disappointing exit prompt his two Villanova buddies to be ushered out the door? Would his dad be let go to make room for a new voice on the staff? Would James Dolan get rid of Leon Rose, a longtime family friend of the Brunsons, who, along with Thibodeau, made the decision to come to New York much easier than it must’ve been?
And even his own financials. He took a massive pay cut in 2024 to help build this team, hoping that he’d be repaid down the road with a mega extension in 2028. But if he’s already regressing now and the team is going nowhere, why would they give him $400 million?
The switch flipped for him and the team the following game. In Game 5, he scored 39 at the World’s Most Famous Arena, finally solving the Dyson Daniels puzzle and putting a dagger into Atlanta’s hearts that they never recovered from.
Against Philly, he replayed the hits from 2024, just against a much sadder edition of the Sixers. 35 points in a Game 1 blowout, 33 points in a Game 3 that stole their soul. Ho hum.
Then came the Eastern Conference Finals. A chance at redemption, this time against a similar Cavs team to the one they dispatched in 2023. Unfortunately for them, the rust was evident and they were getting blitzed in Game 1.
93-71. Under eight to go. Brunson tried to rally the troops, but it was likely all for naught.
But that’s the thing about the Brunson era. When someone writes you off, you don’t write back. He absolutely decimated James Harden 1-on-1 for what felt like six minutes straight and willed the Knicks back in it, dropping 38 points in the greatest comeback in franchise playoff history.
He didn’t really do much the remainder of the series, outside of a casual 30 in Game 3, but was still named Eastern Conference Finals MVP for his troubles. The man who claimed he wasn’t a savior had brought the Knicks to the NBA Finals for the first time in 27 years.
All that stood in their way? Wemby and the Spurs. The new guard of the NBA that threatened to dominate the sport for the next decade. Almost everyone believed that the Knicks would be their first victims. After all, the West was the much tougher conference!
They doubted Brunson again, but he and his team proved them wrong one more time.
Despite some hellacious defense holding him down in the first three games, it was Brunson who made the big plays to win Games 1 and 2. He walked them down in Game 1 and was able to find the will to overcome a late 14-0 run in Game 2 to hit the crucial shots and get the game-clinching steal.
In Game 4, when the Knicks went down 29, he helped will them back again with the help of a tremendous game by Anunoby. Down by four in the final two minutes, he sized up the 7’5″ freak of nature and cashed a triple right in his face. There’s no fear around these parts.
In Game 5, we got another version of Miami Game 6.
Nobody was helping him. Towns was in foul trouble and couldn’t get going. Bridges and Anunoby were inconsistent. The bench was awful. The Knicks were down 15, and once again, they looked to Brunson.
This time, it wasn’t to save their season, it was to end someone else’s and end 53 years of misery.
Out of the 94 points the Knicks scored in their championship-clinching Game 5, he scored 45 of them. In a game where nobody had it, he was all they needed. Shot after shot, possession after possession.
He just wouldn’t let them lose. Not now. He waited his whole life for this.
He said he wasn’t a savior. He lied.
He has a case to be the greatest Knick in the 80-year history of his franchise. The stats and success of Patrick Ewing and Clyde Frazier, respectively, might argue differently, but he is undoubtedly the most important player in the history of the Knicks.
Without him, they might still be aimlessly wandering the desert. Without everything he’s done for this team, we all might’ve grown old and died without seeing a championship.
How could the Knicks have been so blessed to not only get such a tremendous talent with the heart of a lion to get better and better, but to get one of the best overall leaders that the league has seen in decades?
In 2024, he could’ve waited a year and signed a $269 million extension. Instead, he inked a new one for $156 million. That extra money allowed the Knicks to fit the contracts for his comrades and is allowing Alvarado and Shamet to still be here to this day.
The Knicks have been down double digits dozens of times in the playoffs since he’s gotten here, but they keep winning. They’ve come back down 20+ on five different occasions in two years. They’ve overcome deficits of at least 14 nine times.
It not only takes a level of talent to overcome bad starts like this, but composure. Mental fortitude. It takes a lifetime of knowing that it’s not over until the final whistle to be able to do this game in and game out.
There was a time people doubted that the Knicks had the grit and desire to overcome adversity (ahem, Vince Goodwill). They might just be the most mentally tough team to ever play organized basketball.
This tribute piece is 5,000 words long. It’s the culmination of 53 years of agony, heartbreak, and disappointment. It’s the end of a series that’s seen us honor all 18 members of this championship roster.
The timing is perfect. This (maybe) was published on the exact moment four years after Jalen Brunson signed in New York.
I’d argue that the start of this championship ascent started with hiring Leon Rose, but this real era of Knicks basketball that will go down in history officially started on that late June night.
13-year-old me had his heart broken on June 30, 2019. The last remaining semblance of hope I had surrounding this franchise was gone when KD and Kyrie went to Brooklyn. Porzingis was gone, Zion was a Pelican, and now nobody was coming to save this sinking ship.
16-year-old me was happy seeing Brunson, someone whom I once watched at the 2017 Big East Championship Game as a Nova fan, join the team on June 30, 2022. I thought we needed more than that offseason, but I always knew he was a super talented player who would stabilize the point guard position.
And now, 20-year-old me is writing this, enjoying the 16 days it’s been since I saw something I never thought I’d see. It’s surreal to have watched all of this happen, to see all the ways this franchise has been improbably changed forever.
Porzingis is at the Golden State retirement home. Irving and Durant’s legacies are those of people who needed the help of all-time greats to ever win anything. None of them wanted to take on the challenge that Brunson showed would be so gratifying to complete.
Who would’ve ever thought we’d be talking about veterans’ ring chasing, defending a championship, ring night, and retiring jersey numbers???
Whenever Brunson’s career ends, he’ll end up in the Basketball Hall of Fame, have No. 11 raised to the rafters of the Mecca of Basketball, and go down as one of the best to ever play the game. If the NBA re-did the NBA 75 right now, he’d be on it. When they do the top-100 in 2046, he’ll be honored. It won’t just be for what he’s done for this city, but that’ll be a very big part.
The most improbable NBA champion in decades, in the biggest basketball city in the world, led by someone who everyone thought was too small, not quick enough, not strong enough.
It’s not just worth a Ben Stiller documentary, an ESPN 30-for-30, or endless YouTube video essays and articles. It’s worth a biopic in Hollywood.
If you pitched the entire story of Jalen Brunson as a screenwriter, you’d be shot down for lack of realism
That’s how awesome this is.
–
(This concludes P&T’s player-by-player tributes to commemorate the special team that ended our long, half-century nightmare)
Flash back to November.
Landry Shamet was coming off a rocky first year with the Knicks, when a dislocated shoulder derailed much of his season and he was largely buried in Tom Thibodeau’s rotation. This was just 12 games into what would eventually become a championship Knicks season, when Shamet drilled six 3-pointers and erupted for a career-high 36 points in a Knicks win over the Heat.
This was the first sign that he would soon become a key bench piece on a title team.
“This is where I wanted to be,” Shamet told The Post at the time. “With the year we had last year, this group of guys, this locker room, this city, these fans, all of it, I only wanted to be here, to be honest. I’m glad it worked out.”
As free agency officially began Tuesday — with teams officially able to negotiate with other free agents at 6 p.m. (they were able to negotiate with their own free agents immediately after the Finals), the futures of Mitchell Robinson and Jordan Clarkson were not yet defined. The Knicks had already moved to bring back Shamet, Jose Alvarado and Mohamed Diawara, solidifying a few of their most important bench contributors from their championship run.
Entering free agency, Shamet and Robinson were the two biggest question marks surrounding the Knicks. Owner James Dolan’s on-the-record desire to stay under the second apron meant it would be nearly impossible to bring back both and fulfill his wishes.
Shamet was likely to be the cheaper option, and the Knicks quickly secured his future with what they intend to be a four-year, $24 million deal.
Now, going back to Nov. 12. Across the next seven-plus months, Shamet’s entire career trajectory would change.
Before that breakout against the Heat, he was barely hanging on in the league. He signed a nonguaranteed, veteran minimum deal to return for a second year with the Knicks. It wasn’t even guaranteed he would make the roster out of training camp — Malcolm Brogdon’s unexpected retirement paved the way for his spot.
And just three games later, Shamet dislocated his shoulder, the same one on his right, shooting side, as the year prior in a game against the Magic. He had a decision: Undergo surgery, which would have ended his season, or try to rehab it and return later in the year. The latter option required trust in the Knicks, who could have simply cut him and his nonguaranteed contract and signed someone who could come in and play right away.
Shamet and the Knicks agreed that he’d rehab it with the goal of returning later in the year, a prescient sign of faith between the two sides.
It wasn’t until Jan. 15 that he returned. But across the next 36 games, he averaged 9.3 points on 38.1 percent shooting from 3-point range, cementing himself as an important part of the rotation.
But his shooting waned down the stretch of the postseason, and he went just 2-for-8 across the first five games of the first round of the playoffs. He had effectively been replaced in coach Mike Brown’s rotation by Jose Alvarado. All of a sudden, Shamet was on the outside looking in.
No problem. He didn’t complain or waver. He just waited for another opportunity.
Across the final 14 postseason games, he shot 50.9 percent from deep. His game-tying trey down the stretch of the epic comeback in Game 1 of the conference finals will live in Knicks lore.
And, now, he returns to the team he won his first championship with. He wanted to return to the Knicks even after a rough first season. He maintained that belief during an injury that threw his future in doubt.
Even now, he probably could have gotten more money elsewhere.
But the Knicks — and their faith in him — rejuvenated his career. He played a pivotal role in their title.
“Knicks fans are a specific species of human that should be studied,” Shamet said. “They’re crazy. They’re crazy. … Everywhere you walk in the city, that’s what you hear. The buzz is unbelievable. You could try and explain what’s going on in New York right now for Knicks fans but good luck. It’s different. Knicks fans are different.”
This relationship itself is different. And this marriage is set to continue.
LeBron James is hitting free agency for the first time in eight years and doesn’t appear to be all too worried.
Since the news broke that James and his agent, Rich Paul, informed the Los Angeles Lakers that he would not be returning to the team next season, James made his first social media post as a free agent.
James was seen hanging poolside as free agency begins to unfold.
LeBron James first post on IG as a free agent
— ESPN Cleveland (@ESPNCleveland) June 30, 2026
Where do you think he ends up? pic.twitter.com/uREVc3lzZI
Through the series of videos on his Instagram story, James appeared to be hanging around his family while NBA fans across the world are wondering where he will play next season.
James, the NBA’s all-time leading scorer, will turn 42 next season and will play in his 24th season.
It’s unknown where James will land next season, as rumors have swirled insisting that he could go back to the Cleveland Cavaliers or join forces with Steph Curry and the Golden State Warriors.
The Warriors have been adamant about adding James to their roster this offseason and have him join forces with Steph Curry in an effort to land them both their fifth NBA title.
Just before James announced his departure from the Lakers, he helped ignite rumors of him joining Curry and the Warriors on his podcast, “Mind The Game,” released a clip of James talking about how much he enjoyed playing with Curry during the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris.
A potential reunion with the Cavaliers could also be in the works for James, as he was recently seen driving through his hometown of Cleveland/Akron.
The Cavaliers were just one series away from being in the NBA Finals for the first time since James led them to it in 2018. But after getting swept by the New York Knicks, the Cavaliers’ season came to an end.
After seven years, 329 games, $294M in salary, 35 playoff games, three series wins, nearly 200 words spoken aloud, and $48M in endorsement money that led to zero trees planted, the Kawhi Leonard Era is over for the Los Angeles Clippers.
The team sent Leonard to the Toronto Raptors, where he gave Canada their lone major professional title in the last 33 years by defeating the Golden State Warriors, Kevin Durant’s Achilles tendon, and Klay Thompson’s ACL in a hard-fought 2019 NBA Finals. “The Claw” heads back to the Great White North in exchange for Brandon Ingram, two first-round picks, a first-round pick swap, and Gradey Dick, to the delight of Clippers fans who want a naughty word on their team jerseys.
This officially closes the door on the once-promising Clippers era that started in 2019. After the “Lob City” Clippers won the hearts of Southern California fans and very few big playoff games, the Clips and owner Steve Ballmer said goodbye to Chris Paul, Blake Griffin, and DeAndre Jordan over two seasons to build around Leonard.
The Clippers clinched their recruitment of Leonard with massive under-the-table payments a trade for Paul George, a deal that cost them future two-time MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and six first-round picks, one which turned into All-NBA forward Jalen Williams. That team looked like title favorites in 2019-20, but unfortunately, they still had Doc Rivers as their coach. Which meant they blew a 3-1 lead in the playoffs.
Leonard tore his ACL during the 2021 playoffs, while the Clippers advanced to the Western Conference Finals with him on the bench. He missed the next season, got hurt in the Clippers’ first-round losses in 2023 and 2024, then lost in the first round while healthy in 2025. The last game of his Clippers career saw Draymond Green shut down Leonard in an epic Warriors comeback that was arguably the greatest 9-10 play-in game win in franchise history.
Now the Clippers have nearly moved on completely. George is frustrating the fans of Philadelphia. James Harden is revitalizing the gentlemen’s club economy of Northeast Ohio as a Cleveland Cavalier. Patrick Beverley is somewhere bragging on a podcast or punching a relative. And Doc Rivers has retired from coaching, until the Shanghai Sharks decide to shake up their team some time in 2028.
They’re left with Brandon Ingram and the somewhat-regrettable $82M left on his contract for two years, plus Dick, the No. 13 pick from the 2023 draft and a three-point specialist who can’t actually shoot. The real prizes are the Raptors’ unprotected first-rounders in 2031 and 2033, while the pick swap for next season effectively gives the Clippers the Raptors first-round pick instead of the Oklahoma City Thunder’s.
Now the Clippers team is centered around Ingram, 26-year-old point guard Darius Garland, and 19-year-old rookie guard Keaton Wagler, the No. 5 pick in last week’s draft. That indicates the Clippers may no longer being going for it hard every season, not that it generally got them out of the first round anyway.
As for Leonard, Canada has universal health care, which should be great for his injury history, and plenty of trees. Whatever happens with the NBA’s investigation of Leonard’s seemingly-illegal deal with Aspiration, he’s already fled the country! Plus, with Leonard, Scottie Barnes, and young big man Collin Murray-Boyles, the Raptors have a potentially-terrifying defense and a real window to contend — along with some scary risk on the 2031 and 2033 picks.
As for the Warriors, their biggest nemeses in Southern California — Leonard and LeBron James — are both splitting town. Time for Dubs fans to develop a healthy dislike for Ingram and, I dunno, Deandre Ayton? It’s just not the same.
The NBA Cup championship has a new home next season.
ESPN’s Shams Charania reported Tuesday that the next NBA Cup championship on Dec. 11 will be held at Butler University’s Hinkle Fieldhouse.
Hinkle is one of the oldest arenas in the country, opening in 1928. NBA commissioner Adam Silver has previously expressed a desire for the league to hold the NBA Cup final in historic college arenas.
The 2026-27 title game will be the first held outside of Las Vegas.
The NBA had a contract with Las Vegas’s T-Mobile Arena on a year-by-year basis, leaving open the possibility of finding a new home. Now, that locale has been determined for this winter.
Hinkle has a capacity of just over 9,000 and has played host to several U.S. presidents, alongside the first U.S. vs. Soviet Union basketball games, circuses, tennis matches, and ice shows, among other events. It was also used as a barracks for American soldiers during World War II.
“Hinkle Fieldhouse offers a special setting to capture the excitement and drama of the Emirates NBA Cup Championship,” the league’s head of global events, Kelly Flatow, said in a statement. “Playing the championship in an iconic basketball environment like this will further establish it as a signature moment on the NBA calendar.”
The arena has been described as “as loud as loud gets” by Celtics president of basketball operations Brad Stevens, who coached at Butler from 2001-13.
The Lakers won the inaugural in-season tournament in 2023, with the Bucks winning in 2024 and the Knicks winning in 2025 over the Spurs, a preview of the 2026 NBA Finals.
LeBron James’ blockbuster split with the Los Angeles Lakers has sparked fierce debate across Southern California, with veteran sports radio host Fred Roggin delivering one of the harshest assessments yet of the NBA superstar’s eight-year stint in the purple and gold.
Roggin, who co-hosts an afternoon sports show on KLAC and anchors “The Roggin Report” on NBC Palm Springs, argued that while James wore a Lakers uniform, he never truly embodied what the franchise has traditionally represented.
“I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it now: he wore a Laker uniform, but he wasn’t a Laker. I always felt that way,” Roggin said.
The comments came just hours after James confirmed he would leave Los Angeles fot free agency, ending a lengthy run with the franchise after informing the team they could move forward without him.
Team owner Jeanie Buss thanked James for his contributions, including helping deliver the franchise’s 2020 NBA championship, while James responded on X by thanking the organization and saying it had been “truly an honor” to wear the purple and gold.
LeBron James also broke his silence on his breakup with the Lakers Tuesday morning.
In a post on X, James kept things short, sweet and cordial, thanking Los Angeles for the last eight years with a three-sentence statement.
“No, THANK YOU!” He wrote in response to the Lakers wishing him well at his next destination.
“Truly a honor to wear the [purple and gold] while trying to continuing the greatness & legacies that came before me! Hope I made a few proud during my stint. ”
James joined the Lakers as a free agent in 2018 and made the All-Star team in each of his eight seasons in Los Angeles. During that span, he averaged 26.9 points, 7.7 rebounds and 7.9 assists per game while leading the franchise to its first championship in a decade during the pandemic-shortened 2020 season.
But Roggin questioned whether James’ legacy in Los Angeles was ever about the Lakers as much as it was about himself.
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“I think with LeBron, it’s about LeBron,” Roggin said. “Even as this era comes to an end… the Lakers thanked LeBron for what he had done after LeBron decided and it was announced that he would not return. So, LeBron got to make that announcement.”
The longtime broadcaster also suggested the split ultimately boiled down to money, saying he believes contract negotiations played a larger role than basketball considerations.
“If the best offer out there was $15 million, you’d give them $16 million. Well, you have to take care of them, right?” Roggin said. “I think it simply came down to money, quite frankly.”
James exercised his $52.6 million player option for the 2025-26 season, but reports indicated he and agent Rich Paul were expected to seek another maximum contract from the Lakers before the two sides went their separate ways. With Los Angeles now out of the picture, the 41-year-old is expected to command significantly less if he joins a championship contender.
The Golden State Warriors have emerged as the betting favorites to land James, although they are currently projected to have only a mid-level exception worth roughly $15 million available unless additional roster moves are made.
The Cleveland Cavaliers and Miami Heat have also been linked to the four-time NBA champion, while teams with significant salary cap space could offer larger contracts but may not provide the same championship opportunity.
Roggin said he believed the Lakers were right not to feel pressured into paying James simply because of his stature.
“If they used the Dodgers’ philosophy instead of conventional wisdom — which was, ‘Well, you’ve got to give him $30 million because he’s LeBron’ — I kept saying, ‘Why would you bet against yourself?'” he said.
LeBron James gave Los Angeles an unforgettable eight years.
Not eight years of playoff dominance, rings, or the league bowing at his feet in terror the way it did in Cleveland or Miami. We’re talking eight years of being exactly what the Los Angeles Lakers needed, exactly when they needed it, at every stage of a tenure most people still haven’t properly appreciated.
When LeBron signed with the Lakers on July 1, 2018, this franchise hadn’t made the playoffs since 2013. Five straight lottery seasons. The Dwight Howard experiment failed and the D’Angelo Russell experiment stalled. The Lakers had become punchline material, a franchise coasting on historical cachet while fielding rosters that had no business wearing those colors.
Then, five months into his second Lakers season, Kobe Bryant was killed in a helicopter crash outside Los Angeles on January 26, 2020, and the city broke in half. LeBron had spent his entire career being measured against Kobe’s standard, watching Kobe’s fans use that name like a weapon every time the GOAT debate got heated. Now he was the face of the franchise Kobe built, carrying a city’s grief on top of a championship chase that had no roadmap for any of this. Then he took his team to a bubble in Orlando during Covid and won the whole thing against his ex-team Miami Heat.
The 2020 NBA Championship was won inside a sealed Disney World campus during a global pandemic, with social justice protests reshaping the country outside those walls. LeBron James led the Los Angeles Lakers to their first title in a decade. Anthony Davis was the engine, Rajon Rondo was the closer, and LeBron was the orchestrator who held every moving part together when pressure threatened to crack the whole operation. His playoff averages that postseason: 27.6 points, 10.8 rebounds, 8.8 assists. He secured his fourth Finals MVP at 35 years old, winning a championship for a city still in mourning.
Now here’s where the story gets specifically, historically brutal for Golden State, because LeBron didn’t just survive his Lakers years. He spent eight of them making the Warriors’ life annoying in ways that don’t always get assembled into one coherent argument.
Across 27 games against Golden State over eight seasons (playoffs included), LeBron went 18-9 while averaging 27 points, 9 rebounds, and nearly 8 assists on 51% shooting from the field and 41% from three. That’s pretty damn ridiculous.
This past April I wrote a piece called “This season robbed us of Stephen Curry vs LeBron James” because Curry sat out the final Warriors-Lakers regular season game to manage a back-to-back and we got zero Steph-LeBron matchups all year. I was genuinely frustrated writing it. But looking back now I understand it differently. The 2018 piece I wrote about Boogie Cousins joining the Warriors barely acknowledged LeBron’s arrival in Los Angeles, because the Warriors were the sun and everyone else was caught in their orbit. By 2026, I was writing eulogies for a rivalry because its absence felt like an actual loss to the sport. That’s what eight years of this man in purple and gold did to the conversation.
The overall record will give skeptics ammunition: one championship and several unceremonious playoff exits during the Bron tenure in La La Land. But don’t forget that the Lakers were a zombie franchise when he arrived. He won them a title, steered them through the worst grief Los Angeles sports had felt in a generation, and won a championship in the most bizarre environment we’ve seen in modern sports history.
When LeBron arrived in LA, the Warriors were coming off four straight Finals appearances. When LeBron left LA, the Warriors were trying to sign him. That’s the ultimate sign of respect from a rival who made their championship throne off of the bones of LeBron’s Cavaliers.
For eight years, Warriors fans spent every Lakers game asking the same question: what does LeBron have tonight? Now they may spend the next two years asking the exact same question, only with very different expectations.
The NBA landscape was sent into a frenzy following a recent posting of a clip of an episode of LeBron James’s Mind the Game podcast featuring guest Stephen Curry. Ostensibly a retrospective look back at their dominant gold-medal run together at the Paris Olympics, the episode has quickly transformed into the center of rampant free agency speculation.
On the show, James raved about sharing the court with his long-time rival, calling the experience “everything and more” and describing their on-court chemistry as “perfect.”
The timing of the episode could not be more deliberate. With reports surfacing that James has informed the Los Angeles Lakers he intends to play elsewhere, the basketball world is treating this glowing review as a thinly veiled hint. After a career defined by battling one another in the NBA Finals, the allure of pairing LeBron’s elite playmaking with Curry’s legendary gravity in Golden State may finally become a reality.
However, it will come at a time where both legends are clearly in the twilight portion of their careers. Curry is turning 39 next season, while James is turning 42. Staying healthy will be a challenge next season.
There is also the question of what purpose this serves the Warriors. Is this a legitimate (albeit, seemingly futile) attempt to compete for a title? Or is it just a move for PR purposes in order to draw the crowds in, put butts in the seats, sell jerseys, and have the spotlight of the mainstream media trained on the Bay Area?
Only time will tell.
Hopes are high for the Utah Jazz as they prepare for their first winning season since the Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert era. They’ve brought on Darryn Peterson to help on the perimeter, and retained Jusuf Nurkic to hold down the paint. However, in order to achieve or surpass the lofty expectations Jazz fans have for their team, it would be nice to bring back Walker Kessler, the young, towering big man that Utah has developed over his first 4 years in the NBA. However, as a restricted free agent, the Jazz don’t have much leverage over the size of Kessler’s next contract – he takes meetings from any team interested, they can offer a deal, and the Jazz then have the opportunity to match that deal and retain Kessler, if they wish. So, Jazz fans have all been waiting on pins-and-needles for what that crucial contract number will end up being – will Walker come home, or will the proposal from another team be too rich to stomach? After the official beginning of free agency this evening, Tony Jones reports some interesting (and rather disheartening) information on the Walker Kessler bidding war.
This is larger than fans and, seemingly, the Jazz Brass were expecting. Jake Fischer reported that, at some point in the past year, Kessler would’ve accepted an offer for less than what his market is currently dictating. However, the Jazz didn’t bring Kessler a deal during rookie-scale contract negotiation that seemed serious to his camp, and the time for the initial, lower offer that Kessler would’ve accepted had passed.
I, for one, am surprised that the market is this favorable to Kessler. Operating under the assumption that he’s looking at deals with about 37.5 million dollars of annual value, it seems that the league believes he is a bona fide top 7 center in the league. For reference, in 2026-2027, Alperen Sengun and Rudy Gobert will each make 35.5 million, Jarrett Allen will make 28 million, Myles Turner will make 26.5 million, and Isaiah Hartenstein will make a measly (said with some sarcasm) 23 million. 37 million annually, with a player option, seems rich for an oft-injured center who has never played for a team that finished the season over .500.
The Lakers are the team that has been reported most consistently to be interested in Walker Kessler, but they clearly are not the only team willing to shell out 9 digits offer sheets to acquire the young center. Tony Jones specifies that he has multiple offers in that range – the Sacramento Kings and Brooklyn Nets could very well also be in this thick of this race, alongside the Lakers and Jazz.
With this report in mind, how much is too much for Walker Kessler? Would you be interested in a sign-and-trade? Who do you think has the wealthiest offer on the table? Sound off below!
The NBA world has been altered for the second time in a decade, as Kawhi Leonard has yet again made his way to the Toronto Raptors, seemingly in it for the long(ish) haul.
The exact details of the trade have been revealed by Shams Charania to be as follows.
What does this mean for the Raptors?
Trading Brandon Ingram for Kawhi Leonard allows the veteran to slot in seamlessly at the 3, providing a huge boost to the scoring gravity at that position, as well as an improvement to floor spacing. Leonard has shot a career 39.1% from the three point line, and last year, hit his highest volumes of threes taken, ever.
Gradey Dick as a prospect certainly had a high upside, but a massive drop in production last year as well as the team’s health improving forced him out of the starting lineup, giving him few minutes and difficulty developing the guard. Relinquishing him, as opposed to Jamal Shead or Collin Murray-Boyles, was the correct move for the Raptors if they want to be competitive with Leonard on their roster.
As for the picks, Toronto is in both the short term and the long term giving something up. The 2027 pick swap, as per Michael Grange of Sportsnet, is largely inconsequential, but the picks given up in the 2030s mean that Toronto has cleared its way for title contention until the end of the decade, when they’ll have to start paying the piper. The rest of the 2020s are a chance not only to contend, but to trade, draft, and have the flexibility to make moves that could make Toronto NBA Champions yet again.
I disagree with Grange’s emphasis on the importance of the 2o31 and 2033 picks, however. While of course, the Raptors are borrowing against their future to try to succeed in the present, to contend in the NBA is to take risks, and there may not be a better shot to win than now. Barnes hitting his 30s is something I am not worried about, rather relish, as many of the league’s superstars only end up getting better after hitting a decade or so in the NBA.
LeBron James was 31 when he took Cleveland to the NBA Finals for the second time and won, and Scottie Pippen was making All-Defensive Teams well into his third decade. Barnes’ style of play falls in line with the two point forwards, and nothing about his’ health projects a huge decline at that point, anyways. Even Kawhi, now playing beside Barnes, had arguably hit a new peak at 34 year old, rivalling his Raptors’ season and his best years on the Spurs. If Barnes stays with the Raptors, I would be willing to bet that he is a player who also will only improve with age and experience.
The other value of getting Kawhi is the opposite of the risk that 2018 was. Then, the Raptors had only a year to win an NBA Championship, but now, the whole reason Kawhi is coming to Toronto is because he wants a long term contract that will keep him on a team, and in the NBA, for years to come. Toronto has never been a free-agent destination, nor a place where huge trades have happened — other than when the Raptors got Kawhi. Getting a premier scorer through the draft is not something that the Raptors have seemed willing to tank for, so Kawhi is, ironically, a safe choice when looking for a number one option.
This is the moment that choosing a short rebuild pays off for the Raptors. In less than three years, they have managed to put together a very competent team through trades and draft, fighting through some painful years and even more painful goodbyes to franchise favourites. Now, after getting Kawhi, the team is really only a centre or two away from being one of the top two teams in the East. History in some ways seems to be repeating itself, and searching for a Serge Ibaka and a Marc Gasol should be the priority of this front office.
In baseball, you need a big swing to hit a home run, and with Kawhi on our team, there is no reason not to be swinging for the fences. This is the chance to take, picks and players be damned.
