Category: Basketball

Portland has a promising young roster, including Toumani Camara, Deni Avdija, Shaedon Sharpe, Scoot Henderson, and Donovan Clingan. The Trail Blazers have looked like a team coming together of late, going 7-6 in their last 13 with a top-10 defense since the All-Star break, laying a foundation for a leap forward next season.

The man who assembled that roster, general manager Joe Cronin, was rewarded with a contract extension, Portland announced Monday.

"Joe has demonstrated leadership and vision during his time as general manager, and I'm excited to see him continue building the foundation for a long-term, winning team," said Jody Allen, chair of the Portland Trail Blazers. "We are all thrilled with the team's forward momentum and excited for the future of Trail Blazers basketball."

"My vision is to have a competitive roster with the potential for sustained success, while creating a culture that helps all our players, coaches and staff thrive," Cronin said in a statement.

While details of general manager contracts are not public, Cronin's contract extension takes him through the summer of 2028, reports Shams Charania of ESPN.

Cronin has reshaped the Portland roster since trading Damian Lillard to Milwaukee, bringing in young players and developing them under coach Chauncey Billups, a core that has started to show its potential in recent months. Portland will head into this year's lottery with the ninth-best odds at the No. 1 pick (and a 76% chance they will end up with the No. 9 or 10 pick).

Billups becomes the next big decision point in Portland. Just a few months ago the expectation was that Portland and Billups would mutually agree to part ways when the season ended. However, with Portland's stark improvement in recent months, the tone of the conversation has changed, something Marc Stein reported. Billups' contract has a team option for next season, he's going to want an extension, not for the team to just pick up the option and find himself in another lame duck year. Does Cronin want to tie himself to Billups for multiple years, or does he want to bring in someone new? If Portland just wants to pick up the extension for a year, does Billups think the grass is greener elsewhere (like Phoenix — Suns owner Mat Ishbia loves his Detroit/Michigan guys)? It's a decision point both sides need to agree upon that will help shape the franchise's future.

Whoever ends up as the coach, we know Cronin will be the GM.

There is just one week left in the NBA season and very little is settled.

The top couple of seeds in each conference are set — Oklahoma City and Houston in the West, Cleveland and Boston in the East — and after that things open up quickly. Here's everything you need to know about the NBA Playoffs heading into the final week of the season.

NBA standings

NBA playoff picture

If the season ended today (April 7).

East Play-In matchups

8. Hawks at 7. Magic
10 Heat at 9. Bulls

East first-round matchups

1. Cavaliers vs. 8. Magic/Hawks/Heat/Bulls
2. Celtics vs. 7. Magic/Hawks
3. Knicks vs. 6. Pistons
4. Pacers vs. 5. Bucks

West Play-In matchups

8. Grizzlies vs. 7. Timberwolves
10. Mavericks vs. 9. Kings

West first-round matchups

1. Thunder vs. 8. Grizzlies/Timberwolves/Mavericks/Kings
2. Rockets vs. 7. Grizzlies/Timberwolves
3. Lakers vs. 6. Warriors
4. Nuggets vs. 5. Clippers

Playoff projections

Let's break it down by conference, taking a closer look at each race (the listed games back in each race are from the leader of that grouping, not the top-seeded team).

WESTERN CONFERENCE

1. Oklahoma City Thunder
2. Houston Rockets

Oklahoma City has been clear and away the best team in the West during the regular season and has long ago locked up the No. 1 seed. Houston is 13.5 games back of OKC, and had a little slump that made things interesting recently, but the Rockets' magic number to lock up the No. 2 seed is one (one Rockets win or Lakers loss this week). One thing to watch: Other teams don't fear the Rockets in the playoffs the way they fear the Thunder (or even the Warriors/Lakers/Nuggets), so don't be surprised if teams try to jockey into the 3 or 6 seeds to get on Houston's side of the bracket.

3. Los Angeles Lakers
4. Denver Nuggets (-1.5)
5. Los Angeles Clippers (-2)
6. Golden State Warriors (-2)
7. Minnesota Timberwolves (-2)
8. Memphis Grizzlies (-2)

The NBA wants drama in the final week of the season, and the West is delivering.

The Lakers are in control of the No. 3 seed: Two wins in their final four games guarantees them the No. 3 seed, and just one win guarantees a top-six finish. After that, the other five teams all have 32 losses — it is one big tie that could go in any direction. A couple of key games to watch this week in this group:

• Lakers at Thunder (Tuesday). The Lakers won the first game of this two-game set on Sunday.
• Rockets at Clippers (Wednesday). The Clippers' elite defense against the young legs of the Rockets will be entertaining.
• Timberwolves at Grizzlies (Thursday). Ja Morant vs. Anthony Edwards will be a show.
• Rockets at Lakers (Friday). Houston will have things locked up as the two seed, but is not going to take it easy against the Lakers.

9. Sacramento Kings
10. Dallas Mavericks (-0.5)
11. Phoenix Suns (-3)

Phoenix enters the week mathematically alive, if it can win its final four games this week it has a chance to catch Dallas (two losses, however, and the Suns are eliminated). In reality, the Suns let go of the rope and have games against the Warriors and Thunder this week. The Suns are toast.

Sacramento has one game lead in the loss column but has a slightly tougher schedule this week with the Nuggets, Clippers and Pistons coming up. The race to host the first round of the Play-In Tournament could come down to the final days.

EASTERN CONFERENCE

1. Cleveland Cavaliers
2. Boston Celtics

No drama at the top of the East standings, the Cavaliers have locked up the No. 1 seed (technically their magic number for the top seed is one, but that's happening) and Boston is locked in at No. 2.

3. New York Knicks
4. Indiana Pacers

While not mathematically locked in yet, these teams will finish in this order. New York's magic number to clinch the No. 3 seed is one (just one win or Pacers loss). Indiana controls its own destiny to host a first-round series, its magic number for the No. 4 seed is two (with two games against the Cavaliers, one against Orlando and one against Washington this week).

5. Milwaukee Bucks
6. Detroit Pistons (-1)

The Bucks have a one-game cushion over the Pistons, but these two teams play each other in the final two games of the season (Friday and Sunday). That will determine their seeding, and who is headed to New York and who is headed to Indiana to start the playoffs.

7. Orlando Magic
8. Atlanta Hawks (-1)
9. Chicago Bulls (-2)
10. Miami Heat (-3)

The four teams in the East play-in are locked in, but their order is not — these four could finish in almost any order (well, Miami can't get up to No. 7, but aside from that, any order). That said, the smart money is on this group finishing in this order, with the Magic and Hawks in the 7/8 Play-In Tournament Game.

The big game to watch in this group is Tuesday night, when Atlanta travels to Orlando — the winner of that game is in the driver's seat for the No. 7 seed.

While some fantasy managers are competing in leagues that run through the end of the NBA's regular season, most were done by the end of Sunday's games. Congratulations to those who won their leagues and the money (and bragging rights) that comes with it. Those who did not will reflect on what went wrong and how they can avoid a similar fate next season.

With the fantasy season effectively over, now is a good time for the Rotoworld fantasy basketball staff to have a few roundtable discussions. Monday's question is simple: Who was your biggest surprise in fantasy basketball? Nick Schlain, Noah Rubin, Raphielle Johnson and Zak Hanshew answered this question, and each writer had a different choice.

Who was the biggest surprise in fantasy basketball this season?

Nick Shlain: Dyson Daniels had a preseason ADP of 136 on Yahoo! but is the fifth-ranked player in total game value on Basketball Monster this season. In his first season as a full-time starter, Daniels has seen his numbers increase across the board. No stat has been as crucial to Daniels’ fantasy success than steals, the category where he leads the league with three steals per game. Daniels has vastly outperformed expectations in his first season with the Hawks after coming to Atlanta last offseason in the Dejounte Murray trade.

Noah Rubin: I have long been a pessimist regarding Austin Reaves’s productivity in fantasy basketball. I have had the opinion that he is a really, really good player, but that doesn’t always translate to fantasy production, especially in category leagues. On a team with LeBron James and Anthony Davis, why would Reaves have the ball in his hands enough to return top-tier value? Trading for Luka Doncic certainly didn’t make me more optimistic, and yet, Reaves has been better while playing alongside a ball-dominant superstar. Over the past two months, he has returned third-round value this season and ranks in the top ten in nine-cat formats. He is averaging career highs in points, rebounds, assists, steals and three-pointers and has solidified himself as an All-Star talent. He shattered his Yahoo! ADP of 87.8 and has been a league-winning producer recently.

Raphielle Johnson: Many people laughed when Norman Powell discussed the loss to Paul George as “addition by subtraction” for the Clippers. PG's exit meant more opportunities for Powell and Ivica Zubac, and both got off to hot starts. However, while Powell's production tailed off due to injury, "Big Zu" has been consistently excellent for the Clippers. Ranked just outside the top-50 in eight-cat formats, Zubac heads into the season's final week safely within that threshold in nine-cat. He's averaging career highs in points, rebounds and assists while shooting 62.4 percent from the field. While expecting Zubac to be a top-100 player was well within reason, he's been even better than that.

Zak Hanshew: Maybe I should have seen a resurgence coming, but hindsight is 20/20, right? After years of finishing as a perennial top-10 fantasy option, Karl-Anthony Towns's value took a big hit over the last two seasons. The fit alongside Rudy Gobert wasn't ideal for Towns from a fantasy standpoint, but his move back to playing a pure center role in New York has done wonders for him. He's averaging a career-high 12.8 rebounds with 24.4 points, 3.1 dimes, two triples and a steal. Towns is shooting a career-best 42.6% mark from beyond the arc, and he's cut his turnovers to his lowest mark in seven seasons. Towns's revival is surprising based on the raw numbers alone, but the fact that he's leading his team in rebounds and sits second in scoring while playing on such a loaded roster is the most shocking aspect of his meteoric 2024-25 rise.