Category: Basketball

I still have a lot of unanswerable questions bouncing around in my head about the Boston Celtics and thought I’d go to the smartest minds in the game for answers (our staff)!

The first question I had was about play style: How different will the Celtics play style be next year with Jaylen Brown gone? (If at all)

Below are the staff’s answers.

Ian Inangelo

I really don’t see the play style changing much without Brown next year. In my mind I think Boston will have a similar play style with Tatum just stepping in. Tatum will be the driving force of the offense and do most of the creating with Payton Pritchard, Paul George, and Derrick White as back up options. Three pointers might increase more with Brown’s departure as he was known for his midrange game but it shouldn’t change the offense that much. The defense shouldn’t take a step back either, making that a priority on top of rebounding which should be improved thanks to the addition of Mitchell Robinson.

Trevor Hass  

I think the play style will be very similar to this year, with Jayson Tatum sliding back in as the alpha and Derrick White and Payton Pritchard handling the ball even more in Jaylen Brown’s absence. I do think they’ll attempt fewer 3-pointers per game next season and try to diversify their arsenal. More paint touches and post-ups for Tatum would be a welcome addition.

Steve Hooper 

I’m not sure right now. The fact that we still have so many young wings on the team I would hope the the pace will be high and similar to the regular season last year. If the pace is slow, I think that is bad news for Boston. If the ball isn’t zipping around the key and finding paint touches, we might be in a for a long year.

Jake Issenberg

Last season the Celtics started to scratch the surface of maximising their advantage in the possession game. They did this by emphasising offensive rebounding and continuing to minimise their own turnovers. Then Brad Stevens doubled down. He sent out Jaylen Brown who was the one weak link in the turnover aspect of their identity. The Celtics also signed one of the best offensive rebounders of all time in Mitchell Robinson. The final piece of the Possession Maxxing identity for the Celtics is forcing their own turnovers when on defense. Paul George and Robinson are elite in this category as well. I expect Mazzulla to crank up the ball pressure in a way we haven’t seen during his tenure until now.

Nate Moskowitz

Offensively, I don’t believe the personnel changes are drastic enough to force a major shift in the way they look to attack. To amplify Mitchell Robinson and Paul George’s skill sets I think we can expect them to lean into some additional pick and roll possessions along with more pull-up threes, but they ranked high in both of those categories already.

The biggest change that I envision is on the defensive end. I feel confident about that being a real strength for this group. They could benefit a lot from turning up the pressure and taking a few more risks each game. They have young wings that can get into ball handlers and make them uncomfortable, and then there’s the off-ball defensive playmaking of White, Tatum and George. Pair all of that with rim protection from Queta and Robinson and you’ve got a versatile and disruptive group. They’ll miss Jaylen’s point of attack defense against some of the top perimeter options, but that’s the role you’d ideally like to thrust Hugo and Walsh into anyways.

Grant Burfeind

I think this is the first time we’ll really get to see Tatum with the keys to the car. We’ve seen flashes over the years, but this is the first season where there’s no debate about whose team it is. I’m really curious (and optimistic) about what that does for him. My hope is we get the best version of Tatum yet. More usage, more responsibility, and a legitimate MVP push.

Beyond that, I think this team is going to wreak havoc defensively, and I am HERE for it. Brad may not have gotten the rim punisher he was looking for in PG, but he got his rim denier in Mitch Robinson. Between Mitch and Queta down low coupled with White, Tatum, and George on the perimeter, I think the Celtics will guard their yards, dominate both ends of the glass and give themselves a chance to win a lot of ugly games.

Jeff Clark

Last year when Brown was given the opportunity and burden of being the number one option, he had his most productive year, but (as many have pointed out) some struggles with efficiency. At a high level, I could see Tatum going through some similar struggles as his usage increases and he can’t hand things off to Brown anymore. Jayson is more than capable of carrying the offensive load, but that can also wear you down over a full year as well. The good news is that Tatum is a more naturally gifted passer and play-initiator than Jaylen is (though he made strides every year in that department). I wonder if that takes enough burden off of Derrick to help him regain his shooting touch. It will be also interesting to see how many “layups and dunks” we can get out of our rim attacking bigs out of the pick and roll.

Defensively I could see them leaning even further into having waves of young and athletic wings to throw at teams with multiple looks. I’m pretty excited to see the center rotation now that they’ve added Robinson to the mix as well.

Robby Fletcher

As much as outside voices love to bash Boston’s tendency to fire from beyond the arc, I don’t think they’re quite prepared for how much more 3-oriented they’ll be without Jaylen Brown.

Brown’s mid-range scoring was instrumental to last year’s offensive success. Boston as a team was fifth in the league in mid-range attempts, mostly generated by Brown, Derrick White and Payton Pritchard before Jayson Tatum returned. Between the addition of Paul George, an excellent 3-point shooter, and Mitchell Robinson, a dominant offensive rebounder, I’m expecting Boston to continue working its rotation-forcing drive-and-kick game to attack from distance and look to generate extended possessions through their improved frontcourt.

Ryan Paice

I’m of the same mind as Robby; Boston’s going to lean even more heavily into its already 3pt-heavy offensive approach. But not by design. One of the Celtics’ weakest aspects since losing Jrue Holiday has been its lack of a strong tertiary playmaker who can reliably beat an opponent’s defense off the dribble when the first options can’t. Unfortunately, one of the results of that weakness is a higher number of desperation 3s. Even more unfortunately, I think that weakness gets even worse this year without Brown.

Now, to be fair, Tatum is a better primary playmaker than Brown. And Pritchard will slot in as a decent secondary option, as he did behind Brown last season. Nevertheless, I think Brown’s a superior #2, and I’m not sold on White and George as tertiary playmakers — especially White. It was tough watching him struggle to gain an advantage on offense against the Sixers in the first round. Maybe George can excel as a tertiary playmaker in the C’s system, but his lack of availability has been a huge concern in recent years. If White continues to struggle from 3pt range and George struggles to stay on the court, I wouldn’t be shocked to see the team launching more last-minute, desperation 3s than anyone would like to see.

Mike Dynon

If Jayson Tatum returns to point forward duties, probably not much different. Still expecting plenty of threes, because that’s the league now. I do hope the Celtics ramp up the pick and roll, because with Mitchell Robinson joining Neemias Queta, Boston now has two legit high fliers to get up and throw it down.

Rich Jensen

I’m hoping that the ball is a bit less sticky. Two years ago, in his last full season, Jayson Tatum’s averaged 3.71 seconds per touch, less than Jaylen Brown’s 4.17 seconds that season, and even more significantly less than his average of 4.34 seconds per touch this past season.

The C’s were better at passing the ball this past season than the season before, but they were still pretty pedestrian when it came to passing and generating assists. I’m hoping that a lineup of Jayson and Friends will move the ball a bit more freely than last year’s lineup of Jaylen and Friends, based on Jayson’s larger toolkit as a passer and facilitator.

Your Turn – How would you answer this question?

Welcome to Pounding the Rock’s 2025-26 player reviews! The series will look at the players who finished the season with the San Antonio Spurs on guaranteed contracts and who played consequential minutes and/or a vital role (so no two-way players because we hardly saw them this year, no players who were traded away, and none of the deep bench centers, since they were both irrelevant and are now all gone).

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Luke Kornet

2025-26 stats: 68 games, 21 MPG, 6.5 points, 6.1 rebounds, 1 block, 64.3 FG%

Contract Status: 3 years, $29.7 million remaining (team option for 2028-29)

Age: 31

Following the 2024-25 season, the Spurs knew their biggest weakness was size and production behind Victor Wembaynama. After trading Zach Collins as part of the De’Aaron Fox trade, losing Charles Bassey to yet another knee injury and finally Wemby to deep vein thrombosis, they were left scrambling for size, resulting in the signing of Bismack Biyombo and more than enough small ball. It was fine since the postseason became a far reach without Wemby (although to the remaining players’ credit, they never stopped trying), but the Spurs would have to get better at backup center if they wanted to reach new heights this season.

They did just that with the under-the-radar signing of Luke Kornet — a veteran, championship-winning center from the Boston Celtics — on a team-friendly deal. Not much was made of it at the time, but it was soon seen as one of the best pick-ups of free agency. Not only was the Spurs’ defense drastically improved overall, but there was much less drop-off when Wemby left the court compared to previous seasons thanks in part to Kornet’s size and underrated (if unspectacular) rim protection. Players who thought they had a free lane to the basket once Wemby left the court quickly learned otherwise. (It may have been less daunting, but certainly not free.)

Kornet especially got to shine early in the season, with Wemby missing 12 straight games between November and December with a calf strain, followed by 6 coming off then bench on a minutes restriction, resulting in Kornet starting for 17 of 18 games (he missed one of his own). In those games, the Spurs went 15-2 with Kornet’s numbers remaining consistent on a per-minute basis without much drop-off as a team. One of his best performances of the season came in that time frame, with a 20-12 double-double in a win in Washington, and of course there was his best play of the regular season: a game-winning, buzzer-beating block of Franz Wagner in Orlando.

He continued to be steady and productive even back in a bench role for the rest of the regular season, with his main weakness being availability (he missed 14 games with various ailments, fortunately without too much overlap with Wemby). However, the playoffs were another story, as he (and seemingly every other bench player not named Dylan Harper) saw his production plummet as the strength of opponent rose, likely skewing his final grade here a bit.

After three straight games scorning in double figures and posting a positive plus-minus to open the playoffs against Portland, his highest scoring game the rest of the way was 7 points in a Game 5 loss to Minnesota (the Wemby ejection game), and the only time he posted a positive plus-minus in a non-blowout game was Game 7 against the Thunder, but what a big game it was. Even though it wasn’t a huge night statistically for Kornet, he provided perhaps their most important play of the postseason: a chase-down block of Isaiah Hartenstein in the fourth quarter that sucked the life out of the Thunder as they made a last ditch effort to come back while Wemby sat with foul trouble.

It’s a play that helped the Spurs win the Western Conference Finals and will go down as one of their best postseason blocks ever, etching Kornet into Spurs playoff lore. Unfortunately, that momentum didn’t carry over to the Finals — for Kornet or the Spurs.

Looking ahead

Kornet will likely play the same role next season: backing up Wemby. There won’t be much doubt in the regular season, but the Spurs will need better production from him (and again, the entire bench) in the playoffs if they hope to win a championship, especially considering exhaustion appeared to play a big role in their Finals loss. Also, it may not be immediate, but Kornet will eventually be looking over his shoulder with the Spurs going for size in the draft with Jayden Quaintance and Tarris Reed, the latter who is healthy and possibly NBA-ready if he gets hurt or his production stumbles.

Kornet’s contract makes him a very tradable asset should the Spurs see the need to shake things up at any point in the next few seasons, but it also gives them a very productive bench player on the cheap in a time when they’ll have to start making some tough financial decisions. He was arguably the best backup center in the league last season by providing exactly what they needed: solid minutes to back up and even replace Wemby at times without a massive drop in production. Expecting much more from him is a stretch, but simply hoping it carries over into the playoffs doesn’t seem like too much to ask, especially from a player who has won a championship playing the same role before.

Top Performance

14 points, 10 rebounds, 2 blocks in Round 1, Game 3 @ Portland Trail Blazers

While Kornet had games with bigger numbers early in the season when Wemby missed extensive time and more memorable moments (such as the Wagner and Hartenstein blocks), this was by far his most important performance for the Spurs, with Wemby out with a concussion and the series tied 1-1 heading out on the road. While Wemby only ended up missing one game, Kornet’s stabilizing performance was certainly reassuring in an uncertain time and helped put the Spurs back in the driver’s seat with a crucial 120-108 win.

Final Grade: B-

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Up next: Dylan Harper

Previous Reviews

Jordan McLaughlin

Carter Bryant

Somewhere in Oklahoma City right now there’s a front office that understands something the rest of the league is still catching up on. Seventy-three wins isn’t a number. It’s a dare. And this year the Thunder walked right up to it, put their hand on the door, and found out the same thing Dub Nation found out a decade ago. The record doesn’t just test your talent. It tests what’s left of you in the postseason.

Ten years ago the Warriors ran a 73-9 season that nobody has sniffed since, chasing history for six straight months while the whole league lined up to see if the Dubs would flinch or crack. They eventually fell short in the when it actually counted, when a 3-1 Finals lead evaporated against a Cleveland team that pulled off a miracle, and every talking head in America got to spend a summer calling the greatest regular season ever played a punchline. Nobody remembers the 73 wins the way they remember the collapse. That’s the tax folks. Chase the ghost and if you don’t finish the job, the ghost chases you back.

So when Oklahoma City opened this season 20-1, then 24-1, matching GSW’s pace game for game a decade later, I’ll admit there was a part of me that wanted to see it happen. Not for them but for the conversation. Let somebody else carry that weight for a change. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander did, standing at a podium in Vegas, telling reporters the record means something to him and his group because winning matters “no matter what form it looks like.” They fell short of the record, but at least had the idea of the repeat fresh in their eyes. OKC responded the way champs do. They swept the Suns and the Lakers, rolling into the Western Conference Finals looking every bit like the machine that was supposed to run this whole league over for the next five years.

And then, right on cue, San Antonio showed up and ruined their back-to-back dreams. Spurs in seven, Thunder’s Finals repeat bid buried before the calendar even hit June, San Antonio marching on to face the Knicks for the whole thing while Oklahoma City packed lockers early for the first time since they climbed this mountain.

OKC was missing their 2nd best player who dropped 40 in Game 5 of the NBA Finals all series and their best shot creator off the bench. Incredibly important.

But the discourse after 2015 ruined how people talk about this sport forever so that's that.

— olddirtybaroo (@olddirty_baroo) May 31, 2026

I know that feeling. Dub Nation built a statue to the 73 wins and then had to watch somebody else hoist the trophy that summer too. So let me be the first team from the other side of this specific heartbreak to say it plainly: welcome to the club nobody wants a membership card for. You built the best regular season we’ve seen since ours. You still walked out of the postseason owing more than you won. The house always finds a way to collect on that kind of debt, and it doesn’t care how many national TV games you won along the way.

The Thunder don’t get to chase 73 wins and repeat titles and skip the part where it humbles you. Nobody gets that discount. We know exactly how loud the outside noise gets when you’re the best team in basketball for the regular season and somehow still be humiliated in the end. It’s the worst kind of quiet, the one where everything you spent seven months building gets rewritten in two weeks.

VIDEO: Earlier in the season Jalen Williams said OKC would beat the 2017 Warriors and the 1996 Bulls.

Today OKC players are booking their trip to Cancun.

Life comes at you fast. pic.twitter.com/rIssZNaQ4n

— SLO HOOPS FAN 🇸🇮 (@SloHoopsFan) May 31, 2026

But here’s the other half of it: Get up. GSW did. It took real work and a full year of people doubting whether that Warriors core still had a beating heart in it, and they came back and buried the noise under a parade. That’s the only way this story ever gets rewritten. Not by chasing a number. By going back to the mountain and finishing the job the second time, when everybody’s already decided you can’t.

Prove you’re the dynasty everybody thought you were. Or fade into the background like all the other would be dynasties who were exposed as one and done.

LAS VEGAS — The lights are bright, the stars are both on and off the court, and there are games being played by NBA players in both college- and high school-sized arenas. There’s nothing like the NBA Summer League. From seeing Buffalo Bills wide receiver Keon Coleman, walking past star NBA broadcasters Mark Jones and Michael Grady, to casually striking up conversations with DeMarcus Cousins and Jeff Van Gundy, it’s not only a spectacle but also a hodgepodge of some of the most important people in the hoops and media worlds.

Coming into the event, I didn’t know what to expect except for one thing: a lot of networking opportunities. With the games being of minimal consequence compared with regular-season and playoff games, and with all 30 teams playing, most reporters, agents, and members of NBA organizations view Summer League as an opportunity to grow their personal networks and build on already established relationships.

In my first two months since graduating from college, I’ve found that searching for full-time media positions is no fun, let alone easy, and the best way to do it is by building relationships with people, something I’ve been doing since I was a freshman at Syracuse University. I was excited and prepared for the chance to meet so many people I could learn from as I looked for ways to navigate an industry with no linear path.

In a career as competitive as sports media that continues to shrink by the day, connections are everything. In Vegas, I was told by an NBA executive who worked in media for nearly 20 years that if you want a chance to make it, you need to work hard, outlast people, and, most importantly, be someone people want to work with. In most industries, doing those three things would guarantee success, but not in media.

You have to get your name out there. ESPN NBA Insider Shams Charania hasn’t gotten the top scoops for years just because he’s a great writer and broadcaster; it’s because of the relationships he’s built, and the NBA Summer League is the perfect place to make more of them.

No matter who you are, people will most likely talk to you for at least a few minutes if you’re aware of the time and place. You can make an impression on anyone you meet.

Knowing the value proposition of going to Summer League when I had Southwest points and time at my disposal, I did not take this opportunity lightly. At the NBA Summer League, the games come second; meeting and building relationships with people come first. I didn’t just spend time dissecting Koby Brea’s three-point percentage or analyzing Khaman Maluach’s ability to be a force in the paint; I spent hours dissecting who the people were that I wanted to talk to at Summer League in preparation for making my interactions memorable. I even made a plan for how I wanted to introduce myself and the specific questions I wanted to ask certain people.

Sorry about the bad handwriting.

I tried to make every interaction I could have with people as intentional and specific as possible. A lot of people want to talk to a lot of people, especially NBA reporters.

Here’s a question I wanted to ask NBA Insider Chris Haynes that I thought could be really helpful for a young journalist to know. It ended up paying off, as he said I had an “unforgettable first impression.”

To have not only productive but also memorable brief conversations that can turn into relationships, you need to demonstrate to people that you know who you’re talking to and that you want to actually get to know them, not just get something out of them. This becomes especially important when you are starting your career and are not established in the industry.

Along with building new relationships, fortifying older ones is just as important. Getting to see people in person whom you’ve only spoken to on Zoom or FaceTime is a signal that you are eager to build on the connections you’ve made when you weren’t able to see them in person. The impression of approaching people and finally connecting with them after only meeting virtually is especially important and impactful when you are young, just getting started in the sports media industry, or both.

Getting in contact with, let alone making an impact on, executives, agents, or reporters who cover the NBA year-round is already a hard enough task, and being physically around the people who help tell the stories of the game can make you more memorable.

It’s one of the only times on the NBA calendar that the most important people for reporters to interact with aren’t the players. It may be the beginning of many relationships with players, but there isn’t another time when as many executives, agents, and other reporters are within the same mile radius.

While it may seem counterintuitive, you become a better writer by listening. You learn more stories when you introduce yourself to more people, and your coverage gets richer the more perspectives you have. At NBA Summer League, your next byline can improve by talking to other people who publish bylines, not just the athletes who play on the hardwood.

That’s the hidden value of Summer League. The games will end, the box scores will be forgotten, and the next NBA season will take over. But the conversations, relationships, and lessons learned away from the court can have a lasting impact. For someone trying to break into this industry, the biggest opportunities aren’t always found by watching the action. Sometimes, they come from being eager and willing to show up and listen.

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I consider myself something of a modern day basketball historian. With the rise of the internet and misinformation, it’s easy for people to get caught up in the hoopla of social media and miss parallels to the past that teach us so much about basketball and life.

That’s what got me thinking about the San Antonio Spurs’ shocking NBA Finals run and their stunning collapse to the New York Knicks.

San Antonio had the Knicks on the ropes in Game 4. Twenty-nine points up. First quarters won by a combined 57 points across the series. Wembanyama blocking shots like he was swatting flies off a porch. And then it slipped, the way these things always slip when a team hasn’t lived through the moment enough times to trust it.

Final result, five games, Knicks banner number four hanging in the Garden by fall. Jalen Brunson walking off with Finals MVP and a stat line that read like a man who’d been rehearsing this exact night since he was a kid shooting in his driveway.The Spurs went home with proof they belong, proof the timeline is real, and, if history is any kind of teacher, proof of how easy it is to waste both.

According to ESPN Analytics, in the 4 games the Spurs lost in the NBA Finals, they had a…

— 91.6% chance of winning Game 1 up 13 points midway thru the 3rd
— 72.8% chance of winning Game 2 up 2 points with 1 minute left in the 4th
— 99.6% chance of winning Game 4 up 20 points… pic.twitter.com/WkOw0shz7W

— Tomer Azarly (@TomerAzarly) June 14, 2026

Spurs youth really showed in this series. They’ll be back, but they better be ready

— David Trink (@palejustice55) June 14, 2026

We’ve seen this movie before. Go back to 2012, a Thunder team built on a rookie scale contract and a prayer, Kevin Durant still growing into his frame, James Harden just getting his beard activated, and Russell Westbrook playing like his hair was on fire. Nobody had that team penciled in for a Finals, and they went anyway, right through the Lakers and the Spurs and the Mavericks.

That’s the part San Antonio just lived. Wembanyama is 22. Stephon Castle is 21. De’Aaron Fox barely got there and is still learning how his game fits inside a team that wasn’t built with him in mind yet. This is a group that shot out of the West at 4-3 over Oklahoma City and took the eventual champion to five games.

Flashback to how Miami unraveled the Thunder. The Heat had LeBron in his prime, Wade still Wade, a roster that had already been humbled once and come back meaner for it. The end result: Heat in five.The lesson OKC took from that series wasn’t written down anywhere, but it should have been tattooed on the locker room wall: young talent might you to the door once. It does not automatically walk you through it again next year, or the year after that, or ever.

That’s exactly where the Spurs are standing right now, whether anyone in that building wants to admit it. San Antonio now knows what it feels like to blow a 29 point lead on a national stage, to watch a grown men in orange and blue outsmart and bully them into playing out of character. You cannot manufacture that kind of film session. You have to bleed for it, and now they have.

Spurs might be the least clutch team of all time. This is generational choking.

— Ballsack Sports (@BallsackSports) June 14, 2026

From @TheAthletic: Victor Wembanyama’s first NBA finals experience was tough and emotional. He left the court without shaking Knicks players’ hands after the Spurs lost. “It’s painful. But I’m not running away from that,” he said. https://t.co/pUbZ2gb4Ig

— The New York Times (@nytimes) June 14, 2026

Nobody in Oklahoma City believed a fall was coming in the summer of 2012. Why would they? Their core was in their early 20s.The whole basketball world assumed OKC would run it back five or six times over, showing up again and again with more mileage and less rust. Instead the front office traded Harden that same offseason, injuries piled up in the years after, Durant walked in 2016, and that specific version of the Thunder never got back to a Finals. No single move explains all of it. One great run became the assumption instead of the foundation, and everything after that got a little easier to lose.

San Antonio’s got a core this specific, this young, this obviously built around a seven footer who moves like he’s got no business being that big, and the margin between running it back next June and becoming a “remember when” story is razor thin. What happens next comes down to the next fourteen months. The vets they bring in have to teach something instead of just filling a roster spot. This exact group has to get another shot before somebody else’s timeline swallows theirs whole.

History doesn’t owe young, exciting teams a second trip. It only owes them the first one, the trip that gets people talking and eventually ends up in every “remember when” conversation whether or not anything ever comes of it. What happens after that is on them.

Ask the 2012 Thunder how that part goes if you don’t believe me.

Why?

Because you just can’t get enough Johnny Dawkins.

On Thursday, we looked back at Johnny D’s masterful play against Notre Dame in 1986, where he blocked David Rivers at the buzzer to preserve a one-point Duke victory in Cameron.

This play is from his NBA days with the Philadelphia 76ers.

He hits a clutch shot here to boost the Sixers past the Portland Trailblazers, 104-102. Dawkins had 23 points and 10 assists. He was a terrific player before injuries caught up to him.

Also on the Sixers: former Blue Devil Mike Gminski, Charles Barkley, former NC State star Charles Shackleford, and Manute Bol. It must have been an amazing locker room.

Also in the game, but we didn’t spot him here: Alaa Abdelnaby, who was with the Portland Trail Blazers. Portland also featured Maryland star Buck Williams, who is wearing the goggles. You’ll see him guarding Bol.

Go to the DBR Boards to find Blue Healer Auctions || Drop us a line

The Warriors’ rival report has it’s final opponent in the crosshairs down in L.A. but it ain’t the Lakers. The Clippers are the one Pacific team whose offseason can’t really be graded yet, because the trade that defines it hasn’t actually closed. Before Golden State gets to the part of the summer where every team’s roster feels settled, it’s worth checking in on the one division rival still waiting on the league office to tell them who’s actually on their team.

On paper, the moves are straightforward enough. Quiet business: re-signings, a small trade for center Johni Broome, a two-way deal for center Jamarion Sharp. The one that actually reshapes the roster is the deal sending Kawhi Leonard to Toronto for Brandon Ingram and Gradey Dick, along with a package of picks. Everyone covering the team, from beat writers to fan sites, has spent July writing rotation projections that assume this trade is basically done.

It isn’t. The Clippers and Raptors agreed to it on June 30. Nine days later, both teams announced it was on hold. The Clippers built a roster the league hasn’t signed off on yet. The holdup is an NBA investigation into whether the Clippers circumvented the salary cap to pay Leonard, tied to a since-collapsed endorsement deal with the company Aspiration.

"If I'm the Toronto Raptors, I'm finding a way to get up out of this deal. I'm finding a way to back out."@KendrickPerkins does not want the Raptors to go through with the trade for Kawhi Leonard 👀 pic.twitter.com/48mEzgXXdn

— NBA on ESPN (@ESPNNBA) July 30, 2026

ESPN’s Baxter Holmes reported that the case could stretch into 2027 if the Clippers and the players’ union can’t agree on any findings or proposed punishment. Commissioner Adam Silver has said the investigation needs to wrap before next season starts, but has also acknowledged it’s already gone on longer than he’d hoped. The union has said it won’t hesitate to fight any penalty it sees as unsupported by evidence, and the Clippers have maintained from the start that they never funneled money to Leonard at all.

Meanwhile, basketball analysis has largely moved forward as though the trade is inevitable, projecting Brandon Ingram into the starting lineup and Gradey Dick into the wing rotation before the league has approved any of it. 213hoops’ Robert Flom took the more grounded approach, and it’s probably the more useful one for a fan base trying to figure out what to actually expect this season.

Flom placed the Clippers somewhere in the 9-to-12 range in the West regardless of how the roster shakes out, clearing only the Kings and Pelicans with real confidence. He projected a win total anywhere from the low 30s to the mid 40s, called this the first Clippers season since 2018 without real playoff expectations, and suggested that’s actually not the worst thing, since it might make the year more fun to watch without the pressure of a playoff push riding on it.

So the Clippers enter the season with two different stories running at once. One is a basketball team quietly preparing for a future built around Brandon Ingram, assuming the trade becomes official. The other is a franchise waiting on a law firm and a players’ union to decide whether that trade, and the season built around it, is even allowed to exist as constructed.

Every other team in the Pacific spent the summer answering questions about its roster. The Clippers are still waiting to find out what theirs officially is. Until the league closes the investigation, every projection comes with an asterisk. The Warriors won’t know exactly what they’re preparing for until the NBA decides which Clippers roster is actually allowed to exist.

Victor Wembanyama returned to Nanterre, a suburb of Paris, France, where he played basketball as a teenager. He was there as a guest of honor in the unveiling of a refurbishment to the basketball court.

Victor Wembanyama at the new court ceremony in Nanterre, France. Even catches a lob from a young fan #nba#porvida#sanantonio#gospursgo (via The Manila Times) pic.twitter.com/6e4eFZfyby

— JeffGSpursZone (@JeffGSpursZone) July 30, 2026

Per a Spurs press release:

“The San Antonio Spurs revealed a newly refurbished basketball court in Nanterre, France, commemorated with a youth basketball clinic and appearance from Spurs player Victor Wembanyama. Presented by Ledger, the court is part of the Spurs ‘Play Paris’ program, which was launched in 2025 in honor of the organization’s continued commitment to inspire the next generation of elite athletes and provide safe, accessible play spaces across France.“

R. C. Buford was also on hand for the ribbon cutting and the center court logo reveal. The Spurs along with Ledger have launched the “Play Paris” initiative in 2025, a program built to inspire the next generation, provide access to play and create a lasting legacy within the community.

“The opening of this court reflects what Play Paris is all about – honoring legacy and creating opportunities for young people to come together through basketball. Nanterre has helped shape France’s basketball culture in a meaningful way, and we’re proud to invest in spaces where the next generation can continue to develop, build confidence and feel connected to the game that unites us globally.”

This is sick https://t.co/ILBBH0HuoBpic.twitter.com/sCNjiDr1dZ

— Josh Paredes (@Josh810) July 30, 2026

The court design features Nanterre 92’s signature green and black. The court is open to the public and will host tournaments, youth clinics as well as free play.

Ariel Wengroff, EVP of Marketing & Communications at Ledger stated,

“The best partnerships are built on shared values, and this court is proof of that. Ledger is a French company with a global community — when the Spurs came to us with the Play Paris initiative, supporting a project rooted in our home country was an easy yes. We’re proud to help bring this space to life for the young athletes of Nanterre, where they can build the confidence and wellness that are the foundation of any bright future.”

Raphael Adam, mayor of Nanterre, succinctly linked the partnership stating,

“Ever since you welcomed a child from Nanterre, an unbreakable bond has been forged between our city and the legendary NBA franchise, the San Antonio Spurs. This court stands today as a symbol of that connection—a source of pride for Nanterre and its residents.”

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Keeping it moving here on the rival report here at GSOM, we’re working through the Pacific Divsion to give a shout out to the moribund Kings. Sacramento is still one of the first teams the Warriors have to solve every season. Before we start obsessing over whatever superteam the rest of the league built this summer, it’s worth looking one exit down I-80.

This is a math problem, and Sacramento has spent three years trying to solve it.

Here’s the full inventory of Sacramento’s 2026 free agency activity: they waived DeMar DeRozan and Isaiah Stevens, they let Russell Westbrook walk without a fight, and they signed Jonathan Mogbo and Adam Flagler to two-way deals. That’s it.

Meanwhile the rest of the West is trying to level up. Sacramento enters the season with the league’s tenth-highest payroll, five players making more than $20 million, and more than $80 million tied up in Domantas Sabonis and Zach LaVine alone. One veteran minimum contract pushes them into the tax.

Kings post DeMar DeRozan

Includes his $10M salary for 2026-27

Sacramento is $1.8M above the luxury tax

They have $3.85M in unlikely bonuses counting against the apron pic.twitter.com/6tIhzFUnRg

— Bobby Marks (@BobbyMarks42) July 6, 2026

Ian Goodwillie framed the whole non-approach as the smart play rather than the desperate one:

Basically, the Kings likely have to wait until Zach LaVine’s current contract finishes at the end of the 2026-2027 season. Then, nearly $50 million of cap space opens up, and Sacramento can start making moves on the open market. They’ll also have to hand out some extensions to existing players.

For now, Sacramento will have to work with what they have. The Kings have drafted well the last couple of years, made solid trades and signings that will help, and continue the rebuild from there. Once the big-money contracts are gone, they’ll have a strong foundation to make moves from.

The Kings’ inaction isn’t a front office standing still out of confusion. It’s a franchise that understands the math doesn’t work yet, and won’t for another year. Rather than take on bad money just to say they did something, Sacramento is banking on the summer of 2027 and everything happening now is just runway toward that moment.It’s hard to argue with that logic as crossing the first apron this year would’ve meant trade restrictions and buyout limitations on a team that’s nowhere near contending anyway. Why pay the penalty for a rebuild you haven’t finished rebuilding yet?

Ethan Minton took a different angle on this dilemma and quite frankly it’s the one that should actually worry Sacramento. His argument wasn’t really about the money. It was about whether anyone with options would ever pick Sacramento in the first place:

Sacramento has the 23rd-largest population among NBA cities. It doesn’t have the nightlife of Miami, the big-city feel of New York City or the ocean-view high-rises of San Francisco. For young, up-and-coming stars, Sacramento is not the most desirable location. Another reason free agents haven’t tended to pick Sacramento is the culture. The Kings have made the postseason once over the last twenty seasons. A string of poor decisions on draft night and questionable trades by the front office have forced the franchise into a perpetual state of losing.

That’s the split worth sitting with. One writer sees a temporary cap problem while the other sees a permanent market problem. Whether Sacramento is right or wrong won’t really be answered until 2027. The Warriors don’t have that luxury. Their championship window is happening now, which means every game against a team choosing tomorrow over today still counts exactly the same in the standings.

Let’s get back to the Warriors’ divisional rivals out in the big blue Pacific, continuing with the Suns. I previously broke down their draft day strategy and now we’re talking what happened after free agency. Phoenix is the team that ended the Warriors’ season last spring, in a play-in elimination game that still stings a little to write about. Before Golden State worries about the teams that got flashier over the summer, it’s worth checking on the one that already has a recent win over them.

The Suns had a quiet, disciplined offseason right up until they didn’t. GM Brian Gregory re-signed Collin Gillespie, Jordan Goodwin, and Mark Williams, added shooter Luke Kennard in free agency, and traded up in the first round to grab Arizona forward Koa Peat. Smart value contracts, a rotation kept mostly intact, a promising rookie added on the cheap. On paper, that’s a near-perfect summer for a team trying to build without a real cap advantage.

Then they traded an unprotected 2033 first-round pick, along with Royce O’Neale, for Miles Bridges.

That single move is doing all the heavy lifting in how this offseason gets remembered. Everything else Phoenix did was the responsible version of team-building. Bridges is the swing for the fences.

CBS Sports Sam Quinn Gives The Suns A D Grade For Their Miles Bridges Trade:

“I’m giving the Suns a D, the theory for them is that they think Miles Bridges is a better player than I do.” pic.twitter.com/fHitsYXVbR

— SM Highlights (@SMHighlights1) June 29, 2026

Ben Leibowitz of the Valley of the Sun posted this:

“But now, the Suns are moving forward with Bridges. The 28-year-old veteran has never made an All-Star team in his NBA career, but many Suns fans were (rightfully) more critical of Bridges’ off-court indiscretions. His history of domestic violence, chronicled by longtime NBA reporter David Aldridge, would make anyone with a conscience cringe.“

Despite his past, the Suns’ front office gave up a lot to acquire Bridges even entering a contract year. For most of the summer, Phoenix behaved like a team willing to win around the margins. If Bridges plays like the difference-maker the Suns believe he can be, nobody will remember the quiet work that came first. If he doesn’t, that unprotected 2033 pick becomes the only move anyone talks about. Either way, this is still the core of the roster that ended Golden State’s season in the play-in last spring. The Warriors won’t have to wait long to find out whether Phoenix’s biggest gamble made that team any better.

Top 5 defense in Phoenix next season anybody wanna bet me

— The Voice ❤️‍🩹 (@swaveyxquis) July 24, 2026

Out of curiosity, I wondered when was the last time the Phoenix Suns won a title. A quick Google search told me they had been to the NBA Finals three times and had never won it all. If I was a betting man, I’d wager the house that this ignominious streak shall absolutely continue in the next year. Still, the Warriors are gonna see this team alot this year during the regular season and will have to figure these guys out if they want to make headway in the West.

Right after the draft and before free agency I wrote a series talking about what the Golden State Warriors divisional rivals had been cooking up. It’s time to take it to the next level and talk about what these foos did after that.

The Los Angeles Lakers are a team the Warriors have to worry about ever year in the Pacific Divsion, but this summer that team doesn’t have LeBron James anymore. Before Golden State gets lost in its own offseason business, it’s worth understanding what LA actually built to replace him.

The short version: they gutted the roster and reloaded around Luka Doncic. Rui Hachimura is gone, as are Marcus Smart, Luke Kennard, and Jaxson Hayes. In their place, general manager Rob Pelinka landed center Walker Kessler, guards Quentin Grimes and Collin Sexton, frontcourt additions Sandro Mamukelashvili and Kevon Looney, wings Ziaire Williams and Matisse Thybulle, and first-round rookie Cameron Carr.

Kessler is the move that defines the whole offseason, for better or worse. LA gave up two future first-round picks and two pick swaps to get him, then signed him to a four-year, $130 million deal. Everything else this summer was complementary. Kessler is the bet.

Magic Johnson believes this is exactly what a post-LeBron reset was supposed to look like. The Lakers legend has been posting his approval on X since the moves started landing, and his read is straightforward. Johnson wanted this roster to get younger, faster, and more athletic around Doncic, and he believes the front office delivered exactly that.

I said this offseason the Lakers had to get younger, more athletic, and faster, and they did just that.

— Earvin Magic Johnson (@MagicJohnson) July 27, 2026

Gabe Vincent
Taurean Prince
Cam Reddish
Jaxson Hayes
Christian Wood
Re-signed Rui Hachimura
Re-signed D'Angelo Russell
Re-signed Austin Reaves

Lakers offseason. 🔥👀 pic.twitter.com/IA9iVYV7k1

— Hoop Central (@TheHoopCentral) September 6, 2023

Defensively Kessler os a legitimate rim protector, Thybulle is a two-time All-Defensive presence on the perimeter, and Sexton and Grimes as players who bring real skill sets to the wing. however ESPN’s Zach Kram isn’t nearly as sold. His grade for the offseason landed at a C+, and the reasoning cuts right at the roster’s actual math.

The Lakers might have been the busiest team of the summer. But did all that activity make them better, or were they merely running in place?

“Of the top seven Lakers in playoff minutes this spring, the newly extended Austin Reaves is the only player still on the roster. He, Luka Doncic and Kessler form a strong three-man core. But the Lakers now have one of the NBA’s weakest forward groups, a glaring hole at backup center and almost no remaining draft assets to trade after giving up a haul for Kessler, who has never really played a meaningful NBA game.“

Soooo getting busier this summer isn’t the same as getting better eh? Hmmmm I feel like the whole offseason comes down to one question: does replacing LeBron with seven useful players actually leave you with a better basketball team?

LeBron’s production isn’t getting handed to one player. It’s getting spread across a franchise. Doncic can be the offensive engine. Is it arrogant to suppose that a team would lose a late stage LeBron James and then get immediately better? Has any team immediately got better after Bron left? Then again, Doncic might just be that dude and with Reaves alongside him, it might be enough to terrorize anybody on a given night.

Maybe this roster looks complete two years from now. The Warriors only care about the version showing up this season, while seven new rotation players are still learning how to play together and a post-LeBron identity is still under construction.

Darryn Peterson came into the NBA touted as the best shooter in the draft, with the potential to be more as a lead guard. That potential became very apparent in Peterson’s first game against the Washington Wizards when he showed off an incredible crossover that left Jamir Watkins stumbling.

DARRYN PETERSON ANKLE BREAKER 🔥 pic.twitter.com/oLJcfW7Z2W

— BrickCenter (@BrickCenter_) July 10, 2026

It turns out that crossover might have been more devastating than we thought. It turns out that this crossover actually tore Watkins’ ACL.

Wizards wing Jamir Watkins underwent surgery today to repair a torn ACL in his left knee, a team source told @TheAthleticNBA. Watkins, who is on a two-way contract, suffered the injury during the Wizards’ NBA Summer League opener. He could miss the entire 2026-27 season.

— Josh Robbins (@JoshuaBRobbins) July 30, 2026

Obviously, you hate to see that for Watkins, and all the best wishes for his full recovery. For Peterson, it just shows the upside of what he can do on the floor. Peterson has consistently proven his doubters wrong. In high school, Peterson had the ball in his hands a lot and had some up-and-down three-point shooting numbers. Coming into Kansas, that was the big question: could he shoot the three? Coming into the season for Utah, the biggest question has been how his body would hold up and whether he could play guard. He answered that by staying healthy and showing off a wicked crossover. We’ll see how Peterson continues to develop, but one thing is for sure, don’t count him out in any way, he has consistently proven any doubters wrong.

The Los Angeles Clippers and the Toronto Raptors trade for Kawhi Leonard remains in limbo.

Leonard’s seven-year tenure with the Clippers appeared to be over after he was traded to the Toronto Raptors on Tuesday, June 30.

The Raptors were going to send forward Brandon Ingram, guard Gradey Dick, two unprotected first-round picks (2031, 2033), two second-round picks (2030, 2033) and a 2027 first-round swap to Los Angeles.

Instead, both teams have put a halt to the trade, citing an ongoing investigation.

Leonard, Clippers owner Steve Ballmer, and Leonard's uncle/advisor Dennis Robertson are being investigated for their alleged involvement in a “no-show” agreement with a company, Aspiration, to funnel extra compensation to Leonard as part of a salary cap circumvention.

NBA commissioner Adam Silver stated on July 14 that he expects the investigation to be concluded before the start of the 2026-27 season. Silver and the NBA are not conducting the investigation and instead using a third-party law firm.

ESPN's Baxter Holmes reported earlier this week that the investigation into the Clippers and Leonard could carry on into 2027. If the investigation were to carry on into the upcoming season, Leonard could be back in a Clippers uniform.

“I can’t comment on the specifics of the investigation, but what I can say is we did not do what we are accused of doing,” Lawrence Frank, the Clippers' president of basketball operations, saud on June 23, a week before the trade was announced. “The investigation has had no impact on how we go about our business. We just continue to go about our business as normal.”

Do Raptors still want Kawhi Leonard?

The Raptors are not ready to officially welcome Leonard until a decision is reached regarding the investigation.

The organization released the following statement on July 9:

“Regarding our planned trade with the LA Clippers for Kawhi Leonard, the NBA league office informed us that as a result of the ongoing investigation involving the Clippers, we would assume the risk of any potential outcome of the investigation impacting Kawhi.

In light of this, we will wait until the league's investigation is complete.

The Raptors remain eager to bring Kawhi back to Toronto and look forward to a swift resolution for our players, our organization, and our fans.”

Toronto doesn’t want to be stuck in a situation like the Miami Heat found themselves in with Terry Rozier.

The Heat traded for Rozier, and he was out of the league a year later as a result of federal gambling probe. Rozier was initially charged with wire fraud and money laundering in the Eastern District of New York in December and was given two new charges this May of of bribery in sporting contests and honest services wire fraud conspiracy.

Will Clippers welcome Kawhi Leonard back?

ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne shared on the network’s show “NBA Today” that the Clippers would be fine with having Leonard back on the team next season.

The genesis of the trade happened because the Clippers were not willing to extend Leonard’s contract beyond the upcoming season, according to Shelburne.

Leonard is scheduled to make $50.3 million during the final year of his contract.

What’s Brandon Ingram thoughts on pending trade?

Ingram was named as an NBA All-Star for the second time in his career this past season. He played in 77 games in his first season with the Raptors, averaging 21.5 points, 5.6 rebounds and 3.7 assists in 33.8 minutes per game.

Marc J. Spears stated that he spoke with Rich Paul, CEO of Klutch Sports Group, about Ingram.

"It's a business,” Spears said while sharing Paul’s comments on the show. “Brandon knows it's a business. He's fine either way."

Ingram will make $40 million next season. He has a player option for the 2027-28 season.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Clippers-Raptors Kawhi Leonard trade remains on hold: Where things stand

The Golden State Warriors seem very excited about rookie Yaxel Lendeborg, the No. 11 pick in this year’s draft who won Summer League MVP. That’s a marked change from their feelings after interviewing Lendeborg before the 2025 draft, a meeting in which he was “acting like a jackass.”

Lendeborg had just finished two seasons at the University of Alabama-Birmingham last spring and was torn on whether to enter the NBA draft. He didn’t help his case for being pro-ready with flippant answers about his habits, ones that Lendeborg admits were bad before transferring to Michigan for his final college season,

“I was like, damn, I did that bad?” Lendeborg told Anthony Slater. “But thinking back I guess my answers weren’t as professional. Just giving honest answers like, ‘Yeah, I’m BSing in practice. Yeah, I’m not doing my job in games, but I’m performing.’ I guess I didn’t really give out the good vibe.”

We’re assuming he improved on those answers before this draft, while also improving on his approach to playing basketball. Lendeborg claims he didn’t practice hard enough, sleep well, or watch enough game tape until playing for Wolverines coach Dustin May, now coach of the Dallas Mavericks. That last one was the key to Lendeborg charming Steve Kerr after the Warriors coach quizzed him about his own game tape.

“I pretty much gave all the right answers,” Lendeborg said, which is good because, “I was BSing” probably wouldn’t have flown with Kerr.

For his part, the Warriors coach has gushed about Lendeborg’s “natural feel” for basketball, his pass-first attitude, and his personality, where, “There’s no filter.” At no point anywhere in the profile does he call Lendeborg a jackass, dingbat, numbskull, knucklehead, doofus, or a ding-dong.

Lendeborg specifically charmed Kerr and other Warriors officials when they went to dinner at Draymond Green’s restaurant, and watched Game 4 of the NBA Finals, where the New York Knicks came back from 29 points down to shock the San Antonio Spurs. Lendeborg was the “life of the party.”

What might have also convinced the Warriors decision-makers is seeing the Knicks, a team relying on a group of rangy, defensive-minded wing players around an undersized, scoring point guards, take down the Spurs. Lendeborg looks to be the type of player that has become hugely valuable to the Knicks and other NBA teams, and been noticeably absent on the Dubs roster.

And now he even goes to bed on time and works hard in practice! I bet he even makes his bed every morning, like James Wiseman.

Yaxel Lendeborg used to be a jackass. But he’s not anymore. No more glass houses, white Ferraris, living for New Year’s Eve, slacking off in practice, sleeping during film sessions, horsing around in draft interviews, or sloppy steaks at Truffoni’s!

People can change.

Jamir Watkins will likely miss the 2026-27 season after surgery Thursday to fix a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his left, according to media reports.

Watkins, the Wizards second round pick in 2025, is signed to a two-way contract and would probably have shuttled between the Wizards and the Capital City Go-Go depending on team needs. The 25-year-old wing injured the knee during team’s summer league game against the Utah Jazz when he appeared to slip and immediately grabbed his knee.

Watkins returned to that game and totaled 20 minutes before missing the rest of summer league.

It’s theoretically possible he could be back on the floor this season — athletes are returning to action in 6-9 months, though sports medicine experts indicate it can take a full year to regain full strength.

The technical term for this news: it sucks. While Watkins didn’t figure to be a major part of the team’s rotation this season, he’s a quality defender and blast of energy every time he steps on the court.

Hopefully he’ll be able to work on his shooting during the rehabilitation period.

Watkins, by the way, had a decent rookie season for a second rounder. His 63 PPA wasn’t great (in PPA, average is 100 and higher is better), but he held his own over 1,032 NBA minutes last season. And that PPA score was the team’s best score among rookies — Tre Johnson scored a 61, and Will Riley 57.

Strengths for Watkins last season include disruptive defense and rebounding. He was above average in steals and blocks per possession, and the team was routinely bad (as opposed to historically bad) on defense when he was out there. And, the 6-6 wing averaged 9.0 boards per 100 possessions, slightly better than league average for all positions.

To earn a bigger role when he returns from injury, Watkins will need to shoot better (just 29.7% on threes last season) and foul less (6.0 fouls per 100 possessions).