Category: Basketball

As President of Basketball Operations for the Boston Celtics, Brad Stevens has spent years building up a healthy trust bank.

The Derrick White trade was a hefty deposit. Kristaps Porziņģis for Marcus Smart? Ouch, but ultimately, cha-ching. Jrue Holiday was maybe the biggest down payment in recent memory, one that also led directly to Banner 18. Even the smaller moves over the years helped drive up the balance, one smart decision at a time, hitting singles until “In Brad We Trust” became less of a slogan and more of a reflex.

A strange move would happen, and eventually it made sense.

A painful move would happen, and eventually the gains outweighed the pain.

Something would feel uncomfortable, and the Celtics would usually end up better for it.

That is how trust works. You do enough smart things over enough time, and people start lending you patience they would not give to others.

Then, Stevens traded Jaylen Brown to the Philadelphia 76ers for Paul George, two first-round picks and two second-round picks.

I’m still trying to find a reasonable way to process that sentence, but every time I look at it, my brain makes the same dial-up internet sound. Jaylen Brown. To Philadelphia. For Paul George and a handful of picks.

This was not some routine withdrawal from the trust bank.

This was Brad walking into the lobby wearing a ski mask, handing the teller a note that said “I can explain,” and sprinting out with a duffel bag full of every ounce of goodwill he had been methodically building up over years.

Fans deserve to know what, why, and how this just happened.

The first read is ugly

For starters, this is not a “Fire Brad Stevens” column. That feels too simple, and frankly, too soon.

Stevens has earned more than that. Since he was handed the keys in 2021, he was able to build a champion and turn a roster that needed something different into one that could actually finish the job. If anyone in Boston has earned a minute to explain the part of the plan we can’t see yet, it’s probably him.

The problem is that the surface read of this trade is undeniably brutal.

Boston didn’t get younger. Brown is 29. George is 36.

Boston didn’t get better in any obvious way. Brown just averaged 28.7 points, 6.9 rebounds and 5.1 assists while carrying a heavier load than anyone expected after Jayson Tatum’s Achilles injury. He led a team projected by many to take a step back to 56 wins and finished sixth in MVP voting. George averaged 17.3 points and 5.3 rebounds last season, and played 37 games. Yes, he had his moments in the playoffs, primarily at the Celtics’ expense, but he’s not Jaylen Brown.

Boston didn’t get that much cheaper. The Celtics saved just $2.9 million this season, which feels equivalent to finding a twenty in your jeans. Nice? Sure. Franchise-altering? Please. George will make $54.1 million next season and has a $56.6 million player option for the year after that. Brown’s contract ran longer and carried bigger long-term implications, but this was not a clean financial reset where the Celtics suddenly opened the windows and let the fresh cap space breeze roll in.

Then there are the picks.

Two firsts and two seconds aren’t nothing. The unprotected 2031 Philadelphia first could be enormous if the Sixers eventually Sixer themselves into the sun, which history suggests should at least remain on the table. The 2028 pick situation has upside too, especially with the Clippers involved. Future draft capital gives Stevens more avenues, and Adam Himmelsbach reported that the Celtics still intend to build around Tatum.

Earlier on the same day Brown was traded, the Jazz reportedly got two unprotected firsts and two swaps from the Lakers for Walker Kessler. I like Walker Kessler. I would have talked myself into Walker Kessler in Boston in about two minutes. I also do not remember him winning Finals MVP or spending the last decade as one of the faces of a franchise.

That is where the confusion starts to curdle into anger.

You can understand why Boston may have wanted to move Brown’s money. You can see why his leaguewide market may have been more complicated than fans wanted to believe. You can even justify why Stevens might prefer George’s shorter contract, a couple of firsts and future flexibility over years of trying to thread the same expensive needle.

Understanding the ingredients does not mean the meal tastes good.

Right now, Celtics fans are staring at the plate like a waiter brought out lasagna with a scoop of mint chocolate chip ice cream on top. All things I like, but it may warrant a chef’s explanation. I would love to hear it. Until then, I’m not going to pretend this looks appetizing.

The unique pain of losing Jaylen Brown

The hardest part of this trade is that Brown was never only a contract, a market value, or an on-off debate waiting to be won by the loudest person on Twitter.

He was a Celtic in the way very few players get to be anymore.

Fans watched him get booed on draft night, then watched him grow from an athletic swingman with a questionable handle into one of the most decorated players in franchise history. They watched him become an All-Star, then an All-NBA player, then the Eastern Conference Finals MVP, then the NBA Finals MVP. They cheered him on as he locked up Luka Dončić in the Finals. They celebrated him as he helped deliver Banner 18. For almost a decade, Brown gave Boston deep playoff runs and real stakes nearly every spring.

Jaylen could also be maddening. Anyone who watched him dribble into traffic knows this. There were possessions where the ball seemed to turn into a live fish in his hands. The passing reads could come late. The advanced numbers have never fully known what to do with Brown, and honestly, neither have a lot of people watching him.

Still, he meant a lot to Boston.

That part feels obvious if you lived through the last 10 years of Celtics basketball instead of viewing Brown as a contract to move rather than a player who helped define the era. Brown was imperfect, expensive, complicated and deeply human. He was also one of the reasons this whole era felt worth believing in.

I keep thinking back to Game 7 against Philadelphia, which is probably a terrible idea for my mental health but here we are. Tatum was out. The Celtics were trying to hang onto a season that had already started slipping away. Brown showed up, blocked shots, attacked Embiid, scored through contact, and for a few minutes in the fourth quarter, it felt like he might drag everyone back from the edge by force.

They never got over the top. The season ended. Philadelphia won the series. A few months later, Boston sent Brown to go play for the team that just embarrassed them in the first round.

If the basketball gods wanted Celtics fans to be reasonable about this, sending Brown to Philadelphia of all places was a strange place to start.

Trading Smart hurt, but the return made sense quickly enough. Porziņģis changed the geometry of the team, Jrue did Jrue things, and Banner 18 gave the pain somewhere to go.

This feels different. There is no immediate emotional landing spot. George is not nothing, but he arrives as an older star with injury questions and a giant price tag attached to him. The picks are useful, but abstract. Flexibility is great in theory, though it has never hit the floor for a loose ball, guarded the other team’s best player, or stared down a hostile crowd in May.

Jaylen Brown did all of that.

So if the Celtics were going to move him, especially to Philadelphia, the explanation needed to be obvious enough for fans to hate it and still understand it.

We are not there yet.

Brad has to earn back the trust he just spent

There are reasonable basketball arguments buried somewhere inside this deal.

Brown’s contract was always going to make the next stage of team-building harder. The second apron was already squeezing the Celtics. Tatum’s recovery changed the timeline. Porziņģis, Holiday, Al Horford and Luke Kornet were already gone. If Boston looked at all of that and decided the cleanest version of the Jays era had already passed, that would be painful, but not impossible to understand.

The league may have viewed Brown differently than Boston fans did, too. His résumé says star, as does his production last season. His playoff history says winner. At the same time, the analytics conversation around him did not come from nowhere, and his contract was always going to make teams think twice. Add in the failed Giannis pursuit, the reported frustration and whatever the Celtics heard behind closed doors, and maybe his market was never going to match what he meant here.

Fine.

That can all be part of the story. It still is not a sufficient explanation.

In my article yesterday about the Celtics’ quiet start to free agency (take me back, I beg you), I wrote about the sign Stevens said he keeps above his desk. It reads, “What do you want? What’s true? And how do you get there?” At the time, it felt like the right framework for a quiet offseason. Brown’s future was unclear, the Celtics had not made the big move yet, and the rest of us were nervous but confident in Brad’s vision, despite having questions.

Now we have the first real answer.

The Celtics traded Jaylen Brown.

That tells us something, and yet not nearly enough.

The “what do you want?” part still seems simple enough. Boston wants to win with Tatum. Himmelsbach reported that the Celtics still intend to build around him, and the additions of Mitchell Robinson and Mike Conley Jr. point more toward reshaping than bottoming out. George, assuming health does not turn this whole thing into a Babe Ruth-esque curse, can still help a good team.

“What’s true?” is where it gets harder. Brown apparently never requested a trade, but had grown frustrated with how Boston handled the situation. Stevens had recently called him “a big part of us” while also refusing to predict the future. Celtics brass reportedly agonized over the decision before deciding George and the picks gave them their best path forward.

That is a lot of context. Still, it leaves fans waiting for the rest of the receipt.

Then comes the hardest part of Brad’s sign.

How do you get there?

If the answer starts with trading Jaylen Brown to Philadelphia, Stevens has to walk people through the rest of the plan. He does not need to reveal every private conversation or turn the front office into a group chat with the fanbase. That has never been his style, and it would be strange if he started now. But this trade is too big and too illogical for the usual silence.

Fans shouldn’t ask Stevens to apologize for running a front office. They just want him to explain why this was the move that had to happen, why this return was the best haul available, and why the franchise is better positioned now than it was before trading away one of the most important Celtics of this century.

I am open to the idea that there is a plan here. George may be healthier than the internet wants to believe. Those picks could become something bigger. The shorter money may matter more than we can see today. Maybe Stevens chose the least bad door in a hallway full of bad doors.

I can hold those possibilities in my head.

I can also look at this trade and think it makes very little sense from where I’m sitting.

That is why “In Brad We Trust” cannot be the whole argument anymore. Not after this.

Whatever trust Stevens had built up did not disappear completely, but it is hard to pretend there is much left sitting untouched. A vault that once felt packed to the brim now looks like it has a couple of loose pennies rolling around the floor, and Celtics fans are standing outside wondering how the guy who filled it up is the same guy who emptied it.

Maybe Stevens can earn that trust back. Maybe George stays healthy, the picks turn into players as good as Brown was, and the next move makes this one easier to stomach. But that is work he has to do now. The benefit of the doubt is no longer a lifetime pass.

He spent more trust than he ever has before.

The bank is still standing. The vault is open. The alarms are screaming.

Now Celtics fans deserve to know where the money went.

Paul George was traded again on Wednesday in a blockbuster deal that brought Jaylen Brown to the Sixers. It’s been widely panned from Boston’s side, with our own Ricky O’Donnell noting that the Celtics have taken a step away from contention by taking on one of the worst contracts in the NBA, and losing a superstar in the process.

The trade means that George will have suited up for five teams, with three massive trades centered around the three-level scorer. Now that the Celtics deal is in the rearview mirror, we can look back at these staggering deals to see everything that has been given up for PG-13 over the years.

George was traded from the Pacers to the Thunder in 2017 for Victor Oladipo, who seemed destined to become a star — and Domantas Sabonis, who Oklahoma City took with the No. 11 pick the year prior. This was the smallest haul for George, but represented two young talents that were supposed to be cornerstones of the Pacers for years to come.

Next up was the mammoth trade to the Los Angeles Clippers in 2019, when the Clips were trying to build a big-two contender with Kawhi Leonard and George as the centerpieces. The NBA-shaping deal sent Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Danilo Gallinari, FIVE first-round picks, and two pick swaps from L.A. to OKC.

George declined his player option with the Clippers in 2024, and signed a max-deal with the Sixers.

That brings us to Wednesday, when the 76ers traded George to the Celtics for Jaylen Brown, as well as a 2028 1st round pick/swap (whichever is more favorable), and two second-round picks. Brace yourselves for everything that Paul George has become over the years, because it’s WILD.

• Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
• Jaylen Brown
• Jalen Williams (2022 draft pick)
• Cason Wallace (2021 draft pick)
• Domantas Sabonis
• Nikola Topić (2024 draft pick)
• Tre Mann (2021 draft pick)
• Thomas Sorber (2025 draft pick swap)
• Aday Mara (2026 draft pick swap)
• Victor Oladipo
• Danilo Gallinari

Oh, and OKC still has one more 1st-rounder coming in 2027. So, you could either have Paul George, or literally everything needed to build an NBA franchise.

Jaylen Brown bids farewell to Boston in heartfelt social media post originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

Jaylen Brown has spoken.

On Thursday, one day after being traded to the Philadelphia 76ers, the former Boston Celtics superstar took to social media with an official goodbye to the city he has called home for the last 10 years.

Read the full statement below:

First and foremost, thank you to the most high, even in the midst of adversity. I’m here with gratitude

I”m still processing how this all went down. I’m excited and disappointed at the same time. I earned my respect from this city. I never asked for shortcuts or special treatment. I simply showed up every day, put my head down, and accepted every challenge.

The relationships I built here, the battles we fought together, the championship we brought to this city, and the connection I shared with the fans, I’ll carry on with me.

Saying goodbye isn’t easy when you’ve invested your heart into something.

I’m big on respect and actions speak louder than words. To the people of Boston, thank you. To the community I built here I love you, and to the shiftaz we are locked in for life.

As one chapter closes, another begins.

I’m excited for what’s ahead and grateful for the opportunity to join Philadelphia. Every city has its own identity, its own passion, and its own expectation. I respect that, and I’m looking forward to earning that respect the only way I know how – through the work.

PHILLY #THROWTHEBALLUP LET’S GET IT!

The Celtics selected Brown with the third overall pick in the 2016 NBA Draft. The 29-year-old developed into an All-NBA talent alongside co-star Jayson Tatum, leading Boston to six Eastern Conference Finals appearances, two NBA Finals berths, and one championship. He was named MVP of the 2024 East Finals vs. the Indiana Pacers and the NBA Finals against the Dallas Mavericks.

In this year’s playoffs, the Sixers erased a 3-1 series deficit to defeat Brown and the Celtics in the first round. Now, Philly will include Brown in a loaded projected starting lineup that also features Tyrese Maxey, VJ Edgecombe, Dean Wade, and Joel Embiid.

Boston received Paul George, two first-round picks, and two second-rounders from Philly in exchange for Brown.

I have this thing happening to me. Every day I go to bed, and without fail, I always find myself waking up at around 4:30 to 5 a.m. Funny thing is, the stuff tends to work in waves; sometimes it disappears and stays that way for a month and I sleep uninterrupted nightly, then it might come back for a week, or two, or eight, or whatever. Must be about aging. Whatever.

I woke up earlier today and checked the time exactly at 5:00 am. There was a notification on the phone; it was Russell Richardson in the P&T Slack letting us boys know about the infamous Jaylen Brown trade.

I checked it, was surprised, couldn’t really believe it, but that was it. Turned to the other side of the bed to try and catch some more sleep till the alarm sounded around an hour later, fully knowing my destiny was not to earn a single extra second of unconscious rest. It’s always the same.

With all of our crew sleeping overseas, I tasked myself with covering the trade in the early morning here in Spain after reading a bunch about it to get the full picture of it. You can read about in my earlier post linked above. And if you read that little story, you know I cut it short of where I wanted it to go because I have to admit I was going to go overboard. Hence, this new (Part II?) post.

With the near-factual feeling across the NBA world regarding how unexpected and ridiculous and hilarious and nonsensical (so much so Brad Stevens extinguished his Instagram account) Boston’s decision to flip Brown — coming off his best NBA season — for a 36-year-old human and four dubious draft picks, it just hit me that while this was ludicrous, the truth is that we’ve been watching similar stuff unfold in front of our eyes for a full week and change.

So consider this post your “how does Brown’s deal affect the Knicks?” silly breakdown, only expanded to the full Eastern Conference and linked to the beaten-to-death concept of parity.

Too much has been written and said about the new NBA Parity Era. And hey, it might be true, because there have been eight different champions in eight consecutive years — including your reigning, defending, undisputed NBA Champions of the World, the New York Knicks. But also, hey, it might be just the damn whole lot of roster-building randomness the NBA is dealing with these days, isn’t it?

After nine days of offseason transactions, from the draft to the first two days of free agency, the Knicks are the only team that can claim to have something no other team in the Eastern Conference can confidently say: ridiculous continuity. Yes, New York has lost Mitchell Robinson (RIP) and has a bench featuring a whole lot of guards, one unproven forward, and… no centers at all. As I type this, pending further moves, it’s a reason for concern.

But the East, simply put, is utterly unrecognizable these days. You don’t need to come out of a ten-, five-, or two-year-long coma to spot the differences. Just a little week-long trip to a hospital without Wi-Fi could have your head spinning as you read this.

• Miami landed Giannis Antetokounmpo but lost Norman Powell and a bunch of rotation players.
• The Hornets followed by sending their two best players away in LaMelo Ball and Miles Bridges to the Western Conference, taking a step back and looking forward to a brighter future.
• Philadelphia answered the Heat’s blockbuster by acquiring Brown in the most shocking trade since Luka Doncic went to LA.
• Toronto brought Kawhi Leonard back, but sent two starters in Brandon Ingram and Grady Dick the other way.
• The Pistons have lost J Cole and could whiff on bringing Jalen Duren back, although even if they do, they are just going nowhere, so don’t worry.
• Indiana flew under the radar and was awful last season, but they will have Tyrese Haliburton back and nearly all of the roster that graced the 2025 NBA Finals.
• Cleveland is perhaps the closest to the Knicks in terms of staying the same, only they might have the biggest FA signing of the year coming their way in LeBron James.
• Atlanta, Orlando, and Chicago mostly stood pat but they don’t scare anybody.
• You already know Washington is my dark horse for ECF, but all they did was luck into the No. 1 pick.
• Then there’s the Nets.

In four words, it’s all a mess. That said…

Miami still needs to build half of its roster with pocket money. Philadelphia has one of the highest ceilings in the conference, but Joel Embiid’s health won’t hold, and we’ll see how the Maxey-Edgecome-Brown trifecta meshes. Toronto looks better defensively, but again, the chem might not be there for them to contend. Boston will be kinda good anyway, but they will lack the ultimate punch come killing time. The 2025 Pacers were a mirage. Cleveland is Cleveland. And the Pistons are the biggest lie in recent history.

The Knicks enter the season knowing exactly who they are. That doesn’t guarantee another trip to the Finals, but it’s a much better place to be than trying to build chemistry around another blockbuster trade coming off a championship.

But again, when it comes to parity, and while the reigning champs are the one team keeping the core together and running it back for the most part, it’s just impossible to bet on them against the field for the 2027 NBA title, given how much the league has changed in a matter of days. How can you expect any consistency when one whole damn conference has changed entirely, and the other one has done the same, as this business is a zero-sum game?

• If you don’t recognize the LA Lakers roster above, you’re not alone. It’s the same story out West. Los Angeles parlayed LeBron’s departure into literally $450 million, all of them spent in a 15-minute flurry of moves.
• The Timberwolves are putting all their money in a fun LaMelo-Ant backcourt that might equally win games or force Minny’s fans out of the arena out of frustration.
• The Blazers don’t have money for their coach or their G League team, but they just traded for Ja Morant.
• Phoenix is now linked to an awful person forever.
• The Clippers are back to where they belong in Los Angeles sports lore.
• Golden State might soon lose the G from its name.

Shouts out to the Thunder and the Spurs — even though they’ve made a few moves — for nearly keeping their squads together, barring blatant dumpings and hiring a rapper.

So with all of the above written, how does the NBA or any fan out there expect anything else than “parity” or, better said, just plain dumb randomness? Who can really predict the outcome of a system whose variables change massively from one iteration to the next?

And again, even if the same suspects and longest-running teams will always at least be considered to be in the picture once again—your Knicks, Spurs, Thunder—there is nothing you can really do if you’re dealing with 15 different, new teams every year. As Knicks fans, we know it from the inside. New York slowly started to put together a team to beat the Celtics (which they did a year ago), but ultimately didn’t even meet Boston on their way to the title, and now the C’s look nothing like they did in 2024.

The Wolves appeared to be locked into building a tank to stop the Nikola Jokic Nuggets (which they achieved), only now they have flipped their roster entirely, while Denver remains nearly the same. Get back in time, and you’d find the Rockets attempting to build the anti-KD-GSW machine, only for Durant to bolt out after the 2019 title. The Big 3 Celtics (for the young lads, the ones featuring Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, and Ray Allen) were built for countering LeBron James before he even moved out of Cleveland to form his own Voltron in Miami.

Who’s to say how the Eastern Conference picture will look come April? If you ask me this very minute (I have scheduled this story to publish five hours from now, who knows how the picture will look by that time…), this might be it compared to how things were by June 15 (not a per-se standings table, just a perception).

Long story short, you can plan and make moves for the present, but as is the case with our brains and attention spans, rosters are so much in flux and long-term planning is shrinking into a yearly affair that it just doesn’t make any sense to think more than two springs ahead. You can keep your team together (good), but you can plan for chaos elsewhere. And even if you get better or worse, there are still a thousand pieces moving around and out of your control that can swing your position up or down in the table at a moment’s notice.

These days, the League looks like a snow globe in the hands of a wicked two-year-old with erratic hand-shaking tendencies.

Parity, randomness… who cares? It will all have changed again before you close this page.

In order to understand the Jaylen Brown trade, its associated outrage, the mass confusion about how little Boston got back and the surrounding circus about how good Jaylen Brown may or may not be, we need to talk about another (in)famous trade. 

On Wednesday, the Celtics sent Brown to the Philadelphia 76ers for Paul George and two future first-round picks. That is shockingly little for an All-NBA, Finals MVP and borderline face-of-the-franchise level player not even in his 30s. But before we talk about Brown, George, the Celtics, the 76ers, Brad Stevens, Bill Chisholm, any of them, we need to talk about, you guessed it, Luka Doncic. 

After the Luka trade, there were a lot of takes. Most of them the same (“this is the worst trade in NBA history”), though some of them were stupid or just intentionally clickbaity (“the Mavericks won the trade”). But the best one, by far, was the nuanced counterpoint, made memorably (to me at least) by Chuck Klosterman. Loosely paraphrased: If you thought that that trade meant you could win the NBA Finals this year, then you can rationalize it. It’s not necessarily a correct diagnosis of your situation, but it would be a rational decision.

That is, to date, the only contrarian opinion on the Luka trade that I felt actually was fair to the parties involved. Every other formulation of “the Mavericks were going nowhere with Luka” or “defense wins championships” was either in bad faith or simply naive. But the view that treated Nico Harrison and the Mavericks as rational actors rather than visionaries or idiots was my favorite. 

The same may, eventually, be true for the Jaylen Brown trade: the return did not line up with his reputation, no, but it is likely that the Celtics made a rational decision based on their evaluation of the player and the market. And while the return is disappointing, arguably shocking, for Celtics fans (myself included), the trade should not be treated as patently insane. 

There are three possible explanations for why Boston pulled the trigger on such a flabbergasting lowball return: first, that Brown had demanded a trade and the two sides’ relationship had soured beyond the point of no return. This story has been repeatedly debunked by those with information from inside the Celtics organization. Second, that new owner Bill Chisholm is cost-cutting in order to make the team more profitable for his private equity partners. And while the influence of private equity in sports is a fascinating tale to tell, this version of events is an unnecessary and unlikely conspiracy theory; Boston offered Brown for Giannis Antetokounmpo, a player they would have immediately signed to an extension that would have exceeded the remaining value on Brown’s deal. Total team cost is not the reason.

That leaves reason number three, essentially the only one that makes any sense if we’re trying to be rational: the Celtics and Brad Stevens had decided, at some point in the past year, that it was impossible to win another championship paying Jaylen Brown a supermax contract. 

As was a topic of serious discussion on social media this week, Brown’s advanced metrics suggest he is an inefficient player whose team actually performs better when he is off the court. And while this is an impossibly prickly debate to wade into, let’s just skip the wading, put on a hazmat suit and cannonball in.

Jaylen Brown has been a winning player in his career. The Celtics have won an absurd number of games this decade. He was instrumental to their run to win the 2024 NBA Championship, and will perhaps be the last man ever to wear number seven in Boston. He has also been a frustrating player to watch and to root for. His persistent issues with clumsy dribbling seemed to create problems for the Celtics out of thin air. His free throw shooting, which majorly improved the last two seasons, is still below 75 percent for his career. But he has declined as a three-point shooter and has never been especially efficient from the floor. None of that is contradictory; Brown is incredibly talented and has been very successful — he is also not Jayson Tatum, the Celtics’ utterly non-negotiable cornerstone, nor are the two on the same level. 

Delusions that Tatum and Brown were somehow 1A and 1B (or even equals) rather than the clear number one and number two that they actually are, have pervaded Celtics circles since I was a small child. These delusions are what led to the most vitriolic outrage from Celtics Land on Wednesday, but there is no doubt that Brown is a better player than what he was traded for; George is an aging, injury-prone wing with a similarly expensive albeit shorter contract. Even if Boston had long decided to deal Brown, why the Celtics decided to make this move now rather than wait for something better is perplexing. But it is also possible nothing better would ever become available; without a full understanding of the market, we can’t be sure.

Tatum is a supermax player, and he will remain as such for the Celtics into the future. Most likely, the Celtics front office concluded that Brown’s supermax contract made it impossible for them to realistically compete in the next three years. Yes, they won a title with both Tatum and Brown, but that was before they were both on mega-deals and with a once-in-a-generation superteam Boston quickly became unable to pay. It is not feasible for the Celtics to put that kind of talent around Tatum and Brown ever again.  

That meant trading Brown was rational, something I have repeatedly stated on various internet publishing platforms since what feels like the dawn of time but is actually just, like, last May. And even though Brown is an excellent basketball player, the contract appears to have prohibited any real market from emerging. Even I underestimated how little the Celtics and the rest of the NBA thought of Brown as an asset. 

Boston did not wind up with Antetokounmpo because the Milwaukee Bucks did not see a team built around Jaylen Brown as a viable path to contention, now or in the future. Nor did the rest of the NBA, as Brown will now be second or third option on the 76ers behind Tyrese Maxey and maybe Joel Embiid. His reputation was, and should continue to be, far greater than what the Celtics got in return. But the simple reality that he makes too much money for what he actually contributes is probably the straw that broke the camel’s back.

There may be another straw. We will probably get some kind of now-they-tell-us feature story that describes how the front office slowly became disenchanted with Brown and how their relationship frayed. There may be some organizational policy that is not public information, but I will not speculate. And you can read all about why the George-plus-two-picks deal is so lopsided for Philadelphia here by the meritorious Ricky O’Donnell. I’m not here to tell you it’s a good deal.

I’m just here to say that it is, for the most part, a rational decision. We may be tempted to think that teams and players are two individuals, relating on an even playing field with emotions and attachment and associated respect. But teams are not individuals; they are groups, with complex interests and longer-term priorities. Whatever “responsibilities” they have to certain players, fans or to a city often break at the stone of cold logic. It’s not pretty, but trading Jaylen Brown for a pittance may still have been the best, or only, path forward. This is not the Luka trade, which had no bidding war. This trade was the result of the bidding war, and probably reflected his actual market value.

In the end, Brown’s contract may just be too expensive. Paying for past performance is the recipe for NBA disaster, especially in the most restrictive financial ecosystem the league has ever had. It is a bold statement, one I’m not necessarily sure I would make myself, but if Boston had truly decided that Brown was blocking their ability to build a winning team, trading him for the best offer they had, however insultingly low, makes rational sense. 

Goodbye, Tobias Harris. You will certainly be missed. While Jalen Duren’s restricted free agency has sucked up most of the oxygen this offseason, and the rumor mill was stuffed full of potential trades for star players that are unlikely to come to fruition, when I have talked to people who really know the team well, the biggest topic of conversation has been Tobias.

Harris is a former Piston for the second time after agreeing to a two-year deal with the San Antonio Spurs. The writing was already on the wall earlier Wednesday when it was reported that the Pistons signed Harris’ replacement after agreeing to terms with free agent John Collins.

If you want to understand how important Harris has been in his second tenure with the Detroit Pistons, just look at the comments about him from Pistons fans and compare that to the vitriol directed his way from the fans of his previous team, the Philadelphia 76ers.

That was just a quick search. I can tell you from personal experience, the vitriol of Sixers fans that sought me out just so they could vent their frustrations about Harris, even after he’d left the team, was intense.

Compare that to how Pistons fans are reacting to Harris’ departure — a mix of real sadness and immense respect. I know I feel it.

It’s not just that Harris played well for Detroit during the last two seasons here; it is because Pistons fans always knew what Harris was, and more importantly, what he wasn’t. So did Harris. There were no outsized expectations. The contract was still big — the ridicule of a bad team like Detroit giving Harris more than $25 million a season was everywhere. Critics saw a washed player getting a bag from a desperate team. But he wasn’t washed, and the money was right even if it was a sizeable payday.

But it wasn’t $180 million big. It wasn’t star player big. It was the contract given to an iron man, a working professional, and someone who can be counted on game-in and game-out to give what they can.

The Pistons’ offense catered to his preference for a mix of catch-and-shoot opportunities and workmanlike backdown isos in the post. He was never asked to breakdown his defender or score 25-plus a night. He was asked to steady a ship that was only used to rocky seas and to be available when called upon.

Detroit had the big men and wings that meant Harris didn’t need to grab 10 boards, and they had a balanced offensive system that meant his 13 points per game were just fine.

He wasn’t here to do more than that. He was here to be the professional in the locker room. To show a young team what preparation and keeping your body right looked like in practice. He was “Unc” not because he was in his mid-30s surrounded by a rotation was mostly a decade younger.

It was because he was wise.

That is what Detroit is going to miss most. (That and a player who could reliably get his own shot with the shot clock running down).

As sad as it is, the good news is that what Harris helped build in Detroit will outlast him. I know many smart Pistons fans who are worried. Worried about the locker room. Worried about the professionalism.

But that foundation he helped lay will outlive his time in Detroit. The talent infusion over the past two years was vital. The ability to put Cade Cunningham in a modern basketball system was critical. However, I think the most important ingredient to the huge turnaround has been the culture of this team. You don’t go from 14 wins to 44 to 60 just because you finally have three-point shooters on your roster. You get there because you’ve instilled an unshakeable belief and focus on what it means to win.

Someone needed to show the Pistons the way, and that is all Tobias. Now the Pistons know. And it is on them to take the next step. There job is to always remember the lessons “Unc” taught them and carry them forward as the talent gets deeper and the playoff runs get longer.

Thanks, Tobias. The Pistons wouldn’t be the Pistons without you.

Sixers president of basketball operations Mike Gansey didn’t take long to make a big splash, huh? On Wednesday, he agreed to trade Paul George, two first-round picks and two second-round picks to the Boston Celtics for Jaylen Brown, according to multiple reports.

That blockbuster deal explains why the Sixers weren’t willing to top the two-year, roughly $17 million deal that Kelly Oubre Jr. agreed to with the Indiana Pacers.

The Sixers hard-capped themselves at the $209 million first apron by spending a portion of their non-taxpayer mid-level exception on Dean Wade on Tuesday night. That means their payroll cannot exceed that threshold from now through June 30, 2027.

After adding Ariel Hukporti on a reported one-year, $3.4 million deal, flipping George for Brown and agreeing to a two-year, $12.3 million contract with Anfernee Simons, here’s a rough estimate as to where the Sixers stand financially.

The Sixers appear to be splitting the full non-taxpayer mid-level exception between Wade and Simons, while Hukporti’s deal will likely come out of the bi-annual exception.

Agent inflation is common at this time of year, so it wouldn’t be surprising if Wade, Simons and/or Hukporti’s final contract terms come in slightly below what’s been reported. But if the reported terms are correct, the Sixers are now roughly $5.2 million above the $200.4 million luxury-tax threshold and $3.4 million below the first apron.

Remember, they cannot cross the first apron under any circumstance between now and June 30, 2027. That means they can’t offer any free agent—yes, even LeBron James—more than a minimum contract without shedding salary elsewhere first.

That cap picture is still fairly fluid, though. Dalen Terry’s $2.6 million contract is fully non-guaranteed until Jan. 10, and given the hard-cap issues that the Sixers are in danger of running into, it wouldn’t be surprising if they waive him. They could bring him back on a minimum contract and save $135,000.

Adem Bona’s $2.3 million contract is also non-guaranteed until July 7, although there’s no financial incentive for the Sixers to waive him. His salary is about $150,000 less than a standard veteran-minimum deal, so it would behoove the Sixers financially to keep him around this year.

Jabari Walker is the wild card. Like Terry, he’s set to earn $2.6 million this season. Only $250,000 of his contract is guaranteed through Jan. 10, but waiving him and signing a player to a minimum contract in his place would cost about $115,000 more than just keeping him around.

All of that might sound relatively inconsequential when we’re talking about a $200-plus million budget, but teams have gotten aggressive about pushing boundaries with their hard caps. The reigning champion New York Knicks finished less than $240,000 below their second-apron hard cap this past season, while the Los Angeles Lakers were less than $620,000 below their first-apron hard cap. In 2024-25, the Knicks finished exactly $53,349 below their second-apron hard cap.

The Sixers could always choose to leave one roster spot open heading into the season as an homage to former team president Daryl Morey as a way to save a few bucks. Veteran-minimum contracts begin to prorate downward on a daily basis once the regular season begins, so they could look to sign someone midseason and save more than $1 million that way.

Either way, the Sixers are now poised to enter the season well over the luxury-tax line. If they do sign a 15th player to a minimum contract this offseason, they’ll project to be roughly $1 million below the first apron, although that could change slightly depending on what they decide to do with Terry, Walker and Bona.

The Sixers are just about out of spending power, but could they have one more surprise up their sleeve? Based on how Gansey has gotten his Sixers tenure started, we can’t rule anything out at this point.

Unless otherwise noted, all stats via NBA.com, PBPStats, Cleaning the Glass or Basketball Reference. All salary information via Spotrac and salary-cap information via RealGM.

Follow Bryan on Bluesky.

The Knicks already took their first steps toward repeating the success of their 2026 championship, locking up their bench backcourt to new deals. Unfortunately, they lost a key ingredient to their run as well, with Mitchell Robinson heading to Boston for three years and $47.4 million.

This was a contract value the front office couldn’t match without going into the second apron, a hard line for this offseason. 

With Robinson gone, the Knicks need to fill the hole left at their center position — here are some ways they can do it:

Kevon Looney

Looney is an unrestricted free agent after playing only 21 games for New Orleans last season. He has championship mettle from his 10 years in Golden State, including time spent under Knicks head coach Mike Brown.

He’s a bit undersized at 6-foot-9 and is now 30 years old, but is a smart defender and offensive rebounder who sets good screens and can make a couple plays in the halfcourt offense. He won’t wholly replace Robinson -- no bench big can -- but he’d be a solid veteran pickup who can easily slide to third string if a better option rises up.

Nick Richards

Richards is a free agent who’s closer to the Robinson mold at 6-foot-11 and sporting strong athleticism and rim-running. He’s only 28 and is a New York local who averaged 9.4 points and 7.6 rebounds on 52.3 percent shooting from the field in his last 20 games with Chicago last season.

The Bulls were his third team in two seasons after the Hornets and Suns both traded him. That's not a shining endorsement, but the right structure could help him find his footing. He’s been linked to the Knicks in the past so it wouldn’t be surprising if they came back around to seal the deal this time. 

Andre Drummond

Drummond is a veteran of 14 seasons, spending his last two in Philadelphia having to play almost 20 minutes per game as Joel Embiid’s backup and stand-in. He would be comfortable in a potential role in New York behind Karl-Anthony Towns and bring high-level offensive rebounding, plus a newly developed three-point shot to the table. 

His defense isn’t great and he’ll be 33 before the start of next season, but Drummond combined with one of the names above or below could help strengthen New York's frontcourt depth. 

Moussa Diabate

This will depend on Charlotte and New York’s appetite for a trade, but a salary match of Miles McBride or a couple of the Knicks prospects could net them a young promising big via the trade market. The Hornets may play ball given they also employ Ryan Kalkbrenner, Naz Reid and newly drafted Hannes Steinbach. 

New York would net a freakish athlete at just 24 years old who averaged 7.9 points and 8.7 rebounds on 63.1 percent shooting in 73 games and 47 starts last season. They’d have to pay him after this season, which could be a risk, but if possible this is their highest upside means of filling the role. 

Drew Eubanks

Not the hottest name, Eubanks has spent the last five seasons on six different squads, culminating in a quiet season in Sacramento. He’s not the strongest rebounder but can defend and finish nicely, bringing toughness to the frontline. 

Eubanks hasn’t been brought up as much as these other names, but could be as effective if not more in making up for some of Robinson’s lost production. 

I’m going to preface this with the following:

There’s a good chance that you are a Knicks fan reading this. A good portion will naturally see this and immediately go to the comments and say how much you don’t want this to happen. That is fine. I am not fully advocating for it either.

Weighing the pros and cons of LeBron James as a Knick in 2026 is a legitimate thought exercise that we’d be able to do if it was something that felt near-inevitable, rather than a fun thought.

So consider this a pitch, rather, to the 41-year-old future Hall of Famer on why he should want to be here. Whether the front office wants him or not is a story for another time.

So, Mr. James, if anyone in your circle just happened to see this article, let me state our case.

The video above is from well-known unlicensed sports investigator Pablo Torre, who’s found a lot of interesting stuff in and around the NBA over the past few years.

There’s been funny stuff, like what you see above with the unearthed 2010 pitch to a much younger LeBron that was ultimately regarded as historically bad (thanks, Jim). There’s also been super serious stuff, like the Clippers’ Aspiration scandal and Dolan’s weird surveillance thing to keep people he doesn’t like out of MSG.

However you feel about Torre, who also threatened to look into Jalen Brunson’s pay cut last year before finding absolutely nothing, he gave us an absolute gem with that video being finally revealed. The centerpiece to the failed pursuit of one of the greatest players ever was able to be seen.

You know, I kinda get why he saw that and went to Miami.

Nevertheless, I’ll start the pitch here. Consider what you saw in that clip.

There’s so much here that shows the world of differences between the Knicks of then and the Knicks of now.

They relied on star power, past glory, and the allure of New York City to pitch him. They had all sorts of guys who would go on to be super problematic try to pitch him. Hell, they played a damn Jay-Z song at the beginning when he just got done pitching LeBron to join the Nets that same week.

It didn’t feel personalized, they even sent carbon copies to his buddies Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh, acting like they weren’t all going to say “Did you seriously get the exact same pitch that I did?”

All reports indicate that, with or without that video, the 2010 pitch was a disaster. Some of those reports, though, say that New York was actually an appealing place for LeBron, but the pitch and direction were so disastrously bad that he walked out and never came back.

Well, 16 years later, the only person in the entire organization who’s still here is… well, Dolan. But he’s mostly not involved with basketball operations, only getting involved when he says how much he’ll pay to keep a contender toge- moving along.

In 2010, the Knicks were a mess. They hadn’t won 40 games in a season since 2001. They were perennial bottom-feeders run by buffoons who gave bloated deals to Jerome James and traded their future for Eddy Curry. The fact that a good pitch with a promising vision could’ve been enough for a guy who, at the time, had never had a good supporting cast in his life is insane.

But now, as he nears the end of his career, the vision is clear. The Knicks are the reigning champions, regardless of what anyone wants to say about their players, what they won analytically, or whatever Wemby thinks about how the NBA Finals went.

For a guy who cares so much about his legacy, he will almost certainly be looking for a place where he can win his fifth championship before he rides off into the sunset. Well, going to a team returning all but one key piece of the most dominant playoff run in playoff history would be a good way to do that.

You know who LeBron’s first agent was? Leon Rose. When they split in 2012, it was with no ill will, just a separation of ways due to his good friend, Rich Paul, founding Klutch Sports. We don’t know if LeBron is still on good terms with his former agent 14 years later, but considering he’s the one who took him through the first Decision, I’m sure there are no issues.

He’d also be entering a situation with shockingly little pressure on him, if you can believe it. The biggest reason that any star might not have wanted to join the Knicks during the dark years was the victim complex that the franchise had become.

They needed someone to save them, but while you could be the knight in shining armor, you could also be the latest victim of the pit of alligators known as New York media pressure. Why do you think KD and Kyrie decided to go to the B-team across town that would never get as much coverage as whatever went on in Manhattan?

With the championship won and the need for a savior completely off the table, that victim complex is gone. If LeBron wants, he can hitch a ride to a very successful team as a complementary piece, rather than the knight in shining armor to save a destitute franchise.

Let’s talk roster construction.

The Knicks are operating under some very tight financial circumstances, so I would think only a veteran minimum is on the table, but that shouldn’t be an issue for a billionaire. If he wanted maximum money, he would’ve accepted his player option and requested a trade.

The Knicks, as constructed, are pretty deep everywhere but the center position. Adding LeBron into the mix would add yet another tool in Mike Brown’s toolbox.

At age 41, whatever team LeBron goes to will know he cannot be relied on for 82 games of high-end performance. It’s not 2018 (or 2012, or 2008, etc) anymore. This means that the deeper a team is, the easier it can stomach his bouts with Father Time creeping in and keeping him sidelined with whatever ailment he has.

The currently constructed Knicks are co-favorites to come out of the East, even without adding LeBron. With him? They’d be able to move Josh Hart to the bench and have ultimate flexibility at as many as four positions. Sporadic injuries wouldn’t hurt the rest of the team nearly as much.

When you want to go to a team to win a championship, you want to go somewhere that won’t collapse with one injury. While the Knicks are probably in that boat with Jalen Brunson and probably Karl-Anthony Towns, they’re well-equipped for absences for… anyone else.

Lastly, I want to pitch the personal aspect. It’s about righting wrongs, legacy, and personal objectives.

If Bill Simmons and multiple others are to be believed, LeBron wanted to play in New York when he hit free agency. The Knicks were just so wildly incompetent that a guy who had never been surrounded by a roster even capable of winning a title couldn’t see any path to winning one here.

In the years since, all he’s done is wax poetic about New York as a basketball city and the World’s Most Famous Arena. In 2018, when he faced his good pal Wade for the final time at Staples Center, he said that this game could’ve only happened “here or the Garden”.

He’s always admired the market, even if fate had never taken him to the bright lights of New York City. In another life, the Knicks could’ve been competently run, and he could’ve been the one to end the title drought as the savior everyone was begging for.

But now, as he reaches the end of his incredible career, he’s in a perfect spot to ride into the sunset playing for one of the league’s most iconic franchises, in the most famous arena in the world, and completing a dream he’s seemed to have for a long time now, all without the pressure of being the “savior” and being able to just be a complimentary piece on the reigning NBA champions.

The ball’s in your court, King. Follow your heart.

Following a playoff performance that, it is fair to say, was pretty disappointing after finishing atop the Eastern Conference in the regular season, the Detroit Pistons clearly set out this offseason to rectify the main issue that prevented them from thriving in the playoffs: half-court offence (and lack of shooting in general). Put simply, they needed another guard who can get buckets at a high level to take some weight off Cade Cunningham.

Per reporting from a range of credible insiders, the Pistons pursued Austin Reaves as their top priority in free agency, who re-signed in LA on a max deal. They then turned their attention to Coby White, who swiftly re-upped on a deal with the Hornets following the LaMelo Ball blockbuster trade to Minnesota. Detroit was also rumoured to be interested in Norman Powell, who just inked a deal with the Bulls. See where I’m going with this?

As these names who can credibly help the Pistons continue to decrease, Tyler Herro’s value as a trade chip for the Bucks increases. You know, supply and demand. It’s worth noting that Detroit has remained interested in Herro since the Bucks acquired him, per reports, but, for a range of reasons, I could see why he wouldn’t have been their first priority. It’s not as if Herro is some sad consolation prize, though; I mean, he’s an All-Star! Say what you want about his defensive shortcomings or availability issues, but you can’t deny that he fits that team like a glove.

Herro commands attention all over the court. His gravity as a shooter—both off the catch and off the dribble—means primary defenders must guard him closely, and secondary defenders must be be right there once the primary gets beaten. Don’t get me wrong, he’s no Dame or Steph in terms of gravity, but he’s got the ability to hurt you in similar ways. Conceptually, the tandem of Herro and Cunningham playing off each other seems as if it would work brilliantly, while both can command units when the other is on the bench.

And then you get to the other end, where the fit makes even more sense. The main issue Miami had with Herro was that they felt they couldn’t play him alongside another poor defender, which limited lineup flexibility. But in Motown, Herro would be insulated by uber-talented defenders in Ausar Thompson and Jalen Duren (who I am assuming ends up back on the team). Cade is not some plus defender, but he’s passable and has size. John Collins, whom they just signed, is solid on that end too.

As for why Milwaukee wouldn’t keep Herro, the main issue is that he feels like the wrong player to invest in at this point in their journey. If he were 22 years old, maybe, but at 26, is he really the guy you want to spearhead your rebuild and pay a massive contract after this season? To me, he feels much more like a finishing piece to add to a team that needs what he can provide than he does a cornerstone for a franchise in the opening years of a rebuild. That said, it’s not like I’d throw a fit if Jon Horst wasn’t happy with the offers and wanted to keep a hometown guy who can sell tickets.

The fit is good in Detroit, and I think Trajan Langdon knows it. Now they just have to come and get him.

I’m not going to even try to re-litigate the particulars of this trade (yet). There are other posts on this blog and all over the internet explaining just how bad a trade the Boston Celtics made yesterday. Until we get the silver bullet “now they tell us” reasons for what happened, we’re just not going to know.

What I’m more concerned for is each of you. The real, diehard, bleeding green forever fans of this team. The Jaylen Brown trade immediately goes down as one of the worst I can think of, even across sports. I’m not as big a fan of the Red Sox as I used to be, and part of the reason I stopped caring was the Mookie Betts trade. This deal has that kind of impact potential.

I’ll speak for myself first. I’ve been walking around in stunned silence for so long that my wife is concerned about me. Internally I’m ping ponging through the stages of grief, mostly bouncing between anger and sadness. I haven’t started sobbing “Minnie Driver in Good Will Hunting” style, but I’m not ruling it out. I’ve even started questioning myself and my ability to understand basketball. Maybe I’m really just dumb and Jaylen Brown isn’t as good as I think he is. Clearly the market wasn’t what I thought it was, so at a minimum I misjudged that.

Or perhaps I’m way too invested in a silly kids game played by millionaires who are paid by billionaires using our money. That’s been true for decades and I don’t really see it changing. But enough about me.

Every one of you is unique and interacts with sports and the Celtics differently. You are all going to process this in your own way. Anger, sadness, confusion, denial, resignation, and a myriad of other emotions are expected. Some will say that this is all overreacting, and I understand the perspective, but I disagree. I would venture to guess that most of the people reading this post have invested time, money, passion, and love into this team. So witnessing a trade like this one for as little as they got back is traumatic. Not nearly on the scale of losing a loved one, but there can be minor echoes of that sort of feeling.

So I want this blog to be a safe place to work through all those emotions. That means if you are someone who copes by lashing out at people, please, please resist the urge. There are a lot of fragile human beings searching for answers, so try to follow my golden rule on here: Respect others by treating them the way you would like to be treated. I generally try to go the other way. Reach out to people that are struggling with this. Help them through their own emotions. You’ll find a funny thing happen when you do that. It becomes cathartic to you to help someone else and you actually end up helping yourself as well. Give it a shot.

We’ll get back to the basketball stuff soon enough. Just try to be excellent to one another. God bless.

The Los Angeles Lakers are all-in on chasing the NBA championship around Luka Doncic for the next two years. The Lakers went on a wild free agent spending spree on Wednesday to sign Walker Kessler, Sandro Mamukelashvili, Quentin Grimes, and Collin Sexton. There’s still plenty of time left in the offseason, but it feels like the Lakers’ roster is 99 percent complete.

Trading for Kessler was the Lakers’ big splash, and it will go down as one of the boldest moves of the NBA summer. Top executive Rob Pelinka gave up the team’s unprotected first-round picks in 2031 and 2033, as well as pick swaps in 2028 and 2030, to acquire a strong defensive center with a long injury history. This will be the biggest trade of the Doncic era for Los Angeles: the Lakers now have no tradable first-round picks over the next seven years and have committed $475 million to Dončić, Austin Reaves, and Kessler.

The Lakers can talk themselves into having a championship ceiling now with the league having eight unique champions over the last eight seasons. The biggest thing any team needs to win a championship is a top-5 player in the world. The Lakers have one in Doncic, and that gives them a chance to raise another banner if everything goes right for them, and several things go wrong for their top adversaries.

Kessler holds the Lakers’ championship hopes on his shoulders. You know what you’re getting from Luka if he stays healthy: best-in-class scoring and playmaking; an offensive engine unlike anything else in the league. Reaves is a really good secondary scorer who can replicate the dribble-drive creation and outside shooting that Kyrie Irving once provided next to Luka on the Dallas Mavericks’ 2024 NBA Finals run. Doncic and Reaves are both weak defenders to put it mildly, and this team doesn’t have anyone who can replicate the wing defense that helped power the Knicks to a 2026 championship. That means the defense is all on Kessler, an elite rim protector and rebounder who suddenly has to deliver on 100 percent of his promise for the Lakers to accomplish anything meaningful.

NBA history is defined by dynasties, but there’s two big reasons why different teams keep winning the championship in this era. The first one is injuries: more pace and more space has led to added pressure on the players’ bodies, and that often causes them to break down. The Thunder might have repeated as champions if Jalen Williams and Ajay Mitchell stayed healthy. The Bucks might have gone back-to-back in 2021 and 2022 if Khris Middleton’s body didn’t falter. We’ll never know. The next part is the structure of the NBA’s current CBA. It’s harder to pay three superstars, because it kills your pathways to depth. The Lakers are now using one of the few three-star models in the league.

I’m not going to say the Lakers are automatically drawing dead next season for those reasons. Other teams could have injuries. So far, there are only three teams I would definitively rank ahead of the Lakers going into the 2026-2027 season right now.

• Oklahoma City Thunder
• San Antonio Spurs
• New York Knicks

That’s the NBA’s Tier 1 of championship contenders. To me, the Lakers are a Tier 2 title contender, which looks something like this:

• Los Angeles Lakers
• Minnesota Timberwolves
• Philadelphia 76ers
• Toronto Raptors

I would elevate the Lakers above the Denver Nuggets and Houston Rockets as currently constructed. We’ll see if either of those teams makes a significant move, or if they mostly just run it back next year. The Sixers just joined Tier 2 themselves on Wednesday pulling off a shocking buy-low trade for Jaylen Brown.

The wildcards are the Golden State Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers. One of them is probably getting LeBron James. What else are they doing? If the Warriors land James and Anthony Davis, I’d rank them ahead of the Lakers despite that roster being old as hell. I like the Warriors’ outlook without Davis, too, especially if Kristaps Porzingis can somehow stay healthy (again, it’s always injuries). The Cavs with LeBron look a half-step below the Lakers to me unless they do something else that moves the needle.

The offseason is long. Training camps don’t open until late September, and the season doesn’t start until late Oct. We’ve seen major deals go down on the brink of training camp the last few years, like the Knicks acquiring Karl-Anthony Towns and the Bucks trading for Damian Lillard. It could happen again.

For now, the Lakers are a Tier 2 championship contender in my mind with a tangible championship ceiling. I’d rank them no higher than No. 4 and no longer than No. 7 in the preseason power rankings right now. The reason I still crushed the Lakers in my Kessler trade grades is because I don’t really believe in their chance to reach their ceiling. I think there’s some terrifying downside here for LA if that happens. I do still believe in LA’s ceiling in a best case scenario, though

If the Lakers fall short of their ceiling the next two years? Well, Luka Doncic can be a free agent in 2028. Maybe a reunion in Dallas with Cooper Flagg is coming? The NBA always keeps you on your toes. The pressure is on now to make these moves count for the Lakers. It will be thrilling to watch them try.

It’s July now, which means we’re officially in a new NBA year. The 2026-27 season is on the horizon, and maybe this is the year I make some basketball resolutions. Think New Year’s resolutions, except they’re about being a better fan, a better writer, and somebody who absorbs the sport a little differently. I’ll do my best to adjust my attitude on a few things. One of those things? The NBA Cup.

I’ve had a hard time embracing it, especially after what happened last season. Sure, the Suns made the NBA Cup for the second time in three years, and their reward was a date with the Oklahoma City Thunder. The Thunder beat them by 50. As a bonus, they also got matched up with the team that lost on the other side of the Western Conference NBA Cup bracket, which happened to be the Lakers.

So, by playing well, they earned two games against superior opponents. What a prize. That’s fine, I guess. By the end of the season, though, I’m sure we’d all rather the Suns had a couple more wins in their pocket than an opportunity to be stress tested by elite teams in November. Two more wins and the Suns would’ve finished 49-33 and secured the sixth seed. The disease of what if, amiright?

But again, I’m going to try to put all of that aside. I’m going to try to embrace the NBA Cup, the corporate sponsorships, and those funky-looking courts.

Why do I bring all of this up now? Because the NBA Cup groups have been announced. Oh joy! Fantastic!!! We now know where the Phoenix Suns landed and who they’ll be playing. They’ve been assigned to West Group A alongside the Nuggets, Rockets, Mavericks, and Jazz.

NBA Cup group play begins on October 30 and runs through November 27. Every team will play the other teams in its group once, and the winner of each group, along with one wildcard team from each conference, will advance to the eight-team, single-elimination knockout round.

One thing is different this year. The quarterfinals and finals are getting a new home. After three years in Las Vegas, they’ll be played at Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. Shout out to Shams for tweeting it out right after free agency opened on Tuesday. While we’re all sitting around waiting for free agent news, he’s telling us NBA Cup news. (smile John…nod…don’t get upset…)

The NBA Cup has become something of a proving ground in recent years. Teams that have reached the finals have gone on to find success later in the season. Look at last year. The New York Knicks beat the San Antonio Spurs in the NBA Cup Final, then did it again in the NBA Finals.

Maybe that’s the angle I’ll take. Maybe you want to make the NBA Cup because it’s a preview of what’s to come later in the season! I’m trying…I’m trying.

The wait for LeBron James rolls on as NBA free agency continues today and the remainder of the NBA’s free agents search for their next team on Thursday, July 2.

James is weighing his options, with interest from at least a dozen teams, according to his agent. The NBA's all-time leading scorer and four-time MVP winner announced he would not return to the Los Angeles Lakers and play elsewhere earlier this week.

The biggest moves so far have been trades. Jaylen Brown was the latest NBA star to be dealt when the Boston Celtics traded him to the Philadelphia 76ers on Wednesday in a package featuring Paul George and draft picks. Giannis Antetokounmpo, Kawhi Leonard, Ja Morant and Walker Kessler are among the notable players to switch teams in recent days.

But there are still a few difference makers remaining on the third day since the NBA's free agency negotiating period began, and plenty of intriguing possibilities to monitor during an offseason that's already seen its share of drama.

USA TODAY Sports is tracking all of the latest news, signings, trades and rumors with NBA free agency in full gear. Here's what's happening around the league at this moment: