Category: Sports News

Mark Pope is attempting to pull off the unthinkable, a feat Mark Stoops never had a prayer of achieving. He’s turning Kentucky into a football school.

Seriously, after Kentucky lost to Georgia inside Rupp Arena on Feb. 17 for the first time since 2009, spring practice can’t get arrive quickly enough in the Bluegrass State.

OK, so one look at the Rupp environment tells you Big Blue Nation remains ravenous for hoops — and particularly hungry for a team that plays better than this one did in an 86-78 upset loss that serves as the latest rebuke of Pope’s second season.

John Calipari once made sure everyone, including Stoops, knew Kentucky is "a basketball school," and Georgia is a football school.

Well, that makes this weird, then.

March Sadness: College basketball's 10 most disappointing teams

Bracketology: Who is rising in latest March Madness predictions

Kentucky is unranked and not about to be ranked after a home loss to a bubble team.

“We feel like we got a beautiful Ferrari, and we can’t wait to take it for a spin,” Pope told reporters before the season.

Those mega millions bought a team that keeps stalling.

Here’s another edition of our Round(Ball) Table, where the Posting & Toasting crew convene to share our speculations, worries, and frustrations. With the All-Star weekend now behind us, it’s time to speculate about the remainder of the season.

With the New York Knicks sitting third behind the Detroit Pistons and Boston Celtics, what seed should they realistically target, and how hard should they push for No. 2?

Antonio Losada: No. 2, and not much. It’s going to be rather hard to overtake Detroit in the standings, and I don’t think it’s worth entering a war for the regular-season Eastern Conference crown. Let the Pistons win it, sit second, beat them in the playoffs. The Celtics, I don’t believe, will hold onto that No. 2 seed, and I think there’s nothing left to add about the Cavs’ chances at anything, because they’ve lowkey turned into Clippers East—now even with James Harden in town!

Michael Zeno: No. 2. The Pistons are out of reach, barring an unforeseen collapse by them, so the Knicks will have to strive for the 2-seed and their first Atlantic Division (is that still a thing?) title in 12 years. I believe they should prioritize getting as high a seed as possible, as we’ve seen the team go from dominant at home to average on the road. Average doesn’t cut it in the playoffs, so they’ll need to secure home-court against a potential second-round matchup against Cleveland or Boston.

Andrew Polaniecki: Maintaining their position is more important than anything right now. Securing the No. 2 seed would certainly be ideal, but slipping from the No. 3 spot could prove far more damaging for the New York Knicks. They are currently just one game ahead of the fourth seed, and the Cleveland Cavaliers look like a very different team than they did two weeks ago following the addition of James Harden. The Knicks cannot afford to surrender home-court advantage, especially with only 1.5 games separating Cleveland and the Boston Celtics in the standings, particularly given the uncertain timetable surrounding Jayson Tatum’s return.

Miranda: I don’t think it matters. The Knicks won three times in Detroit and twice in Boston in last year’s playoffs, and those Celtics didn’t feature Jayson Tatum working his way back after nearly a year away. Adding Nikola Vučević gussies up their ability to play 5-out, but when he’s on the floor the defense that’s eighth in defensive rating and top-five the past four years has a soft underbelly. The last time the Cavaliers got past the second round without LeBron James was 1992. These Knicks don’t need to duck anyone.

Kento Kato: The two seed, but not at all costs. The Knicks should want to secure home-court advantage through the first two rounds, but at the end of the day, health is all that matters. This team, when healthy, and not coming off of an ugly NBA Cup hangover, have shown that they can beat anyone. Teams like that shouldn’t, and don’t need to, lay everything on the line during the regular season. Outside of last season, when Jalen Brunson missed 15 games after going down with an ankle injury, the Knicks have fared well after the All-Star break in recent years. In 2023, thanks in large part to the Josh Hart trade, the Knicks went 14-8 after the festivities, and a year later, they went 17-10, despite both Julius Randle, and OG Anunoby missing significant time. New York will be sans Deuce McBride for a few weeks, and that’ll sting. But I don’t see why a team that seems to have put their lowest lows behind them, and has historically saved some of it’s best for February, March, and April, can’t do so again.

What players deserve high marks for the season so far, and who has underwhelmed you?

Losada: Brunson gets into the high-mark category by default, so I’m picking Josh Hart for proving Coach Brown wrong early in the season, putting on never-ending Engerzier Bunny efforts, and simply being invaluable for this team (honorable mention for Deuce, whose injury hella bugged me). On the other end, I have KAT. He’s sublime at his absolute best, but he does so many maddening things on a nightly basis that I just can’t deal with him more often than not, let alone his awful shooting this season.

Zeno: Brunson, Hart, Shamet, Deuce (when healthy), and Mitch get the high marks. Hart’s recovered well from his early-season struggles and has become a sniper from deep, as has Shamet. Mitch is as healthy as he’s been in several years thanks to load management. KAT and Clarkson are the more underwhelming ones, but you see flashes from the Big Bodega. Clarkson just seems completely lost right now. I’m in the middle when it comes to Wingstop, as they’ve both excelled defensively but have had extremely inconsistent offense.

Polaniecki: I have to go with Josh Hart. He struggled in the first four games and has missed 11 due to injury, but his impact when he’s on the court is undeniable. The Knicks are more than +75 in plus/minus with Hart on the floor this season. During the 11 games he missed, the Knicks lost six of them, roughly a third of their total losses this year

Miranda: If John Starks, Pablo Prigioni and Jeremy Lin had a baby, that baby would be Jose Alvarado. That’s impressive! Also impressive: Mo Diawara going from a bright future to a bright present. The biggest disappointment has been how many national games Mike Breen’s done this year, because Tyler Murray and Walt Frazier go together like Ewing and Cartwright. Frazier’s been funnier than ever this year, something Murray never, ever runs with. Sometimes he sounds like he has no sense of who Frazier was, like the time he told him he’d been underrated defensively; Clyde couldn’t hide his surprise before gently explaining the seven All-Defensive honors. If Breen and Frazier are the Frazier and Monroe of MSG broadcasters, Murray & Clyde are more Marbury/Francis.

Kato: Brunson is the by far the best player on the team, and as ungrateful as it may sound, his production at this point is almost a given. We all take it for granted at times, but that’s also what star players make you do. When I think of players that deserve high marks, I think of players who have overperformed expectations. And to me, that has been Deuce McBride, and Mo Diawara. We’ve all known what McBride can do, and what he is capable of. But somehow, he continues to surprise us, and defy what an undersized combo guard can really do for a team. He’s followed up a somewhat disappointing season with career-highs in PPG, RPG, and 3P%, and has certified himself as one of the best role players in the league with one of, if not the, best contracts in the league. As for Diawara, not many had him being this good, let alone this quick when he was drafted. But after a surprising Summer League, and some very intriguing minutes over the last few weeks, he has leapfrogged every other recent draftee as the most promising and exciting prospect on the roster due to his unique combination of size, defense, passing, and an unexpected level of shooting.

Will the deadline addition of Jose Alvarado stabilize the bench?

Losada: It should, even more with Deuce McBride out for the regular season and due to his defensive chops. We have yet to see if Jordan Clarkson ever returns to a playable dude, but on the other hand, we’ve enjoyed some blossoming from Mohamed Diawara, and we’ve yet to see how the Jeremy Sochan addition works, and if it provides a little boost up front while helping keep bodies (looking at you, Mitch) fresh for the playoffs.

Zeno: Absolutely. Tyler Kolek has had his moments this season, but he still hasn’t solidified himself as the team’s backup point guard who can run the offense when Brunson sits. Alvarado not only brings the ability to do that, but his intensity on defense makes it so that you can feasibly play him with Brunson in certain lineups, giving him a more diverse role. The bench will really be turbocharged when McBride returns from his hernia.

Polaniecki: 100%. He’s already made an immediate impact and plays with the kind of energy you can’t fake. You can tell he’s genuinely thrilled to be wearing a New York Knicks jersey and representing New York, you could just tell how he wears his heart on his sleeve every night.

Miranda: Stabilize? Stabilize? The past two playoffs, McBride led all Knick reserve guards in minutes; Alec Burks was second in 2024, Cameron Payne last year. Assuming Deuce is back for the postseason, Alvarado, Shamet, Clarkson and Kolek are an entirely different class of bench backcourt.

Kato: We’ve had a small sample size thus far, but we’ve already seen Alvarado impact the game in multiple ways, in a way, akin to McBride. Alvarado may not be the shooter that McBride is, but he provides some much needed ball-handling, passing, and connectivity that the roster, both starters, and bench players, lacked. McBride will be sorely missed, but being able to replace Clarkson, and Kolek’s minutes with Alvarado cannot be anything besides a big win for New York. We’ve already seen him go off 26-points against the Sixers, and dish out five assists in 18 minutes against the Pacers, so in a way, we’re getting the best out of both Clarkson, and Kolek, while getting much, much, much more defense. Alvarado, along with Shamet, Diawara/Sochan, and Robinson should prove to be one of the better benches in the league.

Has Mike Brown met expectations in Year One, and what adjustments would you like to see?

Losada: The expectations were gaudy from the onset, and James Dolan only made it tougher for Brown with his mid-season, championship-or-bust, comments. That said, Brown took over a team nearly fully built and already on its way to making a Finals run, so he’s doing what he was supposed to, even amid ups and downs. There is still time to address a few pending issues and perfect the machine, but we’ve already seen how the Knicks can perform when everything clicks. I have to approve Brown’s work, solid A grade.

Zeno: There were three main reasons the Knicks moved on from Tom Thibodeau after last year’s Eastern Conference Finals run. They wanted to lean more on the team’s depth to minimize regular-season workload, get the most out of this offensive juggernaut, and get a coach who would adjust and not be so “my way or the highway”. Mike Brown has met all three, lowering the starters’ minutes while leaning on rejuvenated depth, augmenting the offense to make it one of the best in basketball, and making a big defensive adjustment to stop the early January nosedive. We’ll see how the playoffs go, but I’m a fan through the All-Star break.

Polaniecki: In some ways yes, and in some ways no. Would they be sitting in third place if Thibs were still the coach? Maybe. But his stubbornness and reluctance to expand the rotation ultimately cost him his job. It’s been great to see the New York Knicks actually use their depth this season. The bench has a role. The minutes are more balanced.

But are they truly better than they were a year ago? That’s still up for debate. If Brown doesn’t take them to the Finals, then for me, the answer is no.

Miranda: They’ve gone from 11th in corner 3s to third. The defense has been best in the league since they shifted from pushing ballhandlers to the middle of the floor to pushing them toward the sidelines. I don’t know if Towns is “struggling” so much as having his role changed, and I don’t hate it; even when his shot’s off, he’s impactful on the glass and as a spacer. All that said, if Brown is still coaching in June, his hiring was a success. If not . . .

Kato: This largely depends on what your expectations were. For me, his regular season was always going to be graded on his, and the team’s process. Sure, winning 55+ regular season games would be nice. But if he did that by running the same heliocentric, stagnant offense, limiting on-court experimentation, and forgoing playing time of the younger players, then keeping Thibodeau would have been the move as it would’ve lead to a higher floor. Thus far, Brown has done a good enough job of, simply put, not being Thibodeau. His offense, while still over reliant on Brunson at times, sees more movement, more threes, and more sets, and actions, and his rotations aren’t perfect, but still better than Thibodeau’s. So far, so good, but ultimately, he’ll be graded on how the Knicks fare in the playoffs.

What’s the biggest obstacle for a Finals run?

Losada: It’s going to be a grueling playoffs, as “weakened” as the Eastern Conference is said to be. See, the Pistons are young, tough, strong, and will probably have homecourt advantage through the postseason. The Celtics might bring back Jayson Tatum, and I fear that if they know he’s coming the might take it easy later in the season to enter the playoffs healthier, thus dropping to a lower seed and making it tougher for a top-4 seed. The Cavaliers, I don’t care about. But the Raptors, the Sixers, and mostly the Magic and Heat have underperformed and/or can give you fits and steal a couple of postseason games, so it’s going to take more than a Fo’ fo’ fo’ to get to the Finals. Will the Knicks stay healthy through it all? Will they get the No. 2 seed and actually benefit from starting (and finishing) series at MSG, or will it turn against them? Not an obstacle this year: another 1-in-100000-odds shot made by Hali.

Zeno: Inconsistency. One day, they look like they’ll win the Finals, the next day, they might be a first-round exit. There are certain first-round matchups that make you wince, but those mostly depend on health (looking at you, Philly). If Jayson Tatum returns, Boston could be extremely tough. The Cavs can’t be counted out, and then, of course, there’s Detroit. The Knicks will need to play their best basketball come playoff time and can’t rely on Brunson’s hero-ball for the fourth year in a row. We need KAT to get back to what made him a perennial all-star, Bridges to get more confident on-ball, OG to be making his shots, and the bench to be healthy and able to hold their own. I’m confident in the team, but there’s a lot that can go wrong.

Polaniecki: The Cup curse. Just kidding! But all jokes aside, the Knicks eliminated the Detroit Pistons in last year’s playoffs, but now sit five games behind them in the standings. They beat the Boston Celtics with Jayson Tatum available for most of that series, yet currently trail Boston as well.

Cleveland added James Harden. The conference landscape has shifted, and the path to the Finals is going to be much harder than people thought at the beginning of the season, especially if Tatum comes back for the Celtics.

Miranda: The likelihood that at some point in the playoffs, KAT’s gonna be in foul trouble, Mitch is gonna be injured and Ariel Hukporti’s playing 30+ minutes.

Kato: I’m stuck between saying “themselves”, and “roster construction”. I think talent-wise, they are, and should be, the favorites. But there’s still a part of me that fears KAT’s ability to hold up defensively more times than not through three or hopefully, four playoff series. And offensively, the Knicks still lack reliant ball handlers, and playmakers over the height of whatever Brunson, and Alvarado are listed as. But even with those roster limitations-the same ones they dealt with last season, they found themselves a couple games, and a historical choke job away from making the NBA Finals, even while being coached sub-optimally. That leads me to lean towards the former. If they are healthy, get their minds right, and show up, they’re still good enough to win four out of seven times against most teams in the league.

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• Adam Silver says the league would “seriously consider” rookie free agency if it ends tanking.
• A draft-free system changes incentives for “poverty franchises,” but risks star clustering.
• Alternatives like post-elimination win incentives exist.

Is the NBA Draft on the chopping block? Commissioner Adam Silver said that he and his advisors would "seriously consider" replacing the rookie draft with free agency if it's the only definitive way to end tanking.

I am fully onboard with this idea!

With the 2026 tanking crisis reaching a fever pitch following record-breaking fines for the Jazz and Pacers, the league's "flattened odds" lottery experiment has officially failed to deter strategic losing.

As owners grow restless over plummeting ticket sales in rebuilding markets, the nuclear option of a rookie open market is no longer just a "think-piece" theory; it's a looming reality for the next NBA Collective Bargaining Agreement.

Eliminating the NBA draft would actually help small market teams

Claiming small-market teams would be "cooked" is the wrong takeaway.

Players prioritize money, usage, and minutes, which are resources that are limited on every roster. A top rookie might choose the Charlotte Hornets over the Los Angeles Lakers if Charlotte can guarantee 35 minutes a night and the "keys to the franchise," whereas the Lakers might only have a bench role available.

Each team would actually land players who want to be there and are more loyal to the franchise. Players would choose teams based on coaching staff and training facilities rather than being "forced" into a bad situation. This shifts the burden onto front offices to be competent to attract talent.

I opened the debate up on TikTok and was immediately met with hundreds of hot takes as well as a few intriguing solutions. Here are some of my favorites, along with my personal responses.

What NBA fans are saying

M.T.C||.vids: The NBA should NOT remove the draft. Players won’t willingly move to bad teams that have no chance of winning anything.

Metler: All the reason for those franchises to become competent and stop being rewarded with lottery picks.

M.T.C||.vids: How on earth do you expect a franchise to just “become competent”? This free agent format would make super teams stronger and weaker squads less talented, dealing with the bums the league doesn’t want. The draft allows bad teams to get good young players

Metler: It allows awful franchises to ruin the best young talent coming into the league.

buzz_master: Boston and LA would be good forever. It's everything they want.

Metler: It’s good for the league for those teams to always be good. Same as how it’s good for college hoops for Duke, Kansas, North Carolina, and Kentucky to always be good.

r08: Then the small market will always be at the bottom. The contender will always be the contender.

Metler: The same teams are already at the bottom anyways and are given false hope when they get a superstar for a rookie contract who then forces his way out. The solution is to build grassroots programs and connect with youth basketball in your state and city. Develop NBA talent in your hometown that you could sign in the future.

zacharydegraeve: I really think they should. I don’t think it’s the most popular opinion, but teams that build their organization top to bottom to lose so they can acquire a star prospect aren’t able to properly develop that prospect and build around that prospect in four years.

Metler: Why do we keep sending the best prospects to awful situations? If you want elite talent in your organization, earn it. Build better facilities, get better coaches, learn to develop players.

Cadie: I like what the PWHL does. Once you've been eliminated from the playoffs... every win after elimination gains points towards draft position. More points = higher draft position.

Metler: It’s way better than what we have now but NBA teams would still try and manipulate it.

Emorris984: Just use the NFL format!

Metler: They would tank even harder...

It's time to abolish the NBA draft

I was shocked by the outcry about protecting organizations that don’t even try to win games. Why are we so concerned about the bottom feeders of the league? Do you think college basketball sits around trying to game-plan ways to improve Boston College and make them relevant?

Imagine if we sent all the best high school recruits to the worst programs. We don’t. Those players go to North Carolina, Kansas, Kentucky, Arizona, and Duke. So why do we suddenly stop caring about the development of the best young talent coming into the NBA and then send them into awful situations?

A lot of the argument is built on the idea that teams like the Hornets would never be able to land a superstar coming out of college. My response to that concern is the 2009 NBA Draft. Do you really think the Hornets wouldn’t have had a legitimate chance to recruit Stephen Curry out of Davidson to play for his hometown team - the same team his dad played for?

The Hornets’ NBA championship odds wouldn’t be +50000 every single season if they had successfully recruited Curry back in 2009.

This article originally appeared on Covers.com, read the full article here and view our best betting sites or check out our top sportsbook promos.

The relationship between NBA basketball and math has long been tenuous.

You’ve seen the debates. The stat nerd vs the hooper. Metrics vs the eye test. It’s as false a dichotomy as one could imagine. To understand basketball, you need both. That will always be the case.

Anyway, the 2025-26 Houston Rockets need a math tutor. Their calculations are off. They’re losing the math game:

And the numbers aren’t lying.

Rockets need to improve efficiency

If you’re reading this, you surely know that the Rockets don’t shoot many threes. In fact, their 34.0% three-point frequency ranks dead last in the NBA.

They hit a high percentage of those triples. Houston’s 37.0% three-point shooting ranks sixth. That amounts to 11.3 made threes per game, which lands 24th in the NBA.

That would be fine – if the Rockets hit a high percentage of their twos. This team wasn’t built to overwhelm opponents with three-point shooting. They were built to dominate the offensive glass and win the math game with extra possessions.

They’re still dominating the glass. Houston’s 39.9% Offensive Rebounding Percentage is first in the league by a long shot. It’s just a somewhat moot point when they’re hitting 52.3% of their two-point field goal attempts.

That’s second-last in the NBA.

That’s right. Only the Pacers hit a lower percentage of their twos. This is a gap year for the Pacers. Despite the significance of Fred VanVleet’s absence, the same cannot be said for the Rockets.

So let’s break out the calculators. What can the Rockets do?

The Rockets must play to their strengths

They shouldn’t be thinking about increasing their three-point volume too dramatically.

They simply do not have the personnel. Sure, Ime Udoka ought to have a little more faith in Reed Sheppard. He could bolster the three-point volume a bit, but he’s only one NBA sophomore. That won’t meaningfully move the needle.

Above all else, the Rockets need to hit a higher percentage of their twos.

The elephant in the room: Alperen Sengun needs to be more efficient. He just does. He’s hitting 69.7% of his shots between zero-and-three feet. That’s a career high, but it’s still not high enough.

For context, Giannis Antetokounmpo hits 81.1% of his field goals from the same area. Nikola Jokic hits 78.6% of his bunnies.

Am I being unfair by comparing Sengun to the best players in the NBA? OK. Domantas Sabonis hits 69.9% of his attempts from the same range. Newsflash:

The Rockets need Alperen Sengun to be better than Domantas Sabonis.

Holding the young star to a high standard should not be frowned upon. Sengun doesn’t offer much from three-point range, so to be a star playmaker, he needs to make hay at the rim. That’s what the math dictates.

Otherwise, Amen Thompson is hitting 75.0% of his shots between zero-and-three. That’s consistent with last year (75.8%), but his volume is significantly down (36.1% from 42.0%). That’s likely symptomatic of his on-ball work. When Thompson is setting up in the halfcourt, it’s easier for defenses to force him into the midrange. Taking him back off the ball and putting him in a position to cut and attack closeouts could get him back at the rim more often.

That’s about it, as far as my solutions go. I’m no math wizard. Let it be said that the Rockets don’t need to play brutal, D’Antoni-style stat-ball. They do need to find a way to improve on their dreadful two-point efficiency if they’re going to be a low-volume three-point shooting club:

Otherwise, the numbers just aren’t in their favor.