Category: Sports News

The Cleveland Cavaliers didn’t assemble the highest-paid roster in the league just to get out of the first round.

“We haven’t done anything,” Donovan Mitchell said after his team closed out the Toronto Raptors in seven games. “It’s just the first round.”

The Cavs will have their hands full against a 60-win Detroit Pistons team that proved to be one of the best defenses in the league all season. That said, there’s a path to winning the series and advancing to the Eastern Conference Finals. Let’s get into the keys for Game 1.

1. Reestablish the pick-and-roll

Both Mitchell and James Harden struggled to shake free of Toronto’s perimeter defenders. The top-locking defensive strategy, coupled with their ability to switch every screen and not be at a distinct disadvantage because of it, made it difficult for them to establish a consistent scoring rhythm. At least not the kind we’re used to seeing.

Detroit is a better statistical and traditional defense than Toronto. They were the second-best unit in the league for a reason. Their ability to run teams off the three-point line, funnel them inside, and then provide tough contests from there made them difficult for teams to crack, especially with two imposing centers in Jalen Duren and Isaiah Stewart.

At the same time, they aren’t a switch-heavy team like the Raptors, which does present some additional openings for the Cavs to attack mismatches.

Cleveland’s best offense this year has been when they can create advantages off the pick-and-roll. They should be able to get into those actions much easier, given Detroit’s drop coverage.

2. Exploiting the weak links

The Raptors weren’t the most talented team in the playoffs, but there aren’t many groups that had as many passable two-way players. There really weren’t any weak links to attack on offense or ignore completely on defense.

The Pistons have more talent, but there’s more guys who aren’t high impact on both sides of the ball.

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Duncan Robinson is a great shooter, but he’s someone that the guards can go after in a matchup much easier than any of Toronto’s rotation players. On the other end, Ausar Thompson is a phenomenal defender, but you can cheat off him defensively due to his lack of playmaking and shooting.

The Cavs also have several players that teams can take advantage of as well. Opponents mostly ignore Dean Wade on offense and attack guys like Mitchell and Harden on the other end.

The team that can hide its weaker players and exploit their opponents could come away with the win.

3. Find the three-point shot

The Cavs won their first-round series without ever getting the three-ball going. They shot just 34.1% from beyond the arc throughout the series. This included shooting below 30% in three games, including the Game 7 victory.

Cleveland isn’t the outside-shooting juggernaut they were at times last year, but they’re still one of the better shooting teams in the league as they connected on 36% of their shots in the regular season.

This is an advantage they should have over Detroit. The Pistons aren’t a high-volume three-point shooting team, and they don’t connect on them particularly well. That came through repeatedly in their first-round victory over the Orlando Magic, even in some of their wins.

4. Win the possession game

Head coach Kenny Atkinson has preached the need to grab rebounds and limit turnovers all season. The Cavs struggled at times throughout their first-round series with both, but closed the Raptors out in Game 7 by winning this category by nine.

That same focus will be needed against the Pistons.

Cade Cunningham was at his worst in the first round when he was turning the ball over. He averaged 5.9 giveaways per game against Orlando. This includes averaging 6.7 in Detroit’s three losses.

As a team, the Pistons aren’t great at protecting the ball. They finished the regular season 22nd in turnover percentage (15%) as an offense. However, what they made up for that in other areas, particularly in offensive rebounding and forcing turnovers of their own.

Detroit was second in offensive rebounding percentage in the regular season. They grabbed 34.3% of their missed shots.

On the other end, the Pistons had the highest turnover percentage in the league as a defense. They turned opponents over on 16.8% of their possessions.

However, despite their good offensive rebounding, they struggled ending possessions, as they finished 20th in defensive rebounding percentage.

There are areas the Cavs can attack here. They could be disruptive on the offensive glass and force Cunningham into turnovers. But they have to be careful not to fall victim to those same issues themselves.

5. Can Dean Wade make things difficult for Cade Cunningham?

Stopping a player as good as Cunningham is a complete team effort, but you’d expect Wade to draw the primary assignment on the superstar guard.

Wade has been the team’s best wing defender all season. He did an excellent job of taking Brandon Ingram away at the beginning of the series against Toronto and shifted onto Barnes as the series progressed.

Cunningham struggled against Orlando when he was guarded by Franz Wagner. Wagner’s size and strength presented real issues. It wasn’t until a calf strain forced Wagner out of the lineup that Cunningham really got going.

Wade has some of those same qualities. He has good length, quickness, and strength. Wade has continually shown he’s comfortable defending on the perimeter against an opponent’s primary offensive engine.

The key to this will likely come down to the other end of the court. For Wade’s defense to be its most effective, his offense needs to be good enough to justify staying on the court. That was an issue at times in the first round as Wade’s outside shot left him for stretches.

Outside of Wade, the Cavs don’t have many good options to turn to for guarding Cunningham. Max Strus has shown a willingness to battle with bigger wings, but he doesn’t have the strength or size to present the same issues for Cunningham. Jaylon Tyson has had stretches of looking like that guy, but it’s fair to question whether he’s ready for such a big assignment.

Cunningham is the head of the snake. There’s no situation where the Pistons get past the Cavs if he isn’t playing at an All-NBA level. That puts a premium on Wade and the rest of the team’s defense against Cunningham.

Good morning, BBN!

It is officially one of the greatest times of the sports calendar as the NBA and NHL Playoffs are in full swing. Now, while there are not a lot of former Kentucky Wildcats riddled across the NHL, there are plenty of them in the NBA.

On top of that, there are still several Cats fighting for a chance to win an NBA Championship this season.

As the second round gets underway, we have eight teams remaining: Oklahoma City Thunder, Los Angeles Lakers, Minnesota Timberwolves, San Antonio Spurs, Detroit Pistons, Cleveland Cavaliers, New York Knicks, and the Philadelphia 76ers. Only one team does not have a former Cat on the roster: The Pistons.

So who is still playing? Here is a quick list:

• Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (OKC)
• Cason Wallace (OKC)
• Jarred Vanderbilt (LAL)
• Julius Randle (MIN)
• De’Aaron Fox (SA)
• Keldon Johnson (SA)
• Olivier Sarr (CLE)
• Karl Anthony-Towns (NYK)
• Tyrese Maxey (PHI)
• Justin Edwards (PHI)

At the moment, it looks like the chances of another former Wildcat bringing home an NBA Championship are quite good. Should be a fun few rounds left to watch who cuts down the nets.

Tweet of the Day

Plenty of people are spending on college basketball this offseason.

Headlines

SEC Tournament Tuesday Schedule Update – UK Athletics

Kentucky Softball is set to play Mississippi State around 2 PM ET.

ABS system approved for SEC Tournament- KSR

FINALLY!

New 2026-27 preseason projection poll has Kentucky sitting outside the top 40- KSR

The Cats have room to go forward.

Doubling Up: Bell, Van Cleave Earn SEC Weekly Honors- UK Athletics

A big week for a few Cats.

Kentucky continues to improve its chances with three-star RB Kelsey Gerald- Cats Pause

Will Stein is continuing to stay hot on the trail.

Tigers’ Tarik Skubal to undergo surgery on left elbow- ESPN

A huge loss for th Tigers.

Timberwolves star Anthony Edwards to play in Game 1 vs. Spurs- ESPN

He’s Baaaack.

Way-too-early 2027 NFL Mock Draft- CBS

These are always great to follow.

With Louisville, Tennessee thriving, Mark Pope’s hot seat intensifies amid Kentucky’s portal struggles- CBS

Never good when your recruiting struggles continue to make national news.

Jerry Krause doesn’t get enough credit for what he did with the Chicago Bulls. Not only did he not make the mistake that Houston and Portland made in not taking Michael Jordan (the Bulls took him at #3 in the 1984 draft), he quickly paired him with Scottie Pippen.

For the first three championship teams, the Bulls put guys like Bill Cartwright, Horace Grant, and John Paxson around their Dynamic Duo.

Jordan, of course, stepped away from basketball after the 1993 championship, but came back in 1995.

The team to an extent had already been rebuilt, notably with Grant being traded, but Krause again put together a brilliant group. He still had Pippen, and of course, Jordan was back. But the core of the rotation had been rebuilt, and brilliantly.

Chicago brought in shooter Steve Kerr, Aussie big man Luc Longley, Ron Harper, Dennis Rodman, and a player Krause had long coveted, Toni Kukoc.

Krause had long celebrated Kukoc, a native of Croatia, to the point where Jordan and Pippen were sick of hearing about him, so they went out of their way to shut him down when the Dream Team played Croatia in the 1992 Olympics.

But Krause wasn’t wrong: Kukoc was great. Not really good. Great.

At 6-11, Kukoc had point guard skills, as you’ll see here, and he meshed perfectly with that team. You wanted to keep Jordan and Pippen on the court as much as possible, but you could add Rodman, Kukoc, and Harper to almost anyone else on the floor and have possibly the most versatile team in NBA history.

That team really did invent positionless basketball, and did it decades before the term was even considered.

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The Rockets are not going to fire their GM or their Head Coach. Once you allow the emotion of the immensely disappointing end to the Rockets season subside, (and please take all the time you need) then you understand why they aren’t doing it, even if you think they should fire Rafael Stone and Ime Udoka. As for this writer? I’m in the camp that doesn’t think it’s time to fire them yet, but things sure seem to be heading in the direction where I think they may need to go. For instance, should they turn right around and trade Kevin Durant for pennies on the dollar, that would signal to me a complete admission that trading for him was a mistake in the first place.

Now, I want to say there is no way they are going to trade Kevin Durant, but I am the same guy who said they would never trade for Kevin Durant and hang their championship hopes on a 37-year-old with a lengthy injury history. That to me is kind of the issue. I hope they know what the plan is, because from where I am sitting, I have no clue. I have stood 10 toes down for Rafael Stone and Ime Udoka over the last three seasons, but in my humble opinion, enough time has passed where it’s time to start asking some questions about the job Rafael Stone has done.

My first question is this… How is it that after having a top four pick for four years in a row, having 10 first round nd picks total, the Rockets managed to get exactly zero consistent shooters, and after trading away Jalen Green and Cam Whitmore, have just one freakishly athletic player in Amen Thompson, who can create their own shot or shots for others. Yes, Alperen Sengun is athletic for his size, however he is not the type of player that will break down any defender and create offense, and if you want to agree to disagree that’s okay… I’ll give Stone two guys… out of 10. Neither of whom is a consistent shooter.

How is it that the Oklahoma City Thunder have shooters all the way down to the ball boy and guy who wipes the sweat off the floor, and the Houston Rockets have none? How is it that they have 11 guys who can create a shot for themselves, and the Houston Rockets have two? Rafael Stone built this team. No one, and I mean NO ONE he has drafted is a consistent shooter. If Reed Sheppard becomes that, then he will have drafted exactly one shooter.

Now, for those of you who will say, “But the ping pong balls never went his way…” Okay, so he couldn’t have drafted Cade Cunningham, but you did get an absolute freak of nature in Jalen Green, and you gave up on him at the age of 23. He couldn’t draft Paolo Banchero… but he could have drafted Jaylen Williams. I’ll give a slight pass on this as Jabari was projected to be a much more consistent shooter in the NBA, but I get my draft analysis from TV and the internet. Rafael Stone gets paid a lot of money to be right. I will give Jabari this complement. He cares and he steps his game up in big moments. That’s the kind of guy you want on your team, but in hindsight, he is not the third best player from that draft class. I’m not going to fault him for drafting Amen Thompson because in my opinion, outside of Wemby, Thompson is the best player from that class. However, Thompson is a guy you put on a team full of shooters and the Rockets had none at the time they drafted him.

So, if you couldn’t draft the shooters then why couldn’t you add them in free-agency? Luke Kennard could have been made a Rocket last offseason. Instead, Stone signed DFS to a three-year deal. A 35-percent career three-point shooter, because he had one efficient shooting season with the Lakers and Nets. Duncan Robinson, Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Seth Curry??? Anyone? Rather, we saw the Rockets turn into a stand around and watch KD, because no one else can create a shot, offense. Udoka is not absolved from this conversation, but Raphael Stone is doing the grocery shopping, and like me when my wife sends me to the store, he keeps forgetting stuff.

The Rockets cannot, in my opinion, turn around and make the Kevin Durant trade obsolete by flipping him after one season. I think, they want to get a look at the team with Fred Van Vleet, with a healthy DFS, with a healthy Durant and Steven Adams, but go back and just read what I wrote there. Put the odds on all of that happening. Put the odds on that beating OKC, or even the Lakers. The year to run it back one more time was this past season and Rafael Stone said “NOPE!” So now, what is he going to do? Because the job is still his. He painted himself into this corner and he’s going to have to get himself out of it, quickly.

Florida only added one player via the college basketball transfer portal ahead of the 2026-27 season, but came away as one of the biggest winners of the offseason due to retention.

The Gators were able to keep leading scorer Thomas Haugh and two-year starting forward Alex Condon for next season, despite both players having heavy NBA interest. Starting guard Boogie Fland is also returning, and starting center Rueben Chinyelu is testing the NBA draft waters while maintaining his eligibility.

Elsewhere, Connecticut was able to keep March Madness hero Braylon Mullins for his second season, despite Mullins being projected as a first-round pick.

There's a new No. 1: College basketball transfer portal team rankings

Basketball portal’s early losers: Big names, big swings, bigger questions

Sometimes the best additions are the ones already on the roster, especially in today’s era of the transfer portal and name, image and likeness influencing players' decisions.

Here’s a look at our top-10 retentions ahead of the 2026-27 college basketball season, whether it was an NBA or portal decision looming:

College Basketball Transfer Portal Retention Wins

Braylon Mullins, UConn

Before the Cleveland Cavaliers traded for superstar guard James Harden, there was reportedly another team that his representatives inquired about seeking a deal with: the Houston Rockets.

According to ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne and Tim MacMahon, Harden’s team reached out to Houston to gauge their interest in acquiring the former MVP from the then-reeling Los Angeles Clippers. The Clippers, who started 6-21, were in the midst of several crises and the subject of many trade rumors to try to right the ship. There had been mutual interest in both Harden’s camp and the Rockets’ over the past several years, according to ESPN.

But the Rockets, having moved away from that heliocentric type of player, were not interested in adding. One source told ESPN that, while it would be intriguing to have as great a player as Harden on the young Rockets team, they wanted to develop players like Reed Sheppard, Alperen Sengun, and Amen Thompson instead. This was not the first time that Houston had spurned the chance to acquire Harden, having done so twice before.

Another source told ESPN that the Rockets “weren’t going to put the ball in James’ hands anyway”, and questioned the need to trade for someone that requires the rock to be impactful. All this despite the fact that Houston was without their starting point guard, Fred Van Vleet, who suffered a torn ACL before the season started.

As history would tell it, the Cavs swooped in and acquired Harden for Darius Garland and a second-round pick. The move, which garnered plenty of criticism and raised eyebrows across the league, was the kind of risk that the Rockets were not willing to take. But for the Cavs, it was worth it to raise their championship window for the next year or two just a smidge wider.

Part of the wink and nudge of the deal with the Clippers was probably a contract extension for Harden, who doesn’t have too many of them left in his Hall of Fame career. After all, the Cavs very likely would not move on from their former All-Star point guard in Garland — 10 years younger than Harden — for just half a season of Harden. But perhaps that is not a forgone conclusion given the reported mutual interest in a return to Space City.

The Cavs figure to be one of the more interesting teams this upcoming offseason, whether that occurs after this series with Detroit or beyond. Harden’s contract is a big part of the equation that Koby Altman must solve.

Brad Stevens earned his Executive of the Year award by resetting his team’s roster financially while also fielding a squad of productive, overachieving, high effort players with high future potential. Then the first round happened and Cinderella’s carriage turned back into a pumpkin. So for his next trick, Brad Stevens has to use that hard earned flexibility to reload this roster for the future and get that glass slipper.

For a brief reminder, the reason the team cut all those salaries last offseason was because the current CBA was designed to break up teams like the 2024/2025 version of the Celtics. The ginormous tax bill was part of the problem, and we’ll never know how much it was a motivator. But the other big factor was all the team-building restrictions put on any team above the 2nd apron. I’m not looking to re-litigate that whole process — just pointing out that decisions were made with a stated objective to maximize future flexibility.

Well, the future is now. Jayson Tatum returned looking better than any could have hoped (with the unfortunate exception of Game 7) and will have a whole offseason to get back to 100%. Both Jayson and Jaylen Brown are squarely in the primes of their careers (and paid handsomely over the next 3-4 years). The singular goal of the front office is to field a championship level team this year and for the foreseeable future.

So where do we stand with the team’s books? Bobby Marks lays out the basics below.

Let’s take a closer look at some of those subjects. This is by no means an exhaustive breakdown, but a good place to kick things off two months before the draft and offseason and reset expectations.

While the team is under the tax aprons, they are still over the salary cap, which means they don’t have room under the cap to offer to free agents. (See Spotrac for a year over year breakdown of the roster). The good news is that they do have exceptions that they can use. More on that below.

Celtics Own Free Agents

The Celtics have several players that could be free agents, but nearly all of them have a team option to keep around. Some of those are no-brainers (Jordan Walsh) and others are decisions that can be made in the fall based on how the rest of the roster shakes out (Amari Williams, Ron Harper Jr., etc.).

Perhaps the most important objective is to find a way to keep Neemias Queta around. The team has a team option on him (so he’s almost certainly going to be back next year), but he’s also extension eligible. The team would be best served by picking up his option and extending off of that at (subject to what Queta is willing to agree to). The other option is to decline the option and sign him to a contract that starts off with a bigger first year value. The problem with that is that it takes away a lot of the flexibility that the team worked so hard to create.

Finally, the team has to decide what to do with Nikola Vucevic. In my opinion, they would be best served by letting him walk and using the flexibility elsewhere. There are also sign-and-trade options but I’m not sure if there’s going to be a ton of demand for his diminishing skills.

Another note: Payton Pritchard is not a free agent, but he is extension eligible as well (with one of the best contracts in basketball). I think the team would be wise to consider extending him beyond the two years left on his deal.

Free Agent Exceptions

The biggest lever the Celtics have for improving might be their Non-Tax Mid-Level Exception ($15M). They also have the Biannual Exception ($5.5M) that they could use. The asterisk here is that they will still have to make moves with an eye on the luxury tax. The trade deadline deals were made to duck the tax this year, but the repeater tax penalizes teams that are in the tax 3 out of 4 years. It is possible that under certain circumstances the team would consider it worth it to pay the taxes, but it would be an interesting decision given the cuts made this year.

The other item of note are the trade exceptions ($27.7M and others). The important note here is that the team would get hard capped at the First Apron if they used any of these. There are ways to cut costs elsewhere and/or use these exceptions in creative ways. Just don’t assume that we can simply trade for anyone making under $27.7M and call it a day.

Draft Picks

The Celtics currently own picks #27 and #40 in the upcoming draft. From what (little) I understand, the draft should be relatively deep and there could be value found. On the other hand, the team currently skews pretty young already and Brad might find better value in using those picks to trade for veteran contributors.

Your turn

So what do you think the Celtics should do next? What areas of need do you think the team should address as a priority? What would you do with Vucevic? Are there any free agents that you would target? Leave your thoughts in the comments below and let’s start a discussion.