Category: Sports News

Using the latest release in the NBA2K franchise to simulate Mavericks Year Two scenarios for Cooper Flagg? It can get weird. And I’m talking Nathan Fielder movie trailer — compelling weird.

We all know how Flagg’s rookie year went — incredible for the individual, slow-moving car crash for the team.

With NBA 2K27 finally out, it seemed like a good time to do some projections on what comes next. Originally, I was going to do a five-year projection — until Cooper’s Year 2 fully pulled me in, heart first.

First off: I didn’t alter any settings or change anything that would make the Mavericks any better than what NBA 2K created them to be. No trades. No roster moves. Nothing. I let the computer cook.

I hit “Sim Regular Season” and waited for the first stop.

The NBA Cup was over — and guess who won?

That’s right, Mavs fans. Dallas hangs its first Cup banner in this simulation.

And who might be the Cup MVP, you ask?

Ooof. Those 3-point numbers.

But I can’t deny the results.

As I continued the sim, I had to deny somewhere between 25 and 30 trade offers for Kyrie Irving, but especially with the early success, I felt like we had to let the team ride it out. No meddling. No panic. We were staying the course.

Next stop: the All-Star Game.

I located Cooper in the Rising Stars Game, where he dropped 25 points, but he didn’t make the actual All-Star Game. Which, honestly, reminded me of everything I find dumb about the All-Star Game in the first place.

So I kept simming.

I noticed the wins were beginning to pile up, but I wanted to let the season play out before checking the standings.

And then, at the end of the regular season, there the little Mavericks sat:

The No. 2 seed in the West.

No end-of-season awards for Flagg, but Naji Marshall was named Sixth Man of the Year. Flagg, meanwhile, averaged a solid 22 points per game and pushed his 3-point percentage up to 35% — respectable considering he was launching eight attempts from deep per game.

Then came the playoffs.

First matchup: the Denver Nuggets.

And somehow — amazingly — the Mavericks pulled it out in seven games.

A successful season. I would have taken that result 10 out of 10 times.

But Round 2 was against our dear friends, the San Antonio Cowboy Accessories.

I braced myself for the inevitable disappointment.

Instead, the Mavs beat them in six.

At this point, I started to really believe.

I started imagining what I would do if this were happening in real life. Would I survive the glee? Would my body be physically capable of processing this much unexpected joy?

And then came the question I probably shouldn’t have allowed myself to ask:

Could my digital Mavericks make it to the Fake NBA Finals?

The Western Conference Finals wasn’t even against the Thunder. They had already been bounced in Round 2.

Instead, it was the Minnesota Timberwolves.

And suddenly, this wasn’t just a fun little NBA 2K experiment anymore.

So let me ask: Would you consider this a successful season?

A No. 2 seed in the West. A first-ever NBA Cup. Cooper averaging 22 points a game and shooting 35% from three. A playoff series win over Denver. Beating the Spurs in six. Naji Marshall winning Sixth Man of the Year.

At what point does this go beyond “successful” and into “wildest dreams” territory? The playoff berth? The first-round win?

But for now, the Mavericks were staring down the Timberwolves in the Western Conference Finals, with the Thunder already gone. Ultimately, the Mavs bowed out in five games after Digital Flagg picked up an injury in Game 2 of the Fake WCF.

If this happened in real life — if Cooper’s second season actually played out this way — what would you do?

Would you be thrilled and call the season a massive success regardless of what happens next? Would you start believing this team is actually ready to contend? Or would you be sitting there, like me, thinking, wait a minute… are we really two wins away from the NBA Finals?

Because at this point, I wasn’t simulating the rest of the season to see what happened.

I was simulating because I needed to know. And because this offseason will not end.

After being drafted and stashed, then going on to win MVP and, for the second year in a row, the Top Prospect Award in Serbia’s Adriatic League, the Milwaukee Bucks committed to Bogoljub Markovic early this offseason, signing him to a four-year, $9.3m rookie contract. 

The timing was both right and wrong. Markovic does have talent (more on that in a moment), plays a position of need, and, at just 21 years old, fits the Bucks’ current timeline. So, if he’s ever going to become an NBA player, now, while the Bucks have no pressure to win, is the time to find out. On the other hand, signing Markovic so early in the offseason undoubtedly contributed to the Bucks’ roster logjam, leaving them in the position they are now, needing to trim two players without many appealing pathways to do so. In hindsight, waiting until after his Summer League evaluation would’ve retained at least some roster flexibility. But I digress; Markovic is here—at least for now. 

In Summer League, Markovic put up decent counting stats: 8.8 PPG, 5.8 RPG, 1.2 APG, 0.2 SPG, 1.0 BPG, and 1.2 TPG, to go along with .381/.364/.667 shooting splits. He had some moments too, including a 16-point, eight-rebound showing against the Phoenix Suns. But he also went MIA for stretches—or even entire games, like the 1/9 stinker against the Philadelphia 76ers to wrap up SL play. In the end, his play earned him a C- on our official Summer League report card.

Offensively, Markovic has some chops. He’s a gifted passer who can create from the high and low post and, under the right circumstances, even off the dribble. He’s more explosive than you’d think too—no, I’m not going to call his athleticism “sneaky”—able to quickly flush home dunks. He’s also a capable shooter, though he needs to improve his consistency to become a legitimate floor-spacing big in the NBA. This, it seems, is his most likely avenue to a real NBA role. 

On the defensive end, it’s a different story. If Markovic was a cricket bat, he’d be applauded for his defensive stroke play—how vertical he is. Unfortunately, he’s a basketballer and he’s just far too upright as a defender to make much of an impact. Like a cricket bat, he’s also still far too thin and narrow, meaning he’s too easily pushed around. He’ll get some boards and blocks by nature of his length, but he’s no deterrent at the rim and gives up far too many second chance opportunities. Put it this way, Markovic is strictly a four and should only ever see minutes at the five in blowouts. 

Looking ahead, a successful season for Markovic would be one in which he hits the gym, hard, and polishes the stroke enough to earn semi-consistent court time; 40 games at about 10 minutes per would mean he’s made significant strides. Anything more would be a bonus. 

With Markovic snicking one to slips and on his way back to the changerooms, which Buck will be next to join him?

Editor’s Note: Today is a perfect day to announce the debut of another one of Canis’ very own, JetAllen! Jet Helmbrecht is introducing a series of articles called the “What If” Wolves, beginning all the way back with the beginning. You are in for a treat!

You can also say hello to Jet on BlueSky @coachjet!

Volume One: Let’s Begin

$32.5 million dollars.

That was the purchase price of an NBA expansion team in 1987.

Harvey Ratner and Marv Wolfenson put some dough together to bring a pro basketball team back to Minnesota. We all know the story of the Minneapolis Lakers leaving town for greener pastures in Los Angeles way back in 1960. Some people even know about the Muskies and Pipers that played in the ABA. But finally, thanks to “Harv and Marv”, the NBA would be coming back to Minnesota.

The Minnesota Timberwolves were born.

For those of you who don’t know, the Minnesota Timberwolves, or the Wolves, or the T-Wolves (please don’t use this one) have not always been the cream of the NBA crop. They’ve been teams that were not that talented, with poor decision-making, and flat-out illegal transactions by the front office that have kept the Wolves near the bottom of the standings for most of the team’s history.

I am going to break some of these issues down and offer an alternative history. Basically, this is what I would have done instead. Obviously, almost every instance of me changing history would have led to a championship… Who are you to doubt me?

This series is purely for entertainment purposes. Try not to take things too seriously, and we should have some fun. With that being said, let’s get started with the creation of the team and the first season.

Franchise Creation

Like I stated before, Harv and Marv, the original owners of the Timberwolves, put up $32.5 million dollars to purchase an expansion team. Considering what the NBA expansion fee is today ($7-10 billion), this was a bargain.

Harv and Marv would still need to find a permanent place to play, hire front office staff, and field a team. But there were more pressing items that needed to be dealt with, namely, finding a team name.

The “Minnesota NBA Team” decided that they would leave the naming up to the great people of Minnesota. I’m sure you can guess how that went. A “Name the Team” contest was sent out to the masses. 6,076 entries came back with 1,284 different names. There was a group of current NBA team names submitted. The Cavaliers (Cleveland), Kings (Sacramento), Hawks (Atlanta), Mavericks (Dallas), Pacers (Indiana), Warriors (Golden State), Nets (New Jersey at the time), Bucks (Milwaukee), and of course the Lakers (Los Angeles).

None of these names would be selected or approved by the NBA, even though the Lakers should be in Minnesota. I’ve never even heard of a lake in Los Angeles, outside of an Andrew Garfield movie.

Anyways, a slew of cold-weather nicknames were submitted, like the Frost, the Chill, Tornadoes, the Blizzard, the Snowdrift, and the Abominable Snowmen. I’ve never been a fan of the non-plural nicknames or team names that, to me, are nonsense. Team names like the Miami HEAT, Orlando Magic, and especially (I know I will get hate for this) the Minnesota Wild.

What the hell is a “a Wild”?

There were Minnesota state-specific mascot names like the Loons (which would become the name of the Minnesota Major League Soccer team), Mallards, Mosquitoes (of course), Gnats, Bullheads, Walleyes, Minnows, Oofdahs (or Uffdas depending on your Scandinavian heritage), and my favorite, the Mississippi Mud Monsters (now a minor league baseball team).

All the entries were cut down to the two most popular, the Timberwolves and Polars. These names were then sent to the 842 city councils throughout Minnesota for their votes. The Timberwolves were the runaway winner (again, what is “a Polar”?).

With the name selected, a logo and uniforms would be next. Mark Thompson designed the first logo: a majestic wolf looking off into the distance, which we now refer to as “Old Shep”. What is he looking at? Maybe prey of some kind. Maybe he is looking at a Wild or a Polar. It’s really not important; this logo is classic and still my preferred logo out of all that the team has had.

The Timberwolves made a deal to play their inaugural season at the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome. 10-year-old me thought this was the most magical place in the entire world (I didn’t get out much back then). This was a smart choice for many reasons.

First, the dome was awesome. I remember the first time I went to the dome to see a Minnesota Vikings game against the Cincinnati Bengals. The atmosphere was electric; the Vikings won, Boomer Esiason got booed, and when we left, I got expelled from the building by a huge gust of wind that always happened when exiting the Metrodome (Factor in that I was maybe 50 pounds at the time… I flew).

No matter if you were prepared for the wind or not, it always took you by surprise.

The dome was huge as well. Somehow, the Timberwolves set an NBA record for single-season attendance in their first year. 1,072,572 people attended Wolves games that year. The only negative of holding games at the dome was the men’s bathroom trough. If you don’t know what that is, basically a giant urinal that a bunch of guys use at the same time.

Think of what a horse drinks water from. Now, instead of horses, imagine dudes expelling all the beer that they drank while cheering on their favorite team. Even worse, now picture me standing maybe at 3 feet tall, and where my eye line would have been while trying to go to the bathroom. Get rid of those troughs, and we are good to go.

I read once that those troughs were auctioned off. One of the troughs was sold for $375! What are you going to do with that thing?

Former University of Minnesota Coach Bill Musselman was named the first Head Coach for the Timberwolves. Musselman may have seemed to some as a hometown discount type of pick, but he had some recent success that made him a decent candidate. He left the University of Minnesota with a .683 winning percentage, including a Big Ten Championship in 1972.

The 1972 team included future NBA players Jim Brewer and Ron Behagen, and, most bafflingly, Baseball Hall of Famer Dave Winfield, who averaged 7.0 points and 5.4 rebounds per game.

Before being named Head Coach of the Timberwolves, Musselman won four straight titles in the Continental Basketball Association (Tampa Bay Thrillers twice, Rapid City Thrillers, and the Albany Patroons).

The Wolves’ new coach shared personnel decisions with Director of Player Personnel Bill McKinney and CEO Bob Stein.

So, it is no coincidence that several of the Albany Patroons players, including Tony Campbell, Sidney Lowe, Tod Murphy, and Scott Brooks, played for the early Timberwolves teams. We’ll keep them in place, why not?

The First Drafts and Free Agency

Because the Timberwolves were/are an expansion team, they have zero players at this point in time. The Wolves and the Orlando Magic, being the other expansion team in 1989, would take turns selecting up to 12 players from an existing pool of NBA players.

Only one player could be selected from an existing team, and each team had several players that were “protected” and could not be selected.

So, no Michael Jordan on the Wolves.

There was a coin toss to see which team would select first in the expansion draft or have the higher pick in the regular NBA Draft. The Magic won the coin toss and elected to have the first pick in the Expansion Draft, allowing the Timberwolves to have the higher draft pick in the NBA Draft (#10 overall).

Orlando chose power forward Sidney Green from the New York Knicks. The Timberwolves, with their first selection, made their first front office blunder.

The Wolves drafted power forward Rick Mahorn from the Detroit Pistons. Great pick, right? Mahorn was a quality role player with trade value and on-court strengths. Wrong! Mahorn refused to go to the Timberwolves.

There are no take-backs in the draft, so the Wolves end up trading Mahorn to the Philadelphia 76ers for a first-round draft pick (Don’t get excited. The pick was used on Gerald Glass.) and two second-round picks. A whole lot of nothing. The rest of the draft wasn’t much better. Here are the Timberwolves selections:

1. Rick Mahorn PF Detroit Pistons
2. Tyrone Corbin SF Phoenix Suns
3. Steve Johnson C Portland Trailblazers
4. Brad Lohaus PF/C Sacramento Kings
5. David Rivers PG LA Lakers
6. Mark Davis SF Milwaukee Bucks
7. Scott Roth SF San Antonio Spurs
8. Shelton Jones PF Philadelphia 76ers
9. Eric White SF LA Clippers
10. Maurice Martin SG Denver Nuggets
11. Gunther Behnke C Cleveland Cavaliers

Any names ring a bell? Maybe three? Yeah, it’s not good. Mahorn refused to play for an expansion team. Mark Davis was selected only because the Bucks gave the Wolves a second-round pick to take him off their books. Only four of the players selected played for the Wolves that first year, and only Ty Corbin played for more than one season for the team. Hell, Gunther Behnke never even played for one second in the NBA!

There were a bunch of players who were left unprotected who could have been drafted. Now I know that contract/salary concerns may have kept these players from being selected, but these are the picks I would have made for the “What If” Wolves:

1. Tyrone Corbin SF Phoenix Suns
2. Terry Catledge PF Washington Bullets
3. Scott Skiles PG Indiana Pacers
4. Tony Campbell SG/SF LA Lakers
5. Jerome Lane PF Denver Nuggets
6. Brad Lohaus PF/C Sacramento Kings
7. Larry Krystkowiak PF/C Milwaukee Bucks
8. Dennis Johnson PG Boston Celtics
9. Vinnie Johnson SG/PG Detroit Pistons
10. David Wingate SF/SG Philadelphia 76ers
11. Caldwell Jones C/PF Portland Trailblazers
12. No pick. This guy wasn’t going to play anyways.

So here is my thinking: try to at least draft players that may want to play for the team (thanks for nothing, Mahorn), milk as much talent out of the older players as possible, and draft players that can maybe play a bit.

The toughest decision was drafting Tyrone Corbin instead of Spud Webb. Spud Webb was my favorite player growing up because I was always the shortest kid in my class. I thought that if Spud could dunk at his height (5’7”), I should be able to as well when I grew up (5’8”).

I did manage to dunk (Twice!), but I had to catch the ball off the bounce and kind of smoosh it into the hoop. It wasn’t pretty, but I say it counts. Expansion draft complete! We have 80% of our roster set.

For the NBA Draft, the Timberwolves started a long tradition of messing up royally with their first pick at 10th overall.

Minnesota also had two picks in the second round, the 34^th and 38^th overall picks. When this draft took place, I was 12 years old. Not really the basketball nerd that I would become. But even in my early fandom, I knew who I wanted the Timberwolves to draft: Tim Hardaway.

The only reason why I wanted them to draft Hardaway was due to a short clip that discussed his signature move, the “UTEP Two-Step”. The UTEPTS (acronyms were long back then) was a simple but very effective crossover move that allowed Hardaway easy access to the bucket. That was the only reason I wanted the Wolves to draft him.

Seriously, the only reason.

When Minnesota instead selected Pooh Richardson out of UCLA, this 12-year-old GM was ticked. How could the Timberwolves betray me already? At the time, it really wasn’t that big of a deal, but I do remember a local paper headline that read “Who is Pooh?” or something along those lines.

Tim Hardaway even thought that he would go to the Wolves at 10. Hardaway started to fall a bit and was eventually selected by the Golden State Warriors. But why the slip in the draft? Well, Golden State Head Coach Don Nelson was telling the other teams ahead of the Warriors that Hardaway had bum knees and would most likely be out of the league in four years.

Sneaky coach.

Tim Hardaway would go on to be a multiple-time NBA All-Star, Olympic medalist, and a member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. I should have been named the GM at 12.

After Pooh Richardson at 10, the Wolves drafted center Gary Leonard from Missouri at pick 34 and wing Doug West from Villanova at pick 38. Leonard would only play a total of 31 games in the NBA. However, Doug West was one of the fan-favorite players on the early Timberwolves teams. He played 12 seasons in the NBA, nine of them with the Wolves.

West was a hard worker, a decent dunker, and didn’t have much of a jump shot. Fun guy to watch. I hope this won’t sound like slander.

So, who did the Timberwolves miss out on? Well, All-Stars like Shawn Kemp, Mookie Blaylock, Dana Barros, Cliff Robinson (RIP), B.J. Armstrong, and Vlade Divac were all selected later on.

The “What if” Wolves should have drafted Tim Hardaway at #10. Easy choice for me. The second round is where we get a bit tricky. I would try to package picks 34 and 38 to try to move up for pick 26 from the Lakers. I think that would have been good enough value for the Los Angeles to accept that trade.

Besides, they stole our team back in 1960; they owe us.

With the 26^th pick, I would take Vlade Divac, same as what the Lakers did. The real reason to draft Divac is to trade him down the line to the Charlotte Hornets for the first-round draft pick that became Kobe Bryant, but he’ll be a decent center in the meantime.

The rest of the roster was filled out by adding some key players through free agency. The Wolves were able to agree to contracts with forwards Sam Mitchell, Tony Campbell, Tod Murphy, and Donald Royal, with point guard Sidney Lowe.

Here was the first roster for the Minnesota T-IF-berwolves:

Tony Campbell led the team by scoring 23.2 points per game. Forward Tyrone Corbin led in rebounds at 7.4 per game, and the rookie Pooh Richardson led the team with 6.8 assists per game.

Overall, the team finished dead last in points per game with 95.2, second worst defense in the league, giving up 99.4 points per game. Not exactly world beaters. A decent start? Maybe, but most likely not.

Based on my alternate timeline, the Timberwolves would have drafted a future Hall of Fame player and a solid piece we can trade later. Plus, the fans would have been able to watch Vinnie Johnson cook off the bench, watch the last games of Dennis Johnson’s great career, and witness the team miss a lot of threes (The real Wolves shot 73 for 294 on 3-point shots, 24.8%!).

The actual Timberwolves finished with a record of 22-60. My “What If” Wolves could have been 40-42, at least I think so.

Maybe it’s ridiculous to use my one pass to go back in time to fix the least consequential era in Wolves history, but that’s not important. Everyone has something they want to change in this franchise’s history, from the Steph Curry draft in 2009, to the idiotic abandonment of Chauncey Billups in 2002.

Me? I just think this whole expansion business was a missed opportunity.

Suns’ fans have been fortunate to enjoy a great history of radio and television coverage. For the last 25 years, Kevin Ray has built his chapter of this legacy with the TV crew and now starts his tenth year as our eyes and ears during games.

In a video interview Friday, I asked him a range of questions about his best memories, how they prepare for the season and individual broadcasts, that day’s breaking Mark Williams news, this year’s team, and yes, even the “BoomRoom”, his patented signature call for special dunks. For what it’s worth, he’s an even “better dude” in person than what you already see on television. Responsive, thorough, willing to spend the time, and sending more thoughts back that evening. Enjoy his stories below.

Broadcasting Memories and Process

There’s been a lot of high points on the court. But what’s one that’s special to you that’s maybe not the obvious one?

Kevin Ray: Oh, there’s a handful, aside from that magical run to the Finals. Getting to call Booker’s scoring mark a few years ago in Portland certainly sits right up there at the top for me as a broadcaster, on any sport or any team, when you have those moments, those milestone and historical moments, it’s something that we all aspire to be a part of.

Unfortunately, on the local TV side, we don’t get to do playoff basketball anymore. So those kinds of moments become even more significant because, and we’ve talked about this in the industry for a number of years now, it is the one true downside of doing local TV.  You don’t get a chance to do the biggest games and potentially call the biggest moments in a franchise’s history. When those kinds of moments and situations come up and develop, you really lean into them more so than ever before.

Getting to call that game with Book, setting the scoring mark. Also, his game-winner in the Bubble will certainly stand out for a number of reasons. One, just because of what it meant for the team, but the unique situation that we were in: broadcasting remotely, and we were doing the games in as unique a setup, and every team experienced it.

But we were in the old Suns Athletic Club, which is just there adjacent to the arena. We had multiple kinds of broadcast setups with the pregame setup. EJ and I were calling basically from, we kind of laughed, like a janitor’s closet. They were trying to set it up and soundproof it as much as possible, so we’re doing that game broadcast from this little room and trying to pull in and create the kind of energy that you might experience if you’re a sold-out arena. Those are two that definitely stand out.

You’re the eyes and ears to so many fans. With the NBA League Pass, you play that role for 29 other teams’ fans too. Given that responsibility, can you walk through some of the things you do to prepare for both the season and then for individual broadcasts?

Kevin Ray: It’s really kind of a matter of paying attention to the draft, depending on who they draft, how many draft picks they’ve got. I will typically try to watch some of the Summer League games just to get kind of an early page on players and get a feel.

And then you start paying attention to NBA free agency. And even if your team doesn’t appear to be in the market in NBA free agency, I always pay close attention to it just based on who’s going where, so you can kind of get an early thumbnail of, like, okay, this guy is moving from this team. For instance, LeBron James going from the Lakers: we would encounter LeBron four or five times a season, sometimes six, because we played them twice in the preseason a couple years, and then you’d face them four times in the regular season, and now, here we are, we’ll see LeBron only twice, with only one of those being in the Valley. So always pay close attention to NBA free agency, and any kind of injury news that may pop up.

I will also go back and will typically try and review some game broadcasts from the previous year as we get closer to this season. I like to go back and rewatch some of our broadcasts and just kind of pick up on things, anything that I’ve missed, anything that I wanted to improve upon. It also provides an opportunity for me to sit down with our directors and producers if there’s an idea that might pop into our head for an endgame element that we might incorporate or something in the pregame. I will often do that.

And then, that kind of leads up to the season in training camp, and then as far as the game broadcast goes, it’s pretty much the same, although it will vary from time to time, depending on if we’re on the road. Let’s say we’ve arrived in a city at 2AM, and you’ve got a game that night. It’s a back-to-back situation. Your prep is kind of tweaked in that regard. I’ll start, depending on the schedule again, semi-prepping the night before. Let’s say the opponent that we’re playing is playing the night before. I will jump on NBA League Pass and try to watch that game if the schedule allows. That gives me live action that I can reference.

Then typically, the morning of the game, I’ll get up, and first thing I typically do is try to read through some of the stories, like you guys put out there on the Bright Side of the Sun.

I’ll try to go into any of the different platforms that might have game previews or specific stories written for the Suns, a specific player, the matchup, and then I’ll do the same thing for the opponent, whether you’re going to their local newspaper, or it is often the case, so many teams have different platforms available where you’re able to get content.

The stats are readily available to anybody and everybody. You can get all the stats that you want. So, for me, I really try to find off-court news, notes, anything that can personalize a player for the fan. Because I think that goes a long way in finding out who this guy is as a person, and kind of reminding the fans as well. You can highlight how well-rounded they are, and you maybe find a story about, “Wow, this is how he spends his offseason; he’s working on the New York Stock Exchange”, things like that. I think those are important little notes and nuggets that, for me, I enjoy being able to share with the fans because that’s the kind of stuff that isn’t always something that the fans have time to go find. It’s just something that they can kind of file away and get a better understanding of who this player is, what their mental makeup is, and maybe why they’re so important to their team, aside from the fact that they’re a 20-point scorer.

I tell people, I prep right up until tip time, basically. And we have these devices; I can go on Twitter, I can go on Instagram, because you will oftentimes get those little late tips and nuggets that a beat reporter may have just sent out. So that becomes part of my prep as well.

And then beyond those stories, then it’s a matter of putting together my game boards, and those boards consist of the Suns roster, all the stats there, same thing for the opponent. I do have a service that I use. In fact, it’s a service that, I would say, probably 80% of the guys in the league use it and it’s the old adage, ‘work smarter, not harder’. And it’s a company, and basically what they do is they will put together your game board with the player’s name, height, weight, a lot of the, as I call it, the minutiae, that can take a lot of time. And if you’ve got to do that every single game.

They will provide the template and format, and then they will also customize it for you. If there’s specific things that you want on those game boards, they’ll plug that in for you. And then I will typically get those midday, and then at that point, I can download them, and I can then start editing myself so that I can add some of those stories and notes and any stats that they may not have gotten put on the board. And some of those, I’ll type in my computer. Other times, I’ll handwrite them in, and then print them off, and that’s what I use to do each game.

It’s all kind of customized. Every broadcaster is a little different on how they do their boards. For me, I’m a big color guy, so that’s why I will highlight things, and the names and numbers will be in a certain color. I might have their season stats in red. Once I get those boards done, then it’s a matter of sitting down and looking at them and going over them because much of it you try to commit to memory so that you’re not constantly looking down in the course of the game. Because at the speed the game is played, you don’t really have that much time. It’s just kind of a quick reference. You know where that note is on Dillon Brooks, and those are the things that I try to process throughout the course of the day, so that when I get to the arena, it’s more top of mind than it is looking down and specifically reading.

We get into a situation where there’s a dead ball or a free throw, and that gives me a time to look down and say, “Okay, yeah, this next trip, I want to make sure I bring this up.” Or, “At some point here in the first quarter, I want to make sure that I get that.”

I know there’s the announcement that Eddie Johnson is taking a step back this season. How do you make that seem so seamless from one color commentator to another?

Kevin Ray: Yeah, it really comes down to my broadcast partners, like our entire broadcast team, our director, producer, our graphics people; we have been really fortunate and blessed to have really the same crew for 25 years. Even going back to when I first started doing the pregame and postgame show, we are probably one of the few teams in the league that has not had a massive amount of turnover. And that in itself goes such a long way in what I feel like gets brought out in the broadcast to where the fans just feel comfortable, right? It’s like your favorite pair of jeans or your favorite shoes. They just feel different. They feel right versus anything else.

I worked with Annie on Phoenix Mercury broadcasts, and she is a dear friend. Same thing with EJ. I’ve worked with EJ in one capacity or another now for 25 years. Then a handful of other broadcasters that I’ve been fortunate enough to work with. And so, we really do just have a tight-knit group. It is a group that we take our work serious, but we don’t take ourselves too seriously. We have the ability to laugh with one another and laugh at ourselves a little bit. I think that setting, that kind of family camaraderie that we’ve been able to build, I take a lot of pride in being able to convey that in our broadcasts. And I think it’s one of the reasons why I do feel like I’ve been able to kind of work seamlessly with any of the new partners that I’ve had.

Is there a funny story that’s shareable, but not widely known?

Kevin Ray: As you know, EJ and I like to go with one another from time to time. And there was one time — I think it was after a game — we oftentimes get meals served there on the plane. EJ had on one of his fine Italian shirts, and I don’t recall what the meal was, but I do remember pulling out one of the linen napkins, and I tucked it into his collar. So that he would not make any kind of a mess. And the flight attendant and some of our crew got a pretty good laugh out of it.

But I think traveling as much as we do together, and experiencing some of those long days and early morning arrivals, we have weathered a lot as a group, and that story just kind of speaks to how close all of us are.

This Year’s Team

Switching to the team on the court, we recently found out Mark Williams would be out for significant time. Any initial thoughts on this and the team?

Kevin Ray: Yeah, it’s unfortunate. You like to think you can get through an offseason without any hiccups. I think what it shows is just a reminder to the fans that, even though the training camp is still a few weeks away, that these guys are constantly working on their craft. They’re trying to get better. And so, in one regard, you love the fact that Mark was working; it was in a scrimmage. You hate the fact that it results in injury, but I’d rather see the injury in that type of situation versus he was vacationing and something happened.

It doesn’t make it any less impactful, but it just, again, kind of underscores they’re putting in work, and sometimes injuries happen in practice. You don’t get to pick when an injury occurs. So, it will certainly be felt.

I think what it does is puts Man Man (Khaman Maluach) in a position to now…and look, I think two months ago, we were all asking, “Well, gosh, Man Man looked so good in Summer League, right?” And I’ve had a chance to be around him a couple times now in the offseason. I’ve seen the muscle that he’s put on. I’ve seen the work that he’s put in. I heard about some of the work that he’s put in and the improvement. And so, two months ago, everybody was asking, “Well, gosh, how are they going to get him on the floor? How are they going to balance the minutes between he and Mark and Oso?”

Well, life has a funny way of kind of opening a door in this case for Man Man to now potentially, most likely, be the starting center. And you hope that he is ready both physically, but more importantly, mentally, and what you have to look at it as now is the team, the fans, is that we’ve all seen the flashes; we’ve seen the promise with this young man. Well, now you’ve got a chance to really jump on the launching pad and absolutely take off.

And so, I’m always an optimist by nature. I try to look at things, glass half full versus glass half empty. You go from being upset and disappointed for Mark. It’s another setback for him and one that, unfortunately, doesn’t look like it’s gonna be a quick return just based on that kind of injury.

Then you shift your focus to Man Man and say, okay, all right, young fellow, go get it done. Go, go take that next step. Go make that leap. And if you can, it creates a different level of excitement.

I do look for Book to take a step forward. Not that he took a step back last year, but the last few years we have asked Book to do so many different things. And knock on wood, with a healthy Jalen Green and Connie Gillespie back, my hope is that we’ll see Book more in his natural position, which is that off-guard coming off screens, pin-downs, where he could really put opponents in the torture chamber. I want for Book to take a step forward this year, especially this three-point shooting. It was a little bit of a struggle last season.

Boom Room Suite

I see your ‘Boom Room’ sign right behind you. If you were to treat the Boom Room as a penthouse and it could house three inhabitants this year, who do you think they are and who’s knocking on the door?

Kevin Ray: I love that question. I’ve never had anybody phrase a question as it relates to the Boom Room quite like that. So kudos to you. I love that!

I got to put our guy Book in there. I mean, Book’s got the penthouse in the Boom Room. What gets a Boom Room call is typically with a big dunk. Something like that on somebody else’s head, on an opponent’s head. But with Book, we’ve seen him bring the boom, which gets him first-class entrance into the Boom Room, just because of the types of plays that he makes.

I think with the news that we just got, it does open a spot for Man Man. We’ve seen him a couple of times take guys to the Boom Room. So, I’m gonna say Man Man is in there. I don’t think you cannot put Dillon Brooks in the Boom Room, right? Just because of everything that Dillon does, even before it took off, with the stare, that glare down at the opponent’s bench before tip-off.

To me, the guy that is not only knocking on the door, but has a chance, I think, to knock the door down is Rasheer. Here’s a guy — talk about seeing a guy just absolutely blow up in front of you — seeing how big he’s gotten in the offseason, knowing his skill set and freakish athleticism, I think for sure has got a chance to absolutely knock that door down and be a longtime resident in the boom room.

After the interview, Kevin messaged me to add Oso Ighodaro and Miles Bridges to those waiting in the hallway. My personal Boom Room of three would have Jalen Green, Oso, and Miles, with Dillon playing the role of doorman.

The Wrap

Many of us, due to geography or budget, depend on the local and/or NBA League Pass broadcasts to follow the Suns. Every game, viewers spend 200+ hours with Kevin and the crew each year; that’s more than 10 days’ worth of waking hours! It’s energizing to hear the professionalism and energy invested. Let’s hope that one of these seasons (soon) we’re all on that championship flight with KRay as our pilot.

Take a quick look at FanDuel’s listed odds for the Eastern Conference Champion and you’ll see the defending-champion New York Knicks there at +340. After them, you have the Philadelphia 76ers (+400), Boston Celtics (+500), Detroit Pistons (+850), and Cleveland Cavaliers (+900) rounding out the top five. 

However, there is one team missing from that top five that may just be better than all of those championship hopefuls, and that is the Toronto Raptors, who currently sit at sixth-place in the Eastern Conference title race at +950 (an implied probability of 9.5%). If you ask me, this is a gross underestimation of their abilities, and the basketball world is going to rue the day they counted out the Raptors.

There’s a reason SB Nation considers Toronto a top-5 championship contender in the entire league entering the season. Now that they have finally officially landed Kawhi Leonard, the Raptors all the pieces necessary to be a darkhorse for the Larry O’Brien Trophy.

Why the Raptors are so good 

I may be as bullish as anyone I know on the Raptors, but it’s hard not to be after seeing the unique way they were able to improve their team this offseason.

Let me explain. The Raptors and Pistons are not too dissimilar in the sense that they were both elite defensive teams (Raptors were 5th in defensive rating, Pistons were second), lead by their top five picks from the 2021 NBA Draft (Scottie Barnes, Cade Cunningham), who were using this offseason to find ways to get over the hump offensively (15th in offensive rating, 10th). 

For the Pistons, they had to go about this in a very orthodox way. Additions like Isaiah Joe, John Collins, and Ebuka Okorie helped improve their offense. But to get these guys they got rid of Isaiah Stewart (arguably the team’s second-best per minute defender), Tobias Harris (a metronomic veteran presence), and Caris LeVert (67th percentile Defensive Estimated Plus-Minus, per Dunks & Threes). Simply put, they improved their offense, but had to take a hit on defense to do so.

The Raptors’ big offseason acquisition (which looks like it won’t be getting rescinded by the league front office) involved trading Brandon Ingram, Gradey Dick, and first/second round draft capital in exchange for two-time NBA champion Kawhi Leonard. 

Dick, while still a promising player in my opinion, hardly factored into head coach Darko Rajakovic’s rotation last season (averaging just 14 minutes per game), so his loss won’t really be felt. That means that from an on-court perspective, the Raptors swapped Ingram for Leonard – a player who is not only a far superior offensive player, but a marginally better defender as well. 

Not only is Leonard an upgrade on both ends of the floor, but he is also an easier fit alongside other high-usage players. Last season, the Raptors were better with Scottie Barnes on the floor on his own than they were when he shared the floor with Ingram. Meanwhile, the 2018-19 Raptors were better with Leonard and Pascal Siakam (a player with similar offensive shortcomings to Barnes) on the floor together than they were when just one of them was on the court. 

The Raptors’ other marquee edition was Allen Graves, who they took with the 19th overall pick in the 2026 NBA Draft. I’m not going to pretend to be some draft aficionado, but everything I’ve seen from Graves thus far screams immediate two-way impact player. At the very least, he certainly doesn’t tilt their team one way or the other.

Unlike the Pistons, the Raptors were able to build upon their weakness while also avoiding diminishing from their strength. This is without noting that, even with the 35-year-old Leonard, the Raptors are still fairly young. If Rajakovic’s head is in the same place as mine, it’ll mean that the other four players in Toronto’s starting lineup (Barnes, Collin-Murray Boyles, Immanuel Quickley, and RJ Barrett) will all be 27 years old or younger. Then, off the bench they’ll have Graves, Jamal Shead, and Ja’Kobe Walter (all of whom are under 24); plus Jakob Poeltl and Kyle Anderson there to provide some much-needed veteran experience. Tons of room for in-house improvement, but also enough steadiness to survive the rigors of the NBA season.

Yes, all of this hinges on Leonard’s health, which, before last season, was as reliable as a restroom soap dispenser. Prior to 2025-26, Leonard had only played over 60 games once since the last time he called Air Canada home. But is that any more risky than the Celtics relying on Jayson Tatum and Paul George, or a playstyle that keeps leading to upsets in the playoffs? Is it more risky than the 76ers starting a lineup with a 42-year-old, the basketball analytics equivalent of a flat Earther, and Joel Embiid (who has an even more checkered availability history than Leonard)? What about a Cavaliers team with three non-shooters in their opening five and two guards with durability concerns and a huge target hovering over them on defense? Is it riskier than that? I don’t think so. 

All the teams favored over the Raptors have some glaring holes (heck, even the Knicks have to overcome the loss of Mitchell Robinson). On paper, the Raptors have the fewest flaws of any Eastern Conference team. And in the playoffs, the team that comes out alive is usually the one with the least amount of weaknesses.