Category: Sports News

Former Duke Blue Devil Maliq Brown got his first taste of NBA competition Friday night, and held his own in a summer league game vs. the Miami Heat: the new San Antonio Spur played 22 minutes, scored 10 points, shooting 4-7/2-4, and had three rebounds, a steal and a block.

Not bad at all.

On the other side of the court, former Blue Devil Trevor Keels had 18 points, hitting 6-13/2-5, pulling down 7 rebounds, and also had 3 assists and 2 steals.

It was a pretty solid debut for Brown, who still has to earn a full-time spot. Currently, he’s on a two-way contract, but for those who watched closely at Duke, Brown is the sort of player you grow to appreciate.

His greatest talent is his defense, and part of that is his excellent footwork that puts his hands in position to just devastate an opponent. Advanced analytics will suss that out, but most fans won’t fully appreciate it right away.

• Spurs’ four draft picks sign rookie deals
• Maliq Brown elevates for alley-oop jam
• Duke’s Isaiah Evans and Maliq Brown choose new NBA jersey numbers

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If you want to understand why this off-season feels so traumatic for fanbases across the league, stop staring at salary caps and start looking at ownership. Particularly new owners.

We are only three days into free agency — which, realistically, is a lifetime in the modern NBA. But the landscape has already shifted and ironically enough, the three franchises enduring the most radical structural resets right now are Boston, Los Angeles, and Portland. 

Boston traded Jaylen Brown for a 36-year-old Paul George and some picks.  Los Angeles and LeBron James are mutually parting ways after eight seasons. Portland acquired Ja Morant, which is a massive talent splash on paper, but their off-season has been entirely defined by institutional friction. 

It’s not so much a failure due to bad front office execution per se. They are changing dramatically, as it appears, because they all just transitioned into the hands of institutional corporate capital. Look no further than Dallas in February. 2025, when Miriam Adelson and Patrick Dumont provided the blueprint for prioritizing calculated corporate management over legacy … and prioritized real estate development, a plan that ultimately went awry. 

They shocked the league by trading away Luka Dončić for a package centered around Anthony Davis, who is no longer with the team. Neither is the general manager who executed the deal. Nor most of the front office.

Forget the days of new owners immediately throwing blank checks at superstars. Joe Tsai and before him Mikhail Prokhorov tried that in Brooklyn, Mat Ishbia tried it in Phoenix, and both watched it blow up.

The league has officially outgrown the local billionaire fan. Mark Cuban was a fan of the Mavericks and he’s no longer there. The Buss family legacy is engraved into the Lakers and they are no longer there. Paul Allen was a devoted Trail Blazers fan and called it a “dream come true” when he bought the team in 1988. Wyc Grousbeck was a local die-hard kid from Boston.

The ripple effects are felt across the league. While this flood of institutional capital might lure in massive business and drive franchise valuations into the stratosphere, it’s incredibly difficult for the everyday fan to process such dramatic losses in such a short period of time.

The ($) Shift

For decades, the NBA was run by people who treated franchises like highly expensive toys and/or legacy family businesses. Too many to name. Thus under the old model, if an owner had the cash and a championship window, they typically paid whatever it took to keep the band together. Winning a trophy was the ultimate liquidity event for their ego.

Perhaps Tsai, Ishbia and Marc Lore & Alex Rodriguez in Minnesota are the last of a dying breed.

The new collective bargaining agreement (CBA), specifically the implementation of the second apron, killed that behavior. Thus, for new owners, the second apron protected new corporate syndicates from having to spend past a pre-determined ceiling. Even old owners like James Dolan, on top of the world in New York City after winning a Championship, told fans that he would not dip into the second apron because it is “suicidal.”

1. Boston’s Bill

When Bill Chisholm’s group bought the Celtics for a record-shattering $6.1 billion, it wasn’t just a local guy writing a check. It was heavily backed by institutional private equity through Sixth Street Partners. 

The on-court result? Trading away reigning Finals MVP Jaylen Brown to the 76ers for Paul George, two first-round picks and two second-round picks. To be fair, Brown’s name floated around when Grousbeck owned the team but a trade never actually took place for the homegrown star. 

Brown is set to earn $140 million over the next two years. Alongside superstar Jayson Tatum, his contract immediately became a threat to a new owner looking at the financial side of things and not the heart. Two supermax contracts in the second apron is a catastrophic liability that paralyzes the corporate balance sheet.

No thanks.

2. No More Parties in L.A.

In LA, Mark Walter and Todd Boehly finalized a massive transaction that placed a $10 billion valuation on the Lakers, ending 46 years of Buss family control. LeBron’s relationship seemingly ended without much celebration nor sentimentality.

They triggered the first apron with the signing of Walker Kessler but they avoided the second apron by allowing LeBron to walk. He’s one of the greatest if not the greatest of all-time. Do we need to say anything more?

3. Portland’s Portfolio Efficiency

Where do we begin? Up in the Pacific Northwest, the Paul Allen estate finally moved on. They sold the Trail Blazers to a $4.25 billion syndicate led by Tom Dundon. Dundon is a portfolio operator who runs sports teams like lean enterprise businesses. 

He’s made it clear that he isn’t here to be the city’s favorite billionaire neighbor. Nope. He’s optimizing an asset and leveraging local political infrastructure to protect his capital. That’s not unique but his braggadocio is.

Portland’s off-season has been a rollercoaster to say the least. Interim head coach Tiago Splitter was low-balled on offers which made him pack his bags for Chicago. The penny-pinching reached a bizarre climax when the front office replaced him by signing Micah Nori to an unprecedented, completely non-guaranteed coaching contract. 

To be fair, they added a star in Ja Morant who will excite things for the fanbase. But he’s also a star who has been at the center of controversy over the past couple seasons. He’s joined by Damian Lillard who is 35 and coming back from injury is going to be questionable a lot of nights while younger players like Scoot Henderson take a backseat to those two. Continuity, culture, development and all they were building is out of the window… just like that.

New Reality

The narrative you see on social media is usually pretty simple: “This owner is cheap” if blame isn’t allocated towards a front office.

But the reality is a lot colder. The NBA isn’t a collection of sports teams run by eccentric billionaires chasing trophies for their cities anymore. Increasingly, it’s an asset class run by private equity firms and corporate syndicates designed to minimize risk and protect their investments … and divorced from civic responsibility.

No longer your billionaire fan or neighborhood friend. Maybe for old teams, but very few with the new.

When these massive entities buy in at valuations between $4 billion and $10 billion, their primary goal on Day 1 is structural stabilization, operational efficiency, and strict regulatory compliance with the league’s financial rules. The second apron gave the perfect excuse to do exactly what corporate managers do during a takeover: cut costs, shed long-term liabilities, and restructure the staff.

And it’s likely to get even more divorced from the cities it represents. Teams will likely soon have new partners new minority owners from sovereign wealth funds, huge vaults of cash built up by state actors from Norway to Singapore to the U.A.E. Dolan who is spinning off the Knicks from the rest of MSG has spoken openly in the past of selling a chunk of the reigning NBA champions to minority investors including said wealth funds. Hello, Abu Dhabi?

Tsai sold a piece of the Nets, Liberty and Barclays Center to members of the Koch family in 2024 for $688 million but ironically, one member of the family, 27-year-old David Koch Jr., is a basketball fan and after two years as a basketball operations assistant, an entry level position, with the Nets, he was promoted this week to Special Assistant to the General Manager.

There are dangers to the NBA beyond seeing players tossed aside like chattels. It will be more difficult to sell the NBA and its teams to fan bases — and political decision-makers — as civic endeavors particularly when you have owners like Dundon demanding the city of Portland eat the full $600 million cost of renovating the Moda … or he might just move the team elsewhere.

It’s a brand new league. Most don’t care about trading your favorite player to a rival team. As long as people are paying and they continue gaining capital — without dipping into the second apron — then it’s all a way to enhance profits and build valuations.

The NBA world is waiting on LeBron James, and he reportedly has a short list of finalists he’s considering signing with in free agency. When will LeBron make up his mind? Who knows. He’s the top unrestricted free agent on the market by a mile despite turning 42 years old in December, and he can take as long as he pleases before he announces his next move.

Once James is off the board, the top players available will mostly be younger restricted free agents unlikely to change teams barring a surprise. Jalen Duren reportedly wants to leave the Detroit Pistons, but unfortunately for him he doesn’t have any leverage since his team has the ability to match any contract offer. Peyton Watson is in a fascinating situation because Denver probably has to cut salary elsewhere to retain him. Bennedict Mathurin is probably looking at a return to the Clippers, where he should be in line for more minutes following Los Angeles’ decision to trade Kawhi Leonard to the Raptors.

You can find every signing and trade during 2026 NBA free agency at our tracker. Now, let’s rank the best remaining free agents left on the market.

11. Gary Trent Jr.

Need a pure off-ball shooter? Gary Trent Jr. might be the best available. Over the last five seasons, he’s made 38.5 percent of his three-pointers on 11.1 attempts per 100 possessions. His pull-up three ball off the dribble is less reliable after only hitting 28.6 percent of those last season.

10. Bruce Brown

Brown can still be a connective guard even if he’s lost the scoring juice he once showed on the 2023 champion Nuggets. He can be a low-cost shooter and defender in the backcourt who can soak up some minutes, but he doesn’t really move the needle in a major way anymore.

9. Brandon Williams

Williams is a 26-year-old point guard who took a leap in the second half of last season. He’s an excellent driver who can touch the paint and force his way to the foul line. His lack of size and shooting caps his value somewhat, but he feels like he could be one of the more high-upside players still available.

8. Jonathan Kuminga

The idea of Kuminga as some young superstar in waiting has totally dissipated at this point. If he wants to carve out a lucrative NBA career, he’s going to need to realize he needs to improve his defense, rebounding, and spot-up shooting with his bully-ball drives as only part of the package, not the entire sell.

7. Gary Payton II

Payton still grades out as an impactful player because he’s an efficient scorer (63.5 percent true shooting last season) who grabs a lot of offensive rebounds for a guard and forces turnovers on defense. He’s only good for 15-20 minutes a night at this point at age-33, but he could add value for a contender on a cheapo contract.

6. Rui Hachimura

Hachimura is big and strong for a wing with a nice spot-up three-point stroke. He made 42.6 percent of his threes during his three full years on the Lakers, but his volume wasn’t great at only 6.4 attempts per 100 possessions. He doesn’t rebound or defend all that well, and his playmaking is non-existent.

5. Bennedict Mathurin

Mathurin can score in bunches, but he’s never been particularly efficient because he’s a low-ish volume 33.6 percent three-pointer shooter for his career. He can really rebound the ball for a wing. Still only 24 years old, he should get a solid deal to return to the Clippers, but probably needs to make himself more of a dirty work guy going forward.

4. Peyton Watson

Watson has always been a good wing defender, but he exploded as a scorer when Nikola Jokic got hurt midway through last season. Watson eventually went down with a hamstring strain that took him out of the playoffs, so there are still questions on if his improved scoring punch is actually sustainable. His shot diet features a lot of mid-range looks, but he did show some ability to knock them down at a better-than-average clip last season before the injury.

3. James Harden

Harden opted out of his player option to give the Cavs more flexibility to try to sign LeBron James. He’s one of the best regular season guards ever, but on the brink of his 37th birthday, it’s becoming foolish to think he’ll ever avenge his playoff demons.

2. LeBron James

James is probably the second-best player in league history, and it still feels like he’s a top-50 player in the league as he readies to turn 42 years old midway through next season. I’d love to see him in Minnesota, but I still think it’s Warriors or Cavs for his future.

1. Jalen Duren

Will Duren consider playing on the qualifying offer to get out of Detroit? That would be massively risky if the Pistons are offering him $140 million guaranteed. Take the money, Jalen, and try to help the Pistons get to the NBA Finals next year after a deeply disappointing playoff run.

Will Dawkins has made a habit of buying low on assets deemed negative by their previous teams.

He did so with Trae Young, then Anthony Davis and now Deandre Ayton, who all enter Washington under similar circumstances: Their former teams wanted nothing to do with them, and yet the Wizards wanted everything to do with them.

Dawkins first acquired Young for the low price of CJ McCollum’s expiring contract and Corey Kispert. Then he acquired Davis for four players not in Washington’s plans beyond last season and five picks — two late first-rounders and three second-rounders — that weren’t the team’s own.

Four months later, Dawkins has struck again, this time acquiring Ayton for Jaden Hardy and second-round picks in 2031 and 2032. It marked another smart move by Washington’s fourth-year general manager as the team builds toward its first season of true competitiveness since 2017-18.

Why the trade makes sense

The Wizards entered free agency needing a backup center.

Behind Davis and Sarr sat Tristan Vukcevic, Felix Okpara and Julian Reese. While capable big men in their own ways, competing in a talented Eastern Conference with such raw and inexperienced frontcourt depth appeared risky.

But the search didn’t stop at experience or even talent. The Wizards needed a backup center not only equipped to produce in 20-25 minutes a night but also capable of starting 15-20 games as an insurance policy for Davis, who played just 71 games over the last two seasons.

Dawkins checked all three boxes when adding Ayton, who averaged 12.5 points and 8.0 rebounds on 67% FG with the Los Angeles Lakers.

The 7-footer shot an NBA-best 80.1% at the rim in 2025-26 and ranks second in the NBA in FG% within five feet over the last three seasons.

For a Wizards team that ranked dead last in the NBA in defensive rebounding percentage last season, Ayton’s career 93rd-percentile defensive rebounding percentage should certainly help.

While Ayton’s always provided efficient interior scoring and above-average rebounding, his critics highlight his inconsistent play, poor hands and apparent disinterest in buying into his role as reasons he’s incapable of being a starting center on a contender.

It’s a somewhat fair assessment of a player blessed with incredible skills he’s never truly realized.

The good news for the Wizards is that this role is different. The former No. 1 pick won’t be required to start 72 games like he did on a 53-win Lakers team. Nor will he be given the workload asked of him in Los Angeles, Portland or Phoenix.

Ayton needs to set screens, finish around the rim and rebound in a bench role for a Washington team stacked with young talent and accomplished veterans. Seems like an easy ask.

The Wizards didn’t give much to acquire Ayton, either. Hardy wasn’t an expected rotation player, and the two second-round picks don’t make a dent in Washington’s war chest of them.

Dawkins said adding depth next to and behind Sarr was a goal at February’s trade deadline and into the offseason. Washington’s GM has done that by acquiring Davis and Ayton to compliment his young shotblocking center.

What it signals

Trading future draft capital to fill a roster hole signals a shift in Washington’s team-building philosophy.

It’s a transaction that suggests the Wizards have entered a new phase of their rebuild, one uninterested in taking on bad contracts for draft capital or trading talented players for promising prospects and future picks.

Washington is finally serious about competing. And its roster supports that desire.

The Wizards had a gaping hole at backup center. And instead of signing a player like Marvin Bagley III to a veteran minimum deal to temporarily fill that void, they traded two future draft assets to secure a starting-caliber center in Ayton to serve in a bench role.

It’s not a move that immediately turns the Wizards into title contenders. But it’s a noteworthy transaction regarding the team’s direction, which is one focused on assembling a group talented enough to make noise in the East.

Wow, the NBA offseason has been a wild ride over the last couple of days. With free agency kicking off and trade season underway, we have already seen some big dominoes fall. LaMelo Ball to the Timberwolves, Giannis Antetokounmpo to the Heat, Kawhi Leonard back to Toronto, and most recently, the Jaylen Brown trade that sent him to Philadelphia.

All this hectic moving of stars has definitely shaken up the landscape for the next year, and it just goes to show that a lot can change in just one offseason. Teams are always looking to improve and find ways to get to the NBA finals, and at this rate, it only takes one bad playoff performance to make their minds up. That’s what happened in Boston, as we just saw all of this unfold. With two disappointing exits, they realized this iteration of the team could no longer compete for championships.

Regardless of how you feel about the value the Celtics saw in this deal, they needed to move off Brown for whatever reason and focus on their new path to bring a championship back to Boston. That said, many Suns fans are furious that they did not get in on the deal.

Well, to put it lightly, they never had a chance, and for multiple reasons.

As many of you know, I am a Massachusetts native who writes about the Suns. The Celtics are my home team, and I’ve spent most of my life, besides my college years, in this state. Even if I still have a heart that beats purple and orange, my love for the green and gold will never fade.

From what it seems, the value of Brown around the league was very low. At first, Celtics general manager Brad Stevens was looking for upwards of 4-5 first-round picks for Jaylen. When offers for that were unavailable, it was said he went back to those teams and made the best offer he could. This shows the Celtics’ valuation of Brown was higher than the league’s.

That simply suggests Phoenix could have had a chance, but with what? They had already traded their most valuable draft asset, the 2033 first-round pick, for Miles Bridges this past Sunday. They could have expanded on this deal, since it hasn’t been made league official, but who is to say the Celtics wanted Bridges, Grayson Allen, or Royce O’Neale? Who is to say the Hornets wanted to lose any of those guys, either?

Even with their other draft capital, like the picks they opened up or the 2029 one, those were not nearly as valuable as the ones Philly was willing to give up. The 2029 first-round pick they got back is the worst of the four teams, and it’s going to be a bottom-10 selection. Why would Boston entertain that when they could get a lottery pick in the Clippers swap from 2028?

Then you look at what else the Suns have to trade: it’s just Jalen Green. Green, who is still young and has some potential, could be a nice fit to reset around, but does Boston feel confident in that? When he suited up in Boston this year, he had 21 points on 8-of-20 shooting and 1-of-7 from three with seven rebounds and one assist. Obviously, that is one game, but the sample size does not look good for Boston in that regard.

You also add that Green is looking for a new extension and is playing for it. With him being younger, you could be excited by that, but then have to deal with the fact that you either pay him or lose him for nothing. With George at least, even if he opts into that $50+ million free payday next year, it’s an expiring tradable.

With Brad Stevens, you never know what is up his sleeve, so never say never. But it seemed too far away for Phoenix to reach. Boston would have asked for the young assets in Khaman Malauch and Rasheer Fleming, and then it would have gone further back than it would have gone forward.

That does not mean, though, that the Suns can’t get aggressive at any moment. Even if the roster is full now with Luke Kennard signing going into the year, we could see some shakeups with weird fits. It will be a challenge for Jordan Ott, but the challenge will not be trying to fit in Jaylen Brown, one that would have been worth it if they had the ammo.

Could you believe Cape Verde was this close to advancing in the knockout stages of a freaking World Cup!? Didn’t happen, but the African nation surely made Lionel break a sweat. Sweet goal!

Anyway, links and notes…

• Once and for all, the Knicks landed a backup center in signing uber-veteran Andre Drummond to a one-year vet minimum deal. If you’re coming out of a coma, traitors Mitchell Robinson and Ariel Hukporti left for Boston and Philadelphia. Mandatory cap note: He will receive $3.9 million but count for only $2.4 million against the Knicks’ apron math.
• Dr. Dru, known as the Big Penguin, is 32 and from Connecticut, and reportedly liked the idea of coming back to his old “neighborhood,” wrote The Athletic’s Fred Katz.
• The Knicks are now roughly $6.5 million below the second apron, and can get to the 14-man minimum with two more veteran minimum signings. Two of those could be Jonas Valanciunas and Jordan Clarkson, according to The Athletic and the New York Post’s Stefan Bondy.

“The Knicks still have two roster spots to fill and roughly $6.5 million remaining under the second apron. Jonas Valanciunas, another veteran center, is a target to further bolster the frontcourt depth, according to The Athletic. Jordan Clarkson, a guard, is also a candidate to return, sources said.”

• Rich Paul basically killed the LeBron-to-Knicks scenario on his podcast, confirming New York “checked in,” but adding that it would be hard to mess with something that just worked, putting LBJ at risk of being labeled a literal and legit party pooper.
• Here’s Rich Paul’s infamous whiteboard, soon-to-be relic of better times.
• Then, shortly after, the New York Post’s Stefan Bondy cited league sources claiming the Knicks’ signing of LeBron is “not gonna happen.”
• Paul also pushed back on the idea that this is definitely LeBron’s final season. So, doc, or no doc, doc?
• Per ESPN’s Shams Charania, LeBron has narrowed down his list to six teams.

• Kyle Kuzma went off on the current CBA and said the next negotiation will be a “do or die moment” for NBA players. His basic point was built around the fact that both the first and second aprons are functioning like a hard cap, hurting player value, movement, and team continuity.

“After sitting here watching NBA free agency this year and overall NBA movement over the past 2 years somebody has to say it… The next CBA is a do or die moment for us as players. It’s only going to get worse for us. We need transparency, accountability, and a serious re evaluation of who is representing us and how they are representing us.”

• ESPN’s Brian Windhorst threw more fuel into the Jaylen Brown trade fire and included some brutal league-side framing in his latest story. Some sources told Windy that Philadelphia basically got Brown for “free,” or close to it, because Paul George’s contract is viewed as such a headache.
• James Dolan is stepping back from day-to-day Rangers ownership duties and handing those responsibilities to his son, Quentin Dolan. Unluckily, it’s not happening to the Knicks.
• Jalen Brunson revisited his Mavericks past with Sports Illustrated, looking at an old photo with Luka Doncic and handing over the receipts.
• The Lakers are definitely committed to doing something in between a teardown/rebuild/reconfiguration/retool of their whole dam roster following a flurry of FA moves and after trading Deandre Ayton to Washington for Jaden Hardy and a couple of second-round picks on Friday. Ayton, LeBron, Marcus Smart, Luke Kennard, and Jaxson Hayes are all gone from last season’s roster, while Rui Hachimura remains unsigned and is on the outside looking in. Not that the incoming players are making them better, Melissa Rohlin writes.
• Stephon Marbury apparently has smoke for Richard Jefferson. Scoop B Robinson had the details on a since-deleted video where Marbury called out Jefferson after what he described as a hollow handshake, then wrote in the comments that “ESPN cannot gatekeep for you.” Sheesh…

Happy 250th birthday America! And keep chatting about moves that happen in the NBA. There will be moves happening with various teams, even if it’s an American holiday!