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When the Detroit Pistons traded Jaden Ivey at the deadline last season for Kevin Heurter, I was a bit underwhelmed. I hadn’t spent a ton of time watching Heurter play throughout his career and pretty much just viewed him as a shooter whose shot had been failing him the last couple seasons.

Say what you want about Jaden Ivey and where things have gone for him since that trade, but getting that value out of somebody you spent the 5th pick on just a few years earlier could be viewed as selling low. Especially since that player had seemingly lost the one skill that he had banked on throughout their career, and Ivey was in the midst of a breakout season before suffering his season-ending injury the prior season and was still hypothetically getting his legs back when dealt.

When Heurter arrived, the shooting was mostly still dormant, but what stood out was all of the little things on the court he was able to do. His finishing around the basket is fantastic, and he can defend well in a team setting. I wouldn’t call him a shot-creator, but he does have some ability to put the ball on the floor and create a little offense for himself and others, especially when playing off of another ball handler, a skillset the Pistons badly need.

All of these things are why he was given a three-year, $27 million deal to return to the team in the offseason. Those are the things that still have value for a bench player, even if his shot never gets back to where it was early in his career. But as the Pistons look to keep their reign at the top of the Eastern Conference, they will need bench players who can provide skills their main rotation players do not, and one of those skills is outside shooting.

If Kevin Heurter hopes to carve out a consistent role in the Pistons’ regular-season rotation, getting his shot back is going to make or break his season.

The Shooting

Kevin Huerter is a 36.8% three point shooter for his career. But that is skewed heavily by four of his first five seasons in which he shot over 38% from beyond the arc, which is also where he got his reputation as a shooter. After hitting a career-high 40.2% of his outside shots as a key member of the 2022-23 Sacramento Kings that ended the season as the 2-seed, his shooting has fallen off a cliff.

He shot 36.1% during the 2023-24 season, still a solid number. However, he only shot 33.8% from beyond the arc in 2024-25 with both the Kings and Bulls. Then, he shot 30.8% last year with both the Bulls and Pistons, but only 29.4% with the Pistons.

It was a small sample size, and he was trending up a bit towards the end of the season before a hip injury kept Heurter out for most of the playoffs. Heurter actually got minutes in game 1 of the playoffs and appeared like he was going to be a part of JB Bickerstaff’s playoff rotation, so the timing of his injury was unfortunate.

Heurter reportedly underwent a procedure to clean up this injury, which had been bothering him for most of last season, so maybe being fully healthy will help get his shooting back on track.

The reason why Huerter has stuck around in team’s rotations the last couple seasons despite the drop-off in shooting are the things I listed above, like his finishing ability and his ability to do the tertiary things that may not show up on a box score. Huerter has shot 75% or above from 0-3 feet since the 2022-23 season with the Kings. He has actually been above 80% from that range the last couple of seasons. That is a very solid number for any player, but especially one who has the reputation as a one-dimensional shooter.

However, over 50% of his shots still come from beyond the arc, which is why recapturing his early-career shooting ability is so crucial.

The Pistons spent the offseason acquiring more players who can put the ball in the basket from beyond the arc. With their young core of Cade Cunningham, Ausar Thompson, and Jalen Duren locked in, the Pistons are positioned well to be a very good regular-season team for the foreseeable future. But, two of those three are not outside shooters, so surrounding them with guys that can shoot is almost as important as getting a secondary offensive option that can take some creation pressure off of Cade Cunningham.

You know that guys like Isaiah Joe, Duncan Robinson, and even John Collins are going to shoot in the high-30s and low-40s from beyond the arc, as that is something they have done for at least the last 3 or 4 years. In the case of Kevin Heurter, you don’t have that same level of trust because of how much the shooting has fallen off over the last couple of seasons.

You also still have players getting rotation minutes beyond the “Big Three,” like Ron Holland, who are still a work in progress from beyond the arc.

So, having a player like Kevin Heurter come off the bench and return to being the 38%+ shooter he was early in his career could be a boon to the Pistons’ rotation. It would also make the contract he signed in the offseason very good value since he does do other things on the basketball court well.

The Pistons don’t need another one-dimensional offensive player who can score inside and play a little defense. They need guys that can hit shots from outside, so Cade Cunningham, Ausar Thompson, and Jalen Duren can attack the basket and dominate games inside like they did all last year. Kevin Heurter, at his peak, can provide exactly that while also being able to put the ball on the floor a bit, finish inside, and not get played off the floor defensively.

The Verdict

JB Bickerstaff seems to trust Kevin Heurter regardless of whether or not he is hitting outside shots. That is evidenced by the fact that he was in the playoff rotation last season before his injury. But, the Pistons did add some more backcourt players in the offseason that will fight for minutes like Ebuka Okorie and Isaiah Joe. Heurter has a size advantage over those two and has the positional versatility to play minutes at the three.

The Pistons also have a few players who will see minutes at the three like Duncan Robinson, Ron Holland, and Javonte Green. Heurter probably can’t reach the level of defense of a Holland or Green or the level of shooting of Duncan Robinson, but some of his complementary skills can be very useful if he is able to get back to form from beyond the arc. He can be somebody who puts some of the skills of both groups of players into one body and can kind of split the difference between all of these likely rotation mainstays.

I don’t see a season quite as good from beyond the arc as he was at his peak, but even getting back to that 2023-2024 season shooting of 36.1% from beyond the arc will be a huge help to the Pistons and give a reason for JB Bickerstaff to continue giving minutes to Heurter.

Mat Ishbia is confident about the Phoenix Suns escaping the first round of this year’s playoffs. Is this fake-it-till-you-make-it internet bluster or are the Phoenix Suns built for playoff success?

Phoenix Suns owner Mat Ishbia predicts team will win opening round playoff series — and the NBA season hasn't even started https://t.co/tzmxG6mttK

— CNBC (@CNBC) October 16, 2026

It wouldn’t be the first time Ishbia expressed his confidence in the potential of the Phoenix Suns. To open the 2025-26 season, The Ringer predicted the Suns’ defense to finish at the bottom of the league, an assertion that Ishbia vehemently rejected. The Suns stamped his words with an exclamation point, finishing in the top 10 in defensive rating. Can the Suns do it a second time and deliver Phoenix its first playoff series win after three years of disappointment?

The answer to that may depend on who they play.

The following are my predictions of how the Suns might fare against the presumptive top 6 teams in the Western Conference in a seven-game playoff series.

Suns 0 – Thunder 4

The Thunder are the team that the Phoenix Suns are building to be. It was very clear in last year’s playoff matchups that the Thunder consistently turned aggressive defensive pressure on the perimeter and active hands into turnovers that sparked eight- to twelve-point runs. That’s exactly what the Suns have described this iteration of the roster to become over the course of the remaining years of Booker’s contract. I don’t think they get there this season. If the Suns want to avoid another first-round exit, they must avoid the play-in and the Thunder.

Suns 2 – Spurs 4

If there’s anything the preseason has shown us, it’s that the Suns have the Spurs number. Despite this, I think handling Wemby, in the manner in which the Suns have been able to contain him, takes its toll, and the supporting cast of Castle, Harper, Fox, and the refs are going to prove to be too much for the Suns to take down. However, I don’t think they go quietly into the night in this scenario and score at least two wins in a six-game scuffle.

*In the event of a Wemby-less Spurs. Suns 4, Spurs 1. Last year, Victor Wembanyama played a total of 1,866 minutes in the regular season. He went on to play an additional 750 minutes in the Spurs’ Finals run, totaling 2,616. In his rookie year, he totaled 71 games played and 2,106 minutes. He followed up with 1,527 minutes and 46 games played his sophomore season. If Wemby struggles to stay on the court, expect a very different playoff experience from the Spurs this season.

Suns 1 – Rockets 4

Houston is a team the Suns don’t match up well against. They have athletic defenders on the perimeter, size inside, and elite scorers that can close out games in the clutch. The Suns struggled in their regular season matchups against the Rockets last season, losing all four. The Rockets are in a similar position to the Suns, where they are leaning on a second year of continuity and improved injury luck to improve off last season’s disappointing finish. While I don’t think Houston is necessarily better than teams that I’ll discuss as possible series wins for the Suns, I do think they are one of the worst postseason matchups the Suns could face.

Suns 4 – Nuggets 3

Nikola Jokic has done his time with the Nuggets, and it shows. By this time next year or the year after, he will be teaming up with Luka on the Lakers and the Nuggets will sink back into the depths of the Western Conference.

Until then, I think the Suns, like every team in the league, will have their hands full with Jokic. This year with Maluach and possibly a healthy Mark Williams, the Suns will have the length and strength to at least make things difficult for the two-time MVP. Denver is, at the end of the day, a finesse team, and the Suns’ new physical defense could give Denver’s potent offense problems they haven’t been able to give them in past matchups.

Still, I think the Suns will need to run the total up when Jokic hits the bench, and the role players will have to deliver an outsized performance for that to happen. Add to that the altitude, and this is a series that screams out for the Suns to secure a 3-4 seed if they want to advance against the Nuggets.

Suns 4 – Lakers 3

The Lakers are retooling for life after Bron, but by the time the playoffs roll around, they should have most of the kinks worked out. There are questions about the defensive acumen of the Lakers’ starting guards, and the Booker/Green backcourt may prove too much for even the best defensive efforts of Luka and Reeves.

Answers to Luka Doncic on offense are hard to come by, and as the Suns saw in ‘22, home-court advantage doesn’t guarantee anything, but if the Suns sneak into a 5 or 6 seed, I like their chances against the Lakers better than a potential matchup against the Rockets or Nuggets.

Suns 4 – Timberwolves 1

Close your eyes and repeat after me. Suns first-round matchup against the Timberwolves. Now say this seven times in the mirror every morning until the playoffs start. This is the clearest path to backing up Ishbia’s bold claim. They moved off of the size that made Minnesota a difficult matchup in hopes of Lamelo being something he hasn’t proven to be in the NBA: a winner. If the Timberwolves make it through the regular season without completely unraveling, the Suns will mop them up in the first round.

There are still a lot of questions to be answered about who each of these teams are going to be by the time the playoffs roll around. There may be some young upstart teams, such as the Jazz or Trail Blazers, that sneak into the top 6. But it seems to me significant that Ishbia and the Suns organization feel optimistic internally. He didn’t set any expectations for the 45-win Suns team to win a playoff series last season. Mat Ishbia is always confident, but never full of expletive. If he says it will happen. I give it a 60 percent chance that it will. That’s a number.

To me, it all depends on who we play, but others might think differently. Let me know in the chat what teams you think give the Suns the best chance to advance, or which teams you think the Suns need to avoid at all costs.

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Of the three Knicks who did not get their desired contract extension heading into the season, Miles McBride’s long-term future with the team is the most at risk.

His agent, Mark Bartelstein, opened up about the team shutting down all extension negotiations.

“No doubt, he would love to get that,” Bartelstein said on SiriusXM NBA Radio. “But at the end of the day, you work for the Knicks and it takes two sides to get a deal done. And if the Knicks aren’t ready to do extensions right now, then we just gotta buckle up and go have a great season. He’ll be a free agent this summer, but we’ll see. We’ve got a great relationship with [president] Leon [Rose] and the front office. We’ll see: there may be opportunities during the season, maybe in the near future. Who knows where we’ll be able to have those conversations.”

McBride is set to make just under $4 million in the final year of his contract this season and will be in line for a dramatic raise if he hits free agency next summer.

Operating under owner James Dolan’s demand to stay under the second apron, it will be extremely difficult for the Knicks to have all five starters on big contracts and still have space left over to give a significant contract to a bench player.

That makes McBride the most likely trade candidate on the roster before the Knicks potentially lose him for nothing in the summer.

And he is someone, as a proven bench contributor currently on a cheap deal, who would actually bring back a strong return.

The Post’s Stefan Bondy predicted in his season preview that McBride will be moved.

McBride has not been as pointed as Karl-Anthony Towns about the negotiations, but he did make it clear that he felt he deserved an extension before the Knicks shut down talks.

“We’ve spoken to the Knicks throughout the summer,” Bartelstein said. “Miles, like any player in his position, would love to get an extension. I think he’s earned it. He’s been a huge part of where that organization has gone over the last three or four years. He’s been their sixth man. A lot of people don’t realize how hurt he played last year in the playoffs. He had abdominal surgery that caused him to miss a couple of months. He came back and he wasn’t really right yet, but he didn’t want to miss the opportunity to be there for his teammates.”

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Dink Pate’s wild basketball journey has landed him back with the Knicks.

The team signed him to an Exhibit 10 contract Saturday and quickly waived him — a housekeeping procedure to get him to their G-League team.

Since Exhibit 10 deals are basically just training camp deals, they expire at the start of the regular season. But as long as he clears waivers as expected, it means the Knicks will keep his G League rights.

Pate, 20, spent last year with the Westchester Knicks. Then, as part of college sports’ increasingly Wild West-like system, he tried to play in college this year at Providence.

He didn’t have previous college experience, having instead opted to play for the G League Ignite before entering the draft last year, where he went undrafted and signed with the Knicks.

But the NCAA recently denied Pate’s amateur status and ruled him ineligible. So with his college hopes dashed, he’s likely headed back to the G League.

Pate, a 6-foot-8 guard, averaged 16.0 points and 3.7 assists with the Westchester Knicks during the G League regular season last year.

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Joel Embiid isn’t planning on taking in the Knicks’ championship festivities before their season opener Tuesday night against the 76ers and Madison Square Garden.

“I don’t really feel like watching that whole ceremony,” Embiid said. “I guess I’ll be in the locker room.”

Jaylen Brown, though, had a different sentiment.

“It’s an honor,” Brown said. “Opening night, it’s primetime, the former champions, I think it’s serendipitous.”

The Dallas Mavericks wrapped up their preseason schedule with a loss to the Atlanta Hawks Friday night. Despite a relatively mundane record (1-3), the preseason allowed Kyrie Irving a chance to prove he’s returning to form and showed how Zaccharie Risacher can contribute when he’s playing at his best (which in fairness, took until the final game).

With the preseason behind them and the regular season just days away, Dallas continues to handle some roster business. This is the time of year when moves around the edges are made and players on the cusp are either retained or let free. In the case of the Mavericks, they made two moves involving familiar names – one, the face of the franchise and the other a rotation piece at the end of last season.

John Poulakidas

The Mavericks gave Poulakidas a two-way contract on March 2, 2026. This was after Dallas traded Anthony Davis and unequivocally ushed in the Cooper Flagg era. With Dallas’ season effectively over by early March, it made sense to take a few flyers and Poulakidas was one of them. For a team that shot below league average from beyond the arc, Poulakidas was a welcome sight and seemingly would have a chance on a Mavs’ team that struggled from deep.

In 13 games with the Mavericks, Poulakidas averaged just shy of 20 minutes per game, and offered up 8.8 points and 2.3 assists per game across those outings. He was everything the team needed as a shooter, having connected on 57.1% of his shots inside the arc and 40.3% from deep. Despite that, Poulakidas’ time as a Maverick has come to an end as of Saturday afternoon. As part of their effort to get to the proper number of roster spots, Poulakidas was waived.

If you’re wondering whether or not this move was in direct correlation to keeping Dwight Powell, it seems to be only part of the story. Even with the departure of Poulakidas, Dallas has to eliminate another standard contract to be in compliance with the 15-man maximum, which means Powell himself could be dropped, is someone else isn’t moved out in order to retain him.

Cooper Flagg

In the least surprising news of the offseason, the Mavericks opted to pick up Flagg’s third year option. A player like Flagg – one who signed their rookie deal last year and who hold a year of NBA tenure – puts his team in position to pick up (or not) their third-year option. This is generally a no-brainer for most teams, given the relative affordability of a rookie-scale deal, but it was of course the most elementary thing imaginable for a player of Flagg’s caliber. The move locks in Flagg for 2027-2028 at just north of $15 million. Next year, Dallas will all but certainly do it all again, to lock Flagg in for 2028-2029.

Adjacent to this news is the curious lack of similar news for Risacher. He too is in position to either get his next year locked up, or not. Having started all four preseason games doesn’t necessarily indicate what will happen. On the surface, his starts suggest he will be a big part of the rotation, possibly even a day-one starter. Perhaps it was more of an effort to give him the necessary burn for the Mavericks front office to make the most informed decision. Dallas still has time to announce his news, so it’s not time to read into anything, but it is something to monitor as we near the November 2 deadline to lock him in.

I invite you to follow me @_80MPH on X, and check back often at Mavs Moneyball for all the latest on the Dallas Mavericks.

The Spurs’ roster is set for opening night, the team announced.

There are no big surprises. As expected, San Antonio will carry 14 standard contracts into the regular season, with those going to De’Aaron Fox, Jordan McLaughlin, Stephon Castle, Dylan Harper, Devin Vassell, Julian Champagnie, Keldon Johnson, Carter Bryant, Harrison Barnes, Tobias Harris, Jayden Quaintance, Tarris Reed Jr., Luke Kornet, and Victor Wembanyama.

The three two-way deals will go to the returning David Jones-Garcia and 2026 Draft second-rounders Maliq Brown and Ja’Kobi Gillespie.

The decision to leave one standard roster spot open is likely tied to the franchise’s cap situation. The Spurs could have only signed a player with no NBA experience to a minimum contract if they wanted to avoid the luxury tax line. Anyone with experience would have pushed them over it. With so much depth and youth already in place, it made sense to keep the slot available in case of a trade or signing opportunity during the season.

Similarly, there was not a lot of suspense about the two-way deals. The Spurs selected Gillespie and Brown with the 42nd and 44th overall picks in the 2026 NBA Draft, so they clearly were enticed by their talent. Jones-Garcia was a standout during Summer League last year, and while he suffered a season-ending injury last season and didn’t shine in preseason, the soon-to-be 25-year-old scorer could become a contributor at the NBA level.

It’s not easy to come up with a depth chart for this year’s iteration, in part because they are set to start three lead guards and a wing at power forward, but there’s clearly enough depth at every position to think another successful season is ahead. Expectations are high, as the Spurs won 62 regular-season games and reached the NBA Finals last year, but the talent for another deep run is clearly in place.

The Spurs will start their season by hosting last year’s Conference Finals opponent, the Oklahoma City Thunder, on Oct. 20th. Tip-off is scheduled for 8:30 p.m. CT.