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It would be hard for Jalen Brunson to have an even more productive Game 2 after his Game 1 heroics, but the New York Knicks would probably be quite glad if he did not take three quarters to find his rhythm.

These Cavaliers vs. Knicks predictions and Jalen Brunson picks recognize how Brunson finally broke through in Game 1 and expect that playmaking in Game 2 tonight.

Jalen Brunson prop pick for Game 2

Jalen Brunson best bet: Over 6.5 assists (+105 at bet365)

This price has hardly changed from Game 1, +110 then. This prop at 6.5 has not changed from Game 1, when Jalen Brunson managed six assists.

“Managed” is an intentional verb choice. Brunson reaching six assists despite the New York Knicks’ wretched shooting should be praised.

Remove Brunson’s 15-for-29, and New York shot 27-for-59 from the field, 45.8%. It's a wonder he notched six assists.

If the Knicks had not been absolute garbage outside of Brunson, a seventh assist would have been likely.

Chalk up some of that shooting to rust thanks to sweeping the 76ers, and chalk up some of it to the Cleveland Cavaliers’ defense, but do not expect it to be so atrocious again tonight.

Jalen Brunson same-game parlay

Brunson did not play particularly well in Tuesday’s first three quarters, either. He was 7-for-20 from the field, including 0-for-5 from beyond the arc, but when he stopped taking such a chunk of his shots from deep, Brunson found holes in this Cavaliers defense.

He proceeded to go 8-for-11 from the field in overtime and the fourth quarter, hitting the only 3-pointer he took. In those same 15 minutes from Brunson in 17 minutes of game action, he found four of his six assists.

It took a while, but Brunson found the way to carve up Cleveland. Drive and finish or drive and kick.

Presumably, the Cavaliers will not leave James Harden so exposed against Brunson, thus cutting down on Brunson’s total points output, but that should only leave other Knicks open.

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

It feels like just yesterday Sixers fans were in ferocious debates over who the team should select No. 3 overall in the 2025 NBA Draft. The team ultimately took VJ Edgecombe out of Baylor.

There was also a sector of the fan base who contemplated what the Sixers could get in a Tyrese Maxey trade after the Orlando Magic paid a draft pick ransom to the Memphis Grizzlies for Desmond Bane.

Fast forward to the end of the 2025-26 season and it’s hard to imagine where the Sixers would be without the VJ-Maxx backcourt in the fold. Despite a second-round sweep by the New York Knicks and complete chaos surrounding the franchise, Maxey and Edgecombe represent a fleeting feeling amongst fans — hope.

The Sixers are locked in with max contracts for Paul George and Joel Embiid. The likelihood of either being moved this summer seems low. Daryl Morey is out, while his successor has yet to be named. Nick Nurse’s seat probably isn’t the coldest. There’s plenty of uncertainty and dismay over where the organization goes from here.

But none of those questions revolve around the future of the Maxey-Edgecombe backcourt.

“He’s been exceptional,” Maxey said of Edgecombe after the team was eliminated. “That’s the word that I can use, exceptional. Man, I know I sat up at this podium a lot and talked about him a lot this season, just about his maturity, about all the different things that he brings to the game. He had a hell of a rookie season, man. Hell of a not just rookie season, hell of a season. A lot of guys in the NBA wish they had a season like him. So the sky’s the limit. Future is bright.”

Edgecombe was better than just about anyone could’ve anticipated. He was a First Team All-Rookie pick and finished third in Rookie of the Year voting, doing so in a stacked draft class while playing for a playoff team. For the season, he averaged 16.0 points, 5.6 rebounds, 4.2 assists and 1.4 steals per game while shooting 43.8% from the field and 35.4% from three. For a 20-year-old rookie with his athletic profile, that’s a damn fine statistical rookie season.

His numbers were unsurprisingly down during the postseason, but stellar performances in Games 2 and 7 against the Boston Celtics flashed his serious potential. Between his athleticism, skill and intangibles, it’s not hyperbolic to think Edgecombe has star potential.

“VJ is up next,” Embiid said. “Philly got a good one in him. He’s the guy. I’m telling you guys, that guy is something different. And this was only year one. Year two is going to be better. Year three, even better. But he has a chance to be extremely special.”

If you’ve learned anything about Edgecombe this season, it’s not at all surprising to hear how much he deflected praise and poured it on his teammates. There is a required delusional confidence Edgecombe possesses, but it doesn’t raise to the level of arrogance — quite the opposite.

He frequently cites his hard work as a reason for his confidence while deflecting much of the credit for his team’s success onto others. It’s very similar to the way Maxey carries himself. It’s easy to see why the two have been such a natural pairing.

“For me, from day one,” Edgecombe said of Maxey, “before I even knew I was getting drafted here, he welcomed me with open arms. I’ve been learning from him since then — just trying to keep building that relationship, keep building that chemistry. And I’m really proud of how he handled the season, a lot of ups and downs.”

Both players will go back to the lab this summer, looking to add to their games and fix the flaws that revealed themselves this postseason.

Edgecombe talked about wanting to play on the ball more to help keep the pressure off Maxey. Maxey talked about playing more off the ball to help Edgecombe develop more as a ball-handler. They also talked about Edgecombe making his way to Dallas this summer for a workout.

“I know probably like two, three years ago, I sat up here with Joel and sat up here with James, and they saw something in me,” Maxey said. “And I guess I’m getting old now because I’m sitting up here with VJ, and I’m just happy to be a part of his journey. I’m happy to be someone who can help him.

“And another thing is, I’m just going to push him to be as good as he possibly can, because it’s a lot more left in that tank that we’re gonna get out of him. And he’s someone that it’s not gonna take much. You ain’t gotta push his buttons much. He works too hard and he wants it too much.”

Nobody really knows where the Sixers go from here. Bob Myers, who is leading the charge to find the organization’s next president of basketball operations, spoke to reporters for the first time last week. He didn’t offer much as far as the direction the franchise will go.

The reality is, the next person in charge will have their work cut out for them. The Sixers’ depth was a major issue at times through the regular season, but it was on full display as the team was ran out of the gym in a four-game sweep to the Knicks. How you build out that depth with so little resources is a huge question mark.

But the most alluring part of this job to any executive candidate is going to be Maxey and Edgecombe. Once the Embiid and George contracts are off the books — one way or another — they’ll be able to build around this electric backcourt.

On nights when Embiid is ailing and George needs a rest, just remember Maxey and Edgecombe will be running things soon.

“It’s surreal to see,” Edgecombe said of Maxey’s ascenion. “He’s gonna be a superstar for years to come. I’m really proud to just be a part of the journey. He’s just been so great for me, for this team. We ain’t going anywhere without him.”

The King has spoken.

LeBron James has presented a timeline regarding his future and when to expect an update on his decisions. Yes, plural.

James, 41, will be an unrestricted free agent coming off his 23rd NBA season where he led the league in fast break points while averaging 20.9 points, 6.1 rebounds and 7.2 assists per game. He could consider retirement. Or, he could opt for his 24th NBA season – further extending the NBA record for most seasons played.

And if year 24 is the answer, there would most definitely be suitors. But pump the brakes.

During an episode of his podcast "Mind The Game" with Steve Nash, James shared that he hasn't really thought about what his next chapter is going to be, whether retirement, a return to the Los Angeles Lakers or possibly even a different team.

"I'm still in the moment of like, just taking my time," James said. "I haven't even really thought about it too much. Obviously, I understand that I'm a free agent and I can control my own destiny, (if it's) being here with this (Lakers) franchise for the foreseeable future, or if it's going somewhere else."

James elaborated on a timeline leaning into late summer for when he'd have a decision, but first come his priorities – family.

"I haven't even really even gotten to that point. I haven't even taken my family vacation yet, which is going to happen after Memorial Day. That's kind of the thing at the forefront of my mind," James said. "But I think at some point you know, up until late June, as July rolls around, free agency starts to get going and July's rolling and maybe into August we start to kind of like get a feel of what my future may look like."

Whether James continues to play the game that he loves is up in the air. What's not in question is his ability to do so.

James said he knows he can "still give so much to the game and play at a high level" but hasn't came to a point where he's making a decision.

"When I get there, it'd be fun to kind of see what the future could hold," he said.

Tiers. It’s a subject we spent plenty of time discussing here at Bright Side of the Sun as we worked through our postseason SunsRank rankings.

Having tiers created a much more structured approach to ranking every member of the Phoenix Suns roster and determining who the team’s best players actually are. That’s the beauty of tiers. They provide segmentation and definable categories, making the entire exercise easier to navigate and comprehend.

Anybody who plays fantasy football already understands this concept. Tiers become incredibly important when you’re on the clock, scurrying to determine who should come off the board next. If you’ve already separated players into groups, the decision-making process becomes cleaner and easier to process. So yes, I love me some tiers.

When you extrapolate that concept outward beyond just the Suns roster though, it becomes an even more useful tool for understanding and ranking players across the NBA as a whole. It’s also an incredibly daunting task, one I absolutely do not envy. Thankfully, Law Murray of The Athletic has been tackling exactly that challenge, releasing a series of articles breaking players across the league into different tiers. I highly recommend reading the series and appreciating the work.

It’s a far more in-depth process than what we did with SunsRank because you’re evaluating the entire NBA landscape. There aren’t clean labels like cornerstone, pillar, wildcard, or depth piece. Instead, it’s tier-based with subcategories like Tier 2B or Tier 3A. Still, the overall goal remains the same: creating structure around player evaluation.

Murray has five tiers, with the following designations:

Now that those tiers have started rolling out, we finally have a national perspective on where certain members of the Suns roster land within the larger NBA hierarchy. And while rankings are typically something we roll our eyes at, I find value in these rankings. Because it allows us to see a structured perception. This isn’t some click-baity article meant to stir conversations in the doldrums of social media. These are rankings that, much like SunsRank, carry historical caveats within. You can see either progression or digression, which provides a greater context and layer to the conversation.

So where did the Suns players end up? Let’s start by reviewing the entire list of Suns’ players, and then delve a bit further.

My initial reaction to seeing these rankings is that, internally, the Bright Side writing staff and community largely got it right. Through all of the thought exercises, tier definitions, and polling, the order of where Suns’ players ranked locally and nationally was very…what’s that word Brian Gregory has made us fall in love with?…aligned!

If you remember our SunsRank exercise, Devin Booker was followed by Dillon Brooks and Jalen Green in the writers’ rankings, while the community rankings flipped Brooks and Green. Even then, the margin between the two on the community side was razor-thin, with only five votes separating them. Both Collin Gillespie and Grayson Allen made the list as well, although our writing team had Mark Williams ahead of Grayson in SunsRank. But overall, having 5 players in the top 125 is a solid foundation.

Seeing Green ultimately land below Brooks by three sub-tiers in Law Murray’s rankings actually fortifies how the local fan base views those players relative to one another. Green has the talent, the upside, and the athleticism. But Brooks is the emotional leader, the tone setter, and the one who carries with him a much more deliverable price-for-value paid.

What becomes really interesting, though, is when you start digging deeper into where each player lands compared to the rest of the league within their respective tiers. And probably the most surprising thing for people outside Phoenix, at least from a national perspective, is seeing Booker land in Tier 2D.

Only one player other than James Harden fell in their ranking as compared to last season. And that player is Devin Booker. It’s a reminder, and honestly a reinforcement, that the perception of Devin Booker both locally and nationally is beginning to shift. The feeling now is that he’s falling out of that true superstar stratosphere, that a player who once comfortably lived in the top 15 conversation is starting to slide further down those lists.

Whether the driving factor is production, overall skill set, or some combination of both, it’s understandable why he ended up in this tier.

I’ve said it multiple times recently. Booker is a star. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with being a star. Still, the conversation naturally changes once a player is being paid superstar money. That’s where the value discussion begins to creep in, fairly or unfairly. It’s a conversation you know and I know we will continue to have for quite some time, because we are beginning to enter that uncomfortable space where the price tag rises as the potential for production wanes. We’re not there yet. But it’s just over the horizon, and some do not want to see that day.

At this point though, Booker remains the foundation and backbone of the Phoenix Suns franchise.

Per Murray:

The shooting guards here are Devin Booker and De’Aaron Fox, two players who could also be called point guards. Booker has won just four playoff games without Chris Paul on the floor with him, and all five of Phoenix’s series wins with Booker have been against a team missing a star for all or part of the series (Anthony Davis, Jamal Murray, Kawhi Leonard, Zion Williamson, Paul George). That’s not to say that Booker isn’t a very good player. The Suns would be lost without him, as he is his team’s best chance for anything close to efficient offense, and he competes on defense. But he would benefit significantly from three things: a point guard who consistently helps him get easier shots, another star teammate at any position and a head coach who can stick around a while (Jordan Ott is Booker’s eighth head coach).

Sometimes I feel defensive when national writers speak to who and what Booker is. I poke my nose into the sky and sigh, knowing that they typically are only touching the surface. But in this case, is Murray wrong? I think not. And that realization is one that many still struggle to come to grips with.

Further down the list is Dillon Brooks, who lands in Tier 4C. Who is he next to in the rankings?

I think this ranking is appropriate as well.

Dillon Brooks absolutely elevated his game this past season, and people around the league took notice. He was one of the few risers who landed in Murray’s 4C. For a long time, and I’ll include myself in this, what he did with the Memphis Grizzlies often felt more rooted in antics, while his stint with the Houston Rockets came across as more annoying than impactful. Last season changed that perception.

What Brooks did in Phoenix reinforced the idea that he genuinely moves the needle. Emotionally, he’s always done that. This year though, he proved he could do it through offensive production and through the cultural impact he had on a basketball team. Nobody expected the Phoenix Suns to be remotely competitive entering the season. Then you inject Brooks into the equation alongside a group of young, feisty players, and suddenly the entire identity of the team shifts. The league noticed that. His placement within these tiers reflects exactly that.

And then there’s Jalen Green, who fell into Tier 4E.

You’ll notice I added a third column to this tier breakdown because I think it’s unbelievably important to the conversation.

I’ll start with the obvious. Jalen Green missed 50 games this season, and that absolutely impacted how he’s perceived both locally and nationally. Interestingly enough though, his tier placement one season ago was also Tier 4E. Then you start looking around the rankings and notice players like Ja Morant, who missed 62 games, sitting in Tier 3E. Or Domantas Sabonis, who missed 63 games and also lands in Tier 3E. That’s where your eyebrow starts to raise a little because it forces you into an uncomfortable realization.

The national perception of Green simply isn’t where it needs to be right now.

That matters because the Phoenix Suns are about to pay him $36.3 million next season, and when you scan the players around him in these rankings, he’s making significantly more money than most of them. You start understanding why the fans who want Green traded this offseason may ultimately be disappointed.

Based purely on this type of ranking system, you can see that his national value probably isn’t high enough right now to bring back the kind of desirable assets Phoenix would want in return to meaningfully move the franchise forward. Now granted, this isn’t a ranking system put together by NBA executives or general managers. It’s the perspective of a writer at The Athletic. Still, it provides insight into how Green is viewed nationally, and that’s really the crux of the Suns’ current situation.

Even if Phoenix were interested in exploring trades involving Green, which honestly I don’t believe they are right now, this probably isn’t the time to do it.

Now we turn to a pair of players who saw their stock rise this season. First up? Collin Gillespie.

As Collin Gillespie approaches unrestricted free agency this offseason, his rising national value becomes incredibly important. Ultimately, that perception could help dictate the price point at which the Phoenix Suns bring him back, something that certainly appears to be a priority for the organization.

It’s funny because when you look across Tier 5A, most of the players in that grouping are either making a lot of money already or are players beginning to trend downward in their careers. There are exceptions though, and Collin is one of them. His value is clearly rising after what was a breakout season for him.

Locally, we understand the context. We watched him fade a bit as the season progressed. Still, when you step back and evaluate the season holistically, the value is obvious. The hope entering next year is that the progression continues, he takes another step forward, and his placement in these rankings keeps climbing.

Lastly, there’s Grayson Allen.

He landed just one tier below Collin Gillespie and is the second-oldest player within that grouping. Like Gillespie, Allen did not crack the top 125 rankings a season ago, which serves as a reminder of how valuable he still is around the league. It also reinforces the idea that he could ultimately become one of the pieces the Phoenix Suns move if they decide to pivot certain aspects of their roster construction.

Allen possesses one of the more tradable contracts on the roster, paired with a skill set that translates almost anywhere. Shooting always travels. Teams are always looking for secondary scoring and spacing off the bench. Because of that, it’ll be interesting to see what his market value actually looks like around the league.

That said, regardless of what Phoenix could potentially get back in return, moving off Allen absolutely hurts your depth and second-unit scoring.

What these rankings ultimately reinforce is something Suns fans are still wrestling with emotionally. Phoenix has good players. Legitimately good players. The issue is the league no longer views the roster as one built around overwhelming star power. Instead, it’s increasingly viewed as a team trying to construct functionality, depth, and identity around Devin Booker rather than simply stacking names and hoping it all works. Honestly, that’s probably healthier long term, even if it feels less sexy on paper.

And that’s where these tiers become valuable. They strip away emotion and force you to evaluate the roster through a colder lens. Booker remains the clear headliner, although nationally he’s drifting closer toward “high-end star” than “untouchable superstar.” Brooks is gaining respect because his impact finally translated into winning basketball people could quantify. Gillespie and Allen are viewed as legitimate rotational pieces. Green remains the wild card, simultaneously carrying the highest ceiling and the most uncomfortable price-to-production conversation on the roster.

Taken together, the rankings paint a pretty honest picture of where the Suns currently exist within the larger NBA ecosystem. Competitive. Interesting. Deeper than expected. Still lacking the kind of top-end hierarchy that typically defines true championship contenders.