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And-Ones: Fan Favorites, Media Deal, Bacon, Shooting Guards

May 26th, 2024 at 3:04pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

The votes have been tallied for league appreciators’ “Fan Favorites” for the 2023/24 season, per NBA.com. Fans voted for various categories via the NBA App, NBA.com and the @NBA handle on social media.

All-Star Timberwolves shooting guard Anthony Edwards won Block, Dunk and Photo of the Year honors, while Bulls swingman DeMar DeRozan won Assist of the Year, All-NBA Thunder point guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was honored with the Style of the Year accolade, and Mavericks point guard Kyrie Irving was praised for possessing the Handle of the Year.

There’s more from around the wider basketball world:

  • NBA players stand to reap major financial benefits from the league’s lucrative impending batch of media rights deals, writes Mike Vorkunov of The Athletic. As Vorkunov notes, based on the terms reported, the agreement is set to pay the league $6.9 billion annually, which is about two-and-a-half times what the league is earning under its present TV deal. Suddenly, a $100MM maximum annual player salary is in play, and could possibly happen as soon as 2032/33.
  • Following a prolific season with Shanghai Dongfang in Chinese Basketball Association, former journeyman NBA guard Dwayne Bacon  has agreed to a deal with Puerto Rican team Leones de Ponce, according to Dario Skerletic of Sportando. Bacon spent four years in the NBA, last playing for the Magic in 2020/21.
  • Keith Smith of Spotrac unpacks the top free agent shooting guards set to hit the market this summer in a new tiered ranking system. He lists seven starting-caliber wings, 17 rotation-level players, and 25 other players with upside at the position.
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Mavericks Notes: Doncic, Irving, Olympics, Lively Trade

May 25th, 2024 at 8:26pm CST by Arthur Hill

Numerous media members were calling Anthony Edwards “the new face of the NBA” after Minnesota upset Denver, but that honor actually belongs to Mavericks star Luka Doncic, writes Kevin Sherrington of The Dallas Morning News. Doncic strengthened his case as the league’s best player and top clutch performer with a game-winning three-pointer Friday night that gave Dallas a 2-0 series lead. Sherrington notes that after sinking the shot over Rudy Gobert, Doncic displayed his fearlessness by shouting “you can’t guard me” and some stronger comments at the Defensive Player of the Year.

The argument for Doncic as the league’s No. 1 star starts with five first-team All-NBA appearances, including this season. He finished third in the MVP voting behind Nikola Jokic and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, but Sherrington points out that they were both eliminated in the second round while Doncic has a chance to add to his reputation with the longest postseason run of his career.

“There are moments where he shows his brilliance and can score so easily,” Kyrie Irving said, “and then he comes back and he looks like he’s laboring a little bit, but that guy’s a warrior.”

There’s more on the Mavericks:

  • Irving was able to keep his composure after missing two free throws with 1:44 remaining, Sherrington states in a separate story. The misses provided free fried chicken for all the fans in attendance, but more importantly they cost the Mavs a chance to slice the lead to one point. Irving made up for it a few seconds later with a clutch three-pointer from the corner that set the stage for Doncic’s heroics. “I think I was as surprised as a lot of people in the arena,” Irving, a 90% free throw shooter during the regular season, said of his misses from the line. “In those moments, I’ve got to stay focused and be aware of how much it means to our team to make those. But when you miss, you’ve also got to take that accountability and be better. The next-play mentality was the only thing I could carry forth. I got into that corner and knocked it down.”
  • Irving could be in line for a spot on the U.S. Olympic team this summer if Tyrese Haliburton opts out because of his hamstring issues, speculates Brad Townsend of The Dallas Morning News (Twitter link). Haliburton, who was held out of tonight’s Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Finals, also missed 10 games with a hamstring strain in January.  Irving was disappointed about not making the team last month after being one of the finalists.
  • Dallas and Oklahoma City both benefited from last year’s draft-day trade, Rylan Stiles writes for Inside the Thunder. Dereck Lively II has been an interior force for the Mavericks throughout the playoffs, while Cason Wallace became a three-and-D specialist in the Thunder backcourt.
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Mavericks Notes: Luka, Game 2, Irving, Gafford/Lively

May 25th, 2024 at 9:37am CST by Tristan Tucker

The Mavericks took a commanding 2-0 lead over the Timberwolves in Game 2 on Friday night after Mavs superstar Luka Doncic hit a stepback three-pointer over Rudy Gobert to win a second consecutive road game.

As Tim Cato of The Athletic writes, Doncic has already taken the reins of this so-called new generation in the league as the best player under 25. He has earned five straight First Team All-NBA honors and could be the first from the new wave of young stars to win a title.

“When you look at his game, I don’t know what you can nitpick about,” Mavs coach Jason Kidd said amid pouring praise onto Doncic after the game. “He can post up. He can pass. He has this fire that I think sometimes can be taken out of context. It’s just understanding that he wants to win. He’s not scared of nobody, and sometimes that can scare people.”

Minnesota’s Anthony Edwards earned a larger share of the national spotlight entering the series, Sam Amick of The Athletic writes, but it’s Doncic who is seizing the moment and putting together an all-time great Mavs run. Kidd’s praise for Doncic thus far is telling, since it was Kidd who helped the Mavericks win their first and only title thus far in 2011, knowing what it takes from an all-time great like Dirk Nowitzki to help his team ascend.

“The IQ is extremely high,” Kidd said. “He can take and make any shot. He can pass like no other. LeBron [James] might be a little bit better defensively, and understand passing lanes (better). But when you talk about the stage — Ky [Irving], Luka, Dirk — the great ones aren’t scared. If you miss that shot, he’ll be like, ‘Look, my bad. You guys got me where we needed to go, and I needed to deliver.’ It’s pretty cool to watch.”

We have more notes from the series:

  • The Mavericks and NBA world as a whole have come to expect clutch moments from Doncic, ESPN’s Tim MacMahon writes. “As you’ve seen, he loves that stage,” Kidd said. “He doesn’t run from it. He made a big shot. … Luka is special. He loves those type of moments.” Game 2’s three-pointer is Doncic’s second career winning three-pointer in the final five seconds of a playoff game, joining LeBron James, Damian Lillard, Reggie Miller and Robert Horry. He also joined Magic Johnson and Wilt Chamberlain as the only players to record four triple-doubles in a five-game playoff stretch.
  • Kyrie Irving continues to be supportive of Doncic amid the team’s playoff run and he reiterated his enthusiasm for the Slovenian superstar after Game 2. “I’m amazed,” Irving said (Twitter link via HoopsHype’s Michael Scotto). “I don’t use that word lightly either… I think he’s answered a lot of calls. When Luka first came into the league, there were a lot of questions on what he was going to turn out to be. I know a few people are eating their words. Watching him ascend into becoming an all-time great is amazing and I don’t take it for granted because I played with one of the greatest of all time, arguably the greatest of all time… I want to be supportive and continue to be an all-time great next to him, continue to show him the ropes, and let him continue to fly.“
  • Doncic’s three was rightfully the talk of the town, but the Mavericks had another miracle shot that helped them win Game 2, Eddie Sefko of Mavs.com writes. In the middle of erasing an 18-point deficit, Daniel Gafford blocked a three-point try before leaking out and getting down the court, receiving a pass from Doncic, absorbing contact from Jaden McDaniels, and flipping up a shot that put Dallas ahead 96-94. That play is emblematic of the impressive play from Dallas’s center rotation that also includes rookie Dereck Lively II. The two players accounted for 30 points. “We feed off each other’s energy,” Gafford said. “Whenever I’m coming out of the game, I tell him to be a monster. And he does the same thing with me.”
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Mavs Notes: Luka, Kyrie, Game 1 Takeaways, X-Factors

May 24th, 2024 at 10:57am CST by Rory Maher

The Mavericks were victorious in Game 1 of the Western Conference finals on Tuesday behind 63 combined points from Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving. It marked the first Game 1 win of the postseason for Dallas, which was playing on the road in Minnesota.

“We had to work really hard to get this one,” Doncic said, per Eddie Sefko of Mavs.com. “It’s big time. We know how tough it is to play in this place, especially against a team that has so many weapons, so it’s big-time to take this one. But it’s only one. We got three more to go.”

As Sam Amick of The Athletic writes, Irving was scorching hot in the first half, scoring 24 points on 11-of-14 shooting while being hounded by Anthony Edwards. It’s the latest example of Irving’s “basketball renaissance,” according to Amick, who points out that the 31-year-old has become a leader for the Mavericks and a key voice in the ear of Doncic.

“At times when he reacted to turnovers (in Game 1), or passes that didn’t convert to baskets for us, I was just reminding him to keep his head up and realize where we are, the magnitude of this,” Irving said of Doncic. “A lot of guys look to him for emotional stability, and emotional strength. We know he’s one of the best scorers of all time… and he’s going out there and not necessarily playing well offensively in the first half.

“(But) I know in the second half, he’s gonna be aggressive. We’ve been able to figure out that one-two punch of just playing the point guard role, playing that main scorer’s role and just not lacking in other areas in the basketball game. He can do other things, and I can do other things other than scoring. So when it’s his time to score, it’s my time to play defense and get up in a guy and contest shots and continue to do the little things that get us wins.”

Doncic was sensational closing the game, scoring 15 points on 5-of-8 shooting in the fourth quarter while making key defensive plays. He praised Irving’s first-half effort for keeping Dallas afloat, according to Sefko.

“That was big time,” Doncic said of Irving. “We probably would have been down 20 if he hadn’t scored that many points. I appreciate him keeping us in the game.”

Here’s more on the Mavs:

  • The Timberwolves largely chose to stay at home on shooters in Game 1, limiting Dallas to just 6-of-25 (24.0%) from long distance, writes Tim Cato of The Athletic. Minnesota, by contrast, was 18-of-49 (36.7%) from deep. Being minus-36 points from three is typically a recipe for disaster, but the Mavs found success in the paint (62-38) and on the boards (48-40), showing the team’s ability to adapt, Cato notes. “We’re going to take whatever you give us,” head coach Jason Kidd said. “We want to promote 3s, but if you take the 3s away when you have that many points in the paint against the No. 1 team defensively, we’ll take it if that’s what you’re going to give us. I thought the group pivoted nicely by understanding what was available on the floor by (Minnesota) taking away the 3s.”
  • Jon Krawczynski, Zach Harper, Tim Cato and Tobias Bass of The Athletic provide their takeaways from Game 1. Game 2 tips off at 7:30 pm CT on Thursday.
  • ESPN insiders Tim MacMahon, Dave McMenamin and Brian Windhorst list the role players they believe could be the X-factors for the rest of the series. MacMahon chose Mavs forward P.J. Washington, while McMenamin took Timberwolves forward Jaden McDaniels and Windhorst selected Wolves point guard Mike Conley.
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Timberwolves Notes: Late-Game Slide, Conley, Defense, Edwards

May 23rd, 2024 at 10:55am CST by Dana Gauruder

A lack of composure down the stretch cost the Timberwolves in Game 1 of the Western Conference finals against the Mavericks, head coach Chris Finch lamented after Wednesday’s game.

“It cost us a game in the Denver series. It certainly had an impact on this game, too,” Finch said, per Jon Krawcznyski of The Athletic said. “We’ve got to be better in clutch moments.”

Despite the Timberwolves’ size, they were manhandled in the paint, Krawczynski notes. Dallas outscored them 62-38 in the lane and out-rebounded them, 48-40.

“I’ve got to do a better job on the rebounds,” Rudy Gobert said. “I can’t let these guys just get offensive rebounds. I’ll be better.”

In a similar vein, Chip Scoggins of the Minneapolis Star Tribune writes that Anthony Edwards and Karl-Anthony Towns looked lethargic.

“We didn’t play with enough energy,” Towns said. “We just looked tired. We didn’t move as well as we usually do.”

We have more on the Timberwolves:

  • Mike Conley believes the team will benefit from its late-game slide, when it was outscored 10-3 in the final 3:37, according to Dave McMenamin of ESPN. Minnesota also committed half of its 10 turnovers in the fourth quarter. “I think we haven’t been tested like this where we’ve had to trade basket to basket, late-game free throw situations or fouling situations, stuff that we have to be better at,” Conley said. “But we’ll learn from it. I think each game we’ve learned a lot about ourselves, a lot we can get better at. Obviously, it’s going to be a long series, regardless of what happened tonight.”
  • While the Timberwolves faced major defensive challenges in the first two series against Phoenix and Denver, finding a way to control Dallas’ dynamic duo of Kyrie Irving and Luka Doncic presents their toughest task in these playoffs, Jim Souhan of the Minneapolis Star Tribune opines. The two star guards combined for 63 points in Game 1.
  • In a comprehensive feature, The Athletic’s Krawczynski and Joe Vardon detail how Edwards is poised to become the NBA’s next major American-born star.
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Edwards, Haliburton Earn Salary Increases With All-NBA Nods

May 22nd, 2024 at 7:20pm CST by Luke Adams

The maximum-salary rookie scale extensions that Timberwolves guard Anthony Edwards and Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton signed last offseason will have starting salaries worth 30% of the 2024/25 salary cap instead of 25% after both players made All-NBA teams. Edwards earned a spot on the Second Team, while Haliburton made the Third Team.

As our maximum-salary projections for ’24/25 show, based on a $141MM cap, the five-year deals signed by Edwards and Haliburton will now be worth $245,340,000 instead of $204,450,000. Those numbers could change if the cap comes in above or below $141MM.

Edwards and Haliburton agreed to Rose Rule language in their respective extensions. The Rose Rule allow players coming off their rookie scale contracts to receive salaries worth more than 25% of the cap in year five if they make an All-NBA team during the season (or two of the three seasons) before their extension goes into effect. Players can also qualify by being named Most Valuable Player or Defensive Player of the Year.

Hornets guard LaMelo Ball had similar language in his maximum-salary extension, but injuries prevented him from having any shot at All-NBA team in 2023/24, so his contract will be worth $204.45MM over five years.

Here are more of the financial implications of today’s All-NBA selections:

  • Because Sixers guard Tyrese Maxey didn’t make an All-NBA team, his maximum salary as a restricted free agent this offseason will be worth 25% of the cap instead of 30%. He’ll be eligible for a five-year deal up to a projected $204.45MM.
  • Mavericks guard Luka Doncic and Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander met the super-max performance criteria by earning All-NBA nods for a second straight year, but neither player has enough years of service yet to sign a designated veteran extension this summer. Both Doncic and Gilgeous-Alexander will be eligible to sign super-max extensions, starting at 35% of the cap instead of 30%, during the 2025 offseason. As Bobby Marks of ESPN outlines (Twitter links), Doncic would be eligible for a five-year extension projected to be worth over $346MM that begins in 2026/27, while SGA could sign a four-year extension worth a projected $294MM+ that would begin in 2027/28.
  • Celtics forward Jayson Tatum is one year ahead of Doncic and Gilgeous-Alexander — he met the super-max performance criteria by making a second straight All-NBA team in 2023, but was still one year away from having the required years of service at that time. He’ll be eligible this July to sign a five-year super-max extension that will start at 35% of the ’25/26 cap and be worth a projected $314.85MM.
  • Players who would have been eligible for super-max extensions if they had made an All-NBA team include Kings guard De’Aaron Fox, Heat big man Bam Adebayo, Pelicans forward Brandon Ingram, and Nuggets guard Jamal Murray. All of those players could still qualify if they remain with their current teams and earn All-NBA honors next season, though it’s worth noting that Ingram is considered a trade candidate this summer and is highly unlikely to get a super-max offer even if he qualifies.
  • Kings center Domantas Sabonis earned a $1.3MM contract bonus as a result of being named to the All-NBA Third Team, tweets James Ham of The Kings Beat.
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2023/24 All-NBA Teams Announced

May 22nd, 2024 at 7:01pm CST by Arthur Hill

The All-NBA teams have been announced for the 2023/24 season (Twitter link).

A total of 99 media members voted on the honors, with players receiving five points for a First Team vote, three points for a Second Team vote and one point for a Third Team vote. This year’s All-NBA teams are as follows:

First Team

Second Team

Third Team

Gilgeous-Alexander and Jokic were the only two unanimous First Team selections, receiving 99 of 99 possible votes. Doncic earned 98 First Team votes but was named to the Second Team on one ballot. Antetokounmpo (88), Tatum (65), Brunson (37), Edwards (3), and Durant (2) were the only other players to receive multiple First Team votes.

Others receiving votes and their point totals are the Celtics‘ Jaylen Brown (50), the Clippers‘ Paul George (16), the Sixers‘ Tyrese Maxey (16), the Timberwolves‘ Rudy Gobert (12), the Spurs‘ Victor Wembanyama (11), the Pelicans‘ Zion Williamson (11), the Magic’s Paolo Banchero (10), the Kings‘ De’Aaron Fox (9) the Heat’s Bam Adebayo (7) and the Bulls‘ DeMar DeRozan (1).

This is the first season that a minimum number of games was required to qualify for most postseason awards under the new Collective Bargaining Agreement. Among the stars who might have received All-NBA consideration if they had reached the 65-game threshold are Sixers center Joel Embiid, who was the 2023 MVP, along with Cavaliers guard Donovan Mitchell, Grizzlies guard Ja Morant, Knicks forward Julius Randle and Celtics big man Kristaps Porzingis.

This was also the first season that voting for the All-NBA team was positionless, though that didn’t have a huge impact on the results, as the top two teams still feature two guards, a pair of forwards, and a center. The Third Team is made up a center, three guards, and just one forward.

Wembanyama, who received two votes for the Second Team and five for the Third Team, was the only rookie named on any of the ballots. Earlier this week, he became the first rookie to earn a spot on an All-Defensive First Team.

The Lakers with Davis and James and the Suns with Durant and Booker were the only teams to have multiple players honored. They were both eliminated in the first round of the playoffs.

Several players became eligible for salary increases or earned a bonus by achieving All-NBA honors. Read more here.

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Mavericks Notes: Lively, Kidd, Washington, Doncic

May 22nd, 2024 at 6:43pm CST by Arthur Hill

Mavericks rookie center Dereck Lively II talks about balancing his first NBA playoff experience and his mother’s recent death in a compelling story by Brad Townsend of The Dallas Morning News.

Townsend notes that Dallas fans have become familiar with Lively’s tragic journey, which saw him use the NIL money from his lone season at Duke to purchase a headstone for his father, who died after years of drug addiction, and a house for his mother, Kathy, who was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma 10 years ago. Doctors believed Kathy was in remission, but her health declined in March, causing Lively to miss a game for personal reasons. In mid-April, family members were called to say their final goodbyes.

“Since I lost my father, my biggest fear in life was losing my mother,” Lively said. “You know, when your biggest fear happens, you’re stuck with a hole in your heart. It’s like you think you’ve got to do something to fill that hole, but you really can’t because nothing will fill it.”

Kathy had been an important part of Lively’s rookie season, Townsend adds. She was with him at the draft and had a chance to explain on national television how much it meant to the family to have him selected. They lived together in a Dallas apartment, and she was a regular at home games until her health declined.

“I haven’t really been able to focus on what’s been going on in my life because I’ve been so focused on the basketball,” he said. “I really haven’t had a second to sit down and breathe. I haven’t had a second to kind of digest what’s been going on. I feel like it hits me in waves. One day I can get up and be fine. Another day I’ll wake up and it’s like, ‘S–t, I can’t even get out of bed.’”

There’s more on the Mavericks:

  • Kevin Sherrington of The Dallas Morning News looks at why this year’s team has a better chance of advancing than the 2022 Mavs that also reached the Western Conference finals. Sherrington points out that Dallas has been successful with big and small lineups and has shown an ability to bounce back from tough losses. “This team is probably a little bit more talented than that first group, and that’s not being negative,” coach Jason Kidd said. “This group has a lot of talent.”
  • P.J. Washington‘s hot streak from beyond the arc could be the X-factor that helps the Mavericks win a title, Mo Dakhil of Bleacher Report observes in an overview of the four remaining teams. Washington shot 31.4% from three-point range during the regular season, but he’s raised that to 40.7% in the playoffs.
  • Tim Cato of The Athletic talks to Slovenian fans about the extra effort they make to watch Luka Doncic play. Because their nation is seven hours ahead of Dallas, that usually means staying up overnight or waking up very early.
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Western Notes: Conley, Wolves, Mavs, Suns, Billups, Warriors

May 22nd, 2024 at 11:21am CST by Luke Adams

The calf/Achilles issue that sidelined Timberwolves point guard Mike Conley for Game 5 of the Western Conference semifinals hasn’t gone away — he’s listed as questionable for Game 1 of the Western finals. Conley will play on Wednesday, according to Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic (Twitter link), but the team will keep a close eye on that injury going forward.

“It honestly depends on if you can get through the game without having any small setback,” Conley said, per Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN. “You have some movements that really kind of jar it or cause the pain to go up really quickly and kind of stays there for a little while. Some games I get through the whole game and you don’t have any setback and so you just kind of keep building upward and forward. So I’m just trying to stack as many of those days together as I can.”

Keeping Conley healthy will be crucial for the Wolves as they look to advance to the NBA Finals for the first time in franchise history. In the series vs. Denver, the team had a +13.6 net rating in the 196 minutes he played, compared to a -6.7 mark in the 140 minutes he wasn’t on the floor.

Here’s more from around the Western Conference:

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Community Shootaround: Timberwolves/Mavericks Series

May 21st, 2024 at 10:34am CST by Luke Adams

The Timberwolves and Mavericks were considered two of the Western Conference’s most disappointing teams at this time last spring. The Wolves, who had mortgaged their future in order to acquire Rudy Gobert during the 2022 offseason, barely finished above .500 (42-40) and were quickly dispatched in the first round of the 2023 playoffs. Dallas didn’t even make the play-in tournament after going into a tailspin following the midseason acquisition of Kyrie Irving and posting an unimpressive 38-44 record

What a difference a year makes.

All the pieces came together in Minnesota during the Wolves’ second year with Gobert, as the team got off to a 17-4 start and held a top-three seed in the West for nearly the entire season, led by rising superstar Anthony Edwards, All-Star big man Karl-Anthony Towns, and the NBA’s No. 1 defense.

In Dallas, Luka Doncic and Irving thrived after getting an offseason and training camp together, and the Mavericks really hit their stride during the final two months of the season after acquiring P.J. Washington and Daniel Gafford in a pair of trade deadline deals.

The two teams, who each had a projected over/under of 44.5 wins entering the fall, comfortably exceeded expectations in the regular season and have dispatched a pair of tough opponents in the playoffs. The Wolves made quick work of Kevin Durant, Devin Booker, and the Suns in round one before knocking off the defending-champion Nuggets in round two. The Mavs, meanwhile, beat the Clippers in the No. 4 vs. No. 5 series and then got past the No. 1 Thunder in the Western Conference semifinals.

It sets up a fascinating Western Conference finals between two teams whose histories of deep postseason runs are pretty limited. The Mavericks have made the NBA Finals just twice since their inception in 1980, winning one title in 2011. The Timberwolves’ playoff history is even less inspiring — this is just the second time in their 35-year existence they’ve made the Western finals, and they’ve never advanced further than that.

This year’s Timberwolves might be the best team in franchise history though, with Mike Conley organizing an offense led by a pair of talented scorers in Edwards and Towns, while four-time Defensive Player of the Year Gobert anchors a defense that features perimeter stoppers such as Jaden McDaniels and Nickeil Alexander-Walker. Throw in Sixth Man of the Year Naz Reid and jack-of-all-trades veteran wing Kyle Anderson and the Wolves have one of the NBA’s deepest, most versatile postseason rotations.

Minnesota had the NBA’s third-best net rating (+6.3) during the regular season and has improved that mark to +8.5 (No. 2 in the league) during the playoffs, ranking first in the West in both offensive rating (116.1) and defensive rating (107.6) in the postseason. As the higher seed in the Western finals, the Wolves will also have home court advantage in the series.

Given all those factors, it’s no surprise that Minnesota is viewed as the solid favorite entering the Western finals. BetOnline.ag has the Wolves listed at -182 to advance to the NBA Finals, with Dallas at +162.

The Mavericks are a tough opponent to beat when they’re firing on all cylinders though. In Doncic and Irving, they have two elite shot-makers who can wear down even the best of defenses and who don’t mind having the ball in their hands with the game on the line. Dallas’ two star guards are complemented by versatile forwards Washington and Derrick Jones, who have both been reliable threats from beyond the three-point line during the playoffs, as well as Gafford and Dereck Lively, a pair of rim-running centers who are capable of protecting the paint on defense.

Not having Maxi Kleber (shoulder) will hurt, but the Mavs have decent frontcourt depth without him, and there’s a chance he could be back later in the series. If role players like Josh Green and Tim Hardaway Jr. are playing well, it could help make up for Kleber’s absence.

Josh Robbins, Sam Amick, and Darnell Mayberry of The Athletic spoke to a scout, a coach, and an executive about the Western Conference showdown and all three picked the Timberwolves. But they all expect the series to last six games, and that was a common theme in ESPN’s expert predictions as well — nine of ESPN’s 15 respondents chose the Wolves, but not one of the 15 expects the series to be over in fewer than six games.

We want to know what you think. After knocking off the champs, is Minnesota headed to the NBA Finals for the first time in franchise history? Or will the Mavs pull off the upset? Will the winner of this series win the 2024 championship?

Head to the comment section below to share your thoughts and predictions for the series!

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