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Celtics Notes: Porzingis, Kornet, Brown, Horford, White

April 5th, 2025 at 7:22pm CST by Arthur Hill

The Celtics are locked into the No. 2 seed in the East, but they still have goals for the final week of the regular season, writes Gary Washburn of the Boston Globe. Apart from keeping the roster healthy heading into the playoffs, coach Joe Mazzulla wants to get a look at several lineup combinations to expand his postseason options.

Washburn notes that Mazzulla has started using a double-big lineup with Kristaps Porzingis and Luke Kornet as a counter against teams relying on small-ball to limit the Celtics’ three-point attempts. Porzingis and Kornet combined for 52 paint points Friday against Phoenix while often being guarded by smaller players.

“There’s always stuff we need to continue to get better at and push ourselves and hold ourselves to a standard,” Mazzulla said. “More importantly it’s just to make sure we get reps. We were able to do some stuff at shootaround. We tried to get (the starters) higher in minutes and reps together and I thought they did a good job of that.”

There’s more from Boston:

  • Jaylen Brown, who’s dealing with a bone bruise in his right knee, is adapting to playing without his usual athleticism, Washburn adds. He scored 31 points Friday night, but most of those came in the paint and he frequently opted for layups instead of exploding to the rim for dunks. Brown has been on a minutes restriction, and it looks like the knee will continue to be an issue in the playoffs. “Even though my team can physically see I’m in a bit of pain, they trust me to go out there and control my body and be able to make plays,” Brown said. “I push through it and I think that’s something I’m going to have to have in my back pocket. It’s been constant communication, and I appreciate Joe because he’s given me grace. He’s letting me feel through it. He understands where it’s at. He’s letting me play through some stuff. I still want him to hold me to the same standard, but I appreciate Joe for the communication. It’s good to have that now rather than trying to figure it out once everything is on the line.”
  • The Celtics are offering strong support for Al Horford, who has been named as a finalist for the NBA’s Twyman-Stokes Teammate of the Year award, per Khari Thompson of The Boston Globe. The award recognizes leadership, mentorship, selfless play and dedication to the team. “It’s a no-brainer that he should get it,” Mazzulla said. “You can’t really put into words what he’s able to do. I mean, the respect that he has of the guys. What people don’t know is how innately competitive he is day in and day out. He just sets the tone, more with his actions than anything else. I really hope he gets it. He deserves it. He’s one of the best teammates and we’re lucky to have him.”
  • Jayson Tatum believes Derrick White needs to develop more “street cred” by arguing with officials, according to Souichi Terada of MassLive. Tatum was thrilled when a technical foul was announced against White on Friday, but it turned out to be an error. “We’ve been talking about this for a long time,” Tatum said. “I just heard technical foul D-White, so I got excited. I was going to go give him a huge hug or something.”
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Celtics Notes: Brown, Pritchard, Scheierman, Craig

April 4th, 2025 at 2:00pm CST by Arthur Hill

Celtics forward Jaylen Brown has talked with medical specialists in an effort to find relief from the pain caused by a bone bruise in his right knee, writes Souichi Terada of MassLive. Brown told reporters last week that he’s playing on a minutes restriction, and he provided more insight into the injury after Wednesday’s loss to Miami.

“I’ve seen some specialists and stuff like that, but we’ve got a great medical staff and we’ve got good people around,” Brown said. “So come playoffs, my goal is to be feeling my best. So we’re just working through that, and it’s a thing that we kind of manage and you push through. But we’ve got a good plan in place. So come playoffs, my goal is to be feeling my best.”

Brown has managed to be effective despite the injury, posting 24 points, nine rebounds and four assists on Wednesday. He needs to play in five of Boston’s six remaining regular season games to reach the 65-game minimum to be considered for postseason honors, but he said that won’t be a consideration in how often he’ll be active.

“I’ve had to come to grips that every night I’m not going to feel my normal self,” he said. “But that doesn’t mean I still can’t make plays and things like that. So it’s just something that we are working through. Today was a good step forward. I got some stuff lined up with the medical staff in order to be and feel better come playoffs. But as for now, just mentally working through not feeling great, but still able to find ways to be effective.”

There’s more from Boston:

  • Payton Pritchard‘s new shoe contract with Converse shows how far he has come in his brief NBA career, notes Jared Weiss of The Athletic. Pritchard is considered the favorite for Sixth Man of the Year honors, but it wasn’t long ago that he was stuck deep on Boston’s bench and was requesting a trade to another team that could give him a larger role. “It wasn’t like I asked for a trade request because I hated the city (or) I hated the organization,” he said. “I believed in what I was able to do and perform at a high level. And obviously, they decided not to trade me. Through my work ethic, I earned opportunity.”
  • Rookie Baylor Scheierman‘s emergence as a reliable three-point shooter may have been the Celtics’ most significant development in March, Brian Robb of MassLive states in a mailbag column. The first-round pick connected at nearly 50% from three-point range during the month, and Robb observes that other parts of his game have improved as he’s gained more shooting confidence. Robb adds that Scheierman has eclipsed Torrey Craig, who signed as a free agent after the trade deadline, and is now a better option as a shooter off the bench.
  • Wednesday’s loss may have been surprising after a 6-0 road trip, but it continued an unusual trend, per Adam Himmelsbach of The Boston Globe. The Celtics are now 0-5 this season when they return to TD Garden after being on the road for at least three games. “Those first games back, that’s always a tough one just from a calibration standpoint,” Brown said. “We’ve been in three different time zones. You’ve been away from home. You just get home and kind of get settled, and then you have to play a basketball game. So sometimes it’s just like — it be like that sometimes.”
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NBA Announces Finalists For Sportsmanship, Teammate Of The Year Awards

April 2nd, 2025 at 2:28pm CST by Luke Adams

The NBA announced the 2024/25 finalists for a pair of awards on Wednesday, naming the six players who are eligible to win the Sportsmanship Award for this season, as well as the 12 players who are in the running to be named Teammate of the Year.

The Sportsmanship Award honors the player who “best represents the ideals of sportsmanship on the court,” per the NBA. Each of the league’s 30 teams nominated one of its players for the award, then a panel of league executives narrows that group to six finalists (one from each division) and current players voted for the winner.

The trophy for the Sportsmanship Award is named after Joe Dumars, the Hall-of-Fame guard who won the inaugural award back in ’95/96. This season’s finalists are as follows (via Twitter):

Holiday is the only one of this year’s finalists for the Sportsmanship Award who has earned the honor in the past — he won it in 2021. Sixers guard Tyrese Maxey won the award last season.

Meanwhile, the NBA also announced its finalists for the Teammate of the Year award for 2024/25. According to the league, the player selected for the honor is “deemed the best teammate based on selfless play, on- and off-court leadership as a mentor and role model to other NBA players, and commitment and dedication to team.”

The voting process is similar to the Sportsmanship Award — a panel of league executives selects 12 finalists (six from each conference) for the award, then current players vote on the winner.

Holiday is a three-time Teammate of the Year, while Timberwolves guard Mike Conley has also won the award twice, including in 2024. However, neither of those veterans is a finalist this season.

The Teammate of the Year finalists are as follows (via Twitter):

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Award Candidates Who Still Need To Reach 65-Game Mark

April 2nd, 2025 at 12:59pm CST by Luke Adams

There are just 12 days left in the 2024/25 regular season, which means time is running out for certain end-of-season award candidates to meet the 65-game minimum to qualify for consideration.

A player doesn’t need to reach that 65-game mark in order to be eligible for Sixth Man of the Year, Rookie of the Year, or All-Rookie teams, but it’s a necessary requirement for most of the marquee awards: Most Valuable Player, All-NBA, Defensive Player of the Year, All-Defense, and Most Improved Player.

According to ESPN’s Bobby Marks (Twitter link), the following players who could be in the mix for one or more of those awards haven’t yet met the 65-game criteria, but still have a chance to do so:

In some cases, a player’s actual games played total doesn’t match up with the figure noted above. That’s because in order for a game to count before the 65-game minimum, the player must be on the court for at least 20 minutes. A player is also permitted to count a maximum of two games between 15 and 20 minutes toward that minimum.

Let’s use Mobley as an example. The Cavaliers big man has technically appeared in 66 games this season, but he played just 12 minutes in one of those games, 18 minutes in two of them, and 19 minutes in one. That means he only has 64 games that actually count toward the minimum — all 62 games in which he played 20-plus minutes, along with two of those games between 15-20 minutes.

Mobley will have to play at least 20 minutes once more this season in order to be eligible for awards like Defensive Player of the Year, All-Defense, and All-NBA. Given that he’s healthy and the Cavs still have seven games left on their schedule, Mobley should have no problem meeting that requirement. But it’ll be a taller order for some of the other players on this list.

Durant is currently sidelined with an ankle sprain and has been ruled out for at least two more games. He would have to play 20-plus minutes in three of the Suns‘ final four games to be award-eligible. Brunson, on the shelf due to his own ankle sprain, is in a similar boat, though the Knicks guard has a chance to return before Durant does.

Lillard, who is out indefinitely after being diagnosed with a blood clot in his calf, seems pretty unlikely to play in six of the Bucks‘ last seven games. Holiday is healthy but has no wiggle room to miss any of the Celtics‘ remaining seven games.

Many of this year’s other top award contenders have already met the 65-game criteria. Nuggets center Nikola Jokic did so in style on Tuesday night — his 65th game of the season was an incredible 61-point triple-double in a 140-139 double-overtime loss to Minnesota.

However, according to the latest straw poll conducted by Tim Bontemps of ESPN, Jokic is the clear runner-up to Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (who has played 72 games) in the MVP race. Of the 100 media members polled by Bontemps, 77 picked the Thunder guard as their Most Valuable Player, while just 23 chose Jokic. The three-time MVP may need a couple more performances like Tuesday’s in order to close that gap by the end of the season.

Besides Jokic, one other notable player who has narrowly eclipsed the 65-game minimum is Cade Cunningham. The Pistons guard has missed four games in a row with a left calf injury and is considered doubtful to return on Wednesday, but he played his 65th game on March 19, prior to his recent absence.

That’s especially important for Cunningham and the Pistons because, as Bontemps notes, the fourth-year guard is considered a virtual lock to earn a spot on one of this year’s All-NBA teams, which will ensure that his maximum-salary rookie scale extension begins at 30% of the 2025/26 salary cap instead of 25%. That would increase the overall projected value of Cunningham’s five-year deal from $224.2MM to $269.1MM.

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Celtics’ JD Davison Named G League MVP

April 2nd, 2025 at 10:34am CST by Luke Adams

Celtics two-way player JD Davison has been named the G League’s Most Valuable Player of the 2024/25 season, according to an official announcement from the NBA (Twitter link).

A 2022 second-round pick, Davison has played sparingly at the NBA level in his first three professional seasons and logged just 51 minutes in 12 total appearances for the Celtics in ’24/25. He spent most of his time with the Maine Celtics, appearing in a total of 45 Tip-Off Tournament and regular season games for Boston’s NBAGL affiliate.

Across those 45 outings, Davison averaged 25.6 points, 7.7 assists, 5.1 rebounds, and 1.4 steals in 34.6 minutes per game, with a shooting line of .482/.332/.762. Maine went just 8-8 in the Tip-Off Tournament, but the 6’1″ guard led the team to a 21-13 record and a No. 3 playoff seed in the G League’s regular season.

Salt Lake City Stars big man Oscar Tshiebwe – who is on a two-way contract with the Jazz – and Capital City Go-Go guard Jaylen Nowell finished second and third, respectively, behind Davison for the G League MVP award, which is voted on by the league’s head coaches and general managers.

Tshiebwe, known as an elite rebounder, averaged a record-setting 18.3 RPG in 42 games for Salt Lake City while also contributing 16.1 PPG, 2.8 APG, 1.8 SPG, and 1.1 BPG. The Stars, like the Celtics, finished the regular season with a 21-13 record.

Nowell isn’t currently on an NBA roster, but he earned call-ups with New Orleans and Washington over the course of the season. The veteran guard spent most of the year with the Wizards‘ G League affiliate, the Capital City Go-Go, for whom he averaged 24.7 PPG, 5.4 APG, 4.3 RPG, and 1.1 SPG with an impressive .526/.479/.901 shooting line. The Go-Go posted a 20-14 regular season mark.

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Thunder’s Daigneault, Celtics’ Mazzulla Named Coaches Of The Month

April 1st, 2025 at 4:41pm CST by Luke Adams

Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault is the Western Conference’s Coach of the Month for March, with Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla claiming the award for the Eastern Conference, the NBA announced today (via Twitter).

Daigneault’s Thunder and Mazzulla’s Celtics have been the NBA’s two hottest teams in recent weeks.

Oklahoma City won 15 of 16 games in March en route to clinching the No. 1 seed in the West entering this year’s playoffs. The Celtics had 14 wins in 15 games, putting some pressure on the top-seeded Cavaliers and ensuring they’ll finish the regular season with one of the league’s top three best records.

While he’s not considered one of the frontrunners for Coach of the Year, Daigneault has now been named Coach of the Month in the West three times this season. He and Ime Udoka of the Rockets, who has won the award twice, are the only two Western Conference coaches to earn the monthly honor in 2024/25.

Udoka joins Chris Finch (Timberwolves), Steve Kerr (Warriors), and Tyronn Lue (Clippers) as the other Coach of the Month nominees for March in the West, per the NBA (Twitter link).

Kenny Atkinson of the Cavaliers, who was named the East’s Coach of the Month twice this season, and Rick Carlisle of the Pacers, who won the award in January, are among this month’s Eastern Conference nominees, along with Billy Donovan (Bulls), Quin Synder (Hawks), and Darko Rajakovic (Raptors).

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Atlantic Notes: Tillman, Grimes, Sixers, Raptors

April 1st, 2025 at 8:13am CST by Luke Adams

Xavier Tillman has had the worst year of his NBA career in 2024/25 and has been out of the Celtics’ regular rotation since October. Entering Monday’s game in Memphis, he hadn’t seen any action at all since March 6. However, facing his former team, Tillman was given the opportunity to start by head coach Joe Mazzulla, who explained his decision after the game, as Jonah Dylan of The Memphis Commercial Appeal relays.

“He can still impact winning,” Mazzulla said of Tillman. “I just appreciate who he is as a person and I think you’ve got to validate the roster at times. I know that he can still help us, and there may be an opportunity where he does. I was grateful that we were able to give him that opportunity to be able to do that.”

Tillman spent the first three-and-a-half years of his career in Memphis before being traded to Boston at the 2024 deadline. He played a limited role down the stretch last season and has struggled mightily in his limited minutes this season, making just 12-of-51 (23.5%) of his total shots, including 5-of-32 (15.6%) of his three-point tries.

Tillman wasn’t especially effective on Monday either — he missed all five of his shot attempts and the Celtics were outscored by six points during his eight minutes on the floor. But Mazzulla praised the big man for getting a pair of quick fouls on Grizzlies center Zach Edey and Tillman spoke positively after the game about his experience in his first game back in Memphis since last year’s trade

“It’s crazy because I was more so focused on seeing my old teammates and checking on them,” Tillman said. “The fans, when I got here and even the staff members and security people, when I walked by, they showed me so much love. It’s pretty amazing.”

The Celtics defeated the Grizzlies to complete the first 6-0 road trip in franchise history and are now 32-7 on the road this season, putting them two wins away from tying the 2015/16 Warriors for the best single-season road record of all-time (34-7), as ESPN details.

Here’s more from around the Atlantic:

  • Quentin Grimes has been a revelation since joining the Sixers, averaging 26.6 points per game on 50.4% shooting in 14 March outings as he proved he’s capable of scoring and playing strong perimeter defense, per Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer. In the season’s final games, head coach Nick Nurse hopes to see how the restricted-free-agent-to-be handles more point guard responsibilities. “I’d like to start him at the point here, coming up in a little bit. I’d like to have him play it during the games, even if he doesn’t start it,” Nurse said. “I’m just curious — I mean, he’s not a point guard. But can he play a serviceable backup possibility in the NBA as a backup point guard? Can he get us into offense? Can you say, ‘See the pass, see the plays, get the offense started, handle the ball versus the pressure in the backcourt,’ all those kinds of things?”
  • The Sixers are putting on a “tanking masterclass” in the season’s final weeks as they attempt to do all they can to retain control of their top-six protected 2025 first-round pick, Pompey writes in another story for The Philadelphia Inquirer. Following Brooklyn’s win over Dallas on Monday, there’s now a 1.5-game gap between the Sixers and Nets, putting Philadelphia in a strong position to finish the season with the NBA’s fifth-worst record. That would give the team a 64% chance of hanging onto its protected first-rounder.
  • Given the fact that a significant portion of their revenue is in Canadian – rather than U.S. – dollars, how might the Raptors be impacted by the fact that the Canadian dollar has dipped in value in recent months? Eric Koreen of The Athletic explores that topic, speaking to several experts about how the Raptors may navigate the issue.
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Atlantic Notes: Wright, Maxey, Pritchard, Raptors

March 29th, 2025 at 2:01pm CST by Luke Adams

Veteran guard Delon Wright had been glued to the Knicks‘ bench during his first month-and-a-half in New York after being acquired from Milwaukee in the Jericho Sims trade at February’s deadline. But with Jalen Brunson and Miles McBride both injured this week, Wright got the call from head coach Tom Thibodeau, entering the starting lineup for Friday’s game in Milwaukee.

While the Knicks were outscored by nine points during Wright’s 30 minutes on the floor, he held his own in just his second 30-minute game of the season, contributing 12 points, four assists, and three rebounds as New York registered a nine-point win. As Jared Schwartz of The New York Post writes, Thibodeau had the option of starting rookie Tyler Kolek at point guard, but opted for Wright’s experience and defensive ability over Kolek’s play-making.

“His defense you can always count on,” Thibodeau said of Wright. “That’s his strength, and he’s not afraid. He’s aggressive, and he knows how to play off people. I think he reads the game well. I think we got terrific point guard play. I was going back and forth on (who to start) and I was comfortable with both. A lot of it was based on I wasn’t quite sure who they were gonna start. Their size was a factor in it. But I was comfortable. And then you read the game like, ‘What do you need? What do you need more of?’ Both guys are really good players, they have different strengths, so you can adjust as the game goes.”

Wright, who entered the league in 2015/16, is averaging just 13.9 minutes per game in 34 outings this season and had logged only 37 total minutes in seven appearances for the Knicks before Friday. It’s his smallest role since his rookie year and he admitted this week that it’s difficult not knowing if or when he’ll play.

“It’s tough, I’m not going to lie. It’s easier said than done,” Wright said, per Stefan Bondy of The New York Post (subscription required). “I try to tell young guys that — just stay ready, stay ready. But when you’re going through it, it’s tough. Some days are harder than others. But you got to continue to get your conditioning, continue to lift, continue to try to stay as engaged as possible.”

We have more from around the Atlantic:

  • The Sixers aren’t yet shutting down injured guard Tyrese Maxey for the season, but he’ll miss at least two more games as a result of his sprained finger, head coach Nick Nurse said on Friday (story via ESPN). That means Maxey, out since March 3 due to back and finger ailments, will be unavailable on Saturday vs. Miami and Sunday vs. Toronto. Philadelphia has seven more games on its regular season scheduled after that, starting with Tuesday in New York.
  • Two years after requesting a trade out of Boston, Celtics guard Payton Pritchard is a fan favorite who appears headed for a Sixth Man of the Year award. Chris Forsberg of NBC Sports Boston takes a closer look at why a trade never happened and how Pritchard emerged as a crucial contributor for the defending champions. The 27-year-old, who averaged just 13.4 minutes per game in 2022/23, tells Forsberg that he “didn’t see a future” for himself in Boston when he asked to be dealt, but admits, “It ended up working out.”
  • The Raptors have been one of the NBA’s least effective outside shooting teams this season, ranking 29th in three-pointers made per game (11.5) and 26th in three-point percentage (34.5%). Toronto would like to change that by surrounding Scottie Barnes and Jakob Poeltl with more floor spacers, which is one reason why the team targeted Cole Swider for a 10-day contract. For his part, Swider hopes that 10-day deal leads to something more, as Michael Grange of Sportsnet.ca relays. “They’ve had a great track record of having two-ways get converted to contracts and guys with contracts getting converted to bigger contracts,” he said after Friday’s win over Charlotte. “So super excited to be here. I think it could be a great opportunity.”
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Celtics Rumors: Holiday, Porzingis, White, Horford, Ownership

March 28th, 2025 at 4:53pm CST by Luke Adams

While no one expects the Celtics to move on from Jayson Tatum or Jaylen Brown anytime soon, there are questions around the league about how long the club can carry one of the NBA’s highest payrolls, subjecting itself to significant luxury tax penalties and onerous second-apron restrictions, writes Jake Fischer of The Stein Line (Substack link).

The general consensus is that the Celtics might be willing to run it back again if they win another title this season. “You can’t break up a team that could be going for a three-peat,” one Western Conference executive told Fischer. But if Boston falls short of a championship? “They’re going to have to trade some guys at some point,” a team capologist said.

According to Fischer, league figures are keeping a close eye on guard Jrue Holiday and big man Kristaps Porzingis as possible trade chips later this year or next. Fischer suggests that guard Derrick White would likely have more trade value than either Porzingis or Holiday if he were made available this summer, but says no one he talked to seems to believe Boston would consider moving White.

If the Celtics do consider trading one of their top five highest-paid players, Holiday could be the most obvious odd man out due to a handful of factors, including his contract (three years and $104.4MM after this season) and Boston’s loaded backcourt.

As Fischer writes, besides White, the Celtics’ depth chart includes Sixth Man of the Year frontrunner Payton Pritchard and rookie Baylor Scheierman, whose development over the course of this season has been viewed by the team as very promising.

Here’s more on the C’s:

  • Turning Al Horford‘s $9.5MM salary slot into a minimum-salary player next season would help the Celtics with their cap/tax situation, but the club likely wouldn’t welcome that possibility if it means losing Horford. Assuming the big man wants to continue his career, there are rival cap strategists who believe his market could start around the taxpayer mid-level exception ($5.7MM), Fischer writes.
  • Sixth Street Partners, a private equity firm, has committed more money to William Chisholm‘s ownership bid than Chisholm himself, reports Dan Primack of Axios. That’s not permitted by NBA rules, which allow private equity firms to hold up to a 20% stake in a team as long as their share is less than that of the controlling owner (which must be at least 15%).
  • In Primack’s view, Chisholm’s two options are to be granted some sort of waiver by the NBA to get around that rule or to bring in enough new investors that Sixth Street’s full check is no longer necessary and they’re contributing less to the bid than Chisholm. Silver said on Thursday that the option of a waiver isn’t being discussed, according to Fischer. “Not at all,” he said. “And while the deal in a preliminary fashion has just been presented to the league, at this time there’s no contemplation of changing our ownership rules.”
  • Fischer also asked Silver on Thursday about the reported arrangement between Chisholm and outgoing owner Wyc Grousbeck that would keep Grousbeck in the CEO and governor positions through 2028. As Fischer notes, it sounds similar to what Mark Cuban wanted when he sold the Mavericks, but in that instance it wasn’t put into writing and didn’t happen. “I think the Grousbeck family and the buyer are still working through those arrangements on exactly how that would work in terms of CEO roles and governor roles during some transition,” Silver said. “I think the situation was very different in Dallas. There was a clear change in control of the franchise to Patrick Dumont and his family. Any decision as to what Mark’s role would be in basketball operations was a function of an arrangement to be made between Mark Cuban and Patrick. The ultimate governance was absolutely clear, as presented to our board, that the last word on any basketball activities or any significant decision for the franchise would be made by Patrick.”
  • In his latest mailbag, Brian Robb of MassLive answers questions about Luke Kornet‘s upcoming free agency, the best first-round playoff opponent for the Celtics, and the ownership transition.
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Adam Silver Talks Expansion, Wolves Sale, Tanking, RSNs

March 28th, 2025 at 3:10pm CST by Luke Adams

Asked at his Thursday press conference whether the NBA has looked any more at adding an expansion team or two, commissioner Adam Silver said the league is “still in the process of digesting the Celtics (sale)” and expects to explore expansion in a “more serious way” once that transaction is finalized, per Tim Bontemps of ESPN.

As Bontemps notes, ESPN has previously reported that the Celtics sale was viewed as a possible precursor to expansion, since it would provide a point of reference for how much the expansion fees for new teams could potentially be worth.

“I wish I could be more conclusive today and say, ‘Here it is, here’s the timeline,'” Silver said, according to Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press. “There are events that are clearly outside of my control. Part of it, as I said, is trying to assess value in a way that’s both fair, even to a potential owner, and fair to the existing owners in terms of what it means to add additional partners, different cities, divide up our current media pie with the 31st or 32nd share.

“And also, we want to make sure we put teams in a position, particularly as we’re setting the price, to be in a position to be competitive, economically successful and just as important for the other teams, successful on the floor.”

According to Bontemps, the widespread belief is that if the NBA expands, it would do so by two teams instead of one, with Seattle and Las Vegas considered the strong frontrunners for new teams.

We previously relayed Silver’s comments on Thursday about a new European league and the NBA’s All-Star format, but he also addressed several other topics during his New York presser. Here are some highlights:

  • Addressing the Timberwolves‘ ownership situation, Silver said longtime owner Glen Taylor is still considering whether to appeal an arbitration ruling in favor of prospective owners Marc Lore and Alex Rodriguez and that Taylor continues to communicate directly with Lore and Rodriguez, Bontemps writes. Silver referred to the situation as “on hold” while Taylor weighs his options.
  • Silver believes that the variety of tweaks made by the NBA in recent years – including new draft lottery odds, the introduction of the play-in tournament, and the implementation of the 65-game rule and player participation policy – have helped limit the impact of tanking, but admits that the league is still mulling ways to further address the issue. “It comes down to incentives,” Silver said, per Bontemps. “There’s no doubt that incentives change at the end of a season, especially when you have a draft that’s perceived not just with the top pick, but the top maybe few picks is an incredibly strong draft. That’s a way, a legitimate way of rebuilding in this league. So I’m not sitting here saying, ‘All right, here’s the new calibration to the draft lottery and that will solve it.’ We don’t have a new plan at the moment. I don’t have an answer sitting here today as to what we’re going to do other than to say that we recognize it’s an issue and it’s an issue for our fans. And so we’re paying attention to it.”
  • While Silver acknowledges the regional sports network landscape has become murky in recent years, he’s optimistic that the NBA will be able to “derive value from the situation,” Bontemps writes. “We think there’s tremendous opportunity there,” the commissioner said. “You have bankruptcies of RSNs, other RSNs that have shut down, and I think that’s created, for lack of a better term, a lot of transactional friction of people who would otherwise be interested. At the same time, well-known streaming services that only a year ago were saying they have no interest in live sports are now aggressively bidding on live sports. So we see no reason why the extent there’s that interest on a national basis or even a global basis there wouldn’t also be on a local basis.”
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