分类归档 B2

The Los Angeles Lakers continued their busy summer Friday when they agreed to trade Deandre Ayton to the Washington Wizards in exchange for Jaden Hardy and two second-round picks, according to ESPN. Rather than keep Ayton as a backup to Walker Kessler, the Lakers decided to move him and will look for another big man on the free-agent market.

Ayton, the No. 1 overall pick in 2018, played 72 games in his lone season with the Lakers, all as a starter, and averaged 12.5 points, eight rebounds and a block on 67.1% shooting. He will now join his third team in the last three seasons, and his fourth team overall. Ayton is the seventh No. 1 pick to be traded multiple times this century, per CBS Sports’ research department.

Now that the deal is complete, let’s grade it for both teams:

team logo
Los Angeles Lakers: B
The Lakers signed Ayton to a two-year, $16.2 million deal last summer with the hope that they could tap into the talent that made him the first pick less than a decade ago, and a key figure on the Phoenix Suns’ Finals team in 2021. But while Ayton had a solid season, he became frustrated with his role at times and the team did not view him as a long-term starter.

“I think he’s frustrated. He doesn’t feel like he’s getting the ball.” – JJ Redick on Deandre Ayton’s recent performances. Redick said that it’s “human nature” for Ayton’s rebounding production to dip if he doesn’t feel involved. Said LAL will work to get Ayton early touches. pic.twitter.com/lLOr7KZqqb

— Dave McMenamin (@mcten) January 3, 2026
The second year of Ayton’s deal included a player option, which he picked up on June 29. When the Lakers added Kessler from the Utah Jazz in exchange for two first-round picks and two first-round pick swaps a few days later, the writing was on the wall for Ayton. Now, he is off to D.C.

player headshot
team logo
Deandre Ayton
LAL • C • #5
PPG
12.5
RPG
8
BPG
.97
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The Lakers will now scour the free-agent market to find a backup center with Andre Drummond, Jonas Valanciunas and Kevon Looney all mentioned as possible candidates by ESPN. All three would be cheaper than Ayton and more willing to play a backup role behind Kessler.

Hardy, a second-round pick in 2022, has struggled to earn consistent playing time early in his career, but has had some impressive stretches as a scorer and is a career 38.6% shooter from 3-point range. In 23 games with the Wizards last season, he averaged 12.6 points. Still only 23 years old, he’s well worth a flyer for the Lakers, who have plenty of questions about their depth around Luka Doncic, Austin Reaves and Kessler.

The second-round picks may not amount to anything, but it’s never a bad thing to have more chances in the draft.

All told, this was a good bit of business by the Lakers, flipping a player they signed to a cheap contract and no longer needed into three positive assets.

team logo
Washington Wizards: B
The Wizards have not won 20 games in a season since 2023, haven’t been to the playoffs since 2021 and haven’t won a playoff series since 2017. Their moves over the last year have made it clear they hope to change that in the very near future.

Last season, they traded for Trae Young — and then signed to a four-year $212 million contract extension — and Anthony Davis, and last month they selected AJ Dybantsa with the No. 1 pick. Now, they’ve added Ayton, another former top pick. Of the last 15 No. 1 picks, three are now on the Wizards. Add in an array of recent first-round picks, including Alex Sarr, Tre Johnson, Kyshawn George, Bilal Coulibaly, Bub Carrington and Will Riley, and the Wizards suddenly have a pretty competitive roster if everyone can stay healthy.

Is Ayton the player everyone expected him to be coming out of college? No, but last season was the first time in his career he failed to average a double-double, and he nearly did so anyway despite playing fewer than 28 minutes per game. He’s one of the biggest players in the league and a highly efficient finisher around the basket. The Wizards’ front office and coaching staff may have to cajole him at times, but if he’s your third big, that’s pretty good.

Hardy had some nice moments toward the end of last season, but he was going to be the fourth or fifth guard on the depth chart to start the season, and the Wizards own a significant number of future picks, so using two of them to acquire a productive veteran isn’t a big deal on their end.

When LeBron James joined the Miami Heat in 2010, he brought Chris Bosh with him to a team that already had Dwyane Wade. In 2014, his return to the Cleveland Cavaliers was swiftly followed by a blockbuster trade for Kevin Love. He was willing to be a bit more patient with the Los Angeles Lakers in 2018. It took them a whole year to acquire Anthony Davis, with whom he happened to share an agent.

For most of his career, teams have been willing and even eager to move heaven and Earth in order to employ James. In all three cases, it was worth it. Each of those teams won championships. James in his prime was so singularly valuable that you could argue that a team should be willing to do anything in order to convince him to play for them.

James, now 41 and entering his 24th NBA season, isn’t that good anymore. Instead of being a championship-guaranteeing force, he is merely an All-Star-caliber player in his 40s who can lift any roster, but not fully carry one. Under most circumstances, acquiring such a player is desirable, but only under responsible circumstances. You’d love to have him, but heaven and Earth can sit tight. At best, you’re moving a continent.

But James’ 2026 free agency does not represent normal circumstances. By all accounts, he is not making a decision based on money. In theory, that makes him gettable for the minimum. Even now, at this stage of his career, James at the minimum would be perhaps the greatest, immediately apparent value contract in the history of free agency.

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Robby Kalland
Rich Paul breaks down LeBron James’ free agency: What The King’s agent said about 10 teams in the hunt
The Sporting News’ Stephen Noh has a salary projection model based on DARKO DPM, the all-in-one metric. Last season, it valued James at $28.2 million, and that doesn’t factor in his ability to scale up in high-leverage playoff games. His minimum salary as a 10-year veteran would be $3.9 million, but it would count against the cap only for $2.5 million, the minimum salary for a two-year veteran. NBA finances have never been tighter. A $25 million surplus on a single player in the apron era is a genuinely season-altering boon. If your goal is to win the 2027 championship, getting such a surplus is suddenly worth moving heaven and Earth again.

The Philadelphia 76ers struck first. They acquired Jaylen Brown on Wednesday, and while that move was not made specifically with James in mind, it may just get them a seat at the table. The 76ers are reportedly pursuing James now, and getting Brown probably won’t hurt their chances.

Most of the major business of the offseason is done. Brown, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Kawhi Leonard, the three biggest names believed to be available, have all moved. But the chance to lure one star player can lead to surprising moves to get another. Nobody thought Paul George was moving in 2019. Leonard’s availability compelled the Los Angeles Clippers to go all-in for him.

So with James sitting on the market, are there moves some of the interested parties can pursue to potentially entice James? Before you ask, we’re not considering Bronny James here. I’m assuming the Lakers either view him as a legitimate prospect and won’t move him. Or they don’t. In that case, acquiring him is just table stakes and is probably doable at a trivial price. We’ll start with superstars and work our way down.

Can anyone get Anthony Davis?
I know what the reporting is saying. The Washington Wizards are batting away all trade suitors. They want to keep Anthony Davis! They’re even hinting at extending him. I don’t doubt that this is indeed what they are telling the world. I absolutely doubt that they mean it.

Jaylen Brown gave his first public comments on the blockbuster trade that sent him from the Boston Celtics to the Philadelphia 76ers during a live stream on his Twitch channel on Thursday night. Brown, who spent 10 seasons with the Celtics, spoke for nearly an hour about his emotions and even called some of his new teammates live on the air.

“Boston packed me up. Boston, they packed me up my boy. God,” Brown said to begin his stream, before reading a statement he released on social media that thanked the city and the fans, though notably not the organization. “Boston packed me up, chat. Pack your bags, sayonara, buddy. Out of here.”

Let’s take a closer look at some of the most notable comments made by Brown on Thursday night:

‘Out of nowhere, things just kind of went left’
Brown has been the subject of trade rumors at multiple points in his career, but he felt that something was different this summer. Not only did the Celtics make him the centerpiece of their offers for Giannis Antetokounmpo (who landed with the Miami Heat), they actively shopped him around the league, according to multiple reports.

“I will say, there was definitely a message being sent, and that message was received,” Brown said. “I wasn’t thrilled with the amount of respect that was showed during this process. I think there was a bit of a lack of respect. It was fine at one point, and then out of nowhere, things just kind of went left.

“I think Brad [Stevens] is probably getting a lot of the criticism,” Brown continued. “I wasn’t thrilled with the way he facilitated some of the conversations, but I definitely think there’s more to it. There’s definitely more to it. I just wish the ‘more to it’ could have been explained to me, because if the ‘more to it’ had been explained, I think I would have understood. I thought I earned respect enough to get that explanation, but obviously I was wrong.”

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How did Celtics, Jaylen Brown get here? Trade to 76ers caps off stunning deterioration of relationship
‘We gotta stop with the anonymous sources’
During the Celtics’ 2024 championship parade, Brown wore a shirt that read “state your source,” a shot at Stephen A. Smith. Last month, when ESPN’s Bobby Marks said an analytics employee of a team told him that Brown was viewed as the “seventh-best player on a team,” Brown posted “state your source” on social media.

On his stream, Brown again criticized the use of anonymous sources, which have been ubiquitous throughout this entire process.

“We got to stop with the anonymous sources. Like, I’m tired of these damn anonymous sources,” Brown said. “Anonymous executive, anonymous source. Colin Cowherd, Bobby Marks, Stephen A. Smith, anonymous sources is saying anything. I think y’all are the sources. And if not, y’all shouldn’t even say it if it’s something that’s this ridiculous.

“But we gotta stop. This is a part of the reason I started streaming in the first place. They use these anonymous sources to hide behind how they actually feel, or to hide behind things that could be controversial, or to hide behind things that are, you know, examples of bigotry.”

‘The Process is back’
The Celtics and Sixers are fierce rivals. Dating back to 1950, when the Sixers were still the Syracuse Nationals, the two teams have squared off 23 times in the playoffs. No two franchises have met more often. Most recently, of course, the Sixers came back from a 3-1 deficit to stun Brown and the Celtics in the first round and win their first playoff series against Boston since 1982.

There has been plenty of bad blood between the two franchises throughout the decades, which Brown joked he’ll now have to “reverse engineer.”

“The hard part is for the last 10 years I’ve been programmed to hate Philadelphia,” Brown said. “From the history of the rivalry, to the playoff battles, all of the above. ‘The Process.’ I’ve been programmed to be like, man, f— The Process. It’s funny, now I gotta, like, reverse engineer, you know what I mean?

‘The Process is back the f— on. We’ve been shutting The Process down for the last, I don’t know how many years. The Process has been over, but now The Process is back, motherf—er.”

Tyrese Maxey joins the stream
Just a few months ago, Brown was going to war against Tyrese Maxey and VJ Edgecombe in the playoffs. Now, they’re teammates. During his stream, Brown called both players and put them on speaker. Neither said too much, which wasn’t a surprise given the public setting, but Maxey did promise to join Brown’s stream next season.

Jaylen Brown calls VJ Edgecombe and Tyrese Maxey back on stream. Both sound excited to be working with JB.

Brown told VJ Edgecombe he’s “a fan of his game” and told Maxey “we got work to do”. pic.twitter.com/rUPaFc6nFV

— Erin Grugan (@eringrugan) July 3, 2026
“Chat, what’s good chat? I ain’t gonna lie, I’m jumping on the stream this year,” Maxey said. “You know I’m locked in. Holla at me. I’m in the gym whenever.”

‘My key card got rejected’
Toward the end of his stream, Brown said that he was about to head to the gym, then admitted that he went to the Celtics’ facility after news of the trade broke and his key card was rejected.

“I’m about to go get in the gym right now. You know what I mean? Just to start building up. But hey, they packed me up, it happens,” Brown said. “I went up to the facility, my key card got rejected. Damn. I just wanted to see if it was real. They packed me up, bro. It’s crazy.”

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The Jaylen Brown trade is a gut punch to Celtics fans and a move the team can’t justify
‘Still was my favorite season so far’
After the Celtics’ first-round exit, Brown went on his stream and said that this season was his “favorite season” as a Celtic. While it was understandable that he would be proud of what he and the team accomplished — he averaged a career-high 28.7 points, 6.9 rebounds and 5.1 assists, and turned what was supposed to be a gap year into a 56-win campaign — it was a strange comment considering the team won a championship two years ago.

When news broke on June 29 that Draymond Green had declined his $27.7 million player option to become, technically, a free agent, all signs pointed to LeBron James joining the Warriors. The idea was to have Green accept a new multi-year contract for less annual money with the first-year savings going into the James fund.

The dots were pretty easy to connect. James has been a Warriors target for years. They made a play for him at the 2024 deadline. In a 2022 interview, James named Stephen Curry as the current player he would most like to partner with. Green opting out was the key to making it happen. And when it was announced less than 24 hours later that James would not be returning to the Lakers, it seemed like a done deal.

Now here we are on Friday with no deal done, and with every hour that passes, it feels increasingly unlikely that James will actually end up in the Bay. ESPN’s Anthony Slater has, in fact, reported that the Warriors “have been given no indication they’re any type of front-runner” to land James. And on Thursday, James’ agent, Rich Paul, went on his podcast and outlined the pros and cons of 10 potential destinations for James on a whiteboard.

Make of this what you will, but the “Steph & Dray” Warriors are on the outskirts of Paul’s outline here:

screenshot-2026-07-03-at-9-32-44-am.png
Game Over Podcast
The first team Paul discussed was the 76ers, noting that “everything changed” when they made the trade for Jaylen Brown on Wednesday night. It makes sense. A day earlier, ESPN’s Brian Windhorst said that the way for any of these LeBron suitors to get his attention was to make a splash move to improve their roster.

Forget a splash move, the Warriors haven’t made any move for a player they didn’t already have; they’ve only re-signed Al Horford, Kristaps Porzingis and De’Anthony Melton. They drafted Yaxel Lendeborg with the 11th pick, but a rookie isn’t going to move the needle for James.

There was wind blowing in the direction of the Warriors making a trade for Anthony Davis to lure James, but that was either never real or isn’t real anymore — at least if we’re to believe Marc Stein’s report that the Warriors don’t want to trade Jimmy Butler, as Butler’s contract would be the only viable swap for Davis’ money.

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Brad Botkin
LeBron James to the 76ers? Why Jaylen Brown could help lure The King to Philly
At this point, it’s hard to put too much stock in what anyone is saying or why they’re saying it. But for whatever it’s worth, the Warriors were the seventh of the 10 teams Paul talked about on his podcast. If that sounds like an afterthought to you, you’re not alone.

Again, this makes sense if James’ top priority is signing with the team that gives him the best chance of winning his fifth championship. The Warriors are not that. They would be fun and potentially quite competitive if everyone could stay healthy, but that’s a big “if” and there are much surer bets on the board.

The fact is, James can go to basically whatever team he wants if he’ll take minimum money. And being that money isn’t — if you believe the reporting — his main concern at this point, even the $15 million mid-level exception the Warriors could offer him (if they can get off Moses Moody’s contract) is no longer much of a competitive advantage, if any at all.

What will the Warriors do if their LeBron dream doesn’t come true?
And so here we are on July 3 with the Warriors, who put all their offseason eggs in the LeBron James basket, staring at the same roster they ended last season with while everyone else has gobbled up the bulk of available players. If nothing materializes, Slater says the Warriors’ front office is “content if they have to run it back with mostly the same roster.”

In the big picture, that’s probably the right move if the James pursuit falls through. Trading for Davis and then giving him the extension he wants would probably be irresponsible given his age and injury history. This probably isn’t a true championship-contending team — no matter what move(s) they make.

But Warriors fans don’t want to hear about probablys. They’re watching the sun set on the Curry era while the front office sits on its hands. In today’s Western Conference, if you’re not getting better, you’re getting worse. The presence of the Spurs and Thunder is forcing everyone with any real competitive ambition to take real risks.

Losing Mitchell Robinson to the division rival Boston Celtics was a real blow to the New York Knicks, who were simply not going to go past the second apron to sign a backup center. On Friday, they addressed that need with a poor-man’s Robinson by signing free agent Andre Drummond to a one-year, $3.9 million deal, according to ESPN’s Shams Charania.

Drummond, who spent the last two seasons with the Philadelphia 76ers, has been around for a long time. This will be his 15th season in the league. According to SNY’s Ian Begley, that was a big reason why New York went after him. They like Drummond’s veteran experience and his rebounding to fill some of the void left by Robinson, one of the best offensive rebounders in NBA history.

Drummond is an all-time rebounder himself. His career 25% rebound rate is the best ever. He played 62 games for the 76ers last season, and when he was on the floor, he rebounded 20.2% of all misses. That was the second-best rebound rate in the league. Who was the best? Robinson, who brought down 21.4% of all misses. If you take the stats at face value, Drummond and Robinson performed strikingly similarly last season.

Tale of the 2025-26 Tape

MPG

PPG

RPG

OREB

Mitchell Robinson

19.6

5.7

8.8

4.2

Andre Drummond

19.5

6.4

8.4

3.2

Where they separate, on paper, is with Robinson’s 72.3% shooing clip against Drummond’s 47.2%, but that is because Robinson basically doesn’t shoot anything that isn’t a point-blank finish. Drummond doesn’t do much more, but he is a bit more of an active offensive participant outside of screening and crashing the glass. We all remember him actually taking and making corner 3s in the playoffs.

Plus, Drummond’s 63.1% free-throw clip is basically Steph Curry compared to Robinson, who shot 40% from the stripe in the regular season and 29% in the playoffs. That’s a big deal. Drummond made 70% of his free throws in the playoffs. You can’t hack him off the floor the same way you can Robinson.

It begs the question: Did the Knicks just get an equal player for a fraction of the $47 million the Celtics just paid for Robinson? The answer is no. Robinson is a much better defender. But listen, at the end of the day, the Knicks just blasted their playoff opponents by 22.5 points per 100 possessions with Robinson off the floor, per Cleaning the Glass, while falling to just plus-2.7 with Robinson on the floor. The 76ers were basically neutral with Drummond on the floor.

That’s a small sample and we all understand these numbers are lineup and opponent dependent. Robinson is a better player. That’s why he just got a $47 million contract while Drummond is getting $3.9 million. But for a $44 million savings, which adds up to a bunch more with the taxes and roster-building restrictions they avoid by staying under the second apron, this is a heck of a bargain deal for the Knicks.

With more and more teams emerging as active LeBron James suitors, the Timberwolves are reportedly making a unique pitch to the King: Come to Minnesota and end the Greatest of All Time debate once and for all.

This is according to The Athletic’s Jon Krawczynski, who notes that the Wolves have “ramped up their push for LeBron” and believe they have a real chance of landing him. It’s an intriguing idea, to say the least. The Wolves have a star-studded roster headlined by Anthony Edwards, the recently acquired LaMelo Ball, Jaden McDaniels and Rudy Gobert that can ease LeBron’s burden on both ends of the floor and give him a legitimate shot at his fifth championship.

Getting a fifth ring anywhere would obviously bolster his GOAT argument against Michael Jordan, but the Wolves are right to point out that not all championships are created equal. When LeBron won in 2016, by leading the only 3-1 comeback in Finals history against an NBA record 73-win opponent no less, he not only brought the Cavaliers their first title but also ended an all-sport 52-year championship for the city of Cleveland. That once championship probably meant more than his other three combined. It made him a genuine hero.

A similar thing could happen with the Timberwolves, as laid out by Krawczynski:

Most importantly, [the Timberwolves] have a story for James to tell. Unlike several of the other options on the table for him, including the Golden State Warriors, Miami Heat and James’ hometown Cleveland Cavaliers, the Timberwolves have never won a championship. The [NFL] Vikings and [NHL] Wild are title-less as well. The Twins’ World Series win in 1991 marks the last time a Minnesota men’s professional sports franchise won it all, the longest drought among U.S. markets with all four major sports. The people of Minnesota are desperate for a championship.

The Wolves think if James picks them over all the other suitors — cold weather and lack of spending power be damned — it would be the biggest possible statement he could make in the long-running greatest player of all time debate between him and Michael Jordan.

The Wolves have a compelling case here. ESPN’s Brian Windhorst, who’s got as good a feel for the LeBron pulse as any reporter out there, has noted that the best way to get James’ attention as potential destination is to go out and imporve your team with a significant addition. The 76ers did that with Jaylen Brown, and now LeBron’s agent Rich Paul is saying that move “changed everything.”

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The LeBron James pitch rankings: How 29 teams can sell themselves as NBA legend takes free agency meetings
Well, the Wolves also made a splash trade this summer for the aforementioned LaMelo Ball, and recently Paul, who told ESPN that 27 teams have now inquired about James, took to a whiteboard to lay out the case for the top suitors on his “Game Over” podcast — and Minnesota was listed smack in the middle of that board.

screenshot-2026-07-03-at-9-32-44-am.png
Game Over Podcast
Who knows if the order in which any of these teams were talked about or where their name was written on the actual board means anythng at all, but what we do know is that story and legacy clearly mean a lot to James.

Paul, in fact, flat out told Max Kellerman on this same podcast that if the Knicks hadn’t just won the title, “there would be no [white]board, he’d be going to the Knicks.” What does that tell you? That LeBron fancies being the hero, but Jalen Brunson already claimed that status in New York after delivering the franchise its first title since 1973.

LeBron agent Rich Paul puts Knicks on LeBron’s whiteboard:

“It’s difficult…

If Knicks hadn’t won there’d be no board. He’d be going to Knicks…

Jalen Brunson would have to pick up phone & say…’It’s no issue w me'”

Max: “Have Knicks called?

Paul: “Yeah…They checked in…… pic.twitter.com/aHqMXg613K

— New York Basketball (@NBA_NewYork) July 3, 2026
Minnesota isn’t the NBA city that New York is, obviously, but ending the longest current championship drought for a four-sport city would definitely qualify as heroic. And again, the Wolves have a team that can compete with anyone. They’ve been to two of the last three conference finals. They eliminated the Nuggets this year and were tied 2-2 with the Spurs, even after Donte DiVincenzo tore his Achilles. If the Ball addition works as it could, with Edwards getting to play more off-ball and the offense juiced, they could be even better this season.

Add LeBron, and this team becomes a serious threat to beat the Spurs and/or Thunder, or anyone else, for the Western Conference crown. And there would be no ring-chasing narratives to fight off like there would be if he joined Stephen Curry. Again, the Wolves have never won a title. If LeBron changed that, the Wolves are right to suggest it could end the GOAT debate for at least the people who are currently on the fence.

LeBron James is currently a free agent, and despite the mountains of speculation piling up around him, it’s hard to imagine anyone really knows what he’s going to do. That might even apply to him. The reporting thus far has indicated that he has welcomed pitches from teams around the league. While a few expected favorites have emerged, enough teams seem to believe that they have a realistic chance of signing him that it’s reasonable to assume he’s going into this process with an open mind.

So what is he looking for? When James decided to return for a 24th season, a source familiar with James’ thinking told ESPN that he wanted to play “meaningful, competitive basketball.” We can assume, for the sake of argument, that this rules out noncompetitive teams. Being able to win should therefore be treated as table stakes. But what does a team need beyond that?

The guiding principle, according to virtually everyone involved and reporting on the matters, is happiness. Only James truly knows what happiness means for him. His agent, Rich Paul, recently gave some insight into what that means on his “Game Over” podcast with Max Kellerman.

“This is the first time that LeBron James is making a decision pressure-free,” Paul said. “He’s won already. He’s made good on his promise — he won in L.A. This is strictly for his happiness. What does happiness entail? It’s a number of things. It’s a bucket of happiness. It’s basketball, it’s living, it’s camaraderie, it’s competition. It’s everything.”

How James is going to weigh all of those factors, only he knows. If it’s as simple as picking the team likeliest to win a championship, he’ll hop onto one of the favorites. If where he lives matters most, well, Cleveland probably has the advantage. If he wants ideal golfing conditions, it’s probably Miami. We don’t know if there are deal-breakers here. If he needs a certain-sized city, or a certain type of weather, or a certain set of existing personal connections, the field may be whittled down to only a few contenders.

But if he’s willing to truly keep an open mind, I think the answer here is obvious. I think LeBron James should play for the Minnesota Timberwolves. Here’s my pitch:

The basketball fit
LeBron has a bit of a Goldilocks problem here. He can almost certainly win next season’s championship if he decides he’s just going to play for the best team that will have him. While teams like the Oklahoma City Thunder, San Antonio Spurs and New York Knicks do not appear to be in open pursuit, it’s hard to imagine any of them would turn him away if he called and said he wanted to play for them.

But think about the idea of “meaningful” basketball. Would it really mean anything if James went to an established favorite and won a preordained championship as essentially a role player? Probably not. He doesn’t want to get branded as a ring-chaser. He’s probably not looking to take the easy way.

Now, he could go to a lesser team and try to raise it up, but the problem he’d encounter in most destinations is that the Thunder, the Spurs and the Knicks are so far ahead of the field that he would realistically struggle to actually compete with them almost anywhere else.

If he joins the Golden State Warriors, barring some stunning blockbuster we can’t foresee, he’d be joining the bones of last year’s Western Conference No. 10 seed. As glitzy as the names would be, the NBA isn’t designed for teams that old anymore. They’d never survive the 82-game regular-season grind. The Cleveland Cavaliers were not a LeBron James away from beating the Knicks in last year’s Eastern Conference Finals, and that was with Dean Wade and Keon Ellis, who have both since left. Who’s defending the ball for that version of the Cavaliers? He wouldn’t be playing “meaningful” basketball for a team with no championship equity.

So we’re looking for a middle ground here: not too good to make a championship easy, not too mediocre to make a championship impossible. Again, I’m going to keep coming back to the idea of “meaningful.” The most meaningful sort of team LeBron James could join would be one that is not capable of winning a championship without him, but would be right in the thick of the race with him.

That describes the Timberwolves. They’ve become the Western Conference’s perpetual bridesmaids, losing to the eventual conference champion three postseasons in a row. The biggest reason for their defeats in all three series was a lack of secondary scoring and shot-creation outside of Anthony Edwards. Karl-Anthony Towns shot 28% from the floor in the first three games of the 2024 Western Conference Finals. Minnesota lost those three games by 13 total points, and they’re probably a big reason the Timberwolves traded him. Julius Randle no-showed the Oklahoma City series two years ago and the San Antonio battle this year. The Spurs in particular were able to double Edwards relentlessly because no one else on the team could punish them for it.

Minnesota traded for LaMelo Ball to address that problem, but remember, he has no real playoff experience and has mostly been terrible in his brief Play-In appearances. The Timberwolves need a steadier hand, especially now that Mike Conley plays for the Boston Celtics.

Adding James would obviously provide one, and the pairing of James and Ball would address by far Minnesota’s biggest offensive flaw over the past few years: its lack of passing. That flaw isn’t for lack of trying. The Timberwolves have ranked seventh, 11th and eighth in passes per game over the past three seasons. Those passes are just fairly aimless. Despite ranking seventh in total passes last season, only the Clippers averaged fewer potential assists per game. It should not be possible to rank seventh in one of those stats and tie for 28th in the other. It happened. Edwards may be a primary ball-handler, but he is not a point guard. Put Ball and James into the mix and he’ll never have to be. That’s 48 minutes of elite playmaking every night.

Removing any sort of playmaking burden from Edwards’ shoulders is only going to make him more lethal everywhere else, and frankly, that was his last notable weakness to begin with. Edwards came into the NBA capable of generating elite rim-pressure. He added an elite 3-point shot over the past several years. Last season, his post-game and mid-range shooting improved dramatically. He’s an elite three-level scorer now, much like Kyrie Irving was next to James in Cleveland. That partnership was so symbiotic because Irving is at his best when he isn’t tasked with point guard-level playmaking responsibilities. James took those off his shoulders and he soared.

Edwards would offensively. He also would defensively. Edwards is capable of great defense. Late in close playoff games, he dials up the effort. He’s asked to do too much offensively every night to sustain that effort for 48 minutes. The less he needs the ball, the more effort he can pour into defense. Fortunately, Minnesota doesn’t need much. Rudy Gobert earned yet another All-Defense selection last season and Jaden McDaniels easily could have. The Timberwolves have an elite rim-protector and they have two potentially elite perimeter defenders. They’ll have to hide Ball, and James can’t take high-leverage matchups for full games anymore, but he is still a genius off-ball defender who can function well in a smaller role and also dial things up for bigger possessions when needed. There’s a real balance here. This version of the Timberwolves would have a chance to be the best offense in the NBA, but still near the top of the league in defense.

Even the starting lineup just makes sense. An All-Star in Ball. An All-Star in Edwards. An ascending two-way star in McDaniels. An All-Star in Gobert. And a LeBron James-shaped hole at power forward. There is not a lineup in all of basketball into which he slides more cleanly. There is not a group of players in the league he would more easily enhance.

James is maybe the greatest hit-ahead transition passer in NBA history. There aren’t many guards in basketball who run the court like Ayo Dosunmu, so James would get him plenty of free buckets on the break. Gobert needs someone to throw him lobs. James just spent five years and change throwing them to Anthony Davis. Once Edwards and Ball find the pick-and-roll chemistry with James that Irving had, blitzing them off of his screens to take away their pull-up jumper becomes effectively impossible. Oh, you’re going to give LeBron James a 4-on-3? Good luck with that.

When Tim Connelly was tasked with upending the Western Conference’s last proto-dynasty, he built a gigantic, defense-first roster to effectively Denver-proof his roster. That group did indeed torture the Nuggets, but the Thunder and the Spurs are the class of the West now. Connelly knew his jumbo-sized front court would no longer cut it. He couldn’t beat the Thunder or Spurs at their own game, so he went the other way and tilted the roster towards defense. James would be the best of both worlds, giving the Timberwolves one of the NBA’s best and most diverse collections of scoring threats while still filling the enormous power forward hole Randle and Naz Reid left behind. This is the right sort of team with the right sort of roster to maximize James at this stage of his career. They have more than enough support to keep him fresh through the regular season, but still need him to scale up his duties when it counts most in the playoffs. This is where LeBron James can play “meaningful” basketball.

The NBA’s rumor mill has slowed considerably now that most of the top free agents have agreed to deals and the biggest names on the trade market have already found new homes. Most of the deals we’ve heard about in the past two weeks will become official on Monday afternoon when the league year officially opens.

The biggest domino yet to fall is LeBron James’ decision regarding where he’ll be playing his 24th season in the NBA. No one is better at filling an NBA news vacuum than James, and his agent Rich Paul is ensuring he remains the leading topic as Paul and Max Kellerman recorded yet another episode of their Game Over podcast over the holiday weekend to further detail LeBron’s decision-making process.

While much has been made about the off-court factors at play for LeBron — with initial reports noting that James’ happiness will be front of mind — the focus has shifted to the basketball court and identifying the best fit for LeBron to try and win a fifth championship. Paul explained that he and the folks at Klutch are diving into the analytics and film to look at defensive ratings, how individual players perform with their on-ball and help defense, a team’s success rate with after timeout plays (ATOs) and the general offensive scheme.

Why LeBron James should sign with the Minnesota Timberwolves
Sam Quinn
Why LeBron James should sign with the Minnesota Timberwolves
It should come as no surprise that James and his camp would take a thorough approach to free agency, a luxury afforded to them most others don’t get. LeBron does not have to worry about a team moving on from their pursuit to sign someone else or the money for him drying up, especially with the financial component being a secondary concern at most as he’s looking at minimums or portions of the mid-level exception. He can drag this out and have his camp do as much due diligence as possible on each team and coach to determine the best possible basketball fit.

However, after all of that work gets done, the decision still lies with LeBron and Paul noted that those other factors could still override the basketball fit.

“There’s so many components you can chop up that we go through from a prep perspective now,” Paul said. “You may get to the position and you present all this, and that person is like, ‘Yeah, but that don’t matter. This is my decision.’ But that doesn’t mean you don’t prepare.”

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Kawhi Leonard’s agent change in Toronto
As the league year gets set to open, Kawhi Leonard will be able to discuss a new two-year contract extension with the Raptors. Leonard’s deal can be worth up to $123.7 million over those two years, but the man negotiating that deal with Raptors president Bobby Webster will be someone new. ESPN reports Leonard has hired Harrison Gaines of SLASH Sports to represent him in his upcoming negotiations, moving on from his long-time agent Mitch Frankel.

Gaines is not new to Leonard’s camp, as he has served as his business attorney for the past year, but will now step into the agent role as Leonard aims to land a long-term deal back in Toronto. It’s unclear how much Dennis Robertson, aka Uncle Dennis, will still factor into Leonard’s dealings, but it’s apparently Gaines now taking the lead. That’s important for a couple of reasons, with one being Gaines was not with Leonard back in 2019 when he last played with the Raptors and the two sides discussed potential contracts when he hit free agency.

The other, of course, is that Leonard is changing his representation while the NBA’s investigation into potential cap circumvention between the Clippers and Leonard is still ongoing. Reporting into the now-infamous no-show endorsement deal with Aspiration at the center of that investigation prominently featured Robertson. While the NBA continues to look into the allegations of cap circumvention in L.A., Leonard’s new representation will work on maximizing his earnings within the CBA guidelines in Toronto.

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Nuggets willing to listen to sign-and-trade offers on Watson
Once LeBron James is taken care of, the attention will shift to the dormant restricted free agency market. Walker Kessler was the only prominent RFA to find a new deal quickly this summer, and only because the Lakers were desperate enough to send two unprotected first-round picks and two pick swaps to the Jazz to avoid Utah potentially matching an offer sheet. Forward Quinten Post, for what it’s worth, agreed to a three-year $30 million offer sheet with the Grizzlies on Monday that the Warriors will have to match by Tuesday night if they want to retain him

With cap space dried up around the league, there aren’t many offer sheet options out there for the rest of the top RFAs, and much like last year we could see things drag on deep into the summer. Detroit’s Jalen Duren and Denver’s Peyton Watson are at the top of that list and, unsurprisingly, both find themselves well apart from the Pistons and Nuggets in contract talks.

While Detroit has seemingly told anyone who will listen that they will match any offer sheet on Duren and will not entertain a sign-and-trade, the Nuggets are apparently growing more open to the latter. According to The Athletic, Denver would match any offer sheet on Watshon, but is “very open” to the possibility of a sign-and-trade.

NBA free agency is underway, and only a handful of notable names remain on the market. Free agency officially began at 6 p.m. ET on June 30, and more than 30 of CBS Sports’ top 40 free agents had agreed to deals in the first 48 hours. On Monday, veteran forward Rui Hachimura became the latest player to move as the ex-Laker agreed to a two-year deal with the crosstown Clippers. While most of the dust has settled, there are still some big names left in free agency.

That starts with LeBron James. James is set to change teams for a fourth time in his legendary career after informing the Lakers he would not return to L.A. for the 2026-27 season. The Warriors, Cavaliers, Heat, Nuggets, 76ers and others are in the running for James, who appears to be in no hurry to make a decision.

Elsewhere at the top of the free agency rankings, Jalen Duren remains on the market as a restricted free agent. Duren, an All-NBA center in the 2025-26 season, could very well return to the Pistons, who can match any offer sheet he gets.

So what other moves have we seen? The Lakers’ post-LeBron era will see them bring back Austin Reaves on a $185 million deal, add big man Walker Kessler in a sign-and-trade with the Jazz and sign free-agent guards Quentin Grimes and Collin Sexton. Mitchell Robinson is one of the best free agents to change teams, as he left the champion Knicks for a three-year deal with the Celtics (just hours before Boston’s stunning trade of Jaylen Brown to the 76ers). Norman Powell left the Heat for the Bulls. And Tobias Harris is heading to the Spurs as the Pistons signed John Collins to fill his gap.

Anfernee Simons agreed to a two-year deal with the 76ers after Philly’s move for Brown. Later on, Tari Eason agreed to a five-year, fully guaranteed deal to stay with the Rockets.

We’ve ranked the 40 best players in free agency (more on them here) and will be keeping tabs on the moves below in our free agency tracker.

The Sacramento Kings waived DeMar DeRozan Monday in a financially driven move. The Kings entered this offseason far above the luxury-tax line, but waiving DeRozan saves them at least $15.7 million, as only $10 million of his $25.7 million salary was guaranteed. If the Kings choose to stretch that money over the next three seasons, their short-term savings get even bigger. The rebuilding Kings are moving in a direction. They no longer had a spot for an aging former All-Star.

Some other team inevitably will. DeRozan is expected to find a robust market in free agency. What sort of team will he land with? Well, history suggests that if someone is willing to pay him decent money, they’re the best bet. When DeRozan became a free agent in 2021 and 2024, rumors about him taking a pay cut to join a contender were frequent. On neither occasion did he actually do so. If there’s a team willing to throw, say, the mid-level exception his way, they would seemingly be on the table. There are probably more minutes available for him on a bad team than a good one.

But DeRozan is entering his age-37 season. He remains a highly productive individual scorer (he scored 18.4 points per game last season and ranks 18th all-time in NBA history with 26,711 career points), but think about the analytics-driven dismissal of Jaylen Brown in the wake of his stunning trade to the Philadelphia 76ers. The on-off numbers have always disliked DeRozan. He neither shoots 3s nor defends. Throw in his age, and these are the sort of players NBA teams no longer seem especially eager to invest in.

At this point, taking a lower salary to join a contender may no longer be a choice. It might just be the best option available to him. So who’s possible here? Let’s run through a few possibilities.

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Whoever misses out on LeBron James
Right now, at least six teams are patiently awaiting an answer from LeBron James about whether or not he’ll play for them. The Cleveland Cavaliers, Minnesota Timberwolves and Philadelphia 76ers are both so heavy on shot-creation at this stage that none would be a fit. The other three teams all make varying degrees of sense:

The Denver Nuggets have a severe lack of dribbling outside of Nikola Jokić and Jamal Murray. DeRozan doesn’t exactly fit their off-ball motion-heavy offense around Jokić, but he could keep the bench offense afloat, and Denver has played elite offense without maxing out 3-point volume in the past, so it is about as well-equipped as any team could be to deal with DeRozan’s less-than-ideal shot selection. Denver ranked fourth in free-throw rate last season, and throwing DeRozan into the mix could nudge them up to No. 1.
The Miami Heat have been linked to DeRozan through several transaction cycles, and they badly need another creator with so much of their offense currently hinging on Giannis Antetokounmpo. DeRozan doesn’t shoot nearly as well as they need, but beggars can’t be choosers at this price point, and DeRozan’s ability to lead bench units would be critical here.
DeRozan’s playing style would be almost antithetical to the free-flowing offense Steve Kerr has built for the Golden State Warriors, but someone other than Stephen Curry needs to generate offense while Jimmy Butler is out. The Warriors will have plenty of financial flexibility while they await Jimmy Butler’s return from a torn ACL, so they could potentially pay DeRozan more than the minimum (that is, unless they dip into that flexibility to retain Quentin Post on the three-year, $30 million offer sheet that the Memphis Grizzlies gave him).
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Toronto Raptors
Once upon a time, the Raptors traded DeRozan to land Kawhi Leonard. Since then, they’ve lost and reacquired Leonard. With DeRozan now available as a free agent, the Raptors could finally unite the two as they attempt to make it back to the peak that only the original Leonard-DeRozan deal ever took them to.

Does the fit make sense? I’d call myself a skeptic. The Raptors are already pretty light on shooting, having just ranked 25th in the NBA in 3-point attempt rate. Leonard plays slow, but the rest of the Raptors play fast, and introducing another slow-it-down ball-handler risks disturbing this team’s transition identity. Toronto has stacked strong defenders everywhere. Why mess with that over a sentimental reunion?

It comes down to how much faith Toronto has in its ability to score when Leonard is on the bench. If the Raptors want to have a spare half-court shotmaker, sure, DeRozan at the minimum is good bang for their buck. But with Scottie Barnes ascending into true stardom last season, it feels likelier that Toronto just staggers him and Leonard and trusts Barnes to generate their offense when Kawhi rests. It’s not out of the realm of possibility, but it’s not the cleanest fit either.

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New York Knicks
What sort of role is DeRozan demanding at this point? The Knicks are looking for a spare bench ball-handler, someone to fill the Jordan Clarkson role from last season. DeRozan is overqualified. Maybe the Knicks could open up more minutes by trading Deuce McBride in a deal for a center. That’s probably on the table anyway with McBride entering a contract year. But that deal probably has to wait for the season, and either way, shots are minimal in New York. DeRozan is incompatible with Jalen Brunson. Because of his shooting, he might be incompatible with Josh Hart as well.

But DeRozan is represented by CAA, which means the Knicks know him well. He also played briefly for Mike Brown in Sacramento, so the Knicks have all of the information they’ll need here. If they think he’d fit into a smaller role, it’s not a crazy talent play. Clarkson wasn’t a staple in the playoff rotation, but he did his job when the Knicks needed him to. If a 37-year-old DeRozan is willing to do the same, maybe this could work.