Eagles

Yeah, the Minnesota Timberwolves' repeated shipwreckings in the first round might be tough to swallow for the next month. However, the blown leads and Karl-Anthony Towns trash talk undermine what was, in my estimation, one of the most promising seasons in recent franchise history.
Minnesota has made the playoffs twice since 2004. The only other time was a whimper of a first-round exit in 2018 that foreshadowed the collapse of a Jimmy Butler-led, Tom Thibodeau-coached roster. This season, Minnesota constructed a top-10 defense with the league's seventh-youngest roster, per RealGM, and went 30-17 in the 2022 calendar year.
Make no mistake: This franchise is on a positive trajectory, and is finally turning potential into production. Now, Minnesota has to make one of the most difficult leaps in basketball &mdash; going from a winning team to a true contender &mdash; at a time where the NBA wields some of the widest parity in recent memory.
The 2022 offseason can be a pivotal building block towards that leap. First, the franchise needs to secure its chief decision-maker.
<div class="mceNonEditable"><spike>&nbsp;</spike></div>
Sachin Gupta assumed interim duties as president of basketball operations following Gersson Rosas' departure last fall. The Wolves made all of five in-season acquisitions under his tenure (three of which were 10-day signings), and executed zero trades. It was a quiet season on paper for the creator of ESPN's Trade Machine.&nbsp;
According to the <a href="https://www.startribune.com/timberwolves-sachin-gupta-chris-finch/600169496/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Minneapolis Star Tribune</a>, Gupta seems prepared to navigate the Timberwolves through the summer, though the franchise has not made any move towards announcing a permanent head of operations yet. Wolves head coach Chris Finch has voiced his support for Gupta.
"They know my feelings about Sach," Finch said. "They know that I think he's outstanding and he's been a huge reason that we have stability in this organization right now. He's very smart. We have complete alignment. The players love him. He's appropriate in his presence around the team. He's not heavy-handed with the coaching staff. He does his job.
"I'm a huge fan, and I've advocated for him to have his opportunity to be the guy to run this team. Nothing would make me happier than that."
So time will tell if the new ownership group, currently including Glen Taylor, Alex Rodriguez and Marc Lore, feel the same.
Minnesota has most of its current roster contractually intact. The team holds $1.9 million team options on 2019 second round pick Jaylen Nowell and undrafted Naz Reid, who have both emerged as quality rotation-caliber players. Perhaps the biggest free agent name is Taurean Prince (UFA), who solidified a solid floor-spacing role off the bench in the regular season, but struggled in the playoffs.&nbsp;
Meanwhile, defensive-minded wing Josh Okogie enters restricted free agency after playing just 10.5 minutes per game this season. The former 2018 first-round pick has seen his playing time decrease in each of the last three years. Nathan Knight and McKinley Wright IV also enter restricted free agency, while Jake Layman and Greg Monroe hit the unrestricted open market.
<iframe title="YouTube video player" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Inj6xo2NU1w" width="100%" height="325" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
The Wolves likely won't have the salary cap room for flashy free agent acquisitions. According to Spotrac, Minnesota is all-but guaranteed to be over the cap before free agency even opens. Their best spending asset will be a $10.2 million non-taxpayer exception. Interestingly, Gupta has already commented on a potential team need.
"Defensive rebounding was obviously a big issue in this series and all year long," Gupta said. "That might be a more personnel thing and more size can certainly help. There's a mix for sure in terms of how we can address some of those areas and weaknesses just with development and internal growth and others that we may have to address with the roster."
Minnesota should have plenty of chances to fill this need with its exception. Purely spitballing, but some rebounding bigs who might fit in the $10.2 million exception include: Derrick Favors, Ivica Zubac, Thomas Bryant and Andre Drummond.&nbsp;
But if the front office feels a greater compulsion to act, they have the players and draft picks to create enticing trades. Minnesota holds the No. 19 pick in the first round of the NBA Draft, and Nos. 40, 48 and 50 in the second round. How many of these selections will stay in the Twin Cities with a roster nearly full already?&nbsp;
Our Senior NBA Draft Analyst Matt Babcock projects Minnesota to select Kennedy Chandler at No. 19, and then Ismael Kamagate, Jalen Williams and Hugo Besson in the second round of <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/draft" target="_blank" rel="noopener">his latest 2022 NBA Mock Draft</a>. Chandler could develop into a steady backup point guard behind D'Angelo Russell, while the others profile as high-upside swings that Minnesota doesn't need to step into the game right now.
One more wrinkle to monitor is Leandro Bolmaro, the No. 23 pick from the 2020 NBA Draft. The Argentinian wing spent most of 2021-22 with the Iowa Wolves in the G League, and put up 12.9 points, 5.4 assists and 5.0 rebounds per game. Is Bolmaro ready to make an NBA impact?
The Timberwolves don't need to rush their franchise timeline. Anthony Edwards is only in his second season, and as we saw in the playoffs, still radiates untapped potential despite his ascendancy. Towns is the second-oldest player currently under contract, and even he's still just 26.&nbsp;
But there's no turning back once a young roster makes the NBA playoffs. Minnesota has set postseason play as the minimum standard for next season, and with youth comes expected improvement in each subsequent season.
Now Gupta, or whoever the next president of basketball operations is, must steer the franchise toward a path to greater heights this summer.
<div class="mceNonEditable"><spike>&nbsp;</spike></div>
Looking to go to the hottest concerts, sports, theater &amp; family shows near you? Get 100% guaranteed tickets to more than 125,000 live events from TicketSmarter, the official ticket marketplace of BasketballNews.com.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ticketsmarter.com/?utm_source=basketballnewscom&amp;utm_medium=tsaff&amp;utm_campaign=referral" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Order online now</a>!

A disappointing first-round series masked what was a breakout season for the Minnesota Timberwolves.

2022 NBA offseason preview: What's next for the Minnesota Timberwolves?

With March Madness behind us and the NBA Draft lottery odds set, we're now into the next phase of the scouting season.
BasketballNews.com Sr. NBA Draft Analyst Matt Babcock transitioned our 2022 NBA Draft Big Board into <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/draft" target="_blank" rel="noopener">our first NBA Mock Draft of the year</a>. As teams, scouts and analysts gather intel, this mock serves as an early peek into what draft night could look like in June.
Babcock discussed his latest projections, some early storylines to monitor in the spring, prospects who shined in the NCAA Tournament, and more in the following Q&amp;A.
<iframe title="YouTube video player" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/pScMEHWYzOQ" width="100%" height="325" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
What makes Jabari Smith the pick for the Rockets at No. 1?
The Houston Rockets only won 20 games this season, but it's not all doom and gloom. They're in rebuild mode, and they've already gotten a good group of young players together. In last year's NBA Draft, they selected Jalen Green with the second pick, and it looks as if he could emerge into a primetime scorer who they can build around. 
They also drafted Alperen Sengun, Usman Garuba and Josh Christopher,&nbsp; selected KJ Martin with a late second-round pick the year before, and added Kevin Porter Jr. via trade. All of the players mentioned above are younger than 21 years old. They've struggled to win games up to this point, but they have a young nucleus to work with as they look to build for the future.
Regarding this year's draft, it's pretty close among the top prospects, and it seems as if everyone has their unique argument as to who are the top prospects and why &mdash; which I appreciate, as I think there usually tends to be too much groupthink in the draft space. Anyway, Jabari Smith Jr. is my No. 1 guy, and he has been for a while now. At 6-foot-10, Smith is an absolute sniper from the perimeter as a stretch four, and with time I think he will also prove that he has much more in his bag as a scorer. 
On the defensive end, Smith has a chance to be special. He's about as switchable as it gets, and he's tough. His versatility on both ends of the ball will provide a lot of lineup flexibility to whatever team selects him. In addition to possessing perhaps the most upside of any player projected to be in the 2022 NBA Draft, he can essentially co-exist with just about any group of players. Therefore, I believe that Jabari Smith Jr. would be the right pick for the Rockets if they indeed win the NBA Draft Lottery.&nbsp;
Which teams could shake up the draft selections if lottery luck lands them in the top-3?
My first tier includes Jabari Smith Jr., Jaden Ivey, Chet Holmgren and Paolo Banchero this year. Of that group, Jaden Ivey is the only guard. Due to his style of play, I'm not sure he's a great fit with several teams potentially selecting towards the top, including Houston, Orlando, Indiana and San Antonio -- they're all pretty guard-heavy at the moment. If any combination of these teams lands in the top-3, I wouldn't be surprised to see Ivey sliding back a touch. 
Another thing worth noting is that I'm also not sure Paolo Banchero would fit well with teams like New York or New Orleans. On the flip side, Jabari Smith Jr. and Chet Holmgren fit in pretty seamlessly with most teams. I think these are a few elements that could potentially dictate how the first few picks unfold.
What inspired Mark Williams' rapid rise to the No. 12 overall pick?
I'll admit the 12th pick is on the high side for Mark Williams, but I like the fit, and I don't think it's too much of a stretch. Williams had a terrific season at Duke this year, and he's continued to grow on me. His performance versus Gonzaga in Las Vegas in November was one of the best showings I saw in-person all season. I think he has a chance to develop into becoming a solid starting center as a rim running and rim-protecting 5-man. I wouldn't be surprised to see him have a long and productive NBA career. 
In our most recent simulated mock draft, Oklahoma City selected Paolo Banchero with the fourth pick and Mark Williams with the 12th pick, coincidentally Duke's frontcourt this past season. The Thunder have Shai Gilgeous-Alexander locked up on a long-term deal and Sam Presti's lottery selection last year, Josh Giddey, looks like a star in the making. So it seems their backcourt of the future is solid. Adding Bancero and Williams would bolster their frontcourt, giving OKC's roster shape moving forward.
Which other prospects benefited most from their March Madness performances?
He was already rated super high, but I think Paolo Banchero finished strong. Ochai Agbaji was terrific versus Villanova in Kansas' Final Four game. Benedict Mathurin had a couple of outstanding games in the tournament, and Kennedy Chandler was good for Tennessee. I think all of those players helped themselves in March.
What is one of your favorite later-round team-player fits?
A few picks in the second round that stand out are David Roddy from Colorado State to the Pacers, Jake LaRavia from Wake Forest to the Hawks, and Colin Gillespie from Villanova to the Pelicans. None of those players necessarily blow me away with their talent or tools, but I think all three could become excellent complementary players.
What makes G League Ignite prospects Dyson Daniels, MarJon Beauchamp and Jaden Hardy worthy of first-round status?
They're all very different players from one another, but they're all talented in their own right. Daniels and Beauchamp showed well this season and have moved up the ranks. Hardy came into the season projected to be a high pick and the highest of this group, but he didn't do quite as well as most people had hoped, myself included.&nbsp;
Daniels has terrific size and versatility on both ends of the ball, Beauchamp is very athletic, plays with a great pace, and makes a lot happen. Hardy might have struggled a bit this season, however, he still has a lot of raw talent as a scorer and shot-maker with deep range. I expect all three to be selected in the first round.
While many of us were focused on March Madness, have any draft-eligible international players made waves recently?
Ousmane Dieng, a player from France currently playing for the New Zealand Breakers in the Australian League, is the player that comes to mind in regards to someone who has been making waves recently on the international scene. Dieng has terrific size for an on-ball playmaker, and I think he possesses a lot of upside as a versatile point forward. He has a good chance of becoming a first-round pick.
After the success of last year's first Tampa Bay Pro Combine, what should we expect from the event this spring?
It's been great to see some of our guys who participated in the Tampa Bay Pro Combine last year find success quickly in their careers. I mean, Terry Taylor and Brandon Williams signed NBA contracts, but they also played significant minutes for their teams. Jordan Goodwin and Micah Potter had opportunities with NBA teams too. It was incredible to see!&nbsp;
We've changed the format this year. First, we cut the number of invited players from nearly 50 to 24 this year. Instead of just playing five-on-five games all week, we decided to host simulated NBA pre-draft workouts the first two days, where we'll have six players on the court at a time and 12 per day. The main reason for this change was to comply with NBA guidelines so that NBA scouts could attend. Anyway, we have another great group of guys set to fly out and compete. It should be a great week!
<div class="mceNonEditable"><spike>&nbsp;</spike></div>
Looking to go to the hottest concerts, sports, theater &amp; family shows near you? Get 100% guaranteed tickets to more than 125,000 live events from TicketSmarter, the official ticket marketplace of BasketballNews.com. <a href="https://www.ticketsmarter.com/?utm_source=basketballnewscom&amp;utm_medium=tsaff&amp;utm_campaign=referral" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Order online now</a>!

Ethan Fuller checks in with Matt Babcock after the unveiling of his first 2022 NBA Mock Draft.

2022 NBA Draft: Q&A with Matt Babcock on first mock, notable risers

France's Ousmane Dieng officially <a href="https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/33746207/projected-lottery-pick-ousmane-dieng-enter-nba-draft" target="_blank" rel="noopener">announced</a>&nbsp;that he is entering the 2022 NBA Draft.
Dieng spent last season playing in Australia's National Basketball League, where he averaged 8.8 points and 3.1 rebounds per game as part of the NBL's Next Stars program that produced LaMelo Ball, Josh Giddey and RJ Hampton.
"Playing in a tough league with really good players was really good for me," Dieng told <a href="https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/33746207/projected-lottery-pick-ousmane-dieng-enter-nba-draft" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ESPN</a>. "I learned a lot. The transition was significant, going up against much better players than I saw in France. The game is faster. Everyone is more physical...
"I had to work on my body and I was lucky to have a great strength and conditioning coach. I improved my defense a lot this past year. The coaches had a big role in my improvement. I trusted them when I was struggling. I kept working and improved my game."
Matt Babcock, BasketballNews.com's Senior NBA Draft Analyst, currently has Dieng projected to go No. 25 overall to the San Antonio Spurs in his <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/draft" target="_blank" rel="noopener">latest 2022 NBA Mock Draft</a>.&nbsp;
"Projected to be one of the first international players selected in the 2022 NBA Draft, Ousmane Dieng has great positional size, length and mobility. He is a versatile playmaker on the offensive end and a tremendous live-dribble passer. Also, he is effective as a three-level scorer," Babcock <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/draft/2022-nba-mock-draft/players/ousmane-dieng" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wrote in his scouting report</a>. "Dieng&rsquo;s shot-making from both inside and out &mdash; paired with excellent vision and impactful, yet inconsistent, defense &mdash; has him high on our draft board. Dieng played for the NBL&rsquo;s New Zealand Breakers this season and is certainly a prospect to monitor closely."
<iframe title="YouTube video player" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/0lSZ27i284Q" width="100%" height="325" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>

Dieng spent last season in Australia's NBL as part of the Next Stars program that produced LaMelo Ball, Josh Giddey and RJ Hampton.

France's Ousmane Dieng officially enters 2022 NBA Draft

The story of college basketball can be traced largely from the base of Mount Oread on the campus of Kansas, where the inventor of the game was also the school&rsquo;s first coach, and across the heartland and down Tobacco Road to North Carolina, where so much of its history has been made.
Among those coached by Dr. James Naismith, who famously tacked up those peach baskets at the Springfield YMCA, was an irascible youngster named Forrest Allen, who would later go simply by the nickname &ldquo;Phog.&rdquo;
Phog Allen would later take over the Jayhawks and coach a young man from southeast Kansas named Dean Smith, who delivered him a national championship before beginning his own coaching career.
Smith would become a Tar Heels&rsquo; legend during his tenure in Chapel Hill, leading North Carolina to a pair of national championships. And one of his disciples, that dadgum Roy Williams, would not only lead the Jayhawks to four Final Fours but the Tar Heels to three titles of his own.
On and on it goes, the ties binding two of college basketball&rsquo;s bluebloods forming a rich tapestry over time, and another layer to come Monday night when the schools square off for the national championship at the Superdome.
&ldquo;Both teams are as blue as you can get when you talk about bluebloods,&rdquo; said Kansas coach Bill Self, whose Jayhawks are chasing a third national championship. &ldquo;But to play a Carolina program that&rsquo;s intertwined with Kansas history, in large part because Coach Smith played at Kansas and won a national championship in &rsquo;52 and then he goes on and is thought to be as good a basketball coach that&rsquo;s ever coached the sport over a period of time &mdash; I think that&rsquo;s special. &rdquo;
Self has his own ties to the Tar Heels.
He was just an eager young college student trying to make a buck as a camp counselor at Kansas in the early 1980s when he caught the eyes of the Jayhawks&rsquo; coach. It turned out to be Larry Brown, who two decades earlier had played for Smith and the Tar Heels before embarking on his own coaching career as an assistant in Chapel Hill.
&ldquo;So I&rsquo;m very proud to be a part of this game,&rdquo; Self said.
So is his North Carolina counterpart, Hubert Davis, who also played for Smith in the late 1980s and early &lsquo;90s. After his own college career, and more than a decade spent in the NBA, Davis returned to North Carolina as Williams&rsquo; assistant, then was picked to take over the Tar Heels when the Hall of Fame coach retired last spring.
Davis ruefully remembers playing against Williams and the Jayhawks in the 1991 national semifinals, when he went 9 of 16 from the field and scored 25 points in a losing effort. Kansas later lost to Duke in the title game.
&ldquo;Prior to us winning the national championship in 2017, from 1991 to 2017, I had watched that game at least once every year. It was the best team I ever played with,&rdquo; Davis recalled Sunday. &ldquo;And we really felt like we had a chance to win the national championship and we came up short. And that was a game that Coach Smith got two technical fouls and got kicked out, and it was an emotional game and an emotional end to a season.&rdquo;
Davis still considers that 79-73 defeat in Indianapolis &ldquo;the toughest loss that I&rsquo;ve ever experienced in my entire life.&rdquo;
&ldquo;And playing at Carolina, the thing, for me, that I always wanted was to cut down those nets as a player,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;and we were so close and weren&rsquo;t able to be able to have that experience.&rdquo;
Davis ultimately had that experience as an assistant coach, though never at the Jayhawks&rsquo; expense. Kansas has won four of their six meetings in the NCAA Tournament, including a second-round matchup in 2013 with Davis in his first year on the Tar Heels&rsquo; bench.
And then there&rsquo;s Williams, who retired a year ago Friday after a Hall of Fame career. His first 15 seasons came at Kansas, along with a very famous &ldquo;no thanks&rdquo; when his alma mater first came calling for him to come home in 2000.
Three years later, Williams couldn&rsquo;t disappoint Smith a second time and returned to save a program in turmoil. He spent the next 18 seasons in Chapel Hill and claimed the national titles that had eluded him in his stellar tenure in Lawrence.
&ldquo;I loved it, loved the people, loved the players, loved Allen Fieldhouse, and I wanted them to win every single game,&rdquo; Williams said. &ldquo;But (Monday) night&rsquo;s a little different.&rdquo;
He&rsquo;s been attending UNC games all season to support Davis and his former players after &ldquo;pushing so hard&rdquo; for Davis to be his successor. That includes Saturday&rsquo;s win against Duke here at the Superdome.
&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve seen people on Bourbon Street and they say &rdquo;Rock Chalk!&rdquo; and I&rsquo;ll say, &rsquo;Go KU&rdquo; because that is my love for that school, and that&rsquo;ll never change,&rdquo; Williams said. &ldquo;But it&rsquo;s a different story tomorrow night, and it&rsquo;s an uncomfortable one for me.
&ldquo;But at the same time, the connections with Coach Smith and myself and KU and the relationship we&rsquo;ve had over the years between those two great basketball program is something that&rsquo;s extremely special. And Roy Williams is extremely flattered to say that I was able to coach at both schools.&rdquo;
Despite their intertwined history and all the games they have played &mdash; 6,394 to be exact &mdash; Monday night will be just the 12th meeting between them. This will be the sixth postseason meeting to come in a regional final or later.
By comparison, the Jayhawks have played Kentucky 34 times.
The first meeting between the Tar Heels and Jayhawks was a triple-overtime NCAA title game in 1957, with UNC capping an unbeaten season by outlasting Wilt Chamberlain and Kansas 54-53. After Davis&rsquo; painful loss in &rsquo;91, the Tar Heels won a rematch in the national semifinals on the way to Smith&rsquo;s second championship.
But the Jayhawks have won the past three meetings, all in the tournament, most notably in the 2008 Final Four on the way to Self&rsquo;s lone national title.
Most of the players that ultimately will decide the latest showdown between the historic programs know only of the past through stories and memories. Some of them weren&rsquo;t even born when Williams was coaching at Kansas, let alone Davis playing for the Tar Heels, and it&rsquo;s been up to their coaches to instill upon them the importance of this moment.
Kansas and North Carolina for the national championship.
&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve told them this: The best experience that I have had as a player, hands down, was going to the Final Four,&rdquo; Davis said. &ldquo;I told them, &lsquo;I played 12 years in the NBA and that was my finest as a basketball player, finest moment, just being part of the Final Four.&rsquo; I was trying to convey to them how special it is to be here. Now that they&rsquo;re being able to experience it is great.&rdquo;

There'll be another layer added to these school's rich histories when Kansas and UNC square off in the national championship in NOLA.

Tar Heels, Jayhawks enter NCAA title tilt with common roots

The Miami Heat were supposed to be peaking now.
After nearly one calendar year, Victor Oladipo returned earlier this month. Shortly thereafter, four months removed from <a href="https://twitter.com/BryanFonsecaNY/status/1479485862962413574" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a neck injury via that Nikola Jokić incident</a>, Markieff Morris finally came back. Beginning on March 5, the Heat were engaged in a stretch that included seven-straight home games &mdash; of which they won five &mdash; before their current back-to-back losing streak, their worst of the season.
Still, despite holding first place in the Eastern Conference, it&rsquo;s felt like the Heat have needed a jolt &mdash; nothing more amplifying of that fact than their last two games. In Philadelphia, against the 76ers without James Harden and Joel Embiid &mdash; <a href="https://twitter.com/5ReasonsSports/status/1507045025296928776" target="_blank" rel="noopener">whose broadcast apparently didn&rsquo;t want them to win</a> &mdash; defeated a mostly healthy Heat team. Miami was missing Oladipo and Gabe Vincent, but still had Jimmy Butler, Bam Adebayo, Tyler Herro and Kyle Lowry, all of whom were nearly 30-balled by Tyrese Maxey.
<div class="mceNonEditable"><spike>&nbsp;</spike></div>
Okay, road game, regular season, 1-of-82 &mdash; sh*t happens.
But Wednesday, with no Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green, James Wiseman, Otto Porter Jr. and Gary Payton II (or Baron Davis, Chris Mullin, Tim Hardaway or Monta Ellis), the Golden State Warriors &mdash; led by a 30-ball from Jordan Poole &mdash; punked the Heat on their home floor, 118-104.
Look, these are still NBA players, sometimes that happens too.
What typically doesn&rsquo;t &mdash; in public &mdash; was the, &ldquo;<a href="https://twitter.com/LeBatardShow/status/1507040697219797000" target="_blank" rel="noopener">kerfuffle, a hurly-burly, tomfoolery, a skirmish, a quarrel, a brouhaha, a dust-up, a hubbub or agree to disagree</a>.&rdquo;
You&rsquo;ve probably seen it by now, but here:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-theme="dark">
Jimmy Butler was HEATED in the Miami huddle after the Warriors went on a big run to start the second half <a href="https://t.co/6waBmHlL1r">pic.twitter.com/6waBmHlL1r</a>
&mdash; Warriors on NBCS (@NBCSWarriors) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBCSWarriors/status/1506804574320955392?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 24, 2022</a></blockquote>

<script src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>

<ul>
<li>Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra picks up a clipboard just so he could throw it.</li>
<li>Butler and Udonis Haslem need to be separated.
<ul>
<li>&ldquo;I&rsquo;ll beat yo ass,&rdquo; which we&rsquo;ll get to in a bit.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Markieff Morris and PJ Tucker act like this is a regular Wednesday, and it might be.</li>
<li>Warriors rookie Moses Moody looks amazed and/or confused.</li>
</ul>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-theme="dark">
Haslem telling Jimmy Butler &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll beat your ass&rdquo; 😂 <a href="https://t.co/9AcQiNw6WY">pic.twitter.com/9AcQiNw6WY</a>
&mdash; Ted Buddwell 🏀🏈 (@TedBuddy8) <a href="https://twitter.com/TedBuddy8/status/1506806343402893315?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 24, 2022</a></blockquote>

<script src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>

After the game, and after joking that the team was heated about making dinner plans, Spoelstra offered his thoughts on the tense moment.
&ldquo;It was pretty clear. We have a very competitive, gnarly group; we were getting our asses kicked, for two straight games, we were not playing to the level that we wanted to play," Spoelstra said. "Every single person in that huddle was pretty animated about our disappointment in how we were playing...
&ldquo;... Everything has to be better across the board. It starts with our leadership &mdash; our veteran players have to lead. And then, we just have to play better. Play better to our identity, play more consistently, and that&rsquo;s really all the discussions were. I know how it can look to the outside, but as I mentioned before, that is more our language than playing without passion or without toughness or without multiple efforts and lifelessness.&rdquo;
<iframe title="YouTube video player" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Z1Pu5pfoows" width="100%" height="325" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
Tucker, along with Lowry and Adebayo, was one of the three Heat players to address the media after the game. He also downplayed the confrontation.
&ldquo;Something happened?&rdquo; Tucker <a href="https://youtu.be/A4T3AbNbufs" target="_blank" rel="noopener">asked with a smirk</a>. &ldquo;You put cameras on any NBA team, football team, any team, man. (We&rsquo;re) No. 1 in the East, finally got our whole team back, got our butts handed to us two games in a row by teams who don&rsquo;t even have their star players... emotions run high ... I laughed, man. I walked off the court laughing... This is part of the game.&rdquo;
Lowry acknowledged that "it&rsquo;s crazy,&rdquo; but quickly added that &ldquo;it&rsquo;s passion.&rdquo;
"We&rsquo;re in a situation where we have a lot of competitive guys. Our biggest competitor is our head coach. Jimmy and UD are tough competitive guys. It&rsquo;s good sometimes to get some anger and frustration out and just talk about it," Lowry <a href="https://youtu.be/ssv0jGhR50Y" target="_blank" rel="noopener">added</a>. "We&rsquo;re gonna have situations that make people uncomfortable, but at the end of the day, as long as we&rsquo;re comfortable and we figure it out, it&rsquo;s all that really matters. And as long as we&rsquo;re still together, and we are.&rdquo;
<div class="mceNonEditable"><spike>&nbsp;</spike></div>
NBA players, veterans, reporters, veteran reporters, coaches, staff, referees, families and secret families would all tell you that this happens, and particularly with contenders. With the Heat specifically, it&rsquo;s an organization still run by the famously confrontational Pat Riley, who probably looks at this as a regular Wednesday despite the magnitude of social media amplification in 2022. Because this happened publicly, though, chances are this isn&rsquo;t the first time, just the most public. &nbsp;
Hardened personalities clash every now and then because they want the same goal and might have occasional philosophical differences on how to get there with their teammates. They can argue off of raw emotion because that&rsquo;s who they are, and the emotion itself mainly expresses that they care &mdash; care enough to argue over it, and are prideful enough to defend themselves publicly because of it. That&rsquo;s probably closer to what this actual is &mdash; the Heat, more than most teams and organizations &mdash; have probably earned that.
We&rsquo;ve heard his story, but it bares reiterating: Butler was homeless as a teenager and worked his ass off to become a first-round pick four years after being a JUCO-signee out of high school. Four years after being drafted, he won Most Improved Player, and has been a perennial NBA All-Star and All-Defensive player ever since while earning nine figures.
Just think. No, really, think about the self-belief that dude must have to pull that off? He never would&rsquo;ve went toe-to-toe with LeBron James in an NBA Finals without it.
Haslem is 41 years old, still in the league and has the respect of damn near everyone you could think of. He&rsquo;s a been through it all, seen it all and is an old-school dude who really values respect. Haslem went undrafted out of the Florida Gators program in 2002, played in France, came to the Heat in 2003 and has been there ever since.
Spoelstra was initially hired as the Heat&rsquo;s video coordinator in 1995 &mdash; <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/sports/basketball/spoelstra-has-heat-right-where-it-wanted-to-be.html?pagewanted=all&amp;_r=0" target="_blank" rel="noopener">even predating Riley&rsquo;s tenure in Miami</a> &mdash; and worked his way up onto eventually becoming the head coach in 2008.
Remember last season when Haslem went at Dwight Howard? Notably, before even discussing this with teammate Duncan Robinson and podcast co-host David Reid on the Long Shot, Haslem notes how close he&rsquo;s been with Coach Spoelstra. We don&rsquo;t know what Butler said, but it might be fair to suggest Haslem felt someone was being disrespectful; sometimes, in the heat of battle, that happens too.
<iframe title="YouTube video player" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/943BcpzGB2Y" width="100%" height="325" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
&ldquo;Me and Spo been through a lot, man,&rdquo; Haslem said on the Long Shot in August. &ldquo;We done been through the bottom, we done been mad at each other, we&rsquo;ve been on the same team, we done evolved to now, we&rsquo;ve just got a great relationship. It&rsquo;s symbiotic, we don&rsquo;t have to say it, we can just feel it. I can look at him, and he can look at me.&rdquo;
Sometimes, these blowups are necessary &mdash; in a team environment, with your siblings, significant other, your bodega guy, your barber and/or your side piece. (Sometimes, you gotta get people to know their role, yanno?) Often, you just can&rsquo;t let failures fester, and there&rsquo;s a need to outwardly address them. Miami did that in a very "Heat" way, according to them.
For the Heat, it's very simple from here. This either invigorates you in time for the playoffs, or it derails your season at the worst possible time. It either really works or it really doesn&rsquo;t.
&ldquo;You can use moments during a season to catapult you,&rdquo; Spoelstra said. &ldquo;You can galvanize together over frustration and disappointment. Teams can also go the other way; I don&rsquo;t see that with our group, I don&rsquo;t see that with our locker room. But we have needed a kick in the butt from these two games.&rdquo;
They did, and now, they&rsquo;ll also have one of the most essential things an organization could obtain this last in the year &mdash; clarity.
If this works, the Heat will be a legit contender, mixing it up in a loaded Eastern Conference dogfight with the Milwaukee Bucks, Boston Celtics, Brooklyn Nets and 76ers.
If it doesn&rsquo;t, and they flame out of a second-straight post-season, they&rsquo;ll have clarity on what to do next this summer.
<div class="mceNonEditable"><spike>&nbsp;</spike></div>
Looking to go to the hottest concerts, sports, theater &amp; family shows near you? Get 100% guaranteed tickets to more than 125,000 live events from TicketSmarter, the official ticket marketplace of BasketballNews.com.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ticketsmarter.com/?utm_source=basketballnewscom&amp;utm_medium=tsaff&amp;utm_campaign=referral" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Order online now</a>!

Bryan Fonseca reviews Jimmy Butler and Erik Spoelstra's tense moment and why it might've been beneficial for the Heat.

The Heat’s blow-up was necessary, but now the rest is up to them

March Madness is in full effect!
The first eight tickets to the Sweet Sixteen were punched Saturday in the round of 32. Let's breakdown all of the day&rsquo;s action.
<div class="mceNonEditable"><spike>&nbsp;</spike></div>
North Carolina def. Baylor 93-86, will face UCLA What a wild, wild game. Carolina had a 25-point lead halfway through the second half &mdash; then Brady Manek was ejected. The tide turned and Baylor roared back, cutting the deficit and eventually forcing overtime. The Tar Heels were able to hold on during a wacky overtime period, and secured the win behind 30 points from RJ Davis. Before his questionable ejection, Manek was having a huge game with 26 points on 4 of 8 shooting from behind the arc. It was a gutsy, hard-fought win by the Tar Heels. They survive and advance.
Saint Peter&rsquo;s def. Murray State 70-60, will face Texas/Purdue Saint Peter&rsquo;s held a five-point lead at the break and extended it to 13 just a few minutes later. The Cinderella of the 2022 Tournament so far struck again, knocking down clutch free throws and clinging onto the lead down the stretch for the 70-60 victory. KC Ndefo played well, providing 17 points, 10 rebounds and 6 blocks. The MAAC Conference Tournament champions head to the Sweet 16 where they will meet the winner of Texas vs. Purdue.
<img src="https://cdn.basketballnews.com/images/story/body/usatsi_17933468_lg.jpg" alt="" width="449" height="299" />
Michigan def. Tennessee 76-68, will face Ohio State/Villanova Michigan stunned the No. 3 seed Volunteers in this one, behind Hunter Dickinson&rsquo;s huge game. He posted 27 points, 11 rebounds and 4 assists in the win. Tennessee had a six-point lead with 8:30 to play, but Eli Brooks had other plans. After narrowly making the tourney, the Wolverines weren&rsquo;t given much chance to advance very far, but here they are. They're headed to their fifth straight Sweet 16, after this huge win for Juwan Howard and company.&nbsp;
Gonzaga def. Memphis 82-78, will face Arkansas In a tremendous game for NBA draft fans, Chet Holmgren, Jalen Duren and Emoni Bates got to face off. Memphis led by 10 points at halftime, winning the physical battle early &mdash; but Drew Timme started the second half on a mission with multiple buckets, as the Tigers got in foul trouble. This was an absolute battle from start to finish, as Gonzaga was able to pull away in the last few minutes with tough defense and clutch free throws. They survive and advance, securing a meeting with the Razorbacks.&nbsp;
UCLA def. Saint Mary&rsquo;s 72-56, will face North Carolina UCLA led by only 1 point with 15:00 to play in the second half, but would put on a clinic for the remainder of the contest. The team's offensive attack was balanced, as four starters scored over 14 points, led by Tyger Campbell&rsquo;s 16 and 4 assists. The Bruins now look ahead to the Sweet 16 where they will face the red hot Tar Heels. That one should be must-see television.&nbsp;
Kansas def. Creighton 79-72, will face Providence The Jayhawks led by one point at the break &mdash; the game was tight nearly the entire way. In the final three minutes, they were able to pull away with tough defense, big-time shot-making and a breakaway bucket from Ochai Agbaji with just 0:55 to play. Remy Martin led the team in scoring with 20 points off the bench, while Agbaji and Christian Braun both played well. This will be Kansas&rsquo; 24th all-time appearance in the Sweet Sixteen.
<img src="https://cdn.basketballnews.com/images/story/body/usatsi_17933208_lg.jpg" alt="" width="407" height="271" />
Providence def. Richmond 79-51, will face Kansas The Friars have been one of the tournament&rsquo;s most dominant teams. They handled business again here, led by Noah Horchler&rsquo;s 16 points and 14 rebounds, while shooting 4 of 6 from deep. Jared Bynum also provided 10 big points off the bench. Ed Cooley and co. continue to play incredible basketball, and now they get to face the No. 1 seed in the region, Kansas.&nbsp;
Arkansas def. New Mexico State 53-48, will face Gonzaga This was a low-scoring affair, obviously. The game was tied at 30-30 with less than 11:00 left to go, but Arkansas took the lead with 7:54 to play and eventually advanced. The Aggies cut the deficit down to two points with 0:10 remaining, but the Hogs were able to hold on after converting important free throws down the stretch. JD Notae led them in scoring with 18 points, adding 8 steals, 4 rebounds and 3 assists.
<div class="mceNonEditable"><spike>&nbsp;</spike></div>
Looking to go to the hottest concerts, sports, theater &amp; family shows near you? Get 100% guaranteed tickets to more than 125,000 live events from TicketSmarter, the official ticket marketplace of BasketballNews.com. <a href="https://www.ticketsmarter.com/?utm_source=basketballnewscom&amp;utm_medium=tsaff&amp;utm_campaign=referral" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Order online now</a>!

Derek Murray takes us through Saturday's March Madness action, and looks ahead as the Sweet 16 field takes shape.

March Madness Saturday recap: Who's still dancing?

We made it through the first day of March Madness! Sixteen teams saw their dreams shatter while the other 16 teams advanced to the Round of 32. Let&rsquo;s see who remains&hellip;
UPSET ALERT&nbsp;
East Region: 15-seed Saint Peter&rsquo;s defeats 2-seed Kentucky 85-79 in overtime
Starting with the true bracket buster of day 1, the Saint Peter&rsquo;s Peacocks upset the Kentucky Wildcats. Oscar Tshiebwe gave everything he had (as expected) with a 30-point, 16-rebound performance, but Kentucky&rsquo;s perimeter players (TyTy Washington, Kellen Grady and Sahvir Wheeler) had trouble generating offense. The Peacocks shined behind Daryl Banks III&rsquo;s 27 points and Doug Edert&rsquo;s 20 points off the bench. The game remained tight the whole way through, staying within six points, and the game was tied at the end of regulation. The Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference champion pulled away with clutch plays and defensive stops that showed they weren&rsquo;t afraid of the highly decorated program. Saint Peter&rsquo;s will be taking on the 7-seed Murray State on Saturday. (For more on this upset, <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/putting-saint-peters-shocker-over-kentucky-in-historical-context" target="_blank" rel="noopener">check out Bryan Fonseca's article</a>).
Midwest Region: 12-seed Richmond defeats 5-seed Iowa 67-63
The annual bracket experts are well aware that the 12-5 matchup is always on upset watch, but since Iowa had a strong run for a Big Ten Tournament championship and one of the top NBA Draft prospects in the tournament in Keegan Murray, they felt like the pick here. But Richmond reminded the country that they too won a conference tournament championship last week and the Atlantic 10 knows them very well. Senior guard Jacob Gilyard played all 40 minutes and gave the Spiders 24 points, 6 rebounds and 6 assists. Junior forward Tyler Burton and senior forward Nathan Cayo added 18 points and 15 points, respectively. Iowa&rsquo;s projected lottery pick Murray finished the game with 21 points and 9 rebounds, but there was a lull in his offense in the second half that could&rsquo;ve been the difference-maker. Richmond will face 4-seed Providence in the second round.
South Region: 11-seed Michigan defeats 6-seed Colorado State 75-63
In a matchup that many thought had upset potential, the Wolverines came away as victors over the Rams after a slow start. Colorado State jumped on Michigan in the first half and led by as many as 15 points, but Michigan proved their Power 5 experience had tested them enough to overcome the deficit. Hunter Dickinson ended as the game&rsquo;s leading scorer with 21 points and added 5 rebounds and 4 blocks. Frankie Collins filled in at point guard for the injured Devante&rsquo; Jones and finished with a respectable 14 points, 6 rebounds and 2 assists. Michigan finds 3-seed Tennessee waiting for them in the next round.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
West Region: 12-seed New Mexico State defeats 5-seed UConn 70-63
New Mexico State grabbed another win for the 12 seeds today as they knocked out UConn in the first round. This game was owned by Aggie guard Teddy Allen, who was locked in after starting the game 0-for-6 and finished with 37 points. New Mexico State as a team shot nearly 65% from three, which proved to be the difference-maker, with the Huskies only hitting 30% from deep. Allen looks to add another hot performance to his March Madness resum&eacute; on Saturday against Arkansas.
<div class="mceNonEditable"><spike>&nbsp;</spike></div>
GAMES OF THE DAY
West Region: 9-seed Memphis defeats 8-seed Boise State 64-53
The Memphis Tigers continued their strong play in the latter portion of the season and finished with a big win against Boise State. Memphis went into halftime with a 19-point lead, but a slow start by the Tigers led to the Broncos clawing themselves back into the game. DeAndre Williams ended the game with 14 points while projected NBA Draft lottery pick Jalen Duren had a 10-point, 11-rebound double-double. NBA executives and March Madness fans are getting the Duren-Chet Holmgren matchup they&rsquo;ve been clamoring for since Sunday night, as Memphis takes on Gonzaga this weekend. (This game also featured a surprise cameo from Emoni Bates, who finished with just 3 points in three minutes).
East Region: 7-seed Murray State defeats 10-seed San Francisco 92-87 in overtime
If you stayed up to watch one of the nightcap games of day 1, you probably watched Murray State and San Francisco battle it out. This game saw San Francisco guard Jamaree Bouyea score a career-high 36 points including some big shots to extend the game. However, it wasn&rsquo;t enough for the balanced attack of&nbsp; Murray State&rsquo;s KJ Williams, Trae Hannibal, Tevin Brown and Justice Hill with scoring totals of 18, 18, 17, and 15 (with Hannibal&rsquo;s 18 coming from the bench). The Racers' next test comes from the &ldquo;bracket busters&rdquo; themselves, the Saint Peter&rsquo;s Peacocks this weekend.
OTHER FIRST-ROUND RESULTS
Midwest Region
1-seed Kansas defeats 16-seed Texas Southern
4-seed Providence defeats 13-seed South Dakota State 66-57
9-seed Creighton defeats 8-seed San Diego State 72-69
East Region
1-seed Baylor defeats 16-seed Norfolk State 85-49
4-seed UCLA defeats 13-seed Akron 57- 53
South Region
3-seed Tennessee defeats 14-seed Longwood 88-56
West Region
1-seed Gonzaga defeats 16-seed Georgia State 93-72
4-seed Arkansas defeats 13-seed Vermont 75-71
East Region
8-seed North Carolina defeats 9-seed Marquette 95-63
5-seed Saint Mary&rsquo;s defeats 12-seed Indiana 82-53
<div class="mceNonEditable"><spike>&nbsp;</spike></div>
Looking to go to the hottest concerts, sports, theater &amp; family shows near you? Get 100% guaranteed tickets to more than 125,000 live events from TicketSmarter, the official ticket marketplace of BasketballNews.com. <a href="https://www.ticketsmarter.com/?utm_source=basketballnewscom&amp;utm_medium=tsaff&amp;utm_campaign=referral" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Order online now</a>!

Sixteen teams saw their dreams shatter while 16 teams advanced to the Round of 32. Blake Hairston recaps day one of March Madness.

March Madness: Recapping Day 1 of the 2022 NCAA Tournament

This is Karl-Anthony Towns' seventh season with the Minnesota Timberwolves, his status well established as the franchise player for this long-languishing organization.
For the first time in his NBA career, Towns has said often, he's feeling fully appreciated.
His latest feat was quite the showstopper: a franchise-record 60 points in <a href="https://apnews.com/article/minnesota-timberwolves-atlanta-hawks-los-angeles-lakers-san-antonio-spurs-nba-4bc925aca333607cbf59273a04886c68">a 149-139 win</a> at San Antonio on Monday night. Towns did it in just 36 minutes, too.
&ldquo;He&rsquo;s just that talented. He&rsquo;s just that type of player,&rdquo; teammate D'Angelo Russell said. &ldquo;You look up and see 60 and the whole team happy. That&rsquo;s everybody being selfless about it. I think that was more of what I appreciated. The performance was amazing, but everybody wanted to see it, too.&rdquo;
As Towns conducted a postgame television interview on the court, multiple teammates snuck up behind him and mischievously doused his head with water to mark the occasion of the most points scored by a NBA player this season.
The Timberwolves, from the bench to the locker room, have cheered each other on with childlike enthusiasm and a selflessness like no other in team history.
&ldquo;I appreciate it so much, because I ain&rsquo;t never been celebrated,&rdquo; said Towns, whose previous career best was a 56-point game against Atlanta on March 28, 2018. &ldquo;They make these moments special.&rdquo;
Affable and emotional, Towns has been known to speak in hyperbole like this. The difference in chemistry with this team compared to the others he's played on in Minnesota is clear. Towns also has emerged from a grueling couple of seasons dealing with injuries and, of course, COVID-19. His mother <a href="https://apnews.com/article/ddb637b78df3811023d5bfddf5222181">died of complications from the virus</a> in 2020.
As Towns poignantly noted on Twitter on Tuesday morning, his 60-point game was <a href="https://twitter.com/KarlTowns/status/1503754374283243528">two years to the day</a> that his mother, Jackie Cruz-Towns, was hospitalized in New Jersey with COVID-19.
&ldquo;I've just got a stronger guardian angel than I&rsquo;ve ever had,&rdquo; Towns said. &ldquo;I feel that I was set up for success by God. I really can&rsquo;t explain it. I just feel like I was set up for success this year after everything I&rsquo;ve been through, just having these group of guys around. I&rsquo;ve never had that kind of camaraderie and unity and chemistry since college. To kind of have everyone, one through 15, buy into everything we&rsquo;re doing, it makes years like this possible.&rdquo;
Towns, who became the rare post player to win the NBA's 3-point contest at All-Star weekend last month, has helped the Timberwolves (40-30) strengthen their grip on seventh place in the Western Conference. It would keep them at home for the play-in tournament if they don't catch sixth-place Denver (41-28).
The Timberwolves have won two of three games against the Nuggets this season, with a April 1 visit to Denver looming large. At 10 games above .500, it's their best in four years, finishing the 2017-18 season at 47-35. That&rsquo;s the only time they&rsquo;ve been to the playoffs since 2004, when Towns was 8 years old.
&ldquo;People clearly see how incredibly talented KAT is and what he&rsquo;s able to do, and they also see that there will be nights where he takes maybe eight or 10 shots and does whatever else the game needs, whether it be rebounding, defensive presence in there,&rdquo; coach Chris Finch said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s really responding well to his teammates. He&rsquo;s a guy like all of us: We need the confidence of our teammates to be our best version of ourselves.&rdquo;

Karl-Anthony Towns was quite the showstopper: a franchise-record 60 points in a 149-139 win at San Antonio on Monday night.

Sweet 60: Timberwolves celebrate Towns, team scoring record

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) &mdash; Steve Kerr stepped outside Chase Center on a gray winter afternoon and stretched both arms out to his sides, lifting his chin as he breathed in the fresh air only a few hundred feet off San Francisco Bay.
A little while later the Warriors coach carefully climbed some steep metal stairs to reach the building's highest vantage point and took in a spectacular view in all directions &mdash; cargo ships in the water, the Bay Bridge beyond and the city skyline.
Kerr has grown to truly appreciate Golden State&rsquo;s arena even with all the emotions and fond memories from the franchise&rsquo;s longtime home of Oracle Arena, a venue long known as one of the most imposing in the NBA because of its deafening crowds. The team relocated ahead of the 2019-20 season then played the first four months of the pandemic-delayed 2020-21 season without fans.
&ldquo;This didn&rsquo;t feel like home for a long time because it coincided with all of our injuries, so you move into Chase, the team is wiped out, we&rsquo;re losing night after night, so the crowd&rsquo;s not into it,&rdquo; Kerr reflected. &ldquo;It was disconcerting. Oracle was familiar."
Kerr is still learning about all the hidden gems of Golden State&rsquo;s 2-year-old arena because he simply hadn&rsquo;t had time to explore the entire building until recently.
That&rsquo;s where the team&rsquo;s director of engineering, Ian McDoom, came into the picture to provide some behind-the-scenes knowledge of the 32-month project.
Now, the Warriors are gradually establishing a home-court advantage with hopes it will one day resemble what they used to have &ldquo;where you&rsquo;re returning to play at home it actually feels like a home game,&rdquo; Draymond Green said.
&ldquo;I think the Bay has always supported their teams no matter where they&rsquo;re located, Oakland, San Francisco, Santa Clara,&rdquo; said Mavericks coach Jason Kidd, a former college star at Cal in Berkeley. &ldquo;The crowd, when they start going, it&rsquo;s as loud as anywhere in the league. They definitely have a home-court advantage here.&rdquo;
<div class="mceNonEditable"><spike>&nbsp;</spike></div>
In two weeks, Chase Center will be home to the West Regional of the NCAA Tournament &mdash; the first major event there other than a concert or NBA game. It will mark the first time since the inaugural 1939 March Madness tournament at Treasure Island that San Francisco is a host.
McDoom is doing regular walkthroughs to make sure everything runs smoothly on college basketball's big stage.
&ldquo;How the arena turned out design-wise, fabulous,&rdquo; he said.
Kerr certainly appreciated seeing the spots that make Chase unique -- art elements at every turn, the concert entrance, music tributes and even a wall featuring the 2015 championship floor featuring hundreds of autographs where he finally found his own name among all the signatures.
At one point, he stopped to admire a large photo of his players hanging in one hallway and instantly returned to that moment seven years ago during his first season as coach when the Warriors captured their first championship in 40 years.
New visitors this March might marvel at the large murals, such as one outside featuring Stephen Curry eating popcorn, mosaics and other distinct art elements.
Kerr said he still misses that raucous, rocking scene from Oracle Arena.
&ldquo;The friendly confines as Ernie Banks used to say, Oracle, that&rsquo;s what it felt like to us,&rdquo; Kerr said. "Between the team&rsquo;s struggles and the pandemic last year, I think it took all the way until now to really feel like this was home. Maybe a month, a couple weeks into the season, we came out of the gates hot and fans were into it, it was like, &lsquo;All right, now this feels like home.&rsquo;&rdquo;
Golden State is gearing up for another playoff run that would be a first in this venue.
As the Warriors prepare for the stretch run, Kerr sometimes takes the team up to the ninth-floor Sky Bar with its picturesque views of the bay for a meeting or film session. The on-site practice facility has no windows.
&ldquo;With every building it takes time to develop a personality,&rdquo; McDoom said, strolling with Kerr along the main concourse level. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s just taking that time to develop that personality and create that identity of the arena that thankfully we have a little bit more now.&rdquo;
&ldquo;Sure,&rdquo; Kerr said. &ldquo;It takes time.&rdquo;

The Golden State Warriors are finally starting to establish a homecourt advantage at Chase Center.

Warriors finally feel they have homecourt advantage at Chase Center

BOSTON (AP) &mdash; The post-retirement accolades have been raining down on Kevin Garnett over the past handful of years.
The 15-time NBA All-Star, one of the catalysts of Boston's 2007-2008 team that raised the franchise&rsquo;s 17th championship banner, was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2021.
This year, he&rsquo;s been honored as a member of the NBA&rsquo;s 75th anniversary team and written an intimate memoir that's a national bestseller.
Now, at 45, KG will add another chapter to his legacy when he becomes the 24th member of the Celtics organization to have his jersey number retired in a ceremony after the game with Dallas on Sunday. His No. 5 will be raised to the TD Garden rafters in the open spot next to, and four years after, former teammate Paul Pierce saw his No. 34 enshrined among the Celtics legends.
It&rsquo;s left a player who was the undeniable emotional centerpiece of the Celtics during his six seasons in Boston grasping for ways to describe the moments.
&ldquo;I&rsquo;m just trying to soak it up, being honest, I&rsquo;m trying to be very humble. I don&rsquo;t know. I&rsquo;m just it&rsquo;s all a shock to me, you know what I mean? When kids come up to me and they express their appreciation for different things. I don&rsquo;t really know what to say other than, &lsquo;Thank you,&rsquo;&rdquo; Garnett said in a recent interview. &ldquo;I just stayed true to what I was and who I was. It was the easiest thing to do. I didn&rsquo;t want to be something I wasn&rsquo;t.&rdquo;
While he retired from the NBA following the 2015-16 season in Minnesota, where his career began, his time with the Celtics transformed his career.
&ldquo;I was always conscious of the ones that have come before me, laid the path for me,&rdquo; Garnett said.
When Garnett was drafted fifth overall by the Timberwolves at 19, he ushered in a new era in a league that had never seen a 6-foot-11 player with his skillset.
As agile as he was lanky, Garnett moved like a guard, creating the archetype of the power forward capable of stretching opposing defenses with his ability to shoot from the perimeter. It revolutionized the league, so much so that players with that ability are now a must when building the modern NBA roster.
Though he was never a true center, he still used his 240-pound frame to impose his presence in the paint on both ends of the court despite making the jump straight to the pros out of high school.
But after leading the Timberwolves to eight playoff appearances in 12 seasons, Garnett wasn&rsquo;t quite able to get them over the hump. Coming off his 10th All-Star selection in 2007, he was dealt to the Celtics as the final piece of an offseason shakeup that teamed him with future Hall of Famers Pierce and Ray Allen.
It formed the latest incarnation of the Big Three blueprint that NBA teams had followed to championships for years &mdash; from the Celtics reign in the 1960s, the 1980s Showtime Lakers to the Michael Jordan-led Bulls&rsquo; six titles in the 1990s.
In hindsight, Garnett acknowledged he wasn&rsquo;t sure their version could live up to the championship-or-bust expectations placed on them in &rsquo;07.
&ldquo;I had a lot of confidence in myself. I had a lot of confidence in my ability. I think my big worries were how would I mesh with Paul? How would I mesh with Ray? How to mesh with some of the young guys here?&rdquo; Garnett recalled. &ldquo;(Former general manager Danny Ainge) had a plan. I don&rsquo;t know if that was the exact plan, but it worked out.&rdquo;
Garnett said doing his homework on Boston and the environment he was stepping into helped prepare him mentally for his first season in green and white. It fueled his intensity, whether challenging his teammates in practice or pushing them in games.
&ldquo;I never went at the game nothing less than 100 percent,&rdquo; Garnett said. &ldquo;I heard Larry Bird say one time in his early years in Boston ... the reason why he loved playing in front of the fans in Boston is because you couldn&rsquo;t fake them. You couldn&rsquo;t fool the fans. They knew when you were playing hard. They knew when you were giving your all. They had a sense of basketball history and they have high basketball IQs. They care. And I never forgot that.&rdquo;

On Sunday, Kevin Garnett will become the 24th member of the Celtics organization to have his jersey number retired.

Kevin Garnett humbled as Celtics prepare to retire his jersey

Over the weekend, a video of 16-year NBA veteran Erick Dampier&rsquo;s son &mdash; whose namesake is Erick Dampier Jr. &mdash; spread throughout social media, as he dunked on his fellow sixth graders in a game.&nbsp;
The viral clip has been viewed more than 2 million times in just a few days.
Dampier Jr. is seen dribbling the ball confidently up the court, first left-handed before crossing over to his right hand, then easily jumping off of one leg for the dunk as the buzzer went off.
(Quick shout-out to the kid who had the courage to make an attempt for the LeBron James chase-down block. You definitely get an A for effort.)&nbsp;
Afterward, as the scoreboard flickered the game's 30-0 score, his teammates jumped up to chest bump him, and one of them happily gave Erick Jr. a hug and a few pats on the back.
Everyone was buzzing about the moment, and Erick Jr., all weekend. BasketballNews&rsquo; Rex Chapman even tweeted about it. 
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-theme="dark">
SIXTH. GRADE.🤯 <a href="https://t.co/zHA8dEWcFo">https://t.co/zHA8dEWcFo</a>
&mdash; Rex Chapman🏇🏼 (@RexChapman) <a href="https://twitter.com/RexChapman/status/1490357038064488454?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 6, 2022</a></blockquote>

<script src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>

I caught up with Erick Dampier to ask him about his son's viral video, as well as how he is training and preparing Erick Jr. both on and off the court.
Etan Thomas: So I saw the viral video of your son dunking on cats and he&rsquo;s only in the sixth grade. But first, I wanted to ask you about the working out process you have with him. I was watching some of his videos on YouTube and saw him handling the ball, bringing the ball up the court; then, I saw the post moves like it&rsquo;s the Clifford Ray and Robert Parish big-man camps we used to go to in the summer time. But talk to me how you have been developing your son.
Erick Dampier: (Laughing) "Yes, shout-out to Clifford Ray and Robert Parish, loved those big-man camps we used to go to. But It&rsquo;s been great watching [Erick Jr.], staying on him, putting him through drills. I want him to be a complete player; you know, the game is different from when we played. Big men now have to be able to do it all. I put him through a lot of drills and try to keep him in the gym. So we work on dribbling, footwork, lateral movement, skills training, etc. before we advance to shooting and post work. I want him to really work on his all around game, not just back-to-the-basket big man drills, but everything. But the main thing is keeping him in the gym. He plays sometimes with an older team, but he enjoys playing with his friends and the kids he knows as well. But the main thing is keeping him in the gym."
Etan: So you mentioned him playing with his both age group and with an older team, could you go into a little more detail with that? I saw a lot of people on social media asking that question.
Dampier: "Yeah, I saw that too. But, here&rsquo;s the thing: you want him to enjoy the game and play with his friends at the same time. All of those kids in the clip of the game everyone saw, those are the kids he goes to school with. Those are his friends. So I want him to have his fun with those kids, and also play with an older group in order for him to continuously be challenged and improve."
Etan: That makes sense, so how much older of an age group does he play with? He&rsquo;s in sixth grade, so does he play with seventh-grade teams or eighth-grade teams? Or even high school?&nbsp;
Dampier: "He plays with a seventh-grade travel team and he plays against eighth graders in the gym, but not on an eighth-grade travel circuit. But yeah, I see people saying that, but he&rsquo;s still a kid. You don&rsquo;t want to kill his confidence. You want him to get better but you still want his confidence to continue so it&rsquo;s a balance."
<div class="mceNonEditable"><spike>&nbsp;</spike></div>
Etan: So he&rsquo;s 6-foot-5 in the sixth grade, Damp?&nbsp;
Dampier: "Yeah may be inching toward 6-6, honestly."
Etan: "Wow! That&rsquo;s great, man." 
Dampier: "Yeah and I have another son who is right behind him in [the Class of 2034], who has been watching and learning from his big brother his whole life and mimicking the drills I do with Jr., so watch out for him too."
Etan: Oh okay, like Venus and Serena Williams. He&rsquo;s just waiting for his turn, huh? That&rsquo;s great. So your son has your namesake and he&rsquo;s the No. 1 sixth grader in the country... Now this is a little different &mdash; because I don&rsquo;t know if they were ranking sixth graders when we were coming up &mdash; but as the No. 1 sixth grader, how do you balance that label given to someone that young?
Dampier: "Well, as far as on the court, I tell him over and over again every day that just because they rank you No. 1, don&rsquo;t get too comfortable and think you&rsquo;ve arrived. You gotta work extra hard now because everyone will be gunning for you. You gotta prove you deserve that ranking every time you step on the court, because believe me, the other kids who are good are going to try to go at you and give you their best anytime they play against you. And there are other kids just as big as you, just as tall as you who can dribble, dunk and score like you just waiting for their chance to shine. So you gotta continue to put the work in."
Etan: How do you prepare him for the scrutiny that&rsquo;s going to come at some point? It&rsquo;s interesting because me and my son Malcolm have been watching Emoni Bates, and I&rsquo;ve pointed out the shift that took place. He was built up to be the second coming of KD, on the cover of magazines, nonstop praise, etc. But as you see, this season at Memphis and really starting last summer at Peach Jam, there has been the complete opposite and nonstop criticism. How do you prepare him for that part?&nbsp;
<img src="https://cdn.basketballnews.com/images/story/body/img_7728_lg.JPG" alt="" width="550" height="715" />
Dampier: "We&rsquo;ve discussed the scrutiny that is going to come, and even started now. Sometimes he looks on his Instagram page (<a href="https://www.instagram.com/edampjr2028/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">@Edampjr2028</a>)and sees some of the negative comments, and he&rsquo;s asked why would people say this and he would show me the different comments. I had to tell him, 'Look EJ, there will always be people who scrutinize you and criticize you. In fact, you&rsquo;re going to have that for the rest of your playing career. You just have to keep working hard and ignore what people say. They criticize everyone, that&rsquo;s what they do.' But yeah, [I'm] glad you asked that because that is definitely something we have to prepare our children for."
Etan: And it&rsquo;s so different now. Again, we didn&rsquo;t have social media back in the day. Ain&rsquo;t nobody see us play in middle school, but now things are different, so the preparation has to be different &mdash; even for someone as young as your son. How old is he? 
Dampier: "He&rsquo;s only 12. But here&rsquo;s the thing: we&rsquo;ve been there, so we know what to tell them to look out for. If I had all this preparation and knowledge and tools both on and off the floor growing up..."
Etan: Man! I say that all the time with my son. Like, do you know how blessed you are? But that&rsquo;s why we have to keep reminding them.
Dampier: "Even teaching him what it means to have real work ethic. Yeah you can play with your friends, play PS4, be talking y&rsquo;all talk on the headphones &mdash; and we didn&rsquo;t have that capability either (laughing) &mdash; but you have to structure time when you gotta take care of your working out and training. And spending time in the gym as well, because that&rsquo;s the only way you get better. But being able to teach him and guide him in all facets of this process, you&rsquo;re right. It&rsquo;s a blessing."
<img style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="https://cdn.basketballnews.com/images/story/body/resized_fullsizer1-1_lg.JPG" alt="" width="550" height="734" />
Etan: It&rsquo;s gotta be a great feeling seeing your little man out there doing his thing. It&rsquo;s crazy because I&rsquo;m looking at the YouTube videos of him and I&rsquo;m like, man, he looks just like you. (Laughing.) There is this expression you have that&rsquo;s just the Erick Dampier expression after you score. You look up... it&rsquo;s hard to explain, but it&rsquo;s your look, and it&rsquo;s crazy seeing him have that same exact expression. 
Dampier: (Laughing) "Yeah, people tell me that all the time. But yeah, it&rsquo;s great to see. And I&rsquo;m sure sometimes he thinks Dad is hard on him and Dad is always pushing him. But then, he sees how it&rsquo;s paying off and he&rsquo;ll come to me and say, 'Hey dad, could we get some extra practice in, there&rsquo;s a few things I wanna work on.' And you know how it is &mdash; no matter what you&rsquo;re doing, you&rsquo;ll drop it all and go work with him. (Laughing) You can be in the middle of an important call, and you reschedule in a heartbeat. I gotta admit, it makes old Dad proud."
<img style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="https://cdn.basketballnews.com/images/story/body/violalogo1_lg.png" alt="" width="674" height="337" />
Looking to go to the hottest concerts, sports, theater &amp; family shows near you? Get 100% guaranteed tickets to more than 125,000 live events from TicketSmarter, the official ticket marketplace of BasketballNews.com.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ticketsmarter.com/?utm_source=basketballnewscom&amp;utm_medium=tsaff&amp;utm_campaign=referral" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Order online now</a>!

Etan Thomas chats with Erick Dampier about Erick Jr.'s viral dunk, the attention his son is getting as a sixth grader and his preparation.

Erick Dampier discusses his 12-year-old son’s viral dunking video

And here&rsquo;s the first pair of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=panEWmN28jM" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Mentos thrown in the Coke bottle</a> that&rsquo;ll set off the rest of the league.
The trade deadline isn&rsquo;t until February 10 but, as usual, teams are already completing deals. In this case, per ESPN&rsquo;s Adrian Wojnarowski, the Los Angeles Clippers are sending over a package led by Eric Bledsoe and Justise Winslow to the Portland Trail Blazers in exchange for Norman Powell and Robert Covington.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-theme="dark">
The Clippers are trading Eric Bledsoe, Justise Winslow, Keon Johnson and future second-round pick to the Trail Blazers for Norman Powell and Robert Covington, sources tell ESPN.
&mdash; Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) <a href="https://twitter.com/wojespn/status/1489681792881860620?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 4, 2022</a>
<script src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-theme="dark">
Clippers are sending Blazers a 2025 second-round pick via the Detroit Pistons, sources tell ESPN.
&mdash; Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) <a href="https://twitter.com/wojespn/status/1489683115077423106?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 4, 2022</a>
<script src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
</blockquote>
As of this trade, the Blazers are 21-31, 10th in the Western Conference, and <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/whats-next-for-the-portland-trail-blazers" target="_blank" rel="noopener">still without Damian Lillard for at least a few more weeks</a>. The Clippers, even without Paul George and Kawhi Leonard &mdash; <a href="https://www.hoopsrumors.com/2022/02/latest-on-kawhi-leonard-paul-george.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">neither of whom are guaranteed to return this season</a> &mdash; are 27-27 and eighth in the West behind the leadership of head coach Tyronn Lue.
If you recall &mdash; and, well, how could you not &mdash; the Clippers completed a 36-point comeback against Portland East, a.k.a., the Washington Wizards, one of <a href="https://www.latimes.com/sports/clippers/story/2022-01-25/clippers-biggest-comeback-team-history-win-wizards" target="_blank" rel="noopener">three comebacks of at least 24 points or more in a two-week span</a>. That in itself is a feat reached by the Clippers and no one else in the last 25 years.
ESPN&rsquo;s Bobby Marks lays out the contractual mechanics. This is important &mdash; otherwise, you&rsquo;d think the Clippers just jacked the Blazers, but that&rsquo;s not fully true. (We&rsquo;ll get to that later.)
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-theme="dark">
Here are the contracts: For LAC: 🏀N. Powell: $15.5M, $16.8M, $18M, $19.2M, $20.5M 🏀R. Covington: $13M (UFA w/bird rights) For POR: 🏀E. Bledsoe: $18.1M, $19.4M ($3.9M guaranteed) 🏀J. Winslow: $3.9M, $4.1M 🏀K. Johnson: $2.6M, $2.7M, $2.8M, $4.5M
&mdash; Bobby Marks (@BobbyMarks42) <a href="https://twitter.com/BobbyMarks42/status/1489683749335973889?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 4, 2022</a>
<script src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
</blockquote>
The Clippers conceptually &ldquo;win&rdquo; the trade from the standpoint of fielding a better roster. Powell&rsquo;s been the Blazers third-leading scorer this season wiith Lillard and CJ McCollum out for extended periods, and the No. 1 option on numerous nights as a result. Powell extended with Portland over the summer for five years and $90 million, but it&rsquo;s an ascending contract that won&rsquo;t land him a salary north of $20 million until the last year of the deal. Powell gives the Clippers a No. 3 or even No. 4, ideally next to Leonard and George at some point, who can score efficiently and at-will in different facets of the game.&nbsp;&nbsp;
<div class="mceNonEditable"><spike>&nbsp;</spike></div>
In Portland, Powell averaged 18.7 points on 46/41/80 shooting splits and just 13.6 field goals per game. His field goal attempts are slightly over Anfernee Simons&rsquo; 12.9 attempts per contest, though he only averages 14.6 points by comparison &mdash; despite also shooting an efficient line, 44/40/90. Why the difference? Powell not only gets to the line five times per game, second only to Lillard on the team, but his .365 free-throw rate leads all non-centers on the roster. Additionally, Powell&rsquo;s been a quality pull-up shooter, ranking 16th in scoring efficiency, shooting with an Effective Field Goal percentage of 64% in spot-up situations and 56% in transition, <a href="https://twitter.com/SynergySST/status/1489684009454125062" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according to Synergy</a>.
All of which are great signs if you&rsquo;re 6-foot-3, which you can&rsquo;t say that often in this league.
<iframe title="YouTube video player" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/_jgllazWu4o" width="100%" height="325" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
Moreover, adding Powell removes the offensive strain on other Clippers, like Reggie Jackson, Marcus Morris and the emerging Luke Kennard especially &mdash; making them more potent on that end and, ideally, not putting them in positions where 24-point comebacks are all that necessary.
In theory, Covington will play a role on the Clippers, assuming he remains on the team, but it feels more like short-term insurance. And there&rsquo;s nothing wrong with that, but let&rsquo;s spell it out. Covington is on an expiring $13 million contract and will dive into unrestricted free agency in a few months. Positionally, as a theoretical stretch-four/three-and-D-wing, he has some duplication for this Clippers roster, mainly George, Leonard, Morris and Nicolas Batum.
Covington&rsquo;s statistically having his worst season since entering the league full-time, throwing out the seven games he played as a rookie in 2012-13. In 30 minutes per contest, and 40 starts in 48 appearances, Covington&rsquo;s averaging 7.6 points, 5.7 rebounds, 1.5 steals and 1.3 blocks per game, shooting 38/34/83, and while the free-throw percentage is high, he&rsquo;s only taken 36 this season, and hasn&rsquo;t cracked 150 since 2016-17. Covington will split time with and see the floor beside other Clipper forwards, and just being on a better team with a better coach should help settle his role.
Let&rsquo;s also acknowledge that Covington could also be a part of this deal because the Clippers may move Morris and or Batum within the next few days. (Take it from me, Miami Heat fans are already trying to figure out how to get one of them. If the Clippers like Duncan Robinson &ndash; for Morris in particular &ndash; maybe they&rsquo;re in luck.) That&rsquo;d open things up for Covington, and Powell would replenish the scoring, albeit differently.
From a basketball perspective, the Blazers portion doesn&rsquo;t need an extensive breakdown, at least not on this piece &mdash; trust me, fam. Hell, the move itself isn&rsquo;t about their play as much as it is cap mechanics. But in summation, it isn&rsquo;t as bad as some tweeters are pondering, depending on what follows.
As Marks outlined earlier, around 20% of Bledsoe&rsquo;s $19.4 million salary next season is guaranteed, so the Blazers could easily move on from him. Winslow is only due $4 million next season, and Keon Johnson was just picked in the first-round, so he&rsquo;ll be cheap (by NBA standards) through 2025, assuming all his options are picked up. He&rsquo;s played 135 total minutes this season and won&rsquo;t turn 20 for another month, so we&rsquo;ll call him a project.
The move also places Portland under the luxury tax, per Marks, and it also creates a $6.5 million trade exception.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-theme="dark">
The trade will put Portland under the luxury tax. The Clippers tax bill increases from $93.9M to $112.9M (+$19M). <a href="https://t.co/ZpEJfML8XM">https://t.co/ZpEJfML8XM</a>
&mdash; Bobby Marks (@BobbyMarks42) <a href="https://twitter.com/BobbyMarks42/status/1489684937838059526?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 4, 2022</a></blockquote>
The big question around Portland is, obviously, what happens to Lillard. Question No. 1A is McCollum, but freeing Powell&rsquo;s salary and adding a trade exception aids the mechanics of making future moves. The Blazers have short-term contracts to use &mdash; hell, they could even re-route Bledsoe&rsquo;s $18.1 million this season if they wanted, or keep him on the books to use after the season since his deal won&rsquo;t be fully guaranteed <a href="https://www.hoopsrumors.com/2021/09/clippers-notes-bledsoe-winslow-vaccinations-drame.html#:~:text=Bledsoe%20currently%20has%20a%20partial,offseason%20flexibility%20for%20the%20franchise." target="_blank" rel="noopener">until four days after the July moratorium</a>.
<div class="mceNonEditable"><spike>&nbsp;</spike></div>
Jusuf Nurkić at $12 million and Larry Nance Jr. at $10.6 million are also usable deals in trades to monitor, along with several draft picks. So, for Portland, this trade is about what&rsquo;s next more than anything else. Maybe we&rsquo;ll look back and say they got the shaft at some point, but it&rsquo;s too early to make that judgment. To some degree, it may be for the Clippers as well, but they&rsquo;re clearly trying to be competitive now, and this should help them get there.
These are two franchises going in different directions. The Clippers, if they get healthy before the playoffs, should be taken seriously as a contender, especially because there&rsquo;s a world where they get to the NBA Finals last season if Leonard doesn&rsquo;t tear his ACL in the postseason. For the Blazers, I mean &hellip; we&rsquo;ll see.
<div>
<div>
<div>
<div>
<div>
Looking to go to the hottest concerts, sports, theater &amp; family shows near you? Get 100% guaranteed tickets to more than 125,000 live events from TicketSmarter, the official ticket marketplace of BasketballNews.com.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ticketsmarter.com/?utm_source=basketballnewscom&amp;utm_medium=tsaff&amp;utm_campaign=referral" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Order online now</a>!
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>

Bryan Fonseca breaks down the deal between the Clippers and Trail Blazers, which sent Norman Powell to LAC.

Breaking down why the Blazers-Clippers deal works for both sides

There&rsquo;s a few dates you&rsquo;ll never forget.&nbsp;
For me, one of them is Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2002.
I was in my fourth season with Denver, and things hadn&rsquo;t really gotten off to the best start, to say the least.&nbsp;
We were 6-18 and knew we were gonna have our hands full that night. Our opponent?
The Dallas Mavericks.
With Mike Finley, Steve Nash, Raef LaFrentz and Dirk Nowitzki, Dallas was no joke.&nbsp;
They began the season 21-3, and we knew we were gonna have our hands full, so in our morning shootaround, we were definitely engaged.&nbsp;
Afterward, I showered and changed, went back home, took my pregame nap and was on my way back to the arena.
I&rsquo;m driving and going over the game plan in my head when I get a call from my agent. He said he was calling to &ldquo;check on me,&rdquo; asked me how I was doing and where I was. I thought the questions were a little strange, but didn&rsquo;t really think much of it.
&ldquo;I&rsquo;m going to the arena, we got a game,&rdquo; I said.
&ldquo;You&rsquo;re going where?!&rdquo;
And that&rsquo;s how I found out I&rsquo;d been traded.
<div class="mceNonEditable"><spike>&nbsp;</spike></div>
We were both shocked, and for the same reason. Nobody communicated to me. I was literally a couple miles from the arena.
For sure, getting traded is a part of life as a professional athlete. And fortunately for me, I was young and, outside of the team, hadn&rsquo;t really had any family roots or ties to Denver. But that didn&rsquo;t completely remove the sting. I just considered myself lucky to not be in a situation where I also had to move a wife and three kids in the middle of the school year. Not every player is that fortunate.
One minute, you&rsquo;re driving on the highway. The next minute, at a moment&rsquo;s notice, you have to start packing and prepare to make a new life in a new city. It&rsquo;s the hardest part of the job, and it&rsquo;s one that we all accept. But damn.
When I got the news &mdash; again, I was literally five minutes from the arena and had done shootaround that morning with my team and my coaches &mdash; I had mixed emotions. My initial reaction was just genuine shock, and even though resentment might be too strong of a word, I definitely felt some kind of way.
&ldquo;They couldn&rsquo;t even tell me?&rdquo;
I can&rsquo;t speak for everybody, but I can definitely understand how being traded and not being told could make a player feel really disposable. Sometimes, people forget that players are people too.
I can&rsquo;t help but to think about that as the NBA trade deadline approaches.
As far as I know, there&rsquo;s no specific rule about when you are no longer able to communicate with the coaching staff or the front office of a team that trades you, but in most instances, there would at least be a phone call or a text message from your old coach or GM or whoever. Just a &ldquo;Thank you for your service, we wish you the best of luck,&rdquo; something like that.
From Denver, I got nothing.&nbsp;
All those thoughts and feelings raced through my mind in the 30 seconds it took me to process everything and turn my car around. So naturally, I asked my agent the question everyone in my situation would ask.
&ldquo;Where did I get traded to?&rdquo;
When he told me Houston, I perked up and immediately pressed the gas. I was trying to land in Houston that night.&nbsp;
<img style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="https://cdn.basketballnews.com/images/story/body/james_posey6_lg.jpg" alt="" width="277" height="340" />
I&rsquo;ve talked about it pretty extensively, but I had a lot of ties to the city and both the Rockets and the city's WNBA organization, the Comets.&nbsp;
Antonio McDyess, Nick Van Exel, John Lucas and a few of my other teammates in Denver actually lived in Houston during the offseason, so it became my second home, as well. We had great relationships with Steve Francis, Cuttino Mobley and guys who actually played for the Rockets, so we spent a lot of time working out together and hanging out. So aside from Cleveland, there was probably no other place I would have preferred to be.
By the time I got traded, Antonio was in New York and Nick was in Dallas, but truth be told, they helped make me feel better about the being traded from Denver because they viewed it as me going home and thought I would be better off. They were excited for me, so I couldn&rsquo;t help but to be excited myself.&nbsp;
So for sure, being traded to Houston made it much better.&nbsp;
But I&rsquo;d be lying if I said I was a little upset by not getting closure from Denver. Because I never spoke to anybody in Denver about the trade. I can&rsquo;t say for sure why they traded me, but I was in the final year of my rookie contract and I can only assume that the front office wanted to push the reset button. We weren&rsquo;t winning and the 2003 draft was coming up. Maybe they figured that were going to get a top player and didn&rsquo;t want to invest in re-signing me. Considering they did end up drafting Carmelo, it&rsquo;s hard to argue with the results.
I guess I was just collateral damage.
So yeah, I got to the crib, packed my bags and headed to Houston the next day.
My time there was truly a blessing.&nbsp;
I made some lasting relationships (including the one <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/posey-joining-tina-thompson-at-university-of-virginia-was-20-years-in-the-making" target="_blank" rel="noopener">I formed with WNBA legend Tina Thompson</a>), got an opportunity to play for a great organization and got to play with the great Yao Ming, a basketball icon.
We had a decent core there in Houston, and I think both the front office and I wanted to me to stay there long term, but once I became a restricted free agent in the offseason, Memphis immediately stepped up and presented my agent with a great offer. I was told that Houston wanted to match it, but ultimately didn&rsquo;t because they had luxury tax concerns. So I packed my bags again.
At least this time, I knew what the situation was.
<div class="mceNonEditable"><spike>&nbsp;</spike></div>
At the end of the day, I have no regrets about my career, no hard feelings toward Denver or about how things worked out. Within an eight-month span, I went from feeling discarded to being truly valued and appreciated by both Memphis and Houston, and I&rsquo;m so thankful for that. A lot of players never get that feeling of happiness or belonging.
I&rsquo;m one of the lucky ones.
With the trade deadline is coming up, when you&rsquo;re on the outside, it&rsquo;s fun to imagine what this player or that player would look like on this team or that team, but I do just hope that we don&rsquo;t lose sight of the fact that, at the end of the day, we&rsquo;re all human. Getting traded is hard... Not being told you've been traded? That's even worse.
This season, I damn sure hope that when a young player on his rookie contract gets dealt, the team that trades him at least tells him.
I&rsquo;ve been on the other side of that, and trust me when I tell you &mdash; it sure wasn&rsquo;t fun.
Looking to go to the hottest concerts, sports, theater &amp; family shows near you? Get 100% guaranteed tickets to more than 125,000 live events from TicketSmarter, the official ticket marketplace of BasketballNews.com. <a href="https://www.ticketsmarter.com/?utm_source=basketballnewscom&amp;utm_medium=tsaff&amp;utm_campaign=referral" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Order online now</a>!

NBA veteran James Posey recalls the time he found out he was traded from the Nuggets at an unconventional time.

Here’s the story of the time the Nuggets traded me and didn’t tell me

Dwight Howard, Bam Adebayo, DeAndre Jordan. When the chiseled 6-foot-10 Jalen Duren comes crashing down on dunks, these are some of the names that are evoked in scouts' minds. Duren, a former 5-star recruit and current freshman at Memphis, has been a consistently positive force for the Tigers in a season that's been full of ups and downs. His immense physical tools and stand-out athleticism have had him on the prospect radar since he was a freshman in high school. Thus far, Duren has not disappointed, as he's been high on the big boards of scouts, teams and draft analysts alike.&nbsp;
From Delaware to Florida
Duren, a native of Delaware, began both his AAU and high school career with Pennsylvania roots. Duren played up with Team Final (PA) as a middle schooler. He competed with their 15-and-under team &mdash; showing no problem thriving in a league two age groups up, as he is such an overwhelming physical force. During his middle school run with Team Final, Duren blew up on the national radar, sparking a frenzy from high schools looking for the right to have him don their jersey. Duren decided upon Philadelphia's Roman Catholic High School, a program that has produced the likes of Rasual Butler, Brad Wanamaker and Lamar Stevens. The future Memphis Tiger linked up with a future LSU Tiger, Justice Williams, at Roman Catholic. During his first year with the private school powerhouse, the duo rolled their way to a historic Philadelphia Catholic League title. Duren brought home All-State honors following a strong debut season.
Duren's sophomore effort looked to be much of the same, as Roman Catholic seemed to be rolling their way to a third consecutive title, until the COVID-19 pandemic abbreviated the season. Duren and Williams opted to transfer to Montverde Academy for their junior seasons. Competing in the new National Interscholastic Basketball Conference (NIBC), the duo joined a team loaded with high-major talent. Montverde recorded a dominant 24-1 record, in which Duren earned All-American honors. Montverde reaffirmed their spot atop the high school basketball ranks with a national championship.&nbsp;
<div class="mceNonEditable"><spike>&nbsp;</spike></div>
The Penny Way
In August of 2021, Duren made the surprising decision to reclassify, in conjunction with fellow top 2022 recruit Emoni Bates. The pair of consensus 5-stars pledged their college careers to the Memphis Tigers and head coach Penny Hardaway in the same week. Bates and Duren finished fifth and sixth in the recruiting rankings respectively, and gave Memphis a consensus top-2 recruiting class in the country. The addition of the two 5-star recruits and fellow top-50 player Josh Minott to a veteran-laden Memphis team landed the Tigers at the pre-season No. 12 spot in the country. The Tigers opened the season 6-0, featuring wins against St. Louis, Western Kentucky and Virginia Tech. Duren averaged a double-double &mdash; 13.2 points and 10.0 rebounds per game during their run, while also adding 4.2 blocks per game. This impressive stretch included a dominant 22 point, 19 rebound outing against Western Kentucky's 7-5 Jamarion Sharpe. Duren was a physical monster, beasting a talented Hilltoppers squad at every turn.
After peaking at No. 9 in the rankings, Memphis hit quite a bit of turmoil, as a fissure began to form in the locker room following a string of losses. In an interview with The Athletic, Penny said, "We've got so much negativity in our locker room with veterans being jealous. Everybody's trying to get to the NBA off the ranking we had, but nobody is willing to sacrifice minutes, touches, anything. It's been miserable. You can imagine what a 17-year-old is thinking as he's trying to figure it out." Duren has remained positive for the team despite the turmoil, averaging 9.2 points, 5.7 rebounds and 1.8 blocks per game. I recently saw Duren take on the Central Florida Knights in a game that wasn't highly contested, as Memphis struggled.
Pregame, Duren warmed up and stretched largely individually. He came sporting a very quiet, "I'm about my business" demeanor in which he was locked-in and wasn't particularly jovial. Duren was most impactful defensively during the game, where he registered 3 blocks and was an intimidator in the paint. Offensively he struggled to get into his groove in a game where the Tigers were severely short-handed (only 7 players played, as Jayden Hardaway got injured early).&nbsp;
NBA Bound
Despite a volatile year for the Memphis program as a whole, Duren's draft stock has remained relatively unchanged, as he is still a likely top-10 pick on any reasonable draft board. Additionally, Duren's physical tools have buoyed his draft stock &mdash; he is a top .001% type of athlete.&nbsp;
<div class="mceNonEditable"><spike>&nbsp;</spike></div>
Our Sr. Draft Analyst Matt Babcock shared what he has seen out of the 6-foot-10 freshman this season:
"At 6-foot-10 and 250 pounds of muscle to go along with a 7-foot-5 wingspan and good athleticism, Jalen Duren possesses impressive physical tools. He's also a capable passer with a higher skill set than what one might initially expect. Also, remember that he's supposed to be a high school senior this year. However, he chose to reclassify to attend Memphis a year early. It is yet to be determined how high he'll be selected exactly &mdash; and I am concerned with his selective motor &mdash; but I feel comfortable with the idea that he will likely be the first true big man to come off the board on draft night."
Duren currently sits at No. 6 on the <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/draft" target="_blank" rel="noopener">BasketballNews.com 2022 NBA Draft Big Board</a>.
Looking to go to the hottest concerts, sports, theater &amp; family shows near you? Get 100% guaranteed tickets to more than 125,000 live events from TicketSmarter, the official ticket marketplace of BasketballNews.com. <a href="https://www.ticketsmarter.com/?utm_source=basketballnewscom&amp;utm_medium=tsaff&amp;utm_campaign=referral" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Order online now</a>!

Grant Aqui talks likely top-10 2022 draftee Jalen Duren, a talented freshman big man playing in a tough situation for the Memphis Tigers

2022 NBA Draft: Jalen Duren showcasing immense potential

By now, the secret&rsquo;s out.
The Memphis Grizzlies are good. And Ja Morant is a true superstar.
With 11 wins in a row, Memphis has suddenly found itself as the third seed in the Western Conference, and if there&rsquo;s one team that has the capability of destroying your playoff bracket, it&rsquo;d be the Grizz.
Interestingly enough, most people have come to know those facts, because behind Morant, the Grizzlies are simply no longer capable of being ignored. Not by me, not by you, and, apparently, not by the universe of NBA fans.
Although the fan vote is now only one of three voting processes that determine the starters for the All-Star Game, the fans serve as a very interesting focus group that does a good job of revealing the perceived value of a player&rsquo;s contributions.&nbsp;
Historically, there have been players who've seen their deserved vote totals inflated due to having support from bigger markets, and this season is no exception. But the reason this is reported in the first place is because, truth be told, the fan votes usually get it right.&nbsp;
The NBA <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/lebron-james-steph-curry-lead-second-allstar-fan-voting-returns" target="_blank" rel="noopener">released its second return of NBA All-Star votes</a> on Thursday afternoon, and currently, Steph Curry enjoys a narrow edge over LeBron James as the overall leading vote-getter, while Kevin Durant leads all Eastern Conference players. If voting ended today and the fan vote carried the day, Curry and Durant would be the All-Star Game captains.
But LeBron trails Curry by just 77,034 votes, so LeBron could catch him. Considering the fact that the winner of that race gets the honor of being captain, it&rsquo;s just the latest installment in what has become an awesome rivalry between the Chef and the King.
<div class="mceNonEditable"><spike>&nbsp;</spike></div>
The other thing that jumps off the page when you review the second returns, though? It is Morant who is currently second among Western Conference guards, leading Luka Doncic by a sizable margin of about 223,000 votes. It&rsquo;s difficult to imagine Doncic making up that ground, and unless something dramatic happens, Morant appears to be headed to Cleveland as an All-Star starter.
Who had that in the office pool?
The Grizzlies star addressed the fact after Thursday night&rsquo;s win.
&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t even know what to say honestly,&rdquo; Morant said when apprised of the fact that he was in line to become a starter over Doncic.
&ldquo;I&rsquo;m mostly in like a little emotional moment just to see how much fans I got who want to see me in the All-Star game&hellip; Thank ya&rsquo;ll, [I] love ya&rsquo;ll for rooting for me.&rdquo;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-theme="dark">
12 is thankful for all star voting love 💙<a href="https://twitter.com/JaMorant?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@JaMorant</a> // <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBAAllStar?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBAAllStar</a> <a href="https://t.co/IDN8PijA4V">pic.twitter.com/IDN8PijA4V</a>
&mdash; Memphis Grizzlies (@memgrizz) <a href="https://twitter.com/memgrizz/status/1481861132046458888?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 14, 2022</a></blockquote>

<script src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>

Even still, for those who don&rsquo;t actually root for Morant, his rise has been inspiring to witness.
At just 22 years old, the third-year point guard is averaging 24.6 points, 5.8 rebounds and 6.8 assists per contest, including 26.7 points per game during the team&rsquo;s 11-game win streak.
While some young players see the likes of Curry and LeBron and fawn, Ja comes to snatch their crowns. With him in the lineup, the Grizzlies have gone 2-1 against both the Lakers and Warriors this season, and recently defeated Kevin Durant and the Brooklyn Nets at the Barclays Center during Memphis' current win streak. If you lump the Phoenix Suns in there, the Grizzlies have an impressive 6-3 record against those teams altogether, and that sample size is indicative of a larger truth: Memphis is a damn good basketball team. And they&rsquo;re being led by a point guard who has potential rarely seen at this level.
As a lead guard on a young team, and as a player who is still fighting to earn his notoriety in a league full of international stars, Ja has already mastered one of the most difficult things for someone at his position. He knows how to pick and choose his spots. Despite his superhuman athleticism, the one constant in his game is that he rarely forces anything on the floor, and never presses or panics. He defers and makes plays when he should and takes over when he should.
Typically, it takes a young guard time to develop those instincts. Damian Lillard, Kyrie Irving and Derrick Rose all had that gift, and like Ja, they were atypical in that they were tremendously effective from Day 0. They all became All-Stars in their second year (not a coincidence), with Kyrie becoming a starter in his third and Rose becoming the league&rsquo;s youngest MVP in history in his third.
Morant&rsquo;s rise to starter, assuming it happens, would be more impressive than Irving&rsquo;s considering the fact that he plays in the Western Conference, and the fact that his team currently sits at No. 3.
And although Lillard had much more success in his third season &mdash; the Portland Trail Blazers won 51 games in 2014-15 &mdash; he also had another All-Star in LaMarcus Aldridge.
Truth be told, Rose is really the only other point guard who, at this point, is an appropriate comparison for Morant. Ja is simply taking us places rarely seen in the NBA, and the fact that he&rsquo;s doing it in the Western Conference makes it all the more remarkable.
<div class="mceNonEditable"><spike>&nbsp;</spike></div>
At a certain point, if the Grizzlies continue winning, we are going to have to start asking ourselves what it would take for Morant to start peeling off some MVP votes from the presumptive leaders.&nbsp;
As we enter play on Jan. 14, Durant and Curry &mdash; the two likely All-Star Game captains &mdash; would probably land somewhere in the top-five if MVP voting were to take place right now. Giannis Antetokounmpo, Nikola Jokic and LeBron James are all not strangers to the award, and each of them have reasons both for and against consideration.
But at a certain point, just like he has with the West All-Star scene, Ja is likely to crash that party, as well.&nbsp;
On Thursday night, he surpassed Doncic. And as he works on keeping Luka in his rearview mirror, it would probably be wise for us to consider that this is only the beginning for Ja.
Fortunately, based on what the fans told us in the second return, the secret&rsquo;s out.

Moke Hamilton details Ja Morant's incredible stretch and season to this point, and illustrates his popularity based on All-Star voting.

Secret's out: Ja Morant is forcing his way into the NBA MVP race

The college basketball calendar has turned over to a new year and a new stage of the season as conference play gets underway.&nbsp;
With stakes ramping up towards March Madness, top prospects are expected to accordingly step up their games. But already, we've seen star-level talents and breakout players make waves. Matt Babcock and the Basketball News Draft Team recently updated their <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/draft" target="_blank" rel="noopener">2022 NBA Draft Big Board</a>, with Jabari Smith notably swiping the top spot. Babcock fielded some questions about the ranking, as well as players to watch over the next few months.
<iframe title="YouTube video player" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/iYvV02OuJPA" width="100%" height="325" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
1. What inspired the move to place Jabari Smith atop your Big Board?
To be completely honest with you: Last year, I was tempted to put Evan Mobley at No. 1 pretty much all year, but I didn&rsquo;t, and now I regret it. I am probably as high on Jabari Smith as I was on Evan Mobley at the same stage, and I didn&rsquo;t want to make the same mistake twice.
Jabari Smith checks so many boxes and his upside is through the roof. I&rsquo;ve gone on record saying that if everything clicks for him, he could become a prototypical stretch four. I mean, if I think a player can be prototypical at any position, how do I not put him at No. 1? So I&rsquo;m high on Jabari Smith. However, I do think there are reasonable arguments that can be made for both Paolo Banchero and Chet Holmgren as the top prospects. For the time being, though, I&rsquo;m rolling with Jabari Smith.
2. What is fueling the momentum carrying Bennedict Mathurin to No. 5?
I was intrigued by Mathurin last year, and I think he would have had a chance to be a first-round pick had he declared for the draft. I became somewhat concerned with his lack of ball skills early in this season and dropped him some, but he&rsquo;s recently elevated his game. He has good size, is a big-time athlete, and is tough &mdash; he&rsquo;s an alpha, for sure. He&rsquo;s shooting the ball with range and seems to be expanding his offensive arsenal to where he can be considered a three-level scorer.
On top of all of that, I think he has a chance of being an effective defender. He&rsquo;s a great example of a young prospect that is likely going to benefit significantly by betting on himself and returning to school for an extra year to continue developing. It&rsquo;s sure looking like he&rsquo;s about to cash out big.
3. Has Jaden Ivey separated himself as the top lead guard in the class? Who could challenge him?
Jaden Ivey has been terrific this season, and so has the Purdue team. I love watching them play! Regarding Ivey separating himself from other lead guards, I&rsquo;d say that he has on some level or another. It also depends on how you interpret the classification &ldquo;lead guard.&rdquo; There&rsquo;s no denying that he&rsquo;s an incredibly dynamic player with the ball in his hands. However, I see his role ultimately being more along the lines of Dwyane Wade or Donovan Mitchell. They both generated a lot of offense on the ball, but were usually paired with another ball handler.
As for other prospects that could challenge Ivey, I&rsquo;m still intrigued by Jaden Hardy&rsquo;s raw talent. Many of us expected him to step into the G League Ignite and dominate, myself included. Well, he hasn&rsquo;t done that. It seems as if he&rsquo;s been going through some growing pains. I still think he has a chance to be selected high, though.
I&rsquo;m also very high on Alabama&rsquo;s J.D. Davison, Tennessee&rsquo;s Kennedy Chandler, and Kentucky&rsquo;s TyTy Washington. What I find interesting is that all five of those prospects that I listed are very different. That order could very well be determined by the style of play each team selecting prefers.
4. Which college freshmen have you seen start to find their footing recently?
The first name that comes to mind is A.J. Griffin from Duke. We projected him as a lottery pick going into the season. He had a slow start, but he was coming off of an injury, and he hadn&rsquo;t played much the last couple of seasons. I think he just needed a little time to get his footing. However, he&rsquo;s looked tremendous in the last couple of games. He has such an impressive physical profile for a wing, and his shot-making and creating abilities are off the charts. We currently have him at No. 12, but I could easily see us moving him up even higher if he keeps progressing.
5. Who has been the biggest surprise star in college so far?
Johnny Davis from Wisconsin has been the biggest surprise so far. He wasn&rsquo;t even on our priority watch list going into the season. He&rsquo;s a tough, strong scoring wing. He reminds me of former NBA player Arron Afflalo. He&rsquo;s a good athlete and talented, but he doesn&rsquo;t necessarily blow you away with his tools. He&rsquo;s just a tough-nosed player who&rsquo;s going to get it done. I&rsquo;m scheduled to see him live in a few weeks when they play at Nebraska. I&rsquo;m looking forward to that game.
6. What changes for you when college basketball transitions to conference play?
The way I typically put together my schedule, conference play gets a little easier for me. Strategically, I travel aggressively in November and December to get my bases covered. Then I can pick and choose my spots to travel to in between regional conference games. I&rsquo;ve seen most of our high-priority prospects in person this year already, and I feel like I have a pretty good grip on the bulk of the draft at this point. The way I look at it, we&rsquo;ve already done a lot of the necessary work.
Now, I can switch gears to get into more of a track mode, where I focus more on monitoring players rather than becoming familiar with them. I make more of an emphasis to gather intel in January and February too.
7. What is behind the rise of MarJon Beauchamp with G League Ignite?
I first met and saw MarJon work out a couple of years ago when he was training with my good friend Frank Matrisciano. At the time, MarJon was physically weak, and he had a reputation for having a selective motor and bad body language. He&rsquo;s gotten so much stronger in two years, and his motor and attitude have gone from being questionable to now being two of his strengths. I&rsquo;m not sure that I appreciate anything more than a player addressing his issues to accomplish their goals. Hats off to MarJon; he has done just that.&nbsp;
8. On the international front, has any particular prospect seriously raised their stock abroad?
No, not necessarily. Actually, regarding international prospects, it&rsquo;s not looking like there will be nearly as many selected this year as we initially thought. For one, a lot of the top prospects in Europe aren&rsquo;t playing that much, which makes it challenging to evaluate them. Also, one of our favorites, Roko Prkacin, is out for the season due to injury, unfortunately.
On the other hand, we are still very excited about the upside of Nikola Jovic, who&rsquo;s playing in Serbia with Mega, and Ousmane Dieng, a French player currently playing for the New Zealand Breakers. Keep in mind that many of the top international prospects that we are high on are young and will have the option of withdrawing their names from the draft, or not even entering at all. Both seem to be more of a common practice by international players and agents in recent years.
Check out BasketballNews.com's latest <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/draft" target="_blank" rel="noopener">2022 NBA Draft Big Board</a>.

Matt Babcock gives an update on the top 2022 NBA Draft prospects as the new year gets started.

2022 NBA Draft: Q&A with Matt Babcock as conference play tips off

Across the country, mostly in the living rooms of their parents&rsquo; homes, the NBA's 2020 draft class sat with bated breath. Separated by physical proximity, they were united in their collective hopes and aspirations.
As expected, Anthony Edwards, James Wiseman and LaMelo Ball were the first three to hear their names called. And after the Detroit Pistons opted for Killian Hayes with the seventh overall pick, the New York Knicks were on the clock.
What was clear when the Knicks were picking at No. 8 was the perpetual truth: the team needed a point guard.
Instead, and rather inexplicably, they opted for another forward &mdash; the Brooklyn-born Obi Toppin.
Back on Nov. 18, 2020, Tyrese Haliburton was the right pick. And as he pushes incumbent De&rsquo;Aaron Fox for lead guard responsibilities in Sacramento, at this moment, the same holds true.
But in the NBA, young players are like securities being traded on the New York Stock Exchange; today&rsquo;s value doesn&rsquo;t guarantee a future payoff.
And now more than ever, opportunity is knocking on Toppin&rsquo;s door.
On Thursday, Julius Randle was placed in the NBA&rsquo;s health-and-safety protocols. Slowly but surely, the sophomore highflier has forced head coach Tom Thibodeau to find minutes for him simply because Toppin&rsquo;s game impact and energy became impossible to ignore. He&rsquo;s taken full advantage of the <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/as-a-franchise-player-julius-randle-has-left-a-lot-to-be-desired" target="_blank" rel="noopener">lazy and uninspired effort</a> of many of the team&rsquo;s players who were ahead of him on the depth chart. And now, he will go from being an afterthought to a feature attraction, even if only for a handful of games.
In the NBA, opportunities come and go. One minute, you&rsquo;re a rookie whose potential alone earns you adoration and admiration. The next thing you know, you&rsquo;re buried on the bench next to Kevin Knox.
<div class="mceNonEditable"><spike>&nbsp;</spike></div>
Way back in 2009, the Knicks needed a point guard (surprise, surprise) and head coach Mike D&rsquo;Antoni lusted over an undersized guard from Davidson University named Stephen Curry. The front office was all-in on selecting him as the mastermind of the team&rsquo;s offense, and the prospect was equally exciting to Curry and those close to him.
The only problem was that the Sacramento Kings and Minnesota Timberwolves had both indicated a want for depth at the guard position. The two teams owned the fourth, fifth and sixth picks. Ironically, the Golden State Warriors were perhaps the one team selecting ahead of New York that didn&rsquo;t appear to have a need at guard.&nbsp;
According to verteran reporter Marc Stein, the Warriors&rsquo; ownership group <a href="https://www.espn.com/nba/news/story?id=4284512" target="_blank" rel="noopener">traveled to Memphis</a> to meet with promising third-year guard Monta Ellis to discuss his future with the team, including the fact that he would be handed the keys to the offense. This came after Golden State agreed to trade veteran Jamal Crawford to the Atlanta Hawks and received another guard prospect, Acie Law, in return. Aside from those two, the likes of Anthony Morrow and C.J. Watson were also demanding minutes. Curry was not believed to be filling a position of need in Oakland.&nbsp;
The prevailing sentiment was that Golden State would go big with its seventh pick, and when Curry was the selection, there was a belief that he would be included in a trade to Phoenix that would land Amar&rsquo;e Stoudemire with the Warriors.
That obviously didn&rsquo;t happen, and needless to say, Curry quickly managed to work his way through the crowded rotation and become a truly revolutionary player.&nbsp;
He somehow managed to fulfill his mighty destiny wearing the jersey of a team that didn&rsquo;t seem to need him at the time.
Sound familiar?
It&rsquo;d be crazy to compare Toppin, even at this stage, to Curry. But the soil must be tilled before the crop thrives. And if a player has that kind of potential in him, he&rsquo;ll make the most of his opportunity when it&rsquo;s presented.
For Toppin, now is certainly the time for him to begin to kindle.
<div class="mceNonEditable"><spike>&nbsp;</spike></div>
In five of the six drafts between 2015 and 2020, the Knicks had a top-10 selection. They ended up with Kristaps Porzingis, Frank Ntilikina, Kevin Knox, RJ Barrett and Toppin.
Porzingis was obviously a good pick, and it&rsquo;s too soon to make any definitive declaration about Barrett or Toppin. But even with those three, it&rsquo;s impossible to not think of them in connection with another player who could have paid New York greater dividends.
It&rsquo;s easy to wonder what could&rsquo;ve been if the Knicks ended up with the second pick in 2015 and selected D&rsquo;Angelo Russell, particularly when Porzingis is now in Dallas. Donovan Mitchell and Bam Adebayo were selected after Ntilikina in 2017, while Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Miles Bridges lead the pack of players who could&rsquo;ve been donning a Knicks jersey rather than Knox.
As promising as Barrett has seemed at times, one must remember that the Knicks had the league&rsquo;s worst record in 2018 and that even the &ldquo;consolation prize&rdquo; of Ja Morant would&rsquo;ve actually been the long-awaited savior. Had they won the lottery and selected Zion Williamson, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant may have landed at Madison Square Garden rather than Barclays Center.
Of course, none of this matters that much right now, but that historical context makes it impossible to ignore Haliburton&rsquo;s coming of age in Sacramento and compare it with the strides that Toppin has (or hasn&rsquo;t, depending on your perspective) made in New York.
Fortunately for Obi, his story is really just beginning.&nbsp;
And when we look back at it in the not-so-distant future, the opportunity that now avails could either be the beginning of the end, or the most important chapter.
When he heard his name called by Commissioner Adam Silver, Toppin was emotional. He vowed to do all he could to become a difference-maker.
He now has the chance to make good.

With Julius Randle on the shelf, the Knicks will be relying on Obi Toppin. This is the sophomore's chance to show what he's made of.

This is the opportunity Obi Toppin has been waiting for

Enes Kanter Freedom opened up to Etan Thomas on "The Rematch" on being a U.S. citizen, his Fox News interview, LeBron and more.

Q&A: Enes Kanter Freedom on U.S. citizenship, Fox interview, LeBron

If you haven't noticed by now, there are many superstars with dramatically lower free-throw attempt numbers. Since the NBA implemented rule changes to discourage disingenious foul-drawing on the offensive end, there have been both complaints and words of support in regards to the new policy from players and media alike.
In our latest Roundtable, we asked our BasketballNews.com writers the following question:
What are your thoughts on the NBA's rule changes and how they've impacted the on-court product?
Alex Kennedy: I love the changes. The NBA recognized that unnatural foul-baiting had gotten out of hand, so they closed some of the loopholes that many of today&rsquo;s stars had learned to exploit. This season, teams are attempting just 20.0 free throws per game &mdash; the fewest in NBA history. I like that there are fewer breaks in the action and games go by quicker too. Also, since players no longer have to worry that every little thing will result in a foul call, defenders are suddenly being more physical and aggressive (which has been fun to watch). This must be so frustrating for stars like James Harden and Trae Young since they are being forced to adjust on the fly and change their entire offensive approach, but I think this had to be done.
Nekias Duncan: I'm mostly fine with the rule changes. I think weeding out some of the non-basketball foul-drawing was a step in the right direction. Allowing a little more physicality defensively has been fun for me. I do think the foul/physicality emphasis may be too far on the other side right now. Instead of just eliminating the tricky stuff, it seems like refs are allowing guys to get mauled in the paint. There's a balance to be found, and hopefully they find it soon.
Spencer Davies: Well, I loved seeing the box score in the high 90s and low-to-mid 100s in the opening weeks. That seems to have changed a little already though. Offense is extremely fun, but there&rsquo;s a happy medium to be found. (We&rsquo;re even seeing some hand-checking allowance?) Taking away the obvious &ldquo;looking for a foul-call because I can&rsquo;t figure out the defense&rdquo; hacks has been appropriate. You know whether or not one is genuine. What I don&rsquo;t like seeing is officials forgetting that defenders leaving their feet to contest a shot is illegal and should be called a foul. In addition, contact on a drive is still contact. Not everybody is trying to trick you. That said, deciphering between the two must be difficult full-speed. It&rsquo;s a vast improvement, though, I think.
Ethan Fuller: I'm in agreement with most people that the game has given defenders a more level playing field and forced teams to get more inventive on offense. It's good for basketball to reward creativity and keep the ball in play as much as possible. I would add that I think people are unreasonably connecting the changes to an increase in physicality. Unless the officials were told to just keep a tighter whistle in general, I don't know how the rule changes would change the game on that great a scale.
Moke Hamilton: I love it. On the decisive miss in the Timberwolves-Suns games on Nov. 15, D&rsquo;Angelo Russell got Devin Booker in the air, but would&rsquo;ve had to launch himself into Booker to draw contact on the game-tying three-pointer. Russell avoided the contact, obviously realizing that he might not get the call. He missed the shot, and the Wolves lost the game by three. But I&rsquo;m all about games being decided like that. It also encourages defenders to play harder and contest those important shots. I&rsquo;m happy.
<div class="mceNonEditable"><spike>&nbsp;</spike></div>
Evan Sidery: It&rsquo;s been a little hit and miss for me. I love how they&rsquo;ve taken away the blatant foul-baiting. However, they are also missing some obvious calls now as well. I imagine it will all get figured out as the season goes on, but it&rsquo;s something to monitor moving forward.
Blake Hairston: I've liked the rule changes, particularly considering the viewing experience because it's maintained the flow of the game instead of having way too many stoppages throughout it. While some of these changes have been frustrating for scorers like James Harden and Trae Young, I also look forward to watching the adjustments they'll make to continue to be highly effective players.
Alexander Cohen: I think, in general, the rules to limit fouling and increase the pace of play are terrific. Those are genuine criticisms held by many that prevent casual fans from watching (or even diehard fans from watching full games). However, I think the NBA needs to adapt the NFL's challenge policy if the league is going to eliminate reviews in the last two minutes. Pace of play is important, but fairness is too, and coaches should at least be awarded an extra challenge if they correctly overturn a call with the first.
Drew Maresca: Love it. I <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/how-the-nba-is-trying-to-eliminate-unnatural-foulbaiting" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wrote about this rule change before the season began</a>, and it&rsquo;s played out even better than I thought it would. Last season, we reached a real inflection point. Offensive players had been getting calls when they were initiating contact, but last year saw more of those calls than usual when the offensive player was in a completely unnatural shooting motion (e.g., jumping backwards). This season, unnatural-shooting-motion fouls have been mostly eliminated, which represents a major upgrade. Games are smoother, and there are less breaks in the action. One downside is that refs may have went too far the other way, leading to situations like Damian Lillard is currently facing; Lillard is attempting a career-low 4.7 free throws per game, down from 7.2 last season. Still, I believe this will work itself out, and the game will be better for it.
Jesse Blancarte: This may not be a popular opinion, but I like the changes. Scoring may be down across the league, but I have grown tired of watching players jump sideways into defenders and hooking opponents while driving to the rim. It still happens and the top players will still get calls, but there seems to be less gamesmanship in years past, and I, for one, am happy about it.

What are your thoughts on the NBA's rule changes? BasketballNews.com's writers shared their thoughts.

Roundtable: What are your thoughts on the NBA's rule changes?

If you had Frank Kaminsky scoring a career-high 31 points in the year 2021 on your bingo card, go ahead and pick out your lottery numbers for an automatic winner. Kaminsky&rsquo;s performance on Wednesday against the Portland Trail Blazers, propelling the Phoenix Suns to a 119-109 win, was awe-inspiring.
Kaminsky was upfront about his recent stretch in the NBA during his postgame media availability. He&rsquo;s known the opportunities for him in Phoenix, and anywhere else, have been sparse at best. When Kaminsky&rsquo;s team option from the Suns was declined after the 2019-20 season, he signed a veteran-minimum deal with the Sacramento Kings and was cut during preseason play. Kaminsky thought this could be it for his career &mdash; a disappointing result for a former lottery pick in the 2015 NBA Draft.
However, the Suns had one open roster remaining and decided to use it on Kaminsky, who they claimed on waivers immediately after his release from Sacramento. Kaminsky sparingly played last season, but he did have that familiarity with the Suns&rsquo; system that head coach Monty Williams desired for a reserve big man. Kaminsky even started a stretch of games for the Suns last season alongside Deandre Ayton, actually thriving within that role.
Wednesday was the latest example where Kaminsky&rsquo;s &ldquo;stay ready&rdquo; mentality has continued to pay off in The Valley. Now, Kaminsky is forcing Williams&rsquo; hand once Ayton returns from a leg contusion suffered last week.
Excluding the game on Nov. 4 against the Houston Rockets where he only logged four total minutes, Kaminsky has become a vital rotation piece for Phoenix over the last week-plus. Take a look at the four games he&rsquo;s been relied upon off the bench for Phoenix:
Nov. 2 vs. Pelicans: 17 points, 4 steals, 3 rebounds, 3 assists on 5-of-8 FGA in 29 minutes
Nov. 6 vs. Hawks: 16 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists, 1 block on 7-of-10 FGA in 29 minutes
Nov. 8 vs. Kings: 10 points, 5 rebounds, 1 steal, 1 block on 4-of-9 FGA in 22 minutes
Nov. 8 vs. Trail Blazers: 31 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 block on 12-of-18 FGA in 32 minutes
It&rsquo;s a mind-boggling rise for Kaminsky, averaging 18.5 points, 5.3 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 0.8 blocks while shooting 62.2% over those four contests. When Kaminsky&rsquo;s number has been called upon by Williams, he&rsquo;s delivered with authority every single time. It&rsquo;s a factor his head coach continues to notice consistently from the veteran big.
&ldquo;I just found that out when we [were] bringing it in and the guys told me that was a career-high for Frank. [I'm] excited for him,&rdquo; Williams said on Wednesday night. &ldquo;I felt like a kid in there just cheering for him, because to do what he does every single day, he&rsquo;s a pro. His ability to mentally stay locked-in, emotionally stay even-keeled and understand that he may not get the call, he may get the call &mdash; to do that day-after-day-after-day, come back in the next day get his work in and go home, have a great attitude. It says a lot about him to see him have a night like that when we needed it.&rdquo;
Without Kaminsky&rsquo;s scoring explosion, the Suns don&rsquo;t win that game vs. Portland. In clutch situations, Kaminsky continued to take the game over and do it all for Phoenix. Whether it was scoring inside or out, grabbing key boards or making crucial passes to the perimeter out of traps, Kaminsky showcased why he could deserve extended run within the Suns&rsquo; rotation moving forward.
&ldquo;I still don&rsquo;t think it&rsquo;s really hit me yet, but like I said last time it&rsquo;s just a mindset,&rdquo; Kaminsky said of his career-best outing. &ldquo;Go out there and play as hard as you can and be ready for anything. [You] never know when your opportunities are going to come, so you gotta make the most of them. I&rsquo;m just trying to make the most of my opportunity here. It just goes into preparation and staying ready and keeping the same mental approach everyday. Try to stay level &mdash; never too high, never too low. Just keep going with that.&rdquo;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-theme="dark">
Good morning to everyone. But especially to Frank Kaminsky. <a href="https://t.co/yYCcpJFkM8">pic.twitter.com/yYCcpJFkM8</a>
&mdash; Bally Sports Arizona (@BALLYSPORTSAZ) <a href="https://twitter.com/BALLYSPORTSAZ/status/1458823210343018499?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 11, 2021</a></blockquote>

<script src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>

When the Suns lost Dario Saric in Game 1 of the 2021 NBA Finals to a torn ACL, likely sidelining him for all of the 2021-22 season, they were missing that underrated and valuable reserve off the bench. The Suns did go out sign JaVale McGee to a one-year deal; however, his role wasn&rsquo;t as a connector who can facilitate the basketball in &ldquo;0.5&rdquo; situations, but more of a version closer to Ayton as a rim-rolling big who can defend the paint.
Kaminsky has taken on the role that opened with Saric's absence and run with it recently, becoming a must-use piece to the puzzle in the second unit. Also, as seen over the last week, Kaminsky can play a vital role alongside Phoenix&rsquo;s starters as a stretch big who can facilitate from the top of the key, finding cutters or trailing shooters in the corners.
&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think it&rsquo;s one thing specific, he just knows how to play,&rdquo; Chris Paul said postgame.
Paul is right on the money with his short and sweet statement. Kaminsky is just a high-IQ basketball player who can seamlessly fit within the role asked upon. Sure, he has some flaws, but within the right system, those can be canceled out by surprisingly-strong strengths.
Williams mentioned to the media that once Ayton returns from his leg contusion, he will try to keep Kaminsky within the Suns&rsquo; rotation. Coach will have him potentially split minutes with McGee and keep their former No. 1 overall pick more fresh throughout games with a lighter workload.
Many thought the Suns needed to make one more move for a win-now piece to bolster their bench and playoff rotation to an even higher level. Who knows, they may have just stumbled upon their solution to losing Saric with Kaminsky.
From where Kaminsky was to where he is now, his confidence is reaching entirely new heights we haven&rsquo;t seen since his days leading the Wisconsin Badgers to the Final Four. It&rsquo;s a new mentality Kaminsky has honed-in on, and the results over a small sample size have been nothing short of fantastic.
&ldquo;So proud of Frank,&rdquo; Williams said. &ldquo;Glad to be a part of his journey. He&rsquo;s a pro.&rdquo;

Frank Kaminsky has taken on the Dario Saric role and thrived for the Suns. Evan Sidery breaks it down.