https://cdn.basketballnews.com/images/nba-logos/bkn.png

Nets

One of the breakout stars of this year&rsquo;s NBA playoffs has been Dallas Mavericks guard Jalen Brunson. He&rsquo;s old-school, unconventional, talented, savy and up for a big pay day this summer. The 6-foot-1, 190-pound guard and Villanova alum was selected No. 33 overall in the 2018 NBA Draft and is one of the better second-round draft picks over the past few classes.
Last year, he was a Sixth Man of the Year candidate, averaging 12.6 points and 5.5 assists on 52/41/80 shooting splits in this third season with the Mavericks. This season, as a full-time starter, while watching his minutes jump from 25.0 to 31.9 per game, his productivity increased to 16.3 points and 4.8 assists per game on 50/37/84 shooting. In the playoffs (35.2 minutes per contest), Brunson jumped to 21.6 points and 3.7 assists per contest on 47/35/80 shooting.
His 2022 postseason included signature performances like a 41-point game in a win over the Utah Jazz in Game 2 without Luka Dončić and a 31-point effort against the Golden State Warriors in Game 3 of the Western Conference Finals. He also had a meaningful 24 points on 11-of-19 shooting in Dallas&rsquo; shocking Game 7 romping of the Phoenix Suns.
But now, he&rsquo;s an unrestricted free agent. Dallas has a lot of questions to answer. How can they best build around Dončić? What do they do with Tim Hardaway Jr.? If they want to upgrade at center, what's the best answer at that position?
Among the most important questions is: do they extend Brunson? Here are some teams to watch in the Brunson sweepstakes this offseason.
NEW YORK KNICKS
The New York Knicks haven&rsquo;t had a reliable point guard since Raymond Felton in their famed 54-win season back in 2012-13. Since then, it&rsquo;s largely been a revolving door of meh at the point of attack at Madison Square Garden. Jose Calderon was past his peak when he got to New York. Iman Shumpert, though very talented, wasn&rsquo;t a natural point guard. Frank Ntilikina is closer to a three-and-D wing than a true floor general. Jerian Grant never panned out. Neither has Kemba Walker. Derrick Rose has arguably been the best of the bunch.
Walker, Rose, Alec Burks, Immanuel Quickley and Miles McBride make up the Knicks' point guard depth chart for 2022-23, in no particular order. Walker&rsquo;s health can&rsquo;t be trusted for an entire season. Burks isn&rsquo;t a true point guard and might be a trade chip. Quickley, if he starts, is probably better suited next to a natural point, and the same could be said for R.J. Barrett. And McBride is young, raw and inexperienced. Brunson is better than all of them, hard stop.
Because Brunson will be unrestricted, the highest-bidder has a chance. The bad news for the Knicks is that <a href="https://www.spotrac.com/nba/new-york-knicks/cap/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">they&rsquo;re pretty much capped out</a>.
That means getting Brunson to New York would require a sign-and-trade. The good thing is that the Mavericks need a Mitchell Robinson type of center, and for about two years, I've been pushing for Brunson-Robinson swap. The Knicks should throw in something else, be it draft capital and or an additional young piece to make the deal work (for cap purposes too), but that&rsquo;s the framework that can come from this. Robinson gives Luka a lob threat, gives the team a higher upside defensively, and gives the coaching staff a player who can share the floor with just about anyone on the roster.&nbsp;
<div class="mceNonEditable"><spike>&nbsp;</spike></div>
LOS ANGELES CLIPPERS
If Brunson can play with Dončić and Spencer Dinwiddie, he can share a backcourt with Reggie Jackson. Kawhi Leonard has <a href="https://nba.nbcsports.com/2020/10/19/report-kawhi-leonard-wants-clippers-to-add-point-guard/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wanted a point guard</a>, but the Clippers still don&rsquo;t have one. It&rsquo;s Jackson, and that&rsquo;s it. Norman Powell, Luke Kennard and Terance Mann are guards, but they're all wings. 2021 second-round pick Jason Preston still hasn&rsquo;t played due to injury, and Xavier Moon was a two-way guy last year who played just 10 games. <a href="https://nba.nbcsports.com/2020/10/19/report-kawhi-leonard-wants-clippers-to-add-point-guard/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Leonard&rsquo;s been wanting a point guard for two seasons</a>, and it&rsquo;s time for the Clippers to address that spot since both Leonard and Paul George are due back next season.
Given the Clippers' cap situation, this would most certainly be a sign-and-trade. Powell, Marcus Morris, Kennard and Robert Covington all make between $12 and $16 million next season, and any of them could make sense going to Dallas. Only one or two of them would probably need to go at most, among other compensation (i.e. young players and picks).
Brunson in L.A. would join the starting line-up alongside Jackson, Leonard, George and a center. Ivica Zubac is an expiring $7.5 million contract next season, and he could actually be a piece Dallas wants in return. Assuming he stays in Los Angeles, Zubac rounds out their starting five and gives Los Angeles a true point guard, which they&rsquo;re clearly missing.
DALLAS MAVERICKS&nbsp;
The Mavericks reportedly had multiple opportunities to sign Brunson to a four-year, $55.5 million deal before and during the season, <a href="https://nba.nbcsports.com/2022/04/25/report-mavericks-didnt-offer-jalen-brunson-contract-extension-until-after-trade-deadline/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">per reports</a>, but did not. As a result, he could be looking at <a href="https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2952513-latest-nba-trade-intel-lakers-realistic-targets-myles-turner-landing-spots?share=sms" target="_blank" rel="noopener">something in the $80 million range</a>, and possibly more after these playoffs.
Clearly, the offense works with him and Luka in the backcourt, blending in Dinwiddie in a natural role as a combo guard off the bench who can finish games. Dallas can keep their core together (those three and Dorian Finney-Smith) and work around the margins.
After losing to the Warriors in Game 5, Mavericks majority owner Mark Cuban said that keeping Brunson is a priority, and damn near guaranteed that it&rsquo;ll happen.
"We can pay him more than anybody,&rdquo; Cuban said. "I think he wants to stay, and that's most important. I think [Jason Kidd] has a big part to play in that... JB blossomed as a player as much as anybody on this squad. From where he was last year to how far he came this year is a tribute to how hard he worked. And the support he got from his dad and his family and his girlfriend, but also, what he was able to learn from [Kidd]. I think he recognizes that, and I think he wants to stay."

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

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-theme="dark">
.<a href="https://twitter.com/mcuban?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@mcuban</a> reflecting on the 2021-22 Dallas Mavericks season with Marc Stein. <a href="https://twitter.com/dallasmavs?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@dallasmavs</a> | 📺 BSSW | <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/dALLasIN?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#dALLasIN</a> | <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBAPlayoffs?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBAPlayoffs</a> | <a href="https://twitter.com/TheSteinLine?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@TheSteinLine</a> <a href="https://t.co/YZROfVsnq0">pic.twitter.com/YZROfVsnq0</a>
&mdash; Bally Sports Southwest (@BallySportsSW) <a href="https://twitter.com/BallySportsSW/status/1530038560673435658?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 27, 2022</a></blockquote>

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

Brunson didn&rsquo;t have the exact same tone, but he&rsquo;ll cross that bridge when he gets there, it seems.
"When it&rsquo;s time, it&rsquo;s time. I&rsquo;m not worried about it right now," Brunson said, <a href="https://twitter.com/sixfivelando/status/1530037759955636242" target="_blank" rel="noopener">via Landon Thomas of Mavs Fans For Life</a>. "I&rsquo;m just really happy I got to play with these guys and what we did this year. I&rsquo;ll think about that later.&rdquo;
For Dallas, this is probably the move. Keep Brunson and build around the margins, particularly on the interior. Four years in, we can now say, as long as you have Luka, you have a chance. You just have to nail what&rsquo;s around him, and Brunson is someone you should want back in Dallas.
<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>!

Jalen Brunson was a breakout star for the Mavericks this postseason and is now an unrestricted free agent. Where will he end up?

Examining potential free-agent destinations for Jalen Brunson

The&nbsp;<a class="c-link" tabindex="-1" href="https://www.basketballnetwork.net/iman-shumpert-explains-how-lebron-ruined-basketball/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-stringify-link="https://www.basketballnetwork.net/giannis-antetokounmpo-shares-why-he-doesnt-associate-or-practice-with-other-nba-players-in-the-offseason/" data-sk="tooltip_parent" data-remove-tab-index="true">following article</a>&nbsp;first appeared on&nbsp;<a class="c-link" tabindex="-1" href="http://basketballnetwork.net/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-stringify-link="http://BasketballNetwork.net" data-sk="tooltip_parent" data-remove-tab-index="true">BasketballNetwork.net</a>:
&ldquo;I&rsquo;m gonna take my talents to South Beach and join the Miami Heat.&rdquo;
The infamous sentence by LeBron James that completely changed the NBA landscape back in 2010 had a greater effect on the league than you might think. Sure, it shifted the landscape of the league at that time, but the long-term impact was felt in the fact that players started to team up other more, forming super-teams and disbanding loyalty in the pursuit of a championship. LeBron&rsquo;s former teammate, Iman Shumpert, blames James for this shift in thinking. In fact, he believes James ruined the NBA.
&ldquo;'Bron ruined basketball. He thought he was making it better; I get him," Shumpert said. "Me personally, I loved the NBA for the loyalty that I thought was there. He basically knocked the fourth wall down like, 'The organization, they bullsh*tting, we doing what we want.' Great business move for sure, but when you think about it, outside looking in, like, I got people tweeting me right now [and] they're literally talking about owners and trades. It&rsquo;s like, bro, y&rsquo;all aren&rsquo;t supposed to be talking about none of this actually!"
It&rsquo;s ridiculous to say LeBron started super-teams with the 2010 Miami Heat because we have seen many teams with multiple All-Stars going all the way through history. But the Heat's Big Three was formed differently. Players didn&rsquo;t have the kind of power or leverage to go wherever they wanted and team up with their friends. Ownership groups and front offices had all the power, but LeBron broke the wall and showed that the players actually had the control.&nbsp;
Ever since then, players have been getting more and more power in the NBA, getting larger contracts, requesting trades, signing wherever they want, recruiting each other and simply sitting out if they don&rsquo;t want to play. All of this was unheard of in the NBA 15 years ago. But LeBron&rsquo;s push for player empowerment changed the complete hierarchy of the league and gave the steering wheel to the players. Some would argue that this was good for the league, while others would say it&rsquo;s destroying it. One thing&rsquo;s for sure: it has its perks and flaws.
While it&rsquo;s entertaining to see super-teams due to the abundance of transcendent talent playing together, some feel it kills the nature of the NBA. The league gets too centralized with only a few select elite teams, while the rest get the short end of the stick and no attention. That mainly happens to the small-market teams that don&rsquo;t have the appeal of the big cities to lure stars.&nbsp;
<iframe title="YouTube video player" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/wSaqNBeILqQ" width="100%" height="325" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
It also killed loyalty and the romanticism that once graced the NBA, with every team having its star or two that were heroes of the city for their whole careers. Instead, nowadays, it&rsquo;s normal to see star players switch teams numerous times and look for their best situation, rather than sticking it out with their original team. Of course, there are exceptions; Damian Lillard is the obvious one.
Shumpert believes that fans look at the game differently and focus on the wrong things ever since James joined the Heat. Fans have always been interested in rumors and transactions, but there's no question that it reached a new level during the player-empowerment era. These days, some fans are more interested in what happens off the court than the actual games.
James' free-agency choice in 2010 will undoubtedly continue to be viewed as one of the most polarizing moves in NBA history.
Check out more articles from BasketballNetwork.net&nbsp;<a href="https://www.basketballnetwork.net/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a>.

Iman Shumpert discussed the effects of LeBron James' decision to join the Miami Heat.

Iman Shumpert lets loose on how LeBron 'ruined basketball'

Saturday afternoon, I had a great time at the Syracuse-Georgetown men's basketball game. It was great to see all the alumni in the house from both schools. I took pictures with Rony Seikaly, Dikembe Mutumbo, Patrick Ewing and Louis Orr, who was my assistant coach at Syracuse.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-theme="dark">
Great seeing the OG Rony Seikaly 🍊🍊🍊 <a href="https://t.co/eBacr6RKtC">pic.twitter.com/eBacr6RKtC</a>
&mdash; Etan Thomas (@etanthomas36) <a href="https://twitter.com/etanthomas36/status/1469797832676806661?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 11, 2021</a></blockquote>

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

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-theme="dark">
My man Coach Orr and Coach Patrick Ewing. It&rsquo;s all love after the game. They got this one today though, good job coaches <a href="https://t.co/tl8D4WMOW8">pic.twitter.com/tl8D4WMOW8</a>
&mdash; Etan Thomas (@etanthomas36) <a href="https://twitter.com/etanthomas36/status/1469793363469783047?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 11, 2021</a></blockquote>

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

The Syracuse fans all showed love. (We have the best fans in college basketball by the way.) This rivalry has so much history, and although Georgetown unfortunately came out with the win, I had an overall wonderful time watching the game.
I reached out to some Syracuse alumni &mdash; Lazarus Sims, Arinze Onuaku, Ryan Blackwell and Preston Shumpert &mdash; to get reactions after the two-game, old-Big East matchups against Villanova and Georgetown. It still pains me that we are no longer in the Big East, and yes, I am still holding out hope that, one day, we will return to the conference we belong.
Here is what all four Orange alum had to say on the team.
Lazarus Sims&nbsp;
<img style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="https://cdn.basketballnews.com/images/story/body/screenshot-2021-12-14-103204_lg.png" alt="" width="575" height="576" />
Etan Thomas: How do you think we played against Villanova and Georgetown?&nbsp;
Lazarus Sims: "They were both great games, but we didn&rsquo;t have a consistent true point guard on the floor who put everyone in the right position. I&rsquo;ll go back to when they won the championship in '03. Many people will say it was 'Melo [Anthony], it was Gerry [McNamara] &mdash; but really if you go back and watch the tournament, when they played their best, it was Billy Edelin who was the key. He put Gerry in his right position, the 2. In contrast to this team, against Villanova and Georgetown, when they put Symir [Torrence] in &mdash; who is a pass first point guard &mdash; it puts your shooters and your scorers in the right position. It puts Buddy [Boeheim] at the 3. It puts Joe Girard at the 2, and allows them to do what they do best. What we&rsquo;re doing is forcing the 2-guard into [being] a point guard, so the flow isn&rsquo;t there. It lasts for awhile, but it&rsquo;s not sustainable."
Etan: I couldn&rsquo;t agree more, and I like Symir. It&rsquo;s crazy, I was watching [Seton Hall guard and 'Cuse transfer] Kadary Richmond play against Rutgers. And the way he was running the team, [he] put everyone in their positions first, then it opened it up for him especially in the first half.... then the second half, he focused on putting everyone in their positions. He should be in a Syracuse uniform. But I see him how I see Symir in [that] we need what he brings to the team and he needs to play more. What do you think?&nbsp;
Sims: "Definitely, and you have to let him play through certain mistakes like you do with Joe [Girard]. We need what he does. The offense flows better with a Symir-type of point guard running the team. That&rsquo;s no knock on Girard, it&rsquo;s just not playing him to his strength."
Etan: Symir should be playing more, the same way Kadary should&rsquo;ve been playing more last year. 
Sims: You&rsquo;ll get no argument from me.&nbsp;
<div class="mceNonEditable"><spike>&nbsp;</spike></div>
Etan: I saw the press conference after the Georgetown game, and Coach [Jim] Boeheim was saying the guys are worn down and they&rsquo;re tired. And I&rsquo;m thinking 'Well, you got guys on the bench ready to go.' The starters don&rsquo;t have to play ironman minutes.
Sims: "You saw with Symir, he got in [the game] at Georgetown. [He] made one mistake, and you didn&rsquo;t see him anymore for the rest of the game. It&rsquo;s hard to play like that. But we need what he brings, so we need to let him play through mistakes like we do the starters. I mean, let&rsquo;s be honest, sometimes Girard struggles to get the ball up the floor because that&rsquo;s not his strength. Well, we have someone on the bench whose strength that is, just like we did last year with Kadary. We gotta play guys to their strengths."
Arinze Onuaku&nbsp;
<img src="https://cdn.basketballnews.com/images/story/body/usatsi_3633058-1_lg.jpg" alt="" width="575" height="575" />
Arinze Onuaku: "It&rsquo;s totally different from when we were there because obviously, our responsibility was solely the paint area, so it&rsquo;s odd seeing Jesse Edwards run from corner-to-corner. I know they switched the defense to the 1-3-1 [zone] at times and we know it&rsquo;s the bottom man&rsquo;s job to run corner-to-corner, but to have Jesse be that person, it does take him out of rebounding position."
Etan Thomas: And that&rsquo;s the part that I question. I can see [that] if we had Quincy Guerrier still, but it&rsquo;s seems like quite a bit to ask of the Boeheims to be the ones to crash the boards, but that&rsquo;s our strategy. And we&rsquo;ve been getting beaten pretty badly on the offensive rebounds, which is one of the reasons why I&rsquo;m not the biggest fan of that strategy.
Onuaku: "Yeah, for sure and [Jesse] is exerting a lot of energy sprinting from corner-to-corner, three-point line to three-point line. That&rsquo;s a lot to ask of the big man."
Etan: Now, I would like to see him get the ball more, and I feel he has earned the right to get the ball more with the way he has been converting. I want them to play inside-out, and that may be a lot to ask, but the entire half shouldn&rsquo;t go by and he only gets the ball two times. That&rsquo;s ridiculous.
Onuaku: "I agree. Any good team has to have balance, and he has been doing a much better job of finishing as well. I think it may take guys a little more time to trust him. He started off slow last year, and this year, so that trust factor from the guards is a factor. But as he continues to improve, I would expect that trust factor to increase."
Etan: But my problem with the trust issue is, they can jack up three-pointers and they can brick 90% of them and nobody loses trust in them. The big men get two or maybe three opportunities, and if you don&rsquo;t convert or catch their pass, they don&rsquo;t trust you?
Onuaku: "Yeah, the game is always gonna be unbalanced for big men. Jesse is going to have to speak up more, and as he produces more, they will have no choice but to give him the ball."
Etan: Yeah, that&rsquo;s the story of being a big man. It was like that when I played and when you played. But that drag screen he does in early offense situation and [when] he rolls, I think that&rsquo;s an easy high pass to him and he finishes. They just do that a few times every half.&nbsp;
Onuaku: "I agree, and he has shown that he can catch it off the run and he does a great job of keeping the ball high and he has been scoring. So you&rsquo;re right &mdash; they should definitely utilize him much more. And shout out to Frank Anselem, who came in and really attacked the rim and provided a spark off the bench. He&rsquo;s someone we&rsquo;re definitely going to need him down the stretch." 
Ryan Blackwell&nbsp;
<img style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="https://cdn.basketballnews.com/images/story/body/blackwell_lg.png" alt="" width="575" height="572" />
Etan Thomas: You watched both the Villanova game and the Georgetown game. What was your assessment?&nbsp;
Ryan Blackwell: "The Villanova game, we were right with them the first half. We were making shots, being aggressive, playing defense. Then the second half, it seemed like we just ran out of gas. Same thing with Georgetown; we were up [by] 10 at half, and we let them back in it. We&rsquo;re gonna have to shoot lights out to win games. I know Buddy was struggling a little, but if he&rsquo;s off and we&rsquo;re gonna rely on Jimmy Boeheim to post-up or go 1-on-1 or Joe Girard to go 1-on-1, it&rsquo;s gonna be tough. And if we&rsquo;re not gonna get much from the bench... I mean, the first half against Georgetown we got good production, but [in] the second half, for whatever reason, the production just wasn&rsquo;t there. Coach felt more comfortable going with his starters. And we faltered at the end, and that was unfortunate because it was a very winnable game."
<div class="mceNonEditable"><spike>&nbsp;</spike></div>
Etan: I heard Coach Boeheim at the press conference say that the guys looked tired and worn down, but then I&rsquo;m looking at the bench and they look pretty fresh to me. So I&rsquo;m thinking, well coach, there&rsquo;s a remedy for that. If the guys are tired and their shots [are] not falling, [they're] not closing out on defense, not getting back in transition, not rebounding, whatever &mdash; you have people on your bench who can help. 
Blackwell: "You and I both know, coach relies heavily on his starters and that&rsquo;s never going to change. And we know Benny Williams is extremely talented, but for whatever reason, he&rsquo;s not getting the minutes. Yes, he&rsquo;s young and he&rsquo;s a rookie, and with coach, he has a formula that he has always stuck to. But yeah, it&rsquo;s gonna be a real struggle for our starters to carry the full load."
Etan: I&rsquo;m at the Georgetown game &mdash; you can see it better in person &mdash; and I saw Georgetown literally wearing our guys down. And then, utilizing their bench and getting fresh legs in there to wear our guys down even more. Aminu Mohammed, who is just a freshman, was a holy terror against us. And he would get a break, then come back in fresh and terrorize us some more. I mean, you can&rsquo;t be surprised if guys are tired if they are playing ironman minutes, right?&nbsp;
Blackwell: "Yeah, it&rsquo;s tough. And yes, Buddy has improved so much, but he is being asked to do so much and carry the load offensively. And you&rsquo;re right, it&rsquo;s gonna wear on them as we get into the season. And you&rsquo;re right, Georgetown was getting in our shorts and wearing us down. I can&rsquo;t disagree with anything you said. And I worry about when we get into conference play, because it&rsquo;s not going to get any easier for us at all. And it&rsquo;s tough to knock down shots when you&rsquo;re worn down, no matter how great of a shooter you are, and we have great shooters. But yeah, you&rsquo;re right &mdash; hard to shoot threes when you&rsquo;re worn down. We may need to look to incorporate some other options and alternatives to go along with that."
Preston Shumpert&nbsp;
<img src="https://cdn.basketballnews.com/images/story/body/prestonshumpert_lg.jpg" alt="" width="575" height="575" />
Etan Thomas: The secret&rsquo;s out now with Buddy. Everyone knows he can shoot, and teams are devising schemes to make sure he doesn&rsquo;t get open shots. What would be your advice to him, as the elite shooter you were, as to how he can get open and get his shot off?
Preston Shumpert: "It&rsquo;s so different once you&rsquo;re on the other team&rsquo;s scouting report. It&rsquo;s great that he had the success he had last season, but now, like you said, teams are going to try to come up with a game plan to stop you from doing what you do best, which in Buddy&rsquo;s case, is knocking down shots. He&rsquo;s been doing a good job of moving without the ball; he just has to do more of it. Be a little more creative on getting open and what he does once he catches the ball."
Etan: You said move without the ball, so let&rsquo;s talk specifics. Do you mean off screens? Running the baseline?
Shumpert: "I think it&rsquo;s a combination of both. He&rsquo;s getting pin-down screens and curls. I just think he needs to stay consistent with it and know he&rsquo;s going to be hounded and [that] guys are gonna be on him, because he&rsquo;s an elite shooter. But at the same time, if he comes off a screen and two guys jump him, it&rsquo;s the point guard&rsquo;s job to find the open man. Once you start taking advantage of those situations, then you will be more open. But he&rsquo;s gonna have to fade, curl, post up &mdash; he&rsquo;s gonna have to do a lot of different things to get his shot off, and that&rsquo;s really a compliment to him because of how good of a shooter he is. On every scouting report, I&rsquo;m sure it says, 'No open shots for him.'" 
<div class="mceNonEditable"><spike>&nbsp;</spike></div>
Etan: That&rsquo;s definitely true. What is the best way to come out of a slump? With shooters, you&rsquo;re going to go through times where the ball just doesn&rsquo;t go in the hole. What would your advice be to Buddy or Cole [Swider] when they are not shooting well?&nbsp;
Shumpert: "My favorite quote is, 'Shoot when you&rsquo;re making it, and shoot when you&rsquo;re missing it.' You've gotta continue to be aggressive and have confidence in your shot. Now, your shot selection is definitely important, but if it&rsquo;s a wide open shot, and that&rsquo;s your shot, fire that 'thang up. That&rsquo;s what you do. If you&rsquo;re a shooter, you've gotta shoot the ball. Shoot 'til you make it, shoot 'til you miss. That&rsquo;s a shooter&rsquo;s mentality. No conscience."
Etan: One thing that you started to develop through your years was the one-dribble, two-dribble pull-ups because they were playing you so tight for the three-point shot, and Buddy has been doing good with that. Do you think he should keep doing that more especially if the outside shot isn&rsquo;t falling?&nbsp;
Shumpert: "Definitely, that&rsquo;s what I meant by being a little more creative and taking what they&rsquo;re giving you. Like you said, guys are gonna be pressing up on you and running out on you. They&rsquo;re not going to let you get a free look. So that&rsquo;s when you go to the pump fake, one-dribble, two-dribble pull-up. But another thing &mdash; which I&rsquo;m sure you&rsquo;re gonna like this &mdash; throw it up to the big [man] or give him that little pocket pass, when they hedge on him or after he sets the pick a little more often, and let the big [man] hammer a few down and get all riled up like you used to. It will open you up more. And the more you involve the big man, the better your screens will be. The big man will have you wide open if you treat him right. I learned that myself when we played together. Keep the big man happy, and he&rsquo;ll rebound better, block shots better and work harder to get you open, and will roll harder which will ultimately help everyone."
Etan: That should be on the wall in every locker room (laughs).

Etan Thomas spoke with four Syracuse alum after the Orange took on Georgetown and Villanova this past week to get their thoughts.

Orange alumni react to Syracuse-Georgetown game

R.J. Barrett made a career-high seven 3-pointers and scored 32 points, and the New York Knicks snapped a three-game skid, beating the San Antonio Spurs 121-109 on Tuesday night.
&ldquo;Things may not be going well and, all of a sudden, you take a charge, get to a loose ball, you get a tip from behind, you get a block,&rdquo; Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau said. &ldquo;That could ignite you and all of a sudden you get an easy score, a couple of easy buckets and now you find your rhythm and things change quickly in this league. They can go from being terrible to being great real fast and vice versa. You&rsquo;ve just got to keep going.&rdquo;
Alec Burks scored 18 points, Immanuel Quickley added 16 points and Julius Randle had 15 for the Knicks, who won at San Antonio for the first time since Jan. 2, 2014.
&ldquo;Heck yeah, we needed that,&rdquo; New York center Mitchell Robinson said. &ldquo;We needed that win bad. We&rsquo;re desperate right now.&rdquo;
Derrick White had a season-high 26 points along with six rebounds and seven assists for the Spurs, who have dropped two straight after a season-long three-game winning streak. Dejounte Murray added 15 points, seven rebounds and seven assists.
&ldquo;That first game, being a back-to-back, after a road trip, we knew that would be tough energy-wise,&rdquo; San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich said. &ldquo;But I thought we competed our (butt) off. Guys gave their effort. I was really happy with that.&rdquo;
The Knicks were 18 for 38 on 3-pointers, with Barrett going 7 for 8.
Barrett said he's feeling &ldquo;a lot better&rdquo; after suffering from a stomach bug for two weeks.
&ldquo;It was annoying, but I tried to do my job to the best of my ability no matter what,&rdquo; Barrett said.
Barrett, who finished 11 of 20 from the field overall, made two 3s during a 10-2 run that gave New York a 13-point lead midway through the third quarter. The Spurs briefly got within nine points in the fourth but couldn&rsquo;t trim the lead any further.
&ldquo;I think the defense was really, really focused on Julius,&rdquo; Barrett said. &ldquo;They were doubling on him every time he had the ball and we just moved it. We moved it and I was able to knock them down.&rdquo;
New York took advantage of the Spurs&rsquo; smaller lineups, out-rebounding the Spurs 56-49 and enjoying a 21-8 advantage in second-chance points.
San Antonio got even smaller when starting forward Keldon Johnson exited early in the third quarter with a sprained right ankle. Johnson was injured with 1:21 left in the first half after stepping on Poeltl&rsquo;s foot. He started the second half but appeared to be in some pain before heading to the locker room.
Popovich said X-rays on Johnson's ankle were negative.
A CHANGE
Thibodeau started Nerlens Noel at center instead of Robinson, who had started all 20 games he had played previously this season.
&ldquo;We feel really strongly about both guys,&rdquo; Thibodeau said. &ldquo;We just wanted a different look. Those guys are interchangeable, just go as hard as you can for as long as you can and then the next guy comes in and does the same thing.&rdquo;
Robinson had 11 points and 14 rebounds in 22 minutes. Noel had two points and nine rebounds in 26 minutes.
Robinson endured a scare when he injured his back with 56.4 seconds left in the third quarter after an awkward landing. He went flying after his legs were clipped when Spurs center Drew Eubanks dived for a loose ball.
Robinson stayed in the game but said he was in pain afterward. He walked gingerly into and out of the interview room.
&ldquo;The ground ain&rsquo;t never lost,&rdquo; Robinson said.
TIP-INS
Knicks: New York had lost seven straight at San Antonio. Carmelo Anthony and Iman Shumpert each had 27 points to lead the Knicks in their previous win. ... New York is 7-4 on the road but entered having lost three of four away from home.
Spurs: G Devin Vassell missed his third straight game with a bruised right quadriceps. ... The Spurs entered Monday having played the fewest games of any NBA team. That will change quickly as the Spurs play five games in seven days. ... San Antonio is 4-7 at home and has not had a winning record at AT&amp;T Center since winning its season opener.
UP NEXT
Knicks: At Indiana on Wednesday.
Spurs: Host Denver on Thursday.

R.J. Barrett made a career-high seven 3-pointers and scored 32 points, and the Knicks snapped a three-game skid.

Barrett makes 7 threes, Knicks beat Spurs to snap 3-game skid

Some bask in the spotlight, while others prefer to hide in the shadows.
Attention is the friend of many; solitude the companion of choice for a few.
In today&rsquo;s day and age &ndash; particularly with the advent of social media and the 24/7 news cycle &ndash; it&rsquo;s difficult for a neophyte to maintain his anonymity. But, it&rsquo;s possible that, for a 20-year-old with promise, avoiding the radar may not be as difficult as we once thought.
All he has to do is play for the New York Knicks.
From Michael Sweetney to Channing Frye and Iman Shumpert to Jordan Hill, one of the few commonalities between the Knicks&rsquo; first-round draft picks over the past 20 years have been dashed hopes and disappointment.
The theme actually persists throughout every facet of the organization.
But alas, even the Hudson River&rsquo;s tide turns twice a day, so in this instance, the failures of regimes past don&rsquo;t necessarily provide evidence of future performance. New York isn&rsquo;t given the benefit of the doubt, because just as it did with Kristaps Porzingis and his predecessors, somehow, the Knicks will find a way to ruin it.
At least, that&rsquo;s the prevailing sentiment.
So here we are, the 2020-21 season. Believe it or not, the Knicks have surpassed last season&rsquo;s win total, enter play on April 2 at .500, and have managed to not resemble a dumpster fire behind the raspy bark and serious demeanor of Tom Thibodeau.
On the court, Julius Randle has rightfully received the credit and praise for the Knicks arriving to this point. A playoff shot is not a fate that many would have predicted, and although the national media has slowly bestowed some credit on Randle and Thibodeau, it&rsquo;s been much slower to recognize the obvious &mdash; RJ Barrett has given the franchise something to hold onto.
Almost 20 years later, one would be hard-pressed to argue that the 2003 NBA Draft class isn&rsquo;t one of the best in history. But sometimes, we got so fixated with the cream that rises to the top that we don&rsquo;t pay enough attention to what lies beneath.
When you think of 2003, you think of LeBron James and remember Dwyane Wade. Carmelo Anthony and Chris Bosh also certainly come to mind, while scores of others &mdash; including former All-Stars such as David West, Mo Williams and Kyle Korver &ndash; aren&rsquo;t even thought of.
Obviously, three of those are unlike the others. But it&rsquo;s quite possible to walk away from the craps table a winner even without bankrupting the casino.
In other words, Barrett may not have had anywhere near as immediate an impact as Zion Williamson or Ja Morant, but in the case of Anthony and the 2003 class, in this case, there&rsquo;s no shame in bronze.
As a sophomore, Barrett has shown appreciable growth. A throwback big guard, the defining characteristic of his game &mdash; so far &mdash; has been an understanding of how to use his body, strength and girth to get to precisely where he wants to on the floor. A soccer player before he decided to focus full-time on basketball, his light footedness and agility, at least for a second-year player whose body is still developing, is world class. If you tried hard enough, you could poke holes in Barrett&rsquo;s offensive repertoire; his handle isn&rsquo;t elite, and for a big guard whose size is among his best attributes, his back-to-basket game is fairly weak.
Yet still, the inroads he&rsquo;s made in terms of his sheer effectiveness on the floor are impressive. Be that as it may, what&rsquo;s been equally impressive for the young Canadian has been the strides he&rsquo;s made from Year 1 to Year 2 in an area critical to success in the modern NBA &mdash; spacing the floor.
Along with Randle, Barrett completes an effective duo. Unsurprisingly, the pair are together in four of the team&rsquo;s top-five offensive units in terms of points per possession, with Barrett dramatically (yet somehow, quietly) becoming a much more credible mid-range threat.
<img style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="https://basketballnews-media.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/images/story/body/usatsi_15649687_lg.jpg" alt="" width="645" height="430" />
As a rookie, Barrett connected on just 28% of his shots from 10-to-16 feet, and just 29% of his looks from further. This season, he&rsquo;s shown marked improvement, improving those same percentages to 36% and 38%, respectively. In terms of the percentage of shot attempts from those areas, they have also increased, though marginally. Nonetheless, combined with his overall improvements across the board &mdash; his scoring, rebounding and assists are significantly higher along with his shooting percentages &mdash; the simplest conclusion to draw is that he&rsquo;s improved. That&rsquo;s pretty obvious.
What&rsquo;s even more important than an increase in numbers, however &mdash; and something you could never understand without actually watching the game &mdash; is an understanding of how to be effective when advanced scouts and opposing assistant coaches begin planning for you.
It&rsquo;s typical for an NBA team to employ three or four assistant coaches, with other members of the organization invited to assist with reviewing tape and offering input into how to stop a team&rsquo;s featured players. It&rsquo;s commonplace for the support staff to spend days analyzing their opponents and building game plans to take away strengths. That&rsquo;s where the phrase &ldquo;appeared on the scouting report&rdquo; derives.
Due to relatively small sample sizes in some instances or just a lack of time, it&rsquo;s not always possible for a team to go into every contest with a complete understanding of what their opponent has been up to the past week, so there&rsquo;s a necessary prioritization; the higher a player&rsquo;s profile, the more resources dedicated to getting him on the scouting report.
Knicks fans probably remember all too well the rude awakening that Jeremy Lin encountered at the hands of the Miami Heat, but if you have a long enough memory, you&rsquo;d recall that this fate wasn&rsquo;t unique to him. There are a number of players who peak as rookies or sophomores, but it&rsquo;s not always due to any fault with the player.
As one&rsquo;s profile increases, so does the priority with which the opposition scouts him. Most often, it&rsquo;s a young player&rsquo;s ability to adapt his attack and improve his weaknesses that separate, say, Tyreke Evans and O.J. Mayo from Jayson Tatum and Donovan Mitchell.
A relatively small sample size it may be, but at a minimum, Barrett has already proven a few things: first, he&rsquo;s someone who takes his craft and the obligation of diligently improving seriously, and second, he at least hasn&rsquo;t peaked as a rookie.
If you were curious as to why the Knicks didn&rsquo;t approach the trade deadline with the type of urgency that one would have thought a newly installed front office would, aside from the team&rsquo;s favorable cap situation, at least some within the organization believe that the duo of Barrett and Randle have earned the opportunity to continue to develop together.
Together, Zion and Ja have lived up to the expectations, and then some. But when a young player such as Barrett improves in the way he has &mdash; and when those improvements yield wins &mdash; that means something.
In the case of Barrett, at a minimum, it means that we should continue watching.
The young Canadian is onto something, and it&rsquo;s only a matter of time before everyone else figures it out.

RJ Barrett's impressive strides this season have helped put the Knicks in the playoff hunt. Moke Hamilton believes credit is due.

It's about time we talk about the improvement of RJ Barrett

The Nets are waiving three players -- Noah Vonleh, Iman Shumpert and Andre Roberson -- ahead of deadline to guarantee deals for season.
Source: <a href="https://twitter.com/wojespn/status/1364421789095518209" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (Twitter)</a>
ANALYSIS: Wojnarowski added that the Nets want to keep roster flexibility to take on players in trades or in the buyout/free agent market. And <a href="https://twitter.com/ShamsCharania/status/1364422913194090501" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Shams Charania of The Athletic reported</a> that Iman Shumpert and Andre Roberson will plan to sign 10-day contracts with the Nets when they clear waivers on Friday. The Nets waived Shumpert and Roberson to again maintain flexibility ahead of the guaranteed deals deadline that happens this week.
<a href="https://twitter.com/wojespn/status/1364424839554101248" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Brooklyn will also be signing Tyler Cook</a> to a 10-day contract. Cook, a power forward out of the G League, averaged 20 points, 10 rebounds and 4.6 assists in the G-League Bubble for Iowa.

The Nets will waive Noah Vonleh, Iman Shumpert and Andre Roberson ahead of the NBA's guaranteed deals deadline.

Nets to waive Noah Vonleh, Iman Shumpert and Andre Roberson

It may be early, but three Eastern Conference teams stand atop the conference, stringing together wins and finding some semblance of consistency in an inconsistent season. Of all the teams in the newly (highly) competitive conference, the Philadelphia 76ers, Brooklyn Nets and Milwaukee Bucks have all demonstrated both the high ceiling and cohesiveness many teams in the East have not yet grasped. 
That isn&rsquo;t to say that they&rsquo;re perfect, though. As a matter of fact, let's take on the task of assessing all three's biggest strengths and weaknesses, the latter of which is a unique hurdle for each team to overcome.&nbsp;
Philadelphia 76ers
It&rsquo;s hard to find much fault with the Sixers as is. The current season has been a vindication of sorts for Joel Embiid enthusiasts such as myself. The All-Star center has been having a dominant year thus far, made evident by the team&rsquo;s 18-10 record on the season. The typical issues of nagging injuries haven&rsquo;t sidelined the team&rsquo;s stars for prolonged stretches, and neither has the inability to win on the road (no fans, perhaps?). The Sixers, as they stand, are a fine-tuned machine, benefiting from the perks of both a little more spacing for their big man and just enough continuity to foster an environment of sound chemistry and comfort.
STRENGTHS
Strengths? Embiid, of course. An MVP campaign led by your team&rsquo;s best player doesn&rsquo;t hurt. We&rsquo;ve heard the Cameroonian big man frequently opine about his dreams of Defensive Player of the Year, All-NBA and MVP accolades, and he&rsquo;s on course to fulfill at least some of these vision board goals. Playing the second-most minutes of his career, Embiid doesn&rsquo;t need much time this season to inflict damage. Approximately 32 minutes per game have been more than enough time for him to average nearly 30/3/9; and as if such offensive dominance wasn&rsquo;t enough, the talented center has been lively and intimidating on the defensive end, looking spry and engaged as he haunts driving lanes from just beneath the rim. An expected and welcomed jump to his free-throw attempts per game (a ridiculous leap from 8.5 to 11.3) has provided some dynamism to the Sixers offense, which should translate well into the postseason as a means to generate points when defenses become privy to the Philadelphia's habitual plays.
WEAKNESSES
Who&rsquo;s to say whether a sixth-ranked defense will be enough to buoy a 13th-ranked offense? But right now, a team with championship aspirations such as the Sixers could stand to confront a couple of minor concerns in order to ensure a deep run in the playoffs. When watching Philly, it&rsquo;s hard not to entertain thoughts about what a perimeter-based point guard could bring to the team alongside Embiid. Maybe such thoughts have no basis, seeing as how the franchise big man seems to be doing fine regardless, but there&rsquo;s no harm in introducing an additional ball-handling guard with playmaking ability as a sixth man; that could bring some offensive variance in the form of some dribble handoff plays and pick-and-rolls. Seth Curry alone might not be enough, and this isn&rsquo;t to say Ben Simmons holds no value to the team -- despite the reduced scoring, Simmons has demonstrated the ability to provide consecutive defensive stops when the team needs them most (without even mentioning his playmaking in transition). But regardless, it&rsquo;s an option worth exploring for the team. Who knows, such a minor tweak to the bench can have a cascading impact on the play of several players for this team.
Brooklyn Nets
The Brooklyn Nets are about as interesting as advertised, a true case study on super teams. A culmination of stereotypes on the quintessential All-Star roster, all within the bubble of COVID-19 restrictions. Scientific, yes, but let&rsquo;s talk basketball. When firing on all cylinders, it&rsquo;s hard not to marvel at the sheer offensive skill present on the court for the Nets; so needless to say, expectations are high and flaws are overzealously debated. Nevermind city alliances, basketball fans everywhere will be fascinated to see how the experiment of uniting three offensive powerhouses onto a single squad will pan out.
<div class="mceNonEditable"><spike>&nbsp;</spike></div>
STRENGTHS
The Nets&rsquo; strength is their capacity for basically any and all offensive styles. They have three prolific and capable isolation scorers, with Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant above the 90th percentile and James Harden in the 83rd (with a resume that speaks for itself). In order to avoid having the game spiral into a mixtape, the team is anchored by Harden&rsquo;s pick-and-roll mastery, Durant&rsquo;s catch-and-shoot willingness, and Irving&rsquo;s underrated cutting ability (a skill I hadn&rsquo;t really caught on to until seeing him so frequently off ball this season, at least in comparison to past years). All in all, once they find some roster stability -- and, in turn, cohesion -- expect Brooklyn to produce some pretty perfect offensive basketball. Considering their headlining talent, that may be an understatement.
WEAKNESSES
You don&rsquo;t need me to tell you that as is, the Nets can&rsquo;t guard a statue. At the moment, it seems that Durant is the best defender on the squad, which isn&rsquo;t a good sign; not because he&rsquo;s an incapable defender, far from it actually. Instead, it&rsquo;s because it doesn&rsquo;t maximize Durant as the versatile defender that he is. Despite the impressive post defense Harden has exhibited, a Harden and Kyrie backcourt can certainly score teams into submission, but the Nets need to supplement the lack of defensive engagement and savvy on the perimeter amongst the starters with some energy. With the abundance of top-end talent, the search should be quick. A couple of defensive wings (Iman Shumpert and Andre Roberson were recently brought in) and a more mobile big man behind DeAndre Jordan should be an easy fix, and it&rsquo;ll supply the team with countless lineup possibilities. No harm in bolstering the defense since no team is immune to the offensive droughts of the postseason, especially so as they&rsquo;ll come to face the league&rsquo;s best defensive squads.
Milwaukee Bucks
I&rsquo;m also a Giannis Antetokounmpo enthusiast. (If a player is in any way connected to mainland Africa, odds are I&rsquo;m enthused). Antetokounmpo&rsquo;s production this season has remained pretty consistent across the board in comparison to the previous one. The only difference, of course, has been the frequently-discussed roster moves orchestrated amidst an unexpectedly crazed offseason. The Bucks are back, still the "net rating kings" they&rsquo;ve been for the past few years. A dip in regular season wins was expected, seeing as how the team has been introducing Jrue Holiday into the fold -- an undeniable upgrade as the team&rsquo;s lead ball-handler.
STRENGTHS
So, Giannis is pretty great. The sky's the limit, so long as your best player is a driven athletic freak, oftentimes requiring opposing teams to alter the entirety of their defensive philosophy in order to reduce his efficiency ever so slightly. Attempting the fifth-most threes in the NBA (as well as coming at sixth in pace), the Bucks&rsquo; strengths, in my opinion, lay in the continuity of their system. They rely on the belief of their system, and this sort of familiarity in execution is in short supply within a league of frequent player movement and gimmicky experimentation. In addition to this philosophical confidence, we can&rsquo;t ignore the acquisition of Holiday. The Bucks were able to expand the skill set capabilities at the point guard position without compromising any of their defensive integrity in the process. That&rsquo;s worth celebrating. Holiday is in an environment where he&rsquo;s allowed to do what he does best; provide the Bucks with a versatile defensive wing and handle the rock with poise.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
WEAKNESSES
Milwaukee's biggest weakness is actually tied to that aforementioned strength. The continuity, chemistry and familiarity they&rsquo;ve fostered in their system is something opposing teams have come to know even more than fans have -- the same system that has seen consecutive eliminations in the postseason, both completed in historic fashion. The questions basketball fans wonder about -- when it comes to the validity of the Bucks philosophy in the vacuum of the playoffs -- are worthy of being asked. Perhaps the failure following ample oppositional threes (and burden of offensive production on a Giannis) is not the result of shooting abnormalities courtesy of Fred VanVleet or Duncan Robinson, but rather the result of a playstyle that doesn&rsquo;t hold up in a seven-game series. Who knows? What I do know is that I don&rsquo;t fault the Bucks' front office for taking another stab at it after replacing Eric Bledsoe (a recurring character in said postseason losses). The team&rsquo;s regular-season dominance is not an apparition, and it&rsquo;s totally within reason to try again.

Yasmin Duale digs into the trio of teams atop the East by analyzing each squad's best and worst qualities on the floor.

Strengths and weaknesses of the Eastern Conference's top-three teams

Everyone who loves the NBA looks forward to filling out an All-Star ballot, and this particular columnist waited until the day after Groundhog Day because the same old, same old does not cut it this season.
Yes, there are names on my ballot that are there year after year. That list begins with LeBron James, who is finally back in Los Angeles following a two-week road trip in which he drew inspiration from hecklers at two stops -- in Cleveland from an overzealous Cavs&rsquo; front-office employee, and in Atlanta from a woman whom he believes may have had more than a drop too much of alcohol.
This is a season unlike any other with all of the COVID-related restrictions and postponements, but the James Harden trade made January quite worthwhile, and we should expect a J.J. Redick move any day now as the Pelicans clearly look to go in another direction. His playoff experience will be valued by someone, as 20 teams (counting play-in games) are headed to the postseason. So stay tuned on that one.&nbsp;
Back to the ballot.&nbsp;
We shall start with the Western Conference. As has been the case for the past several seasons, voters are required to select two backcourt players and three frontcourt players &ndash; a nod to the positionless nature of the NBA in an era where the three-pointer is more valuable than ever. Just ask the Utah Jazz, who have three-balled their way into first place in the West. They only made nine last night in a victory over Detroit, but the Pistons do not require anyone&rsquo;s A-game on most nights.
So here we go... 
WESTERN CONFERENCE STARTERS
Damian Lillard, Portland Trail Blazers: "Dame Dolla" has let us all know that Hulu has live sports. So props to that smart TV service for latching on to the best player folks on the East Coast rarely get to see. We have been watching him bury 30-footers for so long now that he has surpassed Steph Curry as&nbsp; Player Most Likely To Hit From 38 Feet. Lillard is third in the NBA in scoring at 29.1 points per game, and his 11-9 team is the second-highest scoring team in the West despite the losses of CJ McCollum (fractured foot) and Jusuf Nurkic (fractured wrist). Lillard ranks eighth in the league in assists (7.2) and seventh in minutes per game (36). He also is making 94.7 percent of his free throws, only behind Jordan Clarkson, Chris Paul and Irving.
Donovan Mitchell, Utah Jazz: The temptation here is to give this spot to Steph Curry of the Golden State Warriors, who is fifth in the NBA in scoring. But Mitchell is the best player on the West&rsquo;s best team, leading Utah with 23.3 points per game on a three-point-centric team getting double-figure scoring from six players. We all saw when <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/nba-shaq-donovan-mitchell-shaquille-oneal-neal-utah-jazz-inside-tnt-turner-joe-ingles-rudy-gobert-mike-conley" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Shaquille O&rsquo;Neal interviewed Mitchell on TNT to produce one of the season&rsquo;s most uncomfortable moments</a>, and we should expect the Jazz to continue to feed off that disrespect. They own the longest winning streak in the NBA this season at 11 games, and their 285 threes in January marked the most in a single month in NBA history. Mitchell has reached 600 career three-pointers faster than any player in NBA history...including Steph.
<img style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="https://basketballnews-media.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/images/story/body/usatsi_15516353-1_lg.jpg" alt="" width="860" height="AUTO" />
LeBron James, Los Angeles Lakers: He never ages, does he? Some of his stats are down just a little from last season (most noticeably his assists) but the guy is making threes at a career-best 40.9 percent clip, and nobody has advocated more vociferously for allowing fans back into the arenas, something we are seeing more and more teams do. The Lakers have played only eight home games as opposed to 14 road games, and 11 of their next 14 will be at Staples Center. Remember last February and March when LeBron was starting to make a run at Giannis Antetokounmpo for MVP consideration before the pandemic shut down the season? Well, he is currently the 7-2 favorite for the award, just ahead of Nikola Jokic, Luka Doncic, Joel Embiid and Kevin Durant. (Why the books have Lillard at 25-1 is perplexing.) Just as he never ages, it never gets old watching LeBron.
Kawhi Leonard, Los Angeles Clippers: He will never win any Most Quotatious awards, but his game does his talking, and he is at 26.3 points per game while also flirting with a 50-40-90 season. The Clippers are just a half-game out of first place in the West, and Leonard has played in 18 of 22 games as Ty Lue seems to be weaning the team&rsquo;s two superstars away from the load management that robbed them of team chemistry a year ago; they have used just seven different starting lineups after using 33 a season ago, and of Leonard&rsquo;s four missed games, two were for COVID protocols and two were for a mouth laceration. The Clippers lead the NBA in three-point shooting, with Kawhi hitting them at a 39.8 percent clip, his best in five years. He also is third in the NBA in steals, and get this: Leonard is the winningest player in NBA regular-season history with a 407-135 (.751) record.&nbsp;
Nikola Jokic, Denver Nuggets: The Joker went for 22 in the first quarter against the Jazz on Sunday and finished with a career-high 47points, and he is fifth in the NBA in assists at 8.6 per game. To put that in perspective, just behind him in the league-leader rankings are Ben Simmons, LeBron, Lillard, Kyle Lowry and Malcolm Brogdon. Slimmed down significantly after recovering from COVID-19, Jokic is the NBA&rsquo;s only player in the Top 10 in points, rebounds and assists, plus he is 11th in field goal percentage and 13th in minutes played a night -- a career-high 35.8. He also is averaging career-highs in field-goal percentage, rebounds, assists and steals. Jokic is currently on a streak of 11 straight games with at least 20 points, too. 
West Reserves: Luka Doncic, Mavericks; Steph Curry, Warriors; Paul George, Clippers; Anthony Davis, Lakers; Rudy Gobert, Jazz; Deandre Ayton, Suns; Devin Booker, Suns.
West's Left Out: Christian Wood, Rockets; De&rsquo;Aaron Fox, Kings; Zion Williamson, Pelicans; Brandon Ingram, Pelicans; DeMar DeRozan, Spurs; Ja Morant, Grizzlies. 
EASTERN CONFERENCE STARTERS
Bradley Beal, Washington Wizards: Good to hear that he is <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/nba-washington-wizards-bradley-beal-wont-be-on-trading-block-in-near-future-trade-rumors" target="_blank" rel="noopener">not requesting a trade</a>, which is what general manager Tommy Sheppard has been telling everyone who has asked for the past two seasons. The news that Beal is NOT seeking a trade is not really news. Beal is leading the NBA in scoring at 35.0 per game, which is 4.2 points higher than his closest pursuer. He failed to reach 30 points in just two of the Wizards&rsquo; 10 games in January, and last night he went for 37 in his second consecutive game. It's a no-brainer pick despite his team having the league&rsquo;s worst record. His scoring average is up 4.5 points from last season, when it was up 4.9 points from the previous season.&nbsp;
<img style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="https://basketballnews-media.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/images/story/body/usatsi_15411561-1_lg.jpg" alt="" width="860" height="AUTO" />
Jaylen Brown, Boston Celtics:&nbsp; This pick was not as easy, because despite his prolonged absence for personal reasons, Kyrie Irving may be the most talented point guard in the entire Eastern Conference (the dude went for 39 against the Clippers last night on 15-for-29 shooting, a season-high, and is well on pace for a 50-40-90 season). But Brown has produced more consistently for the Celtics without any of the Kyrie-esque drama that we all endured a couple of weeks ago. His 18-point game against Golden State last night tied his season-low, but he is at 26.6 points per game for the Celtics while shooting nearly 53 percent. Brown has played in all 19 games and is averaging career-highs in points, assists, blocks, steals and all three shooting categories.
Kevin Durant, Brooklyn Nets: With all due respect to Irving and Harden, the Nets are KD&rsquo;s team. He is averaging 30.8 points per game and is flirting with a 50-40-90 season himself, and his perseverance in pushing Sean Marks to make the Harden trade cannot be understated. Yes, the Nets are all-in on offense and still have to find an interior rotation defender (Iman Shumpert is not going to be that guy). But they are now the NBA&rsquo;s only team with a Big Three, and Durant has been remarkably efficient from the field. His 11-for-13 night against the Clippers marked the 10th time in 17 games that he has been well-above 50 percent from the field.
Joel Embiid, Philadelphia 76ers: We would prefer it if he dropped all references to The Process, which is sooooo Sam Hinkie. The Sixers are 14-2 with Embiid and 1-4 without him, and he has dropped 33 or more points in five of his last seven games. The seven-footer from Cameroon is a 41 percent 3-point shooter, more than three percentage points better than Nikola Jokic. Also, he has attempted the second-most total free throws (152) despite missing five games, and he is making them at a career-best 84 percent clip. If he can keep this up, he is going to be very much in the MVP conversation, which bettors in South Jersey and Pennsylvania have been wagering on quite heavily. He may drop 50 on Cody Zeller tonight.
Giannis Antetokounmpo, Milwaukee Bucks: The reigning two-time MVP is still a thrill to watch every time he takes the court, and tonight&rsquo;s game against the Indiana Pacers will be a test for the Bucks. It's too bad that we might not see Giannis test the <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/nba-myles-turner-outblocking-entire-teams-goal-all-defensive-first-team-dpoy-honors-blocks-steals-defense-nate-bjorkgren-scheme-indiana-pacers" target="_blank" rel="noopener">shot-blocking prowess of Myles Turner</a>, who is questionable with a shoulder injury. We all get to watch that game on ESPN, which is nice because the Pacers &ndash; like the Utah Jazz &ndash; are not on national TV enough given the relative strengths of their teams. The Greek Freak is in the MVP conversation, but not dominating it as he did the past two seasons, perhaps because his turnovers are at a career-worst pace and his free-throw percentage (59.3) is at a career-low. But Giannis has shot below 50 percent just once in his past 13 games, and he is tied for sixth in scoring and is 10th in rebounding.&nbsp;
East Reserves: Kyrie Irving, Nets; James Harden, Nets; Domantas Sabonis, Pacers; Trae Young, Hawks, Nikola Vucevic, Magic; Jayson Tatum, Celtics; Zach LaVine, Bulls.
East's Left Out: Julius Randle, Knicks; Collin Sexton, Cavs;&nbsp; Gordon Hayward, Hornets; Fred VanVleet, Raptors; Russell Westbrook, Wizards; Malcolm Brogdon, Pacers.

Chris Sheridan selects his 2021 NBA All-Star starters and reserves for the Eastern Conference and Western Conference.

Sheridan's 2021 NBA All-Star starters: Beal over Irving, Mitchell over Doncic

Free agent wing Iman Shumpert is finalizing a deal to return to the Brooklyn Nets.
Source: <a href="https://twitter.com/ShamsCharania/status/1355664101515665410" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Shams Charania/Twitter</a>
ANALYSIS:&nbsp;Shumpert played 13 games with Brooklyn in 2019-20, averaging 4.2 points and 2.6 rebounds off the bench for the Nets. He brings some veteran experience and tough-nosed defense to a Nets squad with the 23rd-ranked defensive rating in basketball. According to Charania, Brooklyn had to sign a player today to meet the minimum 14-player roster size requirement.&nbsp;

Shumpert played in 13 games with the Nets last season.

Iman Shumpert finalizing deal with Brooklyn Nets

When a team hits the reset button, there is no singular goal.&nbsp;
The obvious focal point is development, as their young talent gains invaluable experience on the floor against legitimate professional competition and an unfamiliar roster jells with one another. Wins are few and far between usually because of it, which means it&rsquo;ll more-than-likely take a bit of time to build winning habits back up and get back into (or stay in) the postseason hunt.&nbsp;
Unlike many teams after moving on from (multiple) star players, the Los Angeles Clippers didn&rsquo;t really have to go through a rebuild; the franchise simply retooled. First, in the summer of 2017, they shockingly traded Chris Paul to the Houston Rockets for seven players, including Lou Williams, Montrezl Harrell and Patrick Beverley. Then, they brought in Danilo Gallinari from the Denver Nuggets. Finally, before the following season&rsquo;s trade deadline, LA dealt Blake Griffin to the Detroit Pistons for Tobias Harris, Boban Marjanovic and Avery Bradley.
Just like that, Lob City was out and a new breed was in. Under the same coaching staff led by Doc Rivers, 2017-18 and 2018-19 saw perhaps the most enjoyable year-and-a-half of Clipper basketball than we&rsquo;d seen in quite some time. Guys were just on the same page. Williams enjoyed All-Star-caliber efforts as the league&rsquo;s best sixth man. Harris and Gallinari put together the best scoring campaigns of their respective careers. Harrell broke out as a ferocious competitor who only needed an opportunity, and Beverley set the tone as far as the culture. Not to mention, they had a then-blossoming rookie in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander who was impressing in all facets with his mature skill set. It was all clicking.
But with a star-studded free-agent class then on their minds, the Clippers began to change things around in the middle of that 2018-19 season. Tobias Harris was in a contract year and expected to be paid for the best year of his career (did he EVER), so the team traded him, Marjanovic and Mike Scott to the Philadelphia 76ers for Landry Shamet, Wilson Chandler and Mike Muscala.&nbsp;
That would be the first of many dominoes to fall in LA. With plenty of roster room and cap space, Jerry West and Lawrence Frank went to work by signing reigning NBA Finals MVP Kawhi Leonard and acquiring an All-Star in Paul George to pair with him. They had to part ways with Gilgeous-Alexander, Gallinari and an unheard-of amount of first-rounders to acquire George (and land the package deal), completely mortgaging any kind of future they had; but to their credit, the job got done to give Steve Ballmer&rsquo;s ball club a win-now, championship roster&hellip; on paper.
<img src="https://basketballnews-media.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/images/story/body/kh_lg.jpg" alt="" width="798" height="AUTO" />
Pick things up on Dec. 3, 2020 -- that joyous, tight-knit Clipper group seems like a distant memory. The team parted ways with Rivers and will continue his career in Philadelphia, while his lead assistant and 2016 NBA champion head coach Tyronn Lue will take over the reins of a reportedly divided bunch. Harrell hopped to the other locker room and will play at Staples Center in a Los Angeles Lakers uniform. JaMychal Green jumped at the opportunity to sign with the Denver Nuggets, who stormed back from a 3-1 playoff deficit to defeat the Clippers just a few months ago, citing that their heart made it an easy decision to choose them over his former team. The Athletic&rsquo;s Jovan Buha wrote<a href="https://theathletic.com/2222210/2020/12/02/kawhi-clippers-chemistry-nba-title/?source=user-shared-article&amp;redirected=1"> an article</a> about how the Clippers&rsquo; culture eroded due to preferential treatment that Leonard and George received (such as letting them determine the practice schedule and when to sit out games, giving them personal security and trainers, etc.).
It all seems like a mess in Clipperland right now, and by no means is the story over with; Year 1 rarely goes swimmingly when a team of stars links up for the first time, and I firmly believe they&rsquo;re going to be better this upcoming year. However, when considering what happened to the Clippers, is it possible we could see a similar situation arise with the Brooklyn Nets?
Hear me out.&nbsp;
We all know how awful it got for the Nets after the early 2010s. Aside from late-round firsts and seconds they would acquire later, there was no path to a rebuild once the post-Boston Celtics holdover era was over because every draft pick was essentially out of the picture. It was damn near impossible for the Nets to not only bring in NBA talent, but also develop their own since there wasn&rsquo;t a whole lot of promise outside of Brook Lopez, Joe Johnson and Deron Williams (Lopez lasted the longest and was gone after the 2016-17 campaign). For a significant period of time, Brooklyn&rsquo;s roster was filled with journeymen, cast-offs and undrafted young guys. They simply had no chance.
Until head coach Kenny Atkinson came along.&nbsp;
Then-newly-acting general manager Sean Marks found a way to bring in some fresh faces without draft capital to help Atkinson as much as he could in the 2016 offseason.
In exchange for Thaddeus Young, Brooklyn got a rookie Caris LeVert back from the Indiana Pacers. The franchise took a shot by signing Joe Harris (who had played just 56 total games) to a multi-year contract. Trevor Booker was a well-respected veteran who brought toughness to the locker room. In December of that season, the Nets brought in a recently-waived Spencer Dinwiddie, who hadn&rsquo;t been able to stick with the Detroit Pistons or Chicago Bulls.&nbsp;
That set the foundation for the next offseason, when they traded for D&rsquo;Angelo Russell and Timofey Mozgov on draft night, ending Lopez&rsquo;s career in Brooklyn and sending Kyle Kuzma with him to the Los Angeles Lakers; the team also selected Jarrett Allen at No. 22 in 2017 with a pick that used to belong to the Washington Wizards. DeMarre Carroll was acquired from the Toronto Raptors to provide leadership and a steady presence on both ends of the floor; Allen Crabbe came aboard via a separate trade with the Portland Trail Blazers soon after.&nbsp;
Regardless of the talent on the roster, Atkinson always got the most out of his squad. While you can look at the Nets&rsquo; record over his first two seasons with a perplexed expression as much as you want to (48-116), those players bought into what he was selling. They were playing hard, they were playing tough and they were playing together.
Like the Clippers, maybe the most fun seasons we saw in Brooklyn happened almost organically in 2017-18 and 2018-19. Russell ascended to All-Star heights and consistently ignited Barclays Center, firing off clutch shot after clutch shot and taking a major step with his vision. Harris took a massive leap, becoming the NBA&rsquo;s top three-point shooter in the second year of his contract. Dinwiddie exploded onto the scene with his aggressiveness as the Nets&rsquo; second-highest scorer. LeVert showed us flashes of brilliance before (and after) his foot was dislocated. Allen wowed the world with his hops and refusal to let the opposition score in the paint. Treveon Graham earned playing time with his hustle and commitment on the defensive end of the floor. Unsung heroes like Carroll, Crabbe, Shabazz Napier, Ed Davis and Jared Dudley (acquired from the Phoenix Suns in the summer of 2018) really set a great example for the team to follow. Brooklyn made it to the postseason that second year, which was the culmination of a long road back.
When I thought of the Nets, I didn&rsquo;t think of a team that tanked its way back to relevancy; I thought of a team that kept digging itself out of a never-ending hole and refused to falter -- regardless of the position it was originally left in. But things changed in the blink of an eye when the 2019 offseason came about.
<img src="https://basketballnews-media.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/images/story/body/kyrie2_lg.jpg" alt="" width="794" height="AUTO" />
With the team environment and outlook revamped -- and plenty of cap space to boot -- Brooklyn struck gold, landing Kyrie Irving as a free agent and Kevin Durant in a sign-and-trade with the Golden State Warriors (Russell, Napier and Graham went back in the deal). They added DeAndre Jordan as well. They also acquired Taurean Prince from the Atlanta Hawks for Crabbe and then-rookie Nickeil Alexander-Walker (who was flipped to the New Orleans Pelicans). In came more veterans at small prices afterward: Wilson Chandler, Garrett Temple, Lance Thomas and Iman Shumpert a few weeks into the season.
The team at its core was completely altered, unarguably for the better from a talent standpoint -- however, a far cry from what Atkinson was used to and a whole lot more pressure, despite Durant&rsquo;s Achilles injury keeping him out for all of last season. He still had Irving (albeit a banged up one) who only played 20 games in his debut campaign with the Nets. But true to his nature, Atkinson trudged along with the newer pieces, trying to make it work; it just didn&rsquo;t. On March 7, Marks announced that Atkinson had mutually agreed to part ways with the team.&nbsp;
Now, on Dec. 3, the Nets have brand-new leadership in the building. Steve Nash, a respected Hall-of-Fame player and basketball mind, is going to take hold of a roster full of high expectations. He&rsquo;ll have his former Suns coach Mike D&rsquo;Antoni and teammate Amar&rsquo;e Stoudemire with him to help the transition, as well as long-time NBA assistants Ime Udoka and Jacque Vaughn (who coached the team at the end of last season).
With a recovered Durant and a fresh Irving, there shouldn&rsquo;t be any major issues with the roster; it&rsquo;s literally built to win. For all intents and purposes, this Brooklyn team has a good mix of veteran specialists and up-and-coming players and big-named staff&hellip; on paper. We get so excited about these colossal transactions because it&rsquo;s like a video game, where you can pair up your favorite superstars with each other and stack a bunch of 90-overall guys. It works in a simulation scenario every time, but in reality you have to factor in chemistry and personal relationships, and that takes a while to establish. This isn&rsquo;t to say it can&rsquo;t work (look what the new-look L.A. Lakers and Miami Heat were able to do in Year 1 last season); this very well could be the next great team in the league in due time. But the Nets should take heed because those Clippers were in almost this same exact spot last year.
Which brings me to my point: I know you&rsquo;re supposed to cash-in on assets and young guys can only get you so far in this league. You&rsquo;re in this business to win championships and put fans in the stands. It&rsquo;s run by stars who make the show worthwhile on the court. With that, though, comes sacrifice, right or wrong; it can range anywhere from accepting lesser roles to destroying what you built to get there to handling stars who want preferential treatment.
Should Jarrett Allen be coming off the bench for DeAndre Jordan? All due respect to DJ, who&rsquo;s paid his dues, but no -- not at the expense of an athletic, developing big man who could start for literally any team in this league. But Allen knows what&rsquo;s coming because of where the team is at now.
You&rsquo;re probably thinking, &ldquo;Who cares how Allen feels? He&rsquo;s not a star,&rdquo; and you&rsquo;re correct with the second statement.&nbsp;
My gripe is with the first question, one that most franchises forget to ask when they enter the spotlight with their big acquisitions -- leaving behind the players who got them there.

The Clippers' culture attracted Kawhi Leonard and Paul George to LA but their arrival ultimately changed things. The Nets should take heed.

The Nets should tread carefully, learn from Clippers’ mistakes

Entering this season, the Los Angeles Clippers were considered the favorites to hoist the Larry O'Brien trophy. They were deemed the winners of the offseason after signing Kawhi Leonard and trading for Paul George, while bringing back many of their key contributors from the year before. Then, they continued to improve with midseason acquisitions like Marcus Morris and Reggie Jackson.
However, being stacked on paper didn&rsquo;t translate to postseason success for the Clippers, who were eliminated by the Denver Nuggets on Tuesday night. The Clippers were up 3-1 over the Nuggets and seemed poised to make the Western Conference Finals for the first time in franchise history, but they ultimately lost Game 7, 104-89.
There were <a href="https://theathletic.com/1557316/2020/01/23/chemistry-setting-behind-the-scenes-of-kawhi-leonard-and-the-clippers-merging-culture/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reports</a> throughout the season that the Clippers were struggling to develop chemistry and having some issues behind the scenes. While the players and coaches <a href="https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2872930-patrick-beverley-calls-rumors-of-clippers-chemistry-issues-fake-fake-fake-news" target="_blank" rel="noopener">shot</a> <a href="https://clutchpoints.com/clippers-news-lou-williams-laughs-off-rumored-chemistry-issues/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">down</a> those reports during the year, they seemed to confirm them after the Game 7 loss.
"We came up short. We did have championship expectations," Lou Williams said. "We had the talent to do it. We didn't have the chemistry to do it and it showed."
"Internally, we've always felt this isn't a championship-or-bust year for us," Paul George <a href="https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2909353-excuses-abound-after-clippers-historic-playoff-collapse-vs-nuggets" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a>. "We didn't have enough time together&hellip; Year one together, [our] first run together, of course we wanted to win this. But we&rsquo;ve been very optimistic about us being together and building something going down the road.&rdquo;
Clippers head coach Doc Rivers believes that the Nuggets&rsquo; continuity and chemistry gave them an advantage and helped them pull off this upset.
&ldquo;Honestly, you could just see the difference in the two teams. That team&rsquo;s been together. We haven&rsquo;t,&rdquo; Rivers <a href="https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2909353-excuses-abound-after-clippers-historic-playoff-collapse-vs-nuggets" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a>. &ldquo;And you could see it as the games went on.&rdquo;
&ldquo;We can&rsquo;t even say we want to change our roster; we like what we got,&rdquo; George <a href="https://larrybrownsports.com/basketball/lou-williams-paul-george-point-to-clippers-chemistry-as-problem/563686" target="_blank" rel="noopener">added</a>. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve been saying it all year - just chemistry, being together... The more we&rsquo;re together, the better we will be. It&rsquo;s year one. Year one. We&rsquo;ve got a lot to reflect on.&rdquo;
Where do the Clippers go from here?&nbsp;
While it&rsquo;s possible that Los Angeles just needs more time together, it remains to be seen what this team will look like next season. The Clippers currently have $109,039,053 in guaranteed salaries on their books for next year, and that number could be $116,737,394 (if JaMychal Green opts in and Joakim Noah&rsquo;s $2,692,991 salary for 2020-21 becomes guaranteed).
L.A. has several players hitting unrestricted free agency this offseason including Montrezl Harrell, Marcus Morris, Reggie Jackson and Patrick Patterson. Green&rsquo;s player option is worth $5,005,350 and he could also become an unrestricted free agent if he opts out.&nbsp;
Harrell won the NBA&rsquo;s Sixth Man of the Year award and he's helped his stock tremendously with his play over the last two years. After averaging 18.6 points, 7.1 rebounds and 1.1 blocks while shooting 58 percent from the field, he's expected to generate a lot of interest from teams. In a free-agent class that&rsquo;s widely regarded as mediocre, the 26-year-old will be one of the top players available (especially <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/ranking-top-10-nba-free-agent-centers-2020" target="_blank" rel="noopener">at his position</a>).
<img src="https://basketballnews-media.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/images/story/body/Harrell_lg.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="AUTO" />
Morris should also be highly coveted. He started this season with the New York Knicks and played some of the best basketball of his career, averaging 19.6 points, 5.4 rebounds and 2.7 threes (on 43.9 percent shooting). When the Knicks shopped him prior to the trade deadline, multiple contenders reportedly pursued him (including the Los Angeles Lakers) before he joined the Clippers. While his numbers came back down to Earth in L.A. (particularly his three-point shooting), he can help most teams with his toughness and two-way production.
The Clippers are <a href="https://theathletic.com/1636284/2020/02/26/analyzing-the-questions-the-clippers-will-face-in-the-2020-offseason/?source=shared-article">reportedly</a> interested in re-signing Harrell and Morris, but the team is over the cap even before agreeing to deals with either player. The NBA salary cap for the 2019-20 season was set at $109.1 million. Given how the pandemic has impacted the NBA&rsquo;s revenue (plus the early-season controversy with China), it&rsquo;s unclear how the NBA will adjust the 2020-21 salary cap. It could remain at $109.1 million next season, or it could even decrease a bit.
Steve Ballmer has been very aggressive since purchasing the franchise, so paying the luxury tax shouldn&rsquo;t be a concern. Still, keeping this team together won&rsquo;t be cheap. As HoopsHype <a href="https://hoopshype.com/2020/03/16/los-angeles-clippers-their-salary-cap-situation-right-now/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">recently noted</a>, if the Clippers decide to re-sign Harrell and Morris, their combined payroll and luxury-tax payment could be close to $200 million.&nbsp;
Here&rsquo;s the problem for the Clippers: If they don&rsquo;t re-sign Harrell or Morris, it will be very difficult to find a replacement given their cap situation. If Harrell signs elsewhere, it&rsquo;s not like they can just go sign another free agent for the same amount they offered him. They have Harrell&rsquo;s Bird rights, so they&rsquo;re able to go over the cap to re-sign him. And they have Morris' non-Bird rights, meaning they can pay him 120 percent of his previous salary (so they can offer $18,000,000 annually). For any other free agents, the most that the Clippers have to offer is the mid-level exception since they are over the cap.
The Clippers will either have the standard MLE (which is worth approximately $9,755,000) or the taxpayer MLE (which is worth approximately $6,025,000), depending on what happens with Harrell and Morris. The players who would be available to the Clippers for either MLE likely wouldn&rsquo;t replicate Harrell or Morris&rsquo; production. L.A. would be searching for bargains and hoping that veteran would be willing to take a discount in order to compete for a championship and play in Los Angeles, but there would be a clear drop-off in talent from Harrell or Morris.
This is the same situation that the Cleveland Cavaliers <a href="https://www.sportingnews.com/us/nba/news/tristan-thompson-contract-82-million-cavaliers-cleveland/1f21eaapw3eho14uycqtctp96f" target="_blank" rel="noopener">found themselves in</a> back in 2015 when they had championship expectations but very little cap flexibility. They had no cap space, so they focused on re-signing Tristan Thompson, J.R. Smith and Iman Shumpert among others because replacing those players through free agency was impossible. Basically, their options were to re-sign their own players using their Bird rights or let those key contributors walk and try to replace them with veteran-minimum players. Because they were trying to build a championship contender around LeBron James, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love, they re-signed their role players (even though it was very expensive) and the team ultimately hoisted the Larry O&rsquo;Brien trophy in 2016.
In addition to the Clippers&rsquo; cap restrictions, they have limited draft capital as well (which could make it tough for them to improve their roster through trades too). L.A. doesn&rsquo;t have a first-round pick in the 2020 NBA Draft because they traded it to the Knicks for Morris. They have a 2021 first-rounder, but they can't trade it due to the Stepien Rule (which blocks teams from trading their first-round pick in consecutive years). In order to acquire George, the Clippers dealt five first-round picks (MIA's 2021 unprotected first, LAC's 2022 unprotected first, MIA's 2023 lottery-protected first, LAC's 2024 unprotected first and LAC's 2026 unprotected first) as well as the right for the Oklahoma City Thunder to swap first-round picks with them in 2023 and 2025.
When the Clippers decided to add George and Leonard, they went all-in on this current group of players. They sacrificed their future and long-term flexibility to build a star-studded team that could potentially win them their first championship in franchise history. They knew that this experiment would be expensive and restrict them going forward, but they decided to swing for the fences anyway. If the Clippers win their first-ever title, this will all be worth it.&nbsp;
But if the team continues to struggle and fails to live up to expectations, it could be very hard for the Clippers to dig their way out of this hole. What makes this even scarier for the Clippers is that Leonard and George only have one more guaranteed year on their contracts (and then they have player options for 2021-22).&nbsp;
Given the Clippers&rsquo; financial situation and draft capital, their best option is likely to re-sign their own free agents, run it back and hope that this current group does just need more time together to develop chemistry and realize its full potential.

After losing to the Nuggets in the playoffs, where do the Clippers go from here? Alex Kennedy breaks down their offseason options.