Fighting Irish

With just days left until the 2024-25 NBA season tips off, the Eastern Conference teams are settled, prepped, and ready for action. The offseason moves are done, rosters are set, and almost everyone&rsquo;s locked in for what&rsquo;s shaping up to be an intense race. From title contenders to dark horses, the East is packed with teams ready to make noise. So, let&rsquo;s dive into the top 15 teams in the East as we gear up for this brand-new season&mdash;no fluff, just what you need to know.
<ol>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">New York Knicks The Knicks made significant moves this offseason, adding Karl-Anthony Towns and Mikal Bridges while retaining key pieces like Jalen Brunson and OG Anunoby. With depth, defense, and firepower, they look primed for a deep playoff run. After a 50-win season in 2023-24, they now have realistic championship aspirations and could be the biggest threat to the Celtics in the East.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Boston Celtics The defending champions kept their core intact, extending Jayson Tatum and Derrick White. With Tatum, Jaylen Brown, and Jrue Holiday leading a formidable lineup, the Celtics are aiming to repeat as NBA champions. Despite concerns about Al Horford&rsquo;s age and frontcourt health, Boston remains the favorite heading into the 2024-25 season.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Milwaukee Bucks The Bucks didn&rsquo;t make major changes but added depth with Gary Trent Jr., Taurean Prince, and Delon Wright. After an injury-plagued season from Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard, Milwaukee looks to bounce back under returning head coach Doc Rivers. With questions surrounding Lillard&rsquo;s form and Middleton&rsquo;s durability, the Bucks remain playoff contenders, but how far they go will depend on health and chemistry.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Philadelphia 76ers The 76ers had a big offseason, adding Paul George, Andre Drummond, and Caleb Martin to support Joel Embiid and Tyrese Maxey. Maxey&rsquo;s rise as a star solidifies Philly&rsquo;s title hopes, and Embiid&rsquo;s MVP-level play is crucial for their success. With an improved supporting cast, the Sixers could be serious challengers in the East, but Embiid&rsquo;s health remains the key.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Cleveland Cavaliers After a solid 48-win season, the Cavs focused on continuity by keeping their core of Donovan Mitchell, Evan Mobley, and Jarrett Allen. New coach Kenny Atkinson brings fresh leadership, and Cleveland hopes to build on last season&rsquo;s playoff run. With a healthier roster and improved coaching, the Cavs could reach 50 wins and challenge the top teams in the East.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Indiana Pacers The Pacers had a quiet offseason but retained Pascal Siakam and made a key addition in James Wiseman. Tyrese Haliburton&rsquo;s breakout season makes Indiana a team to watch, and they&rsquo;re looking to build on their deep playoff run. With improved chemistry and young talent, Indiana could surprise as a top-five team in the East.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Orlando Magic The Magic are banking on internal growth, led by Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner. After winning 47 games and making the playoffs last season, they added veteran Kentavious Caldwell-Pope for shooting and leadership. With a young core developing, Orlando could win 50 games if they continue their upward trend and improve their perimeter shooting.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Miami Heat The Heat had a quiet offseason, adding Alec Burks while re-signing key players like Bam Adebayo. With Jimmy Butler&rsquo;s future uncertain and health concerns for both Butler and Tyler Herro, Miami could face challenges in a competitive Eastern Conference. However, Adebayo&rsquo;s All-NBA-level play will keep them in the playoff hunt.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Atlanta Hawks The Hawks overhauled their roster after a disappointing 36-46 season, headlined by trading Dejounte Murray and acquiring the No. 1 pick, Zaccharie Risacher. With Trae Young remaining the focal point, the Hawks are banking on Risacher&rsquo;s development and contributions from new additions like Larry Nance Jr. and Dyson Daniels. This team looks poised to contend for a Play-In spot but lacks the co-star power needed for a deep playoff run.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Charlotte Hornets The Hornets enter the season with fresh energy, thanks to the hiring of new coach Charles Lee and the re-signing of Miles Bridges. With LaMelo Ball back healthy and Brandon Miller continuing to impress after an All-Rookie season, Charlotte&rsquo;s young core could surprise many. If Ball stays on the floor and their youth develops quickly, the Hornets might find themselves contending for a Play-In spot and shaking off years of underachievement.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Detroit Pistons The Pistons are looking to turn the page on a tough 2023-24 season and have made moves to fast-track their rebuild. With Cade Cunningham healthy, new leadership under J.B. Bickerstaff, and rookie Ron Holland adding spark, Detroit could outperform expectations. If Cunningham returns to form and the team gels quickly, don&rsquo;t be surprised if the Pistons emerge as a dark horse in the East.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Toronto Raptors The Raptors are in transition, keeping their young core of Scottie Barnes, RJ Barrett, and Immanuel Quickley intact. After a poor finish to last season, Toronto is betting on Barnes&rsquo; continued growth and the addition of Davion Mitchell to improve their fortunes. While their ceiling might be a Play-In appearance, the Raptors are hoping their trio can take a big step forward.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Chicago Bulls The Bulls traded DeMar DeRozan and Alex Caruso, adding Josh Giddey and Jalen Smith to the mix. Zach LaVine&rsquo;s injury history remains a concern, but the Bulls are counting on Coby White&rsquo;s emergence and the potential of lottery pick Matas Buzelis. Chicago is likely to be a competitive team some nights, but they may struggle to rise above the Play-In threshold.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Brooklyn Nets The Nets are entering a rebuild after trading Mikal Bridges and Lonnie Walker. With a young roster led by Nic Claxton and Cam Thomas, Brooklyn&rsquo;s focus is on player development. Ben Simmons remains a question mark, but the team&rsquo;s recent moves set them up for future success with significant draft assets. A playoff berth seems unlikely as they look to position themselves for a high draft pick.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Washington Wizards The Wizards continue their rebuild with the addition of Alex Sarr, the No. 2 overall pick. With Malcolm Brogdon and Saddiq Bey joining the squad, Washington hopes to see growth from young talents like Bilal Coulibaly. However, they&rsquo;re still far from playoff contention and will likely be looking at another lottery-bound season.</li>
</ol>

Let's dive into the top 15 teams in the East as we gear up for this brand-new season.

2024-2025 NBA Eastern Conference Power Rankings: A new number one arises at the top

A parade awaits in San Francisco to celebrate the champion Golden State Warriors. The NBA draft is a few days away, with presumed top-three picks Jabari Smith, Chet Holmgren and Paolo Banchero set to take their first steps toward realizing their enormous potential. Free agency starts in less than two weeks.
The 2021-22 NBA season is over.
The 2022-23 NBA season seems like it&rsquo;s already here.
The Warriors are back on the NBA mountaintop. Their win over the Boston Celtics in this season&rsquo;s finals capped the league&rsquo;s 75th anniversary celebration and ushered in an offseason that will, as always, start with tons of attention on player movement &mdash; or, in some cases, players not moving.
Two-time reigning MVP Nikola Jokic is eligible to receive a $260 million supermax extension from the Denver Nuggets; it&rsquo;s basically a sure thing that it&rsquo;ll be offered and accepted. Phoenix&rsquo;s Devin Booker and Minnesota&rsquo;s Karl-Anthony Towns are in line for $210 million extensions, neither of which will be surprises either.
Then there&rsquo;s the class of younger players in line to secure their first post-rookie-contract paydays: Memphis&rsquo; Ja Morant, Miami&rsquo;s Tyler Herro, New York&rsquo;s R.J. Barrett and Cleveland&rsquo;s Darius Garland are just some of the names in that group. So, too, is New Orleans&rsquo; Zion Williamson, which will be an interesting case since he has been healthy enough to play in only 85 games over his first three pro seasons and is constantly questioned about his conditioning.
Zach LaVine, who is expected to remain with the Chicago Bulls, headlines the class of unrestricted free agents. Kyrie Irving, James Harden, Russell Westbrook and Bradley Beal all have player options for next season, all of them worth between $34 million and $43 million.
And then there&rsquo;s LeBron James, about to enter his 20th season &mdash; likely the one where he&rsquo;ll catch Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and become the NBA&rsquo;s all-time scoring leader &mdash; and soon to be eligible for a two-year extension with the Los Angeles Lakers that&rsquo;ll be worth nearly $100 million for the 2023-24 and 2024-25 seasons.
&ldquo;When we get to that point, we&rsquo;ll see,&rdquo; James said when the Lakers&rsquo; season ended.
That point isn&rsquo;t here yet. But it&rsquo;s coming.
THE FAVORITES
<a href="https://sportsbook.fanduel.com/navigation/nba">According to FanDuel Sportsbook,</a> the Warriors are the favorites to win the 2023 title &mdash; just ahead of the Celtics.
Brooklyn is the third choice in odds posted immediately after Game 6 of this year&rsquo;s finals ended, followed by Milwaukee and the Los Angeles Clippers &mdash; who get Kawhi Leonard back next season. Phoenix, Miami, Philadelphia, Memphis and Dallas round out the top 10 in the odds posted by FanDuel.
Of course, take any prediction right now with a grain of salt.
When last season ended Brooklyn was the runaway favorite to win the 2022 NBA title. The Nets didn&rsquo;t win a playoff game, getting swept by the Celtics in Round 1.
The second choice by sportsbooks after last season was the Los Angeles Lakers. They didn&rsquo;t even make the playoffs and struggled by almost all possible measures.
For the record, the Warriors had top-five odds of winning this year&rsquo;s title by most oddsmakers when last season ended at around 12-1. The Celtics were in the middle of the pack, at around 40-1.
SUMMER LEAGUE
All 30 teams will be in Las Vegas from July 7-17 for the NBA Summer League, which &mdash; before the pandemic slowed momentum &mdash; was routinely drawing big crowds, and the belief is it&rsquo;ll get back to that again this summer.
There are two other smaller events, hosted by the Warriors and the Utah Jazz, before the Vegas league.
RULE CHANGE
Farewell, take foul.
It&rsquo;s expected that at league meetings in Las Vegas next month that owners will approve a new way of adjudicating the oft-maligned &ldquo;transition take foul&rdquo; and bring stiffer penalties to such plays starting next season.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver told The Associated Press earlier this month that he&rsquo;s confident the change will be made. It&rsquo;s a topic that the NBA and its competition committee have been studying for several seasons.
The way such fouls have been officiated in the G League since 2018 is this: When a defender commits a take foul, which is one where no play on the ball is made but doesn&rsquo;t rise to the level of a clear path foul, the fouled team retains possession and gets one free throw before play resumes. The clear path foul results in two shots and the ball.
COACHING SEARCH
The only team without a head coach right now is the Utah Jazz, who have asked permission to interview several assistants from around the league.
Charlotte, officially, has not yet confirmed the hiring of Golden State assistant Kenny Atkinson as its new coach &mdash; but that deal will be announced now at any time. He&rsquo;s one of two Warriors assistants that are leaving the champions, with Mike Brown departing to take over as coach of the Sacramento Kings.
JOHN WALL&rsquo;S FUTURE
The Houston guard didn&rsquo;t play this season while the Rockets tried to find a trade partner. It&rsquo;s entirely possible that the same sentence could be used at this time next year.
Wall was selected for the NBA All-Star Game in five consecutive seasons from 2014 through 2018. Since the last of those selections 4 1/2 seasons ago, he has played in exactly 82 games &mdash; the equivalent of one NBA season &mdash; while making $150 million in salary.
Wall holds a $47.4 million option for next season, which he almost certainly will accept since no team will give him remotely close to that after his injury situations &mdash; most notably heel surgery that was followed by Achilles surgery &mdash; in recent years.

The 2021-22 NBA season is over, but the 2022-23 NBA season seems like it’s already here.

Warriors cap title run, NBA flips the page to 2022-23 season

The 2022 NCAA Tournament is underway, with the First Four games taking place over the last two days. Here's a recap of the First Four action and what's next for the winners:
Notre Dame defeats Rutgers 89-87 in 2OT, will play Alabama After a scoreless final 1:50 in regulation, these two teams went to overtime where Blake Wesley hit a huge bucket with :02 remaining to send it to yet another overtime period. Paul Atkinson Jr. had a putback basket with :02 to play that sealed the deal, capping off his huge night with 26 points, 6 rebounds and 2 blocks. The energy that Notre Dame exerted will be something to monitor in the next round (especially if they come out looking fatigued), but what an incredilble game to get the weekend started.
Indiana defeats Wyoming 66-58, will play Saint Mary&rsquo;s Trayce Jackson-Davis continues his ridiculous postseason with a 29-point outing. The Hoosiers took control just before the break and would hang steady the rest of the game. Even behind a poor free-throw shooting night, they dominated the glass and won the turnover battle, which ended up being the keys to victory. Indiana now looks ahead to a tough matchup with the No. 5 seeded Gaels.&nbsp;
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Wright State defeats Bryant 93-82, will play Arizona Tanner Holden had a monster night, posting 37 points on 11-of-15 from the field. The Raiders held a two-point lead at the break, but Holden and Co. would pull away for the rest of the contest. Trey Calvin also had a strong outing for the Horizon League Tournament Champions, finishing with 21 points, 5 rebounds and 4 assists. They advance to the Round of 64 and now have a tough matchup with the Wildcats.&nbsp;
Texas Southern defeats Texas A&amp;M-CC 76-67, will play Gonzaga The Tigers&rsquo; bench scored 55 points while the starters scored only 21 in this one. Senior guard Bryson Etienne posted 21 points, and the team as a whole connected on 26 free-throw attempts. The SWAC Conference Champions trailed by four points with nine minutes to play, but were able to battle back and win down the stretch. They took the lead with 5:32 to play and never gave it back, securing the win and a meeting with the No. 1 overall seed, Gonzaga.&nbsp;

Derek Murray breaks down the First Four action from the 2022 NCAA Tournament.

March Madness: 2022 NCAA Tournament First Four Recap

Before the national media cared about the other basketball team in New York City, the 2018-19 Brooklyn Nets were one of the dopest stories in the NBA.
They were a hard-working, culture-changing, overachieving, likable group who surprised many outside of (and within, if we&rsquo;re being honest) the New York Metropolitan Area by hustling their asses to a 2019 playoff berth. It was their first in four years, and marked the beginning of three consecutive postseason runs.
At the core of this period, there was an ongoing D&rsquo;Angelo Russell-Spencer Dinwiddie Twitter war that emotionally consumed much of the fan base, a more insulated type than the one that rages on today. In the 2017-18 season, Russell was the starting point guard, and Dinwiddie entered the season in the third string on the depth chart.
But after Jeremy Lin tore his Achilles on opening night &mdash; and with Russell needing arthroscopic knee surgery one month in &mdash; Dinwiddie stepped into a role that nearly landed him the league&rsquo;s Most Improved Player award.
The occasional Russell-Dinwiddie minutes shared? Notably not great, a trend that continued in 2018-19. Then-Nets head coach Kenny Atkinson would <a href="https://www.netsdaily.com/2018/11/3/18058490/inside-dangelo-russells-fourth-quarter-benching" target="_blank" rel="noopener">semi-regularly bench Russell for Dinwiddie</a> &mdash; the team&rsquo;s sixth man &mdash; to close games. <a href="https://www.netsdaily.com/2018/11/5/18063566/dangelo-russell-bounces-back-kenny-atkinson-offers-road-trip-challenge" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Atkinson would be pressed, as a result</a>, especially on those occasions where it didn&rsquo;t work.
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The "Russell or Dinwiddie" talk extended to who should represent the Nets if they had an All-Star, and then, Dinwiddie tore his the UCL in his hand &mdash; <a href="https://twitter.com/realtuffjuice/status/1088550514432794624" target="_blank" rel="noopener">first reported by Caron freakin' Butler</a> (!!) &mdash; clearing the runway for Russell. He then became the replacement All-Star for Victor Oladipo, who tore his quad one day before Dinwiddie tore his thumb &mdash; but honestly, Russell was probably the most deserving of the three anyway.
(Go look back at Oladipo&rsquo;s season. He was good, but less so than you remember, primarily when held against his extraordinary 2017-18 campaign.)
You can draw a straight line from Russell&rsquo;s breakout near MIP-winning season in 2018-19 to watching Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving join the Nets later that summer. If not for Russell&rsquo;s emergence that helped put Brooklyn in position to <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/nba-rumors-kevin-durant-kyrie-irving-brooklyn-nets-los-angeles-clippers-kawhi-leonard-paul-george-learn-mistakes-culture-kenny-atkinson-doc-rivers" target="_blank" rel="noopener">abandon their process to chase stars</a> &mdash; which landed him in Golden State in exchange for Durant &mdash; who knows if the Nets would've become what they have over the last three years?
Since then, in a crowded talent pool of All-Star level NBA point guards, Russell&rsquo;s kinda become&hellip; underrated.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-theme="dark">
Congratulations to D'Angelo Russell for this amazing achievement 💯 <a href="https://t.co/vbvxkhzqsv">pic.twitter.com/vbvxkhzqsv</a>
&mdash; Timberwolves Nation (@TWolvesNationCP) <a href="https://twitter.com/TWolvesNationCP/status/1493966873427603459?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 16, 2022</a></blockquote>

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Now, this isn&rsquo;t to say Russell is slept on like the way y&rsquo;all are sleeping on Top Boy, bison meat, Splinter Cell, Nas and Hit-Boy&rsquo;s Magic EP &mdash; or dipping your quesadilla in barbecue sauce &mdash; but D'Lo's impact is a tad underdiscussed. Russell, 26, is mainly overlooked in the way that a once-rising star who we believe to have plateaued could be easily forgotten despite remaining near his previous peak at arguably the NBA&rsquo;s deepest position. &nbsp;
To this point, Russell&rsquo;s been pretty durable, which is major since he&rsquo;s about to play his 46th regular-season game on Thursday, his most since that '18-19 run in Brooklyn. The 31-28 Minnesota Timberwolves are currently seventh in the Western Conference and are 15-8 since Jan. 3.
In their now 33-season history, the Wolves have secured only nine playoff berths, and just one since Kevin Garnett left (Jimmy Butler&rsquo;s only full season with the team). Even then, in 2017-18, Minnesota only finished eighth in the West &mdash; fourth at the time of Butler&rsquo;s late-season meniscus injury &mdash; so the team hasn&rsquo;t finished seventh or higher since the 2003-04 season. That was the only time the Wolves have ever gotten past the first round as a franchise.
It&rsquo;s fair to say that they&rsquo;re at least pretty, pretty, pretty good by NBA standards. There are still reasons to be skeptical regarding their legitimacy, but we&rsquo;re usually penciling them in for yet another lottery draft pick &lsquo;round this time of year. And look, they may still get one, but we&rsquo;re approaching March, and they&rsquo;re in games that matter. Russell deserves some credit for that, as he does for still producing since '18-19 and proving his breakout wasn&rsquo;t a fluke. 
The Timberwolves' &ldquo;quiet ass&rdquo; fans are apparently so stunned at their relative success that they&rsquo;re <a href="https://twitter.com/Dloading/status/1491095748934455304?s=20&amp;t=sv7cJecuhNpOmS0ql-nTUQ" target="_blank" rel="noopener">not cheering enough</a>. This is sh*t they ain&rsquo;t used to!
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(To be fair, D&rsquo;Angelo, on the night you called out your quiet-ass fans, y&rsquo;all were playing the Detroit Pistons and beat them by 13. My ass would be quiet if I saw my team semi-spank a Cade Cunningham-less skeleton crew led by 24 non-threatening Saddiq Bey points!)
To his credit, those quiet asses answered though!
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This season, Russell&rsquo;s averaging 18.8 points and 7.0 assists on .408/.351/.802 shooting splits. It doesn&rsquo;t wow you on the surface &mdash; not even when I tell you he&rsquo;s tied for 12th in assists per game this season (7.0) ahead of guys like LeBron James, Ja Morant, Jrue Holiday and his old teammate Dinwiddie.
Minnesota is third in pace, fifth in scoring, 10th in Offensive Rating and 14th in Net Rating as a result.
However, it's the Timberwolves' defense that has been, as local reporting out of Minnesota has put it this season, <a href="https://www.twincities.com/2021/11/30/quarterbacking-the-timberwolves-improved-defense-is-dangelo-russell/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">"quarterbacked" by Russell</a> &mdash; an area that has been one of the foremost knocks on him individually since entering the league. And D-Lo&rsquo;s grown into a leader in a locker room that includes Karl-Anthony Towns and Anthony Edwards (and Patrick Beverley matters). &nbsp;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-theme="dark">
Can't tell what I liked more here the nail help from D'Angelo Russell or the rotation from Jaden McDaniels. <a href="https://t.co/SkH6hP7lHX">pic.twitter.com/SkH6hP7lHX</a>
&mdash; Steve Jones Jr. (@stevejones20) <a href="https://twitter.com/stevejones20/status/1493763756580425731?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 16, 2022</a></blockquote>

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You watch Russell, and without question, save for his deserved All-Star season, he&rsquo;s playing his most impactful basketball to date. Currently, he has a career-high .105 win shares per 48 minutes and has been productive despite a 25.9% usage rating; it isn&rsquo;t low by any means, but it&rsquo;s the lowest since his rookie season. We&rsquo;re also seeing Russell at optimal usage, even if he isn&rsquo;t an All-Star anymore, and will have a hard time getting back there due to the depth at guard in #thisleague. (It&rsquo;s not completely impossible though.)
Russell is leading on both ends and ranks third in shot attempts behind Towns and Edwards, where he should be, and will have a $31 million expiring contract next season. So, yes, he&rsquo;s extension-eligible this summer. No, he shouldn&rsquo;t get a max, but why not ride this out if you&rsquo;re Minnesota? You clearly have something functioning at, for you, a high level &mdash; the highest you&rsquo;ve seen in five seasons and the second-highest since 2005. (Edwards turned four that year, fam.)
So, yes, Russell has earned his extension so far and is ideally the third option on a good team (as he is there), but is a primary playmaker (as he&rsquo;s been). Keeping a core together and continuing to progress is the Wolves' best bet, which is incredibly important in markets like Minnesota.
And, overall, we should commend Russell's sheer resiliency. Others may have gone in the tank while trying to reclaim All-Star status by now. He's out here helping a winner for a franchise that's seen so few.&nbsp;
Oh, and while we're here, happy 26th birthday, D&rsquo;Angelo.
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Bryan Fonseca credits D'Angelo Russell for his role in the Wolves' success this season and feels he's been underrated.

Commending D’Angelo Russell for playing his most impactful basketball

With Kyrie Irving, Kevin Durant and James Harden, the Brooklyn Nets and their embarrassment of riches may one day rule not only New York City, but the NBA.
That day, however, is not today. And believe it or not, the NBA is better for it.
For as long as we can remember &mdash; whether it was the Los Angeles Lakers, Boston Celtics, Chicago Bulls or Golden State Warriors &mdash; the NBA has been ruled by a super-team. Generally good for business, the super-teams were viewed as villains by many, but everyone watched with glazed-over eyes.
We wanted to see how long a dynastic team&rsquo;s reign could last.
Indeed, for the NBA, the existence of the super-team is nothing new, only the way they&rsquo;ve been constructed.
From the time LeBron James got ESPN to follow St. Vincent-St. Mary &mdash; from the time he was driving around in a 2003 Hummer H2 &mdash; he understood his power. In 2010, he used it to his advantage.
On July 8 of that year, the young king summoned everyone he could to Connecticut to reveal that he was opting for a secondment in Florida. He rocked the boat, and since then, the NBA&rsquo;s owners have been struggling to not capsize.
James willfully sacrificed money, opted for short-term contracts and did all he could to apply pressure to the front offices for which he worked. In 2010, he flexed his muscles, grabbed his future and used his mighty size 15 Nikes to kick down the door that fellow stars such as Carmelo Anthony, Dwight Howard and Anthony Davis would later use to make daring escapes.
About 11 years later, James Harden would follow.
Contract be damned, after eight years in Houston, Harden saw the world around him change yet again and decided he no longer wanted to continue the good fight without Daryl Morey and Mike D&rsquo;Antoni. Yet another sidekick in Russell Westbrook came and went, so Harden decided he would, too.
All things considered, it&rsquo;s easy to understand why Harden would want out.
It&rsquo;s also easy to understand why, given the circumstances behind his exit, the Basketball Gods couldn&rsquo;t in good conscience reward the Nets with a championship. Not in Year 1, anyway.
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When Sean Marks took residence in Brooklyn in 2016, the franchise was coming off of a 21-win campaign. Future draft picks were still owed to the Boston Celtics for the Kevin Garnett-Paul Pierce trade and the Nets were deemed to have no future.
Marks changed that almost immediately.
He turned over every stone, using some to lay a foundation and others to build walls. D&rsquo;Angelo Russell, Caris LeVert, Jarrett Allen, Spencer Dinwiddie, Joe Harris, Rodions Kurucs &mdash; Marks found players, harnessed their talents and eventually watched Kenny Atkinson push his misfits to 42 wins. It took three seasons for the Nets to go from a laughingstock to the team that Irving and Durant wanted.
What was always sad about the acquisitions of Irving and Durant, though, was the fact that sacrifices had to be made.
Russell &mdash; a player who had come into his own in Brooklyn, growing and maturing into a franchise player &mdash; had to be let go to clear cap space. Wanting to do right by him, the Nets were just as motivated as the Warriors and Russell were to get a double sign-and-trade done for Durant, and that was that.
Irving is a superstar and a champion. He's an obvious upgrade over Russell, but the lefty grew in Brooklyn, and seeing him jettisoned hurt.
And that was just the beginning.
Irving didn&rsquo;t necessarily endear himself to his teammates in his first year in Brooklyn, and after an 11-point loss to the Philadelphia 76ers, he famously opined that the players that comprised the team&rsquo;s roster simply <a href="https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/28493556/kyrie-irving-says-team-needs-glaring-nets-fall-76ers" target="_blank" rel="noopener">weren&rsquo;t good enough</a> to win. Not even two months later, Coach Atkinson was fired. And in the not-too-distant future, for Harden, the Nets sacrificed most of the remaining players who built the culture that seemed to attract Irving and Durant in the first place.
Seeing Caris LeVert and Jarrett Allen traded to bring in Harden, again, made sense from a basketball-talent standpoint. But there&rsquo;s no denying that along with Coach Atkinson, Russell, LeVert and Allen were the three players who the gave the team&rsquo;s fans the most pride. They were Brooklyn&rsquo;s own.
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In no time at all, it seemed, the Nets went from a young core with pure intentions to one ruled by three superstars, each with their own baggage, each motivated to win a championship not for the franchise or the city, but for their individual legacies. The Nets happened to be a convenient place to accomplish their individuals goals.
And when Brooklyn was presented with a proposition from a supermodel, it dumped its high school sweetheart that stuck with it through thick and thin.
All the while, Giannis Antetokounmpo, secretly, was shopping for engagement rings.
With admirable humility, those who know Giannis well and have watched him grow will tell you that deep down inside, he believes he owes Milwaukee for giving him a shot. He could&rsquo;ve opted to chase a championship anywhere &mdash; Los Angeles, San Francisco, Miami &mdash; but he seemingly learned from Durant&rsquo;s experience. No matter where he went, a championship wouldn&rsquo;t have felt the same if he was wearing a different jersey and celebrating with a new fan base.
Along the way, Antetokounmpo came to realize that he was a part of something &mdash; a team, an organization, a fraternity&hellip; A community. So with no promise and no guarantee, he doubled-down on his commitment and decided that he would dedicate himself to not only winning a championship, but winning one in Milwaukee.
So when his Bucks trailed by two points in Game 7, after they&rsquo;d gone the first four minutes of overtime without a basket, Giannis received a pass in the pinch-post and felt Durant on his hip. The Greek Freak had longed for an opportunity for redemption, and it came in the form of a soft sky hook that slowly fell through the net after meekly bouncing on the rim three times.
&ldquo;It was definitely exhausting, but it was worth it,&rdquo; Giannis said after Khris Middleton&rsquo;s game-winner helped the Bucks walk out of Barclays Center with their heads held high.
&ldquo;It&rsquo;s gonna hurt a little bit if you want to be great,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;And I know that.&rdquo;
Now the Nets do, too.
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Brooklyn will be back. One year from now, they&rsquo;ll be wiser, they&rsquo;ll have better chemistry and, we can assume, they&rsquo;ll be healthier. They'll also be an attractive destination for ring-chasing veterans. Collectively, they&rsquo;ll now have this painful experience to fuel them, and they&rsquo;ll be better for it.
And that&rsquo;s the way it&rsquo;s supposed to be.
Whether you believe in the Basketball Gods or not, winning a championship shouldn&rsquo;t be something that players can just show up and be able to do. It should require trials and tribulations. It should require painful growth and adversity. It should require sweat, sacrifice and tears.
As a unit, the Bucks have paid those dues, as have scores of other teams. The Nets got caught trying to jump the line.
For the league&rsquo;s teams that are not in sexy markets &mdash; the Portlands, the Denvers and, yes, the Milwaukees &mdash; forming a perceived super-team is largely unrealistic. Outside of places like Los Angeles, Boston, Miami and New York, it&rsquo;s difficult to imagine a team assembling a roster with as much star power as Brooklyn did this past season.
With its core playing just eight games together and its head coach having zero experience, seeing the Nets win this season would&rsquo;ve hurt the morale of the dreamers. Seeing them fall short in their first year together, as harsh as it may sound, will be viewed as a just outcome for the 29 other teams. That&rsquo;s true, regardless of whether they admit it.
In the end, competition is what professional sports are all about. No matter how mighty Goliath appears to be, David has to pick up his slingshot.
The Bucks, in defeating the undermanned Nets, have provided Damian Lillard, Donovan Mitchell and their ilk with some hope. Under the right set of circumstances, it&rsquo;s still possible to slew a giant.
Perhaps the Bucks only delayed the inevitable. It&rsquo;s hard to imagine Irving, Durant and Harden not finding a way to succeed together in Brooklyn.
But before a team has earned the right to be called champions, they're supposed to traverse a road that's littered with the bones of dashed hopes and painful heartbreak. The journey that a team takes together is just as meaningful and important as the final stop atop the podium in June.
Had the Nets managed to put it all together this season, especially had they defeated the Bucks and the Phoenix Suns along the way, we may have forgotten that. We may have lost sight of what truly makes success at the highest level glorifying.
Thankfully, the Basketball Gods made sure we were reminded.

While the Brooklyn Nets hope for better luck next year, the NBA's small-market teams are probably breathing a sigh of relief.

The Brooklyn Nets fell short, and the NBA is better off because of it

Sure, Montrezl Harrell is a mammoth of a man and tenacious defender, but Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was already oozing with confidence by the time he got the switch.&nbsp;
The young Canadian had already made a fool of Dennis Schroder on a few possessions, so when Kentavious Caldwell-Pope came with a hard show to trap the Oklahoma City Thunder&rsquo;s young star, Shai crossed over from left to right, faking the two defenders out of their shoes. He slithered to the rack and threw down a two-handed dunk.
Somewhere, Chris Paul was smiling.
Gilgeous-Alexander, of course, spent last season as Paul&rsquo;s understudy. And although Paul would&rsquo;ve probably finished the play off by finding a backdoor cutter, the entire sequence had Paul&rsquo;s fingerprints on it.
So know this: the journey to becoming a superstar in the NBA isn&rsquo;t as simple as giving a kid the ball and the keys to a franchise. More often than not, young players with promise have to learn as they go. Just like Gilgeous-Alexander did. Just like RJ Barrett, Obi Toppin and Immanuel Quickley will.
Above all else, that&rsquo;s why the New York Knicks&rsquo; decision to run it back with Derrick Rose -- especially considering what they had to give up in exchange for him -- was a no-brainer.
It&rsquo;s disconcerting the extent to which NBA fans allow themselves to be peddled falsities. Once upon a time, we were told that tanking was the best way to building a contender. Not too long ago, we were led to believe that hoarding cap space was the way to sign impact free agents and more recently, for some reason, many have been led to believe that players with promise need to be force-fed the ball for 40 minutes per night.
You know what young players really need more than anything else? Guidance and experienced wisdom.
Neophytes need to learn how to win games and see, first-hand, what kind of commitment it takes to be successful in the NBA. They don&rsquo;t need to be on the receiving end of 30-point blowout losses or to be torn apart by the likes of Jrue Holiday or Patrick Beverley. They need veteran players whose attitudes and habits help them get to the next level. They need a coaching staff that connects with them and helps them develop their talents, and they need to be properly primed before they&rsquo;re entrusted with the marbles.
They need to marinate, and they need players who've been there and done that before them help with their seasoning. For the gross majority of players, this is fact even if&nbsp;some players &nbsp;-- LeBron James, Damian Lillard, Donovan Mitchell and Luka Doncic to name a few -- are ready from Day 1.
Far more players have been brought along slowly and surely. In a basketball culture that is often fooled into thinking there&rsquo;s only one way to do things, the want to see immediate dividends on the investment in a player with potential is understandable... It&rsquo;s just not usually the reality.
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About 25 years ago, a young backup guard named Sam Cassell was instrumental in helping deliver two NBA championships to the Houston Rockets. Nonetheless, he couldn&rsquo;t find a starting role playing behind a bevy of accomplished veterans that included Kenny Smith, Vernon Maxwell and Clyde Drexler.
Humbled, Cassell studied under the veterans, learned some lessons and applied the teachings in his subsequent stops. He ended up enjoying a fruitful career, to say the least.
The late, great Kobe Bryant became a starter in his third season, but only after it became apparent that he was the franchise&rsquo;s future and that Eddie Jones, Nick Van Exel and Derek Fisher didn&rsquo;t quite have the same gifts.
In more recent times, Draymond Green, CJ McCollum, Jaylen Brown and Fred VanVleet are examples of players who spent their first couple years fighting for their keep. Before Giannis Antetokounmpo was a two-time MVP, he was playing behind the likes of Ersan Ilyasova, John Henson, Larry Sanders and Zaza Pachulia. Same with Stephen Curry, who has preached patience with rookie James Wiseman and <a href="https://twitter.com/ThompsonScribe/status/1351418668131864577?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noopener">pointed out</a>&nbsp;that Curry himself "used to get benched for Acie Law."
In other words, most young NBA players are like seeds. They need to be planted, given proper conditions and some time. Not everyone comes into the league 100 percent ready, and that&rsquo;s fine. Nobody likes force-ripened fruit, anyway.
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That&rsquo;s exactly where players like Derrick Rose come in.
Given his relationship with Tom Thibodeau, the early returns suggest that he&rsquo;ll fit right in by providing the Knicks a much-needed attack guard who can help make the game easier for the team's youngsters, who&nbsp;Rose will ultimately help bloom.
At this point in his career, on an individual level, the former MVP is a player who has gone from the top of the mountain to the bottom of the barrel and back. Through it all, he&rsquo;s kept a positive attitude and persevered. A step slower and less athletic than he was 10 years ago, he's come to rely more on his ability to see through defenses and penetrate them than his blinding athleticism. At 32 years old, he plays the game more like an aging halfback who has to plan his cuts rather than a greyhound chasing a rabbit. As he&rsquo;s aged and enjoyed his renaissance, Rose has naturally become more methodical about his game. Those are qualities that any young guard would be wise to develop.
Serving as understudy worked out quite well for Gilgeous-Alexander. There's no reason to believe the same fate doesn't await Quickley and the Knicks' other promising youngsters.
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Although far from a front-office lifer, Leon Rose has spent a lot of time around the Knicks organization. In the recent past, New York has always sought the shortcut. In the end, they discovered that the only thing shortcuts are good for is making you bleed.
The road to respectability in the NBA -- a long, windy, treacherous one -- can only be successfully traversed with steps on the court.
Today more than ever, players watch one another, talk, share war stories, form relationships and create alliances, but nobody wants to join a sinking ship. No franchise-altering player will proactively take his talents to a losing franchise more renowned for its off-court shenanigans than on-court promise. So the first step toward helping the Knicks regain some respect around the NBA is to string together some wins, show some sort of developmental culture and overachieve relative to the individual parts. It&rsquo;s precisely <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/nba-rumors-kevin-durant-kyrie-irving-brooklyn-nets-los-angeles-clippers-kawhi-leonard-paul-george-learn-mistakes-culture-kenny-atkinson-doc-rivers" target="_blank" rel="noopener">what the Brooklyn Nets did</a> and, if you look closely, it seems to be precisely what the Knicks are attempting to do. Rose is a means to that end.
Despite the Knicks' inclusion of Charlotte's second-round draft pick, trading Smith for Rose is a no-brainer. Rose provides the club with attributes they need that Smith didn&rsquo;t possess, and the 11-year veteran gets them closer to the playoffs than Smith would have.
For a franchise attempting to find its way, the Rose acquisition is a low-risk move with a potentially high reward, especially if Rose is able to impart any of his wisdom or teachings to Thibodeau&rsquo;s young and impressionable group of players.
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<div>So the next time Jaylen Brown draws praise or Gilgeous-Alexander impresses you, remember when they were seeds. Realize that now, in New York, they&rsquo;ve just begun planting.</div>
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With his experiences and wisdom, at this point in his career, Derrick Rose is properly cast on a young, upstart Knicks team.

Second time's the charm: Derrick Rose trade was right decision for Knicks

Ethan Fuller breaks down the general direction of all 30 NBA teams in his weekly Sour Rankings.

NBA Sour Rankings: New Year, New Problems

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.
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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.
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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.

Paul