From Above Article:

Los Angeles Lakers

Untouchable: LeBron James, Luka Doncic

Valuable Assets: Austin Reaves, Rui Hachimura

Trade-Now: Dalton Knecht, Jarred Vanderbilt, Gabe Vincent, Maxi Kleber, Shake Milton

The Lakers are going all-in next season, with LeBron James and Luka Doncic as untouchables. Austin Reaves and Rui Hachimura are valuable assets, but not untouchable by any means. Reaves, in particular, could net the Lakers the right player they need to take a step forward in the West. Considering the power the Lakers have in acquiring superstar talent, they might even be in a position to acquire Giannis Antetokounmpo without having to give up James or Doncic either.

Dalton Knecht, Jarred Vanderbilt, Gabe Vincent, Maxi Kleber, and Shake Milton are trade candidates, as Los Angeles seeks to bolster its roster for a championship run. At the very least, the Lakers can target a mix of veterans who could contribute immediately, with a title window around LeBron steadily closing

LIST OF NBA 'TRADE-NOW' TARGETSGreat job by Eddie Bitar and Fadeaway World in identifying who's an Untouchable, Valuable Asset, or Trade-Now player for every NBA team.identifying which players on a team are Valuable Assets vs. Trade-Now players is part art and part science… https://t.co/pKFmaONtIr pic.twitter.com/BVaooIwYO2— LakerTom (@LakerTom) May 25, 2025

¡Los Minnesota Timberwolves aplastan 143-101 al OKC Thunder! 🤯🔥🏀OKC registró su peor derrota en playoffs, perdiendo por 42 puntos. 🥴 Minnesota firmó su segunda victoria más amplia en postemporada, igualando casi los 45 que le sacó a Denver en 2023. 🙌 Anthony Edwards:… pic.twitter.com/ezyMlBRKuk— ESPN Deportes (@ESPNDeportes) May 25, 2025

HAHA. Knicks get a taste of what Boston felt like to get blown out twice at home to start series where you were the heavy favorite.

FROM THE ABOVE ARTICLE:

For as long as the NBA has been around, it has run not unlike one of many European monarchies, lurching from one dynasty to another. That, as much as anything, has been one of the league’s defining traits.

That period of successive rule, however, may be coming to an end.

Last year, the Boston Celtics became the sixth different champion in the past six seasons. It was only the second time in league history that has happened. If another team that has not won since 2019 wins a championship this season, the NBA will be in unprecedented territory.

While aberrational, it may also be a part of an emerging new normal. The NBA may be in its great era of parity.

It is a changeover of its own making and a drastic leap from the very principles that helped make the league what it is today. The league is hoping a break from its past can help with its future.

For decades, the NBA rode its stars and dynasties, helping the league reach immense heights. Now it is engineering a new path while trying to adjust to a turbulent media environment it argues demands leaguewide competition, not just a few great teams.

“It’s not necessarily artificial parity where we keep moving the chips around and saying we want to go into every season and make sure every team has an equal chance,” NBA commissioner Adam Silver said last month. “It is parity of opportunity in that you want each team to be in a position where if, well managed, they’re in a position to compete.”

The changes, both self-enforced and thrust upon the league by a dynamic local and national media infrastructure, have brought it closer to a NFL-like model. Now, when Silver goes to the podium, he can tout how many teams are still in postseason contention late in the season.

The demise of the super team — as unsuccessful as they have been in recent years — has been overstated. But the latest collective bargaining agreement was negotiated to engineer a flatter playing field. More teams are given a taste of the postseason each year with the Play-In Tournament. Roster-building and financial penalties have been instituted to punish, or snuff out, the high-spenders. All while the last two decades have shown the NBA it can cultivate and nurture superstars in small markets, and a tumultuous media ecosystem may incentivize teams to hold on to them.

Going forward, each team might need a star to build around, not just for its roster, but to increase viewership and sell subscriptions to digital content, including the streaming of games. Victor Wembanyama will be supremely valuable in San Antonio for more than just his basketball skills.

Still, it is an interesting maneuver. The NBA has long sold stars and rivalries and risen on the shoulders of its dynastic franchises. They have been the ones to push the league forward, creating characters and plotlines to pull in even casual fans.

The George Mikan Minneapolis Lakers of the 1950s gave way to the Bill Russell Boston Celtics of the ’60s. The Celtics and Lakers shared control of the NBA in the 1980s. Michael Jordan cleared the field in the ’90s. Tim Duncan, Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant, and Stephen Curry all had their reigns.

Tim Duncan’s Spurs and Shaquille O’Neal’s Lakers battled for NBA supremacy in the early 2000s. (Photo by: Andrew D. Bernstein / NBAE via Getty Images)
But the league has chosen to pull away from that model even as it says it is trying to create different opportunities, not outcomes.

“In this league, superstar players are still going to win a disproportionate number of championships, and well-managed franchises are still going to win a disproportionate number of championships,” Silver said. “Where I thought it wasn’t good for the game and it wasn’t good for the league, that there was no question that there’s a correlation between spending and the quality of the team, and that while I understand that dynasties are something that fans will get behind, at the same time what you hear from fans is they want those teams to be created the right way. So people aren’t that interested in seeing teams buy championships, so to speak.”

The great boogeyman of the modern NBA might just be the what the CBA calls the second apron, a draconian measure added to the league rules inside the 2023 CBA. Just as the 3-point revolution loomed over the league last decade, the second apron may be the defining part of the next one.

The second apron is a salary-cap threshold set this season at $188.931 million, about $18 million above the luxury-tax threshold ($170.814 million). With punishments for exceeding it that range from frozen first-round picks to ghastly luxury tax rates, it was designed to curb balloon payrolls and instill a sense of fairness to the league’s economic picture. Whereas the NBA had several levers to pull to control for revenue discrepancy across the league, it has now built a potentially powerful one to throttle spending as well. Some agents and executives have already come to describe it as a de facto hard cap, a ceiling long resisted by the National Basketball Players Association.

FROM THE ABOVE ARTICLE:

Congrats to all the bean counters and attorneys who serve the NBA’s corporate offices. You’ve won.

Parity, or as close to parity as the NBA can get, has been achieved.

The NBA will have a seventh straight different champion in 2025, the first time in league history. Two of the four remaining teams in the conference finals — Minnesota and Indiana — have never won an NBA title. The Oklahoma City Thunder were in Seattle and called the SuperSonics when they won their lone league championship in 1979; the Knicks haven’t won one in 52 years, or since Spike Lee was sitting in the nosebleed seats at Madison Square Garden.

This is a good thing for the league and its fans. A very good thing.

(You know what’s not a good thing? The lottery. It’s not doing what the league says it’s designed to do: get the best young prospects to the teams that most need them. But, that’s another column.)

Look, I love dynasties. I love knowing what, or who, the standard is, and what you’re gonna do to try and knock them/him/her off their perch. I love going to Yankee Stadium or Bell Centre in Montreal or TD Garden and seeing nothing but championship banners. The Yankees, Canadiens and Celtics don’t do division championship banners or conference titles. Nothing but sustained excellence. Mike Tyson spent half a decade wearing nothing but a towel to the center of the boxing ring, letting his malevolent fists do the talking. (Is there a greatest fisherman of all time? I guess so.)

But having new superstars get their moment in the spotlight is dope, too. And, so far, the ratings for the Thunder’s, Pacers’, Timberwolves’ and Knicks’ postseason triumphs have been just fine.

The cliché that people along the East and West Coasts dismiss the rest of the United States as “flyover country” is old, musty and untrue. Especially in sports. No one would argue that the Dallas Cowboys and Green Bay Packers, or the St. Louis Cardinals and Chicago Cubs, aren’t nationally known and supported franchises in the NFL or Major League Baseball. The Chicago Bulls, Detroit Pistons and San Antonio Spurs have been among the most dominant franchises in the last 30-plus years of the NBA. Anyone who cares about the long-term health of any league understands that teams in the Midwest and Southwest need to thrive and be successful, too.

The breakthroughs of the Wolves and Pacers to consecutive conference finals appearances, and the Thunder returning for the first time since the end of the Kevin Durant era in 2016, are hugely important for the league to be able to say with a straight face that it really is intentional — and, has been successful — in trying to level the playing field, and force talent to be spread more evenly around the league.

The NBA has entered a new era of parity. How did we get here and what’s next?
Last year, the Boston Celtics became the sixth different team to win a championship in the past six seasons. Is the era of parity upon us?

I know Edwards doesn’t want the job, but this is a chance for the Wolves’ alpha to make an unequivocal case that he’s not just the baddest man in the game, but the face of the league. So, too, can the Thunder’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the Pacers’ Tyrese Haliburton, or the Knicks’ Jalen Brunson. Each of them has national TV commercials, though Haliburton’s profile is a little smaller nationally than the other three. But they’re all telegenic guards with mesmerizing games, even though Edwards is the only one of the four who could be viewed as a high-flier.

Just look at the superstars whose teams didn’t get out of the first round, or make the playoffs at all: LeBron James, Luka Dončić, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Durant, Trae Young, Kawhi Leonard, James Harden, Victor Wembanyama, Joel Embiid, Ja Morant and Zion Williamson. Stephen Curry, Nikola Jokić, Russell Westbrook, Donovan Mitchell, Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown bid adieu in round two. That’s 15 of the NBA’s last 17 regular-season Most Valuable Players, and 12 of the last 13 finals MVPs, who are out of the mix before the conference finals.

The ascension of OKC, Minnesota, Indiana and New York came via different routes. The Wolves have ridden winning the lottery twice, in 2015 and 2020, to build their team — first, around Karl-Anthony Towns, and then Edwards. The Thunder remade their team by trading Paul George to the Clippers in 2019, and not only getting SGA from Los Angeles, but a 2022 first-round pick in the trade that became All-Star forward Jalen Williams. Similarly, the Pacers retooled via a big deal, getting Haliburton from the Kings in 2022 for center Domantas Sabonis.

The Knicks did it the old-fashioned way, convincing Brunson to come to New York via free agency from Dallas in 2022, then surrounding him via smart conventional trades (getting Josh Hart from Portland at the 2023 trade deadline, and OG Anunoby from Toronto for R.J. Barrett) and keeping their powder dry for several offseasons, retaining their bushel of future first-rounders available until using five of them to get Mikal Bridges from the Nets last summer.
To be sure, each of the previous six champions also built smartly around their transcendent stars to create championship teams. But the superteam/player empowerment era looks to be over. At the least, up-and-coming teams such as Cleveland — the Thunder, Magic and others — are going to have incredibly difficult decisions to make in the next couple of years about what parts of their current rotations are most worth preserving.

Combined with cap “smoothing” — smaller, year-over-year increases in the cap, starting in 2023, rather than huge one-year jumps like in 2016 — the new collective bargaining agreement, with its draconian penalties for teams that exceed the second apron, has hit multiple contending teams between the eyes, and made it impossible for them to keep their superstars together. The Suns shopped Durant and Bradley Beal to no avail in February, less than two years after sending everything not nailed down to Brooklyn and Washington, respectively, to put KD and Beal next to Devin Booker.

But forget building around three superstars. A lot of teams can’t even keep their most important role players.

The Clippers (Paul George) and Nuggets (Bruce Brown, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope) have already had to contract their rotations because of second apron concerns, with Denver’s uncertainty about its bench a key component in the dysfunction that led to the firing of Mike Malone and GM Calvin Booth at the end of the regular season.

Boston’s controlling ownership group is selling what is arguably the league’s most iconic franchise. Estate tax penalties play a big part, to be sure. However, the 2024 NBA champions are also facing an incoming financial tsunami after (correctly) giving supermax extensions to Tatum and Brown in the last 24 months. Those $300-plus million apiece deals put the Celtics way above the second apron, and in the crosshairs of a monster, nine-figure luxury tax bill as soon as 2026. It’s a distinct possibility that Boston will have to move either Kristaps Porziņģis or Jrue Holiday, each a prime catalyst for the 2024 championship team, to get back under the second apron.

And that big bill, governor Wyc Grousbeck told Boston radio station WEEI in March, isn’t even the reason the Cs want to get under.

“It’s basketball penalties now, and there’s like nine of them that kick in if you stay in the second apron,” Grousbeck said. “Like, you can’t make trades anymore. It’s very hard. You have to do one player for one. You can’t add up guys. If you’re trying to trade a player, you have to get the exact match on salaries, very close. You freeze your draft picks that go to the end of the first round. You basically can’t trade them. So, you all of a sudden, even if you finish really poorly, you’ve got the 30th pick because of overspending.”

The last time the NBA was this egalitarian was during the 1970s. That decade, seven different teams — New York, Milwaukee, Los Angeles, Boston, Golden State, Portland, Washington and Seattle — won championships. But the league’s myriad issues, from franchise stability to drug use to the racist trope that the league had become “too Black” to be enjoyable for White patrons, made the NBA so unpopular at the time that its network TV partner, CBS, trying to protect its popular weeknight lineups, aired several of the league’s postseason games, including the finals, on tape delay on the East Coast in the late ’70s and early ’80.
Things are better now. And, someone’s going to raise the Larry that’s never done it before, or at least not in a good long while. Even if you loved, and love, watching Steph splash 3s, there are other people in the company who can take center stage, and make you come out of your seats by the end of the show.

Played 84% of time at PF so not really a guard or wing defender.
But second team all-defensive.

A global media panel of 100 voters selected the 2024-25 Kia NBA All-Defensive Team.Voters selected five players for the First Team and five players for the Second Team at any position.Complete voting results pic.twitter.com/LlfUOe8Ei4— NBA Communications (@NBAPR) May 22, 2025

Aaron Nesmith is the first player in NBA history to make six three-point field goals in the 4th quarter of a playoff game. Only six other players have made six threes in a quarter of a playoff game:▪️ Antoine Walker, BOS at PHI, April 28, 2002 (2nd Q)▪️ Damian Lillard, POR… pic.twitter.com/y70n6iXR4X— NBA Communications (@NBAPR) May 22, 2025

Everyone’s talking about the 3s.But Indiana’s 20-6 run to steal Game 1 wasn't possible without stop after stop after stop.Let’s break down the defensive side of the miraculous comeback 🧵 pic.twitter.com/qoCjp6E98e— Michael Jagacki (@Mike_Jagacki) May 22, 2025

The Knicks were up 𝟭𝟭𝟲-𝟭𝟬𝟮.Less than three minutes on the clock. MSG was rocking.The crowd could taste a Game 1 victory.Vegas gave the Indiana Pacers a 0.3% chance to win.Statisticians said it was 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗼𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗯𝗹𝗲 — since 1997, NBA teams were 0–970 when down 14+… pic.twitter.com/YXnwFBUIOl— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) May 22, 2025

NBA teams were 0-970 in the playoffs over the last 27 years when trailing by 14+ points with under 2:50 left in regulation.Tonight made it 1-970 🤯(Via @keerthikau ) pic.twitter.com/2QeVZsm4MO— NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) May 22, 2025

Since 1997-98, teams are 4-1,640 when trailing by 7+ in the final minute of the 4th quarter/OT in the playoffs.The Pacers account for THREE of those wins.ALL in these playoffs. pic.twitter.com/sxoB86slFJ— Esfandiar Baraheni (@JustEsBaraheni) May 22, 2025

Waking up to this is insane. I hate myself for missing it. pic.twitter.com/g7mGFAppkM— Dave Portnoy (@stoolpresidente) May 22, 2025

FROM THE ABOVE ARTICLE:

Jazz receive:
-Austin Reaves
-Gabe Vincent
-2031 first-round pick

Lakers receive:
-Walker Kessler,
-Jordan Clarkson
-Keyonte George
-Two second-round picks

Why could the Jazz trade for Austin Reaves?

The Western Conference is stacked, and all of the best teams have multiple stars. In the Western Conference Finals, the Oklahoma City Thunder have the likely MVP in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, and two more All-Star caliber teammates in Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren. The Minnesota Timberwolves, meanwhile, have one of the best players in the league in Anthony Edwards. He is joined by a number of other solid players, but most notably, Julius Randle has played in the All-Star game before, and Rudy Gobert is a four-time Defensive Player of the Year.

The Denver Nuggets have Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray; the Golden State Warriors have Stephen Curry, Draymond Green, and Jimmy Butler; and the Los Angeles Clippers have James Harden and Kawhi Leonard. Even an up-and-coming team like the San Antonio Spurs has multiple stars, as Victor Wembanyama and De’Aaron Fox should make waves as a duo next season. The point is clear that, while depth is important, the NBA is still a star-driven league.

Lauri Markkanen has All-Star experience, but the Jazz need another elite player, especially because Markkanen had a down year. Considering Reaves scored 20.2 points on a team with other ball-dominant players, he could become a legitimate star for a team like the Jazz. On top of Reaves, the Jazz might be able to squeeze a future first-round pick out of the Lakers.