Category: d4

As the NBA world just watched the Boston Celtics roll to one of the most dominant seasons in history and 16-3 playoff run that culminated in a championship, a particular basketball blueprint came into focus. Boston featured five guys who can do everything: Shoot, pass, create, operate on or off the ball, and defend multiple positions, with elite top-end and overall depth.

It’s not exactly a revelatory concept. Versatility has been the way of the NBA for a while. Still, almost every team has a hole somewhere. Someone who can’t shoot. Someone who can’t defend. At least a sliver of a weakness for opponents to attack.

But look up and down the Oklahoma City roster, and tell me, where do you see the hole? By trading for Alex Caruso on Thursday, the Thunder, like the Celtics with Jrue Holiday and Derrick White, now have two of the nastiest on-ball defenders in the league (Caruso alongside Lu Dort). Ball pressure is back, baby. The Celtics just squeezed the life out of Dallas. Caruso and Dort are going to wreak the same on-ball havoc.

Add to that a center in Chet Holmgren, who checks almost all the same boxes as Kristaps Porzingis as an elite, floor-stretching rim protector. There’s Jaylen Williams in the Jaylen Brown role (Brown defended Luka Doncic as well as possible, and Williams led the way in holding Kyrie Irving to 15 PPG in the conference semifinal), with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander as the Jayson Tatum superstar who draws the double teams, and suddenly the mirror starts to reflect a pretty similar basketball image.

Everyone can shoot (Caruso was 40% from 3 on almost five attempts per game last season, and Dort was nearly identical to that). Everyone can defend. Everyone can put the ball on the floor. Williams is an elite isolation scorer next to SGA, and yet, OKC doesn’t over-rely on individual creation. The ball moves. So do the players. Did you just watch Holiday feast as a cutter in the Finals? The Thunder can cut you to death.

For most teams, copying the Boston roster is a pipe dream. The Celtics are an all-time unit with homegrown stars who then lucked into Holiday as part of the Damian Lillard fallout. It would be like trying to copy what the Warriors did by drafting Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green.

Travis Schlenk actually tried to do that with the Hawks after he left Golden State, drafting Trae Young as his Curry before adding DeAndre Hunter and Kevin Huerter as he aimed to put five guys on the floor who could all shoot, pass and dribble.

It was a good idea. But Young is a defensive hole, and Hunter and Huerter, while they fit the mold on paper, just didn’t turn out to be good enough. OKC’s guys are good enough. SGA is going to be an upper-crust MVP candidate for the next half decade. Williams will be an All-Star soon. Same for Holmgren. All those guys were drafted by the Thunder. This is largely an internally developed contender, just as the Celtics became the second they called the names of Tatum and Brown.

The similarities continue: Marcus Smart was a good player for the Celtics, but his greatest contribution to the 2024 title ended up being his trade value, as it was Smart who facilitated the trade for Porzingis. Josh Giddey, another drafted and developed OKC player, became good enough for the Thunder to flip him into Caruso.

And they’re likely not done. How Sam Presti didn’t have to give up a draft pick in addition to Giddey to get Caruso is a mystery; OKC still has 13 future first-round picks, including No. 12 overall this year, and over $31 million in cap space to use this summer.

They still need rebounding (Dallas racked up 73 offensive rebounds over six games in their second-round series), and though their 3-point shooting numbers looked great all season, most of these guys — Dort, Caruso, and maybe even to some degree Holmgren — feel a bit oversold as actual shooters who are going to hold up over multiple playoff series.

Klay Thompson is sitting there. Paul George is feasible. If they could rip Isaiah Hartenstein from the Knicks they would have a strong case as the favorite in the West. Point being, there’s an opportunity for the Thunder to go for it right now, and it would not be surprising to see Presti hit the gas in this 1-2 year window before Williams and Holmgren receive potential max extensions.

The Caruso trade feels like the start of a lot more as the Thunder continue to build themselves in the mold of the team we just watched win a championship.

The Boston Celtics closed out the Dallas Mavericks in five games on Monday night to capture the franchise’s 18th NBA championship. Now that the hard work is over, the celebration has begun for the Celtics and the city of Boston itself. The Celtics victory parade is taking place Friday in the city’s famous duck boats. The route is starting at TD Garden around 11 a.m. ET and will pass City Hall Plaza as well as Boston Common park before ending by the Hynes Convention Center.

Boston planned the parade around a heat wave that struck the city earlier this week. After dangerous temperatures in the 90s, the high in Boston on Friday is 82 degrees.

Boston Celtics parade details, live stream
Time: 11 a.m. ET | Date: Friday, June 21
Live stream: CBS Boston
Boston Celtics championship parade route
still-celtics-parade-route.png
CBS Boston
The Celtics closed out the Mavericks in Game 5 with a 106-88 win to clinch the series. Jaylen Brown won Finals MVP after averaging 20.8 points, 5.4 rebounds and 5.0 assists while shooting 44% from the floor. It is Boston’s first championship since the 2008 season, and after several years of failing to get over the hump of the Eastern Conference finals — and losing in the NBA Finals to the Golden State Warriors in 2022 — it was a massive statement for the Brown and Jayson Tatum era.

This is the city of Boston’s first championship celebration since 2019 when the New England Patriots won the Super Bowl. For the Celtics faithful, this celebration will mean more as they’ve not only waited for 16 years to pop the champagne, now they can claim one more championship than the long-term rival Los Angeles Lakers.

“Thank you for honoring the Celtics tradition. For this team in particular, we are in love with this team. Because it is a team and they have given us so much,” Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey said on Friday. “Today we’re going to party and celebrate the Boston Celtics.”

The Chicago Bulls traded Alex Caruso to the Oklahoma City Thunder for Josh Giddey, the teams announced on Friday. Caruso, an All-Defense guard who spent the past three seasons in Chicago after winning the 2020 championship with the Lakers, has been the subject of trade rumors for several years now. The Bulls have resisted offers built around draft picks throughout his entire time in Chicago.

But in Giddey, the Bulls land a former No. 6 overall pick who was in desperate need of a fresh start. Giddey has been a starter for Oklahoma City since he arrived, but his failure to develop as a 3-point shooter doomed him on a roster that already had Shai Gilgeous-Alexander at point guard. His role diminished throughout the postseason and he was benched in the final two games against the Dallas Mavericks.

In Chicago, his fate may be tied to the rest of the roster. If DeMar DeRozan and Zach LaVine are back, his weakness as a shooter will likely continue to hold him back. He is best suited as a full-time point guard, and those on-ball reps won’t be available if DeRozan and LaVine are still there. DeRozan is set to become a free agent and LaVine has been the subject of his own trade rumors, though, so this move indicates that the Bulls are ready for a more significant rebuild around Giddey and Most Improved Player runner-up Coby White.

As for the Thunder? They bring back a role player who actually started his career in their organization. The undrafted Caruso spent his rookie year playing for the Oklahoma City Blue in the G-League. He’s since blossomed with the Bulls and Los Angeles Lakers, and now he returns to Oklahoma City as a readymade championship role player.

Caruso is one of the best defensive perimeter players in basketball. He is capable of guarding just about every position except center, and his 3-point percentage improved to 40.8% last season. The Thunder earned the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference last season. Now, with their youngsters growing and a year of playoff experience under their belts, Oklahoma City is going for it in 2025.

Just a few days remain until the start of the 2024 NBA Draft, and the top of the board is slowly beginning to take shape as Zaccharie Risacher — once considered likely to slip to No. 2 — has overtaken Frenchman Alex Sarr as the betting favorite to be selected No. 1 overall on draft night.

Risacher’s rise has been fueled by a strong finish to his season in the Pro A and a diligent pre-draft done by the Atlanta Hawks, who won the lottery last month in a surprise after having just a 3% chance of doing so. Atlanta sent several key decision-makers over to France to watch Risacher in person last month, including GM Landry Fields, assistant GM Kyle Korver and head coach Quin Snyder.

Throughout recent years at this point in the pre-draft process, the No. 1 pick has seemingly been locked in only for it to change in the final days. That happened in 2022 when Paolo Banchero emerged late as the No. 1 pick. But, for now, things look to be crystalizing barring late changes. So our latest, and my penultimate, NBA mock draft is below as we count down the days until next Wednesday …

When the Chicago Bulls inked Zach LaVine to a five-year max contract in the 2022 offseason, they thought they were securing their franchise player for the long haul. That’s not exactly how things have played out. Chicago has lost to the Miami Heat in back-to-back Play-In Tournaments. LaVine has dealt with an array of injuries. The Bulls have stalled without him and struggled with him. His footing in Chicago, through all of this, has grown far less stable.

Of course, his standing around the league has as well. Had LaVine meaningfully explored 2022 free agency, he would have found multiple suitors. By the time the Bulls started to seriously consider trades last season, the market had cooled. No team is known to have made a substantial offer. Or, well, any offer. LaVine is now widely considered to be a negative asset, and the Bulls have been reportedly floating more than a dozen LaVine trade ideas to other teams.

The question now isn’t whether or not the Bulls want to trade LaVine. It’s whether or not they will be able to. Chicgao dealt guard Alex Caruso to the Thunder earlier this week, so will LaVine be the next to go?

How did we get here? What has made LaVine such a toxic asset? And are there any teams that might still make sense for him? Let’s tackle these questions and look deeper into LaVine’s future.

Why he’s in trade rumors
LaVine is owed roughly $138 million over the next three seasons. That would be a lot for any team. It’s a ton for the penny-pinching Bulls. Chicago avoids the luxury tax like the plague, and re-signing DeMar DeRozan and Patrick Williams this offseason would potentially take them within range of it next season. The Bulls won’t risk actually doing so. Getting off of LaVine is their best way of saving money both now and moving forward.

LaVine’s contract would be justifiable for a consistent superstar. He’s never been that player. He’s a two-time All-Star that has never earned All-NBA honors. He’s been a reliable three-level scorer across several seasons, but he’s never defended at better than an average level, is not a great playmaker and has no positional versatility in a league that increasingly demands it. He’s the sort of combo-guard scorer that the NBA loved 10 or 15 years ago but that is growing increasingly scarce now.

And we haven’t even covered the injuries yet. He just had season-ending foot surgery. He has a torn ACL on his resume. He’s had countless minor injuries that have cost him games here and there. He’s already 29. He’d be overpaid by current standards even if he’d never gotten hurt once in his career. With his injuries, he’s a colossal risk with minimal reward.

Why the Bulls would keep him
It wouldn’t be by choice. The same factors that will push the Bulls towards a trade will scare off the rest of the league. Nobody wants that contract. Nobody wants to bet on him to remain healthy. Even if these things weren’t true, his archetype of player isn’t in vogue right now. Teams want multi-positional defenders with size, like the Celtics have. LaVine is not that and will never be that.

There’s also the fact that the Bulls just aren’t particularly ambitious. LaVine’s contract could ruin another team’s championship hopes. The Bulls have never really operated like a team with substantial championship hopes. They’re trying to play moderately competitive basketball without paying the tax. If they can keep LaVine without paying the tax? Sure, what’s the harm? It’s not like his contract impacts some long-term plan they’re trying to execute because there’s just no evidence that there is a plan here. Why would the Bulls give up assets to get off of LaVine if they don’t mind having him anyway?

What destinations make sense?
It’s hard to imagine someone trading for LaVine proactively. There isn’t a group out there that is one healthy LaVine away from winning it all, let alone an injured one. If someone takes him, it’s probably going to be a rebuilder. Perhaps there’s a team out there that could rehabilitate his value in a low-stakes environment either because the Bulls gave them assets to try to do so or because they believe they can turn around and trade him in a year or two if he looks better. The list of teams that makes sense on that front is short. Here are three possibilities.

Brooklyn Nets: The Nets would probably need to make peace with the idea that they aren’t luring a star in 2025 free agency for this to make sense, but there’s a pretty straightforward contract swap involving LaVine and the expiring deal of Ben Simmons to be made here. Such a move would at least give the Nets a shred of upside. If LaVine stays healthy, maybe he and Mikal Bridges can get the Nets into the playoffs. That’s not much of a goal, but it would least give the Nets some hope at running out the clock on the picks they owe Houston before engaging in a real rebuild. They could get there earlier by just trading Bridges, but for now, they’ve shown no willingness to do so.

Washington Wizards: The Wizards aren’t going anywhere anytime soon, and they don’t have much else to spend money on. Why not offer some sort of LaVine-for-Jordan Poole swap? That would save the Bulls money, give them a chance at fixing a younger player, and send LaVine to a team willing to give him all of the shots he needs to regain his star status. If nothing else, he’d put up stats in Washington. The Wizards would probably need an asset to consider this, but the easiest way to trade a bad contract is to take back another one.

Detroit Pistons: The Pistons were one of the few teams reportedly interested in LaVine before his season ended with surgery. They have a new president of basketball operations in Trajan Langdon and are about to have a new head coach after firing Monty Williams. Detroit badly needs shooting and doesn’t have a single player earning more than $15 million next season. The Pistons can afford a major swing even if this probably isn’t one they should take with Cade Cunningham and Jaden Ivey in place.

What is the latest reporting?
K.C. Johnson of NBC Sports Chicago recently wrote that “both sides are motivated” to make a deal here and that Chicago’s asking price has “dropped significantly.” That would mean trading him in a cap dump. Of course, the time for a cap dump may have passed. Now, it would probably take substantial value in the form of draft equity for someone to take on the LaVine contract. Would the Bulls make such a move? At this point, there’s no telling. But for now, at least, Chicago has seemingly at least accepted that LaVine is not a positive-value asset.

Josh Giddey was, at one time, considered a part of the core for the Oklahoma City Thunder moving forward. The emergence of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander as an MVP candidate, as well as Chet Holmgren and Jalen Williams as future All-Stars slowly made him redundant. While Giddey is a valuable ball-handler and playmaker, his weakness as a shooter made it very hard for him to play on a team with so much talent elsewhere.

This came to a head in the second round against the Dallas Mavericks, as coach Mark Daigneault ultimately elected to bench Giddey for the final few games of that series. This ultimately proved to be the beginning of the end for the relationship between Giddey and the Thunder, as Oklahoma City general manager Sam Presti laid out in his press release following the team’s decision to trade him for Alex Caruso. According to Presti, Giddey did not like the idea of going to the bench next season and asked the team to explore other destinations.

“When we drafted Josh in 2021 he was an essential aspect of our vision for the next iteration of the Thunder,” Presti wrote.
“Since then, our team has evolved rapidly and dynamically in ways we could never have anticipated. Therefore, as we began our internal discussions this off-season, it was determined that bringing Josh off the bench next season was our best option to maximize his many talents and deploy our team more efficiently over 48 minutes.

As we laid out to Josh how he could lean into his strengths and ultimately optimize our current roster and talent, it was hard to for him to envision, and conversations turned to him inquiring about potential opportunities elsewhere. As always was the case, Josh demonstrated the utmost professionalism throughout the discussions. Josh has All-Star potential, but accessing that in the current construct of the Thunder would not be optimal for the collective. Based on these discussions we decided to move forward and prioritize what was best for the organization.”

Giddey will probably get what he wants next season in Chicago. The Bulls are reportedly trying to trade Zach LaVine, and DeMar DeRozan is a free agent, so the Bulls appear ready to not only start Giddey, but give him every opportunity to serve as a primary ball-handler. Caruso is a much lower-maintenance player. He can make 3’s and serve as a connective passer, but he doesn’t need the ball or to start. His value comes primarily on defense, an area in which Giddey struggled. He’s the perfect role player for a team with the sort of stars that pushed Giddey out of Oklahoma City.