Quick, someone hire Hasheem Thabeet as an assistant coach!

Good morning. Let’s basketball.

REMEMBERING THE ABA: As a part of our All-Decades Teams project, Paul Flannery wrote an awesome essay on the lasting impact of the ABA, which was born, lived and died all in the space of one glorious decade. Its fingerprints are all over the modern NBA.

MONEY KIDD-GILCHRIST: We have another early extension, and it’s big: Michael Kidd-Gilchrist will sign for $52 million over four years on a deal that takes effect for the 2016-17. This deal is going to be well below 15 percent of the cap, so provided MKG can be a starter-level player or better, it’ll work out. There’s an outside chance his jumper develops, his defense is worth of honors and he becomes a steal for Charlotte. We’ll see.

IT’S TIME. It’s Andre Drummond’s time to become a star.

STEPH’S FUTURE: Jimmy Spencer interviewed Stephen Curry about a host of things ... including how free agency doesn’t appeal to the reigning MVP.

UMMM ... Thank you VICE and Joseph Swide for bringing us the world’s greatest Tyronn Lue fan page.

METTA WORLD WHAT NOW? The Lakers are considering bringing back Metta World Peace and his panda sneakers. It is 2015.

SPEAKING OF THE LAKERS ... Reminder! Julius Randle is going to be a rookie for better or worse and will probably need time to develop.

WELL THAT’S SOMETHING: Wesley Matthews claims he’ll be ready for opening night, which is rather surprising.

OH GOOD: Nick Young agrees with Cris Carter with one edit. He says rookies need a fall guy or a girlfriend.

WOO WEE: NBA 2K16 trailer!!!

WHY HARDEN AND WHY $200 MILLION? My pal Brett Pollakoff answers the question of why Adidas paid James Harden $200 million to sell shoes.

RIGHT: LaMarcus Aldridge claims he chose San Antonio because of the pitch from former teammate and current Spurs assistant Ime Udoka. Right. (Teams will now race to sign Kevin Durant’s former teammates as assistant coaches. Where are you at, Luke Ridnour, Kevin Ollie [oh] and Derek Fisher [oh]? How about Hasheem Thabeet? We know he looks good in a suit.)

SPEAKING THE LANGUAGE OF BASKETBALL THROUGH DATA: Good Q&A with Rajiv Maheswaran of Second Spectrum, an analytics company doing very neat things.

Happy Tuesday. See you next time.