Good morning. Let’s basketball.
Let’s freak out about the Warriors (more than usual)
Good morning. We have that and more in Wednesday’s NBA newsletter.
HIDE YO KIDS HIDE YO WIFE: Adrian Wojnarowski reports that the Warriors are indeed the top competitor chasing Kevin Durant in free agency, should KD decide to leave Oklahoma City. This follows a similar report from Chris Broussard last month. Jason Patt breaks down what makes this so unbelievably terrifying and how it could actually work in terms of the salary cap. Short version: Harrison Barnes is probably out and Andre Iguodala or Andrew Bogut become trade bait.
There has been some skepticism that Curry-Draymond-Klay-Durant would be as fearsome as it looks on paper. And it’s extraordinarily difficult to imagine a team better than 44-4 in the modern NBA. But Durant is perhaps the most deferential superstar scorer of our time (Dirk is the king of this category) and the Warriors pass so well that this crew will absolutely make it work. 73-9 isn’t cool, you know what’s cool? 82-0.
ADAM SILVER AT AGE 2 (WAIT, WHAT?): Paul Flannery and I discussed the first two years of Adam Silver’s commissionership in our aptly named conversation series Flannz & Zillz.
SCORES GALORE ...
BOS 97, NYK 89
MIA 102, HOU 115
TOR 104, PHX 97
MIL 95, POR 107
MIN 115, LAL 119
OOF: Kobe sealed that Lakers’ win on a vintage fadeaway and was great overall. Nice work. But that’s a potentially destructive win for the Lakers: both the Wolves and Suns are slowly tumbling back toward L.A.‘s slot at the very bottom of the West. Remember that the Lakers don’t keep their pick if it lands outside the top three. They can ill afford to finish with a better record than multiple teams. Right now, L.A. (10 wins) is second-worst behind Philadelphia (7). But Brooklyn (12), Minnesota (14) and Phoenix (14) are awful close.
STANDINGS CHECK: Only minor movement in the East playoff picture. Out West, Portland secured a half-game lead on No. 8 ahead of Utah with Sacramento two games back.
OK WE SEE YOU NOW: Zach Lowe on the evolution of the Thunder, who are really damn good.
NICE: Clutch, the only member of the Houston Rockets who even cares, nails a backwards halfcourt shot.
NOTED: Markieff Morris had his best game of the season in the first game after Jeff Hornacek was fired.
HMMM: Is Al Horford quietly available? He’s one of our top-ranked free agents, and if Atlanta is nervous about this summer, they could flip him for assets now. But will any team after him this summer want to give up assets now with no guarantee he’ll be there next season? Tough call.
WHAT A DIVE! Marcus Smart fell so fast on this apparent flop that Carmelo Anthony was a little bit stunned and took an awful shot. Via Reddit.
THE NO-TANK DRAFT-FIRST PROCESS: Nice piece by Jeff Clark on how the Celtics are poised to build a potential juggernaut through the draft without tanking due to the nature of the picks they own. In other words, thanks Nets!
WAIT, WHAT? The artist who did some of LeBron’s tattoos has sued the makers of the NBA 2K series on grounds of copyright infringement because the game shows the ink but the makers did not ask the tattoo artist for permission. It looks like the matter of copyright law on tattoo design is untested in the courts, so perhaps this will be the case that gets a resolution. Prepare to play video games and pour over LeBron’s ink, SCOTUS justices ... (Via REDEF.)
TONIGHT TONIGHT: An 11-game slate is on deck, headlined by your ESPN doubleheader: Warriors-Wizards and Wolves-Clippers. Pistons-Celtics and Heat-Mavericks are your only games with two above-.500 teams.
Happy Wednesday. See you next time.
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