Brad Stevens Responds To Report On Jaylen Brown’s “Frustration” With Celtics
Tracy McGrady is suggesting that Jaylen Brown has become frustrated with the Celtics in the wake of their first-round playoff ouster, but president of basketball operations Brad Stevens hasn’t seen anything to make him believe that’s true, according to Brian Robb of MassLive.
McGrady, a studio analyst for NBC Sports, made the claim Wednesday morning on his Cousins podcast with Vince Carter (YouTube link). The comments carry extra weight because McGrady has served as a mentor for Brown and is presumably tied into thinking regarding the team.
“I think his frustration lies deeply within the organizations and other things that we don’t really have the details to,” McGrady said. “It’s just been a lot of stuff that I’ve been hearing just going on with the Boston organization, with JB. I think part of him is like, ‘I showed you guys more of who I am as a basketball player.’
“Not only just what I did on the basketball court but the leadership that I displayed within this team and you’ve seen that. Not having our best player in (Jayson Tatum). You’ve seen a different side of me and what I’m able to bring to the game of basketball. All that stuff just came into play with him and his frustration.”
With Tatum sidelined until early March while recovering from a torn Achilles, Brown was asked to carry more of the scoring load and responded with the best season of his 10-year career. He posted career highs of 28.7 points, 6.9 rebounds and 5.1 assists in 71 games, placing him in contention for first-team All-NBA honors.
He recently raised eyebrows in Boston by calling this his favorite season, even though the Celtics, who won the NBA title two years ago, failed to advance in the playoffs.
Speaking Wednesday at his end-of-season press conference, Stevens said Brown hasn’t offered any indication of being unhappy.
“I talked to Jaylen Monday a little bit, after he just, real quickly, and was nothing but positive,” Stevens said. “He has not expressed those frustrations to me.”
Brown is under contract for three more seasons, so he wouldn’t have much leverage to force a trade even if McGrady’s claims are true. Brown will earn $58.5MM, $62.8MM and $67.1MM before becoming an unrestricted free agent in the summer of 2029.
Stevens added that he’s willing to meet with Brown and talk through any problems, Robb adds.
“We’ve been here 10 years together, and I do think that, obviously I love JB,” Stevens said. “Everybody around here loves JB, and I think just like any of our other guys, as we get to the end of the season, I’ll be here, and my door is always open. And if anybody ever wants to come in and talk about it, and talk about their team, their place, whatever the case may be, I’m all ears.
“And that would be one through 16, not just Jaylen, not just Jayson, not just the guys that have been here. I think it’s really important to be available. So I certainly am, and none of that has been expressed to me.”
Sixers Rule Out Joel Embiid For Game 2
After initially being listed as probable due to a right ankle sprain, Sixers center Joel Embiid has been ruled out for Game 2 on Wednesday due to that ankle injury as well as right hip soreness. The decision, which is now official, was first reported by Shams Charania of ESPN (Twitter link).
According to Charania (Twitter link), Embiid has been dealing with increased soreness in his ankle and hip since Monday’s contest and wasn’t able to participate in this morning’s shootaround. The banged-up big man, who returned to action in Game 4 of the first round after undergoing an emergency appendectomy last month, has been receiving “around-the clock” treatment in the hopes of getting him ready for Game 2, Charania adds, but it wasn’t enough.
Embiid played a crucial role in the 76ers’ first-round comeback from a 3-1 deficit, averaging 28.7 points, 8.7 rebounds, and 7.3 assists per night in Games 5, 6, and 7. Philadelphia outscored Boston by 31 points with Embiid on the floor during those three victories. However, the former MVP struggled in Monday’s blowout loss to New York, scoring 14 points on 3-of-11 shooting.
With Embiid unavailable, the Sixers will have to lean more heavily on Adem Bona, who started the first three games of the Boston series, and Andre Drummond, who split center duties with Bona during those contests, averaging 24.3 MPG.
There were also be added pressure on Tyrese Maxey, VJ Edgecombe, and Paul George to carry the offensive load without Embiid on the court.
Timberwolves’ Ayo Dosunmu To Return For Game 2
After welcoming Anthony Edwards back from a knee injury for the first game of their second-round series vs. San Antonio on Monday, the Timberwolves will get more reinforcements in their backcourt for Game 2, having announced today (via Twitter) that Ayo Dosunmu has been upgraded to available (Twitter link).
Dosunmu played a major role in Minnesota’s first-round series win over Denver, scoring 25 points to go along with nine assists in a Game 3 win and then following that up by racking up 43 points on 13-of-17 shooting in Game 4. For the series, he averaged 21.8 PPG and 4.0 APG on .609/.545/.950 shooting across five outings.
However, right calf soreness sidelined him for Game 6 against the Nuggets and kept him on the shelf for Game 1 against the Spurs. Wednesday’s game will be the first time the 26-year-old has suited up since last Monday.
While it’s unclear whether Dosunmu will be on a strict minutes limit, it’s probably safe to assume he won’t immediately be thrown back into the fire by playing 40 minutes tonight. For his part, Edwards came off the bench and was limited to 25 minutes on Monday — I’d expect the Wolves to take a similar approach with Dosunmu’s workload.
Edwards continues to be listed as questionable for Wednesday due to his left knee injury, but he reported no setbacks after Game 1 and there have been no indications that his availability for Game 2 is in any jeopardy.
And-Ones: Sengun, A. Smith, G League Combine, More
In their annual player poll, Josh Robbins, Sam Amick, Joe Vardon, and other reporters for The Athletic solicited opinions from players around the NBA about the league’s most underrated and overrated stars, which coaches have impressed them the most and the least, and the best defensive players among their peers.
No player earned more votes as “most overrated” than Rockets center Alperen Sengun, who was named by 10 out of 81 respondents. However, for what it’s worth, many players polled by The Athletic declined to answer that question.
“I was part of the group that said Tyrese Haliburton for most overrated (in 2025), and what he did in the playoffs last year was unreal,” one player said. “So I’m not saying (who I think is overrated). We have a lot of really good players in this league.”
Here are more odds and ends from around the basketball world:
- Former NBA All-Star Adrian Smith, who earned All-Star Game MVP honors in 1966 as a member of the Cincinnati Royals and won an NCAA title in 1958 with Kentucky, has passed away at the age of 89, per the league (Twitter link). Smith spent 10 years in the league, averaging 11.8 points per game across 719 total appearances for the Royals and the San Francisco Warriors.
- Jaxon Kohler (Michigan State), Aaron Nkrumah (Tennessee State), and Malik Reneau (Miami) have been chosen as replacements for the upcoming G League combine, reports Jeremy Woo of ESPN (Twitter links). They’re stepping in for Isiah Harwell (Houston), Paulius Murauskas (St. Mary’s), and Alijah Arenas (USC), all of whom had been testing the draft waters. While it’s unclear if all three of those players are withdrawing from the draft, it sounds like Arenas, at least, has decided to remove his name.
- Yossi Gozlan of The Third Apron (Substack link) questions whether the time is right for the NBA to implement its “3-2-1” draft lottery reform plan, pointing out that the changes will significantly impact the value of several traded picks for 2027 and arguing that the league might be better off taking another year to figure out a more effective long-term solution to combat tanking.
- Former Hawks finance executive Lester T. Jones Jr. was formally sentenced last week after pleading guilty to wire fraud in December, per an Associated Press report. Jones, who embezzled roughly $3.7MM from the team by submitting fraudulent expense reports and misusing corporate credit cards, received three years and five months in prison.
Wolves Notes: Edwards, Dosunmu, Finch, Randle
According to Timberwolves guard Mike Conley, “nobody” expected Anthony Edwards to be available for Game 1 of the second round on Monday after he suffered a left knee injury just nine days earlier that was projected to sideline him for multiple weeks.
However, as Anthony Slater of ESPN writes, Edwards made significant progress in his recovery over the weekend and was upgraded to questionable before being listed as available. The star guard was limited to 25 minutes off the bench, but scored 18 points on 8-of-13 shooting as Minnesota became the only one of four road teams to win Game 1.
“I know for a fact that me being out there calms everybody down,” Edwards said after the victory.
While Edwards presumably isn’t feeling 100%, he came through Game 1 with no setbacks, head coach Chris Finch said on Tuesday. According to Slater (Twitter link), it remains to be seen whether Edwards will be able to increase his minutes limit beyond that range of 25 in Game 2, but the plan was for him to do some light work and receive treatment on Tuesday in preparation for Wednesday’s contest.
Here’s more on the Wolves:
- Both Edwards and guard Ayo Dosunmu (right calf) are listed as questionable to play in Game 3, the Wolves announced (via Twitter). Dosunmu missed Game 6 of the first round vs. Denver as well as Game 1 vs. San Antonio due to that calf issue.
- Although the Wolves won Monday’s game, head coach Chris Finch is doing what he can to make sure the officials keep a closer eye on Spurs star Victor Wembanyama after the Defensive Player of the Year registered a playoff-record 12 blocked shots in Game 1. Speaking on Tuesday to reporters, including Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic, Finch said he thought at least four of those 12 blocks should have been goaltends. “Maybe even a fifth,” he said. “To me, it’s a little alarming that none of them were called. Here’s a generational shot blocker who is 7-6, who goes after everything, and there’s no heightened awareness that these blocks could be goaltends?”
- With Edwards leading the offense, Rudy Gobert anchoring the defense, and Jaden McDaniels emerging as a two-way star, Julius Randle has flown somewhat under the radar in Minnesota this spring. However, the three-time All-Star forward is a crucial part of the Wolves’ game plan against San Antonio due to his ability to be physical with Wembanyama and the Spurs’ front line, writes Marcus Thompson II of The Athletic. “He’s the strongest player on the floor,” teammate Terrence Shannon Jr. said of Randle. “You know he can use his physicality against anybody. Any of them.”
Northwest Notes: Braun, Wallace, Love, Nurkic, Blazers
After signing a five-year, $125MM rookie scale extension with the Nuggets last October, Christian Braun had a down year. As Bennett Durando of The Denver Post details (subscription required), an ankle injury limited Braun to 44 regular season appearances and his three-point percentage dropped to 30.1%, easily a career low.
“I was rewarded for my work on my rookie deal, so I understand the expectations are higher, and I need to be better,” Braun said. “That just is what it is. So as an individual, I understand I need to get better. I need to play better. I get to get healthy, first and foremost. But there is no excuse.”
That left ankle injury – a severe sprain that included torn ligaments – was a recurring issue throughout the season and continued to swell up in the playoffs, Durando writes. Braun also sustained a left calf injury in Game 1 of the first round, two sources tell The Denver Post, which further limited his jumping ability. Still, the 25-year-old insisted that a disappointing year for both him and the team couldn’t be simply chalked up to health issues.
“A first-round exit’s not acceptable. We’ve gotta bounce back,” Braun said. “We’ve gotta get to work. … You can kind of put it on my shoulders. I think this team wasn’t resilient enough in the playoffs. … I just think I’m the leader of this team. I’m the vocal leader of this team. And when we don’t play well as a whole, you can blame whatever you want … You can blame anything. But I didn’t play well enough as an individual, and I didn’t have this team ready enough to play in a tough series. So we’ll be better. I’ll be better. I’m looking forward to next year, when we can respond.”
As Durando points out, while a cap-strapped Nuggets team may explore the possibility of trading Braun as his pricey extension begins, the widespread belief is that Denver would need to attach an asset or two to incentivize a team to take on that five-year contract. With that in mind, it’s more likely that Braun sticks around and gets a chance to rebuild his value with a bounce-back season in 2026/27.
We have more from around the Northwest:
- The Thunder – who have had the NBA’s best defense in each of the past two seasons – have no shortage of standouts on that end of the court, but Justin Martinez of The Oklahoman contends that third-year guard Cason Wallace deserves to be singled out with an All-Defensive nod this spring. “He leads the league in steals,” Luguentz Dort said of his teammate. “That says it all. The way he’s active with his hands, it’s really not easy to do. I’ve been trying, and obviously it’s not the same result. Just what he brings on that end of the floor, he’s active with his hands and he can move his feet really well. He’s really fast, and he’s stronger than people think as well. There’s a lot of stuff he does defensively that’s hard to do.”
- Yossi Gozlan of The Third Apron (Substack link) previews what he believes may be the Trail Blazers‘ “most pivotal offseason in at least a decade,” examining the team’s cap situation and considering whether the time is right for the front office to make a major trade. It might make sense for Portland to cash in this summer on some of its excess first-round picks, Gozlan argues, since the teams those first-rounders are coming from – Orlando and Milwaukee – may improve in the coming years, reducing the value of their picks.
- Veteran big men Kevin Love and Jusuf Nurkic have expressed interest in remaining in Utah, prompting Sarah Todd of The Deseret News to consider whether the Jazz should want them back. Given that Love will likely be signing a minimum-salary contract, he’s probably more likely to return than Nurkic, whose future could hinge largely on his price tag in free agency, Todd writes.
Players Eligible For Rookie Scale Extensions In 2026
After the NBA’s 2026/27 league year begins this summer and the July moratorium ends, players eligible for free agency will be able to begin officially finalizing contract agreements with suitors. In addition to those free agents, another group of players will also become eligible to sign new deals.
For players who are entering the fourth and final year of their rookie scale contracts, the first day of the new league year (July 1) is the first day they can agree to rookie scale extensions. Those players, who were all 2023 first-round selections, will have until the day before the 2026/27 regular season starts to finalize long-term agreements with their current teams.
Players eligible for rookie scale extensions can sign new deals that run for up to five years, with those contracts taking effect beginning in 2027/28. If they don’t sign extensions during the coming offseason, those players will be eligible for restricted free agency in the summer of 2027.
Nine players who were eligible for rookie scale extensions during the 2025 offseason signed new deals, which represented a slight dip from recent years. From 2021-24, at least 11 players signed rookie scale extensions every year, including a record-setting 14 in 2023. Still, 2025 represented the seventh consecutive year in which there have been at least nine rookie scale recipients.
We should expect several more rookie scale extensions to be signed between July and October of this year.
Here are the players who will be eligible to sign rookie scale extensions during the 2026 offseason:
- Anthony Black (Magic)
- Noah Clowney (Nets)
- Bilal Coulibaly (Wizards)
- Gradey Dick (Raptors)
- Keyonte George (Jazz)
- Jordan Hawkins (Pelicans)
- Scoot Henderson (Trail Blazers)
- Taylor Hendricks (Grizzlies)
- Jaime Jaquez Jr. (Heat)
- Dereck Lively II (Mavericks)
- Brandon Miller (Hornets)
- Kris Murray (Trail Blazers)
- Brandin Podziemski (Warriors)
- Marcus Sasser (Pistons)
- Brice Sensabaugh (Jazz)
- Ben Sheppard (Pacers)
- Julian Strawther (Nuggets)
- Amen Thompson (Rockets)
- Ausar Thompson (Pistons)
- Jarace Walker (Pacers)
- Cason Wallace (Thunder)
- Victor Wembanyama (Spurs)
- Cam Whitmore (Wizards)
The following players were selected in the first round of the 2023 draft along with the players listed above. However, they aren’t eligible for rookie scale extensions this year for the reasons noted:
- Kobe Brown: Fourth-year option declined by Clippers in 2025.
- Kobe Bufkin: Waived by Nets in 2025.
- Jalen Hood-Schifino: Third-year option declined by Lakers in 2024; waived in 2025.
- Jett Howard: Fourth-year option declined by Magic in 2025.
- Olivier-Maxence Prosper: Waived by Mavericks in 2025.
- Nick Smith Jr.: Waived by Hornets in 2025.
- Dariq Whitehead: Waived by Nets in 2025.
Lakers’ Jarred Vanderbilt Dislocates Pinky Finger
Lakers forward Jarred Vanderbilt suffered a full dislocation of his right pinky finger during Game 1 of their series against the Thunder on Tuesday, ESPN’s Shams Charania tweets.
As The California Post’s Khobi Price writes, Vanderbilt was injured during the first half attempting to block an alley-oop for Chet Holmgren. Vanderbilt’s right pinky hit the backboard as he swiped for the ball.
The 6-foot-8 forward immediately went to the ground in pain, holding his right hand near the Thunder bench. Some Oklahoma City players turned away when they saw Vanderbilt’s hand.
The loss of Vanderbilt would remove a wing/frontcourt option for the underdog Lakers, who are already waiting for superstar Luka Doncic to return from his hamstring injury. The veteran averaged 3.6 points and 4.4 rebounds in 13.4 minutes per game against Houston during the first round.
Vanderbilt was benched during the decisive Game 6 after playing just six minutes in Game 5. He appeared in 65 games during the regular season, averaging 4.4 points and 4.5 rebounds per contest.
Oklahoma City went on to win the opener, 108-90. Once Vanderbilt came out in the first half, the Lakers essentially went with an eight-man rotation until garbage time.
Vanderbilt has two years remaining on his four-year, $48MM deal.
Pacers Hopeful Of Retaining Pick But Won’t Regret Zubac Deal
The NBA will hold its annual draft lottery on Sunday. If the Pacers have some lottery luck, they’ll retain their top-four protected pick. If they drop out of the top four, they’ll convey the pick, courtesy of the Ivica Zubac trade with the Clippers.
Should Indiana drop out of the No. 2 spot to No. 5 or 6, there will be no regrets, given that Zubac is viewed as the team’s long-term solution at center.
“When we made the trade, obviously we knew there was risk involved as there is in any other trade,” Pacers GM Chad Buchanan said in a recent radio interview relayed by the Indianapolis Star’s Dustin Dopirak. “With the draft pick involved, we looked at the finances of the situation and the scenario where you keep the pick, the scenario where you lose the pick. We felt that both scenarios provided opportunities to help our team be better next year.
“We don’t want to be standing on the sidelines watching teams go for a trophy. We feel like we have a team that showed us these last two years that we are in that mix when we’re healthy. Shame on us if we don’t try to help put this team in position to have another couple runs at it. If we’re always thinking long, long, long-term, you never step up to the plate and swing.”
The Pacers have never had the No. 1 overall pick. They had the No. 2 pick in 1988, when they selected big man Rik Smits. They have a 14% shot at the top pick and a 52.1% chance to get a top-four pick, with a 47.9% chance that it’s conveyed to the Clippers.
Zubac played just five games after the February trade, spending a month recovering from an ankle injury and then ending his season with a fractured rib. However, he averaged a double-double for the Clippers before the trade (14.1 PPG and 10.6 RPG) and made the All-Defensive second team in 2024/25.
“The core of this comes down to Ivica is a great player,” Buchanan said. “We’ve been a big believer, a big fan of him for a long time. This team has shown that it’s capable of doing some really special things. We were missing a starting center that we thought could keep us in that mix. We owed it to this group and these fans and our community to put us in position to try and do and replicate some of the things we’ve seen these last two years from this team.”
There will be “disappointment” if the Pacers have to send their first-rounder to the Clippers, but Buchanan is prepared to pivot.
“Should we lose the pick, there’s other opportunities to improve our team through free agency,” Buchanan said. “We still have trades. We gain a pick that we can use in the future for a trade. We feel like there’s a way to improve our team either way with the ping-pong balls, however they fall for us. We’re not putting all our eggs into one basket that, ‘Hey, if we don’t keep this pick, it’s doom and gloom,’ because it’s not. “
There’s a specific need he wants to address, with or without the lottery selection.
“One thing this season revealed for us is the need for some scoring off our bench, I think will be important, probably from the wing position,” Buchanan said.
The Pacers project to have roughly $200MM in salary on their books for 2026/27, including non-guaranteed contracts and team options, according to Tony East of Forbes.com. That number will increase if they retain the pick, which would carry a cap hold of at least $10MM+. Without the pick, they’d have access to at least some of the non-taxpayer mid-level exception as well as exploring trade avenues.
“There’s a pretty significant salary slot for a top-four pick,” coach Rick Carlisle said. “Theoretically, there’s the opportunity to use that money, if it’s not being spent on a high draft pick, on some players in free agency or use that gap of money to be a part of another transaction that could help us. Time will tell.”
Jaylen Brown Fined $50K For Ripping Officials
Celtics forward Jaylen Brown has been fined $50K by the league for public criticism of the officiating, the league office announced on Tuesday (via Twitter).
Brown made his comments during a Twitch live stream on Sunday following the Celtics’ 109-100 loss to the Sixers in Game 7 of their first-round playoff series.
He accused officials of having “an agenda” against him. He also called out Sixers center Joel Embiid for flopping, saying it has “ruined our game.”
“Joel Embiid is a great player. One of the best bigs in basketball history. [But he] flops. He know it,” Brown said. “This ain’t breaking news. It is what it is.”
At one point during his comments, Brown showed a video of Philadelphia forward Paul George seeming to push off slightly before making a move. Brown, who was whistled for 10 offensive fouls during the series – twice as many as any other player in the first round – claims he isn’t officiated the same as everyone else.
“If you’re going to call push-offs, call that,” Brown said. “Same move. Same refs. Oh, it’s nothing? It’s play on, right? But you gonna call me? Everybody does it … but if it would have been me, it’d have been an offensive foul.”
Brown was called for 40 offensive fouls during the regular season, second only to Knicks big man Karl-Anthony Towns. However, foul calls were roughly even during the seven-game series, with 136 on the Celtics and 132 on the Sixers.
Brown averaged 25.7 points per game during the series, the best postseason scoring numbers of his career, while shooting 45.5% from the floor and 40.5% from beyond the arc. He was whistled for 3.0 fouls per game.
“Every good basketball player does this. What are y’all talking about? They clearly had an agenda,” Brown added in reference to George’s alleged push-off. “If Jaylen does this move, call the offensive foul and follow him every time. I don’t know if it’s because I pissed the refs off. I’ve been critical about them, and I called them out a bunch of times. So, they were like, ‘You know what, I got you in the playoffs. Watch this.’ [Because] that’s exactly what they did. It’s clearly an agenda. Look at the same move. Some referees that if I had to choose, if I had to, like, say there’s some referees that need to be investigated. We had three of them in the last three games.”
Brown also blasted the officiating after being ejected from a March 10 game against the Spurs for complaining about a no-call. He was fined $35K for his comments at that time.