Central Notes: Donovan, Bulls, Cavs, Bucks, Gores
Before the Bulls fired top executives Arturas Karnisovas and Marc Eversley last week, it felt like there was a 90% chance that head coach Billy Donovan would be leaving the team, according to Joe Cowley of The Chicago Sun-Times, who suggests that the former front office didn’t seem to have a plan that would make Donovan optimistic about the team’s future.
However, with Karnisovas and Eversley no longer in the picture, Donovan’s decision feels more like a coin flip, Cowley writes, speculating that there’s now a “49%” chance of the head coach departing.
Within his story, Cowley writes that Karnisovas’ and Eversley’s talent evaluation had long been considered questionable, dating back to the 2020 draft, when Karnisovas “fixated” on Patrick Williams with the No. 4 overall pick. According to one of Cowley’s sources, there were scouts and executives within the organization who preferred Tyrese Haliburton, but Karnisovas didn’t view the point guard as a “serious prospect.” Haliburton has since made two All-NBA teams and gotten within one win of a championship.
We have more from around the Central:
- In a separate story for the Chicago Sun-Times, Cowley considers a few potential targets for the Bulls with their newly secured second first-round pick, courtesy of Portland. Cowley identifies UConn’s Braylon Mullins, Michigan’s Aday Mara, and Kentucky’s Jayden Quaintance as prospects who Chicago may consider drafting using that pick, which will be either 15th or 16th overall.
- What’s at stake for the Cavaliers during this year’s playoffs? “Everything,” according to Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com (subscription required), who believes that any number of organizational and roster changes could be on the table if Cleveland fails to advance to at least the conference finals this spring after spending more than any other team on its roster in 2025/26.
- Jim Owczarski of The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (subscription required) poses some of the most pressing questions facing the Bucks this summer, including whether ownership wants to keep Giannis Antetokounmpo long-term, who will be the next head coach, and whether they can nail their first lottery pick since 2016.
- Pistons owner Tom Gores published a letter on Tuesday thanking fans for sticking with the team through a challenging rebuild that included five straight years between 14 and 23 wins, including a franchise-worst 14-68 mark in 2023/24. “What we’re building here is a story for the ages,” Gores wrote. “One of the great comeback stories in sports, and not just because of where we are today but because of how we got here.”
Pelicans Notes: Head Coach, Offseason, Zion, Queen, Draft
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Pelicans executive VP of basketball operations Joe Dumars confirmed that the team will embark on a head coaching search and that in-season replacement James Borrego will be a candidate for the permanent job, according to Rod Walker of NOLA.com (subscription required).
“What makes him a viable candidate is his ability to communicate with the team every day and to do it in a positive way every day,” Dumars said of Borrego, who took over for Willie Green in November. “What James did well this year was never let the building completely collapse. He always tried to keep the team up and positive. That’s exactly what you want to see, especially in a situation where he took over and it could have slid.”
Names like Darvin Ham, Kevin Ollie, and Jamahl Mosley have also been connected to the Pelicans’ head coaching position, but Dumars suggested the team isn’t far enough along in the process to have a list of legitimate candidates yet.
“Some of the stuff you wake up and see in this seat is so far-fetched and not even remotely close to being true. I saw a lot of that this year, if I’m being honest. I saw names pop up in trades. I saw coaches lists,” Dumars said. “We don’t even have a list like that right now. We have got names that we’ve been talking about.
“Sometimes I’m just thinking, ‘Where is that coming from?’ It’s amazing. We are going to go through this process the right way. We are going to figure out what’s best for New Orleans.”
Here’s more on the Pelicans:
- Rather than citing specific positions or skills the Pelicans will be targeting this offseason, Dumars pointed to a certain mentality that he’ll be focusing on as he and the front office consider roster additions, per Walker. “I would add more toughness to this team,” he said. “We have to be able to compete every night. We cannot get banged around, pushed around. We have to be physical and compete every night. There were some nights we did it, but too many nights we didn’t compete at a high enough level for me. You can’t get past that in this league. We have talent. But if you think you’re just going to roll talent out on an NBA court and that’s all you need to do to win, that’s not going to happen.”
- Dumars told reporters, including Walker, that he doesn’t believe the Pelicans are that far away from being a winning team and that he’d not anticipating a protracted rebuilding process. “We had a tremendous amount of very close games that we should have won,” he said. “When you have that many games where you are right there to win and you don’t know yet how to close out games, that’s different than getting blown out by 20 every night. When you get blown out by 20 every night, I’ve got to look around the room with staff and scouts and say, ‘We are not good enough, we are not talented enough and don’t have enough depth to win here.’ I don’t feel that. I feel that we are close enough. But it takes some work.”
- Asked about whether Zion Williamson and Derik Queen can play alongside one another in the Pelicans’ frontcourt, Dumars – who dismissed the idea of seeking a Williamson trade this offseason – suggested that he’s willing to be patient and give the duo a chance to prove it can succeed. “I always chuckle when people ask, ‘Can they play together?'” the veteran executive said, according to William Guillory of The Athletic. “You’ve got to allow people to grow in this league. I didn’t know if I could fit with (former Pistons guard) Isiah (Thomas) or not. But I knew we had great IQs and we could figure it out. Sometimes, you’ve got to let players figure it out.”
- New Orleans doesn’t control its own first-round pick, having traded it to Atlanta last year in order to draft Queen. However, Dumars expressed confidence in the Pelicans’ ability to acquire a first-rounder this June if they want to, tweets Guillory. Of course, trading into the back half of the first round is far more realistic than getting back into the lottery.
2026 NBA Draft Dates, Deadlines To Watch
We’re still over two months away from the 2026 NBA draft, but before we get to June 23, there are several other important dates and deadlines on the calendar. Here are some of those dates and deadlines worth keeping an eye on:
April 24 (11:59 pm ET): Deadline for early entrants to declare for the draft
College and international players who aren’t automatically draft-eligible this year have until the end of the day on April 24 to submit their names into the 2026 NBA draft pool. Those early entrants can withdraw their names later if they decide they’re not ready to go pro, though if college players want to maintain their NCAA eligibility, they can’t hire an agent who’s not certified by the NCAA.
Once the early entrant list is officially set, NBA teams can begin conducting or attending workouts for those players.
May 8-10: NBA G League Combine
The NBA has experimented in recent years with the format of this event, which was previously known as the G League Elite Camp. It was revamped in 2019 and consisted that year of 40 veteran G League invitees participating in the first half of the event, followed by 40 top draft-eligible players (who weren’t invited to the actual combine) taking part in the second half.
However, after being canceled in 2020 due to COVID-19, the Elite Camp only featured 40 draft-eligible prospects, without the G League players, when it returned in 2021. That format has carried over to subsequent years, including when the event was rebranded last year as the G League Combine.
The league invites roughly 40-50 prospects who didn’t make the initial cut for the NBA’s actual draft combine to the G League Combine, then a handful standouts are invited to remain in Chicago for the full-fledged combine that follows.
May 10: NBA draft lottery
The 2026 draft lottery will be the eighth one employing the format that was introduced in 2019. With the lottery odds flattened out, the NBA’s worst team has a 14% shot at the No. 1 overall pick, as opposed to the 25% chance it had prior to ’19.
The volatility of the format reared its head over the last couple years. In 2024, the Hawks jumped up from 10th in the lottery standings to nab the No. 1 overall pick, which they used on Zaccharie Risacher. A year later, the Mavericks entered lottery night with the 11th-best odds and lucked into the top pick in a draft that featured a consensus top pick, Cooper Flagg.
There’s not a single prospect that stands head-and-shoulders above the rest of the class in 2026, so any team that moves into the top four and comes away with a player like AJ Dybantsa, Darryn Peterson, Cameron Boozer, or Caleb Wilson should come away from lottery night pretty happy.
Notably, this will almost certainly be the last draft that uses the current format. NBA commissioner Adam Silver, looking to discourage teams from tanking, has vowed to implement lottery reform ahead of the 2026/27 season. It’s possible that the odds will be further flattened in 2027, leading to even more unpredictable results on lottery night.
May 10-17: NBA draft combine
This week-long event, which takes place annually in Chicago, allows NBA teams to get a first-hand look at many of the year’s top draft-eligible players.
The combine is often particularly important for early entrants who have yet to decide whether or not to stay in the draft. The feedback they get at the combine could go a long way toward dictating whether they keep their names in the draft or return to school for another year.
In the past, the draft lottery has taken place after the conclusion of the combine. The NBA flipped the two events on its calendar in 2024 and has stuck with that schedule since then. The May 10 lottery results figure to have an impact on which teams focus on which lottery-caliber players in Chicago.
May 27 (11:59 pm ET): NCAA early entrant withdrawal deadline
College underclassmen who want to retain their NCAA eligibility will have to withdraw their names from the draft pool by May 27. NBA rules call for a later withdrawal deadline, but the NCAA has its own set of rules that say the deadline is 10 days after the combine ends.
An early entrant could technically wait until after May 27 to withdraw from the draft and could still retain his NBA draft eligibility for a future year. However, he would forfeit his amateur status in that scenario, making him ineligible to return to his NCAA squad. College players who want to play overseas for a year or two before entering the NBA draft could take this route.
June 13 (5:00 pm ET): NBA early entrant withdrawal deadline
This is the NBA’s final deadline for early entrants to withdraw their names from the draft pool and retain their draft eligibility for a future year.
By this point, we generally know whether or not a college player decided to keep his name in the draft, but this is an important deadline for international players, who aren’t subject to the same restrictions as college prospects. We’ll likely hear about several international early entrants withdrawing from the draft during the days leading up to June 13.
June 23 and 24: NBA draft days
The most exciting few weeks of the NBA offseason unofficially begin on draft day, which is often when several of the first major trades of the summer are completed and when we get a sense of which direction certain teams are heading.
In 2024, for the first time, “draft day” actually referred to two days, as the NBA and NBPA agreed to make the draft a multi-day event, with the first round occurring on a Wednesday and the second round taking place on a Thursday. The league is sticking with that format in 2026 for a third straight year, though it’s moving the first round up to a Tuesday and the second round to a Wednesday, presumably to avoid a conflict with Team USA’s last group-play match in the FIFA World Cup on Thursday, June 25.
While the decision to expand the draft to two nights has drawn mixed reviews from fans, the NBA and most of its teams seem fond of it. Front offices now get the chance to regroup halfway through the draft to reset their boards and have more time to consider possible trades. The league’s broadcast partners, meanwhile, are able to devote a little more attention to second-round picks that frequently used to be made when the television broadcast was in the midst of an ad break, and fans don’t have to stay up so late into the night to see the end of the second round.
Each round of the draft will begin at 8:00 pm ET.
The hours and days after the second round ends will be hugely important for many of this year’s draft-eligible prospects — a ton of players who aren’t selected with one of the 60 picks in the draft will reach agreements shortly thereafter to play for an NBA team’s Summer League squad, to attend training camp with a club, or to sign a two-way contract.
And-Ones: Player Movement, J. Harper, CP3, More
It could be an eventful summer across the NBA, according to Marc Stein of The Stein Line (Substack link), who suggests within his look ahead to the offseason that there’s “growing anticipation” in rival front offices that more than one of Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo, Clippers forward Kawhi Leonard, and Lakers forward LeBron James could end up changing teams in the coming months.
Of the three, only James will be a free agent, Stein notes. But both Antetokounmpo and Leonard were involved in trade rumors in February ahead of the deadline and those rumors figure to resurface as both stars enter potential contract years.
Here are more odds and ends from around the basketball world:
- Former NBA point guard Jared Harper has been out of the league since 2022, but he’s building an impressive résumé overseas. Playing for Hapoel Jerusalem, Harper has been named the EuroCup MVP for a second straight year after averaging 19.5 points and 5.2 assists per game and leading his team to a league-best record of 13-5 during the 2025/26 regular season.
- After retiring from the NBA in February, future Hall-of-Famer Chris Paul will reportedly join the staff at Campbell Hall High in California and coach his son, Chris Paul II. Hunter Shelton of On3.com has the details.
- Yossi Gozlan of The Third Apron (Substack link) evaluates what the next contracts for several players eligible for rookie scale extensions in 2026 might look like, exploring whether maximum-salary deals are within reach for Jazz guard Keyonte George and Hornets forward Brandon Miller.
- With the first round of the playoffs set to tip off on Saturday, Zach Kram of ESPN ranks the 50 most impactful players taking part in the postseason, from play-in stars like Stephen Curry and Tyrese Maxey to top options on title contenders, including Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Victor Wembanyama.
Poll: Who Will Win Wednesday’s Play-In Games?
Entering the 2025/26 season, both the Clippers and Warriors were widely projected to finish among the top seven teams in the Western Conference, with Kawhi Leonard, James Harden, and Ivica Zubac leading the way for L.A. and Stephen Curry and Jimmy Butler as the co-stars in Golden State.
Nearly six months later, much has changed for both teams.
The Clippers, who have been the subject of an NBA investigation all season long due to allegations of salary-cap circumvention, got off to a miserable 6-21 start that had fans questioning whether blowing up the roster at the trade deadline was a real possibility for the club. L.A. rebounded nicely, finishing the season on a 36-19 run to get above .500 (42-40), but the team did break up its veteran core at the deadline after all, sending Harden to Cleveland and Zubac to Indiana.
The Clippers got enough back in those deals – including two-time All-Star Darius Garland – to remain competitive, especially with Leonard staying healthy and delivering a vintage season. But his future in Los Angeles remains a major question mark as he and the Clippers fight to earn a playoff spot this spring.
In Golden State, the Warriors’ star duo was broken up by an injury rather than a trade. Butler suffered a torn ACL in January that prematurely ended his season, while Curry went down shortly after that with a knee injury that kept him on the shelf for over two months. Without their top two scorers, the Warriors’ offense predictably nosedived — of the 20 teams that eventually made the postseason, none had a worse offensive rating from February 1 onward than Golden State. And none entered the play-in tournament with a worse record than the Warriors’ 37-45 mark.
Curry is back for the play-in tournament, but he’s still not at 100%, having played no more than 29 minutes in any of his four tune-up games at the end of the season. And without Butler available, the Warriors’ ceiling is limited.
Still, these are two veteran clubs with a ton of postseason experience between them, so Wednesday’s win-or-go-home game in L.A. will be a fascinating one. The No. 9 Clippers are currently favored over the No. 10 Warriors by about five points by most sportsbooks.
Before the Warriors and Clippers tip off, the Sixers and Magic will face one another in Philadelphia in Wednesday’s early game to determine which team will get the No. 7 seed in the Eastern Conference.
The 76ers have looked like a dangerous team at times in 2025/26, but the inconsistent availability of Joel Embiid and Paul George has once again made it hard for them to generate a ton of momentum. While Philadelphia posted a 24-14 record when Embiid played this season, he’s currently unavailable after undergoing an emergency appendectomy last week.
The Sixers were a sub-.500 team with Embiid inactive this season, but the good news is that both George and Tyrese Maxey are ready to go this week, and the club went 20-14 in the games they played together this season.
The 76ers are favored by two points against the Magic, who were viewed by oddsmakers as the third-best team in the East entering the season. Like Philadelphia, Orlando has been affected by injuries — star forward Franz Wagner was limited to 34 games due to a nagging high ankle sprain.
Still, even when they’ve been healthy, the Magic haven’t lived up to preseason expectations. They’ve struggled to maintain their past defensive level, dropping to 13th in defensive rating after finishing in the top three in each of the previous two seasons. And while Desmond Bane has been everything the team hoped for when it gave up four first-round picks to acquire him last summer, it hasn’t been enough to significantly improve Orlando’s offense, which was just 18th-best in the league this season.
The last week-and-a-half of the regular season was a microcosm of the Magic’s year as a whole. Battling for a top-six seed in the East, Orlando reeled off five straight wins from April 3-10, including an impressive victory over Detroit last Monday. But in Sunday’s regular season finale against a Celtics team resting nearly all of its regulars, the Magic failed to take care of business, losing 113-108 to slip to the No. 8 spot in the East.
Orlando wouldn’t have clinched a playoff spot with a win on Sunday, but that loss in Boston was the difference between hosting tonight’s game or visiting Philadelphia. And it’s probably safe to assume home court advantage would’ve made the Magic the favorites. Instead, they’re viewed as narrow (two-point) underdogs.
We want to know what you think. Which veteran Western Conference team will keep its season alive on Friday? Can the Emibid-less Sixers pull out a win against the up-and-down Magic to clinch a playoff spot?
Vote in our poll, then head to the comment section below to share your predictions!
Who will win Wednesday's play-in games?
Blazers Clinch Playoff Spot; NBA Announces Full First-Round Schedule
Trail Blazers forward Deni Avdija scored 41 points on Tuesday as Portland held on to win a back-and-forth contest over the Suns by a score of 114-110. The victory clinched the Blazers’ first playoff berth since 2021, locking them into the No. 7 seed and lining up a first-round matchup against the No. 2 Spurs.
“It’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me in my career so far,” Avdija said after the game, per David Brandt of The Associated Press.
Veteran point guard Jrue Holiday contributed 21 points for the Blazers, while forward Jerami Grant scored 16 points in 19 minutes off the bench in his first game back from a calf strain that sidelined him for the last seven games of the season. But it was Avdija who stole the show in Phoenix, shooting 15-of-22 from the field and handing out 12 assists to go along with his 41 points.
“I feel like he’s unique. Nobody does what he does,” Holiday said. “Deni coming out here, carrying us, especially down the stretch, getting that winning bucket and being able to go home knowing we’re playing San Antonio is something you love to see in Deni because this is what we expect from him now.”
The Suns will get a second chance on Friday to secure a playoff spot of their own by winning a play-in game in their home arena. They’ll host either the Clippers or Warriors, depending on the results of Wednesday’s contest, with Friday’s winner claiming the No. 8 seed and a first-round date with the defending champion Thunder.
The Bulls were the other big winner on Tuesday. As a result of Portland making the playoffs, the Trail Blazers’ top-14 protected first-round pick will now be sent to Chicago. That pick originally changed hands during the 2021 offseason and was supposed to be a 2022 selection, but had landed in its protected range for four straight years until now.
If the Suns win on Friday, that first-rounder will be 15th overall; if the Clippers or Warriors make it through to the No. 8 seed, it’ll drop to 16th. Either way, it’ll be a valuable asset for the rebuilding Bulls, whose own first-round pick will be ninth in the lottery standings.
Following the conclusion of the Blazers/Suns game, the NBA revealed the full schedule for all eight first-round series. Those schedules can be found right here. As usual, the first round is relatively drawn out — if any Game Sevens are necessary, they’ll take place on either May 2 or 3.
The conference semifinals are tentatively scheduled to begin on May 4, but could move up a day or two if certain series wrap up quickly.
Spoelstra Fumes Over ‘Dangerous Play’ That Injured Adebayo
The Heat–Hornets overtime thriller on Tuesday was marred by what Miami coach Erik Spoelstra called a “stupid play.”
Charlotte pulled out a 127-126 play-in tournament victory, with LaMelo Ball scoring the game-winning layup. Ball was also involved in a controversial play in the first half. Heat wing Simone Fontecchio blocked his shot and the Hornets guard tumbled to the ground. The ball landed in Bam Adebayo‘s hands and Ball, as ESPN’s Ohm Youngmisuk describes, grabbed at the Heat center’s legs, tripping him.
Adebayo fell hard to the floor and eventually limped back to the locker room. He was ruled out during the second half due to a lower back injury.
Spoelstra felt Ball should have been ejected. Instead, the Hornets guard finished with 30 points and 10 assists.
“I don’t think it’s cute. I don’t think it’s funny. I think it’s a stupid play,” Spoelstra said, per Michael Scotto of HoopsHype (Twitter link). “It’s a dangerous play. Obviously, our best player was out. I’m not making an excuse. The Hornets played great and made those plays down the stretch. We had our opportunities to win. That’s a shame. He should be penalized for that. I don’t think that belongs in the game, tripping guys, shenanigans. Somebody has got to see that. He should have been thrown out of the game for that. There’s no place in the game for that.”
Official Zach Zarba explained to a pool reporter why the play wasn’t reviewed
“The play wasn’t whistled in real time. Play continued with a fast break,” he said. “And because play wasn’t stopped immediately, and there was no whistle on the play, the window to review the play was closed. Play was stopped, after a change of possession, and then a time out. So, by rule, our window to review that play then is closed.”
According to Zarba, Ball could be disciplined by league operations when they review the play.
Ball was apologetic after the game, Youngmisuk tweets. He said he got hit in the head on the play and didn’t know where he was. He added that he would speak to Adebayo about it.
The Hornets will head to either Philadelphia or Orlando to play on Friday for the final playoff spot in the East.
Pacific Notes: Lue, Curry, Jackson, Westbrook, Allen
Clippers coach Tyronn Lue was the head coach of the Cavaliers in three of Cleveland’s matchups with the Warriors in the Finals. He now must face Golden State and Stephen Curry again in the play-in tournament on Wednesday. The losing team in the No. 9 vs. 10 matchup will see its season end.
“I’m sick of it,” Lue said playfully when asked about facing Curry again in the postseason. “He’s just a guy that can explode. He can score 50 if you’re not careful. He only had 24 last game, but he had nine three-point attempts. We can’t let him get that many attempts up from the three-point line. We gotta try to keep him down as much as possible… We gotta be locked in to what we’re trying to do defensively.”
Here’s more from the Pacific Division:
- The Clippers could have big man Isaiah Jackson — out since March 27 due to an ankle injury — available for the play-in game against the Warriors. He played 5-on-5 on Monday and practiced on Tuesday, Law Murray of The Athletic reports, and is listed as questionable (Twitter links). Jackson averaged 8.1 points and 5.2 rebounds in 17.4 minutes per game in 15 appearances off the bench last month.
- Russell Westbrook wouldn’t mind staying put with the Kings, Sean Cunningham of KCRA News tweets. “If I’m welcomed back, then I’ll be back,” Westbrook said. The veteran guard was on a one-year, veteran’s minimum contract this season. Playing for his seventh team, Westbrook, 37, averaged 15.2 points, 6.7 assists and 5.4 rebounds in 64 games.
- Suns wing Grayson Allen isn’t active for Tuesday’s play-in tournament game against Portland due to left hamstring soreness, the team tweets. Allen, who suffered the injury last Friday against the Lakers, averaged 16.5 points per game this season, the fourth-best mark on the team. It’s unclear if he’d be available for a second play-in game this Friday or Game 1 of a playoff series on Sunday.
Warriors Notes: Kerr, Curry, Porzingis, Horford, Green
There’s still no clarity on Steve Kerr‘s future with the Warriors, Nick Friedell of The Athletic reports. Kerr has put off talk of another contract until after the season.
A team source told Friedell that nothing had changed in that regard. Kerr signed a two-year, $35MM extension in 2024 that expires after this season. Golden State, seeded 10th, needs to win two games to advance through the play-in tournament.
However, Kerr’s preference is to stay put. He’d like to continue to coach the Warriors and Stephen Curry despite a very trying season. Draymond Green says the front office and ownership won’t find a better coach than the one they already have.
“I think oftentimes in this league, everybody is always looking at the other side thinking it’s greener,” Green said, per Florito Maniego of NBC Sports Bay Area. “Then, when they get on the other side, they realize all the grass is brown, and it’s dead. And there’s no sprinkler system, and the sun doesn’t rise on that side, it only sets on that side. Then, everybody wants to look back, like, ‘Oh, man.’ Now you start this cycle of [hiring] four coaches in four years. You start this cycle of six coaches over eight years.
“The Warriors have been through that cycle, and nobody is trying to go through that again. So, as long as we have Steve Kerr wanting to coach this team, you’re not going to go and find a better coach, so that’s not a worry of mine or anybody in this organization.”
Here’s more on the Warriors:
- They are in a do-or-die situation in Wednesday’s play-in tournament contest with the Clippers. However, Kerr must remain mindful of how much he can use some of his regulars. Curry, Kristaps Porzingis and Al Horford will all play fewer than 40 minutes in the must-win game, according to ESPN. All three missed chunks of time during the second half of the season due to injuries or illness. ESPN’s Anthony Slater (Twitter link) notes that Curry has played 26, 25, 27 and 29 minutes in his four games back from his knee injury. Slater projects that something in the range of 34 minutes will likely be Curry’s cap on Wednesday.
- Curry remains optimistic that the Warriors can extend their season, according to Janie McCauley of The Associated Press. “I love playing basketball,” he said. “It’s what I get paid to do. … Our season’s been different than we expected, but the fact that there is something to still play for gives all of us a lot of confidence down the stretch to make something out it, and I want to be a part of that.”
- Green may not be the defensive force he once was, but he’s still the team’s anchor in that department, Marcus Thompson II of The Athletic notes. Green appeared in 68 games and was a steadying influence on a team often playing shorthanded. “You gotta be locked in, number one,” he said. “I think these will be very detailed game plans. The guys you want shooting, you’ve got to have them shooting. You’ve gotta stay locked in on your defensive responsibility. You can’t have defensive lapses. There’s just no space for defensive lapses in playoff games, man. So I think it’s a matter of everybody understanding what the game plan is and accomplishing it.”
Steinbach, Quaintance, Carr, Thomas Enter NBA Draft
Potential lottery pick Hannes Steinbach is placing his name in the 2026 NBA draft, Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress tweets.
The German-born forward put up stellar stats in his lone season with the University of Washington, posting averages of 18.5 points, 11.8 rebounds, 1.6 assists, 1.2 blocks and 1.1 steals per game in 30 starts. The standout freshman shot 57.7 percent from the field and 34 percent on three-point attempts.
Givony projects the 6’11” Steinbach as a top-20 pick; ESPN’s Jeremy Woo has him as the No. 15 overall prospect on his current big board.
Here’s more draft news:
- Kentucky sophomore big man Jayden Quaintance announced on Tuesday in a social media post that he’s declaring for the 2026 draft (Instagram link). Quaintance is a projected first-rounder despite knee issues that have marred his two college seasons. He averaged 9.4 points, 7.9 rebounds, 2.6 blocks and 1.1 steals per game as a freshman at Arizona State before suffering a torn ACL and meniscus in his right knee. Persistent knee issues limited him to four games with the Wildcats this past season. The 6’10” forward/center is listed as ESPN’s No. 20 prospect.
- Another projected first-rounder, Baylor’s Cameron Carr, is declaring for the draft, Givony tweets. Carr averaged 18.9 points, 5.8 rebounds and 2.4 assists per game while shooting 38% from three as a junior this past season. The 6’5” Carr, who played just 18 games at Tennessee in his first two college seasons, will not enter the transfer portal and intends to go pro, Givony adds. Carr is rated 24th overall by ESPN.
- Arkansas guard Meleek Thomas will declare for the draft but maintain his college eligibility, Jon Rothstein of CBS Sports tweets. Thomas averaged 15.6 points, 3.8 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 1.5 steals per contest in his freshman season with the Razorbacks, knocking down 41.6% of his three-point attempts. He’s currently rated No. 28 by ESPN.