Nori, Splitter, Schmidt Among Bulls’ Coaching Finalists
After interviewing many candidates virtually, the Bulls have started to conduct in-person meetings this week with the top contenders for their head coaching job, league sources tell Jake Fischer and Marc Stein of The Stein Line (Substack link).
According to Stein, the finalists for the head coaching position in Chicago include Timberwolves assistant Micah Nori, Trail Blazers interim coach Tiago Splitter, and Hawks assistant Ryan Schmidt.
A veteran of the NBA coaching ranks who initially joined the Raptors as an assistant in 2009, Nori spent four years in Toronto (2009-13) prior to stints with the Kings (2013-15), Nuggets (2015-18), and Pistons (2018-21). He has been working under Chris Finch in Minnesota since 2021 and holds the title of associate head coach for the Timberwolves.
Splitter, a former NBA center who won a championship with San Antonio in 2014, worked as an assistant in Brooklyn (2019-23) and Houston (2023-24) before spending the 2024/25 season as the head coach of Paris Basketball.
Splitter returned stateside in 2025 to be an assistant in Portland but was thrust into the role of Trail Blazers head coach during the first week of the regular season following Chauncey Billups‘ arrest in connection with an illegal gambling investigation. He led the team to a 42-39 record the rest of the way and earned the No. 7 seed in the West with a play-in victory over Phoenix.
Schmidt, an assistant for the Raptors 905 in the G League for four seasons from 2017-21, has gained some head coaching experience since then, first with the London Lions in the British Basketball League and then with the College Park Skyhawks, Atlanta’s NBAGL affiliate. He has been a full-time Hawks assistant under Quin Snyder since 2024.
Both Nori and Splitter have been connected to multiple head coaching vacancies this spring. They’re also reportedly considered finalists for the Trail Blazers job, so the Bulls could face some competition if they want to hire either candidate. Nori is also believed to be on the Mavericks’ radar.
Fischer and Stein previously reported that former Wizards head coach Wes Unseld Jr., an assistant in Chicago since 2024, is also a potential finalist for the Bulls. That’s still the case, according to The Stein Line duo, who say that if Unseld doesn’t get the job, there’s a “strong possibility” he’ll be asked to remain in Chicago as part of the new coach’s staff.
There’s no indication that the Bulls have narrowed down their search to these four specific candidates, so it remains possible that others will be added to the list of finalists in the coming days. The team is in the market for a new head coach after Billy Donovan stepped down from the position in April.
Giannis Antetokounmpo Trade Considered Increasingly Likely?
It appears more and more likely that a Giannis Antetokounmpo trade will happen in the coming weeks, according to Jake Fischer and Marc Stein of The Stein Line (Substack link). As Fischer and Stein explain, virtually every team they talk to increasingly believes that the Bucks intend to make a deal involving the two-time Most Valuable Player prior to the start of the draft on June 23.
Bucks co-owner Jimmy Haslam previously expressed hope that a decision on Antetokounmpo would be finalized, one way or the other, before the draft. The sense at that time was that if Milwaukee was going to trade Giannis this offseason, the team would want to acquire at least one additional first-round pick in a a loaded 2026 draft.
According to Fischer and Stein, the Bucks have indeed been operating as if they’ll control at least one more first-rounder besides their own No. 10 selection. Given the perceived strength of the 2026 class, multiple high-end picks could help the Bucks jump-start their post-Giannis rebuild.
Sources around the league believe Milwaukee would prefer to wait until after the NBA Finals are over to make a deal, per The Stein Line’s duo, in case any teams feel compelled to enter the mix closer to the draft.
New York, for example, was viewed last year as a possible landing spot for Antetokounmpo. While the Knicks are no longer considered a prime suitor for the 31-year-old, the Bucks will want to see if that changes should New York blow a 2-0 lead in the NBA Finals and lose the series, Fischer and Stein explain.
There’s still a strong belief that Antetokounmpo would prefer to stay in the Eastern Conference, Fischer and Stein note, with the Heat viewed as the apparent leader and the star forward said to be reciprocating their interest. While Miami may be atop Giannis’ wish list, sources close to the process continue to mention the Celtics, who are considered a dark-horse suitor, as another option that would appeal to him, according to The Stein Line.
The Trail Blazers have also made their interest in Antetokounmpo known, but Fischer and Stein say it’s more likely the Bucks would try to include them as the third team in a deal in order to recoup some of the assets they gave up in the Damian Lillard trade. Without assurances that Giannis would sign a contract extension, Portland may not be willing to give up the sort of package for the 10-time All-Star that Milwaukee would be seeking.
Northwest Notes: Presti, Nuggets, Towns, Wolves
While Thunder general manager Sam Presti covered a wide range of topics in his end-of-season exit interview, he spent more time defending Shai Gilgeous-Alexander than he did on any other subject, according to Joe Mussatto of The Oklahoman, who notes that Presti strongly pushed back on the notion – pushed in some corners of social media – that flopping and grifting are crucial to his star player’s success.
“Relative to Shai and the narrative on that, he’s playing against six people,” Presti said. “He’s got five defenders, and the sixth defender is social media.”
Presti also took issue with how coaches used their post-game media availability to try to influence referees and push narratives.
“The post-game press conference has turned into the bully pulpit to create competitive advantage,” he said. “It used to be you’d get up there, you’d talk about your own team. Now everyone gets up there and they talk about the officials and they discredit the other team.”
We have more from around the Northwest Division:
- The Nuggets have struggled to maintain their Western Conference dominance since winning the championship in 2023. They haven’t made it back to the conference finals, and injuries have been a recurring issue. At a certain point, the health problems constantly holding the team back become more than just bad luck, Mark Kiszla of the Denver Gazette argues, citing Robert Weissfeld, a medical researcher who focuses on injury recovery and kinesiology. “Following trauma, which includes injury, pain and other kinds of stress, some muscles become chronically weak, perhaps as a way to protect the (affected) area from further stress,” Weissfeld said. “The problem is not in the muscles themselves, which are generally healthy. The deficit is the signals reaching the muscles from the brain. Like turning on a light with its dimmer switch set too low, the muscles receive insufficient current to activate them normally.” Weissfeld believes that correcting muscle function could help oft-injured players like Aaron Gordon get back on solid ground.
- As Karl-Anthony Towns has helped lead the Knicks to a 2-1 lead in the NBA Finals, it’s fair to wonder if the Timberwolves made a mistake trading the talented big man, Chris Hine writes for the Star Tribune. The goal of the deal was to maximize the team’s flexibility around cornerstone Anthony Edwards on an increasingly expensive roster following the trade for Rudy Gobert. If they hadn’t moved Towns, Naz Reid would likely no longer be on the roster, Hine says. However, Towns has also shown his value against a player like Victor Wembanyama, whose Spurs appear to have overtaken the Wolves in the Western Conference’s pecking order. Hine concludes that the Gobert trade is likely the move most responsible for Towns’ eventual departure, and he remains unconvinced that ownership would have paid the luxury bills required to keep the frontcourt duo together alongside Edwards.
- The Timberwolves recently unveiled their new uniforms and courts for the 2026/27 season. The choices made reflect a decision from new owners Alex Rodriguez and Marc Lore to pay fan service and give Minnesotans the nostalgia they had been clamoring for, writes Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic. “The team is the fans’ team,” Rodriguez said. “This is what the fans wanted.” The uniforms pay tribute to the heyday of Kevin Garnett’s time with the team, an aesthetic that is now considered iconic to the franchise. “We were very thoughtful and diligent throughout the entire process to make sure that we did hit those marks and it was representative of the past, but really drove something new toward the future,” said chief marketing officer Mike Grahl.
NBA Won’t Upgrade Victor Wembanyama’s Uncalled Foul To Flagrant
The physicality between the Spurs and Knicks in Game 3 has been a prominent topic of discussion among fans and coaches alike following Monday’s hard-fought contest, a 115-111 San Antonio win.
A first quarter play involving Victor Wembanyama and Jalen Brunson was a particular point of contention, as Brunson took exception after the Spurs star shoved him by the back of the head (Twitter video link via ESPN).
However, the NBA has reviewed the play and opted not to assess Wembanyama with a flagrant foul, per Marc Stein of The Stein Line (Twitter link).
Senior vice president of referee development and training Monty McCutchen spoke to ESPN on Tuesday and admitted that the play should have been called a foul, notes ESPN’s Shams Charania (via Twitter), but also explained what the process of reviewing such an incident is and why it would take something definitive to overrule the in-game referees.
Wembanyama is two flagrant foul points away from a suspension, due to the flagrant two he picked up when he elbowed Timberwolves forward Naz Reid in the head in the second round. If he had been assessed a flagrant one for the play on Brunson, Wembanyama would’ve moved to within a single flagrant point of a one-game suspension. As it stands, he will face no further discipline.
Southeast Notes: Antetokounmpo, Adebayo, Salaun, Hawks
The Heat have been pegged as the “team to watch” this summer when it comes to a potential Giannis Antetokounmpo trade, but such a move would have sweeping effects on the rest of the roster, write Anthony Chiang and Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald.
One player who could be impacted by the move is unrestricted free agent Norman Powell. If the Heat don’t trade for Giannis, it’s unlikely they’ll offer Powell more than a one-year deal, since they’ll be looking to maintain as much cap space as possible for the summer of 2027, which could have a strong free agent class.
However, if Miami is able to pull off a deal for the Bucks’ star forward, Powell could be offered a multiyear deal this summer to keep him around as a floor spacer and scorer playing off the two-time MVP’s rim-focused attack.
A similar logic could apply to Pelle Larsson. If the Heat have Antetokounmpo and are no longer looking to hoard cap space, they could choose to sign the 25-year-old to an extension, though it’s also possible that the Bucks would ask for Larsson as part of the trade return.
We have more from around the Southeast Division:
- One reason the Heat need to be very deliberate in how they approach a potential trade for the Greek star is the fact that they could be spending around 69% of their salary cap on Antetokounmpo and Bam Adebayo alone by the end of Adebayo’s deal, Ira Winderman writes for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. Any trade for Antetokounmpo will likely have to come with an understanding of what he wants to do regarding a potential extension, which he becomes eligible to sign as early as October 1.
- The Hornets had a successful 2025/26 season and will now look to build on it and continue their journey to becoming a real playoff threat in the East. One player who is hoping to be a part of that surge is 2024 lottery pick Tidjane Salaun. Salaun is coming off a modest sophomore season, and he knows that he is facing a critical summer for growth, Roderick Boone writes for the Charlotte Observer. “It’s a big offseason, so I will keep working on my body,” Salaun said. “That’s the main thing — be more physical. With my defensive impact but also on offense, I can grow and be more impactful. And I have to just keep doing my thing by shooting when I’m open, keep rebounding and keep guarding the ball or be big on the shift.” Salaun averaged 6.0 points and 4.0 rebounds in 15.5 minutes per game this season. Perhaps most importantly, he increased his three-point percentage from 28.3% as a rookie to 43.4% on 2.2 attempts per game.
- The Knicks’ impressive run to the Finals could lead the Hawks to downplay their first-round loss at the hands of New York, but if they’re serious about building not just a playoff team but a contender, then they need to resist that urge and instead understand what it is that sets the two teams so far apart, writes Ken Sugiura of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. As Sugiura explains, the Knicks showed that the Hawks are not close to where they want to be yet, and recognizing that should help inspire the young core to work even harder this summer as they look to continue to grow as a team and as individual players.
Knicks Notes: Towns, Brunson, Anunoby, Alvarado
Following the Knicks‘ Game 3 loss to the Spurs, Karl-Anthony Towns‘s lack of fourth-quarter offense has become a topic of concern. Towns has yet to score in a fourth quarter this series, despite playing some of the best basketball of his career and being the best player on the floor for large stretches of the series so far.
It’s a trend that head coach Mike Brown is aware of and one that he’s not happy about, according to ESPN’s Vincent Goodwill.
“It’s extremely important that he’s getting touches, that he’s involved, not just in the fourth quarter, but obviously throughout the ballgame,” Brown said. “I got to continue trying to do a better job of getting him involved throughout the course of the game, as well as late.”
The Knicks went to Towns less frequently in Game 3, and the offense seemed to struggle as a result, a trend that three-time champion Danny Green broke down for ESPN (Twitter video link). Green noted that, unlike in previous games, Towns didn’t punish mismatches by taking smaller players into the post, and instead seemed to float at times.
While Victor Wembanyama‘s presence makes it more challenging, Green believes Towns needs to be more proactive and aggressive than he showed on Monday.
We have more Knicks notes:
- Jalen Brunson has been the Knicks’ best player for multiple years, but he has struggled this series against the Spurs’ defense, shooting just 37.0% from the field and accumulating the same number of turnovers and assists (13). While the Knicks have weathered his cold shooting spell and still hold a 2-1 series lead, the most concerning stat is that the team is being outscored by 13 points in the 110 minutes Brunson has been on the floor, Dylan Svoboda writes for the New York Post. New York’s offense has at times seemed to flow better when Brunson is not on the floor, as they rely more on quick ball movement and shot-making and less on isolation play against the Spurs’ length and aggression. Despite his struggles, Brunson has scored at least 30 points in two of the three games, but most of his best moments have come in brief fourth-quarter stretches, such as the end of Game 1.
- Aside from Brunson, OG Anunoby was the only other consistent source of offense in Game 3, scoring 28 points on 13 shots. He has been effective at scoring with Wembanyama in his face, whether on face-up three-pointers or drives to the rim. “I’m aggressive no matter who’s guarding me,” Anunoby told NBA Insider Chris Haynes (Twitter video link). “I’m always looking to make the right play, whether it’s the pass, drive to the rim, the shot, just being aggressive at all times no matter who’s guarding me.”
- If there’s any player on the roster that puts the ‘New York’ in the ‘New York Knicks,’ it’s Brooklyn native Jose Alvarado, writes Jeanette Settembre for the Post. “Everything about him screams New York. He’s a lovable kid,” said high school coach Joe Arbitello. “He comes back [to Christ the King High School] a lot. I don’t think he understands he’s a celebrity celebrity.” Settembre also spoke to Alvarado’s youth league coach, Dan Klores, whom the guard turned to when he thought his NBA dream was out of reach. “He comes to me and says, ‘Dan, can you connect me to a trainer? Because I’m not going to make the NBA,'” Klores said, adding that once the Pelicans offered Alvarado a spot, “(He) broke down in tears. He couldn’t stop crying.”
Latest On Trae Young, Wizards
Since being acquired in a mid-season trade, Trae Young has been widely expected to forgo his $49MM player option for next season in order to sign a multiyear deal with the Wizards.
Reporting in the wake of that trade suggested that a three-year contract in the range of $120MM might makes sense for Young and the Wizards. According to Marc Stein of The Stein Line (subscriber link), those are still the ballpark figures being projected for the four-time All-Star.
Young will have to make a decision on his player option by June 23, the first night of the 2026 draft. If he declines the option, he could sign a three-year extension worth up to as much as $156MM before June 30 or could wait until July to sign for up to four years and $222.8MM. Picking up the option would lock in his $49MM salary for next season, but he and the Wizards could still tack on more years with a new extension beginning in July.
Young struggled to stay healthy this season, playing just 15 games total as he dealt with a knee strain early in the year and quad and back injuries later in the season. He played five games for Washington following the January trade, averaging 15.2 points and 6.2 assists on .595/.429/.708 shooting splits in 20.8 minutes per game.
The Wizards were the worst team in the league this season, but will add the No. 1 overall pick, plus Young and Anthony Davis, who didn’t play a game for them this season after being traded from Dallas in February, as they look to rebuild on the fly.
Young, Davis, former No. 2 pick Alex Sarr, and whoever the team selects first overall are the only players on the roster set to earn more than $10MM per year over the next two seasons, which gives the Wizards considerable flexibility as they look to turn the team around and become competitive again.
International Notes: Lyles, Nunn, Canada, EuroCup, NBA Europe
Relaying a report from the Spanish outlet Marca, Dimitris Minaretzis of Eurohoops says forward Trey Lyles appears increasingly likely to leave Real Madrid this offseason on the heels of a big year with the Spanish club.
While Madrid remains interested in re-signing Lyles, they’re facing significant competition from other clubs in Europe who may be in position to make more lucrative offers. Panathinaikos, Fenerbahce, Dubai BC, and Hapoel Tel Aviv are said to be among the teams with an eye on Lyles, who spent 10 years in the NBA with Utah, Denver, San Antonio, Detroit, and Sacramento from 2015-25.
As we noted when we checked in last month on Lyles’ market, a return to the NBA remains possible for the Canadian, who is still just 30 years old. However, if no favorable opportunities arise stateside for the veteran forward, it looks like he’ll have no shortage of potential destinations to choose from in Europe.
Here are a few more items of interest from around the international basketball world:
- Former NBA guard Kendrick Nunn is expected to become a naturalized player for Qatar ahead of the 2027 World Cup, per a Sport24 report (hat tip to Alessandro Maggi of Sportando). Since last playing in the NBA in 2023, Nunn has emerged as a star in Europe, winning a EuroLeague title with Panathinaikos in 2024 and earning EuroLeague MVP honors in 2025.
- The Canadian national team won a gold medal at the FIBA U18 AmeriCup for the first time, defeating Team USA in Sunday’s final by a score of 67-65. Point guard Javion Tyndale, who had 18 points and eight assists in the gold medal game, was named the Most Valuable Player of the tournament, per FIBA.
- The EuroCup – which is Europe’s second-tier continental league behind the EuroLeague – will expand from 20 teams to 32 teams for the 2026/27 season, per a press release. According to the announcement, the participating teams and those awarded long-term licenses will be confirmed soon.
- Former star big man Pau Gasol explained on Tuesday, per Mundo Deportivo, why he believes NBA Europe will become a reality and why he views the NBA’s model as a necessary to grow the sport of basketball in Europe. Johnny Askounis of Eurohoops shares a few of the key quotes from Gasol.
Knicks Notes: Bridges, Towns, Shamet, Clarkson
Jalen Brunson and OG Anunoby, who combined for 60 of the Knicks‘ 111 points in Monday’s Game 3, were the team’s only reliable scorers in the fourth quarter, tallying 18 points between them on 6-of-11 shooting in the final frame. The rest of the team made just 1-of-16 shots and scored two points en route to a 115-111 loss, as Stefan Bondy of The New York Post writes.
It was an especially frustrating night for Mikal Bridges, who has had an excellent postseason but scored just two points on 1-of-5 shooting in 29 minutes of action on Monday and went 0-for-3 from the floor in the fourth quarter. Bridges wasn’t happy with his play at either end of the court, telling reporters after the game that he’s “gotta be better” on Wednesday, according to Howie Kussoy of The New York Post.
“It starts with me defensively. I think I did a bad job defensively,” Bridges said. “They scored a good amount of times when I was in throughout the game. For me, it starts with defense and feeding off of that.”
We have more on the Knicks, who will take a 2-1 series lead into Game 4:
- Karl-Anthony Towns earned rave reviews for his play at both ends of the court in the first two games of the NBA Finals, but he was “mostly a non-factor” on Monday, scoring just 11 points in 38 minutes, according to Zach Braziller of The New York Post. Head coach Mike Brown said there were issues with the Knicks’ offense as a whole rather than anything specifically related to Towns. Still, as Mike Vorkunov of The Athletic tweets, the star big man has now gone three games without scoring a single fourth-quarter point vs. the Spurs.
- Landry Shamet‘s excellent postseason hit a speed bump in Game 3 as he shot 1-of-8 from the floor and had a team-worst -20 plus/minus mark in his 23 minutes. The veteran wing is confident in his – and the team’s – ability to bounce back and “clean up” some of Monday’s mistakes, as Kussoy relays for The New York Post. “Great process, got some great looks, had a few that were down and out,” Shamet said. “Process over outcome. I’m more upset about some of the things defensively that I’ve been priding myself on. I had a few possessions where I didn’t do my job like I needed to. That’s fixable. Sometimes the gods give you in and outs and the ball doesn’t go in.”
- Veteran guard Jordan Clarkson provided the Knicks with a shot in the arm off the bench in Game 3 after receiving a DNP-CD in Game 2, per Braziller of The New York Post. Clarkson scored 10 points and was a +8 in 13 minutes.
- As dominant as the Knicks were during their 13-game winning streak that stretched from Game 4 of the first round to Game 2 of the Finals, their identity over the past two years has been defined by their resiliency, according to James L. Edwards III of The Athletic, who suggests the club will have an opportunity to show off that trait after suffering a setback on Monday. “They’re a great team,” Anunoby said of the Spurs. “They weren’t just going to lay down. All we can do is move and learn from this. We have to take it as adversity and just respond to it.”
Atlantic Rumors: Vucevic, Shamet, Nets, Murray-Boyles
Veteran center Nikola Vucevic is considered highly likely to switch teams this summer after finishing the season with the Celtics, reports Marc Stein of The Stein Line (Substack link).
Vucevic, who was traded from Chicago to Boston in February in the final year of his contract, took on a significant role in Boston’s rotation, averaging 23.4 minutes per night in his first 11 outings with his new team. However, he sustained a fractured finger in his 12th game as a Celtic and wasn’t able to return until the final week of the regular season, resulting in less consistent minutes during the postseason.
Vucevic, 35, averaged just 9.7 points and 6.6 rebounds in 21.1 minutes per game in 16 regular season appearances with the Celtics, shooting 43.9% from the floor and 34.0% on three-pointers. Those shooting numbers were well below his career rates, while his PPG and MPG represented his lowest averages since his rookie year in 2011/12. Vucevic will be an unrestricted free agent this offseason.
Here’s more from around the Atlantic:
- Rival suitors are “already starting to circle” in anticipation of pursuing Knicks wing Landry Shamet in free agency, according to Stein. Shamet has received minimum-salary contracts in each of the past two seasons, but he should be in line for a raise this summer after making 39.2% of his three-pointers during the regular season and playing a key reserve role for New York during its run to the NBA Finals. Shamet was out of the rotation in the first round, but he has scored double-digit points in six of the team’s past nine games, dating back to the second round. The Knicks will hold Shamet’s Early Bird rights, giving them the ability to make a strong offer, though re-signing him would push them deeper into tax/apron territory.
- Mexican forward Karim Lopez, who spent the last two seasons with the New Zealand Breakers, told Kevin O’Connor of Yahoo Sports (Twitter link) that he and Tennessee forward Nate Ament are working out for the Nets on Tuesday. Although both Lopez and Ament are viewed as potential lottery picks, it would be a surprise if either player goes as high as No. 6, which is the pick Brooklyn controls.
- While the Raptors could be active on the trade market this offseason, don’t expect standout rookie Collin Murray-Boyles to go anywhere, according to Doug Smith of The Toronto Star, who suggests last year’s No. 9 overall pick is virtually untouchable. Smith’s advice for how to react to any trade rumors involving Murray-Boyles? “Stop reading, delete that source from every aspect of your reading/social media network, and take a cleansing shower.”