Collin Murray-Boyles Entering 2025 NBA Draft
South Carolina forward Collin Murray-Boyles will enter his name in the 2025 NBA draft pool. He informed ESPN’s Jonathan Givony of his decision in addition to announcing it on Instagram.
Although Murray-Boyles has the option of maintaining his NCAA eligibility and withdrawing later in the spring, both his Instagram statement and his comments to Givony suggest he intends to go pro.
“This is exactly how I thought my college career would turn out,” Murray-Boyles said. “South Carolina had a vision for me to lead the team. They gave me freedom to express myself.”
After establishing himself as a potential first-round pick with a strong freshman season, Murray-Boyles took another step forward as a sophomore in 2024/25, averaging 16.8 points, 8.3 rebounds, 2.4 assists, 1.5 steals, and 1.3 blocks in 30.6 minutes per game across 32 outings. The 6’8″ forward made 58.6% of his shots from the floor and 70.7% from the free throw line.
Murray-Boyles was the No. 10 pick in ESPN’s latest mock draft. As Givony writes, he’s considered one of the most “physical and intelligent” defenders in the draft class and also served as an offensive focal point for the Gamecocks, giving him the opportunity to show off his play-making skills and feel for the game.
The 19-year-old has earned comparisons to Warriors forward Draymond Green as a result of his “versatility, competitiveness, and aggressiveness,” according to Givony.
“When people that know basketball watch me play, it’s the smaller things that standout,” Murray-Boyles told ESPN. “I’m not one to get oohs and aahs, but know what it takes to win games and impact a team positively. I hang my hat on how hard I play and my unselfishness. I love to play defense.”
Poll: Who Will Win Tuesday’s Play-In Games?
The Grizzlies were tied for second place in the West as recently as March 14, while the Warriors held a top-five spot in the conference for the entire first week of April. However, neither Memphis nor Golden State was able to lock up a guaranteed playoff spot in the final days of the regular season.
The two teams will face one another on Tuesday in the No. 7 vs. No. 8 play-in game for the Western Conference, with the winner earning the right to enter the playoffs as the seventh seed and match up with Houston in round one.
Although the Warriors and Grizzlies finished the season with matching 48-34 records, the two clubs were headed in opposite directions down the stretch.
Hours after finalizing a trade for Jimmy Butler on February 6, Golden State fell to 25-26 on the season and held the No. 10 seed in the West only by a tiebreaker. But the Warriors won Butler’s debut two days later and never fell below .500 again, finishing the season on a 23-8 run. During that stretch, Golden State had the NBA’s third-best winning percentage (.742), eight-best offensive rating (118.2) and top defensive rating (109.0).
The Warriors aren’t entering the postseason as one of the title favorites, having stumbled a little as of late — they would have clinched a playoff berth already if they hadn’t lost three of their last five games, including a disappointing defeat to the lottery-bound Spurs last Wednesday. But they’ve certainly looked better than the Grizzlies, whose season has been trending downward in recent months.
On the day of the trade deadline, the Grizzlies had a 35-16 record. But two days later, on the same day the Warriors won Butler’s debut, Memphis lost to Oklahoma City to kick off an uninspiring stretch that saw the team finish the season by going just 13-18. Lottery teams like Portland and Toronto had better records during that stretch than the Grizzlies, who ranked in the bottom half of the league in both offensive rating (115.6) and defensive rating (116.0) from Feb. 8 onward.
Oh, and Memphis also made a head coaching change during that time, replacing Taylor Jenkins with assistant Tuomas Iisalo on March 28. The Grizzlies have a 4-5 record since that change.
The Grizzlies have plenty of talent on their roster and Warriors stars Stephen Curry (thumb) and Butler (thigh) are dealing with nagging ailments, so the result of Tuesday’s Western Conference play-in game is hardly a foregone conclusion. Still, after accounting for the Warriors’ 3-1 record vs. Memphis this season and the fact that they’ll be hosting Tuesday’s play-in game in San Francisco, it’s not hard to understand why Golden State is considered a good bet to advance — BetOnline.ag has the Warriors listed as seven-point favorites.
Over in the East, it’s a battle of the year’s top Southeast teams on Tuesday, as the No. 7 Magic (41-41) host the No. 8 Hawks (40-42). The winner will claim the seventh seed and face Boston in the first round of the playoffs.
It has been an odd season in Orlando, where the Magic looked like one of the conference’s top teams in early going despite losing Paolo Banchero and then Franz Wagner to oblique tears that sidelined them for extended periods. But the Magic’s injury issues – which also ended Jalen Suggs‘ and Moritz Wagner‘s seasons early – eventually caught up with them, resulting in a 12-26 midseason swoon from December to March that cost the team a chance at a top-six seed.
Orlando finished the year strong, winning nine of its last 12 games, and performed very well defensively on the season as a whole, registering the league’s second-best defensive rating (109.1). But even with Banchero and Wagner on the court, the Magic struggled to score — their 108.9 offensive rating ranked 27th in the NBA, ahead of only Brooklyn, Charlotte, and Washington.
The Hawks, meanwhile, appeared to be in trouble when rising star forward Jalen Johnson went down in January with a season-ending shoulder injury. They were 22-22 as of Johnson’s last game and promptly fell several games below .500 without him before trading away second-leading scorer De’Andre Hunter at the trade deadline shortly thereafter.
But instead of continuing to slide down the standings and ending up in the lottery, Atlanta got a second wind, led by Trae Young, Onyeka Okongwu, Dyson Daniels, and Zaccharie Risacher, along with deadline additions like Caris LeVert, Georges Niang, and Terance Mann.
As good as Daniels has been defensively this season, the Hawks’ overall team defense has lagged behind — it was their offense that propelled them to a spot in the No. 7 vs. 8 play-in game. From March 6 onward, Atlanta went 12-8 and posted the second-best offensive rating in the Eastern Conference (120.4).
Tuesday’s matchup, in which the Magic are listed as five-point favorites, per BetOnline, could come down to how much headway the Hawks’ offensive weapons can make against one of the NBA’s best defensive units in Orlando.
We want to know what you think. Which two teams will claim playoff spots on Tuesday and which ones will have to try again on Friday to punch their tickets into round one?
Vote in our poll, then head to the comment section to weigh in with your thoughts and predictions.
Which teams will win Tuesday's play-in games?
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Golden State Warriors and Orlando Magic 50% (375)
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Golden State Warriors and Atlanta Hawks 26% (190)
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Memphis Grizzlies and Orlando Magic 16% (116)
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Memphis Grizzlies and Atlanta Hawks 9% (64)
Total votes: 745
Stockton Kings Win G League Title, Mason Jones Named Finals MVP
The Stockton Kings, Sacramento’s affiliate, claimed the 2024/25 G League title by winning the deciding game of a best-of-three series with the Osceola Magic on Monday.
After losing Game 1 to Orlando’s G League affiliate last Tuesday, Stockton evened the series with a 144-126 victory on Friday and then knocked off Osceola 118-110 on Monday, with Dexter Dennis, Terry Taylor, and Isaac Jones all scoring at least 21 points in the championship game.
Veteran guard Mason Jones, who is on a two-way contract with Sacramento, was named the G League Finals MVP (Twitter link). For the series, he averaged 22.3 points, 9.7 assists, 3.0 rebounds, and 2.7 steals per game and made 11-of-25 three-point shots (44.0%).
Jones, 26, made his NBA debut in 2021 and has since appeared in 51 regular season games for the Rockets, Sixers, Lakers, and Kings, including 10 for Sacramento this season. However, he has played very limited minutes at the NBA level, whereas he averaged 23.6 PPG, 7.9 APG, 5.1 RPG, and 1.1 SPG in 35.9 MPG with a shooting line of .492/.447/.790 across 27 Tip-Off Tournament and regular season outings for Stockton this season.
Mason Jones was one of three players under contract with Sacramento who contributed to Stockton’s NBAGL championship. Fellow two-way player Isaiah Crawford also started all three games in the Finals, while Isaac Jones, who was promoted to the Kings’ 15-man roster last month, was assigned to Stockton for Game 3 and posted a double-double (21 points, 13 rebounds) on 8-of-11 shooting on Monday.
The Kings hold a minimum-salary team option on Isaac Jones for next season. Mason Jones and Crawford will be eligible for restricted free agency this summer.
Blazers Notes: Cronin, Billups, Avdija, Future
As Jason Quick of The Athletic writes, it’s rare for a 36-win team to reward its general manager and head coach with contract extensions like the Trail Blazers have done this month with Joe Cronin and Chauncey Billups.
However, Portland’s record this season was its best since 2020/21 and the team took a real step forward, with young players like Shaedon Sharpe, Scoot Henderson, and Donovan Clingan showing improvement while Deni Avdija enjoyed a breakout year and Toumani Camara established himself as one of the NBA’s best perimeter defenders. As Quick relays, Cronin believes the team is in position to start targeting specific positions and skills instead of just stockpiling talent.
“As a front office, we don’t feel that pressure to take swing after swing to try and hit on the next up-and-coming guy,” the GM explained. “We are starting to feel really comfortable with our talent base that we can be more diligent about adding specific types of guys.”
While the Blazers have a promising core of young talent, it’s unclear if any of the players currently on the roster will develop into the kind of All-Star capable of leading a contender. Cronin and Billups suggested they aren’t worried about the fact that a franchise player has yet to emerge.
“There’s a lot of talent on this roster, and I wouldn’t put ceilings on a lot of these guys,” Cronin said, per Quick. “There is still a lot of time and talent that can be maximized. So these guys … I wouldn’t write them off to becoming star-level guys.”
“It’s true you need to have top-flight guys, but to me, we are raising that, we are growing that,” Billups added. “I look at Oklahoma City, they traded for Shai (Gilgeous-Alexander), but he wasn’t a star yet. Now he’s probably going to be the MVP. Joker (Nikola Jokic) wasn’t a star when he got to Denver. They raised him into that. Giannis (Antetokounmpo) wasn’t a star when he got to Milwaukee. They raised him into that. That’s where I think we are trying to go … Deni, Shaedon, Scoot, Ant (Anfernee Simons) … We are raising those guys.”
Here’s more out of Portland:
- Noting that he heard “a lot of chatter” about the possibility of Billups being the top target in the Suns‘ upcoming head coaching search, Sean Highkin of Rose Garden Report (Twitter link) suggests that may have been part of the reason why the Blazers wanted to get an extension done with Billups before the season ended.
- Avdija admitted during his end-of-season media session that it was “hard to adjust” last fall after being traded from Washington to Portland but that he “didn’t look back” once he got comfortable with his new team, as Johnny Askounis of Eurohoops relays. The forward’s numbers reflect that — he averaged just 9.5 points, 5.5 rebounds, and 3.0 assists per game with a .346/.233/.813 shooting line in his first 13 outings, then posted 18.6 PPG, 7.6 RPG, and 4.1 APG on .495/.385/.775 shooting in 59 games after that, including 23.3 PPG, 9.7 RPG, and 5.2 APG on .508/.417/.782 shooting in 20 post-All-Star appearances.
- “The future is super bright,” Avdija said of the Blazers (per Eurohoops). “I love playing with this team. We’re young. We’re exciting. We have a lot of talent.” The 24-year-old added that he plans to suit up for Israel during the 2025 EuroBasket tournament.
- While the Blazers took positive steps forward this season, they still have a long way to go before they can be considered a reliable playoff-caliber club, opines Bill Oram of The Oregonian. “I think that’s a reasonable expectation,” Cronin said when Oram asked him about making the playoffs next season. “Assuming our guys keep getting better, assuming we do our jobs and keep adding talent to this roster. I don’t see any reason why we shouldn’t be competitive in that regard.”
Illinois’ Will Riley Among Draft’s Latest Early Entrants
Illinois wing Will Riley has decided to enter the 2025 NBA draft following his freshman season, he tells Jonathan Givony of ESPN.
Named the Big Ten’s Sixth Man of the Year for the 2024/25 season, Riley averaged 12.6 points, 4.1 rebounds, and 2.2 assists in 25.7 minutes per game across 35 outings (nine starts). The Kitchener, Ontario native posted a shooting line of .432/.326/.724.
Givony refers to Riley as “far from a finished product,” noting that his lone college season featured a number of ups and downs, but stresses that the 6’8″ swingman has major long-term upside. He’s the No. 15 player on ESPN’s big board for 2025.
“I learned a lot through the season,” Riley said. “I faced a lot of adversity, which helped me. When I was younger, I had no idea what it was like on the American basketball scene. That transition from Canada was good for me.
“The biggest difference was the physicality. I put on 22 pounds before the start of the season. NBA teams saw my potential as a ball-handler and creator, my IQ, and my ability to make reads. These are things you can’t teach. I got adjusted midway through the season and started to blossom.”
In their latest ESPN.com mock draft, Givony and Jeremy Woo had Riley coming off the board 16th overall to Orlando.
Here are a couple more updates on early entrants declaring for the 2025 draft:
- Alabama freshman guard Labaron Philon will enter the draft and is “all in on starting (his) pro career,” he tells Givony (Twitter link). Philon, whom Givony praises for his two-way versatility, averaged 10.6 PPG, 3.8 APG, 3.3 RPG, and 1.4 SPG in 2024/25 for the Crimson Tide. The 6’4″ point guard was the No. 43 player on ESPN’s most recent top-100 big board, though he didn’t show up on last week’s 59-pick mock draft.
- Virginia Tech junior Toibu Lawal is testing the draft waters while maintaining his NCAA eligibility, he announced today on Instagram. Although Lawal wasn’t on ESPN’s most recent big board, Givony refers to him as “perhaps the best athlete in the ACC” (Twitter link). The 6’8″ British forward averaged 12.4 PPG and 7.0 RPG with a .559/.371/.641 shooting line in 30 games (all starts) for Virginia Tech and said he intends to return to the Hokies if he withdraws from the draft.
Giannis Antetokounmpo, James Harden Named Players Of The Week
Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo has been named the Eastern Conference’s Player of the Week for a second straight Monday, the NBA announced today (Twitter link).
Antetokounmpo sat out Milwaukee’s regular season finale on Sunday, but was stellar in three Bucks wins over Minnesota, New Orleans, and Detroit earlier in the week, averaging 27.7 points, 11.7 rebounds, 10.0 assists, and 1.3 blocks in 34.0 minutes per game.
It’s the fourth time this season that Antetokounmpo has earned Player of the Week honors, which is the most of any player in 2024/25. No one else in the East won the award more than twice this season; Nuggets center Nikola Jokic claimed it three times in the West.
It was Clippers guard James Harden, not Jokic, who was named the Western Conference’s Player of the Week for April 7-13, marking the second week in a row that a Clippers star has earned the award. Kawhi Leonard won it last Monday.
Harden helped the Clippers secure a guaranteed playoff spot (No. 5 in the West) by leading the team to a 4-0 week to wrap up the regular season, with victories over San Antonio, Houston, Sacramento, and – most crucially – Golden State. In those four games, the former MVP averaged 29.5 points, 10.5 assists, 7.5 rebounds, and 1.5 steals in 41.5 minutes per night, with a .534/.484/.862 shooting line.
Back in his prime years, Harden typically earned multiple Player of the Week nods every year, but this is the first time he has been recognized with the weekly award since February 2021, per Basketball-Reference.
Scottie Barnes, Trae Young, Onyeka Okongwu, and Payton Pritchard were the other Player of the Week nominees in the Eastern Conference, while Luka Doncic, Anthony Edwards, Aaron Gordon, Aaron Wiggins, and Harden’s teammate Ivica Zubac were nominated in the West (Twitter link).
Nuggets Name Ben Tenzer Interim GM
Speaking today to reporters, Nuggets vice chairman Josh Kroenke announced that vice president of basketball operations Ben Tenzer has been named the team’s interim GM (Twitter link).
Tenzer was a minor league coordinator for the Nuggets from 2005-09 and a legal extern in 2012 before being formally hired by the organization in 2013 as its director of team operations.
He has since worked his way up the basketball operations department, serving this past season as the general manager of Denver’s G League team (the Grand Rapids Gold) in addition to holding the title of Nuggets VP of basketball operations. According to Bennett Durando of The Denver Post (Twitter link), Tenzer is considered a salary cap expert.
A report last week indicated that Kroenke himself would serve as the Nuggets’ president of basketball operations – assisted by Tenzer and assistant general manager Tommy Balcetis – until the club hires a permanent replacement for GM Calvin Booth.
It’s safe to assume that Kroenke will still be the one signing off on any roster moves or personnel decisions Denver makes, but it sounds as if Tenzer will handle the day-to-day GM duties for now. With no trades or free agent signings permitted during the postseason, the Nuggets shouldn’t face any real roster decisions until this summer.
A full-fledged search for Booth’s replacement will be conducted once the Nuggets’ season comes to an end, Durando confirms.
Here’s more on the Nuggets:
- During Monday’s media session, Kroenke disputed a report which stated the Nuggets have been reluctant to trade Michael Porter Jr. due to his ties to the University of Missouri (which Porter and Kroenke both attended). According to Kroenke, the Nuggets are willing to trade anyone to improve their roster, as Vinny Benedetto of The Denver Gazette relays (via Twitter).
- Kroenke also pushed back on rumors that Russell Westbrook caused any problems in the Nuggets’ locker room, telling reporters that he “can’t say enough good things” about his experience with Westbrook and referring to the veteran guard as a “spicy ingredient” the team needed (Twitter links via Benedetto and Durando).
- Jamal Murray, who had only played for Michael Malone since entering the NBA in 2016, spoke on Friday about the dismissal of the Nuggets’ longtime head coach, as Durando writes for The Denver Post. “I think he’s done a great job of also setting the example for the group behind us — not just us but for the group behind us,” Murray said. “He always preached a lot of sacrifice and playing for one another and stuff, but I thought Coach always showed a lot of humility in himself. Always taking control of the room. Always hating to lose. He was always setting the tone in that regard. So it sucks to kind of see him go like that, especially the way it happened this late (in the season). But we’re still gonna remain in contact and stuff like that.”
- If interim head coach David Adelman leads the Nuggets to at least the second round of the playoffs, the team should give him the full-time job, contends Troy Renck of The Denver Post.
Joe Dumars Emerges As Serious Candidate For Pelicans’ Top Front Office Job
Veteran NBA executive Joe Dumars is a “serious frontrunner” to become the Pelicans‘ new head of basketball operations, replacing David Griffin, sources tell Shams Charania of ESPN (Twitter links). New Orleans announced on Monday that Griffin has been relieved of his duties.
According to Charania, Dumars and the Pelicans are expected to engage in discussions about the job and could finalize a deal as soon as this week.
Dumars, who won a pair of championships and made six All-Star teams as a Pistons guard, spent his entire playing career in Detroit from 1985-99 and was inducted into the Hall of Fame as a player in 2006.
Dumars remained in Detroit following his retirement, transitioning to a front office role and spending 14 years as the Pistons’ president of basketball operations in Detroit from 2000-14. He won an Executive of the Year award in 2003 and built the Pistons team that earned a championship in 2004.
After spending three decades with the Pistons as a player and executive, Dumars had a stint in the Kings’ front office too, holding a variety of roles in the organization from 2019-22. He joined Sacramento as a special advisor to then-GM Vlade Divac and became the Kings’ interim head of basketball operations when Divac was fired in 2020.
Dumars subsequently transitioned into a chief strategy officer role following the hiring of general manager Monte McNair and held that position for two years before joining the league office as the NBA’s executive vice president of basketball operations in 2022.
Dumars turned the Pistons into a perennial contender during the first half of his front office tenure in Detroit, making a series of savvy moves to compile a roster led by Chauncey Billups, Ben Wallace, Rasheed Wallace, Richard Hamilton, and Tayshaun Prince. The club advanced to at least the Eastern Conference Finals for six straight years from 2003-08.
However, Dumars made his share of missteps while running the Pistons, most memorably drafting Darko Milicic with the No. 2 overall pick in 2003, right ahead of Carmelo Anthony, Chris Bosh, and Dwyane Wade. Detroit had a losing record in each of Dumars’ last six seasons at the helm and wasn’t set up for success following his exit.
Dumars is a Louisiana native who played his college ball at McNeese State.
Northwest Notes: Randle, Collins, Jazz, Thunder
Timberwolves forward Julius Randle earned a bonus worth $1.4MM on Sunday when Minnesota clinched a playoff spot, reports ESPN’s Bobby Marks (Twitter link). As Marks explains, the terms of Randle’s contract called for him to earn that extra $1.4MM on top of his base salary if he appeared in 65 games and the Wolves made the playoffs.
That contract incentive had been deemed “unlikely” entering the season and hadn’t counted against Randle’s cap hit — even though the veteran forward made the playoffs last season with New York, he didn’t appear in 65 games and therefore didn’t earn the bonus in ’23/24.
However, Randle had another $1.4MM bonus for making the All-Star team which was considered likely entering this season and counted against the cap because he was an All-Star in 2024. He didn’t earn that bonus this season, so he essentially just swapped one bonus out for a second one worth the same amount, meaning it won’t affect Minnesota’s financial situation this season and won’t change his cap hit for ’25/26.
Here’s more from around the Northwest:
- Several Jazz veterans, including Lauri Markkanen, John Collins, and Jordan Clarkson, were asked during their end-of-season media sessions whether they want to remain in Utah. Andy Larsen of The Salt Lake Tribune passes along the responses from those players, all of whom said the right things about hoping to stick with the Jazz. Asked about exercising his 2025/26 player option, Collins expressed interest in doing so, but added, “I’m just open to anything at the end of the day. And I just want it to be the right move. If it does mean staying here, being in Utah, I’m cool with that. I just want it, like I said, to be right, and something I can cherish going forward and look back on in my career and be happy.”
- The Jazz‘s 17-65 record this season was the worst mark the team has posted in its 51-year history. But, given that Utah finished the season atop the draft lottery order and is assured of a top-five pick in this year’s draft, was 2024/25 actually a success? Larsen weighs that question for The Salt Lake Tribune, evaluating whether or not the team tanked effectively, adequately developed its young players, and maintained fan interest.
- On the other end of the Western Conference standings, the 68-win Thunder set a new NBA record by finishing the season with a point differential of +12.9 points per game, notes Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press. The previous record was set by the 1971/72 Lakers, who outscored opponents by 12.3 points per contest.
Checking In On NBA’s 2025 Lottery Standings, Projected Draft Order
The 2024/25 NBA regular season is officially over, but the draft order for this June has not yet been set.
A handful of factors, including the play-in results, random tiebreakers, and - of course - the lottery results themselves will ultimately determine what the 59(*) picks in the 2025 NBA draft look like. But with the season in the books, there's plenty we do know.
(* Note: The Knicks' second-round pick is forfeited due to a free agency gun-jumping violation.)
Let's dive in and check in on several key aspects of the lottery standings and projected draft order...
