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Southwest Notes: Williamson, Mavs Backcourt, Whitmore, Sheppard, Spurs Draft

May 12th, 2025 at 7:14pm CST by Dana Gauruder

It may not seem like a big deal but the fact that Zion Williamson represented the Pelicans at the draft lottery may have important implications, Marc Stein writes in his latest Substack post.

That’s not the sort of role you ask a star player to take on if you’re looking to trade him, Stein notes. There has been been plenty of speculation regarding Williamson’s status within the organization, particularly after ownership overhauled the front office and put Joe Dumars in the lead executive role.

The Pelicans wound up dropping to the No. 7 pick in the draft following the lottery results.

We have more from the Southwest Division:

  • With Kyrie Irving on the mend, the Mavericks will likely need two point guards to stabilize that position for next season, according to Yossi Gozlan of Thirdapron.com. One of those players will likely have to be acquired via trade. Of course, their lottery luck alters their outlook dramatically. As Gozlan tweets, they’ll now have a loaded cap sheet but they’ll be active this summer. Gozlan held an in-depth discussion with Dallas beat writer Grant Afseth that was posted on Youtube and can be accessed via the above link.
  • It’s fair to wonder where Cam Whitmore and Reed Sheppard stand in terms of the Rockets’ long-term plans, considering their spotty playing time this season. Danielle Lerner of the Houston Chronicle points out that Whitmore, the No. 20 overall pick in 2023, played in 51 games but averaged fewer minutes in his second season (16.2) than he did as a rookie (18.7). Sheppard, last year’s No. 3 overall pick, appeared in 52 games and averaged 12.6 minutes.
  • The Spurs hold the second and 14th picks in the aftermath of the draft lottery. LJ Ellis of Spurstalk.com reveals his first Big Board of picks 1-14, which includes some surprises.
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Knicks Notes: Hart, Towns, Bridges, Payne, Thibodeau

April 28th, 2025 at 10:01am CST by Arthur Hill

Josh Hart has maximized his value to the Knicks by putting aside any personal dreams of stardom, writes James L. Edwards III of The Athletic. Throughout his career, which included stops with four teams in six years before he found a home in New York, Hart always believed he could be more than just a scrappy player who tends to make the right play at the right time.

He told Edwards that he adopted a new mindset this season and is now focused on finding ways to make his high-profile teammates better. That led to setting a franchise record with nine triple-doubles during the season and averaging career highs of 9.6 rebounds and 5.9 assists along with 13.6 points per game.

“I think it’s realizing … for me, I feel like I’ve grown in my faith more,” Hart said. “I’ve been trying to take on that servant mentality. I want to make sure I can cater to these guys and make sure that they’re successful and put in the right positions to blossom.”

Edwards states that Hart often points to Celtics guard Jrue Holiday as an example of sacrificing individual glory for the greater good. Holiday was a two-time All-Star who accepted a reduced role in Boston’s offense to help produce a championship, and he’s in a unique position to understand Hart’s value to the Knicks.

“Even though people might say, like, he doesn’t shoot the ball well enough or do whatever, he makes plays, and he makes the game easier for everybody else based off his play,” Holiday said. “And it’s not just his effort. He’s really smart. He gets to the basket. He offensive rebounds. Things that guys don’t really want to do, he’s excellent at it. Guys who really take that to heart and can really play that type of game, I feel like you can be in the league as long as you want to if you play that way.”

There’s more on the Knicks:

  • Karl-Anthony Towns scored eight of the team’s final 10 points in Sunday’s win at Detroit, and one of the clutch shots was a fadeaway he developed while working with Kyrie Irving last summer, according to Stefan Bondy of The New York Post. Towns said Irving taught him the finer points of the shot, including where to hold the ball and how to launch it above the defender “It’s something that I never really had,” Towns said. “And it didn’t look as good. And I was able to iron my game out watching a great like him. One of the most talented players the NBA has ever seen and just did it as best I could to add my little flavor to it. It may not look as good as his — I ain’t going to lie, I think it’s pretty damn ugly — but it’s effective when I need it to be.”
  • Mikal Bridges hit two late three-pointers Sunday after shooting just 1-of-10 from the field in the first three quarters, per Jared Schwartz of The New York Post. Bridges said he drew inspiration from his teammates, particularly Cameron Payne, who has seen limited playing time since scoring 14 points in the series opener. “I think the biggest is Cam Payne,” Bridges said. “He’s big on voicing, helping me out. Sometimes, him calling me some not good names helps as well. It just feeds off that.”
  • Coach Tom Thibodeau deserves more credit for the adjustments he has made throughout the series, including getting more shots for Towns after he was shut down in Game 2, contends Ian Begley of SNY. Begley notes that Thibodeau’s job might have been in jeopardy with a first-round loss, but he has responded with a high-level coaching performance.
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Mavs GM Harrison On Doncic Trade, Fan Reaction, More

April 21st, 2025 at 4:14pm CST by Rory Maher

At a press conference on Monday afternoon, Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison discussed the shocking decision to trade Luka Doncic as well as the overwhelmingly negative reaction to it from fans, who have been chanting “fire Nico” since the deal was completed.

“I did know Luka was important to the Mavs’ fan base,” Harrison said, per RealGM. “I didn’t quite know to what level.

“But, really, the way we looked at it is if you’re putting a team on the floor that’s Kyrie [Irving], Klay [Thompson], P.J. [Washington], Anthony Davis and [Dereck] Lively, we felt that’s a championship-caliber team. And we would have been winning at a high level. That would have quieted some of the outrage. So unfortunately we weren’t able to do that, so it just went on and on.”

When asked why he should be able to keep his job, Harrison defended his Mavericks tenure, tweets Mike Curtis of The Dallas Morning News.

“Well, one, I think I’ve done a really good job here,” Harrison said. “And I don’t think I can be judged by the injuries this year. You have to judge the totality, from the beginning to end. I think I have a really good working relationship with [governor Patrick Dumont]. I think you add in Rick [Welts], the leadership we have is really elite and you’ll see next year when our team comes back. We’re going to be competing for a championship.”

Here’s more from Harrison’s press conference:

  • Harrison was pressed on why the Mavericks couldn’t get more assets from the Lakers for Doncic. “I think the biggest thing is if you don’t value AD as an All-NBA player and All-Defensive player, then you’re not going to like the trade,” Harrison said, according to Curtis (Twitter link).
  • The Mavs’ head of basketball operations said Dumont didn’t pressure him to make the deal, as Curtis relays (via Twitter). “Not at all. Patrick reminds me of the leadership that I had at Nike and a really good leader doesn’t tell the people that work for him what to do. It’s a collective, well thought out process to make a big move like that. Also, unfortunately, I’m super stubborn so someone telling me to do something doesn’t work too well for me.”
  • Despite the intense backlash, Harrison claims his relationship with Dumont has actually been “strengthened” in the two-plus months since the trade was made, according to Marc Stein (Twitter link).
  • Harrison said Davis won’t need surgery this offseason and he doesn’t believe Lively will either, per Brad Townsend of The Dallas Morning News (Twitter link). Both players missed significant time with injuries, but were able to return before the team was eliminated in the play-in tournament.
  • Regarding Kyrie Irving‘s $43.96MM player option for 2025/26, Harrison said he wasn’t sure if it would be exercised, but he’s confident the 33-year-old will be in a Mavericks uniform next season. “It’s too early to tell what Kyrie is going to do, but what I do feel is he’s going to be a Maverick next year,” Harrison said (Twitter link via Curtis). 
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Mavs Notes: Thompson, Davis, Lively, Offseason

April 19th, 2025 at 12:42pm CST by Luke Adams

After the Mavericks‘ season came to an end as a result of Friday night’s play-in loss in Memphis, Klay Thompson described his first year in Dallas as “tumultuous.” Head coach Jason Kidd took a rosier view, as Tim MacMahon of ESPN.com relays, referring to 2024/25 as an “incredible season” for his team, which missed out on the playoffs after making the NBA Finals last spring.

“When you look at the injuries that we’ve had (and) the change, for us to even be here playing in (Friday’s play-in) game, it’s incredible,” Kidd said. “It just shows the character of that group in that locker room, the fight, being prepared, moving on, learning from our losses and also our wins. So an incredible season with the change and injuries. Some would say we shouldn’t even be here, so give those guys in that locker room a lot of credit.”

While Kidd was eager to praise his players for the way they fought through the season, the fact that so much fight was required at all is a reflection of why Thompson viewed it as “tumultuous.” The second half was defined by a series of injuries to key players and the fallout of the controversial Luka Doncic trade.

When Thompson signed with the Mavericks as a free agent last summer, he was hoping to be the missing piece for a club that was three wins away from a championship in 2024. Instead, he’ll be watching his former team (Golden State) from home during the first round of the playoffs after averaging just 14.0 points per game in his first season as a Maverick, his lowest scoring mark since his rookie year.

“Don’t do this to me. Don’t do that to me. Don’t do that,” Thompson said with a laugh when asked if he’d still join the Mavs if he could do his 2024 free agency over. “That’s kind of a ridiculous question. I don’t own a time machine, and I don’t believe in going back, looking back. If I did that my whole career, I would not be where I’m at and I wouldn’t have been able to persevere through two really hard injuries.

“So I’m here in Dallas, and I enjoyed my time and I’m looking forward to the future.”

Here’s more on the Mavs as their offseason gets underway:

  • Anthony Davis, who scored 40 points in Friday’s loss, said after the game that he appreciated the way that Mavericks fans treated him after his midseason arrival, even though he knows many of those fans disliked the trade the team made to acquire him. “Obviously, it’s a lot of emotions. I know it’s not directed towards me,” Davis said, per Mike Curtis of The Dallas Morning News. “The city loved the guy (Doncic). Get rid of a guy. A new guy comes in, yet they want to embrace you and they’re thankful for you, it still stings. I’m just thankful and appreciative of the city of Dallas and the fans for welcoming me and Max (Christie) to the new situation.”
  • Mavericks center Dereck Lively was on a minutes restriction for both of the team’s play-in games this week, tweets NBA insider Marc Stein. Lively, who was out from mid-January to early April with a foot injury, played 18 minutes on Wednesday vs. Sacramento and 20 minutes on Friday vs. Memphis.
  • According to Stein (Twitter link), Lively’s foot injury was “at the center of some significant tensions” among some of the new members of the Mavs’ medical and performance team at the practice facility in February. President of basketball operations Nico Harrison defended the medical team during this week’s media session when asked how Lively was on the verge of returning to action in January before being diagnosed with a stress fracture. “It actually goes to show the strength of our medical team, because he was cleared to play, but his signs and symptoms—our medical team knew it was something more,” Harrison said. “And so that’s why they went and tested him again and saw the CT scan. They actually avoided a potential catastrophic injury.”
  • Bobby Marks of ESPN has shared his preview of the Mavericks’ offseason in a YouTube video and in an ESPN.com Insider-only article. Marks explores what a new contract for injured guard Kyrie Irving might look like and identifies forward P.J. Washington as another key extension candidate to watch.
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Mavericks Hope Kyrie Irving Can Return By January, Eye Three-Year Contract

April 16th, 2025 at 8:47pm CST by Arthur Hill

The Mavericks are optimistic that Kyrie Irving could be playing again by January, Shams Charania of ESPN said on Wednesday during an appearance on NBA Countdown (Twitter video link).

Irving suffered a torn ACL in his left knee on March 3 and underwent surgery about three weeks later. The team didn’t provide a recovery timetable following the procedure, but players can often take a year or more to come back from ACL tears. If Charania’s timeline is accurate, Irving is on track to fully recover within about 10 months.

The 33-year-old guard was playing at an All-NBA level before the untimely injury, averaging 24.7 points, 4.8 rebounds and 4.6 assists through 50 games with .473/.401/.916 shooting numbers. In February, he was selected as an All-Star for the ninth time in his career.

The loss of Irving sent the Mavs into a spiral that resulted in a 39-43 record, a 10th-place finish in the West and a spot in tonight’s play-in game. They were often short on personnel as their two-way players used up their eligibility, and they were unable to fill an open roster spot until April 10 due to a first-apron hard cap.

The more immediate issue with Irving is a nearly $44MM player option that he holds for next season. His decision is due by June 25, and Charania hears that the Mavericks would prefer to sign him to a new three-year contract. That would align him with Anthony Davis as well as general manager Nico Harrison.

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And-Ones: Clutch Player Award, NBA Europe, Award Picks, Oweh

April 15th, 2025 at 6:55pm CST by Dana Gauruder

The official candidates for Clutch Player of the Year have been revealed, NBA analyst Kevin O’Connor tweets. Here’s the list of candidates that voters can select for the award, as chosen by the league’s 30 head coaches:

Curry won the award last year.

We have more from around the international basketball world:

  • While the NBA is trying to establish a new league in Europe, NBA deputy commissioner Mark Tatum insists that the goal is not to replace the EuroLeague, Eurohoops relays via a Reuters interview. “Our goal is to create a commercially viable league that features high quality on -court competition and respects the rich tradition of European basketball. And we think that that will better serve fans and players on the continent,” Tatum said. He notes that there are major cities in Europe that don’t have a team where the NBA can establish roots. “There are big markets in Europe that aren’t being serviced today, where there are millions of basketball fans that aren’t being serviced,” he said. London, Paris, Berlin and Rome are among the candidates that NBA Europe considers as prime targets.
  • The Athletic’s John Hollinger reveals his award picks. He has Gilgeous-Alexander atop his MVP list and the Rockets’ Amen Thompson as his Defensive Player of the Year. O’Connor, writing for Yahoo Sports, has the same duo winning those awards. They also both have Stephon Castle taking Rookie of the Year honors, Payton Pritchard atop their Sixth Man of the Year lists, and Kenny Atkinson as Coach of the Year.
  • Kentucky junior guard Otega Oweh will test the draft waters, Jeff Goodman of Field of 68 tweets. Oweh averaged 16.2 points, 4.7 rebounds, 1.7 assists and 1.6 steals this past season. He played his first two seasons at Oklahoma.
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NBA Announces Finalists For Sportsmanship, Teammate Of The Year Awards

April 2nd, 2025 at 2:28pm CST by Luke Adams

The NBA announced the 2024/25 finalists for a pair of awards on Wednesday, naming the six players who are eligible to win the Sportsmanship Award for this season, as well as the 12 players who are in the running to be named Teammate of the Year.

The Sportsmanship Award honors the player who “best represents the ideals of sportsmanship on the court,” per the NBA. Each of the league’s 30 teams nominated one of its players for the award, then a panel of league executives narrows that group to six finalists (one from each division) and current players voted for the winner.

The trophy for the Sportsmanship Award is named after Joe Dumars, the Hall-of-Fame guard who won the inaugural award back in ’95/96. This season’s finalists are as follows (via Twitter):

Holiday is the only one of this year’s finalists for the Sportsmanship Award who has earned the honor in the past — he won it in 2021. Sixers guard Tyrese Maxey won the award last season.

Meanwhile, the NBA also announced its finalists for the Teammate of the Year award for 2024/25. According to the league, the player selected for the honor is “deemed the best teammate based on selfless play, on- and off-court leadership as a mentor and role model to other NBA players, and commitment and dedication to team.”

The voting process is similar to the Sportsmanship Award — a panel of league executives selects 12 finalists (six from each conference) for the award, then current players vote on the winner.

Holiday is a three-time Teammate of the Year, while Timberwolves guard Mike Conley has also won the award twice, including in 2024. However, neither of those veterans is a finalist this season.

The Teammate of the Year finalists are as follows (via Twitter):

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Mavs’ Irving Undergoes ACL Surgery, Pelicans’ Murphy Gets Shoulder Surgery

March 27th, 2025 at 8:00am CST by Luke Adams

Mavericks guard Kyrie Irving underwent successful surgery on Wednesday to repair the ACL tear in his left knee, the team announced on its website.

The procedure had been expected since Irving was diagnosed with a torn ACL on March 4 after sustaining that knee injury one day earlier. Typically, ACL surgery is delayed by a few weeks in order to allow the swelling and inflammation in the player’s knee to subside to some extent.

The Mavericks’ announcement doesn’t provide a specific recovery timeline for Irving, simply stating that updates on his status will be provided as appropriate. However, the start of the NBA’s 2025/26 season is less than seven months away and the recovery period for this sort of surgery typically extends beyond that, so it seems relatively safe to assume the star guard won’t be ready for opening night in the fall.

Irving, who turned 33 on Sunday, holds a player option worth nearly $43MM for the 2025/26 season. If the Mavs are interested in working out a longer-term deal while he recovers from his knee surgery, he’ll have multiple contract options, including declining that option to sign a new contract or exercising the option and extending off of it.

Meanwhile, elsewhere in the Southwest Division, the Pelicans announced in a press release that wing Trey Murphy also went under the knife on Wednesday in order to repair the torn labrum in his right shoulder.

Murphy sustained his injury, which included a partial tear of his rotator cuff, on March 17, ending his season. He becomes the second Pelicans starter to undergo shoulder surgery already this year, joining teammate Herbert Jones.

According to the Pelicans’ release, Murphy is expected to make a full recovery following his surgery. But the team doesn’t specify whether or not he’ll be available for the start of the 2025/26 season, stating – like the Mavs with Irving – that further details will be “appropriately provided.”

As we wrote last week, Pelicans guard Dejounte Murray‘s recovery from an Achilles tear is expected to extend well into ’25/26 and it remains possible that Murphy and/or Jones will also have their season debuts delayed next fall. While it’s too early to pinpoint a return date for either player at this point, it will be worth keeping an eye out for any updates on their respective rehab processes this spring and summer.

Murphy, coming off a breakout year in which he averaged 21.1 points, 5.1 rebounds, and 3.5 assists per game on .454/.361/.887 shooting, signed a four-year, $112MM rookie scale extension last fall. That contract will go into effect this July.

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Mavericks Notes: Brunson, Davis, Gafford, Shammgod

March 24th, 2025 at 8:18am CST by Luke Adams

While last month’s Luka Doncic trade has since overshadowed it, the Mavericks‘ mishandling of Jalen Brunson‘s contract situation back in 2022 still looms large over the franchise, Stefan Bondy of The New York Post writes ahead of the Mavs’ visit to New York on Tuesday.

Tim MacMahon of ESPN also revisits the Brunson contract saga in Dallas, sharing an excerpt from his new book ‘The Wonder Boy’ about how the Mavericks’ unwillingness to offer the guard a four-year, $55.6MM contract when they were first eligible to do so cost them a chance to retain the budding star at a bargain price through 2026. According to MacMahon, while that $55.6MM extension was the maximum deal Brunson could have received entering the 2021/22 season, he would’ve been open to accepting even a little less than that, perhaps $50MM over four years.

However, the Mavericks reportedly didn’t offer Brunson an extension before the season and then didn’t put his max extension on the table until February 2022, at which point he had outplayed it. When the guard reached unrestricted free agency later that year, Dallas had the ability to tack on a fifth year to its offer or simply to outbid the Knicks‘ four-year, $104MM proposal, but did neither, allowing him to leave for New York.

“I tell you this, this is a conversation we had,” Brunson’s father Rick Brunson told MacMahon. “If Dallas offers the same money or more, I don’t know if he leaves. Come with the money. Make it hard! You didn’t. You made it easy.”

Here’s more on the Mavs:

  • Tuesday’s game in New York or Thursday’s contest in Orlando have emerged as the target dates for Anthony Davis‘ return from his adductor strain, reports NBA insider Marc Stein (Twitter link). Stein said over the weekend that there’s increasing optimism about the possibility of Davis, who has been out since February 8, playing during this road trip. He’s listed as doubtful for Monday’s matchup with the Nets in Brooklyn.
  • Daniel Gafford, who is recovering from a right knee sprain, spoke to MavsTV about his experience practicing with the Texas Legends in the G League on Friday, as Grant Afseth of Dallas Hoops Journal relays (via Twitter). “Practice was good — getting a lot of range of motion in the knee, getting my body right, and getting my cardio back,” Gafford said. “I’ve got to get the lungs going again, get the leg conditioning back, just working through everything. But everything went well (on Friday). It was just another step in the process and the progress, trying to get back on the floor with the guys. Good vibes, great atmosphere, great attitude — just trying to get better and feel better too.”
  • Mavericks point guard Spencer Dinwiddie said the team is just hoping to stay afloat until its injured players – especially Davis – start to return, according to Mike Curtis of The Dallas Morning News. “I think it’s just trying to keep the pulse, the heartbeat going, waiting on obviously the big dogs to get back,” Dinwiddie said. “That’s all we’re trying to do right now. … It’s a hold-down-the-fort mentality. Stay in striking distance. You get a top-75 guy back. Who knows what can happen?”
  • Christian Clark of The Athletic takes a look at the impact that assistant coach God Shammgod has had in Dallas, including on Kyrie Irving. “I feel like he’s just one of my uncles just from Harlem, New York, that’s there to give me a little s–t when I need it, but be honest all the time,” Irving said of Shammgod.
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And-Ones: Eaglestaff, Kyrie, Australia, MVP Race, Rookies, More

March 12th, 2025 at 9:51am CST by Luke Adams

North Dakota junior Treysen Eaglestaff will enter the NCAA’s transfer portal while testing the NBA draft waters, agent George S. Langberg tells Jonathan Givony of ESPN (Twitter link).

Eaglestaff wasn’t included in Givony’s most recent top-100 list of prospects for the 2025 draft, but he had a strong season as a scorer for the Fighting Hawks in 2024/25, averaging 18.9 points per game on 416/.359/.794 shooting in 33 outings.

Eaglestaff’s scoring average was buoyed by some massive performances, including a 51-point outburst in the quarterfinals of the Summit League tournament against South Dakota State last Friday. The 6’6″ shooting guard also put up 40 points in a loss to Alabama on December 18. He knocked down a career-high eight three-pointers in both of those games.

Here are a few more odds and ends from around the basketball world:

  • There may be too many hurdles to clear to make it actually happen, but after Mavericks guard Kyrie Irving expressed interest in playing for the Australian national team at the 2028 Olympics, Hawks guard Dyson Daniels is fully on board with the idea, per Grant Afseth of RG.org. “Oh yeah, I love it. I love it,” Daniels said. “I know he wants to do it. We want him to come play for us. There’s a lot of stuff that has to get cleared for him to come play, but we welcome him with open arms. He’s a brother. He’s an Australian.” Irving has Australian citizenship, but he previously played for Team USA in international competitions, so both USA Basketball and FIBA would need to sign off for him to play for the Boomers.
  • In a pair of stories for The Athletic, one panel of NBA writers debates which player is most deserving of this season’s MVP award, while another panel takes a closer look at an uninspiring race for the No. 10 spot in the Eastern Conference. While a recent three-game winning streak for the Bulls has put them in prime position for a play-in spot, the general consensus on the MVP race is that it remains too close to call between Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Nikola Jokic.
  • Elsewhere at the Athletic, draft expert Sam Vecenie has updated his rookie rankings for the 2024/25 class, placing a pair of Grizzlies – Jaylen Wells and Zach Edey – in his top three, sandwiching Spurs guard Stephon Castle at No. 2. First overall pick Zaccharie Risacher of the Hawks and Heat big man Kel’el Ware round out Vecenie’s top five.
  • It has been five years since the NBA shut down its 2019/20 season due to COVID-19. In an extensive oral history, Baxter Holmes and Tim MacMahon of ESPN revisit that period, sharing a number of interesting behind-the-scenes details on how the league came to its decision and how teams and players reacted.
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