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NBA Unveils 2025 All-Star Game Starters

January 23rd, 2025 at 7:01pm CST by Earnest Marshall

The 2025 All-Star Game starters were revealed on Thursday during Inside the NBA’s pregame show and confirmed by the NBA on social media (Twitter links).

In the Eastern Conference, a pair of Knicks made the cut, with Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns – in his first season in New York – earning nods. Joining Brunson in the backcourt is Cavaliers guard Donovan Mitchell, while Celtics forward Jayson Tatum and Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo secured frontcourt spots.

Lakers star LeBron James extended his all-time record to 21 consecutive All-Star selections in the Western Conference. Warriors guard Stephen Curry and Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander accounted for the backcourt spots in the West while Nikola Jokic of the Nuggets and Kevin Durant of the Suns joined James as frontcourt starters.

The starters are selected by a weighted voting process with the fan vote accounting for half of the final outcome. The player and media portions of the vote each counted for 25 percent. Three frontcourt players and two guards were selected from each conference.

The reserves, who are picked by the league’s coaches, will be announced on Jan. 30. LaMelo Ball of the Hornets narrowly missed out on being a starter after ranking first in the fan vote, having finished third in player voting and seventh in the media vote. The Spurs’ Victor Wembanyama also barely missed out, finishing second in media voting but fourth for both players and fans.

Luka Doncic, Anthony Edwards, Ja Morant, Kyrie Irving, James Harden, De’Aaron Fox, Devin Booker, Norman Powell, Anthony Davis, Jalen Williams, Alperen Sengun, Trae Young, Damian Lillard, Cade Cunningham, Darius Garland, Tyrese Maxey, Tyler Herro, Evan Mobley and Jaylen Brown are among the names who could be voted in as reserves.

The 74th NBA All-Star Game on Feb. 16 will feature a new format, complete with a mini-tournament composed of four teams and three games. Two teams will meet in a semifinal while the other two will play in another. The victors in each of those games will meet in a final. The winner of each game is the first to 40 points.

The format change means that the 10 players named starters on Thursday won’t be the only players who actually start on All-Star Sunday. The 24 players ultimately named All-Stars will be split among three eight-man teams, with the roster’s drafted by Inside the NBA’s Shaquille O’Neal, Kenny Smith and Charles Barkley.

The draft will air on Feb. 6 on TNT. The fourth team of eight players will be made up of the winning team from the Rising Stars event.

The four teams participating in the NBA All-Star Game will compete for a prize pool of $1.8 million. Each player on the team that wins the final will receive $125,000, while members of the second-place team earn $50,000. Players on the third- and fourth-place teams will receive $25,000.

The full voting results can be found here.

Pacific Notes: Durant, Leonard, Zubac, Post, Schroder, Hield

January 23rd, 2025 at 9:41am CST by Dana Gauruder

The Suns’ pursuit of Jimmy Butler has been big news for weeks in NBA circles. They also acquired center Nick Richards last week and made a draft-pick trade with Utah this week, seemingly with an eye toward additional deals.

The best thing the Phoenix players can do is tune out all the trade chatter, Kevin Durant told Duane Rankin of the Arizona Republic (Twitter link).

“It’s just a part of the game now,” Durant said. “We know it’s important. The locker room is sacred. The bus is sacred. Hotel, walkthrough, all that stuff is sacred. It’s stuff we don’t talk about. It’s a brotherhood in here, but we know the noise is going to always be going on around us. As much as we can bunker down and focus on one another, the better we are as a group.

“It’s a business, though. We understand it’s a business. Anything can happen in this business. We traded one our brothers, Josh (Okogie) to Charlotte and that happened pretty quickly. We’ve just got to focus on in one one another and keep grinding.”

We have more from the Pacific Division:

The Clippers almost defeated the Celtics without four of their starters on Wednesday. Kawhi Leonard, James Harden, Norman Powell and Ivica Zubac all sat out, yet they took the Celtics to overtime (story via The Associated Press). Leonard sat out due to right knee injury management but he has shown flashes of his old self in recent games. He scored 19 efficient points in 24-plus minutes against the Lakers on Sunday. “I’m happy with the progress,” Leonard told Broderick Turner of the Los Angeles Times. “For me, it’s just about how I’m feeling and I’m coming out of the games feeling great. But I still got work to do and we’re going to keep taking each step.”
Zubac, who missed Wednesday’s game due to an eye injury, is averaging a career-best 15.0 points, 12.7 rebounds and 2.6 assists per night. He’s been a steadying force with Leonard sidelined most of the season. “I’ve been confident in my game. I always knew what I could do. It was just not my role (previously),” Zubac told Janis Carr of the Orange County Register.
Warriors two-way player Quinten Post got some court time on Wednesday, contributing five points and six rebounds in 15 minutes, Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN tweets. Coach Steve Kerr says he’ll continue to hunt opportunities to play Post, as he gives the offense a different look with his ability to help spread the floor. Kerr moved Dennis Schröder to the bench in favor of Buddy Hield, who contributed 17 points in 25 minutes. Schröder, who had started in his first 17 games since being acquired from Brooklyn, had seven points and five assists in 21 minutes. Kerr wants Schröder on the floor when Stephen Curry is getting a rest and also likes the chemistry between Curry and Hield, Youngmisuk adds in another tweet.

Minutes Restriction Relaxed For Dorian Finnney-Smith

January 22nd, 2025 at 11:00pm CST by Arthur Hill

The Lakers have relaxed their minutes restriction for Dorian Finney-Smith, whose playing time has been limited by an ankle issue since he arrived in a trade with Brooklyn last month, per Khobi Price of The Orange County Register. Coach J.J. Redick talked Tuesday about the difficulty of getting Finney-Smith comfortable with his new teammates. “It’s been hard because he’s been on a minutes restriction since we got him, so just having to kind of navigate that and try to save him, save those like four or five minutes for the end of the game, it’s been challenging,” Redick said. “We got word [on Tuesday] that we can up his minutes from 20 to 24. So that helps, that helps.”

Lakers’ Vanderbilt Expected To Make Season Debut On Saturday

January 22nd, 2025 at 1:05pm CST by Luke Adams

Lakers forward Jarred Vanderbilt has been medically cleared to make his season debut on Saturday vs. Golden State and, barring any setbacks, will suit up in that game, sources tell Shams Charania of ESPN (Twitter link).

A 2023 trade deadline acquisition, Vanderbilt has been an impactful role player for Los Angeles when healthy, providing strong, versatile defense and averaging 6.1 points, 5.7 rebounds, and 1.2 steals in 21.9 minutes per game. The Lakers, who had a +0.6 overall net rating last season, posted a +4.2 mark during Vanderbilt’s 581 minutes of action.

However, due to health issues, the forward has been limited to just 55 total appearances since he was traded from Utah to L.A., including 29 last season and zero so far in 2024/25. He hasn’t played in a game since February 1, 2024.

Vanderbilt underwent surgeries on both of his feet in the offseason and had a setback in his rehab process when he experienced a fluid build-up in his knee in December.

Vanderbilt is unlikely to be a difference-maker for the Lakers, especially since the team will likely be cautious with his usage following a layoff of nearly a full year. But if he stays healthy, he’ll give the club another defensive option on the wing against opponents’ top scorers.

A report earlier this week indicated that the Lakers are “cautiously optimistic” that they’ll get a better sense of their needs at the trade deadline after reintegrating Vanderbilt and seeing how his addition affects the rotation. The club’s two stars are reportedly hoping for an aggressive approach on the trade market.

LeBron, AD Want Lakers To Be Aggressive On Trade Market

January 22nd, 2025 at 11:53am CST by Luke Adams

With just 15 days left until the NBA’s 2025 trade deadline arrives, Lakers stars LeBron James and Anthony Davis are “growing concerned” about the team’s ability to make significant upgrades on the trade market, league sources tell Shams Charania of ESPN (Insider link).

James and Davis believe the Lakers could be just a piece or two away from contending for a title and have expressed that they want the front office to make moves to try to add those pieces, according to Charania.

That lines up with reporting from Jovan Buha of The Athletic, who wrote on Tuesday that James and Davis favor an “all-in approach” on the trade market and noted that LeBron has “never valued draft picks.”

The Lakers, who currently rank sixth in the Western Conference at 23-18, have two tradable first-round picks available in 2029 and 2031. They also have a pair of 2025 second-rounders on hand (their own and the Clippers’), and could trade first-round pick swaps for up to three years (2026, 2028, and 2030).

The front office – led by executive VP of basketball operations Rob Pelinka – has taken a relatively conservative approach at the trade deadline in recent years, opting against making any moves in 2021, 2022, and 2024. In 2023, the club gave up Russell Westbrook and a lightly protected first-round pick in order to land D’Angelo Russell, Malik Beasley, and Jarred Vanderbilt — that deal helped propel them to a strong second-half finish and a spot in the Western Conference Finals.

The Lakers, who already made one move last month for Dorian Finney-Smith, have done their due diligence in trade talks so far this season and are open to sending out one or both of their tradable first-round picks for players who would be both short- and long-term fits, Charania reports.

It’s unclear if there will be a difference-maker available that the Lakers will be able to attain using their limited assets, especially since a few of their potential salary-matching pieces – including Gabe Vincent and Vanderbilt – presumably have negative trade value.

Still, Charania suggests, given that many of the top seeds in the West this season are young teams with limited playoff experience, there’s a “perception of a wide-open league,” which could spur buyers to be more aggressive.

“Boston, OKC and Cleveland are who they are,” a high-ranking team official told ESPN. “But this is wide open.”

Community Shootaround: Western Conference Playoff Race

January 21st, 2025 at 4:02pm CST by Luke Adams

Of the 15 teams in the Western Conference, only two are clearly focused more on the 2025 draft lottery than the 2024/25 standings. The 10-31 Jazz and 14-28 Trail Blazers don’t have realistic postseason aspirations this season, with management prioritizing the development of young players and the possibility of landing another high draft pick.

Those two teams are sandwiching the 12-32 Pelicans, who definitely didn’t expect their season to play out like this. Plagued by injuries since top offseason acquisition Dejounte Murray broke his hand on opening night, New Orleans has won its past four games but likely dug too deep a hole in the first half to seriously vie for a play-in spot this season, even if the roster gets (and stays) fully healthy.

Still, that leaves 12 teams in the hunt for eight playoff spots in the Western Conference.

We can safely pencil in the Thunder for one of those spots — and it will almost certainly be the top one. At 35-7, Mark Daigneault‘s squad has a seven-game cushion on the next-best team in the conference.

The Rockets (28-14), Grizzlies (28-15) and Nuggets (26-16) round out the current top four in the West and appear well positioned to claim playoff berths. That’s not necessarily a lock, given how competitive the conference is — a single injury could be all it takes for one of those teams to fall back to the pack. But they’re in strong positions.

After the top four, things gets interesting. Here are the current Western Conference standings from five through 12:

Los Angeles Clippers (24-18)
Los Angeles Lakers (22-18)
Dallas Mavericks (23-20)
Sacramento Kings (22-20)
Minnesota Timberwolves (22-21)
Phoenix Suns (21-21)
Golden State Warriors (21-21)
San Antonio Spurs (19-22)

These eight teams are separated by a total of 4.5 games. The gap from No. 6 to 11 is just two games. A five-game winning streak or losing streak for any of these clubs could significantly change the perception of how their season is going.

To that point, as recently as January 4, the Kings were 12th in the conference at 16-19, while the Spurs were in eighth place at 18-16. A Sacramento hot streak and a San Antonio cold spell have resulted in those two clubs swapping places in the standings just seven games later.

The Spurs are probably a little ahead of schedule in their rebuild and didn’t necessarily expect to make the postseason this year, so if they continue to slump, it wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world for them. But the rest of the clubs listed above had serious playoff aspirations this season. The Clippers, Lakers, Mavericks, Timberwolves, Suns, and Warriors are all spending into the tax on their rosters, and the Kings aren’t far off.

Barring a major collapse from one of the top four seeds, one of these clubs (or two, if San Antonio sticks around) will finish outside the top 10, missing out not just on the playoffs but on the play-in altogether. Two more will be eliminated in the play-in tournament and will fail to clinch one of the eight playoff spots in the West.

What happens at the trade deadline could go a long way toward determining how this race plays out down the stretch, but we want to know what you’re thinking at the halfway point of the season.

Which teams do you expect to finish outside of the top 10 in the West? Which teams will be eliminated in the play-in? Which clubs besides the Thunder are the most serious contenders to represent the conference in this year’s NBA Finals?

Head to the comment section below to weigh in with your thoughts!

Lakers Rumors: Trade Deadline Approach, Vanderbilt, Reaves

January 21st, 2025 at 9:06am CST by Luke Adams

With the February 6 trade deadline approaching, the Lakers could take one of three general paths, according to Jovan Buha of The Athletic. They could use one or both of their tradable first-round picks to try to significantly upgrade the roster; stand pat or make a relatively minor trade, perhaps using their two remaining second-round picks; or launch a rebuild by tearing down the roster and trading LeBron James and Anthony Davis.

That last option is clearly the least likely, according to Buha, who suggests that trading away James and/or Davis if they haven’t asked to be moved would be against the organization’s “ethos.” And there’s no indication that either player will seek a deal out of Los Angeles within the next couple weeks.

As Buha said a few days ago in a YouTube video, his sense from talking to rival scouts and executives around the NBA is that the Lakers are more likely to do something small than to take a big swing at the deadline.

While that could change if certain players unexpectedly become available, the Lakers aren’t in a great position to address all three of their most glaring needs – a two-way wing, another play-maker and ball-handler, and a center who can protect the rim and rebound – using their remaining assets, given their limited trade chips and their lack of mid-sized expiring contracts, Buha writes.

Here’s more from Buha on the Lakers:

Los Angeles is “cautiously optimistic” that the impending return of forward Jarred Vanderbilt will help give the team more clarity on which areas and positions represent its greatest need(s), per Buha. If Vanderbilt’s return goes well, the expectation around the league is that the Lakers will focus on adding either a big man or a ball-handler, especially since there likely won’t be impactful two-way wings available in their price range.
The “all-in” approach, which would involve trading the Lakers’ 2029 and 2031 first-round picks, has long been the one favored by James and Davis, Buha notes, but acquiring another impact player would be difficult, in part due to their cap situation — the club can’t take back more salary than it sends out and can’t aggregate Dorian Finney-Smith‘s salary since he was recently acquired, so stacking contracts for a Jimmy Butler-type star earning the max would be challenging.
As Buha observes, Austin Reaves‘ strong play since D’Angelo Russell was traded has also lessened the need for the club to acquire a high-level third option. In the nine games since Russell was moved, Reaves has averaged 20.4 points and 7.3 assists per game with a .450/.390/.915 shooting line.

Windhorst: Recent ‘Uptick’ In Jimmy Butler Trade Talks

January 21st, 2025 at 7:53am CST by Luke Adams

Jimmy Butler has appeared in two games for the Heat since his team-imposed seven-game suspension ended last week, but the front office hasn’t slowed its efforts to find a trade involving the disgruntled star. In fact, ESPN’s Brian Windhorst suggested on the latest episode of his Hoop Collective podcast (YouTube link) that Miami has actually gotten more serious within the past few days about trying to get a deal done.

“Since Jimmy had his meeting with (team owner) Micky Arison on Thursday, there is no doubt an uptick in discussions around Jimmy Butler,” Windhorst said. “The Heat shifted into a new gear after that meeting.

“I even had a team on Friday call me and say… ‘Hey, we were just talking to a couple teams. We’re trying to dump a salary. And they all of the sudden had to end our phone calls to do something bigger, they said. What’s going on?’ And I go, ‘Well, I don’t know.’ But I speculate that it has to do with Butler. And not just a direct Butler trade, but three- and four-team trades. The point is, I do think the Heat are actually trying.”

The Heat still have over two weeks until the February 6 trade deadline to try to figure something out, and there’s reportedly no shortage of clubs expressing interest in potentially getting involved as facilitators in a three- or four-team scenario.

However, as has been well chronicled in recent weeks, moving Butler is a challenge due to his salary ($48.8MM), contract situation (he holds a $52.4MM player option for next season and reportedly wants an extension), and age (35). Many of the teams rumored to be most interested in the veteran forward, including the Suns, are most restricted in their ability to offer the sort of pieces Miami would want, including win-now players on short-term contracts.

Any Phoenix deal for Butler would almost certainly have to involve guard Bradley Beal, who has an even pricier cap hit than the Heat star and is under contract for two more seasons beyond this one, which isn’t appealing to Miami. That means the two sides would have to find a third team willing to take Beal, who in turn would have to sign off on the deal due to the no-trade clause in his contract.

According to Fred Katz of The Athletic, the Suns still haven’t asked Beal for his thoughts about any potential trade. A source familiar with Beal’s thinking confirms to Katz that the three-time All-Star would consider waiving the no-trade clause for the right situation, adding that winning would be his top priority in that scenario.

When Beal was traded from the Wizards to the Suns back in 2023, he was also open to the Heat, as well as West Coast teams like the Warriors, Kings, Lakers, and Clippers, says Katz, but none of those clubs appear to be likely suitors at this point.

Raptors Rumors: Facilitation, Brown, Boucher, Mitchell, Olynyk

January 20th, 2025 at 1:54pm CST by Luke Adams

Doug Smith of The Toronto Star reported last week that the Raptors have signaled their interest in getting involved in a potential Jimmy Butler trade as a facilitator. According to Jake Fischer of The Stein Line (Substack link), it’s not just a Butler deal that Toronto is open to facilitating.

The Raptors have let it be known around the league that they’re willing to help grease the wheels on potential deadline deals, sources tell Fischer.

“They are as well positioned as anyone to facilitate a trade,” an Eastern Conference executive told Fischer. “If a team needs to send out four players to make the math work, do you send one to Toronto?”

The Raptors currently have more than $10MM in breathing room below the luxury tax line and are carrying just 14 players on full-season salaries (with Orlando Robinson on a 10-day deal), so they have both cap and roster flexibility. They also have a handful of players on expiring contracts, including Bruce Brown ($23MM), Chris Boucher ($10.81MM), and Davion Mitchell ($6.45MM).

Brown, Boucher, and center Kelly Olynyk are the Raptors most frequently cited as trade candidates, Fischer says, but Mitchell is another player who could make sense as a salary-matching piece in certain scenarios — he’d also hold some appeal to teams seeking another point-of-attack defender, though he offers little offensive punch.

Here’s more from Fischer on the Raptors:

Toronto is “very motivated” to move Brown, sources tell Fischer. The veteran swingman, who won a title with Denver in 2023, was a popular target on the free agent market that summer and could draw interest ahead of the February 6 deadline from some of the same teams who pursued him at that time. Rival executives have been keeping an eye on Brown following his recovery from offseason knee surgery to see if he can recapture his previous form, Fischer writes.
If the Raptors are unable to find a suitable trade for Brown, he could become an intriguing buyout candidate, Fischer writes. However, because he’s earning more than the non-taxpayer mid-level exception ($12.8MM), Brown would be ineligible to sign with any team operating above either tax apron if he were to reach free agency. That includes clubs like the Lakers and Nuggets, who are believed to have interest in the 28-year-old, sources tell Fischer. According to Fischer, Denver has considered whether trying to trade out of apron territory to gain more roster flexibility – including the ability to pursue players on the buyout market – would make sense.
Boucher isn’t regarded as a viable buyout candidate if he’s not traded at the deadline. According to Fischer, the big man actually has some interest in a possible contract extension with the Raptors if he remains in Toronto through Feb. 6, which the team would be open to considering for its longest-tenured player.

LeBron James: “We Don’t Have Room For Error”

January 20th, 2025 at 8:00am CST by Arthur Hill

With the trade deadline 17 days away, LeBron James may be sending a message to the front office that something needs to be done. The Lakers star talked about the limits of the team’s current roster after a 116-102 loss to the cross-town Clippers on Sunday night, according to Dan Woike of The Los Angeles Times.

James said the team has a razor-thin margin for error because of the way the roster has been put together. Asked if there is a way to improve that internally, James responded, “Nah. That’s how our team is constructed. We don’t have room for error — for much error.”

Presented with a follow-up question about whether the Lakers have to be nearly perfect to have a chance to win, James said, “We don’t have a choice. I mean… that’s the way our team is constructed. And we have to, we have to play close-to-perfect basketball.”

Woike points out that even though the Lakers are sixth in the West at 22-18, their underlying numbers haven’t been good. Despite the winning record, their net rating is minus-2.9, which ranks 12th in the conference.

They’re also failing to capitalize on a favorable part of the schedule, as Sunday was their 10th time playing in Los Angeles over a 12-game stretch. The Lakers are just 5-5 so far and are in danger of slipping out of a guaranteed playoff spot and maybe even the play-in tournament.

Adding to James’ point about roster construction, he probably didn’t expect to be playing such a major role at age 40. He’s logging 34.9 minutes per night, which is roughly in line with his playing time since he came to L.A. seven years ago, and is averaging 23.8 points, 7.5 rebounds and 8.8 assists. He has only missed four games this season, and the Lakers usually need a huge effort from him to be competitive.

It’s also worth noting that part of the roster construction issue stems from taking James’ son, Bronny James, with a second-round pick and giving him a standard contract rather than a two-way deal. The 20-year-old guard has spent much of his rookie season in the G League and has averaged just 2.4 minutes in nine NBA games.

The Lakers have already made one significant deal, acquiring Dorian Finney-Smith and Shake Milton from Brooklyn last month in a four-player trade. That hasn’t been enough to spark the team in a tight Western Conference playoff race.

Making pointed remarks close to the trade deadline has been a pattern throughout James’ career, but he’s not the only one who believes the Lakers are in a difficult position. A longtime scout tells Woike that the Lakers appear “stuck,” and coach J.J. Redick expressed similar concerns Sunday night.

“We don’t have a huge margin for error. Nor can we create that margin organically,” Redick said. “It has to be emphasized daily to touch the paint, to play paint-to-great mentality, make the extra pass. We don’t have a guy on our team that’s going to necessarily always draw two to the ball. We don’t have a guy on our team that’s going to be able to get past his guy one-on-one and get to the paint and spread it out to the perimeter. Like, that’s just not our team. So we have to do it through connectivity, through execution. And when we do that, we’re really good.”