Jalen Williams Available For Game 1 Of Western Finals
May 17: Williams isn’t listed on the injury report for Monday’s matchup against the Spurs, per Rylan Stiles of SI.com. That means the one-time All-Star will be available for the Game 1 of the Western Conference finals.
May 15: Thunder star Jalen Williams provided an update on his return from a left hamstring strain on Friday via his YouTube channel, as Justin Martinez of The Oklahoman relays.
Williams, who suffered the injury a few weeks ago in first-round series against Phoenix, said the second-round sweep of the Lakers gave him extra time to recover. The 25-year-old was spotted at Friday’s practice then released the vlog update later in the day, Martinez notes.
“I haven’t had to rush back from my hamstring stuff at all,” Williams said. “I’m actually taking extra days now then what was even originally planned because we were up 3-0 (on the Lakers), so there was no point in going into this series and possibly hurting myself before we have to play the Timberwolves or the Spurs. I’m about to go into another series healthy.”
The fourth-year wing was limited to a career-low 33 regular season appearances in 2025/26 due to offseason wrist surgery and a pair of right hamstring strains. He last played on April 22, when he injured his opposite hamstring in Game 2 vs. the Suns.
Williams, whose rookie scale max extension begins in 2026/27, averaged 17.1 points, 5.5 assists, 4.6 rebounds and 1.2 steals in 28.4 minutes per game during the regular season. He was excellent in the first two games against the Suns, averaging 20.5 PPG, 5.0 APG, 4.0 RPG and 1.0 SPG while shooting 61.5% from the field in 26.0 MPG.
Ajay Mitchell was Oklahoma City’s secondary ball-handler and attacker with Williams out, but he should still receive plenty of playing time in the conference finals even if Williams is back, according to Martinez. The Thunder are still waiting to learn their opponent; San Antonio currently holds a 3-2 lead over Minnesota ahead of Friday’s Game 6.
Despite Critics, Lottery Reform Plan Seems Headed For Approval
The NBA’s Board of Governors appears to be headed toward approving the “3-2-1” lottery reform plan later this month, but Sam Amick and Mike Vorkunov of The Athletic found plenty of critics of the proposal in their conversations with executives at the draft combine.
Several of those executives believe the idea of scrapping the current lottery system and replacing it with something radically different is an “overreaction” to the circumstances caused by the high level of talent in this year’s draft. They note that once any incentive to tank is removed from all 30 teams, those who finish at the very bottom will truly be the worst in the league.
However, they’ll be penalized by the new system, which includes a “relegation tier” that reduces their number of ping pong balls and gives them the same chance of landing the top pick as the ninth and 10th seeds in the play-in tournament.
Getting lucky in the lottery is viewed as the best way for bad teams to pick up high-level talent, and many executives believe the new system will doom those teams to a longer time at the bottom of the league.
“Teams that aren’t trying to tank will then get penalized,” one front office staffer said.
League sources told Amick and Vorkunov that one team raised that concern at a general managers’ meeting last Monday. However, their sources add that there has otherwise been “minimal pushback” on the proposal during a series of meetings held by the league. They also cite a “feeling of resignation” by executives who don’t like the new system but believe its approval is inevitable. At least 23 of the 30 governors must support the proposal for it to be approved, and it would take effect with next year’s draft.
“They’re hellbent on doing this,” an assistant general manager told the authors.
Some details on the proposal are still being finalized, but it would expand the lottery from 14 to 16 teams, with 37 balls being drawn to determine the top 16 picks. The teams with the three worst records would get two balls rather than three due to relegation, but they wouldn’t be able to slip lower than the 12th pick. League sources tell Amick and Vorkunov that the floor for those teams continues to be discussed, with some believing it shouldn’t be as low as No. 12.
The next seven teams in the standings would get three balls apiece, while the teams that finish ninth and 10th in the play-in tournament would get two and the losers of the 7-8 game would each get one. The best odds of landing the No. 1 pick would be reduced to 8.1%, down from the current 14%.
Some executives cited “unintended consequences” if the new system is adopted, which include making picks throughout the top 16 more valuable because of the flatter lottery odds. There’s concern that it might make future draft picks more difficult to acquire in trades. Another assistant GM complained that it would give rebuilding teams less control over the moves that they’re able to make.
Amick and Vorkunov add that some executives are frustrated that the new system will be implemented so suddenly, causing it to impact the value of first-round picks that have already been acquired through trades. Others believe fines, like the ones handed out to the Jazz and Pacers in February, are enough to discourage tanking without major changes.
That aspect will be increased with the new system, as the authors report that general managers were told commissioner Adam Silver will be given “an added ability to reduce teams’ lottery odds and/or modify teams’ draft positions” if he deems there are obvious tanking infractions.
The expectation is that the new system will be in place when teams gather for next year’s lottery, according to Amick and Vorkunov. Sources also tell them that the actual drawing may be televised live, rather than just the unveiling of envelopes.
Cavaliers Expected To Re-Sign James Harden To Multiyear Deal
No matter what happens in Sunday night’s Game 7 at Detroit, the Cavaliers plan to re-sign James Harden this summer, sources tell Brian Windhorst of ESPN.
Windhorst suggests an “understanding” that a multiyear contract would be forthcoming was likely in place before Cleveland sent Darius Garland and a 2026 second-round pick to the Clippers in exchange for Harden at the trade deadline. Harden was in position to veto a trade and probably wouldn’t have joined the Cavs without the implicit promise of a new deal.
Windhorst hears that the organization worked to establish a bond with Harden before the trade was finalized, as head coach Kenny Atkinson took steps to make him a partner in the team’s success from the first time they talked. Windhorst points out that Harden has excelled throughout his career when he’s had a strong relationship with his coaches, so Atkinson and his staff have been cultivating that from the start.
Harden holds a $42.3MM player option for next season, but the annual salary in his next contract is expected to be smaller in exchange for more long-term security as he turns 37 this summer. That will provide some financial relief for the Cavaliers, who are carrying the league’s highest payroll at $226MM (more than $280MM with the luxury tax factored in) and are the only team currently operating over the second apron.
Windhorst states that a new deal with Harden will also provide some stability amid the uncertainty surrounding Donovan Mitchell, who has a $53.8MM player option for 2027/28 and will carry the equivalent of an expiring contract next season. Mitchell will become extension-eligible in July and can sign a new deal worth up to $272MM over four years. However, Windhorst notes that he would benefit by waiting until 2027 when he’ll have 10 years of service, which means he can increase his next contract to five years at around $350MM and will be eligible for other benefits, including a no-trade clause.
Waiting to sign his next deal means Mitchell will hit free agency next summer, which Windhorst states could lead to an “uncomfortable” situation, especially if the Cavs fail to advance past the second round again. There could be some hesitation about committing to a new deal that pays him $80MM when he’s 35.
An early playoff exit could affect the roster in other ways, Windhorst adds, as rival teams have expressed interest for years in trading for Jarrett Allen. The 28-year-old center is about to enter a three-year, $90MM extension that will make him significantly more expensive for a team that’s already under financial duress. Windhorst cites moving Max Strus, who’ll have a $16.6MM expiring contract next season, as another option, but notes that trading Allen or Strus is unlikely to bring back “star power” that would put Cleveland in position to win a title.
That could lead to discussions on whether to part with Evan Mobley, an elite defender who would generate plenty of interest around the league if the Cavs consider moving him. Windhorst states that the 25-year-old Mobley, who’s in the first season of a five-year, $270MM extension, has been “untouchable” so far.
Mike Conley Wants To Continue Career
Timberwolves guard Mike Conley wants to play at least one more season, he told Chris Hine of the Minneapolis Star Tribune (Twitter link).
“I think I might’ve proved to myself I can play a little longer,” he said.
Conley will be an unrestricted free agent this summer. The 38-year-old began the season with the Timberwolves but endured a tumultuous journey during the trade deadline.
The Timberwolves sent Conley to Chicago in a salary-dump trade on February 3, with the Bulls flipping him to Charlotte along with Coby White a day later, just ahead of the Feb. 5 trade deadline. The Hornets subsequently cut him, which cleared the way for the 38-year-old to return to Minnesota.
NBA rules prohibit a player who is traded and then waived to immediately re-sign with the team that traded him away. However, that restriction only applied to the Bulls, not the Timberwolves, since Conley was traded twice.
His playing time increased late in the regular season and he was part of the postseason rotation. He appeared in 12 playoff games, including five starts, and averaged 4.4 points and 2.7 assists in 14 minutes per game.
Conley has played 1,220 regular season games and 120 playoff games in a career that began in 2007 with Memphis.
NBA To Announce MVP Award Sunday; SGA, Jokic, Wembanyama Finalists
The NBA will announce the winner of the Most Valuable Player award on Sunday at 7:30 p.m. ET on Amazon Prime, just before the start of Game 7 of the Cavaliers–Pistons series, the league office announced (via Twitter).
Reigning MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Nikola Jokic and Victor Wembanyama are the three finalists for the award.
Gilgeous-Alexander, last season’s Most Valuable Player, averaged 31.1 points, 6.6 assists, 4.3 rebounds and 1.4 steals per game in 68 regular season contests while leading the Thunder to a league-high 64 victories. He shot a career-best 55.3% from the field.
Jokic is seeking his fourth career MVP. The Nuggets center averaged a triple-double for the second consecutive season with 27.7 points, 12.9 rebounds, and a career-high 10.7 assists in 70 games.
Wembanyama averaged 25.0 points, 11.7 rebounds, 3.1 assists, and a league-leading 3.1 blocks in 64 regular season games. He was named the league’s Defensive Player of the Year last month. The Spurs center would be the first French player to claim the MVP trophy.
The Spurs will face the Thunder in the Western Conference Finals, beginning on Monday, and the scheduling announcement hints that SGA could be the winner, as Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press notes. Last season, Gilgeous-Alexander was announced as the winner on May 21, and he was formally presented with the trophy before Game 2 of the conference finals in Oklahoma City the following day.
Jazz Have Touched Base With Wizards About No. 1 Pick
The Jazz, who hold the No. 2 pick in next month’s draft, have reached out to the Wizards about the possibility of acquiring the No. 1 overall selection, a source tells Marc J. Spears of Andscape.
Spears suggests that if the Jazz were to move up, it would be for forward AJ Dybantsa. While there’s not necessarily a consensus top prospect in this year’s draft, Dybantsa shows up at the top of most experts’ big boards and is a local star, having played at Utah Prep before spending his first and only college season at BYU. Given that Utah typically isn’t a popular free agent destination, the Jazz may like the idea of landing a young star who has embraced the area.
Still, if the Wizards were to select Dybantsa first overall, the Jazz would have a handful of good alternatives at No. 2, starting with Kansas guard Darryn Peterson.
Peterson’s stock took a minor hit this season as he missed time due to health issues, including repeated cramping, but he entered the year as the favorite to be this year’s No. 1 pick and has All-NBA upside. The 6’6″ guard, who averaged 20.2 points per game and made 38.2% of his three-pointers as a Jayhawk, would be a strong fit alongside a loaded Jazz frontcourt led by Lauri Markkanen and Jaren Jackson Jr.
Duke forward Cameron Boozer and UNC forward Caleb Wilson also figure to receive consideration at No. 2, though there’s a widespread belief that they’ll come off the board after Dybantsa and Peterson.
If the Jazz and Wizards were to make a trade involving the No. 1 overall pick, recent history suggests it would probably cost Utah an unprotected or very lightly protected future first-round pick. The last team to move up to No. 1 – the 2017 Sixers – gave up that year’s No. 3 selection and a future first-rounder that became No. 14. Similarly, when the Mavericks moved up from No. 5 to No. 3 a year later for Luka Doncic, they sent Atlanta a future first-rounder that landed 10th overall.
Of course, the Wizards’ willingness to make a deal will depend in large part on which prospect they prefer and whether or not the Jazz are eyeing the same player. If Washington is locked in on a specific prospect and believes Utah wants the same player, the Wizards would likely be resistant to moving down — or at least would seek a Godfather offer to do so. For what it’s worth, Wizards president Michael Winger told Jake Fischer of The Stein Line after Sunday’s lottery that the team is open to listening to offers for the No. 1 pick.
Celtics Hiring Isaiah Thomas As Scout
The Celtics have hired Isaiah Thomas as a pro and college scout, according to Adam Himmelsbach of The Boston Globe (subscriber link), who reports that the former Celtics star will be based in the Seattle area, his hometown.
Boston has several other regional and international scouts, Himmelsbach notes. Sources tell The Boston Globe that Thomas has been at the draft combine in Chicago this week, working with Celtics executives as they interview prospects and teach him about the “overall evaluation process.”
Thomas had the best years of his career in Boston, making a pair of All-Star teams and earning second-team All-NBA honors in 2016/17 after finishing fifth in MVP voting. However, his career was derailed by a hip injury in the spring of 2017, and he was traded to Cleveland in the Kyrie Irving later that summer.
Thomas was never able to recapture his previous form after the hip issue, having bounced around the league for several years. The 37-year-old point guard last played in the NBA in 2023/24, when he finished out that season with the Suns.
President of basketball operations Brad Stevens, who was Boston’s head coach at the time, has credited Thomas with helping to establish the culture that has led to considerable success over the past decade, per Himmelsbach.
Thomas never formally retired as a player. In fact, less than sixth months ago he said he was considering continuing his career in Europe after spending part of last season with the Salt Lake City Stars, Utah’s G League affiliate.
Board Of Governors Will Consider ‘3-2-1’ Lottery Reform Plan
Appearing Wednesday on Stephen A. Smith’s radio show (YouTube link), commissioner Adam Silver confirmed that the “3-2-1” lottery reform plan will be submitted to the Board of Governors when they meet later this month, relays Tim Bontemps of ESPN.
“What we’ve essentially done, and we have a proposal that we’re going to be bringing to our team owners at the end of May, and that is to create essentially a system of flat odds, so that you have no particular incentive to be bad,” Silver said. “There’s even something we’re calling draft relegation, that if you’re one of the bottom three teams in the league, you’ll actually have worse odds than teams that sort of are four through up until teams make the playoffs. We’re still playing a little bit with the system there.”
Bontemps points out that the Wizards, Jazz, Grizzlies and Bulls, who landed the top four spots in this year’s lottery, all made an effort to improve their draft status by losing games as the season wore on. Utah was fined $500K in February for “conduct detrimental to the league” after not playing Lauri Markkanen and Jaren Jackson Jr. in the fourth quarter of a pair of games.
Silver stated that the new plan will give the league additional powers to punish teams that engage in overt tanking.
“And also ultimately additional authority for the league office that if we do see that type of behavior where there’s a sense that teams aren’t going all out to win, that we can actually take away draft lottery balls, we can change the order of the draft,” Silver told Smith. “Teams have to know it’s not just about paying a financial fine, which they may think is worth it in order to get a top pick, but that it’ll directly impact their ability to get a top draft pick.”
Bontemps cites a “near universal belief” throughout the league that some type of lottery reform will be adopted in response to the growing problem of obvious tanking in the past few years.
The “3-2-1” system gets its name from the varying amount of lottery balls teams would be assigned depending on their place in the standings. Those that finish with the fourth-worst through the 10th-worst record would receive three lottery balls each, while the bottom three teams would only get two. The ninth and 10th play-in seeds in each conference receive two lottery balls each, while the losers of the 7-8 play-in games would have one apiece.
It’s a huge change from the current system, which includes 1,001 possible combinations of ping pong balls and gives significantly better odds to the teams with the three worst records.
The proposal would take effect for next season if it’s approved by the Board of Governors, but it’s only scheduled to last through 2029. That’s when a new collective bargaining agreement will be negotiated that could contain fresh anti-tanking measures.
“The system that we’re going to be putting in front of our teams will be in effect for three years,” Silver said. “What we’re telling our teams is, the term people use is it will ‘sunset.’ In other words, this is going to be a new flat-odd system. It’ll be in place for three years and will give us time for additional study to see whether there are other creative ways to better distribute players.
“And it’ll also give us an opportunity to see how our teams respond to the system, because one thing I’ve learned, whether it’s new provisions in the collective bargaining agreement, new provisions in the draft lottery, which as you know we’ve changed many times over the years, the teams are incredibly innovative and creative at coming up with ways to work the system.”
The NBA’s Board of Governors is reportedly scheduled to vote on lottery reform on May 28.
Keegan Murray Undergoes Arthroscopic Ankle Surgery
Kings forward Keegan Murray underwent a “minimally invasive” arthroscopic procedure on Tuesday in order to remove loose bodies from his left ankle, a league source tells James Ham of The Kings Beat (Twitter link).
According to Ham, the surgery requires a recovery period of six-to-eight weeks. That timeline suggests Murray should recover in plenty of time to be ready for training camp in late September, assuming he doesn’t experience any setbacks.
After appearing in 80, 77, and 76 regular season games during his first three years in the NBA, Murray was beset by health problems in 2025/26. His season debut was delayed until November 20 after he underwent surgery on his left thumb; he later missed a pair of games in December due to a mild calf strain; then he was out for several weeks with a left ankle sprain and returned for just four games before he aggravated that ankle injury, ending his season.
In total, Murray made just 23 regular season appearances, averaging 14.0 points, 5.7 rebounds, 1.7 assists, and 1.6 blocks in 34.5 minutes per game. His shooting percentages of 42.0% from the floor and 27.7% on three-pointers were career lows, but the sample size was relatively small.
The Kings clearly view Murray as an important part of their future, having signed him to a five-year, $140MM rookie scale extension last October. That deal, which runs through 2030/31, will go into effect in July as Murray’s rookie deal expires.
Murray is currently the only player on the Kings roster who is owed guaranteed money beyond the 2027/28 season, though youngsters Nique Clifford and Dylan Cardwell have non-guaranteed salaries for ’28/29.
Josh Giddey Undergoes Arthroscopic Procedure On Ankle
Bulls guard Josh Giddey recently underwent a successful arthroscopy on his right ankle, the team announced today (via Twitter).
According to the Bulls, the plan is for Giddey to resume basketball activities in approximately three months, which would be in mid-August. The expectation is that the 23-year-old will be ready to go for the start of training camp in late September.
Giddey was limited to 54 appearances in 2025/26, but his lengthiest absences were the result of hamstring issues. Still, he has dealt with repeated right ankle problems over the past two years too, dating back to when he first injured the ankle at the 2024 Olympics while playing for Australia’s national team. He said back in September 2024 that he sustained a ruptured ATFL (anterior talo-fibular ligament); since then, he has sprained the ankle multiple times.
While Chicago’s roster figures to undergo some major changes this offseason under new head of basketball operations Bryson Graham, Giddey looks like one of the few players whose spot should be relatively safe.
The former Thunder lottery pick, who has been the Bulls’ starting point guard since being traded to Chicago during the 2024 offseason, set new career highs in points (17.0), assists (9.1), and rebounds (8.3) per game this past season while posting a shooting line of .448/.364/.763. He negotiated a long-term contract with the team as a restricted free agent last offseason and still has three years and $75MM left on that deal.