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Revised Bids From Prospective Celtics Owners Due Friday

March 11th, 2025 at 11:33am CST by Luke Adams

This Friday, March 14, represents the next key deadline in the Celtics‘ sale process, according to Scott Soshnick and Eben Novy-Williams of Sportico, who report that prospective owners have until the end of the day on Friday to submit their revised bids for the franchise.

The deadline for potential buyers to submit their initial offers was January 23. Reports at the time indicated that at least four or five groups were expected to put forth bids. Sportico’s latest update suggests that as many as four groups may still be involved in the process.

The Celtics’ majority ownership group first announced last July 1 that it would be putting control of the franchise up for sale. The plan laid out at that time was to sell a majority share (ie. 51%) of the team in late 2024 or early 2025, with Celtics governor Wyc Grousbeck remaining in his current role until the balance of the sale is completed in 2028.

While we don’t know for sure which groups remain involved in the bidding, it has been reported consistently throughout the process that current Celtics minority stakeholder Steve Pagliuca is interested in assuming control of the team. According to Soshnick and Novy-Williams, Pagliuca’s group is a “near certainty” to be among those submitting a revised bid by the end of this week and is considered by some industry sources to be the frontrunner.

Jeffrey Lurie, the owner of the NFL’s Philadelphia Eagles, was rumored to be one of the parties involved in the bidding process prior to the Jan. 23 deadline, but Lurie denied during his Super Bowl media session that he has interest in taking control of the Celtics or any other NBA team.

Another current minority stakeholder, Robert Hale, expressed interest in becoming majority owner or joining a group in October, and said in the lead-up to the January 23 deadline that he was “still hanging around the hoop.” Mark Bezos, the founding partner of HighPost Capital private equity group and the half-brother of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, was also rumored to be among the possible bidders.

During the site’s latest round of NBA franchise valuations, Sportico estimated that the Celtics are worth $5.66 billion. According to Soshnick and Novy-Williams, people in the industry are especially curious to see what the final sale price for the Celtics will be since the team doesn’t own its arena (TD Garden) and only has a limited stake (20%) in its regional sports partner, NBC Sports Boston.

Pelicans To Play Two Preseason Games In Australia

March 10th, 2025 at 9:47pm CST by Dana Gauruder

The Pelicans will play two preseason games against NBL teams in Melbourne this October, marking the first NBA games in Australia, according to a team press release.

The NBA has played numerous games, preseason and regular season, in Europe. There have also been preseason games in Japan and China, but these games will be on a new continent.

The Pelicans will play Melbourne United on Oct. 3 and South East Melbourne Phoenix in Oct. 5.

“The significance of this announcement for basketball in Australia and the NBL can’t be overstated,” NBL Executive Director Larry Kestelman said. “Hosting an NBA team in Australia has been a long-held dream for everyone at the NBL, and to see this initiative finally come to fruition after a 15-year journey shows that much can be accomplished when you dream big.”

Pelicans executive VP David Griffin indicated that the club will spend a significant portion of their training camp Down Under as well, he told Olgun Uluc of ESPN (Twitter link).

“The one thing we will do that will be unprecedented, is we’re gonna do a good portion – maybe not all of – but we’re gonna try be here prior to the games for a good portion of our training camp,” Griffin said. “Our full roster will be in attendance. These games will be really meaningful to us.”

The announcement builds on the NBA and NBL’s prior collaborations that began in 2016. Seven NBL teams have traveled to the U.S. to play 24 preseason games against NBA teams.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Trae Young Named Players Of The Week

March 10th, 2025 at 2:36pm CST by Rory Maher

Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Hawks guard Trae Young have been named the NBA’s Players of the Week, the league announced on Monday (via Twitter).

Gilgeous-Alexander won for the Western Conference, while Young claimed the East’s award. It was the second Player of the Week honor this season for each of them.

The presumed frontrunner for the 2024/25 MVP award after finishing as the runner-up last season, Gilgeous-Alexander averaged 44.0 points, 6.7 assists, 5.0 rebounds, 1.0 steal and 1.3 blocks on .540/.400/1.000 shooting in victories over Memphis, Houston and Denver last week. He missed one game, which Oklahoma City also won (against Portland).

The 26-year-old superstar leads the league in scoring with a career-best 32.9 PPG on elite efficiency for the West’s No. 1 seed. The Thunder have all but wrapped up the best record in the conference, leading their closest competition — the Lakers and Nuggets — by 12 games.

As for Young, he helped guide Atlanta to a 3-1 record last week, averaging 24.5 PPG, 13.0 APG and 2.8 RPG. He struggled a bit with efficiency, shooting just 39.0% from the field, including 20.0% from three-point range, though he did convert 96.7% of his 7.5 free throw attempts per contest.

The Hawks currently hold a half-game lead on both Orlando and Miami for the No. 7 seed in the East.

Desmond Bane, Ja Morant, Stephen Curry, Luka Doncic, LeBron James, James Harden, Ivica Zubac, Nikola Jokic and Julius Randle were the other nominees in the West, while Giannis Antetokounmpo, Paolo Banchero, Cade Cunningham, Josh Giddey, Coby White, Donovan Mitchell and Jayson Tatum were nominated in the East (Twitter link).

Mo Bamba Signs 10-Day Deal With Pelicans

March 10th, 2025 at 2:00pm CST by Rory Maher

2:00 pm: The deal is official, the Pelicans announced in a press release.

12:23 pm: Free agent center Mohamed Bamba is signing a 10-day contract with the Pelicans, agents Mark Bartelstein and Greer Love tell Shams Charania of ESPN.

As our roster count tracker shows, New Orleans currently has an opening on its 15-man roster, which means no corresponding move will be necessary to add Bamba.

Bamba, 26 was traded from the Clippers to the Jazz ahead of last month’s deadline and was subsequently released by Utah. He has been a free agent since early February.

A former lottery pick, Bamba was unable to carve out a consistent role in his four-plus seasons with Orlando, the team that selected him sixth overall back in 2018. He was traded to the Lakers in February 2023, but only played nine games for the club due to injury.

Bamba signed a one-year, minimum-salary contract with Philadelphia in the summer of 2023. Last offseason, he inked the same type of deal with the Clippers.

In 28 games with the Clips in 2024/25, Bamba averaged 4.6 points, 4.3 rebounds and 1.0 block in 12.6 minutes per contest. He posted a shooting slash line of .466/.300/.680 while backing up Ivica Zubac.

As Charania notes, Bamba has been playing for the Pelicans’ G League affiliate — the Birmingham Squadron — since he was cut by the Jazz. He has appeared in four games for the Squadron, averaging 21.0 PPG, 14.5 RPG and 1.8 BPG on .517/.435/.667 shooting in 30.8 MPG.

Bamba will serve as a depth piece in a Pelicans frontcourt that also features Yves Missi, Zion Williamson, Kelly Olynyk and Karlo Matkovic, among others.

P.J. Tucker Signs 10-Day Contract With Knicks

March 10th, 2025 at 12:10pm CST by Arthur Hill

March 10: Tucker’s 10-day deal with the Knicks is now official, per a team press release (Twitter link).

March 8: P.J. Tucker will join the Knicks on a 10-day contract, sources tell Shams Charania of ESPN (Twitter link). Tucker talked with several teams over the past week before deciding on New York, Charania adds.

The 39-year-old forward will bring defensive toughness and three-point shooting to the Knicks, who are in a tight race for playoff seeding in the Eastern Conference. He also has a wealth of postseason experience — including a championship with Milwaukee in 2021 — that will be valuable if he winds up getting signed for the rest of the season.

New York has been carrying an open 15-man roster spot all season, so no other move will be necessary to add Tucker. The team is roughly $540K below the second apron, and Tucker’s 10-day deal will carry a cap hit of $119,972, according to Bobby Marks of ESPN (Twitter link).

Tucker isn’t expected to sign today, but he will at some point during the current road trip, tweets Steve Popper of Newsday. The Knicks don’t play again until Monday at Sacramento, and they want to get as many games as possible out of Tucker during the 10 days he’ll be active. If he signs on Monday, he’ll be eligible to appear in five games before the contract expires March 19.

Ian Begley of SNY hears that the Knicks view Tucker as an “integral addition” to a locker room that doesn’t have an experienced veteran of his stature (Twitter link). The team was also looking for someone with an “enforcer mentality,” Begley adds.

Tucker, who hasn’t played yet this season, started off with the Clippers after picking up his $11.54MM player option over the summer. An agreement was reached in early October that he would remain away from the team while his agent worked with the front office to find a trade.

Nothing materialized until February 1 when he was sent to Utah as part of a four-player deal. He was traded again five days later, being shipped to Toronto as part of the five-team Jimmy Butler deal. He remained inactive with the Raptors until he was waived February 28.

The Knicks will be the eighth team for Tucker, who made his NBA debut with Toronto during the 2006/07 season. He has appeared in 883 games with career averages of 6.6 points, 5.4 rebounds and 1.4 assists and shooting splits of .425/.366/.750.

Rockets’ Amen Thompson Out At Least 10 Days

March 9th, 2025 at 9:52pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Rockets second-year forward Amen Thompson is expected to be sidelined for 10-to-14 days due to a left ankle sprain, ESPN’s Shams Charania tweets.

An MRI showed no structural damage, so Thompson will rehab and receive treatment for swelling in the ankle with the hope of returning sometime this month. It’s relatively good news for Houston, as a major sprain would have sidelined him for a much longer period of time.

Thompson injured his left ankle during the fourth quarter of the team’s blowout win over New Orleans on Saturday. The injury occurred as Thompson drove into the lane and attempted a pull-up jumper. His left foot came down on Pelicans center Karlo Matkovic‘s foot when he landed, and he reportedly was seen wearing a walking boot and using crutches as he left the arena.

The fourth overall pick in the 2023 draft, Thompson has been enjoying a breakout year for the Rockets. In 60 games (33 starts), the 22-year-old has averaged 14.0 points, 8.3 rebounds, 3.6 assists, 1.3 steals, and 1.3 blocks in 32.5 minutes per game, with a .553 FG% and strong, versatile defense.

Cam Whitmore and Aaron Holiday are among the players who could see an uptick in playing time while Thompson mends.

LeBron James Expected To Miss At Least 1-2 Weeks With Groin Strain

March 9th, 2025 at 11:28am CST by Arthur Hill

March 9: James is expected to miss at least one-to-two weeks as a result of his groin strain, sources tell Shams Charania of ESPN (Twitter link). The plan is to evaluate the injury again in the next day or two, Charania adds.

March 8: A left groin injury that forced LeBron James to leave tonight’s game in Boston midway through the fourth quarter could sideline the Lakers star for “a matter of weeks,” according to Dave McMenamin of ESPN.

McMenamin’s sources caution that it’s too early to pinpoint a timeline for how long James might be out of action. He will undergo extensive testing to determine the extent of the damage before a final prognosis is made.

Speaking to reporters following the game, James seemed to downplay the injury, saying there’s “not much concern” about it, tweets Khobi Price of The Orange County Register.

“Look at it each day to see if it gets better,” he said. “Take the proper measurements [and] see what we need to do going forward.”

James added that when he felt the pain, he immediately thought of the groin injury he suffered on Christmas Day in 2018 that forced him to miss significant time, according to McMenamin (Twitter link). He said he doesn’t consider this injury to be as severe, then knocked on the wooden locker behind him to avoid jinxing his comment.

He appeared to get hurt while making a post move against Jaylen Brown with 7:05 left to play, according to Brian Robb of MassLive. James ran down the court gingerly on defense and called for a sub after the Celtics scored. He worked with the training staff during the subsequent time out, then headed for the locker room.

He finished the night with 22 points, 14 rebounds and nine assists and was leading a Lakers comeback before being forced out of the game.

James has been remarkably productive and durable for a player who just turned 40 in December. He has appeared in 58 of L.A.’s 62 games and was averaging 25.1 points, 8.1 rebounds and 8.5 assists coming into tonight. He seems like a lock for All-NBA honors, assuming he reaches the 65-game threshold.

A prolonged absence could be devastating for the Lakers, who have spent the last few weeks developing James’ on-court chemistry with Luka Doncic. L.A. slipped into third place in the West with tonight’s loss at Boston and could fall even further if the team has to survive multiple weeks without James.

Reed Sheppard Out At Least Four Weeks With Thumb Fracture

March 8th, 2025 at 6:31pm CST by Arthur Hill

Rockets rookie guard Reed Sheppard will miss at least the next four weeks due to a fracture in his right thumb, writes Sam Warren of The Houston Chronicle.

Meeting with reporters before tonight’s game, coach Ime Udoka said Sheppard hurt the thumb while “slapping down” in an attempt to steal the ball from the Pelicans’ Zion Williamson during Thursday’s contest. Sheppard was able to continue playing after the contact and his hand wasn’t bandaged following the game, according to Warren.

Udoka said Sheppard will have his thumb in a splint for the next four weeks to give the fracture time to heal. He added that it’s fortunate that the fracture occurred in the top joint of the thumb, rather than the lower joint, which would have carried a longer recovery timeline.

With a little more than five weeks remaining in the regular season, Sheppard may not be able to return before the start of the playoffs.

The No. 3 pick in last year’s draft, Sheppard got off to a slow start and was sent to the G League for a few games in the middle of the season. He has been more productive since being called back up to the NBA in early February, averaging 11.8 minutes and 4.0 points per game over the past month and scoring a career-high 25 points Monday at Oklahoma City.

Sheppard was selected to appear in the Rising Stars event at All-Star Weekend. For the season, he’s averaging 3.9 points, 1.4 rebounds and 1.2 assists in 45 games while shooting 33.2% from the field and 27.9% from three-point range.

De’Aaron Fox Talks Kings Exit, Loyalty To Mike Brown, More

March 7th, 2025 at 9:32pm CST by Luke Adams

Ahead of his first game against his former team on Friday night, Spurs guard De’Aaron Fox spoke to ESPN’s Michael C. Wright about his final days in Sacramento, telling Wright that he “never asked for a trade” and “loved” playing for the Kings.

“I truly wanted to play for one team my whole career,” Fox said. “I really did. … Everybody bled purple (in Sacramento). It was always great just going to the grocery store, going out to a restaurant. Everybody there was extremely kind. And when we started winning, then it was ‘light the beam’ everywhere. You really felt it around the city. So, it was definitely a great place to be for as long as I was.”

However, Fox wasn’t entirely convinced the franchise was on a path toward title contention and was put off by the number of head coaching changes that had occurred since he was drafted in 2017.

After playing for Dave Joerger, Luke Walton, and Alvin Gentry, the eighth-year guard liked what the Kings had in Mike Brown and says he advocated for the franchise to sign him to a contract extension last offseason in the hopes of establishing stability going forward, even as “some guys in the locker room” wanted Brown fired over the summer, according to Fox.

“I was like, ‘Yo, I’ve been here for going on my eighth year. If Mike gets fired, I’ll be going on my fifth coach,'” Fox told Wright. “And I told them, ‘I’m not going to play for another coach. I’m going to play for another team.'”

When the Kings got off to a 13-18 start and fired Brown, there was some speculation that Fox may have had a hand in the decision, which was made shortly after the veteran coach publicly criticized his star guard for a mistake that cost Sacramento a potential win.

But Fox, who says he still talks to Brown regularly, wasn’t in favor of the move and didn’t appreciate the way the Kings handled it — no one from management or ownership discussed the coaching change with reporters until more than a month later, after the team had traded its star point guard to San Antonio.

“You fire the coach, and you don’t do an interview?” Fox said. “So, all the blame was on me. Did it weigh on me? No. I don’t give a f–k. But the fact y’all are supposed to be protecting your player and y’all let that happen. … I felt at the time the organization didn’t have my back.

“The energy shifted and what’s understood doesn’t need to be explained. If I finished my contract there, then they knew what was going to happen next and it was because y’all fired another coach. That’s why I said in the interview after Mike was fired and we were in L.A. [on Dec. 28], they knew where I stood and there was nothing more to be said.”

Fox had turned down multiple contract extension offers from the Kings last offseason, according to both Wright and Sam Amick and Anthony Slater of The Athletic, but interim head coach Doug Christie wondered after the team got off to an 11-4 start under his watch if the guard’s thinking about opting for free agency had changed at all. On January 27, he spoke to his agent Rich Paul – who also represents Fox – to get a better sense of the 27-year-old’s position, per Amick and Slater.

Paul informed Christie that Fox’s stance was unchanged and that his preference to spend his prime years elsewhere was perhaps even stronger following the coaching change. Christie let management know about that conversation, and the front office in turn told Paul later that day that it would listen to trade offers for Fox, according to The Athletic and ESPN.

On January 28, before the news broke publicly, Kings management sought out Fox to inform him of their decision, per Wright. Fox didn’t reveal which member of the front office he spoke to, but suggested he felt like the conversation happened later than it should have.

“We’re sitting there trying to have the conversation, but I know what he’s about to tell me because Rich had already told me,” Fox said. “A reporter calls trying to break the story, but mind you, our GM hasn’t told me yet. So, it had already been told, even before I was told by our team.”

Here are a few more items of interest from Fox’s interview with Wright:

While San Antonio was framed in some late-January reports as the team atop a wish list of preferred destinations, Fox says that’s not quite accurate. “There was no f—ing list,” Fox told ESPN. “There was one team. I wanted to go to San Antonio. So, a lot of people are mad at me, saying I handcuffed the team by giving them a destination. Well, this is my career. If anybody else is in my position, you’d do the same thing. It’s not my job to help build your team. I’m not about to just go where they want me to go. I wanted to have a destination.”
Fox wanted the Kings to pursue dynamic wing players while he was in Sacramento, noting that most of the NBA’s best teams have high-level wings. “That’s all I ever asked (the Kings) for,” he said. “I told Keegan Murray, and I don’t know how many people would agree with me. But I’m like, ‘Yo, the best teams in the league outside of Steph (Curry and the Golden State Warriors), their best player is usually a wing. Wings win in this league.”
While Victor Wembanyama isn’t really a wing, he’s the kind of player Fox believes can be an exception to that general rule. Fox told Wright that Wembanyama’s superstar potential is “why I wanted to come” to San Antonio. The reigning Rookie of the Year, who is out for the season due to a blood clot in his shoulder, flew with the team on this road trip to support Fox in his return to Sacramento, Wright writes for ESPN.com. Team doctors deemed it safe for Wembanyama to fly due to the blood-thinning medication he’s taking, Wright adds.

Jazz Reportedly Consider Rebuild To Be In Early Stages

March 7th, 2025 at 7:02pm CST by Luke Adams

After trading away Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell during the 2022 offseason, the Jazz won 37 games in ’22/23 and 31 in ’23/24. This season, they’re on pace for just 20 wins, which would be the lowest total in franchise history.

However, according to Sarah Todd of The Deseret News, the Jazz don’t view 2024/25 as the third year of their rebuild. Instead, they consider it part of their multiyear tear-down process. “In their eyes,” Todd writes, “the rebuild hasn’t started.”

As Todd points out, the Jazz still had several veterans on their roster after moving on from Gobert and Mitchell and have since traded many of those vets too, including Bojan Bogdanovic, Mike Conley, Kelly Olynyk, Jarred Vanderbilt, and Simone Fontecchio.

Additionally, although Utah has drafted in the lottery in each of the past two years, the team didn’t have a top-eight pick in either of those drafts and none of its five first-round picks from 2023 or 2024 have established themselves as clear foundational pieces, Todd notes.

Given that context, it makes sense that the front office isn’t ready to pivot toward contending in 2025/26. Instead, hanging onto their 2026 first-rounder is a priority for the Jazz, according to Todd. That pick is top-eight protected and will be sent to Oklahoma City if it lands at No. 9 or lower. If that pick lands in the top eight, Utah would keep it and would no longer owe draft assets to the Thunder.

That means another tanking season in 2025/26 appears highly likely for the Jazz, Todd writes. Andy Larsen of The Salt Lake Tribune (Twitter link) has heard the same thing.

Of course, there’s a scenario in which the Jazz land a player like Cooper Flagg in this year’s draft and find themselves with too much talent on their roster to be an obvious bottom-feeder next season. If that happens, Todd writes, the Jazz might be more inclined to trade a player like Lauri Markkanen or Walker Kessler to ensure they hang onto their 2026 pick.

While the Jazz may find marketing value in spinning the past three seasons as a “tear-down” instead of a “rebuild,” I expect many fans in Utah will view the distinction as a semantic one and focus more on the fact that it has been a while since the organization has prioritized winning games.

As Larsen writes for The Salt Lake Tribune, several season ticket holders are upset about an announcement from the team that the price of their tickets are going up 2025/26. Some fans reported that prices have risen by up to 8%, Larsen writes, though the Jazz claim that most increases are closer to 3% or less and that the highest is about 6%.

“It’s extremely frustrating that I’m paying more than I was when we were the No. 1 seed and that it is far more expensive to be a season ticket holder than to just buy tickets from SeatGeek every game,” one season ticket holder told Larsen.

“Paying full price to watch a team play G League players and lose on purpose is already so disrespectful to your fan base,” another season ticket holder said, adding that he’s canceling his tickets for next season. “To then have the audacity to raise prices on season ticket holders, after being dead last in the West, shows how little this organization cares about the fans.”

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