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Pacers Notes: Finals Odds, Siakam, Turnaround, Turner

June 3rd, 2025 at 5:10pm CST by Dana Gauruder

The oddsmakers and bettors don’t believe the Pacers have much of a chance in the Finals against the Thunder. At BetMGM, the Pacers have +500 odds to win the championship, making them the biggest underdogs in the NBA Finals since the Cavaliers in 2018, Prince J. Grimes of the Indianapolis Star notes. The Warriors won those Finals in a sweep.

In fact, the oddsmakers believe it will be a quick series. The betting favorite for the length of the series is a 4-1 Thunder victory. Most Valuable Player Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is the huge favorite to win Finals MVP at -625 odds with Tyrese Haliburton a distant second at +700.

We have more on the Pacers:

  • Pascal Siakam has developed into the ideal second star for the Pacers, Eric Koreen of The Athletic writes. Koreen outlines how Siakam has expanded his game over the years, both before and since the trade that sent him from Toronto to Indiana. Siakam, named the Most Valuable Player of the Eastern Conference Finals, is averaging 21.1 points, 5.8 rebounds and 3.3 assists while shooting a blistering 46.3 percent from long range in 16 postseason games.
  • Siakam was instrumental in the team’s turnaround from a 10-15 start, particularly by offering words of encouragement to Haliburton, who was struggling with his shooting at the time, as Dustin Dopirak of the Indianapolis Star details. Ramping up their pressure defense and inserting Aaron Nesmith into the starting lineup were some of the other keys to the Pacers’ dramatic rise to the top of the Eastern Conference.
  • Myles Turner believes the era of the “super team,” with established All-Stars banding together to win the championship, has ended. “I think it’s a new blueprint for the league,” Turner said, per Joe Vardon of The Athletic. “I think the years of the super teams and stacking, it’s just not as effective as it once was, you know what I mean? Since I’ve been in the league, the NBA has been very trendy; it just shifts. But the new trend now is just kind of what we’re doing. OKC does the same thing — young guys get out and run, defend and use the power of friendship.”
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And-Ones: European Prospects, Extension Candidates, Dynasties

June 3rd, 2025 at 1:06pm CST by Luke Adams

As we outlined last month when we passed along the list of prospects invited to the NBA’s draft combine, a player who is invited to the combine and declines to attend without an excused absence becomes ineligible to be drafted.

Many of the prospects who were granted excused absences from the combine in Chicago were international players whose teams were still playing. According to Erik Slater of ClutchPoints (Twitter link), the NBA is holding pre-draft activities (measurements, drills, etc.) this week in Treviso, Italy for those players whose commitments overseas prevented them from traveling to Chicago.

That group, Slater says, includes Noa Essengue (who is playing in Germany), Joan Beringer (Slovenia), Nolan Traore (France), Ben Saraf (Germany), Hugo Gonzalez (Spain), Bogoljub Markovic (Serbia), and Noah Penda (France).

It’s unclear whether all of those players will be able to attend the event in Treviso, since some of their seasons still aren’t over. Essengue and Safar, for example, both play for Ratiopharm Ulm, which is currently competing in the semifinals of the Basketball Bundesliga playoffs in Germany. Game 2 of that series will be played on Wednesday.

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

  • While the free agent class of 2025 isn’t particularly star-studded, there will be no shortage of veteran extension candidates to monitor this offseason, as Bobby Marks details for ESPN. Marks takes an in-depth look at which players seem likely to sign new deals in the coming months, including Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Spurs guard De’Aaron Fox, and Grizzlies big man Jaren Jackson Jr., and which players are longer shots for new contracts. That latter group includes players who would benefit financially from waiting, like Lakers guard Austin Reaves, and some who are unlikely to get an offer from their current team, such as Pelicans forward Zion Williamson.
  • Is it bad for business that the NBA’s age of dynasties appears to be over? Tania Ganguli of The New York Times considers that topic in an in-depth story open to non-subscribers.
  • Eric Pincus of Bleacher Report proposes a complex three-team deal involving the Celtics, Mavericks, and Nets that would save Boston a projected $230MM+, fortify Dallas’ backcourt, and send a pair of draft assets to Brooklyn along with mostly expiring contracts.
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NBA Finals Notes: Thunder, Pacers, MVPs, Market Size, More

June 3rd, 2025 at 10:20am CST by Luke Adams

A blockbuster 2017 trade between the Thunder and Pacers helped set the stage for the 2025 NBA Finals, writes Joe Mussatto of The Oklahoman. On June 30 of that year, Oklahoma City agreed to send Domantas Sabonis and Victor Oladipo to Indiana in exchange for Paul George.

None of those players will be playing in these NBA Finals, but George and Sabonis were later used to acquire several of this series’ stars. Sending George to the Clippers in 2019 netted the Thunder a trade package that included Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the future draft pick that eventually became Jalen Williams. As for the Pacers, they dealt Sabonis to Sacramento at the 2022 trade deadline as part of the six-player trade that landed Tyrese Haliburton in Indiana.

As Anthony Slater of The Athletic writes, you can go back even further to find the key trade that instigated the series of roster moves that saw Oklahoma City acquire George.

Back in 2008, then-SuperSonics general manager Sam Presti was able to extract two first-round picks from Phoenix to take on Kurt Thomas‘ unwanted salary and get the Suns out of the tax. Presti used the first of those picks to draft Serge Ibaka, who was traded in 2016 to Orlando for Oladipo and Sabonis — the exact package that the Thunder used a year later to land George.

Here’s more on the upcoming NBA Finals:

  • Gilgeous-Alexander and Haliburton rank first and second, in that order, in two lists published today by ESPN.com. In the first, Tim Bontemps ranks the 2025 postseason MVPs, with the Thunder and Pacers point guards leap-frogging Jalen Brunson for the top spots following the conference finals. In the second, Bontemps and Kevin Pelton rank the top 20 players in the NBA Finals, with Pascal Siakam, Williams, and Chet Holmgren rounding out the top five.
  • Indianapolis is the 25th-largest media market in the United States, while Oklahoma City comes in at No. 47. Will a spring showdown between two small-market franchises affect the NBA’s bottom line? According to Mike Vorkunov of The Athletic, while the revenue generated by merchandise and ticket sales may fell well short of a New York-vs.-Los Angeles-type Finals, the league won’t really have to worry about a one-year ratings dip after having finalized a new long-term media rights deal in 2024. “There’s really no direct impact between ratings and financial success, certainly in the near term,” a former senior NBA executive told The Athletic. “If you have bad ratings for the next decade then that limits your TV rights. But I don’t think anyone in the NBA is worried about that right now because the revenues for TV are guaranteed.”
  • Law Murray of The Athletic takes a closer look at how the Thunder and Pacers compare to one another in terms of the possession battle. As Murray details, neither team turns the ball over much, but Indiana has been the worst offensive rebounding team of the 16 clubs in the playoffs and doesn’t force opponent turnovers at nearly the same rate as Oklahoma City. Neutralizing the Thunder’s usual advantage in possessions and shot attempts will give the Pacers their best chance at pulling off the upset.
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Shai Gilgeous-Alexander Named Western Conference Finals MVP

May 29th, 2025 at 10:13am CST by Luke Adams

Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was unanimously named the Most Valuable Player of the Western Conference Finals following Wednesday’s series win over Minnesota, earning all nine votes from a panel of media members (Twitter link).

Gilgeous-Alexander, who was also the NBA’s regular season MVP for 2024/25, averaged 31.4 points, 8.2 assists, 5.2 rebounds, and 1.8 steals in 36.4 minutes per game across five games vs. the Timberwolves.

While his 45.7% field goal percentage and 31.8% mark on three-pointers were both well below his usual rates, the 26-year-old was the engine of Oklahoma City’s offense and was a +43 during his 182 minutes of action in the third-round series.

Jalen Williams (22.2 PPG, 6.6 RPG, 4.4 APG, 2.0 SPG, .494/.462/.833 shooting) and Chet Holmgren (18.0 PPG, 6.0 RPG, 1.6 BPG, .567/.368/.714 shooting) also had big series for the Thunder, fueling a dominant all-around performance that sends the franchise to its first NBA Finals appearance since 2012.

The conference final MVP is a relatively new award, having been introduced by the league in 2022. Stephen Curry won the inaugural award in 2022, followed by Nikola Jokic in 2023 and Luka Doncic in 2024.

The player who is named the Western Finals MVP receives the Magic Johnson trophy.

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Thunder Notes: Williams, Postseason Experience, Sanders, SGA

May 27th, 2025 at 8:06pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Named to the All-NBA Third Team last week, Thunder forward Jalen Williams delivered an offensive gem in Game 4 of the Western Conference Finals on Monday. He posted a postseason career-high 34 points in the 128-126 victory over the Timberwolves, giving OKC a commanding 3-1 series lead.

Williams went 13-of-24 from the field, including 6-of-9 from 3-point range. He had 13 points and four turnovers when his team got blown out in Game 3.

“I feel like if you’re not really good, you’re probably not going to have any [scrutiny], so just play with it, just keep going,” Williams said, per Tim MacMahon of ESPN. “A lot of people that are talking about me can’t do what I do, and I know that, and I think that gives me a lot of confidence to just go out there and do whatever the team needs.”

We have more on the Thunder:

  • Oklahoma City has found different ways to get it done in this postseason, Tony Jones of The Athletic notes. The Thunder have been a great regular-season team for two years but this is the first time they’ve also become a great playoff team, according to Jones. In Game 4, they held off numerous Timberwolves runs. “I thought we did a good job of continuously moving the scoreboard,” coach Mark Daigneault said. “We especially did that late in the game, when there were situations down the stretch where it was a possession game. I thought the guys did a great job, taking it a possession at a time.”
  • While they’re five wins away from a championship, the Thunder are also busy preparing for the future. They have scheduled a pre-draft workout with Kobe Sanders, a 6’7” guard, Rylan Stiles of Sports Illustrated tweets. Sanders averaged 15.8 points, 3.9 rebounds, 4.5 assists and 1.1 steals last season for Nevada. Sanders is ranked No. 69 on ESPN’s big board.
  • MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the Timberwolves’ Nickeil Alexander-Walker are cousins and best friends. They’re now competing against each other for a trip to the Finals. “For both of us to be where we are is special, and to compete against each other is even more special,” Gilgeous-Alexander told Andscape’s Marc J. Spears within an in-depth feature on their relationship. “But I am trying to take his head off for sure, completely.”
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Thunder/Wolves Notes: SGA, Nuggets Series, Randle, Edwards

May 24th, 2025 at 8:01am CST by Earnest Marshall

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander made sure to let his teammates know that his 2025 Most Valuable Player award belonged to them as much as it did him, Joel Lorenzi of The Oklahoman writes.. Gilgeous-Alexander averaged over 30 points per game for the third year in a row en route to his first career MVP as the Thunder went 68-14 this season.

“You guys are really like my brothers, and I really mean that,” Gilgeous-Alexander said to his teammates. “And without you guys, none of this would be possible, and I want you guys to know this award is your award, too.”

Gilgeous-Alexander lost last year’s MVP race in a landslide, but bested Denver’s Nikola Jokic this time around.

“All the moments I got cut, traded, slighted, overlooked, I had nights where I thought I wasn’t good at basketball, had nights where I thought I was the best player in the world before I was,” Gilgeous-Alexander said.

We have more from the Thunder/Wolves playoff series:

  • The Thunder are back to their dominant ways after a challenging second-round series against the Nuggets, Anthony Slater of The Athletic writes. Neither of their first two games against Minnesota have been particularly close. “Our resolve in that series is what got sharpened,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. “We had our backs against the wall and had to respond multiple times.”
  • Julius Randle has been one of the major drivers for the Timberwolves‘ Western Conference Finals push, but he had his first tough game of the postseason in Game 2 against the Thunder, scoring just six points and making only two of his 11 field goal attempts. As Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic writes, Randle’s poor showing came at the worst time for the Wolves, who now face a 0-2 deficit. “We know what type of defense they are,” Randle said. “They’re going to swarm you. So I’ve got to get myself into actions, setting screens, on the move. I think I was just like standing and spectating a little too much today.”
  • Timberwolves star Anthony Edwards refused to speak to reporters after Game 2 after he was fined $50K for dropping an f-bomb during his media session after Game 1, per Krawczynski (Twitter link).
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2024/25 All-NBA Teams Announced

May 23rd, 2025 at 6:09pm CST by Eli Cohen

The 2024/25 All-NBA teams have been officially announced by the league (Twitter link).

A total of 100 media members voted on the All-NBA teams, with First Team votes counting for five points, Second Team votes counting for three points, and Third Team votes counting for one point.

This year’s All-NBA teams are as follows:

First Team

Second Team

Third Team

The top four vote-getters, Antetounmpo, Gilgeous-Alexander, Jokic, and Tatum, were all unanimous selections to the First Team. James led the Second Team with 17 First Team votes, compared to Mitchell’s 61. Cunningham was the only member of the Third Team to receive First Team votes (six) — he also earned 10 more Second Team votes than the next closest vote-getter, as Towns had 40.

This announcement marks the first All-NBA selections for Cunningham, Mobley, and Williams, and – on the other side of the coin – the 21st consecutive selection for James. No other player in NBA history has been named to more than 15 All-NBA teams.

Curry set a franchise record with his 11th All-NBA selection. Edwards became just the fourth Timberwolves player to be named to multiple All-NBA teams, joining Kevin Garnett, Kevin Love, and Towns.

Other players who received votes, along with their respective point totals, were the Rockets‘ Alperen Sengun (58), the Grizzlies‘ Jaren Jackson Jr. (55), the Clippers‘ Ivica Zubac (15), the Cavaliers‘ Darius Garland (6), the Kings‘ Domantas Sabonis (4), the Pacers‘ Pascal Siakam (4), the Heat‘s Bam Adebayo (3), the Hawks‘ Trae Young (3), and the Suns‘ Devin Booker (2).

The Cavs, Knicks, and Thunder were the only teams to feature multiple All-NBA players. Both the Thunder and Knicks are currently playing in the conference finals for a shot at advancing to the NBA finals.

This is the second year that All-NBA teams have been positionless and have required players to meet a 65-game minimum to qualify for consideration.

Several players, starting with Cunningham, gained or lost eligibility for salary increases due to the All-NBA results. We have more details here.

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Northwest Notes: SGA, Randle, Wolves, Blazers

May 22nd, 2025 at 4:00pm CST by Luke Adams

While Shai Gilgeous-Alexander always thought he was capable of becoming “a really good player,” the Thunder guard admitted on Wednesday that he didn’t view himself as a potential MVP until several years into his NBA career, writes Anthony Slater of The Athletic. He first earned MVP votes in 2023, when he finished fifth, then was the runner-up to Nikola Jokic a year ago before flipping spots with the Nuggets star this spring and winning the award for the first time.

“I dreamt about (winning MVP) as a kid, but as a kid, it’s a fake dream,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “As the days go on and you realize that you get closer to your dream, it’s hard to not freak out. It’s hard to not be a six-year-old kid again. I think that’s what’s allowed me to achieve it.”

Because he earned All-NBA honors in 2023 and 2024, Gilgeous-Alexander was already eligible to sign a four-year, super-max extension this offseason. That deal, which would begin in 2027/28, would be worth a projected $293.4MM based on annual 10% salary cap increases.

As a result of being named Most Valuable Player this season, Gilgeous-Alexander now has the option of waiting until the 2026 offseason and signing a five-year super-max deal at that time, as Bobby Marks of ESPN tweeted on Wednesday. That contract would look the same through the first four seasons but would include a fifth year worth a whopping $86.45MM, bringing the total value of the projected extension to nearly $380MM.

Here’s more from around the Northwest:

  • After averaging 27.0 points and 7.8 assists per game on 55.7% shooting in the Timberwolves‘ four wins vs. Golden State, Julius Randle had another big scoring night in Game 1 vs. Oklahoma City with a team-high 28 points. But his 13 field goal attempts were well below his postseason average and he was held to one assist while committing five turnovers. He also had just eight of his points in the second half as the Thunder pulled away with the game. “That’s on me, I got to get him the ball,” head coach Chris Finch said, per Dave McMenamin of ESPN. “I got to get him more involved to start the second half.”
  • While Randle and Anthony Edwards combined for 46 points on 14-of-27 shooting on Tuesday, the rest of the Timberwolves scored just 42 points and made 15-of-57 field goals (26.3%). Zach Kram of ESPN.com examines the challenges a strong Minnesota offense faces against the league’s best defense in this series, while Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic writes that the Wolves need more out of a second unit led by Naz Reid and Donte DiVincenzo. That duo combined to make just 4-of-25 shots in Game 1, including 3-of-19 three-pointers.
  • In a Substack article, Sean Highkin of the Rose Garden Report attempts to answer five questions related to the Trail Blazers‘ sale, including how long it will take, how much they’re worth, and how the process might affect the on-court product. Most importantly, Highkin writes, while it’s technically possible that a new owner could look to relocate the franchise, that’s a highly unlikely outcome — and one that the sellers don’t want.
  • The Trail Blazers‘ sale won’t affect Moda Center renovations that are already underway, including an upgraded videoboard, but additional major arena projects will likely be on hold until the sale is complete, says Aaron Fentress of The Oregonian.
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Shai Gilgeous-Alexander Named 2024/25 MVP

May 21st, 2025 at 6:13pm CST by Arthur Hill

Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has been named the NBA’s Most Valuable Player for the 2024/25 season, the league announced on Wednesday (Twitter link). Shams Charania of ESPN (Twitter link) first reported the news.

Gilgeous-Alexander and Nuggets center Nikola Jokic were the frontrunners for the award virtually all season, with Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo as the other finalist. While Jokic has three MVP awards and Antetokounmpo has won twice, this is a first for SGA, who was the runner-up to Jokic last year.

Gilgeous-Alexander led the NBA in scoring at 32.7 points per game as part of an overall excellent year. In 76 contests, he also averaged 6.4 assists, 5.0 rebounds, 1.7 steals and 1.0 block while shooting 51.9% from the field. Tim MacMahon of ESPN notes that the only other player to post similar numbers in a season was Michael Jordan, who did it while capturing MVP honors in 1987/88 and 1990/91.

On top of his individual brilliance, Gilgeous-Alexander likely won over some voters by leading Oklahoma City to the best record in the league at 68-14. MacMahon states that it’s the 10th time that a player has led the league in scoring for a team with at least 60 wins.

Gilgeous-Alexander won the award by a comfortable margin by earning 71 of 100 possible first-place votes and placing second on the other 29 ballots. However, Jokic made it a competitive race by claiming the remaining 29 first-place votes and earning the No. 2 spot from the other 71 voters. The Nuggets star turned in one of the most prolific seasons of his career, averaging a triple-double with 29.6 points, 12.7 rebounds and 10.2 assists in 70 games.

Jokic helped the Nuggets secure the fourth seed in the West, but they won 18 fewer games than the Thunder and were eliminated by OKC in a seven-game second-round series.

Antetokounmpo was outstanding again for a 48-win Bucks team, posting 30.4 points, 11.9 rebounds and 6.5 assists in 67 games, but he was considered a long shot to win the award. He claimed 88 third-place votes and showed up on all 100 ballots.

Celtics forward Jayson Tatum and Cavaliers guard Donovan Mitchell rounded out the top five, with Tatum earning 84 fourth-place votes and Mitchell coming in fifth on 60 ballots. Seven other players earned at least one fourth- or fifth-place vote: LeBron James, Cade Cunningham, Anthony Edwards, Stephen Curry, Jalen Brunson, James Harden, and Evan Mobley. The full voting results can be found here.

Gilgeous-Alexander is the third player in Thunder history to capture MVP honors, joining Kevin Durant in 2014 and Russell Westbrook in 2017.

As MacMahon notes, Gilgeous-Alexander has been an All-NBA selection the past two seasons, so he already met the qualifications for a historic four-year, $294MM extension this summer. The $73.3MM annual value would be the largest in NBA history.

The MVP award will make him eligible for a five-year, $380MM extension if he waits until 2026, according to Bobby Marks of ESPN (Twitter link).

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Thunder Notes: Holmgren, Caruso, K. Williams, SGA

May 21st, 2025 at 1:02pm CST by Arthur Hill

Chet Holmgren was expected to be a star for the rebuilding Thunder when he was selected with the No. 2 pick in the 2022 draft, but it hasn’t fully worked out that way, writes Anthony Slater of The Athletic. Instead, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander developed into an MVP candidate and Jalen Williams became an All-Star in his third NBA season.

Holmgren has accepted a complementary role in the offense as a floor-spacing big who can also score at the rim. His development has been hampered by injuries that caused him to miss his entire rookie year and another 50 games this season.

“It’s gone under the radar a little bit how hard it is to be a guy, then sit out for a couple months and have to integrate yourself into a team that has the best record in the NBA and not step on nobody’s toes, but also sticking to yourself,” Gilgeous-Alexander said of Holmgren. “That’s a hard position to be in. The way he’s handled it has been special. I don’t know if he gets enough credit.”

Slater points out that Holmgren was the only prominent center who was on the court for the most important stretch of Tuesday’s Western Conference Finals opener, as both Isaiah Hartenstein and Minnesota’s Rudy Gobert sat out the entire fourth quarter. Oklahoma City was able to leverage the smaller lineups to pull away for a 114-88 victory.

Holmgren finished with 15 points and seven rebounds in 26 minutes, but he wasn’t happy with how he started the game.

“I was out there stinking it up in the first half,” he said. “The game’s not gonna reward you for that. I feel like I turned up the intensity, played harder, was able to find a little more gas in the tank and really exert that.”

There’s more on the Thunder:

  • After matching up with Nikola Jokic in the second round, it looks like Alex Caruso will be spending a lot of time guarding Julius Randle, Slater adds. The 6’5″, 186-pound Caruso said the idea of facing bigger, stronger opponents doesn’t intimidate him. “Like or dislike, it’s my job,” he said. “Get stops. Either the game tells me to battle 300-pound guys or get over screens on the perimeter.”
  • Slater notes that OKC got a boost in Game 1 from Kenrich Williams, who had eight points and three rebounds in 10 minutes and made both of this three-point attempts. It marked the first rotation minutes in the playoffs for Williams, who was used ahead of third-string center Jaylin Williams, and coach Mark Daigneault said the move “breathed life” into his team.
  • Serving as a guest commentator for ESPN, Michael Malone said Gilgeous-Alexander “showed why he’s the MVP” (YouTube link). It’s a surprising comment from the former Nuggets coach, who spent years with Jokic, SGA’s chief rival for this year’s Most Valuable Player honors.
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