Bulls Rumors

Mavericks Win 2025 NBA Draft Lottery; Spurs, Sixers, Hornets In Top 4

May 12th, 2025 at 6:26pm CST by Luke Adams

The Mavericks have won the 2025 NBA draft lottery, jumping all the way from No. 11 in the lottery standings to No. 1 in the draft.

Dallas had just a 1.8% chance of claiming this year’s top pick. Those are the longest odds for any team that has won the lottery since the NBA revamped the format prior to the 2019 draft.

The Mavs’ unlikely lottery victory puts them in position to select consensus top prospect Cooper Flagg, the Duke star who led the Blue Devils to the Final Four as a freshman and was named the ACC Player of the Year, as well as the Naismith College Player of the Year.

The full lottery order for the 2025 draft is as follows:

Dallas Mavericks
San Antonio Spurs
Philadelphia 76ers
Charlotte Hornets
Utah Jazz
Washington Wizards
New Orleans Pelicans
Brooklyn Nets
Toronto Raptors
Houston Rockets (from Suns)
Portland Trail Blazers
Chicago Bulls
Atlanta Hawks (from Kings)
San Antonio Spurs (from Hawks)

It’s an incredible turn of events in Dallas, where general manager Nico Harrison and his front office have been hammered by fans and pundits alike for the last three-plus months for their decision to trade franchise player Luka Doncic to the Lakers at February’s deadline. Now the Mavs are poised to add another cornerstone and a potential All-Star in Flagg, who will join Anthony Davis and Kyrie Irving on the new-look roster.

As Brad Townsend of The Dallas Morning News tweets, this is the first time in 17 lottery appearances that the Mavs ended up with a better pick than their odds dictated.

The lottery results feature plenty of fascinating stories beyond Dallas’ win, starting with the Spurs‘ pick moving up from No. 8 in the pre-lottery order to No. 2 in the draft. Dylan Harper of Rutgers is widely viewed as the second-best prospect in this year’s class behind Flagg and will be the frontrunner to join an up-and-coming San Antonio roster that already features Victor Wembanyama, De’Aaron Fox, and Rookie of the Year Stephon Castle.

When it was revealed on ESPN’s broadcast that the Mavericks and Spurs had moved into the top four, it momentarily looked as if the Sixers would lose their top-six protected pick, which appeared poised to slide to No. 7 and be sent to the Thunder. However, Philadelphia was among the lucky clubs to move up, claiming the No. 3 pick and hanging onto the selection for at least one more year. The 76ers will now owe their 2026 first-rounder, with top-four protection, to Oklahoma City.

The Hornets, who entered the lottery as one of three teams tied for the best odds at the first overall pick (14%), moved down one spot from No. 3 to No. 4. The Jazz and Wizards, who posted the NBA’s two worst records during the regular season, were even less fortunate, falling four spots each and coming in at No. 5 and No. 6.

That’s a worst-case scenario for those two clubs, who came into the night hoping to add a centerpiece like Flagg or Harper for their rebuild and instead dropped as far as they could have. There was a 47.9% chance Utah would end up at No. 5, but just a 20% chance Washington would slide all the way to No. 6.

The Pelicans were among the night’s biggest losers as well, slipping from No. 4 in the pre-lottery order to No. 7 when three teams leapfrogged them. The Nets and Raptors each dropped two spots to No. 8 and No. 9, respectively, while the Rockets (No. 10, via the Suns) and Trail Blazers (No. 11) slid one spot.

Although the Bulls didn’t move from their pre-lottery slot of No. 12, they had one of the biggest heartbreaks of the night — they finished with the same regular season record as the Mavericks and lost a coin flip last month for the No. 11 spot in the lottery. If they had won that tiebreaker, it would be the Bulls, not the Mavs, whose ping-pong ball combination was drawn for the top pick on Monday.

The lack of movement at the very back of the lottery means the Kings‘ pick, which came in at No. 13, will be sent to the Hawks, as expected. That selection – from the 2022 Kevin Huerter trade – was top-12 protected, so Sacramento only would have kept it if it had jumped into the top four.

The Spurs’ second pick of the lottery, courtesy of the Hawks, didn’t move from No. 14.

The NBA has posted a 13-minute video of the lottery drawing on social media.

Community Shootaround: Best, Worst Draft Lottery Outcomes

May 11th, 2025 at 8:37pm CST by Luke Adams

Fans of NBA teams who own a pick (or two) in this year’s lottery will obviously be rooting for their favorite club to get lucky on Monday and claim the No. 1 pick in the 2025 draft, putting them in position to select Duke phenom Cooper Flagg.

But what about the fans who don’t have a personal rooting interest in Monday’s event? What outcome should they be hoping for? Would it be more interesting for Flagg to become the centerpiece of a rebuilding team that badly needs one, like the Jazz or Wizards? Or would it be more fun to see him join a team with some established talent that only ended up high in the lottery due to injuries, like the Pelicans or Sixers?

Here are all the teams that have a shot at the No. 1 pick, as our breakdown of the lottery odds indicates:

Utah Jazz (14%): The Jazz have made five first-round picks in the past two drafts, but none of those players looks like an obvious franchise cornerstone. They bottomed out this season in the hopes of landing one.
Washington Wizards (14%): If the Wizards ended up with the first overall pick, they’d be adding Flagg to a young core that includes Bilal Coulibaly, Alex Sarr, and Bub Carrington.
Charlotte Hornets (14%): The Hornets almost certainly would’ve been a lottery team even if they’d been healthy in 2024/25, but injuries to key players like LaMelo Ball, Brandon Miller, and Mark Williams are the main reason they’re this high in the lottery standings.
New Orleans Pelicans (12.5%): Perhaps no team was hit harder by the injury bug this past year than the Pelicans, whose decision on Zion Williamson‘s future (keep or trade) would be all the more interesting if they were able to add Flagg.
Philadelphia 76ers (10.5%): While Joel Embiid‘s health remains a major question mark going forward, no Eastern Conference team would want the Sixers to get the chance to add Flagg to a group that features Embiid, Paul George, and Tyrese Maxey.
Brooklyn Nets (9%): The Nets reacquired control of their first-round pick from Houston last offseason, anticipating that they’d be in this position. That trade would pay off in a massive way if they get lucky on lottery night.
Toronto Raptors (7.5%): The Raptors have a crowded forward depth chart already, with Brandon Ingram joining Scottie Barnes and RJ Barrett. Adding Flagg to the mix would create a pretty unbalanced roster, but they’d absolutely welcome that problem.
San Antonio Spurs (6.7%): Besides their own pick (6.0%), the Spurs also control the Hawks’ first-rounder (0.7%), giving them two outside shots at No. 1. Given that the Spurs won the lottery for Victor Wembanyama just two years ago, it would feel a little unfair for them to luck into Flagg too, but that duo would be very fun to watch together.
Houston Rockets (3.8%): The 52-win Rockets, who control Phoenix’s first-round pick, have no shortage of young talent on their roster already. Winning the lottery would be a case of the rich getting richer, especially considering that Houston also has extra future draft assets that could be used as trade chips for additional upgrades.
Portland Trail Blazers (3.7%): Portland’s young core features plenty of intriguing talent, including Deni Avdija, Toumani Camara, Shaedon Sharpe, and Scoot Henderson, but they’d love to add one more long-term keeper to that group before they start trying to contend. For what it’s worth, the Hawks moved up from this spot in the lottery standings to No. 1 last year.
Dallas Mavericks (1.8%): Jumping up to No. 1 might be karmic justice for fans in Dallas, who were devastated by this year’s Luka Doncic trade. But would it feel right for general manager Nico Harrison to be rewarded with a new franchise player after making that Doncic deal? Either way, adding Flagg to a roster that features Anthony Davis and Kyrie Irving would certainly qualify as intriguing.
Chicago Bulls (1.7%): The Bulls have begun leaning into a rebuild this past year, having traded away Alex Caruso, DeMar DeRozan, and Zach LaVine. They’ll probably need to tear things down further if they want to have a legitimate shot at a top pick, but you never know.
Sacramento Kings (0.8%): The Kings’ top-12 protected pick will likely be sent to Atlanta at No. 13, but there’s a 0.8% chance of them moving up to No. 1. After a tumultuous year that saw Sacramento fire head coach Mike Brown and GM Monte McNair and trade star point guard De’Aaron Fox, new head of basketball operations Scott Perry would love to begin his tenure by seeing this long shot of less than 1-in-100 come through.

We want to know what you think. Outside of your favorite team, which club would you most like to see win the draft lottery on Monday evening? Which outcome would be a worst-case scenario, in your view?

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

Central Notes: Haliburton, Nembhard, Cavs, Pistons, Bulls

May 7th, 2025 at 1:40pm CST by Luke Adams

One week after ending the Bucks’ season with a series-winning shot in the final seconds of Game 5, Pacers point guard Tyrese Haliburton played the hero again on Tuesday vs. Cleveland. Haliburton’s three-pointer with 1.1 seconds left on the clock completed an improbable comeback for the Pacers, who were down by seven points with 50 seconds to play and now have a 2-0 series lead as they head back home.

“He enjoys the moments,” teammate Myles Turner said, per Jamal Collier of ESPN. “He wants the ball in his hands. There’s a lot of guys I’ve seen, even guys I’ve played with, that doesn’t necessarily want to take that shot or doesn’t necessarily want to be in the mix right there, but he relishes in those moments. It’s just a testament as to his work ethic, his mental toughness, his mentality. Quite frankly — that boy cold, man.”

As Jared Weiss of The Athletic writes, Haliburton has always taken pride in his mental toughness and has made a habit of reading his mentions on social media when he’s not playing well, using criticism from online trolls as fuel to start playing better. However, the Pacers star recently admitted that he hit a low point last fall when he was dwelling on a slow start to the 2024/25 season that included a scoreless outing vs. New York.

“I (was) struggling to look at myself in the mirror. I’m struggling to show up to work and get to the gym. I’m trying to avoid coming to work,” said Haliburton, adding that he stopped seeking out the online criticism that typically motivated him. “… I didn’t want to tackle things head-on. I didn’t want to look at myself in the mirror. I was just trying to almost run from the spotlight. I’ve always been a guy who pushed into that, and I love being in that, so it was a weird feeling. I’ve never felt that insecurity before, and that was a reality check for me.”

According to Haliburton, who told Weiss he has gone to therapy for the last couple years, a candid conversation with trainer Drew Hanlen helped get him back on the right track and he started feeling more like himself after putting up 35 points and 14 assists in a revenge game vs. the Knicks a few weeks into the season.

Haliburton added that good conversations and strong relationships with fellow NBA stars like Joel Embiid and Jayson Tatum have helped keep him in the right headspace and ensured he was unfazed when he was voted the NBA’s most overrated player last month in a player poll conducted by The Athletic.

“At some point, worrying about what my peers think only holds so much weight. I think my peers (whom) I really respect, that changes things,” Haliburton said. “For that poll, there’s no names to faces, it’s all anonymous. Having relationships with guys like Jayson and Joel, who are guys that I know at the top of the game, them being honest with me, that’s important. I respect their opinions more than anybody.”

Here’s more from around the Central:

While Haliburton has been the engine driving the Pacers‘ playoff success so far, his backcourt partner Andrew Nembhard has been showing why he shouldn’t be overlooked, according to Dustin Dopirak of The Indianapolis Star (subscription required) and Joe Vardon of The Athletic. A strong perimeter defender, Nembhard has been giving Indiana a major offensive boost as well, scoring 23 points in Game 1 vs. Cleveland and handing out 13 assists in Game 2. The team is a +31 in his 73 minutes for the series so far.
Already missing three key players (Darius Garland, Evan Mobley, and De’Andre Hunter) due to injuries on Tuesday, the Cavaliers were also getting a “banged-up” version of star guard Donovan Mitchell, who is playing through a calf strain, as Vardon writes for The Athletic. Mitchell nearly led Cleveland to a victory anyway, with 48 points and nine assists in 36 minutes, but he and the Cavs’ other regulars ran out of gas and blew a late lead in the game’s final moments. “I loved how we competed,” head coach Kenny Atkinson said after the loss, per Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com (subscription required). “We played our basketball, our identity. I thought we outplayed them. That’s the shame of this game. With fatigue comes decision-making. We had some poor decision-making plays at the rim, turnovers, a couple bad decisions. That was part of the collapse.”
Discussing the draft, Pistons general manager Trajan Langdon suggested the pool of available talent isn’t as deep as it might otherwise be due to the NIL benefits that have made college prospects more inclined to stay in school. Armed with only the No. 37 overall pick this year, Langdon suggested the team will consider trading up if there’s “a player we really like” and the cost isn’t prohibitive (Twitter links via Omari Sankofa II of The Detroit Free Press).
Arguing that it’s time for the Bulls to begin “hunting for big trades,” Julia Poe of The Chicago Tribune (subscription required) evaluates whether or not the team could realistically make a play for Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo if he becomes available. Poe concludes that Chicago is a long shot for Antetokounmpo, but says the team could and should be ready to explore pursuing other stars who reach the trade block.

Central Notes: Bulls, Garland, Haliburton, Pistons

May 4th, 2025 at 4:18pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

After a third straight play-in appearance that fell short of a playoff berth, the Bulls face an interesting offseason, as NBA insider Yossi Gozlan of The Third Apron (Substack link) previews.

Chicago guard Josh Giddey submitted an encouraging performance during his inaugural season with Chicago, just in time for him to hit restricted free agency this summer. Gozlan notes that a club with cap space, like Brooklyn, could potentially give Giddey an offer sheet, but the Bulls will have the rights to match it. Gozlan projects that Giddey’s play could fetch him a yearly salary in the range of $20-$30MM.

Standout guard Coby White, who will be eligible for a contract extension next season, could earn a significant annual raise if he forgos an extension and instead waits until he reaches unrestricted free agency in 2026.

As Gozlan writes, veterans Nikola Vucevic, Kevin Huerter, Ayo Dosunmu, and Zach Collins are all on expiring deals, and many of those players could be moved in offseason trades rather than extended.

There’s more out of the Central Division:

Cavaliers All-Star guard Darius Garland is expected to be a game-time decision for the first contest of Cleveland’s second round playoff series against Indiana, reports Joe Reedy of The Associated Press. Garland sat out the final two contests of the Cavaliers’ four-game sweep of Miami with a sprained left big toe. “We’re just in this kind of area where you just got to kind of see day-by-day and see how it feels tomorrow morning,” head coach Kenny Atkinson said on Saturday.
Cavaliers players are doing what they can to prepare for two-time Pacers All-Star guard Tyrese Haliburton, per Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com. “He always makes the right play and doesn’t really stat hunt,” sixth man Ty Jerome said. “He’s a winner. He takes and makes big shots. He leads that team. He’s a real definition of a point guard.” Six-time All-Star Cavaliers guard Donovan Mitchell, meanwhile, respects Haliburton’s influence on his team’s offense. “He’s the head of the snake,” Mitchell said. “There’s a lot of respect for him and what he brings over there. At the end of the day, if people want to say that, they want to say that, but, you know, we don’t look at it that way. We understand how important he is to that group. He’s a threat, and we’ve got to make sure we try to find ways to neutralize him.”
The Pistons submitted an impressive bounce-back season in 2024/25 that included their first playoff berth since 2019, writes Omari Sankofa II Detroit Free Press (subscriber link). Now, the club will see four veterans head to unrestricted free agency and also faces extension decisions on young former lottery picks Jaden Ivey and Jalen Duren, who will be extension-eligible. Sankofa unpacks the potential fates of these contributors and addresses other burning offseason questions facing Detroit.

Central Notes: Giannis, Bucks, Cavs, Bulls Centers

May 3rd, 2025 at 12:15pm CST by Rory Maher

Speaking to Adam Mares on the All NBA podcast (YouTube link), veteran NBA reporter Marc Stein said the Bucks are unlikely to trade Giannis Antetokounmpo this offseason unless he specifically asks for a trade. Stein acknowledged that neither side is eager to go down that path, but pointed out that the Bucks don’t have a realistic way to build a legitimate contender around the two-time MVP, particularly in the wake of Damian Lillard‘s torn Achilles tendon.

“The rumbles that you always hear are that just having Giannis is so important to them financially,” Stein said (hat tip to RealGM). “They’re not going to trade him unless he pushes it.

“… The whole league is on edge waiting to see will Giannis’ representatives go to the Bucks and say, ‘It’s time. Move us, hold the auction, and start over.’ I don’t think the Bucks want to do that. You could make the case that they should want to do that, that they should say, ‘Let’s go out and get the largest haul we can get back for Giannis,’ but I don’t think the Bucks are there. We’re going to see where Giannis is.”

Here are a few more notes from around the Central:

If the Bucks do trade Giannis, what would a hypothetical deal look like? Bucks beat writer Eric Nehm of The Athletic evaluates fake proposals from his colleagues David Aldridge, Eric Koreen, Tony Jones and Sam Vecenie. One three-team proposal involves Houston and Portland, with the Bucks receiving Amen Thompson, Jalen Green, Cam Whitmore, Donovan Clingan, three first-round picks and having their 2028 and 2030 pick swaps with Portland extinguished; the Rockets acquiring Antetokounmpo and Jerami Grant; and the Trail Blazers getting back Alperen Sengun and Jock Landale.
Cavaliers point guard Darius Garland is dealing with a sprained left big toe and his availability for Game 1 vs. Indiana is uncertain. If Garland can’t play Sunday, will the Cavs stick with Sam Merrill or turn to someone else? Joe Vardon of The Athletic explores that topic, noting that head coach Kenny Atkinson didn’t tip his hand one way or another. “(Merrill) can create advantages, not in the pick and roll but with off-ball screen stuff, and then he can hold his own defensively,” Atkinson said. “But you could argue, do you go with a bigger body? Do you go with a (Tyrese) Haliburton matchup? This series is different.”
The Bulls have three centers under contract for next season, but it wouldn’t be surprising if two of them get traded this summer, writes Joe Cowley of The Chicago Sun-Times. “There are some good young pieces that can be built around,” Nikola Vucevic said in his exit interview last month. “A lot of questions when you are a team not fighting for the top. I have trust in them and believe they want to do what’s best and build a good team that wants to win, so we’ll see. Obviously, I am at the stage in my career where I am trying to win now, play in the playoffs and hopefully deep playoff runs. It’s a young team and it does take time. It all depends on what their timeline is and how they see this team.”

Central Notes: Sheppard, Pacers, Bulls, Strus

April 27th, 2025 at 1:40pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

After starting Pacers swingman Andrew Nembhard got into foul trouble during Indiana’s Game 3 playoff series loss to Milwaukee, reserve guard Ben Sheppard found himself playing more minutes than he had in the contests prior.

Sheppard knocked down a three-point shot during his six first-half minutes and the Pacers outscored Milwaukee by six points during those minutes. He went just 1-of-4 from the field in the second half, but was a +3 in 15:26 of action on the night.

According to Dustin Dopirak of The Indianapolis Star, head coach Rick Carlisle hinted that he may want to play Sheppard more going forward.

“Time to get him involved,” Carlisle said. “He did some really good things in the first half…. He gives us another guy to chase (Damian) Lillard around a little bit. Look, we need all hands on deck. We need everybody. Guys are gonna have to be able to come in and possibly play short minutes from time to time to help us with matchups, to help us with rebounding, to help us with spacing. You name it.”

There’s more out of the Central Division:

A lot went wrong in the Pacers’ 117-101 Game 3 defeat, as Dopirak details in another story. Two-time All-Star point guard Tyrese Haliburton believes that the team’s defense was the foundational issue. “We have to do a better job of rotating,” Haliburton said. “I gotta do a better job of staying down on shot fakes. Ground and contest, second-jumper contest. It starts with me. That was my matchup to start the game, so I gotta be better, but we were rotating and I thought we had a couple of miscommunications that led to some open ones and he got hot.” Dopirak also notes that the club leaned too heavily on isolation scoring for All-Star forward Pascal Siakam.
The first round of the playoffs are highlighting the major problems in longtime Bulls president Arturas Karnisovas’ team construction, opines Joe Cowley of The Chicago Sun-Times. As Cowley explains, Chicago was among the NBA’s fastest-paced offenses and ranked in the bottom half of the league in defense, a profile that doesn’t match many serious contenders.
Cavaliers swingman Max Strus has emerged as a perfect role player for the team as it gears up to sweep Miami, writes Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com.

Central Notes: Jerome, Schröder, Cunningham, Patton

April 22nd, 2025 at 5:42pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Ty Jerome, a Sixth Man of the Year award finalist, continues to pump up his value heading into unrestricted free agency. The Cavaliers guard poured in 28 points in 26 minutes during his first postseason game on Sunday.

“This is who Ty is. This is not a shock,” Donovan Mitchell said, per ESPN’s Brian Windhorst. “I know everybody’s going to react like this is a shock that he’d been doing this for us all year.”

Jerome burst onto the scene after missing virtually all of last season due to an ankle injury.

“You get time to reflect on where you need to take the next step,” Jerome said, per The Athletic’s Joe Vardon. “Going into the offseason, your back’s kind of against the wall. You don’t play any games. I don’t really have a huge body of work in the NBA. And you kind of have one last shot, in a way, to make it right.”

We have more from the Central Division:

Dennis Schröder is proving to be one of the most valuable pickups at the trade deadline. Needing backcourt depth with Jaden Ivey sidelined, the Pistons traded for Schröder. The veteran point guard, who’s headed to free agency, delivered a 20-point performance in the Pistons’ Game 2 upset of the Knicks on Monday night. That included a clutch three-pointer to stave off New York’s late rally. “The ultimate trust,” Detroit coach J.B. Bickerstaff said of playing Schröder in crunch time, per The Athletic’s Hunter Patterson.
Cade Cunningham played up to his All-Star status with 33 points. The Pistons guard is eager to play postseason games in front of the home fans. He’ll get that opportunity in Game 3 on Thursday and Game 4 on Sunday. “It feels good representing the city like we did (Monday),” Cunningham told John Niyo of the Detroit News. “It’s something that the city’s been waiting on for a long time, so we feel good about it and we’re ready to get back to the crib. … It’s gonna be a lot of fun. I’m excited to see it.”
The Bulls didn’t pick up their option on Peter Patton‘s contract, letting their director of player development go after two seasons. That was an unpopular decision among the players, Julia Poe of the Chicago Tribune confirms. Coby White, Ayo Dosunmu, Josh Giddey and Matas Buzelis improved their shooting under Patton’s tutelage and publicly praised him. Patton didn’t hold back his opinions on how the team could improve on and off the court and that didn’t always sit well with members of the team’s brass, Poe notes. The Chicago Sun-Times previously reported that Patton’s exit left some players “beyond pissed.”

2025 NBA Draft Tiebreaker Results

April 21st, 2025 at 4:28pm CST by Luke Adams

Tiebreakers among teams with identical regular-season records were broken on Monday through random drawings to determine the order for this year’s draft prior to the lottery.

The results are as follows, according to a press release from the league (Twitter link):

Phoenix Suns (No. 9) over Portland Trail Blazers (No. 10)
- The Suns will get one more lottery ball combination (out of 1,000) than the Trail Blazers.
- The Suns’ pick will be sent to the Rockets.
Dallas Mavericks (No. 11) over Chicago Bulls (No. 12)
- The Mavericks will get one more lottery ball combination (out of 1,000) than the Bulls.
Sacramento Kings (No. 13) over Atlanta Hawks (No. 14)
- The Kings will get one more lottery ball combination (out of 1,000) than the Hawks.
- The Kings’ pick will be sent to the Hawks if it’s outside of the top 12.
- The Hawks’ pick will be sent to the Spurs.
Memphis Grizzlies (No. 18) over Milwaukee Bucks (No. 19) over Golden State Warriors (No. 20)
- The Grizzlies’ pick will be sent to the Wizards.
- The Bucks’ pick will be sent to the Nets.
- The Warriors’ pick will be sent to the Heat.
Los Angeles Lakers (No. 22) over Indiana Pacers (No. 23) over Los Angeles Clippers (No. 24) over Denver Nuggets (No. 25)
- The Lakers’ pick will be sent to the Hawks.
- The Clippers’ pick will be sent to the Thunder.
- The Nuggets’ pick will be sent to the Magic.

While the tiebreaker winner will pick ahead of the loser(s) in the first round, that order will be flipped in the second round.

For instance, the Warriors’ second-round pick (traded to the Grizzlies) will be at No. 48, followed by the Bucks’ pick (traded to Detroit) at No. 49, and the Grizzlies (traded to New York) at No. 50 — that’s the opposite of their order in the first round.

For lottery teams that finished with identical records, the second-round order is still to be determined depending on the lottery results.

For example, if Phoenix’s first-round pick (traded to Houston) stays at No. 9 and the Blazers’ first-rounder stays at No. 10, Portland’s second-round pick (traded to Toronto) would be at No. 39 and Phoenix’s (traded to Washington) would be No. 40. But if the Trail Blazers win the No. 1 overall pick on lottery night, moving ahead of Phoenix in the first round, then the Suns’ second-round pick would be No. 39, while Portland’s would be No. 40.

We’ll publish the full lottery odds and pre-lottery draft order for 2025 later tonight.

Central Notes: Mitchell, Kuzma, Harris, White

April 20th, 2025 at 5:37pm CST by Dana Gauruder

The Eastern Conference’s top seed begins its first-round series tonight, and Cavaliers guard Donovan Mitchell knows that in order to be looked upon as a one of the game’s biggest stars, he has to deliver in the playoffs, he tells Marc Spears of Andscape.

“It’s right there. The biggest thing that holds me back is winning. Talent-wise, I don’t think it’s even a discussion,” he said. “It’s more like, ‘Can I win at the highest level?’ That’s been the question for most of my career. So, for me, that’s why you can’t squander these opportunities because that’s what puts you there.

“I said it [last] summer on the Melo [Carmelo Anthony] podcast, ‘I can use it as fuel, but I can’t get mad.’ I’ve been to the conference finals. I can use it as fuel, but then you got to go out there and produce a win. To shut them [critics] up, you got to go out there and win. So that’s the main goal, and I will do it by any means necessary. It doesn’t mean I have to go out and score 40 points every night. I’ve got to make the guys around me better.”

We have more from the Central Division:

Bucks forward Kyle Kuzma was a no-show in Game 1 of the team’s series against the Pacers. He had no points, rebounds or assists in 22 minutes. Kuzma banged his thumb in the first quarter but wouldn’t make excuses. “Just understanding what I need to do, can’t wait for the ball, can’t wait for things to happen, kind of just gotta go get it, just find myself and get into actions on my own,” he said, per the Indianapolis Star’s Dustin Dopirak. “Rebound — definitely a stinker for sure. It’s a long series, it’s seven games and I’m excited to play because I understand a little bit of what I need to do to attack the next game.”
The Pistons gave up 21 unanswered points in the second half of their Game 1 loss to the Knicks. Forward Tobias Harris said the team needs to move on from that disappointment with Game 2 approaching on Monday night, Omari Sankofa II of the Detroit Free Press writes. “It’s a series,” Harris said. “You can’t get too high, can’t get too low. Each team will make an adjustment, but overall it’s about mentally just staying locked into the moment and being ready for the next game, no matter what. I think for us, obviously for this group, guys having first time playoff experience it’s just understanding it stinks to lose but it’s about how you come back the next night.”
Bulls guard Coby White is entering the last year of his deal and will make $12.9MM next season. He’s eligible for an extension but would be foolish to sign one, according to the Chicago Sun-Times’ Joe Cowley. If he pursued an extension, White would be limited to a 40% raise on his current contract. He could potentially make a lot more by waiting until free agency next summer.

Bulls Notes: Karnisovas, Vucevic, Ball, Patton, More

April 18th, 2025 at 3:52pm CST by Arthur Hill

Before talking about his plans for the Bulls‘ future, executive VP of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas addressed a couple rumors about himself at Thursday’s press conference, writes Joe Cowley of The Chicago Sun-Times.

First, Karnisovas said he has no interest in returning to the Nuggets to replace recently fired general manager Calvin Booth. He also emphasized that he considers his job with the Bulls to be safe because he still has a strong relationship with owners Jerry Reinsdorf and Michael Reinsdorf.

“We take pride, especially in this building, in everybody being on the same page,” Karnisovas said. “It’s very hard to accomplish, but that’s how it is in this building between the ownership, front office, coaching staff, performance staff, so they have always been very supportive of my decisions, my thoughts, about this direction.”

He added that the team achieved many of its goals coming into the season, such as changing its style of play, developing its young talent and keeping its first-round pick for 2025. He admitted that major changes are unlikely to happen this summer, but noted that the Bulls will have more financial flexibility in 2026.

“I’m asking fans for patience because we’re in the first year of that transition,” Karnisovas said. “I thought the way we finished the year showed some promise. It’s hard to win games in this league and to finish 15-5, yeah, it’s not a victory lap, but I think there are some positives.”

There’s more from Chicago:

The trade speculation that surrounded Nikola Vucevic heading into the February deadline is likely to re-emerge this summer. After Wednesday’s play-in loss, the 34-year-old center talked about wanting to be with a team that can “win now” and make long playoff runs (Twitter video link from Chicago Sports Network).
Lonzo Ball was never able to return from the sprained right wrist that kept him out of action since February 28, but he said it won’t require surgery, per K.C. Johnson of Chicago Sports Network (Twitter link). After missing two and a half seasons due to a knee injury, Ball said his knee “did better than expected” and he’s looking forward to a normal offseason without having to concentrate on rehab. “I went above the goals I set for myself (physically),” Ball added (Twitter link).
Bulls director of player development Peter Patton won’t be returning to the team next season, Johnson confirms (via Twitter). According to Cowley, the news of Patton’s exit left some players on the roster “beyond pissed,” as one told the Sun-Times in a text message.
Within the same Sun-Times story, Cowley says there’s a feeling in the organization that while Karnisovas often asks for player input before making decisions, he doesn’t always take those opinions into account. “They have to fit his,” one source explained to Cowley.
Given that the Bulls have only won a single playoff game since Karnisovas and Billy Donovan joined the organization in 2020, Julia Poe of The Chicago Tribune wonders why the team’s head of basketball operations and head coach aren’t on hotter seats.
ESPN’s Bobby Marks previews the Bulls’ offseason in an Insider-only story, as well as in a YouTube video. Working out a new contract with restricted free agent Josh Giddey and determining what to do with veterans on expiring contracts are among the top summer priorities in Chicago, as Marks details.

Luke Adams contributed to this story.

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