This mock draft strictly focuses on the best prospect each team can draft when thinking about how a new player would look in that setting. Read more »

The Mavericks winning the Cooper Flagg lottery months after trading Luka Doncic has the conspiracy theory machine on tilt. But there are no outcomes that would prevent fans and media from such meaning-making. Read more »

The Thunder finished the 24-25 season with the best Net Rating in the NBA, ahead of the Cavaliers who jumped from 13th a season ago. Read more »

Luka Doncic has meant something more than what wins and losses do. He is famous, himself, and alive in a way that is wholly original and that will likely prove timeless. Read more »

Whereas the Lakers' inevitable jackpot is proof of how the league works, the Mavs are foolishly clinging to a fantasy about how it should be. Read more »

Unwilling to see Luka Doncic through whatever plagues him, the Mavericks just sent him to a task much harder than the one they'd given him. If he can do it, basketball mythology will have to revise its definition of "forever." Read more »

Overnight with the Luka Doncic trade, the NBA moved out of the superstar empowerment era and into one where teams build within the jammed-puzzle machinations of its new CBA. Read more »

The shape of Dallas' season will be determined by the shape of their franchise player. Getting the most out of Luka Doncic raises their ceiling, but lowers their likelihood of reaching it. Is that tradeoff worth the weight?  Read more »

On how Paul George, Klay Thompson, Chris Paul and Dario Saric have found great situations for themselves in free agency. Read more »

All the Celtics' prior disappointments were detonated in this series as they've built a perfect supporting cast and system around their double stars that arrived via a trade of their previous ones. Read more »

The Mavericks did everything a beat faster, better and more effectively than they had at any point before in the series. Boston should certainly still win this series, but something that looked over is now suddenly combustible. Read more »

The Celtics contain more multitudes than any title contender in recent memory given how long they've been in this position and the quality and diversity of their top-6. And they possess enough dominant ways to play to withstand a vintage Kyrie Irving performance. Read more »

The dominant conversation entering the Finals was the Best Team vs. Best Player debate, but the way the Celtics are forcing the Mavericks to work excessively hard on both ends on the floor is answering those questions. Read more »

The Celtics have had a frustratingly extended prologue, but they are three wins away from finally vanquishing it. Game 1 showed the greatness they're capable of achieving. Read more »

It's time for some Gamer Theory: Luka Doncic plays Overwatch, and is in the 99th percentile of performance. He's in the 100th percentile of NBA players, but it's important to understand he's also elite pretending to be a futuristic gladiator and talking trash to teenagers. Read more »

The Mavericks and Celtics are a pair of throughly modern teams, but in distinctly contrasting ways, which should make for an entertaining series and also a referendum on two models of team construction. Read more »

In the 2024 NBA, regime change has arrived, and old templates won't tell us what's coming. Luka and Ant-Man aren't following old bibles about how to win, closely mimicking anyone who came before them, or sticking to their reputational patterns. Read more »