The issue of whether the Nets made a mistake in giving too much control to Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving would almost certainly be a non-issue had they simply won more games. Read more »

Malcolm Brogdon gives the Celtics a marginal gain, which certainly could matter, but they will continue to be in a place where they will only go as far as Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown can take them. Read more »

Kevin Durant's narrative is messy because he is so aware of the tales and incentives around him, often uncanny in calling them out, but at the same time clearly stressed by the prospect of not telling the same quality of story that his peers have told. Read more »

Bradley Beal might be happier, or at least less dogged by criticism, in the league Kevin Garnett was drafted into, where it wouldn't be out of the ordinary for him to cash gigantic checks from a middling-to-awful franchise in perpetuity. Read more »

How do you become more immortal than you already were? This title for Stephen Curry and the Warriors was both validation and valediction, a chance to postpone chatter, to stop debating about legacies, and simply savor something special. Read more »

As a collision between a movie production and the roving entertainment complex that is the contemporary NBA, Hustle is a decidedly post-modern product, existing somewhere between advertisement for the league and true cinema. Read more »

The line between brilliance and disaster is one Draymond Green moves back and forth over more than maybe than anyone ever has, and whoever wins these Finals just might be determined by how many games he can spend on the right side of it. Read more »

While Golden State may have the higher ceiling than Boston, one never knows whether it will continue to rise or come crashing down. It comes down to what you value most: would you rather have reliable greatness or the ability to occasionally, and unpredictably, conjure magic? Read more »

Over what is nearly three decades with the Heat, Pat Riley has turned his overbearing vision for basketball into a company-wide edict, rich with cultish lore and numerous back-texts. Read more »

When Jimmy Butler heaved that doomed, cannoning jumper he saw six or seven games into the future, kissing the trophy and cussing out doubters imagined and real. He lives in that dream perpetually, but it never felt closer at hand. Read more »

The reason the Warriors collect into a boulder capable of knocking all else over is because they have what other teams do not, to house all these wonders: a concept. An idea, a philosophy, an ethos. Read more »

Whether you're one of Chris Paul's eager critics, or someone with enough of a tolerance for sorrow to keep riding the roller coaster with him more hopefully, there's no questioning that, even if this sadly mythical loss isn't a proper send-off, it could act as a fitting, sourly poetic bookend to his career. Read more »

Watching the Mavericks, everything seems to come down to one question: Will their role players make enough 3's to make up for the fact that they are a top heavy team lacking in stylistic diversity or flexibility? Read more »

James Harden has long been the cosmos itself; what will it look like for him to be just another individual residing in a world he cannot fully shape? Read more »

James Harden finally looked like a man whose experience has enriched him, rather than ran him ragged, and gave everyone with the fear of being too washed up something to model themselves after. Read more »

Memphis seems destined to figure heavily in the future either way, but the grizzled three-time champions are not prepared to concede the present after spending the past couple of seasons licking wounds and rebuilding around their core. Read more »

Be careful of easy diagnoses, especially applied to teams that nobody likes, but: the Nets seem as if they were swept due to a bone-deep or perhaps cosmic apathy. Read more »