Zion Williamson is a remarkable athlete who has shown glimpses of a very appealing skill-set as a shot creator from the perimeter. The question now becomes how exactly does he fit in a team that doesn't exist with the sole purpose of giving him the ball. Read more »

Rules should always help a game become more like itself, more true to its spirit, which in basketball's case is to facilitate a peculiarly muscular, skillful, balletic kind of beauty. Read more »

Similar to Donovan Mitchell with the Jazz and James Harden leaving the Ginobili role behind in OKC, fit, freedom and usage play a critical part in raising the ceiling of shooting guards like Victor Oladipo. Read more »

Bol Bol is one of those prospects who is a lot more interesting in theory than in reality at this point of his development. Read more »

Keith Smith emptied his notebook after speaking to players, coaches, front office personnel and agents with all 15 Eastern Conference teams. Read more »

It would be wonderful, especially for folks who defended Carmelo in his prime, if he could find a way to make it work in Houston. He's a generational talent who hasn't totally gotten his due. Read more »

Besides the advanced physical profile and athletic ability for someone R.J. Barrett's age, he has shown enough footwork and court vision to project as a volume shot creator for himself and others, though his shot is still a work in progress. Read more »

Hardly anything up to this point in his NBA career has been Jabari Parker's fault. He was a ballyhooed second overall pick because he was awesome in college, and he hasn't panned out because his left knee hasn't held up its end of the bargain. Read more »

The way Chicago's signings of Jabari Parker and Zach LaVine were received by some begs the question of why is it that we have created an intellectual environment that evaluates players in the way we'd want an Amazon review to evaluate a screwdriver? Read more »

We know why Mike D'Antoni is important. We know- in the broad sense- what he's good at. And we know, even if we've taken it for granted, that he's been trying to save us from predictability for over a decade. Read more »

Clint Capela's problem, obviously, is that he's a free agent at this very moment. It's lousy luck, because he's a very good player who's had a remarkable rise. Read more »

No LeBron-led superteam has (yet) been built to stop them. Paul George has committed to a franchise that can't touch them. They eve have Boogie now, in top form or otherwise. Read more »

Free agency has moved beyond money, on-court fit and location to mirror the personality-driven direction the NBA is moving in. Read more »

Every year, we draw a shiny red circle around a handful of lottery selections, anointing them as harbingers of the future even though we know better. Read more »

Here are 10 players, headlined by LeBron, Kawhi, Boogie and PG, and the places they should land to maximize entertainment on and off the court. Read more »

At this stage of free agency (unofficial, but in at least partial swing), people are talking to people about scheduling meetings, hurrying up to wait, weighing the abstract. Read more »

While we know the general contours of any offseason well in advance, the annual Dunc'd On tradition of a Mock Offseason has proven to be an enlightening and clarifying experience as both the preparation and negotiations themselves put the market forces to the text. Read more »