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 »

Is Chicago willing to give up some of what it does well, and any of the people who currently define them, to beef up where they're sallow to compete with the jumbo teams in Milwaukee and Boston? Read more »

Some players grow by doubling down on their particularities; others have to sand down the rough edges. It is not yet clear which group Trae Young is a member of. Read more »

The No. 9 seed Pelicans, largely microwaved at the end of the season through trades and rapid youth project improvements, wouldn't be here without the new format, but now they look like a team that should've belonged in it all along. Read more »

Adam Silver and the NBA would likely prefer to take what happened in Minneapolis and bottle, mass-produce, and sell it as their mini version Read more »

The Suns jumped from 30th in the NBA in Net Rating in 17-18 to 29th to 18th in 19-20 to third last season and first in 21-22. Read more »

Utah's division of labor has worked pretty well on paper, but the human toll is increasingly seen, and the basketball ecosystem in Salt Lake City appears to be crumbling despite still functioning at a very high level. Read more »

Jose Alvarado's measurable impact on the floor may be only marginally positive for the Pelicans, but his presence signifies something more important, which is that good, unexpected basketball things can actually happen in New Orleans. Read more »

The Bulls have reached a point in the season in which they are clearly undersized, battered, and visibly very tired. Read more »

Markelle Fultz's career trajectory may not align with what was initially imagined, but is one that can still be electric and satisfying in its own distinct way. Read more »

Winning big on the heels of such a sloppy season would, in some ways, be the ultimate validation of Kevin Durant's unusual sensibility, and the very public struggle he has had with his fame and with the paradox of choice granted to him by how coveted his talents are. Read more »

Nikola Jokic's contributions in service of Winning are lovely, dark, and deep. But on a very rare occasion, he seems to peek behind the veil of the sport and intentionally subvert competition itself. Read more »

Any progress made towards greater player agency over the past few years comes out of the context that the NBA has historically placed that control in the hands of its teams and their owners. Read more »

Zion Williamson came into the league a physical freak that college players couldn't handle and almost immediately it became apparent that 30-year-old pros didn't know what to do with him either. And now he's something between a myth and a punchline. Read more »

With Ben Simmons having gotten that trade he wanted, we can finally stop twisting ourselves in knots, stop calibrating what benevolent or rotten people we are by examining our role in the possibly fraudulent plight of a rich and famous athlete. Read more »

Rarely, if ever, has a player ever been as good as Rudy Gobert and so disliked at the same time. Read more »

James Harden and Daryl Morey likely see themselves as mercenaries at this point. They only want to win a ring. It doesn't matter where or how, just so long as they get a solid share of the credit. Read more »

Both James Harden and Joel Embiid are worlds unto themselves, players who not only dictate the end result of a game, but define the parameters in which it is played. Read more »

Receiving MVP votes is a way of saying that a player touched greatness, that for a spell he was about as good as anybody else. And memory is fuzzy, memory is generous. Its appoximateness is appealing. Read more »