You could glimpse something spectacular in his sporadic effort, his brief spells of best behavior. Defenders couldn't contain him, he couldn't contain himself. An entire league of bosses, teachers, and allies couldn't hold him. Read more »

How will our relationship with players change when the game returns, now that they shared with us their most vulnerable moments? When are we allowed to care about the scoreboard and standings? Read more »

Kevin Garnett skipped college partially out of necessity, but also perhaps because he realized that it was just an extra, intermediate step toward his ultimate goal. Convention was the only thing holding him back, and when you're as gifted as young K.G. was, that's not much of an impediment. Read more »

It remains potently strange that Larry Bird, three-time MVP and something like the sixth-best player of all-time, breezed through Indiana, organized one of the best teams in the league, and then quietly walked away from a profession nobody knew he would be good at or even wanted to pursue in the first place. Read more »

Onyeka Okongwu has emerged due to his impact around the rim on both ends. His combination of coordination and smoothness moving around the floor offers hope he could someday be about as good out in space as well. Read more »

Sports are a resilient, lucrative business. It has room to fail, but millions of us will be suffering worse than before. Read more »

We have to take what we can get in late capitalism. The NBA's decision to suspend the season represent what should be the bare minimum. Read more »

The Lakers are testing the bounds of what's possible with their interest in Dion Waiters and J.R. Smith. Would LeBron really take a team to a title with Waiters, J.R., Dwight Howard, JaVale McGee and Rajon Rondo? Read more »

Caris LeVert's going to be the player who is most radically displaced as the Nets pivot toward more ambitious goals. He knows that, and he's probably as anxious as anybody to get down to serious work after nearly four seasons of purgatorial basketball. Read more »

De'Aaron Fox and the Kings make a pair of appearances on this list, as do the short-handed 76ers. Read more »

This was always going to be a fallback year for the Warriors and Steph Curry's broken hand gave him his own siesta. And now he will soon begin something like the basketball equivalent of throwing 60 pitches for a minor league affiliate. Read more »

The hype supporting Isaac Okoro's viability as a top 10 pick is mostly based on his defense, which is unusual because NBA teams tend to reach for shot creators and shot makers or seven-footers at the top of the draft. Read more »

Paul George has had a career of surges and false starts. He's someone everybody respects but nobody totally trusts. Read more »

Luka Doncic and the Mavericks make multiple appearances on our League Pass list this week. Read more »

Freedom isn't free and the cost of freedom ranges wildly in NBA buyouts. As does its long-term consequences. Read more »

You can already hear the grumbling from John Beilein's brothers in the college ranks that you can't teach NBA players. Except that's so obviously not true. Read more »

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There's something about Andre Drummond. We wouldn't have bothered keeping up with his growth for this long if there wasn't. But what are its precise dimensions? Read more »

A short week before the All-Star break features a pair of appearances from the Thunder and multiple debuts with new teams. Read more »

Gone are Justise Winslow, Hassan Whiteside, Dion Waiters, and anyone else with a conspicuous gap between potential and performance. Remade in Jimmy Butler's self-maximizing fashion, rich with diamond-in-the-rough upstarts and over-achievers, this team would be a fitting sendoff crew for Pat Riley, if he were capable of quitting. Read more »