Trent Redden turned down an opportunity to join the New Orleans Pelicans front office to remain with the Los Angeles Clippers.

Redden had interviewed with David Griffin about a high-ranking executive job with the Pelicans last week. 

Redden is the second Clippers executive to turn down potential opportunities elsewhere to stay with the team. General manager Michael Winger turned down a chance to interview for the Timberwolves' President of Basketball Operations last week. 

Gregg Popovich avoided questions about whether he would return to coach the San Antonio Spurs next season.

Popovich, who was in the final year of his contract, will coach Team USA in the FIBA Basketball World Cup this summer.

"I'm a head coach in the NBA. I don't think about what that means in the future," said Popovich following the Spurs' game 7 loss to the Nuggets.

One Spurs source said he had "no doubt" that Popovich would return next season.

The Memphis Grizzlies promoted Tayshaun Prince to Vice President of Basketball Affairs.

“We are excited to establish Tayshaun as a core member of our front office. His knowledge of the game is exceptional and we are thrilled he will continue providing valuable contributions to the organization on a day-to-day basis," said Executive Vice President of Basketball Operations Zachary Z. Kleiman. 

Prince's move comes as part of a summer long rebuild of the Grizzlies' front office. 

LeBron James sold the most individual jerseys, while the Los Angeles Lakers sold the most team jerseys during the NBA regular season. 

James and the Lakers knocked off Steph Curry and the Warriors from their respective slots. Curry and the Warriors had sold the most jerseys in their categories for 3 straight seasons.

James, Curry, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Kyrie Irving, and Joel Embiid rounded out the top 5 for individual jerseys.

The Lakers, Warriors, Celtics, Sixers, and Bucks were the most popular team jerseys. 

The Houston Rockets consider themselves a significantly better team now than last season when they took the Golden State Warriors to seven games.

"We're as good as anybody, if not better than everybody," said Mike D'Antoni.

The Rockets began the season 11-14 but have recovered ever since with key midseason additions and better health from Chris Paul and Clint Capela. Houston has the NBA's best record and net rating since the All-Star break.

"We have more confidence than last year," Capela told ESPN after anchoring another dominant defensive effort. "But it's just the beginning, because last year we went so far. We still know we have a lot to do. It's just two wins in the playoffs. We know that we have to get 16 wins total, and it gets harder every game."

Converse introduced a new basketball sneaker called the All-Star Pro BB, with Kelly Oubre Jr. as the face of the relaunched line.

"It's a different vibration when it comes to someone who is trying to reinvent themselves in something that they started. It's not necessarily someone trying to come in and disrupt the game, or someone trying to step onto the scene as newcomers again. We started this," said Oubre Jr. 

Nike acquired Converse in 2003 for $305 million, a purchase largely driven by the popularity of Chuck Taylor's. 270,000 pairs of Chuck Taylor's are sold everyday, totaling 100 million pairs per year. 

Converse used Nike's resources in imagining what an updated Chuck Taylor would look like in 2019.

"We built this shoe through the lens of where the game is evolving - that positionless aspect of basketball. This is geared for players that have a more fluid style of play, and Kelly really evokes that in how he shows up on the court," said Converse VP of footwear Brandis Russell.

Caris LeVert and Jared Dudley called out Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons for laughing during Embiid's apology for throwing an elbow at Jarrett Allen in game 2. 

"We didn't really like that. We thought that was kind of disrespectful, especially after the elbow he threw. It is what it is. There's no love lost. It's a playoff series. We expect that," said LeVert.

Embiid was called for a flagrant foul for his elbow. He and Ben Simmons laughed during his apology in the post-game press conference. 

"I felt a certain type of way for it just because you're laughing and someone could have really gotten hurt. Now, luckily, Jay did pop up. That's been Embiid's personality, but just because it's your personality doesn't mean it's right. So, for us, you can either get even however you want to do it, but the biggest thing for us to get even is winning Game 3," added Dudley.

An analysis conducted by Forbes concluded that Giannis Antetokounmpo was the most underpaid player in the NBA this season.

The study took into consideration the amount of wins a player produced to get an "expected" salary for that player, then took the difference between a player's "expected" salary and current salary. 

By the Forbes metric, Antetokounmpo was responsible for 18.1 wins on the season and should have been paid over $53 million for his contribution as compared to his $24.1 million salary.

Mitchell Robinson, Nikola Vucevic, James Harden, and Rudy Gobert rounded out the top 5. 

Damian Lillard said that Enes Kanter was "the MVP" of the Portland Trail Blazers' 104-99 win over the Oklahoma City Thunder in game 1 of their playoff series.

Kanter finished the game with 20 points and 18 rebounds.

"[Kanter] was the MVP of the game, especially down the stretch getting us second opportunities, third opportunities. He had a huge presence down the stretch and played a huge part in us winning this game," said Lillard. 

Kanter, who began the season on the Knicks, said he appreciated the opportunity to compete in a playoff game. 

"I was on the worst team in the league and I wasn't even playing because they thought I was too old...it was frustrating because I just wanted to go out there and win...a couple of days ago I looked in the mirror and said I am blessed...it feels amazing," added Kanter. 

The Los Angeles Clippers represent the biggest playoff underdog since 1988 as they match up against the Golden State Warriors.

The SuperBook at Westgate Las Vegas has the Clippers at 100-1 to upset the Warriors in the first round.

The Warriors are -50,000 to beat the Clippers at the SuperBook. They have received no straight bets on the Warriors, with only 9 people betting on the Clippers.

The odds are so lopsided that several Vegas sportsbooks kept the series off the board.