Well, hopefully this won’t go nearly as badly as Trail Blazers fans seem to think it’s going to go

I am reserving judgment until July

haha amazing

All I am seeing at this point is speculation mostly and it’s standard fare for pro sports owners to attempt to force municipalities to pay for new arenas

Blazers fans should give this guy a chance; he reportedly has a strong track record as an NHL owner

He has been the owner for less than a month

I follow quite a bit of NBA media and I don’t think I have seen/heard any discussion about this new Trail Blazers owner being cheap outside of some Portland fan Blue Sky accounts (probably Portland fan Twitter accounts , too, but I’m not on Twitter)

The issue with pro sports teams that are horribly mismanaged for years if not decades, like the Bulls, is never really the bad front office, it’s the owner who has hired and empowered the bad front office

So it is not going to ultimately matter that Chicago has fired its GM and hired a replacement

Alternatively, Milwaukee leaves out Charlotte, keeps Towns for themselves, keeps Turner and Portis Jr (and re-signs Porter Jr), signs someone pretty good in free agency, tries to remain competitive with this group

Since Milwaukee doesn’t have its own 2027 1st (no incentive to tank)

In a bad spot

Grant Williams, Josh Green, Tre Mann = contracts expire after the 2026-27 season

I also expect Milwaukee to auction off Myles Turner and Bobby Portis Jr

And re-sign Kevin Porter Jr

Rebuild around Porter Jr, Ryan Rollins, their 2026 1st, A.J. Green, and whatever they get for Turner and Portis Jr

This is why Milwaukee should have traded Giannis over a year ago

The longer you wait to trade a big salary, aging, and increasingly expensive star player, the worse your return is going to be

Going to be a long rebuild for Milwaukee

Milwaukee can make better trades than this HOWEVER I expect Giannis to push his agent to get him to the Knicks (with plenty of back channels shenanigans from the Knicks) and only the Knicks, which will put Milwaukee in a difficult position

And Charlotte has an opportunistic front office

This is my offseason Giannis trade prediction

Knicks lose again in the playoffs; Towns is the scapegoat; Giannis trade is basically their final (desperation?) move to win a championship with this group

Charlotte gets a perennial All-Star big in his prime for expendable pieces

Milwaukee gets picks

Giannis to NYK

2027 CHA or MIA 1st (whichever is more favorable) + 2029 CLE or MIN or UTA 1st (whichever is least favorable) + 2033 NYK 1st round pick + 2030 MIL-NYK 1st swap + 2032 MIL-NYK 1st swap + Tidjane Salaun + Tyler Kolek + Grant Williams + Josh Green + Tre Mann to MIL

Karl Towns to CHA

Respectfully, you were defending Chicago’s trade deadline moves at the time.

Don’t think any team will want Kispert (he’s been pretty bad for Atlanta so far + Atlanta has a great coaching staff) and I am going to be very surprised if either Davis or Young is still on the Wizards roster in 2027-28.

Davis and Young were still both buy low/distressed assets, Washington got each for 25 cents on the dollar

NBA media/fans seem to think that the Wizards intends to keep/extend both players; I am skeptical

If Young opts out, the trade from Washington’s perspective = a Corey Kispert salary dump (win)

My hunch is that if all goes according to plan—Young + Davis play well during the 1st half of the season—the Wizards auction these guys off at the February 2027 trade deadline

Alternatively, Young opts out this offseason, signs with a different team; don’t see Washington giving him a big extension

Wizards front office run by an ex-OKC front office who was in OKC when they took on distressed contracts (Chris Paul, Al Horford) and later flipped these players/contracts for additional draft capital

Although Paul had a nice season for OKC, they may have even made the playoffs, can’t remember

I mean MAGA is just white supremacy (white heterosexual Christian male supremacy) which has been around for centuries

But yes the “Disco sucks” sentiment = white supremacy, you’re right

I expect Boston to run it back

Will add their first round pick

So that leaves three roster spots for these five players:

Amari Williams
Ron Harper Jr
Max Shulga
Dalano Banton
MIL 2nd

Williams and Harper Jr locks to return

15th spot goes to either Shulga, Banton, MIL 2nd, or a free agent imo

A tremendous amount of laziness and groupthink among sports media including NBA media

And recycled, spoon fed (by ESPN mostly) faux outrage narrative after faux outrage narrative

Tanking has been happening for years and nobody complained that much

But now is the faux outrage narrative du jour

Oklahoma City is going to MUCH rather play the winner of Lakers-Rockets in Round 2 then Denver

So we should expect OKC to rest its starters in this game vs Denver

However San Antonio would MUCH rather face the winner of Lakers-Timberwolves in Round 2 then Denver

So San Antonio will play to win

3 seed is optimal

Getting Minnesota with an injured Anthony Edwards and an injured Jaden McDaniels in Round 1

Getting San Antonio with an injured Victor Wembanyama in Round 2

Not having to play the completely healthy defending champs until the conference finals at the earliest

I am expecting Chicago to promote Billy Donovan to GM à la Brad Stevens/Boston

Look at the timing of UNC moving on from Donovan and Chicago firing their GM… the two are connected imo

I will be extremely surprised if Donovan as GM starts cleaning house

Yeah some other team might offer Hardaway Jr more money

Although he played awfully well in 2024-25, had to settle for the league minimum this past offseason, might happen again

And Spencer Jones MIGHT get offered more than the league minimum if he plays well for Denver during a deep playoff run

9 begins season ~$60,000 below second apron

starters

PG Jamal Murray
SG Christian Braun
SF Peyton Watson
PF Aaron Gordon
C Nikola Jokic

key reserves

Spencer Jones
Tim Hardaway Jr
Bruce Brown Jr
Zeke Nnaji
Julian Strawther

remaining players

DEN 1st
DaRon Holmes II
Jalen Pickett
LAC 2nd
ATL 2nd

4 team option declined - Jonas Valanciunas

5 re-signed - Spencer Jones, two years, second year player option, minimum salary

6 re-signed - Bruce Brown Jr, one year, minimum salary

7 re-signed - Tim Hardaway Jr, one year, minimum salary

8 not re-signed - Jonas Valanciunas, Tyus Jones

Have been working on my offseason team projections, here is what I have right now for Denver:

1 trade - Cameron Johnson to BRK (traded into BRK’s cap space); 2026 LAC 2nd to DEN

2 draft - three players (DEN 1st, LAC 2nd, ATL 2nd)

3 re-signed - Peyton Watson, five years, ~$28.6M in 2026-27

But again, this consequence was completely foreseeable

Like, I noticed this, and was surprised that the players’ attorneys agreed to this term

So that’s the story, imo… why are these collective bargaining agreements so lopsided in favor of owners? Which goes beyond the NBA and pro sports obviously

But he still had a great season whether he makes all-NBA or not

I have been following the NBA closely for almost 40 years, don’t care who makes all-NBA teams, am used to whoever votes on this stuff voting for the wrong guys

e.g., MVP race this year where Jokic is clearly the MVP but won’t win

So I think the narrative here should not be “This rule sucks and need to be changed!”

It should be “Why did the players’ representation do such a bad job?”

I am frequently struck by how lopsided these collective bargaining agreements are in professional sports

Respectfully, how does your representation not anticipate this consequence? This was completely foreseeable. Maybe the players should expect more from their attorneys.

Parties are free to go back and re-negotiate an item in an agreement if they so choose but they don’t have to.

Fair enough but the players union and the league negotiated this collective bargaining agreement and this was the agreement

If the players don’t like this proposed rule then don’t agree to it

But they agreed to it so that’s that

Maybe the players need to hire better attorneys