2025-26 NBA Thread

[WilyWestbrook0]

Two pretty crazy trades so far

James Harden Headed To Cavs; Clippers To Receive Darius Garland, Second-Rounder

https://www.hoopsrumors.com/2026/02/...d-rounder.html

Grizzlies Trade Jaren Jackson Jr. To Jazz

https://www.hoopsrumors.com/2026/02/...r-to-jazz.html

The Grizzlies and Jazz have agreed to a blockbuster trade, according to Shams Charania of ESPN (Twitter link), who reports that former Defensive Player of the Year Jaren Jackson Jr. is heading to Utah along with wings John Konchar and Vince Williams Jr. and center Jock Landale.

In exchange, Memphis will acquire guard Walter Clayton, swingman Kyle Anderson, forwards Taylor Hendricks and Georges Niang, and three future first-round picks, sources tell Charania.

Grizzlies look like they're busting up early.

Cavs trade: not a fan unless they're looking to go all-in on Giannis (and even then, I will always hate Harden's game, which is hard to root for). Garland is probably too small and injury prone to lead them deep into the playoffs, but they're sacrificing his youth for an aging star in Harden, who himself likewise has never consistently gotten it done in the playoffs. The East is pathetic this year, so I suppose they still have a shot at finally getting past their Semis hurdle, but they're still not good enough to beat whomever comes out West. That's a big gamble with not enough payoff. They don't have the youth and assets to rebuild well if this fails, which it has a high likelihood of doing if they stop at Harden.

[pwaldo]

Grizzlies look like they're busting up early.

Yeah they really had a short peak. They were a high seed and had a young core not that long ago but now they are basically in full rebuild mode with nothing to show for it

[QUOTE=WilyWestbrook0;15350579Cavs trade: not a fan unless they're looking to go all-in on Giannis (and even then, I will always hate Harden's game, which is hard to root for). Garland is probably too small and injury prone to lead them deep into the playoffs, but they're sacrificing his youth for an aging star in Harden, who himself likewise has never consistently gotten it done in the playoffs. The East is pathetic this year, so I suppose they still have a shot at finally getting past their Semis hurdle, but they're still not good enough to beat whomever comes out West. That's a big gamble with not enough payoff. They don't have the youth and assets to rebuild well if this fails, which it has a high likelihood of doing if they stop at Harden.[/QUOTE]

Seems like the Cavs panicked and didn't want another year where they just get bounced early in the playoffs. Problem with this move is Harden is pretty terrible to rely on in the playoffs. But like you said the East is terrible again so they could still end up in the NBA Finals.

[pwaldo]

With the way they are playing and with all the Durant leaks I'm ready to remove the Rockets from a threat to the Thunder team list. Right now it is only the Spurs as I don't think the Nuggets will ever be healthy enough for a run this year. Out East I know you have the Pistons and couple other teams that are playing real well right now but I'm still on the fence about any of them being a real threat this year. The only thing I know is I wouldn't want to get a first round match up with the Hornets right now. They are playing like a team that could knock off any team out East right now in the first round of the playoffs.

[WilyWestbrook0]

With the way they are playing and with all the Durant leaks I'm ready to remove the Rockets from a threat to the Thunder team list. Right now it is only the Spurs as I don't think the Nuggets will ever be healthy enough for a run this year. Out East I know you have the Pistons and couple other teams that are playing real well right now but I'm still on the fence about any of them being a real threat this year. The only thing I know is I wouldn't want to get a first round match up with the Hornets right now. They are playing like a team that could knock off any team out East right now in the first round of the playoffs.

I agree completely with all of this. For awhile, it seemed like the Rockets and Nuggets could still be major threats, but there's a clear separation now between OKC and the Spurs and those teams; OKC and the Spurs are the top tier while those teams are a tier behind. The Lakers are also not in the top tier due to their weak supporting cast, and the Wolves just don't have enough - they can maybe take a team like OKC or the Spurs to 6 games if all goes perfectly, but they're just too inconsistent and emotionally immature to ever put it altogether.

And yeah, I can't take a JBB led team seriously enough. He always does great in the regular season by running his guys into the ground, but his lack of offensive imagination will kill his team again in the playoffs when they over-rely on Cade and defenses get tougher. The Cavs just lost to OKC without SGA AND JDub. The Celtics don't have Tatum. And the Knicks have just been all over the place.

Finally, I LOVE the way the Hornets are playing. Knueppel is a huge favorite of mine. We're actually members of the same small church denomination lol. He's a real throwback type of player, kind of like a 2020s version of Chris Mullin. Brandon Miller can also really light it up; he's not as consistent, but when he gets going, he's unstoppable at creating his own shot and getting buckets. Ball still kind of drives me nuts with his shot chucking and dumb habits, but he is a good distributor. It will be interesting to see how they incorporate Coby White. He could make their offense even more dynamic. I predicted they'd win over 30 before the season started over on RealCavsFans back when I posted there, but they're already almost there at 27 - it's no longer unrealistic to think they could even get 40. I was one of few who thought they wouldn't suck, but they're even better than I thought.

[WilyWestbrook0]

LOL, I thought I was hallucinating this morning when I read that Bam Adebayo scored 83 points. But apparently it really happened. Of course it was against Washington. Happy for him but this is embarrassing for the league. Bam is a good player, but he should not be up there with Wilt and Kobe.

[pwaldo]

LOL, I thought I was hallucinating this morning when I read that Bam Adebayo scored 83 points. But apparently it really happened. Of course it was against Washington. Happy for him but this is embarrassing for the league. Bam is a good player, but he should not be up there with Wilt and Kobe.

I was totally shocked when I saw it. So many sports news and events I've seen in the past 10 years are so shocking to me from when I was younger. The higher than normal scoring by everyone in the NBA the past several years takes away some shock from this one but this one is up there.

[WilyWestbrook0]

So reportedly the NBA is considering three proposals to allegedly reduce tanking:

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/...king-proposals

Of these three proposals, only the first would really work IMO. The second wouldn't dissuade enough, and the third honestly wouldn't stop it at all - teams would just continue sucking to reach the bottom five.

[WilyWestbrook0]

ESPN is headlining that the Bulls waived Jaden Ivey after anti-gay comments, but he ranted about more than just that - he also ranted about Catholics, and Bulls coach Billy Donovan is a Catholic, so that didn't go over too well:

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/...i-gay-comments

I'm all for people having strong opinions, including and perhaps especially unpopular ones. I have many, too, but there's a time and a place, and there's need for filtering. In our social media age, many just don't know when to stop.

His career may be over. But he may find a platform elsewhere for his views.

[WilyWestbrook0]

Watched the Thunder/Lakers game last night on Prime, and wow, what a dominant performance by OKC. They played their usual dominant TO-forcing defense while also shooting the lights out and SGA doing his usual magic. JDub even had a near triple double. Unfortunately for the Lakers, Luka re-aggravated his hamstring and is probably going to be shut down the rest of the regular season, making him ineligible for awards since he played just 64 games. I don't think he was going to get MVP anyway, that's between SGA and Wemby. SGA is in the lead right now, but if the Spurs keep winning like crazy and overtake OKC in the standings, Wemby could do it - they're just two games behind with 5 games left. However, OKC would have to lose some as well, and that may not happen, so SGA will probably get it again.

[WilyWestbrook0]

Season is officially over after the final games were played last night.

In the West, the Thunder and the Spurs were 1 and 2 and will face play-in teams. The Nuggets (3) will face the Timberwolves (6), so either Jokic or Ant will go out in the first round: Denver went on a 12 game W streak to end the season, and Jokic is unstoppable, so I'm thinking Ant and the Wolves regress here. The Lakers (4) will face the Rockets (5), but the Lakers are hobbled, so I expect the Rockets to advance and face OKC, who I will probably win and eventually face the Spurs or Nuggets, which will be a tough WCF for them either way, and will surely feel like the "real" NBA Finals.

In the East, the Pistons and Celtics will face play-in teams while the Knicks (3) will face the Hawks (6) and the Cavs (4) will face the Raptors (5). I hope the Cavs win because a Semifinals with them against their former coach JBB and the Pistons would be gritty. The Cavs have been stuck in the Semis every year since the Donovan Mitchell era so they have more pressure than ever. Knicks/Celtics would be a fun Semis also.

The play-in teams in the East are the 76ers, Magic, Hornets, and Heat while in the West it's the Suns, Trail Blazers, Warriors, and Clippers. None of those teams stand a chance against the Thunder, Spurs, Pistons, or Celtics.