2025-26 NBA Thread

[WilyWestbrook0]

The Thunder won the championship last night, marking the official end of the 2024-25 season. Now it's time for the start of the 2025-26 season with the draft starting Wednesday.

Flagg is obviously the most hyped prospect and should obviously go #1 unless Nico loses his mind yet again and does something crazy, but does anyone have thoughts on any of the other picks? I'm probably going to collect Kon Knueppel as he would be the first NBA player who's a member of my church denomination (Wisconsin Lutheran). I thought he was a nice complement to Flagg at Duke and I think he could be a decent pro with his shooting and smarts, although he obviously lacks his college teammate's world class athleticism.

Offseason moves should also be interesting. We already saw two massive trades during the Finals with the Bane and Durant trades. I think Giannis stays put in Milwaukee, but there will undoubtedly be other interesting moves. The East in particular is wide open with Haliburton and Tatum's Achilles injuries, so Eastern teams should be looking to make moves like the Magic have already done for Bane. I really want the Cavs to match up with the Thunder in next year's Finals and they could do it if they find a way to get a gritty defensive specialist in the backcourt. I do know they're somewhat limited in the moves they can make because of the second apron IIRC, so I wonder exactly what they could do. But if they want to get to the next level, they have to get tougher and bigger in the backcourt. I think they obviously can still keep Mitchell as he was great in the playoffs, but he could use a complement who's bigger than him. Garland sadly isn't it. I like him, but he's so small and frail and prone to injury and can't defend well. In today's NBA, you've got to have defensive specialists with some size in the backcourt, and the Cavs don't have that with guys like Mitchell, Garland, or Jerome, who are all either mostly offensive oriented and/or too small to contest bigger and stronger guards.

[WilyWestbrook0]

Several moves today the day before the draft and the day of the Thunder championship parade. Celtics already significantly altering their team --

Porzingis to Hawks: https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/...ks-3-team-deal
Holiday to Blazers: https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/...rs-sources-say

The Wizards and Pelicans also made a deal with the Wiz sending away Jordan Poole and Saddiq Bey for C.J. McCollum and Kelly Olynyk.

NBA trade tracker - Details for every deal of the 2025 offseason - ESPN

[WilyWestbrook0]

First round of the draft complete. The Jazz took a chance on Ace Bailey even though Utah wasn't one of his preferred destinations. Knowing the Ainges, I wouldn't be surprised if they have some moves up their sleeves. I read that Sexton is likely to be moved soon, so curious to see what they do with some of their players.

I like the Sorber pick for the Thunder. He had the top plus minus defensive rating in college and they can develop him to perhaps eventually replace IHart, who has a team option after next season and will probably command too much money for them to keep long term when they have to extend their big three with big contracts.

The Hansen pick was surprising.

[WilyWestbrook0]

Draft now over with the second round complete.

Interesting that Proctor fell low into the second round. I thought he looked indecisive with Duke late into the NCAAs, so I wonder if that was a factor in his draft position dropping. The Cavs though are high on him. I could see him replacing Merrill.

Thunder also got another 6-6 defensive wing (Barnhizer), and one that can also help on the boards.

Of course most of these second round picks won't make it, but there are usually about five or so who can become decent rotational pieces, and on rare occasion star players (Jokic, Brunson, Butler, Ginobili, etc.).

[WilyWestbrook0]

Cavs add another guard with decent size in Lonzo Ball, sending away Isaac Okoro to get him:

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/...rs-isaac-okoro

Okoro was very disappointing last year after showing promise defensively against the Magic in the playoffs the year before; he just didn't have the range and speed to guard teams like the Pacers, as he's too thick to guard smaller perimeter players and never really used his strength to his advantage on taller players. Ball has the perimeter defense to guard both taller and smaller players. He's also obviously a far superior playmaker. He can't score much, but he won't need to on Cleveland, and Okoro was even worse offensively anyway, so I see why they made this move. He just needs to stay healthy. Obviously also, with these new guards, I think they'd be fine letting Jerome and Merrill go. Jerome was a huge disappontment in the playoffs after scorching teams in the regular season while Sam Merrill was too much of a one-trick pony, and not good enough at hitting consistently or creating his own shot against stronger defenses.

[WilyWestbrook0]

Well, I was wrong about Merrill - the Cavs just signed him to a four year deal:

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/...deal-cavaliers

So they added Proctor and Ball while keeping Merrill. That's plenty of guards to back up Garland and Mitchell. Presumably Strus will be a permanent 3 (which is what he's tended to play in Cleveland) and Craig Porter Jr might be the odd man out. I still think they move on from Jerome as well.

[WilyWestbrook0]

Free agency begins soon. Here's a link to help keep track of it:

NBA free agency 2025 - What we're hearing about the Lakers, Knicks and 18 other NBA teams - ESPN

[pwaldo]

A lot of moves already and some teams seem to be getting better but the biggest move so far might be the Blazers buying out Ayton. Looks like he will now be signing with the Lakers when he can

[WilyWestbrook0]

A lot of moves already and some teams seem to be getting better but the biggest move so far might be the Blazers buying out Ayton. Looks like he will now be signing with the Lakers when he can

The Nuggets also added some nice pieces while losing nothing of significance, and the Rockets continue to stack their roster.

[WilyWestbrook0]

Looks like Mike Brown will be the new Knicks HC:

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/...ext-head-coach