Kemba Walker
The Mavericks are signing Kemba Walker, according to Marc Stein.
Walker going unsigned was a curiosity. The former All-Star has obviously fallen off significantly, but he's just 32 and looked solid offensively in limited playing time with the Knicks last season.
Dallas could use another playmaker with Luka Doncic after losing Jalen Brunson to the Knicks. If the Mavericks limit Walker's minutes as not to aggravate his knee issues, he could help them. Offensively, at least. There will be a challenge hiding him defensively.
Dallas already waived Facundo Campazzo, who was on the fringe of the rotation, more outside than in. His contract was unguaranteed, so this won't really affect the Mavericks' payroll.
Los Angeles Lakers
There is belief shared by leaders in the Lakers' locker room, sources said, that the team is only a couple of players away from turning this group into a legitimate contender.
Yeah, Stephen Curry and Luka Doncic.
Easy joke aside, it depends on the two players. Much of McMenamin's article focuses on Los Angeles' declined trade for the Pacers' Myles Turner and Buddy Hield. Would Turner and Hield make the Lakers a championship contender? Maybe a fringe contender. LeBron James and Anthony Davis are pretty darned good. If they're playing like superstars come spring, they wouldn't need much help.
Of course, Los Angeles must make the playoffs first. At 7-11, the Lakers need work just to make the play-in, let alone with a seed favorable to advance, let alone actually advancing into the playoffs. Even with Turner and Hield (or another pair of reasonably acquirable players), the Lakers might fall short of the playoffs. And then the draft assets necessary to acquire those upgrades would be out the window.
Also make no mistake: LeBron and Davis are the Lakers' locker room leaders. They definitely qualify, and there's definitely nobody else who does.
And why wouldn't they believe that? They led the Lakers to the 2020 championship with only moderate surrounding help. At 37, LeBron isn't content to wait for a future season, either.
So, the Lakers will continue to endure reports like this – passive-aggressive attempts by LeBron to convey urgency. Eventually, we'll see how Jeanie Buss, Rob Pelinka and the rest of her inner circle respond. Meanwhile, the Lakers continue to tread water below postseason position, day by day changing the calculus on whether a win-now trade is worthwhile.
All-Star rosters
NBA owners have pushed against increasing All-Star rosters from 12 to 13 to avoid paying more players for achieving All-Star incentives, according to Brian Windhorst of ESPN.
NBA All-Star rosters should have at least 13 players.
Regular-season active rosters are now 13 players. A 12-player All-Star roster is an anachronism from when regular-season active rosters were 12 players. Which was the case for a long time, but hasn't been in years. At this point, 12 is an outdated number for All-Star rosters.
There have also never been more NBA teams. Currently, there are just 0.8 All-Stars per NBA team. Throughout much of the 60s, there were at least double as many All-Stars per NBA team, peaking at 2.75 All-Stars per NBA team in 1961. Adding a 13th player to each All-Star team, would bring the total to just .87 All-Stars per NBA team. That's roughly where things stood the first half of the 1990s.
A 13-player All-Star roster wouldn't be an outlier. It'd fit both the norms of the league today and league history.
In 2015, NBA commissioner Adam Silver said he was in favor of expanding All-Star rosters. He noted concerns about playing time within the All-Star game. But in this era of load management, everyone would probably appreciate spreading All-Star minutes among 13 players rather than just 12.
I understand these owners' concerns. But I think they're being shortsighted.
Players' collectively are already limited to approximately 50% of league revenue. (The exact amount, between 49% and 51%, is calculated by formula.) In some years, an extra bonus paid won't actually cost owners collectively more money. It'll just change the distribution of where the money comes from.
Plus, another All-Star – without diluting the honor relative to historic baselines – would provide another opportunity to market a star. That could increase revenue, maybe enough to offset the cost of an All-Star bonus.
Stephen Curry
Stephen Curry is as heliocentric as it gets. Depending how you define it. Far more than his superstar-guard peers, he works off the ball. Cutting, relocating, screening – he commands major attention even without the ball in his hands. When the ball is in his hands, he whips passes at any time from any angle.
The unique style both challenges teammates and puts them in great position to succeed – once they acclimate.
Marcus Thompson II wrote a fantastic story on Warriors teammates learning to play with Curry.
Draymond Green excels at it. Kevon Looney has advanced tremendously over the years. Anthony Lamb has picked it up quickly, which is why he has surprisingly earned a rotation spot.
Kelly Oubre struggled, which is why he didn't last in Golden State. James Wiseman hasn't figured it out, explaining a lot of the Warriors' problems with him on the floor.
But Thompson writes mostly about the players who get it and how they get it. I highly recommend reading this.
Minnesota Timberwolves
Despite trading for Rudy Gobert, who seemed like he could singlehandedly elevate a team's defense into the upper echelon during the regular season, the Timberwolves are defending a middling level.
Ben Taylor of Thinking Basketball breaks down the problems with Minnesota's defense.
The Timberwolves have defended pretty well with Gobert on the court. Especially when Gobert is directly involved in the action, as Taylor shows with some eye-popping stats.
So, what's going wrong? Taylor gets into miscommunications and Karl-Anthony Towns' effort, which has regressed from even last year. (Cue talk of "interpersonal" issues.) Those areas can improve.
But Minnesota looks slow when playing two centers. Kyle Anderson is no Jarred Vanderbilt, either, in terms of speed. That's not so easy to fix. (I wonder whether the Timberwolves would've signed Anderson if they knew they'd trade for Gobert.)
Slow to process, slow on their feet – that's a tough combination to overcome.
Chicago Bulls
The Bulls (8-11 with a net rating more becoming of a 9-10 team) look, roughly, how I expected them to look last year. Last season's overachievement resulted in merely getting steamrolled by the Bucks in a forgettable first-round series – not nothing, but underwhelming considering all the capital expended to get Nikola Vucevic and DeMar DeRozan, two players on the wrong side of 30. Michael Pina of The Ringer makes the case for Chicago as the NBA's most depressing team.
Utah Jazz
At The Salt Lake Tribune, Riley Gisseman of Salt City Hoops uses a single play to show how the Jazz are playing to their strengths offensively. By scheming – and more importantly, implementing – so many complex and creative actions so quickly, Will Hardy is making a case for Coach of the Year.
James Jones
The Suns promoted James Jones from general manager to president of basketball operations.
This is an elevation in title and likely salary. Jones might even add a few new responsibilities.
But as far as what fans really care about – who's running Phoenix's front office – there's no change. That was already Jones.
Teams just use different titles to describe that role. Presidents tend to carry more cachet than general managers who top the organizational hierarchy, but that isn't a hard-and-fast rule.
Jones has done a good job in Phoenix, and to the extent this makes him more likely to stay long-term, this news matters to fans. But in the immediacy, nothing has really changed worth caring much about.
De'Aaron Fox
De'Aaron Fox hired agent Rich Paul, who's known for ushering clients through trade demands, and created inevitable speculation about the talented guard leaving the Kings.
Now comes the inevitable second step: The player denying he's looking to leave.
That's what Fox told Chris Haynes of Bleacher Report. It might be because that's the truth. It might be because it isn't the time quite yet. There's precedent for both scenarios when a player hires Paul.
Fox – who's in the second-year of a five-year max extension (no options) – has repeatedly stated his loyalty to Sacramento. He continued to do so with Haynes. Especially with the Kings' newfound success, I'm not especially looking for Fox to leave. There are other reasons to hire Paul, who – through his most famous client, LeBron James – has plenty of connections beyond basketball.
But if Fox ever wants out, he has an agent who is well-versed in getting his clients traded.
Jerami Grant
Jerami Grant is "really happy" in Portland, he tells Michael Scotto of HoopsHype. Which is unsurprising because both he and the Trail Blazers are playing well. But is very important because he'll be eligible for a four-year, $112,654,080 contract extension Jan. 6.
-Dan Feldman