Joel Embiid

Joel Embiid will be reevaluated in six weeks after undergoing arthroscopic knee surgery, according to Shams Charania of ESPN.

Distressing video from Brian Sutterer, who predicts Embiid will feel better after the surgery but will face more problems next season. As Sutterer sees it, the short timeline indicates there just isn't much that can be done for Embiid.

Kevin Durant

There was mutual interest between Kevin Durant and the Timberwolves, Heat, Knicks, Spurs and Rockets ahead of the trade deadline, according to Shams Charania of ESPN.

The mutual interest is notable, because the Suns will reportedly work with Durant on a trade this offseason. Each of those five teams could make a plausible offer.

Ja Morant

The NBA issued warnings but no further penalties for Ja Morant and Buddy Hield imitating shooting guns during Tuesday's Warriors-Grizzlies game, according to Shams Charania of ESPN.

Seems reasonable. Finger guns aren't actually harmful, but it's also not the image the league wants to project – especially from Morant, given his history.

Without overreacting to the significance of a mere gesture, it reflects poorly on Morant's decision-making he got himself involved in this type of controversy again.

Oklahoma City Thunder

With a 16-point win over the Pistons last night, Oklahoma City has outscored its opponents by 1,018 points this season. That's a higher point difference than any team has posted over a full season.

In other words, as long as they do no worse than getting outscored by 10 points over their last six games, the Thunder will break the 1971-72 Lakers' record for largest scoring margin (+1,007).

For what it's worth, though, the 1970-71 Bucks were +1,034 before closing with a 1-5 stretch.

Regardless, Oklahoma City is in elite company. The top five all-time finishers in the stat – 1971-72 Lakers, 1970-71 Bucks, 1995-96 Bulls, 2016-17 Warriors and 2023-24 Celtics – all won championships.

Oklahoma City Thunder

With their win over the Pistons last night, the Thunder will finish the season 29-1 against the East – two games better than any other team has ever done against a conference.

Oklahoma City won 97% of its games against the East, the lone loss in Cleveland.

That eclipses the 90% win rate the 2016 Warriors, 2007 Mavericks and 2000 Lakers had against the East, each going 27-3. The 1950 Syracuse Nationals also won 90% of their games against the Eastern Division (9-1).

Best records against a conference (or prior to conferences existing, division):

This is a cool accomplishment for the Thunder. But if they lose in the Western Conference playoffs, I will make a joke about it being a shame they couldn't face a team from the East.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander

As we've covered, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is new to super-high-volume scoring. Yet, he already solidified himself as one of the NBA's leading scorers. It's no secret how he has done it:

Incredible consistency.

Gilgeous-Alexander has scored more than 20 points in 69 straight games. (Nice.) That's the third-longest such streak in NBA history, behind only Wilt Chamberlain and Wilt Chamberlain:

Gilgeous-Alexander fell short this season in only Oklahoma City's fourth game, a 12-point win over the Spurs. He scored 18 points on 7-of-20 shooting (2-of-10 beyond the arc) in 28 minutes.

Since, he has cleared 20 points with a steadiness un-neared since Kobe Bryant and unmatched by anyone other than Wilt.

Miami Heat

As the Heat tumbled toward their 10th straight defeat last month, an unprecedented losing streak in his tenure, Erik Spoelstra showed perspective: "Is it easy? No. But you have a chance in this league. That’s the beauty of this league. You have opportunities to develop your grit, to reveal your grit, to reveal your competitive character."

Miami's competitive character has shined lately.

The Heat have won six straight, including in Boston last night. They're just the third team in NBA history to lose 10 straight then immediately win six straight:

• 2024-25 Heat: lost 10 straight then won 6 straight
• 2021-22 Rockets: lost 15 straight then won 7 straight
• 2017-18 Bulls: lost 10 straight then won 7 straight

The 1977-78 New Orleans Jazz are the only team to do it in the opposite direction – winning 10 straight then losing eight straight.

Carmelo Anthony

Carmelo Anthony has been elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame, according to Shams Charania of ESPN.

No. 12 all-time in points and a two-time All-NBA second-teamer, four-time All-NBA third-teamer and 10-time All-Star, Anthony was always a lock. Even for a version of the Hall with uneroded standards, he'd get in.

The dilemma with Anthony: He was a renowned individual scorer – which ensured he'd be highly paid and built around – but fell short in the complementary traits (defense, distribution and maybe leadership) necessary to win at the highest levels. The cost of getting/having him made building a great team around him difficult in a salary-cap sport. He got past the first round only twice, making the 2009 Western Conference finals with the Nuggets and leading the Knicks to the second round in 2013.

But that's nitpicking, comparing Anthony to other all-time greats. He's a deserving Hall of Famer.

The question: How many other finalists – Dwight Howard, Marques Johnson, Buck Williams – will join him in this class?

Anthony Davis

Anthony Davis said, in hindsight, he should've taken a couple more days to debut for the Mavericks, via Marc J. Spears of Andscape. Davis, who was injured when traded and got hurt again his first game with Dallas, said he didn't get treatment for three days while travelling to join the Mavericks.

Between this and him returning this season, Davis' competitive spirit should be lauded. There are legitimate questions over whether NBA players are too highly paid to try with maximum passion, too friendly with each other to care deeply about beating the opponent. But Davis is showing just how much competing means to him.

That said, maybe there should be a few questions for the Mavericks about playing him so soon after the trade.

Mark Cuban

Mark Cuban in a Facebook comment shed more light on his claim he'd run the Mavericks' basketball operations "forevermore," even after selling the team, via Ben Sawyers of WFAA:

"I fully expected to run basketball. The nba wouldn’t let me put it in the contract. They took it out," Cuban wrote. "I thought [the Adelsons] would stick to their word because they didn’t know the first thing about running a team. Someone obviously changed their mind."

Adam Silver strangely said, "Whether or not his expectation was that he would have played more of a role in basketball operations, I don’t think Mark has ever suggested that there was a contractual issue at play here. That was just his understanding of what the arrangement would be between him and Patrick Dumont." No – Cuban specifically said the NBA wouldn't allow him to put it into the contract. Maybe Silver hadn't seen Cuban's latest claim.

Regardless, the league requires each franchise to have a single governor at a time. That's Dumont in Dallas. Perhaps, the NBA disallowed the contractual clause because it too broadly gave Cuban power over a team he'd no longer own. It seems a contract clause that merely gave Cuban a front-office job would be tolerable, though I'm speculating on what the NBA would allow.

Whatever assurances were made to Cuban, if he had nothing in writing and no formal position within the organization, it was never reasonable to expect he'd continue running basketball operations.

I'm still unsure whether Cuban is delusional, lying or a bit of both. If Dumont/the Adelsons wanted to make Cuban president of basketball operations, they could have. They didn't.

-Dan Feldman