NBA Season 2025-26

[SparzWizard]

Yeah, that'll do it.

Shams Charania
@ShamsCharania
?
1m
The Chicago Bulls are waiving guard Jaden Ivey after his recent anti-LGBTQ comments amid several rants on religion and other topics, sources tell ESPN.

Sounds like he's becoming or mimicking the Antonio Brown of football

[Goldstar88]

Problem with Orlando is that both Banchero AND the coach probably need to go. Four seasons in, the analytics on Banchero have consistently rated him unfavorably. At some point, it's no longer just statistical noise.

His rookie year I thought Banchero was going to be the next big thing. Guy has everything going for him, should be a beast on a nightly basis. I only see Orlando when they play the Cs so I don?t have much to say about the *why*, but unless I?m missing something huge, I wouldn?t mind seeing him in green.

They wouldn?t move on from Banchero. He was the #1 pick a few years ago, turned 23 less than 6 months ago and averaged 26pts/8rebs/5ast last season.

Banchero has been playing better since the All-Star break and is back to averaging those numbers again.

21 games - 25.3ppg 8.1rpg 5.6apg with 58.3% TS.

Before the ASG

43 games - 21.3ppg 8.4rpg 4.8apg with 55.9% TS

So he has upped his scoring and scoring efficiency since he ASG. He took blame for not playing as well he could do. Said he did not deserve to be an AS this season. Has redoubled his efforts and now playing better again.

League average TS% is 58.1%. So he is right around league average now after being well below league average pre-ASG.

Exactly. There is no chance they are moving on from him at this stage. He still has immense upside.

[Goldstar88]

Wemby in 31 mins tonight: 41pts/16rebs/4ast/3blks/1stl. 17-27 from the field, 3-6 from 3pt. 4-4 from the line. He is the most dominant player in the NBA.

[Who]

RealGM has a forum post saying San Antonio has won 25 of their last 27 games with a point differential of +17.

That is a huge streak.

[SparzWizard]

RealGM has a forum post saying San Antonio has won 25 of their last 27 games with a point differential of +17.

That is a huge streak.

Great. I hope they smother the 3-seed in the playoffs if they both advance

[Donoghus]

Knicks getting lit up in Houston helping us

[Who]

Atkinson said he pushed Mobley to use the All-Star snub as motivation.

"I told him to go home during All-Star break and work," Atkinson said. "Like, 'You've got to come out of All-Star break with a chip on your shoulder.' Injuries. Whatever. Not a great start. Didn't make the All-Star team. You should come out of All-Star with a chip on your shoulder to prove people wrong a little bit. That's what he has done."

Mobley described the exchange as straightforward and purposeful.

"It was a simple conversation about using it as a chip on my shoulder and knowing the value that I bring to this team," Mobley said. "This past month or so, I have been doing a good job of that and I'm going to continue to keep growing and take that into the playoffs."

Across 18 post-All-Star contests, Mobley is averaging 19.7 points on 62.2% shooting, 9.6 rebounds and 1.5 blocks. Cleveland outscores opponents by 6.9 points per 100 possessions with him on the floor.

Atkinson credited newly acquired guard James Harden, who ranks second in assists on Mobley baskets since joining Cleveland seven weeks ago.

"He's gotta be one of the best bigs in the league since the All-Star break," Atkinson said.

Interesting to see how much Harden can continue to help Mobley & J Allen in the playoffs.

J Allen has been injured for half the time since Harden joined so he has only played 12 games since Harden joined. J Allen is averaging 20.1ppg and 9.8rpg in those games. 73.6% FG.

I see Cleveland as the main threat outside of Boston in the East.

[jpotter33]

As long as we don't completely fall apart down the stretch, the 2 seed should be ours with the Knicks loss tonight. Up 3 losses on the Knicks with 7 games left will be hard for the Knicks to overcome, though they do have the tiebreaker and a head to head matchup remaining so still theoretically possible if still improbable.

The Cavs have a golden opportunity to tie NYK in the standings tonight, though not sure that they really want that.

[SparzWizard]

Looks like Cavs got rekt tonight

[Who]

Since February 28, Doncic is averaging 36.5 points, 8.1 rebounds, and 7,1 assists. The Lakers are 14-2 over that span. The Lakers are also 25-10 since January 18.

Heck of an individual run from Luka.

Strong run from the team too. 25-10 is around 58-59 wins over a full season. I still do not buy them as a threat in the playoffs though. Not convinced their defense can perform at a high enough level to beat top teams like OKC, DEN & SAS.

"If we continue to finish the season the way we're playing right now, and he continues to play that way -- to me, he is the MVP," Redick said before the Lakers' 120-101 win over the Wizards on Monday.

"He's the engine that's driving all of our winning," Redick said. "Certainly, we have a ton of guys starring in their roles, but he's the driver."

Doncic expressed confusion as to why he wasn't receiving more consideration in the MVP race.

"The better I play, the more I go down in rankings," Doncic said in Spanish. "So, I don't know what more I can do."

Doncic is currently a distant third in NBA MVP odds behind favorite Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and also Victor Wembanyama.

Lakers are now 3rd in the West but well behind the top two. LAL has 50 wins and 26 losses. SAS has 57 wins and 18 losses. OKC has 60 wins and 16 losses. So Wemby's team and SGA's team well ahead of Luka's team in the standings. Gives them a large edge.

The point differential tells the story even better. LAL has only a +2.2 point differential despite their record. Meanwhile SAS has a +8.2 and OKC a +11.0. Those are dominant sides. LAL is not. LAL is over-performing their predicted W-L given their point differential. B-Ref has their expected wins at 42-33 for a 45-46 win pace on the season.

[Goldstar88]

Doncic, who was suspended for Monday?s game against the Washington Wizards because of technical foul accumulation, joined Michael Jordan as the only players in NBA history to score 600 points in the month of March. He is one of just 10 players to score 600 points in a month.
Los Angeles Times

[Moranis]

Feels like Luka should be MVP this year.  I'm not saying he is better than SGA or Jokic (though his stats are right there), but this sort of just feels like the type of season that should be rewarded with a MVP.  Lakers are 7-6 without Luka, while the Thunder are 8-4 and the Nuggets are 10-6 without their stars so that also weighs some towards Luka.  Plus, SGA and Jokic don't have to deal with all the Lebron drama, which is still a lot and Lebron is no longer the player he once was.  That can't be easy to come into a Lebron team and make it yours. 

[Phantom255x]

Feels like Luka should be MVP this year.  I'm not saying he is better than SGA or Jokic (though his stats are right there), but this sort of just feels like the type of season that should be rewarded with a MVP.  Lakers are 7-6 without Luka, while the Thunder are 8-4 and the Nuggets are 10-6 without their stars so that also weighs some towards Luka.  Plus, SGA and Jokic don't have to deal with all the Lebron drama, which is still a lot and Lebron is no longer the player he once was.  That can't be easy to come into a Lebron team and make it yours.

My thing with Luka is, he's had an extraordinary stretch in the past month. SGA and others have been more consistent all year long. Also, I acknowledge Luka probably has a better case than Jaylen for MVP but I feel like some of the arguments supporting Luka can also be made for Jaylen. Not all of them obviously, the C's have a much better record without Jaylen than the Lakers do without Luka, but the C's literally gutted their roster and didn't have Tatum for over 75% of the season, and Jaylen played at an MVP-level throughout and has led the C's to nearly 54-55 wins it seems.

It's a moot point anyways, seems as long as SGA plays the 65+ games he's already MVP. It's still cool though Jaylen can be Top-4 or 5 in MVP voting in a league with SGA, Jokic, Wemby, Luka, etc.

[Moranis]

Feels like Luka should be MVP this year.  I'm not saying he is better than SGA or Jokic (though his stats are right there), but this sort of just feels like the type of season that should be rewarded with a MVP.  Lakers are 7-6 without Luka, while the Thunder are 8-4 and the Nuggets are 10-6 without their stars so that also weighs some towards Luka.  Plus, SGA and Jokic don't have to deal with all the Lebron drama, which is still a lot and Lebron is no longer the player he once was.  That can't be easy to come into a Lebron team and make it yours.

My thing with Luka is, he's had an extraordinary stretch in the past month. SGA and others have been more consistent all year long. Also, I acknowledge Luka probably has a better case than Jaylen for MVP but I feel like some of the arguments supporting Luka can also be made for Jaylen. Not all of them obviously, the C's have a much better record without Jaylen than the Lakers do without Luka, but the C's literally gutted their roster and didn't have Tatum for over 75% of the season, and Jaylen played at an MVP-level throughout and has led the C's to nearly 54-55 wins it seems.

It's a moot point anyways, seems as long as SGA plays the 65+ games he's already MVP. It's still cool though Jaylen can be Top-4 or 5 in MVP voting in a league with SGA, Jokic, Wemby, Luka, etc.

Luka's splits are not that much different
 
Oct (3 games) - 45.3/11.7/7.7
Nov - 32.5/8/9.6
Dec - 31/7.2/7.9
Jan - 34/7.2/9.1
Feb - 27/7.4/7.5
Mar - 37.5/8/7.4

Or this way
Pre All Star - 32.8/7.8/8.5
Post All Star - 35.8/7.7/7.8

I mean that is pretty consistent all year.

[Goldstar88]

Feels like Luka should be MVP this year.  I'm not saying he is better than SGA or Jokic (though his stats are right there), but this sort of just feels like the type of season that should be rewarded with a MVP.  Lakers are 7-6 without Luka, while the Thunder are 8-4 and the Nuggets are 10-6 without their stars so that also weighs some towards Luka.  Plus, SGA and Jokic don't have to deal with all the Lebron drama, which is still a lot and Lebron is no longer the player he once was.  That can't be easy to come into a Lebron team and make it yours.

Wemby currently has the second highest odds to win MVP. He led the Spurs to a 3-1 record against OKC this season. Victor is the most dominant player in the NBA, so it seems like he should he should get the award, IMO.