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The Utah Jazz Won the Donovan Mitchell Trade
The Cleveland Cavaliers mortgaged their future for Donovan Mitchell, and they're still a middle of the road team in the NBA's Eastern Conference....

Are the Minnesota Timberwolves for real or <em>American Fiction</em>?
It’s Oscars Week, which feels like as good a time as any to draw up the NBA storylines and characters which could double as Oscar nominees.The Minnesota Timberwolves’ deceptive season has been one of the hottest topics in the West so let’s start there....

Jalen Brunson and the Knicks are proof that having a <i>Napoleon</i> complex isn’t all bad
It’s Oscars Week, which feels like as good a time as any to draw up the NBA storylines and characters which could double as Oscar nominees....

Here's a second-half NBA prediction: Intermittent switch-flipping
It felt like the NBA used to be a lot more consistent. The teams that were good in the regular season also were good in the postseason, for the most part, and if you looked and/or played like a scrub, you were usually dismissed like one. During this era, it’s almost as if you should wait to lay futu...

5 increasingly unhinged solutions to the NBA All-Star Game
As the NBA has observed its golden era of efficiency proliferate from more streamlined offenses to load management run amok, elements of the league have fallen by the wayside. Marquee hoopers play fewer minutes, fewer games and now they barely expend energy or cross halfcourt during All-Star Weekend...

Who is Mr. Franchise for each NBA team in the 21st century?
Michael Jordan will always be synonymous with the Chicago Bulls. Same thing for Magic Johnson with the Los Angeles Lakers and Larry Bird with the Boston Celtics. But since the turn of the 21st Century, some teams have gone a decade without a face of the franchise (think the Detroit Pistons and Orlan...

The NBA dunk contest is crapshoot that lacks star power
NBA All-Star Saturday was a hit once again, but one of the main events may have missed the mark. The slam dunk contest at one time was the highlight of the entire weekend. Now it’s hit or miss, year-to-year, whether we’ll be talking about it for weeks or if it’ll be forgotten by Monday afternoon. Th...

The NBA trade deadline was a bit of a dud, but here's a look at who won and who flopped horribly
After last year’s insane trade deadline, which featured Kevin Durant being dealt to the Phoenix Suns, this year brought a bunch of smaller, shrewd moves that moved teams into contention. We have tracked the trades and broken them down by time-tested winners and losers rubric to track how the day wen...

Tristan Thompson gets 25-game PED suspension
Cleveland Cavaliers center Tristan Thompson was hit with a 25-game PED suspension, according to reports. ...

Don't mean to rain on Joel Embiid, but scoring 70 points isn't getting the Sixers out of the second round
Reigning NBA MVP Joel Embiid ran amuck on the San Antonio Spurs Monday night in Philly, dropping 70 on Victor Wembanyama and crew. Even Kevin Durant was thoroughly impressed when learning of Embiid’s feat during his postgame presser after the Suns’ win over the Bulls. In doing this, Embiid set a new...

Luka Doncic and each NBA team's leading single-game scorer
Update: Luka Doncic is the latest NBA star to drop 70+ points this season. It topped his Dallas Mavericks single-game record of 60, set in 2022. ...

The NBA 'superstar' landscape has shifted
There is no greater conduit for NBA hyperbole than the conversation around “superstars.” To have a rational, substantive debate, there must first be basic groundwork for what constitutes superstar status. First, the bad news: former Finals MVPs Kevin Durant, Steph Curry, LeBron James and Kawhi Leona...

What do you think about that lousy Rudy Gobert trade now?
From the moment it happened in the summer of 2022, the Minnesota Timberwolves’ acquisition of Rudy Gobert from the Utah Jazz looked like an all-time terrible trade. But suddenly, the Timberwolves have the NBA’s second-best record, the best in the West, and the best defensive rating at 108 this seaso...

It's NBA trading season and these are the players who should be dealt next
Nobody expected the NBA trade season’s first domino to fall on New Year’s Weekend. When OG Anunoby, Precious Achiuwa, and Malachi Flynn were traded from the Toronto Raptors to the New York Knicks for RJ Barrett, Immanuel Quickley, and a 2023 second-round pick (from Detroit), the trade season officia...

Stephen A. Smith may take a late night television jalopy out for a spin next year
It’s opening night for the 2025 NBA season. After Inside the NBA guffaws its way through the opening game, a portion of the audience siphons off to Apple TV or Prime Video, where Stephen A. Smith is starting his opening monologue. Except he isn’t ranting and raving about Donovan Mitchell and Jalen B...

Youth is wasted on the young, unless you are these NBA teams
So, who has the hottest young talent in the league? We’re analyzing the five teams who have built the best through the draft across positions and skill sets. No room for wannabes here – gotta be 25 or below to even join the party. We’re also looking for impact players, not DNPs, with dreams bigger t...

Here are the New Year's resolutions I'd like to see for the NBA
The NBA has never been more fun. Three-point bombing, higher-than-ever talent, a global player pool and the best product in professional sports. But it’s far from perfect. We’ve pinpointed five resolutions we want to see in 2024 that can improve the game on and off the court. ...

IDIOT OF THE YEAR 2023: The complete rankings
Welcome to the grand finale of Deadspin’s IDIOT OF THE YEAR festivities. Here’s hoping 2024 will be better. It probably won’t....

Question Luka Dončić all you want — just be OK with the eventual ‘I told you so’
Despite the risk of hyperbole devolving into hot take, I’ll say it: Year 6 Luka Dončić looks a lot like 1988-89 Michael Jordan, or 2007-08 LeBron James. I’m not saying he’s better than either of the GOATs. It’s simply impossible to watch what he’s doing, how he’s still improving, and think any other...

Derrick White’s All-Star bid is about to become the NBA’s ‘Brock Purdy for MVP’
After the Boston Celtics acquired Jrue Holiday in an early October trade with the Portland Trail Blazers, the five-time All-Defensive Team guard was billed as the solution to Boston’s need for a tempo-setting orchestrator. In theory, he was also the fourth All-Star in the Eastern Conference’s premie...