It’s never too early to start thinking about next year’s crop of young prospects. The 2020 NBA Draft is full of NBA ready talent and teams are already trying to position themselves to have a chance at the #1 pick. There is more depth of high-end talent in this draft than 2019 and the race to be the #1 pick looks to be one of the closest in years. RJ Barrett was the consensus preseason #1 last year but was quickly surpassed after the world got a look at how dominant his Duk

ESPN 700 The Utah Jazz have not advanced past the second round of the NBA playoffs since the 2006-07 season, but a reinvigorated Utah franchise is eager to restore its name among the NBA’s elite this coming season. The Jazz crashed out of the playoffs at the hands of the Houston Rockets each of the past two seasons not because of their defense (Utah has been top-three in defensive rating for each of the past three seasons), but because of their lack of offensive firepower. T

Washington Post What’s the deal? Kawhi Leonard is heading to the Clippers on a 4-year, $140,790,600 deal. The contract is fully guaranteed with Leonard’s base salary starting at $32.7 million. Leonard would’ve been eligible for the 10-year experience Supermax next season, but elected to take the 4-year deal from the Clippers, opting for security over earnings. I’m sure seeing what KD went through after his torn Achilles affected Kawhi’s decision, and prompted him to get his

The Big Lead What’s the deal? Thompson agreed to a 5-year, $189,903,600 fully guaranteed deal to re-sign with the Warriors. His base salary starts at $32,742,000 next year and increases $2,619,360 every year of the deal according to Sportrac. Klay’s contract does not include a No Trade Clause or a player-option on the last year but does have a 15% trade kicker, exactly like the supermax Steph Curry signed in the summer of 2017. What does Thompson bring to the Warriors? Thom

CBS Philly What’s the deal? Horford inked a 4-year, $109,000,000 deal with the 76ers. The contract is guaranteed for $97,000,000. What does Horford bring to the 76ers? Horford has been arguably the most versatile big man in the NBA for the past couple of years. He is able to get buckets in the low post and can also pop out to the three-point line, where he is a 36.8 percent career shooter. Defensively is where Horford really shines. He has very quick feet that allow him to

Bleacher Report Overview: Porzingis was sidelined for the whole season after tearing his ACL midway through the 2017-18 season. Midway through the season the New York Knicks traded him to the Dallas Mavericks in exchange for prospects and ballooning contracts. While Porzingis hasn’t played NBA basketball in almost 20 months Dallas are still very confident in his ability to return to the court in the same or even better form. 2017-18 Regular Season Stats: 22.7 PPG, 45 2P%, 3

Kirthmon F. Dozier-Detroit Free Press Pick #15 The Pistons selected Sekou Doumbouya of Limoges CSP (France) with their lone first-round pick. Doumbouya was the youngest prospect in the draft -18 years and 97 days - and was one of the most fluid athletes available. Originally slotted as a top 10 pick, Doumbouya was #9 on my personal board but fell to the Pistons at #15, meaning they could have a steal on their hands. Doumbouya is a bit reminiscent of Pascal Siakam but doesn’t

The Tennessean Pick #5 The Cavs selected Darius Garland from Vanderbilt with the first of what turned out to be three first-round picks. Heading into the year Garland was the consensus top PG prospect in the draft, but suffered a torn meniscus in his knee just five games into his freshman season, and never played college ball again. Garland is an excellent shooter off the dribble and has unlimited range in the Steph Curry-Trae Young mold. He struggled a bit as the primary cre

Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE via GettyImages The Toronto Raptors are one win away from an NBA Championship. Let's take a moment to appreciate the magnitude of that statement... This is a team that went through a complete facelift to start the season. Their current starting lineup only played 161 minutes together during the regular season, and they have already more than doubled that total this postseason at 362 minutes. The Raptors came into the Playoffs with a bit of a learning

USA Today The Toronto Raptors won their third straight game against the Milwaukee Bucks Thursday night, to take a commanding 3-2 lead in the series headed back home. The game was neck and neck throughout its entirety. The turning point, in my opinion, occurred at the 8:30 mark of the fourth quarter. With the Raptors down 79-81, they ran a high PnR with Kawhi Leonard as the ball-handler and Pascal Siakam as the screen setter. The Raptors ran 3-4 PnR in this scenario because th

Jesse D. Garrabrant/NBAE via GettyImages Malcolm Brogdon’s season was humming along through the first 64 games of the regular season. The third-year combo wing out of Virginia was averaging a career-high in points and rebounds, and was in the process of recording the 14th 50/40/90 season in NBA history (his splits were 50.5/42.6/92.8). Brogdon had started all 64 games the Bucks had played so far, and during a game against the Miami Heat in March, came up lame halfway through

Mid-Major Madness Brandon Clarke is one of the top defensive prospects to enter the draft in recent memory. He is an elite on-ball defender with very high-level lateral quickness that allows him to stay in front of his man and be an effective perimeter defender as a big. He is a superb shot blocker; his 11.4 BLK% was good enough for 11th in the nation this season. Clarke is talented enough as a defender to be a lock for the Lottery, but needs to develop his offensive reper

NY POST RJ Barrett entered the 2018-19 college basketball season as many experts’ sleeper pick to be the first-overall selection of the 2019 NBA Draft. While he didn’t have quite the season many expected, RJ will still be a top-5 pick this spring. Barrett, a 6’7 combo wing, fits a big need in today’s NBA. Barrett is capable of playing as a primary ball handler as well as off the ball. Though he isn’t an elite three-point shooter, he has the ability and the mechanics to gro

Detroit News The Detroit Pistons were a busy team at this year’s trade deadline. Aware of the possibility that they were underperforming, and at risk of wasting Blake Griffin’s career year, they didn’t stand pat. They acquired two new players via trade, Thon Maker and Svi Mykhailiuk, and then added veteran shooter Wayne Ellington via the buyout market after he was bought out by the Phoenix Suns. The Pistons enter the All-Star break clinging to the last playoff slot in the Eas

Washington receives: Jimmy Butler, Philadelphia's 2019 1st Round Pick, Miami's 2021 1st Round Pick Philadelphia receives: Bradley Beal Jimmy Butler is reportedly “unhappy” about his role in Philadelphia’s offense, and according to Bleacher Report, at least one team has called the Sixers to try and pry the All Star away from the club. Butler told Sixers head coach Brett Brown he has felt misused in the offense and would like to have a bigger role. With the uncertainty that fol

NBA.com A quarter of the way through the season, every NBA team is making decisions about where they are now and what that means for the future of this NBA season. Four teams -- the Washington Wizards, Los Angeles Clippers, Toronto Raptors, and the Dallas Mavericks -- have seen varying levels of success thus far, and have some decisions to make about what they can do to maximize the rest of their seasons. Washington needs to avoid a panicked tear-down. Though the Wizards got