LEAGUEWIDE
The Bulls Are A Cautionary Tale To NBA Teams That Push Off Rebuilding
Bryan Toporek, Forbes
The NBA trade deadline featured a fascinating dichotomy. Some teams were willing to take their medicine and cut their losses, while others still weren’t ready to admit their mistakes.
…the Sacramento Kings (for example) fit the former mold. They traded Dennis Schröder and Keon Ellis to Cleveland for De’Andre Hunter at this year’s deadline, but Zach LaVine, DeMar DeRozan, Domantas Sabonis and Malik Monk are still all in Sacramento.
The Kings might find it easier to offload some of their veterans this offseason, especially before teams start hard-capping themselves. Multiple reports linked the Toronto Raptors as a potential Sabonis landing spot, although they first needed to figure out to do with starter center Jakob Poeltl.
Still, the Kings figure to find themselves in a similar boat to the Bulls whenever they are finally able to sell. They’d be lucky to get a first-round pick for either LaVine or DeRozan, and Sabonis might only fetch some mediocre first-rounders like what the Washington Wizards gave up in the Anthony Davis trade.
Ranking every NBA player moved at the 2026 trade deadline
Christopher Kline, Fansided
NBA trade deadline: The best and most jarring decisions from across the league
John Hollinger, The Athletic
Trade Deadline Fallout and Takeaways
Nick Thoreson, The Waive And Stretch
Trade Grades for a Crazy Deadline (Part 2)
Jacob Sutton, JSutt Hoops
TEAM-SPECIFIC
ATL: Hawks come up short against Hornets, losing potential tiebreaker
Lauren Williams, AJC
BKN: Nets Among Many Tankers Beginning Long Slog To Finish Line
Steve Lichtenstein
Sorry I have to do this every so often, but this is a reminder to the pro-tanking segment of Nets fans that Saturday’s outcome was not the end of the world. The Nets (14-37) have the same record as Washington for fourth place in the NBA’s reverse standings. Sacramento, the league’s worst team, has just two fewer wins.
And remember that the finishing position only matters for the slot’s floor, as the order goes by the standings after No. 4 overall. The draw for the top four picks is pure luck. Each of the bottom three finishers, who all have the same odds for picks 1-through-4, has a 1-in-7 chance at the top pick, which is worse odds than betting on a single dice roll.
Yet some folks continue to conflate these two parameters. It’s not required that you bottom out this season to select Kansas stud Darryn Peterson. (I feel the bold is necessary to get through to for some.) In fact, the last place team has never won a lottery under the new format. Dallas got Cooper Flagg with a 1.8% chance from 11th place in the reverse standings and San Antonio, the eighth-worst team, drew No. 2. Reportedly, had the fourth and final ball drawn been a three instead of a seven, the Nets would have moved up to No. 1 overall. That Brooklyn won any particular game that season had nothing to do with it.
CHA: Hornets’ run is for real, and they’re putting the NBA on notice
Roderick Boone, Charlotte Observer
CHA: Hornets’ Win Streak Extends to Nine with Gutsy Victory in Atlanta
Will Eudy
CHA: Hornets win ninth straight, close gap on Hawks
John Hollinger, The Athletic
CHA: Hornets Stretch Winning Streak To Nine
Sam Perley, Hornets.com
CHI: Why Josh Giddey should be Australia’s next NBA All-Star
BI Note: Tough competition: SGA, Jamal Murray & Luka are the guards on this year’s World Team ASG lineup
CHI: The Bulls are finally rebuilding, even if they won’t say the word
Joel Lorenzi, The Athletic
CHI: Bulls rebuilding again after wild trade deadline, but don’t expect turnaround anytime soon
Jon Greenberg, The Athletic
CLE: Takeaways from Cavs win over Kings
Jackson Flickinger, Fear The Sword
CLE: Inside James Harden’s Cavs debut that showcased the team’s championship vision
Chris Fedor, cleveland.com
CLE: Game Night Observations: First Impressions and Future Questions
Danny Cunningham, The Inside Shot
the best decision that Atkinson made on Saturday was closing with a different group. Instead of having the starters be the closers, Atkinson inserted Ellis into the game for the entire fourth quarter and it worked out masterfully. In a game in which the Cavs struggled to get stops at times, he was exactly what they needed. Ellis had three steals in the fourth quarter alone.
The Kings had an offensive rating of 123.5 in totality for this game. That number was just 100 in the 17 minutes and 22 seconds that Ellis was on the floor. Those numbers are not coincidental.
The Cavs are going to have growing pains on both ends of the floor while the new pieces — particularly Harden due to his high usage — are incorporated. Having Ellis out there as a havoc-inducing defender can thwart some of that.
Finishing a close game with two players that were playing for different teams just over a week ago isn’t an easy decision to make, but it was unquestionably the right lever for Atkinson to pull on Saturday night, and the Cavs will be better for it.
BI Note: Likely that no Kings fans were surprised at how instrumental Keon Ellis was in this win over his former team (+20 in 17 minutes), very similar to the impact he had for the Kings when he was given the (rare) opportunity to do so. It is also likely that those fans could easily identify the one person in the arena who may have been surprised.
The rest of the team-specific stories as well as draft-related items follow for paid subscribers