Basketball Intelligence For 1/21/26
Today's Best NBA Reporting And Analysis
FEATURE OF THE DAY
NBA midseason: MVP, best rebounder, defender, 3-point shooter
Dean Oliver, ESPN
LEAGUEWIDE
NBA power rankings
Ricky O’Donnell, SBNation
NBA Power Rankings: Biggest questions for each team halfway through the season
ESPN
NBA power rankings 2025-26
Kurt Helin, NBC Sports
NBA midseason trends: Four storylines to watch amid playoff race
Zach Kram/Kevin Pelton, ESPN
This Week’s Kings of the Court
Jacob Sutton, JSutt Hoops
Rookie Ladder: Kon Knueppel edges past Cooper Flagg for No. 1 spot
Steve Aschburner, NBA.com
THE DRAFT
2026 NBA Draft Big Board
Christopher Kline, Fansided
The class stretches much deeper than the marquee names.
Bruce Thornton is a Master of Control
Jacob Lerea, No Ceilings
TEAM-SPECIFIC
BOS: Celtics Mid-Season Report Cards (Starters)
Adam Taylor, Celtics Chronicle
BOS: A Conference Finals Preview
Paul Flannery, Hoopology
CHI: 3 takeaways from Bulls’ win over Clippers
Julia Poe, Chicago Tribune
CLE: Cavs’ ugly loss to Thunder reveals a concerning Darius Garland trend
Jimmy Watkins, cleveland.com
CLE: Cavs’ Core Four may have hit their ceiling
Ethan Sands, cleveland.com
CLE: How Cleveland is losing the East’s mental toughness battle
Ethan Sands/Jimmy Watkins, cleveland.com
DEN: Nuggets lose to Lakers behind second-half drought
Vinny Benedetto, Denver Gazette
DEN: Nuggets blow 16-point lead to Lakers as Luka Doncic goes for 38
Bennett Durando, Denver Post
DET: Jalen Duren is Made for Detroit
Omar Zahran, Medium
GSW: Kuminga Mania takes another turn for Jimmy Butler-less Warriors
Nick Friedell, The Athletic
GSW: how the worst 24 hours in warriors front office history turned leverage into catastrophe
bang!
GSW: Stephen Curry decision time: remain a Warrior, or contend?
Henry Abbott, True Hoop
GSW: Empty calories, thunderous dunks — the Warriors embrace the art of losing
Dieter Kurtenbach, Mercury News
What we witnessed Tuesday wasn’t a basketball game in the traditional sense. It was performance art. It was the Golden State Warriors entering their post-modern phase.
For those who didn’t spend their college years wearing turtlenecks and reading French philosophy, let’s simplify “post-modernism.” In the simplest terms, it’s a rejection of the grand narrative. It’s skepticism about the existence of a single “truth.”
In art, it’s when the style becomes more important than the substance.
In basketball? It’s what happens when the scoreboard stops being the point of the exercise.
It’s when the “truth” — winning the game — is replaced by the “vibe” — highlight reels.
That was the Warriors’ reality in their first game following Jimmy Butler’s right ACL tear on Monday. The grand narrative of a championship is dead.
And in the wreckage, we found something peculiar: a celebration of the meaningless.
HOU: Reed Sheppard made plays vs. Spurs, and the Rockets are showing they can contend
William Guillory, The Athletic
HOU: Rockets need Reed Sheppard’s shooting now more than ever. Win over Spurs shows why
Varun Shankar, Houston Chronicle


