Basketball Intelligence For 2/20/26
Today's Best NBA Reporting And Analysis
FEATURES OF THE DAY
Game Night Observations: The Return of Championship Belief and Cleveland’s Ideal Starting Five
Danny Cunningham, The Inside Shot
PODCAST: Kings Rookie Report and 2026 NBA Draft Preview
Ray LeBov/Nick Agar-Johnson, Kings Weekly Podcast
LEAGUEWIDE
The Flaw of the 40–20 Rule in the Modern NBA
Omar Zahran, Medium
NBA Power Rankings
Marc Stein, The Stein Line
Pre-Agency: February is the New July. How teams are using the Trade Deadline as an early Free Agency window
Jonas Plaut, The Cap Crunch
How can the NBA fix tanking?
John Hollinger, The Athletic
Addressing tanking incentives
Michael Hendricks, All Fields
The PHI-OKC Trade
Yossi Gozlan, Third Apron
The ‘Sophomore’ Ladder: Stephon Castle leads the way
Steve Aschburner, NBA.com
Swarming Hornets, the malleable Pistons and more NBA trends
Fred Katz, The Athletic
TEAM-SPECIFIC
ATL: Hawks best 76ers in first game back from All-Star break
Lauren Williams, AJC
BOS: 10 takeaways from Boston dissecting Warriors pressure
Azad Rosay, Celtics Blog
BOS: Celtics’ changes put in focus by matchup with Al Horford, Kristaps Porziņģis
Jay King, The Athletic
BOS: The Warriors rolled the dice with a little-used defensive scheme, but it wasn’t enough to slow down the Celtics
Adam Taylor, Celtics Chronicle
CHA: Missing 2 of their starters, Hornets can’t survive a Kevin Durant Master Class
Evan Hale, Every Hornets Boxscore
CHI: 3 takeaways from Bulls’ 7th straight loss
Julia Poe, Chicago Tribune
CHI: Jaden Ivey Sends Powerful Message After Surprising DNP
Keith Watkins, heavy
CLE: Game Night Observations: The Return of Championship Belief and Cleveland’s Ideal Starting Five
Danny Cunningham, The Inside Shot
CLE: 7 Takeaways from another strong Jarrett Allen performance in Cavs win over Nets
Jackson Flickinger, Fear The Sword
