Basketball Intelligence For 3/31/26
Today's Best NBA Reporting And Analysis
LEAGUEWIDE
NBA Power Rankings
Law Murray, The Athletic
The 2026 NBA “Carter Bryant” Rookie All-Stars
Nathan Grubel, No Ceilings
Nathan dives into some of the more underappreciated NBA Rookies that have shown flashes of being legitimate long-time contributors for their teams.
All-Rookie Teams for the 2025-26 NBA season
Mike Shearer, Basketball Poetry
The NBA’s potential tanking fixes (mostly) miss the mark
Zach Harper, The Athletic
TEAM-SPECIFIC
ATL: Hawks down Celtics, move 10 games over .500 for first time in five years
Lauren Williams, AJC
ATL: ‘Real-deal Nickeil:’ Hawks’ Alexander-Walker making the most of bigger role
Lauren Williams, AJC
BOS: Joe Mazzulla on potentially winning Coach of the Year: ‘It’s a stupid award. They shouldn’t have it.’
Gary Washburn, Boston Globe
BOS: Rust shows for Jaylen Brown as Celtics fall to Hawks in second of back-to-back games
Gary Washburn, Boston Globe
CLE: Mobley’s Big Night, 3-Point Variance and Scoreboard Watching
Danny Cunningham, The Inside Shot
CLE: Are the Cavs’ 3-point woes a fatal flaw or a sign of maturity?
Chris Fedor/Ethan Sands/Jimmy Watkins, cleveland.com
CLE: How Sam Merrill’s game has evolved into much more than just 3-point bombing
Chris Fedor/Ethan Sands/Jimmy Watkins, cleveland.com
DAL: While Mavericks’ home losing skid grows, Brandon Williams provides playmaking bright spot
Mike Curtis, Morning News
DET: Daniss Jenkins has the Pistons thriving, even without Cade Cunningham
Eamon Cassels, Fansided
DET: These Pistons won’t go down without a fight, even down four starters at OKC
Hunter Patterson, The Athletic
LAC: Clippers poised to exceed Tyronn Lue’s in-season challenge
Janis Carr, OC Register
The Clippers were 6-21 when the coach told his players the objective was to go 35-20 the rest of the regular season to finish with a .500 record. They are 33-15 since and have seven games left to surpass Lue’s goal
LAL: Game 75 vs Wizards and Cavaliers Preview
Iztok Franko, digginbasketball
MIA: Heat gets much-needed win over 76ers, but still faces uphill battle to avoid play-in
Anthony Chiang, Miami Herald
MIA: Adebayo and Herro provide spark Heat hopes it can keep alive
Barry Jackson, Miami Herald
MIN: Anthony Edwards returns to Timberwolves’ lineup with a new vision for the team
Jon Krawczynski, The Athletic
NYK: The Knicks’ Karl-Anthony Towns conundrum comes with more glaring problems
Stefan Bondy, NY Post
OKC: Shai Saves the Thunder (Again) in Win Over Pistons
Daily Thunder
OKC: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander wills OKC Thunder past Detroit Pistons in OT for 60th win
Justin Martinez, The Oklahoman
ORL: The Magic foolishly thought this would be easy
Philip Rossman-Reich, World R Squared
PHI: Sixers collapse in fourth quarter, fall to Heat
Zach Ciavolella, Philly Sports Network
PHI: The Sixers let Monday’s loss at Heat ‘slip through our hand,’ but remain encouraged in postseason chase
Gina Mizell, The Inquirer
SAC: NBA draft lottery: What’s at stake for Sacramento Kings in season’s final days?
Jason Anderson, Sacramento Bee
SAS: Three takeaways as Wembanyama has MVP-like night vs. Bulls
Jeff McDonald, Express-News
THE DRAFT
NBA Draft: Nate Ament Captures the Timing Dilemma of Betting on Yourself
Arya Chawla, Sports llustrated
Can Mikel Brown Jr. Be a Top-5 Pick?
Jonathan Wasserman, Bleacher Report
2026 NBA Draft Big Board
Nic Thomas, Draftstack
PRO HOOPS HISTORY
For Dick Motta, the Hall of Fame ‘was never my goal.’ Only the work mattered
Jason Quick, The Athletic
Bob Nash
Isi Baly, pk’s ABA Kingdom
Ray’s personal note: When I was a volunteer assistant at New Haven’s Wilbur Cross h.s. in 1968, we won the Connecticut state title with a 24-1 record. Our only loss was to Bob’s Hartford Public team due to his spectacular 28 point, 25 rebound performance. We split the regular season series and defeated HPHS in the state tournament. How good was our team that Bob showed out against? Legendary WCHS Head Coach Bob Saulsbury refers to it as the best of his 9 state champions. Our roster included 2 seniors who were first-team all-New England players (Alex Scott & Clint Davis) as well as emerging superstar John Williamson, who was a sophomore and already showing the talent that would take him to ABA & NBA stardom.
George Karl: These are the 3 best leaders I coached in the NBA
Jason Jenks, The Athletic