Basketball Intelligence For 5/1/25
Today's Best NBA Reporting And Analysis
THE BASKETBALL INTELLIGENCE NETWORK
*FEATURE OF THE DAY*
The East playoffs in eight words
David Thorpe, True Hoop
PODCASTS
Changes Abound
Ray and Nick break down the recent news for the Sacramento Kings. They start out by discussing Monte McNair and the Kings mutually agreeing to part ways, before talking about the team's new lead executive, Scott Perry. Finally, they discuss the recent decision to remove the interim tag from Doug Christie and officially name him as the team's head coach.
Early Playoff Perspectives and an Awkward Encounter
Welcome back, basketball junkies, to the newest episode of the Corner Three Podcast. In this episode, Rush, Jarrett, and Tone share their favorite plays, games, and moments from the playoffs so far, break down the Thunder and Cavs winning, discuss the remaining series, Rush's awkward meeting with Vince Carter, and more.
TEAM-SPECIFIC STORIES
BOS: The Celtics Are Showing Stylistic Versatility To Begin Playoffs
Shane Young, Forbes
CLE: De’Andre Hunter is ‘comfortable,’ and that could be bad news for the Pacers in the Eastern Conference semifinals
Chris Fedor, cleveland.com
DEN: Film Breakdown of the Nuggets big win in game 5
Gibson Pyper, Half Court Hoops
DET: Pistons Film Room - Game 5 Offense
Bryce Simon, Motor City Hoops
GSW: Warriors continue to be doubly befuddled by the Rockets’ double-big zone defense
Joe Viray, Golden State Of Mind
GSW: Warriors pull the plug early against surging Rockets, look ahead to Game 6
Anthony Slater, The Athletic
GSW: The battered, bruised and old Warriors are playing with fire after a no-show Game 5
Dieter Kurtenbach, Mercury News
GSW: If the Warriors are a great team, this Game 5 blowout loss won’t mean much
Tim Kawakami, SF Standard
GSW: Desperate Rockets ward off Warriors’ bench-led comeback in Game 5
Joseph Dycus, Mercury News
HOU: Amen Thompson's all-around Game 5 powers Rockets by Warriors
Michael C. Wright, ESPN
HOU: The Rockets had a simple mindset to beat Golden State in Game 5: ‘Stay desperate’
Danielle Lerner, Houston Chronicle
HOU: Amen Thompson may not be the Rockets best player ... yet. But he's already their most important.
Ian Levy, Fansided
HOU: Rockets feed off Dillon Brooks’ composure, force Game 6 in emphatic fashion
Kelly Iko, The Athletic
HOU: The Rockets are still waiting for their next superstar
Tim MacMahon, ESPN
IND: Pacers finish off Bucks with phenomenal 40 seconds, advance to Eastern Conference semis against Cavs
Tom Lewis, Indy Cornrows
LAC: Clippers need James Harden to show up in Game 6
Janis Carr, OC Register
LAC: Clippers need attitude adjustment against Nuggets if they want to avoid elimination
Law Murray, The Athletic
LAL: Lakers drop Game 5 to Timberwolves as season ends in disappointment
Khobi Price, OC Register
LAL: What a weird way to end JJ Redick’s rookie season with Lakers
Mirjam Swanson, OC Register
All of Redick’s accomplishments as a first-time head coach made the finish – with some head-scratching decisions over the final six quarters of a 4-1 series loss to the Timberwolves – all the more confounding
LAL: For want of a center, Lakers’ series with Timberwolves was lost
Jim Alexander, OC Register
Rudy Gobert’s 27-point, 24-rebound night in Minnesota’s Game 5 elimination of the Lakers illustrated the biggest problem the front office needs to address in the offseason
LAL: Lakers-Wolves Game 5 Observations
Iztok Franko, digginbasketball
LAL: Lakers’ season comes to a disappointing end with first-round loss to Timberwolves
Dan Woike, LA Times
LAL: Lakers offseason primer: Anthony Davis still needs replacing
Mark Deeks, Hoops Hype
MIA: Spoelstra, players address how Butler drama affected Heat’s season
Anthony Chiang, Miami Herald
MIL: Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Bucks can be radical in staying together
Eric Koreen, The Athletic
MIL: First-round exits and a shrinking window: What might come next for Giannis in Milwaukee?
Jamal Collier, ESPN
MIL: Amid Giannis trade chatter, the Bucks look stuck after another lost season
Eric Nehm/Sam Amick, The Athletic
MIN: Narrative-busting Timberwolves knock out Lakers, advance to West semifinals
Jace Frederick, Pioneer Press
MIN: Five reasons the Timberwolves beat the Lakers in five games
Jace Frederick, Pioneer Press
MIN: Rudy Gobert, Timberwolves show basketball world they’ve ‘figured it out’
Jon Krawczynski, The Athletic
MIN: Rudy Gobert powers Timberwolves past Lakers
Chris Hine, Star Tribune
MIN: Rudy Gobert Saved the Wolves From Themselves Again In Game 5
Charlie Walton, Zone Coverage
NYK: Close Out Time, Take 2: The Knicks have another chance to move on.
Jonathan Macri, Knicks Film School
NYK: The Knicks have been flawed. Another loss to Pistons sends a reminder
James Edwards III, The Athletic
OKC: Will the Thunder let another weeklong layoff slow them down? Don’t count on it
Darnell Mayberry, The Athletic
ORL: The Magic finally cracked as foul trouble for Banchero unraveled their discipline and poise, ending their season in five games
Philip Rossman-Reich, World R Squared
SAC: Kings Remove Interim Tag, Trusting Doug Christie To Lead Amid Uncertainty
Bobby Krivitsky, Forbes
LEAGUEWIDE STORIES
The East playoffs in eight words
David Thorpe, True Hoop
The key factors behind three first-round Game 6s
ESPN
1 stat explaining each first-round series
Mike Shearer, Basketball Poetry
Matchup Mashup
OwenPhillips, The F5
Coaches only have so many buttons they can press in the playoffs, but how they assign matchups is one worth monitoring—especially as a series progresses. So let’s take a look around some of the first-round series that are still in progress to see who has matched up with whom and what it might tell us about where each series is headed.
What (fun! annoying!) narratives will emerge if each remaining NBA team wins the title
Neil Payne, ESPN
Playoffs results and takeaways: Lakers’ season ends with loss to Timberwolves; Rockets force Game 6
The Athletic
Lakers have no answers for Minnesota's bigs, Houston stays alive, and more.
Dustin Brewer, Hoops Daily
Three stars from Wednesday's NBA playoffs
Sean Keane, Yardbarker
The Dearly Playoff Departed And Those Still On The Postseason Coil
Matt Moore, Hardwood Paroxysm
2025 NBA free agent rankings: Top small forwards available this summer
Hoops Hype
DRAFT-RELATED STORIES
2025 NBA mock draft
Sam Vecenie, The Athletic
NBA mock draft 2025 update
Ricky O’Donnell, SBNation
The NBA Draft 2025’s early-entrants list is shrinking. What does it mean?
Mike Vorkunov, The Athletic
It is the clearest reflection that there is plenty of money to be made in college basketball, and many players have now decided to stay there instead of testing the waters through the draft process. Next year, about 10 schools will pay their rosters somewhere around $10 million, according to CBS Sports, and the salaries for top players are reaching several million dollars per season.
Increasingly, they can make more money playing college basketball than they would if they were a second-round pick — where signing a deal on a second-round pick exception this summer could mean as little as $1.27 million in the first year of that contract. A two-way deal pays half that. Even if the NBA wanted to entice players to pass on their remaining college years, the salary structures for rookies can’t be changed until a new collective bargaining agreement is implemented, which wouldn’t be until 2029 at the earliest.
How Viktor Lakhin projects as an NBA player.
Stephen Gillaspie, No Ceilings
5 NBA Draft sleepers who could become surprise stars
Christopher Kline, Fansided
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