NBA лигийн шилдэг довтлогчдын чансааг танилцуулж, Лос Анжелес Клипперсийн тойрсон асуудлыг хөндлөө

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Hey, I’m headed on vacation! I’ll be gone for the next two weeks, but do not fear. The venerable and dope Shakeia Taylor will be taking the reins of The Bounce until Sept. 28, when we’ll be back to five days a week for the 2026-27 season.

Position rankings

Rookies reinvigorate forward spot

The LA Clippers getting punished by the NBA last week interrupted our position rankings in a positionless NBA. We’ve ranked the top 40 big men, lead guards, shooting guards and wings so far. We wrap it up today with the top 40 forwards in the league.

Mostly, when it comes to forwards, you are what you can defend. Some of these guys can defend everywhere. Some can’t quite defend on the perimeter and can’t be trusted for too long defending a big man.

As per usual, if you didn’t see someone on this list, they’re either on a different position ranking list from the previous couple of weeks or they weren’t quite good enough to make the top 40 this time. Each position is divided into seven tiers. Let’s dive into the rankings!

Antetokounmpo is still the top player at this position, as he was last year. But it’s fair to wonder how much longer that will be the case. His style of basketball is brutal, and his health (even when the Bucks weren’t tanking) has been a question mark recently.

After the top 40 wings list came out, Celtics fans questioned why Jayson Tatum wasn’t on the list. It’s because he’s a forward. Some of that is roster construction. Some of that is just his incredible ability. He’s been a forward, primarily, the last three seasons. He was lumped into the second tier with other players last year, because of uncertainty about how he’d return from his torn right Achilles. He’s back into a tier of his own.

• This is a big season for Banchero. The 23-year-old needs to have a clear All-NBA season with his game elevated.
• I’ve always been high on Johnson, but the 24-year-old’s playoff performance has me worried about having him this high.
• I’m sure some believe Green, 36, is too high. We can’t keep doing this as a basketball society. His impact is still tremendous.
• Flagg could easily make ranking look stupidly low in his second season.
• I have been wondering what it will take to get us to believe in Williamson as one of the ones again. It can’t just be the idea of “he needs to be healthy.”

Gordon wouldn’t have fallen out of the top 10 if it weren’t for his hamstring issues two years in a row. With the salary crunch the Nuggets are under, he has to remain healthy in the postseason to remind everybody of his value.

• The battle between Boozer and Wilson over the next 10-15 years will be so much fun. It feels like they take it personally. They both have tremendous upside.
• Washington will either be a great trade option for Dallas to dangle on the market or a super role player next to Flagg.
• Harris seemed to renew some faith with people when he stepped up for Detroit in the playoffs. How does he impact the Spurs next to Victor Wembanyama?
• Diabate had a massive impact last season, and I’m curious where his career goes next.

I wanted to see more out of Eason last season, but I’m glad the Rockets took care of him with his contract. He should be in the top 15 on this list based on ability alone. Murray-Boyles really impressed during his rookie campaign.

• The Bucks will be better than people think, but Kuzma getting back to being an impactful role player would help a lot.
• I know Collins’ numbers are impressive. I’ve yet to see the impact.
• Will we see a return to role-player prominence for Finney-Smith?
• Jović needs to knock down outside shots.
• I know I’m too high on Peat. I know his limitations. I don’t care.
• The player I regret not putting in the top 40 is Tidjane Salaun. A second player would be Bucks rookie Nate Ament.

Players dropped from last year’s top 40: Jeremy Sochan (27th), Jonathan Isaac (31st), Georges Niang (32nd), Nicolas Batum (35th), Kenrich Williams (39th), Guerschon Yabusele (40th)

The last 24

🏀 Summer of 76. Philadelphia had a dream offseason. Tony Jones has the inside look at how the Sixers pulled off landing both LeBron James and Jaylen Brown.

🤔 This is fine. Speaking of LeBron, he’s the latest athlete to join the prediction market stuff. I think it sucks, but it’s probably OK.

👋 She’s gone. Cathy Engelbert has been a successful but controversial WNBA commissioner. She’s retiring soon.

Investigation station

The most fascinating bits from the Clippers report

We’re now a few days away from the NBA punishing the Clippers for their cap circumvention regarding Kawhi Leonard. Any potential questions about what happened were answered here by David Aldridge, Sam Amick, Mike Vorkunov and John Hollinger. A little removed from the initial shock of the punishment’s severity, I’ve become fascinated by what’s in the NBA’s 36-page report.

Joe Pompliano had a great breakdown on his “Huddle Up” Substack, which I found via Marc Stein’s awesome Substack. Here are some of the most intriguing highlights:

• President of business operations Gillian Zucker apparently lied in the investigation, saying Kawhi was introduced to businesses at the request of the companies.
• Also, three of these companies were introduced to Kawhi during the pandemic shutdown. You know … when businesses were cutting back and players were out of the spotlight.
• Leonard’s LLC was created by “Uncle” Dennis Robertson within a couple of days of these introductions.
• Each agreement was signed by companies that had never had an endorsement deal of that magnitude. None of the sponsorship deals were announced.
• Boingo, Lockton and Daktronics paid Leonard a combined $18 million by August 2021.
• Joe Sanberg, one of the Aspiration founders, brought the Leonard endorsement deal to executives, who were confused by it. One wrote, “It’s not a good investment of our capital.”
• Sanberg eased executives’ worries by letting them know the Clippers would offset the money going to Leonard.
• When the Clippers’ negotiation with Aspiration moved slowly, Sanberg threatened to tear up the Leonard deal and sue. Clippers owner Steve Ballmer approved the deal weeks later.
• The Clippers paid for “personal air and ground travel, accommodations, gifts and tickets” for Kawhi without deducting it from his wages.
• By the way, Clippers president Lawrence Frank took notes during meetings between him, Uncle Dennis and Ballmer. Maybe stop putting stuff in writing? That’s how Glen Taylor got caught with Joe Smith in Minnesota.

Tradeback Tuesday

When Gerald Wallace netted Portland a superstar

Every Tuesday this offseason, we’ve been revisiting an old trade that had some major significance. Today, let’s explore how Portland set itself up well by trading for Gerald Wallace in February of 2011.

The Trail Blazers acquired Wallace from the Charlotte Bobcats (remember that branding?). They sent Dante Cunningham, Joel Przybilla, Sean Marks and two first-round picks (both protected) to Charlotte for Wallace. But the deal soon led to Portland’s next franchise player:

That’s right. The Blazers flipped Wallace to the Brooklyn Nets a year later, acquiring a top-three protected pick in the 2012 draft. The Nets did not move in the draft lottery and ended up with the sixth pick. That meant it was conveyed to Portland, which selected Damian Lillard. He became the franchise’s all-time leading scorer.

Charlotte flipped Wallace (an All-Star in 2010) for the eventual acquisition of Wayne Ellington and two draft picks the team later flipped. The Bobcats — who changed their name to the Hornets before the 2014-15 season — selected Tobias Harris with the 19th pick in the 2011 draft as part of a deal that landed them Corey Maggette and Bismack Biyombo (the seventh pick in 2011) for Harris, Stephen Jackson and Shaun Livingston. Biyombo played four years for Charlotte before signing with Toronto in 2015.

Charlotte selected Shabazz Napier with the 24th pick in 2014 and then moved him to Miami in a deal that landed PJ Hairston (26th pick), Semaj Christon and a second-round pick that would become Jaylen Nowell. It later flipped Hairston in a deal for Courtney Lee.

You never know where a trade will send a franchise. Portland thought it was getting another impact player next to LaMarcus Aldridge. Instead, it would up with one of the best players in franchise history.