Blogs

Blake Griffin’s latest setback, a season-ending big toe injury, hasn’t changed the Los Angeles Clippers’ plans this summer: They are still going to re-sign him. From The Vertical’s Adrian Wojnarowski (via RealGM): “Griffin is still a significant part of the Clippers’ future. Management remains committed to signing him to a long-term deal this summer, league sources tell [...]

With three first-round draft picks and a ton of guaranteed contracts on the books, the Portland Trail Blazers are bound to look different next season. Anything they do, given their cap situation, must be executed via trade. But the Blazers are also unique in that they are an unfinished product with two cornerstones, Damian Lillard and [...]

LeBron James played all but 17 minutes of the Cleveland Cavaliers’ first round sweep over the Indiana Pacers. He’s averaging 43.8 ticks per game overall, a ridiculously high number no one else in the postseason is matching thus far. Might the Cavaliers be worried about overworking James, their 14-year veteran, who has logged the fourth-most playoff [...]

Maybe the Denver Nuggets won’t go superstar-hunting this summer after all. Danilo Gallinari owns a player option worth $16.1 million for next season that he is expected to decline. If the Nuggets renounce his cap hold, they can squeeze out more than $34 million in cap space—enough to offer almost anyone a max contract. Waive [...]

The New York Knicks and Kristaps Porzingis are ready to bury the hatchet—insofar as each party acknowledging the other exists qualifies as burying the hatchet. Since Porzingis skipped his exit interview with team president Phil Jackson, ostensibly sending a message that the status quo won’t stand, it was unclear if the two sides would break [...]

Good news, Golden State Warriors fans, as well as any decent human being on the planet: General manager Bob Myers thinks head coach Steve Kerr’s back issues are fixable, and that he will return to the sidelines. Now for the bad news: That doesn’t mean Kerr will be back in the fold this season. From [...]

The Utah Jazz have no plans to break up the band. Gordon Hayward (player option), George Hill and Joe Ingles make for a trio of pivotal, and thus expensive, free agents. The Jazz have no chance of evading the luxury tax if the plan is to re-sign them all. Hayward is getting max money, Hill [...]

Kobe Bryant is no longer playing in the NBA, but he is, apparently, still very much a part of it. Mostly because current players won’t let him not be. From Mark Medina of the Orange County Register: Have Bryant and Ingram scheduled any workouts yet? “I don’t know, honestly. I’m always around,” Bryant said. “Guys call [...]

In the aftermath of their first-round exit at the hands of the Houston Rockets, the Oklahoma City Thunder have a bunch of questions to answer. Chief among them: What to do with restricted free agent Andre Roberson? That question, to some extent, has already been answered. The Thunder want to keep him, per ESPN.com’s Royce [...]

If the Los Angeles Clippers fall to the Utah Jazz in the first round, it’s reasonable to expect the franchise to undergo some change. Those modifications just won’t be coming at the executive level. According to Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical, Doc Rivers and company are going to stay put: If the Clippers can’t come [...]