The Charlotte Hornets only played two games last week, so you may not have paid much attention to the NBA. We’ll get you caught up.
The Los Angeles Lakers are the first ever In-Season Tournament champions
The Lakers played the Indiana Pacers in Las Vegas on Saturday night for the right to claim the first ever NBA Cup. In a scenario that the league couldn’t have scripted any better, LeBron James dominated the semifinals and Anthony Davis dominated the finals to lead the Lakers to the cup. James won the first ever tournament MVP honor for his efforts. I think the first ever iteration of this tournament was a rousing success. The players bought in, which upped the intensity. The crowds at the games matched that energy, especially in last week’s knockout rounds. They legitimately felt like playoff games. I’m excited to see how this continues to grow over the next few years.
The NBA is looking at expanding, and LEBron James may be a part of that
Speaking of LeBron James in Las Vegas, Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN is saying that LeBron is already setting the wheels in motion to be part of an ownership group that would bring an expansion team to Las Vegas. The league seems like they’re serious about expanding to 32 teams, and the other team they’d presumably look to add would be in Seattle, which I think everyone would be in favor of. The return of the Seattle Supersonics would be pretty sweet.
The other part of expansion in that matter that would probably only be interesting to me is the need to realign the conferences if two teams were added out west. The Grizzlies and Pelicans seem like the obvious choices to move east, and I wonder if the league would go to the NFL model of four divisions of four teams per conference, if they even care about divisions anymore.
We might see the debut of the Suns big three this week
Bradley Beal is set to make his return from a back injury against the Warriors on Tuesday. You might have forgotten that he actually appeared in three games for the Suns back in early November, but the Suns didn’t have Devin Booker for those games. Now Beal is healthy, but Kevin Durant is dealing with an ankle injury. Durant’s status for Tuesday’s game is up in the air, but even if he doesn’t play, the debut of the much heralded triumvirate is imminent.
The NBA announced players of the month
At the beginning of last week, the league announced both the players and rookies of the month. Nikola Jokic and Jayson Tatum were the Western and Eastern Conference players of the month respectively. Chet Holmgren won Western Conference Rookie of the Month, while Jaime Jaquez took that honor home for the Eastern Conference.
Players that signed free agent contracts are eligible to be traded starting this week
The NBA does not allow players who signed free agent contracts to be traded less than three months after they signed the contract or December 15, whichever comes later. That means any player that signed a new contract during the main free agency period over the summer is going to become tradeable. That along with the increasing clarity of the standings is going to precipitate more rumors and eventually actual trades in the coming weeks and months.
