Jeff Mangurten

Gooner. Bulls are my first love.

[Jeff Mangurten @JeffGurt]

Most watched in 28 years? That would be…the Last Dance.

[NBA @NBA]

The NBA Playoffs are the most-watched in 28 years with an average of 5.3 million viewers per game across ABC, ESPN, NBC, Peacock and Prime Video.

[Jeff Mangurten @JeffGurt]

Luka Doncic, Jayson Tatum, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Tyrese Haliburton, Victor Wembanyama and Jalen Brunson are the guys who led their teams to the last 3 NBA Finals.

They are the current generation in the NBA even if the league keeps putting LeBron, Steph and KD on Christmas.

[Jeff Mangurten @JeffGurt]

Everybody: Nuggets in 2023...definitely the beginning of a dynasty

Also Everybody: Celtics in 2024...definitely definitely the beginning of a dynasty

Everybody again: Thunder in 2025...definitely definitely definitely the beginning of a dynasty

Everybody this time...

[Jeff Mangurten @JeffGurt]

The delta between teams believing the only way they can ever find a superstar player is by winning the lottery so they use that a an excuse to spend half a decade being uncompetitive and the reality that...it is just not the case, is remarkable.

[Jeff Mangurten @JeffGurt]

Wemby is an eventuality, but for now, Derrick Rose (2008) remains the most recent number one pick to win an MVP in his career.

[Shams Charania @ShamsCharania]

Breaking: Oklahoma City Thunder's Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has won his second consecutive NBA Most Valuable Player award, becoming the 14th player in league history to win back-to-back MVPs, multiple sources tell ESPN.

[Jeff Mangurten @JeffGurt]

The argument against this reform from team executives seems to be they think they're not competent enough to lead their team into the top 27 of the NBA without being gifted a top 3 pick.

If you don't believe you can do that, maybe you shouldn't be running an NBA team.

[Mike Vorkunov @MikeVorkunov]

NBA tanking reform is coming. But it's not entirely popular across teams around the league as some execs see it as changing one set of issues for another. The view from Chicago, from @sam_amick and me:

(Free and unlocked for all to read) https://t.co/Lc7OKcdSF6

[Jeff Mangurten @JeffGurt]

After 13 seasons and no conference finals appearances, I'm starting to think The Process might not lead to a dynasty...

[Jeff Mangurten @JeffGurt]

Am I counting this right? The bottom 46 picks in this draft have been traded 84 times, with only 11 of the 46 picks still with their original owners.

[NBA Communications @NBAPR]

The Washington Wizards today won NBA Draft Lottery 2026, which was conducted at Navy Pier in Chicago.  The Wizards will have the first overall pick in NBA Draft 2026, which will be held Tuesday, June 23 (First Round) and Wednesday, June 24 (Second Round) at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.

[Jeff Mangurten @JeffGurt]

The Kings continue to follow the Bulls path, who lost a coin toss for the combination that won Cooper Flagg last season.

[Rob Perez @WorldWideWob]

The Sacramento Kings went 3-3 in the final month of the season while everyone else around them historically tanked.

The result was them having to flip a coin with the Jazz for a standings tiebreaker.

The Kings lost the coin flip, and will now pick 7th while the Jazz pick 2nd.

[Jeff Mangurten @JeffGurt]

The Bulls also traded Ransey to Portland for Ronnie Lester (and pick swap) that led to another pick swap that led to Orlando Woolridge, so there's that.

[Jeff Mangurten @JeffGurt]

Bulls have had the 4th pick 5 times before:

2020: Patrick Williams
2001: Eddy Curry
2000: Marcus Fizer
1980: Kelvin Ransey
1968: Tom Boerwinkle

[Jeff Mangurten @JeffGurt]

Also traded the 2 pick for the 4th pick in 2006: Tyrus Thomas.

[Jeff Mangurten @JeffGurt]

@TheQumarZaman still two more games to give it away...

[Jeff Mangurten @JeffGurt]

Annual lottery reality check:

-Only 4 top picks in the lottery era won a title with the team that drafted them, both in pairs (Robinson/Duncan, James/Irving).

-Last top pick to win MVP (by draft year): Derrick Rose (2008)

Winning the lottery ≠ Guaranteed dynasty

[Jeff Mangurten @JeffGurt]

Exactly...the proposed reform eliminates the multi-season tank, which has been the biggest problem over the last decade...there will always be some meaningless late season games, but the strategy of being as bad as possible for years at a time isn't beneficial anymore.

[The New York Times @nytimes]

From @TheAthletic: The NBA Draft lottery is the ultimate schemer’s scheme, our columnist writes. "I’m extremely bullish on the league’s proposed lottery reform, which will vaporize any tanking incentives." https://t.co/d89Uhob2W1

[Jeff Mangurten @JeffGurt]

Banchero with the Don Nelson!
https://t.co/4Z2DRBNBfq

[Jeff Mangurten @JeffGurt]

@TheQumarZaman

[Jeff Mangurten @JeffGurt]

The overtime I'm watching must be incorrect...

[Jeff Mangurten @JeffGurt]

A side issue here is calling to blow it up and tank if a team doesn't win a ring in their first 2 playoff runs.

Nuggets won first title in 5th straight playoff appearance, Bucks 5th, Raptors 6th.

Celtics 2024 title was their 10th straight playoff appearance.

[Hardwood Paroxysm @HPbasketball]

The best thing we can do as an online community of NBA fans is normalize the idea that non-title success matters. Making a Final Four is a real accomplishment. Winning 60 games is awesome no matter how the playoffs turn out. Winning 50 games is a good season. Making the second round IS playoff success.

Everything that is creating problems for the quality of games that isn't the league's absolutely asinine schedule in the face of changes to play are caused by a root idea that everything short of the title is a failure.

[Jeff Mangurten @JeffGurt]

We're getting closer...dump the bottom 3 to picks 12-14 and there will be an almighty race to stay out of the bottom a la soccer. Would love to see 8-35 teams making trades to improve midseason to stay out of drafts picks 12-14.

[Kevin O'Connor @KevinOConnor]

Inside the NBA’s GM meeting this week: How concept #1 could be reshaped, why 22 teams vs. 18 is a debate, and the one idea that got Adam Silver’s attention. New column on @YahooSports on what lottery reform could actually look like: https://t.co/jhl4lrWgec