pranav

[pranav @pt120307]

@30DubsOnTop mid range 3s higher

[pranav @pt120307]

@30DubsOnTop ngl ur underrating some of these

[DiscussingFilm @DiscussingFilm]

Xolo Maridueña will reportedly return as Blue Beetle in ‘MAN OF TOMORROW’.

In theaters on July 9, 2027.

(Source: https://t.co/MKbIKioc9l)

[Shams Charania @ShamsCharania]

Developing: The Los Angeles Clippers-Toronto Raptors trade centered on Kawhi Leonard will not be complete until the NBA investigation into the Clippers is over. Statement from the Clippers to ESPN:

For the past 10 months, our organization has fully cooperated with an NBA investigation, participating in dozens of interviews, providing tens of thousands of documents, and facilitating access to our staff. While the process has been challenging, we have remained committed to transparency.

On June 30, we reached an agreement in principle to trade Kawhi Leonard to the Toronto Raptors. We have since been informed that the trade can only be finalized if the Raptors' ownership group assumes the risk of penalties related to Kawhi’s contract that could theoretically result from the ongoing investigation.  The investigation is ongoing, and we expect the trade to be finalized following its conclusion.

At the heart of this investigation are Joe Sanberg and Aspiration. We did not funnel money to Kawhi Leonard through Aspiration. Like many sophisticated investors, financial institutions, and business partners, we were victims of a fraud initiated by Sanberg, who has been convicted and sentenced to 14 years in prison.  

We recognize the uncertainty this has created and the impact it has had on our team, our fans, the Raptors organization, their fans, and the players whose futures remain affected while this process continues.

We remain confident that, when the facts are evaluated fairly and thoroughly, the NBA will confirm exactly what we have said from the beginning: We have not done what we are accused of doing.

[DUNE @dunemovie]

“Forgive me for all I’ve done.” Experience the epic conclusion. Dune: Part Three only in theaters and IMAX December 18. #DuneMovie #FilmedforIMAX

[Kylian Mbappé @KMbappe]

Madame Celeste Amarilla,
Vous êtes une femme méprisable et indigne de sa fonction.
Vous ne représentez pas le Paraguay, ce pays qui a transpiré la passion et l’honneur tout au long de la compétition. Par votre inconscience et votre racisme décomplexé, le monde entier a déjà oublié le parcours et l’effort historique que vos joueurs ont réalisés durant cette coupe du monde pour laisser place à une dame incompétente donnant la pire image possible de son pays.
Je ne laisserai jamais aux gens comme elle, la liberté de laisser propager leur haine et leur racisme à travers le monde.

[Miami HEAT @MiamiHEAT]

LET’S FREAKIN’ GO!

Welcome to Miami, @Giannis_An34!

[databallr @databallr]

I have some more thoughts on this trade from the perspective of the Boston Celtics.

When Brad Stevens decides to trade Jaylen Brown, a Finals MVP in his prime, he probably has some good reasons.

Boston has spent years winning in roster construction.

The Derrick White, Jrue Holiday, and Kristaps Porzingis trades set the Celtics up to win a title.

They've repeatedly signed contracts that have returned multiples on the court.

Queta. Hauser. Pritchard. Kornet. Garza. Baylor.

I am bullish on the Mitchell Robinson signing, too.

That is an organizational edge.

When Tatum and Brown are both getting paid supermax money, Boston becomes less flexible. The roster becomes more fixed. Their capital is tied up. The front office has fewer ways to turn its advantage into wins.

Flexibility is more valuable for a team that can use it well.

If you are going to trade Jaylen Brown after a 28 PPG season, given the success of this team, the evidence that the Celtics will not fall apart without him needs to be strong.

And the evidence is as strong as it can be in this situation.

Across multiple versions of this team, across different rosters and contexts, the Celtics have consistently produced elite results on the court without him.

The Tatum only lineups have annihilated the league.
Jaylen Brown has a negative 5 year RAPM in his prime. This is shocking.

This suggests Boston may not need this specific player at this specific price on this specific team.

Why?

Because they are playing AI hoops, also known as "Mazzulla ball."

Mazzulla ball is a strategy built on shot quality and possession math.

Make quick decisions. Turn the ball over less than your opponent. Take a fuck ton of threes. Crash the glass and capitalize on the extra misses taking that many threes mathematically creates. Defend.

Apply so much pressure outside the arc that a stressed defense concedes an easy inside the arc bucket marginally more often.

That is the machine.

High three-point rate. Low turnovers. Offensive rebounding. Defense.

And Jaylen Brown is not especially great at the things this machine values most.

He is a talented, physical, turnover-prone, two-point-heavy scorer who can get you tough buckets. This is not the ideal archetype for this system.

With Jaylen on the court, 44% of Boston’s shots came from three.

With Jaylen off the court, that number jumped to 51%.

With Tatum on and Jaylen off, Boston is shooting 58% of their shots from 3 in the last two seasons.

That is a clear shift in how they play.

With Jaylen, Boston is playing half Mazzulla ball. Without him, full Mazzulla ball.

The Jaylen Brown trade for Paul George and two firsts has people scratching their heads.

Look, Paul George is older. He has durability risk. He may decline more than expected. He has two years left at around $50 million per year. He may not end up providing much value to Boston.

But he fits the system.

He is an excellent three-point shooter. He can defend. He can force turnovers at an elite rate. I have very little doubt that he will improve Boston's defense in a tangible way. And, he can still get you tough buckets when the system needs one.

I have news for you guys.

The Celtics are going full Mazzulla ball next year. People thought they were taking a step back after their playoff collapse. No. They are going all in. If you don't like three pointers, turn the TV off, it's going to be unwatchable.

They traded away Jaylen Brown, an anti-Mazzulla ball player.

They brought in one of the best shooting forwards in the league in Paul George. A Discount Tatum at this stage of his career, if you will.

They just acquired one of the best offensive rebounders ever in Mitchell Robinson. He had a 21% offensive rebound rate last year.

Tatum Mazzulla ball without JB has been so effective, why not also just run Discount Tatum Mazzulla ball when Tatum is off the court?

They are going to try and shoot nearly 60% of their shots from three and clean up >30% of their misses.

Trading Jaylen for PG, picks, and flexibility is not a talent for talent bet.

It is a bet that Jaylen Brown's talent is less useful for this team's playstyle than his points per game and contract say he is.

A bet that the Celtics are not dependent on him to win in the playoffs.

A bet that having a talented tough-bucket scorer is less valuable than having everyone aligned in the same system.

A bet on Paul George still being impactful at 36.

A bet on Payton Pritchard thriving with more opportunity.

A bet on the front office continuing to make great decisions.

A bet that Mazzulla ball does not actually fail in the playoffs like many think, and that the increased variance of Boston’s three-point strategy potentially causing a series loss in the playoffs is an outcome with a probability they are comfortable living with.

And, of course, a bet that Jaylen Brown does not become the most impactful version of himself in Philly and make them regret it.

[pranav @pt120307]

@MrBeast 49623

[databallr @databallr]

Here's my explanation of why Jaylen Brown's offensive analytics are underwhelming:

Jaylen Brown is a great scorer.

But “great scorer” and “offensive engine” are not the same thing.

An offensive engine creates impact in 3 distinct ways:

1. Score efficiently on big volume
2. Reduce team turnovers while carrying huge usage
3. Create better shots for teammates

That is what people mean by offensive impact.

Not just: did you score points?
Not just: did you get assists?

Did the team score points more efficiently because you were on the floor?

Jaylen is interesting because he had a good scoring season. I estimate his scoring impact last year around +2, the best mark of his career.

But if we are asking whether he is an elite offensive engine, the bar is much higher.

Let's start with scoring efficiency.

Jaylen took around 36 shots per 100 possessions at 57.5% TS last season. ("shots" includes freethrow possessions).

At that volume, TS% (True Shooting Percentage) has enormous leverage. Every 1% of TS% is worth roughly +0.6 points per 100 possessions on the scoreboard.

So the gap between 57.5 TS% and 62 TS% is not cosmetic. It matters. That is roughly +2.5 points of offensive impact. Scoring at 62% TS would move him from a top 50 per possession analytics season to a top 20 one last year.

But right now, among high-usage offensive stars, the efficiency gap is clear.

Shai: 67.0 TS%
Giannis: 65.9%
Curry: 64.8%
Kawhi: 63.3%
Luka: 61.8%
Mitchell: 61.7%
Brunson: 59%

Jaylen: 57.5 TS%

Jaylen’s scoring still has value because the volume is massive, but he's not generating the impact that some of these other guys do from scoring.

The second path is turnover value.

This part is underrated. If you are using a huge number of your team's possessions, how often you turn the ball over before you shoot matters on the scoreboard.

Historically, a lot of high-volume creators give their teams a significant advantage in the turnover game. Jordan, Kobe, Iverson, Lou Will, T-Mac, Melo, Shai, Kawhi, Brunson types. All of these guys have generated significant impact from reducing team turnovers and it's clear as day in the impact analytics.

They shoot a ton, and they also help the team avoid turnovers because the possession ends in a shot instead of a mistake more often than the league does.

Jaylen does not provide that kind of impact.

His box-score profile estimates his offensive turnover impact around neutral, historically, and last year. The 5-year lineup data, and the eyes, agree.

That does not mean he is killing the offense with turnovers.

It means he is not creating the turnover advantage that many true engines create.

Let's look at a stat called "Scoring Turnover Rate". It is defined as non-passing turnovers divided by scoring attempts. It's typically the ball handlers fault when he turns it over on something that isn't a pass.

Here are some high usage scorers around the league in Scoring Turnover Rate (Lower is better)

Jaylen Brown: 10.3%
Giannis: 10.5%
Paolo: 9%
Ant: 6.6%
Shai: 4.4%.
Kawhi: 5.5%.
Brunson: 4.1%
Mitchell: 5.3%
Tatum: 6.5% (2025)

Lower is better, and when the scoring volume is massive this accumulates to a meaningful amount of turnover differences between players which translates to offensive impact.

You see Brunson scored at 59% TS, a down year for him, but he turned the ball on handling related mistakes, per scoring attempt, at 4.1% vs Jaylen's 10.3%.

If you are on-ball enough to shoot over a third of your team’s shots, ball security gets magnified. The skill of getting to your shot without losing the possession is a big part of offensive value.

Top players can generate up to +2.5 points of offensive impact from reducing team turnovers.

Imagine if you could just imbue Jaylen Brown with Kawhi's handle. How much better would you feel about him having the ball in his hands even if he was shooting the same shots at the same efficiency. Instinctively, you know it matters, analytically it undeniably does. Having Kawhi's turnover economy alone would move him from a top 50 analytics season to a top 20 one last year.

(Passing turnovers matter too and he's average there but it's less meaningful to discuss because he's not passing the ball that much.)

The third path is playmaking.

Jaylen took 36 shots per 100 possessions and generates only 13 potential assists per 100 (shots, if they were made, that would be an assist for JB).

He shoots almost 3x as much he directly creates a potential assist. He's much more of a scorer than he is a passer.

Shai is at 34 shots to 18 potential assists which is lower than 2:1 ratio. So you see, even the best scorer in the league has a more balanced distribution of shots and potential assists.

Jaylen averages only around 2 rim assists per 100, which is low compared to the best playmakers, so he's not creating obvious value via lobs and easy layups.

A scoring heavy profile can be great if the scoring efficiency and turnover efficiency are overwhelming like it is for Kawhi or Shai, but neither are for Jaylen. That's the problem. Just one of the two being elite, or both being good, can be enough to get him to engine status. But he has neither. Perhaps he can still improve.

But if the scoring efficiency is low for the top stars, and the turnover value is around neutral, and the playmaking is limited, the elite-engine case falls apart. It just does.

You have other players like Cade and LaMelo who have similar scoring efficiency profiles to Jaylen, but those players are elite playmakers according to both the analytics and the public. Not only are they passing the ball a lot more, but they are generating a ton of assists to players at the rim, which are markers of elite playmaking.

The point is not that Jaylen Brown is bad.

He is a positive player who plays a lot of minutes.

The point is that his team impact has been very weak for a supermax offensive centerpiece because he has not proven himself to be a real offensive engine.

The question is whether he can become one in Philly. I think the Boston system was a pretty awesome environment to thrive. If Jaylen Brown was playing elsewhere and traded to Boston I would be bullish on his fit there. I just don't really see Maxey and Embiid as being the type of players that fit particularly well with him and increase his impact. Its certainly going to reduce his usage, which might be good. I'm not sure JB is in his optimal role as a ultra high usage player with his current handling.

I think Jaylen becoming more impactful offensively is mostly about his own skill development as a handler/3P shooter, and an improvement in shot selection. There's a lot of upside for him if he does that. Most people can't create the shots that Jaylen does. So that's the thing with Jaylen.

In any case, I'm excited to see how it plays out next year.

As for who won the trade?

I like it for Boston. They are fixing a potential long term salary cap issue and bringing in PG who can provide 2 way impact Boston. He's a much better 3 point shooter and defender. His durability and decline is the main issue.

Really I think Philly is rolling the dice on whether Jaylen Brown can improve. If he does it could turn out to be an excellent trade. If he's the same player here as he was in Boston, I don't think it's a good trade. The contract is massive and the synergy with Maxey/Embiid is questionable.

[internet hall of fame @InternetH0F]

'Suits' star Rick Hoffman shows off incredible body transformation

[Shams Charania @ShamsCharania]

Free agent guard De'Anthony Melton has agreed to a two-year, $11 million deal to return to the Golden State Warriors, sources tell ESPN. There is a player option in the season of the deal as well.

[Jules “Hairy” Armpits @iraqismoker2]

23 years ago today Kobe Bryant refused to take no for an answer in a Colorado hotel room. #MambaMentality 🔥🔥🔥

[LeBron James @KingJames]

No, THANK YOU! Truly a honor to wear the 💜💛 while trying to continuing the greatness & legacies that came before me! Hope I made a few proud during my stint. 🙏🏾🫡👑

[Marc Stein @TheSteinLine]

The Warriors are at the front of the line in pursuit of LeBron James in free agency and league sources tell @TheSteinLine that Golden State is not operating as though it has a mandate to also pursue an Anthony Davis trade.

More from @JakeLFischer and me: https://t.co/K2otdALX1K

[Shams Charania @ShamsCharania]

BREAKING: LeBron James will continue his NBA career for the 2026-27 season and has informed the Los Angeles Lakers that the franchise can move on without him because he will play elsewhere, Klutch Sports CEO Rich Paul tells ESPN.

[Shams Charania @ShamsCharania]

Free agent center Kristaps Porzingis has agreed to a two-year, $40 million contract extension to return to the Golden State Warriors through 2027-28, with a player option in the second season, agent Jeff Schwartz of Excel Sports Management tells ESPN.

[The Draymond Green Show @DraymondShow]

👀👀👀 Tomorrow on The Draymond Green Show... https://t.co/fWRgWz0daa

[Shams Charania @ShamsCharania]

The opt-out comes days after the Warriors said they expect Green to pick up the $27.7M option. Instead Green delivers Golden State time and space to pursue Davis with the Wizards and convince James to join Stephen Curry, Green and his old Lakers championship teammate in the Bay.

[Shams Charania @ShamsCharania]

Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green is declining his $27.7 million player option to become a free agent, sources tell ESPN. This move gives the Warriors flexibility to pursue LeBron James in free agency and Anthony Davis via trade to form a Big 4.