NBA News and Rumor Roundup 1/8/2025
Jimmy Butler's nuclear option, Derrick Rose's Chicago legacy, and, yes, more trade rumors
Aaaaaaand we’re back!
Welp, it has indeed been a past week of basketball, hasn’t it? Victor Wembanyama turned 21 and promptly showed everyone why a Spurs vs. Nuggets series is a necessity, CJ McCollum went for 50 points in the annual “Random 50-Burger of The Year” award, and Kawhi Leonard actually played basketball.
As you might presume based on the above, we have a lot to talk about — and I haven’t even hit the main points yet. Jimmy Butler is forcing the Heat’s hand, trade rumors are everywhere, and there’s just so much more to round up this week.
Quick interjection! I’m currently running a reader survey to help me understand what you guys would like to see (and, more importantly, wouldn’t like to see) from this publication in the future. It’s only 10 questions, so please do fill it out! I need all the feedback I can get here!
Now, let’s take a stab at it; it’s time for our primary recurring segment. Let’s talk about this week’s Kings of The Court!
This Week’s Kings of The Court
If you’re new around these parts — welcome! — this is a segment where I pick three players and/or teams from the past week of play who I deem Kings of The Court, which I understand may seem a little vague. To clear it up, Kings of The Court are not:
The absolute best players of the past week
The ones who averaged the most points (or assists, or rebounds, or…)
The ones who won the most over the past week
While any of the above can be true for a King of The Court, it isn’t the defining criteria. Instead, it’s about who I’ve personally been the most impressed by for various reasons, essentially giving you a list of the guys I think are really performing well relative to either previous performance or their normal play.
With that out of the way, let’s talk about our first King of The Court…
👑Evan Mobley, Playing Big Boy Basketball👑
Key Stats From the Past Week
23.7 points per game
37.5% from three-point range
57% shooting on post up opportunities (5th-best in the entire league with minimum of 2 attempts)
Bonus Stat: In a win against the Mavericks, Mobley became just the 13th player in NBA history to record 3 games of 30+ points, 10+ rebounds, and 2+ blocks on 50%+ shooting before turning 24.
This whole section could be dedicated solely to the Cleveland Cavaliers’ successes, but I want to focus on Mobley’s incredible development. Besides the obvious spacing that he’s provided all season, he’s been awfully physical compared to his first year or two in the league.
Case in point, he was just 1 of 15 players this past week to take 2 or more shots off of post ups, often turning his post up plays into sheer bully ball, such as in the play below:
Teams haven’t been able to find a solution for his antics. Under normal circumstances, you could lay off a big by dropping back into the paint, therefore preparing yourself for the onslaught that is to come. However, because Mobley has been shooting better than James Harden has this season from three — mostly off of catch-and-shoot opportunities, but still — teams aren’t able to defend him like a traditional big, but are required to do so in a similar vein to what opponents have been trying to do with Victor Wembanyama. As you might be able to tell, neither player is exactly being stopped by opposing defensive schemes.
Where he’s also shined over the past week is on handoff plays, which the Cavs have been using to get Mobley to the basket in what is a mix of both the handoff and a pick and roll. Even with a non-passing guard like Max Strus, it’s all too easy to get Mobley into the paint and do what he does best:
I think we’re at the point this season where we begin to have genuine questions about just how high Mobley’s ceiling is. He’s scoring nearly 19 points per game on 57% shooting, has hit over 41% of his threes this season, and is averaging over a block and a steal per game despite not being a score-first big in the vein of Joel Embiid — oh, and he’s under 24 years old. After extending his contract this past offseason for another five years, the Cavs look like they could contend for at least 3 of those, regardless of the presence of Donovan Mitchell and/or Darius Garland.
The Cavs are up, and it’s arguable that Mobley’s further development is the biggest reason why.
👑Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, In MVP Form👑
Key Stats From the Past Week
33.8 points per game
52.6% shooting from three-point range
Scored 39.6% of team’s points (4th out of all players to play 20 minutes or more)
Bonus Stat: SGA has recorded 30+ points, 10+ rebounds, 5+ assists, 3+ steals, and 2+ blocks in a game only twice in his career. Both have come this season, and he’s the only player outside of Luka Doncic to do so during the 2024-25 calendar year.
I would normally put Nikola Jokic here, but I can’t keep putting the NBA’s best player — yes, he is, and I won’t debate otherwise — as a King of The Court, or else it would get redundant. So, instead, this spot goes to SGA, who has been absolutely incredible in his own right over the past week.
The scoring has been absurd, as the stats above will tell you. Even with how deep this OKC squad seems to be, they lose 15 points per 100 possessions when SGA isn’t on the floor, mostly because he’s been inevitable from just about everywhere this season. In previous years, his inability to consistently create shots from beyond the arc has been the only so-called weakness he’s had, but his shot this season couldn’t be better. See the clip below, where he has the gall to pull a nonchalant stepback three-pointer against Jrue Holiday, one of the league’s premier perimeter defenders in those sort of very isolation plays:
The most interesting part of OKC’s offense — at least in terms of its SGA-centrism — is how the team has utilized Isaiah Hartenstein. In the absence of Chet Holmgren, Hartenstein has learned to become a crucial pocket-passing threat in a way that takes advantage of SGA’s cutting capabilities off the ball. Check out the two plays below, which are nearly identical in setup and identical in result: A made bucket from SGA.
Despite living in the Nikola Jokic era, SGA has continued to prove that he is the most elite and well-rounded player in the league right now on both offense and defense. He’s been swiping over 2 steals per game over the past week, has the mid-range game to keep defenses honest, and is absolutely unstoppable in the lane. OKC looks good — a full 7 games ahead of the #2 Houston Rockets in the loaded West — and SGA is looking like the definitive #1 option that some people doubted he could be just a few years ago.
👑The Freaking Detroit Pistons👑
Key Stats From the Past Week
4-0 record
104.1 defensive rating (3rd best out of all teams’ last four games)
Opponents’ eFG% is 51.8%, 8th-best in the league over the past week
Bonus Stat: The Pistons are on a four-game winning streak, marking the first time they’ve won four games in a row since March of 2019 — 5 whole years to win 4 straight games.
Ladies and gentlemen, the Detroit Pistons are playing winning basketball. In what has been a phenomenal two-week stretch for the team, Detroit has been gritty and turned up the defensive intensity up a notch. This week, a whopping eight players on the Pistons averaged over 1 steal per game, with Ausar Thompson averaging an absurd 3.7 swipes by himself. I talked about Ausar as one of my Kings of The Court last week, and he continues to show his defensive IQ and awareness in ways that keep this Pistons team alive and running:
On the offensive side of things, the team isn’t necessarily as potent, but Cade Cunningham looks the part of the superstar franchise player that fans hoped he be. Over the past week alone, he’s averaged 27 points per game to go with 8 assists, all while shooting above 48% from beyond the arc. He’s already gained the mark of a superstar in the fact that he makes his teammates better, and he’s allowing me to string together two words that I don’t think I’ve ever said about this team: Showtime Pistons:
It isn’t all fine and dandy in Detroit, though. Jaden Ivey, who has taken a big leap this season for the Pistons, broke his fibula against the Orlando Magic, which is expected to rule him out for the rest of the regular season. On the bright side, the injury looked far worse and a broken fibula isn’t a career-derailing one, but it was a tough sight to see with how well Ivey’s been playing this season.
Additionally, this team still needs to take care of the ball better, and that is a task that falls on Cade Cunningham himself as well. Detroit had one of the worst assist-to-turnover ratios over the past week and the third-highest turnover percentage. Without Ivey helping boost the team’s offensive output, Cade will have even more responsibility as an offensive engine and will need to clean it up a bit.
Still, Detroit is up right now behind the coaching of J.B. Bickerstaff and the superstar status of Cunningham.
D-Rose Gets His Due
Over the past week, former MVP Derrick Rose was honored by the Bulls — and the entire city of Chicago, for that matter — for the massive contributions he made to the franchise both during his prime and through what he’s done for the community.
From the celebrations, two of the community-based ones come to mind for me just because it shows how much the city of Chicago loves this man. First, the Bulls had Clybourn Park filled with flowers to make something of a mural for Rose, and boy is it a beaut:
The second and most heartwarming one, though, can be found in the reaction Rose had to January 4th being declared Derrick Rose Day in Chicago by the mayor, along with the Rose Garden being opened in Englewood to honor his contributions to the city:
And that was just the off-court stuff! The announcement that made the most rounds, for obvious reasons, was Derrick Rose’s upcoming jersey retirement ceremony next season, which was previously unknown to everyone — including Rose himself. While the video of him being keyed in on his own jersey retirement is a tear-jerker, the most emotional one has to be during his speech to both the fans and his own son, PJ Rose. In it, Rose talks about how his son will ask him if he wants to be good or great whenever he slacks, but it’s the tears from PJ Rose that really seal the moment home:
Of note, the Bulls mentioned that the #1 jersey will indeed be retired, with one condition: If PJ Rose, who I hear is quite good at the 6th-grade level — though how good you are in 6th grade is largely irrelevant for how good you’ll be in high school — eventually gets to the NBA and becomes a Chicago Bull, he’ll be able to take the number, which I think is a beautiful touch from the franchise.
For all of the failings of the Chicago Bulls, this is one of the few moments they appear to have done it right. Of Derrick Rose’s accomplishments during his injury-shortened prime, you have:
Youngest MVP ever
3X All-Star
NBA Rookie of The Year
All-NBA First-Team
Led the Bulls to first 60+ win season since 1997-98
Seeing him actually play an entire career at that level without the dreaded ACL tear would have been a treat, but the impact he’s had on Chicago cannot be understated.
Jimmy “Anywhere (Maybe) But Here” Butler
After weeks of murmurings and posturing within Miami Heat world, it appears that the Jimmy Butler era is coming to an end. After returning from injury this past week, Butler played just 25 minutes against the Pelicans, was put in the corner a lot, and sat the entire fourth quarter, showcasing what seemed lack an overall lack of effort from the Heat star. Then, after a report came out that the team was threatening Butler with a suspension, the franchise said that the report was “BS” and that it never considered doing so. And guess what?
The Miami Heat suspended Jimmy Butler for 7 games. So much for BS.
Then, post-suspension, Jimmy indicated that he wanted to be “anywhere but Miami,” and that he could make a contender out of any team, which feels like a real “monkey’s paw curls” type of moment — say hello to Utah, buddy — but I digress. Where did it go so wrong?
Well, this past offseason, Butler wanted a max extension from the Heat, and the Heat were unwilling to give said extension to him, causing something of a rift that has only been made worse by Heat president Pat Riley’s comments about Butler not being worth such a contract, among other things. Now we wait and see where Butler ends up next, which I would think would be resolved during his 7-game suspension.
There are a few options here. The most reported option is the Warriors, who could offer assets like Andrew Wiggins and Jonathna Kuminga, but recent reports state that the Warriors aren’t very interested in making a deal; this could be a bit of posturing, however. The Suns, too, have shown up quite a bit in the rumor mill, but making a deal is borderline impossible, as the Heat don’t want Bradley Beal in a trade or any long-term contracts. While a multi-team deal could be found via a team like the Nets or Jazz being able to absorb Beal’s contract, it would be very difficult.
Making matters worse is the fact that Butler’s contract expires this offseason, and it was previously reported that he would not sign an extension with any team he was traded to. One team that could swing for the fences right away in hopes of winning a title, though, is the Memphis Grizzlies. In an article for The Athletic, the always-great Sam Vecenie came up with a trade between the Grizz, Heat, and Pistons that actually makes sense:
Here, the Grizzlies consolidate some of their depth for a win-now effort, which is quite risky but could work out. Butler would immediately provide extra scoring and has the Grind City mentality already baked into him, while Alec Burks would be able to replace some of the shooting that Luke Kennard provided and is on a cheaper contract. Losing Brandon Clark and GG Jackson is hard, but the latter has been out with injury post-foot surgery, while the former would be somewhat redundant in the presence of Butler.
As for the Pistons’ inclusion in this trade, they’re just here to make the salary work. The likely don’t see Hardaway Jr. as a long-term piece (and he’s on an expiring contract), while Smart would provide intensity off the bench while fitting the J.B. Bickerstaff mentality. If the Pistons don’t want to keep Smart around, they could try to flip him to a contender for a bit of draft capital, but that’s outside the scope of this trade.
Finally, the draft compensation is where things might get a bit tricky. That 2025 first will be in the 20s, while the second-rounders, even for a team as good at drafting as the Heat are, are still just second-rounders. If the Heat are looking to fill in the gaps right away and still try to compete, though, this may be a palatable trade for them. Crucially, as Vecenie notes, there are good reasons to make this deal from a cap perspective, especially if you’re the Grizzlies:
Here’s another reason a deal like this makes sense: By removing the $36 million owed next season to Clarke, Smart and Jackson from the books, the Grizzlies could position themselves with cap space if Butler decided to depart or if they decided to let him walk. That would set them up perfectly to be able to renegotiate-and-extend Jackson’s contract in the offseason, as he’ll be entering the final year of his rookie extension that sees him paid only $23 million in 2025-26.
There is yet another problem, however. According to insider Chris Haynes, Butler has communicated with multiple teams, including the Grizzlies, that he would not like to be traded to their teams. This is a definitive shift from his “anywhere but here” mentality and could prevent a trade from actually happening.
We will likely know Butler’s destination soon, even if that destination is right back with Miami. If he does not get traded, he is expected to play post-suspension, but that could get ugly very quickly if his past history is any indication.
Jersey of The Week
For those of you who are new, this segment is where I get to flex my creative muscles a bit by designing a jersey (and sometimes an alternate as well) for a current NBA team. Last week, I put together a “Light Mode” and “Dark Mode” jersey set for the Orlando Magic, which is likely one of my favorites to date.
This week, I decided to put together one for the Thunder, but I didn’t want to go with their normal color scheme. Instead, because of the team’s original heritage as the Seattle Supersonics, I wanted to give OKC a Seattle-based city edition kit, at least until the Seattle Supersonics inevitably come back via expansion at some point.
Grabbing the trademark green and yellow scheme, I redid the actual OKC wordmark itself by throwing a lightning bolt in there, along with lining the sides of the jerseys with the bolt icon. To cap it all off, there’s a Supersonics Forever line at the bottom of the jersey, though it will likely be hidden when players tuck their jerseys in. You can check out the design below; let me know what you guys think in the comments!
Other News, Rumors, and Fun Facts
While the Warriors may not be going after Jimmy Butler, they do appear to be on the market for some key pieces. According to Marcus Thompson II and Sam Amick of The Athletic, the Warriors’ most-discussed trade target has been Bulls big man Nikola Vucevic. While few are truly paying attention, Vucevic has had a phenomenal season thus far, averaging over 20 points per game on 43% three-point shooting. While he doesn’t provide traditional big man defense (below the 50th percentile in defensive estimated plus-minus), he provides offense and spacing in spades, which the Warriors would love to have. Keep tabs on this one, as I think a trade for Vucevic is quite likely.
On Saturday night, Anthony Edwards scored a ridiculous 53 points against the Pistons, racking up jumper after jumper and shooting above 50% from the field the entire time. It was an absolute masterclass — except for the fact that the Timberwolves lost. Yes, in a game in which Ant scored over half of his team’s points (105 total in a 119-105 loss), his team lost by 14. He became the first player in Timberwolves history to score over 50% of the team’s points in a game and is also just the 28th player 24 years or younger to score 50+ on 50% shooting and lose and is the first in around 2 and a half years to do so — Darius Garland was the previous one.
Bradley Beal, after looking quite good off the bench on Monday for the Suns, noted in an interview that he “holds the cards” in terms of whether he gets traded — and he’s right. Back when he was with the Wizards, he was given the league’s only current no-trade clause, making him fully in control of whether he gets traded or not. Some reports say that the Lakers, Nuggets, and the aforementioned Heat are ones that Beal would be willing to waive his no-trade clause to be dealt to, but LA has few assets to work with, the Nuggets shouldn’t be that desperate, and the Heat just don’t want Beal in the first place. Keep tabs on this, because the Suns’ flexibility somewhat depends on his willingness to be traded, unless his bench gig turns out to be a worthwhile shift.
As I mentioned briefly at the beginning, Kawhi Leonard is playing basketball after what feels like forever. His first two games of his return from injury — both from this past week — were quite lackluster; however, they possibly showcased a bit of rust on Kawhi’s part. He scored 12 and 8 points in each game and shot below 37% from the field in both games. Still, the Clippers look quite good, and even a return to 70% of what he was in his prime would immediately make this team an interesting playoff dark horse.
Per the crew over at The Athletic (lots of reports from them today!), the Kings have had extensive talks with the Brooklyn Nets about forward Cam Johnson, who is being coveted by multiple contending teams. The Kings are reportedly looking to build around De’Aaron Fox and don’t want to trade him yet, but rumors are still swirling surrounding the Spurs, Rockets, and more eying the Kings’ star guard should he ask out.
After weeks of rumors, Amazon has added both Blake Griffin and Dirk Nowitzki to their upcoming NBA studio coverage, which kicks off during the 2025-26 season. Nowitzki had been rumored to join Amazon for a few weeks, while Griffin’s inclusion was less reported on, but the e-commerce giant turned media mogul is creating a really strong crew as part of the new media deal. Other inclusions are Taylor Rooks and Ian Eagle, and there will likely be more confirmations of hires in the following months.
The upstart Unrivaled basketball league, which looks to bring 3-on-3 women’s basketball to Miami with big payouts and multiple WNBA All-Stars, recently made a jersey announcement for all six teams. I’m not really a fan of the Phantom jersey, as it’s pretty meh, but that Laces jersey is soooo nice:
Speaking of Unrivaled, tennis superstar Coco Gauff was just announced as the latest investor in the league, joining other star athletes like Giannis Antetokoumpo, Michael Phelps, and Carmelo Anthony, along with multiple private equity giants.
According to Brett Siegel of ClutchPoints, multiple teams are eying two guards from the Utah Jazz: Collin Sexton and Jordan Clarkson. Namely, the Warriors and Clippers could go for either player, but the former would (and I’m assuming here) likely come at a higher price. Sexton is still just 26 years old, is shooting 43% from three-point range, and shoots well from the free-throw line, making him a perfect microwave scorer who can work better off the dribble than Clarkson can. His contract is up after the 2025-26 season and he’s being paid around $18.5 million per season till then, after which he’ll go into unrestricted free agency. Clarkson, on the other hand, is cheaper by about $4 million per year and goes into unrestricted free agency at the same time as Sexton, but is also over 32 years of age, making him more of an immediate-term play for a contender.
This past Friday, LeBron James broke the all-time record for most 30-point games in a career, passing Michael Jordan with 563. Now, Jordan did play at least 7 seasons fewer than LeBron has, but I’m not going to throw my hat into the GOAT ring here. I do think that Jordan was the better scorer (based on both the eye test and the above stat), though. Still, LeBron’s feats continue to get more absurd, especially as he plays on the other side of 40 years of age.
Here’s a fun box score stat for you: On Saturday night, Josh Hart was forced into playing 40 minutes by Tom Thibodeau, which isn’t super surprising given Thibodeau’s tendencies, but the interesting part is in the statline. Hart put up 10 assists, 16 rebounds, and, um, 2 points, making him just the 6th player in NBA history to put up 10+ assists, 10+ rebounds, and 2 or fewer points in a game while playing 40 minutes or more. Hyper-specific? Sure, but when somebody does something for the first time since 2016 and the 6th time ever, you bet I’m bringing it up!
On this day in NBA history (in 1993!), two major milestones occurred. First, Michael Jordan scored 35 points in a game against the Bucks, giving him exactly 20,000 points at that point in his career, which he reached at the second-fastest pace behind Wilt Chamberlain. Then, Robert Parish, the Celtics Hall of Famer, grabbed the 13,000th rebound of his career, becoming just the ninth player in NBA history to do so.
My Favorite Reads This Week
Kind of a self-plug, but also kind of not —
grabbed me and 9 other Substack writers to talk about who we thought was the best athlete of 2024. For me, I see “best” in different lights depending on the context, so I continue to flip-flop, but you can go read everybody’s takes on that here!In what feels like a repeat of history for the umpteenth time, Tom Thibodeau is running his guys into the ground.
recently wrote a piece about the Knicks’ bench (or lack thereof), Thibs’ tendencies, and more, which you can go read here.- just put together a piece reflecting on what is expected to be the final days of the Jimmy Butler Heat, along with making some arguments about Jimmy’s tendencies when it comes to actual culture and whatnot. It’s a good and thought-provoking read about a player that is both loved and, uh, not loved in equal measure, depending on who you ask. Go read that one right here.
- is a mainstay around these parts; he recently wrote about the Heat sans Butler, particularly in relation to Tyler Herro’s absolutely wild leap this year. He also includes one of the best basketball literary bars of the year thus far:
“Herro doesn’t have an explosive first step, but he’s become adept at using the threat of his three-pointer to get defenders out of their defensive stance. His dribbling is noticeably tighter. It gets to the point. A Hemingway novel, not Tolstoy. Every move is calculated.”
- Mike Shearer
You can go read the rest of his musings on the matter here.
- released all of the New Year’s Resolutions that he thinks each team should make, including (but surely not limited to) the Suns giving up entirely and languishing in their cursed franchise. You can go read all the other 29 resolutions right here.
That’s it for this week’s roundup! As always, more content is on the way for this weekend. In the meantime, read all of the fine Substackers’ pieces above. See you this weekend!