play1:52JWill on Wemby’s MVP case: He’s bringing old-school basketball to 2026Tim MacMahon and Jay Williams explain why Victor Wembanyama is a top candidate for MVP.
play2:50Why Stephen A. says NBA’s 65-game rule should remain in placeStephen A. Smith gives his perspective on why the NBA should not get rid of the 65-game rule.
Tim BontempsCloseTim BontempsESPN Senior WriterTim Bontemps is a senior NBA writer for ESPN.com who covers the league and what’s impacting it on and off the court, including trade deadline intel, expansion and his MVP Straw Polls. You can find Tim alongside Brian Windhorst and Tim MacMahon on The Hoop Collective podcast.Follow on X and Brian WindhorstCloseBrian WindhorstESPN Senior WriterESPN.com NBA writer since 2010 Covered Cleveland Cavs for seven years Author of two booksFollow on XMultiple AuthorsMar 27, 2026, 07:00 AM ET
Why Draymond loved and hated Wemby’s MVP comments (1:55)Draymond Green reacts to Victor Wembanyama declaring himself the front-runner for MVP. (1:55)
JWill on Wemby’s MVP case: He’s bringing old-school basketball to 2026Tim MacMahon and Jay Williams explain why Victor Wembanyama is a top candidate for MVP.
Why Stephen A. says NBA’s 65-game rule should remain in placeStephen A. Smith gives his perspective on why the NBA should not get rid of the 65-game rule.
What’s next after an eventful board of governors meeting?
That’s because the San Antonio Spurs, who also won Wednesday night, are a remarkable 23-2 since Feb. 1, leaving them right on Oklahoma City’s heels — and while also holding the tiebreaker thanks to a 4-1 edge in the season series. Despite their own stellar 15-2 mark since the All-Star break, the Thunder simply can’t break away, underscoring one of the biggest questions coaches, scouts, executives and players are asking:
That doesn’t mean just passing OKC in the standings. Or even winning the conference finals. League insiders are wondering if Victor Wembanyama and the Spurs can secure what would be one of the most shocking titles ever, an accomplishment that would buck the entire history of the league.
Jump to intel: Spurs will cause ‘full-on nightmares’ Expansion, tanking, more from BOG Injury storylines dominate East race
Brian Windhorst: I was at a meal before a game last week and watching the Spurs play on TV with a veteran Eastern Conference scout. We watched Wembanyama swat a shot at one end and then beat nearly everyone down the floor and finish the sequence with a dunk.
Tim Bontemps: And rightly so. One source after another who I spoke to this week praised the Spurs — beyond the obvious nightly brilliance Wembanyama provides.
“They’re a very good team,” an executive whose team has played San Antonio recently said. “They’re very well-coached. They’re very well put together. The combination of the group of guys they have is impressive.
Windhorst: The lack of experience is a catchall comment you often hear in the playoffs. But it absolutely matters. Reacting to the ups and downs, understanding the depth of preparation needed and managing fatigue from a long series are qualities that can’t be simulated during an 82-game regular season. But…
“Everyone says they don’t have experience, but they have a lot more than anyone gives them credit for,” one East executive said of the Spurs. “Harrison Barnes and Luke Kornet have championship rings. De’Aaron Fox is one of the league’s best clutch players and he’s been in the playoffs.
JWill on Wemby’s MVP case: He’s bringing old-school basketball to 2026
Tim MacMahon and Jay Williams explain why Victor Wembanyama is a top candidate for MVP.
Bontemps: The experience factor always comes up because teams simply do not skip steps when it comes to advancing in the NBA playoffs.
Since the NBA-ABA merger in 1976-77, only the 1977 Portland Trail Blazers and 2008 Celtics went from missing the playoffs to winning the title the next season. But both of those teams aren’t great comparisons, as the Celtics traded for veteran Hall of Famers Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen the prior summer, while the Blazers added another Hall of Famer, Maurice Lucas, in the offseason as part of the ABA dispersal draft.
The best historical comp for the Spurs might be the Shaquille O’Neal and Anfernee Hardaway-led Orlando Magic, who went from losing in the first round in 1994 to making the NBA Finals in 1995. Wembanyama is probably the best analog to a young Shaq rocking the rims for the Magic 30 years ago, and Dylan Harper and Stephon Castle are potential future star guards.
“History says it doesn’t happen this year, and projects against it,” a veteran scout said. “But they’re different. [Wembanyama] is different. It goes against all of my historical beliefs, but he’s generational.”
Windhorst: Let’s step back and recognize the Thunder challenge here. Regular-season success means little in the playoffs. Last year, the Celtics dominated the Knicks in the regular season, but no one cared when they went to Boston and got up 2-0. The Thunder have routinely demonstrated their ability to react to pressure and rely on different role players to deliver in playoff series. They’re 141-37 including playoffs over the past two seasons. Surely, that has got to be considered here.
“Let’s say Denver gets the No. 4 seed,” a West executive said. “That’s what our internal projections have. What happens if that’s a seven-game [series] again? That’s not the greatest draw for OKC. [The Nuggets] could wear them out even if they beat them again.”
Bontemps: It’s also worth pointing out another potential issue. While the Spurs have massive positional size across the board, their biggest Achilles heel in the playoffs could wind up being their lack of shooting.
Their three dynamic guards — De’Aaron Fox, Stephon Castle and rookie Dylan Harper — are all below average 3-point shooters. When teams get into the playoffs and get a chance to game plan for San Antonio, expect them to double off Castle, in particular, and force him to make shots.
Those are the kinds of things that, across an 82-game regular season, don’t come up too often. But in the heart of a playoff series, dealing with and overcoming those adjustments can be the difference between advancing and falling short.
“I think the 65-game rule has obviously had unintended consequences and needs to be looked at,” an East executive said. “But can we stop acting like it wasn’t collectively bargained for? It works to dissuade otherwise healthy rest.”
Why Stephen A. says NBA’s 65-game rule should remain in place
Stephen A. Smith gives his perspective on why the NBA should not get rid of the 65-game rule.
Bontemps: Where the league’s batting average is quite low is on lottery reform and on its efforts to curb tanking.
Since enacting the original version of the lottery in an attempt to curb tanking 41 years ago, the NBA has gone through several variations, only for the league’s race to the bottom to repeatedly come up as a controversial topic.
That decision has failed in the eyes of sources around the league. A decade ago, four or five teams were leaning into the act of tanking. Now we are annually seeing eight to 10 teams shutting things down after the All-Star break to try to improve their lottery chances and putting out an increasingly poor product.
In private conversations, no one — denizens of NBA headquarters, fans or members of any of the 30 teams — is happy with the current setup. That’s why Silver has repeatedly said there are extensive changes coming to the lottery system ahead of 2026-27.
But several league and team officials, publicly and privately, have agreed there is not a clean simple fix to this issue. It will be interesting to see what will come out of the special session of the board of governors in May, when the league has said it will unveil any changes to prepare teams for next season.
It was striking to hear Silver say Wednesday that he’s an incrementalist and that fundamental changes to the incentive structure need to happen — and to say both of those things in the same answer, and even to bring up potential CBA changes down the road to try to fix the problem.
So while Silver did say the league is going to “fix this — full stop,” doing so is going to be more difficult.
Bontemps: While the absence of Cunningham and the continued comeback for Jayson Tatum (he had 19 points,12 rebounds, seven assists and three steals in Boston’s win over Oklahoma City on Wednesday) have taken the spotlight, the injury updates across the conference don’t end there.
Max Strus finally made his long-awaited return to the Cleveland Cavaliers, giving them an extra boost on the wing as they try to get themselves whole ahead of the postseason. The Miami Heat are trying to figure out how to get Norman Powell and Tyler Herro working together after a season full of injuries in South Florida, a process that’s had plenty of speed bumps.
“It’s remarkable that Embiid can come back and, for the most part, look like he hasn’t missed any time,” a West scout said. “It shows just how talented he is.”
And in even more positive injury news, Tyrese Maxey and Kelly Oubre Jr. are expected to join them soon.
When Maxey suffered a finger injury on March 7 that sidelined him for an extended period, Oubre and Embiid were out with injuries and George was in the middle of a 25-game suspension. At the time, everyone in Philadelphia was privately resigned to the plan of simply avoiding a slide to 10th before the end of the regular season, hoping to have everyone back healthy for the play-in and try to win their way in and see what happens.
Things look remarkably different heading into April. Thanks to struggles from the Magic and Heat, in particular, Philadelphia finds itself in seventh, just one game out of fifth in the East standings.
The “if healthy” tag will remain firmly affixed to the Sixers roster. But the 76ers believe they can compete with any team when whole.
“They could beat Cleveland,” the West scout said. “[The Cavs] haven’t had Jarrett Allen, and he was playing really well with James Harden, so that changes things, but they feel the most susceptible [among the top four in the East].”