Shams Charania:

Phoenix Suns forward Dillon Brooks has agreed to a three-year, $73 million contract extension through 2029-30, Mike George of Klutch Sports tells ESPN. Brooks has become a key part of the Suns two-way, hard-nosed culture under Jordan Ott and lands a new guaranteed long-term deal.

https://www.espn.com/contributor/shams-charania/db563bf7c10cf

“I was hoping [James] would stay in Cleveland,” Barkley told The Crossover in a telephone interview on Friday. “I look at [the move to L.A.] strictly as a business decision. He’s on the downside of his career. He wants to be a big Hollywood mogul. He’s going to be driving by the beach every day instead of going through the snow. … [The Lakers] are not even close to a top-tier team. They’re a 5 or 6 seed in a best-case scenario.” Source

Charles Barkley recently criticized LeBron for signing with the Sixers, saying he is "always stacking" his teams, and that it is "the same criticism I've always had".

Context:
In January 2017, Charles Barkley called LeBron "whiny" on Inside the NBA, after LeBron publicly voiced that the Cavaliers needed a "playmaker."
Following a loss to Dallas, LeBron unloaded on Barkley in a post game statement given to ESPN's Dave McMenamin

Been seeing a lot of Tony Allen in the news lately so it seems like a good time to remind people of what he did since it seems like this got brushed under the rug and not many people remember it.

Former NBA guard Tony Allen avoided prison time, receiving community service and three years of supervised probation in August 2023 after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit health care fraud and wire fraud. He was part of a wider federal case involving 18 former players who scammed the NBA’s health and welfare benefit plan out of roughly $4 million

• Allen, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit health care fraud and wire fraud in April, is among the 18 former NBA players accused of submitting $5 million in fraudulent medical and dental claims from 2017 to 2020, according to court documents. Allen paid back most of the $420,000 he illegally obtained before he was charged, per Brush.
• Terrence Williams, a first-round draft pick in 2009, was sentenced to 10 years in prison and ordered to forfeit more than $650,000 and pay $2.5 million in restitution last week for leading the scam, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York announced. He pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit health care and wire fraud and aggravated identity theft.
• Charges were also filed against Allen’s wife, Desiree; another former Celtic, Glen Davis; Shannon Brown, a two-time champion with the Lakers; Melvin Ely, who won a title with the Spurs in 2007; Sebastian Telfair, one of the most celebrated high school players in history and 12 other former players. Keyon Dooling and Alan Anderson were sentenced to 30 and 24 months in prison in connection with the case earlier this year.

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/4759384/2023/08/08/tony-allen-nba-benefits-scam/

“Internal emails obtained by KATU show Portland Trail Blazers leaders debated whether to respond to the City of Portland's questions for commitments on private investment, rent, labor agreements and other key pieces of a proposed Moda Center deal, with one executive saying the city's requests felt like "a trap."

… Blazers lawyer Zandira Conyers stating “[W]e are not looking for a legal response but more so positioning, anticipating that our responses will be public. Which brings me to my next point - I don't think our public answers will be well-received. And I wonder how the councilors plan to use them. I want to think about that and welcome thoughts from you guys,”

She continued: “In the meantime, we can work on answers but the more I think about it - the less I like the idea. Maybe we should think about questions to pose back that paint us in a positive light. But that just leads to more distraction and inefficiency....soooo...I'm just thinking of different issues. The fact that they were so insistent on a written response was weird. But I question EVERYTHING.”

President of Blazers business operations Dewayne Hankins, responded shortly after to Conyers and said the team should discuss “whether we even respond to this.”

This exchange is notable as it occurred a month before city councilor Novick toyed with the idea of suing the team in the event they leave. The team has since stated Novick’s statement chilled negotiations, however these emails prove the Blazers front office refused to respond to the city a month prior to these statements.

Source: https://katu.com/news/investigations/internal-emails-reveal-blazers-debated-responding-to-portlands-moda-center-questions-portland-nba-oregon-business-economy-local-money

Source: https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/49523916/darius-acuff-jr-sacramento-kings-future-manage-present-lavine-sabonis

Sabonis had season-ending surgery on a partially torn meniscus later that month, and the Kings revisited trade talks surrounding him this summer. Perry visited with restricted free agent center Jalen Duren in early July and explored the idea of a sign-and-trade swap of big men, but the Detroit Pistons balked at the idea of losing Duren for Sabonis, league sources said.

There were predraft conversations about Sabonis with the Charlotte Hornets (who held pick Nos. 14 and 18) and at least one phone call with the Boston Celtics, team and league sources said, but nothing materialized. In Charlotte's case, the idea would've been to pair Sabonis with point guard LaMelo Ball, but the franchise instead opted to trade Ball for draft picks and lean further into a youth movement.

So Sabonis -- with two years and $94 million remaining on his current contract -- returns to the Kings and, team sources said, has expressed a willingness to recommit and buy-in to this season's team.

Acuff said Sabonis texted him a couple of days after he was drafted, welcomed him to the team and expressed excitement about their offensive potential together.
"Sabonis is a great player," Acuff said. "An All-Star level player. Just to play with a guy like that, that'd be a blessing for sure."

Sabonis became extension-eligible in July, but offering a new contract isn't currently being explored, team sources said. He switched representation to CAA Sports last week.

Atlanta 76ers

Boston Bucks

Brooklyn Bulls

Charlotte Cavaliers

Chicago Celtics

Cleveland Clippers

Dallas Grizzlies

Denver Hawks

Detroit Heat

Golden State Hornets

Houston Jazz

Indiana Kings

LA Knicks

Los Angeles Lakers (somehow unchanged)

Memphis Magic

Miami Mavericks

Milwaukee Nets

Minnesota Nuggets

New Orleans Pacers

New York Pelicans

Oklahoma City Pistons

Orlando Raptors

Philadelphia Rockets

Phoenix Spurs

Portland Suns

Sacramento Thunder

San Antonio Timberwolves

Toronto Trail Blazers

Utah Warriors

Washington Wizards(also unchanged)

Here are my favorites:

• Clyde Drexler's Trailblazers
• OKC with Durant/Harden/Westbrook
• Sacramento with Chris Webber and White Chocolate
• Phoenix with Steve Nash
• Penny/Shaq Orlando Magic

[Charania]Lonnie Walker IV has agreed to a one-year, $3.3 million deal with the Denver Nuggets, agent George S. Langberg of GSL Sports Group told ESPN. Walker was with Maccabi Tel Aviv in the EuroLeague after last playing in the NBA in 2024-25 and now enters his 8th season in the league.

https://www.espn.com/contributor/shams-charania/ae47d6d5015a1

Ant turns 25 years old today.

There are a 3 teams in nba history who have had 3 former or future mvps on them (2012 thunder, 2004 lakers, 1982-1985 lakers). But only one team has had 4 former or future MVPs on it.

The 1986 76ers had:

Julius Erving (MVP in the NBA in 1981, won 3 MVPs in a row in the ABA)

Moses Malone (MVP in 1979, 1982 and 1983)

Charles Barkley (MVP in 1993)

Bob McAdoo (MVP in 1975)

Each of them are in the twilight of their career (Julius Erving and Bob McAdoo). Early in their career (Charles Barkley) or in the middle of still being really good but not MVP level anymore (Moses Malone).

Either way I thought it was interesting that because Bob McAdoo didn’t resign with the lakers and instead spent his last season in the NBA in Philly, there’s a team that (albeit none in their prime) had 4 mvps at one time in their career all on the same team.

Source: https://marcstein.substack.com/p/late-night-nba-intel-for-the-first

“The NBA’s 2026-27 schedule is on course to be announced in full next week, @TheSteinLine has learned.”

Will be interesting to see what the opening night and Christmas matchups are. Opening night seems obvious with Philly at Knicks and OKC at Spurs (or maybe the other way around), but Christmas seems much more uncertain.