For better or worse, the NBA calendar keeps moving

The schedule affords little time to serenade the champions

Let’s talk about the condensed NBA summer schedule. In the last week, the following unfolded:

• Mark Walter, owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers, bought the Los Angeles Lakers for a record $10 billion.

• The Oklahoma City Thunder beat the Indiana Pacers in Game 7 to win the franchise’s first championship since relocating from Seattle.

• Kevin Durant was traded to the Houston Rockets, whose 2026 championship odds immediately jumped to the top five in the league after the transaction.

• The Dallas Mavericks selected Cooper Flagg, one of the best prospects of the last decade, first overall in Wednesday’s NBA draft.

All of those events, particularly the Thunder winning the NBA title, aka the whole reason we play and watch sports, should own headlines. Each event could independently carry talk shows for weeks at a time.

This overly condensed part of the schedule is another reason the NBA should consider shortening the season. A 66-game schedule feels right. Imagine an NBA season that started around Thanksgiving (therefore competing with football less) and ended in mid-June.

In this scenario, the NBA could then push the draft and start of free agency back to late-July. It would give the NBA champions their proverbial moment in the spotlight and allow for more media frenzy in the weeks leading up to the draft and free agency.

Fans don’t tune out when their favorite team is potentially weeks away from acquiring or losing a face of the franchise. Other than the meat of the NBA schedule, now is perhaps the easiest time to keep fans engaged in the league. The commissioner should figure out how to milk the draft and free agency better than they do now.

For those who didn’t see, bajillionaire Mark Walter also bought the Los Angeles Lakers for a record $10 billion last week! This comes just months after the Boston Celtics were sold in April for a then-record $6.1 billion. While I’d love to own an NBA team one day, this is getting expensive. It may be time to consider a backup plan.

Golden State Warriors owner Joe Lacob purchased the Warriors for $450 million in 2010; a number that was also a record at the time. Have valuations increased 2000% in fifteen years? I’m curious when the next time a sports franchise will be valued at $10 plus billion. The Dallas Cowboys or New York Knicks would have to be put up for sale if it were to happen in the next half decade.

If we assume the New York Yankees, Los Angeles Dodgers, or Warriors were auctioned off to the highest bidder, could any of them get a $10 billion valuation? I don’t think so. And yes, I know the same guy owns the Dodgers and Lakers. It’s just a hypothetical to illustrate the craziness of a $10 billion transaction.

Side note; do you think new leadership essentially buying out a locally beloved, player friendly owner is giving Luka Doncic PTSD? To be clear, the new guy in Lakerland, Mark Walter, has a pretty excellent track record with the Dodgers. But it’s unique for a player of Luka’s stature to have four bosses in three years. I’d imagine it’s weird for someone of his caliber to experience this many uncontrollable changes in such a short time period.

Taking a step back… it’s been a while since I’ve written. It’s a nice creative outlet, particularly when traveling and wanting to kill time on a flight. Generally speaking, a good amount is happening in life, in sports, and otherwise these days. Hopefully everyone is enjoying some fun summer travels.

In sports-related news, I’m obsessed with dynasty fantasy football. Even though it’s June – i.e. the dead point of the NFL season – I check updates from NFL minicamps and organized team activities multiple times a day. NFL minicamps and OTAs are relatively meaningless offseason programs where little is unearthed, and almost all the “news” out of these pad-less practices winds up being irrelevant. I know this, but still check my fantasy football app regularly because dynasty leagues rock that much.

In real-life sports, we all know the Warriors' season ended with a whimper after Steph Curry pulled his hamstring in Game 1 vs Minnesota. The wimpy exit from the playoffs should serve as a reminder of what is hopefully a widely known fact; that the Warriors are everything with Steph and next to nothing without him. I don’t think there’s much else for the Warriors to glean from that playoff exit.

We’ve been overwhelmingly dependent on Steph since 2012. Our 24-23 record from 2016 - 2019 without Steph Curry put us on a 42-win pace over a nearly 50-game sample. That was a team that employed Kevin Durant, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green, and Andre Iguodala at the peak of their powers. Yep, those apex Warriors played like a non-playoff team without Steph Curry. The point is, this Warriors thing always has been, and always will be, centered around Steph.

To their credit, I think the Warriors’ front office finally started to realize this over the last two or three seasons. They quit planning for the post-Steph years. They stopped drafting teenagers and started bringing in rotation players with a skillset well-suited for an offensive system predicated on passing and cutting.

Perhaps we relearned one thing from the loss to Minnesota; the Warriors desperately need more shooting. The 2025 Conference Finalists and NBA Finals participants (the New York Knicks, Minnesota Timberwolves, Pacers and Thunder) relied on lineups where at least four players could shoot threes at all times. Rudy Gobert, Isiah Hartenstein, Mitchell Robinson, and Thomas Bryant were the only non-shooters who played in the conference finals or NBA finals. Oftentimes, the respective coaching staffs opted for extra spacious five-out lineups.

The 2025 Warriors were a stark contrast to this modern style of basketball. None of Brandin Podziemski, Jimmy Butler, Draymond Green, Jonathan Kuminga, Gary Payton, or Kevon Looney are even average NBA three-point shooters. Forget above average. And with Moses Moody disappearing in the playoffs, Buddy Hield was the only non-Steph playoff contributor with shooting prowess. The Warriors need more shooting to be legitimate title contenders in 2026.

Golden State’s first, second, and third priorities this summer should be adding shooters. Whether it's minimum contract guys, a mid-level veteran, or a legitimately good third option like Cam Johnson or Lauri Markkanen, the Warriors need shooting up and down the roster.

For what it’s worth, the Warriors don’t lack resources. They can trade four unprotected first-round picks and have an owner who’s historically willing to spend money on transactions that move the playoff needle. Acquiring Jimmy Butler in February was an ultra-important first step, but what Golden State does on the margins this summer will determine how serious of a contender they are next season.

I was rooting hard for the Pacers in the NBA Finals. The vanilla, media-trained Thunder bother me. Despite fans usually gravitating towards the new guys, I don’t think I’m alone in this anti-Thunder sentiment.

Anyways, congrats to the Thunder. And congrats to the NBA on an interesting last week. I simply suggest making scheduling adjustments so this can be an interesting six or seven weeks rather than two or three weeks.