‘We felt right at home’: Boston’s Game 4 win latest example of resiliency

The Brooklyn Nets held a bidding way between the Los Angeles Lakers and Memphis Grizzlies when they traded Dorian Finney-Smith. There were “hard feelings emanating from the both the Grizzlies and the Nets for the way it played out,” reports ESPN’s Brian Windhorst. Brooklyn traded Finney-Smith to the Lakers for D’Angelo Russell, Maxwell Lewis and three second round picks.

The Grizzlies were reportedly close to a trade with the Nets for Finney-Smith with them sending a top-17 protected first round pick in 2025 as part of the package. The Nets, however, were going to send back a second round pick. Brooklyn also would have took back the salaries of John Konchar and Luke Kennard.

Memphis has also been linked with Cameron Johnson, who the Nets have maintained will go for a higher price than Finney-Smith.

Sam Presti has been named the 24-25 NBA Basketball Executive of the Year. The Oklahoma City Thunder had a 68-14 record, which is tied for the sixth-best record in NBA history. The award is the first in Presti’s tenure with the Thunder.

Presti received 10 First Place votes, six Second Place votes and six Third Place votes to finish ahead of Koby Altman of the Cleveland Cavaliers and Trajan Langdon of the Detroit Pistons. Rafael Stone of the Houston Rockets and Lawrence Frank of the LA Clippers rounded out the top-5.

The current iteration of the Thunder began when Presti traded both Paul George and Russell Westbrook during the 2019 offseason. Those trades helped the Thunder acquire the likes of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Jalen Williams.