Are the Boston Celtics about to trade up in the 2025 NBA draft?
Are the Boston Celtics about to trade up in the 2025 NBA draft? The Celtics will head into the '25 draft armed with a pick in the first and second round each at Nos. 28 and 32, respectively. Likely in need of new talent for their big man and backcourt rotations with a potential departure of veterans Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis due to cap crunch issues, we have an idea of the sort of players Boston might be looking to add to their roster.
But will they have enough talent on the board by the time they are on the clock late in night one, and early in night two? We have heard some rumors that the Celtics' front office may be looking to trade up in the draft to secure a better player for their future -- how much fire is there to this particular smoke?
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The folks behind the "NESN" YouTube channel put together a clip from their "Hold My Banner" show, with guest Fran Fraschilla weighing in on who Boston might want to take if they do move up in the draft. Check it out below!
This article originally appeared on Celtics Wire: Are the Celtics about to trade up in the 2025 NBA draft?

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New York Times
21 minutes ago
- New York Times
Buss family sale of Lakers signals a new dawn for the franchise — and NBA ownership
The Buss dynasty has reigned over the NBA since 1979, when Jerry Buss bought the Los Angeles Lakers in what has proved to be one of the shrewdest deals in sports history. Since then, the Lakers have won 11 NBA championships, employed several of the league's most valuable and iconic players, and become the NBA's most glamorous franchise, a magnet for ritz and success. Advertisement It was bound to end at some point, but that future seemed far away. Wednesday, however, it struck like a thunderbolt. Jeanie Buss, the daughter of the family patriarch, will sell the Lakers to Mark Walter, a prominent financier, in a shocking deal that values the franchise at $10 billion. It is the largest sale in sports history, a number with the kind of sticker shock to match the franchise it involves. The sale, when it goes through, will not only end to the Buss family's hold on the Lakers, but might turn the page on a new era for the league. The NBA has long been run by voluble owners, including Buss, but the last half-decade has brought enormous change. One third of the league has taken on new ownership since 2019. In a matter of months, the Boston Celtics and Lakers have been sold, each setting new records and sending two of the NBA's historic teams into new hands. The small-scale style of ownership seems to be on its way out and no longer feasible. Their replacements have come in with audacious plans and ever-wealthier backgrounds, ready to spend to contend. Walter, if his time running the Los Angeles Dodgers is any indication, may be the apotheosis of this model, even if it will have to wait. He will not take over immediately after the sale is final. The Buss family trust, which currently owns a little more than 60 percent of the franchise, will still own 18 percent when the deal goes through, according to a source briefed on the sale, and Jeanie Buss will continue to serve as the team's governor. That matter has been written into the agreement, the source said. 'This cannot be Mark Cuban,' they added, referring to the Dallas Mavericks former owner who wrongly expected to maintain a key role in the team's decision-making tree. 'She will continue to run the team for a significant number of years after the deal closes.' Advertisement The Buss family's control over the team, unlike other estates, was not permanent. The trust says that the team would not pass down to the next generation and would end with Jerry's six children. Now, they have chosen when it will sunset, and taken a hefty profit on the $67.5 million investment their father made. Walter, a minority owner for the last four years, bought a right of first negotiation when he acquired his share in 2021, then made the family an offer they couldn't pass on. For all the Lakers' success under Buss and, in recent years, with Jeanie in control, the franchise was still flawed. The Lakers sometimes felt as if they were backed by a manifest destiny more than ruthless competence. They fell into a half-decade swoon as Kobe Bryant's career ended and through the first year of LeBron James' tenure in Hollywood. They were not known as one of the league's most aggressive investors into front office and coaching talent. Their basketball operations department lagged behind in size and spending behind small-market franchises like the Oklahoma City Thunder. They have not waged an all-out war against the league with the benefits of the economic inequality that being in L.A. has brought them. When Walter takes over, that could be different. It is what he has done in Major League Baseball, where the Dodgers have shown that the best part about being rich is acting like it. GO DEEPER How will Mark Walter impact the Lakers? Here are 5 key tenets of his Dodgers reign The Dodgers have won 100 games in five of the last seven complete seasons and two World Series trophies (2020, 2024). They are seen as the best organization in baseball, with its best front office. They have invested in development and innovation and, yes, talent, and found the right way to marry it all together. This season, the Dodgers will spend $476 million on player salary and luxury-tax payments combined. While that may not be possible in the NBA, where the new collective bargaining agreement is meant to suffocate its biggest spenders with punitive tax payments and roster-building restrictions, the Dodgers have not been cowed by the limits MLB has tried to set on them. They signed Shohei Ohtani to a $700 million contract but structured it so they only pay him $2 million a season. The money they deploy toward the roster is only part of their success. The Dodgers hired the best general manager in baseball away from another team. They recognize there is only a salary cap on players and nowhere else in the organization. 'A key difference between baseball and basketball is that you can't simply outspend everyone on payroll the way the Dodgers do,' an NBA executive said. 'But what most people overlook is how much the Dodgers invest beyond just players. They spend at an elite level on infrastructure: front office talent, analytics and player development. Each area is essentially run by a GM-level executive, enabling them to retain top-tier personnel across the board.' Advertisement Under Walter, the Lakers could become the best of both worlds, combining a small-market ingenuity with big-market largesse and press the advantages they already have. At a time when the local TV market is in flux, the Lakers have one of the best local broadcast contracts in sports. While other contenders scramble for stars, the Lakers traded for Luka Dončić under the cover of darkness. One thing that could get in the way of a decade of Thunder dominance is if an organization began to operate like Oklahoma City while playing in the second-largest market in the country that has also been a main attraction for the NBA's biggest stars. 'I think (Mark Walter) does everything he can to provide resources, support,' Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. 'He wants to win. He feels that the fans, the city deserves that. I think that's never lost. It's more challenging us always to, how do we become better and not complacent or stagnant to continue to say competitive with the market and the competition to win not only now but for as far as we can see out.' The Lakers have always had swagger, now they could have a systemic approach to go along with it. How Walter changes the Lakers remains to be seen, but it could continue to help change the NBA, too. He is soon to join a new cast of owners who have not eased their way into the league. Phoenix's Mat Ishbia has discarded any concerns about going above the second apron. Ryan Smith has dreams of turning Utah into one of the country's sports hubs. Joe Tsai's Brooklyn Nets signed Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving in his first year in control. Steve Ballmer, now a veteran, has paid for a sprawling front office for the LA Clippers. It is no coincidence, either. Valuations have skyrocketed for NBA teams over the last 15 years and the people who have bought them have come in with immense wealth and perhaps even larger aspirations. Sports teams may still be public trusts, but they are no longer just toys for the uber-wealthy. Every franchise is a multi-billion dollar business, and the people who own them are coming in from finance and tech, and turning the organizations they've bought to mirror the companies they run. Walter could make the Lakers a part of that arms race. He has already shown how he can in another sport. In Los Angeles, his purchase signals the end of one era and the dawn of another. After 45 years of Buss control, the Lakers might never be the same again. Fabian Ardaya contributed to this report. (Photo of Jeanie Buss: Will Navarro /NBAE via Getty Images)

NBC Sports
41 minutes ago
- NBC Sports
Thunder vs. Pacers Game 6: Four things to watch as Indiana tries to extend season
INDIANAPOLIS — Do the Indiana Pacers have another improbable comeback in them? Or will we see an NBA champion crowned on Thursday night? The way the Thunder have won the last two games and taken control of the series makes it seem like Game 6 could be the final game of the 2024-25 NBA season — but underestimate these Pacers at your own risk. Especially on their home court. Here are four things to watch in Game 6 Thursday night: Tyrese Haliburton Everything Game 6 starts — and the Pacers' season could end — here. Haliburton has a left calf strain, one that slowed him considerably in Game 5 when he scored four points on 0-of-6 shooting. He is the orchestrator of Indiana's high-paced offense, and if he's not playing at his All-NBA best, it's a massive advantage for the Thunder in a series where games have swung on the thinnest of margins. Haliburton, for his part, was clear that he planned to be on the court Thursday. 'I'm a competitor; I want to play. I'm going to do everything in my power to play,' Haliburton said. He has been undergoing around-the-clock treatment to make sure he is on the court. 'Massage, needles, hyperbaric, H waves. Everything you can do to get as comfortable as you can going into it,' Haliburton said, adding he is just following the instructions of the team's medical staff. 'The right tape and stuff while I am performing.' Haliburton went through the Pacers' light practice on Wednesday, got up some shots, and was walking without a limp. However, Pacers' coach Rick Carlisle was more cautious about Haliburton's status. 'He participated in all our walk-through stuff. But it's a walk-through, so there was no real running,' Carlisle said. 'We'll see. We'll see where we are tomorrow... We will not really know for sure until late tomorrow afternoon or early evening.' Expect more Pascal Siakam initiating the offense, more T.J. McConnell, and Carlisle is ready to lean into whatever role player gets hot at home. It's still not the same without Haliburton. The Pacers are 12-3 this postseason when Haliburton scores at least 20 points. Does he have that kind of night in him? The Pacers need him to. Did OKC learn from Denver Game 6? Oklahoma City has been here before. They were up 3-2 on the Denver Nuggets and, with the chance to put the Nuggets away in the Mile High City, the Thunder didn't come close. Jamal Murray scored 25 points, Christian Braun added 23 points and 12 rebounds, but this will mostly be remembered as the Julian Strawther game, he scored 15 second-half points off the bench to spark Denver and force a Game 7. What can Oklahoma City take away from that Game 6 and bring to Indianapolis? 'Don't get complacent. Don't look too far ahead,' Cason Wallace said. 'We gotta take it one game at a time. I feel like we were, we're a little relaxed in that game, so just knowing that we can't, we can't make that same mistake again.' 'I feel like we didn't control the controllables,' Alex Caruso said of the Game 6 loss in Denver. 'That's what we do. It's what we have to do in this game.' To a man at practices on Wednesday, the Thunder players discussed not getting ahead of themselves, staying in the moment, and coming out like the series is 0-0. 'We just got to come out with desperation again..' Isaiah Hartenstein said, referencing how the team played in Game 5. 'So we're not going to come in acting like everything's sealed, everything's done. They're going to come out with desperation. They're a great team, and we're and we're going to come out with the same and probably, maybe even more desperation.' Can Indiana take care of the ball? Haliburton's injury was part of what stalled out the Pacers' comeback dream in Game 5. The other thing was turnovers. Indiana had 23 turnovers that led to 32 Oklahoma City points. The Thunder had 13 more scoring opportunities on the night and won the possession battle, primarily because of the turnovers. 'That's the game. We've got to do a heck of a lot better there,' Carlisle said. The Thunder ball pressure will be back. Can the Pacers handle it? Shai Gilgeous-Alexander on cusp of history LeBron James in 2013 in Miami. That was the last time a player won the NBA MVP, the Finals MVP, and an NBA championship in the same season. It's happened just 15 times since 1970. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is one win away from that. Not that he was going to discuss the idea. 'The cusp of winning is not winning,' he said. 'The way I see it, winning is all that matters. It hasn't been fulfilled. We haven't done anything, the way I see it.' Gilgeous-Alexander and the Thunder do need one more win, and if Jalen Williams has another massive night in Game 6, he could be voted Finals MVP. Still, SGA is on the cusp of history, as are the Thunder as a team, and it's something to watch.


USA Today
an hour ago
- USA Today
Sixers draft history: Tyrese Maxey selected No. 21 overall in 2020
Sixers draft history: Tyrese Maxey selected No. 21 overall in 2020 With the NBA draft right around the corner, now is the time to look at some past drafts and see what the Philadelphia 76ers have done in their history. The Sixers have selected some big-time players in the past who have become an important part of the fabric of the franchise's history. This edition now turns to the 2020 draft as the Sixers were looking to bounce back after being swept out of the playoffs in Round 1 by the Boston Celtics. With the No. 21 pick in the draft, the Sixers were gifted Kentucky star Tyrese Maxey who fell into their laps. Maxey made an impact right away as he averaged 8.0 points and 2.0 assists off the bench--including scoring 39 points in a matchup with the Denver Nuggets when the Sixers were dealing with the health and safety protocols--and he used that as a springboard. He became a starter in his second season amid the Ben Simmons saga and then averaged 25.9 points, 6.2 assists, and 3.7 rebounds on his way to being named an All-Star and Most Improved Player in the 2023-24 season. Maxey, just like almost every Sixer on the roster, dealt with injuries in the 2024-25 season as he was limited to just 52 games. He averaged 26.3 points and 6.1 assists, but his shooting percentages were down to just 43.7% from the floor overall and 33.7% from deep. As he prepares for the 2025-26 season, Maxey will have to make sure he is healthy and hope Joel Embiid and Paul George can join him as Philadelphia gears up for another title run.