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The HoopsHype Daily: LeBron James continues to make history, setting records we didn’t even know existed

Just when we thought we had seen it all, Lakers forward LeBron James set another record on Tuesday night, and it’s one of his craziest yet.

RIDICULOUS: After dropping 25 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists against the Oklahoma City Thunder, LeBron James is now the first player in NBA history with a triple-double recorded against every single NBA team. The most hilarious part is that LeBron admitted after the game that he didn’t even know he had just earned that insane distinction, and instead thought that when head coach Frank Vogel singled him out in the locker room after the game, that he was about to be called out on his seven turnovers against Oklahoma City.

The other players trailing James in regards to this record are Russell Westbrook, who has triple-doubles against 29 teams (he also faces the Thunder this year with a shot to tie LeBron’s new record), and Jason Kidd, who got triple-doubles against 28 teams.

🏆 LeBron is currently No. 2 in our MVP rankings behind Giannis Antetokounmpo. Only Michael Jordan and Karl Malone have won the MVP award in their Age 35 season. Could LBJ be third?

PREDICTABLY RUSTY: Carmelo Anthony started, missed 10 of 14 shots and turned the ball over five times in his first game with the Blazers, a loss vs. New Orleans. Here we broke down how good of a fit he’s with Portland.

💰 If he stays with the team for the rest of the season, Melo will make $2.1 million. That’s not even one percent of his career earnings.

DINWIDDIE VS. THE NBA: The standoff between Spencer Dinwiddie and the NBA on whether he can convert his contract into digital coin continues, and doesn’t look to be ending anytime soon.

KING’S RANSOM: An executive stole $13 million from the Sacramento Kings. This is how he did it.

RILEY SPEAKS: Miami Heat team president Pat Riley talks about Miami’s early success this year and whether or not he’s eyeing a big move down the line. Considering the Heat currently sit at 9-3, rank in the Top-5 in net rating and have an elite young core on cheap deals surrounding All-Star Jimmy Butler, they might be wise to stand pat (no pun intended), at least for the time being.

FROM AFRICA TO THE NBA: Joel Embiid, Hakeem Olajuwon and Dikembe Mutombo join The Athletic to discuss legacies, basketball in Africa, Embiid’s future – and much more.

DEFENDING AIN’T EASY: Lonzo Ball opens up about the five players he’s faced who were the most difficult to guard.

NOT ON THE HOT SEAT? Knicks owner James Dolan continues to give head coach David Fizdale his vote of confidence.

FREE AGENCY NEWS: Sneaker king PJ Tucker is close to signing a deal with Nike.

LAMELO’S LIFE: Bleacher Report on 2020 draft prospect LaMelo Ball and his life in Australia.

COACHING AN ALL-TIME GREAT: Sports Illustrated’s Chris Mannix reports about Frank Vogel and the intriguing dynamic of coaching LeBron James, including comments from Vogel himself.

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The HoopsHype Daily: Luka Doncic has been playing like a legit MVP candidate, and he’s not slowing down

Doncic started the year off hot, and he’s only getting better. A 42-point triple-double last night had Doncic looking like a future MVP.

MVP PERFORMANCE FOR LUKA: Luka Doncic exploded yet again on Monday night, dropping 42 points, 11 rebounds and 12 assists against the Spurs, including this huge shot to seal the victory for Dallas. At 20 years and 263 days old, he’s the youngest player to ever post a 42-point triple-double, surpassing LeBron James, the previous owner of the record, who did it when he was already 21.

On the year, Doncic is now averaging 29.5 points (fifth overall league-wide), 10.7 rebounds (12th league-wide) and 9.3 assists (second league-wide) per game. He’s the only player this season posting a 29/10/9 stat line, and he’s doing it as a 20-year-old, which is just unfathomable.

🏦 Oh, and he’s currently just the 160th-highest paid player in the league, making Doncic by far the best value contract in the league. Like the NFL strategy of drafting an elite quarterback and spending on filling out the rest of the roster, the Mavericks have a great chance to build a sustainable winner over the next couple of seasons, before Doncic gets his max extension.

Then again, even when the Slovenian superstar is earning a max salary, he’ll still be worth every penny, so the Mavericks are set as long as they have Doncic leading the way.

LEBRON-AD CONNECTION: LeBron James is passing the ball to Anthony Davis more often than any other past teammate, including Dwyane Wade, Kyrie Irving and Chris Bosh.

NEW POD: Alex Kennedy is joined by The Rookie Wire’s Cody Taylor to evaluate the top first-year players in the league this season.

LOVE HAPPY IN CLEVELAND: Cavs big man Kevin Love has heard the trade chatter, but he’s staying loyal to the Cavaliers… for now.

VETERAN WAIVED: The Rockets announced on Monday that they were waiving veteran big man Ryan Anderson. He hasn’t been effective in a few years now, so this might be it for him.

MORE MISSED TIME: Kawhi Leonard missed his third game in a row last night due to a left knee contusion.

LAST NIGHT IN THE ASSOCIATION: Two noteworthy streaks continued in the NBA last night – one good and one bad.

🚀 As far as the good one: The Rockets won their eighth game in a row, obliterating the struggling Blazers 132-109 behind a 36-point effort from James Harden. Harden’s been so insanely productive as a scorer this season that dropping merely 36 points actually brought his scoring average down from 39.5 points per game to 39.2.

😳 And now for the bad: The Spurs dropped their sixth game in a row, falling to Dallas 117-110. That losing streak matches their longest since Gregg Popovich’s first full season as head coach, all the way back in… 1997-98. It’s starting to look more and more like this could be the first season San Antonio misses the playoffs since 1996-97.

NEW LEVEL UNLOCKED: Coming into this season, Jimmy Butler had never averaged more than 5.5 assists. This year, he’s at 7.2 with an impressive 31.8 percent assist rate. His teammate and head coach discuss his new playmaking chops.

NO RINGS FOR YOU: The Raptors won’t be giving any of the players they traded mid-season last year – Jonas Valanciunas, Delon Wright or CJ Miles – championship rings. Mind you, Drake did get a championship ring from Toronto. So did one of their super fans. Not the best look.

WINGS WHO BOARD: The Ringer theorizes that the next great market inefficiency in the NBA will be wings who rebound the ball well.

LOAD MANAGEMENT, CONTINUED: There are more ways to load manage a player besides making them sit out games; the Thunder are leaders in this field.

MALICE REVISITED: The Athletic interviewed former NBA commissioner David Stern to relive Malice in the Palace, with a focus on all of the events that followed it.

GAME, BLOUSES: Dave Chapelle showed up at Lakers practice yesterday. That is a thing that happened.

SUPERMAN’S HOME FOR SALE: Shaq is selling his 5200-square foot home for $2.5 million.

Z-BO ON A FAR AND DISTANT LAND: Zach Randolph, now a part owner of a team in the NBL, gives his thoughts on Australia. 

NEW TNT SIDELINE REPORTER: Yahoo Sports’ Chris Haynes will be TNT’s new sideline reporter on Tuesday nights.

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The HoopsHype Daily: We take a look at the numbers to determine how sustainable the Lakers’ early success is

The Lakers are off to a strong start. We took a look at their strength of schedule to determine if this is real or fool’s gold.

JUST HOW LEGIT ARE THE LAKERS? The Lakers reeled off their fourth win in a row on Sunday, beating down the Hawks 122-101, bumping their record to a league-best 11-2 for the season in the process. Considering it’s the first time in a while that the Lakers look this good, it forces one to wonder: Is this real? For what it’s worth, the advanced numbers do love them, with both net rating and defensive rating calling Los Angeles the strongest team in the Association thus far this year.

But it must also be noted that to this point, the 13 teams that the Lakers have faced this year have a combined record of 78-85, which is middling as far as strength of schedule is concerned. What’s more, only five of their games have come on the road. So there might be just a touch of fool’s gold involved with the team’s dominant record early in 2019-20. At the same time, however, they are led by LeBron James and Anthony Davis, two of the best players in the world, and they do have an elite defense thanks to their top-notch rim protection, so Los Angeles is undoubtedly a legitimate contender.

🏀 Speaking of LeBron, the four-time league MVP is averaging 24.3 points per game this season, and owns the longest double-digit scoring streak in the regular season in league history. Michael Jordan and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar are not even that close.

DEPLETED WARRIORS: The hits keep on coming for the Warriors, who will now be without All-Star guard D’Angelo Russell for at least two weeks. It’s so bad that Draymond Green has been forced to play the point.

🏥 Warriors players have missed a combined 75 games due to injury so far this season. The second NBA team in the ranking? 38.

BEHIND THE SCENES ON BIG SIGNING: Adrian Wojnarowski on how the Melo-Blazers marriage came to be.

WHO WANTS SOME J-CROSSOVER? Jamal Crawford, 39, is baffled he’s not in the NBA right now.

MO WAGNER, FLOP MASTER: Call it flopping, call it great defense, call it whatever you want, but Wizards big man Moritz Wagner has been statistically outstanding at drawing charges this season.

IN DEPTH WITH VETERAN TRAINER: NBA trainer Joe Abunassar has trained an insane amount of NBA players, including guys like Kevin Garnett, Kawhi Leonard and DeMarcus Cousins. He recently went on the HoopsHype podcast with Alex Kennedy and had a lot of interesting things to say.

A KEEPER: Per Shams Charania, some contenders expected Phoenix to eventually buy out Aron Baynes’ contract during the season. With the way Suns and Baynes are performing, that’s the longest of shots right now.

TEAMS EYEING DUNK CHAMPION: In that same piece, Charania also reported that teams are eyeing Magic swingman Aaron Gordon for a potential trade, but that Orlando isn’t interested at the moment. 

FEEL-GOOD STORY: Aaron Gordon teammate Markelle Fultz scored a career-high 19 points Sunday. He’s been great scoring in transition this season, and Orlando has been a better team with him on the floor, despite his shooting struggles.

📷 Since we’re on the topic of transition scoring, Fultz also had a game-sealing steal and dunk (in transition) on Sunday, throwing down this monster slam over Washington. 

FROM DYNASTY TO THE TOP OF THE LOTTERY: If they continue on the winning pace they’re currently at, the Warriors will set the record for biggest year-to-year drop in win percentage in league history.

GOAT SUPPORTING GOAT: Kobe Bryant made a rare appearance at the Lakers’ Sunday night game, sitting courtside with his daughter for the contest and dapping up LeBron James, Anthony Davis and Dwight Howard throughout the evening.

HE DID… THAT? Did… anyone know Danny Green could get up this high? Judging by Dwight Howard’s reaction, he certainly didn’t.

OUCH: The Celtics saw their 10-game win streak snapped by the Kings on Sunday. The way the contest ended was particularly brutal (at least if you’re a Boston fan), as Marcus Smart had a good look to win it at the buzzer, but saw his floater roll around the rim before ultimately missing.

DEROZAN VS REFEREES: DeMar DeRozan has been pretty outspoken against what he deems to be poor officiating this season. Now, he says he’s going to start flailing and flopping his way to calls. He should watch more James Harden tape for a good guide on how to do that.

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The HoopsHype Daily: With the Blazers off to an alarmingly slow start, they turn to Carmelo Anthony for help

Just when it looked like Carmelo Anthony’s NBA playing days were over, the Blazers are reportedly signing him to help fix their offense.

MELO BACK: Just like that, Carmelo Anthony is back in the NBA. After a lot of speculation over the summer about whether or not a team would take a shot on the future Hall-of-Famer, the Portland Trail Blazers decided it was time to try and revamp their lineup with Anthony and his vaunted scoring prowess.

Makes sense, too, because as is, if the playoffs started tomorrow, the Blazers (4-8) would finish the season as the West’s No. 13 seed and three games out of the postseason. And they rank 18th in net rating at -1.2. So although the Blazers’ players themselves may not have been panicking quite yet, it’s obvious Portland’s front office knew they needed more firepower on offense for the team to have a chance to turn things around.

This season, the Blazers are scoring a mediocre 107.9 points per 100 possessions on offense, good for the 14th-best mark in the league. Last year, they were the NBA’s third-ranked offense, scoring 113.7 points per 100 possessions. What’s more, their biggest deficiency in their starting 5 is at the 4-spot, where they’ve been forced to trot out the likes of Anthony Tolliver, Mario Hezonja and Nassir Little over recent games due to injury. Anthony may not be able to change things on his own, but he’s a clear upgrade over those guys.

👀 In his last bit of NBA action, Anthony averaged 13.4 points and 5.4 rebounds per game for the Houston Rockets, who, coincidentally, will be Portland’s opponent on Monday night.

NO LONGER A BUST? Over the past five games, Andrew Wiggins is averaging 31.6 points, 5.0 rebounds and 6.0 assists per game, to go with 1.2 steals and 1.4 blocks. It’s easily the best stretch of his career, one that had been labeled – rightfully – as disappointing prior to this year. Has he finally turned the corner? We examined his game to see if his newfound level of play is sustainable.

💰 The Timberwolves better hope it’s sustainable, considering Wiggins is the 28th-highest paid player this season and is still owed another $122.2 million on his contract.

NEW YORK’S SIDE OF THINGS: According to ESPN’s Brian Windhorst, the Knicks didn’t want to trade for mega-star Anthony Davis because giving up so much draft capital and young talent to land him would… undercut their long-term plan. Sure thing, Knicks.

PG-13’S IMPRESSIVE RETURN: Last night, Paul George suited up for the first time this season, and he picked up right where he left off. The supremely talented forward went off for 33 points (on just 17 field-goal attempts), nine rebounds and four assists. The Clippers did lose, though, falling to the lowly, injured Pelicans 132-127.

MORE INJURIES: Caris LeVert will be out 4-6 weeks after undergoing surgery to repair ligaments in his thumb.

COACH-PLAYER DYNAMIC: Goran Dragic was two years removed from being an All-Star, and yet, Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra thought it best that he comes off the bench this season for Miami. He pitched the idea to him at a private brunch attended just by the two parties. Dragic accepted his decision, and is now playing great basketball as a reserve.

BEHIND THE SCENES OF A MAJOR TRADE: From the original trade request to behind-the-scenes drama, Bleacher Report reports on the Kristaps Porzingis deal out of New York that landed him with the Mavericks.

PORZINGIS BACK IN THE BIG APPLE: For the first time since that trade, Porzingis played in Madison Square Garden last night, scoring 20 points and securing 11 rebounds in a 106-103 Mavericks loss. He got booed early, often and loudly, and was on the receiving end of consistent “KP sucks!” chants.

UPSIDE OF LOAD MANAGEMENT: The Athletic’s resident sports-medicine writer goes in depth on load management and whether it actually helps prevent injury in the NBA. Spoiler alert: The jury is still out on the matter.

FULTZ IMPROVING? His three-point shooting is still a huge negative, but The Athletic did a nice job of highlighting Markelle Fultz’s strengths this season, including the fact that the Magic are better with him on the floor.

CULT LEGEND SPEAKS: Tony Allen, one of the feistiest perimeter defenders ever, spoke out on the whole “Patrick Beverley isn’t actually a great defender” thing that Russell Westbrook brought up a couple nights ago.

🤔 Though Allen disagrees with Westbrook on Beverley not being great on defense, he does think Beverley’s extracurricular stuff – i.e., all the trash talk – actually motivates his opponents, which can be quite costly since the Clippers point guard is usually defending the other team’s best player. Interesting perspective from someone who knows what he’s talking about in this area.

BUY OR SELL: NBC Sports’ Tom Haberstroh played some buy-or-sell on various topics, including Luka Doncic’s MVP candidacy and the Suns’ chances to actually make the playoffs.

NBA INNOVATION: Not many people know her name or who she is, but Amy Brooks, the NBA’s Chief Innovation Officer, has an extremely important role within the league, as she’s in charge of advising teams on ways to innovate, and driving change at the league level. One of her first jobs dealt with the NBA’s new ad patches on the jerseys. 

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The HoopsHype Daily: From multiple angles, the Rockets and Clippers gave us the funniest game of the year

The Rockets/Clippers rivalry, best known for the post-game tunnel fight a few seasons back, added yet another chapter to their book.

A BOLD PREDICTION: James Harden spoke to Stephen A. Smith prior to Wednesday night’s game against the Clippers and predicted the Rockets were going to win the title this season. The league MVP looks confident in his team’s chances (to say the least), and he’s backing it up with his play in a big way. Houston won their fifth game in a row last night, with Harden accounting for a tidy 47 points, bumping up his scoring average for the season to 38.2 points per contest. If Harden is able to keep up that insane point-per-game mark, it’d be the highest scoring average for a full season since 1962-63, when Wilt Chamberlain averaged 44.8 points for the then-San Francisco Warriors.

🥊 After the game, Russell Westbrook had an interesting comment about longtime rival point guard Patrick Beverley, telling the media that Beverley has them fooled about his defensive prowess, and that he just runs around doing nothing during games. Hilarious.

RIVERS-ON-RIVERS CRIME: Apparently we can’t have a Rockets/Clippers game without a whole bunch of petty drama, because on top of the Westbrook-Beverley stuff, there was also a great moment late in the game when Austin Rivers, who plays for Houston, was lobbying to get his father, Clips head coach Doc Rivers, ejected from the game. It worked, too.

😂 The younger Rivers went on Twitter after the game and said Thanksgiving is about to be awkward.

NEW SIGNING: On Wednesday, the Nets announced the signing of swingman Iman Shumpert. Shumpert averaged 7.5 points and 3.0 rebounds last season, and will provide Brooklyn with experienced depth on the wing.

ICE COLD: Tobias Harris has missed his last 23 three-point attempts, dating back to Nov. 4, a 10-day stretch. He’s 8-for-30 from the floor overall over his last two outings for Philadelphia.

😬 Needless to say, the Sixers are going to need a whole lot more from the guy they made the 13th-highest paid player league-wide this season.

HOT AND FRESH INTERVIEW: Magic forward Al-Farouq Aminu spoke with HoopsHype’s Alex Kennedy about life as a top recruit, his departure from Portland and the new vibe in Orlando. Safe to say he appreciates the warmer weather.

BACK TO THE EAST? Per The Ringer’s Kevin O’Connor, Orlando has expressed interest in Spurs swingman DeMar DeRozan. We take a look at his potential fit there.

A NOT-SO-PLEASANT RETURN: Tonight, Kristaps Porzingis returns to play in the Big Apple for the first time since his very public trade request a few years ago. He spoke to SNY about the trade request, Knicks fans and basketball in New York City general. He’s going to be a fun one to watch as he continues to develop.

HE CALLED GAME: One of the early frontrunners for Rookie of the Year, Ja Morant, hit a nasty game-winning layup last night against Charlotte.

KUZMA BREAKDOWN: If Kyle Kuzma is going to be the third star the Lakers need, he’s going to need to improve his shot selection this season, writes HoopsHype’s Bryan Kalbrosky.

LIKE A NEW FERRARI: Chris Bosh spoke to ESPN yesterday and compared playing with LeBron James to buying a new Ferrari. The Lakers improved to 9-2 last night, the league’s second-best record, so it seems Mr. Bosh is onto something with his comparison.

GREAT TEAMMATE: Kentavious Caldwell-Pope catches a lot of heat from Lakers fans on social media due to his poor play (he’s shooting 36.2 percent from the floor this season). Well, Dwight Howard isn’t having it anymore. Howard went on Instagram to defend his teammate, and then expounded on the defense of KCP with the media after the game.

NBA AND SPORTS BETTING: ESPN spoke to various NBA owners to discuss the impact of Adam Silver’s ground-breaking sports better op-ed from five years ago.

CLEAR MIND, NEW PLAYER: After a disappointing sophomore season, Jaylen Brown is thus far having the best year of his career, averaging 19.8 points and 7.2 rebounds per game. The difference? Brown learned how to handle the anxiety and self-doubt he was dealing with last season, which became especially noticeable when he lost his starting job in November.

BACKLASH HITS 2K LEAGUE TEAM: An NBA 2K League team representing the Milwaukee Bucks is catching flak for holding a graphic design contest – one looking for a new header image for the team’s official twitter account – without a cash prize. When asked for some financial compensation for the artist’s work, Bucks Gaming replied telling the person to “get a job.” Not a great look there.

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The HoopsHype Daily: Trae Young is on an insane run right now, and he’s making a bit of history in the process

After scoring 42 points and dishing out 11 assists, Trae Young made a bit of history on Tuesday night. He’s performing at a crazy level right now.

YOUNG EN FUEGO: 2018 No. 2 overall draft pick Trae Young has been performing at an insane level recently, and last night was no different. The young Hawks point guard went off for 42 points (on just 21 field-goal attempts!) on the road against an elite Nuggets squad on Tuesday, nailing eight triples and chipping in with 11 assists for good measure.

In the process, Young became the first player 21 or younger to post three-straight games with at least 30 points and 10 assists, and just the third player with multiple 40-point, 10-assist games prior to turning 22, joining LeBron James and Michael Jordan on the illustrious list.

It’s been a fairly decent start to the season for Young, who is now averaging 28.0 points, 4.3 rebounds and 8.7 assists in 2019-20 through nine games played. The two players who were part of the draft-night trade two summers ago, Young and Luka Doncic, both have the look of special talents, so it’s safe to say both Atlanta and Dallas came out as winners that night.

HOT SEATS IN NYC: The New York Knicks lost yet again last night, falling to the 4-7 Chicago Bulls by a final scoreline of 120-102. After days of speculation on the job security of head coach David Fizdale, a report came out courtesy of SNYtv’s Ian Begley turning the spotlight on two of the team’s top executives, team president Steve Mills and general manager Scott Perry.

According to Begley’s sources, Mills and Perry spoke to Knicks owner Jim Dolan on Monday and came away with the impression that their jobs would be safe as long as the Knicks show some sort of progress this season. Well, if the last few games are to be taken as an indicator, Mills and Perry might be in some trouble.

A.D. PLAYING THROUGH INJURY: The Lakers won their eighth game in 10 tries on Tuesday, but the most interesting thing to come out of the contest was the news that Anthony Davis is playing through multiple injuries, one to his shoulder and one to his ribs.

His attitude towards playing through these knocks is admirable and Los Angeles is playing their best basketball in a very long time but at the same time, one has to wonder: Is it really smart for the superstar big man to be pushing himself this hard in mid-November, when the Lakers have such high expectations for the playoffs that are still months away? Maybe a night off would be the wise course of action for Davis. Los Angeles plays again tonight, so we’ll see how caution the team/player choose to be.

QUIET DRAMA IN HOUSTON: ESPN goes behind the scenes in Houston to report on the tension within the Rockets, and around the Association, following Daryl Morey’s infamous Hong Kong tweet.

P.G. RETURN DATE SET? Per Yahoo Sports’ Chris Haynes, Clippers forward Paul George is set to make his return on Thursday night for L.A.’s game against the Pelicans. George averaged 28.0 points and 8.2 rebounds per game last season, finishing third in MVP voting for 2018-19. He and Kawhi Leonard could be an unfair duo once they get going.

ANOTHER KEY PLAYER GOES DOWN: Another day, another injury to a key rotation piece around the NBA. According to reports, Rockets 2-guard Eric Gordon is going to undergo knee surgery that will keep him out approximately six weeks. Not good.

DIPO GETTING CLOSER? There’s still no timetable for Victor Oladipo’s return, but yesterday, the Pacers assigned the All-Star shooting guard to the team’s G League team so he could get another practice in. That has to be a good sign that he’s getting closer to a return.

ROOKIE EXPLODES: First-year Chicago point guard Coby White hit seven three-pointers in the fourth quarter of last night’s contest against the Knicks, setting the Bulls record for most triples in a single period. The league-wide record for most three-pointers in a quarter is nine (it belongs to Klay Thompson), so White wasn’t far off that pace.

STEPH CLAPS BACK AT GOAT:  Michael Jordan made headlines in an interview for saying Stephen Curry isn’t quite a Hall-of-Famer just yet. The Warriors point guard clapped back recently, referring to Jordan as one of his haters and saying he was going to send the Bulls legend a pair of his shoes. They should probably settle this in a televised game of one-on-one, if we’re being honest. (We’d even settle for H.O.R.S.E.)

FORMER TOP PICK WORKING HIS WAY BACK: The New York Times spoke to Magic head coach Steve Clifford about Markelle Fultz’s progress this year, and to former National League Rookie of the Year (baseball) Steve Sax, known for one of the most famous cases of the yips, about what it’s like to lose your confidence that drastically.

NETS EXEC STEPS DOWN: In what was a shocking bit of news, Nets CEO David Levy stepped down from his position with Brooklyn after fewer than two months on the job. The decision was described as mutual.

KRISTAPS STILL ADJUSTING: Mavericks big man Kristaps Porzingis spoke to Sports Illustrated about his struggles this season. Mark Cuban also added his thoughts in the piece.

I.T. SPEAKS ABOUT NEXT STOP: After famously saying his goal in free agency a few years ago was to back up the Bricks trunk (i.e., get paid handsomely), a humbled Isaiah Thomas told The Athletic he hopes his next contract is a more long-term one.

🏦 Thomas, currently the 314th-highest paid player in the league, is coming off back-to-back summers where he was forced to sign one-year deals.

SALARY QUIZ: WHO’S THIS NBA PLAYER? 🤔

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The HoopsHype Daily: Despite struggles, Blazers stars remain content

In an era where stars requesting trades to team up is so common, the Blazers two studs – Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum – are going against the grain.

BLAZERS STARS CONTENT… SHOULD THE TEAM BE? Despite their multiple postseason failures and the team’s slow start this season, Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum are quite content with where they’re at and refuse to be like other stars of this era who choose to force trades and team up rather than build something for themselves. Lillard, in particular, is pretty adamant about why he’s happy to be a Blazer: “I play for a great organization. I play for a great coach. I love where I live. I have a great situation.”

Nevertheless, Portland sits at 4-6 through 10 games, and have the looks of a team that might have hit its peak – the conference finals – last season. Getting Jusuf Nurkic back could help, but how much of an impact should he be expected to make this season after suffering such a brutal leg injury?

The Blazers might be best-served seeing if they could get anything in exchange for the struggling McCollum, who is shooting 39.1 percent from the floor this year. A star-level two-way wing, something Portland is desperately lacking, could dramatically change things in the Pacific Northwest.

Or the Blazers could choose to stand pat and risk missing the playoffs in the loaded Western Conference. We’ll see how happy Lillard is in Portland if that does happen.

HOT SEAT WATCH: Knicks brass reportedly isn’t happy with how the team is doing this season, which is understandable considering they’re 2-8 through 10 games. And according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski and Malika Andrews, team president Steve Mills is already laying the groundwork for head coach David Fizdale’s dismissal.

Will that change anything for New York? Probably not, considering their poorly constructed roster and bad management. But it’s hard to see anyone doing worse than Fizdale and his 19-73 career record with the Knicks.

MVP RANKINGS: We voted and ranked the Top 10 in the NBA’s early-season MVP race. Find out how we rank the league’s top stars here.

FRESH PODCAST: Alex Kennedy is joined by HoopsHype colleague Bryan Kalbrosky to evaluate the NBA teams who are off to surprisingly hot starts.

HISTORY MADE: Young Celtics star Jayson Tatum made history on Monday night. It wasn’t the good kind. Tatum finished Boston’s contest against the Mavericks with five points on… 1-of-18 shooting, giving him the second-worst shooting performance in Celtics history over the last 65 years (minimum: 15 field-goal attempts). Hey, at least Boston won.

ANOTHER HISTORIC ACHIEVEMENT: After James Harden dropped 39 points against the Pelicans on Monday, his scoring average for the season bumped up to 37.3 points per game through 10 Rocket outings. That’s the highest scoring average through 10 games in the last 50 seasons. Decent production coming out of Houston.

KAWHI VS TORONTO: Clippers superstar and reigning Finals MVP Kawhi Leonard faced off with his former team, the Toronto Raptors, for the first time last night. Los Angeles pulled out the win 98-88, even despite the fact that Leonard went 2-for-11 from the floor and scored just 12 points. Leonard was able to contribute in other ways, however, with 11 rebounds, nine assists and three steals.

🏥 In what was a theme for Monday in the NBA world, a key piece suffered an injury in this game, as Landry Shamet had to exit the contest due to an ankle sprain.

STEPH PLANNING TO PLAY THIS YEAR? Much has been made about whether or not Stephen Curry will return this season, especially with the Warriors struggling in the win-loss column. According to the two-time league MVP himself, though, he plans to come back in the early spring.

SPURS HOLD CEREMONY FOR TEAM LEGEND: The Spurs retired Tony Parker’s jersey last night, in what was a lovely ceremony. Among those who attended: Manu Ginobili, Tim Duncan (he had no choice since he coaches for the Spurs now), David Robinson, Boris Diaw, Ronny Turiaf and soccer legend Thierry Henry.

AAU AND LOAD MANAGEMENT: LeBron James granted Yahoo Sports an interview where he unloaded on the dangers of kids being overworked in AAU basketball, and how he believes it directly ties in with the need for load management among professionals.

BUCKS ALL-STAR SIDELINED: Unfortunately, it was a Monday chock full of injury news. First up, Khris Middleton will miss 3-4 weeks of action with a left thigh contusion.

HAYWARD GOES UNDER THE KNIFE: Next, Celtics forward Gordon Hayward underwent surgery to repair his fractured left hand which will keep him out for six weeks.

YOUNG STAR DOWN: The brutal news keeps rolling in for the Kings this season, as word came out that stud young point guard De’Aaron Fox will be sidelined for 3-4 weeks due to an ankle sprain that occurred in practice.

THE LOGO SPEAKS: NBA legend Jerry West gave The Athletic a rare interview where he discussed topics such as Paul George’s return, basketball in southern California (including the Lakers), and much more.

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The HoopsHype Daily: The Knicks are a mess yet again

After falling to 2-8 on the season, key Knicks executives held an impromptu press conference where they said a lot but nothing at the same time.

FIZDALE’S SEAT GETTING TOASTY: On Sunday, the New York Knicks dropped their eighth game in 10 tries, falling to the Cleveland Cavaliers 108-87 in a game that wasn’t even as close as the final scoreline would indicate. Things got interesting after the contest, when two of the team’s top decision makers, president Steve Mills and general manager Scott Perry, held an awkward impromptu press conference where they declared their displeasure with New York’s progress this season while maintaining their faith in the plan they put together and in their head coach, David Fizdale. Really, though, it felt like the two executives said a whole lot of nothing, making the entire exercise rather pointless.

Regardless, it goes without saying that if the Knicks continue going down the porous path they currently find themselves on, Fizdale, who feels the pressure, will be gone. At the same time, is that really going to change anything? The team’s management had a terrible offseason, no matter how the Knicks try to spin it, one where they failed to land a marquee free agent despite having loads of cap space, and responded by signing multiple middling power forwards and no point guards. Basically, years and years of poor decision-making out of New York’s front office continued in the summer of 2019.

And what’s the common thread that all of those poor Knicks offseasons have? They have pretty much all occurred over the last 20 years, when James Dolan became the team’s owner. It’s pretty clear what New York’s principal problem is, and until that problem is no longer there, the team won’t escape this purgatory they’ve been in for multiple decades.

David Fizdale is now 19-73 as Knicks head coach.

ON AAU AND LOAD MANAGEMENT: HoopsHype spoke to various NBA players to find out their thoughts on whether young athletes getting overworked during their AAU days is leading to a need for load management when they get older. Some very interesting comments here from Zach LaVine, Myles Turner and others.

ANOTHER OFF-COURT WAITERS INCIDENT: Miami Heat guard Dion Waiters suffered a panic attack on Thursday during the team’s flight from Phoenix to Los Angeles. The cause of the panic attack? A weed gummy given to him by a teammate.

🤦 It’s far from Waiters’ first issue this season, giving Miami little choice but to suspend the mercurial 2-guard for 10 games without pay. This is Waiters’ second suspension of the young season. Waiters never playing another minute for the Heat is quickly becoming a very real possibility.

SUPERMAN BACK IN THE DUNK CONTEST? Dwight Howard is playing the most impactful basketball he’s played in years. We broke down his game here. Howard is feeling so good, in fact, that he told TMZ he’s thought about doing the dunk contest this season. Howard has one dunk contest victory to his name, which came back in 2008.

LUKA MVP CAMPAIGN: Based on his play so far, there’s a very good chance Mavs guard Luka Doncic receives MVP votes at the end of the season. He would be the youngest international player ever to achieve that, beating Hakeem Olajuwon.

CURRY RETURN: Brandon Payne, Stephen Curry’s personal trainer, spoke to NBC Sports’ Tom Haberstroh and told him that Curry wants to return this season, but it’ll depend on how his rehab goes.

HAYWARD GOES DOWN… AGAIN: Celtics swingman Gordon Hayward, who was playing the best basketball he has since his brutal leg injury, got hurt again this weekend, fracturing his left hand against the Spurs. A doctor who spoke to the Boston Sports Journal says he could be out for at least four weeks depending on whether he has surgery or not. 

RONDO’S SEASON DEBUT POSTPONED: Rajon Rondo was supposed to make his return against the Raptors on Sunday, but had his season debut postponed yet again. Once he does return, one has to wonder how much playing time he gets. Head coach Frank Vogel will have to determine how much he values Rondo’s defense and ability to run the offense versus his poor three-point shooting.

STAR SET TO RETURN: Pistons forward Blake Griffin has been listed as probable for Detroit’s game against the Timberwolves on Monday. It would be his first game action since April 22.

POTENTIAL TOP PICK INELIGIBLE: On Friday, the NCAA announced 2020 potential No. 1 pick James Wiseman has been deemed ineligible. If he doesn’t play again this season, it’ll be interesting to note how much that affects his draft stock.

GETTING PAPER: According to a report, ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith has a new five-year contract with the company, one that will pay him $8 million per year. That’s more than all but 150 NBA players, and as much as Lou Williams makes on his Clippers deal.

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