Brian Windhorst and a team of ESPN's Insiders sort out life and the news from in and around the NBA world, including the Oklahoma City Thunder landing Jalen Williams, an NBA competition for college law students and the future of Wilt Chamberlain's 100-point record.
At the start of the NBA draft in June, the Oklahoma City Thunder had two missions:
-- Get Chet Holmgren
-- Get Jalen Williams
The first one was simpler; Holmgren wasn't going No. 1 to the Orlando Magic, who had limited their choices to Jabari Smith Jr. and Paolo Banchero. The Thunder, with the No. 2 pick, had zeroed in on Holmgren for weeks.
As for Williams, he is one of the developing stories of this rookie class. And getting him has underscored the importance of how a wild half-hour on draft night, one that saw the Thunder, New York Knicks and Charlotte Hornets maneuver a series of trades, has had a significant impact on this season.
Slotting into the Thunder perimeter next to All-Star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and 2021 lottery pick Josh Giddey, Williams is already looking like one of the best players in the 2022 class. Since Jan. 1, Williams is averaging 14 points, five rebounds, three assists and two steals, and he has played the most minutes on the roster.
In a defining moment, Williams was given the assignment of guarding LeBron James the night he set the NBA's all-time scoring record in Los Angeles on Feb. 7. James got the record, but Williams got the walk-off interview as he thrived in that spotlight, scoring 25 points with seven rebounds and six steals in OKC's victory.
It was a showcase moment alongside Gilgeous-Alexander, who had 30 points, and Giddey, who had 20, for the Thunder's future.
"He's one of those guys that like every hurdle you put in front of him, he clears it," Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said of Williams. "The way you help him improve is you give him those opportunities, and then you make sure they learn from it one way or the other."
First, though, the Thunder had to get Williams.
The Knicks, who had the 11th pick on draft night, had let it be known they were moving the pick as part of a broad effort to hoard salary-cap space to sign coveted free agent Jalen Brunson. That pickup has become one of the best moves in free agency; Brunson is having a breakout season, averaging 23.7 points and 6.2 assists with the Knicks in the midst of a resurgence.
The Hornets were picking 13th and 15th and also wanted to trade one of their picks. They already had a bevy of young players and had interest in saving cap room to sign restricted free agent Miles Bridges to a massive contract.
As it turned out, though, Bridges was arrested on domestic violence charges a few days later, and he hasn't played this season as the NBA investigates. It was a foreshadowing of what has been a disappointing campaign, as Bridges' issues and back-to-back ankle injuries for LaMelo Ball derailed the Hornets' season before it started.
Bottom line: Pick Nos. 11 and 13 were available. At No. 12, using the LA Clippers' pick they got as part of the 2019 Paul George trade, were the Thunder. It led to a flurry of calls, offers and activity.
The Thunder had tracked Williams for months, identifying him as a perfect player for the modern NBA: a two-way wing with long arms, above-average shooting with high leadership and character traits, the son of military parents.
He just happened to play at a small school, mid-major Santa Clara, which had one player drafted in the past three decades: Steve Nash in 1996. So it was noticed, especially by Williams, when Thunder scouts kept showing up at his games last season.
When Williams came to OKC for a pre-draft workout, it was run entirely by Daigneault. This led to some comedy, because first, head coaches don't typically run draft workouts; and second, Williams didn't initially know who Daigneault was.
On draft night, the Thunder were concerned several teams had caught on to their desire to take Williams, who was projected to go later in the draft, and were trying to get up to the Knicks' pick at No. 11 to beat them to him. The Atlanta Hawks and Memphis Grizzlies, in particular, are specialists at moving around in the draft and identifying players as diamonds in the rough.
But it was the Cleveland Cavaliers, who had heavy interest in French prospect Ousmane Dieng and owned the 14th pick, who were most interested in getting in front of the Thunder and were involved in talks with the Knicks at the same time.
The Cavs suspected Oklahoma City also wanted Dieng -- and they were right, because when OKC won the bidding war to get the Knicks' pick by sending three protected future first-rounders, they used it on Dieng.
And with the 12th pick, the Thunder took Williams.
By using their pick to take Williams instead of the Knicks' pick one spot earlier, the Thunder assured they would get the Chandler, Arizona, native in case the trade with New York somehow fell apart later. It did not, and they landed both Williams and Dieng.
The Knicks turned around and traded for the Hornets' No. 13 pick for one future first-rounder plus four second-round picks. Then, in a bit of arbitrage, the Knicks immediately sold the Charlotte pick to Detroit, one of two trades they did with the Pistons that cleaned their books enough to be able to sign Brunson outright.
The Pistons took Jalen Duren, who has shown promise as a rookie, paying two first-round picks after the talented center had slid in the draft.
When the smoke cleared, the Thunder had their preferred player as well as Dieng; and the Knicks had picked up three first-rounders and the money for Brunson. The Hornets drafted a different center at No. 15, Mark Williams, and they have an extra first-rounder for this year.
Holmgren is out for the season with a foot injury, and Dieng has had his season affected by a broken wrist. But Jalen Williams has been a revelation, usually guarding the opposition's best wing player and showing more and more promise, including playing some point guard.
"The coaching staff has a lot of trust in me, and they're willing to kind of throw me out there in those situations," Williams said Friday after scoring 22 points and chasing around Devin Booker in a narrow loss to the Phoenix Suns. "I'm not backing down from whoever the situation or task is."
NBA front-office insider Bobby Marks goes behind the scenes of free agency ... in February?!:
At Tulane, a basketball competition unlike any other
The Timberwolves and Jaden McDaniels enter rookie extensions talks in late February.
In the next room, representatives from the Boston Celtics and Grant Williams are discussing incentive language as part of his new contract.
The agent for Josh Hart and the Knicks are putting the finishing touches on a five-year contract. The only holdup is the Knicks insist on putting a team option in the last year.
No, this is not NBA free agency (that happens in July) nor are these real negotiations (that would be against league rules). Instead, it's a group of college law and graduate students from Indiana University, Syracuse University, Chicago Independent (law students from various Chicago schools), Arizona State and the University of California, Berkeley, who are engaged in a negotiation competition at Tulane Law School.
Started in 2018 by Tulane law students Tim Edwards and Chris Robinson and now managed by Magic vice president of basketball strategy Stephen Mervis, the Tulane Pro Basketball Negotiation Competition (TPBNC) has transformed into the premier competition of its kind in the country.
What started as five teams (all from Louisiana) and one judge in 2018 has transformed into a record 43 college teams (composed of students who are mostly in law school) converging at Tulane after the NBA's All-Star break each year.
The TPBNC is described as a basketball think tank that brings together college students and basketball professionals.
Here is how the competition worked:
Over the course of two days, teams were given three contract scenarios to negotiate with McDaniels, Hart and Grant Williams. A fourth case involving the rookie extension of the San Antonio Spurs' Devin Vassell took place among the teams during a Zoom in late January.
For the three contract scenarios, the TPBNC teams were then separated into representing the player or team.
For example, Knicks president Leon Rose and a contingent from New York's front office were represented by the team from Arizona State, with Hart seeking counsel from the Indiana University team.
What transpired over the next 45 minutes were negotiations that implemented the NBA's collective bargaining agreement and culminated with a contract being reached or either side walking away from the table.
In the case of Hart, after a tense negotiation, both sides in the final minute agreed to a four-year, $72 million contract with $11 million guaranteed in the final year.
Each session was judged by a combination of three people, ranging from an executive with an NBA team, league office or the players' association; an agent; or someone from the media (this was my fourth year judging).
In total, a record 43 judges were in attendance, including representation from 19 NBA teams.
Each judge gave out a score of 1 to 7 in three categories: negotiation ability/strategy, knowledge of the CBA and quality of the deal.
Following four rounds, a final four was selected and a fifth negotiation involving extension talks for the Brooklyn Nets' Spencer Dinwiddie determined the winner in Nick Russo from Indiana University, who successfully negotiated a new extension for Dinwiddie. It was the first time a team represented by one person had won.
And it appears to be at Tulane where future NBA executives are found, and fictional deals get done before the start of free agency.
NBA reporter Tim Bontemps dissects the probability of breaking Wilt Chamberlain's 100-point record:
Is breaking Wilt's record merely impossible?
The basketball world watched Sunday night with rapt attention as Damian Lillard took the Houston Rockets apart, scoring 71 points for the Portland Trail Blazers to become the eighth different player to register 70 or more points in an NBA game -- and the second one this season, matching Donovan Mitchell's outburst for the Cavaliers against the Chicago Bulls on Jan. 2.
As breathtaking as Lillard's performance was, it reignited a 60-year-old discussion in NBA circles: Will there be another player to match Chamberlain's 100-point game for the Philadelphia Warriors that happened 61 years ago this Thursday against the Knicks in Hershey, Pennsylvania.
Despite NBA scoring being at an all-time high, the chances of anyone duplicating Chamberlain's iconic performance seem further away than ever.
At first glance, that answer probably seems hard to understand. After all, a quarter of the players to score over 70 points in a game both happened within the past two months. Why couldn't there be a flood of those types of games in the coming years?
There undoubtedly will be, particularly with the way the game is played today, with 3-pointers at an all-time high and teams heavily leaning on their top stars to produce.
But look at how Lillard performed Sunday night. Playing against the 29th-ranked defense, Lillard shot 22-for-38 from the field, went 13-for-22 from the 3-point line and was a perfect 14-for-14 from the foul line to score those 71 points in 39 minutes.
For argument's sake, let's give Lillard another nine 3-pointers, making him a perfect 22-for-22 in the game (that the all-time record is 14 is another matter entirely). Even in that circumstance, he would still only have 98 points.
Back in January, meanwhile, Mitchell -- in an overtime game -- finished 22-for-34 from the field, 7-for-15 from 3-point range and 20-for-25 from the line in 50 minutes played. If Mitchell had hit every 3-pointer and every free throw, he would have landed on exactly 100 points.
But, again, we're talking about players taking over 30 shots and making somewhere in the range of 90% of them. That is simply unheard of, especially when many of these shots are 3-pointers.
In Chamberlain's game, meanwhile, he shot 36-for-63 from the field and 28-for-32 from the foul line. To show how much of an outlier that is, the only player to even get to 50 shots in a game in the past 60 years was Kobe Bryant in the final game of his career. No other player besides Chamberlain in NBA history has even attempted 30 free throws in a single game.
Perhaps there will be some truly wild, high-scoring, multiple-overtime game, like the one the LA Clippers and Sacramento Kings played Friday night, that will cause a player to put up enough numbers to reach this seemingly unreachable milestone. But just from a pure math standpoint, it's incredibly hard -- if not impossible -- to see how a player is going to have a realistic chance to chase 100 points.