Brian Windhorst and a team of ESPN's Insiders sort out life and the news from in and around the NBA world, including bonus implications for two of the NBA's young stars, one thing you might not know about New York Knicks forward Julius Randle and what's going on with the Philadelphia 76ers' starting lineup(s).
There has been much discussion over the upcoming NBA Most Valuable Player Award vote, an annual tradition that varies in its intensity. But one award race has more tangible stakes to be determined in the season's final weeks: The All-NBA candidacies of Memphis Grizzlies guard Ja Morant and Boston Celtics wing Jaylen Brown.
In Morant's case it is about a huge contract bonus -- in addition to his eight-game suspension, which he has already served. In Brown's, it is about huge money too, but perhaps more importantly, whether the Celtics will be able to keep him past next season.
Last summer, Morant signed a five-year contract extension with the Grizzlies that starts next season and guarantees him $192.2 million. The deal had what is commonly known as a "Rose provision" -- named after 2011 MVP Derrick Rose -- that would give a bonus to Morant if he made any of the All-NBA teams, won MVP or Defensive Player of the Year this season.
That bonus is worth $39.2 million to Morant, pushing the value of the deal to $231 million. And it's all or nothing. If he doesn't get one of those awards this season, the bonus chance expires.
Brown has one year left on the four-year, $106 million deal he signed in 2019. He is eligible for an extension this summer. This gets complicated because of various clauses, moving numbers and the currently negotiated collective bargaining agreement. But it can be broken down simply:
If Brown makes All-NBA this year, he is heavily incentivized (it could mean roughly $10 million more per season on the next deal) to extend his contract with the Celtics now.
If he doesn't make All-NBA, he is heavily incentivized not to extend with the Celtics and become a free agent in 2024 regardless of how he feels about the team.
What Brown ultimately decides to do is another matter, but for the Celtics and their fans, what his options are after this season are relevant.
This coming All-NBA vote is way more consequential financially for Brown and Morant than anyone else.
A number of other players have contractual motivation for hitting various awards because there are other bonuses and future incentives tied to them, but there is nothing that quite compares.
Several weeks ago, earning All-NBA seemed like a lock for Morant. He was having a spectacular season, averaging 27.1 points, a career-high six rebounds and a career-high 8.2 assists per game. The Grizzlies were lining up to be a top-2 seed in the Western Conference.
Then on March 4, Morant live-streamed a video of himself holding a firearm while appearing to be in an intoxicated state at a Denver-area nightclub. He was suspended eight games for conduct detrimental to the league.
How that suspension will affect his candidacy has yet to be seen. But it is fair to say there could be much more on the line than the $668,000 in game check fines that came with the ruling. (And in the interest of full disclosure, I have served as a voter for these awards in the past.)
Part of the challenge will be the tightness of the race for the six guard spots on the first, second and third teams.
Last season, Morant played 57 games because of injury and averaged 27.4 points, 5.7 rebounds and 6.7 assists, and the Grizzlies earned the No. 2 seed. He easily was voted second-team All-NBA, getting the third-most votes among all guards. He has played 53 games so far this season and is expected to return in time for Wednesday's home game.
The difference to the Grizzlies' strategy could be significant. If Morant doesn't get the bonus, it would mean $7 million less salary on Memphis' books next year alone. That could impact talks with free-agent-to-be Dillon Brooks, freeing up space over the next five years to help keep him along while extending Desmond Bane, who will be a priority this summer. Of course, the Grizzlies would have planned for Morant to hit the All-NBA threshold and paid out the entire bonus.
Brown is averaging the most points (26.7) and rebounds (6.9) while shooting the best percentage (49%) of his career. Building off a strong showing in the playoffs last season, he has routinely been a two-way difference-maker for one of the league's best teams. It's also a reasonably strong case.
A key factor for Brown is where he is voted positionally. He plays both guard and forward and can receive votes at both positions if the leagues allow it, which is likely. The standard practice for the league is to count all the votes but to slot him in the position he gets the most votes in.
With the competition for the guard spots and with several of the league's star forwards having their cases hurt this season because of injuries, Brown trying to get a spot at forward instead of guard could be the difference in guaranteeing him tens of millions this summer.
So go ahead and have at the MVP arguments all the way up until the final buzzer -- they are easier to get passionate about. Very few fans can even remember who made the All-NBA teams a few months after they're announced. But the real-world consequences come further down the ballot.
NBA senior reporter Ramona Shelburne has more on one New Yorker's no-days-off constitution:
Julius Randle: 'I put a lot of time, sacrifice, effort' in my game
Julius Randle had one of the most efficient games ever seen in Madison Square Garden on Monday, wowing the crowd with an endless series of dunks and 3-pointers and scoring 57 points on just 29 shots.
He did most of it in a second-half comeback before coming up short as the New York Knicks lost to the Minnesota Timberwolves 140-134. His last act was spiking the ball off the basket stanchion and earning a technical foul before slamming his hand against the scorer's table with 10 seconds left, as the Wolves secured the win.
His emotions showed he still had plenty of energy. And he will be ready for the upcoming back-to-back Wednesday in Miami and Thursday in Orlando.
Because Randle doesn't get tired. And he doesn't take games off.
"I don't understand the question," Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau said jokingly when asked whether he ever considered resting his two-time All-Star forward.
Thibodeau laughed for good reason: Randle does not load manage. He is leading the NBA in minutes played this season and finished first in 2020-21 and 14th in 2021-22. (Brooklyn Nets ironman Mikal Bridges might ultimately edge him because he has the potential to play 83 games this season because he was traded.)
"We have a bunch of gym rats," Thibodeau said after the Knicks' 112-108 win against the Lakers on March 12.
"That's what makes this team so enjoyable to be around, to coach, to be a part of. They're workers. They love being in the gym. You don't have to, you don't beg 'em to come in. And when your best players set the tone for that and you, you're on your way."
Aside from his rookie season for the Lakers (when he sustained a broken leg in the 2014-15 season opener) Randle has been a remarkably durable player, missing 31 games over the past eight seasons.
"I put a lot of time, sacrifice, effort, a lot of conscious effort into my body," Randle said.
The biggest change this season, Randle said, has been his resiliency. Bad games don't turn into long slumps. Bad moments don't turn into funks.
"I used to dwell on things much longer because I'm such a perfectionist," Randle said. "I'd dwell on it all night. Just be in a mood. Now I just try to go on with my life. It's a game. It happens. I'm a human being."
There's all sorts of on-court things that have contributed to his bounce-back season. Randle is averaging career highs in points (25.6) and rebounds (10.2) after a disappointing 2021-22 season. Chief among them is probably the chemistry he has found with guard Jalen Brunson.
But at a basic level, this is about maturity. Randle was as disappointed in himself last season as any Knicks fan -- in his play, in the bad moments he had with fans, in the Knicks' 37-45 record.
After the season he took several months off. He traveled, played with his two kids and binge-watched TV shows such as "Yellowstone" and "Snowfall."
"Just had to slow down, get out of my own way," Randle said. "Balance myself out."
NBA reporter Tim Bontemps dives in on the Philadelphia 76ers' delicate starting lineup situation that continues to work:
The answer to who's starting next to James Harden? Well, it depends
Coach Doc Rivers has been on the receiving end of plenty of jokes for his statement earlier this season that his 76ers have "three starting lineups."
What Rivers was doing, though, was trying to deflect from the critical question the 76ers have to answer between now and the start of the playoffs: Should Tyrese Maxey or De'Anthony Melton be starting next to James Harden?
"It could switch in a lot of ways," said Rivers, who has started Maxey in the past 10 games after bringing him off the bench behind Melton for 14 straight. "It's not anything we're fearful of going [with] either way."
Maxey, the precocious 22-year-old guard in his third season out of Kentucky, has quickly become a fan favorite thanks to his positive demeanor, supersonic speed and rapid improvement as a shooter. He is averaging 20 points and hitting 41.7% of his 3-pointers on six attempts per game this season.
Why wouldn't he start? Because the game is played at both ends.
Melton -- who also is having a fine offensive season, averaging 10.3 points per game and hitting 40.2% from deep -- is one of the better defensive guards in the NBA and arguably a much better fit alongside Harden and Joel Embiid in Philadelphia's starting five.
That was also why, for a six-week stretch from mid-January to March 1, Maxey came off the bench for 17 of 18 games, and only started that one game, in Sacramento, because both Harden and Embiid sat out.
But when Philadelphia embarked on a tough March schedule (featuring just five home games and a slew of showdowns with playoff teams) Rivers turned back to Maxey in the starting lineup and Melton on the bench, in an effort to get each of them going.
"I thought [Melton] was struggling a little bit, and I thought Tyrese was struggling at the same time," Rivers said. "So we wanted to get them both going and playing well again. So far, they're starting to."
But brief upturns in fortune in March won't determine how Philadelphia navigates its quest to take down the Milwaukee Bucks and Boston Celtics in May to reach the NBA Finals. And this decision won't, either.
The Sixers, though, have their sights set high. We saw as recently as last season teams such as the Miami Heat (with Tyler Herro) and the Warriors (with Jordan Poole) advance deep into the playoffs with players fitting Maxey's archetype -- a high-scoring guard with questionable defensive ability -- playing reserve roles.
That's why there has been so much attention paid to whether Melton or Maxey will start.