Sam Amick

LOS ANGELES — is a man of few words — at least when it comes to the trade chatter that surrounds him. Talk to anyone around the two-time All-NBA forward and you’ll hear about how he has mastered the art of not discussing the hot topic that is his own uncertain future. That intel was confirmed after on Tuesday night, when I asked if it was flattering to be widely seen as one of the premier impact players known to be available heading into the Feb. 8 trade deadline and the following quote was t…

The were ’s preference all along. Once you get past the complicated dynamic that existed between him and the , who never managed to make him feel fully appreciated but also held part of his heart until the end, you start to see why Indiana was the place he always wanted to be. If, that is, the had truly decided that his eight-year run north of the border should come to an end. Advertisement The clarity finally came on Wednesday, when the 29-year-old, two-time All-Star , and the fit — for now a…

’s bid for a second consecutive NBA MVP is in trouble, and it has nothing to do with the star’s on-court performance. Embiid ranks first in the league in points per game (35.3) and sixth in rebounds (11.3), but he’s missed 12 games this season. A suffered during the final minutes of the 76ers’ loss to the on Tuesday may result in more time out. Those absences could end his MVP defense due to a new rule on game minimums — colloquially, the 65-game rule — the NBA implemented for the 2023-24 sea…

As of this Tuesday dispatch, this trade deadline season has been, well, dead. The was last year, for crying out loud (Dec. 30). The trade was almost a month ago at this point. And since then, we’ve gotten … . And an injured , no less. But with two days left before the Thursday deadline (3 p.m. Eastern), and with the chance remaining that the fireworks might go off here at the end, there’s at least one high-profile scenario still on the board worth examining from all sides: to the . And with a…

The definition of anticlimactic, courtesy of Dictionary.com: “An event, conclusion, statement, etc., that is far less important, powerful, or striking than expected.” Does that sound about right, fans … fans … fans … fans … and fans? The list could go on from there, but that group of five teams makes up The Athletic’s inaugural All-Standpat Team for this year’s . The Milwaukee Bucks came close to making it but barely avoided the unflattering inclusion by landing a “Pat” from the Philadelphi…

INDIANAPOLIS — commissioner Adam Silver defended the league’s rule that players must compete in 65 games to be eligible for prestigious, sometimes lucrative awards. “I’m not ready to say it isn’t working so far,” Silver said Saturday, during his annual NBA All-Star Weekend news conference. “I can tell you that the number of games that players have participated in is up this season and interestingly enough, injuries are actually down. “Whether that’s meaningful data yet, I don’t know. I think th…

INDIANAPOLIS — Here’s the worst part about the East All-Stars making : It was by design. While scoring the most points possible in a basketball game has been the goal since the James Naismith days of the peach basket, now was not the time for this. A 211-point game, coming in the wake of all this discussion about how the ’s scoring surge is doing a disservice to the game? Read the room, guys. Advertisement But as if the defenseless debacle wasn’t bad enough, with the East winning 211-186 and the…

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — wants . In this life where he has already reached living legend status, and where his experience this season has been more challenging than any of the 10 that came before, he has long since learned the secret about his professional existence: It’s not real, and the only people who don’t realize that healthy truth are the ones who chose blue. Advertisement He is, for the purpose of this parallel he’s sharing late Tuesday inside the visitor’s locker room at the Golden 1 Cen…

Have you looked at the lately — like, really studied them? Once you get past the tussle for the top spot between , and , there’s a group of eight teams that is only separated by eight games heading into Friday’s games. The stakes are massive, with the chance to host a first-round playoff matchup on one end of the spectrum and a postseason absence (Play-In Tournament included) on the other. By comparison, the East teams filling those eight slots have a massive gap of 16 games between them. Adve…

DENVER — doesn’t look old. As the point guard sits down at Ball Arena, where his seized control of the Western Conference semifinals against the in the first two games that followed, there are no visible signs of the aging process making his job much harder these days. He’s 36 now, a lifetime removed from those days alongside Greg Oden at Ohio State or the years that followed after Conley was the fourth pick in the 2007 draft, but he looks young enough that he might still get carded by an ov…