#kevin-durant

#kevin-durant

Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images If Jaylen Brown is soliciting advice on what to do about his future, Hall of Famer Isiah Thomas is here to offer a take.Speaking to Steve Bulpett of Heavy.com,Thomas said the Boston Celtics forward should "take the money."Bulpett did note Thomas, who has been a mentor to Brown throughout his career, made the comment with a laugh.

Joe DeMartino, ESPN EditorJun 4, 2023, 09:20 AM ET

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Massachusetts native, Northwestern graduate



Taylor Swift is at the height of her powers -- and when you're a music demigoddess, sometimes mere mortals find it difficult to function in your presence.

During the course of celebrating their first NBA championship in franchise history, the Denver Nuggets have made a habit of bringing up LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers, who they swept in the Western Conference Finals en route to the title.Ahead of their championship parade on Thursday, head coach Mike Malone went on ESPN and cracked jokes about retiring, a not-so-subtle shot at James' post-loss retirement comments.

In this part of the 2023 NBA Draft according to YODA (short for Ye Olde Draft Analyzer), I'm looking at the centers.Previously, I wrote about first round guards, wings and forwards.To reiterate (for those not interested in clicking into one of the other articles), I think there are four meaningful NBA positions:


Guards - traditional point guards and shooting guards who don't have the size to play traditional small forward (think Bradley Beal, Monte Morris, Jordan Goodwin)
Wings - traditional SGs and SFs who don't have the skills/aptitude of a PG but aren't big enough to tussle with the big boys (think Corey Kispert, Will Barton)
Forwards - traditional PFs or SFs but aren't full-time centers (think Kyle Kuzma, Deni Avdija, Rui Hachimura)
Centers - the big guys who patrol the paint and protect the rim but generally not quick enough to defend the perimeter or keep up with wings and guards (think Daniel Gafford, Kristaps Porzingis)


For the uninitiated, YODA is my stat-driven prospect evaluation system that uses only publicly available information.

Over the past 20 years, the Eastern Conference has been substantially weaker than its Western Conference counterpart.Whether this was a result of teams ducking LeBron James, or just plain coincidence, it's hard to say.One thing's for sure though, the East made a comeback in a big way this season, and the Chicago Bulls were just one of many victims who suffered from an increase in the quality of competition.