So … what did you think would happen?
In the wake of national commentators far and wide wringing their hands over the state of the NBA All-Star Game, I’m struck by how much the bar seems to be set at one particular outcome: having the best players on the planet play hard like it’s a real game even though it doesn’t count and they might get injured (or might aggravate an existing injury, which caused both LeBron James and Anthony Edwards to tap out on Sunday).
Like, does that not strike anyone as a fairly unrealistic proposition in the world of 2025? I mean, that’s great if the guys balled out in 1967 when they sold insurance in the offseason and the $71.43 bonus for winning the All-Star Game might have meaningful consequences for their larger life, but that isn’t the case anymore. News flash: It’s an exhibition.
This isn’t new information, either. But for one glorious flirtation with the Elam ending at the tail end of the 2020 game (a game that was 53-41 at the end of the first quarter, by the way), the NBA All-Stars have faced about as much defense as the guys who dunk off trampolines between quarters for … what, roughly four decades now?
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And while last year’s 211-186 “game” in Indianapolis took the travashamockery to new levels, it wasn’t exactly breaking new ground in other respects. The increasing prevalence of 3s jacked up the raw point totals, but things had been trending this way for a long time. A team hadn’t been held under 145 points in this game since 2011. In 2015, the winning team committed three fouls.
It’s not like this is just some problem solely endemic to the NBA, either. I’m old enough to remember not only when the Pro Bowl existed but also when the guys in it actually tried and cared at least a little about NFC vs. AFC pride. The last one was in 2022. Now, they just have a glorified Punt, Pass and Kick competition.
Or take baseball, the last All-Star Game with some semblance of an actual “game” still involved. I remember the 1983 game feeling monumental because the American League finally won (Fred Lynn!); by 2002, we had Shoulder Shrug Selig announcing a tie because the only alternative is to have rosters with 37 pitchers on them.
Meanwhile, the league that runs more or less concurrently with the NBA, the NHL, stumbled upon a very inventive solution to its own blah All-Star game problem this very weekend. A four-nation tournament between the U.S., Canada, Finland and Sweden did huge ratings and featured some decidedly non-All-Star intensity — how about three fights in the first nine seconds of USA-Canada?
So, against all those currents — and the bigger picture, as our David Aldridge pointed out, that the money is just too yooooooge for these players right now — I don’t think having the commissioner hold a meeting where he begs the players to try is going to be effective.
They couldn’t even get the G League guys to play real basketball on Friday, even with the chance for the lowly commoners to snag an invite to the royal ball on Sunday. The only real alternatives are A) continue showing games where the players don’t try very hard and Kevin Hart tries waaaay too hard; or B) do something different.
“Something” can be anything, after all. That’s how the league invented All-Star Saturday in the first place.
This takes us back to the fact that the All-Star Game needn’t be a game at all to draw fans and create great moments for the league. Anyone walking around San Francisco this past weekend could see that for themselves, in all the satellite events around town, even if, at times, the environment in the arena felt like a 9 a.m. video call with HR. Indeed, several folks (including yours truly) had a blast in the Bay but were long gone by the time they tipped off on Sunday.
In a way, this is good news for the league. Everyone knows trying to play a 48-minute game on Sunday night is a dead letter, so they have the license to tinker now. The league can play around with formats that might work better or draw more people in and perhaps build on some of the successes from the Saturday extravaganza.
Could they have a half-court shot competition? A one-on-one tournament? What about H-O-R-S-E? Talk of a U.S. vs World format likely will increase given the success of the NHL’s 4 Nations Face-Off, and remember, that doesn’t necessarily require the league to name an equal number of All-Stars from each side. (It would, however, be an interesting way to test their “shafting Domantas Sabonis” powers.) Charles Barkley’s team this year almost seemed like a test case; splitting the All-Stars into three teams would give one world team eight players. There were seven in 2024 and nine in 2023.
Bigger picture, the message is clear: Get wild, Adam Silver. Think outside the box. This year’s changes were a mild improvement on what had previously passed for the main event and offered some low-hanging fruit as far as potential improvements (like not having a half-hour improv show in the middle of the competition). But getting the most out of the Sunday night marquee event is going to require continued experimentation.
That’s OK. Every other sport is going through the same thing. We know what doesn’t work — we’ve likely already seen our last East vs. West format — so it’s time to evolve and figure out what does.
Cap Geekery: Will anyone ever use the MLE again?
It’s not really a new CBA cycle until we’ve had a few unintended consequences to process, and the events of the last trade deadline may qualify. While the league and players association knew that opening teams to use the midlevel exception as a trade exception had the possibility of limiting player signings with that exception, this year’s response by teams may have exceeded expectations.
I will first note that several teams did use their exception money to sign mid-tier players to contracts in the summer of 2024. That said, many teams kept their options open by preserving most or all of their nontaxpayer MLE as a $12.4 million trade exception (or a smaller one if they had their room exception), and those teams generally profited handsomely at the deadline.
Utah, in particular, got multiple second-round picks from using a piece of its room exception to absorb Jalen Hood-Schifino in the Luka Dončić trade. Meanwhile, the Kings, Rockets, Pelicans, Raptors, Grizzlies, Wizards, and Thunder all used their MLE to either absorb talent, add draft picks by taking unwanted money, or generate larger future exceptions. Remember, only 16 teams were below the tax line heading into the deadline, so that’s a big chunk of the market; seven of them profited via using the MLE or room exception at the deadline. (The Pelicans were above the tax three weeks ago but still used their MLE to absorb Kelly Olynyk’s contract and generate a $13 million exception from the Brandon Ingram deal with Toronto).
Will more teams value that flexibility over using the exception right away in the summer of 2026? That’s tough to say right now, but it’s a worthwhile question following a 2025 free-agency cycle when role players generally got squeezed, especially given that only two teams project to have cap space above the MLE this coming summer.
Dash Daniels shoots against Italy in the 2024 FIBA U17 World Cup. (Hans Lucas / Getty Images)
Prospect of the Week: Dash Daniels, 6-5 SG, NBA Academy Australia
If you wanted to see people playing actual, competitive five-on-five basketball in the Bay Area this past weekend, there was one good option: the NBA’s annual Basketball Without Borders Global Camp, which took place in nearby Oakland. The league brought together 40 overseas prospects with 2007 birthdates to participate in the camp during three days, and numerous NBA scouts and execs were in attendance to watch.
Of those, arguably, the best prospect on the floor was Daniels, the younger brother of Atlanta Hawks guard Dyson Daniels. Like his older brother, Daniels is a product of the NBA’s Global Academy in Australia (the league also runs academies in Africa and Latin America; several current NBA players are graduates, including Daniels, Bennedict Mathurin, Josh Giddey, Olivier-Maxence Prosper and Johnny Furphy).
While Dash measured a bit shorter than his brother at 6-foot-5 in socks, he displays many of the same strengths and weaknesses, including a 6-10 wingspan and a 29-inch no-step vertical. Scouts also noted that Dyson Daniels kept growing into his late teens to his current listed height of 6-7; Dash just turned 17.
Daniels may well be the youngest player in the 2026 NBA Draft, given his December 2007 birthdate. That, as it turns out, was an influential factor in his biggest career decision to date: He shunned college basketball to sign with Melbourne in Australia’s NBL. This was partly because of a convenience factor (he’s only 100 miles from his hometown), and the money from Australia’s Next Stars Program likely roughly matches what he could make in NIL money from State U. Also, Daniels is still in the 11th grade. He couldn’t start playing college ball until the 2026-27 season, which would have delayed his draft eligibility by a year.
“I’d say just being able to play professional at a young age is going to help me so much, playing against big bodies, more experienced guys,” he said. “I’ve got Delly (Matthew Dellavedova), Chris Goulding, all these guys have played at a high level.”
While Daniels gets plaudits for his defense first, he also had a good camp on that offensive end, repeatedly getting into the paint and then distributing to teammates for open shots.
“I draw a lot of attraction from the defense when I come off those on-ball screens,” Daniels said. “That means somebody is open, so that’s a big part of my game.”
His next project is becoming more threatening as a scorer. While he flashed a floater game at the camp, the jump shot is still a work in progress.
“Just being able to score at three levels,” he said. “Coming off on-ball screens. Being able to hit that pull-up jump shot, and just knock down shots consistently. That’s the main part of my game I’ve been working on. I think I’m pretty good on the defensive end, there’s always stuff to improve on, but the main thing is offense and getting that shot to work right now.”
In the meantime, Daniels can also continue his habit of catching Hawks games over breakfast for another year.
“I’ve learned a lot from Dyson,” Daniels said, mentioning his brother’s slow start in New Orleans. “Not everything is always gonna go right straight away.”
Daniels was voted the top defensive player of the camp, but he wasn’t the only one who distinguished himself. Ikenna Alozie, a 6-2 Nigerian guard from the NBA Africa Academy, won camp MVP, using his athleticism to stampede to the rim for a parade of buckets.
Some other well-known prospects, many of whom starred in the 2024 U17 World Cup, also stood out on the court in Oakland, including Lithuanian guard Dovydas Buika, Argentine guard Felipe Minzer, French forward Jahel Trefle, and Italian forward Maikcol Perez.
If there was a breakout player, however, it was likely Diego Garavaglia. An athletic, attacking Italian wing, his lockdown defense rivaled that of Daniels’ as the camp’s most impactful. The 6-6 Armani Milano player also uncorked a 30.25-inch no-step vertical; only two of the 40 campers topped that.
The best of these players, including Daniels, will likely be back on the West Coast in six weeks for the Nike Hoop Summit. That’s when a team of elite overseas players will take on the best high school seniors from the U.S., such as potential 2026 lottery picks A.J. Dybantsa and Cameron Boozer.
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(Top photo of Karl-Anthony Towns and Jaren Jackson Jr.: Ezra Shaw / Getty Images)
