James’ Cavs won only 50 games. He dragged that Cavs bunch through the playoffs and into the Finals against relatively weak competition. Harden had a much tougher road this postseason, and that’s a point in his favor.

OK, take a mulligan on Casey. I feel pretty good about my picks for No. 2 and 3 after watching the playoffs. Stevens, of course, was exalted for the way the Celtics, without Kyrie Irving, were able to hang on to a series win over the Bucks, topple the Sixers then get the Cavs to a Game 7 before finally running out of gas.

If you believe some folks on Twitter, Stevens’ out-of-bounds plays were not conceived on a whiteboard, but were conceived by the Divine Creator himself, and Stevens is but a vessel for the transmission of those ideas. Or something like that.

Considering what happened in both the regular season and the playoffs, Stevens would certainly be the top coach. Also, some love for Alvin Gentry, who got the Pelicans to 48 wins despite having to change course in midseason, then KO’d the Blazers in a first-round sweep. My post-postseason ballot would go…

MVP, it’s hard to gauge nowadays. Because now you have the people’s MVP and you have, like, the NBA’s MVP, Irving told radio station Hot 97 in New York on Wednesday. I think the people’s MVP was definitely James [Harden], but the NBA MVP is definitely LeBron [James].

When asked if he believes James should have received the MVP award instead, Irving pointed to James’ statistics as he praised his career performance.

James, a four-time MVP, played 10 more regular season games, scored 60 more points, logged 320 more rebounds, made 117 more assists and shot almost 10 percent more accurately than Harden last season.

If we’re talking strictly based off stats, like, he checks every mark. … He’s incredible, he’s incredible, Irving added.

The NBA Draft is just hours away, and there’s a whole lot of uncertainty surrounding what’s actually going to happen. From trade rumors featuring multiple teams in the top five to front-office Cheap Jerseys Wholesale China debates over top prospects, the 2018 event is shaping up to be one of Cheap Jerseys Wholesale Site the more unpredictable drafts in recent memory.

Ramos drove in four runs in the first two innings against Verlander and the Tampa Bay Rays went on to a 5-2 win over the Astros on Saturday.

I gave up three hard-hit balls, all to the same guy. The rest of `em, nobody hit the ball hard, Verlander said.

Ramos got the Rays on the scoreboard with a two-run double in the first, and made it 5-0 with a two-run single in the second. Those two at bats summarized Verlander’s day.

The first at bat, I put him in a 3-1 situation where, bases loaded, he knows a heater’s coming, and he hit it off the wall. So that’s my fault, Verlander said. His next bat I got a ground ball up the middle on a slider, which is kind of what you’re looking for. But it found a hole.

Enes Kanter hasn’t yet made a decision on his $18.6 million player option. Opposing teams expect him to opt in. But if Kanter opts out, multiple teams – including Milwaukee – have expressed interest internally in discussing a potential contract with the 26-year-old center.

A report surfaced Sunday that said Kanter had decided to decline his option. But, that is not the case, according to SNY.

Just spoke to Enes Kanter regarding report that he is expected to opt out. He says it’s not true and he has made no decisions yet.

The 26-year-old center was sent from the Thunder to New York in September as part of the Carmelo Anthony trade. He averaged 14.1 points and 11 rebounds per game last season.

The 6-3 shooting guard has physical dimensions that resemble Avery Bradley. He’s one of the best perimeter defenders in the draft and an efficient 3-point shooter. Not much upside in terms of offensive creation here, but a nice 3-and-D bet.

A toolsy prospect with a plus feel for the game, Bonga has a long way to go before being ready to contribute in the NBA. It’s likely he’ll be stashed overseas for at least a year.

The 6-9 forward shows nice play-making instincts, though, which could be worth something if his jumper and/or athleticism ever develop.

Brown was once pegged as a potential lottery prospect, but a wrist injury interrupted his sophomore season. The 6-5 guard is a strong defender and capable playmaker who needs to improve his jump shot from range. Brown is a positive upside play here for Detroit if the jumper can ever come around.

It was one of the better at-bats I’ve seen, Phillies manager Gabe Kapler said. Really special.

Santana had a walk to give him a free pass in six straight games and up his total this month to 27, which is the most for the Phillies in June since Greg Luzinski walked 28 times in 1980.

The Diamondbacks matched their season high by climbing 13 games above .500. They won the season series against Miami 6-1.

The finale started at 9:10 a.m. Phoenix time, but the Diamondbacks were ready to go and led 3-0 by the second inning.

The biggest thing was being ready to go on the first pitch and not sleepwalking into it, Goldschmidt said.

I thought that if I didn’t get the guy out, I was going out, Colon said. So thanks that happened that he was out, so I could continue the game.

The big hits were a two-run triple by Elvis Andrus and a two-run double by Jurickson Profar. … Adrian Beltre had two hits, increasing his career total to 3,107 — the most among active players and three shy of Dave Winfield for 20th all-time.

The Dallas Mavericks have declined Dirk Nowitzki’s $5 million team option to create additional salary-cap space for their pursuit of free-agent center DeAndre Jordan, a source confirmed.

It was a mutual decision, with the Mavs planning to re-sign Nowitzki in July. If the Mavs use all of their cap space, they can utilize the cap-room exception of $4.4 million to re-sign Nowitzki, who has taken several discounts to help Dallas have flexibility to pursue other players during his career.

Jefferson, who currently plays for the Nuggets, wrote on his Snapchat story that he wants to end his friendship with James. Why? Because he doesn’t want to answer questions anymore about James’ future.

It is with great remorse that I am writing this. After many years as a peer and many years as friend and teammate I have decided to end my friendship with LeBron James, Jefferson wrote, via ESPN. I am saying this publicly so that the fans and media members can please stop asking me where he is going in free agency. I don’t know. My family doesn’t know and neither do my kids …

He went on to take a few jabs at both James and former teammate Channing Frye.

Truth be told I never liked the guy. He works too hard it makes the rest of us look bad, Jefferson added. He’s my son’s favorite player and I view that as a complete betrayal of how hard I’ve worked to put a roof over his head.

Miami is looking to acquire a pick in the 2018 NBA Draft.

The team currently does not have a selection. But, it is interested in dealing for a first-round pick, according to a report from Sports Illustrated.

One team to keep an eye on as the draft nears: the Miami Heat, who have been pursuing the possibility of acquiring a first-round selection, according to multiple league sources. At the moment, the Heat don’t own a draft pick.

The Nuggets have been rumored to be shopping this pick to either move up in the draft or offload salary in light of Nikola Jokic’s upcoming extension. If they do stay here, Bridges would make a lot of sense.

Still, with positional size and impressive catch-and-shoot numbers on unguarded attempts (91st percentile, per Synergy), there’s upside here. Wilkes needs to prove he can be a better shooter off movement and more disruptive defender as a sophomore.

Smith will likely spend his freshman season playing alongside returning frontcourt mate Bruno Fernando. His ability to knock down 3s from the outside will be important as Maryland looks to retain some semblance of appropriate spacing.

The 6-10 big is already an effective scorer, but he needs to add significant weight and strength to fill out his size for the next level.

Ponds is probably most well known for being the point guard who forced Duke to switch into a 2-3 zone permanently after carving up Duke’s Marvin Bagley and Wendell Carter in an upset of the Blue Devils last season.

CINCINNATI — Keon Broxton homered twice, dashed home on a rundown and made a diving catch in the ninth inning. With the depleted Brewers needing a little help, the newest addition to the roster did it all.

Broxton drove in four runs Friday night, and Chase Anderson pitched two-hit ball for six innings, leading the Milwaukee Brewers to an 8-2 victory over the Cincinnati Reds.

The Brewers won their seventh straight against the Reds, their best such streak against Cincinnati in franchise history. Milwaukee is 7-1 overall in the season series.

Broxton was called up three days earlier when Lorenzo Cain suffered a groin strain. He had an RBI single, a solo homer , and a two-run shot as the Brewers pulled away with five runs in the ninth inning.

Broxton also scored from third during a rundown play in the eighth inning, going head-first to beat the throw.

Counsell said Braun’s back has bothered him lately. The Brewers are considering whether he’ll need to go on the disabled list.

He tried to play but it just was getting worse as the game went on, Counsell said.

Broxton and Anderson pulled them through.

NBA Mock Draft 2018: Deandre Ayton leads intriguing first round

James has the ability to opt out of his contract this summer, thus becoming a free agent. But even if he does, the Cavaliers will not sell all other assets.

Cleveland has also reportedly shown interest in Spurs small forward Kawhi Leonard, who would potentially be a younger replacement to James.

Childress was an outstanding college player who averaged better than 19 points for three consecutive seasons and surged into prominence with a dazzling performance in the 1995 ACC Tournament, including 37 points in the title game. But he was more a scorer than a playmaker and not dynamic enough to excel at either spot in the NBA. He played in Italy, France, Australia and Turkey and didn’t retire from the game until earlier this decade.

In the event an 84-year-old man flips you the bird, try to handle it as gracefully as Charles Barkley did Monday night.

NBA legend Bill Russell was caught on camera at the NBA Awards giving Barkley a single-finger salute in a moment that lit up up Twitter.

The Grizzlies have been prepared to trade their pick going all the way back to the lottery, when they were the big loser, dropping from a potential No. 2 pick to fourth. They’re seeking to attach Chandler Parsons’ albatross contract to any move involving the pick.

The Bulls would rather move a player (Bobby Portis, Kris Dunn) than take on the two years and $49 million of Parsons’ deadweight contract. Chicago hopes to use its cap space to absorb unwanted contracts and collect further assets this summer, and Parsons’ deal would pretty much chew up that space.

Clearly, if there is one thing the Warriors were lacking, it is an experienced, intelligent and versatile defensive player who could be ready for immediate deployment off the bench.

Picking 28th, the Warriors got Jacob Evans, who is likely to be added to the pile of young late-first-round/early-second-round rotation players the Warriors have amassed in the last few years.

The Rockets took De’Anthony Melton from USC, a guard who was hailed as a darling of analytics and, thus, a natural fit with the Rockets (which, according to Twitter, is apparently the only front office that knows how to use computers).

Melton could turn out to be a useful player, but we should stop calling him a computer darling, because one of the lessons from the movie, Her, was that kind of thing just does not work.