Sixers guard Tyrese Maxey has won the NBA’s Most Improved Player award for the 2023/24 season, the league’s communications department tweets. Maxey edged out Bulls guard Coby White for the award. Maxey received 51 of 99 first-place votes while recording 319 voting points. White had just 32 first-place votes, but showed up on more ballots (91) than Maxey (79) and compiled 305 points. The third finalist, Rockets center Alperen Sengun, was a distant third with six first-place votes and 92 points. Thunder forward Jalen Williams and Knicks guard Jalen Brunson finished fourth and fifth, respectively ..read more

Mavericks guard Luka Doncic, Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Nuggets center Nikola Jokic were revealed on Sunday as the finalists for the Most Valuable Player award, according to the NBA (Twitter link). Doncic led the league in scoring (33.9 points per game) and finished second in assists (9.8) while also grabbing 9.2 rebounds per contest. Gilgeous-Alexander led the Thunder to the top seed in the Western Conference by averaging 30.1 points, 5.5 rebounds, 6.2 assists and 2.0 steals per contest. Jokic, who is widely considered the favorite to win his third MVP trophy, averaged 26.4 poi ..read more

Tiago Splitter, an assistant coach on Ime Udoka‘s Rockets staff, will join the Brazilian national team’s staff as an assistant this summer, according to an announcement from the program (hat tip to Eurohoops). Brazil hasn’t secured a spot in the Olympics but will be looking to claim one of the four remaining openings by winning a six-team qualifying tournament in Latvia ..read more

The Rockets made major changes to their roster during the 2023 offseason, bringing in top free agents like Fred VanVleet and Dillon Brooks. However, general manage Rafael Stone‘s comments this week suggest the team anticipates a quieter summer this time around, with a focus on internal improvement rather than outside additions, according to Jonathan Feigen of The Houston Chronicle (subscription required). “I like my team,” Stone said. “So, I think potentially, we’re just bringing back everybody that we have. It doesn’t mean we won’t look at things, but I don’t think we’re sitting here today fe ..read more

The NBA announced all of the major All-NBA G League teams on Thursday (All Twitter links found here), including the First Team, Second Team, Third Team, All-Defensive Team, and All-Rookie team. Several current and former NBA players are among the honorees. Here is the full list of winners for the 2023/24 season. All-NBA G League First Team: Mac McClung, G, Osceola Magic (McClung was NBAGL MVP) Alondes Williams, G, Sioux Falls Skyforce (Heat‘s affiliate) * Jason Preston, G, Salt Lake City Stars (Jazz‘s affiliate) * Kenneth Lofton, F/C, Salt Lake City Stars ^ Oscar Tshiebwe, C, Indiana Mad Ants ..read more

Rockets general manager Rafael Stone and assistant GM Eli Witus signed multiyear contract extensions with the franchise earlier this season, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (Twitter link). The deals were agreed to in January, per Jonathan Feigen of The Houston Chronicle (subscription required). Stone and Witus were promoted to their current basketball operations roles back in 2020 when longtime head of basketball operations Daryl Morey left the Rockets. The revamped front office immediately faced trade requests from veteran stars Russell Westbrook and James Harden and launched a full-fledge ..read more

The Rockets’ 2023/24 season, their first under new head coach Ime Udoka, is now in the books. Jonathan Feigen of The Houston Chronicle breaks down how the team showed plenty of promise en route to a 41-41 finish, diminished slightly by the lack of a playoff or play-in berth. The Rockets finished as the No. 11 seed in the Western Conference. “Happy wouldn’t be the word,” Udoka said. “We are disappointed we didn’t meet our goal. When you are a few games behind, you think of all the tough … games we’ve given away, we understand where we could have been. The goal always was to make the playoffs an ..read more

The Hornets have added Lakers assistant Jordan Ott and former Vanderbilt coach Jerry Stackhouse to their list of head coaching candidates, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski tweets. Ott has been with the Lakers since Darvin Ham brought him in as an assistant in September 2022. He was previously on the Nets’ staff. Stackhouse was hired by the Commodores in 2019 and fired last March. The former All-Star guard has also been an assistant with the Raptors and Grizzlies and was also head coach of the G League 905 Raptors. Rockets assistant Royal Ivey will also be interviewed, according to the Houston Chronic ..read more

The Rockets’ win over the Trail Blazers on Friday proved to be a nice payday for forward Jae’Sean Tate. He gained a $500K bonus due to his team winning 40 games this season, ESPN’s Bobby Marks tweets ..read more

Confirming prior reporting from Forbes, Marc Stein (Substack link) cites sources who say that Mark Cuban‘s sale agreement with Miriam Adelson and Patrick Dumont stipulates that the Mavericks‘ new majority owners have the option to buy an additional 20% of the franchise in four years. For the time being, Cuban has retained control of 27% of the team and reportedly still maintains a voice in the personnel decisions, though he’s no longer the final decision-maker. However, if Adelson and Dumont exercise that option a few years from now, the extra shares would come out of Cuban’s stake in the team ..read more