{"id":860998,"date":"2026-08-17T06:08:26","date_gmt":"2026-08-17T06:08:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/860998\/"},"modified":"2026-08-17T06:08:26","modified_gmt":"2026-08-17T06:08:26","slug":"more-late-night-nba-intel-by-marc-stein","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/860998\/","title":{"rendered":"MORE Late Night NBA Intel – by Marc Stein"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Mid-August is an allegedly sleepy time in the NBA.<\/p>\n

Emphasis on allegedly.<\/p>\n

So much happened this week that I haven’t had a chance to process or comment on all of it yet. The full schedule for the 2026-27 season was released in three parts Tuesday through Thursday. On Wednesday alone we learned that Los Angeles Lakers were being sold \u2014 just nine months after Mark Walter was officially approved by the league’s Board of Governors as the successor taking over for Jeanie Buss \u2014 and that future Hall of Fame Russell Westbrook is abruptly retiring.<\/p>\n

Then the weekend, after Dennis Schr\u00f6der was traded for the ninth time, belonged to the Basketball Hall of Fame class of 2026 … right on the heels of the NBA community in Dallas where I live having spent several days mourning the passing of legendary coach Don Nelson.<\/p>\n

It’s been a lot.<\/p>\n

\"X<\/p>\n

Sacramento Kings@SacramentoKings<\/p>\n

Grateful Sacramento was part of an unforgettable career. Congratulations on 18 incredible seasons. Enjoy retirement, Brodie \ud83d\udc9c @russwest44 <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

8:57 PM \u00b7 Aug 12, 2026 \u00b7 84K Views<\/p>\n

33 Replies \u00b7 679 Reposts \u00b7 8.7K Likes<\/p>\n

<\/a>\"X<\/p>\n

NBA@NBA<\/p>\n

\ud83c\udfc6 RUSSELL WESTBROOK 2016-17 KIA NBA MVP MIXTAPE \ud83c\udfc6<\/p>\n

31.6 PPG (led the NBA)
\n10.7 RPG (10th in NBA)
\n10.4 APG (4th in NBA)
\n42 triple-doubles (single-season record)<\/p>\n

Congrats on your retirement, @russwest44! <\/p>\n

4:03 PM \u00b7 Aug 15, 2026 \u00b7 491K Views<\/p>\n

69 Replies \u00b7 1.78K Reposts \u00b7 10.6K Likes<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Talking about the Lakers’ sale and all the attendant ramifications will be a constant going forward. Clearly it slams home \u2014 coming just one day after the New York Yankees welcomed a $2.6 billion infusion of cash from Apollo Sports Capital \u2014 how expensive this sports stuff is getting. Yet I’ve frankly spent the whole week in reflection mode, so I’ll have to play some catch-up on the purple and gold. Losing Nellie, Russ’ video drop without warning to stunningly announce his decision to walk away from the game and then Mike D’Antoni’s speech in Springfield that had me reliving all the time I spent covering his Seven Seconds Or Less Suns \u2014 and how open D\u2019Antoni was in terms of access granted to the reporters who closely covered those teams \u2014 have monopolized my focus.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

It is time, though, to try to forge ahead. The best way we know how on a Sunday? Naturally that’s publishing a Sunday Best compilation of Late Night Intel.<\/p>\n

To the latest, then, from my notebook on free agency and trade matters from throughout the league … leading off with some previously unreported aspects of Westbrook’s summer.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Way back on June 30, The Stein Line first revealed Washington’s interest in signing Westbrook:<\/p>\n

\"TheThe ultimate Late Night NBA trade and free agency Intel compilation<\/a><\/p>\n

How serious were the Wizards?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mid-August is an allegedly sleepy time in the NBA. Emphasis on allegedly. So much happened this week that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":860999,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[49,48,459,82],"class_list":["post-860998","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/860998","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=860998"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/860998\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/860999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=860998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=860998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=860998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}