The NBA is formally stepping into the prediction markets ecosystem.

The league announced agreements Monday morning with Kalshi and Polymarket that will allow the companies to use official league data and intellectual property and give the league control over what trades the companies are allowed to offer.

More details:
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7723134/2026/10/26/nba-kalshi-polymarket-agreement-prediction-markets/?unlocked_article_code=1.LlE.BI9-.9v1tqIGSlGni&source=emp_shared_article&smid=url-share-ta

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/50259828/payton-pritchard-celtics-iso-king

It's 6:45 in the morning in the middle of June, and Pritchard has just walked into the humid gym of his choice, at a high school on the southeastern tip of Cape Cod. He'd pulled up to school grounds 10 minutes earlier but had to wait outside while his trainer, Michael Soares, phoned a staffer to open the locked double doors.

This gym, like most of the unglamorous gyms Pritchard handpicks for his offseason workouts, doesn't boast amenities such as air-conditioning. A few years ago, a heat wave slammed West Linn, Oregon, where he grew up. Outside, temperatures ticked up to 115 degrees, and it grew only more tropical indoors, hitting 120 in the gym at his high school alma mater, where he was conducting workouts. Pritchard came armed with extra towels because even the ball was sweating that day.

The conditions in his Cape Cod accommodations are temperate by comparison. And anyway, Pritchard likes the muck.

The muck is why he has been recruiting Division II and III basketball players, international guys and hometown buddies to high school gyms for years now. They're not exactly a ragtag motley crew, but they're not polished professionals either, and Pritchard figures that makes them hungry. He'll pay for their gas to drive down from Boston to the Cape, or their flights to cross the country or an ocean, because they can be counted on to play feisty, relentless one-on-one defense.

Today, as ever, it's death by repetition for Pritchard. Bump his defender, create space, shoot. Beat his defender, get to his spot, shoot. React to his defender chasing him. Drive to the basket because his defender is chasing him from too far behind.
About 30 minutes in, Bruce Saintilus, recently of Division III Clark University and one of Pritchard's defenders for the summer, is the one chasing Pritchard. He's feeling himself, certain that he has forced Pritchard into a bad angle. But Saintilus runs past the basket, so he doesn't get to see Pritchard attempt an awkward layup. Still, Saintilus knows. He shouts over -- to Soares, or maybe to the basketball gods for forsaking him and his defense -- "Did that really go in?"
It did.

And so it goes for close to two hours about three times a week throughout the summer. Pritchard will do 150 possessions in his elaborate dance around the basketball court -- the block, the elbow, the other elbow, the 3-point line, the corner, the wing, the high slot, the middle, the opposite slot -- going one-on-one versus a rotating cast of defenders. They'll get breaks, he won't, and if Pritchard shoots under 60% on the day, his defenders eat like kings at Chipotle and then send him the bill.

He considers it a small price to pay for the thousands of live looks he gets over the summer, for the chance to square up against one man and try to best him. And then do it again and again, filing it all away in his mental archive. How much basketball data mining is too much? The limit does not exist.

Source: https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/50028196/2026-27-nba-buzz-latest-live-updates-news-intel-trades-deals

"I guess I should put my Bobby Marks' hat on just because what you want in a podcast is you want analysis of this beyond just a visceral response. The Thunder have the ability to apply for a disabled player exception. But let's be honest here, they cannot replace him."

"They'll replace him with what they have on their roster with Ajay Mitchell. He becomes a very important piece right now and the fact that they had to trade away multiple wings over the summer -- Aaron Wiggins and Lu Dort ... It comes into play for sure, but his means Ajay Mitchell will have to have a big season and now Cason Wallace, who was just rewarded with a huge contract, those guys will be needed. And you also could see some opportunities for Bennett Stirtz, who actually I think got his first uh NBA basket tonight. So there's probably no team that could withstand an injury like this other than the Thunder.

"They can apply for a disabled player exception, which they will certainly get. They will get, I believe, the full mid-level exception that they can use up to the mid-level exception, which is like, $14-ish million that they can use to to sign a player or trade for a player. They can only trade for a player with that exception who's got one year left on his contract.

This broke my heart.

You could see he was fighting the internal pain, feeling for his teammate.

52 PTS

8 REB

10 AST

2 STL

17/30 FG (57%)

8/18 3P (44%)

8/9 FT (88%)

All things considered a great game by Luka shooting-wise. He is obviously shooting his way into form from the 3-point line like every start of season.

Source: https://www.espn.com.au/nba/boxscore/_/gameId/401909861

Scottie Barnes tonight dropped: 0 points, 2 rebounds, 3 assists, and 4 steals on 0-12/FGs, 0-5/3PA with 3/TOV on a team low box +/- of -27 against the Minnesota Timberwolves. It was evident tonight that the Timberwolves got under Scottie's skin defensively and made him incredibly uncomfortable on the court. Watching him turn the ball over so often, him letting Anthony Edwards and everyone else on the wolves blow by him on the perimeter, and miss all those 3-point shots on 0% efficiency was absolutely infuriating to watch. He missed a fast break dunk with nobody around him at the end of the 3rd, emblematic of the rest of his performance tonight.

Hopefully this was an off-night for him and he rebounds for a better game next match, but Coach Darko should have the confidence to bench him earlier if it ever gets even close to as bad as this again. Scottie Barnes being absolutely terrible tonight is the only reason this post isn't about Jakob Poetl's performance of 0/1/0 in 19 minutes.

Source: https://bsky.app/profile/jonhamm.bsky.social/post/3mysd4tjrks2e

Thunder executive vice president & general manager Sam Presti will hold a media availability at 5pm.

This is shortly before Mark Daigneault's typically scheduled gameday media availability (90 minutes before tipoff).

Orlando Magic guard Jalen Suggs has been diagnosed with a mild bone bruise in his right knee and will be re-evaluated in two weeks, sources tell ESPN. Suggs avoided any other major structural damage.

https://www.espn.com/contributor/shams-charania/e5a8bb1b0e046

Source: https://basketnews.com/news-258147-dennis-schroder-ex-lakers-guard-never-before-achieved-nba-scoring-feat.html

He scored 25 points with the following teams:

Atlanta Hawks

Oklahoma City Thunder

Los Angeles Lakers

Boston Celtics

Toronto Raptors

Brooklyn Nets

Sacramento Kings

Cleveland Cavaliers

Charlotte Hornets

The only teams where he didn't have a 25 points game are:

Golden State Warriors (played 24 games)

Houston Rockets (played 15 games)

Detroit Pistons (played 28 games)

So basically he had a 25 point game in all the teams where he played at least 30 games.

https://www.basketball-reference.com/leagues/NBA_2027_leaders.html

https://www.basketball-reference.com/contracts/players.html

Jerome is currently being paid about 60% of the MLE, and ranks below average in salary for players not on rookie contracts.

While there is a small chance that Jerome’s MVP campaign will be derailed at some point, it looks like the Grizzlies might have the biggest steal of a contract in the league (and that Ty is headed for a big extension).

https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/j/jeromty01.html

The Timberwolves are 3-0 to start the season, having beaten the Heat by 22, the Magic by 25, and tonight beating the Raptors by 23 points.

One could argue they haven't had a real test yet, with Banchero going down during the Magic game, Kawhi missing tonight's game, and the Heat being just plain awful, but Minnesota is looking uniquely dominant so far.

Source: https://www.nba.com/timberwolves

After today's games:

-the Wolves' all time-record stands at 1248-1713, a win percentage of 0.42148

-the Nets' all-time record stands at 1700-2335, a win percentage of 0.42131

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_all-time_NBA_win–loss_records

https://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore/_/gameId/401909867

31 points

4 rebounds

6 assists (1 TO)

1 steal, 8/17 FG, 1/6 3PT, 14/14 FT