While a midseason losing streak from a championship contender is by no means indicative of how their season will end, the latest vibes surrounding the Knicks are nevertheless unnerving.
The Knicks’ woes stretch beyond their current four-game lull. Since their NBA Cup title win over the Spurs on Dec. 16, they’ve produced an uninspiring 5-6 record and lost four times by double-digits. They’ve also lacked physicality on both ends of the floor, causing their advanced metrics to slide.
But concerns outside the Knicks’ locker room aren’t bothering the players. Their leading scorer and catalyst, Jalen Brunson, isn’t lifting the lid on some panic button.
“The sky isn’t falling. We’ve lost four in a row,” the Knicks’ captain said following Tuesday’s practice. “Obviously, we don’t want to be in a position like that. We’ve got to be better, be positive. We’ve got to understand, we didn’t start the season great and then we played well after that. It’s just a stint we need to get out of.”
Brunson, the NBA Cup MVP who earned Eastern Conference Player of the Month honors by averaging 30.6 points and 7.1 assists over 14 games in December, hasn’t really missed a beat in the new year. He remains the Knicks’ reliable go-to option, only now his challenge is receiving ample support from teammates.
In the midst of shooting slumps from three-point range and lingering injuries to key contributors, the Knicks are searching for a rhythm and swagger they once flaunted. When asked if the NBA’s in-season tournament win triggered some sort of hangover, Brunson didn’t agree with the label.
“I’m not calling it a hangover, I’m not calling it anything,” Brunson said. “It’s us not being where we need to be, so where do we go from here?… We just have to be better as a team. I could say it the same way a thousand different times. It’s that plain and simple.”
The Knicks sorely need Karl-Anthony Towns to deliver more consistent scoring, akin to the numbers posted last season as an All-Star alongside Brunson. The veteran center was ineffective against the Pistons, limited to just six points and responsible for a season-worst six turnovers.
What can’t be disputed is Towns’ far-from-seamless transition to head coach Mike Brown’s system. He’s already logged four games this season with single-digit points — last season, he finished below 10 points only once.
“I lean on my experience, I’ve unfortunately had to adjust to a lot of head coaches and a lot of new teammates and situations,” Towns said on Tuesday. “We’ve got to do what I’ve got to do to move forward.”
Of course, the Knicks must demand more from Towns. But their most glaring issue over the past few weeks has been defensive vulnerability. In their 11-game stretch since the NBA Cup, they’ve been outscored by a whopping 5.6 points per 100 possessions.
The eventual return of Josh Hart from injury will be an energy boost, and Mitchell Robinson’s brief three-game absence made the Knicks’ lineup smaller and weaker in the paint. But toughness is a matter of will, and Towns blames the four-game skid on the defensive efforts.
“You’ve got to play defense to win games,” Towns said. “We can’t give up the amount of points we do and not score as much as them.”
There was never any doubt of the Knicks’ bar being set above another Eastern Conference Finals appearance. Perhaps the combination of welcomed reinforcements and on-court adjustments can rejuvenate a team still positioned to reach greater heights.
The Knicks will try to snap their losing streak at home on Wednesday, against the Clippers, before embarking on a four-game road trip out west.
Owners of MLB’s best regular-season record and a franchise-record 97 wins in 2025, the Milwaukee Brewers crashed out of last year’s postseason in fairly humiliating fashion. It’s one thing to be eliminated by the eventual World Series champions — and it’s no secret that the Los Angeles Dodgers wielded a particularly powerful roster — but the degree to which Milwaukee was outclassed in the NLCS undeniably began the winter on a sobering, sour note that made the rollicking success of the regular season feel like a distant memory. The Brewers were outscored 15-4 over the course of the four-game sweep. Worse, they hit a combined .118/.191/.193, amounting to a paltry .384 OPS that was the second-lowest mark ever by a team in a championship series.
After a summer filled with magical moments and an early-round playoff triumph over the rival Cubs, the Brewers fell short of what would have been just the second World Series appearance in franchise history. At the same time, their enormous sample of winning in the months prior was another reminder of the organization’s unique ability to remain ultra-competitive on a yearly basis, regardless of payroll or roster turnover. Still, Milwaukee repeatedly coming close over the past decade without actually reaching the Fall Classic raises the question of what this organization can do to ensure that final destination is finally reached.
To that end, the offseason represents an opportunity for contenders to make the necessary roster upgrades to advance further the following season. But the Brewers haven’t acted with any kind of urgency this winter — a sharp contrast to the transactional activity of another team that suffered postseason heartbreak against the Dodgers, the Toronto Blue Jays, who have responded to their World Series loss with multiple major signings. Meanwhile, the Brewers’ activity in free agency has consisted of retaining Brandon Woodruff via the qualifying offer and signing outfielder Akil Baddoo to a split deal that doesn’t guarantee a roster spot. That’s it.
Of course, the difference in market size and spending power must be acknowledged when comparing Milwaukee’s offseason to those of their rivals, but the Brewers’ relative passivity still stands as an interesting organizational response to what occurred in 2025. They aren’t alone in this category, but the Brewers’ outsized regular-season success followed by a particularly unpleasant postseason exit make their timid hot stove strategy worthy of a deeper look.
With pitchers and catchers reporting to Maryvale, Arizona, in a little more than a month, here are four big questions looming over the Brew Crew:
1. Will they trade Freddy Peralta?
Amidst a starting pitching market that hasn’t really gotten moving this offseason, the Brewers have one of the most valuable trade chips in the league in Peralta, who is coming off the best season of his career and slated to make just $8 million in 2026 before reaching free agency. Most players in Peralta’s position and of his caliber would seem like the last player a team would entertain trading, considering his value, but the Brewers have consistently demonstrated a willingness to deal away key players before their contracts expire in an effort to recoup valuable future assets; Peralta’s former rotationmate Corbin Burnes is the most glaring recent example.
Replicating the Burnes gambit now looms as a possibility as multiple teams inquire about Peralta, and there’s an argument that Peralta could fetch even more in a trade than what Burnes yielded from Baltimore (shortstop Joey Ortiz, left-hander DL Hall, and draft pick eventually used on first baseman Blake Burke, who reached Double-A in his first full professional season in 2025). Peralta isn’t quite as accomplished on the whole as Burnes was at the time of his trade, but he’s coming off a better season, and his modest salary is much more attractive than the roughly $16 million Burnes was projected to make in his final year of arbitration.
Assuming super-ace Tarik Skubal isn’t dealt, Peralta is arguably the best pitcher left on the free-agent or trade markets, comparing favorably not only to fellow trade candidates such as MacKenzie Gore and Edward Cabrera but also to the top free-agent arms such as Framber Valdez, Ranger Suarez and Zac Gallen. It’s not hard to see why teams would be willing to pay a hefty price to land Peralta, even for just one season, and such offers might prove too enticing for the Brewers to pass up.
That said, trading yet another longtime fan favorite is not a decision to be taken lightly, even if Milwaukee has done this dance before. And executing such a trade while meaningfully improving the roster for 2026 is a delicate balance to strike — if it’s possible at all.
2. What are the expectations for Jacob Misiorowski in 2026?
Beyond whether Milwaukee can extract enough value in a trade for Peralta, the other key consideration when weighing such a move involves the strength of the rotation with or without him. Keeping Woodruff via the qualifying offer is one crucial piece of that puzzle, though his durability moving forward remains a serious question considering his ailments in recent years, including a lat strain that rendered him unavailable for the postseason. The Brewers have also demonstrated an ability to turn pitchers who failed to flourish with other organizations into impactful arms in Milwaukee, with Quinn Priester and Chad Patrick the latest examples fortifying the club’s rotation depth and Tobias Myers another relevant character in that regard.
However, few pitchers across the entire sport enter 2026 with as much intrigue as Misiorowski. The lanky right-hander, who will turn just 24 years old in April, enjoyed a supersonic ascent to stardom last season, a roller-coaster ride that also featured some notable points of adversity but finished on an encouraging note given how he looked in the postseason, when he struck out 16 batters while allowing just two earned runs in 12 innings across three appearances.
Fresh off his star turn in 2025 — and after a notable jump in workload to a career-high 129⅓ frames across the minors, majors and postseason — what is a realistic outlook for Misiorowski’s sophomore campaign? Will he continue striking out boatloads of batters with his otherworldly stuff, or will he ultimately prove too wild to be a reliable rotation option, validating a concern that has followed him throughout his trajectory as a prospect?
The degree of confidence that Milwaukee has in Misiorowski to develop into its next frontline arm could play a role in the team’s decision to trade or hold onto Peralta. And Peralta ramifications aside, Misiorowski’s development will be well worth monitoring in 2026.
Outside of Baddoo — an intriguing bounce-back target in the mold of some other reclamation projects who have thrived in Milwaukee but far from a sure bet to contribute — the most prominent addition Milwaukee has made to its offensive unit this offseason is a couple of new hitting coaches ( including former slugger Daniel Vogelbach). In fact, the Brewers have technically subtracted from their offense more than they’ve added, trading Isaac Collins to Kansas City coming off Collins’ unlikely breakout campaign in which he finished fourth in NL Rookie of the Year voting.
Left-hander Angel Zerpa — the return for Collins in that deal — might well make an important impact on the mound for Milwaukee, but he isn’t going to help the team’s run-production efforts, and that raises questions about whether there will be any offensive upgrades before Opening Day for an offense that ranked 11th in OPS and 22nd in home runs in 2025 and flamed out against the Dodgers in October.
Perhaps reinforcements could come in the return in a Peralta trade (or some other trade), or there are still a good number of free-agent bats available who could help the Brewers and won’t cost a ton, such as Miguel Andujar or Austin Hays. First base — depending how confident Milwaukee is in Andrew Vaughn’s renaissance — and left field are two spots to monitor for upgrades, especially if the Brewers are intent on sticking with Joey Ortiz at shortstop, as has been reported.
4. What is Jackson Chourio’s ceiling?
If Misiorowski represents the most tantalizing and critical pitcher to project for Milwaukee, Chourio is unquestionably the most important bat when assessing the overall strength of the position-player group. After flashing tremendous potential as a 20-year-old rookie, Chourio turned in a sophomore season with eerily similar surface-level totals — seriously, go look at how nearly identical his first two seasons were — but his underlying metrics regressed just enough to make Chourio’s second campaign a modest disappointment, albeit nothing that would dampen his outlook as a future star.
Now 2026 represents a pivotal opportunity for Chourio to demonstrate that he’s still on track to be a face-of-the-franchise type of player, and he’ll need to prove it on both sides of the ball. He has obvious potential as a power-speed dynamo, but his value to Milwaukee in the long term will be dictated even more by how he progresses as a defender.
Should Chourio prove he can play a capable center field — where he started 91 games in the regular season before exclusively playing corner outfield in the postseason — that would lessen the pressure on his bat to hit at superstar levels while enhancing Milwaukee’s roster flexibility. If he settles into left or right field instead, it will become paramount for Chourio the hitter to elevate his output.
There’s plenty of time for Chourio to make the necessary adjustments to upgrade his game with the bat and the glove — he turns just 22 in March, after all — but how quickly and how dramatically those improvements take place will play a big part in Milwaukee’s plans and ambitions for the foreseeable future.
Owners of MLB’s best regular-season record and a franchise-record 97 wins in 2025, the Milwaukee Brewers crashed out of last year’s postseason in fairly humiliating fashion. It’s one thing to be eliminated by the eventual World Series champions — and it’s no secret that the Los Angeles Dodgers wielded a particularly powerful roster — but the degree to which Milwaukee was outclassed in the NLCS undeniably began the winter on a sobering, sour note that made the rollicking success of the regular season feel like a distant memory. The Brewers were outscored 15-4 over the course of the four-game sweep. Worse, they hit a combined .118/.191/.193, amounting to a paltry .384 OPS that was the second-lowest mark ever by a team in a championship series.
After a summer filled with magical moments and an early-round playoff triumph over the rival Cubs, the Brewers fell short of what would have been just the second World Series appearance in franchise history. At the same time, their enormous sample of winning in the months prior was another reminder of the organization’s unique ability to remain ultra-competitive on a yearly basis, regardless of payroll or roster turnover. Still, Milwaukee repeatedly coming close over the past decade without actually reaching the Fall Classic raises the question of what this organization can do to ensure that final destination is finally reached.
To that end, the offseason represents an opportunity for contenders to make the necessary roster upgrades to advance further the following season. But the Brewers haven’t acted with any kind of urgency this winter — a sharp contrast to the transactional activity of another team that suffered postseason heartbreak against the Dodgers, the Toronto Blue Jays, who have responded to their World Series loss with multiple major signings. Meanwhile, the Brewers’ activity in free agency has consisted of retaining Brandon Woodruff via the qualifying offer and signing outfielder Akil Baddoo to a split deal that doesn’t guarantee a roster spot. That’s it.
Of course, the difference in market size and spending power must be acknowledged when comparing Milwaukee’s offseason to those of their rivals, but the Brewers’ relative passivity still stands as an interesting organizational response to what occurred in 2025. They aren’t alone in this category, but the Brewers’ outsized regular-season success followed by a particularly unpleasant postseason exit make their timid hot stove strategy worthy of a deeper look.
With pitchers and catchers reporting to Maryvale, Arizona, in a little more than a month, here are four big questions looming over the Brew Crew:
1. Will they trade Freddy Peralta?
Amidst a starting pitching market that hasn’t really gotten moving this offseason, the Brewers have one of the most valuable trade chips in the league in Peralta, who is coming off the best season of his career and slated to make just $8 million in 2026 before reaching free agency. Most players in Peralta’s position and of his caliber would seem like the last player a team would entertain trading, considering his value, but the Brewers have consistently demonstrated a willingness to deal away key players before their contracts expire in an effort to recoup valuable future assets; Peralta’s former rotationmate Corbin Burnes is the most glaring recent example.
Replicating the Burnes gambit now looms as a possibility as multiple teams inquire about Peralta, and there’s an argument that Peralta could fetch even more in a trade than what Burnes yielded from Baltimore (shortstop Joey Ortiz, left-hander DL Hall, and draft pick eventually used on first baseman Blake Burke, who reached Double-A in his first full professional season in 2025). Peralta isn’t quite as accomplished on the whole as Burnes was at the time of his trade, but he’s coming off a better season, and his modest salary is much more attractive than the roughly $16 million Burnes was projected to make in his final year of arbitration.
Assuming super-ace Tarik Skubal isn’t dealt, Peralta is arguably the best pitcher left on the free-agent or trade markets, comparing favorably not only to fellow trade candidates such as MacKenzie Gore and Edward Cabrera but also to the top free-agent arms such as Framber Valdez, Ranger Suarez and Zac Gallen. It’s not hard to see why teams would be willing to pay a hefty price to land Peralta, even for just one season, and such offers might prove too enticing for the Brewers to pass up.
That said, trading yet another longtime fan favorite is not a decision to be taken lightly, even if Milwaukee has done this dance before. And executing such a trade while meaningfully improving the roster for 2026 is a delicate balance to strike — if it’s possible at all.
2. What are the expectations for Jacob Misiorowski in 2026?
Beyond whether Milwaukee can extract enough value in a trade for Peralta, the other key consideration when weighing such a move involves the strength of the rotation with or without him. Keeping Woodruff via the qualifying offer is one crucial piece of that puzzle, though his durability moving forward remains a serious question considering his ailments in recent years, including a lat strain that rendered him unavailable for the postseason. The Brewers have also demonstrated an ability to turn pitchers who failed to flourish with other organizations into impactful arms in Milwaukee, with Quinn Priester and Chad Patrick the latest examples fortifying the club’s rotation depth and Tobias Myers another relevant character in that regard.
However, few pitchers across the entire sport enter 2026 with as much intrigue as Misiorowski. The lanky right-hander, who will turn just 24 years old in April, enjoyed a supersonic ascent to stardom last season, a roller-coaster ride that also featured some notable points of adversity but finished on an encouraging note given how he looked in the postseason, when he struck out 16 batters while allowing just two earned runs in 12 innings across three appearances.
Fresh off his star turn in 2025 — and after a notable jump in workload to a career-high 129⅓ frames across the minors, majors and postseason — what is a realistic outlook for Misiorowski’s sophomore campaign? Will he continue striking out boatloads of batters with his otherworldly stuff, or will he ultimately prove too wild to be a reliable rotation option, validating a concern that has followed him throughout his trajectory as a prospect?
The degree of confidence that Milwaukee has in Misiorowski to develop into its next frontline arm could play a role in the team’s decision to trade or hold onto Peralta. And Peralta ramifications aside, Misiorowski’s development will be well worth monitoring in 2026.
Outside of Baddoo — an intriguing bounce-back target in the mold of some other reclamation projects who have thrived in Milwaukee but far from a sure bet to contribute — the most prominent addition Milwaukee has made to its offensive unit this offseason is a couple of new hitting coaches ( including former slugger Daniel Vogelbach). In fact, the Brewers have technically subtracted from their offense more than they’ve added, trading Isaac Collins to Kansas City coming off Collins’ unlikely breakout campaign in which he finished fourth in NL Rookie of the Year voting.
Left-hander Angel Zerpa — the return for Collins in that deal — might well make an important impact on the mound for Milwaukee, but he isn’t going to help the team’s run-production efforts, and that raises questions about whether there will be any offensive upgrades before Opening Day for an offense that ranked 11th in OPS and 22nd in home runs in 2025 and flamed out against the Dodgers in October.
Perhaps reinforcements could come in the return in a Peralta trade (or some other trade), or there are still a good number of free-agent bats available who could help the Brewers and won’t cost a ton, such as Miguel Andujar or Austin Hays. First base — depending how confident Milwaukee is in Andrew Vaughn’s renaissance — and left field are two spots to monitor for upgrades, especially if the Brewers are intent on sticking with Joey Ortiz at shortstop, as has been reported.
4. What is Jackson Chourio’s ceiling?
If Misiorowski represents the most tantalizing and critical pitcher to project for Milwaukee, Chourio is unquestionably the most important bat when assessing the overall strength of the position-player group. After flashing tremendous potential as a 20-year-old rookie, Chourio turned in a sophomore season with eerily similar surface-level totals — seriously, go look at how nearly identical his first two seasons were — but his underlying metrics regressed just enough to make Chourio’s second campaign a modest disappointment, albeit nothing that would dampen his outlook as a future star.
Now 2026 represents a pivotal opportunity for Chourio to demonstrate that he’s still on track to be a face-of-the-franchise type of player, and he’ll need to prove it on both sides of the ball. He has obvious potential as a power-speed dynamo, but his value to Milwaukee in the long term will be dictated even more by how he progresses as a defender.
Should Chourio prove he can play a capable center field — where he started 91 games in the regular season before exclusively playing corner outfield in the postseason — that would lessen the pressure on his bat to hit at superstar levels while enhancing Milwaukee’s roster flexibility. If he settles into left or right field instead, it will become paramount for Chourio the hitter to elevate his output.
There’s plenty of time for Chourio to make the necessary adjustments to upgrade his game with the bat and the glove — he turns just 22 in March, after all — but how quickly and how dramatically those improvements take place will play a big part in Milwaukee’s plans and ambitions for the foreseeable future.
The challenge is actually finding a trade that works.
There is not much of a market for Young, league sources have told NBC Sports. On the surface, one would think a lot of teams would be interested in a 27-year-old in his prime who averages 25.2 points and 9.8 assists a game for his career. They are not. Part of the hesitation is that the league is deep with good point guards, and not many teams are looking for one (for example, Young used to be linked to the Spurs, but they now have De’Aaron Fox and Dylan Harper). For the teams that need someone at the point, the challenges are Young’s well-chronicled defensive shortcomings, his ball-dominant style and how that impacts team chemistry, and how those two items combine to put a ceiling on how good a team can be with Young. Add in the fact he makes a lot of money — $45.9 million this season, a $48.9 million player option for next season, and he is eligible for and wants a contract extension — and teams looking at tax aprons are hesitant. At best.
Which teams are interested? Who should be? Here are three teams to watch.
Washington Wizards
Washington is the clear frontrunner for a Young trade, with NBA insider Marc Stein first reporting their interest. The Wizards have a promising young core: Second-year center Alex Sarr is a defensive force who can shoot 3s and is the kind of big a lot of teams are trying to find; plus there is scoring on the wings with Tre Johnson and Kyshawn George, and the two-way potential of Bilal Coulibaly. Add Young to this group and suddenly the long-moribund Wizards — who have made the playoffs once in the last seven years and that will become eight this season — have an entertaining team with potential.
There are legitimate concerns that a trade could short-circuit the player development underway in Washington, but if owner Ted Leonsis just wants to get back into the postseason quickly, this is a path to it.
The Trade: Washington receives Trae Young; Atlanta receives C.J. McCollum, Corey Kispert and some picks.
McCollum is in this deal to make the money work, he has an expiring $30.6 million contract. That said, he is averaging 18.6 points per game this season, is a veteran leader, and could be a boost for the remainder of the season in Atlanta.
Kispert is a rock-solid rotation wing shooting 39.5% from beyond the arc this season — which is why the Hawks won’t want to give him up and instead will push for something like the combination of Malaki Branham and AJ Johnson in the deal. That could be a sticking point.
The draft picks get interesting — there are front offices around the league that feel Atlanta should have to send picks out with Young to get a team to take on that contract. The Hawks do not see it that way. Washington should not give up its own pick this year or anything of real value, but it does control Oklahoma City’s 2026 pick (technically, they get the worst of the Thunder, Rockets and Clippers, which will be OKC). That will very likely be the 30th pick, so the Wizards can throw it in and the Hawks can say they got a first-round pick. That’s the most valuable pick the Wizards should give up, other than just a second-rounder or two.
Minnesota Timberwolves
And we’re already into trades that I don’t like and/or don’t make much sense.
The argument for Minnesota to trade for Young is that they need shooting and a point guard, since Father Time quickly caught up with Mike Conley. The idea is that the team needs a boost if it is going to take a step forward from making the Western Conference Finals (as it has done the past two seasons), and Young could be that boost. Anthony Edwards, next to Young, has the potential to be explosive offensively, and with Rudy Gobert in the paint, they can cover up Young’s defensive shortcomings.
The problem is how much money Young makes and how much Minnesota has to give up in any trade.
The Trade: Minnesota receives Trae Young; Atlanta receives Naz Reid, Donte DiVincenzo, Mike Conley and a player on a minimum contract.
What has made Minnesota so dangerous the past few years is its depth and versatility, and this four-for-one trade sacrifices it. Minnesota is a good 23-13 this season, and while that is still sixth in the West the Timberwolves are a game out of the top four and hosting a round in the playoffs, and 2.5 games out of being the No. 2 seed. This is not a team in need of a dramatic shakeup of roster and style, and that’s what Young brings to the table.
While this trade can be manipulated to bring in a third team and maybe send out Julius Randle instead, the issue comes back to the reality that it’s hard to see how any of these trades would make Minnesota better. This is not a deal they should be involved in.
Milwaukee Bucks
Milwaukee is buying, not selling, heading into the trade deadline — it wants to enhance a team that believes it can still be a threat in a wide-open East and in doing so impress Giannis Antetokounmpo. The Bucks need more talent — more shot creation and shooting around Antetokounmpo — and Young is the biggest name on the board. Sure, the Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard pairing didn’t work, but the Bucks can try to convince themselves that this would be different, no matter how much they have to give up.
For Atlanta, they could get help along the front line and maybe a future first-round pick… is that enough?
The Trade: Milwaukee receives Trae Young; Atlanta receives Bobby Portis, Kyle Kuzma, another player (Gary Harris?), Milwaukee’s 2031 first-round pick.
That pick becomes a big inflection point: would the Bucks give it up? I’m not sure why Atlanta would want to do this deal and take on the added years of Portis and Kuzma unless that pick was in the mix. If I’m the Bucks is Young really enough to give up the one first-round pick I can still trade?
Portis would help the front line in Atlanta and Kuzma can fit in the rotation. For Milwaukee, already a very thin team, this would hurt its depth even more. Can Young alone fix the issue of the non-Antetokounmpo minutes?
This feels more like a trade born of desperation and is not a great deal for either side, but are both teams desperate enough to do it anyway?
Other Teams mentioned
Here are quick thoughts on other teams that come up in rumors:
• LA Clippers: The idea is that Young would help the team in the non-James Harden minutes, except that Kawhi Leonard is healthy and doing that much better than Young would already. Plus, the Clippers are focused on a 2027 pivot and wouldn’t want to extend Young.
• Toronto Raptors: Is Young really a fit with a team that is winning thanks to its defense and depth? The trade likely would require RJ Barrett and Immanuel Quickley plus a first-round pick or two going to Atlanta, and it’s hard to see why Toronto thinks this makes them better (taking the ball out of Brandon Ingram’s hands).
• Sacramento Kings: Let’s put aside the fact that this trade does not make much sense for either side (when has that stopped Sacramento in the past), instead focusing on the fact that Sam Amick at The Athletic has already reported the Kings have zero interest in such a trade. That’s smart by the Kings.
• Dallas Mavericks: Multiple reports out of Dallas say there is no interest in the team trading for Young. There will be no swap of problems with Anthony Davis.
The New Year is here, and with it have come new injuries and new opportunities. The biggest storyline of the last week is Nikola Jokic’s hyperextended knee that will cause him to miss at least a month. Denver will have to fill the void with a committee approach, and multiple Nuggets appear in this week’s column.
Aaron Nesmith has played great since returning to Indiana’s lineup, and he tops the list. With key injuries in Chicago and Washington, Bulls and Wizards feature prominently here, too. Multiple frontcourt injuries in Detroit should mean plenty of run for Isaiah Stewart for at least the next week.
Here are the top fantasy basketball waiver wire adds for Week 12.
→ Watch the NBA Coast 2 Coast Tuesday on NBC and Peacock, as the Heat take on the Timberwolves at 8 p.m. ET before the Mavericks and Kings square off at 11 p.m. ET. Both games are available
1. Aaron Nesmith
2. Isaiah Stewart
3. Jake LaRavia
4. Peyton Watson
5. Quentin Grimes
6. Justin Champagnie
7. Isaiah Collier
8. Ayo Dosunmu
9. Caleb Love
10. Luke Kornet
Quentin Grimes, Philadelphia 76ers (35 percent rostered)
After a rough stretch of games, Grimes is back on track with four straight strong performances. Over the last week, he’s averaged 13.3 points, 4.5 rebounds, 3.3 assists, 1.8 steals, 1.3 blocks and 3.0 triples across 33 minutes. Despite improved availability across the roster, Grimes is surging as one of the first guys off Philly’s bench. His 40 minutes in Monday’s OT loss highlight Philadelphia’s faith in him late in games.
After returning from a six-week absence, Nesmith has found his groove, and he’s worth a look off the waiver wire. Across his last four outings, he’s averaged 14.3 points, 5.0 rebounds, 3.5 assists, 0.8 steals, 1.3 swats and 3.0 triples across 29.6 minutes. Nesmith is a top-75 fantasy player over the last week, and his role could increase significantly with Bennedict Mathurin (thumb) set to miss substantial time. Indiana is still looking for answers in its starting five, and Nesmith certainly delivered on Sunday with a 25/4/8 line including two swats and five triples across 34 minutes.
Watson has started 21 straight games, filling in for Aaron Gordon and Christian Braun. Gordon and Braun both returned on Sunday, with Braun rejoining the starting five and Gordon coming off the bench. Watson remained with the first unit and logged his third straight 20-point game in 29 minutes. Watson’s playing time and production may be scaled back with Gordon and Braun back, but the Nuggets are still without Nikola Jokic, Jonas Valanciunas and Cameron Johnson. Rotation minutes will be available, and Watson has done enough to earn at least 25-30 for the foreseeable future. DaRon Holmes II has started at center with Jokic and Valanciunas sidelined, but he isn’t worth a look in most fantasy leagues due to his limited minutes. Tim Hardaway Jr. is a viable add thanks to his scoring and three-point shooting.
Ayo Dosunmu, Chicago Bulls (23 percent rostered)
All of Dosunmu, Kevin Huerter and Tre Jones have seen increased run and production over their last four games, and all are worth adding off the waiver wire with Coby White on a minutes restriction and Josh Giddey still sidelined. Jones is the best add for managers in need of assists, while Huerter is the better rebounder and three-point shooter. Dosunmu is the best of the group in all-around production, so he’s the preferred add here. Huerter is best reserved for deeper leagues, while Jones and Dosunmu are worth rostering in standard leagues.
Isaiah Stewart, Detroit Pistons (23 percent rostered)
Jalen Duren and Tobias Harris will be out for at least a week, freeing up Stewart to take on a larger role for Detroit’s next three games, and potentially longer. Stewart has recorded a blocked shot in 10 straight games, averaging 2.4 swats in that span. He started Sunday’s win over the Cavaliers, delivering a full 8/3/2/2/3 line across 31 minutes.
Your Eastern Conference @Kia Defensive Player of the Month for December…
Jake LaRavia, Los Angeles Lakers (21 percent rostered)
LaRavia continues to shine for the Lakers, and he should stay heavily involved in the rotation until Rui Hachimura and Austin Reaves return. Even when the pair return, LaRavia has been too good to see his minutes cut dramatically. Over his last two games, LaRavia has averaged 23.5 points, 7.0 rebounds, 3.0 assists, 1.5 steals, 0.5 blocks and 3.5 triples. He needs to be rostered in all standard leagues.
Isaiah Collier, Utah Jazz (16 percent rostered)
Collier offers strong numbers in a scarce waiver wire category – assists. He’s averaging 6.6 on the season, but over his last 11 games, he’s dished 8.5 per game to go with 9.8 points, 3.1 boards and 1.0 steals. Collier has been excellent as Keyonte George’s primary backup at PG, but if the latter is forced to miss time or Utah mixes up its starting five, Collier would be in line for big stat lines. In his last start, Collier went for 16/6/10 with a block and a triple across 37 minutes.
Luke Kornet, San Antonio Spurs (15 percent rostered)
Kornet had his best game of the season on Saturday, delivering 23 points, eight rebounds, three assists and five blocked shots across 31 minutes. He’s enjoyed a strong run of games as of late, and he should retain value even after Victor Wembanyama returns. Wemby could come off the bench or see a reduced workload in the games ahead, especially with San Antonio playing a Tuesday-Wednesday back-to-back set.
Jerami Grant (Achilles) will miss a 10th straight game on Monday, which means Love should continue to see meaningful minutes. Across his last seven appearances, the rookie out of Arizona has posted 17.3 points, 2.9 rebounds, 2.3 assists, 0.7 steals and 3.9 triples across 29.7 minutes. He’s worth a look as a points and threes specialist.
Justin Champagnie, Washington Wizards (12 percent rostered)
Over his last four games, Champagnie ranks just outside the top 100 in per-game fantasy value with averages of 12.5 points, 7.0 rebounds, 1.0 steals, 1.3 blocks and 1.0 triples across 25.5 minutes. Kyshawn George is without a timeline for return, and Champagnie should continue to be involved in the rotation until he returns. If you miss out on Champagnie, Bilal Couliabaly is a worthwhile add, as is Tre Johnson, who has started each of the last four that George has missed.
Other options:Cam Spencer (18%), Bilal Coulibaly (27%), Tre Johnson (10%), Tre Jones (26%), Kevin Huerter (11%), Tim Hardaway Jr. (17%), Julian Champagnie (15%)
Dončić, in his first full season with the Los Angeles Lakers after last year’s shocking trade, has pulled in 2,229,811 votes, and Antetokounmpo, in his 13th season with the Milwaukee Bucks, has 2,092,284 votes to his name.
Luka Dončić and Giannis Antetokounmpo remain the leaders in their conferences in the second fan returns in NBA All-Star Voting 2026.
Fans (50% of the vote) join NBA players (25%) and a media panel (25%) in selecting five players in each conference honored as starters. pic.twitter.com/u8tlbj9GA8
Fans are responsible for 50% of the vote that selects each conference’s five starters. NBA players (25%) and a media panel (25%) account for the other slices of the vote.
Voting concludes Jan. 14 at 11:59 p.m. ET. That day, as well as Wednesday this week, will mark the final “3-for-1 Days,” on which each fan vote counts three times.
It’s also worth noting that Denver Nuggets star center Nikola Jokić and New York Knicks standout point guard Jalen Brunson are both second among vote-getters in their conferences in the second fan returns. Brunson, who has averaged 31.2 points per game since Dec. 5, has surpassed Philadelphia 76ers’ point guard Tyrese Maxey since the first fan returns. Now Maxey is third, not second, in Eastern Conference fan voting.
Here are the top 10 vote-getters from the second fan returns, regardless of conference:
Dončić, in his first full season with the Los Angeles Lakers after last year’s shocking trade, has pulled in 2,229,811 votes, and Antetokounmpo, in his 13th season with the Milwaukee Bucks, has 2,092,284 votes to his name.
Luka Dončić and Giannis Antetokounmpo remain the leaders in their conferences in the second fan returns in NBA All-Star Voting 2026.
Fans (50% of the vote) join NBA players (25%) and a media panel (25%) in selecting five players in each conference honored as starters. pic.twitter.com/u8tlbj9GA8
Fans are responsible for 50% of the vote that selects each conference’s five starters. NBA players (25%) and a media panel (25%) account for the other slices of the vote.
Voting concludes Jan. 14 at 11:59 p.m. ET. That day, as well as Wednesday this week, will mark the final “3-for-1 Days,” on which each fan vote counts three times.
It’s also worth noting that Denver Nuggets star center Nikola Jokić and New York Knicks standout point guard Jalen Brunson are both second among vote-getters in their conferences in the second fan returns. Brunson, who has averaged 31.2 points per game since Dec. 5, has surpassed Philadelphia 76ers’ point guard Tyrese Maxey since the first fan returns. Now Maxey is third, not second, in Eastern Conference fan voting.
Here are the top 10 vote-getters from the second fan returns, regardless of conference:
What was billed as a clash of Eastern Conference titans at Little Caesars Arena on Monday hardly lived up to the hype. Early in the second quarter, the Detroit Pistons hit the gas, slammed the pedal to the floor, and never let up, leaving the New York Knicks — the team that eliminated Detroit from the 2025 NBA playoffs, a sour taste that has fueled the Pistons’ surge to the top of the Eastern standings — stuck in neutral and eating their dust.
With two starters in street clothes — potential All-Star center Jalen Duren and steady veteran forward Tobias Harris — Detroit dismantled the visiting Knicks in a 121-90 pasting that further cemented the 27-9 Pistons’ standing atop the East. Cade Cunningham got wherever he wanted, whenever he wanted, scoring or assisting on 61 points against a New York defense that struggled to stall dribble penetration or stay connected to shooters all night, allowing a Pistons team that ranks 26th in 3-pointers per game to drill 16 long balls on 31 attempts.
Deuce McBride, asked what he saw from the defense: “Man, did we play defense tonight?”
The issues were arguably even more pronounced on the other end, where the ball pressure, physicality, length, quickness and tenacity of the Pistons’ No. 2-ranked defense completely short-circuited the Knicks’ attack. New York shot just 19-for-46 (41.3%) inside the 3-point arc, with a mere six makes inside the restricted area, and had a season-high-tying 20 turnovers, with six apiece coming from the All-NBA tandem of Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns. And while Brunson finished with a team-high 25 points, he also failed to register a single assist for the first time since March 2024 (a game in which he played just 47 seconds before leaving with a knee contusion) and for the first time in a full game since March 2022 — when he was still backing up Luka Dončić in Dallas.
All of which is to say: The vibes surrounding the Knicks, so immaculate just three weeks ago when they hoisted the NBA Cup in Las Vegas, have taken a dramatic and dire turn during what’s now a four-game losing streak, the team’s longest since February 2024. And that downturn — which now has the Knicks looking up in the standings at not only the Pistons, but also the red-hot Celtics, and just a game and a half clear of fourth-place Toronto — is prompting the sort of look inward that sounds an awful lot like reaching DEFCON: Team Meeting. From Vincent Goodwill of ESPN:
“A lot needs to be addressed,” Knicks guard Jalen Brunson said.
Brunson declined to elaborate on precisely what he meant, but when asked if the members of the team had any discussions amongst themselves before the media was allowed in, he said, “Yeah, a little bit.” […]
“We just gotta respond. A lot more needs to be said. We keep it internal,” he said. “If we want to be the team we say we want to be, we have to be better, simple as that.”
“We’ve got to get to the drawing board,” Towns said. “We’ve got to figure it out. Offensively, defensively, we’ve got to figure it out. It just hasn’t been good basketball from us recently.” […]
“[The Pistons] were ready to go tonight. They wanted to play,” said Brunson […] “They truly wanted to win and we didn’t.”
“This is a bad, bad time,” [Towns] said. “You can’t have it be this bad.”
It’s been this bad for weeks now. At the time they won the NBA Cup, the Knicks were 18-7 with the NBA’s No. 2 offense, No. 13 defense and No. 3 net rating. Since the Cup win, though, they’re now 5-6, including four of their eight double-digit defeats on the season. In this span, they’ve plummeted down to 17th on offense and 27th on defense, getting outscored by a downright Wizardian 5.6 points per 100 possessions — and if there’s one thing we know, it’s that you never want to be downright Wizardian.
Not if you fancy yourself a title contender, anyway, which the Knicks very much do — an assessment made abundantly clear on Monday by none other than Knicks owner James L. Dolan, who, during a rare interview on New York radio station WFAN, laid out his expectation that his team would make the NBA Finals for the first time since 1999. (Which, for the record, was right before Dolan took the franchise’s reins from his father. Y’know, in case you were wondering.)
“We want to get to the Finals, and we should win the Finals,” Dolan said. “This is sports […] anything can happen in sports. But getting to the Finals, we absolutely gotta do. Winning the Finals, we should win.”
After four straight losses punctuated by the most lopsided blowout defeat of their season, the Knicks feel awfully far away from that sort of rarefied air — and from the confidence, overflowing mere weeks ago, that they could get there. The question facing Mike Brown and his staff: How do they get that back?
Well, some reinforcements couldn’t hurt. The Knicks have gone 2-4 since losing Josh Hart, who was off to arguably the best start of his career, to a sprained right ankle on Christmas Day, and have been without reserve guard Landry Shamet (right shoulder sprain) since before Thanksgiving. Both could return to the fold by the end of the week, according to SNY’s Ian Begley, and both could provide welcome infusions in areas that have ailed the Knicks.
Hart gives head coach Mike Brown another dogged perimeter defender to ease the burdens on OG Anunoby and Mikal Bridges — and to help insulate the vulnerable Brunson and Towns — while also offering a source of complementary ball-handling and playmaking, another physical rebounder for a team that’s been outrebounded in four of the last six games, and a jolt of grab-and-go offense in transition. Shamet, for his part, was shooting 42.4% from 3-point range before his injury while pairing with Deuce McBride as two of New York’s best point-of-attack defenders — a particular pain point for a Knicks team that’s given up blow-by after blow-by in recent weeks, a major factor in New York ranking 23rd in the NBA in the share of opponents’ shots that come at the rim over the last 11 games.
Jalen Brunson and the Knicks are stuck right now. (Photo by Todd Kirkland/Getty Images)
Todd Kirkland via Getty Images
Brunson has been the culprit in plenty of those blow-bys. While opposing offenses, particularly those helmed by bigger and/or more athletic lead guards, have long hunted the smaller Brunson at the point of attack, the Knicks have largely come out ahead in the bargain by virtue of Brunson’s ability to consistently marshal an elite offense that dishes out at least as much punishment as it takes. But despite Brunson continuing to put up great numbers during New York’s post-Cup swoon — just under 30 points and six assists per game on 45/39/86 shooting splits — New York’s offense, on the whole, has dipped down below league-average over the past several weeks.
And while the offense has been markedly better in Brunson’s minutes than when he’s taken a seat, it’s still performed like a fringe-top-10 outfit with the captain on the ball rather than the league-best-caliber murderer’s row it was in his floor time earlier in the season. That’s not nearly effective enough to overcome the kind of defensive hemorrhaging the Knicks have been suffering with him on the floor — and a level of slippage that feels like, if not regression, at least a bit of reversion to old habits.
“We’re not getting off [the ball] like we were in the past,” Brown told reporters after the Detroit loss. “You’ve got to make quick decisions, and as soon as you feel another body come to you, you’ve got to get off it. And right now, we’re not doing it. We’re holding onto it too much, trying to force the issue too much. […] You’ve got to play off two feet, you’ve got to spray the basketball, and you’ve got to rely on your teammates to make decisions once you do spray it.”
On one hand, it’s difficult to blame Brunson for taking it upon himself to shoulder a heavier offensive burden when few, if any, of his teammates seem up to the task of dribbling through defensive pressure without losing the ball or generating and making shots against tight coverage. On the other, it’s an approach that can kickstart a vicious cycle: stagnant possessions begetting misses and turnovers that give opponents the opportunity to attack in transition against a Knicks defense that isn’t set, increasing the likelihood that they score, forcing New York to take the ball out and bring it up the floor against a defense that is set in the half-court, leading to stagnant possessions that beget misses and turnovers, and so on, and so on.
(It can become a chicken-or-the-egg conundrum: Are Towns, Anunoby, Bridges, et al., struggling to catch a rhythm and make plays because they’re reduced to bystanders while Brunson’s trying to cook? Or is Brunson having to try to cook so much because they — most notably Towns, who has played well all-around this season, but has seen his touches and offensive production dip as he adjusts to a new system under Brown — are struggling to catch a rhythm and make plays?)
Those cycles can turn virtuous, too. More intentional attacking, quicker decisions and better ball/body movement can lead to better, more open shots (and, if defenders are scrambling and out of position, more offensive rebounding opportunities). Make those, and you get the chance to set your defense more often, giving you a better shot of getting the kind of stops that give you the chance to run and hunt early offense. String enough of those sorts of sequences together, and you’re on the front foot, acting as the aggressor and knocking the opposition back on its heels — playing to the win-the-possession-battle identity that the Knicks, at their best, wield like a weapon.
The bad news is the Knicks haven’t done much of that lately. The good news, Brown noted, is that they’ve done it before, and they’re capable of doing it again.
“It’s not time to panic,” Brown said Monday. “But we have to make sure we’re doing what we can do to help this group. And our guys have to bring it, or try to take it to another level as a group — not trying to do too much, but take it to another level as a group in a lot of areas.”
