The NBA lost one of the most accomplished figures in league history on Sunday when Lenny Wilkens passed away at the age of 88. He was a nine-time All-Star in his 15-year career. Wilkens finished second to Wilt Chamberlain for the 1968 MVP. He had an eight-year stretch in which he averaged 19 points, eight assists and five rebounds.

Shortly after he retired, he led the Seattle SuperSonics to the 1979 championship as head coach. He broke Red Auerbach’s record for most coaching wins and was the first to 1,000 victories. When Wilkens retired from coaching in 2005, he was the all-time winningest coach. He still sits third all-time. On top of all of that, he was a phenomenal presence in community service. Wilkens made the 75th anniversary team and was named one of the 15 greatest coaches ever. He was everything the NBA hopes a figure can be and more. Rest in peace.

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NBA stock report

Rockets’ offense, Pistons’ defense are surging

Every Monday, we take a look at the trends around the NBA. Teams moving up. Teams plummeting. Players going on big runs. We track it all on the NBA Stock Report to let you know any streaking you may have missed. Let’s start it off with an offense that went from untrustworthy to the best in the league.

📈 **Houston Rockets (6-3) offense: **Last year, the Rockets had a shockingly efficient offense (13th). A lot of it was smoke and mirrors. They were 21st in both field-goal percentage and 3-point percentage. However, they led the NBA in offensive rebounding percentage by being bullies on the boards. Get it up on the rim and go get it.

This season,** the Rockets have the best offense in the NBA:** They’re still the best at offensive rebounding, so a lot of misses remain in their possession. However, the Rockets have shot up to seventh in field-goal percentage (from 45.5 last season to 49.4) and first in 3-point percentage (35.3 to 42.8). The 3-point shooting won’t hold, but even being around the top 10 in accuracy would make this scary Rockets squad even more frightening.

📉 **Dallas Mavericks (2-7) offense: **On the other end of that spectrum is the Mavs. They have been abysmal offensively as they try to get by without Kyrie Irving and, at times, Anthony Davis. You’d think maybe they could recreate some of that Rockets style from last season by just getting a shot up and crashing the offensive boards to keep possessions alive. It’s not happening. Dallas is 28th in offensive rebounding.

Dallas is also 25th in field-goal percentage and 29th in 3-point percentage, shooting just 30.3 percent from downtown. It’s also 19th in turnover rate, so it’s not taking care of the ball well either. **The Mavs are on pace (103.7 offensive rating) to have the second-worst offense of the last eight seasons **(Oklahoma City in 2020-21 had a 102.8 rating).

📈 **Detroit Pistons (8-2): **The Pistons are the hottest team in the NBAwith six straight wins to put them atop the Eastern Conference. They’re on everybody’s radar after last year’s surprise season, and they’re still stacking up wins. Their offense hasn’t made many strides, but their defense has gotten a lot better. The Pistons sit third in the NBA in defensive rating.

They play a physical brand of basketball, allowing the highest free-throw rate in the NBA. And yet it’s not hurting them, because they allow the second-lowest field-goal percentage and the lowest effective field-goal percentage in the league.

📉 **Washington Wizards (1-9): **It’s not that you should expect differently from the Wizards this season. They are constructed to lose a bunch of games, but hopefully do it in a developmental and entertaining way. However, they’ve lost eight straight games and they’re getting blown out way worse than what we saw throughout last season. The Wizards have one single-digit loss, and it just happened Saturday against Dallas (the Wizards’ only victory came against the Mavs too).

📈 **Cleveland Cavaliers (7-3): **The Cavs have won four straight and put a couple of teams in their respective places over this last week. Cleveland isn’t throwing that historic offense out on the floor just yet, but they also just got Darius Garland back into the mix after he was out months with toe surgery.

**Donovan Mitchell has been spectacular, even by his standards.**He’s averaging 30.7 points to begin the season, but it’s not just coming from jacking up a bunch of shots. He has an absurd 68.5 percent true shooting through his first nine games. He’s making 62.5 percent of his 2-pointers.

📉 **LA Clippers (3-6): **They’ve lost four straight games, including a home-and-home to Phoenix. Kawhi Leonard has missed three straight games. Dropping four straight and being horrendous on both ends of the floor is the problem here. While they loaded up with depth on the roster to mitigate Leonard missing time, that added depth hasn’t really been good.

John Collins, Bradley Beal and Chris Paul have all struggled to make an impact. The biggest concern for the Clippers, though, has been the defense. They were one of the best in the league last season. They’re currently ranked 27th in the NBA. Only the Pelicans, Wizards, and Nets have been worse at defending. Yikes!

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The last 24

Who is the best player of the last 25 years?

🏀 **More! The reigning MVP and finals MVP has accomplished so much. That isn’t enough for him, and that should worry the rest of the NBA. **

**🏀 New BFF? Giannis Antetokounmpo is off to a great start this season. Is AJ Green secretly the reason? **

🏀 Tough but fair. Draymond Green has not loved the start to the Warriors’ season. “Our defense sucks.”

🐂 What’s the plan? The 6-3 Bulls have been one of the best stories to begin the season. They’re still trying to master their offensive identity.

➕ And-1. The NBA corrected a scoring error to give the Wizards a point they were missing in a 148-115 NBA Cup loss. I say replay the entire game!

🎧 Tuning in. Today’s “NBA Daily” asks if the Pistons are serious contenders.

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NBA Quarter-Century Project

Who is the best player of the last 25 years?

Did you know we’re almost done with 2025? The holidays, including New Year’s Eve, are right around the corner, which means we’re a quarter through the 21st century. So we got together at The Athletic to rank some top-25 lists for the last 25 years. There were 43 of us who ranked the top 25 players of the last 25 years. Those rankings were assigned points, aggregated and then compiled into our official list.

Let me tell you: That was not an easy task. Some heavy hitters didn’t even make the list. Joel Embiid, Tracy McGrady, Manu Ginobili and Damian Lillard all missed the cut. And looking at my own list, I’m still not totally sure I had the right people in the right places. **LeBron James ended up being the overwhelming selection as the best player. **But he wasn’t unanimous (I voted him No. 1).

Shaquille O’Neal wasn’t voted into the top five. Kobe Bryant didn’t make it into the top three. And somehow Jason Kidd finished behind Anthony Davis in these rankings. That wasn’t the case on my ballot, though! **Thirteen of the players ranked in the top 25 are still playing.**It’s a pretty comprehensive list, but still up for plenty of debate.

We didn’t just stop at players! Throughout the week, we’ll have a new list every single day. We’ll be sure to link it here, but don’t forget to check out the website/app to read a new list each day. Here’s the schedule for the Top 25 Project.

• **Tuesday: **Top 25 moments on the court.
• **Wednesday: **Top 25 transactions.
• **Thursday: **Top 25 off-court moments.
• **Friday: **Results from our readers weighing in.

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Goodbye, Ankles

Must-see: De’Andre Hunter versus Josh Giddey

There are two easy ways to go viral in an NBA game. 1) Dunk all over someone who tries to challenge you at the rim. 2) Throw a cup at Ron Artest when tensions are high at the end of an intense rivalry game Break someone’s ankles with a crossover before making a big shot. De’Andre Hunter did the latter on Saturday night when he did this to Josh Giddey.

Oh no, Josh! That was a horrible way to fall! We’ve seen plenty of players fall before. We once watched Joe Johnson make Paul Pierce lose a game of Twister on the court. But I don’t remember seeing a defender fall like this. Look at this screenshot. It looks like he was two-hand shoved by an invisible left tackle.

However, my favorite part of this play (aside from the snatched ankles) is Darius Garland’s reaction on the bench. Hunter literally had his teammate skipping to celebrate this.