C: ESPN.com, Sports Illustrated and The Star. Marc Stein, Lee Jenkins and Bruce Arthur talk with Steve Nash to discuss his decision to officially retire from the NBA after 19 seasons that will usher him, no questions asked, into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame the second he's eligible. (I'd also point you toward the slew of great Nash remembrances we collected back in October, after the Los Angeles Lakers announced that the injured point guard would miss the 2014-15 NBA season.)
PF: The Triangle. Bryan Curtis on the separation between media and players that exists in the Oklahoma City Thunder locker room, which leads to things like the Russell Westbrook-Berry Tramel incident, the head of the players' union openly questioning why reporters are there in the first place, an awful lot of ill will and not much insight.
SF: Pounding the Rock and The Triangle. Michael Erler and Kirk Goldsberry on how Kawhi Leonard's rampaging defense fuels the San Antonio Spurs' offense.
SG: Heat.com and Eye on Basketball. In which Couper Moorhead teaches us that Dwyane Wade is John Wayne (basically) and Zach Harper reminds those who haven't been paying close attention that the Wade who closed out the Portland Trail Blazers has been more rule than exception this season.
PG: Beyond the Arc. With the Memphis Grizzlies in the midst of a post-All-Star-break swoon, Kevin Lipe looks beyond the Jeff Green question, Mike Conley's injuries and the Tony Allen static to consider what might be the defining issue facing Dave Joerger's club: "To have a real shot at winning a championship — and let's not kid ourselves; it's a genuine shot this year — the Grizzlies need the [Marc] Gasol who showed up in the first three months of the season.
6th: Ultimate Rockets. Jonathan Feigen relays NBA Commissioner Adam Silver's comments on a potential consequence of the National Basketball Players Association's rejection of his "cap smoothing" proposal: a delay in implementing his preferred reforms to the draft lottery. (Then again, as SB Nation's Tom Ziller noted, those reforms might have been delayed anyway, considering Silver clearly didn't have the votes to get them passed the last time he tried.)
7th: SB Nation. Good stuff from Mike Prada on how the Phoenix Suns contained James Harden en route to a big win on Saturday night.
8th: ESPN.com and The Triangle. Royce Young does deeper on something I wrote about Sunday — how Russell Westbrook's table-setting for his bigs has helped the Oklahoma City Thunder's offense remain near the top of the NBA, and the Thunder's playoff hopes stay alive, without Kevin Durant — while Zach Lowe tells us why it doesn't really matter, as the Thunder are now all but drawing dead with Durant sidelined indefinitely.
9th: The National Post. Eric Koreen looks at the Toronto Raptors' rotation as we near the end of May and sees the same thing he saw at the start of the season. He's not sure that's a good thing.
10th: ESPN New York. A small but potentially interesting development, as noted by Ian Begley: The New York Knicks have increased the frequency with which they run pick-and-roll over the course of the season, which could indicate that Derek Fisher is taking advantage of the freedom that president of basketball operations Phil Jackson says his coach has to tweak and adjust the triangle offense to better suit the reality of present-day NBA play.
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Dan Devine is an editor for Ball Don't Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at devine@yahoo-inc.com or follow him on Twitter!
Stay connected with Ball Don't Lie on Twitter @YahooBDL, "Like" BDL on Facebook and follow BDL's Tumblr for year-round NBA talk, jokes and more.
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