Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav confirmed that talks with the NBA to keep games on TNT are ongoing. NBC has offered the NBA $2.5 billion per season to essentially replace TNT as the league's other primary partner alongside ESPN. Amazon will likely enter as a partner for the NBA and broadcast both the NBA Cup and Play-In Tournament.

“We continue to be in constructive negotiations with the NBA,” Zaslav said Monday at the Milken Institute Global Conference in California. “It’s a great league. The TNT team does a terrific job. And we love the NBA.”

WBD maintains matching rights with the NBA as one of their existing partners.

WBD’s stock has lost nearly one-third of its value so far this year, with a drop of nearly 10 percent last week driven in part by reports the network could lose the NBA rights. 

During an interview in November 2022, Zaslav said “We don’t have to have the NBA.”

Christian Wood has exercised his $3 million player option for the 2024-25 season with the Los Angeles Lakers. Wood signed a two-year deal with the Lakers last summer, that included a player option for next season.

Wood appeared in 50 games in his first season in Los Angeles. He averaged 6.9 points and 5.1 rebounds in 17.4 minutes per game off the Lakers bench.

The Phoenix Suns' disappointing first round performance against the Minnesota Timberwolves has led to some speculation that they may have to break up their superstar duo of Kevin Durant and Devin Booker in order to field a more balanced roster.

"Do people in the league say that?" said Brian Windhorst on The Rich Eisen Show. "Yes, they do. I talk to multiple people who think that's what they're going to have to do that. Do the Suns say that? No, they do not.

"I think the Suns' intention is to keep all three of these star players. Tweak the roster, tweak some of their systems and processes and try to be better next year."

Windhorst also stressed how Durant spoke about how the Suns could benefit from continuity. 

The Suns have also yet to publicly decide the future of Frank Vogel as head coach.

What happened in two snapshots in the NBA Playoffs on Monday, May 6, 2024.

What happened in one snapshot in the NBA Playoffs on Sunday, May 5, 2024.

LA Clippers front office executive Lawrence Frank covered a lot during his end-of-season media session. One of the topics was center Ivica Zubac, who had a career year. Frank said that the Clippers will have extension conversations with Zubac this summer.

The 7-foot center averaged a career-high 11.7 points per game last season. Zubac also grabbed 9.2 rebounds and blocked 1.2 shots per game.

Zubac has one year remaining on the three-year, $32.8 million extension he signed with LA in 2022. Zubac will make $11.7 million in 2024-25.

Jamal Murray threw a heating pad on the floor during the middle of a possession in the Denver Nuggets' 106-80 Game 2 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Referee Marc Davis said after the game that Murray should have been assessed a technical foul, but not been ejected for the incident.

"I was the lead official, and I didn't notice it was on the floor or where it came from until Towns scored," Davis told a pool reporter. "We weren't aware it had come from the bench. If we would have been aware it came from the bench, we could have reviewed it under the hostile act trigger. The penalty would have been a technical foul."

Chris Finch called Murray's act "dangerous" and "inexcusable" and said the Wolves attempted to reason with the officiating crew to adjudicate the incident.

"We tried to impress upon [the referees] there probably aren't many fans in the building that have a heat pack, so it probably had to come from the bench, which they found logical," Finch said. "I'm sure it was a mistake and an oversight and nothing intentional by the officiating at all, but certainly can't allow that to happen."

Amazon will get the rights to the NBA Cup and Play-in Tournament in the next media deal, according to John Ourand of Puck (h/t Sports Media Watch).

There was a possibility that the league would sell the rights for the two tournaments as part of a separate deal.

The Amazon deal is likely to include a conference final every-other-year, as well as Saturday games.

ESPN will carry regular season games on Wednesdays as part of the new deal. 

Jimmy Butler is eligible for a two-year contract extension with the Miami Heat worth as much as $113 million to cover the 25-26 and 26-27 seasons. Pat Riley revealed that the Heat have not internally discussed that possibility yet.

"We have not discussed that internally right now," Riley said. "We have to look at making that kind of commitment and when do we do it. We don't have to do it until 2025, actually. But we'll see. We haven't made a decision on it, and we haven't really in earnest discussed it."

Butler's injury issues will potentially be a factor in Miami's calculus.

"That's a big decision on our part to commit those kinds of resources unless you have somebody who's going to be there and available every single night," Riley said. "That's the truth."

Riley also criticized Butler's comments about the Boston Celtics and New York Knicks.

"If I was playing, Boston would be at home, New York damn sure would ... be at home," said Butler.

"I thought, 'Is that Jimmy trolling or is that Jimmy serious?' If you're not on the court playing against Boston or on the court playing against the New York Knicks, you should keep your mouth shut on the criticism of those teams," Riley said.

Rudy Gobert missed Game 2 of the Minnesota Timberwolves' second round series against the Denver Nuggets following the birth of his first child. 

There was some level of optimism that Gobert could return to Denver in time for the game.