The night before the Charlotte Hornets agreed to trade LaMelo Ball to Minnesota, The Stein Line was the first to reveal that the Timberwolves were doing the most serious chasing.
A full five days before the Toronto Raptors remarkably convinced the LA Clippers to trade Kawhi Leonard back to Canada’s team, The Stein Line first reported the Raptors were not only trying to reacquire the greatest player in franchise history without warning but also that Leonard himself really wanted a second marriage.
Tim Hardaway Jr. to Miami. Keon Ellis to Brooklyn. Dean Wade to Philadelphia. The Stein Line connected those free agents to those teams days before their actual contract agreements were struck once free agency officially began Tuesday night at 6 PM ET.
The intent is really not to be (that) braggadocious. The intent is merely (OK … mostly) to remind you that these Late Night NBA Intel compilations, for some reason never acknowledged by a certain ubiquitous sports network, are bound to tell you many things that are happening and/or going to happen in #thisleague before they actually do.
We truthfully didn’t anticipate assembling one of these files at this hour as the calendar flipped from June 30 to July 1 but, well, we heard too much over the course of the evening not to prepare another overnight feast delivered to your proverbial door:
The Lakers find themselves at the center of the NBA marketplace … even after LeBron James abruptly declared Tuesday that he will be taking his talents somewhere other than Tinseltown for his record 24th season in 2026-27.
