Last week, ESPN’s insiders made a series of predictions related to the 2026/27 NBA season, including which teams are most likely to advance to the conference finals and the NBA Finals, which players are the best bets to win major awards, which clubs will overachieve or underachieve, and which players might emerge as trade candidates, among other topics.

Following up on that series of articles, ESPN’s Brian Windhorst talked to scouts, executives, and coaches about ESPN’s forecasts. As Windhorst details, the Jazz and Wizards were among the teams to generate the most discussion — his sources are divided on how big a step forward Utah will take this season, while several believe that ESPN’s projection of 31 wins for Washington was too low.

“I was prepping for the Mavericks last year just before Christmas and I saw (Anthony Davis) play that game in New Orleans and I saw the two games after that on tape,” a Western Conference advance scout told Windhorst. “Say whatever you want to say about him, but that guy is still in there. And if he shows up for, say, 55-60 games, your Wizards number is low.”

Meanwhile, an Eastern Conference scout pushed back against ESPN picking Grizzlies forward Cameron Boozer as its Rookie of the Year frontrunner.

“You’re overthinking it if you don’t pick (Wizards forward AJ Dybantsa),” the scout said. “He’s the most equipped to win the award. Last year, Kon (Knueppel) had a great opportunity, and he had a case but, you know, Cooper (Flagg) was best equipped, and he won it in the end.”

We have more odds and ends from around the basketball world:

• Two-time All-Star Victor Oladipo has penned an open letter to NBA general managers for The Players’ Tribune, detailing his road back from a series of major injuries, including a torn patellar tendon, and imploring a team to sign him for the coming season.
• Former Saint Louis center Robbie Avila, who reportedly agreed to an Exhibit 10 deal with the Lakers after going undrafted in June, is seeking an injunction that would allow him to gain a fifth year of NCAA eligibility in 2026/27, per Stu Durando of Stu on SLU (Substack link). Avila’s case will be heard in Cook County circuit court in Chicago, Durando writes, as the NCAA continues to resist awarding another year of eligibility to athletes who exhausted their fourth year in 2025/26.
• Has restricted free agency gotten worse for players in the NBA’s latest Collective Bargaining Agreement? After the NBA felt compelled to issue a formal PR statement related to restricted free agency last week, Keith Smith of Spotrac takes a deep dive into the subject, looking back at the last 10 years of RFA cases to assess the impact of the system on players coming off their rookie scale contracts.