On June 10, 2014,
Derek Fisher signed a five-year, $25 million deal as the head coach of the
New York Knicks, instead of playing one more season with the
Oklahoma City Thunder. During his eighteen seasons in the league as a player, he won five NBA championships, all with the
Los Angeles Lakers (2000β2002 and 2009β2010).[1]
On June 15, 2014,
Shane Battier announced his retirement immediately following the
Miami Heat's loss in Game 5 of the
2014 NBA Finals. He was 35, and had played for thirteen seasons. He won back-to-back NBA championships with the Heat (2012β2013)[2]
On September 9, 2014,
Chauncey Billups announced his retirement after 17 years of playing; the last team he played for was the Detroit Pistons, and he won a championship with them in 2004 as well as a Finals MVP that same year.
On February 26, 2015,
Richard Hamilton officially announced his retirement after 14 seasons from NBA with one championship ring with the
Detroit Pistons in 2004.[3]
On March 21, 2015,
Steve Nash officially announced his retirement after 18 seasons with the
Phoenix Suns,
Dallas Mavericks and
Los Angeles Lakers. Nash was contracted by the Lakers, but was sidelined by season-ending injuries during pre-season.[4]
Free agency
Free agency negotiations began on July 1, 2014, when players began to sign starting on July 10, after the
July moratorium ended. Some notable moments from free agency are:
On February 12, 2015, the Sacramento Kings demoted Tyrone Corbin from his coaching duties and replaced him with former
Coach of the YearGeorge Karl.[32][33]
The preseason began on October 4, 2014, and ended on October 24, 2014.
Regular season
The regular season began on October 28, 2014, with the defending NBA champions
San Antonio Spurs hosting the first game against the
Dallas Mavericks.[35] The regular season ended on April 15, 2015.
Christmas Day games were played on December 25, 2014. The NBA is mulling a week-long
All-Star break in February 2015,[36] and the full schedule was released during a one-hour schedule release special on August 13, 2014, at 6:00 p.m.
EDT on
NBA TV.[37]
Brooklyn clinched #8 seed over Indiana based on head-to-head record (2β1).
Western Conference
Houston clinched the #2 seed over the Los Angeles Clippers as Houston won the Southwest Division while the L.A. Clippers finished 2nd in the Pacific Division.
Memphis clinched the #5 seed over San Antonio based on a better divisional record (9β7 to 8β8).
New Orleans clinched the #8 seed over Oklahoma City based on head-to-head record (3β1).
The
Cleveland Cavaliers won the #1 pick in the NBA draft for the second year in a row, as well as the third time in four years and the sixth time in franchise history. It tied with the
Chicago Bulls in
2008 for the lowest percentage possible in the modern-day draft lottery, as well as marking the second time a team got the #1 draft pick two years in a row. Their selection was
Andrew Wiggins, the second straight Canadian player to be selected as the #1 pick.
Both top selections Andrew Wiggins and
Anthony Bennett were traded to the
Minnesota Timberwolves for
Kevin Love on August 23, the soonest date allowed, with Wiggins having signed a rookie contract 30 days earlier. The trade of Wiggins also marked the second time since the
NBA-ABA merger that a #1 draft pick was traded to another team without playing for his drafting team.
In September,
Atlanta Hawks co-owner Bruce Levenson sold his share of the Hawks after self-reporting a 2012 e-mail he received that was considered inappropriate and racist. Around that same time, general manager
Danny Ferry's remark that player
Luol Deng "had a bit of African in him" was leaked, resulting in Ferry taking an indefinite leave of absence and having coach
Mike Budenholzer taking on the job until his potential return.
On September 29, the
Phoenix Suns became the first team to have two sets of brothers on the same team, with
Goran DragiΔ's younger brother
Zoran signing a two-year deal and both twin brothers
Markieff and
Marcus Morris getting four-year contract extensions. All four played in a loss to the
Los Angeles Clippers on November 15, and on January 2, 2015, they played together at the same time late in the fourth quarter in a 112β96 victory over the
Philadelphia 76ers.
On October 6, the NBA announced a new 9-year TV deal with
ESPN and
TNT worth $24 billion. Starting in the
2015β16 NBA season, the NBA's value increased from $930 million to $2.6 billion per year, which would also increase each team's salary cap from $63 million to around $89 million. In addition, the NBA also announced that it will host an end-of-season award show on TNT.
On October 19, the
Brooklyn Nets and the
Boston Celtics played a preseason game that consisted of four 11-minute quarters, instead of the regular 12-minute quarters; it decreased the overall amount of playing time to around two hours. Boston won the game 95β90.
The NBA logo assumed a new position on team jerseys, moving from the top left chest to the back atop a player's name.[92][93][94] In addition, teams who have won a championship will have their uniforms adorned with a gold patch on the back, featuring the number of championships won.[95][96]
The NBA owners vote 17β13 to reform the lottery odds to reduce the chances of the worst teams in the league winning the lottery. However, the proposal failed as a 23-vote super-majority was required.[97]
On November 1, 2014,
Carmelo Anthony surpassed 20,000 career points, becoming the 40th player in NBA history to do so. He reached the milestone in the 1st quarter of a 96β93 home win against the
Charlotte Hornets.
On November 11,
Dirk Nowitzki surpassed
Hakeem Olajuwon as the highest-scoring player born outside the United States and the 9th all-time, as the Mavericks came from behind 24 points down to beat Sacramento 106β98 for their 21st straight regular-season win at home against the Kings. Nowitzki hit a jumper from just inside the three-point line early in the fourth quarter to pass Olajuwon, finishing the night at 26,953 career points.[102]
On November 12,
Kobe Bryant surpassed
John Havlicek and became the all-time leader for missed field goal attempts in the league. His career-breaking record 13,418th missed shot came at 6:22 in the fourth quarter on a 14-foot fadeaway in a 107β102 loss on the road against the
Memphis Grizzlies.[103]
On November 13, the
Dallas Mavericks led the
Philadelphia 76ers by 44 points, tying for the 2nd-largest margin at halftime. (Mavericks franchise record was broken by their own team on December 27, 2020, led the
Los Angeles Clippers by 50 points, 77β27 an NBA record still stands).
On December 13,
Dwight Howard reached 10,000 career rebounds.[104] At 29 years, 5 days, Howard became the third youngest player in NBA history to reach 10,000 career rebounds. Only
Wilt Chamberlain (28 years, 81 days) and
Bill Russell (28 years, 285 days) reached the milestone at a younger age.[105]
On December 14, 2014,
Kobe Bryant passed
Michael Jordan for third place on the all-time scoring list. He reached the mark at 5:24 in the second quarter against the
Minnesota Timberwolves by making two free-throw shots. Bryant finished with 26 points in the Lakers' 100β94 victory over Minnesota.
On December 22, the Detroit Pistons waived
Josh Smith after signing him to a four-year, $54 million contract in July 2013.[106] He signed with the
Houston Rockets two days later, after the Rockets waived undrafted rookie
Tarik Black, who signed with the
Los Angeles Lakers a few days later. In Smith's debut with the Rockets, he recorded 21 points and 8 rebounds in 32 minutes in a 117β111 overtime victory over the
Memphis Grizzlies on December 26. After the waivers were cleared, the Pistons went on a seven-game winning streak after starting out 5β23 with Smith on the roster.
On Christmas Day, jerseys listed players' first names instead of the traditional last names.[107] The
Miami Heat defeated the
Cleveland Cavaliers 101β91 on Christmas Day, spoiling
LeBron James's return to Miami.
On December 26,
Dirk Nowitzki passed
Elvin Hayes to become the 8th best all-time scorer. He scored 14 points in the Mavericks' 102β98 victory over the
Los Angeles Lakers. Also that day,
Jared Dudley became the first player to shoot perfectly from the field while attempting at least 10 field goals and 3 three-pointers, as he scored 24 points on 10-for-10 shooting, (4 for 4 on three-pointers) in the
Milwaukee Bucks' 107β77 win over the
Atlanta Hawks.
On January 2, 2015, an agreement was put in place by the
Atlanta Hawks ownership to sell the franchise.
On January 5,
Dirk Nowitzki passed
Moses Malone to become the 7th best all-time scorer. He scored 15 points in the Mavericks' 96β88 overtime victory over the
Brooklyn Nets.
On January 23,
Klay Thompson scored an NBA-record 37 points in a quarter, when he was a perfect 13-for-13 from the field and 9-for-9 from three-point range in the third quarter of a 126β101 win over the
Sacramento Kings. He broke the previous record of 33 held by
George Gervin and
Carmelo Anthony. The 9 three-pointers were also a league record for a quarter, surpassing the mark of 8 by
Michael Redd and
Joe Johnson. The 13 field goals tied
David Thompson's record for a quarter.[109][110]
For the month of January 2015, the entire
Atlanta Hawks starting lineup (
Jeff Teague,
Kyle Korver,
DeMarre Carroll,
Paul Millsap, and
Al Horford) tied for Eastern Conference Player of the Month honors. This marked the first time five players tied for the award, and the second time that multiple players from the same team tied for the award. All except Carroll would go on to become Eastern Conference All-Stars.
During the All-Star game,
Russell Westbrook would record the second-highest number of points with 41 as the Western Conference defeated the Eastern Conference 163β158. After the game, it was announced that the
New York Knicks had bought out
Amar'e Stoudemire's contract and he could play wherever he wanted to. He'd end up going to the
Dallas Mavericks two days later.
On March 24, Dirk Nowitzki recorded his 10,000th rebound in a 101β94 victory over the
San Antonio Spurs. He became the first player to record 25,000 points, 10,000 rebounds, 1,000 blocks, and 1,000 three-pointers, as well as the seventh player reach 10,000 rebounds.
On March 24, 2015,
Jeremy Lin and
Jordan Clarkson of the Los Angeles Lakers made up the first starting Asian-American backcourt in NBA history in a 127β117 loss against the Oklahoma City Thunder. Clarkson is Filipino-American on his father's side and Filipino on his mother's; Lin's heritage is Chinese/Taiwanese. Clarkson had a career high 30 points and three blocks, along seven assists and four rebounds. He became the youngest Laker to score 30 points since Andrew Bynum on January 21, 2009.[112] Jeremy Lin contributed with 19 points, 7 assists, and 2 rebounds.[113]
On April 8,
Derrick Rose became the first player to return from a torn meniscus injury in a time-span less than 6 months. He was out for approximately 6 weeks.
All five teams in the
Southwest Division made the 2015 playoffs, marking only the fourth time all teams in a division had made the playoffs, and the first time since the entire
Central Division made it in the
2005β06 NBA season. It was the first occurrence of all teams in a division making the playoffs with all teams having a winning record.
On April 11, in a game between the
New York Knicks and the
Orlando Magic, the teams scored 15 combined points in the second quarter, setting an NBA record for the fewest points in a quarter.
The
New York Knicks and
Los Angeles Lakers suffered their first 60-loss seasons in franchise history. The Knicks finished 17β65, surpassing 23β59 in 1986 and 2006. The Lakers finished 21β61, surpassing their worst record of 27β55 from the previous season. It leaves the
Utah Jazz as the only franchise without a 60-loss season.
The
Miami Heat and the
Indiana Pacers both missed the playoffs, marking the first time since
2004β05 that two teams who reached the conference finals the previous post-season, failed to make the playoffs.
The
Golden State Warriors and
Atlanta Hawks both achieved their first 60-win seasons in franchise history, finishing 67β15 and 60β22 and first place in their conference. Also, both teams advanced to the conference finals for the first time since
1976 and
1970, respectively.
On April 30, the
Chicago Bulls eliminated the
Milwaukee Bucks 120β66 in Game 6 of the playoffs. The 54-point blowout is the largest margin of victory in a series-clinching game in NBA postseason history.[114]
The
San Antonio Spurs became the first defending champions to be eliminated in the first round since the 2012
Dallas Mavericks, and the second time since 2000.
The
Houston Rockets became the ninth team in NBA history to win a playoff series in which they faced a 3β1 deficitβin the Western Conference Semifinals against the
Los Angeles Clippers.
On May 23,
Stephen Curry set a new NBA record for the most 3-point FG made in a single playoffs, with 59, previously held by
Reggie Miller with 58 in
2000. Curry would eventually finish the postseason with a total of 98 3-point FG made, 39 more than the previous record.
Both conference final teams from the East and West, notably the
Cleveland Cavaliers and the
Golden State Warriors respectively, hold commanding 3β0 series leads, a first in NBA playoff history.
On May 25, the
Golden State Warriors made 20 3-pointers (tied playoff record) and
Houston Rockets had 17 to set an NBA record for most 3-pointers combined in a playoff game (37).
The
Atlanta Hawks became the fourth #1 seed to be swept in the playoffs.