Jazz Sign Mo Bamba To 10-Day Contract
11:50 am: Bamba’s 10-day deal is official, the Jazz confirmed in a press release. It will run through next Saturday (March 7), covering Utah’s next six games.
10:59 am: The Jazz and center Mo Bamba have reached an agreement on a 10-day contract, reports Shams Charania of ESPN (Twitter link), citing agents Mark Bartelstein and Greer Love.
The sixth overall pick of the 2018 NBA draft, Bamba appeared in a total of 364 regular season games over seven seasons with the Magic, Lakers, Sixers, Clippers, and Pelicans from 2018-25. However, he was unable to secure a guaranteed NBA contract ahead of the 2025/26 season and spent training camp with the Jazz before being waived and reporting to the team’s G League affiliate, the Salt Lake City Stars.
The 27-year-old big man has had a big year with the Stars, averaging 17.0 points, 11.7 rebounds, and 2.5 blocks in 27.7 minutes per game across 22 appearances, with an excellent shooting line of .553/.380/.807.
However, Bamba’s strong G League performance had only earned him a brief stint in the NBA up until this point — he signed a non-guaranteed contract with the Raptors on December 29 to provide frontcourt depth with Jakob Poeltl battling a back issue, but was waived about a week later before his full salary became guaranteed.
Bamba could have a chance to play a more significant role in Utah, where the Jazz’s front line has been hit hard by injuries. Starting center Walker Kessler underwent season-ending shoulder surgery in November and his replacement, Jusuf Nurkic, had a season-ending procedure on his nose earlier this week. Additionally, Jaren Jackson Jr. is done for the season after having a growth in his knee surgically removed, while Lauri Markkanen reportedly suffered an injury in Wednesday’s practice and is still being evaluated.
Bamba will earn $177,064 over the course of his 10-day contract, with Utah taking on a cap hit of $131,970.
Hoops Rumors Front Office Subscriber Chat: 2/26/2026
Hoops Rumors’ live chat exclusively for Trade Rumors Front Office subscribers is underway. Use the link below to ask a question and read the transcript afterward.
Wizards’ Jamir Watkins To Receive Promotion, Two-Year Deal
The Wizards are promoting two-way player Jamir Watkins to their 15-man roster and will sign him to a new two-year contract, his agents at CAA Sports tell Shams Charania of ESPN (Twitter link).
Watkins, 24, was the 43rd overall pick in the 2025 draft. The Wizards selected him using one of the three second-rounders they received from Utah when they traded down from No. 18 to No. 21 in the first round.
Watkins, who signed a two-way contract last July, played a limited role at the NBA level during the first half of the 2025/26 season but has emerged in recent weeks as a regular contributor for the Wizards. In 16 appearances since January 16, the 6’6″ wing has averaged 8.2 points, 4.5 rebounds, and 1.3 steals in 24.8 minutes per game.
As Charania points out, Watkins has been playing his best basketball of the season as of late, having scored double-digit points in six consecutive outings after doing so just twice through the trade deadline. The rookie guard/forward is also considered a strong perimeter defender.
Watkins is the second Wizards two-way player to earn a promotion to the standard roster in the past week, joining big man Tristan Vukcevic. As we noted earlier today, Washington used a portion of its mid-level exception to give Vukcevic more than a minimum salary for the rest of the season. It’s unclear if the team will do the same with Watkins or whether he’ll receive any guaranteed money beyond 2025/26 on his new contract.
The Wizards have an open spot on their 15-man roster after Alondes Williams‘ 10-day contract expired on Wednesday night, so no corresponding move will be necessary to make room for Watkins. The signing will open up a two-way slot in D.C. alongside Sharife Cooper and Leaky Black.
Southeast Notes: Heat, Suggs, Magic, Vukcevic, L. Black
The Heat remain likely to waive Terry Rozier at some point before the end of the regular season, but they’re in no rush to do so right away, according to Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald.
With Rozier still on leave after being arrested on federal gambling charges back in the fall, he’s not expected to play again this season. That means there’s probably no need for Miami to cut him by March 1 to ensure he retains his playoff eligibility for another team.
Additionally, as Jackson explains, the Heat don’t have their eye on any specific players on the buyout market and would be reluctant to bring in a veteran free agent who is comparable to what the team already has on its roster. Miami wants to make sure there are plenty of minutes available for its young players down the stretch and may ultimately use Rozier’s roster spot to sign a developmental prospect to a multiyear deal late in the season, Jackson continues.
Putting off that decision until the season’s final weeks would also give the Heat the roster flexibility to see if a new hole opens up on their depth chart due to injuries (or any other factors), which could necessitate signing a veteran at a specific position ahead of the postseason, Jackson concludes.
We have more from around the Southeast:
- Magic guard Jalen Suggs, who has missed the past three games with a back strain, has been upgraded to questionable to play on Thursday vs. Houston, notes Jason Beede of The Orlando Sentinel (Twitter link). Suggs has appeared in just 34 of the team’s 57 games this season due to various health issues.
- Yossi Gozlan of The Third Apron (Substack link) takes a look at the Magic‘s challenging cap situation going forward, speculating that Goga Bitadze and Jonathan Isaac will be trade candidates this summer and noting that Paolo Banchero‘s up-and-down year is something of a double-edged sword. Banchero won’t increase the value of his maximum-salary rookie scale extension from 25% of the cap to 30% by making an All-NBA team, but Orlando would probably prefer him to be performing closer to an All-NBA level. We also covered the Magic’s upcoming roster decisions in a story last week for Front Office subscribers.
- The Wizards gave Tristan Vukcevic a rest-of-season salary of $2,857,143 using their non-taxpayer mid-level exception when they promoted the big man to their standard roster over the weekend, Hoops Rumors has confirmed. Vukcevic’s three-year deal also includes a guaranteed $3MM salary for 2026/27, with a team option worth $3MM for ’27/28.
- Meanwhile, Leaky Black‘s new two-way contract with the Wizards covers two seasons, as Keith Smith of Spotrac tweets. That means if the 26-year-old forward sticks with the team for the full deal, he wouldn’t be eligible for restricted free agency until the 2027 offseason.
And-Ones: Ishbia, J. Porter, J. Johnson, 65-Game Rule
Appearing on Wednesday’s episode of The Pat McAfee Show, Suns owner Mat Ishbia said he’d be willing to put up $1MM in prize money for the winners of the slam dunk contest and three-point contest on All-Star Saturday, with another $1MM going to charity for each event, according to ESPN’s Brian Windhorst. The goal, as Ishbia explained, would be to bring back more star power to those competitions.
“Let’s get the best guys in,” Ishbia said. “Let’s make it awesome.”
Unfortunately, as Windhorst notes, it wouldn’t be as simple as Ishbia simply putting up that prize money himself. The bonuses for winning those events are negotiated as part of the Collective Bargaining Agreement and require the approval of NBA owners and the players’ union. The current CBA calls for dunk contest winners to receive $105K and three-point contest champions to get $60K.
While Ishbia didn’t consult with the league office before sharing his proposal on The Pat McAfee Show, he’s motivated to find a way to get more stars into those All-Star Saturday competitions, Windhorst writes, so he could reach out to the NBA to explore the idea further.
We have more odds and ends from across the basketball world:
- Banned from the NBA for his participation in an illegal betting scheme, former Raptors forward/center Jontay Porter plans to join the Seattle Superhawks of the United States Basketball League, according to Mike Vorkunov of The Athletic. Porter, who is still awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty to a federal felony charge of conspiracy to commit wire fraud in 2024, previously attempted to join Promitheas B.C. in Greece for the 2024/25 season but had that request turned down by a federal judge. The USBL season tips off on March 6.
- Veteran NBA forward James Johnson will join the BIG3 for its upcoming season and play for DMV Trilogy, the team coached by Stephen Jackson, the 3-on-3 league announced on Wednesday (via Twitter). A 16-year NBA veteran, Johnson appeared in 12 games for the Pacers in 2024/25 but hasn’t been in the league at all this season.
- With Nikola Jokic and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander both increasingly in danger of falling shy of the 65-game minimum to qualify for end-of-season awards, Eric Koreen of The Athletic argues that the rule is backfiring and could result in the wrong player being named Most Valuable Player this spring. In his latest MVP check-in, Zach Harper of The Athletic ranks Jokic, Gilgeous-Alexander, and Victor Wembanyama as his top three candidates, but they’ve missed 16, 11, and 14 games respectively. They’d be ineligible for award consideration if that number reaches 18.
Former Nuggets GM Calvin Booth Discusses Denver Exit
Appearing on The Kevin O’Connor Show with Kevin O’Connor of Yahoo Sports, former Nuggets general manager Calvin Booth spoke at length about his time at the head of Denver’s basketball operations department and the factors that led to him and former Nuggets head coach Michael Malone being let go on the same day last April, with just three games left in the regular season.
While friction between Booth and Malone was the the reason most frequently cited as the reason why Denver made such a significant change with the 2025 postseason around the corner, Booth downplayed that conflict to some extent, suggesting it wasn’t unique to the Nuggets and was just one of several factors why he lost his job.
In Booth’s view, another one of those factors that led to his exit is that the Nuggets’ ownership group doesn’t value its front office executives as highly as other teams do.
“Whether it’s Mark Warkentien or Tim (Connelly) or Masai (Ujiri), there’s always gonna come a point where they don’t value executives like that,” he told O’Connor. “I’ll probably disagree with their take on executives, but who am I? They’ve been so successful, so maybe it’s the right way to operate.”
Booth also suggested that he might have made the general manager job “look too easy,” as O’Connor relays.
“Anybody that’s really good at something, when they make it look easy, that was really, really hard to get to,” Booth explained. “(It took) a lifetime’s worth of playing basketball, coaching basketball, having conversations, scouting. For me to go in there right away, assemble a championship team, win a championship.”
While those remarks may open up Booth to criticism, it’s worth noting that his track record in the GM role was pretty strong. After Connelly built the core of the roster, Booth added several valuable complementary pieces in his first offseason on the job in 2022, trading for Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, signing Bruce Brown, and drafting Christian Braun and Peyton Watson outside the top 20. The moves helped Denver win its first NBA championship in 2023.
The Nuggets lost several of their veteran role players in subsequent summers, with Brown and Jeff Green departing in free agency in 2023 and Caldwell-Pope doing the same in 2024. Denver’s front office took some flak for not doing more to re-sign those key contributors, but Booth argues that doing so would’ve impeded the progress of some of the team’s most promising prospects.
“The reality of the thing is if we sign Bruce Brown back, we sign KCP back, or if they leave and we sign veterans … do Christian Braun and Peyton Watson do what they’re doing right now?” Booth said. “Definitely not.”
Despite limited draft resources, Booth continued to bring in young players – including Julian Strawther, Jalen Pickett, Hunter Tyson, Collin Gillespie, DaRon Holmes, and Spencer Jones – and his desire to develop those youngsters clashed with Malone’s preference to lean on win-now veterans, which was a primary source of the tension between the two men.
Still, Nuggets ownership’s aversion to operating deep in the tax meant that Booth had to try to find cheap talent to fill out the roster, and while not every one of his draft picks and UDFA signings was a success, many of those players have since developed into solid NBA rotation pieces in Denver or elsewhere.
“In most situations when somebody’s running a team, I don’t think the expectation is to bat 1.000,” Booth said. “For some reason, I started to get the feeling that that was the expectation for me from whoever was in and around the Denver Nuggets community.”
Here are a few more of Booth’s most notable comments from his appearance on O’Connor’s podcast, which is worth checking out in full for Nuggets fans:
On why his “idealism” might’ve clashed with Malone’s “realism” due to the nature of their respective roles:
“I have to take accountability whatever way that narrative grew legs and my part in it, I’ve learned from that. There’s such a weird paradox with NBA coaches. They’re in the midst of the lion’s den. They’re dealing with players, some of the most formidable size-wise and ego-wise in the world, and they’re managing them. Those guys buy in. And then these coaches have to report to a general manager who maybe doesn’t have the gravitas they do. I just think it’s a human nature thing.”
On the job that Ben Tenzer and Jon Wallace have done running the Nuggets’ front office since last spring:
“They’re great. A lot of (the roster moves they made) we talked about when I was there. We thought we were gonna get (Jonas) Valanciunas at the trade deadline. Obviously, they did their own unique things, but the one thing about the new CBA, there’s only so many trades that can be done. It’s kind of like paint-by-numbers, in that sense. So anybody sitting in that seat in Denver is going to have some kind of Michael Porter Jr. for Cam Johnson concept, because that’s just one of the better deals that was out there.”
On whether he’d like another chance to be an NBA general manager:
“Nobody’s entitled or owed an opportunity to run an NBA team. There’s 30 jobs. All those guys in their own way deserve to be in that seat. I’d be foolish to say that for the right scenario I wouldn’t be willing to work for somebody.
“My door wasn’t knocking down with people waiting to hire me. That’s where this whole thing got blown out of proportion. If you look tangibly at what I did — my win percentage, what I drafted, working with a coach like Coach Malone as a first-time GM — I just don’t know how my door isn’t knocking. … You could put 100 GMs in my position. I don’t know what, three or four of them do as good as I did.”
On whether he thinks Malone wants to find another NBA head coaching job:
“He doesn’t mind commentating games. But he would probably die to coach an NBA team tomorrow. And he deserves it. He’s a championship coach.”
Southwest Notes: Bagley, Flagg, Coward, Plumlee
With the announcement that Kyrie Irving would not play this year, the rest of the Mavericks’ season is expected to function as something of a fact-finding mission, Mike Curtis writes for the Dallas Morning News.
Dallas has five players set to hit unrestricted free agency this summer, and one newcomer who has shown enough to warrant long-term consideration is Marvin Bagley III, who was a part of the Anthony Davis trade between the Mavs and Wizards.
“He’s a really good player,” coach Jason Kidd said of the former No. 2 overall pick. “He’s a grown-up and understands the NBA game a little bit. Sometimes it takes time. We all want it to happen overnight. I think the coaching staff, the media, everyone that’s been on this road trip or with him, has made him comfortable and you can see the way he’s playing.”
Since arriving in Dallas, Bagley has averaged 13.5 points and 8.8 rebounds in six games as a reserve and has three double-doubles in that span. Curtis points to the 26-year-old’s energy on the glass as a major factor in his success. Bagley is averaging 3.7 offensive rebounds per game with the Mavs and is a different archetype of big man than their top two centers, Dereck Lively II and Daniel Gafford.
Curtis writes that Bagley has yet to find a franchise that will commit to him, but a deal to keep him in Dallas as a reserve center could be mutually beneficial.
We have more from around the Southwest Division:
- Cooper Flagg remains out for the Mavericks‘ game against the Kings on Thursday, Curtis notes (via Twitter). This will mark the fifth absence in a row for Flagg, who is dealing with a midfoot sprain, after he had previously missed just four games all season. Even if Flagg were to miss extended time, he’s not in danger of missing out on any end-of-year awards, as the 65-game rule does not apply to Rookie of the Year or All-Rookie.
- Having traded Jaren Jackson Jr. for picks and unproven players and with Ja Morant‘s future with the team still up in the air, the Grizzlies may be in need of a new face of the franchise, prompting Damichael Cole of the Memphis Commercial Appeal to wonder if Cedric Coward can step into that role. As Cole writes, Coward is notably self-assured for a rookie. “He’s a very mature kid for his age,” coach Tuomas Iisalo said. “I think that’s a very valuable commodity to have.” Coward has been injured since early February, but has still been very engaged with the team, both during games and practices, teammate Jaylen Wells noted. For his part, Coward is trying to keep a level head with the prospect of such expectations being placed on his relatively inexperienced shoulders. “You just try to make the best of whatever situation it is,” he said. “Whether it’s franchise cornerstone, whether it’s a building block — no matter what it is, the title doesn’t mean anything to me.“
- Mason Plumlee knows he won’t be playing major minutes with the Spurs, but he’s excited to take advantage of whatever opportunities present themselves, Tom Orsborn writes for the San Antonio Express-News. “I think I’ve seen guys check in for five minutes and turn a game around,” he said. “That’s the way I look at it.” The soon-to-be 36-year-old is inactive due to “return to competition reconditioning” as he makes his way back from groin surgery, but he says he feels great and is ready to get started with an organization he’s long admired. “When I came into the league (as a late-first round pick in 2013), the Spurs had all the guys that were winning championships, and I just remember them being so sharp in everything they did on the court, and you hear about how well it’s run behind the scenes and everybody gets hired (to become head coaches) out of here,” he said. “So you kind of know coming in that there’s something that works, there’s something unique.”
Northwest Notes: Bailey, Jazz, Nuggets, Cissoko
Ace Bailey knows that not everyone is a fan of his game or his approach to the 2025 draft. However, coaches and players who know him sing a different tune, Kevin Reynolds writes for the Salt Lake City Tribune.
“If anybody calls about Ace Bailey, I f—ing call back right away,” said Steve Pikiell, Bailey’s coach at Rutgers. “I’ve been coaching 42 years, and he’s as good of a kid I’ve had.”
Pikiell adds that he believed that certain teams that had been heavily scouting Bailey and then fell in the lottery might have helped contribute to some of the negative narratives surrounding him on draft night. According to Reynolds, Bailey has rewarded Utah’s faith in him on an interpersonal level.
“He’s such a great kid, man. Off the court, he’s such a joy. On the court, he’s putting it together,” former teammate Kyle Anderson said. “I didn’t pay attention to the noise during the draft process, but I’m glad to see that really hasn’t surfaced.”
While Bailey has learned to fit into Utah’s locker room, the coaching staff has worked to make sure he plays a role that will benefit him the most long-term.
“We want to help him get through this season and be a way better player than when he started,” coach Will Hardy said. “I’m not pro Ace just bombing away to get stats and clicks.”
The strategy seems to be working, as Bailey has played some of his best basketball of late, averaging 15.0 points and 5.4 rebounds per game since mid-January.
We have more from around the Northwest Division:
- The Jazz were furious about being fined $500K by the NBA, Tony Jones reports for The Athletic, as they believe they were singled out for a widespread practice among tanking teams of resting players in key situations. Jones writes that while Utah has tanked in recent seasons, they had plans to make at least one substantial win-now trade roughly three years ago, but it fell through when the player’s agent informed them that he would rather play elsewhere.
- The Nuggets currently have a disconcerting trend going: they are falling apart in clutch situations, and it only seems to have gotten worse with Nikola Jokic back, Bennett Durando writes for the Denver Post. Denver is 26th in clutch net rating at -9.9, and the number falls to -19.3 when Jokic is playing. Coach David Adelman acknowledged the issue and said he’s looking to add wrinkles to get Jokic and Jamal Murray easier looks while Aaron Gordon is out and not occupying his usual area in the dunker spot. “We’re trying to maintain who we are, playing the two-man game without the things that matter behind it,” Adelman said. “Like, if we play a two-man game with Aaron Gordon, it’s a very different rotation (in help defense) for teams. So you don’t want to scrap something that you know you’re gonna do (in the playoffs), and you’re presupposing that those guys are gonna be out there. … We have to figure out a way to finish games when teams are full-rotating to (Jokic and Murray). Sometimes three guys, sometimes four.” Durando notes that the sample of clutch games with Jokic playing is small, but it can still impact the playoff race.
- The two-year standard contract that Sidy Cissoko recently signed with the Trail Blazers is a minimum-salary deal that’s non-guaranteed in 2026/27, Michael Scotto of HoopsHype notes (via Twitter). In order to promote Cissoko, the Blazers had to waive Rayan Rupert, his best friend on the team, making the move bittersweet, writes Sean Highkin of the Rose Garden Report (subscriber link). “For me, it’s tough because he’s the guy that helped me with everything when I got here. I’ve got a lot of experience with him,” Cissoko said. “We’ve played together since we were 16 or 17.” Cissoko added that the promotion to the standard roster represents a step toward his goal of playing in the NBA for over a decade. “I’ve done great by being myself,” he said. “I’m not going to change because of my contract. It’s the same Sidy. I’m going to play the same way.”
Injury Notes: Tatum, Antetokounmpo, Garland, Thompson
Jayson Tatum, who is making his way back from an Achilles tear he suffered last spring, has been a full participant in five-on-five scrimmages for the Celtics, Shams Charania said on ESPN’s NBA Today (YouTube video link).
According to Charania, the keys for Tatum physically are building his conditioning and strengthening his calves through a high volume of scrimmages and practices. However, the biggest factor will be making sure he feels ready to go mentally and isn’t thinking about the injury while he’s playing.
The Celtics will not push Tatum, but they’ll get him on the floor once he feels fully like himself again, which is why there is still no set timeline for his return, Charania adds.
“A dozen people here — doctors, Celtics officials, Jayson Tatum himself — they’re going to gather in a room when he’s ready and get him to a point where he wants to be, which is, in March, and as we get closer and closer to the playoffs, make a decision about whether he’s able to make it back on the floor,” Charania said.
We have more injury news from around the NBA:
- Bucks coach Doc Rivers believes that star Giannis Antetokounmpo is nearing a return from the calf strain that has sidelined him since late January, The Athletic’s Eric Nehm reports (via Twitter). “I know he’s close,” Rivers said. “I don’t think he’s close like tomorrow, but he’s getting closer and he looked great… I can tell you what my eyes see and he looks good.” Rivers previously told Nehm that Antetokounmpo had participated in 3-on-3 and 4-on-4 work without experiencing setbacks, and that he didn’t necessarily need to progress to 5-on-5 to be cleared for return (Twitter link).
- Darius Garland has yet to suit up for the Clippers since arriving in Los Angeles as the cornerstone of the James Harden trade, and that won’t change in Thursday’s game against the Timberwolves. However, there are encouraging signs, as Law Murray of The Athletic reports (via Twitter) that Garland is participating in 5-on-5 workouts. With the two-time All-Star injured, the Clippers have been relying on Kris Dunn and, occasionally, rookie Kobe Sanders to man the starting guard spots.
- Amen Thompson is sitting out the Rockets‘ game against the Kings with a quad injury, but Matt Young of the Houston Chronicle writes that coach Ime Udoka doesn’t believe it will be a long-term issue (Twitter link). Udoka said that Thompson has been playing through the injury and that he hopes that this absence will only last one game.
Knicks Notes: Brunson, Towns, Shamet, Sochan, Yabusele
Jalen Brunson recently said he hoped the Knicks would “do right by me” in his next contract discussion, a quote that caught some fans’ attention. Recently, he clarified his hopes for his future with the organization, Stefan Bondy writes for the New York Post (subscriber link).
“I would love to be here for the rest of my career. I love this place,” Brunson told Bondy. “They’ve welcomed me with open arms. They’ve been behind my back since day one. I built a life here. And I love the city, I love the fans, I love everything this place has offered me, on and off the court. So I just love it here. And I’d love to stay.”
He added that his comments about doing right by him did not mean he felt that the Knicks owed him, but that he hopes they recognize the financial sacrifice he made to help the front office build the team.
Brunson will be extension-eligible in the summer of 2027 or could reach free agency in 2028.
We have more on the Knicks:
- Karl-Anthony Towns‘ inconsistent play is a lightning rod of sorts for Knicks fans, but despite his down shooting year, he’s been much more productive than given credit for, Peter Botte writes for the Post. Botte also notes that while New York has struggled against some of the stronger teams in the East, especially the Pistons, the same was true last year, when they posted a 1-6 record against Detroit and Boston before beating both teams in playoff series.
- Landry Shamet‘s consistency as a scorer and defender has forced changes to the Knicks’ rotations, and no one is bearing the brunt more than Mikal Bridges, Bondy writes. “You’ve just got to sacrifice, find your moments and play the right way,” Bridges said. Bridges’ presumed place in the closing lineup has been taken by Shamet three times this month, though Bondy notes that all the starters’ minutes are down lately as coach Mike Brown has been trying to incorporate the bench more. “It’s give and take where if somebody is playing well, we’ll try to keep them on the floor, but that might mean others will see their field goal attempts and their minutes may go down because they’re not on the floor as much,” Brown said.
- New acquisition Jeremy Sochan has struggled in his first few outings for the Knicks, but he’s not concerned, Bondy writes in a separate story. “It’s my first time adjusting to a different dynamic,” said Sochan, who was a Spur for his first three-and-a-half years in the NBA. “So it’s going to take some time to figure out and, of course, I haven’t been in a lot of game shape. So altogether there are going to [be] ups and downs. But I’m blessed and excited to be in this situation. And I truly believe I can add to this team.” Sochan said that learning the playbook wasn’t difficult, but learning his teammates’ tendencies and fitting into the ecosystem will take more time. He played five scoreless minutes in Tuesday’s loss to the Cavaliers.
- Brown believes that Guerschon Yabusele‘s best role in the NBA is one that the Knicks couldn’t really offer him, Bondy writes. “The position he’s shown he’s best in in the NBA — the small-ball center spot — we just didn’t have the minutes consistently for him to be there,” Brown said. “And then when he was at the four. For us, because of our centers, the matchups weren’t always there. So we had to pick and choose when he was on the floor and how we were going to play him.” Bondy adds that there is speculation that the Frenchman has already locked in a lucrative deal overseas for next year.