Pacers Add Jalen Slawson On Training Camp Deal
The Pacers have signed forward Jalen Slawson to an Exhibit 10 deal, the team announced in a press release. Indiana’s G League affiliate acquired Slawson’s returning rights from the Birmingham Squadron last month.
Slawson was a late second-round selection for the Kings in 2023. He appeared in 12 games off the bench for Sacramento as a rookie on a two-way deal.
After not being extended a qualifying offer last summer, Slawson became an unrestricted free agent and signed a camp deal with the Magic last September. He was waived prior to opening night and spent last season with the Osceola Magic in the G League. He appeared in 50 games at that level, averaging 12.0 points, 7.3 rebounds and 3.6 assists in 30.1 minutes per contest. The 25-year-old was on the Sixers’ Summer League squad in July.
Under the terms of an Exhibit 10 contract, Slawson will earn a bonus worth up to $85,300 if he’s waived and then spends at least 60 days with the Noblesville Boom, Indiana’s G League affiliate.
The addition of Slawson increased Indiana’s training camp roster count to 19, two below the maximum.
Mouhamadou Gueye Joins Bulls On Camp Deal
The Bulls have added Mouhamadou Gueye on an Exhibit 10 contract, Spotrac contributor Keith Smith tweets.
Gueye has 11 games of NBA experience, all with the Raptors in 2023/24. Gueye, who went undrafted out of Pitt in 2022, joined the Raptors on a 10-day deal in February 2024 and a two-way contract that March. He averaged 2.4 points, 2.1 rebounds, and 1.6 blocks in 10.9 minutes per contest during those NBA appearances.
Gueye was on the Wizards’ camp roster last season, then was waived before opening night. He averaged 10 points and 5.4 rebounds in 24.1 minutes per game over 34 contests for the Capital City Go-Go, Washington’s G League club.
Having signed an Exhibit 10 deal, Gueye will be eligible for a bonus worth up to $85,300 if he’s waived by Chicago and spends at least 60 days with the Windy City Bulls.
The addition of Gueye gives Chicago 21 players on its camp roster, the maximum allowed.
Greece Reaches EuroBasket Semis Behind Giannis’ 29 Points
Behind Giannis Antetokounmpo, Greece reached the EuroBasket semifinals for the first time in 16 years, downing Lithuania, 87-76, in Riga, Latvia on Tuesday.
The Bucks superstar poured in 29 points to carry his team into a semifinal matchup with Turkey. Greece stalled in the quarterfinals during four of the last five EuroBasket tourneys, but broke though with a strong second-half effort.
Greece led 44-38 at the halftime break. Lithuania scored the first three points of the second half before Greece increased the cushion back to 51-41. It was 58-43 midway through the third quarter. Lithuania never got closer than eight points the rest of the way.
Giannis converted 9-of-15 shots and 11-of-16 free throws while scoring 29 points. He also added six rebounds, two assists, four steals and a block. Vasileios Toliopoulos hit three 3-pointers while scoring 17 points and Kostas Sloukas added 11 points and four assists.
Greece moved to within just two wins of their third EuroBasket crown. They took gold in 1987 and 2005.
“My players did a great job playing with a big heart in front of so many thousands of people from Lithuania in a very nice atmosphere,” head coach Vasileios Spanoulis said, per FIBA.
Nuggets big man Jonas Valanciunas led Lithuania with 24 points and 15 rebounds.
“Tonight was a battle. Both teams battled until the end. They were stronger,” Valanciunas said. “They were better than us. I was just happy we fought until the end, no matter what. It was a good fight.”
Suns Sign, Waive Jaden Shackelford
The Suns signed Jaden Shackelford to an Exhibit 10 contract, Spotrac contributor Keith Smith tweets. Phoenix then placed him on waivers, according to the NBA transactions log.
It’s a bit of déjà vu for Shackelford, who also joined Phoenix on a training camp deal last season. He was waived in late September and wound up on the Valley Suns, Phoenix’s G League affiliate. He averaged 18.2 points, 3.6 rebounds and 2.8 assists in 50 games in 30.9 minutes per game.
The 6’3” guard was a member of the Warriors’ Summer League team this July.
After going undrafted out of Alabama, Shackelford spent two seasons in the G League as a member of the Thunder’s NBAGL affiliate, the Oklahoma City Blue.
Shackelford will be eligible for a bonus up to $85,300 if he spends at least 60 days with the Valley Suns again.
EuroLeague Standout Roman Sorkin Drawing Interest From NBA Teams
Maccabi Tel Aviv big man Roman Sorkin, who excelled in the EuroBasket tournament for Israel’s national team, has garnered interest from the Trail Blazers, Knicks and Heat, Ian Begley of SNY TV tweets.
Sorkin was one of the top bigs in the EuroLeague last season, averaging 12.9 points and 4.1 rebounds, and he opened even more eyes in the tournament. He averaged 16.5 points, 6.0 rebounds and 1.2 assists in six games, including a double-double against Slovenia.
Sorkin is no stranger to the U.S., having played four seasons for Oregon from 2014-18. He has played in Israel throughout his professional career.
Whether Sorkin will be able to leave Maccabi is another issue. He reportedly signed a five-year extension with the club last year, which puts him under contract through 2029, according to BasketNews.com. Sorkin would need to have some sort of out clause or buyout agreement to pursue an NBA opportunity.
Portland has 15 players under guaranteed contracts, so it would have to waive or trade one of those players to open up a roster spot.
The Heat only have 12 players with fully guaranteed contracts, but have two players with partial guarantees and can’t sign a 15th man while remaining below the luxury tax line.
The Knicks have 12 players on standard contracts, but only have room for one veteran’s minimum contract and another on a rookie minimum deal due to salary cap restrictions. Sorkin wouldn’t be a candidate for the Knicks’ rookie minimum roster slot. Since they don’t hold his draft rights, his salary would count as the veteran’s minimum for tax/apron purposes even if his cap hit was the rookie minimum, due to tax variance.
Latest On Kawhi Leonard, Clippers
Bruce Arthur of The Toronto Star (subscription required) has added another fascinating detail to the Kawhi Leonard/Clippers saga, reporting that when the Raptors were negotiating with Leonard in 2019’s free agent period, his camp asked the team for an arrangement that lines up with the deal the star forward eventually got with the company Aspiration. According to Arthur, the demands made by Leonard’s uncle and representative, Dennis Robertson, included $10MM per year in extra sponsorship income.
The Raptors weren’t permitted to negotiate or have any involvement in those off-court sponsorship deals, but suggested there would be corporate sponsors eager to have Leonard as a promoter. However, they were told by Leonard’s camp that he didn’t want to have to do anything for that extra money, such as filming advertisements or making promotional appearances.
“That’s when the Raptors realized Leonard wasn’t asking to be introduced to Toronto’s lucrative corporate community,” Arthur writes. “They were being asked to arrange no-show jobs, and arrange no-investment investments. (They) rejected both proposals.”
Arthur previously reported that Leonard’s camp asked for a stake in the NHL’s Toronto Maple Leafs, who share an ownership group with the Raptors.
Leonard and the Clippers are being investigated by the NBA after reports indicated that Aspiration – a Clippers sponsor that received a $50MM investment from team owner Steve Ballmer – agreed to pay the two-time Finals MVP $28MM, plus an additional $20MM in company stock.
While it was ostensibly an endorsement deal, Leonard wasn’t contractually obligated to actually do anything to earn that $28MM, which represented an unusually high amount for any sort of off-court sponsorship agreement. The league is looking into whether the Clippers were essentially funneling money to Leonard via Aspiration in order to circumvent the salary cap.
Here are a few more notes on the subject:
- Appearing on NBA Today on Monday (Twitter video link), ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne reported that Aspiration offered almost double the $550MM that Intuit did for the naming rights to the Clippers’ arena, but the Clippers opted to go with the more well-established brand. “That gives you an indication of the kind of money that (Aspiration) was throwing around back in those days,” Shelburne said.
- During that same NBA Today segment (Twitter video link), ESPN’s Dave McMenamin said that a Clippers source likened a tampering violation to a speeding ticket and salary cap circumvention as a “murder charge,” the implication being that the team knows not to cross that red line. The team has conveyed that it is “welcoming” the NBA’s investigation into the matter, McMenamin adds.
- Eric Pincus of Bleacher Report explores three potential outcomes of the NBA’s investigation into the Clippers and Leonard, ranging from the Clippers getting off scot-free to the organization (and Leonard) facing a Timberwolves/Joe Smith-style punishment. When the NBA learned in 2000 that the Timberwolves had entered into an illegal contract with Smith to circumvent the cap, it fined the organization $3.5MM, took away five first-round picks (two were later returned), and voided Smith’s contract.
Nets Notes: Cap Room, Council, Zeng, Sharpe, Williams
A league source who spoke to Brian Lewis of The New York Post (subscription required) observed that the Nets‘ decision to officially finalize deals with Day’Ron Sharpe and Ziaire Williams suggests there are no more major trades on tap for Brooklyn this offseason.
“There’s no big move coming,” the source said.
As Lewis writes, while a “big” deal (ie. one that lands the Nets a first-round pick, like the Michael Porter Jr./Cameron Johnson trade) may not be coming, that doesn’t mean a smaller salary-dump isn’t in the works. As we detailed earlier today, Brooklyn is still operating below the minimum salary floor, so the team has plenty of incentive to take on some additional salary before the regular season tips off.
While the Nets are currently only $649K below the minimum floor, that number could increase to $7MMish if the team waives three players on non-guaranteed minimum-salary contracts in order to set its 15-man regular season roster. After reaching the salary floor, Brooklyn would still have roughly $15.5MM in cap room left over.
“They need to spend about $7 million before the start of the season,” one league source told Lewis. “They’re going to get to the floor and roll over the rest (of their cap room) into the season.”
Here’s more on the Nets:
- Within that same story, Lewis says that Ricky Council IV‘s contract with Brooklyn – which is not yet official – will be partially guaranteed. While player agents sometimes refer to Exhibit 10 contracts that include $85,300 bonuses as “partially guaranteed,” it doesn’t sound like that’s what Lewis means in this case. He adds that Council seems “highly unlikely” to be waived before the start of the season.
- Lewis views Chinese forward Fanbo Zeng as the top candidate to fill the Nets’ final two-way contract slot alongside Tyson Etienne and E.J. Liddell.
- The slight pay bumps that Sharpe and Williams received from the Nets represent a “gesture of goodwill after they waited for their deals to be finalized,” writes C.J. Holmes for The New York Daily News (subscription required). Both Sharpe and Williams agreed to two-year, $12MM deals with Brooklyn at the end of June; after waiting more than two months to officially sign, each player instead received $12.5MM. Only the first year of each deal is guaranteed, so Sharpe and Williams will earn an extra $250K apiece in 2025/26, with the opportunity to earn an extra $250K apiece if their $6.25MM team options for ’27/28 are exercised.
Heat Open To Exploring Norman Powell Extension
Norman Powell will likely open the 2025/26 season on an expiring contract, but the Heat are open to the idea of extending the veteran wing if the start of the season goes well, a source tells Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald.
The Heat acquired Powell in July from the Clippers in a three-team trade that sent Kyle Anderson and Kevin Love from Miami to Utah. While the move helped push the Heat into luxury tax territory (they later got out of the tax by trading Haywood Highsmith), the outgoing package was a modest price to pay for a talented offensive player coming off arguably the best season of his career.
In 60 games (all starts) for the Clippers in 2024/25, Powell averaged 21.8 points, 3.2 rebounds, and 2.1 assists in 32.6 minutes per night, with a shooting line of .484/.418/.804. He set career highs in points and minutes per contest, as well as three-pointers made (3.0 per game; 179 in total).
Powell, 32, will make about $20.5MM this season in the final season of the five-year, $90MM contract he signed with Portland as a free agent during the summer of 2021. He’s eligible to sign an extension at any point between now and June 30 — if he doesn’t complete a new deal by that time, he’ll reach unrestricted free agency next offseason.
The Heat’s salary cap situation going forward isn’t too bad, with nearly $35MM for Terry Rozier and Simone Fontecchio set to come off the books at the end of the 2025/26 season. However, Miami will also need to figure out whether Tyler Herro (UFA in 2027) and Andrew Wiggins (player option for 2026/27) are part of the long-term plans — and if so, at what price.
Given that Powell has yet to suit up for the Heat, it makes sense that the front office would prefer to wait until after the season begins to assess his fit and perhaps to get a clearer sense of what the team’s future cap situation will look like (Herro will be able to sign an extension between October 1 and the start of the regular season).
And-Ones: Top Newcomers, Realignment, McGrady, St. Bonnie’s
With most of the NBA’s offseason action now in the books, Chris Herring and Kevin Pelton of ESPN identify the 14 NBA “newcomers” whose changes of scenery will have the greatest impact in 2025/26.
There are no surprises at the top of the list, which features new Rockets forward Kevin Durant at No. 1, Magic guard Desmond Bane at No. 2, and Nuggets forward Cameron Johnson at No. 3. However, Herring and Pelton deviate a little from expectations at No. 4 by including a head coach: Mike Brown of the Knicks. As Herring writes, it’s possible no coach in the league will face more “title-or-bust pressure” than Brown in his first year on the job.
Lakers center Deandre Ayton rounds out the top five on the 14-man list, which – outside of Brown – is made up exclusively of players.
We have more from around the basketball world:
- What might NBA realignment look like if the league were to expand to Las Vegas and Seattle? Zach Harper of The Athletic takes a closer look at that topic, exploring scenarios in which either the Timberwolves, Pelicans, or Grizzlies move to the Eastern Conference and considering how the league might shuffle its divisions around in each hypothetical case.
- Former NBA star Tracy McGrady has signed a new endorsement deal to reunite with Adidas, according to Shams Charania of ESPN, who reports (via Twitter) that the two parties are expected to work with longtime sports marketing executive Sonny Vaccaro to revive the ABCD (Academic Betterment and Career Development) Camp. As Charania explains in a follow-up tweet, the ABCD Camp was a youth basketball camp that ran for over two decades from 1984-2006 and featured several future stars, including McGrady himself.
- The St. Bonaventure men’s basketball program will host its first ever pro day on Saturday, October 11 at the NBPA training facility in Manhattan, according to a press release from the school. “The first Bonnies Pro Day is a tremendous opportunity for NBA and G League front office executives to scout our players in a competitive practice and workout environment,” former ESPN reporter and current St. Bonnie’s general manager Adrian Wojnarowski said in a statement.
Alperen Sengun Leads Turkey Into EuroBasket Semifinals
Turkey advanced to the EuroBasket semifinals on Tuesday by defeating Poland by a score of 91-77 in the tournament’s first quarterfinal matchup.
Rockets center Alperen Sengun, who entered the day as Turkey’s top scorer, once again led the way for the team by putting up 19 points, 12 rebounds, and 10 assists in just under 31 minutes of action. It was the first EuroBasket triple-double for Sengun after he came within one assist of achieving the feat during group play vs. Czechia — he’s the youngest player to ever register a triple-double in a EuroBasket game, per FIBA.
With 151 points, 76 rebounds, and 50 assists through seven games, Sengun is the first player in the last 30 years to compile at least 150 points, 50 rebounds, and 50 assists in a single EuroBasket tournament, tweets Armando Caporaso of Sportando.
Cedi Osman, (10 points and a team-best +18 on/off mark), Shane Larkin (13 points, five assists), and Furkan Korkmaz (10 points) are among the former NBA players who also played key roles in Tuesday’s victory for the Turkish national team. Osman sustained an ankle injury in the third quarter, but head coach Ergin Ataman said after the game that he hopes the forward will be able to play on Friday, as Edvinas Jablonskis of BasketNews.com relays.
Veteran guard/forward Mateusz Ponitka and former Raptor Jordan Loyd were Poland’s leading scorers, with 19 points apiece.
The Turkish team is now 7-0 at EuroBasket 2025 and is on track for its best result since 2001 — and maybe ever. Turkey, which hosted the 2001 tournament, won silver that year, but hasn’t finished higher than eighth since then and has only ever made the top four of the European championships one other time (fourth place in 1949).
Turkey will face the winner of today’s Lithuania vs. Greece game in the semifinals on Friday.