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And-Ones: NBA Position Rankings, Key Stats, Second Apron

August 21st, 2025 at 10:00pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

Heading into the 2025/26 season, Zach Harper of The Athletic has taken stock of both the NBA’s top 40 big men and the league’s 40 best lead guards.

Harper divided the players into seven tiers for each list. While three All-NBA superstar guards – Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Luka Doncic, and Stephen Curry – qualified for his top tier among lead guards, only one player is in the top tier for big men — three-time MVP Nuggets center Nikola Jokic. For what it’s worth, two-time MVP Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo was not listed as a big for this exercise.

Here’s more news and notes from around the NBA:

  • Zach Kram of ESPN runs through one statistic that could make or break this season’s goals for all 30 NBA squads. Among some of the interesting numbers of note: the Kings were outscored by 120.9 points per 100 possessions during the 1,000-plus possessions that stars Domantas Sabonis, DeMar DeRozan and Zach LaVine shared the floor; and the reigning champion Thunder are bringing back the players who logged 99.2% of all their playoff minutes from last season.
  • The new CBA’s brutal second tax apron has come under renewed scrutiny this summer, after effectively compelling the breakup of the Celtics’ 2024 championship roster. Steve Bulpett of Heavy.com spoke to several league executives about the mechanism’s impact on team-building. “Before, they just kept hiking the price of being over the tax limit,” one executive said. “But now you have things like limitations on trades and loss of draft position [teams in the second apron for three years in a five-year span have a first round pick moved to the end of the round]. These are all new in the apron system. Now the cost gets too expensive. It’s not just money; it’s limiting to your operations.”
  • Seven of the 10 teams listed among David Aldridge of The Athletic‘s most improved rosters this offseason are in the Western Conference. The No. 1 club on Aldridge’s list, the revamped Rockets, may not be much of a surprise, but the No. 6 Hornets certainly are.
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Atlantic Notes: Knicks Coaches, 14th Roster Spot, LeBron, Brown

August 21st, 2025 at 9:08pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

The Knicks have revamped their coaching staff following their run to the 2025 Eastern Conference Finals. Installed in the stead of ex-head coach Tom Thibodeau is former two-time Coach of the Year Mike Brown, who has brought in many new faces to fill out his bench.

In an interview with Stefan Bondy of The New York Post, USC men’s basketball head coach Eric Musselman weighed in on how he expects Brown to handle the pressures of his new gig. Musselman has several connections to the Knicks’ new-look staff. He worked as the Lakers’ then-D League coach while Brown was coaching L.A.’s NBA team. Musselman also started the career of New York’s fresh defensive coordinator, Brendan O’Connor.

“He is super-detailed, super-organized,” Musselman said of Brown. “That year with the Lakers, his playbook, he wants to make sure it’s color-coded properly. He got a little bit of an NFL, detail-oriented mindset. … I saw it in the meetings in training camp preparation. Perfect color-coded books. And making sure the periods and the commas were in the right places… Training camp, the drills and the precision … that was real detailed as well.”

Musselman added that he believes Brown’s past stints with superstar players in Cleveland and Los Angeles, combined with his run as a Golden State assistant coach that included three championships, has uniquely equipped him for this opportunity.

“I just think his experience of being in Cleveland and who he coached there [LeBron James] and then I think the fact that he coached in L.A. and it’s the Lakers,” Musselman said. “And with the media market in the Bay Area [with the Warriors], even though he was just an assistant, you can kind of sit back and watch how Coach [Steve] Kerr handles pressure and coaching in playoff situations. And he’s at a perfect age [Brown is 55]. He has a lot of things going for him. And if you coached in L.A., that’s about as good a preparation as you can have.”

There’s more out of the Atlantic Division:

  • The Knicks still have to fill a 14th standard roster spot ahead of the regular season. New York has maintained its interest in free agent guards Malcolm Brogdon, Landry Shamet and Ben Simmons to fill that spot, according to Bondy, though he cautions that he has heard “conflicting information” about how genuine the interest in Simmons is.
  • With LeBron James‘ future somewhat up in the air, Kristian Winfield of The New York Daily News breaks down the pros and cons of a potential trade sending the Lakers star to the Knicks. There has been no indication that James will ask to be traded or that the Lakers will consider moving him, so it’s a purely speculative exercise by Winfield.
  • Celtics All-Star forward Jaylen Brown‘s father Marselles Brown, a former boxer, was arrested for attempted murder in Las Vegas, per TMZ Sports. The elder Brown got into an argument with a youth football coach over a parking space, and the conflict escalated into a stabbing. NBC News 3 Las Vegas confirms the TMZ Sports report, noting that the conflict apparently started when a passenger in Brown’s SUV hit the door of the coach’s car.
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NBA 2025 Offseason Check-In: Los Angeles Clippers

August 21st, 2025 at 7:17pm CST by Luke Adams

Hoops Rumors is checking in on the 2025 offseason for all 30 NBA teams, recapping the summer’s free agent signings, trades, draft picks, departures, and more. We’ll take a look at each team’s offseason moves and consider what might still be coming before the regular season begins. Today, we’re focusing on the Los Angeles Clippers.

Free agent signings

  • James Harden: Two years, $81,500,000. Second-year player option (partially guaranteed for $13,317,307 if exercised). Trade kicker (15%). Re-signed using Bird rights.
  • Brook Lopez: Two years, $17,937,500. Second-year team option. Signed using non-taxpayer mid-level exception.
  • Nicolas Batum: Two years, $11,483,280. Second-year team option. Trade kicker (15%). Re-signed using Non-Bird rights.
  • Bradley Beal: Two years, $10,975,700. Second-year player option. Trade kicker (15%). Signed using non-taxpayer mid-level exception.
  • Chris Paul: One year, minimum salary. Signed using minimum salary exception.
  • Patrick Baldwin Jr.: One year, minimum salary. Non-guaranteed (Exhibit 10). Signed using minimum salary exception.
  • Jason Preston: One year, minimum salary. Non-guaranteed (Exhibit 10). Signed using minimum salary exception.
  • TyTy Washington Jr.: One year, minimum salary. Non-guaranteed (Exhibit 10). Signed using minimum salary exception.

Trades

  • Acquired the draft rights to Kobe Sanders (No. 50 pick) from the Knicks in exchange for the draft rights to Mohamed Diawara (No. 51 pick) and the draft rights to Luka Mitrovic.
  • Acquired John Collins (from Jazz) in a three-team trade in exchange for Norman Powell (to Heat), the Clippers’ 2027 second-round pick (to Jazz), and cash ($2.5MM; to Jazz).

Draft picks

Two-way signings

  • Trentyn Flowers
    • One year, $85,300 partial guarantee.
  • Jordan Miller
    • One year, $85,300 partial guarantee (will increase to $318,218 at start of regular season).
  • Kobe Sanders
    • Two years, $85,300 partial guarantee (will increase to $318,218 at start of regular season); second year non-guaranteed.

Departed/unsigned free agents

Other roster moves

  • Waived Jordan Miller.
    • Miller was waived from a standard contract and re-signed to a two-way deal.
  • Waived Patrick Baldwin Jr.
    • Baldwin was waived from a two-way contract and re-signed to an Exhibit 10 deal.

Salary cap situation

  • Operating over the cap ($154.6MM) and above the luxury tax line ($187.9MM).
  • Carrying approximately $194.7MM in salary.
  • Hard-capped at $195,945,000.
  • Three traded player exceptions available (largest worth $6,539,000).

The offseason so far

The Clippers’ decision not to match the Sixers’ four-year, maximum-salary offer for Paul George last July looks savvy in retrospect, following an injury-plagued 2024/25 campaign in which George’s production dropped off significantly. But even at the time of George’s departure, there was a strong case to be made that the Clippers made the right move choosing financial flexibility over a massive investment in an aging star.

With George on the books, the Clippers would’ve been operating in tax-apron territory for the foreseeable future, with limited resources to add quality role players to the roster. Without George, the club dropped below the first apron and had the ability to add Derrick Jones Jr., Nicolas Batum, and Kris Dunn a year ago via the mid-level exception, the bi-annual exception, and sign-and-trade, respectively.

The Clippers made excellent use of their spending flexibility again during the 2025 offseason. While the bi-annual exception wasn’t available again in 2025, the club used every dollar of the non-taxpayer mid-level exception to sign center Brook Lopez and guard Bradley Beal. And because the Clippers’ team salary remained below the first apron, they had the ability to take back more salary than they sent out when they traded Norman Powell to Miami in a three-team deal that landed John Collins in L.A.

As effective as Powell was as a scorer and shooter in 2024/25 (21.8 PPG on .484/.418/.804 shooting), the Clippers seemed unlikely to extend his $20.5MM expiring contract and were able to bring in Beal, a replacement with a similar skill set, for a fraction of the price ($5.4MM). While Beal’s time in Phoenix was a disappointment, his production (17.6 PPG on .505/.407/.808 shooting over two seasons) will play a lot better when his cap hit comes in at roughly 1/10th of his previous maximum salary.

Even if you view Beal as a downgrade on Powell (which is debatable), the upgrades the Clippers were able to make in their frontcourt represent a worthwhile trade-off. Ivica Zubac made the All-Defensive second team and received Defensive Player of the Year votes on the heels of the best season of his career, but he doesn’t spread the floor at all on offense or rack up blocked shots on defense, so the club was seeking a new dimension up front and achieved that goal by bringing in Lopez and Collins.

Lopez was probably overextended as Milwaukee’s full-time center averaging 32 minutes per game, but he should thrive as a rim protector and outside shooter in a part-time role. Collins, meanwhile, will immediately become the best scorer in Los Angeles’ big man rotation. Lopez can anchor the defense when Zubac is off the floor, and Collins is capable of playing alongside either center, giving head coach Tyronn Lue more options in terms of two-big lineups.

The Clippers’ other notable veteran addition was a somewhat fortuitous one. There were probably teams willing to give Chris Paul more than the minimum-salary contract he ultimately signed, but those teams weren’t as conveniently located as the Clippers — reuniting with his former team will give the future Hall-of-Famer the ability to be around his family in Los Angeles, which was his top priority this offseason.

Paul will back up starting point guard James Harden, who received a slight raise on a new two-year deal after making the All-NBA third team this past season. Harden got a player option on that second year, but the Clippers protected themselves in the event of a major injury or drop-off in play. Only $13.3MM of Harden’s $42.3MM salary in 2026/27 will be guaranteed if he picks up his option.

Batum, Amir Coffey, and Ben Simmons were among the other Clippers veterans to reach unrestricted free agency this summer. While all three veterans logged regular minutes for the team down the stretch, Batum was the only one to maintain a rotation role in the postseason and was the only one of the three re-signed. After using the bi-annual exception to sign him a year ago, L.A. was able to give the forward a 20% raise using his Non-Bird rights.

Finally, the Clippers made two roster additions in the draft, including No. 30 overall pick Yanic Konan Niederhauser. At the time the Clippers made that selection, Zubac was the only center on the roster, and it looked like Niederhauser might get a shot to compete for regular minutes.

But the team subsequently acquired Lopez and Collins, and Niederhauser didn’t stand out at the Las Vegas Summer League. Unless he really impresses in camp or the Clippers have some frontcourt injuries to deal with, I expect the former Penn State standout to spend most of the first half of the season in the G League.

Up next

There shouldn’t be many items left on the Clippers’ offseason to-do list. They have one opening on their projected regular season roster, but don’t have enough breathing room below their hard cap to carry a 15th man into the regular season. Their two-way contract slots are all full. And Collins, the only extension-eligible player on the roster, could sign a new deal at any time between now and June 30, 2026, so he’s not facing any sort of October deadline.

Still, that doesn’t necessarily mean it’ll be an entirely uneventful fall in L.A. in terms of roster moves. It’s worth noting, for example, that the team has already signed a handful of players with NBA experience (Patrick Baldwin Jr., TyTy Washington Jr., and Jason Preston) to Exhibit 10 contracts. Despite the current lack of openings, it wouldn’t surprise me if those camp invitees are given an opportunity to compete for a two-way deal, with Trentyn Flowers‘ spot perhaps the most at risk.

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Southwest Notes: Flagg, Griffin, Sengun, Grizzlies Arena

August 21st, 2025 at 5:43pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

Mavericks No. 1 pick Cooper Flagg is one of the most anticipated rookies since the days of Blake Griffin. Appearing on the Post Moves podcast with former WNBA MVP Candace Parker and rising All-Star Aliyah Boston, Griffin himself explained why there’s so much hype around Flagg and broke down what he loves about the forward’s game.

“I think he is the most complete player that we’ve seen come into the NBA in recent memory,” Griffin said (hat tip to Grant Afseth of Dallas Hoops Journal for the transcription). “I’m not saying he doesn’t have room to grow — he still has a ton of room to grow — but he passes, shoots, defends, rebounds. He seems like a great teammate, a great kid. There is, like, what’s the red flag? Which is really exciting for basketball to have these young guys. … Cooper is just able to play and guard so many different positions.”

There’s more out of the Southwest Division:

  • Rockets All-Star big man Alperen Sengun has been working to develop a more consistent three-point shot over the summer, per Eurohoops. Sengun has been plying his trade for native Turkey in preparation for EuroBasket next week.“We mostly worked on shooting,” coach Djordje Sijan said. “I went through Partizan’s school with centers, and I can say that Sengun is the best player with his back to the basket in Europe. In the NBA, they focused on where he is dominant, and he developed to perfection. But creativity was forbidden to him. I was asked in an interview, ‘What did you do with him?’ Nothing, I let him get off the shots from all possible positions. Some coaches don’t like it. But this year we worked mostly on the three-point shot. That shot was forbidden to him.”
  • The city of Memphis and the Grizzlies have been collaborating on a $550MM plan to renovate FedEx Forum, reports Samuel Hardiman of The Daily Memphian (subscriber link). Both sides want to keep the franchise in town beyond the 2028/29 end of the Grizzlies’ current lease.
  • In case you missed it, the Spurs have brought in beloved NBL coach Jacob Chance to lead their G League affiliate, the Austin Spurs.
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Free Agent Rumors: Thomas, Westbrook, Simmons, Shamet, Knicks

August 21st, 2025 at 4:00pm CST by Rory Maher

NBA insider Jake Fischer reported Wednesday during a Bleacher Report live stream (YouTube link) that he continues to hear restricted free agent guard Cam Thomas is weighing whether to sign his $6MM qualifying offer or accept a two-year deal with the Nets worth around $14MM annually. The catch is the second year is a team option, meaning only the first season is guaranteed.

“Cam Thomas’s situation seems to be a decision between taking his qualifying offer or a two-year deal with a team option that is north of the qualifying offer from Brooklyn, somewhere around $14 million in average annual value,” Fischer said.

For what it’s worth, league sources not connected to the situation speculated to Kurt Helin of NBC Sports that Thomas might accept a two-year deal with a team option if he received closer to what Golden State reportedly offered Jonathan Kuminga ($45MM). While Helin acknowledges that the Nets have the edge in negotiating leverage, he wonders if the two sides will eventually reach some sort of compromise — perhaps a second-year player option or a partial guarantee in year two — to hash out a new deal.

Here are a few more rumors and notes on NBA veterans who remain unsigned:

  • There’s still no indication that any NBA team besides Sacramento is seriously considering signing Russell Westbrook, Fischer said yesterday in the same Bleacher Report live stream (hat tip to Dallas Hoops Journal). “We are still waiting to see what other moves could come in Sacramento before the Kings try to bring Russell Westbrook in,” Fischer said. “And that’s been the one home all along that we really have looked at for Russell Westbrook and that’s still the home that I have heard earlier this week is the most likely outcome for Russell Westbrook if he’s gonna be in the NBA at all. Honestly, that’s really the only home we’ve heard for him.”
  • Eric Pincus of Bleacher Report takes a look at four potential landing spots for Ben Simmons, including the Kings, Knicks and Warriors.
  • While the Knicks and Simmons have mutual interest and the 29-year-old could end up in New York, Ian Begley of SNY.tv thinks the former No. 1 overall pick is “probably” more likely to land with another team, he said Tuesday on The Putback (YouTube link). New York only has enough room below its second-apron hard cap to sign one veteran to a minimum-salary deal, and Begley is “kind of assuming” that contract will eventually go to Landry Shamet. The Knicks have also kicked the tires on Malcolm Brogdon, though Begley noted they would likely have to make a trade to sign more than one of those three players.
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Suns’ Rasheer Fleming Discusses Goals For Rookie Season

August 21st, 2025 at 2:11pm CST by Rory Maher

There was reportedly a minor bidding war for Rasheer Fleming ahead of day two of this year’s draft, with teams vying to move up to No. 31 to select the former Saint Joseph’s forward. The Suns won that bidding war by sending Minnesota the No. 36 pick and a pair of future second-rounders.

Fleming is coming off an impressive junior season in which he averaged 14.7 points, 8.5 rebounds, 1.4 steals and 1.5 blocks per game in 35 appearances (31.1 minutes), with a shooting line of .531/.390/.743. In July, Phoenix signed the 21-year-old to a four-year, $8.7MM contract using the second-round pick exception. He got three fully guaranteed years, with a fourth-year team option.

In a recent interview with Duane Rankin of The Arizona Republic, Fleming discussed a handful of topics, including his approach to his rookie season.

“Honestly, my main goal is obviously be the best player I can be, but I think I can do that by starting off on the defensive end,” said Fleming, who emphasized that his offense would develop from there.

First-year head coach Jordan Ott has similar expectations for the young power forward.

“He’s really high on me on the defensive end and getting me on the floor doing that,” Fleming said of Ott. “He sees the potential offensively, too, but his main focus for me is, he was telling me the other day, to focus on getting us more possessions. Whether that’s defensively, like getting steals, guarding people, defensive rebounds or on the offensive end with offensive boards. Just getting us more possessions.”

Rankin notes that Fleming made three appearances during Las Vegas Summer League, averaging 7.3 points, 4.0 rebounds and 1.7 steals while shooting 50.0% from the field and 36.4% from long distance in 16.8 minutes per game.

“It was a great experience overall,” Fleming told Rankin. “I know it’s not technically an NBA floor, but just to be in the NBA-type of game. It was a fun and good experience for me. Just getting the feel and the pace of the NBA game and getting ready for the season. It was really cool.”

As for what he’s currently focused on, the New Jersey native said he’s trying to improve his on-court decision-making by being a little more methodical.

“I’m trying to not slow down in the sense of running slow or anything like that, but just slowing my pace down a little bit,” Fleming said. “I feel like I’m rushing sometimes when I’m doing certain things like when I’m shooting sometimes or about to make a decision. Just slowing things down a little bit and I’ve been getting really good at that over time in practice. I’ve just been slowing my pace down a little bit.”

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Bulls To Retire Derrick Rose’s No. 1 Jersey On Jan. 24

August 21st, 2025 at 1:15pm CST by Rory Maher

The Bulls will retire Derrick Rose‘s No. 1 jersey on January 24, 2026, according to a team press release (Twitter link).

Chicago announced this past January — ahead of “Derrick Rose Night” — that it would be adding Rose’s jersey to the rafters of the United Center at some point during the 2025/26 season. Now we know the ceremony will occur on a Saturday when Chicago hosts Boston, as shown by the Bulls’ official schedule.

Rose, who retired as a player this past September, spent eight seasons with Chicago, his hometown team. As Julia Poe of The Chicago Tribune noted last October, no Bull has worn No. 1 since Rose was traded to New York in 2016.

“Derrick is both a hometown hero and a symbol of an entire era of Bulls basketball,” chairman Jerry Reinsdorf said in January. “Retiring a jersey recognizes a player’s impact beyond on-court achievements. It honors individuals who have made extraordinary contributions to the organization and forged deep, lasting connections with fans. It recognizes that emotional bond and the great influence a player has had on the team and organization’s identity.”

The Bulls selected Rose with the first overall pick in the 2008 NBA draft. He earned Rookie of the Year honors in 2009 and was named an All-Star in each of his next three seasons, winning the MVP award in 2011. Over the course of that season, his third in the NBA at age 22, Rose averaged 25.0 points, 7.7 assists and 4.1 rebounds per game across 81 starts, leading the Bulls to a league-best 62-20 record and a spot in the Eastern Conference Finals.

However, Rose’s career hit a snag following his first four seasons in Chicago, as he missed the entire 2012/13 season due to an ACL tear and only played in 10 games in ’13/14 as he continued to recover from that injury. Overall, he averaged 19.7 PPG, 6.2 APG and 3.7 RPG in 406 regular season games with the Bulls, posting a shooting slash line of .448/.302/.813.

Rose, who turns 37 in early October, will be the fifth former Bull to have his jersey retired, joining Jerry Sloan (No. 4), Bob Love (No. 10), Michael Jordan (No. 23) and Scottie Pippen (No. 33). Chicago also has banners honoring former head coach Phil Jackson and former general manager Jerry Krause.

The fact that Rose won the MVP award while still on his rookie scale contract resulted in an NBA rule being unofficially named after him. As we’ve outlined in a Hoops Rumors Glossary entry, the “Derrick Rose rule” allows players coming off their rookie deals to sign maximum-salary contracts worth up to 30% of the salary cap instead of the typical 25% if they’ve earned a major award such as MVP, Defensive Player of the Year, or All-NBA.

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International Notes: Norris, Samuels, Toupane, Arms

August 21st, 2025 at 11:56am CST by Luke Adams

As forward Miles Norris seeks his next opportunity after being waived by the Celtics earlier this month, he’s reportedly drawing interest from across the Atlantic Ocean. Barcelona has its eye on the 25-year-old, according to Oscar Herreros of La Xarxa (Twitter link; hat tip to Sportando).

Norris went undrafted out of UC Santa Barbara in 2023, but has spent time on a two-way contract in each of the past two seasons, first with Atlanta during the first half of the ’23/24 season, then with Boston during the final month-plus of ’24/25. He has played sparingly in three total appearances at the NBA level, but was effective at the G League level last season, averaging 16.6 points, 5.6 rebounds, and 1.4 assists in 30.5 minutes per game across 44 total outings for the Grizzlies’ and Celtics’ affiliates.

We have more free agency news from around the international basketball world:

  • Free agent forward Jermaine Samuels, a former Villanova standout, has signed with San Pablo Burgos for the 2025/26 season, the Spanish club announced in a press release. It will be the first time Samuels has competed overseas — he has been in the NBA and G League since going undrafted in 2022, including spending the 2023/24 season on a two-way contract with the Rockets.
  • Former NBA forward Axel Toupane, who was part of the Milwaukee team that won a title in 2021, has signed with FC Porto in Portugal, the team officially announced (via Twitter; hat tip to Eurohoops). The 33-year-old has bounced around since playing for the Bucks four years ago, spending time in France, Lebanon, and Taiwan since then.
  • Former Texas Tech standout Adonis Arms will continue his career in Greece, having signed with AEK Athens, per a press release from the team (hat tip to Eurohoops). While Arms has never appeared in an NBA regular season game, the 6’6″ wing has been a G League mainstay in recent years and has signed Exhibit 10 contracts with four teams since 2022, including (most recently) New Orleans last October.
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Longtime Bulls Exec Steve Weinman Named Wake Forest GM

August 21st, 2025 at 10:03am CST by Luke Adams

Steve Weinman, who has spent the past 13 years in the Bulls‘ front office, has been hired by Wake Forest University and will serve as the general manager for the Demon Deacons’ men’s and women’s basketball programs, the school announced on Thursday in a press release.

According to Wake Forest’s announcement, Weinman will also hold the title of senior associate athletics director for analytics in his new position. He’ll work closely with the men’s and women’s basketball head coaches on “roster construction including recruiting strategy, transfer portal evaluation, resource allocation and planning.”

Initially hired by the Bulls as a basketball operations assistant, Weinman earned multiple promotions during his time in Chicago, most recently serving as an assistant general manager and VP of basketball strategy and analytics. His responsibilities during his stint with the franchise included managing the salary cap, scouting pro and amateur players, and leading the club’s analytics department.

As a result of the professionalization of college sports, NCAA basketball programs have been increasingly inclined to target NBA executives for GM roles, with Weinman the latest veteran executive to leave an NBA position for a college job.

The most notable example of an NBA-to-NCAA move in recent months was probably former Hawks general manager Wes Wilcox – then a high-ranking executive in the Kings’ front office – leaving Sacramento to become the GM at the University of Utah.

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