Suns Notes: Williams, Booker, Baugh, Duke
Mark Williams is entering training camp with a new team for the first time in his career after being sent from the Hornets to the Suns this offseason. According to Duane Rankin of Arizona Republic, he’s looking to prove that Charlotte shouldn’t have traded him.
“Just to be where you’re wanted is always great,” Williams said at the Suns media day “To be here is exciting. Charlotte was ultimately where I was drafted to. There was a belief in me at some point, but once you trade me the first time, it was only a matter of time before I was gone. So I knew that was coming. I just intend to make them regret that decision every time I’m on the court.”
It initially looked like Williams would be traded to the Lakers at last year’s deadline in exchange for Dalton Knecht and a pick, but that deal fell through due to concerns about the big man’s physical. After averaging 12.3 points, 8.8 rebounds and 1.1 blocks per game in his first three seasons, Williams is excited for his new opportunity in the final year of his rookie contract.
“He’s been with us every day since July 1,” Suns general manager Brian Gregory said. “His strength gains in the lower body have been off the charts. His work ethic on a daily basis, off the chart. His attitude, he understood where he was at and where he needed to get to and he’s worked every single day on that.”
Rankin writes that Williams is expected to start at center but will battle with rookie Khaman Maluach, Oso Ighodaro and Nick Richards in camp.
We have more from the Suns:
- At Phoenix’s media day on Sept. 24, star guard Devin Booker told Suns insider John Gambadoro (Twitter link) that there was a “disconnect” on last year’s squad. “I don’t think there was any hatred in our last group amongst the guys I just think when you are all on a different plan and don’t have the same common goal or same objective than that’s what it turns into,” Booker said. According to Gambadoro, Booker also said the last two years were the toughest of his career.
- Booker recognizes that his leadership is going to be of the utmost importance for this squad, Rankin writes for The Arizona Republic. With Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal no longer on the team, Booker is going to be relied on to be more vocal. “I’m going to use my voice always,” Booker said. “I feel something is going to be beneficial for the team, especially with this team now for the growth for any young player. I’ve been around these guys a lot. They’re already hitting me with the right questions. It was tough not getting where we wanted to with [Durant] and [Beal], two guys I have high respect for and always will.”
- The Suns’ G League team acquired the rights to Damion Baugh and David Duke Jr., whom Phoenix previously signed to training camp deals, according to Rankin (Twitter link). That indicates the plan is for both players to suit up for Phoenix’s NBAGL affiliate this season. In exchange, the Valley Suns sent the Westchester Knicks the returning rights to all of Cassius Stanley, Moses Wood, Mamadi Diakite, Quinndary Weatherspoon and Didi Louzada, along with a first- and second-round pick.
Hornets Waive Nick Smith Jr.
5:25pm: The move is now official, per the Hornets.
4:28pm: The Hornets are waiving guard Nick Smith Jr., according to Michael Scotto of HoopsHype (Twitter link).
Smith, 21, was the No. 27 overall pick in the 2023 draft. On the surface, the decision to waive him may seem surprising, given that he averaged 9.9 points, 2.1 rebounds and 2.4 assists per game as a 20-year-old while starting 27 games for Charlotte last season.
However, the Hornets are facing a roster crunch ahead of the 2025/26 season. Before last week, the Hornets had 16 players on fully guaranteed contracts and DaQuan Jeffries and Moussa Diabate among those on partially or non-guaranteed contracts. Charlotte got to work trimming the roster last week by cutting Jeffries, but still had to make multiple moves to set its 15-man regular season roster.
Over the course of the offseason, Charlotte brought in four rookies on standard contracts and, through a series of free agent moves and trades, added veterans Mason Plumlee, Spencer Dinwiddie, Pat Connaughton and Collin Sexton. That meant, barring other trades, the Hornets were always going to have to cut at least one player on a fully guaranteed contract, such as Smith.
Once this move is official, the Hornets will still have 15 players on standard contracts and Diabate’s non-guaranteed deal along with their three two-ways and Isaih Moore on an Exhibit 10 contract.
While the easy answer would be to cut Diabate to satisfy roster limits, the decision is not that simple. Diabate averaged a touch under 20 minutes a night for Charlotte last year, appeared in 71 games (eight starts) and posted 5.7 points and 6.2 rebounds per contest. Additionally, Diabate is one of just three players on the roster (including two-ways) who is over 6’10”, so waiving him would leave Charlotte in an even more dire need of big depth. Keep an eye on how this situation unfolds before opening night, given the Hornets will need to make another trade or cut.
As for Smith, it’s possible a team will claim him and his modest $2.7MM salary this year. His contract includes a $4.9MM team option for 2026/27, which will be automatically declined if he clears waivers.
The Nets seem like a great candidate to take a flier on a 21-year-old with a career average of 8.0 PPG and a 36.9% clip from three, although they have a roster crunch of their own to sort through. If he goes unclaimed, it’s hard to imagine it will be long before Smith signs on somewhere. He would be eligible to sign a two-way contract with just two years of service.
The decision to cut Smith for Charlotte was likely less about the player himself than the sheer overlap of guards the Hornets find themselves equipped with. In addition to Connaughton, Sexton and Dinwiddie joining the backcourt, the Hornets drafted Kon Knueppel and Sion James while still rostering LaMelo Ball, Tre Mann and Josh Green.
Pacers Won’t Sign Guard Monte Morris
September 25: Morris won’t be signing with the Pacers after all, since he recently suffered a calf strain, general manager Chad Buchanan told reporters on Thursday (Twitter link via Tony East).
September 23: Veteran point guard Monte Morris has agreed to a one-year contract with the Pacers, ESPN’s Shams Charania tweets. It will be a non-guaranteed deal, Michael Scotto of HoopsHype tweets.
The Pacers have 13 players on the roster with fully guaranteed contracts, so there’s room for Morris to earn his way onto the opening night roster. Indiana had a full camp roster, so the team will need to make a corresponding move to complete the signing.
With Tyrese Haliburton expected to miss the entire season, Andrew Nembhard and T.J. McConnell are expected to hold down the top two spots at the point. Morris can provide insurance at that position if he makes the team.
Morris, 30, played 45 games off the bench for the Suns last season. He averaged 5.2 points, 1.5 rebounds and 1.6 assists in 12.7 minutes per contest.
Morris has also played for Denver, Washington, Detroit and Minnesota. Overall, he has seen action in 420 NBA regular season contests and has averaged 9.5 points and 3.6 assists in 23.4 minutes with solid shooting numbers (47.4% overall and 38.9% on threes).
Lakers Sign Coach J.J. Redick To Contract Extension
The Lakers have extended the contract of head coach J.J. Redick, president of basketball operations Rob Pelinka announced today (Twitter link via Dan Woike of The Athletic).
Pelinka cited the team’s “confidence” and “belief” in Redick as primary factors in the deal being reached, tweets Law Murray of The Athletic.
Redick, 41, compiled a 50-32 record in 2024/25 as a first-time head coach with Los Angeles. The Lakers were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs by Minnesota in five games.
Redick reportedly received a four-year contract worth about $8MM annually last summer when he was initially hired by the Lakers. It’s unclear how many new years were added as part of his extension.
A former NBA sharpshooter who played 15 seasons in the league from 2006-2021, Redick had preexisting connections to the L.A. area, having spent four seasons with the Clippers during his playing days.
Redick was long viewed as the frontrunner for the Lakers’ head coaching job after they fired Darvin Ham in 2024 following a first-round playoff exit. The Lakers reportedly made a lucrative contract offer to UConn coach Dan Hurley last summer, but he decided to stay with the Huskies.
Heat Sign Precious Achiuwa To One-Year Deal
September 25: Miami has signed Achiuwa, the team announced in press release. In a corresponding move, Gabe Madsen has been waived, per the Heat.
September 24: The Heat have agreed to a one-year contract with big man Precious Achiuwa, ESPN’s Shams Charania reports (via Twitter). It’s a non-guaranteed, minimum-salary deal, according to Anthony Chiang of the Miami Herald (Twitter link).
Achiuwa was one of the top remaining frontcourt players on the free agent market. He appeared in 57 games with the Knicks last season, including 10 starts, and averaged 6.6 points and 5.6 rebounds in 20.5 minutes per night. Achiuwa also saw limited minutes in eight postseason games.
Miami’s interest in signing him was reported earlier this month.
It’s the second stint for Achiuwa in the Heat organization. They drafted him with the No. 20 overall pick in 2020 and he played 61 games as a rookie.
Miami then traded him to Toronto in a deal that sent Kyle Lowry to the Heat. He played two-and-a-half seasons with the Raptors before getting traded to the Knicks during the 2023/24 season.
Achiuwa will provide depth at the power forward and center spots, assuming he makes the 15-man roster. Miami had a full camp roster and will have to shed a player to make the signing official.
If Achiuwa does stick with the Heat for the regular season, the team’s salary would move slightly above the luxury tax line. However, since luxury tax penalties are based on salaries at the end of the season, Miami would have until the trade deadline to duck back below that threshold.
Bulls Re-Sign Josh Giddey To Four-Year Deal
September 25: Giddey’s four-year contract is now official, according to NBA.com’s transactions log.
September 9: The Bulls and restricted free agent guard Josh Giddey are in agreement on a four-year, $100MM contract, agent Daniel Moldovan tells Shams Charania of ESPN. It’s a fully guaranteed contract with no player or team option, Charania adds.
Giddey, who was one of four top restricted free agents still unsigned when September began, will get the most lucrative contract any RFA has signed so far this summer and will become one of just five free agents to receive at least $100MM this offseason, joining Naz Reid, Kyrie Irving, Myles Turner, and Julius Randle.
The sixth overall pick in the 2021 draft, Giddey spent his first three NBA seasons in Oklahoma City, but wasn’t an ideal fit on a Thunder roster that featured star point guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. The 6’8″ Australian guard was traded to the Bulls during the 2024 offseason straight up for defensive ace Alex Caruso.
Chicago faced plenty of criticism for its decision to send out one of its most valuable trade chips for a player who had just been benched by the Thunder in the postseason, without getting any sort of draft compensation in the deal. But the Bulls were confident in Giddey’s ability to thrive in more of a primary ball-handling role, and he responded with the best year of his career, setting new personal highs in rebounds (8.1) and assists (7.2) per game, as well as three-point percentage (37.8%).
While Giddey had an up-and-down first half in Chicago, he thrived in the second half, particularly after the team traded away Zach LaVine. Between the All-Star break and the end of the season, the 22-year-old nearly averaged a triple-double, with 21.2 points, 10.7 rebounds, 9.3 assists, and 1.5 steals per game and a .500/.457/.809 shooting line. His usage rate, which had been 20.2% prior to the All-Star break, was 24.9% the rest of the way, and the Bulls won 12 of those 19 games.
The year-to-year details of Giddey’s new deal aren’t yet known, but the Bulls will have a significant amount of cap flexibility going forward – including a big chunk of cap room in 2026 and/or 2027 – no matter how it’s structured. Prior to Giddey’s agreement, Patrick Williams had been the only player on the roster owed guaranteed money beyond the 2026/27 season.
The Bulls put out a press release announcing Giddey’s new deal shortly after Charania reported it, but have since removed that announcement from their website and their Twitter account. That’s likely a case of the team’s PR staff jumping the gun on the official announcement, not a sign that the agreement has fallen through.
With Giddey re-signing and Nets guard Cam Thomas having accepted his qualifying offer, just two notable restricted free agents still don’t have deals in place: Jonathan Kuminga of the Warriors and Quentin Grimes of the Sixers. They have until October 1 to accept their respective qualifying offers.
Agent: Sixers Offered Grimes Four-Year, $39MM Contract
The Sixers‘ first formal offer for restricted free agent Quentin Grimes, which occurred on Wednesday, was a four-year, $39MM contract, agent David Bauman told Gina Mizell of The Philadelphia Inquirer.
According to Mizell, a source familiar with the negotiations “slightly pushed back” on that statement, noting the two sides have had “hours and hours” of contract discussions this offseason while characterizing the team’s offer as tentative rather than firm.
Bauman thinks Grimes should be earning $20-25MM annually on his next deal, which Philadelphia is unwilling to offer, Mizell writes.
Despite the significant gap in Grimes’ perceived long-term value, the Sixers still value the 25-year-old shooting guard, viewing him as a “significant part” of their future, that same source told The Inquirer.
Bauman, who confirmed to Mizell that Grimes won’t attend Friday’s media day or travel with the team for a pair of preseason contests in Abu Dhabi, said Grimes’ absence shouldn’t be viewed as a holdout.
As first reported by ESPN’s Shams Charania, the most likely outcome appears to either be Grimes accepting his $8.7MM qualifying offer or signing a more lucrative one-year deal while waiving his implied no-trade clause, Mizell writes.
According to Mizell, Bauman has asked the 76ers to extend Grimes’ deadline to accept the QO. The current deadline is next Wednesday, October 1, but a team and player can agree to push it back.
Grimes was acquired from Dallas in a February trade, joining a Sixers team that was decimated by injuries and had difficulty fielding a competitive roster. He averaged a career-best 21.9 PPG in 28 contests with Philadelphia, also posting career-best marks of 5.2 RPG, 4.5 APG and 1.5 SPG in 33.7 MPG.
Cavs Sign Thomas Bryant To One-Year Deal
September 25, 3:05 pm: Bryant is officially a Cavalier, according to a team press release.
September 23, 5:00 pm: The contract is non-guaranteed, according to Michael Scotto of HoopsHype (Twitter link).
September 23, 1:03 pm: The Cavaliers and free agent center Thomas Bryant have agreed to terms on a one-year deal, agents Mark Bartelstein and Zach Kurtin tell Shams Charania of ESPN (Twitter link).
A former second-round pick who entered the NBA in 2017, Bryant has appeared in a total of 333 regular season games for the Lakers, Wizards, Nuggets, Heat, and Pacers. He began last season in Miami, then was traded to Indiana on December 15, the first day he became eligible to be dealt.
Providing depth in a Pacers frontcourt that had lost James Wiseman and Isaiah Jackson to season-ending Achilles tears, Bryant appeared in 56 games for Indiana, averaging 6.9 points and 3.9 rebounds in 15.1 minutes per night.
The 28-year-old didn’t play a major role during the team’s run to the NBA Finals, but made brief appearances in most games, averaging 2.6 PPG and 1.4 RPG in 8.4 MPG across 20 playoff outings.
The terms of Bryant’s agreement aren’t yet known, so it’s unclear whether the Cavaliers envision him being part of the their regular season roster. Cleveland only currently has 13 players on standard contracts, but likely won’t carry a 15th man into opening night due to luxury-tax concerns — it’s possible the team will bring in more veterans besides Bryant to compete for the 14th roster spot.
If Bryant does make the team, he would add depth behind Evan Mobley, Jarrett Allen, and fellow newcomer Larry Nance Jr.
Rockets’ Fred VanVleet Undergoes Surgery For Torn ACL
September 25: VanVleet underwent successful surgery today to repair his ACL tear, reports Iko of Yahoo Sports (via Twitter).
September 22: Rockets guard Fred VanVleet has sustained a torn ACL, reports Shams Charania of ESPN.
According to Kelly Iko of Yahoo Sports (Twitter link), VanVleet suffered the right knee injury at an unofficial team mini-camp in the Bahamas. The one-time All-Star and 2019 NBA champion will undergo surgery this week, Iko adds.
It’s a devastating blow for both Houston and VanVleet, who re-signed with the Rockets this summer on a two-year, $50MM contract.
VanVleet will earn $25MM each of the next two seasons, with a player option for 2026/27 he seems likely to exercise now that he appears destined to miss the entire ’25/26 campaign with a major knee injury.
VanVleet, 31, has been one of the keys to Houston’s dramatic turnaround. The Rockets went 17-55, 20-62 and 22-60 in the three years before he signed with the team as a free agent in 2023. With VanVleet as the starting point guard, Houston had a 41-41 record in ’23/24, followed by a 52-30 mark last season.
While VanVleet took a minor statistical step back last season in several categories, averaging 14.1 points, 5.6 assists, 3.7 rebounds and 1.6 steals while shooting 34.5% on three-pointers in 60 regular season games, the Rockets were consistently better when he was on the court (+6.2) than when he was off it (+2.9).
VanVleet also had a strong playoff showing in Houston’s first-round loss to Golden State, averaging 18.7 PPG, 4.4 APG, 4.1 RPG and 1.1 SPG while shooting 43.5% from long distance in the seven-game series. When he was on the court in the playoffs, the Rockets had a +3.9 net rating in 280 minutes; in the 56 minutes he didn’t play, their net rating was an abysmal -17.1.
As ESPN’s Bobby Marks notes (via Twitter), the Rockets will likely apply for a disabled player exception in the wake of VanVleet’s injury. However, they’re hard-capped at the first apron and are currently only $1.25MM below that threshold, meaning they’re not in position to use that DPE to add a 15th man to the roster.
Given their position relative to the hard cap, the Rockets won’t be able to even sign a free agent to a minimum-salary contract until January unless they reduce their team salary in a trade.
Reed Sheppard, Amen Thompson and Aaron Holiday are among the candidates to receive more minutes and ball-handling duties for Houston in the wake of VanVleet’s unfortunate injury.
Sixers’ Kyle Lowry Joins Amazon Prime Video As Analyst
Sixers guard Kyle Lowry has signed a contract to be an analyst with Amazon Prime Video, the new NBA broadcaster announced today (via Twitter).
According to Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press, Prime Video’s press release specified that Lowry signed a multiyear deal and that he will make “select appearances” this season in addition to having “increased responsibilities in the future.”
“I’m excited to start the next chapter of my basketball journey with the Prime Sports team,” Lowry said. “The talent they’ve assembled is incredible, and together we’ll deliver something fresh and special for basketball fans worldwide. It’s an honor to be part of this from Day One, and I’m committed to sharing the insights I’ve gained from my career through NBA on Prime for years to come.”
A Philadelphia native who played two seasons of college ball at Villanova prior to being selected 24th overall in the 2006 draft, Lowry is entering his 20th season in the league, and will soon become the second point guard in NBA history (Chris Paul was the first last season) — and just 12th player overall — to reach that mark of longevity, Reynolds notes.
Lowry is highly regarded by both players and coaches, Reynolds writes, adding that it “seemed inevitable” the 39-year-old would transition to a television role at some point.
A six-time All-Star and 2019 champion with the Raptors, Lowry is entering his second full season with his hometown 76ers after an injury-plagued 2024/25 campaign. Lowry was a diminished version of his past self last season from a production standpoint, putting up career-worst statistics in most major categories (3.9 PPG, 2.7 APG, 1.9 RPG) in just 35 games (18.8 MPG).