Hoops Rumors hosted a live chat today at 1:00 pm Central time (2:00 pm Eastern).
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.
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.
It didn’t come as a surprise to people around the NBA that the Raptors ultimately named general manager Bobby Webster their permanent head of basketball operations, Jake Fischer of Bleacher Report said in a live stream on Wednesday (YouTube link). In fact, according to Fischer, the only surprise during the process was that Toronto publicly announced a search for a new top executive after parting ways with president Masai Ujiri.
“Someone I consult with who is involved in (executive) search firm stuff was taken aback by the fact that was even put out publicly,” Fischer said. “He was taking it – and the league was taking it – as a foregone conclusion that Bobby Webster would be running the show.”
The Raptors, who traded away Pascal Siakam and OG Anunoby during the 2023/24 season, have missed the playoffs for three straight seasons, but the expectation is that they’ll be more competitive going forward, per Fischer.
“The Raptors have definitely been given some type of formal pressure, some type of direction from their new leadership of Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment to end this sort of rebuild era they’ve been in,” Fischer said, adding that the team will be aiming to claim a top-six playoff spot this season, not simply make the play-in tournament.
Here’s more on the Raptors:
- Following up on rumors from earlier in the offseason, Fischer confirmed that the Raptors were having trade discussions involving the No. 9 overall pick leading up to the draft and talked to the Celtics, among other teams. “They had conversations with Boston about both Jrue Holiday and Derrick White, trying to figure out ways to add either veteran into their backcourt,” Fischer said. Toronto ultimately kept the No. 9 pick and used it to select Collin Murray-Boyles.
- While he acknowledged that it’s hard to predict trade-deadline activity in August, Fischer suggested that he fully anticipates the Raptors will continue seeking win-now help during the 2025/26 season. “I have the Raptors already earmarked as a buyer,” he said. “Now, if things go awry (or) if there’s something injury misfortune, maybe the Raptors don’t fully go that direction. But if everything goes as intended, if they’re faring night after night in the standings as they hope to be, as they intend to be, I’ve got the Raptors as a buyer.”
- Veteran forward RJ Barrett looks like the top trade candidate on Toronto’s roster, according to Fischer, who noted that Barrett came up in the Brandon Ingram trade talks with the Pelicans in February, but New Orleans didn’t have much interest in him. “RJ Barrett’s representation is fully aware that he is someone that could be discussed in trades moving forward for the Raptors,” Fischer said.
- In case you missed it, we took a closer look over the weekend at the Raptors’ offseason so far.
As the Warriors‘ standoff with restricted free agent Jonathan Kuminga extends into late August, the team remains “very confident” about its ability to eventually sign free agent center Al Horford, Jake Fischer said in his latest Bleacher Report live stream on Wednesday (YouTube link; hat tip to Dallas Hoops Journal).
As Fischer outlines, Horford is among several veteran free agents who have expressed a willingness to be patient in waiting for resolution on Kuminga and have been “in full communication” with the Warriors’ front office.
Pointing to veterans like De’Anthony Melton, Gary Payton II, Seth Curry, and perhaps even Malcolm Brogdon as candidates to end up in Golden State, Fischer suggests that those players would likely receive minimum-salary contracts if they sign with the Warriors, whereas Horford would probably be in line for a more lucrative deal.
“Al Horford’s situation is a bit different,” Fischer said. “Because, depending on where the Warriors land in a cap/tax situation, I believe he is slated to make upwards of the full taxpayer mid-level exception. There has also been some discussion about whether or not he could potentially be receiving a two-year deal with a player option as well.”
Fischer adds that the Warriors envision Horford having a “pretty major role” in their rotation. That lines up with previous reporting from ESPN’s Anthony Slater, who has indicated that the 40-year-old would likely slot in as the team’s starting center.
Using any portion of the mid-level exception would hard-cap the Warriors at the second tax apron — that could put them at risk of losing Kuminga, since a rival suitor could look to open up cap room to sign the RFA forward to an offer sheet Golden State wouldn’t be able to match. As a result, the Warriors are putting off the rest of their offseason business until they either re-sign or sign-and-trade Kuminga and have a clearer picture of their cap situation.
Depending on what happens with Kuminga, the Warriors should have either the taxpayer or even a portion of the non-taxpayer mid-level exception available to them.
For instance, if Kuminga accepts the rumored two-year, $45MM offer Golden State has put on the table, the club would be roughly $14.9MM below the second apron with 10 players under contract and would have the ability to offer Horford the full $5.7MM taxpayer mid-level exception while still filling out the rest of its roster with minimum-salary players.
If Kuminga were to sign his $7.98MM qualifying offer, Golden State would have about $17MM in breathing room below the first apron and could theoretically go a little above the taxpayer portion of the MLE to sign Horford. But that would result in a first-apron hard cap, which the front office may look to avoid.
Fischer warns that Kuminga’s free agency may remain unresolved well into September, since the deadline to accept his qualifying offer won’t arrive until October 1.
After the Celtics announced their new ownership structure on Tuesday, majority owner and team governor William Chisholm and alternate governor Wyc Grousbeck talked to Adam Himmelsbach of The Boston Globe about their plans for the future.
Chisholm, who headed up the group that purchased the franchise from the Grousbeck family at a valuation of $6.1 billion, said he understands the immediate need to cut costs to escape the second apron and get control of the team’s salary structure. However, he promised that won’t affect his overall vision for the franchise.
“We’re not playing for second; we’re playing for championships and banners,” Chisholm said. “We’re playing for them in the near term, although we obviously had to do some things to get below the second apron. But we’re also playing for them in the medium and long term. The second apron means you can’t do it by just throwing money at the problem. You have to do it with talent, you have to do it with leadership, and with Wyc and with (president of basketball operations Brad Stevens) and (president Rich Gotham) and (coach Joe Mazzulla), I feel like we have the best leaders in the league.”
Chisholm also expressed optimism that the Celtics can exceed expectations this season with Jaylen Brown, Derrick White and Payton Pritchard leading the way. He added that there’s “real talent” on the roster “that hasn’t been fully realized.”
Chisholm also emphasized that his plan to run the team in a close partnership with Grousbeck hasn’t changed. League rules prevented Grousbeck from retaining his position as governor because he owns less than 15% of the franchise, but both men insist that’s a technicality that won’t affect day-to-day operations.
“When it became clear the governor title was not going to be available because of technical reasons, because of math, Bill said, ‘Well, then we’re just not going to use that word around the office.’ So that says a lot about Bill, that he doesn’t care,” Grousbeck said. “He just wants to do the right thing for the team, and I feel the exact same way. We’re shoulder to shoulder.”
They also addressed the decision to give Mazzulla a multiyear extension ahead of what should be his most challenging season as head coach. Grousbeck said they want him “happy and empowered” as he leads a team that’s suddenly in the middle of the pack in the East.
“I’m really excited to see what he does in this kind of environment,” Chisholm added. “I think people will really appreciate what he’s all about. When he doesn’t have the loaded team, what can he do? And I think that’s going to be really interesting, and I have every confidence he’s going to crush it.”
With a roster virtually identical to last season’s championship team, the Thunder are counting on improvement to come from internal development of young players. One of those players is 21-year-old guard Cason Wallace, who may develop into a more efficient scoring threat in his third season, writes Rylan Stiles of Sports Illustrated.
Wallace’s elite defense helped him remain an important part of the rotation, but his shooting took a step backward. After connecting at 49.1% from the field and 41.9% from three-point range as a rookie, those numbers dropped to 47.4% and 35.6% in his second season. The three-point impact was most obvious from the corners, where he declined by about 10 percent.
Stiles points out that Wallace found other ways to get buckets, ranking in the 81st percentile as a cutter at 1.463 points per possession and adding 1.222 points per possession as the pick-and-roll man in guard-to-guard screening sets. Stiles believes Wallace is too talented for his shooting percentages to remain low and expects him to bounce back this season.
There’s more from the Northwest Division:
- In a separate story, Stiles lists the five Thunder lineups he’s most looking forward to watching. While Oklahoma City can go heavy on offense or defense, Stiles believes the five-man group of Wallace, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Luguentz Dort, Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren will be its best overall option. Stiles also expects big things from Nikola Topic, who sat out last season after ACL surgery, and believes he’ll thrive as a point guard if he’s surrounded by shooters.
- A trade with Boston brought Georges Niang back to the Jazz after a four-year absence, so Trent Wood of The Deseret News examined how much Niang has changed during that time. Wood notes that Niang put up the best scoring numbers of his career after Atlanta acquired him from Cleveland at last season’s trade deadline and reunited him with former Utah coach Quin Snyder. In 28 games with the Hawks, Niang averaged 12.1 PPG while shooting 44.1% from the field and 41.3% from beyond the arc. Wood expects Niang to provide a consistent three-point threat for the Jazz while serving as a mentor to young wings Taylor Hendricks, Cody Williams and Ace Bailey.
- Now that Marc Lore and Alex Rodriguez have full ownership of the Timberwolves and WNBA’s Lynx, they’re focusing their changes on the business side of the organizations, according to Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic (Twitter link).
Serbia is among the favorites as EuroBasket gets ready to open next week, and captain Bogdan Bogdanovic recognizes the expectations for his star-filled team, according to Eurohoops. Serbia hasn’t won the event in 24 years, and it has been placed in a challenging Group A along with Turkey, Czechia, Portugal, Estonia and host Latvia.
“We are aware of it, but our focus should be on the upcoming tournament,” Bogdanovic said of the long drought. “Do we feel it? Yes. But that’s part of the game. You have to embrace it and push through.”
Bogdanovic has the advantage of playing alongside one of game’s elite talents in Nikola Jokic, and he said Jokic has a “front vision” that allows him to remain a few steps ahead of the action. He also discussed some of the tournament’s other stars, including Greece’s Giannis Antetokounmpo and Slovenia’s Luka Doncic.
“Giannis is pure athleticism,” Bogdanovic said. “You can’t make mistakes against him because he punishes them all the time. His defense is incredible, and running in transition makes him unstoppable. (Doncic) can kill anyone in a tournament. He can go for 50, 60 points … that’s what makes him special.”
There’s more from EuroBasket:
- Sources tell BasketNews that Turkish big man Adem Bona is expected to be fine after limping off the court in Wednesday’s win over Lithuania (Twitter video link). Bona, who’s coming off a promising rookie season with the Sixers, played just seven minutes before the injury.
- Former NBA forward Davis Bertans credits coach Luca Banchi with helping to make Latvia a legitimate contender on the international stage, per Giorgos Kyriakidis of BasketNews. EuroBasket will be Banchi’s final tournament with the national team. “Few coaches have left such a visible imprint in such a short span,” Bertans said. “Under his leadership, Latvia not only shed its underdog label but also carved out a new identity — one built on collective confidence, tactical sharpness, and the belief that no opponent was beyond reach.”
- Deni Avdija leads Israel’s final 12-man roster for EuroBasket, according to BasketNews. He’s the only player with NBA experience for the Israelis, who went 3-2 in exhibition play and will be in Group D along with Belgium, France, Iceland, Slovenia and host Poland.
After Wednesday’s Latvia-Greece matchup in the opener of the Acropolis tournament, Kristaps Porzingis‘ post-game press conference included a question about a possible return to Europe to finish out his career, writes Giorgos Kyriakidis of BasketNews. The Hawks‘ big man, who began playing professionally with Sevilla in 2012, seems open to the idea.
“Sure, sure, why not?” Porzingis responded. “I mean, I haven’t really given it too much thought, but just seeing some of the clubs here in Greece, you know, the atmosphere here for the games and stuff would be a really, really unbelievable atmosphere to play in.”
Pressed about the idea of signing in Greece, he said, “Possibly, possibly, but I would have to look at everything and … and who knows, who knows. I love the fans here and I love the rivalry they have here, so who knows.”
Porziginis didn’t have a great showing in Wednesday’s tune-up for EuroBasket, as he was limited to seven points and four rebounds in a little more than 19 minutes. Greek star Giannis Antetokounmpo dominated the matchup with 25 points and 10 rebounds in 21 minutes in a 104-86 victory.
“It was tough. It was a tough game for us,” Porzingis admitted. “Giannis had an unbelievable first half. We could have done a better job with him, to be fair, but today was just a tough day for us, and we look forward to bouncing back tomorrow (against Italy).”
It’s significant that Porzingis is back on the court after a dealing with a mysterious illness – later described as post-viral syndrome – that plagued him from February through the second round of the playoffs. He stated in a July interview that he took time to rest after Boston was eliminated and he was back to feeling “fantastic.”
Any talk of playing in Europe is probably a few years away, as Porzingis is only 30 and remains a very effective NBA player when healthy. He’s expected to have a huge role with Atlanta this season before entering free agency next summer.
Kyriakidis notes that because of Porzingis’ long injury history, this marks the first time he’s been able to take part in a major international competition since leading Latvia to a fifth-place finish in EuroBasket 2017. He talked today about the similarities between FIBA tournaments and the NBA playoffs.
“Playoffs is pretty similar because every game is life or death, and even now in the preparation you can feel the intensity. It’s going to ramp up even more once we actually start the tournament,” Porzingis said. “So I think these kind of games are fun, not just for the players but for the fans, for the atmosphere, and there’s gonna be no better place to play these kind of games than at home in Latvia. So we look forward to it.”
After landing a new contract with the Heat over the weekend, the next challenge for Dru Smith is to be ready to participate without restrictions when training camp opens September 30, writes Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald.
Smith is recovering from an Achilles tear that ended his season prematurely in December. He tells Chiang that he has already been involved in some contact work and hopes to be cleared soon for five-on-five scrimmages.
“Honestly, it’s all been going really well,” Smith said. “I feel like I’ve been on a great trajectory as far as the rehab stuff goes. I’ve started to do some contact stuff now. I haven’t jumped fully back into five on five. I would say probably here in the next few weeks or so. I think it’s all just basically going to be how I respond to the more and more live sessions that I get in. I think the goal, obviously, is to be ready by camp. And I think that as of right now, with no setback, that’s kind of what we’re looking at.”
Smith had established himself as an important part of Miami’s rotation before the injury and appeared to be on the verge of being promoted from a two-way deal to a standard contract. The 27-year-old guard averaged 6.2 points, 2.6 rebounds, 1.6 assists and 1.5 steals in 14 games last season, and coach Erik Spoelstra was regularly using him as part of his closing lineup.
The Heat kept Smith on the roster following the injury, even though it wouldn’t have affected the team’s salary cap to replace him with a healthy player. He became a restricted free agent when Miami extended a qualifying offer in late June and continued to work out with the team throughout the summer. A roster opening emerged last Friday when Haywood Highsmith was traded to Brooklyn.
“It was obviously a little stressful and things like that,” Smith said. “I think any time, whenever you have nothing signed and nothing set in stone, I think it’s just a little worrisome. But overall I think we love this organization and we’re just excited to be able to be back and be a part of this.”
Smith’s relationship with the Heat dates back to 2021, when he signed a training camp contract. He got his first two-way deal the following year and has spent at least part of every season with the team despite injury setbacks and other obstacles. Miami has waived Smith four times, but keeps bringing him back.
“I’m extremely appreciative of an organization that believes in me the way that they have up to this point,” he said. “But also I think, obviously, this hasn’t been easy. There have been a lot of days where I’ve questioned whether this is what I’m supposed to be doing. I have amazing people around me.”
After playing 38 combined games in his first three seasons — 10 of them with Brooklyn — Smith is hoping to remain healthy enough to finally prove himself as a full-time NBA player. Offseason moves have left Miami with a crowded backcourt, but Smith is eager to seize the opportunity after recovering from two serious injuries (he tore his ACL in November 2023).
“Honestly, the biggest challenge from this rehab specifically was just the mental part of it,” he said. “Just really having to lean in on my faith and things like that and just understand for whatever reason, this is where my story was supposed to go. So just continuing to attack with a positive attitude. I think that was probably the toughest part because there are definitely days in there where it just seems like I’ve been rehabbing for two years at this point.”