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Thomas Bryant Reportedly Nearing Deal With Panathinaikos

July 27th, 2025 at 1:39pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

Free agent Pacers reserve center Thomas Bryant is nearing a new deal to leave the NBA and sign with the Greek club Panathinaikos, per a report from TeleSport (Twitter link; hat tip to Kevin Martorano of Sportando).

The 6’10” Indiana alum was traded from the Heat to the Pacers last season after a pair of Indiana big men, James Wiseman and Isaiah Jackson, both went down early with Achilles tears. Across 56 healthy games with the Pacers, Bryant averaged 6.9 points, 3.9 rebounds, 0.9 assists, 0.5 blocks, and 0.5 steals in 15.1 minutes per night.

Bryant was employed spottily in head coach Rick Carlisle‘s rotation throughout Indiana’s run to the NBA Finals. In 20 games, he averaged 2.6 PPG and 1.4 RPG with a shooting line of .485/.500/.786 in 8.4 MPG.

The 27-year-old big man has suited up for five teams across his eight NBA seasons. If he ends up finalizing a deal with Panathinaikos – or another European club – it would be the first time he has played professionally overseas.

Panathinaikos has been hoping to bring in an NBA-caliber center throughout the summer, as Martorano observes. Talks fell apart with center Jonas Valanciunas when it became apparent that Denver didn’t want to release its newly acquired backup big man.

Partizan Belgrade May Be Frontrunner To Sign Charles Bassey

July 27th, 2025 at 11:02am CST by Arthur Hill

Former Spurs center Charles Bassey is negotiating with several European teams, but he appears to be leaning toward KK Partizan, according to Eurohoops. Agent Mark McNeil confirmed negotiations with the Belgrade club in an interview with Meridian Sport.

“Charles is honored by the interest shown by Basketball Club Partizan,” McNeil said. “He is definitely considering the offer and will continue discussions with the club and his representative. Other European clubs have also contacted him, but Partizan has been his priority.”

Bassey was a standout with the Celtics during Summer League play, leading to speculation that he might get at least a training camp offer. However, it appears he’s leaning toward taking the safer route of guaranteed money in Europe rather than waiting for an opportunity with Boston. He averaged 15.3 points and 11.0 rebounds in Las Vegas while shooting 70.4% from the field, but he had to leave after three games due to a prior commitment.

Bassey was selected by Philadelphia with the 53rd pick in the 2021 draft. He was waived after one season and signed with San Antonio, where he played for the past three years. He appeared in 36 games last season, averaging 4.4 points and 4.2 rebounds in 10.4 minutes per night.

The 24-year-old big man was born in Lagos, Nigeria, but he has never played overseas as a professional before. He spent three seasons at Western Kentucky before being drafted into the NBA.

Partizan, which signed Shake Milton earlier this week, continues to build up an impressive collection of former NBA talent. Its roster also includes Jabari Parker, Sterling Brown, Isaac Bonga, Aleksej Pokusevski, Frank Ntilikina, Duane Washington, and Carlik Jones.

Bulls Sign Billy Donovan To Multiyear Extension

July 27th, 2025 at 9:59am CST by Arthur Hill

Head coach Billy Donovan has signed a multi-year extension with the Bulls, sources tell Shams Charania of ESPN (Twitter link). The team’s PR staff has confirmed the deal, according to K.C. Johnson of Chicago Sports Network (Twitter link).

Charania’s sources say that negotiations between Donovan and the team began late last season and continued through this week. Chicago also reportedly gave extensions to executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas and general manager Marc Eversley, keeping its current management team in place.

Donovan, 60, has a 195-205 record in five seasons with the Bulls. He has led them to just one playoff series, losing to Milwaukee in five games in 2022, and they have been ousted in the play-in tournament in each of the past three seasons. Despite limited on-court success, Johnson points out that Donovan still has strong support from ownership and the front office (Twitter link).

Donovan was among several established coaches the Knicks sought to interview last month after firing Tom Thibodeau. The Bulls, like all their counterparts, turned down those requests, and a report at the time indicated that Donovan is “in Chicago to stay.”

A former college star at Providence, Donovan built his coaching reputation by leading Florida to back-to-back NCAA titles in 2006 and 2007. He left for the NBA in 2015 and compiled a 243-157 record in five years with Oklahoma City. He led the Thunder to the playoffs each season and earned NBA Coaches Association Coach of the Year honors in 2020, but he and the team reached a mutual decision to part ways.

Although the Bulls were just 39-43 last season, players responded well to Donovan’s new approach of playing at a faster tempo. They finished sixth in the league in scoring at 117.8 PPG and tied for third by making 15.4 three-pointers per game. Chicago has parted with veterans such as Zach LaVine and DeMar DeRozan in recent years and has decided that Donovan is the right coach to transition into an emphasis on younger talent.

With Donovan’s extension out of the way, the next priority will be to resolve a contract standoff with restricted free agent Josh Giddey.

Nikola Jokic’s Agent Suggests LeBron James To Denver In 2026

July 27th, 2025 at 8:59am CST by Arthur Hill

A boat trip is sparking speculation that two of the NBA’s biggest names could eventually team up with the Nuggets, according to BasketNews.

In an Instagram post on Saturday, Misko Raznatovic, the longtime agent for Nikola Jokic, shared photos of himself with LeBron James and Maverick Carter, James’ business partner, in St. Tropez. Raznatovic added the caption, “The summer of 2025 is the perfect time to make big plans for the fall of 2026! @kingjames @mavcarter.”

Speculation has been building that James could be on the move — whether it’s during the upcoming season or next summer — ever since he picked up his $52.6MM player option. That decision was accompanied by a statement from his agent, Rich Paul of Klutch Sports, who said the 40-year-old star still wants to compete for championships and would be monitoring the Lakers‘ offseason moves.

The Cavaliers, Mavericks, Warriors and Knicks are among the teams that have been mentioned as future homes for James, but the Nuggets also make sense from a competitive standpoint. James is coming off a second team All-NBA season, and partnering him with Jokic could significantly bolster Denver’s title chances.

The Nuggets couldn’t afford to give James another $50MM contract with Jokic ($59MM) and Jamal Murray ($50.1MM) already on their books for 2026/27 and beyond. Aaron Gordon ($32MM) and Cameron Johnson ($23MM) will also limit the Nuggets’ financial flexibility, but James might be willing to accept a smaller salary to join a team that would give him a chance to win a fifth ring.

There seems to be a growing sense around the league that this will be James’ final season with the Lakers as the team focuses on building around Luka Doncic and prioritizes cap space for the summer of 2027. James has been an All-NBA selection in each of his seven seasons since coming to L.A. in 2019 and delivered a title in 2020.

Pacific Notes: Kuminga, Kings, LeBron, Butler

July 26th, 2025 at 11:02pm CST by Arthur Hill

The Warriors are the only team that hasn’t made a roster move since free agency began, and they’re probably stuck until the Jonathan Kuminga situation is resolved, cap expert Yossi Gozlan explains in his Third Apron column (subscriber link).

Golden State is believed to have deals in place with Al Horford and De’Anthony Melton, but those signings can’t be finalized while Kuminga is still on the market. If the Warriors use their taxpayer mid-level exception, they will become hard-capped at the $207.8MM second apron. That creates an opportunity for a team to open up cap space and make an offer to Kuminga at close to $30MM per year, which Golden State wouldn’t be able to match.

Gozlan views a sign-and-trade as the best outcome for both sides, but he adds that if the Warriors wind up re-signing Kuminga, they’ll likely want to keep his salary in the $22-23MM range. That would allow them to use the taxpayer MLE and add three more players on minimum contracts while remaining below the hard cap.

There’s more from the Pacific Division:

After a strong Summer League performance, it looks like rookie Nique Clifford will be able to help the Kings right away, per Jason Anderson of The Sacramento Bee. Clifford was a First Team All-Summer League selection, and team officials believe he’s versatile enough to handle either guard spot as well as small forward. Anderson adds that Isaac Jones and Devin Carter also showed that they’re ready for larger roles, while rookie center Maxime Raynaud will enter camp with a chance to become the primary backup center.
What’s next for Lakers forward LeBron James as he enters his 23rd NBA season? Marc Stein tackles that topic in his latest Substack article, speculating that the 2025/26 season will be James’ last with the Lakers but not his last as an NBA player, though he makes it clear that’s more of a “gut-feel read” than hard reporting. Stein adds that he thinks James has some “genuine curiosity” about the idea of playing in Dallas, even though he and his family are “extremely settled” in Los Angeles.
Jared Butler‘s new one-year, minimum-salary contract with the Suns is a non-guaranteed Exhibit 9 deal, but doesn’t include Exhibit 10 language, Hoops Rumors has learned. That suggests Butler likely won’t be playing for Phoenix’s G League team if he doesn’t earn a spot on the regular season roster.

JD Davison Signs Two-Way Contract With Rockets

July 26th, 2025 at 9:53pm CST by Arthur Hill

9:53 pm: Davison has signed a two-way contract, per NBA.com’s transaction log. It will be a one-year deal, since Davison is entering his fourth NBA season.

8:33 pm: JD Davison, who was waived by the Celtics on Thursday, has agreed to a contract with the Rockets, agent Corey Marcum of EZ Sports Group tells NBA insider Chris Haynes (Twitter link).

Houston doesn’t have enough room under its first-apron hard cap to offer a standard contract, so Davison could receive a non-guaranteed Exhibit 10 deal. As a three-year veteran, he is still eligible for a two-way contract, so he’ll have a chance to compete in training camp for one of the Rockets’ openings.

The 22-year-old combo guard got into a combined 36 games during his three seasons in Boston after being selected with the 53rd pick in the 2022 draft. He played on two-way contracts the entire time before being converted to a standard deal on the final day of last season.

The Celtics exercised their 2025/26 team option on Davison in late June, but his $2.27MM salary for next season was non-guaranteed. He wound up being a casualty of Boston’s cost-cutting mission in an effort to move below the second apron.

Davison earned G League MVP honors with the Maine Celtics last season. In 45 total games, he averaged 25.6 points, 7.7 assists, 5.1 rebounds and 1.4 steals in 34.6 minutes per night with .482/.332/.762 shooting numbers.

Isaiah Crawford Joins Rockets On Two-Way Deal

July 26th, 2025 at 9:47pm CST by Arthur Hill

The Rockets have signed small forward Isaiah Crawford to a two-way contract, agent Andre Buck tells Michael Scotto of HoopsHype (Twitter link).

Crawford, 23, signed a two-way deal with Sacramento last summer after going undrafted out of Louisiana Tech. He became an unrestricted free agent on Friday when the Kings withdrew their two-way qualifying offer. Because the deadline to unilaterally withdraw the offer was July 13, Crawford had to grant his consent.

Crawford saw limited action in 15 NBA games last season, but he put up big numbers in the G League. In 37 games with the Stockton Kings, he averaged 13.0 points, 5.3 rebounds, 2.6 assists, 1.3 blocks and 1.2 steals in 31.5 minutes per night with .471/.401/.789 shooting numbers.

Once his new contract is finalized, Crawford will join Kevon Harris as two-way players in Houston. Center N’Faly Dante has received a qualifying offer that is equivalent to another one-year, two-way deal, and former Celtic JD Davison may also be in the mix for a two-way spot.

Celtics Notes: Lillard, Starting Lineup, Davison, Gonzalez

July 26th, 2025 at 6:12pm CST by Arthur Hill

The Celtics were reported as a potential landing spot for Damian Lillard after he was waived and stretched by Milwaukee, but Lillard never gave serious thought to joining anyone but the Trail Blazers, writes Brian Robb of MassLive. At an introductory press conference this week in Portland, Lillard expressed his excitement over returning to his former team and mentioned a recruiting effort by Jrue Holiday.

“As soon as I was waived and obviously [Jrue] knows that I live here and built my home here and stuff,” Lillard said. “He sent me the eyeball emoji. I kind of knew already like — I already knew where I was pivoting to when he sent it but I didn’t want to say nothing too soon, so here we are.”

Although Lillard isn’t expected to play this season while recovering from a torn Achilles, he could have been an intriguing long-term investment for Boston once Jayson Tatum returns from his own Achilles injury. However, Robb points out that the Celtics couldn’t have come close to matching the three-year, $42MM deal Lillard got from the Blazers. They are currently limited to the $5.685MM taxpayer mid-level exception, and using that exception would have required other moves to get far enough below the second apron.

There’s more from Boston:

In a mailbag column, Robb projects Neemias Queta to be the Celtics’ starting center on opening night if the current roster remains in place. Jaylen Brown and Derrick White are the only certain members of the starting five, and Robb expects the other two positions to come down to decisions between Payton Pritchard and Anfernee Simons, and between Sam Hauser and Georges Niang with Josh Minott as a possible wild card.
This week’s release of JD Davison was a result of him not showing sufficient NBA potential during his three years with the organization, Robb adds in the same piece. He puts the chances of Ben Simmons being signed to fill the open roster spot at “10-20%,” stating that the former No. 1 overall pick will likely get better financial offers elsewhere.
Spanish basketball legend Rudy Fernandez offers a ringing endorsement of Celtics’ first-round pick Hugo Gonzalez, per Zack Cox of The Boston Herald. Fernandez watched the 19-year-old shooting guard develop from a young prospect into a regular contributor with Real Madrid. “I always tried to instill in him the idea of committing to improving the team whenever he’s on the floor, and he’s done that perfectly,” Fernandez said. “He’s got the physical tools, good hands, a strong understanding of the game on both ends, and he’s a solid standstill shooter. Maybe he could improve his movement shooting, especially coming off screens, but he’s the type of player who gets better every day.”

Evan Fournier Signs Three-Year Extension With Olympiacos

July 26th, 2025 at 5:00pm CST by Arthur Hill

Former NBA guard Evan Fournier has agreed to a three-year extension with Olympiacos, the team announced (via Twitter).

Fournier, 32, first signed with the Greek power last September. His contract was set to expire next summer, so the extension will keep him with the team through the 2028/29 season.

Fournier had a strong showing in his return to Europe after spending 12 seasons in the NBA. He earned second-team All-EuroLeague honors after averaging 16.1 points and 2.8 assists per game and leading Olympiacos into the Final Four. In the Greek League, he averaged 9.4 PPG and 2.3 APG and helped his team defeat Panathinaikos for the championship.

Fournier played three seasons in his native France before Denver selected him with the 20th pick in the 2012 draft. In 2014, he was traded to Orlando, where he enjoyed his greatest NBA success. He was a consistent starter during his six and a half years with the Magic and posted a career-high 18.5 points per game during the 2019/20 season.

He was dealt to Boston at the 2021 deadline, then was shipped to New York later that year in a sign-and-trade. Fournier fell out of favor with former Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau and barely played for a season and a half before Detroit traded for him at the 2024 deadline.

Fournier appeared in 704 regular season games throughout his NBA career, making 504 starts and averaging 13.6 points, 2.7 rebounds and 2.5 assists in 27.7 minutes per night.

He is also a longtime member of the French national team, capturing silver medals in the 2020 and 2024 Olympics, along with the 2022 EuroBasket tournament.

Lakers Sign Four Players To Exhibit 10 Contracts

July 26th, 2025 at 3:58pm CST by Luke Adams

The Lakers have added four players to their offseason roster, announcing today (via Twitter) that guards RJ Davis and Augustas Marciulionis and forwards Eric Dixon and Arthur Kaluma have officially signed with the club. All four players received Exhibit 10 contracts, according to Dave McMenamin of ESPN (Twitter link).

All four of these players are undrafted rookies who reached agreements to join the Lakers shortly after the draft wrapped up in June, so none of the signings come as a surprise. However, it’s worth noting that reporting last month suggested that Dixon would get a two-way contract — instead, he has joined the team on an Exhibit 10 deal.

Dixon was the top prospect on ESPN’s big board who went undrafted having been ranked 44th overall prior to the draft. The 6’8″ lefty led all Division I players in scoring in 2024/25, putting up 23.3 points per game on .451/.407/.813 shooting splits in 35 appearances for Villanova (34.8 MPG). He also chipped in 5.1 rebounds per contest en route to third-team All-American honors.

According to Dan Woike of The Athletic (Twitter link), Dixon didn’t play for the Lakers’ Summer League team due to a foot injury — that may also be the reason why he ultimately signed an Exhibit 10 contract instead of a two-way deal. Since Exhibit 10s can be converted to two-way contracts before the start of the regular season, it remains possible that Dixon will get a promotion at some point.

Davis, a six-foot guard who earned ACC Player of the Year honors for the 2023/24 season, averaged 17.2 points and 3.6 assists per game for North Carolina as a super-senior in ’24/25.

A two-time WCC Player of the Year, Marciulionis averaged 14.2 PPG, 5.9 APG, and 4.1 APG in 35 outings last season for Saint Mary’s. The 6’4″ Lithuanian guard posted shooting splits of .446/.347/.793.

Kaluma, a 6’7″ wing, registered averages of 12.3 PPG, 7.5 RPG, and 1.8 APG during his final NCAA season for Texas, with a shooting line of .462/.359/.784. Prior to his Longhorns stint, Kaluma also suited up for Creighton and Texas State.

Exhibit 10 contracts are non-guaranteed but include bonuses worth up to $85,300 if the player is waived and then spends at least 60 days with his team’s G League affiliate.