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NBA Reportedly Concludes Kevin Porter Jr. Investigation

July 17th, 2025 at 1:25pm CST by Rory Maher

The NBA has concluded its investigation of Kevin Porter Jr.‘s domestic violence incident from September 2023, according to Law Murray of The Athletic, who reports (via Twitter) that the 25-year-old guard received a four-game suspension but won’t actually have to miss any games during the upcoming season.

As Murray tweets, Porter missed the entire 2023/24 season as a result of the incident, having been traded from Houston to Oklahoma City and subsequently cut by the Thunder in October 2023. Due to those circumstances and the information discovered in the league’s investigation, the four-game suspension will be considered already served, says Murray.

Porter was arrested in September 2023 following an altercation with his then-girlfriend, ex-WNBA player Kysre Gondrezick, and was originally charged with felony counts of assault and strangulation. He reached a plea deal in Manhattan in January 2024, agreeing to reckless assault in the third degree, a misdemeanor, as well as harassment in the second degree, which is considered a violation.

Several weeks after Porter’s arrest that September, Gondrezick disputed Manhattan prosecutors’ characterization of the incident that took place on September 11, telling Priscilla DeGregory and Emily Crane of The New York Post that Porter “never balled his fists up and hit me” and “definitely didn’t punch me in the face numerous times.”

A second-degree assault charge against Porter was dropped at that time after it was determined that Gondrezick’s vertebra fracture was a congenital defect and not caused by the former Rocket.

“It happened very fast, not to the degree of what was reported,” Gondrezick said of the altercation. “And it was an argument that occurred in the room for not even 10 seconds.”

The NBA put the Porter investigation on hold while he played in Greece during the ’23/24 campaign, but resumed it when he signed with the Clippers last July. Porter was traded to the Bucks in February and re-signed with Milwaukee on a two-year deal earlier this month.

And-Ones: Jokic, DiVincenzo, 2027 Draft, Sheehey

July 17th, 2025 at 12:09pm CST by Rory Maher

Superstar Nuggets center Nikola Jokic is expected to confirm that he’ll play for the Serbian national team at this summer’s EuroBasket tournament, according to Dorde Matic of Meridian Sport. In fact, the same group that led Serbia to a bronze medal at the 2024 Olympics in Paris is expected to be available when EuroBasket 2025 tips off in late August, Matic writes.

Jokic also won a silver medal with Serbia at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, notes Kevin Martorano of Sportando.

Here are a few more odds and ends from around the basketball world:

Timberwolves guard Donte DiVincenzo, who spoke in April about his desire to suit up for Italy at EuroBasket 2025, has been granted Italian citizenship, clearing the way for him to play at the tournament, per BasketNews.com. The 28-year-old will formally be sworn in as an Italian citizen in Chicago after Italy’s president, Sergio Mattarella, approved the proposal to make DiVicenzo a citizen on Thursday, reports Alessandro Maggi of Sportando.
While the top of the 2026 NBA draft class is viewed very favorably, executives are not enthusiastic about the prospects who could be selected in 2027, writes Jonathan Givony of ESPN. “This is one of the weakest high school classes I’ve seen in a long time,” one grizzled talent evaluator with extensive experience in the amateur youth space told ESPN. “There might not be a single All-Star in this group, and after the first few prospects, I’m not sure how many NBA starters I see either from the other five-star recruits. New players always emerge, but by now we usually have a pretty good idea of who the most elite prospects are, and it’s looking like slim pickings, even more so than the weak 2024 NBA draft, which at least had several high-end international prospects we could point to.”
Will Sheehey, who has spent the past four years in various coaching-related roles with the Warriors, has officially signed a one-year deal with the Bakken Bears to become an assistant coach and head of the Danish club’s player development program, as Johnny Askounis of Eurohoops relays. Sheehey’s most recent title with Golden State was assistant director of player development and innovation, Askounis adds.

Suns Show ‘Exploratory Interest’ In Jonathan Kuminga

July 17th, 2025 at 10:57am CST by Dana Gauruder

The Suns have expressed “exploratory interest” in a sign-and-trade acquisition of Warriors restricted free agent Jonathan Kuminga, reports Jake Fischer of The Stein Line (Substack link).

After buying out Bradley Beal and using the stretch provision to gain some cap flexibility, the Suns contacted both Kuminga’s representation and the Warriors regarding a potential transaction. However, the Suns — who dropped under both tax aprons via Beal’s buyout — still face major obstacles in pulling off a deal for Kuminga.

Golden State wants some level of first-round draft compensation in any Kuminga trade and the Suns are lacking in draft capital, Fischer writes. The current Suns roster also doesn’t appear to feature the type of player that would interest the Warriors front office.

Phoenix’s interest in Kuminga stems back to the February trade deadline when the Warriors sought a potential trade for Kevin Durant.

It’s not out of the question that Kuminga could remain with Golden State, but one side or the other would have to blink. Agent Aaron Turner has held numerous discussions with Warriors officials in Las Vegas this month trying to secure a contract that pays at least $25MM in average annual salary, even in the short term, according to Fischer. The Warriors have been reluctant to meet that price in a long-term agreement.

In terms of other possible destinations for Kuminga, the Kings have seemingly shown the most interest but Kuminga’s camp has also held out hope for a potential sign-and-trade with the Bulls. That scenario has yet to materialize, as Chicago has its own concerns about trying to re-sign restricted free agent and starting point guard Josh Giddey.

New York Notes: Mann, Kolek, Demin, Wolf, Saraf

July 17th, 2025 at 10:03am CST by Dana Gauruder

Veteran guard Terance Mann was acquired by the Nets from the Hawks in the three-team trade that sent Kristaps Porzingis from Boston to Atlanta. The main motivation for the Nets to take part in the deal was to acquire another first-rounder, which they used on Drake Powell.

Mann still has three years and $47MM remaining on his contract. He appeared in a combined 67 games with the Clippers and Hawks last season and is embracing a leadership role on a team filled with rookies and other young players.

“For sure. I’m the oldest on the team. Yeah, so definitely,” Mann told Brian Lewis of the New York Post. “It’s definitely new for me coming from the Clippers, where guys were a lot older than me. So, it’s an adjustment for me, for sure. But I’m excited to embrace the journey, taking these guys under my wing, showing them how to be professionals.”

We have more on the New York teams:

Heading into his second NBA season, Knicks guard Tyler Kolek bounced back from two subpar outings in Summer League play and lit up the Nets for 25 points, four steals and four assists on Tuesday. Kolek felt he was putting too much pressure on himself prior to Tuesday’s outburst. “When I’m playing at my best,” Kolek told Stefan Bondy of the New York Post (subscription required), “I got that swagger, I got that s— to me.”
The Nets collected their first Summer League win on Wednesday and Egor Demin and Danny Wolf were a big part of that success. Demin hit three key three-pointers in the late going and Wolf supplied 18 points, six rebounds and four assists. “I was just a little bit too sped up,” Wolf told Lewis. “I just went into this game with just a more relaxed mindset, just let the game come to me a little bit better and do what I do best and just play a little bit slower. And I think I did that to the best of my ability.”
Nets first-round pick Ben Saraf is struggling to adjust to the NBA style so far, Lewis writes (subscription required). The Israeli guard played in Germany last season and has found out quickly he has a lot to learn to be an effective player at this level. “I think the spacing, the pace and the athleticism are the most different things,” Saraf said. He has shown some hesitance to shoot and has not made a three-pointer in four attempts. “In Germany we had a lot of threes, but it’s different. Yeah, we need to make adjustments. Me and all the other guys, and we will do it,” Saraf said.

Nassir Little Signs With Chiba Jets

July 17th, 2025 at 7:09am CST by Luke Adams

Veteran NBA forward Nassir Little will play overseas for the first time during the 2025/26 season, having signed a one-year contract with the Chiba Jets, according to a press release from the Japanese team.

“I’m excited about the opportunity to help the Chiba Jets win a championship!” Little said in a statement relayed by the club. “I know some of the players on the team and I’ve been to Japan for vacation so I really look forward to this experience. I’ve heard Chiba is a great club with a great new arena and great fans. I look forward to meeting everyone and I’m excited to have a great season!”

The 25th overall pick in the 2019 NBA draft out of UNC, Little spent the first four years of his NBA career with Portland before being traded to Phoenix during the 2023 offseason as part of the three-team Damian Lillard/Jrue Holiday blockbuster. After a single season with the Suns, he was waived and spent the 2024/25 campaign with the Sioux Falls Skyforce, Miami’s G League affiliate.

In 237 career NBA regular season games, Little has averaged 5.5 points and 2.9 rebounds in 15.8 minutes per contest, with a shooting line of .452/.330/.735.

The 25-year-old was a solid rotation piece during his last couple seasons with the Blazers, but dealt with shoulder and abdominal injuries during that time, then struggled to make an impact for the Suns, registering averages of 3.4 PPG and 1.7 RPG in 10.2 MPG across 45 outings and making just 30.0% of his three-point shots.

Former NBA forward Yuta Watanabe, who played with Little in Phoenix, is perhaps the most familiar name on the Chiba Jets’ roster. The club competes in Japan’s top basketball league (the B.League).

Raptors Notes: Poeltl, Webster, Ujiri, Ingram

July 16th, 2025 at 10:25pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

Newly extended Raptors center Jakob Poeltl will serve as an integral frontcourt piece for Toronto this year, in part because the team is light at the center position beyond the 29-year-old, writes Michael Grange of Sportsnet.ca.

Earlier this summer, Poeltl inked a new four-year, $104MM deal that will keep him under contract through 2029/30. In 57 healthy games for Toronto last season, the seven-footer out of Utah averaged 14.5 points, 9.6 rebounds, 2.8 assists, 1.2 blocks, and 1.2 steals per contest.

Grange notes that free agent addition Sandro Mamukelashvili could add jump shooting and face-up scoring in spot minutes, but suggest that Poeltl being an established commodity means he will be heavily leaned upon.

No. 57 pick Ulrich Chomche may be raw, but Grange observes that the 19-year-old has shown some potential already in Summer League.

The Raptors, meanwhile, made a big front office move this summer when they parted ways with longtime team president Masai Ujiri. The move happened while Poeltl was in the midst of contract negotiations on his extension.

“Obviously that was an extra conversation there, like, ‘Hey, does this change anything, what’s going on, what’s the deal with our future?’” Poeltl said. “But honestly, at the end of the day, it didn’t change much.”

Here’s more on the Raptors:

According to Josh Lewenberg of TSN.ca, Toronto’s search for its new president — and a promise from the club’s new ownership group to continue making changes — has left people within the organization uneasy. “Everybody is scared,” a source told Lewenberg. “The closer you are to the top, the more you feel it.”
Lewenberg proceeds to make the case for Ujiri’s longtime second-in-command, general manager Bobby Webster, to become his permanent replacement. However, he says the Raptors’ ownership group (Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment) enlisted the services of search firm CAA Executive Search, who submitted a list of recommended targets to the MLSE board last week.
What the team’s next personnel moves will be remain unclear. Several sources have described Ujiri as the “driving force” behind Toronto’s trade for former All-Star forward Brandon Ingram, per Lewenberg. Whether Ingram would remain a core part of the retooled roster under a new regime remains uncertain.
Lewenberg notes that the team could also potentially keep Webster in his current position, handling basketball operations, before making a long-term commitment to him.

Hornets Sign Drew Peterson To Two-Way Contract

July 16th, 2025 at 8:33pm CST by Luke Adams

July 16: Peterson’s two-way deal with Charlotte is now official, according to NBA.com’s transaction log.

July 15: Free agent forward Drew Peterson has agreed to a deal with the Hornets, according to Shams Charania of ESPN (Twitter link), who hears from agents Mike Silverman and Troy Payne that their client will sign a two-way contract with Charlotte.

Peterson, who went undrafted out of USC in 2023, initially signed an Exhibit 10 contract with Miami, but has spent most of his two professional seasons on two-way deals with Boston. The 25-year-old first signed with the Celtics in December 2023 and has since appeared in 28 NBA games, averaging 2.3 points and 1.5 rebounds in 7.5 minutes per night.

While Peterson’s NBA appearances have mostly been limited to garbage time, he has played a far more significant role at the G League level for the Maine Celtics. In 2024/25, across 25 total Tip-Off Tournament and regular season outings, the 6’9″ forward averaged 18.1 points, 6.6 rebounds, 5.0 assists, and 1.5 steals in 33.8 minutes per game, with a shooting line of .438/.374/.891.

The Celtics opted not to tender Peterson a qualifying offer last month, so he became an unrestricted free agent on July 1, free to sign with any team. He’ll become the third Hornet on a two-way contract, joining KJ Simpson and Damion Baugh, as our tracker shows.

It will be a reunion for Peterson and Hornets head coach Charles Lee, who was an assistant in Boston during the forward’s first year with the Celtics.

Adam Silver Talks Expansion, TV Deals, Blazers Sale, More

July 16th, 2025 at 8:30pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

Following the NBA’s Board of Governors meetings in Las Vegas this week, league commissioner Adam Silver stated in a press conference that the idea of expansion is being formally explored, per Kevin Pelton of ESPN. Still, Silver offered plenty of caveats before committing to a timeline.

“A lot of analysis still needs to be done and nothing’s been predetermined one way or another, and without any specific timeline,” Silver said. “We’re going to be as thorough as possible and look at all the potential issues.”

Silver had previously indicated that, after the league negotiated its new media rights deals in 2024, expansion would be studied more thoroughly. A year after the deal was agreed upon, adding teams is at last on the table.

“We’re now engaging in this in-depth analysis, something we weren’t prepared to do before,” Silver said. “But beyond that, as I said, it’s really day one of that analysis. In terms of price, potential timeline — too early to say. And again, I think that also assumes the outcome of this analysis. It is truly a complicated issue.”

The new media deals — splitting broadcasting rights between ABC/ESPN, NBC/Peacock, and Amazon — will begin during the 2025/26 season. While the 11-year agreements with those partners have locked in the league’s national broadcasting plans for more than a decade, the long-term local regional broadcast rights for teams remain an area of concern, the commissioner cautioned.

“We would be malpracticing if we didn’t figure out how local regional television is going to work before expanding,” Silver said. “The notion that we would hand over a team into a city where we’re not currently operating and say, ‘You’re going to have to figure out how you’re going to distribute your games to your local fans’ doesn’t make sense.”

Silver added that the impending sales of two top NBA franchises, the Lakers and Celtics, for a combined valuation of $16.1 billion, have helped affect the league’s value, even with local TV deals being so tenuous, notes Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press.

“There’s no question that those purchase prices have an impact on any economic analysis of teams, so it doesn’t necessarily complicate it more, but it certainly is an indication of value,” Silver said. “And one other factor we have to look at: we’re trying to think what is the value of expansion, what does it mean to dilute the existing equity, and how additive is this potentially to the league by adding an additional team.”

Another NBA franchise, the Trail Blazers, is currently up for sale. As Sean Highkin of The Rose Garden Report (Substack link) relays, Silver made it clear he wouldn’t want a new owner to relocate the franchise.

“It is our preference that that team remains in Portland,” Silver said. “We’ve had great success in Portland over the years. I don’t have a specific update on the process, but I know it is underway and there are groups that are actively engaged with the estate. One of the factors there is that the city of Portland likely needs a new arena, so that will be part of the challenge for any new ownership group coming in. But it would certainly be our preference for that team to remain in Portland.”

Cavs Second-Rounder Saliou Niang Signs With Virtus Bologna

July 16th, 2025 at 6:00pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

Second-round Cavaliers draft pick Saliou Niang has joined the Italian EuroLeague squad Virtus Bologna, the team announced today (via Twitter). The move had been previously expected and is now official.

The 6’5″ Senegalese swingman has been playing professionally in Italy since 2021/22. Niang, 21, initially suited up for Fortitudo Bologna and had been plying his trade with Trento since 2023/24.

Niang will now get the opportunity to develop his game in the EuroLeague for at least one season before he links up with Cleveland. The Cavaliers went 64-18 last season and are angling for deeper postseason success this year, and Niang would have faced an uphill battle to crack the club’s rotation anyway.

Across 30 Italian League games for Trento in 2024/25, Niang averaged 8.1 PPG, 5.0 RPG, 1.4 APG and 0.6 SPG. He posted shooting splits of .532/.333/.712.

Virtus Bologna is something of a powerhouse in the Italian League, having won it outright three times in the past four seasons. The club also won the Italian Cup as recently as 2022/23.

Knicks’ Josh Hart Undergoes Finger Procedure

July 16th, 2025 at 4:30pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

Knicks guard Josh Hart has undergone a surgical procedure on his right ring finger, New York has announced (Twitter link).

According to the Knicks, the 6’4″ guard first suffered the injury during New York’s playoff run to the Eastern Conference Finals. The team expects him to return to the hardwood at some point later this summer.

The Villanova alum, 30, has endeared himself as a critical role player for New York across parts of the past three seasons.

In 2024/25, shifting into a full-time starting role for the first time since joining the Knicks, Hart averaged 13.6 points, 9.6 rebounds, 5.9 assists, and 1.5 steals in a league-high 37.6 minutes per game across 77 healthy regular season contests.

Hart is entering the second season of a four-year, $80.9MM contract. He has two guaranteed years left, followed by a 2027/28 player option.

Despite finishing with a 51-31 record and making the Eastern Finals for the first time in a quarter century, New York let go longtime head coach Tom Thibodeau after five largely successful seasons.

Major injuries to All-Star players have lowered the playoff ceilings of the Pacers, Celtics and Bucks, leaving the East more open than in years prior. Having added Jordan Clarkson and Guerschon Yabusele to augment their incumbent core players, the Knicks appears ideally positioned to via for the conference crown in 2025/26.