Warriors GM Dunleavy Talks Curry, Kerr, Kuminga, Porzingis
If Milwaukee had been willing to make a deal at last month’s trade deadline, the Warriors likely would’ve given up several of their future first-round picks – and swaps – to acquire star forward Giannis Antetokounmpo. However, speaking to Tim Kawakami on his TK Show podcast (Spotify link) on Tuesday, general manager Mike Dunleavy Jr. pointed to the health issues currently afflicting his top players as an example of why surrendering significant future draft capital carries significant risk.
“I think going back to the Jimmy (Butler) trade last year, that’s why we loved the trade so much, because we’re getting a great player and we’re only giving up that year’s pick. There’s nothing out in the future,” Dunleavy said, according to Kawakami. “…I think we’re always being disciplined about using those picks, considering them in trades, things like that. But when you’re put in a situation like this, where your best players are out and you’re struggling to win games, I think you appreciate having that draft capital moving forward.”
In addition to missing Butler (torn ACL) and Kristaps Porzingis (illness), the Warriors are currently playing without their top scorer, Stephen Curry, who has been out since January 30 due to a knee issue. Asked by Kawakami if there’s any possibility that Curry gets shut down for the rest of the season, Dunleavy didn’t rule it out, but said it would be “very surprising” if that happens.
“I’m not a doctor and things can go a certain way,” he said. “I don’t want the headline to be, ‘Steph may be done for the year’ because I’m not ruling it out. But just because he’s not playing right now, I just have to acknowledge that, ‘Yeah, sure, there’s a chance.’ But we don’t expect that.”
Here are a few more of Dunleavy’s most notable quotes from his appearance on The TK Show:
On whether he expects Steve Kerr to be the Warriors’ head coach in 2026/27:
“I don’t see why not. I think Steve’s mentioned wanting to get to the end of the season and figure it out. I think things, for him, are going well. We’ll figure all that out when it comes. I think it’s been interesting, like the focus for us internally between myself, (team owner) Joe (Lacob), the players, Steve, has really been on like getting this thing right the rest of the season. So we haven’t put a whole bunch of thought into it.
“But you know, obviously, on a personal level, (I) love having Steve here. Yeah, I would project that he’s our coach next year. But again, we’re going down to absolute certainties, and a lot of it’s in his court, so we’ll have to see.”
On whether the Warriors seriously considered hanging onto Jonathan Kuminga through last month’s trade deadline:
“I think you guys know, it’s been put out there about (Kuminga’s) trade demand, and I think any time a player wants that, I want to try to accommodate. You want people who want to be here. And for that reason, we felt it was the right time to move on. I think JK’s happy about it, I think we’re in the right spot for it, it was just kind of the right thing to do at the time.”
On whether he’s satisfied with the information-gathering process that led to the Warriors acquiring Porzingis (who has been limited to a single outing since the trade due to health issues):
“That’s a great question, it’s a fair question. I think it’s really, really complicated. This is a unique situation. I’d say from our end, I feel good about, from the information we had, I feel good about our evaluation of what that was on the medical side. And for that reason, that’s why we made the trade.”
Cavaliers Add Olivier Sarr On Two-Way Deal
March 4: The Cavaliers have officially signed Sarr to a two-way contract, the team confirmed in a press release.
March 3: The Cavaliers and big man Olivier Sarr have agreed to a two-way deal, according to Michael Scotto of HoopsHype (Twitter link). To make room for Sarr, Cleveland has waived guard Darius Brown II.
Sarr played for the Thunder for parts of three seasons from 2021-24, averaging 4.8 points and 3.5 rebounds in 13.8 minutes per game across 46 outings, before spending last season in the G League. He was on the Raptors’ training camp roster last fall but was waived before opening night.
Sarr then joined Toronto’s G League club, the Raptors 905. Through 39 games, Sarr has averaged 11.2 points, 7.1 rebounds and 1.3 blocks in 23.7 minutes per contest.
Brown signed his two-way contract last week and it turned out to be a temporary stay. He’s played 36 games for the Cleveland Charge this season and will likely head back to that G League club.
Hawks Sign Keshon Gilbert To Two-Way Contract
March 4: Gilbert has officially signed his two-way contract with the Hawks, according to the team.
March 3: The Hawks will sign rookie point guard Keshon Gilbert to a two-way contract, league sources tell Jake Fischer of The Stein Line (Twitter link).
Gilbert, who went undrafted in 2025 out of Iowa State, signed a non-guaranteed Exhibit 10 contract with the Wizards last September and was waived at the start of training camp, lining him up to play for Washington’s G League affiliate, the Capital City Go-Go.
The 6’4″ guard has spent most of the season with the Go-Go, averaging 13.7 points, 5.5 assists, 4.3 rebounds, and 1.6 steals in 27.4 minutes per game at the G League level. He has posted a shooting line of .456/.210/.789 in 30 outings for Capital City and earning a brief call-up to the Wizards last month, signing a 10-day deal with the club and appearing in three NBA games.
The Hawks have had an empty two-way slot since they promoted Caleb Houstan to the standard roster last month, so no corresponding roster move will be necessary to add Gilbert. The 22-year-old will join Christian Koloko and RayJ Dennis as Atlanta’s two-way players.
Assuming Gilbert’s two-way contract is officially finalized on Tuesday, he’ll be eligible to be active for up to 12 regular season games for the Hawks for the rest of 2025/26. Atlanta will have a full 18-man roster once the deal is complete.
Central Notes: Strus, Ivey, Bulls, Rollins
Cavaliers wing Max Strus still isn’t ready to make his season debut following offseason foot surgery, but recent imaging on his foot has shown “progressive healing” and he has advanced to participating in individual on-court workouts, the team announced on Tuesday in a press release.
According to the Cavs, Strus will go through a “structured ramp-up program” that will include controlled team activities and practices at both the NBA and G League level.
There are now just five-and-a-half weeks left in the regular season, so while head coach Kenny Atkinson said recently that he still expects Strus to return before the postseason, time is running out for the 29-year-old to make an impact on the 2025/26 Cavaliers.
We have more from around the Central:
- Bulls guard Jaden Ivey won’t travel with the team on its five-game road trip that begins on Thursday in Phoenix and runs through next Friday in L.A., but it doesn’t as if the club has seriously considered shutting him down for the rest of the season, writes Brian Sandalow of The Chicago Sun-Times. Head coach Billy Donovan added that forward Patrick Williams (quad) and big man Jalen Smith (calf) both have a chance to play during the upcoming trip.
- These Bulls, who have lost 12 of its last 13 games, seems as far away from contention as any version of the team in recent years, but Josh Giddey remains hopeful that it won’t take long for the front office to rebuild a roster capable of contending, per Joe Cowley of The Chicago Sun-Times. “When I was in Oklahoma, we went from the worst team in the league to the best team in the league in 24 months,” Giddey said. “We did it pretty quickly. A lot of rebuilds don’t necessarily happen that fast. Obviously, with the people and personnel we had it got sped up pretty quickly. Over those three years, we built a lot of really good habits, winning habits.” Cowley notes that replicating what the Thunder did is “completely unrealistic” for the Bulls, but suggests there’s no reason why the team needs to spend the next several years deep in lottery territory.
- Bucks guard Ryan Rollins spoke to Marc J. Spears of Andscape about turning things around after a challenging start to his NBA career, which included being cut by Washington in January 2024 at around the same time he was charged with seven counts of petit larceny for shoplifting. Now in his fourth NBA season, Rollins has emerged as a candidate for Most Improved Player by averaging 16.8 points, 5.4 assists, 4.6 rebounds, and 1.5 steals per game on .466/.411/.761 shooting this season. “I always knew I was this good,” he said. “I just needed the opportunity and needed a coach to trust me to be able to let me work through my mistakes and grow. I always knew my capabilities.”
Grizzlies Sign Olivier-Maxence Prosper To Two-Year Contract
11:11 am: Prosper’s new contract is official, according to the Grizzlies (Twitter link).
10:54 am: The Grizzlies are promoting forward Olivier-Maxence Prosper from his two-way contract to their 15-man roster, according to ESPN’s Shams Charania (Twitter link), who hears from agents Todd Ramasar and Mike Simonetta that the two sides have agreed to a new two-year deal.
No corresponding roster move will be necessary for Memphis, since a spot opened up on the standard roster when Rayan Rupert‘s 10-day contract expired on Tuesday night.
Prosper, the 24th overall pick in the 2023 draft, spent his first two NBA seasons in Dallas, but became a cap casualty last offseason and was waived in August when the Mavericks needed to create enough space below their hard cap to re-sign Dante Exum. Less than a week after he was cut by the Mavs, Prosper caught on with the Grizzlies on a two-way deal.
The 6’7″ Canadian forward didn’t have a major role at the NBA level during the first half of the season, but has become a fixture in the rotation in recent weeks. Since making his first start of the season on February 6, Prosper has averaged 13.9 points, 4.3 rebounds, 1.7 assists, and 1.1 steals in 24.7 minutes per game across 10 outings (seven starts), with a scorching-hot shooting line of .611/.432/.867.
In 36 total NBA appearances in 2025/26, the former Marquette standout holds averages of 7.6 PPG, 3.1 RPG, and 0.9 APG in 15.8 MPG on .541/.389/.873 shooting. Each of those per-game averages and shooting percentages would be a career high.
Prosper was active for a 45th game on Tuesday, moving him just five games away from reaching his limit as a two-way player. Promoting him to a standard contract will allow the Grizzlies to eliminate that games-played cap, freeing him up to be active for the rest of the season. It will also make him postseason-eligible, though that’s unlikely to matter, since Memphis has fallen five games out a play-in spot.
Prosper’s new contract figures to be a minimum-salary deal, since the Grizzlies used their full room exception last summer to sign Ty Jerome and don’t have the bi-annual available this season.
Converting Prosper to the 15-man roster before the end of the day will position the Grizzlies to back-fill his two-way slot with a newcomer ahead of Wednesday’s deadline for two-way signings.
Nuggets’ Aaron Gordon Aiming To Return Friday
Nuggets forward Aaron Gordon has Friday’s game vs. New York circled as a target date for his return from a hamstring injury, a source close to the player tells Sam Amick of The Athletic.
While Gordon hopes to be back on the floor for that contest, Amick cautions that he’ll need to get clearance from the Nuggets, who are being “understandably cautious,” given that the veteran forward has dealt with repeated hamstring issues this season.
Gordon initially sustained a Grade 2 right hamstring strain in November and missed 19 games as a result of the injury before returning in early January. After a few weeks back in Denver’s lineup, he aggravated the strain on January 23 and was once again ruled out for at least four-to-six weeks. He has been out for the team’s past 16 contests.
While Gordon isn’t an All-Star like Nikola Jokic or Jamal Murray, he’s a crucial role player for the Nuggets, who have badly missed him in his absence, Amick notes. The Nuggets are 17-6 in games Gordon has played and have a +14.0 net rating in his 642 minutes of action this season. By contrast, the club is 21-18 without him and has a modest +1.9 net rating when he’s not on the court.
Head coach David Adelman expressed optimism last week that injured players like Gordon and Peyton Watson – who is recovering from a hamstring strain of his own – would be able to return with roughly 20 games left in the Nuggets’ season. The club played its 62nd game on Monday in Utah, and a report on Sunday indicated that both Gordon and Watson were ramping up their activities and would be reevaluated this week.
The Nuggets, who have held a top-three spot in the Western Conference for most of the season, have slipped to fifth in recent days, having been surpassed by Houston and Minnesota, so they’ll be eager to get Gordon and Watson back in the rotation and try to move back up the standings.
Pelicans Only Team With Two-Way Opening As Deadline Looms
It’s Wednesday, March 4, which means today is the last day that teams can sign players to two-way contracts for the 2025/26 season, as we outlined earlier this week.
As the day begins, 87 of the 90 two-way slots around the NBA are currently occupied, with two more set to be filled shortly. The Hawks and Cavaliers both have two-way openings, but Atlanta is reportedly signing guard Keshon Gilbert and Cleveland is set to add big man Olivier Sarr.
That leaves the Pelicans as the league’s only team with a two-way contract spot available. In all likelihood, New Orleans will fill that slot by the end of the day on Wednesday, since the financial cost would be minimal and the cap impact would be nonexistent.
That doesn’t necessarily mean the Pelicans will be the only team to make a two-way roster move today. Other clubs could make some last-minute changes by either waiving current two-way players or promoting them to standard contracts in order to back-fill their two-way slot with a newcomer. While two-way players can be elevated to the 15-man roster anytime up until the last day of the regular season, a team that does so after Wednesday wouldn’t be able to sign a new two-way player in his place.
Trail Blazers guard Caleb Love, Grizzlies forward Olivier-Maxence Prosper, and Mavericks big man Moussa Cisse are among the notable players on two-way contracts who are nearing their respective games played limits and could be candidates for promotions, though not all of those clubs currently have space available on their 15-man rosters.
A year ago on March 4, seven players officially signed new two-way contracts, with one two-way player waived and four others promoted to standard contracts. Two years ago, March 4 brought six two-way signings and a pair of cuts involving two-way players.
It remains to be seen how busy today will be relative to the last couple two-way contract deadline days, but we’ll be monitoring transaction reports and announcements throughout Wednesday and bringing you all the latest updates.
Southwest Notes: Barnes, Flagg, Poulakidas, Finney-Smith
Spurs forward Harrison Barnes saw his ironman streak end on Tuesday. He missed his first game since 2021 because he woke up from a pregame nap with a sore left ankle, according to The Associated Press.
Barnes had a streak of 364 consecutive games played before sitting out against the Sixers. He missed his first game since Dec. 4, 2021, when he was a member of the Kings.
Knicks wing Mikal Bridges has the longest active consecutive games streak at 616. Barnes also trailed only Bridges for most total games played since 2021 with 382.
Here’s more from the Southwest Division:
- Mavericks coach Jason Kidd said Cooper Flagg should make his first appearance since the All-Star break during the team’s current trip, Eddie Sefko of Mavs.com tweets. Flagg has been out since Feb. 10 due to a midfoot sprain. “He’s ramping up. Everything is going well,” Kidd said. “Today was to kind of get back in his routine and hopefully as we go on this road trip he can get in and play a game or two.” Dallas opened the six-game road swing with a loss to Charlotte on Tuesday.
- Both of the two-way contracts that the Mavericks gave to John Poulakidas and Tyler Smith this week are two-year deals, Spotrac contributor Keith Smith tweets. Poulakidas, an undrafted rookie guard out of Yale, made his NBA debut on Tuesday. He went scoreless in 14 minutes but had five rebounds and two assists.
- Rockets forward Dorian Finney-Smith is still dealing with left ankle pain after undergoing offseason surgery, Varun Shankar of the Houston Chronicle reports. “Of course, me being me, I expect more but I’m just happy to be back out there on the court,” he said. “Got great teammates who [have had] my back even though I haven’t been shooting the ball as well as I want to. But you got to take your wins and my win is that I’ve been back on the court.” It’s been a struggle since he returned to action. He’s averaging a career-low 3.0 points and 2.6 rebounds in 16.7 minutes while coming off the bench in 26 games.
Grizzlies’ Zach Edey Undergoes Left Ankle Surgery
March 3: Edey underwent surgery on Tuesday to address ongoing discomfort and bone stress in his left ankle, the team tweets. He’ll miss the remainder of the season but is expected to make full recovery prior to next season.
March 1: Second-year center Zach Edey will undergo left ankle surgery, the Grizzlies announced in a press release (Twitter link). According to the team, the procedure will “resolve ongoing discomfort and talar bone stress” in Edey’s left ankle.
The 23-year-old big man underwent left ankle surgery last June to address laxity in and re-stabilize the lateral ankle joint. Memphis consulted with several medical experts who unanimously agreed that Edey’s lateral ligaments are stable, but he continues to experience pain because of “progressive laxity of the deltoid (medial) ligaments.”
Edey’s latest left ankle surgery is being performed to “reinforce the medial ligament complex and accelerate bone healing,” per the Grizzlies.
2025/26 has been a season to forget for Edey, who played very well when active but has been limited to just 11 games played. Across those 11 outings, Edey averaged 13.6 points, 11.1 rebounds and 1.9 blocks in 25.8 minutes per game.
More notable than those stats were his on/off-court numbers — the Grizzlies outscored opponents by 18.3 points per 100 possessions and posted a defensive rating of 94.5 during Edey’s 284 minutes on the court.
The 23-year-old was a two-time AP Player of the Year at Purdue prior to being selected ninth overall in the 2024 draft. Edey’s season debut was delayed until Nov. 15 as he recovered from his initial surgery, then was diagnosed with a stress reaction in his left ankle less than a month later.
While the Grizzlies said a return timeline will be provided post-surgery, it seems safe to assume Edey won’t play again this season. The 7’3″ Canadian is expected to make a full recovery, the team added.
Memphis also provided an injury update on Brandon Clarke, who has been out since Dec. 20 due to a Grade 2 right calf strain. The veteran forward/center, who has been plagued by a injuries the past few years, will be out at least two more weeks, which is the next time he’ll be reevaluated.
The 29-year-old underwent an arthroscopic procedure in September to address synovitis in his right knee after having his 2024/25 season cut short due to a PCL sprain in that same knee. Clarke sustained the calf strain in his second game of the ’25/26 season.
He also suffered an Achilles tear in March 2023, which ended his ’22/23 campaign prematurely and limited him to just six outings in ’23/24.
Northwest Notes: Sandfort, Harkless, Nuggets, Wallace, Avdija
Payton Sandfort, signed on Monday by the Thunder on a two-way contract, will “fit in well,” coach Mark Daigneault told Justin Martinez of The Oklahoman (Twitter link) and other media members.
“He’s a great professional and he’s a really good guy,” Daigneault said. “He hasn’t played a lot this year. He’s been injured, but he’s a guy our scouts really liked coming out of college. He can really shoot the ball with some size, and he’s a great kid. Just a really, really good dude.”
Sandfort, who has been playing for the G League’s Oklahoma City Blue, signed a two-year contract, Spotrac contributor Keith Smith tweets.
Here’s more from the Northwest Division:
- Another two-way player, the Jazz‘s Elijah Harkless, played rugged defense on Denver star Nikola Jokic on Monday. Jokic only scored two points with Harkless guarding him. Afterward, coach Will Hardy paid Harkless a strong compliment. “I think Elijah is our best defender,” Hardy said, per Kevin Reynolds of the Salt Lake City Tribune. “It’s about trying to build a sense of fatigue as the game goes on, because every catch is hard to get. That’s Elijah’s identity. That’s who he is. That’s who we need him to be. And I think when Elijah plays like that, it raises the level of the group.”
- Prior to defeating the Jazz, the Nuggets were defeated by Oklahoma City and Minnesota. The time that Jokic was off the floor was key, as the Nuggets were outscored in both games when the big man rested. Coach David Adelman hinted at rotation changes, Bennett Durando of the Denver Post reports. “It’s just something that we have to learn from,” Adelman said. “I have to find a unit that will actually do it, compete at a higher level. Because to me, that was the game. Then I had to extend minutes, and I’m playing guys into the ground. I can’t do that. Especially with the way the schedule has been very dense.”
- Taking advantage of extended playing time due to injuries, Thunder guard Cason Wallace averaged 14.6 points, 4.8 assists, 3.8 rebounds and 2.1 steals in 30.9 minutes per game last month. Wallace is extension-eligible this summer and his recent play enhanced his résumé. “You never know when a guy’s gonna pop,” Daigneault told Joe Mussatto of The Oklahoman, “but he’s had a week and a half now of offense that’s been really, really good and intriguing.”
- Trail Blazers forward Deni Avdija, who hasn’t played since departing in the opening minute on Feb. 22 due to a lower back injury, has been upgraded to questionable for the team’s game against Memphis on Wednesday, Sean Highkin of The Rose Garden Report tweets.