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Nuggets Exercising Options On Strawther, Holmes

October 22nd, 2025 at 4:06pm CST by Luke Adams

The Nuggets are picking up their rookie scale team options for 2026/27 on both Julian Strawther and DaRon Holmes, reports Katy Winge of Altitude Sports (Twitter link).

Strawther, the 29th overall pick in the 2023 draft, emerged as a regular part of Denver’s rotation last season, averaging 9.0 points, 2.2 rebounds, and 1.3 assists in 21.3 minutes per game across 65 appearances, with a shooting line of .432/.349/.822. The 23-year-old wing was already under contract for roughly $2.67MM this season — now his $4,826,931 salary for next season is locked in as well.

The Nuggets traded up in the 2024 draft to land Holmes with the 22nd overall pick, but the former Dayton forward missed his entire rookie season after tearing his right Achilles in his Summer League debut. He has made a full recovery from that injury and should be available when Denver’s season tips off on Thursday. After earning about $3.22MM this season, the 23-year-old will make $3,372,120 in 2026/27 on his newly exercised option.

Strawther’s option is for the fourth year of his rookie contract, so he’ll become eligible for a rookie scale extension next summer. The Nuggets will have to make one more decision on Holmes’ rookie deal next fall — his fourth-year option for ’27/28 is worth about $5.55MM.

We’re tracking all of the rookie scale team option decisions for 2026/27 right here.

Southeast Notes: Porzingis, Herro, Magic, Bridges

October 22nd, 2025 at 3:38pm CST by Luke Adams

Speaking to Fred Katz of The Athletic, Hawks big man Kristaps Porzingis revealed that the mysterious illness that affected him late in the 2024/25 season and in the playoffs was eventually diagnosed as postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome. The condition, known as POTS, causes a person’s heart to beat faster than normal when he sits or stands up and can result in extreme exhaustion or dizziness when it goes untreated or undiagnosed.

“You know how people say, ‘Oh, I’m so fatigued.’ I’ve never used those words. I don’t even like to speak in those terms, but I really was like that,” Porziņgis said. “At that time, I could just lay on the couch and be a house cat.”

According to Katz, after getting a diagnosis confirmed, Porzingis has been able to manage the condition without medication — a high-salt diet and a more regimented resting schedule (off the court) are among the key factors.

Within his larger story about Porzingis and the Hawks, Katz notes that the offseason traded to Atlanta came as a bit of a surprise to the big man, since his agent had been keeping him up to speed on Boston’s trade discussions with three other teams: the Clippers, Spurs, and Suns. While Porzingis may have been surprised to learn of his landing spot, he wasn’t upset about it.

“We are an aspiring team, a young team that aspires to win a championship one day, and that’s the cool part,” Porziņgis said. “Even by the betting odds, we’re not too far off.”

Here’s more from around the Southeast:

Although Tyler Herro expressed last month that he hoped to reach an agreement with the Heat on a contract extension before the season began, he also made it clear he wouldn’t let it affect his play if they couldn’t come to terms, writes Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald. As Chiang details, Herro’s window to negotiate an extension will reopen on July 1, 2026 and will remain open either until he signs a new contract or through the entire 2026/27 league year, all the way up until June 30, 2027.
Josh Robbins of The Athletic spoke to five rival talent evaluators around the NBA about the upside of the new-look Magic and how the additions of Desmond Bane and Tyus Jones will impact the club. “They finally addressed their shooting, and they addressed it coherently and skillfully and efficiently with the two guys,” one scout said. “… (Jones) is not perfect, but he never makes a mistake, and he makes threes, and he can run a team, and he is a true point guard, which they didn’t have. … KCP didn’t work out, and Bane is younger and better, maybe not quite the defender, not quite as big. But he’s a better play-maker. He’s a good play-maker. He’s got secondary ball-handling skills.”
The longest-tenured member of the Hornets‘ roster, Miles Bridges has never won more than 43 games in a season or made the playoffs during his time in the NBA, but that hasn’t dampened his enthusiasm for playing in Charlotte, as Roderick Boone of The Charlotte Observer relays (subscription required). “Man, I love the city of Charlotte,” Bridges said. “I’m happy to be here. I’m just hoping to reward the city with some wins. That’s all I’ve been talking about since I’ve been here. I think this is the year to do it.” The veteran forward added that he’s fully locked in on finding ways to win games this season and isn’t thinking about his individual stats at all: “I want to actually contribute to winning this year. That’s doing what I need to do. Defense, rebound and scoring the ball. I feel like I could do it all. But (it’s about) just helping this team out the right way.”

Wolves To Start DiVincenzo, Move Conley To Bench

October 22nd, 2025 at 2:54pm CST by Luke Adams

Donte DiVincenzo will open the 2025/26 season as the Timberwolves‘ starting point guard, reports NBA insider Chris Haynes (Twitter link).

The move means that veteran point guard Mike Conley will shift to a bench role, though he’ll remain a “vital piece” for the team, according to Haynes.

Conley has appeared in 171 games for the Wolves since being acquired from Utah in a mid-season trade at the 2023 deadline, starting 164 of them. The seven-game stretch in which he came off the bench occurred in January 2025, when head coach Chris Finch made this same lineup change, with DiVincenzo starting in Conley’s place. That experiment came to an end when DiVincenzo injured his toe and was sidelined for over a month.

Conley, who is entering his 19th year in the NBA, turned 38 earlier this month and can no longer be counted on to regularly play 30-35 minutes per night at this stage in his career. He averaged a career-low 24.7 MPG last season and contributed 8.2 points, 4.5 assists, and 2.6 rebounds per contest. It looks like removing him from the starting five is a way for Finch and the Wolves to better manage his playing time rather than a signal that they don’t trust him in that role anymore.

For what it’s worth, the five-man lineup consisting of DiVincenzo, Anthony Edwards, Julius Randle, Jaden McDaniels, and Rudy Gobert had a +4.6 net rating in 213 minutes last season. That same group with Conley in DiVincenzo’s place posted a +3.2 mark in 714 minutes.

Heat, Jimmy Butler Reach Settlement Over 2024/25 Fines

October 22nd, 2025 at 1:35pm CST by Luke Adams

The Heat and Jimmy Butler have reached a settlement agreement on the fines that accompanied multiple team-imposed suspensions last season, reports Ira Winderman of The South Florida Sun Sentinel (subscription required).

According to Winderman, Butler recouped approximately half of about $6MM in salary that he forfeited during those suspensions while he was a member of the Heat.

A source familiar with the deal told the Sun Sentinel that both parties were satisfied with the agreement, which was reached after the players’ union filed a grievance on Butler’s behalf. As Winderman explains, the Heat were found during the appeals process to be within their right to have suspended the star forward, while Butler was considered to be “reasonable in questioning the degree of the sanctions.”

Butler, who was seeking a trade out of Miami prior to February’s deadline, was repeatedly suspended by the Heat due to conduct detrimental to the team, disregarding team rules, and, eventually, “withholding services.”

The NBA’s Collective Bargaining Agreement called for Butler to be docked $336,543 per game (1/145th of his $48,798,677 salary) for his initial suspensions for conduct detrimental to the team, which covered nine games, then $532,737 per game (1/91.6th of his salary) on his last indefinite suspension for failure to render services. That last suspension covered five games before the trade sending him to Golden State was finalized.

Settlement agreements aren’t uncommon in situations like this one. For instance, when Ben Simmons forfeited nearly $20MM of his salary in 2021/22 for a failure to render services, he and the Sixers eventually worked out a settlement that saw him recoup a portion of that lost salary.

Butler’s first full season with the Warriors got off to a good start on Tuesday, as he racked up 31 points while making all 16 of his free throws en route to a victory over the Lakers.

Nets Pick Up Noah Clowney’s 2026/27 Option

October 22nd, 2025 at 12:27pm CST by Luke Adams

The Nets have exercised their fourth-year team option on big man Noah Clowney for the 2026/27 season, the team announced today (Twitter link via Adam Zagoria of NJ.com).

Clowney, who is earning roughly $3.4MM in 2025/26, will now have his $5,414,034 salary for next season guaranteed as well. He’ll be eligible for a rookie scale extension during the 2026 offseason and would reach potential restricted free agency in 2027 if he doesn’t sign a new contract before that point.

The 21st overall pick in the 2023 draft, Clowney didn’t play much at the NBA level as a rookie, appearing in just 23 games. He earned more regular minutes in 2024/25, but was limited to 46 outings due to various injuries, including sprains affecting both ankles.

In those 46 games, Clowney averaged 9.1 points and 3.9 rebounds in 22.7 minutes per contest, shooting just 35.8% from the floor, including 33.3% on three-pointers. Although he’s a 6’10” forward/center, the 21-year-old attempted 261 shots from beyond the arc last season, compared to 111 two-point tries.

The Nets also would have had decisions to make on 2026/27 rookie scale team options for Kobe Bufkin and Dariq Whitehead, but they waived both players, automatically declining those options in the process.

International Notes: Dinwiddie, Butler, Cancar, Samanic, More

October 22nd, 2025 at 12:11pm CST by Luke Adams

A pair of point guards who were waived by NBA teams within the past week are drawing interest from clubs in Europe, according to league insider Marc Stein (Twitter links), who reports that both Spencer Dinwiddie and Jared Butler have suitors overseas.

While Stein doesn’t specifically identify any of the teams in the mix for Dinwiddie, he says Turkish powerhouse Anadolu Efes is not among that group. As for Butler, Stein suggests the Serbian team Crvena Zvezda has emerged as the frontrunner, echoing reporting from Stavros Barbarousis of Eurohoops. KK Partizan and Olympiacos are also among the teams linked to Butler, who is considered likely to end up with Crvena Zvezda.

Dinwiddie and Butler are among the most notable players who were part of the final wave of preseason cuts around the NBA. Dinwiddie was waived by the Hornets last Thursday despite having signed a guaranteed one-year contract with the team earlier in the offseason. Butler was released by the Suns a day later despite a strong preseason that included a 35-point, nine-assist performance last Tuesday.

Here’s more from around the international basketball world:

Former Nuggets forward Vlatko Cancar and Olimpia Milano have parted ways, the team confirmed in a statement (story via BasketNews.com). Cancar signed with the Italian club as a free agent this summer, but has dealt with a knee issue in recent weeks, which may have played a part in his release.
Another former NBA forward is leaving his team in Europe, as Spanish club Baskonia and former first-round pick Luka Samanic are going their separate ways, writes Nikola Miloradovic of Eurohoops. The expectation is that Samanic, the 19th overall pick in the 2019 NBA draft, will return to Cibona, his home team in Zagreb, Croatia. He had a brief stint with Cibona last season as well.
While they’re losing Samanic, Baskonia has officially signed guard Kobi Simmons to a two-month contract, the EuroLeague team announced in a press release. Simmons, who made 42 NBA appearances for four teams between 2017-24, will add depth to an injury-plagued Baskonia backcourt.
Former Sixers and Grizzlies shooting guard Dakota Mathias is headed to Australia, having agreed to a deal with the Brisbane Bullets, reports Olgun Uluc of ESPN (Twitter link). Mathias signed an Exhibit 10 contract with Indiana in 2024 but hasn’t appeared in an NBA game since 2022.
Free agent guard David Duke Jr., who has appeared in NBA games in each of the past four seasons with Brooklyn and San Antonio, is drawing interest from teams in Australia’s National Basketball League, according to Uluc (Twitter link). Duke was waived last week by the Suns and seems likely to open the season with Phoenix’s G League affiliate unless he finds a situation overseas that he likes more.

NBA Teams With Open Roster Spots

October 22nd, 2025 at 11:13am CST by Luke Adams

Each of the NBA’s 30 teams is permitted to carry 15 players on standard contracts and three on two-way deals once the regular season begins, which works out to a maximum of 540 players across 30 rosters.

[RELATED: 2025/26 NBA Roster Counts]

Of those 540 potential roster spots, 522 are currently occupied to open the 2025/26 season, leaving 18 open roster spots around the NBA across 17 teams. Here’s the full breakdown of those 18 openings around the league:

One open standard roster spot and one open two-way slot

Cleveland Cavaliers

The only team operating above the second tax apron, the Cavaliers are likely in no hurry to fill the 15th spot on their standard roster, which would cost them exponentially more in tax penalties beyond the player’s salary. Cleveland also has the ability to make changes involving its 14th roster spot at some point if it wants to — Thomas Bryant minimum-salary contract is fully non-guaranteed, so he’d only be owed a prorated portion of his salary if he’s waived at some point on or before January 7.

While two-way players don’t count against the salary cap, they still earn modest salaries (half the rookie minimum), so it’s possible the Cavs will look to save a little money on the league’s priciest roster by holding their third two-way slot open for the time being. A team that has an open standard roster spot is also limited to 90 overall active games for its two-way players instead of 50 apiece, so the Cavs probably aren’t looking to use up many of those games early in the season if they can help it.

One open standard roster spot

Atlanta Hawks
Boston Celtics
Denver Nuggets
Detroit Pistons
Golden State Warriors
Houston Rockets
Los Angeles Clippers
Los Angeles Lakers
Miami Heat
Minnesota Timberwolves
New York Knicks
Orlando Magic
Philadelphia 76ers
Phoenix Suns
Toronto Raptors

Many of these teams are carrying an open roster spot for luxury tax reasons. The Celtics, Nuggets, Warriors, Rockets, Clippers, Lakers, Timberwolves, Knicks, Magic, Sixers, Suns, and Raptors are all over the tax line, while the Heat don’t have much breathing room below it.

Most of those teams will add 15th men eventually, but won’t do so yet. Several of them – Golden State, Houston, both L.A. teams, New York, and Orlando – actually can’t do so yet, since they’re operating so close to their respective hard caps.

The Hawks have room under the tax line for a 15th man, but of all the teams in this group, the Pistons could be the best bet to fill their open roster spot sooner rather than later. They’re well more than $20MM below the tax line, so there are no concerns related to finances or spending flexibility. Still, given that Jaden Ivey is the only player on the roster dealing with more than a day-to-day injury right now, there’s no urgency to bring in a 15th man immediately.

One open two-way slot

Brooklyn Nets

In the past, a team without a G League affiliate of its own might be slow to fill its two-way contract slots, but all 30 NBA clubs now have affiliates in the NBAGL, so outside of thriftiness, there’s no real excuse not to carry a full complement of two-way players once the G League season begins in the coming weeks.

That’s especially true for the Nets, whose team salary is the lowest in the league entering the season. With so many rookies on the team’s standard roster, a third two-way player might not see any action at the NBA level anytime soon, but it would still make sense for Brooklyn to bring in another young prospect to develop in the G League.

Jalen Suggs Available For Magic’s Opener

October 22nd, 2025 at 10:31am CST by Luke Adams

Magic point guard Jalen Suggs will be available when the team’s regular season tips off vs. Miami on Wednesday evening, head coach Jamahl Mosley confirmed today, per Jason Beede of The Orlando Sentinel (Twitter link).

Suggs underwent season-ending surgery last March to remove cartilage fragment in his left knee, then spent the offseason recovering from that procedure and going through a lengthy rehab process. He didn’t appear in any preseason games this month and it was unclear in recent weeks whether or not he’d be ready to play when the regular season got underway.

Suggs had initially been listed as questionable for Wednesday’s game, but Mosley spoke positively on Tuesday about the progress he has made, according to Beede (subscription required). The 24-year-old had progressed within the past few days to participating in 5-on-5 work.

“It’s just great to see that he’s able to go through full contact with the 5-on-5, with the group of guys being out there with his brothers, as he likes to say,” Mosley said on Tuesday. “It would mean a lot for us. We know what he brings to the table: his energy, his toughness, his defensive presence as the head of the snake defensively but then also his controlling of the floor on the offensive end.”

Suggs will likely be the Magic’s fourth offensive option, behind Paolo Banchero, Franz Wagner, and Desmond Bane. However, he earned a spot on the All-Defensive second team in 2023/24 and has been an important part of the success the team has had in recent years.

Last season, Suggs averaged a career-high 16.2 points per game to go along with 4.0 rebounds, 3.7 assists, and 1.5 steals per night, but was limited to 35 appearances due to injuries. The Magic went 20-15 in those games despite being without either Banchero or Wagner for most of them. They were 21-26 in games Suggs didn’t play.

Mosley said on Tuesday that Orlando will be “smart and think long term” with Suggs, per Beede, so he’ll likely be on a minutes restriction to open the season, and I imagine the club will take a cautious approach to back-to-back sets too.

Rockets Notes: Eason, Durant, Sengun, More

October 22nd, 2025 at 9:05am CST by Luke Adams

The Rockets made forward Tari Eason a “strong” contract offer prior to Monday’s deadline for rookie scale extensions, ESPN’s Brian Windhorst reported on the latest episode of the Hoop Collective podcast (YouTube link).

“From what I understand…it was in excess of $100MM,” Windhorst said. “I don’t know how much of it would have been guaranteed.”

When he reported on Monday that the Rockets and Eason had failed to come to terms on an agreement, Windhorst’s ESPN colleague Shams Charania wrote that the two sides were unable to bridge the gap in their negotiations “on multiple fronts.” That report, along with Windhorst’s comment, could signal that Eason and his camp weren’t satisfied with the amount of guaranteed money in Houston’s proposal.

Each of the nine players who ultimately signed rookie scale extensions in 2025 received fully guaranteed deals.

Here’s more on the Rockets:

Entering the 2025 offseason after their first-round loss to Golden State, the Rockets’ front office wasn’t “trying to move guys,” general manager Rafael Stone told ESPN’s Michael C. Wright. However, Stone and the Rockets ended up pulling the trigger on a trade for Kevin Durant because they felt the opportunity was too good to pass up. “Jalen (Green) and Dillon (Brooks), we love those guys,” Stone said. “Everybody does. Not a single person on this team felt they needed to be moved out. And you’re never trying to give away the 10th pick of the draft because that’s still a really good player. We did it because of the opportunity. Kevin’s a very unique player. His archetype is unique. He’s this high-volume efficient scorer who doesn’t have to have the ball in his hands 24-7. In that sense, he’s kind of a unicorn. He’s also a two-way player. There just aren’t a whole lot of Kevin Durants. We’ll just have to see how he ultimately fits.”
Durant’s first game with the Rockets was a nail-biting double-overtime 125-124 loss to the defending champion Thunder. Durant, who missed a free throw late in regulation and then fouled out with 11 second left in the second overtime period, put the blame on himself after the game, according to Wright. “I missed the free throws, and I fouled somebody at the end,” the star forward said. “I think those two plays are the reason we lost. … I’ve got to be better.” Durant was also in the middle of a near-disaster at the end of the first overtime, when he called for a timeout the Rockets didn’t have — he wasn’t called for a technical foul because the referees didn’t see his signal, crew chief Zach Zarba later explained.
While Durant’s Rockets debut didn’t end in a win, Alperen Sengun‘s performance in defeat was an extremely encouraging sign for the team, as William Guillory of The Athletic and Danielle Lerner of The Houston Chronicle (subscription required) write. On the heels of an impressive EuroBasket performance for the Turkish national team, Sengun posted a monster line of 39 points, 11 rebounds, and seven assists vs. Oklahoma City and showed that Houston won’t always have to lean on Durant for half-court scoring. “He was kind of the backbone of our offense tonight,” forward Josh Okogie said of Sengun, per Lerner.
Although the trade for Durant was a win-now move for the Rockets, the rest of their core is still so young that they place just 21st in the “now or later” rankings compiled by ESPN’s Zach Kram. As Kram explains, the teams at the top of his list are the most desperate to win right away, while the clubs near the bottom are the most content to win later.

Northwest Notes: Jazz, Blazers, Conley, Edwards, Thunder

October 22nd, 2025 at 7:47am CST by Luke Adams

Speaking to Tony Jones of The Athletic about the Jazz beginning construction on a new practice facility outside of downtown Salt Lake City, team owner Ryan Smith expressed optimism about the direction of the franchise, despite the fact that its win total has declined in each of the past four seasons.

“I think (new president of basketball operations) Austin (Ainge) is a star. I think (head coach) Will (Hardy) is a star,” Smith said. “I think we have one of the most exciting front offices in the league. We have a lot of picks and a lot of flexibility.”

After racking up 52 victories in 2020/21, Smith’s first year on the job, the club has won 49, 37, 31, and 17 in the years since then, embarking on a full-fledged rebuild during that time. While Smith is eager for the Jazz to begin reversing that trend and climbing back up the NBA standings, he acknowledged he can’t rush the process and has to exercise some patience.

“The picks aren’t coming fast enough for me, but I know this is the NBA. You have to grow the talent,” he told Jones. “We have brought in a lot of people who have a lot of rings. So, the ultimate goal is to win titles. That’s what matters. I understand that’s also the goal of every other team, so it’s really difficult and winning happens rarely. We just have to hit on these picks and keep stacking good decisions. It’s good to have Taylor (Hendricks) back. Walker (Kessler) is coming along. We just have to grow the guys.”

Here’s more from around the Northwest Division:

Sean Highkin of Rose Garden Report (Substack link) evaluates the extensions the Trail Blazers completed this week with Toumani Camara and Shaedon Sharpe, dubbing Camara’s four-year, $81MM deal a win-win for the forward and the team, while suggesting that Sharpe’s four-year, $90MM contract represents more of a “calculated risk” for the two sides. As Highkin writes, Sharpe still has All-Star upside entering his age-22 season, but there’s certainly no guarantee he’ll reach that ceiling.
Retirement isn’t a consideration in the short term for Timberwolves point guard Mike Conley, who said ahead of his 19th NBA season that he’s “looking forward to trying to get to 20 and see what happens,” according to Sam Yip of HoopsHype. “There hasn’t been a day that I have felt like I should retire yet,” Conley said within a larger Q&A. “… I think it’ll come to a point where you get kind of overwhelmed with the amount of work you have to do in order to stay at par to keep up with these guys, that it just becomes too much. But so far it’s not there, so hopefully we can squeeze a little bit more juice out of this thing.”
In an in-depth story for The Athletic, Jon Krawczynski examines Anthony Edwards‘ drive to continue improving and his determination to win an NBA championship after being ousted in the Western Conference Finals in each of the past two years. Edwards is listed as questionable to play in Wednesday’s season opener in Portland due to back spasms, per the Timberwolves (Twitter link).
Did the defending champion Thunder peak last season, will they peak this season, or are the best years for this core still ahead of them? Zach Kram of ESPN considers that question, outlining why all three possibilities are viable. Oklahoma City picked up its first win of the season in dramatic fashion on Tuesday, beating Houston by one point in a double-overtime thriller after Thunder players received their championship rings.

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