Kings’ Huerter Cleared For On-Court Workouts
Kings guard Kevin Huerter has been cleared for on-court workouts, shooting drills, and a complete strength-and-conditioning program, Jason Anderson of the Sacramento Bee relays (Twitter link) via a team medical update.
Huerter underwent surgery in late March to repair a torn labrum in his left shoulder. He will be reevaluated in mid-October before being cleared for full-contact activity. That timeline suggests Huerter will miss some early season games.
Huerter was the subject of numerous trade rumors during the offseason. However, he remains the team’s projected starting shooting guard once he returns to action.
Huerter spent the first four seasons of his career in Atlanta before being traded to Sacramento during the 2022 offseason in exchange for a protected first-round pick. The 25-year-old set new career highs in points per game (15.2) and three-point percentage (40.2%) during his first season as a King, but saw his role and his numbers dip last season as head coach Mike Brown made defense a greater priority.
Huerter averaged just 10.2 PPG on .443/.361/.766 shooting in 64 contests (24.4 MPG) before suffering his shoulder injury on March 18 against Memphis. He started 59 of 64 games as De’Aaron Fox’s backcourt partner.
Huerter is entering the third year of a four-year, $65MM contract. He’ll make $16,830,357 next season and $17,991,071 in 2025/26.
Warriors Notes: Curry, Training Camp, Next Season
Stephen Curry‘s decision to sign a one-year extension, a commitment through the 2026/27 season, shows that he still expects the Warriors to be contenders in the coming years, he told Marcus Thompson II of The Athletic.
“It’s still about winning,” Curry said, “and taking the steps necessary to give ourselves a chance. The standard hasn’t changed. The expectation hasn’t changed.”
Curry wants to remain a Warrior for the rest of his career. He’ll be 39 by the end of his contract.
“I’ve always said I wanted to play for one team my whole career,” he said. “So it’s good to get (the extension) question out of the way and give complete focus to basketball and to the season.”
We have more on the Warriors:
- Curry’s one-year extension will pay him $62.6MM in 2026/27. Eric Pincus of Bleacher Report explains why Curry’s salary won’t have massive implications regarding the luxury tax and tax aprons and answers several other questions related to the most lucrative one-year extension in NBA history.
- The Warriors will begin training camp in Hawaii, returning there for the first time since 2007, according to a team press release. They will also have a preseason game against the Clippers in Honolulu on Oct. 5.
- The Warriors believe they’ll improve upon last season’s 10th-place finish in the Western Conference, but even with their roster adjustments, that might prove difficult, Monte Poole of NBC Sports Bay Area writes. Poole anticipates that if the Warriors are at least in the middle of the standings at the halfway point, they’ll pursue a significant deal before the trade deadline.
Grizzlies’ GG Jackson II Injures Foot, Requires Surgery
Grizzlies second-year forward GG Jackson II has suffered a foot injury that will require surgery, according to a team press release (Twitter link).
Jackson sustained the injury playing basketball outside of Dallas on Tuesday. He attempted a contested layup and experienced an unstable landing on his right foot.
Subsequent imaging revealed a broken fifth metatarsal in his right foot. The surgery is scheduled to be performed on Wednesday.
Memphis was snake-bit by injuries last season and its run of bad luck continues with Jackson’s offseason ailment.
Jackson excelled in the Las Vegas Summer League last month, getting named to the All-Summer League First Team.
In his first season, Jackson earned All-Rookie Second Team honors. Jackson was the only All-Rookie member who wasn’t drafted in the first round; he was selected 45th overall in 2023 and initially signed a two-way contract before being promoted to the 15-man roster in February. He received a four-year deal at that time.
Jackson appeared in 48 games, including 18 starts. He averaged 14.6 points and 4.1 rebounds in 25.7 minutes per contest, attempting an average of six 3-pointers per game and making 35.7%.
The 6’9” Jackson projects as a backup at both forward spots but he’ll likely miss some early-season action as his foot heals.
Atlantic Notes: Sixers’ Rotation, Yabusele, Walker, Knicks
The Sixers will have a different look after a summer spending spree, prompting The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Gina Mizell to project how the rotation will shake out.
Mizell anticipates the Sixers will go with a different type of starting lineup, with forward Caleb Martin replacing guard Kyle Lowry, leaving Tyrese Maxey at the point. In that scenario, Eric Gordon, Jared McCain and Reggie Jackson would compete for reserve minutes in the backcourt, while KJ Martin, Ricky Council IV and Guerschon Yabusele would fight for playing time vacated by Nicolas Batum. Andre Drummond will slot in as Joel Embiid‘s backup.
We have more from the Atlantic Division:
- Yabusele signed a one-year contract with the Sixers after his strong showing in the Paris Olympics for France. He hasn’t played in the NBA since 2019. “Not a lot of people have a chance of second shots in the NBA,” Yabusele told Mizell. “So when the opportunity comes, you don’t think twice. … I feel like I just wanted to better myself and [say], ‘Let’s try.’ I feel like if you don’t come back in the NBA, then you play your whole career and you be like, ‘If, if, if …’”
- Don’t expect Lonnie Walker IV to make the Celtics’ opening-night roster, according to Brian Robb of Masslive.com. The veteran wing was signed to a training camp deal and there are financial incentives for the Celtics to leave him off the roster, since it would cost the team millions more in luxury tax penalties to retain him. Robb pegs Walker’s chances of sticking on the 15-man roster to start the season at 30 percent.
- How could the Knicks’ season be derailed? Stefan Bondy of the New York Post explores a few possible pitfalls for the team to navigate, including the overload of wings on the roster, Julius Randle not receiving an extension, and injuries.
Pistons Notes: Fan Survey, Langdon, Hardaway Jr., Beasley
Pistons fans made it known in an annual survey conducted by James Edwards III of The Athletic that this is somewhat of a make-or-break year for the franchise.
Only 35.8% of the more than 2,000 fans who cast their votes believe the team is headed in the right direction, while 38.7% said they were unsure. The remaining 25.4% believe the Pistons aren’t on the right path. Edwards notes that in previous surveys he’s conducted with the fans, they tended to be more optimistic.
Regarding the question of which player needs to take the biggest leap during the upcoming season, 69% chose either Jalen Duren and Jaden Ivey. Both players had uneven second seasons under previous head coach Monty Williams and will be eligible for rookie scale extensions during the 2025 offseason. It shows that the fans believe this is a pivotal season for both lottery picks, Edwards notes.
As for this summer, the best move wasn’t a player acquisition, according to a majority of fans. Instead, the firing of former GM Troy Weaver received 62.7% of the votes.
We have more on the Pistons:
- Trajan Langdon‘s personnel moves this summer showed that the new president of basketball operations is taking a long-range approach toward building the franchise, according to Pistons.com’s Keith Langlois. Langdon added a number of veterans on one- and two-year deals to improve the team’s short-term prospects but didn’t take any roll-of-the-dice gambles that might have hindered the long-term vision. Langlois notes that the next two draft classes are deeper with more projected franchise-altering prospects than 2024’s class featured.
- Tim Hardaway Jr. and Malik Beasley are two of the offseason acquisitions who might be flipped at the trade deadline, depending upon how the first 50 games shake out, according to Omari Sankofa II of the Detroit Free Press (subscription required). Hardaway, acquired in a salary dump from Dallas, and Beasley, who signed a one-year contract as a free agent, are proven gunners who could help a contender if their efficiency holds up.
- Did you miss any of the Pistons’ offseason moves? You can find our Offseason Check-In right here.
Tatum Ready To Move On After ‘Challenging’ Olympic Experience
Jayson Tatum‘s benching became one of the big storylines during Team USA’s run to the gold medal in the Paris Olympics. The Celtics star didn’t see the court in the team’s opening game against Serbia. He did play in four of the other five games and says he’s not bitter over his modest role.
“I wasn’t moping around. I didn’t have an attitude. I wasn’t angry at the world,” Tatum told Jared Weiss of The Athletic. “I stayed ready and did what was asked of me and I won a gold medal, right?”
The first-game benching was big news and Tatum was well aware of it.
“It was a lot. In the age of social media, you see everything,” Tatum said. “You see all the tweets and the people on the podcasts and people on TV giving their opinion on whether they thought it was a good decision or it was an outrageous decision or whatever. Obviously, I wanted to contribute more, and I’ve never been in (this) situation. I started playing basketball at (age) three at the YMCA, and I’ve never not played, so it was different and it was challenging.”
Tatum, who also won a gold medal in the Tokyo Olympics, averaged 5.3 points, 5.3 rebounds, 1.3 assists and 1.0 steals in 17.7 minutes in his Olympic appearances this summer.
If there was a lingering issue to come out of his individual Olympic performances, it’s that his jump shot went AWOL. He shot 38.1% overall and missed all four of his 3-point tries.
Tatum also struggled from long range throughout the NBA playoffs, as he made only 39-of-138 three-point attempts (28.3%). He was still an offensive force while winning the first championship ring of his career, posting averages of 25.0 points and 6.3 assists in 19 playoff games.
He isn’t concerned that his shooting woes will carry into next season.
“I have two (gold medals) now, I have a championship, and everything doesn’t necessarily go the way you expect it to go, right?” Tatum said. “I’ve learned to be like, ‘OK, that’s a part of it.’ You move on, and I’m getting ready to enjoy the last little weeks I have before the season starts and get ready for another season.”
Tatum was one of several Celtics who received extensions after the season. He was rewarded with a five-year, super-max contract that will begin in 2025/26. He’s not going to rest on his laurels as Boston aims to become the first team since Golden State in 2017-18 to win back-to-back titles.
“I’m of the mindset that after ring night, in a weird way, we got to put that behind (us),” he said. “Last year was last year. We did it. It was a dream come true. We worked our (butt) off for it. But after ring night, we gotta move on. We gotta get ready for game two.”
Matt Ryan Re-Signs With Pelicans On Camp Deal
AUGUST 27: Ryan’s new deal with the Pelicans is now official, as Michael Scotto of HoopsHype tweets.
Ryan’s non-guaranteed minimum-salary contract includes Exhibit 9 language (protecting the team in the event of a preseason injury), but not Exhibit 10 language, Hoops Rumors has learned.
That means it can’t be converted into a two-way deal and won’t award Ryan a bonus if he’s waived and then spends time with the Birmingham Squadron, New Orleans’ G League team.
AUGUST 26: The Pelicans are re-signing Matt Ryan on a reworked one-year contract, Shams Charania of The Athletic tweets. Ryan was waived on Friday.
Ryan, 27, appeared in 28 games for New Orleans in 2023/24, averaging 5.4 points and 1.4 rebounds while shooting 45.1% from three-point range in 13.9 minutes per contest. He missed several weeks of action last season due to a right calf strain and a right elbow injury, which required surgery in December.
New Orleans claimed Ryan off waivers last October, inheriting the two-way contract he signed with Minnesota shortly before the start of training camp. He also had brief stints with the Celtics and Lakers earlier in his career.
The Pelicans converted Ryan to a standard contract at the very end of last season, making him playoff-eligible. However, his three-year deal — which featured a significant end-of-season payday in ’23/24 — was non-guaranteed for the ’24/25 and ’25/26 seasons.
Ryan’s salary for ’24/25 would have become guaranteed if he had remained under contract through the start of the regular season. While we don’t know the details of the new contract yet, it’s likely another minimum-salary deal that won’t become guaranteed until the league-wide date of January 10. It should also have a cap hit of $2,087,519 instead of $2,196,970.
The Pelicans now have 15 players on standard contracts, with 13 players on guaranteed salaries.
Jokic Tops Poll For Best Player; Gilgeous-Alexander Gets Nod For 2024/25 MVP
Nuggets center Nikola Jokic is the best NBA player right now but he’s not going to win another Most Valuable Player award next season.
That’s the majority opinion of the 18 NBA coaches, scouts and executives that ESPN’s Tim Bontemps polled. All but three of them believe Jokic is the league’s top player.
However, when the subject of next season’s MVP came up, Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander received seven votes. A handful chose Mavericks guard Luka Doncic with Jokic only receiving two votes.
The Thunder and Celtics are the solid favorites to emerge from their respective conferences and square off in the Finals. Boston received 13 votes to win the East, while Oklahoma City picked up 14 votes to emerge from the West. The Celtics received eight votes to repeat as champions, while the Thunder were chosen by seven members of the group.
There was no love for the top pick in the draft, Zaccharie Risacher.The Hawks big man didn’t receive a single vote for Rookie of the Year. The same goes for the topic of best player from the 2024/25 rookie class in five years. Grizzlies center Zach Edey garnered a panel-best eight votes for ROY, while Rockets guard Reed Sheppard was chosen by eight of them to be the best of the bunch in five years.
Spurs big man Victor Wembanyama got two-thirds of the vote for top overall player in five years.
Western Notes: Sabonis, Monk, DeRozan, Spencer, Prosper, James
Kings big man Domantas Sabonis admits he expected sixth man Malik Monk to sign elsewhere in free agency. Monk stayed put on a four-year, $78MM contract.
“I was actually very surprised,” Sabonis said, per James Ham of The Kings Beat (Twitter link). “I was talking to him a lot during the year and I thought we really lost him, but I’m happy he stayed.”
Sabonis believes the addition of DeMar DeRozan, acquired in a sign-and-trade, will diversify the offense, according to Logan Struck of Sports Illustrated.
“I think it’s going to be good for us,” Sabonis said. “It’s going to make us think differently on the court, move differently, and really read each other. We are used to playing one style but he does something at a Hall of Fame level that we’re going to have to play around and it’s going to make it so much harder for teams to guard us because we can basically score from anywhere.”
We have more Western Conference news:
- Grizzlies guard Luke Kennard said the addition of former UConn guard Cam Spencer, who was drafted in the second round and signed on a two-way deal, gives the club another offensive option. “He can shoot, man,” Kennard said, per Damichael Cole of the Memphis Commercial Appeal. “He really can. I think he’ll be really close in our shooting competitions. Well let him get in a couple and see how he can hang.”
- Olivier-Maxence Prosper spent most of last season in the G League after the Mavericks drafted him in the first round. He’ll have a tough time cracking the rotation in his second year with the additions of Klay Thompson, Naji Marshall, and Quentin Grimes. However, the club is still optimistic about his future and the wing’s development remains an intriguing element to monitor, according to Grant Afseth of Dallas Sports Journal.
- The Lakers re-signed LeBron James on a two-year deal this summer but the franchise seems poised to waste the future Hall of Famer’s remaining years, Bill Plaschke of the Los Angeles Times opines. The team needs another star to compete with the other Western Conference contenders and the front office has done very little to upgrade the roster this offseason, Plaschke adds.
And-Ones: Klutch Lawsuit, 2025 Prospects, Hewitt, Contenders
Klutch Sports Group has issued a response to a lawsuit filed in federal court by longtime NBA agent Mark Termini. Klutch, headed by super-agent Rich Paul, has asked the federal judge overseeing the case to let the Players’ Association arbitrate this dispute, Mike Vorkunov of The Athletic tweets.
Klutch contends that Termini ignored NBPA rules to “publicly advance a tale where he (and not Paul) is responsible for Paul’s and Klutch’s unprecedented success.” Klutch also asked the federal judge to dismiss parts of complaint if it is not granted arbitration.
Termini, a former associate of Klutch, is suing for $4.9MM plus interest for an alleged breach of contract. Termini claims Klutch began paying him less than he was owed as the “lead negotiator” on several contracts from 2018-20.
We have more from around the basketball world:
- Cooper Flagg, the top prospect in next year’s draft, has a skill set that compares to the Magic’s star, Paolo Banchero, Jonathan Wasserman of Bleacher Report writes. The Rutgers’ duo of Dylan Harper and Ace Bailey — considered the No. 2 and 3 prospects — have comparable skills to Coby White and Brandon Miller, respectively. Wasserman draws suitable comparisons for all projected lottery picks in his story.
- Paul Hewitt has been named head coach of the NBA G League United team in the upcoming Fall Invitational and FIBA Intercontinental Cup, the league tweets. Hewitt is currently the head coach of the Clippers’ G League squad, the San Diego Clippers.
- The Bleacher Report staff takes a look at 10 wild card NBA title contenders who could make noise in the postseason. The teams are all outside FanDuel’s current top 10 in the odds for the NBA championship next season. Among those teams are the Clippers, Cavaliers and Magic.