Mason Plumlee Rejoins Hornets On One-Year Deal
July 13: The Plumlee signing is official, writes Rod Boone of the Charlotte Observer (via Twitter).
June 30: Journeyman center Mason Plumlee is joining the Hornets on a one-year, veteran’s minimum contract, ESPN’s Shams Charania tweets.
Plumlee will make $3.6MM in 2025/26, though his cap hit will only be approximately $2.3MM.
This will be his second stint in Charlotte. Plumlee also played there for two seasons from 2021-23. The 35-year-old has also played for Brooklyn, Portland, Denver, Detroit, the Clippers and Phoenix in a career that began in 2013.
Plumlee was a rotation big for the Suns this past season. He appeared in 74 games, including 21 starts, averaging 4.5 points, 6.1 rebounds and 1.8 assists in 17.6 minutes per game. He has appeared in 860 games over the course of his 12 NBA seasons.
After adding Mark Williams via trade and Khaman Maluach via the draft, there was no role for Plumlee next season in Phoenix. He could get ample playing time in the Hornets’ depleted frontcourt, depending on their other offseason moves.
Thunder Sign Chet Holmgren To Five-Year Max Extension
July 13: The Holmgren extension has been made official, per a press release from the Thunder.
July 9: Thunder big man Chet Holmgren has agreed to a fully-guaranteed, five-year maximum rookie contract extension, ESPN’s Shams Charania reports (Twitter link).
Holmgren’s first-year salary under the extension will start at 25% of the 2026/27 salary cap, ESPN’s Bobby Marks tweets. Based on the NBA’s latest cap projection, that would work out to a five-year, $240MM deal.
The second pick of the 2022 draft, Holmgren has battled through injuries in his first three years as a pro but has excelled during his time on the court.
After not playing at all during the 2022/23 season due to a foot injury suffered during the offseason, Holmgren bounced back to start every game in the 2023/24 season, averaging 16.5 points, 7.9 rebounds, 2.4 assists and 2.3 blocks per night.
A pelvic fracture limited Holmgren to 32 regular season games this past season. He posted averages of 15.0 points, 8.0 rebounds, 2.0 assists and 2.2 blocks prior to the playoffs, then started all 23 postseason contests en route to the franchise’s first championship since moving to Oklahoma City. He averaged 15.2 points, 8.7 rebounds, 1.0 assists and 1.9 blocks during the title run.
Holmgren joins league Most Valuable Player Shai Gilgeous-Alexander among current OKC players to receive max extensions. The next order of business is to give star forward Jalen Williams a max contract of his own. He’s also eligible for a rookie scale extension this offseason.
While we’ll wait for the official details to confirm, it doesn’t sound as if Holmgren’s deal will include Rose Rule language that could increase the value of that first year beyond 25% of the cap if he makes an All-NBA team, wins Defensive Player of the Year, or is named MVP.
Charania’s report does say the value of the extension could reach $250MM, which would exceed the projected value of a standard 25% max deal even if the cap rises by the maximum allowable 10% next year (it’d be worth $246.6MM in that scenario). However, that may just be a case of generously rounding up.
Daniel Gafford Signs Three-Year Extension With Mavericks
July 12: Gafford’s extension is official, the Mavericks announced (via Twitter).
June 23: Mavericks center Daniel Gafford intends to sign a three-year contract extension, ESPN’s Shams Charania reports. The contract is worth approximately $54MM, Marc Stein tweets.
The extension, which will become official in July, does not include an option in the final year, Grant Afseth of the Dallas Hoops Journal tweets. It’s fully guaranteed and will feature a 5% trade kicker, adds Kelly Iko of The Athletic (Twitter link).
Gafford has one year and $14,386,320 remaining on the three-year contract he signed while a member of the Wizards. His new extension will run through the 2028/29 season.
Gafford appeared in 57 games this season, including 31 starts. He averaged a career-best 12.3 points, 6.8 rebounds and 1.8 blocks per contest. Gafford is a bit undersized at center, listed at 6’10”, but has consistently been one of the NBA’s top shot-blockers since he entered the league in 2019.
Most of the shots that Gafford takes on offense are off lob passes or offensive rebounds. He has a career 70.9% field goal percentage.
The reasonably priced extension could make Gafford a trade chip if Dallas feels the need to trade a big man to balance its roster. As cap expert Yossi Gozlan tweets, Gafford should remain trade-eligible after signing the extension, since his new contract won’t exceed the extend-and-trade limits (20% first-year raise; 5% subsequent raises; four total years, including the current contract). If he were to receive more than $54.3MM on the three-year deal, he would be ineligible to be dealt for six months.
If Gafford remains with the Mavericks, he should be one of the team’s top frontcourt reserves off the bench along with P.J. Washington, presuming that Dereck Lively, Anthony Davis and top pick Cooper Flagg will start.
Nuggets Sign Tim Hardaway Jr. To One-Year Contract
July 10: Hardaway is officially a Nugget, the team announced in a press release.
July 1: The Nuggets have agreed to a one-year contract with Pistons free agent wing Tim Hardaway Jr., ESPN’s Shams Charania reports (Twitter link). He’s signing for the veteran’s minimum, Bennett Durando of the Denver Post tweets.
Hardaway made 77 starts for vastly-improved Detroit, averaging 11.0 points, 2.4 rebounds and 1.6 assists in 28 minutes per game. He shot 40.6 percent from the field and 36.8 percent on 3-point attempts.
Denver has been extremely active in recent days, agreeing to deal Michael Porter Jr. and a first-rounder to the Nets for Cameron Johnson, reaching a one-year deal with another wing, Bruce Brown, and adding big man Jonas Valanciunas in an agreed-upon deal with the Kings.
Hardaway figures to be a second-unit player with Denver, unless he supplants Christian Braun at shooting guard or Johnson at small forward. The 33-year-old Hardaway will be playing for the fifth team in his NBA career. He’s also had stints with Atlanta, New York and Dallas.
According to cap expert Yossi Gozlan, these moves will push the Nuggets right up against the luxury tax (Twitter link).
Losing Hardaway is a blow to the Pistons, who have been forced to adjust their free agent strategy due to gambling allegations against Malik Beasley. Detroit has also lost backup guard Dennis Schroder, who agreed on a three-year deal with the Kings. The Pistons have secured an agreement with free agent Caris LeVert and are looking at a variety of scenarios to fortify their wing positions.
Sixers Sign Dominick Barlow To Two-Way Deal, Waive Alex Reese
3:12 pm: The Sixers have officially signed Barlow and waived Reese, the team confirmed in a press release.
12:43 pm: The Sixers are waiving two-way forward Alex Reese, Michael Scotto of HoopsHype tweets. That will make room for Dominick Barlow, as the Sixers are adding him on a two-way deal, ESPN’s Shams Charania tweets.
Barlow, 22, has 96 games of NBA experience. He made a total of 61 appearances with San Antonio during the 2022/23 and ’23/24 seasons. Last year, Barlow appeared in 35 games with the Hawks, including four starts. He averaged 4.2 points and 2.4 rebounds in 10.7 minutes per night.
Atlanta declined its option on Barlow’s $2.2MM contract in late June, making him an unrestricted free agent. He had been promoted from a two-way deal to a standard contract in early March.
Reese appeared in 14 games with Philadelphia last season, averaging 5.3 points and 3.3 rebounds in 15.3 minutes per game. The 6’9″ forward was signed to a two-year, two-way deal in late February. He’s currently on the team’s Summer League roster but has recently been experiencing Achilles soreness.
Reese also spent extended time in the G League last season. He averaged 16.1 points, 6.9 rebounds, 1.8 blocks, and 1.2 steals per game for the Delaware Blue Coats and Rip City Remix, making 45.1% of his shots from the field and 39.3% from three-point range.
Reese played four seasons of college basketball for Alabama from 2017-21 prior to going undrafted. He initially spent a year away from the sport, then signed in Luxembourg during the 2022/23 campaign. He spent the 2023/24 season with the Rip City Remix.
Hunter Sallis and Jabari Walker hold the other two-way spots.
Eastern Notes: White, Langdon, Beasley, Johnson, Jakucionis
The Celtics traded away two starters this offseason and Derrick White‘s four-year, $118MM extension has kicked in for 2025/26. But he was reasonably sure he wouldn’t be dealt, he told Chris Forsberg of the Celtics Talk Podcast (hat tip to Brian Robb of Masslive.com).
“I think every summer is pretty crazy, especially nowadays,” White said. “But I didn’t feel too worried about anything. My agent and Brad (Stevens) had been talking and all the other rumors and stuff, I wasn’t really too worried about. I mean, I feel like it’s cool to be wanted by other teams, but I wanted to stay in Boston, and I was glad they wanted to keep me.”
Here’s more from the Eastern Conference:
- Pistons top exec Trajan Langdon admitted that the gambling investigation involving Malik Beasley news left them “not much time” to pivot,” Omari Sankofa II of the Detroit Free Press tweets. The Pistons pulled their three-year, $42MM offer to Beasley, an unrestricted free agent, when the news broke. “I was able to communicate with Malik and his agent Saturday, which was obviously right before we could start talking to free agents on Sunday,” Langdon said. “It was disappointing for us, because we were excited to get him back.”
- Lottery pick Tre Johnson strives for greatness, which is one big reason why the Wizards are excited about his future, Josh Robbins of The Athletic writes. “I really don’t have too much of a life outside of basketball, and that was literally a choice up to me because of just how good I wanted to be,” Johnson said.
- Kasparas Jakucionis, the Heat‘s first-round pick, had a rough time at the California Classic Summer League, Anthony Chiang of the Miami Herald writes. He score just 12 points on 1-of-15 (6.7%) shooting from the field, including 0-of-11 from three-point range, in his first three summer league games. However, he’s not panicking over his showing. “I think I need to just settle in more, play at my own pace, don’t get sped up too much as I was these three games,” Jakucionis said. “I didn’t feel myself in those games. But I think that’s normal. It’s a process, so I’m just happy to be here, happy to be able to learn from coaches, from other guys by working out, watching film and just understanding the game.”
James Borrego To Remain Pelicans’ Top Assistant
Pelicans associate head coach James Borrego will remain in his current position on Willie Green‘s staff, Ian Begley of SNY TV tweets.
One of the finalists for the head coaching job in New York, Borrego was rumored to be a prime target for the Knicks as they seek an associate head coach under new head coach Mike Brown. He was also targeted by the Nuggets to be their lead assistant under David Adelman but the Pelicans denied Denver’s front office permission to interview him.
The 47-year-old Borrego has served as associate head coach under Green in New Orleans for the past two seasons. He has previous head coaching experience, compiling a 138-163 record in four seasons with the Hornets.
Borrego has worked in the league since 2010, spending time as an assistant coach with the Hornets, Magic and Spurs before getting the head coaching opportunity in Charlotte. He also served as the interim head coach in Orlando during the 2014/15 season, compiling a 10-20 record in 30 games.
Rick Brunson, who was Tom Thibodeau‘s lead assistant last season, reportedly will have a lesser role under Brown.
Nets Notes: Fab Five, Durant, Thomas, Wolf
The Nets made the unprecedented move of drafting five rookies in the first round. Could they have their own version of the ‘Fab Five,’ the celebrated all-freshman lineup for the University of Michigan in the early ’90s?
“We’re gonna have to prove ourselves,” said Danny Wolf, who played for Michigan last season. “The Fab Five arguably is one of the best college teams of all time, so if we can consider ourselves the Fab Five of the NBA at some point in time, that would be pretty cool. But I’ll leave it up to you guys [in the media] to give us a nickname.”
The highest of those draft picks was the No. 8 selection, BYU guard Egor Demin.
“This is special,” Demin said, per Peter Botte of the New York Post. “Obviously no other team ever did the same thing in the draft. I think for me and the other guys it’s important to be really as close as we can be to each other, not just to compete, which obviously is a big part of it, but also to learn from each other on the court and off the court and learn from the older guys on the team and try to find ways to be together and play together as fast as we can.”
Here’s more on the Nets:
- Has time made Kevin Durant more wistful about his days with the Nets? Durant and former coach Steve Nash discussed their Brooklyn experiences during LeBron James‘ ‘Mind the Game’ podcast (hat tip to Collin Helwig of Nets Daily). “I felt like we had great intentions. I felt like we cared enough. I feel like every day we were trying to push towards winning the champ. It was a great vibe in there. Some of the best times,” KD said. “That first year? That’s why I signed that deal. That first year, man, most fun ball I had. Some of the most fun ball I had playing my whole life. I enjoyed it. I enjoyed Brooklyn a lot. I love playing for Brooklyn, but it’s just so much stuff happened around the guys that were committed to the situation. It felt like we were committed, but everybody else wasn’t.”
- The Nets made a number of their offseason moves official on Tuesday but there’s still no resolution on Cam Thomas, who remains a restricted free agent. There have been no rumblings regarding another team preparing an offer sheet for him and the Nets apparently don’t want to overpay to keep him, according to Nets Daily. In an interview with Connor Long on the ‘Brooklyn Boys’ podcast, ESPN’s Tim MacMahon suggested the Nets might be playing hardball with Thomas. “I would say Cam Thomas wants to be paid and apparently the Nets aren’t eager to pay him.”
- With his offensive skills, Wolf plays like a guard in a center’s body. Wolf slipped to the No. 27 pick and might be a steal. “Danny, we talked about the high IQ and a skill set that’s very unique for a person his size,” GM Sean Marks said, per Brian Lewis of The New York Post (subscriber link). “So, to see him out there, other teams continue trying to figure out, well, ‘How do we stop him? Who do we guard him with? What system do we put around him?’ And that’s a unique problem to have, right?”
Atlantic Notes: R. Brunson, Celtics, Edgecombe, Edwards
Rick Brunson, Jalen Brunson‘s father, will remain on the Knicks‘ coaching staff but he’ll have a reduced role under new coach Mike Brown, Stefan Bondy of the New York Post reports.
Brunson has been on the staff of 2022, the same year that Jalen Brunson joined the Knicks as a free agent. He was Tom Thibodeau‘s top assistant last season, but Brown will hire his own associate head coach.
Darren Erman, Maurice Cheeks and Mark Bryant, who were also members of Thibodeau’s staff, are also expected to return under Brown, Bondy confirms.
We have more from the Atlantic Division:
- Offering transparency regarding the team’s offseason moves, Celtics president of basketball operations Brad Stevens admitted the trades he’s made — including deals involving Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis — were designed to get the team under the second tax apron. “We’ve known for a long time that hard decisions were coming,” Stevens said, per Kyle Hightower of The Associated Press. “The second apron is why those trades happened. I think that is pretty obvious. And the basketball penalties associated with those are real. … So that was part of making the decision to push and put our chips on the table and go for the last two years.” However, he won’t call next season a rebuilding year. “That’s not going to be part of the lexicon in our building, and that’s the way we’re going to focus moving forward,” he said.
- It didn’t take long for the snake-bit Sixers to deal with another injury, though this one is minor. Lottery pick VJ Edgecombe is dealing with a left thumb contusion, which is affecting his Summer League status, Kyle Neubeck of PHLY Sports tweets.
- Sixers forward Justin Edwards earned a new three-year contract after going undrafted last year. Edwards is proud of what he’s accomplished. “Going undrafted, I didn’t let it determine the rest of my basketball life,” Edwards told Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer. “I just worked hard and did what I was able to do and got a contract out of it.”
Pistons Sign Second-Round Pick Chaz Lanier
10:20 pm: Lanier signed a four-year, $8.8MM contract that is guaranteed for the first two seasons, with a non-guaranteed third year and a fourth-team option, Hoops Rumors has learned.
4:46 pm: The Pistons have signed their second-round pick, guard Chaz Lanier, according to a team press release.
Lanier was chosen with the 37th overall pick. Detroit didn’t have a first-round selection.
While terms have yet to be revealed, Lanier will join the 15-man roster, according to Omari Sankofa II of the Detroit Free Press. That means he signed a standard contract, rather than a two-way deal.
Lanier averaged 18.0 points, 3.9 rebounds and 1.1 assists per contest while shooting 43.1% from the field and 39.5% from three-point range across 38 games for Tennessee last season. Named the 2024/25 Jerry West Award winner, given annually to the nation’s best shooting guard, Lanier finished his five-year collegiate career shooting 40.2% on three-pointers after playing his first four seasons for the University of North Florida.
Lanier is set to compete for the Pistons on their Summer League team in Las Vegas.