Knicks Draft-And-Stash Prospect Jokubaitis Suffers Major Knee Injury
Lithuanian point guard Rokas Jokubaitis will miss the rest of the EuroBasket tournament and a significant portion of the 2025/26 season after sustaining a significant left knee injury during Monday’s victory over Finland, according to an announcement from Bayern Munich, his EuroLeague team.
The press release issued by Bayern Munich refers to it as a “severe ligament injury” for Jokubaitis, who will undergo surgery and will be out for at least the next six months. While Bayern’s announcement doesn’t provide specific details on the diagnosis, Donatas Urbonas of BasketNews.com hears that Jokubaitis’ ACL and meniscus are affected.
“Injuries are unfortunately part of sports, but this one is, of course, devastating for Rokas,” Bayern sports director Dragan Tarlac said in a statement. “We have enjoyed watching Rokas so much at EuroBasket – he has been outstanding and has led his team as a true leader. But we have no doubt that with his spirit and fighting mentality, he will come back stronger from this. We’re waiting for him and will now support him in every possible way so that he can return to the court next year.”
Jokubaitis’ injury occurred during the fourth quarter of Monday’s game. He was driving to the basket when his left leg buckled awkwardly, causing him to fall to the floor (Twitter video link). He immediately checked himself out of the game and limped to the bench, where he was treated by the team’s training staff.
Jokubaitis, the 34th overall pick in the 2021 NBA draft, was sent to the Knicks in a draft-night deal along with Miles McBride, but has yet to sign his first NBA contract. The 24-year-old has remained overseas in recent years, first with FC Barcelona and then last season with Maccabi Tel Aviv. He officially signed a three-year contract with Bayern Munich last month; the Knicks continue to hold his NBA rights.
Although his fourth game was cut short, Jokubaitis put up excellent numbers for Lithuania at EuroBasket, averaging a team-high 17.3 points, 8.5 assists, and 1.5 steals in just 24.2 minutes per contest. He shot from 49.1% from the field, including 55.6% from beyond the three-point line.
Lithuania went 3-1 in those four games and has clinched a spot in the round of 16.
Mavericks Re-Sign Dante Exum
September 1: Nearly two months after his deal was first reported, Exum has re-signed with Dallas, per NBA.com’s official transactions log. As we detailed in a separate story, the Mavs opened up room under the hard cap and a roster spot by waiving and stretching Prosper.
July 2: The Mavericks and Dante Exum have reached an agreement on a one-year deal that will extend the veteran guard’s stay in Dallas, reports Shams Charania of ESPN (Twitter link).
Exum, who will turn 30 later this month, spent the first seven years of his professional career in the NBA, playing for Utah and Cleveland after being selected fifth overall in the 2014 draft. However, he struggled to establish himself as a reliable rotation player, due in part to his lack of offensive production.
Exum played in Europe for two seasons from 2021-23, developing a reliable three-point shot during his time with Barcelona and Partizan Belgrade, then returned stateside during the 2023 offseason and has played in Dallas since then.
Injuries, which hampered Exum’s development earlier in his career, have continued to be an issue during his second NBA stint, limiting him to 75 total appearances across the past two seasons, including just 20 last season due to right wrist surgery and a broken left hand.
But he has been a very effective role player for the Mavs when healthy, averaging 8.0 points, 2.8 assists, and 2.4 rebounds in 19.5 minutes per game, with a shooting line of .516/.472/.768.
Once Irving’s new deal is done and Russell officially signs, the Mavs won’t have enough room below a hard cap at the second tax apron to re-sign Exum on a minimum-salary deal, so they’ll need to make a corresponding roster move at some point to finalize all those moves, as cap expert Yossi Gozlan notes (via Twitter).
Waiving Brandon Williams, whose salary is mostly non-guaranteed, would be the easiest path to creating that space below the second apron, but he was productive in a rotation role during the second half of last season. Olivier-Maxence Prosper, a 2023 first-round pick, has been considered a trade candidate.
Hoops Rumors’ Lists, Trackers, Features
In addition to passing along news, rumors, and analysis on a daily basis, Hoops Rumors provides a number of additional features and resources that can be found anytime on the right-hand sidebar of our desktop site under “Hoops Rumors Features,” or on the “Features” page in our mobile menu.
Since those links are easy to overlook and aren’t readily accessible to our app users, we want to periodically highlight a number of our lists, trackers, and other features.
For instance, our lists of current free agents by position/type and by team are constantly updated, as are our lists of 2026 free agents by position/type and by team.
We have a number of features related to NBA trades, including a roundup of this offseason’s deals, a recap of the trade exceptions currently available to teams, lists of the players who can’t be traded until December 15 or January 15, and details on which players can veto trades in 2025/26 and which players have trade kickers.
We have info on how teams are using mid-level and bi-annual exceptions in 2025/26, as well as which clubs are hard-capped and which have open roster spots. Our free agent tracker, two-way contract tracker and contract extension tracker provide information on most of the deals signed this summer, while our list of non-guaranteed contracts by team helps provide a more complete picture of each team’s roster.
We’ve got details on how much this season’s maximum salaries, minimum salaries, and mid-level/bi-annual exceptions are worth, as well as more details on the key cap figures for the 2025/26 season. We’ve also shared early projections for maximum salaries, minimum salaries, and mid-level/bi-annual figures for 2026/27.
The Hoops Rumors Glossary provides in-depth explanations on many concepts related to the salary cap and Collective Bargaining Agreement, presented in the simplest possible terms. We’ve updated the majority of our entries to reflect the changes made in the most recent CBA.
Finally, we’re in the process of breaking down all 30 teams’ summer moves in our Offseason Check-In series.
Many of our features and trackers are cyclical and will be reintroduced as the year goes on. For example, during draft season next spring, we’ll be keeping tabs on all the early entrants for the 2026 NBA draft.
Be sure to check out the sidebar on our desktop site or our Features page for all of our current resources.
NBA 2025 Offseason Check-In: Denver Nuggets
Hoops Rumors is checking in on the 2025 offseason for all 30 NBA teams, recapping the summer’s free agent signings, trades, draft picks, departures, and more. We’ll take a look at each team’s offseason moves and consider what might still be coming before the regular season begins. Today, we’re focusing on the Denver Nuggets.
Free agent signings
Bruce Brown: One year, minimum salary. Signed using minimum salary exception.- Tim Hardaway Jr.: One year, minimum salary. Signed using minimum salary exception.
- Kessler Edwards: One year, minimum salary. Non-guaranteed (Exhibit 10). Signed using minimum salary exception.
Trades
- Acquired Cameron Johnson from the Nets in exchange for Michael Porter Jr. and the Nuggets’ 2032 first-round pick.
- Acquired Jonas Valanciunas from the Kings in exchange for Dario Saric.
Draft picks
- None
Two-way signings
- Tamar Bates
- One year, $85,300 partial guarantee (will increase to $318,218 at start of regular season).
- Curtis Jones
- One year, $85,300 partial guarantee (will increase to $318,218 at start of regular season).
- Spencer Jones
- One year, $85,300 partial guarantee.
Departed/unsigned free agents
- Trey Alexander (Pelicans)
- Vlatko Cancar (Olimpia Milano)
- PJ Hall (Grizzlies)
- DeAndre Jordan (unsigned)
- Russell Westbrook (unsigned)
Other roster moves
- None
Salary cap situation
- Operating over the cap ($154.6MM) and above the luxury tax line ($187.9MM).
- Carrying approximately $188.3MM in salary.
- No hard cap.
- Taxpayer mid-level exception ($5,685,000) available.
- Two traded player exceptions available (largest worth $6,880,985).
The offseason so far
Typically, a team firing both its general manager and its head coach with less than a week left in the regular season would be a sign of major dysfunction and a signal that the roster of that presumably free-falling franchise is next in line for an overhaul.
But the Nuggets, who parted ways with Calvin Booth and Michael Malone on April 8, actually had a very strong finish this spring — they won the rest of their regular season games under new leadership, knocked off a tough Clippers team in the first round of the playoffs, then took the 68-win Thunder to seven games in the second round, giving the eventual champions the most difficult challenge they faced in the Western Conference bracket.
Denver has since internally promoted executive Ben Tenzer to replace Booth and handed the head coaching reins to former Malone assistant David Adelman. The decision to stay in house to fill both jobs suggests that management believes the Booth/Malone duo, specifically, was the problem and that a full-fledged organizational reset isn’t necessary.
That thinking carried over for the most part this offseason to the roster, where a starting group headed up by Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray, and Aaron Gordon has been the Nuggets’ strength in recent years, while the bench has lagged behind. Only seven Denver players appeared in all seven games of the OKC series this spring, and only six of those players averaged at least 15 minutes per game, an indicator of how heavily the team leaned on its starters even after Malone’s departure.
So with one exception (which we’ll get to in a minute), the Nuggets focused this summer on upgrading their bench. They reunited with Bruce Brown, who played a significant role as a jack-of-all-trades off the bench during the club’s championship run in 2023. Based on his play that year, Brown got too expensive for Denver to retain at the time, but his stock had dropped following up-and-down stints in Indiana, Toronto, and New Orleans, opening the door for the Nuggets to bring him back on a minimum-salary deal.
The Nuggets also got a team-friendly veteran’s minimum rate for Tim Hardaway Jr., a veteran wing who hasn’t averaged fewer than 26 minutes per game or made less than $16MM in a season since 2016/17. Hardaway isn’t exactly a two-way dynamo, but he’s a solid role player who can make three-pointers (.361 career 3PT%) and is versatile enough to guard multiple positions on defense. Getting him on the minimum should pay off, especially since he’s the sort of player who could benefit from playing with Jokic.
Speaking of Jokic, the Nuggets hadn’t made it a priority in recent years to find him a reliable backup, but that was a goal this offseason, resulting in a trade that sent Dario Saric to Sacramento in exchange for Jonas Valanciunas.
It seemed for a few weeks as if Valanciunas was looking to get out of his NBA contract in order to sign with Panathinaikos in Greece, but the Nuggets wanted the big man in Denver, and non-stars who are under contract generally have little leverage to steer themselves to preferred destinations. So it didn’t come as a real surprise when Valanciunas eventually confirmed he’d be reporting to the Nuggets and expressed enthusiasm about playing for the team.
If Valanciunas embraces the opportunity available for him in Denver, he should be a great fit behind Jokic. The bruising Lithuanian is a talented low-post scorer and rebounder whose steady production could allow the Nuggets to lean a little less heavily on their three-time MVP than they’ve had to in recent years — Jokic averaged a career-high 36.7 minutes per game in 2024/25, but I’d be pretty shocked if he played that much again in ’25/26.
While much of Denver’s offseason work focused on improving the bench, the team did make one noteworthy change to its starting lineup, sending Michael Porter Jr. and an unprotected 2032 first-round pick to Brooklyn in exchange for Cameron Johnson.
Porter was an important part of the Nuggets’ title team and has been an effective secondary scorer – and their most reliable three-point shooter – in recent years. But he was a negative on the defensive end and was overpaid on his maximum-salary contract.
Swapping him out for Johnson, who is owed just $44MMish over the next two seasons, will give Denver a comparable scorer and shooter (Johnson averaged 18.8 PPG and made 39.0% of his threes for Brooklyn last season) who should be more of an asset defensively — it also created the financial flexibility necessary to bring in a player like Valanciunas and his $10.4MM cap hit. That 2032 first-rounder, which will convey when Jokic is 37 years old, could end up being a pretty valuable pick, but the Nuggets deemed it a worthwhile risk to give it up in an effort to maximize their superstar’s prime.
Up next
The Nuggets are carrying just 14 players on guaranteed contracts and have room to add a 15th man. While they technically have several cap exceptions available, including the mid-level, bi-annual, and a pair of modest trade exceptions, using any of those – with the exception of the taxpayer portion of the mid-level exception – would hard-cap them at the first tax apron. The club is already less than $3MM away from that threshold.
That means if Denver does carry a 15th man, it’s more likely to be a minimum-salary player whose contract isn’t fully guaranteed, in order to give the team some in-season flexibility. Veteran forward Kessler Edwards, who signed an Exhibit 10 deal, is one candidate to make the roster in that capacity.
For what it’s worth, due to incentives in the Johnson and Gordon contracts, the Nuggets are relatively close to the first apron despite only being $400K or so above the luxury tax line. While Denver has gone out of its way not to hard-cap itself so far this offseason, I still think the club is probably more likely to finish the 2025/26 season below the tax line than above the first apron — the Nuggets have been a taxpayer for three straight years, so dipping below that threshold this season could be an important first step toward resetting the repeater clock.
Jokic and Johnson are both eligible for veteran contract extensions this offseason, but Jokic has reportedly conveyed a preference to wait until 2026 (when he’d be eligible for a more lucrative deal), while Johnson faces extend-and-trade restrictions after being dealt to Brooklyn and may want to wait until next summer too.
That leaves Christian Braun and Peyton Watson as the Nuggets’ most important preseason extension candidates, with Braun leading the way. Having been elevated to the starting lineup last fall in the wake of Kentavious Caldwell-Pope‘s free agency departure, Braun has emerged as a critical supporting player in Denver, setting career highs with 15.4 points per game and a .397 3PT% in 2024/25.
The Nuggets will obviously want to keep Braun long-term, but with lucrative deals for Jokic, Murray, Gordon, and Johnson already on the books, the team will have to be careful about navigating the tax aprons going forward. Denver’s previous front office made a habit of freely handing out extensions and being willing to overpay to get them done, but being too generous with Braun could create some difficult roster decisions down the road. The team should be wary of going much beyond about $85-90MM for four years.
2025/26 NBA Waiver Claims
As of the 2024/25 league year, the non-taxpayer mid-level exception, room exception, and bi-annual exception can all be used to acquire players via waiver claims, giving teams new ways to land other clubs’ roster casualties whose salaries don’t exceed the MLE (approximately $14.1MM in ’25/26)
[RELATED: Values Of 2025/26 Mid-Level, Bi-Annual Exceptions]
In the past, in order to claim a player off waivers, a team generally had to be able to fit the player’s entire salary into cap room, a traded player exception, or a disabled player exception.
Despite the new options available to teams eyeing a player who has recently been cut, waiver claims will likely continue to be infrequent going forward. Once the draft and the early part of the free agent period have passed, many teams around the NBA aren’t in position to take on additional salary or don’t have excess roster spots available for newcomers. Plus, most of the players who end up on waivers are being cut because their current contracts aren’t considered great values.
With all that in mind, it’s perhaps no surprise that the players most frequently claimed on waivers are those on minimum-salary deals, since any club is eligible to place a claim on those players using the minimum salary exception.
Even for minimum-salary claims, there are some caveats — the minimum salary exception can only be used to sign players for up to two years, so the same rules apply to waiver claims. If a player signed a three-year, minimum salary contract, he can’t be claimed using the minimum salary exception, even if he’s in the final year of his deal. And if a player received more than the minimum salary in an earlier season, he can’t be claimed using the minimum salary exception.
Essentially, the minimum salary exception can only be used to claim a player whose current contract could have been signed using the minimum salary exception.
Taking into account all the factors that reduce the odds of a waiver claim, it makes sense that nearly all of the players who get released ultimately clear waivers. The 2021/22 and ’22/23 league years each featured just six waiver claims each, for instance, while there were only three in ’23/24. Last season’s seven waiver claims were the most in a single league year since 2019/20.
Despite how infrequent they are, we still want to track all the waiver claims that take place during the 2025/26 league year, since you never know which claim may end up being crucial. Last season, for example, the Pelicans claimed Brandon Boston Jr. off waivers from San Antonio in October and he became a regular – and reasonably effective – rotation player for the banged-up team.
We’ll track this year’s waiver claims in the space below, updating the list throughout the season to include the latest moves. Here’s the current list:
- Suns claim Jordan Goodwin from Lakers (July 23) (story)
- Goodwin was a valuable role player for the Lakers during the second half of the 2024/25 season, but when Los Angeles needed to create room below its first-apron hard cap to sign Marcus Smart, he was the odd man out due to the fact that his minimum-salary contract ($2.35MM) was only partially guaranteed for $25K. As it turns out, the Lakers won’t even be on the hook for that $25K after the Suns took on Goodwin’s contract via waivers. The veteran guard is expected to compete for a spot on Phoenix’s roster with Jared Butler, who is also coming to camp on a non-guaranteed deal.
- Pistons claim Isaac Jones from Kings (November 6) (story)
- In search of reliable veteran frontcourt depth to help make up for an early-season Keegan Murray injury, the Kings waived second-year forward Isaac Jones in order to sign Precious Achiuwa. Jones, who gave Sacramento pretty solid minutes in a limited role as a rookie in 2024/25, didn’t make it through waivers. The Pistons, who had an open spot on their 15-man roster, placed a claim and made him their 15th man, at least for now — Jones’ minimum salary is non-guaranteed until January 7, so Detroit has a couple months to decide whether or not he’s a keeper.
Atlantic Notes: Simons, Queta, Nets, Sixers
The Celtics are still “very much willing” to discuss Anfernee Simons trade scenarios, one general manager tells Steve Bulpett of Heavy.com. However, another veteran personnel executive suggested that Boston might be better off hanging onto Simons through the start of the regular season.
“Other than Jaylen Brown, there’s not a better scorer than Simons on that roster,” the exec told Bulpett. “I mean, they obviously aren’t going to play the same way they played when they had (Kristaps) Porzingis and (Al) Horford and (Jrue) Holiday. (Head coach) Joe Mazzulla‘s going to have to completely change the style of play.
“Simons… nobody can score like him on that team other than Brown. He’s the second-best scorer, and it’s not even close. … I bet you he’s their leading scorer. Even with Jaylen. He’s going to have the ball a lot, and that dude can really score. That offense is going to have to change to accommodate him, and, on the last year of his contract, he’s going to let it fly.”
Simons is on an expiring $27.7MM contract and likely won’t factor into the Celtics’ plans beyond 2025/26. Having already ducked below the second tax apron, Boston reportedly has interest in shedding additional salary to perhaps move below the first apron or get out of tax territory altogether. But the club may have to exercise some patience to find the sort of deal it wants, another front office source told Bulpett.
“Anfernee Simons makes $27-plus million,” he said. “Who’s got room to put that in their cap? And he’s up after this year, so the Celtics aren’t going to want to take back anything that would load in more salary of less flexibility. I think, unless they are presented with some sweetheart situation, the most likely time for Simons to get moved — again, if he even does — would be at the trade deadline.
“I could see Boston being out of it and another team thinking they need a scorer like Simons to put them over the top. I could see another team that’s close wanting to add that kind of firepower down the stretch and into the playoffs. Even if it’s a rental, a team might go for him, because what we’re seeing now with the second apron and all that, if you win, it’s hard to keep a team with high-priced guys together. An expiring deal is so valuable.”
We have more notes from around the Atlantic:
- Celtics big man Neemias Queta came up big in Portugal’s first game of EuroBasket, piling up 23 points and 18 rebounds en route to a 62-50 victory over Czechia, as Semih Tuna of Eurohoops details. Queta, who may get a chance to compete for a starting role in Boston this fall, has a tougher matchup ahead of him on Friday when the Portuguese team takes on Nikola Jokic and the Serbians.
- C.J. Holmes of The New York Daily News (subscription required) considers the ways in which the Nets might use their remaining cap room, suggesting a deal with the Mavericks – who are looking to move off some salary to make room to sign Dante Exum – could be a logical fit for Brooklyn.
- The Delaware Blue Coats, the Sixers‘ G League affiliate, completed a three-team trade with the South Bay Lakers and Birmingham Squadron (Pelicans) that saw them acquire the returning rights to Malcolm Hill and South Bay’s 2026 first-round pick, the team announced (Twitter link). One of the outgoing pieces in the deal was the rights to Jared Brownridge, the former Santa Clara shooting guard who has played for Delaware since going undrafted in 2017. He ranks third all-time with 663 three-pointers made in G League regular season games.
Five Teams Without The Ability To Sign A 15th Man
While exceptions are permitted for up to two weeks at a time and up to 28 total days in a given season, an NBA team is generally required to carry at least 14 players on standard contracts.
The maximum standard roster size is 15 players, and many clubs will carry a full 15-man squad into the regular season -- the Thunder, Grizzlies, Trail Blazers, Hornets, Jazz, and Wizards all already have at least 15 players on guaranteed contracts, for example.
But a number of teams will leave their 15th roster spot open at the start of the season to maximize their roster and financial flexibility. And a handful of clubs are expected to leave that 15th spot unfilled because they literally don't have the ability to fill it -- currently, five teams are operating so closer to their respective hard caps that they're unable to legally sign a 15th man to their rosters.
We're taking a closer look at those five clubs in the space below, exploring how much wiggle room they have below their hard caps, how they got to this point, and when they'll be able to add a 15th player if their cap situations remain unchanged.
Jose Alvarado Exits AmeriCup Game On Stretcher
Competing for Puerto Rico on Thursday in the quarterfinals of the 2025 AmeriCup, Pelicans guard Jose Alvarado took a hard fall to the court in overtime and had to be taken off the court on a stretcher (Twitter video links).
As Rod Walker of NOLA.com writes, Alvarado lost his balance while battling for a rebound and appeared to land on his tailbone when he hit the floor. He stayed on the court for a few minutes after the play in obvious pain before being carted off on a stretcher.
Prior to his injury, Alvarado was helping to keep the Puerto Rican team in Thursday’s quarterfinal, pouring in 25 points in 36 minutes of action and making 7-of-15 three-pointers. Puerto Rico ultimately fell short in overtime, losing 82-77 to Argentina, who will face Canada in a semifinal on Saturday.
“Appreciate the love, y’all. But your boy good,” Alvarado wrote in his Instagram story after the game (hat tip to Walker). “God got me.”
While there has been no official update yet on his status, Alvarado projected confidence in that social media post that he avoided a serious injury, which would be a relief for the Pelicans. The team is coming off a season that was essentially a write-off due to a series of health issues affecting key players, with Dejounte Murray (Achilles), Trey Murphy III (shoulder), and Herbert Jones (shoulder) among those recovering this summer from various surgeries.
Alvarado was one of the Pelicans regulars afflicted by the injury bug in 2024/25, having missed over a month-and-a-half from mid-November to early January due to a hamstring strain. However, he was healthy and available for most of the rest of the season, appearing in 56 games and posting 10.3 points, 4.6 assists, 2.4 rebounds, and 1.3 steals in 24.4 minutes per night. All of those averages were career highs.
Alvarado is entering the first season of the two-year, $9MM extension he signed last September. He’ll make $4.5MM in 2025/26 before making a decision on a $4.5MM player option next June.
Western Notes: Connelly, Washington, Jerome, Beal
Timberwolves president of basketball operations Tim Connelly had the ability to opt out of his contract with the team this offseason but chose not to do so, as Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic tweets.
When Connelly was hired by the Wolves in 2022, he received a five-year deal that included an opt-out clause after the second season. He and the team agreed in 2024 to push that opt-out back by a year with the ownership situation still up in the air, but now that Marc Lore and Alex Rodriguez have assumed majority control, Connelly decided not to take advantage of the clause this summer.
Since he’s still on his initial five-year deal, Connelly is under contract with the Wolves for two more seasons, Krawczynski notes. Assuming Lore and Rodriguez are satisfied with the job he has done, the veteran executive figures to be an extension candidate in 2026.
Here’s more from around the Western Conference:
- With P.J. Washington set to become extension-eligible on Friday, Mike Curtis of The Dallas Morning News weighs the pros and cons of a new deal for Washington from the Mavericks‘ perspective. Like NBA insider Marc Stein, Curtis has heard that an extension for Washington is likely, though he cautions that the exact terms of the deal remain unclear. Washington would be eligible to receive up to nearly $89MM over four years.
- The Grizzlies need elite shooting, two-way play-making, and swagger from newcomer Ty Jerome, according to Damichael Cole of The Memphis Commercial Appeal, who takes a closer look at the veteran guard to whom the team devoted its full room exception.
- Appearing on Shannon Sharpe’s Club Shay Shay podcast, Clippers head coach Tyronn Lue pointed out that Bradley Beal put up “unbelievable stats” for the Suns over the past two seasons but was “overshadowed” as the third option behind stars Kevin Durant and Devin Booker (hat tip to Duane Rankin of The Arizona Republic). “I think by coming here, I think it’s a fresh start and I think he’s going to be great for us,” Lue said of Beal, who signed with the Clippers after being bought out by Phoenix.
And-Ones: Fall, F. Jackson, Z. Simpson, ESPN
The Ningbo Rockets of the Chinese Basketball Association have added a trio of former NBA players for the 2025/26 season, according to Alberto De Roa of HoopsHype. Center Tacko Fall and guards Frank Jackson and Zavier Simpson have reportedly joined the CBA team.
Fall, a 7’6″ big man who appeared in 37 NBA games for the Celtics and Cavaliers from 2019-22, is no stranger to China’s basketball league, having spent time with the Xinjiang Flying Tigers and Nanjing Monkey Kings since he last played in the NBA. He also had a stint with the New Zealand Breakers last season.
Jackson has also played in the CBA with the Shanxi Loongs and Jiangsu Dragons, while Simpson will be playing in the country for the first time after spending last season in Romania. Jackson, a 2017 second-round pick, has appeared in 214 NBA regular season games, but has been out of the league since March 2023. Simpson made seven appearances for the Grizzlies on a pair of 10-day contracts near the end of the 2023/24 season after playing four times for Oklahoma City in ’21/22.
Here are more odds and ends from around the basketball world:
- ESPN is making a change to its top broadcasting team for the 2025/26 NBA season and 2026 NBA Finals, according to Andrew Marchand of The Athletic, who reports that Tim Legler will replace Doris Burke alongside Mike Breen and Richard Jefferson. However, Burke has signed a multiyear extension with ESPN and will be on ESPN’s No. 2 NBA broadcast team with play-by-play man Dave Pasch.
- An ESPN panel of NBA experts is forecasting the Cavaliers to win an Eastern Conference-high 59 games in 2025/26, with the Knicks (54-28), Magic (50-32), Hawks (47-35), and Pistons (47-35) rounding out the top five. ESPN’s projections have the Bucks, Celtics, Sixers, Heat, and Pacers battling for the final playoff spot and play-in seeding. Over in the West, ESPN’s forecast calls for the Thunder (64 wins) to repeat as the conference’s No. 1 seed, followed by the Rockets (54-28), Nuggets (53-29), Timberwolves (51-31), Clippers (50-32), and Lakers (50-32).
- Unsurprisingly, in a separate story predicting next season’s conference and NBA champions, ESPN’s panel picks the Cavaliers and Thunder as the favorites to meet in the NBA Finals, with Oklahoma City repeating as champions. For what it’s worth, the Nuggets received the second-most votes as potential champs, followed by Cleveland, the Rockets, and the Knicks.