Wizards, Pelicans, Rockets Compete Three-Team Trade
As expected, the Wizards have rolled a pair of trade agreements with the Pelicans and Rockets into the same deal, officially completing the two deals as a single three-team transaction, per a press release from New Orleans.
The terms of the trade are as follows:
Wizards acquire CJ McCollum, Kelly Olynyk, Cam Whitmore, and the Bulls’ 2027 second-round pick (from Pelicans).- Pelicans acquire Jordan Poole, Saddiq Bey, and the draft rights to Micah Peavy (No. 40 pick).
- Rockets acquire the draft rights to Mojave King, the Bulls’ 2026 second-round pick (from Wizards) and the Kings’ 2029 second-round pick (from Wizards).
The original trade agreement between Washington and New Orleans was reached on June 24, a day before the first round of the draft, with the Whitmore deal between Houston and Washington just agreed upon yesterday.
It was beneficial for the Wizards to combine the two deals into a single trade because they were sending out any matching salary to the Rockets for Whitmore. While they could have used one of several cap exceptions they had on hand to take on Whitmore’s $3.54MM salary for 2025/26, including him in this deal allows them to use their 125% allowance for Poole’s and Bey’s outgoing salary to acquire him, McCollum, and Olynyk.
The only new part of this deal is the Rockets acquiring the draft rights to King from New Orleans, which was necessary to ensure that Houston and New Orleans were “touching” as part of the three-team deal.
You can read our original story on the Wizards/Pelicans deal headlined by McCollum and Poole here, while our report on the Wizards’ deal for Whitmore is here.
NBA’s 2025 July Moratorium Ends
The NBA’s 2025 July moratorium has officially ended, as of 11:00 am Central time, meaning teams are now allowed to conduct all official business. The moratorium is the period at the start of the NBA league year when teams are permitted to agree to trades and free agent contracts, but can’t yet formally finalize them.
[RELATED: 2025 NBA Free Agent Tracker]
There are a number of types of deals that can be completed during the moratorium, as we’ve seen since Tuesday. Teams can sign first- or second-round picks to their rookie contracts, two-way contracts can be made official, and players signing minimum-salary contracts can also finalize those deals. Still, the majority of the deals agreed upon since the end of the NBA Finals are not yet official.
Although the end of the moratorium signals the beginning of official business for many teams, those teams aren’t obligated to immediately finalize deals reached during the moratorium. Salary-cap machinations and intertwined trades mean that patience will be required on certain moves.
The Grizzlies, for instance, are signing Santi Aldama to a three-year, $52.5MM contract, but doing so will increase his cap charge from approximately $11.9MM (his cap hold) to over $16MM (his new starting salary). Memphis will wait until it has used up all its cap room and then will go over the cap to complete that signing, so as not to unnecessarily sacrifice needed space.
[RELATED: 2025 NBA Offseason Trades]
Now that the moratorium has lifted, we’ll be updating our stories of contract and trade agreements to reflect when they become official.
Although we typically bump our stories on trades or contract agreements to the top of the site once they’re made official, we don’t want to flood our front page with “old” news today. Instead, we’ll be publishing and updating a single article that tracks which previously reported agreements are officially finalized today, linking back to our original stories on those deals.
If there’s a new development that changes a transaction in a meaningful way – such as multiple trade agreements being rolled into a single deal or a player signing a contract for different terms than initially reported – we’ll provide a separate update on those, either via a new story or by pushing our original story to the top of the site.
2025 NBA Draft Pick Signings
Free agent and trade news has generated the biggest NBA headlines over the last couple weeks, but teams around the league are also taking care of the rookies they drafted on June 25 and 26, signing them to their first NBA contracts. Because cap holds for first-round picks count for 120% of the rookie scale amount instead of 100%, there’s little incentive for teams to wait to lock up their first-rounders.
For first-round picks, rookie contracts are fairly rigid, having essentially been predetermined. The NBA’s rookie-scale structure dictates that first-rounders will be signed to four-year deals, which include two guaranteed years, then team options in years three and four.
The value of those contracts depends on where a player was drafted. This year, No. 1 overall pick Cooper Flagg is in line for a four-year deal worth nearly $63MM, which represents the maximum allowable 120% of his scale amount. No. 30 pick Yanic Konan Niederhauser, on the other hand, is eligible for a four-year contract worth just over $14MM.
The full breakdown of this year’s first-round rookie salaries and contracts can be found right here — if you see a first-rounder listed below as “signed,” you can assume his contract looks like that, unless otherwise indicated.
Second-round picks, meanwhile, aren’t assured of two guaranteed seasons, though some players will receive them. The NBA’s latest Collective Bargaining Agreement introduced a new salary cap exception for second-rounders, which will allow teams to sign those players to contracts of up to four years with a starting salary worth up to the equivalent to the minimum for a two-year veteran. In the past, such a deal would have required cap room or another exception, such as the mid-level.
Some second-rounders won’t sign standard NBA deals immediately. They may get two-way contracts, play in the G League, or head overseas to refine their games while their NBA teams retain their rights. We’ll make note of that below too, wherever it’s applicable.
Here’s a breakdown of 2025’s draft pick signings. This list will continue to be updated as more draftees sign their first NBA contracts:
First round
- Dallas Mavericks: Cooper Flagg, F, Duke: Signed
- San Antonio Spurs: Dylan Harper, G, Rutgers: Signed
- Philadelphia 76ers: VJ Edgecombe, G, Baylor: Signed
- Charlotte Hornets: Kon Knueppel, G/F, Duke: Signed
- Utah Jazz: Ace Bailey, F, Rutgers: Signed
- Washington Wizards: Tre Johnson, G, Texas: Signed
- New Orleans Pelicans: Jeremiah Fears, G, Oklahoma: Signed
- Brooklyn Nets: Egor Demin, G/F, BYU: Signed
- Toronto Raptors: Collin Murray-Boyles, F/C, South Carolina: Signed
- Phoenix Suns: Khaman Maluach, C, Duke: Signed
- Memphis Grizzlies: Cedric Coward, F, Washington State: Signed
- Chicago Bulls: Noa Essengue, F, Ratiopharm Ulm: Signed
- New Orleans Pelicans: Derik Queen, C, Maryland: Signed
- San Antonio Spurs: Carter Bryant, F, Arizona: Signed
- Oklahoma City Thunder: Thomas Sorber, C, Georgetown: Signed
- Portland Trail Blazers: Yang Hansen, C, Qingado: Signed
- Minnesota Timberwolves: Joan Beringer, C, Cedevita Olimpija: Signed
- Utah Jazz: Walter Clayton Jr., G, Florida: Signed
- Brooklyn Nets: Nolan Traore, G, Saint-Quentin: Signed
- Miami Heat: Kasparas Jakucionis, G, Illinois: Signed
- Washington Wizards: Will Riley, G/F, Illinois: Signed
- Brooklyn Nets: Drake Powell, G/F, North Carolina: Signed
- Atlanta Hawks: Asa Newell, F/C, Georgia: Signed
- Sacramento Kings: Nique Clifford, G, Colorado State: Signed
- Orlando Magic: Jase Richardson, G, Michigan State: Signed
- Brooklyn Nets: Ben Saraf, G, Ratiopharm Ulm: Signed
- Brooklyn Nets: Danny Wolf, F, Michigan: Signed
- Boston Celtics: Hugo Gonzalez, G/F, Real Madrid: Signed
- Charlotte Hornets: Liam McNeeley, G/F, UConn: Signed
- Los Angeles Clippers: Yanic Konan Niederhauser, C, Penn State: Signed
Second round
- Phoenix Suns: Rasheer Fleming, F, Saint Joseph’s: Signed
- Four years, $8.69MM. First three years guaranteed. Fourth-year team option.
- Orlando Magic: Noah Penda, F, Le Mans: Signed
- Four years, $8.69MM. First two years guaranteed. Fourth-year team option.
- Charlotte Hornets: Sion James, F, Duke: Signed
- Four years, $9.97MM. First two years guaranteed. Fourth-year team option.
- Charlotte Hornets: Ryan Kalkbrenner, C, Creighton: Signed
- Four years, $9.97MM. First two years guaranteed. Fourth-year team option.
- Philadelphia 76ers: Johni Broome, C, Auburn: Signed
- Four years, $8.69MM. First two years guaranteed. Fourth-year team option.
- Los Angeles Lakers: Adou Thiero, F, Arkansas: Signed
- Three years, $5.95MM. First two years guaranteed. Third-year team option.
- Detroit Pistons: Chaz Lanier, G, Tennessee: Signed
- Four years, $8.79MM. First two years guaranteed. Fourth-year team option.
- Indiana Pacers: Kam Jones, G, Marquette: Signed
- Four years, $8.69MM. First year guaranteed. Second year partially guaranteed. Fourth-year team option.
- Toronto Raptors: Alijah Martin, G, Florida: Signed
- Two-way contract.
- New Orleans Pelicans: Micah Peavy, G/F, Georgetown: Signed
- Four years, $8.69MM. First two years guaranteed. Fourth-year team option.
- Phoenix Suns: Koby Brea, G/F, Kentucky: Signed
- Two-way contract.
- Sacramento Kings: Maxime Raynaud, C, Stanford: Signed
- Three years, $5.95MM. First two years guaranteed. Third-year team option.
- Washington Wizards: Jamir Watkins, G/F, Florida State: Signed
- Two-way contract.
- Oklahoma City Thunder: Brooks Barnhizer, F, Northwestern: Signed
- Two-way contract.
- Minnesota Timberwolves: Rocco Zikarsky, C, Brisbane: Signed
- Two-way contract (two years).
- Boston Celtics: Amari Williams, C, Kentucky: Signed
- Two-way contract.
- Milwaukee Bucks: Bogoljub Markovic, F/C, Mega Basket: Will play overseas
- Memphis Grizzlies: Javon Small, G, West Virginia: Signed
- Two-way contract (two years).
- Cleveland Cavaliers: Tyrese Proctor, G, Duke: Signed
- Four years, $8.69MM. First two years guaranteed. Third year partially guaranteed ($500K). Fourth-year team option.
- Los Angeles Clippers: Kobe Sanders, G/F, Nevada: Signed
- Two-way contract (two years).
- New York Knicks: Mohamed Diawara, F, Cholet: Signed
- One year, non-guaranteed minimum salary (Exhibit 10 contract).
- Golden State Warriors: Alex Toohey, F, Sydney: Signed
- Two-way contract.
- Utah Jazz: John Tonje, F, Wisconsin: Signed
- Two-way contract.
- Indiana Pacers: Taelon Peter, G, Liberty: Signed
- Two-way contract (two years).
- Chicago Bulls: Lachlan Olbrich, F/C, Illawarra: Signed
- Two-way contract.
- Golden State Warriors: Will Richard, G, Florida: Signed
- Four years, $8.69MM. First two years guaranteed. Fourth-year team option.
- Boston Celtics: Max Shulga, G, VCU: Signed
- Two-way contract.
- Cleveland Cavaliers: Saliou Niang, G/F, Trento: Will play overseas
- Memphis Grizzlies: Jahmai Mashack, G/F, Tennessee: Will play in G League
Pelicans Sign First-Rounders Jeremiah Fears, Derik Queen
The Pelicans have officially signed their two 2025 lottery picks, the team confirmed today, announcing in a press release that guard Jeremiah Fears and big man Derik Queen have inked their rookie scale contracts.
Fears, this year’s No. 7 overall pick, raised his stock significantly over the course of his first and only college season at Oklahoma — he didn’t show up at all on ESPN’s 59-player mock draft last November.
The former four-star recruit, who won’t turn 19 years old until October, was among the NCAA’s best ball-handlers and play-makers as a freshman. The 6’4″ guard averaged 17.1 points, 4.1 assists, 4.1 rebounds, and 1.6 steals per game in 34 outings (31 starts), though he knocked down just 28.4% of 3.9 three-point tries per game for the Sooners.
Queen, meanwhile, was selected with the 13th overall pick after the Pelicans sent Atlanta this year’s No. 23 pick and an unprotected 2026 first-rounder (the most favorable of New Orleans’ and Milwaukee’s picks) for the right to draft the Maryland big man.
Queen was highly productive in his freshman season with the Terrapins, averaging 16.5 points, 9.0 rebounds, 1.9 assists, 1.1 steals and 1.1 blocks in 30.4 minutes per contest across 36 total games. He helped guide Maryland to a 27-9 record and a spot in the Sweet 16, scoring 27 points in a loss to Florida, the eventual national champions.
As our breakdown of this year’s rookie scale shows, Fears will likely earn $7.5MM as a rookie and $34.2MM over the course of his four-year rookie contract. Queen should make $5.2MM in year one and $24.4MM in total.
Rockets To Trade Cam Whitmore To Wizards
The Rockets have agreed to trade forward Cam Whitmore to the Wizards, reports Shams Charania of ESPN (Twitter link). According to Charania, Houston will acquire a pair of second-round picks in return.
Whitmore, a Maryland native who will turn 21 on Tuesday, was selected out of Villanova with the 20th overall pick in the 2023 draft. It was viewed as a steal at the time for the Rockets, given that the 6’7″ forward was widely viewed as a top-10 – or even top-five – pick leading up to the draft.
However, while Whitmore flashed some major upside as a scorer off the bench during his first two NBA seasons, he wasn’t able to carve out a consistent role for a deep Rockets team. He made a total of 98 appearances from 2023-25, averaging 10.8 points and 3.4 rebounds in 17.4 minutes per game, with a shooting line of .449/.357/.707.
The Rockets worked with Whitmore and his representatives in recent weeks in an effort to find a new home, per Charania (Twitter link). He should get an opportunity to play more significant – and more consistent – minutes for a rebuilding Wizards team that will be looking for some of its young players to establish themselves as long-term building blocks.
Moving Whitmore will help generate a little extra flexibility below a first-apron hard cap for a Rockets team that was expected to have to part with Whitmore or Jeenathan Williams to stay below that threshold once its reported deals for Kevin Durant and Clint Capela are official.
Houston will acquire Chicago’s 2026 second-round pick and Sacramento’s 2029 second-rounder in the deal, a league source tells Josh Robbins of The Athletic (Twitter link).
The Wizards, meanwhile, have no shortage of cap exceptions they could use to take on Whitmore’s $3.54MM salary without sending back a player themselves, but it sounds like they won’t need to use their mid-level, bi-annual, or existing trade exceptions. Varun Shakar of The Washington Post says this deal is expected to be folded into a larger trade with the Pelicans when it goes official.
Washington will have until October 31 of this year to decide whether or not to exercise Whitmore $5.46MM team option for the 2026/27 season. Assuming the Wizards pick up that option, he’ll become eligible for a rookie scale extension a year from now.
Chicago and Denver were reportedly among the other teams that expressed some level of interest in Whitmore before the Rockets made a deal with Washington.
Free Agency Notes: Yabusele, Knicks, Kings, Beasley, Turner
Guerschon Yabusele‘s two-year deal with the Knicks won’t use the full taxpayer mid-level exception, according to Stefan Bondy of The New York Post (Twitter link).
Yabusele’s slight discount will give New York the ability to fill out its 13th and 14th roster spots with one veteran-minimum contract and one rookie-minimum contract for one of the team’s (current or past) second-round picks while remaining below the team’s hard cap at the second tax apron.
[RELATED: NBA Minimum Salaries For 2025/26]
If Yabusele had received the full taxpayer mid-level, the Knicks would have been roughly $3.53MM below the second apron, so they could have signed one veteran-minimum player ($2.3MM) or one rookie-minimum player ($1.27MM), but not both until after the regular season began.
According to Bondy (Twitter link), Yabusele’s deal with the Knicks should still comfortably exceed the salary the Sixers offered him. Bondy says that Philadelphia’s offer – which Yabusele referred to as “really low” – as being worth the “$2.6MM minimum,” but the Frenchman’s minimum salary this season would actually be $2.4MM, so it’s possible Philadelphia went a little above that amount using his Non-Bird rights.
The 76ers likely didn’t want to hard-cap themselves by using any portion of their taxpayer mid-level exception before Quentin Grimes‘ restricted free agency is resolved.
Here are a few more notes and rumors related to free agency:
- Reporting out of Sacramento earlier this week seemed to suggest the Kings were aggressively pursuing Warriors restricted free agent Jonathan Kuminga, but subsequent reports have suggested nothing is close on that front. According to Matt George of ABC 10 in Sacramento (Twitter link), while the Kings still have interest in Kuminga, they’d be content to complete their Dennis Schröder acquisition and Jonas Valanciunas and then bring that roster into next season. That roster would include both Malik Monk and Devin Carter, who have both been the subject of trade rumors.
- While news of the federal investigation into Malik Beasley for gambling allegations didn’t go public until June 29, the NBA reached out to the Pistons “several” days before free agency opened to let the club know about it, per Mike Vorkunov, Jon Krawczynski, and James L. Edwards III of The Athletic. The two sides had been in talks on a three-year, $42MM contract that would’ve included a third-year team option, but it now seems unlikely that any team would move forward on a deal with Beasley until that investigation is resolved (assuming he’s cleared).
- The Bucks‘ four-year, $107MM agreement with Myles Turner has been the most surprising deal of free agency so far. Eric Nehm of The Athletic takes a closer look at just what it means for Milwaukee, breaking down Turner’s fit with the team at both ends of the court. While Turner has a similar skill set to former starting center Brook Lopez, the former Pacer is younger, more athletic, and more mobile, which should allow him to make a greater impact than Lopez as a screener and defender, Nehm writes.
Sixers Sign Jabari Walker To Two-Way Deal
July 5: The Sixers have officially signed Walker to a two-way contract, the team announced today in a press release.
July 3: Free agent forward Jabari Walker has agreed to sign a two-way contract with the Sixers, reports Shams Charania of ESPN (Twitter link).
The son of former NBA forward Samaki Walker and the 57th overall pick in the 2022 draft out of Colorado, Jabari Walker has spent his first three professional NBA seasons with the Trail Blazers. He played a significant role for the team in 2023/24, averaging 8.9 points and 7.1 rebounds in 23.6 minutes per game across 72 total outings (23 starts).
Walker’s minutes were cut back in ’24/25 following the arrival of Deni Avdija and the emergence of Toumani Camara, but he was a positive contributor in a more limited role, setting career highs in field goal percentage (51.5%) and three-point percentage (38.9%) as he averaged 5.2 PPG and 3.5 RPG in 60 contests (12.5 MPG).
The Blazers had the opportunity to make Walker a restricted free agent by issuing him a $2.58MM qualifying offer over the weekend, but chose not to do so, allowing him to become unrestricted.
Given his age (23 later this month) and experience as a rotation player, I’m a little surprised Walker will end up on a two-way contract, but it’s a nice get for the Sixers, who have made it a priority to get younger this summer. On his two-way deal, the 6’7″ forward will be eligible to be active for up to 50 NBA regular season games. Exceeding that limit – and playing in the postseason – would require a promotion to the standard roster.
Walker will fill Philadelphia’s third and final two-way slot, joining Alex Reese and Hunter Sallis.
Mike Brown Receiving Four-Year Deal From Knicks
Mike Brown‘s new contract with the Knicks will cover four years, according to reports from Casey Powell (aka CP The Fanchise) of Knicks Fan TV and Ian Begley of SNY.tv (Twitter links).
Powell suggests the deal will be in the range of $8-9MM annually, while Begley says it’ll come in slightly higher and will be worth $40MM in total value.
Word first broke on Wednesday that Brown was expected to become the Knicks’ next head coach, with a Friday report indicating that the two sides had verbally agreed on a deal that will be officially finalized early next week.
Brown was fired last season by the Kings during the first season of a three-year deal that paid him $8.5MM annually, so Sacramento will save some money via the set-off clause that applies to NBA head coaching contracts, notes Begley.
The Knicks, meanwhile, fired Tom Thibodeau with three years and $30MM left on his deal.
New York was one of just two teams to make a head coaching change this offseason, joining the Suns, who replaced Mike Budenholzer with Jordan Ott.
Three teams – the Kings (Doug Christie), Grizzlies (Tuomas Iisalo), and Nuggets (David Adelman) – retained their interim head coaches after making in-season changes. A fourth team, San Antonio, officially announced that Mitch Johnson would replace Gregg Popovich on a permanent basis after Johnson served as the Spurs’ head coach for most of 2025/26 while Popovich recovered from a stroke.
Mavericks Adding Mike Penberthy To Coaching Staff
The Mavericks are hiring Mike Penberthy to their coaching staff, sources tell Dave McMenamin of ESPN (Twitter link).
NBA insider Marc Stein first mentioned Penberthy as a target for the Mavericks’ staff on Wednesday, while Grant Afseth of DallasHoopsJournal.com later referred to the team’s interest as “serious.”
Penberthy, who has spent the past three seasons with the Nuggets, is known as a shooting specialist and has earned praise from Mavericks star Anthony Davis for helping him improve as a shooter, Afseth notes. Davis and Penberthy worked together in Los Angeles from 2019-22, when Penberthy was an assistant under Frank Vogel.
The Mavericks are reuniting several members of that Lakers coaching staff for the coming season. Current Dallas head coach Jason Kidd was also an assistant from 2019-21 under Vogel, who will serve as Kidd’s lead assistant in 2025/26. Kidd, Vogel, and Penberthy won a championship together in L.A. in 2020.
Another former Lakers assistant, Phil Handy, who was with the team from 2019-24, is also considered a candidate to join Kidd’s staff, though he’s drawing interest from New York too.
The Mavericks, whose assistants weren’t under contract beyond the 2024/25 season, have been overhauling Kidd’s staff since the season ended. All three of Dallas’ top assistants from last season have found new jobs in recent months, with Sean Sweeney joining the division-rival Spurs as associate head coach, Alex Jensen becoming the head coach at the University of Utah, and Dudley heading to Denver. Player development assistant God Shammgod, who has been with the Mavs since 2019, was also hired away by the Magic.
The Mavericks replaced Sweeney with Vogel, while ex-Raptors and Suns coach Jay Triano is the new No. 2 assistant.
Bulls RFA Giddey Reportedly Still Seeking $30MM Annually
The Bulls and restricted free agent guard Josh Giddey are having “good dialogue” during the first week of free agency, says Joe Cowley of The Chicago Sun-Times (Twitter link).
However, according to Cowley, Giddey’s camp is “dug in” on matching the contract extension Jalen Suggs signed with Orlando last fall.
Reports since October have continually cited an asking price of $30MM annually from Giddey and his reps. Several of 2024’s top rookie scale extension candidates were seeking that same per-year salary at the time, and Suggs and Hawks forward Jalen Johnson ended up at exactly that figure, signing five-year deals worth $150MM apiece.
Giddey didn’t do anything to hurt his case for a big payday in 2024/25. After an up-and-down start as he got acclimated to his new NBA home, the 22-year-old had a huge second half, posting averages of 21.2 points, 10.7 rebounds, 9.3 assists, and 1.5 steals with a shooting line of .500/.457/.809 in his final 19 games, 12 of which were Bulls victories.
Giddey’s full-season averages were 14.6 PPG, 8.1 RPG, 7.2 APG, and 1.2 SPG on .465/.378/.781 shooting. Several of those marks, including the three-point percentage, were career highs.
Still, while Giddey had a strong first season in Chicago and looks like the Bulls’ point guard of the future, he and several of the other top restricted free agents on the market may have a hard time maximizing their earnings this summer with so little cap room available around the league. With no other potential suitors in position to realistically get up to the neighborhood of $30MM per year for Giddey, the Bulls have a good amount of leverage and can afford to be patient.
The Bulls’ front office may also be wary of bidding against itself for Giddey after completing a five-year, $90MM deal with former lottery pick Patrick Williams when he was coming off his rookie contract last summer. Chicago reached that agreement before free agency even opened, then saw Williams’ production take a step backwards in the first year of the contract.