Jonas Valanciunas Reportedly Considering Leaving NBA For EuroLeague
5:44 pm: The Nuggets are hoping to convince Valanciunas to remain in the NBA rather than seeking a buyout to play in Europe, tweets Stein.
4:40 pm: The trade between Denver and Sacramento is expected to proceed as planned, according to Jake Fischer of The Stein Line (Twitter link), who says discussions between Valanciunas and the Nuggets about his future remain “fluid” in the wake of the lucrative offer he received from Panathinaikos.
3:43 pm: Veteran center Jonas Valanciunas is close to accepting a three-year contract offer worth 12 million Euros from the Greek team Panathinaikos, according to a report from Donatas Urbonas and Karolis Tiskevicius of BasketNews.com.
League sources confirm to NBA insider Marc Stein (Twitter link) that a possible return to Europe holds “strong appeal” to Valanciunas.
Valanciunas, who has been in the NBA since 2012, remains under contract for two more seasons, with a $10.4MM guaranteed salary for 2025/26 and a $10MM non-guaranteed salary for ’26/27. In other words, he can’t freely sign with Panathinaikos without extricating himself from that deal.
He’s also in the process of changing NBA teams. The Kings and Nuggets agreed to a trade on Tuesday that would sent the Lithuanian big man to Denver in exchange for Dario Saric, but it can’t be finalized until after the July moratorium lifts on Sunday.
It’s unclear if Valanciunas’ rumored move to Athens would scuttle that deal, or if the two teams would still go through with the trade and Valanciunas would subsequently look to complete a buyout with the Nuggets. I’d bet on the latter.
Former EuroLeague MVP Sasha Vezenkov was in a similar situation last offseason — as rumors about his possible return to Europe swirled, he was traded from Sacramento to Toronto, where he eventually agreed to a buyout with the Raptors that saw him give up all of his remaining guaranteed salary ($6.7MM) so that he could sign with Olympiacos in Greece.
If the Valanciunas situation plays out in a similar fashion, the Nuggets could end up creating some cap savings as a result of a buyout, but they’d be losing a player they’d identified as a reliable backup for superstar Nikola Jokic and would have to return to the trade market and/or free agency to find someone else to fill that slot.
Valanciunas, the No. 5 overall pick in the 2011 draft, has nearly averaged a double-double across 937 regular season games, with 13.1 points and 9.3 rebounds per game. In 81 outings for Washington and Sacramento last season, he put up 10.4 points, 7.7 rebounds, and 2.0 assists in 18.8 minutes per night.
Suns Discussing Possible Bradley Beal Buyout
The Suns have been discussing a potential buyout of the two years left on Bradley Beal‘s contract, reports Duane Rankin of The Arizona Republic.
Beal was the subject of trade rumors throughout the 2024/25 season and those rumors have carried over to the offseason. However, the $110.8MM he’s owed over the next two years have made it extremely difficult to find a trade partner, and the no-trade clause Beal holds further limits the Suns’ leverage, since he would need to approve any move.
As a result, a buyout has been viewed as the most likely path to a split between Beal and the Suns this summer.
If Beal is willing to give back some of that $110.8MM, it could also open the door for Phoenix to use the stretch provision to spread his remaining cap hits over the next five years instead of two, like Milwaukee is doing with Damian Lillard. That would create significant short-term savings for the Suns – an estimated $230MM, per cap expert Yossi Gozalan (Twitter link) – by taking their team salary from above the second tax apron to all the way under the luxury tax line.
NBA rules prohibit a team from carrying stretching a contract if it will result in dead money in a future cap year that exceeds 15% of the current season’s salary cap. Since the cap for 2025/26 was set at $154,647,000, that means no club can have more than $23,197,050 in stretched dead money on its books in ’26/27 or beyond.
Stretching the $110,794,880 owed to Beal across five seasons would result in annual cap hits of $22,158,976, which would fit within that limit. But Phoenix already has $3,814,041 in stretched salary on its cap through ’26/27 related to last year’s cuts of Nassir Little and E.J. Liddell.
In order to sneak below that 15% threshold to legally stretch Beal’s contract, the team would need him to give up at least $13,879,835. For the 32-year-old to consider that, he’d probably have to feel comfortable about making up most or all of that money on a deal with a new team across the next two seasons.
If Beal were bought out, any of the NBA’s other 29 teams could legally sign him. The Collective Bargaining Agreement prevent teams operating over the tax aprons from signing a waived player if his pre-waiver salary exceeds the value of the non-taxpayer mid-level exception ($14.1MM this year), but that rule only applies to players waived and signed during the regular season.
If the Suns were to use the stretch provision on Beal’s salary, they would be ineligible to re-sign him until July 2027, after his contract would have expired.
Pelicans Waive Antonio Reeves
One year after drafting him with the 47th overall pick, the Pelicans have waived guard Antonio Reeves, per Michael Scotto of HoopsHype (Twitter link).
Reeves, 24, appeared in 44 games as a rookie in New Orleans, averaging 6.9 points and 1.4 rebounds in 15.0 minutes per game, with a solid shooting line of .456/.395/.800. He also excelled at the G League level, putting up 24.9 PPG and 5.8 RPG on .470/.416/.800 shooting in 11 appearances for the Birmingham Squadron.
However, the Pelicans’ front office has undergone several changes since Reeves was drafted in 2024, so the new group of decision-makers – led by executive VP of basketball operations Joe Dumars – have decided not to retain the former Kentucky standout.
Reeves’ $1.96MM salary for the 2025/26 season was non-guaranteed until July 23, so the Pelicans will create some minor cap savings as a result of the transaction.
Thunder Sign Thomas Sorber, Brooks Barnhinzer
The Thunder have signed first-round pick Thomas Sorber to his rookie scale contract, the team announced today in a press release.
Sorber, who stands 6’9″ with an impressive 7’6″ wingspan, was selected 15th overall last Wednesday by Oklahoma City a strong freshman year for Georgetown in 2024/25. He served as the team’s starting center and filled up the stat sheet with 14.5 points, 8.5 rebounds, 2.4 assists, 2.0 blocks, and 1.5 steals per game in 24 outings (31.3 MPG) before his season ended early due to a toe injury.
As this year’s No. 15 pick, Sorber is expected to earn $4.66MM in the first year of his contract and a four-year total of $22.51MM. His deal will be guaranteed for the first two seasons, with team options on years three and four.
The Thunder also issued a separate press release confirming that they’ve signed Northwestern’s Brooks Barnhizer to a two-way contract. That had been the anticipated move, since Oklahoma City doesn’t have room on its standard 15-man roster for the No. 44 overall pick.
Barnhizer became automatically draft-eligible this spring after spending his full four-year college career playing for the Wildcats. He put up his best numbers as a senior in 2024/25, averaging 17.1 points, 8.8 rebounds, 4.2 assists, 2.3 steals, and 1.1 blocks in 36.9 minutes per contest across 17 starts. However, he didn’t play after January 29 as a result of a foot injury.
Rockets Waiving Jock Landale
The Rockets will waive center Jock Landale before his $8MM salary for the 2025/26 season becomes guaranteed, according to Shams Charania of ESPN (Twitter link).
Charania adds that Landale will sign with his “preferred destination” after clearing waivers, while Kelly Iko of The Athletic says (via Twitter) a number of teams have expressed interest in him.
Landale was signed by Houston in 2023 to a four-year, $32MM contract that included just one fully guaranteed season. However, the Rockets – who were operating well below the luxury tax line, hung onto him for the second year of the deal in 2024/25, even though he played a limited role for the team behind Alperen Sengun and Steven Adams in the frontcourt.
The 29-year-old averaged 4.8 points and 3.3 rebounds in 11.9 minutes per game across 42 outings (three starts) this past season.
With Sengun and Adams returning and Clint Capela joining the frontcourt mix, there was no place in the rotation going forward for Landale, and his $8MM annual salary is no longer palatable for the Rockets to carry with the roster getting more expensive. His release had been expected, even after he and the team reached an agreement over the weekend to push his salary guarantee date back to July 7.
Hoops Rumors Chat Transcript: 7/3/2025
We hosted a live chat today at 1:00 pm Central time (2:00 pm Eastern) to discuss free agency so far and what’s still to come.
Kings’ Nique Clifford Signs Rookie Contract
Former Colorado State guard Nique Clifford, the No. 24 pick in this year’s draft, has signed his rookie scale contract with the Kings, per the official transaction log at NBA.com.
Assuming he gets the maximum allowable 120% of the rookie scale, which is typical, Clifford will earn a salary of $3.11MM as a rookie and will make $15.77MM across his first four NBA seasons as long as his third- and fourth-year team options are eventually exercised.
The Kings didn’t enter draft day with a first-round pick, but made a deal last Wednesday night to acquire the 24th overall selection from Oklahoma City, sending a protected 2027 Spurs first-rounder to the Thunder in the trade. They used it to draft Clifford, one of the most NBA-ready players in the first round.
While he didn’t post big numbers earlier in his five-year college career, Clifford came on strong over the past couple seasons. In 2024/25, he nearly averaged a double-double, with 18.9 points, 9.6 rebounds, 4.4 assists, and 1.2 steals in 35.4 minutes per game across 36 starts, with a .496/.377/.777 shooting line.
The 6’5″ swingman had one of the best rebounding seasons for a wing in NCAA history for the Rams, according to Jonathan Givony of ESPN, and has earned comparisons to Knicks forward Josh Hart due to his versatility.
Hawks Sign Asa Newell To Rookie Scale Contract
The Hawks have officially signed first-round pick Asa Newell to his rookie scale contract, according to NBA.com’s transaction log.
Atlanta selected Newell at No. 23 after reaching a trade agreement with New Orleans to trade down from No. 13. Reporting on draft night indicated that the Hawks considered the Atlanta native with that 13th overall pick, so they were thrilled when he was still on the board 10 spots later.
Newell, meanwhile, was excited to land with his hometown team, telling reporters after the draft that he “knew deep in my heart that I really wanted to go to the Hawks.”
A 6’10” forward/center, Newell played his first and only college season at Georgia, averaging 15.4 points, 6.9 rebounds, 1.0 steal, and 1.0 block in 29.0 minutes per game while making 54.3% of his field goal attempts.
Assuming he signs for the maximum allowable 120% of his rookie scale amount, which nearly every first-rounder does, Newell will earn $3.24MM in his first NBA season and a total of $16.24MM across the course of his four-year deal.
Kings Rumors: Sabonis, Schröder, Kuminga, Monk
While a number of Kings rotation starter- or rotation-level veterans, including Malik Monk, DeMar DeRozan, and Zach LaVine, are viewed as potential trade candidates, as ESPN’s Bobby Marks notes (YouTube link), center Domantas Sabonis remains unlikely to be moved.
When Sabonis spoke after the season about wanting to meet with the new lead basketball operations executives – including general manager Scott Perry – to discuss the future, there was speculation about the possibility that he might ask for a trade, but there has been no indication that will happen this summer, Sam Amick of The Athletic confirmed during an appearance on The Carmichael Dave Show with Jason Ross (YouTube link).
“So far, he’s been signaling patience and had good conversations with the new front office,” Amick said of Sabonis. “The (Dennis) Schröder move to me is an interesting one in the context of Domas, because for the short term, I could see Domas saying, ‘Listen, I just want to feel like I have a chance every night, and now you’ve got me a point guard.’
“They’ve still got to figure out the fact that you have so many guys who like to score the ball, and Domas wants to get back to the higher usage that he had a couple years ago. So it’s still not even close to perfect, but it’s enough that nobody’s causing a ruckus and they’re just trying to wait and see what the roster looks like in the next couple months.”
We have more on the Kings:
- Echoing reporting from Tuesday night about the Kings’ sign-and-trade talks for Warriors restricted free agent Jonathan Kuminga, Ali Thanawalla and Tristi Rodriguez of NBC Sports Bay Area say Sacramento has talked about sending out Devin Carter, Dario Saric, and two second-round picks in a package for Kuminga. However, Amick hears that the Kings have made “zero progress” toward finalizing a deal (Twitter link). That makes sense, considering that would be a pretty light return for a Golden State team believed to be seeking at least one reliable rotation player in any Kuminga sign-and-trade.
- The idea that the Kings, Warriors, and Pistons are seriously discussing a three-team trade that would see both Kuminga and Schröder signed-and-traded to Sacramento is “totally false,” a source tells Jason Anderson of The Sacramento Bee. Although the Kings have interest in Kuminga, those talks are unrelated to their deal for Schröder, according to Anderson.
- According to Thanawalla and Rodriguez of NBC Sports Bay Area, the Kings are considered more likely than not to part ways with Monk this offseason and haven’t closed the door on sending him to Detroit in the Schröder sign-and-trade. However, reports of Monk’s potential inclusion seem to be coming entirely from Sacramento-based outlets rather than the Detroit side, so it sounds like the Kings have more interest in including Monk in that deal than the Pistons do.
Chris Duarte Signs With Spanish Team
Former NBA first-round pick Chris Duarte has signed with Unicaja Malaga, the Spanish club announced in a press release. It’s a two-year deal for Duarte, with a team option on the second year.
Duarte, 28, was selected 13th overall in the 2021 draft out of Oregon and spent his first two seasons in Indiana before moving on to Sacramento and then Chicago.
The 6’5″ wing had a promising rookie year for the Pacers in 2021/22, posting 13.1 points per game with a 36.9% mark on three-pointers, but saw his playing time and production dwindle in the following years. In ’24/25, he averaged just 4.4 minutes per night across 17 appearance for the Bulls before waived in early February to accommodate the incoming players in the Zach LaVine trade.
A native of the Dominican Republic, Duarte joined the Puerto Rican team Vaqueros de Bayamon in March and averaged 19.5 points, 4.9 rebounds, and 4.8 assists with a .383 3PT% in 28 games. Now, he’ll head to Europe for the first time in his playing career.
Duarte will be joining a Unicaja Malaga squad that is coming off winning its second consecutive title in the FIBA Champions League. The club also finished fourth in the Liga ACB standings with a 23-11 record and advanced to the semifinals in the Spanish league’s postseason before being eliminated by Real Madrid, the eventual champs.