Kings Officially Announce Doug Christie’s Coaching Staff
After removing the interim tag from head coach Doug Christie and signing him to a new multiyear contract earlier this offseason, the Kings have finalized and formally announced the coaching staff that will be working with Christie in 2025/26.
Here’s the team’s new-look staff, per a press release from the team, with links to our stories on the assistants whose deals were previously reported:
- Associate head coach Mike Woodson (story)
- Assistant coach Bobby Jackson (story)
- Assistant coach Mike Miller (story)
- Note: This is the former Knicks interim head coach, not the former Heat player.
- Assistant coach Chris Darnell (story)
- Assistant coach Leandro Barbosa (story)
- Assistant coach/player development Dipesh Mistry
- Head of player development Paul Jesperson (story)
- Player development coach Jimmy Alapag
- Player development coach Garrius Adams (story)
- Coaching assistant/advance scout Will Scott
- Head video coordinator Shandon Goldman
- Assistant video coordinator Steph Ingo
“I’m excited for the opportunity to work alongside such a talented and experienced coaching staff – a group that truly reflects our values and the culture we’re building,” Christie said in a statement. “Their passion and leadership will shape not just how we play, but who we become as a team. I’m looking forward to the season ahead.”
According to Sean Cunningham of NBC Sacramento (Twitter link), Mistry will be the head coach of Sacramento’s Summer League team in July. He’s one of several names on the above list who is a carry-over from Mike Brown‘s staff. Among the front-of-bench assistants, Barbosa fits that bill too, while Woodson, Jackson, Miller, and Darnell are new additions.
Heat Pick Up Johnson’s Option; Give QOs To Mitchell, Smith
The Heat have completed a series of roster moves, according to reports from Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald and Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun Sentinel. Those moves are as follows:
Exercised their team option on Keshad Johnson ($1,955,377).- Issued a qualifying offer to Davion Mitchell ($8,741,210), making him a restricted free agent.
- Issued a qualifying offer to Dru Smith (two-way), making him a restricted free agent.
Johnson, who celebrated his 24th birthday on Monday, played a limited role for the Heat as a rookie, appearing in just 16 games and logging 98 total minutes at the NBA level. However, he impressed in the G League, with averages of 17.6 points, 8.3 rebounds, and 2.3 assists in 35.1 minutes per game across 32 appearances for the Sioux Falls Skyforce. The undrafted rookie earned a promotion from his two-way contract to the standard roster in December.
While some team options remain non-guaranteed after they’re exercised, that’s not the case for Johnson, whose $1.96MM salary for 2025/26 is now fully guaranteed. He’s on track to be eligible for restricted free agency during the summer of 2026.
Mitchell, a former ninth overall pick who has always had a reputation as a tenacious defender, earned his qualifying offer by emerging as an offensive weapon during the second half of the ’24/25 season.
After being traded from Toronto to Houston, the 26-year-old averaged 10.3 points and 5.3 assists per game with a .504/.447/.702 shooting line in 30 regular season outings for the Heat. He was even better in the postseason, making 59.3% of his field goal attempts and 52.0% of his three-pointers with averages of 15.2 PPG and 6.5 APG in six play-in and playoff outings.
Mitchell, who ranks 28th on our top-50 free agent list, will have the option of accepting his $8.7MM qualifying offer, which would set him up to become an unrestricted free agent in 2026. However, he’ll likely explore a multiyear deal with the Heat or another team. If he signs an offer sheet with a rival suitor, Miami would have the opportunity to match it.
Smith had his 2024/25 cut short due to a torn Achilles, but has always been a Heat favorite and will apparently have the opportunity to return on another two-way contract. He was the only one of three Miami two-way players to receive a qualifying offer — it doesn’t appear Isaiah Stevens will get one, while Josh Christopher was ineligible for a QO.
Langdon: Pistons Unlikely To Be ‘Super Aggressive’ This Offseason
Speaking on Tuesday to reporters, including Omari Sankofa II of The Detroit Free Press (Twitter links), Pistons general manager Trajan Langdon said he doesn’t anticipate that the team will do anything too drastic in free agency or on the trade market this summer after improving its record by 30 wins in 2024/25.
The second-year GM suggested the Pistons are more likely to focus on retaining their own free agents and making some tweaks around the edges of the roster rather than taking a big swing.
“We’re not going to be super aggressive this summer, I don’t think,” Langdon said. “I don’t foresee any of that. It’s just developing from within and hopefully keep the guys we brought in last year.”
According to Langdon, the uncertainty in the Eastern Conference – where three of the top five finishers from this past season will have a star player miss most or all of 2025/26 due to a torn Achilles – has “provoked thought” about Detroit’s ability to take another step forward, but hasn’t altered the team’s plans.
“I don’t think we want to be locked in and push our chips in,” Langdon said, per Sankofa (Twitter link). “… We want to keep that optionality … I think we will see growth from this year to next year and that’s what’s important for us.”
Here are a few more highlights from Langdon’s press conference:
- Specifically addressing their trio of veteran free agents – Malik Beasley, Dennis Schröder, and Tim Hardaway Jr. – Langdon said the Pistons want to re-sign all three players but won’t be able to fully control the situation, since they’ll be unrestricted FAs (Twitter link via Sankofa). “We have stated that we’re interested and they’re interested in us,” Langdon said, “but agents have to do their job and survey the market and see what’s there, and hopefully we can see those guys back.”
- Jaden Ivey (left leg) and Isaiah Stewart (right knee) wouldn’t necessarily be a “full go” if the Pistons were playing a game today, but both players will be ready for training camp, Langdon confirmed (Twitter link via Sankofa).
- Langdon declined to get into specifics when asked about Ivey and Jalen Duren being eligible for rookie scale extensions this offseason, but said the Pistons “value” both players (Twitter link via Sankofa): “Hopefully we can have conversations about (extensions) and if we don’t (extend them), they’ll play the year out and we’ll see from there.”
- Perhaps inspired by seeing his twin brother Amen Thompson earn first-place Defensive Player of the Year votes and claim a spot on the All-Defensive first team, Pistons wing Ausar Thompson has similar aspirations, according to Langdon (Twitter link via Sankofa). “He’s been working his butt off,” the GM said of Ausar, who missed the start of last season while recovering from a blood clot. “He’s been here, been back home, he’s been in the gym. The thing he wants to do at some point is be Defensive Player of the Year. He’s working on his strength, which he couldn’t do last year.”
- The Pistons intend to draft the best available with their No. 37 overall pick, according to Langdon (Twitter link via Sankofa), who is optimistic that the team will “find a player we like at that number” despite the fact that NIL opportunities have resulted in fewer early entrants and weakened that section of the draft to some extent.
Pelicans Trading McCollum, Olynyk To Wizards For Poole, Bey
The Pelicans and Wizards have agreed to a four-player trade, according to Shams Charania of ESPN, who reports (via Twitter) that guard CJ McCollum, forward/center Kelly Olynyk, and a future second-round pick are headed to Washington in exchange for guard Jordan Poole, forward Saddiq Bey, and the No. 40 overall pick in this year’s draft.
Both McCollum ($30.7MM) and Olynyk ($13.4MM) will be on expiring contracts in 2025/26, so this move will significantly increase the Wizards’ projected 2026 cap room. They were already going to have a lot of money coming off their books next summer, with Khris Middleton ($33.3MM), Marcus Smart ($21.6MM), and potentially Richaun Holmes ($13.3MM; mostly non-guaranteed) also on expiring deals.
Corey Kispert‘s $14MM is now the only fully guaranteed salary on Washington’s cap for 2026/27, though a handful of players on rookie scale contracts will join him once the Wizards officially pick up their ’26/27 options later this year. The team currently projects to have more than $80MM in cap room next summer, per Yossi Gozlan of The Third Apron (Twitter link), and possibly up to $100MM, according to Charania.
In addition to generating future cap flexibility, the Wizards will add a pair of respected veterans who are still playing pretty good basketball.
While McCollum is an undersized shooting guard who isn’t a great defender, he put up 21.1 points and 4.1 assists per game this past season on .444/.373/.717 shooting in 56 contests (all starts). Olynyk, who was traded from Toronto to New Orleans in February, battled injuries that limited him to 44 appearances, but posted respectable averages of 8.7 PPG, 4.7 RPG, and 2.9 APG in 20.3 MPG and made 41.8% of his three-point tries.
Although neither player has substantial trade value, both should be movable later this offseason or during the season if the Wizards aren’t committed to keeping them for the entire 2025/26 campaign.
According to Josh Robbins of The Athletic (Twitter link), the second-round pick going to Washington in the deal is Chicago’s 2027 second-rounder. The Wizards were actually already going to receive that pick if it were to land in the top 50, but now they’ll get it no matter where it ends up, rather than the Pelicans receiving it if it’s between 51 and 60.
As for the Pelicans, they’re sacrificing some 2026 cap flexibility in the trade, but will move a little further below next season’s luxury tax line and get younger by acquiring Poole and Bey.
Poole, who turned 26 last Thursday, had a strong bounce-back year in D.C. in 2024/25 after a shaky first season with the Wizards. He averaged 20.5 points, 4.5 assists, and 3.0 rebounds in 29.4 minutes per game, with a shooting line of .432/.378/.883.
Like McCollum, Poole isn’t exactly a lock-down defender, but the former Warrior been pretty effective with the ball in his hands and should help New Orleans replace some of the play-making the team lost when Dejounte Murray tore his Achilles midway through the ’24/25 season — Murray’s recovery process is expected to extend into next season.
Poole is owed roughly $65.9MM over the next two years, with $4.25MM in annual incentives ($8.5MM in total) that count toward the tax apron, but not the cap. Bey has two seasons and $12.6MM left on his contract, with $333K in unlikely incentives each year.
Acquiring the duo in exchange for McCollum and Olynyk will reduce New Orleans’ team salary by about $6MM for cap/tax purposes, giving the club some extra breathing room to make additional moves.
Bey showed some real promise as a three-and-D wing in Detroit and Atlanta earlier in his career, but struggled with his outside shot for the Hawks in 2023/24 and tore his ACL near the end of that season, which cost him the entire ’24/25 campaign. He’ll be looking to make his comeback to the court this fall at age 26.
The trade is the second one the Pelicans have made within the last week to add 2025 draft capital. The club previously acquired a first-round pick from the Pacers in exchange for a 2026 first-rounder and now has the seventh, 23rd, and 40th overall picks entering this week’s draft.
The deal won’t become official until July due to Washington’s position relative to the first tax apron, notes ESPN’s Bobby Marks (via Twitter). That means there’s still a possibility it could expand to include more teams and pieces before it’s finalized.
If it’s completed as currently constructed, the Wizards would be hard-capped at the first apron for the 2025/26 season as a result of taking back more salary than they send out.
Blazers’ Matisse Thybulle Opting In For 2025/26
Trail Blazers wing Matisse Thybulle is opting into the final year of his contract by exercising his player option for 2025/26, reports NBA insider Chris Haynes (Twitter link).
Thybulle signed a three-year, $33MM deal with Portland during the summer of 2023 that included a third-year player option worth $11.55MM. By picking up that option, the 28-year-old will guarantee his salary for ’25/26. His decision had been due by the end of the day on Tuesday, so this news was expected.
A defensive ace who earned a spot on the All-Defensive second team in both 2021 and 2022 as a member of the Sixers, Thybulle was dealt from Philadelphia to Portland at the 2023 trade deadline and has been a Blazer since then.
While his offensive production has always lagged well behind his contributions on defense, the former 20th overall pick has been a little more productive in Portland, bumping his three-point percentage to 36.8% after hitting just 32.5% of his attempts from beyond the arc with the 76ers. He has averaged 6.2 points, 2.6 rebounds, and 1.8 steals in 23.6 minutes per game across 102 appearances in Portland.
Thybulle was limited to 15 outings in 2024/25 for health reasons. He underwent a procedure in October, just before the start of the regular season, to address inflammation in his right knee. Although it wasn’t supposed to sideline him for a significant period, he sustained a bad right ankle sprain in late November during his ramp-up process, which set back his recovery and meant he didn’t make his season debut until March 16.
Even after agreeing to trade Anfernee Simons to Boston in a deal for Jrue Holiday, the Blazers will have a significant amount of expiring money on their 2025/26 cap, with Thybulle joining Deandre Ayton ($35.6MM) and Robert Williams ($13.3MM). We’ll see if the front office attempts to turn any more of those expiring deals into a player with multiple years of team control, like it did with Simons.
Draft Notes: Spurs, Newell, Hawks, Essengue, More
The Spurs haven’t entirely shut down trade inquiries on the No. 2 overall pick in this year’s draft, but they still seem likely to end up with Dylan Harper themselves, since no team is expected to meet their high asking price, Kevin O’Connor of Yahoo Sports writes in his latest mock draft.
“They want a ridiculous haul,” one front office executive told O’Connor. “Far more than I’d expect anyone to give up.”
Elsewhere in O’Connor’s mock draft, he cites league sources who say that Georgia forward Asa Newell, the No. 19 prospect on ESPN’s big board, could end up being a lottery pick — O’Connor has him going to Toronto at No. 9.
O’Connor also hears that the Hawks have been exploring a potential move up from No. 13, having even placed calls to teams picking in the top five. They’re targeting a center, O’Connor adds. Based on earlier reporting from Jake Fischer, it sounds like several teams in the back end of the lottery are in the same boat, as Fischer mentioned Phoenix (No. 10), Chicago (No. 12), and San Antonio (No. 14) as clubs eyeing big men.
Here are a few more draft-related notes from around the league:
- French forward Noa Essengue, a potential lottery pick who ranks ninth overall on ESPN’s board, will miss the conclusion of the German League finals in order to travel to New York for this week’s NBA draft, reports Donatas Urbonas of BasketNews.com. His team, Ratiopharm Ulm, holds a 2-1 lead over Bayern Munich in the best-of-five Basketball Bundesliga championship, though the 18-year-old has been playing a pretty limited role in the series. Essengue’s draft-eligible teammate Ben Saraf has had a bigger hand in Ulm’s two victories and is remaining with the team for Tuesday’s Game 4.
- John Hollinger of The Athletic has published his list of this year’s top 75 draft prospects. While there are no surprises at the very top, Hollinger is higher than the consensus on guys like Collin Murray-Boyles (No. 6), Essengue (No. 7), Thomas Sorber (No. 10), and Saraf (No. 15), with Tre Johnson (No. 11) and Ace Bailey (No. 12) ranked outside of his top 10.
- Law Murray of The Athletic identifies some players that might make sense as targets for the Clippers with their 30th and 51st overall picks this week, including point guards like Saraf and Kameron Jones and centers such as Ryan Kalkbrenner and Maxime Raynaud. Rod Walker of NOLA.com, meanwhile, performs a similar exercise with the Pelicans‘ seventh and 23rd overall picks, suggesting that coming away with a duo like center Khaman Maluach and guard Walter Clayton Jr. would make it a successful draft for the team.
- The Thunder recently worked out potential second-round pick Micah Peavy, according to Rylan Stiles of SI.com. The Georgetown wing ranks 54th on ESPN’s board.
Grant Hill Joins NBC As NBA Game Analyst
Hall of Famer Grant Hill is the latest former NBA star to join NBC as a broadcaster for the network’s coverage of the league for the upcoming 2025/26 season. According to a press release, Hill will be a game analyst for NBC and Peacock.
“I’m incredibly excited to join NBC Sports as part of their NBA coverage. The NBA has been such a meaningful part of my life, and I’m grateful for the opportunity to continue sharing the game I love with fans across the country,” Hill said in a statement. “To be part of NBC’s return to the NBA — a network with such a rich basketball legacy — and its debut on Peacock is truly an honor. I can’t wait to get started this fall.”
A seven-time All-Star as a player, Hill suited up for the Pistons, Magic, Suns, and Clippers from 1994-2013 and became a broadcaster following his retirement.
According to Sarah Jean Maher and Richard Deitsch of The Athletic, Hill will continue to work with TNT Sports as a college basketball analyst after signing with NBC. He’ll have plenty on his plate going forward — outside of his broadcasting work, he’s the managing director of the U.S. men’s basketball team and holds minority stakes in a handful of sports franchises, including the NBA’s Hawks.
Hill will join Reggie Miller and Jamal Crawford as game analysts for NBC as the NBA returns to the network next season. Mike Tirico and Noah Eagle will be NBC’s top play-by-play men, with Carmelo Anthony and Vince Carter joining host Maria Taylor for the studio show. All-time great Michael Jordan has also been announced as a special contributor.
Fischer’s Latest: Porzingis, Spurs, Bulls, Suns, Thunder, Rockets
After agreeing on Monday night to trade Jrue Holiday to Portland, Boston continues to explore potential Kristaps Porzingis trades, according to Jake Fischer of The Stein Line (Substack link), who says the Celtics are determined to get positive value for Porzingis and get younger in the process, like they did with the Holiday deal.
In addition to reiterating that the Suns have done due diligence on Porzingis, Fischer identifies the Spurs as one of the teams with some level of interest in the Celtics big man. Fischer cautions that San Antonio may be a long shot to acquire Porzingis, but it certainly seems as if the club will be in the market for frontcourt help, having also been linked to Guerschon Yabusele this week.
According to Fischer, there has been some chatter about the Spurs potentially eyeing a big man with their second lottery pick (No. 14), or even trying to move up from that spot to add more size.
The Bulls, meanwhile, aren’t pursuing Porzingis, but there have been some rival teams wondering if they might do so, Fischer writes, explaining that Chicago is being “increasingly mentioned in connection with various big men.” The Bulls are another team considered a possible trade-up candidate from the late lottery (No. 12) in the hopes of adding a frontcourt player, Fischer adds.
Here’s more from Fischer:
- There’s an expectation that the Suns will be targeting a big man with their newly acquired No. 10 pick. Derik Queen and Danny Wolf are two of the potential targets Fischer has been told to keep an eye on at that spot.
- The Thunder, who control the 15th and 24th overall picks, are being “frequently described” as a team with interest in moving up in the draft, according to Fischer. ESPN’s Jonathan Givony reported something similar during a TV appearance (Twitter video link). Oklahoma City probably isn’t in position to add two first-round picks to its 15-man roster, so a deal involving one or both of those selections seems like a real possibility.
- Noting that that the Thunder talked a little to Houston about the No. 10 pick before the Rockets sent it to Phoenix, Fischer wonders if the Suns would have interest in swapping No. 10 for Nos. 15 and 24 in order to add multiple young prospects to their revamped roster.
- Fischer and Danielle Lerner of The Houston Chronicle (subscription required) both report that the Rockets are exploring trade options to get back into the draft after sending their only 2025 picks (Nos. 10 and 59) to Phoenix. Sources tell Lerner that there are about five prospects, mostly projected first-round picks, that Houston is very high on, so the team could get more aggressive about trading back into the draft if one of those players starts to slide.
2025 NBA Offseason Preview: Indiana Pacers
The Pacers appeared in the Eastern Conference Finals in 2024, but benefited from injuries to key Bucks and Knicks players during the first two rounds, then were swept out of the third round by the Celtics. While they were viewed as a solid team, the Pacers were also a No. 6 seed that had only avoided a play-in game due to a tiebreaker edge over a Philadelphia with an identical regular season record.
In other words, when they decided to run it back with a pretty similar roster in 2024/25, few fans or experts were projecting the Pacers to make another appearance in the conference finals, especially in the wake of a 10-15 start that had them outside of the top 10 in the East in mid-December.
But the Pacers proved during the final four months of the regular season and two-plus months of the postseason that last year's run to the Eastern Finals was no fluke after all. The club went 40-17 following that 10-15 start, ranking in the top seven in both offense and defense during that stretch, and secured a top-four seed in the East with its first 50-win season in over a decade.
Indiana's second consecutive first-round series win over Milwaukee wasn't a surprise this time around, but the results of the next two rounds were -- the Pacers defeated the heavily favored 64-win Cavaliers in five games, then knocked off the higher-seeded Knicks in six games to set up an NBA Finals matchup with the 68-win Thunder. Huge underdogs once again against the league's best regular season team, Indiana pushed Oklahoma City all the way to a Game 7 before its magical playoff run finally came to an end.
The Pacers' depth was a major part of their success. Although Pascal Siakam was the team's leading scorer, he averaged a relatively modest 20.2 points per game in the regular season and 20.5 PPG in the playoffs, with role players like Myles Turner, Bennedict Mathurin, Aaron Nesmith, Obi Toppin, Andrew Nembhard, and T.J. McConnell all helping to carry the scoring load.
Still, while Siakam led Indiana in scoring and the club's depth was arguably its greatest asset, point guard Tyrese Haliburton was its star. Haliburton, who ranked third in the league with 9.2 assists per game, earned a spot on the All-NBA third team, then had one of most clutch playoff runs in recent history, repeatedly hitting game-winning or game-tying shots in the final seconds of fourth quarters to help the Pacers complete improbable comebacks and steal games they had no business winning.
Haliburton's playoff heroics made it all the more heartbreaking that he tore his right Achilles tendon in Game 7 of the Finals vs. the Thunder. Without their star point guard, the Pacers couldn't pull off the upset in Oklahoma City, and now they face the prospect of playing the entire 2025/26 season without him, given that Achilles tears typically sideline NBA players for at least nine-to-12 months.
Just how significantly that injury will affect Indiana's offseason plans is a crucial question that the front office will answer with its actions in the coming days and weeks.
The Pacers' Offseason Plan
During his time as the Pacers' owner, Herb Simon hasn't made a habit of operating at either end of the spectrum too often, having avoided tanking and tax-paying in equal measure. But after his team's unlikely run to the NBA Finals this season, there were rumblings that Simon was preparing to go into luxury tax territory in 2025/26 for the first time in 20 years in order to keep the core of this roster intact.
Celtics To Trade Holiday To Blazers For Simons, Second-Round Picks
The Celtics and Trail Blazers have agreed to a trade that will send Jrue Holiday to Portland in exchange for Anfernee Simons and a pair of second-round picks, reports Shams Charania of ESPN (Twitter link).
The second-rounders going to Boston will be the Knicks’ 2030 pick and the Trail Blazers’ own 2031 selection, according to Jake Fischer of The Stein Line (Twitter link).
The move comes less than two years after the teams got together to make a trade sending Holiday from Portland to Boston in October 2023. In that deal, the Blazers – who had just acquired Holiday from the Bucks in the Damian Lillard blockbuster, acquired Malcolm Brogdon, Robert Williams, and two future first-round picks from the Celtics.
Holiday helped the Celtics win a championship in 2024, but had seen his role dialed back significantly since arriving in Boston, having taken a back seat offensively to higher scorers like Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Derrick White, Kristaps Porzingis, and even Sixth Man of the Year Payton Pritchard.
In 2024/25, Holiday averaged just 11.1 points per game, his lowest mark since his rookie year in 2009/10. He also contributed 4.3 rebounds, 3.9 assists, and 1.1 steals in 30.6 minutes per night, along with a .443/.353/.909 shooting line in 62 outings (all starts).
Given Holiday’s relatively modest role in Boston and a contract that will pay him $32.4MM next season and $104.4MM in total over the next three years, he was considered a strong trade candidate this summer for a Celtics team looking to reduce its payroll.
Boston will do just that in this deal, as Simons is on track to earn approximately $27.7MM in 2025/26, which is the final year of his contract. Although that’s only about $4.7MM less than what Holiday will make, the swap will generate a projected $40MM+ in tax savings for the Celtics, tweets ESPN’s Bobby Marks. Boston is deep in luxury-tax territory and will face more punitive “repeater” taxpayer penalties next season.
The Celtics are still projected to be about $18MM above the second tax apron for ’25/26, per Marks, but they continue to engage in trade discussions involving other players on their roster, sources tell Charania (Twitter link), so more cost-cutting moves are likely coming.
Besides saving some money in the trade, Boston will add a talented 26-year-old guard in Simons, who has averaged 19.9 points and 4.5 assists per game with a .436/.381/.901 shooting line over the past four seasons in Portland since taking on a featured role with the club. Simons should help make up some of the offense the Celtics lost when Tatum went down this spring with an Achilles tear that is expected to sideline him for most or all of next season. Simons will also be eligible to sign a contract extension with the C’s beginning in July.
The Trail Blazers, meanwhile, will bring in a defensive-minded veteran who will help shore up the team’s perimeter defense while serving as a veteran mentor for Scoot Henderson and Shaedon Sharpe, two young guards still on their rookie scale contracts. Holiday turned 35 earlier this month and the back end of his contract could become cumbersome, but Portland presumably believes he can help the team take another step forward after it improved from 21 wins in 2023/24 to 36 victories this past season.
Although Simons was the Blazers’ leading scorer last season, the team had a better net rating when he was off the court (-0.2) than when he was on it (-4.6) and went 8-4 in games he didn’t play.
Assuming the trade doesn’t expand to include additional pieces, the Blazers will become hard-capped at the first tax apron for the 2025/26 league year as a result of taking back more salary than they send out in this deal. The team projects to be roughly $6.6MM below the luxury tax line and $14.7MM below the first apron once the move is finalized, notes Keith Smith of Spotrac (Twitter link).
The Kings, Raptors, and Mavericks were among the other teams who had interest in Holiday, tweets Jared Weiss of The Athletic. They’ll have to look elsewhere for point guard help now, as the Blazers intend to hang onto Holiday in the hopes of making a push for a playoff spot next season, per Fischer (Twitter link).