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Cam Whitmore Has Drawn Trade Interest From Bulls, Nuggets

June 30th, 2025 at 10:22am CST by Luke Adams

The Bulls and Nuggets are among the teams that have registered some level of interest in Rockets forward Cam Whitmore, according to Michael Scotto of HoopsHype.

Kelly Iko of The Athletic reported last week that Houston had been engaged in trade discussions involving Whitmore. He’ll earn $3.54MM in 2025/26 with a team option for ’26/27 worth $5.46MM.

Whitmore, who will turn 21 next Tuesday, has seen limited playing time during his first two NBA seasons and has been unable to establish himself as a regular part of the Rockets’ crowded rotation. The former No. 20 overall pick appeared in 51 games this past season, averaging 9.4 points, 3.0 rebounds and 1.0 assists in 16.2 minutes per night with .444/.355/.750 shooting numbers. He was out of the rotation completely in the playoffs, making just three brief appearances.

According to Scotto, Whitmore was nearly sent from Houston to Phoenix in the Kevin Durant trade, but the Suns opted for additional second-round draft compensation instead.

The Bulls appear to be keeping an eye out for a forward who can score, having been also linked to Warriors restricted free agent Jonathan Kuminga earlier this offseason. While Isaac Okoro – who is more of a defensive specialist – doesn’t really fit that bill, it’s worth noting that Scotto says the Bulls’ interest in Whitmore predated their deal to acquire Okoro, so it’s unclear whether Chicago’s interest in a forward – and Whitmore specifically – persists.

The Nuggets, meanwhile, are looking to supplement a talented starting lineup with reliable depth options. While their pathways to upgrades via trades or free agency are limited, Whitmore’s salary is modest enough that he would be a realistic target.

Stein’s Latest: NAW, Schröder, Jerome, Grimes, Kornet, Nuggets

June 29th, 2025 at 10:32am CST by Luke Adams

The Pistons and the Hawks have been described as the two best bets to sign Nickeil Alexander-Walker away from the Timberwolves when free agency gets underway, according to Marc Stein of The Stein Line (Substack link).

Both Detroit and Atlanta have previously been reported as potential suitors for Alexander-Walker, along with teams like the Clippers and Magic. The expectation is that he’ll command offers in the range of the full non-taxpayer mid-level exception, which will start at a projected $14.1MM. He might even end up getting more than that, tweets Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic.

While Minnesota has expressed a desire to retain Alexander-Walker, the club has already committed to Naz Reid on a lucrative new five-year deal and is expected to retain Julius Randle as well. Re-signing Alexander-Walker to a market-value contract would likely send the Wolves’ team salary soaring beyond the second tax apron.

As for the Pistons, there has been consistent reporting this week indicating that their free agent guard Dennis Schröder may end up signing with the Kings. While Schröder didn’t exactly confirm that this weekend during a Twitch stream, he suggested he’s unlikely to return to Detroit.

“I want to stay in Detroit for sure, but Detroit ain’t waiting for me, I can tell you that much,” Schröder said (Twitter video link). “Detroit ain’t waiting for me.”

Here’s more from Stein:

The Hornets and Grizzlies have been consistently mentioned as teams expected to pursue free agent guard Ty Jerome, according to Stein. Reporting earlier today indicated that Utah also may be in the mix for the Sixth Man of the Year finalist, who is now considered a “lock” to leave the Cavaliers, per Stein.
Sixers restricted free agent Quentin Grimes is expected to land a starting salary of at least $16MM, Stein reports. Assuming he gets that offer from Philadelphia, it would be enough to outbid any rival suitors that might be willing to give him the full non-taxpayer mid-level exception.
The Clippers, who are in the market for a center to back up Ivica Zubac, are considered a team to watch for free agent big man Luke Kornet, writes Stein.
The Nuggets, who are eyeing potential assistant coaches for David Adelman‘s staff, have been granted permission to interview Mavericks assistant Jared Dudley and have also exhibited “strong” interest in former NBA guard J.J. Barea, per Stein (Twitter links). Barea had been coaching the Guaynabo Mets in his native Puerto Rico over the past couple years before being let go last month.

Suns’ Gillepsie, Lakers’ Koloko Among Two-Way Players Receiving QOs

June 29th, 2025 at 8:59am CST by Luke Adams

A series of players who finished the 2024/25 season on two-way contracts have received qualifying offers from their respective teams, making them free agents, according to Keith Smith of Spotrac. Those players are as follows (all links go to Twitter):

Isaiah Crawford, Kings (link)
Collin Gillespie, Suns link)
Harrison Ingram, Spurs (link)
Daniss Jenkins, Pistons (link)
Spencer Jones, Nuggets (link)
Christian Koloko, Lakers (link)
Riley Minix, Spurs (link)
Jacob Toppin, Hawks (link)
Luke Travers, Cavaliers (link)
Tristan Vukcevic, Wizards (link)
Keaton Wallace, Hawks (link)

In each case, the player’s qualifying offer is equivalent to another one-year, two-way deal, with a small portion (approximately $85K) guaranteed.

While a rival team could technically sign any of these players to an offer sheet during free agency, we essentially never see that happen with two-way free agents. Most of them end up either accepting their two-way QOs or agreeing to new standard contracts with their current teams.

Gillespie, who turned 26 on Wednesday, is among the players who made a strong case for a promotion to a standard contract this past season. He averaged 5.9 points, 2.4 assists, and 2.4 rebounds in 14.0 minutes per game for Phoenix across 33 appearances (nine starts) and made 43.3% of his three-point tries.

Koloko (2.4 PPG and 2.5 RPG in 37 games), Vukcevic (9.4 PPG, 3.7 RPG, and .496/.373/.776 shooting in 35 games), and Wallace (5.4 PPG and 2.6 APG in 31 games) also played rotation minutes for their respective clubs in 2024/25.

Sunday is the deadline for teams to make qualifying offers to players who are eligible for restricted free agency.

Nuggets Agree To Deal With Reece Beekman, Won’t Retain PJ Hall

June 28th, 2025 at 5:12pm CST by Arthur Hill

5:12pm: Denver will create a two-way opening by not re-signing Hall, league sources tell Tony Jones of The Athletic (Twitter link). The 23-year-old center out of Clemson spent one year with the team and averaged 1.7 points and 1.2 rebounds in 19 games.

Meanwhile, Durando has removed his report on Beekman agreeing to an Exhibit 10 contract with Denver and now says (via Twitter) that the guard has a Summer League agreement in place with the Nuggets.

Two-way free agents who won’t be retained by their previous team are typically permitted to seek out new Summer League opportunities before the new league year begins, but full-fledged contract agreements with new teams can’t technically be negotiated until 5:00 pm Central time on June 30. I’d still expect Beekman to eventually sign an Exhibit 10 contract with Denver.

4:34pm: The Nuggets will sign Reece Beekman to an Exhibit 10 contract, sources tell Bennett Durando of The Denver Post (Twitter link).

The 23-year-old point guard finished the season as a two-way player with the Nets, and the reported agreement is a strong sign that he won’t receive a qualifying offer from Brooklyn for another two-way contract.

Beekman signed a two-way deal with Golden State last July after going undrafted out of Virginia. He made just two brief appearances for the Warriors before being sent to the Nets in mid-December as part of the Dennis Schröder trade.

Beekman got a larger NBA opportunity after arriving in Brooklyn, appearing in 34 games and averaging 2.7 points, 1.1 rebounds and 1.8 assists in 13.7 minutes per night.

Trey Alexander, PJ Hall and Spencer Jones were Denver’s two-way players when the season ended, but they’re all headed for free agency and aren’t guaranteed to return to the team, so there could be an opportunity for Beekman.

An Exhibit 10 contract can be converted into a two-way deal prior to the start of the regular season. Beekman will be eligible to earn a bonus worth up to $85K if he’s waived and then spends at least 60 days with the Nuggets’ G League affiliate.

Luke Adams contributed to this story.

Stein’s Latest: Mavs, D-Lo, Paul, Exum, Sixers, Hawks

June 27th, 2025 at 10:57pm CST by Luke Adams

Within his latest NBA rumor round-up for The Stein Line (Substack link), Marc Stein reiterates a report he published on Twitter earlier this week, writing that the Mavericks are “increasingly regarded as the favorites” to sign point guard D’Angelo Russell.

Dallas will likely be limited to offering free agents the $5.7MM taxpayer mid-level exception, and Stein suggests Chris Paul will be another Mavs target using that MLE. However, there’s a growing belief that Paul would want to play somewhere closer to his home in Los Angeles if he continues his career, Stein explains.

Meanwhile, while the Mavericks still have interest in re-signing him, there’s a chance that a roster crunch could spell the end of Dante Exum‘s time in Dallas. Assuming Brandon Williams – who is on a non-guaranteed contract – is retained, the Mavs will have 14 players on standard contracts even before adding a free agent point guard.

According to Stein, a handful of EuroLeague teams – including Anadolu Efes, Fenerbahce, and Partizan Belgrade – are interested in trying to lure Exum back overseas. But the former No. 5 overall pick is still focused on trying to stick in the NBA even if there’s no pathway back to the Mavs for him, Stein writes.

Here’s more from Stein:

Providing updates on a couple of popular Mavericks assistant coaches, Stein says the Nuggets are now among the teams with interest in hiring Jared Dudley away from Dallas, joining Memphis and Cleveland, while the Magic continue to put on a “full-court press” in the hopes of poaching God Shammgod from Jason Kidd‘s staff.
Despite rumors and speculation in recent weeks suggesting that the Sixers explored the prospect of moving off Paul George‘s contract and trading down from No. 3 in the draft, a league source familiar with the team’s thinking called that “nonsense,” according to Stein. Jake Fischer reported several weeks ago that Philadelphia wasn’t trying to get rid of George using that lottery pick.
Although they had interest in Masai Ujiri earlier in their front office search, the Hawks aren’t expected to circle back now that the longtime Toronto executive is out of work, Stein says. One source close to the process tells Stein that Atlanta is operating under the assumption that general manager Onsi Saleh will be the team’s head of basketball operations for the foreseeable future.

Nuggets Notes: Draft, Free Agency, Alexander

June 27th, 2025 at 9:55pm CST by Eli Cohen

The Nuggets didn’t make a single selection across two nights of the 2025 NBA draft. However, just because there were no picks called for Denver didn’t mean there was no activity on the part of newly promoted general manager Ben Tenzer, writes Bennett Durando for the Denver Post.

“We had our targets. We looked hard at those targets,” Tenzer said. “Had to evaluate where they would get to, could we get there? It’s tricky. But I would say we were moderately close (to trading for a pick) in a couple of different scenarios.”

The 2025 draft saw steep price tags when it came to trading up or into the draft. The Pelicans traded a valuable 2026 first-round pick to move up 10 spots in the first round, while the Grizzlies traded a future first-rounder and multiple seconds to move from 16 to 11.

Even picks in the early second round ended up costing a handful of future assets, which the Nuggets ultimately decided wasn’t worth the cost of doing business.

The Nuggets did strike a deal this week to add at least one member of the 2025 rookie class, however, having agreed to sign undrafted free agent Tamar Bates out of Missouri to a two-way contract. Denver is also believed to be signing Iowa State’s Curtis Jones to an Exhibit 10 deal.

We have more Nuggets notes:

Denver will lean on their newly hired executive vice president of player personnel, Jon Wallace, to help find ways to fill out the roster in a way that gives them the best chance at building another championship team, writes Durando in a separate piece. Durando calls the former Timberwolves executive a relative outsider who will bring much-needed perspective on the roster’s needs. “We’ve gotta make sure that we find some more shooting,” Wallace said. “Obviously, address some of the defensive concerns. But I think we have both young individuals here that can step up and do that as we continue to develop them, as well as we’ll look outside and see what makes sense.”
Durando points out that free agents Russell Westbrook, DeAndre Jordan, and Vlatko Cancar don’t quite fit that description, though Wallace added that bringing in a backup center who can offer a different look could be effective. “It may be more (of a) run-and-jump, rim-protecting big as opposed to a guy that we play through off the elbows and through the center of our offense,” he said.
Second-year guard Trey Alexander will not be back with the Nuggets next season, reports Vinny Benedetto for the Denver Gazette (Twitter links), who says the team wants to go in a different direction with that two-way slot. The 6’4″ shooting guard played just 117 minutes at the NBA level in 2024/25, though he excelled with the Nuggets’ G League team. In 30 total NBAGL outings, Alexander averaged 25.8 points, 5.7 rebounds, 5.6 assists, and 1.6 steals in 37.0 minutes per game, posting a shooting line of .462/.395/.817 and earning G League Rookie of the Year honors.

Nuggets To Sign Curtis Jones

June 27th, 2025 at 11:04am CST by Arthur Hill

Iowa State guard Curtis Jones will sign with the Nuggets, a source tells Jonathan Givony of ESPN (Twitter link). It’s likely to be an Exhibit 10 contract, but Givony doesn’t specify the terms.

Jones, 23, spent two years with the Cyclones after playing his first two seasons at Buffalo. He was a first-team All-Big 12 selection this year and won the conference’s Sixth Man Award. Jones averaged 17.4 points, 4.2 rebounds and 2.3 assists in 34 games as a senior. He’s an effective three-point shooter, connecting at 37.4% this season, and has shown he can provide instant offense off the bench.

Jones conducted more than a dozen interviews and workouts during the pre-draft process, according to Eugene Rapay of The Des Moines Register. He also participated in the G League Elite Camp in May.

Jones was ranked as the No. 90 prospect in the draft by Sam Vecenie of The Athletic and was listed as the 19th-best remaining player on ESPN’s big board.

Jones joins Missouri guard Tamar Bates, who agreed to a two-way contract with Denver shortly after the draft’s second round ended Thursday night. The Nuggets didn’t have any picks in either round this year.

Nuggets Notes: Kroenke, Jokic, Tenzer, Wallace, Holmes

June 24th, 2025 at 6:54pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Nuggets vice chairman Josh Kroenke said that Nikola Jokic will receive a contract extension offer this offseason, The Denver Post’s Bennett Durando tweets, though the superstar center could receive an even bigger deal by waiting another year.

“We’re definitely gonna offer it,” Kroenke said during a Tuesday press conference. “I’m not sure if he’s gonna accept it or not because we’re also gonna explain every financial parameter around him, signing now versus signing later.”

Jokic’s contract runs through 2026/27, with a player option for ’27/28. Jokic will become extension-eligible on July 8 and could sign for approximately $212MM at that time on a three-year extension that replaces his option — or he could wait until July 2026 and sign for four years and $293MM.

Here’s more from Kroenke’s presser, via Durando:

Kroenke made an ominous, perhaps inadvertent statement, regarding the Collective Bargaining Agreement and its implications. While discussing the second tax apron, Kroenke brought up a doomsday scenario in which Jokic could be traded. “There are rules around it that we needed to be very careful of with our injury history,” he said (Twitter link). “Wrong person gets injured, and very quickly you’re into a scenario that I never want to have to contemplate, and that’s trading No. 15 (Jokic).”
Regarding front office responsibilities, Kroenke indicated that Ben Tenzer, the new executive vice president of basketball operations, and former Timberwolves executive Jon Wallace, who was named executive vice president of player personnel, will share duties involving trades, free agents signings and contract negotiations. Kroenke will take a more hands-on role in the short run as the duo settles into their positions, then ease back and just check in with them every few days or on a weekly basis. (Twitter links)
According to Vinny Benedetto of the Denver Gazette (Twitter link), Tenzer said that forward/center DaRon Holmes II would participate in Summer League play. Holmes tore his Achilles in his Summer League debut last July after the Nuggets traded up to snag him with the No. 22 pick.

And-Ones: Taylor, Parker, Avdija, Power Rankings

June 23rd, 2025 at 8:28pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Maria Taylor has officially been named NBC Sports’ lead studio host for the NBA and WNBA, according to an NBC Sports press release.

NBC reacquired the rights to NBA games in an 11-year agreement with the league last summer and will begin its coverage in 2025/26. Taylor will host NBC Sports’ NBA studio programs on Sunday and Tuesday nights alongside analysts Carmelo Anthony and Vince Carter.

Taylor has been the lead host of Football Night in America since 2022. Taylor also served as a host for the Tokyo, Beijing, and Paris Olympics and numerous other major events.

Here’s more from around the international basketball world:

Jabari Parker, the No. 2 pick of the 2014 draft, will play for a different European team next season. Parker and FC Barcelona have mutually agreed on an early termination of their contract, Johnny Askounis of Eurohoops.net relays. Parker is expected to stay in the EuroLeague and join Partizan Mozzart Bet for the 2025/26 season. He averaged 13.8 points, 4.0 rebounds, 1.7 assists, and 0.8 steals per game over 39 appearances last season in the EuroLeague.
Trail Blazers forward Deni Avdija is among 20 players on the preliminary roster announced by the Israeli Basketball Association for the EuroBasket tournament this summer, according to Askounis. Israel is scheduled to compete in Group D of the preliminary round, facing Iceland, Poland, France, Belgium, and Slovenia in Katowice from Aug. 28-Sept. 4. Avdija made his debut for the Israeli national team in 2019.
Not surprisingly, the champion Thunder are at the top of The Athletic’s and ESPN’s power rankings for next season. The Pacers, Knicks, Timberwolves and Cavaliers round out The Athletic’s top five. ESPN has a much different top five, going with the Timberwolves at No. 2, followed by the Nuggets, Cavs and Rockets.

Ben Tenzer To Become Nuggets’ EVP Of Basketball Operations

June 23rd, 2025 at 8:21am CST by Arthur Hill

The Nuggets will name Ben Tenzer executive vice president of basketball operations and add Timberwolves executive Jon Wallace to their front office as executive vice president of player personnel, sources tell Shams Charania of ESPN (Twitter link). They will both report to vice chairman Josh Kroenke, Charania adds.

Tenzer has been serving as interim general manager since the team made the surprising decision to fire former GM Calvin Booth and head coach Michael Malone in the final week of the regular season. Tenzer joined the organization in 2012 and was promoted to vice president of basketball operations in 2023.

Wallace formerly worked for the Nuggets, joining the team in 2019 as a basketball operations associate and working his way up to scouting coordinator. He left for Minnesota in 2022 to become director of player personnel and general manager of the team’s G League affiliate, the Iowa Wolves. Wallace played college basketball at Georgetown and spent three years as an assistant on Patrick Ewing‘s staff with the Hoyas.

The Nuggets’ restructuring of their front office is now complete with the draft looming on Wednesday and Thursday, and free agency set to start next Monday.