International Rumors | Hoops Rumors

International Notes: Valanciunas, Ibaka, Nwora, Neto

July 4th, 2025 at 9:20pm CST by Eli Cohen

While there’s still no resolution on his NBA contract situation, Jonas Valanciunas appears to be moving forward with his reported plan to sign with the EuroLeague club Panathinaikos. According to Antonis Stroggylakis of Eurohoops, Valanciunas arrived in Athens on Friday with the intent of undergoing a physical and finalizing the terms of a lucrative three-year deal.

However, Valanciunas remains under contract in the NBA and will be traded from Sacramento to Denver once the July moratorium ends. Reports have indicated that the Nuggets have long had interest in Valanciunas and envisioned a major role for him on their 2025/26 roster, so they’re hoping to convince him to honor his NBA contract.

Still, with all signs pointing to Valanciunas desiring a return to Europe, it certainly seems as if he and his new NBA team are headed for buyout discussions. In that scenario, the Nuggets would likely require him to give up most – if not all – of the $10.4MM guaranteed salary he’s owed next season. That would give Denver some spending flexibility to return to free agency or the trade market in search of a new backup center for Nikola Jokic.

We have more from around the world of international hoops:

Three-time NBA All-Defensive first-teamer Serge Ibaka is leaving Real Madrid, the Spanish team announced on Wednesday. The 35-year-old big man averaged 6.5 points and 3.3 rebounds in 12.0 minutes per night during EuroLeague play for the eventual Liga ACB champions. This was Ibaka’s first year with Real Madrid after playing the previous season with Bayern Munich. It has now been more than two years since he was last on an NBA roster.
Veteran wing Jordan Nwora is leaving Anadolu Efes, the Turkish club announced (via Twitter). Nwora, who played four seasons in the NBA, primarily with the Bucks and Pacers, has agreed to a deal with Crvena Zvezda out of Belgrade, Serbia, per a Eurohoops report (via Twitter).
Free agent guard Raul Neto has signed with San Pablo Burgos for the upcoming season, the team announced. The 33-year-old Neto, who appeared in 435 regular season NBA games from 2015-23, played limited minutes in 2024/25 with Barcelona. San Pablo Burgos competes in Spain’s Primera FEB, which is the country’s second division league.
Sergio Scariolo has agreed to return to Real Madrid as their head coach, according to Eurohoops.net. The Italian coach, who won an NBA title as an assistant for the 2018/19 Raptors, has spent most of his career in the EuroLeague. He had a previous tenure with Real Madrid from 1999-2002, and has been coaching Virtus Bologna for the past three seasons. Scariolo, who has four EuroBasket championships and a pair of Olympic medals to his name, has agreed to a three-year deal with Real Madrid and will officially join the club after coaching the Spanish national team one last time at this year’s EuroBasket tournament.

Vlatko Cancar Confirms Move To EuroLeague

July 4th, 2025 at 10:04am CST by Luke Adams

Making an appearance on DNVR Sports’ Denver Nuggets podcast on Thursday (YouTube link), veteran forward Vlatko Cancar confirmed that he plans to sign with Olimpia Milano as a free agent.

Reporting earlier this week indicated that Cancar was expected to sign a two-year contract with the Italian club, which competes in the EuroLeague.

“After the season and before the free agency, I was talking with my agent, and then I was asking, ‘What’s going on with Denver?'” Cancar said (hat tip to Eurohoops). “Unfortunately, they came out with the news where it was kind of like a remodel. … They want to say thank you for everything that you did, but they’re trying to move on now and bring some new energy, bring some new players. And then I accepted it. I said OK, I’m glad I was part of the team for six years. For me, it was OK.”

Cancar was never a major rotation piece for Denver — he set a career high in 2022/23 when he averaged 14.8 minutes per game across 60 regular season contests, but he made just five brief postseason appearances in garbage time during the team’s championship run that spring.

He has played even less during the last two seasons as he has dealt with major left knee issues. He tore his ACL in August 2023 in an exhibition game prior to the FIBA World Cup, then underwent another procedure on the same knee in December 2024. The 28-year-old, who was able to play in just 13 games for the Nuggets across the past two seasons, indicated he’s looking forward to being healthy and having an opportunity to play a more significant role in Italy.

“Milano came straight away and they were eager to bring me in,” Cancar said. “And then, obviously, I got that feeling of being wanted and being important.”

The 49th overall pick in the 2017 draft, Cancar came stateside to join the Nuggets in 2019. Across six years and 143 regular season games with the team, the 6’8″ forward averaged 3.4 points and 1.8 rebounds in 10.7 minutes per night. He was known to be good friends with Nuggets superstar Nikola Jokic.

Jonas Valanciunas Reportedly Considering Leaving NBA For EuroLeague

July 3rd, 2025 at 5:44pm CST by Luke Adams

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.

Chris Duarte Signs With Spanish Team

July 3rd, 2025 at 6:47am CST by Luke Adams

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.

Coaching Rumors: Knicks, Borrego, Shammgod, Magic, Mavs, More

July 2nd, 2025 at 8:49pm CST by Luke Adams

After being denied permission to speak to five NBA head coaches already under contract with rival teams, the Knicks shifted their focus to Mike Brown and Taylor Jenkins, with Jenkins falling behind after “projecting less enthusiasm for the job,” writes Stefan Bondy of The New York Post.

The team spoke to other candidates, including James Borrego and Micah Nori, and Ian Begley of SNY.tv confirms that South Carolina women’s basketball coach Dawn Staley did, in fact, formally interview for the job as well. However, as Begley writes, the search was always expected to result in the Knicks hiring an experienced NBA head coach.

The Knicks ultimately decided Brown was their man in large part because they believe he’ll bring “leadership and collaboration” to the organization, tweets Steve Popper of Newsday. Casey Powell (aka CP The Fanchise) of Knicks Fan TV (Twitter link) notes that the club is also confident in Brown’s ability to maximize the talent on the roster.

While Brown won’t be forced to retain any of the assistants who worked under Tom Thibodeau, the expectation is that a few will be back, according to Begley, who specifically identifies Rick Brunson, Darren Ermann, Mark Bryant, and Maurice Cheeks as strong candidates to remain in New York.

Brown is targeting Borrego for his lead assistant role, viewing him as an ideal offensive coordinator, Begley writes. However, as Marc Stein of The Stein Line notes (via Twitter), the Pelicans want to keep Borrego as their associate head coach and don’t necessarily have to let him leave for what would be a lateral move in terms of his title.

According to Stein (Twitter link), New Orleans previously denied permission to the Nuggets, who wanted to speak to Borrego about their lead assistant role under David Adelman.

Here are a few more coaching-related notes and rumors from around the NBA:

As expected, Mavericks player development coach God Shammgod has reached a deal with the Magic to become an assistant on Jamahl Mosley‘s staff, reports Shams Charania of ESPN (Twitter link). Rumors about Orlando’s interest in Shammgod, who had been in Dallas since 2016, had circulated since mid-June.
With Shammgod departing, keep an eye on Phil Handy and Mike Penberthy as possible candidates to join the Mavericks‘ staff under Jason Kidd, according to Stein (Twitter links). Both Handy and Penberthy were part of the Lakers’ staff alongside Kidd when Frank Vogel – Dallas’ new lead assistant – was the head coach in Los Angeles.
Omar Cooper Jr., the twin brother of former NBA guard Sharife Cooper and the son of Ace Bailey‘s agent Omar Cooper, is serving as a guest coach for the Jazz during Summer League, per Andy Larsen of The Salt Lake Tribune. Cooper Jr. is looking to get into coaching after wrapping up his college playing career at McNeese State this past season.
In announcing its 15-man roster for EuroBasket 2025, the Spanish national team confirmed that former Raptors assistant Sergio Scariolo will be stepping down from his role as Spain’s head coach after the event. BasketNews.com has the story, along with Spain’s roster, which includes Grizzlies forward Santi Aldama.

Free Agent Notes: Simmons, Knicks, Shamet, Ayton, Bonga, More

July 2nd, 2025 at 2:42pm CST by Luke Adams

The Knicks have “checked in” on former No. 1 overall pick Ben Simmons, reports Ian Begley of SNY.tv. Simmons has also met with three other teams and is expected to make a decision on his next destination soon, sources familiar with the situation tell Begley.

Simmons is a three-time All-Star who has made a pair of All-Defensive first teams, but has battled injuries in recent years, having appeared in just 108 regular season games since the start of 2021/22.

Begley adds in the same story that the Knicks maintain interest in re-signing free agent wing Landry Shamet, but have competition from teams in both conferences for the 28-year-old. Shamet made 50 appearances for New York last season, averaging 5.7 points per game on .461/.397/.667 shooting.

Given how close the Knicks are to the second tax apron, it would probably be a case of signing Simmons or Shamet (or another veteran free agent), rather than adding both, unless they create a little more spending flexibility via trade.

Given their roster situation

After Jake Fischer reported that the Pacers have some interest in center Deandre Ayton, David Aldridge of The Athletic suggests that interest will be reciprocated. According to Aldridge, a source close to Ayton said Indiana will be considered as a possible landing spot for the former No. 1 overall pick. The big man will clear waivers later today.
The Serbian club KK Partizan recently announced (via Twitter) a contract extension through 2027 for former NBA forward Isaac Bonga, who appeared in 143 regular season games for three teams from 2018-22. However, Bonga remains on NBA radars, according to Donatas Urbonas of BasketNews.com, who notes that the 25-year-old’s new deal includes an out clause that would give him the ability to return stateside later this summer if he gets an opportunity he likes.
Another former NBA forward is headed to Belgrade, with the Serbian club Crvena Zvezda announcing (via Twitter) that it has signed Semi Ojeleye. The 2017 second-round pick made 284 NBA appearances for three teams across five seasons, but hasn’t been in the league since 2022.
In accepting a one-year, minimum-salary offer from the Suns, veteran forward Nigel Hayes-Davis turned down a lucrative offer from Fenerbahce, his team in Turkey, that would have had made him one of the highest-paid players in the EuroLeague, Urbonas reports. While Hayes-Davis won’t earn as much in Phoenix, the 30-year-old will be back in the NBA for the first time since a brief stint in 2017/18.

Free Agency Notes: Cancar, Nuggets, Turner, Middle Class, Spending Power

July 2nd, 2025 at 11:39am CST by Dana Gauruder

Veteran forward Vlatko Cancar is expected to leave the Nuggets and head to Europe next season, Donatas Urbonas of BasketNews.com reports. The Italian team Olimpia Milano has emerged as the leading candidate to sign Cancar, Urbonas adds, with a report from Aris Barkas of Eurohoops suggesting the two sides are on track to complete a two-year deal.

Cancar, 28, has spent the past five seasons with Denver. He has battled health problems in recent years, having missed all of 2023/24 due to a torn ACL and then undergoing another knee surgery this past season. In 13 total appearances in 2024/25, he averaged 1.8 points and 2.5 rebounds in 11 minutes per contest.

Cancar is an unrestricted free agent after playing on a one-year veteran’s minimum deal.

Here’s more news on the free agent front:

Nikola Jokic lamented the Nuggets’ lack of depth after the team was eliminated by the Thunder in the playoffs. That issue has been addressed, as The Denver Post’s Bennett Durando notes (subscription required). Denver agreed to trade Michael Porter Jr. and replace him with Cameron Johnson from the Nets, made another agreed-upon trade for big man Jonas Valanciunas, and reached agreements with Tim Hardaway Jr. and Bruce Brown in free agency.
Despite a report from the Indianapolis Star’s suggesting they went higher, both The Athletic and Jake Fischer of The Stein Line (Substack link) contend that the Pacers’ best offer to Myles Turner was in the $20-22MM per year range. Turner agreed to a four-year, $107MM deal with Central Division rival Milwaukee on Tuesday. According to Spencer Davies of RG.org, Turner would have stayed in Indiana for $25MM per year, but the organization held firm, offering a three-year, $66MM contract, with no player option on year four.
The Athletic’s John Hollinger notes that the league “middle class,” solid rotation players but not superstars, are doing surprisingly well in free agency. He points out that eight such players received some or all of a team’s non-taxpayer mid-level exception on the first day of free agency.
Factoring in all the reported moves prior to Wednesday, Spotrac contributor Keith Smith examines the remaining spending power of all the Eastern Conference and Western Conference teams.

And-Ones: Kokoskov, Luxury Tax Payments, 2026 Mock, Injuries, NBA TV

July 2nd, 2025 at 10:00am CST by Dana Gauruder

Hawks assistant Igor Kokoskov is leaving his position to become head coach of Turkish League team Anadolu Efes, according to Eurohoops.net. Kokoskov has signed a three-year contract.

Kokoskov has been an assistant in the NBA for 19 years, along with a stint as the head coach of the Suns during the 2018/19 season. He was also a head coach in the EuroLeague with Fenerbahce during the 2020/21 season.

Here’s more from around the international basketball world:

How much did NBA teams who stayed below the luxury tax get rewarded for keeping their salaries below the line? Non-tax teams collected $11,530,235 from the taxpaying clubs, Eric Pincus of Bleacher Report tweets.
Is it too early to talk about the 2026 draft class? Not for draft experts like The Athletic’s Sam Vecenie. He’s posted his first 2026 mock with Kansas guard Darryn Peterson, Duke forward Cameron Boozer and BYU wing A.J. Dybantsa occupying the top three spots.
Thunder executive Sam Presti believes there’s a direct correlation between the number of games played and injuries. Presti mentioned the NBA’s 65-game rule to qualify for certain awards, the condensed schedule due to the in-season tournament and the recent uptick in physicality allowed by the league, according to an ESPN story.“I think the one thing we have to do is get away from the defensive nature of trying to convince people, players and teams that there’s no connection between the loads and the injuries,” Presti said. “I think it’s — we’re kind of bordering on a level of like, it’s almost insulting.”
TNT Sports will cease production efforts on NBA TV at the end of the league’s calendar year in September, according to the Sports Business Journal’s Austin Karp. The league will begin operating the network starting Oct. 1. It will continue to carry some regular-season games during the 2025/26 season, plus WNBA, G League and other games from international leagues. One key element is that there will be far fewer live games on NBA TV once the new media-rights deal kicks in this fall with ESPN/ABC, NBC Sports and Prime Video, Karp adds.

Suns Notes: Booker, Green, Beal, Hayes-Davis

July 1st, 2025 at 12:26pm CST by Rory Maher

The Suns and Devin Booker are discussing a contract extension, according to NBA insider Chris Haynes, who notes (via Twitter) that the star guard will soon be eligible to add two years and $150MM onto his current deal.

Marc Stein and Brian Windhorst both reported last month that Phoenix was likely to offer Booker a maximum-salary extension once he’s eligible on July 6 and the 28-year-old was expected to accept it, so Haynes’ report doesn’t come as a surprise.

Here are few more notes and rumors out of Phoenix:

Doug Haller of The Athletic spoke to a handful of Jalen Green‘s former coaches to get a better idea of how he and Booker will be able to coexist in the Suns’ backcourt. Green, a former No. 2 overall pick, will be sent to Phoenix from Houston as part of the Kevin Durant trade. “First off, they’re really good guys,” former Rockets head coach Stephen Silas said of Green and Booker. “They’re both selfless. They both want to win. They both have seen the goods and the bads and have a really good feel for team basketball and what it takes to help you get over the top and win. It remains to be seen, but I think when you start with the base that those two guys have, it could work.”
Arizona Sports 98.7’s John Gambadoro has predicted that Phoenix will either trade or buyout Bradley Beal, who still has two years left on his maximum-salary contract, which features a full no-trade clause. While Beal would be open to certain trade scenarios, his preference is to stay with the Suns, as he doesn’t want to uproot his family or move away from them, a source close to the three-time All-Star tells Fred Katz of The Athletic.
Katz also takes a look at why using the waive-and-stretch provision on Beal isn’t possible unless he gives up at least $13.8MM in a buyout and spoke to some NBA executives about what type of contract the veteran shooting guard might be able to get if he were a free agent (in the range of the non-taxpayer mid-level exception).
Nigel Hayes-Davis‘ contract with Fenerbahce included a €1 million NBA buyout clause, notes Donatas Urbonas of BasketNews.com. The NBA’s “excluded international player payment amount” for 2025/26 is $875K, which means the Suns could pay up to that portion of Hayes-Davis’ buyout — the rest would come out of his NBA salary, unless Fenerbahce agrees to lower the amount of the buyout. The veteran forward agreed to a guaranteed one-year deal with Phoenix on Monday.

Luke Adams contributed to this article.

And-Ones: 2025 Draft Grades, 2026 Class, France, Gabriel

June 28th, 2025 at 10:04am CST by Earnest Marshall

Five teams earned ‘A’ grades on Sam Vecenie’s post-draft report card for The Athletic, including four teams who had picks in the top six. The fifth team to earn an A was the Hawks, primarily for landing an unprotected 2026 first-round pick from the Pelicans to drop 10 spots in the middle of the first round.

Another 18 teams earned ‘B-‘ to ‘B+’ grades, meaning they mostly met or exceeded the value expected at their respective draft slots. Multiple clubs who only had second-round picks, like the Cavaliers and Warriors, found themselves in this tier. A few teams who ended up landing players who slid from pre-draft projections also ended up in this group, with the Jazz getting Ace Bailey at No. 5, the Heat landing Kasparas Jakucionis at No. 20 and the Thunder getting Thomas Sorber at No. 15.

That left five teams to earn a mark of ‘C’ or lower from Vecenie (Houston and Denver did not make any selections). The Pelicans were marked down for the haul they gave up to move up from No. 23 to No. 13 and select Derik Queen. The Nets were questioned for making three selections – Egor Demin, Nolan Traore and Ben Saraf – with positional overlap, while the Knicks earned a middling grade for selecting a stash player who may not make it to the league.

We have more from around the basketball world:

The 2026 draft looks to be loaded on paper, with a strong blend of returners who would have been drafted this year and high-level incoming talent. In ESPN’s first full 2026 mock draft, Jonathan Givony and Jeremy Woo have Darryn Peterson of Kansas as the No. 1 overall pick. A.J. Dybantsa (BYU), Cameron Boozer (Duke), Nate Ament (Tennessee) and Mikel Brown Jr. (Louisville) round out their top five. Among returning college players, Jayden Quaintance (No. 6, Kentucky) and Yaxel Lendeborg (No. 14, Michigan) are the highest-ranking.
Jonathan Wasserman of Bleacher Report‘s top three looks identical to ESPN’s, but he has Arizona’s Koa Peat at No. 4 in his first 2026 mock draft. Another significant difference between the two boards is Baylor wing Tounde Yessoufou‘s spot — Wasserman has him at No. 6, but ESPN places him at No. 23.
France has named its 18-man preliminary roster for EuroBasket 2025, per the team (Twitter link). Bilal Coulibaly, Moussa Diabate, Ousmane Dieng, Zaccharie Risacher, Alex Sarr and Guerschon Yabusele are the current NBA players on the roster. Former NBAers on the team include Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot, Frank Ntilikina and Theo Maledon, among others.
Former NBA player Wenyen Gabriel is leaving Panathinaikos to sign with Bayern Munich in Germany, according to Donatas Urbonas of BasketNews. Gabriel played his first EuroLeague season in 2024/25, averaging 6.0 points per game, and will remain in the league by signing with Bayern. The 6’9″ big man played 150 NBA games from 2019-24 across stints with the Lakers, Pelicans, Trail Blazers, Kings and others. He averaged 4.4 PPG and 3.4 RPG for his career.