Injury Notes: Strus, Bogdanovic, Wagners, Bouyea
The Cavaliers still aren’t close to having swingman Max Strus back in their lineup. Strus, who is coming off left foot surgery to repair a Jones fracture, recently underwent evaluation and imaging on that foot, and while that exam showed “positive progress,” more time is required for the fracture to fully heal, the team announced today (Twitter link).
According to the Cavs’ statement, Strus will continue doing rehab and conditioning work and is scheduled for a follow-up evaluation with the club’s medical staff and Dr. David Porter (who performed the surgery) within the next four weeks. A clearer timeline for Strus’ return could be established in the wake of that follow-up evaluation.
Strus was a key contributor last season for a 64-win Cavs team that has missed him in 2025/26. A healthy version of Strus would have slotted into the starting lineup in between the backcourt duo of Donovan Mitchell and Darius Garland and the frontcourt pair of Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley. However, Cleveland has been forced to rotate players in and out of that lineup spot over the course of the season – while also dealing with injuries affecting other starters – in an effort to find the right fit.
Here are more injury updates from around the NBA:
- It doesn’t sound like veteran guard Bogdan Bogdanovic will return from his left hamstring injury during the Clippers‘ upcoming three-game road trip. According to Law Murray of The Athletic (Twitter link), Bogdanovic – who last played on December 26 – has been ruled out for the week. The Clippers are playing in New York on Wednesday, Brooklyn on Friday, and Detroit on Saturday before returning home.
- Magic color commentator Jeff Turner said last Friday that Franz Wagner (high ankle sprain) and Moritz Wagner (ACL recovery) should both be back within a week, but the team hasn’t corroborated that report and the duo has yet to be upgraded on the injury report at all. Asked on Sunday about the status of the Wagner brothers, head coach Jamahl Mosley said there’s still no timeline for their respective returns, though he did add that they’re “responding to the treatments pretty well” (Twitter link via Jason Beede of The Orlando Sentinel).
- Suns guard Jamaree Bouyea, who has been playing a rotation role since late November, traveled with the club on its two-game road trip, but sat out on Monday in Houston while going through the concussion protocol and may not return on Wednesday in Memphis, tweets Duane Rankin of The Arizona Republic. Bouyea is already halfway to his limit of 42 active games and looks like a strong candidate to be promoted from his two-way contract to a standard deal before season’s end.
Suns Notes: Booker, Goodwin, Allen, Green, Flight Delay, Bouyea
The Suns delivered their most thrilling win of the season on Sunday, knocking off the defending champion Thunder 108-105 on Devin Booker‘s 35-footer over Alex Caruso in the final second. It was their first win in their last nine matchups with Oklahoma City.
Booker didn’t downplay the moment. It marked his eighth game-winner in the final three seconds of a game.
“It’s a feeling you can’t replicate,” Booker told Duane Rankin of the Arizona Republic. “I’m not close to retirement, but whenever that day comes, you’ll look back on those moments that you dreamed of as a kid with the team trusting you with the ball in your hands no matter what the result is. (Sunday), I was on the good side of it.”
Jordan Goodwin also had a huge impact with a career-best 26 points, including eight three-pointers. He contributed on the other end of the court too, as the primary defender on Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. He was motivated by some texts from coach Jordan Ott.
“Never too many good things to say to me, but he does that to get me going,” said Goodwin, a free agent after this season. “He definitely texted me (Saturday night just to get me going for (Sunday).”
Goodwin’s minimum-salary contract for this season becomes guaranteed later this week.
We have more on the Suns:
- Grayson Allen missed his ninth straight game due to a right knee injury. However, there’s a good chance Allen will play against the Rockets on Monday night after he went through a 5-on-5 session on Saturday. “That’s what we were looking for. He wasn’t going to play the back-to-back anyways,” Ott said, per Rankin (Twitter link). “His play (Saturday) on the 5-on-5, everything seems to be good to go.”
- Ott also provided an update on Jalen Green, who is working his way back from a right hamstring strain. “Still steady progress,” Ott said. “It’s real close to now playing against bodies, live bodies. Still in that same, got to continue to make progress. Any type of one or two days, but he’s made great progress. You seem him out there pregame before. It has continued to pick up.”
- The Suns’ win over the Thunder was more seamless than their ability to reach Houston in the second game of a back-to-back. Their flight last night was canceled due to a mechanical issue, ESPN’s Tim MacMahon tweets. Management made the decision to delay their departure until late this morning before the players headed to the airport.
- On his “Suns After Dark” Film Session (for Patreon members), Gerald Bourguet discusses Jamaree Bouyea‘s surprise impact, noting that he’s in the top five in scoring among two-way players while making 41 percent of his three-point attempts. Bouyea is also in the 98th percentile among all guards in rim field goal percentage.
Western Notes: LeBron, Vincent, Draymond, Kuminga, Holiday, More
After participating in this morning’s shootaround, Gabe Vincent (left ankle sprain) has been upgraded to available for the first time since October 26, while LeBron James (sciatica) is being considered a game-time decision when the Lakers host the Jazz on Tuesday night, tweets Dan Woike of The Athletic.
James, who practiced with the Lakers on Monday, said his lungs felt “like a newborn baby” and that he was still working on getting his conditioning and his voice back to normal, writes Khobi Price of The Southern California News Group.
“I got to get my lungs back up to a grown man,” James said. “My voice is already gone. One day back, barking out calls and assignments and stuff, getting my voice working again. Be a lot of tea and rest (on Monday night).”
James’ record-setting 23rd NBA season has been delayed by sciatica on his right side, which forced him to miss the start of a season for the first time in his career. The 40-year-old told reporters, including Broderick Turner of The Los Angeles Times, that he also dealt with sciatica two years ago, referring to it as “not fun.”
“If you ever had it, you go about it and you wake up one day and you hope that when you step down from the bed that you don’t feel it,” LeBron said. “You go to bed at night, and you hope that when you’re in the bed that you don’t feel it. So I’ve been doing pretty good with it as of late. There’s a lot of exercises and a lot of mobility things and a lot of things you can do to help it. So I’m just keeping a positive mindset.”
James will go through his normal pregame routine in the hopes of playing on Tuesday, per Shams Charania of ESPN (Twitter video link).
Here’s more from around the Western Conference:
- Warriors forward Draymond Green wasn’t fined for his face-to-face altercation with a fan who was heckling him in New Orleans on Sunday (Twitter video link), but the NBA did issue a warning over the incident, a source tells Charania (Twitter link). “He just kept calling me a woman,” Green said of the fan after the game, per Nick Friedell of The Athletic. “It was a good joke at first but you can’t keep calling me a woman. I got four kids, one on the way; you can’t keep calling me a woman. He got quiet, though. So, it was fine.” The fan told The Associated Press that he was chanting “Angel Reese” at Green after the Warriors veteran rebounded several of his own missed shots.
- Warriors forward Jonathan Kuminga (bilateral patellar tendonitis) will miss a third consecutive game on Tuesday when the team faces the Magic in Orlando, tweets Anthony Slater of ESPN. Reporting last week indicated that there are no structural concerns with Kuminga’s knees and that the forward’s absence should be “relatively short-term.”
- Trail Blazers guard Jrue Holiday missed Sunday’s game – a loss to Dallas – and is listed as doubtful to play on Tuesday vs. Phoenix due to right calf soreness (Twitter link). As Sean Highkin of the Rose Garden Report (subscription required) writes, Holiday’s absence on Sunday was especially impactful because so many of Portland’s other point guards are sidelined due to injuries too. “Jrue is our core,” Blazers forward Deni Avdija said. “I feel like he does everything on the floor. He puts us in our positions. He’s a real true point guard and a leader. When he’s out of the game, it’s definitely felt.”
- Jahmai Mashack‘s new two-way contract with the Grizzlies is for two years, while Jamaree Bouyea‘s two-way deal with the Suns is for the rest of the season, Hoops Rumors has confirmed. Bouyea was ineligible for a two-year contract because this will be his fourth season in the NBA.
Suns Sign Bouyea To Two-Way Contract, Waive Huntley
November 18: The Suns have officially signed to Bouyea to a two-way deal, Duane Rankin of the Arizona Republic tweets.
November 17: The Suns are signing guard Jamaree Bouyea to a two-way contract, ESPN’s Shams Charania tweets.
Bouyea has been toiling in the G League with the Austin Spurs while awaiting another NBA opportunity. San Antonio signed and waived him on Oct. 18 with the intent of having him play with the club’s G League affiliate. Bouyea had a two-way contract with the Bucks before they waived him in October.
Bouyea has appeared in a total of 19 NBA games for five teams. He had brief stints with Miami, Washington, Portland and San Antonio before making five appearances with Milwaukee last season. Bouyea, who went undrafted in 2022, has averaged 2.8 points and 1.3 assists in 12.0 minutes per game during those NBA appearances.
CJ Huntley, Koby Brea and Isaiah Livers had been occupying Phoenix’s two-way contract slots, but the Suns waived Huntley to open up room for Bouyea, the team announced (via Twitter).
A 23-year-old forward, Huntley was signed as an undrafted rookie out of Appalachian State and has yet to appear in an NBA game.
Spurs Waive Flagler, Umude, Potter; Biyombo Makes Team
The Spurs have waived guards Adam Flagler and Stanley Umude, along with forward Micah Potter, the team announced today in a press release.
Flagler, 25, was on a two-way deal with the Thunder last season and appeared in 37 games for the champions. He rarely played outside of garbage time, averaging 1.8 points and 0.7 rebounds in 5.5 minutes per contest with a shooting line of .260/.194/.500.
Umude, 26, had a similar role for the Bucks. Appearing in 22 games while on a two-way contract with Milwaukee, the former Arkansas standout scored 15 points and grabbed 17 rebounds in 86 total minutes of action. He converted just 5-of-26 (19.2%) field goal attempts.
Potter, 27, had a more substantial role while on a two-way contract with the Jazz, averaging 4.3 PPG and 4.3 RPG in 18.6 MPG across 38 outings (10 starts).
All three players were on Exhibit 10 deals in San Antonio and will now be eligible to earn bonuses worth $85,300 apiece if they spend at least 60 days with the Austin Spurs, the team’s G League affiliate.
Veteran center Bismack Biyombo was also in camp with the Spurs on a non-guaranteed Exhibit 9 contract, but he wasn’t among today’s cuts and will make the regular season roster, tweets Michael Scotto of HoopsHype. San Antonio now has 15 players on standard contracts and three on two-way deals.
The Spurs actually made a few more roster moves on Saturday, according to Keith Smith of Spotrac, who tweets that the team signed and waived center James Banks, guard Jamaree Bouyea, and guard Kyle Mangas. That trio will likely be ticketed for Austin along with the rest of today’s cuts.
Alex Antetokounmpo Joins Brothers On Bucks Via Two-Way Deal
October 16: Antetokounmpo’s two-way deal with Milwaukee is official, according to NBA.com’s transaction log.
October 13: The Bucks are signing Alex Antetokounmpo to a two-way deal, ESPN’s Shams Charania tweets.
He joins older brothers Giannis and Thanasis, who are both on standard contracts. This will mark the first time in NBA history that three brothers are on active roster contracts with the same team, Charania adds.
The Bucks are waiving Jamaree Bouyea to open up a two-way slot for the younger Antetokounmpo, Michael Scotto of HoopsHype tweets.
Alex Antetokounmpo has mainly spent his pro career in the G League. He played for the Raptors 905 in 2021/22 and the Bucks’ affiliate, the Wisconsin Herd, from 2022-24 after signing camps deals with the NBA teams and then getting waived during training camp.
Antetokounmpo also had stints in Lithuania, Montenegro and Greece. He requested his release from PAOK in the Greece Basketball League in August, then joined Aris Thessaloniki, another club in Greece, but only appeared in two games with that team. A report surfaced last week that he was headed to the U.S. to play in the G League again.
The addition of Alex can certainly be construed as another way of keeping his superstar brother happy in Milwaukee. There have been persistent rumors regarding Giannis’ future, including a report last week that the Knicks had preliminary discussions this summer with the Bucks regarding a blockbuster trade.
Cormac Ryan Released By Bucks
The Bucks have waived Cormac Ryan, the team announced (via Twitter).
Ryan signed an Exhibit 10 deal with the Bucks in September after playing for Milwaukee’s Summer League squad in Las Vegas. He appeared in five games and averaged 11.8 points, 2.4 rebounds and 1.6 assists in 23.1 minutes per contest. He also played two preseason games for the Bucks, averaging 5.0 PPG in 4.0 MPG.
The Wisconsin Herd, Milwaukee’s G League affiliate, acquired Ryan’s returning player rights in a trade last month. After being waived, he’s now eligible for a $85,300 bonus if he spends at least 60 days with the Herd.
A 6’5″ shooting guard, Ryan went undrafted in 2024. He played five college seasons for three different schools — Stanford, Notre Dame and North Carolina.
Ryan spent 2024/25 with the Thunder’s affiliate, the Oklahoma City Blue, after signing an Exhibit 10 deal last fall and subsequently being cut. In 37 games with the Blue (27.3 MPG), he averaged 12.3 PPG, 3.7 RPG, 2.0 APG and 0.9 SPG on .416/.384/.970 shooting.
The Bucks have also officially released Jamaree Bouyea, whose two-way spot will reportedly be taken by Alex Antetokounmpo, the youngest of the Antetokounmpo brothers. Milwaukee currently has 19 players under contract, two shy of the offseason limit, though that number will go up to 20 as soon as Antetokounmpo has been signed.
Contract Details: Two-Ways, Springer, Champagnie, Miller, Spencer, More
A flurry of two-way signings occurred prior to Tuesday’s deadline and many of those players who received two-way contracts in the week leading up to March 4 agreed to two-year deals.
Hoops Rumors has confirmed that Patrick Baldwin and Seth Lundy of the Clippers, Pete Nance and Jamaree Bouyea of the Bucks, Lester Quinones of the Pelicans, David Roddy of the Rockets, Miles Norris of the Celtics, and Jared Rhoden of the Raptors all signed two-year, two-way contracts.
As our tracker shows, that means that 25 of the 90 players signed to two-way contracts have deals that will carry over to the 2025/26 league year. It’s common for many of the players on two-year, two-way pacts to be waived during the offseason if teams decide there’s an undrafted rookie or Summer League standout they’d rather add, but those two-year terms give clubs the option of retaining their two-way players for another year.
Here are a few more details on recently signed contracts around the league:
- The Jazz used $634,437 of their room exception to sign guard Jaden Springer, who got a three-year contract that includes a non-guaranteed salary for 2025/26 and a team option for ’26/27. Springer will receive a $400K partial guarantee on next season’s salary if he remains under contract through July 25. That partial guarantee will increase to $600K if he makes the opening night roster in the fall.
- Teams that used a portion of their mid-level exceptions to promote two-way players to multiyear standard deals include the Wizards with Justin Champagnie ($1,800,000), the Clippers with Jordan Miller ($1,005,000), and the Rockets with Jeenathan Williams ($515,881). All three players got four-year contracts that don’t include guaranteed money beyond this season, though Miller’s deal includes some trigger dates — he’ll get a partial guarantee of $350K for 2025/26 if he’s still under contract beyond July 15 and half of his $2,191,897 salary will become guaranteed if he isn’t waived before the start of the ’25/26 regular season.
- Pat Spencer of the Warriors, Orlando Robinson of the Raptors, and Ryan Rollins of the Bucks all received straight conversions of their two-way contracts to standard deals, so they’ll each still be eligible for restricted free agency this offseason.
- Dominick Barlow‘s new two-year contract with the Hawks is a minimum-salary deal that includes a team option for 2025/26.
Bucks Promote Ryan Rollins, Sign Jamaree Bouyea To Two-Way
March 4: Both roster moves are now official, the Bucks announced in a pair of press releases.
March 3: The Bucks are poised to make a pair of roster moves, according to Shams Charania of ESPN (Twitter links), who reports that two-way guard Ryan Rollins will be promoted to the standard roster, with guard Jamaree Bouyea getting a two-way contract from the club.
Charania, citing agents Mike Silverman and Brandon Grier, says Rollins is getting a rest-of-season contract from the Bucks, which suggests it’ll be a straight conversion rather than a new multiyear agreement. Assuming that’s the case, Rollins would be eligible for restricted free agency at season’s end.
The No. 44 overall pick in the 2022 draft, Rollins didn’t see much action for Golden State or Washington in his first two NBA seasons, but has emerged as a rotation player for the Bucks in his third year, averaging 4.9 points, 1.6 rebounds, and 1.3 assists in 12.5 minutes per night across 39 games (eight starts).
Players on two-way contracts aren’t eligible to be active for more than 50 NBA regular season games in a season and Rollins reached that 50-game limit last Thursday. Once his promotion is official, he’ll once again be able to suit up for the Bucks and will also be eligible to participate in the postseason.
Bouyea, a former San Francisco standout, has bounced around the NBA and G League since going undrafted in 2022, playing for the Heat, Wizards, Trail Blazers, and Spurs at the NBA level, as well as the Sioux Falls Skyforce, Rip City Remix, and Austin Spurs in the NBAGL.
In 28 games this season for San Antonio’s G League affiliate, the 25-year-old has averaged 18.9 points, 4.2 assists, 4.0 rebounds, and 1.9 steals per contest, with a shooting line of .501/.343/.816.
No corresponding roster moves will be necessary for the Bucks, who already have an open spot on their 15-man roster. Bouyea, of course, will take the two-way slot vacated by Rollins.
Milwaukee will have 15 players on standard contracts and three on two-way deals once the transactions are complete, but could technically carry one more player on the standard roster until Bobby Portis‘ 25-game suspension is over — players serving suspensions longer than five games can be moved to the suspended list and don’t count against a team’s roster limit until they’re reactivated.
Spurs Notes: Branham, Paul, Vassell, Cissoko, G League
It remains to be seen whether there will be a regular role for him once the Spurs‘ roster is fully healthy, but Malaki Branham continues to take advantage of an early-season opportunity and is making a case for consistent playing time, writes Jeff McDonald of The San Antonio Express-News.
After providing the Spurs with 14 solid minutes on Saturday, Branham had his best game of the season in Monday’s five-point loss to Houston, scoring 15 points on 5-of-8 shooting in just under 17 minutes of action. His plus-22.6 net rating through three contests is easily the best mark of any San Antonio rotation player — the team’s overall rating is minus-6.0.
“He’s been a pro,” head coach Gregg Popovich said of the third-year guard. “He’s done what he needed to do at practice and shootarounds. He came in and was ready to go. A class act.”
Here’s more on the Spurs:
- In an entertaining feature story for The Athletic, Fred Katz takes an in-depth look at Chris Paul‘s history of mentorship, speaking to former teammates like Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Cameron Johnson, Mikal Bridges, and Cameron Payne about what they learned from the future Hall of Famer and exploring how the Spurs will benefit from his presence. “There has been a mentorship dynamic with everybody because Chris is Chris,” Popovich said. “His experience and his intelligence, as we know, is off the charts. … He talks to everybody on the court: big, little. (He’s) just been fantastic in that regard.”
- The Spurs are sending Devin Vassell and Sidy Cissoko to Austin to participate in training camp with their G League team, tweets Tom Orsborn of The San Antonio Express-News. Vassell is in the final stages of his rehabilitation following offseason foot surgery, while Cissoko hasn’t seen any game action yet this season for San Antonio and could use the reps.
- Speaking of the Austin Spurs, they officially announced their training camp roster on Tuesday (via Twitter). Malachi Flynn, Jamaree Bouyea, and Jameer Nelson Jr. (the son of former NBA point guard Jameer Nelson) are among the notable names on the 14-man squad.