NBA G League Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Southwest Notes: Russell, Mavericks Questions, Clarke, G League Trade

September 18th, 2025 at 9:54pm CST by Earnest Marshall

Mavericks guard Klay Thompson hosted the annual Mavericks “vet camp” and new acquisition D’Angelo Russell was among those in attendance. As Grant Afseth of Dallas Hoops Journal writes, the experience helped Russell gain some familiarity with his new teammates ahead of the season.

“When you have that camaraderie to start the season, all the ice is broken,” Russell said. “You don’t wait until preseason or until media day to feel like you know these guys. You develop that relationship and camaraderie ASAP. So, I’m excited, man.”

The Mavericks’ training camp will begin on Sept. 30.

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One of the biggest questions surrounding the Mavericks entering the season is how they’ll deploy their offense without Kyrie Irving (ACL), Christian Clark of The Athletic writes. Dallas signed Russell to help offset the loss of Irving, but having Cooper Flagg take on some ball-handling responsibilities is not out of the question.
Grizzlies big man Brandon Clarke suffered a high grade PCL strain in March that caused him to miss the remainder of the 2024/25 season. According to Damichael Cole of Memphis Commercial Appeal, Clarke said he feels good and expects to be ready for the start of the season. “I’m ramping up right now,” Clarke said. “I feel great. I’m doing everything. Ramping up to play with my team on day one. I’ll be there.”
The Thunder and Spurs‘ G League affiliates made a trade, swapping the returning player rights of Malachi Flynn (to the Oklahoma City Blue) and Adam Flagler (to the Austin Spurs), per Rylan Stiles of Thunder on SI (Twitter link). The Blue also obtained a 2025 first-round pick and 2026 second-round pick. Flynn is joining a Turkish club, so this trade does not mean that he will suit up for Oklahoma City’s G League affiliate — just that they obtained his rights if he does play in the G League in the future. Flagler signed with the Spurs on an Exhibit 10 deal that entitles him to a bonus if he spends 60 days with Austin, so this deal ensures that he’ll end up there this season.

And-Ones: G League Trade, Offseason Moves, Spending, Draft Capital

September 18th, 2025 at 7:26pm CST by Earnest Marshall

The Heat‘s G League affiliate, the Sioux Falls Skyforce, acquired the returning player rights to Alex Fudge from the South Bay Lakers, Los Angeles’s developmental team, the Skyforce announced in a release. The move was a three-team deal, with the Skyforce obtaining a 2026 first-round pick from the College Park Skyhawks (the Hawks‘ affiliate) while sending them Malik Williams. South Bay also obtained Caleb Daniels from Sioux Falls and Michael Devoe from College Park.

Fudge went undrafted in 2023 out of Florida but signed with the Lakers on a two-way contract that summer. He was later waived and then signed a two-way deal with Dallas before being cut last offseason. He spent all of last season with South Bay, averaging 5.5 points in 15 regular season games. The 22-year-old has appeared in six NBA games.

The other player in the deal with NBA experience is Williams, who suited up in seven games (two starts) with Toronto on a 10-day contract in 2023/24. He averaged 14.8 points and 9.2 rebounds per game in the G League last year with Sioux Falls.

Daniels previously signed an Exhibit 10 deal with Miami before averaging 10.8 PPG with the Skyforce last season. Devoe signed Exhibit 10 deals with the Clippers in 2022 and Jazz in 2023. He last played in the G League in 2023/24.

G League trades can often indicate a team is gearing up to sign one or more of the players involved to an Exhibit 10 contract. When teams sign players to Exhibit 10 deals, those players are eligible for a bonus worth up to $85,300 if they spend at least 60 days with that organization’s G League affiliate.

Devoe played last year in Germany, so this trade doesn’t necessarily mean he will for sure suit up in the G League. But if he does, the South Bay Lakers currently controls his returning rights.

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The Spurs signing Luke Kornet is one of the NBA’s most underrated moves of the offseason, John Hollinger of The Athletic opines. San Antonio got a big that pairs nicely with Victor Wembanyama or can play when he’s off the floor without breaking the bank. In an article evaluating some of the most overlooked moves of the summer, Hollinger credits the Bulls for re-signing Josh Giddey at a decent price point and the Heat for trading for Norman Powell, while applauding various other moves.
On the other hand, several teams made deals Hollinger was not a fan of. The Heat salary-dumping Haywood Highsmith is one such move, while the Pelicans acquiring Jordan Poole is another.
With free agency largely over, pending the conclusion of restricted free agency for Quentin Grimes and Jonathan Kuminga, Keith Smith of Spotrac took a look at how teams spent their money this offseason. Small-market teams mostly led the way in total spending, signing players to big extensions. The Thunder, for example, led the league in new extension money at $776.3MM spread out between Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Chet Holmgren, Jalen Williams and Jaylin Williams.
The Thunder laid the blueprint for teams building through draft capital, winning a title with drafted players Holmgren and Williams leading the charge alongside Gilgeous-Alexander, who was himself acquired alongside draft assets. Bobby Marks and Jeremy Woo of ESPN rank the top teams in the league by their draft capital, with the Thunder still leading the way with 13 incoming future first-round picks. Two rebuilding teams, the Nets and the Jazz, round out the top three.

And-Ones: Sengun, Giannis, Future Rankings, G League Swap, Drell

September 16th, 2025 at 9:51pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Rockets center Alperen Sengun made an eye-opening statement regarding Giannis Antetokounmpo after Turkey defeated Greece for the EuroBasket semifinals.

“He’s not a great passer. He’s an amazing player, you know, but he’s not a great passer. So we just tried to help and jump to close the paint,” Sengun said, per Edvinas Jablonskis of BasketNews.com.

When asked about Sengun’s comments on Sunday, according to BasketNews, the Bucks superstar replied, “I’m not the guy that will talk back to coaches or players or people that say bad things about me. It doesn’t really matter because at the end of the day, you won’t remember what they say. You’ll remember how I respond. So, I keep everything to myself. You can go see my clips on YouTube. And then come back and ask me if I’m a good passer. There you go. That’s it.”

The disagreement continued on social media but both players later issued apologies for comments they made on Instagram, according to Eurohoops.net.

We have more from around the international basketball world:

ESPN’s Insiders updated their three-year future rankings of every NBA franchise based on a variety of factors. Not surprisingly, the defending champion Thunder received the top ranking. The Rockets, Knicks, Cavaliers and Clippers rounded out the top five, with the Suns occupying the bottom of the totem pole.
The Oklahoma City Blue, the Thunder‘s NBA G League team, has acquired a 2026 first-round pick and the returning player rights to Steven Richardson from the Wisconsin Herd in exchange for the returning player rights to Cormac Ryan, Thunder beat reporter Rylan Stiles tweets. Ryan joined the Bucks‘ camp roster on an Exhibit 10 deal last week, so this clears the way for him to receive a bonus up to $85,300 if he’s waived and then spends 60 days or more with the Herd.
Spanish club Joventut Badalona and former Bulls forward Henri Drell have reached an agreement for the next two months with an option to extend until the end of the season, according to Penya.com. Drell played in the EuroBasket tournament with the Estonian national team. Last year, he played 15 games with La Laguna Tenerife. Drell appeared in four games with Chicago during the 2023/24 season.

And-Ones: Roster Holes, G League Trades

September 15th, 2025 at 10:37pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

With the start of training camp mere weeks away, Kevin Pelton of ESPN takes a look at the biggest 2025/26 roster holes for all 30 NBA teams.

Beyond the reigning champion Thunder, who will be bringing back their full playoff lineup and whose perceived biggest need is a fresh arena, Pelton believes every club has personnel issues.

Among top East contenders, Pelton posits that Cleveland could use some help along the wing with injured swingman Max Strus expected to be out for multiple months. Pelton notes that New York may want to add more proven veteran help to shore up its bench. In the West, Pelton observes that the Rockets and Nuggets could use help at the point, while Minnesota could benefit from some additional depth on the perimeter.

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The Pistons‘ G League club, the Motor City Cruise, has traded the returning player rights to big man Cameron Martin and guard Javante McCoy to the Nuggets‘ NBAGL affiliate, the Grand Rapids Gold, for the rights to center Charles Bediako and a 2026 international pick, Motor City has announced (Twitter link).
Raptors 905, the Raptors‘ NBAGL affiliate, is trading their rights to guard Kennedy Chandler to the Sixers‘ G League club, the Delaware Blue Coats, in exchange for wing Patrick McCaw and a future first-rounder, reports Blake Murphy of Sportsnet.ca (via Twitter). Murphy tweets that some EuroLeague teams considered bringing McCaw aboard earlier in the offseason. McCaw has been in the G League for four seasons, and Murphy is unsure if he’ll continue suiting up close to NBA scouts or will take a more lucrative offer elsewhere.
In case you missed it, newly crowned EuroBasket MVP Dennis Schröder cited Hall of Fame countryman Dirk Nowitzki as the major inspiration who helped turn Germany into an international force.

Western Notes: Gobert, Abdelfattah, Sengun, Durant

September 13th, 2025 at 3:52pm CST by Dana Gauruder

The Timberwolves paid a hefty price to the Jazz to acquire Rudy Gobert. Minnesota was heavily criticized for giving up five players and a package of first-rounders for the defensive stalwart after Gobert’s first season in the organization. However, the trade can now be considered a resounding win for the Timberwolves, Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic opines.

Krawczynski cites Gobert’s impact over the past two seasons and suggests the team’s success during that stretch have changed the culture in Minnesota. The organization has become a place players want to play with heightened expectations and Gobert has been a big part of that change.

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The Timberwolves have officially hired Mahmoud Abdelfattah as head coach of the Iowa Wolves, the club’s NBA G League affiliate, according to a team press release. The Wolves’ decision to hire him was reported last month. Most recently, Abdelfattah spent the 2023/24 season as the head coach of the Sydney Kings of Australia’s National Basketball League. Prior to his time with the NBL’s Kings, the Chicago native spent four seasons (2019-2023) in the Rockets organization.
Alperen Sengun has been one of the stars of the EuroBasket tournament, which comes as no surprise to Rockets coach Ime Udoka, according to Danielle Lerner of the Houston Chronicle. That’s what Udoka advised his starting center when he visited Turkey this summer. “It was really, ‘Be aggressive and get back to dominating as you have throughout your career,’ basically,” Udoka said. “For him, we wanted to work on specific things and the way they guard him over in Europe, in EuroBasket. And he’s doing a great job, obviously, getting high assist numbers, being very efficient, but doing all the things and trying to be well rounded. So it wasn’t just about scoring the ball.”
Speaking of Udoka, the Rockets coach received this message from Kevin Durant — use me in any way necessary. Durant would rather fit in than have their young core become passive. “He wants to kind of be implemented into the group, and people not take a back seat to him,” Udoka told Lerner. “That’s his message to a lot of the young guys: Be who you are, continue to grow in those areas, and I’ll fit in where we see necessary.”

Pacific Notes: Harris, Wiggins, Hayes-Davis, Aspiration

September 13th, 2025 at 1:59pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Zach Harris has been named general manager of the Warriors’ NBA G League affiliate, the Santa Cruz Warriors, according to a team press release. Additionally, Noah Robotham has been promoted to assistant GM.

Harris is entering his second season with the Santa Cruz Warriors after serving as an assistant GM last year. He joined the Warriors organization with four years of G League experience, having worked for the Grand Rapids Gold as a basketball strategy coordinator for the 2022/23 season, the Capital City Go-Go as a basketball operations assistant from 2018-20, and as an intern for the Iowa Wolves in 2017.

Robotham is entering his third season with the Santa Cruz Warriors, having spent last year as the team’s manager of basketball operations. In his first season with the Warriors in 2023/24, he served as a coaching associate and basketball operations coordinator.

Here’s more from the Pacific Division:

The Lakers reportedly are looking to upgrade the wing position with the Heat’s Andrew Wiggins as a potential target. Lakers beat reporter Jovan Buha expresses skepticism on his Buha’s Block podcast (video link) that the Lakers can pull off a Wiggins trade without including a first-round pick. He also doesn’t expect that some combination of Dalton Knecht, Rui Hachimura and Gabe Vincent would be enough to pull off a trade.
The Suns signed Nigel Hayes-Davis to a one-year contract in July after he spent seven years playing overseas. The Athletic’s Doug Haller details Hayes-Davis’ long journey back to the NBA. “For sure, I would’ve been surprised (it took so long), but to talk about the past is almost pointless,” Hayes-Davis said. “… I will say that I’m appreciative of the journey that I’ve had. Is it the one I thought about as a child growing up? Of course not. But it’s been fantastic.”
The ongoing saga regarding Kawhi Leonard‘s no-show endorsement deal with Aspiration as a means of the Clippers potentially circumventing the league’s salary cap rules has been a hot topic the past two weeks. ESPN’s Shwetha Surendran takes a closer at the now-defunct company, including its business model and high-profile investors.

Why So Many Players Will Be Signed-And-Waived Before Season

September 12th, 2025 at 10:51am CST by Luke Adams

The Raptors have signed three free agents to their offseason roster this week. They’ve also waived those same three players, with Quincy Guerrier, Tyreke Key, and Jarkel Joiner each spending no more than a single day under contract with the team, despite the fact that training camp is still weeks away.

There will be dozens of this sort of “sign-and-waive” transaction completed in the next five-plus weeks before opening night — many of them will involve players who don’t have a realistic path to make their team’s regular season roster and won’t be under contract for more than a day or two.

While they may look pointless on the surface, these moves are meaningful to teams and players for a couple reasons. Here are the two reasons why you can count on seeing many more sign-and-trade moves in the coming weeks:

1. In order to secure a player’s G League rights

Up to four players waived by a team prior to the start of the NBA regular season can be designated as “affiliate players.” As we explain in more detail in our glossary entry on the subject, if a player designated as an affiliate player signs a G League contract, he’s automatically assigned to that team’s NBAGL squad.

A player can only be made an affiliate player if his returning rights aren’t already controlled by a G League team. That’s why our annual list of affiliate players around the league consists mostly of undrafted rookies and a few veterans who have never played in the NBAGL before.

If a player has only ever been assigned to the G League while on a standard or two-way contract with an NBA team, his returning rights aren’t controlled by that club. For example, if a team were to sign Emoni Bates to a training camp deal this fall, it could designate him as an affiliate player, since he has only played in the G League while on a two-way contract with the Cavaliers — that means the Cleveland Charge don’t control his returning rights.

Sign-and-waive transactions involving players meant to be designated as affiliate players often don’t occur until training camps begin, since a player is typically require to participate in at least one day of team activities in order to qualify as an affiliate player.

2. In order to award a player a bonus

Many of the players who are signed and immediately waived by an NBA team can’t be designated as affiliate players because their G League rights are already controlled by a specific club.

This applies to the three players signed-and-waived by the Raptors this week — Guerrier and Key played for the Raptors 905 last season, while Toronto’s affiliate made a trade last month to acquire Joiner’s returning rights. That means if Guerrier, Key, and Joiner sign G League contracts this fall, the 905 would control them as “returning rights” players and wouldn’t have to use one of their four “affiliate player” slots to retain them.

The Raptors didn’t need to sign Guerrier, Key, and Joiner to contracts to acquire their G League rights, but giving them non-guaranteed Exhibit 10 deals will allow Toronto to award those players some bonus money on top of their standard G League base salaries.

A player who signs an Exhibit 10 contract and then is waived before the season will earn his Exhibit 10 bonus if he spends at least 60 days with his team’s G League affiliate. This season, the maximum Exhibit 10 bonus amount is $85,300. Since those bonuses don’t count against the cap, they serve as a way for teams to reward or incentivize a player who joins their G League affiliates instead of seeking another opportunity, perhaps overseas.

The majority of players who sign Exhibit 10 contracts are awarded the maximum allowable bonus ($85,300), but some G League role players will agree to receive bonuses that come in below that max. For example, Key – who averaged just 17.3 minutes per game during the NBAGL regular season in 2024/25 – agreed to a bonus worth just $35K, Hoops Rumors has learned.

Still, even a modest Exhibit 10 bonus represents a significant raise for a player who signs a G League contract. Shams Charania of ESPN reported in the fall of 2022 that the base NBAGL salary at that time was $40,500. It’s possible that figure has increased slightly since then, but it’s still just a small fraction of what a player would earn on a standard – or even a two-way – NBA contract. An Exhibit 10 bonus could double or even triple a G League player’s earnings for that season.

It’s worth noting that if the Raptors hadn’t acquired Joiner’s returning rights from the Hawks’ G League affiliate, they wouldn’t be in position to carry him on the 905’s roster or give him an Exhibit 10 bonus. If an NBA team signs and waives a player whose NBAGL rights are held by another organization, it’s generally a safe bet that a G League trade to acquire that player’s returning rights is in the works.

While only some of the many sign-and-waive transactions that occur between now and the start of the regular season are about acquiring a player’s NBAGL rights, nearly all of them will involve lining up some bonus money for a player ticketed for the G League.

Heat Notes: 2026, Rozier, Achiuwa, Settle, Young

September 11th, 2025 at 10:33pm CST by Luke Adams

While the idea of opening up cap room in 2026 was once a goal for the Heat, that’s no longer the case, according to Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald, who notes that several potential marquee ’26 free agents have signed contract extensions that will keep them off the market.

The Heat still want to maintain flexibility going forward, but that will likely be more about having room below the luxury tax line than creating cap space, Jackson explains.

Outlining what it would look like for Miami to operate either over or under the 2026/27 cap, Jackson points out that generating a meaningful chunk of cap room would likely require the club to part ways with both Andrew Wiggins and Norman Powell. Operating over the cap appears to be the more “prudent” path for the Heat next summer, Jackson concludes.

Here’s more on the Heat:

After reporting earlier this week that the Heat have been in contact with Precious Achiuwa and have mulled the idea of waiving Terry Rozier, Ira Winderman of The South Florida Sun Sentinel (subscription required) digs a little deeper into that subject, exploring why Miami has considered that path. As Winderman details, Rozier is a potential bounce-back candidate and may be a better player than Achiuwa in a vacuum, but the veteran guard could also end up buried on a crowded backcourt depth chart, whereas the team has a more pressing need up front.
Although the Heat’s training camp won’t formally get underway until the week of September 29, several players are already back on the practice court at Kaseya Center for drills, Winderman writes within a look at the team’s roster. Winderman confirms in the same story that Miami – which currently has a full 21-man roster – is still expected to sign undrafted rookie free agent Steve Settle to an Exhibit 10 contract at some point before the regular season, as previously reported.
The Sioux Falls Skyforce, Miami’s G League affiliate, acquired Jahmir Young‘s returning rights from the Grand Rapids Gold in a three-team trade that sent Bryson Warren‘s rights to the Westchester Knicks and Moses Brown‘s rights to the Gold (the Nuggets‘ affiliate), per a press release. Young was one of four players who signed Exhibit 10 contracts with the Heat on Thursday, so if he’s waived before the season and then decides to play in the G League, the Skyforce would have his rights.

Southwest Notes: FVV, Adams, Grizzlies, Pelicans, Mavs

September 6th, 2025 at 1:58pm CST by Luke Adams

The Rockets‘ trade for Kevin Durant was clearly the most impactful move of the team’s offseason, but extending Steven Adams and re-signing Fred VanVleet on a more team-friendly deal shouldn’t be overlooked, Danielle Lerner of The Houston Chronicle (subscription required) writes in a preview of the club’s season.

As Lerner points out, both VanVleet and Adams are respected locker-room leaders in addition to providing value on the court and were among Houston’s most effective players in the postseason series vs. Golden State.

After winning 52 games last season, the Rockets appear capable of increasing that number in 2025/26, perhaps to the 55-win range, Lerner writes. However, winning in the playoffs will be the ultimate barometer of success in Houston this season — the team hasn’t won a postseason series since 2020.

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In addition to previewing Houston’s 2025/26 campaign, Lerner spoke to beat writers for other Southwest teams within the past week to get a sense of their outlooks for the coming season. Michael Wallace of Grind City Media (Chronicle subscriber link) believes the Grizzlies are capable of competing for a top-six seed in the West after trading away Desmond Bane; Jim Eichenhofer of Pelicans.com (subscriber link) thinks the Pelicans will exceed expectations after having widely been projected as the No. 14 team in the conference; and Eddie Sefko of Mavs.com (subscriber link) forecasts a 48-34 regular season and a playoff berth for the Mavericks.
While the Mavericks‘ new four-year, $89MM extension with P.J. Washington looks relatively team-friendly in a vacuum, it’s unclear how much sense it makes for Dallas, according to Yossi Gozlan of The Third Apron (Substack link), who points to a crowded frontcourt and the team’s increasingly pricey roster going forward as ways the deal could backfire.
The Memphis Hustle, the Grizzlies‘ G League affiliate, acquired the returning player rights for guard Evan Gilyard from the Raptors 905 in exchange for a 2025 NBAGL first-round pick, according to an announcement from the team (Twitter link). Gilyard, who averaged 12.3 points and 5.4 assists per game during the 2024/25 G League regular season for Toronto’s affiliate, is now a candidate to sign an Exhibit 10 contract with Memphis if the team wants to pay him more than the standard NBAGL salary.

Second-Rounder Mashack To Open Season With Memphis Hustle

September 4th, 2025 at 12:43pm CST by Rory Maher

Former Tennessee guard Jahmai Mashack, whose NBA rights were acquired by the Grizzlies after he was selected 59th overall in June’s draft, will open the season with the team’s G League affiliate, the Memphis Hustle, according to Chris Herrington of The Daily Memphian (Twitter link).

Herrington’s report was confirmed by Damichael Cole of The Memphis Commercial Appeal (via Twitter).

According to Cole, the Grizzlies are still high on Mashack, who impressed during a five-game Summer League showing, averaging 9.0 points, 4.4 assists, 4.0 rebounds, 2.0 steals and 1.2 blocks in 23.7 minutes per contest (.462/.417/.600 shooting line). But after reaching an agreement to sign Olivier-Maxence Prosper, the Grizzlies no longer have an open two-way spot, which leaves Mashack as the odd man out for now.

As Herrington notes, Mashack’s NBA rights are still controlled by the Grizzlies — he’ll be a domestic draft-and-stash player of sorts and not a free agent.

Gui Santos (Warriors) and Nikola Djurisic (Hawks) are two other recent examples of second-round picks who spent their first post-draft seasons in the G League — for what it’s worth, both players later signed standard contracts rather than two-way deals.

Mashack, who turns 23 years old in November, spent four college seasons with the Volunteers, mostly in a reserve role until he was a senior in 2024/25. In 38 starts last season (28.2 MPG), the 6’4″ wing averaged 6.0 PPG, 4.2 RPG, 1.5 APG and 1.7 SPG, with a shooting line of .454/.351/.723.

Mashack had been one of four 2025 draft picks who remained unsigned, and technically that’s still the case. But it certainly sounds like he’ll sign a G League contract before the season begins rather than an NBA deal with the Grizzlies.

Still, it’s worth noting that two-way contracts are non-guaranteed and don’t count against the salary cap, so it wouldn’t be surprising if Mashack ends up with the Grizzlies at some point in ’25/26. A multiyear standard deal toward the end of the season with subsequent seasons being non-guaranteed or partially guaranteed is another possibility.