Mavericks To Match Offer Sheet, Keep Moussa Cisse
The Mavericks will match the Knicks‘ offer sheet for restricted free agent big man Moussa Cisse, according to Shams Charania of ESPN (Twitter link). Agents Yann Balikouzou and Kevin Bradbury of LIFT Sports Management confirmed Dallas’ decision to Charania.
Under the terms of the offer, Cisse’s salary will be $2,185,116 for the upcoming season and $2,571,895 in 2027/28. However, as we noted earlier, his tax/apron hit for 2026/27 will be $2,449,421, equivalent to a veteran’s minimum for a player with two years of experience (rather than one).
Matching the offer gives Dallas 16 players with standard contracts and 15 that are guaranteed. The team also has a surplus of big men with No. 9 overall pick Morez Johnson Jr. and trade acquisition Santi Aldama joining Dereck Lively II, Daniel Gafford and P.J. Washington as options in the middle.
The Mavericks continue to explore trade opportunities involving Gafford that will include some type of value in return, according to Brett Siegel of ClutchPoints (Twitter link). Siegel believes Gafford will “likely” be moved based on his conversations at the Las Vegas Summer League.
Cisse will receive a $1.1MM guarantee on his $2.2MM salary for 2026/27 if he remains on Dallas’ roster through September 1, notes Bobby Marks of ESPN (Twitter link). The deal will become fully guaranteed if he’s not waived before October 1.
Because the offer was matched, Cisse cannot be traded without his consent for a full year, and he can’t be dealt to the Knicks under any circumstances during that time. However, Yossi Gozlan of The Third Apron points out that Cisse would be permitted to sign with New York if Dallas opts to waive him (Twitter link).
The Knicks are expected to explore other options in their search for a low-cost big man off the bench. They reportedly reached out to the Pelicans about Yves Missi and the Hornets about Moussa Diabate before extending the offer sheet to Cisse.
Cisse, 23, turned in a promising rookie season after going undrafted out of Memphis last summer. He came to Dallas’ training camp on an Exhibit 10 contract and was promoted to a two-way deal before last season began. He appeared in 38 NBA games, averaging 4.5 points, 5.7 rebounds, and 1.2 blocks in 13.9 minutes per night. He also got into 16 G League contests with the Texas Legends.
Knicks Sign Mavs RFA Moussa Cisse To Two-Year Offer Sheet
1:45 pm: Cisse signed a two-year, minimum-salary contract with the Knicks, according to reports from Ian Begley of SNY.tv and Marc Stein of The Stein Line (Twitter links).
As Marks observes (via Twitter), that means Cisse’s salary will be worth $2,185,116 next season and $2,571,895 in 2027/28. However, his tax/apron hit for next season will be $2,449,421, equivalent to a veteran’s minimum for a player with two years of experience (rather than one).
12:56 pm: The Knicks have signed Mavericks restricted free agent center Moussa Cisse to a two-year offer sheet, reports Jake Fischer of The Stein Line (via Twitter).
Shams Charania of ESPN, who confirms the news, hears Cisse’s salary for the coming season is 50% guaranteed, while 2027/28 is non-guaranteed (Twitter link). Charania’s colleague Bobby Marks reports (via Twitter) that Cisse’s salary for ’26/27 would become fully guaranteed on October 1.
Dallas has until Monday at 11:59 pm ET to decide whether or not to match the offer sheet, Marks adds.
According to Fischer (Twitter link), the Knicks have been in the market for a young backup center. They attempted to trade for Yves Missi of the Pelicans and Moussa Diabate of the Hornets before signing Cisse.
An athletic lob threat and rim protector, Cisse went undrafted last year out of Memphis after playing for three different schools over five college seasons. He initially signed an Exhibit 10 deal with the Mavs for training camp, but was promoted to a two-way contract shortly before 2025/26 began.
Cisse, 23, was part of Dallas’ frontcourt rotation for stretches of last season, averaging 4.5 points, 5.7 rebounds, and 1.2 blocks in 13.9 minutes per game across 38 appearances. He was given a two-way qualifying offer last month, making him a restricted free agent.
The Guinean big man also made 16 total G League appearances with the Texas Legends as a rookie in 2025/26, averaging 14.8 points, 13.3 rebounds and 2.4 blocks in 27.7 minutes per game.
While the exact terms of Cisse’s agreement with New York have yet to be reported, the team is close to its second-apron hard cap, so it can’t offer Cisse much more than his minimum salary.
From a financial perspective, there’s nothing preventing the Mavericks from matching the offer sheet. However, the team already has 15 players on guaranteed standard contracts, with Dereck Lively II, Daniel Gafford, No. 9 overall pick Morez Johnson Jr., P.J. Washington, and trade acquisition Santi Aldama as options in the middle.
On the other hand, Lively has dealt with significant injury absences in each of his three seasons, Gafford was hampered by a right ankle issue essentially all of last season, Johnson is a rookie, and Washington and Aldama have primarily played at the four. Cisse was one of the more productive two-way players in the NBA last season, so the Mavs may not want to let him go for nothing.
The X-factor that’s difficult to gauge is Dallas has a new front office regime led by president Masai Ujiri and general manager Mike Schmitz. It’s unclear how those two executives view Cisse.
Knicks Notes: Kayil, Towns, Diawara, Center Depth
When the Knicks selected point guard Jack Kayil with the 39th pick, it was unclear whether he’d come over to the NBA right away or stay in the German league, though signs pointed to him remaining overseas, Ian Begley writes for SNY.
While he has struggled with his scoring efficiency during Summer League, Kayil has shown some real flashes, including a 19-point, four-assist game in a win over the Pistons. It would be a win for the Knicks if they could bring him stateside on a team-friendly contract, Begley says.
However, the team is currently just $3.3MM below the second apron with 13 players on standard contracts and no third-string center, making it unlikely that Kayil will receive the 14th roster spot. Furthermore, the Knicks would be barred from paying Kayil’s NBA buyout from his German team if they were to offer him a two-way spot, a complication they wouldn’t face with their other draft pick, the sharpshooting wing Tyler Nickel, Begley notes.
While Kayil will likely get a chance to play for the Knicks in the future, the potential complications this season may delay his arrival, with the team focused on maximizing its championship roster while staying out of the second apron.
We have more from the Knicks:
- One of the financial factors the Knicks have to navigate is the extension eligibility of star center Karl-Anthony Towns. Towns is likely to be offered an extension, James L. Edwards III writes in a mailbag for The Athletic, but it remains to be seen whether the team will put a four-year, $272MM maximum-salary offer on the table. Towns is 30 years old, and the team is getting very expensive even before factoring in Josh Hart‘s upcoming extension eligibility. While it’s hard to predict what the number would be, Edwards says he’d be surprised if the two sides agreed to a deal for the full max.
- Mohamed Diawara entered this year’s Summer League fresh off signing a four-year contract and ready to hit the ground running. However, he struggled to find any kind of offensive rhythm, shooting 1-of-14 from the floor and 1-of-10 from three while recording four turnovers to just one assist across two games. Still, Edwards doesn’t believe the performance will have any impact on how the team feels about him in the big picture, especially since he mostly played without Kayil, the one real point guard on the Summer League roster. Diawara is not expected to be a star who can create his own offense consistently, but rather a player who is effective at working off the Knicks’ impact players, which is why it’s not worth drawing many conclusions based on his performance in Las Vegas.
- Despite only having two centers on the roster in Towns and the recently signed Andre Drummond, Edwards doesn’t believe the Knicks will go long stretches of the season playing small-ball should one of the two get hurt. If they don’t add another center with their 14th roster spot – Nick Richards is likely the best name still available – Edwards expects them to use a two-way spot to bring a big man in. Edwards also think there’s a good chance the Knicks leave the 14th spot open for now and hold a training camp competition for it, similar to what they did last year, which resulted in Landry Shamet earning the spot, a move that had a major positive impact on their title run.
Atlantic Notes: Brown, Brunson, Knicks, Nets
Sometimes an executive who takes over a team’s front office has to wait until the right moment to reshape his roster. That wasn’t the case for Mike Gansey, who took a big swing in his first offseason on the job with the Sixers by trading for Jaylen Brown.
Gansey said that he would have “never envisioned” that his first months as the president of basketball operations in Philadelphia would play out this way, Gina Mizell writes for the Philly Inquirer. He decided to lean into a simple principle he learned during his time with the Cavaliers: just make the call and see what happens.
“It’s kind of like, ‘Let’s check in with Boston and see if there’s anything there,’” Gansey said. “Maybe there isn’t. But you just make that call, and they don’t say no. … It just kept going on, and they would call us, we would call them. You just keep having conversations. Next thing you know, we’re in L.A. [for free agency], and it was getting close and [feeling like] this might actually happen … That’s why, this business, you can plan all you want and prepare, but you just don’t know. Things happen.”
The Sixers now have three high-level offensive weapons in Brown, Tyrese Maxey, and Joel Embiid, all of whom will need to sacrifice some of the usage they enjoyed last year in order to accommodate each other, Tony Jones and Jay King write for The Athletic.
Their ceiling still depends on Embiid’s ability to stay healthy deep into the playoffs, which has historically been tough to bet on, but if everything goes right, the Sixers have a real chance to be a contender in 2026/27, according to Jones and King.
Here’s more news and notes from around the Atlantic Division:
- Word broke recently that Jalen Brunson had undergone a procedure to address a wrist injury that had bothered him throughout the Knicks‘ championship run. On Wednesday, Brunson stated during an ESPN Radio appearance that the injury occurred during the Eastern Conference Finals against the Cavaliers, Zach Braziller relays for the New York Post. “There wasn’t a play I remember it happening,” Brunson said. “I just remember being at the free throw line in the third or fourth quarter of Game 2 of the Eastern Conference finals. My wrist was starting to feel weak. I was like, ‘Where is this coming from?’ From that point on, I was trying to figure out what was going on, and how I can push through, because I wasn’t going to get anything done during that time.” He said that the realization that he’d need surgery put a slight damper on the magic of the championship summer, but it was a small price to pay.
- The league is still waiting to see where LeBron James will end up, with a decision said to be coming in the near future. The Knicks aren’t believed to be in the running for James, but they could still be significantly impacted by his choice, according to Kristian Winfield of the Daily News. Three of the teams still reportedly in the mix are the Cavaliers, Sixers, and Heat, all of whom are jockeying to take New York down from within the Eastern Conference. While Winfield notes that both Cleveland and Philadelphia would be dangerous if they were to add the four-time MVP, he believes that if James goes to Miami, it could significantly shift the dynamics of the East and give the Heat a leg up on the Knicks in the conference’s power rankings.
- Tuesday’s Summer League win over Sacramento provided a glimpse of the identity the Nets are trying to form, C.J. Holmes writes for the New York Daily News. “I think the big difference was our energy and effort defensively,” Summer League coach Dutch Gaitley said. “I mean, we forced 28 turnovers. They weren’t able to get — we had 30 fast-break points. They weren’t able to get anything going to start the game.” Mikel Brown Jr. and Egor Demin gave an intriguing preview of the future of Brooklyn’s backcourt, and Brown impressed Gaitley by requesting the defensive assignment on fellow rookie guard Darius Acuff Jr. Acuff was able to score 26 points, but Brown’s mentality in wanting the challenge still stood out to his coach.
Atlantic Notes: Porter, Powell, Simons, Maxey, Sellers
The Nets are still relatively early in the process of shaping their roster into what they want it to be moving forward, and one of their key decisions will revolve around Michael Porter Jr.‘s long-term status with the team. When asked about Porter’s current extension eligibility, general manager Sean Marks suggested that no decision would be made in the immediate future.
“We’ll have those discussions. We’ve got time. There’s no immediate hurry right now. We value him a lot. He had a terrific year,” Marks said, per Michael Scotto of HoopsHype (Twitter link). “I love Mike, the guy, the person, the player, and I hope he is part of this team.”
Porter had the most productive season of his career during his first year in Brooklyn in 2025/26, averaging 24.2 points, 7.1 rebounds, and 3.0 assists per game, though he only made 52 appearances due to injuries and the Nets’ decision to prioritize draft position.
Still, there has been some speculation around the league that the 28-year-old forward might not fit the Nets’ timeline as the club embraces a youth movement, having drafted seven players in the first round over the last two seasons.
We have more news and notes from the Atlantic Division:
- Drake Powell was one of the players drafted by the Nets in the 2025 first round. He was hoping to use Summer League to make his case for a larger role next season, but his performance coming into Tuesday was a cause for concern — he entered that contest having scored 11 points through four games while shooting 1-for-28 from the field and 0-for-14 on three-pointers. Rather than giving in to panic or despair, the cold stretch offered a good chance to push him to be better, C.J. Holmes wrote for The New York Daily News prior to the game. That seemed to be the case, as Powell had by far his best Summer League performance on Tuesday, scoring 18 points on six shots and hitting four of his seven threes in a 32-point victory over the Kings.
- After reshaping their roster with the Jaylen Brown trade, the Sixers added a valuable bench scorer in Anfernee Simons to help fortify their backcourt depth. Head coach Nick Nurse is excited to get to work figuring out how best to utilize him, Tony Jones writes for The Athletic. “I really like Anfernee a lot,” Nurse said. “Obviously, he can really score. He shoots it easy, and he shoots it off the bounce. I think he’s a heck of a talent.” He added that he views Simons and rookie Labaron Philon Jr. as important parts of the team’s offense off the bench and envisions them playing together.
- Nurse also says it’s a crucial season for Sixers star Tyrese Maxey, who will have to balance searching for his own shot and organizing the offense alongside two high-volume scorers in Brown and Joel Embiid. “He can go and play one on one from all three levels and get a shot off and nail it. He’s got that in his game,” Nurse said. “He’s just so good at the other stuff. I just want him to keep it simple and keep doing what he’s doing. I want him to continue to grow as a leader and to continue to get better defensively. He’s made great strides at that over the last two years. I just want him to continue to grow and keep having fun out there and bring that energy for the rest of the group.”
- Former St. John’s guard Oziyah Sellers is trying to use Summer League to prove what he already believes: that he’s a “perfect fit” for the Knicks, Zach Braziller writes for the New York Post. “I feel like I’ve played with a chip on my shoulder pretty much my whole life. But now it’s a little elevated,” Sellers said. “That’s why every chance I get, every opportunity I get, I try to make the most of it. Regardless if I’m making shots, missing shots, just try to bring energy, play hard and let the rest take care of itself.” Through three games, Sellers has averaged 5.0 points and 2.7 rebounds in 14.7 minutes per contest. He has yet to hit a three-pointer, though he shot over 40% from deep in each of two of his last three seasons in college.
Contract Details: Landale, Clarkson, Bassey, Lyles, Smart, More
Hawks center Jock Landale, Knicks guard Jordan Clarkson, and Warriors big man Charles Bassey waived the implicit no-trade clauses in their respective contracts, Hoops Rumors has learned.
A player who re-signs with his previous team on a one-year contract – or a two-year deal with a second-year player or team option – is typically awarded the right to veto a trade for the coming year. However, his team can ask him to waive that right as part of the agreement, and that was the case for Landale, Clarkson, and Bassey, who can all be traded freely at the 2027 deadline in February.
Landale’s one-year deal with the Hawks came in at $14.1MM, leaving Atlanta with less than $1MM left on its non-taxpayer mid-level exception. While Clarkson’s minimum-salary contract is fully guaranteed, Bassey’s features a $1.4MM partial guarantee, so he could be waived before the league-wide guarantee deadline in January without Golden State being on the hook for his full salary.
Here are a few more contract details from around the NBA:
- Trey Lyles‘ one-year, minimum-salary deal with the Timberwolves carries a partial guarantee of $1.5MM. The veteran forward will earn his full salary if he remains under contract through January 7. Meanwhile, Jaylen Clark‘s three-year, $10MM contract with Minnesota is fully guaranteed, with a first-year salary of $3,086,420.
- The Rockets used the full taxpayer mid-level exception to sign Marcus Smart to his two-year contract, Hoops Rumors has confirmed, which means Houston is currently hard-capped at the second tax apron instead of the first apron. The team isn’t in danger of hitting either threshold at this point — Yossi Gozlan of CapSheets.com has the Rockets nearly $11MM below the first apron.
- The new contracts for Bulls guard Norman Powell and Bucks forward Ousmane Dieng are worth slightly less than initially reported. Powell’s two-year deal comes in just over $44MM, with a guaranteed $21.5MM salary in 2026/27 and a $22.575MM team option for ’27/28. Dieng’s three-year contract has identical cap hits of $5.75MM for all three seasons, for a total of $17.25MM. Dieng’s final year is a team option, as previously reported.
- Jaxson Hayes and Josh Okogie received matching contracts with the Jazz, as both will earn guaranteed $6MM salaries in 2026/27 with second-year team options also worth $6MM. Jusuf Nurkic‘s two-year deal with Utah looks a little different — it has a descending structure ($11,458,333 in year one; $10,541,667 in year two) and is fully guaranteed.
New York Notes: Nickel, Dadiet, Jefferson, Johnson
Second-round pick Tyler Nickel has stood out in the Las Vegas Summer League, prompting The Athletic’s James Edwards III to explore the possibility of the rookie earning the 14th spot on the Knicks roster rather than a two-way contract.
A 22-year-old perimeter ace from Vanderbilt, Nickel is averaging 17 points per game while knocking down 47.6 percent of his three-pointers through his first two outings in Vegas. He has also shown off his motor and sneaky defensive abilities, Edwards adds.
Nickel could be an insurance policy for Landry Shamet and Miles McBride, both of whom have battled injuries the past two seasons. The Knicks could then sign a young center to fill a two-way spot.
Here’s more on the New York teams:
- Pacome Dadiet is reaching a crossroads in his Knicks career, Stefan Bondy of the New York Post writes. A 2024 late-first rounder, Dadiet has failed to carve out a rotation spot in his first two seasons. He has continued to struggle with his shooting in the first two Summer League games this month despite averaging 16.5 PPG. He has shot 36.0% overall and 15.4% from beyond the arc. The Knicks have until October 31 to decide whether to pick up their $5.3MM option on his 2027/28 contract and it would be impossible to justify doing that at this point, Bondy notes.
- Nets rookie forward Joshua Jefferson is still scraping off rust after his college career at Iowa State was cut short due to a left ankle sprain. The No. 28 pick in the draft, Jefferson only made one shot, a layup, in eight attempts during his Summer League debut. “[Saturday] was just the first game in four months, since March when I got hurt. So it’s really been a long time since I’ve been in a playing setting because I wasn’t able to get any practice reps either,” Jefferson told Brian Lewis of the New York Post. “So, I definitely think I’m going to be fine. I showed some glimpses [of] what I can do with the ball in my hand, so just got to keep playing.”
- On the flip side, Nets two-way player Chaney Johnson may be moving himself into the mix at power forward, according to C.J. Holmes of the New York Daily News. Johnson piled up 20 points, 10 rebounds and five steals against Atlanta on Saturday. “I feel like my main goal is just to be the hardest playing player out there,” said Johnson, who went undrafted last year.
Knicks Notes: Nickel, Kayil, Diawara, Saint
Tyler Nickel is well aware of why he was selected 47th overall in last month’s draft, writes Stefan Bondy of The New York Post. The former Vanderbilt standout, who has yet to sign his first NBA contract, has converted 10 of his 21 three-point attempts through two Summer League games with the Knicks in Las Vegas.
“I definitely feel like I have some comparisons in the league. I feel like I’m a mix of some different guys: my size, my strength, my shooting ability,” Nickel said. “I feel really comfortable shooting off the move, so like Duncan Robinson, Max Strus, Sam Hauser. But then I have my own type of way of being. So it’s kind of a mix of a lot of people but also myself.”
A 6’7″ wing, Nickel converted 39.4% of his career three-point attempts in college on high volume. Defense is viewed as his weak point, according to Bondy, who says Nickel is unlikely to sign a standard contract with New York but is a candidate for a two-way deal.
“I heard my name called [at the draft], and seeing it being the Knicks, I was super excited,” Nickel said. “Obviously, a championship organization. I thought it was perfect; a perfect situation to see what winning is all about. The standard that they hold everybody to in the program, I feel like it’s perfect for me to be on.”
Here’s more on the Knicks:
- German guard Jack Kayil, the 39th pick in June’s draft, says he’d prefer to continue his career in the NBA rather than being stashed overseas, but acknowledges he doesn’t have much control over the situation, according to Bondy. “My goal is to play in the NBA,” Kayil said. “That’s why I went into the draft. … It’s not my decision, so I’m just trying to show myself in the best way, and it is what it is. … I’m super happy I also got drafted, and we’ll see what happens in the next days, weeks, whatever.” Kayil had 12 points (on 5-of-14 shooting), five rebounds, three assists and two steals in 21 minutes in his Summer League debut on Saturday.
- The Knicks have lost their first two Summer League games in Las Vegas by an average of 23.5 points. Fresh off signing a four-year, $11.2MM contract to remain with New York, French forward Mohamed Diawara has struggled in his first two Summer League outings, averaging 3.5 points, 5.5 rebounds and 2.0 turnovers in 24.7 minutes per game while shooting just 1-of-14 from the field. “I got to do way better. At the level we played last season, I got to do way better,” Diawara said after Friday’s loss (story via Bondy). “I can’t play like I played today.”
- In a subscriber-only story for The Post, Bondy takes a closer look at the background of Summer League head coach T.J. Saint, who’s entering his second season as an assistant on Mike Brown‘s staff. As Bondy writes, Saint spent three seasons as head coach of the Pelicans’ G League affiliate and another three as an assistant, and has also spent time with the Pistons and Hawks organizations.
Jordan Clarkson Re-Signs With Knicks
July 10: The Knicks have officially re-signed Clarkson, they confirmed today in a press release.
July 9: Free agent guard Jordan Clarkson will re-sign with the Knicks, agent Rich Paul tells Stefan Bondy of The New York Post (Twitter link).
According to ESPN’s Shams Charania (Twitter link), Clarkson will earn $3.9MM on his new one-year contract, which means it’ll be a minimum-salary deal. It’ll count for about $2.45MM toward the cap, helping New York stay below the second tax apron. Team owner James Dolan made it a priority this offseason to avoid surpassing that second-apron threshold and the front office has stuck to that mandate.
After spending five-plus seasons in Utah, Clarkson signed a minimum-salary contract with the Knicks in 2025 and played a bench role for the eventual champions. The 34-year-old’s playing time fluctuated over the course of the season and he set new career lows in several statistical categories, including points (8.6), assists (1.3), and minutes (17.8) per game before playing just 30 total minutes in five NBA Finals contests.
Still, Clarkson bought into his role and provided some offensive punch as part of New York’s second unit. Now, he has decided not to pass on the opportunity to try to defend the team’s title in 2026/27.
In spite of their desire to avoid the second apron, the Knicks have been able to re-sign several key free agents this offseason, bringing back Landry Shamet, Jose Alvarado, Mohamed Diawara, and now Clarkson on new deals. The team’s one notable cap casualty is center Mitchell Robinson, who signed a three-year, $47MM+ contract with the conference rival Celtics. New York technically could have matched that offer, but not without going deep into second-apron territory.
Once Clarkson officially re-signs, the Knicks will have 13 players on standard contracts, with about $3.27MM in wiggle room below the second apron. That would be enough to add a 14th man, but it wouldn’t be enough to fill the 15th roster spot until later in the season unless the club signs two second-round rookies (e.g. Tyler Nickel and Jack Kayil), whose cap/apron hits would come in below the $2.45MM veteran’s minimum.
Contract Details: Diawara, Sanders, Shamet, Alvarado, Oubre, More
The Knicks and Clippers used the Non-Bird exception to lock up a pair of restricted free agents who had strong rookie seasons in 2025/26.
Knicks forward Mohamed Diawara and Clippers guard Kobe Sanders received matching $2,622,139 starting salaries on their new four-year contracts with their respective clubs, Hoops Rumors has learned. That figure represents 120% of their minimum salary, which is the maximum allowed using Non-Bird rights.
Besides earning identical first-year salaries, Diawara and Sanders will have essentially the same contract for the next four seasons. Both players got two fully guaranteed seasons, a non-guaranteed third year, and a fourth-year team option, with a total value of $11,279,212 on each deal.
Here are a few more details on recently signed contracts from around the NBA:
- The exact value of Landry Shamet‘s new four-year deal with the Knicks is $23,978,467, with a starting salary of $5,490,967. After two fully guaranteed seasons, the partial guarantee on year three (2028/29) is worth $1,581,241, with a partial guarantee of $1,690,292 on Shamet’s fourth-year player option for 2029/30.
- Meanwhile, Jose Alvarado‘s new three-year contract with the Knicks has an overall value of $14,384,484, including a 2026/27 cap hit of $4,439,656. Alvarado’s third-year salary of $5.15MM is partially guaranteed for $2,765,516.
- The Pacers‘ used $8.05MM of their non-taxpayer mid-level exception to sign Kelly Oubre Jr. to a two-year, $16.5MM contract. Indiana still has nearly $7MM left on its mid-level exception, though the team now faces a first-apron hard cap for the rest of the league year.
- As expected, the Wizards are maxing out the money left on their Kelly Olynyk trade exception to give Khris Middleton a guaranteed 2026/27 salary of $5,591,112 via sign-and-trade. Middleton, whose three-year contract is worth a total of $17,612,034, has a partial guarantee on year two worth $908,878.
- John Collins‘ new three-year, $51MM contract with the Pistons has a flat structure, with annual cap hits of $17MM. Only the first season is fully guaranteed for now, but Collins can lock in the subsequent salaries if he remains under contract through June 28 of each year.