Knicks Rumors

Which Veteran Free Agent Should Knicks Sign?

August 26th, 2025 at 8:47pm CST by Dana Gauruder

The Knicks have been identified as one of the teams interested in free agent guard Malik Beasley. However, it’s not entirely clear whether teams are prepared to move forward on Beasley while he remains a subject of a federal gambling investigation. If they are, he may receive more than a minimum-salary contract, which is all New York can offer.

Besides Beasley, who might make sense for the Knicks’ open veteran’s minimum roster slot? James Edwards III of The Athletic explores this topic in depth.

Edwards’ list includes a pair of guards who played for the Knicks last season under former coach Tom Thibodeau — Landry Shamet and Delon Wright. The issue with signing Shamet or Beasley is that the Knicks already added shooting guard Jordan Clarkson in free agency after he was waived by Utah. Wright might be a more logical choice, since the team is lacking in true point guards beyond Jalen Brunson and Tyler Kolek.

Edwards also identifies a handful of other players who could end up filling New York’s open veteran-minimum roster slot, including Alec Burks, Monte Morris, Ben Simmons, Seth Curry and Malcolm Brogdon.

Kristian Winfield of the New York Daily News believes Shamet or Wright would make the most sense, given their familiarity within the organization. Winfield argues that either one could be the kind of low-maintenance finishing piece a title team might end up leaning on in a crucial situation.

Speaking of Kolek, Edwards believes that only one of the young players on the current roster, a group which also includes Pacome Dadiet and Ariel Hukporti, will crack Mike Brown‘s rotation, given that there are already nine solid proven veterans at the new head coach’s disposal.

Wolves Among Teams To Touch Base With Malik Beasley

August 26th, 2025 at 4:02pm CST by Luke Adams

The Timberwolves are among the teams that have been in contact with Malik Beasley‘s camp about the free agent swingman, according to Michael Scotto of HoopsHype (Twitter link).

Minnesota joins the Pistons, Cavaliers, and Knicks as the teams known to have expressed interest in Beasley, Scotto notes.

As we detailed earlier today, while the 28-year-old is no longer a target of a federal investigation into unusual gambling and prop betting activity, he’s still considered a subject of that probe, so he hasn’t been fully cleared by either investigators or the NBA. However, his outlook has apparently improved enough that teams are increasingly willing to explore the idea of signing him.

Beasley spent two-and-a-half seasons with the Timberwolves from 2020-22 before being traded to Utah as part of the Rudy Gobert mega-deal during the ’22 offseason. He put up some of the best scoring numbers of his career in Minnesota, averaging 15.1 points per game in 130 outings, with a 38.9% mark on three-point tries.

The Timberwolves have 13 players under contract and are operating about $5.9MM below the second tax apron, so they would have the ability to offer Beasley more than a minimum-salary contract using the taxpayer mid-level exception, especially if they’re not committed to carrying a 15th man to open the regular season.

The Pistons still control Beasley’s Non-Bird rights, giving them the ability to offer him a first-year salary worth up to $7.2MM. However, their level of interest in re-signing him after adding Caris LeVert and Duncan Robinson this summer is unclear.

The Knicks and Cavaliers are both limited to minimum-salary offers. As Scotto points out, Cleveland’s desire to add another wing may have increased in the wake of Max Strus‘ foot surgery.

Guerschon Yabusele Discusses Signing With Knicks, Hopes For EuroBasket

August 25th, 2025 at 1:41pm CST by Arthur Hill

Guerschon Yabusele got a nice raise when he signed a two-year, $11.7MM contract with the Knicks this summer, but he was also motivated by the chance to play in New York City. Yabusele discussed his free agency decision, France’s EuroBasket prospects, and a few other topics in an interview with Giorgos Kyriakidis of BasketNews.

“First of all, you can tell that they have a special bonding between each other,” he said of his new Knicks teammates. “When they go on the court together, it’s like they try to kill the other team. They know each other pretty well. They made it so far this year in the playoffs, but year after year, you can just see their progress. So, for me, it was just natural, because I wanted to be part of this. It’s one of the toughest crowds, people know it. So, to be able to go there and be part of this is just something special.”

A year ago, NBA personnel were buzzing about Yabusele’s performance in the Summer Olympics, where he helped the host French team reach the gold medal game. He eventually signed a one-year minimum contract with Philadelphia in the hopes of proving that he could still be an NBA player after five years in Europe.

Yabusele wound up being a steady contributor for a Sixers team that was torn apart by injuries. He averaged 11.0 points and 5.6 rebounds in 70 games and became a target for several teams on the free agent market.

Yabusele believes his attitude toward the game was instrumental in making his NBA comeback successful.

“I would say, first of all, the energy,” he said. “People love the energy that I bring on the court – ‘dying’ for the ball, diving for the ball. Just fight through it for 48 minutes. It doesn’t matter who win or lose, just keep the same motivation and make people enjoy the game.”

Returning to the NBA last season was somewhat of a financial gamble, as Yabusele had one year left on his Real Madrid contract with a $2.5MM buyout. The Sixers were only permitted to contribute $850K of that amount, so Yabusele decided to pay the rest himself instead of waiting another year to become a free agent.

“As a young kid, going to the NBA was a dream,” he explained. “So, I wanted to go back and make sure I had a chance to explore and play.”

EuroBasket, which starts Wednesday, will be Yabusele’s first international competition since last year’s Olympics. France is perennially one of the top powers on the world stage, but the team will be shorthanded with Victor Wembanyama, Rudy Gobert, Mathias Lessort and Vincent Poirier all unavailable.

Yabusele, who serves as captain, would love to bring home a gold medal after coming close so many times. During his tenure, the French have captured silver in the past two Olympics and were runners-up at EuroBasket 2022.

“A gold medal with France would be special,” he said. “I’ve been playing with the team for years, and every time we get silver. So I think gold would be the next goal for us. But, of course, winning an NBA championship is also something special. I’ve never been part of something like that. Both would feel great.”

NBA 2025 Offseason Check-In: New York Knicks

August 25th, 2025 at 10:59am CST by Luke Adams

Hoops Rumors is checking in on the 2025 offseason for all 30 NBA teams, recapping the summer’s free agent signings, trades, draft picks, departures, and more. We’ll take a look at each team’s offseason moves and consider what might still be coming before the regular season begins. Today, we’re focusing on the New York Knicks.

Free agent signings

Guerschon Yabusele: Two years, $11,275,000. Second-year player option. Signed using taxpayer mid-level exception.
Jordan Clarkson: One year, minimum salary. Signed using minimum salary exception.

Trades

Acquired the draft rights to Mohamed Diawara (No. 51 pick) and the draft rights to Luka Mitrovic from the Clippers in exchange for the draft rights to Kobe Sanders (No. 50 pick).

Draft picks

2-51: Mohamed Diawara
- Unsigned.

Two-way signings

None

Departed/unsigned free agents

Precious Achiuwa (unsigned)
MarJon Beauchamp (unsigned)
Kevin McCullar Jr. (unsigned/RFA)
Cameron Payne (unsigned)
Landry Shamet (unsigned)
P.J. Tucker (unsigned)
Anton Watson (unsigned)
Delon Wright (unsigned)

Other roster moves

Signed Mikal Bridges to a four-year, $150,000,000 veteran contract extension that begins in 2026/27. Includes fourth-year player option and trade kicker (5.69%).
Exercised team option on Ariel Hukporti ($1,955,377).

Salary cap situation

Operating over the cap ($154.6MM) and above the luxury tax line ($187.9MM).
Carrying approximately $204.1MM in salary.
Hard-capped at $207,824,000.
Portion of taxpayer mid-level exception ($185,000) available.
One traded player exception ($2,092,344) frozen.

The offseason so far

When the Knicks made blockbuster trades for Mikal Bridges and Karl-Anthony Towns in 2024, they gave up nearly all of their tradable first-round picks and sacrificed their cap flexibility for the foreseeable future, going all-in on a core headlined by Bridges, Towns, Jalen Brunson, OG Anunoby, and Josh Hart.

If the new-look roster had crashed and burned in 2024/25, perhaps the club would’ve seriously explored trades involving one or more of those “core” players this summer, but after the Knicks made their first Eastern Conference Finals appearance in 25 years this spring, no major roster changes were forthcoming.

That doesn’t mean it was an uneventful offseason in New York though. The biggest change came on the sidelines, where head coach Tom Thibodeau was let go after five pretty impressive seasons with the team. Thibodeau was named Coach of the Year in 2021 and won playoff series in 2023, 2024, and 2025, leading the Knicks to 50-win seasons in each of the past two years.

Still, Thibodeau faced plenty of criticism for his rotation decisions, including his tendency to lean heavily on his top players and not exercise a ton of patience with youngsters in the developmental stage. Thibodeau’s players have generally supported him publicly, but that relationship between the veteran coach and his players showed some signs of cracking in March during an odd back-and-forth through the media with Bridges. Player usage was reportedly one reason for Thibodeau’s dismissal, along with a sense that a talented roster wasn’t reaching its full potential.

New head coach Mike Brown will be tasked with getting more out of a similar roster that has undergone some changes around the edges. The club used most of its taxpayer mid-level exception to sign Guerschon Yabusele as a frontcourt replacement for Precious Achiuwa and was able to sign Jordan Clarkson to a minimum-salary contract after he was bought out by the Jazz.

Given their extremely limited ability to add talent while operating near the second tax apron, the Knicks’ decision to target Yabusele using their most valuable free agent asset – the taxpayer MLE – raised some eyebrows. But the Frenchman had a very successful return to the NBA last season for Philadelphia, serving as one of the few bright spots in a miserable Sixers season as he showed off a little scoring ability (11.0 PPG on .501/.380/.725 shooting), rebounding (5.6 RPG), and play-making (2.1 APG) while handling a variety of defensive assignments.

The hope in New York is that Brown will feel more confident deploying Yabusele than Thibodeau did with Achiuwa, whose playing time fluctuated over the course of the season and disappeared altogether in the playoffs.

As for Clarkson, the idea is for the veteran guard to add some scoring punch to a second unit that didn’t have much of it last season. The Knicks ranked dead-last in the NBA in bench scoring (21.7 PPG), finishing far behind the 29th-place Lakers (26.2 PPG). Clarkson is no longer in his prime as he enters his age-33 season, but even as his production has dipped a little over the past couple years, he has maintained a scoring average of 16.8 PPG in 28.7 MPG since the start of the 2023/24 campaign.

The Knicks’ most significant player transaction this summer came at the start of August, when the team finalized a four-year, $150MM extension with Bridges. The three-and-D forward had an up-and-down first season in New York, but still finished the year with a 50.0% field goal percentage and made several big defensive plays in the postseason. After giving up so many first-round picks for him a year ago, the Knicks were probably never going to let Bridges enter the season on an expiring contract.

Bridges’ maximum allowable four-year deal on an extension would have been worth about $156.2MM, so the Knicks were able to get a slight discount of about $1.5MM per year. It’s not much, but it could turn out to be more important than you’d think as the team continues to navigate the tax aprons in the coming years.

Up next

The Knicks are carrying just 12 players on standard contracts but also only have about $3.72MM in breathing room below their second-apron hard cap. Not only does that mean New York won’t be able to carry a 15th man until much later in the season, but it also means the team won’t have the ability to sign more than one free agent to a minimum-salary contract ($2,296,274).

The Knicks’ 14th man would have to be a draft-rights-held player on a rookie minimum deal ($1,272,870). Signing a rookie free agent wouldn’t suffice, since tax variance would be applied to that player, who would count as if he were a veteran free agent for tax and apron purposes.

There’s technically a way the Knicks could take a different route with that 14th roster spot, but it would require the team to shed some salary, either via trade or using the stretch provision (the latter will only be an option for a few more days). The most obvious candidate for a cost-cutting trade might be 2024 first-rounder Pacome Dadiet, who didn’t get much run as a rookie and whose 2025/26 salary ($2,847,600) is above the minimum.

But even trading Dadiet without taking any salary back wouldn’t quite create enough cap flexibility for the Knicks to sign a veteran free agent to be their 14th man after they’ve filled the 12th and 13th roster spots. So unless a bigger deal is coming – perhaps one involving center Mitchell Robinson – I think the Knicks will probably roll with their current group and operate like they did for most of last season — one player short of the 15-player max and right up against a hard cap.

Landry Shamet, Ben Simmons, and Malcolm Brogdon are among the veteran free agents who have been mentioned as candidates to be the Knicks’ 13th man, with Malik Beasley recently emerging as a potential option too. I get the sense that Beasley would be their top target if it looks like he’s in the clear in the federal gambling investigation being conducted by the Eastern District of New York, but he may receive offers worth more than the minimum.

For the 14th spot, 2025 second-rounder Mohamed Diawara and 2023 second-rounder James Nnaji look like the prime candidates. Both young bigs left their teams in Europe earlier this summer and seem to be preparing to join the Knicks. I’d probably bet on one to sign a standard contract and the other to get a two-way slot.

Speaking of two-way slots, the Knicks are the only NBA team that has yet to fill any so far this offseason. They still have a two-way qualifying offer on the table for Kevin McCullar Jr., so it’s a safe bet he’ll end up filling one of those openings. Either Diawara or Nnaji should get one too. That would still leave a third opening up for grabs before the start of the regular season.

If New York doesn’t have a specific target in mind for that spot, a training camp competition is possible — former G League Ignite prospect Dink Pate is among the players reportedly expected to sign an Exhibit 10 contract with the team.

Finally, we should point out that Robinson is eligible for a contract extension and will maintain that eligibility throughout the regular season. The Knicks’ roster is getting increasingly expensive and Robinson has had a hard time staying on the court over the past few seasons, but he’s an extremely impactful defender and rebounder when he’s available. I wouldn’t expect New York to rush into a deal unless it’s a team-friendly one, but if Robinson looks healthy and effective this fall, it could certainly be worth exploring.

Cavaliers Among Teams Interested In Malik Beasley

August 24th, 2025 at 11:29am CST by Rory Maher

The Cavaliers are among the teams that have checked in on free agent wing Malik Beasley, according to Michael Scotto of HoopsHype (Twitter link).

The Knicks are another team interested in Beasley, Scotto adds. Multiple reporters have stated that New York has been monitoring Beasley’s situation.

Beasley is no longer a target of the federal gambling investigation being conducted by the Eastern District of New York, his lawyers recently told Shams Charania of ESPN.

However, as Michael McCann of Sportico details, just because Beasley is no longer considered a “target” of the federal investigation doesn’t necessarily mean he’s fully in the clear. It’s possible he still may still be a “subject” of the investigation, which has a different legal meaning with the Department of Justice.

And even if the 28-year-old is cleared of any type of criminal wrongdoing, that doesn’t necessarily mean he has not broken any NBA rules, McCann writes. The league will have to determine independently whether or not Beasley broke any “contractual, labor and employment obligations.”

The 6’4″ shooting guard is coming off a strong season in Detroit in which he was the Sixth Man of the Year runner-up after averaging 16.3 points per game while shooting a career-high 41.6% from long distance and ranking second in the NBA in three-pointers made (319).

Scotto points out that Knicks senior vice president of basketball operations Gersson Rosas signed Beasley to a lucrative contract while he was running Minnesota’s front office in 2020. Both the Cavaliers and the Knicks have open standard roster spots, but they can only offer Beasley a minimum-salary deal, Scotto notes.

Knicks' Interest In Malik Beasley Confirmed

August 23rd, 2025 at 6:12pm CST by Arthur Hill

Sixers guard Jared McCain tells Declan Harris of Sports Illustrated that he lost a close friend and mentor when Guerschon Yabusele signed with the Knicks in free agency. Yabusele helped McCain deal with a difficult rookie season that was cut short by a torn meniscus in December. “Man, I’m gonna miss him, that’s one of the best people I’ve ever been around,” McCain said. “I could go to him for anything; a lot of my teammates are like that, but him, I gravitated to a lot. He was just super nice, just a good person and fun to play with, also another great energy person, so I’m sad to see him go.”
A league source confirms to Stefan Bondy of the New York Post that the Knicks have interest in Malik Beasley now that he’s no longer a target of a federal gambling investigation (Twitter link). However, New York can only offer a veteran’s minimum contract, and Beasley may have more lucrative options elsewhere.

Fischer’s Latest: Beasley, Martin, Hyland, Cavaliers

August 22nd, 2025 at 6:01pm CST by Eli Cohen

Following the recent report that Malik Beasley is no longer the target of a federal gambling investigation, it is expected that the sharp-shooting free agent will rejoin the market as one of the more valuable players still available. One of the teams that has shown interest in his services is the Knicks, writes Jake Fischer for The Stein Line, confirming a report from Ian Begley of SNY.tv.

The Knicks currently have an open roster spot, and have been rumored to be considering Landry Shamet or Ben Simmons for the role, though there’s debate as to how real the Simmons interest is. Fischer notes that the Knicks’ interest in Beasley dates back to their first-round playoff series against the Pistons, who still hold his Non-Bird rights.

Begley, in a tweet, adds that it wouldn’t be surprising if Beasley’s market was more than the veteran minimum contract the Knicks would be able to offer. Beasley reportedly had a three-year, $42MM deal on the table from the Pistons before news of the gambling investigation broke and Detroit moved on to signing Duncan Robinson.

Beasley averaged 16.3 points per game last season while shooting 41.6% from three on 9.3 attempts and earning the runner-up status for Sixth Man of the Year. Despite coming off the bench for all but 18 games, Beasley ranked second in the league in total made three-pointers.

We have more news from Jake Fischer’s latest article:

While rival teams expect the Warriors to sign Al Horford, Gary Payton II, and De’Anthony Melton once their stalemate with Jonathan Kuminga is resolved, they will still have more moves to make. One name that they’re considering, according to Fischer, is Cody Martin. Fischer notes that Martin has interest from multiple playoff teams, and is waiting to determine if Golden State would offer the best situation or if it would be better to make his choice once training camps have started. The 6’5″ wing has struggled with his shot in recent years but is a strong athlete and capable defender.
The Timberwolves are hoping to bring Bones Hyland back with one of their two remaining roster spots, Fischer writes, confirming prior reporting from The Athletic. Hyland, a 24-year-old scoring guard, played just four games with the Wolves last year after starting the season with the Clippers, with whom he averaged 7.2 points and shot 38.8% on three-point attempts in 11.1 minutes per night. Hyland would provide depth for the Wolves’ point guard rotation, which currently features 38-year-old Mike Conley and 21-year-old Rob Dillingham,
The Cavaliers also have two open roster spots, but Fischer writes that they’re not expected to fill the 15th spot heading into the season. With a massive payroll and a punitive luxury tax bill, Fischer instead expects them to sign a a 14th man to a non-guaranteed contract and leave the 15th spot open.

Malik Beasley No Longer Target Of Federal Investigation

August 22nd, 2025 at 7:52am CST by Luke Adams

Free agent wing Malik Beasley is no longer a target of the federal gambling investigation being conducted by the Eastern District of New York, attorneys Steve Haney and Mike Schachter tell Shams Charania of ESPN.

Word broke in June, just ahead of free agency, that Beasley was under federal investigation due to allegations related to gambling and prop bets made the 2023/24 season. According to Charania, Beasley’s lawyers have had “extensive” discussions with the Eastern District of New York in recent weeks and learned that the investigation isn’t targeting their client.

“Months after this investigation commenced, Malik remains uncharged and is not the target of this investigation,” Haney said. “An allegation with no charge, indictment or conviction should never have the catastrophic consequence this has caused Malik. This has literally been the opposite of the presumption of innocence.”

While Beasley is legally afforded the presumption of innocence, it wouldn’t have made sense for an NBA team to sign him without assurances that he would be cleared. A worst-case outcome for Beasley would have meant a lifetime ban from the league, similar to the one levied by the NBA on Jontay Porter after it was determined that Porter manipulated prop bets by exiting at least one game early, citing health reasons.

As Charania details, investigators in this case were believed to be focused on unusually heavy betting activity on Beasley’s statistics in January 2024, including a Jan. 31 game in which action on his “under 2.5 rebounds” prop bet surged significantly in the hours leading up to tip-off — he ended up grabbing six rebounds in that game.

Multiple reports published in late June and early July indicated that Beasley was dealing with a number of financial issues, including facing a lawsuit from his former marketing agency. Court records earlier this month suggested that the 28-year-old had been sued by his landlord and evicted from his apartment.

While Charania’s report doesn’t definitively state that Beasley is 100% in the clear, it doesn’t sound as if any charges are forthcoming, so it seems likely there will be renewed interest from NBA teams interested in signing him. He’s coming off a strong season in Detroit in which he was the Sixth Man of the Year runner-up after averaging 16.3 points per game and ranking second in the NBA in three-pointers made (319).

Before news of the investigation broke, the Pistons and Beasley were working toward a potential three-year deal worth roughly $42MM, according to Charania, who notes that other clubs had interest in the sharpshooter and some have stayed in touch with his representatives about his status.

Detroit no longer has the ability to sign Beasley for $42MM over three years — that would have required cap room or the non-taxpayer mid-level exception, which has since been used on Caris LeVert. But the Pistons do still hold his Non-Bird rights, giving them the ability to offer a 2025/26 salary up to $7.2MM (a 20% raise on last season’s $6MM salary). Few teams – and even fewer playoff contenders – still have the ability to offer more than that amount at this point in the offseason.

The Knicks are among the other teams that have done due diligence on Beasley’s situation, tweets Ian Begley of SNY.tv, though they could only offer a minimum-salary contract.

Atlantic Notes: Knicks Coaches, 14th Roster Spot, LeBron, Brown

August 21st, 2025 at 9:08pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

The Knicks have revamped their coaching staff following their run to the 2025 Eastern Conference Finals. Installed in the stead of ex-head coach Tom Thibodeau is former two-time Coach of the Year Mike Brown, who has brought in many new faces to fill out his bench.

In an interview with Stefan Bondy of The New York Post, USC men’s basketball head coach Eric Musselman weighed in on how he expects Brown to handle the pressures of his new gig. Musselman has several connections to the Knicks’ new-look staff. He worked as the Lakers’ then-D League coach while Brown was coaching L.A.’s NBA team. Musselman also started the career of New York’s fresh defensive coordinator, Brendan O’Connor.

“He is super-detailed, super-organized,” Musselman said of Brown. “That year with the Lakers, his playbook, he wants to make sure it’s color-coded properly. He got a little bit of an NFL, detail-oriented mindset. … I saw it in the meetings in training camp preparation. Perfect color-coded books. And making sure the periods and the commas were in the right places… Training camp, the drills and the precision … that was real detailed as well.”

Musselman added that he believes Brown’s past stints with superstar players in Cleveland and Los Angeles, combined with his run as a Golden State assistant coach that included three championships, has uniquely equipped him for this opportunity.

“I just think his experience of being in Cleveland and who he coached there [LeBron James] and then I think the fact that he coached in L.A. and it’s the Lakers,” Musselman said. “And with the media market in the Bay Area [with the Warriors], even though he was just an assistant, you can kind of sit back and watch how Coach [Steve] Kerr handles pressure and coaching in playoff situations. And he’s at a perfect age [Brown is 55]. He has a lot of things going for him. And if you coached in L.A., that’s about as good a preparation as you can have.”

There’s more out of the Atlantic Division:

The Knicks still have to fill a 14th standard roster spot ahead of the regular season. New York has maintained its interest in free agent guards Malcolm Brogdon, Landry Shamet and Ben Simmons to fill that spot, according to Bondy, though he cautions that he has heard “conflicting information” about how genuine the interest in Simmons is.
With LeBron James‘ future somewhat up in the air, Kristian Winfield of The New York Daily News breaks down the pros and cons of a potential trade sending the Lakers star to the Knicks. There has been no indication that James will ask to be traded or that the Lakers will consider moving him, so it’s a purely speculative exercise by Winfield.
Celtics All-Star forward Jaylen Brown‘s father Marselles Brown, a former boxer, was arrested for attempted murder in Las Vegas, per TMZ Sports. The elder Brown got into an argument with a youth football coach over a parking space, and the conflict escalated into a stabbing. NBC News 3 Las Vegas confirms the TMZ Sports report, noting that the conflict apparently started when a passenger in Brown’s SUV hit the door of the coach’s car.

Free Agent Rumors: Thomas, Westbrook, Simmons, Shamet, Knicks

August 21st, 2025 at 4:00pm CST by Rory Maher

NBA insider Jake Fischer reported Wednesday during a Bleacher Report live stream (YouTube link) that he continues to hear restricted free agent guard Cam Thomas is weighing whether to sign his $6MM qualifying offer or accept a two-year deal with the Nets worth around $14MM annually. The catch is the second year is a team option, meaning only the first season is guaranteed.

“Cam Thomas’s situation seems to be a decision between taking his qualifying offer or a two-year deal with a team option that is north of the qualifying offer from Brooklyn, somewhere around $14 million in average annual value,” Fischer said.

For what it’s worth, league sources not connected to the situation speculated to Kurt Helin of NBC Sports that Thomas might accept a two-year deal with a team option if he received closer to what Golden State reportedly offered Jonathan Kuminga ($45MM). While Helin acknowledges that the Nets have the edge in negotiating leverage, he wonders if the two sides will eventually reach some sort of compromise — perhaps a second-year player option or a partial guarantee in year two — to hash out a new deal.

Here are a few more rumors and notes on NBA veterans who remain unsigned:

There’s still no indication that any NBA team besides Sacramento is seriously considering signing Russell Westbrook, Fischer said yesterday in the same Bleacher Report live stream (hat tip to Dallas Hoops Journal). “We are still waiting to see what other moves could come in Sacramento before the Kings try to bring Russell Westbrook in,” Fischer said. “And that’s been the one home all along that we really have looked at for Russell Westbrook and that’s still the home that I have heard earlier this week is the most likely outcome for Russell Westbrook if he’s gonna be in the NBA at all. Honestly, that’s really the only home we’ve heard for him.”
Eric Pincus of Bleacher Report takes a look at four potential landing spots for Ben Simmons, including the Kings, Knicks and Warriors.
While the Knicks and Simmons have mutual interest and the 29-year-old could end up in New York, Ian Begley of SNY.tv thinks the former No. 1 overall pick is “probably” more likely to land with another team, he said Tuesday on The Putback (YouTube link). New York only has enough room below its second-apron hard cap to sign one veteran to a minimum-salary deal, and Begley is “kind of assuming” that contract will eventually go to Landry Shamet. The Knicks have also kicked the tires on Malcolm Brogdon, though Begley noted they would likely have to make a trade to sign more than one of those three players.

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