Khris Middleton To Finish Season With Mavericks
Khris Middleton has decided not to pursue a buyout and will remain with the Mavericks for the rest of the season, sources tell Marc Stein of The Stein Line (Twitter link).
To be eligible to appear in the playoffs with another team, Middleton would have needed to finalize a buyout with Dallas by the end of the day on Sunday. He was considering his options earlier in the week, and the Mavs indicated that they were willing to negotiate a buyout of his $33.3MM expiring contract if that’s want he wanted.
The Nuggets and Spurs were mentioned as teams that had interest in Middleton if he became available, and there would likely have been numerous other suitors. He would have been eligible to sign with anyone except the Cavaliers, Warriors and Knicks because they’re operating in apron territory and aren’t permitted to add a player waived during the season who had been earning more than the $14.1MM non-taxpayer mid-level exception.
There was “pessimism” in Denver this week that Middleton could be lured away from the Mavericks, according to Stein’s sources (Twitter link).
A buyout would have resulted in the loss of Middleton’s Bird rights, which transferred when he was acquired from Washington at the trade deadline. Although Middleton is almost certain to get a sharply reduced salary next season, having his Bird rights in place could help him land a contract above the veteran’s minimum.
With a small number of teams possessing cap space for the offseason, Middleton could have value in a potential sign-and-trade deal, suggests Keith Smith of Spotrac (Twitter link).
Middleton, 34, has been productive with Dallas in his seven games since the deal, averaging 13.9 PPG with .485/.364/.893 shooting numbers. He’s made five starts and is logging 24 minutes per night.
Pacers Promote Quenton Jackson To Three-Year Standard Deal
February 28: Jackson has officially been converted to a standard contract, the Pacers announced in a press release. As we noted in another story, Slawson’s two-way contract has been finalized as well.
February 27: The Pacers are giving Quenton Jackson a promotion, according to Shams Charania of ESPN, who reports (via Twitter) that the two-way guard will be converted to a three-year standard contract. Jackson’s agents at Klutch Sports informed Charania of the deal.
Jackson, a four-year veteran, admitted to Tony Easy of Forbes and Circle City Spin that he had been thinking about the possibility of being promoted by Indiana (Twitter link).
“I’ve thought about it. It’s hard not to think about it,” Jackson said. “But at the same time, I wouldn’t say I wrap my head around it too much. In this game, it’s best to think about the things that you can control.”
A league source tells East (Twitter link) that Jackson’s new deal will be partially guaranteed in 2026/27 and non-guaranteed for the ’27/28 campaign.
A 27-year-old point guard, Jackson went undrafted in 2022 out of Texas A&M. He has made 30 appearances this season for the Pacers, averaging 9.2 points, 2.2 rebounds and 2.1 assists in 17.3 minutes per game. His shooting line is a very solid .489/.409/.810.
Jackson’s two-way deal expires at season’s end. And because this is his fourth NBA season, he wouldn’t be eligible for another two-way contract in 2026/27, so Indiana needed to move him to the standard roster in order to retain him beyond this year.
General manager Chad Buchanan, Dustin Dopriak of The Indianapolis Star, and most recently East previously identified Jackson as a candidate to be promoted. The Pacers were carrying an open standard roster spot, so no corresponding move was needed to convert Jackson.
Buchanan told East a couple weeks ago that Jackson was “a big part of our culture in our locker room” and lauded the fourth-year guard’s energy, toughness, and positive attitude. For his part, Jackson said he loved Indiana and his fit within the team’s offense.
Promoting Jackson will create a two-way opening for the Pacers, which they reportedly plan to fill by promoting Noblesville Boom standout Jalen Slawson. Taelon Peter and Ethan Thompson currently hold Indiana’s other two-way spots.
Warriors Sign Gui Santos To Three-Year Extension
Third-year forward Gui Santos has signed a multiyear contract extension with the Warriors, the team announced in a press release (Twitter link).
Santos signed a three-year, $15MM extension which features a player option in 2028/29, ESPN’s Shams Charania reports (via Twitter).
After playing a modest role for most of the season, Santos has been playing major minutes of late with Jimmy Butler sidelined due to a torn ACL. The Brazilian has thrived over his past 12 appearances, averaging 15.0 points, 5.6 rebounds, 3.8 assists, 1.6 steals and 0.9 blocks in 28.8 minutes per game.
Santos has started 10 of those 12 games, including the team’s last nine, and has posted a shooting line of .588/.431/.692 over that stretch.
Overall, Santos has appeared in 48 games (16.0 MPG) this season for Golden State, averaging 6.6 PPG, 3.2 RPG and 1.7 APG on .531/.390/.680 shooting.
Santos would have been a restricted free agent in the offseason. Instead of waiting until the summer to negotiate a new deal, the 23-year-old opted to sign a long-term extension to stay with the franchise that selected him 55th overall in the 2022 draft.
Although Santos doesn’t have a ton of NBA experience, $5MM annually is still a team-friendly rate considering his recent contributions and his projected role for the rest of the season. When I took an in-depth look at Santos a few days ago in a Front Office article, I speculated that he might be able to get $6-9MM per year in restricted free agency.
Still, having that player option for ’28/29 was a nice compromise for Santos. He will be extension-eligible again two years from now (Feb. 28, 2028) and would be an unrestricted free agent in the summer of 2028 if he declines his third-year option.
Santos was one of several players around the league eligible for veteran contract extensions. The full list can be found right here.
Mavericks Waive Tyus Jones
10:32 am: Jones has officially been waived, the team announced (via Twitter).
5:22 am: The Mavericks intend to waive point guard Tyus Jones, reports Marc Stein of The Stein Line (Twitter link). Because the move will happen before the end of the day on Sunday, Jones will retain his playoff eligibility for his next team.
Jones, 29, is an 11th-year NBA veteran known for his ability to set up teammates and take care of the ball. He has career averages of 7.3 points, 4.3 assists, and just 0.8 turnovers in 20.7 minutes per game across 738 regular season appearances for Minnesota, Memphis, Washington, Phoenix, Orlando, and Dallas.
After four-year stints with both the Timberwolves and Grizzlies, Jones has bounced around the NBA in recent years, playing for four teams in the past three seasons. He opened this year with the Magic, having signed a one-year, $7MM deal with the team during the 2025 offseason, but had a disappointing year in Orlando, averaging just 3.1 PPG and 2.6 APG on .349/.281/.875 shooting in a bench role.
Jones was traded to the Hornets at the deadline in what was a salary-dump deal from the Magic’s perspective, allowing them to duck below the luxury tax line. Charlotte subsequently flipped him to the Mavericks in a separate trade.
At the time, reports indicated that Dallas had attempted to sign Jones last summer before ending up with D’Angelo Russell and that they’d be happy to have him on the roster for the rest of the season. However, it appears as if the guard prefers to try to catch on with a playoff team.
Waiving Jones will open up a spot on the Mavs’ 15-man roster, and Stein suggests there’s a strong chance that two-way guard Ryan Nembhard will be promoted to fill that opening. Nembhard, who can’t be active for more than 50 regular season games on his two-way contract, appeared in 33 consecutive contests from late November through early February and has been active for 44 in total, but has been on Dallas’ inactive list since Feb. 5.
If the Mavs were to convert Nembhard to a standard contract in the coming days, it would remove his games-played cap for the season and would allow the club to back-fill his two-way slot by the March 4 deadline for two-way signings.
Besides Jones, veteran forward Khris Middleton is another buyout candidate in Dallas. The team has reportedly left the decision up to him, with Denver said to be among his potential suitors.
Keegan Murray (Ankle Sprain) To Be Reevaluated In Two Weeks
Kings forward Keegan Murray has been diagnosed with a mild left ankle sprain and will be reevaluated in two weeks, the team announced in a press release (Twitter link via James Ham of The Kings Beat).
While it’s a little unusual to see a team refer to an injury as “mild” and then say a player is going to miss at least two weeks, there are multiple reasons why Sacramento has no reason to rush Murray back. For starters, he just returned on February 19 after missing a month-and-a-half with a moderate left ankle sprain.
Murray re-injured his left ankle in the first quarter of Wednesday’s loss in Houston (Twitter video link via NBC Sports California). He rolled his ankle when he landed after jumping to contest a drive to the basket by Clint Capela.
The second reason the Kings have no reason to push Murray is the lottery-bound team views the fourth-year forward as one of its long-term cornerstones, having signed him last fall to a five-year, $140MM rookie scale extension that will go into effect this July.
After appearing in 80, 77, and 76 regular season games over his first three years in the NBA, Murray has been beset by health problems in 2025/26. The 25-year-old’s season debut was delayed until November 20 after he underwent surgery on his left thumb; he later missed a pair of games in December due to a mild calf strain; then he missed several weeks with the initial left ankle sprain.
Murray will miss at least six games as a result of re-injuring his left ankle, with March 14 at the Clippers likely the earliest he could return.
The fourth overall pick in the 2022 draft, Murray has been limited to 23 appearances this season, averaging 14.0 points, 5.7 rebounds, 1.6 blocks and 1.0 steal on .420/.277/.776 shooting in 34.5 minutes per game. 1.6 BPG would represent a career high for the former Iowa standout, though his FG% and 3PT% are at career low rates.
Sacramento is currently 14-47, which is the worst record in the NBA.
Heat’s Norman Powell Week-To-Week With Grade 1 Groin Strain
All-Star wing Norman Powell has been diagnosed with a Grade 1 right groin strain after undergoing an MRI, the Heat announced on Friday (Twitter link).
According to the team, Powell is considered week-to-week with the injury.
As Ira Winderman of The South Florida Sun Sentinel writes, the veteran guard/forward expressed some annoyance about the series of nagging injuries he’s dealt with this season prior to Thursday’s game in Philadelphia. Powell, who was initially listed as questionable for yesterday’s contest, has previously missed time due to ailments involving his right groin, left groin, left ankle and back.
“It’s really frustrating,” Powell said Thursday of the accumulation of the minor injuries. “But at this point in the season, I feel like everybody’s going through something. So it’s all about pain tolerance and management. For me, you guys know, I’m going to always try to push through, and I have a very high pain tolerance. I try to push my body as much as I can.”
The 32-year-old added that his most recent right groin strain, which forced him to leave the loss to the Sixers after playing just 10 minutes, was something that had been bothering him for a while. Head coach Erik Spoelstra said a specific play caused Powell to exit Thursday’s game early, per Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald.
“We’re going to have to evaluate that when we get back in Miami,” Spoelstra said following Thursday’s loss. “It wasn’t that he couldn’t [play], it was that one slide against [Tyrese] Maxey, and he overextended it. So that’s the same one that he’s been dealing with, and we’ll just have to see what it is.”
Powell is averaging a career-high 22.5 points per game in 2025/26 while also contributing 3.6 rebounds, 2.6 assists and 1.2 steals through 49 games with Miami (30.0 minutes). His shooting slash line is .473/.390/.827.
The Heat will likely be without their leading scorer for at least four games. Powell, who is earning $20.5MM this season, will be an unrestricted free agent this summer.
Nikola Jovic will also be out on Saturday vs. Houston because of lower back injury management, per the team. It will mark the fourth straight absence for the fourth-year forward.
Suns Waive Cole Anthony
As expected, the Suns have waived guard Cole Anthony, reports Shams Charania of ESPN (Twitter link). Reporting shortly after the trade deadline indicated that Phoenix was expected to cut Anthony after acquiring him in a salary-dump deal.
According to John Gambadoro of Arizona Sports 98.7 (Twitter link), the Suns didn’t make the move right away because they were waiting to see if a buyout was possible. Gerald Bourguet of Suns After Dark (Twitter link) adds that Phoenix was also in no rush to waive Anthony until two-way guard Jamaree Bouyea got closer to his games-played limit.
Meanwhile, head coach Jordan Ott suggested this week Anthony was still on the roster in part to provide emergency depth due to Phoenix’s backcourt injuries, though the former first-round pick had yet to actually report to the Suns and never seemed likely to suit up for the team.
The 15th overall pick in the 2020 draft, Anthony spent his first five NBA seasons with Orlando, averaging 12.5 points, 4.3 rebounds and 3.8 assists in 24.8 minutes per contest on .419/.345/.847 shooting in 320 total games. However, his minutes have declined over the past few years and he was traded to Memphis in the 2025 offseason as part of the Desmond Bane blockbuster.
Anthony reached a buyout agreement with the Grizzlies and signed a one-year, minimum-salary contract with the Bucks. He averaged 6.7 PPG, 2.5 RPG and 3.5 APG on .424/.306/.615 shooting in a career-low 15.1 minutes per game in 35 appearances with Milwaukee this season. The Bucks traded him and Amir Coffey to Phoenix in a three-team deadline deal that allowed the Suns to duck below the luxury tax line.
As both Gambadoro and Bourguet note, the expectation is that the Suns will use the newly opened roster spot to promote Bouyea to the standard roster, making him their new 15th man. That would open up a two-way slot, which Phoenix would have until next Wednesday to fill.
As for Anthony, he’ll clear waivers on Sunday if his minimum-salary contract goes unclaimed. Because he was waived by March 1, he’ll retain his playoff eligibility if he catches on with a new NBA team between now and the end of the regular season.
Spurs Sign Mason Plumlee For Rest Of Season
1:03 pm: The Spurs have officially signed Plumlee to a rest-of-season contract, the team confirmed in a press release.
12:51 pm: The Spurs are re-signing veteran center Mason Plumlee for the rest of the season, agent Mark Bartelstein tells Shams Charania of ESPN (Twitter link).
Plumlee’s initial 10-day contract with San Antonio expired on Thursday night, but it always seemed likely that his stay with the team would extend beyond those 10 days. He wasn’t ready to play when he signed, having been in the final stages of his recovery from December groin surgery, so the fact that the Spurs still brought him in – as he spoke about how he might help the team going forward – suggested the two sides had a longer-term plan.
A 13th-year veteran who will turn 36 next Thursday, Plumlee opened the season in Charlotte, where he looked like he’d have an opportunity to play rotation minutes in a thin frontcourt. However, young players Moussa Diabate and Ryan Kalkbrenner both stepped up for the Hornets, taking the top two spots on the center depth chart and relegating Plumlee to a third-string role.
Plumlee appeared in just 14 games during his time in Charlotte, averaging 1.9 points, 2.9 rebounds, and 1.1 assists in 8.9 minutes per night. He was traded to Oklahoma City in a deadline deal that sent Ousmane Dieng to the Hornets and was subsequently waived by the Thunder.
Plumlee seems unlikely to play a bigger role in a crowded Spurs frontcourt, where fellow veterans Kelly Olynyk and Bismack Biyombo have seen limited minutes this season. But he’ll give the young team another respected locker room presence as it prepares to make its first playoff appearance since 2019.
For what it’s worth, though he didn’t play during his first 10 days with San Antonio, Plumlee’s designation on Thursday’s injury report was “return to competition reconditioning,” which suggests he has recovered from the procedure on his groin and is just working on getting back into game shape before he’s activated.
Assuming Plumlee and the Spurs finalize his new contract on Friday, he’ll receive a rest-of-season minimum salary of $939,867, while the team carries a cap hit of $593,864.
Players Waived After Sunday Won’t Be Playoff-Eligible
In order to retain his postseason eligibility for a new NBA team, a player must be waived on or before March 1. That means that any player who remains on an NBA roster after Sunday won’t be eligible to suit up in the playoffs for a new team, though there’s at least one key exception to that general rule.
A player who is currently on a 10-day contract – or a current free agent who signs one after March 1 – will retain his playoff eligibility going forward. For instance, once Killian Hayes‘ 10-day deal with Sacramento expires next Wednesday night, he’d still be able to join a new team and play in the postseason for that club, since he’s not being placed on waivers after March 1.
That rule applies even if a player has his 10-day contract terminated early, since that player becomes a free agent immediately without being required to pass through waivers.
Here’s the list of players on 10-day contracts that run through at least March 1 who will retain their playoff eligibility when their current deals expire:
- Rayan Rupert, Grizzlies (runs through 3/3)
- Killian Hayes, Kings (runs through 3/4)
- Mo Bamba, Jazz (runs through 3/7)
Since it’s often a point of confusion, it’s worth clarifying that a player doesn’t have to sign with a new team by March 1 to be playoff-eligible — he simply can’t be placed on waivers after 11:59 pm Eastern time on Sunday.
Eric Gordon, for example, was waived by Memphis earlier this month. As long as he signs with a new team by the final day of the regular season (April 12), Gordon can play in the postseason (including play-in games).
The buyout market in 2026 hasn’t exactly been flooded with big names, but Jevon Carter, Cam Thomas, Jeremy Sochan, and Haywood Highsmith are among the veterans of note who have found new NBA teams after being waived in February. Kyle Anderson will join them once he clears waivers this weekend, having reached a deal with Minnesota.
All of those players – and those who have been waived but haven’t yet signed with new teams, such as Gordon, Lonzo Ball, and Chris Boucher – would be playoff-eligible for their new clubs. So would anyone waived on or before Sunday, with veteran forward Khris Middleton among the candidates to hit the waiver wire in the coming days. But anyone on a standard or two-way contract who is waived after Sunday won’t be appearing in the postseason this spring.
We’ll be keeping a close eye on the NBA’s transaction wire over the next few days to see who else might land on waivers before that deadline passes.
Nuggets Among Teams Interested In Mavs’ Khris Middleton
Veteran small forward Khris Middleton tells Marc Stein of The Stein Line he’s still evaluating his options ahead of Sunday’s deadline to be waived by one team and remain eligible to appear in the postseason for another club (Twitter links).
According to Stein, Middleton’s is considering whether he wants to stay with the Mavericks for the rest of the season or reach a buyout agreement with Dallas in order to sign with a playoff team. The Nuggets are among the teams with interest in the 34-year-old, league sources tell Stein.
Middleton stressed to Stein that he’s “grateful for the warm welcome he’s received in Dallas.” As Stein reported on Tuesday, the Mavs have essentially left the buyout decision up to Middleton and his camp and would happily retain him for the remainder of the season if he opts to go that route.
Bennett Durando of The Denver Post confirms (via Twitter) that the Nuggets are intrigued by Middleton, adding that Denver also showed interest in Kyle Anderson, who will sign with the Timberwolves after a buyout with Memphis. The Nuggets are searching for size on the wing and ball-handling, Durando reports.
Middleton, who has dealt with injuries in recent years, is no longer the same player who earned All-Star berths three times in four years from 2019-22, but he has performed pretty well since he arrived in Dallas in the Anthony Davis trade. In 39 total games this season, Middleton has averaged 10.8 points, 4.1 rebounds and 3.1 assists in 24.2 minutes per contest, with a shooting line of .441/.336/.851.
In the event of a buyout, Middleton would be ineligible to sign with Cleveland, Golden State, or New York, since clubs operating over either tax apron aren’t permitted to sign a player waived during the season who had been earning more than the non-taxpayer mid-level exception ($14.1MM). Middleton’s $33.3MM expiring salary far exceeds that figure.
It’s also worth noting that Middleton would forfeit his Bird rights if he agrees to a buyout. While he’ll certainly have to take a pay cut this summer either way, retaining those Bird rights would likely put him in a better position to avoid settling for the veteran’s minimum or something close to it.