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Groups Set For 2025 NBA Cup

July 9th, 2025 at 1:44pm CST by Luke Adams

The NBA has officially announced the six groups of five teams apiece for the 2025 Emirates NBA Cup, also known as the in-season tournament (Twitter link).

In order to set the groups, the league splits the Western and Eastern Conferences into five three-team tiers based on last season’s regular season standings, with one club from each tier randomly drawn into each of the conference’s three groups.

For instance, the top three teams from the West will all be in separate groups, with each of those three groups also featuring one team in the 4-6 range, one in the 7-9 range, and so on.

Here are the groups for the 2025 NBA Cup:

  • West Group A: Oklahoma City Thunder (1), Minnesota Timberwolves (6), Sacramento Kings (9), Phoenix Suns (11), Utah Jazz (15)
  • West Group B: Los Angeles Lakers (3), Los Angeles Clippers (5), Memphis Grizzlies (8), Dallas Mavericks (10), New Orleans Pelicans (14)
  • West Group C: Houston Rockets (2), Denver Nuggets (4), Golden State Warriors (7), Portland Trail Blazers (12), San Antonio Spurs (13)
  • East Group A: Cleveland Cavaliers (1), Indiana Pacers (4), Atlanta Hawks (8), Toronto Raptors (11), Washington Wizards (15)
  • East Group B: Boston Celtics (2), Detroit Pistons (6), Orlando Magic (7), Brooklyn Nets (12), Philadelphia 76ers (13)
  • East Group C: New York Knicks (3), Milwaukee Bucks (5), Chicago Bulls (9), Miami Heat (10), Charlotte Hornets (14)

The round-robin group play games will be starting a little earlier than usual this season and will run from October 31 to November 28. Each team will face the other four clubs in its group once, with the winners of each group and one wild card team from each conference advancing to the eight-team, single-elimination knockout round.

The full schedule of group play games can be viewed right here.

The quarterfinals will be played on December 9-10, with the semifinals and final to follow on Dec. 13 and Dec. 16, respectively, in Las Vegas. The knockout round games will all be aired by one of the NBA’s new broadcasting partners, Amazon Prime.

The Bucks won last season’s NBA Cup, with star forward Giannis Antetokounmpo earning MVP honors after leading Milwaukee to a victory over the Thunder in the championship game.

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Wizards Trade Kelly Olynyk To Spurs

July 9th, 2025 at 10:49am CST by Luke Adams

July 9: The trade is official, according to announcements from the Spurs and Wizards (Twitter link).

July 8: The Wizards and Spurs have agreed to a trade that will send big man Kelly Olynyk to San Antonio, sources tell Shams Charania of ESPN (Twitter link).

According to Charania, in return for Olynyk, Washington will acquire former first-rounders Malaki Branham and Blake Wesley, along with a 2026 second-round pick. That pick will be the last favorable of Dallas’, Philadelphia’s, and Oklahoma City’s second-rounders.

Olynyk, 34, spent last season with the Raptors and Pelicans. He was limited to 44 games (22 starts) for health reasons, but was solid when he played, averaging 8.7 points, 4.7 rebounds, and 2.9 assists in 20.3 minutes per game, with a strong shooting line of .500/.418/.769.

A forward/center who can stretch the floor (.371 career 3PT%), Olynyk will become part of a Spurs frontcourt led by Victor Wembanyama. San Antonio will also be incorporating another new center, Luke Kornet, who finalized a four-year, $40.7MM deal with the team earlier this week.

Olynyk was just traded two days ago from New Orleans to Washington in the three-team deal that included CJ McCollum and Jordan Poole, but he clearly wasn’t part of the Wizards’ long-term plans. He can be flipped immediately because his salary isn’t being aggregated with another player’s salary as part of this trade.

Branham and Wesley – who were drafted 20th and 25th, respectively, in 2022 – didn’t establish themselves as reliable rotation players during their three years in San Antonio, as their playing time declined each season. Still, they’re both just 22 years old, and Branham has shown some promise as a shooter (.405 3PT% last season), while Wesley has shown he’s a stout on-ball defender.

It’s unclear whether the duo will get a shot to make the team and earn rotation spots in Washington or whether the Wizards made the deal primarily for the second-round pick and the cap savings.

Olynyk is on an expiring $13.45MM contract in 2025/26, while Branham ($4.96MM) and Wesley ($4.72MM) will earn less than $10MM total in the final year of their rookie deals. By taking Branham and Wesley into an existing trade exception, Washington will also be able to create a trade exception worth Olynyk’s $13.45MM salary.

The Wizards have a growing roster crunch they’ll have to address at some point in the coming weeks or months. As a result of this trade, they’ll have 15 players on guaranteed salaries, and that total doesn’t include Richaun Holmes (small partial guarantee), Justin Champagnie (non-guaranteed), or Anthony Gill, who is considered a strong candidate to re-sign with the club.

The Spurs, conversely, will have just 12 players under contract once the trade is official and will have plenty of flexibility below the luxury tax line to fill out the three openings on the standard 15-man roster.

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Clippers Reportedly Favorites To Land Bradley Beal

July 8th, 2025 at 6:29pm CST by Rory Maher

Assuming he reaches a buyout with the Suns – which appears to be a matter of when, not if – the Clippers are viewed as the frontrunners to sign Bradley Beal, league sources tell Law Murray, Dan Woike and Fred Katz of The Athletic.

Kurt Helin of NBC Sports previously reported that the Clippers were considered the favorites to land the three-time All-Star if he hits the open market.

According to The Athletic, Beal knows he likely won’t be able to immediately make back the money he gives up in a buyout — if the Suns want to use the stretch provision to spread his remaining salary across five seasons instead of two, he’ll have to forfeit a minimum of $13.8MM due to a CBA rule.

Murray, Woike, and Katz suggest the 32-year-old might sign a two-year deal with Los Angeles that includes a player option for 2026/27 so that he’d have the option of returning to the open market in a year.

The Clippers recently traded Norman Powell after reportedly being reluctant to offer him a long-term deal, and then waived Jordan Miller today. Both moves were viewed as precursors to signing Beal, with the trade of Powell opening up a spot on the depth chart while the release of Miller creates a little extra cap flexibility.

The Clippers used $8.75MM of their non-taxpayer mid-level exception to sign Brook Lopez, but still have about $5.35MM of MLE money left that they could offer Beal while still maintaining enough room below their first-apron hard cap to fill out the roster.

In addition to the Clippers, Beal has also been considering the Lakers, Warriors, and Bucks, league sources tell The Athletic. The Timberwolves have also been cited as a team with interest in the three-time All-Star, but The Athletic’s report doesn’t confirm that interest is being reciprocated.

Luke Adams contributed to this story.

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Clippers Waive Jordan Miller

July 8th, 2025 at 5:19pm CST by Rory Maher

The Clippers have waived guard/forward Jordan Miller, according to the official transaction log at NBA.com.

As our list of early salary guarantee dates for 2025/26 shows, Miller would have been owed a partial guarantee of $350K had he remained on Los Angeles’ roster past July 15.

Miller’s $2.19MM deal for next season also had a second trigger date for making the regular season roster, which no longer applies unless he’s claimed off the waiver wire.

It’s worth noting that Miller is on the Clippers’ summer league roster. According to Law Murray of The Athletic (Twitter link), assuming Miller clears waivers, the plan is for the 25-year-old to return to the team on a new contract and continue with summer league.

Jake Fischer of The Stein Line (Twitter link) adds that the Clippers plan to “keep (Miller) as part of the organization,” which is a little vague, but could suggest he’ll be back at some point on a new deal.

A former second-round pick (48th overall in 2023), Miller was promoted to a four-year standard contract on March 1 after spending most of his first two seasons on a two-way deal with the Clips. The 25-year-old only got 28 minutes of playing time across eight games as a rookie, but he played well for the Clippers’ G League affiliate, and was able to carve out some rotation minutes on a 50-win team in year two, averaging 4.1 points and 1.6 rebounds in 37 games (11.4 minutes per contest).

Miller hit the 50-game limit for two-way players on March 1, which is part of the reason the Clips converted him. They also gave him a prorated salary for 2024/25 well above the minimum using part of their mid-level exception, with the remaining three years of his deal being non-guaranteed.

I wouldn’t be surprised if a team decided to claim Miller, as he’s shown some real upside at the NBAGL level, including averaging 24.9 PPG, 5.1 RPG, 3.6 APG and 1.0 SPG on .509/.350/.844 shooting in seven games last season (31.1 MPG).

According to Keith Smith of Spotrac (Twitter link), L.A. is approximately $8.9MM below its first-apron hard cap with three openings on its standard roster. The Clippers could use the remaining $5.3MM they have left of the full mid-level exception to sign someone, add another player on a minimum-salary deal, and sign 50th overall pick Kobe Sanders using the second-round pick exception, says Smith.

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Nikola Jokic Reportedly Won’t Sign Extension This Offseason

July 8th, 2025 at 4:51pm CST by Rory Maher

Superstar center Nikola Jokic has informed the Nuggets he does not intend to sign an extension this offseason, instead choosing to wait for when a more lucrative deal will be available in 2026, team sources tell Bennett Durando of The Denver Post.

The Nuggets were anticipating that Jokic might bypass an extension, according to Durando, due to the additional year and extra $79MM they can offer next summer.

Based on the latest salary cap projections, a three-year, maximum-salary for Jokic beginning in 2027/28 would be worth $206.4MM. A four-year deal, available next offseason, would be worth a projected $285.4MM.

Nuggets vice chairman Josh Kroenke said last month that Jokic would be offered the three-year extension.

“We’re definitely gonna offer it,” Kroenke said on June 24. “I’m not sure if he’s gonna accept it or not because we’re also gonna explain every financial parameter around him, signing now versus signing later.”

Over the past five years, the 30-year-old Serbian has won three MVP awards and was the runner-up twice. In one of those second-place seasons (2023), Jokic led the Nuggets to an NBA championship, claiming Finals MVP in the process.

Vinny Benedetto of The Denver Gazette and Marc Stein of The Stein Line have confirmed Durando’s reporting (Twitter links).

Jokic was open about the Nuggets needing to improve after they lost their second-round playoff series to the Thunder in seven games. Oklahoma City went on to win the NBA Finals.

The Nuggets have had a busy offseason. They agreed to trade Michael Porter Jr. and their 2032 first-round pick to the Nets for Cameron Johnson; agreed to another to send Dario Saric to the Kings for Jonas Valanciunas; brought back Bruce Brown on a one-year deal; and added Tim Hardaway Jr. in free agency.

For what it’s worth, ESPN’s Brian Windhorst said on the Hoop Collective podcast (YouTube link) that he’s heard second-hand that Jokic liked the moves Denver made this summer.

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NBA Transactions Becoming Official: July 8, 2025

July 8th, 2025 at 2:00pm CST by Luke Adams

The July moratorium is over and teams are now permitted to officially finalize all the free agent signings and trades they’ve agreed to since the new league year began (or earlier, in some cases).

Rather than bumping all of our previous stories on those free agent and trade agreements, we’ll be tracking all the previously reported moves that become official on Tuesday in the space below. We did the same in separate articles on Sunday and Monday.

To be clear, we’ll still be publishing new stories on breaking free agent and trade agreements. This space is just to track the moves we knew about before today if they’ve now been formally completed. In other words, if news of a deal breaks for the first time on Tuesday and is also finalized today, we won’t include it here.

These lists will be in chronological order, so we’ll add the most recent items to the bottom throughout the day.

Free agent signings:

Contract extensions:

Trades:

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Mavs’ Anthony Davis Undergoes Procedure On Eye

July 8th, 2025 at 1:13pm CST by Luke Adams

Mavericks star Anthony Davis has undergone a procedure to repair a detached retina, reports Shams Charania of ESPN (Twitter link). The expectation is that he’ll be fully recovered for training camp, Charania adds.

While it’s unclear exactly when the injury first occurred, Charania notes that Davis played through “multiple hits to the face” last season.

Most notably, the big man visited an ophthalmologist last November after getting poked in the left eye — reporting at the time indicated he was experiencing swelling and had difficulty keeping the eye open. That injury, which occurred when Davis was a Laker, was referred to last fall as a corneal abrasion and didn’t cost him any games.

Davis, who was traded from Los Angeles to Dallas in the controversial Luka Doncic blockbuster in February, was only able to make nine appearances during his first half-season as a Maverick due to an adductor injury.

The 32-year-old averaged 20.0 points, 10.1 rebounds, 4.4 assists, and 2.2 blocks in just 29.6 minutes per night in those nine outings, generating excitement about what he might be able to do after spending the offseason getting fully healthy and acclimating to his new team.

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Pacers’ Pritchard Discusses Losing Turner To Bucks

July 8th, 2025 at 12:25pm CST by Luke Adams

Asked during a Monday media session about losing free agent big man Myles Turner to their division rivals in Milwaukee, Pacers president of basketball operations Kevin Pritchard said he had been engaged in “good-faith” negotiations with Turner’s camp and that team ownership was willing to go “deep into the tax” to hang onto Indiana’s starting center, per James Boyd of The Athletic and Dustin Dopirak of The Indianapolis Star.

“If we keep Myles at the number we were talking about — or in that ballpark, because I felt like that was still a little bit ongoing — and with the moves that we were talking about doing, we weren’t trickling into the tax,” Pritchard said (YouTube link). “We were over a second threshold.”

Pritchard clarified that the Pacers would not have operated over the second tax apron, so the “second threshold” he cited may have been a reference to the luxury tax brackets — the tax penalties get increasingly more punitive for every $5.7MM a team spends over the tax line. Indiana may also have exceeded the first apron if Turner had been re-signed.

There were conflicting reports on exactly what the Pacers’ final offer was, but most of those reports suggested the team hadn’t gone beyond a three-year bid worth about $22-23MM per year. Turner ultimately signed a four-year contract worth a total of nearly $109MM with the Bucks.

“I felt like we were working towards a deal,” Pritchard said. “But when you’re unrestricted, as soon as you hear a number that you feel like is good for you, then I think he felt like he had to take that.

“… It’s his opportunity, it’s his right to say, ‘Hey, that’s it and I’m going in a different direction.’ It was never acrimonious, it was always pleasant going back and forth. I think that there was a number he was trying to hit. I think we were in the ballpark. But that’s my opinion. It must not have been for him.”

Pritchard admitted that he learned about Turner leaving Indiana for Milwaukee the same way that most fans did.

“We would have been open on a sign-and-trade because it’s sort of mutually beneficial, but we didn’t get to that point, unfortunately,” Pritchard said. “I saw Shams (Charania) tweet it, and that’s how I knew that Myles was taking (the Bucks’ offer).

“… I was shocked, if I’m being perfectly honest. I thought we were kind of going back and forth in an open way. We’ve done big deals with that agency, and they’re great guys, and we’ll be doing more business with them. But Myles must’ve heard something in that (Bucks offer) that said, ‘I’m gonna take it right now.'”

While a sign-and-trade deal might’ve put the Pacers in position to acquire something of value in return for Turner, the Bucks were able to create the cap room unnecessary to sign him outright by completing a series of roster moves that included waiving Damian Lillard and stretching his $112.6MM in remaining salary across five seasons.

Pritchard acknowledged being surprised by Milwaukee’s aggressiveness, though he said the front office was aware of the possibility of an over-the-cap team finding a way to create cap room.

“We always say in our conference room, there’s cap teams that have cap space and there’s shadow teams that have cap space,” he said. “You can go get it, but it becomes very challenging by buying out (players) or making trades. Hat tip to Milwaukee to do that. … I can’t tell you that we were fully expecting that.”

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Where Things Stand In NBA Free Agency

July 8th, 2025 at 9:24am CST by Luke Adams

We’re now into the second week of the NBA’s 2025/26 league year, and while free agency has been resolved for many top players, there are still a number of intriguing names who don’t yet have new contract agreements in place.

Let’s check in on where things stand for some of those players…

The restricted free agents

While they’re not the only four restricted free agents still on the board, there are four names who make up the top tier of notable unsigned RFAs, with each of them ranking among our top 10 free agents as of June 30. Those four players are Josh Giddey (Bulls), Jonathan Kuminga (Warriors), Quentin Grimes (Sixers), and Cam Thomas (Nets).

The restricted free agent market will likely play out very slowly this summer, given that there are essentially no teams (with the possible exception of Brooklyn) in position to sign any one of those players to the kind of offer sheet that would give the player’s current team pause. Here’s what we know about each of those four RFAs:

Josh Giddey (Bulls)
The expectation is that Giddey will remain in Chicago, so it’ll just be a matter of figuring out exactly what his next contract looks like. His camp is reportedly hoping to match (or, presumably, exceed) the five-year, $150MM extension that Jalen Suggs signed with Orlando last fall. Whether the Bulls are willing to go that high in terms of annual salary and/or years remains to be seen.

Jonathan Kuminga (Warriors)
The Kings, Wizards, Heat, Bulls, Bucks, and Nets were among the teams said last week to have expressed varying level of interest in a sign-and-trade deal for Kuminga. However, some of those teams have since made moves that will make Kuminga a less appealing – or practical – fit.

Sacramento has reportedly been the most aggressive suitor for Kuminga so far, having “floated” the idea a package that included 2024 first-rounder Devin Carter and two second-round picks.

But with no deal imminent, the expectation is that the 22-year-old and his camp will meet at the Las Vegas Summer League with interested teams, including the Warriors. A return to Golden State remains very much in play despite Kuminga’s up-and-down tenure in Golden State so far.

Quentin Grimes (Sixers)
The Sixers remain very confident that they’ll re-sign Grimes sooner or later and have “splashed cold water” on possible sign-and-trade scenarios, league sources tell Tony Jones of The Athletic. As with Giddey, it seems like the main question with Grimes isn’t where he’ll end up, but what his new contract with his current team will look like.

Cam Thomas (Nets)
We’ve heard very little since free agency opened about Thomas. In a Bleacher Report stream last Thursday (YouTube link), NBA insider Jake Fischer said the Nets guard “does not really have a market, to my understanding.”

Brooklyn is the only team in the league operating below the minimum salary floor, so it’s not as if the Nets are going to be outbid by a rival suitor — it certainly seems as if the only way Thomas ends up on a new team this offseason is if Brooklyn doesn’t want to bring him back.

The veteran unrestricted free agents

The next four highest-ranked unsigned players from our top-50 list after those four restricted free agents are long-tenured veterans. Here’s what we know about those players:

Chris Paul
The Clippers, Suns, and Bucks have been the teams most frequently linked to Paul in recent days. Milwaukee probably offers the best path to a starting role, which is something that’s reportedly important to the longtime NBA point guard, but he also wants to be close to his family in Los Angeles, which could give an edge to those two Western Conference teams.

Russell Westbrook
Another L.A. native who would reportedly like to play closer to home, Westbrook was said to be drawing legitimate interest from the Kings, but that was when it looked like Sacramento was going to trade Malik Monk. If that doesn’t happen, there may not be a spot on the Kings’ backcourt (or on the team’s cap) for Westbrook.

Al Horford
While Horford has been linked to several teams in the last week or two, the one constant has been the Warriors, who continue to look like the frontrunner to land the big man if he doesn’t retire. Adam Himmelsbach of The Boston Globe (Twitter link) reported on Monday that Horford continued to mull his options, with no deal imminent.

I suspect Golden State wants to resolve its Kuminga situation before officially committing its taxpayer mid-level exception to Horford, since doing so would hard-cap the team at the second tax apron and potentially complicate its ability to match an aggressive offer sheet for Kuminga.

Malcolm Brogdon
Reporting on Monday indicated that the Clippers, Suns, Lakers, Warriors, Timberwolves, Bucks, Pelicans, and Kings have all conveyed at least some level of interest in Brogdon. With some other higher-profile guards still out there, Brogdon may be the Plan B for some teams, which would mean he’d have to wait for some of those other players to commit before his options really crystalize.

The two veteran guards who aren’t yet free agents

Damian Lillard is currently on waivers and Bradley Beal is still working on a buyout with the Suns, but the expectation is that both players will reach unrestricted free agency pretty soon.

Lillard is a bit of a wild card, since he’s likely to miss the 2025/26 season due to an Achilles tear. He hasn’t ruled out the possibility of signing with a team sooner rather than later, and there will certainly be no shortage of clubs who would welcome the opportunity to help him with his rehab process and get a leg up on retaining him for ’26/27. But he’s not the type of player who will help a team win in the short term.

Beal, on the other hand, is coming off a pretty solid offensive season and would become a much more valuable investment if he’s on a contract that’s closer to his minimum salary than his maximum. The Clippers, Lakers, Bucks, Timberwolves, and Warriors are among the teams believed to have interest in signing Beal.

With many of those clubs also eyeing Paul, Brogdon, or other guards, Beal may be the first domino to fall — if and when he finds a new team, the ones that miss out can shift their focus elsewhere in earnest. The Clippers are rumored to the favorites for Beal, per Kurt Helin of NBC Sports.

The trades that aren’t yet official

As our full breakdown of this offseason’s trades shows, there are only two agreed-upon deals that aren’t yet official: Denver’s acquisition of Cameron Johnson from the Nets, plus the Jonas Valanciunas/Dario Saric swap between the Nuggets and Kings.

There has been speculation that the Nuggets will combine both of those agreements into a single transaction to avoid creating a hard cap at the first tax apron. At the very least, as NBA insider Marc Stein tweets, Denver needs to get the Johnson/Michael Porter Jr. trade done before the deal with the Kings in order to be able to get below the first apron. That will allow the Nuggets to take back more salary than they send out for Saric.

The Nets may be thoroughly exploring scenarios for how to take full advantage of their current cap room before they finalize that trade with the Nuggets, since it will cut into their space significantly — swapping Johnson for Porter will use up $17MM+ of their room.

The delay on these deals is not an indication that the Valanciunas/Saric deal won’t eventually be finalized. Multiple reports have indicated it remains on track, despite Valanciunas’ reported desire to get out of his NBA contract and sign with the Greek team Panathinaikos. Multiple reports, including another one from Stein on Monday night (Twitter link), have also indicated that the Nuggets have told the veteran center they intend to keep him and want him to honor his contract.

For what it’s worth, a report from SDNA in Greece indicates that Panathinaikos was assured by Valanciunas’ representation that the Nuggets would let him out of his NBA deal and was surprised to find out that Denver hadn’t signed off on that plan at all.

Although those two Denver deals are the only ones we know about that aren’t official, that doesn’t mean there won’t be more trades still to come — the Clippers, Heat, and Jazz, for instance, agreed to a three-team trade on Monday and finalized it later in the day. It’s possible that more deals could be around the corner as teams and executives congregate for Summer League action.

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NBA Transactions Becoming Official: July 7, 2025

July 7th, 2025 at 8:00pm CST by Luke Adams

The July moratorium is over and teams are now permitted to officially finalize all the free agent signings and trades they’ve agreed to since the new league year began (or earlier, in some cases).

Rather than bumping all of our previous stories on those free agent and trade agreements, we’ll be tracking all the previously reported moves that become official on Monday in the space below. We did the same in a separate article on Sunday.

To be clear, we’ll still be publishing new stories on breaking free agent and trade agreements. This space is just to track the moves we knew about before today if they’ve now been formally completed. In other words, if news of a deal breaks for the first time on Monday and is also finalized today (such as the three-team trade involving the Heat, Clippers, and Jazz), we won’t include it here.

These lists will be in chronological order, so we’ll add the most recent items to the bottom throughout the day.

Trades:

Free agent signings:

Cuts:

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