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Bulls RFA Giddey Reportedly Still Seeking $30MM Annually

July 4th, 2025 at 5:47pm CST by Luke Adams

The Bulls and restricted free agent guard Josh Giddey are having “good dialogue” during the first week of free agency, says Joe Cowley of The Chicago Sun-Times (Twitter link).

However, according to Cowley, Giddey’s camp is “dug in” on matching the contract extension Jalen Suggs signed with Orlando last fall.

Reports since October have continually cited an asking price of $30MM annually from Giddey and his reps. Several of 2024’s top rookie scale extension candidates were seeking that same per-year salary at the time, and Suggs and Hawks forward Jalen Johnson ended up at exactly that figure, signing five-year deals worth $150MM apiece.

Giddey didn’t do anything to hurt his case for a big payday in 2024/25. After an up-and-down start as he got acclimated to his new NBA home, the 22-year-old had a huge second half, posting averages of 21.2 points, 10.7 rebounds, 9.3 assists, and 1.5 steals with a shooting line of .500/.457/.809 in his final 19 games, 12 of which were Bulls victories.

Giddey’s full-season averages were 14.6 PPG, 8.1 RPG, 7.2 APG, and 1.2 SPG on .465/.378/.781 shooting. Several of those marks, including the three-point percentage, were career highs.

Still, while Giddey had a strong first season in Chicago and looks like the Bulls’ point guard of the future, he and several of the other top restricted free agents on the market may have a hard time maximizing their earnings this summer with so little cap room available around the league. With no other potential suitors in position to realistically get up to the neighborhood of $30MM per year for Giddey, the Bulls have a good amount of leverage and can afford to be patient.

The Bulls’ front office may also be wary of bidding against itself for Giddey after completing a five-year, $90MM deal with former lottery pick Patrick Williams when he was coming off his rookie contract last summer. Chicago reached that agreement before free agency even opened, then saw Williams’ production take a step backwards in the first year of the contract.

Magic Re-Sign Moritz Wagner

July 4th, 2025 at 8:33am CST by Luke Adams

July 7: The Magic have officially signed Wagner, the team announced today in a press release (Twitter link).

July 4: The Magic and veteran free agent Moritz Wagner have agreed to a one-year, $5MM deal that will see the big man return to Orlando, according to reports from Jason Beede of The Orlando Sentinel and Shams Charania of ESPN (Twitter link).

The older brother of Magic star Franz Wagner, Moritz has been with the team for four-plus seasons, having originally signed late in the 2020/21 campaign.

Wagner appeared well on his way to a career year in 2024/25, with averages of 12.9 points and 4.9 rebounds in 18.8 minutes per game and a shooting line of .562/.360/.718 through 30 contests. However, a torn left ACL in December prematurely brought his season to an end.

Faced with an increasingly expensive roster – and with Wagner still recovering from that ACL tear – Orlando declined its $11MM team option on the 6’11” forward/center last weekend, but there was always an expectation that the club wanted to bring him back at a reduced rate. With his Bird rights in hand, the Magic have the ability to re-sign Wagner without using any mid-level or bi-annual exception money.

Wagner will have the ability to veto a trade in 2025/26, per Michael Scotto of HoopsHype (Twitter link). That right is automatically awarded to a player who re-signs with his previous team on a one-year deal or a two-year deal with a second-year option, though many players agree to waive that veto ability as part of their contract agreement (as Wagner did a year ago).

Having traded for Desmond Bane last month and agreed to sign Tyus Jones in free agency earlier this week, Orlando now projects to operate in luxury-tax territory for the 2025/26 season.

According to ESPN’s Bobby Marks (via Twitter), the Magic only have enough room below their first-apron hard cap to sign second-round pick Noah Penda or a veteran-minimum player as their 14th man, but not both, unless perhaps Jones’ and Wagner’s deals come in a little lower than reported.

NBA Players Lose $484MM From 2024/25 Salaries

July 4th, 2025 at 7:48am CST by Luke Adams

The NBA’s basketball-related income (BRI) for the 2024/25 season came in at $10.247MM, as first reported by Eric Pincus of Bleacher Report (Twitter link) and as outlined in greater detail by Kurt Badenhausen of Sportico. That total was less than projected, resulting in player salaries being reduced by a total of approximately $484MM for ’24/25.

The NBA’s Collective Bargaining Agreement calls for players to earn 51% of the NBA’s BRI in each season, and the league holds back a percentage of player salaries in order to ensure that revenue split is achieved. In 2024/25, 10% of player salaries were held in escrow, and 91% of that money in escrow was ultimately sent to the teams, with just 9% going to the players.

As a result, players earned just 90.9% of their reported salaries in 2024/25. For a player like Warriors star Stephen Curry, who had the NBA’s highest ’24/25 cap hit at $55.76MM, that would mean his actual earnings were about $5MM less than that.

Badenhausen suggests overall league revenue came in lower than originally anticipated due to a variety of factors, including a turbulent year for local media deals. The fact that multiple small-market teams – including the Pacers and the champion Thunder – made deep playoff runs also likely reduced the overall gate receipts for the playoffs, he adds.

While players came out on the wrong end of the escrow split this season, that isn’t always the case. As Badenhausen points out, in three straight seasons from 2014-17, league revenue surged to the point that players not only got back the full amount of their salaries held in escrow but also received supplemental checks to ensure the BRI split was met.

Conversely, during the COVID-shortened seasons, the league held back a higher percentage of player salaries in escrow due to the lost revenue.

The players shouldn’t have to worry about receiving their full salaries in 2025/26, Badenhausen writes, with the league’s new media deals taking effect. The NBA will be collecting roughly $7 billion annually as a result of their 11-year, $76+ billion agreements with ESPN/ABC (Disney), NBC, and Amazon, beginning this season. The league’s previous media deal with Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery (TNT) was worth $24 billion over nine seasons, or about $2.7 billion per year.

Wizards Among Teams Eyeing Jonathan Kuminga

July 3rd, 2025 at 11:17pm CST by Luke Adams

The Wizards are the latest potential suitor to emerge in the Jonathan Kuminga sweepstakes, according to Anthony Slater of The Athletic, who reports that Washington has entered the picture within the last 24 hours. The idea of the 22-year-old forward fitting into the Wizards’ rebuild has “gained real momentum,” sources tell Slater.

In addition to Washington, the Kings, Heat, Bulls, Bucks, and Nets have all expressed “varying levels” of interest in the Warriors‘ restricted free agent, Slater writes.

Confirming prior reporting out of Sacramento, Slater says the Kings floated an offer that would include 2024 first-round pick Devin Carter, veteran forward Dario Saric, and a pair of second-round picks. However, Golden State views that as a “buy-low” attempt, per Slater, who suggests the Pacific rivals haven’t gained any real traction.

Both the Warriors and Kuminga appear willing to be patient in the hopes of getting what they want out of the process, Slater explains. From the team’s perspective, that would mean acquiring a promising young player and a first-round pick in any sign-and-trade scenario. For Kuminga, the goal is ending up in a situation where he feels he has the full support of an organization and its coaching staff and can be a featured part of a team’s core.

If there’s no resolution by the time the Las Vegas Summer League tips off next week, the tentative plan is for Kuminga’s camp to have in-person meetings with interested teams in Vegas, Slater notes.

One of those meetings could involved the Warriors. As Slater details, the idea of the former No. 7 overall pick working out a deal to remain in Golden State isn’t off the table, so there has been talk of Kuminga, agent Aaron Turner, head coach Steve Kerr, and general manager Mike Dunleavy Jr. sitting down together in Vegas to discuss what a reunion might look like.

Kuminga appeared in just 47 games in 2024/25, having missed more than two months due to a badly sprained ankle. He had an inconsistent role when healthy, averaging 15.3 points, 4.6 rebounds, and 2.2 assists in 24.3 minutes per game, with a .454/.305/.668 shooting line.

Although he was out of the Warriors’ rotation entirely for some key games at the end of the regular season and in the postseason, Kuminga averaged 24.3 points per game on .554/.389/.720 shooting in his final four playoff games vs. Minnesota after Stephen Curry injured his hamstring, providing a reminder of his offensive upside ahead of his restricted free agency.

Lillard Open To Signing This Offseason, Won’t Rush Decision

July 3rd, 2025 at 8:12pm CST by Luke Adams

Star point guard Damian Lillard is open to signing with a team during the 2025 offseason if the terms and conditions are right, according to NBA insider Chris Haynes (Twitter link).

Lillard has received “ample” interest from teams since word broke that he was being waived by the Bucks for cap reasons while he recovers from a torn Achilles, but he isn’t in a rush to make his decision, Haynes adds.

Technically, Lillard is still a Buck, as the team hasn’t yet placed him on waivers. There has been no rush to do it right away, since most signings and trades can’t be completed until 11:00 am Central time on Sunday, once the July moratorium ends. However, I’d expect the move to happen in the coming days so that Milwaukee has the cap room necessary to complete their deal with Myles Turner sooner rather than later.

Agent Aaron Goodwin put out a statement on Tuesday referring to being waived as an “incredible opportunity” for Lillard, who will continue to be paid the $112.6MM owed to him by the Bucks as he rehabs his Achilles tear and weighs his next move. One report on Tuesday evening indicated that at least 10 teams had already touched base with the nine-time All-Star, with the Celtics, Warriors, and Lakers said to be among them.

While Marc J. Spears of Andscape said during an ESPN appearance that there’s “speculation” about Lillard returning around the 2026 All-Star break, that feels like an aggressive timeline, given that the veteran’s Achilles tear occurred in late April. He’ll turn 35 later this month and it wouldn’t be in his best interest to rush his return from an injury that often costs players a full calendar year.

Spears also stated that Lillard wants to rehab his injury in Portland in order to be close to his family, so even if he were to sign with a new team this offseason, it’s unclear how much time he’d actually spend around that club this fall.

Still, it’s no surprise that a number of teams would be willing to use one of their 15-man roster spots on Lillard in 2025/26 — even if he’s not able to return before the end of the season, that would give the club the opportunity to build a relationship with him ahead of his return to full strength next year.

Lakers, Jaxson Hayes Finalize One-Year Deal

July 3rd, 2025 at 6:03pm CST by Luke Adams

July 6: Hayes is officially back under contract with the Lakers, according to NBA.com’s transaction log.

According to ESPN’s Bobby Marks (Twitter link), Hayes actually got a slight raise to 120% above his minimum, so he’ll earn about $3.45MM in 2025/26.

July 3: Free agent center Jaxson Hayes is returning to the Lakers, according to Shams Charania of ESPN, who reports (via Twitter) that the two sides are in agreement on a one-year contract.

Hayes, 25, signed a two-year contract with the Lakers in 2023 and has appeared in 126 games for the team since then, averaging 5.4 points, 3.8 rebounds, and 0.6 blocks with a 72.1% field goal percentage in 15.6 minutes per night.

The former eighth overall pick took on an increased role during the second half of last season following Anthony Davis‘ abdominal injury and the subsequent trade sending Davis to Dallas. Hayes’ last 32 outings of the regular season were starts, as he boosted his averages to 8.1 PPG, 5.5 RPG, and 1.0 BPG in 21.9 MPG during that stretch.

Hayes’ starting role carried over to the postseason, but he struggled in the Lakers’ first-round series vs. Minnesota and was limited to single-digit minutes in each of the first four games before being removed as the starter for Game 5. While he was perhaps miscast as a starter, the seven-footer is a solid reserve option behind presumed starter Deandre Ayton in the middle.

Charania’s report doesn’t include any financial details on the deal, but it will likely be a minimum-salary contract, given that Hayes was earning the minimum for each of the past two seasons.

The Lakers now project to have 15 players under contract, assuming No. 36 pick Adou Thiero gets a standard roster spot, notes Jovan Buha (Twitter link). However, Shake Milton‘s $3MM salary is non-guaranteed, so the team has a little flexibility with that 15th spot. Jordan Goodwin also doesn’t have a guaranteed salary, though the expectation is that he’ll return after playing rotation minutes down the stretch last season.

Jonas Valanciunas Reportedly Considering Leaving NBA For EuroLeague

July 3rd, 2025 at 5:44pm CST by Luke Adams

5:44 pm: The Nuggets are hoping to convince Valanciunas to remain in the NBA rather than seeking a buyout to play in Europe, tweets Stein.

4:40 pm: The trade between Denver and Sacramento is expected to proceed as planned, according to Jake Fischer of The Stein Line (Twitter link), who says discussions between Valanciunas and the Nuggets about his future remain “fluid” in the wake of the lucrative offer he received from Panathinaikos.

3:43 pm: Veteran center Jonas Valanciunas is close to accepting a three-year contract offer worth 12 million Euros from the Greek team Panathinaikos, according to a report from Donatas Urbonas and Karolis Tiskevicius of BasketNews.com.

League sources confirm to NBA insider Marc Stein (Twitter link) that a possible return to Europe holds “strong appeal” to Valanciunas.

Valanciunas, who has been in the NBA since 2012, remains under contract for two more seasons, with a $10.4MM guaranteed salary for 2025/26 and a $10MM non-guaranteed salary for ’26/27. In other words, he can’t freely sign with Panathinaikos without extricating himself from that deal.

He’s also in the process of changing NBA teams. The Kings and Nuggets agreed to a trade on Tuesday that would sent the Lithuanian big man to Denver in exchange for Dario Saric, but it can’t be finalized until after the July moratorium lifts on Sunday.

It’s unclear if Valanciunas’ rumored move to Athens would scuttle that deal, or if the two teams would still go through with the trade and Valanciunas would subsequently look to complete a buyout with the Nuggets. I’d bet on the latter.

Former EuroLeague MVP Sasha Vezenkov was in a similar situation last offseason — as rumors about his possible return to Europe swirled, he was traded from Sacramento to Toronto, where he eventually agreed to a buyout with the Raptors that saw him give up all of his remaining guaranteed salary ($6.7MM) so that he could sign with Olympiacos in Greece.

If the Valanciunas situation plays out in a similar fashion, the Nuggets could end up creating some cap savings as a result of a buyout, but they’d be losing a player they’d identified as a reliable backup for superstar Nikola Jokic and would have to return to the trade market and/or free agency to find someone else to fill that slot.

Valanciunas, the No. 5 overall pick in the 2011 draft, has nearly averaged a double-double across 937 regular season games, with 13.1 points and 9.3 rebounds per game. In 81 outings for Washington and Sacramento last season, he put up 10.4 points, 7.7 rebounds, and 2.0 assists in 18.8 minutes per night.

Suns Discussing Possible Bradley Beal Buyout

July 3rd, 2025 at 5:38pm CST by Luke Adams

The Suns have been discussing a potential buyout of the two years left on Bradley Beal‘s contract, reports Duane Rankin of The Arizona Republic.

Beal was the subject of trade rumors throughout the 2024/25 season and those rumors have carried over to the offseason. However, the $110.8MM he’s owed over the next two years have made it extremely difficult to find a trade partner, and the no-trade clause Beal holds further limits the Suns’ leverage, since he would need to approve any move.

As a result, a buyout has been viewed as the most likely path to a split between Beal and the Suns this summer.

If Beal is willing to give back some of that $110.8MM, it could also open the door for Phoenix to use the stretch provision to spread his remaining cap hits over the next five years instead of two, like Milwaukee is doing with Damian Lillard. That would create significant short-term savings for the Suns – an estimated $230MM, per cap expert Yossi Gozalan (Twitter link) – by taking their team salary from above the second tax apron to all the way under the luxury tax line.

NBA rules prohibit a team from carrying stretching a contract if it will result in dead money in a future cap year that exceeds 15% of the current season’s salary cap. Since the cap for 2025/26 was set at $154,647,000, that means no club can have more than $23,197,050 in stretched dead money on its books in ’26/27 or beyond.

Stretching the $110,794,880 owed to Beal across five seasons would result in annual cap hits of $22,158,976, which would fit within that limit. But Phoenix already has $3,814,041 in stretched salary on its cap through ’26/27 related to last year’s cuts of Nassir Little and E.J. Liddell.

In order to sneak below that 15% threshold to legally stretch Beal’s contract, the team would need him to give up at least $13,879,835. For the 32-year-old to consider that, he’d probably have to feel comfortable about making up most or all of that money on a deal with a new team across the next two seasons.

If Beal were bought out, any of the NBA’s other 29 teams could legally sign him. The Collective Bargaining Agreement prevent teams operating over the tax aprons from signing a waived player if his pre-waiver salary exceeds the value of the non-taxpayer mid-level exception ($14.1MM this year), but that rule only applies to players waived and signed during the regular season.

If the Suns were to use the stretch provision on Beal’s salary, they would be ineligible to re-sign him until July 2027, after his contract would have expired.

Durant Trade Expected To Be Completed As Seven-Team Deal

July 2nd, 2025 at 9:56pm CST by Luke Adams

When the Suns and Rockets agreed a week-and-a-half ago to a deal that will send Kevin Durant to Houston, they negotiated it as a two-team trade. However, after the July moratorium lifts on Sunday and that trade can be officially completed, it’s expected to be finalized as a seven-team mega-deal, according to ESPN’s Bobby Marks (YouTube link).

Marks specifically mentions the Hawks, Timberwolves, and Nets as teams who will be involved, referencing the Rockets’ sign-and-trade deal for Clint Capela and Atlanta’s sign-and-trade for Nickeil Alexander-Walker as agreements that may be looped into this trade. Brooklyn made a minor draft-night deal with the Suns that includes a couple picks Phoenix is acquiring from Houston as part of the package for Durant.

While Marks didn’t name all seven teams, Fred Katz of The Athletic says the Warriors and Lakers are expected to play a part in the deal too.

The No. 59 overall pick (Jahmai Mashack) that was originally sent from Houston to Phoenix in the Durant agreement got rerouted by Phoenix to Golden State (who later sent it to Memphis), while No. 36 pick Adou Thiero will end up with the Lakers following a series of swaps involving the Nets, Suns, and Timberwolves.

There may also be a pathway to turning Dorian Finney-Smith‘s four-year, $53MM agreement with Houston into a sign-and-trade from the Lakers, though Katz’s report suggests Finney-Smith (and Alexander-Walker) aren’t being discussed in the current framework.

Theoretically, other previous trade agreements involving some of these teams could be roped in to expand the deal even further if it proves advantageous (or if it just streamlines the process of finalizing trades). We also still have more than 72 hours before the moratorium lifts on Sunday at 11:00 am Central time, so if more deals are reached in the coming days, it’s possible they could be attached to this one too.

To be clear, while putting together these swaps as a single mega-trade could result in minor additional pieces such as cash, a draft-rights player, or a two-way player (Katz mentions Daeqwon Plowden of the Hawks) being involved, it won’t meaningfully alter the players and picks changing hands.

It simply means that several trade agreements previously reported separately will be combined into one move to get them all done at once. That should make life easier for the league, which won’t have to process a bunch of separate trades that include certain players or draft picks.

It also means the trade will likely set a new NBA record for most teams involved in a single deal. That record was last set a year ago when six teams got together to complete the transaction that sent Klay Thompson to Dallas, Kyle Anderson and Buddy Hield to Golden State, and Josh Green to Charlotte.

Our breakdown of 2025 offseason trades can be found right here if you want to try to figure out how to get eight, nine, 10, or all 30 teams somehow involved in this deal.

Pistons Sign-And-Trade Dennis Schröder To Kings

July 2nd, 2025 at 7:10pm CST by Rory Maher

July 7: The trade is official, according to a press release from the Kings.

In addition to receiving Schröder, Sacramento acquired the least favorable of the Bucks’, Knicks’, and Pistons’ 2029 second-round picks, per James Ham of The Kings Beat (Twitter link). Detroit generated a sizable trade exception and received the Hornets’ top-55 protected 2026 second-round pick.

July 2: Schröder will be sent to Sacramento via sign-and-trade, reports Omari Sankofa II of The Detroit Free Press (Twitter link).

Structuring the move that way will allow the Kings to take Schröder into their $16.8MM trade exception while preserving their full mid-level exception, and will let the Pistons either create a $14MM+ trade exception or expand the deal to take back a player earning up to nearly $23MM.

It’s not yet clear what the Kings will send to the Pistons as part of the deal, but it’ll likely be a minor asset. Although the two teams discussed Monk, as noted below, reporting on Tuesday indicated he wouldn’t be involved in this transaction.

July 1: The Kings are signing Dennis Schröder to a three-year contract worth $45MM, reports ESPN’s Shams Charania (Twitter link). The deal will be fully guaranteed through two years, with a partial guarantee on the third season, per Vincent Goodwill of Yahoo Sports (Twitter link).

Marc Stein and Jake Fischer reported a few hours before free agency opened that the German guard was expected to sign with Sacramento for the full non-taxpayer mid-level exception, while Fred Katz of The Athletic (Twitter link) said on Monday evening that Schröder would agree to a deal with Sacramento.

Those earlier reports pointed toward a two-year deal, but Schröder will get an extra year. It still could be a non-taxpayer MLE deal, which would be worth roughly $44.4MM over three years, though a sign-and-trade is a possibility — contracts signed via sign-and-trade must cover at least three seasons, which may explain the additional year.

There were rumors on Monday that Detroit and Sacramento were exploring a deal that would include Malik Monk. The Kings could also acquire Schröder via sign-and-trade using a sizable trade exception they created earlier this year. In that scenario, they wouldn’t have to send out any matching salary.

According to Goodwill, no sign-and-trade has been agreed to at this point, but that could change in the coming days.

After spending his first five NBA seasons in Atlanta, Schröder has bounced around the league over the past seven years, playing for eight different teams. That was particularly true of the 2024/25 campaign, when he was traded from Brooklyn to Golden State in December and then rerouted to Detroit before the February deadline.

Overall, the former first-round pick (No. 17 overall in 2013) played in 75 games last season, including 48 starts (28.1 minutes per contest), averaging 13.1 points, 5.4 assists and 2.6 rebounds on .406/.342/.838 shooting. He also had a strong playoff showing for the Pistons, averaging 12.5 PPG, 3.7 APG, 2.5 RPG and 1.2 SPG on .491/.476/.813 shooting in six games during the team’s first-round loss to New York (27.3 MPG).

Schröder, who turns 32 years old in September, will provide speed, ball-handling, and point-of-attack defense to a Kings team in need of point guard help after trading De’Aaron Fox to San Antonio in February. He marks the first significant free agent addition of the new front office, which is led by general manager Scott Perry.

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