Heat’s Highsmith Undergoes Knee Surgery, Out 8-10 Weeks
Heat forward Haywood Highsmith suffered a torn meniscus in his right knee during a recent training session in his hometown of Baltimore and has undergone surgery to repair the injury, the team announced today (via Twitter).
According to the Heat, the procedure was completed in Miami on Friday by team physician Dr. Harlan Selesnick (Twitter link). Highsmith will begin rehabilitation work immediately, but the expectation is that he’ll be sidelined for approximately eight-to-10 weeks.
Training camps are scheduled to get underway in roughly seven-and-a-half weeks, so Highsmith’s injury figures to delay his availability this fall. He’s unlikely to be back to full health by the time the Heat begin practicing and may not be ready to return by the time the regular season tips off a few weeks later.
It’s an unfortunate setback for a player who is entering a contract year and who will be looking to establish himself as a regular part of Erik Spoelstra‘s rotation after seeing his role fluctuate last season. Highsmith set career highs by appearing in 74 regular season games and averaging 24.6 minutes per night, but was in and out of the starting lineup and was briefly removed from the rotation entirely.
A versatile defender with good length, Highsmith averaged 6.5 points, 3.4 rebounds, and 1.5 assists per game last season, with a shooting line of .458/.382/.721. He’ll earn about $5.6MM in 2025/26 on an expiring deal.
Celtics Sign Joe Mazzulla To Multiyear Extension
The Celtics have extended their head coach’s contract, announcing today in a press release that Joe Mazzulla has officially signed a new multiyear deal with the club.
“We are very excited that Joe has agreed to extend with the Celtics,” president of basketball operations Brad Stevens said in a statement. “He understands the job and has a passion for the Celtics that is only rivaled by our most die-hard fans. He’s worked hard and accomplished amazing things in his first three years as a head coach – including averaging over 60 wins per season and winning the 2024 NBA Championship.
“Joe is a gifted leader who brings a consistent commitment to learning, improving, and maximizing each day we get to compete for the Boston Celtics.”
Mazzulla, who joined the Celtics’ coaching staff in 2019 as an assistant, was unexpectedly thrust into the head coaching role ahead of the 2022/23 season when Ime Udoka was suspended by the club. Udoka never returned to the team, resulting in Mazzulla earning the position on a permanent basis.
Mazzulla has acquitted himself very well in his first three years as the Celtics’ head coach, winning 57, 64, and 61 regular season games for an overall record of 182-64 (.740). He has also guided Boston to a 33-17 record in the playoffs, as well as a 2024 championship.
Mazzulla finished third in Coach of the Year voting in his first year on the job in 2022/23, then ranked fourth a year later.
He’ll face a new challenge in his fourth year in the role, as the Celtics have spent the offseason retooling their roster to cut costs after operating above the second tax apron last season. With Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis no longer on the roster and Jayson Tatum expected to miss most or all of 2025/26 while he recovers from a torn Achilles, Mazzulla will have to find a way to maximize a group that features less talent than his previous rosters.
Wizards Re-Sign Anthony Gill To One-Year Deal
1:12pm: As Robbins tweets, Gill’s signing is now official, per NBA.com’s transactions log.
12:57pm: The Wizards are re-signing free agent forward Anthony Gill to a one-year contract, league sources tell Michael Scotto of HoopsHype (Twitter link).
Gill has spent the past five seasons in Washington, largely serving as a veteran leader and mentor to his younger teammates. Although he was waived in late June before his $2,546,675 salary for 2025/26 would’ve become guaranteed, multiple reports from Josh Robbins of The Athletic — including at the time of Gill’s release — indicated that both sides were interested in a reunion, so the signing had been anticipated.
After going undrafted out of Virginia in 2016, Gill started his professional career overseas, playing in Turkey with Yesilgiresun Belediye in 2016/17 before spending three years with Russian club Khimki, which competed in the EuroLeague at the time. He parlayed his strong international play into multiple contracts with the Wizards, his first and only NBA team to this point.
Gill, who will turn 33 years old in October — a few days before the season begins — appeared in 51 games in ’24/25, posting modest averages of 2.5 points and 1.3 rebounds in 7.8 minutes per contest. In addition to the Wizards, the 6’7″ forward was also linked to multiple EuroLeague teams this summer.
As Robbins explained last month, the new deal is a win for both sides, as Gill will earn more on a veteran’s minimum contract ($2,667,947) than his old contract would’ve paid him and the league’s reimbursement policy will reduce the Wizards’ salary cap hit to $2,296,274, equivalent to a player with two years of experience.
Interestingly, the signing of Gill puts the Wizards at 16 players on standard contracts, one above the regular-season limit. While Justin Champagnie is on a non-guaranteed deal, he should be a lock to make the roster after a breakout ’24/25 campaign.
Assuming Gill makes the cut, perhaps one of Washington’s new additions, like Malaki Branham or Dillon Jones, could be the odd man out. For what it’s worth, Jones ($2.75MM) makes far less money than Branham ($4.96MM).
The Wizards also brought back Marvin Bagley III on a minimum-salary deal last month. His contract is guaranteed, but he technically would have the smallest dead-money cap hit.
Latest On Trae Young
Within the last week, a pair of star point guards have finalized maximum-salary extensions with their respective NBA teams: Luka Doncic signed a three-year deal with the Lakers, while De’Aaron Fox completed a four-year contract with the Spurs.
Hawks guard Trae Young has been eligible since the start of July for the same extensions that Doncic and Fox just signed (up to $222.4MM over four years), and while his NBA résumé doesn’t quite stack up to Doncic’s, it compares favorably to Fox’s.
Young has made four All-Star teams (Fox has one All-Star nod) and led Atlanta to the Eastern Conference Finals in 2021. He has a career scoring average of 25.3 points per game and led the NBA with a career-high 11.6 assists per game in 2024/25.
Still, there have been no indications that the Hawks and Young are engaged in serious discussions about a new deal or that an extension agreement is imminent, as an ESPN panel discussed during Tuesday’s episode of NBA Today (YouTube link; hat tip to RealGM).
“Trae has done a lot to show that he’s invested in the Hawks,” ESPN’s Marc J. Spears said. “Nickeil Alexander-Walker, (Luke) Kennard, he convince them to sign with the Hawks. Instead of going to the Jordan (Brand event in Greece) this summer, he came to Summer League and he got to meet with (new senior VP of basketball operations) Bryson Graham… (and) some other new front office guys. There’s a new front office in Atlanta that’s trying to make decisions.”
In addition to adding Alexander-Walker and Kennard in free agency, the Hawks made a trade for big man Kristaps Porzingis and will get forward Jalen Johnson back after a shoulder injury ended his 2024/25 season early. Atlanta has been lauded for its offseason work and is viewed as a strong playoff contender in the East after being eliminated in the play-in tournament this past spring.
While it remains possible that the Hawks and Young will work out a new multiyear deal at some point in the next couple months, Spears believes the season may begin without an extension in place for the star point guard.
“What I’m hearing now at this point – and you can tell by Trae’s tweet and I saw him during the Finals – I think he’s disappointed that it hasn’t come, it hasn’t been offered,” Spears said of a potential extension. “So don’t be surprised if he plays this out and sees what happens next summer.”
The tweet Spears was referring to was posted by Young last week in response to star NFL pass rusher Micah Parsons, who submitted a trade request to the Dallas Cowboys in the midst of a public contract standoff.
“This why you pay the man early,” Young wrote. “When someone will take less early to stay in a place he wanted to be forever, you do it… the price only goes up now! Get what you deserve bro!”
We don’t know for sure whether Young’s remarks about Parsons’ situation can be applied to his own contract negotiations with the Hawks or whether he’s willing to accept less than his max to finalize an agreement this summer. Still, the fact that Young chose to post that comment publicly raised some eyebrows.
As talented a scorer and passer as Young is, the Hawks also have to weigh the fact that his 41.1% field goal percentage in 2024/25 was a career low and he has never been an especially strong defender. The new-look front office, led by general manager Onsi Saleh, may also want to evaluate his fit with the team’s new players before making a massive long-term investment in the 26-year-old.
Young will earn about $46MM in 2025/26 and holds a player option worth just shy of $49MM for the ’26/27 season. He would remain extension-eligible during the coming season as long as he declines that player option as part of an extension agreement.
Celtics Trade Georges Niang, Two Picks To Jazz
August 6: The move is now official, per the Celtics (via Twitter).
The second-rounders headed to the Jazz in the deal are either the Celtics’ or Magic’s 2027 pick (whichever is most favorable) and either the Celtics’ or Cavaliers’ 2031 pick (whichever is most favorable), per Jake Fischer (Twitter link).
August 5: The Celtics are trading Georges Niang and two future second-round picks to the Jazz for rookie RJ Luis Jr., ESPN’s Shams Charania tweets.
Utah is utilizing part of the $26.6MM trade exception created in last month’s three-team trade in which Utah dealt John Collins to the Clippers, Bobby Marks of ESPN tweets.
It’s another salary dump for the Celtics, allowing them to move well below the second tax apron.
Niang was acquired by Boston from the Hawks in the three-team Kristaps Porzingis blockbuster this offseason. The 6’7″ forward has an expiring $8.2MM contract for next season.
Niang has been on the move quite a bit this year. He began last season with Cleveland and played 51 games for the Cavaliers, all but one off the bench, before getting dealt to Atlanta in February. Niang appeared in 28 games with the Hawks, including two starts. Overall, he averaged 9.9 points, 3.4 rebounds and 1.4 assists in 21.5 minutes per night last season.
Niang will provide Utah with another floor-stretching big off the bench. He’s a career 39.9% shooter on three-point tries.
It will be his second stint with the Jazz, whom he played with from 2017-21. They’re looking at him as someone who can play a rotation role and bring veteran leadership to their young core, Tony Jones of The Athletic tweets. The two sides have spoken, according to Jones, and Niang is happy and excited to be back in Utah.
Luis, an undrafted rookie out of St. John’s, was signed to a two-way contract, so he’ll fill the Celtics’ open two-way slot. Boston reached an agreement with free agent forward Chris Boucher to take Niang’s spot on the 15-man roster.
According to cap expert Yossi Gozlan (Twitter link), the Celtics shed approximately $5oMM off their luxury tax bill with the Niang trade. They’re now just $1.7MM above the first apron and $9.4MM above the luxury tax line. They also created a $8.2MM trade exception.
2026 NBA Trade Deadline Set For February 5
The NBA’s trade deadline for the 2025/26 season will be on Thursday, February 5 at 3:00 pm Eastern time, according to the league’s official list of key dates for the upcoming season.
That date for the 2026 trade deadline had been expected based on a previously confirmed regular season start date of October 21, but it hadn’t been officially listed on NBA.com until now.
That deadline is worth highlighting today due to how it will affect players who sign veteran contract extensions for the rest of the 2025/26 league year. When a player signs a veteran extension, he may become ineligible to be traded for six months if his new deal meets certain criteria. Six months from today would be February 6, one day after the trade deadline.
That means a player who signs a veteran extension between now and the Feb. 5 deadline will be ineligible to be traded this season if his new deal meets any of the following criteria:
- His current contract and new extension exceed four years in total.
- His starting salary on the extension is worth more than 120% of the final-year salary on his current deal (or 120% of the NBA’s estimated average salary, for a player earning below the average)
- He receives a raise greater than 5% between the first and second years of the extension (or in any subsequent seasons).
- His current contract is renegotiated as part of the extension.
Knicks forward Mikal Bridges is one example of a recently extended player who meets one or more of these criteria. He’s now under contract for five years in total, received a 2026/27 salary exceeding 120% of his ’25/26 cap hit, and will get 8% annual raises. That means Bridges is ineligible to be traded for six months, but because his deal was finalized on August 1, his trade restrictions will lift on February 1, a few days before this season’s deadline.
This rule doesn’t apply to players who sign rookie scale extensions. They can be traded immediately, though the poison pill provision might make it difficult to do so.
Players who sign veteran extensions that don’t meet any of the criteria above are also eligible to be traded immediately. Mavericks big man Daniel Gafford is an example of a player who falls into this category. The three-year extension he signed last month resulted in him being under contract for four years in total, and his new deal starts at 120% of his previous salary and features 5% annual raises. As a result, no trade restrictions currently apply to Gafford.
November 5 is another date worth keeping in mind now that the trade deadline for 2026 is officially set. A free agent who signs with an NBA team after Nov. 5 won’t become trade-eligible this season.
Jeff Dowtin Jr. Signs With Maccabi Tel Aviv
August 5: Maccabi Tel Aviv has officially confirmed its deal with Dowtin, announcing in a press release that it’s actually a three-year contract. Based on Stein’s reporting (detailed below), it sounds like the contract will feature NBA outs.
August 4: Jeff Dowtin Jr. will sign a two-year contract with Maccabi Tel Aviv, agent Bill Neff tells Marc Stein of The Stein Line (Twitter link).
The 28-year-old point guard received interest from several European clubs, Stein adds (Twitter link). He and the team will have a mutual option on the second season of his new deal.
Dowtin spent last season with the Sixers on a two-way contract after joining the team in March of 2024. He appeared in 41 NBA games, averaging 7.0 points, 1.5 rebounds and 1.9 assists in 15.1 minutes per night with .487/.400/.733 shooting numbers.
Dowtin signed with Orlando after going undrafted out of Rhode Island in 2020, but he didn’t make his NBA debut until 2021 when Golden State claimed him off waivers. He played one game with Milwaukee on a 10-day contract the following season before returning to the Magic on a 10-day deal. He also spent time with Toronto before coming to Philadelphia.
Stein points out that Dowtin is the third member of last year’s Sixers team to wind up with Maccabi Tel Aviv (Twitter link). He joins Lonnie Walker IV, whose signing was announced earlier today, and Oshae Brissett, who was added to the Israeli team in July.
Spurs Sign De’Aaron Fox To Four-Year Max Extension
5:20 pm: The deal is official, per a press release from the Spurs.
1:59 pm: The Spurs and point guard De’Aaron Fox have agreed to terms on a four-year, maximum-salary extension, agent Rich Paul tells Shams Charania of ESPN (Twitter link).
Fox will earn just over $37MM in the final year of his current contract, with his new deal taking effect next July and running through 2029/30. It will feature a starting salary worth 30% of the ’26/27 cap.
Based on the NBA’s latest projection of a 7% increase, Fox’s four-year contract would be worth a total of $222.4MM over four seasons. If the cap rises by the maximum allowable 10% next year, the value of Fox’s deal would be $228.6MM. The contract doesn’t include a fourth-year player option or a trade kicker, notes Michael Scotto of HoopsHype (Twitter link).
The fifth overall pick in 2017, Fox spent his first seven-and-a-half NBA seasons in Sacramento, where he quickly established himself as the Kings’ starting point guard and a rising star. Fox’s best season came in 2022/23, when he earned his first All-Star berth, made the All-NBA third team, and was named Clutch Player of the Year after averaging 25.0 points, 6.1 assists, and 4.2 rebounds per game for a Kings team that won 48 games.
However, as Fox neared the end of the rookie scale extension he signed in 2020, he was hesitant to finalize another contract with the Kings, expressing reservations about the team’s ability to contend for a championship.
Word broke in late January that the Kings – having received no indications from Fox that he had interest in a long-term deal – were expected to entertain trading him and that San Antonio was his preferred landing spot. Less than a week later, the 27-year-old was dealt to the Spurs in a blockbuster three-team trade that sent Zach LaVine from Chicago to Sacramento.
Fox got off to a slow start in San Antonio — his 19.7 points per game and his shooting averages of 44.6% from the floor and 27.4% on three-pointers in his first 17 outings as a Spur were well below his career averages, and he underwent season-ending surgery to address a finger injury in March.
Given the emergence of Rookie of the Year Stephon Castle and the fact that the Spurs’ draft-lottery luck allowed them to select Dylan Harper with the second overall pick in June, there was some speculation that a maximum-salary extension for Fox wouldn’t be as automatic as it seemed back in February.
However, the Spurs moved forward with Fox’s new deal just about as soon as they were eligible to do so. Sunday marked six months since Fox was traded to San Antonio, meaning the restrictions limiting the years, first-year salary, and annual raises he could receive on a veteran extension had lifted. A day later, he and the Spurs have reached an agreement on a new contract.
Based on a 7% cap increase for 2026/27, the year-by-year breakdown for Fox’s extension is as follows:
- 2026/27: $49,641,600
- 2027/28: $53,612,928
- 2028/29: $57,584,256
- 2029/30: $61,555,584
- Total: $222,394,368
While Fox’s deal may be the last major piece of extension-related business for the Spurs this offseason, the team figures to continue investing heavily in its core in the years to come. Star big man Victor Wembanyama will be eligible for a rookie scale extension in 2026, with Castle becoming eligible for a rookie scale extension of his own in 2027.
Brandon Boston Signs With Fenerbahce
August 4: Boston’s deal with Fenerbahce is now official, the team announced in a press release.
August 3: Free agent wing Brandon Boston Jr. is putting the finishing touches on a new deal with Fenerbahce, reports Donatas Urbonas of BasketNews. According to Urbonas, Boston is close to signing a contract with the Turkish club.
Boston had previously been linked to Greek team Panathinaikos, who – like Fenerbahce – have been actively striving to recruit more NBA-caliber talent this summer.
Since being selected with the No. 51 overall pick out of Kentucky in 2021, Boston has split his four seasons in the NBA between the Clippers and, last year, the Pelicans.
The 6’7″ swingman enjoyed his biggest role yet during the 2024/25 season, albeit on a tanking team in New Orleans. Across 42 contests (10 starts), he averaged 10.7 PPG, 3.2 RPG, 2.2 APG and 1.3 SPG, while slashing .436/.350/.788.
Boston began last season on a two-way contract before being promoted to the standard roster in February. Now that he has four years of NBA experience, the 23-year-old is no longer eligible to sign a two-way deal.
If the 23-year-old finalizes a deal with Fenerbahce, he’ll continue his career with the reigning EuroLeague champions, competing overseas for the first time. Fenerbahce’s 2025/26 roster also includes a handful of other NBA alums, including center Khem Birch and guard Wade Baldwin IV.
Warriors Don’t Expect To Trade Jonathan Kuminga
After making little progress in sign-and-trade talks, the Warriors expect Jonathan Kuminga to be on their roster when the season begins, a source tells Tim Kawakami of The San Francisco Standard.
As a restricted free agent, Kuminga has been involved in a stalemate throughout the summer. No interested teams have enough cap space to make a competitive offer, and no one is willing to give Golden State what it wants in a potential deal. The Kings and Suns have been mentioned most prominently as possible trade partners for the 22-year-old forward, but negotiations have been fruitless so far.
Several sources tell Kawakami that the Warriors have been “unenthusiastic” about the prospect of trading Kuminga since the process began. Owner Joe Lacob remains a huge supporter of Kuminga and isn’t willing to part with him unless the trade package includes “real value.”
Kawakami adds that Lacob is willing to be patient until the situation is resolved. That means there’s no pressure on general manager Mike Dunleavy Jr. to take the best available deal just to have a sense of certainty as training camp nears.
In the absence of an offer sheet from a rival team, Kuminga’s options are limited. He can either accept a reported two-year, $45MM offer from the Warriors that includes a team option for the second season, or he can sign his one-year, $8MM qualifying offer.
Kawakami views the Kings as the best destination for Kuminga and states that he probably would have signed with them by now if he had been unrestricted. Sacramento could offer a definite rotation role and is rumored to be willing to pay him $63MM over three years.
The Kings are reportedly offering Malik Monk and a protected future first-round pick in return, which hasn’t piqued the Warriors’ interest. Sam Amick of The Athletic reported that Golden State wants the pick to be unprotected, and Kawakami is doubtful that the team has interest in giving up Moses Moody or Buddy Hield, as one of them would have to be added to the deal due to base year compensation rules.
Kuminga has until October 1 to accept the qualifying offer, and Kawakami notes that the date can be pushed back if both sides agree. That means there’s no urgency to get a deal in place, especially from the team’s perspective.
Kawakami’s compromise solution is for the Warriors to replace the second-year team option in their proposal with a partially guaranteed year, perhaps around $14MM. That would guarantee Kuminga in excess of $30MM and take away his right to block a trade. Kawakami points out that it would provide a lot more security than taking the QO and would leave Kuminga with a contract that would be easy to move by the February trade deadline.