Hoops Rumors hosted a live chat today at 2:00 pm Central time (3:00 pm Eastern).
The Suns plan to hire Jesse Mermuys as one of the top assistant coaches under new head coach Jordan Ott, sources tell Shams Charania of ESPN (Twitter link).
Mermuys has been on Jamahl Mosley‘s staff with the Magic for the past four seasons. He briefly served as Orlando’s acting head coach during the 2021/22 campaign.
Mermuys started his NBA career with Denver (2008-12), initially working as a video coordinator prior to being promoted to an advance scout and then assistant coach/advance scout.
He also had assistant coaching jobs with the Rockets, Raptors, Lakers and Kings before joining the Magic, and was head coach/assistant general manager of the Raptors 905 when the G League (then D-League) team debuted during the ’15/16 season.
According to John Gambadoro of Arizona Sports 98.7 (Twitter link), the Suns are also hiring ex-NBA player Mateen Cleaves in a player development role. The former lottery pick spent parts of six seasons in the league (from 2000-06) and has Michigan State ties to owner Mat Ishbia.
The Raptors have signed guard Alijah Martin to a two-way contract, the team announced today in a press release.
Toronto selected Martin 39th overall in last month’s draft after the 23-year-old helped Florida win a national championship in 2024/25.
Martin, who spent four years at Florida Atlantic prior to transferring to Florida, appeared in 38 games for the Gators last season, averaging 14.4 points, 4.5 rebounds, 2.2 assists and 1.5 steals in 30.4 minutes per contest. He posted a shooting slash line of .452/.350/.761.
As our list of 2025 NBA draft pick signings shows, all of the second-round picks who were selected before Martin signed standard contracts with their respective teams. However, four of the six picks who were taken directly after the 6’2″ guard received two-way contracts, and now Martin has joined that group as well.
On his new two-way deal, Martin is eligible to be active in 50 of Toronto’s 82 regular season games next season. He will earn $636,435 in 2025/26, half of the rookie minimum.
Martin fills the Raptors’ third and final two-way spot, joining Ulrich Chomche and Chucky Hepburn.
A statement last month indicated that Jeanie Buss is expected to remain the Lakers‘ governor “for the foreseeable future” even after the team is sold to incoming owner Mark Walter. That “foreseeable future” will span quite some time, according to Sam Amick of The Athletic, who hears from a source that the agreement between the two sides calls for Buss to remain in her governor role for at least the next five seasons.
We have more on the Lakers:
- Speaking to reporters at his introductory press conference on Tuesday, new Lakers center Deandre Ayton said that signing with Los Angeles “feels like a video game” and that he doesn’t intend to take the opportunity for granted, as Mark Medina of RG.org relays. Ayton called new teammate Luka Doncic a “once-in-a-generation player” and cited Doncic’s and LeBron James‘ career assist numbers as one reason why he expects to thrive in L.A. “They turn (their teammates) into superstars,” Ayton said, per Dave McMenamin of ESPN. “They make them bigger than their roles, they make them very important on the floor.”
- Ayton also said on Tuesday that he’s motivated by critics who have questioned his effort, focus, and maturity, according to Broderick Turner of The Los Angeles Times. “It fuels me,” Ayton said. “It fuels me up completely. And it’s a different type of drive that I’ve been wanting to express for a long time. I think this is the perfect timing, here in the purple and gold. And it’s a platform that I cannot run from. I can show what I really am and just be around some greats to really emphasize that for me as well. It is a lot of fuel in me to prove to the whole world.”
- After social media posts revealed that LeBron James visited the Cavaliers‘ practice facility last week, the star forward clarified (via Twitter) that it’s an annual occurrence for him, since he lives and trains in the area during the offseason. Still, ESPN’s Brian Windhorst said during an appearance on ESPN Cleveland (Twitter video link) that LeBron knew what he was doing when he was photographed in the Cavs’ building amidst speculation about his future. “LeBron absolutely knows that he will cause a wave with these social media things,” Windhorst said (hat tip to Adam Zagoria of NJ.com). “On one hand, he is just coming home for the holiday, he is just doing something that he has done numerous times in the past. On the other hand, by doing what’s he’s doing, he’s absolutely poking the bear and being passive aggressive. And by the way, the Lakers are being passive-aggressive back at LeBron. They did not announce his option pick-up. So they’re both acting in the same way. Now, how is this going to get resolved? And my answer to you, in full honesty, is I don’t know.”
July 10: The Rockets have put out a press release officially confirming their new deals with Holiday and Green.
June 30: The Rockets have agreed to bring back guard Aaron Holiday and forward Jeff Green on one-year, minimum-salary contracts, reports Kelly Iko of The Athletic (Twitter link).
The news doesn’t come as a surprise, given that word broke on Friday that Houston intended to re-sign both players – along with free agent forward Jae’Sean Tate – to deals at or near the veteran’s minimum. Tate reached a one-year, $3MM agreement with the club earlier today.
Holiday, who has spent the past two seasons in Houston, had a solid season in 2024/25 as a backup point guard, averaging 5.5 points, 1.3 assists, and 1.3 rebounds per game on .437/.398/.829 shooting. However, his playing time dipped — his 12.8 minutes per game represented a career low.
While the Rockets still like Holiday, they wanted to bring him back on a more team-friendly deal than his previous contract, so they turned down his $4.9MM team option and will now carry a $2.3MM cap hit for the 28-year-old in 2025/26.
Green also played less than ever in 2024/25, averaging a career-low 12.4 minutes per game in 32 appearances. However, he’s a respected veteran locker-room leader and held his own in his limited role, with averages of 5.4 PPG and 1.8 RPG and a .504/.367/.808 shooting line.
Jeff Weltman has served as the Magic‘s president of basketball operations since 2017. During that time, Orlando has made four playoff appearances but has yet to advance past the first round of the postseason. In Weltman’s view, the current version of the Magic looks more capable of achieving that feat than any other roster he has overseen during the past eight years.
“For me personally since I’ve been here, I think this roster has a chance to do some special things, more so than any other that we’ve had since I’ve been here,” Weltman said, per Jason Beede of The Orlando Sentinel (subscription required). “It looks good on paper. It’s the job of our players, our coaches and all of our staff to bring everything we have to bear to get this team as far along as we can.
“The nice thing about the team that I get excited about is it’s still very young and there’s still a lot of growth baked in. I look forward to the next few years unfolding, but obviously starting right now.”
Orlando has traded for standout wing Desmond Bane and signed veteran point guard Tyus Jones this offseason, adding them to a core headlined by Paolo Banchero, Franz Wagner, and Jalen Suggs. Banchero has also received a new long-term extension.
Here’s more from around the Southeast:
- Speaking to Lauren Williams of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (subscription required), new Hawks big man Kristaps Porzingis expressed excitement about the coming season in Atlanta and spoke about what he thinks he can bring to the club. “I think I’ll fit right in here and add more like diversity, maybe even more offense,” Porzingis said. “And, yeah, I think there’s going to be more like layers to this offense that’s already pretty powerful. But yeah, I think we can really be a force offensively.”
- After being named the NBA’s Most Improved Player for 2024/25, Hawks guard Dyson Daniels tells Tomer Azarly of ClutchPoints that he believes he still has room to keep getting better and that he has bigger goals ahead, including becoming an All-Star and winning a championship. The Defensive Player of the Year runner-up also credited Trae Young for the role he played in Daniels’ breakout season. “He made my life a lot easier and our games kind of really complement each other,” Daniels said. “Him on the offensive end, me on the defensive end helping him out.”
- The acquisition of Cam Whitmore from Houston is a low-risk and potentially high-reward for the Wizards, according to Josh Robbins and Kelly Iko of The Athletic, who consider how the trade fits into Washington’s long-term plan and suggest head coach Brian Keefe could frequently deploy wing-heavy lineups that lack a traditional power forward next season.
Amazon Prime Video continues to fill out its broadcasting team ahead of its first season of NBA coverage in 2025/26, with Michael McCarthy of Front Office Sports reporting that Dell Curry is joining Amazon’s coverage as an analyst, while Richard Deitsch of The Athletic says Brent Barry is coming aboard as a game analyst and Kevin Harlan is being hired as a play-by-play man.
Curry, the father of NBA superstar Stephen Curry, has been a color commentator on Hornets broadcasts since 2009. McCarthy speculates that Amazon’s deal with Dell could be a “preliminary chess move” to recruit his son if Steph decides to go into broadcasting himself after he retires as a player.
Barry has spent time in the Spurs’ front office and most recently served as a Suns assistant coach under Mike Budenholzer in 2024/25, but he has plenty of broadcasting experience as well, having previously worked as an analyst for Turner Sports and NBA TV from 2013-18.
Harlan’s voice will be familiar to NBA fans, as he has been calling games on Turner Sports for the last three decades. He’ll continue to call NFL games for CBS Sports too while working with Amazon for NBA broadcasts beginning this fall.
Amazon Prime Video’s broadcasting roster will also reportedly include analysts Dwyane Wade, Steve Nash, Candace Parker, Blake Griffin, Dirk Nowitzki, Stan Van Gundy, and Udonis Haslem, as well as studio host Taylor Rooks, sideline reporter Cassidy Hubbarth, and play-by-play announcers Ian Eagle and Michael Grady.
Amazon is expected to formally announce its full NBA coverage team soon, per McCarthy. The company will be one of three that broadcasts NBA games nationally for the next 11 years, along with Disney (ABC/ESPN) and NBC.
After agreeing to extend Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Chet Holmgren since the new league year began, the Thunder will now “fully focus” on getting a contract extension done with star wing Jalen Williams, ESPN’s Shams Charania said during a Wednesday appearance on NBA Today (YouTube link).
“There is momentum in those conversations with the Thunder between both sides,” Charania said. “There’s been positive talks, and both sides are aligned on where those negotiations are going.”
Like Holmgren, Williams is entering the final year of his rookie scale contract in 2025/26, making him eligible for a rookie scale extension. His standard maximum-salary extension would be worth 25% of the ’26/27 cap, but he and the Thunder could agree to Rose Rule language that would make him eligible for a starting salary worth up to 30% of next season’s cap if he meets certain performance criteria, such as making an All-NBA team.
Williams is coming off a career-best season in which he averaged 21.6 points, 5.3 rebounds, 5.1 assists, and 1.6 steals in 32.4 minutes per game across 69 outings, with a .484/.365/.789 shooting line. He earned a spot on the All-Defensive second team, as well as the All-NBA third team.
Despite that All-NBA nod in 2025, Williams has not yet met the Rose Rule performance criteria — if he and Oklahoma City negotiate an extension that includes the possibility of his salary exceeding 25% of next season’s cap, he’d have to achieve the performance criteria again in 2026 to reach that figure.
Williams averaged 21.4 points per game for the Thunder during their postseason run to a championship despite dealing with a torn scapholunate ligament in his right wrist, which he recently underwent surgery to address.
As ESPN’s Brian Windhorst relays, Williams said in a YouTube video this week that he was battling a right wrist sprain for much of the season and suffered the torn ligament during an April 9 game against Phoenix. Between that time and the Thunder’s Game 7 win over Indiana last month, the 24-year-old said he received constant lidocaine injections and cortisone shots to manage the pain.
“I got 28 or 29 shots in my hand throughout the playoffs,” Williams said. “And I was like, ‘That can’t be for nothing. We have to win.’ So, that was my mentality.”
Williams’ shooting percentages dipped to 44.9% from the field and 30.4% on three-pointers during the playoffs, which he said was a result of changing his motion due to the wrist injury.
“I didn’t want to tell the world that I was hurt, and so the world just ganged up on me about how I wasn’t ready for the moment. Which obviously is wrong now,” Williams said. “But that was the most annoying thing, because human nature is you want to just scream that you’re hurt. But I was able to lock in and not use that as an excuse.”
Reports since last October have suggested that a salary of $30MM per year is a target for Josh Giddey and his representatives in their contract talks with the Bulls, and that number continues to be mentioned this summer. However, K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Sports Network (YouTube link) isn’t convinced that’s what it’ll take for the Bulls to get a deal done with the restricted free agent guard.
“Both the Bulls and Giddey want to get a deal done,” Johnson said (hat tip to Benedetto Vitale of Clutch Points). “The Bulls, knowing that the market is scarce and the restricted free agency market has very little movement…are playing the slow game here.
“I don’t have particular numbers, other than to say that Josh Giddey’s $30MM per year price tag – that’s been well documented in media and out there since last fall when the rookie contract extension was discussed – has not ever crossed my radar. I’ve never heard the Bulls mention that number. So I would not expect Josh Giddey to sign a $30MM (per year) deal.”
While Johnson refers to the situation as a “stalemate” for the time being, he stresses that negotiations haven’t been acrimonious and says he fully expects Giddey to be wearing a Bulls uniform next season.
Here’s more on free agency:
- The Clippers continue to be linked to guards Bradley Beal and Chris Paul and haven’t ruled out the possibility of adding both players, per NBA insider Marc Stein (Twitter link). While Paul is currently a free agent, Beal will need to finalize a buyout with Phoenix before reaching the open market.
- The Knicks have one roster spot open for a veteran free agent and will likely target a guard, ideally one who can handle the ball, per Stefan Bondy of The New York Post (subscriber link). Breaking down a few possible targets who might make sense for the Knicks, Bondy notes that the team has kept an eye on Marcus Smart in case he and the Wizards work out a buyout agreement.
- Former NBA big man Chimezie Metu is nearing a deal with the Turkish team Fenerbahce, according to Donatas Urbonas of BasketNews.com, who says the plan is to finalize a one-year agreement if Metu’s medicals check out. The 28-year-old, who appeared in 260 NBA regular season games from 2018-24, tore his Achilles in March, so Fenerbahce wants to make sure his recovery is progressing as planned. Sources tell Urbonas that Metu is targeting a return to the court before the end of the year.
- After playing for the Spurs during the California Classic Summer League this past week, free agent guard Omari Moore has reached a contract agreement with Valencia, the Spanish team announced in a press release. According to Urbonas (Twitter link), Moore had received NBA interest but has decided to make the move to Spain rather than accepting a two-way contract offer.
July 10: The Suns have officially signed Hayes-Davis, per NBA.com’s transaction log.
Hayes-Davis and Fenerbahce officially parted ways this week after he reportedly turned down a lucrative offer from the Turkish team that would have made him one of the EuroLeague’s highest-paid players.
June 30: The Suns have agreed to a one-year deal with free agent forward Nigel Hayes-Davis, reports ESPN’s Shams Charania (via Twitter). The deal is fully guaranteed.
Hayes-Davis is coming off being named Final Four MVP as he helped Turkish club Fenerbahce win the 2025 EuroLeague championship. He averaged 16.8 points and 5.2 rebounds while shooting 42.3% from three-point range in 34 EuroLeague contests in 2024/25 (31.1 MPG).
After starring at Wisconsin in college, Hayes-Davis played nine total NBA games during the 2017/18 season, bouncing between the Lakers, Raptors, and Kings. He has been out of the league ever since.
While the 6’7″ forward’s first NBA stint was brief, he has been one of the top players in the EuroLeague over the past three seasons with Fenerbahce. With the Suns loaded with shooting guards and centers, the 30-year-old will provide forward depth alongside Royce O’Neale.
Fenerbahce’s GM said Hayes-Davis was drawing serious NBA interest shortly after the team won the title and was preparing for his potential departure.