Adam Silver: Burden Of Proof Is On League In Clippers Investigation
Commissioner Adam Silver said investigators will carry the burden of proof in the NBA’s probe of potential salary cap circumvention by the Clippers, writes Tim Bontemps of ESPN.
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday at his annual preseason news conference following the conclusion of the Board of Governors meeting, Silver said the league needs to focus on “the totality of the evidence” rather than the “mere appearance” of impropriety.
“The burden is on the league if we’re going to discipline a team, an owner, a player or any constituent members of the league,” Silver told reporters. “I think as with any process that requires a fundamental sense of fairness, the burden should be on the party that is, in essence, bringing those charges.”
The NBA hired a law firm this week to handle the investigation of whether owner Steve Ballmer and the team violated league rules through Kawhi Leonard‘s $28MM “no-show” job with Aspiration. Ballmer was an investor in the green banking company, which has since gone bankrupt.
Sources told Bontemps that Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz plans to conduct a thorough investigation, and no firm deadline has been set to reach a conclusion.
Silver added that he’s “a big believer in due process and fairness,” and said other NBA owners feel the same way about the case.
“At least what’s being said to me is a reservation of judgment,” Silver said. “I think people recognize that that’s what you have a league office for. That’s what you have a commissioner for — someone who is independent of the teams. On one hand, of course, I work collectively for the 30 governors, but I have an independent obligation to be the steward of the brand and the integrity of this league. … To the extent we have had discussions (with the board of governors) — they’ve been limited — we communicated to them that we engaged Wachtell to do this investigation. And maybe I cut off any further conversations and said, ‘Let’s all withhold judgment, let’s do this investigation and then we will come back to you in terms of our findings.'”
Silver addressed a few other topics in today’s news conference:
- He confirmed the new All-Star Game format, which will feature two teams of American-born players and one international team in a round-robin competition. Silver expressed hope that the new approach will help to motivate the players. “I think in the case of the NBA, this is what I’m trying to convey, particularly to younger players, is that All-Star is a big deal,” he said. “There’s been great traditions out there. People have great memories of these All-Star Games. It’s part of the fabric of this league, the excitement that comes from it and the engagement from our players.”
- Discussions are continuing on a potential new NBA-run European league, and Silver said he and deputy commissioner Mark Tatum traveled this summer to Europe, where they met with stakeholders. Silver also denied speculation that the venture in Europe will replace NBA expansion efforts. He called them “completely different entities” and said expansion was discussed at the board meeting, although there’s nothing new to report. “Part of the difficulty in potentially assessing it is a sense of long-term value of the league, and a little bit maybe it’s a high-class problem, but as with some of the recent jumps in franchise valuations, that sort of creates some confusion in the marketplace about how you might even price an expansion franchise,” Silver said. “I’ll only say it’s something that we continue to actively look at.”
- Silver refused to say if there are any limitations on Malik Beasley‘s availability while the league investigates his role in a gambling scandal. “I’ll only say there that the investigation is ongoing,” Silver said. “As I understand it, there’s still a federal investigation that’s ongoing of Malik Beasley as well. We will address whatever is presented to us in his case.”
Germany Tops Slovenia To Round Out EuroBasket’s Final Four
Germany overcame a second-half deficit and another scoring outburst by Luka Doncic to defeat Slovenia for a spot in the EuroBasket semifinals, writes Cesare Milanti of Eurohoops. Wednesday’s 99-91 victory preserves the Germans’ chances to capture another major international title after winning the FIBA World Cup in 2023.
Germany trailed by seven points late in the third quarter, but Tristan Da Silva sank a shot from mid-court at the buzzer to cut Slovenia’s lead to 74-70. That was the beginning of a 10-0 run that saw the German team take control of the game.
Franz Wagner led Germany with 23 points and seven rebounds, while Dennis Schröder contributed 20 points and seven assists. Former NBA center Daniel Theis added 15 points and nine rebounds. Maodo Lo scored 11 points and Andreas Obst had 10, as both players knocked down clutch three-pointers late in the game to preserve Germany’s lead.
Doncic, who has been posting historic performances throughout the tournament, set another record today with 39 points, the most anyone has ever scored in a EuroBasket quarterfinal contest. Despite picking up his fourth foul early in the third quarter, Doncic also finished with 10 rebounds and seven assists to narrowly miss another triple-double.
After the game, Slovenian players voiced complaints about the officiating, with center Alen Omic telling reporters that Doncic doesn’t get the respect he deserves, per Pijus Sapetka of BasketNews. Omic also pointed to the free throw disparity, with Germany getting 37 shots from the foul line compared to Slovenia’s 25.
“Our best player in EuroBasket is not protected the way he needs to be,” Omic said. “He got three fouls in 10–15 minutes of the game. What is this? He’s the best player of the tournament. Everybody comes to watch him.”
Doncic also commented on the officials in a post-game interview with Slovenia’s Sport TV, relays Semih Tuna of Eurohoops.
“First, I got a technical foul, two minutes into a game, for yelling ‘hello’, but OK,” Doncic said. “In a quarterfinal, that shouldn’t happen, no matter what kind of player you are. If you don’t even get a warning first, then I don’t know. But it’s a quarterfinal, fighting for a semifinal, so I really don’t know how they did that.”
The semifinal games will take place Friday at Arena Riga in Latvia, with Germany facing Finland in the opener, followed by a clash between Greece and Turkey. The tournament will conclude Sunday with the gold medal game and the third-place game.
FIBA has ranked the four quarterfinal losers, with Lithuania finishing fifth, followed by Poland, Slovenia and Georgia.
Kings Waive Terence Davis
The Kings have waived shooting guard Terence Davis, per the NBA’s official transaction log (hat tip to Michael Scotto of HoopsHype).
Davis, 28, spent most of the past two seasons in the G League. He signed with Sacramento in April and appeared in the final game of the regular season. His contract included a non-guaranteed $2,546,675 salary for the upcoming season, so the Kings won’t be on the hook for any more money after releasing him.
Davis entered the NBA with Toronto in 2019, but he had his best seasons with the Kings after they acquired him at the 2021 trade deadline. He was a valuable scorer off the bench for two and a half years before going to the G League.
He suffered a ruptured Achilles during the 2023/24 season, but was able to fully recover and averaged 14.3 points per game on 40.2% three-point shooting for the Wisconsin Herd last year.
Sacramento is now down to 14 standard contracts, including Keon Ellis, whose $2.3MM deal is also non-guaranteed. The Kings currently have all three of their two-way slots filled, but no other players are on the offseason roster.
Sacramento has been rumored to have interest in trading for Jonathan Kuminga or signing Russell Westbrook, and parting with Davis provides more roster flexibility for either of those moves to occur.
NBA 2025 Offseason Check-In: Cleveland Cavaliers
Hoops Rumors is checking in on the 2025 offseason for all 30 NBA teams, recapping the summer’s free agent signings, trades, draft picks, departures, and more. We’ll take a look at each team’s offseason moves and consider what might still be coming before the regular season begins. Today, we’re focusing on the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Free agent signings
Sam Merrill: Four years, $38,000,000. Re-signed using Bird rights.- Larry Nance Jr.: One year, minimum salary. Signed using minimum salary exception.
Trades
- Acquired Lonzo Ball from the Bulls in exchange for Isaac Okoro.
Draft picks
- 2-49: Tyrese Proctor
- Signed to four-year, $8,685,386 contract. First two years guaranteed. Third year partially guaranteed ($500K). Fourth-year team option.
- 2-58: Saliou Niang
- Will play overseas.
Two-way signings
- Luke Travers
- One year, $85,300 partial guarantee (will increase to $318,218 at start of regular season).
Departed/unsigned free agents
- Emoni Bates (unsigned)
- Javonte Green (Pistons)
- Ty Jerome (Grizzlies)
- Chuma Okeke (Real Madrid)
- Tristan Thompson (unsigned)
Other roster moves
- None
Salary cap situation
- Operating over the cap ($154.6MM) and above the luxury tax line ($187.9MM).
- Carrying approximately $226.3MM in salary.
- No hard cap.
- One traded player exception frozen ($8,500,000).
- One traded player exception available ($1,000,000).
The offseason so far
When the Cavaliers fell to Indiana in the second round of the playoffs this spring, it was a gut punch for a couple reasons. First and foremost, it was an incredibly disappointing way to end what had been one of the best years in team history up until that point. Only the 2008/09 Cavs – propelled by an MVP season from an in-his-prime LeBron James – racked up more regular season victories than the 64 last season’s club won.
It was also a discouraging outcome because it happened right before the Cavs’ roster was set to get significantly more expensive. Cleveland managed to duck below the luxury tax line at February’s deadline, but even without re-signing any key free agents, the team’s salary for 2025/26 was set to enter second-apron territory.
After the Suns, Celtics, and Timberwolves got a first-hand look last season at the impact of operating in the second tax apron, those teams were all in the process of moving below that threshold this summer. Would the Cavs really be willing to go deeper into the second apron in order to re-sign guys who played key roles for the 2024/25 squad, such as Ty Jerome and Sam Merrill?
As it turns out, the answer was yes — to a point. The Cavs didn’t hesitate to negotiate a new multiyear deal with Merrill, who established himself as one of the club’s best shooters and whose defense has improved significantly since he entered the league. The two sides reached an agreement on a four-year, $38MM contract two days before the league-wide free agent period opened, keeping Merrill off the market.
While that contract is fully guaranteed, it’s only worth about 5.5% of the cap in year one and will remain in that neighborhood over the next four years. It’s a fair deal for a rotation player who figures to average 20-plus minutes per game and who won’t be played off the floor in the postseason — as a point of comparison, another Eastern Conference wing who plays a similar role, Boston’s Sam Hauser, will be paid $45MM over the same four-year period.
Although Cleveland made Merrill a priority, the front office didn’t do the same for Jerome, whose breakout year earned him a third-place finish in Sixth Man of the Year voting.
As good as Jerome was, he was exposed defensively in the playoffs, and the Cavs likely didn’t feel the need to invest heavily in another offense-first guard while already paying big bucks to Donovan Mitchell and Darius Garland — especially since doing so would have cost them exponentially more in tax penalties. After agreeing to a three-year, $27.7MM deal with the Grizzlies, Jerome suggested in a social media post that he was “never presented with the option of returning” to Cleveland.
Like the decision to pass on Jerome, the other Cavaliers’ moves were made with financial considerations in mind. That includes their straight-up trade of Isaac Okoro for Lonzo Ball. Okoro ($11MM) will only earn slightly more in 2025/26 than Ball ($10MM), but Okoro’s contract is guaranteed through the 2026/27 season, while the Cavs will hold a team option for Ball in ’26/27, giving them some extra financial flexibility.
Of course, swapping a wing for a point guard also made sense from a roster construction standpoint after having re-signed Merrill and not Jerome.
Although Ball returned last season from a two-and-a-half-year injury absence related to recurring knee problems, he still wasn’t exactly a paragon of health, having appeared in just 35 games. If he can bump that number to at least 50-60 appearances in 2025/26, it would be a major boon for the Cavs, since Ball has a knack for making his team better even when his box-score numbers don’t look all that impressive.
The Cavs used one of their second-round picks to select former Duke guard Tyrese Proctor and sign him to a multiyear contract that starts at the rookie minimum. The gap between cap hits for a rookie minimum salary ($1,272,870) and a veteran minimum salary ($2,296,274) isn’t massive, but when a team is as deep into luxury tax territory as Cleveland is, the savings represent far more than that modest difference suggests.
Proctor spent three years with the Blue Devils and should be more NBA-ready than a one-and-done prospect, but he’s still just 21 years old and may not be prepared to contribute right away. That would probably be OK with the Cavs, who figure to focus on developing Proctor’s game in the hopes that he’ll be ready to take on a more regular rotation role in a year or two.
Finally, the Cavs added some much-needed frontcourt depth by reuniting with Larry Nance Jr. on a minimum-salary agreement. Nance, who was in Cleveland for three-and-a-half seasons from 2018-21, averaged 27.6 minutes per game during his first stint with the organization. This time around, he’ll likely be asked to play a more modest role behind big men Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley, but – as long as he’s healthy – he’ll be a solid insurance option up front in the event of an injury to either of those players.
Up next
Although injuries to Garland (toe) and Max Strus (foot) are expected to sideline them for the start of the regular season, the Cavs seem unlikely to carry a full 15-man roster due to luxury tax concerns. However, they’ll need to get to at least 14 players on standard contracts, which will require adding one more player at some point in the next month or two.
Despite being limited to minimum-salary offers for veteran free agents, the Cavs have no shortage of options for that 14th spot. If they want to add one more ball-handling guard for depth purposes due to health concerns about Garland and/or Ball, a player like Malcolm Brogdon or Cameron Payne would make sense.
With Strus expected to miss an extended period, one more wing would be a logical choice too — someone like Garrison Mathews, Landry Shamet, or Gary Payton II could fit that bill. Cleveland has also been linked to Malik Beasley, though he remains under investigation by the NBA, and it’s unclear if one of the league’s best sharpshooters will have to settle for the veteran’s minimum.
The Cavs could even target one more big man to further fortify their frontcourt behind Allen and Mobley, given that Nance is coming off a season-ending knee issue. Precious Achiuwa and Thomas Bryant are among the vets still out there.
Whichever direction they go, I’d like to see the Cavs use that spot on a player who can actually contribute rather than a locker-room leader who won’t see any action — with Garland and Strus already recovering from major injuries, Cleveland isn’t in position to throw away a valuable opportunity to add more playable depth.
The Cavaliers also have one open two-way slot to fill alongside Nae’Qwan Tomlin and Luke Travers. The path they take with their standard roster spot could dictate what position they want to address with that final two-way opening.
Finally, it’s worth noting that several key Cleveland players – Garland, Strus De’Andre Hunter, and Dean Wade – will be eligible for extensions during the preseason. However, Garland, Strus, and Hunter all have multiple guaranteed years left on their current contracts and Wade has been mentioned as a potential trade candidate in the event that the Cavs want to try to reduce their tax bill.
I’d be a little surprised if any of those four players signs an extension before the regular season begins, given Cleveland’s cap situation. The team, which is carrying the NBA’s most expensive roster in 2025/26, probably isn’t eager to lock in more long-term money earlier than it needs to.
Hawks Sign Charles Bassey To Exhibit 10 Contract
The Hawks have signed big man Charles Bassey, the team announced in a press release on Wednesday. It’s a non-guaranteed Exhibit 10 contract, a league source tells Lauren Williams of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (Twitter link).
Bassey was selected by Philadelphia with the 53rd pick in the 2021 draft. He was waived after one year with the Sixers and signed with San Antonio, where he played for the past three seasons.
Injuries were an issue for Bassey during his time with the Spurs — his 2022/23 season was cut short due to a non-displaced patella fracture, then he suffered a season-ending ACL tear in December 2023. The 24-year-old appeared in 36 games in 2024/25, averaging 4.4 points and 4.2 rebounds in 10.4 minutes per night.
Bassey was a standout with the Celtics during Summer League play this July, averaging 15.3 points and 11.0 rebounds per contest in Las Vegas while shooting 70.4% from the field across three outings. He reportedly drew interest from Partizan Belgrade, but has decided to remain stateside as he seeks an NBA roster spot.
While most camp invitees who receive Exhibit 10 contracts don’t end up making their teams’ regular season rosters, there could be a pathway for Bassey to earn a spot in Atlanta. As we detailed last week, the Hawks are carrying just 11 players on fully guaranteed contracts (plus Vit Krejci with a significant partial guarantee), so players with non-guaranteed deals or small partial guarantees – including Bassey, Caleb Houstan, Mouhamed Gueye, and N’Faly Dante – could be vying for two or three roster spots.
Because he has four years of NBA experience, Bassey isn’t eligible to have his Exhibit 10 deal converted into a two-way contract.
Clippers Sign Zach Freemantle To Exhibit 10 Contract
September 10: The Clippers officially signed Freemantle on Tuesday, per RealGM’s transactions log. According to Law Murray of The Athletic (Twitter link), it’s an Exhibit 10 deal, as expected.
August 29: The Clippers and former Xavier standout Zach Freemantle have agreed to a deal, sources tell Michael Scotto of HoopsHype (Twitter link).
Freemantle went undrafted in June after six college seasons with the Musketeers (he missed the 2023/24 campaign due to injuries). He averaged 16.8 points, 6.8 rebounds, 2.1 assists and 1.1 steals in 31 games as a “super senior” in 2024/25, earning a second-team All-Big East nod for the second time in his career.
As Scotto notes, Freemantle was named to the Portsmouth Invitational All-Tournament team this spring. The 6’9″ forward/center suited up for the Magic during Las Vegas Summer League, averaging 6.0 PPG and 4.3 RPG in 11.0 MPG.
While Scotto doesn’t clarify what type of contract Freemantle signed, the Clippers don’t currently have the ability to sign him to a standard deal and all three of their two-way spots are occupied. He most likely signed an Exhibit 10 contract, which would put him in line to receive a bonus worth up to $85,300 if he’s released before the season begins and spends at least 60 days with the San Diego Clippers.
Once the signing is official, the Clippers will be at the offseason limit of 21 players under contract.
Raptors Sign, Waive Tyreke Key
The Raptors signed and subsequently waived free agent guard Tyreke Key, according to Blake Murphy of Sportsnet.ca (Twitter links), who confirms that Key received an Exhibit 10 deal.
After going undrafted out of Tennessee in 2023, Key spent his first professional season in Belgium as a member of the Leuven Bears, then played for the Raptors 905 in the G League in 2024/25.
Key made 42 total appearances in the Tip-Off Tournament and regular season for Toronto’s G League affiliate last season, averaging 6.8 points, 2.2 rebounds, and 1.5 assists in 21.5 minutes per game, with a shooting line of .472/.395/.703.
As was the case with Quincy Guerrier on Tuesday, the sign-and-waive move is designed to allow the Raptors to give Key an Exhibit 10 bonus worth up to $85,300 (on top of his NBAGL base salary) if he rejoins the 905 and spends at least 60 days with the club.
NBA Conducting Own Investigation Into Malik Beasley
The NBA is conducting its own investigation into Malik Beasley related to allegations of improper gambling on games and prop bets, the league confirmed to ESPN’s David Purdum. Beasley is “fully cooperating” in that probe, attorney Steve Haney told ESPN.
Word broke in June, just ahead of his free agency, that the veteran sharpshooter was under investigation by the U.S. District Attorney’s office due to unusual betting activity on Beasley-related wagers during the 2023/24 season.
ESPN’s Shams Charania reported in August that Beasley is no longer a “target” in that investigation, though subsequent reports indicated that he’s still a “subject” of the investigation, meaning he’s not entirely in the clear.
As Bobby Marks of ESPN tweets, the NBA has the right to investigate a case and hand out its own penalty (e.g. a fine or suspension) unless a player is explicitly found not guilty in a court of law. So even if federal investigators don’t charge Beasley, that doesn’t necessarily mean he won’t face any punishment from the league, though presumably the findings in both investigations will be similar.
Investigators in the case are reportedly focused on unusually heavy betting activity on Beasley’s statistics in January 2024, including a Jan. 31 game in which action on his “under 2.5 rebounds” prop bet surged significantly in the hours leading up to tip-off — he ended up grabbing six rebounds in that game, meaning the bets deemed unusual lost.
The NBA’s investigation into Beasley is believed to be in its final stages, a source familiar with the situation tells Purdum. For what it’s worth, the 28-year-old wing recently published an Instagram post in which he stated that “my decision is near,” which may be a reference to a free agency decision.
Beasley and the Pistons were reportedly deep in talks on a three-year, $42MM deal before word of the federal investigation broke and Detroit pulled that offer. The Pistons no longer have the cap space or exceptions available to make that sort of offer for Beasley, but could go up to a starting salary of $7.2MM using his Non-Bird rights.
The Cavaliers, Knicks, and Timberwolves are among the other teams said to have registered interest in Beasley. He’s coming off a strong season in Detroit in which he was the Sixth Man of the Year runner-up after averaging 16.3 points per game and finishing second in the NBA in three-pointers made (319).
Atlantic Notes: Z. Williams, Simmons, Celtics, Sixers
Nets swingman Ziaire Williams waived his right to veto a trade as part of his new two-year contract agreement with the Nets, per Keith Smith of Spotrac (Twitter link).
A player who re-signs with his previous team on a one-year deal or a two-year deal that includes a second-year option is typically given an implicit no-trade clause, but a team can ask the player to give up that no-trade clause upon signing. Because Williams – whose contract features a second-year team option – agreed to do so, he would lose his Bird rights if he’s traded ahead of February’s deadline.
Brooklyn has been looking to maintain trade flexibility while re-signing its free agents to short-term deals — the team has gotten Williams and Day’Ron Sharpe to waive their trade veto rights and sought to get Cam Thomas to do the same. However, Thomas opted to accept his qualifying offer, taking a lesser 2025/26 salary in order to maintain full control over a potential trade.
Here’s more from around the Atlantic:
- Following up on reports indicating that Ben Simmons rebuffed interest from the Knicks and is no longer being represented by agent Bernie Lee, Stefan Bondy of The New York Post directly connects the two developments — a source tells Bondy that Lee dropped Simmons as a client after the former No. 1 overall pick “sent signals that he wasn’t interested in whatever came from his agent’s conversations with the Knicks.”
- A panel of NBC Sports Boston staffers, including NBA insider Chris Forsberg, consider which of the Celtics‘ two-way players is most likely to help the team this season. The consensus is that big man Amari Williams, the 46th overall pick in June’s draft, has the clearest path to regular playing time, given the key frontcourt players Boston lost this offseason.
- Gina Mizell of The Philadelphia Inquirer (subscription required) explores some burning roster-related questions facing the Sixers ahead of the 2025/26 season. Outside of the obvious uncertainty related to Joel Embiid‘s and Paul George‘s availability, Mizell considers what the backcourt rotation will look like and how the team will replace Guerschon Yabusele‘s production following his departure in free agency.
Markkanen, Finland Advance To EuroBasket Semifinals
The Finnish national team will compete in the EuroBasket semifinals for the first time in the history of the competition after defeating Georgia by a score of 93-79 in the quarterfinals on Wednesday.
Finland, which unexpectedly knocked off Serbia in the round of 16, is led by Jazz forward Lauri Markkanen, the only current or former NBA player on the roster. Markkanen was a key contributor on Wednesday, registering 17 points, six rebounds, and a pair of assists in 27 minutes of action, though it was Fenerbahce forward Mikael Jantunen who led the team in scoring against Georgia with 19 points.
The Finnish team made the quarterfinals at EuroBasket 2022 and lost to Spain, the eventual champions. However, that was the first time the country had advanced as far as the quarterfinals in a EuroBasket tournament since 1967 — Finland hosted that year’s competition and finished sixth.
Greece will take on Turkey on one side of the bracket on Friday, while Finland will face the winner of today’s Slovenia/Germany game in the other semifinal. No matter what happens on Friday, it will be the best EuroBasket result ever for Finland.
It was also the best EuroBasket finish ever for Georgia, which participated in the quarterfinals for the first time. The team came up short on Wednesday despite strong efforts from Raptors big man Sandro Mamukelashvili (22 points), former NBA forward Tornike Shengelia (18 points, five assists), and Magic center Goga Bitadze (14 points, six rebounds).
Bitadze was ejected from the game due to an unsportsmanlike foul with 6:55 left in the fourth quarter, notes Jason Beede of The Orlando Sentinel (via Twitter), while Shengelia was ejected a few minutes later after being charged with unsportsmanlike and technical fouls.