Hawks Converting Caleb Houstan To Standard Contract
The Hawks are converting Caleb Houstan‘s two-way contract to a standard, rest-of-season deal, sources tell Shams Charania of ESPN (Twitter link).
A 2022 second-round pick who spent his first three NBA seasons in Orlando, Houstan signed an non-guaranteed Exhibit 10 contract with Atlanta and then had it converted to a two-way deal at the end of the preseason. Of the eight players whose Exhibit 10 deals were converted to two-ways before the season, Houstan will be the first one to be promoted back to a standard contract.
Houstan, 23, averaged 14.4 minutes per game in 168 outings for Orlando and made 37.2% of his three-point tries. However, he has played a very limited role for the Hawks, logging just 49 total minutes in 10 appearances.
Presumably, Atlanta envisions a more significant role at the NBA level for Houstan in the final two months of the season. The 6’8″ forward has spent most of the season in the G League, averaging 15.9 points, 4.4 rebounds, and 2.4 assists in 32.9 minutes per contest across 30 appearances. He has knocked down 37.5% of 9.1 three-point attempts per game for the College Park Skyhawks.
The Hawks have a full 15-man roster, so they’ll need to waive someone in order to open up a spot for Houstan. According to Michael Scotto of HoopsHype (Twitter link), the odd man out will be Nikola Djurisic, a 2024 second-round pick who signed his first NBA contract during the 2025 offseason but has yet to make his NBA debut.
Although Djurisic signed a three-year contract, only the first year was guaranteed, so Atlanta won’t carry any dead money on its books beyond this season as a result of waiving him.
Cameron Payne Signs With Sixers
February 18: Payne has officially signed with the Sixers, the team confirmed today in a press release.
February 16, 11:41 am: Partizan Belgrade has officially announced Payne’s departure for the NBA and the $1.75MM buyout fee it will receive to release him, Stein tweets.
February 16, 8:59 am: Cameron Payne will leave his European team and join the Sixers for the rest of the season, league sources tell Marc Stein of The Stein Line (Twitter link).
The 31-year-old guard was in training camp with the Pacers last fall, but was waived before the season began. In December, he agreed to a deal with KK Partizan in Serbia, heading overseas for the first time in his career.
However, Payne has been held out of recent games, sparking rumors that he might be headed elsewhere, according to Johnny Askounis of Eurohoops. He appeared in just 10 games for Partizan, averaging 12.4 points, 2.3 rebounds, 3.9 assists and 1.2 steals. Askounis adds that the Serbian team will receive $1.75MM in a buyout agreement.
It may take some time to secure Payne’s release from Partizan, Stein tweets. The Sixers have to obtain a Letter of Clearance from FIBA, and they can only contribute up to $875K toward his buyout.
The move will mark a return to Philadelphia for Payne, who finished the 2023/24 season with the Sixers after being acquired from Milwaukee at the trade deadline. He averaged 9.3 points, 1.8 rebounds and 3.1 assists in 31 games and remained in the team’s rotation for the playoffs.
Payne signed with the Knicks in the summer of 2024 and appeared in 72 games last season before becoming a free agent again.
The Sixers are down to 13 players on standard contracts after 10-day deals for Charles Bassey and Patrick Baldwin Jr. expired over the weekend. They have enough room to add two players on prorated veteran minimum contracts for the rest of the season without going into luxury tax territory, according to Keith Smith of Spotrac (Twitter link).
Philadelphia is low on experienced guards after trading Jared McCain to Oklahoma City, so Payne will have a chance to contribute right away. The Sixers’ season will resume Thursday against Atlanta.
Mavericks’ Kyrie Irving Won’t Return This Season
Star guard Kyrie Irving won’t make his return from an ACL tear this season, the Mavericks announced today in a press release. According to the team, Irving has made “steady progress” in his recovery from ACL reconstruction surgery on his left knee but will continue his rehab work and will wait until the fall to make his comeback.
“This decision wasn’t easy, but it’s the right one,” Irving said in a statement. “I am grateful for the Mavericks organization, my teammates and our fans for their continued support throughout the process. I am looking forward to coming back stronger next season. The belief and drive I have inside only grows. And I wanted to send a huge shoutout to ALL of my brothers and sisters out there who’ve torn their ACL or gotten injured doing what they love to do every day. THANK YOU for the inspiration. No fear!”
Irving’s agent, Shetellia Riley Irving, also issued a statement to Shams Charania of ESPN (Twitter link) to explain the decision to postpone Kyrie’s return until the start of the 2026/27 season.
“This is about Kyrie being 1000% when he comes back and giving himself the best chance to chase a championship next season,” she said.
Irving tore the ACL in his left knee nearly a year ago, suffering the injury in a March 3 game against Sacramento. He underwent surgery about three-and-a-half weeks later and was ruled out indefinitely.
It’s not uncommon for players to take a full year – or longer – to return from an ACL tear, so it was never considered a sure thing that Irving would be back on the floor this season, even with head coach Jason Kidd making headlines at the start of November by expressing hope that his point guard would be back in 2025 rather than 2026.
While his recovery seemed to be progressing well, the 33-year-old consistently made an effort to keep expectations in check, advising fans last summer to not “hold your breath” on seeing him return during the 2025/26 regular season.
With Dallas out of the playoff picture and retooling its roster around Cooper Flagg after trading Anthony Davis to Washington earlier this month, there was even less urgency to bring back Irving down the stretch. The veteran guard indicated last week that he’d soon provide an update on his status, with Marc Stein reporting that the decision would be a collaborative one between Irving and the Mavs.
Irving, who signed a new three-year, $118MM+ contract with Dallas as a free agent last summer, will earn a $39.5MM guaranteed salary next season, with a $42.4MM player option for 2027/28. If the Mavs fully lean into a youth movement, he could emerge as a trade candidate during the ’26/27 league year, but the team has repeatedly messaged that it has no plans to trade Irving and that it views him as an ideal fit alongside Flagg.
Of course, the organization is also expected to hire a new permanent head of basketball operations at some point in the coming months, so it’s possible that executive will hold a different view. But for now, there has been no indication Irving won’t still be a Maverick when the ’26/27 season tips off.
While it’s in the Mavs’ best interest to lose more than they win during this season’s final two months in order to maximize their position in the draft lottery, they won’t have the same incentive beginning next season. The team doesn’t control its own first-round picks for the four years from 2027-30.
Prior to the ACL injury last season, Irving continued to perform at an All-Star level, averaging 24.7 points, 4.8 rebounds, and 4.6 assists in 36.1 minutes per game, with a shooting line of .473/.401/.916.
Kessler Edwards Nearing Deal With Hapoel Tel Aviv
Free agent forward Kessler Edwards is nearing an agreement with the Israeli team Hapoel Tel Aviv, confirms Donatas Urbonas of BasketNews. The outlet ONE first reported that the two sides were progressing toward a deal.
Edwards, who made his NBA debut in 2021 after being drafted 44th overall out of Pepperdine, has appeared in a total of 178 regular season games for the Nets, Kings, and Mavericks. He became a regular contributor for an injury-plagued Dallas team last season, averaging 4.2 points and 2.9 rebounds in 15.2 minutes per game across 40 outings (18 starts), with a shooting line of .496/.407/.923.
However, Edwards – no longer eligible for a two-way deal – was unable to secure an NBA contract this season and has spent the year with the Grand Rapids Gold in the G League. In 30 contests for Denver’s NBAGL affiliate, the 25-year-old has averaged 14.1 PPG and 8.1 RPG in 33.6 MPG while shooting .502/.403/.781.
Hapoel Tel Aviv has been in the market for help at forward ahead of the EuroLeague’s player registration deadline. The team was linked to Nigel Hayes-Davis before he agreed to a deal with Panathinaikos and also had an eye on Dario Saric, per Johnny Askounis of Eurohoops. Both players were recently waived by NBA teams.
Hapoel Tel Aviv has a 16-11 record in EuroLeague play this season and is battling to hang onto its playoff spot. The team is currently sixth in the EuroLeague standings, but four clubs are just a half-game back at 16-12. In domestic league play, Hapoel Tel Aviv is 15-2 and is battling Maccabi Tel Aviv (15-1) for the Israeli League’s top seed.
Spurs Add Mason Plumlee On 10-Day Contract
10:00 pm: The Spurs officially completed the signing on Tuesday, per NBA.com’s transaction log. The deal will cover San Antonio’s next five games and will expire after next Thursday’s contest in Brooklyn.
6:54 pm: The Spurs are signing veteran big man Mason Plumlee on a 10-day contract, agent Mark Bartelstein tells ESPN’s Shams Charania (Twitter link).
San Antonio has an opening on its 15-man roster and won’t have to make a corresponding move to make room for Plumlee. The Spurs opened up a roster spot when they waived Jeremy Sochan, who later signed with the Knicks.
Plumlee became a free agent earlier this month when he was cut by the Thunder shortly after they acquired him from the Hornets. The big man, who turns 36 next month, fits the description of journeyman. He has played for Brooklyn, Portland, Denver, Detroit, the Clippers, and Phoenix, as well as two stints with the Hornets.
Plumlee has appeared in 874 regular season games, averaging 7.9 points, 6.6 rebounds and 2.4 assists in 21.7 minutes per contest. He played regularly for the Suns in 2024/25 but had a modest role in Charlotte this season, seeing action in just 14 games (two starts) while averaging 1.9 points, 2.9 rebounds and 1.1 assists in 8.9 minutes per night.
He’ll add a little frontcourt depth for San Antonio coming out of the All-Star break but it remains to be seen how long he’ll stick with his latest NBA franchise.
Central Notes: Mitchell, Harden, Bickerstaff, Dillingham, Brown
Donovan Mitchell doesn’t have any concerns about how he and James Harden will mesh in the Cavaliers’ new starting backcourt, he told Marc J. Spears of Andscape.
“I’ve never played with a guy like James Harden. I never had a guy like that on my team,” Mitchell said. “And we’re not here to figure out like who’s bigger, better or whatever. How are we going to win? And I think having that relationship helps. But it also speaks to the type of people that he and I are. We’re trying to figure what’s right. For him to go out there and say he’s trying to help me, that’s huge. That’s huge for everything. … Winning is the end-all, right? I’m not worried about how we’ll fit and how we’ll coexist because we have the same goal in mind, and it doesn’t matter how we get there. We just want to get there.”
Mitchell also touched on a number of other topics in a monthly diary, including his feelings on the sad way Chris Paul‘s career ended.
Here’s more from the Central Division:
- Following J.B. Bickerstaff‘s dismissal as head coach of the Cavaliers after the 2023/24 season, he wasn’t sure if he’d ever get another opportunity, he told Steve Bulpett of Heavy.com. “I didn’t think I was going to get a job,” he said. “There weren’t jobs available at that point. So I was just sitting at home and hanging out with my family back in Cleveland trying to figure out what was next.” New Pistons president of basketball operations Trajan Langdon soon offered him a head coaching job within the division. He learned from his days in Cleveland how to improve in his next stop. “That month that I had off gave me an opportunity to, like, evaluate myself and think about what I was going to be at the next opportunity and just understanding that the focus should always be on the process and not just focused on the results,” he said. “In my last year in Cleveland, I let that get the best of me, where it was like results, results, results. And we skipped some of the process stuff.”
- Rob Dillingham, a 2024 lottery selection, had trouble cracking the Timberwolves’ rotation and earning sustained minutes. After getting traded to the Bulls, Dillingham is getting a longer look from coach Billy Donovan, though he’ll still likely have to fight for playing time when the team’s backcourt gets healthy, notes Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times. Dillingham has averaged 11.0 points, 4.0 assists, 3.7 assists, 2.0 steals and 2.3 turnovers in 24.7 minutes per game over three appearances. “His job and responsibility is to generate shots for guys when he gets (inside) and understand the shots where he has angles and can shoot a high percentage on and the shots he can’t,” Donovan said. “It’s not like I’m giving him free rein, we need him downhill, but he also can’t be jumping off two feet, getting caught in the air, trying to shoot over guys, trying to throw passes that aren’t there. He’s got to clean that up and we’ve got to help him do it. What I don’t want him to do is not be aggressive or be afraid to attack. He has to attack. He just has to make better decisions, and I think that will come in time.”
- Along with acquiring Ivica Zubac from the Clippers, the Pacers added guard Kobe Brown in the deal. Brown was only averaging 8.7 minutes in L.A. but could see his minutes jump the remainder of the season with Indiana. “I’m grateful, for sure. Grateful to be in this position,” he told Tony East of CircleCitySpin.com. “I feel like this team is a great team. Obviously, they were just in the Finals last year and were so close to winning it. And for them to want me here is big. So I’m happy and excited to be here and be a part of it.” Brown has played in two games with Indiana thus far, including a start against Brooklyn on Wednesday.
Nets Notes: Tanking, Rookies, Marks, Schedule
The NBA may be taking a harder stance on tanking but that can’t deter the Nets from getting the best possible position in the loaded lottery, Brian Lewis of the New York Post opines (subscription required).
Lewis notes the Nets are more talent-deficient than other teams who are elbowing for lottery positions. Getting one of those high picks is crucial to accelerating their rebuild. They come out of the All-Star break just a game out of the No. 2 lottery spot and need to keep the wins for the remainder of the season at a minimum, Lewis writes.
Here’s more on the Nets:
- In his evaluation of the team’s performance prior to the break, Lewis points out that most of their rookies remain question marks. In particular, Drake Powell, Ben Saraf and Danny Wolf still have a lot to prove, though lottery pick Egor Demin has shown that he can be a steady factor — he’s had 34 straight games with a three-pointer, an NBA rookie record. Nolan Traore has also developed into a more reliable threat, posting averages of 13.1 points and 5.6 assists since Jan. 23 on 51.1 percent shooting, including 39.3 percent from distance.
- In an in-depth subscriber-only story, Lewis takes a look at Sean Marks’ roller-coaster decade as GM. One anonymous assistant GM praised Marks for a couple of his biggest deals. “Yeah, he’s had some big wins. The (Kevin) Durant trade (to Phoenix) was a big win. The Mikal Bridges trade (to the Knicks) was a big win,” the assistant GM said. “Other executives that were less good negotiators than Sean might have accepted the deal at a lower price point and not gotten as much. And his willingness to stick to his guns on those got him some big wins.”
- The schedule after the break could facilitate the Nets’ desire to pile up the losses. Their next dozen games include a pair against Eastern Conference leader Detroit as well as two games apiece against Cleveland and Miami. They also have to play Oklahoma City, San Antonio and Boston during that stretch.
Celtics Notes: Tatum, Brown, Film Study
There has been increased speculation that Jayson Tatum might play this season but the Celtics superstar isn’t sure about that, ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne reported during an NBA Today segment (Twitter video link).
Tatum informed Shelburne, “I still have not made a decision on whether or not I’m coming back this year.” Shelburne added that there’s no pressure from the organization on Tatum to make a comeback before next season and that the star forward has numerous hurdles to clear before he’s ready to play after tearing his Achilles during last season’s playoffs.
According to Steve Bulpett on Heavy.com, a seemingly innocuous post on social media set off a firestorm of speculation. The post on Twitter/X and Bluesky noted that the Celtics home game against Philadelphia on March 1 had been flexed from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. and would now be televised by NBC. That led many people to conclude that Tatum and the Celtics were targeting that game for his comeback.
Here’s more on the Celtics:
- What do medical experts say about Tatum potentially coming back less than a year after suffering the injury and undergoing surgery? They’re generally wary of a swift return, according to Souichi Terada of MassLive.com. “The Achilles tendon injury is still a poorly recognized injury in terms of why it happens,” said Dr. George Theodore, a specialist at Mass General Hospital. “Although we’re always looking for reasons as to why this might have occurred to an athlete, we really don’t know. It is a devastating injury and it has an excessive recovery time. In some players, it affects both their performance and their career longevity.” Terada also interviews athletes who have suffered Achilles injuries, noting that many struggled with the mental aspects of trusting their bodies after such a long recovery time.
- Jaylen Brown is proud of how the team has come together despite the front office’s efforts to reduce salary during the offseason and prior to the trade deadline, he told Noa Dalzell of CelticsBlog.com. “I believed that we were going to be fine, but even to me, it’s like, ‘Damn, we’re the second seed – one of the five best records in the whole league,” Brown said. “Only a few teams have a better record than us in the entire league. We’re a top-five team in the league, coming from the start of the season, when it was [supposed to be] a gap year.” Exceeding expectations is something that has Brown beaming with pride. “Everybody was calling it a gap year,” Brown said. “How do you go from a gap year to top five in the East? That’s a big jump. That’s not a small jump. People want to skip over that. I’m not gonna let you skip over it. That is a big deal.”
- One of the keys to the Celtics’ success has been preparation. In an extensive piece, Jack Simone of the Boston Sports Journal talks to coaches and players about their devotion to film study and how it gives them an edge.
Magic Sign Alex Morales To Two-Way Contract
The Magic have called up guard Alex Morales from their G League affiliate, signing him to a two-way contract, the team announced today in a press release (Twitter link). In a corresponding move, the Magic waived center Orlando Robinson.
Morales, who went undrafted out of Wagner in 2022, has spent nearly his entire professional career with Orlando’s G League team, now known as the Osceola Magic. The 28-year-old has also had a couple stints with Osos de Manatí in Puerto Rico between NBA seasons, but he has signed Exhibit 10 contracts with Orlando for four consecutive years and has appeared in a total of 168 NBAGL games for Osceola (formerly the Lakeland Magic).
In 30 G League outings this season, Morales has put up career-best averages of 16.6 points, 7.6 rebounds, 3.7 assists, and 2.0 steals in 34.2 minutes per game. His shooting numbers – 52.1% from the floor, 40.3% on three-pointers, and 82.0% from the free throw line – are all career highs too.
While it remains to be seen how many opportunities Morales will get to actually play for the NBA team in the coming weeks, the Magic are rewarding him for his performance this season by signing him to the first two-way contract of his career. He’ll be eligible to be active for up to 16 regular season games for Orlando.
As for Robinson, despite being appropriately named for the organization, he made just four appearances for Orlando this season after signing a two-way deal last July. The 25-year-old center, who has also played for Miami, Sacramento, and Toronto since making his NBA debut in 2022, appeared in 10 games for Osceola this season, averaging 17.1 PPG, 10.7 RPG, and 1.5 BPG.
Morales’ new two-way deal covers two seasons, according to Jason Beede of The Orlando Sentinel (Twitter link). Jamal Cain and Colin Castleton are the Magic’s other two-way players.
Top Extension Candidates Among Recently Traded Players
Of the 67 players on standard NBA contracts who were traded during the week of this year's trade deadline, 17 are immediately eligible to sign a contract extension.
Each player in that group has an opportunity to reach free agency this summer, either because their contract will expire or because a player or team option could be declined. However, each player could also choose to forgo free agency - or a potential option decision - by signing an extension with his new team in the coming days, weeks, or months -- assuming his new team is willing to put an offer on the table.
When an extension-eligible player is traded, he faces certain restrictions for the next six months that weren't in place before. He can't sign an extension that would keep him under contract for more than four total years (including the current season); the first-year salary on his extension can't exceed 120% of his previous salary (or 120% of the NBA's estimated average salary, if he's earning below that amount), and his subsequent annual raises can't be greater than 5%.
While those restrictions may complicate matters for a couple of those 17 extension candidates, they don't represent a meaningful obstacle for most of them.
With that in mind, let's take a closer look at which players from this group of 17 are the most and least likely candidates to sign new contracts before the 2026/27 league year begins.
