Jalen Suggs Available For Magic’s Opener
Magic point guard Jalen Suggs will be available when the team’s regular season tips off vs. Miami on Wednesday evening, head coach Jamahl Mosley confirmed today, per Jason Beede of The Orlando Sentinel (Twitter link).
Suggs underwent season-ending surgery last March to remove cartilage fragment in his left knee, then spent the offseason recovering from that procedure and going through a lengthy rehab process. He didn’t appear in any preseason games this month and it was unclear in recent weeks whether or not he’d be ready to play when the regular season got underway.
Suggs had initially been listed as questionable for Wednesday’s game, but Mosley spoke positively on Tuesday about the progress he has made, according to Beede (subscription required). The 24-year-old had progressed within the past few days to participating in 5-on-5 work.
“It’s just great to see that he’s able to go through full contact with the 5-on-5, with the group of guys being out there with his brothers, as he likes to say,” Mosley said on Tuesday. “It would mean a lot for us. We know what he brings to the table: his energy, his toughness, his defensive presence as the head of the snake defensively but then also his controlling of the floor on the offensive end.”
Suggs will likely be the Magic’s fourth offensive option, behind Paolo Banchero, Franz Wagner, and Desmond Bane. However, he earned a spot on the All-Defensive second team in 2023/24 and has been an important part of the success the team has had in recent years.
Last season, Suggs averaged a career-high 16.2 points per game to go along with 4.0 rebounds, 3.7 assists, and 1.5 steals per night, but was limited to 35 appearances due to injuries. The Magic went 20-15 in those games despite being without either Banchero or Wagner for most of them. They were 21-26 in games Suggs didn’t play.
Mosley said on Tuesday that Orlando will be “smart and think long term” with Suggs, per Beede, so he’ll likely be on a minutes restriction to open the season, and I imagine the club will take a cautious approach to back-to-back sets too.
Rockets Notes: Eason, Durant, Sengun, More
The Rockets made forward Tari Eason a “strong” contract offer prior to Monday’s deadline for rookie scale extensions, ESPN’s Brian Windhorst reported on the latest episode of the Hoop Collective podcast (YouTube link).
“From what I understand…it was in excess of $100MM,” Windhorst said. “I don’t know how much of it would have been guaranteed.”
When he reported on Monday that the Rockets and Eason had failed to come to terms on an agreement, Windhorst’s ESPN colleague Shams Charania wrote that the two sides were unable to bridge the gap in their negotiations “on multiple fronts.” That report, along with Windhorst’s comment, could signal that Eason and his camp weren’t satisfied with the amount of guaranteed money in Houston’s proposal.
Each of the nine players who ultimately signed rookie scale extensions in 2025 received fully guaranteed deals.
Here’s more on the Rockets:
- Entering the 2025 offseason after their first-round loss to Golden State, the Rockets’ front office wasn’t “trying to move guys,” general manager Rafael Stone told ESPN’s Michael C. Wright. However, Stone and the Rockets ended up pulling the trigger on a trade for Kevin Durant because they felt the opportunity was too good to pass up. “Jalen (Green) and Dillon (Brooks), we love those guys,” Stone said. “Everybody does. Not a single person on this team felt they needed to be moved out. And you’re never trying to give away the 10th pick of the draft because that’s still a really good player. We did it because of the opportunity. Kevin’s a very unique player. His archetype is unique. He’s this high-volume efficient scorer who doesn’t have to have the ball in his hands 24-7. In that sense, he’s kind of a unicorn. He’s also a two-way player. There just aren’t a whole lot of Kevin Durants. We’ll just have to see how he ultimately fits.”
- Durant’s first game with the Rockets was a nail-biting double-overtime 125-124 loss to the defending champion Thunder. Durant, who missed a free throw late in regulation and then fouled out with 11 second left in the second overtime period, put the blame on himself after the game, according to Wright. “I missed the free throws, and I fouled somebody at the end,” the star forward said. “I think those two plays are the reason we lost. … I’ve got to be better.” Durant was also in the middle of a near-disaster at the end of the first overtime, when he called for a timeout the Rockets didn’t have — he wasn’t called for a technical foul because the referees didn’t see his signal, crew chief Zach Zarba later explained.
- While Durant’s Rockets debut didn’t end in a win, Alperen Sengun‘s performance in defeat was an extremely encouraging sign for the team, as William Guillory of The Athletic and Danielle Lerner of The Houston Chronicle (subscription required) write. On the heels of an impressive EuroBasket performance for the Turkish national team, Sengun posted a monster line of 39 points, 11 rebounds, and seven assists vs. Oklahoma City and showed that Houston won’t always have to lean on Durant for half-court scoring. “He was kind of the backbone of our offense tonight,” forward Josh Okogie said of Sengun, per Lerner.
- Although the trade for Durant was a win-now move for the Rockets, the rest of their core is still so young that they place just 21st in the “now or later” rankings compiled by ESPN’s Zach Kram. As Kram explains, the teams at the top of his list are the most desperate to win right away, while the clubs near the bottom are the most content to win later.
Northwest Notes: Jazz, Blazers, Conley, Edwards, Thunder
Speaking to Tony Jones of The Athletic about the Jazz beginning construction on a new practice facility outside of downtown Salt Lake City, team owner Ryan Smith expressed optimism about the direction of the franchise, despite the fact that its win total has declined in each of the past four seasons.
“I think (new president of basketball operations) Austin (Ainge) is a star. I think (head coach) Will (Hardy) is a star,” Smith said. “I think we have one of the most exciting front offices in the league. We have a lot of picks and a lot of flexibility.”
After racking up 52 victories in 2020/21, Smith’s first year on the job, the club has won 49, 37, 31, and 17 in the years since then, embarking on a full-fledged rebuild during that time. While Smith is eager for the Jazz to begin reversing that trend and climbing back up the NBA standings, he acknowledged he can’t rush the process and has to exercise some patience.
“The picks aren’t coming fast enough for me, but I know this is the NBA. You have to grow the talent,” he told Jones. “We have brought in a lot of people who have a lot of rings. So, the ultimate goal is to win titles. That’s what matters. I understand that’s also the goal of every other team, so it’s really difficult and winning happens rarely. We just have to hit on these picks and keep stacking good decisions. It’s good to have Taylor (Hendricks) back. Walker (Kessler) is coming along. We just have to grow the guys.”
Here’s more from around the Northwest Division:
- Sean Highkin of Rose Garden Report (Substack link) evaluates the extensions the Trail Blazers completed this week with Toumani Camara and Shaedon Sharpe, dubbing Camara’s four-year, $81MM deal a win-win for the forward and the team, while suggesting that Sharpe’s four-year, $90MM contract represents more of a “calculated risk” for the two sides. As Highkin writes, Sharpe still has All-Star upside entering his age-22 season, but there’s certainly no guarantee he’ll reach that ceiling.
- Retirement isn’t a consideration in the short term for Timberwolves point guard Mike Conley, who said ahead of his 19th NBA season that he’s “looking forward to trying to get to 20 and see what happens,” according to Sam Yip of HoopsHype. “There hasn’t been a day that I have felt like I should retire yet,” Conley said within a larger Q&A. “… I think it’ll come to a point where you get kind of overwhelmed with the amount of work you have to do in order to stay at par to keep up with these guys, that it just becomes too much. But so far it’s not there, so hopefully we can squeeze a little bit more juice out of this thing.”
- In an in-depth story for The Athletic, Jon Krawczynski examines Anthony Edwards‘ drive to continue improving and his determination to win an NBA championship after being ousted in the Western Conference Finals in each of the past two years. Edwards is listed as questionable to play in Wednesday’s season opener in Portland due to back spasms, per the Timberwolves (Twitter link).
- Did the defending champion Thunder peak last season, will they peak this season, or are the best years for this core still ahead of them? Zach Kram of ESPN considers that question, outlining why all three possibilities are viable. Oklahoma City picked up its first win of the season in dramatic fashion on Tuesday, beating Houston by one point in a double-overtime thriller after Thunder players received their championship rings.
Mavericks Notes: Flagg, Gafford, Nembhard, Washington
Unlike most No. 1 overall picks, Cooper Flagg didn’t wind up with a rebuilding team. Landing on the Mavericks gives him peace of mind entering his NBA regular season debut against San Antonio on Wednesday.
“We’re a really deep team, so I think that kind of takes that pressure off of me to just be myself and not worry about expectations to be like anyone else, but just to be me and help this team win as much as I can,” he told Mike Curtis of the Dallas Morning News.
Flagg believes Wednesday’s opener could be the start of something big for the team this season.
“Just being able to play my first real game obviously, but it’s the start of a great season and great journey with this team,” Flagg said. “I think we have a really good chance to be successful. Just really excited for it.”
Curtis goes in-depth on Flagg’s journey and potential impact on the league.
We have more on the Mavs:
- Daniel Gafford, who has been working his way back from a right ankle sprain, is listed as doubtful for Wednesday’s game, according to Grant Afseth of the Dallas Morning Journal. Head coach Jason Kidd said prior to the injury report coming out that Gafford would be listed as questionable. The big man has been ramping up activity after missing all of the preseason.
- Another player who had a much different journey than Flagg will make his NBA debut on Wednesday. Undrafted Ryan Nembhard, the surprise breakout player during the preseason, is expected to be in the rotation. He’s on a two-way contract. “He’s steady. Understands how to play the game,” Kidd told Brad Townsend of the Dallas Morning News. “Ryan is a point guard who has set the table in the games that we have put him in a different rotation spot.”
- P.J. Washington started regularly the past two seasons but the power forward will accept whatever role Kidd has in store for him, Townsend writes. “I’m just coming in and trying to win, doing everything I can to be successful and to help my teammates be in great positions to win,” he said. “So it doesn’t matter if I’m starting or coming off the bench. For me it’s all about winning.”
Knicks Notes: Hart, Robinson, Towns, Brown, Yabusele
One of the questions facing the Knicks this preseason was whether new coach Mike Brown would choose Mitchell Robinson or Josh Hart as the team’s fifth starter. As it turns out, neither will play in the season opener against Cleveland on Wednesday. They’re listed as out on the official injury report and another starter, Karl-Anthony Towns, is questionable due to a strained right quad, Steve Popper of Newsday tweets.
Hart is dealing with lumbar spasms, according to Jared Schwartz of the New York Post. In terms of the oft-injured Robinson, it’s essentially left ankle injury management.
“With Mitch, we just have to be smart,” Brown said. “That’s part of load management. Just because he might be able to play tonight, he might be able to practice today, that doesn’t necessarily mean I’m gonna play him or I’m gonna practice him.”
Here’s more on the Knicks:
- Brown has been tasked to bring the Knicks a long-awaited championship. He says they can’t skip any steps along the way, Schwartz writes. “The good part about it is, the Finals or the championship round doesn’t happen until June,” Brown said. “We’ve got a long time to get there. It starts on the daily. We can’t skip any steps. We just wanna keep taking steps, because it’s gonna be a process. Knowing that we might take one or two steps backwards, but hopefully we can regroup and continue to take three, four, five more forward.”
- Towns isn’t entirely sure how his skill set fits into Brown’s offensive schemes, which are more up-tempo with a heavier emphasis on movement compared to Tom Thibodeau’s more methodical system. “Honestly, I don’t know, but we’re figuring it out. It’s just different,” Towns told Kristian Winfield of the New York Daily News. Brown is confident Towns will adjust. “First thing is, it’s going to be a process, especially with him missing the last couple of games,” the Knicks’ new coach said. “He’ll be in the strong corner, he’ll be in the weak corner, he can be the push man, or he can be the weak wing, and also he can be at the top of the key and in the dunker. That will help him, the movement.”
- Guerschon Yabusele has tipped the scales after signing a two-year contract as a free agent, according to Zach Braziller of the New York Post. The new Knicks forward weighs in at 283 pounds, 18 pounds more than last season with the Sixers. “I did not ask him to put on weight or take off weight,” Brown said. “That’s something that our performance people talk to him about.”
Nuggets Notes: Braun, Watson, Valanciunas, Jokic
It went down to the wire but Christian Braun was able to work out a rookie scale extension with the Nuggets. Braun signed a five-year deal worth $125MM and expressed relief on Tuesday, as The Denver Post’s Bennett Durando relays.
“It is a little stressful,” Braun said. “Like I said, I don’t like the negotiations just because you feel like you’re against people you love and people you care about. But I’m just really excited for the way it went down and just really happy that it’s over with.”
The process of working out a long-term agreement that he and his reps and the team were comfortable with made it a difficult exercise.
“Negotiations are kind of maybe not my thing,” he said. “Kind of felt like you’re kind of against them for a little bit. But I think it worked out really, really well. I was really, really happy with the outcome. I’m very grateful for everybody involved.”
We have more on the Nuggets:
- There was mutual interest between the team and Peyton Watson regarding a rookie scale extension but those negotiations were complicated by the Nuggets’ desire to get Braun signed, Durando reports. Getting Braun under a long-term deal was seen as a higher priority due to the restrictions of the second tax apron. As Durando notes, if the Nuggets had also signed Watson for more than $7MM annually, they would have been projected as a second-apron team for 2026/27 with three more roster spots to eventually fill.
- Speaking of Watson, the coaching staff is intent on increasing his ball-handling responsibilities and he’s grateful for their belief in him, Durando writes. “Our coaching staff has really put a lot of trust and belief in me this entire preseason, training camp,” Watson said, “to go out there and kind of play more like myself and have the ball in my hands. Make decisions. So I’ve been able to work on a lot of things just in live-action games against really, really talented players. I think that’s always good for confidence. It’s always good for my sharpness. And I feel great.”
- The Nuggets have struggled to find a productive backup to Nikola Jokic at center ever since Jokic exploded onto the national landscape. Can Jonas Valanciunas finally solve the problem? Durando looks back at Jokic’s previous backups, detailing year-by-year the dropoff that occurred when the superstar center wasn’t on the floor.
- The leading members of the team’s revamped front office want to keep Jokic happy. Keeping the three-time MVP in the loop is one of the ways they’re trying to ensure that he remains with the franchise for the long haul. “It would be crazy to not listen to his advice and his input, just because he’s so important to the organization,” executive VP of basketball operations Ben Tenzer told The Athletic’s Sam Amick. “But also, he sees (the game) a different way than we see it and how our scouts see it. He’s a brilliant basketball mind. So yeah, we have to ask him how he feels about things in general. And sometimes he’ll have opinions, sometimes he won’t. But it’s always good to just connect with him. That’s just a sign of respect.”
Grizzlies Exercise 2026/27 Option On Zach Edey
The Grizzlies have exercised their 2026/27 option on Zach Edey‘s contract, the team’s PR department tweets. The cap hit on Edey’s third season in the league will be $6,332,760.
[RELATED: Decisions On 2026/27 Rookie Scale Team Options]
Memphis had until the end of the month to exercise that option but it was foregone conclusion that would happen. Edey was the ninth pick of last year’s draft and started a majority of the team’s games. He appeared in 66 overall (55 starts) and averaged 9.2 points, 8.3 rebounds, 1.o assists and 1.3 blocks in 21.5 minutes per contest.
The two-time National College Player of the Year at Purdue was named to the NBA All-Rookie First Team.
Edey underwent ankle surgery in June and is still several weeks away from returning to action.
Pacers Exercise 2026/27 Options On Walker, Sheppard
The Pacers have exercised their 2026/27 options on the contracts of Jarace Walker and Ben Sheppard, according to a team press release.
Walker’s fourth-year option carries a cap hit of $8,478,542, while Sheppard’s cap hit on his fourth year will be $5,031,669. Walker was the eighth pick of the 2023 draft, while Sheppard was chosen at No. 26.
The team had until the end of the month to exercise those options.
Walker appeared in 75 regular season games last season (five starts) and averaged 6.1 points, 3.1 rebounds and 1.5 assists in 15.8 minutes. Sheppard appeared in 63 games (nine starts) and averaged 5.3 points, 2.8 rebounds and 1.3 assists in 19.5 minutes per game. He also appeared in 21 postseason contests.
Both players are expected to be key bench contributors once again this season.
Grizzlies’ Pippen Undergoes Toe Surgery, Out At Least 12 Weeks
Oct. 21: The surgery on Pippen’s left big toe took place on Tuesday, the team’s PR department tweets. As initially reported, he’ll be reevaluated in approximately 12 weeks, according to the Grizzlies.
Oct. 18: Grizzlies guard Scotty Pippen Jr. is undergoing a sesamoidectomy to address a lingering left big toe injury, the team announced in a press release (Twitter link).
Memphis said a return timeline wouldn’t be given until after the procedure, but Pippen is expected to make a full recovery. According to ESPN’s Shams Charania, who first reported the news (via Twitter), Pippen is expected to miss at least 12 weeks, which is when he’ll be reevaluated.
It’s a tough blow for the Grizzlies, who have been hit hard by injuries over the past couple years, a trend that has continued before the 2025/26 regular season even gets underway.
In addition to Pippen, who reportedly won’t make his season debut until at least January, second-year center Zach Edey continues to recover from left ankle surgery, veteran big man Brandon Clarke recently underwent a knee procedure, and star point guard Ja Morant has been battling a left ankle sprain. The team is optimistic that Morant might be ready for next week’s season opener, but Edey and Clarke may not be back until November.
Former Defensive Player of the Year Jaren Jackson Jr. also went offseason surgery to address a turf toe injury, but he should be ready for the opener after appearing in the team’s final two preseason contests.
Pippen, who turns 25 next month, was a key reserve for the Grizzlies last season, appearing in a career-high 79 games while averaging 9.9 points, 4.4 assists, 3.3 rebounds and 1.3 steals in 21.3 minutes per night. He posted a shooting slash line of .480/.397/.713.
Ty Jerome would typically be a prime candidate for more playing time with Pippen out, but he might be sidelined for a while too — he exited Friday’s preseason finale with a right calf injury, per the team (Twitter link), and will be reevaluated this weekend, according to head coach Tuomas Iisalo (Twitter link via Michael Wallace of Grizzlies.com).
Second-year guard Cam Spencer and rookie second-rounder Javon Small, who is on a two-way deal, should receive additional run in the Grizzlies’ backcourt.
Raptors Pick Up 2026/27 Options On Gradey Dick, Ja’Kobe Walter
The Raptors have exercised their 2026/27 options on the contracts of Gradey Dick and Ja’Kobe Walter, according to a team press release.
Dick’s fourth-year option will carry a cap hit of $7,131,511, while Walter’s third-year option will carry a cap hit of $3,811,800. The team had until the end of the month to exercise those options.
Dick started 54 games last season, averaging 14.4 points, 3.6 rebounds and 1.8 assists in 29.4 minutes per night. He was the 13th pick of the 2023 draft.
Walter, who won’t play in the team’s opener due to an illness, averaged 8.6 points, 3.1 rebounds and 1.6 assists in 21.2 minutes per game while appearing in 52 contests during his rookie season. He was the 19th overall pick in 2024.
With the addition of Brandon Ingram, Dick will likely come off the bench this season. Dick and Walter will have to fight hard for their rotation minutes.