Central Notes: Hunter, Langdon, Buzelis
De’Andre Hunter started on a regular basis during his first five seasons in the league with the Hawks. In 64 combined games with Atlanta and the Cavaliers last season, he started just nine games in 64 games.
Cleveland.com’s Chris Fedor (subscription required) argues that Cleveland should keep Hunter in a reserve role. He notes that with Ty Jerome signing with Memphis, the Cavaliers need another high-scoring sixth man and points to Hunter as the most logical candidate — he averaged 17 points in 27.2 minutes per game last season.
Hunter may be more talented than Max Strus, the other candidate to start at small forward, but Hunter is not the best stylistic fit with the starting five, Fedor opines. The Cavs beat writer also points out that Hunter has shown he’s comfortable coming off the bench, as he receives more freedom and has an expanded offensive role.
Here’s more from the Central Division:
- In his second season as the Pistons’ president of basketball operations, Trajan Langdon has continued to make personnel decisions with the desire to keep his options open for future moves, Pistons.com’s Keith Langlois writes. Langdon added Duncan Robinson and Caris LeVert to fortify his bench without sacrificing future flexibility and it’s likely that he’ll only reach rookie scale extensions agreements with Jaden Ivey and Jalen Duren before the October deadline if the contract numbers match their on-court contributions.
- By all accounts, Matas Buzelis wants to be a special player and is doing what is necessary to reach that status, according to Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times. With contract issues surrounding Coby White and Josh Giddey, the second-year Bulls forward has become the most important player on the roster. After averaging 22.5 points and 5.0 rebounds in two Summer League contests, Buzelis has been busy in the weight room and on the court, looking to expand his game.
- Former Magic guard Cole Anthony spoke about his excitement to join the Bucks. Get the details here.
And-Ones: Dynasties, Wolves, Concern-O-Meter, Traded Picks
It may seem like the Thunder have the makings of dynasty, but ESPN’s Tim Bontemps details why it’s tougher than ever to build a dominant team. He outlines how the tax aprons make it more difficult for teams to run it back with the same core of players and that roster mistakes can haunt contenders for several years.
“You have to be right on every decision,” one Western Conference scout told Bontemps. “Now, you have to look at things in not a one-year window, but a three-year window. You literally can’t mess anything up. It puts pressure on the organization to think differently and smartly to make sure you are best-positioned to make the right decisions.”
We have more from around the league:
- Point guard Mike Conley will turn 38 before opening night and finding a suitable replacement could be difficult for the Timberwolves. Eric Pincus of Bleacher Report gets creative in an effort to solve that problem, proposing a four-team trade in which Minnesota winds up with Magic guard Anthony Black.
- The Athletic’s Zach Harper provides his ratings for the ‘concern-o-meter’ regarding 10 potential red flags that have popped up around the league this offseason. Rating high on the ‘concern-o-meter’ is the demise of free agency, the moves made by the Pelicans and the continued health issues for the Sixers.
- Speaking of the Pelicans, Sam Quinn of CBS Sports takes a look at every future traded first-rounder, ranking them from least valuable to most valuable. New Orleans’ unprotected 2026 pick, which its new front office dealt to the Hawks in a draft-night trade, is considered the most valuable among those picks. The Bucks‘ 2029 pick, which could go to either the Trail Blazers or Wizards, is ranked No. 2, followed by the 2027, ’29 and ’31 first-rounders the Suns dealt away.
Offseason Observations: Tax Rates, Extensions, Kuminga/Giddey
The NBA's offseason news wire has slowed down since Summer League ended, but there's still no shortage of storylines to follow in August. Since the month began, Luka Doncic, De'Aaron Fox, and Mikal Bridges have signed lucrative new extensions, and top restricted free agents like Jonathan Kuminga, Josh Giddey, Quentin Grimes, and Cam Thomas are still working on new contracts.
As we await further updates on the summer's top remaining free agents and extension candidates, I'm taking a closer look today at some of the stories that have caught my eye as of late. That includes taking a closer look at how the new luxury tax rates are affecting projected tax bills, how the extend-and-trade rules might affect players traded this summer, and whether a Kuminga/Giddey double sign-and-trade could really work.
Kai Jones Working Out For Heat
Free agent big man Kai Jones is working out for the Heat on Monday, according to NBA insider Chris Haynes (Twitter link).
The 19th overall pick in the 2021 draft, Jones played for the Clippers and Mavericks in 2024/25, appearing in 40 total games and averaging 5.0 points and 3.1 rebounds in 11.7 minutes per contest.
Jones began last season on a two-way contract with the Clippers, then was waived on March 1 so the team could bring in a couple of new two-way players. He caught on immediately with the injury-plagued Mavericks, who were desperately seeking frontcourt depth as they pushed for a play-in spot. Jones averaged 11.4 PPG and 6.6 RPG in 12 games (21.7 MPG) with Dallas down the stretch, even making six starts for the Mavs.
Reporting over the weekend indicated that Jones was making progress toward a potential deal with Virtus Bologna, but Haynes’ update today suggests the 24-year-old hasn’t given up on the idea of catching on with an NBA team for the 2025/26 season.
As Ira Winderman of The South Florida Sun Sentinel notes (via Twitter), Miami still has several spots available on its 21-man training camp roster and makes a habit of working out veteran free agents during the offseason. Some of those free agents – including R.J. Hampton and Nassir Little – have earned camp invites in recent years.
If Jones is going to open the ’25/26 season with an NBA team, he’ll have to be part of a club’s standard 15-man roster, since he’s no longer eligible to sign a two-way contract.
Contract Details: Gill, Potter, Spurs, Clippers
Anthony Gill‘s new one-year, minimum-salary contract with the Wizards is guaranteed, Hoops Rumors has confirmed.
While that had been expected, it’s worth noting that it once again creates a roster crunch in Washington, where the team is now carrying 15 players on guaranteed contracts along with rotation regular Justin Champagnie on a non-guaranteed deal. The Wizards will have to trade or waive one of those 16 players before the regular season begins, with Dillon Jones and Malaki Branham among the potential odd men out.
As part of his new agreement with the Wizards, Gill also waived his right to veto a trade during the 2025/26 season. A player who signs a one-year contract with his previous team typically gets an implicit no-trade clause, but a club can ask the player to give it up when he re-signs.
While the Wizards can now freely trade Gill beginning on December 15, he has established himself as a veteran locker-room leader in D.C. in recent years and will be earning the minimum, so he doesn’t seem like an obvious candidate to be moved ahead of February’s deadline.
Here are a few more details on recently signed contracts:
- The non-guaranteed contracts that Micah Potter and Adam Flagler signed with the Spurs contain both Exhibit 9 and Exhibit 10 language, Hoops Rumors has confirmed. Potter and Flagler would each earn bonuses worth $85,300 if they’re waived by San Antonio and then spend at least 60 days with the Austin Spurs in the G League.
- Both Riley Minix and Harrison Ingram simply accepted their two-way qualifying offers when they re-signed with the Spurs, so their two-way deals are both one-year pacts that include partial guarantees of $85,300 apiece.
- Patrick Baldwin Jr. and TyTy Washington Jr. both got maximum Exhibit 10 bonuses ($85,300) on their deals with the Clippers. Los Angeles already holds Baldwin’s G League rights and could obtain Washington’s by designating him as an affiliate player, so it appears likely both players will end up with the San Diego Clippers in the NBAGL if they aren’t converted to two-way contracts prior to the regular season.
Isaiah Mobley Signs With Manisa Basket
Free agent forward Isaiah Mobley, the older brother of reigning NBA Defensive Player of the Year Evan Mobley, has signed with Manisa Basket, the Turkish team announced today (Twitter link; hat tip to Sportando).
Mobley was the 49th overall pick in the 2022 draft and has played in the NBA in each of his first three professional seasons. However, the 6’8″ forward was unable to establish himself as a reliable rotation option stateside, having made just 23 total appearances for the Cavaliers and Sixers, with averages of 2.6 points and 1.5 rebounds in 7.5 minutes per game.
Mobley signed a rest-of-season contract with the banged-up Sixers via a hardship exception just before the 2024/25 campaign came to an end. He logged 17 minutes in Philadelphia’s regular season finale, contributing six points, five assists, and four rebounds in a loss to Chicago.
While Mobley doesn’t have an extensive NBA résumé, he has performed well in the G League, including averaging 21.5 points and 8.7 rebounds per game for the Cleveland Charge in 2022/23. He also had a big Summer League showing in 2023, earning championship game MVP honors after his 28 points and 11 boards in the final helped lead the Cavs to a Las Vegas title.
Manisa Basket will be looking to bounce back from an underwhelming season that saw the club finish tied for 12th (out of 16 teams) with an 11-19 record in Turkey’s Basketball Super League.
Free Agent Rumors: Kuminga, Horford, Westbrook, Grimes
There has been no meaningful movement in any direction on the Jonathan Kuminga front in the past couple weeks, per Anthony Slater of ESPN.
Having returned to his offseason base of Miami after a recent trip to his home country – the Democratic Republic of the Congo – the restricted free agent forward remains underwhelmed by the Warriors‘ two-year, $45MM offer that includes a second-year team option (and a request that he waive his implicit no-trade clause).
With no guaranteed money beyond year one, a trade-friendly salary, and no ability for Kuminga to have any say in a mid-season trade destination, the structure of the proposal is too team-friendly for Kuminga’s liking, Slater explains. Sources tell ESPN that the 22-year-old’s priority has been to find a contract that positions him to be a long-term building block for either the Warriors or another club. A short-term deal that essentially sets him up to be traded runs counter to that goal.
Kuminga’s camp pitched a three-year, $82MM contract that the Warriors turned down, according to Slater, who adds that the forward has told people close to him that the idea of signing his one-year, $8MM qualifying offer and reaching unrestricted free agency in 2026 appeals more to him than accepting Golden State’s one-plus-one proposal.
Here are a few more rumors on some of the top unsigned free agents:
- Even though Al Horford has had to wait for resolution on the Kuminga situation and has mulled the idea of retirement, the Warriors seem to be operating as if the 39-year-old big man is a firm part of their plans for 2025/26, Slater writes. The idea would be to slot Horford in as their starting center to help reduce Draymond Green‘s regular season workload, according to Slater, though he notes that Horford’s minutes would have to be carefully managed as well.
- League sources consider the Kings to be the most likely landing spot for free agent point guard Russell Westbrook, ESPN’s Tim MacMahon reports within the same story. Multiple reports earlier this summer indicated that there may not be room in Sacramento’s backcourt for Westbrook unless the team were to trade Malik Monk or Devin Carter, but the former MVP is still being linked to the Kings even with those two guards still on the roster.
- The Sixers continue to project confidence that they’ll re-sign restricted free agent guard Quentin Grimes, says Jake Fischer of The Stein Line (Substack link). While it’s not out of the question that Grimes could accept his $8.7MM qualifying offer, Fischer believes the two sides will work out a more mutually beneficial deal that begins at a higher salary.
Knicks To Hire T.J. Saint As Assistant Coach
The Knicks will add another assistant to Mike Brown‘s coaching staff, according to Ian Begley of SNY.tv, who reports (via Twitter) that the team is hiring T.J. Saint.
Saint has spent the past several seasons with the Pelicans’ G League affiliate, which has been known as the Birmingham Squadron since 2021. He came aboard in 2019/20 when the team was the Erie BayHawks, then was promoted to associate head coach in 2020 and to head coach in 2022.
According to Begley, Saint is considered in NBA circles to be a “bright offensive mind.” As Begley observes, the Squadron had the G League’s No. 1 offense during the 2023/24 season.
Before his stint with New Orleans’ G League team, Saint spent one year as the director of basketball strategy at the University of Georgia (2018/19) and was the Pistons’ video coordinator for four seasons (2014-18).
Saint is one of a handful of coaching hires New York has made since bringing in Brown to replace former head coach Tom Thibodeau. New assistants Chris Jent and Brendan O’Connor are expected to run the offense and defense, respectively. The Knicks are also retaining several coaches from Tom Thibodeau‘s staff, including Rick Brunson and Maurice Cheeks, and are adding Charles Allen and Riccardo Fois, a pair of player development assistants who worked under Brown in Sacramento.
NBA To Announce Regular Season Schedule On Thursday
The NBA will unveil its full schedule for the 2025/26 regular season on Thursday (August 14), according to an announcement from the league (Twitter link).
The NBA typically leaks several marquee games during the week before its full schedule announcement, and that trend has continued this August.
Shams Charania of ESPN reported on Friday that the opening night schedule this fall will consist of Rockets at Thunder and Warriors at Lakers. He also confirmed the five Christmas Day games, which feature four Western Conference showdowns and just a single Eastern Conference matchup.
The league also indicated today that it will provide a sneak peek at a few more notable matchups on Tuesday during Good Morning America (ABC) and The Today Show (NBC). Those games announced on Tuesday will all be airing on ESPN/ABC or NBC/Peacock.
A year ago, the NBA also put out the full schedule for the Emirates NBA Cup a couple days before the rest of the regular season slate was revealed. It’s unclear if that’s the plan again this time around, but if so, that NBA Cup schedule should be released within the next 24-to-48 hours.
Cole Swider Signs With Anadolu Efes
August 11: Swider has officially signed with Anadolu Efes, per an announcement from the team (Twitter link).
August 8: Free agent forward Cole Swider is close to reaching a contract agreement with the Turkish club Anadolu Efes, reports NBA insider Marc Stein (Twitter link).
Swider, who went undrafted out of Syracuse in 2022, has played in the NBA in each of his first three professional seasons. He spent a year apiece with the Lakers and Heat on two-way deals, then had stints with the Pistons and Raptors in 2024/25.
Swider, 26, has seen limited action in the NBA, appearing in 35 total games and averaging just 8.5 minutes per night. He played regular NBA rotation minutes for the first time in Toronto last season, averaging 7.4 point and 3.1 rebounds in 19.5 minutes per game across eight outings for the Raptors.
The 6’8″ forward is known as an outside shooting threat. In 83 career G League games, he has knocked down an impressive 44.6% of his three-point attempts, having never made fewer than 42.9% in a single season. Swider showed off his three-point shot last month as a member of the Lakers’ Summer League team, converting 43.1% of his attempts in eight games at the California Classic and Las Vegas leagues.
Assuming Swider finalizes a deal with Anadolu Efes, he’ll be joining a club that features several former NBA players, including guards Shane Larkin and Rodrigue Beaubois, wing PJ Dozier, and big man Georgios Papagiannis. The Turkish club will also be coached in 2025/26 by Igor Kokoskov, a longtime NBA assistant who spent one year as the head coach in Phoenix in ’18/19.
Anadolu Efes went 20-14 in EuroLeague play this past season and posted a 19-7 record in Turkey’s Basketball Super League, but was eliminated by Panathinaikos in the EuroLeague playoffs and by Besiktas in the BSL semifinals.