Clippers Sign Baldwin, Washington To Exhibit 10 Deals
The Clippers have officially signed Patrick Baldwin Jr. and TyTy Washington Jr. to Exhibit 10 contracts, tweets Keith Smith of Spotrac.
Washington (29th overall) was selected directly after Baldwin (28th) in the first round of the 2022 draft. Neither player has found much consistency at the NBA level to this point, and they’ll reportedly be competing for a two-way contract in training camp.
Baldwin, 22, was drafted by Golden State and spent his rookie season with the Warriors. He was traded to Washington in the 2023 offseason and spent a year-and-a-half with the Wizards, who sent him to San Antonio in February.
The 6’9″ forward was released by the Spurs but caught on with the Clippers, inking a two-way contract in March. He was waived in late July to make roster space for Jordan Miller, with Law Murray of The Athletic stating at the time that Los Angeles was interested in re-signing Baldwin to an Exhibit 10 deal.
Washington, 23, played a limited role across 31 outings for the Rockets as a rookie and was traded twice during the 2023 offseason – from Houston to Atlanta to Oklahoma City – before being waived by the Thunder. He subsequently spent his second season on a two-way contract with Milwaukee and his third year on a two-way deal with Phoenix.
Both Baldwin and Washington have three years of NBA experience and one year of two-way eligibility remaining. The Clippers’ two-way spots are currently held by Miller, 2025 second-rounder Kobe Sanders, and 20-year-old wing Trentyn Flowers.
If Baldwin and/or Washington are cut before the 2025/26 season begins and decide to play in the G League, they would be eligible for bonus worth up to $85,300 if they spend at least 60 days with the San Diego Clippers.
The Clippers now have 19 players under contract, including 14 on guaranteed standard deals.
Spurs Sign Micah Potter, Adam Flagler
The Spurs signed free agent big man Micah Potter earlier this week, according to RealGM’s log of official NBA transactions.
While the terms were not disclosed, Potter likely signed a non-guaranteed training camp contract featuring Exhibit 9 language and perhaps Exhibit 10 language as well.
Known for his ability to stretch the floor, Potter has spent the past three seasons on two-way contracts with the Jazz. Because he holds four years of NBA experience, he is no longer eligible for a two-way deal.
The 27-year-old forward/center appeared in a career-high 38 games with Utah last season, averaging 4.3 points and 4.3 rebounds in 18.6 minutes per contest. His shooting line was .422/.316/.850.
San Antonio also recently added free agent guard Adam Flagler to its training camp roster, as first noted by Paul Garcia of The Spot Up Shot. It’s an Exhibit 10 deal, according to RealGM.
Flagler, a former Baylor standout who won an NCAA title with the Bears in 2021, has been a member of the Thunder’s organization for the past two years. The 25-year-old signed a two-way contract with Oklahoma City in February 2024 and was on a two-way deal for all of 2024/25 as well.
A 6’3″ shooting guard, Flagler made 37 appearances for the defending champions last season, averaging just 5.5 minutes per game. That isn’t surprising, given OKC’s impressive backcourt depth. He also missed several weeks of action with a broken bone in his right hand.
If Flagler is waived before the ’25/26 season begins and spends at least 60 days in the G League with the Austin Spurs, he’d be eligible for a bonus worth up to $85,300. Exhibit 10 contracts can also be converted to two-way deals, though the Spurs do not currently have a two-way opening, as our tracker shows.
The Spurs now have 19 players under contract, two shy of the offseason limit.
Look Ahead At Potential 2026 Free Agents
Free agency is not the headline event it once was in the NBA, as a large portion of the top players on the market tend to extend, like Luka Doncic did last weekend with the Lakers, or move in trades rather than signing with new teams. However, there are still likely to be talented players available and ready to contribute to new situations, as Zach Harper details for The Athletic.
Teams like the Lakers, Clippers, and Heat have made an effort to keep their flexibility for next year, write Tim Bontemps and Kevin Pelton for ESPN. However, those teams are also expected to try to maintain cap space for 2027, a summer in which multiple MVPs – Giannis Antetokounmpo and Nikola Jokic – could potentially reach the market, though of course neither is guaranteed to be available.
The Celtics will also likely look to retool their roster next summer after trading away key contributors in Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis for salary cap relief, as they seek to rebuild their roster into a contender around Tatum once he has recovered from his Achilles tear.
Trae Young, with a $48.9MM player option for the 2026/27 season, has the potential to be one of the top names on the board, and while Harper expresses confidence that an extension with the Hawks will get done, there have been rumors that it’s far from a certainty, and that next season could serve as an evaluation period for the Hawks’ core under a new head of basketball operations.
Other high-end veterans with player options for ’26/27 include James Harden (Clippers), Zach LaVine (Kings), Draymond Green (Warriors), Austin Reaves (Lakers), Andrew Wiggins (Heat), Fred VanVleet (Rockets), and Bradley Beal (Clippers). Harper considers Harden, Green, and Reaves very likely to remain with their current teams, and VanVleet also relatively likely to stay, though the Rockets have some level of flexibility in regard to the future of their roster.
Then there are the unrestricted free agents. As of this moment, LeBron James (Lakers) and Kevin Durant (Rockets) represent the cream of the crop, but there are other talented players such as Porzingis (Hawks), Anfernee Simons (Celtics), Coby White (Bulls), and others who are sure to garner suitors.
For what it’s worth, Durant has been widely expected to extend with Houston, but James is ineligible to be extended prior to free agency and White’s salary is so modest relative to his value that he’s considered likely to wait until he can get a bigger payday on the free agent market.
One interesting inflection point will be players on team options, such as Isaiah Hartenstein and Luguentz Dort on the Thunder, and Bogdan Bogdanovic and Brook Lopez on the Clippers. The Thunder, particularly, could have some tough decisions to make on their role players soon as lucrative extensions take effect for stars Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Chet Holmgren, and Jalen Williams.
Chimezie Metu Nearing Deal With Monaco
Free agent forward/center Chimezie Metu is close to agreeing to a deal to join AS Monaco, reports Donatas Urbonas of BasketNews.
Because Metu ruptured his Achilles tendon in March and is hoping to return to play sometime around January, the deal is contingent on the 28-year-old passing medical examinations, Urbonas writes, which will likely occur sometime next week.
Metu played six seasons in the NBA, including three with the Kings. He averaged 5.9 points and 3.5 rebounds per game over the course of 260 regular season appearances from 2018-24 before spending last season with Barcelona. He put up 11.0 points and 4.8 rebounds in 20.0 minutes per game while making 36.4% of his three-pointers during 24 EuroLeague outings.
Should the athletic big man sign with Monaco, he would join a roster loaded with former NBA talent, including Daniel Theis, Nikola Mirotic, Donatas Motiejunas, Mike James, Elie Okobo, Jaron Blossomgame, and Nick Calathes. Monaco made it to the EuroLeague Finals last season, losing to Fenerbahce, 81-70.
As Urbonas notes, Metu was in advanced talks with Fenerbahce earlier this summer before a potential agreement fell through. It’s unclear whether or not his Achilles recovery process was the reason that deal didn’t get finalized.
Knicks To Hire Chris Jent As Associate Head Coach
The Knicks are finalizing a deal to add Chris Jent to their coaching staff, reports ESPN’s Shams Charania (via Twitter). Jent will assume the role of associate head coach and will likely be tasked with helping to spearhead the team’s offensive approach under head coach Mike Brown.
Jent worked as an assistant coach for the Hornets last season and was the head coach of the Charlotte team that won a Summer League championship in Las Vegas last month. He has been an assistant coach since the 2003/04 season, with a brief stint as the interim head coach of the 2004/05 Magic team that featured a rookie Dwight Howard.
Prior to his lone season in Charlotte, Jent spent two years with the Lakers and five years with the Hawks. He was also an assistant under Brown for the ’06/07 Cavaliers team that lost in the Finals to the Spurs.
Jent also played three games for the Knicks in the 1996/97 season, as well as being a reserve on the Rockets’ 1993/94 championship team — he averaged 5.6 minutes in 11 playoff games for Houston that season.
Jent was rumored to be the frontrunner for the position in recent days, along with the Pacers’ Mike Weinar. After Weinar withdrew his name from consideration earlier this week, SiriusXM radio host Frank Isola reported (via Twitter) that Jent and the Knicks were nearing an agreement on a deal to make him the team’s offensive coordinator.
Brendan O’Connor, who was previously hired away from the Clippers by the Knicks, is expected to serve as the team’s defensive coordinator.
Christmas Day Schedule Includes Thunder-Spurs, Rockets-Lakers
The NBA’s highly anticipated Christmas Day schedule has been revealed, courtesy of ESPN’s Shams Charania (via Twitter). The five-game slate is heavy on Western Conference powerhouses, with just one game coming from the Eastern Conference, in a matchup of what is expected to be the top two teams in the Cavaliers and Knicks.
This will be the first Christmas Day game for the Cavaliers in the post-LeBron James era, writes Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com. Their last December 25 game came in 2017.
Following the Eastern Conference matchup, the Spurs will travel to Oklahoma City to face the Thunder, as Victor Wembanyama squares off against Chet Holmgren, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, and Jalen Williams.
Kevin Durant and the Rockets will then duel LeBron James, Luka Doncic, and the Lakers in a clash of teams balancing championship aspirations with their Hall-of-Fame veterans and younger future-facing casts. The Rockets last played a Christmas Day game in 2019, writes Danielle Lerner of the Houston Chronicle.
The final two matchups of the night will see the Mavericks face off against the Warriors, and finally, the Timberwolves going up against the retooled Nuggets in a battle of Northwest Division powerhouses.
As Marc Stein notes (via Twitter), between the Christmas Day schedule and the reported opening night schedule, the league has chosen not to highlight a Mavericks-Lakers matchup on either of these two anticipated dates. Instead, Stein reports (via Twitter), the battle of Doncic’s current and former teams will likely occur at the end of November during the NBA Cup.
As Law Murray of the Athletic notes (via Twitter), only three teams that won at least 49 games last season aren’t featured on the Christmas Day slate. Those teams are the Celtics and Pacers, who are expected to take a step back as their stars (Jayson Tatum and Tyrese Haliburton) recover from Achilles tears, and the Clippers, who will not play on Christmas for the fifth year in a row.
Rockets/Thunder, Warriors/Lakers To Play On Opening Night
The 2025/26 NBA season will tip off on October 21 with a pair of Western Conference matchups, reports ESPN’s Shams Charania (via Twitter).
The Rockets will go up against the 2024 title-winning Thunder to open the evening, followed by the Warriors at the Lakers.
This means Kevin Durant, on the new-look Rockets, will be heading to Oklahoma City on the night the Thunder receive their championship rings. Meanwhile, Stephen Curry will go up against LeBron James for the 57th time in their careers.
While the Mavericks were not tapped with an opening night game, Marc Stein of the Stein Line reports (via Twitter) that their season will start on October 22 against the Spurs in what is sure to be a much-anticipated showdown between this year’s No. 1 pick, Cooper Flagg and 2023’s top pick Victor Wembanyama, as well as this year’s No. 2 selection Dylan Harper.
Stein also notes (via Twitter) that the league has announced that group play for the NBA Cup will take place between October 31 and November 28 this season.
Two NBA Players Among France’s Pre-EuroBasket Cuts
The French national team announced today (via Twitter) that it has trimmed its preliminary EuroBasket roster to 14 players by making three cuts. Two NBA players – Thunder forward Ousmane Dieng and Hornets big man Moussa Diabate – were among those cut, along with former lottery pick Frank Ntilikina.
Dieng and Diabate both have big seasons on tap in 2025/26. Dieng, the No. 11 overall pick in 2022, is currently eligible for a contract extension as he enters the fourth and final year of his rookie scale deal, which will pay him $6.67MM.
However, unlike fellow ’22 lottery picks Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren, who received maximum-salary extensions from the Thunder this summer, Dieng isn’t considered likely to get a new deal at this time and is probably more focused on simply hanging onto his roster spot on a deep OKC squad. He’s the only player on the 15-man roster whose contract is fully expiring (with no option for 2026/27).
Diabate, meanwhile, will be looking to parlay a career year in Charlotte into a guaranteed contract and a more significant role. His $2.27MM salary for ’25/26 is currently non-guaranteed and the Hornets, who are currently carrying 18 players on standard contracts (16 guaranteed), could be facing a roster crunch this fall. However, the team is somewhat thin in the frontcourt and Diabate may well be part of the rotation again after averaging 5.7 points and 6.2 rebounds in 17.5 minutes per contest (71 games) last season.
France still has plenty of current and former NBA players on its roster after parting with three of them. Wizards youngsters Alex Sarr and Bilal Coulibaly, 2024’s No. 1 overall pick Zaccharie Risacher, and ex-NBAers like Theo Maledon, Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot, and Elie Okobo are among those still on the squad, per Eurohoops.
The French team will have to make two more cuts before EuroBasket tips off later this month in order to set its 12-man roster.
Team USA Announces 2025 AmeriCup Roster
USA Basketball has officially announced the 12-man roster that will represent the United States at this year’s AmeriCup tournament, which will take place from August 22-31 in Managua, Nicaragua.
The roster is as follows:
- Langston Galloway, G
- Jerian Grant, G
- Elijah Pemberton, G
- Jahmi’us Ramsey, G
- Javonte Smart, G
- Speedy Smith, G
- Tyler Cavanaugh, F
- Jarell Eddie, F
- Cameron Reynolds, F
- Robert Baker II, F/C
- Jack Cooley, F/C
- Zach Auguste, C
While it’s not exactly the sort of star-studded roster you’d expect from Team USA at a higher-profile event like the FIBA World Cup or the Olympics, eight of the 12 players representing the U.S. have NBA experience, with Galloway (452 regular season games) and Grant (279 games) leading the way. Pemberton, Smith, Baker, and Auguste are the only players on the roster who haven’t appeared in an NBA regular season game.
The group also has a good deal of experience in international competitions. Galloway, Pemberton, Ramsey, Smart, Cavanaugh, Reynolds, and Baker have all played for Team USA during past AmeriCup or World Cup qualifiers, while Pemberton suited up for the U.S. at the 2022 AmeriCup, earning a bronze medal with that group.
Former Rockets head coach Stephen Silas will coach Team USA during the AmeriCup and will be joined on the sidelines by veteran NBA assistants Patrick Mutombo and Brad Jones.
The U.S. has been drawn into Group A alongside Brazil, Uruguay, and the Bahamas and will play its round-robin games from August 23-26. The other two four-team groups feature Canada, Venezuela, Panama, and Puerto Rico (Group B) and Argentina, Colombia, Dominican Republic, and host Nicaragua (Group C).
Eight of 12 teams will advance to the single-elimination stage of the AmeriCup based on the results of those first three games. The quarterfinals will be held on August 28, followed by the semifinals on Aug. 30 and the final (and third-place game) on Aug. 31.
Heat’s Highsmith Undergoes Knee Surgery, Out 8-10 Weeks
Heat forward Haywood Highsmith suffered a torn meniscus in his right knee during a recent training session in his hometown of Baltimore and has undergone surgery to repair the injury, the team announced today (via Twitter).
According to the Heat, the procedure was completed in Miami on Friday by team physician Dr. Harlan Selesnick (Twitter link). Highsmith will begin rehabilitation work immediately, but the expectation is that he’ll be sidelined for approximately eight-to-10 weeks.
Training camps are scheduled to get underway in roughly seven-and-a-half weeks, so Highsmith’s injury figures to delay his availability this fall. He’s unlikely to be back to full health by the time the Heat begin practicing and may not be ready to return by the time the regular season tips off a few weeks later.
It’s an unfortunate setback for a player who is entering a contract year and who will be looking to establish himself as a regular part of Erik Spoelstra‘s rotation after seeing his role fluctuate last season. Highsmith set career highs by appearing in 74 regular season games and averaging 24.6 minutes per night, but was in and out of the starting lineup and was briefly removed from the rotation entirely.
A versatile defender with good length, Highsmith averaged 6.5 points, 3.4 rebounds, and 1.5 assists per game last season, with a shooting line of .458/.382/.721. He’ll earn about $5.6MM in 2025/26 on an expiring deal.