Jared Butler Signs With Suns
July 24: Butler’s deal with the Suns is official, per a team press release (Twitter link via Gerald Bourguet of PHNX Sports). According to Bourguet, Butler’s contract is non-guaranteed and he and Goodwin will be vying for a roster spot this fall.
July 23: The Suns have reached an agreement on a one-year contract with Jared Butler, agents Mark Bartelstein and Kieran Piller of Priority Sports tell Shams Charania of ESPN (Twitter link).
The 24-year-old guard became a free agent late last month when the Sixers declined their team option on his $2.35MM salary for 2025/26. He finished the season in Philadelphia after being acquired from Washington at the deadline, and the Sixers converted his two-way deal to a standard contract a week after the trade.
Butler appeared in 60 total games last season, and he put up the best numbers of his career in 28 games with Philadelphia. He averaged 11.5 points, 2.5 rebounds and 4.9 assists for the short-handed team, while making 17 starts and posting .426/.352/.870 shooting splits.
Butler began his career in Utah after being selected with the 40th pick in the 2021 draft. He also had a brief stay with Oklahoma City before joining the Wizards on a two-way contract in 2023.
The Suns are making another move to bolster their backcourt, claiming former Lakers guard Jordan Goodwin off waivers. Once both transactions are official, Phoenix will have a full roster with 15 players on standard contracts and three on two-way deals.
Jazz Waive Guard Jaden Springer
The Jazz have waived guard Jaden Springer, the team announced in a press release.
Utah had a Friday deadline to decide whether to give Springer a $400K partial guarantee to his $2,349,578 non-guaranteed contract. Springer will now look for another NBA opportunity, unless a team claims him.
After a 10-day contract with the Jazz expired, Springer signed a three-year contract with the club in March but the last two years were not guaranteed. Springer made 17 appearances for Utah, including two starts, and averaged 3.8 points, 2.0 rebounds and 1.4 assists in 13.2 minutes.
Boston traded the 6’4″ combo guard and a future second-round pick to Houston at February’s trade deadline. The Rockets soon waived Springer and he joined Utah after clearing waivers. Springer came off the bench in 26 games for the Celtics last season.
He was a late first-rounder pick by the Sixers in 2021 but struggled to establish a rotation role. Overall, he’s appeared in 110 NBA games, averaging 2.9 points in 8.8 minutes. He’s made just 23.8 percent of his 3-point attempts.
By releasing Springer, the Jazz now have 15 players on standard contracts.
Restricted Free Agent Kuminga, Warriors Remain At Impasse
Negotiations between restricted free agent Jonathan Kuminga and the Warriors remain at a stalemate, ESPN’s Shams Charania reports (Twitter video link).
“It’s a staring contest between these two sides that could continue much longer than just this month,” Charania said.
NBA insider Jake Fischer reported last week that Kuminga’s agent, Aaron Turner, has held numerous discussions with Warriors officials in Las Vegas this month trying to secure a contract that pays at least $25MM in average annual salary, even in the short term. According to Fischer, the Warriors have been reluctant to meet that price in a long-term agreement.
Charania visited with Kuminga on Wednesday said that the 22-year-old forward told him that he was in “absolutely no rush to do a deal with the Warriors.” According to new ESPN insider Anthony Slater (video link), coach Steve Kerr has been in contact with Kuminga during the process but Kerr’s tendency to reduce his role during crunch time and in the postseason has left some “scar tissue,” adding that Kuminga no longer wants to be a “Plan B” option.
Turner continues to pursue possible sign-and-trade transactions. According to Charania, the Suns and Kings “have made concrete offers with the Warriors over the last week or so.” Those clubs have also offered Kuminga an “opportunity for significant minutes, a starting-caliber role” and “those are two things he wants more than anything.”
Golden State has balked at the packages those teams have offered, which leaves Kuminga as well as the organization in limbo. The Wizards, Heat, Bulls, Bucks, and Nets have also been previously named as possible suitors for Kuminga.
The Warriors’ other potential offseason moves have been delayed until the Kuminga situation is resolved, Charania adds. Slater identifies Al Horford, De’Anthony Melton and Seth Curry as free agents that Golden State is interested in. The Warriors currently have just nine players on standard contracts.
Kuminga appeared in just 47 games in 2024/25, having missed more than two months due to a badly sprained ankle. He had an inconsistent role when healthy, averaging 15.3 points, 4.6 rebounds, and 2.2 assists in 24.3 minutes per game, with a .454/.305/.668 shooting line.
Although he was out of the Warriors’ rotation entirely for some key games at the end of the regular season and in the postseason, Kuminga averaged 24.3 points per game on .554/.389/.720 shooting in his final four playoff games vs. Minnesota after Stephen Curry injured his hamstring.
Shake Milton Signs With Partizan Belgrade
3:03pm: Milton has officially signed a two-year deal with Partizan, the team announced (via Twitter).
8:45am: Just a few days after being waived by the Lakers, veteran NBA guard Shake Milton is reportedly engaged in serious talks with KK Partizan. The Serbian outlet Meridian Sport reported that Milton and Partizan Belgrade were discussing a possible deal, while Telesport (Twitter link) and Donatas Urbonas of BasketNews.com classified those negotiations as “advanced.”
A second-round pick in 2018, Milton has appeared in 359 NBA regular season games for six teams over the past seven seasons. After spending the first five years of his career in Philadelphia, the 28-year-old has bounced around the league since 2023, playing for the Timberwolves, Pistons, and Knicks in 2023/24 before suiting up this past season with the Nets and Lakers — he was sent to Los Angeles along with Dorian Finney-Smith in a mid-season trade.
In 57 total outings for Brooklyn and L.A. in 2024/25, the 6’5″ guard averaged 5.5 points, 1.8 assists, and 1.8 rebounds in 14.7 minutes per night, with a .453/.358/.797 shooting line. He was released by the Lakers because his $3MM salary for ’25/26 was non-guaranteed and the team needed to create extra breathing room below the first tax apron to sign Marcus Smart.
If Milton does end up signing with Partizan or another European team, it would be the first time the former SMU star has played overseas.
Partizan Belgrade, which competes in the EuroLeague and the ABA League, is coming off an ABA League title this spring but went just 16-18 in EuroLeague play. The club’s roster features no shortage of former NBA players, including Jabari Parker, Sterling Brown, Isaac Bonga, Aleksej Pokusevski, Frank Ntilikina, Duane Washington, and Carlik Jones.
Heat Notes: Center Spot, Rozier, Goldin, Johnson
Do the Heat need to add another center? Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun Sentinel believes so.
While they have Kel’el Ware and Bam Adebayo to play that position, the Heat’s options are limited if either has to miss a game or gets in foul trouble. Nikola Jovic would be playing out of position if he’s utilized as the third option and rookie Vladislav Goldin, who is on a two-way deal, lacks agility to make defensive switches. However, the Heat are already over the luxury tax, which complicates any effort to bring in a veteran for depth, Winderman notes.
We have more on the Heat:
- Terry Rozier‘s trade value is practically non-existent, according to Winderman, who doubts any other team would look to acquire him without a sweetener. The Heat aren’t in a position to do that, since they still owe a first-round pick to Charlotte for the Rozier acquisition. The only other trade scenarios involving Rozier, in Winderman’s estimation, would be a team looking to acquire his expiring contract for a player signed beyond next season or his salary being packaged as part of a bigger deal.
- One thing about Goldin that endeared him to the coaching staff during Summer League appearances was his motor, according to the Miami Herald’s Anthony Chiang. “Vlad was really good for us,” Heat assistant coach and Summer League head coach Eric Glass said. “He plays so freakin’ hard out there. He plays so physically. You’d like to have him on the floor even longer, but he goes so hard, sometimes he burns himself out. That’s why we love him.” The former University of Michigan big man, who was undrafted, averaged 9.2 points and 4.8 rebounds in six games this month.
- Keshad Johnson has a guaranteed $1.955MM contract for next season and he doesn’t want to wind up at the end of the bench. “The goal is to crack the Heat’s rotation and prove that I belong on the floor,” Johnson said entering his second NBA season. Johnson’s Summer League outings were generally positive, according to Chiang, but somewhat inconsistent. Johnson would likely have to leapfrog two or three other players at the small forward spot to get minutes.
Hoops Rumors Chat Transcript: 7/24/2025
Hoops Rumors hosted a live chat today at 2:00 pm Central time (3:00 pm Eastern).
Lonnie Walker IV To Join Maccabi Tel Aviv
12:57pm: Walker’s contract is for three years and approximately $10MM, according to Urbonas. It includes an NBA exit clause until Aug. 1 for this season and exit clauses for 2026 and 2027 until July 15 of those years.
12:19pm: Free agent forward Lonnie Walker IV is signing with Israel’s Maccabi Tel Aviv, NBA insider Marc Stein tweets.
The Sixers declined their $2.9MM option on the 26-year-old at the end of last month, making him an unrestricted free agent. Terms of the contract are yet to be disclosed but he’ll be one of the highest paid players in the EuroLeague, according to Stein. It will be a multiyear contract, Donatas Urbonas of BasketNews.com tweets.
Interestingly, Walker was linked to another Israeli club this month. He reportedly received a two-year offer from Hapoel Tel Aviv. Real Madrid also showed interest in Walker.
Walker was productive for the injury-riddled Sixers during the second half of the season. He appeared in 20 games and averaged 12.4 points, 3.2 rebounds and 2.5 assists. However, Philadelphia had major salary cap concerns heading into free agency, which undoubtedly factored into the front office’s decision.
After being waived by Boston just before the start of last season, Walker spent time with Zalgiris Kaunas in the EuroLeague while awaiting his next NBA opportunity. He signed a two-year contract with Philadelphia in late February.
Prior to his stint with the Sixers, Walker appeared in 322 regular season games with the Spurs, Lakers, and Nets from 2018-24.
Pacers Sign Rookie Taelon Peter To Two-Way Contract
1:47pm: The signing is official, according to a team press release.
10:30am: As anticipated, the Pacers and the No. 54 overall pick of the June draft, Taelon Peter, have agreed to a two-way deal, Michael Scotto of HoopsHype tweets.
Indiana general manager Chad Buchanan recently indicated that Peter was in line to receive a two-way contract. The Pacers cleared a spot for the shooting guard by pulling their qualifying offer to Enrique Freeman.
By adding Peter, the Pacers have filled all of their two-way slots. RayJ Dennis and Quenton Jackson have the Pacers’ remaining two-way contracts.
Peter excelled in a sixth man role at Liberty University last season. He only started two of 35 games, yet averaged 13.7 points on 57.8 percent shooting from the field and 45.3 percent from three-point range. He also grabbed 4.0 rebounds and handed out 1.0 assist in 22.7 minutes per contest. Liberty won its conference tournament and lost in the first round of the NCAA Tournament to Oregon, a game in which Peter scored eight points.
Peter spent his previous three seasons with Division II Arkansas Tech. In four Summer League appearances, he averaged 9.5 points, 2.2 rebounds and 1.8 assists in 23.6 minutes per game for Indiana.
“We like a lot of things he does as far as playing without the ball, his shooting, his movement. I thought he showed very encouraging signs defending the ball in Las Vegas,” Buchanan said.
And-Ones: Biggest Mistakes, Summer League Standouts, More
As effectively managed as some NBA teams have been in recent years, all 30 clubs have made at least a few moves they regret, according to Zach Kram of ESPN.com, who runs through some of the biggest missteps of the 2020s and names the most glaring mistake each team has made this decade.
Kram’s list begins with “small-scale problems,” like the Cavaliers not giving Isaiah Hartenstein a qualifying offer in 2021 and the Knicks signing Evan Fournier to a $73MM contract in 2021, before advancing to “draft disasters” – such as the Celtics trading the draft rights to No. 30 pick Desmond Bane – and miscellaneous midtier mistakes,” including the Pistons giving Monty Williams the largest head coaching contract in league history.
Kram’s final two categories are “too high a cost for too little reward” and “franchise-altering terrible trades.” The top two mistakes on his list are the Mavericks moving Luka Doncic and the Suns giving up the assets they did to land Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal.
Here are more odds and ends from around the basketball world:
- John Hollinger of The Athletic shares his biggest takeaways from this month’s Summer League games, including identifying Tolu Smith of the Pistons, Nae’Qwan Tomlin of the Cavaliers, and Drew Timme of the Nets as players to watch going forward. Hollinger also mentions Jazz big man Kyle Filipowski, Timberwolves guard Terrence Shannon Jr., Pistons forward Ron Holland, Thunder guard Ajay Mitchell, and Cavaliers wing Jaylon Tyson as the players who showed they were “too good for summer league.”
- While Summer League success doesn’t always carry over to the subsequent regular season, scouts around the NBA find July’s games “extremely valuable” for evaluating players, as Tobias Bass of The Athletic writes. “Before the draft, no matter what your opinion is about a player or how analytics project him to be, it’s always interesting to see how competitive they are once they get to summer league,” one Western Conference scout told Bass. “How quickly they pick up terminology, are they culture fits and can they keep the main thing the main thing? Can they be attentive, on time and professional, especially with all the distractions in Vegas?”
- Keith Smith of Spotrac empties out his notebook after traveling to Las Vegas for Summer League, sharing quotes from coaches, scouts, and executives about each of the NBA’s Eastern Conference and Western Conference teams.
Pacers Granted Disabled Player Exception
The Pacers have been granted a disabled player exception worth $14,104,000, general manager Chad Buchanan stated during an appearance on the Setting The Pace podcast (YouTube link).
Indiana was eligible for that exception as a result of Tyrese Haliburton‘s Achilles tear, which will sideline him for the entire 2025/26 season.
“We’ve applied for that and been granted that exception, so I don’t know if I’m breaking news there for you guys,” Buchanan said when asked by co-host Alex Golden about the possibility of the team applying for a DPE. “Whether we use it or not depends. Using the full exception would put us into the luxury tax, which we’re not opposed to if it’s the right player.”
A disabled player exception gives an over-the-cap team some extra spending power – but not an additional 15-man roster spot – when it loses a player to an injury deemed likely to sideline him through at least June 15. As we explain in our glossary entry, the exception can be used to sign a free agent, to claim a player off waivers, or to acquire a player in a trade.
The disabled player exception can only be used on a single player and can only accommodate a player on a one-year deal. A free agent signee can’t get a multiyear contract, and any trade or waiver target must be in the final year of his contract.
The exception is worth either half the injured player’s salary or the value of the mid-level exception, whichever is lesser. Since Haliburton is earning over $45MM this season, the Pacers’ DPE is worth the amount of the non-taxpayer MLE.
Buchanan, who was asked about the possibility of adding more backcourt depth with Haliburton out for the year, acknowledged that if the front office were to target a specific position, it would likely be a point guard. However, he added that the Pacers haven’t pursued that possibility “super hard” and mentioned RayJ Dennis, Kam Jones, and Quenton Jackson as young guards the team likes and will continue to develop behind Andrew Nembhard and T.J. McConnell.
Indiana is currently operating about $6MM below the luxury tax line. If the club doesn’t use its disabled player exception on a free agent before or during the season, it also could come in handy at the trade deadline. For example, if the Pacers were to trade Obi Toppin and his $14MM salary for a player on an expiring $14MM contract, they could use the DPE to take on that player, creating a new trade exception worth Toppin’s outgoing salary.
It’s worth noting that the Pacers also still have their full $14.1MM mid-level exception available — it can be used to sign free agents and/or acquire players via trade too, and it can be split among multiple players, unlike the DPE.
The deadline to use a disabled player exception is March 10. The mid-level exception can be used until the final day of the regular season.