Heat Notes: Powell, Clutch Shooting, Cap Space, D. Robinson
Norman Powell called it a “childhood dream” to play for the Heat during an introductory news conference conducted via Zoom on Wednesday, writes Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald. That dream was realized on Monday when the Clippers agreed to send Powell to Miami as part of a three-team trade that also included Utah. Powell wasn’t exactly expecting to be dealt after a career-best season, but it wasn’t a complete surprise.
“I didn’t know what to think at first,” he said. “It has been a crazy last couple of weeks, from talking to [Clippers general manager] Lawrence Frank at my exit meeting and what they were telling me. It was something I knew was a possibility, from them communicating teams were interested, inquiring about me. But it was made to seem like it wasn’t a high possibility of it happening and they valued me and wanted me to be a Clipper and we were going to figure out … extension talks.”
Powell’s love for the Heat comes from being a fan of Dwyane Wade while growing up. He believes he has the work ethic to fit right into Heat culture and said he can provide scoring punch in whatever role he’s given.
“I see myself as a plug and play,” Powell said. “I see myself as a key guy, a one, two option that can help carry a team to win. … I’ve always seen myself as a go-to guy that can help carry a team, help a team win. I don’t have a big ego of ‘I have to be the main guy.’ I want to win.”
There’s more from Miami:
- Powell should help the Heat improve their clutch shooting, which cost them several games last season, Jackson states in a separate piece. Miami posted the league’s worst record in close games after January 1 and ranked in the bottom two for shot-making in clutch situations throughout the entire season. Jackson notes that Powell was 12th in the league in clutch three-point shooting among players with at least 10 attempts, going 7-of-14.
- The trade won’t have an immediate effect on the Heat’s cap space beyond next season, Jackson adds. Powell has a $20.5MM expiring contract, while Kevin Love also had an expiring deal and Kyle Anderson‘s $9.4MM salary for 2026-27 was non-guaranteed.
- Powell represents a clear upgrade from Duncan Robinson, who was sent to Detroit in a sign-and-trade deal, contends Ira Winderman of The Sun Sentinel. Winderman views Powell as a more complete offensive threat than Robinson, who is primarily an outside shooter. He adds that it would have cost close to $20MM per season to keep Robinson, so there’s not much salary difference in acquiring Powell.
Clippers Waive Seth Lundy
The Clippers have waived two-way small forward Seth Lundy, the team announced today.
Lundy, 25, signed a two-way contract with L.A. on March 1 after being released by Atlanta in December. He spent last season recovering from left ankle surgery and didn’t appear in any games in either the NBA or the G League. He’s expected to be fully healthy in time for training camp if he catches on with another team, sources tell Michael Scotto of HoopsHype (Twitter link).
Lundy was selected by the Hawks with the 46th pick in the 2023 draft. He was on two-way contracts during both his seasons with Atlanta and averaged 1.6 PPG in nine games as a rookie.
He played four seasons at Penn State before being drafted.
Patrick Baldwin and Trentyn Flowers are the Clippers’ other two-way players.
Mavericks Hiring Popeye Jones, Phil Handy As Assistants
The Mavericks are adding two more veteran assistants to their revamped coaching staff, according to Marc Stein of The Stein Line, who reports (via Twitter) that Popeye Jones and Phil Handy have agreed to roles under head coach Jason Kidd.
A former NBA forward, Jones hasn’t worked with Kidd since they went into coaching but actually played alongside him for two seasons in Dallas from 1994-96. Since transitioning to coaching in 2007, Jones has spent time the Mavericks as a player development coach (2007-10) and with the Nets (2010-13), Pacers (2013-20), Sixers (2020-21), and Nuggets (2021-25) as an assistant.
Jones will be Kidd’s No. 3 assistant coach and will focus on defense, according to Grant Afseth of DallasHoopsJournal.com.
Handy, meanwhile, is coming to the Mavericks after previous stints with the Lakers (2011-13), Cavaliers (2013-18), Raptors (2018-19), and Lakers again (2019-24). He and Kidd were both members of Frank Vogel‘s staff in Los Angeles when the Lakers won a championship in 2020.
According to Afseth, the expectation is that Handy will take over the player developmental role previously held by God Shammgod, who left Dallas this offseason for Orlando.
Kidd’s top assistants last season were Sean Sweeney, Alex Jensen, and Jared Dudley, but they’ve since departed for San Antonio, the University of Utah, and Denver, respectively. Two former NBA head coaches, Vogel and Jay Triano, have since been tabbed as Kidd’s new top two assistants, with shooting specialist Mike Penberthy also coming aboard.
Ben McLemore Sentenced To Eight Years In Prison Following Rape Conviction
A week after being found guilty of raping a woman in 2021, former NBA guard Ben McLemore has been sentenced to 100 months (eight years and four months) in Oregon state prison, according to reports from Luisa Anderson of KGW News and Baxter Holmes of ESPN.
McLemore initially faced four criminal changes stemming from an incident that occurred at a Lake Oswego house party nearly five years ago. He was found guilty on one charge of first-degree rape, one charge of first-degree unlawful sexual penetration, and one count of second-degree sexual abuse, with the jury finding him not guilty on an additional count of second-degree sexual abuse.
The incident occurred in October 2021 at the home of Robert Covington, McLemore’s teammate on the Trail Blazers at the time. A grand jury heard the case in February 2024, including testimony from the woman who accused McLemore of assaulting her, which led to an indictment against him and a warrant for his arrest.
As Holmes outlines, the prosecution told jurors during the trial that the victim passed out on a living room couch at the party around 2:00 am, incapacitated due to heavy drinking, and regained partial consciousness the next morning when McLemore penetrated her with his fingers and began having sex with her.
McLemore’s attorneys disputed that version of events, claiming she initiated sexual contact and consented to it, and asserting that she was sober enough to give consent even though both she and McLemore were intoxicated.
McLemore, 32, was the seventh overall pick in the 2013 draft. He appeared in 556 regular season NBA games for the Kings, Grizzlies, Rockets, Lakers, and Blazers from 2013-22, averaging 9.0 points and 2.3 rebounds per game. He has been out of the league since his contract with Portland expired in 2022.
Sixers Sign Dominick Barlow To Two-Way Deal, Waive Alex Reese
3:12 pm: The Sixers have officially signed Barlow and waived Reese, the team confirmed in a press release.
12:43 pm: The Sixers are waiving two-way forward Alex Reese, Michael Scotto of HoopsHype tweets. That will make room for Dominick Barlow, as the Sixers are adding him on a two-way deal, ESPN’s Shams Charania tweets.
Barlow, 22, has 96 games of NBA experience. He made a total of 61 appearances with San Antonio during the 2022/23 and ’23/24 seasons. Last year, Barlow appeared in 35 games with the Hawks, including four starts. He averaged 4.2 points and 2.4 rebounds in 10.7 minutes per night.
Atlanta declined its option on Barlow’s $2.2MM contract in late June, making him an unrestricted free agent. He had been promoted from a two-way deal to a standard contract in early March.
Reese appeared in 14 games with Philadelphia last season, averaging 5.3 points and 3.3 rebounds in 15.3 minutes per game. The 6’9″ forward was signed to a two-year, two-way deal in late February. He’s currently on the team’s Summer League roster but has recently been experiencing Achilles soreness.
Reese also spent extended time in the G League last season. He averaged 16.1 points, 6.9 rebounds, 1.8 blocks, and 1.2 steals per game for the Delaware Blue Coats and Rip City Remix, making 45.1% of his shots from the field and 39.3% from three-point range.
Reese played four seasons of college basketball for Alabama from 2017-21 prior to going undrafted. He initially spent a year away from the sport, then signed in Luxembourg during the 2022/23 campaign. He spent the 2023/24 season with the Rip City Remix.
Hunter Sallis and Jabari Walker hold the other two-way spots.
James Jones Leaves Suns For Job In League Office
Former Suns general manager James Jones has accepted a job in the league office, the NBA announced today in a press release.
Jones has been named the NBA’s new executive vice president and head of basketball operations. It’s the same role that Joe Dumars held before he left the position to become the Pelicans’ executive VP of basketball operations in April.
Jones’ responsibilities in his new position will include overseeing “development of playing rules and interpretations, conduct and discipline, and policies and procedures relating to the operation of games,” per the league.
“James is widely respected across the NBA for being an inspiring leader and the consummate teammate during his more than 20 years as a highly successful player and team executive,” the NBA’s president of league operations Byron Spruell said in a statement. “With his exceptional relationship-building skills and deep basketball expertise, he is well suited to guide our efforts to shape the current and future direction of the NBA game.”
A three-time NBA champion as a player, Jones had been in the Suns’ front office for the last eight years. He was initially hired as Phoenix’s vice president of basketball operations in 2017, but quickly rose up the ranks to become co-general manager in October of 2018. He was later named the Suns’ lone GM in 2019 and had been the head of basketball operations for the team since then, until he was replaced by Brian Gregory this spring.
At the time of Gregory’s promotion, reporting indicated that Jones was transitioning to becoming a senior advisor for the Suns. However, typically when a head of basketball operations is moved out of that top role, it’s a precursor to him leaving that organization altogether.
Eastern Notes: White, Langdon, Beasley, Johnson, Jakucionis
The Celtics traded away two starters this offseason and Derrick White‘s four-year, $118MM extension has kicked in for 2025/26. But he was reasonably sure he wouldn’t be dealt, he told Chris Forsberg of the Celtics Talk Podcast (hat tip to Brian Robb of Masslive.com).
“I think every summer is pretty crazy, especially nowadays,” White said. “But I didn’t feel too worried about anything. My agent and Brad (Stevens) had been talking and all the other rumors and stuff, I wasn’t really too worried about. I mean, I feel like it’s cool to be wanted by other teams, but I wanted to stay in Boston, and I was glad they wanted to keep me.”
Here’s more from the Eastern Conference:
- Pistons top exec Trajan Langdon admitted that the gambling investigation involving Malik Beasley news left them “not much time” to pivot,” Omari Sankofa II of the Detroit Free Press tweets. The Pistons pulled their three-year, $42MM offer to Beasley, an unrestricted free agent, when the news broke. “I was able to communicate with Malik and his agent Saturday, which was obviously right before we could start talking to free agents on Sunday,” Langdon said. “It was disappointing for us, because we were excited to get him back.”
- Lottery pick Tre Johnson strives for greatness, which is one big reason why the Wizards are excited about his future, Josh Robbins of The Athletic writes. “I really don’t have too much of a life outside of basketball, and that was literally a choice up to me because of just how good I wanted to be,” Johnson said.
- Kasparas Jakucionis, the Heat‘s first-round pick, had a rough time at the California Classic Summer League, Anthony Chiang of the Miami Herald writes. He score just 12 points on 1-of-15 (6.7%) shooting from the field, including 0-of-11 from three-point range, in his first three summer league games. However, he’s not panicking over his showing. “I think I need to just settle in more, play at my own pace, don’t get sped up too much as I was these three games,” Jakucionis said. “I didn’t feel myself in those games. But I think that’s normal. It’s a process, so I’m just happy to be here, happy to be able to learn from coaches, from other guys by working out, watching film and just understanding the game.”
Groups Set For 2025 NBA Cup
The NBA has officially announced the six groups of five teams apiece for the 2025 Emirates NBA Cup, also known as the in-season tournament (Twitter link).
In order to set the groups, the league splits the Western and Eastern Conferences into five three-team tiers based on last season’s regular season standings, with one club from each tier randomly drawn into each of the conference’s three groups.
For instance, the top three teams from the West will all be in separate groups, with each of those three groups also featuring one team in the 4-6 range, one in the 7-9 range, and so on.
Here are the groups for the 2025 NBA Cup:
- West Group A: Oklahoma City Thunder (1), Minnesota Timberwolves (6), Sacramento Kings (9), Phoenix Suns (11), Utah Jazz (15)
- West Group B: Los Angeles Lakers (3), Los Angeles Clippers (5), Memphis Grizzlies (8), Dallas Mavericks (10), New Orleans Pelicans (14)
- West Group C: Houston Rockets (2), Denver Nuggets (4), Golden State Warriors (7), Portland Trail Blazers (12), San Antonio Spurs (13)
- East Group A: Cleveland Cavaliers (1), Indiana Pacers (4), Atlanta Hawks (8), Toronto Raptors (11), Washington Wizards (15)
- East Group B: Boston Celtics (2), Detroit Pistons (6), Orlando Magic (7), Brooklyn Nets (12), Philadelphia 76ers (13)
- East Group C: New York Knicks (3), Milwaukee Bucks (5), Chicago Bulls (9), Miami Heat (10), Charlotte Hornets (14)
The round-robin group play games will be starting a little earlier than usual this season and will run from October 31 to November 28. Each team will face the other four clubs in its group once, with the winners of each group and one wild card team from each conference advancing to the eight-team, single-elimination knockout round.
The full schedule of group play games can be viewed right here.
The quarterfinals will be played on December 9-10, with the semifinals and final to follow on Dec. 13 and Dec. 16, respectively, in Las Vegas. The knockout round games will all be aired by one of the NBA’s new broadcasting partners, Amazon Prime.
The Bucks won last season’s NBA Cup, with star forward Giannis Antetokounmpo earning MVP honors after leading Milwaukee to a victory over the Thunder in the championship game.
Nuggets Sign Bruce Brown To One-Year Deal
July 9: Brown has officially signed with the Nuggets, according to a press release from the team.
June 30: The Nuggets have agreed to a deal to bring Bruce Brown back to Denver on a one-year deal, according to ESPN’s Shams Charania (Twitter link).
Sam Amick of The Athletic reports (via Twitter) that the deal will be worth the veteran’s minimum.
Since leaving the Nuggets as a free agent in 2023, Brown has spent time with the Pacers, Raptors, and Pelicans. He averaged 8.3 points and 4.0 rebounds per game in 2024/25 over 41 games split between Toronto and New Orleans before being held out of action down the stretch with a right knee injury.
The versatile 6’4″ wing spent time with the Pistons and Nets before his first stint in Denver, which culminated in him playing a key role off the bench for the championship team in 2022/23. After averaging 12 points, 4.0 rebounds, and 1.1 steals per game in the playoffs that year, Brown left the team for a two-year, $45MM offer from the Pacers that Denver didn’t have the ability to match.
Brown now returns to a Denver team that is making aggressive moves to position itself for another title run, including trading longtime starter Michael Porter Jr. and a first-round pick for Cameron Johnson.
James Borrego To Remain Pelicans’ Top Assistant
Pelicans associate head coach James Borrego will remain in his current position on Willie Green‘s staff, Ian Begley of SNY TV tweets.
One of the finalists for the head coaching job in New York, Borrego was rumored to be a prime target for the Knicks as they seek an associate head coach under new head coach Mike Brown. He was also targeted by the Nuggets to be their lead assistant under David Adelman but the Pelicans denied Denver’s front office permission to interview him.
The 47-year-old Borrego has served as associate head coach under Green in New Orleans for the past two seasons. He has previous head coaching experience, compiling a 138-163 record in four seasons with the Hornets.
Borrego has worked in the league since 2010, spending time as an assistant coach with the Hornets, Magic and Spurs before getting the head coaching opportunity in Charlotte. He also served as the interim head coach in Orlando during the 2014/15 season, compiling a 10-20 record in 30 games.
Rick Brunson, who was Tom Thibodeau‘s lead assistant last season, reportedly will have a lesser role under Brown.