Mavericks Sign Matthew Cleveland, Moussa Cisse
The Mavericks have officially signed guard/forward Matthew Cleveland and center Moussa Cisse, the team announced today in a press release (Twitter link). Both players went undrafted in June.
While the terms of their deals weren’t disclosed, Cleveland and Cisse almost certainly signed Exhibit 10 contracts. In fact, Cisse’s Exhibit 10 agreement was reported last month, shortly after the draft ended.
Exhibit 10 contracts are non-guaranteed minimum-salary deals that entitle players to bonuses worth up to $85,300 if they’re waived before the regular season and spend at least 60 days with their team’s G league affiliate. They can also be converted to two-way deals before the regular season begins, and Cisse, at least, is expected to have the opportunity to compete for a two-way spot in Dallas.
Cleveland played his last two college seasons at Miami after spending his first two years at Florida State. In 2024/25, he averaged 17.6 points and 4.4 rebounds per game with a .511/.382/.776 shooting line in 29 outings for the Hurricanes.
Cisse, meanwhile, started and ended his college career at Memphis, sandwiching stints with Oklahoma State and Ole Miss. The Guinean big man blocked 1.7 shots per game in 150 career college contests despite averaging fewer than 20 minutes per game.
Jazz Notes: Bailey, Cooper, Luis, Rebuild, Sensabaugh
Jazz No. 5 overall pick Ace Bailey has impressed the organization with his energy in his first summer league outings, ESPN’s Tim MacMahon writes. Bailey sealed the Jazz’s victory on Saturday with a free throw and showcased physicality and impressive defensive effort in the game.
“All that stuff isn’t talked about enough,” coach Will Hardy said of Bailey’s willingness to defend and rebound. “The offense will come. He’s learning a new system and new people and has been worked hard the last four days [in practice]. He’s an NBA body and athlete. He’s a great teammate too. I’ve had nothing but positive reviews from all the coaches and his teammates this first week.”
In other news, the Jazz planned to have Omar Cooper Jr., the son of Bailey’s advisor (and Sharife Cooper‘s twin brother), serve as a guest coach during Summer League. However, after the league office contacted Utah to raise concerns, that’s no longer happening, according to MacMahon.
We have more notes from the Jazz:
- Although there was outside noise about whether or not he wanted to be in Utah, Bailey told The Athletic’s Tony Jones that he’s focused on being the best player he can be for Utah. “Of course, you have to be aware of the business side of basketball,” Bailey said. “But I didn’t ask for all of this to come with it. I just want to hoop. I want to keep the main thing the main thing and stay focused. During pre-draft, I was surrounded by family and love. I’m big on family and loyalty. They were there for me even before I was Ace Bailey.”
- Two-way signee RJ Luis‘ contract covers two years with Utah, according to HoopsHype’s Michael Scotto (Twitter link). Luis averaged 18.2 points and 7.2 rebounds per game for St. John’s last season but went undrafted in June.
- By sending out assets or taking back modest returns — or nothing at all — for the trifecta of Collin Sexton, John Collins, and Jordan Clarkson, the Jazz are signaling that they’re resetting the franchise’s foundation, writes Andy Larsen of The Salt Lake Tribune (subscriber link). When they traded away Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert in 2022, the Jazz initially envisioned a two- or three-year rebuild and viewed players like Sexton, Collins, and Clarkson as potential contributors on Utah’s next competitive team, Larsen explains. By trading those players and drafting Bailey and Walter Clayton Jr., new team president Austin Ainge has completed the club’s teardown and fully committed to the rebuild.
- Brice Sensabaugh looked like the best player on the floor in the Jazz’s second Summer League game and his improvement on the defensive end is certainly notable, Larsen writes in another Salt Lake Tribune story. While Sensabaugh still playing Summer League games heading into his third year could be looked at as a disappointment, Larsen points out that such a move paid dividends for Walker Kessler.
Central Notes: Pistons, Ivey, Nance, Nesmith, Mathurin
Speaking on Tuesday to reporters, including Keith Langlois of Pistons.com, Pistons president of basketball operations Trajan Langdon spoke about the size and shooting that Duncan Robinson will bring to the team and lauded Caris LeVert for his defensive versatility, ball-handling, and “unselfish brand of basketball.” He also pointed out that both newcomers have plenty of postseason experience.
However, Langdon also made it clear that the additions of Robinson and LeVert aren’t the only reasons why he’s enthusiastic about his team’s potential in 2025/26.
“I think the one thing that does get lost in all of this, to be honest with you, is (Jaden Ivey‘s) return,” Langdon said. “A lot of people are saying, who are you filling with these guys that are exiting. I say, well, we have a pretty good free agent pickup in J.I., so I think he’s going to fill a lot of those point guard roles and play-making roles.”
In addition to getting Ivey back, the Pistons also expect young cornerstones like Cade Cunningham and Jalen Duren to continue improving.
“We have a chance to compete next year,” Langdon said. “The main thing for us is continuing to let these young guys develop and they’re in the gym working their butt off. Like I said from initially in the summer, if they get better, we’re going to be better. So it was finding pieces to complement our young players and their growth and ability to reach their potential. I think with our two additions, we got bigger and we want to continue to put them around guys who can play-make. That’s going to continue to help Cade grow and develop.”
Here’s more from around the Central:
- After the Pistons generated a $14.1MM traded player exception in their sign-and-trade deal sending Dennis Schröder to Sacramento, Hunter Patterson of The Athletic considers what sort of players it might make sense to target using that TPE. Herb Jones, Goga Bitadze, and Brandon Clarke are among the names he suggests.
- A member of the Cavaliers from 2018-21, Larry Nance Jr. has remained close with the organization since then and spent his summers in Cleveland in the years, writes Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com (subscription required). That’s one reason why it came as no surprise that the Ohio native signed a deal to return to the Cavs this offseason. “It just made too much sense, you know? I knew I would (be back one day). I didn’t know when,” Nance said. “… This is a team that’s really got a chance to win it all. And that’s the goal. That’s why I came back, and that’s what we’re going to do this year.”
- Aaron Nesmith and Bennedict Mathurin will be extension-eligible ahead of the start of the 2025/26 regular season and the Pacers plan to discuss new deals for them, but president of basketball operations Kevin Pritchard is preaching patience, per Dustin Dopirak of The Indianapolis Star. “Can I just have like 24 hours please?” Pritchard said when asked on Monday about potential Mathurin and Nesmith extensions. “Literally, guys, we went straight from the Finals to the draft to free agency to Summer League. … We’ll look at all those kinds of things. But I think that’s a little premature. We have all summer and up until next year to do those.” Dopirak views Nesmith (who will be extension-eligible starting in October) as a no-brainer candidate for a new contract but acknowledges that Mathurin’s situation is a little more complicated.
Clippers Reportedly Favorites To Land Bradley Beal
Assuming he reaches a buyout with the Suns – which appears to be a matter of when, not if – the Clippers are viewed as the frontrunners to sign Bradley Beal, league sources tell Law Murray, Dan Woike and Fred Katz of The Athletic.
Kurt Helin of NBC Sports previously reported that the Clippers were considered the favorites to land the three-time All-Star if he hits the open market.
According to The Athletic, Beal knows he likely won’t be able to immediately make back the money he gives up in a buyout — if the Suns want to use the stretch provision to spread his remaining salary across five seasons instead of two, he’ll have to forfeit a minimum of $13.8MM due to a CBA rule.
Murray, Woike, and Katz suggest the 32-year-old might sign a two-year deal with Los Angeles that includes a player option for 2026/27 so that he’d have the option of returning to the open market in a year.
The Clippers recently traded Norman Powell after reportedly being reluctant to offer him a long-term deal, and then waived Jordan Miller today. Both moves were viewed as precursors to signing Beal, with the trade of Powell opening up a spot on the depth chart while the release of Miller creates a little extra cap flexibility.
The Clippers used $8.75MM of their non-taxpayer mid-level exception to sign Brook Lopez, but still have about $5.35MM of MLE money left that they could offer Beal while still maintaining enough room below their first-apron hard cap to fill out the roster.
In addition to the Clippers, Beal has also been considering the Lakers, Warriors, and Bucks, league sources tell The Athletic. The Timberwolves have also been cited as a team with interest in the three-time All-Star, but The Athletic’s report doesn’t confirm that interest is being reciprocated.
Luke Adams contributed to this story.
Nets Sign Drake Powell To Rookie Scale Contract
The Nets have signed No. 22 overall pick Drake Powell to his rookie scale contract, the team announced today in a press release.
Powell officially became a Net on Monday when the three-team trade involving the Hawks and Celtics that was agreed to prior to the draft was finally finalized, sending his draft rights to Brooklyn.
A day later, he has become the last of 2025’s first-round picks to sign his rookie scale contract — all 30 of those players, including each of Brooklyn’s five first-rounders, are now under contract with their respective teams.
[RELATED: 2025 NBA Draft Pick Signings]
Powell averaged 7.4 points, 3.4 rebounds, and 1.1 assists per game for UNC last season on .483/.379/.648 shooting. At 6’6″ with a 7’0″ wingspan and elite athleticism, he brings a versatility and hard-nosed defensive mindset that the Nets could use in their rotation.
However, he won’t be available when Summer League gets underway for Brooklyn later this week. As Brian Lewis of The New York Post details, Powell is being held out as a precaution due to tendinopathy in his left knee, an injury he sustained during the pre-draft process.
Assuming he signs for 120% of his rookie scale amount, which is the standard, Powell will earn $3.37MM as a rookie and $3.54MM in year two, with third- and fourth-year team options that could bring the total value of his rookie contract to $16.72MM.
Clippers Waive Jordan Miller
The Clippers have waived guard/forward Jordan Miller, according to the official transaction log at NBA.com.
As our list of early salary guarantee dates for 2025/26 shows, Miller would have been owed a partial guarantee of $350K had he remained on Los Angeles’ roster past July 15.
Miller’s $2.19MM deal for next season also had a second trigger date for making the regular season roster, which no longer applies unless he’s claimed off the waiver wire.
It’s worth noting that Miller is on the Clippers’ summer league roster. According to Law Murray of The Athletic (Twitter link), assuming Miller clears waivers, the plan is for the 25-year-old to return to the team on a new contract and continue with summer league.
Jake Fischer of The Stein Line (Twitter link) adds that the Clippers plan to “keep (Miller) as part of the organization,” which is a little vague, but could suggest he’ll be back at some point on a new deal.
A former second-round pick (48th overall in 2023), Miller was promoted to a four-year standard contract on March 1 after spending most of his first two seasons on a two-way deal with the Clips. The 25-year-old only got 28 minutes of playing time across eight games as a rookie, but he played well for the Clippers’ G League affiliate, and was able to carve out some rotation minutes on a 50-win team in year two, averaging 4.1 points and 1.6 rebounds in 37 games (11.4 minutes per contest).
Miller hit the 50-game limit for two-way players on March 1, which is part of the reason the Clips converted him. They also gave him a prorated salary for 2024/25 well above the minimum using part of their mid-level exception, with the remaining three years of his deal being non-guaranteed.
I wouldn’t be surprised if a team decided to claim Miller, as he’s shown some real upside at the NBAGL level, including averaging 24.9 PPG, 5.1 RPG, 3.6 APG and 1.0 SPG on .509/.350/.844 shooting in seven games last season (31.1 MPG).
According to Keith Smith of Spotrac (Twitter link), L.A. is approximately $8.9MM below its first-apron hard cap with three openings on its standard roster. The Clippers could use the remaining $5.3MM they have left of the full mid-level exception to sign someone, add another player on a minimum-salary deal, and sign 50th overall pick Kobe Sanders using the second-round pick exception, says Smith.
Nikola Jokic Reportedly Won’t Sign Extension This Offseason
Superstar center Nikola Jokic has informed the Nuggets he does not intend to sign an extension this offseason, instead choosing to wait for when a more lucrative deal will be available in 2026, team sources tell Bennett Durando of The Denver Post.
The Nuggets were anticipating that Jokic might bypass an extension, according to Durando, due to the additional year and extra $79MM they can offer next summer.
Based on the latest salary cap projections, a three-year, maximum-salary for Jokic beginning in 2027/28 would be worth $206.4MM. A four-year deal, available next offseason, would be worth a projected $285.4MM.
Nuggets vice chairman Josh Kroenke said last month that Jokic would be offered the three-year extension.
“We’re definitely gonna offer it,” Kroenke said on June 24. “I’m not sure if he’s gonna accept it or not because we’re also gonna explain every financial parameter around him, signing now versus signing later.”
Over the past five years, the 30-year-old Serbian has won three MVP awards and was the runner-up twice. In one of those second-place seasons (2023), Jokic led the Nuggets to an NBA championship, claiming Finals MVP in the process.
Vinny Benedetto of The Denver Gazette and Marc Stein of The Stein Line have confirmed Durando’s reporting (Twitter links).
Jokic was open about the Nuggets needing to improve after they lost their second-round playoff series to the Thunder in seven games. Oklahoma City went on to win the NBA Finals.
The Nuggets have had a busy offseason. They agreed to trade Michael Porter Jr. and their 2032 first-round pick to the Nets for Cameron Johnson; agreed to another to send Dario Saric to the Kings for Jonas Valanciunas; brought back Bruce Brown on a one-year deal; and added Tim Hardaway Jr. in free agency.
For what it’s worth, ESPN’s Brian Windhorst said on the Hoop Collective podcast (YouTube link) that he’s heard second-hand that Jokic liked the moves Denver made this summer.
Heat Notes: Mitchell, Powell, Beal, Lillard, Fontecchio, Ware
Davion Mitchell, who re-signed with the Heat this week after playing the best basketball of his NBA career following a trade-deadline deal that sent him to Miami, said on Tuesday that the organization is “completely different” from the other NBA teams he has spent time with (Sacramento and Toronto).
“One, coach (Erik Spoelstra) is one of the greatest coaches of all time,” Mitchell said when asked what makes Miami different, per Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald. “So just learning from him, just asking questions, you won’t get any better answers from anybody else, I think. And just my teammates, my teammates wanted me here, they embraced me here, they wanted me to be myself. If I can be somewhere and be myself, I know I can be the best player I can be.”
As good as Mitchell was in during his 30 regular season games with Miami, the team struggled during those contests, posting a 10-20 record. He’s optimistic that working together this offseason will help put the Heat in a better position to open the 2025/26 season.
“It’s going to be good for me and the team, just the chemistry that we can build,” Mitchell said. “We won a couple games, we even made it to the playoffs with very little chemistry, especially with injuries and just getting traded here. So we didn’t really know how to jell with one another. I feel like we kind of figured it out a little bit (near the end of the season. But to have a training camp with one another, just to go at each other, just to learn from one another, spend time outside of basketball with each other, I think is going to build a lot of team chemistry.”
Here’s more on the Heat:
- Mitchell is excited about Miami’s addition of Norman Powell, noting that the veteran wing will bring championship experience to the team. “He’s a winning player, he plays both sides of the ball, he can score with the best of them,” Mitchell said. “He kind of does it all. Even if he’s not shooting the ball well, he can disrupt defensively. So you want guys like that on the floor that can help you win like that.”
- While the acquisition of Powell makes a Bradley Beal signing a long shot, the Heat are still in play as a possible Damian Lillard landing spot, Chiang writes in another Miami Herald story. However, Chiang believes Miami’s odds would increase if Lillard waits until midway through the season or next offseason to sign his next contract.
- New Heat forward Simone Fontecchio, acquired from Detroit in the Duncan Robinson sign-and-trade, is hoping to fill a similar offensive role to the one Robinson played in Miami, according to Chiang. “I watched a lot of Duncan Robinson in the last three years, because I think our skill set is pretty similar,” Fontecchio said. “Of course, he’s a tremendous shooter and he did an amazing job all the years in Miami and I was always kind of looking at him, the way he was getting off shots and I always kind of wanted to do the same thing. I think I can try to play like a little bit off handoffs, running off screens, do a little bit of that.”
- Sharing his takeaways from the Heat’s second Summer League game at this week’s California Classic, Chiang writes that the team will want to see more going forward out of second-year center Kel’el Ware, who put up an underwhelming stat line of 12 points (on 4-of-10 shooting) and three rebounds in 28 minutes in Sunday’s loss to the Lakers. As we noted last week, the Heat’s coaching staff had hoped Ware would “dominate” Summer League play ahead of his second NBA season.
Free Agent Notes: Melton, Warriors, Horford, Hayes-Davis
There was chatter early in the free agent period connecting De’Anthony Melton to the Lakers, but that talk has “cooled” in recent days, according to Jovan Buha, who said during a Monday live-stream (YouTube link) that the free agent guard has been more frequently connected to the Warriors as of late.
NBA insider Marc Stein (Twitter link) confirms as much, citing league sources who say that Golden State has emerged as a “strong contender” to sign Melton.
The Warriors used their full non-taxpayer mid-level exception to sign Melton to a one-year contract in free agency last season, but he suffered a season-ending ACL tear in just his sixth game with his new team. Prior to the injury, the 27-year-old was looking like an ideal fit in Golden State’s backcourt, with an average of 10.3 points per game and a .371 3PT%, albeit in a very small sample size.
Here are a few more free agent notes from around the NBA:
- Big man Al Horford is another free agent who has been frequently connected to the Warriors. According to Noa Dalzell of CelticsBlog (Twitter link), Celtics president of basketball operations Brad Stevens acknowledged on Tuesday that it’s “unlikely” Horford returns to Boston, though Stevens did say the team made offers to both him and Luke Kornet (who signed with San Antonio).
- Veteran forward Nigel Hayes-Davis and Fenerbahce have officially parted ways, the Turkish team announced (via Twitter). The move paves the way for Hayes-Davis to get his FIBA letter of clearance and officially finalize his reported agreement with the Suns. Hayes-Davis reportedly turned down a lucrative offer from Fenerbahce that would have made him one of the EuroLeague’s highest-paid players.
- Chris Herring, Zach Kram, Bobby Marks, and Kevin Pelton of ESPN broke down some of their favorite – and least favorite – moves of the free agent period so far, with Kornet to the Spurs, Brook Lopez to the Clippers, and Dorian Finney-Smith to the Rockets among the signings that earned kudos.
Kings Sign Drew Eubanks
The Kings have officially signed center Drew Eubanks, according to NBA.com’s transaction log. The move had been anticipated after the big man was waived last week by the Clippers.
Eubanks, 28, opened the 2024/25 season with the Jazz and appeared in 37 games for the club, averaging 5.8 points, 4.5 rebounds, and 1.2 assists in 15.4 minutes per contest.
His playing time dropped off after he was sent to the Clippers in a deadline deal — the 6’10” center averaged just 2.7 PPG and 2.4 RPG in 7.4 MPG across 24 appearances in Los Angeles and only saw garbage-time action in the playoffs for the Clippers. As such, it came as no surprise when L.A. opted to waive him before his $4.75MM salary for 2025/26 became guaranteed.
Eubanks will provide depth in the Kings’ frontcourt behind center Domantas Sabonis, giving the team a reliable veteran off the bench alongside young bigs Isaac Jones and Maxime Raynaud.
While the terms of his one-year deal haven’t yet been reported, it will almost certainly be a minimum-salary contract for Eubanks.