Norman Powell To Heat, John Collins To Clippers In Three-Team Trade
4:21 pm: The three-team trade is official, according to a press release from the Jazz.
9:27 am: The Clippers, Jazz and Heat have reached an agreement on a three-team trade, sources tell Shams Charania of ESPN (Twitter link). The deal will send Norman Powell to Miami, John Collins to L.A. and Kevin Love, Kyle Anderson and a 2027 Clippers second-round pick to Utah.
Powell is coming off the best scoring season of his career and will bring more offensive punch to Miami’s backcourt. After finishing fourth in the Sixth Man of the Year balloting in consecutive seasons, Powell was moved into the starting lineup and responded by averaging 21.8 points per game while shooting 48.4% from the field and 41.8% from three-point range.
Powell, 32, will make $20.5MM next season before becoming a free agent in 2026. He’s eligible for a three-year extension worth $77.4MM. Those limits would increase to $128.5MM over four years in six months.
The Clippers were reluctant to give Powell a long-term extension, sources tell Michael Scotto of HoopsHype (Twitter link). With Kawhi Leonard and James Harden both signed through 2026/27, the team is preserving cap space for 2027 free agency.
Miami will use the expanded traded player exception to acquire Powell, Bobby Marks of ESPN notes (Twitter link), hard-capping them at the first tax apron, and will be $1.3MM over the luxury tax line once the deal is complete.
Miami will be just $3.9MM away from that first-apron threshold once the trade is complete, so it won’t be able to use the full taxpayer mid-level exception of $5.7MM, according to cap expert Yossi Gozlan (Twitter link), who also speculates that acquiring Powell means the team is probably no longer a logical fit for Bradley Beal, who is believed to be nearing a buyout with Phoenix.
Collins, 27, will bring more frontcourt depth to a Clippers team that recently added Brook Lopez in free agency. Collins has been a starter in Utah since being acquired from Atlanta two years ago, but he was limited to 40 games last season. He has one year left on his contract at $26.6MM and can sign an extension worth up to $100.5MM over three years, per Marks. While a massive payday is unlikely for Collins, it’s worth noting those extension limits would increase six months after the trade to $166.7MM over four years.
L.A. is now $6.7MM below the first apron with $5.3MM of its mid-level exception remaining, according to Gozlan (Twitter link). With their top three-point shooter now gone, Gozlan expects the Clippers to be in the market for Beal.
Anderson, 31, has been a useful contributor on contending teams throughout his career, but it’s not clear how he fits in with the rebuilding Jazz. His contract covers two more seasons at $9.2MM and $9.7MM, but 2026/27 is non-guaranteed. Love, who’ll turn 37 in September, has a $4.15MM expiring deal and will likely become a buyout candidate.
Gozlan notes that Utah can create a $26.6MM trade exception by using the mid-level exception to take on Anderson and Love (Twitter link). Alternatively, the Jazz could create roughly $22MM in cap space by waiving the non-guaranteed contracts of KJ Martin ($8MM) and Jaden Springer ($2.4MM) and could be in position to make a play for one of the remaining free agents.
It sounds like Utah will continue operating over the cap, going the trade exception route, tweets Marks.
Knicks Hire Mike Brown As Head Coach
July 7: The Knicks have officially named Brown their head coach, issuing a press release to confirm the news.
“After a thorough and extensive search process, we are pleased to announce Mike Brown as the head coach of the New York Knicks,” team president Leon Rose said in a statement. “Mike has coached on the biggest stages in our sport and brings championship pedigree to our organization. His experience leading the bench during the NBA Finals, winning four titles as an assistant coach, and his ability to grow and develop players will all help us as we aim to bring a championship to New York for our fans.”
“I would like to welcome Mike Brown to New York and the Knicks organization,” Knicks owner James Dolan added in a statement of his own. “Leon and our staff ran a thorough and thoughtful process that led our organization to Mike, and I’m pleased to see him on the sideline for us next season.”
As we relayed on Saturday, Brown has reportedly signed a four-year contract worth an estimated $40MM.
July 2: The Knicks are expected to hire Mike Brown as their new head coach, reports Shams Charania of ESPN (Twitter link). NBA insider Chris Haynes (Twitter link) confirms Brown has been offered the job and says the two sides are working “expeditiously” on finalizing the terms of a contract.
Brown, who began his coaching career as an assistant with the Wizards, Spurs, and Pacers, has since held head coaching positions with the Cavaliers (twice), Lakers, and Kings, as well as spending six years on the Warriors’ staff as Steve Kerr‘s top assistant.
He holds a career regular season record of 454-304 (.599), with a 50-40 (.556) mark in the postseason.
A Coach of the Year in Cleveland in 2009 and again in Sacramento in 2023, Brown helped the Kings snap a 16-year playoff drought two seasons ago, but after the team missed the playoffs in 2024 and got off to a slow start this past fall, he was let go and replaced with Doug Christie.
The Knicks’ decision to hire Brown caps off an eventful head coaching search that began with the team requesting permission to speak to several coaches already under contract with teams. The Mavericks (Jason Kidd), Timberwolves (Chris Finch), Rockets (Ime Udoka), Hawks (Quin Snyder), and Bulls (Billy Donovan) all declined the Knicks’ requests, prompting the club to turn to candidates who didn’t currently hold head coaching jobs.
Brown was one of at least four candidates interviewed by the Knicks, along with Taylor Jenkins, James Borrego, and Micah Nori. The team also reached out to South Carolina’s Dawn Staley to discuss the job, though it’s unclear if she had a formal interview.
Brown had a second interview that included team owner James Dolan on Tuesday, with reporting later in the day indicating he was the frontrunner for the job. He was the only candidate confirmed to get a second meeting.
In his new role, Brown will be tasked with helping a Knicks team that advanced to the conference finals this spring make it over the hump and win its first championship since 1973. He’ll take over a roster headlined by All-Stars Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns.
Timberwolves Sign Joan Beringer To Rookie Deal
The Timberwolves have officially signed first-round pick Joan Beringer to his rookie scale contract, according to a press release from the team.
One of the top international players in this year’s draft class, Beringer played this past season for Cedevita Olimpija in Slovenia, where he averaged 4.9 points, 4.1 rebounds, and 1.5 blocks in 18.3 minutes per game in 30 outings in the ABA League.
The young Frenchman, who will turn 19 in November, has only played basketball for four years and is still learning the game, notes ESPN’s Jonathan Givony, who adds that Beringer possesses “outstanding” physical tools, including the coveted combination of defensive mobility and rim-protecting ability.
Timberwolves general manger Matt Lloyd told reporters after June’s draft that several team officials became convinced that Beringer was a perfect fit for the franchise after watching him work out and meeting with him in Chicago during the pre-draft process. Minnesota just wasn’t sure if he would still be available at No. 17 overall.
“Joan is one of those rare cases where the best player available also had a fit,” Lloyd said. “And we were sweating it. … It was a long night of waiting.”
As our breakdown of rookie scale salaries shows, assuming Beringer assumes the maximum allowable 120% of the rookie scale, which is likely, his deal will be worth about $20.3MM over four years, including $4.2MM in year one. The first two seasons are guaranteed, followed by team options in years three and four.
Suns Sign Khaman Maluach, Rasheer Fleming, Koby Brea
The Suns have officially signed all three of their 2025 draft picks, according to NBA.com’s transaction log. That trio consists of No. 10 overall pick Khaman Maluach, No. 31 pick Rasheer Fleming, and No. 41 selection Koby Brea.
That No. 10 pick was one of the primary assets the Suns received from Houston in their blockbuster Kevin Durant deal. While Maluach was widely expected to come off the board in the top eight picks on June 24, he slipped to No. 10, giving Phoenix an opportunity to nab its potential center of the future.
Maluach averaged 8.6 points, 6.6 rebounds, and 1.3 blocks in 21.2 minutes per contest during his first and only college season at Duke. While his box-score numbers don’t jump off the page, the 18-year-old has an impressive frame (a height of 7’1″ and a wingspan of 7’7″), is one of the youngest players in this year’s draft class, and has the potential to excel in the NBA as a defensive anchor and a rim-runner and lob threat on offense.
Maluach’s rookie scale deal is expected to pay him roughly $6MM in his rookie season and a total of $27.4MM across his first four years in the NBA, as our breakdown of this year’s rookie scale shows.
There was a minor bidding war for Fleming ahead of day two of this year’s draft, with teams vying to move up to No. 31 to select the former Saint Joseph’s forward. Phoenix won that bidding war by sending Minnesota the No. 36 pick and a pair of future second-rounders.
Fleming is coming off an impressive junior season in which he averaged 14.7 points, 8.5 rebounds, 1.4 steals and 1.5 blocks per game in 35 appearances (31.1 minutes), with a shooting line of .531/.390/.743. According to Michael Scotto of HoopsHype (Twitter link), he signed a four-year, $8.7MM deal using the second-round pick exception and got three fully guaranteed years, with a fourth-year team option.
As for Brea, Phoenix drafted him after trading up to No. 41 using the 52nd and 59th overall picks in a deal with the Warriors. The 6’7″ wing, who played four seasons at Dayton before spending his fifth and final college season with Kentucky, is an excellent shooter, having made 317-of-730 (43.4%) three-pointers during his NCAA career.
Brea signed a two-way contract.
Contract Details: Capela, VanVleet, Lopez, Ayton, LaRavia, Kalkbrenner
The Rockets‘ new three-year deal with Clint Capela includes a 5% trade kicker, reports Michael Scotto of HoopsHype (Twitter link).
The fully guaranteed deal is worth $21,105,000 over three years, Hoops Rumors has confirmed, coming in slightly below the initially reported price of $21.5MM. It includes a first-year salary of $6.7MM, with an ascending structure that sees it increase to $7.37MM by year three.
Here are a few more details on some recently signed contracts from around the NBA:
- Fred VanVleet‘s two-year, $50MM contract with the Rockets has a flat structure, with a $25MM first-year salary and a $25MM player option for 2026/27, Hoops Rumors has learned.
- Brook Lopez‘s two-year deal with the Clippers came in slightly below the reported $18MM price. It uses $8.75MM of the non-taxpayer mid-level exception for the 2025/26 season, leaving L.A. with $5,354,000 still to use. Lopez’s second-year team option is worth $9,187,500
- The Lakers‘ used up their entire $14,104,000 non-taxpayer mid-level exception on Deandre Ayton ($8,104,000) and Jake LaRavia ($6MM), as expected. Those salary figures are also Ayton’s and LaRavia’s cap hits for 2026/27 — Ayton’s second year is a player option and LaRavia’s is fully guaranteed.
- No. 34 overall pick Ryan Kalkbrenner signed a four-year, $9.97MM contract with the Hornets, according to Scotto (Twitter link). That’s the most he could earn under the terms of the second-round pick exception. Kalkbrenner’s first two years are fully guaranteed, with a third-year trigger date and a fourth-year team option, Scotto adds.
Pacers’ Pritchard: Haliburton Won’t Play In 2025/26
Speaking on Monday to reporters, Pacers president of basketball operations Kevin Pritchard confirmed that star point guard Tyrese Haliburton, who tore his right Achilles tendon during Game 7 of the NBA Finals last month, will miss the entire 2025/26 season.
“I have no doubt that he will be back better than ever,” Pritchard said (Twitter video link via WISH-TV News). “… He will not play next year though. He would not jeopardize that now. So don’t get any hopes up that he will play.
Pritchard’s update doesn’t come as a real surprise, given how late in the spring Haliburton’s injury occurred. He suffered the Achilles tear on June 22 and underwent surgery the following day.
It typically takes upwards of a full calendar year for players to fully recover following Achilles surgery. By the time the NBA postseason tip off next April, Haliburton will be fewer than 10 months into his recovery process, and there’s no guarantee Indiana will make a deep playoff run – or even make the playoffs at all – without him available in 2025/26.
Pritchard said Haliburton’s absence will create “opportunities to grow” for some of Indiana’s players. While Andrew Nembhard and T.J. McConnell are the top two candidates to take over point guard duties, it wouldn’t be a surprise if Bennedict Mathurin also assumes more of a ball-handling and play-making role as he enters the final year of his rookie scale contract.
As Dustin Dopirak of The Indianapolis Star relays (via Twitter), Pritchard went on to joke that Haliburton will have to serve as his general manager until he’s healthy and that he’ll “probably be better than (actual GM) Chad (Buchanan).”
Haliburton has expressed no regrets about trying to play through a calf injury to win a championship, suggesting he’d do it the same way over again if he could, even knowing he’d suffer a far more significant injury. Pritchard doesn’t share that sentiment, Dopirak notes (via Twitter), even though the Pacers’ top basketball executive believes the club would have won Game 7 if Haliburton didn’t get hurt.
Free Agent Rumors: Guards, Kuminga, Pacers, Hayes
An expectation that Bradley Beal will soon become an unrestricted free agent is affecting the markets for free agent guards Chris Paul, Russell Westbrook, and Malcolm Brogdon, who are drawing interest from many of the same teams, writes Jake Fischer of The Stein Line (Substack link).
According to Fischer, the Clippers, Lakers, Bucks, and Timberwolves are among the teams expected to have interest in signing Beal if and when he finalizes a buyout agreement with the Suns, which seems increasingly likely. A previous report also identified the Warriors as a possible suitor for Beal, with the Heat viewed as less likely after their trade for Norman Powell.
The Clippers and Bucks are known to have interest in Paul, Fischer points out, so if Beal ends up with one of those teams, it would likely rule that club out for CP3, perhaps increasing the odds of the 40-year-old reuniting with the Suns.
As for Brogdon, he has the Clippers, Suns, Lakers, Warriors, Timberwolves, and Bucks are also among the teams that have registered some level of interest in him, along with the Pelicans and Kings, Fischer reports.
Free agents like De’Anthony Melton and Ben Simmons may also find themselves involved in this game of backcourt musical chairs, according to Fischer, who suggests that their potential landing spots should become more clearer once one or two of those top guards – starting with Beal – finds a new home.
Here are a few more notes on free agents from around the NBA:
- There was no traction on the Jonathan Kuminga front over the weekend, sources tell Anthony Slater of The Athletic (Twitter link). According to Slater, the Kings have been the most aggressive suitor for the Warriors restricted free agent so far, but nothing has come close. In fact, the market for all of the top restricted free agents remains “ice cold,” Slater adds.
- The Pacers are expected to reunite with a pair of familiar faces to fill out their frontcourt. Speaking to reporters today, president of basketball operations Kevin Pritchard said the club is planning to re-sign James Wiseman and that things are trending in the right direction with restricted free agent Isaiah Jackson (Twitter links via Tony East).
- Veteran center Jaxson Hayes gave up his right to veto a trade this season when he re-signed with the Lakers, reports Dan Woike of The Athletic (Twitter link). By default, a player re-signing with his previous team on a one-year contract gets a de facto no-trade clause, but a team can ask a player to waive that right as part of his new deal.
Blazers, Celtics Finalize Holiday, Simons Trade Without Draft Picks
The Trail Blazers and Celtics have officially completed their trade sending Jrue Holiday to Portland and Anfernee Simons to Boston, according to a press release from the Blazers.
However, the terms are slightly different than what was reported last month. Portland had originally agreed to send the Knicks’ 2030 second-round pick and the Blazers’ own 2031 second-rounder to Boston, but those draft assets are no longer in the deal, which is now a straight one-for-one player swap.
Aaron Fentress of The Oregonian hears from a source that a review of Holiday’s medicals prompted the Blazers to alter the initial terms of the agreement.
There wasn’t enough concern on Portland’s end to nix the deal entirely, Fentress explains, adding that the veteran guard is considered healthy and is working out this summer in preparation for training camp in the fall.
As a result of taking back more salary than they’re sending out in the trade, the Trail Blazers are now hard-capped at the first tax apron for the rest of the 2025/26 league year.
The Celtics, meanwhile, have officially completed both of their major offseason trades on Monday, having also finalized the three-team deal sending Kristaps Porzingis to Atlanta.
You can read more about the Holiday/Simons swap in our original report on the deal.
Pacific Notes: Collins, Beal, Warriors, Kuminga, Suns
The Clippers view John Collins as their likely starter at power forward, according to Law Murray and John Hollinger of The Athletic. Collins, who is being acquired from Utah in a three-team trade, brings an athletic presence to L.A.’s frontcourt and adds more size to a team that had trouble matching up with Denver in its first-round playoff series.
Collins can be effective next to starting center Ivica Zubac, the authors note, and provides a good complement to backup Brook Lopez, a free agent addition who can space the floor for Collins to operate in the low post. Having more reliable big men also means less time at power forward for Kawhi Leonard and less responsibility for James Harden to guard opposing fours.
Norman Powell, who’s being sent to Miami in the deal, put together an outstanding offensive season, but he was less effective after the All-Star break, Murray and Hollinger observe. Some of the decline was because he was slowed by knee and hamstring issues, while Leonard’s return from injury also contributed. The authors state that Powell’s age, availability and fit all made the Clippers hesitant to give him an extension heading into the upcoming season.
There’s more from the Pacific Division:
- The Clippers might pursue Bradley Beal if he reaches a buyout agreement with the Suns, but they’ll be limited because they only have $5.3MM of their non-taxpayer mid-level exception left to offer, notes Michael Scotto of HoopsHype (Twitter link). Scotto lists Malcolm Brogdon and Chris Paul as other free agent guards the Clippers have expressed interest in.
- The Warriors are also viewed as a potential landing spot for Beal, league sources tell Grant Afseth of RG. Golden State is still considered a strong candidate to add Boston center Al Horford, while landing Beal would provide another proven scoring threat to ease the Burden on Stephen Curry. The Warriors are also trying to determine how to handle restricted free agent Jonathan Kuminga, and Afseth echoes a recent report that sign-and-trade talks with the Kings and other teams haven’t resulted in much progress.
- Duane Rankin of The Arizona Republic looks at how the Suns are planning to rebuild around Devin Booker, who’s expected to receive a two-year, $150MM extension this summer.
Pelicans Sign Micah Peavy
11:23am: Peavy’s new contract is worth $8.7MM over four years, sources tell Michael Scotto of HoopsHype (Twitter link). It includes two fully guaranteed years, a trigger date for the third season and a fourth-year team option.
10:55am: Second-round pick Micah Peavy has signed with the Pelicans, the team announced in a press release.
The 23-year-old shooting guard was selected by Washington with the 40th overall pick and was part of a trade that couldn’t become official until the moratorium was lifted on Sunday. Terms of his new contract were not announced.
Peavy was an All-Big East selection at Georgetown last season, averaging 17.2 points, 5.8 rebounds, 3.6 assists and 2.3 steals in 32 games. He played at Texas Tech as a freshman, then spent three years at Texas Christian before joining the Hoyas.
Throughout his five years in college, Peavy averaged 9.5 points, 5.8 rebounds, 2.0 assists and 1.2 steals in 159 total games.
New Orleans signed lottery picks Jeremiah Fears and Derik Queen on Saturday, so all three additions from this year’s draft are now under contract.