And-Ones: Dybantsa, Porzingis, Oturu, Bryant, Summer League
A.J. Dybantsa was named MVP of the FIBA U19 Basketball World Cup after the U.S. team beat Germany 109-76 to take home the gold medal, writes Tobias Bass of The Athletic. Both the U.S. and Germany were undefeated heading into the game.
Dybantsa, the BYU commit who is considered a strong bet to challenge for the No. 1 pick in the 2026 draft, averaged 14.3 points, 4.1 rebounds, 2.3 assists, and 1.1 steals per game during the tournament. He shot 50% from the field and 84% from the free-throw line on 50 attempts, though he struggled from outside, connecting on just 2-of-18 three-pointers.
Dybantsa was also named to the U19 World Cup All-Star team alongside teammate Mikel Brown Jr., who had a strong tournament run. The 6’4″ Brown, who has committed to Louisville for next season, led Team USA in points and assists with 14.9 and 6.1, respectively, while shooting 47.6% from three and posting a nearly three-to-one assist-to-turnover ratio.
We have more from around the world of basketball:
- Kristaps Porzingis is listed on the Latvian national team’s extended roster for the 2025 EuroBasket tournament, according to Eurohoops.net. He is expected to join the team after visiting with the Hawks following his trade from the Celtics. Porzingis struggled with an illness during the 2025 playoffs, but will look to bounce back with his first international competition since 2017. “We will adjust [workloads] to the health and fitness level of each player to help them be in the best possible shape as EuroBasket2025 approaches,” said head coach Luca Banchi.
- Israeli basketball team Hapoel Tel Aviv has announced the signings of Elijah Bryant (via Twitter) and Daniel Oturu (via Twitter). Bryant played one year in the NBA, winning a championship with the 2021 Bucks while averaging 4.5 minutes over 11 games during the team’s playoff run. Oturu had brief stints with the Clippers and Raptors, and has been playing overseas since the 2023/24 season.
- The NBA will count end-of-period heaves as team shot attempts, rather than individual player shot attempts, during Summer League, the league announced (via Twitter). This follows testing with the G League in the 2024/25 season. Three criteria must be met for this to apply: the play must originate in the backcourt, the missed shot must be attempted from at least 36 feet from the basket, and it must be attempted within the final three seconds of the first three periods in the game. This move is intended to incentivize players to shoot heaves without regard for how they might harm their shooting percentage.
Ryan Rollins Returns To Bucks On Three-Year Deal
July 8: The Bucks’ deal with Rollins is now official, per a press release.
July 6: Free agent guard Ryan Rollins is returning to the Bucks, according to Shams Charania of ESPN (Twitter link), who reports that the two sides have agreed to a three-year deal worth $12MM. The agreement will include a third-year player option, Charania adds.
The 44th overall pick in the 2022 draft, Rollins had only appeared in 25 NBA regular season games across two seasons with Golden State, Washington, and Milwaukee entering the 2024/25 season. However, after opening the year on a two-way contract with the Bucks, he emerged as a reliable part of the rotation and earned a promotion to the standard roster in March.
In 56 games (19 starts) last season for Milwaukee, Rollins averaged 6.2 points, 1.9 assists, and 1.9 rebounds in 14.6 minutes per game, along with a shooting line of .487/.408/.800. He played significant minutes during the season’s final weeks while Damian Lillard was sidelined due to a blood clot in his calf.
Milwaukee initially tendered Rollins a qualifying offer to make him a restricted free agent before withdrawing it early in the week, making him unrestricted. Even after rescinding that QO, the Bucks were able to hang onto the 23-year-old’s Early Bird rights, which will allow them to go over the cap to re-sign him after they use up all their room.
While the 2025/26 Bucks will be without Lillard – who tore his Achilles in April and is being waived to create cap room to sign Myles Turner – they’ve now struck deals to bring back both of their free agent point guards, Rollins and Kevin Porter Jr.
Rollins is the sixth of the Bucks’ own free agents that has reached an agreement to re-sign with the club, joining Porter, Bobby Portis, Taurean Prince, Gary Trent Jr., and Jericho Sims.
NBA Transactions Becoming Official: July 6, 2025
The July moratorium is over and teams are now permitted to officially finalize all the free agent signings and trades they’ve agreed to since the new league year began (or earlier, in some cases).
Rather than bumping all of our previous stories on those free agent and trade agreements, we’ll be tracking all the previously reported moves that become official on Sunday in the space below.
To be clear, we’ll still be publishing new stories on breaking free agent and trade agreements. This space is just to track the moves we already know about becoming formally completed.
These lists will be in chronological order, so we’ll add the most recent items to the bottom throughout the day.
Trades:
- Spurs trade the draft rights to Kam Jones to Pacers for a 2030 second-round pick and cash (story).
- Bucks trade Pat Connaughton and two second-round picks to Hornets for Vasilije Micic (story).
- Bulls trade Lonzo Ball to Cavaliers for Isaac Okoro (story).
- Grizzlies trade Jay Huff to Pacers for a second-round pick and a second-round pick swap (story).
- Wizards, Pelicans, and Rockets complete three-team trade involving CJ McCollum, Jordan Poole, Cam Whitmore, and others (new story).
- Rockets, Suns, Lakers, Warriors, Timberwolves, Nets, and Hawks complete seven-team trade involving Kevin Durant, Clint Capela, Jalen Green, Dillon Brooks, and others (new story).
- Grizzlies trade the draft rights to Will Richard to Warriors for the draft rights to Jahmai Mashack and a conditional second-round pick (story).
- Timberwolves sign-and-trade Nickeil Alexander-Walker to Hawks for a second-round pick and cash (story).
Free agent signings:
- Bulls re-sign Tre Jones to three-year contract (story).
- Update: The third year of Jones’ contract is a team option, tweets Michael Scotto of HoopsHype.
- Cavaliers re-sign Sam Merrill to four-year contract (story).
- Cavaliers sign Larry Nance Jr. to one-year contract (story).
- Clippers re-sign Nicolas Batum to two-year contract (story).
- Magic sign Tyus Jones to one-year contract (story).
- Mavericks re-sign Kyrie Irving to three-year contract (story).
- Thunder re-sign Ajay Mitchell to three-year contract (story).
- Clippers sign Brook Lopez to two-year contract (story).
- Update: The second year of Lopez’s contract is a team option, tweets Fred Katz of The Athletic.
- Sixers re-sign Justin Edwards to three-year contract (story).
- Update: The third year of Edwards’ contract is a team option, tweets Scotto.
- Lakers re-sign Jaxson Hayes to one-year contract (story).
- Lakers sign Jake LaRavia to two-year contract (story).
- Lakers sign Deandre Ayton to two-year contract (story).
- Knicks sign Guerschon Yabusele to two-year contract (story).
- Clippers sign James Harden to two-year contract (story).
- Mavericks sign D’Angelo Russell to two-year contract (story).
Contract extensions:
- Rockets sign Jabari Smith Jr. to five-year rookie scale extension (story).
Bulls Sign Caleb Grill, Wooga Poplar To Exhibit 10 Deals
July 6: Both Grill and Poplar have officially signed their Exhibit 10 contracts with the Bulls, according to RealGM’s NBA transaction log.
June 27: Free agent guard Caleb Grill, who went undrafted yesterday, has agreed to sign an Exhibit 10 contract with the Bulls, according to Taylor Eldridge of The Wichita Eagle (Twitter link).
Another undrafted free agent, guard Wooga Poplar, will sign an Exhibit 10 deal with Chicago as well, reports Jon Chepkevich of Draft Express (Twitter link).
At 25, Grill was the oldest player ranked on Sam Vecenie of The Athletic‘s big board, coming in at No. 93. ESPN was higher on the Kansas native, ranking him No. 67 and 15th among players who went undrafted.
Grill, who also played for Iowa State and UNLV before finishing out his college career with Missouri, had a productive season in 2024/25 for the Tigers, winning the SEC’s Sixth Man of the Year award after posting 13.7 points, 3.6 rebounds and 1.7 steals in 26.2 minutes per contest, with an excellent shooting line of .472/.396/.864.
Poplar, who spent three years at Miami (FL) before transferring to Villanova for the 2024/25 campaign, is also coming off a strong season in which he averaged 15.3 PPG, 7.0 RPG and 1.3 SPG on .460/.387/.856 shooting in 36 appearances for the Wildcats (31.9 MPG). He was not ranked on ESPN’s or The Athletic’s board.
An Exhibit 10 is a non-guaranteed training camp contract and is typically designed to ensure players can receive a bonus worth up to $85K if they’re waived before the season begins and spend at least 60 days with the club’s NBA G League affiliate — in this case the Windy City Bulls. Exhibit 10 contracts can also be converted into two-way deals.
Atlantic Notes: Lillard, Yabusele, Whitehead, Hetzel
Damian Lillard has a big decision ahead of him after unexpectedly finding himself on the free agent market while recovering from a ruptured Achilles. One of the teams that the soon-to-be 35-year-old is reportedly considering is the Celtics, who, like Lillard, find themselves in a surprisingly uncertain position for next season.
According to Ashish Mathur of Dallas Hoops Journal, Lillard’s time with Team USA could prove an important piece of his search for a new squad. Lillard and Celtics’ star Jayson Tatum, who is also recovering from a torn Achilles, grew close when they played together for the 2020 Olympic team.
Signing with the Celtics would give Tatum a companion in his rehabilitation process, while setting the team up for a deep 2026/27 playoff run once its star wing recovers. Given the team’s efforts to shed salary this summer, Lillard could represent a lower-cost acquisition with major playoff upside, depending on how he recovers from the injury.
We have more notes from around the Atlantic division:
- The Sixers let reserve Guerschon Yabusele go to the Knicks this summer, reportedly declining to offer a competitive contract to the French forward who played a key bench role last season. According to Keith Pompey of The Inquirer, this isn’t the first time the Sixers have declined to retain players considered to be important bench pieces. He points to Philadelphia allowing Jalen McDaniels and Georges Niang to walk in the summer of 2023, which was viewed as a mistake by fans at the time, but ultimately proved to be the correct move. President Daryl Morey is not known as overly sentimental when it comes to role players, but Pompey questions whether that approach might prove to be a mistake this time, especially with the uncertain health of Joel Embiid.
- Dariq Whitehead is not suiting up for the Nets at Summer League this year. Brian Lewis of the New York Post expressed surprise (via Twitter) about that decision, considering the difficulty Whitehead has had trying to bounce back from the injuries that have impeded his development over the last few years. Whitehead has only played 22 games with the Nets in his first two seasons, averaging 5.7 points and 1.5 rebounds while shooting 44.6% from three last season.
- The Nets‘ Summer League team will be coached by assistant coach Steve Hetzel, Lewis reports (via Twitter). This will be Hetzel’s second season as an assistant with the Nets, following a three-year stint as an assistant coach with Portland.
Bradley Beal Actively Exploring Options In Anticipation Of Buyout
Bradley Beal is actively exploring options with other teams around the NBA ahead of a possible buyout from the Suns, Marc Stein of The Stein Line reports (via Twitter). Stein adds that Beal is expected to have a number of suitors if and when he hits unrestricted free agency.
The Suns have struggled to find a trade partner for Beal, given both the no-trade clause included in his contract and his high cap hit. As a free agent, however, he would represent one of the top talents on the market.
Fred Katz of The Athletic confirms that there is mutual optimism between Beal and the Suns that they will be able to reach terms on a buyout.
[RELATED: Resolution On Bradley Beal Expected Soon]
In order for the Suns to exercise the stretch provision on the two years and $110.8MM left on Beal’s contract, he would have to give back roughly $13.9MM in order to meet league rules prohibiting a team from exceeding 15% of the salary cap in stretched money. Gerald Bourguet of PHNX Sports (Twitter link) expects that to happen, citing a source who believes a buyout agreement is “imminent.”
Beal averaged 17.0 points, 3.3 rebounds, 3.7 assists, and 1.1 steals per game last season while shooting 49.7% from the field, 38.6% on three-pointers, and 80.3% from the free throw line while splitting time between the starting lineup and sixth man role, a lineup decision that ultimately proved unable to turn the Suns’ disappointing season around.
While the Heat and Bucks have been cited as team with interest in Beal, he’ll likely have several more suitors beyond those two teams.
Northwest Notes: Holmes, Alexander-Walker, Hansen, Johnson
While much of the offseason discussion about the Nuggets‘ big man situation revolved around Jonas Valanciunas and whether he’ll stay with the team after he’s officially traded from Sacramento to Denver, the club is also set to receive some frontcourt health in the return of DaRon Holmes II, the 22nd pick in the 2024 draft.
Holmes missed the entirety of his rookie year after rupturing his Achilles in his 2024 Summer League debut, but he’s now healed and ready to make an imprint on the Nuggets’ roster.
“I think being in the weight room, adding some muscle to my game, and just learning our system, learning our plays, I’m feeling more confident knowing what I need to do now,” he said to Katy Winge of Altitude TV (Twitter video link). “And my passing game, I think, has gotten a lot better.”
Holmes also spoke about his ability to slide between frontcourt positions as needed.
“Anywhere they put me, I’ll be comfortable playing,” he said. “I spent a lot of the summertime playing the five, now I’m going to get back to playing the four. So I think I’ll be playing both... I trust the coaching staff, I trust this team, organization, so I’m excited to get out there.”
After adding Bruce Brown and Tim Hardaway Jr., who will join incumbents like Peyton Watson and Julian Strawther, the Nuggets’ bench is taking shape, but there is still room for Holmes to carve out a role for himself.
We have more news from the Northwest division:
- Nickeil Alexander-Walker was a true success story for the Timberwolves, writes The Athletic’s Jon Krawczynski. Included as a throw-in from the Mike Conley trade, Alexander-Walker quickly righted the ship of his career, which was veering into rocky journeyman territory, and became a fan favorite and defensive stalwart for the back-to-back Western Conference finalists. While Alexander-Walker is headed to the Hawks, his fourth team in seven seasons, Krawczynski writes that he’s doing so in a very different light, as one of the Wolves’ greatest development stories, and a truly introspective, thoughtful basketball player who will be missed in the Twin Cities.
- Yang Hansen is facing probably the steepest learning curve of anyone from the 2025 draft, but the Trail Blazers‘ big man out of China has hit the ground running in the practices ahead of his first Summer League, writes Sean Highkin of Rose Garden Report (Substack link). “He was impressive, but there are also things he’s going to learn really quickly,” said Blazers Summer League head coach Ronnie Burrell. “He’s expected to have some struggles and also have some success. But he looked good today.” Burrell has been most impressed with Hansen’s ability to navigate the culture shock. “This is all new to him, the language, the culture. And he handles it amazingly,” Burrell said, as reported by Aaron Fentress of Oregon Live. “The kid has maturity, and he’s got character, and he’s picking up things fast.”
- After being traded from the Nets to the Nuggets, Cam Johnson is ready to do what he always has done best: work. Bennett Durando of the Denver Post writes that beyond his lethal three-point shooting and cerebral approach to the game, it’s the diligence that stands out as Johnson’s superpower. “The reason he’s in the NBA is because the guy works,” his high school coach Mike Rodriguez said. “Not because of his size. Not because of his shooting. I mean, that man works.” While the work got him to where he is, it’s his instincts and mind for the game that make him such a tantalizing fit in Denver. “We weren’t really a set-heavy team, so we liked to play fast and run secondary break,” UNC assistant coach Brad Frederick said. “A lot of what he got in terms of open shots was just because he was able to kind of create his own looks and because he was able to run the floor so well. We could pitch it ahead to him for shots.” That ability to read the game should make him a perfect fit next to Nikola Jokic.
Jamir Watkins Signs Two-Way Deal With Wizards
Jamir Watkins has signed a two-way contract with the Wizards, per NBA.com’s transaction log.
Watkins was drafted 43rd overall by the Jazz last month as part of a deal that sent him to Washington along with Will Riley and two future second-round picks in exchange for the ability for the Jazz to draft Walter Clayton Jr.
Watkins played two years at VCU before transferring to Florida State for his final two seasons. In his time with the Seminoles, Watkins averaged 17.0 points, 5.9 rebounds, 2.6 assists, 1.6 steals per game and shot 33% from three.
Between his defensive production in college and his size at 6’6″ with a 6’11” wingspan, Watkins has the chance to be an impactful defender with enough scoring and ball-handling to offer interesting upside on a two-way deal.
The Wizards had previously announced the signings of No. 6 overall pick Tre Johnson and No. 21 overall pick Riley. Now all three of the team’s draft-day selections are officially under contract for next season.
As for the team’s two-way slots, Watkins and Jaylen Martin occupy two of them, with a two-way qualifying offer still on the table for Tristan Vukcevic.
Suns Waive Daeqwon Plowden
The Suns have waived Daeqwon Plowden, according to NBA.com’s transaction log.
Plowden came to Phoenix in the record-setting seven-team deal headlined by Kevin Durant being sent to the Rockets. Prior to that, the 26-year-old shooting guard played six games for the Hawks last year, mostly in the final days of the 2024/25 season, averaging 7.2 points and 1.8 rebounds while shooting 52.9% from three.
The Hawks, who also sent Clint Capela to the Rockets in a sign-and-trade, received David Roddy, a second-round pick swap in 2031, and cash from the Rockets as part of the massive deal.
Plowden will hit unrestricted free agency upon clearing waivers on Tuesday, unless someone claims him.
The Suns now have a pair of open two-way slots next to undrafted rookie CJ Huntley.
Wizards’ Will Riley Signs Rookie Scale Contract
Will Riley has signed his rookie scale contract with the Wizards, according to NBA.com’s transaction log.
Riley was selected 21st in the 2025 draft by the Jazz as part of a deal that sent him to the Wizards along with the second-round pick that became Jamir Watkins and two future second-rounders.
A 6’8″ forward, Riley averaged 12.6 points, 4.1 rebounds, and 2.2 assists while posting .432/.326/.724 shooting splits to claim the honor of Big Ten Sixth Man of the Year for Illinois.
After impressing out of the gate, Riley slowed down in the middle of the season before putting together a strong close to the year. He averaged 16.3 points, 4.9 rebounds, and 3.3 assists in his final 13 games, including conference tournaments, before posting 22 points and four rebounds in Illinois’ March Madness opening win against Xavier, though he struggled in the Round of 32 loss to Kentucky.
Tre Johnson, the team’s No. 6 overall pick, also signed his rookie scale contract earlier this weekend, so this deal locks up both of the Wizards’ first-round picks ahead of Summer League.
As our breakdown of this year’s rookie scale shows, Riley is expected to earn $3.5MM in the first year of his deal and $17.2MM total over the course of his rookie deal.