Rockets To Trade Cam Whitmore To Wizards
The Rockets have agreed to trade forward Cam Whitmore to the Wizards, reports Shams Charania of ESPN (Twitter link). According to Charania, Houston will acquire a pair of second-round picks in return.
Whitmore, a Maryland native who will turn 21 on Tuesday, was selected out of Villanova with the 20th overall pick in the 2023 draft. It was viewed as a steal at the time for the Rockets, given that the 6’7″ forward was widely viewed as a top-10 – or even top-five – pick leading up to the draft.
However, while Whitmore flashed some major upside as a scorer off the bench during his first two NBA seasons, he wasn’t able to carve out a consistent role for a deep Rockets team. He made a total of 98 appearances from 2023-25, averaging 10.8 points and 3.4 rebounds in 17.4 minutes per game, with a shooting line of .449/.357/.707.
The Rockets worked with Whitmore and his representatives in recent weeks in an effort to find a new home, per Charania (Twitter link). He should get an opportunity to play more significant – and more consistent – minutes for a rebuilding Wizards team that will be looking for some of its young players to establish themselves as long-term building blocks.
Moving Whitmore will help generate a little extra flexibility below a first-apron hard cap for a Rockets team that was expected to have to part with Whitmore or Jeenathan Williams to stay below that threshold once its reported deals for Kevin Durant and Clint Capela are official.
Houston will acquire Chicago’s 2026 second-round pick and Sacramento’s 2029 second-rounder in the deal, a league source tells Josh Robbins of The Athletic (Twitter link).
The Wizards, meanwhile, have no shortage of cap exceptions they could use to take on Whitmore’s $3.54MM salary without sending back a player themselves, but it sounds like they won’t need to use their mid-level, bi-annual, or existing trade exceptions. Varun Shakar of The Washington Post says this deal is expected to be folded into a larger trade with the Pelicans when it goes official.
Washington will have until October 31 of this year to decide whether or not to exercise Whitmore $5.46MM team option for the 2026/27 season. Assuming the Wizards pick up that option, he’ll become eligible for a rookie scale extension a year from now.
Chicago and Denver were reportedly among the other teams that expressed some level of interest in Whitmore before the Rockets made a deal with Washington.
Rockets Re-Sign Jae’Sean Tate On One-Year Deal
July 5: The Rockets have officially re-signed Tate, per NBA.com’s transaction log. Based on the fact that it was completed during the July moratorium, we now know definitively that it’s a minimum-salary deal.
Houston also finalized its two-way agreement with Kevon Harris. We have the full story on that signing here.
June 30: The Rockets and free agent forward Jae’Sean Tate have agreed to a one-year contract worth $3MM, league sources tell Michael Scotto of HoopsHype (Twitter link).
Tate holds five years of NBA experience — all with the Rockets — and his projected minimum salary for next season is approximately $2.67MM. It’s unclear whether Houston is giving him a little more than the minimum or if the figure reported by Scotto is just Tate’s minimum being rounded up.
Tate, 29, went undrafted in 2018 after four college seasons at Ohio State. He played a couple of years overseas before catching on with the Rockets in 2020/21.
In 52 games in 2024/25, Tate averaged career lows of 3.6 points and 2.3 rebounds in 11.8 minutes per contest. His shooting slash line was .473/.348/.681.
While the 6’4″ combo forward’s role has steadily declined during his time with Houston, clearly the Rockets still value his contributions, otherwise they wouldn’t be bringing him back.
Tate is one of three veteran role players expected to re-sign with Houston in free agency, with Aaron Holiday and Jeff Green being the others.
Free Agency Notes: Yabusele, Knicks, Kings, Beasley, Turner
Guerschon Yabusele‘s two-year deal with the Knicks won’t use the full taxpayer mid-level exception, according to Stefan Bondy of The New York Post (Twitter link).
Yabusele’s slight discount will give New York the ability to fill out its 13th and 14th roster spots with one veteran-minimum contract and one rookie-minimum contract for one of the team’s (current or past) second-round picks while remaining below the team’s hard cap at the second tax apron.
[RELATED: NBA Minimum Salaries For 2025/26]
If Yabusele had received the full taxpayer mid-level, the Knicks would have been roughly $3.53MM below the second apron, so they could have signed one veteran-minimum player ($2.3MM) or one rookie-minimum player ($1.27MM), but not both until after the regular season began.
According to Bondy (Twitter link), Yabusele’s deal with the Knicks should still comfortably exceed the salary the Sixers offered him. Bondy says that Philadelphia’s offer – which Yabusele referred to as “really low” – as being worth the “$2.6MM minimum,” but the Frenchman’s minimum salary this season would actually be $2.4MM, so it’s possible Philadelphia went a little above that amount using his Non-Bird rights.
The 76ers likely didn’t want to hard-cap themselves by using any portion of their taxpayer mid-level exception before Quentin Grimes‘ restricted free agency is resolved.
Here are a few more notes and rumors related to free agency:
- Reporting out of Sacramento earlier this week seemed to suggest the Kings were aggressively pursuing Warriors restricted free agent Jonathan Kuminga, but subsequent reports have suggested nothing is close on that front. According to Matt George of ABC 10 in Sacramento (Twitter link), while the Kings still have interest in Kuminga, they’d be content to complete their Dennis Schröder acquisition and Jonas Valanciunas and then bring that roster into next season. That roster would include both Malik Monk and Devin Carter, who have both been the subject of trade rumors.
- While news of the federal investigation into Malik Beasley for gambling allegations didn’t go public until June 29, the NBA reached out to the Pistons “several” days before free agency opened to let the club know about it, per Mike Vorkunov, Jon Krawczynski, and James L. Edwards III of The Athletic. The two sides had been in talks on a three-year, $42MM contract that would’ve included a third-year team option, but it now seems unlikely that any team would move forward on a deal with Beasley until that investigation is resolved (assuming he’s cleared).
- The Bucks‘ four-year, $107MM agreement with Myles Turner has been the most surprising deal of free agency so far. Eric Nehm of The Athletic takes a closer look at just what it means for Milwaukee, breaking down Turner’s fit with the team at both ends of the court. While Turner has a similar skill set to former starting center Brook Lopez, the former Pacer is younger, more athletic, and more mobile, which should allow him to make a greater impact than Lopez as a screener and defender, Nehm writes.
Sixers Sign Jabari Walker To Two-Way Deal
July 5: The Sixers have officially signed Walker to a two-way contract, the team announced today in a press release.
July 3: Free agent forward Jabari Walker has agreed to sign a two-way contract with the Sixers, reports Shams Charania of ESPN (Twitter link).
The son of former NBA forward Samaki Walker and the 57th overall pick in the 2022 draft out of Colorado, Jabari Walker has spent his first three professional NBA seasons with the Trail Blazers. He played a significant role for the team in 2023/24, averaging 8.9 points and 7.1 rebounds in 23.6 minutes per game across 72 total outings (23 starts).
Walker’s minutes were cut back in ’24/25 following the arrival of Deni Avdija and the emergence of Toumani Camara, but he was a positive contributor in a more limited role, setting career highs in field goal percentage (51.5%) and three-point percentage (38.9%) as he averaged 5.2 PPG and 3.5 RPG in 60 contests (12.5 MPG).
The Blazers had the opportunity to make Walker a restricted free agent by issuing him a $2.58MM qualifying offer over the weekend, but chose not to do so, allowing him to become unrestricted.
Given his age (23 later this month) and experience as a rotation player, I’m a little surprised Walker will end up on a two-way contract, but it’s a nice get for the Sixers, who have made it a priority to get younger this summer. On his two-way deal, the 6’7″ forward will be eligible to be active for up to 50 NBA regular season games. Exceeding that limit – and playing in the postseason – would require a promotion to the standard roster.
Walker will fill Philadelphia’s third and final two-way slot, joining Alex Reese and Hunter Sallis.
Mike Brown Receiving Four-Year Deal From Knicks
Mike Brown‘s new contract with the Knicks will cover four years, according to reports from Casey Powell (aka CP The Fanchise) of Knicks Fan TV and Ian Begley of SNY.tv (Twitter links).
Powell suggests the deal will be in the range of $8-9MM annually, while Begley says it’ll come in slightly higher and will be worth $40MM in total value.
Word first broke on Wednesday that Brown was expected to become the Knicks’ next head coach, with a Friday report indicating that the two sides had verbally agreed on a deal that will be officially finalized early next week.
Brown was fired last season by the Kings during the first season of a three-year deal that paid him $8.5MM annually, so Sacramento will save some money via the set-off clause that applies to NBA head coaching contracts, notes Begley.
The Knicks, meanwhile, fired Tom Thibodeau with three years and $30MM left on his deal.
New York was one of just two teams to make a head coaching change this offseason, joining the Suns, who replaced Mike Budenholzer with Jordan Ott.
Three teams – the Kings (Doug Christie), Grizzlies (Tuomas Iisalo), and Nuggets (David Adelman) – retained their interim head coaches after making in-season changes. A fourth team, San Antonio, officially announced that Mitch Johnson would replace Gregg Popovich on a permanent basis after Johnson served as the Spurs’ head coach for most of 2025/26 while Popovich recovered from a stroke.
Mavericks Adding Mike Penberthy To Coaching Staff
The Mavericks are hiring Mike Penberthy to their coaching staff, sources tell Dave McMenamin of ESPN (Twitter link).
NBA insider Marc Stein first mentioned Penberthy as a target for the Mavericks’ staff on Wednesday, while Grant Afseth of DallasHoopsJournal.com later referred to the team’s interest as “serious.”
Penberthy, who has spent the past three seasons with the Nuggets, is known as a shooting specialist and has earned praise from Mavericks star Anthony Davis for helping him improve as a shooter, Afseth notes. Davis and Penberthy worked together in Los Angeles from 2019-22, when Penberthy was an assistant under Frank Vogel.
The Mavericks are reuniting several members of that Lakers coaching staff for the coming season. Current Dallas head coach Jason Kidd was also an assistant from 2019-21 under Vogel, who will serve as Kidd’s lead assistant in 2025/26. Kidd, Vogel, and Penberthy won a championship together in L.A. in 2020.
Another former Lakers assistant, Phil Handy, who was with the team from 2019-24, is also considered a candidate to join Kidd’s staff, though he’s drawing interest from New York too.
The Mavericks, whose assistants weren’t under contract beyond the 2024/25 season, have been overhauling Kidd’s staff since the season ended. All three of Dallas’ top assistants from last season have found new jobs in recent months, with Sean Sweeney joining the division-rival Spurs as associate head coach, Alex Jensen becoming the head coach at the University of Utah, and Dudley heading to Denver. Player development assistant God Shammgod, who has been with the Mavs since 2019, was also hired away by the Magic.
The Mavericks replaced Sweeney with Vogel, while ex-Raptors and Suns coach Jay Triano is the new No. 2 assistant.
Grizzlies Considering Will Magnay For 2025/26 Roster?
Australian big man Will Magnay spent most of the 2020/21 season on a two-way contract with New Orleans, but appeared in just one NBA game that season. He has been out of the league ever since.
Magnay auditioned for NBA teams last summer, but was unable to find a deal to his liking. In February, Sam Vecenie of The Athletic reported that Magnay was drawing interest from NBA teams, and that has carried over to the 2025 offseason.
Magnay is on the Grizzlies‘ summer league roster and has been working out in Memphis over the past week, according to Olgun Uluc of ESPN (Twitter link), who says the Grizzlies seem to be giving serious consideration to adding the 27-year-old forward/center to their 2025/26 roster “in some capacity.”
Since he only has one year of NBA experience, Magnay remains eligible for a two-way deal, though it’s unclear whether that would appeal to him again.
In 13 games with the Tasmania JackJumpers of Australia’s National Basketball League last season, Magnay averaged 13.8 points, 7.1 rebounds, 2.4 assists, 1.2 steals and 1.4 blocks in 25.8 minutes per contest. He also made 10 appearances in the Turkish BSL with Mersin MSK, averaging 5.1 PPG, 3.6 RPG, 0.8 SPG and 0.8 BPG in 14.7 MPG.
Vlad Goldin Discusses Signing Two-Way Deal With Heat
Viewed as a potential second-round pick heading into last month’s draft, former Michigan center Vladislav Goldin didn’t hear his name called, making him an unrestricted free agent. He quickly agreed to sign a two-way contract with the Heat, a move that became official earlier this week.
According to Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald, the 24-year-old Russian said he didn’t work out for the Heat leading up to the draft because the team didn’t have a second-rounder and he thought he’d be selected. While he drew interest from other teams, Goldin was happy to land with Miami.
“As soon as I talked to my agent and he explained to me how things are going, he explained to me that we’re probably going to sign a two-way and we’re probably going to look for the best opportunity,” Goldin said. “Then Miami came into the conversation and that was the best option I could dream about.
“Everybody knows about Miami and how they develop their players and they give chances to young players. It’s something that they’re known for. So it wasn’t the hardest decision of my life, but there were different options.”
Goldin started his college career at Texas Tech and then played three years at Florida Atlantic before finishing up at Michigan. His time at FAU gave him a level of familiarity with the Heat, Chiang writes.
“I’ve kind of been around Miami because they had training camp at Florida Atlantic,” said Goldin. “So that’s something that we’ve been watching, to be honest, all their practices and how they practice and how they act. It was definitely something that taught me and taught probably a lot of guys on that team — how the NBA looks like and what it takes to be in the NBA.
“We could watch it from the stands. So the only thing we could do was watch and take pictures after.”
Goldin is expected to make his Heat debut on Saturday afternoon against San Antonio when Miami plays its first summer league game at the California Classic, Chiang notes.
Community Shootaround: Early Offseason Winners, Losers
We’re in a quiet transactional period as we wait for the July moratorium to lift tomorrow. There are still a handful of top restricted free agents who have yet to sign new contracts, but with a dearth of cap space around the league, the players don’t have a ton of negotiating leverage, so it could take a while for those situations to play out.
John Hollinger of The Athletic recently weighed in on some of the biggest winners and losers to this point in the offseason. The article is technically centered around free agency, but it takes all offseason moves into account.
Hollinger lauds the moves the Hawks have made, including trading for Kristaps Porzingis, landing what could be an extremely valuable 2026 first-round pick from the Pelicans (only this deal is official), acquiring Nickeil Alexander-Walker in a sign-and-trade, and signing sharpshooter Luke Kennard. Atlanta still has its bi-annual exception available, Hollinger notes, and is about $7.4MM below the luxury tax line.
While they’re facing a minor roster crunch, Hollinger also likes the Hornets‘ offseason thus far, saying they had a strong draft (Kon Knueppel, Liam McNeeley, Sion James, Ryan Kalkbrenner) and have done solid work on the trade market, particularly adding Collin Sexton and a second-round pick from Utah for Jusuf Nurkic. He also views Spencer Dinwiddie as a nice pickup on a veteran’s minimum deal.
The defending champion Thunder are the third team on Hollinger’s list of winners, bringing back 14 of their 15 players on standard deals while essentially replacing Dillon Jones with first-round pick Thomas Sorber. Oklahoma City is below the luxury tax line and also retained Jaylin Williams and Ajay Mitchell on team-friendly deals, Hollinger observes.
The month of July is Hollinger’s biggest loser, as free agency is no longer the same type of event on the league’s schedule as it used to be, for a variety of reasons.
For actual teams, Hollinger thinks the Celtics and Pacers have taken steps back. He credits Boston’s front office for shedding the salaries of Porzingis and Jrue Holiday without having to attach sweeteners (the Celtics will actually receive two second-rounders from Portland in the Holiday deal).
But the Celtics also lost Luke Kornet in free agency and Al Horford is viewed as unlikely to return. And they still need to trim about $20MM from their books to move below the luxury tax to avoid the repeater penalty. The biggest question mark, according to Hollinger, is how can the Celtics position themselves to be a contender again in 2026/27, when Jayson Tatum has recovered from his torn Achilles tendon?
As for the Pacers, they’re on Hollinger’s list for losing longtime center Myles Turner to the division-rival Bucks in free agency. They still have pathways to find a new starting center, Hollinger writes, and their front office has largely done excellent work over the years. But Indiana is in a similar boat as Boston, with 2025/26 increasingly looking like a “gap year” in the wake of Tyrese Haliburton‘s Achilles tear and more uncertainty heading into ’26/27 with Turner no longer on the roster.
We want to know what you think. Do you agree with Hollinger’s winners and losers? Most people seem high on the Rockets’ moves, but they weren’t included. I was also mildly surprised to not see the Pelicans on the list of losers. Head to comment section to weigh in with your thoughts.
Scouts, Execs View Cavs As Favorites To Win East Next Season
The Cavaliers claimed the top seed in the Eastern Conference last season by going 64-18. In part due to injuries, Cleveland had a rocky playoff showing, losing its second-round series vs. Indiana in five games.
Due to the Achilles tears of Jayson Tatum (Celtics) and Tyrese Haliburton (Pacers), the East is viewed as being up for grabs in 2025/26. But in an anonymous poll of eight NBA scouts and executives, seven selected the Cavaliers to win the conference (one picked them to finish second), according to Tim Bontemps and Brian Windhorst of ESPN.
The Knicks were the only other team to receive a first-place vote and appear on all eight ballots. They finished second in the poll, with the Hawks and Magic rounding out the top four.
Thus far this offseason, the Cavs agreed to a trade with the Bulls that will send Lonzo Ball to Cleveland and Isaac Okoro to Chicago. On his What An Experience podcast (YouTube link), Ball said he’s excited to be joining a contending team.
“Just playing, competing for a ring. I feel like that should be the goal, I feel like that is the goal,” said Ball (hat tip to Benedetto Vitale of Clutch Points). “So, happy to get over there and get started. To meet everybody, get familiar with everything, and take it as far as we can.
“I feel like it’s just a blessing, bro. To be honest, I mean, everybody keeps asking me how I feel about the trade. I’m like, s—, I’m happy to still be playing anywhere, let alone a team that has a real chance to win a ring. My whole life, I feel like I’ve been playing the right brand of basketball, and that’s to win games, so I feel like I’m going to a great situation and I just want to play my role and do what I can to help.”
In other offseason moves, Cleveland lost Sixth Man of the Year finalist Ty Jerome to the Grizzlies in free agency, declined its team option on Chuma Okeke, agreed to re-sign sharpshooter Sam Merrill and bring back former big man Larry Nance Jr., and signed second-round pick Tyrese Proctor to a standard contract. The Cavs’ other second-rounder, Saliou Niang, will reportedly play for EuroLeague club Virtus Bologna next season.
The Cavaliers seem prepared to bring back their “core four” of Darius Garland, Donovan Mitchell, Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen, though Garland’s name has popped up in some trade talks. All four players have All-Star nods on their résumés and are on lucrative long-term contracts.
Cleveland will be operating over the second tax apron next season, limiting the team’s roster-building flexibility.