Pacific Notes: Horford, Warriors, Reaves, Luka, Ayton, Huntley
Teams around the NBA widely believe that free agent big man Al Horford will end up on the Warriors, Jake Fischer said during on a Bleacher Report stream on Thursday (YouTube link).
Appearing on SportsCenter, ESPN’s Shams Charania confirmed that the Warriors are “hopeful” about where they stand in the Horford sweepstakes, but cautioned that a decision may not be imminent and that there’s no guarantee the 39-year-old will continue his playing career.
“I’m told he is reviewing multiple options, including the Warriors, the Lakers, but also retirement,” Charania said, per RealGM. “He is 39 years old. He just finished season 18. I’m told it would be a surprise if he makes a final decision by this weekend. He certainly has earned the right to make a decision at his own time.”
Charania made his comments before the Lakers agreed to bring back free agent center Jaxson Hayes, so it’s unclear whether or not they’re still in play for Horford.
If they do want to add more frontcourt depth, the Lakers could open up a 15-man roster spot by moving off Shake Milton‘s non-guaranteed contract and would have $5.1MM in bi-annual exception money to offer Horford, though there has been chatter linking De’Anthony Melton to that roster spot, as Dan Woike of The Athletic tweets.
Here’s more from around the Pacific Division:
- The Warriors are in the market for a veteran big man in large part because long-tenured center Kevon Looney is headed to New Orleans. Marcus Thompson II of The Athletic takes a look back at what Looney meant to Golden State, referring to him as the team’s “backbone.”
- Austin Reaves‘ agent, Aaron Reilly, denied a report from John Gambadoro of Arizona Sports 98.7 (Twitter video link), who claimed that Reaves and LeBron James don’t like playing with newest Lakers star Luka Doncic. “Austin has nothing but the utmost respect for Luka and truly enjoys playing alongside him,” Reilly said, per Trevor Lane of Lakers Nation (Twitter link). “Any suggestion to the contrary is completely false. He’s excited to be on the court with Luka—both now and in the future.
- While Deandre Ayton is getting a second-year player option on his new deal with the Lakers, neither side wants him to exercise it, according to Dan Woike of The Athletic, who explains that both Ayton and the Lakers are hoping he far outperforms that the value of that option (in the $8.4MM range) and can command a significant raise in free agency next summer. Team sources are confident the Lakers have the right coaching staff to make it happen, Woike writes, noting that JJ Redick has a reputation for relating to players and assistant Scott Brooks previously worked with Ayton in Portland.
- The Suns‘ two-way contract with undrafted rookie forward CJ Huntley will cover two seasons, Hoops Rumors has learned.
Hornets Sign Kon Knueppel, Three Other Draft Picks
The Hornets have signed all four of the prospects they selected in the 2025 NBA draft, the team announced today in a press release.
That group is headlined by Kon Knueppel, the No. 4 overall pick out of Duke, who was one of the best outside shooters in college basketball in 2024/25, knocking down 2.2 three-pointers per game at an elite rate of 40.6% as a freshman. He was a member of the All-ACC second team and was named this year’s ACC Tournament MVP.
Assuming Knueppel receives the maximum allowable 120% of his rookie scale amount, which is a virtual lock, his four-year deal will be worth $45.49MM. The first two years are guaranteed, with team options on years three and four.
The Hornets’ other first-round pick was UConn’s Liam McNeeley, who was drafted using the No. 29 overall pick that Charlotte acquired from Phoenix as part of the Mark Williams trade. 120% of McNeeley’s rookie scale slot works out to a four-year, $14.19MM deal.
McNeeley, 19, averaged 14.5 points, 6.0 rebounds, and 2.3 assists in 32.1 minutes per game for UConn in 27 outings (26 starts) as a freshman. He made just 38.1% of his field goal attempts and 31.7% of his three-pointers, though those struggles can be attributed in part to the Huskies playing without a traditional point guard.
The Hornets also had two of the top four picks in the second round, using No. 33 on Knueppel’s Blue Devils teammate Sion James and No. 34 on Creighton big man Ryan Kalkbrenner.
James, who spent four years at Tulane before playing his super-senior season at Duke, was a member of the ACC’s All-Defensive team this season and made a career-high 41.3% of his three-point shots, albeit on a relatively small sample (31-of-75). He received a four-year, $9.97MM contract worth the maximum amount of the second-round pick exception, per Michael Scotto of HoopsHype (Twitter link). That deal will be fully guaranteed for the first two seasons.
As for Kalkbrenner, details of his contract aren’t yet known, but it sounds like he signed a standard deal using the second-round exception too. There could be a path to playing time for the last of Charlotte’s four draft picks, given that the team doesn’t have much frontcourt depth at the moment, with Mason Plumlee and Moussa Diabate the only real options at center. That could change between now and the start of the regular season, however.
Kalkbrenner, who spent five years at Creighton, won four Big East Defensive Player of the Year awards and was named the Naismith Defensive Player of the Year for all of college basketball in 2025.
The Hornets will have a roster crunch to deal with at some point before the season begins. Once they complete all their reported transactions – including re-signing Tre Mann, acquiring Pat Connaughton, and adding Plumlee and Spencer Dinwiddie – they’ll have 16 players on guaranteed contracts and three more (including Diabate) on non-guaranteed deals.
Lillard Open To Signing This Offseason, Won’t Rush Decision
Star point guard Damian Lillard is open to signing with a team during the 2025 offseason if the terms and conditions are right, according to NBA insider Chris Haynes (Twitter link).
Lillard has received “ample” interest from teams since word broke that he was being waived by the Bucks for cap reasons while he recovers from a torn Achilles, but he isn’t in a rush to make his decision, Haynes adds.
Technically, Lillard is still a Buck, as the team hasn’t yet placed him on waivers. There has been no rush to do it right away, since most signings and trades can’t be completed until 11:00 am Central time on Sunday, once the July moratorium ends. However, I’d expect the move to happen in the coming days so that Milwaukee has the cap room necessary to complete their deal with Myles Turner sooner rather than later.
Agent Aaron Goodwin put out a statement on Tuesday referring to being waived as an “incredible opportunity” for Lillard, who will continue to be paid the $112.6MM owed to him by the Bucks as he rehabs his Achilles tear and weighs his next move. One report on Tuesday evening indicated that at least 10 teams had already touched base with the nine-time All-Star, with the Celtics, Warriors, and Lakers said to be among them.
While Marc J. Spears of Andscape said during an ESPN appearance that there’s “speculation” about Lillard returning around the 2026 All-Star break, that feels like an aggressive timeline, given that the veteran’s Achilles tear occurred in late April. He’ll turn 35 later this month and it wouldn’t be in his best interest to rush his return from an injury that often costs players a full calendar year.
Spears also stated that Lillard wants to rehab his injury in Portland in order to be close to his family, so even if he were to sign with a new team this offseason, it’s unclear how much time he’d actually spend around that club this fall.
Still, it’s no surprise that a number of teams would be willing to use one of their 15-man roster spots on Lillard in 2025/26 — even if he’s not able to return before the end of the season, that would give the club the opportunity to build a relationship with him ahead of his return to full strength next year.
Nuggets’ Spencer Jones Accepts Two-Way QO
Restricted free agent forward Spencer Jones is back under contract with the Nuggets on a new two-way deal, according to NBA.com’s transaction log. Michael Scotto of HoopsHype (Twitter link) confirms that Jones accepted the two-way qualifying offer issued by Denver over the weekend.
Jones, who signed a two-way contract with the Nuggets last July after going undrafted out of Stanford, appeared in just 20 NBA regular season games as a rookie, averaging 1.3 points and 0.9 rebounds in 6.3 minutes per contest. He knocked down only 11-of-34 field goal attempts (32.4%), including 1-of-17 (5.9%) from the beyond the arc.
While Jones didn’t make an impact in a small sample size for the NBA squad, the Nuggets were encouraged by what they saw from him in the G League. In 21 games for the Grand Rapids Gold, the 24-year-old averaged 14.4 points, 7.0 rebounds, and 1.9 assists in 30.5 minutes per game, with much stronger shooting percentages of 51.8% from the field and 45.3% on three-pointers.
Those shooting numbers are more reflective of Jones’ skill set than his NBA stats. He left Stanford as the program’s all-time leader with 315 career made three-pointers.
The Nuggets now have a pair of players on two-way contracts, with Jones joining newcomer Tamar Bates. They’ll each be eligible to appear in up to 50 regular season games for Denver in 2025/26.
Pelicans Sign Trey Alexander, Hunter Dickinson To Two-Ways
The Pelicans have filled their open two-way slots, having signed guard Trey Alexander and center Hunter Dickinson to two-way contracts, according to NBA.com’s transaction log.
New Orleans had carried over Lester Quinones from last season on a two-year, two-way deal, so all three of their two-way slots are now occupied.
Alexander, 22, joined the Nuggets on a two-way deal last offseason after going undrafted out of Creighton. He had an excellent G League season, earning NBAGL Rookie of the Year honors after racking up 25.8 points, 5.7 rebounds, 5.6 assists, and 1.6 steals in 37.0 minutes per game, with a shooting line of .462/.395/.817, across 30 total appearances in the Tip-Off Tournament and regular season.
However, he played sparingly at the NBA level for Denver and wasn’t issued a two-way qualifying offer this past weekend, making him an unrestricted free agent.
Dickinson, meanwhile, reached an agreement on a two-way deal with the Pelicans last week, shortly after going undrafted.
The two-time consensus AP All-American averaged 17.4 points, 9.2 rebounds, and 1.5 blocks per game over the course of his college career, while shooting 55.5% from the field. He spent three years at Michigan before playing for Kansas for the past two seasons.
A two-way deal allows a player to be active for up to 50 NBA regular season games and carries a salary of roughly $636K, which becomes guaranteed if the player remains under contract through January 7.
Lakers, Jaxson Hayes Finalize One-Year Deal
July 6: Hayes is officially back under contract with the Lakers, according to NBA.com’s transaction log.
According to ESPN’s Bobby Marks (Twitter link), Hayes actually got a slight raise to 120% above his minimum, so he’ll earn about $3.45MM in 2025/26.
July 3: Free agent center Jaxson Hayes is returning to the Lakers, according to Shams Charania of ESPN, who reports (via Twitter) that the two sides are in agreement on a one-year contract.
Hayes, 25, signed a two-year contract with the Lakers in 2023 and has appeared in 126 games for the team since then, averaging 5.4 points, 3.8 rebounds, and 0.6 blocks with a 72.1% field goal percentage in 15.6 minutes per night.
The former eighth overall pick took on an increased role during the second half of last season following Anthony Davis‘ abdominal injury and the subsequent trade sending Davis to Dallas. Hayes’ last 32 outings of the regular season were starts, as he boosted his averages to 8.1 PPG, 5.5 RPG, and 1.0 BPG in 21.9 MPG during that stretch.
Hayes’ starting role carried over to the postseason, but he struggled in the Lakers’ first-round series vs. Minnesota and was limited to single-digit minutes in each of the first four games before being removed as the starter for Game 5. While he was perhaps miscast as a starter, the seven-footer is a solid reserve option behind presumed starter Deandre Ayton in the middle.
Charania’s report doesn’t include any financial details on the deal, but it will likely be a minimum-salary contract, given that Hayes was earning the minimum for each of the past two seasons.
The Lakers now project to have 15 players under contract, assuming No. 36 pick Adou Thiero gets a standard roster spot, notes Jovan Buha (Twitter link). However, Shake Milton‘s $3MM salary is non-guaranteed, so the team has a little flexibility with that 15th spot. Jordan Goodwin also doesn’t have a guaranteed salary, though the expectation is that he’ll return after playing rotation minutes down the stretch last season.
Bulls Sign Lachlan Olbrich To Two-Way Contract
Australian big man Lachlan Olbrich has officially signed his first NBA contract, according to the Bulls, who announced (via Twitter) that the 55th pick in this year’s draft has finalized a two-way deal.
Olbrich, 21, spent one year playing college ball at UC Riverside from 2022-23, but has primarily been competing in Australia’s and New Zealand’s National Basketball Leagues for the last several seasons, including stints with the Adelaide 36ers, Illawarra Hawks, and Canterbury Rams.
In 29 games for Illawara in 2024/25, the 6’9″ forward/center averaged 8.7 points, 3.8 rebounds, and 1.6 assists in 16.7 minutes per game.
Olbrich’s two-way deal will make him eligible to appear in up to 50 NBA regular season games in 2025/26 and will pay him $636,435 if he remains under contract through the league-wide salary guarantee deadline in January.
The Bulls have now filled all three of their two-way slots, with Emanuel Miller and Jahmir Young occupying the others.
Jonas Valanciunas Reportedly Considering Leaving NBA For EuroLeague
5:44 pm: The Nuggets are hoping to convince Valanciunas to remain in the NBA rather than seeking a buyout to play in Europe, tweets Stein.
4:40 pm: The trade between Denver and Sacramento is expected to proceed as planned, according to Jake Fischer of The Stein Line (Twitter link), who says discussions between Valanciunas and the Nuggets about his future remain “fluid” in the wake of the lucrative offer he received from Panathinaikos.
3:43 pm: Veteran center Jonas Valanciunas is close to accepting a three-year contract offer worth 12 million Euros from the Greek team Panathinaikos, according to a report from Donatas Urbonas and Karolis Tiskevicius of BasketNews.com.
League sources confirm to NBA insider Marc Stein (Twitter link) that a possible return to Europe holds “strong appeal” to Valanciunas.
Valanciunas, who has been in the NBA since 2012, remains under contract for two more seasons, with a $10.4MM guaranteed salary for 2025/26 and a $10MM non-guaranteed salary for ’26/27. In other words, he can’t freely sign with Panathinaikos without extricating himself from that deal.
He’s also in the process of changing NBA teams. The Kings and Nuggets agreed to a trade on Tuesday that would sent the Lithuanian big man to Denver in exchange for Dario Saric, but it can’t be finalized until after the July moratorium lifts on Sunday.
It’s unclear if Valanciunas’ rumored move to Athens would scuttle that deal, or if the two teams would still go through with the trade and Valanciunas would subsequently look to complete a buyout with the Nuggets. I’d bet on the latter.
Former EuroLeague MVP Sasha Vezenkov was in a similar situation last offseason — as rumors about his possible return to Europe swirled, he was traded from Sacramento to Toronto, where he eventually agreed to a buyout with the Raptors that saw him give up all of his remaining guaranteed salary ($6.7MM) so that he could sign with Olympiacos in Greece.
If the Valanciunas situation plays out in a similar fashion, the Nuggets could end up creating some cap savings as a result of a buyout, but they’d be losing a player they’d identified as a reliable backup for superstar Nikola Jokic and would have to return to the trade market and/or free agency to find someone else to fill that slot.
Valanciunas, the No. 5 overall pick in the 2011 draft, has nearly averaged a double-double across 937 regular season games, with 13.1 points and 9.3 rebounds per game. In 81 outings for Washington and Sacramento last season, he put up 10.4 points, 7.7 rebounds, and 2.0 assists in 18.8 minutes per night.
Suns Discussing Possible Bradley Beal Buyout
The Suns have been discussing a potential buyout of the two years left on Bradley Beal‘s contract, reports Duane Rankin of The Arizona Republic.
Beal was the subject of trade rumors throughout the 2024/25 season and those rumors have carried over to the offseason. However, the $110.8MM he’s owed over the next two years have made it extremely difficult to find a trade partner, and the no-trade clause Beal holds further limits the Suns’ leverage, since he would need to approve any move.
As a result, a buyout has been viewed as the most likely path to a split between Beal and the Suns this summer.
If Beal is willing to give back some of that $110.8MM, it could also open the door for Phoenix to use the stretch provision to spread his remaining cap hits over the next five years instead of two, like Milwaukee is doing with Damian Lillard. That would create significant short-term savings for the Suns – an estimated $230MM, per cap expert Yossi Gozalan (Twitter link) – by taking their team salary from above the second tax apron to all the way under the luxury tax line.
NBA rules prohibit a team from carrying stretching a contract if it will result in dead money in a future cap year that exceeds 15% of the current season’s salary cap. Since the cap for 2025/26 was set at $154,647,000, that means no club can have more than $23,197,050 in stretched dead money on its books in ’26/27 or beyond.
Stretching the $110,794,880 owed to Beal across five seasons would result in annual cap hits of $22,158,976, which would fit within that limit. But Phoenix already has $3,814,041 in stretched salary on its cap through ’26/27 related to last year’s cuts of Nassir Little and E.J. Liddell.
In order to sneak below that 15% threshold to legally stretch Beal’s contract, the team would need him to give up at least $13,879,835. For the 32-year-old to consider that, he’d probably have to feel comfortable about making up most or all of that money on a deal with a new team across the next two seasons.
If Beal were bought out, any of the NBA’s other 29 teams could legally sign him. The Collective Bargaining Agreement prevent teams operating over the tax aprons from signing a waived player if his pre-waiver salary exceeds the value of the non-taxpayer mid-level exception ($14.1MM this year), but that rule only applies to players waived and signed during the regular season.
If the Suns were to use the stretch provision on Beal’s salary, they would be ineligible to re-sign him until July 2027, after his contract would have expired.
Pelicans Waive Antonio Reeves
One year after drafting him with the 47th overall pick, the Pelicans have waived guard Antonio Reeves, per Michael Scotto of HoopsHype (Twitter link).
Reeves, 24, appeared in 44 games as a rookie in New Orleans, averaging 6.9 points and 1.4 rebounds in 15.0 minutes per game, with a solid shooting line of .456/.395/.800. He also excelled at the G League level, putting up 24.9 PPG and 5.8 RPG on .470/.416/.800 shooting in 11 appearances for the Birmingham Squadron.
However, the Pelicans’ front office has undergone several changes since Reeves was drafted in 2024, so the new group of decision-makers – led by executive VP of basketball operations Joe Dumars – have decided not to retain the former Kentucky standout.
Reeves’ $1.96MM salary for the 2025/26 season was non-guaranteed until July 23, so the Pelicans will create some minor cap savings as a result of the transaction.