Lakers Sign Jake LaRavia To Two-Year Contract
July 6: LaRavia has signed with the Lakers, per the official transaction log at NBA.com.
“Jake is a high IQ two-way player with ideal skills for a JJ Redick basketball system,” Lakers president of basketball operations Rob Pelinka said in a statement within the team’s press release confirming the deal. “He’s a disruptive defender who uses his size and physicality to create turnovers. Offensively, he can score at all three levels and has a knack for creating space for himself and his teammates.
“Being just 23 years old, we think Jake has significant basketball upside, which will be honed nicely in our Lakers basketball development program.”
June 30: The Lakers have agreed to a two-year, $12MM deal with free agent forward Jake LaRavia, reports Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link).
Dan Woike of The Athletic, confirming the news, adds (via Twitter) that LaRavia’s contract will be fully guaranteed and refers to him as the team’s “top wing target” once Dorian Finney-Smith committed to Houston.
The Grizzlies turned down LaRavia’s fourth-year rookie scale option for 2025/26 last October, and he responded by playing some of the best basketball of his career through 47 games for Memphis — he made 44.4% of his three-pointers and the team was better when he was on the court than when he wasn’t.
The forward’s production dipped a little following a trade-deadline deal to Sacramento, but he still give the Kings good rotation minutes off the bench and finished the season with total averages of 6.9 points, 3.9 rebounds, and 2.4 assists in 20.4 minutes per game and a .475/.423/.678 shooting line for the two teams.
LaRavia’s solid season prompted Grizzlies head of basketball operations Zach Kleiman to admit after the season that he probably made a mistake by declining the former first-round pick’s $5.16MM option for ’25/26. Sacramento didn’t have the ability to exceed that $5.16MM figure on a starting salary for LaRavia, but other teams – like the Lakers – were allowed to go higher.
A two-year contract worth the full amount of the taxpayer mid-level exception would be worth $11.7MM, so it’s possible LaRavia’s contract will be signed that way. However, the Lakers – who are in desperate need for a center – have more free agent shopping to do, so I’d except LaRavia’s deal to come out of the non-taxpayer mid-level exception. Assuming that’s the case, the club would have about $8.3MM left on it, notes cap expert Yossi Gozlan (Twitter link).
Grizzlies, Cam Spencer Agree To Two-Year Deal
The Grizzlies have agreed to a two-year, $4.5MM contract with guard Cam Spencer, sources tell Shams Charania of ESPN (Twitter link). The deal is fully guaranteed, Charania adds.
Memphis made Spencer a restricted free agent on Sunday by tendering him a qualifying offer. He spent 2024/25 — his rookie season — on a two-way contract with Memphis.
It’s likely that Spencer will sign a minimum-salary contract, which would be worth approximately $4.46MM over the next two seasons.
The 53rd pick of the 2024 draft after winning a national championship with UConn, Spencer appeared in 25 games with the Grizzlies last season, averaging 4.2 points, 1.2 rebounds and 1.4 assists in 10.1 minutes per contest. His shooting line was .415/.365/1.000.
The 25-year-old combo guard had a much bigger role in his eight appearances (32.2 MPG) with the Memphis Hustle in ’24/25, averaging 23.5 PPG, 3.6 RPG, 3.5 APG and 1.2 SPG on .538/.493/.765 shooting.
Spencer will provide depth and outside shooting to the Grizzlies’ backcourt after they traded Desmond Bane to Orlando. They’re also reportedly renegotiating and extending Jaren Jackson Jr. and re-signing Santi Aldama.
Pistons Re-Sign Paul Reed To Two-Year Deal
July 8: Reed has formally signed his new contract with the Pistons, according to the NBA’s official log of transactions.
June 30: The Pistons are bringing back free agent big man Paul Reed, according to Shams Charania of ESPN (Twitter link), who reports that the two sides are in agreement on a two-year, $11MM deal.
The second year of Reed’s new contract will be non-guaranteed, tweets Omari Sankofa II of The Detroit Free Press.
Reed is coming off a minimum-salary contract, so he has a minimum-salary cap hold, but Detroit holds Early Bird rights on him, cap expert Yossi Gozlan notes (Twitter link). That means if the Pistons operate under the cap, they can use up all their room before going over the cap to finalize Reed’s deal.
Reed had a bizarre year regarding his contract situation. He was waived by the Sixers last season when they were trying to open up as much cap space as possible. The Pistons claimed him and picked up his $7.7MM salary, then waived him in December before it became fully guaranteed. They re-signed him that month on a more team-friendly deal.
Reed spent most of the season as the third-string center behind Jalen Duren and Isaiah Stewart. After playing in every game with the Sixers the previous season, he only saw action in 45 games off the bench this past season. He averaged 4.1 points and 2.7 rebounds in 9.7 minutes per game.
Reed also played five games off the bench against the Knicks in the first round of the playoffs after Stewart was sidelined with a knee injury.
Reed is expected to return to that role in the coming season. The Pistons will now concentrate on bigger free agents, a process that became more complicated when gambling allegations surfaced against sixth man and unrestricted free agent Malik Beasley.
Dorian Finney-Smith Signs Four-Year Contract With Rockets
July 7: The Rockets have officially signed Finney-Smith, the team confirmed in a press release.
The deal is fully guaranteed for two seasons, with a non-guaranteed third year and a non-guaranteed fourth-year player option, per Scotto (Twitter link).
June 30: Free agent forward Dorian Finney-Smith is leaving the Lakers in order to sign a four-year, $53MM contract with the Rockets, sources tells Shams Charania of ESPN (Twitter link).
The agreement includes a trade kicker and a mutual option (ie. a non-guaranteed player option) in year four, tweets Michael Scotto of HoopsHype.
Finney-Smith will likely be signed using Houston’s non-taxpayer mid-level exception. A full mid-level deal, starting at the maximum $14.1MM, would be worth $60.6MM, so the Rockets should still have a small portion of the exception left over after signing Finney-Smith, assuming the contract has a standard ascending structure.
Finney-Smith, who was traded from Brooklyn to Los Angeles last December, appeared in 43 games for the Lakers in 2024/25, making 20 starts. He averaged 7.9 points, 3.9 rebounds, and 1.4 assists in 28.8 minutes per game, posting a shooting line of .442/.398/.714.
While his box-score numbers certainly don’t jump off the page, Finney-Smith’s midseason arrival helped fuel a defensive turnaround in L.A. and his reliable three-point shooting helped space the floor on offense.
His impact was reflected by his on/off-court numbers — no Lakers rotation player had a better regular season net rating than Finney–Smith’s +11.1 mark in 1,239 minutes. The club had a -3.5 mark in the 1,214 minutes he didn’t play after the trade.
In Houston, he’ll serve as the type of three-and-D wing the Rockets lost when they agreed to trade Dillon Brooks to Phoenix in the Kevin Durant blockbuster.
It’s a major loss for the Lakers, given the role Finney-Smith both on and off the court for the franchise. As Dan Woike of The Athletic tweets, the 32-year-old was a popular presence in the locker room and was well-liked by Luka Doncic. However, a four-year deal for Finney-Smith didn’t fit into L.A.’s long-term plans.
Jazz Guarantee Svi Mykhailiuk’s Salary For Next Season
The Jazz have guaranteed the $3.68MM salary of Svi Mykhailiuk for next season, Michael Scotto of HoopsHype tweets.
Utah had until today to decide whether to guarantee Mykhailiuk’s season or waive him. His contract, which he signed in August, runs through the 2027/28 season but the final two years are also non-guaranteed.
Utah has made several cost-cutting moves this week, including reaching a buyout agreement with Jordan Clarkson on Monday. However, the Jazz obviously believe Mykhailiuk’s low-cost contract is worth holding onto.
He appeared in 38 games this past season, including 13 starts. Mykhailiuk averaged 8.8 points, 2.4 rebounds and 2.0 assists while shooting 39.1 percent from the field and 34.5 percent from three-point distance.
The Ukrainian wing has bounced around the league, as the Jazz are the 28-year-old’s eighth club in seven NBA seasons.
Hornets, Josh Okogie Agree To New Salary Guarantee Date
The Hornets and Josh Okogie have agreed to push back the veteran wing’s early salary guarantee date to July 15, reports Michael Scotto of HoopsHype (via Twitter).
Today was the original deadline for Charlotte to determine whether or not to guarantee Okogie’s $7.75MM salary for 2025/26. Both sides have agreed to delay that date, giving the Hornets a little more financial flexibility with free agency just a few minutes away.
Okogie was incentivized to agree to the new date because he seems unlikely to receive that much money on the open market. If the Hornets decide to keep him around past July 15, his contract could be useful for salary-matching purposes.
The 20th pick of the 2018 draft, Okogie was traded from Phoenix to Charlotte in January. The 26-year-old guard/forward appeared in 40 games last season (15.6 minutes per contest), averaging 7.1 points, 2.8 rebounds and 1.2 steals on .448/.348/.741 shooting.
Salary Cap, Tax Line Set For 2025/26 NBA Season
The NBA has officially set the salary cap for its 2025/26 season. The cap has come in at $154,647,000, which was the projection all season long. It represents an increase of 10% on last season’s $140,588,000 cap.
Here are the details, courtesy of a league press release (Twitter link), ESPN’s Bobby Marks (Twitter link), and Eric Pincus of Bleacher Report (Twitter link):
- Salary cap: $154,647,000
- Luxury tax line: $187,895,000
- First tax apron: $195,945,000
- Second tax apron: $207,824,000
- Minimum salary floor: $139,182,000
- Non-taxpayer mid-level exception: $14,104,000
- Taxpayer mid-level exception: $5,685,000
- Room exception: $8,781,000
- Bi-annual exception: $5,134,000
- Maximum salaries:
- 6 years or fewer: $38,661,750
- 7-9 years: $46,394,100
- 10+ years: $54,126,450
- Early Bird exception: $13,936,650
- Estimated average salary: $13,870,000
- Trade cash limit: $7,964,000
- Maximum Exhibit 10 bonus: $85,300
- Expanded traded player exception amount: $8,527,000
The first tax apron for the 2025/26 league year ($195,945,000) will be the hard cap for any team that acquires a player via sign-and-trade, signs a player using more than the taxpayer portion of the mid-level exception, signs or acquires a player using a bi-annual exception, uses any portion of its mid-level exception to add a player via trade or waiver claim, uses an expanded traded player exception (ie. takes back more than 100% of a player’s salary using salary-matching), uses a trade exception generated prior to the start of the 2025 offseason, or signs a player who is waived during the regular season and had a salary exceeding $14,104,000.
The second tax apron ($207,824,000) represents the hard cap for a team that uses any portion of the mid-level exception, aggregates two or more player salaries in a trade, sends out cash in a trade, or uses a signed-and-traded player to take back salary.
The salary floor ($139,182,000) is the minimum amount a team must pay its players in 2025/26. A team that doesn’t spend up to that amount by the start of the regular season will pay the shortfall to the NBA and won’t be eligible for its full share of the luxury tax distribution at season’s end.
[RELATED: NBA Maximum Salaries For 2025/26]
[RELATED: Values Of 2025/26 Mid-Level, Bi-Annual Exceptions]
The trade cash limit is the maximum amount of money a team can send or receive during the 2025/26 league year. The sent and received categories are separate, so if a team sends out $7,240,000 in one trade and receives $7,240,000 in another, they aren’t back at square one — they’ve reached both limits.
The Early Bird amount represents the maximum starting salary a team can offer a player it intends to re-sign using his Early Bird rights, assuming that amount is greater than 175% of his previous salary.
Players earning below the estimated average salary in 2025/26 who are eligible for a veteran extension can receive a starting salary of up to 140% of the estimated average salary on a new deal. So the maximum starting salary for a player earning below the league average who signs an extension that begins in 2026/27 will be $19,418,000.
The maximum Exhibit 10 bonus is, as its name suggests, the highest possible bonus available to a player who signs an Exhibit 10 contract with an NBA team, gets cut, then spends at least 60 days with that club’s G League affiliate.
This amount ($85,300) is also the maximum two-way protection amount, which means a player who signs a two-way contract before the season can get up to $85,300 guaranteed upon signing. A player who signs a contract with more than $85,300 guaranteed is not subsequently eligible for a two-way contract with that team in 2025/26.
The expanded traded player exception amount ($8,527,000) is the amount of excess salary a team operating under both tax aprons is permitted to take back in a simultaneous trade, assuming that amount plus the player’s (or players’) outgoing salary is: (A) less than 200% (plus $250K) of the outgoing salary; and (B) more than 125% (plus $250K) of the outgoing salary. For instance, a non-apron team trading a player with a $10MM cap hit could legally acquire a player earning $18,527,000. We have more information on this rule in our traded player exception glossary entry.
The NBA is projecting its salary cap to rise by 7% in 2026/27, tweets Marks. Most salary projections for contracts signed in ’26/27 and beyond had assumed annual 10% cap increases, so it’s notable that the first official estimate from the league is coming in a little lower than that.
Pre-FA Rumors: LeBron, Ayton, Knicks, Kennard, Rozier
Despite the fact that Rich Paul‘s statement accompanying LeBron James‘ opt-in on Sunday raised eyebrows around the NBA, that doesn’t mean that there are any active trade talks involving the Lakers star, NBA insider Chris Haynes said during an appearance on NBA TV (Twitter video link).
“(Paul) told me there have been no trade discussions, there have been no trade talks with the Lakers,” Haynes said. “People have been speculating on certain teams that he might be interested in. I’m told all that talk is false. There has been no trade talks.
“… He clearly opted in and he wants to win. He believes the Lakers have what it takes to maximize Luka (Doncic)‘s timeline, but also maximize and prioritize his timeline.”
While trade speculation has run rampant since Paul asserted that James will be closely monitoring the Lakers’ offseason moves, it hasn’t been uncommon over the years for LeBron to publicly or privately put pressure on his teams to upgrade their respective rosters — he never requested a trade in any of those instances. This may simply be a case of him making sure Los Angeles does all it can to build a roster capable of contending in what could be James’ final NBA season.
With free agency set to officially open at the top of the hour, here are a few rumors – about free agents and other topics – from around the NBA:
- During his NBA TV spot (Twitter video link), Haynes also said that there’s a “strong possibility” of Deandre Ayton joining the Lakers in free agency. The former No. 1 overall pick gave up $10MM in his buyout agreement with the Trail Blazers, according to Jake Fischer of The Stein Line (Twitter link).
- After previous reports indicated that Russell Westbrook and Jordan Clarkson are expected to be among the guards on the Knicks‘ radar in free agency, Ian Begley of SNY.tv (Twitter link) says the team’s interest in Westbrook is mutual, while Steve Popper of Newsday (Twitter link) says the same of Clarkson.
- In addition to confirming several previously reported teams who have interest in sharpshooter Luke Kennard – including Denver, Atlanta, Houston, and New York – Michael Scotto of HoopsHype (Twitter link) adds the Clippers, Trail Blazers, and Pistons to the list of suitors for the 29-year-old. Scotto also reiterates, as he reported earlier, that Kennard isn’t expected to return to Memphis.
- During a discussion on The Pat McAfee Show about the federal probe into Malik Beasley for gambling allegations, ESPN’s Shams Charania suggested that Heat guard Terry Rozier may be out of the woods in regard to a similar investigation into him. “Terry Rozier, as of right now, has been cleared,” Charania said. “… There’s really nothing active, as of right now, with him.” Since Charania mentioned this in passing rather than explicitly reporting it, we should probably take it with a grain of salt rather than treating it as a formal update, but it sounds like it could be a promising development for Rozier.
Mike Brown Getting Second Interview For Knicks Head Coaching Job
The Knicks, who are still looking to fill their head coaching position, are bringing back Mike Brown for a second interview, Stefan Bondy of the New York Post reports. He’s the first candidate to get a follow-up interview but there could be more, Bondy adds.
He’s considered a “strong candidate” to get the job, according to ESPN’s Shams Charania (Twitter link), who confirms that Brown is receiving a second interview.
Taylor Jenkins, Micah Nori and James Borrego are also known to have interviewed for the head coaching position. Jenkins was let go by the Grizzlies late in the regular season. Nori is one of the Timberwolves top assistants, while Borrego is New Orleans’ associate head coach after a stint as the Hornets head coach.
Brown, who was fired by the Kings this past season, has been a head coach as far back as 2005, when Cleveland hired him. He had two head coaching stints with the Cavaliers, sandwiching a season with the Lakers. Brown was one of Steve Kerr’s top assistants with Golden State from 2016-22 before Sacramento hired him as its head coach.
The Kings had a 13-18 record when Brown was dismissed but the move didn’t produce the desired result, as Sacramento finished with a 40-42 mark.
The Knicks were rebuffed by numerous teams to interview their current coaches after they fired Tom Thibodeau despite reaching the Eastern Conference Finals.
Brown reportedly has a close relationship with Knicks executive William Wesley, Bondy notes.
Knicks Among Teams With Interest In Russell Westbrook
The Knicks are a possible suitor for Russell Westbrook with free agency drawing near, report Marc Stein and Jake Fischer of The Stein Line (Substack link).
The Kings are also rumored to be interested in the three-time scoring champion, the authors note, and a potential reunion with the Nuggets remains in play.
Westbrook, who played a significant role with Denver this past season, is currently recovering from a procedure to repair multiple ligament tears in his right hand. The 36-year-old opted out of his $3.47MM player option earlier this month, making him an unrestricted free agent.
New York is expected to kick the tires on Tyus Jones as well, The Stein Line duo confirm. Ian Begley of SNY.tv reported earlier today that Jones could be a target for the Knicks.
Generally speaking, the Knicks, Pelicans and Timberwolves are among an “ever-growing list” of teams looking to acquire veteran backcourt help, according to Stein and Fischer.