Tyrese Haliburton Exits Game 7 With Achilles Injury
8:21 pm: ESPN’s Lisa Salters spoke to Haliburton’s father prior to the end of the first half and he confirmed that his son suffered an Achilles injury (Twitter video link).
The team will likely be conducting more tests to confirm the diagnosis, but if it’s an Achilles tear for Haliburton, it could cost him the entire 2025/26 season.
7:50 pm: Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton has exited Game 7 of the NBA Finals in the first quarter after sustaining a right lower leg injury (Twitter video link via ESPN). He won’t return to the game, according to the team.
With just over five minutes left in the first quarter on Sunday, Haliburton caught a pass outside the three-point line and made a move to drive toward the Thunder’s basket. However, his right leg gave way as he pushed off and he fell to the court, where he shouted in frustration and banged his fist against the floor. He was unable to put any weight on the leg as he was helped off the court.
Haliburton had been playing through a right calf strain that he suffered in Game 5 of the series. The injury likely would have sidelined him for multiple weeks had it occurred during the regular season, but he was determined to play through it and was able to finish out Game 5 and compete in Game 6 without any setbacks.
Playing through a calf strain generally increases the risk of suffering a major Achilles injury (ie. a tear) — that happened to Kevin Durant when he attempted to return early from a strained calf in the 2019 NBA Finals.
We don’t know that Haliburton injured his Achilles tonight and we’ll obviously be hoping for a best-case scenario, but video of the play and the guard’s reaction suggest the injury is a significant one, affecting that lower part of his right leg.
An All-NBA third-teamer during the regular season, Haliburton has made several huge game-winning shots for the Pacers during the playoffs, leading the way for the upstart club as it pulled off multiple upsets in the Eastern Conference bracket and pushed the 68-win Thunder to a Game 7 in Oklahoma City. If Indiana is going to win its first NBA championship on Sunday, the team will have to do it without its starting point guard.
Suns Notes: Beal, Green, Wild-Card Suitors, Lanier, Durant, Cousins
With the Suns agreeing to trade Kevin Durant to the Rockets, Phoenix radio talk show host John Gambadoro continues to believe the team will either trade or buy out Bradley Beal, he said on The Kevin O’Connor Show (Twitter video link).
Of course, Beal has a no-trade clause and would have to agree to waive it for a deal to be made. If the Suns are unable to trade or buy out Beal, then they’d have to hope he could rebuild his value on the court. Gambadoro previously noted that head coaching candidates were asked how they would utilize Beal if he’s still on the roster.
Cap expert Yossi Gozlan (Twitter link) looks back at the buyouts of Kemba Walker and Blake Griffin in recent seasons as examples of what Beal might be willing to give back, presuming the three-time All-Star could receive a full non-taxpayer mid-level exception deal elsewhere. If Beal were willing to give up 25 percent of his current contract with two years left, the cap hits for the Suns would total $40.25MM and $42.85MM.
Here’s more on the Suns:
- While the Suns now seemingly have two combo guards with similar skills, they are not planning to move Jalen Green, Gambadoro tweets. Instead, the Suns will look to pair him with Devin Booker in the backcourt and see how they’ll mesh. Green has shown durability, appearing in every game over the past two seasons. He averaged 21.0 points and 3.4 assists this season.
- While Durant negotiations were primarily focused on the Heat, Rockets and Timberwolves, several wild-card suitors emerged, including the Raptors, Cavaliers, Nuggets and Clippers, according to ESPN’s Shams Charania. The Cavs, in particular, were a long shot since they would have needed to send out enough salary to get under the second apron for 2025/26. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have been allowed to aggregate salaries. Since the Suns are also a second-apron team, a deal between Phoenix and Cleveland would have required the involvement of at least one more club.
- Tennessee guard Chaz Lanier worked out for the Suns on Friday, Duane Rankin of the Arizona Republic tweets. Lanier set the Volunteers’ single season record for made three-pointers with 123 this past season. He’s ranked No. 38 overall on ESPN’s Best Available list. The Suns own the 29th and 52nd picks in addition to the 10th and 59th selections they’re acquiring from Houston.
- Earlier in the weekend, Durant brushed off a comment by former NBA center DeMarcus Cousins, who claimed on Fan Duel’s Run It Back show that there were “fistfights” in the Suns locker room. As Rankin relays, Durant responded on social media that Cousins’ source for that claim was “lying” and that there were “NEVER” any locker room fights.
2025 NBA Offseason Preview: Minnesota Timberwolves
After making it to the Western Conference Finals in 2024 for the first time in 20 years, the Timberwolves found themselves at the center of a battle over team ownership and facing an increasingly concerning long-term salary cap situation entering last summer.
Glen Taylor was fighting to stop minority stakeholders Marc Lore and Alex Rodriguez from gaining majority control of the franchise at the same time that Anthony Edwards' Rose rule rookie scale extension took effect, which gave the Wolves a trio of max-salary players and pushed the team's salary above the restrictive second tax apron.
A year later, much has changed in Minnesota. Longtime Timberwolves star Karl-Anthony Towns, the club's No. 1 overall pick back in 2015, was traded to New York before the 2024/25 season began; Lore and Rodriguez ultimately won their protracted struggle with Taylor for ownership of the team; and Edwards is now the only maximum-salary player on Minnesota's roster after Towns was traded and Rudy Gobert took a pay cut on his latest contract extension.
But there was one notable constant that carried over from 2024 to 2025: the Timberwolves made it back to the conference finals for a second straight time this spring.
It wasn't just the first time in franchise history that the team had accomplished that feat in back-to-back seasons -- it was the first time the Wolves had won even a single playoff series in consecutive years. The club, which made its NBA debut in 1989, has compiled just six postseason series victories in its history, and four of them have occurred within the past two years.
As talented as some of those Kevin Garnett-led Timberwolves teams in the late 1990s and early 2000s were, you could make a strong case that this 2020s iteration of the Wolves is the best the club has ever been.
Still, there's work to be done, not just to get the Wolves to the next level but to make sure they don't drop off at all from their current level. In Julius Randle, Naz Reid, and Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Minnesota will have three of the NBA's top 15 free agents this summer and may not be able to bring all of them back. And even if the front office can retain that trio, more upgrades may be necessary to turn the Wolves from a perennial playoff team into a legitimate championship threat.
Figuring out how to take that next step will be the challenge facing president of basketball operations Tim Connelly this offseason.
The Timberwolves' Offseason Plan
Technically, there's a possibility that Connelly won't be the one making the roster decisions facing the Timberwolves this summer. He has an opt-out clause in his contract that gives him the ability to leave the team if he so chooses. However, there has been absolutely no indication he's thinking about taking that route.
Spurs To Hire Mavs Assistant Sweeney As Associate Head Coach
Mavericks assistant Sean Sweeney has agreed to become the associate head coach of the Spurs under Mitch Johnson, Shams Charania of ESPN tweets. The Spurs’ interest in Sweeney was previously reported by Marc Stein.
Sweeney has been an assistant under Jason Kidd with the Nets and Bucks as well as the Mavericks. They’ll now lose him to an up-and-coming division rival.
Sweeney’s name has frequently popped up when head coaching jobs have come open but he has yet to land one of those coveted positions. He most recently interviewed for the Suns head coaching job.
Stein also reports that another Mavericks assistant, Jared Dudley, is being pursued by the Grizzlies and Cavaliers (Twitter link). According to The Athletic’s Fred Katz, the Mavericks opted not to extend the contracts of their assistant coaches after their 2024 run to the NBA Finals (Twitter link). That is apparently a contributing factor in those assistants seeking other jobs.
Dallas could try to convince former Lakers and Suns coach Frank Vogel, who is now a consultant to the organization, to take Sweeney’s spot, according to Stein (Twitter link). However, Vogel apparently is comfortable in his consultant’s role as he awaits another head coaching opportunity.
Another assistant, God Shammgod, is drawing interest from the Magic, Stein adds (Twitter link).
California Notes: Warriors, Buss Legacy, DeRozan, Monk
After acquiring six-time All-Star forward Jimmy Butler midway through 2024/25, the Warriors’ offseason will be focused on building out their roster with an eye towards a deeper playoff run next spring.
In a story previewing the team’s summer, Yossi Gozlan of The Third Apron (Substack link) notes that Golden State possesses the draft picks and movable contracts needed to make some key personnel improvements.
According to Gozlan, restricted free agent forward Jonathan Kuminga‘s next deal could prove crucial to helping the club level up. Gozlan considers a sign-and-trade with another team to be the best path for the Warriors to maximize value for the 22-year-old and for Kuminga to get the bigger role he seems to be seeking. The Warriors also have other, more veteran free agents for whom they could extract value in sign-and-trade deals.
Golden State has just nine players under contract heading into the summer and are $17.4MM below the projected luxury tax line.
There’s more out of California:
- With the Buss family set to sell their majority stake in the Lakers after 46 years, Jim Alexander of The Orange County Register looks back on the transformative impact late patriarch Dr. Jerry Buss’ ownership had on the league at large. Beyond drafting superstars Magic Johnson and James Worthy early in his tenure, Buss helped eventize the league, making the games more than just basketball and helping elevate the NBA’s profile around the world.
- Now-Pacers All-NBA guard Tyrese Haliburton‘s big showing in the ongoing Finals highlights a glaring point guard deficiency for the team who drafted him in 2020, observes Jason Anderson of The Sacramento Bee. After trading Haliburton in 2022, the Kings went on to move De’Aaron Fox to San Antonio this past season as part of a three-team deal that netted them swingman Zach LaVine. New general manager Scott Perry now must work to find the club’s new lead ball-handler of the future, Anderson writes, noting that players like Ja Morant, Trae Young, Darius Garland, and Jrue Holiday have been floated as potential trade fits.
- The Kings haven’t yet engaged in trade conversations about veteran wings Malik Monk or DeMar DeRozan, but Anderson tweets that talks could kick up with Kevin Durant‘s trade fate now resolved.
Texas Notes: Wemby, Durant, Rockets, Flagg
All-Star Spurs center Victor Wembanyama has been maximizing his summer. The 7’4″ big man, whose 2024/25 sophomore season was cut short early by a blood clot issue, spent two weeks with monks at Shaolin Temple in China.
Reflecting on the stint during an appearance on “The Shop” with Lakers All-Star LeBron James, former seven-time Super Bowl champion Tom Brady and streamer Kai Cenat, Wembanyama spoke fondly of his time abroad, writes Larry Holder of The Athletic.
“It was a great experience,” Wembanyama said. “My goal going there was putting my body through things that it’s not used to doing and allowing my range of movement and strength. This was probably as very different as possible from what I’m used to doing.”
There’s more out of the Lone Star State:
- The Spurs were considered a potential Kevin Durant suitor and were said to be among his preferred landing spots, but he’ll join one of San Antonio’s division rivals instead. According to Jeff McDonald of The San Antonio Express-News (subscription required), the Spurs’ refusal to include either the No. 2 overall pick or Stephon Castle in their offer is believed to have prompted Phoenix to look elsewhere. Multiple reports indicated San Antonio wasn’t one of the teams engaged in serious trade talks with the Suns.
- The Rockets‘ decision to trade Jalen Green, Dillon Brooks, the No. 10 pick in this year’s draft and five future second rounders for Durant should give Houston the go-to scorer the team has been missing and will create more lineup optionality for head coach Ime Udoka, write Doug Haller, Sam Amick, and Kelly Iko of The Athletic. The Rockets’ elite defense and Durant’s offensive weapons make them a “match made in heaven,” The Athletic adds.
- The Mavericks control the top pick in this week’s impending draft and are expected to use it on superstar Duke forward Cooper Flagg. The 6’8″ phenom’s longtime trainer, Matt MacKenzie, recently raved to Mike Curtis of The Dallas Morning News (subscriber link) about Flagg’s relentless drive and stunning aptitude. “You only had to tell him something once and he was immediately starting to apply it into drill work,” MacKenzie told Curtis, “and then I would watch his games and he would immediately start to try to apply it into his game. So there was just an incredibly steep learning curve. He was able to pick up on things quickly. It was very natural to him.”
Rockets Trading For Suns’ Kevin Durant
The Rockets are acquiring Kevin Durant from the Suns in exchange for Jalen Green, Dillon Brooks, the 10th pick in the 2025 draft, and five second-rounders, reports Shams Charania of ESPN.
The Heat were the other finalist for Durant, sources tell Charania.
According to John Gambadoro of Arizona Sports 98.7 (Twitter link), who reported this morning that Phoenix was “very close” to trading Durant, the second-round selections the Suns will receive are the 59th pick in this year’s draft, two picks in 2026, Boston’s selection in 2030, and Houston’s pick in 2032.
As ESPN’s Bobby Marks tweets, the blockbuster trade cannot be formally completed until July 6 due to the poison pill provision affecting Green’s rookie scale extension.
Durant, who turns 37 years old in September, has been on the trade block for months after Phoenix nearly sent him to Golden State prior to the February deadline, a move that reportedly fell apart after the former NBA MVP didn’t want to return to the Warriors, especially during the season. Four months later, he’ll be heading to Houston, one of three teams said to be on his wish list, along with San Antonio and Miami.
Although Durant will be entering his 19th NBA season this fall, he continues to perform at an All-NBA level. In 62 games for the Suns this past season, he averaged 26.6 points, 6.0 rebounds, 4.2 assists, and 1.2 blocks in 36.5 minutes per game, with an impressive shooting line of .527/.430/.839.
In Durant, Houston now has a star capable of creating his own shot and generating half-court offense, which was an issue for the team during its first-round playoff loss to Golden State this spring. While Green was Houston’s leading scorer during the regular season, he struggled in his first appearance on the postseason stage — he poured in 38 points in Game 2 but failed to score more than 12 points in any of the series’ other six games.
Still, Green is just 23 years old, so he has the potential to continue improving and expanding his game after averaging 20.1 points per contest on .422/.342/.799 shooting in his first four NBA seasons.
According to Marc Stein of The Stein Line (Twitter link), although Jabari Smith Jr. was among the young Rockets players the Suns were reportedly interested in, Houston was insistent on only doing a Durant trade if Green was the only member of its young core it gave up.
Phoenix now has a crowded shooting guard depth chart, with Green joining Devin Booker and Bradley Beal on the roster, but Gambadoro tweets that there are no plans to flip Green to another team and that he’ll play alongside Booker in the Suns’ backcourt. There has been an expectation that Beal won’t return to the club next season, though his contract (which includes a no-trade clause) will make him difficult to move.
Besides Green, the Suns are also adding a solid defensive wing in Brooks and a lottery pick in this week’s draft, which will put them in position to add another promising young prospect to their core.
Durant will be on an expiring $54.7MM contract, so the Rockets will likely make an effort to extend his deal beyond 2025/26. As Marks tweets, the star forward will be eligible for a two-year extension worth roughly $122MM as of July 6. If he were to wait six months, his maximum extension would be worth a little more, though the difference would be minimal (approximately $2MM).
Green’s three-year, $105.3MM rookie scale extension will go into effect this July. That deal includes a third-year player option and a 10% trade kicker, though that bonus will likely have to be eliminated or amended in order to make this trade work, Marks notes.
Brooks, who is on a descending contract, is owed about $41.1MM in base salary over the next two seasons, with an additional $2MM in incentives ($1MM per year) for making the first round of the playoffs.
Because Houston achieved that feat this season and Phoenix didn’t, that bonus will change from “likely to be earned” to “unlikely” as a result of the trade, reducing Brooks’ 2025/26 cap hit by $1MM. That will be a key to making the trade legal for the Suns, who can’t take back more salary than they send out as long as they continue to operate over the second tax apron, Marks adds (via Twitter).
According to Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald (Twitter links), the Heat improved their offer for Durant in recent days and received consideration from the Suns, but their offer ultimately couldn’t compete with Houston’s. Jackson suggests Miami was unwilling to include multiple first-round picks and young players in its package, while Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald (Twitter link) hears that the Heat’s unwillingness to include center Kel’el Ware was among the sticking points that led to Phoenix going in a different direction.
The Timberwolves were also involved in the Durant sweepstakes, but with no assurances from Durant that he actually wanted to be in Minnesota, they seemingly didn’t get all that close to making a deal, tweets Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic.
The Spurs, Raptors, and Clippers were among the other teams who were said to have interest in Durant before the Suns reached an agreement with the Rockets.
Luke Adams contributed to this story.
Nuggets’ Dario Saric Picks Up Player Option
Nuggets reserve big man Dario Saric has picked up his $5.4MM player option for the 2025/26 season, sources inform Marc Stein of The Stein Line (Twitter link).
Saric was inked to a two-year, $10.6MM deal last summer via Denver’s taxpayer mid-level exception. He was a relative disappointment, and quickly fell out of the team’s rotation.
The 31-year-old played just 16 regular season contests, averaging 3.5 PPG, 3.1 RPG, and 1.4 APG in 13.1 MPG. He was out of David Adelman‘s playoff lineups entirely. Instead, power forward Aaron Gordon was often used as a small-ball center to back up three-time MVP starting five Nikola Jokic in the postseason.
Saric’s deadline to make a decision on the contract was June 29. Denver’s new-look front office, led by interim general manager Ben Tenzer, presumably isn’t surprised that he opted to lock in the security of the deal, since he would’ve been unlikely to earn more than the veteran’s minimum in free agency this summer.
For his career, the 6’10” big man boasts averages of 10.4 PPG and 5.3 RPG, and is a 36% three-point shooter on 3.6 triple tries a night. He could have some intriguing upside to another team, if Denver can find a destination to reroute his salary this offseason, but he’ll have negative value on the trade market.
NBA Finals Notes: Game 7, Thunder, Pacers, Predictions, More
Sunday’s Game 7 between the Thunder and Pacers is a “perfect coda” to an enthralling playoffs and an “all-time classic” NBA Finals, writes Sam Amick of The Athletic. It’s the first Game 7 in the Finals since 2016, when Cleveland came back from a 3-1 deficit to defeat Golden State.
“I’m very much looking forward to Game 7,” Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle said (story via Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press). “The last time we’ve had one of these in the Finals, I think, was ’16. These are special moments certainly for both teams but for our league, for the game, for the worldwide interest in the game. It’s a time to celebrate.”
As Amick details, the 2025 postseason has had numerous high points, with aging stars facing off against their younger counterparts, high-level defense, game-winning shots — many from Tyrese Haliburton — and overall excellent play from teams in both conferences. Most of all, it has been a showcase of the depth and quality of league’s two best teams.
The Thunder were historically dominant during the regular season, with a 68-14 record and +12.7 net rating, and are one win away capping off an epic 2024/25 campaign. They swept Memphis in the first round, defeated Denver in seven games in the semifinal, then dispatched Minnesota in five in the West final.
Indiana, the underdog on one of the most memorable playoff runs in NBA history, started out 10-15, then went 40-17 the rest of regular season for a 50-32 record. With compelling late-game heroics, the Pacers dispatched Milwaukee in five games, 64-win Cleveland — the East’s top seed — in five, and New York, which beat defending champion Boston in round two, in six games.
The series has been a back-and-forth affair, with each team taking leads before the other equalized. Oklahoma City will be at home tonight after being blown out on the road in Game 6, which was the team’s first attempt to claim the title.
“It’s a contest of wills,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said, per Joe Vardon of The Athletic. “I think the reason it swung between the two teams is because these are two teams that have leaned on that heavily to get to this point. It’s two teams where the whole is better than the sum of the parts. It’s two teams that are highly competitive. Two teams that play together. Two teams that kind of rely on the same stuff for their success that are squaring off against each other.”
Here are some more notes about Game 7:
- Eleven staff members from The Athletic predict who will win the series finale, with six choosing the Pacers and five votes for the Thunder. In our poll, nearly 54% of our readers have picked Oklahoma City to win thus far.
- Several NBA insiders at ESPN.com compiled a list of “everything you need to know” about the Game 7 showdown, including the keys to winning for both teams, the Finals MVP contenders, the players who could swing the game, and more. Eight ESPN employees also predicted who would win — seven selected the Thunder, with only one picking the Pacers.
- No matter which team emerges victorious, the NBA will crown its seventh different champion in as many seasons. The league has been seeking parity for years, notes Mike Vorkunov of The Athletic, and this year’s playoffs have shown that small-market clubs like Oklahoma City and Indiana can reach the pinnacle of the sport.
- The Pacers are seeking their first NBA title in franchise history, while the Thunder are looking for their first championship since moving to Oklahoma City in 2008, the league noted in a press release (Twitter link). This will be the 20th Game 7 in NBA Finals history.
Gambo: Suns ‘Very Close’ To Trading Kevin Durant
The Suns are “very close” to trading Kevin Durant, reports John Gambadoro of Arizona Sports 98.7 (via Twitter).
Phoenix’s front office is in discussions with “multiple teams” to find a trade it likes, according to Gambadoro, who expects the deal to be completed on Sunday or Monday.
Trade talks involving Durant first started prior to the February deadline, with the 36-year-old star reportedly caught off guard at the time. The Suns have been working with two-time Finals MVP to find a deal this offseason, but are said to be underwhelmed by the offers they’ve received to this point, in part because Durant is reportedly only willing to sign an extension — he’s on an expiring $54.7MM contract — with three teams.
The Spurs, Rockets and Heat are on Durant’s list of preferred destinations, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the sharpshooting forward will end up on one of those teams, with Phoenix insisting it will find take the best offer for Durant. The Timberwolves, Raptors and Clippers are among the other teams said to be interested in the 15-time All-Star.
Durant appeared in 62 games during the 2024/25 season, averaging 26.6 points, 6.0 rebounds, 4.2 assists and 1.2 blocks on .527/.430/.839 shooting in 36.5 minutes per contest. Despite having the highest payroll in NBA, the Suns went just 36-46, failing to even make the play-in tournament in the West.