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Latest On Jonathan Kuminga

July 24th, 2025 at 10:45pm CST by Rory Maher

In a story for ESPN.com, Anthony Slater has provided more details regarding the stalemate between the Warriors and restricted free agent forward Jonathan Kuminga.

According to Slater, the two sides did not discuss the financial terms of a new contract leading up to free agency, which led to Kuminga’s agent, Aaron Turner, seeking sign-and-trades from rival teams. The Suns and Kings have shown the most external interest in Kuminga to this point, sources tell Slater, confirming reporting from his colleague Shams Charania.

John Gambadoro of Arizona Sports 98.7 continues to hear the Suns are high on Kuminga and says they remain interested in trying to find ways to acquire him, despite having limited assets at their disposal (Twitter link). However, Golden State’s front office hasn’t been impressed with the offers from Phoenix or Sacramento, Slater writes.

In a potential Kuminga sign-and-trade, the Warriors don’t want to take on unfavorable contracts, “would like” to add a talented young player, and are determined to receive a first-rounder, per Slater’s sources.

As Slater details, general manager Mike Dunleavy Jr. was motivated to get a deal done this week and recently offered Kuminga what the the club believes is the “highest starting salary” he currently has on the table. But the 22-year-old wasn’t moved by the offer, as he told Charania, and seems much more interested in landing with another team.

Signing his $7.98MM qualifying offer, which is essentially just a one-year contract with an implied no-trade clause, is an option Kuminga is considering, sources tell Slater. Choosing that path would cost Kuminga money in the short term but would give him more control of his situation and an opportunity to hit unrestricted free agency in 2026, Slater notes.

Part of the reason that Kuminga is trying to find a new home is that he has a “painful memory” of being out of the Warriors’ rotation in their first-round playoff series vs. Houston, according to Slater. The former lottery pick desires a featured offensive role and wants to be a consistent starter, Slater adds.

A source tells Ashish Mathur of DallasHoopsJournal.com that Kuminga has “made it known behind the scenes” that he doesn’t want to continue his career in Golden State, partly because he doesn’t think he can become an All-Star with the Warriors. Kuminga publicly discussed his All-Star ambitions last month in an interview with Slater.

Ben Simmons To Decide On New Team By Next Week?

July 24th, 2025 at 8:32pm CST by Rory Maher

Ben Simmons, an unrestricted free agent, is “probably” going to sign with a new team by next week, ESPN’s Brian Windhorst reported on Threads (hat tip to Brian Robb of MassLive).

Windhorst mentioned the Kings, Suns, Knicks and Celtics as teams that have been linked to Simmons, confirming previous reporting from Jake Fischer and Marc Stein.

Simmons is a three-time All-Star who has made a pair of All-Defensive first teams and was the Defensive Player of the Year runner-up in 2021, but he has battled back issues in recent years and has been a tricky fit in lineups that feature any other non-shooters. In 51 total appearances for the Nets and Clippers last season, he averaged 5.0 points, 5.6 assists, and 4.7 rebounds in 22.0 minutes per game.

In a subscriber-0nly story for The Philadelphia Inquirer, Keith Pompey takes a look at how Simmons’ career has been derailed, with back injuries the primary culprit. While he’s no longer the player he once was, the 29-year-old remains a talented and versatile defender, according to Pompey, who writes that Simmons is still worthy of an NBA roster spot.

Simmons seems likely to receive a minimum-salary contract from whichever team he picks, considering the former No. 1 overall pick has become a “situational role player,” as Pompey puts it.

Jared Butler Signs With Suns

July 24th, 2025 at 4:10pm CST by Arthur Hill

July 24: Butler’s deal with the Suns is official, per a team press release (Twitter link via Gerald Bourguet of PHNX Sports). According to Bourguet, Butler’s contract is non-guaranteed and he and Goodwin will be vying for a roster spot this fall.

July 23: The Suns have reached an agreement on a one-year contract with Jared Butler, agents Mark Bartelstein and Kieran Piller of Priority Sports tell Shams Charania of ESPN (Twitter link).

The 24-year-old guard became a free agent late last month when the Sixers declined their team option on his $2.35MM salary for 2025/26. He finished the season in Philadelphia after being acquired from Washington at the deadline, and the Sixers converted his two-way deal to a standard contract a week after the trade.

Butler appeared in 60 total games last season, and he put up the best numbers of his career in 28 games with Philadelphia. He averaged 11.5 points, 2.5 rebounds and 4.9 assists for the short-handed team, while making 17 starts and posting .426/.352/.870 shooting splits.

Butler began his career in Utah after being selected with the 40th pick in the 2021 draft. He also had a brief stay with Oklahoma City before joining the Wizards on a two-way contract in 2023.

The Suns are making another move to bolster their backcourt, claiming former Lakers guard Jordan Goodwin off waivers. Once both transactions are official, Phoenix will have a full roster with 15 players on standard contracts and three on two-way deals.

Restricted Free Agent Kuminga, Warriors Remain At Impasse

July 24th, 2025 at 3:30pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Negotiations between restricted free agent Jonathan Kuminga and the Warriors remain at a stalemate, ESPN’s Shams Charania reports (Twitter video link).

“It’s a staring contest between these two sides that could continue much longer than just this month,” Charania said.

NBA insider Jake Fischer reported last week that Kuminga’s agent, Aaron Turner, has held numerous discussions with Warriors officials in Las Vegas this month trying to secure a contract that pays at least $25MM in average annual salary, even in the short term. According to Fischer, the Warriors have been reluctant to meet that price in a long-term agreement.

Charania visited with Kuminga on Wednesday said that the 22-year-old forward told him that he was in “absolutely no rush to do a deal with the Warriors.” According to new ESPN insider Anthony Slater (video link), coach Steve Kerr has been in contact with Kuminga during the process but Kerr’s tendency to reduce his role during crunch time and in the postseason has left some “scar tissue,” adding that Kuminga no longer wants to be a “Plan B” option.

Turner continues to pursue possible sign-and-trade transactions. According to Charania, the Suns and Kings “have made concrete offers with the Warriors over the last week or so.” Those clubs have also offered Kuminga an “opportunity for significant minutes, a starting-caliber role” and “those are two things he wants more than anything.”

Golden State has balked at the packages those teams have offered, which leaves Kuminga as well as the organization in limbo. The Wizards, Heat, Bulls, Bucks, and Nets have also been previously named as possible suitors for Kuminga.

The Warriors’ other potential offseason moves have been delayed until the Kuminga situation is resolved, Charania adds. Slater identifies Al Horford, De’Anthony Melton and Seth Curry as free agents that Golden State is interested in. The Warriors currently have just nine players on standard contracts.

Kuminga appeared in just 47 games in 2024/25, having missed more than two months due to a badly sprained ankle. He had an inconsistent role when healthy, averaging 15.3 points, 4.6 rebounds, and 2.2 assists in 24.3 minutes per game, with a .454/.305/.668 shooting line.

Although he was out of the Warriors’ rotation entirely for some key games at the end of the regular season and in the postseason, Kuminga averaged 24.3 points per game on .554/.389/.720 shooting in his final four playoff games vs. Minnesota after Stephen Curry injured his hamstring.

And-Ones: Biggest Mistakes, Summer League Standouts, More

July 24th, 2025 at 10:03am CST by Luke Adams

As effectively managed as some NBA teams have been in recent years, all 30 clubs have made at least a few moves they regret, according to Zach Kram of ESPN.com, who runs through some of the biggest missteps of the 2020s and names the most glaring mistake each team has made this decade.

Kram’s list begins with “small-scale problems,” like the Cavaliers not giving Isaiah Hartenstein a qualifying offer in 2021 and the Knicks signing Evan Fournier to a $73MM contract in 2021, before advancing to “draft disasters” – such as the Celtics trading the draft rights to No. 30 pick Desmond Bane – and miscellaneous midtier mistakes,” including the Pistons giving Monty Williams the largest head coaching contract in league history.

Kram’s final two categories are “too high a cost for too little reward” and “franchise-altering terrible trades.” The top two mistakes on his list are the Mavericks moving Luka Doncic and the Suns giving up the assets they did to land Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal.

Here are more odds and ends from around the basketball world:

John Hollinger of The Athletic shares his biggest takeaways from this month’s Summer League games, including identifying Tolu Smith of the Pistons, Nae’Qwan Tomlin of the Cavaliers, and Drew Timme of the Nets as players to watch going forward. Hollinger also mentions Jazz big man Kyle Filipowski, Timberwolves guard Terrence Shannon Jr., Pistons forward Ron Holland, Thunder guard Ajay Mitchell, and Cavaliers wing Jaylon Tyson as the players who showed they were “too good for summer league.”
While Summer League success doesn’t always carry over to the subsequent regular season, scouts around the NBA find July’s games “extremely valuable” for evaluating players, as Tobias Bass of The Athletic writes. “Before the draft, no matter what your opinion is about a player or how analytics project him to be, it’s always interesting to see how competitive they are once they get to summer league,” one Western Conference scout told Bass. “How quickly they pick up terminology, are they culture fits and can they keep the main thing the main thing? Can they be attentive, on time and professional, especially with all the distractions in Vegas?”
Keith Smith of Spotrac empties out his notebook after traveling to Las Vegas for Summer League, sharing quotes from coaches, scouts, and executives about each of the NBA’s Eastern Conference and Western Conference teams.

Suns Knew Another Team Was Interested In Jordan Goodwin

July 23rd, 2025 at 11:00pm CST by Arthur Hill

The Suns, who claimed Jordan Goodwin off waivers earlier today, knew there was at least one other team planning to submit a claim for the former Lakers guard and weren’t sure they’d land him, according to John Gambadoro of Arizona Sports 98.7 (Twitter link). Waiver priority is determined by last season’s record, with the worst teams getting first dibs.

Rockets Notes: Green, Finney-Smith, Durant, Sheppard

July 23rd, 2025 at 5:44pm CST by Arthur Hill

Former Rockets guard Jalen Green reflected on his time in Houston, along with the trade that sent him to the Suns, in a lengthy post on The Players Tribune. Green was part of the price the Rockets paid, along with Dillon Brooks and the 10th pick in this year’s draft, to acquire Kevin Durant. Although he’s sad to leave the city, Green said he understands the reasoning behind the deal.

“Listen, nobody likes to get traded. But I can honestly say that I get it, bro,” he wrote. “This is a business, and if I was up there in the executive chair, I probably would’ve made the deal, too. I think it’s a better situation for both sides, and I’m just excited to get it popping with Book (Devin Booker), and to create that winning culture that we figured out down here in Houston.”

Selected with the second pick in the 2021 draft, Green represented the first step in the Rockets’ rebuilding process after trading James Harden. He went through a lot of losing during his first two years in Houston, but things turned around in 2023 when Ime Udoka was hired as head coach and Brooks and Fred VanVleet were brought in to change the culture. Green reflected on the growing process that led to a 52-win season and the second seed in the West.

“My rookie year, we won 20 games. Twen-tee, bro,” he added. “Within three years, we had the Toyota Center packed out for a home playoff game. I’ll always be proud of that. To flip it around like that, it’s about culture. We had our young core, but we also had vets like Fred VanVleet — guys who had really won in this league — showing us the way.”

There’s more from Houston:

Dorian Finney-Smith talked about his decision to sign with the Rockets as a free agent in an interview with WAVY-TV during a recent visit to his hometown of Portsmouth, Virginia (hat tip to Ben DuBose of Rockets Wire). “I already know who they are. They play hard,” Finney-Smith said. “Coach Ime is one of the toughest coaches in the league. I’ve never seen him smile much when you’re playing against him. The first time I’ve ever seen him smile was when we had dinner, like two weeks ago. I like that, because I’m a competitor.” Finney-Smith added that he was planning to remain with the Lakers when the offseason began, but he was swayed by the opportunity in Houston.
Durant hasn’t arrived in Houston yet even though it’s been more than a month since the trade was agreed to, Michael Shapiro of Chron.com writes in a story charting the offseason workouts of Rockets players. Durant has been seen at Fanatics Fest in New York City and the Wireless Festival in London, according to Shapiro, who adds that VanVleet recently made a visit to Turkey to train with Alperen Sengun.
The Rockets’ decision to sign free agent wing Josh Okogie rather than another guard is a sign of confidence in their current backcourt players, especially Reed Sheppard, who will be counted on for a larger role after playing sparingly as a rookie, observes Danielle Lerner of The Houston Chronicle.

Suns Claim Jordan Goodwin Off Waivers

July 23rd, 2025 at 4:09pm CST by Arthur Hill

JULY 24: The Suns issued a press release confirming they’ve claimed Goodwin, Gerald Bourguet of PHNX Sports tweets.

JULY 23: The Suns have claimed former Lakers guard Jordan Goodwin off waivers, sources tell Shams Charania of ESPN (Twitter link).

Goodwin, 26, was released over the weekend so L.A. could create room below the first apron to sign Marcus Smart with its bi-annual exception. In late June, the Lakers picked up their team option on Goodwin’s $2.35MM contract for the upcoming season, which carries just a $25K guarantee.

Phoenix inherits Goodwin’s full contract via the waiver claim, so L.A. will have the $25K come off its books.

Jordan joined the Lakers on a two-way contract in early February and was converted to a standard deal in late March. He appeared in 29 games, making five starts and averaging 5.6 points, 3.9 rebounds and 1.4 assists in 18.7 minutes per night. He also posted .438/.382/.818 shooting numbers.

The move marks a return to Phoenix for Goodwin, who was acquired from Washington two summers ago as part of the Bradley Beal trade. He appeared in 40 games with the Suns during the 2023/24 season before being dealt to Memphis.

Goodwin began his career on a 10-day deal with the Wizards in 2021 and signed a two-way contract the following season.

The addition of Goodwin will give the Suns 14 standard contracts, along with three two-way deals. His contract will remain non-guaranteed, apart from the $25K, until the league-wide guarantee date in January, and he will become an unrestricted free agent next summer.

Pacific Notes: Suns, Beal, Paul, Harden

July 21st, 2025 at 9:46pm CST by Dana Gauruder

The Suns are comfortable with their current roster, Duane Rankin of the Arizona Republic reports, though they must make at least one more move.

Aided in large part by the Kevin Durant trade and the buyout of Bradley Beal‘s contract, the Suns have dropped under the tax aprons and can now aggregate contracts in a trade, do a sign-and-trade and use mid-level exceptions. However, it’s unlikely they’ll make another significant move.

While Rankin confirms the Suns have some interest in restricted free agent Jonathan Kuminga, they likely lack the draft capital and assets to pique the Warriors’ interest. Veteran free agents Russell Westbrook and Al Horford are not on their radar, Rankin adds.

Phoenix will have to add another player to the standard roster by the fall to meet the minimum of 14.

Here’s more from the Pacific Division:

What does the Suns‘ starting lineup look like after all the roster additions and subtractions? Rankin predicts Devin Booker, Jalen Green, Dillon Brooks, Ryan Dunn and Mark Williams will claim those spots. Collin Gillespie, Grayson Allen, Royce O’Neale, Oso Ighodaro and lottery pick Khaman Maluach project as the top reserve candidates.
Beal, who joined the Clippers on a two-year, $11MM contract, has a 15 percent trade kicker as part of his new deal, Michael Scotto of HoopsHype tweets. Beal officially signed with L.A. on Friday after clearing waivers.
There’s no lingering friction between Chris Paul, who signed with the Clippers on Monday, and his former Rockets teammate James Harden, according to Law Murray of The Athletic. In fact, president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank declared that Paul will back up Harden next season. Frank was intent this offseason on getting quality depth, considering his aging roster and the proliferation of injuries throughout the league. “I’ll knock on wood, but the reality is for any NBA team, the amount of times you have your top 10 all available is usually 21 to 25 times throughout the course of a year. So, you literally need everyone on your roster to be able to contribute,” Frank said.

Stein’s Latest: Simmons, CP3, Clippers, Nuggets, Simons, Mavs

July 21st, 2025 at 10:01am CST by Luke Adams

After his Stein Line teammate Jake Fischer reported that the Kings and Knicks look like the top candidates to land Ben Simmons, NBA insider Marc Stein suggests within his latest Substack article that at least a couple more clubs are in the mix for the former No. 1 overall pick.

According to Stein, Simmons has drawn interest from the Celtics since free agency began and has also had some recent conversations with the Suns.

While a couple of those teams could offer Simmons a portion of their mid-level exception, most of them have tax- or apron-related concerns that would make a minimum-salary offer more likely for the former 76er, who celebrated his 29th birthday on Sunday. Phoenix would cross the tax line with even a veteran-minimum signing, New York has used its full taxpayer mid-level exception, and Boston is currently operating slightly above the second tax apron.

Simmons is a three-time All-Star who has made a pair of All-Defensive first teams and was the Defensive Player of the Year runner-up in 2021, but he has battled back issues in recent years and has been a tricky fit in lineups that feature any other non-shooters. In 51 total appearances for the Nets and Clippers last season, he averaged 5.0 points, 5.6 assists, and 4.7 rebounds in 22.0 minutes per game.

Here’s more from Stein:

Following up on Lawrence Frank‘s comments on Saturday about the Clippers “strongly, strongly considering” Chris Paul, Stein suggests that most rival front offices view the veteran point guard as “the Clippers’ signee to lose.”
With Jared Dudley and J.J. Barea set to occupy the top two spots on David Adelman‘s bench in Denver, the Nuggets don’t intend to hire an assistant specifically for their third front-of-bench position. Instead, the plan is to rotate assistants in and out of that role depending on game-to-game scouting responsibilities, Stein explains. Ognjen Stojakovic, a holdover from Michael Malone‘s staff who is close with Nikola Jokic, is one coach expected to be in the rotation for that third assistant slot, Stein adds.
League sources confirm to Stein that the Celtics are continuing to explore the trade market for recently acquired guard Anfernee Simons.
The Mavericks will congregate in Canada this fall, according to Stein, who says the team’s training camp will be held in Vancouver, B.C.