Southwest Notes: Harper, Jones Garcia, Wells, Durant
The reviews were all positive as the Spurs got their first preseason look at rookie guard Dylan Harper Friday night, according to Michael C. Wright of ESPN. The No. 2 pick in this year’s draft sat out the first two games as a precaution after undergoing thumb surgery in September, and he enjoyed the chance to showcase his skills in a game setting.
“Just being back out on the court with them guys, just getting the chemistry going before the season starts, it just felt good to play again,” Harper said. “My teammates do a great job of empowering me, and they’re going to let me know what I do wrong. But ultimately, they’re here to help me out and I’m here to help them out. Just having that confidence behind me is very helpful.”
Harper checked into the game midway through the first quarter and picked up two quick assists on alley-oop passes to Victor Wembanyama and Luke Kornet, per Jeff McDonald of The San Antonio Express-News (subscription required). He only played 18 minutes due to a medical restriction, but he ran the offense while he was on the court and finished with a game-high plus-minus rating of +20. He also picked up full-court on defense and vowed that part of his game will get better as his conditioning improves.
“It’s just another step for him and his young career as he’s going to continue to grow,” coach Mitch Johnson said. “Obviously, he made some plays, which hopefully he’ll feel good about. But just to be able to do it in front of fans and in the bright lights, whether it was the plays that people will talk about when he scored, made a shot or made a good pass. Just to be able to go through team defense and run the floor, it is just invaluable experience.”
There’s more from the Southwest Division:
- David Jones Garcia‘s outstanding Summer League performance has carried over into the preseason, McDonald adds in the same story. The 23-year-old small forward, who signed a two-way contract with the Spurs after earning All-Summer First Team honors in Las Vegas, scored 20 points in the fourth quarter and overtime in Friday’s win over Utah. “He’s competitive,” Johnson said. “He is obviously dynamic with the basketball and has the ability to put the ball in the hole. If he can raise that other part of his game to match that, then he’s got a real chance.”
- The Grizzlies are counting on Jaylen Wells to take on an expanded offensive role after trading Desmond Bane to Orlando, notes Damichael Cole of The Memphis Commercial Appeal. That means some play-making duties as well as increased scoring for the second-year swingman. “Overall, I think he’s on a very nice growth trajectory,” coach Tuomas Iisalo said. “He’s being asked to be a secondary handler in our offense right now, and he’s doing a pretty good job with it — like today, when he’s more assertive and finds his spots. I’m very happy with his development.”
- Kevin Durant is already displaying on-court chemistry with Alperen Sengun as he played his first game with the Rockets on Wednesday, writes William Guillory of The Athletic. They ran a two-man game throughout the night that looked polished, even though it was their first time as teammates. Guillory observes that Sengun is the most talented center Durant has ever played alongside, and the combination forces tough decisions for opposing defenses.
Rockets Notes: Capela, Smith, Thompson, Sheppard, Davison
It came as a bit of a surprise in free agency when the Rockets, with Alperen Sengun and Steven Adams on multiyear deals in the middle, made a deal to reacquire Clint Capela, who spent the first six years of his NBA career in Houston. But with the Rockets leaning into bigger lineups, they valued the opportunity to bring back Capela, and he reciprocated their interest, suggesting that he had unfinished business in Houston.
“I feel like when I left (Houston in a 2020 trade), it was something that wasn’t done,” Capela said, according to Danielle Lerner of The Houston Chronicle (subscription required). “What I’ve missed the most is the fans, the support that I feel about the city. Whenever I left, that’s when I realized how special it was to represent this team in the city and be able to be, really, a real contender. I really missed that, and that’s why I feel that it’s so special to be here with this team.”
After experimenting last season by playing Sengun and Adams alongside one another, head coach Ime Udoka views Capela as a player he can use either as the lone big man in a five-man unit or next to Sengun in a jumbo frontcourt.
“(Capela) is a different player as far as rim protection, lob threat,” Udoka said. “Even probably out of those three (centers), he might switch and move his feet the best. Alpi’s good as well, but all those things. And then, like I said, with Alpi’s versatility, he could play with either of them. Alpi seems to be more aggressive when he has another big guy behind him.”
We have more on the Rockets:
- The Rockets opened their preseason schedule on Monday with a 122-113 victory over Atlanta. Lerner and William Guillory of The Athletic share the key takeaways from that game, including Jabari Smith Jr. looking comfortable in his return to the starting lineup and Amen Thompson and Reed Sheppard sharing ball-handling duties evenly when they were on the court together.
- While Thompson and Sheppard figure to be Houston’s primary ball-handlers with Fred VanVleet out due to a torn ACL, two-way player JD Davison did his best on Monday to show he deserves consideration for rotation minutes, as Brian Robb of MassLive.com writes. Davison had 17 points and four assists in 22 minutes of action, with five made three-pointers. “He’s been great,” Udoka said of the former Celtic. “Very aggressive, handles well, makes good decisions out of the pick and roll. He’s a big body who can pick up full court, so he brings aggression on both sides of the ball. He’s taken advantage of the opportunity.”
- An ESPN panel explores the impact that VanVleet’s injury will have on the Rockets this season, with Kevin Pelton outlining why Houston might actually miss the veteran point guard more on the defensive end of the court, while Bobby Marks explains why the team isn’t in a great position at the moment to trade for or sign a replacement point guard.
Southwest Notes: DFS, Eason, Bey, Spurs, Wemby, Prosper
Confirming previous reporting, Rockets head coach Ime Udoka acknowledged on Wednesday to reporters, including Danielle Lerner of The Houston Chronicle (subscription required), that newly added forward Dorian Finney-Smith will “probably not” be ready for the start of the season as he recovers from June ankle surgery. According to Udoka, Finney-Smith hasn’t yet been cleared for contact, though he’s doing “all the shooting and other things with treatment as well during practice.”
As Lerner writes, the Rockets are also continuing to manage the workloads of center Steven Adams and forward Tari Eason, who were coming off procedures on their right knee and left leg, respectively, last season and didn’t play in both ends of back-to-backs. Houston won’t have a back-to-back this season until the first week of December and it’s unclear whether or not Adams and Eason will get the go-ahead to suit up for both of those games.
With Finney-Smith sidelined for now, Eason will receive consideration for a spot in the starting lineup this fall, according to Udoka.
“We’ll see,” Udoka said. “Good to have athletic wing defenders that’ll do a lot of things that he does, especially with Dillon (Brooks) being gone, but still to be determined, and we’ll see what works well. It’s not just about starting with me, as you know. It’s about what fits best, as far as our group. He wants to push for that. We want him to as well. And we’ll see if he gets it.”
Udoka has spoken this week about experimenting with different types of lineups, per William Guillory of The Athletic, noting that he could try out a unit featuring Kevin Durant, Amen Thompson, Jabari Smith Jr., Alperen Sengun, and Adams that would “probably be one of the biggest in the history of the league.”
We have more from around the Southwest:
- Jordan Poole was the headliner of the Pelicans‘ offseason trade with Washington, but the team also added veteran forward Saddiq Bey in that deal. Jim Eichenhofer of Pelicans.com explores what Bey, who is returning from an ACL injury that cost him the entire 2024/25 season, can bring to New Orleans, noting that he’s earning praise from his teammates and his new head coach in camp. “He’s sort of that Swiss Army Knife type of player,” Willie Green said. “He can play multiple positions, score, post up, defend, rebound. Those guys are extremely valuable to a team’s success.”
- The Spurs were one of the NBA’s worst rebounding teams and put up poor defensive numbers when Victor Wembanyama wasn’t on the court last season. They’re optimistic that the offseason additions of centers Luke Kornet and Kelly Olynyk will help address those issues, as Jeff McDonald of The San Antonio Express-News writes (subscription required). “We wanted to be able to have that roster versatility to play a bunch of different ways and also protect the paint when Vic’s not on the floor,” general manager Brian Wright said. “I think those guys allow us to do that.”
- After recovering from a blood clot and spending time traveling in China and Japan this offseason, Wembanyama embarked upon a training regimen he described as “brutal,” explaining that he wanted to “get my body back,” according to Jared Weiss of The Athletic. “I can assure you, nobody has trained like I did this summer,” the Spurs star said. “And this is my best summer so far. I can tell the progress is just incredible. I feel better, I look stronger and the scale says I’m heavier. So everything is a green light.”
- With Grizzlies big men Jaren Jackson Jr., Zach Edey, and Brandon Clarke all likely unavailable to open the 2025/26 season, new two-way addition Olivier-Maxence Prosper is among the players making a strong case for a rotation role in the frontcourt during camp, head coach Tuomas Iisalo said this week, per Michael Wallace of Grind City Media (Twitter link).
Rockets Notes: PGs, Finney-Smith, Thompson, Adams, Green
In the wake of Fred VanVleet‘s ACL tear, Rockets head coach Ime Udoka doesn’t expect a single player to take over the veteran point guard’s responsibilities.
“A committee, all of the above,” Udoka said when asked about Houston’s point guard plans, suggesting that Amen Thompson, Reed Sheppard, and Aaron Holiday could all play increased on-ball roles (Twitter link via Danielle Lerner of The Houston Chronicle). That was already the plan for Thompson and Sheppard, but it will be “expedited a little bit” with VanVleet unavailable, Udoka added.
The Rockets’ coach also pointed out that players at other positions like Alperen Sengun and Kevin Durant will be relied upon to initiate the offense more frequently.
Here’s more out of Houston:
- New Rockets forward Dorian Finney-Smith, who is coming off ankle surgery, said he has been running but didn’t specify a timeline for his return, according to ESPN’s Brian Windhorst, who says Finney-Smith hasn’t been fully cleared for basketball activities and will likely miss the start of the regular season.
- After earning an All-Defensive first team spot and finishing fifth in Defensive Player of the Year voting in 2024/25, Thompson said on Monday that his goals heading into ’25/26 are to make an All-Star team and to win a title, per William Guillory of The Athletic (Twitter link).
- While general manager Rafael Stone indicated that the Rockets may still take a cautious approach with Steven Adams on back-to-backs to open the season, the veteran center said his knee feels good entering training camp (Twitter link via Lerner). “I feel ready, I feel confident with it,” said Adams, who sat out all of 2023/24 season while recovering from knee surgery.
- Asked on Monday if he envisions himself coaching once his playing career ends, veteran forward Jeff Green dismissed the idea. “Hell nah,” he replied, according to Guillory (Twitter link).
- In case you missed it, Kevin Durant said on Monday that he expects to sign a contract extension with Houston at some point. We have the full story here.
And-Ones: Sengun, Giannis, Future Rankings, G League Swap, Drell
Rockets center Alperen Sengun made an eye-opening statement regarding Giannis Antetokounmpo after Turkey defeated Greece for the EuroBasket semifinals.
“He’s not a great passer. He’s an amazing player, you know, but he’s not a great passer. So we just tried to help and jump to close the paint,” Sengun said, per Edvinas Jablonskis of BasketNews.com.
When asked about Sengun’s comments on Sunday, according to BasketNews, the Bucks superstar replied, “I’m not the guy that will talk back to coaches or players or people that say bad things about me. It doesn’t really matter because at the end of the day, you won’t remember what they say. You’ll remember how I respond. So, I keep everything to myself. You can go see my clips on YouTube. And then come back and ask me if I’m a good passer. There you go. That’s it.”
The disagreement continued on social media but both players later issued apologies for comments they made on Instagram, according to Eurohoops.net.
We have more from around the international basketball world:
- ESPN’s Insiders updated their three-year future rankings of every NBA franchise based on a variety of factors. Not surprisingly, the defending champion Thunder received the top ranking. The Rockets, Knicks, Cavaliers and Clippers rounded out the top five, with the Suns occupying the bottom of the totem pole.
- The Oklahoma City Blue, the Thunder‘s NBA G League team, has acquired a 2026 first-round pick and the returning player rights to Steven Richardson from the Wisconsin Herd in exchange for the returning player rights to Cormac Ryan, Thunder beat reporter Rylan Stiles tweets. Ryan joined the Bucks‘ camp roster on an Exhibit 10 deal last week, so this clears the way for him to receive a bonus up to $85,300 if he’s waived and then spends 60 days or more with the Herd.
- Spanish club Joventut Badalona and former Bulls forward Henri Drell have reached an agreement for the next two months with an option to extend until the end of the season, according to Penya.com. Drell played in the EuroBasket tournament with the Estonian national team. Last year, he played 15 games with La Laguna Tenerife. Drell appeared in four games with Chicago during the 2023/24 season.
Germany Defeats Turkey For EuroBasket Gold; Schröder Named MVP
A back-and-forth battle between a pair of 8-0 teams went down to the wire in Sunday’s EuroBasket championship game, with Kings point guard Dennis Schröder helping to secure a gold medal for Germany by scoring the final six points and turning an 83-82 deficit into an 88-83 victory over Turkey.
Schöder (16 points, 12 assists), former NBA wing Isaac Bonga (20 points, 4-of-4 three-pointers), and Magic forward Franz Wagner (18 points, eight rebounds) were the standout performers for Germany, which has won two of the past three major international basketball competitions.
Although the Germans didn’t make the podium at the Paris Olympics last summer, the country is now the defending FIBA World Cup (2023) and EuroBasket (2025) champion and has posted a 21-2 record in those three tournaments, per HoopsHype (Twitter link).
Germany outlasted a Turkish national team that was led by Rockets center Alperen Sengun (28 points), former NBA forward Cedi Osman (23 points, 6-of-9 on three-pointers), former NBA guard Shane Larkin (13 points, nine assists, six rebounds), and Sixers big man Adem Bona (12 points, 5-of-5 shooting).
While they weren’t able to claim their first EuroBasket championship, Turkey matched their best-ever result by taking silver. The Turkish team lost to Yugoslavia in the 2001 final, which was the only other time the country made the championship game.
Schröder was named the EuroBasket Most Valuable Player after leading the Germans to their first title in the event since 1993. He scored at least 16 points in all nine games, averaging 20.3 points and 7.2 assists per contest.
The 2025 EuroBasket All-Star Five was made up entirely of NBA players, with Lakers guard Luka Doncic (Slovenia) and Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo (Greece) joining Schröder, Wagner, and Sengun (Twitter link).
Antetokounmpo and the Greek national team beat Finland in the third-place game earlier on Sunday.
International Notes: Loyd, Larkin, NBA Europe, Athens
Veteran guard Jordan Loyd, who starred for Poland during EuroBasket 2025, is close to signing a contract with Turkish powerhouse Anadolu Efes, reports Marc Stein of The Stein Line (via Twitter).
Loyd, who had a brief stint with Toronto during the team’s title-winning season in 2019, averaged a team-high 22.4 points, 3.3 rebounds, 2.0 assists and 1.3 steals on .490/.422/.875 shooting in seven games (32.0 MPG) for Poland.
Stein previously reported that Real Madrid was the most prominent suitor for Loyd, but evidently team was unable to sign him away from AS Monaco because his Spanish league rights are held by Valencia, among other complicating factors.
Loyd, 32, helped Monaco reach the EuroLeague final for the first time in franchise history last season. In 27 EuroLeague contests, he averaged 10.7 PPG, 3.3 RPG and 1.9 APG on .468/.392/.892 shooting (22.7 MPG).
Anadolu Efes, meanwhile, won the EuroLeague in both 2021 and 2022. Last season, it was eliminated in the quarterfinals of the playoffs by Panathinaikos, the 2024 champs. Efes also competes domestically in Turkey’s Basketball Super League.
Here are a few more international notes:
- In an extensive — and exclusive — interview with Cyro Asseo de Choch of HoopsHype, former first-round pick Shane Larkin discussed becoming a Turkish nationalized citizen, his journey to becoming a star in Europe, battling OCD, and Turkish teammate Alperen Sengun, among other topics. “I had a few incredible seasons over here and I had opportunities to go back to the (NBA) and I was like, “Nah I’m cool, like I’m good where I am”… and when people hear that, they don’t understand what it is like to be one of the better star players in Europe. You have to really experience it to fully understand it,” Larkin said as part of a larger quote. The 5’11” point guard, who plays for Anadolu Efes, will compete in the final of EuroBasket on Sunday with Turkey, which faces Germany.
- Speaking to the media on Saturday, FIBA Europe president Jorge Garbajosa said he has “no doubt” that the NBA’s European league will come to fruition at some point, though the details are still being worked out. “There’s a long way to work from today until whenever we start,” Garbajosa said, per Cesare Milanti of Eurohoops. “This is going to happen. It’s very clear. Mr. [Adam] Silver announced it publicly, and so did Mr. [Andreas] Zagklis. I did it also. It is not easy to create this competition in Europe, so it’s going to take a while. But this is going to happen. How and when? Let’s see. Some prospects talked about 2027. I think it’s a good year. But obviously NBA is working on it. We are their partners, we want to be their partners, we want to be together with them.”
- The 2026 EuroLeague Final Four will be played at the Telekom Center in Athens, Greece, the league announced in a press release. Athens also hosted the 2007 edition of the EuroLeague Final Four.
Western Notes: Gobert, Abdelfattah, Sengun, Durant
The Timberwolves paid a hefty price to the Jazz to acquire Rudy Gobert. Minnesota was heavily criticized for giving up five players and a package of first-rounders for the defensive stalwart after Gobert’s first season in the organization. However, the trade can now be considered a resounding win for the Timberwolves, Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic opines.
Krawczynski cites Gobert’s impact over the past two seasons and suggests the team’s success during that stretch have changed the culture in Minnesota. The organization has become a place players want to play with heightened expectations and Gobert has been a big part of that change.
We have more from the Western Conference:
- The Timberwolves have officially hired Mahmoud Abdelfattah as head coach of the Iowa Wolves, the club’s NBA G League affiliate, according to a team press release. The Wolves’ decision to hire him was reported last month. Most recently, Abdelfattah spent the 2023/24 season as the head coach of the Sydney Kings of Australia’s National Basketball League. Prior to his time with the NBL’s Kings, the Chicago native spent four seasons (2019-2023) in the Rockets organization.
- Alperen Sengun has been one of the stars of the EuroBasket tournament, which comes as no surprise to Rockets coach Ime Udoka, according to Danielle Lerner of the Houston Chronicle. That’s what Udoka advised his starting center when he visited Turkey this summer. “It was really, ‘Be aggressive and get back to dominating as you have throughout your career,’ basically,” Udoka said. “For him, we wanted to work on specific things and the way they guard him over in Europe, in EuroBasket. And he’s doing a great job, obviously, getting high assist numbers, being very efficient, but doing all the things and trying to be well rounded. So it wasn’t just about scoring the ball.”
- Speaking of Udoka, the Rockets coach received this message from Kevin Durant — use me in any way necessary. Durant would rather fit in than have their young core become passive. “He wants to kind of be implemented into the group, and people not take a back seat to him,” Udoka told Lerner. “That’s his message to a lot of the young guys: Be who you are, continue to grow in those areas, and I’ll fit in where we see necessary.”
Turkey Ousts Greece, Will Vie For EuroBasket Gold
Turkey jumped out to a 12-point lead in the first quarter of Friday’s EuroBasket semifinal vs. Greece and never looked back, expanding that lead in each quarter en route to a 94-68 blowout win.
The victory secures Turkey’s spot in the EuroBasket championship game on Sunday. It will be the first time since the country hosted the tournament in 2001 that it has competed in the gold medal game — Turkey lost to Yugoslavia 24 years ago and has never won a EuroBasket title.
Rockets center Alperen Sengun had another big game on Friday, racking up 15 points, 12 rebounds, and six assists as Turkey outscored Greece by 24 points during his 33 minutes of action. However, the team’s leading scorers were forward/center Ercan Osmani, who had 28 points on 11-of-15 shooting, and Cedi Osman, who scored 17 points on 7-of-12 shooting and was a team-best +32.
Osmani was also the primary defender against Greek star Giannis Antetokounmpo, who had his worst game of the tournament with just 12 points on 6-of-13 shooting. The Bucks forward, who had scored at least 25 points in each of his five previous EuroBasket games, had 12 rebounds and five assists, but committed five turnovers and was a -30 in 30 minutes.
Turkey and Germany will square off for EuroBasket gold on Sunday with their matching undefeated (8-0) records on the line. The Germans have three active NBA players and two former NBAers on their roster, including Franz Wagner of the Magic and Dennis Schröder of the Kings; Turkey’s roster features two current NBA players – Sengun and Sixers big man Adem Bona – and five ex-NBA players.
Greece, meanwhile, will go up against Lauri Markkanen and the Finnish national team in Sunday’s third-place game.
Rockets Notes: Eason, Durant, Playing Time, Owens, Sengun
Many people around the league believe the Rockets will work out a long-term extension with Tari Eason before finalizing a new deal with Kevin Durant, according to William Guillory of The Athletic.
ESPN’s Brian Windhorst recently reported that Durant and the Rockets are expected to reach an extension agreement at some point.
Eason has an expiring contract — the Rockets exercised a $5.68MM club option on the final year of his rookie deal for 2025/26. The fourth-year forward averaged a career-high 12.0 points and 1.7 steals per game while making 57 appearances last season.
Here’s more on the Rockets:
- In the same story, Guillory opines about a pleasant dilemma: Does Houston have too many good players? Guillory believes coach Ime Udoka will have a difficult time figuring out how to divvy up minutes among so many players capable of heavy minutes on a good team.
- Mark Owens, a Houston-area boxing trainer, has become a vital asset to the Rockets — the team’s director of performance, Willie Cruz, describes Owens as “an extension of our strength coaches.” Danielle Lerner of the Houston Chronicle (subscription required) profiles how Owens, who served a federal prison term, turned his life around and helped the Rockets become one of the more physical teams in the league.
- Former Sixers forward Furkan Korkmaz is playing alongside Rockets center Alperen Sengun for Turkey in the EuroBasket tournament. Korkmaz called Sengun, not Joel Embiid, the best center he’s played with in his career. “He’s a special kid and every day he’s trying to give his maximum,” he said in a video posted by Eurohoops Turkey.