Chucky Hepburn Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Raptors Finalize Murray-Boyles, Hepburn Signings

July 1st, 2025 at 2:42pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

The Raptors have officially signed No. 9 overall draft pick Collin Murray-Boyles and finalized their reported agreement with two-way player Chucky Hepburn, per a pair of team press releases.

An All-SEC second teamer during his 2024/25 sophomore season at South Carolina, Murray-Boyles notched averages of 16.8 PPG, 8.3 RPG and 2.4 APG across 32 contests. His 58.6% field goal percentage paced the conference.

Murray-Boyles, a 6’7″ forward, will earn $6.33MM during the first season of his rookie scale deal and a total of $28.82MM across his first four pro years.

Despite being the 2025 ACC Defensive Player of the Year and an All-ACC First Teamer at Louisville as a senior last year, Hepburn went undrafted last week. The 6’2″ guard was quickly snagged by Toronto. Across 34 games in 2024/25, Hepburn averaged 16.4 PPG, 5.8 APG and 3.5 RPG.

As a two-way player, Hepburn will likely split his time between Toronto and the team’s G League affiliate, the Raptors 905. He’ll be eligible to suit up for 50 regular season contests with Toronto before the team would need to elevate him to its standard roster.

Chucky Hepburn To Sign Two-Way Contract With Raptors

June 26th, 2025 at 9:46pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Louisville guard Chucky Hepburn, who was named the Atlantic Coast Conference Defensive Player of the Year, has agreed to a two-way contract with the Raptors, ESPN’s Shams Charania tweets.

The 6’2” Hepburn started 137 games during his four-year college career but wasn’t selected in the draft. He spent his first three seasons with Wisconsin before joining the Cardinals. Hepburn expanded his offensive numbers at Lousville, averaging 16.4 points, 5.8 assists, 3.4 rebounds and 2.4 steals per game last season. He shot 43.2 percent from the field and 32.8 percent from deep, while making 84.4 percent of his free throws.

Hepburn scored 14 points in the ACC championship game against Duke and supplied 22 points and six assists in an NCAA Tournament opening-round loss to Creighton.

Toronto finished the season with an empty two-way spot. Hepburn will likely be ticketed for the G League in his first season but, given his experience, could be an early contributor at the NBA level if injuries arise to the Raptors backcourt.

Southeast Notes: Young, Hornets, Magic, K. Johnson

June 6th, 2025 at 12:38pm CST by Luke Adams

A native of Norman, Oklahoma who played his college ball for the Sooners, Trae Young has some affinity for the local NBA team. However, while the Hawks guard will be rooting for the Thunder in the NBA Finals, he tells Lauren Williams of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that seeing Oklahoma City make a serious run at a title really just makes him more determined to take his own team to those same heights.

“It’s even more motivating for me,” Young said on Wednesday at a sponsor event. “I want to win a championship bad. But the fact that it’s in my city and I’m just watching it now, if you thought I wanted it bad before, it’s even worse now. … Hopefully we’re here playing the Thunder next year, and I’m not having this (event) here in OKC. So, we have this party there in Atlanta. I love Atlanta.”

The Hawks have missed the playoffs in each of the past two seasons and haven’t won more than 43 games in a season since Young was drafted in 2018, but the star guard remains optimistic about the franchise’s direction.

“We had the No. 1 pick (Zaccharie Risacher) last year that made strides and almost won Rookie of the Year, got second,” Young said. “We have a lot of young, young, really good players. We have a great coach. We have a lot of stuff, and we have a big summer ahead, for sure.”

We have more from around the Southeast:

Dylan Cardwell (Auburn), Steven Crowl (Wisconsin), Chucky Hepburn (Louisville), and Jalon Moore (Oklahoma) visited the Hornets for a pre-draft workout earlier this week, while Obinna Anochili-Killen (Marshall), Eric Dixon (Villanova), Kobe Johnson (UCLA), and Julian Reese (Maryland) auditioned for the team on Thursday, reports Rod Boone of The Charlotte Observer (Twitter links). Charlotte controls the fourth, 33rd, and 34th overall picks in this year’s draft. Among those prospects, Dixon is the highest-rated on ESPN’s big board at No. 45.
Keith Smith of Spotrac and Yossi Gozlan of The Third Apron (Substack link) both previewed the Magic‘s offseason this week, discussing Paolo Banchero‘s upcoming rookie scale extension, looking at Orlando’s rising payroll, and considering how the team might use its multiple first-round picks (No. 16 and No. 25) in this year’s draft.
Although he played limited minutes in just 16 NBA games as a rookie in 2024/25, Heat forward Keshad Johnson feels he has “grown mentally” since entering the league, writes Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald. “I’ve learned a lot about basketball, Xs and Os,” said Johnson, who played well for the Sioux Falls Skyforce in the G League. “Just being in the NBA, at first it started off fast. But it started to slow down as time got going. Just getting comfortable. Skill-wise, I feel like the mental aspect of learning cheat codes and things like that.” The Heat hold a minimum-salary team option on Johnson for the 2025/26 season and must exercise or decline that option by June 29.

44 Prospects Invited To G League Elite Camp

May 5th, 2025 at 7:19am CST by Luke Adams

A total of 44 college and international prospects have been invited to the 2025 G League Elite Camp, aka the G League Combine, according to Michael Scotto of HoopsHype (Twitter link).

The list of invitees, as reported by Scotto, is as follows:

Jabri Abdur-Rahim (Providence)
Brooks Barnhizer (Northwestern)
Tamar Bates (Missouri)
Nathan Bittle (Oregon)
Dylan Cardwell (Auburn)
Rueben Chinyelu (Florida)
Thierry Darlan (Delaware Blue Coats – G League)
Johnell Davis (Arkansas)
Jyare Davis (Syracuse)
RJ Davis (UNC)
Dawson Garcia (Minnesota)
Keshon Gilbert (Iowa State)
Caleb Grill (Missouri)
Chucky Hepburn (Louisville)
Chase Hunter (Clemson)
Kobe Johnson (UCLA)
Curtis Jones (Iowa State)
Arthur Kaluma (Texas)
Miles Kelly (Auburn)
Viktor Lakhin (Clemson)
Malique Lewis (South East Melbourne – Australia)
Caleb Love (Arizona)
Jaland Lowe (Pittsburgh)
Jahmai Mashack (Tennessee)
Chance McMillian (Texas Tech)
Mackenzie Mgbako (Indiana)
Igor Milicic Jr. (Tennessee)
Jacksen Moni (North Dakota State)
Eli Ndiaye (Real Madrid – Spain)
Ryan Nembhard (Gonzaga)
Yanic Konan Niederhauser (Penn State)
Isaac Nogues (Rip City Remix – G League)
Lachlan Olbrich (Illawarra – Australia)
Sean Pedulla (Ole Miss)
Jonathan Pierre (Belmont)
Jaron Pierre Jr. (Jacksonville State)
Will Richard (Florida)
Kadary Richmond (St. John’s)
Joson Sanon (Arizona State)
Nate Santos (Dayton)
Brandon Stroud (South Florida)
Wade Taylor IV (Texas A&M)
Amari Williams (Kentucky)
Chris Youngblood (Alabama)

These prospects will meet with NBA evaluators and scrimmage for two days in Chicago starting on May 9, ahead of the league’s annual draft combine. A small group of standout players from this event are generally invited to stay in Chicago for the full-fledged combine that takes place immediately following the G League Elite Camp. Typically, at least a half-dozen players move on.

While the May 11-18 combine focuses on the top-ranked players in each draft class, the G League Elite Camp offers opportunity to prospects further down boards who are more likely to go undrafted.

None of the 44 players invited to the G League Elite Camp show up in the top 50 of ESPN’s list of this year’s top prospects. Williams (No. 58) and Lewis (No. 59) are the top-ranked prospects for the event, per ESPN.

The G League Elite Camp will give invitees who declared for the draft as early entrants an opportunity to see where they stand ahead of the draft withdrawal deadline on May 28. Not all of the players who participate in this event will remain in the draft pool.

Jose Alvarado, Terance Mann, and Jaylen Martin are among the current NBA players who once took part in the G League Elite Camp. Last year’s list of invitees was highlighted by Jaylen Wells, though he ultimately received a combine invite before either event tipped off.

Keion Brooks, Isaiah Crawford, Yongxi Cui, Enrique Freeman, Emanuel Miller, Nae’Qwan Tomlin, and Anton Watson were among the other 2024 participants who signed two-way contracts with NBA teams this past year, while Isaac Jones finished the 2024/25 season on a standard contract in Sacramento.