Dash Daniels Rumors | Hoops Rumors

12 NBA Teams Sent Evaluators To NBL Blitz

September 2nd, 2025 at 10:04am CST by Luke Adams

The NBL Blitz, the annual preseason showcase ahead of Australia’s National Basketball League season, took place last week. The event was shorter than usual and was held in Canberra instead of on the sunnier Gold Coast, but 12 NBA teams still had representatives in attendance, according to Olgun Uluc of ESPN, who recaps some of the key storylines from the Blitz.

New Zealand Breakers forward Karim Lopez, a projected 2026 lottery pick, didn’t take part in the tournament due to a back injury, but Uluc notes that NBA scouts had their eye on another potential 2026 first-round pick, Melbourne United’s Dash Daniels, the younger brother of NBA Defensive Player of the Year runner-up Dyson Daniels. Ben Henshall of the Perth Wildcats and Malique Lewis of the South East Melbourne Phoenix were among the other 2026 draft-eligible prospects who drew interest.

Multiple NBA evaluators told Uluc that they were also keeping a close eye on Jaylin Galloway, who had a brief stint as a Bucks two-way player at the end of the 2023/24 season before rejoining the Sydney Kings in Australia. The 22-year-old wing had an impressive showing for Australia at the FIBA Asia Cup and spoke about his desire to make it back to the NBA. Officials from NBA teams were evaluating at the NBL Blitz whether Galloway’s game would translate stateside, per Uluc.

Here are a few more notes from Uluc:

Former first-round pick Dylan Windler re-signed with the Perth Wildcats this spring, but his eventual goal is to return to the NBA, as Uluc relays. “Ultimately, I wanna play at the highest level and get back in the NBA,” he said. “I think this league is good enough, and has enough talent and competition, and enough scouts and eyes on it at all times that, if you do play well, you’re always in a position to get back there.”
The Wildcats still have an import spot open and have considered a handful of former NBA players for that slot, according to Uluc, who notes that Perth reached out to free agents like Zavier Simpson, Jahmir Young, and Emmanuel Mudiay earlier in the offseason. After Simpson and Young signed elsewhere and Mudiay chose to continue mulling his options, the Wildcats have more recently looked into Kobi Simmons and Yuri Collins, sources tell ESPN. Uluc hears that longtime NBA guard Patrick Beverley had interest in joining the Wildcats, but Perth didn’t “meaningfully engage” with Beverley.
Some of the NBA team representatives who attended the NBL Blitz were curious about what the league’s Next Stars program would look like moving forward, Uluc writes. A number of prospects who went through that program – such as LaMelo Ball, Josh Giddey, and Alex Sarr – have become lottery picks and productive NBA players, but the emergence of lucrative NIL opportunities in the NCAA figures to diminish the appeal of the Next Stars program for non-Australian prospects.

And-Ones: Top Front Offices, Daniels, NBA Cup, Rookies

December 13th, 2024 at 9:04pm CST by Luke Adams

Sam Presti and the Thunder were voted as the NBA’s best front office by a panel of 40 executives (team presidents, general managers, VPs, and assistant GMs) across the league who were polled by Sam Amick, John Hollinger, and Mike Vorkunov of The Athletic.

As The Athletic’s trio explains, each respondent picked their top five NBA front offices and points were awarded in the same way they are in the MVP vote – 10 points for first place, seven points for second, five points for third, three points for fourth, and one point for fifth – in order to determine the rankings. The only rule was that execs couldn’t vote for their own team.

The Thunder were a runaway winner with 354 points, showing up on 39 of 40 total ballots and earning 29 first-place votes. The Celtics (250 points; nine first-place votes), Heat (114 points), Grizzlies (64 points; one first-place vote), and Timberwolves (54 points; one first-place vote) rounded out the top five.

A total of 21 front offices received at least one vote. The nine who didn’t were the Lakers, Suns, Kings, Trail Blazers, Pelicans, Bulls, Pistons, Hornets, and Hawks.

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

Dash Daniels, the younger brother of Dyson Daniels, has committed to joining the Melbourne United as part of the Australian National Basketball League’s Next Stars program, report Shams Charania and Jonathan Givony of ESPN. The younger Daniels, who is considered one of the top international prospects of the 2026 draft class, is considered a standout defender like his brother, having averaged a tournament-high 3.6 steals per game at this year’s FIBA U17 World Cup.
NBA executive VP of basketball strategy Evan Wasch referred to Las Vegas as a “fantastic home” for the NBA Cup semifinals and final, but indicated this week in a Zoom call that the league isn’t necessarily committed to Vegas as the in-season tournament’s long-term host. “We’re very open to all sorts of different formats for the future,” Wasch said, per Mark Medina of Sportskeeda. “That could mean taking the tournament on the road. It could mean taking it to different markets in the U.S. It could mean exploring international markets. It could mean, for example, having the semifinals in home markets like we have for the quarterfinals to build into the local fandom and exciting arena atmospheres. I would say everything is on the table for the future.”
While most of the top picks in the 2024 draft haven’t come flying out of the gate this fall, there are plenty of second-rounders and undrafted free agents from the ’24 class who are making positive early impressions. John Hollinger of The Athletic highlights several of them, including Jazz forward/center Kyle Filipowski, Suns big man Oso Ighodaro, and Grizzlies wing Jaylen Wells.
The Athletic’s NBA writers identified the biggest need for all 30 teams, with good health coming up for a handful of clubs, including the Sixers, Bucks, and Magic.