Warriors Notes: Curry, Green, Porzingis, Williams
Stephen Curry has been sidelined since January 30 with a lingering right knee injury, leading to some outside speculation whether the 37-year-old star should be shut down for the rest of the season. Warriors teammate Draymond Green addressed that topic on his latest podcast and determined that it’s unlikely to happen, relays Eden Collier of NBC Sports Bay Area.
“He was preparing to come back in the season where we had won 15 games (in 2019/20),” Green said. “So I say that from experience when I say, he’s not just going to shut it down just to shut it down. It’s not who he is.”
Golden State has been reeling without its top scorer, falling to 31-30 and just barely holding onto eighth place in the West. A return may still be far away, as the team announced on Sunday that Curry won’t be reevaluated for 10 more days and his absence may extend beyond that point. Green assured listeners that owner Joe Lacob would never endorse tanking, but he also acknowledged that it’s hard to run an effective offense without Curry and Jimmy Butler, who was lost for the season with a torn ACL.
“All you can do is continue to fight, make sure you’re maintaining and building good habits,” Green said. “Try to give yourself a chance to win these games.”
There’s more on the Warriors:
- Kristaps Porzingis, who has missed the past five games due to illness, is traveling with the team on its three-game road trip, according to Anthony Slater of ESPN (Twitter link). However, he’s already been ruled out of Thursday’s game at Houston. Golden State will also be without Moses Moody, who sprained his right wrist in Monday’s game, and Will Richard, who is sidelined with an ankle sprain.
- It would be a “fool’s errand” to re-sign Porzingis if he doesn’t show he can stay healthy, but his $30.7MM expiring contract will provide the Warriors with some cap flexibility for the offseason, notes Monte Poole of NBC Sports Bay Area. The organization wanted to get something in return for Jonathan Kuminga and Buddy Hield, but it’s going to take a summer of maneuvering to make the deal pay off, Poole adds.
- The Warriors’ injuries enabled two-way player Nate Williams to log nearly 22 minutes and score a career-high 18 points on Monday, notes Sam Gordon of The San Francisco Chronicle (subscription required). Williams, who went 3-of-4 from beyond the arc and spent time guarding Kawhi Leonard, could play an important role until the rest of the roster gets healthier. “I’m just being myself and the team allows me to do that,” he said. “I give all thanks to (Steve Kerr) and the coaching staff for giving me an opportunity. They just let me be myself and they just put me on game as I go along.”
Contract Details: Gardner, Highsmith, Houstan, Jones, Two-Ways
Heat swingman Myron Gardner will receive a minimum salary ($395,029) for the rest of the 2025/26 season after being promoted from his two-way contract. However, Miami had to use a portion of its non-taxpayer mid-level exception in order to complete his deal, since it includes two additional years beyond this season.
Gardner’s second year features a partial guarantee of $500K, and he’ll receive his full minimum salary of $2,150,917 for 2026/27 if he remains under contract through January 7 next year, Hoops Rumors has learned. The third year of the deal is fully non-guaranteed, but the Miami wing would receive his full $2,525,901 salary if he isn’t waived on or before July 15, 2027.
Here are a few more details on the contracts recently completed around the NBA:
- Haywood Highsmith‘s two-year, minimum-salary contract with the Suns includes a $1MM partial guarantee for 2026/27, per Michael Scotto of HoopsHype (Twitter link). It also features language protecting the team in the event that the veteran wing re-injures his surgically repaired right knee, Hoops Rumors has learned.
- As expected, both Caleb Houstan of the Hawks and Spencer Jones of the Nuggets were unilaterally converted from their two-way contracts to rest-of-season, minimum-salary contracts rather than negotiating new deals. Houstan will be an unrestricted free agent at season’s end, while Jones will be eligible for restricted free agency.
- The two-way contracts recently signed by Tyrese Martin (Sixers), Trevor Keels (Heat), and Jeenathan Williams (Warriors) are each for one year, while Riley Minix‘s new two-way deal with the Cavaliers will cover two seasons, Hoops Rumors has learned.
Warriors Sign Nate Williams To Two-Way Deal
February 17: The Warriors have officially signed Williams to a two-way contract, according to the NBA.com transaction log.
February 16: The Warriors are signing Nate Williams to a two-way contract, Jake Fischer of The Stein Line tweets.
Also known as Jeenathan Williams, the 6’5” shooting guard has been playing for the NBA G League’s Long Island Nets while awaiting another NBA opportunity. He was on a training camp contract with the Lakers last fall but was waived in October.
Williams, who turned 27 last Thursday, spent last season with the Rockets, first on a two-way deal and eventually on a standard contract. He got into 20 games, averaging 3.3 PPG and 0.7 RPG in 7.4 MPG, then was waived by Houston over the summer.
After the Lakers let him go, Williams hooked on with the Nets’ G League affiliate. He has averaged 18.4 points, 6.0 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 1.8 steals in 34 minutes per game over 35 appearances. He’s made 47.2% of his field goal attempts, including 36.5% from long range.
Williams also appeared in 22 games with Houston in 2023/24 and five games with Portland the previous season. He went undrafted out of Buffalo in 2022.
Golden State had a two-way opening and won’t need to make a corresponding move. The Warriors created a two-way opening by promoting Pat Spencer right after the trade deadline.
Lakers Cut Four Players Ahead Of Regular Season
The Lakers have placed Augustas Marciulionis, RJ Davis, Jeenathan Williams, and Anton Watson on waivers, the team announced today in a press release. All four were in camp with the team on non-guaranteed Exhibit 10 contracts.
A two-time WCC Player of the Year, Marciulionis averaged 14.2 points, 5.9 assists, and 3.1 rebounds per game in 35 outings last season for Saint Mary’s before going undrafted in June. The 6’4″ Lithuanian guard didn’t play at all for the Lakers during the preseason.
Davis, a six-foot guard who earned ACC Player of the Year honors for the 2023/24 season, averaged 17.2 points and 3.6 assists per game for North Carolina as a super-senior in ’24/25 before joining the Lakers as an undrafted free agent. He had a strong preseason, averaging 10.0 points in 14.3 minutes per game and making 66.7% of his field goal attempts.
Williams, who is more commonly known as Nate rather than Jeenathan, spent last season with the Rockets, first on a two-way deal and eventually on a standard contract. He got into 20 games, averaging 3.3 PPG and 0.7 RPG in 7.4 MPG, then was waived by Houston over the summer.
Watson also has some NBA experience, having appeared in nine games as a rookie last season for New York. The former Gonzaga forward, who was drafted 54th overall in 2024, spent most of the season on a two-way deal with the Celtics but was cut in March and was claimed by the Knicks.
Williams and Watson both played minor roles for the Lakers during the preseason.
All four players now appear on track to join the South Bay Lakers, L.A.’s G League affiliate. They’ll earn bonuses worth $85,300 apiece if they spend at least 60 days with South Bay.
Los Angeles’ roster, meanwhile, now seems set for the regular season — it features 14 players on standard contracts and three on two-way deals. The Lakers don’t currently have room for a 15th standard contract due to the proximity of their team salary to a first-apron hard cap.
Lakers Sign Anton Watson, Nate Williams
The Lakers have announced (via Twitter) the signings of forward Anton Watson and guard Jeenathan “Nate” Williams. Both players are expected to remain with the team for training camp, according to Dave McMenamin of ESPN (Twitter link).
Watson, who’ll turn 25 next week, signed a two-way contract with Boston after being selected out of Gonzaga with the 54th pick in the 2024 draft. He didn’t see any playing time at the NBA level with the Celtics before being released in early March, but he got into nine games with the Knicks, who claimed him off waivers.
Williams, 26, spent the past two seasons in Houston after playing one year in Portland. He was promoted from a two-way contract to a standard deal in March, but the Rockets waived him in July to avoid paying his non-guaranteed $2,270,735 salary for the upcoming season. Williams appeared in 20 games last season, averaging 3.3 PPG in 7.4 minutes per night.
The Lakers created room on their roster by waiving Tevian Jones and Eric Dixon, per Law Murray of The Athletic (Twitter link). Jones just signed on Friday, while Dixon has been with the team since late July.
Both players will likely wind up with L.A.’s G League affiliate, where their Exhibit 10 contracts will make them eligible for bonuses worth up to $85,300 if they spend at least 60 days with the team.
Rockets Waive Nate Williams
The Rockets have waived wing Jeenathan “Nate” Williams, per an official team press statement.
Williams’ $2,270,735 salary for the 2025/26 season with Houston was set to remain non-guaranteed until the start of the regular season. The 6’5″ vet has been partaking in his fourth Summer League with Houston this month.
The 26-year-old Williams played sparingly for Houston across the past two seasons, appearing in 42 total NBA contests. In 6.6 minutes per night, the Buffalo alum averaged 3.0 points and 0.9 rebounds, with a shooting line of .482/.258/.571.
Houston also officially announced its signing of undrafted former five-year Mississippi State forward Cameron Matthews to an Exhibit 10 training camp deal. His agreement was reported last month shortly after the draft.
A two-time SEC All-Defensive Teamer while with the Bulldogs, Matthews averaged 7.1 PPG, 6.7 RPG, 3.6 APG and 2.4 SPG in 34 appearances during his final NCAA season, 2024/25. Matthews had been ranked as the No. 83 prospect among this year’s class by Sam Vecenie of The Athletic.
Southwest Notes: Jackson, Flagg, Queen, More
GG Jackson II has had an up-and-down start to his Grizzlies career. After playing over 1,200 minutes his rookie year for a Memphis team ravaged by injuries, a broken foot – and a healthier squad around him – limited him to less than 500 minutes his sophomore season.
Now, with a new head coach in Tuomas Iisalo, Jackson is looking to settle into a role, and Iisalo is looking to help him do exactly that, Damichael Cole writes for Commercial Appeal.
“He told me last year when I was stuck in my head a lot that I’m (going to) coach you the hardest because I don’t want to be that guy that looks back in 20 years like, ‘Ah, that GG Jackson kid could have been something,'” Jackson said of his new coach. “He lets me know that he’s not going to let me fall, so that’s why I rock with him so much.”
Iisalo has emphasized Jackson attacking the basket more aggressively rather than settling for jumpers, and so far it’s worked. Jackson has averaged 21 points through three Summer League games as he vies for one of the remaining spots in the Grizzlies’ starting lineup.
We have more from around the Southwest division:
- Cooper Flagg scored 10 points on 21 shots in his Mavericks debut. “That might be one of the worst games of my life,” he said, per The Athletic’s Christian Clark (via Twitter). “But we got the win. So that’s what really matters to me.” According to ESPN’s insider crew, Flagg’s performance showed his value even when the shot wasn’t falling, as his size and athleticism shone through, especially on the fast break, and his all-around game on both sides of the floor makes him look like a potential game-changer when paired with Dallas’ veterans. Although he didn’t score in the second half, he was able to contribute six rebounds, four assists, three steals, and a block to the final box score.
- Derik Queen made his Pelicans debut on Thursday. According to Rod Walker of NOLA.com, there’s a lot for him to take away from the experience, both good and bad. Queen finished the game with seven turnovers after a particularly rough first half, but he also registered a 13-point, 10-rebound double-double. Those numbers don’t satisfy Queen, though, who knows there are a lot of eyes on him after the Pelicans traded an unprotected 2026 pick to draft him. “Twitter and Instagram are probably going crazy right now,” he said. “I have to redeem myself for me and all the outside noise.” Despite the self-effacing comment, Queen was ultimately encouraged by his play. “I think I flipped the switch in the second half. I feel like I got the hang of it now,” he said.
- Pelicans 2025 lottery pick Jeremiah Fears and last year’s first-rounder Yves Missi had similarly hit-and-miss debuts, Walker writes. Fears scored 14 points, but had just two assists to seven turnovers. Missi shot 5-of-14 from the field and 3-of-9 from the free throw line, but ended with a strong 13-point, 13-rebound double-double. “[Missi] looks like he’s stronger,” said Summer League head coach Corey Brewer. “I think we are going to see a different Yves this year.”
- Nate Williams‘ contract with the Rockets doesn’t become guaranteed until opening night, but he’s not letting that bother him as he heads into his fourth Summer League, writes Danielle Lerner of the Houston Chronicle. “I really don’t worry about all that stuff,” Williams said. “I just work hard and come to play and have fun.” Rockets Summer League coach Garrett Jackson said that he’s going to lean on Williams, as well as Reed Sheppard, throughout the team’s time in Las Vegas. As for Williams, he’s focused on controlling what he can control. “We gonna put on a show tomorrow,” he said on Thursday ahead of the team’s Summer League opener on Friday. “We just gonna show everything: gonna shoot, gonna get to the basket, gonna make the right plays. Just have fun.”
Contract Details: Two-Ways, Springer, Champagnie, Miller, Spencer, More
A flurry of two-way signings occurred prior to Tuesday’s deadline and many of those players who received two-way contracts in the week leading up to March 4 agreed to two-year deals.
Hoops Rumors has confirmed that Patrick Baldwin and Seth Lundy of the Clippers, Pete Nance and Jamaree Bouyea of the Bucks, Lester Quinones of the Pelicans, David Roddy of the Rockets, Miles Norris of the Celtics, and Jared Rhoden of the Raptors all signed two-year, two-way contracts.
As our tracker shows, that means that 25 of the 90 players signed to two-way contracts have deals that will carry over to the 2025/26 league year. It’s common for many of the players on two-year, two-way pacts to be waived during the offseason if teams decide there’s an undrafted rookie or Summer League standout they’d rather add, but those two-year terms give clubs the option of retaining their two-way players for another year.
Here are a few more details on recently signed contracts around the league:
- The Jazz used $634,437 of their room exception to sign guard Jaden Springer, who got a three-year contract that includes a non-guaranteed salary for 2025/26 and a team option for ’26/27. Springer will receive a $400K partial guarantee on next season’s salary if he remains under contract through July 25. That partial guarantee will increase to $600K if he makes the opening night roster in the fall.
- Teams that used a portion of their mid-level exceptions to promote two-way players to multiyear standard deals include the Wizards with Justin Champagnie ($1,800,000), the Clippers with Jordan Miller ($1,005,000), and the Rockets with Jeenathan Williams ($515,881). All three players got four-year contracts that don’t include guaranteed money beyond this season, though Miller’s deal includes some trigger dates — he’ll get a partial guarantee of $350K for 2025/26 if he’s still under contract beyond July 15 and half of his $2,191,897 salary will become guaranteed if he isn’t waived before the start of the ’25/26 regular season.
- Pat Spencer of the Warriors, Orlando Robinson of the Raptors, and Ryan Rollins of the Bucks all received straight conversions of their two-way contracts to standard deals, so they’ll each still be eligible for restricted free agency this offseason.
- Dominick Barlow‘s new two-year contract with the Hawks is a minimum-salary deal that includes a team option for 2025/26.
Southwest Notes: Williams, Olynyk, Williams Jr., Mavs Ticket Prices
The four-year, $8.2MM contract that Jeenathan Williams signed on Sunday after getting promoted by the Rockets from his two-way deal is only guaranteed for the remainder of this season, Danielle Lerner of the Houston Chronicle tweets. Williams’ teammates were well aware of his addition to the 15-man roster.
“As soon as I walked in the gym, they, like, they stampeded me and all gave me hugs and like, saying congrats. So it was a dope moment,” he told Lerner (Twitter link).
We have more from the Southwest Division:
- Veteran big man Kelly Olynyk, acquired from Toronto in the Brandon Ingram trade, continues to shine for the Pelicans. He scored a season-high 26 points on 10-for-14 shooting in a win over the Jazz on Sunday night. “It’s rare,” Pelicans coach Willie Green said about Olynyk’s skill set, per John Coon of The Associated Press. “He’s seven feet. Can shoot the ball. Put it on the floor. Can post. Can rebound. Can pass. He’s smart defensively. He knows when to switch. He’s good with angles. He’s a great addition to our group.” Olynyk will have one year and $13.4MM remaining on his contract after this season. He’s averaging 12.2 points, 9.2 rebounds and 3.4 assists in five games with the Pelicans.
- Grizzlies guard Vince Williams Jr. says he’s not quite fully recovered from the Grade 3 ankle sprain he suffered in November, Damichael Cole of the Memphis Commercial Appeal tweets. Williams says he’s at “about 80 percent,” but feels good and is hoping to hit his stride when other guys around the league may be wearing down. Williams has appeared in seven games since the injury but has been limited to 20 minutes per game.
- Mavericks fans were infuriated by the Luka Doncic trade. Now, they have an additional reason to be upset. They’ll have to pay more money to watch the team next season, as the franchise is raising season-ticket prices. The team said season tickets will go up by an average of 8.61% next season and the increase is due to “ongoing investments in the team and fan engagement,” according to ESPN News Services.
Rockets Convert Williams’ Two-Way To Standard Deal, Waive Zeller
9:00 pm: The moves are official, per NBA.com’s transaction log.
7:48 pm: Jeenathan Williams is having his two-way contract converted by the Rockets into a standard four-year, $8.2MM deal, ESPN’s Shams Charania tweets.
Also known as Nate Williams, the swingman is in his third season. Williams has appeared in 35 NBA games in his career, including five games with Portland. Williams, who went undrafted out of Buffalo, was re-signed to a two-way contract in July.
This season, he’s seen action in eight games, averaging 3.6 points in 5.5 minutes per contest. In 17 appearances with the Rio Grande Valley Vipers in the NBA G League, Williams has averaged 20.2 points, 4.0 rebounds, 3.1 assists and 1.8 steals in 30.7 minutes per game.
It remains to be seen how much of Williams’ new deal is guaranteed.
Houston is opening up a spot on the 15-man roster by waiving Cody Zeller, who had a non-guaranteed contract after this season, Charania adds in another tweet.
Zeller, 32, hasn’t played at all this season. In a salary-dump deal just before the February 6 deadline, the Hawks traded him and a 2028 second-round pick to Houston to move below the luxury tax threshold.
He had not been around the team since the deal, via an arrangement between him and the team’s front office.
Zeller was signed to a multiyear contract by the Pelicans last offseason specifically to be used as a salary-matching piece in the Dejounte Murray trade. While he was technically a member of the Hawks for several months, he didn’t participate in training camp with Atlanta and agreed to remain away from the team.