Contract Details: Landale, Clarkson, Bassey, Lyles, Smart, More
Hawks center Jock Landale, Knicks guard Jordan Clarkson, and Warriors big man Charles Bassey waived the implicit no-trade clauses in their respective contracts, Hoops Rumors has learned.
A player who re-signs with his previous team on a one-year contract – or a two-year deal with a second-year player or team option – is typically awarded the right to veto a trade for the coming year. However, his team can ask him to waive that right as part of the agreement, and that was the case for Landale, Clarkson, and Bassey, who can all be traded freely at the 2027 deadline in February.
Landale’s one-year deal with the Hawks came in at $14.1MM, leaving Atlanta with less than $1MM left on its non-taxpayer mid-level exception. While Clarkson’s minimum-salary contract is fully guaranteed, Bassey’s features a $1.4MM partial guarantee, so he could be waived before the league-wide guarantee deadline in January without Golden State being on the hook for his full salary.
Here are a few more contract details from around the NBA:
- Trey Lyles‘ one-year, minimum-salary deal with the Timberwolves carries a partial guarantee of $1.5MM. The veteran forward will earn his full salary if he remains under contract through January 7. Meanwhile, Jaylen Clark‘s three-year, $10MM contract with Minnesota is fully guaranteed, with a first-year salary of $3,086,420.
- The Rockets used the full taxpayer mid-level exception to sign Marcus Smart to his two-year contract, Hoops Rumors has confirmed, which means Houston is currently hard-capped at the second tax apron instead of the first apron. The team isn’t in danger of hitting either threshold at this point — Yossi Gozlan of CapSheets.com has the Rockets nearly $11MM below the first apron.
- The new contracts for Bulls guard Norman Powell and Bucks forward Ousmane Dieng are worth slightly less than initially reported. Powell’s two-year deal comes in just over $44MM, with a guaranteed $21.5MM salary in 2026/27 and a $22.575MM team option for ’27/28. Dieng’s three-year contract has identical cap hits of $5.75MM for all three seasons, for a total of $17.25MM. Dieng’s final year is a team option, as previously reported.
- Jaxson Hayes and Josh Okogie received matching contracts with the Jazz, as both will earn guaranteed $6MM salaries in 2026/27 with second-year team options also worth $6MM. Jusuf Nurkic‘s two-year deal with Utah looks a little different — it has a descending structure ($11,458,333 in year one; $10,541,667 in year two) and is fully guaranteed.
Jazz Re-Sign Jusuf Nurkic To Two-Year Deal
July 9: Nurkic has officially re-signed with the Jazz, per a press release from the team. Since Nurkic agreed to his deal, Utah signed-and-traded Kessler to the Lakers, so the Bosnian big man will likely be in line for a more significant role than initially anticipated.
June 29: Free agent center Jusuf Nurkic will be returning to the Jazz, according to Shams Charania of ESPN (Twitter link), who reports that the two sides have agreed to terms on a two-year, $22MM contract.
Utah traded Collin Sexton and a second-round pick to Charlotte during the 2025 offseason in order to acquire Nurkic to provide frontcourt depth. That move proved fortuitous when starting center Walker Kessler suffered a season-ending shoulder injury in just the fifth game of the season, forcing Nurkic to take on a much larger role than anticipated.
Nurkic responded in a major way, averaging a double-double (10.9 points, 10.4 rebounds) to go along with 4.8 assists and 1.3 steals in 26.4 minutes per game. He started 36 of the 41 games he played for Utah before nasal surgery prematurely ended his season.
Nurkic was initially viewed as a candidate to be flipped to a new team before the trade deadline, but his fit in Will Hardy‘s system had the Jazz talking about making him part of the team’s plans moving forward, and the Bosnian big man reciprocated the team’s interest.
While negotiations with Kessler in restricted free agency haven’t progressed as smoothly as the Jazz hoped, it still seems likely that he’ll re-sign with the team, in which case Nurkic would provide reliable depth behind Kessler and Jaren Jackson Jr. up front.
Examining Utah’s cap situation, Yossi Gozlan (Twitter link) notes that the team has about $38.5MM in room under the projected luxury tax line to sign Kessler and add one or two more players to its current group.
Southwest Notes: VanVleet, Thornton, Boozer, Pelicans
In the latest episode of his Unguarded podcast, Rockets guard Fred VanVleet opens up about the extent of the damage he suffered to his right knee last fall, relays Matt Young of The Houston Chronicle (subscription required). VanVleet missed the entire season after tearing both the ACL and meniscus during a workout as part of a team retreat to the Bahamas prior to the start of training camp.
VanVleet said he was in the middle of a great session and was showing his younger teammates the benefits of having Kevin Durant to lean on in the offense. Then his knee gave out on a drive into the lane and he called it “a shotgun blow.” As VanVleet limped off the court, he tried to convince himself that it wouldn’t be a long-term issue.
“I’m walking around like, ‘Damn, I f—ed my s–t up,’” he said. “But it’s September, so I’m already going like, ‘All right, bet, maybe two, three weeks, I’ll probably miss the first preseason game and I’ll be cool.’”
The reality began to sink in when he woke up from a nap and his knee was swollen “as big as a basketball,” but VanVleet still couldn’t accept the situation. Even after an MRI confirmed the damage, he believed a mistake had been made.
“I said, ‘No, that ain’t mine. No. I didn’t (tear my ACL).’ They’re like, ‘You did, bruh. You tore your ACL,’” VanVleet said. “I said no, so I’m arguing. I did that for like three days.”
VanVleet added that he plans to return this season with a “chip on my shoulder.”
“Like anything else, just more challenges, more s–t to work through, make the story better,” he said. “S–t, you know, I got another 10 in me, so we’re going to see, we’re going to get back to it.”
There’s more from the Southwest Division:
- Before trading up to the 31st pick on Wednesday, the Rockets received “overwhelmingly positive reviews” on Ohio State guard Bruce Thornton from virtually everyone they contacted, Varun Shankar of The Houston Chronicle writes in a subscriber-only piece. They had him ranked higher than 31st on their draft board and are impressed by his ability to score in a variety of ways. Shankur notes that Thornton ranked in the 98th percentile in effective field goal percentage as a senior and was in the 93rd percentile in assist-to-turnover ratio.
- After being selected with the third pick, Cameron Boozer talked to Michael Wallace of Grind City Media about how he hopes to transform the Grizzlies (Twitter video link). “You play the game to win,” Boozer said. “That’s what I’ve done at every level. I hope to bring that to Memphis.”
- Robert Williams, Jusuf Nurkic and Mitchell Robinson could be targets for the Pelicans in their search for another center, says Dylan Sanders of Yahoo Sports. New Orleans is expected to decline its $8MM team option on Kevon Looney.
Scotto’s Latest: Nnaji, Nuggets, Nurkic, Suns, Magic
The Nuggets, who are facing a cap crunch this summer ahead of Peyton Watson‘s restricted free agency, have been open to discussing a trade centered around Zeke Nnaji and the 26th overall pick, league sources tell Michael Scotto of HoopsHype.
Nnaji, a former first-round pick, has been out of Denver’s rotation the past three seasons after signing a four-year, $32MM rookie scale extension in 2023. He’s still owed a guaranteed $14.9MM over the next two seasons, including a player option for 2027/28.
Here’s more from Scotto’s latest rumor round-up:
- After he averaged a double-double (10.9 points and 10.4 rebounds in 26.4 minutes per game) and a career-high in assists per game (4.8) in his first season with Utah, the Jazz are interested in re-signing center Jusuf Nurkic, according to Scotto. The Bosnian big man, a 12-year veteran, is an unrestricted free agent after earning $19.4MM in 2025/26.
- The Suns already agreed to re-sign Collin Gillespie to a four-year, $48MM deal, but they still have to figure out potential new contracts for restricted free agent center Mark Williams and unrestricted free agent guard Jordan Goodwin, plus a possible extension with Dillon Brooks. According to Scotto, people around the league expect Williams to receive something in the neighborhood of the non-taxpayer mid-level exception (starts at $15MM and projects to be worth up to $64.7MM over four years), while Goodwin could make $5-6MM annually. Scotto suggests the Suns would be willing to re-sign Williams for a little north of the full MLE, if necessary, on a short-term deal. As for Brooks, Scotto hears he could make about $25MM per year in an extension.
- Orlando’s team salary is about to get much more expensive with Paolo Banchero‘s max extension kicking in next season, Scotto writes. With that in mind, people around the league are curious to see how the Magic approach rookie scale extension talks with Anthony Black, who put up similar numbers to Jalen Suggs in 2025/26. Suggs is about to enter the second season of a five-year, $150MM rookie scale extension (the final year is a team option). Whether or not a deal gets done with Black, rival teams anticipate the Magic will eventually have to trade one of the former lottery picks due to their looming financial situation, per Scotto. Black will be a restricted free agent next year if he doesn’t sign an extension.
- Joe Prunty, Popeye Jones, Greg Buckner, and Tom Bialaszewski are candidates to join Sean Sweeney‘s coaching staff with the Magic, league sources tell HoopsHype. Scotto previously reported that Orlando was hiring Riley Crean, Mfon Udofia and DJ Bakker as assistants under Sweeney, the new head coach.
- In case you missed it, Scotto also passed along sourced intel on the Thunder, Giannis Antetokounmpo, the Nets, the Timberwolves and RJ Barrett.
Western Notes: Jazz, Nurkic, Dundon, Thunder
The rebuild is over for the Jazz, who appear poised to take a significant step forward in 2026/27, writes Tony Jones of The Athletic. As Jones details, Utah is excited to “finally take the shackles off” Will Hardy, whom they feel can be one of the NBA’s best head coaches, but who has been handcuffed by the team’s tanking efforts in recent years.
Hardy will be coaching a frontcourt that has the potential to be one of the league’s best, with Lauri Markkanen, Jaren Jackson Jr., and Walker Kessler leading the way. The Jazz also have a rising star in the backcourt in Keyonte George and could have one of the best young duos in the NBA, with this year’s No. 2 overall pick joining last year’s No. 5 selection Ace Bailey.
Still, as Jones points out, the Jazz won’t be able to rest on their laurels going forward. Markkanen and Jackson are already on sizable contracts, with Kessler likely to get a lucrative new deal of his own in restricted free agency this offseason. George will also be eligible for a rookie scale extension in a matter of weeks and appears to be in line for a significant raise after increasing his scoring average to 23.6 points per game in his third season. In other words, the core of Utah’s roster will get expensive soon, so the front office will have to continue making savvy moves to supplement that core with winning role players.
Here’s more from around the Western Conference:
- Former Suns center Jusuf Nurkic raised eyebrows during an appearance on the X&Os Chat with Edin Avdic (YouTube link) when he discussed his relationship with former Suns head coach Mike Budenholzer and referred to him as an “alcohol addict” who would schedule 1-on-1 meetings with his players “just to provoke” them, as Duane Rankin of The Arizona Republic relays. Nurkic previously spoke about his frosty relationship with Budenholzer back when both men were still in Phoenix, with reporting at the end of the 2024/25 season indicating that the coach told the big man he was a “bad teammate.”
- The criticism that Tom Dundon has faced for the way he has run the Trail Blazers since he took control of the team earlier this spring has come as a surprise to many in the hockey world, according to James Mirtle of The Athletic, who says the owner of the Carolina Hurricanes is popular among his players and isn’t described as “cheap” by those who have worked with him in the NHL. “The fact of the matter is, he doesn’t always do things in traditional ways,” NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said. “I think in some ways he’s a bit of a disruptor, but he’s extraordinarily creative and effective. And the results in Carolina — they’re both on and off the ice.”
- Justin Martinez of The Oklahoman provides a roster primer for the Thunder as they head into a big offseason, while Yossi Gozlan of The Third Apron (Substack link) considers what sort of moves Oklahoma City could make this summer. Gozlan speculates that four years and $104MM would be the floor for Cason Wallace on a rookie scale extension — that would put him in the range of Dyson Daniels and Christian Braun, both of whom received $25MM per year on their rookie scale extensions in 2025.
Free Agent Jusuf Nurkic Wants To Remain In NBA
Jusuf Nurkic has no intention of leaving the NBA despite speculation that he might be interested in going to Europe to continue his career. Nurkic, who will be an unrestricted free agent this summer, made an appearance on the X and O’s Podcast and spoke about the Serbian club Partizan, as relayed by Eurohoops.net.
“I didn’t have an offer from the black-and-whites (Partizan). I didn’t, at least I don’t know that I did, but I wish that I had,” the Bosnian big man said.
Nurkic clarified on social media that he was speaking about the early days of his career, not his current status.
“My statement was taken out of context. I was referring to the very beginning of my basketball career,” he wrote. “Of course I didn’t have an offer from Partizan back then. I’m a fan and I have great respect for (Partizan), but I have no intention of leaving the NBA.”
Nurkic spent this year with the Jazz, averaging 10.9 points, 10.4 rebounds and 4.8 assists in 26.4 minutes per game. He only played 41 games (36 starts), as his season was cut short after the All-Star break by nasal surgery.
Earlier in 2025/26, he missed time due to a toe injury and also had several DNP-CDs. He was a prime candidate to be dealt before the Feb. 5 trade deadline due his expiring $19.3MM contract.
Nurkic reportedly would like to re-sign with Utah, though it’s uncertain whether the team will make him an offseason priority. In any case, Nurkic will likely have to take a pay cut to stay in the league. The 31-year-old has been a fixture in the NBA since the 2014/15 season.
Northwest Notes: Braun, Wallace, Love, Nurkic, Blazers
After signing a five-year, $125MM rookie scale extension with the Nuggets last October, Christian Braun had a down year. As Bennett Durando of The Denver Post details (subscription required), an ankle injury limited Braun to 44 regular season appearances and his three-point percentage dropped to 30.1%, easily a career low.
“I was rewarded for my work on my rookie deal, so I understand the expectations are higher, and I need to be better,” Braun said. “That just is what it is. So as an individual, I understand I need to get better. I need to play better. I get to get healthy, first and foremost. But there is no excuse.”
That left ankle injury – a severe sprain that included torn ligaments – was a recurring issue throughout the season and continued to swell up in the playoffs, Durando writes. Braun also sustained a left calf injury in Game 1 of the first round, two sources tell The Denver Post, which further limited his jumping ability. Still, the 25-year-old insisted that a disappointing year for both him and the team couldn’t be simply chalked up to health issues.
“A first-round exit’s not acceptable. We’ve gotta bounce back,” Braun said. “We’ve gotta get to work. … You can kind of put it on my shoulders. I think this team wasn’t resilient enough in the playoffs. … I just think I’m the leader of this team. I’m the vocal leader of this team. And when we don’t play well as a whole, you can blame whatever you want … You can blame anything. But I didn’t play well enough as an individual, and I didn’t have this team ready enough to play in a tough series. So we’ll be better. I’ll be better. I’m looking forward to next year, when we can respond.”
As Durando points out, while a cap-strapped Nuggets team may explore the possibility of trading Braun as his pricey extension begins, the widespread belief is that Denver would need to attach an asset or two to incentivize a team to take on that five-year contract. With that in mind, it’s more likely that Braun sticks around and gets a chance to rebuild his value with a bounce-back season in 2026/27.
We have more from around the Northwest:
- The Thunder – who have had the NBA’s best defense in each of the past two seasons – have no shortage of standouts on that end of the court, but Justin Martinez of The Oklahoman contends that third-year guard Cason Wallace deserves to be singled out with an All-Defensive nod this spring. “He leads the league in steals,” Luguentz Dort said of his teammate. “That says it all. The way he’s active with his hands, it’s really not easy to do. I’ve been trying, and obviously it’s not the same result. Just what he brings on that end of the floor, he’s active with his hands and he can move his feet really well. He’s really fast, and he’s stronger than people think as well. There’s a lot of stuff he does defensively that’s hard to do.”
- Yossi Gozlan of The Third Apron (Substack link) previews what he believes may be the Trail Blazers‘ “most pivotal offseason in at least a decade,” examining the team’s cap situation and considering whether the time is right for the front office to make a major trade. It might make sense for Portland to cash in this summer on some of its excess first-round picks, Gozlan argues, since the teams those first-rounders are coming from – Orlando and Milwaukee – may improve in the coming years, reducing the value of their picks.
- Veteran big men Kevin Love and Jusuf Nurkic have expressed interest in remaining in Utah, prompting Sarah Todd of The Deseret News to consider whether the Jazz should want them back. Given that Love will likely be signing a minimum-salary contract, he’s probably more likely to return than Nurkic, whose future could hinge largely on his price tag in free agency, Todd writes.
Jazz Notes: Hardy, Ainge, JJJ, Bailey, Kessler, Nurkic, Love
The February trade that brought Jaren Jackson Jr. to the Jazz seemed to signal that Utah was on the verge of ending its four-year rebuilding process. However, even with a promising roster featuring Jackson, Lauri Markkanen, Keyonte George and restricted free agent Walker Kessler, the team hasn’t started talking about the playoffs as a goal for next season, writes Kevin Reynolds of The Salt Lake Tribune.
“I think we all want to improve,” coach Will Hardy said. “I think we’re very capable of improving and taking a step forward. How big is that step? I don’t know yet. There’s so many factors that are not in our control as it relates to everybody else, when you start stacking yourselves up.”
Director of basketball operations Austin Ainge was also reluctant to discuss playoff aspirations, preferring to focus on the task of building the roster this summer. The Jazz used up most of their available cap room by adding Jackson, which limits the options for future moves.
“I would say that we made a big move with Jaren,” Ainge said. “We’ll always be aggressive, looking to improve the team. But unless some amazing opportunities present themselves, well, we don’t have tons of cap space that way, right?”
There’s more from Utah:
- Part of the uncertainty stems from the limited availability that Jackson had after the deal, Reynolds states in the same piece. The big man only appeared in three games before undergoing season-ending surgery to remove a growth in his left knee. Jackson spent time at both center and power forward in Memphis, but Hardy didn’t get much of a chance to experiment with how he fits into different lineups. “The clarity is not great,” Hardy said. “I have my ideas. I have plenty of concepts that I think will be very good for him. But I think any coach would tell you, it all looks good on the board. You don’t want to make the team a laboratory, but you do need to test certain things.”
- Ace Bailey will be expected to take on a larger role in his second NBA season, Reynolds adds. The team wants him to add strength over the summer so he can take on more ball-handling responsibilities and become a better perimeter defender. “It’s the weight room, he’s going to live in there,” Ainge said. “Anytime he can bump anyone and make a shot, he makes sure he tells me about that. So he knows he’s going to work really hard to get stronger.”
- The Jazz would like to reach a new deal with Kessler quickly so they can move on to other offseason decisions, according to Sarah Todd of The Deseret News. Free agent big men Jusuf Nurkic and Kevin Love are both hoping to return, Todd adds, but those will ultimately be financial decisions.
- Utah can afford to give Kessler a new contract and sign George to a rookie scale extension without moving into tax territory, Bobby Marks of ESPN states in an offseason overview. Marks also shares his thoughts on the Jazz’s upcoming summer in a YouTube video.
And-Ones: Extensions, Draft Sleepers, Edwards, Partizan
In a subscriber-only story for The Third Apron, Yossi Gozlan takes a look at 11 players around the NBA who are currently eligible for veteran contract extensions.
According to Gozlan, Spurs wing Julian Champagnie has been a complete bargain on his current deal and should be in line for a considerable raise. San Antonio holds a $3MM team option on Champagnie for 2026/27, which the team would have to decline to extend him.
As Gozlan writes, the maximum the 24-year-old could receive on an extension would be $87MM over four years. Gozlan suggests a four-year deal in the $75-76MM range could be a reasonable compromise for both sides.
Gozlan also projects extensions for Spurs forward Harrison Barnes (two years, $24MM) and Jazz center Jusuf Nurkic (exact same structure), among others.
Here are a few more odds and ends from around the basketball world:
- John Hollinger of The Athletic lists nine of his favorite sleepers ahead of the 2026 draft. Hollinger acknowledges that some of the players on his list, including Santa Clara forward Allen Graves and Stanford guard Ebuka Okorie, may decide to return for another college season in 2026/27. A couple other sleepers Hollinger mentions (Corey Camper and Emanuel Sharp) will be automatically draft-eligible, as they’re both fifth-year seniors.
- Former NBA big man Jesse Edwards, who spent last season on a two-way deal with the Timberwolves, is in advanced talks with Spanish club Baskonia about a rest-of-season contract, reports Donatas Urbonas of BasketNews.com. The Dutch center played for Melbourne United in Australia in 2025/26, averaging 13.5 PPG, 8.5 RPG and 1.1 BPG in 35 games (22.4 MPG).
- In an extensive interview with Milun Nesovic of Serbian outlet Meridian Sport, Partizan Belgrade president Ostoja Mijailovic discussed a number of current and former NBA players, as Eurohoops and Sportando relay. The Sixers were limited to offering Partizan $875K as part of a buyout for Cameron Payne, yet the EuroLeague club received $1.75MM in that agreement. According to Mijailovic, the remaining $875K came from Payne himself. Mijailovic confirmed Partizan forward Isaac Bonga received NBA interest last month, but the team had the option to decline the $875K buyout it was offered for Bonga and did so because it values him. However, the former second-round pick could be on the move this summer, as Partizan will no longer have the option to turn down a buyout offer for Bonga once ’25/26 ends.
- Mijailovic also expressed regret for the lucrative deals given to Jabari Parker and Shake Milton, and said the team remains fond of Dante Exum, who was waived by Washington last month after being traded by Dallas. Exum hasn’t played at all this season due to a knee injury. “It is certainly our desire to bring back players who left a mark at Partizan and who can help the team on the court,” Mijailovic said, per Eurohoops. “Exum is one of the players we all adored, and we still adore him.”
Jazz’s Jusuf Nurkic To Undergo Surgery, Miss Rest Of Season
Jazz center Jusuf Nurkic will undergo a surgical procedure on his nose on Tuesday and will miss the remainder of the season, NBA on Prime insider Chris Haynes reports (via Twitter).
According to Haynes (Twitter link), Nurkic has had issues breathing and sleeping since he broke his nose a few years ago.
Nurkic has appeared in 41 games this season, including 36 starts. The 31-year-old big man averaged 10.9 points, 10.4 rebounds and 4.8 assists in 26.4 minutes per game.
Nurkic hasn’t played since the All-Star break. Earlier in the season, he missed time due to a toe injury and also had several DNP-CDs. He was a prime candidate to be dealt before the Feb. 5 trade deadline due his expiring $19.3MM contract.
The Jazz never found a suitable deal for him, so instead that money will come off their cap and Nurkic will be seeking a new opportunity as an unrestricted free agent. Utah is expected to have significant cap space this offseason to chase free agents and facilitate trades, though the team may also have interest in bringing back Nurkic.
The Jazz raised eyebrows over the summer when they attached a second-round pick to Collin Sexton in a trade with Charlotte for Nurkic, who was coming off a down year. However, the big man played a larger role than anticipated due to Walker Kessler‘s season-ending shoulder injury.
With Nurkic, Kessler, and Jaren Jackson Jr. all out for the rest of the season, Kyle Filipowski, Kevin Love and Oscar Tshiebwe are Utah’s options in the middle.