Lester Quinones Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Magic Sign Four Players To Exhibit 10 Contracts

September 2nd, 2025 at 4:55pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

The Magic have announced four new signings ahead of training camp (Twitter link). Orlando has added free agent guard Reece Beekman, wings Justin Minaya and Lester Quinones, and center Colin Castleton.

Although the team didn’t divulge terms of the agreements, Jason Beede of The Orlando Sentinel reports that all four deals are Exhibit 10 contracts.

Castleton’s signing was previously confirmed in the NBA’s transaction log, while Quinones’ deal with the Magic was reported last month. The additions of Beekman and Minaya are new. Beekman is especially notable since he had reportedly reached a tentative agreement to join the Nuggets in June. That deal was never officially finalized, however.

Castleton has spent the previous two seasons with the Lakers, Grizzlies, Sixers and Raptors. He began his pro career out of Florida on two-way contracts with Los Angeles and Memphis, but graduated to 10-day deals with Toronto and Philadelphia. He was brought back by the Raptors on a two-year standard deal at the end of 2024/25, but they ultimately waived him earlier this summer.

A 6’4″ guard out of Memphis, Quinones most recently split the 2024/25 season with two-way deals for the Sixers and Pelicans. He has appeared in 54 total NBA regular season games in three years since going undrafted out of Memphis in 2022. His best season came in 2023/24, when he averaged 4.4 points and 1.9 rebounds in 10.6 minutes per night with a .364 3PT% in 37 outings for Golden State.

Beekman signed a two-way deal with Golden State last July after going undrafted out of Virginia. He made just two brief appearances for the Warriors before being sent to the Nets in mid-December as part of the Dennis Schröder trade. Beekman got a larger NBA opportunity after arriving in Brooklyn, appearing in 34 games and averaging 2.7 points, 1.1 rebounds and 1.8 assists in 13.7 minutes per night.

Minaya, a 6’5″ small forward, has been a two-way player for the Blazers since 2022. He has made 57 total appearances but played a very limited role, averaging 1.7 points and 1.4 rebounds in 10.0 minutes per contest.

All four players are eligible to have their Exhibit 10 deals converted into two-way contracts before the start of the regular season. The Magic currently have one open two-way slot alongside Jamal Cain and Orlando Robinson.

If any of the four new Magic players are cut by Orlando ahead of the season and spent at least 60 days with the club’s NBAGL affiliate, the Osceola Magic, they’ll be eligible to earn bonuses worth up to $85,300.

Magic To Sign Lester Quinones To Exhibit 10 Contract

August 18th, 2025 at 2:44pm CST by Luke Adams

The Magic have agreed to a deal with free agent guard Lester Quinones, reports Michael Scotto of HoopsHype (Twitter link). It will be a non-guaranteed Exhibit 10 contract, a league source tells Jason Beede of The Orlando Sentinel (Twitter link).

Quinones has appeared in 54 total NBA regular season games in three years since going undrafted out of Memphis in 2022. His best season came in 2023/24, when he averaged 4.4 points and 1.9 rebounds in 10.6 minutes per night with a .364 3PT% in 37 outings for Golden State.

The 6’4″ guard began last season on a two-way contract with the Sixers, was waived in December, then finished the year with the Pelicans after signing a two-way deal in early March. That contract covered two seasons, but New Orleans waived Quinones last month.

Quinones only made 13 NBA appearances in 2024/25, but saw action in 41 total G League games for the Birmingham Squadron and Delaware Blue Coats. He put up impressive averages of 21.6 points, 6.8 rebounds, 4.9 assists, and 1.4 steals per contest, though he struggled a bit with his shooting efficiency (.431/.331/.713) and turnovers (3.7 per game).

According to Scotto, Quinones will have an opportunity to compete for a roster spot or a two-way deal in Orlando. The latter is more likely than the former, given that the Magic are bumping right up against a first-apron hard cap and don’t have enough room to carry a 15th man into the season at the moment.

An Exhibit 10 contract can be converted to a two-way deal up until October 20. The Magic have one open two-way slot alongside Orlando Robinson and Jamal Cain. If Quinones is waived before the season, he could potentially join the Osceola Magic and earn an Exhibit 10 bonus worth up to $85,300, but Orlando’s NBAGL affiliate would need to acquire his returning rights.

Pelicans Waive Lester Quinones

July 24th, 2025 at 5:01pm CST by Rory Maher

The Pelicans have waived Lester Quinones, tweets Keith Smith of Spotrac. The move is official, according to NBA.com’s log of transactions.

Quinones had been on a two-way contract with New Orleans. The team now has one two-way vacancy, with Trey Alexander and Hunter Dickinson holding the other two spots.

After going undrafted out of Memphis in 2022, Quinones spent most his first two seasons as a member of the Warriors organization. Last fall, he signed a two-way deal with Philadelphia, which released him in December.

The 24-year-old shooting guard caught on with the Pelicans in early March, appearing in nine games down the stretch of the 2024/25 season. In those nine contests, he averaged 8.6 points, 2.6 assists and 1.7 rebounds in 18.4 minutes. His shooting line was .386/.317/.833.

While Quinones has yet to carve out a major NBA role to this point in his career, he has put up some big counting stats in the G League. In 41 combined games (36.0 MPG) with the Birmingham Squadron and Delaware Blue Coats last season, he averaged 21.6 PPG, 6.8 RPG, 4.9 APG and 1.4 SPG, though he struggled a bit with efficiency (.431/.331/.713 shooting splits) and turnovers (3.7 per contest).

Quinones was signed by New Orleans’ previous front office regime, so the new executives in charge may not have been as high on him. Assuming he goes unclaimed, the 6’4″ guard will become a free agent on Saturday.

Contract Details: Two-Ways, Springer, Champagnie, Miller, Spencer, More

March 7th, 2025 at 4:27pm CST by Luke Adams

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.

Lester Quinones Signs Two-Way Deal With Pelicans

March 2nd, 2025 at 8:42pm CST by Arthur Hill

8:42pm: The signing is official, according to the NBA transactions log.

8:39am: The Pelicans will sign Lester Quinones to a two-way contract, tweets Shams Charania of ESPN. The deal was confirmed by Quinones’ agent, Scott Nichols of Rize Management.

The 24-year-old shooting guard began the season with Philadelphia on a two-way contract that he signed in September. He appeared in just four games, averaging 2.3 points in 4.3 minutes per night, before being waived on December 3.

Since then, Quinones has been playing for New Orleans’ G League affiliate in Birmingham, where he has posted 22.3 points, 7.8 rebounds and 3.7 assists in 22 regular season games. He was selected to participate in the G League’s Up Next event at All-Star Weekend.

Quinones began his NBA career with the Warriors in 2023 after going undrafted following three collegiate seasons at Memphis. He had his two-way contract with Golden State converted to a standard deal last February.

The Pelicans opened up a two-way slot by waiving guard Jalen Crutcher on Saturday. Jamal Cain and Keion Brooks are the team’s other two-way players.

NBA G League Announces Participants For 2025 Up Next Event

January 29th, 2025 at 2:44pm CST by Luke Adams

The NBA G League announced today that 27 players have been selected to participate in the 2025 Up Next event at the NBA’s All-Star weekend next month in San Francisco.

The event – which highlights standout players at the G League level and essentially serves as the NBAGL All-Star Game – features a tournament-style format with four teams made up of seven players apiece. Those clubs face one another in semifinals (first team to 30 points), with the winners meeting in the final. All three games will be played on the afternoon of Sunday, February 16, ahead of the NBA’s All-Star Game.

Ten players for the next Up Next pool are selected by fan votes, while the other 18 are selected by the league. Here are the players who have been named as participants for the 2025 event:

Fan voting

Note: Players are listed in order of votes received. Players marked with an asterisk (*) are on two-way contracts with an NBA team.

Yuki Kawamura (Memphis Hustle) *
Justin Champagnie (Capital City Go-Go) *
Jahlil Okafor (Indiana Mad Ants)
Adama Sanogo (Windy City Bulls) *
Skal Labissiere (Stockton Kings)
Kevon Harris (College Park Skyhawks)
Maozinha Pereira (Memphis Hustle)
Trevelin Queen (Osceola Magic) *
Armando Bacot (Memphis Hustle)
Keisei Tominaga (Indiana Mad Ants)

G League selections

Note: Players are listed in alphabetical order. Players marked with an asterisk (*) are on two-way contracts with an NBA team.

Moses Brown (Westchester Knicks)
Josh Christopher (Sioux Falls Skyforce) *
Jeff Dowtin (Delaware Blue Coats) *
PJ Hall (Grand Rapids Gold) *
Elijah Harkless (Salt Lake City Stars) *
Isaac Jones (Stockton Kings) *
A.J. Lawson (Raptors 905) *
Isaiah Miller (Austin Spurs)
Jaylen Nowell (Capital City Go-Go)
Dink Pate (Mexico City Capitanes)
Daeqwon Plowden (College Park Skyhawks) *
Quinten Post (Santa Cruz Warriors) *
Lester Quinones (Birmingham Squadron)
DJ Steward (Memphis Hustle)
TyTy Washington Jr. (Valley Suns) *
Alondes Williams (Sioux Falls Skyforce)
Jahmir Young (Grand Rapids Gold)

The G League announced 27 names today, leaving the pool one player shy of the 28 required for four seven-player teams. However, the NBAGL’s announcement says two more participants will be named at a later date to round out the player pool.

It’s unclear if there’s a math error happening here or if Pate will need to be replaced since he’s also participating in the Rising Stars event. Further confusing matters is the fact that Williams’ name shows up in the graphic released by the G League but not in the press release.

However it happens, the Up Next player pool will eventually increase to 28 names, with those players drafted into four teams by a quartet of “influencer” general managers and then coached by G League coaches at All-Star weekend.

Sixers Sign Pete Nance To Two-Way Deal, Waive Quinones

December 3rd, 2024 at 9:19am CST by Dana Gauruder

DECEMBER 3: The Sixers have officially signed Nance and waived Quinones, the team announced today in a press release.

DECEMBER 2: The Sixers have agreed to a two-way contract with Pete Nance, ESPN’s Tim Bontemps tweets.

Nance is the younger brother of veteran NBA forward Larry Nance Jr. Pete has played eight games this season in the G League’s Showcase Cup for the Cleveland Charge, the Cavaliers’ affiliate. He’s averaging 18.2 points, 6.8 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 2.0 blocks per contest.

The 6’10” Nance also played in the NBAGL for most of last season. He made eight NBA appearances with the Cavs but averaged just 3.4 minutes in those games.

Nance participated in camp with the Cavs this fall, but was waived in October. He signed a two-way contract with Cleveland in February but wasn’t offered another one. He went undrafted in 2023.

With centers Joel Embiid and Andre Drummond sidelined by injuries and — in Embiid’s case — personal reasons, the Sixers were seeking another frontcourt option in the short run.

As our two-way contract tracker shows, Philadelphia has three players currently signed to two-ways and will have to drop one of them to make room for Nance. According to Michael Scotto of HoopsHype (Twitter link), the odd man out will be guard Lester Quinones.

Quinones, who has appeared in four games with the Sixers this season, signed a two-way contract in September after playing for Golden State last season.

Sixers Sign Lester Quinones To Two-Way Deal

September 26th, 2024 at 3:15pm CST by Luke Adams

SEPTEMBER 26, 3:15pm: Quinones has officially signed his two-way deal, the Sixers announced in a press release.

SEPTEMBER 25, 11:41am: Jones has been waived to make room on the roster for Quinones, according to Kyle Neubeck of PHLY Sports (Twitter link).

SEPTEMBER 25, 8:46am: The Sixers and free agent guard Lester Quinones have agreed to a two-way contract, sources tell Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link).

Quinones, who will turn 24 in November, spent last season with the Warriors. He began the year on a two-way deal and then was promoted to Golden State’s standard roster in February. The 6’5″ guard appeared in a total of 37 NBA games, averaging 4.4 points, 1.9 rebounds, and 1.0 assist in 10.6 minutes per contest and posting a shooting line of .397/.364/.690.

Quinones spent more time in the NBA than in the G League last season, but has been an effective contributor for the Santa Cruz Warriors over the past two years, averaging 21.0 PPG, 6.2 RPG, and 3.9 APG on .448/.362/.772 shooting in 65 total Showcase Cup and regular season games for Golden State’s NBAGL affiliate.

The Warriors opted not to tender Quinones a qualifying offer in June, making him an unrestricted free agent. Michael Scotto of HoopsHype reported in early July that the former Memphis Tiger was on the Sixers’ radar.

Philadelphia doesn’t currently have an open two-way slot, so either Justin Edwards, David Jones, or Jeff Dowtin will have to be waived in order to make room on the roster for Quinones.

Scotto’s Latest: Markkanen, Achiuwa, Knicks, Kessler, Vucevic, Sixers

July 2nd, 2024 at 3:57pm CST by Luke Adams

The expectation around the NBA, according to Michael Scotto of HoopsHype, is that the Jazz will only seriously consider trading Lauri Markkanen if they receive a huge offer similar in value to the one Brooklyn got for Mikal Bridges, which included four unprotected first-round picks, an unprotected first-round swap, and one more lightly protected first-rounder.

The decision on Markkanen is viewed as an inflection point for the Jazz, who could accelerate their timeline by trying to find another star to join him in Utah or extend their timeline by moving the star forward and continuing to stockpile assets ahead of a loaded 2025 draft.

In addition to confirming the four teams previously reported to have interest in Markkanen (the Warriors, Spurs, Kings, and Timberwolves), Scotto adds the Pelicans to the list of potential suitors for the star forward. However, he says New Orleans has been reluctant to discuss valuable young role players like Trey Murphy and Herbert Jones.

Brandon Ingram, the most obvious trade candidate on the Pelicans’ roster, wouldn’t be a logical target for Utah in a Markkanen trade. New Orleans is including a pair of first-round picks in its deal for Dejounte Murray but could still offer as many as four first-rounders (2025, 2027, 2029, and 2031) in a package for a player like Markkanen.

Here’s more from Scotto:

Unrestricted free agent Precious Achiuwa – who is drawing interest from multiple contenders, per Ian Begley of SNY.tv – liked playing in New York and remains open to re-signing with the Knicks, Scotto writes. The Knicks’ search for help at center has also involved making trade calls to the Jazz about Walker Kessler and the Hornets about Nick Richards, according to Scotto, who says rival executives think the Jazz are more willing to listen to inquiries on Kessler than they would’ve been a year ago.
With DeMar DeRozan seemingly on the verge of leaving Chicago, there’s a belief around the league that the Bulls may look to trade Nikola Vucevic and make the roster even younger, league sources tell Scotto.
Providing several Sixers-related updates, Scotto says Philadelphia is expected to either trade or waive Paul Reed and his $7.7MM non-guaranteed contract, has exploratory trade interest in Nets forward Dorian Finney-Smith, and wants to add more shooting and guard depth, with Lester Quinones and Kyle Lowry among the players on its radar. Additionally, second-round pick Adem Bona is expected to get a standard contract and a place on the 76ers’ 15-man roster, Scotto reports.

QO Updates: Heat, Magic, Quinones, Lundy, Williams, Nuggets

June 28th, 2024 at 7:43pm CST by Luke Adams

The Heat have issued qualifying offers to two of their three two-way players, announcing in a press release that they’ve made forward Cole Swider and guard Alondes Williams restricted free agents. Miami’s other two-way player, forward Jamal Cain, isn’t mentioned in the announcement, with Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald tweeting that Cain isn’t expected to receive a qualifying offer.

Because Cain has finished each of the past two seasons on a two-way contract with the Heat, his qualifying offer would have been a one-year, minimum-salary contract with a small partial guarantee, whereas the QOs for Swider and Williams will be for one-year, two-way deals.

According to Chiang, the expectation is that Cain won’t be back with the Heat next season. Not getting a QO means he’ll be an unrestricted free agent this summer.

We have more qualifying offer news from around the NBA:

It appears that guard Trevelin Queen will be the only Magic two-way player to receive a qualifying offer this offseason. Orlando put out a press release (via Twitter) confirming that Queen has been given a QO, making him a restricted free agent. However, swingman Kevon Harris won’t get a QO and Admiral Schofield – who also wasn’t mentioned in the Magic’s announcement – has signed to play in France next season. Harris and Schofield both would’ve been eligible for minimum-salary qualifying offers, while Queen’s QO is for another two-way contract.
The Warriors aren’t tendering a qualifying offer to guard Lester Quinones, per Michael Scotto of HoopsHype (Twitter link). Quinones will become an unrestricted free agent after averaging 4.4 points per game on .397/.364/.690 shooting in 37 appearances off the bench for Golden State.
The Hawks have made a qualifying offer to guard Seth Lundy, tweets Scotto. Lundy, who was on a two-way contract this past season, had a strong year in the G League, averaging 20.4 points per game and making 40.0% of his three-point attempts in 25 regular season and Showcase Cup contests for the College Park Skyhawks. His qualifying offer is the equivalent of another two-way deal.
The Rockets are issuing a two-way qualifying offer to shooting guard Jeenathan Williams, according to Scotto (Twitter link). Williams appeared in 22 games for Houston and 10 for the Rio Grande Valley Vipers in the G League in 2023/24.
Nuggets two-way players Collin Gillespie and Braxton Key aren’t expected to get qualifying offers from the team, so they’ll become unrestricted free agents when the new league year begins, sources tell Vinny Benedetto of The Denver Gazette (Twitter link).