Bucks Notes: Giannis, Turner, Green, Roster Competition
Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo wasn’t able to attend media day on Monday and will miss the start of training camp as he deals with a case of COVID-19. However, Antetokounmpo participated in media day from Greece via Zoom, according to Jim Owczarski of The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, who notes that the two-time MVP reiterated his desire to win another championship and confirmed reporting that he weighed his options outside of Milwaukee during the offseason.
“Guys, every summer there’s truth. To every report. The same thing I’ve been saying my whole career – I want to be on a team that allows me, gives me a chance to win a championship and wants to compete at a high level,” Antetokounmpo said. “I think it’s a disservice to basketball, it’s a disservice just to the game to not want to compete at a high level, to not want your season to end in April.
“So, it’s pretty much the same. It’s not the first time. I had the same thoughts last year, I had the same thoughts two years ago, I had the same thoughts five years ago – yeah, 2020 – so it’s never gonna change. I want to be among the best, I want to compete with the best, and I want to win another championship and that’s it.”
Bucks co-owner and governor Wes Edens had told reporters, including Owczarski, earlier in the day on Monday that he had a “great conversation” with Antetokounmpo in June and that the nine-time All-Star “made it clear that he was very committed to Milwaukee.”
For his part, Giannis said he didn’t recall that discussion, but he stressed that he has faith in his teammates and is hopeful the Bucks can do better this season after being eliminated in the first round of the playoffs in three straight seasons.
“Hopefully, we can get on the same page and understand what’s at risk right now,” he said. “The last three years we’ve been eliminated in the first round, so there’s not much to talk about. We just gotta put our butts down, put our heads down and stay locked in the whole year long and try to win some games and hopefully get in the playoffs and then don’t get eliminated in the first round. That’s pretty much it. And then we go from there.”
Here’s more on Giannis and the Bucks:
- Antetokounmpo and Bobby Portis both expressed excitement about the Bucks’ offseason addition of Myles Turner to the frontcourt. Antetokounmpo referred to it as an “incredible” move that he’s “very excited” about (Twitter link via Eric Nehm of The Athletic), while Portis said he likes that he, Giannis, and Turner are all around the same age. “We can grow together. We can get better together,” Portis said, per Ben Steele of The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (subscription required). “Three big men that can do a lot of things with the basketball. A very versatile frontcourt. Those three bigs, you can’t really find three better bigs on another team.”
- Edens told reporters on Monday that getting “younger and more athletic” was a priority this offseason (Twitter link via Nehm), while general manager Jon Horst said he thinks Antetokounmpo is capable of making the club’s supporting cast better — and vice versa. “This team is built to maximize Giannis, but Giannis can actually maximize this team,” Horst said, according to ESPN’s Jamal Collier. “This is a team that is really hungry to earn whatever we get, and they want to deserve to win. And that’s going to be our style of play, that’s going to be playing together, and that’s going to feature the best player in the world, and Giannis and a bunch of guys that fit him really, really well.”
- Horst told reporters, including Steele and Owczarski, that the Bucks have had “a lot of conversations” with A.J. Green and his agent about a possible contract extension. Green is entering the final year of his current contract and would be an unrestricted free agent in 2026 if he doesn’t sign a new deal before then. “We’d love to have A.J. with us for a long time. We’re able to work on that, and we are working on that,” the Bucks’ GM said. “No one works harder than A.J. High, high character individual. Underrated as an offensive player. Underrated as a defensive player. Another player that I think will have another big jump for us this year.”
- Milwaukee is carrying 15 players on fully guaranteed contracts, but with Andre Jackson Jr. on a partially guaranteed deal and Amir Coffey in camp on a non-guaranteed contract, Horst doesn’t view the regular season roster as set. “Absolutely not,” he said, per Steele and Owczarski. “… I actually think we have 21 players that deserve a chance to be on an NBA roster, to be on our roster. … We were presented the opportunity as the offseason progressed to add some players that we thought were just too good to be true and really just great opportunities and we’re going to let the guys play it out. I think competition gives us a great opportunity to have a great start to our camp and a great start to our season and these guys are all fully aware of what they’re playing for and what the stakes are and they’re all capable. So truly, kind of best player, best man win mentality. We want to put the best 15, plus three two-ways, that we can on the roster.”
Pacers Notes: Nembhard, Mathurin, Turner, Jackson, More
With Tyrese Haliburton sidelined for the entire 2025/26 season as he recovers from a torn Achilles, the Pacers‘ offense is expected to look significantly different in the fall and likely won’t be nearly as “high-octane,” according to Jamal Collier of ESPN.
Indiana ranked second in both offensive rating and pace during the 2023/24 regular season and was a top-10 team in both categories again in ’24/25, despite getting off to a slow start last fall. The Pacers also played at the fastest pace of any Eastern Conference team during the 2025 playoffs en route to their first NBA Finals appearance since 2000.
As Collier observes, Andrew Nembhard – who figures to take over as the team’s starting point guard in 2025/26 – doesn’t have the same burst as Haliburton, so the Pacers figure to lean more into his strengths, including his decision-making in half-court sets.
According to Collier, several executives around the league believe that fourth-year wing Bennedict Mathurin is in line for an increased offensive role with Haliburton on the shelf and Myles Turner no longer on the roster. Mathurin, a 2022 lottery pick, has averaged 15.9 points in 28.3 minutes per game during his first three years in the NBA. He’s eligible for a rookie scale extension this offseason.
Here’s more on the Pacers:
- Confirming remarks made by president of basketball operations Kevin Pritchard, Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle said during an appearance on The Green Light with Chris Long podcast (YouTube link) that the club didn’t have the opportunity to match the contract offer Turner got from Milwaukee before he agreed to sign with the Bucks. “We were talking to them – ‘them’ meaning his agent – about him returning,” Carlisle said (hat tip to HoopsHype). “And really, kind of out of nowhere, Milwaukee decided to waive Damian Lillard and stretch his contract…and then they created space to sign Myles. I think what probably happened—and this is part of negotiation in any sport—a team will say: ‘Hey, look, we have this offer. It’s this much over this many years, but if we make this offer, we need to know that you’re going to take it and not shop it.’ And so, I believe that’s probably what happened with Milwaukee. It was a number. It was a certain number of years. And they just jumped at it, and there was never a chance to counter. So—those things happen. And when they do, you just have to keep going.”
- While Isaiah Jackson‘s new three-year, $21MM contract with the Pacers is guaranteed for now, it includes injury protections in years two and three in the event that the big man suffers another major Achilles injury that prevents him from reaching games-played benchmarks, tweets Michael Scotto of HoopsHype. Jackson missed nearly the entire 2024/25 season while recovering from an Achilles tear he sustained in early November.
- Pascal Siakam tops the list of the Pacers’ most important players for the 2025/26 season with Haliburton out and Turner gone, writes Dustin Dopirak of The Indianapolis Star (subscription required). Nembhard, Mathurin, Aaron Nesmith, and Jay Huff round out Dopirak’s top five, in that order.
- In a separate story for The Indianapolis Star, Dopirak shares his takeaways from the Pacers’ fourth Las Vegas Summer League game on Thursday, including forward Enrique Freeman continuing to make a strong case for a two-way slot in Indiana. Freeman racked up 18 points on 7-of-9 shooting, along with 10 rebounds and four assists, in Thursday’s win over New York.
Bucks GM Jon Horst Talks Turner, Rivers, Sims, More
The Bucks made two of the most surprising moves of the NBA offseason within a single hour on July 1 when they agreed to a four-year deal with free agent center Myles Turner and decided to waive-and-stretch Damian Lillard in order to create the cap room necessary to sign Turner.
Speaking to Eric Nehm of The Athletic, Bucks general manager Jon Horst explained that he and his front office felt as if the moves represented the best way to maximize the team’s window of contention around two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo.
“I think every decision, every move that you make, has risk and reward, so there’s nothing unique about that in this case,” Horst said. “We looked at the opportunity to acquire a highly productive, elite free agent (Turner), who is in the prime of his career, and who is an incredible fit next to Giannis, as an opportunity for these next two seasons in particular, instead of what would have been Dame on our books at a full salary, as really opportunistic, more than anything.
The Bucks will carry annual cap hits of roughly $22.5MM on their books through 2029/30 for Lillard, but Horst believes the gains in both the short and long term will outweigh the compromised flexibility that dead money creates.
“The carry for the following three years, there’s no question that if you want to call it an impediment or another hurdle, that’s fine,” Horst said. “But we were dealing with a really big hurdle and complication that we had to figure out how to deal with now, and the now matters more than anything. Maximizing Giannis’ prime, our opportunities to win, I feel like that’s our responsibility always. So it was really a now versus future decision.”
“That being said, Myles is an incredible player in the prime of his career for four years. So four of those five years, we have Myles Turner, so it wasn’t like we just did something now and then we have to take four years of risk beyond this year and four years of carry without any production. We have four years, at least, of Myles Turner at elite production while that’s on our books. And there (are) other things that we did, there (are) other moves that we made, other players we’re able to acquire because of this move now that I believe will outweigh the carry of the 20-plus million dollars that we have.”
In his wide-ranging conversation with Nehm, which is worth checking out in full if you’re an Athletic subscriber, Horst also touched on several other topics, including how the addition of Turner affects the team’s playing style, why he believes Doc Rivers is still the right coach for the Bucks, and much more.
Here are some of the highlights from Horst:
On his belief in Rivers:
“I think he’s a championship-level coach. He’s the right coach to get us to where we want to go. We haven’t had the results yet in our two years together that we wanted. But it’s been two of the most adversity-filled seasons that I’ve been part of. And we’ve had two really successful regular seasons. To go through the things that we went through, if people actually look at the facts of what we went through over two years — we still finished with a fifth seed and a third seed. Near 50 wins in both seasons. And then we lost to the team that lost in the conference finals two years ago and the team that lost in Game 7 of the (NBA) Finals this year.”
On why the Bucks re-signed Jericho Sims:
“Jericho was one of the best switch defenders in the playoffs. He’s got a limited, limited sample, but I believe that he can do it. He’s an elite rim protector. He’s big, he’s physical, he’s athletic. I think the core four of those guys as a frontcourt is as good as anybody. And I think that it’s largely the way that we’ve been dominant in that space over 10 years. But I also think it gives us a chance to modernize and catch up in some of the other areas as well.”
On using Antetokounmpo in more of a point forward role:
I feel like we’ve always played with a certain type of guard. Typically a guard that’s willing to catch and shoot, a guard that is capable of being a primary play-maker, but doesn’t need to be a primary play-maker. And I think some of our best teams that we’ve ever had — and we’ve had a lot of great teams — we had guys at the guard spot in that mold. They can really shoot. They’re capable and willing defenders, and they could go five, six, seven possessions and just play off Giannis, or they can go five, six, seven possessions and they can initiate our offense.
“And that’s what we’ve tried to do. We tried to build a team like that this offseason. Take the opportunity for Giannis to go even more down that road. I would say we’ve always doubled down on it, maybe we’re tripling down or quadrupling down on it now.
On whether the Bucks have done enough to build a roster capable of contending for a title:
“We’ve done everything, I’ve done everything within my human possible power this offseason. I feel like our group works our butts off. … And so have we done enough? I don’t know. We’ll find out. Have we done everything that we possibly could? Absolutely. And have we done more than anyone else could possibly do? I believe we have. And that’s not an arrogant thing to say. In a very humble way. I think we’ve done as much or more than anyone else could possibly do, and I’m proud of that.
“It’s a really tough Eastern Conference and it’s a really tough NBA and that’s what makes it fun. I think there are other teams that have had great offseasons. But we took our set of circumstances, we evaluated everything we possibly could to have the best possible chance that we could at the upcoming season. And I think we’re in that spot right now.”
Myles Turner Discusses Signing With Bucks
After publishing a farewell to Pacers fans on Thursday, Myles Turner was formally introduced as a member of the Bucks at a Friday press conference in Las Vegas, per Michael C. Wright of ESPN.com. Indiana’s longtime starting center has been the top free agent to switch teams so far this offseason.
“For me, ultimately it was about just staying competitive,” Turner said of signing with Milwaukee. “Two years ago, (the Pacers) got to the conference finals. Obviously, last year we got to the Finals. Being a big part of winning basketball just changed my entire perspective on this league. I saw a chance to remain competitive here.”
The 29-year-old big man said the chance to join forces with two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo was a significant factor in his decision, Wright notes. Turner said he briefly exchanged text messages with the Greek superstar.
“I was tired of taking damned shoulders and elbows to the chest all the time,” Turner joked of playing with Antetokounmpo. “It’s a rarity to be alongside him. He’s a generational player, arguably one of the greatest players to play this game. I’m sure we’re going to talk here in the weeks to come. I’ve played against Giannis for quite some time now. Very familiar with his game and what he’s capable of. I do see a seamless fit. He’s someone that is able to push the ball, get out in transition, create for people. He’s developed a jumper.
“Defensively, his intangibles are there. I think our fit is going to be a pretty cohesive fit. But not even that, I just look at this roster and I’ve competed against these guys. There’s a respect from afar of just how they go about their business. There’s a reason why guys are there. Gary Trent just signed. Bobby Portis just signed. Taurean Prince just signed. Ryan Rollins just signed. Everybody sees the vision. They didn’t sign just to do it. I just think that there’s a real belief in this organization. I’ve aligned myself with that.”
According to Wright, Bucks general manager Jon Horst and head coach Doc Rivers flanked Turner at the presser and said they view him as an optimal fit for both Antetokounmpo and the way the team wants to play. Rivers also tried to put any speculation to rest that Antetokounmpo might request a trade at some point before the season begins.
“Giannis came to me the day after the season and we were talking about next season already,” Rivers said. “So, there’s far more talk outside of Milwaukee than there is inside of Milwaukee. Giannis loves Milwaukee. We love Giannis, and it’s been a great relationship. We’ve had some of our young guys in Greece already playing with him. I think we had six or seven guys go down (to Greece), several coaches. So, we are communicating a lot. It’s about next year, and it’s about winning.”
Central Notes: Giannis, Turner, Pacers, Lanier, Holland
Appearing on a live stream in Greece on Thursday with YouTube personality IShowSpeed, Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo was asked if his plan is to remain in Milwaukee going forward.
“Probably,” Antetokounmpo said (Twitter video link). “We’ll see. Probably. I love Milwaukee.”
While any public statement that Antetokounmpo makes about his future is notable, it’s hard to draw any definitive conclusions from those brief comments — they’re pretty much what you’d expect him to say if he hasn’t requested a trade but also hasn’t yet decisively committed to not asking for a trade. And by all accounts, that’s where his situation currently stands.
As we wait for a more conclusive update on Giannis’ future, the Bucks and their fans can take solace in the “probably” part of his response on Thursday, while potential suitors will likely be emboldened by the “we’ll see.”
Here’s more from around the Central:
- After signing with the Bucks on Monday following 10 years in Indiana, Myles Turner published a farewell to Pacers fans on his Instagram account on Thursday. “This chapter is closing, but the respect and love I have for this city and its people is forever,” Turner wrote within a much longer statement. “Thank you Indy, from the bottom of my heart. I mean it when I say The 317 will always be home. And I’ve been proud to call myself a Hoosier! I hope you continue to embrace me as much as I’ve always embraced you!”
- Dustin Dopirak of The Indianapolis Star shares three takeaways from the Pacers‘ victory in their first Las Vegas Summer League game on Thursday, noting that two-way players RayJ Dennis (26 points, nine assists) and Quenton Jackson (24 points on 8-of-10 shooting) were among the standouts. It would be a boon for the Pacers if Dennis emerges as a reliable option at the NBA level, Dopirak observes, since the team will be on the lookout for additional point guard depth with Tyrese Haliburton out for the entire 2025/26 season.
- Pistons second-round pick Chaz Lanier believes he’s capable of “immediately” playing a role for his new NBA team as a rookie, he told reporters during his introductory press conference this week. “Coming in to do whatever they need me to do,” Lanier said, per Coty M. Davis of The Detroit News. “Coming in and making shots when I need to. … I am a shooter first, that is what I hang my hat on; putting the ball in the basket. However, I believe that at the NBA level, you need to be able to make an impact on defense. That is how I plan on making my mark.”
- Pistons forward Ron Holland, who turned 20 on Monday, was pleased that he was able to earn an every-game rotation role as a rookie last season, but he feels like he “left a lot on the table” and “could’ve done more,” as Omari Sankofa II of The Detroit Free Press relays (subscription required). “That’s definitely putting a chip on my shoulder and being able to go into next season trying to thrive and get better every single day,” Holland said.
Pacers’ Pritchard Discusses Losing Turner To Bucks
Asked during a Monday media session about losing free agent big man Myles Turner to their division rivals in Milwaukee, Pacers president of basketball operations Kevin Pritchard said he had been engaged in “good-faith” negotiations with Turner’s camp and that team ownership was willing to go “deep into the tax” to hang onto Indiana’s starting center, per James Boyd of The Athletic and Dustin Dopirak of The Indianapolis Star.
“If we keep Myles at the number we were talking about — or in that ballpark, because I felt like that was still a little bit ongoing — and with the moves that we were talking about doing, we weren’t trickling into the tax,” Pritchard said (YouTube link). “We were over a second threshold.”
Pritchard clarified that the Pacers would not have operated over the second tax apron, so the “second threshold” he cited may have been a reference to the luxury tax brackets — the tax penalties get increasingly more punitive for every $5.7MM a team spends over the tax line. Indiana may also have exceeded the first apron if Turner had been re-signed.
There were conflicting reports on exactly what the Pacers’ final offer was, but most of those reports suggested the team hadn’t gone beyond a three-year bid worth about $22-23MM per year. Turner ultimately signed a four-year contract worth a total of nearly $109MM with the Bucks.
“I felt like we were working towards a deal,” Pritchard said. “But when you’re unrestricted, as soon as you hear a number that you feel like is good for you, then I think he felt like he had to take that.
“… It’s his opportunity, it’s his right to say, ‘Hey, that’s it and I’m going in a different direction.’ It was never acrimonious, it was always pleasant going back and forth. I think that there was a number he was trying to hit. I think we were in the ballpark. But that’s my opinion. It must not have been for him.”
Pritchard admitted that he learned about Turner leaving Indiana for Milwaukee the same way that most fans did.
“We would have been open on a sign-and-trade because it’s sort of mutually beneficial, but we didn’t get to that point, unfortunately,” Pritchard said. “I saw Shams (Charania) tweet it, and that’s how I knew that Myles was taking (the Bucks’ offer).
“… I was shocked, if I’m being perfectly honest. I thought we were kind of going back and forth in an open way. We’ve done big deals with that agency, and they’re great guys, and we’ll be doing more business with them. But Myles must’ve heard something in that (Bucks offer) that said, ‘I’m gonna take it right now.'”
While a sign-and-trade deal might’ve put the Pacers in position to acquire something of value in return for Turner, the Bucks were able to create the cap room unnecessary to sign him outright by completing a series of roster moves that included waiving Damian Lillard and stretching his $112.6MM in remaining salary across five seasons.
Pritchard acknowledged being surprised by Milwaukee’s aggressiveness, though he said the front office was aware of the possibility of an over-the-cap team finding a way to create cap room.
“We always say in our conference room, there’s cap teams that have cap space and there’s shadow teams that have cap space,” he said. “You can go get it, but it becomes very challenging by buying out (players) or making trades. Hat tip to Milwaukee to do that. … I can’t tell you that we were fully expecting that.”
Contract Details: Turner, Robinson, Mitchell, NAW, Kyrie, Jones
Myles Turner‘s new four-year contract with the Bucks came in a little higher than expected, as cap expert Yossi Gozlan notes (via Twitter).
Using the cap room left over after waiving and Damian Lillard and buying out Vasilije Micic (via the stretch provision), Milwaukee was able to give Turner a starting salary of $25,318,251. With annual 5% raises, his deal is worth a total of approximately $108.87MM. As previously reported, the contract also includes a fourth-year player option and a 15% trade kicker.
Here are a few more details on contracts officially signed around the NBA in recent days:
- Using Simone Fontecchio‘s outgoing salary ($8,307,692) and the expanded traded player exception ($8,527,000), the Pistons were able to take back a maximum of $16,834,692 in incoming salary. Not coincidentally, that’s exactly the starting salary that Duncan Robinson got on his new deal with Detroit via sign-and-trade (Twitter link via Gozlan). Robinson’s three-year deal has a declining structure and offers few guarantees after the first year — just $2MM of his $15.99MM salary in 2026/27 is guaranteed, and his entire $15.15MM salary for ’27/28 is non-guaranteed.
- Ajay Mitchell‘s new three-year deal with the Thunder came in a little lower than expected, at $8.7MM, tweets Michael Scotto of HoopsHype. It includes a fully guaranteed $3MM salary for 2025/26, replacing the team option Oklahoma City turned down that was worth the same amount. His $2.85MM salary for ’26/27 is partially guaranteed for $1.5MM, while ’27/28 is a $2.85MM team option.
- Reported to be worth $62MM over four years, Nickeil Alexander-Walker‘s new contract with the Hawks came in at $60,647,200, Hoops Rumors has confirmed. It includes a fourth-year player option and a 7.5% trade kicker. It also declines in year two (from $15,161,800 to $14,403,710) before ascending again in year three ($15,161,800) and four ($15,919,890).
- The three-year deal between Kyrie Irving and the Mavericks is worth $118,473,846, with a third-year player option and a 15% trade kicker, Hoops Rumors has confirmed. It starts at $36,566,002, with annual 8% raises.
- Tre Jones‘ three-year, $24MM contract with the Bulls has a flat structure, with annual cap hits of $8MM, and a third-year team option, Hoops Rumors has confirmed.
Stein’s Latest: Valanciunas, Horford, Ham, Suns, Reid, More
After reporting on Saturday that the Nuggets plan to go through with their trade for Jonas Valanciunas despite the veteran center’s interest in signing with EuroLeague club Panathinaikos, Marc Stein of The Stein Line reiterates in his latest Substack post that Denver’s front office is “determined to enforce” Valanciunas’ contract and “optimistic” the Lithuanian big man will be a Nugget in 2025/26.
As Stein explains, even if Valanciunas agreed to give back his entire $10.4MM salary for next season in a buyout, which would give the Nuggets enough cap space below the luxury tax line to use the full mid-level exception, Denver still wouldn’t have an easy way to find another backup center, with most of the top free agents already off the board.
Having access to the full MLE would theoretically give the Nuggets the ability to offer a lucrative contract to Al Horford, who is still a free agent, but Stein continues to hear the 39-year-old big man is “destined” to sign with the Warriors, who can currently only offer him the taxpayer version of the MLE.
Valanciunas doesn’t have the ability to unilaterally terminate his contract, and the Nuggets don’t have to accept a buyout even if he did forfeit his entire salary, Stein notes. One source Stein spoke to said a resolution remains uncertain but acknowledged that Valanciunas might have to remain with Denver despite his apparent desire to return to Europe.
Here’s more from Stein:
- The Suns and Knicks are both looking for a top assistant coach and have expressed interest in trying to lure Darvin Ham away from the Bucks, per Stein. However, Milwaukee is “determined to keep” Ham unless he gets the chance to become a head coach again elsewhere. Stein points out that joining Phoenix or New York would be a lateral move for Ham, since he’s already the Bucks’ top assistant, and says Milwaukee “loves having Ham back” after his two-year stint as the Lakers’ top coach.
- The Grizzlies are another team in search of a No. 1 assistant under new head coach Tuomas Iisalo, Stein adds.
- Before trading for Mark Williams and drafting Khaman Maluach, the Suns tried to pursue a sign-and-trade with the Timberwolves for Naz Reid, according to Stein, who writes that Reid’s new five-year, $125MM contract with Minnesota is believed to have played a factor in Myles Turner‘s decision to leave the Pacers for the Bucks in free agency. Indiana reportedly never offered Turner a deal as lucrative as Reid received from the Wolves.
Free Agency Notes: Yabusele, Knicks, Kings, Beasley, Turner
Guerschon Yabusele‘s two-year deal with the Knicks won’t use the full taxpayer mid-level exception, according to Stefan Bondy of The New York Post (Twitter link).
Yabusele’s slight discount will give New York the ability to fill out its 13th and 14th roster spots with one veteran-minimum contract and one rookie-minimum contract for one of the team’s (current or past) second-round picks while remaining below the team’s hard cap at the second tax apron.
[RELATED: NBA Minimum Salaries For 2025/26]
If Yabusele had received the full taxpayer mid-level, the Knicks would have been roughly $3.53MM below the second apron, so they could have signed one veteran-minimum player ($2.3MM) or one rookie-minimum player ($1.27MM), but not both until after the regular season began.
According to Bondy (Twitter link), Yabusele’s deal with the Knicks should still comfortably exceed the salary the Sixers offered him. Bondy says that Philadelphia’s offer – which Yabusele referred to as “really low” – as being worth the “$2.6MM minimum,” but the Frenchman’s minimum salary this season would actually be $2.4MM, so it’s possible Philadelphia went a little above that amount using his Non-Bird rights.
The 76ers likely didn’t want to hard-cap themselves by using any portion of their taxpayer mid-level exception before Quentin Grimes‘ restricted free agency is resolved.
Here are a few more notes and rumors related to free agency:
- Reporting out of Sacramento earlier this week seemed to suggest the Kings were aggressively pursuing Warriors restricted free agent Jonathan Kuminga, but subsequent reports have suggested nothing is close on that front. According to Matt George of ABC 10 in Sacramento (Twitter link), while the Kings still have interest in Kuminga, they’d be content to complete their Dennis Schröder acquisition and Jonas Valanciunas and then bring that roster into next season. That roster would include both Malik Monk and Devin Carter, who have both been the subject of trade rumors.
- While news of the federal investigation into Malik Beasley for gambling allegations didn’t go public until June 29, the NBA reached out to the Pistons “several” days before free agency opened to let the club know about it, per Mike Vorkunov, Jon Krawczynski, and James L. Edwards III of The Athletic. The two sides had been in talks on a three-year, $42MM contract that would’ve included a third-year team option, but it now seems unlikely that any team would move forward on a deal with Beasley until that investigation is resolved (assuming he’s cleared).
- The Bucks‘ four-year, $107MM agreement with Myles Turner has been the most surprising deal of free agency so far. Eric Nehm of The Athletic takes a closer look at just what it means for Milwaukee, breaking down Turner’s fit with the team at both ends of the court. While Turner has a similar skill set to former starting center Brook Lopez, the former Pacer is younger, more athletic, and more mobile, which should allow him to make a greater impact than Lopez as a screener and defender, Nehm writes.
Free Agency Notes: Cancar, Nuggets, Turner, Middle Class, Spending Power
Veteran forward Vlatko Cancar is expected to leave the Nuggets and head to Europe next season, Donatas Urbonas of BasketNews.com reports. The Italian team Olimpia Milano has emerged as the leading candidate to sign Cancar, Urbonas adds, with a report from Aris Barkas of Eurohoops suggesting the two sides are on track to complete a two-year deal.
Cancar, 28, has spent the past five seasons with Denver. He has battled health problems in recent years, having missed all of 2023/24 due to a torn ACL and then undergoing another knee surgery this past season. In 13 total appearances in 2024/25, he averaged 1.8 points and 2.5 rebounds in 11 minutes per contest.
Cancar is an unrestricted free agent after playing on a one-year veteran’s minimum deal.
Here’s more news on the free agent front:
- Nikola Jokic lamented the Nuggets’ lack of depth after the team was eliminated by the Thunder in the playoffs. That issue has been addressed, as The Denver Post’s Bennett Durando notes (subscription required). Denver agreed to trade Michael Porter Jr. and replace him with Cameron Johnson from the Nets, made another agreed-upon trade for big man Jonas Valanciunas, and reached agreements with Tim Hardaway Jr. and Bruce Brown in free agency.
- Despite a report from the Indianapolis Star’s suggesting they went higher, both The Athletic and Jake Fischer of The Stein Line (Substack link) contend that the Pacers’ best offer to Myles Turner was in the $20-22MM per year range. Turner agreed to a four-year, $107MM deal with Central Division rival Milwaukee on Tuesday. According to Spencer Davies of RG.org, Turner would have stayed in Indiana for $25MM per year, but the organization held firm, offering a three-year, $66MM contract, with no player option on year four.
- The Athletic’s John Hollinger notes that the league “middle class,” solid rotation players but not superstars, are doing surprisingly well in free agency. He points out that eight such players received some or all of a team’s non-taxpayer mid-level exception on the first day of free agency.
- Factoring in all the reported moves prior to Wednesday, Spotrac contributor Keith Smith examines the remaining spending power of all the Eastern Conference and Western Conference teams.