N’Faly Dante Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Hawks’ N’Faly Dante Out For Season With Torn ACL

December 23rd, 2025 at 10:06am CST by Luke Adams

Hawks center N’Faly Dante has been diagnosed with a torn ACL in his right knee, the team announced today in a press release. According to the Hawks, Dante will undergo surgery in January and will miss the rest of the 2025/26 season.

Dante suffered the injury while playing for the College Park Skyhawks at the G League’s Winter Showcase last Friday. The 24-year-old fell to the floor after awkwardly twisting his right knee following a rebound and was clearly in significant pain. He reportedly had to be carried off the court.

Dante, who finished the 2024/25 season on a two-way contract with the Rockets, was the NBA’s only restricted free agent to sign an offer sheet during the 2025 offseason. He received a two-way qualifying offer from Houston, then signed a two-year, minimum-salary deal with Atlanta that the Rockets elected not to match.

While Dante’s contract with the Hawks was only partially guaranteed for $85,300, he’ll now be assured of receiving his full salary for the 2025/26 season as a result of this injury. Even if Atlanta waives him prior to the January 7 league-wide salary guarantee deadline, the team will be obligated to pay his salary until he gets healthy or until the end of the season, whichever comes first — based on the Dante’s recovery timeline, the season will wrap up before he’s ready to suit up again.

Dante appeared in just four games for Atlanta and four for College Park this season. Prior to tearing his ACL, he was sidelined for over two weeks while going through the concussion protocol due to a head injury that he sustained while playing for the Skyhawks. Friday’s game was his first one back from that injury.

While the Hawks will have the ability to apply for a disabled player exception for Dante, that exception would be worth just $1,024,247, half of his minimum salary ($2,048,494), so it would be of limited use.

Dante is the third player at the back of Atlanta’s roster to sustain a season-ending injury this month. Two-way forward Jacob Toppin underwent season-ending right shoulder surgery earlier in December and was subsequently waived. Another two-way player, Eli Ndiaye, will also require shoulder surgery in early January. Ndiaye remains under contract with the Hawks for now.

Injury Notes: Poeltl, Barrett, Dante, Sixers, Bradley, Brown

December 20th, 2025 at 5:16pm CST by Luke Adams

Raptors center Jakob Poeltl, who has been dealing with a back issue this season, will miss a second straight game on Saturday as Toronto hosts the Celtics, tweets Michael Grange of Sportsnet.ca.

“We have a long-term plan for him,” head coach Darko Rajakovic said, “which consists of managing this injury and which consists of building his strength, which consists of him playing through a certain level of discomfort.

“But we’re not concerned at all. It’s just something that we are dealing (with) in the middle of the season. If we were in the offseason and you shut him down for two weeks, he would be completely fine, but it’s something we’re really trying to manage day to day. At this point, it’s not to that point that we just need to shut him down. It’s not that serious.”

Meanwhile, Raptors forward RJ Barrett will miss a 12th consecutive game on Saturday due to his right knee sprain, but he’s making progress toward a return. According to Grange (Twitter link), Barrett has resumed on-court activities. The plan is for him to do live work against coaches in the coming days, then participate in practice and scrimmage with teammates.

Here are a few more injury-related updates from around the NBA:

Hawks center N’Faly Dante may have sustained a serious knee injury while playing in the G League for the College Park Skyhawks on Friday. According to John Hollinger (Bluesky links), Dante was in significant pain after awkwardly twisting his right knee following a rebound and had to be carried off the court. It was the big man’s first game since he entered the concussion protocol on December 2, tweets Kevin Chouinard of Hawks.com.
Sixers center Joel Embiid (illness and right knee injury management) will miss a second consecutive game on Saturday vs. Dallas, while forward Paul George (left knee injury management) has also been ruled out, tweets Marc Stein. George hasn’t played both ends of a back-to-back set yet this season, so his absence comes as no surprise after he suited up for Friday’s win over New York.
Pacers center Tony Bradley suffered a fracture on the tip of his thumb, according to head coach Rick Carlisle, who referred to the thumb as “partially functional” with a splint on it, per Dustin Dopirak of The Indianapolis Star (Twitter links). While it sounds like Bradley will remain active, the decision to sign James Wiseman to a 10-day contract was directly related to that injury, Carlisle said (Twitter link via Dopirak). While Wiseman will give the team some additional depth, he’s probably not in NBA game shape quite yet, Carlisle admitted.
The Celtics will be without top scorer Jaylen Brown when they take on the Raptors on Saturday night. Brown, who played in 26 of Boston’s first 27 games, has been ruled out due to an illness, per the team (Twitter link).

Hawks Waive Charles Bassey, Lamont Butler

October 18th, 2025 at 11:23am CST by Dana Gauruder

The Hawks have waived Charles Bassey and Lamont Butler, ESPN’s Ohm Youngmisuk tweets. The moves reduce the Hawks’ standard roster count to 14 players, one below the maximum.

Bassey was signed to an Exhibit 10 contract prior to training camp. Butler was added to the roster once again earlier this week on a camp deal after being waived in late September.

Bassey was selected by Philadelphia with the 53rd pick in the 2021 draft. He was cut after one year with the Sixers and signed in San Antonio, where he played for the past three seasons.

Injuries were an issue for Bassey during his time with the Spurs — his 2022/23 season was cut short due to a non-displaced patella fracture, then he suffered a season-ending ACL tear in December 2023. The 24-year-old appeared in 36 games in 2024/25, averaging 4.4 points and 4.2 rebounds in 10.4 minutes per night.

Butler, a 6’2″ guard who played his final college season at Kentucky, averaged 11.4 PPG and 4.3 RPG while shooting 39.1% from three as a fifth-year senior. He went undrafted in June.

Both players could wind up with the College Park Skyhawks, the Hawks’ G League affiliate.

Atlanta has only 10 players with fully guaranteed salaries. Vit Krejci and N’Faly Dante have partially guaranteed deals while Caleb Houstan and Mouhamed Gueye have non-guaranteed contracts. Youngmisuk confirms that Dante will make the Hawks’ regular season roster; the other three players without fully guaranteed salaries also look well positioned to make the team.

Contract Details: Dante, Houstan, Coffey, Williams

August 24th, 2025 at 1:33pm CST by Luke Adams

The Hawks‘ two-year, $4.4MM offer sheet for center N’Faly Dante, which went unmatched by Houston, only carries a partial guarantee of $85,300 in year one, according to ESPN’s Bobby Marks for Sports Business Classroom. That’s the same amount that Dante would have had guaranteed if he had accepted his two-way qualifying offer from the Rockets.

Matching the offer sheet would have been a very low-risk move for the Rockets, who would have only been on the hook for that $85,300 partial guarantee if they had decided to waive Dante before the start of the regular season. But Houston didn’t have enough room below its first-apron hard cap to match the offer without making a corresponding roster move to shed salary.

Here are more contract details from around the NBA:

The contract that Caleb Houstan signed with the Hawks is a non-guaranteed Exhibit 10 deal, tweets Keith Smith of Spotrac. Since Houstan only has three years of NBA experience, that means the contract could be converted into a two-way deal before the start of the regular season.
Amir Coffey‘s non-guaranteed training camp contract with the Bucks contains Exhibit 9 language protecting the team in the event of a preseason injury, but not Exhibit 10 language, according to Marks at Sports Business Classroom. Coffey has too many years of NBA service to qualify for a two-way contract, so conversion via Exhibit 10 wouldn’t have been an option — still, the lack of an Exhibit 10 bonus suggests that he doesn’t intend to play for Milwaukee’s G League affiliate if he doesn’t make the regular season roster.
Amari Williams‘ two-way deal with the Celtics is for one season, per Marks.

Rockets Decline To Match Hawks’ Offer Sheet For N’Faly Dante

August 18th, 2025 at 3:09pm CST by Luke Adams

3:09 pm: The Hawks have officially announced in a press release that they’ve signed Dante.

2:08 pm: Big man N’Faly Dante will join the Hawks, according to Michael Scotto of HoopsHype, who reports (via Twitter) that the Rockets aren’t matching the two-year, $4.5MM offer sheet Dante signed with Atlanta.

Dante appeared in just four NBA regular season games last season after going undrafted out of Oregon. However, he was a mainstay for the Rio Grande Valley Vipers in the G League while on a two-way contract with Houston, averaging 15.1 points, 9.8 rebounds, and 2.2 blocks in 26.8 minutes per game across 42 outings at the G League level.

Dante, who will turn 24 in October, earned a two-way qualifying offer from Houston in June, but the Rockets have since filled all of their two-way slots by signing Kevon Harris, Isaiah Crawford, and JD Davison, which was perhaps an indication that they weren’t counting on having Dante back.

The Hawks’ two-year offer sheet to Dante appears to just be worth the minimum salary, but even that modest price was too steep for the Rockets, who are operating just $1.26MM below a first-apron hard cap and can’t add a 15th man on a veteran’s minimum deal without shedding salary. Given the team’s cap situation, Scotto’s report that Houston isn’t matching the Hawks’ offer doesn’t come as a real surprise.

Once they officially add Dante to their roster, the Hawks will have 14 players on standard contracts, with Caleb Houstan reportedly expected to join the team as well. Dante will provide depth in a frontcourt that also includes incumbent center Onyeka Okongwu, offseason addition Kristaps Porzingis, rookie Asa Newell, and third-year big man Mouhamed Gueye.

Dante is the first two-way restricted free agent to sign a qualifying offer since Tyrone Wallace did so in 2018. Wallace was a Clippers RFA who signed an offer sheet with the Pelicans and had it matched by L.A.

The Hawks, meanwhile, will become the first team to sign a restricted free agent to an offer sheet that goes unmatched since they did it themselves with Kings RFA Bogdan Bogdanovic in 2020.

Hawks Signing N’Faly Dante To Two-Year Offer Sheet

August 16th, 2025 at 11:40am CST by Rory Maher

The Hawks are signing restricted free agent center N’Faly Dante to a two-year, $4.5MM offer sheet, league sources tell Michael Scotto of HoopsHype (Twitter link).

The Rockets — Dante’s incumbent team — will have two days to match the offer sheet. However, Houston doesn’t currently have enough room under its first-apron hard cap to match the contract Dante agreed to with Atlanta, according to Keith Smith of Spotrac (Twitter link).

As Danielle Lerner of The Houston Chronicle notes (via Twitter), the Rockets already have three players signed to two-way contracts, so evidently they were prepared for Dante’s departure.

A native of Mali who went undrafted in 2024 after a standout college career at Oregon, Dante signed a two-way deal with Houston last summer. The 23-year-old only made four NBA appearances for the second-seeded Rockets as a rookie, with three occurring during the final three contests of the regular season. The 6’11” big man averaged 6.0 points, 5.3 rebounds and 1.3 blocks in 12.8 minutes per game.

While his NBA contributions were limited, Dante had an excellent season for Houston’s G League affiliate, the Rio Grande Valley Vipers, averaging 15.1 PPG, 9.8 RPG, 1.0 SPG and 2.2 BPG while shooting 74.3% from the field in 42 games (26.8 MPG).

As our Luke Adams recently outlined, two-way restricted free agents rarely sign offer sheets with other teams. But clearly the Hawks like Dante, who will provide frontcourt depth behind Onyeka Okongwu and Kristaps Porzingis — assuming the Rockets don’t make additional moves to position themselves to match.

Dante’s deal will likely be for the veteran’s minimum, which would be worth $4,459,584 across two years.

Bulls Issue Qualifying Offer To Josh Giddey

June 26th, 2025 at 3:50pm CST by Luke Adams

The Bulls have tendered a qualifying offer to guard Josh Giddey, making him a restricted free agent, according to RealGM’s log of NBA transactions.

Giddey’s qualifying offer, which is determined by his draft slot, is a one-year contract offer worth roughly $11.14MM, but it essentially serves as a placeholder while he and the Bulls work out a new contract agreement — or while he pursues an offer sheet from a rival suitor.

As long as that qualifying offer is on the table, Chicago maintains the right of first refusal on Giddey, giving the club the opportunity to match any offer sheet he signs.

Giddey could accept the qualifying offer and play out next season on a one-year, $11.14MM deal if he chooses, which would set him up to become an unrestricted free agent in 2026. But after a strong first season in Chicago, he appears to get a much more lucrative deal this summer, so that would likely be a last resort.

After being acquired from Oklahoma City in exchange for Alex Caruso last summer, Giddey got off to a slow start as a Bull, averaging 11.4 points, 7.3 rebounds, and 6.7 assists per game with a .439/.324/.750 shooting line through his first 40 outings.

However, the 22-year-old finished the season strong, taking on more offensive responsibilities following Chicago’s trade-deadline deal sending Zach LaVine to Sacramento. Giddey put up 18.9 PPG, 9.1 RPG, and 7.8 APG on .490/.436/.799 shooting in his final 30 games.

Giddey, who was said to be seeking $30MM annually when he and the Bulls discussed a rookie scale extension last fall, is the No. 5 player on our list of this summer’s top 50 free agents.

In other minor restricted free agency news, Rockets big man N’Faly Dante has also received a qualifying offer, per RealGM. Dante’s QO is equivalent to another one-year, two-way deal.

Dante made just four appearances at the NBA level in his rookie season in 2024/25, but had a strong debut season in the G League, averaging 16.5 PPG, 10.6 RPG, and 2.2 BPG in 31 games (29.1 MPG) for the Rio Grande Valley Vipers, Houston’s NBAGL affiliate.

Western Notes: Gordon, Rockets Roster, Divac, Doncic, Kennard

September 22nd, 2024 at 9:50pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Aaron Gordon becomes eligible for a four-year contract extension later this week and that will be one of the big storylines at the Nuggets’ training camp, Bennett Durando of the Denver Post writes. Gordon has a player option for the 2025/26 season but could replace that with the first year of a new deal as part of an extension agreement.

Jamal Murray‘s health and the way Russell Westbrook fits into the Nuggets’ rotation are among the other storylines to watch in Denver, according to Durando.

We have more from the Western Conference:

With the Rockets buying out and waiving forward AJ Griffin, they have an open spot on the official roster. How will it be filled? It could turn into a competition among players on two-ways and training camp deals, according to Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle. Jeenathan Williams, Nate Hinton, N’Faly Dante, Jermaine Samuels and Jack McVeigh comprise that group. Houston could also opt to leave that spot open or sign a free agent.
Former Kings general manager Vlade Divac made one of the biggest draft blunders in recent years when he passed on Luka Doncic in favor of Marvin Bagley in 2018. Divac admits he made a mistake but explained that he already had a talented floor leader in De’Aaron Fox. “I could’ve taken Luka, but then I would’ve had to trade Fox,” he said in an interview with Index, a Croatian outlet (hat tip to Grant Afseth of the Dallas Sports Journal).
Grizzlies players have been competing in 5-on-5 scrimmages for over a month and Luke Kennard is impressed by the team’s competitiveness and attention to detail. “Something I haven’t really seen before,” Kennard told Damichael Cole of the Memphis Commercial Appeal. “We’re really pushing each other and competing really hard. I think that’s going to go a long way. We start that right now. We’re getting a few steps ahead until the season starts.”

Rockets Add N’Faly Dante Via Two-Way Deal

July 9th, 2024 at 8:30pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

JULY 9: Dante has officially signed the two-way contract, the team tweets.

JUNE 27: The Rockets are signing undrafted Oregon center N’Faly Dante to a two-way deal, sources tell ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link).

The 6’11” big man was a two-time All-Pac-12 honoree and was also named to the Pac-12 All-Defensive Team in 2024. A five-year senior in 2023/24, he enjoyed his most productive season yet as a super-senior, averaging 17 points per game on 69.5% shooting from the field and 61.3% shooting from the charity stripe. Dante also logged averages of 9.2 rebounds, 1.9 blocks, 1.7 steals and 1.6 assists per contest.

Houston only wound up with one pick in the 2024 draft, the third selection, which the Rockets used on sharpshooting Kentucky guard Reed Sheppard. The club traded out from the No. 44 pick in the second round to obtain reserve small forward AJ Griffin from the Hawks as part of a three-team deal.

Draft Workouts: Spurs, Suns, Pacers, Blazers, Lakers, Wolves, Thomas

June 20th, 2024 at 9:25pm CST by Luke Adams

The Spurs, who are widely expected to draft at least one guard next Wednesday, recently worked out both Stephon Castle of UConn and Devin Carter of Providence, according to Kelly Iko of The Athletic.

As we relayed on Wednesday, recent mock drafts from ESPN and Bleacher Report both have San Antonio drafting Castle at No. 4, and the team is said to be high on Carter as well. Iko confirms as much, writing that the Spurs have “strong interest” in Carter, Castle, and Kentucky’s Reed Sheppard, with Carter’s private workout “resonating” among the team’s decision-makers.

Here’s more pre-draft workout news from around the NBA:

After a previous report indicated that the Suns may target Tyler Kolek with the No. 22 pick, Duane Rankin of The Arizona Republic says Phoenix brought the former Marquette guard in for a workout on Thursday. Kolek is the No. 25 prospect on ESPN’s board and the Suns are believed to be in the market for a point guard this offseason.
The Pacers held their sixth pre-draft workout on Thursday, with Adem Bona (UCLA), RayJ Dennis (Baylor), Ariel Hukporti (Germany), Daniss Jenkins (St. John’s), Keshad Johnson (Arizona), and Babacar Sane (G League Ignite) in attendance, per a press release from the team. Bona (No. 33) is the highest-rated player of the group on ESPN’s board.
International prospects Yongxi Cui and Quinn Ellis and G Leaguer Bryson Warren were among the players who participated in a pre-draft workout with the Trail Blazers on Friday, tweets Sean Highkin of Rose Garden Report. Tristan Enaruna (Cleveland State), Oso Ighodaro (Marquette), and Nae’Qwan Tomlin (Memphis) also took part.
The Lakers brought in a handful of potential second-rounders or undrafted free agents on Thursday, according to Dave McMenamin of ESPN (Twitter link), who says Quinn Slazinski (West Virginia), Jalen Bridges (Baylor), Raequan Battle (West Virginia), Quincy Olivari (Xavier), and Lance Jones (Purdue) attended the session. McMenamin also says Xavier Johnson participated, though he doesn’t specify whether that’s the Xavier Johnson from Indiana or Southern Illinois.
Keion Brooks Jr. (Washington), Tyler Wahl (Wisconsin), N’Faly Dante (Oregon), Aaron Estrada (Alabama), and Isaac Jones (Washington State) worked out for the Timberwolves on Friday, according to the club (Twitter link). It’s worth noting that it was Estrada’s second workout for Minnesota, which may signal real interest.
Tyler Thomas of Hofstra has recently worked out for the Cavaliers, Rockets, Magic, Timberwolves, and Knicks, a source tells Adam Zagoria of NJ.com (Twitter link). Thomas isn’t considered a top-100 prospect by ESPN, but could catch on with a team in free agency if he goes undrafted.