Ognjen Stojakovic Rumors

Stein’s Latest: Simmons, CP3, Clippers, Nuggets, Simons, Mavs

July 21st, 2025 at 10:01am CST by Luke Adams

After his Stein Line teammate Jake Fischer reported that the Kings and Knicks look like the top candidates to land Ben Simmons, NBA insider Marc Stein suggests within his latest Substack article that at least a couple more clubs are in the mix for the former No. 1 overall pick.

According to Stein, Simmons has drawn interest from the Celtics since free agency began and has also had some recent conversations with the Suns.

While a couple of those teams could offer Simmons a portion of their mid-level exception, most of them have tax- or apron-related concerns that would make a minimum-salary offer more likely for the former 76er, who celebrated his 29th birthday on Sunday. Phoenix would cross the tax line with even a veteran-minimum signing, New York has used its full taxpayer mid-level exception, and Boston is currently operating slightly above the second tax apron.

Simmons is a three-time All-Star who has made a pair of All-Defensive first teams and was the Defensive Player of the Year runner-up in 2021, but he has battled back issues in recent years and has been a tricky fit in lineups that feature any other non-shooters. In 51 total appearances for the Nets and Clippers last season, he averaged 5.0 points, 5.6 assists, and 4.7 rebounds in 22.0 minutes per game.

Here’s more from Stein:

Following up on Lawrence Frank‘s comments on Saturday about the Clippers “strongly, strongly considering” Chris Paul, Stein suggests that most rival front offices view the veteran point guard as “the Clippers’ signee to lose.”
With Jared Dudley and J.J. Barea set to occupy the top two spots on David Adelman‘s bench in Denver, the Nuggets don’t intend to hire an assistant specifically for their third front-of-bench position. Instead, the plan is to rotate assistants in and out of that role depending on game-to-game scouting responsibilities, Stein explains. Ognjen Stojakovic, a holdover from Michael Malone‘s staff who is close with Nikola Jokic, is one coach expected to be in the rotation for that third assistant slot, Stein adds.
League sources confirm to Stein that the Celtics are continuing to explore the trade market for recently acquired guard Anfernee Simons.
The Mavericks will congregate in Canada this fall, according to Stein, who says the team’s training camp will be held in Vancouver, B.C.

Northwest Notes: George, Reath, Murray, Stojakovic

September 23rd, 2023 at 5:25pm CST by Arthur Hill

Baylor coach Scott Drew tells Eric Walden of The Salt Lake Tribune (subscription required) that Jazz rookie Keyonte George can become an effective point guard in the NBA. George is viewed as a natural scorer, but Drew said he showed during his lone college season that he has potential as a distributor as well.

“With us, right away we learned he likes to share the basketball with his teammates, he gets excited and cheers them on when they do well, but he’s more than capable to make the right reads and right plays, and he can see stuff that we had no idea he could,” Drew said. “So that was a surprise to us, just how good he was at handling the ball and playing the point. It’s not something he’s done a lot because he’s such an efficient scorer off the ball; most people put him off the ball and when he got it, they just wanted him to get buckets. But with us, he was able to do both.”

Point guard appears to be the easiest path to playing time for the No. 16 overall pick. There’s not a definitive favorite to win the starting job heading into camp as Collin Sexton, Kris Dunn, Talen Horton-Tucker and Jordan Clarkson are all expected to see time at the position.

There’s more from the Northwest Division:

Duop Reath traveled around the world before landing an NBA opportunity with the Trail Blazers, notes Ayush G of The Pick and Roll. The 27-year-old center played in Serbia, Lebanon, China and Australia before impressing Portland in this year’s Summer League. Reath, who started for Australia in the World Cup, is expected to sign a one-year contract with the Blazers before the start of training camp.
Nuggets guard Jamal Murray may be the best player not affected by the NBA’s new player participation policy, per Bennett Durando of The Denver Post. The policy applies to “stars,” who are defined as players who have been All-Stars or voted to an All-NBA team over the past three seasons. Largely because of the torn ACL he suffered in 2021, Murray doesn’t meet those criteria, leaving the defending champs with Nikola Jokic as their only player affected by the PPP. Durando observes that earning All-NBA honors this season will qualify Murray to sign a super-max extension next summer.
Nuggets assistant Ognjen Stojakovic said being involved with Serbia’s coaching staff at the World Cup was the highlight of his career, Durando adds in a separate story. “It was a childhood dream to be part of the national team with Serbia,” Stojakovic said. “Basketball is a religion. When I started to coach, I was thinking about that (goal).”

Northwest Notes: Lillard, Nuggets’ Staff, Murray

September 11th, 2023 at 7:10pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Talks between the Heat and Trail Blazers regarding a potential Damian Lillard trade should resume sometime before training camp, The Athletic’s Shams Charania said during “The Rally” TV show (video link).

Lillard remains intent on getting traded to Miami, if he’s dealt. Charania expressed doubt that Lillard would even report to camp if he’s traded to a team other than the Heat.

“I’m told that that the only training camps Damian Lillard would report to are Portland and Miami,” Charania said.

Of course, that could be just posturing in the hopes of going to his desired destination. Media day for training camps is scheduled on Oct. 2 with camps slated to begin in Oct. 3.

We have more from the Northwest Division:

After winning a championship, Nuggets coach Michael Malone is content to run it back — at least in terms of his staff. There are no anticipated changes to the coaching staff, TheDNVR.com’s Harrison Wind reports. That group includes David Adelman, former Minnesota head coach Ryan Saunders, Popeye Jones, Charles Klask, Ognjen Stojakovic, Boniface N’Dong and Connor Griffin.
A New York Times’ story from Tania Ganguli discusses the friendship between Nuggets guard Jamal Murray and Alexander Volkanovski, the U.F.C.’s featherweight champion. “I’m a Nuggets guy now purely because of our connection,” Volkanovski said.
In case you missed it, the Trail Blazers are reportedly adding center Duop Reath to their roster. Get the details here.