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Turkey, Germany Advance To EuroBasket Quarterfinals

September 6th, 2025 at 11:59am CST by Rory Maher

After trailing by a slim margin for the majority of the game, Turkey eventually defeated Sweden, 85-79, to advance to the quarterfinals of EuroBasket 2025, writes Semih Tuna of Eurohoops. The game was surprisingly competitive, considering Sweden went just 1-4 during the group phase while Turkey was 5-0, including Wednesday’s victory over Serbia.

Rockets big man Alperen Sengun was once again the standout performer for the Turkish national team, recording game highs of 24 points and 16 rebounds to go along with six assists and two blocks. Heat wing Pelle Larsson finished with 15 points, four rebounds, four assists and a steal in Sweden’s loss.

Head coach Ergin Ataman complained both before and after the game about Turkey having to compete at noon local time despite being the top seed from Group A, as Tuna relays in another story for Eurohoops.

“We didn’t wake up for the beginning of the game. After we understood we were in a difficult situation, in the third quarter, and came back in the game with very good defense, but we gave back this confidence to Sweden,” Ataman said. “Finally, we found a way to win. Now, we will think about the quarterfinal, which I think we will play in regular time, if they don’t want to change again and play in the morning at 11 o’clock.”

Turkey will face the winner of tomorrow’s matchup between Poland and Bosnia-Herzegovina in the quarterfinals on Tuesday.

Germany, which won the 2023 World Cup, was the only other undefeated team during the group phase and is the top seed from Group B. The Germans struggled mightily from three-point range on Saturday against Portugal, starting out just 1-of-24 before finishing 10-of-36, and only had a one-point lead entering the final period, according to Tuna.

However, Germany dominated the final frame, 33-7, to emerge with a 27-point victory.

“Obviously, you can improve in every game. I saw the first game with Sweden; they gave a great fight to Turkey, like Portugal gave a great fight to us,” said AS Monaco center Daniel Theis. “It’s the knockout stage. There are no easy games anymore.”

The German national team had five players — including Dennis Schröder, Franz Wagner, Tristan Da Silva and Isaac Bonga — finish with double-digit points. Portugal was led by Celtics center Neemias Queta, who finished with game highs of 18 points and 11 rebounds in 27 minutes.

Germany will face the winner of Sunday’s matchup between Italy and Slovenia on Wednesday.

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Heat Notes: Riley, EuroBasket, Fontecchio, Jovic, Ware

September 3rd, 2025 at 10:16pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

With Heat owner Micky Arison set to be inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame this weekend and team president Pat Riley among the prior honorees slated to present him, Riley reflected on his 30 years with the organization, per Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald.

“Micky and I had that kind of relationship back and forth, but always positive about what we’re trying to do,” Riley said. “If he didn’t like something, he would tell me, ‘I don’t think we should go that way,’ and I wouldn’t go that way. If he said, ‘Go for it. Damn right, let’s go for it,’ we had the same mentality.

“But if you don’t take a risk — a big-three type risk [signing free agent All-Stars LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh in 2010], Lamar Odom type risk or Shaquille O’Neal type risk or Jimmy Butler type risk or whatever it is — then you’re too afraid and there’s a fear of failure there,” Riley continued. “So when you make a calculated risk, he has made a lot of them with me — some of them haven’t worked, some of them have worked big time.” 

With Riley running its front office, Miami has made a total of seven NBA Finals, winning three championships.

There’s more out of Miami:

  • While playing for their respective national teams at EuroBasket this year, Heat role players Nikola Jovic, Pelle Larsson and Simone Fontecchio are all showing out in larger roles than they’ve had in Miami so far. Still, Ira Winderman of The South Florida Sun Sentinel cautions that their production shouldn’t necessarily indicate that they’re capable of taking a leap with the Heat in 2025/26.
  • There had been “strong rumbles” last month that the Heat were looking into trading Fontecchio, according to Marc Stein of The Stein Line (Substack link). Stein notes that this buzz happened before Miami traded Haywood Highsmith to Brooklyn. Now that the Heat find themselves below the league’s luxury tax following the Highsmith deal, there is likely little urgency to offload Fontecchio.
  • With Jovic playing an outsized role for his native Serbia in EuroBasket, Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald considers whether Miami would be served better by starting the young forward in the frontcourt next to Bam Adebayo over center Kel’el Ware. Jackson notes that shifting Adebayo to the four spot while starting Ware at the five last year proved statistically more effective than keeping Adebayo at center and starting Jovic.
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Portugal, Sweden Qualify For EuroBasket Knockout Round

September 3rd, 2025 at 3:43pm CST by Luke Adams

The group-play stage of EuroBasket wrapped up for the teams in Group A and Group B on Wednesday. Those clubs concluded their initial five-game schedules as the two round-of-16 spots still up for grabs in Groups A and B were claimed by Portgual and Sweden, respectively.

Portugal eked out a 68-65 victory over Estonia in a win-or-go-home matchup in Group A, eliminating the Estonians. Point guard Rafael Lisboa (17 points, five assists) and Celtics big man Neemias Queta (15 points) led the way for Portugal, though Queta was ejected with 4:34 left in the third quarter after picking up his second technical foul, as Brian Robb of MassLive.com details. The Portuguese team lost its slim lead following Queta’s exit, but managed to pull back in front during a back-and-forth fourth quarter.

In Group B, Montenegro missed its chance to qualify for the round of 16 by falling to Great Britain, resulting in both teams finishing the group stage with an 1-4 record. Sweden, which lost a tight 74-71 contest to Lithuania on Wednesday, also went 1-4, but earned the tiebreaker over Montenegro and Great Britain by virtue of their point differential. Heat forward Pelle Larsson has been the standout for Sweden so far, averaging a team-high 19.8 points per game across four outings.

[RELATED: Nikola Vucevic Retires From Montenegrin National Team]

The final standings for Groups A and B are now set, which means the first four matchups in the single-elimination stage are set too. The top team in Group A will play the fourth-place team in Group B, the second-place Group A team faces the third-place Group B squad, and so on.

As a result of Turkey knocking off Serbia to claim the top spot in Group A, the round-of-16 matchups played on Saturday will be as follows:

  • Turkey (A1) vs. Sweden (B4)
  • Serbia (A2) vs. Finland (B3)
  • Latvia (A3) vs. Lithuania (B2)
  • Portugal (A4) vs. Germany (B1)

FIBA has announced Saturday tip-off times for all four matchups.

Groups C and D will wrap up their group-stage schedule on Thursday. Two spots in the round of 16 are still available in Group C, where only Greece (3-1) and Italy (3-1) have qualified so far. Spain (2-2) would advance with a win over Greece, while the winner of the Georgia (2-2) vs. Bosnia and Herzegovina (2-2) will also clinch a spot in the knockout round.

If Greece wins on Thursday, the Spaniards would need a Georgia victory in order to advance — in that scenario, both Spain and Bosnia and Herzeogvina would be 2-3, and Spain would hold the head-to-head tiebreaker. Georgia holds the tiebreaker edge over Spain.

All four teams who will advance out of Group D are already known: Israel (3-1), Poland (3-1), France (3-1), and Slovenia (2-2) have clinched their spots. However, seeding remains in flux, with Thursday’s Israel vs. Slovenia showdown looming as a crucial matchup.

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Heat Notes: Stretch Provision, Rozier, Jovic, Fontecchio, Larsson

August 30th, 2025 at 10:58am CST by Dana Gauruder

The Heat could have created more flexibility below the luxury tax line for the upcoming season by using the waive-and-stretch provision, but they passed on that option prior to Friday’s deadline, Anthony Chiang of the Miami Herald notes.

The most obvious candidate would have been Terry Rozier, as his contract carries a $26.7MM cap hit. The Heat could have stretched that to $8.9MM over each the next three seasons. However, there was no real urgency to take that route once they traded Haywood Highsmith to the Nets.

Miami is approximately $1.7MM under the luxury tax threshold and around $7.2MM below the first apron. The Heat have 15 players signed to standard deals, including one training camp contract, but only 12 have fully guaranteed salaries, as our roster counts display.

Here’s more on the Heat:

  • Speaking of Rozier, it’s unlikely he’ll be part of the rotation if he remains on the roster, according to Ira Winderman of the Sun Sentinel. The Heat will likely go with younger players like Pelle Larsson, Jaime Jaquez Jr. and/or rookie Kasparas Jakucionis off the bench, rather than Rozier. The veteran could find his way into the mix if one of their wing scorers gets injured, suggests Winderman.
  • Nikola Jovic had another solid outing in the EuroBasket tournament on Friday. He made all six of his field goal attempts while scoring 18 points during Serbia’s win over Portugal, Chiang tweets. Jovic added six rebounds in 31 minutes.
  • Simone Fontecchio, acquired from Detroit in the Duncan Robinson sign-and-trade, continued to struggle for Italy in its win over Georgia on Saturday. Fontecchio scored four points on 1-for-11 shooting in Italy’s opening game in EuroBasket. In Italy’s second tournament game, Fontecchio scored 14 points but missed all five of his three-point attempts and committed six turnovers, Chiang relays (Twitter link).
  • Larsson missed Sweden’s second EuroBasket game on Friday due to an illness but quickly bounced back. Larsson had 23 points on 8-of-17 shooting, four rebounds, two assists and two steals with five turnovers in a 78-59 victory over Great Britain on Saturday, Winderman tweets.
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Heat Notes: Jovic, Larsson, Fontecchio, Dragic

August 28th, 2025 at 5:49pm CST by Luke Adams

Heat forward Nikola Jovic got off to an excellent start at the EuroBasket tournament in Latvia on Wednesday, as Ira Winderman of The South Florida Sun Sentinel writes. Jovic was Serbia’s leading scorer – with 18 points on 6-of-8 shooting – and was an eye-popping plus-36 in just 16 minutes of action in a blowout victory over Estonia.

As impressive as Jovic was a scorer and shooter (3-of-4 on three-pointers), his passing was perhaps even more noteworthy — he racked up six assists while committing just one turnover. The 22-year-old has averaged 2.2 assists per game in 107 regular season outings through three NBA seasons.

A pair of Jovic’s Heat teammates who are also competing at EuroBasket weren’t as productive in their respective 2025 debuts. Pelle Larsson battled foul trouble and scored just 10 points while missing all four of his three-point tries in Sweden’s loss to Finland on Wednesday. On Thursday, Simone Fontecchio made just 1-of-11 shots from the field and was a minus-11 across 34 minutes in Italy’s nine-point loss to Greece.

We have more on the Heat:

  • In a mailbag for The Sun Sentinel, Winderman explores the Heat’s expectations and projected roles for Jovic and Larsson in 2025/26, suggesting that Jovic will likely be a top frontcourt reserve while Larsson would be doing well to show he can be a “quality ninth man.”
  • Although former Heat point guard Goran Dragic may one day take on a more formal role with the club, there’s no indication that he’s joining Erik Spoelstra‘s coaching staff at this point, despite social media posts that showed him in attendance at practice, Winderman writes for The Sun Sentinel. For now, it appears Dragic is just informally “looking to pass on knowledge to the next generation,” including rookie point guard Kasparas Jakucionis, Winderman explains.
  • With the deadline for teams to use the stretch provision on 2025/26 salaries now less than 24 hours away, Anthony Chiang of the Miami Herald hears from a league source that the Heat are “leaning against” stretching anyone’s salary on Thursday or Friday. A waive-and-stretch move likely would’ve received more serious consideration if Miami hadn’t moved under the luxury tax line by trading Haywood Highsmith to Brooklyn earlier this month.
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28 Current NBA Players Competing In FIBA EuroBasket 2025

August 27th, 2025 at 7:07am CST by Luke Adams

On the heels of the FIBA World Cup in 2023 and the Paris Olympics in 2024, the 2025 NBA offseason doesn’t feature a major international tournament in which the United States’ top stars are competing.

However, several of the league’s biggest names – including three-time Most Valuable Player Nikola Jokic, two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo, and five-time All-NBA first-teamer Luka Doncic – are taking part in FIBA EuroBasket 2025, which tipped off on Wednesday.

The tournament, also known as the European Basketball Championship, takes place every four years and features 24 European countries vying for a gold medal. The 24 teams who qualified for EuroBasket are split up into four groups and will face the other teams in their group across five games from August 27 to September 4.

At the end of group play, the top four teams from each group will advance to the knockout round, which is a single-elimination tournament featuring the remaining 16 countries.

By our count, 28 active NBA players are taking part in EuroBasket 2025, along with 30 former NBA players and several more who were selected in an NBA draft but have yet to play in the league.

Here’s the full list of current and former NBA players set to compete in EuroBasket, sorted by group and country:

Group A

Czechia (Czech Republic)

  • Current NBA players: Vit Krejci (Hawks)
  • Former NBA players: None

Estonia

  • Current NBA players: None
  • Former NBA players: Henri Drell

Latvia

Portugal

  • Current NBA players: Neemias Queta (Celtics)
  • Former NBA players: None

Serbia

Serbia’s roster also includes Nikola Milutinov and Vanja Marinkovic, who are former NBA draft picks but have never played in the league.

Turkey

Group B

Finland

Germany

Great Britain

Lithuania

Lithuania’s roster also includes Rokas Jokubaitis, a former NBA draft pick who has never played in the league, and Azuolas Tubelis, who was on a two-way contract with the Sixers during the 2023 offseason but was waived before the season began.

Montenegro

Sweden

  • Current NBA players: Pelle Larsson (Heat)
  • Former NBA players: None

Group C

Bosnia and Herzegovina

  • Current NBA players: Jusuf Nurkic (Jazz)
  • Former NBA players: None

Cyprus

  • Current NBA players: None
  • Former NBA players: None

Georgia

Greece

Italy

Italy’s roster also includes Matteo Spagnolo, Gabriele Procida, and Saliou Niang, who are former NBA draft picks but have never played in the league.

Spain

Group D

Belgium

  • Current NBA players: None
  • Former NBA players: None

France

France’s roster also includes Isaia Cordinier, a former NBA draft pick who has never played in the league.

Iceland

  • Current NBA players: None
  • Former NBA players: None

Israel

  • Current NBA players: Deni Avdija (Trail Blazers)
  • Former NBA players: None

Israel’s roster also includes Yam Madar, a former NBA draft pick who has never played in the league.

Poland

  • Current NBA players: None
  • Former NBA players: Jordan Loyd

Slovenia

  • Current NBA players: Luka Doncic (Lakers)
  • Former NBA players: None
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EuroBasket Notes: Cyprus, Players To Watch, Celtics, Heat, Top Matchups

August 26th, 2025 at 1:01pm CST by Luke Adams

Cyprus, which will be competing in EuroBasket for the first time ever this year, announced its 12-man roster for the event on Monday, as FIBA relays. Cyprus’ national team doesn’t feature any current or former NBA players, but the group includes former Wichita State big man Darral Willis, up-and-coming point guard Filippos Tigkas, and sharpshooter Konstantinos Simitzis, who was the squad’s leading scorer in the qualifiers.

Competing in Group C, Cyprus will begin its group-play games on Thursday against Bosnia and Herzegovina before taking on Greece, Spain, Georgia, and Italy.

Here’s more on EuroBasket 2025, which will tip off on Wednesday:

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Heat EuroBasket Notes: Jovic, Spoelstra, Larsson, Fontecchio

August 24th, 2025 at 6:02pm CST by Eli Cohen

The Heat should have several prominent roles available for the taking this fall. While Tyler Herro, Andrew Wiggins, and Bam Adebayo all seem to have their starting spots locked up and Davion Mitchell and Kel’el Ware made strong cases for themselves last season, there are still plenty of regular minutes in the rotation to be won.

Nikola Jovic could get a head start on staking his claim during this summer’s EuroBasket competition, writes Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun Sentinel.

Winderman writes that head coach Erik Spoelstra wants to see Jovic step into a leadership role as one of the Serbian team’s leading men.

Last season, Jovic saw his responsibilities dip as Ware came on strong. The Serbian forward started just 10 games after making 38 starts the season before, though he was still productive, averaging 10.7 points, 3.9 rebounds, and 2.8 assists while shooting 37.1% from three. A strong EuroBasket could help Jovic hit the ground running next season and carve out a key role with the Heat.

In a recent exhibition win against Slovenia, Jovic scored 18 points on 7-8 shooting with Spoelstra in attendance.

We have more from the Heat’s EuroBasket players:

  • Speaking of Spoelstra, the Heat head coach has been on a European tour, checking in on his international players, Winderman writes in a separate article. Prior to watching Jovic help lead Serbia to a 34-point victory over Luka Doncic‘s Slovenian squad, Spoelstra dropped in on Pelle Larsson as Larsson and the Swedish squad battled Estonia.
  • EuroBasket offers Larsson a chance to spread his wings and show his complete skill set to the Heat, who already like the approach he takes to the game. “What he does are the things that we value,” Spoelstra said of Larsson, per Winderman. “He’s so tough. He makes winning plays. He’s a great role player. He fits around guys, the best players. And he will continue to get better, because he has a great work ethic.” Spoelstra has been interested in watching how the second-year guard fares as a ball-handler, but declined to put Larsson in a box as far as his role, citing the variety of ways in which the 6’5″ wing can impact the game. Winderman adds that Spoelstra’s comments seemed to indicate that Larsson had already won himself a role in the rotation for this coming season.
  • EuroBasket is also a chance for new addition Simone Fontecchio to bounce back and show what he can bring to the Heat after he followed up a strong 2023/24 performance with a disappointing ’24/25 in Detroit. With the long-tenured Duncan Robinson heading to the Pistons this offseason, Winderman notes that there’s hope Fontecchio can get back to the 40% three-point shooter he was two years ago in an effort to replace some of what Miami lost.
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Heat Notes: Star Duo, Jovic, Larsson, Fontecchio

July 27th, 2025 at 5:02pm CST by Eli Cohen

If this season goes poorly, it could lead to an internal examination of the Heat‘s longest-tenured pairing, writes Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.

In an offseason mailbag, Winderman says the entire organization, including head coach Erik Spoelstra, understands that the team’s performance during the last two years – including back-to-back No. 8 seeds and pair of first-round playoff exits – is not to the franchise’s lofty standards.

Jimmy Butler‘s impact on those outcomes can’t be overlooked, but Winderman also suggests that the coming season could be “make-or-break” for theTyler Herro/Bam Adebayo duo.

Herro had a career year last season, averaging personal highs in points (23.9) and assists (5.5) per game while making his first All-Star team, but that coincided with Adebayo posting his lowest scoring year since the 2019/20 season. Most importantly, it didn’t lead the team to wins — Miami had a 37-45 regular season record, its worst mark in a decade.

Winderman notes in his mailbag that the trade for Norman Powell was a win-now move designed to bring in more reliable offense, and that there will be expectations for the team to show signs of growth in the first full season of the post-Butler era.

We have more from the Heat:

  • Nikola Jovic understands the Heat are taking a risk by allowing him to represent Serbia in this year’s EuroBasket tournament and is grateful for both the opportunity and the precedent set by former Miami guard Goran Dragic, writes Winderman. “You’re letting someone play for their country, paying them a lot of money, and they’re important to you,” Jovic said. “An injury would definitely be a setback for them. But, by chance, and to my great fortune, I’m part of the Miami team that had Goran Dragic.” The Heat expressed that Dragic always came back from international tournaments a better player, a pronouncement which gives Jovic confidence in himself and his development. The fourth-year forward is expected to play a large role with the Serbian team, which won the bronze medal at the 2023 World Cup, and he hopes that will help him solidify a more consistent role with the Heat. “This way, I enter the new NBA season already in game rhythm. I just keep going,” he said.
  • Also set to participate in EuroBasket is Heat shooting guard Pelle Larsson, who will represent Sweden not long after playing for Miami in Summer League. Winderman isn’t worried about the workload for Larsson, especially since the team let him out of his summer duties four days early to join the Swedes. Rather than being nervous about the grind of going from Summer League to EuroBasket to training camp, the Heat are excited to see what the 24-year-old can do as a leading man in the games, Winderman writes.
  • Simone Fontecchio has arrived in Folgaria, in northern Italy, to join the Italian EuroBasket squad, writes Michele Nespoli of Sportando. However, he will be unable to start training with them until Wednesday, July 30, as stipulated by the NBA’s regulations in regards to FIBA competition. Fontecchio has chosen to report to the team early to be in closer communication with them, as he did in 2023.
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Heat Notes: Rozier, Ware, Larsson, Powell

July 16th, 2025 at 4:10pm CST by Luke Adams

Within a larger investigation into Malik Beasley and the Jontay Porter betting scandal, Tom Haberstroh stated during an episode of Pablo Torre Finds Out (YouTube link) that Heat guard Terry Rozier has not yet been cleared by federal investigators as part of their probe into illegal sports betting.

As we relayed last month, ESPN’s Shams Charania seemed to suggest during a segment on The Pat McAfee Show that Rozier had been cleared, but it was a vaguely worded passing remark on a live show rather than a concrete report, so it doesn’t come as a huge surprise that it wasn’t quite accurate.

NBA insider Chris Haynes confirmed Haberstroh’s reporting, tweeting that Rozier remains under federal investigation and hasn’t yet been cleared of any wrongdoing.

Rozier continued to play for Miami last season while that investigation was ongoing and remains under contract for one more season. He’ll make about $26.64MM on his expiring deal in 2025/26.

Here’s more on the Heat:

  • After responding to Erik Spoelstra‘s criticism with a strong performance in Sunday’s Summer League game vs. Cleveland, Heat big man Kel’el Ware had another impressive outing on Monday vs. Boston, with 21 points and 15 rebounds. “It’s just something that I got to bring every day and like I said, ‘I will,'” Ware said after the game, per Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald. “… When I do it, it’s more of a presence that’s being felt out there. I just got to bring it, that’s it. Plain and simple.”
  • Second-year Heat guard Pelle Larsson left Las Vegas after Monday’s game to join the Swedish national team ahead of next month’s EuroBasket tournament, according to Chiang. Larsson was one of the team’s most effective players in Las Vegas, averaging 18.0 points and 3.7 assists per game while getting some reps as a primary ball-handler. “We were trying to grow his game,” Heat Summer League coach Eric Glass said on Monday. “We want him to still be the defensive stopper and role player on offense, but we gave him the ball and it gave him a much higher usage rate, obviously. It was a good experience for him. There were games when he was really good, games that there’s stuff on film now that we can teach him on things to do. But you can’t duplicate these kinds of reps in games. So we were really happy for that.”
  • New Heat guard Norman Powell has said he grew up idolizing Dwyane Wade and rooting for the Heat. Wade reciprocated that appreciation by praising Miami’s acquisition of Powell, as Chiang relays in a story for The Herald. “He’s just a great competitor out there on that floor, man,” Wade said of Powell. “That’s what Miami loves, Miami loves competitors and Norman Powell is that. So that’s another step in the direction that you want to see Miami turn to to get this thing right back on track and not go too far away from it. So that’s a good one.”
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