Tony Snell

International Notes: Snell, Galloway, Andrews, 2028 Olympics

Veteran NBA wing Tony Snell is heading to Europe for the first time in his lengthy professional career, having signed a contract with Boulazac Basket Dordogne, the French team announced in a press release.

A renowned shooter and defender in the NBA for nine seasons, Tony Snell arrives with the firm intention of passing on to his teammates his love for the game and his thirst for victory,” head coach Alexandre Menard said (hat tip to Eurohoops).

As Boulazac’s coach noted, Snell spent nine years in the NBA, averaging 6.1 points and 2.3 rebounds while shooting 39.4% from three-point range in 601 regular season contests, including 310 starts (21.8 minutes per game). The 33-year-old guard/forward last suited up for New Orleans during the 2021/22 campaign.

Snell has spent the past three seasons in the NBA G League playing for the Maine Celtics and the Sioux Falls Skyforce, Miami’s affiliate. He also represented Team USA for a pair of FIBA AmeriCup qualifying games last fall.

Boulazac, also known as BBD, was promoted to France’s top domestic league (LNB Élite) for 2025/26 after finishing in first place during the LNB Pro B’s regular season in ’24/25.

Here are a few more international notes:

  • After winning a gold medal with Australia during the FIBA Asia Cup, former Bucks two-way guard/forward Jaylin Galloway is hoping his strong play during the tournament — he was named MVP — will help him get back to the league, writes Olgun Uluc of ESPN.com. The 22-year-old wing, who plays for the NBL’s Sydney Kings, missed extended time last season due to a shoulder injury, but he averaged 15.7 PPG while shooting a remarkable 18-of-28 (64.3%) from long distance in six Asia Cup games. “I’m hoping the next step is getting back to the NBA,” Galloway told ESPN. “It was a tough little rough patch for me, but it’s been good to come back and get my mind right. [Sydney head coach Brian Goorjian] has been helping me a lot, we’ve been working really hard in the offseason. So, the next step is getting back to the NBA.”
  • Former G League guard Andrew Andrews, who has spent the past several seasons playing in Europe, replaced Elijah Pemberton on Team USA’s roster for the AmeriCup tournament, tweets Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press. Pemberton withdrew from the roster after signing an international contract, Reynolds notes. The 12-team tournament began yesterday in Managua, Nicaragua.
  • Basketball at the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles is scheduled to tip off on July 12, 2028, two days before the opening ceremony, FIBA recently announced. The Associated Press has the story.

And-Ones: Inside The NBA, Snell, Motley, Bledsoe, Draft

As expected, the NBA and Warner Bros. Discovery officially announced on Monday that they’ve settled their months-long legal battle, with Disney and WBD essentially making a trade of programming rights. TNT’s popular “Inside the NBA” studio show will air on ESPN/ABC beginning in 2025, while TNT will get the rights to broadcast 13 Big 12 football games and 15 Big 12 basketball games per season.

Andrew Marchand of The Athletic explores the role that ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro, who reached out directly to Luis Silberwasser of TNT Sports, played in the deal.

Meanwhile, Jimmy Traina of SI.com notes that one roadblock remains before “Inside the NBA” makes the move to Disney — Shaquille O’Neal‘s contract expires on July 1, 2025 and will need to be renewed. According to Traina, O’Neal wants to remain with the long-running program, but has been frustrated by announcements celebrating that the show will go on unchanged while his own future is still up in the air.

A source tells Marchand that O’Neal is ultimately expected to remain with “Inside the NBA,” though Traina notes that the former NBA MVP could explore other options with NBC or Amazon before ultimately deciding whether or not to stay put.

Here are more odds and ends from around the basketball world:

  • Veteran swingman Tony Snell has replaced Keita Bates-Diop on the Team USA roster for the upcoming FIBA AmeriCup qualifying games, tweets Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press. The U.S. squad will play two games in Washington, D.C. during this month’s qualifier window, hosting Puerto Rico on November 22 and the Bahamas on November 25.
  • After recently leaving Hapoel Tel Aviv in Israel due to concerns about his safety, former Mavericks and Clippers big man Johnathan Motley is signing a G League contract, according Jake Fischer of Bleacher Report (Twitter link), who says Motley has drawn some NBA interest from teams in need of frontcourt depth. Aris Barkas of Eurohoops has more on Motley, whose decision to leave Hapoel Tel Aviv was a unilateral one that could result in the team initiating legal proceedings.
  • Former NBA guard Eric Bledsoe is returning to the Shanghai Sharks, the Chinese team with whom he has spent the past two seasons, according to Dario Skerletic of Sportando. Bledsoe, who will turn 35 next month, has appeared in 756 regular season NBA games but has been out of the league since he was waived by Portland in July 2022.
  • Jonathan Wasserman of Bleacher Report has updated his 2025 NBA mock draft now that NCAA teams have a few games under their belts. The most notable update near the top of Wasserman’s board is at No. 4, with BYU’s Egor Demin moving into that spot on the heels of his strong start. The 6’9″ guard is averaging 17.0 points, 7.5 assists, and 2.3 steals per game in his first four outings, with a shooting line of .634/.550/.500.

Heat Notes: Herro, Haslem, Burks, Adebayo, Richardson, Skyforce

Udonis Haslem, who holds a position with the Heat as their vice president of basketball development, said in an appearance on ESPN’s NBA Today in May that he believes Tyler Herro should come off the bench for the club, then reiterated that point in a September interview. Speaking to Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald, Herro admitted that he spoke to Haslem about those comments.

“We had a conversation about it,” Herro said. “It was a friendly conversation. I told him my concerns about why I didn’t think he should have said that. He explained why he thought he should have said that. At the end of the day, it’s basketball. Our relationship is bigger than basketball. If he thinks I should start, that’s cool. If he thinks I should come off the bench, that’s his opinion. Everyone has their own. It’s cool. It’s really no big deal.”

Head coach Erik Spoelstra hasn’t taken Haslem’s advice this fall, having made Herro part of his starting lineup for each of the Heat’s first three games. Asked if he’s happy to still be a starter, Herro expressed appreciation for Spoelstra’s decision, as Jackson relays.

“I was hoping to be a starter, so yeah,” he said. “I thought I should start. I don’t think it’s even really a conversation anymore. It’s a narrative people create around me. I’m a starter in the NBA. I’m a team guy. I would love to come off the bench if that’s what was needed. But I’m a starter. It doesn’t take away from anything else that I bring, which is I’m a great teammate. I love seeing other guys have success.”

Here’s more on the Heat ahead of Wednesday’s game vs. New York:

  • It’s unclear how much offseason addition Alec Burks, who was a DNP-CD in the Heat’s first game last Wednesday, will play this season, but Spoelstra likes having the veteran swingman around. Miami’s head coach called Burks “such a pro” after he made three 3-pointers in 25 minutes off the bench on Saturday vs. Charlotte. “You hear that term tossed around so much in our league, but he is a pro’s pro,” Spoelstra said, per Ira Winderman of The South Florida Sun Sentinel (subscription required). “He’s professional, he’s ready, he stays prepared, he’s smart, he knows how to fit in and he’s got a great skill set, too. “He can knock down open shots. He gets to open gaps. But he also can handle the ball. So he can be a secondary handler for you. And he’s big, so defensively he fits into the things that we do.”
  • Honored this week with a statue outside Kaseya Center, former Heat guard Dwyane Wade made it clear that he continues to view Bam Adebayo as the next long-time face of the franchise and a torch-bearer for “Heat culture,” writes Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald.
  • After recovering from shoulder and heel injuries, Heat guard Josh Richardson was active on Monday for the first time this season, but didn’t see any action. Now he’s back on the injury report, according to Chiang, who tweets that the Heat are listing Richardson as questionable due to a left calf strain.
  • The Sioux Falls Skyforce, Miami’s G League affiliate, officially announced a training camp roster that includes former first-round pick Nassir Little and nine-year NBA veteran Tony Snell.

And-Ones: 2025 Draft, Snell, G League, Garuba, Parker

The 2025 draft class is stronger at the top than 2024’s class was, according to Jonathan Givony of ESPN (Insider link), but there still isn’t a clear-cut No. 1 pick in this group like there was in 2023 with Victor Wembanyama.

Cooper Flagg has long been viewed as the best bet to be next year’s top pick, but that’s not yet a lock, Givony writes, putting the odds of the Duke forward coming off the board first at just slightly above 50%. Rutgers wing Ace Bailey is Flagg’s top competition at this point, per Givony, who has Bailey’s odds of going No. 1 at 25%. Rutgers guard Dylan Harper, Baylor guard VJ Edgecombe, and French guard Nolan Traore are also in the mix for the first overall spot, Givony adds.

“I’m going into this year with an open mind about who the No. 1 pick might be,” one NBA executive told ESPN. “This is how mistakes are made: getting anchored to an opinion and then closing yourself off to new, much more important information that we’ll be receiving in the coming months seeing how the season plays out.

“I need to see if Cooper Flagg is indeed a No. 1-type offensive option who can be expected to carry a team at some point in his career, or if he’s more of a superstar role player who is better suited as your second- or third-best player. Every year there are surprises, new players pop up and others take an unexpected leap.”

Mock drafts from last fall illustrate that potential for in-season surprises. ESPN’s November 2023 mock had Isaiah Collier first overall, Ja’Kobe Walter fourth, and Reed Sheppard 25th — they were eventually drafted 29th, 19th, and third, respectively.

Here are more odds and ends from around the basketball world:

  • Nine-year NBA veteran Tony Snell, who last played in the NBA during the 2021/22 season, will join the Sioux Falls Skyforce in the G League this fall, tweets Michael Scotto of HoopsHype. The Heat‘s affiliate will need to acquire Snell’s returning rights from the Maine Celtics, the team he played for last season. Snell won’t be signed to Miami’s preseason roster at all, notes Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald (Twitter link).
  • The Rio Grande Valley Vipers (Rockets) traded Jarrett Culver‘s G League returning rights to the Osceola Magic in exchange for Jared Butler‘s rights, per the Vipers (Twitter link). Culver is with Orlando on an Exhibit 10 contract, so it appears he’ll play for the Magic’s G League team this season. Butler remains under contract with the Wizards and would need to be waived and sign an NBAGL contract for Houston’s affiliate to take advantage of his rights.
  • Speaking to Eurohoops’ Javier Molero and Alex Molina, respectively, former NBAers Usman Garuba and Jabari Parker expressed that they’re comfortable no longer playing in the league. Garuba, who returned to Real Madrid this summer after three seasons with Houston and Golden State, said his NBA experience wasn’t quite what he expected and that he’d be “more selfish” if he were doing it all over again. “I left as a kid and grew up,” said Garuba, the 23rd overall pick in the 2021 draft. “I had a lot of ups and downs and learned a lot of lessons over there. I got traded, I got cut, I saw a lot of things, the dark side of the business. I think that made me mature a lot as a player.”

And-Ones: Snell, Cureton, Allen, Trade Market

Tony Snell was unable to find an NBA team to sign him heading into the weekend, Jake Fischer of Yahoo Sports reports.

Snell had a February 2 deadline to sign a contract for the remainder of the season. That would have allowed him to accrue a 10th year of service for the Players Association’s retiree benefits program, which would cover healthcare for his whole family. He has two young sons who have been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder.

Multiple teams would have signed Snell to a 10-day contract if that was all that was required to satisfy Snell’s 10th season, Fischer adds. However, the criteria for accruing a year of service is stricter for the retiree benefits plan — a player needs to play at least 50% of the season’s games or sign a rest-of-season contract by Feb. 2.

Snell, who is currently playing the NBA G League’s Maine Celtics, did not play in an NBA game last season.

We have more from around the basketball world:

  • Former NBA player and Pistons community ambassador Earl Cureton died unexpectedly on Sunday morning at the age of 66, the Pistons’ PR department tweets. A 12-year NBA veteran, Cureton was part of two championship teams — the Sixers in 1982/83 and the Rockets in 1993/94. Cureton also played three seasons with the Pistons and spent time with the Bulls, Clippers, Hornets and Raptors.
  • Jerome Allen will be the head coach for the USA AmeriCup qualifying team for its February games against Cuba, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski tweets. He replaces Dave Joerger, who returned to the NBA as a Bucks assistant under Doc Rivers. The USA team is looking to qualify for the 2025 FIBA AmeriCup. Allen had been an assistant with the Pistons the past two seasons.
  • There’s increased speculation that this year’s trade deadline will be relatively quiet, according to Mark Medina in a Sportsnaut.com story. Medina notes that many of the big names on the trade market before and during the season have already been moved. It’s unlikely any star players will be traded and a majority of teams don’t have a lot of incentive to make a bold move before the offseason.

And-Ones: Dumars, Silver, 2024 Draft, Hill, Snell

In an interview with Vincent Goodwill of Yahoo Sports, NBA executive vice president Joe Dumars said that while he has sympathy for injured players, such as Joel Embiid and Tyrese Haliburton, who may miss out on postseason awards due to the 65-game requirement, he noted the rule was collectively bargained and approved by the National Basketball Players’ Association last year.

You’re always gonna have unintended consequences, that’s the first thing,” Dumars told Yahoo Sports. “The second thing, you kind of knew that the first couple of guys that were going to get close to that mark, it will become an issue. So it probably was going to become a talking point at some point. It could’ve been a month from now. The number is what the number is. I’m not surprised, (though).

Dumars also said the NBA has been talking to coaches, general managers and the competition committee about the rise in scoring over the past decade.

The question is posed to each one of those groups: Is the balance out of whack? Do we need to balance this more to allow defenses to defend more, to do more on the defensive end of the court? And by and large, people are saying it wouldn’t be bad to have a little bit more defense,” Dumars said.

Here’s more from around the basketball world:

  • The Ringer’s staff listed what they view as the 15 biggest challenges facing NBA commissioner Adam Silver over his next 10 years in office. Silver recently signed a contract extension that will keep him in charge of the league office through the rest of the decade. Perhaps the biggest challenge? According to Howard Beck, that will be finding the next “face of the league” when LeBron James and Stephen Curry retire.
  • Jonathan Givony of ESPN (subscriber link) recently released an in-depth notebook from a 10-day scouting trip across Europe, with potential 2024 No. 1 pick Zaccharie Risacher among the players covered. At 6’10”, Risacher possesses a tantalizing blend of two-way skills and has excellent basketball instincts, according to Givony, who says the French 18-year-old has an “incredibly high floor” due to his “confidence, productivity and efficiency” while also having considerable upside.
  • Grant Hill, a Hall of Fame player who is currently managing director of USA Basketball as well as a minority owner of the Hawks, is among a group of noteworthy investors who have agreed to buy the MLB’s Baltimore Orioles, per The Associated Press (link via ESPN.com). Longtime Orioles star Cal Ripken Jr. is another investor in the team. Hill has ties to the area, as he’s from northern Virginia, not far from Washington D.C.
  • Jake Fischer of Yahoo Sports explains why former NBA wing Tony Snell has family and health reasons for wanting to make it back to the league. Snell needs one more year of service (10) to qualify for the union’s premium medical insurance plan for families; he’s currently the only one covered, but he has two sons with autism spectrum disorder (Snell is also on the spectrum). The 32-year-old has spent the past two seasons with the Maine Celtics, Boston’s G League affiliate.

Warriors To Work Out Six Veteran Free Agents

The Warriors are working out numerous veteran free agents over the next two weeks, The Athletic’s Shams Charania and Anthony Slater report (Twitter link).

That group includes Dion Waiters, Tony Snell, Kent Bazemore, Juan Toscano-Anderson, Harry Giles and Trey Burke. The Warriors have two vacancies on their 15-man roster and a camp competition is expected among several candidates, Slater tweets.

Waiters, now 31, hasn’t appeared in an NBA game since the 2019/20 season. He attended a mini-camp with the Mavericks last summer, but wasn’t able to land a job.

Snell, also 31, wasn’t in the league last year after playing a combined 53 games for Portland and New Orleans in 2021/22.

Bazemore, 34, was also out of the league last season after appearing in 39 games with the Lakers in 2021/22. Bazemore was waived by the Kings last October.

Toscano-Anderson, 30, appeared in a total of 52 games with the Lakers and Jazz last season. He hasn’t been able to land a contract after entering free agency this summer. He and Bazemore both previously played for Golden State.

Giles, 25, was a first-round pick in 2017 but hasn’t been in the league since the 2020/21 season, when he played 38 games for the Blazers. He worked out for the Magic recently and his scheduled workout with the Warriors was previously reported. Giles could also be a candidate for one of Golden State’s two-way slots.

Burke, 30, didn’t play in the NBA last season after appearing in 42 games with the Mavericks in 2021/22. He was traded twice last summer and then waived by the Thunder. He had a stint with the Kings’ G League affiliate last season.

Tony Snell Joins Celtics’ G League Affiliate

The Maine Celtics have acquired veteran swingman Tony Snell from the G League’s player pool, the team announced in a press release.

Snell has been a free agent since finishing last season with the Pelicans. He had a workout in November with the Lakers and now turns to the G League in his effort to get back to the NBA.

The 31-year-old has appeared in 601 games in his nine-year NBA career, with averages of 6.1 points, 2.3 rebounds and 1.1 assists per night. He’s a career 39.4% shooter from three-point range and hopes to show teams that he’s still an effective marksman from long distance.

Snell spent three seasons with the Bulls after being selected with the 20th pick in the 2013 draft. He was traded to the Bucks in 2016, to the Pistons in 2019 and to the Hawks in 2020. After signing with the Trail Blazers as a free agent in 2021, he was traded again last season, being sent to New Orleans at the deadline.

Lakers Rumors: Trades, Beal, Davis, Westbrook, LeBron, FAs

With the Lakers off to a 2-9 start this season and no signs that a turnaround is imminent, VP of basketball operations Rob Pelinka and the team’s front office face a difficult decision, according to Chris Haynes of Bleacher Report.

As Haynes outlines, the Lakers must decide whether to continue pushing their chips into the middle of the table by making more win-now trades this season or whether they’d be better off waiting until the 2023 offseason to pursue major moves.

Waiting until next summer would mean Russell Westbrook‘s $47MM+ expiring contract would no longer be on the team’s books. It would also put the Lakers in position to trade an additional draft pick, since they could move their 2023 first-rounder (once the Pelicans exercise their swap rights) after the pick has been made.

However, LeBron James has a finite number of high-level seasons left and doesn’t want to waste a year waiting for reinforcements, sources tell Haynes. Other core players on the roster would also prefer the team to make win-now moves, Haynes adds.

As has been reported repeatedly throughout the offseason and into the season, the Lakers don’t want to move their 2027 and 2029 first-round picks in a deal that doesn’t significantly improve their chances of contending for a title. According to Haynes, there’s not a universal belief within the club’s front office that acquiring Myles Turner and Buddy Hield from the Pacers would move the needle to that degree.

Here’s more on the Lakers:

  • The Lakers are “known to covet” Bradley Beal, according to Haynes. However, the Wizards guard just signed a five-year contract with the team that includes a full no-trade clause, so he’d have to ask out of Washington for L.A. – or any other team – to have a shot at him.
  • As Jovan Buha reported earlier this week, the Lakers aren’t considering trading Anthony Davis, Haynes confirms. However, Haynes hears from sources that the team has received more calls about Russell Westbrook as of late — those talks haven’t advanced beyond the initial stages though.
  • LeBron James, who was diagnosed with a left adductor strain, has been ruled out for Friday’s game vs. Sacramento, and Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter video link via The Rally) hears that James is expected to miss Sunday’s game vs. Brooklyn too. After Sunday, the team is off until next Friday.
  • In the same video clip, Charania also reports that free agent wings Joe Wieskamp and Tony Snell recently worked out for the Lakers, whose .293 3PT% ranks last in the NBA.

Free Agent Stock Watch: Southwest Division

For the rest of the regular season and postseason, Hoops Rumors is taking a closer look at players who will be free agents or could become free agents this offseason. We consider whether their stock is rising or falling due to their performance and other factors. Today, we’re focusing on a handful of Southwest players.


Jalen Brunson, G, Mavericks

2021/22: Minimum salary
2022/23: UFA
Stock: Up ⬆️

Brunson will never be considered the Mavericks’ best pick in the 2018 draft – that honor belongs to backcourt partner Luka Doncic – but he has become one of that draft’s best values. Selected 33rd overall, Brunson has gradually taken on a larger role in Dallas and is enjoying the best year of his career in 2021/22, averaging 16.2 PPG, 4.9 APG, and 3.8 RPG on .498/.368/.845 shooting in 73 games (32.0 MPG).

Brunson’s four-year, $6.1MM rookie contract was a great deal for the Mavs, but they’ll have to give him a massive raise if they want to keep him. Because he’s a second-rounder who signed for four years, the 25-year-old will be an unrestricted free agent this summer rather than restricted. That should give him more leverage in contract negotiations, as should the interest he’s reportedly receiving from the Knicks and Pistons.

The rumored asking price for Brunson’s next deal is $80MM for four years, which seems within reach — other guards like Fred VanVleet, Lonzo Ball, and Malcolm Brogdon have signed similar contracts in recent years, and Brunson’s representatives can make a case that his résumé matches up favorably with what those players had accomplished when they finalized their respective deals.

Dennis Schröder, G, Rockets

2021/22: $5.89MM
2022/23: UFA
Stock: Down ⬇️

Schröder’s stock has yo-yo’d up and down drastically in the last two seasons. After famously turning down an extension offer worth a reported $80MM+ from the Lakers, Schröder settled for a one-year, $5.9MM deal with Boston in free agency. He outperformed that contract early in the season, prompting some discussion about how the Celtics – who would have only held his Non-Bird rights at season’s end – wouldn’t be able to afford to bring him back.

However, Schröder eventually fell back down to earth and became a trade chip for the C’s, who sent him to Houston. Initially viewed as a possible buyout candidate for the lottery-bound Rockets, the veteran guard earned some early praise for his impact on the team’s young guards. But Schröder’s overall numbers in 15 games in Houston, including a .393 FG% and a .328 3PT%, probably won’t convince offseason suitors that he deserves a raise on his 2022/23 salary.

Lonnie Walker, G/F, Spurs

2021/22: $4.45MM
2022/23: RFA
Stock: Up ⬆️

After a promising 2020/21 campaign in which he averaged a career-high 11.2 PPG in 60 games (25.4 MPG), Walker got off to a dismal start this season, shooting just 38.5% from the field and 29.3% on threes through his first 51 games (22.5 MPG).

He has played far better since the trade deadline, putting up 18.7 PPG on .471/.388/.667 shooting in 13 appearances (27.2 MPG) before he went down with a back injury on March 18. Having rejuvenated his value as he nears free agency, Walker is set to return from that back issue on Wednesday.

The Spurs have been better with Walker off the court than on it, and his overall numbers this season still aren’t great, but he looks like a much safer bet to receive a $6.3MM qualifying offer (making him a restricted free agent) than he did two months ago.

Kyle Anderson, F, Grizzlies

2021/22: $9.94MM
2022/23: UFA
Stock: Down ⬇️

Anderson’s stock has dipped a little this year, but that’s in large part due to how good he was in 2020/21, when he posted a career-best 12.4 PPG and 3.6 APG and established himself as a legitimate three-point threat for the first time (36.0% on 3.8 attempts per game).

Those numbers are all down this year (7.4 PPG, 2.6 APG, .323 3PT%) as Anderson has moved to the bench and seen his minutes cut back. The Grizzlies’ overall success, including a 53-23 record, works in Anderson’s favor, but his +3.2 net rating is among the worst on the team.

While Anderson is still a versatile defender who provides some value on the wing, teams interested in him this summer will probably view last season’s increased offensive output as an aberration rather than a sign of things to come on that end of the floor.

Tony Snell, G/F, Pelicans

2021/22: Minimum salary
2022/23: UFA
Stock: Down ⬇️

The only player on the Pelicans’ 15-man roster who doesn’t have a contract for next season, Snell was a throw-in the CJ McCollum trade last month. He had a few solid games after arriving in New Orleans, but has since fallen out of the rotation and probably isn’t part of the team’s plans beyond this season.

Snell signed a minimum-salary contract last summer with Portland following a season in which he made 56.9% of his three-point attempts. With that number down to 35.3% in 2021/22, another minimum-salary deal is probably a best-case scenario for him this offseason.