- Spurs managing partner Peter Holt posted a message on NBA.com about a potential $1.3 billion project to build a new arena in downtown San Antonio. The team has pledged to commit $500MM and cover any unforeseen costs, while the city has agreed to provide up to $489MM. City council authorized the project earlier this week, but the final decision will be up to Bexar County voters in November. “This will be a true public-private partnership,” Holt wrote. “The arena will be publicly owned, funded by visitors, and built to revitalize our downtown, create jobs and give future generations a place to celebrate together.”
- The Austin Spurs, San Antonio’s G League affiliate, announced in a press release that they have agreed to a trade with the Iowa Wolves. Austin received the 13th pick in this year’s draft in exchange for the returning player rights of Luke Avdalovic, Justin Smith, a second-round pick in 2026 and a 2026 international draft selection.
The Warriors remain locked in a contract standoff with restricted free agent Jonathan Kuminga, but that hasn’t kept them from poking around the league for upgrades on the trade market. One name that has come up in their search, writes Jake Fischer for The Stein Line, is Pelicans wing Trey Murphy III.
Fischer says the Warriors approached the Pelicans about Murphy this summer. However, he notes that New Orleans has turned away offers for the recently-turned 25-year-old, who is coming off a breakout year that saw him score 21.2 points per game after averaging 14.6 PPG over the previous two years.
Murphy, who is on a favorable contract (four years, $112MM), is a 6’8″ wing who can shoot (career 38.3% from three), defend at a solid level, and has shown flashes of self-creation. The Warriors have placed a premium on shooting, as illustrated by Fischer’s report that they have refused to consider sign-and-trade offers that would force them to part with either Moses Moody or Buddy Hield, two of the team’s top marksmen outside of Stephen Curry.
Fischer adds another name to the list of potential suitors for Murphy: the Spurs. According to Fischer, San Antonio has also registered trade interest in the athletic wing.
Murphy would be a clean fit with the Spurs, who could use a big wing shooter to complement guards De’Aaron Fox, Dylan Harper, and Stephon Castle – an extremely talented trio that doesn’t feature a reliable outside shooter – as well as versatile forward Jeremy Sochan.
However, all the reasons teams such as the Spurs and Warriors are interested in Murphy’s services are also reasons the Pelicans would be reluctant to part with him. That’s especially true given the uncertainty surrounding Zion Williamson, both in terms of his long-term health and off-court allegations. Murphy, the recently extended Herb Jones, and Jose Alvarado have been on the team longer than anyone outside of Williamson, and Murphy’s game has grown tremendously in that time.
The Spurs have hired Jacob Chance as the head coach for their NBA G League affiliate in Austin, the team announced in a press release. Michael Scotto of HoopsHype first reported the news (Twitter link).
Just 31, Chance has an extensive background coaching in Australia. He was on the NBL’s Perth Wildcats staff when they won four titles. He then moved to the Tasmania JackJumpers as an associate head coach under Scott Roth before joining Melbourne United’s staff. Chance has also made his mark as an assistant for the Australian national team under former head coach Brian Goorjian.
He served as the national team’s head coach during a qualifying window in February.
“All the way through, it was even more than I imagined,” Goorjian told ESPN’s Olgun Uluc. “He’s just elite in all aspects, the film aspect of it, on the floor with the individuals, understanding offensive and defensive schemes. Just an unbelievable feel for that. He had a unique ability to get players to buy in. You had guys like Joe Ingles and Patty Mills – two guys he didn’t have a background with – and he did a great job of being really good on his feet and building those relationships, and had good feel about what to say, when to go there, and when to back off. Those seniors guys are not gonna come near you if you’re not competent. They were attracted to him.
“As I walked away from the Boomers, my advice to Basketball Australia for the window stuff is that Chancey can do this; you’re identifying something that’s really talented, and you’re gonna get rewarded for it. I’ve been around; I think the world of him.”
Australia’s Matt Nielsen was Austin’s former head coach and is currently on the Spurs’ staff.
“To go back and work with Matty, who essentially got me into the industry… in 2015, to come full circle and be back with him and hopefully be around him in this first little bit of time with the Spurs, it was hard to say no to,” Chance said. “He’s a good friend, a big-time mentor, and excited to get to work with him again.”
The Spurs have hired Tim Martin and Scott King as assistant coaches under Mitch Johnson, according to a team press release.
As previously reported, Sean Sweeney has been named the team’s associate head coach and Corliss Williamson has also joined the staff as an assistant.
Martin will serve as an assistant coach/player development, bringing more than 15 years of experience as an NBA skills trainer since 2008.
King led San Antonio’s G League affiliate, the Austin Spurs, to a Western Conference Finals appearance as head coach last season. He was named G League Coach of the Year. Before his time in Austin, King spent five seasons on the Knicks’ staff.
Sweeney had been an assistant under Jason Kidd with the Nets and Bucks as well as the Mavericks. Sweeney’s name has frequently popped up when head coaching jobs have come open but he has yet to land one of those coveted positions.
Williamson, a former NBA forward, spent the past two seasons as an assistant for the Timberwolves.
Rounding out the staff, Jimmy Baron and Josh Brannon have been promoted to assistant coach/player development as well. Rashard Lewis has joined the Spurs’ player development staff, while Andrew Weatherman will serve a coaching analyst and Madison Clower will have the role of player development analyst.
Lewis, who had a 16-year career as an NBA player, previously served as an assistant coach with the Pistons during the 2022/23 season.
Longtime NBA wing Marco Belinelli has announced his retirement as a player, as Eurohoops relays. Belinelli confirmed the decision in a social media post on Monday (Instagram link).
“I gave it my heart,” Belinelli wrote. “Every piece of me. Every single day. Basketball gave me everything… and I gave it everything I had. Saying goodbye isn’t easy. But it’s time. I carry with me every emotion, every sacrifice, every cheer. Thank you to those who always believed. To the next generation—I leave a dream. Make it count.”
Belinelli, who turned 39 in March, was selected with the 18th overall pick in the 2007 draft and spent the next 13 seasons in the NBA, appearing in 860 total regular season games for nine teams.
The 6’5″ Italian swingman held career NBA averages of 9.7 points, 2.1 rebounds, and 1.7 assists in 22.7 minutes per game, with a shooting line of .424/.376/.846. Known for his outside shooting, he made 1,216 career three-pointers.
Belinelli’s best season came in 2013/14 in San Antonio, when he averaged 11.4 PPG and made a career-high 43.0% of his three-point tries. He won the NBA’s three-point contest that season and was part of the Spurs‘ championship team, appearing in all 23 playoff games the team played that spring.
Belinelli also suited up for Golden State, Toronto, New Orleans, Chicago, Charlotte, Atlanta, and Philadelphia.
Since leaving the NBA in 2020, Belinelli has played for Virtus Bologna, the Italian club with whom he began his career as a teenager. He has bolstered his career résumé in recent years, winning a pair of Lega Serie A titles in 2021 and 2025, earning Sixth Man of the Year honors in 2022 and 2023, and claiming an MVP award in 2024.
Five NBA teams will play a league-high 16 back-to-back sets during the 2025/26 regular season, while six clubs will have just 13 instances of back-to-back games on their schedules. The remaining 19 teams will play either 14 or 15 back-to-backs.
[RELATED: 2025/26 NBA Schedules By Team]
Those totals – along with an overall average of 14.4 back-to-backs per team – are about what we’ve come to expect in recent years.
Prior to the COVID-shortened seasons of 2019/20 and ’20/21, the NBA’s regular season consisted of 177 days, and the league had made a concerted effort to reduce instances of back-to-backs. When the league announced its initial schedule in ’19/20, its press release boasted that teams were averaging a record-low 12.4 back-to-backs that season, marking the fifth straight year in which that number had reached an all-time low.
However, since 2021/22, NBA regular seasons have spanned just 174 days, making it a little more difficult for schedule-makers to avoid back-to-back sets. The average number of back-to-backs per team is still well below where it once was (teams averaged 19.3 in 2024/25), but it’s no longer at a record low.
Here are the back-to-backs by team in 2025/26:
- Charlotte Hornets: 16
Denver Nuggets: 16
Philadelphia 76ers: 16
Phoenix Suns: 16
Washington Wizards: 16 - Golden State Warriors: 15
Los Angeles Clippers: 15
Miami Heat: 15
New Orleans Pelicans: 15
Portland Trail Blazers: 15
Toronto Raptors: 15
Utah Jazz: 15 - Brooklyn Nets: 14
Cleveland Cavaliers: 14
Dallas Mavericks: 14
Detroit Pistons: 14
Houston Rockets: 14
Los Angeles Lakers: 14
Memphis Grizzlies: 14
Milwaukee Bucks: 14
New York Knicks: 14
Orlando Magic: 14
Sacramento Kings: 14
San Antonio Spurs: 14 - Atlanta Hawks: 13
Boston Celtics: 13
Chicago Bulls: 13
Indiana Pacers: 13
Minnesota Timberwolves: 13
Oklahoma City Thunder: 13
Having gone from two national broadcasting partners (ABC/ESPN and TNT) to three (ABC/ESPN, NBC, and Amazon Prime) ahead of the 2025/26 season, the NBA’s schedule will feature a significant increase in nationally televised games.
When the league unveiled its full regular season schedule on Thursday, it announced 237 nationally televised regular season matchups, along with the seven knockout round NBA Cup games whose participants aren’t yet known, for a total of 244 contests.
As Colin Salao of Front Office Sports writes in a subscriber story, the total number of nationally televised games is up by more than 40% from last season, when the league’s partners nationally broadcasted a total of 172 games.
Salao also points out that beginning in the middle of the season, when the NFL schedule starts winding down, the NBA will have national games every day of the week: Peacock on Monday; NBC/Peacock on Tuesday; ESPN on Wednesday; Amazon on Thursday; Amazon and ESPN on Friday; Amazon and ABC on Saturday; and ABC, NBC, and Peacock on Sunday.
Every team will be featured at least twice on the national TV broadcast schedule, with the Warriors, Lakers, Knicks, and defending champion Thunder leading the way with 34 appearances apiece.
Here’s the full breakdown of nationally televised games by team:
- Golden State Warriors: 34
- Los Angeles Lakers: 34
- New York Knicks: 34
- Oklahoma City Thunder: 34
- Houston Rockets: 28
- Minnesota Timberwolves: 28
- Denver Nuggets: 26
- Boston Celtics: 25
- Cleveland Cavaliers: 24
- Dallas Mavericks: 23
- San Antonio Spurs: 22
- Los Angeles Clippers: 21
- Milwaukee Bucks: 18
- Detroit Pistons: 16
- Orlando Magic: 14
- Philadelphia 76ers: 14
- Atlanta Hawks: 13
- Memphis Grizzlies: 10
- Indiana Pacers: 9
- Phoenix Suns: 9
- Sacramento Kings: 9
- Portland Trail Blazers: 8
- Miami Heat: 5
- Charlotte Hornets: 3
- Chicago Bulls: 3
- Brooklyn Nets: 2
- New Orleans Pelicans: 2
- Toronto Raptors: 2
- Utah Jazz: 2
- Washington Wizards: 2
Since nationally televised matchups are subject to change, there’s no guarantee that every team will ultimately end up being featured multiple times on the national stage.
As Salao points out, all 30 clubs showed up at least once on the national broadcast schedule initially announced for 2024/25, but the Wizards didn’t get any nationally televised games after having their lone contest replaced by a showdown between Cleveland and Oklahoma City.
Additionally, not every team this season will have a game aired on a traditional, non-streaming network — the only games featuring the Raptors or Wizards will air on either Peacock or Amazon Prime.
Anthony Gill‘s new one-year, minimum-salary contract with the Wizards is guaranteed, Hoops Rumors has confirmed.
While that had been expected, it’s worth noting that it once again creates a roster crunch in Washington, where the team is now carrying 15 players on guaranteed contracts along with rotation regular Justin Champagnie on a non-guaranteed deal. The Wizards will have to trade or waive one of those 16 players before the regular season begins, with Dillon Jones and Malaki Branham among the potential odd men out.
As part of his new agreement with the Wizards, Gill also waived his right to veto a trade during the 2025/26 season. A player who signs a one-year contract with his previous team typically gets an implicit no-trade clause, but a club can ask the player to give it up when he re-signs.
While the Wizards can now freely trade Gill beginning on December 15, he has established himself as a veteran locker-room leader in D.C. in recent years and will be earning the minimum, so he doesn’t seem like an obvious candidate to be moved ahead of February’s deadline.
Here are a few more details on recently signed contracts:
- The non-guaranteed contracts that Micah Potter and Adam Flagler signed with the Spurs contain both Exhibit 9 and Exhibit 10 language, Hoops Rumors has confirmed. Potter and Flagler would each earn bonuses worth $85,300 if they’re waived by San Antonio and then spend at least 60 days with the Austin Spurs in the G League.
- Both Riley Minix and Harrison Ingram simply accepted their two-way qualifying offers when they re-signed with the Spurs, so their two-way deals are both one-year pacts that include partial guarantees of $85,300 apiece.
- Patrick Baldwin Jr. and TyTy Washington Jr. both got maximum Exhibit 10 bonuses ($85,300) on their deals with the Clippers. Los Angeles already holds Baldwin’s G League rights and could obtain Washington’s by designating him as an affiliate player, so it appears likely both players will end up with the San Diego Clippers in the NBAGL if they aren’t converted to two-way contracts prior to the regular season.
There are no plans for extension talks between Trae Young and the Hawks this summer, sources tell Jake Fischer of The Stein Line (subscriber link).
As Fischer indicated during a Bleacher Report live stream on Thursday, Young and his camp have been resigned for a while to the idea that he’ll have to play out the final guaranteed year on his current deal. He’ll face a decision on a $49MM player option next summer.
Fischer reports that when Young was represented by Klutch Sports, Rich Paul viewed him as a potential partner for Victor Wembanyama. At the time, Paul was hoping to get one of his points guards to the Spurs, whether it was Young, De’Aaron Fox or Darius Garland.
Fischer states that Fox’s contract expiring a year before Young’s brought a sense of urgency to his future, along with Fox’s desire to relocate to Texas. San Antonio acquired him from Sacramento in a three-team deal in February and gave him a four-year max extension last week.
Young is now represented by CAA, and Fischer makes it clear that he’s not looking to force his way out of Atlanta. The Hawks appear to be a legitimate contender after upgrading their roster over the summer, and Fischer states that Kristaps Porzingis may be the best scoring forward Young has ever teamed up with.
Fischer notes that Atlanta’s improvement could boost Young’s chances of earning All-NBA honors this season, which would increase the maximum value of a five-year contract into the $335MM range.
Sources tell Fischer that Young is disappointed that the Hawks haven’t reached out to him about an extension. However, that could change if he pushes them back toward the playoffs. If it doesn’t happen, he may wind up as one of the top free agents in next year’s market.
Fischer adds that Young’s strong relationship with coach Quin Snyder adds to the optimism that a new deal will eventually get worked out.
Spurs forward Jeremy Sochan will miss the EuroBasket tournament due to a calf injury, the Polish Basketball Federation announced.
Sochan felt pain in his calf following a workout earlier this week and alerted the Polish team’s medical staff. A meeting was held Saturday that included representatives of the Spurs, along with Sochan’s agent and family, and it was determined that the best course of action would be for him to return to San Antonio for treatment and rehabilitation.
The injury isn’t expected to affect Sochan’s availability when NBA training camps open late next month.
“We did the necessary tests for Jeremy. The injury is not serious, but there are less than three weeks left until EuroBasket,” said Lukasz Koszarek, director of the Polish national team. “This is very little time. Jeremy is a very important part of our team, he has great contact with all the players and staff and we are very sorry that his adventure with the national team ends so quickly this summer.”
Sochan, whose mother is Polish, has represented the country in international competitions since the junior level. He made his debut for the Polish senior team at EuroBasket in 2022.
Selected with the ninth pick in the 2022 NBA draft, Sochan has been a versatile player for the Spurs during his three years in the NBA. He averaged 11.4 points, 6.5 rebounds and 2.4 assists in 54 games last season and is eligible for a rookie scale extension this summer.
Spurs general manager Brian Wright commended Polish officials for their handling of the injury, and Sochan expressed regret at having to miss the tournament.
“I am very disappointed, but due to a calf muscle injury, unfortunately, I will not be able to play for Polish at this year’s EuroBasket,” he said. “I’ve been working hard for this over the last few months, and the time I trained and played with the national team was amazing. It’s a special group and I really enjoyed being a part of this team. Fortunately, the doctors predict that I will be fully healthy by the time the start of the preparation camp before the upcoming NBA season. I want to thank my teammates, coaches and the whole staff, especially the fans in Poland, for their support. I appreciate it very much and know that although I will not be able to be with you, I will support Poland with all my heart.”