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Warriors, Lakers, Knicks, Thunder Get Most Nationally Televised Games For 2025/26

August 15th, 2025 at 7:51am CST by Luke Adams

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.

Celtics Sign Chris Boucher On One-Year Deal

August 10th, 2025 at 7:24pm CST by Dana Gauruder

August 10: Boucher has officially signed with the Celtics, according to a press release from the team.

August 5: The Celtics are signing free agent forward Chris Boucher on a one-year, minimum-salary contract, ESPN’s Shams Charania reports (via Twitter).

Boston opened up a frontcourt spot for Boucher by agreeing to trade Georges Niang to Utah on Tuesday. Boucher will compete for minutes at both the power forward and center spots for the Celtics, who have been busy shedding salary and revamping their roster throughout the offseason.

Save for one cameo appearance with Golden State in 2017/18, Boucher has spent his entire career with the Raptors. Boucher has played in Toronto for the past seven seasons, winning a title in 2019 and appearing in 406 games, primarily off the bench (23 total starts).

He has averaged 8.9 points and 5.1 rebounds in 17.7 minutes during his NBA career while shooting 48.8 percent overall and 33.9 percent beyond the three-point arc.

Boucher, 32, saw action in 50 games last season, averaging 10.0 points and 4.5 rebounds in 17.2 minutes. He didn’t appear in a game after Feb. 26 as the Raptors decided to essentially shut down the veteran big man and take a long look at their younger players.

Boucher was the last remaining player from the Raptors’ championship club. He holds the all-time franchise records as a reserve for points, rebounds, blocks, minutes and games played.

Toronto held Boucher’s Bird rights and reportedly was interested in re-signing him but that didn’t come to fruition. He’ll now join an Atlantic Division rival.

As an eight-year veteran, Boucher will earn $3,287,409 on his minimum-salary deal while the Celtics carry a cap hit of $2,296,274.

Atlantic Notes: Russell, Murray-Boyles, Nets Assets, Grimes

August 10th, 2025 at 3:04pm CST by Dana Gauruder

D’Angelo Russell signed with the Mavericks as a free agent but he’s heaping high praise on the Nets organization. He feels his career has been extended by what he learned early in his career with Brooklyn, he told Dwyane Wade in a podcast (hat tip to Joseph Staszewski of the New York Post). In the process, he took a swipe at the Lakers organization.

“The organization of Brooklyn is different,” Russell said. “It’s unlike any other. The performance, team, coach — everything about Brooklyn is different than what you would expect. And I’ve been around the league, where I came from the Lakers, where the structure is not the same.”

Russell played 29 games with the Nets last season. He also spent two seasons with them from 2017-19 after beginning his career with the Lakers.

“I always approached the game to where I was nonchalant, and I felt like I could just wing it. They taught me how to be a professional, how to sleep, how to eat, how to recover,” Russell said.

We have more from the Atlantic Division:

Collin Murray-Boyles‘ personal trainer believes that the No. 9 pick of this year’s draft could turn into a Draymond Green-style defender with better offensive skills, he told Josh Lewenberg of TSN Sports. “He is more of the modern-day Draymond [Green],” trainer Khadijah Sessions said of the Raptors‘ rookie forward. “He is a defender, he can defend all positions, he can pass, he can set his teammates up… He’s going to be a better Draymond. He’s going to shoot better than him. He’s going to be able to score better than him. But it’s going to be over time and I think him playing behind Scottie Barnes and Brandon Ingram is going to bring a different monster out of him.”
After selecting a handful of players during the first round of this year’s draft, the Nets still have plenty of draft assets remaining, including extra picks and pick swaps. Yet their best asset might be their own first-rounder next year, which they reacquired from Houston, writes Brian Lewis of the New York Post (subscription required). There’s plenty of pressure on general manager Sean Marks that a majority of the players he picked this June pan out, as well as using that future draft capital wisely.
Should restricted free agent Quentin Grimes sign his $8.7MM qualifying offer from the Sixers and become unrestricted next summer? Or will the two parties eventually find common ground on a multi-year contract before next season? Rich Hofmann and Derek Bodner of PHLY Sports take a deep dive into that subject in their latest podcast (video link).

Atlantic Notes: Quickley, Clarkson, Pagliuca, Maxey

August 4th, 2025 at 1:09pm CST by Luke Adams

A signing completed by the Raptors in July 2024 is looming over large over the current offseason, according to ESPN’s Bobby Marks (YouTube link), who points to the five-year deal Immanuel Quickley signed as a restricted free agent last offseason as a major outlier. That contract had a base value of $162.5MM, with an additional $12.5MM in bonuses. It’s worth $32.5MM per year, with a maximum value of $35MM per year.

“The Immanuel Quickley contract has totally screwed up restricted free agency,” Marks said. “Because that’s where agents are looking at like the benchmark. Certainly, (Bulls guard) Josh Giddey‘s like, ‘I want that contract.’ That number has screwed up a lot of things.”

As Marks goes on to explain, while the agents for extension candidates or current restricted free agents like Giddey will be eager to use the Quickley deal as a point of comparison for their clients, teams around the NBA haven’t been willing to go that high for players with somewhat similar résumés.

“… I don’t think Toronto got enough heat for that number,” Marks continued. “Because Immanuel Quickley is not a $32, $33 million guy.”

Here’s more from around the Atlantic:

It has been so long since Jordan Clarkson played meaningful basketball that it’s difficult to predict exactly what he’ll bring to the Knicks in 2025/26, one Western Conference scout tells Stefan Bondy of The New York Post (subscription required). Clarkson remains a talented scorer and one team source believes he’s “exactly what we needed” off the bench, Bondy writes, though a veteran NBA coach notes that the veteran guard comes with some downside too. “High-level shooter. Good going right,” the coach said. “Wild-card-type player. Throw him out there and see if he can get hot. But there’s not much else from a production standpoint. And it’s ugly on defense.”
Jennifer Rizzotti, the president of the WNBA’s Connecticut Sun, said on Sunday that a deal to sell the franchise to Celtics minority owner Steve Pagliuca is “not quite at the finish line yet” and that the Sun will remain in Connecticut for the 2026 season, per ESPN’s Alexa Philippou. While both Rizzotti and Pagliuca (Twitter link) offered statements about the potential transaction, neither one disputed the fact that the plan is to move the team to Boston by 2027. Pagliuca spoke repeatedly in his statement about keeping the franchise “in New England.”
Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer takes a look at the off-court work Tyrese Maxey is doing in the Philadelphia community, noting that Maxey’s foundation donated $60K this weekend while the Sixers guard hosted a free basketball camp for kids on Saturday.

Raptors Sign Olivier Sarr To Exhibit 10 Deal

August 1st, 2025 at 4:18pm CST by Eli Cohen

The Raptors have signed free agent center Olivier Sarr, tweets Blake Murphy of Sportsnet.

According to Murphy (Twitter link), the contract is an Exhibit 1o deal, which will allow Sarr to compete for a roster spot in training camp and receive a bonus worth up to $85,300 if he’s waived and joins the Raptors’ G League team.

Sarr played for the Thunder for parts of three seasons from 2021-24, averaging 4.8 points and 3.5 rebounds in 13.8 minutes per game across 46 outings, before spending last season in the G League.

The Raptors recently extended Jakob Poeltl and signed Sandro Mamukelashvili to a minimum deal. They also drafted Collin Murray-Boyles this year and Jonathan Mogbo in 2024, both of whom can switch between center and forward spots. With two-way big man Ulrich Chomche also in the frontcourt mix, the 26-year-old Sarr is likely a long shot to earn a regular season roster spot.

Exhibit 10 contracts can be converted into two-way deals prior to the NBA regular season. If Sarr doesn’t get a two-way contract and is waived, he would have to spend at least 60 days with the Raptors 905 to earn his Exhibit 10 bonus.

Raptors Release Colin Castleton

July 28th, 2025 at 2:40pm CST by Rory Maher

The Raptors have waived big man Colin Castleton, the team announced in a press release.

Castleton, who went undrafted out of Florida in 2023, spent his rookie season on a two-way contract with the Lakers, who waived him last October, a few days before the 2024/25 campaign began.

Shortly after being cut by L.A., the 25-year-old caught on with the Grizzlies, again signing a two-way deal. Memphis released him in January.

After spending a few months in the G League, Castleton inked a pair of 10-day deals with Toronto in March before joining the 76ers on a 10-day pact in early April. The Raptors re-signed him to a two-year standard contract on the final day of the regular season.

Castleton’s minimum salary for 2025/26 was non-guaranteed, so the Raptors won’t incur a cap charge by waiving him.

In 26 total appearances for Memphis, Philadelphia and Toronto last season, Castleton averaged 4.7 points and 4.7 rebounds in 16.6 minutes per game.

As Josh Lewenberg of TSN.ca tweets, Castleton didn’t play well for the Raptors during Summer League action, averaging 2.6 PPG and 4.0 RPG in 11.5 MPG over five contests in Las Vegas. He shot just 33.3% from the field and struggled with turnovers (1.8 per game).

Castleton’s NBAGL rights are currently controlled by the Magic, notes Blake Murphy of Sportsnet.ca (Twitter link).

The Raptors now have 16 players on their standard roster, including 14 players on guaranteed deals, plus A.J. Lawson on a non-guaranteed contract and David Roddy on an Exhibit 10 deal for training camp. All three of their two-way spots are filled, as our tracker shows.

Summer League Notes: Rookie Standouts, Maluach, Fears

July 27th, 2025 at 6:02pm CST by Eli Cohen

The 2025 Summer League gave fans and teams first impressions of most of this year’s incoming rookies, as well as serving as a showcase for several sophomores and younger veterans. In the wake of the event, Law Murray of the Athletic breaks down each rookie’s performance with an eye for what it could mean for the coming season.

Cooper Flagg (Mavericks), Dylan Harper (Spurs), and VJ Edgecombe (Sixers) were arguably the biggest names who participated in the Summer Leagues – headlined by the Las Vegas event – and despite some shooting efficiency concerns, all three gave their fans plenty of reason for excitement.

Flagg displayed a well-rounded on-ball skill set, Harper came up clutch in his last game to force overtime, and Edgecombe lived at the free throw line while displaying some advanced ball-screen offensive game, Murray observes.

The next three picks in the draft, Kon Knueppel (Hornets), Ace Bailey (Jazz), and Tre Johnson (Wizards), all showed off their shot-making capabilities, which will likely be what earns them regular playing time as rookies. Knueppel was rewarded for his play with the only All-Summer League Second Team selection among rookies, while Nique Clifford (Kings) was the lone rookie to make the First Team, thanks to his stellar all-around play.

Other rookies, such as Collin Murray-Boyles (Raptors), Carter Bryant (Spurs), Joan Beringer (Timberwolves), and Brooks Barnhizer (Thunder) flashed tantalizing defensive capabilities, though Murray-Boyles and Bryant were inconsistent offensively, Murray notes.

Here are a few more leftover Summer League notes:

John Hollinger of the Athletic takes a look at some of the low points of Summer League, including the worst ejection of the tournament, awarded to the Celtics‘ Jordan Walsh for not only having an excessive foul on the Heat’s Pelle Larsson, but for accidentally throwing him into Walsh’s own front office executives courtside.
In terms of players who struggled, Hollinger mentions Khaman Maluach (Suns), who had difficulty catching lobs and other passes, Jeremiah Fears (Pelicans), who was unable to spearhead an offense and create for others, and the limitations of the four Nets rookies who suited up, among others.
On the non-player side, Hollinger points to an abundance of turnovers caused by stepping out of bounds, as well as the prevalence of split-screen interviews that made following the games an exercise in patience and eagle-eyed vision.

Atlantic Notes: Casey, Raptors, Council, Thomas

July 27th, 2025 at 3:54pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

Former Raptors head coach Dwane Casey, now working in a front office role with Detroit, has been through several rounds of interviews about potentially filling Toronto’s vacant team president role and will meet with Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment for a final round of meetings this week, writes Omari Sankofa II of The Detroit Free Press (subscriber link).

In his seven seasons as a coach with the Raptors, Casey led Toronto to a 320-238 regular season tally and a 21-30 playoff record, which included an Eastern Conference Finals run in 2016.

There’s more from around the Atlantic:

Eric Koreen of The Athletic takes stock of how much the Raptors can preserve the culture the organization built under Masai Ujiri after firing the longtime team president last month. Several trusted former Ujiri associates continue to occupy major front office roles with the club, with general manager Bobby Webster in the running for Ujiri’s former position. Developing international veterans, staying patient with coaches and core players, and preaching self-confidence to Toronto fans are all key Ujiri-era attributes Koreen hopes stick around.
With limited spots left on their 15-man roster, the Sixers cut wing Ricky Council IV and his non-guaranteed deal on Friday. Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer (subscriber link) breaks down the team’s decision to move on from the young guard/forward after just two seasons. After beginning his career on a two-way contract, Council saw that deal converted to a standard agreement in April 2024. With All-Stars Tyrese Maxey, Paul George and Joel Embiid all missing most of the subsequent 2024/25 season, the Sixers were hoping to see Council grow as an athletic ball-handler and play-maker while developing his long-range game, Pompey writes. Instead, he struggled to score efficiently or control the rock. In 73 healthy games for Philadelphia last year, the 6’6″ pro averaged 7.3 points, 2.9 rebounds, and 1.3 assists per contest, with a shooting line of .382/.258/.804. The Sixers now have two open roster spots, with restricted free agent Quentin Grimes likely to fill one of them.
Restricted free agent Nets shooting guard Cam Thomas remains unsigned nearly four weeks into the 2025/26 league year. Anthony Puccio of NetsDaily analyzes the standoff, and makes the case for retaining one of the team’s most exciting and prolific young scorers.

Latest On Raptors’ Search For New Head Of Basketball Ops

July 26th, 2025 at 12:02pm CST by Rory Maher

General manager Bobby Webster is running the Raptors‘ front office for now following the abrupt dismissal of Masai Ujiri at the end of June.

According to Michael Grange of Sportsnet.ca, Webster is interested in becoming Toronto’s new head of basketball operations on a permanent basis and seems to be the frontrunner to land the position, but there are a number of other candidates to monitor as well.

A source tells Grange that most of the names that have come up in the search process are “lower-tier executives” who would make sense as complementary additions working under Webster.

However, there are some veteran executives who appear to be in the mix, including Brampton native Marc Eversley, who is currently GM of the Bulls. As Grange writes, Eversley is a board member of Canada Basketball, was previously an assistant GM in Toronto, and has a solid relationship with Webster.

Pacers GM Chad Buchanan is another name on the Raptors’ radar, Grange reports.

According to Grange, Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment president Keith Pelley has met with both Dwane Casey and Monte McNair about the position.

Casey is the Raptors’ former head coach and is currently an executive with the Pistons, while McNair was Sacramento’s GM for five years prior to parting ways with the organization after the 2024/25 season.

One league insider who spoke to Grange suggested that Pacers president of basketball operations Kevin Pritchard is MLSE’s top choice for the job, though Grange points out that lateral moves for executives under contract with other teams are difficult to pull off.

As for Ujiri, Grange says he would be “very surprised” if Toronto’s longtime former president accepted another NBA job for the upcoming season. In the future, Ujiri could be a candidate to lead an expansion team or run the NBA’s proposed European league, Grange writes.

That said, Ujiri will certainly be linked to any top executive roles that pop up in the coming months, according to Grange, who has heard speculation that the Heat could be a team to monitor, as Pat Riley recently turned 80 years old.

And-Ones: Jefferson, ESPN, Vancouver, Expansion, 2024 Moves

July 22nd, 2025 at 11:38am CST by Luke Adams

Richard Jefferson has reached an agreement to return to ESPN (and ABC) for next season and is expected to remain on the network’s top broadcast team with Mike Breen, reports Andrew Marchand of The Athletic. However, Doris Burke‘s spot alongside Jefferson and Breen on that team remains up in the air, Marchand adds.

Jefferson reportedly drew interest from Amazon Prime Video before agreeing to remain with ESPN.

If ESPN does decide to replace Burke, Tim Legler is the leading candidate to replace her on the network’s top broadcasting team, according to Marchand, though he says that a two-person booth is also a possibility.

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

The Raptors and Nuggets will play a preseason game in Vancouver, B.C. on October 6 as part of the league’s Canada Series, the NBA announced today in a press release. It will be a busy week or two for Vancouver in terms of NBA activity, with the Mavericks also said to be holding their training camp in the city. The Raptors announced today that their training camp will take place in Calgary, Alberta, so it won’t be a long flight to Vancouver for them.
While NBA owners may not be eager to expand the league beyond its current 30 teams immediately, there’s still a sense that it will happen sooner or later, according to John Hollinger of The Athletic. As Hollinger explains, the NBA’s European league project is a bigger priority at the moment and the league likely also wants to get its local TV situation worked out before expanding.
Kevin Pelton of ESPN revisits the biggest offseason moves from 2024 in order to reevaluate the grades he gave them a year ago. In some cases, that meant a major readjustment downward — the Pelicans originally got a B-plus grade for their Dejounte Murray trade, for example, and now get an F. However, other moves look much better than did a year ago, including the Trail Blazers‘ acquisition of Deni Avdija, which Pelton bumped from a C-plus to an A-minus.