Transactions Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Raptors Sign Jared Rhoden

September 26th, 2025 at 6:57pm CST by Eli Cohen

The Raptors have signed Jared Rhoden, per Blake Murphy of Sportsnet (via Twitter). The terms of the deal were not reported, though it’s likely to be an Exhibit 10 contract.

Rhoden, 22, was previously with the Raptors on a two-way contract, but was waived in July while recovering from a torn labrum in his right shoulder that limited his time with the team.

The 6’6″ guard played 10 games for Toronto last season, averaging 11.4 points and 3.8 rebounds while shooting 32.4% from three. He had previously played for the Pistons and Hornets from 2022-24.

Rhoden is the 21st and final player on the Raptors’ training camp roster. He will fight for a spot with the team, and if waived, will be eligible for a bonus of up to $85,300 should he stay with the Raptors 905 (Toronto’s G League team) for at least 60 days.

Hawks Waive Kobe Johnson, Lamont Butler, Malik Williams

September 26th, 2025 at 4:59pm CST by Eli Cohen

The Hawks announced today that they have requested waivers on Lamont Butler, Kobe Johnson, and Malik Williams, writes Caleb Johnson for 929 The Game (via Twitter). With the move, Atlanta has finalized its 18-man training camp roster.

Johnson was officially signed to his Exhibit 10 deal just over two weeks ago, and Butler and Williams were signed two days ago. Having been signed and waived by Atlanta, the three players will be eligible for bonuses worth up to $85,300 apiece if they spend at least 60 days with the Hawks’ G League affiliate, the College Park Skyhawks. College Park acquired Williams’ returning rights earlier this month.

Johnson, brother of Hawks forward Jalen Johnson, went undrafted earlier this year after averaging 7.9 points, 5.9 rebounds, 2.9 assists, and 1.6 steals per game with a .464/.362/.704 shooting line for UCLA as a senior.

Butler, a 6’2″ guard who played his final college season at Kentucky, averaged 11.4 PPG and 4.3 RPG while shooting 39.1% from three as a fifth-year senior. He also went undrafted in June.

Williams played five seasons for Louisville. The 6’11” center averaged 9.5 PPG and 8.0 RPG in his final season before going undrafted in 2022. He appeared in seven games with the Raptors in 2023/24.

Dennis Smith Jr. Signs With Mavericks

September 26th, 2025 at 3:12pm CST by Earnest Marshall

September 26: Smith has officially signed with the Mavs, the team announced today (via Twitter).

September 18: The Mavericks are signing Dennis Smith Jr. to a one-year contract, according to Shams Charania of ESPN (Twitter link). Dallas selected Smith with the No. 9 overall pick in the 2017 draft and he spent the first season and a half of his career there.

Dallas has 15 players on standard contracts before signing Smith, including Brandon Williams, who is only guaranteed for $200K until opening night.

Smith’s contract is presumably non-guaranteed or partially guaranteed, setting up an opportunity for him to earn a spot on the opening-night roster if he performs well enough in training camp.

Before the Mavericks waived and stretched Olivier-Maxence Prosper‘s contract to bring back Dante Exum, they reportedly toyed with the idea of moving Jaden Hardy. It’s unclear whether that’s still on the table at all, but if the Mavericks wanted to keep both Smith and/or Williams, it would mean moving Hardy or another player via trade to clear up a spot.

A 6’2″ guard out of NC State, Smith averaged 14.5 points and 4.9 assists in 101 games (all starts) with the Mavericks from 2017-19. He was moved at the 2019 deadline to the Knicks in exchange for Kristaps Porzingis. Since then, he hasn’t played more than 58 games for a franchise, having become a journeyman guard from 2019-24.

Smith had perhaps his most impressive season of his career in 2022/23, when he emerged as one of the premier guard defenders in the league while playing for the Hornets and averaging 8.8 points and 4.8 assists per contest. However, the Hornets didn’t bring him back and he spent the following season for Brooklyn before not playing in the NBA last season.

In all, Smith holds career averages of 9.7 points, 4.2 assists, 3.0 rebounds and 1.2 steals across 326 career games (152 starts).

Mavericks Sign Jeremiah Robinson-Earl

September 26th, 2025 at 3:11pm CST by Eli Cohen

September 26: Robinson-Earl is officially a Maverick, the team announced in a press release (Twitter link).

September 21: The Mavericks are in the process of signing Jeremiah Robinson-Earl to a training camp deal, reports Marc Stein of The Stein Line (Twitter link). While Stein doesn’t specify the terms, the deal will likely be an Exhibit 10 contract.

Robinson-Earl is a four-year NBA veteran who has spent two seasons with the Thunder and two with the Pelicans after being drafted 32nd overall by the Knicks, who were selecting on behalf of Oklahoma City.

He played a career-high 66 games for New Orleans last season, averaging 6.3 points and 4.8 rebounds in 18.8 minutes per night while shooting 34.1% from three.

This would mark the 21st and final training camp roster spot the Mavs have to offer. Dallas has a good amount of depth at the big man positions, with Anthony Davis, Cooper Flagg, Daniel Gafford, P.J. Washington, Dereck Lively II, and Dwight Powell all expected to play rotation roles at the four and/or five.

Stein notes (via Twitter) the lack of roster space for Robinson-Earl, but adds that the 24-year-old chose to accept a non-guaranteed offer from Dallas rather than going overseas, where there was interest in his services.

Raptors Waive Tyson Degenhart

September 26th, 2025 at 1:39pm CST by Rory Maher

The Raptors have released Tyson Degenhart, tweets Blake Murphy of Sportsnet.ca.

Degenhart agreed to an Exhibit 10 contract with the Raptors shortly after going undrafted in June. The deal became official a few days ago.

Now that he has been released, Degenhart is eligible for a bonus worth $85,300 if he spends at least 60 days with Toronto’s G League affiliate, the Raptors 905.

A 6’8″ forward, Degenhart spent four college seasons at Boise State, earning first-team All-Mountain West Conference honors each of the past three years. As a senior in 2024/25, he averaged 18.3 PPG and 6.1 RPG on .526/.349/.797 shooting in 37 games (33.6 MPG).

Thunder Sign Jazian Gortman, Zack Austin, Chris Youngblood

September 26th, 2025 at 12:21pm CST by Rory Maher

The Thunder have signed free agents Jazian Gortman, Zack Austin and Chris Youngblood, the team announced today.

Oklahoma City’s three additions, all of whom played for the Thunder during Summer League action, will put the team at the offseason limit of 21 players under contract.

While the terms of the deals were not disclosed, reporting back in June indicated that Austin and Youngblood would be signing Exhibit 10 contracts for training camp. It seems pretty safe to assume that Gortman received the same.

Gortman, who went undrafted out of Overtime Elite in 2023, spent his first pro season in the G League with the Wisconsin Herd and the Rip City Remix, the affiliate teams of the Bucks and Trail Blazers, respectively.

The 6’2″ point guard caught on with the Mavericks last summer, initially signing an Exhibit 10 deal. Gortman impressed Dallas during training camp and preseason, having been promoted to a two-way contract shortly before the 2024/25 season began.

Gortman made 16 garbage-time appearances with the Mavs, playing 53 total minutes, before being released in late January. He also played 34 G League games (34.5 MPG) with the Texas Legends last season, averaging 20.0 points, 6.5 assists, 3.9 rebounds and 1.5 steals on .450/.272/.813 shooting.

Both Austin and Youngblood went undrafted in 2025.

As a senior for Pitt last season, Austin was named to the ACC’s All-Defensive team after averaging 4.7 rebounds, 1.1 steals and 1.6 blocks in 32 games (32.1 MPG). He also averaged 9.2 PPG while shooting 38.1% from three-point range.

Youngblood spent ’24/25 — his “super senior” campaign — with Alabama after previously playing for Kennesaw State and South Florida. He averaged 10.3 PPG and 2.3 RPG in 28 appearances (25.3 MPG) for the Crimson Tide, posting a shooting line of .447/.388/.804

It’s worth noting that the Thunder currently have an open two-way spot, and, as previously mentioned, Exhibit 10 deals can be converted into two-way pacts. Malevy Leons is also on an Exhibit 10 contract with OKC.

Thunder Re-Sign Branden Carlson On Two-Way Deal

September 26th, 2025 at 11:06am CST by Rory Maher

September 26: More than two-and-a-half months after it was first reported, Carlson has officially signed his two-way deal with the Thunder, per a team press release.

July 8: The defending champion Thunder are re-signing free agent big man Branden Carlson to a two-way contract, agent Ross Aroyo tells Shams Charania of ESPN (Twitter link).

Carlson appeared in 32 games as rookie last season with the Thunder, averaging 3.7 points and 1.7 rebounds in 7.7 minutes per contest. The 26-year-old was given a qualifying offer last month, making him a restricted free agent, so he may simply be accepting that QO, which is equivalent to another one-year two-way contract.

Carlson went undrafted in 2024 after spending his five-year collegiate career at Utah. The seven-footer originally signed a two-way contract with the Raptors but was cut just before the 2024/25 season began. He later signed a non-guaranteed deal and a pair of 10-day contracts with the Thunder before eventually sticking with the team for good on a two-way in February.

Second-round pick Brooks Barnhizer is also on a two-way contract with the Thunder, so the club will have one two-way slot still available after bringing back Carlson.

Lakers Sign Jarron Cumberland, Waive Arthur Kaluma

September 25th, 2025 at 9:05pm CST by Earnest Marshall

The Lakers have signed Jarron Cumberland, per Dan Woike of The Athletic (Twitter link). In a corresponding move, the team waived Arthur Kaluma, who was on an Exhibit 10 deal.

Woike didn’t specify the terms of Cumberland’s deal, but he almost certainly received an Exhibit 10 contract as well.

Cumberland, 28, has some NBA experience, having signed a 10-day deal with the Trail Blazers in December 2021 and appearing in three games with Portland. He played four collegiate season at Cincinnati from 2016-20, averaging 13.4 points per game.

In 2024/25, Cumberland appeared in 38 regular season games with Philadelphia’s G League affiliate, averaging 15.4 points, 4.3 rebounds and 4.5 assists per game for the Delaware Blue Coats while shooting 42.6% from three.

With the move, the Lakers remain at the offseason limit of 21 players. They have 14 players on standard guaranteed contracts, a pair on two-way deals, and Cumberland joins Eric Dixon, Augustus Marciulionis, RJ Davis and Kylor Kelley on Exhibit 10 contracts.

If Cumberland plays through camp and the preseason, he could be a candidate for the Lakers’ open two-way slot. Otherwise, if he is waived and spends at least 60 days with the Lakers’ G League affiliate, he will be eligible for a bonus worth up to $85,300.

Bulls Waive Wooga Poplar

September 25th, 2025 at 8:42pm CST by Luke Adams

The Bulls have waived shooting guard Wooga Poplar, who was with the team on a non-guaranteed Exhibit 10 contract, according to the NBA’s official transaction log.

Poplar, who spent three years at Miami (FL) before transferring to Villanova for the 2024/25 campaign, signed with the Bulls early in the summer after a strong senior season in which he averaged 15.3 points, 7.0 rebounds, and 1.3 steals in 31.9 minutes per game while shooting .460/.387/.856 in 36 appearances for the Wildcats. He went undrafted in June.

Poplar, 22, suited up for Chicago’s Summer League team in Las Vegas in July, averaging 6.5 PPG, 1.2 RPG, and 1.0 APG in 15.9 MPG across four outings. The expectation is that he’ll join the Windy City Bulls — if he spends at least 60 days with the Bulls’ G League affiliate, he’ll earn a bonus worth $85,300 on top of his standard NBAGL salary.

The move opens up a spot on the Bulls’ 21-man roster ahead of training camp next week. Chicago will likely fill that opening before camp begins.

Kings Sign, Waive Jon Elmore

September 25th, 2025 at 7:32pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

Sept. 25: The Kings have now waived Elmore, according to Spotrac’s Keith Smith (Twitter link). He’s set up to join their G League affiliate for the season.

Sept. 24: The Kings have signed free agent guard Jon Elmore to an Exhibit 10 training camp agreement, per Paul Garcia of The Spot Up Shot (Twitter link).

The 29-year-old went undrafted out of Marshall in 2019. Since then, he has played in the G League and for various international clubs in Italy, Greece, Hungary, Lithuania, and Turkey, but has yet to break through to the NBA.

After spending 2024/25 with the Kings’ G League affiliate, the Stockton Kings, Elmore linked up with Turkey’s Manisa Basket at the end of the season in the spring. In 34 regular season games for Stockton last year, including 24 starts, the 6’3″ pro averaged 10.4 points, 4.8 assists, 3.6 rebounds, 1.4 steals and 0.5 blocks per contest, with a shooting line of .404/.335/.836.

Elmore joins fellow guard Terence Davis as one of two rostered Exhibit 10 signings for the Kings heading into training camp. Sacramento currently has all three of its two-way slots filled. Although Exhibit 10 signings can be converted to two-way contracts, it seems likelier that Elmore will be cut and report back to Stockton for the start of the G League season.

If Elmore is waived and spends at least 60 days with Sacramento’s G League affiliate, he would become eligible for a bonus worth up to $85,300.