Transactions Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Deandre Ayton Signs With Lakers

July 2nd, 2025 at 4:38pm CST by Luke Adams

July 6: Ayton has officially signed with the Lakers, the team announced in a press release.

“Acquiring a starting-caliber center was the top priority for us this offseason, and we believe Deandre is an amazing solution to that objective and is an ideal player to add to our current core,” president of basketball operations Rob Pelinka said in a statement. “Deandre’s size, mobility and athleticism will allow both paint scoring and paint protection. Deandre’s playoff experience as a starter on an NBA Finals team also aligns well with our ultimate Lakers championship aspirations.”

July 2: After officially clearing waivers on Wednesday, center Deandre Ayton has agreed to sign with the Lakers as an unrestricted free agent, confirms Shams Charania of ESPN (Twitter link).

Ayton’s new deal with the Lakers will cover two years and will be worth $16.6MM, with a second-year player option, according to Jake Fischer of The Stein Line (Twitter links).

Fischer and Marc Stein of The Stein Line (Twitter link) first reported that rival teams with interest in Ayton were expecting him to commit to the Lakers after he cleared waivers, while NBA insider Chris Haynes (Twitter link) also reported that the former No. 1 overall pick was on track to end up in Los Angeles.

Ayton, who agreed to give up $10MM of his $35.6MM salary in a buyout with Portland, will be signed into the remainder of the Lakers’ non-taxpayer mid-level exception following their deal with Jake LaRavia, tweets cap expert Yossi Gozlan. In total, between his Blazers and Lakers contracts, the big man will make about $34MM in 2025/26.

It’s a significant move for the Lakers, who had been on the hunt for a center since trading Anthony Davis to Dallas in the Luka Doncic trade in February. The club agreed in principle to acquire Mark Williams from the Hornets at February’s trade deadline, but nixed that deal a couple days later due to concerns about Williams’ physical.

The Lakers spent much of their first-round playoff series against Minnesota this spring playing without a traditional center on the floor and made it a top priority entering the summer to address that spot, scouring the trade market and free agency for viable options.

Ayton, who was selected two spots ahead of Doncic in the 2018 draft and shares an agent (Bill Duffy) with the Lakers star, has faced criticism over the years due to questions about his effort and focus. A report out of Portland following his release earlier this week indicated that he frustrated the Blazers by being late to team flights and practices, skipping injury rehab appointments, and throwing “tantrums” in the locker room when he was benched for poor effort.

However, it would have been virtually impossible for the Lakers to find a center in free agency who is more talented as a scorer and rebounder than Ayton. He has averaged at least 14.4 points and 10.0 rebounds per game in all seven of his NBA seasons and was the starting center for a Suns team that made the NBA Finals in 2021. He’s also still very much in his prime — he’ll turn 27 years old later this month.

The Pacers, who signed Ayton to a four-year, maximum-salary offer sheet in 2022 that was matched by Phoenix, were among the other teams said to have interest in him, but the Lakers were consistently cited as the frontrunner.

As a result of using their non-taxpayer mid-level exception, L.A. will be hard-capped at the first tax apron in 2025/26. They’re currently about $5.6MM below that threshold for 13 players, tweets ESPN’s Bobby Marks.

Kings Sign Maxime Raynaud To Three-Year Deal

July 2nd, 2025 at 3:07pm CST by Luke Adams

The Kings have signed former Stanford big man Maxime Raynaud to a three-year contract worth $5.95MM, sources tell Michael Scotto of HoopsHype (Twitter link).

The deal is fully guaranteed for the first two seasons, with a team option for 2027/28, Scotto adds. It has been officially completed, per NBA.com’s transaction log.

Sacramento completed the signing using the second-round pick exception. As we detailed earlier today, a three-year contract that uses that exception and starts at the rookie minimum is worth a total of $5,949,688. Second-round picks can sign their contracts during the July moratorium, which is why the Kings didn’t have to wait until July 6 to get it done.

Raynaud, who spent his full four-year college career at Stanford, had a massive season in 2024/25, averaging 20.2 points and a conference-high 10.6 rebounds, along with 1.4 blocks per game. He also began shooting from beyond the arc a little more, knocking down 34.7% of 5.5 three-pointers per game.

Raynaud was the No. 42 overall pick in last week’s draft.

Mavericks Sign Cooper Flagg To Rookie Contract

July 2nd, 2025 at 2:11pm CST by Luke Adams

No. 1 overall pick Cooper Flagg has officially signed his first NBA contract, the Mavericks announced on Wednesday (via Twitter).

The rookie scale deal will pay Flagg a $13.8MM salary in his rookie year and a total of $62.7MM across his first four NBA seasons.

The top prize of the 2025 NBA draft class, Flagg is coming off a wildly successful freshman season at Duke, where he was earned ACC Player of the Year and AP Player of the Year honors, among several others awards. The 6’9″ forward was the driving force behind the Blue Devils’ 35-4 record and helped the team reach the Final Four of the NCAA Tournament.

Flagg stuffed the stat sheet in his first and only college season, leading a stacked Duke team in points (19.2), rebounds (7.5), assists (4.2), steals (1.4) and blocks (1.4) per game, with a strong shooting line of .481/.385/.840. He made 37 appearances in 2024/25, averaging 30.7 minutes per contest.

Dallas had just a 1.8% chance of claiming this year’s top pick, jumping up from No. 11 to No. 1 when the team won the draft lottery in May.

Cavs Re-Sign Luke Travers On Two-Way Contract

July 1st, 2025 at 9:55pm CST by Dana Gauruder

The Cavaliers have re-signed forward Luke Travers on a two-way contract, according to the NBA transactions log.

Travers received a qualifying offer and apparently accepted that offer to remain on a two-way deal. The qualifying offer is equivalent to another one-year, two-way deal, with a portion (approximately $85K) guaranteed.

Drafted 56th overall in 2022, Travers played 12 games with the NBA club this past season, averaging 1.0 points and 1.7 rebounds in 7.3 minutes. Travers was an Australian draft-and-stash prospect and joined the Cavs on a two-way deal last offseason, though he has been part of their Summer League team for three seasons.

Travers appeared in 21 regular season games with the G League’s Cleveland Charge, averaging 17.0 points, 9.9. rebounds, 7.0 assists, 1.5 steals and 1.2 blocks in 34 minutes per game.

The Cavs now have a pair of players on two-way contracts, with Travers joining Nae’Qwan Tomlin.

Eric Gordon Re-Signs With Sixers On One-Year Deal

July 1st, 2025 at 9:38pm CST by Dana Gauruder

The Sixers have officially re-signed veteran guard Eric Gordon, according to team press release. It’s a one-year, veteran’s minimum deal worth $3.6MM, Sixers beat reporter Derek Bodner tweets.

Gordon declined his $3.47MM option in order to become a free agent but there was reported interest in a reunion and it has come to fruition.

Turning down that option and re-signing on a one-year, minimum-salary deal is a win-win for Gordon and the Sixers. He’ll earn a slightly higher minimum salary ($3.63MM) by inking a new contract, and because the deal just covers one year, the NBA will reimburse the team for a portion of that salary, meaning Philadelphia’s cap hit will be just $2.3MM.

Gordon, who turns 37 on Christmas Day, is coming off an injury-marred season. He posted career-low averages of 6.8 points and 19.7 minutes per game, though he shot it well from three-point land (40.9%). He only appeared in 39 games before undergoing season-ending arthroscopic right wrist surgery on Feb. 26.

Gordon has appeared in 925 regular season games during his career, which began in 2008 with the Clippers. He’s averaged 15.3 points during his career and never averaged fewer than 11 points per game until this past season.

Minimum-salary contracts are among the types of deals that can be officially completed during the July moratorium, which is why the 76ers were able to formally announce Gordon’s new contract.

Jaxson Robinson To Sign Exhibit 10 Deal With Cavs

July 1st, 2025 at 7:53pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Undrafted rookie Jaxson Robinson has agreed to an Exhibit 10 contract with the Cavaliers, Jon Chepkevich of Draft Express tweets.

The well-traveled Robinson played for four Division I teams during his college career. He suited up for Texas A&M, Arkansas and BYU before winding up at Kentucky last season.

He started 24 games for the Wildcats, averaging 13 points, 3.5 rebounds and 1.7 assists in 28 minutes per game. He shot 43.2 percent from the field and 37.6 percent on 3-point tries.

Robinson’s season was cut short by an injury. He suffered a torn ECU tendon in his right wrist during a practice collision in February and underwent surgery in early March.

Exhibit 10 contracts are non-guaranteed but include bonuses of up to $85K if the player is waived and then spends at least 60 days with his team’s G League affiliate. In Robinson’s case, that G League team would be the Cleveland Charge. Exhibit 10 contracts can also be converted into two-way deals, so Davis will try to make his case for a promotion during Summer League and training camp.

Trentyn Flowers Accepts Two-Way QO From Clippers

July 1st, 2025 at 7:32pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

Clippers forward Trentyn Flowers has accepted the two-way qualifying offer tendered to him over the weekend, sources tell Michael Scotto of HoopsHype (Twitter link).

Flowers logged just 27 total minutes in six games at the NBA level as a rookie in 2024/25, but played a more significant role in the G League. In 42 outings last season with the San Diego Clippers, L.A.’s NBAGL affiliate, Flowers registered averages of 17.7 points and 5.0 rebounds per contest while connecting on 47.5% of his field goal attempts and 38.5% from distance.

Accepting the qualifying offer from the Clippers locks in a $85K partial guarantee for Flowers, but his two-way deal doesn’t count against the cap and teams often juggle those roster spots during the offseason, so it’s not a lock that he’ll open the season on the 18-man roster.

For now though, Flowers joins fellow Clippers Patrick Baldwin and Seth Lundy in occupying the club’s three two-way slots.

Heat Sign Kasparas Jakucionis To Rookie Contract

July 1st, 2025 at 6:25pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

The Heat have signed 2025 first-round pick Kasparas Jakucionis to his rookie scale deal, per Ira Winderman of The South Florida Sun Sentinel.

The former Illinois guard, selected with the No. 20 pick, will earn $3.66MM in 2025/26, and $17.7MM over the course of his first four pro seasons in the league.

The 19-year-old out of Lithuania began his career playing for his native Perlas Vilnius in 2020/21, before suiting up for FC Barcelona of the EuroLeague and Spanish ACB league (Liga ACB) from 2022-24. During his one year at Illinois, Jakucionis was named to the All-Big Ten Third Team.

Across 33 contests for the Illini in 2024/25, the 6’6″ wing averaged 15.0 PPG, 5.7 RPG, and 4.7 APG. He posted shooting splits of .440/.318/.845.

Jakucionis was Miami’s only draft pick last week. Last year’s Heat finished with a middling 37-45 record and the No. 10 seed in the East, but survived both their play-in tournament games to claim the conference’s final playoff spot. Miami was quickly swept by Cleveland in the first round.

Heat Sign-And-Trade Duncan Robinson To Pistons

July 1st, 2025 at 5:08pm CST by Dana Gauruder

July 7: The sign-and-trade deal sending Robinson from Miami to Detroit in exchange for Fontecchio is now official, according to a press release from the Pistons (Twitter link).

July 1: Free agent wing Duncan Robinson is headed to the Pistons on a three-year, $48MM contract via a sign-and-trade, Shams Charania of ESPN reports (via Twitter). Detroit is sending backup forward Simone Fontecchio to Miami in the deal, Charania adds in another tweet.

While there are no options on the third year of the deal, per Omari Sankofa II of The Detroit Free Press (Twitter links), it’s only partially guaranteed in year two and non-guaranteed in year three. Contracts signed via sign-and-trade must cover at least three seasons.

Robinson terminated his contract with the Heat in order to become a free agent. Had Robinson opted into the final year of his deal, his $19.9MM salary for ’25/26 would have become partially guaranteed for $9.9MM, which would have forced Miami to decide whether to guarantee his remaining $10MM or waive him in order to create $10MM in savings.

He’ll now join a Pistons team in need of shooting after losing Tim Hardaway Jr. and Dennis Schröder in free agency while their top three-point threat this past season and another unrestricted free agent, Malik Beasley, is under investigation on gambling allegations.

Beasley was said to be in serious talks with the Pistons about a three-year, $42MM contract before word broke about the gambling allegations. It seems that money – and potentially a little extra, if he plays out the full contract – is going to Robinson instead.

Detroit secured a two-year agreement on Monday with Hawks free agent wing Caris LeVert, who like Robinson played his college ball at the University of Michigan. The LeVert deal is expected to be completed using the non-taxpayer mid-level exception.

Robinson, 31, brings one major talent to the table — the ability to stretch the floor. He has knocked down 39.7 percent of his three-point tries during his 423-game NBA regular-season career.

Robinson made 74 appearances this past season, half of which were starts. He averaged 11 points, 2.3 rebounds and 2.4 assists in 24.1 minutes per game. He shot 43.7 percent from the field and 39.3 percent from distance.

Fontecchio appeared in 75 games with the Pistons, all off the bench. He averaged 5.9 points and 2.9 rebounds in 16.5 minutes per game but made a disappointing 33.5 percent of his threes after knocking down 40.1 percent in 66 games with Utah and Detroit the previous season. Fontecchio has one year and $8.3MM left on his contract.

Detroit needed to send out at least $7.5MM in matching salary to make the sign-and-trade work and Fontecchio’s contract fits nicely, cap expert Yossi Gozlan notes (Twitter links). The Heat will also come out with a trade exception in the deal, which Gozlan estimates will be worth $6.9MM.

The Heat now have 15 players on guaranteed contracts, while the Pistons are still operating with a few open roster spots and plenty of spending flexibility below the tax threshold.

Missouri’s Tamar Bates Signs Two-Way Deal With Nuggets

July 1st, 2025 at 5:07pm CST by Earnest Marshall

July 1: The Nuggets have officially signed Bates to a two-way contract, the team announced today in a press release.

Denver’s other two-way slots remain open, though the club has a two-way qualifying offer on the table to Spencer Jones for one of them.

June 26: The Nuggets are signing Tamar Bates to a two-way contract, according to The Athletic’s Tony Jones (Twitter link).

Bates played his first two collegiate seasons with Indiana before transferring to Missouri for his junior and senior years. In 2024/25, he averaged 13.3 points per game while posting an extremely impressive .508/.397/.946 shooting line.

The Nuggets did not make any draft picks, but according to the Denver Gazette’s Vinny Benedetto (Twitter link), there were situations where they looked at trying to get into both the first and second rounds. Bates is their first reported add of the 2025 undrafted class.

On his two-way contract, Bates will be eligible to appear in up to 50 regular season games for the Nuggets and will earn a salary ($636,435) worth half the rookie minimum if he sticks beyond the league-wide guarantee date in January.