Mavs Exercise 2026/27 Option On Dereck Lively
The Mavericks have formally exercised their fourth-year option on Dereck Lively II‘s rookie scale contract, the team announced today (via Twitter).
The move, which had been expected, locks in Lively’s $7,239,130 salary for the 2026/27 season, putting him on track to become eligible for a rookie scale extension during the 2026 offseason. If he and the Mavs don’t work out a new deal at that time, he’d reach restricted free agency in 2027.
A 7’1″ center, Lively has averaged 8.8 points, 7.1 rebounds, and 1.5 blocks in 23.4 minutes per game for Dallas during his first two years in the league, making 72.9% of his shot attempts from the floor.
While the 21-year-old has shown plenty of promise early in his NBA career, staying on the floor has been a challenge — injuries have limited him to 91 total appearances (71 starts), including just 36 (29 starts) in 2024/25. He underwent a procedure to clean up bone spurs in his right foot in July, but was available during the preseason and should be ready to go when the team’s season tips off on Wednesday vs. San Antonio.
Decisions on rookie scale options for the 2026/27 season are due on October 31. We’re tracking all of them right here.
Blazers Sign Javonte Cooke To Two-Way Contract
October 20: The signing is official, according to a team press release.
October 19: The Trail Blazers have agreed to sign free agent guard Javonte Cooke to a two-way contract, agent Jerry Dianis tells Shams Charania of ESPN (Twitter link).
Cooke, a 6’6″ guard who went undrafted in 2022, played three games with the Blazers during preseason, averaging 3.3 points and 1.7 rebounds in 7.5 minutes per contest.
Portland released Cooke on Friday and Sean Highkin of The Rose Garden Report stated at the time that the Blazers were still considering the 26-year-old for a two-way spot. Cooke was previously on a non-guaranteed camp deal.
The 26-year-old took an unusual path to the NBA. A Division-II basketball player in college who finished his career at Winston-Salem State, Cooke has played in the G League as well as the Canadian Elite Basketball League since leaving college. He made 42 appearances for the Oklahoma City Blue last season, averaging 17.0 points, 5.0 rebounds, and 2.8 assists in 28.2 minutes per game while converting 42.4% of his shots from the floor, including 33.5% of his three-point attempts.
Cooke will join Caleb Love and Sidy Cissoko as the third and final two-way player for Portland. The team had a two-way opening, so no corresponding move is necessary to re-sign Cooke.
Nets Waive Kobe Bufkin
The Nets have waived guard Kobe Bufkin, the team announced today. Shams Charania of ESPN first reported the news (via Twitter).
Bufkin was traded from the Hawks to the Nets last month in exchange for $110K in cash considerations. He joined a roster loaded with guard competition after the team took Ben Saraf, Egor Demin, and Nolan Traore in the first round of the 2025 draft.
Bufkin, 22, has struggled with injuries throughout his NBA career and has appeared in just 27 total games in his first two NBA seasons. He averaged 5.0 points and 1.6 assists in 11.9 minutes per game during his time with the Hawks.
The former 15th overall pick struggled to carve out much of a role with Brooklyn during preseason, averaging just 10.9 minutes in his two outings and scoring 7.0 PPG on .364/.375/.600 shooting splits.
As Bobby Marks of ESPN notes (via Twitter), because Bufkin’s $4,503,720 salary is fully guaranteed, the Nets will remain slightly above the minimum salary floor entering the season. Not reaching the floor would cause Brooklyn to lose its luxury tax distribution, which is projected to be around $12.8MM, Marks adds (Twitter link).
The move will also get Brooklyn’s roster within the regular season limits — the team now has 15 players on standard contracts and a pair on two-way deals.
Bufkin will become an unrestricted free agent if he clears waivers on Tuesday.
Thunder Exercise 2026/27 Options On Topic, Wallace
The Thunder have exercised their 2026/27 team options on guards Nikola Topic and Cason Wallace, the team announced in a press release.
Wallace, the 10th overall pick of the 2023 draft, will now earn a guaranteed $7,420,806 in ’26/27, which will be his fourth season. He will be eligible for a rookie scale extension next summer.
Topic, the 12th pick of last year’s draft, will earn $5,429,760 in ’26/27 (his third season). Both players already had guaranteed contracts for ’25/26.
Wallace, who turns 22 next month, has been a rotation regular over the past two seasons for the defending champions. In 68 regular season games (27.6 minutes per contest) in ’24/25, the defensive stalwart averaged 8.4 points, 3.4 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 1.8 steals on .474/.356/.811 shooting.
Topic, 20, missed his entire rookie season due to an ACL tear. He won’t make his regular season debut until at least November after undergoing a testicular procedure earlier this month.
We’re tracking all the 2026/27 rookie scale option decisions here. They are due by October 31.
Wizards Waive Dillon Jones
3:10 pm: Jones has been waived, according to the Wizards (Twitter link).
2:07 pm: In order to set their 15-man standard roster for the regular season, the Wizards will waive Dillon Jones, sources tell Josh Robbins of The Athletic (Twitter link).
If he goes unclaimed on the waiver wire, the Wizards will carry a dead-money cap hit worth $2,753,280 for the remainder of the season, since Jones’ salary is fully guaranteed. Washington will decline its third-year option on Jones as part of the move.
Jones was the 26th overall pick of the 2024 NBA draft after a standout college career at Weber State. He spent his rookie season season with the Thunder, who traded him to Washington along with a second-round pick in a salary-dump deal in late June, shortly after Oklahoma City won its first championship.
A 6’5″ forward, Jones averaged 2.5 points and 2.2 rebounds in 54 regular season games with the Thunder (10.2 minutes per contest). He also played 23 G League games (32.3 MPG) with the Oklahoma City Blue, averaging 13.5 PPG, 7.4 RPG and 5.7 APG on .422/.296/.667 shooting.
Jones, who turns 24 years old in 10 days, appeared in three preseason games with the Wizards, averaging 2.0 PPG, 3.0 RPG and 1.3 SPG in 11.3 MPG.
Our Luke Adams speculated this morning that Jones might be the odd man out in Washington when he checked in on the roster situations around the league.
Although he’s being released by the Wizards, it doesn’t sound like Jones will be out of the NBA for long. Both Jake Fischer of The Stein Line and Michael Scotto of HoopsHype say Jones is expected to draw “strong interest” on the two-way contract market (Twitter links).
Kevin Durant Signs Two-Year Extension With Rockets
12:15 pm: Durant’s extension is now official, the Rockets announced in a press release (Twitter link).
8:02 am: The Rockets and star forward Kevin Durant have agreed to terms on a new two-year contract extension, his business partner Rich Kleiman tells Shams Charania of ESPN (Twitter link). According to Charania, the deal is worth $90MM and includes a second-year player option for the 2027/28 season.
Houston was one of the teams on Durant’s list of preferred destinations when the Suns put him on the trade block during the summer, so there was an expectation after the two teams agreed to a deal that Durant and the Rockets would work out an agreement of their own sooner or later.
However, there was also a sense that the Rockets weren’t willing to give Durant the maximum extension he was been eligible for, which was worth roughly $119MM over two years (based on a projected $166MM cap). That maximum salary figure would’ve increased slightly at the six-month mark after the trade, but the 37-year-old couldn’t sign an extension longer than two years due to the over-38 rule.
Ultimately, the two sides agreed to an extension that will see Durant take a pay cut from his current $54.7MM salary but still represents a massive payday for a player entering his 19th NBA season. According to Charania (Twitter link), there was an understanding when Durant was dealt to the Rockets that he wouldn’t push for a maximum contract in order to help the team maintain flexibility to build and retain its roster going forward.
Durant has expressed this fall that he feels comfortable in Houston, where he has reunited with one-time Seattle SuperSonics teammate Jeff Green (story via Danielle Lerner of The Houston Chronicle) and fellow University of Texas alums Royal Ivey, D.J. Augustin, and Dexter Pittman, each of whom has a role within the Rockets’ organization (story via Lerner). As Chris Mannix of SI.com wrote in a feature story earlier this week, Durant is hopeful that he’ll retire as a Rocket.
“I’m looking to be here as long as I can, play my last years of my career,” he said. “That’s the intent. I know, I said that about Phoenix, too, but that’s the intent. I would love to do that. I mean, I’m 37 years old and I’m going on 19 years in the league. I want to be solidified in a spot and build with a team with a group of guys that’s going to be around for a while. So hopefully this is it.”
Although Durant’s stint with the Suns didn’t play out as he or the team hoped, the 15-time All-Star continued to put up monster offensive numbers during his time in Phoenix. In 62 games last season, he averaged 26.6 points, 6.0 rebounds, and 4.2 assists in 36.5 minutes per night, with a shooting line of .527/.430/.839.
The Rockets are optimistic that Durant’s ability to score in the half-court setting will raise their ceiling after they struggled in those situations, especially in crunch time, during last season’s first-round playoff series vs. Golden State.
As Bobby Marks of ESPN notes (via Twitter), Houston was projected to be about $80MM below the second tax apron in 2026/27 prior to Durant’s deal. His new salary will come in low enough to allow the club to extend Tari Eason and fill out its roster in free agency next summer while remaining below that threshold. Eason is eligible to sign a rookie scale extension today or Monday — if he doesn’t work out a deal with the Rockets at this time, he’ll be a restricted free agent next summer.
According to Charania (Twitter link), Durant’s new contract – including the player option – increases his total career current and future earnings to over $598MM, which is an NBA record. LeBron James was the previous record-holder, coming in just below $584MM.
Raptors Bring Back A.J. Lawson On Two-Way Contract
7:05 pm: Lawson has officially rejoined the Raptors on a two-way contract, per NBA.com’s transaction log.
9:10 am: The Raptors are re-signing guard A.J. Lawson on a two-way deal, HoopsHype’s Michael Scotto tweets.
Michael Grange of Sportsnet.ca first reported that the Raptors were expected to bring back Lawson on a two-way contract.
Lawson was on the team’s camp roster but was cut on Thursday and will clear waivers later today. The team didn’t have the ability to convert him directly to a two-way contract because he hadn’t been on an Exhibit 10 deal.
Lawson, 25, is a Toronto native who holds three years of NBA experience. He signed a two-way deal with his hometown team last December and was promoted to a multiyear standard deal in April, just before the season ended. However, Lawson’s salary for 2025/26 was non-guaranteed and the Raptors opted for financial flexibility due to their current cap/tax situation.
In 26 games with the Raptors last season, Lawson averaged 9.1 points and 3.3 rebounds in 18.7 minutes per contest on .421/.327/.683 shooting. He has also played for Dallas and Minnesota.
Toronto has a two-way opening, so a corresponding move won’t be necessary. The Raptors currently have 14 players on guaranteed contracts on their standard roster and will likely remain one below the maximum entering the season.
Suns Waive McDermott, Mariano To Set Roster
After signing them on Friday, the Suns have officially waived forward Sean McDermott and wing Nathan Mariano, according to the transaction log at NBA.com.
McDermott, 28, appeared in 18 games for the Grizzlies on a two-way deal back in 2020/21, but hasn’t been in the NBA since then. The former Butler Bulldog spent a few seasons in the G League with the Memphis Hustle before continuing his career overseas, playing in Italy and Turkey the past two years.
Marino, 22, is a 6’9″ wing. He has spent several seasons playing professionally for Franca in Brazil, his home country.
Both players are likely to suit up this fall for the Valley Suns. The Exhibit 10 contracts they signed with Phoenix will make them eligible for bonuses worth up to $85,300 if they spend at least 60 days with the Suns’ G League team.
[RELATED: 2025/26 NBA Roster Counts]
As a result of the cuts, Phoenix now has 14 players on standard contracts and three on two-way deals, so the team’s roster is set for the regular season. The Suns could fill their 15th standard roster spot before their season gets underway next week, but likely won’t do so since they’re operating slightly over the luxury tax line.
Celtics Make Cuts To Set Regular Season Roster
The Celtics officially waived forward Hason Ward and wing Aaron Scott from their Exhibit 10 contracts on Saturday, according to NBA.com’s transaction log. Boston also moved forward with its plan to sign-and-waive RJ Luis, officially placing him back on waivers today.
As a result of the cuts, the Celtics’ roster now appears ready to go for the regular season. The team is carrying 14 players on standard contracts, including 12 on fully guaranteed salaries and Jordan Walsh and Neemias Queta on partially guaranteed deals. Additionally, all three of the club’s two-way slots are filled.
Boston isn’t expected to fill its 15th standard roster slot early in the season due to its proximity to the luxury tax line. Any player the Celtics sign into that slot would cost them exponentially more in tax penalties.
Ward, Scott, and Luis are all expected to report to the Maine Celtics, Boston’s G League affiliate. They’ll be eligible for bonuses worth up to $85,300 on top of their standard NBAGL salaries if they spend at least 60 days with Maine.
This is the second time this month that Luis has been waived by the Celtics — they needed to bring him back on an Exhibit 10 contract in order to make sure he was eligible for the bonus he’ll get for spending two-plus months with the G League team.
Cavs Sign, Waive Zeke Mayo
5:59 pm: Mayo has been waived, per NBA.com’s transaction log, putting him on track to sign a G League contract and join the Charge.
10:14 am: The Cavaliers have added guard Zeke Mayo on an Exhibit 10 contract, Spotrac contributor Keith Smith tweets.
Mayo, an undrafted rookie out of Kansas, was a member of the Wizards’ Summer League team. He played one season for the Jayhawks, averaging 14.6 points, 4.8 rebounds and 2.9 assists while shooting 42.2% from deep. He had 18 points and six rebounds in an NCAA Tournament first-round loss to Arkansas.
Prior to that, Mayo spent three seasons with South Dakota State and was named the Summit League Player of the Year in 2024.
The 6’4” guard will likely be waived and join the Cleveland Charge, the Cavs’ G League affiliate. He could earn a bonus worth up to $85,300 with the Charge if he sticks with that team at least 60 days.