Former NBA Coach Of The Year Doug Moe Dies
Former NBA head coach Doug Moe passed away on Tuesday at the age of 87, the Nuggets confirmed (Twitter link). According to Mike Monroe and Tom Orsborn of The San Antonio Express-News (subscription required), Moe had been battling an illness.
Moe, who played professionally in Italy and the ABA from 1965-72, had his career cut short by knee issues and became better known as a coach than a player. He was hired as the head coach of the Spurs in 1976 and spent four years in San Antonio before embarking on a lengthy stint as the head coach of the Nuggets (1980-1990).
Moe was hired as the Sixers‘ head coach in 1992 but was let go midway through his first season on the job. He later returned to Denver and served as a coaching consultant (2002-05) and assistant coach (2005-08) before calling it a career.
Known for his up-tempo, run-and-gun offense, Moe compiled a 628-529 (.543) regular season record as an NBA head coach and went 33-50 (.398) in the postseason. His 1981/82 Nuggets still hold several league records, including the highest scoring average for a single season (126.5 points per game). That Denver team is the only one in NBA history to score at least 100 points in all 82 regular season games.
Moe ranks 26th on the league’s all-time list of coaching wins, just behind Flip Saunders and Chuck Daly, and was named the NBA’s Coach of the Year in 1988 after leading the Nuggets to a 54-28 record, a 17-game improvement on the previous season.
“Coach Moe was a one of a kind leader and person who spearheaded one of the most successful and exciting decades in Nuggets history,” the Nuggets said in their statement today. “He will forever be loved and remembered by Nuggets fans and his banner commemorating his 432 career victories as head coach will hang in the rafters to forever honor his incredible legacy.
“The organization’s thoughts are with Doug’s wife Jane, his son David, and all of his family and loved ones who are hurting in this moment.”
We at Hoops Rumors echo that sentiment and send our condolences to Moe’s family and friends.
Jaren Jackson Jr. Undergoes Knee Surgery
Jaren Jackson Jr. underwent successful surgery on Tuesday morning to remove a localized pigmented villonodular synovitis (PVNS) growth in his left knee, the Jazz confirmed today in a press release.
According to the team, which first announced last week that Jackson would be undergoing the procedure, the surgery was performed in Salt Lake City by Dr. Travis Maak, the Jazz’s head orthopedic team physician. The former Defensive Player of the Year will begin the rehabilitation process and will be reevaluated in four weeks, per the club.
Despite the fact that Jackson will be examined in four weeks, Utah previously indicated that he’ll be out for the rest of the season. The expectation is that the big man will be fully healthy for training camp in the fall.
Jackson, 26, was traded from Memphis to Utah at this month’s deadline and appeared in three games for his new team before being shut down, averaging 22.3 points, 4.3 rebounds, 2.7 assists, and 2.0 steals in 24.0 minutes per contest.
The Jazz stated last week that they identified the PVNS growth in Jackson’s knee via MRI during a post-trade physical and determined along with Jackson and his representatives – after consulting multiple medical experts – that surgery was necessary to address the issue.
According to the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, a PVNS growth isn’t cancerous and doesn’t spread to other areas of the body, but PVNS is a progressive disease that can lead to bone damage and arthritis. In most cases, surgery is necessary to remove the damaged joint lining and the growth.
Second-year Jazz forward Cody Williams, who started each of his past 15 games prior to Jackson’s debut, came off the bench while JJJ was active, then returned to the starting five last Thursday in Utah’s final contest before the All-Star break. He’ll likely remain in that starting role with Jackson sidelined.
Warriors Sign Nate Williams To Two-Way Deal
February 17: The Warriors have officially signed Williams to a two-way contract, according to the NBA.com transaction log.
February 16: The Warriors are signing Nate Williams to a two-way contract, Jake Fischer of The Stein Line tweets.
Also known as Jeenathan Williams, the 6’5” shooting guard has been playing for the NBA G League’s Long Island Nets while awaiting another NBA opportunity. He was on a training camp contract with the Lakers last fall but was waived in October.
Williams, who turned 27 last Thursday, spent last season with the Rockets, first on a two-way deal and eventually on a standard contract. He got into 20 games, averaging 3.3 PPG and 0.7 RPG in 7.4 MPG, then was waived by Houston over the summer.
After the Lakers let him go, Williams hooked on with the Nets’ G League affiliate. He has averaged 18.4 points, 6.0 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 1.8 steals in 34 minutes per game over 35 appearances. He’s made 47.2% of his field goal attempts, including 36.5% from long range.
Williams also appeared in 22 games with Houston in 2023/24 and five games with Portland the previous season. He went undrafted out of Buffalo in 2022.
Golden State had a two-way opening and won’t need to make a corresponding move. The Warriors created a two-way opening by promoting Pat Spencer right after the trade deadline.
Mike Conley Officially Rejoins Timberwolves
As expected, veteran point guard Mike Conley has re-signed with the Timberwolves. The transaction is listed in NBA.com’s official log, while Michael Scotto of HoopsHype (Twitter link) confirms that the two sides have completed a rest-of-season deal.
The Timberwolves sent Conley to Chicago in a salary-dump trade on February 3, with the Bulls flipping him to Charlotte along with Coby White a day later, just ahead of the Feb. 5 trade deadline. The Hornets subsequently cut him, which cleared the way for the 38-year-old to return to Minnesota.
NBA rules prohibit a player who is traded and then waived to immediately re-sign with the team that traded him away. However, that restriction only applied to the Bulls, not the Timberwolves, since Conley was traded twice.
Word broke when Conley was still on waivers that he planned to rejoin the Wolves. The team waited until today to complete the signing in order to maximize its cap/tax savings by taking the full allotment of 14 days to get back to the NBA-mandated roster minimum of 14 players. Minnesota still has an open spot on its 15-man roster after signing Conley.
Conley, who is in his 19th NBA season, became the Wolves’ starting point guard when they acquired him at the 2023 trade deadline and maintained that role through last season. He ceded his starting job to Donte DiVincenzo this past fall and has averaged a career-low 18.5 minutes per night in 44 outings (nine starts) so far this season. His 4.4 points and 2.9 assists per game are also career lows, as is his 32.2% field goal percentage.
Despite Conley’s declining production, there were rumblings ahead of the trade deadline that the team wasn’t eager to move the veteran due to his locker room leadership. With that in mind, being able to move off of the guard’s $10.8MM expiring contract and then bring him back on a prorated minimum-salary deal represents the best of both worlds for the Wolves.
Assuming Conley did sign for the minimum, which is a safe bet, he’ll earn $1,148,727 for the rest of the season while the Wolves carry a cap hit of $725,834.
Conley will likely seeing his playing time decline a little in the season’s final two months after Minnesota acquired guard Ayo Dosunmu from Chicago at the trade deadline.
Southeast Notes: Hawks, Heat, J. Young, Magic
An NBA scout who had been bearish on the Hawks‘ ceiling with Trae Young as their centerpiece tells Ken Sugiura of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (subscription required) that he liked the fact the team “picked a path” ahead of the trade deadline. After dealing Young to Washington for CJ McCollum and Corey Kispert, Atlanta made four additional deals, adding Jonathan Kuminga, Buddy Hield, Gabe Vincent, and Jock Landale as well as three future second-round picks.
“I think they’re going all in on chemistry over absolute talent,” the scout told Sugiura. “Trae was a better player than what they had, but not necessarily a winning player. … You either have to go all in and build around Trae or you’ve got to go all in with the young guys and start to build it together, and it looks like they’ve done that. They’ve made sure that almost everyone they’ve brought in has been a shooting piece, except for Kuminga.”
Besides generating some extra cap flexibility, taking a shot on a former lottery pick in Kuminga, and adding a few minor draft assets, the Hawks have positioned themselves to continue adding talent. That effort will begin with the valuable 2026 first-round pick Atlanta controls, which will be the most favorable of the Bucks’ and Pelicans’ selections.
The scout who spoke to Sugiura said the Hawks are set up for “long-term growth” and suggested there are multiple spots on the roster that the front office could look to address this summer.
“You could argue that they could upgrade at center over (Onyeka) Okongwu or they could keep it as is and try to get an upgrade over (Zaccharie) Risacher, with, like, a big, long defensive three-and-D (wing) that kind of makes sense for their group,” the scout said. “But I think they could go either direction there. And they’ll have to rebuild a little bit of the bench in the offseason.”
We have more from around the Southeast:
- The Heat are typically active on the buyout market, but that may not be the case this year, according to Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald, who says the team wants to make sure it has enough meaningful minutes to go around for its young players in the final two months of the season. That was also one reason why Miami stood pat at the trade deadline after striking out on Giannis Antetokounmpo instead of seeking out a marginal upgrade that would have cut into the playing time for those youngsters, Chiang adds.
- Jahmir Young, who is on a two-way contract with the Heat, may not be one of those younger players who sees regular action in the second half of the season — he has logged just 44 total minutes in eight NBA games so far this season. Still, as Ira Winderman of The South Florida Sun Sentinel details (subscription required), Young has exceeded the team’s expectations with his excellent performance for the Sioux Falls Skyforce in the G League (26.2 PPG, 8.9 APG, 5.3 RPG in 22 games). “Jahmir has been one of the better surprises of the season,” head coach Erik Spoelstra said. “He’s been playing simply fantastic basketball in Sioux Falls. And then whenever we have an opportunity to see him, he’s just a handful because he’s going full speed. … Our guys are always telling him (in practice), ‘Hey, dial it back a little bit,’ and we’re always telling him, ‘No, be who you are. Be a total nightmare to guard.'”
- Within an analysis of the first half of the Magic‘s season and a look at what’s to come after the All-Star break, Jason Beede of The Orlando Sentinel (subscription required) observes that the team still has an open spot on its 15-man roster after signing Jevon Carter earlier this month. Orlando figures to wait until sometime in March (or April) to fill that opening in order to remain below the luxury tax line, per Beede, who identifies two-way player Jamal Cain as a candidate for a promotion.
Wiseman Among NBA Vets Representing U.S. In World Cup Qualifiers
USA Basketball has formally announced its 12-man roster for the next window of FIBA World Cup qualifying games, which will tip off later this month.
The following players will represent Team USA in games against the Dominican Republic on February 26 and Mexico on March 1 at Frontwave Arena in Oceanside, California:
- Tevian Jones, G
- Taevion Kinsey, G
- Brandon Knight, G
- Dakota Mathias, G
- Elfrid Payton, G
- Jaden Shackelford, G
- Malcolm Hill, F
- Jeremiah Robinson-Earl, F
- David Roddy, F
- Terry Taylor, F
- Jeremiah Tilmon, C
- James Wiseman, C
Knight, Shackelford, and Tilmon also played for Team USA in the fall during the first window of World Cup qualifying games. The U.S. team, which is being coached by former Rockets head coach Stephen Silas, won both of those matchups against Nicaragua and will take its 2-0 record and a new-look roster into these qualifiers.
Wiseman is the most notable addition to the 12-man squad. The former No. 2 overall pick has appeared in 152 NBA regular season games over the course of six seasons in the NBA and suited up for the Pacers earlier in 2025/26. Wiseman has been a free agent since he was released by Indiana on December 26.
Payton, Robinson-Earl, Roddy, and Taylor are among the other newcomers with recent NBA experience. Last season, Payton played for New Orleans and Charlotte, Roddy suited up for three different teams, and Taylor had a brief stint with the Kings. Robinson-Earl, like Wiseman, played for the Pacers earlier in ’25/26 and also made five appearances for the Mavericks on a 10-day contract last month.
This is the second of six windows of qualifying games for the 2027 FIBA World Cup, which will tip off on August 27, 2027. Team USA will also compete in qualifiers in July, Aug./Sept., and Nov./Dec., with the final qualifying window opening in Feb. 2027.
The actual World Cup roster is unlikely to feature any of the players in this 12-man group, since the U.S. typically sends a more star-studded squad to the event itself, which takes place during the NBA offseason. However, the qualifying games give some less-heralded players the opportunity to represent their home country and to help Team USA clinch its spot in the World Cup.
Roster Moves Required For Wolves, Nuggets, Celtics
NBA roster rules require teams to carry at least 14 players on standard contracts for most of the regular season. Clubs are permitted to dip below 14 players for no more than 14 days at a time and 28 days in total during a season.
[RELATED: 2025/26 NBA Roster Counts]
Several teams around the NBA dropped below 14 players on standard contracts earlier this month as a result of trade-deadline deals. While some have since made additions to get them back to the league-mandated minimum, there are a few exceptions who will have to make roster moves this week.
Minnesota Timberwolves
The Timberwolves went from 14 players on standard contracts to 13 on February 3, two days before this month’s trade deadline, when they sent Mike Conley to Chicago in a three-team trade that also involved the Pistons. That means they must re-add a 14th man on Feb. 17 — today.
It sounds like the Wolves’ new 14th man will look a whole lot like their old 14th man. Because Conley was subsequently flipped from Chicago to Charlotte before being waived by the Hornets, NBA rules don’t prohibit him from returning to Minnesota, and that’s reportedly the plan. Word broke back on Feb. 6 that Conley intended to re-sign with the Timberwolves after he cleared waivers.
At the time, ESPN’s Shams Charania reported that Conley and the Wolves were working on the timing of the deal. With Minnesota operating in luxury tax territory and the All-Star break around the corner, it made sense for the team to take advantage of its two-week allowance below 14 players and to give Conley a bit of a vacation before bringing him back. I expect he’ll officially sign on Tuesday.
Denver Nuggets
The Nuggets’ situation is pretty straightforward. They dipped from 14 players to 13 on Feb. 5, deadline day, when they traded Hunter Tyson to Brooklyn in order duck below the luxury tax line. They have until this Thursday (Feb. 19) to get back to the 14-man minimum, and there’s an obvious candidate to fill that roster spot: Spencer Jones.
The second-year forward, who is on a two-way contract, reached his limit of 50 active games prior to the All-Star break, but he suffered a concussion in that 50th game, which likely delayed his promotion to the 15-man roster.
Assuming Jones is fully healthy, it would be a surprise if anyone besides him is added to Denver’s 15-man roster on or before Thursday. If he still needs more time to recover, the Nuggets could add a veteran on a 10-day contract as their 14th man for the time being, but Jones’ promotion is happening sooner or later. The 24-year-old has started 34 games and averaged 23.6 minutes per night — Denver needs to make sure he’s eligible to play once he’s ready.
Boston Celtics
The Celtics, who had been carrying 14 players on standard contracts, made a series of trades on deadline day that saw them send out four players (Anfernee Simons, Xavier Tillman Sr., Chris Boucher, and Josh Minott) and bring back just one (Nikola Vucevic). They also promoted Amari Williams from his two-way contract to a standard deal on Feb. 5, but they’ve had just 12 players on their 15-man roster since then, so they’ll need to make two roster additions by this Thursday (Feb. 19).
Boston will have to operate very carefully to remain below the luxury tax line this season and has likely already plotted out the timing of its roster moves for the rest of the season. As we wrote in a post-deadline Front Office article, that plan will likely involve two-way players Max Shulga and John Tonje, since they’ll both count for the rookie minimum for tax/apron purposes if they’re promoted to standard contracts, whereas a rookie free agent wouldn’t due to the “tax variance” rule.
That doesn’t mean both Shulga and Tonje will be converted right away, but I expect at least one of them to be involved in Boston’s roster moves this week. A 10-day deal for Tonje along with a 10-day deal for a veteran free agent is one path the Celtics could take — that would allow them to dip back to 12 players for another two weeks after those 10-day contracts expire.
Lakers Rumors: Doncic, LeBron, Offseason Targets, Giannis
It was a relatively quiet trade deadline for the Lakers, who were linked to a myriad of potential targets but ended up making just one relatively minor deal, sending Gabe Vincent and a second-round pick to Atlanta for Luke Kennard. As Dave McMenamin of ESPN writes, general manager Rob Pelinka described the Lakers as being “aggressive” at the deadline while using a nontraditional definition of the term.
“One form of being aggressive is saying no to moves that come your way that might not be best for the short- and long-term future,” Pelinka said. “That’s like being aggressive, even though you end up doing nothing, because it’s hard to say no sometimes to getting a good player that could be a quick short-term fix, but could have implications for the long term where it doesn’t fit into the overall vision you have for the team.”
A source close to Luka Doncic tells ESPN that the All-Star guard supported the team’s focus on the “long-term picture” at the trade deadline. That “adherence to discipline” at the deadline could lead to an eventful summer, according to McMenamin, who notes that the club preserved its most valuable trade assets and its future cap flexibility and is in position to create more than $50MM in cap room even if Deandre Ayton and Marcus Smart pick up their respective player options.
Here’s more from McMenamin on the Lakers’ plans going forward:
- That $50MM+ cap projection doesn’t account for LeBron James, but if he wants to continue his career in 2026/27, the Lakers would welcome him back, sources tell McMenamin. Pelinka has said before that he’d love for James to retire as a Laker, and that would apply in 2027, not just 2026, McMenamin writes. Still, one Eastern Conference executive who spoke to ESPN believes it would be in the team’s best long-term interests to move on from LeBron and focus on building around Doncic this offseason. “Let him walk and use the space to retool around Luka,” that exec said. “Keeping (Austin) Reaves is critical. (Doncic) plays best with another ball handler/creator like with Kyrie (Irving) and (Jalen) Brunson.”
- Heat forward Andrew Wiggins and Rockets wing Tari Eason are among the potential 2026 free agent targets the Lakers have discussed internally, per McMenamin, though it remains to be seen if either will actually be available — Wiggins holds a 2026/27 player option, while Eason will be a restricted free agent. Peyton Watson is another player the Lakers have on their radar, since the cap-strapped Nuggets would have to shed salary or go into second-apron territory to match an aggressive offer sheet for the RFA-to-be. “We felt like creating optionality or having optionality now is really a positive thing for us this coming offseason,” Pelinka said earlier this month. “Because there’s some teams that maybe have gotten too deep into the aprons. And I think players, we see around the league, become available when teams get in that position.”
- One rival front office member who spoke to ESPN suggested the Lakers need to “get as many defenders with length that can knock down a shot as possible.” Tobias Harris, Quentin Grimes, and Dean Wade are among the other players who fit that bill and who will be unrestricted free agents in 2026, McMenamin notes.
- Of course, while the Lakers would like to add quality role players to complement Doncic, they also believe they could be among the top suitors for Giannis Antetokounmpo if the Bucks explore moving the star forward again this summer, team sources tell McMenamin. Los Angeles will have the ability to trade up to three first-round picks (2026, 2031, and 2033) in the offseason and one Western Conference executive told ESPN that he thinks Giannis is the “big prize” the club has its eye on.
And-Ones: Tanking Reform, Power Rankings, Hayes-Davis, Gasol
The subject of tanking has become a hot-button topic in recent weeks, prompting NBA commissioner Adam Silver to address it over All-Star weekend. ESPN’s Bobby Marks spoke on NBA Today on Monday about the commissioner’s response, including his comments about potentially stripping picks from teams.
“Change is coming here when we’re looking at this lottery system, and basically not incentivizing teams to lose to gain advantage in the draft,” Marks said (YouTube video link).
There have been different ideas thrown out as potential remedies for the current system. Marc Stein, in his latest Substack article, suggests a new approach, wherein teams could only secure the highest odds for landing the top pick once they clear 27 wins.
Stein uses 27 wins as the cut-off because that would mean winning at least a third of the season’s games, and would discourage teams from bottoming out completely. Some semblance of competitiveness would be required to hit that mark and qualify for a top pick. Teams that didn’t reach 27 wins would have lower odds of landing a top-four pick in this scenario.
Whatever the choice is, Stein writes that it’s important that the league doesn’t overreact to a particularly egregious single-year tank battle due to what is considered a generational draft.
We have more from around the world of basketball:
- Law Murray of The Athletic released his post-All-Star Break power rankings today, which he broke into five categories: top contenders, in a good place, the bubble, not the tier to fear, and basement floor. His top contenders category includes five teams, led by the Pistons, followed by the Spurs, Thunder, Knicks, and Celtics, while his second tier is a three-team race between the Cavaliers, Nuggets, and Rockets. On the other side of the spectrum, he has five “basement floor” teams, with the two lowest being the Wizards at 29 and the Kings, whom he calls “a true factory of sadness,” at 30.
- It was recently reported that Nigel Hayes-Davis would be leaving the NBA to return to Europe, signing a deal with Panathinaikos that will extend through 2028. He explained the decision to choose the Greek team instead of joining one of his former squad, Fenerbahce Beko. “Everyone knows Fenerbahce was an option and what I did there over the last few years, especially what we accomplished as a team last season. It just felt like that chapter was closed and that I had given my all,” he said, per Kevin Martorano of Sportando. Hayes-Davis was the EuroLeague Final Four MVP a year ago as Fenerbahce won the 2025 title.
- Former NBA star Pau Gasol confirmed his involvement in NBA Europe, though what exactly he will be doing has yet to be fully clarified, Martorano writes for Sportando. “At the moment, there is no defined role. I’m simply working with the NBA, with FIBA, and speaking with teams to see what the evolution of basketball’s growth in Europe should look like,” the two-time NBA champion said. “From there, we’ll see what role I will ultimately take on, whether at the league level or with a team.” He also outlined his vision for what the project would be able to accomplish: “We need to build everything from scratch. Basketball is a globally important sport, and I believe we have the space to enhance it both as an experience and as a show, going beyond the simple magic of the game itself. That is exactly what we are here to do.”
Knicks Notes: Defense, Schedule, Warren, All-Star Game
The Knicks‘ 2025/26 season has progressed through several different phases, and the fact that they’ve seemingly been able to maintain their status as a contender throughout those changes is something to value, writes Stefan Bondy of the New York Post.
Bondy weighs several different answers when it comes to the highlight of the season so far: there’s the NBA Cup victory, though that was quickly followed by the team’s worst stretch of play this year. There’s the increase in three-point attempts — Bondy notes that the Knicks are first in corner threes attempted and made after being 11th in both categories last season.
Ultimately, he lands on the defensive improvements. After ranking 18th on defense through their first 43 games, the Knicks have ratcheted up the intensity and have been the best defense in the league from January 20 to the All-Star break, improving to 11th overall on the season.
Bondy credits assistant coach Darren Erman for switching the scheme to force the ball to the sidelines and baselines, rather than funneling into the middle as they had been doing.
He notes that the return of Landry Shamet and the addition of Jose Alvarado at the trade deadline helped improve the team’s point-of-attack defense. The recent signing of Jeremy Sochan will give them another versatile defender — and one with enough size to guard wings and forwards.
Bondy wraps up by positing that the second half of the season will be a success if the Knicks can clinch the No. 2 seed. They are currently a half-game behind the Celtics, and while it’s unlikely they catch the No. 1 Pistons, securing home court advantage for the first two rounds could help the team make a deep playoff run.
We have more from the Knicks:
- One thing that will make the pursuit of the second seed a little more challenging is New York’s schedule coming out of the All-Star break. Peter Sblendorio, writing for the New York Daily News, describes the team’s first 11 games as a gauntlet, starting with the return to action against the Pistons, albeit a Pistons team missing its usual big man rotation as Jalen Duren and Isaiah Stewart serve suspensions. The Knicks will go on to face the top five teams in the Western Conference and three of the top five Eastern teams in a stretch that includes seven road games and two back-to-backs.
- Veteran NBA wing T.J. Warren has rejoined the Westchester Knicks, the G League team announced today. Warren played for Westchester last season as well, averaging 22.8 points, 6.1 rebounds, and 4.2 assists in 21 regular season games, but hewas never called up to the parent team. His last NBA action came in the 2023/24 season, when he played 11 games for the Timberwolves.
- The Knicks won the Shooting Stars event during All-Star weekend, but Jared Schwartz of the New York Post writes that the All-Star Game itself was one to forget for the New York stars. While Jalen Brunson‘s team made it to the final game, he played deferentially throughout the event, doing little to leave his mark on the competition. Meanwhile, Karl-Anthony Towns was on the wrong side of two game-winning sequences. There were some minor fireworks, though, when Brunson got Towns in isolation and flew by him for the layup — Towns tried to block the shot and was called for goaltending.