- Olivier-Maxence Prosper spent most of last season in the G League after the Mavericks drafted him in the first round. He’ll have a tough time cracking the rotation in his second year with the additions of Klay Thompson, Naji Marshall, and Quentin Grimes. However, the club is still optimistic about his future and the wing’s development remains an intriguing element to monitor, according to Grant Afseth of Dallas Sports Journal.
Diamond Sports Group – the parent company of the Bally Sports regional networks – announced on Friday that it has reached an agreement with the NBA to continue local broadcasts for 13 teams for the 2024/25 season, according to Evan Drellich and Mike Vorkunov of The Athletic.
Diamond’s agreements, including a deal with the NHL to continue broadcasting nine teams’ games, will need to be approved by a federal bankruptcy judge. That hearing is scheduled for September 3, per Drellich and Vorkunov. While the new deals will only cover the 2024/25 season for now, they could extend beyond that if Diamond gets out of bankruptcy.
Diamond won’t be moving forward on deals with the Pelicans or the Mavericks, according to Friday’s announcement. The Pelicans news was reported earlier this month, with the team making plans to broadcasting its games for free over the air through Gray TV.
The Mavericks’ broadcast plans for the coming season remain unclear. However, The Athletic characterized the split with Dallas as mutual, and an NBA spokesperson told The Dallas Morning News that the Mavs “declined to continue distributing their games” through Diamond/Bally Sports, so it sounds like the club has a new plan in the works.
The 13 teams whose games will continue to air on Diamond’s regional sports networks in 2024/25 are the Hawks, Hornets, Cavaliers, Pistons, Pacers, Clippers, Grizzlies, Heat, Bucks, Timberwolves, Thunder, Magic, and Spurs.
Here are a few more odds and ends from around the basketball world:
- Saturday’s farewell game in honor of Goran Dragic‘s retirement – dubbed “The Night of the Dragon,” will stream on the NBA App at 2:00 pm Eastern time, the league announced today (Twitter link). Luka Doncic and Nikola Jokic will team up as part of “Team Luka,” while Dragic’s roster features former MVP Steve Nash. Eurohoops published the full rosters on Twitter.
- Speaking to reporters ahead of Dragic’s farewell game, Dirk Nowitzki suggested that he would like to continue working in basketball in some capacity, but he doesn’t plan on becoming a full-time coach for any team. “I don’t think I see coaching in my future,” Nowitzki said, per Cesare Milanti of Eurohoops. “Things could change very quickly, but I don’t see myself as a team coach. I see more myself as an individual coach.”
- Former Bucks assistant Josh Oppenheimer has accepted a job on Porter Moser‘s coaching staff at Oklahoma, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (Twitter link). Milwaukee parted ways with Oppenheimer – who had a “close working relationship” with Giannis Antetokounmpo, according to Wojnarowski – back in May as Doc Rivers made changes to his staff ahead of his first full season with the Bucks.
The Pelicans are set to hold a voluntary mini-camp ahead of the official start of their team training camp, reports Will Guillory of The Athletic (Twitter link). New Orleans is expected to have all but one member of its roster present at the mini-camp, which will take place next week in California.
The club is looking to build on its postseason success last year. New Orleans finished with a 49-33 record, its best finish since 2008/09. The team fell in its first play-in tournament game to the Lakers, but managed to survive the Kings and secure the West’s No. 8 seed. The Pelicans were quickly swept out of the playoffs by the No. 1-seeded Thunder.
Team president David Griffin wasn’t going to take the defeat lying down. He traded to acquire former All-Star combo guard Dejounte Murray from the Hawks, and is hoping New Orleans can bolster its backcourt defense. The Pelicans lost starting center Jonas Valanciunas to free agency, and questions remain about the fate of star forward Brandon Ingram. Ingram’s fit alongside All-Star forward Zion Williamson has long been in question. Ingram has yet to work out a contract extension with New Orleans this summer.
There’s more out of the Southwest Division:
- Newly-signed Pelicans center Daniel Theis isn’t expected to join his teammates in California for the team’s voluntary mini-camp, tweets Guillory. The 6’8″ big man inked a one-year, veteran’s minimum deal to join New Orleans this summer. Across 60 games for the Pacers and Clippers in 2023/24, Theis posted averages of 6.3 points, 4.1 rebounds, 1.0 assists and 0.9 blocks per night, with a shooting line of .532/.366/.760.
- In a mailbag, Mike Curtis of The Dallas Morning News reflected on how new addition Naji Marshall may be able to offset the free agency departure of starting swingman Derrick Jones Jr., noting that Marshall is a stronger long-range shooter and a solid passer, but not quite as good a defender or lob target.
- Elsewhere in the mailbag, Curtis says he sees the Mavericks’ three major roster acquisitions as overall improvements over role players Jones, Tim Hardaway Jr., and Josh Green. Beyond Marshall, Dallas added former Warriors All-Star wing Klay Thompson via sign-and-trade and obtained guard Quentin Grimes.
The Brandon Ingram situation will be a fascinating one to watch this season if he and the Pelicans don’t work out an extension before the regular season begins, writes Christian Clark of NOLA.com.
Clark believes New Orleans would have liked to move Ingram in a trade for a starting center this offseason, but couldn’t find a deal that made sense, with targets like Jarrett Allen and Nic Claxton signing long-term deals with their respective teams and Orlando deciding to hang onto Wendell Carter.
While Ingram is a virtual lock to start for the Pelicans as long as he’s on the roster, there will be several starting-caliber players vying for minutes in late-game situations, Clark notes. Dejounte Murray, Zion Williamson, CJ McCollum, Herbert Jones, and Trey Murphy will all be in that mix, and if New Orleans wants to use a traditional center in certain matchups, Daniel Theis figures to join them.
As Clark points out, Ingram was frustrated when he was benched during the fourth quarter this past spring in the Pelicans’ play-in loss to the Lakers, so it could be awkward if that situation repeats itself in the coming season, with the team asking the former All-Star to sacrifice while he’s playing for his next contract. Ingram could become a more indispensable part of the team’s closing lineups if he’s willing to be a floor spacer and shoot more three-pointers, Clark adds.
Here’s more from around the Southwest:
- Given the strength of the Western Conference and the fact that they only won 22 games last season, the Spurs may not be quite ready to enter the play-in mix in 2024/25, opines Kelly Iko of The Athletic. While Victor Wembanyama figures to take another step forward and the veteran additions of Chris Paul and Harrison Barnes will help, Iko stresses that San Antonio is committed to a patient roster-building approach and could still be the worst team in a strong Southwest Division next season.
- Iko ranks the Pelicans ahead of the Mavericks in his early projection of the division’s standings, but he believes Dallas had the slightly better offseason overall and lauds the team for improving its outside shooting by adding Klay Thompson and Quentin Grimes, among others. Iko’s mailbag also explores the Rockets‘ projected win total, Zach Edey‘s potential impact on the Grizzlies, and a few more topics from around the Southwest.
- Grant Afseth of NBAAnalysis.net takes an in-depth look at the Mavericks‘ offseason moves, exploring how Thompson will be deployed, who will replace Derrick Jones as the team’s go-to on-ball defender, and whether Spencer Dinwiddie is in position to replicate his past success in Dallas. Afseth also discusses the ongoing evolution of the Kyrie Irving/Luka Doncic backcourt duo and Dereck Lively‘s continued development.
Appearing on the latest episode of NBC Sports Bay Area’s Dubs Talk podcast, Mavericks head coach Jason Kidd said the recruitment of free agent sharpshooter Klay Thompson this summer was a group effort, but singled out Mavs guard Kyrie Irving as having played a lead role, according to Monte Poole of NBC Sports Bay Area.
“When you talk about the recruitment, it was a lot of people that were involved in that. But one of the biggest players in that was Kai,” Kidd said. “Kai being able to, player to player, (detail) his experience of what Dallas has been like for him in two years and being able to tell Klay the honest truth of what he thinks can happen with Klay coming to Dallas.
Irving requested a trade out of Cleveland in 2017, then did the same in Boston in 2019 and Brooklyn in 2023. He was also at the center of a handful of off-court controversies during his time with the Nets. However, since arriving in Dallas, the eight-time All-Star is enjoying an “unprecedented level of stability and fulfillment,” Poole notes, making him an ideal candidate to sell a newcomer on the city and the organization.
“… I would love to say it was all me,” Kidd joked. “But it wasn’t. It was a team effort. But I think player-to-player – in this league, they all talk about their situations, and they all recruit one another – this was about Kai and Klay being able to talk. And I also believe Klay did his homework, just understanding the situation. It would have been an easy for him to stay (in California). So, he had to put in some effort of doing some homework to see what Dallas was all about.”
Although the Mavericks appeared in the NBA Finals this past spring, Irving is the only player on the roster besides Thompson with a championship under his belt (Markieff Morris, who is expected to re-sign with the Mavs, has also won a title). Kidd believes Thompson’s experience on the biggest stage – which includes four championships – will benefit Dallas as the team looks to win its first title since 2011.
“We truly believe that he gives us something that we haven’t had, a guy who’s not afraid to take the shot,” Kidd said of Thompson, per Poole. “He’s been in championship situations. He understands what it means. We believe that we’re building a championship team. And his being a veteran, his experience being in big games and then being able to play both ends, we truly believe that he’s going to make a lot of open shots for us and have fun. But, also, we’re going to lean on him because has won a championship. We’re going to need his advice and his leadership throughout this journey.”
According to veteran NBA reporters Marc Stein and Chris Haynes (Twitter links), several Mavericks players – including Thompson – are practicing together this week in Los Angeles. Irving is in attendance even though he can’t yet practice in full as he continues to recover from hand surgery — he’s doing limited work for now and remains on track to be cleared by the start of training camp.
The Mavericks plan to hire former NBA big man Makhtar N’Diaye as their director of pro personnel and international scouting, reports Marc J. Spears of Andscape (via Twitter).
N’Diaye only appeared in four games for the Grizzlies back in 1999, but he made history as the first player from Senegal to play in the NBA. N’Diaye was a scout for the Knicks for nine years, Spears notes.
N’Diaye, 50, played college ball at Michigan and North Carolina and spent time in the NBA D League (now known as the G League) after his stint with Memphis. He also played professionally in France.
The Mavericks have been busy the past handful of months, giving multiyear extensions to head coach Jason Kidd and GM Nico Harrison and making the NBA Finals in June for the first time since 2011.
They made some roster changes this offseason, essentially swapping out Josh Green, Derrick Jones and Tim Hardaway Jr. for Klay Thompson, Naji Marshall and Quentin Grimes. They also brought back Spencer Dinwiddie on a one-year, minimum-salary contract.
As our list of traded player exceptions shows, six NBA teams currently control TPEs worth more than $10MM apiece. Those exceptions are as follows:
- Atlanta Hawks: $25,266,266 (expires 7/7/25)
- Brooklyn Nets: $23,300,000 (expires 7/7/25)
- Chicago Bulls: $17,506,232 (expires 7/8/25)
- Dallas Mavericks: $16,193,183 (expires 7/7/25)
- Memphis Grizzlies: $12,600,000 (expires 2/3/25)
- Washington Wizards: $12,402,000 (expires 2/10/25)
A trade exception allows a team to acquire a player’s contract without sending out matching salary in return. So in theory, the exceptions listed above could put these clubs in position to take on a sizable salary in a preseason or mid-season trade, perhaps acquiring a draft asset or two in the deal for their troubles.
[RELATED: Hoops Rumors Glossary: Traded Player Exception]
In practice though, it will be difficult for any of these teams to make full use of their large TPEs in that sort of move. The Hawks, Nets, Bulls, Mavericks, and Wizards are all hard-capped at the first tax apron, while the Grizzlies would be if they were to use any portion of their exception.
Atlanta, Brooklyn, and Memphis also don’t have much breathing room below the luxury tax line, while Dallas is already in the tax, so they won’t be eager to take on much extra salary anyway.
Chicago could get about $6.6MM below the tax line by waiving Onuralp Bitim‘s non-guaranteed salary, while Washington could get about $11.9MM below that threshold by waiving their non-guaranteed players, so accommodating modest salary dumps could be in play for those clubs — especially the Wizards, whose big TPE will expire at the trade deadline. But generally speaking, these trade exceptions might not prove all that useful until the 2025 offseason.
Our TPE list uses italics to show which exceptions are currently ineligible to be used. As a reminder, teams operating above either tax apron can’t use trade exceptions generated during the previous regular season (2023/24) or the previous offseason (2023), while teams operating above the second tax apron can’t use new TPEs created from sign-and-trades.
That means, for example, that the Timberwolves are ineligible to use the $4MM exception they generated in February when they traded Troy Brown to the Pistons. They’re also ineligible to use the $8.8MM TPE they generated by signing-and-trading Kyle Anderson to Golden State last month. However, they could use the $2.5MM TPE created in July’s Wendell Moore deal, since it’s new since the season ended and wasn’t the result of a sign-and-trade.
New Jazz guard Patty Mills is a respected veteran who has been a key part of several contenders and championship winners across the span of his 15-year career. That’s what made him an appealing target for Utah, Tony Jones of The Athletic writes.
As Jones observes, Mills and Jazz coach Will Hardy crossed over in San Antonio and Hardy observed as Mills worked hard to become the player who helped the Spurs win a ring in 2014. Mills isn’t the player he was a decade ago, but his hard work and veteran guidance could help aid Cody Williams, Taylor Hendricks, Keyonte George and others in their professional development.
Jones notes that the Jazz have been interested in Mills for a while now and almost acquired him at the February trade deadline. The guard was eventually bought out from Atlanta and finished the 2023/24 season with Miami. While the Jazz won’t officially announce the signing quite yet as they continue exploring taking in salaries from trades, it says a lot about Mills that he was able to land a guaranteed deal with the team.
We have more from the Western Conference:
- Stars like Stephen Curry, LeBron James and Kevin Durant rightfully dominated Olympic headlines as the U.S. brought home the gold, but there were impressive showings up and down the roster. One such “unsung” player is Devin Booker, Doug Haller of The Athletic writes. Haller ponders whether Booker will gain more respect as he enters his 10th NBA season, arguing that he isn’t as “strongly appreciated” as he should be outside of Arizona.
- Bucks guard Damian Lillard praised Booker for his role on the Olympic team, saying he was able to put his head down and fill various team needs, Dana Scott of Arizona Republic writes. “Watching the games, I thought it was extremely obvious that he went into it with that mentality,” Lillard said of Booker. “Like, ‘I’m gonna pick guys up, I’m gonna get into the ball, make open shots, I’m gonna compete for the team.’ I think it takes a special type of person to take that role when there’s so many outside voices and people talking about every little thing, and he definitely did that.” Lillard sees the Suns superstar as holding a critical role on the 2028 iteration of Team USA.
- The Mavericks are holding their training camp in Las Vegas this year, Eddie Sefko of Mavs.com relays. They’ll train on UNLV’s campus from Oct. 1-4 before returning to Dallas, where they play Memphis in their preseason opener on Oct. 7.
The NBA revealed its full schedule for the 2024/25 regular season on Thursday, and while there generally aren’t any surprises on that schedule (it’s not like the NFL, where a team plays fewer than half of the league’s other clubs), it’s still worth circling specific dates and marquee matchups.
Zach Harper of The Athletic, Chris Mannix of SI.com, and ESPN did just that, with Harper highlighting 35 games he’s looking forward to, Mannix naming 10 games to watch, and ESPN identifying 23 games not to miss.
Unsurprisingly, the Knicks/Celtics regular season opener (October 22), Paul George‘s return to Los Angeles with the Sixers (November 6), and Klay Thompson‘s return to Golden State with the Mavericks (Nov. 12) made all three lists.
The other two matchups that showed up on all three lists? Wizards at Hawks on Oct. 28 in the first regular season matchup between this year’s top two draft picks (Zaccharie Risacher and Alex Sarr) and Spurs at Thunder on Oct. 30 in this season’s first Victor Wembanyama/Chet Holmgren showdown.
Here are more odds and ends from around the basketball world:
- A total of seven NBA teams operated under the cap and used room to make moves this offseason. As Keith Smith of Spotrac writes, those clubs used their cap space in very different ways, with some – like the Sixers and Thunder – making splashes in free agency, some (such as the Hornets) focusing on taking in salary in trades, and one (the Jazz) using most of its room to renegotiate a star player’s contract.
- Which NBA teams have been the “cheapest” in recent years and which have been most willing to spend? Eric Pincus of Bleacher Report explores that questions, ranking each team by its spending from 2017-24 and considering whether clubs should have been willing to invest more on those rosters. The Warriors, Clippers, and Bucks have been the biggest spenders over the last seven years, while the Bulls, Pistons, and Hornets are at the other end of the list.
- In a three-part series for The Athletic, David Aldridge ranks all 30 NBA clubs based on how much they improved their rosters with their offseason moves. Aldridge’s list, which is sorted by which teams improved most in the short term rather than which clubs made the “best” moves, features the Thunder, Sixers, and Magic at the top. Not coincidentally, those clubs made three of the summer’s biggest free agent signings, adding Isaiah Hartenstein, Paul George, and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, respectively.
Warner Bros. Discovery is suing the NBA after being excluded from the new broadcast rights package, but Kenny Smith isn’t worried about how that might affect what will likely be the final year of “Inside the NBA,” writes Greg Rajan of The Houston Chronicle. Smith, who has been with the network since his playing career ended in 1998, insists that nothing will change inside the studio.
“No, because we do our jobs,” he said. “Our job is to talk (about) the game and give insight and also give you insight about what’s going on behind the scenes with TNT. Like, ‘Hey, we’re not happy.’ That’s part of what makes us different. I don’t think any other network would allow or want their talent to talk about things like that. We’re going to do it, no matter what happens.
“But again, we’ve had a great run. If it continues, it’ll be great. But also, there are massive opportunities for the four of us — again, to create ownership opportunities to make sure our directors, producers, makeup, stats and audio people are still part of one of the greatest shows in sports TV history.”
Smith views the possible end of the network’s affiliation with the NBA as an opportunity for the show to reach out into other areas. He compares it to what Adam Sandler or Peyton and Eli Manning are doing with their companies, providing a chance to create a new brand in sports television.
There’s more from around the basketball world:
- More details on the 2024/25 NBA schedule continue to leak out ahead of the official announcement at 3:00 pm ET on Thursday. The Nuggets will host the Thunder on October 24 in the season opener for both teams, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link). It will be a matchup of the top two seeds in the West last season. After facing the Clippers October 23 in the first game at the new Inuit Dome, the Suns will stay in Los Angeles to take on the Lakers October 25 before hosting the Mavericks in their home opener a night later, tweets Duane Rankin of The Arizona Republic. The Kings will have two six-game road trips during the season, sources tell James Ham of Kings Beat (Twitter link). One in January will have them face the Nuggets, Knicks, Nets, Sixers, Thunder and Timberwolves, and another from March 29 to April 7 will feature games against the Magic, Pacers, Wizards, Hornets, Cavaliers and Pistons.
- Former NBA players Charlie Brown Jr. and Deonte Burton will be among the players representing the G League United in a pair of September exhibition games, the league announced (Twitter links).
- Duke and Rutgers will be the top destinations for NBA scouts when the college basketball season begins, observes Adam Zagoria of NJ.com. The Blue Devils have the projected No. 1 pick in the 2025 draft, Cooper Flagg, along with Khaman Maluach, a probable lottery selection who played for South Sudan in the Olympics. The Scarlet Knights’ Ace Bailey and Dylan Harper are also in contention for the top spot in next year’s draft.