Heat Notes: Deadline, Giannis, Morant, Rozier, Young, More
The Heat were one of only three teams that didn’t make a trade ahead of Thursday’s deadline. As Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald writes, the team has been trending in the wrong direction for two months, going just 13-18 over its past 31 games after a 14-7 start.
Despite having another middling record (27-25), the Heat are optimistic brighter days are ahead.
“League-wide, I think everybody is just glad that all of that is behind us,” head coach Erik Spoelstra said following Friday’s morning shooting shootaround in Boston. “And we can just focus on the next 30 games. We have great opportunities still ahead of us. We know what we have to work on is our consistency. We have a high ceiling, but we need to do it more consistently.”
Consistency was a major talking point for Spoelstra, who said variations of the word several more times on Friday.
Captain and starting center Bam Adebayo said the players breathed a sigh of relief when they learned they were sticking with Miami, according to Chiang.
“Guys got that weight off their shoulders, where they don’t know what’s going to happen to them,” Adebayo said. “It’s good to have that type of clarity. So now we can focus on basketball and try to stack these wins.”
Here’s more from Miami:
- The Heat were one of the primary suitors for Giannis Antetokounmpo, and aside from Adebayo, they were willing to discuss every other player on the roster in talks for the Bucks star, a league source tells Chiang. Miami also had “some level of interest” in Ja Morant, but his maximum-salary contract and injury history were among the factors that made the Heat leery of pursuing the Grizzlies guard, Chiang reports.
- Andrew Wiggins was mentioned as a possible trade candidate this season, but the Heat were never offered a first-round pick for the veteran forward, according to Chiang. Terry Rozier, who has been away from the team throughout 2025/26 after being arrested and indicted on federal charges related to illegal gambling, was another player who stayed put. Chiang hears Miami’s brain trust is still weighing the possibility of waiving Rozier’s expiring contract, which would open up a second spot on the standard roster — the Heat have only been carrying 14 players due to their proximity to the luxury tax line.
- Jahmir Young has been named the G League’s Player of the Month for games played in January, the NBA announced (via Twitter). Young, a second-year guard who is on a two-way contract with the Heat, averaged 29.5 points, 9.6 assists and 4.9 rebounds last month for the Sioux Falls Skyforce, Miami’s NBAGL affiliate.
- Ira Winderman of The South Florida Sun Sentinel takes a look at some options the Heat could consider to fill out their standard roster, including converting a two-way player like Young or taking a flier on a veteran on the buyout/free agent market. Pat Connaughton, Georges Niang and Chris Boucher are a few of the veterans Winderman lists.
- For better or worse, the Heat stuck to their guiding principles ahead of the deadline, according to Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald, who considers whether that was the right call and explores what the consequences of maintaining the status quo could be both now and going forward.
Grizzlies Acquire Eric Gordon From Sixers, Waive Georges Niang
6:08 pm: The trade is official, the Grizzlies confirmed in a press release (Twitter link). As expected, Niang has been released.
1:20 pm: The Sixers will trade veteran guard Eric Gordon and a second-round pick swap in 2032 to the Grizzlies, sources tell ESPN’s Shams Charania (Twitter link).
Philadelphia will receive the draft rights to Justinian Jessup in return, according to Kyle Neubeck of PHLY Sports (Twitter link). Jessup, a 27-year-old guard who was selected in the second round in 2020, is currently playing for Bayern Munich in Germany.
Memphis has a full roster and plans to waive Georges Niang so the trade can be completed, per Grant Afseth of Dallas Hoops Journal (Twitter link). Niang, who was acquired from Utah on Tuesday, has an $8.2MM expiring contract.
Finding a taker for Gordon opens more room below the tax line (and another roster spot) for the Sixers to convert two-way forward Dominick Barlow to a standard deal. Barlow has been outstanding in his fourth NBA season, starting 33 of the 40 games he’s played and averaging career highs with 8.4 points and 5.1 rebounds in 24 minutes per night.
Barlow still has 10 games left before he reaches his limit for the season, so it’s not necessarily an immediate concern, but the Sixers need to have him on a standard contract to make him eligible for the playoffs. The team also seems likely to promote two-way player Jabari Walker, who reached his 50-game limit this week.
Gordon, 37, has only appeared in six games this season and was functioning as a virtual assistant coach in Philadelphia. His $3.6MM expiring contract only carries a $2.3MM cap hit, and he appears to be a strong candidate to be waived in Memphis once the deal is finalized.
Grizzlies Trade Jaren Jackson Jr. To Jazz
6:06pm: The trade is official, according to a press release from the Jazz.
12:44pm: The Grizzlies and Jazz have agreed to a blockbuster trade, according to Shams Charania of ESPN (Twitter link), who reports that former Defensive Player of the Year Jaren Jackson Jr. is heading to Utah along with wings John Konchar and Vince Williams Jr. and center Jock Landale.
In exchange, Memphis will acquire guard Walter Clayton, swingman Kyle Anderson, forwards Taylor Hendricks and Georges Niang, and three future first-round picks, sources tell Charania.
Those three first-rounders headed to the Grizzlies are the Lakers’ 2027 pick (top-four protected), either the Cavaliers’, Timberwolves’, or Jazz’s own 2027 pick (whichever is most favorable), and the Suns’ 2031 pick (unprotected), reports Jake Fischer of The Stein Line (Twitter link).
It’s a shocking move for a couple reasons. For one, multiple reports ahead of Thursday’s trade deadline suggested that Memphis had no interest in moving Jackson and hoped to hang onto – and build around – the big man going forward.
Additionally, while there were multiple teams said to be inquiring on Jackson’s availability in the hopes that the Grizzlies changed their mind, there was no indication that the Jazz were among them or that they’d be looking to use their stash of future draft picks to make this sort of move this week. Entering Tuesday’s games, Utah holds a 15-35 record, which is the sixth-worst mark in the NBA.
However, the move for Jackson suggests first-year president of basketball operations Austin Ainge and the Jazz are preparing to take a step forward next season. League sources tell Tony Jones of The Athletic (Twitter link) that the team doesn’t plan to trade forward Lauri Markkanen and still wants to re-sign center Walker Kessler in restricted free agency this summer. Utah envisions a frontcourt made up of Markkanen, Jackson, and Kessler, Jones explains.
Third-year guard Keyonte George and 2025 lottery pick Ace Bailey are among the other long-term building blocks in Utah, where the Jazz still control at least one first-round pick in every future draft, starting in 2026. Notably, that 2026 first-rounder will be sent to Oklahoma City if it lands outside the top eight — the Jazz are still in a fairly strong position to hang onto it, since there’s a 4.5-game gap between them and the NBA’s seventh- and eighth-worst teams (the 18-29 Bucks and 19-30 Mavericks).
As for the Grizzlies, we’d heard for weeks that they were open to trading two-time All-Star Ja Morant, but it wasn’t clear whether they intended to retool around Jackson or fully rebuild around a younger core headlined by Cedric Coward, Zach Edey, and Jaylen Wells. Now we have our answer.
While Clayton and Hendricks are just 22 years old and could carve out places in the Grizzlies’ long-term plans, the return for Jackson is primarily about adding three more first-round picks to an ever-growing collection of draft assets and creating additional cap flexibility in the present and future. The Grizzlies now control 12 first-rounders in the next seven drafts, notes Yossi Gozlan of The Third Apron (Twitter link).
Jackson renegotiated and extended his contract with Memphis last offseason and will earn $205MM over the next four years after this one. He’s the only player of the eight involved in this trade who is owed guaranteed money beyond next season, and taking on his long-term deal will likely eliminate Utah’s cap room this summer.
In terms of 2025/26 money, Utah will be taking advantage of its significant breathing room below the luxury tax line by increasing its payroll by more than $18MM — the Jazz are sending out a combined $27.5MM in salary and taking back roughly $45.8MM.
As Gozlan tweets, the Jazz will use their four outgoing players to legally match Jackson’s $35MM cap hit, then take the other three incoming players into existing traded player exceptions (or a portion of their mid-level, if they prefer to preserve their bigger TPE).
Memphis, meanwhile, will create a record-setting trade exception worth nearly $28.9MM, per ESPN’s Bobby Marks (Twitter link).
Afseth’s Latest: Spurs, Giannis, J. Johnson, Jazz, Bey
The Spurs have flashed tantalizing potential this season with a 21-7 start and a run to the NBA Cup championship game, but league sources who spoke to Grant Afseth of Dallas Hoops Journal don’t expect San Antonio to make the sort of significant in-season trade that would compromise the club’s future flexibility.
“They’re not going to sit around being satisfied, but I don’t see them making a move like trading for Giannis (Antetokounmpo),” a source told Afseth. “There are more reasonable options out there. They can be patient and opportunistic.”
According to Afseth, the expectation is that the Spurs will focus on internal growth of their young core this season while preserving their most valuable long-term assets. Still, he says some rival teams have wondered whether San Antonio would be willing to sacrifice some of those assets for another high-level role player who would complement the current group.
“They have the assets to make a trade like Orlando did to add Desmond Bane,” a source said. “It’d have to be someone that fits their timeline. Someone like a Trey Murphy III, for example, could be a strong fit.”
Here are a few more items of interest from Afseth’s latest round-up:
- If Antetokounmpo is made available this season, many of the top suitors for the Bucks star are expected to be Eastern Conference clubs, says Afseth. That group includes the Heat, Knicks, Hawks, and Raptors, though rival executives are skeptical that New York would want to break up its roster during the season and Atlanta isn’t expected to make forward Jalen Johnson available, Afseth notes.
- While both Afseth and Jake Fischer of The Stein Line (Substack link) say that hanging onto their top-eight protected 2026 first-round pick is a priority for the Jazz, Fischer writes that Utah also wants to “establish a winning environment” sooner rather than later. Lauri Markkanen and Keyonte George – along with 2026 restricted free agent Walker Kessler – are viewed as cornerstones for the Jazz, with Kyle Anderson, Jusuf Nurkic, Kevin Love, and Georges Niang considered potential in-season trade candidates, per Afseth. Afseth adds that both management and ownership have confidence that Will Hardy is the right head coach to guide the team out of its rebuilding stage.
- Pelicans forward Saddiq Bey is increasingly piquing the interest of teams in need of help on the wing, according to Afseth, who published a full story on Sunday examining Bey’s return to action this season following a torn ACL. The 26-year-old is averaging 15.0 points and 6.1 rebounds in 29.5 minutes per game through 29 outings (21 starts) for New Orleans.
Jazz’s Georges Niang Out At Least Two More Weeks
Veteran forward Georges Niang still isn’t close to making his season debut, according to the Jazz, who announced in a press release that the 32-year-old continues to progress through rehab but will be out at least two more weeks, which is the next time he’ll be reexamined.
It has been 11-plus weeks since the Jazz first announced that Niang had sustained a stress reaction of the fourth metatarsal in his left foot during offseason training and conditioning. While Utah has repeatedly said that Niang has been making progress in his recovery, he remains sidelined indefinitely.
A former second-round pick (50th overall in 2016), Niang has carved out a long NBA career as a three-point marksman, converting 39.9% of his career attempts from behind the arc. In 79 games last season (21.5 minutes per contest) with Cleveland and Atlanta, he averaged 9.9 points and 3.4 rebounds on .461/.406/.793 shooting.
Niang was traded from Atlanta to Boston in July and then was flipped to Utah in a salary-dump deal in August. He’s on an expiring contract, which will pay him $8.2MM in 2025/26.
Georges Niang To Be Reevaluated In 10-14 Days
Georges Niang will be reevaluated in 10-14 days as he seeks to return from a fourth metatarsal stress reaction in his left foot, the Jazz announced in a press release on Saturday.
The injury has kept Niang sidelined since Utah acquired him from Boston in a financially motivated trade that sent rookie second-round pick RJ Luis to the Celtics in exchange for Niang and two second-round picks.
Niang spent five seasons in Utah after playing his rookie year with the Pacers. He split last season between the Cavaliers and Hawks, averaging 9.9 points and 3.4 rebounds per game while making 40.6% of his three-pointers in 79 total appearances.
Niang holds value as both a locker room presence and a reliable offensive player at the power forward spot for the Jazz, who are off to a 5-10 start this season. With starting center Walker Kessler out for the season, the team could use reinforcements in the frontcourt, and Niang could slot in either beside or in place of Kevin Love in the rotation.
Injury Notes: Bulls, Shannon, Niang, Ivey, Kuminga, Thiero
Injured Bulls guards Coby White (calf) and Josh Giddey (ankle) both practiced in full on Friday, with contact, and are expected to play at some point during the team’s upcoming stretch of five games in seven days that begins on Sunday in Utah, per K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Sports Network (Twitter links).
With two separate sets of back-to-back games on tap during that week, the Bulls are still figuring out which games White and Giddey will play and what sort of workload they’ll see, according to Joel Lorenzi of The Athletic (Twitter links). That’s especially true of White, who has yet to play this season and expects to be on a restriction of about 24 minutes per game when he returns.
White joked that he’s trying to get the Bulls’ medical staff to allow him to play in all five games next week, but acknowledged that’s not realistic and said he’s “pushing for three” (Twitter link via Johnson).
Meanwhile, big man Zach Collins, who has yet to play this season while recovering from left wrist surgery, is having his splint removed and will begin passing and shooting with that left hand, head coach Billy Donovan told reporters (Twitter link via Lorenzi). Donovan added the results from a CT scan were very positive and he doesn’t think it will take long for Collins to rebuild his strength in the injured hand.
Here are a few more injury updates from across the NBA:
- Timberwolves guard Terrence Shannon Jr. has been diagnosed with a left foot fifth metatarsal bone bruise and will be reevaluated in one week, according to a press release from the team. Shannon has already been sidelined for the past four games due to what the team was calling left foot soreness.
- Jazz forward Georges Niang, who has yet to make his season debut, continues to progress through his rehab work as he makes his way back from a stress reaction of the fourth metatarsal in his left foot, the team announced today in a press release. According to the Jazz, Niang is ramping up toward a return to action and will be reevaluated in one week.
- Pistons guard Jaden Ivey has begun doing on-court work as part of his rehab process following arthroscopic knee surgery, tweets Hunter Patterson of The Athletic. Ivey underwent that procedure in mid-October and was ruled out at the time for at least four weeks.
- The Warriors have ruled out Jonathan Kuminga for Friday’s contest vs. San Antonio due to bilateral knee tendinitis, but Anthony Slater of The Athletic (Twitter link) says there are no structural concerns with Kuminga’s knees and the forward’s absence should be “relatively short-term.”
- Lakers rookie Adou Thiero has a chance to play in his first NBA regular season game on Friday, having been upgraded to probable, tweets Dan Woike of The Athletic. Thiero underwent knee surgery in college and experienced swelling in that same knee this fall, postponing his debut.
Jazz’s Georges Niang Out At Least 2-3 More Weeks
Jazz forward Georges Niang will be reevaluated in two to three weeks as he works to come back from a fourth metatarsal stress reaction in his left foot, the team announced in a press release.
The injury, which Niang suffered during offseason training and conditioning, was announced on September 27. At that time, the Jazz said that Niang would be reevaluated in two weeks. The newest update confirms that he is progressing in his rehabilitation, but there is still no definitive return date.
Niang’s return to Utah this summer came in the form of a trade by the Celtics aimed at freeing up cap space, as he was dealt along with two second-round picks for rookie RJ Luis. Niang split last season between the Hawks and Cavaliers, and held season averages of 9.9 points, 3.4 rebounds, and 1.4 assists per game.
The career 39.9% three-point shooter played four seasons with Utah from 2017-21 and appeared in 23 playoff games for the team, averaging 5.0 points in 13.0 minutes. The Jazz, in the midst of a rebuild, reportedly value Niang for the impact he could have as a veteran among the many young players on their roster.
Players Seeking Paydays This Season
While some players are still hoping to finalize rookie scale extensions before the season begins, the majority of contract situations around the league have been settled at this point. But business never sleeps in the world of the NBA, and many players will enter this season hoping to impress executives and land their next big payday.
Zach Harper of The Athletic details the top names playing for new deals this season, excluding the aforementioned rookie scale extension seekers.
One player not on a rookie-scale deal but still extension-eligible is Michael Porter Jr., whom the Nets recently acquired to add some scoring pop to the starting lineup. Porter’s deal runs for two more seasons and will pay him $38.3MM this year and $40.8MM in 2026/27.
The Nets’ roster remains a major work in progress, making future projections tricky, but at just 27 years old, Porter is in position to have a big year in Brooklyn and boost his stock entering a contract year next summer. The biggest question, according to Harper, is whether Porter’s next deal would remain in the range of the $40MM+ he’ll earn in 2026/27 or if he would take a modest pay cut to secure a longer-term contract.
Harper takes a look at three big men who could hit the open market next summer: Kristaps Porzingis, the Hawks‘ new starting center, longtime Bulls veteran Nikola Vucevic, and the Knicks‘ on-and-off starter Mitchell Robinson. All three have question marks surrounding them — for Porzingis and Robinson, those questions center around health, though Robinson could also be a cap casualty on New York’s increasingly pricey roster.
Vucevic has been in trade rumors for years, and with the Bulls taking more steps to embrace a youth movement than they have in the past, his time in Chicago could be coming to an end. Harper predicts an annual value of around $21MM for Vucevic on his next deal, which is about what he’ll earn in 2025/26.
Another group of players Harper looks at is a trio of high-scoring guards who will be free agents in 2026: Anfernee Simons and Norman Powell, who were acquired this summer by the Celtics and Heat, respectively, and Coby White, who has grown into a talented combo guard over his six seasons with the Bulls. Harper predicts a deal around $20MM annually for Simons, $75MM over three years for White, and a two-year, $50MM contract for Powell.
The 2026 free agency class will also be impacted by the decisions made by veterans with player options, such as Zach LaVine (Kings), Bradley Beal (Clippers), and Austin Reaves (Lakers). Cam Thomas (Nets) and Quentin Grimes (Sixers) will also reach unrestricted free agency after accepting their respective qualifying offers and will be looking to recoup the money they passed on this offseason.
Finally, Harper singles out four role players who could be coveted next season, depending on their performance this season: Rui Hachimura (Lakers), Tyus Jones (Magic), Keon Ellis (Kings), and Georges Niang (Jazz). The 25-year-old Ellis has broken out over the last two seasons and could command his first real payday of his career if he has a strong season off the bench in Sacramento. Harper speculates he could be in line for a deal similar to the three-year, $27.6MM contract Ty Jerome signed with the Grizzlies this summer.
Jazz’s Georges Niang Suffers Foot Injury, Out At Least Two Weeks
Veteran forward Georges Niang sustained a fourth metatarsal stress reaction in his left foot during offseason training and conditioning, the Jazz announced today in a press release.
According to the team, Niang will be reevaluated in two weeks.
Niang began last season with Cleveland and played 51 games for the Cavaliers, all but one off the bench, before being traded to Atlanta in February. He appeared in 28 games with the Hawks, including two starts.
Overall, Niang averaged 9.9 points and 3.4 rebounds per game on .461/.406/.793 shooting in 79 appearances last season (21.5 minutes per contest).
Niang, 32, was sent to Boston in the Kristaps Porzingis trade in July and then was flipped to Utah in a salary-dump deal in August. He’s entering the final year of his contract, which will pay him $8.2MM in 2025/26.
This is Niang’s second stint with the Jazz, having previously played for Utah from 2017-21. Niang is reportedly happy to be back with the team, which is said to view him as a potential rotation player and locker room leader.