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NBA Announces Player Pool For 2025 Rising Stars Event

January 28th, 2025 at 2:25pm CST by Luke Adams

The NBA has officially revealed the 10 rookies, 11 sophomores, and seven G League players who have been selected to take part in the 2025 Rising Stars event at All-Star weekend in San Francisco next month.

The following players made the cut, as voted on by NBA assistant coaches (rookies and sophomores) and selected by the league office (G Leaguers):

Rookies

Sophomores

G League Players

* Note: Players marked with asterisks are on standard or two-way contracts with NBA teams.

As usual, the Rising Stars event will consist of four teams and three games. The seven G League players will comprise one team, while the other 21 players will be drafted to three squads on February 4.

The four teams will be split into two first-round matchups and the winners of those two games will face one another for the Rising Stars championship. The two semifinals will be played to a target score of 40 points, while the final will be played to a target score of 25 points.

All three contests will take place on Friday, February 14 as part of All-Star weekend’s opening night. The winning team will compete on Sunday in a similar four-team tournament, with the three other rosters made up of NBA All-Stars.

A handful of injury replacements will be necessary, with McCain, Lively, and Brandon Miller among the players who won’t be available to suit up. Additionally, since players selected as All-Stars won’t play in the Rising Stars event, Wembanyama will almost certainly need to be replaced.

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Warriors Sign Jackson Rowe To Two-Way Contract

January 28th, 2025 at 1:45pm CST by Luke Adams

The Warriors have filled their open two-way slot, announcing today in a press release that they’ve signed forward Jackson Rowe to a two-way deal (Twitter link).

Rowe, who played his college ball at Cal State Fullerton from 2016-20, bounced around various international leagues during his first few professional seasons, playing in France, Sweden, Canada, and Germany before catching on with the Santa Cruz Warriors – Golden State’s G League affiliate – last season.

Rowe established himself as a rotation player for Santa Cruz in 2023/24 and returned to the team this season after also playing for the Warriors in Summer League and during the NBA preseason.

The 6’7″ forward has averaged 14.8 points, 7.7 rebounds, 2.8 assists, and 1.1 steals per game for the G League team through 23 Tip-Off Tournament and regular season outings this season, posting a shooting line of .500/.373/.680.

Golden State has had a two-way opening since trading Reece Beekman to Brooklyn last month, so no corresponding move is necessary to bring Rowe aboard. He joins Pat Spencer and Quinten Post in filling out the Warriors’ two-way slots.

Rowe will be eligible to appear in as many as 22 NBA games for the Warriors, a prorated portion of the usual 50-game limit. As long as the team continues to leave its 15th standard roster spot open, he, Spencer, and Post will be restricted to a combined total of 90 active NBA games.

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NBA Reschedules Two Postponed Games, Moves Seven Others

January 28th, 2025 at 11:50am CST by Luke Adams

The NBA has announced a series of changes to its game schedule, issuing a press release on Tuesday (via Twitter) stating that two postponed games have been rescheduled and seven others have been moved around as a result of the changes.

The two postponed games are the Spurs/Lakers contest from Saturday, January 11 that wasn’t played due to the Los Angeles wildfires and a Jan. 22 matchup between the Bucks and Pelicans that was postponed due to severe winter weather in New Orleans. According to the league, the new dates for those games are as follows:

  • San Antonio Spurs at Los Angeles Lakers: Monday, March 17.
  • Milwaukee Bucks at New Orleans Pelicans: Sunday, April 6.

The NBA also announced the following seven schedule changes to accommodate the rescheduled games:

  • Chicago Bulls at Orlando Magic: Moved from March 12 to March 6.
  • Orlando Magic at San Antonio Spurs: Moved from March 17 to April 1.
  • Milwaukee Bucks at Los Angeles Lakers; Moved from March 18 to March 20.
  • Toronto Raptors at Golden State Warriors: Moved from March 19 to March 20.
  • Milwaukee Bucks at Golden State Warriors: Moved from March 20 to March 18.
  • Orlando Magic at New Orleans Pelicans: Moved from April 6 to March 13.
  • New Orleans Pelicans at Milwaukee Bucks: Moved from April 9 to April 10.

In addition to the four teams affected by the original postponements, the Bulls, Magic, Raptors, and Warriors also had games affected as a result of today’s announcement.

It’s the second time this month that the league has made a series of changes to its schedule to accommodate postponed games — the NBA announced on January 15 that nine games had been rescheduled.

There are no more postponed games still requiring new dates, so if no additional postponements take place for the rest of this season, this should be the last schedule adjustment the league needs to make.

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Heat ‘Cautiously Optimistic’ About Moving Butler By Deadline

January 28th, 2025 at 10:32am CST by Luke Adams

10:32am: The Warriors, viewed near the start of the month as an unlikely suitor for Butler, are one of the teams back in the mix now that the Heat have lowered their asking price, reports Kevin O’Connor of Yahoo Sports (Twitter link).

Ira Winderman of The South Florida Sun Sentinel hears from a source that the Heat would be satisfied to receive a “potential contributing” player on a one- or two-year contract, expiring salary, and a pair of draft picks in exchange for Butler.

9:48am: The Heat are “cautiously optimistic” about the possibility of making a Jimmy Butler trade before the February 6 deadline, according to Barry Jackson and Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald, who report that Miami has been engaging “several” teams besides the Suns.

While Phoenix has long been viewed as Butler’s preferred landing spot and the team most willing to give the 35-year-old the maximum-salary contract he’s seeking, the Suns haven’t had much luck finding a trade structure that works, per The Herald.

Bradley Beal would have to be sent to a third team in order for the Suns to acquire Butler, since Phoenix can’t aggregate contracts and Miami isn’t interested in the veteran guard, who has two more years and nearly $111MM left on his contract after this season.

Finding a taker for Beal has been a challenge, especially since he has the ability to veto any deal using his no-trade clause. While Beal is reportedly open to waiving that clause to join a contending team, ideally one in a warm-weather city, he also seems to be comfortable with the idea of remaining in Phoenix, according to Michael Scotto of HoopsHype.

Appearing on ESPN (Twitter video links), NBA insider Brian Windhorst backed up the notion that the Heat are talking to teams besides the Suns about Butler and said Miami is “really, really trying to make this happen,” adding that the team’s asking price on Butler has dropped a little from where it was earlier in the month.

“Obviously, the Phoenix Suns have tried to get this done for weeks,” Windhorst said on SportsCenter. “They have tried three-, four-, five-team machinations. They have not been able to overcome the fact that what they’ve really got to trade is Bradley Beal, who has a no-trade clause and not a very big market. So now I do believe this is going to bring in some other teams. We could see some surprising moves in this little battle in the next couple of days.

“… I am not saying for sure this is going to happen. I’m not predicting what’s going to happen. But I do think some teams that thought they were out of this are coming back in because it doesn’t look like the Suns and Heat are going to be able to consummate a deal. I think we might see a team swoop in here and get Jimmy Butler at a cheap price. A guy who can be the best player in a playoff series at a bargain price.”

Windhorst went a step further during an appearance on ESPN’s First Take on Tuesday morning (Twitter video link).

“Jimmy Butler’s going to get traded,” he predicted. “I wasn’t sure about that maybe seven to 10 days ago. I really am more sure than ever that that’s going to happen.”

The Heat announced on Monday that they’ve suspended Butler for a third time. Following a five-game suspension earlier this month and a two-game suspension that just concluded on Saturday, the latest suspension is an indefinite one and was said to be for “withholding services.” That means it will cost Butler 1/91.6th of his $48.8MM salary for each game he misses — the previous suspensions for conduct detrimental for the team cost him 1/145th of his salary per game.

Since word of Butler’s desire to be traded first broke last month, reports have indicated that the Heat are willing to hang onto the six-time All-Star through this season and revisit trade talks in the summer if they don’t get the sort of return they want by February 6. The club is said to be prioritizing win-now players with contracts that don’t extend beyond 2025/26.

However, with the standoff between the two sides continuing to escalate, it appears increasingly untenable for Butler to remain on the roster for several more months, which is why the front office is more motivated than ever to find a viable deal.

As Jackson and Chiang point out, while Butler’s camp has long conveyed that he intends to decline his 2025/26 player option in favor of free agency, the veteran forward could make life difficult on the Heat by picking up that option in June and essentially putting Miami back in the same situation it’s in now — with a disgruntled star on a maximum-salary deal, hamstringing the team’s ability to improve the roster around him.

Additionally, while the Heat are theoretically saving some money as a result of Butler’s suspensions, team-imposed suspensions don’t affect a team’s tax bill, and based on existing precedents, it’s very possible Butler will regain a chunk of his lost salary through the appeal process. In other words, the financial incentives to continue suspending him are minimal.

Neither Windhorst nor the duo of Jackson and Chiang named specific teams outside of Phoenix that might be exploring a deal for Butler. Previous reporting has indicated that the Grizzlies have kicked the tires on the possibility, despite being warned against it, while Marc Stein said on Monday that rival clubs continue to wonder if the Bucks will get involved.

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Warriors’ Kuminga Out At Least Two More Weeks; Green Day-To-Day

January 27th, 2025 at 4:36pm CST by Rory Maher

Warriors forward Jonathan Kuminga, who sustained a right ankle sprain on January 4 and has missed the past 11 games, will be out for at least two more weeks, the team announced in a press release (Twitter link).

According to the Warriors, Kuminga was recently reevaluated. He’s making good progress in his recovery and will start light on-court individual workouts in the next week, but he won’t return to action until after the February 6 trade deadline.

Anthony Slater of The Athletic reported a few days ago that Kuminga was still weeks away from returning, so Golden State’s announcement is more of a confirmation than anything new.

“He’s not close to coming back,” head coach Steve Kerr said of Kuminga on Saturday, per Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN. “He’s on a bike just now. He’s not been on the court in any other capacity other than just shooting stationary shots. So it’s going to be some time.”

It’s unfortunate news for the 22-year-old, who was playing his best basketball of the season prior to the injury, averaging 24.3 points, 8.0 rebounds, 3.2 assists and 1.0 steal in the six games leading up to Jan. 4. Kuminga will be a restricted free agent in the offseason.

On a more positive note on the injury front, Draymond Green is now considered day-to-day following his own reevaluation. The former Defensive Player of the Year has missed the past four contests with a left calf strain, but he has been doing some light on-court work recently and will soon begin practicing.

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No Untouchables In Bulls’ Trade Talks

January 27th, 2025 at 2:00pm CST by Luke Adams

Zach LaVine, Nikola Vucevic, and Lonzo Ball have been the Bulls players most frequently cited this season as trade candidates, but head of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas would be open to moving just about anyone on the roster if he thinks the deal is in the team’s best long-term interests and helps Chicago keep its top-10 protected 2025 first-round pick, says Joe Cowley of The Chicago Sun-Times.

Cowley identifies Matas Buzelis as the only exception, but clarifies that the rookie forward isn’t “completely untouchable” either.

The report doesn’t come as a real surprise. Chicago has also reportedly made forward Patrick Williams available, and Cowley suggested last month that guards Coby White and Ayo Dosunmu aren’t off the table in trade talks.

The Bulls also aren’t likely to be especially attached to reserves like Jalen Smith, Jevon Carter, Chris Duarte, Torrey Craig, and Talen Horton-Tucker, while youngsters Dalen Terry and Julian Phillips haven’t established themselves as long-term keepers.

That leaves Josh Giddey, who was viewed as Chicago’s probable point guard of the future when the team acquired him last summer from Oklahoma City in exchange for Alex Caruso. Giddey didn’t sign a rookie scale extension last fall and has had an up-and-down first season as a Bull, but I’d still be a little surprised if he’s moved by next Thursday, given that his value on an expiring contract would be limited.

A source tells Cowley that Karnisovas has come down to some extent on what teams viewed as “unrealistic” asking prices for his top trade chips earlier in the season, though that doesn’t mean he’s simply willing to sell off players to the highest bidder.

Discussing the latest on Vucevic within a trade rumor round-up on his Substack, Marc Stein of The Stein Line reports that the Bulls are still seeking a first-round pick in return for the veteran center. Stein describes the Warriors as “at the front of the line” of Vucevic suitors, but says Golden State has been unwilling to offer more than second-round capital to this point.

As for LaVine, he was at the center of one of the season’s earlier notable trade rumors when a report in mid-December indicated that the Nuggets had real interest in the Bulls guard. However, LaVine has been on a tear since then, further increasing his value by staying healthy and averaging 27.0 points per game on .524/.467/.786 shooting over his past 18 games. Nuggets guard Jamal Murray has heated up too, putting up 21.3 PPG and 5.9 APG with a .485/.404/.913 shooting line during the same time frame.

As Bennett Durando of The Denver Post writes, Murray’s resurgence will likely make “big-game hunting less of a priority” for the Nuggets, while LaVine’s heater will make it more difficult for Denver to meet Chicago’s asking price. So the odds of a trade sending LaVine to the Nuggets look slimmer than they did a month ago.

In case you missed it, we wrote about another Bulls-related rumor earlier today, passing along word that Chicago has talked to the Suns about Bradley Beal.

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Pacific Notes: Curry, Fox, Richards, Dunn

January 26th, 2025 at 9:58pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Stephen Curry has a right thumb injury, but the Warriors superstar won’t use that as an excuse for his recent subpar shooting, Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN writes. Curry missed all eight of his second-half field goal attempts in a loss to the Lakers on Saturday. He’s averaging 16.5 points per game over his last four outings.

“It sucks, but it’s not an excuse for anything,” Curry said. “Got to play through it. I went 8-for-8 with it [against the Sixers). It’s just something that has been lingering to the point that it gets hit every once in a while. It’s one of those things. It is almost gone, and then it gets knocked again. I will deal with it, but it shouldn’t bother me like it did (Saturday).”

We have more from the Pacific Division:

  • De’Aaron Fox has a sprained right thumb but, like Curry, the Kings guard says he can play through it. Fox went 6-of-20 against the Knicks on Saturday and has shot 32% from the field over his last six games. “People can make up the excuse they want,” he said, per Chris Biderman of the Sacramento Bee. “Sometimes you just don’t play well. I’m just missing shots. That’s the way the game goes sometimes.”
  • In his fourth game since being acquired by the Suns, Nick Richards had a 20-point, 19-rebound outing against Washington on Saturday. “I’m just taking full advantage of it,” Richards said of his opportunity to be Phoenix’s starting center, per a tweet from PHNX Sports (video link). “It was a great time in Charlotte, I had the most amazing time with some of the best people in the world. But I’m here right now, and I’m taking full advantage of every single thing that the Suns are giving me.”
  • Suns rookie forward Ryan Dunn won’t play on Monday against the Clippers. He’s listed as out due to a left ankle sprain, Gerald Bourguet of PHNX Sports tweets. Dunn, who has started 24 games, played just two minutes against the Wizards before suffering the injury.
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Warriors Notes: Kuminga, Podziemski, Anderson, Trades, Post

January 24th, 2025 at 9:33pm CST by Luke Adams

Jonathan Kuminga has been out since January 4 due to a right ankle sprain and the Warriors forward remains weeks away from returning to action, tweets Anthony Slater of The Athletic. According to Slater, Kuminga still has his ankle wrapped and hasn’t been able to do any real on-court work yet.

While Kuminga is around the team and is in “positive spirits,” he may not suit up for Golden State until after the All-Star break, says Slater.

Still, as Slater notes in another tweet, the Warriors’ injury situation on the whole is improving. Brandin Podziemski made his return on Thursday following a 12-game absence due to an abdominal issue and was effective in his first game back, scoring 10 points on 4-of-6 shooting as the Warriors outscored Chicago by 22 points during his 21 minutes. Kyle Anderson has been cleared to return on Saturday vs. the Lakers after missing the past five games due to what the club described as left gluteal bursitis.

Although Kuminga and Draymond Green (left calf strain) remain on the shelf for now, Golden State may have everyone else available on Saturday. Podziemski, Andrew Wiggins (back soreness), and Gary Payton II (illness) are the only other names on the injury report and they’re each listed as probable to play.

Here’s more on the Warriors:

  • While the Warriors would love to acquire an impact player via trade, they’re unlikely to make a significant splash at this season’s deadline, according to Tim Bontemps and Brian Windhorst of ESPN (Insider link). ESPN’s duo anticipates Golden State will wait until a “true difference-maker” hits the trade market and expects any move the Dubs make by February 6 to be on the smaller side, like last month’s Dennis Schröder acquisition.
  • Mark Medina of RG.org is also skeptical that a major in-season move is on tap for the Warriors.
  • Meanwhile, Marcus Thompson II of The Athletic considers whether it makes sense for Golden State to do something bold at the deadline, focusing specifically on Bulls guard Zach LaVine as a potential target, which seems like a long shot to me.
  • The Warriors’ staff has “gained increasing belief in recent weeks” that rookie center Quinten Post might be able to address the club’s need for a floor-spacer in the frontcourt, Slater writes for The Athletic. After making three brief appearances in the first 41 games of the season, Post has averaged 11.3 points in 16.0 minutes per night over Golden State’s past three games, making 7-of-18 (38.9%) three-pointers during that stretch. “He picks and pops,” head coach Steve Kerr said. “That means the other team’s big guy has to go with him. That means that defender’s not in the paint. Steph (Curry) was the happiest guy in the building tonight with all that room to work with. The game got a lot easier for all of our guys.”
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NBA Unveils 2025 All-Star Game Starters

January 23rd, 2025 at 7:01pm CST by Tristan Tucker

The 2025 All-Star Game starters were revealed on Thursday during Inside the NBA’s pregame show and confirmed by the NBA on social media (Twitter links).

In the Eastern Conference, a pair of Knicks made the cut, with Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns – in his first season in New York – earning nods. Joining Brunson in the backcourt is Cavaliers guard Donovan Mitchell, while Celtics forward Jayson Tatum and Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo secured frontcourt spots.

Lakers star LeBron James extended his all-time record to 21 consecutive All-Star selections in the Western Conference. Warriors guard Stephen Curry and Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander accounted for the backcourt spots in the West while Nikola Jokic of the Nuggets and Kevin Durant of the Suns joined James as frontcourt starters.

The starters are selected by a weighted voting process with the fan vote accounting for half of the final outcome. The player and media portions of the vote each counted for 25 percent. Three frontcourt players and two guards were selected from each conference.

The reserves, who are picked by the league’s coaches, will be announced on Jan. 30. LaMelo Ball of the Hornets narrowly missed out on being a starter after ranking first in the fan vote, having finished third in player voting and seventh in the media vote. The Spurs’ Victor Wembanyama also barely missed out, finishing second in media voting but fourth for both players and fans.

Luka Doncic, Anthony Edwards, Ja Morant, Kyrie Irving, James Harden, De’Aaron Fox, Devin Booker, Norman Powell, Anthony Davis, Jalen Williams, Alperen Sengun, Trae Young, Damian Lillard, Cade Cunningham, Darius Garland, Tyrese Maxey, Tyler Herro, Evan Mobley and Jaylen Brown are among the names who could be voted in as reserves.

The 74th NBA All-Star Game on Feb. 16 will feature a new format, complete with a mini-tournament composed of four teams and three games. Two teams will meet in a semifinal while the other two will play in another. The victors in each of those games will meet in a final. The winner of each game is the first to 40 points.

The format change means that the 10 players named starters on Thursday won’t be the only players who actually start on All-Star Sunday. The 24 players ultimately named All-Stars will be split among three eight-man teams, with the roster’s drafted by Inside the NBA’s Shaquille O’Neal, Kenny Smith and Charles Barkley.

The draft will air on Feb. 6 on TNT. The fourth team of eight players will be made up of the winning team from the Rising Stars event.

The four teams participating in the NBA All-Star Game will compete for a prize pool of $1.8 million. Each player on the team that wins the final will receive $125,000, while members of the second-place team earn $50,000. Players on the third- and fourth-place teams will receive $25,000.

The full voting results can be found here.

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Pacific Notes: Durant, Leonard, Zubac, Post, Schroder, Hield

January 23rd, 2025 at 9:41am CST by Dana Gauruder

The Suns’ pursuit of Jimmy Butler has been big news for weeks in NBA circles. They also acquired center Nick Richards last week and made a draft-pick trade with Utah this week, seemingly with an eye toward additional deals.

The best thing the Phoenix players can do is tune out all the trade chatter, Kevin Durant told Duane Rankin of the Arizona Republic (Twitter link).

“It’s just a part of the game now,” Durant said. “We know it’s important. The locker room is sacred. The bus is sacred. Hotel, walkthrough, all that stuff is sacred. It’s stuff we don’t talk about. It’s a brotherhood in here, but we know the noise is going to always be going on around us. As much as we can bunker down and focus on one another, the better we are as a group.

“It’s a business, though. We understand it’s a business. Anything can happen in this business. We traded one our brothers, Josh (Okogie) to Charlotte and that happened pretty quickly. We’ve just got to focus on in one one another and keep grinding.”

We have more from the Pacific Division:

  • The Clippers almost defeated the Celtics without four of their starters on Wednesday. Kawhi Leonard, James Harden, Norman Powell and Ivica Zubac all sat out, yet they took the Celtics to overtime (story via The Associated Press). Leonard sat out due to right knee injury management but he has shown flashes of his old self in recent games. He scored 19 efficient points in 24-plus minutes against the Lakers on Sunday. “I’m happy with the progress,” Leonard told Broderick Turner of the Los Angeles Times. “For me, it’s just about how I’m feeling and I’m coming out of the games feeling great. But I still got work to do and we’re going to keep taking each step.”
  • Zubac, who missed Wednesday’s game due to an eye injury, is averaging a career-best 15.0 points, 12.7 rebounds and 2.6 assists per night. He’s been a steadying force with Leonard sidelined most of the season. “I’ve been confident in my game. I always knew what I could do. It was just not my role (previously),” Zubac told Janis Carr of the Orange County Register.
  • Warriors two-way player Quinten Post got some court time on Wednesday, contributing five points and six rebounds in 15 minutes, Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN tweets. Coach Steve Kerr says he’ll continue to hunt opportunities to play Post, as he gives the offense a different look with his ability to help spread the floor. Kerr moved Dennis Schröder to the bench in favor of Buddy Hield, who contributed 17 points in 25 minutes. Schröder, who had started in his first 17 games since being acquired from Brooklyn, had seven points and five assists in 21 minutes. Kerr wants Schröder on the floor when Stephen Curry is getting a rest and also likes the chemistry between Curry and Hield, Youngmisuk adds in another tweet.
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