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And-Ones: Dybantsa, Holiday, LeBron, Bronny, TNT, Carmelo

January 25th, 2025 at 4:04pm CST by Luke Adams

A.J. Dybantsa, who is widely considered the favorite to be the No. 1 pick in the 2026 NBA draft, was in Paris this week for the NBA’s Global Games and got a first-hand look at 2023’s top pick, Victor Wembanyama. According to Brian Windhorst of ESPN, Dybantsa expressed a desire to team up with Wembanyama with the Spurs when he reaches the NBA.

“I think Victor is just ridiculous; the things he does are just crazy,” said Dybantsa, who has committed to play his college ball next season at BYU. “I just think we would’ve been a crazy duo. Now the odds of that happening are very slim. But I mean, it was just a thought that came up in my mind when he got drafted. But you never know.”

As Dybantsa acknowledges, the odds are against him ending up in San Antonio. The Spurs control their own first-round pick in 2026 and have the right to swap first-rounders with the Hawks, so they technically have two shots at the No. 1 overall pick. But both San Antonio and Atlanta appear to be on an upward trajectory and seem unlikely to be among the NBA’s very worst teams in 2025/26.

Here are a few more odds and ends from around the basketball world:

  • Veteran NBA wing Justin Holiday will audition for the Italian club Virtus Bologna over the next several days, head coach Duško Ivanović confirmed (story via Eurohoops). The expectation is that Virtus Bologna will decide next week whether or not to sign Holiday to a contract. The 35-year-old swingman, who has appeared in 680 career regular season games in the NBA, spend last season with the Nuggets but has been a free agent since July.
  • LeBron James and Bronny James of the Lakers turned down an invitation from the NBA to take part in the skills challenge at All-Star weekend as a father/son duo, according to NBA insider Chris Haynes (Twitter video link). Haynes adds that Bronny also declined an opportunity to be among the G League players competing in the Rising Stars event.
  • Alexander Sherman of CNBC checks in on the NBA’s media landscape, writing that Kenny Smith and Shaquille O’Neal are on the verge of signing new multiyear contracts with TNT Sports, while both Amazon and NBC have spoken to Carmelo Anthony about the possibility of having him join their studio shows for the 2025/26 season.
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Latest On Potential NBA-Run European League

January 24th, 2025 at 10:52pm CST by Luke Adams

Speaking this week to reporters in Paris, commissioner Adam Silver confirmed that the NBA continues to explore the idea of launching a league in Europe. Reporting in December indicated that the NBA and FIBA were discussing the concept, and Silver addressed those talks earlier this month in an appearance on Shaquille O’Neal’s podcast.

As Brian Windhorst of ESPN writes, Silver’s comments this week were his most expansive on the subject, as well as his most intriguing. The NBA commissioner suggested that he believes the EuroLeague – Europe’s current top basketball league – is leaving money on the table, Windhorst notes.

“While Europe continues to develop some of the very best players in the world — many of our most recent MVPs, of course, are European — we think that the commercial opportunity has not kept pace with the growth of the game,” Silver said. “And what we do at the NBA is we run leagues.

“We, of course, run the WNBA, we have the [Basketball Africa League], we have the G League, we have a 2K video league. So we operate five different leagues and we think it’s an expertise we have. And so we are looking very closely to see if there’s an opportunity to professionalize the game to another level here to create a larger commercial opportunity.”

According to Mike Vorkunov of The Athletic, the NBA is considering various models for its league — it could include new teams, existing clubs, or a combination of the two. Vorkunov says sources in Europe have continuously mentioned Real Madrid as a club that might be interested in leaving the EuroLeague for the NBA’s new venture.

While other EuroLeague teams could also be candidates to defect, the NBA has also reached out to some major European soccer clubs to see if they would have interest in creating new basketball teams, sources tell Windhorst. Both Windhorst and Vorkunov mention Manchester and Berlin as markets the NBA is looking at, with Vorkunov also listing London, Paris, and Munich as a few more possibilities.

The league may schedule NBA regular season games in one or more of those markets within the next couple seasons, per Windhorst and Vorkunov.

“Everything is on the table,” Silver responded when asked by BasketNews whether the NBA’s European league could feature EuroLeague teams. “So, [the] potential to include existing clubs? Absolutely there should be interest. The opportunity to create sustainable competition? Yes. Would we want to have a broad base of countries represented? Absolutely.

“I mean, that’s the benefit we have now by coming in and looking at this from a blank canvas. Incidentally, I recognize there’s enormous history and tradition here in European basketball, and we want to respect those traditions.”

Here’s more on the NBA’s potential foray into Europe:

  • In order to move forward with a European league, the NBA would need to get the support of its Board of Governors. Windhorst, citing ownership sources, says there are still plenty of questions about the league’s plans, especially since some of the other leagues the NBA operates haven’t been consistently profitable. According to Windhorst, Silver suggested this week that a decision on whether or not to continue moving forward on a European league could be made following a Board of Governors meeting in a couple months. “We have an NBA board meeting in late March,” Silver said. “We’ll be giving an update to our bosses, in essence.”
  • Of course, March’s meeting won’t be the first time that the league shares its plans with NBA team owners. As Windhorst writes, FIBA secretary general Andreas Zagklis made a presentation to team owners in New York in the fall about a potential European league, while George Aivazoglou, the NBA’s managing director of Europe and the Middle East, met with a committee of owners in November and spoke about which cities the league would target.
  • League officials from the NBA and EuroLeague met last year as the NBA looked to partner with the established league on its new venture, says Vorkunov. The EuroLeague rejected the NBA’s proposal, since it didn’t want to give up control of its operations. “They wanted the heart and the head,” a EuroLeague executive told The Athletic.
  • Vorkunov describes “dissent” among prominent European basketball figures about the impact of the NBA’s entry into the market. “I think the NBA walks into the European business and revenues go up a whole bunch,” one EuroLeague club owner said. “I don’t know how they do that, but they’re experts at it.” Others aren’t so sure, Vorkunov explains, noting that another club owner doesn’t believe there’s room for both the EuroLeague and an NBA league to succeed in Europe.
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Bruno Fernando Signs With Real Madrid

January 24th, 2025 at 3:21pm CST by Luke Adams

Veteran NBA center Bruno Fernando has signed with Real Madrid, the Spanish club announced today in a press release.

Fernando, who inked a non-guaranteed minimum-salary contract with the Raptors in August after previously suiting up for the Hawks, Celtics, and Rockets, was sparingly used during the first half of this season even though centers Kelly Olynyk and Jakob Poeltl both missed some time due to injuries.

Fernando appeared in 17 games for Toronto, making two starts and averaging 3.4 points, 3.0 rebounds, and 1.1 assists in 8.6 minutes per contest. The Raptors waived him earlier this month before his full-season salary could become guaranteed, making him a free agent.

While Fernando was believed to be prioritizing another opportunity stateside, the former Maryland standout will make the move overseas for the first time in his professional career. His new contract with Real Madrid runs through the 2025/26 season, according to the EuroLeague club.

Fernando is joining a Real Madrid squad that recently signed another notable NBA free agent, guard Dennis Smith Jr., and features a frontcourt heavy on former NBA players, including Serge Ibaka, Usman Garuba, Edy Tavares, and Gabriel Deck.

Mario Hezonja, Dzanan Musa, and Facundo Campazzo are among Fernando’s other new teammates who have NBA experience.

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And-Ones: All-Star Game, Fernando, Snyder, NBRPA, Woj

January 22nd, 2025 at 8:02pm CST by Luke Adams

Six NBA reporters at The Athletic, including Sam Amick, Fred Katz, and Joe Vardon, made their picks for the Eastern and Western Conference All-Star starters, with all six writers selecting the same three frontcourt players in the East: Celtics forward Jayson Tatum, Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo, and Knicks center Karl-Anthony Towns.

Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Nuggets center Nikola Jokic were the only unanimous choices in the West. Meanwhile, Cavaliers guard Donovan Mitchell, Knicks guard Jalen Brunson, Timberwolves guard Anthony Edwards, and Spurs big man Victor Wembanyama each showed up on all but one of the six ballots from The Athletic’s reporters.

The NBA will officially announce this year’s All-Star starters on Thursday evening during a TNT broadcast. The starters are determined by votes from fans (50%), players (25%), and the media (25%).

We have more odds and ends from around the basketball world:

  • Veteran NBA big man Bruno Fernando, who was waived earlier this month by Toronto before his full-season salary could become guaranteed, is in talks with Spanish powerhouse Real Madrid, as Michalis Gioylenoglou reports for Eurohoops.net. Gioylenoglou describes Fernando as becoming more open to making the move to Europe after having initially been reluctant to head across the Atlantic. However, no deal is done yet.
  • Hawks head coach Quin Snyder is among the candidates receiving serious consideration to become the next coach of Australia’s national team, sources tell Olgun Uluc of ESPN. The Boomers are seeking a successor to Brian Goorjian, who coached the national team at the 2020 and 2024 Olympics.
  • Former NBA big man Antonio Davis, who appeared in over 900 games from 1993-2006 and made an All-Star team with Toronto in 2001, has been named the CEO of the National Basketball Retired Players Association, reports Marc J. Spears of Andscape (Twitter link). According to Spears, Davis will “drive the strategic visions, business operations, member services, and growth” of the NBRPA, a non-profit association representing former NBA players.
  • In a feature story for The New York Times, Bruce Schoenfeld checks in on Adrian Wojnarowski, exploring why the former star news-breaker, who was making $7.3MM annually at ESPN, accepted a job at his alma mater, St. Bonaventure, that pays him about one percent of that amount ($75K per year).
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Danilo Gallinari Joining Puerto Rican Team

January 22nd, 2025 at 10:33am CST by Luke Adams

Veteran NBA forward Danilo Gallinari has a new team, announcing (via Twitter) that he has reached an agreement to join Vaqueros de Bayamón in Puerto Rico.

In a follow-up tweet, Gallinari suggests the deal includes the ability to opt out in the event of an NBA opportunity.

The No. 6 overall pick in the 2008 draft, Gallinari appeared in 777 total NBA regular season games for eight teams from 2008-24. He began his career with the Knicks before being sent to the Nuggets in the Carmelo Anthony blockbuster at the 2011 trade deadline.

While many of his best seasons came in Denver, where he averaged 16.2 points per game in over 300 regular season appearances, Gallinari later had productive years for the Clippers, Thunder, and Hawks as well. In 2023/24, after recovering from an ACL tear, the 6’10” forward spent time with the Wizards, Pistons, and Bucks, getting into 49 total games.

Gallinari, who is 36 years old and saw his mobility hampered following the ACL injury, went unsigned this past summer and may have played in his last NBA game.

A former Italian League MVP who has represented his home country in previous international competitions, Gallinari added in a third tweet that he’s “ready to wear the Italian jersey for one last great European adventure” and hopes for a “great ending.”

As BasketNews.com observes, while Gallinari didn’t say it outright, those remarks suggest he may be considering retiring after suiting up for the Italian national team one more time in the 2025 EuroBasket tournament.

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And-Ones: MVP Race, Maledon, Flagg, Dybantsa

January 21st, 2025 at 10:40am CST by Luke Adams

The NBA’s Most Valuable Player race for this season already looks like it’ll be a two-man race, according to Zach Harper of The Athletic, who points to the current betting odds as evidence.

BetOnline.ag currently lists Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander as the frontrunner at -400, followed relatively closely by Nuggets center Nikola Jokic at +250. After those two, Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Bucks is all the way down at +4000, with Celtics forward Jayson Tatum at +5000.

Last season’s MVP Jokic and Gilgeous-Alexander were among the three finalists for the award in 2024 alongside Mavericks guard Luka Doncic, who has already missed more than 17 games, taking him out of the running due to the 65-game rule. 2023 MVP Joel Embiid will also fall short of 65 games and has been eliminated from contention.

Here are a few more odds and ends from around the basketball world:

  • Tony Parker, the president of ASVEL Basket in France, said during an interview with RMC Sport (YouTube link) that he believes current ASVEL standout Theo Maledon will receive NBA offers in the offseason, as Johnny Askounis of Eurohoops relays. Maledon, who previously played 177 regular season NBA games for three teams from 2020-24, has averaged 18.0 points and 4.5 assists per game in 22 EuroLeague outings this season, posting a shooting line of .457/.387/.889.
  • Within the same interview, Parker expressed interest in getting ASVEL involved in the NBA’s rumored foray into European basketball, Askounis notes. “When you see what the NBA is doing, they are very strong. Whether it is marketing or the new TV rights contract that will start next year,” Parker said. “We need to be associated with that. I want there to be NBA Europe and for us to be part of it.”
  • Duke standout Cooper Flagg has solidified his place atop the 2025 NBA draft class with his recent play, according to Sam Vecenie of The Athletic, who says Flagg’s performance over the past month – 23.4 PPG, 6.9 RPG, 4.6 APG, and a .561/.500/.881 shooting line – is arguably the best stretch for a college freshman since Zion Williamson was a Blue Devil.
  • Meanwhile, Jared Weiss of The Athletic checks in on some of 2026’s best prospects, including A.J. Dybantsa and Cameron Boozer, who were taking part in the Hoophall Classic in Springfield, Mass. over the weekend. While Dybantsa wasn’t at his best during the event, Weiss says he spoke to multiple scouts who believe the 6’9″ wing could eventually become the NBA’s second-best player behind Victor Wembanyama.
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And-Ones: All-Star Voting, New Leagues, Midseason Awards

January 17th, 2025 at 11:59am CST by Dana Gauruder

The third update on fan voting for the All-Star Game has Nikola Jokic, LeBron James and Kevin Durant heading the list of Western Conference frontcourt players, the NBA announced on Thursday (via Twitter). Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Stephen Curry and Luka Doncic have received the most votes among Western Conference backcourt players.

Giannis Antetokounmpo, Jayson Tatum and Karl-Anthony Towns are the top three vote-getters among Eastern Conference frontcourt players, while LaMelo Ball, Donovan Mitchell and Damian Lillard have the most votes among the conference’s backcourt players.

The fan vote counts for 50 percent regarding All-Star starters. Player voting and a media panel’s selections are weighed at 25 percent apiece. Fan voting ends Monday and the All-Star starters will be revealed on Thursday during a TNT broadcast.

We have more from around the basketball world:

  • Will a new basketball league to challenge the NBA come to fruition? According to Bloomberg.com, a group of investors being advised by Maverick Carter, LeBron’s business partner, is seeking to raise $5 billion from private capital sources to form an international basketball league. James himself is not part of the efforts to form this new league, according to ESPN’s Shams Charania. The investors, which includes multiple private equity funds, are looking to form a league consisting of six men’s teams and six women’s teams playing games around the world, Charania adds.
  • Speaking of international games, NBA commissioner Adam Silver confirmed on Shaquille O’Neal’s podcast that discussions have been held regarding a new European league, Eurohoops relays. “One of the things we’ve been discussing is whether, before adding NBA franchises in Europe, there’s an opportunity to create an independent league there. This could leverage the enormous interest in basketball in major European capitals like Paris, London, Berlin, and Madrid— and other major cities that love basketball,” Silver said. Discussions between the NBA and FIBA regarding the proposed league have previously been reported.
  • Sports Illustrated’s Chris Mannix and Liam McKeone hand out their midseason awards, including Most Valuable Player, Rookie of the Year and Coach of the Year. Mannix chooses Gilgeous-Alexander as his midseason MVP, while McKeone selects Jokic. They also take a look at the highs and lows of the season so far.
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Dennis Smith Jr. Signs With Real Madrid

January 16th, 2025 at 7:18am CST by Luke Adams

JANUARY 16: Real Madrid has officially announced its rest-of-season deal with Smith.

JANUARY 15: Free agent point guard Dennis Smith Jr. has traveled to Spain and is expected to sign with Real Madrid, pending a physical, according to reports from Nacho Duque of Marca and Johnny Askounis of Eurohoops.

Ricardo Gonzalez of AS.com initially reported on Tuesday that the possibility of Smith joining Real Madrid was gaining steam. The EuroLeague club had previously been linked to another veteran NBA guard, Devonte’ Graham, but Smith reportedly became the team’s priority in recent days.

Smith reposted several stories on his Instagram about his impending deal with Real Madrid, including a photo from Madrid’s airport.

The ninth overall pick in the 2017 draft, Smith has appeared in a total of 326 regular season games for the Mavericks, Knicks, Pistons, Trail Blazers, Hornets, and Nets over the course of seven NBA seasons. He made 56 appearances last season for Brooklyn, averaging 6.6 points, 3.6 assists, 2.9 rebounds, and 1.2 steals in 18.9 minutes per game, with a shooting line of .435/.294/.741.

Smith isn’t much of a scorer or shooter, with career marks of 40.7% from the floor and 29.8% on three-pointers. However, he’s a solid ball-handler and distributor and a strong point-of-attack defender.

Smith signed a G League contract last month, expecting to be claimed by the Austin Spurs. However, the Bucks’ affiliate, the Wisconsin Herd, claimed him instead. It’s unclear if the 27-year-old ever reported to the Herd — either way, he didn’t play in a game for the team.

Assuming he officially completes his deal in the coming days, Smith will be joining a Real Madrid team that features a handful of former NBA players, including Facundo Campazzo, Mario Hezonja, Dzanan Musa, Serge Ibaka, and Usman Garuba.

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And-Ones: Cousins, All-Star Voting, 2025 Draft, More

January 10th, 2025 at 7:06pm CST by Luke Adams

Four-time NBA All-Star DeMarcus Cousins hasn’t played in the league since finishing the 2021/22 season with Denver, but he continues to compete professionally in non-NBA leagues around the world. The 34-year-old center is joining Selenge Bodons in Mongolia, according to announcements from the club on Instagram and Cousins on Facebook.

The No. 5 overall pick in the 2010 draft, Cousins averaged 19.6 points, 10.2 rebounds, and 3.0 assists per game in 654 regular season appearances for seven NBA teams from 2010-22. Cousins’ career was derailed by a series of major leg injuries, including a torn ACL and torn Achilles, which reduced his effectiveness on both ends of the court in his later NBA seasons.

Here are a few more odds and ends from around the basketball world:

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PJ Dozier Expected To Sign With Anadolu Efes

January 8th, 2025 at 11:47am CST by Luke Adams

Veteran free agent PJ Dozier is expected to join the Turkish club Anadolu Efes for the rest of the season, according to multiple international reports.

George Zakkas of SDNA (Twitter link) first revealed that Dozier and Anadolu Efes were in advanced talks, with Mihalis Stefanou of Eurohoops and Donatas Urbonas of BasketNews.com subsequently confirming an agreement between the 28-year-old wing and the EuroLeague team.

Dozier has spent most of the 2024/25 season with the Timberwolves, but played sparingly in Minnesota and was waived in late December before his full-season salary became guaranteed. Across nine garbage-time appearances for the Wolves, Dozier totaled seven points, five rebounds, and five assists in 35 minutes of action.

Dozier has appeared in a total of 130 NBA regular season games since 2018, having spent time with the Thunder, Celtics, Nuggets, and Kings before landing in Minnesota. The former South Carolina standout is also no stranger to EuroLeague competition, having played for Partizan Belgrade in 2023/24.

Assuming the reported deal is officially finalized, Dozier will join an Anadolu Efes squad that features several other former NBA players, including Shane Larkin, Rodrigue Beaubois, Jordan Nwora, Elijah Bryant, and Stanley Johnson. The club is currently tied for the eighth-best record among 18 EuroLeague teams at 10-9.

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