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NBA Announces 2025 All-Star Game Rosters

February 6th, 2025 at 6:33pm CST by Tristan Tucker

The 24 players selected for the 2025 All-Star Game were drafted on a Thursday pre-game TNT show by coaches Charles Barkley, Shaquille O’Neal and Kenny Smith, and later announced by the NBA (Twitter link).

The players were previously sorted into groups of starters and reserves, but that had no bearing on their team placement for the new mini-tournament in this year’s game.

Below are each team’s selections, sorted in order of pick:

Team Shaq

O’Neal had the first overall pick in the televised draft, selecting James, who holds the record for most All-Star appearances in a career. For the most part, O’Neal opted for the “old guard” of the NBA, so to speak. His team has a whopping 87 All-Star appearances (including this year) among its eight players.

The roster also unites a handful of players. Durant spent this week in trade rumors, with reports indicating he didn’t want to be traded to Curry’s Warriors. The two players were teammates for three seasons. This also will mark the first time James and Davis will play together since the blockbuster move that brought Doncic to L.A. Additionally, Curry, James, Durant, Tatum and Davis all played together on the 2024 U.S. men’s Olympic Team.

Team Kenny

In contrast to O’Neal’s roster, Smith opted for some of the younger stars across the league. Smith’s team has a combined 13 All-Star nods to their name — Williams, Mobley, Cunningham and Herro are all first-timers. Smith united a pair of Cavaliers, with Mobley and Garland joining forces.

Team Chuck

Barkley went for a mix of experience in his group. He secured the top three expected players in the MVP race this season between Jokic, Antetokounmpo and Gilgeous-Alexander. He also landed Wembanyama with the 12th overall pick. Barkley’s group has a combined 35 All-Star honors, with Sengun and Wembanyama as first-time All-Stars and Antetkounmpo (nine) and Jokic (seven) leading the way.

A fourth team coached by Candace Parker will play in the tournament. She’ll be coaching whichever team wins this year’s Rising Stars Challenge — those rosters were announced earlier this week. Two teams will meet in a semifinal (game one) while the other two also play each other (game two). The winning team from each game moves on to the final round.

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.

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Wolves Were Among Teams To Inquire On Kevin Durant

February 6th, 2025 at 5:58pm CST by Luke Adams

The Timberwolves made a “last-ditch effort” near Thursday’s trade deadline to engage the Suns in trade talks about Kevin Durant, according to NBA insider Chris Haynes (Twitter link), who says that effort didn’t go anywhere.

The Warriors pursued Durant earlier this week, but backed off when it became clear that he had no interest in returning to Golden State. Shams Charania of ESPN reported earlier on Thursday that teams continued to “aggressively” call Phoenix about Durant after the Warriors ended their pursuit, but the Suns were said to be seeking a massive return and opted to hang onto Durant for at least the rest of the season.

As Chris Hine of The Star Tribune notes (via Twitter), Durant and Timberwolves star Anthony Edwards established a close bond as members of Team USA at the Olympics last summer, so it makes sense that Minnesota would look into what it would take to acquire the former MVP.

However, any deal involving the Suns and Timberwolves would’ve been extremely complicated, since those two clubs have the highest and second-highest payrolls in the NBA, respectively, and faced tax apron restrictions.

No player on Minnesota’s roster earns as much as Durant’s $51.2MM salary, so the Wolves would’ve needed to aggregate several contracts in order to both match KD’s cap hit and get below the second apron in the process (they were over that threshold by more than $16MM). The Suns also weren’t permitted to take back more salary than they sent out, so at least one more team – and likely more than that – would’ve been necessarily as facilitators.

Although it was essentially a pipe dream to think that the Wolves might acquire Durant today, the fact that Minnesota even made the call is a reflection of just how widespread the interest in the 36-year-old was. According to John Gambadoro of Arizona Sports 98.7 (Twitter link), it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that half the league inquired.

Durant will be remaining in Phoenix for the next several months, but the Suns are expected to perform a “full evaluation” of their roster in the summer if they don’t have the sort of second half they’re hoping for. Durant will only have one year left on his contract at that point, so the Suns could revisit trade talks this offseason, especially if the veteran is reluctant to sign an extension.

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Suns To Revisit Kevin Durant Trade Talks In Summer?

February 6th, 2025 at 3:56pm CST by Rory Maher

Despite not having a no-trade clause, Suns star Kevin Durant essentially nixed a trade to the Warriors, but that didn’t prevent “several more teams” from inquiring about the 36-year-old ahead of today’s deadline, ESPN’s Shams Charania reported on SportsCenter (Twitter video link).

Charania reiterates that Durant was caught off guard by seeing his name pop up in rumors and did not request to be traded. Durant will remain with the Suns for at least the rest of the 2024/25 season, but his future with the organization might be tenuous.

The Suns have the highest payroll in the NBA. However, they are currently just 25-25, clinging to the No. 10 seed in the West due to a tiebreaker with Golden State, which has an identical record (No. 9 Sacramento is also 25-25). If Phoenix is unable to turn its season around, Charania says the Suns will do a “full evaluation” of their roster.

Plugged-in local reporter John Gambadoro of Arizona Sports 98.7 states (via Twitter) that Phoenix wouldn’t move Durant unless it receives a combination of draft assets and young players in return. Gambadoro expects the Suns to field more inquiries on the 11-time All-NBA forward this summer.

Appearing on NBA Today (Twitter video link), former Warriors president of basketball operations Bob Myers, who now works for ESPN, said the Grizzlies were among the teams pursuing Durant. However, the two-time NBA Finals MVP didn’t want to play in Memphis, according to Myers.

Durant is earning $51.2MM in 2024/25, followed by $54.7MM in ’25/26. He’ll be eligible for a veteran extension when the ’25/26 league year begins on July 1.

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Sixers Trade KJ Martin, Two Second-Rounders To Pistons

February 6th, 2025 at 2:53pm CST by Rory Maher

FEBRUARY 6: The trade is official, according to a press release from the Sixers, who received cash considerations in the deal. Martin was acquired using the Pistons’ cap room and will be flipped to Utah as part of the Jimmy Butler multi-team trade, as we outlined in a separate story.

FEBRUARY 5: The Sixers are trading forward KJ Martin and a pair of second-round picks to the Pistons, sources tell Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer (Twitter link).

According to Derek Bodner of PHLY Sports (Twitter link), Philadelphia is sending Detroit a 2027 second-rounder via Milwaukee, as well as Dallas’ 2031 selection.

Martin, 24, was listed as out on Tuesday due to trade pending. Subsequent reports indicated that he was expected to be moved on Wednesday, which has now come to fruition.

Marc Stein reports (via Twitter) that the Pistons are expected acquire Martin using their room exception. The room exception is worth $7,983,000 in 2024/25, while Martin makes just under that total ($7,975,000).

Detroit would have to use its remaining $14MM in cap space before dipping into the room exception, so this presumably won’t be the only trade the team makes. This deal suggests the front office is focused more on the future than the present, but it’s possible Detroit could thread the needle and find win-now help while still acquiring draft assets in the process.

The No. 52 pick of the 2020 draft, Martin spent his first three NBA seasons in Houston prior to being traded to the Clippers in a five-team deal in the 2023 offseason. He only played two games for Los Angeles, having been sent to Philadelphia in November 2023 as part of the James Harden blockbuster.

After playing a modest role for the Sixers in 2023/24, Martin re-signed with the club on a two-year, $16MM deal that was widely viewed as being completed for future trade purposes. The second year is fully non-guaranteed, so the high-flying forward certainly isn’t a lock to remain with Detroit going forward.

However, since the 76ers have struggled in ’24/25 – they currently sit outside of the East’s play-in tournament at 20-29 – they ended up dumping Martin’s contract instead of using it as a way to try and improve the roster, making the decision to bump up his salary last summer look like a mistake in retrospect.

As cap expert Yossi Gozlan observes (Twitter link), by shedding Martin’s salary and completing a separate trade with Dallas on Tuesday, the 76ers have saved $40MM+ when accounting for payroll, tax payments and dipping below the luxury tax line. They’ll now receive a tax distribution valued at roughly $12-14MM instead of being a taxpayer.

Since they’re well below the first tax apron, they’ll also be able to add players on the buyout market, regardless of the player’s pre-waiver salary.

Martin hasn’t seen action since Dec. 23 due to a foot injury. He has appeared in 24 games this season (seven starts), averaging 6.4 points and 3.0 rebounds in 20.0 minutes per game.

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Pistons To Acquire Dennis Schröder

February 6th, 2025 at 1:49pm CST by Arthur Hill

The Jazz agreed to take Dennis Schröder in the four-team Jimmy Butler trade, but he’s expected to wind up with the Pistons, sources tell Omari Sankofa II of The Detroit Free Press (Twitter link). Jake Fischer of The Stein Line and Chris Haynes both confirm Sankofa’s report.

Utah will receive KJ Martin, Josh Richardson and a 2028 second-round pick in return, a source tells Fischer (Twitter link). The Pistons initially took Richardson from Miami in the Butler deal and agreed to acquire Martin from the Sixers on Wednesday.

It’s possible the Martin deal with Philadelphia will get folded into the Butler trade. Otherwise, it appears the Pistons will complete their acquisition of Martin first, taking him into cap room. Once that’s done, Detroit, Utah, Golden State and Miami can officially pull the trigger on the Butler deal.

Counting the Jazz, this will be the fourth team of the season for Schröder, who was traded from Brooklyn to Golden State in mid-December. The Warriors were counting on him to stabilize their backcourt, but he turned out to be an unreliable shooter, connecting at just 37.5% from the field and 32.2% from three-point range in 24 games.

Schröder had been expecting to stay in the Bay Area and recently signed a new lease, according to Marc J. Spears of Andscape (Twitter link). He learned that he had been traded after Wednesday’s pre-game warm-up, and now he’s on the move again.

He should have an opportunity to play a regular role in Detroit, where the Pistons have been on the lookout for another ball-handler and play-maker since Jaden Ivey broke his fibula last month.

Schröder’s $13MM contract is expiring, so the Pistons will have to decide this summer whether to make a long-term commitment. Richardson’s $3MM deal is also expiring, while Martin has an $8MM non-guaranteed contract for next season.

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Teams Still Calling Suns About Kevin Durant

February 6th, 2025 at 12:26pm CST by Luke Adams

After the Warriors’ gave up on their bid to acquire Kevin Durant and the Suns decided not to send the star forward to Miami in a deal for Jimmy Butler, there was a sense that Durant would likely remain in Phoenix through Thursday’s trade deadline.

While that still may be the case, Shams Charania of ESPN reported on NBA Today (Twitter video link) that some teams haven’t given up on the idea of prying Durant away from the Suns.

“From what I’m told, there are multiple teams making really aggressive calls to the Suns on Kevin Durant,” Charania said. “He had made it clear that he did not want a reunion with the Warriors. The Warriors made a very strong pursuit of him over the last week, and several calls (from other teams) are continuing to pour in.

“One thing I do want to clarify: Kevin Durant has not requested a trade. It’s my understanding that most of – all of – these conversations this week has been somewhat blindsiding, because going into this week and this season, I don’t think a trade was something he was thinking about. He has wanted to stay in Phoenix.”

Unlike teammate Bradley Beal, Durant doesn’t have a no-trade clause. Still, the Warriors reportedly backed off of their pursuit after getting word that he was opposed to the idea of returning to Golden State. If Durant were to convey a similar message to another suitor, it would likely have an impact on what that team is willing to give up, reducing the likelihood of a deal.

Durant, 36, is only under contract for one more year beyond this season, and the Suns had a “massive” asking price in their conversations with Golden State and Miami, according to ESPN’s Brian Windhorst (Twitter link via Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald).

A report on Tuesday suggested that the Mavericks and Rockets were among the other teams with interest in Durant, though a subsequent story downplayed the idea of either team making a serious push for him.

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Raptors Trading Davion Mitchell To Heat For P.J. Tucker, Second-Rounder, Cash

February 6th, 2025 at 10:36am CST by Luke Adams

The Raptors appear to be getting involved in the multi-team Jimmy Butler blockbuster after all.

Initially thought to be involved in the deal as a facilitator to take on Kyle Anderson, Toronto is instead acquiring veteran forward P.J. Tucker, who was being sent from Utah to Miami as part of the Butler trade, reports Shams Charania of ESPN (Twitter link).

According to Charania, the Raptors will also get a second-round pick and cash from the Heat in the swap, which will send guard Davion Mitchell to Miami. The second-rounder is the Lakers’ 2026 pick, per Blake Murphy of Sportsnet.ca (Twitter link).

While Charania doesn’t explicitly say so, this agreement will likely be folded in the larger framework of the Butler trade, with Tucker going directly from the Jazz to Toronto in the multi-team deal.

It’s a financially motivated maneuver for the Heat, who will take on Mitchell’s $6.45MM expiring contract instead of Tucker’s $11.54MM expiring deal. That will allow them to duck below the first tax apron by about $1.96MM, according to ESPN’s Bobby Marks, who adds (via Twitter) that Miami remains above the luxury tax line by approximately $2.8MM.

It remains to be seen if the Heat will hang onto Mitchell or if they have additional moves to come. The former ninth overall pick is a talented point-of-attack defender who has a limited offensive game. In 44 games (22 starts) for the Raptors this season, he averaged 6.3 points and 4.6 assists in 24.5 minutes per night, with a .434/.359/.676 shooting line.

Mitchell will be eligible for restricted free agency at season’s end, though he seems unlikely to receive a qualifying offer.

Tucker has some history in Toronto — he was drafted by the franchise in 2006 and spent his rookie season with the Raptors, then was traded back to the team in 2017. However, his third stint with the organization will likely be a brief one, as he’s a virtual lock to be bought out or released outright.

Toronto still had a fair amount of breathing room below the luxury tax line after agreeing to acquire Brandon Ingram from New Orleans, which is why the club is willing to accommodating a salary dump. The second-round pick and cash they’re getting in the deal incentivized the Raptors to swap out Mitchell for Tucker and his pricier contract.

The Raptors could use Mitchell’s salary for matching purposes to complete the trade or could utilize its untouched mid-level exception to absorb Tucker’s incoming salary. In the latter scenario, the team would create a new trade exception worth Mitchell’s outgoing $6.45MM salary.

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Thunder’s Chet Holmgren Set To Return On Friday

February 6th, 2025 at 8:40am CST by Luke Adams

Even if the Thunder don’t complete any more trades before Thursday’s deadline, they’re set to make a major addition to their lineup this week.

Big man Chet Holmgren, who has been sidelined for nearly three months due to a right iliac wing fracture, is no longer on the team’s injury report and is expected to make his return on Friday vs. Toronto, reports Shams Charania of ESPN (Twitter link).

Holmgren suffered the injury, a form of pelvic fracture, on November 10 when he fell awkwardly on his side after trying to contest an Andrew Wiggins shot at the rim. Oklahoma City announced the following day that he would be reevaluated in eight-to-10 weeks.

The Thunder followed up in mid-January to say Holmgren’s next exam would come in approximately three-to-five weeks. Exactly three weeks after the team made that announcement, the 2024 Rookie of the Year runner-up will reportedly be back on the court on Friday.

Holmgren averaged 16.5 points, 7.9 rebounds, and 2.3 blocks in 29.4 minutes per game across 82 starts in his first full NBA season in 2023/24 after he missed his entire ’22/23 rookie year due to a foot injury.

He had gotten off to an even better start this fall, averaging 18.2 PPG, 9.2 RPG, and 2.9 BPG in 28.9 MPG across nine healthy outings, with a .519/.400/.776 shooting line.

Although the Thunder, who hold a league-best 40-9 record, hardly needed additional reinforcements, Holmgren’s return is an exciting development for the club, which still hasn’t gotten a chance to see the 22-year-old play alongside fellow big man Isaiah Hartenstein, OKC’s big free agent addition of the 2024 offseason. Hartenstein was recovering from an injury of his own at the start of the season when Holmgren was healthy.

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Hoops Rumors’ 2025 NBA Trade Deadline Primer

February 6th, 2025 at 7:13am CST by Luke Adams

Deadline day is finally here. NBA teams will have until today at 2:00 pm Central time to finalize trade agreements. Anyone not traded by that time will be ineligible to be moved until after his team’s season comes to an end this spring.

It has already been a hugely eventful trade season. The Lakers and Mavericks kicked off the week in earnest by making one of the most shocking deals in league history on Sunday, swapping a pair of All-NBA stars in Luka Doncic and Anthony Davis. Nothing will top that move, but teams have done their best in the days since then to provide worthy follow-ups.

De’Aaron Fox and Zach LaVine were included in the same three-team deal on Monday, and trades involving Jimmy Butler, Andrew Wiggins, Brandon Ingram, Kyle Kuzma, Khris Middleton, and Mark Williams are pending completion.

[RELATED: 2024/25 In-Season NBA Trades]

Those deals took many of this season’s most noteworthy trade candidates off the market, but there are still plenty of storylines to keep an eye on as Thursday’s deadline nears.

Nikola Vucevic headlines several trade candidates still available for the Bulls. The Jazz (Jordan Clarkson, John Collins), Hawks (Clint Capela, De’Andre Hunter, Bogdan Bogdanovic), Nets (Cameron Johnson, Day’Ron Sharpe), and Trail Blazers (Robert Williams, Jerami Grant, Anfernee Simons) are among the other teams with multiple trade chips still in play.

The Suns, having struck out on Butler, may be looking to use one or more of their three tradable first-round picks to upgrade their roster around Kevin Durant, Devin Booker, and Bradley Beal. The Grizzlies and Nuggets are among the other potential contenders in the West who have been quiet so far and still could have something up their sleeves.

Detroit, the NBA’s only team with cap room remaining, is also worth keeping an eye on. While they’ve agreed to trade for KJ Martin, Josh Richardson, and Lindy Waters, the Pistons could still theoretically use their $14MM in room to make one or more additional deals, then acquire Richardson and Waters using the minimum salary exception and Martin with the room exception.

As the Doncic/Davis mega-deal over the weekend showed, you also never know when two teams will decide to make a move that none of us saw coming.

We’ll be keeping tabs on all the latest news and rumors all day long on Hoops Rumors, leading up to 2:00 pm CT.

In the meantime, here are some of our features and trackers to help you prepare for today’s action:

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Knicks To Trade Jericho Sims To Bucks For Delon Wright

February 5th, 2025 at 9:26pm CST by Arthur Hill

The Bucks will acquire backup center Jericho Sims from the Knicks, sources tell Shams Charania of ESPN (Twitter link). The move will be folded into a deal between Milwaukee and Washington that was reported earlier today.

New York will receive Delon Wright and cash in return, Charania tweets. The Bucks will be permitted to send out cash because they will be below the second tax apron once the deal is finalized.

According to Stefan Bondy of The New York Post (Twitter link), the Knicks will also part with the draft rights to French big man Mathias Lessort in exchange for the draft rights to French guard Hugo Besson.

The Bucks were among the teams said to have interest in Sims, along with both L.A. clubs, in a Tuesday report from Michael Scotto of HoopsHype.

Sims, 26, is in his fourth season with the Knicks after being selected with the 58th pick in 2021. He has appeared in 39 games so far this season, but his playing time declined to a career-low 10.8 minutes per game and he was averaging just 1.6 points and 3.3 rebounds. He has a $2.1MM expiring contract and will be an unrestricted free agent after the season.

The move raises speculation that New York will try to add another big man before Thursday afternoon’s trade deadline. Mitchell Robinson remains out of action while recovering from offseason ankle surgery, although he’s reportedly making progress toward a return.

Wright, a 32-year-old guard, was in his first season with the Bucks after signing as a free agent in July. His shooting has been an issue as he’s connecting at 26.8% from the field and 24.5% from three-point range while averaging 2.5 PPG in 26 games.

Wright is on a one-year, $2.1MM contract and is also headed for free agency at season’s end. The expectation is that the Knicks will hang onto the veteran guard for now rather than flipping him or waiving him, tweets Bondy.

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