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Warner Bros. Discovery Sues NBA; Barkley Listening To ESPN, NBC, Amazon

July 26th, 2024 at 3:04pm CST by Luke Adams

Warner Bros. Discovery, the parent company of TNT Sports, has filed a lawsuit against the NBA, alleging that the league is in breach of contract after it refused to recognize TNT’s right to match Amazon’s offer for NBA broadcast rights, reports Baxter Holmes of ESPN.

The lawsuit was filed in New York Supreme Court. Daniel Wallach of The Athletic (Twitter link) shares a copy of the summons, which states that the NBA has 20 days to respond.

TNT Sports issued a statement confirming it has taken legal action against the NBA (Twitter link via Steve Bulpett of Heavy.com):

“Given the NBA’s unjustified rejection of our matching of a third-party offer, we have taken legal action to enforce our rights. We strongly believe this is not just our contractual right, but also in the best interest of fans who want to keep watching our industry-leading NBA content with the choice and flexibility we offer them through our widely distributed WBD video-first distribution platforms – including TNT and Max.”

According to Holmes, NBA spokesperson Mike Bass responded to the suit by stating, “Warner Bros. Discovery’s claims are without merit and our lawyers will address them.”

[RELATED: NBA Announces Details Of Media Deals With Disney, NBC, Amazon]

A longtime broadcasting partner of the NBA, TNT Sports was given some form of matching rights in their current deal with the league. However, we don’t know the exact terms of those rights or how they’d apply in this case, given that Amazon’s agreement with the league will feature different methods of distribution and a different set of games than TNT’s previous deal. The lawsuit could lead to a settlement between Warner Bros. Discovery and the league, either in the form of other NBA rights or financial compensation.

Meanwhile, Charles Barkley – an analyst on TNT’s popular Inside The NBA studio show – issued a statement calling into question whether the NBA was ever negotiating with the network in good faith (Twitter link via Bleacher Report).

“Clearly the NBA has wanted to break up with us from the beginning. I’m not sure TNT ever had a chance,” Barkley said. “TNT matched the money, but the league knows Amazon and these tech companies are the only ones willing to pay for the rights when they double in the future. The NBA didn’t want to piss them off. It’s a sad day when owners and commissioners choose money over the fans. It just sucks.”

While Barkley has previously stated that he intends to retire as a broadcaster when TNT’s deal expires after the 2024/25 season, he’s drawing serious interest from the NBA’s other media partners – ESPN/ABC, NBC, and Amazon – according to Michael McCarthy of Front Office Sports, who says that both ESPN and Amazon Prime Video are eyeing the entire Inside the NBA panel (Barkley, Ernie Johnson, Kenny Smith, and Shaquille O’Neal).

Speaking on Friday to Andrew Marchand of The Athletic and Dan Patrick of The Dan Patrick Show (Twitter video link), Barkley confirmed that he’s been open to pitches from other networks, saying he’d be “stupid” not to listen, especially if TNT doesn’t fully pay out the rest of his 10-year, $210MM contract with the network. However, he said his plan for now is still to retire.

While Marchand’s sources say that one of the league’s other TV/streaming partners could obtain the rights to the Inside the NBA studio show and simply let them continue working out of their current Atlanta studio, Barkley doesn’t believe that Johnson would leave TNT. He said he hasn’t spoken to Smith or O’Neal about the possibility of extending the show beyond 2025 on a new network, telling Marchand that the plan is to “go out with a bang” next season.

Barkley added that he’s not optimistic anything will come of TNT’s lawsuit.

“The NBA clearly wanted to break up with us,” he told Marchand. “I don’t want to be in a relationship where I have to sue somebody to be in it. That makes zero sense. If you have to sue somebody to stay in a relationship, do you think that is a healthy relationship?”

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Latest On Cavaliers RFA Isaac Okoro

July 26th, 2024 at 12:26pm CST by Luke Adams

Nearly four weeks after the NBA’s free agent period opened, Isaac Okoro is the only standard restricted free agent who remains unsigned. And with little cap room still available around the league and few teams seemingly inclined to use their full mid-level exception, the Cavaliers have “a ton of leverage” in their negotiations with the RFA forward, Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com stated in the latest episode of the Wine & Gold Talk podcast (YouTube link).

“The sense that I get in talking to a lot of people around the NBA, I’m not sure what the offer is specifically that the Cavs have made to Isaac, (but) they believe that it’s a fair offer. It’s a multiyear offer,” Fedor said (hat tip to HoopsHype). “It’s what they think he’s worth based on the construction of this particular roster and based on the role that he’s going to have for this roster. I don’t know exactly what the offer is that they have made, but the sense that I get in talking to people around the NBA is that it’s a multiyear offer in the annual range of $8 to $10 million.

“If it gets to a point where Isaac and his people are looking for multiple years around $12 to $15 million, right around the mid-level exception, that’s not a number that the Cavs would be comfortable with moving forward.”

After signing Evan Mobley and Donovan Mitchell to lucrative new long-term extensions this offseason, the Cavs will have three maximum-salary players on their roster beginning in 2025/26. With stricter spending restrictions in effect under the league’s new Collective Bargaining Agreement, the team is wary about committing an annual salary well into the eight figures for a player like Okoro who doesn’t project to be a starter, per Fedor.

As Fedor explains, Cleveland would be comfortable with Okoro accepting his qualifying offer, which would pay him $11,828,974 in 2024/25 and would put him on track for unrestricted free agency next summer. While they’d be reluctant to pay him that amount for several seasons, the Cavs are OK with that number for one year before the rest of the roster gets more expensive.

Okoro, meanwhile, will have to determine whether he likes the idea of betting on himself by taking a higher 2024/25 salary and returning to free agency in about 11 months, or if he prefers the security of a multiyear deal that will pay him a little less next season.

Of course, it would be ideal for Okoro if another suitor swooped in to put pressure on the Cavaliers, but given that no team has emerged to this point to aggressively pursue him, that suitor may not be out there. I’ve speculated a couple times that Detroit would be a fit for the former No. 5 overall pick, given the J.B. Bickerstaff connection, the Pistons’ remaining cap room (approximately $11MM), and the fact that Detroit could afford to be patient with Okoro’s development on offense. But there have been no real indications that the Pistons are interested.

Okoro is an excellent point-of-attack defender whose offensive contributions remain relatively limited. The 23-year-old knocked down a career-high 39.1% of his three-point attempts last season, but that was on low volume (1.2 makes per game), with opposing defenses often sagging off of him.

The Cavs are currently operating about $9.7MM below this season’s luxury tax line, with 12 players under contract. If they sign a minimum-salary player as their 13th man and leave their 15th roster spot open, they could sign Okoro for about $25MM over three years or $34MM over four and remain barely below the tax line. However, the fact that they’re willing to live with Okoro signing his $11.8MM qualifying offer suggests the Cavs aren’t necessarily committed to staying out of tax territory.

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Pacers Sign Andrew Nembhard To Three-Year Extension

July 26th, 2024 at 11:39am CST by Luke Adams

JULY 26: Nembhard’s extension with the Pacers is official, according to NBA.com’s transaction log.

JULY 24: The Pacers and guard Andrew Nembhard have agreed to terms on a three-year contract extension, agents Todd Ramasar and Jaafar Choufani tell ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.

The new deal will begin in 2025/26, replacing Nembhard’s team option for that season. According to Wojnarowski, it’ll be worth the maximum amount that the Pacers guard can receive on a three-year extension based on NBA rules (140% of this season’s $12.93MM estimated average salary, with 8% annual raises).

Nembhard will earn a starting salary of approximately $18.1MM in ’25/26 and a total of $58.65MM across the three seasons. The 24-year-old is making a minimum salary of about $2.02MM in the final year of his current contract in ’24/25.

The 31st overall pick in the 2022 draft, Nembhard has started 110 of 143 games for the Pacers since entering the league, posting averages of 9.3 points, 4.3 assists, and 2.4 rebounds in 26.4 minutes per contest, with a shooting line of .467/.353/.797.

While he typically starts alongside star point guard Tyrese Haliburton, the former Gonzaga standout also shares backup point guard duties with T.J. McConnell, taking on additional ball-handling responsibilities when he’s not on the floor with Haliburton.

As Wojnarowski points out, Nembhard was Indiana’s top performer when Haliburton was unavailable in Games 3 and 4 of the Eastern Conference Finals this spring due to an injury. He averaged 28.0 PPG, 9.5 APG, and 5.0 RPG on .564/.538/1.000 shooting in those two single-possession losses to the eventual champion Celtics.

Nembhard’s deal will be the third long-term contract handed out to a key rotation piece by the Pacers this offseason. Pascal Siakam received a four-year, maximum-salary deal, while Obi Toppin signed a four-year, $58MM pact. Haliburton’s five-year max extension, signed in 2023, also takes effect this season.

Nembhard will be suiting up at the Olympics in Paris this summer, providing depth in a loaded Canadian backcourt headlined by Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Jamal Murray.

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Horst: Bucks Have “Zero Intentions” Of Trading Brook Lopez

July 26th, 2024 at 11:15am CST by Luke Adams

Bucks center Brook Lopez was cited as a potential offseason trade candidate at the start of the summer, but we haven’t heard any rumors about the big man since the end of June and it doesn’t sound like that will change anytime soon.

Speaking to Eric Nehm of The Athletic, Bucks general manager Jon Horst said the team has no intention of trading Lopez, whom he called a “core part” of the roster.

“First of all, rumors and chatter are what makes the league so interesting and so fun, so people are always going to speculate and talk about it. And I typically don’t talk about any of this stuff with the media, but I will say, because Brook is so core to who we are, we have zero intentions of trading Brook,” Horst said. “Of course he has value around the league. That’s a credit to him. But we’ve not engaged in any real conversations about trading Brook. There are teams that have a lot of value and interest in him. It’s my job to take calls, receive calls, have conversations, but Brook has been and will continue to be core to who we are.

Lopez is earning $23MM this season in the final year of his current contract, so he’ll become an unrestricted free agent this summer. He’ll also turn 37 next April, so the idea that the Bucks could consider shopping him for younger pieces isn’t outrageous.

Still, the veteran center remains a crucial part of Milwaukee’s starting lineup whose production wouldn’t be easy to replace. Lopez serves as a defensive anchor on one end of the floor, having finished second in Defensive Player of the Year voting in 2023, and a floor-spacing threat on the other — he has made 36.9% of his three-pointers over the past three seasons.

“I hope that Brook retires as a Milwaukee Buck,” Horst said. “That’s been the goal since we originally got him. His impact on our team defensively and rebounding is elite. It only gets better. It’s not declining. I mean, he’s an anomaly in how he just continues to get better and better and better.

“For (head coach) Doc (Rivers), who got to spend time with Brook personally last year, Brook holds an incredible value for Doc for what he does defensively and rebounding and offensively, the spacing he gives us, and especially Giannis (Antetokounmpo), is unique.”

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Spurs Second-Rounder Juan Nunez Signs With Barcelona

July 26th, 2024 at 7:01am CST by Luke Adams

Point guard Juan Nunez, the No. overall 36 pick in last month’s draft, has signed a three-year contract with Barcelona, the Spanish team announced today in a press release.

Nunez was technically drafted by the Pacers on June 27, but his rights were traded – along with cash – to the Spurs in exchange for No. 35 pick Johnny Furphy. San Antonio will continue to hold Nunez’s NBA rights while he plays in Barcelona.

While the exact terms of Nunez’s new contract in Spain aren’t known, previous reporting indicated the deal with Barcelona would give him the ability to opt out and sign an NBA contract during the 2025 offseason, assuming he’s in the Spurs’ plans at that point.

Nunez, who represented Spain in the 2023 World Cup, spent the past two seasons with Ratiopharm Ulm, winning a German League title with the team in 2023. In 14 EuroCup games in 2023/24, he averaged an impressive 10.4 points, 5.8 assists, and 3.8 rebounds in 25.9 minutes per night, with a shooting line of .505/.361/.537.

As our list of draft pick signings shows, Nunez is the second 2024 pick to become a draft-and-stash player, joining Mavericks second-rounder Melvin Ajinca.

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12-Man Rosters Set For 2024 Paris Olympics

July 25th, 2024 at 6:14pm CST by Luke Adams

The 12-man rosters for all 12 nations competing in the men’s basketball tournament at the 2024 Paris Olympics have formally been finalized. The event will tip off on Saturday, with Team USA scheduled to play its first pool-play game on Sunday.

A total of 47 players who are currently on NBA rosters will take part in the Olympics, while a 48th – undrafted free agent Keisei Tominaga – has reportedly agreed to an Exhibit 10 deal with the Pacers that has yet to be finalized.

Team USA leads the way with 12 active NBA players, followed by Canada (10), and Australia (eight). France, Germany, and Serbia have four active NBAers apiece on their respective squads.

With Bol Bol no longer in the mix, South Sudan is the only club at the Olympics without an active NBA player on its roster.

An additional 35 players on Olympic rosters have previously appeared in regular season NBA games. That group of 35 doesn’t include players who signed an NBA contract but never played a game, or players who were selected in an NBA draft but never debuted stateside.

Several teams who don’t have many active NBA players on their rosters are carrying a handful of players who used to be in the league. For instance, Warriors guard Gui Santos is the only active NBA player on Brazil’s roster, but the group includes six former NBA players. Spain also has six former NBAers, while France, Puerto Rico, and South Sudan have four each.

Listed below are the full rosters for this summer’s Olympics. Players on NBA contracts are marked with an asterisk (*) while players with previous NBA experience are marked with a caret (^).

Group A

Australia

Canada

Greece

Spain

Group B

Brazil

France

Germany

Japan

Group C

Puerto Rico

Serbia

South Sudan

United States

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Pacers Re-Sign James Johnson To One-Year Deal

July 25th, 2024 at 5:46pm CST by Luke Adams

JULY 25: The Pacers have officially re-signed Johnson, the team confirmed today in a press release.

JULY 24: The Pacers are bringing back James Johnson, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (Twitter link), who hears from agent Mark Bartelstein that the veteran forward has agreed to a one-year, $3.3MM deal with Indiana.

Johnson, 37, has played for 10 NBA teams since entering the league as the 16th overall pick in the 2009 draft, but he hasn’t signed with any club besides the Pacers since September 2022. He has been on and off Indiana’s roster since his initial arrival — this will be the seventh contract he has signed with the team in the last two years.

Johnson has only appeared in 27 games as a Pacer, averaging a modest 2.2 points and 1.3 rebounds in 7.7 minutes per game during those outings. However, he’s valued within the organization for his toughness, veteran leadership, and presence in the locker room.

The minimum salary for a player with Johnson’s years of service is $3,303,771, so it’s safe to assume that’s what his contract will be worth. The Pacers will carry a cap hit of $2,087,519, with the league picking up the balance.

It’s unclear if the deal will be fully guaranteed. Last season, Johnson signed a non-guaranteed minimum-salary contract with the Pacers in December, was waived in January before it became fully guaranteed, then was brought back on a pair of two-way contracts and eventually a rest-of-season agreement.

Prior to officially signing Johnson, the Pacers are carrying 12 players on fully guaranteed salaries for 2024/25, with James Wiseman on a partially guaranteed deal and Kendall Brown on a non-guaranteed contract.

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Nets To Sign Killian Hayes

July 25th, 2024 at 5:20pm CST by Luke Adams

5:20pm: Hayes’ deal with the Nets will be a non-guaranteed Exhibit 10 contract, tweets Stefan Bondy of The New York Post.

4:25pm: The Nets have agreed to a deal with former lottery pick Killian Hayes, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic, who reports (via Twitter) that Hayes will sign a one-year contract and will have an opportunity to compete for a regular season roster spot in Brooklyn.

The seventh overall pick in the 2020 draft, Hayes spent three-and-a-half seasons with the Pistons before being waived this February at the trade deadline. He has been an unrestricted free agent since then.

Hayes, who will turn 23 on Saturday, entered the NBA with a reputation for being a solid defender and passer whose offensive game was a work in progress, and that’s essentially still the case, as his shooting percentages increased only marginally over the course of his four years in the league.

Hayes averaged 6.9 points, 4.9 assists, and 2.8 rebounds in 24.0 minutes per game across 42 appearances (31 starts) this past season, with a shooting line of .413/.297/.660. Those field goal and three-point percentages actually represent career bests. His career NBA averages are 8.1 PPG, 5.2 APG, and 2.9 RPG on .382/.277/.775 shooting in 210 games (145 starts).

While the exact details of Hayes’ deal have yet to be reported, it’ll almost certainly be a minimum-salary contract. And since he isn’t assured of a 15-man roster spot, I’d expect his salary to either be non-guaranteed or to include just a modest partial guarantee.

The Nets are carrying 15 players on standard contracts prior to officially signing Hayes. Of those players, 13 are on fully guaranteed deals. Keon Johnson has a $250K partial guarantee, while Jalen Wilson has a partial guarantee of $75K.

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Anthony Gill Re-Signs With Wizards

July 25th, 2024 at 1:58pm CST by Dana Gauruder

1:58pm: While we don’t yet know the terms of the contract, Gill has officially re-signed with the Wizards, according to NBA.com’s transactions log.

10:25am: Free agent forward Anthony Gill is re-signing with the Wizards, ESPN’s Tim Bontemps tweets.

Gill, 31, has played the last four seasons with Washington. Last season, he appeared in 50 games (three starts) and averaged 3.8 points and 1.9 rebounds in 9.3 minutes per contest.

Gill reached double figures in points in six of the last 11 games of the season when he saw regular playing time on a depleted roster. His two-year, veteran’s-minimum deal expired at the end of the season.

He’ll add depth, experience and leadership to a mostly young roster. No details of the agreement have been reported but the addition of Gill would give the Wizards 19 players on their training camp roster, including 17 on standard contracts. Two of those players on standard deals (Eugene Omoruyi and Jared Butler) have non-guaranteed salaries.

Over his four-year career, Gill has averaged 3.6 points and 1.8 rebounds in 9.9 minutes per game across 179 outings.

Gill had reportedly drawn interest from multiple European teams, including Barcelona and Anadolu Efes, but preferred to remain in the NBA. Gill started his professional career in Europe, having played for Russian club Khimki from 2017-20 after going undrafted out of Virginia.

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Heat Sign Josh Christopher To Two-Way Contract

July 25th, 2024 at 1:27pm CST by Rory Maher

The Heat have signed free agent guard Josh Christopher to a two-way contract, the team announced (via Twitter). To create a two-way roster spot, Miami waived undrafted rookie Zyon Pullin.

Christopher is a former first-round pick (24th overall in 2021) who spent his first two NBA seasons in Houston before being traded to Memphis last summer. The Grizzlies eventually waived Christopher and his guaranteed contract for 2023/24 in late September, which also effectively declined his fourth-year team option for ’24/25.

Christopher later caught on with the Jazz, spending a few months with Utah on a two-way deal before being released in January. Despite being eligible to, he did not appear in an NBA game last season, having split the campaign with the Salt Lake City Stars, Utah’s NBA G League affiliate, and the Sioux Falls Skyforce, Miami’s affiliate.

The 22-year-old Christopher is being rewarded for his standout playing during Las Vegas Summer League, which saw the Heat win the championship in dramatic fashion, an overtime finish over Memphis. Christopher was named the title game’s MVP after registering a team-high 24 points, including six 3-pointers. He also added four rebounds, one assist, three steals and two blocks.

“I think this Heat culture thing just brought the best out of me. I don’t think I’ve had a series of games better than this in my life, honestly,” said Christopher, who averaged 19.3 points, 3.0 rebounds, 1.8 assists and 2.0 steals on .541/.525/.1.000 shooting in his six appearances in Vegas (25.9 MPG).

As for Pullin, the 23-year-old point guard showed flashes during Summer League, but he also didn’t earn much playing time (11.9 MPG). The former UC-Riverside and Florida star will be an unrestricted free agent in a couple days if he clears waivers.

Dru Smith and Keshad Johnson occupy the Heat’s other two-way spots, as shown by our tracker.

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