Central Notes: Buckner, Giannis, Pacers Workout, Pacers Offseason

Greg Buckner is expected to join Doc Rivers’ staff with the Bucks, Marc Stein tweets. Buckner was the Cavaliers‘ associate head coach under J.B. Bickerstaff. He had been on Cleveland’s staff since 2020. Previously, Bucker was an assistant with the Grizzlies (2017-19). Former Lakers coach Darvin Ham has also made a commitment to join Rivers’ staff.

We have more from the Central Division:

Celtics’ Porzingis Diagnosed With New Leg Injury, Listed As Questionable

4:56pm: Porzingis has been listed as questionable to play in Game 3, Gary Washburn of the Boston Globe tweets.


1:43pm: In his second game back from a right calf strain that sidelined him for approximately five weeks, Celtics big man Kristaps Porzingis suffered a new injury, the team announced on Tuesday in a press release.

According to the Celtics, Porzingis has suffered a “torn medial retinaculum allowing dislocation of the posterior tibialis tendon in his left leg.” The injury, which the team describes as “rare” and unrelated to the calf strain, occurred with 3:27 left in the third quarter on Sunday as Porzingis jockeyed for rebounding position on a free-throw attempt (video link).

The Celtics went on to say in their statement that – following consultation with multiple specialists – Porzingis’ availability for upcoming NBA Finals games will be determined on a day-to-day basis. Speaking today to reporters, head coach Joe Mazzulla addressed his center’s status, as Brian Robb of MassLive.com relays.

“He’s doing anything and everything he can to be ready for the game tomorrow,” Mazzulla said. “It’s a serious injury and at the end of the day, our medical team is not going to put him in any bad situations. We’ve taken the decision to play out of his hands. He’s going to do everything he can to play and we’re going to leave it up to our medical team.”

Mazzulla added that he has “no idea” if the big man will be available on Wednesday (Twitter link via Jared Weiss of The Athletic).

Boston has controlled the NBA Finals through two games at home, but if Porzingis is unable to suit up, it could have a significant impact on the series going forward. In their two wins over the Mavericks, the Celtics have posted a +27.7 net rating in Porzingis’ 44 minutes on the court while playing Dallas exactly even (0.0 net rating) during his 52 minutes on the bench.

Reserve centers Luke Kornet and Xavier Tillman would be candidates to see some playing time off the bench is Porzingis is ruled out for Game 3.

Pelicans Notes: Front Office, Borrego, Edey, No. 21 Pick

The Pelicans have some holes to fill in their basketball operations department following a mini-exodus this spring, writes Christian Clark of NOLA.com. General manager Trajan Langdon left New Orleans to become the head of basketball operations in Detroit and he’ll be taking Michael Blackstone along with him, as reported on Monday. Blackstone was “heavily involved behind the scenes” as a Pelicans strategist and was close with executive VP of basketball operations David Griffin, per Clark.

In addition to those two executives who left to join the Pistons, the Pelicans also lost senior director of basketball operations Michael Hartman, who is joining the Wizards’ front office.

According to Clark, the Pelicans began conducting interviews last week with candidates who could replace those departed front office personnel men. League sources tell NOLA.com that those interviews are continuing this week, with the club focused on hiring someone who has “salary cap and strategy expertise.”

We have more on the Pelicans, via Clark:

  • There’s a “sense of resignation” within the organization that associate head coach James Borrego won’t be back on Willie Green‘s staff next season, says Clark. Borrego is considered a legitimate candidate for both the Lakers’ and Cavaliers’ head coaching openings, though he faces competition for each position. While Green is a more defensive-minded coach, Borrego was brought in for his offensive acumen, so if he departs, maintaining – and improving – the offense’s production going forward will be a priority.
  • Purdue center Zach Edey is among the players who will visit the Pelicans for a workout prior to the June 26 draft, notes Clark. With Jonas Valanciunas headed to free agency, New Orleans is in the market for help up front, though Edey may not be available by the time the team picks at No. 21 and probably wouldn’t be ready to step into a starting role.
  • If the Pelicans aren’t particularly high on any of the prospects available at No. 21, they may look to trade it for future draft assets, sources tell NOLA.com. According to Clark, New Orleans would have interest in restocking its second-round draft capital, since the team doesn’t currently control a second-rounder until 2030.

Southwest Notes: Irving, Doncic, Rockets, Spurs, Ellis

Luka Doncic blamed himself after the Mavericks lost on Sunday to fall behind 2-0 to the Celtics in the NBA Finals, pointing to his eight turnovers and four missed free throws. However, Doncic had 32 points, 11 rebounds, and 11 assists in that game, making 12-of-21 shots from the field. His backcourt mate Kyrie Irving scored just 16 points on 7-of-18 shooting and is now 13-of-37 from the floor in the series.

Ahead of Game 3, Irving said he let Doncic know that if anyone needs to step up and give the team more, it’s him, not Luka.

“It started with me just telling my hermano I got to play better for him, alongside him,” Irving said, per Tim MacMahon of ESPN. “In order for us to accomplish our goal, we both have to be playing well and we both have to be doing the little things, doing whatever it takes to win. Easy conversation. But it started with me reaching out, just letting him know it’s my fault, taking accountability for not playing particularly well.”

Irving noted that he has come back from a 2-0 deficit in the Finals before (in 2016 with Cleveland) and hinted that the move to Dallas for Game 3 may help him break out of his slump.

“Being back in Boston, there’s such a level of desire that I have inside of me to play well,” Irving said. “Wanted to be there for my teammates. As a competitor, it’s frustrating. But I don’t want to let that seep in or spill over to any other decisions I have to make there as a player.”

Here’s more from around the Southwest:

  • Prior to Game 2 of the NBA Finals, Doncic received a pain-killing injection to treat his thoracic contusion, according to Tim MacMahon and Malika Andrews of ESPN. The expectation is that the Mavericks star, who has also been dealing with a right knee sprain and left ankle soreness, will get another injection ahead of Game 3, sources tell ESPN. “I feel good,” Doncic told reporters on Tuesday when asked about his health. “I don’t want to get into any more details. But I feel good.”
  • In a YouTube video, cap expert Yossi Gozlan examines the Rockets‘ upcoming offseason decisions and their financial situation going forward, considering what they might do with rookie scale extension candidates Alperen Sengun and Jalen Green and outlining some hypothetical trade scenarios.
  • Former USC point guard Boogie Ellis worked out for the Spurs over the weekend, tweets Tom Orsborn of The San Antonio Express-News. Ellis is ranked 83rd overall on ESPN’s list of top-100 prospects, so he could be a target for the Spurs in the second round or as an undrafted free agent.

Pacific Notes: Looney, Suns, Tellem, Gregory, Warriors

After Tim Kawakami of The Athletic suggested on a recent episode of the Warriors Plus Minus podcast that he thinks Kevon Looney could be cut this offseason to save the Warriors some money (hat tip to Gerald Bourguet of PHNX Sports), the veteran center appeared on The Draymond Green Show (YouTube link) and addressed his uncertain future in Golden State.

Looney is under contract for one more season, but he’s coming off a down year and his $8MM salary for 2024/25 is only partially guaranteed for $3MM. If the Warriors cut him, they could try to bring him back on a minimum-salary deal or he could end up signing with a new team after spending his entire nine-year NBA career in Golden State.

“The ball isn’t in my court,” Looney said (story via Dalton Johnson of NBC Sports Bay Area). “I don’t have full control over my destiny, so I kind of have to play the waiting game, control what I can control. I’ve been here my whole career. I don’t know nothing else. You always want to finish what you started and be somewhere for your whole career, but I’ve been in this business long enough to know that’s not realistic. I’m preparing myself for whatever. My family’s out here, the Bay’s been great to me. They treat me like family, I grew up here.

“I haven’t really thought about it too far. I’m trying to see what they’re going to do first before I push the envelope and see what I want to do. … I’ve been a Warrior for life. Even whatever happens, I’m always going to be a Warrior for life.”

Here’s more from around the Pacific:

  • Looney ranks atop the list compiled by Gerald Bourguet of PHNX Sports of 15 potential minimum-salary centers the Suns could target this offseason in free agency. Goga Bitadze, Andre Drummond, Daniel Theis, and Luke Kornet round out Bourguet’s top five, though it’s very possible that some of those players will get more than the veteran’s minimum from another team, putting them out of reach for a Phoenix team that can’t offer more than that to outside free agents.
  • The Suns officially announced in a press release on Monday that they’ve hired Matt Tellem as an assistant general manager and Brian Gregory as vice president of player programming. The team’s deal with Tellem, a Brooklyn executive, was reported last month, but we hadn’t previously heard about the hiring of Gregory, who has been in the college basketball coaching ranks for several decades, most recently with South Florida. Phoenix is adding another longtime college coach – Mike Hopkins – to Mike Budenholzer‘s staff, as we relayed earlier today.
  • Anthony Slater and Sam Vecenie of The Athletic examine some potential targets at No. 52 in this year’s draft for the Warriors, who are looking to replicate the success of last year’s 57th overall pick (Trayce Jackson-Davis). Slater also shares a long list of prospects who have visited Golden State for pre-draft workouts in recent weeks, including Dillon Jones (No. 48 on ESPN’s big board), Keshad Johnson (No. 50), Jalen Bridges (No. 53), Isaac Jones (No. 57), and Antonio Reeves (No. 58), among others.
  • In case you missed it, we rounded up several notes on the Lakers, with a focus on their head coaching search, earlier this afternoon.

Lakers Notes: Hurley, LeBron, Redick, Coaching Search

After turning down a lucrative offer to become the Lakers‘ head coach, UConn’s Dan Hurley issued a statement saying that he was “humbled by this entire experience” and remains committed to pursuing more championships with the Huskies (Twitter link).

Appearing on ESPN’s Get Up on Tuesday (YouTube link), Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN explained that there were multiple reasons why Hurley decided to remain in Connecticut instead of making the move to Los Angeles. The unique opportunity to become the first college coach since UCLA’s John Wooden over 50 years ago to lead a team to three consecutive national titles was one important consideration, according to Wojnarowski, but it wasn’t the only one.

“Dan Hurley really studied everything that was required to be an NBA coach and the adjustments he was going to have to make,” Woj said (hat tip to RealGM). “As much as the Lakers wanted what Dan Hurley brought — his program building, his player development, the way he can forge relationships with players, the great X’s-and-O’s acumen. He’s running a lot of stuff in college that’s been intriguing to NBA coaches that they want to steal from a little bit. For all of that, Dan Hurley was going to have to adjust and knew that he had to be ready to make the adjustments in temperament, in practice time, all the things that come with being an NBA coach from college basketball. And, ultimately, Dan Hurley wasn’t there yet on doing that.”

Wojnarowski went on to say that Hurley “loved what he heard” from Lakers leaders like Jeanie Buss and Rob Pelinka, and liked the idea of coaching star forwards Anthony Davis and LeBron James in the short term and getting to draft and develop “Hurley-type” prospects in the long term. However, he ultimately decided he wasn’t ready to make the move to the NBA.

Wojnarowski also pushed back on the idea that Hurley was using the Lakers for leverage purposes to get a more lucrative deal with UConn.

“He had negotiated a new (UConn) deal for himself with his agent weeks ago,” Woj said. “That’s going to be, I’m told, kind of in the $8MM+ (per year) range. It’ll put him among the highest-paid coaches in college basketball. But they never negotiated off that, or leveraged off that with the Lakers. The Lakers (opportunity) was a singular moment for Dan Hurley and it wasn’t about getting his UConn number up. It already was up, and that was before UConn even knew about the Laker conversations.”

Here’s more on the Lakers:

  • Following Hurley’s rejection of the Lakers, will James follow suit by turning down his player option for 2024/25 and seeking a change of scenery? Kevin O’Connor of The Ringer explores that topic, arguing that parting ways now might be in the best long-term interests of both LeBron and the Lakers, though it’s considered unlikely to happen.
  • Jim Alexander of The Orange County Register contends that Hurley’s decision to pass on the opportunity to coach the Lakers shouldn’t come as a surprise, while Bill Plaschke of The Los Angeles Times rips the Lakers for their failed pursuit of UConn’s head coach, describing it as a “humiliating” sequence of events for a franchise whose “reputation is diminishing.”
  • ESPN’s Brian Windhorst isn’t quite as harsh in his assessment of the Lakers’ situation, pointing out that things in Los Angeles looked worse than this in 2019, when their new head coaching hire (Frank Vogel) was widely known to be their third choice and franchise legend Magic Johnson was referring to Pelinka as a backstabber following Johnson’s exit from the front office. They won a title a year later.
  • Within his column on the Lakers’ situation, Windhorst says the team’s contact with J.J. Redick was “minimal” leading up to the team’s pursuit of Hurley. While the Lakers could circle back to Redick, going after Hurley may signal that they were lukewarm on the available crop of head coaching candidates, according to Windhorst, who wonders if the franchise might pursue another coach from the college ranks.
  • When Wojnarowski first reported the Lakers’ interest last week, he stated that Hurley had been at the “forefront of the Lakers’ search from the beginning of the process.” Appearing on FanDuel’s Run it Back show on Tuesday (Twitter video link), Shams Charania of The Athletic – who previously identified Redick as the frontrunner – seemed to disagree with that claim. “Last week, on Wednesday, they turned their attention, I’m told, to Dan Hurley,” Charania said. “He was not the No. 1 candidate, the No. 1 guy to go pursue from the start. But they felt like there was an opening there.” Charania added that people around the league don’t “have a great feel” for where the Lakers’ search is headed next.

2024 NBA Offseason Preview: Miami Heat

Entering opening night last fall, the Heat were coming off one of the most unusual seasons in recent memory. They barely finished above .500 during the 2022/23 regular season, posting a negative net rating (-0.5) across 82 games, then narrowly survived the play-in tournament to earn the No. 8 spot in the Eastern Conference playoffs. From there, they knocked off the Bucks, Knicks, and Celtics in their first three postseason series, coming within three wins of a championship before ultimately falling to Denver.

During the subsequent 2023/24 season, Erik Spoelstra repeatedly insisted that his team wasn’t counting on a repeat of the year before and was taking the regular season seriously rather than waiting to turn it on in the postseason. But injuries and inconsistency resulted in a pretty similar outcome. Miami won 46 games instead of 44 and outscored its opponents, but once again finished in the bottom half of the league in net rating and needed a win in its second play-in game to grab the No. 8 playoff seed.

This time around, there was no postseason magic for the Heat, who were missing star Jimmy Butler due to a knee injury and managed just a single win over the top-seeded Celtics before their season came to an unceremonious end.

On one hand, the Heat are just one year removed from winning the East and perhaps could have made a deeper run this spring with a healthy Butler and a more favorable first-round matchup. But that’s a rosy view of their situation. The regular season results show that this team has been a relatively middle-of-the-pack squad over the past two seasons and, with Butler entering his age-35 season, probably can’t consider itself a legitimate title contender without some tweaks to the roster.

Based on what’s transpired since their season ended (more on that below), I wouldn’t rule out major offseason changes for the Heat, but it’s not in their DNA to fully rebuild (they haven’t won fewer than 37 games since 2007/08). So even if next season’s roster looks quite a bit different than the ’23/24 group, the goal will be to get further in the 2025 playoffs than they did this year.


The Heat’s Offseason Plan

The most pressing question facing the Heat this summer is whether or not Butler will still be on the roster on opening night. A breakup would be a bit of a surprise, given that the past five years have seemed like a near-perfect marriage between one of the NBA’s most competitive stars and a franchise that prides itself on its hard-working culture.

But shortly after the Heat’s season ended, word broke that Butler would be seeking another maximum-salary extension this summer, looking to replace his 2025/26 player option with a new two-year deal worth approximately $113MM. Asked at his end-of-season press conference about that possibility, longtime team president Pat Riley didn’t explicitly say whether or not the Heat would be willing to put that offer on the table, but suggested they wouldn’t exactly be eager to do so.

“It’s a big decision on our part to commit those kinds of resources, unless you have someone who is going to be available every night,” Riley said, referring to an injury history that has forced Butler to miss at least 15 games in every season since he arrived in Miami in 2019.

Riley also didn’t approve of a viral video that showed Butler claiming the Heat would’ve been able to beat Boston and New York if he’d been available to play in the postseason. The Heat president told reporters, “If you’re not on the court playing against Boston or on the court playing against the New York Knicks, you should keep your mouth shut on the criticism of those teams.”

A thinner-skinned player might respond to those comments by submitting a trade request, but the ability to be frank and honest with one another is an important reason why the relationship between Butler and the Heat has worked. I wouldn’t expect him to seek a change of scenery this offseason due to hurt feelings. But if Miami is unwilling to put an appealing extension offer on the table this summer, he might become more inclined to weigh all his options as he enters the final stage of his career.

While the Heat would be under no obligation to move Butler if he asked to be traded, he showed earlier in his career in Minnesota that he can make life difficult for his current team if his demands aren’t met. Still, I’m not necessarily counting on the situation coming to a head this offseason. Miami would have a hard time turning Butler into a player – or multiple players – who could increase the club’s ceiling in 2024/25, and the 34-year-old has been in the league long enough to know that the grass isn’t always greener in a new environment.

Three-time All-Star center Bam Adebayo will also be extension-eligible this summer and looks like a better bet than Butler to get a maximum-salary offer from the Heat, given his edge in age (27 in July) and availability (he has missed more than 11 games just once in the past five seasons). A max deal for Adebayo would be worth approximately $165MM over three years. He could potentially become eligible for more years and more money with an All-NBA berth or a Defensive Player of the Year trophy next summer, but I could see the big man opting to lock in that long-term guaranteed money now.

If building around Butler and Adebayo remains the plan going forward, I’d expect some combination of Tyler Herro ($29MM), Terry Rozier ($24.9MM), and Duncan Robinson ($19.4MM) – and perhaps all three – to be mentioned in trade rumors this summer. As long as they’re able to operate below the second tax apron, the Heat would be permitted to aggregate those salaries in a trade for another star, and the franchise has made a habit of going star-hunting over the years, including in the 2023 offseason when its bid for Damian Lillard came up short.

Cleveland (Donovan Mitchell, Darius Garland) and Atlanta (Trae Young, Dejounte Murray) are among the situations the Heat figure to keep an eye on this offseason, with Mitchell in particular having long been considered a prime target.

If Mitchell or another well-fitting impact player hits the trade market, it’s possible a rival suitor would outbid Miami, like the Bucks did last year with Lillard. But the team has some strong trade assets, including All-Rookie first-teamer Jaime Jaquez, 21-year-old forward Nikola Jovic, this year’s No. 15 overall pick, and at least one future first-rounder — the Heat have traded away their 2025 and 2027 first-rounders, but protections could push those picks back to 2026 and 2028, so only the ’30 pick can be traded unconditionally, though the club could offer a handful of first-round swaps.

The more prudent approach to the offseason might be to keep those youngsters, who are on team-friendly contracts for multiple years, trust the scouting department to find another potential gem at No. 15, and perhaps attempt to make a less significant move involving one of Herro, Rozier, or Robinson. There’s a good deal of overlap in that trio — both Herro and Robinson provide most of their value with floor-spacing and outside shooting, while both Herro and Rozier are score-first guards – so if the Heat could find a way to turn one of them into more of a two-way wing or a traditional point guard, it would help balance the roster.

The Heat will have a sizable hole to fill on the wing if they’re unable to re-sign Caleb Martin, who is expected to turn down a $7.1MM player option, and Haywood Highsmith, who is headed for unrestricted free agency. Both players are due for raises and could be targeted by teams who have the full mid-level exception available.

The situation with those two players feels awfully reminiscent of the one the club faced with Max Strus and Gabe Vincent a year ago, when luxury tax concerns limited what Miami was able to offer that free agent duo. Strus ultimately agreed to join the Cavaliers, while Vincent signed with the Lakers.

The Heat already have over $163MM in guaranteed money on their books for seven players in 2024/25, and that figure would rise by another $14MM+ if Kevin Love, Josh Richardson, and Thomas Bryant exercise their player options and the team hangs onto its first-round pick. That would push team salary above $177MM, essentially assuring the Heat will operate over the first tax apron ($178.7MM) even without new deals for Martin or Highsmith.

Retaining either player would likely increase team salary beyond the $189.5MM second apron, so Miami will have a decision to make. It can resign itself to losing two solid role players for a second straight summer, try to shed salary elsewhere to create room under the second apron to bring back Martin and/or Highsmith, or simply re-sign both players and commit to being a second-apron team, accepting the roster-building restrictions that come with that.

None of those options are ideal, and the third one seems especially unlikely, given that the Heat will want to maintain the flexibility to aggregate salaries if a star becomes available. I expect the club to explore the second path in an effort to retain at least one of those two free agents, but if that’s not possible, Heat fans can at least take solace in the fact that the front office has done a good job over the years finding low-cost replacements to fill out the rotation when certain role players get too expensive.

The Heat will also benefit from the fact that there’s never a shortage of veterans who want to play in Miami due to a combination of the weather, the culture, and the organization’s distaste for rebuilding. Richardson missed half the season due to an injury and Bryant wasn’t quite as good a fit as the front office had hoped, but those are high-quality players for the minimum-salary tier, as is Love. Whether or not those guys opt in to return for another season, the Heat will likely head back to the free agent market in search of more minimum-salary bargains to fill out the back end of their roster.


Salary Cap Situation

Guaranteed Salary

Non-Guaranteed Salary

  • Orlando Robinson ($2,120,693)
    • Robinson’s salary will become guaranteed if he remains under contract through July 15.
  • Total: $2,120,693

Dead/Retained Salary

  • None

Player Options

Team Options

  • None

Restricted Free Agents

  • None

Two-Way Free Agents

Note: Because he has finished each of the past two seasons on a two-way contract with the Heat, Cain’s qualifying offer would be worth his minimum salary (projected to be $2,093,637). That offer would include a small partial guarantee.

Draft Picks

  • No. 15 overall pick ($4,244,160 cap hold)
  • No. 43 overall pick (no cap hold)
  • Total (cap holds): $4,244,160

Extension-Eligible Players

  • Bam Adebayo (veteran)
  • Jimmy Butler (veteran)
  • Haywood Highsmith (veteran)
    • Extension-eligible until June 30.
  • Caleb Martin (veteran)
    • Player option must be exercised.
  • Duncan Robinson (veteran)
  • Terry Rozier (veteran)

Note: Unless otherwise indicated, these players are eligible for extensions beginning in July.

Unrestricted Free Agents

Other Cap Holds

Note: The cap holds for these players are on the Heat’s books from prior seasons because they haven’t been renounced. They can’t be used in a sign-and-trade deal.

Cap Exceptions Available

Note: The Heat project to operate over the cap and over the first tax apron. If they move below the first apron, they would gain access to the bi-annual exception ($4,681,000) and the full mid-level exception ($12,859,000) instead of the taxpayer mid-level exception and would regain access to their three trade exceptions (the largest of which is worth $9,450,000 and expires on July 8). If they surpass the second tax apron, they would lose access to the taxpayer MLE.

  • Taxpayer mid-level exception: $5,183,000

Yuta Watanabe Expected To Join Chiba Jets

After announcing during an Instagram Live session in April that he plans to return to his home country of Japan, Grizzlies forward Yuta Watanabe is widely expected to sign with the Chiba Jets, sources tell Donatas Urbonas of BasketNews.com. Nothing is official yet, but Urbonas classifies the move as “close.”

Watanabe, 29, was born and raised in Japan, then played his college ball in the U.S. at George Washington from 2014-18. The undrafted 6’9″ forward spent a pair of seasons with the Grizzlies from 2018-20 and two years in Toronto from 2020-22. He enjoyed his best NBA season in Brooklyn in 2022/23, averaging 5.6 points and 2.4 rebounds per game off the bench while ranking among the league leaders in three-point percentage (44.4%).

Watanabe’s solid showing with the Nets earned him a two-year, minimum-salary contract from the Suns last summer, but he ended up not playing a major role in Phoenix, averaging just 13.2 minutes per game in 29 appearances before being traded to Memphis in February as part of the three-team deadline deal that sent Royce O’Neale and David Roddy to the Suns. Having joined an injury-plagued roster in his return to Memphis, Watanabe had a path to regular minutes, but he was limited to just five games due to a wrist issue and personal reasons.

The contract Watanabe signed with Phoenix includes a minimum-salary player option for 2024/25 worth about $2.65MM. It stands to reason that if he signs a new contract in Japan, he’d decline that option, though his decision has yet to be formally reported.

While it’s not a significant number, moving Watanabe’s salary off their cap for next season would help out the Grizzlies, who could be facing a luxury-tax crunch this summer and likely didn’t have the veteran in their plans going forward.

Suns To Hire Mike Hopkins As Assistant Coach

The Suns have reached a deal with Mike Hopkins to bring the former University of Washington coach aboard as an assistant on Mike Budenholzer‘s staff, sources tell Adrian Wojnarowski and Pete Thamel of ESPN.

Hopkins, who played college basketball at Syracuse from 1989-93, rejoined the Orange as an assistant coach in 1995 and spent over two decades in that role, briefly serving as acting head coach during Jim Boeheim‘s nine-game suspension in 2015/16.

In 2017, Hopkins was hired by Washington as the head coach of the school’s men’s basketball team. He earned Pac-12 Coach of the Year honors in his first two seasons on the job (2018 and 2019) and won a regular season conference title in 2019. However, the Huskies announced earlier this year that he wouldn’t be returning for the 2024/25 season after posting a 122-110 (.526) record across his seven years with the program.

As Wojnarowski and Thamel point out, Hopkins has worked with NBA players before, having been involved with the coaching staffs of several Team USA squads over the years.

Since being hired by the Suns last month to replace Frank Vogel, Budenholzer has been slowly building out his staff for his first year in Phoenix. David Fizdale, Vince Legarza, Chad Forcier, and Chaisson Allen are among the other coaches expected to be Suns assistants under Budenholzer.