NBA Rumors - HoopsRumors.com

Veteran Big Man Mike Muscala Retiring

July 13th, 2024 at 8:42am CST by Rory Maher

Veteran big man Mike Muscala is ending his playing career, telling Joel Lorenzi of The Oklahoman that he plans to retire.

Muscala’s father, Bob, informed Lorenzi that Mike plans to pursue a graduate degree in sports management, with an eye on continuing his basketball career in coaching and/or management.

The No. 44 overall pick of the 2013 draft, Muscala has spent the past 11 NBA seasons playing for the Hawks, Sixers, Lakers, Thunder, Celtics, Wizards and Pistons. He finished last season in Oklahoma City, returning to the Thunder in March after playing for them from 2019-23.

Muscala, 33, spent the first five seasons of his career with Atlanta. He was traded multiple times during the 2018/19 season before finding a home in Oklahoma City for a few years. He spent the past year-plus playing for four different teams — OKC, Boston, Washington, Detroit and finally OKC again. According to Lorenzi, Muscala said relocating so many times in a short period of time took its toll on him, but he was grateful to finish his career with the Thunder.

“It means a lot,” Muscala said of his time with the Thunder back in May. “I went through a lot in my life when I was here, just the city, the fans, the way that they support the team, what the team means to the community, those are things that I feel like I can relate to.

“I’ll always be a Thunder fan no matter what happens in my life.”

In 548 regular season contests, including 45 starts, the former Bucknell star averaged 5.9 PPG and 3.1 RPG in 15.0 MPG. The 6’10” center/forward was known mostly for his outside shooting ability (37.3% career from three-point range) and for being a positive locker-room presence.

Mavericks Sign Emanuel Miller

July 13th, 2024 at 7:08am CST by Tristan Tucker

The Mavericks have signed forward Emanuel Miller, according to a team press release. While the terms of the deal weren’t revealed, the move was announced alongside the signing of Jazian Gortman, who agreed to an Exhibit 10 deal. It stands to reason that Miller is likely also joining the team on an Exhibit 10 contract.

Miller went undrafted in 2024 after playing five collegiate seasons — first at Texas A&M and then at TCU. In his final season of college ball, Miller averaged 15.8 points, 6.1 rebounds, 2.6 assists and 1.1 steals while shooting 48.6% from the field and 38.3% from beyond the arc.

According to Mike Curtis of Dallas Morning News (Twitter link), Mavericks summer league coach Jared Dudley referred to Miller as one of the most physical players on the team.

Miller ranked as ESPN’s 22nd-best available undrafted free agent. Most of the players on the list ranked ahead of them have signed or agreed to two-way deals. If Miller signed an Exhibit 10 deal, he could have it converted to a two-way contract at a later date. The Mavericks currently have one two-way contract opening, with Alex Fudge and Brandon Williams occupying two of the team’s three spots.

An Exhibit 10 contract is a non-guaranteed minimum-salary deal that doesn’t count against a team’s cap unless the player makes the regular season roster. It can be converted to a two-way contract before the season begins or the player can earn a bonus of up to $77.5K if he’s waived and then spends at least 60 days with his team’s G League affiliate.

Jamal Cain Signs Two-Way Deal With Pelicans

July 13th, 2024 at 7:00am CST by Tristan Tucker

JULY 13: The Pelicans have officially signed Cain, per the transaction log at NBA.com.

JULY 12: Free agent wing Jamal Cain has agreed to a two-way deal with the Pelicans, Adrian Wojanrowski of ESPN reports (Twitter link).

Cain, 25, spent the first two seasons of his career with the Heat. He appeared in 44 games with the Heat from 2022-24, averaging 4.4 points and 2.0 rebounds per contest.

The 6’6″ guard/forward has impressed in limited stints with Miami, averaging 8.0 points and 5.3 boards in a three-game win streak in 2022/23 as well as recording 18 points and six rebounds in a win over the Warriors in ’23/24.

Cain played the first four seasons of his collegiate career for Marquette before transferring to Oakland. After going undrafted in 2022, he joined the Heat and earned a two-way contract.

While he played sparingly for the Heat in the regular season, he saw much more playing time in Summer League, preseason and the G League in Miami’s system. He averaged 10.9 PPG across nine games in two seasons with Miami in preseason games and then averaged 21.6 PPG, 9.3 RPG and 1.6 SPG on .540/.372/.815 shooting splits in two years with the Skyforce.

Cain angled for a standard contract last offseason but ultimately didn’t receive one before re-upping with Miami on a two-way deal. Due to the Heat’s roster crunch with their young two-way players, Cain didn’t receive a promotion from his two-way deal over the two seasons he spent in the organization. After the Heat filled out all three of their two-way spots early in free agency and then filled out their regular roster, it was clear Cain wouldn’t be returning.

Now, the Pelicans land a productive wing who spent two years in Miami’s successful development program. As our two-way contract tracker for 2024/25 shows, the Pelicans only have one such spot filled — with Malcolm Hill occupying a spot. For what it’s worth, No. 47 overall pick Antonio Reeves hasn’t signed his rookie contract with the Pelicans, so it’s possible he will fill one of those two open spots alongside Cain.

Nuggets Rookie DaRon Holmes Tears Right Achilles

July 13th, 2024 at 5:36am CST by Luke Adams

DaRon Holmes‘ rookie season appears to be over before it started. According to Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link), Holmes sustained a torn right Achilles tendon during his Summer League debut on Friday and is expected to miss all of 2024/25.

It’s a brutal blow for a player whom the Nuggets were so high on that they surrendered three second-round picks in order to move up from No. 28 to No. 22 in last month’s draft to make sure they got him.

While there was no guarantee Holmes would have played rotation minutes in his first NBA season, he likely would have been given the opportunity to earn a regular role on a Denver team that will need contributions from a few of its younger players. Instead, the forward/center’s NBA debut will almost certainly be delayed until the fall of 2025.

Prior to entering this year’s draft, Holmes compiled an impressive résumé in three college seasons at Dayton, earning All-Atlantic 10 honors in all three years, including a First Team spot in 2023 and 2024. He was named the Atlantic 10 co-Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year in 2024 after averaging 20.4 points, 8.5 rebounds, 2.6 assists, and 2.1 blocks in 32.5 minutes per game across 33 starts in 2023/24. He also posted a shooting line of .544/.386/.713.

Prior to his injury on Friday, Holmes had been enjoying a solid Summer League debut, with 11 points and seven rebounds. His parents and agent were in attendance at the game, notes Bennett Durando of The Denver Post.

With Holmes sidelined for the 2024/25 season, the Nuggets figure to lean more on Zeke Nnaji and newly signed big men Dario Saric and Vlatko Cancar for frontcourt depth. DeAndre Jordan will also be back, though his new deal with the team isn’t yet official.

As Harrison Wind of DNVR Sports observes (via Twitter), Denver could apply for a disabled player exception following Holmes’ injury, but it would be worth just $1,532,820, half of the rookie’s $3,065,640 salary, so it wouldn’t be very useful. You can learn more about how disabled player exceptions work in our glossary.

Southwest Notes: Geriot, Murphy, Edey, Castle

July 12th, 2024 at 10:48pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Dan Geriot is joining the Pelicans as an assistant coach under Willie Green, ESPN’s Tim Bontemps tweets. Geriot spent the past nine years with the Cavaliers. New Orleans’ interest in Geriot was reported earlier this week.

We have more from the Southwest Division:

Pelicans wing Trey Murphy, who is participating this summer with the Select Team, said that if Zion Williamson can stay healthy, New Orleans will be a serious contender. “You get to see what a generational talent looks like with a healthy team. That’s the biggest thing. We’ve got to be healthy,” Murphy told Michael Scotto of HoopsHype. “That’s always been our thing for my entire time in New Orleans. If we have a healthy team, I think we can make a deep run.”
Grizzlies lottery pick Zach Edey sat out Friday’s Summer League game against the Kings with a mild ankle sprain, according to Michael Wallace of Grizzlies.com (Twitter link). Edey is expected to return to action in Las Vegas at some point.
Spurs lottery pick Stephon Castle has aspirations to be a starting point guard but it probably won’t happen this year with Chris Paul signing with the club. Castle says he’s looking forward to the experience of playing with and learning from the future Hall of Famer. “I’m super happy about that,” Castle told Jeff McDonald of the San Antonio Express-News. “To have a guy like that and play alongside him and have him mentor me a bit, it’s going to be fun.”

New York Notes: Johnson, Hetzel, McCullar, Jokubaitis, Brunson

July 12th, 2024 at 9:40pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Keon Johnson played on a two-way contract with the Nets last season and is now an unrestricted free agent. He’s trying to earn another NBA deal while playing on Brooklyn’s Summer League team.

Johnson appeared in five Nets games last season.

“It’s really their interest that they’ve shown to me at the beginning,” Johnson told Brian Lewis of the New York Post. “Brooklyn had interest in me during the draft. They couldn’t get me in the draft, but really just having an organization around me that is hands-on and wants to see me grow. So I feel like with the free agency that I have right now, all I’m focused on is just someone giving me the opportunity to play ball. I feel like everything else will settle itself whenever I step out onto the court. But right now I’m just focused on step [one], being on the court and showing what I can do.”

We have more New York notes:

Jordi Fernandez and his Nets coaching staff want to establish their philosophy and approach during the Summer League, according to Brian Lewis of The New York Post. “From our standpoint, as a group, as a coaching staff from Jordi and also the front office, we don’t see our style of play changing necessarily with our roster compared to the summer league,” Summer League coach Steve Hetzel said. “And that’s the importance of summer league is to set a foundation of how we want to play. … We want our Brooklyn Nets team to be disruptive, physical and help, and we want to play fast and share the ball. So the messaging, it will just carry over into that team.”
Knicks second round pick Kevin McCullar won’t play in the Summer League, The Athletic’s Fred Katz tweets. The 56th pick of the draft out of Kansas is still rehabbing a knee injury he suffered in his final college season.
Rokas Jokubaitis, a 2021 draft pick, is on the Knicks’ Summer League roster but he’s apparently returning to Europe, rather than coming to the Knicks’ training camp. After three years with Barcelona, the draft-and-stash prospect is close to returning to Zalgiris Kaunas in his home country Lithuania, according to Donatas Urbonas of Basket News.
Jalen Brunson‘s extension includes a 15% trade kicker, Katz tweets. The Knicks star guard signed the four-year extension on Friday.

Kyle Lowry Signs One-Year Deal With Sixers

July 12th, 2024 at 9:32pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

JULY 12: Lowry has officially signed his new contract, according to a team press release.

“Kyle is a floor general, the ultimate competitor, and a proven winner who has experienced success at the highest level. His return is vital to our quest toward bringing a championship back to the City of Philadelphia,” Morey said in a statement.

JULY 11: Free agent point guard Kyle Lowry is signing a new one-year contract to return to his hometown Sixers, sources inform Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link). Charania didn’t report the terms of the deal, but Philadelphia can only offer the veteran’s minimum to free agents after using all of its cap space and its room exception.

Lowry shared the news himself in a fresh Instagram video.

The 38-year-old will be playing in his 19th NBA season in 2024/25. Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN tweets that conversations between Philadelphia team president Daryl Morey and Lowry’s agent Mark Bartelstein of Priority Sports increased over the last week.

According to Woj, the Villanova alum had been weighing his options and considering several playoff hopefuls as he looks to win his second championship.

After starting out the 2023/24 season with the Heat, Lowry and his expiring $29.7MM contract were traded to the Hornets in exchange for the younger Terry Rozier, currently a more prolific offensive threat. Lowry negotiated a buyout and signed on with his hometown Sixers, where he quickly earned a backcourt starting role alongside All-Star point guard Tyrese Maxey with De’Anthony Melton injured.

Though he’s no longer a high-volume scorer, Lowry remains an efficient three-point threat and a surprisingly savvy defender whose solid frame allows him to match up with bigger players despite his 6’0″ height. Across his 23 regular season contests with the Sixers last year (20 starts), the six-time All-Star posted averages of 8.0 points, 4.6 assists, 2.8 rebounds, and 0.9 steals per night, with a shooting line of .444/.404/.848.

The Sixers have enjoyed perhaps the most productive offseason of any team this summer. Morey cleared out more than $53MM in cap space and pounced when star Clippers forward Paul George became available, quickly signing him to a four-year, maximum deal worth nearly $212MM.

Philadelphia also signed three-and-D small forward Caleb Martin, brought back rebounder extraordinaire Andre Drummond after his two-year Bulls stint, used their full room exception to re-sign swingman Kelly Oubre, signed sharpshooter Eric Gordon to a minimum contract, and signed restricted free agent Tyrese Maxey to a maximum deal via his Bird rights. The Sixers could still conceivably bring back free agent swingman KJ Martin, too, if the price is right.

All told, with this depth surrounding a new core of George, Maxey and perennial MVP candidate Joel Embiid, Philadelphia now looks like one of the best-equipped clubs in the East to challenge the Celtics for conference supremacy next season.

Pistons Hiring Luke Walton As Assistant Coach

July 12th, 2024 at 7:52pm CST by Tristan Tucker

The Pistons are hiring Luke Walton to join J.B. Bickerstaff‘s coaching staff as the lead assistant, according to The Athletic’s Shams Charania (Twitter link). As noted by Charania, Walton has spent the last two seasons serving as an assistant coach in Cleveland under Bickerstaff.

Walton played in the NBA for the Lakers from 2003-12 and then spent the 2012/13 season with the Cavs before retiring. He then enjoyed brief stints as an assistant for the University of Memphis and the now-South Bay Lakers of the G League.

Walton got his first NBA coaching job in 2014 as an assistant for the Warriors for two seasons. He helped the organization win a title in ’14/15 and earn an all-time best 73-9 record in ’15/16. Filling in as Golden State’s interim head coach at the start of the ’15/16 season while Steve Kerr recovered from back surgery, Walton led the Warriors to a 24-game winning streak and a 39-4 overall record. He was hired by the Lakers the following season as a first-time head coach.

The Lakers went 98-148 in three years under Walton. After leaving the Lakers, Walton was hired as the head coach in Sacramento, where he won 68 games in a little more than two seasons. In all, Walton owns a 166-241 record as a head coach.

Groups Revealed For 2024 NBA Cup

July 12th, 2024 at 7:28pm CST by Tristan Tucker

The NBA has announced the five-team groups for this year’s in-season tournament, now renamed the Emirates NBA Cup, the league announced in a release on Friday (Twitter link).

Like last year, there are six groups — three each from the Western Conference and Eastern Conference — and each conference was split into five groups based on last year’s standings. One team was selected at random from each group to determine the group round matchups.

The results are:

West Group A: Timberwolves, Clippers, Kings, Rockets and Trail Blazers
West Group B: Thunder, Suns, Lakers, Jazz and Spurs
West Group C: Nuggets, Mavericks, Pelicans, Warriors and Grizzlies
East Group A: Knicks, Magic, Sixers, Nets and Hornets
East Group B: Bucks, Pacers, Heat, Raptors and Pistons
East Group C: Celtics, Cavaliers, Bulls, Hawks and Wizards

The NBA Cup begins with group play, which runs from Nov. 12 to Dec. 3. Each team plays one game against each of the four opponents in its group. The NBA released a matchup matrix to help fans follow along (Twitter link).

Just like last season, the winner of each group advances to a knockout round alongside the team with the best record in each conference that didn’t win a group. The semifinals and finals will again be played in T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

Last year, the Lakers won the inaugural in-season tournament over the Pacers. LeBron James was named the tournament MVP after dropping 24 points in the title game.

The full game and broadcast schedule for group play will be announced next month.

Pistons Re-Sign Simone Fontecchio To Two-Year Deal

July 12th, 2024 at 7:17pm CST by Luke Adams

JULY 12: The Pistons have officially re-signed Fontecchio, according to the NBA’s transaction log.

JULY 6: The Pistons and free agent wing Simone Fontecchio are in agreement on a two-year, $16MM contract, reports ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link).

Fontecchio, 28, played professionally in Europe from 2012-22 before signing with the Jazz two summers ago. He spent a season-and-a-half in Utah, then was traded to Detroit at this year’s trade deadline.

In 66 total games (43 starts) for the Jazz and Pistons in 2023/24, the Italian wing averaged 10.5 points, 3.7 rebounds, and 1.5 assists in 24.9 minutes per game, with a strong shooting line of .460/.401/.818.

Because he only has two years of NBA experience under his belt, Fontecchio was eligible for restricted free agency, and the Pistons issued him a $5.2MM qualifying offer to ensure that he wouldn’t be able to sign with another team without Detroit getting a chance to match.

It didn’t come to that, however, as the Pistons and Fontecchio have worked out a new deal directly, less than a week after the free agent period officially opened.

Fontecchio will provide additional shooting on a team that is prioritizing spacing the floor around rising star guard Cade Cunningham. Detroit has also agreed to sign Malik Beasley and Tobias Harris while acquiring Tim Hardaway Jr. in a trade with Dallas.

Fontecchio’s new deal won’t affect the Pistons’ cap room, since his $5.2MM cap hold has already been accounted for in the team’s cap projections. Detroit will be able to go over the cap to officially re-sign him using his Early Bird rights.