V.J. Edgecombe Rumors | Hoops Rumors

And-Ones: Media Rights, Seattle, Vegas, 2025 Draft, Offseason

July 19th, 2024 at 8:50pm CST by Luke Adams

The NBA’s new media rights agreements with Disney (ESPN/ABC), NBC, and Amazon won’t give those partners matching rights during the next round of negotiations in 11 years, industry sources tell Mike Vorkunov and Andrew Marchand of The Athletic. For instance, if the NBA were to reach an agreement on a rights deal with Netflix in 2035, Amazon wouldn’t be given the right to match Netflix’s offer.

The league presumably didn’t want to deal with that complication again in its next media rights negotiation period, given how Warner Bros. Discovery’s matching rights have affected this year’s talks. Warner Bros. Discovery (the parent company of TNT Sports) reportedly intends to exercise its matching rights on Amazon’s new package of games. The league, in turn, is expected to challenge WBD’s interpretation of those rights, which could result in a legal battle.

The NBA’s new media deals will go into effect at the start of the 2025/26 season and will run through ’35/36.

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If Seattle gets a new NBA team in the next round of expansion, the ownership group that controls the NHL’s Seattle Kraken is considered the significant frontrunner, but the bidding for a Las Vegas franchise looks more wide open, according to Randall Williams and Kim Bhasin of Fortune.com, who hears from two sources that the total price tag – including building a new arena – could reach $7 billion. The company that owns the Red Bull brand is among the groups with interest in a Las Vegas team, per Williams and Bhasin.
Jonathan Wasserman of Bleacher Report has published his “way-too-soon” mock draft for 2025, with Duke forward Cooper Flagg at No. 1, followed by Rutgers guard Dylan Harper. Baylor wing V.J. Edgecombe, Rutgers swingman Ace Bailey, and UNC guard Drake Powell round out Wasserman’s top five.
In an Insider-only story for ESPN.com, Bobby Marks takes a look at each team’s most impactful transaction of the offseason so far and what moves might still be coming before the regular season tips off.

And-Ones: Beverley, Second Apron, 2025 Mock, Egan, Plumlee

July 14th, 2024 at 9:50pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Could Patrick Beverley play overseas next season? The longtime NBA point guard has garnered the interest of Israel’s Hapoel Tel Aviv, according to a Walla report (hat tip to Sportando).

Beverley, 36, is an unrestricted free agent. He played for the Bucks last season and made highlights for the wrong reasons in the playoffs. He fired a basketball multiple times at Indiana spectators and received a four-game suspension that he’ll serve at the start of the 2024/25 season if he’s in the NBA. Beverley had stated a preference to re-sign with Milwaukee.

The veteran guard played in the Ukraine, Greece and Russia before setting roots in the NBA in 2013.

We have more from around the basketball world:

While many NBA observers have noted the second apron restrictions during this offseason, The Ringer’s Howard Beck makes a case that the negative impact of those aprons has been somewhat overblown. It should benefit the smaller market teams who don’t have the ability to go deep into the luxury tax, as the Warriors and Clippers have in recent years, Beck writes, noting that could help the league overall in its aim of competitive balance.
Yes, highly-touted Cooper Flagg ranks No. 1 in The Athletic’s Sam Vecenie’s 2025 mock draft, but there are plenty of other standout prospects, in Vecenie’s estimation. Rutgers guard Dylan Harper and forward Ace Bailey, France’s Nolan Traore and Baylor guard V.J. Edgecombe are the other prospects who make Vecenie’s early top five.
Longtime NBA assistant Hank Egan is the recipient of this year’s Tex Winter Assistant Coach Lifetime Impact Award, the National Basketball Coaches Association announced (Twitter link). Egan, 86, most recently coached in the league with Cleveland from 2005-10.
Suns center Mason Plumlee has been elected as a Secretary-Treasurer for the Players’ Association, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski tweets. Plumlee will begin a three-year tenure as part of the union’s leadership.