Hornets Trading Tyus Jones To Mavericks For Malaki Branham
After picking up Tyus Jones in a deal with Orlando on Wednesday, the Hornets have agreed to trade him to the Mavericks, sources tell ESPN’s Shams Charania (Twitter link).
Charlotte will receive Malaki Branham in return while generating a $7MM trade exception. There are no picks involved on either side, adds Christian Clark of The Athletic (Twitter link).
Dallas was hoping to sign Jones last summer in its search for a point guard, but couldn’t compete with the $7MM offer he received from the Magic, according to Jake Fischer of The Stein Line (Twitter link). The Mavs wound up adding D’Angelo Russell, who is heading to Washington as part of the Anthony Davis deal.
Charlotte agreed to take on Jones’ contract in a salary dump that moved Orlando below the luxury tax line, getting a pair of future second-round picks in return.
Jones struggled with his shot during his time with the Magic, connecting at 32.4% from the field and 29.4% from three-point range in 48 games. But he remains one of the NBA’s most dependable ball-handlers and could have a prominent role with Dallas until Kyrie Irving returns from injury.
Branham was a part-time starter during his first two seasons with San Antonio after being selected with the 20th pick in the 2022 draft, but his playing time has dropped sharply over the past two years. He’s being sent from Washington to Dallas in the Davis trade and is earning $5MM in the final year of his rookie contract.
Celtics Promote Rookie Amari Williams To 15-Man Roster
2:00 pm: Williams’ new deal is official, per NBA.com’s transaction log.
1:01 pm: The Celtics are promoting rookie two-way player Amari Williams, Marc Stein of The Stein Line tweets. Williams has agreed to a two-year, $2.7MM standard contract.
It’s uncertain if Williams is getting quite that much, as a two-year, minimum-salary contract for a rookie as of today would be worth $2.64MM, though it’s possible the Celtics will give him slightly more using the taxpayer mid-level exception.
Williams was selected with the No. 46 overall pick last June. He was technically drafted by the Magic, who forwarded him to Boston in a draft-night deal.
The 6’11” big man has seen action in 13 games, including two starts, averaging 1.7 points and 2.1 rebounds in 8.2 minutes. He’s spent a majority of his rookie campaign with the G League’s Maine Celtics, where he’s averaged 15.3 points, 11.3 rebounds, 5.0 assists and 1.7 blocks in 30 minutes per game while appearing in 21 contests.
Boston dealt Chris Boucher to the Jazz on Thursday, opening up a spot for another frontcourt player to move up the depth chart.
Sixers Sign Charles Bassey To Another 10-Day Deal
The Sixers have signed Charles Bassey to another 10-day contract, according to the NBA transactions log.
Bassey signed his first 10-day contract. Bassey, who was originally drafted in the second round by the Sixers in 2021, has yet to appear in a game with Philadelphia this season.
Bassey, a 25-year-old center, was averaging 19 points and 11 rebounds per game with Santa Cruz in the G League. Following an outstanding Summer League performance with Boston, he signed an Exhibit 10 deal with Atlanta in September. The Hawks waived Bassey prior to the start of the season, and he inked a 10-day hardship contract with Memphis in late October. He appeared in two games during that time, but was let go when the contract expired.
Bassey provides some temporary frontcourt depth on Philadelphia’s roster, which is in a state of flux.
Celtics, Bulls Swap Anfernee Simons, Nikola Vucevic
February 5: The trade is now official, per NBA.com’s transaction log.
February 3: The Celtics and Bulls have reached an agreement on a trade that will send guard Anfernee Simons to Chicago and center Nikola Vucevic to Boston, reports ESPN’s Shams Charania (Twitter link).
Both teams will also acquire a second-round pick in the deal, Charania adds. The Celtics will receive Denver’s 2027 second-round selection in the trade, while Chicago will get the “most favorable” of four teams’ 2026 second-rounders, tweets Keith Smith of Spotrac. That pick headed to the Bulls will likely be New Orleans’ 2026 second-rounder.
A deal along these lines had long been considered a possibility for the Celtics, whose frontcourt depth took a significant blow last offseason when they traded away Kristaps Porzingis and lost Al Horford and Luke Kornet in free agency.
Simons’ $27.7MM expiring contract was also viewed as an obvious trade chip for a team that made cost-cutting moves to get below the second apron and might be looking to further reduce its luxury tax bill — or to get out of the tax altogether.
Over the course of the season, however, Simons emerged as a key part of Boston’s rotation off the bench, averaging 14.2 points, 2.4 assists, and 2.4 rebounds in 24.5 minutes per game while knocking down 39.5% of his three-pointers and 88.9% of his free throws. And with the 31-18 Celtics vying for a top-two seed in the East, ducking the tax no longer seemed like a top priority for the team.
Still, president of basketball operations Brad Stevens ultimately determined that it made sense for Boston to sacrifice some backcourt depth for another rotation player up front while saving some money and generating some additional roster flexibility in the process.
Vucevic, 35, is a floor-stretching big man who continues to produce strong offensive numbers, including 16.9 points, 9.0 rebounds, and 3.8 assists per game this season, along with a 37.6% mark on three-pointers. He’s on an expiring $21.5MM contract, so the move will reduce the Celtics’ projected tax penalty by more than $22MM, from $39.5MM to $17MM, tweets ESPN’s Bobby Marks. The club will also move below the first tax apron as a result of the deal.
Boston has a $22.5MM traded player exception from last summer’s Porzingis deal, so Vucevic could be slotted into that TPE, allowing the team to create a new exception equivalent to Simons’ outgoing salary ($27.8MM). The Celtics would have up to one year to use that exception.
As for the Bulls’ perspective, it remains to be seen whether Simons is part of their plans going forward or if the move is more about the second-round pick they’re adding. Either way, something will have to give in Chicago’s backcourt, where Simons joins a group that also includes Josh Giddey, Coby White, Ayo Dosunmu, and Tre Jones, as well as Jaden Ivey and Mike Conley, who are joining the Bulls as part of a three-team deal involving Detroit and Minnesota.
While Conley looks like a potential buyout candidate, the Bulls’ additions of Ivey and Simons suggest that at least one (and perhaps more than one) of White, Dosunmu, or Jones will be on the move this week.
The trade sending out Vucevic represents something of the end of an era in Chicago. Arturas Karnisovas‘ first major trade as the team’s executive VP of basketball operations at the 2021 deadline saw him send out Wendell Carter Jr. and multiple future first-round picks (including one that became Franz Wagner) to land the Montenegrin center. Vucevic averaged 18.1 PPG, 10.5 RPG, and 3.4 APG on .499/.349/.815 shooting in 378 regular season games as a Bull.
Michael Scotto of HoopsHype first reported last week that the Bulls inquired earlier in the season on a swap of Vucevic for Simons and a first-round pick. While Boston wasn’t interested in that offer, the Celtics eventually moved forward on the proposed framework after Chicago lowered its draft-pick asking price.
Jazz Acquire Lonzo Ball, Second-Rounders From Cavs
February 5: The Jazz have officially acquired Ball and two second-round picks from the Cavaliers, according to press releases from both teams. Utah also separately completed its deal with Atlanta involving Landale.
“Lonzo Ball was the consummate professional during his time with the Cavaliers, and we’re grateful for his hard work and team-first mentality,” Cavaliers president of basketball operations Koby Altman said in a statement. “We wish him nothing but the best moving forward.”
Oddly, neither the Jazz’s release nor the Cavs’ announcement indicated what exactly Cleveland received from Utah to complete the deal, but RealGM’s official transaction log indicates it was cash.
February 4: The Jazz have agreed to a pair of trades, according to Shams Charania of ESPN (Twitter links), who reports that Utah will be acquiring point guard Lonzo Ball and two second-round picks from the Cavaliers and is also sending center Jock Landale to the Hawks in exchange for cash considerations.
The Jazz are making their deal with Cleveland solely for the draft capital and are expected to waive Ball after the trade is complete, Charania adds (via Twitter). Once he clears waivers, he’d be eligible to sign with any team except the Cavs.
The Cavaliers acquired Ball from Chicago last summer in a swap for Isaac Okoro in the hopes that he could provide the team with a reliable replacement for Sixth Man of the Year finalist Ty Jerome, who departed in free agency. However, Ball had a disappointing season in Cleveland, averaging career lows in several categories, including points (4.6) and minutes (20.8) per game, as well as field goal percentage (30.1%) and three-point percentage (27.2%).
With the Cavs making an effort to reduce payroll and perhaps duck below the second tax apron, moving Ball and his $10MM salary made sense, especially after the team acquired guards Dennis Schröder and Keon Ellis from Sacramento over the weekend.
The Cavs will save approximately $65MM as a result of the Ball trade and are now just $3.9MM over the second apron, tweets Yossi Gozlan of The Third Apron. Cleveland may very well keep looking for ways to get out of second-apron territory in order to avoid having its 2033 first-round pick becoming “frozen” for trade purposes this offseason, but the club has already generated massive savings as a result of its recent moves — approximately $115MM in total, per Gozlan (Twitter link).
Utah, meanwhile, still had a significant amount of breathing room below the luxury tax threshold after adding to their payroll in Tuesday’s Jaren Jackson Jr. blockbuster and will take advantage of that flexibility to take on some unwanted salary and acquire the Cavs’ 2028 and 2032 second-round picks in the process, tweets Jake Fischer of The Stein Line. Those were the only second-rounders Cleveland had available to trade.
The Jazz still have a trade exception worth more than $12MM from last summer’s John Collins deal that they’ll use to absorb Ball’s pseudo-expiring contract (he has a $10MM team option for next season that will be automatically declined when he’s waived). That Collins exception was initially worth over $26MM and has since been used to acquire Georges Niang and John Konchar as well.
Landale was one of three role players the Jazz acquired alongside Jackson in Tuesday’s blockbuster with Memphis, but he wasn’t part of Utah’s future frontcourt plans and will now head to Atlanta.
The 30-year-old Australian center was having a career year for the Grizzlies prior to the trade, averaging 11.3 points, 6.5 rebounds, and 1.7 assists in 23.6 minutes per game across 45 outings (25 starts). He was also knocking down 38.0% of a career-high 2.9 three-point tries per game. He’ll provide frontcourt depth for a Hawks team that has been hit hard by injuries up front this season.
The Hawks will have to waive a player in order to make room for Landale, but that shouldn’t be a problem — both Duop Reath and N’Faly Dante are out with season-ending injuries and are candidates to be cut. They’ll be able to take on Landale without sending out any salary of their own since he’s on a minimum-salary contract.
Chris Paul To Raptors, Ochai Agbaji To Nets In Three-Team Deal
February 5: The three-team trade is now official, according to the Nets (Twitter link), who have waived veteran wing Haywood Highsmith in order to create a roster spot for Agbaji.
As Gozlan tweets, Brooklyn now has about $8.9MM in cap room remaining and also still has its $8.8MM room exception, which could be used to absorb another salary in a deadline deal.
February 4: The Clippers, Raptors, and Nets are in agreement on a three-team trade that will send guard Chris Paul from Los Angeles to Toronto, reports Shams Charania of ESPN (Twitter links).
Fourth-year forward Ochai Agbaji is headed from Toronto to Brooklyn in the deal, along with the Raptors’ 2032 second-round pick, says Charania. The Clippers will receive the draft rights to 2019 second-rounder Vanja Marinkovic from the Nets, according to Jake Fischer of The Stein Line (Twitter link), and will send $3.5MM in cash to Brooklyn, per NBA insider Chris Haynes (Twitter link).
The Raptors won’t require Paul to report to the team, according to Charania, who suggests the veteran point guard may be flipped to another club before Thursday’s deadline. If not, he’ll likely be waived.
It’s a cost-cutting move for both the Clippers and Raptors. The Clippers will open up an extra roster spot and create breathing room below their hard cap, which they’ll likely use to promote two-way players Jordan Miller and Kobe Sanders to standard contracts. Toronto, meanwhile, will duck below the tax line by swapping out Agbaji’s expiring $6.4MM contract for Paul and his $2.3MM cap hit, creating a $6.4MM trade exception in the process.
The Nets will take advantage of being the NBA’s only team with cap room by taking on a half-season of Agbaji, receiving more than enough cash to cover his remaining salary, and adding another second-round pick to their sizable collection of draft assets in the process. Acquiring Agbaji will bring Brooklyn’s cap room below $9MM, though the team would also have the option of using its $15MM+ in room in a separate deal, then absorbing the Raptors forward using its room exception.
The Nets have a full 15-man roster, so they’ll need to trade or waive a player to create room for Agbaji.
The Clippers announced over two months ago that they were “parting ways” with Paul, who wasn’t a good cultural fit, but that just meant he’d no longer be around the team, not that he was off the roster. L.A. didn’t want to waive him since it would mean eating his guaranteed salary and leaving his $2.3MM cap hit on the team’s books, compromising the front office’s ability to make additional moves around the edges of the roster.
L.A. will now have about $3.4MM below its first-apron hard cap along with a pair of open roster spots, notes cap expert Yossi Gozlan (Twitter links). Toronto will be roughly $3.1MM below the tax line and will also have two openings on its standard 15-man roster.
Hawks Finalize Jock Landale Trade, Waive Duop Reath
The Hawks have officially finalized their previously reported trade with the Jazz, acquiring center Jock Landale from Utah in exchange for cash considerations, the team confirmed in a press release.
While that agreement was reported as part of a Jazz/Cavaliers trade, it appears the two moves will be completed separately rather than as a single three-team transaction — the Hawks’ announcement doesn’t include any mention of Cleveland’s involvement in the deal.
Landale, 30, was having a career year for the Grizzlies prior to being sent to Utah in the Jaren Jackson Jr. blockbuster, averaging 11.3 points, 6.5 rebounds, and 1.7 assists in 23.6 minutes per game across 45 outings (25 starts). He was also knocking down 38.0% of a career-high 2.9 three-point tries per game.
The Australian big man will provide frontcourt depth for a Hawks team that has been impacted by injuries up front this season and is sending Kristaps Porzingis to Golden State.
Landale is on a one-year, minimum-salary contract, so Atlanta can acquire him without sending out matching salary. The team did need to open up a spot on its 15-man roster for Landale though, and did so by placing recently acquired center Duop Reath on waivers (Twitter link).
Reath, who was dealt from Portland to Atlanta in Sunday’s Vit Krejci trade, recently underwent season-ending foot surgery and wasn’t expected to remain on the Hawks’ roster. His $2,221,677 cap hit for this season will remain on the team’s books, but he isn’t owed any salary beyond 2025/26.
Bulls Sign Mac McClung To Two-Way Contract
9:19 am: McClung has officially signed his two-way contract with the Bulls, per NBA.com’s transaction log.
8:08 am: One of two NBA teams with an open two-way slot, the Bulls will fill their opening by signing guard Mac McClung to a two-way contract, a source tells Jake Fischer of The Stein Line (Twitter link).
It will be the fourth contract McClung has signed with the Bulls since he went undrafted out of Texas Tech in 2021. The 6’2″ guard inked a pair of 10-day deals with Chicago as a rookie, then completed an Exhibit 10 deal with the team this past fall, lining him up to play for the Windy City Bulls in the G League this season.
A former G League MVP, McClung is having another standout year at that level — in 24 outings for the Bulls’ affiliate, he has averaged 25.4 points, 7.5 assists, 3.1 rebounds, and 1.4 steals in 34.5 minutes per game, with a .518/.353/.813 shooting line.
While McClung has made just nine total regular season appearances for five different teams since going pro, the 27-year-old has become a household name among NBA fans with his performances in the league’s slam dunk contest. McClung won the contest in 2023, 2024, and 2025, but reportedly won’t be defending his title again this year.
The Bulls have an open two-way slot after sending Emanuel Miller to Cleveland in Sunday’s three-team trade involving the Cavaliers and Kings. McClung will join Lachlan Olbrich and Yuki Kawamura as Chicago’s two-way players and will be eligible to be active for up to 19 regular season games for the Bulls.
Once McClung’s deal is official, the Bucks will be the only team with a two-way opening.
Hornets Acquire Tyus Jones From Magic, Waive Pat Connaughton
11:27 pm: The trade is official, the Hornets announced (via Twitter). Veteran swingman Pat Connaughton, who has only appeared in 22 games this season, has been waived to make room on the roster for Jones (Twitter link). Connaughton will receive the balance of his $9.4MM salary.
9:07 pm: The Magic have agreed to send Tyus Jones to the Hornets for cash considerations, sources tell ESPN’s Shams Charania (Twitter link).
Charlotte will get a pair of second-round picks for taking on Jones’ $7MM contract, Charania adds. Those second-rounders will be the least favorable between Boston and Orlando in 2027 along with the Magic’s selection in 2028, according to Bobby Marks of ESPN (Twitter link). The Hornets now own 11 first-rounders and 14 second-rounders over the next seven years.
The move allows Orlando to dip roughly $1.4MM below the luxury tax line. The Magic will be down to 13 players with standard contracts once the deal is finalized and will have two weeks to get back to the league minimum of 14.
The Hornets currently have a full roster, so another move will have to be made before this trade can be completed. Mike Conley, who’s being acquired from Chicago in a separate deal, is viewed as a buyout candidate, so Charlotte could open a roster spot by finalizing that trade first and waiving Conley.
The Hornets can absorb Jones’ salary with the remainder of their mid-level exception or with a trade exception they’ll create in the deal with the Bulls, notes Yossi Gozlan of The Third Apron (Twitter link). Gozlan suggests that Jones could also be bought out, which would make him eligible to sign with any team other than Orlando.
Jones, 29, signed a one-year deal with the Magic in July. He was expected to provide depth at point guard, but his inconsistent shooting (34.2% from the field and 29.4% from three-point range) has limited his playing time. Through 48 games, Jones is averaging 3.0 points and 2.4 assists in 15.7 minutes per night.
Hornets Acquire Coby White From Bulls
11:21 pm: The trade has been finalized, the Hornets announced (via Twitter).
2:01 pm: The Hornets and Bulls have agreed to a trade that will send guards Coby White and Mike Conley to Charlotte, reports Shams Charania of ESPN (Twitter link).
In exchange, Chicago will acquire guard Collin Sexton, forward Ousmane Dieng, and three second-round picks, sources tell ESPN. Dieng is technically still a member of the Thunder, but is reportedly being traded to Charlotte in a deal involving center Mason Plumlee. Oklahoma City is sending the Hornets a second-round pick along with Dieng in that side deal, tweets Charania.
White, who will turn 26 later this month, is a talented scorer who has averaged 19.5 points per game since becoming a full-time starter at the beginning of the 2023/24 season. He has also averaged 4.8 assists and 4.1 rebounds per night over the course of 182 outings during that stretch, with a .448/.369/.859 shooting line.
Although White entered this winter as one of the Bulls’ prime trade candidates, his value has been negatively impacted by calf issues that have limited to 29 games this season, as well as his contract situation.
The veteran guard is on an expiring $12.9MM expiring deal, meaning his maximum extension with Chicago would have been worth $87MM over four years — he reportedly conveyed to the team prior to the season that he wouldn’t be signing an extension and would take his chances on earning a more lucrative payday in unrestricted free agency.
With teams viewing White as a possible rental, the Bulls were unable to extract a first-round pick for him on the trade market, but they did secure three second-rounders, which will be either the Nuggets’ or Hornets’ 2029 pick (whichever is least favorable), the Nuggets’ 2031 pick, and the Knicks’ 2031 pick, according to Zach Lowe of The Ringer (Twitter link).
The Hornets will presumably look to re-sign White, a North Carolina native who played his college ball at UNC, but Conley likely won’t spend long on Charlotte’s roster. He’s viewed as a buyout candidate, and since he’ll be traded twice this week, he would be eligible to return to the Timberwolves without running afoul of the NBA’s rule preventing a waived player to return to the team that traded him away. Jake Fischer of The Stein Line highlighted this potential outcome for Conley earlier today.
The Bulls, meanwhile, could have more moves up their sleeves in the next 24 hours, since they’ll still have a logjam in their backcourt. Sexton will join a group that features Josh Giddey, Ayo Dosunmu, Jaden Ivey, Anfernee Simons, and Tre Jones.