Jazz Sign Trey Alexander To Two-Way Deal
July 7: The Jazz have issued a press release officially confirming their two-way deal with Alexander.
July 4: Trey Alexander will sign a two-way contract with the Jazz, sources tell Jake Fischer of The Stein Line (Twitter link).
The 23-year-old shooting guard appeared in nine games with the Pelicans this season after joining the team on a two-way deal last July. He averaged 5.2 points, 1.2 rebounds and 1.0 assists in 12.3 minutes per night with .514/.500/.600 shooting numbers. He was much more productive with the G League’s Birmingham Squadron, posting 23.9 PPG in 26 games.
After going undrafted out of Creighton in 2024, Alexander began his career on a two-way contract with Denver. He saw limited playing time in 24 NBA games that season, but earned G League Rookie of the Year honors with the Grand Rapids Gold.
Alexander became an unrestricted free agent this summer when the Pelicans opted not to issue him a two-way qualifying offer.
On his two-way deal with the Jazz, Alexander will earn a salary worth up to $678,882 and can be active for as many as 50 regular season games. Earning a raise beyond his two-way salary, exceeding his regular season game limit, or becoming postseason-eligible would require him to be promoted to a standard contract.
Blake Hinson and Tamar Bates currently hold two-way contracts with Utah, so all three of the team’s slots will be filled when Alexander’s deal is finalized. Obviously, given how flexible two-way deals are, that’s something that could change before the start of next season.
Jazz Notes: Peterson, George, Kessler, Bailey
Darryn Peterson received his first standing ovation from a partisan Jazz crowd when he led his team onto the court for warm-ups prior to Saturday’s game in the Salt Lake City Summer League, writes Sarah Todd of The Deseret News. Fans reacted in similar fashion a few seconds after tip-off when Peterson maneuvered through Atlanta’s defense for an easy layup.
Todd notes that it wasn’t a designed play, but Peterson eyed a defender he could beat off the dribble, then exploded past the help defense for his first two points in a Utah uniform.
“Just a read,” Peterson explained. “I seen a bigger guy come out on me so I tried to just attack him.”
The No. 2 pick in this year’s draft provided plenty of thrills for fans who packed the Huntsman Center at the University of Utah. A little more than a minute later, he brought the crowd to its feet again with a chase-down block of fellow rookie guard Kingston Flemings. He also continued the scoring onslaught, finishing with 28 points on 11-of-21 shooting and sinking 4-of-7 attempts from long distance.
Peterson admits being inspired by the chance to face Hawks big man Zuby Ejiofor, whose St. John’s squad eliminated Peterson’s Kansas team from the NCAA Tournament.
“That was my first game since the last game of March,” Peterson said. “That was also on my mind, because Zuby was on the other team, and they beat us on that game winner … so, was happy to get the win.”
There’s more from Utah:
- Jazz guard Keyonte George has received permission to serve as an assistant coach for a July 9 game against Washington in the Las Vegas Summer League, Todd states in a separate story. Agent Jason Ranne confirms to Todd that George got the go-ahead from the NBA as long as he’s not compensated and it’s just for one game. It’s believed to be the first time that an active player will work in an official coaching capacity during Summer League.
- Jazz officials knew they would eventually be presented with a pricey offer sheet for center Walker Kessler, Todd adds in another piece, so they acted proactively by agreeing to trade the restricted free agent to the Lakers for a parcel of future draft picks. She notes that if the Lakers had gone the offer sheet route and given Kessler a deal in the range of $36MM per year, matching it would have left Utah right against the tax threshold with little flexibility for future moves. With George eligible for a rookie scale extension this summer, Todd suggests the team was heading for a scenario where it would only be able to keep him or Kessler.
- Ace Bailey has been “eating and lifting” since the season ended and plans to incorporate his newfound strength into his game, per Jason Batacao of The Salt Lake Tribune. The Jazz are asking Bailey to become more of a two-way player, and Summer League provides his first chance to show progress toward that goal. “Summer League is time to put those benchmarks into action,” assistant coach Steve Wojciechowski said. “Now it’s time to do it on the court and see where you’re at, and hopefully where he’s at is an improvement in all those areas.”
Josh Okogie Signs Two-Year Deal With Jazz
July 10: The Jazz have officially signed Okogie, the team announced today in a press release.
July 3: Free agent wing Josh Okogie is signing a two-year, $12MM contract with the Jazz, sources tell Shams Charania of ESPN (Twitter link).
Okogie’s new deal will feature a team option for 2027/28, per Michael Scotto of HoopsHype (Twitter link).
The 20th overall pick in the 2018 draft, Okogie spent his first four NBA seasons in Minnesota prior to signing with Phoenix in the 2023 offseason. He spent two-plus seasons with the Suns before he was traded to Charlotte in January 2025.
After finishing out the 2024/25 campaign with the Hornets, Okogie signed a minimum-salary contract with Houston last summer. He played a key bench role for the Rockets in ’25/26 and had “several suitors” in free agency before reaching an agreement with Utah, Charania reports.
Known for his energetic defense, toughness and athleticism, Okogie averaged 4.5 points, 2.6 rebounds and 0.8 steals in 17.4 minutes per game across 78 regular season contests for Houston. He also shot a career-best 38.5% from three-point range, well above his career rate of 31.2%.
Okogie, a 6’4″ guard/forward, will turn 28 years old in September, a month before the ’26/27 regular season begins.
As Yossi Gozlan of The Third Apron tweets, Utah will sign Okogie using another significant chunk of the non-taxpayer mid-level exception. The team already agreed to sign Jaxson Hayes to essentially the same deal Okogie received, and using more than the taxpayer portion of the MLE will hard-cap the Jazz at the first tax apron.
That said, the Jazz still have about $26.5MM below the luxury tax line, Gozlan projects, so they still have plenty of financial flexibility to add salary in trades down the line. They also have a surplus of future first-round picks to utilize if they choose to be aggressive.
Windhorst’s Latest: Brown Trade, Centers, Salary Cap
The Celtics‘ surprising decision to trade Jaylen Brown to the division rival Sixers for a seemingly light return package has led to a renewed debate about whether the team has leaned too far into using analytics to predict future value, writes Brian Windhorst of ESPN.
Boston has been considered one of the most analytically-driven teams in the league in recent years, Windhorst notes, and that approach resulted in a championship two years ago. But some sources Windhorst spoke to observed that you can make the case that the 76ers essentially got Brown for “free,” or at least close to it, since Paul George‘s contract is considered an albatross and presumably would have required significant draft capital to move on its own.
“The league is overrun with strategy,” an Eastern Conference scout said. “Honestly, I’m not sure how many people who work in the league are actually watching the games.”
“Yes, there are more graduate degrees in front offices now, but that’s only part of the picture,” a Western Conference general manager said. “The aprons force you to analyze all of your spending more and put more attention to detail on getting the most out of each salary slot. The owners put that into the rules, and the players accepted it. This is all a choice.”
Here’s more from Windhorst’s latest story for ESPN.com:
- Front offices around the NBA have noted the trend of several centers getting lucrative deals in free agency, such as Jock Landale‘s one-year, $14MM deal with the Hawks and Moritz Wagner‘s two-year, $19MM agreement with the Nets. The Lakers were the biggest spenders on that front, Windhorst writes, as they’re using nearly all of their remaining draft assets — two unprotected first-round picks, two first-round swaps and two second-rounders — to give Walker Kessler a four-year, $130MM contract via sign-and-trade. “There’s several teams who wanted Kessler for a few years, and if it had been a truly open market, other teams might’ve been willing to make a similar [trade] offer,” one NBA personnel director said. “But I’d be worried about doing a big deal with the Ainges [Jazz front office leaders Danny and Austin] just on principle.”
- One Eastern Conference executive told Windhorst he was a fan of the Thunder‘s three-year, $75MM deal to bring back starting center Isaiah Hartenstein. “I haven’t seen it talked about at all, but what the Thunder got Hartenstein for might be one of the deals of summer,” the executive said.
- The salary cap for 2026/27 came in slightly lower than anticipated largely because the Knicks were so dominant in the playoffs, which resulted in fewer games in the Eastern Conference and NBA Finals, sources tell ESPN. But the main reason the cap was “only” up 6.7% rather than the originally expected 10% is because local TV revenue tanked — the company that ran the regional broadcasts for 13 teams is insolvent — and that projects to continue for at least one more season, Windhorst writes. “It’s one of the most significant financial things going on in the league right now,” one team president said. “It’s played at least some role in moving forward with expansion.”
Peterson, Acuff Among First-Rounders To Sign On Wednesday
Several players selected in the first round of the 2026 NBA draft officially signed their rookie scale contracts throughout the day on Wednesday.
Many of those players are expected to take part in the Salt Lake City and California Classic Summer Leagues, which will take place before the Las Vegas Summer League, so their teams are taking the opportunity to get them under contract ahead of practices this week and their SL debuts over the weekend.
In past years, we’ve devoted full stories to each of the 30 first-round picks signing his rookie scale contract, but since most of those deals are a mere formality and the salary terms are predetermined, we’ll likely try relaying most of them in round-up form this year, like we’ve done below. That only figures to change if there’s something unusual to note about a particular signing, such as a player accepting below the usual 120% of his rookie scale amount.
Here are the players who have signed their rookie scale contracts on the first day of the new league year, per the NBA’s transaction log and/or announcements from their teams. We’ve included their tentative contract details (based on 120% of the rookie scale) and links to our stories from when they were drafted last week.
- Darryn Peterson (Jazz): First-year salary of $13.2MM; four-year total of $59.9MM (story)
- Darius Acuff Jr. (Kings): First-year salary of $8MM; four-year total of $36.5MM (story)
- Yaxel Lendeborg (Warriors): First-year salary of $6.1MM; four-year total of $28.1MM (story)
- Zuby Ejiofor (Hawks): First-year salary of $3.5MM; four-year total of $17.3MM (story)
- Alex Karaban (Kings): First-year salary of $2.9MM; four-year total of $15.1MM (story)
- Koa Peat (Suns): First-year salary of $2.9MM; four-year total of $15MM (story)
Mavs Notes: Johnson, May, Green, Lively, De Larrea
The Mavericks provided one of the first surprises of the 2026 NBA draft when they bucked many fans’ expectations that they would draft a guard and instead took the defensive-minded big man Morez Johnson Jr. with the ninth overall pick.
Johnson will now enter a crowded frontcourt, which will add another new member as a result of Wednesday’s trade agreement for combo forward-center Santi Aldama, but the Mavs aren’t concerned about any potential redundancies, thanks to the unique attributes the former Michigan standout brings to the floor, Christian Clark writes for The Athletic.
“You’re not supposed to move like he does at that size. He can step out and guard point guards. Sometimes 2s, 3s, 4s, 5s. His defensive upside is incredibly high,” assistant general manager Mike Schmitz said. “… We think he fits perfectly with what we are trying to do,” Schmitz said. “It’s not always about position. A lot of it is about mentality and what are you bringing from an intangibles standpoint and a competitiveness standpoint.”
Johnson spoke about his fit with Cooper Flagg, expressing his excitement and comparing how the two would fit together to the situation he just came from, Clark writes.
“I think it will be very similar to Michigan playing with [Yaxel Lendeborg],” Johnson said. “Switching everything. Forcing a lot of turnovers and getting deflections.”
We have more from the Mavericks:
- One man who helped influenced the decision to Johnson at No. 9 was the new head coach, Dusty May. May spoke of his excitement about bringing his experience and philosophy from Michigan to the Mavs. Like Johnson, he couldn’t help but get excited by the versatility of Flagg, according to Afseth. “Cooper plays all over the court,” May said. “We’re building a very unique roster.” May is also looking forward to taking advantage of Kyrie Irving‘s veteran experience. “Kyrie knows what it takes to win a championship, so as a first-time NBA coach, I’m going to lean on him in a lot of areas,” May said. “… He’s one of the greatest point guards to ever play our game. He’s a jazz musician, and I can’t wait to be around him every day and help him on his journey.”
- The Mavericks are expected to hire former Pelicans head coach Willie Green to be the top assistant on May’s staff, reports Marc Stein of The Stein Line (Twitter link). An assistant in Golden State and Phoenix before being hired by New Orleans, Green also drew interest from the Warriors for a potential reunion, but he figures to end up in Dallas instead, Stein explains.
- A foot injury that eventually required surgery cut Dereck Lively II‘s 2025/26 season short after just seven games, after a stress fracture limited him to 36 games the previous season. Although he’s out of a walking boot, he’s exercising patience and wants to be sure his foot is 100% healed before he takes the floor again, Grant Afseth writes for Dallas Hoops Journal. “I’m taking even more time than I need to make sure I don’t ever have to deal with this foot again,” Lively said. “So whenever I can get past that and get over this hill, I know I’ll be 100 percent free.” Lively said that former Mavs big man Tyson Chandler has been in his corner and helping him stay focused on the right things during this lengthy rehab process.
- The Mavs traded the 30th pick along with two future second-rounders to move up to No. 25 to select Spanish guard Sergio De Larrea on draft night. While the team and the player are still trying to figure out whether he’ll come to Dallas or stay in Spain next season, he’s expected to join the Mavs at Summer League, according to Stein (via Twitter). The 6’6″ guard boasted a three-to-one assist-to-turnover ratio while shooting 40.7% from three this season in La Liga.
Jazz Sign Jaxson Hayes To Two-Year Deal
July 10: The Jazz have put out a press release formally confirming their deal with Hayes.
July 1: After agreeing to sign-and-trade Walker Kessler to the Lakers, the Jazz have reached a deal with a former Lakers big man. According to Tim MacMahon of ESPN (Twitter link), Utah is signing free agent center Jaxson Hayes to a two-year, $12MM contract that includes a team option on the second year.
Hayes, 26, spent his first four NBA seasons in New Orleans and then was a Laker from 2023-26. The former eighth overall pick primarily served as a backup center during that three-year stint in Los Angeles, including in 2025/26, when he started nine of 66 contests.
In 18.3 minutes per game last season, the seven-footer averaged 7.5 points, 4.1 rebounds, and 0.8 blocks, making 75.6% of his shots from the floor and 65.3% from the free throw line. A rim-running big man, Hayes takes most of his field goal attempts right around the basket.
While the Jazz had expressed a desire to bring back Kessler to be their rim protector in a frontcourt that will also feature Lauri Markkanen and Jaren Jackson Jr., they decided to go in a different direction after the Lakers exhibited a willingness to give Kessler a lucrative contract and surrender a strong package of draft assets for him.
Jackson figures to spend some time at the five, but Utah should have no shortage of other options up front. The team has now reached two-year contract agreements with Hayes and Jusuf Nurkic, and also appears set to bring back 2024 second-round pick Kyle Filipowski, who made 41 starts last season.
The Jazz don’t have the bi-annual exception available this season but have access to the full non-taxpayer mid-level exception and will likely use a chunk of it to officially sign Hayes after the moratorium period ends.
Jazz Sign-And-Trade Walker Kessler To Lakers
July 8: The deal is official, the Lakers and Jazz have announced in press releases.
“At the core of every great Lakers team is a dominant big man,” president of basketball operations Rob Pelinka said in the Lakers’ statement. “At just 24 years old, Walker Kessler has established himself as one of the elite two-way centers in the game. When the opportunity presented itself to pair a rim-protecting, lob-catching big with our premier pick-and-roll guards, Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves, we seized it.
“Walker will embody the core pillars we value in our players: high character, high basketball IQ, and elite competitiveness as we enter the next era of Lakers basketball. It’s an incredibly proud moment to add someone with Walker’s unique skill set and makeup to our program.”
July 1: The Jazz and Lakers have agreed to a blockbuster sign-and-trade deal that will send restricted free agent center Walker Kessler to Los Angeles, reports Shams Charania of ESPN (Twitter link).
According to Charania, Kessler will sign a four-year, $130MM contract, while Utah receives unprotected first-round picks in 2031 and 2033 from L.A., along with first-round pick swaps in 2028 and 2030. Charania adds (via Twitter) that the big man’s new deal with the Lakers will include a fourth-year player option and a full (15%) trade kicker.
No players will be sent to the Jazz in the trade, per Jake Fischer of The Stein Line (Twitter link).
The 22nd overall pick in the 2022 draft, Kessler appeared in 201 games during four seasons with the Jazz, showing intriguing potential as a rim-protecting defensive anchor who can control the boards.
The 7’2″ center was limited to just five games in 2025/26 before undergoing season-ending shoulder surgery in the fall, but was very effective as a rebounder (12.2 RPG) and shot blocker (2.4 BPG) across 58 outings (all starts) in ’24/25. He has also averaged 11.3 points and 1.8 assists in 30.1 minutes per game over the past two seasons.
However, the Jazz didn’t sign Kessler to a rookie scale extension last fall. And despite multiple reports indicating that they envisioned re-signing Kessler to complement the frontcourt duo of Jaren Jackson Jr. and Lauri Markkanen, negotiations between the two sides got off to a rocky start this offseason, with the 24-year-old said in mid-June to be unhappy.
Utah reportedly put an offer worth roughly $140MM on the table, but was said to be inflexible on the structure and unwilling to do less than five years. Unsatisfied with the Jazz’s pitch, Kessler took meetings with multiple suitors when free agency opened on Tuesday. Los Angeles was his preferred destination, tweets Charania, and Kessler was said to be the Lakers’ top target as they looked to use their cap room to land the sort of “A-list center” that Luka Doncic has coveted.
After LeBron James informed the Lakers on Tuesday that he plans to play elsewhere in 2026/27, the club was in position to leverage its $50MM+ in cap room to try to land one of the top two RFA centers on the board: Kessler and Pistons big man Jalen Duren. While top restricted free agents typically don’t change teams, the Jazz decided to cash out on Kessler rather than match a potential Lakers offer sheet that would’ve included a player option, trade kicker, and a higher average annual salary than they were comfortable playing.
Utah made out very well in the deal by securing two unprotected first-round picks and two swaps. As Bobby Marks of ESPN observes (via Twitter), the Lakers entered the offseason with five first-round trade assets and will give up four of them for Kessler. A 2032 pick swap is the only one of those five assets the team still has at its disposal.
Kessler’s departure means the Jazz will likely be in the market for another center this summer, though they did agree to re-sign Jusuf Nurkic, and Jackson can handle the position at times. While many of the top free agent options have come off the board already, Utah has significant flexibility below the luxury tax line and has the $15MM non-taxpayer mid-level exception available, notes Yossi Gozlan of The Third Apron (Twitter link). The club will also generate a trade exception worth at least $15MM as a result of Kessler’s departure.
While the exact structure of Kessler’s contract isn’t yet known, it could start as low as about $30.2MM, which would leave the Lakers with just over $23MM in cap room, as well as the $9.4MM room exception, tweets Gozlan. Reporting on Tuesday indicated that teams around the league consider big man Sandro Mamukelashvili and guard Quentin Grimes likely to end up with the Lakers on deals worth at least $10MM or so annually.
[UPDATE: Lakers Agree To Four-Year Deal With Mamukelashvili]
[UPDATE: Lakers To Sign Grimes To Four-Year Contract]
The Lakers will also be hard-capped at the first tax apron for the 2026/27 league year as a result of acquiring a player via sign-and-trade.
The Lakers’ deal for Kessler is bad news for Duren. While the Kings are still said to be interested in a sign-and-trade for the All-NBA center, they’re not well positioned to create the cap room necessary for an offer sheet, reducing their leverage. And the Pistons have reportedly shown little to no interest in accommodating a sign-and-trade that sends Duren out of Detroit.
Fischer/Stein’s Latest: Spurs, Lakers, LeBron, Post, Rockets, Sasser
As the Spurs peruse the free agent market for help at forward, there’s a belief that they’re not willing to offer more than two years to potential targets using their $15MM non-taxpayer mid-level exception, according to Jake Fischer and Marc Stein of The Stein Line (Substack link).
As Fischer and Stein observe, after Victor Wembanyama‘s next contract hits the Spurs’ books in 2027/28, Stephon Castle will be due for his own second deal in ’28/29, so it makes sense that the club would want to maintain a relatively clean cap sheet in anticipation for what figures to be a significant commitment to the rising star guard.
Rui Hachimura, Tobias Harris, and John Collins are among the veteran free agents San Antonio is considering, Fischer and Stein note, with Hachimura also said to be drawing interest from the Nets and Pistons.
Here’s more from the Stein Line duo:
- Following up on their earlier report stating that Quentin Grimes and Sandro Mamukelashvili are widely expected to sign with the Lakers, Fischer and Stein say those contracts could come in around $10MM per year. Assuming the room exception is used to add one of those two players, that would leave the team roughly $40MM in cap room to make a play for Jazz restricted free agent Walker Kessler. Kessler is considered to be Los Angeles’ top center target over Pistons RFA Jalen Duren, though L.A. has interest in both players, who will likely be difficult to pry away from their current clubs.
- The Warriors, Cavaliers, and Heat are the teams most frequently cited by rival front offices as probable LeBron James landing spots, and Fischer and Stein hear that Golden State may have already lined up a move or two in order to create additional cap flexibility in case LeBron wants to come to the Bay Area.
- One minor complication for the Warriors, Fischer and Stein report, is that restricted free agent big man Quinten Post is receiving interest from multiple teams. There’s a chance one of those clubs may be willing to sign Post to an offer sheet in order to put some pressure on a potentially cap-strapped Golden State team.
- In order to re-sign restricted free agent forward Tari Eason and free up the non-taxpayer mid-level exception to offer Marcus Smart a three-year deal in the range of $7MM annually, the Rockets are trying to move forward Dorian Finney-Smith, per The Stein Line. If those efforts are unsuccessful, Houston’s offer to Smart would have to be for just two years using the taxpayer mid-level exception (worth up to about $6.2MM per year).
- The Mavericks are a potential landing spot for Pistons guard Marcus Sasser, who is a candidate to be traded, Fischer and Stein report. Moving off Sasser’s $5.2MM expiring contract would create extra spending flexibility for Detroit in free agency.
Groups Set For 2026 NBA Cup
The NBA has officially announced the six groups of five teams apiece for the 2026 Emirates NBA Cup, also known as the in-season tournament (Twitter link).
In order to set the groups, the league splits the Western and Eastern Conferences into five three-team tiers based on last season’s regular season standings, with one club from each tier randomly drawn into each of the conference’s three groups.
For instance, the top three teams from the West will all be in separate groups, with each of those three groups also featuring one team in the 4-6 range, one in the 7-9 range, and so on.
Here are the groups for the 2026 NBA Cup:
- West Group A: Denver Nuggets (3), Houston Rockets (5), Phoenix Suns (8), Dallas Mavericks (12), Utah Jazz (15)
- West Group B: Oklahoma City Thunder (1), Minnesota Timberwolves (6), Los Angeles Clippers (9), New Orleans Pelicans (11), Memphis Grizzlies (13)
- West Group C: San Antonio Spurs (2), Los Angeles Lakers (4), Portland Trail Blazers (7), Golden State Warriors (10), Sacramento Kings (14)
- East Group A: Detroit Pistons (1), Toronto Raptors (5), Orlando Magic (8), Milwaukee Bucks (11), Brooklyn Nets (13)
- East Group B: New York Knicks (3), Cleveland Cavaliers (4), Philadelphia 76ers (7), Miami Heat (10), Indiana Pacers (14)
- East Group C: Boston Celtics (2), Atlanta Hawks (6), Charlotte Hornets (9), Chicago Bulls (12), Washington Wizards (15)
The round-robin group play games will begin on October 30 and run through November 27. Each team will face the other four clubs in its group once, with the winners of each group and one wild card team from each conference advancing to the eight-team, single-elimination knockout round.
The full schedule of group play games can be viewed right here.
The quarterfinals will be played on December 4-5, with the semifinals to follow on Dec. 8 and/or 9. The final will take place on Dec. 11.
In past seasons, the NBA Cup’s semifinals and final have been played in Las Vegas, but the league is deviating from that tradition this year. The semifinals, like the quarterfinals, will take place in the higher seed’s home market, while the final will be played at Hinkle Fieldhouse — Butler’s arena — in Indianapolis, as the NBA announced earlier today.
The 2025 NBA Cup was a preview of what to expect in the NBA Finals six months later. The Knicks won the final over the Spurs, with Jalen Brunson earning MVP honors for the in-season tournament.