What's next for Lillard's career after Bucks exit?
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New York Times
an hour ago
- New York Times
CA CAW! Hawks title odds jump up significantly
The market for the Warriors' restricted free agent is beginning to take shape. Meanwhile, teams are discussing a potential seven-team trade. Jacob Kupferman / Getty Images After an active offseason, the Atlanta Hawks' championship odds have jumped from +25000 to +2500 on BetMGM. Trae Young remains the cornerstone, but the supporting cast looks deeper and much more talented with those three additions. Atlanta's regular starting five figures to be Trae Young, Kristaps Porziņģis, Most Improved Player Dyson Daniels, last year's No. 1 pick Zaccharie Risacher and Jalen Johnson, who was averaging 18.9 points, 10 rebounds and five assists before missing the second half of last season due to injury. Add Nickeil Alexander-Walker and Luke Kennard to a bench unit in a depleted Eastern Conference, and it's easy to see why Atlanta surged up the odds. GO FURTHER 2026 NBA title odds: How the contenders rank after free agency and trade frenzy The Milwaukee Bucks have waived Chris Livingston. The Bucks selected Livingston, 21, with the final pick of the 2023 NBA Draft, but he never found his footing in the NBA. Livingston appeared in 42 games across the last two seasons with the Bucks and played just 196 minutes. He was on a non-guaranteed contract for the 2025-26 season with a guarantee date of July 15. I'm hearing that the Rockets, who are acquiring Dorian Finney-Smith and Clint Capela in free agency, will be expanding one of those into an expansive sign-and-trade that involves multiple teams. Houston can officially finalize those moves beginning July 6. Purely from a standpoint of matching salaries, the Knicks could construct various types of potential trade offers for LeBron James. The most chaotic deal would be flipping All-NBA big man Karl-Anthony Towns for James, straight up — two teams betting on the other's star. Of course, this could leave the Knicks center-less, given Mitchell Robinson's injury struggles. They could pair a couple of wings, OG Anunoby and either Josh Hart or Mikal Bridges, in a trade for James. They could piece together a trio to offer for James: Anunoby, Robinson and point guard Miles 'Deuce' McBride. But Anunoby will make $45 million in 2027-28 and has a player option for the following season, which would eat into the Lakers' possible cap space two summers from now. Meanwhile, the Knicks — or any other team — may not want to part with three key rotation pieces (and three of their four best defenders) for a 40-year-old. James could double as a basketball fit, as well as a giant expiring contract to avoid the second apron in 2026-27 and maybe beyond. In Los Angeles, Towns and Luka Dončić could destroy any defense they face. But the Knicks are also made up of prime-aged contributors. This would make them older. Like in the other hypotheticals, a James trade to the Knicks, even in a world where both he and the Lakers agree it's best for the two to part ways after seven years, isn't likely. The Knicks didn't get in on the hunt for Kevin Durant. Like so many others, they could be saving up salary and assets for a guy in Milwaukee. They may not handle this hypothetical much differently. Read on for more LeBron James trade hypotheticals. GO FURTHER LeBron James trade fits: Cavs, Warriors, Mavericks and more possibilities Mike Ehrmann / USA Today Sports The Mavericks are hiring Frank Vogel to be Jason Kidd's top assistant coach, a league source confirmed to The Athletic . Vogel spent time around the Mavericks last season as a coaching adviser. He'll replace Sean Sweeney, who left Dallas this offseason for San Antonio, as Kidd's primary lieutenant. Vogel was the Lakers' head coach in 2020 when they won the championship in the NBA bubble. Kidd was an assistant on that staff. Their roles are reversed now. Dallas bringing back Dante Exum does not augur well for the future of guard Brandon Williams. His non-guaranteed contract is Dallas' 16th, and his continued presence on the roster would push Dallas into the second apron, where they are hard-capped by virtue of using the taxpayer midlevel exception on D'Angelo Russell. If Jake LaRavia gets a flat $6 million over two years from the Lakers, as it seems he might, there is $8,104,000 left over for Ayton with their nontaxpayer midlevel exception. If that is the case, Ayton's 2026-27 salary would be $8,509,200 if he doesn't choose to hit free agency. Portland is likely to end up with a $25.55 million cap charge on its books after buying out Ayton. If so, the Blazers are $17 million below the tax line, and Ayton would make a total of $33.7 million in 2025-26 between the two contracts. Lakers second-round draft pick Adou Thiero won't play this summer for the Lakers as he continues with the recovery process from the left knee injury he suffered this past season at Arkansas. He's expected to be fully cleared for training camp. Jalen Bridges has been added to the Celtics summer league roster, I've been told, and will be going to camp with the team in the fall with a chance to make the roster. The 24-year-old wing played for Phoenix on a two-way contract as a rookie. John Hefti / Imagn The Mavericks are bringing back Dante Exum on a one-year minimum contract, a source with knowledge of the negotiations confirmed to The Athletic. The 29-year-old Exum gives the Mavericks another trusted ballhandler. He only played 20 games last season due to right wrist and left hand injuries. When Exum was healthy, it was clear Mavericks coach Jason Kidd could on him. Exum averaged 8.7 points and 2.8 assists in 18.6 minutes per game. In the opening hours of free agency, Dallas agreed to sign D'Angelo Russell using the taxpayer midlevel exception. With Kyrie Irving on the mend from left knee surgery, Russell slides into the starting lineup, while Exum is a leading candidate to get the backup point guard minutes. Signing Exum means the Mavericks will have 16 players on standard contracts. That's fine for now, but they'll need to shed a player before the regular season starts. Sergio Estrada / Imagn Mike Brown was the only candidate the Knicks ended up bringing back for a second interview, per league sources. It was a patient search that featured multiple twists and turns. New York's front office led by Leon Rose reached out to employed head coaches (like Houstons' Ime Udoka and Dallas' Jason Kidd), assistant coaches (like Minnesota's Micah Nori, Dallas' Sean Sweeney and New Orleans' James Borrego), recently fired head coaches (like Brown and Taylor Jenkins) and even held a conversation with South Carolina women's basketball coach Dawn Staley. Rose and Co., per league sources, didn't feel rushed to make a hire since the Knicks were the only team in the NBA with a vacancy. New York went into the initial stages of the hiring process with Brown's name circled. Per league sources, the Knicks liked Brown's extensive résumé and the fact that he's worn many hats in the NBA. Brown's willingness to collaborate and the leadership qualities the franchise examined were also big selling points, league sources said. New York, led by stars Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns, liked that Brown has worked with LeBron James, Kobe Bryant and Steph Curry. The Knicks liked that Brown came up under Gregg Popovich, worked alongside Steve Kerr and won championships with both. New York was impressed at how Brown turned the Sacramento Kings around and helped them win 45-plus games in back-to-back seasons for the first time in the lowly franchise's history since 2006. Before he was fired by Sacramento after 31 games last season, Brown helped turn De'Aaron Fox into an All-Star. In 2022-23, Brown and the Kings had the best offensive efficiency since tracking began in 1996. Now, Brown is tasked with pushing the Knicks to the next level, into a tier of champions. Read my column on the impending hire here. GO FURTHER Mike Brown has faced pressure before, but this time might be different. Welcome to the Knicks Jerome Miron / Imagn Images The Hornets are adding Spencer Dinwiddie on a one-year deal, a league source tells our Christian Clark. That tells you a couple things about Charlotte: First, that the Hornets don't really view Collin Sexton as a point guard off the bench, and second, that a few guys on the fringes a year ago are probably not long for this roster. Josh Okogie has a non-guaranteed deal for $7.5 million; with the Hornets already having 15 guaranteed contracts plus the non-guaranteed deal of energizer Moussa Diabate and a likely roster deal for second-rounder Ryan Kalkbrenner, he would seem to be an easy choice to move on from. Additionally, Pat Connaughton, whom the Hornets are acquiring from Milwaukee, is on the books for $9.4 million but could be headed for a buyout if his contract can't be used in another trade, and 2023 first-rounder Nick Smith Jr. seems to be in a tenuous position; the team acquired three other guards in the offseason (Dinwiddie, Sexton and lottery pick Kon Knueppel) and is bringing back Tre Mann. Charlotte is also in a position to make more additions; the Hornets will be roughly $17 million from the tax line if they move on from Okogie and the non-guaranteed DaQuan Jeffries, and they still have access to their entire $14.1 million nontaxpayer midlevel exception. Given that the NTMLE can also operate as a trade exception, Charlotte may utilize this to take on a Connaughton-esque salary dump in return for more draft capital. Mike Brown has some Tom Thibodeauian tendencies — and I mean that in the positive sense. His teams play disciplined. He cares about stops and doesn't like defensive gamblers. He was hard on the group in Sacramento after a slow start last season. But he's also got some differences from the former Knicks coach schematically. With the Kings, Brown's teams played at a super pace. He'll play smalls together. He'll play around with lineups. The Knicks have made sure the pressure is on, clearly stating their goal is to win a title. And they believe Brown, to whom they've offered their head coaching job, is the guy to take them there. Michael Owens / Getty Images The mathematics for completing a potential LeBron James trade in northern California are not nearly as strenuous as other potential spots. James is close with two-time MVP Stephen Curry, with whom he finally played last summer, when the couple paired up at the Olympics. He and former Defensive Player of the Year Draymond Green share an agent. He played for head coach Steve Kerr with Team USA. And the Warriors have the lure of … well, the Warriors. Golden State has one obvious offer for James: Jimmy Butler for the quadragenarian. Butler makes a tad more than James does, marking the trade legal, though if it were constructed this way, it would hard cap the Lakers at the first apron, since they'd be absorbing more money than they send out in a deal. If the Lakers were fine with that, they could execute the one-for-one trade. However, they may want to maintain flexibility, which they could do somewhat easily. Golden State and Los Angeles could find a third team willing to take on one of the Lakers' minimum salaries (say, Jordan Goodwin's) without giving any salary back. This way, the total money leaving the purple and gold is above Butler's incoming salary. Beyond Butler, Golden State wouldn't have many options in a trade for James. Read more here. GO FURTHER LeBron James trade fits: Cavs, Warriors, Mavericks and more possibilities Jeff Gross / Getty Images Once he finalizes an agreement with the Knicks, Mike Brown will look to take over a franchise that has made it clear a championship is the expectation, providing pressure for a head coach who has experience in those situations, having coached both LeBron James and Kobe Bryant. Brown was the coach of the 2006-07 Cavaliers team that lost in the NBA Finals. With LeBron James by his side, Brown and Cleveland never lost more than 45 games during the regular season. Brown had one successful season in Los Angeles before getting fired five games into his second season. He then returned to the Cavaliers in 2013-14 to be the head coach but was let go after just one year. Brown spent time on Steve Kerr's staff with the Golden State Warriors in between his final stop in Cleveland and becoming the head coach in Sacramento. Brown played a big part in bringing the Kings back to relevancy, as the franchise posted back-to-back 45-plus-win seasons under his watch for the first time since 2005. Sacramento ended a 16-year playoff drought in Brown's first season. The New York Knicks have offered Mike Brown their head coaching job, and the two sides are expected to finalize a deal soon, league sources tell The Athletic. Brown would be the 32nd coach in the franchise's history. After a lengthy public process, New York views Brown as the coach to help the Knicks build on this season's trip to the Eastern Conference finals. New York fired Tom Thibodeau just days after making the Eastern Conference finals for the first time in 25 years. More here. GO FURTHER Knicks offer Mike Brown head coach role: Sources Page 2
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Moritz Wagner is returning to the Magic on 1-year deal, AP source says, as NBA free agency continues
FILE - Orlando Magic's Moritz Wagner reacts during the second half of an NBA basketball game against the Philadelphia 76ers, Friday, Dec. 6, 2024, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum, File) The Orlando Magic are bringing back forward Moritz Wagner on a one-year deal, a person with knowledge of the move said Friday. Wagner, the brother of Magic forward Franz Wagner, will sign a contract worth $5 million, according to the person who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the deal likely will not be finalized until the league's offseason moratorium on moves is lifted Sunday. Advertisement Free agency officially started Monday and most deals that have been agreed to since then — along with some trades from last month, including the one that will bring Kevin Durant to Houston from Phoenix — can begin getting final approval from the league at that time as well. There are several notable free agents still available. Among them: — Injured guard Damian Lillard, who is available after the surprise waive-and-stretch move by Milwaukee that allowed the Bucks to agree to terms with former Indiana forward Myles Turner. Lillard isn't expected to play much, if at all, this season because he still needs at least several months to recover from an Achilles tendon tear suffered in the playoffs. — Veteran center Al Horford, who helped Boston win the 2024 NBA title and is 62 games away from reaching 1,200 for his career. Advertisement — Point guard Russell Westbrook, who is set to enter his 18th year in the league and someone who averaged 13.3 points per game with Denver this past season. — Point guard Chris Paul, who turned 40 in May and would be playing a 21st season in the league. He's coming off a year when he started all 82 games for San Antonio. — There's also the question surrounding Golden State restricted free agent Jonathan Kuminga, who has been mentioned frequently in potential sign-and-trades that could send him to a new club. Moritz Wagner tore his ACL in a game in December and has hopes of being ready for the start of this coming season. The Magic earlier declined an option to bring him back on a deal that would have paid $11 million this year, and the backup center wound up taking less money to remain in Orlando — a team with serious hopes of contending in the Eastern Conference. Advertisement The Magic added Desmond Bane in a trade with Memphis last month, landed guard Tyus Jones earlier in free agency and are expected to give Paolo Banchero, the No. 1 pick in the 2022 draft, an extension this summer — one that likely will be in the range of nearly $240 million for five years and would represent the biggest contract in franchise history. Moritz Wagner was averaging a career-best 12.9 points through 30 games last season when he got hurt. He played for Germany's team that won the 2023 Basketball World Cup and was with his national team again for the Paris Olympics in 2024. He is entering his eighth NBA season and what will be his fifth full year with the Magic. ___ AP NBA:
Associated Press
an hour ago
- Associated Press
Moritz Wagner is returning to the Magic on 1-year deal, AP source says, as NBA free agency continues
The Orlando Magic are bringing back forward Moritz Wagner on a one-year deal, a person with knowledge of the move said Friday. Wagner, the brother of Magic forward Franz Wagner, will sign a contract worth $5 million, according to the person who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the deal likely will not be finalized until the league's offseason moratorium on moves is lifted Sunday. Free agency officially started Monday and most deals that have been agreed to since then — along with some trades from last month, including the one that will bring Kevin Durant to Houston from Phoenix — can begin getting final approval from the league at that time as well. There are several notable free agents still available. Among them: — Injured guard Damian Lillard, who is available after the surprise waive-and-stretch move by Milwaukee that allowed the Bucks to agree to terms with former Indiana forward Myles Turner. Lillard isn't expected to play much, if at all, this season because he still needs at least several months to recover from an Achilles tendon tear suffered in the playoffs. — Veteran center Al Horford, who helped Boston win the 2024 NBA title and is 62 games away from reaching 1,200 for his career. — Point guard Russell Westbrook, who is set to enter his 18th year in the league and someone who averaged 13.3 points per game with Denver this past season. — Point guard Chris Paul, who turned 40 in May and would be playing a 21st season in the league. He's coming off a year when he started all 82 games for San Antonio. — There's also the question surrounding Golden State restricted free agent Jonathan Kuminga, who has been mentioned frequently in potential sign-and-trades that could send him to a new club. Moritz Wagner tore his ACL in a game in December and has hopes of being ready for the start of this coming season. The Magic earlier declined an option to bring him back on a deal that would have paid $11 million this year, and the backup center wound up taking less money to remain in Orlando — a team with serious hopes of contending in the Eastern Conference. The Magic added Desmond Bane in a trade with Memphis last month, landed guard Tyus Jones earlier in free agency and are expected to give Paolo Banchero, the No. 1 pick in the 2022 draft, an extension this summer — one that likely will be in the range of nearly $240 million for five years and would represent the biggest contract in franchise history. Moritz Wagner was averaging a career-best 12.9 points through 30 games last season when he got hurt. He played for Germany's team that won the 2023 Basketball World Cup and was with his national team again for the Paris Olympics in 2024. He is entering his eighth NBA season and what will be his fifth full year with the Magic. ___ AP NBA:
