Latest news with #DennisSchröder
Yahoo
08-07-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Detroit Pistons complete Dennis Schröder sign-and-trade with Sacramento Kings: What we know
The Detroit Pistons have finalized their sign-and-trade with the Sacramento Kings. They will receive a second-round pick in the 2026 NBA Draft and a player trade exception worth up to $14.3 million in exchange for Dennis Schröder and the least favorable of their 2029 second-round picks. Schröder reportedly is signing a three-year deal worth $45 million. Advertisement HEADED TO VEGAS: Detroit Pistons' 2025 Summer League roster headlined by Ron Holland, Chaz Lanier Detroit Pistons guard Dennis Schroder (17) throws the ball up for Detroit Pistons center Jalen Duren (0) during the second half of Game 6 for the first round of NBA playoffs at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit, May 1, 2025. The trade exception is active for a year and will allow the Pistons to take in salary up to that number without it impacting their cap space. Schröder was a February trade deadline acquisition for the Pistons and quickly became a core rotation player, averaging 10.8 points and 5.3 assists in 25.2 minutes per game. Follow the Pistons all year long with the best coverage at Follow the Detroit Free Press on Instagram (@detroitfreepress), TikTok (@detroitfreepress), YouTube (@DetroitFreePress), X (@freep), and LinkedIn, and like us on Facebook (@detroitfreepress). Advertisement For Summer League openers: Knicks Matchup: Pistons vs. New York, NBA Las Vegas Summer League exhibition. Tipoff: 6 p.m. July 11; Cox Pavilion, Las Vegas. TV: NBA TV. The rest of the schedule July 13: Rockets, 4 p.m., ESPN2. July 15: Timberwolves, 4:30 p.m., NBA TV. July 17: Heat, 4 p.m., NBA TV. July 18-20: Championship/consolation round. This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Pistons complete Dennis Schröder sign-and-trade with Kings
New York Times
03-07-2025
- Business
- New York Times
Pistons-Kings thoughts
The Lakers appear to have their starting center in the 2018 No. 1 pick. Meanwhile, teams are discussing a potential seven-team trade. Ezra Shaw / Getty Images Dennis Schröder will be joining the Kings as part of a sign-and-trade with the Pistons, a team source tells our Sam Amick, and that improves the flexibility for both teams. The Kings willl take Schröder into their existing $16.8 million trade exception for Kevin Huerter and thus maintain their entire $14.1 million nontaxpayer midlevel exception for other moves; Sacramento is currently $14.7 million below the first apron, where the Kings would be hard-capped as a result of the sign-and-trade. The Pistons, meanwhile, will either generate a $14.1 million trade exception for Schröder or can take back up to $23 million in a simultaneous trade that would almost certainly involve a third team (or more). As a result of this trade, the Pistons would operate as an over-the-cap team, with Paul Reed taking the team's biannual exception and Caris LeVert taking Detroit's nontaxpayer midlevel exception. Detroit still has $25 million in room below the tax line with three open roster spots, although one may be designated for rookie second-round pick Chaz Lanier. The Pistons are already taking on a bunch of salary in another trade, sending Simone Fontecchio out in a sign-and-trade for Duncan Robinson; it appears that Detroit will start Robinson's salary at the maximum allowable $16,865,384 (twice Fontecchio's salary plus $250,000), and then decline his salary by 5 percent each of the following two years on his three-year, $48 million deal. It also remains possible that Detroit unites these two sign-and-trades into one big, ugly sign-and-trade, although right now it doesn't seem to generate any additional advantages versus keeping the two separate. To further what Eric Nehm and I discussed in our story earlier today: The Bucks, after waiving Chris Livingston, can accommodate a four-year, $107 million contract for Myles Turner, provided Vasilije Micić gives back at least $5.4 million of his $8.1 million salary in a buyout with Milwaukee. If Turner's deal ends up being a sign-and-trade, however, Micić would only need to give back $5.15 million. 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 Page 2
New York Times
02-07-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
Jericho Sims agrees to return to Bucks
The Lakers appear to have their starting center. Meanwhile, the Knicks are nearing a deal for Tom Thibodeau's replacement. Ezra Shaw / Getty Images John Fisher / Getty Images Jericho Sims has agreed to a two-year contract to return to the Milwaukee Bucks, with the second year a player option, a league source confirmed to The Athletic. Gregory Shamus / Getty Images Dennis Schröder has agreed to a 3-year, $45 million contract with the Sacramento Kings, a league source confirmed. The Kings will be Schröder's 10th NBA team and fourth in the last nine months. The common theme in the Rockets' in-house business or their outward acquisitions is experience. Fred VanVleet, Steven Adams and Clint Capela are 31. Dorian Finney-Smith is 32. Kevin Durant is 36. As long as Ime Udoka has been at the helm, his voice within the organization has risen, and the 47-year-old has been vocal about his preference for older veterans. And as such, given the aforementioned alignment with Houston's front office and ownership, the team has fulfilled his wishes. After Houston's Game 7 loss to the Golden State Warriors, Udoka's end-of-season news conference drove home the point about the need for improved IQ and the power of experience, buzzwords that typically precede roster changes. Make no mistake: The Rockets' offseason is off to an excellent start. The overarching theme in negotiations has been maintaining financial leverage, all while building a roster that is built for now and later. The two-timeline approach is risky in a vacuum, but context, mainly personnel, is important. It might not have worked out in the Bay with James Wiseman and Jonathan Kuminga, but those are different players from Amen Thompson, Jabari Smith, Tari Eason and even Reed Sheppard. Still, it's jarring to see Houston move in this manner, particularly because of how quickly its methodology has shifted. Perhaps that's why it's difficult to quantify the magnitude of its summer business to this point. For years, the Rockets' ethos was patience and perseverance, opting to accumulate losses, build through the draft and maintain enough elasticity to capitalize at an opportune moment. That moment is now. The Rockets have peeled back the curtain on what was once a rebuild, laying out a championship-capable core. Read more on Houston's active start to free agency here. GO FURTHER Rockets want to balance experience with youth, and they're off to a great start Geoff Burke / Imagn Not only is the Jonas Valančiūnas acquisition great on the floor for the Nuggets, it gives Nikola Jokić an old foil for a teammate. Jokić joked about their joint physicality last December, when he scored a career-high 56 points, along with 16 rebounds and 8 assists against the Wizards – and Valančiūnas, who was then in Washington and who spent most of the night in a pitched, hard-nosed but good-natured battle with the Joker. Valančiūnas did just fine as well, with 20 points, 12 rebounds, 5 blocks and 5 assists in an improbable Wizards win. 'I had a couple of really good wrestling moves down there with Jonas,' Jokić said afterward. 'I think Jonas's wrestling, it's always interesting. I always talk to him normally, and it's always a little bit physical. I mean, it should be. We're big boys from Europe. We're kind of used to being in the contact. I think that's how it's supposed to be. Good rivalry.' GO FURTHER Nuggets waste Nikola Jokić's career night in inexplicable loss to woeful Wizards New Knicks signee Guerschon Yabusele is a good player and a good fit that fills a need. He can play the 5 and run next to Karl-Anthony Towns or Mitchell Robinson. Opponents need to guard him beyond the arc. I'm not obsessed with the second-year player option, given the Knicks' potential 2026-27 payroll. But sometimes that's the cost of doing business for a good player. Isaiah J. Downing / Imagn While everyone else is focused on the Bucks right now, the Dario Sarić for Jonas Valančiūnas trade is an absolutely incredible deal for the Denver Nuggets. They just traded $5 million in dead weight to the Sacramento Kings to get the best backup center of the Nikola Jokić era. Denver now is $2.4 million below the luxury tax line with at least on roster spot to fill. If that spot is a veteran minimum deal for $2.3 million, they will just barely stay under the tax and avoid the repeater penalty this year. Isaiah J. Downing / Imagn The Denver Nuggets have acquired Jonas Valančiūnas from the Sacramento Kings in exchange for Dario Sarić, team sources confirmed to The Athletic. The Nuggets have had an incredible two days. Getty Images The Bucks made two moves that make sense individually but also raise an eyebrow when looked at collectively. They will pay Myles Turner an average of nearly $27 million per season and will get an above-average starting center for that contract who fits well on a Giannis Antetokounmpo team and should be a very capable replacement for Brook Lopez. They will also stretch-waive Damian Lillard, which means the Bucks will have a $22,516,574 cap charge on their books for each of the next five season. That makes sense too since he was essentially going to be an empty $54.13 million cap hit next season as he rehabbed from a torn Achilles. The last season of that contract was unlikely to be very productive either since he would be 36 and returning in his first season from that injury. The Bucks clearly want to remain competitive next season with Antetokounmpo and that makes sense too since they want to take advantage of his prime, let alone any concerns about losing him down the line. Still, they will now effectively be spending $49 million per season for the last two years on Turner's deal, and have another year of $22.5 million on the books after that. That could be about 12 percent (or more) of the cap in the 2027-28 season, which is more than a nontaxpayer midlevel exception would earn. We shall see if this set of moves will be worth it. Getty Images This is why I criticized the Pacers for taking Andrew Nembhard's salary from $2 million to $18 million for 2025-26 when they didn't have to in his extension last summer. It set the Pacers up to be way into the luxury tax, and you know when it came down to it that Indiana would blink rather than pay it. Keeping Myles Turner on the books for this year at $24 million would have been no sweat if Nembhard was still on his cheap rookie deal, but the Pacers turned the final year of it into a much bigger salary. That extension looked extravagant at the time — $56 million in new money for just two years — and despite Nembhard's playoff heroics, the Pacers are paying the price for it now. GO FURTHER The NBA offseason's most under-scrutinized moves, from Immanuel Quickley to Max Christie One thing you gotta hand to the Bucks: Any time it seems they need to operate with urgency to show a multi-time MVP they're trying to build a contender, they do it. In terms of the cap mechanics of how Milwaukee will pull this off: Waive and stretch Damian Lillard. Sign Tauren Prince with the minimum exception. Sign Gary Trent Jr. and Kevin Porter Jr. into the room exception. Right now, that leaves Milwaukee with $19.6 million in cap room. They likely will get to the $24 million they need to sign Myles Turner to a four-year, $107 million deal by moving off of Pat Connaughton's $9.3 million salary. In the absence of a Connaughton trade, Milwaukee can get to $24.6 million in cap room by stretching Connaughton's contract, so that seems the most likely mechanism for this deal to get done. Milwaukee will also need to either pull its qualifying offer to Ryan Rollins or waive Chris Livingston to get there. It appears the Bucks will just barely exceed the limit on stretched salary if they stretch Connaughton in addition to Lillard, unless there is a buyout agreement with one or both to reduce salary. Another alternative may be to trade Connaughton for a lower-salaried player and then buy that player out at a reduced number. For instance, Milwaukee could trade Connaughton to the Clippers for Drew Eubanks, buy Eubanks out at half of his $4.75 million presuming he'd make the rest up on the market, and stretch that amount. Also, note that Lillard cannot re-sign in Milwaukee in 2026, if you were thinking that was a possibility. I'm legitimately SHOCKED. I didn't even know the Bucks were an option for Myles Turner. That's a huge loss for the Pacers. It's gonna be awfully tough to compete with a $23 million dead cap hit for each of the next five years in Milwaukee. No, I don't mean Kyle Kuzma, either. The Bucks waiving and stretching Damian Lillard will leave that money on their books for half a decade, and it can't be traded or otherwise maneuvered off the books. Bucks general manager Jon Horst has always been aggressive in the moments when his team has needed to make a big move and keep Giannis Antetokounmpo in a competitive situation. Damian Lillard tearing his left Achilles tendon in Game 4 of their first-round series appeared to be a blow that would keep the Bucks from being able to keep Milwaukee in conversation for a contending spot in the Eastern Conference. But Horst once again surprised the whole league with an impressive maneuver to acquire Myles Turner, a highly talented replacement for center Brook Lopez, and reconfigure the Bucks' roster for a chance to once again compete for homecourt in the Eastern Conference. It also helps that he stole an important piece from the team that just represented the East in the NBA Finals. The Bucks' move to waive Damian Lillard, while shocking on the face of it, is a reprieve of sorts for the 34-year-old, who can now rehab his Achilles with no clock, knowing he'll likely be a top free agent target in the summer of 2026 and free to play wherever he wants. While there were high hopes for a Dame-Giannis partnership when the Bucks acquired Lillard just before the start of training camp in 2023, the on-court product never meshed as well as everyone thought it would. Two Achilles injuries to star point guards led to Myles Turner changing teams within the division. The Milwaukee Bucks will waive guard Damian Lillard as part of their effort to free up enough cap space to sign center Myles Turner to a four-year, $107 million contract, team sources confirmed to The Athletic on Tuesday. Lillard, who is slated to miss most of next season because of a torn Achilles, was slated to make $113 million over the next two seasons. That amount will now be stretched over the next five seasons. GO FURTHER Bucks waiving Damian Lillard to make room to sign Myles Turner: Sources Page 2
New York Times
02-07-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
Dennis Schröder's contract with Kings
NBA free agency is moving quickly but a number of key players remain, including a multi-time All-Star rehabbing a torn Achilles. Chris Nicoll / Imagn Gregory Shamus / Getty Images Dennis Schröder has agreed to a 3-year, $45 million contract with the Sacramento Kings, a league source confirmed. The Kings will be Schröder's 10th NBA team and fourth in the last nine months. The common theme in the Rockets' in-house business or their outward acquisitions is experience. Fred VanVleet, Steven Adams and Clint Capela are 31. Dorian Finney-Smith is 32. Kevin Durant is 36. As long as Ime Udoka has been at the helm, his voice within the organization has risen, and the 47-year-old has been vocal about his preference for older veterans. And as such, given the aforementioned alignment with Houston's front office and ownership, the team has fulfilled his wishes. After Houston's Game 7 loss to the Golden State Warriors, Udoka's end-of-season news conference drove home the point about the need for improved IQ and the power of experience, buzzwords that typically precede roster changes. Make no mistake: The Rockets' offseason is off to an excellent start. The overarching theme in negotiations has been maintaining financial leverage, all while building a roster that is built for now and later. The two-timeline approach is risky in a vacuum, but context, mainly personnel, is important. It might not have worked out in the Bay with James Wiseman and Jonathan Kuminga, but those are different players from Amen Thompson, Jabari Smith, Tari Eason and even Reed Sheppard. Still, it's jarring to see Houston move in this manner, particularly because of how quickly its methodology has shifted. Perhaps that's why it's difficult to quantify the magnitude of its summer business to this point. For years, the Rockets' ethos was patience and perseverance, opting to accumulate losses, build through the draft and maintain enough elasticity to capitalize at an opportune moment. That moment is now. The Rockets have peeled back the curtain on what was once a rebuild, laying out a championship-capable core. Read more on Houston's active start to free agency here. GO FURTHER Rockets want to balance experience with youth, and they're off to a great start Geoff Burke / Imagn Not only is the Jonas Valančiūnas acquisition great on the floor for the Nuggets, it gives Nikola Jokić an old foil for a teammate. Jokić joked about their joint physicality last December, when he scored a career-high 56 points, along with 16 rebounds and 8 assists against the Wizards – and Valančiūnas, who was then in Washington and who spent most of the night in a pitched, hard-nosed but good-natured battle with the Joker. Valančiūnas did just fine as well, with 20 points, 12 rebounds, 5 blocks and 5 assists in an improbable Wizards win. 'I had a couple of really good wrestling moves down there with Jonas,' Jokić said afterward. 'I think Jonas's wrestling, it's always interesting. I always talk to him normally, and it's always a little bit physical. I mean, it should be. We're big boys from Europe. We're kind of used to being in the contact. I think that's how it's supposed to be. Good rivalry.' GO FURTHER Nuggets waste Nikola Jokić's career night in inexplicable loss to woeful Wizards New Knicks signee Guerschon Yabusele is a good player and a good fit that fills a need. He can play the 5 and run next to Karl-Anthony Towns or Mitchell Robinson. Opponents need to guard him beyond the arc. I'm not obsessed with the second-year player option, given the Knicks' potential 2026-27 payroll. But sometimes that's the cost of doing business for a good player. Isaiah J. Downing / Imagn While everyone else is focused on the Bucks right now, the Dario Sarić for Jonas Valančiūnas trade is an absolutely incredible deal for the Denver Nuggets. They just traded $5 million in dead weight to the Sacramento Kings to get the best backup center of the Nikola Jokić era. Denver now is $2.4 million below the luxury tax line with at least on roster spot to fill. If that spot is a veteran minimum deal for $2.3 million, they will just barely stay under the tax and avoid the repeater penalty this year. Isaiah J. Downing / Imagn The Denver Nuggets have acquired Jonas Valančiūnas from the Sacramento Kings in exchange for Dario Sarić, team sources confirmed to The Athletic. The Nuggets have had an incredible two days. Getty Images The Bucks made two moves that make sense individually but also raise an eyebrow when looked at collectively. They will pay Myles Turner an average of nearly $27 million per season and will get an above-average starting center for that contract who fits well on a Giannis Antetokounmpo team and should be a very capable replacement for Brook Lopez. They will also stretch-waive Damian Lillard, which means the Bucks will have a $22,516,574 cap charge on their books for each of the next five season. That makes sense too since he was essentially going to be an empty $54.13 million cap hit next season as he rehabbed from a torn Achilles. The last season of that contract was unlikely to be very productive either since he would be 36 and returning in his first season from that injury. The Bucks clearly want to remain competitive next season with Antetokounmpo and that makes sense too since they want to take advantage of his prime, let alone any concerns about losing him down the line. Still, they will now effectively be spending $49 million per season for the last two years on Turner's deal, and have another year of $22.5 million on the books after that. That could be about 12 percent (or more) of the cap in the 2027-28 season, which is more than a nontaxpayer midlevel exception would earn. We shall see if this set of moves will be worth it. Getty Images This is why I criticized the Pacers for taking Andrew Nembhard's salary from $2 million to $18 million for 2025-26 when they didn't have to in his extension last summer. It set the Pacers up to be way into the luxury tax, and you know when it came down to it that Indiana would blink rather than pay it. Keeping Myles Turner on the books for this year at $24 million would have been no sweat if Nembhard was still on his cheap rookie deal, but the Pacers turned the final year of it into a much bigger salary. That extension looked extravagant at the time — $56 million in new money for just two years — and despite Nembhard's playoff heroics, the Pacers are paying the price for it now. GO FURTHER The NBA offseason's most under-scrutinized moves, from Immanuel Quickley to Max Christie One thing you gotta hand to the Bucks: Any time it seems they need to operate with urgency to show a multi-time MVP they're trying to build a contender, they do it. In terms of the cap mechanics of how Milwaukee will pull this off: Waive and stretch Damian Lillard. Sign Tauren Prince with the minimum exception. Sign Gary Trent Jr. and Kevin Porter Jr. into the room exception. Right now, that leaves Milwaukee with $19.6 million in cap room. They likely will get to the $24 million they need to sign Myles Turner to a four-year, $107 million deal by moving off of Pat Connaughton's $9.3 million salary. In the absence of a Connaughton trade, Milwaukee can get to $24.6 million in cap room by stretching Connaughton's contract, so that seems the most likely mechanism for this deal to get done. Milwaukee will also need to either pull its qualifying offer to Ryan Rollins or waive Chris Livingston to get there. It appears the Bucks will just barely exceed the limit on stretched salary if they stretch Connaughton in addition to Lillard, unless there is a buyout agreement with one or both to reduce salary. Another alternative may be to trade Connaughton for a lower-salaried player and then buy that player out at a reduced number. For instance, Milwaukee could trade Connaughton to the Clippers for Drew Eubanks, buy Eubanks out at half of his $4.75 million presuming he'd make the rest up on the market, and stretch that amount. Also, note that Lillard cannot re-sign in Milwaukee in 2026, if you were thinking that was a possibility. I'm legitimately SHOCKED. I didn't even know the Bucks were an option for Myles Turner. That's a huge loss for the Pacers. It's gonna be awfully tough to compete with a $23 million dead cap hit for each of the next five years in Milwaukee. No, I don't mean Kyle Kuzma, either. The Bucks waiving and stretching Damian Lillard will leave that money on their books for half a decade, and it can't be traded or otherwise maneuvered off the books. Bucks general manager Jon Horst has always been aggressive in the moments when his team has needed to make a big move and keep Giannis Antetokounmpo in a competitive situation. Damian Lillard tearing his left Achilles tendon in Game 4 of their first-round series appeared to be a blow that would keep the Bucks from being able to keep Milwaukee in conversation for a contending spot in the Eastern Conference. But Horst once again surprised the whole league with an impressive maneuver to acquire Myles Turner, a highly talented replacement for center Brook Lopez, and reconfigure the Bucks' roster for a chance to once again compete for homecourt in the Eastern Conference. It also helps that he stole an important piece from the team that just represented the East in the NBA Finals. The Bucks' move to waive Damian Lillard, while shocking on the face of it, is a reprieve of sorts for the 34-year-old, who can now rehab his Achilles with no clock, knowing he'll likely be a top free agent target in the summer of 2026 and free to play wherever he wants. While there were high hopes for a Dame-Giannis partnership when the Bucks acquired Lillard just before the start of training camp in 2023, the on-court product never meshed as well as everyone thought it would. Two Achilles injuries to star point guards led to Myles Turner changing teams within the division. The Milwaukee Bucks will waive guard Damian Lillard as part of their effort to free up enough cap space to sign center Myles Turner to a four-year, $107 million contract, team sources confirmed to The Athletic on Tuesday. Lillard, who is slated to miss most of next season because of a torn Achilles, was slated to make $113 million over the next two seasons. That amount will now be stretched over the next five seasons. GO FURTHER Bucks waiving Damian Lillard to make room to sign Myles Turner: Sources Brook Lopez's addition leaves the Clippers with one player left to fill a second unit spot with their existing roster. LA has multiple playable centers in Ivica Zubac and Lopez. They have multiple wing defenders in Kawhi Leonard and Nicolas Batum. They have multiple point of attack defenders in Kris Dunn and Derrick Jones Jr. The Clippers have multiple on-off ball shooters in Norman Powell and Bogdan Bogdanović. And James Harden and Kawhi Leonard are the two stars. Harden just needs a true backup point guard. At the top of my list at the point guard position is perhaps the greatest Clipper ever, and that's Chris Paul. The drawbacks with Paul are obvious: he's a 6-foot 40-year-old who has played 20 NBA seasons. But the Clippers have the longest active streak of consecutive winning seasons at 14 years, and that streak started with Paul's arrival to the franchise in 2011 and continued after Paul was traded in 2017 to Harden's Rockets. While Paul was with the Clippers, both Tyronn Lue and Lawrence Frank were assistant coaches under Doc Rivers. Steve Ballmer bought the team in 2014, midway through Paul's tenure. Paul also happened to visit Intuit Dome for Game 3 against the Nuggets, sitting next to Disney CEO Bob Iger (you see, a potential networking opportunity for Brook Lopez if it comes together). It helps that Paul can still play. Paul just started all 82 games for the San Antonio Spurs last season, averaging 8.8 points, 3.6 rebounds, 7.4 assists, 1.3 steals and 1.7 3s while shooting 37.7 percent on 3s and 92.4 percent on free throws. The only player older than Paul in NBA history who started all 82 games in a season was John Stockton, and Stockton didn't play 20 NBA seasons. Like Lopez, Paul would be brought in to be a backup to one of LA's most important players, theoretically dropping his minutes to around 20 per game at most. Paul would bring what the Clippers need most based on their weakness from last season offensively, and that's a player who can take care of the basketball. And while Paul's age and size makes him a defensive liability, he still has a nose for the ball. Read more here. Page 2
Yahoo
01-07-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Dennis Schröder agrees to 3-year, $45 million deal with Sacramento Kings
Dennis Schröder is on the move again. The 31-year-old free agent guard agreed to a three-year, $45 million deal with the Sacramento Kings, ESPN's Shams Charania reported Tuesday. In other words, Schröder will join his 10th team for his 13th NBA season. Advertisement Schröder was drafted No. 17 overall by the Atlanta Hawks in 2013 and spent five seasons with the organization. Since then, however, the German native has joined nine different franchises, now including the Kings. This past season, he scattered 75 regular-season games played across three teams and was even traded twice in less than 24 hours. Schröder began the 2024-25 season with the Brooklyn Nets, for whom he started 23 games and averaged 18.4 points and 6.6 assists. In December, the Golden State Warriors traded for him, but Schröder's scoring and assist averages dropped to 10.6 and 4.4, respectively, in 24 games and 18 starts with the Warriors. Advertisement Then, on Feb. 5, Golden State shipped Schröder off, as part of the five-team, blockbuster Jimmy Butler trade. Schröder was briefly rerouted to the Utah Jazz, who then traded him to Detroit on Feb. 6. That same week, in the wake of the jaw-dropping Luka Dončić trade, Schröder vocalized his frustrations with the NBA trade deadline in an interview with NBC Sports Bay Area, even comparing the trades to "modern slavery." "It's like modern slavery," Schröder said. "It's modern slavery at the end of the day. Everybody can decide where you're going, even if you have a contract. Yeah, of course, we make a lot of money and we can feed our families, but at the end of the day if they say, 'You're not coming to work tomorrow, you're going over there,' they can decide that." Despite his February whirlwind, Schröder found success in Detroit, where he joined the upstart Pistons. As a veteran backcourt piece, Schröder made only eight starts in his 28 games with the Pistons. Still, his impact was still felt with 10.8 points and 5.3 assists per contest. As was the case in Golden State, Schröder's field goal percentage hovered below 40% in Detroit — and his 3-point percentage sat below 33% — but he helped the Pistons earn the No. 6 seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs. Detroit previously hadn't made the postseason since 2019. Advertisement Schröder has played games for the Atlanta Hawks (2013-18), Oklahoma City Thunder (2018-20), Los Angeles Lakers (2020-21 and 2022-23), Boston Celtics (2021-22), Houston Rockets (2022), Toronto Raptors (2023-24), Brooklyn Nets (2024), Golden State Warriors (2024-25) and Detroit Pistons (2025). He'll now join a Sacramento Kings team that was in need of help at the point guard position. Prior to Tuesday's news, the Kings' only point guard was 23-year-old Devin Carter, who averaged just 11 minutes in 36 games as a rookie this past season. Sacramento finished 40-42 in 2024-25 and missed the playoffs.
