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Jabari Walker to sign 2-way deal with 76ers
Jabari Walker to sign 2-way deal with 76ers

New York Times

time07-07-2025

  • Business
  • New York Times

Jabari Walker to sign 2-way deal with 76ers

A deal involving seven teams highlights the weekend. Meanwhile, Houston is parting ways with one of its young assets. Jacob Kupferman / Getty ImagesI don't know how on earth the 76ers got Jabari Walker on a 2-way contract, but he is absolutely an NBA player and I wouldn't be shocked if he ends up in the Sixers' rotation. The fourth-year forward was a victim of a numbers game in the Blazers' frontcourt. But he rebounds, has some stretch capability and is still only 22 years old. My BORD$ formula had a value of $7.3 million on Walker. Meg Oliphant / Getty Images Jaxson Hayes has agreed to a one-year deal to return to the Lakers, a league source confirms to The Athletic. During a 16-game stretch around the time of the Luka Dončić-Anthony Davis deal, Hayes was terrific. The Lakers went 14-2 and he averaged 8.3 points, 5.6 rebounds and 1.4 blocks. Hayes struggled after a knee injury and, obviously, the playoffs were the playoffs. But with him and Deandre Ayton, the Lakers have two lob threats at center. The Lakers, as is, also believe in Maxi Kleber's value as a stretch big. He's recovering well from foot surgery last January and could give them another dimension in their center rotation. The Pelicans waiving guard Antonio Reeves only makes sense if they are stretching his money to add a player who makes roughly $5 million, with either their biannual exception or the rest of their nontaxpayer midlevel exception, and want to do it while staying below the luxury tax. Reeves was guaranteed $1.955 million for this coming season, and New Orleans would be just more than $5 million below the tax if his money were stretched. If so, waiving a second-year player who shot 39.5 percent from 3 as a rookie would be a continuation of the string of bizarre moves emanating from the Pelicans of late. Reeves instantly becomes a priority two-way target, if not a roster add for the minimum, especially for younger teams trying to build. Our Doug Haller reported last month that the Suns were expected to try to part ways with Bradley Beal, and now an Arizona Republic report says that a buyout is being discussed. Phoenix buying out would save at least $34 million from its cap number for the coming season and make it possible for the Suns to escape the luxury tax entirely, although the Suns might clear it by mere pennies. Beal must give back at least $13.8 million for the Suns to legally stretch him, as our Fred Katz reported recently, and if that were to happen, the Suns would have a cap charge of $19.4 million over the next five years — a far cry from his $53.7 million salary in 2025-26. GO FURTHER How Jalen Green and Devin Booker can co-exist in a Suns backcourt My colleague Sam Amick has confirmed via a league source reports that center Jonas Valančiūnas, whom the Sacramento Kings agreed to trade to the Denver Nuggets at the start of free agency, is considering a move to the EuroLeague and an offer to play for Greek club Panathinaikos Athens. Valančiūnas has two years and a little more than $20 million left on his deal. If the agreed-upon trade goes through (Sam says it's still on, per a league source), Denver would have to waive or buy Valančiūnas out of his $10.4 million for 2025-26 for him to exit. I'm sure the Kroenkes are salivating over saving that cash, but the only plausible big-man replacement move would be signing Al Horford. Nobody else is left on the market, and the Nuggets have nothing to put into a trade. GO FURTHER Winners (Hawks), losers (July) and more from NBA free agency's first days No surprise on Houston waiving Jock Landale. In the absence of another trade, Houston needs to waive both his non-guaranteed deal and that of Nate Williams to get below the first apron, where the Rockets are currently hard-capped as a result of using their nontaxpayer midlevel exception on Dorian Finney-Smith. Williams has no trigger date on his guarantee, and the Rockets can keep him and stay under the apron if they move the contract of Cam Whitmore. If need be, Houston can also drag its feet on officially re-signing one of Jeff Green or Jae'Sean Tate while it figures out the resolution of that last roster spot. Steph Chambers / Getty Images For Deandre Ayton, who turns 27 at the end of July, the opportunity to re-establish himself couldn't be more clear. While his contract with the Lakers has a second-year player option, no one involved wants him to exercise it — the hope being that he far outplays that $8 million valuation and commands way more next summer. Team sources believe the Lakers have the right coaching staff to make that happen. In JJ Redick, they have a deadly serious head coach who also understands how to relate to players. Assistant Scott Brooks worked with Ayton in Portland two years ago, and Nate McMillan has either played or coached with or against virtually every personality type the NBA's ever concocted. And if not, the Lakers have maintained their flexibility for next summer and beyond. The Lakers weren't going to do better this summer than Deandre Ayton, not with what was on the market, not with the little they had to offer. If you polled 29 other general managers about whether they'd rather trade a first-round pick for Nic Claxton or if they'd rather pay Ayton $8 million, we can be pretty confident in the answer. And if there was hesitation, it wouldn't be because of the stuff on the court. It would be concerns about the culture, the fit, the commitment, the understanding about the required sacrifices that need to be made in order to win at the highest level. Read more of my column on the Ayton signing here. GO FURTHER Deandre Ayton fits with LeBron, Luka and the Lakers on the court. Will that be enough? Michael Reaves / Getty Images While things are slow ... I don't think the Knicks' tax apron situation has received enough attention. By adding Guershon Yaubsele via the taxpayer midlevel exception, the Knicks will trigger the second apron. It is going to take some serious limbo to stay beneath it. After agreeing to a minimum deal with Jordan Clarkson, New York has two open roster spots left. At the moment, they cannot sign a veteran to either one. The only players they could fit into those spots are ones they drafted — 2024 second-round Kevin McCullar (for $2,048,914) into one spot, and either 2025 second-rounder Mohamed Diawara, 2023 second-rounder James Nnaji or 2021 second-rounder Rokas Jokubaitis (for $1,272,870) into the other. Any other combination of salaries signed this summer would put the Knicks over the second apron. There are two possibilities to get around this. The most likely one is that Yabusele takes slightly less than the full nontaxpayer midlevel exception. If he takes just $36,641 below that number, the Knicks can put a veteran into McCullar's spot and fill the other with any of the second-rounders besides McCullar. The second possibility is that the Knicks sign non-McCullar second-rounders into both spots, but waive Ariel Hukporti's non-guaranteed deal and put a veteran into his place instead. In the meantime, one can see why New York picked up Hukporti's team option. Right now the difference between his $1.955 million salary and the $2.3 million veteran minimum is the glue holding New York's entire salary cap Jenga structure together. Jared C. Tilton / Getty Images Mike Brown's defining trait comes in his attention to detail. He is notoriously organized. After he picks up his mail at home, he stacks up the envelopes, dividing each into different categories before opening them. His office is always 'immaculate,' said Warriors assistant Bruce Fraser, who overlapped with Brown for six seasons in Golden State. He color codes his plays, often carrying various pens — a red one, a blue one, a black one, etc. — so that he can diagram them as clearly as possible. When he was with the Warriors, he would categorize pens in his locker by their colors. Just to mess with him, other coaches would switch them around, removing a red pen from its intuitive group and place it among the blues. Brown would notice quickly and restore order. Brown is a copious note taker. At any given moment around the team, he could be holding a massive folder that contains all his scribbles. 'It's like his basketball bible,' Fraser said. The coach will notice an interesting tidbit another team has added or think of a play and jot it down without hesitation. Later, just to make Marie Kondo jealous, he will go back and reillustrate his diagram, making sure to create a color-coded version. He expects the same attention to detail from those around him, from the players to the coaches to the rest of the franchise. Read the rest of my feature on the likely new Knicks head coach. GO FURTHER Who might the Knicks get in Mike Brown? Two-time Coach of the Year is still evolving Mike Lawrie / Getty Images We gave up another first-rounder pick to avoid the luxury tax! The fourth one of the Nikola Jokić era! Yay? I get some of the enthusiasm about Denver's secondary moves to fill out the bench. Bruce Brown, Tim Hardaway Jr. and Jonas Valančiūnas are all massive upgrades on the flotsam that passed for a second unit a year ago. But they traded an extremely valuable asset — a 2032 unprotected first-round pick — in a swap of forwards that turned Michael Porter Jr. into Cam Johnson. You can nitpick small differences in their games, but this was a deal whose sole driving inspiration was avoiding paying the luxury tax again. That's a sad way to operate while the best player who will ever wear a Nuggets uniform is still in his prime. If you don't think this is bad, just consider: What else could the Nuggets have done with that 2032 pick if they had actually been looking at deals to make the team better, rather than just ones that let them tread water while avoiding spending money? Here's the thing, though: Jokić is so good that this team is a legitimate contender; the Nuggets gave the Thunder all they could handle in the second round in May and have some reinforcements this time around. It's just sad to think of how much opportunity has been squandered by the Nuggets constantly using draft picks to dump money. The one time they used future picks to actually build their team, they landed Aaron Gordon. GO FURTHER Winners (Hawks), losers (July) and more from NBA free agency's first days Caw-caw! Under new GM Onsi Saleh, the Hawks had a fantastic draft week, acquiring Kristaps Porziņģis in a deal to be finalized soon and then burning the New Orleans Pelicans by getting an unprotected first-round pick in 2026 that could land one of the top picks in a loaded draft. They followed it up with stellar work in the free-agent market. Atlanta used its $25 million trade exception from the Dejounte Murray trade to land Nickeil Alexander-Walker from Minnesota at a price just above the non-taxpayer midlevel exception, essentially squeezing out all their competition, and then added Luke Kennard on a one-year deal. Those two additions fortify what was an extremely shaky shooting and ballhandling situation in the non-Trae Young minutes, and in Alexander-Walker, the Hawks added a second lockdown backcourt defender to go with stopper Dyson Daniels. The Hawks also seem likely to get some small bit of compensation for letting Clint Capela go to Houston in a sign-and-trade. Now, for the fun part: Could Atlanta do more? Capela's outbound salary is enough to offset Alexander-Walker's, which means the Hawks could keep that $25 million trade exception alive for something else. They would have to work quickly since it expires on July 6, the first day deals can be ratified in the new cap year, and they would have to send out some salary to stay below the first-apron threshold (where they're hard-capped due to signing Kennard with the nontaxpayer MLE), but it's something to ponder. In the event things stay less spicy, the Hawks still have back-end work to do on the roster with their $5.1 million biannual exception and veteran's minimums; the Hawks are an estimated $7.4 million below the tax line with at least two open roster spots to fill and could use another small forward and a stretch four. Read on for more free agency winners and losers. GO FURTHER Winners (Hawks), losers (July) and more from NBA free agency's first days Jerome Miron / Imagn Jared Dudley, a Dallas Mavericks assistant for the last four years, is headed to Denver to become the Nuggets' lead assistant coach, a league source confirmed. His departure means Jason Kidd's coaching staff in Dallas will look radically different next season. All three of Kidd's top assistants from last season have left in the past five months. In March, Alex Jensen accepted a job as the head men's coach at the University of Utah. In June, Sean Sweeney became the San Antonio Spurs' associated head coach. Now, Dudley leaves Dallas for a promotion. Additionally, God Shammgod is taking a job on Jamahl Mosley's staff with the Orlando Magic. Shammgod began working for the Mavericks in 2016 and has a close relationship with Kyrie Irving. So far, the Mavericks have hired two former head coaches as replacements in Jay Triano and Frank Vogel. Vogel was the head coach of the Lakers' championship-winning team in 2020; Kidd worked under him in L.A. as an assistant. Remember when NBA free agency was an event, something that dragged on for days as players took meetings, teams prepared dog-and-pony shows for prospective free agents and entire front-office staffs huddled up in cramped hotel rooms in The Hamptons? It was only nine years ago that Kevin Durant put the entire league on hold while he figured out his next destination. It was only eight years ago that Gordon Hayward did the same. (I swear to you this really happened.) And it wasn't just the stars who got this treatment; take it from somebody who flew cross-country to make a sales pitch to Solomon Hill. Welcome to the speed chess version of the same game. We're a few days into free agency, and aside from the annual drawn-out saga of restricted free agents, we're basically done. Read on to understand why and to see my early winners and losers. GO FURTHER Winners (Hawks), losers (July) and more from NBA free agency's first days Brad Penner / Imagn After we finished digesting the news of the three terrible Achilles tears of the playoffs, another question emerged: Which teams would rise to fill the void in the battered, miserable Eastern Conference? Going chronologically, injuries to Damian Lillard, Jayson Tatum and Tyrese Haliburton put the immediate fates of the last two conference champions and the team with the conference's best player in doubt. Without those stars, it would be difficult for their teams to compete in 2025-26 and stay financially responsible at the same time. We've seen all three teams grapple with that in June and early July. The offseason is not over, and neither is free agency — the likes of Josh Giddey and Jonathan Kuminga are still out there as restricted free agents, and trades could still develop. In the wake of most of the major action, it seems wise to reassess the status of the conference. Let's get to this before a trade goes down and shakes all of this up. Read on to see how I classified the current state of the East. GO FURTHER Knicks, Magic or Cavs: Which teams are prepared to jump up in the Eastern Conference? There's nothing near the finish line on the Jonathan Kuminga front as the third night of free agency wrapped up, per league sources. There are conversations ongoing with Warriors and several teams on periphery. The Warriors are also waiting on Al Horford's decision. Former No. 1 overall picks from the lottery era to play for the Los Angeles Lakers: Shaquille O'Neal Joe Smith Kwame Brown LeBron James Dwight Howard Andrew Bogut Anthony Davis Deandre Ayton None of them were drafted by the Lakers. Mark J. Rebilas / Imagn Deandre Ayton was a surprise addition to this year's free agency class, negotiating a contract buyout with the Trail Blazers on Sunday night and surrendering a reported $10 million of a $34 million deal. Ayton and Luka Dončić are both represented Bill Duffy, the longtime agent who heads WME Basketball. Dončić, according to league sources, is excited about the opportunity to play with Ayton. The Lakers, according to team and league sources, showed serious interest in veteran center Brook Lopez, who agreed to a two-year deal with the LA Clippers on Monday. He was pegged by many around the NBA as the logical player for the Lakers this free agency cycle. Lopez, 37, is still one of the NBA's best inside-outside centers but doesn't play the kind of pick-and-roll, lob-threat style that Dončić has had the most success with in his career. GO FURTHER Deandre Ayton, Lakers agree to two-year deal: Sources Page 2

76ers Get Good News in NBA Free Agency This Week
76ers Get Good News in NBA Free Agency This Week

Yahoo

time05-07-2025

  • Sport
  • Yahoo

76ers Get Good News in NBA Free Agency This Week

76ers Get Good News in NBA Free Agency This Week originally appeared on Athlon Sports. Turns out that the 76ers weren't done making moves after all. Just when it felt like the summer heat was cooling down, Philly decided to add a little more intrigue to its offseason. And no, it's not the big blockbuster kind of news. But it's the kind of smart depth move that can quietly pay off down the road. Advertisement The Philadelphia 76ers signed forward Jabari Walker to a two-way contract, as first reported by ESPN's Shams Charania. Walker isn't a household name yet, but don't sleep on his potential. He played his first three NBA seasons with the Portland Trail Blazers, logging 188 games. Last season, he averaged 5.2 points and 3.5 rebounds in just 12.5 minutes per game while shooting a career-high 51.5% from the field and 38.9% from three, according to ESPN. Philadelphia 76ers head coach Nick Nurse looks on during the fourth quarter against the Washington Wizards © Bill Streicher-Imagn Images Walker flashed real shooting touch, especially from the corners. He knocked down 45.5% of his corner threes, making him an ideal floor spacer. He's also 6-foot-9, bringing much-needed size and flexibility to the Sixers' forward rotation. This signing follows Philly's earlier addition of Trendon Watford, showing a clear plan. The Sixers are stacking up young, versatile forwards. They know they'll need depth to survive the grind of an 82-game season and another playoff run. Advertisement Of course, a two-way contract means Walker won't be on the main roster full-time. He'll spend plenty of time with the Delaware Blue Coats, the Sixers' G League affiliate. But his deal allows him to play up to 50 games in the NBA this season. Portland, meanwhile, let Walker walk. The Blazers shifted focus to players like Toumani Camara, leaving Walker looking for a new home. Philly gave him that chance. The Sixers saw an opportunity. They didn't overthink it. Now let's see what Jabari Walker does with it. Related: 76ers Announce Joel Embiid News After Mavericks Game This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on Jul 4, 2025, where it first appeared.

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