Cleveland Cavaliers big man Evan Mobley has agreed to a five-year, $224million maximum rookie contract extension that could become worth as much as $269million based on incentives, agents Joe Smith and Thad Foucher of Wasserman told ESPN on Saturday.
Since entering the league as the third overall pick in the 2021 NBA Draft, Mobley has emerged as one of the NBA's premier defensive players. He finished third in Defensive Player of the Year voting in 2023 and was also named first-team All-Defense that year.
Mobley, 23, averaged 15.7 points, 9.4 rebounds and 1.4 blocks last season, while also notching career-high shooting percentages of 57.9 overall, 37.3 from 3-point range and 71.9 from the free throw line.
He is one of just four players to have at least 300 blocks and 150 steals over the past three seasons. The others are Anthony Davis, Rudy Gobert and Jaren Jackson Jr.
Mobley was likely headed for his second straight all-defense selection, but an early-season knee injury limited him to 50 regular-season games in 2023-24.
Over his 198 career games, Mobley has averaged 15.6 points on 54.4% shooting to go with 8.8 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 1.5 blocks.
He had arguably his best game as a pro in Cleveland's final game of the 2024 playoffs when he tallied 33 points, seven rebounds and two blocks in 43 minutes in a Game 5 loss to the eventual champion Boston Celtics.
The Cavaliers hired Kenny Atkinson to replace J.B. Bickerstaff as head coach earlier this offseason and signed star guard Donovan Mitchell to a three-year, $150.3million max extension.
Sharpshooting Bahamian Buddy Hield expressed excitement at the opportunity to play for the Golden State Warriors in his first interaction with Warriors media on Thursday.
The 31-year-old joined the seven-time NBA Champions through a sign-and-trade with the Philadelphia 76ers in early July.
The Warriors will be the fifth team Hield has represented since being drafted sixth overall by the New Orleans Pelicans in the 2016 NBA Draft.
“Excited! Excited for the opportunity to come in here and learn from great players, a great organization, great coach, and be a sponge and an open book to everybody around me,” was Hield’s response to a question about his emotions heading into his first season in San Francisco.
Hield was brought in by the Warriors as a like-for-like replacement for franchise legend Klay Thompson who left for the Dallas Mavericks in Free Agency after 13 seasons and four titles with the Warriors.
The Bahamian says he isn’t feeling the pressure of trying to replicate what Thompson gave the Warriors.
“There’s no pressure, I just have to come and do my job. What Klay has done for this organization has been tremendous. I love Klay a lot and I watched him over the years and he’s special,” he said.
“The way he can get hot and change the game as a two-way player. I think it’s fun being in that role,” he added.
One of the hallmarks of the Warriors during their run of dominance in the Steph Curry-Draymond Green-Klay Thompson era has been their complicated offensive scheme.
Hield believes practice is the key to learning where he fits into the offense quickly.
“Taking it day by day in practice, watching a lot of film. Practice will be really important. I’ve watched these guys play since college. Even in the pros when they play, they’re always a fun team to watch,” he said.
“I think it’s a great fit and it shouldn’t be that hard but everything takes time,” he added.
Russell Westbrook is on the move once again, but isn't yet at his final destination.
The Los Angeles Clippers agreed to send Westbrook to the Utah Jazz on Thursday, as part of a sign-and-trade deal, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.
The Jazz are expected to reach a contract buyout agreement with Westbrook, opening the door for him to join the Denver Nuggets.
Denver will be the sixth team Westbrook has played for in the last seven seasons.
To complete the trade, Utah will also receive a swap of second-round draft picks and cash from Los Angeles, while shipping guard Kris Dunn to the Clippers.
The 35-year-old Westbrook was named the NBA MVP in 2016-17, averaging a career-high 31.6 points, along with 10.7 rebounds and 10.4 assists.
In 2023-24 for the Clippers, he averaged career lows of 11.1 points and 4.5 assists with 5 boards. He came off the bench in 57 of the 68 games he played, shooting 27.3 per cent from 3-point range - the second-lowest mark among the 226 players with at least 150 attempts from beyond the arc.
The Nuggets still believe he can provide depth off the bench and help them make another run at a title after being eliminated in the Western Conference semi-finals in May.
The Clippers were ousted by the Dallas Mavericks in the first round, with Westbrook averaging 6.3 points, 4.2 rebounds and 1.7 assists in the six play-off games.
In 1,162 games in a 16-year career, Westbrook has averages of 21.7 points, 8.1 assists and 7.1 rebounds. His 199 career triple-doubles are the most in NBA history.
Dunn has career averages of 7.9 points, 4.2 assists and 3.3 boards since being drafted fifth overall by the Minnesota Timberwolves in 2016.
In starting 32 of 66 games for the Jazz last season, the 30-year-old Dunn averaged 5.4 points, 3.8 assists and 2.9 rebounds.
Kyrie Irving has undergone surgery on a broken hand, but is expected to be fit for the start of next season.
Irving was part of the Dallas Mavericks team that reached the NBA Finals, only to go down to the dominant Boston Celtics.
The 32-year-old sustained his injury while training earlier in July, and has now gone through surgery to fix the issue.
Posting on X, Irving wrote: "Tribe, Thank you for all the messages and prayers. God truly knew that I needed to take a break from basketball after the long season and give myself some time to heal.
"I am in love with getting better at my craft, but now I must rest and recover."
While the Mavs did not confirm a timetable for Irving's return, it has been reported he is anticipated to return to action in around two and a half months.
The 2024-25 season is set to begin in October.
Irving averaged 25.6 points per game in the regular season across 2023-24.
The Mavs have brought in Klay Thompson as a free agent this off-season.
Jalen Brunson signed a four-year, $156.5 million extension with the New York Knicks on Friday.
The figure is $113 million less guaranteed than he would have been eligible to receive next offseason, but it puts the Knicks in a much better position financially to build a championship-caliber roster around him.
The deal was first reported by ESPN, with Brunson’s agent telling the organisation his client chose the extension over a five-year, $269 million contract he could have received as a free agent in 2025.
It’s an unprecedented move for the All-Star guard who finished fifth in MVP voting last season after he averaged career highs of 28.7 points and 6.7 assists in 2023-24.
Those numbers were far better than expected when the former second-round pick signed with the Knicks in 2022, with some questioning if a player who had mostly been a backup in Dallas was worth more than $100 million.
Brunson, 27, helped the Knicks reach the second round of the playoffs for the first time since 2013 before falling to the Indiana Pacers in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference semifinals. Brunson broke his hand in the second half and the Knicks were already dealing with a plethora of injuries to key players.
He has blossomed into one of the league's most impactful players and leaders and earned All-NBA honours after totalling 11 40-point games in the regular season.
Brunson’s extension will begin with the 2025-26 season and his decision to take less money should help the Knicks manage their payroll after a busy offseason in which they re-signed OG Anunoby to a five-year contract worth more than $210 million and acquired Mikal Bridges from the Brooklyn Nets.
The Detroit Pistons and former No. 1 overall pick Cade Cunningham have agreed to terms on a five-year, $224million maximum rookie contract extension.
The deal could be worth up to $269million if Cunningham earns All-NBA honours in 2024-25.
Cunningham played one season at Oklahoma State before Detroit selected him No. 1 overall in the 2021 NBA Draft.
He earned First-Team All-Rookie honours in 2021-22 after averaging 17.4 points, 5.6 assists and 5.5 rebounds in 64 games.
Cunningham appeared in Detroit’s first 12 games in 2022-23 before sustaining a stress fracture in his shin that led to season-ending surgery.
The 22-year-old point guard bounced back last season, averaging team highs of 22.7 points and 7.5 assists while adding 4.3 rebounds per game in 62 contests.
The Pistons, though, posted an NBA-worst 14-68 record, and Detroit is last in the league with a .220 winning percentage (54-192) since drafting Cunningham.
In the 138 games Cunningham has played in his career, the Pistons have gone 32-106.
Paul George admitted he did not want to leave the Los Angeles Clippers, but felt his hand was forced when he was offered a "disrespectful" first contract extension offer.
Last week, George signed a four-year maximum contract reportedly worth $212million for the Philadelphia 76ers.
However, the nine-time All-Star's move happened after he failed to come to an agreement with the Clippers over a new contract.
"I never wanted to leave L.A.," George said on his podcast, 'Podcast P with Paul George'.
"L.A. is home, this is where I wanted to finish at, and I wanted to work as hard as possible to win one in L.A.
"That was the goal, to be here and be committed to L.A. As it played out though, the first initial deal was, I thought, kind of disrespectful.
"In all of this, no hard feelings, no love lost...it's a business. So, the first initial deal was like two years, 60. So I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa.
"That's crazy! I'm like, 'Naw, I'm not signing that'."
The Clippers gave Kawhi Leonard a three-year $150million extension, something George said they refused to give him if he had a no-trade clause attached.
"Then I hear wind of what they're going to give Kawhi, so I'm like, 'Just give me what Kawhi got'," George added. "'Y'all view us the same. We came here together; we want to finish this s*** together.'
"Y'all give him that, give me that. They didn't want to do that."
The guard, who played 74 regular-season games – his most since being traded to Los Angeles before the 2019-20 season – acknowledged his link-up with Leonard did not quite go as planned but had hoped to build on it in the future.
"We couldn't remain healthy as a unit," George said. "But I thought I did enough to earn that [three-year, $150-million deal with a no-trade clause].
"They didn't want to do it. So, it was just a stalemate. Ultimately it was like, all right, that ship has sailed.
"I love Steve [Ballmer], I love Lawrence [Frank], but at that point, it didn't even feel right to come back with that type of energy and be comfortable playing back in L.A."
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