Rudy Gobert insists the Minnesota Timberwolves will not be happy "just to be a good team", having left the Utah Jazz in pursuit of an NBA title.
The Timberwolves gave up a huge haul – including three unprotected future first-round draft picks – to take Gobert from the Jazz.
The three-time Defensive Player of the Year now joins two former first overall selections in Karl-Anthony Towns and Anthony Edwards.
Gobert "fits perfectly" in the Minnesota lineup, coach Chris Finch says, and the incoming center has lofty aspirations.
Although the Timberwolves have not won a playoff series since 2004, making the postseason only twice in that time, Gobert is looking to take his new team all the way.
"The goal is to win a championship," Gobert said. "I came here for that.
"I didn't come here just to be a good team; I came here to try to take this team to the Finals and accomplish that."
The Frenchman suggested such aims were no longer realistic with the Jazz, where he spent the first nine seasons of his NBA career.
Utah were a far more regular playoff outfit, reaching the postseason in six straight years, but they never got beyond the second round and were facing an offseason of change even before Gobert's departure, with coach Quinn Snyder quitting.
"The window for winning is not always big," Gobert explained. "For us in Utah, that's kind of what happened.
"I think the organisation felt like that. We had maybe passed that window that we had over the last few years.
"I think it's still going to be a very competitive team. It just felt like with all the assets that they could get for me, it was better for them to go that way."
Zion Williamson received the ultimate present on his 22nd birthday.
As a thank you, he wants to deliver a championship to the New Orleans Pelicans.
Williamson officially signed his five-year, $231million rookie max extension with the Pelicans at a YMCA in New Orleans where he was hosting a camp.
He signed the deal on Wednesday, the same day he turned 22, and sitting alongside Pelicans general manager Trajan Langdon, executive VP of basketball operations David Griffin and coach Willie Green, Williamson – not surprisingly – said this is the number one birthday he has ever had.
"For the Pelicans to give me this birthday gift, I'm not going to let them down," Williamson said.
A year ago on his birthday, Williamson found out he broke his foot forcing him to miss the entire 2021-22 season. Now that he has been cleared to play, he has lofty goals.
"I want to prove that I'm a winner, it's as simple as that," he said. "The ultimate goal is to win a championship. And I feel like that's what we're all striving for."
The Pelicans made the playoffs this past season without Williamson and took the No. 1 seed Phoenix Suns to six games before being ousted.
With Williamson in the fold, the hope is he can help the franchise take the next step.
"It's gonna all come together at some point throughout the course of the season," Green said. "And when it does, I think we can be a scary team."
Williamson has only appeared in a mere 85 games since being the top pick of the 2019 NBA draft, but he has been outstanding when healthy, averaging 25.7 points, 7 rebounds and 3.2 assists while shooting just over 60 per cent.
Since his rookie season, Williamson has been instrumental to New Orleans' success. The Pelicans have won 47.1 per cent of their games while averaging 116.4 points in the 85 games Williamson has played, compared to winning 40.4 per cent of the games and an average of 111.1 points in the contests he has missed.
"Adding [Zion] back on the court with the group that we have is going to be a lot of fun but also really dangerous for the entire league and all of the 29 teams that have to face us night in and night out," Langdon said. "We are incredibly excited about that."
Suiting up alongside Brandon Ingram and CJ McCollum, Williamson gives the Pelicans another scoring threat making the offense even more dangerous. New Orleans' offense thrived after acquiring McCollum last February, averaging 115.9 points after the trade compared to an average of 105.9 points in their first 54 games.
"We have an opportunity to be able to run toward sustained success for quite a long time," Griffin said. "We're young, we're talented, and most importantly – we are very hungry."
Bradley Beal's five-year, $251million contract with the Washington Wizards includes a no-trade clause that makes the three-time All-Star guard the only player in the NBA to have a "true no trade clause", according to ESPN's Bobby Marks.
Marks also says Beal is the 10th player in NBA history to have the clause in a deal, joining LeBron James, Kevin Garnett, Carmelo Anthony, Dirk Nowitzki, Kobe Bryant, Dwyane Wade, Tim Duncan, David Robinson and John Stockton.
Beal was eligible to negotiate the clause because he has been in the league for at least eight seasons and spent at least the previous four campaigns with his current team.
He has been with the Wizards since they selected him third overall in the 2012 NBA Draft.
Beal's 25.8 points per game since the 2016-17 season is the 10th-highest scoring average in the NBA over that span. He was limited to 40 games in 2021-22 before undergoing season-ending surgery on his left wrist.
Thomas Bryant is once again a Los Angeles Laker after the free agent centre signed a one-year contract with the team on Wednesday.
A second-round pick by the Utah Jazz in the 2017 NBA Draft, Bryant was then traded to the Lakers on draft night but only appeared in 15 games with Los Angeles, averaging 1.5 points and 1.1 rebounds.
He was then waived by the Lakers following his rookie year and signed with the Washington Wizards, where he has spent the past four seasons.
His last two years with Washington were marred by injury, however, as he appeared in a combined 37 games due to a torn ACL suffered in January 2021.
Prior to the injury, Bryant was off to an encouraging start to the 2020-21 season, averaging 14.3 points on 64.8-per-cent shooting, along with 6.1 rebounds in starting the first 10 games for Washington.
Bryant, who turns 25 years old on July 31, played well at times in his return last January, averaging 7.4 points and 4.0 rebounds in 27 games.
The Lakers are hopeful after another off-season of training that he will be able to regain his prior form and provide frontcourt depth.
Chet Holmgren has lived up to the hype in his professional debut in the NBA summer league with a record-breaking performance.
Holmgren, who was taken by the Oklahoma City Thunder at second behind Paolo Banchero in the NBA Draft a fortnight ago, scored 23 points with seven rebounds and four assists in a 98-77 win over the Utah Jazz.
The Gonzaga center impressed with a history-making record for blocks and three-pointers in a game, becoming the first player in summer league history to record at least five blocks and hit four three-pointers.
Holmgren finished with six blocks and shot four-of-six from beyond the arc in 24 minutes.
"Shout out to my teammates for setting me up, talking to me, just putting me in position to be successful," Holmgren told ESPN after the game.
Holmgren's Australian teammate Josh Giddey, who was a Rookie of the Year contender last season after going at pick six, praised the seven-footer who is generating plenty of hype.
"The hype that he came in with, the way he played tonight was big for us," Giddey said.
"Being a high pick like that, there's a lot of pressure coming in, and he handled it as good as he could have.
"It makes my job easy playing with someone like him. He can stretch the floor, finish at the rim. He protects me, he's got my back on the defensive end. So love playing with him.
"It's been one game, and the chemistry's only getting stronger."
The Memphis Grizzlies and rookie Kennedy Chandler have agreed to a four-year, $7.1million contract with $4.94m in guarantees, The Athletic reported Tuesday.
Chandler’s deal contains the most guaranteed money ever given to an American-born second-round rookie.
The Grizzlies selected Chandler 38th overall in last month’s NBA Draft, with a pick that originally belonged to the San Antonio Spurs.
A guard out of Tennessee, Chandler averaged 13.9 points and 4.7 assists as a freshman while helping the Volunteers to a SEC Tournament championship and third seed in the NCAA Tournament.
"Kennedy was very high on our board going into the night, someone we felt very strongly about," Grizzlies general manager Zach Kleiman said.
"[Chandler] easily could have been a first-round pick of ours...absolutely shocked that Kennedy was there given how we felt about him.
"So we were very excited to extend that one beyond the amount of picks we had coming into the night because we felt really strongly about adding Kennedy to this group."
Kleiman was busy on draft night, orchestrating two other trades. The Grizzlies sent De’Anthony Melton to the Philadelphia 76ers for veteran swingman Danny Green and the No. 23 overall pick, David Roddy.
Memphis also sent picks 22 and 29, Walker Kessler and TyTy Washington, to the Minnesota Timberwolves for the 19th pick, Jake LaRavia.
The chairwoman of both the NFL's Seattle Seahawks and the NBA's Portland Trail Blazers, Jody Allen, said in a statement on Tuesday that the teams are not for sale at this time.
There had been reports that an offer was made to buy the Trail Blazers, but Allen's statement dispels any rumours a sale is imminent.
''As chair of both the Portland Trail Blazers and Seattle Seahawks, my long-term focus is building championship teams that our communities are proud of,'' said Allen, who has overseen both teams since her brother Paul died in 2018.
''Like my brother Paul, I trust and expect our leaders and coaches to build winning teams that deliver results on and off the court and field. As we've stated before, neither of the teams is for sale and there are no sales discussions happening.''
Paul Allen's will called for both teams to be sold and the proceeds be given to philanthropic efforts, and Jody acknowledged she plans to honour his wishes, though not at this time.
''A time will come when that changes given Paul's plans to dedicate the vast majority of his wealth to philanthropy, but estates of this size and complexity can take 10 to 20 years to wind down. There is no pre-ordained timeline by which the teams must be sold,'' Jody said.
Paul Allen purchased the Trail Blazers in 1988 and bought the Seahawks nine years later. Jody Allen has been the trustee for her brother’s estate since the Microsoft co-founder's death.
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