Luka Doncic has become the first player to be handed a supermax rookie extension worth $207million, tying him to the Dallas Mavericks for a further five years.
Doncic qualifies for the landmark deal having already twice been named to the All-NBA First Team.
Bill Duffy, Doncic's agent, told ESPN of the agreement on Monday, while the player released a statement through the same publication.
"Today is a dream come true," he said. "The game of basketball has given me so much and has taken me to so many amazing places.
"I am humbled and excited to remain in Dallas as part of the Mavericks and appreciate the support of my fans."
Doncic, who is set to hold a news conference in Slovenia on Tuesday, added he would be expanding The Luka Doncic Foundation.
The 22-year-old is in Slovenia having led his country to the semi-finals of the men's basketball tournament at the Tokyo Olympics.
The European champions were Games debutants but came within a clutch Nicolas Batum block of reaching the gold medal game.
Doncic led the competition in a number of categories across the board, including points (143), assists (57) and minutes played (196).
His triple-double against France in the last four was the third in Games history, but the point forward suffered the first defeat of his international career and then lost again to Australia in the bronze medal game.
Focus will now return to the NBA, where Doncic will hope his individual excellence can inspire improved results for the Mavs.
Dallas have not won a playoff series since they were champions 10 years ago, despite Doncic's outstanding displays taking the Los Angeles Clippers to six and then seven games in the past two seasons.
Doncic has scored 33.5 points per game across those two postseason series – no player in NBA history has played at least 13 playoff games and averaged more.
Fans got their first glimpse of top NBA Draft pick Cade Cunningham in Detroit Pistons colors on Sunday as he scored 12 points in the Summer League.
The 19-year-old drained two early three-pointers in his 12-point haul along with six rebounds and two assists in 26 minutes for the Pistons, who went down 76-72 to the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Expectations are high for Cunningham with Detroit who finished bottom of the Eastern Conference with a 20-52 record last season and have not won a playoff game since 2008.
"It was fun getting to put the jersey on for the first time," Cunningham said after the game.
"Obviously, we wanted a win out of this, but we spent the last week beating on each other. It’s our first time being able to get to go and be with each other and really try to get this chemistry down.
"We got a lot from this game we can learn from. That’s the main thing you want out of your first game. Now we’re going to try to keep building off of that."
He added: "I wanted to step into the game confident, ready to shoot, ready to play. To see the first two go down, it’s a good feeling. Now it’s building off of that."
Cunningham played the first half alongside 20-year-old French guard Killian Hayes, who was selected seventh overall in the 2020 Draft, with the pair likely to be the side's main ballhandlers.
"I think more than anything, we’re on the same page mentally in where we want this team to be," Cunningham said.
"Now it’s about having a better feel for each other. We haven’t played a lot together."
He added: "We have so much time to build and grow from this. We are not going to hang our heads off of this one game."
Kyle Lowry's move to Miami is official, giving the Heat another playoff-tested veteran to lead what they hope will be a charge back to the NBA Finals.
The Heat announced on Friday they have acquired Lowry from the Toronto Raptors for Goran Dragic and Precious Achiuwa.
Miami did not disclose the contract terms in Lowry's sign-and-trade deal, but The Athletic reported he has signed a three-year, $85million contract.
"Kyle Lowry is a great leader and an exceptional defender," Heat president Pat Riley said in a release. "As a point guard, he will bring important skills to run the offense, score the ball and defend with the very best."
A 15-year NBA veteran, Lowry became a star after joining the Raptors in 2012 after serving as more of a role player previously with the Memphis Grizzlies and Houston Rockets.
He had started fewer than half of his NBA appearances before moving to Toronto but will leave there as arguably the best player in franchise history after averaging 17.5 points, 7.1 assists and 4.9 rebounds per game over the last nine seasons, which saw him make the All-Star Game six times.
After leading the Raptors to their first NBA title in 2019, Lowry joins a Miami team that lost to the Los Angeles Lakers in the 2020 Finals and went out in the first round to the eventual champion Milwaukee Bucks this year.
He will team up with Jimmy Butler, Bam Adebayo, Tyler Herro and Duncan Robinson on a squad that should be a threat in the Eastern Conference.
The Raptors get back the veteran point guard Dragic, who averaged 13.4 points and 4.4 assists last season, and the 21-year-old Achiuwa, who averaged 5.0 points and 3.4 rebounds in 12.1 minutes per game.
But Lowry will be missed, and the feeling is mutual. In a lengthy Instagram post on Thursday, Lowry thanked the franchise and its fans for his time there, saying his bond with the city is "unbreakable."
"Toronto will forever be my 2nd home and I will always be tied to the franchise, the city and the country of Canada which makes me so happy to say," he wrote.
The Brooklyn Nets and superstar Kevin Durant have reached an agreement on a four-year, $198 million contract extension, ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski reported on Friday.
Like all deals agreed since Monday, Durant's extension will become official on Saturday after the end of the NBA's free agency moratorium.
The contract was reported hours before Durant and the rest of Team USA play France for the Olympic gold medal in Japan.
Durant, 32, averaged 26.9 points, 7.1 rebounds and 5.6 assists in 2020-21 in his first season back from a ruptured Achilles tendon.
A former league MVP and two-time Finals MVP, Durant played just 35 games last season as the Nets cautiously handled a series of minor injuries.
In the postseason, however, he played in all 12 of Brooklyn's games, including all 53 minutes in the Nets' second-round, Game 7 loss to the Milwaukee Bucks.
Durant scored 34.3 points per game in the playoffs while shooting 51.4 percent from the field and 40.2 percent from three-point range.
The extension is the first for the Nets' trio of superstars, with new contracts expected to come for James Harden and Kyrie Irving.
Brooklyn are the bookmakers' favourites to win the 2022 NBA title, which would be the first in franchise history for the Nets.
Andre Iguodala has confirmed he will return to the Golden State Warriors on a one-year deal and plans to end his career with the franchise he helped to three NBA titles.
Iguodala was a pivotal part of the Warriors' dynasty, which saw them reach five successive NBA Finals between 2015 and 2019 and win championships in 2015, 2017 and 2018.
Having accepted the role of sixth man in the 2014-15 season, Iguodala moved into a more prominent position for the 2015 Finals, with his defense of LeBron James crucial to Golden State's 4-2 victory.
Iguodala was named 2015 Finals MVP and continued to have a significant influence on the Warriors' success thereafter.
The swingman shot 49.4 per cent from the field and 37.8 per cent from three-point range in the playoffs in 2018 when Golden State won their most recent title.
He produced the same field goal percentage in the 2019 postseason as the Warriors lost in the Finals to the Toronto Raptors, before then moving on to the Miami Heat and helping them reach the Finals in the NBA Bubble.
Iguodala's field goal percentage of 38.3 for the Heat last season was the worst of his time in the NBA, but while he admitted to pondering retirement this offseason, he is relishing the chance to bring the curtain down at the place where his career reached its zenith.
"Who would have thought I'd have the opportunity to go back to the place where I was able to have, whatever you want to call it, legacy years, in terms of the accomplishments, winning multiple championships, the relationships that I was able to build with some of my closest friends and teammates?" the 37-year-old told The New York Times.
"The relationship with the fans, the relationship with the Bay, the opportunity to end it here, was just something special."
Iguodala will likely play a key role in mentoring the younger members of the Warriors' roster.
Golden State did not pull off the blockbuster draft-night trade many were anticipating, instead using picks 7 and 14 on two teenagers in Jonathan Kuminga and Moses Moody. The Warriors used the second overall pick in 2020 on a center with just three games of college experience in James Wiseman, who showed flashes of his potential before a meniscus injury ended his rookie year.
While that trio will look to call on Iguodala's experience, he is hopeful he can still make an impact on the court perhaps even beyond the 2021-22 season.
"I think I've got some more time left," Iguodala said. "Where I'm comfortable at is I can decide when I'm ready to go.
"I think I want to leave with just a little bit left. I don't want to go out on one leg. I know I've got a few more years. It's just my decision whether it's one or two or three or whatever it may be. I shouldn't even say three. One or two."
Julius Randle, the NBA's Most Improved Player, has been handed a four-year, $117million extension with the New York Knicks.
CAA Sports, the agency which represents Randle, told ESPN of the deal on Thursday.
Randle earned individual recognition in an outstanding 2020-21 regular season, acknowledged as the Most Improved Player and also named to the All-NBA Second Team.
The 26-year-old averaged career-highs of 24.1 points, 10.2 rebounds and 6.0 assists per game to lead the Knicks back to the playoffs for the first time in eight years, showing the greatest year-to-year improvement in win percentage in franchise history.
Randle supplied 22.2 per cent of his team's points – ranking sixth in the league in that sense – as his usage rate rose to 29.3 per cent under Coach of the Year Tom Thibodeau.
His most prominent area of progress was from three-point range, up from 27.7 per cent shooting to 41.1. The Knicks were the most improved team in the NBA from deep.
Although Randle then averaged only 18.0 points in the playoffs, with 33.3 per cent three-point shooting, as the Knicks were dumped out by the Atlanta Hawks in the first round, he was well worth a lucrative new deal.
And in agreeing terms now, rather than at the end of his existing contract in 2022, the 6ft 8in forward has granted the Knicks greater flexibility to continue to build a team around him.
No team in the league had more cap space heading into free agency this year than the Knicks, whose early moves saw a number of last year's key men return alongside Evan Fournier, the France international coming off a short stint with the Boston Celtics.
Wednesday then brought news of a deal to bring in Kemba Walker, who agreed a buyout with the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Walker appears primed to start at point guard in an area the Knicks badly needed to improve, with Elfrid Payton eventually losing the faith of Thibodeau in the postseason after 13 minutes, one point and one assist.
Free agent Victor Oladipo has agreed to a one-year deal to stay with the Miami Heat, according to reports.
The 29-year-old point guard had joined the Houston Rockets from the Indiana Pacers as part of January's James Harden trade, before moving again to the Heat in March.
Olapido is set to remain in Miami and consider free agency in 2022 once he is at full fitness, after a sustaining a knee injury before opting for season-ending surgery on his quad in May.
The Athletic's Shams Charania reports that the Heat will retain Oladipo's Bird Rights, which will allow them to find the means to sign him again next offseason.
Oladipo averaged 19.8 points, 4.8 rebounds and 4.6 assists per game in the 2020-21 NBA season having had a breakout 2017-18 with the Indiana Pacers, before a series of injuries slowed his progress.
The two-time All-Star played just four games with the Heat following his trade from the Rockets.
SportsMax is the Caribbean sports channel of choice, committed to providing sporting content of the highest quality to the Caribbean, delivered by a team of highly innovative, passionate and qualified professionals.
(876) 619-7629
digitalmedia@sportsmax.tv
