Category: NBA

Sixers release roster for 2026 Las Vegas summer league  originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

The Sixers’ summer league roster is all set.

The team on Monday released its roster for the Las Vegas summer league, which will run from Thursday, July 9 through Sunday, July 19 and include at least five games for all 30 teams. The Sixers’ opener is Thursday at 5:30 p.m. ET vs. the Pistons. Their first four games will air on NBC Sports Philadelphia+.

Sixers player development associate coach T.J. DiLeo will serve as summer league head coach for a second straight season. Below is the Sixers’ 15-player squad:

The two players on the Sixers’ main roster are No. 22 overall pick Labaron Philon Jr. and second-year big man Johni Broome. Philon should have ample opportunity to display the skills that helped him average 22.0 points and 5.0 assists as an Alabama sophomore.

“I would say with the ball handling, it definitely started in the streets in my mom’s backyard,” he said at his introductory press conference. “And at Alabama, working on everything I needed to work on. Working on getting to the paint, working on slowing things down and making the game easy for you and the people around you. 

“I feel like that’s one of the best traits that I bring to the table, really — just making the game easy for others, getting into the paint and being able to provide for myself and my teammates. I feel like just working on that footwork and things like that is very important, just to have those options and not just look to score the ball.”

Undrafted rookies on the roster include guard Duke Miles, who’s reportedly signed an Exhibit 10 contract with the Sixers, and Yale product Nick Townsend, the 2025-26 Ivy League Player of the Year.

In 2014, the San Antonio Spurs won their fifth NBA title.Tony Parker and Patty Mills were the Spurs two point guards during that historic run. Recently, Tony Parker was named the new head coach of ASVEL. And now, Patty Mills is heading to ASVEL to play under his former teammate.

Mills played for the Spurs from 2012-2021. He played for seven NBA teams over sixteen seasons. Last year he was hired as the general manager for the University of Hawaii.

Mills now heads to France, his fourth international team.

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Crazy slow start to Monday around these places, and on top of that, the muscles on my right leg don’t feel willing to cooperate when I try to move around. Links and notes next, so I can forget about my pains.

• Mitchell Robinson finally explained how he injured his hand before the NBA Finals and opened up massively on tons of personal stuff, which we all know Mitch for as a sentimental man. Spoiler: it involved a punch and his knuckle, and it surely is a hella sad story.

““I would like to address the concerns regarding my finger, which was actually my knuckle. To provide some context, I had been dealing with personal issues, relationship problems, and internal struggles, which affected my performance on the basketball court. In this league I simply follow the instructions given to me y’all have seen videos of everything I’m very capable of doing. Moving forward to the Eastern Conference finals, after our victory in Cleveland, everything seemed to be going well. We were celebrating our achievement, but for me, things took a turn for the worse.

“As many of you know, I am a compassionate and private person who enjoys listening to country music. Without going into details about my upbringing, I am extremely protective of my siblings, whom I care for deeply. Upon returning to New York, I received an unexpected phone call, and my family members contacted me, informing me that my youngest brother had been involved in a car accident. I did not see the messages until I arrived home late that night. As the eldest sibling, I felt a deep sense of concern, and I immediately went into panic mode. I began returning calls and texts, and when I FaceTimed my brother, I thought he was deceased. He was wearing a neck brace, unresponsive, and not speaking.

“I broke down in tears, feeling like a failure for not being able to protect my siblings. Being 910 miles away, I felt helpless. In a moment of frustration, I banged my hand on my truck. As many of you know, I have a deep affection for my trucks, but my siblings and daughter are my top priority. Before judging someone, it is essential to understand their circumstances, which may not be publicly known. Life is unpredictable, and it is how we respond to challenges that truly matters.

“After consulting with doctors, I was able to gain the confidence in myself to go in and get the job done and WE DID 2026 NBA CHAMPS.so at the end of the day I battled with so much throughout this season even made a huge sacrifice to not see my daughter as much this season because I needed to focus and lock in so she can have a better future than I did.”

• Carmelo Anthony said on 7PM in Brooklyn that he does not think the rest of the league is intimidated by the Knicks following their title-winning season. According to Melo, all the Knicks did was catch fire for a minute.
• That’s also probably why Miami added Giannis Antetokounmpo, Philadelphia added Jaylen Brown, Boston stole Mitch and redrew their whole blueprint, the Hornets outright tapped out, and the Raptors went nostalgic and brought back an aging Kawhi. As I wrote the other day, though, Parity… or just plain dumb randomness?
• Jalen Brunson, meanwhile, is having a better summer than me. That’s for sure.
• Ric Bucher “touched” on the LeBron James “situation,” and didn’t hold back. A tease:

“I had to smile when it was reported that LeBron informed the Lakers that he didn’t intend to play for the Lakers next year. As if the Lakers weren’t intending for that to be the case. But kudos to the Lakers for allowing LeBron to present it that way and preserve some dignity on the way out.”

• The USMNT got away with one.

You can follow Antonio on Twitter at @chapulana.

Kings draft pick Alex Karaban drops one-word recipe for winning basketball originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

The Kings are looking to rebuild their roster this NBA offseason with the hopes of returning to playoff contention.

During the 2026 NBA Draft, Sacramento selected Arkansas guard Darius Acuff Jr. and UConn forward Alex Karaban in the first round and Houston guard Emanuel Sharp in the second round to add much-needed depth to its roster.

NBC Sports California contributor Deuce Mason recently spoke with Karaban, who revealed the characteristic that he believes brings winning basketball to a team.

“I think it’s accountability,” Karaban said.

“Everyone wants to be buddy-buddy with their teammates and just try to be nice to everyone. But at the end of the day, if we’re hard on each other and we’re holding each other accountable, it’s going to make us closer when we have the good moments and realize that those real talks and the pain that we went through in practices were truly worth it.

“I think now people can be afraid to say what’s on their minds, and if someone is messing up, people just don’t want to critique people anymore. I think accountability is a huge thing. That’s something I learned how to be more comfortable with [UConn] coach [Dan] Hurley.”

Karaban was a key piece to UConn’s back-to-back NCAA championships during the 2022-23 and 2023-24 seasons. The 6-foot-8, 210-pound forward averaged 12.5 points, five rebounds, two assists and one block per game in 150 starts in five seasons with the Huskies, including a redshirt year during the 2021-22 season.

Near the end of the 2026 draft, the Kings acquired the No. 29 overall pick from the Cleveland Cavaliers in exchange for the No. 34 selection and a future second-round pick to select Karaban after already successfully drafting Acuff Jr. at No. 7 overall.

The Kings have had two consecutive losing seasons with a 40-42 record during the 2024-25 season and a 22-60 record last season, following two winning seasons with at least 46 victories.

Coming from a winning culture at UConn and having a mindset of keeping each other accountable, Karaban brings a certain trait the Kings need heading into the 2026-27 NBA season that potentially can deliver more victories for Sacramento.

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The five stages of the Jaylen Brown trade, and what's next for Celtics originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

For maybe the first time in league history, the NBA’s annually awkward summer moratorium might have been a good thing. It gave everybody in Boston nearly a full week to process the Jaylen Brown trade.

Celtics president of basketball operations Brad Stevens and lead owner Bill Chisholm will make their first official comments on the trade on Monday afternoon, finally spinning forward a trade that left everyone’s heads spinning. The league’s annual break, an awkward dead zone where trades and signings get negotiated but can’t be finalized over a six-day accounting stretch, gave Celtics fans the opportunity to navigate the entire five-stage grief spectrum.

From the denial that Paul George could truly be the headliner in a Brown package, to maybe the first bit of anger directed at Stevens in his 13 years in Boston, to bargaining whether George is really that much of a dropoff from Brown given his Round 1 performance last season, to the depression that the Jays era is truly over, it feels Boston fans have emerged from the July 4 holiday weekend having finally arrived at acceptance.

We’re guessing most don’t feel any better about the trade itself. But it’s time to move forward.

We’re not certain there’s much Stevens and Chisholm can say Monday about the Brown situation that will make anyone feel much better. They will smother Brown with praise for his decade-long contributions to the organization, including being a monster part of delivering Banner 18. They will likely tiptoe around the circumstances that forced the team to move as quickly as it did at the start of the offseason, especially given the seemingly lukewarm market for Brown’s services.

The best we might hope for is a clearer vision of what comes next.

You can twist yourself into a pretzel trying to determine how we ended up here. The three years, $185 million remaining on Brown’s max-money deal, coupled with the potential for a two-year, $142 million extension later this month, likely left Boston pondering harder if two supermax players commanding 35 percent of the cap was sustainable long-term.

Sprinkle in some analytical debate about Brown’s overall impact on winning, his arrival at his age-30 season, and the perpetual consternation about the 1A/1B stature of him and running mate Jayson Tatum, and it all might have all simmered together to force the Celtics to make a swallow-hard decision on his future.

We’d consider ourselves a numbers guy, leaning heavily into analytics during our time covering the Celtics. We’ve long shrugged our shoulders at Brown’s sometimes unexplainable on/off numbers.

The Celtics owned a +6.4 net rating during Brown’s 2,443 minutes on the court this past season. That’s a strong number and one that stat site Cleaning the Glass says puts the team on the same 56-win pace that Brown ultimately delivered the team. Boston was somehow 5.6 points per 100 possessions better without Brown, per Cleaning the Glass data. There’s some noise in there: lower-leverage minutes with an overachieving bench competing against some lesser competition. But it’s also Brown’s fourth straight season in the negative, including having a minus-8.9 on/off differential in the 2024 title season.

We struggle to reconcile with those numbers. You can’t watch what Brown did in the 2024 Finals, or nearly the entirety of last season, and suggest that he doesn’t impact winning. His greatest strength was his desire to take on challenges on the biggest stage, often producing his best moments when the stakes were the highest or the competition the toughest.

But now, coming off an MVP-caliber season and with Boston pondering the need to reel back in a sky-high usage rate with a healthier Tatum, we understand the consternation that has long existed about how exactly the Tatum/Brown combo might share duties moving forward. That Boston couldn’t immediately put the sort of surefire championship-ready supporting cast around them, this while navigating the new second-apron minefield the new collective bargaining agreement has delivered, added a layer of complication.

So the Celtics made a tough decision to pivot. Unfortunately for them, a very public pursuit of Giannis Antetokounmpo, which might have further forced Boston’s hand, created an expectation for the level of player that might have been obtained in return for Brown.

While there were all sorts of risks with Antetokounmpo, including health and the need to pay him a very hefty long-term contract at an even more advanced age, the idea of pairing two top-10 players was at least intriguing to the Boston fan base. Landing on a past-his-prime George earning his own super max money at age 36 was not the Plan B most expected.

Maybe the Celtics simply felt like it was time to rip the Band-Aid. There was a justifiable fear that, if things didn’t go well this season, Brown’s trade value could have diminished even lower than what Boston seemingly settled for. We refuse to believe that there wasn’t a higher probability that league volatility might have eventually pushed Brown’s value up again, but certainly that was another part of the risk that Stevens and Co. had to ponder.

Maybe the bigger “What if?” is whether the Celtics should have moved off Brown last summer. If the team knew it was going to navigate the so-called gap year the team vehemently pushed back against, then could the Celtics have gotten a bigger haul for Brown (or even Derrick White) and chased a lottery pick while Tatum rehabbed?

The 2025-26 season was such a joy to watch that it feels weird to suggest the team should have embraced a far less enticing path. That said, that route might have expedited the return to true contender status. Hindsight is, of course, 20/20.

Little good can come from lingering on the past. What’s done is done. We’ve had an entire moratorium to process this trade. You don’t have to like it, but this is the path that Boston brass has chosen.

Stevens deserves some benefit of the doubt given his track record. He built a title team in 2023. The last two summers have been incredibly painful with the teardown in the aftermath, but there’s a pathway to a similar roster splurge in the summer of 2027.

The Celtics can reset pesky repeater penalties by staying under the luxury tax again this year. Next summer could provide an opportunity to chase a new star to pair alongside Tatum. There’s a very real pathway to combining the final year of George’s contract with Boston’s growing pile of picks and chasing one of the league’s biggest names.

Of course, we’re not patient around here.

The Celtics will still be competitive this season. George showed in the playoffs that he has something left in the tank, Boston will simply have to be diligent in how quickly they dispense it. There will be an opportunity for Payton Pritchard to step into a bigger spotlight yet again, and White will get every opportunity to show last year was simply an outlier shooting season. Newcomers Mitchell Robinson and Mike Conley can aid in winning.

But all eyes are on the summer of 2027. That’s when Stevens and Co. will have a real chance to show why they made the Jaylen Brown trade.

Bay Area native, G League guard Chance McMillian chasing Warriors roster spot originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

SAN FRANCISCO – Pat Spencer’s impending departure from the Warriors created, at least on paper, a vacancy on the roster for a combo guard who can come off the bench and invigorate an offense that sometimes stagnates when Stephen Curry is on the bench.

Chance McMillian is using the California Classic Summer League to submit his application for the opening.

After a solid season with the Santa Cruz Warriors, McMillian came into the weekend at Chase Center realizing Golden State is holding roster auditions; only first-round pick Yaxel Lendesborg is guaranteed to make the team. McMillian, a 6-foot-3 Bay Area native and childhood fan of the Warriors made a nice bid to get a deeper look.

Playing 17 minutes off the bench Sunday afternoon, McMillian produced 12 points and three assists in a 98-69 win over the San Antonio Spurs. His totals for the first two games – 24 points on 9-of-13 shooting from the field, including 4 of 6 from deep; six assists, six rebounds, three steals over 35 minutes – indicate that he knows his way around the court.

“He creates good situations for himself, good open looks,” Summer League coach Khalid Robinson said. “And then, when plays break down, he’s a very talented guy that can go create something for us. He gives us a little bit of everything.”

McMillian’s road to this opportunity has had more detours than Bay Area freeways at night. From two high schools in Vallejo to Grand Canyon University in Phoenix, where he spent three seasons. From GCU, he went to Texas Tech, where he played two seasons and as a senior was named to the All-Big 12 second team.

The Warriors brought McMillian into their circle last summer after he went undrafted, despite knowing surgery on his left ankle would render him unavailable. Once he recovered, he was assigned to Santa Cruz, he appeared in 30 games (24 starts), averaging 17 points, on 44.7-percent shooting from the field, including 35.7 from beyond the arc, with 5.0 assists and 4.3 rebounds.

“That whole Santa Cruz coaching staff just had unbelievable confidence in me,” McMillian said. “I felt that. I just put in the work, and each day it was just getting better for me. So, I credit the coaching staff.”

McMillian shot 40.8 percent from distance in college but was so unimpressed with his deep shot last season under coach Lainn Wilson with the Sea Dubs that he has spent countless hours in the gym at Chase Center since April. 

“Lainn and his staff did a great job with him, just teaching him like how we want to play, our spacing, making good decisions,” Robinson said. “He had a full season of doing that. He’s worked throughout this summer, like the past two months on this, with the same teaching points. He’s done a very good job of carrying over the things from Santa Cruz and postseason into the Summer League.”

In his desire to improve, McMillian also is taking cues from Curry.

“My last year at Texas Tech, I played off ball, and I literally pulled up some of his film on how he gets open off the ball,” he said. “I remember getting face-guarded at the start of conference. And he was getting face-guarded, too, in big games. So, I was just picking and choosing on how he was moving off the ball, like little things on how to get open.”

McMillian, 25, would love a chance to be on the same roster as Curry. There is a path, probably with a two-way contract. But a lot can happen between early July and late September, when Golden State opens training camp.

Spencer, who last week reached agreement to join the Phoenix Suns, began last season on a two-way contract with the Warriors before being promoted at midseason to a standard NBA contract. He used grit, fearlessness and a few memorable scoring outbursts to elevate himself from intermittent appearances to being a staple in Golden State’s rotation.

When given an opportunity, Spencer exploited it.

McMillian is seeking an opportunity to fill a void on a roster still in progress. His best bet, as the California Classic ends Monday night and the team moves to the Las Vegas Summer League later this week is to maintain the early trajectory that began with the last two games.

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Quinten Post reportedly signing three-year, $30M Grizzlies contract offer sheet originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

A recent Warriors NBA draft success story could be on his way out.

Third-year center and restricted free agent Quinten Post is signing a three-year, $30 million contract offer sheet with the Memphis Grizzlies, ESPN’s Shams Charania reported Monday, citing sources.

As Charania mentions, the Warriors, with Post being a restricted free agent, have until 11:59 p.m. ET on Tuesday to match the offer.

However, it appears unlikely they will, given the team already has signed veteran bigs Kristaps Porziņģis and Al Horford to new contracts this offseason.

Golden State selected Post with the No. 52 pick in the 2024 NBA Draft, and the Dutch big man quickly established himself as an intriguing stretch big in coach Steve Kerr’s system.

In 109 career games (49 starts) across two seasons with the Warriors, Post averaged 7.8 points, 3.8 rebounds and 1.4 assists per game on 44.3-percent shooting from the field and 36.4 percent from 3-point range in 16.9 minutes per game.

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If you are anything like me, you have been watching highlights from the Utah Jazz summer league victory on Saturday afternoon incessantly with a massive cheesy grin every single time. Luckily for people like us, the Jazz take the floor once again, this time against a familiar face in Taylor Hendricks and the #3 overall pick in the 2026 NBA Draft, Cameron Boozer.

How to Watch the Salt Lake City Summer League?

Who: Utah Jazz vs Memphis Grizzlies

When: Monday, July 6, 2026 | 7:00 MT

Where: Jon M. Huntsman Center, Salt Lake City, UT

How to watch: Prime Video, ESPN, League Pass, KJZZ, Jazz+

Players to Watch

Darryn Peterson

Coming as a surprise to absolutely no one, the main player to watch in this one is once again going to be Darryn Peterson. After an absolutely superb debut showing on Independence Day, where he tallied 28 points on 11/21 shooting to go along with 5 rebounds, 2 assists, and 2 steals, all eyes will be on him to see how he will follow up those 4th of July fireworks. This time out, he will face off against the #3 overall pick, Cameron Boozer, who will surely look to make a statement against him. Darryn is the marquee player on the floor every time he plays in Summer League. As such, he has a target on his back. There are lots of guys on the opposing roster who will look to embarrass him to make a bigger name for themselves. One thing in particular to keep an eye on in this game is the turnovers. Darryn was responsible for 8 turnovers on Saturday night, and while not all of them were his fault, that is definitely a number that should be cleaned up as he gets more comfortable on the floor with his teammates.

Cody Williams

Cody Williams looked amazing in the Jazz Summer League Opener. The pessimistic side of things could look at his performance and say, “That is what 3rd-year players should do in Summer League. The optimistic side of that, however, is that there were legitimate stretches early in Cody’s NBA career when he genuinely didn’t look like he was going to make it through his rookie contract. It is really nice to see him getting stronger and more confident with the ball no matter the setting. If he can keep it up, he could be a really important player for this Jazz team with his length and defense as well.

Cameron Boozer

Cameron Boozer will come out hungry and ready to prove a point to the Jazz. Last time out, he scored 15 points on 7/11 shooting in a dominant win over the Thunder. His dad, Carlos, we all know, works in the front office for Utah and during the predraft process, was quoted in an interview with Marc Spears as saying, “If they miss the boat, they will regret it,” when asked why NBA teams should take his son. You can bet your bottom dollar that Cameron feels the exact same way and wants to embarrass Darryn Peterson in front of his home fans. Although they won’t be matched up head-to-head very often, watch out for the two guys to try to really go at it.

Luka Doncic appears to be making the most of his NBA offseason.

Doncic posted a series of photos on his Instagram Story on Sunday afternoon that included pictures of him enjoying some time out on the water.

The first photo of Doncic featured him free-falling into the ocean with his arms spread and feet going straight down.

The second photo of Doncic featured him riding on a jet ski in the deep ocean.

It’s been a busy week for the Lakers as they are now ready to fully embrace Doncic as their franchise player after news broke Wednesday that LeBron James informed the Lakers he would not return to the franchise next season.

As the Lakers are preparing for life without James, they’ve been one of the NBA’s more active teams since the offseason began.

The Lakers made a splash in building around Doncic as they landed his dream big man, Walker Kessler, in a sign-and-trade with the Jazz in a deal that cost the Lakers four first-round draft picks.

Besides adding Kessler, the Lakers also focused on getting younger.

The franchise signed Quentin Grimes, Sandro Mamukelashvili and Collin Sexton.

They also made a splash in the NBA draft, selecting Cameron Carr with the No. 24 pick on June 23.

The Lakers also gave Austin Reaves a four-year, $185 million contract extension.

With a revamped, youthful roster that doesn’t feature James headlining it, a new era of Lakers basketball is underway.

Doncic is only 27 years old and is entering his prime. He is a six-time All-Star and a two-time scoring champion. Doncic was a vital part in helping the Mavericks reach the NBA Finals in 2024.

According to Jake Fischer, the Utah Jazz have signed Trey Alexander to a two-way contract.

Alexander is a 6’5” guard who played at Creighton. His last two seasons have been with New Orleans and Denver, where he’s played a total of 33 games. His sample size last season is just 9 games, so it’s a small sample size. But those numbers are a solid 51.4% from the field and 50% from three. Again, those are small sample sizes, but his numbers increased since his rookie season, and the hope would be that they could continue to improve.

Utah is in a position now to take chances on players with potential, and if you can find a diamond in the rough, it can be a game-changer. Maybe they get play time and can help the team with depth during the season. Or, if they become a player who can hold their own on the floor, they can either trade them or make other moves that improve the team.

Right now, the Jazz are on a big upward trend. Darryn Peterson looks like the missing piece Utah has been hoping for. The starting unit will go through a lot of changes, but the other things that need to happen are improvements around the edges of the lineups. If Utah can hit on different ancillary moves, it can extend the current era much longer. Jazz fans can only hope that one of these two-way contracts ends up being a contributing addition to the team. If they do, it gives a team an edge that can take them over the top.

It’s been nearly a week since LeBron James informed the Lakers he wasn’t going to play for them next season, but apparently, the Lakers were prepared for it.

According to NBA insider Ric Bucher, on his show “On The Ball With Ric Bucher,” the Lakers have been preparing for a life without James since they acquired Luka Doncic in 2025.

“I had to smile when it was reported that LeBron informed the Lakers that he didn’t intend to play for the Lakers next year. As if the Lakers weren’t intending for that to be the case,” Bucher said on his show. “But kudos to the Lakers for allowing LeBron to present it that way and preserve some dignity on the way out.”

Bucher went on to call out James and his agent, Rich Paul, for saying that every NBA team was interested in acquiring James by saying, “If teams were interested, he wouldn’t have to reach out to them.”

At 41 years old, James is coming off a season in which he played in 60 regular-season games, averaging 20.9 points, 6.1 rebounds and 7.2 assists. James is still playing at a high level, but his numbers were below his career average of 26.8 points, 7.5 rebounds and 7.4 assists.

“It’s a sign that LeBron and Rich are struggling with the new reality, which is LeBron simply isn’t valued the way he once was. He does not have the leverage he once did,” Bucher said. “Which is not an indictment, no one is going to invest in a player that is turning 42 years old next season and comes with the outsized attention and servicing that LeBron does.”

In 2025, the Lakers shocked the world when they announced they were trading Anthony Davis to the Mavericks for Doncic in a three-team deal that included the Jazz.

Doncic was just removed from helping the Mavericks reach the NBA Finals the season before and was in the middle of having a great year, averaging 28.1 points, 8.3 rebounds and 7.8 assists per game.

While James’ next destination is unknown, it won’t be with the Lakers because the team is focusing on building around Doncic.

So far, the Lakers have acquired Walker Kessler in a sign-and-trade with the Jazz, which included multiple draft picks.

They also signed Quentin Grimes, Sandro Mamukelashvili and Collin Sexton.

Before free agency began, the Lakers re-signed Austin Reaves to a four-year, $185 million contract, making him the richest player who went undrafted in NBA history.

The Cavaliers reportedly are looking to bring a James family reunion back to Cleveland.

According to NBA insider Jake Fischer, the Cavaliers are keeping an open roster spot for Bronny James so that they can lure LeBron James this offseason.

Per The Stein Line, “One conspiracy whisper making the rounds: They want to make sure that they have open roster spots to be able to trade for the Lakers’ Bronny James in the event that they are able to welcome Dad back as a free agent signee.”

Since LeBron informed the Lakers that he is departing, rumors have swirled about his next destination: joining his former team, the Cavaliers, or a former rival, the Warriors.

LeBron has had two stints with the Cavaliers. The first was when he was drafted in 2003 and stayed until 2009. The next happened between 2014 and 2018.

His first stint in Cleveland was a special time for LeBron, as he quickly became the most decorated player to don a Cavaliers jersey. He and his wife, Savannah, had the arrival of Bronny in 2004, when LeBron was 19 years old.

When LeBron left Cleveland in 2018, two years after he helped the organization win its first NBA title in franchise history, Bronny was starting to make a name for himself as a basketball player, emerging as a top young talent at Sierra Canyon in Thousand Oaks. Bronny went on to play college basketball at USC.

Bronny was drafted in the second round by the Lakers in 2024.

The James family made NBA history that season when the LeBron and Bronny became the first father-son duo to play together, a moment LeBron said he would never forget.

If LeBron is serious about reuniting with his former team, the chance to play with his son where it all started could be intriguing enough to lure him back to Cleveland.

The Brooklyn Nets don’t have offensive or defensive coordinators, but it’s been widely known around HSS Training Center that he’s a guy whose forte is stopping the other team from scoring, whether in practices or at the end of games. As Brooklyn’s Summer League head coach in Sacramento and Las Vegas, that’s what to expect and in the two games so far in the California Classic, that’s been what has drawn attention.

In both the last minute loss to to the Sacramento Kings Saturday night and Sunday afternoon’s 89-69 win over the Milwaukee Bucks, announcers were buzzing about how the Nets defense was thwarting the other squad particularly with physicality.

Sunday’s win was particularly gratifying for Gaitley for a number of reasons. It was a homecoming. He had worked for the Kings before joining Jordi Fernandez in Brooklyn and although there was good defense played against Sacramento and Darius Acuff through most of the game Saturday, in the end, they blew a lead and walked off the court a loser. Not so on Sunday. The Nets after a slow start got out in front early and just kept rolling. By games end, Gaitley’s charges had held Milwaukee to 24-of-74 shooting, 32.4%.

The difference: “They did a better job with second chance points but as far as clearing the glass, we did pretty good.” Defense was the only improvement, either…

He got toasted afterwards…

And perhaps the most gratifying part of the big win was who Gaitley did it with. No Mikel Brown Jr., Egor Demin, Ben Saraf, Drake Powell, Danny Wolf, Joshua Jefferson, Tyler Bilodeau, Chaney Johnson! Who’s left you might ask. Well, Gaitley started with a hodge-podge of Exhibit 10s —Ben Humrichous, a 6’9” sniper and Duke Brennan, a 6’10” big — plus a trio of G League vets — John Ukamadu, a 6’5” wing who played for the Motor City Cruise; Hunter Sallis, a 6’4” guard who played for the San Diego Clippers (who’s also James Harden’s cousin) and Dwight Murray Jr. a 6’0” point guard from the College Park Skyhawks. Not the A list.

Coming off the bench another Exhibit 10: Dion Brown, another wing at 6’4” from St. Louis and 6’9” Dain Dainja who along with Brennan supplied the heft needed for the physicality.

It was Humrichous who supplied the scoring early. Brooklyn went down 12-4 early, not surprising considering how new they were to each other. At that point, the Illinois product who played with Keaton Wagler last season, decided the game was his, reeling off three straight threes. The rout was on…

Gaitley told ND how impressed he was with Humrichous who will be in Brooklyn for training camp come October.

Humrichous, who mostly came off the bench in Illinois, talked about how grateful he is for the opportunity.

Like the rest of the benchwarmers turned winners, the Summer League is going to be key to their futures and not just the three draft picks and three Exhibit 10’s. The leagues are among the most scouted in the NBA. Teams from Europe and Asia in particular are looking for talent…

Humrichous was one of five Nets in double figures. He and Sallis finished with 15 each, Murray Jr. had 14 and the two bigs, Brennan and Dainja had 10 each, Brennan adding 12 boards for a double double. The two dominated underneath.

Next up

The back-to-back-to-back ends Monday night at 8:00 p.m. ET with a game vs. the Warriors. According to Gaitley, it looks like that the Nets will be at full force and that includes Brown Jr.

“That is above my pay grade. I think the plan is that he is going to play; but I don’t make the final decisions,” said the head coach.

• Boxscore: Brooklyn Nets 89, Milwaukee Bucks 69 – NBA
• Game Highlights: Brooklyn Nets 89, Milwaukee Bucks 69 (Video) – NBA
• Nets SL player grades: Hunter Sallis drops 15 in win over Bucks – Sharif Keaton-Phillips – USA TODAY

The big news early out of July 4th in Sacramento, California, was that Mikel Brown Jr., the Brooklyn Nets highest draft pick in 16 years, would not play — and won’t play again till Monday, missing Sunday’s action as well as Saturday’s. Later though the big news was not what Brown didn’t do, but what Egor Demin did do in his 23 minutes and 46 seconds. He changed his narrative.

The player who many saw last year as unwilling or unable to touch the paint, finish the play over and over again. The added weight and muscle may have been one reason for the difference, but clearly so was his confidence in himself not just as an NBA player but as a leader…

Take a look at the highlights:

He spoke to our Shara Talia Taylor specifically about how he wants to be seen this year: someone capable of handling pressure…

This is of course would be the second time the 6’9.5” Russian has changed his narrative. When he was drafted, the league saw him as the prospect with perhaps the best court vision in his class but a woeful outside shooter. The Nets, however, dismissed that concern and he proved them right. He was along with Kon Knueppel, the best volume 3-point shooter among rookies, closely following Knueppel in the race to become the fastest player in NBA history to 100 threes and setting a rookie record for most consecutive games with a 3-pointer.

Instead the concerns were that he wasn’t getting to the paint and finishing. How much of that was his issue and how much was the Nets offensive structure was cause for some debate. And the plantar fasciitis troubled him during last summer and again at the end of the season. Was that a factor? He seems healthy now and more mature. He’s less that gangly, almost goofy kid. Last month, in one example of personal growth, he was baptized into the Mormon faith.

It all bodes well for him and the organization as does the prospect of a Demin/Brown backcourt with both capable of being lead guard. There are still going to be issues going forward, some of which Lucas Kaplan touched on at the end of last season in his retrospective but as a senior NBA decision-maker told ND early last season, “You’ll see development sooner than years end…. But in 3-4 years when you have actual players around him, you will really really see it.” Progress.

On the other hand, there were some cringeworthy moments for one of the two other members of the Flatbush 5 who played vs. the Kings. Drake Powell had some nice moments early guarding Darius Acuff but offensively, he was horrid. No other way to put it. He was 0-of-9 including five misses without a make from deep and turned the ball over four times in 27 minutes, tied for most on the team with Ben Saraf who also showed early on defense had a reputable if not spectacular offensive game.

Is Free Agency over? Or delayed a year?

Bottom line: we don’t know.

It’s fair to say that the Nets made their big off-season moves early, trading Nic Claxton and the 33rd pick (Isaiah Evans) in a three-team deal with Minnesota and Chicago that yielded Julius Randle and the 28th pick (Joshua Jefferson), then picked Mikel Brown at No. 6 which was the consensus pick and was applauded by most of the fan base. They filled things out by taking Jefferson and then at No. 43, UCLA sharpshooter Tyler Bilodeau who they promptly signed to a two-way.

Since then, they made two moves to add players to their rotation: 3-and-D point guard Keon Ellis and stretch-5 big Moe Wagner. Neither got the fan base nor pundits very much excited but a couple of league sources liked, if not loved, the additions, particularly in light of their reps as good locker room guys in a locker room which once again is looking like the league’s youngest. Currently, the Nets average age is something like 23.4 years old.

Moreover, the two will have “mutual options” next Summer, an odd contract wrinkle. A mutual option guarantees each player the full amount of the deal while allowing either side to opt-in (not opt-out) and have a conversation about a new contract next summer.

At the moment, capologists estimate that the Nets have a minimum of about $25 million in cap space left as Yossi Gozlan of Third Apron tweeted after news of the agreements with Ellis and Wagner:

That number is mushy, as Gozlan notes, and that will likely remain so until at least Monday, the official start of free agency. Here’s why: The Nets haven’t completed the Randle/Claxton trade and won’t be able to officially sign Ellis or Wagner until the clock strikes midnight Monday morning. That trade can be — and likely will be — expanded on Monday and within that possibility there are all manner of permutations, additions, etc., that can make for a much bigger trade. It’s also the opening of free agency

The Kevin Durant trade between Phoenix and Houston last season started off as a two-man deal, then ultimately expanded to seven teams, including the Nets trade of the rights of Adou Thiero, their No. 36 in the 2025 Draft to the Suns for two future firsts (one of whom became Tyler Bilodeau.)

Expect to start hearing news on that in the next few hours or by tomorrow. So stay tuned. Once the deal is done, Joshua Jefferson will be able to suit up since he’s part of the deal. He’s the 28th pick that the Nets wound up with in the exchange.

At the moment, the only rumor out there is Nets interest in Rui Hachimura, the Lakers big, but that seems unlikely in that the 6’9” forward doesn’t fit much of a need — he played most of last year at the 3 and 4 with an occasional few minutes at the 5 — and he made $18.3 million last season.

As for Peyton Watson, long rumored as a Nets target, the Nuggets are trying to find a way to keep him around, but will risk going over the second apron to keep him. On the other side of that risk assessment, they risk losing Nikola Jokic who has made it clear he wants to win. Recent reports indicate Watson wants a deal in excess of $25 million. That’s doable, of course, for Brooklyn and Joe Tsai.

Watson hasn’t been seen in the Denver area of late. He’s been sailing the Mediterranean on a yacht with his old friend and Nuggets teammate Michael Porter Jr.! Would like to have been a fly on that wall!

Sunday, Sam Amick of The Athletic reported that the Nuggets are open to a sign-and-trade if they can’t make a deal with Watson.

The Denver Nuggets intend to match any offers for restricted free agent Peyton Watson when the NBA’s moratorium lifts on Monday, said league sources who were granted anonymity to discuss the ongoing negotiations.

Yet as the Nuggets and Watson’s agent, Rich Paul of the Klutch Sports Group, have continued to be apart in negotiations for a new contract, sources say Denver is also very open to the prospect of a sign-and-trade for the 23-year-old forward.

As Amick also noted, Brooklyn and the L.A. Clippers are the only teams with enough cap space to tender an offer to Watson, but if it becomes a sign-and-trade, there likely will be others.

While it’s unclear how many teams are pursuing Watson, only the Brooklyn Nets and LA Clippers have the salary-cap space to submit the offer sheet he wants. The Clippers, league sources said, have shown legitimate interest in Watson but are also navigating their own restricted free agency situation with Bennedict Mathurin, which complicates matters. Several teams are known to have registered interest in a sign-and-trade for Watson.

Brooklyn of course has one asset among many to lure the Nuggets: Denver’s 2032 unprotected first rounder. The Nuggets are bereft of firsts.

However, it is also possible that this is it for the Nets front office. They will have 15 players with guaranteed deals if the trade goes down as originally described and with with Ellis and Wagner signed.

It would signal that while the tank is over, the rebuild will continue into next Summer when the free agent pool is deeper. In fact, it is insanely deep. At the moment, no Nets player has more than two years left on his contract, although Sean Marks & co. will have to make decisions on each of the Flatbush 5 come October 31. That’s the date that first rounders selected in the 2025 Draft can be extended beyond their second year. And they have yet to trade any of their 35 Draft picks this off-season and if things don’t change, they’ll go into the season under the cap. Flexibility continues.

We shall see … and soon.

Final Note

July 4th weekend is over and the Nets are 1-1 in the California Classic which choses tomorrow with a game between the Nets and Warriors Monday night. It’s a late one, 8:00 p.m. ET. Then it’s on to Las Vegas where the Nets play the Knicks on July 10. After Vegas, there won’t be any Nets games for nearly four months. Enjoy them. Four months is a long time.