Category: NBA

Kevin Durant agrees to 2-year extension, days before Rockets debut: Report originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

Kevin Durant is fully committed to the Houston Rockets.

Just two days before the team’s regular-season opener on NBC, the 15-time All-Star reportedly agreed to a two-year, $90 million contract extension.

ESPN’s Shams Charania first reported the news Sunday morning.

Durant will have a player option for 2027-28, giving him the choice of reaching free agency in either 2027 or 2028. The deal comes in around $30 million under the maximum extension that he could have signed, saving the team $15 million per season.

The 37-year-old Durant, now with three years and $144.7 million total on his contract, now holds the record over LeBron James for the highest career earnings in NBA history ($598.2 million).

Extending Durant gives the Rockets some security after trading for the former Phoenix Suns forward over this past summer. He was set to hit free agency next summer, with no long-term assurance that he had to stay in Houston.

Durant’s scoring ability and veteran presence should elevate the young Rockets roster, which went 52-30 last season under head coach Ime Udoka. The Rockets then lost a grueling seven-game series to the Golden State Warriors in the first round after a four-year playoff drought.

Durant is a future Hall of Famer looking to add to his legacy, which already includes two championships, two Finals MVP awards, four scoring championships, an MVP, 11 All-NBA teams and more than 30,000 points scored (currently eighth all-time).

The Rockets’ 2025-26 season begins Tuesday, Oct. 21, against the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder on NBC and Peacock.

The Knicks make it official.

At Saturday's 5 p.m. deadline, New York announced they have waived Alex Len, Garrison Mathews and Matt Ryan, leaving Landry Shamet as the player to earn the final roster spot ahead of the 2025-26 regular season.

Shamet was the clear-cut favorite to get the final roster spot, especially after the sudden retirement of veteran Malcolm Brogdon earlier this week. 

The 28-year-old guard was a solid bench option for the Knicks last season. Shamet appeared in 50 games and averaged 5.7 points and 1.2 rebounds in 15.2 minutes of play. His usage was lower in the postseason, appearing in 11 games and averaging just 2.4 minutes in 7.5 minutes per game. He was huge in the Knicks' Game 3 win over the Pacers in the Eastern Conference Finals. In that game, Shamet posted just three points and dished two assists in his 11:23 minutes of play, but was a plus-12 when he was on the court as the Knicks avoided an 0-3 hole.

As for those waived, SNY's Ian Begley reported late Friday that the team was set to waive Mathews. Mathews spent the last two seasons with the Hawks while Ryan was on the Knicks a season ago, but only appeared in 19 games and logged just 68 minutes. 

Len spent parts of last season with both the Kings and Lakers. He appeared in 46 games combined and averaged 1.6 points per game.

With the roster set, the Knicks now prepare for the season to start next Wednesday, when they host the Cavaliers for an Eastern Conference showdown.

Doctor details Moses Moody's calf injury rehab, return timeline for Warriors originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

With Warriors guard Moses Moody doubtful for Golden State’s 2025-26 NBA season opener due to a calf strain, when could the fifth-year pro make his debut?

Stanford Medicine orthopedic surgeon Dr. Geoffrey Abrams, MD, provided some expert analysis on what Dub Nation can expect from Moody’s injury — which Warriors coach Steve Kerr said the team isn’t “too concerned” about — as he works his way back to the court.

“If the team is describing it as a minor muscle strain, it’s probably … some microscopic tearing and minor partial tearing,” Abrams told NBC Sports Bay Area on Friday. “The good news about that, obviously, it’s on the lesser severe end of the spectrum, and typical return-to-play timelines are a couple weeks or so for these more minor muscle grade strains.”

Kerr said this past Tuesday, Oct. 14, that Moody would be reevaluated in a week, with the Warriors set to open their new season against the Los Angeles Lakers this Tuesday at Crypto.com Arena. A return timeline of a couple weeks, as noted by Abrams, hopefully would put Moody back in Kerr’s rotation by Golden State’s Oct. 28 game against the Los Angeles Clippers at Chase Center, their fifth contest of the season.

There are several hurdles Moody will have to clear before that happens, Abrams explained.

“Obviously, the Warriors are a great professional organization and they’ve got top notch medical personnel, so they’re going to run him through the professional protocol and things like that,” Abrams said. “In terms of returning to play, he basically has to be able to participate in full practices 100 percent, and before he even gets to that, he has to demonstrate he’s got strength, range of motion, flexibility of the muscle and be able to do the things that are required for an NBA athlete, of course, before they even throw him into full practices.

“And then, once he’s comfortable with full practices and jumping and running up and down the court, that’s when you start to think about getting back into games. Sometimes … there’s situations where they may limit minutes initially before throwing him back into full pre-injury participation. But that just depends on a variety of different circumstances.”

After entering the Warriors’ starting lineup late last season en route to the NBA playoffs, Moody missed Golden State’s final three preseason contests this month with his calf issue.

As long as the Warriors don’t rush Moody back, Abrams noted, there’s little chance that the calf strain impacts Moody’s play moving forward, and the chance of an Achilles tear, as has been seen in countless NBA stars recently, is minimal.

“Certainly re-injury is also sometimes a possibility, but that’s why you go through the protocol is really to reduce that risk and not put him out there before he’s ready, which I’m sure the staff will do,” Abrams said.

Moody has proven himself as a valuable member of the Warriors’ lineup, and Kerr certainly hopes to have the 23-year-old back sooner rather than later.

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Steph Curry outlines Warriors' ‘mission' before NBA season opener vs. Lakers originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

Steph Curry and the Warriors have some unfinished business to take care of as their 2025-26 NBA season tips off Tuesday in Los Angeles.

After Golden State’s preseason finale on Friday night at Chase Center, the team’s star point guard outlined how Opening Night against Luka Dončić and the Los Angeles Lakers can set the tone as the Warriors seek a return to the NBA playoffs.

“It’s the same mission every year,” Curry told reporters after the Warriors’ 106-103 preseason loss to the Los Angeles Clippers. “Last year we accomplished it, and the wheels fell [off] a little bit. But no matter [what], you don’t really want to fast forward too much or panic if it doesn’t go well to begin with, but you want to have intentionality on how you’re trying to start out both ends of the floor, understanding, again, we’re a team that is building on a foundation we had last year, so want to win the first game.”

Stephen Curry said the Warriors want to have “intentionality” with how they start the regular season Tuesday in Los Angeles.

“Were a team that is building on the foundation we had last year. So, you want to win the first game. That’s kind of how you take it.”

More: pic.twitter.com/ZQNlYH0UXz

— Sam Gordon (@BySamGordon) October 18, 2025

Curry and Co. will play their first game of the new campaign against a Lakers team without LeBron James, who is out with sciatica to start the season, at Crypto.com Arena. But after Los Angeles added Dončić in February of this year, Curry knows a steep challenge awaits the Warriors as they enter their first full season with their own recent trade-deadline acquisition in Jimmy Butler.

“It’s exciting knowing we’re starting on the road against a team that — wish LeBron was playing — but is lethal with Luka, so a good test to start out, and hopefully we can hit the ground running.”

The Warriors jumped out to a 12-3 record in their first 15 games last season and certainly hope to do so again this year — but instead, keep that momentum going this time as the season progresses. They hit a wall after their hot start in 2024-25, and Butler’s arrival in February rejuvenated the team and helped Golden State reach the postseason before a second-round exit.

Now, Curry, Butler and the rest of the Warriors will look to begin the new season on a high note in just a few days.

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There were some question marks surrounding Egor Demin's shooting ahead of the 2025 NBA Draft, and rightfully so.

Demin shot just 27.3 percent from three during his lone season of college basketball at BYU, causing many scouts to be hesitant about how his shot would translate to the NBA. But that didn't scare the Nets away, as they saw the potential star upside in his game and selected him with the No. 8 overall pick in June. 

While it's still very early in his professional career, Demin demonstrated his skill set Friday night in his preseason debut against the Toronto Raptors. The 19-year-old, who missed the team's first three preseason games due to a plantar fascia tear, scored 14 points with five rebounds and an assist in 19 minutes off the bench.

The performance earned him praise from teammates Michael Porter Jr. (34 points) and Cam Thomas (seven points), who believe the 6-foot-9 rookie can make a real impact in the NBA.

"Oh, yeah, he’s solid. He’s going to be really good," Porter Jr. told the New York Post. "Positionally, for his size, if he can translate all those point guard skills over to the pros, he’s going to be a problem. 

"He makes the right reads and the right plays. So I know it may take time to deal with the physicality of the point guard position in the NBA, but once he gets the hang of it, he’s going to be really, really good."

the rook pullin' up with confidence! 🎯@whoisegor3 | #NetsWorldpic.twitter.com/6GJIxez3Bt

— Brooklyn Nets (@BrooklynNets) October 18, 2025

Demin's 14 points came on 3 of 5 shooting, including 2 of 3 from three-point range, and 6 of 7 on free throws. 11 of his 14 points came in the first half, including all of the foul shots. He also recorded a block and committed two turnovers in the 119-114 loss.

"He was great. He was great. Obviously, it’s preseason, but he was good for his first game," Thomas said. "We’ll see what happens in Charlotte, but it was a great start for him, for sure."

While Demin is still working his way back to full strength from the foot injury, as he only started playing five-on-five while the team was in China, head coach Jordi Fernandez was pleased with what he saw from the guard Friday night.

"He was excellent," Fernandez said. "There’s going to be things he’s going to keep working on. We’ve got to keep building him up physically to be able to sustain more minutes. … But I’m very happy with his presence, how composed he was, how he talked to his teammates, all those things. And made it look easy. 

"He shot the ball every time he was open or halfway open, got to the free-throw line and rebounded. He got five rebounds, made nice plays at the rim. It was good."

Demin added that his first bit of NBA action was a great learning experience, and he'll take those lessons with him into the regular season.

"Yeah, 100 percent. I’ve been told a lot about the Raptors as one of the most physical and longest teams from the standpoint of pressure almost the whole game, and how pesky they are," Demin said. "I don’t want to say I was scared, but I was super aware of what to expect. But I also couldn’t understand what to expect in my first game … so I’m just happy we went through this and had this experience. It’s a huge lesson for all of us, and I can’t wait for the start of the season."

Domantas Sabonis to miss Kings' season opener with Grade 1 hamstring injury originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

The Kings will begin the 2025-26 NBA season without their star center.

Domantas Sabonis suffered a Grade 1 hamstring strain and will miss at least the first two games of the season. The Kings say he will be re-evaluated in one week.

Sabonis exited Wednesday’s preseason game against the Los Angeles Clippers and later was ruled out with the hamstring issue. An MRI confirmed a Grade 1 strain.

Sacramento now will be without two starters to begin the new season, as forward Keegan Murray had surgery to repair a UCL tear in his left thumb and will be out for at least three to six weeks.

Sabonis has been instrumental to the Kings over the past couple of seasons, with their offense running through the 6-foot-10 big man.

In Friday’s preseason finale against the Los Angeles Lakers, the Kings started newly acquired Drew Eubanks with Sabonis out. Isaac Jones, Dario Saric, Dylan Cardwell and Maxime Raynaud are options, too.

Through 246 games in just over three seasons with Sacramento, Sabonis has averaged 19.2 points, 13.2 rebounds and 7.1 assists in 34.9 minutes.

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Warriors waive Seth Curry, expected to re-sign him later in 2025-26 season originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

The Warriors, as expected, waived guard Seth Curry on Saturday.

Seth Curry, the younger brother of franchise superstar Steph Curry, was in Warriors camp on a non-guaranteed Exhibit 9 contract.

Warriors waive guards LJ Cryer & Seth Curry: pic.twitter.com/is4HgJuMwz

— Warriors PR (@WarriorsPR) October 18, 2025

Golden State intends to bring him back around mid-November, as the team is hard-capped at the second tax apron and currently not in a position to carry a 15th player.

ESPN’s Anthony Slater reported the Warriors could opt to wait longer than mid-November to give themselves more flexibility for the rest of the season.

Warriors general manager Mike Dunleavy addressed Seth’s complex contract situation speaking to the media on Oct. 1.

“As far as the season goes, yeah, he’s on a one-year deal, and we’ll figure it out as we go,” Dunleavy said. “There’s some cap and apron stuff that we’ve got to deal with, but that’s something for our strategy team to figure out.”

Golden State also waived guard LJ Cryer.

The Warriors now have 14 players on standard contracts and three on two-way deals.

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Sloppy Warriors vow to make fixes before 2025-26 NBA season opener vs. Lakers originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

SAN FRANCISCO – Stephen Curry concluded his 2025 NBA preseason Friday night as the best player on the floor, while the rest of the Warriors too often looked like the squad that fumbled and bumbled its way through the heart of last season.

You may recall the days and nights of “mid,” before Jimmy Butler III arrived to fill the role of stabilizing sidekick, helping Curry lift the team to heights it never would have achieved.

After the Warriors’ performance in the preseason, they might welcome back Butler with a kiss.

Their most significant minutes in a 106-103 loss to the diminished Los Angeles Clippers were a festival of turnovers and errant shooting. In what often is considered a dress rehearsal for the regular season, there was more disorder than order.

The first quarter was an utter disaster for the Warriors, with 11 turnovers turning into 16 of LA’s 31 points. Golden State committed 23 turnovers in all, gifting the Clippers 29 points.

“Nine [turnovers] in the first six minutes,” coach Steve Kerr said. “That bothers me.”

Brandin Podziemski committed three giveaways in the first quarter and finished with six. Draymond Green committed two in his first seven minutes and finished with five.

“A lot of turnovers, a lot of careless turnovers,” said Al Horford, who committed one turnover in 20 minutes. “I started with one, I’m going to the post and threw it out of bounds. And I feel like after that, we just kind of snowballed.”

Some chaos is natural, as injuries to Moses Moody and Butler – starters late last season – have Kerr shuffling through a variety of lineups, some of which might never again be seen.

Curry, who committed one turnover in 30 minutes, made no excuses for those who were on the court, no matter the lineups.

“I would say it was more sloppy play in general,” Curry said.

“But preseason is interesting because you’re trying stuff out, but there’s not as much game-plan preparation in the sense of, ‘What do the Clippers do?’ We have a mentality to that kind of approach, and you save a lot of that for the regular season.”

In short, the Warriors were keeping their regular-season plans under wraps. Didn’t matter that the Clippers were without Kawhi Leonard, James Harden, Brook Lopez and Chris Paul.

Golden State’s biggest concealment, though, was the absence of Butler. He is among the best in the game at assessing disarray and restoring order. On a night when the Warriors sorely needed that skill, he was missing his third consecutive game after tweaking his left ankle last weekend. He appeared in only two of the five preseason games.

He is, for this roster, a key ballhandler and, also, the cleanup man.

“Some of it [was odd rotations], but some of it is just careless play and lack of fundamentals,” Kerr said. “One-hand passes off the dribble when two hands are available. And if you have two hands on the ball, and the guy cuts as you’re passing, you can pull it back. But one hand, you throw it out of balance. And we had several of those. So, the fundamental stuff has to improve.

“But, you know, I think Jimmy solves a lot of that.”

Said Horford: “I do think that once Jimmy gets back out there and all our guys, I feel like there will be more of an awareness, an urgency and understanding that we have to take care of the ball.”

The Warriors committed 110 turnovers in their five preseason games, averaging 22 per game. That’s about six or seven more than Kerr’s comfort zone.

“We definitely had a turnover problem throughout the preseason,” Kerr said. “But I’m confident that when the lights go on Tuesday, our guys will be locked in.

“We had a lot of mix-and-match lineups, but that’s not an excuse for the careless ones. So, we’ve got to improve. We need a couple of good days of practice before we head out to LA but I’m confident we can. We should be fine.”

Taking care of the ball has been an issue with the Warriors for 11 seasons. It remains one of the points of emphasis for every game. Butler is the antidote. At least they hope he is.

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After slow-playing stars Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves, rotating different lineups to accommodate an unreasonably busy six-game preseason schedule and giving their two-way players extended run, the Lakers buttoned up the rotation for a final preseason game Friday that coach JJ Redick called a “dress rehearsal.”

With the curtain finally lifting on Tuesday, the Lakers are not quite ready for showtime.

Doncic dazzled with 31 points, nine assists and five rebounds to lead five double-digit Lakers scorers, but the Kings came back for a 117-116 win at Crypto.com Arena. Despite playing without Keegan Murray, Domantas Sabonis, DeMar DeRozan or Malik Monk, the Kings still shot 54.7% from the field, led by 25 points on 10-of-17 shooting from former Laker Dennis Schroder. Redick lauded the Lakers' 28 assists to 10 turnovers, but lamented that they should have had 35 assists had some lob plays not gone awry. 

The result won’t count, but the energy from the sideline in the final seconds still indicated the tight game mattered to those on the court. When Lakers guard Dalton Knecht hit a game-tying three-pointer with 9.4 seconds remaining, the entire Lakers bench, full of the starters and rotation players who had earned a rest to finish the preseason, jumped in the air to celebrate. 

But Kings forward Isaac Jones made a winning free throw with 0.8 seconds left after he was fouled by Nick Smith Jr. Doncic’s initial thought when asked what the team could take from its final preseason game was that it didn’t win. 

“We have two more practices,” Doncic said, “so we need to clean up some things.”

While Doncic and Austin Reaves (eight points, four rebounds and eight assists) played together in a preseason game for the first time, the Lakers were still without superstar LeBron James, who remains sidelined because of a sciatica issue in his right side. His absence, which is expected to last at least until November, forced the Lakes to re-evaluate their starting lineup.

Redick unveiled his first choice to fill the role, adding guard Gabe Vincent into the starting lineup along with Reaves, Doncic, forward Rui Hachimura and center Deandre Ayton. Vincent, who averaged 17 points in his first three preseason games while shooting 50% from three-point range, continued his incredible preseason with 14 points on five-of-six shooting with four made threes.

The 29-year-old who has struggled with injuries the last two seasons played the majority of the preseason without Doncic or Reaves, but fit into the starting lineup seamlessly Friday as a potential solution to James’ absence.

“His ability to shoot the ball in such tight windows; he takes shots that I would never even think about taking in situations,” Reaves said before the game Friday. “... And it can't happen to a better guy. He's one of our leaders of this team. Lead-by-example kind of guy. Shows up at work every single day, smile on his face.”

Marcus Smart, whose preseason got off to a slow start because of Achilles tendinopathy, came off the bench for 14 points with three rebounds.

It was a classic “Marcus Smart game,” Redick said proudly. The former NBA defensive player of the year dove on the floor for balls. He knocked down shots after a slow first half to score 11 points in the second half and attacked aggressively off the dribble.   

“This is probably the best I felt tonight since I got here,” said Smart, who has played in just 54 regular-season games over the last two seasons because of injuries. “As I continue to get better and get to 100%, you’ll see more nights like tonight where I’m more aggressive and I’m moving really well and just energy on both ends of the floor.” 

Smart was seen as a potential starting option after he signed with the Lakers. The team was desperate for his defense, leadership and toughness, and needs it even more with James sidelined. The team’s initial timeline that he would be re-evaluated in three to four weeks covers the first nine regular-season games. It will be the first time in James’ 23-season NBA career that he misses the season opener.

The 40-year-old superstar sat at the end of the bench Friday on an elevated seat cushion.

The Lakers were also without Bronny James (ankle) and rookie Adou Thiero (knee). Center Jaxson Hayes, who slammed three monstrous dunks in the first half, didn’t play the second half because of a right wrist contusion sustained on a lob dunk. Redick said X-rays were negative. 

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

The Knicks will waive guard Garrison Mathews ahead of Saturday’s 5 p.m. deadline, league sources told SNY’s NBA Insider Ian Begley.

New York has been impressed by Mathews’ play during the preseason and training camp, but with the club financially restricted by the second apron, there was no space for the 29-year-old veteran.

Mathews, off that strong preseason, is expected to draw interest from teams around the league looking to add shooting ahead of the regular season.

Entering the preseason, the Knicks had veterans Landry Shamet and Malcolm Brogdon battling with Matthews for the final available roster spot. With Brogdon announcing his retirement earlier this week and Matthews' release, the final spot will go to Shamet.

Shamet joined the Knicks last year, appearing in 50 games off the bench, averaging 5.7 points on 46.1 percent shooting (39.7 percent from three) in 15.2 minutes.

Mathews did not play in New York's preseason finale on Friday. Shamet logged 20 minutes off the bench, scoring 11 points on 3-for-5 shooting (all from three) and was a plus-3 in the 113-108 win over Charlotte.

Mathews, undrafted out of Lipscomb in 2019, broke into the league with Washington, where he spent two years before bouncing to Houston for parts of two seasons and spending the last two years in Atlanta. In 314 career games (64 starts), the six-foot-six guard has averaged 6.5 points on 40 percent shooting (38.2 percent from three) in 17.5 minutes.