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Warriors' reported free-agent target spotted with Steph Curry, Gary Payton II originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

For the second straight NBA offseason, the Warriors have yet to add any new players and seem intent on running it back with their current roster. But Golden State could have some players on its radar, including former Chicago Bulls draft pick Dalen Terry, who was spotted at a Valkyries game with Steph Curry and Gary Payton II.

Terry, the 18th overall pick in the 2022 draft, played the first three and a half seasons of his career in Chicago, and while he was known for his tenacity on defense, he did not reach his full potential and was dealt by the Bulls at the trade deadline and eventually ended up with the Philadelphia 76ers.

Despite signing a two-year deal with the team in April and showing signs of promise, he was waived in July to make room for LeBron James. But only 24-years-old and someone who has the tools to be a star, the Warriors could look to add him to their training camp roster and see what he can do, with NBA insider Jake Fischer believing Golden State is doing its due diligence.

“I did hear that Dalen Terry is someone on the Warriors’ radar for a training camp invite. Dalen Terry was on a non-guaranteed deal with Philadelphia,” Fischer said. “He did not make the roster crunch with the Sixers after they had to make some space for LeBron James and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope.”

Once an NBA powerhouse, making it to five straight Finals from 2015-19 and winning four titles– most recently in 2022– recent seasons have not been kind to Golden State. Missing the playoffs entirely last season, the franchise fields one of the league’s oldest rosters, with their main core of Curry, Draymond Green and Jimmy Butler all over the age of 35.

By adding Terry, the Warriors would get younger while also giving them pieces that they can build around for the future and keep them competitive even after the Curry era. Finishing middle of the pack in defense last season, adding Terry would give the Warriors a massive boost in that category while also giving them a player who can contribute some points offensively.

The Warriors open training camp at the end of September, where the focus will be on bouncing back and returning to the playoffs, starting with their first regular-season game on the road against the Los Angeles Lakers on Oct. 21.

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Julius Erving had a bit of a rough start to his professional career. He was drafted by the Milwaukee Bucks, but signed contracts with the Atlanta Hawks and the ABA’s Virginia Squires.

The first dispute was settled by the NBA: his draft rights belonged to Milwaukee, and the Hawks were out of luck. The second dispute was settled by the courts: he had to play for the Squires.

This was really too bad, because if he had played for Milwaukee, he would have suited up with Oscar Robertson and a young Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, while in Atlanta, he would have teamed up with an equally young Pistol Pete Maravich.

It’s rather mind-boggling either way you look at it, but the idea of Maravich having Erving to pass to in the open court is simply incredible.

He did just fine in the ABA, of course, revolutionizing the game to the point where he was the main factor behind the 1976 ABA-NBA merger.

Well, other than money, of course, which the ABA greatly lacked. Nonetheless, the greatest show in basketball was in the upstart league, and the NBA could not abide that.

When he arrived as a Squires rookie, Erving – there’s no other way to put this – freaked people out. It was like young Elvis Presley in the 1950s: no one had ever seen anything like that before, and that includes the people who knew Erving at UMass, who were stunned at the transformation.

Erving later said that he felt liberated when he turned pro and could let his talent and imagination run wild.

This video explores that glorious era.

It didn’t last long, at least not for the Squires. Money woes forced them trade Ervng to his hometown New York Nets for $750,000, and with the Nets, he went from being a curiosity in Norfolk to the most glittering star in the Big Apple.

In other words, he was a Net when he truly became a legend.

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The Boston Celtics did not glide smoothly down from the Russell years; they fell off a cliff.

They wrapped up the 1969/70 season with a 34-48 record under rookie coach Tommy Heinsohn.

Playoffs? The Celtics missed them for the first time in twenty years.

The following year, Boston improved to 44-38, but still missed the playoffs.

Things were looking up, however.

By the third year of the Post-Russell era, the Celtics were 56 game winners, and they advanced as far as the Eastern Conference Finals on the back of second year players Dave Cowens and JoJo White, third year player Don Chaney, and veteran players John Havlicek and Don Nelson.

The Celtics lost the Eastern Conference Finals to the Knicks in a gentleman’s sweep of five games in 1972.

In 1973, the Celtics won a franchise record 68 games and added another veteran contributor in Paul Silas, but lost to the Knicks in a seven game affair that saw the green and white claw their way back from a 3-1 deficit, only to fall, at home, to the eventual champs.

Regular Season

1974 saw the Celtics win 56 games again, but, tellingly, their longest losing streak during the regular season was just two games. They started the season hot, running out to a 16-3 record, and were on pace for 60+ wins at the All-Star break. Things slowed down a bit in the second half of the season, but Boston’s record was still good enough for first place in the Atlantic Division and the top seed in the Eastern Conference.

Looking at the season-long tallies, the Celtics were good, but not elite—they didn’t lead the league in points per game, points per 100 possessions, or, on the opposite end of the court, points allowed per game or per 100 possessions. Despite having a reputation for running the court under Heinsohn, the Celtics were only 5^th of 17 in terms of pace. Their net rating was only the third best in the league; they were behind the Detroit Pistons and the Milwaukee Bucks, who were playing in the absolutely stacked Midwestern Division—the NBA had four 50 game winning teams in the 1973/74 season, and three of them were in the four team Midwestern division.

Any prognosticator with a decent head on his shoulders would’ve given the title to the Milwaukee Bucks, who came out of the league’s toughest division, bar none, and were led a young center who was already an absolute force to be reckoned with: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

Eastern Playoffs

Boston’s first round opponent was the Buffalo Braves, a recent expansion franchise led by Bob McAdoo, whose 30.6 points per game average was the best in the league. The team also had Ernie DiGregorio, who would win Rookie of the Year honors and a future Hall-of-Famer in Jack Ramsey calling shots from the bench. All of which suggested that, despite their 42-40 record, the Braves were going to be a ‘tough out’

At this time, playoffs within the conference alternated home and road, and through the first five games, home court held sway. Buffalo was playing to a packed house in the cavernous Buffalo Memorial Auditorium, where they won game two by ten points and game four by two.

Buffalo outscored Boston by three in the second quarter of game four to take a 51-48 halftime lead. Boston won the third by five points, setting up a barn-burner of a fourth quarter, with each team recording game-high point totals.

Buffalo was clinging to a two point lead with just 15 seconds to go when Jim McMillan lost the ball to Havlicek and Cowens; Cowens converted the steal into a game-tying basket with just nine seconds left. In a dog’s breakfast of a play that was drawn up by Ramsey and blown up by Hondo attempting to draw a charge, the ball bounced out to Bob McAdoo who had scored 15 of the Braves 30 points thus far in the quarter. His fifteen footer missed, but Jim McMillan was there to tip it in as time expired. The game was a classic with 28 ties and nine lead changes, but it went the wrong way for the Celtics and their fans. Bob McAdoo’s 44 points was almost as high as the 46 points notched by Boston’s two leading scorers, Havlicek and Don Nelson (22 and 24 respectively).

Game five saw Boston hold on for a three point win, giving them a 3-2 advantage that they brought home with a game six win. That game six win was a nailbiter that probably shouldn’t have been. Legendary Globe reporter and columnist Bob Ryan called it “another one of those Celtics down-the-stretch specials,” explaining, “the Bostonians build up a lead in the fourth quarter and try to protect it by giving the other team 437 chances to get back in the game.”

The Celtics nearly squandered a nine point lead in the closeout game. With a 104-100 lead and twenty seconds on the clock the Celtics had two clumsy turnovers turn into four points by Bob McAdoo, tying the game. Unfortunately for McAdoo on the final possession of the game, he blocked a Havlicek shot, but fell victim to a pump fake by JoJo White that sent him to the line where he calmly delivered the winning margin with two free throws.

From this point, it might have been expected that the Celtics would face an extreme test in the next round, as they faced off against the defending champs and the team which had eliminated them in the conference finals each of the past two years.

As it turned out, the Knicks were no match for the Celtics. Boston outscored the Knicks by 50 in a five game matchup where their closest margin of victory was seven points.

That set up a Finals contest against, to no one’s surprise, the Milwaukee Bucks.

NBA Finals

The Bucks had cruised to the Finals with an 8-1 record over the first two rounds, and an average margin of victory of 14.67 points.

The Celtics were not the odds-on favorite to win this matchup. Heck, even Bill Russell, by then the head coach of the Seattle Supersonics, picked the Bucks to win.

But Bob Ryan saw things a bit differently. Before the series started, Ryan noted that the Bucks were pretty much a one-man show, and predicted that the Celtics would win in six.

Ryan noted that the Celtics were excellent at applying full-court pressure to the other team’s ballhandler, and with the Bucks relying on an aging Oscar Robertson, the Celtics figured to take him out of the picture, leaving everything on the shoulders of Kareem.

And Kareem was so good at this point in his career, that they dang near pulled it off.

Game one was a cakewalk, as the Celtics cruised to a 16 point first quarter lead and spent the rest of the game playing keep away from the Bucks, with the final score coming to 98-83. Kareem scored 35 points, which was almost as much as the Bucks’ next four highest scoring players combined (12, 12, 6, 6), as the Celtics strategy of putting everything on Kareem’s shoulders paid off in the opener.

Game two was an overtime classic. Boston came into the fourth quarter with an eleven point deficit. They closed it and had two chances to steal two games from the Bucks in their home arena, only to have a shot by Cowens blocked by Jabbar with eleven seconds to go. Hondo’s shot with three seconds to go off the rebound of Kareem’s block, missed the mark as well.

In overtime, the Celtics, exhausted by the effort required to come back, were outscored 15-6 as the Bucks ran away with it.

Game three went to Boston, as the Celtics once again notched a double-digit victory with a 95-83 final score. Cowens stopped trying to challenge Kareem in the paint and used his skills as an outside shooter to tally 30 points. Boston’s full court press, as predicted by the Globe’s Bob Ryan, was crucial, with the Celtics forcing eleven turnovers in the first quarter alone and 27 for the game.

Game four went Milwaukee’s way as Kareem scored 34 points and the Bucks tied the series 2-2 off an 89-97 final score.

While the Bucks may have been dismayed that they were tied with the Celtics, they at least held home court advantage for the remainder of the series.

That advantage lasted right up until the tipoff of game five. Kareem scored 37 points in the contest, which was a series high for both teams, but Boston held a 20-15 advantage after the first quarter, and they won every succeeding quarter except the second, on their way to a 96-87 victory. The Celtics now had a chance to close out the heavily favored Bucks at home in game six.

Things didn’t quite work out that way, but the game was an instant classic just the same.

As had happened earlier in the series, Cowens got into foul trouble, picking up three early in the game, and the Bucks built a lead that was as high as twelve points in the first half. The C’s entered the fourth quarter down six, but Boston fought their way back, with Hondo hitting a jumper from the right side that tied the game at 86 with less than a minute to go. When Boston forced a 24 second violation on the following possession, the game headed into overtime.

Overtime was tight, with both teams scoring just four points apiece. Milwaukee was up two, 88-90, when a Don Chaney steal led to Havlicek missing a shot and then making another after he snagged his own rebound.

The second overtime was as loose as the first overtime was tight. Over just four minutes of play, the two teams combined for 23 points. Havlicek, who had been instrumental in getting the Celtics this far, scored nine of the team’s eleven points in this period.

It was almost enough.

Dave Cowens fouled out and the Bucks pushed to a 100-99 lead. With less than 24 seconds left and Heinsohn desperately trying to get a time out called, Havlicek came through again, arcing a jump shot through the net for a 101-100 lead. But there was still a little bit of game left—just enough for Kareem to turn a skyhook into a 102-101 advantage. It was good enough, and the Celtics were headed back to Milwaukee and a do-or-die game seven.

In the decisive game of the series, Tommy Heinsohn made a major adjustment to his defensive strategy.

This was no longer a seven game series in which it would be difficult for Kareem to carry the Bucks to victory.

This was a single 48 minute contest, and one which could hinge on the play of just one man.

Heinsohn’s solution was to throw the kitchen sink at him.

With Cowens getting into foul trouble twice in the series already, Heinsohn wanted anyone and everyone within hooting distance of Kareem’s height to cover him—and Kareem found himself double and even triple-teamed during the course of the game.

The result was a 26 point outing from Kareem, which was more than offset by Cowens’ 28 points, as the Boston center, relieved of some of his defensive duties by the heavy Celtics coverage of his counterpart, was able to play with more energy on offense.

The Celtics were never challenged in game seven, as they cruised to a 15 point victory on Milwaukee’s home court.

Turning Point

The turning point was Heinsohn’s strategy of concentrating nearly all the team’s defensive effort on Kareem in game seven. Kareem was held to a series low with 26 points, and looked, if not exactly human, closer to human than he’d looked up to that point. Bob Ryan’s take on the Bucks as a one-man team was more or less justified, as the rest of the Bucks struggled to score. The next leading scorers after Kareem were Mickey Davis with 15 and Bob Dandridge with 14. In fact, the difference between the two teams basically came down to the Celtics putting one more player in double figures than Milwaukee.

It Wasn’t Over Until…

The Celtics continued their tradition of winning game sevens. Russell was, famously, 10-0 in these games, and the Celtics proudly carried on the  tradition of playing up to the moment in these winner-take-all contests.

When the dust settled, the Celtics had won their first championship since Russell had hung up his sneakers, and the first of Tommy Heinsohn’s career as a coach.

Banner Years continues tomorrow with the Greatest Game and the Celtics’ path to Banner 13.

This is a stretch to say, but is the offseason melting into the preseason quicker than we expected? If we’re to base our judgement exclusively on having two of these posts published in a span of just three days, not so much! On to some links and notes!

• In case you missed it, now we know the Knicks’ five-game preseason schedule, which includes a trip out of the US of A.
• The Knicks’ repeat bid would put them in increasingly rare company, and Michael Zeno has the breakdown covered. Per Zeno, New York already broke one historical pattern last season by becoming only the second champion since 1978 to win without receiving a single MVP vote. So… do you believe?
• Mike D’Antoni and Amar’e Stoudemire were inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame on Saturday, a little more than two months after the Knicks won their first championship in 53 years.
• Stoudemire reflected on becoming the star who helped make New York relevant again when few players wanted to come.

“New York, the Garden, there’s nothing like it… before I got there, no one else wanted to go to New York. So that’s why I was like, ‘The Knicks are back, and we’re gonna do this.’”

• D’Antoni, meanwhile, used his speech to remember another famous Knicks chapter: Linsanity.

“Jeremy, he was on a 10-day contract and close to being released. But my assistants, Kenny Atkinson, Dan D’Antoni and Phil Weber, kept telling me, just give him a chance. Boy, were they right.”

• Karl-Anthony Towns got another ring this summer.
• Mitchell Robinson sounds pretty happy about his move to Boston, and lobster is a reason why.
• Losing Ariel Hukporti to Philadelphia continues to look more significant as the Knicks search for a third center, SI’s Isaiah De Los Santos believes.
• Opening Night against Philadelphia is already looking absurdly expensive, with the cheapest tickets ranging from $1,881 to $1,970. No need to mention the game is on pace to become the most expensive opener in NBA history.
• Charles Oakley is not treating the latest dismissal of his lawsuit against Madison Square Garden as the end after a federal judge dismissed the case for a third time.
• The NBA publicly pushed back hard against an ESPN report regarding the Kawhi Leonard-Clippers investigation.

“ESPN’s article regarding the LA Clippers investigation – for which the NBA declined to cooperate – contains numerous and significant inaccuracies. The results in this matter will be made clear once the investigation is concluded.” — NBA spokesman Mike Bass.

• The Lakers’ latest ownership drama is getting messier. Sister blog Silver Screen and Roll has you covered, if you want a laugh.
• Enes Kanter Freedom continues his announced attempt to play in the WNBA, has officially declared for the 2027 WNBA Draft, and now he’s also proclaimed himself the next No. 1 overall pick. Not only that, Enes has promised to dunk on Angel Reese, who he says is “the Paul George” of the W.

According to his agent, George Langberg, guard Sean Pedulla and the Houston Rockets have reached an agreement on a two-way contract.

Pedulla, 23, joins Quadir Copeland and Tristen Newton as Houston’s final available two-way position. Players can play for both an NBA team and its G League affiliate under two-way contracts.

After four seasons in college—three with Virginia Tech and one with Mississippi—Pedulla was not selected in the 2025 draft. In February, he signed a two-way contract with the Los Angeles Clippers after succeeding with Portland’s G League club, the Rip City Remix. He was named G League Rookie of the Year after finishing the season with an average of 20.3 points and 4.5 assists on effective shooting.

The 6-foot-1 guard doesn’t appear to have a clear route to playing in the NBA the following season. Amen Thompson, Reed Sheppard, and Fred VanVleet are Houston’s return guards. In addition, the Rockets acquired Bruce Thornton with the 31st pick in the 2026 draft and Marcus Smart in free agency. Houston has made a few attempts at smaller guards (Thornton is listed at six feet), who are mostly known for their scoring prowess, with Thornton and Pedulla.

Pedulla will be the Rockets’ third two-way slot after Houston signed Quadir Copeland to a new two-way contract last month and carried over Tristen Newton from the 2025–2026 season on a two-year, two-way contract.

With this additon, the Rockets will have 19 players under contract after the signing is finalized, leaving two spots available on their 21-man offseason roster. Twelve players now have fully guaranteed standard contracts, two have non-guaranteed or partially guaranteed salary, two have Exhibit 10 arrangements, and Newton and Copeland have two-way agreements.

With all that said, how do you all feel about the signing? Do you expect Pedulla to see any playing time? Let us know, and make sure to check back at The DreamShake for more Houston Rockets basketball news.