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With Landry Shamet signed, the biggest question for the Knicks entering free agency is about Mitchell Robinson.

If New York wants to stay under the second apron, the franchise would need to shed existing salary to make Robinson a competitive offer.

As things currently stand, the Knicks’ team salary is at roughly $213 million. They have 11 players under contract. The NBA’s second apron in team salary is $221.7 million. Knicks owner James Dolan said in an interview with WFAN earlier this month that he did not want to exceed the second apron. It is unclear if that decision was made in concert with his front office or if it was purely a financial decision. Dolan did reiterate his stance on the second apron internally prior to the NBA Draft.

If Dolan and the Knicks don’t change their stance on the second apron, they would need to shed salary – presumably by trading trading Pacome Dadiet, Tyler Kolek or Miles McBride – in order to make Robinson a solid offer.

What is the market for Robinson?

That’s unknown. The Lakers were oft-mentioned as a Robinson team. DeAndre Ayton picked up his player option for 2026-27. But that wouldn’t automatically take them out of the running for Robinson. As of Tuesday morning, Los Angeles was still active in the center market. The Lakers were among several teams who would have interest in Toronto’s Sandro Mamukelashvili during the free agency period, per sources. As of Tuesday morning, Los Angeles was comfortable offering Mamukelashvili a deal worth $10 million-plus annually.

What about the Nets? They were reportedly interested in Robinson but the Nets also are expected to show strong interest in Orlando’s Mo Wagner in free agency, per sources. Brooklyn obviously wouldn’t sign both Robinson and Wagner.

Portland reportedly agreed to a deal with Robert Williams III for $13+ million per season. Jock Landale reportedly agreed to a deal with Atlanta for a $14 million annual salary.

The Knicks would need to shed significant salary to offer Robinson a deal that approaches $14 million in annual value (Another team salary note: the plan entering free agency for second-round pick Jack Kayil is that he play next season overseas with his current club in Germany).

But maybe Dolan is willing to go into the second apron for Robinson this season if he can get out of it next year? WFAN’s Craig Carton said that Robinson’s return to New York depends on Karl-Anthony Towns’ extension. Towns is extension eligible on July 10. If he accepts a lower salary than his 2027-28 player option of $61 million, perhaps the Knicks can exceed the second apron in 2026-27 to re-sign Robinson and then dip under it in 2027-28.

Why would the Knicks want to avoid the second apron? ESPN’s Bobby Marks offers a great breakdown here.

The Spurs have announced their roster for the California Classic Summer League (which we can assume will mostly carry over to Las Vegas), and there are plenty of familiar faces. As predicted, the team will be captained by second-year Spur Carter Bryant and coached by Corliss Williamson. Another returning face is Emanuel Miller, who signed a two-way deal with the Spurs in February but did not play any NBA minutes for them.

Unsurprisingly, the Spurs rookie class is all there, including Tarris Reed, Ja’Kobi Gillespie and Maliq Brown. Jayden Quaintance is a somewhat surprising inclusion, although Williamson has confirmed he is only traveling with the team and will not participate. He only appeared in five games for Kentucky this year after tearing his ACL and meniscus in February of 2025 and reportedly expects to undergo one last procedure to clean up his knee for good.

An easy assumption would have been that the Spurs want him to get his knee fixed as soon as possible so he can get to rehabbing and return to the court (social media doctors have said it is typically a six-month recovery), but this suggests the Spurs are truly in no rush with him (they don’t have to be with Victor Webmanyama, Luke Kornet and Reed on the roster) and would prefer he experience the learning and comradery that comes with Summer League first and foremost, even if it’s merely as a spectator.

Notable names that aren’t there are the Spurs’ other two-way players from last season, David Jones Garcia and Harrison Ingram, both whom the Spurs extended qualifying offers to, making them restricted free agents. Jones Garcia is no surprise considering he too is recovering from injury, plus he had his SL breakout last season, and it could be that the Spurs know Ingram well enough at this point that they don’t need to see anything else.

The California Classic, which Bryant may not participate in, begins on Friday at the Chase Center in San Fransisco. Here is the complete schedule (TV/streaming is TBD).

• Friday, July 3 vs. Miami Heat, 7:00 PM CT
• Sunday July 5 vs. Golden State Warriors, 6:00 PM CT
• Monday July 6 vs. Los Angeles Lakers, 6:30 PM CT

The schedule has yet to be announced for the Las Vegas Summer League, which will run from July 9-19.

Anyone who watched the Raptors this year isn’t surprised that Sandro Mamukelashvili has become one of the most popular mid-level free agent targets this summer. As a 6-foot-9 forward, Mamu came off the bench to average 11.2 points per game on 63% true shooting along with 4.9 rebounds and 1.9 assists per game.

A five-year vet, Mamukelashvili had shown flashes of being a solid big with intriguing tools offensively. He had Gregg Popovich gushing over him when he first arrived in San Antonio, but it really didn’t come together for him until his final year with the Spurs.

He was able to shoot 37% from three, taking 2.5 per game in 2024-25. He’s always had a good assist rate for a big, and in that last season in San Antonio, he posted one at 11.7% with a career-best 8.9% turnover rate. Impressively, neither of those numbers saw a huge change as he had an 11.9% assist rate with a 9,5% turnover rate with the Raptors.

Mamukelashvili has profiled as a solid defender who is a capable rebounder. His block numbers are nothing to write home about but he’s posted a steal rate of over 1.5% the last two seasons, which puts him in the 74th percentile for his position, according to Cleaning the Glass.

For these reasons the Raptors would love to keep him. According to Jake Fischer and Marc Stein they were trying to renegotiate a new deal, but their fears of him opting out of his player option and testing the open market were realized.

As the start of free agency nears, teams have begun to circle him. Several plugged-in reporters have said the Los Angeles Lakers will have interest, and the Spurs are interested as well. The Sixers will have some high-profile teams with good roles to offer to compete with, but they should absolutely be throwing themselves into the Mamu sweepstakes.

What’s clear from last season is that as good as Joel Embiid looked when he was able to get on the court, the Sixers need an innings eater to get them through the regular season. Mamukelashvili appears to be not only capable of that, but also sliding up to the four and playing alongside Embiid in certain lineups.

The last two seasons, Mamu played about a 60%/40% split at center to power forward. The way he’s been able to hit shots over the last two years instills a lot of confidence that he’s someone who can get plugged into just about any type of lineup.

Those type of bigs don’t exactly grow on trees. It’s easy to see why he’s drawing so much interest on the open market. Especially since with all that being said, it appears he will be gettable for a portion of the $15 million dollar non-taxpayer mid-level exception.

There are a couple attractive targets for the Sixers to use that on should they stay below the first apron. Guys like John Collins and Dean Wade might make more sense to use the full exception on. Both of those two would also probably fit pretty well in Philadelphia — this very blog has made theargument for that.

The difference between those two and Mamukelashvili is that he can play the five and they cannot. It’s true that the Sixers need to bolster their forwards at every position, but these last two seasons have really emphasized the need for another center to get them through the regular season.

Mamukelashvili isn’t the only center on the market, but he might be the best that’s gettable. With Jusuf Nurkic, Jock Landale and Robert Williams III all having agreed to extensions to avoid hitting the free agent market, the pool of centers has only gotten shallower.

The Sixers would have a lot of teams to compete with to secure Mamukelashvili’s services, but it’s a ring they absolutely need to be throwing their hats into.

The Los Angeles Lakers are losing LeBron James. So what does that mean for the future of Bronny James?

They made history together in 2024, becoming the first father and son to share the court -- not to mention playing for the same team -- during an NBA game. And they continued to share the same locker room and suit up purple-and-gold for the past two seasons.

But that feel-good history gave way to reality when ESPN's Shams Charania on Tuesday, June 30, reported LeBron James has informed the Lakers he will be playing elsewhere during the 2026-27 season. The business of basketball, already set in motion, accelerated.

If the Lakers had waived Bronny on Monday, they would've saved about $1 million in cap space. But on Tuesday, Bronny remained a Laker, but his future is unclear.

The next decision for LeBron James is here, and it could once again alter the NBA landscape. The league's all-time leading scorer has informed the Los Angeles Lakershe plans to play elsewhere during the 2026-27 season, according to multiple reports on Tuesday, June 30 ahead of the start to the league's free agency period.

James will be the most coveted free agent on the market despite entering his record 24th NBA season, especially if he's willing to take a pay cut. He signed with the Lakers ahead of the 2018-19 NBA season and won the 2020 NBA championship in the COVID bubble with the franchise. The 41-year-old is just a year removed from earning all-NBA honors.

The Golden State Warriors are considered the front-runners to sign James after Draymond Green's decision to opt out of his contract to provide the team with financial flexibility. But it would involve James taking less money than he's used to and there are other potential suitors, including James' two former teams.

Here's a breakdown of the potential NBA free agent landing spots for James now that he has informed the Lakers that he plans to play elsewhere during the 2026-27 season:

LeBron James has shocked the basketball world with his latest career update that he will not return to the Los Angeles Lakers in his 24th season. 

James’ announcement comes on the day of free agency, which officially begins at 6 p.m. ET Tuesday, June 30. 

ESPN insider Shams Charania first reported that James, 41, informed the team that they can begin to move on without him as he pursues his NBA future as a free agent.

James joined the Lakers in the summer of 2018 and has spent the last eight seasons in L.A., leading the team to an NBA championship in 2020, where he was named Finals MVP. He was named an All-Star every season he played in a Lakers' uniform. James averaged 25.9 points, 7.7 rebounds and 7.9 assists per game on 51.3% field goal shooting and 35.6% 3-point shooting during his eight seasons in LA.

The big announcement which came from James' agent, Klutch Sports CEO Rich Paul, has sparked interest and think pieces around the sports world. Many expressed their gratitude for James, including former teammate Luka Doncic, Lakers president Jeannie Buss and Laker legend and former president of basketball operations Magic Johnson.

After showing promise in his sophomore season, the Lakers will continue investing in Bronny James.

On Monday, the team guaranteed Bronny’s contract for next season, set at $2.3 million, by keeping him on the roster. Keith Smith of Spotrac reported the news on Tuesday.

Naturally, given how LeBron’s free agency is currently playing out, the assumption is to tie the decision on Bronny’s with LeBron. Fans will certainly race to that conclusion. But Bronny has been his own player and treated as such for quite some time.

The Lakers have spent quite a bit of time developing Bronny. For the first year and a half of his time in LA, Bronny’s playing time with the parent Lakers was either ceremonial minutes with his father, in garbage time or in games where players were being rested en masse.

However, late in his second season, he emerged as an option off the bench amid an injury crisis. He played well enough to see minutes in the postseason and had a memorable moment alongside LeBron in the series against the Rockets.

Even if he was phased out of the rotation as the games started mattering more, it was not just a sign of progress, but the first time Bronny had looked like a rotation-level player.

For the Lakers, it was enough of a sign to keep him around for next season. His contract is now fully guaranteed for the season, meaning he’ll likely be on the roster barring a trade.

You can follow Jacob on Twitter at @JacobRude or on Bluesky at @jacobrude.bsky.social.

The Atlanta Hawks have re-signed another one of their midseason pickups from last season. First, it was playoff hero CJ McCollum one a one-year, $21 million deal. Now, reportedly they locked down their Aussie big man with a similar offer per Shams Charania of ESPN:

The Hawks picked up Landale for essentially free (well, cash considerations), and he stepped into the role as the backup center after the team parted ways with Kristaps Porzingis.

He exploded for a career-high 26 points in his first game with Atlanta in a win over the Utah Jazz. Overall, he averaged 9.1 points (60% true shooting) and 4.1 rebounds per game on 19.4 minutes per contest in his 23 games after literally driving in his car from Memphis to Atlanta.

Most importantly is his ability to stretch the floor as a big, hitting 39% of his threes while forming a great partnership with his country-mate Dyson Daniels.

Unfortunately, a dirty foul by Goga Bitadze ended his regular season and postseason prematurely due to the ankle injury he suffered early April.

LeBron James is no longer a member of the Los Angeles Lakers and will be a free agent starting at 6 PM Eastern tonight. There’s been a lot of speculation about him joining forces with Steph Curry and the Golden State Warriors. But don’t count out a reunion with the Cleveland Cavaliers just yet.

Veteran NBA insider for NBA on Prime and former beat reporter in Cleveland during the 2014-15 season, Chris Haynes, reported that the Cavs are indeed interested in adding James to the roster.

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It’s easy to see the appeal of a third tour of duty in Cleveland for both sides.

The Cavs are a good team, but are a playmaking wing away from being true championship contenders, as the New York Knicks showed them in their four-game sweep in the Eastern Conference Finals. Adding James would give this roster the versatility needed to possibly get over the hump in the postseason.

Being on a title team again is reportedly LeBron’s goal. James’s agent, Rich Paul, told The Athletic’s Dan Woike that his client “wants to compete for championships.” From that perspective, their goals align.

ESPN’s Brian Windhorst said that James is prioritizing “happiness, not money” next season. What that means is anyone’s guess. No one besides LeBron truly knows what he’s looking for in terms of happiness.

This is where playing for the Warriors could interfere with a reunion in Cleveland. Even though there are questions about whether an older core featuring Curry, Draymond Green, and Jimmy Butler could compete for a championship, James might not see it that way. And the appeal of teaming up with friends while staying in California may be too much for him to ignore.

There’s also the question about how much the Cavs could afford to play LeBron.

The Cavs’ roster currently has some flexibility. James Harden declining his player option for next season has the Cavs $42.1 million under the second apron. Harden is expected to re-sign, but the annual value could help the Cavs open up room for the taxpayer mid-level exception.

Additional moves would be needed if the Cavs were going to open up the full mid-level exception of $15 million. The Cavs are reportedly looking for suitors for players like Dennis Schroder, which could give them more cap flexibility. Additionally, a sign-and-trade with the Lakers could still be an option if the deal were to bring Cleveland below the first apron.

At this point, it’s anyone’s guess how this will play out or what James truly values. What we do know at this time is that the Cavs are interested in a LeBron reunion and have a roster that would allow him to compete for a championship next season. And they’re also close to some golf clubs he just joined.

We’ll see if that’s enough to secure his services for one last run.

We’ve arrived at NBA free agency day, the time of year when, if you’re not careful, your phone starts exploding with transaction notifications. It’s one of the busiest days on the NBA calendar, as free agency officially begins at 3 p.m. Arizona time.

For the Phoenix Suns, much of the heavy lifting has already been done. They’ve re-signed unrestricted free agents Collin Gillespie and Jordan Goodwin, brought back restricted free agent Mark Williams, traded Grayson Allen and Royce O’Neale for Miles Bridges, and selected Koa Peat in the first round of the NBA Draft.

As things currently stand, the Suns sit at a projected $208.9 million in salary, placing them just below the first apron. T

The team has 14 of its 15 roster spots filled. That’s not an unfamiliar position for Phoenix. The organization has often preferred to keep one roster spot open, giving itself added flexibility as the season unfolds.

But after sending out so much shooting in the trade for Miles Bridges, the Suns now have a glaring need. They need shooting off the bench. More specifically, they need a veteran presence who can consistently space the floor. So the question becomes whether they choose to fill that final roster spot today when free agency opens. Phoenix has roughly $6.1 million available through the mid-level exception to offer the right player. Whether they decide to use it immediately remains to be seen, but that’s what we’ll be watching throughout the day.

We shared names that could be available for the Suns to target, and a couple of those names have already fallen to the wayside. Landry Shamet is expected to return to the Knicks, while Kevin Huerter is going to re-sign with the Pistons. The list that Arizona Sports Suns insider John Gambadoro has been whittled down to the following:

• Collin Sexton
• Luke Kennard
• Jordan Clarkson
• De’Anthony Melton

At the same time, we’ll be keeping an eye on the rest of the Western Conference, evaluating every move and asking the same question after each transaction. Did those teams get better? And in comparison, did the Suns get worse?

Time to turn those notifications on. It’s NBA free agency day…