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LeBron James’ agent Rich Paul set the record straight regarding the narrative that the NBA record-breaker only intends to play one more year before retiring during a July 3 episode of his “Game Over’ podcast with Max Kellerman.

“Who said this is going to be [James’] last year?” Paul said to Kellerman on the podcast, per a video of the podcast that was clipped from Instagram account @swishcultures.

He later added: “No one said this is going to be his last year. No one said that. Also, once he got the green light from Savannah and Zhuri — cause they’re the only ones left in the house — once he got the green light, you can do whatever you want to do.”

Hearing this might come as a surprise to many, given that James is 41 years old and will be turning 42 in the middle of next season, and has made it clear that whichever NBA team he signs with in free agency this offseason will be the final team of his legendary career.

Last week, James informed the Los Angeles Lakers that he would not be returning to the franchise after spending the past eight seasons with them. This has sparked a ton of interest in speculating about where the NBA’s arguable GOAT might end up.

After this comment from Rich Paul, the question isn’t just where James will land, but how long he’ll be playing there before calling it a career. The prospect of him potentially playing several more seasons also means he could be interested in fielding more potential teams, particularly ones that aren’t all about winning immediately.

That being said, James naturally still wants to chase a championship, and whichever team he signs with will surely be a championship contender both next season and in the years to come.

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We are one week away from Summer League tipping off in Las Vegas, and with it comes our first look at Suns basketball since late April, when the team’s season ended with a first-round sweep at the hands of the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Granted, Summer League is a much different environment. But it’s exciting nonetheless, especially when you have a collection of young players you hope will one day play meaningful roles in the direction of your franchise. The Suns have made it clear that development is one of the organizational pillars they’re trying to build around, and Summer League provides the first real opportunity to put that philosophy into action.

With that in mind, the Phoenix Suns have officially released their Summer League roster, and there are plenty of notable names on it.

Sophomore draft picks Khaman Maluach and Rasheer Fleming headline the roster, as the expectation is that both will see significantly larger roles with the Suns next season.

Fleming appeared in 55 games as a rookie, averaging 4.3 points and 2.3 rebounds in 12.2 minutes per game. Maluach, whom the Suns selected 10th overall in the 2025 NBA Draft, played the fewest minutes of any player chosen in the top 10 of that class. He logged only 411 total minutes across 46 games. The next lowest total among the top 10 picks belonged to Collin Murray-Boyles, who played nearly three times as many minutes for the Toronto Raptors.

Also on the roster is Koa Peat, whom the organization traded up to select with the 30th overall pick out of the University of Arizona. This will be our first opportunity to see him wearing purple and orange. Peat helped lead the Wildcats to their first Final Four appearance since 2001, averaging 14.1 points and 5.6 rebounds in 27.8 minutes per game as a freshman.

The roster also features two players who spent last season on two-way contracts, Koby Brea and CJ Huntley. Brea appeared in 12 games for the Suns, knocking down 13-of-30 from beyond the arc in limited action. With the Valley Suns, he averaged 15.0 points per game while shooting 36.5% from three on 9.8 attempts per game. Huntley saw action in only four games with Phoenix, totaling 12 points in 40 minutes. But in 29 games with the Valley Suns, he averaged 16.0 points and 8.5 rebounds while shooting 62.3% from the field.

A couple of other intriguing names on the roster are Sam Hoiberg and Corey Camper Jr., both of whom signed Exhibit 10 contracts with the organization. Hoiberg earned All-Big Ten Defensive Team honors during his senior season at Nebraska, averaging 9.3 points while shooting 38.1% from beyond the arc. Camper finished his collegiate career at Nevada, where the 6’5” guard averaged 16.6 points while posting 45, 40, 80 shooting splits for the Wolf Pack.

Tramon Mark from the University of Texas, a player the Suns brought in for a pre-draft workout, finds himself playing for the Summer Suns. Mark spent six seasons in college after entering as the No. 75 ranked high school recruit in the 2020 class, and he averaged 14.0 points for the Longhorns last season. Another notable name is Jameer Nelson Jr., the son of Jameer Nelson, who played 14 seasons in the NBA and earned an All-Star selection in 2009.

A pair of notable omissions from this year’s Summer League roster are Oso Ighodaro and Ryan Dunn. It appears the minutes they would have occupied are instead being allocated to other young players the organization wants to evaluate, including Rasheer Fleming, Koa Peat, CJ Huntley, and Khaman Maluach. That makes sense. The Suns already have a strong understanding of where Ighodaro and Dunn are in their development. This year’s Summer League is an opportunity to accelerate the growth of the next wave of young talent.

What else stands out from the Summer League roster? Last season, Khaman Maluach was listed at 7’1” on the Suns’ Summer League roster. This year, he’s listed at 7’2”. Koby Brea has also added size, going from 202 pounds to 215. Perhaps the most eye-opening change belongs to Rasheer Fleming. A year ago, he was listed at 190 pounds. He’s now listed at 240.

Whether those measurements are perfectly accurate remains to be seen, but they certainly reflect what the organization appears to be emphasizing: getting bigger and stronger as these young players continue to develop.

The Suns tip off their Summer League schedule next Friday, July 10, at 8 p.m. on ESPNU against the Portland Trail Blazers.

LeBron James is leaving us all hanging in suspense while his agent, Rich Paul, adds fuel to the fire. Paul (via his podcast Game Over) recently shared a behind-the-scenes look at their process in finding a new home for James. This includes a whiteboard with the Cleveland Cavaliers listed as one of the strongest landing spots.

There’s a lot to unpack here.

First, we can see that the Cavs are not alone on this list. Other teams in the inner circle include the Miami Heat, Minnesota Timberwolves, Philadelphia 76ers, and Denver Nuggets. The Golden State Warriors, Dallas Mavericks, Boston Celtics, and New York Knicks are either directly listed or referenced on the outer edges of the board.

Paul says that the board wouldn’t even exist if New York hadn’t won the title this summer. James would be a member of the Knicks. Looks like we dodged a bullet in that regard.

Let’s go over the main takeaways for Cleveland.

Rich Paul on LeBron’s interest in the Cavs:

• Brandon Weems (current assistant GM) is a ‘brother’ to James
• Dan Gilbert, Grant Gilbert and Koby Altman listed as positives
• James ‘loves’ Darius Garland; Paul considers the James Harden trade a negative
• Paul says Evan Mobley was never going to be traded to Boston

Notably, the Cavs are the only team that has multiple pros and cons written on the board.

“Big, big x-factor, Brandon Weems is basically LeBron’s brother,” said Paul. “That is a big feather in the cap [for Cleveland].”

The connection to Weems is one of the strongest aspects of this. Weems is reportedly seen as the favorite to replace former Cleveland GM Mike Gansey (now the 76ers GM) as the Cavs’ newest general manager. That’s something that sweetens the deal for James to return to Cleveland.

James apparently having a positive relationship with Gilbert and Altman is also a good sign.

The final two bullet points are where things get interesting.

“The negative is, no knock to James Harden, but no Darius Garland,” said Paul. “LeBron loves Darius Garland so much just like LeBron loves Tyrese Maxey.”

Paul famously told Garland, whom he represents, that last year would be his final season with the Cavaliers. However, this can be interpreted as Paul reading the writing on the wall rather than pioneering a trade for Garland on his own. You can decide that for yourself.

I’d also keep in mind that Paul is a professional salesman who will take every opportunity to praise one of his clients. Rightfully so.

It’s possible that Paul informed Garland to make a decision that would be in his best interest — even if that negatively impacted the view that James would have of Cleveland’s roster. Those things are not mutually exclusive, and Paul ultimately has a responsibility to represent all of his clients equally.

Finally, Paul strongly denies that Cleveland had any intention of trading Mobley to the Celtics in exchange for Jaylen Brown.

“They weren’t giving up Evan Mobley, you don’t have to worry about that,” said Paul.

This is as firm a stance as you can take, and it implies that Mobley is safe from the trading block this summer.

That tracks with common sense. Mobley is one of the best defenders in the NBA and a vital part of a Cavalier defense that is hanging on by a thread. I can’t see why James or Paul would advocate for taking that building block off the roster. Trading Mobley feels like the type of risk that could knock down the house of cards before James even arrives.

As always, the more smoke, the better. James has taken the first step towards returning by announcing that he won’t be back with the Los Angeles Lakers. Everything since then has felt like a gradual pull back home. Only time will tell, but Paul’s comments on Cleveland are encouraging to me.

Nearly 48 hours after the Sixers agreed to trade Paul George, two first-round picks and two second-round picks to the Boston Celtics for Jaylen Brown, the consensus appears to be that the Sixers made out like bandits.

ESPN’s Zach Kram gave the Sixers an A- and the Celtics a D+ for the trade. CBS Sports’ Sam Quinn gave the Sixers an A+ and the Celtics a D-. Yahoo Sports’ Morten Stig Jensen was more generous in giving the Celtics a B, but he still gave the Sixers an A.

However, that opinion isn’t universal. Liberty Ballers’ own Josh Grieb expressed his reservations with the deal, and to be completely honest, I also flinched when the news first hit my timeline. (Granted, that was before I realized that one of the two first-rounders they gave up was in 2028 rather than 2033.)

Chalk it up to Markelle Fultz PTSD if you must. Maybe you’re an analytics nerd who’s overly concerned about Brown’s on/off splits in recent years. That’s ignoring the context in which the Sixers made this trade, though.

Look up any recent ranking of the worst contracts in the league. George routinely appeared toward the top of the list. Even rankings that featured Brown had George ranked higher.

George has one fewer year left on his contract and will not be commanding anything close to a 35 percent max on his next deal, sure. Brown very well might be overpaid relative to his production, both now and moving forward.

But this was a risk that the Sixers had to take.

So long, Sixers apathy

As of midday Wednesday, apathy would likely be the best way to describe how most fans felt about the Sixers.

Adding Dean Wade was fine in a vacuum. Signing Ariel Hukporti to an above-minimum contract was eyebrow-raising, and not in a good way. Adding Wade and Hukporti while losing Quentin Grimes and Kelly Oubre Jr. hardly moved the needle, particularly as other Eastern Conference teams were taking huge swings by adding the likes of Giannis Antetokounmpo and Kawhi Leonard.

With Brown in tow, the Sixers can think bigger again. They dropped from +6000 to +2000 to win next year’s title after the deal, according to ESPN’s Doug Greenberg, which puts them behind only the Oklahoma City Thunder (+270), the San Antonio Spurs (+270), the reigning champion New York Knicks (+850) and, ironically, the Celtics (+1300).

It’s unclear whether the Brown trade directly contributed to the Sixers landing Anfernee Simons with what figures to be the remainder of their non-taxpayer mid-level exception, but it appears to have helped. ESPN’s Shams Charania reported that Simons chose the Sixers over other suitors because he believes “his fit is perfect with the revamped 76ers roster.”

The Sixers might not be done there, either. It’s still a long shot—particularly since they have only a minimum contract left to offer—but the Sixers have “entered the mix” for LeBron James and “are attempting to pitch him,” according to ESPN’s Anthony Slater.

Even if the Sixers don’t land LeBron, the fact that it’s even a possibility is absurd given where they were a few days ago. On The Hoop Collective podcast, ESPN’s Bobby Marks said it likely would have cost the Sixers at least one unprotected first-round pick just to dump George alone.

ESPN’s Brian Windhorst then asked him, “So, did they get Jaylen Brown for free?” Marks replied, “Essentially.”

So, why did the Celtics part ways with Brown at that price?

“It wasn’t that the league doesn’t think Jaylen Brown is a great player or an excellent player,” Windhorst said Thursday on NBA Today. “It’s that the league doesn’t value what he produces at his salary slot. At $57 million, what he produces. And that is why he was traded, and that is why he was traded for relatively so little.

“As the Celtics evaluated where they were as an organization and evaluated where they have to operate in this new world of aprons and basically hard salary caps and everything like that, they said they had to move off of a player of his production level at that salary number, and the other teams out there didn’t disagree.”

That’s a reasonable conclusion for the Celtics to reach. They already have Jayson Tatum heading into the second season of a five-year supermax contract. They’ve spent the past year tearing down their championship roster in fear of a $500 million payroll and luxury-tax bill. After losing in the first round of the playoffs (ironically to the Sixers), they might not have seen a path back toward title contention with Tatum and Brown gobbling up roughly 70 percent of the cap every year.

The Sixers didn’t have much of an alternative.

George and Joel Embiid were going to consume roughly 70 percent of their salary cap for the next two years. The Sixers could have chosen to ride those years out and preserved their assets for the eventual Tyrese Maxey and VJ Edgecombe era. But how would Maxey take to the Sixers lighting two years of his prime on fire in the hope that George and Embiid could stay healthy throughout the regular season and the playoffs?

Maxey is already heading into the third year of the five-year, $203.9 million max contract that he signed in July 2024. By the time George’s contract expired, Maxey would be going into the last year of his deal. And if today’s NBA has taught us anything, it’s that teams are almost always on the clock with their star players.

Flipping George, who played only 78 total games across the last two seasons combined, for Brown, who played 71 games last year and has yet to miss more than 20 games in a season across his 10-year NBA career, could help the Sixers in multiple ways, analytics be damned.

The Sixers shouldn’t have to play Maxey a league-high 38.0 minutes per game again this year, particularly after signing Simons in free agency and drafting Labaron Philon Jr. with the No. 22 overall pick. Ensuring that Maxey and Edgecombe don’t run out of gas in the regular season is key to the Sixers’ hopes of going on a deep playoff run.

As long as Brown continues to avoid catastrophic injuries, he should also help uplift the Sixers more than George did in the games that Embiid misses. Brown finished sixth in the MVP race this past season, while George’s production plummeted upon his arrival in Philly two years ago.

George’s scalability is what made him an attractive option when the Sixers signed him two summers ago. He could shift down into a No. 3 option alongside Embiid and Maxey—and his off-ball shooting ability made him a strong fit for that role—but he theoretically could scale up whenever Embiid or Maxey missed time. However, that didn’t come to pass.

George admitted after the season that he felt like his explosiveness “wasn’t there this year,” and he planned to spend the offseason trying to figure out how (if at all) he could get it back. That won’t be a problem with Brown, to say the least.

There are undeniably questions about how Brown will fit with this Sixers roster, and whether he can live up to both his current contract and his next deal. He might very well be miscast as a No. 1 option. Luckily, he doesn’t have to be that in Philly.

The alternative to the Brown trade was running out the clock with George—and risking Maxey starting to eye an exit from Philly in the next year or two. From that standpoint, this was absolutely a risk worth taking, no matter what the Sixers’ recent transaction history with the Celtics might suggest.

Unless otherwise noted, all stats via NBA.com, PBPStats, Cleaning the Glass or Basketball Reference. All salary information via Spotrac and salary-cap information via RealGM.

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Life moves fast in the NBA, and after the much-hyped draft and a flurry of offseason moves, Summer League is already here.

Attention turns to the California Classic today, with the San Antonio Spurs battling the Miami Heat before the Los Angeles Lakers take on the Golden State Warriors Blue squad, and it’s a first opportunity to see some of the late first-round rookies in action.

Let's dive into my NBA Summer League predictions and free NBA picks for Friday, July 3.

NBA Summer League predictions for July 3

Pick
Spurs moneyline	-127
Lakers moneyline	-108

Today's Summer League Picks

Spurs moneyline (-127 at Kalshi)

Although none of the San Antonio Spurs’ young core will be in action at Chase Center tonight, that clears the way for Tarris Reed Jr. and other members of the San Antonio rookie class to ball out.

Reed Jr., the No. 26 pick, averaged 14.7 ppg and 9.0 rpg last season at UConn, and I expect him to seize this opportunity to make a case for bench minutes next season behind Victor Wembanyama.

Though Jayden Quaintance will miss out for the Spurs, second-round picks Ja'Kobi Gillespie and Mailq Brown should get minutes here, and San Antonio’s serious approach to summer action could be seen in its 5-3 record last year.

While the Miami Heat can turn to Myron Gardner — who appeared in 45 NBA contests last season — the trade for Giannis Antetokounmpo leaves Miami with fewer young pieces for a Summer League run.

Of course, the Heat specialize in discovering undrafted gems, but they face an uphill battle in this California Classic opener, and I’m taking the Spurs up to -140.

Lakers moneyline (-108 at Kalshi)

The Los Angeles Lakers have been busy undergoing roster reconstruction over the past few weeks, and now attention turns to the end of the bench, where spots are up for grabs. L.A. enters as a major underdog against the Golden State Warriors, but I’m expecting an upset in California.

Golden State can unleash rookies Yaxel Lendeborg and Alex Toohey alongside sophomore Will Richard, but don’t sleep on this Lakers squad, with Cameron Carr — the No. 24 selection in last month’s draft — running the offense and Adou Thiero looking to boost his stock.

Thiero had some promising flashes during last season’s injury crisis in Lakerland, and there’s a 3-and-D role within reach if he catches the eye in Summer League.

Meanwhile, a rookie-heavy roster will get a jolt of experience from Zhaire Smith, with the 27-year-old former first-round pick auditioning for L.A. this summer.

Friday’s NBA Summer League parlay

Spurs moneyline

Lakers moneyline

+244 at Kalshi

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Report: Drummond to join defending champion Knicks  originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

Andre Drummond is reportedly headed to the defending NBA champions in free agency.

The 32-year-old big man has agreed to sign a one-year, $3.9 million contract with the Knicks, HoopsHype’s Michael Scotto reported Friday.

New York just lost a major piece of its center picture with Mitchell Robinson agreeing to a three-year Celtics deal. Ariel Hupkorti will sign with the Sixers, too. On paper, Drummond has a good chance to log consistent minutes.

Drummond’s played in 152 games over two stints with the Sixers and averaged 6.5 points, 8.4 rebounds and 1.4 assists. He shared backup center minutes with Adem Bona the past two seasons and took pride in being an active mentor to the ultra-athletic 23-year-old.

Drummond enjoyed expanding his game to include regular three-pointers last season. He went 32 for 90 (35.6 percent) beyond the arc. Entering the year, Drummond had made just 18 threes in his NBA career. The transformation wasn’t as dramatic, but Drummond also set a new career high in free throw percentage, making 63.1 percent of his foul shots. 

“There’s a lot of work that I’ve put into it, not only this year but throughout my entire career,” Drummond said on April 15 of his outside shooting. “I’ve worked countless hours … and the work is showing. Shoutout to (Sixers head coach) Nick Nurse for giving me the green light to shoot those shots.”

At the time of writing, Bona, Hukporti and Johni Broome are the Sixers’ centers behind Joel Embiid.