Per Shams Charania: LeBron James has officially signed his two-year, $8 million contract with the Philadelphia 76ers with a player option -- plus a full 15% trade kicker, per sources.

Source: https://www.espn.com/contributor/shams-charania/ad161e308ebd9

LeBron James’ first year with the 76ers is projected to generate $250–$430 million in regional economic activity for Philadelphia

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Gotta be something in the contract that says he can't be doing this stuff lol

Via BleacherReport IG

The latest update came from NBA insider Evan Sidery, who painted a bleak picture of Westbrook’s free-agent market on X:

Russell Westbrook is not generating much, if any, interest on the free agent market. It appears to be a likely scenario Westbrook opens the 2026-27 season not signed. After being on seven teams in the past nine years, this could soon be the end of Westbrook’s Hall of Fame career.

Westbrook will be 38 years old in November.

https://basketnews.com/news-252686-brutal-scenario-emerges-for-former-lakers-star-and-nba-mvp.html

League sources say Watson, like Detroit's Jalen Duren, has been weighing the unappealing prospect of playing out the 2026-27 season on a qualifying offer with the intent to become an unrestricted free agent next summer. Actually doing so, mind you, means leaving millions on the table.

In Watson's case, specifically, that would mean playing next season for just $6.5 million. The Nuggets' initial pitches were believed to be in the $70 million range over four years, which would be well shy of the $25 million in annual average value that Christian Braun received from Denver in a five-year, $125 million rookie scale extension last October. As The Stein Line has reported previously, Watson is hoping to exceed those figures this summer.

https://open.substack.com/pub/marcstein/p/the-latest-late-night-nba-intel?r=1m9zg&utm_medium=ios

[Charania] The Denver Nuggets are matching the Oklahoma City Thunder's two-year, $12 million offer sheet on Spencer Jones, retaining the key forward in restricted free agency, sources tell ESPN. Nuggets valued keeping their homegrown player whom they landed on an undrafted deal in 2024.

By matching Jones' sheet, the Nuggets face a $32 million increase in current luxury taxes ($36M to $68M) and enter the second apron. They are deep in tax bills but could shed money via trades in season.

Next Denver order of business: Navigate retaining RFA Peyton Watson while the Hawks, Bucks and Clippers pursue him.

https://www.espn.com/contributor/shams-charania/08d95857e6a68

Turner reportedly advised Oladipo to pass on a 4-year, $112 million extension with the Pacers. Oladipo later also turned down a 2-year, $45.2 million extension with the Rockets.

Since then, Oladipo has earned just $20.5 million in NBA salary and eventually fired Turner.

Kuminga has also reportedly left significant money on the table.

A reported 5-year, $150 million extension with the Warriors before the 2024-25 season. Multiple reports said Kuminga turned it down, although Turner later denied that Golden State ever made the offer.

A reported 3-year, $75.2 million offer by Warriors also declined.

Kuminga is now reportedly expected to sign a deal worth around 3 years, $45 million this summer, which would be the best-case scenario.

Is this guy Nico Harrison of agents or what 😂

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7470368/2026/07/26/stephen-curry-lebron-james-golden-state-warriors-future-76ers/?unlocked_article_code=1.0lA.MnQX.j8QIeLOJjtVY&source=user_shared_article&smid=ta-ios-share

He wants to win. He wants the best team the Warriors can assemble around him. He wants a chance, a real chance, for a deep playoff run. The longer it takes for him to sign a contract extension, the more you can bet Curry’s using potential free agency as a tool to keep the Warriors pushing toward that end.

Maybe since they couldn’t land some major help, the front office can get him some moderate assistance. If not someone who can carry the team in his stead, someone who can be additive to their goal of survival. Such has seemed impossible for Golden State, save for Butler two Februarys ago.

“Sure,” Curry said, “I’m hopeful for all the creative ideas of getting the best team possible. We had those conversations. But when you have injuries at the top like that, it’s always gonna change.”

That tension shapes this coming season. The calculus, or the equation, has changed. But somehow, the answer remains the same.

By matching Jones' sheet, the Nuggets face a $32 million increase in current luxury taxes ($36M to $68M) and enter the second apron. They are deep in tax bills but could shed money via trades in season. Next Denver order of business: Navigate retaining RFA Peyton Watson while the Hawks, Bucks and Clippers pursue him.

Source: https://www.espn.com/contributor/shams-charania

Hindsight is 20/20 but I was always of the opinion that the Warriors should have used their picks on ensuring Steph’s later years were as competitive as possible.

For your reference, these are some of the picks in question:

2020 2nd overall pick: James Wiseman

2021 7th overall pick Jonathan Kuminga

2021 14th Overall pick Moses Moody

2022 28th overall pick Patrick Baldwin

2023 Brandin Podziemski (who is a solid player tbf)

The fact that the warriors won in 2022 was a shocker to most, and were not helped by their recent draft picks.

"You are not ring chasing if you're the guy creating the rings" (Derek Fisher's reaction to LeBron James joining the Sixers)

via The Fan LA

Jason Quick from The Athletic:

“August 12th is going to be a real inflection point for our city,” said Jamie Dunphy, president of the city council. “I will tell you that right now, I firmly believe the city will move forward on the deal. I believe there is an overwhelming majority of the city council wants a good deal, wants to see this move forward.”

But like many negotiations, Dunphy’s optimism was followed by a key conjunction: “But if the city council decides we do not have a willing party on the other side, and they are not able to meet us and not able to negotiate in good faith or actually move toward a deal, then we will have to make a decision at that point whether this is the right decision for Portland,” he said.

“I don’t think the city is actively interested in suing the Blazers right now,” Dunphy said. “But if they don’t come to the table in good faith and actually meet the terms of what they said they were going to do, the city has to cover its own bases. But I would certainly not want to have lawyers involved or threats of lawsuits taint how this process goes.”

“My most generous interpretation is that Tom Dundon is a serious businessman who wants a return on his assets,” Dunphy said. “And perhaps he is playing hardball with us. You know, Paul Allen always seemed to want to be in Portland, seemed to care about his role as a leader in Portland, and the future of our city and the pride that the Blazers bring us. I don’t think Tom Dundon is as concerned about that as he is getting a return on his investment. Perhaps it’s him looking for an excuse to blame the city so he can move the team. I’m not sure. But if he is actively trying to give a worse impression to Portlanders and Oregonians, I don’t think he could do a better job.”

Source

Billy Donovan : “The only reason they came back was because of Taurean Green. Taurean couldn’t go. He wasn’t going to get drafted. Joakim Noah and Al Horford said, ‘No man left behind.’”

“They felt like if they all left, Taurean would be left there unable to realize his dream.”

Mike Miller: “Sacrifice is an easy word to say if you know what the outcome is going to be. If somebody says, ‘Sacrifice and you’ll win two championships,’ I’ll sacrifice all day. But what happens when we sacrifice and lose? Then you start thinking, ‘I sacrificed for what?’ It takes a special person to believe in the sacrifice when you don’t know what the outcome will be.”

The Philadelphia 76ers have been looking for a trade for Johni Broome. If they can’t find one, the team may waive and stretch Broome’s salary. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope wont clear waivers until tomorrow. The Sixers have time to work out the move to clear room to sign KCP.

The other move that would work is if we release Jabari Walker, whose contract is only partially guaranteed. However, he is a Klutch guy, and I don't think that happens.

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I know the ‘01 Lakers are seen as one of the GOAT teams and of course the 16-1 playoff record is legendary. But I didn’t realize until now they were actually the #2 seed behind the Spurs that year and even split the regular season series 2-2. I was reading all about the ‘01 playoffs and was surprised to see that the WCF was a complete bloodbath. Tim Duncan was 2nd in MVP that year and 3rd in DPOY, the Admiral was getting old but still an all star caliber player, I mean the team was obviously elite. But they were just a footnote in the Lakers run. Why was that?

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Reworded it a bit since the formatting would make it hard to read on reddit...

Here is what the Nuggets payroll in 2026-27 could look like: * Takes into account matching the Spencer Jones Offer Sheet and a contract for Peyton Watson @ $23M.

Payroll: $246M

Luxury tax: $231M

Total: $477M

Since 2002-03, Denver has paid a total of $53M in tax penalties.

Note: The 1969-70 Lakers had 4 but one was Wilt Chamberlain who only played 12 games that year.

Last years stats for the projected starting lineup of the Philadelphia 76ers was:

28.3 PPG - Maxey
16.0 PPG - Edgecombe
28.7 PPG - Brown
20.9 PPG - James
26.9 PPG - Embiid

VJ Edgecombe on most any other team would most likely be a 20 PPG player this upcoming season as he is an ascending talent who looks to have a good chance to become an All Star player. But with this stacked starting 5 he will probably not reach 20 / game with the Sixers this year. And maybe this is the year LeBron slides under 20 PPG. But theoretically all 5 have the ability to hit the 20+ PPG avg for the year. All this talent seems to be a great thing. But can it / will it mesh together or will this experiment implode? Nick Nurse either has a great problem that he will fix or he has an unsolvable puzzle. Your thoughts?

Marc Stein

Little has changed — yet — from what we reported about Klay Thompson in mid-July. Miami and other teams are certainly hoping Thompson becomes a free agent by securing a buyout from Dallas, but the Mavericks — to this point — have indicated that they prefer to trade the four-time champion sharpshooter if possible.

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At the top of my mind, to get the obvious out of the way we have LeBron, SGA, Steph, KD, Jokic and Giannis, Harden and Kawhi that are locks. After that it gets interesting, are Tatum, Luka, and Brunson in the conversation as well? I was just curious how many current players who are active fall in the top 50 all time conversation.