Happy 4th of July, Enjoyers! Relive this moment if you haven’t already today—who says you can’t be patriotic about basketball?

Today’s Lineup

🎉 Happy birthday to Horace Grant and Pat Spencer! 🎉

Around the Association

Lakers sign Deandre Ayton to 2yr, $16.6M deal with player option

The Lakers have their center, and he’s ready to prove himself in the City of Angels.

Deandre Ayton signed a two-year deal with the Los Angeles Lakers on Wednesday, joining his third team in eight years since the Phoenix Suns drafted him No. 1 overall in 2018 out of Arizona. Ayton averaged 14.4 PTS and 10.2 REB per game during an injury-riddled campaign in Portland last season, but he impacted the game in waves when he was on the court.

Case in point: the Trail Blazers’ six-game win streak at the end of January into February, when Ayton averaged 19.7 PTS, shot 58% from the floor, and grabbed a steal and a block per game in an expanded role as Portland’s defensive anchor.

Between Ayton’s new contract and his buyout agreement with the Trail Blazers, the seven-footer will earn a total of $34 million next year. Combine that with the chance to play next to Luka Doncic and LeBron James, and we think the 26-year-old big man is one of the richest men in the league. 🤑

Knicks hiring 2023 COTY Mike Brown as head coach

The Knicks only wanted the best of the best after firing Tom Thibodeau, and they got a two-time Coach of the Year award winner. We’ll count it!

New York is expected to hire Mike Brown, who was fired from his position as the Kings’ head coach after a 13-18 start to the 2024-25 season, as the 32nd head coach in Knicks franchise history. Manhattan Mike will lead a roster highlighted by Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns that has their sights set high after an ECF loss in May.

Brown started his NBA coaching career in 1997 as an assistant under Washington Wizards head coach Bernie Bickerstaff, the father of current Pistons HC John-Blair “J.B.” Bickerstaff. He got his first head coaching gig in Cleveland in 2005, where he eventually won his first Coach of the Year in ‘09. He spent some time on Steve Kerr’s Golden State staff in the late 2010s before accepting the Kings’ top job in 2022 and winning his second trophy as a first-year HC in Sacramento, becoming one of only 11 coaches in NBA history to win multiple COTYs. 🏆🏆

Free Agency Quick Hits ⬇️

• Trendon Watford → Philadelphia: 2yr

• Jaxson Hayes → Los Angeles (L): 1yr

• Spencer Dinwiddie → Charlotte: 1yr

• Dante Exum → Dallas: 1yr

• Eric Gordon → Philadelphia: 1yr

• Collin Gillespie → Phoenix: 1yr

Offseason Rumors

Valanciunas considering deal with EuroLeague’s Panathinaikos

Just a few days after getting Nuggets fans excited about what he could do backing up Nikola Jokic, Jonas Valanciunas might be headed back across the Atlantic Ocean.

The 33-year-old Valanciunas, currently under contract with Sacramento, is reportedly considering signing a deal with EuroLeague team Panathinaikos Athens, where he could earn around €12 million on a three-year contract. The Kings and Nuggets agreed to a trade sending Valanciunas to Denver and Dario Saric to SacTown on Tuesday, but that deal (along with most of the transactions from this week) isn’t official until the free agency moratorium ends on Sunday, July 6th at 12:00 pm EST.

If Valanciunas, who began his professional career playing in his home country of Lithuania, decides he wants to return to Europe, Denver could still complete the trade and attempt a buyout of the remaining ~$10M guaranteed on his contract. It would be a blow to the Nuggets’ otherwise solid offseason, because it really does seem like they’re having fun out there, but the best case scenario is an agreement where Denver can focus on 2025-26 and Valanciunas can play wherever he desires!

Rockets, Suns nearing agreement to expand Kevin Durant trade into historic seven-team deal

It’s been almost two weeks since news broke that the Suns had traded Kevin Durant to the Rockets for a package highlighted by Jalen Green and the 2025 No. 10 overall pick, which became Khaman Maluach.

And the news. Won’t. Stop. Coming.

The Athletic’s Fred Katz reported yesterday that the Rockets and Suns were working to expand the deal to an NBA-record seven teams, with the Hawks, Lakers, Wolves, Nets, and Warriors all supposedly involved in the mega-transaction. The trade apparently wouldn’t involve any major player movement that hasn’t already been announced, with the Clint Capela → Houston signing reportedly the largest non-KD move to be included in the deal.

Why do this? The salary cap—NBA front offices will do whatever it takes to maneuver around the specific restrictions and loopholes of the CBA these days, and amalgamating all these deals into one seven-team frenzy helps… somehow. If the expanded deal does go through, it’s expected to happen on Sunday.

Three in the Key

Signing Off

Have a great weekend, Enjoyers! We’ll be right back in your inbox on Monday to catch you up with every second of NBA news that happened over the weekend—count on it. Peace! ✌️

Austin Zeglis