NBA free agency rumors roundup: Chris Paul pushes deadline, LeBron has to opt out and re-sign

The 2024 NBA Draft is in the rear-view mirrorwhere somehow number 55 pick Worthy overtakes number 1 The Knicks have already made their bold offseason move to acquire Mikal Bridges And became a real threat for the Celtics.

And NBA free agency hasn’t even started. Things will officially become official Sunday at 6 p.m. Eastern, but to be clear, the NBA is a tampered league, and talks are already underway, which means rumors are flying. And some deals have already been done. Here’s all the latest information on NBA free agency rumors.

• Chris Paul, the Warriors agree to move the guarantee date to Sunday. In a sign that the Warriors are looking for ways to make a trade that also includes Chris Paul, the Warriors and CP3 agreed to extend his $30 million contract guarantee deal by Sunday, a story broken by ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. Has been given. Paul’s guarantee date was today (Friday, June 28), and if push came to shove, Golden State would probably have let him go. Paul will probably get a little money for agreeing to this, but it’s in his best interest too.

Golden State is going to look very different next season, with Klay Thompson somewhere else — it would be weird to see him in another jersey — and Paul likely gone as well. The question is who will replace him? Don’t be surprised if some big business is coming.

• Paul George remains the biggest domino in free agency. George wants a full four-year contract worth the maximum $221 the Clippers can give him. That’s not on the table, something that’s not a secret and was Echoed by the well-connected Tomer Azarly of Clutch Points,

The Clippers’ offer for George is a three-year deal, slightly less than the three-year, $149 million extension Kawhi Leonard signed in January 2024, league sources told ClutchPoints. Leonard took a nearly $10 million pay cut over the life of the deal and decided to sign for one year less, a total of three years, after declining his option for the 2024-25 season…

That never came to fruition, and over the past few weeks, it has become increasingly likely that George will either opt to give him a four-year deal in the final year of his deal in order to facilitate a trade to a team that wants him. Will choose option. -Get out and test the free agency market. Either way, his time with the Clippers is coming to an end.

NBC has spoken with an inclination toward an opt-in and trade scenario, according to league sources. The question is which team is going to step forward with a package of players and picks — equivalent to $48 million in salary — that the Clippers will agree to. Would a trade with the Warriors (Andrew Wiggins, Jonathan Kuminga and picks) get the deal done, or are Steve Ballmer and company pulling off a trade in their division? There are a lot of questions hanging there.

• LeBron James was expected to opt out of $51.4 million and then re-sign with the Lakers. History shows that LeBron James will use his potential free agency this summer to help the Lakers upgrade the roster in the short term and do anything he wants (like hiring a specific coach or perhaps 55) then re-sign with the team. this is it TNT/Bleacher Report’s Chris Haynes said in a chat Friday that he’s heard that will happen, and that’s been the expectation of many around the league. If he opts out and re-signs, the maximum the Lakers can offer him is three years, $162 million (less than $164 million if he had picked up the option and extended), and the Lakers would give him a no-trade clause. can give. There is speculation that LeBron could take less than the max, allowing the Lakers to use the full mid-tier exception to add to the roster – perhaps, he wants to win, but that’s out of character with his historical behavior. will be.

Good luck finding someone in the league who thinks LeBron is leaving the Lakers. This is seen as a foregone conclusion.

• Charlotte waived Seth Curry but is the favorite to re-sign the sharpshooter. Seth Curry, one of the league’s best pure shooters, had a $4 million team option for this season and Charlotte has decided to waive him, but they want to bring him back, Wojnarowski reports.

• Momentum is building toward D’Angelo Russell exercising his $18.7 million option to remain with the Lakers. Nothing is certain about this, but Russell may have decided to exercise his option and remain with the Lakers. is here ESPN’s Brian Windhorst talks on “First Take.”

“To be honest, I don’t have any particular feeling about what it’s going to be, I thought maybe a month or two ago, D’Angelo would be out. Now, I think there’s a chance, a strong chance that he’ll pick it up, because the market is not looking so good right now. We can talk about it later, but I’m leaning in that direction now.”

Russell likely believed he would get a multi-year deal worth $20 million per season, but that may not be there, so he could return to the Lakers for $18.7 million and show his value. Russell can get buckets, he averaged 18 points and 6.3 assists a game last season, but there are some questions around the league now about how he elevates those around him. Changes are coming to the Lakers, we’ll see if Russell is among them.

• Toronto will pick up the $23 million option on Bruce Brown. The second year of Bruce Brown’s two-year, $45 million deal – which plucked him away from the Nuggets – was a team option. The Raptors, who acquired Brown from the Pacers in the Pascal Siakam trade, will pick up that option, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reports. The hope is for Brown to have a bounce-back year, and that salary would be valuable in many of the potential trades the Raptors will look at this summer and next season.

• James Borrego withdrew his name from the running for the Pistons coaching job. This isn’t a straight-up free-agent rumor, but it’s interesting. From the moment Monty Williams was fired, Borrego became the frontrunner for the Detroit position due to his relationship with New Orleans’ new GM Trajan Langdon. Now a report comes from Chris Haynes that Borrego has withdrawn his name to Detroit. interesting. This could be face-saving for Borrego because if the Pistons were to hire someone else, it could be something else entirely. Look for another top assistant like Micah Nori (Minnesota) and Sean Sweeney (Dallas) to get the job.

• PJ Tucker is staying with the Clippers. As expected, PJ Tucker picked up his $11.5 million player option.

• Evan Fournier is not returning to the Pistons. It’s also not surprising that the Pistons won’t pick up Evan Fournier’s $19 million team option. He is expected to return to play in Europe.

• Jason Richardson is returning to the Heat. Josh Richardson is picking up his $3 million player option to return to Miami, Shams Charania reports at The Athletic. Richardson was out for the final months of the season with a shoulder injury.