NBA free agency: Tracker, live updates, trades as 76ers add Paul George, extend Tyrese Maxey

After spending parts of six seasons with the the Philadelphia 76ers, Tobias Harris is moving on.

ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski is reporting that the soon-to-be 32-year-old forward is joining the Detroit Pistons on a two-year, $52 million contract. Harris played 70 games last season and averaged 17.2 points, 6.5 rebounds and 3.1 assists in nearly 34 minutes per night.

Harris had an up-and-down final season with the 76ers, most notably in the playoffs when he put up 19 points in the team's Game 5 win against the New York Knicks in the playoffs only to follow that up with a scoreless Game 6 in over 29 minutes.

ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski is reporting that center Jalen Smith is joining the Chicago Bulls on a three-year, $27 million deal.

Smith, 24, spent parts of the last three seasons with the Indiana Pacers. In 61 games last season he averaged 9.9 points, 5.5 rebounds and 1 assists in a little over 17 minutes per game.

Smith declined his $5.4 million player option, making him an unrestricted free agent. He served as Myles Turner's backup and was second behind Isaiah Jackson in with a 59.2% shooting percentage. He also led the Pacers in 3-point shooting at 42.4%.

The Thunder kept busy after signing Aaron Wiggins to a new deal by keeping Isaiah Joe on board with a new four-year, $48 million contract, according to The Athetic's Shams Charania.

Like Wiggins, Joe's $2.1 million team option was declined but both sides were open to working out a new deal.

Joe, who joined the Thunder in 2022 after being waived by the Philadelphia 76ers, averaged 8.2 points, 2.3 rebounds and 1.3 assists in 78 games in 2023-24. He shot a career-bests from three-point range (41.6%) and from the floor (45.8%).

Aaron Wiggins is staying with the Oklahoma City Thunder after the two sides agreed to a five-year, $47 million deal, according to The Athletic's Shams Charania. Wiggins' $2 million team option was declined by the Thunder but the interest was there to work out a new dela.

Wiggins, 25, averaged 6.9 points, 2.4 rebounds and 1.1 assists in 78 games in 2023-24. He shot 56% from the floor and 49% from three-point range, as well as 79% from the free-throw line.

As expected, Joel Embiid's NBA All-Star playing partner is not leaving the Philadelphia 76ers.

Restricted free-agent guard Tyrese Maxey agreed to a five-year, $204 million contract with the Sixers, according to ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski. The 23-year-old is signed through the 2028-29 season, joining newest 76er Paul George as Philadelphia is retooled with a new Big 3 to challenge the Boston Celtics in the Eastern conference.

Maxey averaged career highs of 25.9 points (45/37/87 shooting splits), 6.2 assists and 3.7 rebounds per game this past season, capturing Most Improved Player honors and making his first All-Star appearance.

Full story here.

Paul George has agreed to a maximum four-year, $212 million contract to join the Philadelphia 76ers, ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski reported early Monday.

George joins a 76ers team featuring seven-time All-Star and 2023 MVP Joel Embiid and All-Star point guard Tyrese Maxey, the reigning NBA Most Improved Player. The addition of George resets the balance of power in the Eastern Conference, where the 76ers seek to join the champion Boston Celtics as contenders for the NBA title.

Details of the deal can be found here.

On an eventful first day of free agency in Los Angeles, the Clippers have agreed to a three-year, $30 million contract with former Dallas Mavericks forward Derrick Jones Jr., The Athletic's Shams Charania reports.

News of the deal broke Sunday shortly after the Clippers announced that nine-time All-Star Paul George would not return to the team after the two sides failed to reach a new deal. The Clippers earlier Sunday reportedly did agree on a two-year, $70 million contract with James Harden and another with Kevin Porter Jr., who will make his return to the NBA after a season away following domestic assault charges.

Jones, 27, obviously won't fill the void left behind by Paul, a high-end two-way player who's made six All-NBA teams. He does provide the Clippers with an athletic wing defender who can play either forward position and attack the basket with the ball in his hands.

In 76 games including 66 starts last season, Jones averaged 8.6 points, 3.3 rebounds, one assist, 0.7 blocks and 0.7 steals per game. He shot 48.3% from the floor and a career-high 34.3% on 3.1 3-point attempts per game.

Chris Paul is signing a deal with the San Antonio Spurs after his Sunday release by the Golden State Warriors, according to multiple reports.

The Golden State Warriors are waiving point guard Chris Paul ahead of the start of free agency, according to multiple reports.

Golden State waived Paul ahead of a Sunday deadline that would have guaranteed his contract for $30 million next season. The Warriors reportedly sought trade suitors for Paul ahead of Sunday's deadline and released him after failing to secure a partner. Now Paul is joining the Spurs.

Read the full story here.

It's not clear yet where Paul George will play next season. But it is clear where he won't.

The Los Angeles Clippers released a statement Sunday evening announcing that George has informed them that he will play for another team.

Read the full story here.

The Detroit Pistons are fully committed to the Cade Cunningham business.

The 22-year-old former No. 1 overall draft selection agreed to a five-year, $226 million maximum contract extension with the Pistons, according to The Athletic's Shams Charania. The deal could be worth an additional $44 million if Cunningham makes an All-NBA team during the 2024-25 campaign.

Cunningham averaged 22.7 points (on 45/36/87 shooting splits), 7.5 assists and 4.3 rebounds in 33.5 minutes per game over over 62 appearances this past season, cementing himself as Detroit's best player. The Pistons, however, finished 14-68, owners of the league's worst record for the second straight season.

Read the full story here.

Kevin Porter Jr. is reportedly returning to the NBA with the Los Angeles Clippers months after he reached a plea deal in a domestic assault case.

Per The Athletic's Shams Charania, Porter has agreed to a two-year contract with the Clippers at the Sunday start of NBA free agency negotiations. A first-round pick by the Cleveland Cavaliers in the 2019 draft, Porter played two seasons with the Houston Rockets after his rookie campaign in Cleveland.

Porter was arrested on domestic assault charges last summer for an alleged incident involving his girlfriend. The Rockets then traded him to the Oklahoma City Thunder, who immediately waived him. Once a promising member of Houston's young core, Porter did not play in the NBA last season.

Porter pleaded guilty in January to misdemeanor assault and harassment in a deal that kept him out of jail. Prosecutors had accused Porter of leaving his girlfriend bloodied with a deep cut on her face, an account that she has since denied.

He recently played basketball in Greece and is back in the NBA after a one-year hiatus.

Read more here.

Russell Westbrook opted into his $4 million for this 2024-25 season, and now the Clippers are working to find a trade for Westbrook, league sources told Yahoo Sports. The Nuggets have already considered avenues to add Westbrook, sources said.

Another big free agent is sticking with his team: James Harden is reportedly signing a $70 million deal to stay with the Clippers, per The Athletic's Shams Charania. Harden's deal include a player option for the second year, per Charania.

Ten-time All-Star and former league MVP played 72 games for the Clippers this season, his healthiest season yet, in a third scoring role behind Kawhi Leonard and Paul George. George opted out of his contract on Saturday.

Read the full story here.

With Jonas Valančiūnas already believed to have a potential home in Los Angeles, league sources have indicated Washington is another possible landing spot to monitor for the veteran big man.

Detroit has more spending power in free agency than any team outside of Philadelphia, where the Pistons hold upward of $51.5 million in space. Detroit, however, has been signaling to the rest of the NBA a willingness to hold off any commitments in the early stretch of free agency, according to league personnel, in order to continue absorbing contracts from other teams in exchange for draft capital. The Pistons already landed three second-round picks for taking on Tim Hardaway Jr. this week.

Miles Bridges, the Michigan State product long-speculated as a possibility to join Detroit, is no longer considered an option for the Pistons, sources said, in addition to his unlikely path to joining the Sixers.

There might not be such an early rush out of the gates of NBA free agency, as plenty of teams and agents of wing players seem to be patient in their approach of waiting out the consequential decisions of Paul George, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Klay Thompson.

Miles Bridges’s free agency, for one, could be delayed based on the above players’ outcomes, sources said, to better establish a sign-and-trade market for Bridges and allow the Michigan State product to explore his options outside of Charlotte.

After playing on the veteran’s minimum last season in Milwaukee, Malik Beasley is expected to seek as much of the full mid-level exception as he can obtain, sources said, which could be directly dependent on certain teams’ successes and failures approaching players above him on their boards. Buddy Hield and Gary Trent Jr. are two other veteran wings vying for above the mid-level, sources said, and their landing spots and price points could very well be dependent on what happens with George, KCP and Thompson as well. Kyle Anderson is another forward who will pursue the full mid-level exception, sources said, and the Timberwolves are prepared to lose their versatile veteran on the open market.

New Orleans’ trade to acquire Dejounte Murray from the Atlanta Hawks added a two-way playmaker and former All-Star to the Pelicans’ backcourt, but left a further hole of veteran talent in the frontcourt. New Orleans is not expected to retain Jonas Valančiūnas, league sources told Yahoo Sports, and sent out small-ball five Larry Nance Jr. to the Hawks. The Pelicans selected Baylor freshman Yves Missi with the No. 21 pick in Wednesday’s draft, but there are starter’s minutes that still need to be filled in the Smoothie King center.

The Pelicans, sources said, continue to look around the trade market for centers. New Orleans has long had an idea for Cavaliers shot blocker Jarrett Allen, sources said, and would covet the Cleveland big man in any potential trade that sent Brandon Ingram to the Cavs. Other bigs that have been on New Orleans’ radar for several transaction cycles: the Pistons’ Isaiah Stewart and the Magic’s Wendell Carter Jr., sources said.

The decision on how much of Murray’s 15% trade kicker he’ll receive has been left open-ended, sources said, to provide greater flexibility as the Pelicans proceed with their offseason.

Word of LeBron James being open to less salary, after James opted out of his $51.4 million for the 2024-25 season to become a free agent, took many rival executives by surprise over the weekend. James has taken his ultimate maximum average annual value ever since he left Miami in the summer of 2014. But at age 40, entering year 22, James has the utmost incentive to earn less on the Lakers’ cap sheet, while he generates millions off the court, in order to help Los Angeles free flexibility to pursue someone such as Klay Thompson with the full mid-level exception.

League personnel with knowledge of the situation believe Thompson is the Lakers’ top target at this juncture, and Jonas Valančiūnas continues to be mentioned as a veteran center on Los Angeles’ radar. The Lakers have also been exploring trade scenarios with the contracts of D’Angelo Russell, Rui Hachimura, Jarred Vanderbilt and Gabe Vincent, sources said, and Brook Lopez has been one of the primary options on the Lakers’ board of hopeful acquisitions, sources said.

It’s important here to note James’ appetite for a pay cut and the overall structure on a possible three-year deal for one of the game’s greatest will be dependent on what type of talent Los Angeles is able to acquire, sources said, and at what cost of the salary cap.

We wrote back in May that Isaiah Harenstein could very well be the best big man available in free agency. New York remains an option for the 26-year-old Knicks center, sources said, while the team’s front office works through all scenarios stemming from New York’s open-ended blockbuster deal for Mikal Bridges last week. Should the Knicks figure out how to finalize their Bridges acquisition without getting hard-capped, Hartenstein could receive up to four years and $72.5 million from New York.

Should he reach the open market, Hartenstein is still expected to draw interest from the Oklahoma City Thunder, league sources told Yahoo Sports. Hartenstein could also receive an offer from the Pistons, sources said, where Detroit has upward of $55 million in cap space and new president of basketball operations Trajan Langdon is known to be a fan of Hartenstein, sources said. Orlando has plenty of money to spend as well, and the Magic were nearly Hartenstein's’ home the last time he was an unrestricted free agent — when Hartenstein chose the Knicks over the Magic in 2022.

The Grizzlies have been a team scouring the big-man market this offseason. From attempting to trade up for Donovan Clingan during Wednesday night’s draft to checking in with Toronto about the asking price for Jakob Poeltl, sources said, Memphis explored various options before selecting mammoth center Zach Edey out of Purdue with the No. 9 pick.

Agents who represent centers willing to take the veteran’s minimum have maintained belief the Grizzlies could provide a home for some players out of that free agency bucket, sources said. There’s also the matter of Luke Kennard’s future to figure out in Memphis, after the Grizzlies declined his $14.8 million team option for 2024-25. However, rival executives are not preparing for the opportunity that Kennard will truly reach the open market, sources said, as both sides appear interested in extending Kennard’s time with the Grizzlies.

The mid-level market is one of the more interesting aspects of this offseason, where it appears the majority of NBA teams plan to use less than the entirety of the $12.8 million MLE amount. Another aspect of the new CBA allows front offices to not spend that MLE this summer, and then use it as a traded-player exception to acquire any new piece whose salary falls under that number. A player’s appetite for taking $6 million could even be the difference in someone such as Buddy Hield making above the $5.2 million taxpayer MLE. If Hield were to take that from Golden State, for example, the Warriors could sign another $4 million player above the NBA’s veteran minimum salary, or pocket that leftover space as a TPE.

Plenty of teams with access to their full mid-level will either wait to see how the top-billing players fall first — which could leave an opportunity for one team or several to jump from the starting gun and sign their mid-level guy of choice. The profile for such a player could change depending on a team’s perspective, too. Hield does remain one of the hottest shooters in the league. Does your front office want to steal Haywood Highsmith from Miami? What about throwing a long-term, non-guaranteed deal at Saddiq Bey? A team could feasibly swipe Nicolas Batum from Philadelphia with a richer payday above the minimum. How about a younger wing, like Isaac Okoro, if you’re a team that once hoped to lure Patrick Williams to an offer sheet. Mid-level fortune could favor the bold.

The Chicago Bulls have reportedly come to terms with restricted free agent forward Patrick Williams on a five-year contract worth $90 million, with the final year being a player option.

This is a quality piece of business for the Bulls, who are locking up a 22-year-old two-way wing, who can play both forward spots, provide quality defense and is sporting a career efficiency of 41% from downtown.

Williams hasn't grown much as an all-around player since getting drafted fourth overall in 2020, to the point where you could almost pencil him in for about 10 points and four rebounds before the beginning of each season.

While those numbers are indeed underwhelming, Williams is a legitimate 3-and-D piece for the Bulls, and because the going rate for such an archetype in today's league has grown astronomically, signing him to $18 million per year is noteworthy.

Why this deal is great for the Bulls.

Whatever NBA theatrics do come — once the clock strikes 6 p.m. ET, once free agents can begin contact with prospective teams, once several more trades shake the league’s landscape like a snow globe — this July will present the first case study of just how front offices and agents will navigate the new math and restrictions that come with the imposing second apron of the collective bargaining agreement.

That is the ultimate context of Paul George declining his player option and testing the open market. That is the cold, hard truth underscoring Denver’s plight to retain Kentavious Caldwell-Pope after already losing Bruce Brown a year ago. That is why the Warriors have attempted to find trades — such as landing George — with Chris Paul’s non-guaranteed salary, sources said, as Golden State could still retain his valuable salary slot and further improve the roster around Stephen Curry.

It does not matter if Steve Ballmer or Joe Lacob has limitless pockets and is willing to pay the penalties that come with wading into the NBA’s new second apron like the luxury tax of yesteryear. The ability to front that bill doesn’t hand front offices get-out-of-jail-free cards that suddenly grant access to any mid-level spending power, the ability to aggregate salary in trade, send out cash or use traded player exceptions — let alone the frozen draft picks that looms like the bogeyman. It’s one thing if the Boston Celtics have six of their top eight players all under contract and under the age of 30. The Knicks’ threatening core is even younger and more team-controlled. It’s another thing building around aging star veterans all likely looking at the final contracts of their illustrious careers.

The Clippers, then, have made it clear to this point they have no intention of awarding any player — not Kawhi Leonard, not George, not James Harden — with a contract beyond three years, league sources told Yahoo Sports, in order to permit Los Angeles the future flexibility to evade the penalties of the second apron. The two sides have had months to find an extension similar to Leonard’s three-year, $153 million agreement in January, exchanging various proposals, sources said, but that critical lack of a fourth year from the Clippers, what could be the difference of some $60 million, is what’s prompted George to listen to offers from the Philadelphia 76ers and Orlando Magic once free agency begins, sources confirmed to Yahoo Sports, in addition to George’s incumbent Clippers. The reality that dealing George to Golden State would have netted back 75 cents on the dollar — yet still cost a dollar and would still bring those second-apron challenges — were key deterrents in those fizzled trade discussions.

Both the 76ers and Magic, sources said, are prepared to lavish George with four-year maximum contracts, as were the Warriors if George would have exercised his $48.7 million player option for this upcoming 2024-25 season.

Read the full story here.