Kawhi's trade closes, two $31 million-a-year extensions land, and the NBA roster board for Sep. 14–21
The Sep. 14–21 board closes with Kawhi Leonard officially a Raptor, Ausar Thompson and Keyonte George signing extensions that average $31 million a year, and Jalen Duren's contract standoff in Detroit reaching training camp unresolved.
The window here is Sep. 14–21, 2026. The trade that had been parked in the league office since June finally cleared, four players agreed to extensions worth about $428 million combined, and Detroit's biggest contract negotiation went into training camp unresolved.
The board at a glance
| Player or lane | Status | Verified development | Contract, cap or roster mechanism | Next signal |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kawhi Leonard, Raptors–Clippers | Completed | Toronto announced the trade Monday after the NBA approved it; Leonard returns to the team he won the 2019 title with. 12 | Los Angeles received Brandon Ingram, Gradey Dick, unprotected 2031 and 2033 first-round picks, a 2027 first-round swap and second-round picks in 2030 and 2033. 1 | Extension talks that can run to two years and roughly $124MM, then a Sept. 28 media day. 23 |
| Ausar Thompson, Pistons | Completed | Five-year, $155MM rookie-scale extension agreed Friday. 4 | Fully guaranteed, no options, a $31MM average starting in 2027/28; Thompson earns $11.12MM in the final year of his rookie deal. 4 | Whether Detroit closes the Duren file before camp. 5 |
| Keyonte George, Jazz | Completed | Five-year, $157.5MM extension signed and announced Friday. 67 | A $155MM base plus $500K a season in incentives; the deal begins in 2027/28 at about $28.7MM with 4% raises and no options. 8 | How Utah's George–Darryn Peterson backcourt splits the ball. 6 |
| Pelle Larsson, Heat | Agreed | Four-year, $60MM extension agreed Friday. 9 | An ascending deal starting near $13.5MM in 2027/28, with both a player option and a team option in 2030/31. 9 | Miami's rotation role for Larsson and its room under the 2027/28 mid-level. 9 |
| Saddiq Bey, Pelicans | Completed | Three-year, $55.5MM extension announced Friday. 1011 | Starts at $20.1MM and descends to $16.9MM by year three, with a trade kicker; Bey cannot be traded for six months. 10 | How New Orleans sorts minutes across a crowded wing group. 10 |
| Jalen Duren, Pistons | Stalled | Detroit has offered the restricted free agent $190MM-plus over five years; Duren wants more and the team believes its offers have been fair. 45 | His only leverage is the $9.6MM qualifying offer, which leads to unrestricted free agency in 2027. 5 | The Oct. 1 date to sign the qualifying offer, with camp already open. 12 |
| Cam Whitmore, Nuggets | Completed | Two-way contract signed Friday. 13 | $678,882 with a 50-game active limit and no playoff eligibility unless Denver promotes him — plus the $5.46MM Cleveland still owes him. 13 | Whether Denver uses its 15th standard roster spot on him. 13 |
| Buddy Hield and Dorian Finney-Smith, Hawks–Hornets | Exploratory | The two Southeast teams have discussed Hield going to Charlotte and Finney-Smith to Atlanta on and off all summer. 14 | Hield earns $9.7MM with a partially guaranteed option for 2027/28; Finney-Smith's $13.3MM for that season is non-guaranteed. 14 | Atlanta finding a taker for Hield's salary. 14 |
| Domantas Sabonis, Kings–Hornets | Stalled | Charlotte keeps being linked to Sabonis, but Sacramento's asking price is blocking a deal. 15 | Sabonis has two years and $94MM left and is looking for an extension from his next team. 15 | Whether Sacramento lowers its price. 15 |
The trade that waited eleven weeks for the league office
Kawhi Leonard is a Toronto Raptor again, and this time the paperwork is filed. The Raptors announced the deal Monday after the NBA approved it, closing out an agreement the two teams had reached on June 30. 12
The delay came from the league's salary-cap circumvention investigation into the Clippers and Leonard, which concluded Sept. 2. The penalties fell on the team: a $30MM fine, the forfeiture of five first-round picks from 2029 through 2033, a one-year suspension for owner Steve Ballmer and business president Gillian Zucker, and a six-month suspension for basketball operations president Lawrence Frank. Leonard was fined $700,000, and the league declined to suspend him or void his contract. 2
Neither side reopened the terms once the ruling landed. "It was always going to be this trade," Shams Charania of ESPN said on TSN this week, adding that within hours of the punishment the Raptors and Clippers spoke and both showed intent to move forward as negotiated. 3
Toronto sent Brandon Ingram, Gradey Dick, unprotected first-round picks in 2031 and 2033, a 2027 first-round pick swap and second-round picks in 2030 and 2033. 1 Marc Stein reported that the Clippers were unwilling to offer Leonard any form of extension, which is what pushed the 35-year-old into the market at all. 16 Leonard is entering the final year of his contract, and Toronto is now in advanced discussions on an extension that could reach two years and about $124MM. 316
For the Clippers, the return is two players and a bundle of picks arriving in the same summer the league stripped five first-round selections from their own ledger. 1 For Toronto, the bet is on a defense that already ranked fifth in the league at 112.1 points allowed per 100 possessions. 17 Leonard's fit there rests on a specific habit: he had 122 steals and 27 blocks against 78 personal fouls last season, the best steals-and-blocks-per-foul ratio among the 378 players who logged at least 500 minutes. 17 Toronto's top-five defense ranked 23rd in opponent free throw rate, so a wing who contests without fouling has somewhere to help. 17
Leonard addressed his place in the locker room on the team's in-house show, telling coach Darko Rajakovic that Scottie Barnes runs the team. "If it's Scottie's team, it's his team," he said. 3
Two 2023 first-rounders, the same $31 million average
Detroit and Utah spent Friday on the same problem — paying a 2023 first-round pick a second contract — and arrived at almost the same number.
Ausar Thompson agreed to a five-year, $155MM extension with the Pistons, fully guaranteed and carrying no option of any kind. 4 He finished third in Defensive Player of the Year voting, made the All-Defensive first team and led the NBA at 2.0 steals a game while Detroit won 60 games. 4 The contract starts in 2027/28 at a $31MM annual average; Thompson earns $11.12MM this season on the last year of his rookie scale deal. 4 Detroit is paying for defense and ignoring the shot: Thompson has made 20.4% of his career three-pointers and 60.0% of his free throws. 4 His twin Amen signed a five-year, $208MM extension with Houston earlier in the offseason, making the Thompsons the first brothers with $100MM-plus contracts. 4
Keyonte George got five years and $157.5MM from the Jazz, a deal worth $155MM before $500,000-a-year incentives. 6 Utah announced the signing the same day. 7 George averaged 23.6 points, 6.1 assists and 3.7 rebounds in 54 games, and the team's commitment is a bet that he can improve on the other end, where Utah has ranked 29th or 30th in defensive rating in each of his three seasons. 6
The two structures differ where the money sits. George's extension begins at about $28.7MM in 2027/28 and climbs 4% a year instead of the maximum 8%, because the salary cap has grown 5–6% recently rather than the maximum 10%. 8 Utah also wrote in five $100,000 bonuses a season — one tied to playing 65 games, several to playoff series wins — and the team currently regards all of them as unlikely. 8 Neither contract includes a player or team option. 68
Both average roughly $31MM a year, well under the projected maximum of about $51MM for a player finishing a rookie scale contract, and both beat the Oct. 19 deadline for 2023 first-rounders. 618
Miami and New Orleans extended the same kind of player at different prices
Pelle Larsson agreed to a four-year, $60MM extension with the Heat. 9 The deal ascends, starting near $13.5MM in 2027/28, and holds both a player option and a team option for 2030/31. 9 That puts Miami's number below the projected non-taxpayer mid-level exception for 2027/28 and close to the four-year, $62.4MM extension Nikola Jovic signed with the Heat a year ago. 9 Larsson started 54 of 70 games last season and averaged 11.4 points on .496 shooting. 9
Saddiq Bey's three-year, $55.5MM extension in New Orleans runs the other direction, opening at $20.1MM and dropping to $16.9MM by the third year. 10 It carries a trade kicker worth the lesser of $1MM or 15%, and it makes Bey ineligible to be traded for six months. 10 Counting the $6.56MM he earns this season, the four-year outlay is $62.06MM — within a rounding error of the $61.6MM Naji Marshall will make in Dallas over the same span. 10 Bey averaged 17.7 points and 5.6 rebounds in 72 games last season after missing all of 2024/25 with a torn left ACL. 10
Two-way slots and camp invitations
Denver filled its third and final two-way slot with Cam Whitmore on Friday, after Marc Stein reported earlier in the week that the Nuggets had him on their radar. 13 The contract pays $678,882, half the rookie minimum, and caps Whitmore at 50 active games with no playoff eligibility unless Denver promotes him to the 15-man roster. 13 The 2023 first-rounder last played in January, when a blood clot in his right shoulder ended his season with Washington. 13 Cleveland waived him in August and still owes him $5.46MM in guaranteed salary, so his Denver pay sits on top of it. 13 This is his final season of two-way eligibility; finishing it in Denver makes him an unrestricted free agent in July 2027. 13
New York went the other way with its last roster spot, announcing five non-guaranteed Exhibit 9 deals on Wednesday: John Konchar, Bruce Brown, Ochai Agbaji, James Wiseman and Drew Eubanks. 19 Exhibit 9 is the camp contract that also limits what a team owes a player who is injured before the season begins. 20 The Knicks carry 13 guaranteed contracts, so two spots are open, and filling both would push the club into second-apron territory; Stein reports the expectation is that New York fills one. 1619 Gabe Vincent could have taken the same kind of deal and chose to wait for a clearer path to a roster spot instead. 16
The rest of the week's paperwork ran through the same channels. Golden State agreed to a two-year, two-way deal with Graham Ike and sent second-round pick Lajae Jones to Pallacanestro Trieste as a draft-and-stash. 2122 Dallas is expected to sign Dwight Powell to a non-guaranteed camp deal. 20 Charlotte waived Bez Mbeng and signed DJ Armstrong, whose Exhibit 10 structure will pay him a bonus of up to $91,000 if he is waived and spends 60 days with the Greensboro Swarm. 2324 New Orleans waived Markquis Nowell and Minnesota waived Stephen Thompson, two camp invites likely headed to the G League on the same kind of bonus. 25 Cleveland promoted Brandon Weems to general manager, and Orlando hired Ronnie Burrell to coach its G League affiliate. 2627
The negotiation that did not close
Detroit closed out its week everywhere but the center position. Charania reported that the Pistons have put a five-year offer in the range of $190MM in front of Jalen Duren, that Duren wants more, and that the team considers its offers fair. 4 The Detroit Free Press reports the club feels urgency to settle the matter before camp, even on a shorter-term deal. 5
Duren's leverage is a single document. He can sign his $9.6MM qualifying offer, play the season on it, and become an unrestricted free agent in 2027. 5 Detroit has resisted sign-and-trade scenarios that would send him elsewhere now. 5 The qualifying offer must be signed by Oct. 1, though the deadline can be pushed as late as March 1. 12
The choice for Duren is between a nine-figure guarantee now and one season at $9.6MM that buys him the open market. For Detroit, the bill is already visible either way: Thompson's $155MM plus a Duren deal near $190MM would commit more than $340MM to two players in a single summer.
Where the trade market still breathes
Atlanta and Charlotte have kept a Hield-for-Finney-Smith framework alive all summer, with Buddy Hield going to the Hornets and Dorian Finney-Smith to the Hawks. 14 Jake Fischer reported the talks as intermittent, and an earlier version of the framework included Devin Carter before Atlanta waived him instead. 14 The money explains why the talks keep coming back: Hield's $9.7MM is the salary Atlanta has tried to shed since July, and Finney-Smith's $13.3MM for 2027/28 is non-guaranteed, which makes him a contract the Hawks could carry and then clear. 14 Hield shot a career-low 34.9% from three last season, and Finney-Smith is coming off ankle surgery that held him to 37 games in Houston. 14
Charlotte's bigger swing, a trade for Domantas Sabonis, is stuck on price. Fischer said the Kings want positive value and draft compensation, and that teams are reluctant to take on the extension Sabonis is seeking; Sacramento already had a multi-pick package rejected earlier in the offseason. 15 Sabonis is signed for two more years and $94MM and is extension-eligible. 15 In Fischer's words, "I don't think Charlotte is really motivated to meet that Kings' asking price." 15
Fantasy and roster read
The table below provides analysis built on the verified contract structures above.
| Player or lane | Changed opportunity | What to monitor |
|---|---|---|
| Ausar Thompson | Detroit has committed to a wing who took 7.9 shots a game and attempted 24 three-pointers all season. He said this week he intends to attack the paint more. 45 | Whether the extra shots show up in the preseason, and whether Ron Holland shares the floor with him. 5 |
| Keyonte George | Signed through 2031/32 as Utah's long-term guard next to Darryn Peterson, with a games-played bonus at 65 games after he finished last season with 54. 68 | How Utah splits ball-handling between two guards who are not traditional point guards. 6 |
| Pelle Larsson | Locked into Miami's rotation through 2030/31 on a deal that pays him $2.3MM this season and roughly $13.5MM next. 9 | His starting role and shot volume alongside Miami's other wings. 9 |
| Saddiq Bey | Paid as a starter in New Orleans, where Trey Murphy III and Herbert Jones already hold the wing minutes. 10 | Who starts, and whether a six-month trade restriction turns one of the other Pelicans wings into the movable salary. 10 |
| Kawhi Leonard | Heads to a Toronto team that won 16 more games last season than the year before, with a $124MM extension available and a career-high 27.9 points behind him. 23 | His workload in a Barnes-led offense and the extension talks. 3 |
| Cam Whitmore | Has a roster path in Denver on a two-way deal that allows 50 active games, with his $5.46MM Cavaliers salary already banked. 13 | Whether Denver spends its 15th standard spot on him, which is the only route to playoff eligibility. 13 |
| Jalen Duren | Detroit's only unresolved starter, with a $190MM-plus offer on the table and camp open. 4 | Whether he signs the qualifying offer by Oct. 1, and what a one-year deal would do to his minutes and usage. 5 |
| John Konchar, Bruce Brown, Ochai Agbaji | Three veterans competing for one probable roster spot in New York, each on a non-guaranteed deal. 19 | Preseason minutes and the Knicks' final cut, which determines who is available on the market. 19 |
Next concrete signals
- Jalen Duren's qualifying offer, which must be signed by Oct. 1, with Detroit's camp already running and the club saying it wants the matter settled early. 512
- The rookie-scale extension deadline on Oct. 19, which still applies to 2023 first-rounders including Charlotte's Brandon Miller, Oklahoma City's Cason Wallace, Golden State's Brandin Podziemski and Milwaukee's Jaime Jaquez. 18
- Leonard's extension in Toronto, with the forward scheduled to speak to reporters at the Raptors' media day on Sept. 28. 23
- Atlanta's search for a Hield taker and Sacramento's Sabonis price, the two conditions that would reopen either trade lane. 1415
- New York's final cut, deciding which of five camp invitees earns the one spot the Knicks are expected to fill, with Gabe Vincent still waiting on the market. 1619
- Denver's decision on Whitmore, since a 15-man roster spot is the only way he becomes playoff-eligible. 13
References
- 1
- 2
- 3Raptors Notes: Kawhi, Clips Trade, Barnes, Charles, More\
hoopsrumors.com
- 4Pistons, Ausar Thompson Agree To Five-Year Extension\
hoopsrumors.com
- 5Pistons Notes: Duren, Thompson, Holland, Harris, Stewart\
hoopsrumors.com
- 6Jazz, Keyonte George Finalize Five-Year Extension\
hoopsrumors.com
- 7
- 8More Details On Keyonte George's Extension With Jazz\
hoopsrumors.com
- 9Pelle Larsson To Sign Four-Year Extension With Heat\
hoopsrumors.com
- 10Pelicans Sign Saddiq Bey To Three-Year Extension\
hoopsrumors.com
- 11
- 12
- 13Nuggets Sign Cam Whitmore To Two-Way Contract\
hoopsrumors.com
- 14
- 15Domantas Sabonis trade to Hornets facing huge obstacle\
basketnews.com
- 16Stein's Latest: Wiseman, Vincent, Leonard, Mavs\
hoopsrumors.com
- 17
- 18
- 19Knicks Sign Brown, Agbaji, Wiseman To Non-Guaranteed Deals\
hoopsrumors.com
- 20Mavericks Expected To Sign Dwight Powell\
hoopsrumors.com
- 21Warriors To Sign Graham Ike To Two-Way Deal\
hoopsrumors.com
- 22Lajae Jones Signs With Italian Team\
hoopsrumors.com
- 23Hornets Waive Bez Mbeng\
hoopsrumors.com
- 24DJ Armstrong Signs With Hornets\
hoopsrumors.com
- 25Nowell (Pelicans), Thompson (Wolves) Latest Players Waived\
hoopsrumors.com
- 26Cavaliers Promote Brandon Weems To General Manager\
hoopsrumors.com
- 27Eastern Notes: Watson, Raptors, Magic, Burrell, Knicks\
hoopsrumors.com
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