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Thunder extend Chet Holmgren's contract; Jalen Williams next
Shams Charania: Breaking: Oklahoma City Thunder star and NBA champion Chet Holmgren has agreed to a fully guaranteed five-year maximum rookie contract extension that could reach $250 million, agent Bill Duffy of WME Basketball told ESPN. After missing three months during the season, Holmgren returned in February and came back stronger to help lead OKC and its young core to the NBA title. The Thunder will now move toward locking in All-NBA superstar Jalen Williams, who has momentum in his rookie extension talks.
Jovan Buha: I think there's a new era here, the Bill Duffy era and that's Luka Doncic’s guy and that's how this situation is trending. I want to be careful with what I say about Bron’s relationship with the front office or the organization, but I don't think it's in the best place right now to be completely honest. There's been no official statement about LeBron opting in. There typically is, especially for a player of that magnitude. And then he's had his stuff on social media or whatever he's posted, and there was obviously the statement when he opted in. So I don't think things are in the best place they've ever been. I'll just say that.
Jaxson Hayes returns to Lakers
Shams Charania: Free agent center Jaxson Hayes has agreed on a one-year deal to return to the Los Angeles Lakers, sources tell ESPN. Hayes' agents, Bill Duffy and Marlon Harrison of WME Basketball, finalized a contract with Lakers president Rob Pelinka on Thursday.
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Shams Charania: BREAKING: Deandre Ayton has agreed to sign with the Los Angeles Lakers, sources tell ESPN. Between Portland and L.A., Ayton will earn $34 million next season. Agents Nima Namakian of Innovate Sports and Bill Duffy of WME Sports reached the deal with Lakers president Rob Pelinka.
WME Basketball, now operating independently of WME Sports but still anchored by veteran agent Bill Duffy, revealed a 2025 draft class Tuesday that includes three projected lottery picks and potentially a pair in the Top 5. Overall, WME Basketball’s entire five-man class could be first-rounders. The top prospects are Rutgers G Dylan Harper (rated No. 2 overall by most scouts), Texas G Tre Johnson (rated No. 5 overall) and Maryland F Derik Queen (No. 11 overall). They are followed by Georgetown F Thomas Sorber and Auburn G Tahaad Pettiford, possible first-round picks who declared for the draft while keeping their collegiate eligibility.
WME Sports will divest its basketball representation business to address a potential conflict of interest following Endeavor’s take-private by Silver Lake, according to sources familiar with WME’s plans. The new agency will retain the WME Basketball name but be owned and operated independently from WME Sports. It will be led by longtime basketball agent Bill Duffy, whose BDA Sports was acquired by WME in 2023.
Windhorst spoke on The Hoope Collective about Doncic warming up an hour before Tuesday night's game whereas he was practicing, Harrison was “sitting very leisurely on the scorer's table.” He would say the two were about 15 or 20 feet apart from one another as the moment was bolstered as Windhorst was watching it with Doncic's agent Bill Duffy who even called it a “special moment.” “Luka comes out to warm up an hour before the game give or take,” Windhorst said. “Nico is sitting very plainly in a sea of blue and gold, in a bright blue suit, sitting very leisurely on the scorer's table when Luka comes out to warm up. They are 15 – 20 feet apart, Luka is shooting 3’s from the wing at one point, maybe 30 feet. I am sitting there watching it with Bill Duffy, who is Luka’s agent. Bill has been around the NBA for 40-plus years and he’s known Luka since Luka was 14 and he is just sort of watching with a smirk on his face. He’s like, ‘I've seen a lot of things in this league and this is a special moment.’”
Wizards adding Jalen McDaniels
Shams Charania: The Washington Wizards are signing forward Jalen McDaniels to a 10-day contract, his agents Nima Namakian of Innovate Sports and Bill Duffy of WME Sports told ESPN. The 6-foot-9 forward has showcased shooting splits of 47-39-80 this season with Capital City in the G League.
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Hayes will have Doncic's support, however. He was the first of Doncic's new Lakers teammates to go to dinner with him once he arrived in Los Angeles, as Hayes, Doncic and their mutual agent, Bill Duffy of WME, dined together at Ocean Prime in Beverly Hills. "When he was in Dallas and I was in New Orleans my first few years, they kept trying to trade for me," Hayes told ESPN on Saturday after posting 9 points, 12 rebounds and 2 blocks in a win over Indiana with Doncic and James watching on the bench. "New Orleans never allowed it. He was like, 'Do you remember when we couldn't trade for you?' I was like, 'Do you remember what I told you after every game I played against you?' After every game I would be like, 'If you ever need a big, I would love to play with you.' Just because of the way he moves the ball."
Brad Townsend: Doncic’s agent, Bill Duffy, reiterated to me that neither he nor Doncic nor anyone in the inner-circle indicated to the Mavs that Doncic not sign the supermax and stay in Dallas longterm. “Not at all,” he said. “We were going to talk at the end of the season.”
Lakers only wanted to part with one first rounder because they were not allowed to gauge Luka Doncic interest in re-signing
The Lakers’ logic, according to league sources, was that parting with both of their first-rounders would be too perilous. Dončić’s contract can expire in 2026 when they couldn’t know his interest in re-signing. And they had no chance to find out before pulling off an exchange that shook the NBA. The Lakers could not talk to Dončić’s agent, Bill Duffy, about the trade because both sides, Dallas and Los Angeles, wanted to keep negotiations a secret. Mentioning the behind-the-scenes details to agents would put the information at risk of becoming public, which the Mavericks especially thought would be too flammable. If a trade didn’t materialize, then they believed the prospect of being left with a disgruntled franchise centerpiece could be disastrous.
That Dallas general manager Nico Harrison and Lakers GM Rob Pelinka worked this out without bringing in the high-powered agents for Dončiċ (WME’s Bill Duffy) and Davis (Klutch Sports’ Rich Paul) to facilitate the deal that cut against the grain of the modern NBA, where the top agents and agencies decide where their clients play next. “Two GMs doing business on their own. Old-school style,” one Eastern Conference executive texted Sunday afternoon.
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