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“Dean Wade doesn’t need the ball to be effective, and every offense can use a guy like that,” Nurse said at summer league. “He does a lot of dirty work. He defends and he’s someone who can make a lot of reads off the primary playmakers.” Wade and his group chose the Sixers, according to league sources, in large part because Gansey and Nelson sold him on the vision of how he wanted the Sixers to work as an organization and how he wanted to build the roster. Wade and Gansey have long shared trust and a close relationship. Wade was one of Gansey’s first real finds as an executive, and behind the scenes pushed for his ever expanding role with the Cavaliers.
“That precedent is there; there’s G League players that have been cleared for college,” Pate’s agent, Sam Permut, told the Globe. “There’s G League Ignite players from the very genesis of that program, which was kind of pre-NIL, like paying youth players that have been cleared. There’s players that played in summer league that have been cleared. International players that played in professional leagues for multiple years have been cleared. Dink never enrolled in college and left . . . So why should he be punished?”
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Eric Nehm: It's a training camp deal for Butler, per league sources. Butler was with the Bucks for summer league and played for the Wisconsin Herd last season. The 7-footer averaged 9.4 points, 5.7 rebounds, and 1.7 blocks in 28.6 minutes per game in 49 games with the Herd.
Teams are normally hesitant to make grand proclamations from summer league, but Caleb Wilson's performance stood out. "He looks," one team source told ESPN, "like we got a dude." The Bulls believe Caleb Wilson is yet another new pillar of an almost entirely new leadership structure. They hired a new head of basketball operations, Bryson Graham, who had a reputation for building through the draft and finding young talent.
Splitter also stepped in to coach the Bulls at summer league for the team's first two games in Las Vegas. He said he wanted the opportunity to establish a culture with his young players. For a young coach still finding his identity, it was good practice for the challenge of taking over a franchise starved for a winner with newfound expectations of the future. "He's really detailed," Caleb Wilson said. "He knows what he wants you to do and he's pretty serious. Most coaches, you have coaches that are joking around and stuff like that. Tiago's pretty serious and he knows what he wants. "I'd rather have someone who's serious and straightforward with me, so I know what I can do better."
The Houston Rockets today announced they have signed center Rafael Castro [RAH-fi-ell] to a two-way contract. Castro (6-10, 224) was eligible for the 2026 NBA Draft following his redshirt senior season at George Washington. At the NBA Draft Combine, he measured with a 9-foot-1.5-inch standing reach and a 7-foot-1.25-inch wingspan. Castro played for Milwaukee’s entries in the California Classic and NBA Summer League in Las Vegas.
"Defensively, it's learning the techniques," Smith said. "I've been with T.J. and Ty just asking questions. In college, it's different. In the NBA, you can be more physical in the NBA. That's what I learned in the Summer League. "I'm like, 'Alright this is what I was horrible at.' I'm letting guys come off screens too easily. I'm talking to T.J. and he does it and he was like, 'You can be a lot more physical fighting those.' I'm like, 'OK, that makes it easier for me at least a little bit.' It's just a lot of little things like that that I've kind of picked up and asked questions about."
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In an interview with Connor Long of Yahoo Sports (YouTube link), two-way player Chaney Johnson says the Nets are ready to improve following a “terrible” 20-win season. Johnson is hoping to claim a larger role after spending most of his rookie year in the G League. He’s coming off a strong Summer League performance, averaging 13.0 points and 8.0 rebounds while leading all players in Las Vegas in steals with 3.3 per game. “I just feel like we’re hungry,” he said. “They know — we realize how terrible of a team we were last year, or how terrible we did. I know ‘terrible’ is a strong word, so I don’t want to — but we weren’t the best team last year. So I feel like we’ve got that chip on our shoulder now, and we’re ready to prove some people wrong.”
In the same interview, Johnson points to second-year guard Nolan Traore as the Nets player who has shown the most growth during the offseason. Traore was held out of Summer League while recovering from a knee scope, but he’s still been able to spend extensive time in the gym and the weight room. “All the guys have improved, but I feel like Nolan … he’s a different guy now,” Johnson said. “He done put on some mass. He’s walking around with a sleeveless hoodie on, looking at the biceps, you know what I’m saying? He done put on some strength.”
The Bulls legend and four-time NBA champion spoke giddily of incoming Chicago rookie Caleb Wilson, who sizzled in the summer league after being chosen No. 4 overall in the draft. “Oh my goodness, man,” Grant said in an exclusive interview. “What a beast. What a freakin’ beast. He has all the intangibles, the skillset. But what I love about him is that he has the mindset of a killer. A dog. He goes out and gets it. “It’s one of the best draft picks since Derrick Rose. I’m not going to put him with MJ and myself and Pip, but since Derrick Rose, one of the greatest choices the Bulls have made, in my humble opinion.”
Those departures leave a big hole in the leadership category. Anthony Edwards has gotten increasingly more vocal over the years and is stepping it up even more this summer. He has been spending time at the team’s practice facility in Minnesota and taking extra care to make sure LaMelo Ball feels welcome in his new home. And it was Edwards and Ball, according to team sources who spoke to The Athletic on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly on team discussions, who offered to foot the bill for the entire team to fly to Paris for the workouts. “He’s extremely excited about the (Ball) deal,” Chris Finch told The Athletic at summer league in July. “Now, it’s up to him to take the next step in leadership. His voice has grown intelligently and appropriately over the last few seasons. And now, it’s got to be the combination of the voice plus the everyday presence.”
