The 11-time All-Star guard will return to the Clippers after spending the past two seasons there. The second year of the new pact reportedly has a player option and partial guarantees.

Harden, who turns 36 before next season begins, played 79 games (all starts) for Los Angeles in 2024-25 and averaged 22.8 points, 8.7 assists and 5.7 rebounds, though his 3-point shooting ticked down from 38.1 percent the year before to 35.2 percent.

He was named to the All-NBA third team, his first All-NBA honor since 2019-20.

Harden also put up 18.7 points, 9.1 assists and 5.4 rebounds per game during the Clippers' seven-game playoff loss to the Denver Nuggets in the first round. The Clippers were the fifth seed in the Western Conference but will strive for better postseason results with Harden at the center of their plans.

Nurkic, 30, averaged 8.9 points and 7.8 rebounds in 51 games last season with the Phoenix Suns and Hornets. He was traded to Charlotte in February for Cody Martin and Vasilije Micic.

In 11 NBA seasons, Nurkic has averaged 11.8 points with 8.8 rebounds and 2.5 assists in 590 games (490 starts) for the Denver Nuggets (2014-17), Portland Trail Blazers (2017-23), Suns (2023-25) and Hornets.

Sexton, 26, averaged 18.4 points with 2.7 rebounds and 4.2 assists in 63 games (61 starts) with the Jazz last season. In seven seasons with the Cleveland Cavaliers (2018-22) and Jazz, he has averaged 18.8 points, 2.8 rebounds and 3.7 assists in 407 games (335 starts). Sexton is also a 38.7 percent shooter on 3-pointers for his career.

Robinson, 31, averaged 11.0 points with 2.3 rebounds and 2.4 assists in 74 games (37 starts) for the Heat last season. In seven NBA seasons, all in Miami, he has averaged 11.3 points while hitting 1,202 3-pointers in 423 games (283 starts). Robinson is a lifetime 39.7 percent shooter from 3-point range and has attempted 3,026 of his 3,751 career shots from beyond the arc.

If Robinson had opted into his deal for 2025-26, only $9.9 million was guaranteed.

Undrafted out of Michigan after starting his career at Div. III Williams College, the 6-foot-7 sharpshooter averaged 24.1 minutes per game for the Heat last season while shooting 39.3 percent from 3-point range. He played in the 2018 NCAA Tournament championship game as a member of the Wolverines.

Oubre, 29, averaged 15.1 points with 6.1 rebounds and 1.8 assists in 60 games (57 starts) with the 76ers last season. He has produced at least 15.0 points per game in each of the last seven seasons.

In 10 NBA seasons, Oubre has averaged 13.3 points with 4.6 rebounds and 1.1 assists in 655 games (311 starts) for the Washington Wizards (2015-19), Phoenix Suns (2019-20), Golden State Warriors (2020-21), Charlotte Hornets (2021-23) and 76ers.

The deal to retain Randle comes two days after center Naz Reid agreed to a five-year, $125-million extension with the Timberwolves.

Minnesota has moved to retain key portions of a roster that pushed the franchise into the Western Conference finals for a second consecutive season. The team's 49 regular-season victories were sixth-most in franchise history.

The deals also have come within a week that the NBA Board of Governors unanimously approved the sale of the team to an ownership group led by Marc Lore and former MLB All-Star Alex Rodriguez.

Randle, 30, was acquired by Minnesota in October, along with Donte DiVincenzo, in a significant roster adjustment that sent Karl-Anthony Towns to the New York Knicks. The Timberwolves and Knicks advanced to their respective conference finals this past NBA season.

In 69 games of his first season in Minnesota, Randle averaged 18.7 points, 7.1 rebounds and 4.7 assists. Over 11 NBA seasons with the Los Angeles Lakers (2014-18), New Orleans Pelicans (2018-19), Knicks (2019-24) and Wolves, he has averaged 19.0 points, 9.1 rebounds and 3.8 assists in 710 games (630 starts).

A three-time All-Star, Randle was voted the NBA's Most Improved Player in 2021 and made second-team all-NBA with the Knicks when he averaged 24.1 points with career-bests in rebounds (10.2) and assists (6.0).

The allegations date to the 2023-24 season when Beasley was with the Milwaukee Bucks, one of six teams he has played for since the Denver Nuggets selected him No. 19 overall in the 2016 NBA Draft.

He spent the 2024-25 season with the Detroit Pistons on a one-year, $6 million contract and is due to become a free agent when the new league year begins Monday evening.

The NBA is aware of the allegations.

"We are cooperating with the federal prosecutors' investigation," NBA spokesman Mike Bass told ESPN.

Beginning around January 2024, one U.S. sportsbook saw an sharp upturn in betting on Beasley's statistics, such as rebounds per game, per the report.

"An investigation is not a charge," Beasley's attorney, Steve Haney, told ESPN. "Malik is afforded the same right of the presumption of innocence as anyone else under the U.S. Constitution. As of now he has not been charged with anything."

ESPN reported that because of the allegations, discussions about a new three-year, $42 million contract have halted.

Beasley, 28, appeared in all 82 games (18 starts) last season with the Pistons and averaged 16.3 points, 2.6 rebounds and 1.7 assists per game while shooting 41.6 percent from three-point range.

He has career averages of 11.7 points, 2.8 rebounds and 1.4 assists with the Nuggets (2016-20), Minneapolis Timberwolves (2020-22), Utah Jazz (2022-23), Los Angeles Lakers (2023), Bucks (2023-24) and Pistons.

The NBA suspended Beasley for 12 games in 2021 after he entered a guilty plea to a felony charge of threats of violence. He was sentenced to 120 days in jail to be served after the 2020-21 season and was released after 78 days.

"Sometimes in life, you don't choose the moment. The moment chooses you," the 6-foot-7 forward wrote in a social media post.

"After 14 months of battling a foot injury, two surgeries and countless efforts to get back on the court, the time has come to close a chapter."

Bogdanovic, who was born in Bosnia and Herzegovina and played for Croatia internationally, was the No. 31 overall pick in the 2011 NBA Draft. He chose to play professionally in the Euro League until 2014 until he joined the Brooklyn Nets, who held his draft rights.

He spent the first 55 games of the 2016-17 season with the Nets, then finished the campaign with the Washington Wizards after a trade-deadline deal. He also played with the Indiana Pacers (2017-19), Utah Jazz (2019-22), Detroit Pistons (2022-24) and New York Knicks (2024).

He missed the 2024-25 season due to the foot injury. The Knicks traded him to the Nets as part of a multi-player deal before the 2024 season, and the Nets eventually waived him.

Now 36, Bogdanovic has career averages of 15.6 points, 3.6 rebounds and 1.7 assists in 719 regular-season games (572 starts). He averaged 39.4 percent from 3-point range.

His younger brother, Bogdan Bogdanovic, is on the roster of the Los Angeles Clippers.

James, the NBA's career leading scorer, is exercising his $52.6 million player option for the upcoming season, Klutch Sports CEO Rich Paul told ESPN on Sunday.

It is not immediately known if James, 40, desires to play past the upcoming season.

"LeBron wants to compete for a championship," Paul told ESPN. "He knows the Lakers are building for the future. He understands that, but he values a realistic chance of winning it all. We are very appreciative of the partnership that we've had for eight years with Jeanie (Buss, controlling owner and team president) and Rob (Pelinka, president of basketball operations/general manager) and consider the Lakers as a critical part of his career.

"We understand the difficulty in winning now while preparing for the future. We do want to evaluate what's best for LeBron at this stage in his life and career. He wants to make every season he has left count, and the Lakers understand that, are supportive and want what's best for him."

James, who has played in 1,562 regular-season games, is 50 shy of breaking Hall of Fame member Robert Parish's NBA record.

James averaged 24.4 points, 7.8 rebounds and 8.2 assists in 70 games in 2024-25 to rank in the top 22 in each category.

He is a 21-time All-Star, four-time league MVP and four-time NBA champion.

James entered the NBA as an 18-year-old after being selected No. 1 in the 2003 NBA Draft by the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Sunday is Williams' 23rd birthday.

The Thunder held a $2.1 million option for the 2025-26 season, which it declined in favor of the extension. ESPN reported the third year of the new deal also is a team option.

Williams was entering the final season of a four-year, $8.2 million contract.

The Thunder selected Williams in the second round (No. 34 overall) of the 2022 NBA Draft out of Arkansas. The 6-foot-8 Williams was limited because of injuries to 47 games (nine starts) in the recently completed season, in which he averaged 5.9 points, 5.6 rebounds and 2.6 assists per game.

He has career averages of 5.1 points, 4.5 rebounds and 1.9 assists in 165 games (46 starts).

After four collegiate seasons at Virginia, Beekman went undrafted in the 2024 NBA Draft. He signed a two-way deal with the Golden State Warriors and appeared in two games, playing four total minutes for the franchise.

Beekman was shipped to the Brooklyn Nets in December as part of the Dennis Schroder trade, where he would go on to play in 34 games, averaging 2.7 points, 1.8 assists, and 0.9 steals in 13.7 minutes per game.

The 23-year-old will now compete for a spot on the Nuggets' roster. Notably, Denver had the fourth-fewest bench points in the NBA last season, and veteran guard Russell Westbrook could depart in free agency.

Rupert was selected by the Blazers with the 43rd overall pick in the 2023 NBA Draft. As a rookie, he appeared in 39 games, making 12 starts, averaging 4.0 points, 2.4 rebounds, and 1.6 assists.

Last season, he averaged 3.0 points and 1.3 rebounds across 52 games in his sophomore campaign.

The 6'6" guard put up better numbers in his G-League career. In 17 total appearances with the Rip City Remix, he recorded 16.7 points, 5.9 rebounds, 2.7 assists, and 1.4 steals.

The 21-year-old will carry a $2.22 million cap hit in the final year of his contract. He is set to become a restricted free agent in 2026.

Merrill, 29, averaged 7.2 points with 2.2 rebounds over 71 games (four starts) last season, while shooting 37.2 percent from 3-point range.

In five NBA seasons, Merrill has averaged 6.5 points with 1.9 rebounds and is shooting 38.6 percent from distance over 173 games (seven starts) for the Milwaukee Bucks (2020-21), Memphis Grizzlies (2021-22) and Cavaliers.

The deal comes after the Cavaliers acquired guard Lonzo Ball from the Chicago Bulls earlier Saturday in exchange for swingman Isaac Okoro, according to an ESPN report.

The expected move makes Kuminga a restricted free agent ahead of the negotiating period that begins on Monday at 6 p.m. ET.

Kuminga finished the season, his fourth in the league, on the final guaranteed year of his rookie contract after being unable to come to a new agreement with the Warriors.

Starting Monday afternoon, Kuminga can entertain offer sheets from other teams. The Warriors will have the opportunity to match any offer, decline to match or work out a sign-and-trade with another team.

Kuminga, 22, was limited to 47 games last season with a significant ankle injury but finished with averages of 15.3 points and 4.6 rebounds.

The No. 7 pick by the Warriors in the 2021 draft, Kuminga averaged 12.5 points and 4.0 rebounds in 258 career games.

The Heat previously extended an $8.7 million qualifying offer to Mitchell for the upcoming season.

Mitchell, who turns 27 on Sept. 5, averaged 10.3 points and 5.3 assists and shot a robust 50.4 percent from the floor in 30 games (15 starts) with the Heat after being acquired as part of the multi-team trade that sent Jimmy Butler to the Golden State Warriors.

Mitchell has contributed 7.6 points and 3.3 assists in 301 career games (69 starts) with the Sacramento Kings, Toronto Raptors and Heat. The guard was selected by the Kings with the ninth overall pick of the 2021 NBA Draft.

The trade cannot become official until July 6.

After being sidelined for more than two seasons and undergoing three operations on his left knee, Ball returned in 2024-25 to play in 35 games (14 starts) for Chicago. He averaged 7.6 points, 3.4 rebounds and 3.3 assists.

Ball, 27, is averaging 11.4 points, 5.5 rebounds and 5.8 assists in 287 games (253 starts) with the Los Angeles Lakers (2017-19), New Orleans Pelicans (2019-21) and Bulls. He was drafted No. 2 overall by the Lakers in 2017.

Okoro, 24, recorded career-low averages in points (6.1), rebounds (2.4), games (55) and starts (22) last season, his fifth with Cleveland.

He is averaging 8.1 points and 2.8 boards in 334 career games (238 starts) since being drafted by the Cavaliers with the No. 5 overall pick in 2020.

Reid, 25, who was the NBA's Sixth Man of the Year in 2023-24, reportedly will have a player option for the 2029-30 season, per the. The six-year veteran signed a three-year, $42 million pact in 2023 with a player option.

Rather than join another franchise for similar money and a starting role, Reid is staying put after another impressive campaign. The LSU product averaged career highs in points (14.2) and rebounds (6.0) in 27.5 minutes per game over 80 games, including 18.3 ppg and 9.0 rpg in 17 starts.

One of three players with 2,000-plus points as a reserve the past three seasons, Reid is also a threat from beyond the arc, making 39.5 percent of his 3-point attempts over the past two seasons.

Since signing with Minnesota as an undrafted free agent in 2019, Reid has averaged 11.6 ppg, 4.9 rpg and 1.3 assists over 406 games (74 starts).

After a 17-year run with TNT Sports, day-to-day operations will revert to the league on Oct. 1.

"We made several proposals to continue to provide services and operate the NBA TV network and related digital assets," Silberwasser wrote in a memo to employees of the Warner Bros. Discovery cable unit, as reported by Sportico. "However, we were unable to agree on a path forward that recognized the value of our expertise, quality content and operational excellence that our fans and partners have come to expect from TNT Sports."

In July 2024, the league announced a new 11-year agreement with the Walt Disney Company, NBCUniversal and Amazon Prime Video to broadcast approximately 75 games on linear television in addition to all national games being available on streaming services. TNT's agreement called for a minimum of 15 games on broadcast television.

TNT will continue to generate digital content for the league through Bleacher Report and House of Highlights and maintain editorial control of the Inside the NBA studio show. The highly popular program that features Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith, Shaquille O'Neal and Ernie Johnson will air on ESPN and ABC.

And the kicker? There was only one bidder.

It is the highest price ever paid for a Jordan rookie card, according to the sports collectibles media platform Cllct. The winning -- and only -- bid of $2 million was placed at the auction house Joopiter, which charges a 25 percent buyer's premium to bring the total price to $2.5 million.

"It's a shocking amount of money," Cllct reporter and editor Will Stern told Front Office Sports. "I don't think there's anybody who I spoke to within the industry that expected this."

FOS cited another memorabilia appraiser that said the "fair market value" of the card is about $1 million. The PSA certified card is rated as a 9 out of 10 for overall condition, while Jordan's autograph is rated a 10.

While the record price from a sole bidder, whose name remains unknown, has raised questions within the trading card industry, Joopiter told FOS that the sale had "strong activity from potential buyers in 50 countries."

The card is also part of 10 Fleer cards that Jordan secretly signed for a collector in Florida last year. Cllct reported that Jordan typically doesn't sign Fleer cards because he has a deal with Upper Deck, but that the collector paid for Jordan to fly to Florida so the signing could be witnessed by PSA.

Sources told Cllct that at least six of the 10 cards were PSA 10s worth $180,000 apiece before the signings, while the PSA 9s had a value of around $16,000 before the autographs. The 10s have not come up for public sale yet.

Joopiter was founded in 2022 by singer and music producer Pharrell Williams.

The most money paid to date for a Jordan card was $2.928 million for a 1-of-1 2003-04 Upper Deck Ultimate Collection autographed Logoman card in June 2024.

"We've had good communication with Ace Bailey and his representatives," a Jazz representative told ESPN Friday. "We feel good about everything. Ace and his family are coming to Utah tomorrow. We'll have a press conference Sunday and a practice Monday.

"This has always been the plan, including for our other rookies, Walter Clayton and John Tonje -- to let them go home and collect their belongings, and then fly right to summer league from Salt Lake City."

Bailey took a sometimes confounding and confusing route to Wednesday's draft. A freshman 18-year-old with one season at Rutgers and a McDonald's All-American resume before that, multiple NBA teams attempted to get to know Bailey the player, person and prospect a little bit better in the five weeks leading up to the draft.

But Bailey canceled all public workouts with teams, a stance that surprised some established NBA players and may have contributed to Bailey going from being projected in the top three to being taken with the No. 5 pick.

However, Bailey's agent, Omar Cooper, argued there was "nothing uncommon" about how the pre-draft was handled.

"Every NBA team watched him work out in Chicago," Cooper said, per ESPN. "He did 18 interviews. Everyone got his medical. They watched him run and jump. They got his measurements. They watched him shoot in drills.

"No one said anything when Davion Mitchell canceled a workout with the Toronto Raptors for the No. 4 pick. No one criticized Evan Mobley when he didn't work out for Cleveland, and they drafted him anyway."

Utah's decision to pick Bailey is one that Jazz president of basketball operations Austin Ainge said was extremely simple despite public concern about Bailey's refusal to work out for teams before the draft.

"We do a lot of background calls and work on guys and everyone loves being around Ace," Ainge said. "He's fun, smiles every day. Just a breath of fresh air in the gym. We were able to speak with him. He was super excited. We're super excited. We're expecting a very bright future."

A native of Chattanooga, Tennessee, Bailey averaged 17.6 points and 7.2 rebounds in 2024-25 for Rutgers.

And head coach Jason Kidd, who was the No. 2 pick by Dallas in the 1994 NBA Draft, is ready to challenge the Duke alum.

"I think it's a versatile position, doing a lot of different things," Flagg said of his expectations on the court at his introductory press conference Friday in Dallas. "I think with the team, looking at the roster, we can play a really good brand of positionless basketball, with a lot of guys that can do a lot of different things. So I think that'll be one of the biggest strengths, and trying to play to that and just doing whatever I can to help the team win."

Kidd is also looking forward to the versatility that Flagg brings.

"I don't look at the position. I want to put him at the point guard," Kidd told reporters Friday. "I want to make him uncomfortable and see how he reacts, being able to run the show, being able to play the two, play the three -- he's comfortable playing that but we want to push, and I think he's going to respond in a positive way."

Kidd called out Flagg's maturity as the teenager fielded questions with all eyes on him.

"Just sitting here listening to him, isn't it incredible? I mean we're talking about an 18-year-old who has all the right answers and is talking about working out after this," Kidd said. "Just his poise, he's going to be successful for a long time. He likes to work, he's not afraid to work. ... I'm very blessed and the Mavs are very blessed to have him be a part of the family."

Joining a team with NBA Finals aspirations and the likes of Kyrie Irving, Daniel Gafford, PJ Washington and Dereck Lively II puts the Newport, Maine native in the unusual position of being a top pick on a team that's ready to win it all now. Flagg considers that a blessing.

"A lot of people in this position or this situation aren't granted this opportunity," Flagg said, "so I just feel really blessed and grateful for the situation I've been given and I'm just looking forward to being a sponge, you know, just getting down here excited to just learn, soak it all in and learn from the guys that are older have been through it all before."

Kidd is eager to put Flagg to work.

"I'm excited about giving him the ball against the Lakers and see what happens," he said. "Let's get it started right off the bat."