According to Marc Stein, the Denver Nuggets backup center Dario Saric has opted into his $5.4 million player option for next season. This will officially complete his two-year, $10.6 million contract he signed with the organization last summer.

After Saric made the decision to opt in, Denver is projected to be $11.8 million under the second apron. Plus, be able to use the $5.7 million Taxpayer MLE in free agency. This will allow them the flexibility, and breathing room, to sign two players to veteran minimum contracts.

Last season, the 31-year-old appeared in only sixteen games. He averaged 3.5 points and 3.1 rebounds per game.

In a bombshell breaking news report by ESPN’s Shams Charania, the Phoenix Suns have officially traded future Hall of Famer Kevin Durant to the Houston Rockets for multiple assets in return.

Houston made the decision to trade Jalen Green, Dillon Brooks, and the tenth overall pick of the 2025 NBA draft to the Suns. Most notably, the Rockets did not need to include either Jabari Smith Jr. or Alperen Sengun in the deal to get it done.

In the past 24 hours, both the Miami Heat and Rockets had “accelerated talks” with Mat Ishbia’s organization. The deal fell apart for Pat Riley’s team when they did not want to depart from Jaime Jaquez Jr. or Kel’el Ware.

For Durant, the Rockets were one of his preferred teams to join. The other two were the San Antonio Spurs and Miami.

The 36-year-old has a year remaining on his contract, but is expected to sign an extension with the Rockets in the future.

According to Marc Stein and Jake Fischer, the Chicago Bulls have legit interest in trading for the young forward. It’s expected to be worked through as a sign-and-trade type deal.

This type of deal makes sense when considering the fact that Chicago is well over the salary cap and have tighter restrictions on spending this upcoming offseason.

It’s unclear what type of assets the Bulls would be willing to give up for the talented player, but that should be cleared up if/when they move forward with the potential trade.

There is a large belief right now that the 22-year-old re-signs with the Golden State Warriors. Kuminga’s market has been reportedly “dry” and not many teams are in a solid financial situation to give him the money he’s looking for.

The only team who has that type of money, without killing them like the rest of the league, are the Brooklyn Nets. However, they really aren’t interested in Kuminga.

Once the Kevin Durant trade situation gets resolved, then many teams may look to the Warriors young prospect as a potential backup plan to secure young, developing talent for their futures.