Jake Fischer and Marc Stein’s latest reporting keeps one Clippers possibility alive even after Los Angeles agreed to sign Rui Hachimura: a potential sign-and-trade for Nuggets restricted free agent Peyton Watson.
The Hachimura addition does not close the door on Watson, according to Fischer and Stein. If the Clippers decide not to go after him, the picture gets murkier. Brooklyn has the cap room to make noise, whether through an offer sheet or a sign-and-trade, but league personnel familiar with Watson’s situation have described the Nets as only a “conceptual” suitor, which points to interest without an active push.
There’s also a possible reason the Clippers have not yet finalized the sign-and-trade that would send John Collins to Detroit. That’s speculation, but the Watson pursuit could be part of the delay.
A Watson deal could be structured in more than one way, but one path would be especially clean for Denver. If Los Angeles folded Watson into the Collins transaction and used Collins’ outgoing salary for matching purposes, the cap-strapped Nuggets could avoid taking back salary. In that setup, the Clippers would need to sweeten the pot with draft assets, similar to how the Lakers had to include picks to land Walker Kessler from the Jazz.
Elsewhere on the free-agent board, Larry Nance Jr. and Georges Niang are drawing interest from some of the same teams that are still in the mix for LeBron James, league sources told The Stein Line.
Lonnie Walker IV is also working through his next move. The guard, who spent last season with Maccabi Tel Aviv, has an NBA opt-out deadline of July 15.
Before deciding whether to trigger that clause, he’s expected to meet with teams at Las Vegas Summer League to gauge what kind of NBA opportunities are out there. Walker has not been in the league since his contract with Philadelphia expired at the end of the 2024/25 campaign.
Stein and Fischer also added more detail on Quinten Post’s offer sheet from the Grizzlies. The deal carries a first-year guaranteed salary of $9MM, plus $1.35MM in unlikely incentives tied to making the All-Defensive team.
The second and third years are non-guaranteed, with base salaries of $8.55MM and $1.28MM in incentives each season. Those unlikely incentives count against a team’s apron, which makes the offer sheet a bit of a poison pill for the Warriors, along with the slightly higher first-year salary.
Before Tarik Biberovic agreed to a two-year, $6MM deal with the Mavericks, the Fenerbahce wing was also in the mix on the market.
In Other News...
Clippers Tried To Get Rui Hachimura On Terms Fans Will Hate
Rui Hachimuras value never looked higher than it did after a strong 2025-26 season with the Lakers, when he gave them real scoring punch and reliable three-point shooting, then carried that touch into the playoffs. Once Los Angeles was bounced, the Lakers at least explored ways to keep some control over the situation, and the possibility of a sign-and-trade quickly became part of the conversation around one of the more useful wings on the market.
The wrinkle came when the Clippers entered the picture and tried to work out a deal with their Staples Center tenant, but the sides never found common ground. With the framework falling apart, the Lakers did not cooperate on a sign-and-trade, leaving Hachimuras future to be decided in a different lane and turning a local rivalry into one more reminder of how quickly a players market can shift after a playoff run. [Read more 🡒]
Clippers Fans Have Heard This DeMar DeRozan Buzz Before
DeMar DeRozan is back on the market after the Kings waived him following two seasons in Sacramento, and the veteran scorer is expected to draw attention once free agency opens. Miami and Cleveland have been the teams most consistently tied to him, but the list of possible landing spots also includes both Los Angeles clubs, which is enough to stir old chatter on the Clippers side of town.
For Clippers fans, the buzz is familiar because DeRozan has surfaced in this orbit before, even if the path never quite got there. The Lakers are reportedly not pursuing him, according to ESPNs Dave McMenamin, which leaves the Clippers as the more plausible Los Angeles fit if he does end up staying on the West Coast. [Read more 🡒]