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With Charlotte considering a starting-caliber center upgrade, other centers besides Sabonis are on their radar, including Brooklyn Nets center Nic Claxton, league sources told HoopsHype. In addition, it’s worth noting that the Nets have expressed interest in Hornets free agent guard Coby White in the past when he was on the Chicago Bulls, sources said. In other Hornets news, assistant coach Zach Peterson is a candidate to become the franchise’s next head coach of their G League affiliate, the Greensboro Swarm. DJ Bakker, who’s been an assistant coach for the Hornets and head coach of the Swarm in the G League, is a candidate to join Sean Sweeney’s staff as an assistant coach with the Orlando Magic, league sources told HoopsHype.
Elliot Clough: Bennett Stirtz tells me he will be attending the NBA Draft at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York next Tuesday. Coach Ben McCollum will join Stirtz and his family in the green room. So far, Stirtz has worked out with the following teams: Charlotte Hornets Chicago Bulls Dallas Mavericks Memphis Grizzlies Oklahoma City Thunder Toronto Raptors He'll also workout for the Golden State Warriors prior to the draft.
Elliot Clough: NEW: Bennett Stirtz tells me he will be attending the NBA Draft at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York next Tuesday. Coach Ben McCollum will join Stirtz and his family in the green room. So far, Stirtz has worked out with the following teams: Charlotte Hornets, Chicago Bulls, Dallas Mavericks, Memphis Grizzlies, Oklahoma City Thunder, Toronto Raptors. He'll also workout for the Golden State Warriors prior to the draft.
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Josh Lewenberg: Notes from asst Raptors GM Dan Tolzman’s pre-draft avail: - Have done most of their workouts, digging in on prospects they like - No major differences in process under Bobby Webster - Draft considered wide open after top 10-12 - Keeping options open but cost to move up is high, happy at 19
Ryan Woltstat: Dan Tolzman says Raptors like being at 19. Feel somebody can fall and it isn't crucial you workout or interview a prospect before taking him. Points to Ja'Kobe Walter who didn't do either with them. They believed in the intel they gathered on him.
A little over a year ago, league sources say, Hawaii native Bobby Webster was quietly pursued by the University of Hawaii when the Rainbow Warriors needed a new athletic director. Webster, at the time, was still Toronto's No. 2 executive under Masai Ujiri. But there was no luring him away from the NBA or the Raptors — not even by the big school where he grew up — and that reality soon made perfect sense. One day after last June's draft, Toronto abruptly parted ways with Ujiri and would install Webster as his permanent successor some six weeks later.
That's the same title Donnie Nelson held with the Mavericks for nearly 20 years. And Nelson, I'm told, was quietly interviewed by the Raptors last summer after Ujiri's departure as part of a search they conducted in the buildup to announcing Webster as Ujiri’s full-time successor in August 2025. Former Raptors coach Dwane Casey, who currently holds an advisory role with Detroit, also featured in Toronto's search.
This team Leon Rose built is the NBA's first to win the Larry O’Brien Trophy and NBA Cup double in the same season. It just beat the Spurs four times in five tries despite spotting a double-digit lead to San Antonio in the first quarter of all five games. And it joins only Toronto in 2018-19, according to the Elias Sports Bureau, as NBA champions with four starters acquired via trade. These Knicks and those Raptors are also the league's only two teams, per Elias, to open a Finals-clinching game with five players it didn't draft.
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In the wake of Dallas moving on from Jason Kidd, there have been rumblings of both Duke's Jon Scheyer and Michigan's Dusty May being linked to the vacancy. But ever since Masai Ujiri was hired to run basketball operations last month, the belief around the league is that the most likely outcome for Dallas is elevating one of the NBA's rising assistants. That's what Ujiri did the other two times he hired a coach, both with the Toronto Raptors: In 2018, he replaced Dwane Casey with Nick Nurse. In 2023, he replaced Nurse with Darko Rajakovic.
Oh No He Didn't: OG on who has reached out to him on his tip in GW: "My Raptors teammates that I used to play with in the past, they hit me up. They were really excited for me, happy for me"
There have been multiple reports this week about Sacramento and Charlotte discussing Domantas Sabonis trade frameworks, but sources say those conversations were preliminary in nature and reflective of the Kings' desire to acquire the Hornets' No. 14 or No. 18 pick. Sources say Charlotte, though, is not currently willing to surrender either pick. I'm told that the Kings also have interest in Toronto's No. 19 selection, but it is unclear whether the Raptors, who showed trade interest in Sabonis before the league's in-season trade deadline in February, will do so again.