Windhorst: The biggest storylines from NBA summer leagueBrian WindhorstJul 21, 2026, 06:50 AM ETClose
- ESPN.com NBA writer since 2010
- Covered Cleveland Cavs for seven years
- Author of two books
The story with the biggest stakes coming out of the NBA summer league had nothing to do with free agency or expansion, two topics that dominated the headlines over the multiweek tournament.
Rather, it was the unfolding drama over the future of the Portland Trail Blazers.
As summer leagues were playing out across the West over the first three weeks of July, the Blazers and local Oregon governments were locked in an escalating situation with regard to paying for upgrades to the 30-year-old Moda Center.
It’s a mess of bureaucracy, politics and posturing as city, county and state officials are all involved in the potential funding. Some money has been approved, including more than $300 million at the state level, but the process has stalled as officials want strings attached, including the Blazers signing a long-term lease.
The basics are this: The Blazers have a short lease, negotiated in 2024, that only runs through 2030, and the penalty for breaking the lease is to repay the local governments the cost of renovations, which haven’t taken place.
In short, the Blazers are not locked down.
The soft lease was signed shortly before the Blazers were put on the market by former owner Paul Allen’s estate. It might have driven, at least in part, the robust $4.25 billion price new owner Tom Dundon’s group paid earlier this year.
That lease gives the Blazers, at least in theory, leverage to drive a favorable arena deal. Meanwhile, Dundon is trying to get himself a bargain.
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In a seminal moment on June 24, the Portland Metro Chamber was holding an event at the arena. The governor, the mayor and a bunch of other elected officials were in the crowd, most of them wearing suits. Dundon got up in front of an audience — one he is expecting to fund a $600 million arena renovation — for a Q-and-A session. He stepped on the stage wearing casual clothing and a hat before saying his investment in the arena would be to pay taxes.
“It feels like we’re making a pretty big investment by staying here and paying these tax rates,” Dundon mentioned.
Dundon hasn’t mentioned the concept of moving the Blazers publicly, but it’s in the Oregon air. Several local media outlets have unveiled the Blazers have slowed negotiations and local governments suspect it’s to undercut the process.
Last week, NBA commissioner Adam Silver met with Dundon and his partners in Las Vegas to discuss the matter. Silver was in Portland in March and was briefed on the renovation plans, and he sees a situation that has “gone off track.”
“I was hoping more progress would have been made by now on that agreement, and it seems to have gone off track in various ways,” Silver mentioned at his annual summer news conference. “We are working with both sides to ensure that the Trail Blazers can have a long-term future in Portland. But there are several open issues that still need to be resolved.”
In February, during All-Star Weekend in Los Angeles, Silver mentioned franchise relocation “is not on the table right now.” In the spring, he unveiled NBA owners had voted to proceed with studying expansion in Seattle and Las Vegas, the nation’s two premium markets without teams. Those developments would appear to blunt Dundon’s possible leverage.
But if the situation in Portland deteriorates further, it could put all of this under pressure. NBA teams have territorial rights within 75 miles of their cities and have marketing rights stretching out 150 miles. But those provisions don’t come with a veto to prevent teams from moving in. Such situations would be determined by a vote of owners. Dundon also owns the NHL’s Stanley Cup champion Carolina Hurricanes, located in Raleigh, North Carolina.
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The last day of summer league was overshadowed by the Oklahoma City Thunder trading Luguentz Dort to the Atlanta Hawks in the newest of three salary-dumping moves made by the 2025 champions this summer. By trading Aaron Wiggins and Dort to Atlanta and Isaiah Joe to the Detroit Pistons, the Thunder netted seven second-round picks and a couple of trade exceptions while also saving $224 million in salary and luxury tax.
“We’re getting to the point where we can start comparing second-apron teams salary dumping year-over-year,” an Eastern Conference general manager told ESPN. “OKC got better deals than Boston last year, give them that.”
Last summer, the Boston Celtics traded Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis and let Al Horford and Luke Kornet leave in free agency as part of salary reductions to get out of the second apron. The Celtics ended up with Anfernee Simons, Georges Niang and one second-rounder out of those deals; there were two second-rounders supposed to come from Portland for Holiday, but they were eliminated from the deal after concerns with Holiday’s medicals.
The situations for Oklahoma City and Boston are not an apples-to-apples comparison, but that’s not the executive’s point. The Celtics let some free agents simply walk. Along the same lines, the Cleveland Cavaliers are likely going to be out of the second apron this year because they didn’t re-sign Dean Wade or Keon Ellis. The Minnesota Timberwolves made a splash by getting LaMelo Ball in trade but also unloaded Julius Randle in a salary dump to avoid the second apron.
This is now a trend: Salary-dumping teams are so numerous these days that they can be ranked. However, it must be mentioned the Thunder did not view the Dort trade as an apron decision but rather a straight money move.
“This was a financial decision. The impression I have been given is that the savings generated this summer, and from being out of the tax the last several years, will be reallocated to future teams,” Thunder GM Sam Presti told The Oklahoman. “Along with other new, well-documented revenue streams, this will allow us to make more basketball-related decisions over the next several years.”
This might seem like semantics, but the nuance is important. Consider the league’s past two champions:
The New York Knicks are one of the league’s richest teams whose home playoff games at Madison Square Garden each routinely generated more than $20 million in gate receipts, per sources. The Knicks were determined to avoid the second apron for the upcoming season, with owner Jim Dolan saying that doing so was “suicidal” for a franchise. It’s not that the luxury tax is nothing, but the Knicks were largely worried about the roster limitations that come with being over the apron. The Thunder, despite being comfortable with those limitations, were able to save $100 million in luxury tax payments by dealing Dort.
Either way, both teams are slated to enter the 2026-27 season free from the second apron. And so are the 28 other NBA teams, which would be a first since the rule was implemented in the 2023 collective bargaining agreement.
Cause and effect.
Rookies making summer league headlines
On the floor from Las Vegas, one of the players who generated some buzz was Cavs second-round pick Meleek Thomas, who led the summer league at 27.3 points per game on 50% shooting, including 44% from 3 on eight attempts per game. He had a 15-to-6 assist-to-turnover ratio and eight steals in four games.
“To say he’s got a scorer’s mentality is an understatement; the guy has his eye on the rim from the scorer’s table,” one scout mentioned. “He’s got an awkward shot, but he gets it off, and he can score at all three levels, though he doesn’t look for contact and barely ever gets to the line. I can’t see him playing anywhere close to this style in the league very much, but the scoring talent is undeniable.”
Among the lottery picks, scouts also were pleased with what they saw from Milwaukee Bucks guard Brayden Burries and the Golden State Warriors’ Yaxel Lendeborg, who was named MVP of the summer league championship game.
“You can look at the stats and see [Burries] scored, and lots of guys can score here,” another scout mentioned. “But when you see a young guard handle the ball as much as him and not turn it over, that tells you something about his makeup, at least at this stage.”
Burries largely played off the ball at Arizona, but the Bucks used him as a primary ball handler in Las Vegas, where he had just three turnovers in four games, playing 108 minutes. He also averaged 23.5 points on 50% shooting and made a game-winning shot with 1.5 seconds left against the Philadelphia 76ers.
More reports from summer league
On the other end of the spectrum, there was some concern about the play of Sacramento Kings lottery guard Darius Acuff Jr. He played in five games across the summer leagues in San Francisco and Las Vegas, and he shot 35% from the field and just 27% on 3s. He averaged 20.8 points but took 20 shots per game and had 19 turnovers with 23 assists.
“A lot of rookie guards will struggle at summer league; it’s not the end of the world. But [Acuff] was the loudest of the [rookie lottery guards] struggling,” a West scout mentioned. “His defense wasn’t great, and his floor game was rough at times. I don’t care that much about bad shooting. What did Steph [Curry] shoot in summer league? No one remembers. It’s a couple games.”
On the bright side, Acuff finished summer league with a 9-of-18 shooting performance and his summer-best 26 points against the Brooklyn Nets.
