Durant, Curry agree to 4-year extension with Nets, Warriors, Bucks announce trio

Kevin Durant is staying with the Brooklyn Nets for the long term.

Durant agreed to a four-year, $198 million US contract extension Friday, business partner Rich Kleiman announced on Boardroom, their sports business media network.

Durant just finished his first season playing for the Nets after sitting out the 2019-20 season recovering from surgery to repair a ruptured Achilles tendon. He averaged 26.9 points, 7.1 rebounds and 5.6 assists, showing he had shaken off the injury to regain the form that made him the 2014 NBA MVP and a four-time lead scoring champion.

The extension begins with the 2022-23 season. It came hours before Durant was trying to lead the U.S. to a fourth straight Olympic gold medal. He became the American men's career scoring leader during the tournament.

Curry finalizes 4-year extension with Warriors

Stephen Curry finalized his $215 million, four-year contract extension Friday as the Golden State Warriors began building the roster around the longtime face of the franchise at the start of free agency.

"We're thrilled to have Stephen in the fold for the next five years, with the vision of him playing his entire career with our franchise," general manager Bob Myers said. "He epitomizes everything that you'd want in the leader of your basketball team with incredible character, humility, community-minded spirit and a team-oriented approach. On the court, he's a generational player who has changed the game and won consistently at the highest level."

This marks the second $200 million-plus contract of Curry's decorated career that includes three championships. He will earn $48 million for the 2022-23 season, then $51.9 million in '23-'24, $55.7 million in '24-'25 and $59.6 million in the final year of the deal.

Curry reached agreement on the new deal that takes him through the 2025-26 season, when he will be 38. He has said he might play until he's 40 and wants to retire with the Warriors.

Curry averaged 32.0 points, 5.8 assists and 5.5 rebounds and shot 42.1% from 3-point range for the Warriors, who lost in the play-in tournament to Memphis. The two-time MVP shined despite the injured Klay Thompson's absence for a second straight season.

Earlier in the day, Golden State signed free agent forward Nemanja Bjelica to a one-year contract that will pay him the league minimum and added free agent forward Otto Porter Jr., also on a veteran minimum contract for next season worth $2,389,641.

Bjelica, the veteran big man from Serbia whose name is pronounced NEH-mahn-yah Bee-a-LITZ-ah, is set to earn $2,089,448 given his six years of NBA experience.

"This is the best fit for me right now in the league," he said.

Bjelica said "across the world I was always cheering for the Warriors," and can't wait to play alongside Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green. Bjelica has been in touch with Andrew Wiggins, too.

He is ready to handle any role for coach Steve Kerr to help the Warriors make another deep playoff run.

"My agent told me Warriors are interested. I didn't think at all, it took me less than a minute," he said. "Finally, I'm going to play with the guys like Steph and Klay and Draymond. I played against them for seven years. Now I'm going to be their teammate. ... I know why I'm here, this is a winning franchise. It's an honour and a great opportunity for me to play with the best players in the league."

Porter averaged 9.7 points, 5.4 rebounds and 2.0 assists in 21.7 minutes per game over 28 games with six starts between the Bulls and Magic last season.

Golden State also has agreed to trade power forward Eric Paschall to the Jazz for a 2026 protected second-round draft pick via Memphis. It was the Grizzlies who ended the Warriors' season in the play-in tournament.

Nets add guard Jevon Carter from Suns

The Brooklyn Nets acquired backup guard Jevon Carter and the draft rights to centre Day'Ron Sharpe from the Phoenix Suns for guard Landry Shamet.

Both teams announced the deal Friday.

Shamet was acquired by the Nets from the Los Angeles Clippers on Nov. 19. In his lone season in Brooklyn, he played in 61 games, averaging 9.3 points and 1.6 assists. He also appeared in all 12 of Brooklyn's playoff games, averaging 4.2 points.

Shamet has played in 193 games with Brooklyn, the Clippers (2019-20) and Philadelphia (2018-19), averaging 9.2 points, 1.8 rebounds and 1.6 assists.

Carter appeared in 157 games across three seasons with Phoenix (2019-21) and Memphis (2018-19), averaging 4.5 points, 1.8 rebounds and 1.4 assists. The 25-year-old played in 60 games this past season and appeared in seven playoff games, helping Phoenix advance to the NBA Finals.

The 32nd-pick overall in the draft, Sharpe spent one year at North Carolina. He played in 29 games and averaged 9.5 points. He is currently playing for Brooklyn's NBA Summer League team in Las Vegas.

Allen signs 5-year, $100 million contract with Cavaliers

When they traded for Jarrett Allen, the Cavaliers knew they were getting a quality player.

He quickly became much more than that.

The Cavs signed Allen to a five-year, $100 million contract on Friday, securing the 23-year-old centre as one of their foundational players. Allen, who came over from Brooklyn in a mid-season deal, was a restricted free agent before coming to terms with Cleveland earlier this week.

Allen is part of a promising core of young players with the Cavs. The team is particularly excited about the potential of playing him alongside Evan Mobley, the former USC big man taken third overall in the NBA draft by Cleveland.

On Feb. 1, Allen became the first player in team history with 23 points, 18 rebounds and five blocks in a game. Three weeks later, he became just the eighth player in league history to get 25 points and 15 rebounds without missing a single field-goal attempt.

Bucks announce trio

George Hill is returning to the Milwaukee Bucks' backcourt.

The Bucks announced Friday the signings of Hill, guard/forward Rodney Hood and forward Semi Ojeleye. The Bucks also officially announced they had re-signed forward Bobby Portis.

Hill, 35, previously played for the Bucks from 2018-20 before leaving as part of the four-team trade that brought Jrue Holiday to Milwaukee.

The 6-foot-4 guard averaged 8.2 points, 2.8 rebounds and 2.6 assists during his two seasons with the Bucks. Hill shot an NBA-leading 46% from 3-point range in 2019-20.

He averaged 8.7 points this past season with the Oklahoma City Thunder and Philadelphia 76ers.

Hood, 28, averaged 4.5 points and 1.9 rebounds this past season with the Portland Trail Blazers and Toronto Raptors. He scored 11 points per game and shot 49.3% from 3-point range in 2019-20 with Portland.

Ojeleye, 26, averaged 4.6 points, 2.6 rebounds and 17 minutes in 46 games with the Boston Celtics this past season.

Hawks re-sign veteran Lou Williams for 1-year

Williams will return as Trae Young's backup next season after averaging 11.3 points and 3.4 assists in 66 games — 24 with the Hawks and 42 with the Los Angeles Clippers.

Hawks general manager Travis Schlenk said Williams, a three-time winner of the NBA's Sixth Man Award, "proved invaluable to our team after we acquired him last season, providing scoring, ballhandling and leadership off our bench."

Williams won Sixth Man Awards in 2015, 2018 and 2019.

The Hawks also have re-signed power forward John Collins to a five-year, $125 million contract. Young agreed to a five-year, $207 million extension that starts in 2022. The team confirmed each deal on Friday.