{"id":773958,"date":"2026-06-29T21:54:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-29T21:54:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/773958\/"},"modified":"2026-06-29T21:54:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T21:54:14","slug":"nba-free-agency-2026-grizzlies-reportedly-trade-ja-morant-to-trail-blazers-james-harden-declines-option-while-negotiating-with-cavs-lebron-james-lakers-decision-looms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/773958\/","title":{"rendered":"NBA free agency 2026: Grizzlies reportedly trade Ja Morant to Trail Blazers; James Harden declines option while negotiating with Cavs; LeBron James&#8217; Lakers decision looms"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Jusuf Nurki\u0107 is returning to the Utah Jazz on a two-year, $22 million contract, <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" class=\"link \" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/ShamsCharania\/status\/2071702810392207565?s=20\" data-i13n=\"cpos:1;pos:1\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:ESPN&#039;s Shams Charania reports;cpos:1;pos:1;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkPosition&quot;:&quot;1&quot;,&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yPosition&quot;:&quot;1&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;ESPN&#039;s Shams Charania reports&quot;,&quot;yHasCommerce&quot;:false}\">ESPN&#8217;s Shams Charania reports<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>New of Nurki\u0107&#8217;s new deal arrives a year to the day that Nurki\u0107 initially joined the Jazz. The Jazz acquired Nurki\u0107 from the Charlotte Hornets last June in exchange for guard Collin Sexton and a 20230 second-round pick. He played out the final year of a four-year, $70 million contract that he originally signed with the Portland Trail Blazers.<\/p>\n<p>Nurki\u0107, 31, averaged 10.9 points and 10.4 rebounds in 41 games last season, including 31 starts. He&#8217;ll return as a veteran presence on a Jazz team that looks to return to playoff contention around a core featuring Lauri Markkanen, Jaren Jackson Jr., Keyonte George and rookie guard Darryn Peterson, whom the Jazz selected with the No. 2 pick of Kansas in last week&#8217;s NBA Draft.<\/p>\n<p>The Jazz could also retain center Walker Kessler, who will enter free agency as a restricted free agent. The Jazz will have the right to match any offer from another team.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jusuf Nurki\u0107 is returning to the Utah Jazz on a two-year, $22 million contract, ESPN&#8217;s Shams Charania reports.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":773959,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[495,1013,7,136,473,188,200,896,123,1016,560,966,185,150,177,189,152,6,255],"class_list":["post-773958","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-anthony-davis","tag-austin-reaves","tag-basketball","tag-cavs","tag-charlotte-hornets","tag-detroit-pistons","tag-draymond-green","tag-free-agency","tag-giannis-antetokounmpo","tag-isaiah-stewart","tag-james-harden","tag-lamelo-ball","tag-lebron-james","tag-los-angeles-lakers","tag-memphis-grizzlies","tag-miami-heat","tag-minnesota-timberwolves","tag-nba","tag-warriors"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116835625426204324","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/773958","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=773958"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/773958\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/773959"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=773958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=773958"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=773958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}