2026 NBA Training Camp Live Updates, Latest News and Rumors from Day 1

Early in his career, Ben Simmons' aversion to jump shots severely limited his impact. By his last few years prior to the 2025-26 hiatus, that aversion extended to shots of all kinds, including layups.

So, after taking an entire season off, can we have any confidence that that trend will reverse?

Jump shots in training camp are nice. We've seen plenty of a similar vintage in social media videos, but it's never translated to the games. If he suddenly finds the confidence to let it fly, it would genuinely be one of the more shocking possible developments of this upcoming season.

The league absolutely hammered the Los Angeles Clippers for circumventing the salary cap with Kawhi Leonard. And the punishments have most fans and analysts thinking the team will be in rough shape for both the short and long terms.

But Darius Garland, at least publicly, sounds confident that he and his teammates can overcome the not-so-lofty expectations.

Their chances of doing so will depend heavily on Garland's health, but he, Brandon Ingram (assuming he returns from a partially torn Achilles at some point this season), Rui Hachimura, Bradley Beal, Derrick Jones and Brook Lopez have enough experience to at least make opponents uncomfortable.

NBA training camps can be intense, especially for the players who aren't guaranteed a spot on the final roster.

That makes little opportunities for fun, like the one the Dallas Mavericks created above, important.

Basketball is a sport based largely on feel and rhythm. Staying loose can help a player with both.

For NBA hopefuls, every second they're at a training camp is precious. And even if the coaches and front offices don't notice the work they're putting in, a potential teammate might.

In the Denver Nuggets' case, for example, someone like Cam Whitmore might impress Nikola Jokić or Aaron Gordon in a random run or drill, and that could have a huge impact.

A good word from a trusted veteran could be the difference between snagging the final roster spot and getting cut.

The opportunity to simply catch lobs from Luka Dončić and Austin Reaves could be transformative for Walker Kessler, but he and the Lakers may not be satisfied with stopping there.

If he becomes a legitimate pick-and-pop threat, the pick-and-rolls will be much more difficult to contain. Having one more potential outcome to worry about with those actions will throw plenty of defenses off.

And if the Lakers find the right balance between pops and rolls, and Kessler maintains the defensive impact he's brought in previous years, he might even be a fringe All-Star candidate.

Karl-Anthony Towns is under contract this season, and he has a $61 million player option for 2027-28. Whether or not he signs an extension this summer really isn't a matter of urgency for he or the New York Knicks.

But in the last few years of NBA coverage, when a star is eligible for an extension and doesn't get one, it becomes a story. It'll likely be one all season.

So little bits of information like the one above are going to be pretty common.

On the one hand, the extension candidate not being satisfied with the offer isn't newsworthy. On the other, a willingness to take a discount could be huge.

When he was at North Carolina, Caleb Wilson was mostly used as a big man. For long stretches, it was little more than rim running and offensive rebounding for him on that end of the floor.

But in Summer League, he looked very comfortable playing more like a small forward on the perimeter. He even launched some pull-up threes. That and the time he spent with LeBron James this summer suggests there may be some potential for Wilson to be a wing.

Even if that's not his full-time position, the skill set will be a good one to have. He can punish bigs with it if he stays more of a 4/5. And if he's a 3/4, it's his size that will be a problem for opponents.

Either way, Wilson may already be more versatile than most anticipated heading into the draft.

There's something to the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it approach," but in the NBA, stagnation often means regression.

And New York Knicks head coach Mike Brown appears to know that. When asked after Tuesday's practice if the attack would be any different this season, he offered some clues.

All of the above makes sense and could serve multiple purposes. For one thing, adding those wrinkles makes the attack a little less predictable than one overly reliant on Jalen Brunson. And for another, taking a few possessions out of Brunson's hands should help him stay fresh for another deep playoff run.

The Orlando Magic seemed to be sort of treading water the last few years. And absent a big move with the roster, the only way to shake out of that was a coaching change.

They made that move, bringing in Sean Sweeney, and the early reviews on his performance are good.

If Sweeney is able to figure out the right balance between his top two players (Franz Wagner and Paolo Banchero), the Magic may be a darkhorse contender in the East.

Chet Holmgren just made an All-NBA team. He was the second-best player on an Oklahoma City Thunder squad that won 64 games. It's not hard to argue for the status quo.

But two pounds of added weight for one of the skinniest players in the league, especially after the degree to which he was outplayed in the conference finals, is hilarious.

Holmgren may prove his doubters wrong, take another step forward on the court and help OKC win another title. But it's hard to look at this update and his frame and not think it'd help him to get to 225 or 230.

Joel Embiid has become one of the biggest injury "what ifs" in NBA history.

Yes, he has an MVP on his resume. He's fourth in NBA history on the career points-per-game leaderboard. But it still feels like he could be so much higher on the all-time ladder had he avoided some of his many injuries.

Perhaps in an effort to dodge some of the future ones, he's shown up to camp looking much slimmer than he has in recent years (as you can see above). And he's a full participant in practice right now.

The trick now is keeping him there. That's proved impossible for most of his career, but being in better physical shape will help.

At media day, LeBron James tried to quiet the noise over him choosing to live outside Philadelphia by saying he'd split his time between Philly and New York.

And while that may be true, it doesn't look like he's pressed enough for time to stay in Philadelphia on the first day of camp.

For a billionaire, the daily helicopter flights to and from work aren't a big deal, but he'd probably endear himself to the city a little quicker if he fully embraced it.

Of course, if the Sixers shoot out of the gate with plenty of wins, no Sixers fan will really care about LeBron's living arrangement.

At this point in his career, any news on Kawhi Leonard being limited in a practice is far from shocking, but it's still notable that he wasn't a full participant in the Toronto Raptors' first practice.

At the same time, no organization has done a better job of managing Leonard's often fragile health and availability than the Raptors were in 2018-19. This is likely part of an effort to repeat that success. And it's not like he just sat on the sidelines all day.

If Leonard is upright in the playoffs, as Toronto appears intent on having happen, this team is a title contender. Expect it to be very careful with his health all year.

In the last few months, the NBA handed down the biggest punishment it ever has to the Los Angeles Clippers, LeBron James left the Los Angeles Lakers and the Boston Celtics traded Jaylen Brown to the Philadelphia 76ers in a deal that shocked most league observers.

So it should probably come as little surprise that the move that's been brewing for years sort of came and went without a bang. Giannis Antetokounmpo has been hinting at his desire to leave the Milwaukee Bucks for so long that the moment it actually happened sort of felt anticlimactic.

But make no mistake. Giannis is still good enough for this move to eventually prove the most consequential from the last offseason. And the team is now working to make that the case.

After his first practice with the Miami Heat, head coach Erik Spoelstra called the experience "surreal."

If he can figure out how best to implement his new superstar, the results may be too.

The Oklahoma City Thunder unloading Luguentz Dort, Isaiah Joe and Aaron Wiggins had to be motivated, at least in part, by the fact that the younger players on the roster are about to get a lot more expensive.

And the first name on that docket might be guard and defensive ace Cason Wallace, who's averaged 8.5 points, 2.6 assists and 1.9 steals in 27.0 minutes over his last two seasons.

For OKC, paying anywhere near his max (over $200 million for five years) would be ludicrous, but they might not be able to afford to lowball him either.

Wallace could become a full-time starter with Dort gone, and his production will likely go up as a result. If he has a big 2026-27 without that extension in place, keeping him in restricted free agency in 2027 will be tougher.

Given what he's done so far, something around $100 million for four years may seem steep, but it could also age into a bargain.

Fresh off winning a championship for the New York Knicks, and with two seasons left on his current deal (2027-28 is a $61 million player option), Karl-Anthony Towns is eligible for a mammoth extension worth $276 million over four years.

And although Towns reiterated his desire to stay in New York at media day, current reporting suggests that particular deal won't get done before this season.

Given the timeline, that's understandable. There's no real sense of urgency for either side. An extension could get done in 2027, too. And it makes sense for everyone involved to be focused on a title defense in 2026-27.

The lack of an extension will be a talking point here and there, but it isn't quite time for alarm bells.

As you can see above, the Detroit Pistons are up to $200 million over five years for restricted free agent Jalen Duren (who is currently holding out of training camp).

That would make him one of the 10 highest-paid centers in the league. In terms of total dollars, it's more than the four-year, $189 million max he could sign with an another team as an unrestricted free agent in 2027.

But this is, pretty clearly, no longer entirely about the money. And while some negotiation should be expected, things like the weight clauses in Duren's earlier offers are borderline ridiculous.

And it's understandable that Duren would be annoyed, especially in the wake of Ausar Thompson's five-year, $155 million extension.

For most of this summer, it felt like Duren and the Pistons would eventually settle at a middle ground that would have him back with the team that he just helped finish with the East's best regular-season record.

Now that we're into an actual holdout, a sign-and-trade is starting to feel like a real possibility. And according to ESPN's Marc J. Spears, a handful of teams may be interested.