{"id":740287,"date":"2026-07-03T05:35:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-03T05:35:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/740287\/"},"modified":"2026-07-03T05:35:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-03T05:35:13","slug":"atlantic-notes-leonard-shamet-wolf-nnaji","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/740287\/","title":{"rendered":"Atlantic Notes: Leonard, Shamet, Wolf, Nnaji"},"content":{"rendered":"

Seven years separate Kawhi Leonard<\/a> raising the Larry O\u2019Brien trophy during Toronto\u2019s championship parade and\u00a0the Raptors reunion<\/a> that few saw coming. After all, the first go-round with Leonard was always considered destined to be a short-term relationship, Josh Lewenberg writes for TSN<\/a>.<\/p>\n

When rumors<\/a> began to circulate about Leonard\u2019s interest in returning to Toronto, many around the league viewed it as a ploy to use the Raptors\u2019 desire to ascend back to championship relevance in order to leverage a richer extension from the Clippers, Lewenberg writes.<\/p>\n

Now he\u2019s back, and for a steeper price than they paid to bring him to Canada the first time. The Raptors consider their medical staff the best in the league and are counting on it to keep Leonard on the court, not just this season, but in the years to come as well, according to Lewenberg.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s expected that the two sides will reach a two-year extension that would be worth around $125MM, Michael Grange writes for Sportsnet<\/a>. It\u2019s a risk, but so was standing pat with a roster that wasn\u2019t good enough to be a contender in the suddenly loaded East, Grange notes. Leonard will force the team to accelerate its timeline, and with it, the development of cornerstone Scottie Barnes<\/a>, among others. In a way, the Raptors will learn more about their young players than they would\u2019ve with a slow and steady growth plan.<\/p>\n

We have more from around the Atlantic Division:<\/p>\n

Landry Shamet<\/a>\u2018s partnership with the Knicks hardly got off to what announcer Walt Frazier would call \u201can auspicious start,\u201d with a dislocated shoulder preventing him from getting into a rhythm and climbing the depth chart. His second year with the team had a different feel though, with the journeyman guard hitting six threes and scoring 36 points in his 12th game of the season. It was a huge moment for a player whose NBA career was in serious jeopardy, Jared Schwartz writes for The New York Post<\/a>. Shamet was the last player to make<\/a> the Knicks\u2019 2025\/26 roster and was initially considered in competition with Garrison Mathews<\/a> for the final spot. Through the ups and downs, the Knicks and Shamet stayed closely tied, and the relationship resulted in a championship and a new four-year, $24MM deal<\/a> for the veteran wing.
\nThe Nets\u2018 frontcourt has been in flux this offseason. They\u2019re sending out Nic Claxton<\/a> in a trade<\/a> that will return three-time All-Star power forward Julius Randle<\/a>, and they\u2019ve agreed to sign<\/a> Moritz Wagner<\/a> to a two-year contract in free agency. It remains to be seen what it all means for second-year power forward Danny Wolf<\/a>, who \u2013 prior to the Wagner deal \u2013 seemed poised to step into the backup five role behind the returning<\/a>\u00a0Day\u2019Ron Sharpe<\/a>, according to Brian Lewis of the Post<\/a>. Wolf has spent the early part of the offseason working on getting stronger in order to battle with the big men of the league. \u201cStarting with my body getting stronger or getting quicker, getting my ankle right. And just even playing now, I\u2019ve never felt more in control or on balance or stronger,\u201d the 22-year-old said. \u201cAnd then with that, I\u2019d say my finishing and my 3-point consistency. And I\u2019m shooting the best I\u2019ve shot it, and I feel like I\u2019m finishing the best I\u2019ve finished. So, just gotta keep at it. But I know I\u2019m nowhere near where I want to be.\u201d Wolf developed a good relationship with Jordi Fernandez in his rookie year, as the Nets\u2019 head coach valued his versatility and played him all over the floor. It remains to be seen how he\u2019ll be used in the new-look rotation.
\nThe fact that the Knicks\u00a0hold the draft rights to James Nnaji<\/a>, who played for them in the 2025 Summer League, didn\u2019t prevent the 21-year-old big man from playing<\/a> at Baylor University last season in what turned out to be a trailblazing move. Now, Nnaji is set to spend another season playing college basketball, having committed to George Mason University for 2026\/27, DraftExpress\u2019 Jonathan Givony reports (via Twitter<\/a>). Nnaji struggled to make an impact for Baylor last season, averaging just 1.4 points and 2.1 rebounds in 8.2 minutes per game.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Seven years separate Kawhi Leonard raising the Larry O\u2019Brien trophy during Toronto\u2019s championship parade and\u00a0the Raptors reunion that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":734886,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[32589,180842,11653,25171,99],"class_list":["post-740287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-danny-wolf","tag-james-nnaji","tag-kawhi-leonard","tag-landry-shamet","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/740287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=740287"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/740287\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/734886"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=740287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=740287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=740287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}