Western Notes: Bassey, Nuggets, Jones, Alexander, Zion
Big man Charles Bassey appeared in just five games for the Warriors at the end of the 2025/26 regular season, but the club liked what it saw in those games from the 25-year-old, who averaged 10.7 points and 7.2 rebounds in 20.0 minutes per contest.
Now that he’s back on a new one-year contract, Dalton Johnson of NBC Sports Bay Area takes a look at what Bassey is capable of bringing to Golden State in 2026/27. As Johnson outlines, although he projects to be the team’s third-string center behind Al Horford and Kristaps Porzingis, Bassey has a different skill set than those veteran floor-spacers and could become an important insurance policy if Horford and/or Porzingis have to miss time for health reasons.
“Charles was great for us when he joined late in the season, bringing his ability to dive to the rim, put pressure on the rim, shot blocking, his presence defensively and rebounding – we love to have him back,” Warriors assistant and Summer League head coach Khalid Robinson said. “He does a lot of the things that we need, and he does them at a pretty high level.”
We have more from around the Western Conference:
- Bennett Durando of The Denver Post (subscription required) checks in on an oddly quiet Nuggets offseason, evaluating whether rumblings about the team being willing to operate in second-apron territory are legitimate or a smokescreen. For what it’s worth, Durando is skeptical that Denver’s front office would be happy to simply re-sign restricted free agents Peyton Watson and Spencer Jones and pay a massive luxury tax bill for a roster similar to the one that was eliminated in the first round of the 2026 playoffs.
- Having returned to the Nuggets on a one-year, minimum-salary contract, veteran point guard Tyus Jones has waived the implicit no-trade clause that his new deal would typically include, Hoops Rumors has learned. As a result, Denver won’t need Jones’ approval to trade him prior to the 2027 deadline.
- Jazz guard Trey Alexander, who was taken off the court on a stretcher on Monday night, appears to have have avoided a major injury. According to sideline reporter Vanessa Richardson (Twitter link), the team said the initial diagnosis for Alexander is a left rib contusion.
- Michael McCann of Sportico shares the latest update on the long-running legal saga between Zion Williamson and his former agent, Gina Ford of Prime Sports Marketing, who has been ordered to pay nearly $686K in attorney fees to the Pelicans forward.