The Ningbo Rockets of the Chinese Basketball Association have added a trio of former NBA players for the 2025/26 season, according to Alberto De Roa of HoopsHype. Center Tacko Fall and guards Frank Jackson and Zavier Simpson have reportedly joined the CBA team.
Fall, a 7’6″ big man who appeared in 37 NBA games for the Celtics and Cavaliers from 2019-22, is no stranger to China’s basketball league, having spent time with the Xinjiang Flying Tigers and Nanjing Monkey Kings since he last played in the NBA. He also had a stint with the New Zealand Breakers last season.
Jackson has also played in the CBA with the Shanxi Loongs and Jiangsu Dragons, while Simpson will be playing in the country for the first time after spending last season in Romania. Jackson, a 2017 second-round pick, has appeared in 214 NBA regular season games, but has been out of the league since March 2023. Simpson made seven appearances for the Grizzlies on a pair of 10-day contracts near the end of the 2023/24 season after playing four times for Oklahoma City in ’21/22.
Here are more odds and ends from around the basketball world:
- ESPN is making a change to its top broadcasting team for the 2025/26 NBA season and 2026 NBA Finals, according to Andrew Marchand of The Athletic, who reports that Tim Legler will replace Doris Burke alongside Mike Breen and Richard Jefferson. However, Burke has signed a multiyear extension with ESPN and will be on ESPN’s No. 2 NBA broadcast team with play-by-play man Dave Pasch.
- An ESPN panel of NBA experts is forecasting the Cavaliers to win an Eastern Conference-high 59 games in 2025/26, with the Knicks (54-28), Magic (50-32), Hawks (47-35), and Pistons (47-35) rounding out the top five. ESPN’s projections have the Bucks, Celtics, Sixers, Heat, and Pacers battling for the final playoff spot and play-in seeding. Over in the West, ESPN’s forecast calls for the Thunder (64 wins) to repeat as the conference’s No. 1 seed, followed by the Rockets (54-28), Nuggets (53-29), Timberwolves (51-31), Clippers (50-32), and Lakers (50-32).
- Unsurprisingly, in a separate story predicting next season’s conference and NBA champions, ESPN’s panel picks the Cavaliers and Thunder as the favorites to meet in the NBA Finals, with Oklahoma City repeating as champions. For what it’s worth, the Nuggets received the second-most votes as potential champs, followed by Cleveland, the Rockets, and the Knicks.