CLEVELAND (AP) — Peyton Watson is heading from Denver to Cleveland as part of a four-team trade that will also have the Cavaliers sending Max Strus to the Los Angeles Clippers.
A person familiar with the trade said Wednesday night that Watson, a restricted free agent who spent his first four NBA seasons with the Nuggets, will sign a four-year contract with the Cavaliers worth $88 million that includes a player option and trade kicker.
The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the trade had not been announced.
Cleveland will send to Denver an unprotected 2031 first-round pick and a 2032 second-round selection from the Sacramento Kings that it got after making a trade in June’s NBA draft. The Nuggets will also acquire Julian Reese from Washington.
The Cavaliers are getting a 2027 second-round pick from the Clippers, but that will be sent to the Wizards.
The 23-year-old Watson started a career-high 40 games last season and averaged career bests in points (14.6), rebounds (4.9) and assists (2.1). He gives the Cavaliers the wing player they were looking for after LeBron James signed with Philadelphia instead of returning to Cleveland for a third stint.
Besides Watson, the Cavaliers were also looking at free agents DeMar DeRozan and Jonathan Kuminga.
Strus and Dean Wade were the primary starters at small forward last season. Wade signed with Philadelphia during free agency.
Strus missed the first 67 games last season due to a broken left foot, but had some big baskets and steals during the playoffs as Cleveland reached the Eastern Conference finals for the first time since 2018. The Cavaliers were swept in that series by the New York Knicks.
Cleveland laid the groundwork for a move last week when it traded Dennis Schroder to Charlotte for Tre Mann to gain salary cap space. Mann's time in Cleveland won't last long; he's headed to Washington for Cam Whitmore.
See AP’s full NBA coverage here
FILE - Denver Nuggets guard Peyton Watson (8) drives to the basket during the first half of an NBA basketball game between the Dallas Mavericks and the Denver Nuggets, on Jan. 14, 2026, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez, File)
HONOLULU (AP) — A beloved former kindergarten teacher who taught generations of residents in a small town on Hawaii's Big Island was among the two deaths authorities blamed on a hurricane that lashed the state over the weekend with heavy rain and strong winds.
May Doi, 93, was found dead Monday after she was reported missing, police said. Neighbors think she was escaping floodwaters in her home and trying to get to a nearby shelter, said ʻĀina Akamu, a former student of Doi's who is now a vice principal at a local school.
She taught for so long at Naalehu Elementary on the island's southern tip that “Mrs. Doi was my dad's kindergarten teacher,” Akamu said Wednesday.
“She taught grandkids of her students,” he said. “She was a fixture in this community.”
Akamu often saw her taking walks around the small, rural, sugar plantation-era town: “She was so strong.”
He recalled how everyone looked forward to having Mrs. Doi as a teacher because she sometimes allowed students to have sleepovers in her classroom. Her deceased husband was a math teacher, Akamu said.
The body of a man in his 60s was located by residents in a pasture on Tuesday, a day after police were asked to conduct a welfare check, police said. Authorities said it was the second death attributed to the storm and have not yet released his identity.
Residents were struggling to clean up after Hurricane Lala tore roofs off houses, uprooted trees, covered roads in mud and rock and left many households without electricity for days. On top of all that, forecasters warned of the likelihood of another tropical cyclone forming southeast of the islands.
Akamu also lamented the destruction of two cemeteries, including one where Akamu’s ancestors have been buried since 1850. Caskets were sticking out of the ground through the town, home to about 800 people, and headstones littered the roadway, he said.
“Our graveyard is now scattered all over the community and how do we heal from that?” he said.
He worries crews working to clear roads could inadvertently run over remains.
“Don't clear the road, my grandma could be in there,” he said. "That's what makes me most emotional, it's like you lost them again."
Akamu was trying to focus on helping his community recover by setting up a hub where residents can get donated items. They are in most need of generators, gasoline and propane, he said.
“We just ask the ancestors to protect us,” Akamu said of the threat of an another storm.
Now well west of Hawaii's main islands, Lala has reached major Category 3 strength with top sustained winds of 115 mph (185 kph) on Wednesday in what the National Hurricane Center called the first major hurricane of 2026 in the Central Pacific Ocean. But Hawaii residents were put on notice for another storm system, located far to the east-southeast.
The hurricane center said conditions appeared conducive for a tropical depression to form within days.
It's too early to tell the exact location or potential wind, rain and storm surge impacts. However, “interests in the Hawaiian Islands should closely monitor the progress of this system,” the hurricane center said, adding it could be a hurricane when it moves near or over the islands by the weekend.
Work continued to clear away tons of mud and debris left behind by a torrent of water that inundated buildings, some of whose roofs were sheared off by the winds. Dozens of homes were washed from foundations, bridges were damaged and a collapsed section of a two-lane road had cut off access to the community of Pahala.
The U.S. Department of Transportation approved an initial $6 million in emergency relief to help repair transportation infrastructure damaged by Lala, U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz of Hawaii said.
The heaviest recorded rainfall, 43.54 inches (1.1 meters), occurred in Laupahoehoe on the northeast coast of the Big Island, the National Weather Service said.
About 17,000 customers on the Big Island remained without power on Wednesday, the Hawaiian Electric utility said. Some customers on the islands of Oahu and Maui were still in the dark. Repairs in the heavily damaged areas of the Big Island, including the southern end, could take at least two weeks, the utility said.
Lala was moving to the northwest at 10 mph (17 kph) and was expected to turn toward the north early Thursday. It was bearing down on a remote area at the northwestern edge of the Hawaiian Archipelago. Hurricane warnings were posted for portions of the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument from Lisianski Island to Maro Reef.
The weather service said the storm was forecast to veer east of the Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge. The population in one of the most remote places on Earth consists entirely of a few dozen U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service staff, volunteers and contractors. Forecasters said there were no tropical-related advisories for the Midway Atoll and any impact might include some elevated surf with a limited amount of rain.
Raby reported from Charleston, West Virginia.
This satellite image provided by NOAA shows Hurricane Lala on Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2026, in the Pacific Ocean northeast of Hawaii. (NOAA via AP)
Punalu'u Bake Shop is seen surrounded by debris in Naalehu, Hawaii, Monday, Aug. 17, 2026, after a severe weather system went through the area. (Stephen Lam/San Francisco Chronicle via AP)
Debris is seen along Hawaiʻi Belt Road near Pahala, Hawaii, Sunday, Aug. 16, 2026, after a severe weather system went through the area. (Stephen Lam/San Francisco Chronicle via AP)
