NBA Players Who've Been In the Same Place Too Long
Despite its best efforts, the NBA can't seem to find a way to make continuity the norm.
Tweaks to collective bargaining agreements, a rising salary cap and pundits lamenting the transactional frenzy that makes and breaks teams in short order haven't managed to keep players from changing locations every few seasons.
De'Aaron Fox, the No. 5 pick in the 2017 draft, is only on his second NBA contract. His tenure with the Sacramento Kings is the 10th-longest among all active players.
Maybe there's no sense complaining about the revolving-door nature of team-building. Maybe we need to embrace the idea that player empowerment, a legitimate positive, comes with the downside of constant reshuffling.
In that spirit of accepting what we can't change, let's go a step further and highlight specific players who've already been with their current teams for too long.
Harrison Barnes, Sacramento Kings
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It's hard to say which is tougher to believe: that Harrison Barnes is already a 12-year veteran, or that he's played more seasons for the Sacramento Kings than he has for any other franchise. It seems like just yesterday that he was a fresh-faced 22-year-old drilling corner threes for the Golden State Warriors in their dynasty-spurring 2014-15 championship season.
Yet here we are just a few days past Barnes' 32nd birthday, which comes on the heels of his fifth full season as a King. Now a sage veteran dealing with inevitable athletic decline, Barnes may be nearing the twilight phase of his NBA career.
The Kings don't need Barnes' maturity and leadership like they once did. Cornerstone point guard De'Aaron Fox is a seven-year vet, and three-time All-Star Domantas Sabonis has eight years under his belt. Even Sacramento's "young" prospects are well-seasoned; Keegan Murray will turn 24 in August.
What the Kings do lack is athleticism and defense on the wing. We may soon add backcourt scoring to that list of needs if another team gives soon-to-be free-agent guard Malik Monk more than the four years and $78 million that Sacramento can offer.
Barnes is still an effective player. He's missed only five games across the last three seasons, shot 38.7 percent from deep in 2023-24 and understands where to be on both ends. His savvy and professionalism were key reasons why the Kings pulled themselves out of the muck and became a legitimate, competitive team.
However, Barnes' specific qualities now might be of more value someplace else. The Kings cemented their leadership structure this offseason by extending head coach Mike Brown's contract, and their other veterans can carry the load with him. If Sacramento can flip Barnes ($18 million this year; $19 million in 2025-26) for upgrades elsewhere, it should consider moving on from the highly respected vet.
DeMar DeRozan, Chicago Bulls
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Through no fault of his own, DeMar DeRozan has been a symbol of what's gone wrong with the Chicago Bulls throughout his three-year tenure with the team.
The Bulls have gone 125-121 over the past three seasons and have won only one playoff game. Although DeRozan may deserve the least blame of anyone on the Bulls for that, his status as a win-now floor-raiser is a symbol of Chicago's lack of ambition.
DeRozan, an All-Star in two of the last three seasons, is an absolute bucket. But the 25.5 points per game that he's averaged with the Bulls have always come with shaky defense, high usage and a lack of value as an off-ball spacer.
The high floor DeRozan helps set also comes with a low ceiling, particularly when he's paired with other mid-career players whose glaring flaws create the same effect. It's as if the Bulls' goal is a win total in the low-to-mid 40s with no room to stretch beyond that modest range.
DeRozan, who's set to become a free agent this summer, hasn't been the only factor restraining his team's success. The Bulls' embrace of players like Zach LaVine and Nikola Vučević belies a broader failure to dream big, and Lonzo Ball's knee injuries were a crippling blow to this Chicago core.
If the Bulls lavish DeRozan with the biggest offer in free agency, he should absolutely take it. But as long as he's a Bull, it'll signal his team's mid-tier aspirations.
To change its fate, Chicago needs to move on from DeRozan and its other costly vets.
Brandon Ingram, New Orleans Pelicans
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After one of the most dispiriting playoff performances we've seen from a star in recent years, it's easy to forget that Brandon Ingram's upside once seemed unlimited because of another postseason effort.
In 2022, Ingram shredded the Phoenix Suns in a six-game first-round defeat, racking up 27.0 points, 6.2 rebounds and 6.2 assists per game on a 47.5/40.7/83.0 shooting split. He wasn't half that good against Lu Dort and the Oklahoma City Thunder this past postseason.
That's all to say Ingram's best days in New Orleans may be over. Fans forget the good times quickly, and it's easy to imagine sentiment shifting against Ingram even more strongly now that the Pelicans have a pair of younger, cheaper alternatives to man the wing positions next to Zion Williamson.
Trey Murphy III and Herb Jones profile as more logical fits next to a high-usage, on-ball version of Zion than Ingram, whose primary skill—generating tough two-point jumpers—doesn't scale well in the smaller role he ought to be playing.
Throw in Ingram's current extension eligibility and looming 2025 free agency, and he also has financial realities nudging him toward the end of his tenure with New Orleans.
Less appreciated now than at almost any point during his five-year Pelicans career, things could really turn against Ingram if he's viewed as blocking the path of players like Murphy and Jones. It's no wonder why New Orleans will "aggressively explore the trade market" for him this summer, according to longtime NBA insider Marc Stein.
A split might be best for all parties involved.
Clint Capela, Atlanta Hawks
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Whether the Atlanta Hawks institute a broader restructuring this offseason by trading Trae Young or Dejounte Murray, Clint Capela's stint with the team is likely nearing its conclusion.
It's been only four years since Atlanta onboarded Capela, who spent his first six seasons catching lobs from James Harden with the Houston Rockets. But with the 30-year-old center entering the final year of his contract amidst the possibility of a very different-looking Hawks team next season, the time for a change at the 5 seems right.
Capela's limited offensive game and general inability to pass or dribble—he has 657 career turnovers against 614 assists—matter less on a team where Young and Murray dominate the ball and initiate almost all of the offense. Either player's departure would create a more egalitarian offensive approach by default—one that could expose Capela's flaws and further diminish his value.
The Hawks haven't exactly projected confidence that Capela is a long-term solution. Onyeka Okongwu inked a four-year, $62 million extension last summer, and it's been hard to avoid the sense that Atlanta (and plenty of its fans) want the younger, more versatile big man to take over the first-unit gig. At the very least, the Hawks have to acknowledge that paying a combined $36.3 million in 2024-25 salary for two non-spacing centers is too much, particularly on a team that missed the playoffs this past year.
Capela is far from done as a starting-caliber contributor. He led the league in total offensive rebounds last year and has averaged a double-double in seven straight seasons. The Hawks should look to move him sooner than later, as his value will only decline as he becomes a shorter-term rental by the day.
Dwight Powell, Dallas Mavericks
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Dallas Mavericks big man Dwight Powell is one of five players currently collecting checks from the same team that was paying him in 2014.
No shade intended, but Powell would be the runaway answer to a "Which One of These Doesn't Belong?" game involving the other four, who have eight MVP awards between them: Stephen Curry, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Joel Embiid and Nikola Jokić.
Maybe that's actually a testament to Powell, who has started only 251 of the 650 Mavs games in which he's appeared. If a player sticks around this long despite averaging double-digit points only once in a decade's worth of seasons, he's clearly doing something right. Powell's steady demeanor and professionalism mirror that of Harrison Barnes in Sacramento, making him a valuable locker-room leader.
But given his diminishing role (21.9 minutes per game in 2021-22, 19.2 in 2022-23 and just 13.3 this past season) and the presences of Dereck Lively II and Daniel Gafford, Powell certainly hasn't been as important as Barnes on the floor.
Unlike the other players featured here, we aren't making a call to move Powell to another team. This is a special case. What we're really saying is that Powell has been with the Mavericks for too long to be believed.
He even has a $4 million player option for next season that he should absolutely pick up...unless the Mavs decide to extend the run by promising him something like $7 million over the next two seasons. If things go that way, we could be looking at a Udonis Haslem situation.
It's possible Powell is so highly regarded in Dallas that he'll stick around forever at cheap rates, outlasting Curry, Giannis and all the rest.
Stats courtesy of NBA.com, Basketball Reference and Cleaning the Glass. Salary info via Spotrac.
Grant Hughes covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter (@gt_hughes), and subscribe to the Hardwood Knocks podcast, where he appears with Bleacher Report's Dan Favale.
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