What Every Team Would Do if 2025 NBA Free Agency Started Today
Twenty-seven of the NBA's 30 teams are already into their 2025 offseason. The other three have bigger, trophy-sized fish to fry, but you can bet their front offices are already thinking about the summer, too.
So what would every squad do if free agency started right now instead of Jun. 30?
In the event they haven't figured it out already, let's do it for them. And if they have hashed it out, well, then, let's leak their super-secret plans, like a photobombing whiteboard.
This exercise will seek to pin down what should be the top priority when silly season tips off. While it will feature plugging team needs on the open market, the spectrum of most critical to-do items will cast a broad net. Offering extensions, getting clarity on a player's future, targeting specific trades and anything else considered offseason-y will be in play.
Atlanta Hawks: Offer Trae Young an Extension
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Trae Young is eligible to sign a four-year, $228.6 million extension this season. The Atlanta Hawks can try offering him less than the max allowed, but regardless, their first order of business needs to be offering...something.
Looking to trade him makes little sense when the San Antonio Spurs control the Hawks' firsts through 2027. Sewing up his future allows them to map out a longer-term blueprint around him, which includes addressing the futures of the extension-eligible Dyson Daniels and free agent Caris LeVert as well as their overarching financial outlook.
The calculus changes if Young turns down an extension. That is a surefire sign he wants out, and Atlanta will need to begin shopping him in earnest when he has a full year left on his deal ahead of that 2026-27 player option.
Boston Celtics: Shed Enough Salary to AT LEAST Duck the Second Apron
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Left alone, the Boston Celtics are on the hook for over $500 million in player salary and luxury-tax payments next season. That was never going to stand. It sure can't hold now that Jayson Tatum may not play until the start of 2026-27 after suffering a ruptured right Achilles.
Getting out of the second apron and escaping its punitive restrictions is the bare-minimum. Boston is currently around $23 million into the second apron when accounting for the No. 29 pick. That doesn't include a new deal for free-agent big man Al Horford.
The Celtics are more likely looking at trying to shave $25-plus million in salary. That number climbs past $40 million if they want to duck the luxury tax altogether.
Nobody should be considered off limits. Jrue Holiday (three years, $104.4 million remaining) and Kristaps Porziņģis (one year, $30.7 million) are the most-cited salary-dump candidates. But the cap landscape is pretty shallow this summer. Boston may need to open up the bidding for Derrick White (four years, $125.8 million) or even Jaylen Brown (four years, $236.2 million) if it's trying to entirely skirt the tax.
Don't knock the most nuclear scenarios, either. Without knowing what Tatum looks like in 2026-27, the Celtics' contention window is likely on at least a two-year hiatus—an eternity in NBA time.
Brooklyn Nets: Use Their Cap Space as Leverage
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No team is slated to have more cap space than the Brooklyn Nets. Their projected flexibility (almost $60 million of wiggle room) more than doubles that of the next most flexible team (Detroit Pistons).
General manager Sean Marks needs to throw that weight around like he means it. And as a reminder: Cap space isn't just for free agency. The Nets can use their financial runway to facilitate blockbuster deals or salary dumps in exchange for picks and prospects.
Spending on free agents, in fact, should be considered secondary. This includes dealing with their own players. Cam Thomas will be a restricted free agent, but Brooklyn is in the infancy of its rebuild, and he's not on the fast-track to stardom.
Asset accumulation is the one and only goal. If the Nets think they can drive up the price tag on rival free agents like Jonathan Kuminga (restricted), Myles Turner or Naz Reid (player option), then have at it. But successfully investing big money in talent must take a backseat to going after draft compensation and young-player fliers for at least another year.
Charlotte Hornets: Resolve the Future of Mark Williams
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To the Charlotte Hornets' credit, they attempted to render a final Mark Williams verdict in advance of February's trade deadline. They agreed to send him to the Los Angeles Lakers in exchange for Dalton Knecht, a 2030 first-round swap and 2031 first-round pick, only for the deal to be rescinded following the big man's physical.
Williams finished the season on something of a strong note, averaging around 15 points, 11 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 1.5 blocks while banging in over 60 percent of his twos following the trade that wasn't. But the stakes during this stretch were, um, low. It isn't clear whether he showed enough for Charlotte to consider him part of the core.
A checkered health bill doesn't help matters. Williams has missed more games for his career (140) than he's played (106). His back-line defense also remains spotty. There have been flashes, but it's not clear whether he can morph into a consistent interior anchor.
The Hornets are running out of time to see what Williams becomes. He is extension-eligible this summer, so if they have no inclination to pay him now or in 2026 restricted free agency, they're better off trying to move him...again.
Chicago Bulls: Figure Out the Josh Giddey Situation
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Josh Giddey pieced together a strong statistical performance in his first season with the Chicago Bulls. He averaged 14.6 points, 8.1 rebounds and 7.5 assists while banging in 37.8 percent of his triples—by far and away the best mark of his career.
Still, the same concerns endure. Defenses don't care about tightly tracking him even if he's hitting threes, which can gum up the works for everyone else. He is not an efficient finisher around the basket. And he almost exclusively needs to guard forwards who spend a lion's share of their time away from the ball.
Chicago must decide how much a useful-but-intensely-limited player is worth in restricted free agency. A dearth of cap space around the league theoretically allows the Bulls to squeeze him, but they seem unlikely to retain him at the Coby White cheapo special.
Whatever Giddey's market, Chicago needs to have a predetermined line etched in concrete. It can't afford to have another noticeably underwater contract on its books after last summer's Patrick Williams' debacle and with White speeding toward a mega raise in 2026 free agency.
Cleveland Cavaliers: Tackle the Ty Jerome Dilemma
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Ty Jerome is an Early Bird free agent, so the Cleveland Cavaliers can only offer him a starting salary worth up to 105 percent of the league's average. This puts his Year 1 price point at around $14.3 million.
That is a reasonable number for a third guard of Jerome's caliber. He ended the season on the roughest of notes against the Indiana Pacers, but he finished inside the top five on the Sixth Man of the Year ballot. Plus, another team should be peddling the full non-taxpayer mid-level exception, which will be worth $14.1 million.
Cleveland's finances prevent his return from being a no-brainer decision, though. It will be around $13 million into the second apron following Evan Mobley's Defensive Player of the Year victory and the contract bump that comes with it.
Maybe the Cavs agree to pay through the teeth for one year to keep this exact core. (Sam Merrill is also a free agent.) More likely, though, they will look to stave off second-apron hell for another year.
Does that mean Jerome is good as gone, or should Cleveland look to offload enough money elsewhere to keep him? It's a question president of basketball operations Koby Altman and company must answer posthaste.
Dallas Mavericks: Re-Sign Kyrie Irving
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For anyone hoping this would be "The Dallas Mavericks must trade Anthony Davis, move on from Kyrie Irving and rebuild around Cooper Flagg," well, you should know better. President of basketball operations Nico Harrison is building this team to win now, even if his decision-making process suggests otherwise.
Continuing that march toward contention necessitates re-signing Kyrie. Though tearing an ACL in his left knee likely keeps him out until at least the New Year, this is more about his $42.9 million player option.
Dallas can hope he opts in to kick the can down the road or extend him, but attempting to lower his 2025-26 salary should be the actual goal. Winning the draft lottery has nudged the Mavs' payroll into second-apron territory. This isn't too palatable for a team that'll be without its second-best player for a huge chunk of next year, and it makes completing trades and navigating free agency exponentially harder.
Would Kyrie decline his option and re-sign at a noticeably lower annual number over more years to lock in more security? The Mavs better hope so. They need to find out either way. And even if he does, it'll probably take another salary dump or two to properly position their books.
Denver Nuggets: Listen to Nikola Jokić
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Technically, the Denver Nuggets’ first move should be to offer Nikola Jokić a three-year, $212.5 million extension that keeps him in the Mile High City through 2029-30. But since they’re obviously going to dangle it, we pivot instead to them needing to acquire the depth for which he called.
“We definitely need to figure out a way to get more depth,”Jokić told reporters following the Nuggets' Game 7 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder. “It seems like the teams that have longer rotations, the longer benches, are the ones winning. You look at Indiana and OKC and Minnesota, and they have been great examples of that.”
Getting this depth won’t be easy. Denver will be more than $7 million into the first apron if Russell Westbrook and Dario Šarić pick up their player options. Using the mini mid-level ($5.7M) and staying beneath the second apron will be tight when filling out the whole roster.
Surfing the trade market will be more pivotal, particularly when considering the not-so-great track record of mini-MLE signings in Denver (Šarić and Reggie Jackson). A new front office will be in place, but the pickings at that price point are forever slim.
Trade possibilities offer a higher-end return. They also require the Nuggets to contemplate which core players they are willing to ship out, and whether they’re open to putting their one movable first-round pick (in 2031 or 2032) on the table.
Detroit Pistons: Lock Down Malik Beasley
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Malik Beasley proved invaluable to boosting the Detroit Pistons' floor-spacing around Cade Cunningham this season. They cannot let him leave.
Retaining him is a tad complicated. As a non-Bird free agent, the Pistons can only offer him a 120 percent raise ($7.2 million) or use cap space or an exception to re-sign him.
In an ideal world, he would ink a one-plus-one deal using non-Bird rights and get a bigger raise next summer so Detroit could use cap space or the bigger mid-level exception ($14.1 million) to keep building out the roster. Perhaps that's on the table.
If it's not, the Pistons are better off operating as an over-the-cap team, which they can do by carrying cap holds for free agents Dennis Schröder and Tim Hardaway Jr. They can then spend part or all of the MLE on keeping Beasley, run back a similar group and either let things marinate or work the trade market.
Golden State Warriors: Resolve the Jonathan Kuminga Dilemma
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Jonathan Kuminga is heading into restricted free agency, where the Golden State Warriors are effectively looking at one of three outcomes. Let's rank them in order of preferability:
- Sign-and-trade: Golden State and Kuminga are expected to work together on sign-and-trades. This is potentially a win-win. Kuminga gets a larger, more consistent role elsewhere. The Warriors (presumably) get draft compensation and/or players better fit for their rotation. "Base Year Compensation" complicates this route, since Kuminga will only count as 50 percent of his new salary in outgoing money for Golden State. But it's still workable.
- Kuminga re-signs and gets traded later: Going this direction ensures the Warriors preserve the asset and avoid Base Year Compensation hangups. Kuminga gets to lock in long-term security. It's a risk for both sides. Kuminga's role could remain topsy-turvy, and his trade value could plummet. But it's far from the worst case.
- Kuminga signs his qualifying offer: This scenario allows Kuminga to explore unrestricted free agency in 2026 while having veto rights on any in-season trade. It nevertheless feels like a nightmare outcome for both sides. Kuminga could see his market value implode over the next year, and Golden State will be hard-pressed to maximize his return in a trade.
Houston Rockets: Invest in Offensive Help
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The Houston Rockets are so close. Their defense is hellfire, they have plenty of depth, and unlike other contenders, there's tons of room for internal growth.
Whether that internal growth will be enough to level up the offense is a separate matter. Houston ranked 22nd through both the regular season and playoffs in first-chance points scored per possession, according to PBP Stats. The rotation doesn't seem to have a shotmaker and facilitator of the future—unless the Rockets believe Reed Sheppard is that dude and are prepared to unleash him next year.
Failing that, they need to work the trade market as soon as free agency begins. Though they have pathways to opening the full mid-level exception ($14.1 million), it should not come at the expense of letting Fred VanVleet (team option) sign elsewhere. The free-agency market is too barren.
Star pursuits will dominate headlines. Houston should absolutely be open to one. But improvement can also come in the form of a middle-rung creator and deadeye shooter. It just has to be someone good enough to crack the playoff rotation.
Indiana Pacers: Do What It Takes to Re-Sign Myles Turner
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All these years and trade rumors later, Myles Turner remains indispensable to the Indiana Pacers. They better be prepared to act like it this summer.
Convincing him to stay shouldn't be an issue in a vacuum. The Pacers are in a great spot after making consecutive conference finals, and the only team projected to have real cap space, the Brooklyn Nets, already has a handsomely paid center on its books (Nicolas Claxton).
Cap-sheet concerns are the lone potential hangup. After factoring in the No. 23 pick, the Pacers will be within $17 million of the tax. If the past is prologue, they aren't going to pay it. That isn't enough room to re-sign Turner and build out the roster.
Indiana shouldn't care. It can trim salary via trade or simply figure it out later. Teams have until the end of next season to skirt the tax. Whatever the Pacers do, Turner needs to be a central part of it.
Los Angeles Clippers: Use the MLE to Sign a Floor General AND Another Center
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Assessing the Los Angeles Clippers' spending power is somewhat difficult. James Harden and Nicolas Batum have player options, Amir Coffey is a free agent, and Drew Eubanks and Jordan Miller combine for about $7 million in non-guaranteed money.
Los Angeles should have the wiggle room to stay beneath the first apron to spend the bigger mid-level exception ($14.1 million). If team governor Steve Ballmer wants to entirely evade the tax, it'll require some salary-dumping or, less likely, Harden accepting a pay cut.
Using that entire $14.1 million needs to be the goal. From there, the Clippers should split it up among multiple players, not unlike last offseason. They need another setup man behind Harden and another big behind Ivica Zubac.
Could $14.1 million total get them, say, Steven Adams and one of Chris Paul, Tyus Jones, Tre Jones or Malcolm Brogdon? That'd be ideal. Forced to choose, though, L.A. should focus on bagging another playmaker to steady the half-court offense.
Los Angeles Lakers: Upgrade the Center Rotation
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Maxi Kleber and Jarred Vanderbilt are the only bigs under guaranteed contract for the Los Angeles Lakers next season. And Vanderbilt isn't really a big.
Team president Rob Pelinka has work to do. He had the right idea with the since-rescinded Mark Williams trade but prioritized the wrong target. Though the Lakers should absolutely be in the market for a lob threat alongside Luka Dončić, they also need 5s with consistent rim-protecting chops.
Checking those boxes on the free-agent market will get spotty. The list of available centers who meet the criteria isn't especially deep, and even if Los Angeles opens up the search to floor-spacers who don't really play above the rim, it only projects to have the $5.7 million mini mid-level exception at its disposal.
That almost assuredly isn't getting Al Horford or Brook Lopez. It might not even get you Chris Boucher or Clint Capela. Los Angeles should instead set its sights on using one of its shorter-term contracts and, if necessary, sweeteners to plug the roster's most glaring hole.
Memphis Grizzlies: Renegotiate-and-Extend Jaren Jackson Jr.
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Jaren Jackson Jr.'s absence from All-NBA teams could be a blessing in disguise for the Memphis Grizzlies. He would have been eligible to sign a five-year supermax deal worth $345.3 million if he made one of the three squads. And while the Grizzlies wouldn't have to offer the full 35-percent-of-the-cap boat, there would have been pressure to give him at least 30 percent.
Memphis can instead now focus on a renegotiation and extension. Here's how that works:
The Grizzlies project to have $7 million(ish) in cap space while carrying Santi Aldama's restricted-free-agency hold. They can use that money to bump up Jackson's 2025-26 salary to around $30.4 million. From there, they can offer him a four-year, $190.8 million extension.
This version of the renegotiate-and-extend would give Jackson an average annual salary of $44.2 million over the next five years, including 2025-26. That is more in line with his value than the $61.5 million he would have averaged across the next six seasons if he received the full supermax, and it better positions Memphis to continue reorienting around its current core in the years to come.
Miami Heat: Add a Lead Playmaker
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After finishing inside the bottom 10 of points scored per possession for a third consecutive season, the Miami Heat desperately need to carve out a new—this is to say, actual—offensive identity. That starts with landing someone who can run the show.
Tyler Herro has proved to be a capable alpha scorer and has improved his playmaking. He still isn't wired to be the primary table-setter. Leaning more on Bam Adebayo isn't the answer, either. Terry Rozier's play has fallen off the face of the Earth, and he's not a floor-general himself.
Miami will have to look outside the organization. Its spending power is hazy until it settles on what to do with Rozier ($24.9 million guaranteed) and Duncan Robinson ($9.9 million guaranteed), as well as Davion Mitchell (restricted).
More likely than not, the Heat are looking at using the mini mid-level of $5.7 million or slightly more without some cap-sheet surgery. That isn't going to get them a point guard of the future. It might be enough to get them an upgraded stopgap like Tyus Jones, Tre Jones or still-has-it Chris Paul.
Milwaukee Bucks: Get a Definitive Answer from Giannis Antetokounmpo
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Giannis Antetokounmpo is reportedly "open-minded about exploring whether his best long-term fit is remaining" with the Milwaukee Bucks, according to ESPN's Shams Charania. For their part, the Bucks "remain hopeful" he won't ask for a trade, per The Stein Line's Marc Stein.
So...will Giannis request a trade? Or will he stay put? Milwaukee needs to know before doing anything else.
Hashing out Antetokounmpo's future determines everything for the Bucks. Re-signing Brook Lopez and exploring win-now trades both become (likely) no-gos if he's a goner.
And if he's staying, they must figure out how to parlay a complicated cap sheet and minimal assets into a team worth Giannis' energy and loyalty. (Translation: A team with more shot creation, shooting, athleticism and general depth.)
Minnesota Timberwolves: Math Out the Julius Randle and Naz Reid Situations
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The Minnesota Timberwolves will know what Julius Randle ($30.9 million) and Naz Reid ($15 million) do with their player options by the actual start of free agency. Right now, they should be mathing out the perfect endgame.
Minny will be a skosh into the first apron if both Randle and Reid pick up their options. That projection includes the No. 17 pick, but not the return of Nickeil Alexander-Walker, an unrestricted free agent.
Bringing back all three will be tough should the new ownership regime want to keep the tax bill in check. If the Timberwolves can choose how this pans out, they should have Reid opt in and extend, but have Randle opt out and re-sign at a lower average annual value over the longer term.
Depending on how much Randle commands, this order of operations opens the door for Minnesota to re-sign NAW without stepping into the second apron—though, again, it remains to be seen if that will be considered an acceptable cap sheet.
New Orleans Pelicans: Commit to a Zion Williamson Plan
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This is low-hanging fruit, but that's my favorite food group. It's also a necessary issue.
New Orleans Pelicans lead executive Joe Dumars has said he's under no mandate to trade Zion Williamson. Having the 24-year-old representing the team at the 2025 NBA draft lottery seemingly supports that claim. But there can't be any room for doubt.
Do the Pelicans plan to continue building around Zion? Would they prefer to trade him and begin anew? Might they hope he remains healthy and increases his value ahead of the February 2026 deadline?
With Brandon Ingram in Toronto and Dejounte Murray recovering from an Achilles injury, New Orleans' timeline is open-ended enough that there's no wrong answer. But there needs to be an answer before they go about their offseason business. Zion's fate is inextricably tied to who else the Pelicans will target, how they formulate their close-to-the-tax books and who else might be on the chopping block.
New York Knicks: Offer Mikal Bridges an Extension
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Part of the calculus behind the New York Knicks surrendering five first-round picks (and one swap) for Mikal Bridges was his willingness to sign a below-market extension. That gamble will resolve itself this summer.
New York can offer Bridges a four-year, $156.2 million deal that kicks in after next season. While his time on the Knicks hasn't unfolded without a hitch, shelling out 20 percent of the salary cap for someone who plays his role is much closer to a bargain than net-neutral value.
Things get complicated if Bridges turns down the offer. He would head into 2026 free agency and be eligible for a starting salary north of $51 million.
Granted, Bridges probably wouldn't get the max on the open market. But there's a lot of runway between $51 million and the $34.9 million Year 1 of the extension would pay him. Every penny matters when you're trying to keep an increasingly expensive core together.
This says nothing of the flight-risk factor. If Bridges doesn't put pen to paper on his extension, the Knicks better know he's sticking around and/or be prepared to pony up. Otherwise, they'd be obligated to gauge his value on the trade market.
Oklahoma City Thunder: Extend Chet Holmgren and Jalen Williams
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Chet Holmgren and Jalen Williams are both eligible to sign rookie-scale extensions worth up to $246.6 million over five years. There shouldn't be much negotiating for the Oklahoma City Thunder to do here. Perhaps they can sneak some injury protections into Holmgren's deal, but they risk alienating him if they hardball it.
Don't let anyone tell you the Thunder can't afford this, either. A financial reckoning will come eventually, but not immediately.
These deals won't kick in until the 2026-27 season, and OKC doesn't have to worry Shai Gilgeous-Alexander's projected supermax taking effect until 2027-28, at which point Lu Dort and Isaiah Hartenstein could be off the books. This team has time before it needs to worry about the core becoming untenably expensive.
Orlando Magic: Go. Get. Some. Offensive. Firepower.
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Let's take a look at some of the Orlando Magic's offensive rankings from this past season:
This list could go on, and on, and on.
Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner need more space in which to operate, and the offense at large is begging for a primary-type playmaker to alleviate the duo's on-ball workload. We've known this. The Magic have known this. It's time for them to act, aggressively and effectively.
Getting the right guy won't come easy. Orlando will be right around the tax even if it declines team options on Gary Harris, Moritz Wagner and Cory Joseph. That's fine. Free agency doesn't have the answer anyway. The Magic have trade assets to burn and need to use them.
Philadelphia 76ers: Address Quentin Grimes' Future
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Landing the No. 3 overall pick should loom as an inflection point for the Philadelphia 76ers, affording them the chance to hit reset around Tyrese Maxey, Jared McCain and whomever they draft. And yet, that option isn't actually on the table. Not really.
Joel Embiid (four years, $248.1 million) and Paul George (three years, $162.4 million) have too many seasons and too much money on their deals to just be offloaded. Philly also owes a top-four-protected pick to Oklahoma City in 2026, making the prospect of a teardown less palatable.
Quentin Grimes becomes the priority as a result. Or rather, the Sixers must decide whether he is even a priority. His restricted-free-agent-cap-hold of $12.9 million puts them into the first apron if Kelly Oubre Jr., Andre Drummond and Eric Gordon all pick up their player options, and the cap sheet gets dicier if the 25-year-old commands more than that placeholder.
Does Grimes have a place on a team with Maxey and McCain? What about if the Sixers add another guard or wing in the draft? And are they prepared to restrict their maneuverability on the transaction market if they think it does? The Sixers need to figure this out before doing anything else.
Phoenix Suns: Map Out Your Kevin Durant Plan
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Kevin Durant's future with the Phoenix Suns will inform everything else the franchise does this summer.
Trading him doesn't necessarily signal a rebuild unless the team is getting back its own first-rounders. But will the Suns prioritize flipping him for multiple rotation players who help them win now? What about another big name? Do they consider his exit a vehicle through which they'll skirt the second apron and slash their luxury-tax bills?
Conversely, is there any chance Phoenix just holds onto him? And if it does, how will general manager Brian Gregory go about, at minimum, escaping the second apron? Waiving the non-guaranteed deals for Vasilije Micić and Cody Martin just about does the trick, but the Suns still need to increase the depth of their rotation with or without KD.
Change is coming in Phoenix. To what extent, though, remains to be seen. Clarity begins with tackling KD's future.
Portland Trail Blazers: Offload the Jerami Grant Contract
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The Portland Trail Blazers are far enough below the luxury-tax line that they needn't be desperate to get off the three years and $102.6 million left on his contract. But keeping him runs counter to their overarching direction.
Toumani Camara and Deni Avdija are both ahead of him in the big-picture pecking order, and the perimeter rotation will get even more crowded if the Blazers draft another combo wing/forward at No. 11.
More than anything, this is about taking a veteran club out of head coach Chauncey Billups' bag. Grant shouldn't be playing 30-plus minutes per game when Portland remains in developmental mode—and in desperate need of better shooters around Avdija, Scoot Henderson, Shaedon Sharpe and Donovan Clingan.
To be sure: The Blazers shouldn't be attaching draft equity to Grant as part of a salary dump. But if the opportunity to flip him into shorter and/or cheaper deals or consolidate into a high-end player who better fits the roster and timeline presents itself, they need to pounce without hesitation.
Sacramento Kings: Extend Keegan Murray
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Enough holes and question marks are peppered throughout the Sacramento Kings' roster that their primary focus lies outside the organization. They need another wing, a truer floor general and at least one other big (bonus points if that big can play beside Domantas Sabonis), and general manager Scott Perry will have the non-taxpayer mid-level exception to dangle.
Yet, very little about the Kings' future is certain following last year's onslaught of awkwardness and disappointment. It makes more sense to lock in Keegan Murray, one of their few certainties, who is no worse than their second-most important player.
The 24-year-old is eligible to sign an extension that could top out at five years and $246.7 million. He hasn't shown nearly enough offensive dynamism to warrant a max payday, but his defensive improvement and role are mission critical to the organization's direction—whatever that direction may be.
Sacramento can always wait this out until restricted free agency in 2026. Given the way things have gone lately, though, it behooves the team to keep him off the (semi-)open market. In a more aggressive cap-space landscape, he's the archetype of player for whom rival suitors will break the bank.
San Antonio Spurs: Surround Victor Wembanyama and De'Aaron Fox with More Shooting
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Twenty-nine other teams are quaking where they stand when looking at the San Antonio Spurs' trajectory. This team has Victor Wembanyama, De'Aaron Fox, Devin Vassell, Stephon Castle, the No. 2 pick and enough future draft equity to enter any trade discussions they damn please.
San Antonio's offensive floor balance nevertheless dampens an otherwise pristine outlook, even if only marginally. Too many of its most important players are questionable marksmen.
Everyone not named Wemby last season combined to place in the 41st percentile of both off-ball gravity and catch-and-shoot three-point efficiency, according to BBall-Index. That's not good enough, particularly knowing the Spurs could be losing Chris Paul's 37.7 percent clip to a larger role somewhere else.
You don't want to be in a situation where Wemby has to be living from beyond the arc. You want to create an environment that opens up more paint touches for him while also leveraging his spacing. San Antonio currently tilts too much toward the former. It should be using the non-taxpayer mid-level ($14.1 million) and the trade market to change that.
Toronto Raptors: Add at Least One More High-Volume Three-Point Shooter
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Trading for and extending Brandon Ingram should glitz up the Toronto Raptors' on-ball scoring. But an offense that features him, Scottie Barnes, RJ Barrett and Jakob Poeltl should be stocked with higher-volume outside shooters.
Toronto's rotation is not.
Immanuel Quickley, Chris Boucher and Jamison Battle are the only Raptors players last season who averaged at least six three-point attempts per 36 minutes and drained them at a league-average clip (36 percent). It'd be nice if Gradey Dick and Ochai Agbaji can enter this fold next year. Ditto for Barnes, Ingram and Barrett themselves.
None of that's a guarantee. Boucher is also a free agent and notoriously streaky, so Toronto can't exactly count on him. Battle will be a sophomore who may not hold up well enough on defense to get real minutes.
This leaves the Raptors to venture outside the organization. And given that the No. 9 pick's salary effectively nudges them up against the tax, any meaningful infusion of higher-volume sniping likely needs to come via trade.
Utah Jazz: Extend Walker Kessler
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Three years into the Utah Jazz's rebuild, they still don't have a patented cornerstone. Maybe they unearth one with the No. 5 pick. Maybe not.
Even if they do, their lack of clear long-term fits in general is jarring. Walker Kessler is the closest they come to an inarguable keeper. Right now, he may even be the closest they get to a primary building block—though frankly, this honor may belong to head coach Will Hardy.
This is all to say: Extend him, Utah.
Rim-protecting bigs with limited offensive range, even when they're given the tank-a-palooza license to fire away from deep, don't typically cost the moon. Extending him also works in service of increasing his trade appeal down the line. Kessler may age into a more valuable asset next summer, on a larger salary, when the new deal takes effect.
Washington Wizards: Facilitate the Heck Out of Other Teams' Moves
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The Washington Wizards had the right idea leading into the 2025 February trade deadline when they leased out future cap space to bag what became Memphis' No. 18 pick, AJ Johnson (No. 23 in 2024) and the right to swap firsts with Milwaukee in 2028. That is creative and effective asset accumulation.
And the Wizards need to keep that energy going to open free agency.
They will have plenty of room beneath the luxury tax even after factoring in first-round holds for No. 6 and No. 18, Khris Middleton's $34 million player option and the possibility of guaranteeing all or part of Richaun Holmes' $13.2 million salary. Both Middleton and Holmes could prove to be valuable asset-magnets on those expiring deals. The same goes for Marcus Smart. Even Jordan Poole's contract (two years, $65.9 million) has a little more sheen these days.
With fewer than 10 teams slated to have non-taxpayer-mid-level-type flexibility this summer, the landscape is ripe for the Wizards to be compensated for facilitating blockbuster deals and salary dumps. Again.
Dan Favale is a National NBA Writer for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Bluesky (@danfavale), and subscribe to the Hardwood Knocks podcast, co-hosted by Bleacher Report's Grant Hughes.
.jpg?w=600 "New NBA Mock Draft 📝")
