Every Team's Biggest Fear During the 2025 NBA Offseason
The NBA offseason is a time for teams to reflect, strategize and execute. End games can vary, but every franchise enters the summer with a unifying goal: Improving their current and/or long-term direction, and aiming for the best possible outcomes.
You know what they say about even the best laid plans, though.
Things can go wrong. Sometimes, they go terribly wrong. Avoiding worst-case scenarios is its own side quest. Teams want to be perfect, but they need to evade nightmare developments that make their lives unnecessarily harder, if not undermine their present and future blueprints.
This list will spotlight the offseason misses, failures, letdowns or even horrors each squad should hope to avoid.
Atlanta Hawks: Trae Young Rejects an Extension Offer
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Trae Young is eligible to sign a four-year, $228.6 million extension this summer. We can quibble over whether the Atlanta Hawks should offer the full boat or try to negotiate one with fewer years and/or a lower average annual salary. But they need to offer him...something.
And then hope he signs it.
Everything gets flipped on its head if Young rejects an extension. It forces the Hawks to shop him one year out from free agency (2026-27 player option), significantly damaging their leverage. Not only would they be trying to move a player other teams know doesn't want to stick around, but they'd be doing so at a time when there's no obvious suitor fated to break down the door with a king's ransom offer.
Entering that situation is a worst-case outcome even if you think Atlanta is better off without Young. Which, by the way, it's not.
The four-time All-Star has his flaws and limitations, but the Hawks do not control their 2026 or 2027 first-rounders. Pivoting into an alternate timeline makes little sense without the payoff of lottery selections at the end of the season.
Boston Celtics: Cutting Salary Proves Costly in Other Ways
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Keeping this exact Boston Celtics roster intact will run the C-Suite over a half-billion bucks when factoring in luxury-tax penalties.
That does not include bringing back Al Horford (an unrestricted free agent), and it says nothing of functional limitations imposed upon second-apron squads.
Cutting costs is an inevitability. And Boston will likely be more aggressive about it knowing Jayson Tatum could miss all of next year after suffering a ruptured right Achilles.
The extent of the salary-slashing remains to be seen. The Celtics likely need to trim $25 million-plus to duck the second apron, and that number climbs past $40 million if they wish to entirely skirt the tax.
Offloading bigger salaries without taking back other sizable contracts is harder than ever. The Brooklyn Nets are the only team projected to have real cap space, and players like Kristaps Porziņģis (one year, $30.7 million) and Jrue Holiday (three years, $104.4 million) are on what can be considered net-negative deals.
Lopping off money without receiving substantial value in return will be painful enough. It will be even tougher to stomach if Boston ends up greasing the wheels of salary dumps with first-round equity, or if it decides it’s easier to save money jettisoning Jaylen Brown (four years, $236.2 million) or Derrick White (four years, $125.9 million).
Brooklyn Nets: Unnecessarily Speeding Up the Rebuilding Timeline
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Worrying about the Brooklyn Nets trying to accelerate their rebuild might overstate the temptation to do so. The free-agent market isn't conducive to shelling out overpays, and they have five draft picks in the top 35, including four in the first round.
Still, the Nets have 13 tradeable first-rounders, unparalleled cap space and don't control their own 2027 pick. They might be coaxed into chasing impact names, especially when they're not drafting inside the top five.
To that end, Brooklyn is mentioned among the teams tracking Giannis Antetokounmpo's availability. Going after him—or another star, for that matter—is a mistake. There isn't enough in place to fast-track title contention with the acquisition of one, or even two, players.
Whether it's paying their own free agents (Cam Thomas, for instance), spending on the open market or pulling off trades, the Nets must continue acting like a team in the early stages of a rebuild.
Planning anything more aggressive threatens to short-circuit the bigger picture.
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Charlotte Hornets: Failing to Absolutely Nail the 2025 Draft
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Drafting Tidjane Salaün at No. 6 overall last year so far looks like a mistake by the Charlotte Hornets. And it isn't just about the handful of names—Donovan Clingan, Zach Edey, Kel'el Ware, Bub Carrington, Jared McCain, Matas Buzelis, etc.—who went after him.
The list of rookies to log over 1,000 minutes and post a true shooting percentage below 46 with a box plus-minus worse than minus-5.0 is...not great. Jalen Suggs, Jordan Poole and Austin Rivers are the biggest standouts.
This isn't the end of the world. Salaün is still a teenager and plays with a bunch of energy. But between his lackluster debut, the uncertain future of the extension-eligible Mark Williams, health concerns surrounding LaMelo Ball and only getting incremental progress from Brandon Miller prior to his right wrist injury, the Hornets really need a draft-day win.
Many will argue the decision will be made for them when they're on the clock at No. 4. They will take who's left between Ace Bailey or V.J. Edgecombe and move on.
While that's true to some extent, if Charlotte isn't in love with either, it should consider moving down in favor of adding additional assets. This year's selection is too important to the future for the organization to swing and miss.
Chicago Bulls: Negotiating Against Themselves to Re-Sign Josh Giddey
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Writing for The Stein Line, NBA insider Jake Fischer noted Josh Giddey wants a five-year deal that is "routinely projected to land at no less than $120 million." This should, quite frankly, terrify Chicago Bulls fans.
Shelling out $120 million amounts to about 15 percent of the salary cap each year. That seems reasonable enough for someone who just averaged 14.6 points, 8.1 rebounds and 7.5 assists while banging in a career-high 37.8 percent of his triples.
At the same time, Giddey can be a liability at both ends of the floor. Rival teams don't care about guarding him even if he's hitting threes, and he is not an efficient finisher around the basket.
On defense, meanwhile, the 22-year-old almost exclusively needs to cover forwards who spend a lion's share of their time away from the ball.
Working around these limitations isn't impossible. But the aprons era of the salary-cap climate demands that teams be more frugal when it comes paying intrinsically flawed players.
The "no less than" language in Fischer's dispatch is particularly unnerving. No squad aside from the Brooklyn Nets forecasts to have real cap space. Chicago can't be in the business of compensating Giddey relative to an outside market that doesn't exist—not when Coby White is up for a new contract next summer, and certainly not after the Bulls inexplicably overpaid Patrick Williams last year.
Cleveland Cavaliers: Dan Gilbert Gets Pocket Shy
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Evan Mobley's Defensive Player of the Year award nudges the Cleveland Cavaliers' 2025-26 payroll more than $13 million into the second apron. That inherently increases the drama surrounding what was already shaping up to be an interesting offseason.
Ty Jerome will be a litmus test for how much Cleveland is willing to spend. As an Early Bird free agent, the Cavs' top-dollar offer for him maxes out at just over $14 million in Year 1. Giving him that money would run $80-plus million in additional tax penalties, as noted by ESPN's Bobby Marks.
This can be interpreted to mean Jerome is good as gone, or Cleveland will look to dump other money to keep him. But what if team governor Dan Gilbert and/or the Cavs' Koby Altman-led front office wants out of the second apron altogether? Who else ends up going? Isaac Okoro? De'Andre Hunter? Max Strus? Maybe even Jarrett Allen?
Collateral damage is unavoidable. The extremes it will reach and how that winds up impacting Cleveland's depth and rotation are (uncomfortable) unknowns.
Dallas Mavericks: Nico Harrison Strikes Again
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Surely, for his encore to this past February, Dallas Mavericks team president Nico Harrison won't trade the No. 1 pick and the right to draft Cooper Flagg for a more established veteran...right?
Right?
All the latest reporting has the Mavs planning to keep the pick and take Flagg. That is great news.
Then again, none of the reporting this past February had Dallas trading Luka Dončić in a bizarre attempt to get older and better and carve out a longer window.
So, while we shouldn't predict that the Mavs will flip the No. 1 pick, Harrison's recent track record also ensures we can't rule out a nightmare follow-up to this past season's nightmare-transaction masterclass.
Denver Nuggets: Josh Kroenke Doesn't Listen to Nikola Jokić
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Here is what Nikola Jokić told reporters following the Denver Nuggets' Game 7 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder: “We definitely need to figure out a way to get more depth. It seems like the teams that have longer rotations, the longer benches, are the ones winning."
Now, juxtapose that against what Nuggets chairman Josh Kroenke said to reporters during his own press conference: "I think a lot of our answers are internal right now, you know, with where we are from a roster standpoint. We have guys locked into contracts."
Nuggets fans should be crossing their fingers that Kroenke isn't entirely serious. Maybe he's simply referencing the decision to stick with David Adelman as head coach, a choice made before hiring a lead basketball executive. And to Kroenke's credit, he also said Denver would be "very active."
So which is it? Are the Nuggets running it back or preparing to make meaningful changes? How do they even go about the latter when their best spending tool is the mini mid-level exception ($5.7 million) and they can only trade up to one first-round pick?
That isn't for us to figure out. But if Denver's rotation doesn't add at least one to two reliable players, fans and analysts should treat the continuity for what it is: a cop-out that stands to waste another year of Peak Jokić.
Detroit Pistons: The Front Office Overreacts to This Season's Success
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The Detroit Pistons are cool again (!), in large part because they are competent again.
President of basketball operations Trajan Langdon needs to make sure this doesn't change. The best way to do that? By, well, not overdoing it.
There will be at least the slightest temptation to speed up the rise of these Pistons. They have all their own draft picks moving forward after this year, a bunch of movable contracts, attractive prospects, the ability to chisel out real cap space and remain without a clear-cut No. 2 player of the future. But there is a difference between being opportunistic and overzealous.
Showing ultra-aggression on the free-agent and trade markets is the latter. Reading too much into onset success is how you become the Atlanta Hawks.
It would be one thing if anything the Pistons do comes exclusively at the cost of cap space. It won't.
They need to renounce all of their own free agents just to get $15 million to $17 million in spending power. It makes more sense to retain Dennis Schröder, operate over the cap, use part of the non-taxpayer mid-level exception ($14.1 million) to keep Malik Beasley and keep exploring the depths of what's already in place around Cade Cunningham.
Golden State Warriors: Jonathan Kuminga's Free Agency Blows Up in Their Face
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Jonathan Kuminga is headed for restricted free agency, and while the Golden State Warriors have the right to match any offer he receives, there are three different ways this entire situation can come back to haunt them.
- Nightmare Scenario No. 1: Kuminga signs an offer sheet with another team that is so unpalatable the Warriors decide not to match and instead let him walk for nothing.
- Nightmare Scenario No. 2: Kuminga puts pen to paper on a ridiculous offer sheet that Golden State feels compelled to match but is at risk of aging poorly, nuking his future trade value and hamstringing their cap sheet.
- Nightmare Scenario No. 3: Kuminga signs his qualifying offer, plays out the season with veto rights on any trade and leaves for nothing as an unrestricted free agent next summer.
None of these worst-case outcomes feel especially likely. The cap-space landscape isn't conducive to Kuminga getting a mega offer, and he would be taking a gargantuan risk by signing his QO and sticking with a team that's done little to improve his value.
Sussing out sign-and-trades is best for both parties. Failing that, the Warriors need to hope Kuminga returns on a readily movable, if not eminently appealing, contract.
Houston Rockets: Nothing is Done to Improve the Offense
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The Houston Rockets' offseason is too often painted in absolute terms. They either need to stand pat and let the core develop or go all-in for a superstar offensive player, with no room for in-between outcomes.
Pardon my butchered Latin: That is asinine.
Straddling the middle ground is perfectly fine for the Rockets. Doing nothing is the cardinal sin.
Nobody in their rotation last season profiles as their lead perimeter shot-maker and table-setter of the future. Even if they believe Reed Sheppard is that player—he might be!—they need to infuse the roster with more floor spacing to fully weaponize an offense that ranked 28th in three-point volume, placed 20th in long-range accuracy, and according to PBP Stats, finished 22nd in first-chance efficiency across both the regular season and playoffs.
Standing entirely pat is the only nightmare. Houston is young, but NBA windows are fickle—fleeting, even when it seems like they're not. The Rockets are good and have the means to sniff greatness without bankrupting their future. They need to transact like it.
Indiana Pacers: Conservative Spending Prematurely Tears Apart a Legit Contender
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Everything about the Indiana Pacers' offseason as well as their commitment to this current window begins and ends with Myles Turner's free agency.
Few think the big man is going anywhere, because he shouldn't. He remains an anomaly at the center position and is not someone Indiana can hope to replace on the cheap.
Cap-sheet realities are nonetheless a wild card. The Pacers will be inside $17 million of the luxury tax after factoring in the No. 23 pick. Turner alone should eat up that room—and then some.
Indiana's willingness to pay the tax probably won't dictate whether the seven-footer stays. But it will directly determine whether the front office moves other salaries to make room for Turner beneath that tax line. And while bookkeeping is a reality of team building, moving a real rotation asset to save a few bucks on the heels of consecutive conference finals appearances and an NBA Finals bid should be viewed as a non-starter.
Moral of the story: Pay the tax, Indy. For next year at least, pay the damn tax. This core has earned it.
Los Angeles Clippers: Failing to Lighten James Harden's Workload
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James Harden wrapped the 2024-25 campaign placing fifth in total minutes played, seeing far more of his three-pointers go unassisted than the year before, and according to BBall Index, ranking 10th in true usage (which factors in assists and potential assists.
That is an obscene workload for someone going through his age-35 season. The Los Angeles Clippers can't afford to push his durability—he missed just three games—during his age-36 go-round.
Bogdan Bogdanović and Norman Powell provide some respite, but not enough. Kawhi Leonard's availability is forever a wild card, and the team has taken clear steps to streamline his usage when he does play.
Los Angeles should have enough flexibility under the luxury tax after re-signing Harden (player option) to use most or all of the bigger mid-level exception. If that wiggle room holds, it needs to be spent on someone else who can help run the offense.
Los Angeles Lakers: Rob Pelinka Doesn't Add Enough Two-Way Players
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Dorian Finney-Smith (player option) is currently the only Los Angeles Lakers who can be considered a net-value add at both ends of the floor on a regular basis. That desperately needs to change.
Insert your "But what about LeBron James?!," "Luka Dončić locks down sometimes🔒" and "Gabe Vincent is occasionally built different 😤" rebukes as you please. They aren't enough. The Lakers need consistent two-way players.
Acquiring them won't be easy. Every team wants those guys, and the Lakers aren't flush with trade assets or spending power. They only have one first-round pick to dangle and can't access more than the mini mid-level exception of $5.7 million unless there's a material change to their payroll.
Team president Rob Pelinka has to figure out something. And it better be the right something. The rescinded Mark Williams deal is a perfect example of (almost) burning your best remaining assets on a good-not-awesome move.
Los Angeles doesn't have the margin for error to be anything other than near-perfect in its evaluations of trade targets and (bargain-bin) free agents.
Memphis Grizzlies: Jaren Jackson Jr. Doesn't Sign Some Kind of Extension
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After Jaren Jackson Jr. was left out of the All-NBA festivities, he and the Memphis Grizzlies have three options at their disposal:
- Option No. 1: Jackson can sign a four-year extension off his current 2025-26 salary ($23.4 million), which comes to $146.8 million (average of $36.7 million per year).
- Option No. 2: Memphis can use its current projected ~$7 million in cap space to renegotiate-and-extend Jackson. His 2025-26 salary would be bumped to $30.4 million, and then he'd sign a four-year, $190.8 million deal (average of $47.7 million per year).
- Option No. 3: Jackson does not sign an extension and enters unrestricted free agency in 2026.
Option No. 2 feels like the middle ground, even if it does prevent the Grizzlies from operating over the cap and using the $14.1 million non-taxpayer mid-level. They would still have the room exception to spend ($8.8 million), and more importantly, wouldn't have to worry about Jackson leaving next summer.
Tough conversations must be had if no agreement is reached. Jackson will be eligible for a max deal from Memphis in 2026 worth $228.6 million over four years or $296 million over five years. If the Grizz don't think he's worth that coin, they'll need to think about trading him.
Miami Heat: This Offseason Unfolds at the Expense of 2026 Flexibility
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As things stand, the Miami Heat are on track for more than $30 million in cap space during the 2026 offseason. That spending power skyrockets if Andrew Wiggins declines his $30.2 million player option in favor of pursuing longer-term security.
Miami needs to fight like hell to preserve that flexibility.
Not only is next year's free-agency class deeper, but the Heat will also have more draft-pick equity at their disposal to trade. They need to view the 2026 offseason as their inflection point—the moment they strike or altogether shift course.
Sticking to this plan shouldn't take much will power. Miami controls its own first-rounder next June, so if cap-space conservation comes at the expense of performance, a lottery prospect awaits the team at the end of it all.
Then again, we know the Pat Riley-led front office isn't one for the "R" word: Rebuild. That could prompt the Heat to do something drastic this summer. They shouldn't. This team is too far away and doesn't have the assets or opportunity to close the gap between it and the league's elite. Next offseason? That's a different story.
Milwaukee Bucks: Giannis Antetokounmpo Requests a Trade
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Giannis Antetokounmpo has yet to officially request a trade, and the Milwaukee Bucks are instead hoping to sell him on a gap year in 2025-26, according to Marc Stein of The Stein Line.
Best of luck with that, Bucks.
Pitching a 30-year-old star on a break in contention is hard enough. It loses a ton of luster when you don't have your own draft pick next June.
Milwaukee can tout the benefits of development and small-medium financial flexibility all it wants. Unless it reacquires the rights to its 2026 first-rounder, the gap-year concept rings hollow.
Of course, even if the Bucks get that pick back, there's no guarantee Giannis is on board. And if a gap year doesn't do the trick, Milwaukee is kind of screwed. It has no feasible means of contending for a title next year without Damian Lillard, who's recovering from a torn left Achilles.
On the bright side, moving Giannis will bring back a caps-lock HAUL. On the not-so-bright side, trading him marks the loss of a once-in-a-lifetime talent and sets off a rebuild in which the Bucks (most likely) won't control any of their own firsts until 2031.
Minnesota Timberwolves: Both Naz Reid and Nickeil Alexander-Walker Leave
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Getting trucked by the Oklahoma City Thunder in the Western Conference Finals likely necessitates changes for the Minnesota Timberwolves. But losing Naz Reid (player option) and Nickeil Alexander-Walker for nothing in the name of dollars and cents would—well, that would just suck.
Wolves fans should brace themselves for the possibility, though.
Minnesota will be a first-apron team if both Reid ($15 million) and Julius Randle ($30.4 million) pick up their player options. That includes the salary for whomever the Wolves draft at No. 17. It does not include a spot for Alexander-Walker.
Frankly, NAW seems good as gone. He's an unrestricted free agent, and he should have multiple offers worth the full non-taxpayer mid-level exception (which starts at $14.1 million). Minnesota can match that but seems unlikely to dive back into the second apron for the same exact team.
Things get even trickier if Reid hits the open market. The cap-space landscape supports his return, but if the money is similar—he'll have multiple offers worth the full MLE—he might prefer to go somewhere that can promise him a glitzier role.
Keeping NAW and Reid gets easier if Randle opts out and the Wolves just let him walk. But not only would that leave Minnesota down a creator, but it would also effectively mean the team traded Karl-Anthony Towns for Donte DiVincenzo and the No. 17 pick.
New Orleans Pelicans: Assets are Burned to Help Evade the Tax
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Dejounte Murray's Achilles injury coupled with the Brandon Ingram trade and the integration of a top-seven pick positions the New Orleans Pelicans for a relatively low-pressure fact-finding mission next season.
They should definitely be in the market for another playmaker, a center other than Yves Missi and Kelly Olynyk and more overall shooting, but now isn't the time to chase just enough wins to enter the play-in mix.
Regardless of which path the Pelicans take, it will not include paying the luxury tax. That's not their style. They're also not good enough to justify it.
New Orleans will open the offseason under the tax, but only by about $5 million after factoring in the No. 7 overall pick. And this doesn't include bringing back Bruce Brown or using the mid-level exception. If the Pelicans want to do either, they'll be looking to shed salary, likely by way of moving the expiring contract of Olynyk and/or CJ McCollum.
That's perfectly fine as a baseline goal. If it costs any assets to get off either one, though, New Orleans needs to pass. It doesn't matter how minor the compensation. The Pelicans aren't on firm enough long-term ground to concede any tools in their belt.
New York Knicks: Mikal Bridges Doesn't Sign an Extension
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Mikal Bridges is eligible to sign a four-year, $156.2 million extension this summer that kicks in after next season. The New York Knicks better hope he signs it.
Though his first year in the Big Apple was far from perfect, shelling out 20 percent of the salary cap for someone like him is much closer to a bargain than net-neutral value. This was likely part of the calculus behind surrendering five first-round picks (and one swap) to get him.
This all goes to you-know-what if Bridges opts to enter 2026 free agency, at which time he'd be eligible for a four-year max worth $228.6 million or a five-year-max worth $296 million. New York can hope another team won't want him that badly—outside suitors can offer up to four years and $219.4 million—but that's not the point.
There's a huge gap between paying Bridges an average salary of $39.1 million in an extension and having to entertain the possibility of a $50-plus million salary if he hits free agency. The Knicks' finances are tight as things stand. The long-term projection gets thornier if Bridges passes on an extension—so much so that it could force them to consider trading him.
Oklahoma City Thunder: Aliens Abduct Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
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What is a team with the reigning MVP, the league's deepest rotation, a ton of flexibility, a bunch of trade assets and a seemingly open-ended title window supposed to fear? I'm not asking for the Oklahoma City Thunder; I'm asking for myself, because I have no idea.
If you're not into tongue-in-cheek science fiction, worrying about the shortage of roster spots is the next biggest "dilemma." The Thunder will have 15 players under contract next season once they guarantee salaries for Ajay Mitchell and Jaylin Williams. That’s before considering their three draft picks, two of which come in the first round, at Nos. 15 and 24.
Executive vice president Sam Presti is a whiz at maneuvering around these obstacles. He will turn imminent picks into down-the-road selections, or perhaps he’ll deem it time to ship out Ousmane Dieng.
But this futzing and fiddling is getting harder—in a my-gold-shoes-are-too-tight sort of way. This may be the summer when teams opt against helping the Thunder, or more likely, it could be the offseason in which there is legitimate collateral damage near the back of the roster to make way for others.
Orlando Magic: Last Summer Repeats Itself
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Poaching Kentavious-Caldwell Pope from the Denver Nuggets at the start of 2024 free agency seemed to preempt a big, aggressive summer from the Orlando Magic.
It didn't.
Orlando again looked at its numerous offensive holes and decided "Nah, we're set here." It was a mistake. The Magic offense remains bottom-of-the-barrel, and time missed by Paolo Banchero, Jalen Suggs and Franz Wagner isn't the only reason why.
They need more shooting, more overall shot-making and a floor general to lower some of the burden on Banchero and Wagner.
Upgrades may not come easy. Next year's payroll is well into the tax if the Magic bring back everyone. Their collection of team options and non-guarantees will allow them to duck it, but it will come at the expense of depth and won't leave them far enough below the line to access the bigger mid-level exception of $14.1 million.
This isn't cover for Orlando to stand pat. Navigating the transaction game may be difficult now, but it will only get harder once Banchero's inevitable extension kicks in next year.
The Magic need to strike on the trade market while doing so remains relatively uncomplicated—and like they mean it.
Philadelphia 76ers: The No. 3 Pick Becomes Collateral Damage of a Short-Sighted Move
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Reports of the Philadelphia 76ers' interest in flipping the No. 3 pick for a veteran are apparently overblown, according to Marc Stein's latest intel over at The Stein Line. For the sake of the organization's future and its fans' well-being, this better be the prevailing outcome.
Trading a cost-controlled high-end prospect when your cap sheet is weighted down by the salaries and uncertainty of Joel Embiid (four years, $248.1 million) and Paul George (three years, $162.4 million) would be absolutely outrageous. Philly needs to see what it has in those guys—especially Embiid, following his latest left knee procedure—before quadrupling down on what's gone from a stroke-of-genius superstar formation to an epic failure.
This sentiment holds true even if the Sixers are jettisoning George (or Embiid) as part of any deal. Both players have seen their contracts devolve into net negatives. The No. 3 pick would be doing all the heavy lifting in prospective packages.
That can't happen. Top-three selections are not for facilitating salary dumps. They are for taking bites at the long-term apple, and Philly needs plenty of those just in case its short-term direction goes belly up.
Phoenix Suns: Devin Booker Requests a Trade
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Kevin Durant is considered far and away the most likely star to get traded by the Phoenix Suns this summer. That isn't ideal, but they can navigate the future without him if they get a solid enough return.
Going forward without Devin Booker is a separate matter.
The 28-year-old is currently Phoenix's only lifeline to future contention—and present relevance. The Suns don't control any of their own first-rounders until 2032, so they're not rebuilding through the draft, and they have no financial flexibility or alternative blue-chip trade assets on which to lean. Booker is it.
Fortunately for the Suns, Booker continues to reiterate his desire to stay. Signing the two-year, $149.8 million extension for which he's eligible and Phoenix is bound to offer this offseason would go a long way toward cementing that stance, keeping him on the ledger through 2029-30.
Except, what if Booker surveys the NBA's landscape and the Suns' current and future position within it and has a change of heart? Phoenix might be able to get a haul for his services, but its future would get exponentially bleaker as long as the rights to its first-rounders remain with other teams.
Portland Trail Blazers: The Front Office Feels Pressure to Expedite the Timeline
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This past season goes down as a rousing success for the Portland Trail Blazers.
Tanking enthusiasts will point to their ending up with the No. 11 pick as a failure. But the Blazers played over-.500 basketball and had a top-five defense for basically half of the year, all while (mostly) leaning on the players who are important to the bigger picture.
Portland needs to keep that same energy entering next season.
This doesn't mean running the team back name-for-name. On the contrary, it should look to move on from certain players while increasing the amount of shooting around its primary ball-handlers. But the Blazers may be tempted to expedite their position in the Western Conference after obliterating their preseason win total and landing firmly in not-bad-enough-to-tank territory.
General manager Joe Cronin needs to resist whatever urge there is to speed things up. It's one thing to be opportunistic if a high-impact player or star becomes available at a reasonable cost. It's another thing entirely to run this team like it's one player away when it's not. That's the type of move that could set them back years.
Sacramento Kings: Domantas Sabonis Follows in De'Aaron Fox's Footsteps
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Shortly after the Sacramento Kings traded De'Aaron Fox to the San Antonio Spurs, The Athletic's Sam Amick and Anthony Slater reported that Domantas Sabonis is expected to "seek clarity" this offseason on the franchise's direction. Here's hoping he likes what he sees and hears, because this team can't afford another star trade request.
Sabonis has since indicated his preference is to stay in Sacramento. That's a good start. It isn't everything, though.
The Kings have named Doug Christie the permanent head coach and hired Scott Perry to run the front office, but they still need a concrete direction. A core built around Sabonis, Keegan Murray, Malik Monk, DeMar DeRozan and Zach LaVine isn't going anywhere special in the Western Conference.
If Sacramento doesn't aggressively extend the depths of its rotation, beginning with the acquisition of an actual primary playmaker, it could send the wrong message to Sabonis. And if that compels him to request a trade, it would thrust the Kings into an even stickier situation—forcing them to not only reconcile Domas' future, but confronting what might be a less-than-frothy market for him.
San Antonio Spurs: The Front Office Fails to Act on Pending Roster Overlap
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De'Aaron Fox and Stephon Castle have not spent nearly enough time on the floor with each other to declare their offensive fit overly redundant. They appeared in just 17 games together, and the vast majority of their minutes came without Victor Wembanyama.
What's more, the San Antonio Spurs' offense ranked in the 79th percentile during those stretches. Spacing in those lineups can get wonky, but the rim pressure is divine.
Will this hold if the Spurs select Dylan Harper with the No. 2 overall pick, as expected? All three of him, Castle and Fox can work off the ball but prefer to operate on it, and none of them are considered elite marksmen.
Maybe that changes. The fit is nowhere near awkward enough to demand San Antonio trade one of them, although they should absolutely be monitoring the potential Giannis Antetokounmpo sweepstakes.
In the meantime, the Spurs need to beef up the floor-spacing around them, particularly if the plan is to always have at least two of them on the court. Failing to do so would make the likely integration process harder and less effective than it should be.
Toronto Raptors: Significant Changes Are Made Before We Get to See the Core in Action
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Concerns over the Toronto Raptors having too many redundant offensive players in Scottie Barnes, Brandon Ingram, RJ Barrett and Immanuel Quickley are mostly fair. Employing so many ball-handlers and decision-makers is hardly a bad thing. It's the potential shaky—and low-volume—outside shooting that complicates matters, particularly if those four spend time next to Jakob Poeltl.
These possible issues are worth monitoring. They're not cause for action...yet.
Ingram hasn't even made his Raptors debut, and though the Barnes-Barrett-Quickley-Poeltl quartet is roughly 1.5 seasons old, this group has logged just 374 total minutes. The full nucleus deserves a chance to prove its collective mettle before deciding whether one or more of them need to go.
Should Toronto aim to stock the rotation with more dependable shooters around its top five? Absolutely. Will tough discussions need to be had if Giannis Antetokounmpo is up for grabs? Without question. Beyond that, these Raptors need time—and an actual sample together.
Utah Jazz: The No. 5 Pick Doesn't Have Building-Block Potential
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Three full seasons after trading away Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert, the Utah Jazz do not have a certified franchise cornerstone. That's not just less than ideal. It's an active problem.
This isn't like the face-of-the-league discussion, which is more about symbolic cool points than anything. The Jazz need someone who's capable of being the best player on the next really good iteration on their team. Nobody they've drafted to date fits the bill, and expecting Lauri Markkanen to be that player was always a massive reach.
Utah needs to nail the No. 5 pick as a result. And while that player's long-term value won't be immediately clear, an electric summer-league performance would go a long way toward preserving long-term possibility.
Basically, the Jazz need to exit the offseason genuinely thinking that whomever they draft with the No. 5 pick has a chance to be their tentpole prospect. If that belief isn't there, it may be time to start thinking about what trading for someone of that ilk would look like.
Washington Wizards: They Don't Add Someone Who Could Be the Lead Guard of the Future
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Worst-case scenarios aren't all that bad when you're in the early stages of a rebuild and have shown no inclination to prematurely hit the turbo button. The Washington Wizards fall into this bucket, which is a good thing.
With that said, they are now two years into their reset and don't have anyone on the roster who could be their the lead guard of the future. Bub Carrington comes closest and showed a ton of on-ball poise and plenty of vision as a rookie. Still, he feels more like a higher-end secondary creator rather than someone who can organize and drive the entire offense.
Washington needn't approach this void with reckless urgency. Reaching for someone at No. 6 rather than going with the best player available would be a mistake. Ditto for consolidating assets into a bigger name on the trade block.
Plumbing the flier and distressed-asset markets for potential diamonds in the rough and developmental projects is a must, though. And the Wizards should absolutely be prepared to take a bigger swing on a floor general at No. 18.
Dan Favale is a National NBA Writer for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Bluesky (@danfavale), and subscribe to the Hardwood Knocks NBA podcast, co-hosted by Bleacher Report's Grant Hughes.
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