Every NBA Team's Toughest Upcoming Salary-Cap Decision
Life in the second-apron era is harder than anyone could have imagined, and this offseason will see all 30 NBA teams faced with difficult choices as they try to get better and cheaper all at once.
Here, we'll run through one tough financial call for each team, emphasizing contract extensions, free agency and cap management. We'll even touch on a couple of potential blockbuster trades that, unfortunately, might weaken contenders in the interest of cutting costs.
The Boston Celtics and Denver Nuggets could both ship out quality players for purely financial reasons.
Superstar talent and great coaching are still the most important commodities in the NBA, but the ability to balance books is catching up.
Atlanta Hawks: Trae Young's Extension
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It was only a year ago that the Trae Young trade fervor approached its apex. When the Atlanta Hawks landed the No. 1 pick in the 2024 draft, it seemed like an ideal time to reset by moving on from the then-three-time All-Star who’d led a Conference Finals run, but whose heliocentric style and limitations on defense made him seem like something less than a true cornerstone.
Now, Atlanta might not be so keen to shake things up.
Young led the league with a career-best 11.6 assists per game last year and averaged his shortest average touch time since he was a rookie in 2018-19. He attempted more shots off screens than ever before.
With a well-balanced 25-and-under supporting cast of Jalen Johnson, Zaccharie Risacher, Dyson Daniels and Onyeka Okongwu, the Hawks seem ideally built for the slightly less ball-dominant version of Young.
He’s eligible to sign a four-year, $228.6 million extension this summer. Atlanta has to decide if it wants to continue to feature Young in an alpha role and whether to pay the full max to do so.
Boston Celtics: Who Do They Trade?
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All we know for sure is that the Boston Celtics have to trade somebody. There’s no sense in paying $500 million in payroll and tax for a Jayson Tatum-less roster that can’t realistically expect to get out of the second round next spring.
In every hypothetical, it’ll be difficult for the Celtics to maximize their savings. They have to take money back in any exchange unless they involve a third team and surrender additional assets in the process. To get out of the second apron, Boston needs to dump at least $20 million. Ducking the tax altogether would require hacking over $50 million from next year’s books.
Derrick White, Jrue Holiday, Kristaps Porzingis and Jaylen Brown are all strong candidates to be moved, while Payton Pritchard and Sam Hauser should also be on notice.
How much talent is Boston willing to jettison in its cost-cutting efforts? And what’s the vision for the roster when Tatum is back on the floor in 2026-27? We’ll get our answers this summer.
Brooklyn Nets: How to Wield All This Power
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In many ways, the Brooklyn Nets are in charge of the 2025 offseason.
The only team with max-level cap space, they will be called upon to serve as facilitators in blockbuster deals between teams that don’t have the financial flexibility to swing them without a third team capable of taking on salary.
Brooklyn should look to exact heavy tolls for its cooperation—in the form of future draft picks and young players.
Alternatively, the Nets could offer to clear another team’s books by taking on unwanted salary with picks attached as sweeteners. That approach might saddle the Nets with contracts they don’t actually want and should only be used as a backup option. They can afford to be picky and to drive hard bargains because trade-hungry teams don’t have alternative brokers.
It’s hard to know which path the Nets will choose, but it’s pretty clear all of them are promising. That’s the benefit of being the only cap-space team in the league.
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Charlotte Hornets: Tre Mann's Free Agency
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The Charlotte Hornets don’t have much in the way of free-agent decisions to make, unless you view vets like Seth Curry and Taj Gibson as major priorities.
Tre Mann stands out in a couple of regards—in that he’s only 24 and showed enough in pre-injury flashes with Charlotte to suggest he might be at least a third guard in a good rotation.
Mann intrigued in 28 post-deadline games with Charlotte in 2023-24, averaging 11.9 points and 5.2 assists while hitting 36.4 percent of his threes, and he was even better in 13 games before his back acted up this past season.
All that unavailability could scare off suitors and create an opportunity for the Hornets, who could either make him a qualifying offer of $6.9 million or pull it and try to bring him back on a multi-year deal in unrestricted free agency.
Mann has mid-level exception upside, but it shouldn’t cost the Hornets nearly that much to keep him. If they manage this right, they could net a fringe starter for 12th-man money.
Chicago Bulls: Josh Giddey's Restricted Free Agency
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Unless the Brooklyn Nets get irresponsibly frisky with their cap space, the Chicago Bulls won’t have to worry about competing offer sheets for restricted free agent Josh Giddey.
Then again, they were in a similar situation with Patrick Williams last summer, and it didn’t stop them from handing out a five-year, $90 million pact that is now regarded as one of the worst deals in the league.
Giddey stat-stuffed to an extreme degree late last season, piling up averages of 21.2 points, 10.7 rebounds and 9.1 assists on a 62.0 true shooting percentage after the All-Star break. At 37.8 percent from deep for the year, he also improved his long-range hit rate for the fourth straight season.
There’s a lot to like about a playmaking 6’8” guard, particularly one who’s still just 22 years old. But Giddey is a damaging defender whose teams have been break-even or worse with him on the floor in each of the last three seasons.
The Bulls want to retain Giddey for what should be the beginning of his prime, but they have to avoid the temptation to view him as a cornerstone worth more than $30 million per year.
Cleveland Cavaliers: Ty Jerome's Rising Cost
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The Cleveland Cavaliers can offer Ty Jerome up to $64 million over four years, which is more than anyone other than the Brooklyn Nets can afford. If you think that means one of last season’s biggest breakout players is a lock to stay in Cleveland, well…not so fast.
Just because the Cavs can beat the market, and just because Jerome was a major reason they won a franchise-best 64 games, it doesn’t mean this decision will be easy.
Because Cleveland projects to be around $13 million north of the second apron, a deal that pays Jerome $14 million next year would include an extra $80 million in tax penalties. Jerome hit seemingly every floater he tossed up last year, swiped 2.0 steals per 36 minutes and set career highs in points per game (12.5) and three-point accuracy (43.9 percent).
But it’ll be hard for Cleveland to convince itself he’s worth adding so much to an already exorbitant tax bill.
Dallas Mavericks: Kyrie Irving's Extension
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Start here: Kyrie Irving will miss most or all of next season due to a torn ACL suffered in March. That’s just the first of a handful of variables and uncertainties the Dallas Mavericks must weigh if he declines his $43.2 million player option.
The smart move would be to negotiate a reduction in next season’s salary, which Dallas could offset by agreeing to add two more years of mostly guaranteed money. That’d set Irving’s contract up to expire in the same offseason as Anthony Davis’, unless AD winds up getting an extension this summer as well.
Dallas broadcast its intention to chase championships when it dealt for Davis. Good luck squaring that logic with the fact that the Mavs traded an in-prime superstar who’d just led them to the Finals, but understand that it informs the team’s plans with respect to Irving.
If the Mavericks are going to make the most of Davis’ age-32, 33 and 34 seasons, Irving probably has to be involved. As such, Dallas needs to settle on a deal that keeps everyone happy while knowing it’ll be paying Irving to rehab for much of 2025-26.
Denver Nuggets: A Michael Porter Jr. Trade?
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A high-level trade involving Michael Porter Jr. wouldn’t strictly count as a salary-cap-related decision, but it’d be impossible to divorce financial concerns from such a deal.
It’s difficult to imagine the Nuggets getting a better player in return for Porter, who averaged 18.2 points per game and was their lone five-alarm-fire three-point threat last year. In fact, if Denver were to move Porter, its list of team needs would immediately be headlined by some version of “find a very good shooter…like Michael Porter Jr.”
That’s why this is a money issue. MPJ’s $38.3 million next year is the Nuggets’ only realistically moveable big salary—if only by process of elimination. They’re not trading Nikola Jokić, Jamal Murray’s deal may be an even worse value than MPJ’s with four years and $207.8 million remaining on it, and Aaron Gordon occupies too important of a role defensively.
Denver could look to turn Porter into two or three smaller contracts that would afford it a little flexibility and depth, two qualities it currently lacks. Is that worth an overall talent downgrade for a team Jokić admitted wasn’t good enough to win a championship as it is?
Maybe we’ll find out this offseason.
Detroit Pistons: Malik Beasley's Next Deal
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The Detroit Pistons should be wary of paying Malik Beasley as if the career-best standard he set last season will become the new normal, but they also need to acknowledge reality: Beasley’s shooting is critical to their success.
Appearing in all 82 games last season, Beasley buried 319 triples at a 41.6 percent clip. He was the only player in the league to amass that many makes at such an efficient rate, and a Pistons offense that often fielded lineups with at least two non-threatening shooters was 2.3 points per 100 possessions better when Beasley was on the floor.
Detroit only has non-Bird rights on Beasley and can’t offer him more than a starting salary of $7.2 million unless it carves out cap space or utilizes an exception. The full mid-level tops out at $14.1 million, which would net Beasley $60.6 million over four years.
If he wants more than that, or if the Nets come calling with a bigger offer, Detroit would either lose Beasley or have to tap into its cap space by renouncing its rights on the likes of Dennis Schroder and Tim Hardaway Jr. That wouldn’t be an easy call; both guards played important roles last season and figure to matter at least as much going forward.
Golden State Warriors: Jonathan Kuminga's Price
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Last October, the Golden State Warriors offered Jonathan Kuminga an extension worth “somewhere near the $30ish million per year range,” per The Athletic’s Anthony Slater. It wasn’t enough to get a deal done then, and it’s hard to imagine the Warriors upping their offer now.
Kuminga’s fourth year resembled his third: marked by flashes of athletic brilliance but lacking signs he could consistently defend, rebound, make teammates better and flourish within a movement-and-pass-heavy scheme.
Now, with Kuminga entering restricted free agency, the Dubs need to determine whether they want the former No. 7 overall pick back at all—and at what price. It’s possible the relationship is fractured beyond repair and that Kuminga, who has long wanted to be more of a focal point, will never accept the coaching staff’s less-starry opinion on his role.
Golden State could look to sign-and-trade the bouncy forward, or it could keep him around with an eye toward trading him at the deadline, when an exchange wouldn’t be complicated by base-year compensation issues.
Perhaps least likely of all but still on the table, the Warriors and Kuminga could come to terms on a deal that keeps him in the fold for another title chase.
Houston Rockets: Fred VanVleet's Team Option
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The Houston Rockets have a $44.9 million team option for Fred VanVleet, a number too high for an undersized 31-year-old guard who averaged just 14.1 points per game last year, even if FVV’s veteran presence and two-way production are still highly valuable in Houston.
Options abound, but the primary ones involve Houston declining that option and agreeing on a multiyear deal at a lower annual rate or—and here’s where things could get fun—keeping VanVleet on the books at that figure and treating him as a massive matching salary in a superstar trade.
Jabari Smith Jr. and Tari Eason are both extension eligible this summer. Amen Thompson and Cam Whitmore will join that club in 2027, followed by Reed Sheppard the following year. And the Rockets just traded for Kevin Durant, who figures to sign a two-year, $120-plus million extension in short order.
Houston can’t pay everybody.
Indiana Pacers: Myles Turner's Free Agency
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The Indiana Pacers haven’t paid the luxury tax in a couple of decades, but they may have to for Myles Turner.
The irony of Indy hitting a pay threshold it has avoided forever in order to keep Turner, whose name has been in trade rumors for what seems like his entire career, is hard to overstate. But so is Turner’s value to the team.
There just aren’t many floor-stretching, shot-blocking (and now) postseason validated bigs out there, and the Pacers are in no position to pinch pennies coming off their first Finals appearances in a quarter century.
That’s why the Pacers are “prepared and expecting” to pay the luxury tax to keep Turner, per ESPN’s Shams Charania.
If Turner winds up costing somewhere in the neighborhood of $30 million per season, Indiana will have to either prove it’s serious about the tax or offload salary elsewhere. The only certainty is that the Pacers should be willing to do what it takes to keep a core piece of their operation.
LA Clippers: James Harden's Player Option
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It’d be great theater if the LA Clippers essentially dared James Harden to decline his $36.3 million player option for 2025-26, knowing the only team with enough money to give him a raise, the Brooklyn Nets, would have no interest in signing the 11-time All-Star.
We probably won’t get to enjoy that standoff. Harden made the All-Star team and earned an All-NBA nod last season by appearing in 79 games and running the show for a team with very little secondary creation. LA should be interested in giving Harden a modest raise for next year, perhaps with another player option for 2026-27.
Harden would be within his rights to seek more guaranteed money, and it might work. The Clippers don’t have the flexibility to replace him with anyone as good, let alone better, and they’re fairly committed to a win-now timeline as long as Kawhi Leonard is around.
The Clippers probably can’t count on Harden matching last year’s production and availability, but they also can’t let him walk and shouldn’t relish the idea of him going into next season as an expiring contract. Finding the right balance of years and guaranteed dollars will be tricky.
Los Angeles Lakers: LeBron James' Next Contract
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The presence of Luka Dončić reorients the Los Angeles Lakers’ timeline and affords them leverage—if they want to exercise it—against LeBron James.
That’s not to say Los Angeles should put up an aggressive front as James contemplates what kind of deal he’d like to sign upon declining his player option for 2025-26. But the Lakers are suddenly able to have some say in the matter.
James could pick up his $52.6 million option and end the discussion. That’s actually the plan, according what ESPN’s Shams Charania reported in May. Opting out and signing elsewhere is basically impossible because nobody has the money to pay him, unless James wants to take a minimum deal.
The Lakers are certainly better with James, who made his 21st All-NBA team last year. But they don’t need to treat him like the franchise centerpiece anymore. It’ll be fascinating to see if there’s any pushback by the team if James has big demands.
Memphis Grizzlies: Jaren Jackson Jr.'s Extension
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It was going to be difficult for the Memphis Grizzlies to renegotiate and extend Jaren Jackson Jr.’s contract when they had $7.2 million in cap space. With that number reduced by about $2 million following the Desmond Bane trade, it’ll be almost impossible unless other deals trim salary from the books.
That’s still a possibility, but it’d mean sending even more talent out the door after Bane, probably without the benefit of serious pick equity coming back.
The risks of waiting until 2026 to re-up with Jackson are no joke. Next summer, several teams could have enough cash on hand to make competitive offers. Though the Grizzlies would have the advantage of offering a fifth season (no outside team can sign JJJ for more than four) and could still beat the market on any four-year offer, that’s still a very different scenario than the one they’re in now.
At least the Grizz don’t have to worry about paying $345 million over five years, which would have been an option if Jackson had made an All-NBA team.
Miami Heat: Nikola Jović's Extension
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Nikola Jović has great size at 6’10”, can put the ball on the floor in a pinch and has hit 37.0 percent of his 408 career three-point attempts. He has also shown those qualities a little too infrequently due to injury and a fluctuating role in the Miami Heat’s rotation.
Jović saw action in 46 games last year and the one before, and only appeared in 15 contests as a 19-year-old rookie in 2022-23.
Is that enough information for the Heat to determine his rookie-scale value?
Miami could be a major cap-space player in 2026 when Terry Rozier and Duncan Robinson’s deals come off the books, so it might prefer to let the restricted free-agency market decide Jović’s rate for them a year from now.
There’s always a risk in letting that happen with a player who has as much obvious talent as Jović does, especially when he might be willing to take something like a four-year extension with an annual salary below the mid-level exception—say, in the $10-12 million range.
Milwaukee Bucks: Bobby Portis' Player Option
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Everything that happens with the Milwaukee Bucks hinges on Giannis Antetokounmpo’s potential to demand a trade. Things are quiet on that front for now, but much of the offseason remains, and things could change quickly.
Bobby Portis has a $13.4 million player option that he might decline if Giannis asks to be moved. Though he’d be unlikely to get more than the $14.1 mid-level exception on the market, Portis could prefer that route to opting in and spending a rough year with a post-Antetokounmpo version of the Bucks.
If Giannis affirms he’s staying, Portis could expect to play well for a relatively high-profile team next season. That’d justify picking up his option with an eye toward a bigger payoff in 2026 free agency, when more teams could have the cash to drive up his market price.
Milwaukee also has to make decisions on free agents Brook Lopez, Gary Trent Jr., Kevin Porter Jr. and others. All of the calculus on those calls depends on what Antetokounmpo does.
Minnesota Timberwolves: The Free-Agent Trio
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The Minnesota Timberwolves don't have just one daunting salary-cap decision this summer. They have three, and they’re all related.
Julius Randle has a $30.9 million player option, Naz Reid has one worth $15 million and Nickeil Alexander-Walker is an unrestricted free agent. The Wolves must try to retain all three, but the second apron looms. If they get Randle and Reid back at their current salaries, they’ll be just $8.6 million below that restrictive cutoff. Alexander-Walker could command almost twice that much on the open market.
It’s possible Randle and Reid will opt out and extend at starting salaries slightly below their current rates, but the latter has little incentive to take much of a pay cut. The mid-level exception is $14.1 million, and there’ll be a line of suitors willing to pay that for Reid, arguably the best offensive backup big in the league.
Is NAW bound to be a cap casualty? We’ll see. But as it stands now, it’s going to take some creative thinking for the Wolves to keep at least two of their three key free agents.
New Orleans Pelicans: Bruce Brown's Free Agency
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It doesn’t seem as if the New Orleans Pelicans are exploring the nuclear options of waiving or trading Zion Williamson, as new top executive Joe Dumars told Rod Walker of the New Orleans Times-Picayune: “We’re going to go forward with Zion. He’s going to continue to be a focal point here as we go forward.”
That’ll leave some relatively smaller-scale choices, led by the effort to squeeze value out of Bruce Brown’s free agency. Focus on unlikely extensions for CJ McCollum, Herb Jones and (yes, seriously) Zion Williamson if you want, but it’s much more realistic to imagine the Pels executing a sign-and-trade with Brown–or even re-upping with him to preserve him as an asset.
It’d probably be unwise to approach the mid-level exception for Brown, which might be necessary to keep him from just signing elsewhere. But if the Pelicans can find a suitor that a) wants Brown and b) can’t sign him outright, maybe there’s a way to get something in return.
New York Knicks: Mikal Bridges' Extension
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Four years and $156 million is the most the New York Knicks can give Mikal Bridges in an offseason extension, and you’d better believe they’ll shove that offer across the table without hesitation.
That’s because it’d be a below-market rate for a player like Bridges who, even in a somewhat disappointing year, was a vital three-and-D supporting piece on a conference finalist. And if the next Knicks head coach allows him to be more involved in the offense, Bridges could easily surpass last season’s averages of 17.6 points and 3.7 assists.
Bridges could follow Jalen Brunson’s lead and sign that team-friendly extension, which would alleviate some anxiety on the Knicks’ side. They’d surely hate to see the guy they gave up five first-round picks to acquire in unrestricted free agency next summer. If he wants to play hardball, Bridges could decline any offers from New York and enter 2026 free agency with the ability to make up to $296 million.
Given the gap between his extension now and his 2026 max, Bridges should probably consider making the Knicks sweat.
Oklahoma City Thunder: Kick the Can Down the Road?
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With two picks in the top 25 and the ability to trade up to 10 future first-rounders, the Oklahoma City Thunder are flush with assets. They’ll also hit the offseason with 13 players on guaranteed contracts for 2025-26, plus two more they’ll almost certainly keep via team options: Jaylin Williams and Ajay Mitchell.
That leaves little room for this year’s first-rounders and might cause OKC to send those picks out for future selections. The result would be major savings in the form of money not spent on two more guaranteed deals, plus the potential to get distant picks with more risk and more upside.
When you’ve already got too many picks to use, it makes sense to keep costs low and try to convert them into higher-variance assets that could (but probably won’t) pay off in a huge way.
Orlando Magic: Resources for a Playmaker?
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The Orlando Magic decided their time was now, so they sent out five first-round assets with Cole Anthony and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope for Desmond Bane. It was a bold move for an almost perfect player type given the team’s needs.
Bane is a 41.0 percent three-point shooter who gets them up at high volume, and he’ll do more to address Orlando’s dead-last ranking in three-point accuracy and attempt rate than anyone else the team could have reasonably acquired.
That said, Anthony was a quietly important ball-handler and playmaker for a team that was already short in that area. Bane has been good for about 5.0 assists per game across the last several seasons, but he and Jalen Suggs aren’t born distributors. Ditto for Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner, who shoulder most of the offensive load for the Magic.
Orlando could still decline its team option on Mo Wagner, deal Jonathan Isaac or even shop Anthony Black in search of one more facilitator. Given what they’ve already traded away, the Magic might prefer to hold fast and bank on organic growth. But if this team flounders on offense again, especially after what it cost to bring in Bane, it’ll regret not seeking one more initiator.
Philadelphia 76ers: Quentin Grimes' Restricted Free Agency
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Half the roster was hurt, and the tank was very much on, but Quentin Grimes was still a borderline star after coming aboard at the trade deadline. He couldn’t have timed his breakout better, as restricted free agency awaits this summer.
The Nets are the only team likely to have more than the mid-level exception available. But of all teams, Brooklyn is the one that has the most robust track record of sending out offer sheets and forcing teams to match.
It’s been a while, but the Nets did that with Allen Crabbe, Otto Porter Jr., Donatas Motiejunas and (deep cut incoming) Tyler Johnson. Current Brooklyn GM Sean Marks was the one in charge at the time.
Grimes is only 25 and just showed he could handle a much bigger role than he’s ever had. What’s to stop the Nets from hitting him with an offer worth $20-25 million per season?
Phoenix Suns: This Whole Thing Is One Giant Salary-Cap Problem
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It should deeply concern Phoenix Suns fans that owner Mat Ishbia’s response to the last two years of gross overspending, reckless trades and total disregard for the restrictions of the new CBA is to pledge he’ll become more involved with the team’s operations.
When the root cause of the problem determines he’s the solution, it’s unnerving.
The Suns just traded Kevin Durant on Sunday. They’ll now probably look to send out other mid-sized contracts for a star, and they’ll likely do everything else they can to mortgage what remains of their future.
They’ll definitely continue to make hiring decisions on the basis of: “Did you at any point have ties to Michigan State?”
Phoenix doesn’t so much have a tough salary-cap decision to make. It has a full-blown catastrophe to remedy.
Portland Trail Blazers: Shaedon Sharpe's Extension
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Three years into his career and now eligible for a rookie-scale extension, it’s surprisingly tough to determine what Shaedon Sharpe is worth.
The exceptionally athletic guard averaged a career-best 18.5 points per game last season and, like the rest of the Blazers’ youngsters, turned it up during an eye-opening second-half surge. The No. 7 pick in the 2022 draft posted 21.2 points, 5.8 rebounds and 3.3 assists per game after the All-Star break.
March and April production are always subject to skepticism, but Sharpe’s ability to make tough self-created twos, slash to the rim and execute circus-acrobat finishes on the break smacked of stardom. Does Portland see a better version of Jalen Green here, or is it still unsure Sharpe can defend, read the floor or facilitate at the level of a quality starter?
Green extended with Houston for three years and $106 million last summer. Portland should offer about 80 percent of that and risk taking Sharpe to restricted free agency in 2026 if he declines.
Sacramento Kings: Keon Ellis' Team Option
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Keon Ellis is a defensive havoc-wreaker with a career 42.9 percent hit rate from deep, which is why the Sacramento Kings have every reason to keep him around. The method they use to retain Ellis is where things get interesting.
Sacramento has a $2.3 million team option on Ellis. If the Kings decline it, the 25-year-old guard would become a restricted free agent. In that scenario, Sacramento could match any outside offer. With so few teams having cap space, the odds of a too-rich-to-match deal coming in are pretty low.
Sending Ellis onto the market might still seem risky, but picking up that option could result in Ellis hitting unrestricted free agency after this season. That would be a viable path if both parties have an extension in mind, but any disagreement could result in a worst-case scenario where Ellis walks for nothing in 2026.
With $161 million tied up in just eight players, the Kings might want to keep Ellis’ cheap contract on the books this year. But the downside of choosing that option could be disastrous.
San Antonio Spurs: De'Aaron Fox's Extension
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It stands to reason that De’Aaron Fox and the San Antonio Spurs had an understanding about his next contract when they joined forces at last year’s trade deadline. Any wink-wink agreement on that front probably failed to price in the lottery luck that landed San Antonio the No. 2 pick in the draft.
Stephon Castle won Rookie of the Year, and now the Spurs seem fated to grab Dylan Harper with that second overall pick. That’s a pair of younger, cheaper lead-guard prospects who may not make sense on the floor together with Fox.
The 27-year-old might not get the four-year, $229 million extension offer for which he’s eligible—not just because he’s a speed-based player whose burst hasn’t quite been there the last two years, but also because the Spurs have to be smart with their long-term spending. Believe it or not, Victor Wembanyama will be in line to sign his rookie-scale extension a year from now.
The Spurs need to tread carefully, as they can’t just rubber stamp a huge deal for Fox ahead of his decline phase.
Toronto Raptors: Tax and Hard-Cap Concerns
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Though they’re short on make-or-break extension decisions and only have Chris Boucher’s unrestricted free agency to worry about, the Toronto Raptors need to take a macro look at their roster and decide whether it’s worth heading into the tax or triggering a hard cap.
At present, the Raps are only a couple of hundred thousand dollars under the tax line. Slipping from seventh to ninth in the draft will help a little, but a new deal for Boucher anywhere close to the three-year, $35.3 million agreement he signed in 2022 would put them above the tax. From there, using the mid-level exception would trigger a hard cap at the first apron.
Is this team good enough to justify that expense and those constraints?
It’d be one thing if the Raptors incurred those penalties because they traded for a superstar, but it’s harder to argue they should take on tax payments and hard caps just to maintain the status quo.
Utah Jazz: Walker Kessler's Rookie Extension
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What’s a non-stretch, non-switch center worth in today’s market?
Walker Kessler has proved himself as a high-end contributor at the 5 by blocking at least 2.3 shots per game in each of his first three seasons, leading the league in offensive rebounds per game last year and posting a career 68.0 field-goal percentage.
Utah is still miles away from respectability, though, and it’s worth wondering whether Kessler might have more value as a trade chip that brings back prospects and picks. Viewed that way, the years and dollars on his rookie-scale extension will matter. Go too big, and suitors might balk at acquiring him. Choose not to extend him at all, and the uncertainty of restricted free agency looms in 2026.
Kessler is a solid starter right now, but it’s hard to know how valuable that makes him for a Jazz team that might be better served by turning him into more lottery tickets.
Washington Wizards: How to Handle Expiring Deals
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Coming off 18 victories last season and probably in line for a similar total in 2025-26, the Washington Wizards aren’t under the same kind of pressure as teams with actual intentions to win. If they have bad contracts on their books, it’s not the end of the world.
Still, expiring deals for Marcus Smart ($21.6 million) and Khris Middleton ($34 million) count as assets—at least insofar as they might be viewed by contenders with long-term money as worthwhile acquisitions.
The Wizards should be shopping both veterans, ideally for contracts that extend beyond next season. The goal, as for all tankers, is to see if anyone’s willing to attach draft picks in the bargain.
One other non-expiring-contract-related piece of business: Jordan Poole is eligible for an extension on a deal that’ll pay him $31.8 million next year and $34 million in 2026-27. Given his bounce-back season last year, it might be worthwhile to see if there’s a long-term number suitable to both Washington and Poole.
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 Bluesky and subscribe to the Hardwood Knocks podcast, where he appears with Bleacher Report's Dan Favale.
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