5 Bargain-Bin Free Agents Who Could Help Every NBA Team
This offseason, with cap space at a premium and smart spending to avoid the aprons increasingly important, the free-agent bargain hunt will be crucial.
Teams across the competitive spectrum—from contenders trying to hold their position as costs increase to rebuilders in need of cheap veteran help—will have to scan the market carefully for the right piece at the right price.
Bargains are relative, as a max player can technically count as a good value if he outproduces his deal. But that is not what we're interested in here. Instead, we're looking for players who can both fit into any team's rotation and will likely make less than the full midlevel exception of $15.1 million.
These players are portable, affordable and ideally, capable of starting or closing games in a pinch.
Every team looking to spend wisely should have its eyes on these five free agents.
Marcus Smart
1 of 5
Status: Player Option
2025-26 Salary: $5.1 million
2025-26 Stats: 9.3 points, 3.0 assists, 2.8 rebounds, 1.4 steals
Marcus Smart shot just 39.5 percent from the field and 33.1 percent from deep during the regular season, but he was still valuable enough defensively that the Los Angeles Lakers handed him 54 starts and 28.5 minutes per game. He rewarded them with substantially better production in the playoffs.
In his first postseason action since 2023, the 31-year-old guard put up 12.9 points, 5.1 assists and 3.5 rebounds in 34.5 minutes per game. Though he was only marginally better from deep (34.0 percent), Smart's willingness to shoot was key to the Lakers keeping at least one capable wing defender on the court.
Smart's 50 long-range attempts in the playoffs were the third most on the team.
Suitors should be prepared for Smart to score inefficiently inside the arc, and it's not a given that he'll knock down more than a third of his threes. But Smart remains a massive positive on defense, as evidenced by a Defensive Estimated Plus/Minus that hasn't dipped below the 95th percentile in the last three seasons.
Versatile, tough, savvy, willing to take the right shots at the right time and boasting tons of playoff experience, Smart is a rotation-caliber two-way player who could start for plenty of playoff teams. Though he'll likely earn more than the $5.3 million player option he'll decline in order to hit free agency, Smart probably won't get close to the midlevel exception.
De'Anthony Melton
2 of 5
Status: Player Option
2025-26 Salary: $3.1 million
2025-26 Stats: 12.3 points, 3.2 rebounds, 2.6 assists, 1.6 steals
Health will always be a concern for De'Anthony Melton. He played six games in 2024-25 before tearing his ACL, and then logged 49 appearances this past season. Melton's injury history includes persistent back problems, which don't typically resolve with age.
Still, Melton is only 28 and has been a frequent starter when healthy over the last four seasons. A career 35.8 percent shooter from deep who can run an offense in a pinch, Melton is also a handsy and intuitive defender capable of checking both backcourt spots.
His ideal role is probably as a reserve, if only to manage his minutes and play matchups. Though Melton can physically overwhelm most smaller guards, he lacks the size at 6'2" to play up the positional spectrum defensively. Suitors will probably also note Melton's comfort in a larger on-ball role, which he showcased during stretches where the Warriors' guard rotation was thinned out by injuries.
Most teams won't want Melton orchestrating at a high volume, but it's a clear plus that he can handle that job when necessary. He's more than qualified as a second-side attacker or supporting playmaker.
Golden State should be ready for Melton to decline his $3.5 million player option for next season. Even with his durability concerns, plenty of teams should be interested at roughly double that number.
Dean Wade
3 of 5
Status: Unrestricrted
2025-26 Salary: $6.6 million
2025-26 Stats: 5.8 points, 4.2 rebounds, 1.5 assists, 0.7 steals
Dean Wade's specific strengths and weaknesses might actually be best suited to his current team. The Cleveland Cavaliers have two ball-dominant guards who handle most of the dribbling and playmaking, while a pair of bigs take care of the interior defense.
In between all that, Wade's combination of versatile on-ball defense and accurate, but infrequent, three-point shooting works well. It should translate to whichever team signs him.
Caveat: Teams that need volume scoring will not get their money's worth. Among the 215 players to log at least 1,300 minutes in 2025-26, Wade's usage rate was 213th. To say Wade disappears sometimes is to grossly understate it; very few players in the league spend more time as bystanders than he does.
There's something to be said for picking one's spots, though, and Wade deserves credit for understanding his role. He's not a ball-stopper, he spares his more valuable teammates the strain of guarding the toughest opposing matchups and he's a good enough shooter to warrant at least semi-honest coverage from opponents.
Nobody's going to hand Wade the full midlevel. But he could get something similar to the $6.6 million he earned with Cleveland this past season, and easily outperform that salary.
Landry Shamet
4 of 5
Status: Unrestricted
2025-26 Salary: $2.3 million
2025-26 Stats: 9.3 points, 1.8 rebounds, 1.4 assists, 0.6 steals
Landry Shamet isn't getting as much action for the New York Knicks in the playoffs as he did during the regular season, but he's been no less effective when on the floor.
The seven-year vet is hitting 43.5 percent of his threes and providing reliably energetic backcourt defense for a Knicks team that has been pile-driving the competition since Game 4 of their first-round series against the Atlanta Hawks. During the year, Shamet saw 23.0 minutes per game and knocked down 39.2 percent of his attempts from deep, giving him two straight seasons above the 39.0 percent mark.
Though he's never been a full-time starter and has only topped 25.0 minutes per game once during his career, Shamet used this past season to firmly establish himself as a rotation-worthy veteran. Any team in need of a shooting specialist should target him in free agency, likely with an offer big enough to make the cap-strapped Knicks hesitate.
Shamet is worth at least the tax-payer midlevel of $6.1 million.
Sandro Mamukelashvili
5 of 5
Status: Player Option
2025-26 Salary: $2.5 million
2025-26 Stats: 11.2 points, 4.9 rebounds, 1.9 assists, 0.8 steals, 0.5 blocks
A little statistical cherry-picking paints a very favorable picture of Toronto Raptors big man Sandro Mamukelashvili.
Among the 10 centers who got up at least 6.0 three-point attempts and 3.0 free-throw attempts per 36 minutes this past season, only Victor Wembanyama and Bam Adebayo posted more total Win Shares than the 27-year-old lefty. Those parameters aren't even all that thinly sliced, and they serve to illustrate what sets apart Mamu, a spacer who can attack a closeout, from his peers.
The Raptors should have a good understanding of his worth, as all three of their best high-usage lineups (minimum 100 possessions) featured Mamukelashvili—not Jakob Poeltl or Collin Murray-Boyles—at center. The commonality between those units: a highly effective offense.
It's not hard to see why a Toronto team that otherwise struggled to create space in half-court settings suddenly found some breathing room whenever Mamu, who shot 38.9 percent from deep on the year, was in the game.
A lock to make more than the $2.5 million player option he must decline to hit free agency, Mamukelashvili can bring a significant offensive boost to any team in need of stretch at the center position.
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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