Landing Spots for Top Unsigned NBA Free Agents

Restricted free agent Jalen Duren is the lone starting-caliber player still on the market, but only because he and the Detroit Pistons can't agree on the final terms of his next deal.

Soon, the remaining free-agent options will include journeymen, last-chance prospects and feel-good reunion stories.

Where should the likes of Ochai Agbaji, Gabe Vincent and more land ahead of the 2026-27 season? Let's check out the options and pick some destinations.

Jalen Duren: Detroit Pistons

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Jalen Duren and the Detroit Pistons seem to be nearing a compromise.

Per Sam Amick and Hunter Patterson of The Athletic, Detroit's offer for the restricted free agent is in the $190 million range, while Duren wants at least $200 million. That's not exactly an unbridgeable gap.

Though Duren's reps clearly leaked that he is "increasingly considering" taking his $9 million qualifying offer for leverage, all signs point to this thing resolving sooner rather than later.

Detroit is right to play hardball here. Duren flopped in the playoffs, and there's no outside market for his services. On the other hand, there's no reason for the All-NBA center to make this easy on his team.

This isn't really even a proper standoff. The Pistons know Duren won't risk hundreds of millions of dollars in guaranteed money by taking his qualifying offer, and the possibility of a sign-and-trade is now vanishingly small because every other team in the league has its books in order ahead of training camp.

Ochai Agbaji: Los Angeles Lakers

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Still just 26 and not far removed from a 2024-25 season in which he averaged 10.4 points while hitting 39.9 percent of his threes, Ochai Agbaji should get a chance to prove he can slot into the back end of somebody's rotation as a cheap three-and-D option.

The Los Angeles Lakers never had much chance of bringing in Peyton Watson, and Jonathan Kuminga ended up signing with the Minnesota Timberwolves. If they want to address their need for athletic, two-way wing role players, Agbaji would be a low-cost option.

Though he doesn't quite have ideal size at 6'5", the No. 14 pick in the 2022 draft has consistently posted high block and offensive rebound rates for a wing. That suggests he can make the kind of impact you'd expect from a bigger player at his position—at least in a couple of areas.

At this late stage of free agency, it probably wouldn't even take a fully guaranteed deal to get Agbaji in camp. Any team built around Luka Dončić needs as many athletic three-and-D types as it can get.

Gabe Vincent: Miami Heat

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Gabe Vincent's post-Miami Heat career wasn't anything special, but there are still a few good reasons for the 30-year-old guard and his former team to reunite.

For starters, the Heat are still light at the guard spots. Though they did well to pull in the shooting they'll need around Giannis Antetokounmpo, Davion Mitchell is the only real point guard on the roster.

Vincent has never been an every-down facilitator, peaking at 3.1 assists per game with the 2021-22 Heat. But he can still defend the position, and it doesn't hurt that head coach Erik Spoelstra and veteran star Bam Adebayo have both been "big advocates" for Vincent over the summer, per Brett Siegel on the Clutch Scoops podcast.

Miami has a 15th roster spot available but is right up against the first apron hard cap. Squeezing a veteran minimum salary into that space may be possible, and Vincent seems like the most logical choice if the Heat intend to fill out a full roster.

Cam Whitmore: Sacramento Kings

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Cam Whitmore may be on the way out of the league, but any team with a talent deficit and little to lose should be willing to give him one more shot.

The Sacramento Kings fit that description pretty well, and they should have interest in seeing if there's something valuable still hiding inside the athletic wing who was recently waived by the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Whitmore averaged 12.3 points in only 18.7 minutes per game as a rookie with the Houston Rockets but suffered from tunnel vision and committed too many defensive lapses in his second year to earn an expanded role. Shipped to Washington last year, the 21-year-old missed the second half of the season with a diagnosed venous condition.

Injury and inexperience are big reasons Whitmore, a prospect everyone agreed was wildly talented in the run-up to the 2023 draft, is currently unemployed.

Sacramento actually has several playable wings, led by bounce-back candidate Keegan Murray. Adding Whitmore to the mix would still be worth it. The Kings are a threat to land in the relegation zone this season and need to catch lightning in a bottle to build back their talent base.

One thing Whitmore certainly has is talent.

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.