Free agency is not the headline event it once was in the NBA, as a large portion of the top names on the market tend to extend, like Luka Doncic with the Lakers, or move in trades, rather than signing with new teams. However, there are still likely to be talented players available and ready to contribute to new situations, as Zach Harper details for The Athletic.
Teams like the Lakers, Clippers, and Heat have made an emphasis to keep their flexibility for next year, write Tim Bontempts and Kevin Pelton for ESPN. However, those teams are also expected to try to maintain cap space for 2027, which could potentially end up having multiple MVPs hit the market in Giannis Antetokounmpo and Nikola Jokic, though neither is guaranteed to be available.
The Celtics will also likely look to retool their roster next summer after trading away key contributors in Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis for salary cap relief, as they seek to rebuild their roster into a contender around Tatum once he has recovered from his Achilles rupture.
Trae Young, with a $48.9MM player option for the 2026/27 season, has the potential to be one of the top names on the board, and while Harper expresses confidence that an extension with the Hawks will get done, there have been rumors that it’s far from a certainty, and that next season could serve as an evaluation period on the players under a new general manager.
Other high-end players with player options include James Harden (Clippers), Zach LaVine (Kings), Draymond Green (Warriors), Austin Reaves (Lakers), Andrew Wiggins (Warriors), Fred VanVleet (Rockets), and Bradley Beal (Clippers). Harper considers Harden, Green, and Reaves very likely to stay with their current teams, and VanVleet and Harden also relatively likely to stay, though the Rockets have some level of flexibility in regard to the future of their roster.
Then there are the unrestricted free agents. As of this moment, LeBron James (Lakers) and Kevin Durant (Rockets) represent the cream of the crop, but there are other talented players such as Porzingis (Hawks), Anfernee Simons (Celtics), Coby White (Bulls), and others who are sure to garner suitors.
One interesting inflection point will be players on team options, such as Isaiah Hartenstein and Lu Dort on the Thunder, and Bogdan Bogdanovic and Brook Lopez on the Clippers. The Thunder, particularly, will be looking to keep their books as clean as possible to mitigate the large extensions given out to their trio of stars in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Chet Holmgren, and Jalen Williams.