The Phoenix Suns appear to be closing in on selecting a new coach, according to ESPN’s Shams Charania, with Cleveland Cavaliers assistants Johnnie Bryant and Jordan Ott at the center of the search. Suns owner Mat Ishbia, CEO Josh Bartelstein and general manager Brian Gregory will meet with both Bryant and Ott in Michigan with a decision expected to take place later this week.
Charania also reports that star guard Devin Booker has been involved in the coaching search over the last week.
The Suns have had quite a bit of movement this offseason. They fired coach Mike Budenholzer back in April after he failed to make the playoffs. On May 1, the team named Gregory as its new general manager. Since taking the job, Gregory has interviewed more than 15 coach for the vacancy, including Miami Heat assistant Chris Quinn, Dallas Mavericks assistant Sean Sweeney, and Suns staff member David Fizdale — among others.
Both Bryant and Ott joined coach Kenny Atkinson’s staff last summer and helped lead the team to a 64-18 regular-season record. Ott has also spent time with the coaching staffs of the Atlanta Hawks (2013-16), Brooklyn Nets (2016-22), and Los Angeles Lakers (2022-24). Meanwhile, Bryant was an assistant with the Utah Jazz (2012-20) and New York Knicks (2020-24) before joining the Cavaliers.
Ott was also a video coordinator with the Michigan State men’s basketball program from 2008 until 2013. Ishbia played for the Spartans from 1999-2002 and was a member of the program’s national championship team in 2000.
What kind of roster is the new hire inheriting? The Suns pushed all their chips in with this current roster. The team acquired star forward Kevin Durant and guard Bradley Beal in recent seasons, but it hasn’t exactly translated to postseason success. With Beal on the roster, Phoenix made the playoffs in 2023-24 but lost in the opening round in a four-game sweep at the hands of the Minnesota Timberwolves before missing the postseason completely this past season.
The Suns attempted to move Durant to the Golden State Warriors at the trade deadline without his knowledge; however, Durant vetoed a potential trade and remained in Phoenix for the remainder of the year. ESPN’s Brian Windhorst has reported that the Suns are almost certainly going to trade Durant this offseason. With Durant turning 37 before the 2025-26 season begins, it’s quite likely that the Suns new coach won’t have the future Hall of Famer at his disposal.
It’s safe to assume Booker will be a member of the Suns for the foreseeable future since he’s reportedly been involved in the coaching search. Ishbia has also stated on record that he doesn’t plan on moving on from the All-Star guard.
While Beal’s tenure in Phoenix hasn’t been all sunshine and rainbows, he holds the cards when it comes to his future. Beal has a no-trade clause, so he controls any potential destination that would come up. With that in mind, a Booker-Beal backcourt could continue to be in place for the franchise.
The Suns also don’t really have a ton to offer in terms of the secondary assets contending teams might want. Perhaps Grayson Allen or Royce O’Neale could fetch something on the trade market, but there’s no young talent, nor many first-round picks to speak of in the team’s arsenal.
Whether Bryant or Ott land the Suns job, they’ll likely have an uphill battle to shape this roster into a contender given its current state.
The Oklahoma City Thunder are back in the NBA Finals for the first time since 2012. They finished with the best record in the regular season at 68-14, and are heavy betting favorites to beat the Indiana Pacers (-750 via FanDuel), but it wasn’t too long ago that this team struggled to win even 30 games.
For the short amount of time that the Thunder have existed, they’ve rarely experienced losing. Since the team relocated from Seattle in 2008, they’ve missed the playoffs just five times. They’ve made it past the first round of the postseason seven times and had some of the best players in league history suit up for them. We’ve seen several eras of Thunder basketball, but the current one really started when the 2018-19 season ended.
In preparation for the NBA Finals, which tips off on June 5, let’s take a look at how the Thunder got here and how this team was built.
The pivotal summer of 2019 If we’re talking in scientific terms, the summer of 2019 was like The Big Bang for this Thunder team. Following several years of first-round playoff exits, OKC traded Paul George and Russell Westbrook, officially starting a new era of Thunder basketball. The return for George was a gold mine. It wasn’t just that they got a haul of future first-round picks from the Clippers, which they still haven’t finished paying off (2026 will mark the final first-round pick L.A. owes OKC from this trade), but they got a then-20-year-old Shai Gilgeous-Alexander who was just coming off a rookie season where he averaged 13 points in the playoffs.
No one could’ve predicted how well that single move paid off, because while SGA had a ton of upside at the time, the Clippers were trading for a guy who just finished third in MVP voting, and were about to pair him with Kawhi Leonard in hopes of winning championships, yes plural. But here we are six years later, with Gilgeous-Alexander as the newly named league MVP and the Thunder reaching the NBA Finals before the Clippers.
That George trade was beneficial in more ways than one, too. It gave the Thunder four unprotected first-round picks in 2021 (via Heat), 2022, 2024 and 2026 — a war chest of assets to use in the future.
The Westbrook trade to the Rockets wasn’t as fruitful, but it got them Chris Paul, two first-round picks and two first-round pick swaps. It was a bountiful reset, one that many bottom-dwelling teams wish they could pull off. The Thunder got an insane amount of future assets, a savvy veteran point guard in Paul and Gilgeous-Alexander, who while unproven at the time gave OKC a highly coveted young player to try and build around.
Also around this time, the Thunder signed an undrafted forward from Arizona State named Luguentz Dort to a two-way contract.
Two draft night gems in 2022 The Thunder experienced brief success following the trades of Westbrook and George. Paul was the perfect mentor for SGA who took a massive leap in his second season and OKC made the playoffs. But the following two years weren’t as successful. They traded Paul following that season because of the team’s decision to further enter a rebuild, which then led to the parting of ways with coach Billy Donovan, who had been at the helm for five years.
OKC promoted from within with Mark Daigneault being named the new head coach after serving as Donovan’s assistant for a season. The rebuild got off to a rocky start. Gilgeous-Alexander suffered a torn plantar fascia during the 2020-21 season, limiting him to just 35 games. OKC finished the year with a 22-50 record as a result, but landed the No. 6 pick in the 2021 NBA Draft, selecting Josh Giddey. The following year, Gilgeous-Alexander returned with a starting lineup whose age averaged out at 21 years old.
The summer of 2022 was where the Thunder saw their next big influx of talent. After winning just 24 games, OKC won the No. 2 overall pick and drafted Chet Holmgren. This is where that George trade from three years earlier was the gift that kept on giving. With the 12th pick in the 2022 draft, courtesy of the Clippers, they drafted Jalen Williams, the guy who just earned his first All-Star, All-NBA and All-Defensive selections this season.
The Thunder made out like bandits during the 2022 draft, also selecting Jaylin Williams in the second round, adding to a young nucleus that had a ton of upside. But the 2022-23 season started out with some sobering news after Holmgren sustained an injury in a summer pickup game that sidelined him for his entire rookie season. It handicapped OKC’s ceiling that year, though it wasn’t all bad as Jalen finished second in Rookie of the Year voting and the Thunder earned a play-in spot — but falling short of the playoffs — after finishing with a 40-42 record. Gilgeous-Alexander also finished fifth in MVP voting that year and earned his first All-Star and All-NBA selections.
That summer, OKC continued adding to its young core by acquiring Cason Wallace in a draft night trade with the Mavericks who received Dereck Lively II. Wallace has since earned All-Rookie honors, and this season has elevated his game to being one of, if not the Thunder’s best on-ball defenders. So for those keeping track at home, at this point in the timeline, the Thunder already have SGA, Jalen Williams, Holmgren, Dort and Aaron Wiggins who OKC drafted with a second round pick via the Warriors from a Kelly Oubre Jr. trade that often goes unmentioned. That’s basically most of the Thunder’s rotation players.
The veteran additions of 2024 The Thunder entered the 2023-24 season with heightened expectations, but no one could’ve predicted they’d finish atop the West, which is what they did with a 57-25 record. Holmgren finally made his debut, and finished second in Rookie of the Year voting. Gilgeous-Alexander finished second in MVP voting, and we watched in real time as OKC’s timeline was sped up due to the rapid development of these young players.
But the Thunder weren’t fully realized yet, and had flaws that were exposed in the second round of the playoffs against a Mavericks team that knew how to exploit them.
After the postseason exit, OKC wasted no time in addressing needs. The Thunder traded Giddey for Alex Caruso last June, which now looks like perhaps the best transaction off the summer. Giddey was continuously targeted defensively against the Mavericks, and was a black hole offensively, making it easier to defend the Thunder when he was on the floor. Caruso was a career 37% shooter from 3-point range, and even more importantly was a two-time All-Defensive player who immediately upgrades a team’s defense just by being on the court. The most standout thing about this trade is the fact that the Thunder were able to pull this off without surrendering any of their never-ending draft capital, which is still a horrendous move on Chicago’s part.
OKC could’ve stopped there, but the team then signed Isaiah Hartenstein to shore up a frontcourt in need of size and strength. He was coming off a career year with the Knicks, and was the ideal rim protecting big man to pair with Holmgren. Dallas’ size very easily overwhelmed OKC, so the Thunder signed Hartenstein to ensure that wouldn’t happen again.
With the addition of Caruso and Hartenstein the Thunder not only strengthened their weak spots, they improved in every other category across the board. They won 68 games this season, Gilgeous-Alexander won MVP, Williams earned All-Star status. Dort and Williams were All-Defensive selections. For much of the regular season the Thunder coasted, especially against Eastern Conference teams (they went an absurd 29-1 against the East). They finished the season with the fifth-best offense in NBA history.
So now here we are, the Thunder coasted through most of the postseason and are on the doorstep of winning the franchise’s first championship — sorry we’re not counting the Seattle history here. Oklahoma City may feel like an inevitable force right now, but it took several years and many calculated moves to get here. This wasn’t luck, the Thunder got here because of excellent asset management, top-tier scouting and talent recognition and a front office led by Sam Presti that continuously makes the right roster moves at every turn.
Now all those years of playing the long game are finally paying off. What should be most terrifying for the rest of the league is that regardless of how this season ends, the Thunder still have a bunch of draft capital from all those trades to continuously get better.
As soon as the NBA Finals conclude, everyone will be on high alert to see if: 1. Giannis Antetokounmpo requests a trade from the Milwaukee Bucks, and 2. Which teams are in the running. Chatter is common regarding what Antetokounmpo might like if he were to be traded from the Bucks, like living in a no-income tax state (Florida and Texas), remaining in the Eastern Conference (easier path to a Finals appearance) and joining a championship-contending team.
But few teams fit the bill perfectly. If the Bucks make him available, it is a safe bet that every team in the league makes a courtesy call to inquire about an asking price.
Teams like the Spurs and Rockets are the most mentioned as possible suitors for Antetokounmpo, as are the Brooklyn Nets, though after falling to eighth in the draft order there may be less interest from Milwaukee’s end when a team like San Antonio holds the No. 2 pick. But one team under the radar — until now — is the Toronto Raptors. On paper, Toronto don’t exactly fit the bill as a title contender next season, but according to Toronto Star’s Doug Smith there is mutual interest been Antetokounmpo and the Raptors.
What would a Raptors trade for Giannis look like? It would be a pricy trade for the Raptors, as Antetokounmpo is owed around $54.1 million next season, and is under contract until 2027. So matching salary requires Toronto to surrender some of its depth in order to make it work financially. Assume Scottie Barnes and Brandon Ingram are off the table. The Raptors made a point to build around Barnes and signed Ingram to a three-year, $120 million extension after trading for him in February, the next biggest contract to look at would be RJ Barrett. Next season Barrett will make roughly $27 million, which is a good starting point from a salary matching standpoint in order for the Raptors to make that work.
But the caveat here is are the Bucks interested in Barrett? In his first full season with the Raptors after the 2023 Knicks trade, Barrett averaged 21 points, six rebounds and five assists and shot the ball pretty well. But is that the caliber of player Milwaukee would want in return? The positive here, is that if the Bucks aren’t completely enamored with Barrett as the centerpiece to a Giannis trade, they could be convinced in the form of draft capital.
But if the Raptors and team president Masai Ujiri really covet Antetokounmpo, they’d stomach the loss of some promising young guys if it meant that they felt getting the 30-year-old NBA champion brings them closer to claiming another title.
Toronto owns all of its future first-round picks, and has the No. 9 pick in the upcoming draft. That pick would almost certainly be included in any deal for Antetokounmpo, as well as at least another future first rounder and some pick swaps. The Raptors would also probably have to throw in some younger guys, maybe Gradey Dick and Ochai Agbaji in addition to Barrett. To make it financially work you’d have to add Jakob Poeltl to that package as well. But that’s a steep price for the Raptors, who would essentially gut their roster to add Antetokounmpo. They’d still have a nucleus of Barnes, Ingram and Immanuel Quickley, but you surrender the depth needed that would make this a championship-contending team, if it even is that with Antetokounmpo on the roster.
Stephen Curry could be involved in the NBA well after his eventual retirement, as the Golden State Warriors superstar laid out plans to transition from his playing role to an executive position down the line. Curry, who is under contract with the Warriors through the 2026-27 season, said he aims to follow in Michael Jordan’s footsteps and dive into the team ownership realm after he hangs up his sneakers and concludes his transcendent playing career.
Jordan is the only former NBA player ever to hold a majority stake in one of the league’s franchises. The six-time champion owned the Charlotte Hornets for 13 years before he sold the team in 2023 and moved into a minority ownership position.
“He might be the only one in our generation who has sat in that seat and done it that way,” Curry said to CNBC. “The idea of being a part of an ownership group and the right opportunity that allows me to have an impact on how a franchise should be operated — how you’re going after true winning, like we’ve done here with the Warriors — that’s something I’m excited about pursuing. It’s interesting. Obviously, as an active player, you can’t participate in that level until you’re done. So you’ll see me in the seat somewhere down the road.”
NBA teams come with hefty price tags. According to Forbes’ franchise valuations, the Warriors are the most valuable team in the league at an estimated $8.8 billion. The Memphis Grizzlies stand at the bottom of the list at $3 billion.
Two franchises hit the market this spring. The Boston Celtics’ ownership group announced in March that it agreed to sell the team to Bill Chisholm for a North American professional sports record $6.1 billion. The Portland Trail Blazers are also in the early stages of their sale. Late owner Paul Allen died in 2018 and in his will directed his estate to sell the team.
It is not yet clear whether Curry would pursue a majority ownership stake in a franchise or take on a minority investment.
“Obviously there are levels to this,” Curry said.
As a four-time league champion and two-time NBA MVP, Curry flourished as one of the faces of the sport over the last decade and a half. The entirety of Curry’s outstanding career has been with the Warriors, with whom he set numerous game, season and career records. He is the NBA’s all-time 3-point leader and changed the game with his long-range acumen.
Curry, per Spotrac, racked up over $410 million in career earnings through the 2024-25 season and is set to earn his largest annual salaries to date over the final two years of his contract. Curry will haul in just shy of $60 million next season and make over $62 million in his age-38 campaign.
While very few experts nationwide predicted a small-market Indiana Pacers vs. Oklahoma City Thunder NBA Finals matchup, perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised these teams are playing for the first NBA title for their respective cities. The Pacers and Thunder have the league’s two best records overall since the calendar flipped to 2025. OKC is 53-13 since Jan. 1, and Indiana is 46-18 in that span.
The Pacers, the No. 4 seed in the Eastern Conference, are just the fourth team in history to reach the NBA Finals after starting the season 10-15 or worse, and none of the previous three have won it all. Also note that the past seven teams seeded fourth or worse to reach this round didn’t win it. Overall, teams seeded fourth or worse are 2-9 in the Finals. I don’t expect the Pacers to make that 3-9.
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Finals MVPs are almost always superstars, just like the regular-season version. The last winner who arguably didn’t fit that description was Golden State’s Andre Iguodala in 2015. He was a very good player and one-time All-Star. But otherwise this century, the list of Finals MVPs is littered with future Hall of Famers — and Detroit’s Chauncey Billups (2004).
At DraftKings Sportsbook, OKC’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is an overwhelming -600 favorite, followed by Indiana’s Tyrese Haliburton (+750) and Pascal Siakam (+1600)’s and the Thunder’s Jalen Williams (+3500) and Chet Holmgren (+8000).
Here are my best bets for the NBA Finals MVP award:
Best value bet: Pascal Siakam (+1600, DraftKings) I’m assuming that Oklahoma City will focus all of its defensive perimeter demons — Lu Dort, Alex Caruso and Cason Wallace — on Haliburton. It worked in the regular season, as OKC won both meetings and Haliburton averaged just 11.0 points and 5.5 assists. So if Indiana can somehow pull off the series upset, I’m assuming it’ll be fueled by a Pascal Siakam explosion.
Siakam has Finals experience from 2019 with the Toronto Raptors, when he averaged 19.8 points, 7.5 rebounds and 3.7 assists in the six-game win over Golden State. His then-teammate Kawhi Leonard was named series MVP. This year, Siakam earned Eastern Conference Finals MVP honors after dispatching the Knicks in Game 6 on Saturday. He averaged 24.8 points on 52.4% shooting (50% from 3) in the series and edged Haliburton for the award five votes to four. In the decisive Game 6 home victory, Siakam led all scorers with 31 points, his third 30-plus-point game of the series vs. New York (tied a franchise record for any playoff series). He’s also a very good defender.
Haliburton (+700) has a higher statistical ceiling, but had at least one truly poor game in each of the first three rounds of the playoffs. And I expect the Thunder to double Haliburton often to get the ball out of his hands. They did a great job on Minnesota’s Anthony Edwards in that regard in the Western Conference Finals. Siakam is about as consistent as they come, but is taking very little action on this prop: just 3% of the money and 3% of the bets at DraftKings since the start of the playoffs.
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Jordan winning each MVP Award in his six Finals is why I can’t really justify picking any other Thunder player, as SGA is so clearly the alpha on this teaM. Jalen Williams is the Scottie Pippen, I suppose, to SGA’s Jordan. Williams has a nice price of +3300 to win Finals MVP. But he has proven too inconsistent in these playoffs.
It’s not like Indiana has that one defensive stopper to slow Gilgeous-Alexander. He is averaging 32.7 PPG overall this season and can pass Jordan (32.6 in 1992-93) for the most PPG in a title-winning season. You know Gilgeous-Alexander is aware of that mark. No Canadian-born player has ever won Finals MVP, and you know SGA — from Toronto — is aware of that, too.
At DraftKings, SGA is taking easily the most handle (37%) and tickets (15%) on this prop since the start of the postseason. The book’s second-most exposure had been on Boston’s Jayson Tatum. Haliburton is third.
The New Orleans Pelicans are assessing their entire roster ahead of the 2025 NBA Draft as new general manager Joe Dumars tries to put the right pieces together with the No. 7 overall pick. And no player is off limits, according to Kevin O’Connor of Yahoo Sports,
That would mean Zion Williamson, too. Williamson averaged 24.6 points per game and 7.2 rebounds this season over 30 games before missing the last several weeks with a back injury.
“There are no untouchables in New Orleans,” O’Connor wrote in his latest NBA Mock Draft. “League sources say the Pelicans are gauging the market for everyone on their roster. They very well could end up keeping their core pieces, but it appears the Pelicans are looking into taking different paths this summer depending on what opportunities become available.”
This, as Williamson is named in a rape lawsuit alleging abuse that began during his time at Duke. Williamson’s attorney, Michael Balascio, labeled the allegations “categorically false and reckless” in a statement to The News & Observer. From Williamson’s camp, the relationship was consensual.
The Athletic’s William Guillory previously reported that it was “very unlikely” New Orleans would trade away its franchise player given how well he’s performed down the stretch, but pulling the plug now could be financially beneficial.
It’s not clear how Williamson’s legal battle could affect his trade value, but he’s on track to make nearly $40 million next season as part of five-year deal that was signed ahead of the 2022-23 campaign. According to ESPN, the non-guaranteed portion of Williamson’s salary becomes guaranteed if the Pelicans keep him on their roster after 5 p.m. ET on July 15.
Significant portions of Williamson’s contract are contingent upon him meeting weight and games-played parameters. Williamson has only played in 30 or more games twice since he was taken No. 1 overall in the 2019 NBA Draft. Williamson started this season on the injured list with a hamstring situation and has battled conditioning issues for the duration of his career.
“It’s really hard to see anybody paying a ton for him right now, but there are a very limited number of players in the league when healthy who are at or near the franchise-player tier,” one Eastern Conference executive told ESPN in December. “The only way you win at the highest level is to have a guy who can do the type of things he can do if he’s healthy. I would probably do something stupid to get him if it were me making decisions.”
The Pelicans could also waive Williamson and be off the hook for $127 million over the final three years of his max contract extension, according to the New York Times.
Trey Murphy III is one Pelicans player with considerable trade value who would be the target of several franchises if New Orleans indeed makes no player “untouchable” this summer. Murphy averaged 21.2 points per game this season before tearing his labrum in March against the Detroit Pistons and missing the remainder of the campaign. It was a career-best season for the fourth-year pro out of Virginia.
The Indiana Pacers are going to be without forward Jarace Walker for at least the first two games of the 2025 NBA Finals, coach Rick Carlisle said Monday, three days ahead of the team’s Game 1 showdown against the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Walker sustained an injury to his right ankle during Indiana’s Game 6 win over the New York Knicks in the Eastern Conference finals.
Walker was injured when he tried to contest a Karl-Anthony Towns shot attempt. He landed awkwardly, appearing to significantly roll his right ankle. He needed to be helped off the floor. Carlisle said that Walker was still using crutches as of Sunday.
“He’s going to be out for a while,” Carlisle said on 107.5 The Fan, via ESPN. “I don’t know how long. He certainly will not play in the first two games of the Finals.”
2025 NBA Finals preview: Thunder vs. Pacers storylines, including star PG matchup and Paul George history Jasmyn Wimbish 2025 NBA Finals preview: Thunder vs. Pacers storylines, including star PG matchup and Paul George history The No. 8 overall pick in the 2023 NBA Draft, Walker made five starts while appearing in 75 games during the regular season. He has played in 12 games this postseason, averaging 3.0 points and 1.8 rebounds in 9.8 minutes. He played sparingly in the Knicks series, only appearing in Games 5 and 6. Walker made two of his four 3-point attempts in the Game 5 loss and made his only field goal attempt in seven minutes prior to getting injured in Game 6.
Though he didn’t see much action against New York, the Pacers play a deep rotation and the 6-foot-7, 235-pound Walker could have been in line for an increased role — especially in Indiana’s efforts to defend Thunder All-Star Jalen Williams.
LeBron James has gripes with the current state of youth sports. Between single-sport specialization, year-round participation and the rise of social media influencers, the Los Angeles Lakers star noted in a podcast appearance with Luka Dončić and Steve Nash that there are concerning trends in youth sports programs that lead to early physical and mental burnout. As the father of three children, the James noted his experiences raising kids and how today’s sports realities differ from those of the past.
Travel teams and offseason training programs continue to rise in popularity across all sports and are now bastions of the youth athletics model. They offer exposure on the college recruiting trail and provide ample development opportunities but also come with high demands.
“I think a lot of kids, they burn the hell out,” James said on his podcast, Mind the Game. “‘I’m gonna just do this one all year round and just play basketball or just play volleyball or just play soccer all year round.’ You burn out at 22, 23, 24 because you’ve just been doing it. Or younger. They just say, ‘To hell with it. I don’t even want to play no more.’ I don’t think putting a cap on these kids — they should just be able to explore, man.”
LeBron James, Luka Dončić reflect on first Lakers season together: ‘I’ve never played with a guy like this’ Jasmyn Wimbish LeBron James, Luka Dončić reflect on first Lakers season together: ‘I’ve never played with a guy like this’ James was a two-sport star in high school at Akron (Ohio) St. Vincent-St. Mary’s and shined on the football field as a wide receiver. Debate still abounds as to whether he would have excelled in college and the NFL as a receiver or tight end. He went with basketball and was the No. 1 overall pick in the 2003 NBA Draft straight out of high school.
“I’ve made sure that our kids, and my wife included, have always taken a break,” said James. “We’ve told our kids, ‘This is not an all year-round thing for you guys.’ One, we don’t want you to burn the hell out. And two, there needs to be some family time involved, as well, too.”
Both of James’ sons are accomplished basketball players who picked up significant interest from major college programs. Bronny James played one season at USC before he departed and was drafted to join his father with the Lakers. Bryce James committed this offseason to play his college ball at Arizona. Zhuri James, his only daughter and youngest child, plays volleyball.
Given his fame as one of the greatest basketball players of all time, James and his family are constantly in the public eye. That visibility comes with its blend of challenges and opportunities, too.
“A lot of their skills coaches and trainers and stuff that’s involved in a lot of these kids’ lives, they actually want to be more famous than the actual kid,” said James. “They think they’re more important than the actual kid that they’re training. Their motive is not pure. They want to be on the camera. They want to be recognized. They want to talk to the media. … That’s not the [expletive] objective.”
Last month, ESPN’s Shams Charania went on the Pat McAfee Show and made a bold prediction: “I think this offseason might be the most craziest ever,” he said. When we think of the craziest offseasons in NBA history, we tend to think of years like 2010, 2016 and 2019, but those offseasons didn’t function like 2025 will. They were dominated by free agency, which LeBron James and Kevin Durant used liberally to move around in the 2010s.
Free agency is still a tool teams can use to improve, but a far less powerful one in the 2020s. Only one team is projected to have significant cap space in 2025, the Brooklyn Nets. A handful of other teams have plausible but highly unlikely paths to space. But teams generally don’t go out of their way to preserve it in quite the same way anymore. The best players usually sign extensions and figure out their futures later.
Well, “later” has arrived for a handful of the NBA’s best players. Giannis Antetokounmpo may get traded. Kevin Durant may get traded. A whole bunch of other big-name players, if you believe Charania’s prediction, are going to get traded. With so little money floating around free agency, so many teams trying to save money because of the aprons and so many more desperately pushing to improve under the looming shadow of a possible Oklahoma City Thunder dynasty, we are heading for what might be the wildest trading offseason in NBA history.
So, with the trade market set to heat up in the coming weeks, let’s take a look at who might actually move here. Below are the 100 likeliest players to be dealt this season. They have been arranged into 11 categories and are sorted within those categories by their 2025-26 salaries (via Spotrac). Note that free agents are not included on this list. There will be players who garner sign-and-trade interest, but for now we are keeping them separate. We will, however, cover players with 2025 player options on a case-by-case basis. If such a player is listed, it is because I expect him to pick up that option and avoid free agency this summer.
Remember, while these might be the likeliest players to move, we live in a world in which Luka Dončić can be traded in the dead of night with no warning. Almost anyone is on the table, and considering how good some of the players we’ll cover are, other unexpected pieces may need to be traded just to get them. So don’t expect this list to cover every single player that gets moved this summer. These are just the names to watch as crazy season begins.
