With so little cap room available around the NBA this year and most top free agents expected to remain with their current teams, executives across the league are projecting a significant amount of activity on the trade market during the upcoming offseason, writes Jake Fischer of The Stein Line (Substack link).
“It’s gonna be a crazy summer,” one Western Conference exec told Fischer. “There’s going to be a lot of movement.”
“Trades are going to be the marquee aspect because there’s a number of high-level players (available) and there aren’t really any marquee free agents,” another team’s salary cap strategist said.
Kevin Durant is among the biggest names expected to be available via trade this summer, and it’s possible two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo could join him on the trade block if the Bucks forward decides he wants to seek a change of scenery.
Here are a few more odds and ends from around the basketball world:
- ESPN’s Kevin Pelton has shared his top 25 NBA free agents for the summer of 2025. Kings guard Keon Ellis is perhaps the most surprising entry near the top of Pelton’s list (he’s at No. 10), though Sacramento holds a minimum-salary team option on the guard, so he’ll likely only become a restricted free agent if the team has a very good idea of what it will take to lock him up long-term.
- Keith Smith of Spotrac takes a closer look at the top shooting guards in free agency this offseason, with Malik Beasley, Quentin Grimes (restricted), and Nickeil Alexander-Walker leading the way. We took our own deep dive into the 2025 free agent market for shooting guards in a Front Office article earlier this month.
- While we’ve heard plenty about in recent weeks about the tax- and apron-related challenges facing teams like the Celtics, every team in the league will have difficult financial decisions to make this summer. Eric Pincus of Bleacher Report identifies the biggest decision facing each team, such as whether the Pacers will go into tax territory, how much the Hawks should pay Dyson Daniels on an extension, and whether the Heat will extend Tyler Herro.
- Owen Phillips of The F5 digs into the ballots submitted by the NBA’s award voters this season, evaluating which media members made the most and least unique choices, while also considering whether “groupthink” has become an issue.
- Shawn Kemp, the former SuperSonics forward and six-time NBA All-Star who played in the league from 1989-2003, has pleaded guilty to a second-degree assault charge for shooting at two men inside a vehicle in a Washington state mall parking lot, per The Associated Press. Prosecuting attorneys having recommended that Kemp be sentenced to nine months in jail — that hearing will take place in August.