2026 NBA Offseason Preview: Philadelphia 76ers
After Denver and Phoenix broke up their respective maximum-salary trios during the 2025 offseason, the Sixers entered the 2025/26 season as just one of two teams carrying three players on max deals.
The other one of those two clubs, the Cavaliers, had the NBA's highest payroll and entered the fall with championship expectations after winning 64 games in '24/25. But the expectations for the 76ers, who were coming off a miserable 24-58 campaign, were far more modest.
Two of Philadelphia's veteran stars, Joel Embiid and Paul George, combined to make 60 total appearances in 2024/25 and then underwent knee surgeries last April and July, respectively. With that duo projected to earn well over half of the Sixers' payroll in '25/26 ($107MM of roughly $195MM) and no guarantee they'd be 100% healthy - or available at all - for a significant chunk of the season, there was a predictable lack of enthusiasm for the Sixers, who were widely forecast to be no better than a .500 team.
With that context in mind, it's fair to call the 2025/26 season a success for Philadelphia. Although those two vets were frequently inactive again, Embiid doubled his games played total from 19 to 38 and was far more effective when he suited up than he was in '24/25. George, meanwhile, appeared in just 37 games, but his longest absence (25 games) was due to a suspension, not an injury. And upon returning from that suspension for violating the league's anti-drug policy, he looked as healthy and productive as he had at any time since arriving in Philadelphia.
Even more encouraging was the play of the Sixers' backcourt, led by Tyrese Maxey. Philadelphia's third star emerged as easily the most valuable player of the trio, setting new career highs in several statistical categories, including points per game (28.3), while leading the NBA in minutes per game (38.0). He earned his second All-Star berth and first All-NBA nod, establishing himself as the 76ers' clear franchise centerpiece going forward.
Joining Maxey as a long-term building block was his new backcourt partner VJ Edgecombe, the third overall pick in the 2025 draft. Philadelphia was fortunate to get the opportunity to draft Edgecombe at all, as the team entered last year's lottery with only a 64% chance of keeping its top-six protected pick. The Sixers ended up not just retaining their first-rounder, but moving up into the top three.
The club made the most of its good fortune by nailing that pick. Edgecombe was overlooked to some extent while former Duke teammates Cooper Flagg and Kon Knueppel battled for Rookie of the Year, but he would have had a strong case for the award in many other seasons after averaging 16.0 PPG, 5.6 RPG, and 4.2 APG over the course of 75 starts.
With Maxey and Edgecombe leading the way and Embiid and George providing stop-and-start contributions, the Sixers won 45 regular season games, claimed the No. 7 seed with a play-in win, and upset the No. 2 Celtics in the first round of the playoffs before running into a buzzsaw of a Knicks team in round two.
While it was a pretty positive outcome given the preseason expectations, it wasn't enough to save Daryl Morey's president of basketball operations job. The long-term contracts he gave Embiid and George during the 2024 offseason haven't aged well, and he seemingly made another misstep at this year's deadline by trading Jared McCain to Oklahoma City for this year's No. 22 pick and a handful of future second-rounders.
McCain had battled health issues during his first year-and-a-half in the league, and his path to a starting role in Philadelphia was blocked by Maxey and Edgecombe. Still, it wasn't a great look for the Sixers when the 2024 first-rounder immediately began to thrive for the defending champion Thunder. The trade on its own could still be justified, particularly if ownership wanted to get out of luxury tax territory, but Morey exacerbated the issue by speaking after the trade deadline about "selling high" on McCain. That's the kind of quote that could be thrown back in his face for the next 10 years, depending on how the guard's career plays out.
After scouring the market for Morey's replacement, the Sixers landed on veteran Cavaliers executive Mike Gansey, hiring him as their new president of basketball operations. Gansey is well-respected around the league and had long been viewed as a candidate to run his own front office. He'll get a helping hand from former Warriors general manager Bob Myers, who works for the Sixers' ownership group as its "president of sports" and is expected to be involved in major personnel decisions.
The 76ers have a pair of valuable foundational pieces and believe they have the right basketball operations team in place to build a winner around Maxey and Edgecombe. Still, it remains to be seen just how much the new decision-makers will be able to do with the roster in the short term.
The Sixers' Offseason Plans
Under the NBA's current tax apron system, it has become increasingly untenable for teams to carry three players on maximum-salary contracts, which is one reason why the aforementioned Nuggets and Suns broke up their "big threes" last offseason. The Sixers probably wouldn't mind following suit this summer, but Maxey certainly isn't going anywhere and Embiid and George didn't do enough in 2025/26 to fully restore their diminished appeal on the trade market.
2026 NBA Offseason Preview: Golden State Warriors
The Warriors entered 2025/26 optimistic about their changes of replicating the second-half success they found in '24/25 after trading for Jimmy Butler ahead of that season's deadline. Golden State was just 25-26, the 10th seed in the Western Conference, when Butler made his Warriors debut on February 8, 2025, but the club moved up to No. 7 by going 23-8 to end the '24/25 regular season.
After beating Memphis in the 7/8 play-in game to advance as the seventh seed, the Warriors faced Houston in the first round, eventually advancing to the semifinals after a tough seven-game series. Unfortunately for Golden State, Stephen Curry got hurt in Game 1 of the second-round matchup vs. Minnesota, which the Timberwolves won in five games.
Rather than make major changes, the Warriors made some moves around the edges last offseason, essentially replacing longtime center Kevon Looney with Al Horford, bringing back De'Anthony Melton on a two-year, minimum-salary contract (he had been traded to Brooklyn after suffering a torn ACL during the 2024/25 season), and re-signing Jonathan Kuminga and Gary Payton II.
Kuminga's restricted free agency dragged into the start of training camp, delaying all of the aforementioned signings. The situation was resolved with Kuminga accepting a two-year, $46.8MM deal that was designed to make him movable at the trade deadline. The Warriors also signed Seth Curry in November once they had a little bit of breathing room beneath their first apron hard cap.
Kuminga, the seventh overall pick in the 2021 draft, opened '25/26 in the starting lineup, but it didn't last long -- he was pulled after the team was 6-6 after 12 games. The 23-year-old was dealing with a nagging knee injury near the end of that stretch, which caused him to miss seven straight contests after coming off the bench for one game.
After a sluggish 19-18 start to '25/26, the Warriors seemed to be turning things around in mid-January, winning six of seven games to boost their record to 25-19. The final victory in that span came at a major cost, however, as Butler tore his ACL on January 19 against Miami, his former team.
Butler's season-ending knee injury lowered Golden State's ceiling, and less than two weeks later Stephen Curry was diagnosed with patellofemoral pain syndrome, aka runner's knee. That often isn't considered a significant injury but it turned into a nagging problem for the two-time MVP, who didn't play again until April 5.
The relationship between the Warriors and Kuminga, which was already contentious after the offseason didn't go the way he hoped, continued to deteriorate over time. He eventually demanded a trade on the first day he was eligible to be moved in January.
It took a while, but Golden State found a deal it liked, sending Kuminga and Buddy Hield to Atlanta for Kristaps Porzingis. The Latvian big man had missed extended time due to mysterious circumstances in '24/25, later saying he had been diagnosed with Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS), a chronic health condition with no known cure.
The Warriors were heavily linked to Giannis Antetokounmpo leading up to the February trade deadline, but the Bucks ended up keeping the superstar forward. Draymond Green, not Butler, was rumored to be the main salary-matching piece in those talks.
In addition to the knee injuries of Butler and Stephen Curry, Horford and Seth Curry both battled sciatica and other ailments, only playing 45 and 10 regular season games, respectively. Porzingis was in and out of the lineup, appearing in just 15 of Golden State's 31 contests down the stretch. Then another devastating injury occurred in late March, when Moses Moody tore his patellar tendon.
With their two best players -- and by far their highest earners -- sidelined, the Warriors tumbled down the standings, finishing with a 37-45 record and the 10th seed in the West. They beat the Clippers in the 9/10 play-in game, then lost to Phoenix with a chance to advance to the playoffs as the No. 8 seed.
In the wake of the difficult season, Steve Kerr initially wasn't sure whether he wanted to return as head coach, but he ultimately re-signed with the team on a new two-year contract. Now the big question is figuring out what the roster will look like next season with over $69MM in salary ($56.8MM for Butler and $12.5MM for Moody) tied up in two players who are still several months away from returning to action.
The Warriors' Offseason Plans
Golden State's spending power this offseason hinges in large part on what Green decides to do with his $27.7MM player option and how much money it will take to re-sign Porzingis, which general manager Mike Dunleavy Jr. and Kerr both said was a priority.
In the 2023 offseason, Green declined a $27.7MM player option to re-sign with the Warriors on a four-year, $100MM deal, but a payday that significant seems unlikely this time around. And Porzingis' market value is even trickier to gauge after a season in which he played just 32 games, the second-lowest total of his career.
2026 NBA Offseason Preview: Los Angeles Lakers
Even though they were quickly dispatched in the first round of the 2025 playoffs, the Lakers entered last summer on a positive note, still riding the high of their mid-season Luka Doncic acquisition. While Doncic spent the offseason getting into peak condition and committing to a multiyear extension with his new team, the front office began working to try to find the types of complementary pieces that would best suit Los Angeles' new franchise player.
Armed with no cap room and a limited number of valuable trade chips ahead of the 2025/26 season, the Lakers' options to fortify their roster were limited. As a result, Deandre Ayton, Jake LaRavia, and Marcus Smart, each of whom signed a short-term contract that paid in the $5-10MM range, headlined the club's relatively modest list of newcomers.
In the process of making room to fit those players below a first-apron hard cap, L.A. let Dorian Finney-Smith walk in free agency and waived Jordan Goodwin, whose minimum-salary contract was mostly non-guaranteed.
The returns on those roster maneuvers during Doncic's first full season as a Laker were mostly positive. Ayton, a former No. 1 overall pick who likes to be a primary scoring option, wasn't a perfect fit for a Lakers team looking for a center willing to do more of the dirty work - including protecting the rim, rebounding, and setting screens - but he eventually bought into his role. Letting Finney-Smith get away to a conference rival earned the club some criticism at the time but ultimately paid off when his recovery from ankle surgery extended well past opening night, leading to a career-worst year in Houston.
LaRavia's three-point shooting dropped off in 2025/26, but he provided solid defense on the wing and was the only Laker to appear in all 82 regular season games. Los Angeles' biggest roster misstep was waiving Goodwin, who had a breakout year for the division-rival Suns. Still, that move was necessary to bring in Smart, whose own bounce-back season on a pretty team-friendly deal mitigated the effects of losing Goodwin.
Perhaps most importantly, the Lakers' "big three" of Doncic, Austin Reaves, and LeBron James ultimately thrived together, with James settling into a new role as a third option and letting the two younger guards function as the team's primary offensive weapons. Everything seemed to come together for the Lakers during a 16-2 stretch between the end of February and the end of March, with Doncic, Reaves, and James combining to average over 76 points and 20 assists per game while role players like Ayton, Smart, and Luke Kennard played some of their best basketball of the season.
Unfortunately for the Lakers, that stretch came to an abrupt end on April 2 when both Doncic and Reaves suffered significant muscle strains (a hamstring for Doncic and an oblique for Reaves) in a blowout loss to Oklahoma City. The Lakers still managed to pull out a first-round series win over Houston with Doncic sidelined and James reclaiming his role as the offensive alpha, but without their MVP available, the Lakers couldn't hang with the Thunder in the Western Conference semifinals and were on the wrong end of a second-round sweep.
Sixteen months removed from the shocking Doncic blockbuster, a Lakers team looking to reestablish itself as a title contender can no longer get by on the residual good vibes of that deal, but there are more reasons for optimism entering the 2026 offseason. That March run represented a proof of concept for this version of the Lakers, and the front office will be better equipped this summer to pursue upgrades and reshape the roster.
The Lakers' Offseason Plans
James is an all-time great whose jersey will eventually hang from the rafters in Crypto.com Arena, but at age 41, he's no longer the most important part of the Lakers' future. In fact, he's not even their most important free agent of the 2026 offseason from a long-term perspective, given that Reaves is also on track to reach free agency once he formally passes on his $14.9MM player option for 2026/27.
Still, the Lakers' next move with James could largely determine which direction their offseason takes.
Hoops Rumors Front Office Subscriber Chat Transcript: 6/4/2026
Hoops Rumors’ Arthur Hill held a live chat today exclusively for Trade Rumors Front Office subscribers. Topics included several Pistons decisions for this summer, the Giannis Antetokounmpo trade market, the Bulls' options with the fourth pick, the Knicks' future salary structure and more!
2026 NBA Offseason Preview: Milwaukee Bucks
Since breaking through to secure their first championship in 50 years in 2021, the Bucks have won just a single playoff series, falling in the first round for three consecutive years from 2023-25. When MVP-caliber players aren't contending for titles, trade speculation is inevitable, so it's no surprise that whispers about Giannis Antetokounmpo' future have percolated since Milwaukee failed to defend its championship in 2022.
But the volume on those rumors began increasing to a new level during the 2025 offseason. Coming off their third straight first-round exit, the Bucks were in a tougher spot than ever, having lost star point guard Damian Lillard to a torn Achilles during their brief postseason run.
Recognizing that keeping Lillard's maximum-salary contract on their books while he spent the 2025/26 season recovering from his Achilles tear would essentially amount to taking a "gap year" in Antetokounmpo's prime, the Bucks opted for a more aggressive - and riskier - offseason strategy. They waived Lillard, stretching his remaining $112MM+ in salary over five seasons, then used their newly created cap room to bring in center Myles Turner, one of the top unrestricted free agents on the market.
Milwaukee's creativity and willingness to push all its chips into the center of the table was admirable. But it didn't quiet the rumors involving Antetokounmpo, who reportedly conveyed to the team later in the offseason that he wouldn't mind joining the Knicks, leading to brief, unsuccessful trade talks between the two teams. And it didn't make the Bucks any better on the court.
With Antetokounmpo battling health issues and Turner struggling to adjust to his new situation after spending a decade in Indiana, the Bucks lost seven consecutive games in November to drop to 8-12 to open the season. They were never able to get back to .500 after that. As the team experienced its worst season since Giannis' rookie year, the trade chatter surrounding the two-time MVP amped up again, and the Bucks fielded offers leading up to February's deadline before once again opting to stand pat.
Over the course of the year, Antetokounmpo repeatedly spoke about his love for Milwaukee and his desire to win another championship with the Bucks. But he also consistently made it clear that contending for a title would be his first priority, and that if he wasn't confident in the Bucks' ability to do so, he'd have to consider other options.
It didn't help matters that Giannis and the Bucks found themselves at odds multiple times after the trade deadline. The star forward bristled at the fact that co-owner Wes Edens told ESPN the club intended to either extend or trade him, then clashed with the organization over its handling of his knee injury -- Antetokounmpo felt he was healthy enough to return to action and the Bucks disagreed, prompting the NBA to investigate the matter (the team was ultimately cleared of any wrongdoing).
Of course, the Antetokounmpo saga wasn't the only storyline in Milwaukee in 2025/26. Ryan Rollins' emergence in the Bucks' backcourt was one particularly encouraging development. The former second-round pick made a legitimate Most Improved Player case by averaging 17.6 points, 5.6 assists, and 1.5 steals per game on .472/.406/.796 shooting.
But every other Bucks subplot, good and bad, was overshadowed by the speculation about what will happen with Giannis. It was a distraction that the rest of the roster had to deal with for the entire season and it's a question that will hang over the organization until there's a conclusive resolution -- not just in the form of Antetokounmpo verbally reaffirming his commitment for another year, but via either a long-term extension or a trade, as Edens and his fellow co-owner Jimmy Haslam have suggested.
Antetokounmpo clearly doesn't want to become a villain in Milwaukee by asking to leave, but dragging out this will-he-stay-or-go drama indefinitely isn't doing the Bucks any favors. This offseason needs to be about the organization and its superstar picking a direction and decisively taking a step forward, either with or without one another.
The Bucks' Offseason Plans
Milwaukee made its first major move of the offseason when the team split with head coach Doc Rivers shortly after the regular season ended and hired Taylor Jenkins as his replacement, reportedly giving the former Grizzlies coach a six-year deal worth over $10MM annually.
2026 NBA Offseason Preview: Chicago Bulls
The Bulls had a relatively quiet summer in 2025, drafting a high-risk, high-reward prospect in Noa Essengue with the 12th overall pick and trading Lonzo Ball to the Cavaliers in a straight-up swap for Isaac Okoro. The rest of the roster remained largely unchanged from the group that finished 2024/25 on a surprising 15-5 run after a 24-38 start.
The previous iteration of the team never looked the same after Ball's knee injury interrupted -- and ultimately derailed -- the first-place start to the 2021/22 campaign. But that didn't stop the Arturas Karnisovas-led front office regime from running back the other four starters (DeMar DeRozan, Zach LaVine, Alex Caruso and Nikola Vucevic) for multiple seasons, despite consistently mediocre results.
The Bulls parted ways with DeRozan and Caruso in the 2024 offseason, then sent LaVine to the Kings in a three-team deal that also involved the Spurs in February 2025. The roster deconstruction took a minor detour last offseason, but continued in earnest again ahead of the '25/26 deadline.
After winning 40, 39 and 39 games in the previous three seasons, the Bulls were essentially on an identical trajectory to open '25/26, having gone 24-27 leading into the February 5 deadline. Karnisovas and top lieutenant Marc Eversley decided to lean into a more comprehensive roster tear-down at that point, trading away four impending free agents in Vucevic, Coby White, Ayo Dosunmu, Kevin Huerter in four separate deals and making three other moves to net a total of nine second-round picks.
The returns from those deals were criticized by fans, who were hoping to see the team cash in, at least in some cases, earlier on their most valuable trade chips. White and Dosunmu had been with the Bulls their entire careers, but rather than trade them when they had a year or more left on their contracts, the team waited until they were essentially rental players for the final few months of the season.
While the aggregate returns from all the trades the past couple years was indeed underwhelming, Karnisovas and Eversley at least deserve credit for both creating and maintaining the financial flexibility that could result in the Bulls having $56MM in cap room this summer.
Of course, part of the reason that number is so high is because the Huerter trade with Detroit brought back guard Jaden Ivey. It initially looked like the former No. 5 overall pick might be part of the club's plans going forward, but he was waived on March 31 after he made a series of inflammatory comments on Instagram Live streams; the Bulls cited conduct detrimental to the team in their brief press release announcing the move.
Besides reportedly creating friction in the locker room, Ivey was dealing with a knee issue that limited him during his brief stint with Chicago. The saga created questions about whether the front office had done enough homework prior to acquiring Ivey, and it was said to be one of the final straws for ownership -- Karnisovas and Eversley were dismissed on April 6, a week before the regular season ended.
The Bulls' front office had been criticized for years for their fixation on the old core, and there was reportedly a "growing disconnect" between management and several other parts of the organization, not just ownership. Karnisovas and Eversley had been in charge for six years and it took nearly that entire tenure to fully lean into a rebuild. Chicago went just 7-24 after its 24-27 start, finishing '25/26 with a 31-51 record.
That record resulted in the Bulls finishing with the ninth-best pre-lottery odds and a 20.2% chance of moving into the top four. After losing a pre-lottery tiebreaker in 2025 to the Mavericks, who surprisingly moved up to No. 1 while the Bulls ended up at No. 12, Chicago was one of the big winners of this year's lottery, moving up to No. 4 in what's widely viewed as a very strong draft. That's particularly true of the consensus top four, which features AJ Dybantsa, Darryn Peterson, Cameron Boozer and Caleb Wilson.
In addition to their own first-rounder, the Bulls also control the 15th pick and a pair of second-rounders (Nos. 38 and 56). Their four selections are tied for the most in the NBA as they enter the first offseason under new head of basketball operations Bryson Graham, a former Pelicans and Hawks executive who was hired to replace Karnisovas.
The Bulls' Offseason Plans
The Bulls have three primary objectives this offseason: Hiring a new head coach to replace Billy Donovan, who opted out of the final year of his contract; drafting the right players (particularly the two first-round picks) to add to their young core; and deciding what to do with their expected cap room.
There's also the lingering question of whether the new front office views all of Giddey, Essengue, and Buzelis as part of the team's core, since Graham and company weren't involved in acquiring those players and presumably have no attachment to them.
2026 NBA Offseason Preview: Sacramento Kings
It doesn't seem long ago that the "Beam Team" Kings were snapping a record-breaking 16-year playoff drought after going 48-34 and finishing as the No. 3 seed in a surprising 2022/23 season. Sacramento proceeded to lose to Golden State -- the defending champions at the time -- in a seven-game first-round series.
That Kings group, led by De'Aaron Fox, Domantas Sabonis and head coach Mike Brown, went 46-36 the following season, but those two fewer wins resulted in the team falling all the way to No. 9 in the standings. Sacramento got revenge on the Warriors in the 9/10 play-in game, but lost to the Pelicans with a chance to advance as the West's No. 8 seed.
The Kings weren't as content to run back the same group in the 2024 offseason, making an aggressive three-team sign-and-trade to acquire DeMar DeRozan. It was a suspect move at the time, considering they gave up Harrison Barnes and a 2031 first-round pick swap (to San Antonio), plus Chris Duarte and a pair of second-round picks (to Chicago), in order to sign DeRozan to a three-year contract worth nearly $75MM.
After a 13-18 start to 2024/25, the Kings fired Brown and named Doug Christie -- an ex-Kings guard and then-assistant on Brown's staff -- his interim replacement. They also traded Fox after the star point guard indicated he wouldn't sign an extension in Sacramento, once again making a controversial three-team deal involving the Bulls and Spurs that saw Sacramento receive two first-round picks, four second-rounders, and the maximum-salary contract of Zach LaVine.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, owner Vivek Ranadive reportedly pushed the former front office regime to acquire both DeRozan and LaVine, who had proven to be a ill-fitting pair together in Chicago for multiple seasons leading up to the deals.
Sacramento played a little better under Christie, going 27-24 and finishing the season as the ninth seed. The team lost its first play-in contest against Dallas though, marking another early postseason exit.
The Kings parted ways with former general manager Monte McNair after the '24/25 season and quickly replaced him with Scott Perry, a former Pistons and Knicks executive who previously had a brief stint in Sacramento. Perry's first roster moves were draft-focused. He sent a protected 2027 first-rounder to Oklahoma City to land the 24th pick (Nique Clifford) in last year's draft, then added Maxime Raynaud with the 42nd pick and signed Dylan Cardwell to a two-way contract after the former Auburn big man went undrafted.
Although the Kings were reportedly open to trying to acquire Jonathan Kuminga in a sign-and-trade with the Warriors, nothing came to fruition on that front. Their main free agency move was acquiring Dennis Schröder in a sign-and-trade deal with Detroit, and they eventually signed Russell Westbrook and Precious Achiuwa to round out their roster.
Unfortunately for fans in Sacramento, the 2025/26 campaign was pretty close to a worst-case scenario for the Kings, who entered the season with playoff aspirations and finished just 22-60, tied for the fourth-worst record in the NBA. Their two highest-paid players -- LaVine and Sabonis -- combined to play just 58 games due to injuries, while a third starter -- Keegan Murray -- was limited to a career-low 23 appearances because of his own ailments.
The Schröder acquisition didn't work out, as the Kings ended up trading him in February to acquire De'Andre Hunter from Cleveland. Sacramento also sent out Keon Ellis (to the Cavs), plus Dario Saric and a 2028 second-round pick (to the Bulls) in that three-team deal. There were rumors the Kings could've gotten second-round picks for Ellis, but they instead prioritized adding Hunter, who provides a different skill set and a much pricier contract. Hunter was forced to undergo season-ending surgery after he was inadvertently poked in the eye in his second game as a King.
After a 16-game losing streak that stretched from January 18 through February 21, Sacramento was just 12-46 and had a three-game lead on the Pacers at the "top" of the NBA's reverse standings. However, the Kings somewhat inexplicably decided to keep trying to win games even though every other team near the bottom was clearly prioritizing draft positioning. They went 10-14 down the stretch to finish tied with the Jazz for the fourth-worst record.
A pre-lottery tiebreaker determined whether Utah or Sacramento would end up No. 4 in the pre-lottery order, and the Jazz ended up winning that drawing, which turned out to be highly consequential; they moved up to No. 2 in the draft lottery, while the Kings slipped from No. 5 to No. 7. If the Kings had remained at the very bottom of the standings, their lottery floor would have been the fifth overall pick. For what it's worth, the Wizards -- who went 1-26 down the stretch to finish with the worst record -- landed the first pick.
As poorly as 2025/26 went for the Kings, they still have a chance to add a potential All-Star caliber talent with the seventh pick in what's viewed as an excellent draft. They also control two second-rounders (Nos. 34 and 45) as they look to establish a young core alongside Clifford, Raynaud and Cardwell, who were a relative collective bright spot in what was largely a season to forget.
The Kings' Offseason Plans
While adding a foundational player at No. 7 will be the top priority in Sacramento this offseason, figuring out how to trim payroll isn't far behind. As of now, the Kings project to not only be a taxpayer in 2026/27 but also over the first tax apron, which is untenable given the (poor) state of the roster.
2026 NBA Offseason Preview: Dallas Mavericks
The 2024/25 season was one of the most eventful years in the history of the Mavericks, for better (winning the Cooper Flagg draft lottery) or for worse (trading Luka Doncic to the Lakers). So it probably came as a bit of a relief to fans in Dallas and staffers within the organization that the '25/26 campaign was a whole lot more ordinary, especially after Nico Harrison, the general manager responsible for the stunning Doncic deal, was removed from his position in November.
That's not to say there weren't highs and lows. Among the highs was Flagg, who was everything the team hoped he would be, earning Rookie of the Year honors in a tight race with former Duke teammate Kon Knueppel after averaging 21.0 points, 6.7 rebounds, and 4.5 assists per game across 70 outings.
Conversely, star big man Anthony Davis continued to battle health issues during his second season as a Maverick. He was limited to just 20 regular season games in 2025/26 - and 29 overall after being acquired in the Doncic blockbuster - before Dallas sent him to the Wizards at February's trade deadline. Harrison's belief that Davis could be the centerpiece of the next Mavs championship team was ultimately misguided, and it was up to his temporary successors, co-interim GMs Michael Finley and Matt Riccardi, to try to salvage some value for an aging, injury-plagued star who was no longer part of the team's long-term plans.
With Davis not playing enough, young center Dereck Lively II also sidelined due to foot problems, and the team's other veteran star, Kyrie Irving, still recovering from an ACL tear he suffered in March 2025, Dallas opened the season by losing 23 of its first 35 games, quickly falling out of playoff contention. That simplified the club's decisions to trade Davis and to hold out Lively and Irving for the entire season. It also allowed the Mavs to feature not just Flagg but several other promising youngsters and breakout role players, including Max Christie, Naji Marshall, and rookie Ryan Nembhard.
With both Doncic and Davis gone, Irving and Lively returning from major injuries, Flagg still just 19 years old, and the Mavs coming off a 26-56 showing, it's fair to be dubious about the team's ability to contend again in the short term. But there are plenty of reasons for optimism in Dallas.
Flagg is the most obvious one, and it can't be overstated how lucky the Mavericks were to land a young cornerstone who looks like a future perennial All-Star after giving up on another player who fit that bill. Even beyond Flagg though, there are bright spots.
This roster still features several of the pieces that it did when Dallas advanced to the NBA Finals in 2024, starting with Irving, Daniel Gafford, and P.J. Washington. Throw in promising recent additions like Christie, Marshall, and Nembhard, along with the No. 9 overall pick in this year's draft, and this looks like a group capable of being competitive sooner rather than later -- especially with new president of basketball operations Masai Ujiri now running the show in the front office, bringing championship experience with him to Dallas.
Does that mean we'll see the Mavericks back in the playoffs in 2027? Not necessarily. But given that 2026 is the last draft until 2031 in which they'll control their own first-round pick, a full-fledged rebuild probably isn't in the cards here. So what exactly will Ujiri's first summer on the job look like? Let's dig in.
Hoops Rumors Front Office Subscriber Chat Transcript: 5/28/2026
Hoops Rumors’ Arthur Hill held a live chat today exclusively for Trade Rumors Front Office subscribers. Topics included the Knicks' preference for their NBA Finals opponent, possible changes in Cleveland this summer, the Bulls' prospects for acquiring another first-round pick, a potential Kawhi Leonard trade to Minnesota and more!
2026 NBA Offseason Preview: Los Angeles Clippers
A year ago, the Clippers entered the summer with high hopes for the offseason and the season to come after posting a surprising 50-32 regular 2024/25 season record and holding their own in a highly competitive, seven-game first-round series vs. Denver despite having lost Paul George in 2024 free agency.
The newfound cap flexibility the Clippers generated as a result of George's departure allowed the team to bring in multiple quality role players and provided the front office with a more viable blueprint for maintaining a balanced roster going forward.
But the 2025/26 season was a turbulent one. The NBA launched an investigation last September into possible salary cap circumvention related to a "no-show" endorsement deal for Kawhi Leonard. One key offseason addition, Bradley Beal, underwent season-ending hip surgery in the fall, while another, future Hall-of-Famer Chris Paul, had an unceremonious split with the franchise less than two months into the season. The team got off a 6-21 start, leading to the decision to trade James Harden and Ivica Zubac at the deadline with an eye toward the future.
To be fair, the Clippers recovered admirably from that 6-21 start. Even without Harden and Zubac on the roster, the club clawed its way back above .500 by late March and finished at 42-40, earning a play-in spot. But those mid-season trades signaled that short-term contention was no longer a top priority for the organization, and L.A.'s very brief postseason run came to an end with a home loss to the Warriors in the 9/10 play-in game.
Following that abrupt postseason exit, the outlook in Los Angeles is cloudier than it was a year ago for multiple reasons. For one, the Clippers are still awaiting resolution on the NBA's probe into the team's and Leonard's relationships with the now-bankrupt green banking company Aspiration. While there haven't been any indications that Leonard's contract agreement with L.A. is in real danger of being voided as a result of that investigation, it remains very possible that the franchise will face some sort of penalty, such as lost draft picks, once it wraps up.
Even if the Clippers are cleared of wrongdoing by league investigators, there's uncertainty about what exactly the front office's plans are in the wake of the Harden and Zubac deals. Is L.A. still committed to trying to contend with Leonard as its centerpiece, as president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank insisted during his end-of-season press conference? Or did the team's willingness to move off veterans earlier this year suggest that a soft rebuild around Darius Garland and this year's No. 5 overall pick is around the corner?
The Clippers' Offseason Plans
Leonard is entering the final year of his current contract and will earn $50.3MM in 2026/27 before becoming eligible for unrestricted free agency in 2027. The two-time Finals MVP is also coming off arguably his best all-around season since he arrived in Los Angeles -- he finished seventh in MVP voting and was named to the All-NBA second team after averaging 27.9 points, 6.4 rebounds, 3.6 assists, and 1.9 steals per game on .505/.387/.892 shooting across 65 healthy outings (32.1 MPG).
With all that in mind, the question that will determine the direction of the Clippers' offseason is whether they seek an extension with Leonard, who will turn 35 in June, or sell high on the trade market, completing the roster reset they kicked off earlier this year by trading Harden and Zubac.