Hoops Rumors Front Office Subscriber Chat: 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.
2026 NBA Offseason Preview: Brooklyn Nets
The Nets entered the 2025 offseason in possession of five first-round picks and the most cap room in the NBA. Brooklyn surprised many people around the league by setting a record and actually making all five selections, taking Egor Demin (No. 8), Nolan Traore (No. 19), Drake Powell (No. 22), Ben Saraf (No. 26) and Danny Wolf (No. 27), rather than packaging some of the picks to try to move up or exchanging a few for future first-rounders.
The majority -- if not all -- of those first-rounders the Nets added in last year's draft were viewed as long-term projects rather than players who could contribute to winning immediately, reinforcing the perception that Brooklyn was more focused on the future than the present. The team also made a significant trade last summer, sending Cameron Johnson to Denver for Michael Porter Jr. and an unprotected 2032 first-round pick.
The Nuggets paid a steep price in that deal, which gave them the financial flexibility to add Jonas Valanciunas, Tim Hardaway Jr. and Bruce Brown last summer to bolster a thin bench. They entered the 2026 playoffs as the No. 3 seed and had home-court advantage over No. 6 Minnesota but were upset in the first round.
Denver's early ouster was theoretically a boon for Brooklyn -- if the Nuggets get more aggressive in pursuing win-now players around Nikola Jokic, the value of that 2032 first-round pick could increase, depending on how the draft lottery (assuming it still exists) works by that point.
Porter was a good on-court fit for the Nets, who surprisingly went 7-4 in December with the top-ranked defense in the league during that month following a 3-16 start to the season. That led to some rumblings that maybe Brooklyn wouldn't be able to land a top pick in a loaded draft that owner Joe Tsai made it clear the team was focused on before 2025/26 began.
While the Nets will undoubtedly point to their December success as a reason for optimism going forward, the rest of the season made it seem more like a mirage than anything that could carry over to 2026/27. The team went 3-17 from January 1 through the February 5 trade deadline and then 7-25 from the deadline through the end of the season, finishing with the second-worst record in the league at 20-62.
Brooklyn's poor overall performance meant the team entered the draft lottery with a 52.1% chance at staying in the top four but 47.9% odds of falling to either No. 5 or No. 6, with the latter being the most likely (26.0%) individual outcome. Much to the Nets' chagrin, they were leapfrogged by multiple teams in the lottery for the second straight year, falling from No. 2 in the pre-lottery order to No. 6 in the draft.
Rather using their excess cap room last offseason or at the deadline, the Nets largely carried it over to 2026, which means they once again project to have the financial flexibility to go in a number of different directions this summer. They also don't control their 2027 first-round pick (Houston has swap rights), though the reported terms of "3-2-1" lottery reform proposal could actually incentivize the Nets to tank again, since finishing in the bottom three would reduce the Rockets' odds of landing a top pick.
The Nets' Offseason Plans
Sean Marks went from never making a lottery pick in his career as the Nets' general manager to having two in a row after the team pivoted to a rebuild following the trades of James Harden, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant in 2022 and 2023. The problem is that all the losing over the past couple years has only resulted in the eighth and sixth selections. Although that's not an unusual outcome based on the way the current lottery system works, it's a disappointing one for Brooklyn.
2026 NBA Offseason Preview: Utah Jazz
The Jazz had a relatively quiet offseason after finishing the 2024/25 season with a 17-65 record, the worst mark in the NBA. Utah had a 52.1% chance of staying in the top four at the 2025 draft lottery, but the team lost what was essentially a coin flip (47.9%), landing at its draft floor at No. 5.
In addition to selecting former Rutgers wing Ace Bailey with the fifth pick, the Jazz were also involved in a pair of trades last summer. The first saw the team send Collin Sexton and a 2030 second-round pick to Charlotte for Jusuf Nurkic, and the second sent John Collins to the Clippers in a three-team deal that netted the Jazz a 2027 second-round pick, Kevin Love, Kyle Anderson, and a traded player exception.
It's hard to say if the Jazz had any intentions of trying to be more competitive in '25/26, but considering they would have owed their 2026 first-round pick to the Thunder if it landed outside of the top eight, the team was certainly incentivized to finish near the bottom of the standings again to ensure that didn't happen. And Utah wound up being near the forefront of the tanking conversation in an unusual season in which several teams were especially focused on draft positioning due to the widely perceived strength of the 2026 class.
The Jazz would likely point to starting center Walker Kessler suffering a torn labrum in his left shoulder in training camp, an injury he aggravated just five games into the season, as the beginning of downward trend for the rest of '25/26. They were 2-3 when it was reported that Kessler would undergo season-ending surgery and just 16-35 after a win at Indiana snapped a six-game losing streak on February 3.
That's also the date the Jazz made one of the more interesting deals ahead of the February deadline, acquiring Jaren Jackson Jr., John Konchar, Vince Williams Jr., and Jock Landale from the Grizzlies in exchange for Kyle Anderson, Georges Niang, Taylor Hendricks, Walter Clayton, the Lakers’ 2027 first-round pick (top-four protected), either the Cavaliers', Timberwolves', or Jazz's 2027 first-round pick (whichever is most favorable), and the Suns' 2031 first-round pick.
Memphis had renegotiated Jackson's descending rookie scale extension during the 2025 offseason in order to bump his '25/26 salary high enough to sign him to a new veteran extension that reflected the value of a regular All-Defensive contributor who had made All-Star appearances in two of his previous three seasons. Jackson will earn $49MM, $50.5MM and $52MM over the next three years before he has to decide whether to exercise a $53.5MM player option for '29/30.
Utah, meanwhile, projected to have a good deal of cap room this summer, and rather than using it on free agents, the team made a pre-agency move for a player signed to a lucrative long-term contract.
The Jazz have been dreadful defensively in the four years since they traded Rudy Gobert to Minnesota, ranking 23rd, 30th, 30th and 29th in the league in defensive rating from 2023-26. Jackson, who turns 27 in September, is a former Defensive Player of the Year who's versatile enough on offense to play in a jumbo-sized frontcourt that also features Kessler and Finnish star Lauri Markkanen.
However, Jackson's fit with the team remains theoretical for now -- he only made three cameo appearances for the Jazz after the deal, having undergone surgery to address a benign growth in his knee, and he didn't get a chance to play with Kessler at all. While the sample size was obviously tiny, the team did perform very well when the former No. 4 overall pick was on the court.
Shutting down Jackson was the first in a series of "future-focused" moves for the Jazz, who ruled out Nurkic and Markkanen for the remainder of the season shortly thereafter. Keyonte George, who had a breakout third season and was dealing with ankle injuries at the time, only played a handful of games to finish out '25/26.
Unsurprisingly, those tanking maneuvers resulted in the Jazz falling down the Western Conference and NBA standings, as they went just 6-25 over the final two-plus months to finish with a 22-60 record. That tied Sacramento for the fourth-worst mark in the league.
The Jazz won a tiebreaker with the Kings ahead of the draft lottery which turned out to be highly consequential, as Utah moved up from No. 4 to No. 2 on lottery night while Sacramento fell from No. 5 to No. 7. Winning the tiebreaker also guaranteed Utah could end up with no worse than the eighth overall pick, meaning the selection was guaranteed to stay with the Jazz even if they hadn't gotten lucky in the lottery.
While four years of losing isn't easy to stomach for fans, the Jazz are well positioned going forward as a result of their good fortune in the lottery. They'll be able to add a potential franchise-changing talent on a very cap-friendly contract, locking in four years of team control and giving the front office time to determine the best ways to build out the roster.
Utah also enters the offseason with a surplus of future first-round picks and the financial flexibility to continue to seek upgrades on the trade market, though the club lacks the sort of mid-sized contracts necessary to add another near-max cap hit like Jackson's.
The Jazz's Offseason Plans
The Jazz have three major decisions to make this offseason: Deciding which prospect to select No. 2 overall, figuring out what a new contract for restricted free agent Kessler will look like, and determining how high they're willing to go in rookie scale extension talks with Keyonte George.
2026 NBA Offseason Preview: Indiana Pacers
When Tyrese Haliburton tore his right Achilles tendon during the first quarter of Game 7 of the 2025 NBA Finals, it didn't just scuttle the Pacers' chances of winning a championship that night. It essentially cost them their entire 2025/26 season as well.
Just two weeks after that Game 7 loss, Pacers president of basketball operations Kevin Pritchard ruled out Haliburton for all of '25/26, recognizing that the injury occurred too late in the postseason to make a second-half return prudent, even if the star point guard were able to beat the usual recovery timeline for an Achilles tear.
The Pacers, who advanced to the Eastern Conference finals in 2024 before making the NBA Finals a year later, weren't a one-man show, so there was reason to believe they could remain competitive without their star point guard. But Haliburton's injury was just the tip of the iceberg in what turned into a nightmarish, injury-plagued year in Indiana.
Less than one month into the season, the Pacers sat at the very bottom of the NBA's standings with a 1-13 record as injury issues forced them to turn to journeymen reserves like Tony Bradley and Jeremiah Robinson-Earl to fill out their starting lineup. The roster eventually got a little healthier, but it was a lost year by that point, with the team dropping 30 of its first 36 games and eventually prioritizing draft position over competing for a play-in spot.
Amid a forgettable campaign, the Pacers made a fascinating trade-deadline deal, sending Bennedict Mathurin, Isaiah Jackson, a pair of first-round picks, and a second-round selection to the Clippers in exchange for Ivica Zubac. The move addressed a hole that was created during the 2025 offseason when starting center Myles Turner left for Milwaukee in free agency and was clearly made with 2026/27 (and beyond) in mind. After all, once Haliburton returned and the Pacers got healthier, they'd need a quality big man like Zubac if they hoped to make another deep playoff run.
Besides the fact that the trade featured a 13-38 team acting as a buyer, it was an unusual deal for another reason. The 2026 first-rounder the Pacers included in their package was top-four protected and would turn into a 2031 pick if it landed within its protected range. With Indiana headed for a bottom-three record, there would be what was essentially a coin flip to determine whether the pick landed in the top four and stayed with the Pacers (52.1%) or fell to fifth or sixth and was conveyed to L.A. (47.9%). That coin flip favored the Clippers, who got lucky on lottery night and received the No. 5 overall pick in a loaded draft.
This raises an obvious question: Given that they were willing to give up that pick for a player they didn't need until next season, couldn't the Pacers have waited until this summer and extracted more value on the trade market for that selection? If the Clippers hung onto Zubac through the deadline and then were offered the No. 5 overall pick for him in the coming weeks, would they really have had the leverage to demand the second first-rounder (an unprotected 2029 pick) that Indiana gave up as part of its mid-season package? I'm skeptical.
2026 NBA Offseason Preview: Phoenix Suns
After finishing with a disappointing 36-46 record in 2024/25 despite having the most expensive payroll in the NBA, the Suns quickly fired head coach Mike Budenholzer, who was given a five-year, $50MM+ contract two years ago.
Budenholzer was hired one day after the team fired Frank Vogel, who led the Suns to a playoff berth after going 49-33 in his lone season (2023/24). Phoenix was swept in the first round by Minnesota though, and Vogel was dismissed 11 months after reportedly signing a five-year, $31MM deal.
Vogel was hired to replace Monty Williams, whom new owner Mat Ishbia wanted out after the Suns went 45-37 and were eliminated in the second round of the playoffs in 2022/23. That came a year after the top-seeded Suns infamously blew a 3-2 lead against the Mavericks in the second round of the 2022 postseason.
Looking for a new head coach every offseason while paying each of your recently fired coaches long-term money is never a recipe for success, so hiring the right candidate was critical for the Suns in 2025. They went with a first-time head coach in Jordan Ott, and the move paid off -- he did an admirable job leading a scrappy roster that finished with the league's ninth-ranked defense.
The main reason the roster looked different -- and younger -- this season is because the Suns finally pulled the plug on the ill-fated Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal experiments, both of which were completely disastrous for the long-term future of the team. Phoenix didn't get a clean break from Beal's contract either. We'll circle back to that shortly.
Out went veterans like Durant, Beal, Tyus Jones, Jusuf Nurkic, Mason Plumlee, Damion Lee and Monte Morris, and in came Jalen Green, Dillon Brooks, Khaman Maluach, Rasheer Fleming, Jordan Goodwin and Mark Williams.
The Suns exceeded expectations in 2025/26, going 45-37 and entering the play-in tournament as the No. 7 seed in the Western Conference. Phoenix lost its first play-in game to Portland, but won its second against Golden State and advanced to the playoffs as the No. 8 seed.
Phoenix was overmatched in the first-round series against Oklahoma City and was swept by the defending champions in four games. That series laid bare the limitations of the current roster against a top contender.
There were certainly positive developments in '25/26, starting with Ott and the buy-in he got from a hard-playing roster that arguably punched above its weight in the regular season. Impending free agent Collin Gillespie had a breakout season; Goodwin was another bargain in his second stint with the team; Brooks brought an edge and toughness to the group that was sorely lacking; Fleming (and to a lesser extent Maluach) showed flashes near the end of the season; and Oso Ighodaro took positive strides in year two. All of those factors made Phoenix much more fun to watch than the most recent iterations of the team.
It's odd that the Suns were something of a plucky underdog in '25/26, because they were the total opposite the previous few seasons, with a bloated payroll banked by an owner so desperate to win immediately that he neglected the club's long-term outlook. Still, while the roster, coach, narrative, and (lower) expectations might have been different, Phoenix's modest success this season didn't really move the team any closer to title contention.
The Suns' Offseason Plans
If you only look at their active player salaries for next season, it would appear as though the Suns would be in a decent spot to try to re-sign all of their own free agents -- most notably Gillespie, Goodwin and Williams -- on top of making other upgrades. It's not a specific salary that will limit Phoenix's financial flexibility this offseason though -- it's the $23.2MM in dead money the team is carrying on its books, most of which came from using the stretch provision on Beal's contract after he agreed to give up some of the money he was owed in a buyout last summer.
Hoops Rumors Front Office Subscriber Chat Transcript: 5/21/2026
Hoops Rumors’ Arthur Hill held a live chat today exclusively for Trade Rumors Front Office subscribers. Topics included whether the Magic or Mavericks offer a better coaching opportunity, the Pistons' offseason roster needs, the Cavaliers' commitment to James Harden, potential pre-draft trades involving Giannis Antetokounmpo and Kawhi Leonard and more!
2026 NBA Offseason Preview: Memphis Grizzlies
When the Grizzlies traded Desmond Bane to Orlando for a package headlined by four first-round picks last summer after winning 48 games in 2024/25, it didn't necessarily suggest that Memphis was throwing the towel in on the '25/26 season.
Carrying Bane, Ja Morant, and Jaren Jackson Jr. on maximum-salary or near-max deals probably wasn't viable over the long term for Memphis, given how much of the cap those three players would take up. So it made some sense that the team would sell high on Bane, the least accomplished member of that trio, with an eye toward hanging onto and building around its pair of two-time All-Stars, Morant and Jackson.
With the benefit of hindsight though, the Bane trade looks like the first step in a full-fledged roster reset in Memphis.
The Grizzlies got off to a 4-11 start in 2025/26, with Morant and Tuomas Iisalo clashing over the head coach's offensive system and center Zach Edey's season debut delayed while he recovered from an offseason ankle procedure. And while Edey's return helped - the team went 7-4 in games he played - it didn't last long. His season ended on December 7 after just 11 games due to ongoing issues with that surgically repaired ankle, which required a second procedure in March.
Several other Grizzlies regulars besides Edey battled health issues over the course of the season, as Morant was limited to 20 games and only three players on the roster - young building blocks Cam Spencer, Jaylen Wells, and Cedric Coward - made more than 55 appearances. With a shorthanded Memphis squad slumping again ahead of the trade deadline, the front office, led by executive VP of basketball operations Zach Kleiman, decisively pivoted toward a rebuild by trading Jackson to Utah in an eight-player blockbuster that saw the Grizzlies acquire three future first-round picks.
Memphis hasn't entirely cut ties with its former "big three" of Morant, Jackson, and Bane, but that's only because the market for Morant was tepid in February. The former Rookie of the Year had battled calf and elbow issues, and even when he was available, he wasn't performing anywhere near his former All-NBA level. Throw in concerns about his contract and his past off-court behavior and it meant the Grizzlies would be selling at an absolute low if they'd made a deal this past season. Even after reportedly lowering their asking price, they couldn't find an offer worth taking.
Moving Morant at the deadline would've given the Grizzlies a relatively clean slate entering the summer, allowing them to head into the offseason armed with multiple 2026 first-round picks (including No. 3 overall) and without any pricey multiyear contracts on their books. They've still got those first-rounders and appear focused on building for the future, but Morant's uncertain outlook is a major issue looming over the team that may require resolution sooner rather than later.
The Grizzlies' Offseason Plans
The likelihood of a Morant trade this offseason will hinge in large part on what sort of offers Memphis gets, but it will also depend on how the 26-year-old feels about continuing his career with the Grizzlies. He spoke in January about being a "loyal guy" and publicly expressed a desire to remain with the only NBA team he has ever played for, but there have been rumblings suggesting that he hasn't privately conveyed those same sentiments.
2026 NBA Offseason Preview: Toronto Raptors
On the heels of 25- and 30-win seasons, the Raptors entered 2025/26 operating over the luxury tax line despite the fact that they weren't considered a good bet to even make the playoffs. There were far more skeptics than believers in the group that general manager Bobby Webster and former president Masai Ujiri, whose tenure with the team ended last June, had put together.
Point guard Immanuel Quickley, coming off an injury-plagued season, was on a long-term deal worth $32.5MM annually. Center Jakob Poeltl, another good but not great starter, had just signed a lucrative long-term extension of his own. And none of Toronto's highly paid forwards - Scottie Barnes, Brandon Ingram, and RJ Barrett - were consistent, high-volume three-point shooters who thrived off the ball, leading to questions about how exactly they'd fit together.
While there wasn't a ton of enthusiasm for the way the Raptors looked on paper, things started to make a little more sense on the court once the season got underway.
Ingram gave the team the sort of half-court shot creator it had been missing, leading Toronto in scoring and making the All-Star game. Barnes, who excelled as a play-maker and defender, was also named an All-Star. Quickley had a much healthier season and fit well alongside the Raptors' ball-dominant forwards, leading the club in three-pointers by a significant margin. And while back issues limited Poeltl's availability and effectiveness, two unexpected frontcourt standouts - minimum-salary veteran Sandro Mamukelashvili and rookie Collin Murray-Boyles - helped make up for his down year.
Throw in the fact that the Raptors got breakout seasons from young role players Ja'Kobe Walter and Jamal Shead and it's easy to see why the team exceeded outside expectations. Toronto racked up 46 regular season victories, earned the No. 5 seed in the East, and pushed the heavily favored Cavaliers to seven games in the first round despite missing Ingram for Games 6 and 7 and Quickley for the entire series.
Toronto's cap situation still isn't great, and the roster construction is far from perfect. It was also concerning that Ingram struggled mightily in the playoffs and that the team was better when he was off the court than when he was on it during the first round, a trend that carried over from the regular season. But it was still an encouraging year for the organization, with Barnes taking another step toward stardom, Murray-Boyles flashing tantalizing upside, and guys like Walter and Shead showing they can be trusted to play roles on a playoff team.
The Raptors' Offseason Plans
The salary cap for the 2026/27 season is projected to come in at $165MM, and Toronto's top five highest-paid players - Barnes, Ingram, Quickley, Barrett, and Poeltl - are earning a combined $163.4MM, essentially eating up all that space on their own.
Bringing all five of those players back isn't out of the question and might even be the front office's best path. After all, that group had a net rating of +7.6 in 354 minutes on the court together this past season. But outside of Barnes, who is clearly a long-term keeper, the Raptors shouldn't just automatically pencil any of them into the lineup for '26/27 without seriously evaluating their place in the team's long-term plans.
Hoops Rumors Front Office Subscriber Chat Transcript: 5/14/2026
Hoops Rumors’ Arthur Hill held a live chat today exclusively for Trade Rumors Front Office subscribers. Topics included the Hawks' chances of landing Giannis Antetokounmpo, the Bulls' new front office, the offseason trade market for Paul George, Sean Marks' performance as Nets GM, a potential Jazz trade for the No. 1 pick and more!