Hoops Rumors Originals

Since we last checked in on the NBA’s longest-tenured players by team one year ago, a handful of names who were in the top 10 have changed teams either via trade or free agency.

That group includes Karl-Anthony Towns and Myles Turner, who had been with the Timberwolves and Pacers, respectively, since the 2015 draft. De’Aaron Fox is among the other longtime members of a franchise to change teams since last summer, having been dealt from the Kings to the Spurs in February after having played in Sacramento since 2017.

In addition to Minnesota, Indiana, and Sacramento, teams with a new longest-tenured player include the Bulls, Trail Blazers, Raptors, and Jazz, who have parted ways with Zach LaVine, Anfernee Simons, Chris Boucher, and Jordan Clarkson within the past year.

The top name on our list remains unchanged, as Stephen Curry – a member of the Warriors since 2009 – is still the player who has been with his current club for the longest period. He’s entering his 17th season with Golden State this fall.

Because our list includes just one player per team, Draymond Green doesn’t show up in the space below, but if we were simply listing the players who have been with their current clubs the longest, he’d own the No. 2 spot behind Curry, having been with the Warriors since being drafted in 2012. Jamal Murray (a Nugget since June 2016) is another player who would place highly on that version of the list.

Finally, it’s worth noting that a player like Damian Lillard – who was with Portland from 2012-23, spent two years in Milwaukee, then rejoined the Trail Blazers this summer as a free agent – won’t show up on this list, since he has spent time with another team since first becoming a Blazer since 2012. In our view, his tenure with the Blazers reset during his time with the Bucks and restarted this offseason.

Here’s each team’s longest-tenured player, along with how he was acquired:

(Note: This is a snapshot as of September 2, 2025 and won’t be updated throughout the season. Because this list only features each team’s longest-tenured player, one player per team is listed.)

1. Golden State Warriors: Stephen Curry (draft), June 2009
2. Milwaukee Bucks: Giannis Antetokounmpo (draft), June 2013
3. Philadelphia 76ers: Joel Embiid (draft), June 2014
4. Denver Nuggets: Nikola Jokic (draft), June 2014
5. Dallas Mavericks: Dwight Powell (trade), December 2014
6. Phoenix Suns: Devin Booker (draft), June 2015
7. Boston Celtics: Jaylen Brown (draft), June 2016
8. Orlando Magic: Jonathan Isaac (draft), June 2017
9. Miami Heat: Bam Adebayo (draft), June 2017
10. Memphis Grizzlies: Jaren Jackson Jr. (draft), June 2018
11. Atlanta Hawks: Trae Young (draft trade), June 2018
12. Charlotte Hornets: Miles Bridges (draft trade), June 2018 (*)
13. New York Knicks: Mitchell Robinson (draft), June 2018
14. Los Angeles Lakers: LeBron James (free agent), July 2018
15. Los Angeles Clippers: Ivica Zubac (trade), February 2019
16. New Orleans Pelicans: Zion Williamson (draft), June 2019
17. Cleveland Cavaliers: Darius Garland (draft), June 2019
18. Brooklyn Nets: Nic Claxton (draft), June 2019
19. Chicago Bulls: Coby White (draft), June 2019
20. San Antonio Spurs: Keldon Johnson (draft), June 2019
21. Minnesota Timberwolves: Naz Reid (free agent), July 2019
22. Oklahoma City Thunder: Luguentz Dort (free agent), July 2019
23. Indiana Pacers: T.J. McConnell (free agent), July 2019
24. Detroit Pistons: Isaiah Stewart (draft trade), November 2020
25. Houston Rockets: Jae’Sean Tate (free agent), November 2020
26. Washington Wizards: Anthony Gill (free agent), November 2020
27. Toronto Raptors: Scottie Barnes (draft), July 2021
28. Sacramento Kings: Domantas Sabonis (trade), February 2022
29. Portland Trail Blazers: Shaedon Sharpe (draft), June 2022
30. Utah Jazz: Walker Kessler (trade), July 2022

* Note: Bridges was a free agent for the entire 2022/23 season, but the Hornets retained his RFA rights during that time and brought him back for the following season, extending his tenure with the team. If we don’t count Bridges, Charlotte’s longest-tenured player is LaMelo Ball, who was selected in the 2020 draft.

While it’s a safe bet that many players on this list – especially a few near the top – will remain the same when we check in again during the summer of 2026, it’s a lock we’ll see some changes too. Powell (Mavericks), Young (Hawks), Robinson (Knicks), White (Bulls), and – of course – James (Lakers) are among the players on this list who can reach free agency next summer.

Which players do you expect to change teams and come off this list in the next 12 months?

In addition to passing along news, rumors, and analysis on a daily basis, Hoops Rumors provides a number of additional features and resources that can be found anytime on the right-hand sidebar of our desktop site under “Hoops Rumors Features,” or on the “Features” page in our mobile menu.

Since those links are easy to overlook and aren’t readily accessible to our app users, we want to periodically highlight a number of our lists, trackers, and other features.

For instance, our lists of current free agents by position/type and by team are constantly updated, as are our lists of 2026 free agents by position/type and by team.

We have a number of features related to NBA trades, including a roundup of this offseason’s deals, a recap of the trade exceptions currently available to teams, lists of the players who can’t be traded until December 15 or January 15, and details on which players can veto trades in 2025/26 and which players have trade kickers.

We have info on how teams are using mid-level and bi-annual exceptions in 2025/26, as well as which clubs are hard-capped and which have open roster spots. Our free agent tracker, two-way contract tracker and contract extension tracker provide information on most of the deals signed this summer, while our list of non-guaranteed contracts by team helps provide a more complete picture of each team’s roster.

We’ve got details on how much this season’s maximum salaries, minimum salaries, and mid-level/bi-annual exceptions are worth, as well as more details on the key cap figures for the 2025/26 season. We’ve also shared early projections for maximum salaries, minimum salaries, and mid-level/bi-annual figures for 2026/27.

The Hoops Rumors Glossary provides in-depth explanations on many concepts related to the salary cap and Collective Bargaining Agreement, presented in the simplest possible terms. We’ve updated the majority of our entries to reflect the changes made in the most recent CBA.

Finally, we’re in the process of breaking down all 30 teams’ summer moves in our Offseason Check-In series.

Many of our features and trackers are cyclical and will be reintroduced as the year goes on. For example, during draft season next spring, we’ll be keeping tabs on all the early entrants for the 2026 NBA draft.

Be sure to check out the sidebar on our desktop site or our Features page for all of our current resources.

Players who are entering the fourth and final year of their rookie scale contracts were permitted to sign rookie scale extensions as of early July. Those players, who were all 2022 first-round selections, will have until the day before the 2025/26 regular season starts (October 20) to finalize long-term agreements with their current teams.

Players eligible for rookie scale extensions can sign new deals that run for up to five years, with those contracts taking effect beginning in 2026/27. If they don’t sign extensions during the offseason, those players will be eligible for restricted free agency in the summer of 2026.

As our tracker shows, four players — Paolo Banchero, Jabari Smith Jr., Chet Holmgren and Jalen Williams — have already signed rookie scale extensions with their respective teams this offseason. A fifth — Blake Wesley — is no longer eligible after reaching a buyout agreement with Washington and subsequently signing a one-year deal with Portland.

Eight other 2022 first-round picks are ineligible rookie scale deals for various reasons.

That leaves 17 players — including Defensive Player of the Year runner-up Dyson Daniels — who remain eligible for rookie scale extensions this offseason:

• Ochai Agbaji (Raptors)
• Malaki Branham (Wizards)
• Christian Braun (Nuggets)
• Dyson Daniels (Hawks)
• Ousmane Dieng (Thunder)
• Jalen Duren (Pistons)
• Tari Eason (Rockets)
• Jaden Ivey (Pistons)
• Nikola Jovic (Heat)
• Walker Kessler (Jazz)
• Bennedict Mathurin (Pacers)
• Keegan Murray (Kings)
• Shaedon Sharpe (Trail Blazers)
• Jeremy Sochan (Spurs)
• Dalen Terry (Bulls)
• Peyton Watson (Nuggets)
• Mark Williams (Suns)

While some of these players almost certainly won’t sign new deals, we should still see several more extensions signed before the October 20 deadline. There has been an uptick in rookie extensions over the past several offseasons as more teams look to lock up their promising young players in advance of free agency. Since 2020, at least 10 players have signed rookie extensions every year, topping out at a record-setting 14 in 2023.

As of the 2024/25 league year, the non-taxpayer mid-level exception, room exception, and bi-annual exception can all be used to acquire players via waiver claims, giving teams new ways to land other clubs’ roster casualties whose salaries don’t exceed the MLE (approximately $14.1MM in ’25/26)

[RELATED: Values Of 2025/26 Mid-Level, Bi-Annual Exceptions]

In the past, in order to claim a player off waivers, a team generally had to be able to fit the player’s entire salary into cap room, a traded player exception, or a disabled player exception.

Despite the new options available to teams eyeing a player who has recently been cut, waiver claims will likely continue to be infrequent going forward. Once the draft and the early part of the free agent period have passed, many teams around the NBA aren’t in position to take on additional salary or don’t have excess roster spots available for newcomers. Plus, most of the players who end up on waivers are being cut because their current contracts aren’t considered great values.

With all that in mind, it’s perhaps no surprise that the players most frequently claimed on waivers are those on minimum-salary deals, since any club is eligible to place a claim on those players using the minimum salary exception.

Even for minimum-salary claims, there are some caveats — the minimum salary exception can only be used to sign players for up to two years, so the same rules apply to waiver claims. If a player signed a three-year, minimum salary contract, he can’t be claimed using the minimum salary exception, even if he’s in the final year of his deal. And if a player received more than the minimum salary in an earlier season, he can’t be claimed using the minimum salary exception.

Essentially, the minimum salary exception can only be used to claim a player whose current contract could have been signed using the minimum salary exception.

Taking into account all the factors that reduce the odds of a waiver claim, it makes sense that nearly all of the players who get released ultimately clear waivers. The 2021/22 and ’22/23 league years each featured just six waiver claims each, for instance, while there were only three in ’23/24. Last season’s seven waiver claims were the most in a single league year since 2019/20.

Despite how infrequent they are, we still want to track all the waiver claims that take place during the 2025/26 league year, since you never know which claim may end up being crucial. Last season, for example, the Pelicans claimed Brandon Boston Jr. off waivers from San Antonio in October and he became a regular – and reasonably effective – rotation player for the banged-up team.

We’ll track this year’s waiver claims in the space below, updating the list throughout the season to include the latest moves. Here’s the current list:

• Suns claim Jordan Goodwin from Lakers (July 23) (story)
  • Goodwin was a valuable role player for the Lakers during the second half of the 2024/25 season, but when Los Angeles needed to create room below its first-apron hard cap to sign Marcus Smart, he was the odd man out due to the fact that his minimum-salary contract ($2.35MM) was only partially guaranteed for $25K. As it turns out, the Lakers won’t even be on the hook for that $25K after the Suns took on Goodwin’s contract via waivers. The veteran guard is expected to compete for a spot on Phoenix’s roster with Jared Butler, who is also coming to camp on a non-guaranteed deal.

Friday, August 29 is the last day that an NBA team will be able to waive a player who has a fully or partially guaranteed salary for 2025/26 and stretch that player’s ’25/26 salary across multiple seasons.

[RELATED: Hoops Rumors Glossary: Stretch Provision]

The stretch provision deadline has historically been August 31, and while that’s technically still the case, the current Collective Bargaining Agreement tweaked the wording of the rule. In order to apply the stretch provision to a player’s current-season salary, a team must now ensure the player clears waivers on or before August 31 rather than simply requesting waivers on him by August 31.

The adjusted wording is similar to the CBA language related to the league-wide salary guarantee date in January. In that case, a team must place a player on waivers on or before January 7 in order to have him clear waivers ahead of the league-wide Jan. 10 guarantee date. In the case of the stretch provision rule, a player whose salary is being stretched now must be waived by August 29 at 4:00 pm Central time to ensure he has cleared waivers prior to September 1.

A player who clears waivers between September 1 and the end of the 2025/26 season can still have his cap hit(s) for 2026/27 and subsequent seasons stretched across multiple years, assuming he’s owed guaranteed money beyond this season. But his ’25/26 cap charge would remain unchanged in that scenario, unless he reaches a buyout agreement with his team.

The stretch provision allows teams to gain some short-term relief at the cost of reduced long-term flexibility. It’s used most frequently by teams in the luxury tax who want to lower their projected tax bill (or duck out of tax territory entirely) or by teams who want to create extra cap room to accommodate a specific roster move.

While the stretch provision typically isn’t used all this frequently, it has been deployed this offseason in two very noteworthy instances. The Bucks stretched the two years and $112,583,016 remaining on Damian Lillard‘s contract, while the Suns stretched the two years and $96,915,050 left on Bradley Beal‘s deal after he agreed to a buyout.

Like Beal, Cole Anthony (Grizzlies) and Vasilije Micic (Bucks) agreed to buyouts with their respective clubs and then had the stretch provision applied to their leftover salaries — $11.1MM for Anthony and $2MM for Micic. Both players had just one season of guaranteed salary remaining.

Since the stretch provision allows a team to spread the player’s remaining salary across twice the remaining years on his contract, plus one additional year, the new cap hits for those four players are as follows:

• Lillard (Bucks): $22,516,603 for five seasons (through 2029/30)
• Beal (Suns): $19,383,010 for five seasons (through 2029/30)
• Anthony (Grizzlies): $3,700,000 for three seasons (through 2027/28)
• Micic (Bucks): $666,667 for three seasons (through 2027/28)

The Suns’ moves significantly reduced their projected luxury tax payment and moved them well below the second tax apron, while the Bucks’ and Grizzlies’ moves helped create the cap room necessary for other transactions.

We likely won’t see a flurry of cuts today and tomorrow in order to take advantage of this rule, but the deadline is still worth keeping in mind for the possibilities it will take off the table. Any player on a guaranteed expiring contract who is waived after August 29 without a buyout agreement or a waiver claim will have his remaining salary count entirely against his team’s ’25/26 books.