2025 NBA Offseason Preview: Los Angeles Lakers
The four seasons that followed the Lakers' 2020 title were relatively uninspiring for a team that featured two future Hall of Famers in LeBron James and Anthony Davis. Los Angeles posted a total regular season record of 165-153 (.519) across those four years from 2020-24, missing the playoffs once and getting eliminated in the first round twice. Even in 2023, when the Lakers advanced to the conference finals, they had just a 43-39 record during the season and were swept out of the postseason by Denver.
While the end result of the 2024/25 season was another first-round playoff exit, there are a couple important reasons why it would be inaccurate to say the year was more of the same for the Lakers.
First, with the lone exception of the COVID-shortened championship season in 2019/20, L.A.'s 50-32 record was the best single-season mark the club has posted since 2012. The last time the Lakers won 50 or more games in a full 82-game season was when Phil Jackson was on the sidelines and Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol, Lamar Odom, and Andrew Bynum were on the roster.
Second, and more importantly, Luka Doncic became a Laker during the 2024/25 season.
Much of the discourse in the hours, days, weeks, and months that followed February's shocking Doncic blockbuster focused on what exactly the Mavericks were thinking when they traded away a popular five-time All-NBA first-teamer in his prime. But Dallas wasn't the only franchise whose trajectory was changed irrevocably by the decision. Instead of having James pass the torch in the coming years to Davis, who turned 32 years old in March, the club is set up to build around the 26-year-old Doncic for the next decade.
The acquisition of Doncic didn't turn the Lakers into legitimate championship contenders in the short term. After all, there will always be some growing pains when a ball-dominant star gets accustomed to a new situation halfway through the season.
Plus, the fact that they had to part with Davis - a star in his own right - and nixed a separate deadline deal for center Mark Williams due to concerns about his physical meant the Lakers had a serious dearth of frontcourt talent. It was an issue that came back to haunt them in the postseason, when the Timberwolves dispatched them in five games in the conference quarterfinals.
That sort of first-round playoff exit with the old roster would've created real angst in Los Angeles heading into the offseason, and we likely would've spent weeks or months speculating about how the Lakers could add another impact player this summer to take advantage of what little time they have left with LeBron. Instead, the high of the Doncic trade has lingered for months, significantly reducing the pain of that quick postseason ouster.
Sure, the Lakers need to address the center position and will explore additional roster upgrades before next season tips off, but it certainly feels like there's far less urgency to make a major splash in the short term now that one of the NBA's perennial MVP candidates appears poised to be in L.A. for years to come.
The Lakers' Offseason Plan
Although it's an issue that will have to be addressed later in the summer, ensuring that Doncic will, in fact, be a Laker for the foreseeable future figures to be a top priority for the front office. The star guard will technically become extension-eligible in July, but restrictions on his total years and dollars will remain in place until August 2, six months after the trade that sent him to Los Angeles. At that point, he'll be able to sign for up to a projected $228.6MM over four years.
2025 NBA Offseason Preview: Orlando Magic
From the 2012/13 season through 2021/22, the Magic were one of the worst teams in the NBA. They finished well below .500 in nine of those 10 years, and went just 42-40 in their one winning season ('18/19) during that decade-long stretch.
The Magic committed to a rebuild in '20/21 after being stuck in mediocrity for a few years, trading away Nikola Vucevic, Aaron Gordon, and Evan Fournier. Orlando shrewdly drafted Franz Wagner eighth overall in 2021 with one of the picks it acquired for Vucevic, then got lucky in 2022, winning the draft lottery and selecting Paolo Banchero.
After going just 22-60 the year before Banchero was selected, Orlando made significant strides during his first two seasons, winning 34 games in his rookie campaign and compiling a 47-35 record and making the playoffs in '23/24. The team eventually lost its highly competitive first-round series vs. Cleveland in seven games.
Given their talented young core, seemingly college-like off-court chemistry, and a rock-solid defense, there was an expectation that the Magic would continue to improve again in '24/25. But that didn’t happen, as they finished 41-41 and had to advance through the play-in tournament to secure the seventh seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs. Orlando again lost in the first round, this time to the defending champion Celtics in five games.
There were a number of reasons why the Magic took a minor step back this season, with the most obvious being injuries to their best players. Banchero, Wagner and Suggs account for a huge chunk of the team’s offense, but the trio was limited to a combined 141 appearances and suited up together just six times. On top of that, Orlando's fourth-leading scorer, reserve big man Moritz Wagner, only played in 30 games due to a torn ACL.
The Magic actually had a strong run in the first third of '24/25 even after losing Banchero to a torn abdominal muscle in their fifth game, going 17-9 with Franz Wagner looking like a strong early contender to earn his first All-Star and All-NBA nods. Unfortunately, he sustained the same injury as Banchero in December, with older brother Moritz going down later that month as well.
While injuries were undoubtedly a major factor Orlando's .500 record, the end result was still disappointing.
Key offseason signing Kentavious Caldwell-Pope was unable to build much chemistry with his new teammates and had an underwhelming first season with the Magic. Role players like Wendell Carter, Jonathan Isaac and Cole Anthony took steps back. Second-year guard Jett Howard continued to receive sporadic minutes and largely struggled when he was on the court, despite being a late lottery pick -- 11th overall -- a couple years ago (he was selected with the second first-rounder the Magic received in the Vucevic deal).
Veteran guard Cory Joseph and rookie forward Tristan da Silva were forced into bigger roles than expected due to injuries, and while they acquitted themselves fairly well given the circumstances, it certainly wasn't something the team had planned for. Overall, things were a bit of mess, particularly on the offensive end.
But there are still plenty of reasons to be optimistic about the Magic’s future, especially if the front office is able to find the right combination of talent to surround their top players over the next several months. There’s a strong foundation in place in Orlando, which has a legitimate chance to be a contender in a depleted East next season with better luck and a few changes to balance out the roster.
The Magic's Offseason Plan
The first order of business for the Magic this summer is signing Banchero to a rookie scale extension. There’s really no drama with that decision — I fully expect him to get a five-year max deal with Rose rule language that could increase the value from 25% to 30% of the '26/27 salary cap if he meets certain performance criteria next season.
2025 NBA Offseason Preview: Los Angeles Clippers
The summer of 2024 represented the end of an era for the Clippers. Nearly five years after Kawhi Leonard committed to the Clippers as a free agent at the same time the team was finalizing a blockbuster trade for Paul George, the latter departed in free agency, accepting a four-year, maximum-salary contract offer from the Sixers that L.A. had been unwilling to match.
The version of the Clippers built around Leonard and George was a perennial championship threat when those two were on the court. However, that happened far less frequently than the organization had hoped, with one star or the other often sidelined due to an injury by the time the club was facing postseason elimination. During the five years the two L.A. natives spent together as Clippers, the team won just three playoff series -- and all of those victories came in 2020 and 2021.
So while the Clippers certainly weren't happy to see George walk for nothing in free agency last offseason, it did generate some new opportunities for a team that had spent the last four years operating in luxury tax territory and didn't have an NBA Finals appearance to show for it.
Getting George's contract off the books and getting out of tax apron territory opened up more roster-building avenues for the Clippers and allowed them to spread out some of the money they'd earmarked for George among several rotation players. The club brought in Derrick Jones using the mid-level exception, Nicolas Batum on the bi-annual exception, and Kris Dunn via sign-and-trade, creating the depth necessary to remain competitive during the first half of the season as Leonard recovered from a knee ailment.
Career years for Ivica Zubac and Norman Powell and an All-NBA performance by James Harden as the team's primary offensive engine fueled a strong season for the Clippers, who - even with Leonard limited to just 37 appearances - won more games in 2024/25 (50) than they did in four of their five years with George on the roster.
Unfortunately, L.A. drew a brutal first-round matchup against the Nuggets, who beat the Clips in seven games before going on to push the eventual Western champion Thunder to seven games in the next round. If the seeding had worked out a little differently and the Clippers had ended up on the opposite side of the bracket from the Nuggets and Thunder, would they have won a series or two? We'll never know for sure, but it's certainly possible. This was a good team without many obvious holes.
That's the good news for the Clippers entering the 2025 offseason. The bad news? Even with Harden and Leonard healthy for the postseason, it wasn't good enough to beat the best of the West, so the front office will have to find a way to make additional improvements this summer.
The Clippers' Offseason Plan
While Harden could decline his $36.4MM player option, become an unrestricted free agent, and sign with a new team, there has been absolutely no indication that's the direction he'll go this summer.
2025 NBA Offseason Preview: Miami Heat
Many NBA general managers and team presidents speak in platitudes during their postseason and preseason media sessions, but when Heat president Pat Riley met with the press last spring and fall, he took the opportunity to directly challenge his players to improve their availability and to become better versions of themselves.
Some players responded well to Riley's candor. After being dubbed "fragile" by the longtime Heat president last May, Tyler Herro had a career year in 2024/25, making his first All-Star team and blowing away his previous career highs by appearing in 77 regular season games and averaging 23.9 points per contest.
Riley's remarks proved less inspiring for other key Heat players, however. Jimmy Butler, who was filmed during the 2024 playoffs claiming that the Heat would've beaten the Celtics if he were healthy, reportedly chafed at Riley's recommendation that he "keep (his) mouth shut," and was irked by Miami's unwillingness to give him the maximum-salary extension he sought, due to concerns about his injury history.
While Butler dismissed the idea that his relationship with Riley or the Heat was strained ahead of the season, the situation came to a head by December, with the star forward agitating for a trade out of Miami and earning three separate team-imposed suspensions for "conduct detrimental to the team" and "intentionally withholding services."
With Butler in and out of the lineup and trade speculation swirling around the six-time All-Star for weeks, the Heat actually weathered the storm pretty well. Miami was above .500 (25-24) at the trade deadline, and after sending Butler to Golden State for a package that included Andrew Wiggins, Kyle Anderson, and Davion Mitchell, the team was optimistic about finishing the season strong, having removed a major distraction from the equation.
Instead, it almost seemed as if the Heat's adrenaline wore off and they found themselves suddenly feeling the aftereffects of the drama that had engulfed the club for the better part of the season. Miami lost 17 of its next 21 games, and while the drop down the standings wasn't as precipitous as it could have been if the bottom of the Eastern Conference were a little more competitive, the Heat slid from sixth to 10th, which is where they ultimately finished the season despite reeling off a six-game winning streak in March and April.
The Heat subsequently made history twice in April, first by becoming the first No. 10 seed to make it through the play-in tournament to clinch a playoff spot, then by being on the wrong end of the most lopsided series in NBA postseason history. The playoff berth meant their first-round draft pick would be sent to the Thunder, which was perhaps a better outcome than the alternative -- if the pick had landed in the top 14 and stayed with Miami, the Heat would've owed an unprotected 2026 first-rounder to Oklahoma City.
With their '26 pick in hand, the Heat have more potential paths they could take this offseason and beyond. But tanking has been a rarity during the Riley era, so it's likely the front office will do its best in the coming weeks to figure out a way to turn this club - just two years removed from an NBA Finals appearance - back into a contender as soon as possible.
The Heat's Offseason Plan
Bam Adebayo is viewed as a long-term cornerstone in Miami, having taken over the title of team captain following Udonis Haslem's retirement. Herro, who had long been the subject of trade speculation as the Heat pursued stars like Damian Lillard and Donovan Mitchell in recent years, perhaps solidified his place alongside Adebayo with his breakout 2024/25 performance. But no one else on the roster should be considered entirely safe entering this summer.
2025 NBA Offseason Preview: Memphis Grizzlies
After winning 56 games in 2021/22 and 51 in '22/23, the Grizzlies were decimated by injuries in '23/24, with nearly all of their starters and top reserves affected by a health issue at some point over the course of the season. Most notably, point guard Ja Morant, who served a 25-game suspension to open the season, was able to suit up for just nine contests before sidelined by a season-ending shoulder injury.
Entering '24/25, the Grizzlies had reason to believe that a bounce-back year was on tap. They weren't bringing back all the key elements of those 50-win teams -- forward Dillon Brooks had departed in 2023 free agency, point guard Tyus Jones had been replaced by Marcus Smart, and center Steven Adams was traded at the 2024 deadline. But their core of Morant, Jaren Jackson Jr., and Desmond Bane was intact, and they'd developed some intriguing young talent - including Scotty Pippen Jr., Vince Williams, and GG Jackson - to help fill those openings in the rotation.
Through February 5, the day before the trade deadline, it looked like the Grizzlies had picked up right where they left off. The team went 35-16 to open the season and held the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference. Jackson was playing at an All-NBA level; Bane was having a strong year; the team had found a couple more quality youngsters in rookies Jaylen Wells and Zach Edey; Santi Aldama was having his best season; and while Morant hadn't quite regained his All-Star form or returned to full health, he was playing more often than not and was Memphis' second-leading scorer behind Jackson.
At that point, the Grizzlies made an interesting trade-deadline move, completing a three-team transaction that sent out Smart and Jake LaRavia and created more future spending flexibility for the team. In return, the club acquired Marvin Bagley and Johnny Davis, two players who wouldn't see regular minutes for a playoff team (Davis, in fact, never played for Memphis and was waived two weeks later).
While Smart's availability was inconsistent during his time in Memphis and LaRavia wasn't playing a major role, it was still unusual that the only trade-deadline move made by a No. 2 seed was motivated by future financial concerns and wouldn't help the team at all on the court. I don't think that's why things went south for the Grizzlies over the next couple months, but it wasn't exactly a vote of confidence from the front office in the team's short-term potential.
Memphis went 13-18 after the trade deadline, as a defense that ranked seventh until that point was just the league's 19th-best unit the rest of the way. The offensive drop-off was almost identical, with Memphis registering the fifth-best offensive rating prior to the trade deadline and the 16th-best mark after the deadline.
That second-half tailspin cost head coach Taylor Jenkins his job and nearly cost the Grizzlies a playoff spot -- a win in their second play-in game earned them the No. 8 seed and a matchup with the Thunder, who promptly swept them out of the postseason.
The Grizzlies have since retained former assistant Tuomas Iisalo, Jenkins' interim late-season replacement, as their permanent head coach and will at least enter the offseason with that newfound financial flexibility created by moving off Smart's multiyear deal in February. But for a team that won 21 more games in 2024/25 than it did a year earlier, it certainly feels like there are a lot of questions to answer this summer.
The Grizzlies' Offseason Plan
The top priority for Memphis this offseason will likely be working out an extension with Jackson, who has developed into one of the NBA's best rim protectors while coming into his own as an offensive weapon. But the team-friendly rookie scale extension that Jackson signed back in 2021, which expires in 2026, will complicate extension negotiations.
2025 NBA Offseason Preview: Atlanta Hawks
The 2024 offseason was an eventful one for the Hawks, with its share of ups and downs. The team was forced to admit defeat on its backcourt pairing of Trae Young and Dejounte Murray, but got a pretty strong return when it shipped Murray to New Orleans. Atlanta also improbably won the draft lottery with the 10th-best odds, which is typically a huge boon for a franchise, but that lottery win occurred during a year without a consensus No. 1 prospect.
By the end of the summer, the Hawks were entering the 2024/25 season as a borderline playoff contender (oddsmakers projected them to be the ninth-best team in the Eastern Conference) and without control of their own 2025 first-round pick, which they'd sent to San Antonio years earlier in their original deal for Murray.
Being a non-contender that doesn't possess its own draft pick is, in many ways, a worst-case scenario for an NBA franchise. But while the Hawks ultimately did fall short of the playoffs, the path they took to get to that outcome - and the situation they find themselves in entering the 2025 offseason - provides more reasons for optimism than the franchise had a year ago.
Dyson Daniels, acquired from the Pelicans as part of the package for Murray, emerged as one of the NBA's very best perimeter defenders and took a significant step forward offensively at the same time, with new career highs in points (14.1) and assists (4.4) per game, as well as shooting percentage (49.3%) and three-point percentage (34.0%). Daniels nearly won two major end-of-season awards, taking home Most Improved Player honors while finishing as the Defensive Player of the Year runner-up.
Zaccharie Risacher, the prospect the Hawks settled on as their first overall pick last June, played rotation minutes from day one and finished the season strong, averaging 14.9 points per game on .518/.421/.716 shooting after returning from an adductor injury in late January. He was the second-place finisher in Rookie of the Year voting and was named to the All-Rookie First Team.
Onyeka Okongwu, the backup center behind veteran Clint Capela for the last few seasons, finally got the opportunity to take over the starting job in January and made the most of it, averaging a double-double (15.0 PPG, 10.1 RPG) with a .581/.362/.762 shooting line in his final 40 outings.
And while Jalen Johnson's season ended early due to a shoulder injury, the 23-year-old forward showed in the first half why the Hawks were willing to commit $150MM to him on a five-year rookie scale extension that will begin in 2025/26, averaging 18.9 PPG, 10.0 RPG, and 5.0 APG on 50.0% shooting.
It's a promising young core, and Atlanta will have another opportunity to add to it later this month. Although they didn't have their own first-round pick at No. 14, the Hawks received Sacramento's first-rounder one spot higher at No. 13 to close the book on the Kevin Huerter trade the two teams made back in 2022. Atlanta will also control a second first-rounder this summer, having received the Lakers' 2025 pick from New Orleans in last year's Murray deal. That selection landed at No. 22.
Given all that went right during what could have been a demoralizing year in Atlanta, it was a little surprising that the Hawks dismissed general manager Landry Fields shortly after their season ended. The search for a new head of basketball operations is ongoing, though there have been rumors that the team may simply bring in a senior advisor to work with newly promoted GM Onsi Saleh, rather than hiring a president of basketball operations who would be above him in the front office hierarchy.
The Hawks' Offseason Plan
Whether it's Saleh or a new hire who ultimately has the final say on roster decisions, the Hawks will have a fair share of them to make this offseason, including what the future holds for Young.
2025 NBA Offseason Preview: Sacramento Kings
It was just two years ago that the Kings posted their best regular season record (48-34) in nearly two decades. That year's team snapped a streak of 16 straight years out of the playoffs, earned Mike Brown Coach of the Year honors, and introduced the phrase "light the beam" into the NBA lexicon.
The vibes were good in Sacramento entering the 2023/24 season, but a 46-win showing wasn't quite enough to make a second straight playoff appearance in a competitive Western Conference.
It was a step back, but only a small one -- the club stumbled more significantly in 2024/25, losing 19 of its first 32 games, which cost Brown his job and led to a trade request from star point guard De'Aaron Fox, who was sent to San Antonio ahead of February's trade deadline. The season ended with a sub-.500 record (40-42) and a blowout loss in the play-in tournament to a Mavericks team missing its top scorer and play-maker (Kyrie Irving).
Suddenly, a Sacramento squad that seemed to be on the rise two years ago is lacking a clear direction. Domantas Sabonis, a perennial 19 PPG scorer who is one of the NBA's best rebounding and passing big men, was as good as ever in '24/25, but there are significant questions about the supporting cast around him.
The Kings' top two scorers were Zach LaVine and DeMar DeRozan, the former leaders of a Bulls team that routinely hovered around 40 wins in recent years. Malik Monk, the Sixth Man of the Year runner-up in 2024, saw his three-point percentage plummet to 32.5%. Keegan Murray, the No. 4 overall pick in the 2022 draft, took a step backward as a scorer and shooter in his third NBA season. And 2024 lottery pick Devin Carter, who had his professional debut delayed by shoulder surgery, wasn't able to provide consistent positive minutes once he got healthy.
The future in Sacramento doesn't look nearly as bleak in 2025 as it did during most of the team's postseason drought from 2007-22. But new general manager Scott Perry, hired last month after Monte McNair was let go, will have his work cut out for him as he attempts to turn the Kings into a title contender.
The Kings' Offseason Plan
The first issue Perry needs to address as he takes the reins in Sacramento is making sure Sabonis feels comfortable with the team's direction. The 29-year-old still has three years left on his current contract, so the Kings won't have to worry about his flight risk in the short term like they did with Fox, but the comments Sabonis made after the season ended weren't all that dissimilar to the ones Fox made a year ago.
2025 NBA Offseason Preview: Chicago Bulls
The Bulls have had just one winning season since 2016, and even that season - 2021/22 - was really all about an outstanding first half. The team opened the year by winning 27 of its first 38 games with Lonzo Ball leading the charge as a two-way dynamo at the point, Zach LaVine, DeMar DeRozan, and Nikola Vucevic providing the scoring, and Alex Caruso wreaking havoc on the defensive end.
Management in Chicago spent two-and-a-half years dreaming on that version of the Bulls, which never looked quite the same without Ball on the court. The former No. 2 overall pick spent those same two-and-a-half years trying to work his way back from knee problems that ended his '21/22 season early and threatened to halt his playing career for good.
Ball ultimately made his return to the court in the fall of 2024, but the Bulls had thrown in the towel on the previous iteration of their roster a few months earlier, having traded away key veterans like DeRozan and Caruso while acquiring a new point guard of the future in Josh Giddey.
The Bulls continued to tear down the 2021-24 version of their roster prior to February's trade deadline by sending LaVine to Sacramento in a three-team blockbuster, signaling that they finally appeared ready to launch a full-fledged rebuild. The club reacquired complete control of its 2025 first-round pick in the LaVine deal and took back Tre Jones, Kevin Huerter, and Zach Collins, three veterans who had been having disappointing years with their previous teams and looked poised to lead a second-half tank job.
That's not how the final couple months of the season played out, though. The Bulls improbably went 15-5 to close out the year, earning a spot in the play-in tournament for a third straight spring. It was a cause for grumbling among many fans in Chicago, who had watched their team win 40 games in 2022/23 and 39 in '23/24 while ostensibly trying to contend. Those fans were excited about the possibility of leaning into the rebuild and securing a high draft pick in '24/25. Instead, the end result - a 39-43 record, a quick play-in exit, and a draft pick outside the top 10 - felt like more of the same.
But it wasn't quite the same. There were several promising developments during that unexpected hot streak late in the season.
Coby White looked like one of the NBA's best scorers, averaging 26.0 points per game on .505/.383/.902 shooting in March and April. Giddey showed why the Bulls were willing to give up Caruso for him, nearly averaging a triple-double (21.2 PPG, 10.7 RPG, 9.3 APG) while making 45.7% of his three-pointers after the All-Star break. Lottery pick Matas Buzelis earned a spot on the All-Rookie Second Team by putting up 13.3 PPG and 4.4 RPG on .491/.367/.806 shooting from February 1 onward.
Although the Bulls spent another year stuck in the middle, the fact that the front office has been willing to make major roster changes in the past year - and seems primed to continue making more - is a positive development for a team that was going nowhere fast at this time last spring. There's still a lot of work to be done, but the organization now appears focused on building a roster capable of contending in the future, rather than stubbornly sticking with one not equipped to contend in the present.
The Bulls' Offseason Plan
The No. 1 item on Chicago's offseason to-do list is figuring out what a new contract for Giddey looks like. The two sides reportedly engaged in rookie scale extension talks last fall, with the former Thunder guard said to be looking for a deal salary in the range of $30MM per year. Jalen Johnson and Jalen Suggs were seeking similar commitments at the same time and received five-year, $150MM extensions, but the Bulls weren't willing to put that offer on the table for Giddey, opting to postpone negotiations until this summer.
2025 NBA Offseason Preview: Utah Jazz
Following a first-round postseason exit in 2022, the Jazz traded away Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell, kick-starting the tear-down of a roster that had made six consecutive playoff appearances at that time. Three years later, Utah has stockpiled a ton of future draft picks and opened up far more cap flexibility going forward, but the current roster looks even less equipped to get back to the playoffs than that post-Gobert/Mitchell squad did entering the 2022/23 season.
The Jazz’s lack of forward progress is understandable to a certain extent. Although Gobert and Mitchell were traded during the 2022 offseason along with Bojan Bogdanovic and Royce O’Neale, it took a couple more years for Utah to sell off most of its remaining productive veteran rotation players, including Mike Conley, Malik Beasley, Jarred Vanderbilt, Kelly Olynyk, and Simone Fontecchio.
With several of those vets still on the roster and the Jazz having done well to acquire players like Lauri Markkanen, Walker Kessler, and Collin Sexton in the Gobert and Mitchell deals, the team outperformed expectations during the first half of the ’22/23 and ’23/24 seasons, necessitating more trades as the front office looked to improve its position in the lottery and snag a high draft pick.
However, after winning 37 and 31 games in those two years, the Jazz picked just ninth overall in 2023 and 10th in 2024. Utah still loaded up on rookies in both drafts, having also selected 16th and 28th in ’23 and 29th and 32nd in ’24, but without a pick in the top half of the lottery, the team came out of those drafts with plenty of question marks instead of an obvious franchise cornerstone.
While Isaiah Collier and Kyle Filipowski displayed some promise as rookies this past season, No. 10 overall pick Cody Williams was one of the NBA’s least effective rotation players, and 2023 first-rounders Keyonte George and Brice Sensabaugh were major defensive liabilities for a team that ranked dead last in the league with a 119.4 defensive rating. 2023 lottery pick Taylor Hendricks, meanwhile, had an up-and-down rookie season, then suffered a season-ending leg injury during his third game of his sophomore year.
With so many veterans having been traded away and so many of the Jazz’s young players not giving the team positive minutes, the front office finally got the bottom-out year it was looking for this past season — Utah’s 17-65 record was the worst of any NBA team in ’24/25, as well as the worst mark in team history.
Unfortunately, after not getting any luck from the back half of the lottery in 2023 and 2024, the Jazz didn’t fare any better in 2025, falling from No. 1 in the pre-lottery standings to No. 5 in the draft, a worst-case outcome (albeit one that had a 48% chance of happening).
A report in March indicated that the Jazz view the last three years as their “tear-down” period and that, in their eyes, the rebuild is just now getting started. With no reason to want to take a significant step forward in 2025/26 (Utah’s 2026 first-round pick will be sent to Oklahoma City if it lands outside the top eight), the Jazz will likely approach this offseason with the expectation that they’ll be spending at least one more year near the bottom of the NBA standings.
The Jazz’s Offseason Plan
Having slipped to No. 5 on lottery night, the Jazz likely don’t have a path to landing a potential franchise player like Cooper Flagg or Dylan Harper. Still, it’s worth giving the Spurs a call about No. 2 to see what it would take, since a San Antonio team that already employs De’Aaron Fox and Stephon Castle may be willing to listen to pitches for Harper. In all likelihood though, the Jazz will end up staying put at No. 5, so which target makes the most sense in that spot?
ESPN’s most recent mock draft sent Oklahoma point guard Jeremiah Fears to Utah. As Jonathan Givony acknowledged in that piece, it’s not an ideal fit, given that the Jazz spent first-round picks in both 2023 (George) and 2024 (Collier) on point guards, but this rebuild isn’t far enough along – and neither George nor Collier is established enough – for the front office to prioritize fit over the best player available. If Fears is the player atop the Jazz’s board when they’re on the clock, they should take him.
There will be other candidates in play. While Ace Bailey and V.J. Edgecombe are widely considered the next-best prospects after Flagg and Harper, Utah could pounce if one of them slips to No. 5. If not, Texas shooting guard Tre Johnson is worth a long look. He and Fears both probably have more offensive upside than any of the youngsters Utah drafted in 2023 or 2024.
Khaman Maluach, Kon Knueppel, Noa Essengue, and Derik Queen are among the other prospects who could be on Utah’s radar, but I suspect the Jazz may ultimately end up choosing between whichever two players from that Bailey/Edgecombe/Fears/Johnson group are still on the board at No. 5.
In addition to picking at No. 5, the Jazz hold the No. 21 overall selection, giving them multiple first-rounders for a third straight season. While it’s possible they won’t be eager to incorporate two more first-year players into a roster that’s starting to tilt pretty heavily toward guys on rookie scale contracts, I think that would be more problematic if several of their 2023 and 2024 picks had already established themselves as reliable rotation pieces. But since many of those young players will still have to fight to earn regular minutes, it doesn’t hurt to add another one to that competition.
The Jazz’s pick at No. 21 will depend on how the first two-thirds of the first round play out, but there are several interesting names who might be available in that range, including big men Asa Newell and Maxime Raynaud.
As Utah continues to build out its base of young talent, the front office will also have major decisions to make on several of its veterans, starting with a pair of young vets: Markkanen, who just turned 28, and Kessler, who will turn 24 in July.
Markkanen signed a long-term extension with the organization last summer and is under contract through 2028/29. Kessler only has one year left on his rookie deal, but could end up being locked up for even longer than Markkanen if he and the Jazz are able to work out a rookie scale extension during the 2025 offseason.
The question is whether Markkanen and Kessler, both of whom have been the subject of trade rumors in the past year, are viewed as long-term keepers or whether Utah will consider moving either of them this summer.
I’d bet on Markkanen sticking around for now. He’s coming off an injury-plagued season in which his shooting averages plummeted to 42.3% from the floor and 34.6% on three-pointers, well below his career rates and even further below the numbers he put up during his first two years in Utah.
Markkanen is owed $196MM over the next four years and his trade value is the lowest it’s been since his breakout All-Star season in 2022/23. Now isn’t the time to move him, even if his presence raises the Jazz’s floor and might compromise the club’s ability to vie for a top-four pick again in 2026 — as this year’s 17-win performance shows, he only raises that floor so much in a competitive Western Conference.
Kessler is arguably a more interesting case. If they want to keep him beyond the 2025/26 season, the Jazz will likely have to pay big money to do it. The young center has impressed as a rebounder and rim protector and has made some strides on the offensive end over the course of his three NBA seasons.
He has a stronger résumé than Onyeka Okongwu did when he got a four-year, $62MM extension from Atlanta two years ago. Recent deals for Wendell Carter (three years, $58.7MM), Jakob Poeltl (four years, $78MM), and Nic Claxton (four years, $97MM) could be used as comparables during the Kessler negotiations. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if he gets a bigger deal than all of them.
If the Jazz aren’t convinced that Kessler is their center of the future, this offseason is probably the time to make a move. Would the Lakers be willing to part with the same package (Dalton Knecht, an unprotected first-round pick, and a pick swap) that they agreed to send the Hornets for Mark Williams before health concerns scuttled that deal? It seems very possible, and they wouldn’t be the only team with legitimate interest.
The idea of trading a 24-year-old center who has been the most impressive of any Jazz players on rookie scale contracts doesn’t sit especially well with me. After all, Kessler is clearly young enough to be part of Utah’s next playoff team. But that next playoff team might still be years away from materializing, and under this Collective Bargaining Agreement, clubs have to be careful about which players they invest heavily in. That decision is looming on Kessler, so we should find out soon whether or not Utah is comfortable signing him to a lucrative four- or five-year deal.
The Jazz’s other three veterans – Sexton, John Collins, and Jordan Clarkson – will all be on expiring contracts in 2025/26, assuming Collins exercises his $26.6MM player option, which seems like a relatively safe bet. I’d view all three as trade candidates, though it will be difficult to extract a ton of value for Sexton or Clarkson, both of whom are undersized, offense-first shooting guards who can be attacked on defense and are earning more than the mid-level. Utah could maximize its return on either player by taking back unwanted multiyear salary from a team seeking more flexibility going forward.
Collins is the most intriguing player of this trio to me. He had a couple disappointing seasons after signing a five-year, $125MM contract with Atlanta in 2021, but he has arguably become undervalued in Utah. Although he was limited to 40 appearances in 2024/25, Collins played some of the best basketball of his career, averaging 19.0 points and 8.2 rebounds per game with an impressive .527/.399/.848 shooting line.
And Collins wasn’t just putting up empty stats on a bad team. Utah had a -0.9 net rating during his 1,220 minutes on the floor, including a 113.3 defensive rating. By comparison, during the 2,741 minutes he wasn’t on the floor, those numbers nosedived to -12.9 and 121.1, respectively.
I’m not sure whether the Jazz view Collins as a player who has a long-term future in Utah, especially since he’s at his best playing power forward, which is Markkanen’s natural spot. But if they can’t find an appealing trade offer for him and he’s willing to take a pay cut on his next contract, signing him to an extension wouldn’t be the worst outcome for the franchise.
Salary Cap Situation
Guaranteed Salary
Lauri Markkanen ($46,394,100)- Collin Sexton ($18,975,000)
- Jordan Clarkson ($14,285,714)
- Taylor Hendricks ($6,127,080)
- Cody Williams ($5,742,480)
- Walker Kessler ($4,878,938)
- Keyonte George ($4,278,960)
- Kyle Filipowski ($3,000,000)
- Brice Sensabaugh ($2,693,760)
- Isaiah Collier ($2,638,200)
- Total: $109,014,232
Non-Guaranteed Salary
- KJ Martin ($8,025,000)
- Svi Mykhailiuk ($3,675,000)
- Mykhailiuk’s salary will become guaranteed if he remains under contract through June 30.
- Johnny Juzang ($2,840,518)
- Juzang’s salary will become guaranteed if he remains under contract through June 30.
- Jaden Springer ($2,349,578)
- Springer’s salary will become partially guaranteed for $400,000 if he remains under contract through July 25.
- Elijah Harkless (two-way)
- Total: $16,890,096
Dead/Retained Salary
- None
Player Options
- John Collins ($26,580,000): Bird rights
- Total: $26,580,000
Team Options
- None
Restricted Free Agents
- None
Two-Way Free Agents
Because he’s no longer eligible to sign a two-way contract, Potter’s qualifying offer would be worth his minimum salary (projected to be $2,461,463). It would include a small partial guarantee.
Draft Picks
- No. 5 overall pick ($9,069,840 cap hold)
- No. 21 overall pick ($3,512,520 cap hold)
- No. 43 overall pick (no cap hold)
- No. 53 overall pick (no cap hold)
- Total (cap holds): $12,582,360
Extension-Eligible Players
- John Collins (veteran)
- Extension-eligible until June 30 if player option declined or in July if player option exercised.
- Walker Kessler (rookie scale)
- Collin Sexton (veteran)
Unless otherwise indicated, these players will become eligible for extensions at some point in July.
Unrestricted Free Agents
- None
Cap Exceptions Available
The Jazz project to operate over the cap but below the first tax apron.
- Non-taxpayer mid-level exception: $14,104,000
- Bi-annual exception: $5,134,000
- Trade exception: $3,564,000
Unless otherwise indicated, trade exceptions won’t expire before the regular season begins.
2025 NBA Offseason Preview: Philadelphia 76ers
If you're looking to make the point that winning the offseason doesn't guarantee success the following season, it would be hard to find a better case study than the 2024/25 Sixers.
Armed with more cap room than any other NBA team entering the summer of 2024, the 76ers made a huge splash on the free agent market by luring Paul George away from the Clippers with a four-year, maximum-salary offer. They signed Joel Embiid and Tyrese Maxey to long-term contracts and used their remaining cap space to complement their new big three with solid role players like Caleb Martin and Andre Drummond.
Given Embiid's and George's lengthy injury histories, there was certainly skepticism in some corners about the 76ers' ability to immediately contend for a championship, but there was also widespread enthusiasm about the team's raised ceiling following a 47-win showing and a first-round playoff exit in 2023/24. Oddsmakers set Philadelphia's over/under at 52.5 wins in the fall of 2024.
You know what happened next. Embiid's season debut was delayed and he was ultimately limited to just 19 up-and-down appearances due to lingering issues in the knee he had surgically repaired in February 2024. George (41 games) and Maxey (52 games) also dealt with injuries that limited their effectiveness, as did several other key rotation players, including Jared McCain, whose potential Rookie of the Year campaign was cut short after just 23 games due to knee surgery.
The Sixers lost 12 of 14 games to open the season, and while they followed that first month up with a 13-8 run that got them back into the play-in mix, they couldn't sustain that momentum without their superstar center available. Philadelphia ultimately went 5-31 from January 31 onward, giving up on the idea of earning a play-in spot and instead doing all it could to avoid losing its top-six protected first-round pick to the Thunder.
The silver lining of the 76ers' season is that they did hang onto that first-rounder, which moved up to No. 3 on draft lottery night. That pick provides some reason for optimism, as does the young backcourt of Maxey and McCain, who both should be healthy by the fall.
Still, in order to make the playoffs and have a shot at a deep postseason run, the Sixers needs Embiid and George to be healthy. If those two stars are back on the court and back in form next season, the club should be well positioned for a bounce-back year. If not, those long-term contracts for Embiid (four years, $248MM) and George (three years, $162MM) will become major problems.
The Sixers' Offseason Plan
As disastrous as the 2024/25 season was for Philadelphia, tearing down the roster and starting over almost certainly isn't a path that president of basketball operations Daryl Morey and his front office will seriously consider or pursue this summer. Due to their massive contracts and the uncertainty surrounding their health, Embiid and George have never had less trade value, so the Sixers would have to take 25 cents on the dollar to move the duo at this point. Nothing in Morey's transaction history suggests he'd do that.