If you happen to know someone who writes about NBA basketball for a living (the qualifier, of course, being that someone is still an actual human being), cut them some slack for at least the next week or so. Other than a member of Congress, no one is keeping longer and busier hours than they are.
Less than 72 hours after the Oklahoma City Thunder finally put an end to the 2024-25 season, we had two nights of the 2025 NBA Draft. And then, after merely a summer-extended weekend, yesterday afternoon the annual floodgate of activity that defines free agency began. And boy, were people awfully busy.
No less than 28 moves were made within the first nine hours of the opening gun, and some teams actually helped their causes. THE ATHLETIC’s vigilant Zack Harper dropped his own list of winners on Day One in his BOUNCE newsletter this morning:
Winner: Rockets
What a summer for the Rockets. They signed Dorian Finney-Smith to a brilliant deal ($53 million over four years). They gave Jabari Smith Jr. a five-year, $122 million extension (Mike Vorkunov explains the NBA’s new salary landscape here). Fred VanVleet came back for $50 million over two years. They’re retooling their depth. Clint Capela returned to Houston for three years and $21.5 million. Oh yeah, and the Rockets will soon complete a trade for Kevin Durant. This team is aiming for the Thunder’s conference crown.
Winner: Hawks
We knew about the Kristaps Porziņģis trade and them fleecing New Orleans for a great draft pick next summer. Then, the Hawks made two great signings with a sign-and-trade to bring Nickeil Alexander-Walker from Minnesota for $62 million over four years (giving up a second-rounder and cash), and Luke Kennard for one year, $11 million. The East is wide open, and Atlanta might be looking to be the new Pacers.
Winner: Grizzlies
I’m not totally sold on Jaren Jackson Jr.’s five-year, $240 million extension being foolproof. But they also brought back Santi Aldama ($52 million over three years), and they took Ty Jerome from Cleveland for $28 million over three years. Losing Desmond Bane was tough, but Kentavious Caldwell-Pope with Jerome is no joke.
And there in the last recap is the potential narrative of the modern free agency era, the one where teams are far more concerned with aprons and caps than a soup kitchen. As Harper reminds, that might forebode the list of moves beyond yesterday being all that extensive:
There isn’t a lot of league-wide cap space to use for offer sheets and leverage. So, where is the money going to come for Josh Giddey, Jonathan Kuminga, Cam Thomas and the rest of these guys? I don’t like this system, but I’m not smart enough to think of something else.
That doesn’t necessarily mean we won’t see more trades. And as BLEACHER REPORT’s Andy Bailey wrote, we got a completely unexpected one yesterday where a couple of bodies otherwise assumed to be going elsewhere were swapped:
In the first real shocker of Day 1, the Denver Nuggets agreed to send 27-year-old sharpshooter Michael Porter Jr. to the Brooklyn Nets for Cameron Johnson.
It also cost the Nuggets an unprotected 2032 first-round pick, but the move will likely be worth that.
Johnson is two years older than Porter, but he’s similarly been a lights-out three-point shooter for the last four years, while also being a more mobile perimeter defender and showing more playmaking chops.
This past season, Johnson averaged career highs in points (18.8). assists (3.4) and threes (2.8), while shooting 39.0 percent from deep. And his increasingly all-around production is likely to get a bit of a boost when he plays alongside Nikola Jokić.
For the Brooklyn Nets, Michael Porter Jr. may not be a long-term piece for the future (though he’s under contract through 2026-27), but this is still a savvy use of some of their cap space. By 2032, Jokić could be long gone, and an unprotected first-rounder could be very valuable.
It’s sechel like this that will be all the more needed by some of the losers that Harper identified, not the least of which being a team that’s contemplating some downright existential moves:
Loser: Lakers
They lost Dorian Finney-Smith to Houston and replaced him with Jake LaRavia, which … sure? I guess so. As mentioned, Capela went back to Houston. Brook Lopez joined the Clippers. Now, the Lakers have to hope Deandre Ayton, who was recently bought out by the Trail Blazers, will sign with them and be magically motivated.
But as Harper narrated in a more extensive piece, a far bigger shoe may be ready to drop:
The Lakers’ timeline situation ever since Luka Dončić was gifted to them back in early February has looked bizarre. Life was almost simpler before that trade. They could’ve aimed to ride out the LeBron James-Anthony Davis chapter until the wheels fell off. From there, they could’ve started selling Lakers mystique to new big stars in hopes of furthering their legacy and hanging more banners. Maybe it’s not a foolproof plan and super easy to execute, but it’s worked enough times in the franchise’s history. And it worked after they signed LeBron back in 2018.
Then, Dallas sent Dončić to the Lakers, which has changed just about everything. The Lakers now have to start playing for the future and present-day championship stability. The funny thing is lead executive Rob Pelinka was already trying to toe that line, as he wasn’t ready to relinquish assets for another LeBron-Davis-led championship pursuit.
Now, the Lakers must build around Dončić and aim for championship stability. The problem is LeBron is still very much on this team. Before free agency opened, he picked up his $52.6 million player option for the 2025-26 season. It will be his 23rd season, just a mind-boggling number when you consider his résumé, mileage and current production. But something curious happened as that option got picked up. LeBron’s longtime agent, Rich Paul, issued this statement. Via Dan Woike and Joe Vardon:
“LeBron knows the Lakers are building for the future, and he also wants to compete for championships. We understand the difficulty in winning now while preparing for the future. We do want to evaluate what’s best for LeBron at this stage in his life and career. He wants to make every season he has left count, and the Lakers understand that, are supportive and want what’s best for him. We are very appreciative of the partnership that we’ve had for eight years with Jeanie (Buss) and Rob (Pelinka) and consider the Lakers as a critical part of his career.”
This is … awkward? It’s kind of awkward. It reads like LeBron knows he’s not fully needed around there, even though he is on the roster.
Maybe they’re paying outsized attention to the less informed among us who would consider a 40-something guy who averaged (in almost eerie irony to the legacy he has been chasing) 24-8-8 last year lazy. Or maybe they’re coming to grips with the reality that Father Time eventually wins, and that James has been dodging bullets. And if Cleveland is desperate enough to trade for Lonzo Ball in the midst of losing Ty Jerome, and is looking for a way to make a 64-win regular season pay off the way that the Thunder just did, they might be interested in Homecoming 2.0–and would willing to take Bronny in the process. Put a Jarrett Allen out there with Doncic, for example, and you might get a version of Ayton that actually cares.
As we are finalizing this, Day 2 is already evolving, with Milwaukee particularly active with the signing of arguably the best big man available, Indiana’s Myles Turner, and waiving the injured Damien Lilliard, effectively punting on the move they thought would catapult them into the post-season stratosphere.
So much like the beleaguered and bleary-eyed folks on Capitol Hill, your favorite NBA sportswriter isn’t likely to be getting much “me” time for themselves for a while. Send them your thoughts, or maybe a Doordash order if you can. Looks like they’ll need it.
Courage…