Free agency begins this week, and the rumor mill is already ridiculous. Here are five things I’m hearing around the NBA:
1. The Warriors want LeBron and AD
There’s a moment in every aging franchise when the studio starts adding famous old faces to the poster and nostalgia starts doing all of the work. That is, apparently, the offseason plan for the Golden State Warriors.
The Warriors are attempting to trade for Wizards big Anthony Davis and then sign Lakers free agent forward LeBron James, according to multiple league sources.
A trade for Davis would have to include Jimmy Butler, who is on an expiring $57 million contract while recovering from a torn ACL. The Warriors would also have to include draft capital — they have two future firsts and four first-round swaps to work with in any deal.
Sources say the Warriors hope adding Davis would help lure LeBron from Los Angeles to the Bay Area once free agency officially opens on June 30. The pitch would be simple: reunite with AD, team up with Steph Curry and Draymond Green, play for Steve Kerr, and chase one more championship with a roster of legends.
ESPN’s Shams Charania reported last week that the Lakers have not made an offer to LeBron yet. Free agency begins this week, so if LeBron wants to keep playing, he may need to do it on a new team for the mid-level exception, worth a little over $15 million. But Klutch Sports CEO Rich Paul said “10 to 12 teams” have checked in about adding LeBron this summer, so sign-and-trade options could also emerge.
The Warriors would certainly have appeal. LeBron won gold with Curry, Davis, and Kerr in 2024 with Team USA, and the basketball fit was obvious. LeBron said his pairing with Curry felt effortless because they “play basketball the right way.”
So the Warriors are trying to form the NBA’s Expendables with a cast of legends joining forces for one last mission to win one last ring.
But there is real doubt they can pull it off.
Washington has signaled an intention to keep Davis after re-signing Trae Young to a four-year, $212 million extension. “He wants to be here. We want him here,” Wizards general manager Will Dawkins said on the ESPN live draft show last week. “We’ll have that conversation in the middle of August when we can officially have that.”
Davis is on track to become eligible for a four-year, $275 million extension on Aug. 6. If Davis were traded, his extension clock would reset. Under the collective bargaining agreement, he would be ineligible to sign that full max deal until six months after the new trade becomes official.
Washington’s actions are those of a team looking to win now. Would a 37-year-old Butler returning from injury really have all that much appeal to the Wizards? Or would the Warriors need Butler to be routed to a third team, with a different All-Star-caliber player going back to Washington?
There is also the Butler side of it. After participating in a Warriors team event this week, Butler said he wants to remain with Golden State and said it’s the best organization he’s ever played for. But he was also asked about trade possibilities.
“If I get traded, I get traded. Their job is to win.” Butler said, per ESPN’s Anthony Slater. “Can I help them do that? Yes. If they feel like somebody else can help them do that on a quicker timetable than whenever I come back, then they got to go and do that. But as of right now, I’m here.”
That quote says everything about where the Warriors are. Butler was their big acquisition, but now he might need to be the piece that moves to have any chance of contending in the loaded West. Competing cannot wait until January or February or whenever Butler is healthy. It needs to begin in October, which is why the Warriors are exploring options for LeBron and AD. But LeBron is no guarantee to leave, and Golden State is not dealing with a team looking to just dump Davis.
Plus, the Warriors may not be the only suitor for Davis. The Stein Line reported last week that Portland could pivot to Davis after missing out on Giannis Antetokounmpo. The Trail Blazers are also focused on Jaylen Brown. They have a combination of tradable salaries and future draft picks that could appeal in a trade for a star. And that matters because it could give Washington another win-now suitor to drive up the price if the team decides to engage in AD talks.
The Warriors have whiffed on star pursuits before. In recent years, they attempted to trade for Paul George, Lauri Markkanen, Pascal Siakam, Kevin Durant, Giannis Antetokounmpo, and Kawhi Leonard. They pivoted to Butler only after Durant had no interest in a reunion. Now Butler is injured, and Curry’s window is smaller.
Maybe this ends up another Warriors trade machine hallucination. But maybe Golden State actually pulls off the oldest superteam ever assembled. Maybe LeBron, AD, Curry, Draymond, and Kerr turn their final acts into one more title run before the credits roll.
2. Is Kawhi Leonard really on the move?
The hard part with Kawhi Leonard is the truth is rarely obvious until a deal is done.
Talk to one person in the know, and they’ll tell you the Clippers and Raptors have had serious talks about sending Kawhi Leonard back to Toronto. Talk to another person in the know, and they’ll tell you the Toronto noise is less about a reunion and more about leverage in extension talks with Los Angeles.
And now there is another team worth watching: Dallas. Here’s what was reported by Christian Clark, Dan Woike and Sam Amick over at The Athletic:
Mavericks president Masai Ujiri has interest in reuniting with Kawhi Leonard, multiple league sources with knowledge of Dallas’ thinking told The Athletic.
The Mavericks and LA Clippers have discussed a deal that would send the seven-time All-Star Leonard to Dallas for a package that would include P.J. Washington, Klay Thompson and draft picks, league sources said.
Ujiri is the executive who made the original Kawhi gamble in 2018, when he traded DeMar DeRozan, Jakob Poeltl and a first-round pick to San Antonio for Leonard and Danny Green. At the time, it was one of the boldest swings in NBA history: trading the face of the franchise for a superstar who had no long-term commitment to stay. One year later, Toronto won the championship.
But this is not the same Toronto that Leonard left in 2019. The front office has changed. The coaching staff has changed. The roster has changed. The mythology is still there, though. But if Toronto represents the emotional reunion, then Dallas represents the executive reunion. The problem is the Mavericks aren’t exactly in a place to contend with Leonard. Ujiri said himself that all moves would be “future-based” with a generational talent in Cooper Flagg. It’s odd that Dallas would even have interest in sacrificing limited draft capital for Kawhi. League sources say that interest on the part of the Mavericks and Raptors is genuine, though. It’s just a matter of what Clippers owner Steve Ballmer wants to do.
The Clippers are foolish if they don’t trade Leonard. At age 34, he just had the best regular season of his entire career, posting 28 points on nearly 50/40/90 while playing 65 games. And even that only makes the case stronger for the ultimate sell-high to end a disastrous era. It began with the Paul George trade, which cost them a future two-time MVP and a mountain of picks. It continued with years of injury uncertainty, load management, and playoff absences. The Clippers bent their entire franchise around Kawhi. They lived with the silence, the injuries, the uncle, and the special treatment. And now Leonard is entering the final year of his contract while the franchise is dealing with the ongoing Aspiration mess.
What are we really doing here? If there is finally a real market for Leonard, the Clippers need to treat it like an escape hatch. Take it before the door closes.
3. The Heat have a guard problem
When a team lands Giannis Antetokounmpo, the afterglow is supposed to last longer than a weekend. But on Sunday, The Stein Line reported that Tim Hardaway Jr. and Mike Conley are “priority targets” for Miami in free agency.
Priority?
That is the kind of word that should make Heat fans lie down and stare at the ceiling.
Here’s another word: bleak.
Example sentence: The Giannis Antetokounmpo era in Miami is off to a bleak start if Hardaway and Conley are priority targets in free agency.
That is not meant as disrespect to either player. Hardaway just had one of the best regular seasons of his career, but he fell off a cliff in the playoffs, which has become an annual occurrence for him. Conley can still organize an offense, but he can no longer be expected to play heavy minutes. When a franchise lands Giannis, the first names connected to its offseason should probably sound a little more ambitious than a 34-year-old streaky shooter and a 39-year-old point guard.
The Heat are in this position because they are hard capped at the first apron, which limits their ability to make a competitive offer to free agent guard Norman Powell, who is receiving interest from the Bulls and Pistons.
League sources say the Heat have shopped Nikola Jović in an attempt to cut salary to open flexibility for Powell. But Jović is entering the first year of a four-year, $62 million contract that already looks like an albatross by role player standards given his lack of development at 23 years old. Miami would have to attach draft capital to Jović’s contract to dump him, but the front office only has a 2029 first and swaps in 2028 and 2032 to dangle.
In addition to Hardaway and Conley, the Miami Herald’s Barry Jackson and Anthony Chiang mentioned Buddy Hield as a potential option. Hield can still shoot, but at 33 years old he has declined athletically, and his 3-point percentage has dropped in three consecutive seasons.
Sources say the Heat had interest in Grizzlies point guard Ja Morant before the Giannis deal, but there is not much expectation that he will get bought out. In fact, league sources expect Morant to be traded this week.
What is clear from all the veteran names floating around, and from Miami’s second-round selection of Louisville senior guard Ryan Conwell, is that the Heat know their backcourt needs major reinforcements. With Giannis, Bam Adebayo, and Bobby Portis, the Miami frontcourt is in good shape. Andrew Wiggins, Simone Fontecchio, and Pelle Larsson give Miami functional options on the wing. But Davion Mitchell and Conwell cannot be the only real options at guard.
That is why retaining Powell should be the priority, no matter what it takes to dump Jović, given how unappealing the alternatives are. Powell plus two of Conley, Hardaway, and Hield sounds a whole lot better than a backcourt plan built only around the leftovers.
Antetokounmpo’s presence alongside Adebayo, Wiggins, and the existing crew will position Miami to win a lot of games next season. But the Heat still need to make proper additions to make the Giannis era feel as big as the trade that started it.
4. Charlotte might not be done
The Hornets traded LaMelo Ball to the Timberwolves for Naz Reid and picks, then moved Miles Bridges to the Suns for Grayson Allen and Royce O’Neale. Now executives around the league are wondering whether Charlotte is setting up for something bigger.
The name to watch? Jaylen Brown, according to Michael Scotto from HoopsHype:
“Charlotte also had exploratory conversations regarding Brown, which included a newly acquired player from the LaMelo Ball trade. The Hornets recently landed Naz Reid from Minnesota. Before the Ball trade, Boston desired Reid as part of Brown trade talks with Minnesota, as noted by The Athletic’s Jon Krawczynski. Reid once again was brought up in talks for Brown after joining the Hornets, HoopsHype has learned.”
Hornets head coach Charles Lee was an assistant in Boston, so there is familiarity with Brown. But the basketball fit matters even more. Charlotte badly needs someone who can attack off the dribble, pressure the rim, and give the offense a more forceful downhill element.
That was an issue before the LaMelo trade, and played a role in Charlotte’s play-in tournament collapse. Last season, both Ball and Brandon Miller took only 19% of their shots at the rim when operating out of pick-and-rolls and isolations, per Synergy. Coby White, who will absorb some of Ball’s touches, took 44% of his shots at the rim in those same play types. Knueppel was at 30%. Brown was at 32%.
That matters because Charlotte’s roster still leans heavily toward perimeter skill. Miller is a shot-maker. Knueppel is a shooter and connector. White gives them more north-south juice than Ball, but he is still more combo guard than franchise engine. In the draft, the Hornets added Hannes Steinbach with the 14th pick, a skilled center who can score with his back to the basket or face up, then took Texas Tech guard Christian Anderson at No. 18, another perimeter-oriented player who might be the best shooter in the class. All three players acquired — Reid, Allen, and O’Neale — are perimeter guys too.
Brown would change the balance of the roster. He would give Charlotte a true wing scorer with Finals experience, physicality, and defensive versatility. He just led the Celtics to 52 wins without Jayson Tatum because he’s a floor-raiser with enough star power to alter expectations immediately.
The question is price. Charlotte is sitting on a stockpile of first-rounders, and Reid’s arrival gives the Hornets a player Boston has already shown interest in. If the Celtics are serious about reshaping their roster around Jayson Tatum, Charlotte is one of the few teams that can offer a mix of useful players, salary, and draft capital without completely hollowing out its own future.
Trading LaMelo and Bridges could have looked like the start of a step back. Instead, it may be Charlotte setting up for a different kind of leap.
5. The draft relegation zone is looming over the trade market
The NBA’s new draft relegation zone is still a fresh concept for fans, but front offices are already talking about it. And for teams near the bottom of the standings, especially in the Western Conference, it now has to factor into every big decision.
That is what makes the Trey Murphy situation in New Orleans so interesting.
League sources say multiple teams have put two first-round picks on the table for Murphy. Pelicans general manager Joe Dumars has been pushing for three firsts in discussions so far, and there is still a chance he gets there. But for now, teams appear to be holding firm at two.
The more important question might not be how many firsts the Pelicans can extract. It is what kind of player comes back with them.
Murphy is not just a trade chip. He is by far the best shooter on the Pelicans, one of their few players who cleanly fits any lineup, and one of their most versatile defenders. Trading him for a package built mostly around future picks would make New Orleans worse in the present and remove one of the few stabilizing players from a team that already has very little margin for error in the West.
In the old lottery structure, bottoming out could be a cleaner path to upside. Under this new system, trading away a player like Murphy without replacing real rotation quality could push the Pelicans toward the worst possible scenario: fewer wins and lower lottery odds thanks to the draft relegation zone.
That same tension exists in Sacramento, but from a different angle.
The Kings are currently $4.1 million over the luxury tax line, and league sources say they have explored multiple avenues to get under it. The Kings could waive and stretch DeMar DeRozan’s partially guaranteed contract, per sources. That move alone would solve the tax problem, but it would not create much breathing room to reshape the roster.
Sources say that regardless of what happens with DeRozan, the Kings have attached draft capital to players in offers to other teams as part of an effort to cut salary.
The Kings are trying to clean up their books without cutting too deeply into the talent they still need to remain competitive enough to avoid the draft relegation zone.
The Kings and Pelicans show why the bottom is no longer as comfortable anymore. Front offices have to think harder about the difference between winning a trade on paper and surviving the season that comes after it.
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