NBA Free Agents: Where Will They Play Next Season?
As the 2025-26 NBA season approaches, teams are finalizing their rosters. However, several free agents have yet to define their future, some stalled in negotiations and others uncertain about where they will play.
Players like Jonathan Kuminga, Josh Giddey, and Russell Westbrook are among those looking to secure their future in the league.
We analyze the situation of the seven most important players remaining in free agency, the status of their negotiations, and how the limited salary cap is affecting the NBA landscape.Russell Westbrook
Everything indicates that Russell Westbrook, after spending eleven years with the Oklahoma City Thunder, will play for his sixth franchise in seven seasons. He will not return to the Denver Nuggets after a season of ups and downs where he finished seventh in the Sixth Man of the Year voting.
League sources consider the Sacramento Kings the most likely destination for Westbrook, who will turn 37 during the first month of the season. If so, Westbrook would likely come off the bench and share ball-handling responsibilities with Dennis Schroder, newly arrived in free agency.Jonathan Kuminga
According to sources, Kuminga’s situation has not changed significantly in the last two weeks.
Kuminga recently traveled to his home country, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and returned to Miami (where he currently trains in the offseason) with the same opinion about the Golden State Warriors’ offer: a two-year, $45 million contract.
The Warriors initially presented this offer to Kuminga’s representation as a deal that could be transferable, seeking to satisfy the long-term wishes of both parties when he is eligible to be traded again in January. For this reason, Golden State wants a team option in the second year and requested that Kuminga waive his no-trade clause.
But that is also the reason why Kuminga has continued to reject the offer. He doesn’t want a contract so favorable to the team, and the idea of signing to be traded mid-season is not attractive to him.
Kuminga was looking for a contract this summer that would signify a commitment to him as a future pillar for the Warriors or another team. His representation presented a three-year, $82 million offer, which the Warriors resisted. Until last weekend, there was no progress towards an agreement.
Therefore, the situation remains the same as 10 days ago. The Warriors have not increased their offer, and Kuminga has indicated to those close to him that the $7.9 million qualifying offer is more attractive to him than the Warriors’ current proposal. Something will have to change before the October 1 deadline.Ben Simmons
Simmons is facing a numerical problem.
It is one of the nearly 75 players who finished the regular season on a roster but still don’t have a team for next season.
The main reason? It starts with the 41 draft picks who signed first and second-round contracts. Those players have replaced veterans, including Simmons, on the rosters for next season.
Also, most teams, apart from Golden State, have completed their rosters for next season or cannot sign a player due to the salary cap. For example, the Lakers have a vacant spot on the roster, but cannot sign a player until January 18th.
Of the 442 players under contract for next season, 393 have guaranteed contracts (an average of 13.1 per team).Al Horford
Sources around the league continue to consider Horford a possible signing for the Warriors when free agency resolves. Kuminga’s situation continues to delay negotiations, keeping Horford on hold.
However, Horford is comfortable waiting. Retirement remains an option, although the Warriors seem to be acting as if he were a firm part of their plans for next season.
Horford would fit as a starting center, which would reduce the load during the regular season for Draymond Green, a priority for the team. Horford’s ability to pass the ball and defend fits well into the Warriors’ system. His ability to shoot from the center position is something they have missed a lot.
Horford is 39 years old. He hasn’t been playing in consecutive games. The Warriors can’t depend on him to be a 25-minute option every night. But the desire is to have him in the lineup when it matters and open up space for five-player combinations, which would especially benefit a penetrating player like Kuminga.Cam Thomas
Of the four players highlighted in restricted free agency this summer, Thomas is the most likely to play on his qualifying offer next season.
The contract value of the 23-year-old scoring guard has been difficult to determine since he fell to the end of the first round in 2022. He averaged 24 points last season, but it’s unclear what kind of offers he’s receiving, which is also affecting other restricted free agents like Kuminga, Grimes, and Giddey this summer.
If an agreement is reached with Brooklyn, it is expected to resemble, at least in its structure, those that the Nets signed with center Day’Ron Sharpe and forward Ziaire Williams earlier this offseason: one-year contracts with team options in the second.Josh Giddey
Contract negotiations between Josh Giddey and the Chicago Bulls have been ongoing for months, but it is almost certain that both parties will reach an agreement before the end of summer. Giddey remains part of the team’s long-term plans after being acquired from the Thunder in exchange for Alex Caruso last summer. Giddey got off to a slow start, but the Bulls were able to see his effectiveness as a starter in the second half, averaging 21 points, 10 rebounds, and 9 assists after the All-Star break.
Giddey has been seeking a contract of around $30 million annually, and the team hasn’t accepted that price. With scarce salary cap space across the league, especially for restricted free agents, the Bulls have benefited by waiting for a more favorable deal for the team.Quentin Grimes
Grimes finds himself in the same situation as Kuminga in Golden State, Giddey in Chicago, and Thomas in Brooklyn. He’s a talented player who should be generating offers. But he’s a restricted free agent and almost no team has cap space to pursue him, which leaves him in a difficult position to negotiate.
Grimes would also be in a battle for playing time on the Philadelphia 76ers roster. The team’s first two draft picks, Jared McCain, who was the leading candidate for Rookie of the Year last season before undergoing season-ending meniscus surgery, and VJ Edgecombe, this year’s third pick, play the same position. The 76ers are building around another guard, Tyrese Maxey, in the future.
There is also uncertainty about the health problems of Joel Embiid and Paul George. If Grimes accepts Philadelphia’s qualifying offer, instead of paying him a long-term, eight-figure annual contract, the 76ers could enter the season with a few million dollars in the luxury tax, potentially allowing them to reduce it if this season goes like last season.
