2025 NBA Offseason Tracker

The buzz around this year's NBA offseason is that the action could happen earlier than usual, so I'm just going to start my annual tracker now. This way I can list any players under contract that get traded during the draft here instead of having those in my separate post about every team's picks. 

The Rockets got things started already with the first extension reached right in the middle of the Finals, so I may as well get started now! As usual, players already under contract have their figures listed based on Keith Smith's work at Spotrac.com while salaries in bold italics are my own estimates based on reported numbers and the standard 5% or 8% raises that teams could give. Salaries are also color coded if they are a player option, a team option, not fully guaranteed, or mutual option. Since this post will be constantly updated throughout the summer, I'll be adding the latest news at the top to be readily available upon revisiting this page. Or if you want to go in chronological order, start at the bottom.

6/30 Update: The NBA officially announced that this year's salary cap is set at $154,647,000 with the tax line at $187,895,000, which is right at the expected 10% growth from last year. That means the the full Mid-Level Exception can have a starting salary of $14,104,000 and can top out at 4 years, $60,647,200; the Taxpayer MLE can start at $5,685,000 and go to 2 years, $11,654,250; the Room MLE can start at $8,781,000 and go to 3 years, $27,660,150; and the Bi-Annual Exception can start at $5,134,000 and go to 2 years, $10,524,700. Notably, Marks reports that the salary cap is only projected to go up by 7% raises instead of the maximum of 10% like this year, which could throw a wrench into team's budgets.

Nesmith extends with the Pacers: 2 years, $40.5 million (Shams 10/20)

Aaron Nesmith

$11,000,000

$11,000,000

$19,471,154

$21,028,846

This is the highest raise that Nesmith was eligible for based on his current bargain salary, so he locks in some nice security a couple years ahead of free agency.

Daniels extends with the Hawks: 4 years, $100 million (Shams 10/20)

Dyson Daniels

$7,707,709

$22,321,429

$24,107,143

$25,892,857

$27,678,571

10/21 Update: Brad Rowland reports that it is a flat $25 million per year, like how Atlanta structured Jalen Johnson's $30 million each year.

Dyson Daniels

$7,707,709

$25,000,000

$25,000,000

$25,000,000

$25,000,000

Braun extends with the Nuggets: 5 years, $125 million (Shams 10/20)

Christian Braun

$4,921,797

$21,551,724

$23,275,862

$25,000,000

$26,724,138

$28,448,276

Sharpe extends with the Trail Blazers: 4 years, $90 million (Shams 10/19)

Shaedon Sharpe

$8,399,983

$20,089,286

$21,696,429

$23,303,571

$24,910,714

Camara extends with the Trail Blazers: 4 years, $82 million (Shams 10/19)

Toumani Camara

$2,221,677

$18,303,571

$19,767,857

$21,232,143

$22,696,429

Since this replaces the $2,406,205 team option for the '26-27 season, it's almost like a 3 year, $79.6 million deal that's spread out over four years.

Durant extends with the Rockets: 2 years, $90 million (Shams 10/19)

Kevin Durant

$54,708,609

$43,269,231

$46,730,769

Due to the Over-38 Rule, Durant was limited to a two year deal, but he was eligible to sign for up to about $120 million. While I'm not surprised at all that he took less than his max to help the team's roster flexibility like he did with the Warriors, I didn't expect it to be this much of a haircut, even if it is only for one year due to that player option. Still, Shams reports that this now makes Durant the highest career earner in NBA history.

It's been speculated that an extension was being held up because Houston is also trying to finalize a rookie extension with Eason, and now they have a better idea of their position relative to the tax and Aprons. Assuming that VanVleet will now pick up his $25 million player option for '26-27 after his really unfortunate torn ACL during summer workouts that hurts their title odds, they project to be a little over $17 million below the tax, $26 million below the First Apron, and a little under $39 million below the Second Apron with nine players under contract.

Green extends with the Bucks: 4 years, $45 million (Shams 10/16)

AJ Green

$2,301,587

$10,044,643

$10,848,214

$11,651,786

$12,455,357

Another shooter gets paid, and it's a pretty nice development story for the former undrafted player who worked his way up through a Two-Way. Having just turned 26 last month, Green is coming off of his best season in which he played 73 games and averaged 7.4 points on the basis of making 42.7% of his 5 threes in only 22.7 minutes. His per-36 numbers were even better in the smaller sample sizes of his first two years, and now he's actually one of the more tenured players in Milwaukee after their roster overhaul.

Murray extends with the Kings: 5 years, $140 million (Shams 10/15)

Keegan Murray

$11,144,093

$24,137,931

$26,068,966

$28,000,000

$29,931,034

$31,862,069

Although this may feel slightly higher than expected in total, going the full five years with no options keeps it at a reasonable $28 million average, with a starting salary that will likely be actually less than his cap hold would've been as a restricted free agent, $27.9 million. That may not end up being the bargain that Jabari Smith's deal could turn out to be, but it's pretty fair in comparison to the other extensions given in this draft class. Murray hasn't had the chance to spread his wings too much as a primary option and actually saw his usage go down last year, but the 25 year old contributes in a lot of other ways. 6'8" forwards who are career 37.2% 3-point shooters on a high volume (at least 5.9 attempts per game every year), can capably defend multiple positions, and rebound at a solid rate are valuable commodities. Hopefully he'll get more opportunities this season despite the mismatched roster around him that added another older, ball-dominant player today.

Westbrook signs with the Kings: 1 year, minimum contract (Shams first, Siegel details 10/15)

Russell Westbrook

$2,296,274

As a veteran with 10+ years of experience, Westbrook will earn $3.6 million with the subsidized cap hit on the one year deal that's been reported as a possibility by Siegel since July. This is a slight bump up from the $3,468,960 player option that he declined with Denver since the cap went up, but now he's on a team likely to fight for just a Play-In berth instead of the Finals. This will now be his eighth team in the last eight seasons (including getting traded to the Jazz just to be waived...twice) as he approaches his 37th birthday next month.

Jovic extends with the Heat: 4 years, $62.4 million (Shams 10/1)

Nikola Jovic

$4,445,417

$13,928,571

$15,042,857

$16,157,143

$17,271,429

I thought that the last key free agent signing his deal earlier today would mean the end of updating this tracker, but I guess there are still some rookie extensions to work out like this. Jovic hasn't been able to put it together over consistent periods of time for various reasons, but he can be valuable front court option with his versatility. The outside shooting seems legit with a 37.1% mark while increasing the attempts to 4.1 per game after making 39.9% on 3.5 before, so locking in this deal at around MLE money makes sense.

Grimes accepts the Qualifying Offer with the 76ers: 1 year, $8,7 million (Shams 10/1)

Quentin Grimes

$8,741,209

There never seemed to be any momentum in these negotiations given the aforementioned restricted free agent market, so Grimes settling for this before the deadline to accept tonight was the expected outcome. 

Known more as a 3+D wing, he was a revelation with more freedom upon being traded to Philadelphia, where he averaged 21.9 points with 5.2 rebounds, 4.5 assists, and 1.5 steals on 46.9%/37.3%/75.2% shooting in 33.7 minutes. Those numbers went up even higher in his final 18 games after Tyrese Maxey was lost for the season: 24.8, 5.0, 5.2, and 1.8 in 34.6 minutes with 45.6%/37.1%/78.5% shooting. The team only went 3-15, however, so it'll be interesting to see how Grimes fits in next to their stars...assuming they're ever healthy at the same time.

Kuminga re-signs with the Warriors: 2 years, "$48.5 million" (Shams 9/30)

Jonathan Kuminga

$23,317,308

$25,182,692

Jonathan Kuminga

$22,500,000

$24,300,000

Finally, our long national nightmare is over. There was a lot of agent spin in Shams' reporting, but it would appear that the Warriors pretty much called the bluff of agent Aaron Turner when he went on a podcast tour this month since this basically the offer that's been on the table all summer with the team option on the second season.

Holding out this long only got Golden State to bump it up from a reported $45 million to this $48.5 number, which is about $1.7 million more guaranteed depending on the structure with the option. It never made sense for Kuminga to play on just a $7.9 million Qualifying Offer instead of this pay bump for the same time period just to get an implicit no trade clause, especially if his goal is to get to another team to spread his wings anyway. It could be debated whether this was the better path than the reported 2+1 deal for $75.2 million since that would have around $48.3 million guaranteed, but this allows him to potentially reach unrestricted free agency sooner.

Now the Warriors have a much higher salary slot for trade purposes once he becomes eligible to be moved on January 15th (instead of the typical December due to a pay raise this large). In the mean time they'll have a long runway to see how a forward of his ability fits in next to Butler and Draymond Green in the front court, with Kuminga healthy from the start this time compared to when Butler arrived. Assuming that Horford's deal will now be finalized for the entirety of Taxpayer MLE ($5,685,000 and $5,969,250) as mentioned below, whether or not Melton signs a multiyear deal (as Siegel reported as a possibility) that comes with a higher cap hit will determine how long Golden State will have to wait before they can sign a 15th player to the roster at the prorated minimum.

Update: Shams now reports that Seth Curry is in fact signing with the Warriors now, even after his ESPN article mentioned how the team would need to wait until mid November to fill out the roster to make the math work. Maybe it's a non-guaranteed training camp deal just to have him practice for now before waiving and re-signing, or maybe Kuminga's number is actually lower than what was reported to make the agent look good (again).

2nd Update: Stein confirmed my theory that Seth is only getting a non-guaranteed camp deal to get him acclimated before being cut and re-signed. Marks also provided clarification that Kuminga's starting salary is only $22.5 million, which is the number mentioned in the actual ESPN article about the contract and in one of Siegel's tweets, and the reported "$48.5 million" is based on the Trade Kicker included. So it's really a $46.8 million pact, which means that no matter how much Shams spins it, this long holdout added around $900K more guaranteed than the much discussed $45 million offer...This lower starting salary helps provide some more breathing room under the Second Apron to give Melton the reported two years at the minimum since the prorated cap hits only apply to one year deals. His cap hit will instead count for his full salary as a seven year vet, with Siegel reporting that the second year is a player option:

De'Anthony Melton

$3,080,921

$3,451,780

Horford signs with the Warriors: "multiyear deal" (Shams 9/28)

Shams going with the all caps "BREAKING" on this was unintentionally funny considering everyone has known that this deal, along with the ones with veteran guards De'Anthony Melton and Gary Payton II coming back to Golden State (per Siegel and Shams), was basically agreed to since July. While the latter two are likely for the veteran minimum, Horford notably still lacks financial details due to the Kuminga situation still being resolved.

That's what has held up the Warriors from making any moves since they didn't want to make anything official until they knew whether they had to operate with a hard cap at one of the Aprons or not. I've been guessing that Horford is getting the Taxpayer MLE on a 1+1 deal for $11.65 million, which would trigger the Second Apron, but if Kuminga ends up taking the qualifying offer, Golden State could offer some or all of the full MLE while staying under a subsequent First Apron hard cap. I do wonder if 2nd round pick Will Richard also getting a standard deal today as opposed to a Two-Way could be a sign that they needed to sign a cheaper rookie contract like his instead of the veteran minimum in order to fit a Kuminga deal under an Apron. If these four players get the amounts that I expect, then the estranged restricted free agent could get a starting salary up to around $25 million on whatever contract structure that both sides end up agreeing to before Wednesday's QO deadline if they leave the 15th roster spot open. If cool heads prevail and they do reach a deal, keeping it to about $23 million for this season is what is needed to still sign another veteran such as rumored target Seth Curry.

9/30 Update: Scotto reports what's been expected: it's "$12 million" over two years with the second year a player option (as seemingly every Taxpayer MLE deal ends up being). 

Al Horford

$5,685,000

$5,969,250

The big man may have just turned 39 this summer, but he's still very effective on both ends in limited minutes. And one skill that should age well is Horford's outside shooting that is key to have next to a non-shooter like Green. Upon his return to Boston four years ago, Horford has managed to increase his 3-point percentage to 39.2% even while also pumping up the volume to 4.5 attempts in only 28.5 minutes.

Also as an aside, everyone remembers the famous "Tobias Harris over ME?!" line, but the 76ers signing Horford in that big summer of 2019 also played a big role in Butler's departure from Philly. Now they'll be playing together in Golden State instead.

Brogdon signs with the Knicks: 1 year deal (Shams 9/11)

Malcolm Brogdon

$2,296,274

This will also be for the minimum like Shamet, and I believe that New York will actually need to make another move in order to even fit that under the Second Apron since they could only sign one of their 2nd rounders to the minimum as things were. As a nine-year veteran, Brogdon is set to earn $3.3 million, and although health is always the question mark with him, this is an absolute bargain for the former Sixth Man of the Year if he is able to play. Funnily enough, he won that award over Immanuel Quickly...who was on the Knicks at the time.

Now that we're fully in minimum contract-only signings, this tracker is just about done. I'll update it whenever we finally get resolution with the big restricted free agents, Kuminga and Grimes, but that'll likely be it.

Shamet re-signs with the Knicks: 1 year deal (Shams 9/11)

Landry Shamet

$2,296,274

This is almost assuredly a minimum contract given New York's proximity to the Second Apron, and at that price, you could do a lot worse than a veteran shooter like Shamet. He even got some minutes off the bench in the playoffs last year, which is saying something considering how much they rode their starters. As a veteran with seven years of experience, he'll make $3.08 million with the subsidized cap hit above on the one year minimum.

Giddey re-signs with the Bulls: 4 years, $100 million (Shams 9/9)

Josh Giddey

$22,321,429

$24,107,143

$25,892,857

$27,678,571

Finally, a restricted free agent gets an actual deal done. Based on previous reporting, this $25 million average looks to be right in the middle of what Giddey was hoping for and what Chicago was offering, so it's nice to see cooler heads prevail and reach an agreement that makes sense.

Thomas accepts the Qualifying Offer with the Nets: 1 year, $6 million (Shams 9/4)

Cameron Thomas

$5,993,172

With the restricted free agent market so frigid this summer, Thomas will just bide his time for this season before becoming unrestricted next year.

Washington extends with the Mavericks: 4 years, "$90 million" (Shams 9/3)

P.J. Washington

$14,152,174

$19,813,044

$21,398,087

$22,983,131

$24,568,174

A new deal between these sides had been rumored for a little while, but going the full $88,762,435 that I believe is the most that Washington could extend for is a bit much. Dallas is almost comically invested in the front court now between trading Doncic for Davis, miraculously winning the Flagg lottery, extending Gafford, and now this extension, while also still having Lively as a core piece.

Smith to sign with the Heat: 3 years, $7.9 million (Shams first, Scotto details 8/16)

Dru Smith

$2,378,870

$2,584,538

$2,934,743

Smith has had to overcome both a torn ACL and Achilles the last couple of years but has been a nice developmental guard in the Miami machine. He was a restricted free agent coming off of his Two-Way contracts, so they were able to lock him down for the minimum amount for a player with three years of experience like him. I wouldn't be surprised if there are partial guarantees or a team option at the end given his injury history, but it appears to be some nice guaranteed money for the former undrafted 27 year old.

9/2 Update: Keith Smith reports that the latter two years are non-guaranteed with late June guaranteed dates. Having those that early in the calendar could be helpful for him getting his deals picked up.

Roster Analysis: How PG13 and Sabonis Influenced This Finals Matchup

With the NBA Finals about to start, I want to expand on something I put out there once the Conference Finals matchups were set: both the Thunder and Pacers ended up with their star guards thanks to trading Paul George. And really, Domantas Sabonis also has a key role in all of this, but I haven't seen his name thrown out there as often online by people having the same thought after me. There's also been a graphic going around tracing Oklahoma City's core to Rashard Lewis and the three 1st round picks that Sam Presti wound up with thanks to Kurt Thomas, which I wrote about all the way back in 2012 before their last Finals appearance.

This tweet from last week somewhat inspired me to dig into how these Finals rosters were built again, and it's kind of surreal that I wrote this THIRTEEN years ago about the Presti early years masterclass. Time flies, man https://t.co/zrDP1OGpjF pic.twitter.com/muDuHy7pNB

— Dave Giovanazzi (@SF_DavidGio) June 5, 2025

I think going that far into the past is a little bit of a stretch, and it's actually both of these teams that can look back at a series of trades involving the same key pieces that started the path to this point nine years ago. I'll stick with the Thunder to start and will keep using screenshots from my past transaction tracker posts as references since that's kind the whole point of why I write them: to look back on how moves were made. Thankfully, I've used the same usual color key of player options/team options/not fully guaranteed/cap holds all these years.

Draft night 2016: In the wake of losing the Western Conference Finals and just weeks away from Kevin Durant's free agency, Presti decided to make a big change by dealing away Serge Ibaka ahead of his own free agency in 2017. The Orlando Magic, coming off of a 35-47 season and desperate to end their post-Dwight Howard rebuild, traded former #2 pick Victor Oladipo (also going into the last year of his contract) and the draft rights to the #11 pick pick that was used on Sabonis, with Ersan Ilyasova's non-guaranteed contract included to match salary before he was traded at the start of the season. 

Top NFL Rookie TEs for 2025

Teams across the NFL have begun their OTAs, so now is a good time to continue looking at this rookie class. After the running backs that I started with, I'd say that tight ends are the next strongest group this year. To reiterate, this isn't necessarily a ranking for dynasty football but more of an exercise to talk through who I think the top options are and how much they could contribute as rookies.

And once again, the basis of what I look for originates from JJ Zachariason's prospect guides over the years, although TEs are newer to his model. Based on his research and Ryan Heath's at Fantasy Points, athleticism matters the most at this position compared to running backs and especially compared to wide receivers. I'll be weighing physical traits (ideally from the NFL combine, with pro day results from Dane Brugler's The Beast) and draft day age before production profiles based on career yards per route run (YPRR) via Pro Football Focus, and then situation comes in at the end.

1. Colston Loveland - 1st round, 10th overall pick, 1st TE drafted - Bears

The week of the draft, I posted in my work's "Hot Take Board" that although Tyler Warren will be drafted first, Loveland has the highest upside of this class and will end up as the TE1...and then Chicago made me look smart by taking Loveland first despite all of the mock drafts and rankings out there. He didn't give us any athleticism measurements but did come in at an impressive 6'5.75" and 248 lbs while only turning 21 just a few weeks before the draft.

That youth makes it even more impressive how efficient Loveland was in a limited Michigan passing attack. As a sophomore, he caught 45 passes for 649 yards and 4 touchdowns in 15 games for the national champions, and while that might not sound like much at the surface level, that's where YPRR tells more of the story given how little his team threw the ball. His 2.38 mark that year is pretty elite, and it was even better last season, 2.67, when his raw totals were 56 catches, 582 yards, and 5 scores in only 10 games. Overall, he finished with 2.22 YPRR for his career before getting awesome draft capital as the first pick of Ben Johnson's career as a head coach. The hottest offensive coordinator on the market, Johnson ran the show in Detroit when Sam LaPorta shockingly led the position in total points as a rookie two years ago, and while I wouldn't expect that lofty of a season due to the WR target competition, Loveland certainly is in line to pace his 2025 peers.

2. Tyler Warren - 1st round, 14th overall pick, 2nd TE drafted - Colts

Warren was widely expected to be the first TE off the board after he had 104 catches, 1,233 yards, and 8 TDs last year with an additional 218 yards and 4 scores on 26 carries, but I'm not entirely surprised that he fell slightly since that came somewhat out of nowhere as a redshirt senior. As a high school quarterback who joined a position group at Penn State that contained three other NFL players (Pat Freiermuth, Brenton Strange, and Theo Johnson), it's understandable that he was a late bloomer, having just turned 23 this past week compared to Loveland.

It all came together last year for 2.78 YPRR after being at 1.41 and 1.34 the previous two seasons, and that brought his career rate to a strong 1.98. Neither of these top-two TEs gave us athletic testing, but you can see on film how much Warren beasted opponents at 6'5.5" and 256 lbs. The problem in the immediate future is that he landed in Indianapolis, where either Anthony Richardson or Daniel Jones will be throwing passes to him as a rookie. While I already would've had him as #2 in this class, I think that drops him to a tier by himself after Loveland.

2025 Lottery Reaction & the Results of Traded Picks

I say it every year, but lottery is always one of the most fun dates on the NBA calendar...even if I absolutely hated this year's results. Whether it's winning the game of capture the Flagg with the #1 pick this year or a team's pick moving in or out of its crucial protection range, it's amazing to see front offices that meticulously plan and maneuver be at the mercy of random ping pong ball combinations. And after I described last year's edition as absolute chaos, this year's was was pure pandemonium with all of the movement.

As has become custom, here's a rundown of rapid fire reactions to the drawing, followed by a final tally of how all of the previously traded 1st rounders turned out. There have been so many picks dealt over the last handful of years that over half of those league's selections are not with their own teams in each round.

• To start things off, Dallas aficionado Marc Stein pointed out that this is the first time in Mavericks history that they even moved up at all in the lottery. Them winning the #1 pick was probably the most controversial result possible after stunning the basketball world with the Luka Doncic trade earlier this year...and then continually compounding it by badmouthing his work ethic afterwards and making idiotic statements like not knowing how important he was to the fan base. You hate to see stupidity rewarded, especially when there was just a 1.8% chance of this outcome.
  
  
• Amazingly, Dallas made that trade with a win-now mindset yet gets the long-term gift of Duke forward Cooper Flagg after they ended up only making the Play-In tournament. They finished tied for the 11th-best lottery odds and won a coin flip as the tiebreaker to have 18 of the 1,000 four-digit ping pong ball combinations. Chicago received 17...and the wrong half of the set of numbers that were divided between the two teams, it turns out. 
  
  
• The 10 spot jump tied the 1993 Magic for the highest among lottery winners, and that team famously winning back to back years, despite just a 1.52% chance, prompted the league to change the format. The only other teams to win with longer odds than the Mavs' 1.8% were the 2008 Bulls and 2014 Cavaliers (also back to back winners), who both hit the 1.7% chance of moving up from the #9 pick in the previous system.
  
  
• There's naturally going to be talk of the NBA rigging the system to give Dallas a new star in exchange for putting Luka in the glamour LA market like how New Orleans won the 2019 lottery to set up Anthony Davis going to the Lakers in the first place. Watching the videos of the actual drawing that the league posts every year, though, I have no idea how they would actually do it.
  
  
  
  

Top NFL Rookie RBs for 2025

Now that the NFL Draft is firmly in the rearview mirror and my first dynasty league rookie draft is over, I wanted to put together some thoughts on this year's class. It's a total flip from last year's strong group of wide receivers and flawed running backs, so this time I'm starting with the unusually deep class of RBs. This isn't necessarily a ranking for dynasty football but more of an exercise to talk through who I think the top options are and how much they could contribute as rookies.

As often mentioned, the three factors that I take into consideration for this are production profiles, physical traits, and situation. I care most about the first part and have based a lot of what I look for on JJ Zachariason's prospect guides over the years, so I'll be looking at each player's total yards from scrimmage per team play (TY/P), receiving yards per team pass attempt (RY/PA), his share of the team's receptions, and his share of the team's total touchdowns in the games that he played. Athleticism does matter a bit more at this position than at WR, though, so players' Speed Score (based on 40 yard dash and weight) and jumps are important. Stats cited are coming from Sports Reference while measurements are from the NFL combine (ideally) or pro day results as listed in Dane Brugler's The Beast on The Athletic.

1. Ashton Jeanty - 1st round, 6th overall, 1st RB drafted - Raiders

This is an easy start after Jeanty finished just shy of breaking Barry's Sanders' NCAA record for rushing yards in a season and then got top-10 draft capital to a RB-needy team. Even before Jeanty ran for 2,601 yards and 29 touchdowns as a junior, he was a great prospect based on a sophomore year that saw him have 2.42 total yards per play, 1.85 receiving yards per attempt, a 23.76% reception share, and 41.30% TD share. Anything approaching 2, 0.70, 12%, and 35% as a best season mark in those categories is great, and he shattered each of those as a 19 year old.

Jeanty wasn't asked to do as much through the air last year due to the heavy workload on the ground, but he still had a respectable 8.81% reception share while bumping his TY/P and TD% to 2.82 and 45.45%, respectively. He did measure only 5'8.5" and didn't work out at all in the pre-draft process (because he didn't need to), but he is a solid 211 lbs and obviously showed he can be a workhorse with 397 total touches last year.

RBs getting drafted this highly are practically guaranteed to see large workloads anyway, but both Alexander Mattison and Ameer Abdullah are no longer with the Raiders after leading the backfield in touches. Raheem Mostert was signed as a veteran option, but at 33 years old, the speedster will likely only be a change of pace option and not much of a threat to receiving work. Jeanty could be a top-5 fantasy RB immediately and is the 1.01 in rookie drafts.

2. Omarion Hampton - 1st round, 22nd overall, 2nd RB drafted - Chargers

In a lot of classes, Hampton would be the RB1 and was the only other 1st rounder at the position thanks to a very complete profile after 1,500+ rushing yards, 15 TDs, and 29+ catches as both a sophomore and junior. He averaged a strong 1.82 TY/P and decent 0.49 RY/PA with solid 9.93% and 29.63% market shares in the first of those years before improving across the board to elite marks of 2.40, 0.99, 17.35%, and 39.53%.

Hampton did this at 5'11.75" and 221 lbs, and even with that size he ran a 4.46 40 yard dash for a great Speed Score of 111.71. He also had a 38" vertical and 10'10" broad jump to further show his explosiveness, so he certainly looks the part of a bell cow 'back. How soon until he gets that role is to be determined because the Chargers are an interesting landing spot. Jim Harbaugh and Greg Roman typically like to lean on the running game often, and they've chosen to leave last year's leading rushers, JK Dobbins and Gus Edwards, unsigned.

Najee Harris was added instead, but it's only a one-year deal with $5.25 million guaranteed before another possible $4M in incentives, per OverTheCap.com. While both Harris and Hampton are big, well-rounded RBs, the veteran doesn't offer much big-play ability as he infamously doesn't have a run of 40+ yards in his career. Even if it's not top-10 draft capital like Jeanty, 1st round RBs are usually featured, so Hampton could easily be the leader of this committee by season's end ahead of Harris hitting free agency again. I'm also a fan Raheim Sanders, whom they added as a surprising undrafted free agent, and perhaps he could work his way into becoming Hampton's backup a year from now. 

2025 NBA End of Season Thoughts

It's NBA playoff time! Like last year, I wanted to take a quick look at each matchup based on record, net, offensive, and defensive ratings on NBA.com and also provide a trend or statistical note for each team. Lineup data is from NBA.com while individual splits are from Basketball Reference, and the matchups are listed in order of record.

#1 Thunder (68-14, +12.7, #3 O, #1 D) vs. #8 Grizzlies (48-34, +4.7, #6 O, #11 D)

Oklahoma City's big free agent signing Isaiah Hartenstein missed the start of the season, and then Chet Holmgren suffered his own injury early on, resulting in their ideal starting lineup of those two with my choice for MVP, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Williams, and Lu Dort surprisingly only playing 167 total minutes across 14 games together. OKC of course went 10-4 with a +15.0 net rating in those minutes, and overall the two bigs played 316 total minutes together to produce a +13.5 net rating. The Thunder's most used 5-man lineup was much smaller with Cason Wallace in place of Holmgren, and that actually juiced their already elite defense to an unbelievable 101.0 rating for a +15.9 net in 316 minutes. They just have so much versatility with a deep roster and the reigning Coach of the Year pulling the strings, and that combination helped produce the best point differential in NBA history. I think that they're the clear pick to come out of the West.

The Thunder finished the 2024-25 season with a point differential of +1,055.

That's the biggest point differential in NBA history.

— Nick Gallo (@NickAGallo) April 13, 2025

Memphis was able to advance in the Play-In tournament despite Ja Morant rolling his ankle in the first game, but the injury seemed to catch up to him in the second half en route to shooting just 7-24. Another injury that they have to deal with is rookie gem Jaylen Wells being out with a broken wrist after a scary fall late in the season. The Rookie of the Year contender played a big role as a lengthy defender, and in 543 minutes of him, Morant, and Desmond Bane as a perimeter trio, they had a +9.0 net rating. Scotty Pippen Jr., another breakout find, stepped up as a starter in Wells' place for the two Play-In games, but that's a pretty small group to go against OKC's big guards. Pippen with Morant and Bane had a -1.4 net rating in the regular season, albeit in only 98 minutes, so I wouldn't be surprised if that lineup changes now based on the matchup. However, I'm not sure what to expect out of interim head coach Tuomas Iisalo, who only went 4-5 to finish the season after the surprising dismissal of Taylor Jenkins so late in the season. Between the difference in coaching between these two teams and the fact that the Thunder have won 9 straight versus the Grizzlies, I'm going with a sweep here despite this being a strong #8 seed.

Thunder in 4

#1 Cavaliers (64-18, +9.2, #1 O, #8 D) vs. #8 Heat (37-45, +0.4, #21 O, #9 D)

I wrote in this piece a year ago about Evan Mobley's increase in three pointers to end the year, and he took that a step further this season to average 3.2 attempts while still making 37%. He also bumped up his free throw attempts to 4.3 per game even with spending more time outside the arc, which could be attributed to the new coaching staff utilizing him more as an attacker from the elbows. It's a bit ironic that Kenny Atkinson has a great case for Coach of the Year for improving this team by 16 wins to runaway with the top seed in the East, but he might lose to the coach that he replaced last year. One of the more interesting decisions that he made was to keep Max Strus in the starting lineup after he got up full speed, despite the big trade deadline move for De'Andre Hunter. With the former next to Darius Garland, Donovan Mitchell, Mobley, and Jarrett Allen, they had a +12.5 net rating in 243 minutes. That rises to +18.5 with Hunter, but that five man combination surprisingly only played a tiny sample of 39 minutes together.

Miami's new starting lineup has almost as small of a sample size with Tyler Herro, Alec Burks, Andrew Wiggins, Bam Adebayo, Kel'el Ware only playing 46 regular season minutes together...but to the tune of a +36.7 net rating in that limited time. Including the Play-In, that group is now 5-1 together after they made history to be the first #10 seed to make the playoffs. I'm only picking them to take one game here out of faith in Erik Spoelstra and their battle-tested veterans, though, because this group lacks consistent offense, as seen in the 4th quarter of the second Play-In game that they seemingly had in control like the first. That's partly why they might be my favorite of the rumored Kevin Durant destinations this summer, and they have up to three 1st round picks that they could potentially include with the matching salary of Terry Rozier, Duncan Robinson, and Kyle Anderson in the last guaranteed years of their contracts. Young players like Ware, Jaime Jaquez, Nikola Jovic, or Pelle Larsson could be mixed in to improve the offer and break up the salaries as a third team might need to be included to avoid Apron restrictions, but in any case, I can see a path here that makes sense once the Heat inevitably flame out in the playoffs with the talent disparity. 

Cavs in 5

#2 Celtics (61-21, +9.4, #2 O, #4 D) vs. #7 Magic (41-41, -0.2, #27 O, #2 D)

Boston's traditional starting lineup of Jrue Holiday, Derrick White, Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum, and Kristaps Porzingis only played 357 total minutes together over 24 games (going 18-6), and amazingly, it had a 0.0 net rating. This comes after that same group posted a +11.0 net rating over 623 minutes last season, though, so I'm not too worried. The ability to plug in Al Horford and/or potential Sixth Man of the Year Payton Pritchard into various configurations to either play big or small gives their top-seven rotation valuable versatility, and adding in Sam Hauser's shooting and Luke Kornet's size helps round out their rotation nicely. Brown's lingering knee issue is a bit concerning, but both him and Tatum improving their career-highs in assists from 3.6 to 4.5 and 4.9 to 6.0, respectively, was an underrated storyline of Boston's season. I still think they're the team to beat in the East after they were mostly able to coast in their title defense and still reached 61 wins.

It may have surprised folks tuning into the Play-In game to see journeyman Cory Joseph as the starting point guard for Orlando with Jalen Suggs injured, but they went 11-4 down the stretch with him in the lineup before resting players on the last day. His numbers won't blow anyone away with 6.9 points, 3.1 rebounds, 2.7 assists, 0.9 steals, and 0.4 turnovers in just 22.2 minutes with 43.1%/38.2%/83.3% shooting, but that caretaker 3+D role fit with their main starters (Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Franz Wagner, Paolo Banchero, and Wendell Carter Jr) surprisingly well to post a +11.5 net rating in 216 minutes. I just don't trust their offense enough to keep up with Boston's firepower for a full series, so even though they were a tough matchup to win two of the three meetings this season, I'm going with a gentleman's sweep.

Celtics in 5

2025 NBA Trade Summaries

Now that the dust has settled on the 2025 NBA Trade Deadline, I wanted to take a high-level view of what every team did. The full details of every trade made this season, including how the salaries matched and the particulars of which draft pick was moved are in my tracker. This is just a more succinct look of who or what came in and out, listed in order of championship odds on the DraftKings Sportsbook as of February 8th along with each team's current record.

Only four teams (the Nuggets, Timberwolves, Magic, and Trail Blazers) didn't make a trade, so there is plenty to take in across the league. I also listed which players were cut in corresponding moves with the deals, and signings to fill the vacated roster spots. Finally, any draft compensation listed as "fake" is a pick that isn't likely to convey.

Thunder, 41-9. +230, 1st

In: Daniel Theis (waived), Ajay Mitchell (Two-Way conversion), two 2nd round picks

Out: one 2nd round pick, cash considerations

Celtics, 36-16. +250, 2nd

In: Torrey Craig (free agent signing post-trade), one fake 2nd round pick

Out: Jaden Springer, one 2nd round pick, one fake 2nd round pick

Cavaliers, 42-10. +750, 3rd

In: De'Andre Hunter

Out: Caris LeVert, Georges Niang, two 1st round pick swaps (after previous swaps), three 2nd round picks

Knicks, 34-17. +950, 4th

In: Delon Wright, draft rights to Hugo Besson (58th pick in 2022), cash considerations

Out: Jericho Sims, draft rights to Mathias Lessort (50th pick in 2017)

Nuggets, 33-19. +1500, T-5th

In: None

Out: None

Lakers, 30-19. +1500, T-5th

In: Luka Doncic, Mark Williams, Dorian Finney-Smith, Maxi Kleber, Shake Milton, Markieff Morris, cash considerations

Out: Anthony Davis, D'Angelo Russell, Max Christie, Dalton Knecht, Jalen Hood-Schifino, Cam Reddish, Maxwell Lewis, two one 1st round picks, one 1st round pick swap, four 2nd round picks

2/8 Update: The Lakers announced that the Williams trade has been rescinded “due to failure to satisfy a condition of the trade.”

Grizzlies, 35-16. +3000, T-7th

In: Marvin Bagley, Johnny Davis, two 2nd round picks

Out: Marcus Smart, Jake LaRavia, one protected 1st round pick

Clippers, 28-23. +3000, T-7th

In: Bogdran Bogdanovic, Drew Eubanks, Patty Mills, MarJon Beauchamp, Ben Simmons (free agent signing post trades), three 2nd round picks

Out: Terance Mann, PJ Tucker, Kevin Porter Jr, Bones Hyland, Mo Bamba, one 2nd round pick, cash considerations

Bucks, 27-23. +3000, T-7th

In: Kyle Kuzma, Jericho Sims, Kevin Porter Jr, one 2nd round pick, one fake 2nd round pick

Out: Khris Middleton, AJ Johnson, Delon Wright, MarJon Beauchamp, one 1st round pick swap, draft rights to Hugo Besson (58th pick in 2022), cash considerations