Trade & Free Agency 2026/2027

[Chicagojk]

So who will be tanking next season? I think only Chicago, Sacramento and probably Memphis are in this category. Brooklyn will probably suck, but they don't control their pick. Indiana, Washington and Utah will try to be competitive next season. Everyone else will imho try to improve.

Chicago already mostly offloaded who they wanted to offload. Okoro, Smith and Tre Jones could be on the market, but they are just rotation players at best.

Sacramento only has trash contracts of Monk, Sabonis, DeRozan and LaVine they would already offload if anyone actually wanted them. They will continue trying to dump them, but other than perhaps Sabonis, the market will be probably very weak.

Memphis will try to dump Morant and will probably not receive anything of serious value in return. They would probably also like to trade KCP, but he is significantly overpaid. Ty Jerome has a good value contract as a bench rotation piece. Rest of the team is probably there as a core to put next to a star they will be looking for through draft.

I don't see nearly as much tanking as this year. It is too bad three franchises saw their fortunes drastically altered by not playing most of last year.   I actually think Memphis may be near the Mavs level.   I think Boozer is below Cooper as a prospect, but he impacts winning too.  They have an interesting group of players...pretty deep team.  They also have a ton of picks.   Maybe they are not a playin team, but I could see them being very competitive.

I feel so bad for Sacramento.   To finish 7th is a punch in the gut.   Although until ownership gets a clue or improves, they seem stuck in being the franchise everyone laughs at (when they are not laughing at Nico).

Chicago is a good one.  Although that ownership group tends to target the playin.  Maybe the new GM can change that.   

New Orleans?   That team needs to be blown up and start over.  It doesn't appear they are ready yet, but reality should set in next year.  

If the Bucks could get their picks back they would be a candidate.  Although getting picks back in weak drafts don't seem like the best haul for Giannis.