Man, there sure have been a lot of NBA buyouts this offseason, haven’t there? Bradley Beal. Deandre Ayton. Marcus Smart. These aren’t totally washed up ring-chasers. They may not be at their peaks, but these are starting-caliber players still capable of commanding salaries above the minimum, and more of them than ever seem to be escaping their bad teams early and reaching free agency.
The why of that is complicated and messy. Every situation is different. Beal’s circumstances were unique. Phoenix was a second-apron team with him. Without him, the Suns managed to duck the luxury tax entirely. This was, to some extent, a response to the enormously restrictive collective bargaining agreement that kicked in a few years ago. Teams are so desperate for savings that they’re willing to consider moves that might one day have been inconceivable. Damian Lillard was waived-and-stretched at his full salary, not bought out, but that happened for similar reasons. The CBA backed the Bucks into a corner, and they responded with a move nobody saw coming.
A smaller, less intentional version of that played out in Portland. The Blazers ultimately signed Lillard after he was waived, but Deandre Ayton funded that addition by agreeing to give up $10 million to leave the Blazers. That allowed Portland to open up access to its full, non-taxpayer mid-level exception without paying the luxury tax, but it also allowed Ayton, who was headed for 2026 free agency regardless, to better position himself for a big contract next summer by getting to a Lakers team that should make him look good. It was a mutually beneficial arrangement. The Blazers saved a bunch of money they could redistribute in ways that made sense. Ayton made most of that money back up with the Lakers, but in the long run, could earn quite a bit more with a good season.
Smart made a similar bet. He gave up $6.8 million to leave the Wizards. He only got $5.1 million to join the Lakers (though he added a player option for the 2026-27 season). The bet there is that a year with the Lakers will boost his long-term value in ways a year with the Wizards wouldn’t, and as the Wizards aren’t trying to win this season, it didn’t really hurt them to let Smart walk. In the old world, Washington would have held onto Smart and hoped to flip him for value at the deadline. Now, with nobody having the financial flexibility for such moves anymore, Washington recognized that it was not going to do better than those savings and cut bait early.
All of this creates a road map we can use to potentially predict future buyouts. With most of the money on the 2025 offseason market dried up, we’re thinking more in terms of players who could become available during the season. Those players should be on expiring contracts, because the only teams willing to eat multiple years of dead money are the truly desperate ones like the Suns and Bucks. They should, obviously, be on bad teams, as good teams are rarely eager to let worthwhile players slip away. If they aren’t on bad teams at the moment, they should be plausible candidates to be traded to bad teams, as those teams will frequently buy such players out upon acquiring them. They should be players who don’t have obvious trade markets at their current salary. It’s almost always preferable to trade somewhen rather than buying them out. The player should also tangibly benefit from reaching free agency. They’re not going to give teams money back for nothing.
So with that in mind, who are some candidates for future buyouts? Five come to mind.
We know Washington is amenable to buyouts for its veterans because, well, it already gave one to Smart. For a variety of reasons, though, an offseason buyout for Middleton is probably off of the table. The obvious reason for that is that Smart had an easy landing spot at a substantial enough salary to convince him to give back significant money. Middleton probably doesn’t. Smart’s niche as a star defender made it easy to convince someone — in his case, the Lakers — to pay him. Middleton’s injury history probably precludes a similar outcome. If he hit the open market, he’d have a ton of interest. It would just likely be at the minimum.
That could very well happen. It just wouldn’t make sense until February. Washington would still probably prefer to use Middleton’s huge $33.3 million expiring salary productively. The obvious way to do that would be to trade him for a bad, long-term contract with draft picks attached. There are usually a few of them available at the deadline. The Wizards currently have pathways to over $80 million in 2026 cap space, so they can easily afford to take on a longer-term deal if properly incentivized.
Whether Middleton gets traded or not, though, he really doesn’t make much sense in Washington at this stage of his career. He’s about to enter his age-34 season and didn’t play well in Washington. He’s lost quite a bit defensively. We’re nearing the end of a strong career, and he’d likely prefer to spend it either on a winner or potentially back in Milwaukee. Washington might benefit from his presence as a veteran for now, but once February rolls around and it’s time to start giving minutes to the young guys, he seems like an obvious candidate to hit the market.
2. C.J. McCollum, Wizards
Most of what we covered with Middleton applies to McCollum. Here’s the difference: McCollum is still, without question, a valuable player. He just averaged over 21 points on relatively efficient shooting for New Orleans. Middleton, in light of all of his injuries, would be a flyer for a good team. McCollum is a pretty safe bet to at least be able to contribute to a winner.
The catch here is that he is also pretty valuable as a locker room presence. The Wizards are young. They have a bunch of guards they’ve drafted and are trying to develop in the building. McCollum is the president of the player’s union and pretty universally respected around the league. The Wizards might prefer to keep him around for their sake. A buyout would therefore be unlikely until the deadline at least, but from there, McCollum deserves a chance to showcase himself on a playoff team ahead of free agency next offseason.
3. Nikola Vučević, Bulls
Let’s clear something up here: the aggregation surrounding a possible Vučević buyout has been grossly premature. As Marc Stein noted, nothing is imminent. There’s not even a guarantee that he gets bought out at all. The Bulls typically haven’t bought out their desirable expiring veterans of late. Andre Drummond in 2024 would have been an obvious candidate for one and didn’t get one. Chicago doesn’t really think the way other NBA teams do. The Bulls are typically perfectly happy to keep an older player, compete for a play-in slot and call it a day rather than diverting those minutes to younger reserves.
Still, we can’t deny that Vučević has seemingly been on the trade block since the moment Chicago signed him to a bizarre three-year contract, yet interest has seemingly been minimal. He is entering his age-35 season, and while he can’t really defend at a playoff level, he still puts up numbers. There would be interest from good teams, even for a backup role.
The question here is whether or not Vučević would even want that. Chicago has basically nothing else at center. If he can continue to put numbers on a Bulls team that has never really aspired to much more than mediocrity, he might be able to squeeze out another pricey short-term deal as Chicago flails directionlessly towards another 30-something win season. Is that preferable to him to trying to compete? That varies on a player-by-player basis. If he did get bought out, he’d lose the Bird Rights he has in Chicago. It would be much harder for him to get paid elsewhere. But if another deadline comes and goes without a deal and he wants to go win somewhere, it’s certainly on the table. Just don’t believe the barrage of irresponsible tweets suggesting it’s happening soon. Who would the Bulls even start at center, Zach Collins?
Now here’s a Bull that makes sense for a buyout. Chicago is overloaded with guards. That depth doesn’t hurt in the early portion of the season. Injuries happen. Billy Donovan is no stranger to three-guard lineups. The Bulls play fast and take a ton of 3s. Huerter obviously fits within that structure.
But it’s hard to imagine him as a longterm fixture in Chicago. Despite their current staring contest, the Bulls will eventually have to pay Josh Giddey this offseason, and Coby White will be a free agent next offseason. So will Ayo Dosunmu. When the higher-priority guards on this roster are paid appropriately, Huerter will become a luxury Chicago can no longer afford, yet at his current $18 million salary, he’s just not a feasible trade candidate unless he’s just a cap number in a bigger deal. Winning teams don’t have the money to match for him given how inconsistent his last few years have been.
Yet Huerter was at one time one of the NBA’s best shooters. He’s played deep into the playoffs. If he could get to the right playoff team, he could boost his value significantly going into 2026 free agency, and he’s still only 27. He still has a lot of upside left to his career. He is exactly the sort of player who could benefit from giving up a bit of extra money to get to the ideal situation.
Miami’s strong preference, obviously, would be to trade Terry Rozier. His $26.6 million expiring salary could be very helpful in constructing the sort of blockbuster the Heat are always trying to make. He would have been in any Kevin Durant deal Miami would have made if the Heat could have pulled such a trade off. Rozier is coming off of a terrible season. He may not be in the rotation next year. In a perfect world, the Heat use his salary as a trade chip.
But let’s say they don’t. Right now, Miami is around $1.6 million above the luxury-tax line (and that number could get bigger if Tyler Herro hits his incentives). If all else fails, Rozier might be their path out of the luxury tax. After all, he was productive in Charlotte. Maybe he’d be willing to give up a bit of money to get somewhere else and try to reset his market value ahead of free agency. Ducking under the tax in some way, shape or form is going to be important for Miami. This is a team that waived Mike Miller during the height of the LeBron James era to save money. Miami doesn’t spend needlessly. This is not a roster worthy of paying the tax. If they don’t make a substantial upgrade through trade, they’ll look for a way to duck the tax during the season. Buying out Rozier is one possible path to doing so.
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