2025 Offseason

[payitforward]

Richaun will have no trouble landing somewhere in the league, probably on a contender. He's still a very effective player.

[Dark Faze]

Are we making a mistake not taking a deeper look at Josh Giddey?

Rumors have him seeking 30 million a year. With his improved shooting last year I'm not sure what else we could realistically ask for from the PG spot after Josh improved his 3pt shooting. 15,8,7, 57% TS. Defense isn't great, but length helps mitigate that, along with the rest of the roster having some freaky athletes elsewhere.

Will turn 23 at start of the season.

[payitforward]

Given that we really can't afford to get toooo good fo fear of losing our '26 R1 pick, it seems doubtful that we'll be taking another big swing. That said, he's a good player! Worth the big contract he'll get, so... maybe Will wd go after him....?

[Benjammin]

Hopefully the stretching of Beal's deal will hurt the Suns the next few years and make their record somewhat worse.

Sent from my Pixel 9 Pro XL using Tapatalk

[AFM]

Beal to the Clippers ... nice little pick up for them -- essentially for free

[tontoz]

Are we making a mistake not taking a deeper look at Josh Giddey?

.

Definitely not.



https://www.statmuse.com/nba/ask/chicago-bulls-plus-minus-leaders-this-season

[Dat2U]

Are we making a mistake not taking a deeper look at Josh Giddey?

Rumors have him seeking 30 million a year. With his improved shooting last year I'm not sure what else we could realistically ask for from the PG spot after Josh improved his 3pt shooting. 15,8,7, 57% TS. Defense isn't great, but length helps mitigate that, along with the rest of the roster having some freaky athletes elsewhere.

Will turn 23 at start of the season.

Good player, well-below average starting PG. The standard for a starting PG is so high, I don't think I would consider him in the top 20 at the position - and paying $30 mil for a bottom tier starter seems yucky.

[Dat2U]

Beal to the Clippers ... nice little pick up for them -- essentially for free

PG James Harden ... Kris Dunn
SG Bradley Beal ... Bogdan Bogdanovic ... Cam Christie
SF Derrick Jones Jr ... Nicolas Batum
PF Kawhi Leonard ... John Collins ... Kobe Brown
CE Ivica Zubac ... Brook Lopez ... Yanic Konan Niederhauser

Not bad but not a contender IMO. Still don't trust Harden when it matters the most - he's no longer a viable 2nd option on a contender. Beal is a shell of his former self. Kawhi & Beal are extremely high injury risks. Collins is a solid NBA player but is an awkward fit as an old-school PF who doesn't defend well.

[payitforward]

Not a contender? I'll say not -- that team doesn't make the playoffs!

[joshuacf]

Beal to the Clippers ... nice little pick up for them -- essentially for free

PG James Harden ... Kris Dunn
SG Bradley Beal ... Bogdan Bogdanovic ... Cam Christie
SF Derrick Jones Jr ... Nicolas Batum
PF Kawhi Leonard ... John Collins ... Kobe Brown
CE Ivica Zubac ... Brook Lopez ... Yanic Konan Niederhauser

Not bad but not a contender IMO. Still don't trust Harden when it matters the most - he's no longer a viable 2nd option on a contender. Beal is a shell of his former self. Kawhi & Beal are extremely high injury risks. Collins is a solid NBA player but is an awkward fit as an old-school PF who doesn't defend well.

John Collins starts over Derrick Jones

[joshuacf]

Not a contender? I'll say not -- that team doesn't make the playoffs!

So the Clippers made the playoffs this year, and took the Nuggets to 7 games, who took the NBA Champion Thunder to 7 games...

But now that they've added John Collins and Bradley Beal they aren't going to make the playoffs?

You just don't know ball, I'm afraid.

[payitforward]

-- lets look back at this next year....

[I_Like_Dirt]

Not a contender? I'll say not -- that team doesn't make the playoffs!

It really comes down to health with them. If they can hold their team together like they did last seasoj, they'll make the playoffs. A string of cascading injuries to their roster that may be a tad more prone to such things and they probably won't. I don't think Beal is an upgrade over Powell for what they need.

[Kanyewest]

Not a contender? I'll say not -- that team doesn't make the playoffs!

So the Clippers made the playoffs this year, and took the Nuggets to 7 games, who took the NBA Champion Thunder to 7 games...

But now that they've added John Collins and Bradley Beal they aren't going to make the playoffs?

You just don't know ball, I'm afraid.

Yeah, it seems difficult to write off the Clippers completely given they beat the odds last season. They lost Paul George, many had them missing the playoffs and somehow replicated him with a healthier version of Kawhi, an improved version of Harden/Powell, and some good contributions from Dunn/Jones, etc. Lue is one of the longest tenured coaches.

I also believe the top 2-8 seeds were separated by 2 games so there could be a lot of flux.

Either way, the West appears to be a gauntlet- Dallas made it to the NBA Finals in 2024 and didn't even make the playoffs in 2025.

- OKC looks to be the favorites on paper although will be going against recent history as no team has repeated since 2018 and no NBA Champion has made it past the 2nd round since the 2019 Warriors.
- Denver - may have improved by exchanging Porter Jr. for Cam Johnson, Brown, Jonas, and Hardaway. The Nuggets may miss Porter's consistency from 3 point range but they appear to have addressed their biggest weakness of depth.
- Houston was already seeded better than the clippers last season and got Kevin Durant.
- Teams like the Warriors and Lakers who seemed to outplay the Clippers after the trade deadline also appear to be making some moves (Ayton for the Lakers, Horford for the Warriors) although had some losses in free agency (Dorian Finney Smith for the Lakers, Looney and potentially Kuminga for the Warriors)
- The Timberwolves made it to the conference finals but lost to the Thunder in 5; perhaps the Clippers would have done better (although they probably would have lost as well
- Grizzlies appear to be doing a soft reboot by trading out Bane for younger players although maybe they can pull it together


It will be interesting to see if there will be any new blood
- The Spurs appear to be primed to make a run to the playoffs provided that Wemby returns back from his blood clots although there may be some transition to life without Pop as a coach
- Dallas did get Cooper Flagg, Anthony Davis might try to do his best to save Nico's job. Although Kyrie is out and I believe they are relying on D'Angelo Russell as their starting point guard.
- The Trail Blazers appeared to be hitting their stride after a slow start last season. Could provide for content in the Deni thread
- The Pelicans traded for Poole, drafted Fears/Queen, although they have to wait and see if Zion plays even 50 games+.
- Phoenix is going to try to win games since they don't have control of their pick for a while. Seems like the Suns shouldn't make the playoffs although maybe they beat expectations like they did when they have Dragic/Bledsoe back in the day. (Although would be nice for the Wizards if they stunk)
- I am probably writing off the Kings although they could make the playoffs in the East.

[PaulinVA]

Welp, THESE guys seem to think our 2026 rookie pick is safe.....

Read on Twitter

[nate33]

Welp, THESE guys seem to think our 2026 rookie pick is safe.....

Read on Twitter

Portland at just 1% seems low. They finished 11th last year and went 23-19 over the second half of the season while starting young guys like Deni, Sharpe, Camara and Clingan. They lost Simons but adding a winner like Jrue may still be a net positive. Also, Scoot is still only 21.

I wonder what the betting odds are? All it would take is a slight improvement from their young guys and maybe one unanticipated West team to have bad injury luck and Portland could easily make the play-in.

[payitforward]

One more move. I keep thinking we'll make one more move this Summer.

Maybe to trade a veteran and acquire a young Center...?

[AFM]

I’d love to hear someone’s proposed trade for that. I can’t even think who’s potentially available.

[doclinkin]

I expect teams are waiting on preseason to see what shakes out. How their new team looks. Cut down day to see if there’s anyone they can snatch for free. I expect some will see if there’s a promising player in Euro champ play they might recruit. But I’d bet any big moves wait til mid season.

[nate33]

Veterans:
Khris Middleton $33.3M
CJ McCollum $30.7M
Corey Kispert $14.0M

Rookie Contracts:
Alex Sarr $11.8M
Tre Johnson $8.3M
Bilal Coulibaly $7.3M
Malaki Branham $5.0M
Bub Carrington $4.7M
Cam Whitmore $3.5M
Will Riley $3.5M
AJ Johnson $3.1M
Kyshawn George $3.0M
Dillon Jones $2.75M

Vet Minimum Contracts:
Marvin Bagley $2.3M
Justin Champagnie $2.4M

Two-Way Contracts:
Tristan Vukcevic
Jamir Watkins
Jaylen Martin

Dead Money:
Marcus Smart $21.5M
Richaun Holmes $0.25M
Blake Wesley $4.7M

Total Salary: $161.6M
Salary Cap: $141.6M

I guess that's it. 15 active roster guys and 3 two-way players. The only thing I don't know is if Smart cost his full $21.5M to buy out, or did he give some of that up knowing he was going to sign for $5.5M in LA. Maybe the dead money is only $15M.