NBA free agency has officially arrived. On June 30 the negotiating window opens up and teams around the league can negotiate with any free agent; to this point they were only able to negotiate with upcoming free agents on their own rosters. The CBA states no contracts can be signed until July 6, but despite that, the coming hours and days are when the biggest deals are hammered out. This is when the biggest dominoes topple even if pens cannot be put to paper until Sunday. The free-agent class as a whole isn’t too impactful as far as star-caliber talent goes. But there are pieces that could make a huge difference next year should they land in the correct spot.
More broadly speaking, there are a handful of organizations entering free agency that do not have a complete team by any stretch of the imagination. This isn’t a big deal, of course. There are still many months before next season starts, plenty of time for maneuvering via the free agency period and trades. But due to their glaring nature, the holes those teams must fill could dictate how free agency goes. If those needs are pressing enough, an organization will move heaven and earth to address them—and especially if that organization feels it’s close to contention.
As 2025 free agency officially kicks off on Monday at 6 p.m. ET, let’s examine the teams whose needs seem like they could define the next week and beyond.
Los Angeles Lakers
Biggest need: Center
The Lakers’ trade for Luka Dončić was maybe the biggest no-brainer in the history of all trades but it did leave the roster with a significant weakness down low. Los Angeles was already having a hard time protecting the paint and rebounding with Anthony Davis on the team. When he was shipped out for Dončić, things only got worse. The Lakers struggled to get even replacement-level play from the center position down the stretch of the season and it wound up a fatal flaw in the first round of the playoffs. The Minnesota Timberwolves dominated the Lakers with their size on the boards and in the paint on both ends, which was the primary reason the series ended in a gentlemen’s sweep and the start of L.A.’s offseason.
There was already a good amount of pressure on general manager Rob Pelinka to address that issue this offseason as the Lakers enter free agency with zero 7-footers under contract. Then LeBron James opted into his player option and made it clear he wanted the Lakers to make big moves right now in the process. Of course James’s $52.6 million salary he just locked onto L.A.’s books makes that more difficult. But the heat is on nevertheless. The Lakers have to improve the roster, starting with center, with the basketball world watching very closely to see if the moves sit well with The King. In other words, business as usual for the Lake Show.
The Lakers won’t be players in free agency the traditional way. Entering free agency, they are about $5 million over the luxury tax line and $3 million below the first apron. That means they have very little hard cash to throw around. But they do have avenues. If Dorian Finney-Smith does not re-sign with the team, the Lakers can offer prospective free agents a salary of $14.1 million as the non-taxpayer mid-level exception. Furthermore, Los Angeles still has a few future first-rounders to deal with and a collection of tradeable contracts like Gabe Vincent, Rui Hachimura or Maxi Kleber to make the money work. The franchise could dangle Dalton Knecht or even Austin Reaves to see if a big upgrade can be had. All that means the Lakers have the capability of making big changes to their roster, but they can’t just throw a big contract at their preferred free agent. They have to get creative, one way or the other.
The Lakers’ one obvious need combined with the resources at their disposal indicates they could be the catalyst of some dramatic moves in the coming free-agency period.
New York Knicks
Biggest need: Head coach
In case we all forgot, the New York Knicks still do not have a head coach. That definitely qualifies as one of the big needs of free agency for them! The Knicks fired Tom Thibodeau on June 3 and have conducted only three formal interviews to replace him. They have otherwise spent the last month asking for permission to interview currently employed coaches and getting denied at every turn. New York became the first team in recent memory to conduct the NBA draft without a head coach in place.
That last item wasn’t a big deal because the Knicks entered the draft with no first-round pick and made their only selection at No. 50. But it nevertheless feels as though the franchise is currently making decisions with one hand tied behind their back. President Leon Rose clearly runs the show and no new head coach will take decision-making power from him, but whoever the new head coach is will have preferences: the types of players he feels best fit his schemes on the court, the personalities he’d prefer to see in the locker room. No matter who has the final call, in a healthy organization the coach and front office work together to form a complete vision for the team they’re in charge of. The Knicks don’t have anything resembling that cohesion as they enter free agency because one half of the formula is missing entirely.
That makes the opening less attractive; the longer this goes on the less input the new coach will have on the roster and the more the impression is given that they’ll have nothing to do with how the team comes together. But that’s more of a worry for owner James Dolan. The more concrete concern? Rose has proven liable to take a huge swing at the drop of a hat while in charge of the Knicks, making massive trades with no hint they’re coming to transform the on-court look of the team. He did that with Mikal Bridges and again with Karl-Anthony Towns last offseason. Can there still be those kinds of players on the trade market when free agency begins if there is no coach?
It feels as though New York’s timing on hiring a head coach will be directly linked to how active the franchise will be when free agency kicks off. The Knicks are still under the second apron by $8 million and need bench depth to go with more shooting. But overhauling the roster doesn’t seem like it’ll be on the table unless there’s a coach in place who has a plan for what that future looks like. So for that reason and all the others the Knicks will be closely watched as the fireworks begin.
Milwaukee Bucks
Biggest need: A contending roster around Giannis Antetokounmpo
The Bucks are in an unenviable position. The hungry eyes of every championship hopeful with trade assets are drilling holes in the franchise as Giannis Antetokounmpo’s future remains cloudy. Damian Lillard is done for most, if not all, of the 2025–26 season with his Achilles injury and is likely one of the worst assets in the NBA going forward between his advanced age and salary. The rest of the players who make up what was once a championship roster are aging, flawed or both. There are many ways the next season can go horribly wrong and only a few where it goes right for general manager Jon Horst.
As free agency begins, there’s good news and bad news for Milwaukee. The good news: With all the contracts coming off the books, the Bucks are $23 million below the tax line and $41 million below the dreaded second apron. Those numbers in reality will be a bit lower once Bobby Portis’s new three-year, $44 million deal becomes official, but that’ll still leave lots of room to work with. The bad news: Along with Portis and Antetokounmpo, only four healthy rotation players are under contract for next year. Brook Lopez, Taurean Prince and Gary Trent Jr. ranked fourth through sixth in minutes per game on the roster and will all be unrestricted free agents. Kevin Porter Jr. ended up a surprising on-court plus but turned down his player option to check out the free- agent market.
As laid out above they have the money to retain most of the rotation from last year, maybe even bring everybody back—but is that the smart choice? The Bucks won 48 games but were never really seen as genuine threats to win a championship. They were good enough in many areas but elite in very few. The Antetokounmpo/Lillard pairing finally started to click and gave Milwaukee some teeth, but that tandem won’t be seen on the court next season. And of all the players who contributed last season, only AJ Green could be expected to show some in-house development; everybody else is at, or past, their developmental peak.
If they did decide to overhaul the roster, what would that look like? Everybody except Antetokounmpo, presumably, would be on the block. How much would a team like the Lakers give Milwaukee to oversee a sign-and-trade involving Lopez and his unique skill set? Does Green have any value to allow the Bucks to acquire a more hardy two-way wing? They have no draft picks to throw around, but the cap space opening up could allow for any number of moves previously not possible due to the apron restrictions.
Above all, the consequences of the wrong choice have never been more clear. If the Bucks maintain the status quo and make not a single change to a roster that just lost its second-best scorer in Lillard, Antetokounmpo probably won’t be pleased. But great risk accompanies aggressive turnover, too. Is Antetokounmpo willing to watch the rest of his friends on the team get shipped off in the pursuit of winning? And, obviously, if winning doesn’t follow such dramatic change Horst may as well have signed Antetokounmpo’s formal trade demand himself.
There’s always the nuclear option: trading Antetokounmpo. That doesn’t seem to be on the table and smart money would not suggest a trade is coming anytime soon. But the Bucks have to at least consider that given there isn’t a clear path back to contention as the landscape currently stands. Frankly it doesn’t matter at this point whether they would; the mere idea they could is enough to loom over all discussion, both by fans and teams, throughout the free-agency period.
More than any other team listed the Bucks could check any of the stereotypical boxes when it comes to how teams move in free agency. They could flip every asset they have to completely reshape the roster as one last big swing of the Antetokounmpo contention era. They could bend over backwards to keep everyone from last season and hope an opportunity to improve the roster emerges from the trade market based on how the rest of the league operates. Or they could thrust themselves into the center of the period by putting Antetokounmpo on the block.
No matter what the Bucks do, the rest of the NBA will be watching closely and adjusting accordingly.
Boston Celtics
Biggest need: Center
Like the Lakers, the Celtics also enter free agency with a dire center situation. Boston traded Kristaps Porzingis for salary relief ahead of the NBA draft, while both Al Horford and Luke Kornet enter unrestricted free agency. That leaves Neemias Queta as the only player guaranteed to return at center, along with second-round pick Amari Williams. While the C’s are in a bit of a gap year with Jayson Tatum recovering from a torn Achilles, the lack of bodies at center is a question that needs to be answered with the offseason beginning in earnest.
What makes the Celtics interesting in that regard is they do not have the capability to replace Horford or Kornet if either (or both) leave to wear another uniform. The franchise got underneath the second apron with their flurry of predraft moves but still boasts a high enough salary that the Celtics cannot go out and offer any free agents anything more than a veteran minimum’s salary. They can use Bird Rights on Horford and Kornet to retain them at a salary point they couldn’t offer to an outside free agent—but doing so would push them back over the second apron. Given the immense financial and basketball penalties that come along with that option, it isn’t realistic to expect the organization to do that.
Which means the Celtics, really, have two paths. They could let Horford and Kornet walk after the pair played the vast majority of minutes at center last season. They lean on Queta for big minutes despite his career as a fringe rotation player to this point, sign a journeyman center for as little as possible, give Williams some run and pray one of those three options pays dividends. Or they offload even more salary after ditching Porzingis and Jrue Holiday to create enough salary cap space to retain at least Horford and maybe Kornet as well.
The latter option feels more likely. Boston is unlikely to compete for a title in 2025–26 but Tatum could come back for the playoffs and president Brad Stevens doesn’t seem to view this as a complete blow-up year given he has yet to seriously consider trade offers for Jaylen Brown or Derrick White. Failing to bring back the Horford/Kornet combo has the dual effect of kicking the proverbial can down the road while making the team worse in the immediate.
If Stevens goes down that road, the Celtics will be active on the trade market once more. Sam Hauser seems the most attractive trade asset as a lifetime 40% three-point shooter about to start the first year of a reasonable four-year, $45 million extension. But they could also look to offload recent trade acquisitions in Georges Niang (expiring $8 million salary) or Anfernee Simons ($27 million salary with a team option for next season) as well. The Celtics have had a busy offseason thus far and could be at the center of attention again in the coming days.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Four Teams Whose Needs Could Define 2025 NBA Free Agency.
