NBA free agency winners and losers: Bucks go from desperate to delusional; Knicks upgrade bench; Hawks soar

Well, we’re through the first night of the NBA’s 2025 free agency period (on the East Coast, at least) and there’s been some pretty decent activity, though it took a little longer than usual for the ball to get rolling. 

If you haven’t been keeping up with all the action, you can scroll through our live blog that has been running all day or check out our free-agent tracker, which has all the deals so far, updated with the reported terms. 

With that, let’s get to the winners and losers so far in the early stages of 2025 NBA free agency. 

Loser: Milwaukee Bucks

There are desperate moves and there are delusional moves. The Bucks waiving Lillard and stretching the remaining $113 million of his contract over the next five years so they can pay Myles Turner $107 million over the next four qualifies as the latter. 

Yes, Turner was the No. 1 player in my free-agent rankings, but this is an extremely thin class, for starters, and the cost and context matters. Send Turner to the Lakers at a reasonable price and he’s a huge get. Stay with Indiana and wait for Tyrese Haliburton to come back and that’s also good. But considering what Milwaukee forfeited in the form of cold hard cash and what little future roster flexibility they still had, this is nuts. 

Give the Bucks credit for pulling out all the stops to keep Giannis Antetokounmpo in town. But does this even make him happy? Turner is a-little-bit-better Brook Lopez. For that, you’re going to pay Lillard $22.5 million for each of the next five years to NOT play for you? In this apron era of extreme penny pinching all over the league, to call this a crippling move is an understatement. 

If I’m the Bucks, now that I’ve gone this far, I’d go even farther by trying to get Anfernee Simons from Boston. On paper, Simons can be your Lillard and, in an extremely watered-down Eastern Conference, perhaps then you can convince Giannis that he can compete, although that’s still a major stretch. 

Any way you cut it, this is bad. Top be fair, the Bucks didn’t have a lot of options. They gave it all up, first for Jrue Holiday, and then Lillard. They have done everything in their power to surround Giannis with a contending roster. The moves have been increasingly desperate after Holiday, but this one goes well beyond desperate. It’s delusional, and the Bucks are going to be paying for it for a long time, perhaps while also watching Giannis walk anyway.

The Knicks finally landed on a new coach in Mike Brown, who is quietly one of the winningest coaches of all time and can hopefully add some diversity and movement to New York’s offensive attack. 

Brown has won pretty much everywhere he’s coached. He’s been an assistant on multiple championship teams. He took the 2007 Cavs to the Finals. He led the Sacramento Kings to the No. 3 seed and the franchise’s first playoff berth in 16 years. If Brown does nothing else, reducing New York’s dependance on Jalen Brunson creating everything by pounding the air out of the ball and actually utilizing his bench will be significant improvements. 

To the bench part of that equation, New York has come out of free agency with two quality players in Clarkson and Yabusele, both of whom will be significant upgrades to the second units. You know about Clarkson. He’s a born scorer. For 20 minutes a night, he can get buckets, taking weight off Brunson, perhaps, in some lineups but probably more as a second-unit specialist who poses a much bigger threat than Cam Payne. 

Yabusele, meanwhile, started 43 games for the Sixers and averaged 11 points per game and 5.6 rebounds. He’s a strong defender with size but not a rim protector. Put him out there with Mitchell Robinson and two of New York’s wings and you have a serious defensive unit. Also, he can shoot, which alleviates a lot of stress from New York’s attack in lineups in which he swaps in for Josh Hart.

In an Eastern Conference that is, as they say, wide open, the Knicks, who were already two wins from the Finals, meaningfully upgraded their bench and brought in a coach who will actually use it. Good stuff. 

In one stroke, the Rockets weakened an opponent (the Lakers) and strengthened their own squad by signing Finney-Smith to a four-year, $53 million deal. Big win. Finney-Smith fits any team, especially the Rockets and their two-way identity — adding to what will remain an elite defense and an offensive attack that is now led by Kevin Durant. 

Houston has also added Capela on a three-year, $21 million deal, providing elite center depth behind Alperen Sengun and Steven Adams. Those are three entirely different big men — Capela the rim-rolling rim protector, Adams the Goliath rebounder, and Sengun the skilled scoring All-Star. 

That gives them premium lineup versatility with two-big, one-big and even no-big lineups with the super-long group of Durant, Finney-Smith, Smith Jr. (whom they re-signed on a five-year, $122 million deal), Tari Eason and Amen Thompson. 

To summarize, the Rockets basically replaced Green with Durant and Brooks with Finney-Smith, then added Capela on top of it. This was already the West’s No. 2 seed and they got significantly better. The Rockets are ready for liftoff. 

Loser: Los Angeles Lakers

When Ayton becomes a central figure in free-agent discourse, it says a hell of a lot more about how uninspiring this class is than it does anything about Ayton. But the Lakers got their center. Hooray. If Ayton signed with the Pacers to replace Myles Turner, I promise you, no one would care. But because it’s the Lakers, it’s a big deal. 

Now, this isn’t to say this is a nothing acquisition. Ayton is an upgrade from Jaxson Hayes. He was a premier pick-and-roll parter in his Phoenix days when he had Chris Paul as his pilot, and the Lakers are surely betting Luka Doncic can guide him back to these same finishing spaces. He’s a double-double guy and can operate effectively as s short-roll passer, a vital counter punch to the Dončić double teams.

OK, so here’s the equation as for making the Lakers a loser: Ayton is a marginal upgrade over Hayes, but Jake LaRavia is probably a greater downgrade from Dorian Finney-Smith, whom the Lakers lost to the Rockets. So, at best, we have a wash. And if you’re staying the same in this Western Conference, you’re going backwards.

All of this after LeBron James’ agent said his client wants a “realistic” chance to win a championship. I hate to break it to you, but this is not that. The Thunder are the Thunder. The Nuggets and Rockets got considerably better. The Warriors were already better than the Lakers before Stephen Curry got hurt. Dallas is better once Kyrie Irving returns, assuming they get lucky on the health front. 

Now, the Lakers are a good team and I’m not entirely betting against any squad with Luka, LeBron and Austin Reaves. But they are clearly prioritizing flexibility moving forward. They’re hanging onto their draft picks and will have a ton of cap space next summer if LeBron is gone, which looks increasingly likely — whether he retires or is playing for another team. But the guy that they would’ve most obviously targeted with that ’26 cap space, Jaren Jackson Jr., just signed a five-year, $240 million extension with the Grizzlies.

So now Rob Pelinka is trying to keep the powder dry for 2027 when he has no idea who, if anyone significant, will even be available when he has Luka and LeBron right now? From ESPN:

Though Finney-Smith was a popular locker room figure and helped the Lakers to a 14-6 record in the 20 games he started in the regular season, L.A. exercised discipline in its negotiations to preserve cap space for 2027, when the team expects to have space to sign a max-salary free agent.

I’ll tell you what this feels like … the Lakers kind of want LeBron to walk in and ask for a trade. They don’t want to be the bad guy, but all their actions are signaling a team that is not prioritizing this season but rather planning for life after LeBron, which they would probably, secretly, love to get started sooner rather than later. If they could get some value back for LeBron rather than watch him walk next summer for nothing, surely from a purely basketball perspective they would prefer that. 

Perhaps the Lakers have another move in store. Maybe they jack one out of the park and make a deal for Herb Jones, but that would probably require shipping out Austin Reaves. De’Anthony Melton, who would probably be an upgrade over Gabe Vincent, is another option in the bi-annual spot. Miami would maybe be in play for Andrew Wiggins, but it sounds like the Heat want a first-round pick the Lakers don’t want to give. Anything like that and we will be revisiting this section in one way or another. But until then, through the prism of this season, it’s a loss right now for the Lakers. 

The Hawks are doing work this summer. They started by trading for Porziņģis, giving Trae Young a stretch center with which he can do major damage in the extra space that sort of combo creates. 

Then the Hawks swindled the Pelicans on draft night, trading down from the 13th pick to No. 23 where they took Asa Newell (another in a suddenly impressive stable of long, athletic defenders).

On top of that, they picked up the Pelicans’ unprotected 2026 first-rounder — which could be extremely valuable as it is actually the better pick of the Bucks (who could really stink if Giannis asks out) and Pelicans — for their troubles. 

And now they have pulled off a sign-and-trade for one of the real free-agent prizes in this admittedly pretty thin class in Alexander-Walker, who was deservedly coveted by a lot of teams as an ace perimeter defender and 3-point shooter who broke out as a key cog for a Timberwolves team that has made consecutive conference finals appearances. 

Add to that Kennard, a 43% 3-point shooter who will space the floor considerably next to Young and Porzingis. Take a look around, and the Hawks have pretty expertly outfitted their roster in optimal support of Young, providing him the perimeter defense he needs to insulate his deficiencies on that end. 

With Defensive Player of the Year runner-up Dyson Daniels, last year’s No. 1 overall pick Zaccharie Risacher, Alexander-Walker and Jalen Johnson on the perimeter, and in certain lineups Onyeka Okongwu at the five, Atlanta can seriously defend around Young, and all those guys are capable secondary playmakers as well, which will be an awesome dynamic off Young’s gravitational pull. 

Atlanta watched what the Pacers just did in the Eastern Conference and said: Why not us? And you know what, why not the Hawks? This is suddenly a damn good team, and they probably aren’t even done as they have executed all of this while remaining under the tax line and still have access to almost $10 million in a Traded Player Exception from the Dejounte Murray deal. Seriously, the Hawks are flying high. 

We were always headed for a bit of a Boston gutting this offseason, but it hits different when it actually happens. Counting Jayson Tatum, who’s likely to miss all of next season as he recovers from a torn Achilles, Boston will enter the 2025-26 season down three-fifths of its championship starting lineup (Porziņģis wasn’t starting in the Finals — it was Horford — but you get the point). 

Add to that Kornet (who signed with San Antonio) and possibly the aforementioned Horford (who is being pretty heavily linked to the Warriors) and things are looking pretty thin in Beantown, realtively speaking. Boston still might look to flip Simons, too, as they continue trimming salary. Milwaukee seems like a logical partner for this exchange. Now that they’ve mortgaged their kids’ kid’s future for Myles Turner, they might as well triple down and grab a guy like Simons to play the Lillard role and at least give the Bucks an honest roster to pitch Giannis. 

This actually might be a nice little gap year for the Celtics, who have been in three of last four conference finals and two of the last four Finals, and the relative rest could pay dividends all over the organization down the road. But the bottom line is they have lost major players, might be losing another in Horford, and so far the replacements aren’t exactly inspiring. Any minute, Neemias Queta might be their starting center. 

Winner: Memphis Grizzlies

Perhaps the biggest news of the day was Jackson Jr. staying with Memphis on a five-year, $240 million extension. That was not a guarantee. The Grizzlies were limited in how much they could offer Jackson but managed to get themselves into a cap position to offer him the max, avoiding the nightmare scenario of his becoming a free agent next summer when the Lakers could be armed with max space. Massive win. 

One of the possible casualties of creating the cap space to extend Jackson was thought to be Aldama, who was a target for a lot of teams, but they get him back, too. Another big win. 

Finally, the Grizzlies add maybe the league’s best backup point guard in Jerome, poaching him from the Cavs. Jerome is kind of awesome. He’ll do more than spell Ja Morant. He could be a legit crunch-time player.

Losing Bane hurts, but Caldwell-Pope is a reasonable replacement and the Grizzlies got four first-round picks back on that deal. That means cheap depth moving forward, or a hell of a package for another trade — or trades. Love what the Grizzlies have done. 

The Nuggets finally found a way to get off Porter Jr.’s contract, sending him to the Nets along with Denver’s 2032 first-round pick for Johnson, who is a monster addition in the Nikola Jokić ecosystem. And they get Brown back on a vet minimum deal, too? 

Brown’s departure was the beginning of Denver’s bench clearing after the 2023 championship, and though he hasn’t really played much meaningful basketball over the last two seasons, which he’s spread across three teams, we know he thrives in Denver’s setup as a cutter, creator, physical finisher and energy defender.

Johnson, meanwhile, is every team’s dream. He’s one of the best movement shooters in the league, coming off screes and relocating with great spatial sense, hitting 39% of his 3s last season on over seven attempts a game. With the way Jokić feels the floor and distributes accordingly, that’s going to play big time. Terrific opening day for the Nuggets. 

I had big hopes for the Pistons, who were reportedly in play for Nickeil Alexander-Walker and/or Santi Aldama. They didn’t get either of those guys and had to settle for LeVert, who’s fine, but whatever. We’ll see what the Pistons do from here. There’s talk of the Schroder deal turning into a sign-and-trade for Malik Monk, which is definitely worth watching. Jaden Ivey coming back is basically an addition to last year’s team. 

But as far as true additions? Detroit hasn’t been able to score the guys they were reportedly eyeing, and on top of that they might be losing Malik Beasley, who’s currently at the center of a gambling investigation. Not great so far for Detroit. 

• Key additions: Desmond Bane, Tyus Jones
• Key losses: Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Cole Anthony

Just as I like the Memphis side of the Bane deal, I also think the Magic were justified in paying such a steep price for a non-All-Star player. Bane is exactly what the Magic need offensively. He can shoot the lights out and create in a bunch of different ways. He’s just a tough guy to deal with. Orlando has an elite defense and needed to add some legitimate scoring punch to have a chance in a wide-open Eastern Conference. 

But Bane isn’t a point guard. He can do point guard things, but for the Magic, getting Jones, who started for Phoenix but will likely come off the bench in Orlando, solidifies a lot of those minutes with a standardized point guard presence. Jalen Suggs will be back in the starting lineup and Orlando’s defense figures to be nasty again, only this time with an offense to go with it.