2025 NBA buyout season: Who are the candidates?

The NBA's trade deadline can be quite the transformative period. Just ask Dallas Mavericks fans.

Importantly, though, it is only a trade deadline, and not a roster deadline. Signings, waivers and waiver claims can all be made up to and including the last day of the regular season; it is only trades that are prohibited. And some of the players who have been traded as financial filler in deals at the deadline – or in other cases, who were not dealt when they were expected to be – might now be bought out of their incumbent contracts and hitting the free agency market in the springtime.

This is an annual cycle, and in the past, it has made for some significant moves. A particularly strong recent example was the case of Markieff Morris, who posted 19 points in Game 3 of the 2020 NBA Finals having been bought out by the Detroit Pistons only a few weeks prior, with others such as Boris Diaw (San Antonio, 2012), Peja Stojakovic (Dallas Mavericks, 2011) and the combination of Ersan Ilyasova and Marco Belinelli (Philadelphia 76ers, 2018) also being impactful players in their short stays.

Of course, not all such moves work out that well. But there are always available players, and always interested teams. Here are some of the players expected to be in the buyout market over the coming week or two.

Atlanta: Larry Nance

Atlanta's season is going south, and quickly. While they remain in the ninth seed in the Eastern Conference and theoretically in line for a spot in the play-in tournament, their 23-28 record is sinking fast, winning only one of their last 11 games., and with Jalen Johnson now ruled out for the season with a shoulder injury, the downward trend will only continue.

Accordingly, given that their dual deadline-day trades of De'Andre Hunter to the Cleveland Cavaliers and Bogdan Bogdanovic to the L.A. Clippers strongly suggest they have pulled the plug, the 32-year-old Nance might become surplus to requirements. It is not an indictment on him personally; a versatile defender who has sustained his athleticism into his fourth decade and improved his shooting consistency, Nance is averaging 8.9 points in less than 20 minutes per game for the fast-paced Hawks, and will have suitors if he hits the free agent market. It is instead merely the nature of the buyout market for veterans and lottery teams.

Brooklyn: Ben Simmons and Bojan Bogdanovic

The idea that Simmons might be bought of his $40,338,144 contract is not a new one, and has been discussed in the rumor mill for some time. Supposedly, as of the time of writing, nothing has yet been discussed. But perhaps it should be – the Nets are not going anywhere any time soon, and Simmons is not likely at all to be a part of the next competitive Nets team. The same is also going to be true of Bojan, a two-time Net who yet to take the court in his second stint due to a foot injury, but who is due to return soon. Both are very unlikely to be retained in the summer, so why wait?

Charlotte: Seth Curry and Taj Gibson

It has been yet another empty season for the Hornets, who are second-last in the Eastern Conference with only 12 wins. With Brandon Miller, Tre Mann and Grant Williams all out for the year, the towel got thrown in a while ago, and they have been selling off their collection of quality young bigs with their trades of both Mark Williams to the Lakers this week and Nick Richards to the Suns last month.

In their place will come airings for players such as Dalton Knecht and Josh Okogie, and perhaps two more roster spots can be opened up with buyouts for by far the two oldest players on the roster. Both Curry (5.4 points per game on 45 percent three-point shooting) and Gibson (3.4 rebounds and an uncountable number of elbows per game) can still contribute on an NBA court in their own inimitable wizened ways, but given that half their roster is injured and the other half is unproven, the Hornets might prefer to have two open roster spots with which to hold next year's auditions.

New Orleans: Bruce Brown and Kelly Olynyk

Not so long ago, Brown and Olynyk were premium non-star role players. Indeed, it was said that Brown's decision to leave the Denver Nuggets broke up a title team. Both are still valuable contributors, of course; for the Raptors this year, Brown has averaged 8.4 points, 3.8 rebounds and 1.6 assists in 19.6 minutes per game, while Olynyk put up 7.1/3.7/2.3 on 44.2 percent three-point shooting alongside him. However, both also now find themselves in New Orleans as a part of the Brandon Ingram trade earlier this week.

With their lowly 12-39 record that places them last in the Western Conference, the Pelicans are stuck in the quagmire of a lost season. With this in mind, despite their usefulness as contributors, both Brown and Olynyk might be logical buyout candidates to free up both money and roster spots for the Pelicans to begin looking forward. Given that Olynyk has a valid $13,445,122 contract for next season, it is perhaps less likely for him, but Brown's expiring $23 million contract could yield savings if it is deemed highly unlikely that he will return this summer anyway.

Oklahoma City: Daniel Theis

Theis was moved this week from the aforementioned Pelicans to the Thunder in a move intended, for New Orleans at least, purely to save money. (They were on course to pay luxury take for those 12 wins.) With his rugged play, solid defense and occasional outside shooting, he is a useful veteran depth big that any team would benefit from, which in large part explains why he is now passed around so much. And this is in theory true of the Thunder, too, especially with the continuing fragility of Chet Holmgren.

However, for all their quality, the Thunder are bristling against the limits of a well-established roster spot problem, and while this is largely an issue for the future (given their plethora of outstanding draft capital), it is also something they are facing now. They want to have a spot available on their main roster with which they can convert breakout rookie Ajay Mitchell's contract from a two-way deal to a full one, and there is no one else on the roster who would be an obvious cut. If Theis is in the way of them doing that, therefore, he does not need to stick around; he came with a draft pick swap and cash attached, so the trade with the Pelicans would stand on those merits already.

Orlando: Gary Harris and Cory Joseph

The Magic will have been hoping to have been better than the 25-27 team that they have been this year, but all is not lost. They have Paolo Banchero back (and all their starters healthy), they have a quality defensive unit, and they have youth on their side. That is, with the exceptions of Harris and Joseph, two of the three veterans on the team. And unlike the third (Kentavious Caldwell-Pope), the duo are marginal contributors. Harris is averaging only 3.9 points per game on sub-40 percent shooting, and Joseph has played only 225 minutes all season. The Magic need some offensive punch and a quicker backcourt, and are logical candidates to be buyers on the in-season free agent market if possible, potentially putting these two on the chopping block.

San Antonio: Patrick Baldwin Jr

Debate among Spurs fans about what their favourite Patrick Baldwin Jr moment in a San Antonio jersey was will no doubt go on for some time, and perhaps once the dust settles, it will be easier to understand quite where his legacy places amongst all of the greats to have suited up in the franchise's storied history. But the eulogies must be written quickly, as the two will soon part ways.

Baldwin was acquired by the Spurs from the Bucks, along with cash, one day after he was acquired by Milwaukee as a part of the Kyle Kuzma trade. The cash received offsets the amount Baldwin is still owed, with a little sweetener on top, thus essentially being free money for the Spurs, who could use their remaining room exception to incorporate Baldwin's salary (given that the exception was almost certainly going to go unused others). In the 91 NBA games he has managed across his two and a half seasons in the league, Baldwin has scored 337 points, and has massively improved his efficiency metrics in that time, yet unlike the rest of the names on this list, the long and lean forward remains something of a project at this time.

Toronto: Chris Boucher, Garrett Temple and PJ Tucker

Currently in his 15th NBA season and 16th as a pro, everyone knows that Temple has been around forever. But having turned 32 last month, Boucher is deceptively old, at least by the standards of the NBA (and particularly so for one whose game is based on his leaping ability). With the 16-35 Raptors in a confused state - combining being sellers for the last few transaction windows with also acquiring 27-year-old Brandon Ingram from the Pelicans in this one – it is fair to say that they are in the middle of a protracted roster overhaul, a situation which automatically makes bench veterans into buyout candidates. Boucher, in particular, reportedly has interest, especially from Denver.

By contrast, Tucker's decline as an NBA player has been sharp. He was a 75-game starter for a good Philadelphia 76ers team as recently as 2022-23, but has played only 34 times since then, and has not taken the court at all in 2024-25. In that time, he has been passed around like Luke Ridnour, traded three times this week (once for Drew Eubanks and Patty Mills, once as a part of the Jimmy Butler deal, and then today to the Raptors in exchange for Davion Mitchell). With respect, no team wants that contract. And so since it cannot be traded any longer, it will likely just be terminated.

Washington: Marvin Bagley III, Reggie Jackson, Malcolm Brogdon and Khris Middleton

With the worst record in the NBA, the Wizards had a busy deadline. They sold what they could with the Kyle Kuzma trade with the Milwaukee Bucks, and they finagled around the edges of their draft capital in their deal with the 76ers that saw them take on the contract of Reggie Jackson, who they immediately waived. As a result of those, and with Malcolm Brogdon not traded after all, they now have a multitude of decent veterans on expiring contracts who might not want to spend one of their few good remaining earning years toiling away on an eight-win team.

Brogdon ($22,500,000) and Bagley ($12,500,000) are both on sizeable expiring contracts, and although his final year is a $34,012,345 player option, Middleton might be a free agent in a few months too. In light of the punitive effects of the NBA's new "apron" system, there is not a lot of money around next summer to be spent on new contracts, and that plus the aforementioned apron limitations might dissuade Middleton in particular from declining the PO. Yet with the Wizards going nowhere, it might benefit all of this group to get to a better team and build some momentum going into free agency by playing in the postseason. Somewhere that the Wizards most definitely are not going.

This article originally appeared on Hoops Hype: 2025 NBA buyout season: Who are the candidates?