7 NBA Offseason Questions That Still Need Answers

The 2025 NBA offseason is beginning to slow down, although there's still plenty of questions that need to be answered before training camps open in a few months.

The free-agency pool is far from dry, as a number of interesting restricted free agents and some future Hall of Famers are still looking for a home. The league could be waiting to see what happens with LeBron James and Giannis Antetokounmpo before any other major transitions take place.

The Brooklyn Nets still have cap space to use, and we're seeing the effects of the second apron on teams like the Boston Celtics and Phoenix Suns.

These are the seven biggest NBA summer questions that still need to get resolved.

Jonathan Kuminga may be the most intriguing free agent left on the market. The 22-year-old super-athletic forward has never had the runway with the Golden State Warriors to show off his complete skill set.

Kuminga is a restricted free agent, so the Warriors have the right to match any offer sheet he signs with another team. The Brooklyn Nets are currently the only team that could offer him a deal starting above the $14.1 million non-taxpayer mid-level exception without pulling off a major salary dump.

A sign-and-trade has long seemed like the best path forward for everyone involved, although that type of deal could take time and may be complicated.

"From what I’ve heard in the Jonathan Kuminga situation, I’m not sure what you’ve heard, this might take a while because I think the Warriors want real stuff back, like a decent young player, a first-round pick," The Ringer's Zach Lowe recently said on The Zach Lowe Show (h/t HoopsHype).

The championship window for the Warriors with 37-year-old Stephen Curry, 35-year-old Jimmy Butler and 35-year-old Draymond Green is going to close relatively soon, so getting future picks or young talent back in return for Kuminga in a sign-and-trade deal is important.

Golden State is $25 million under the first apron, so it could always sign Kuminga to a new deal now and explore a trade closer to the deadline.

The ideal scenario would be for Kuminga to end up on a young team like the Nets, Charlotte Hornets or Utah Jazz where he'd have the ball in his hands more. The No. 7 overall pick of the 2021 draft might finally be able to show his full potential.

The Brooklyn Nets have wisely used their cap space in a variety of ways this offseason. They traded Cam Johnson to the Denver Nuggets for Michael Porter Jr. and a unprotected 2032 first-round pick. They also absorbed Terrance Mann along with a 2025 first-round pick in a trade and re-signed some of their own free agents to team-friendly deals.

What was once more than $60 million in space has shrunk to $24.7 million, although the Nets still have more than any team in the league.

Cam Thomas has yet to sign a new deal, although the Nets can keep his cap hold of $12.1 million on the books until they spend the rest of their nearly $25 million first. Brooklyn also has the $8.8 million room mid-level exception at its disposal.

For now, the Nets should do nothing.

Teams looking to trade for high-salary players like Giannis Antetokounmpo, LeBron James or others may need a third partner to take on money. For example, the Cleveland Cavaliers would need to shed roughly $20 million in salary to get under the second apron so they could aggregate contracts to acquire a superstar like James in a trade.

A lot of teams figure to still be calling Brooklyn this summer as a facilitator in potential trades. The Nets should use that to their advantage while trying to acquire even more future picks and/or young prospects.

Paying a player $100 million not to play for you had never happened in the history of the NBA until this summer. Now, we could see it twice.

The Milwaukee Bucks already waived and stretched the remaining two years and nearly $113 million on Damian Lillard's contract to open up enough cap space to sign Myles Turner.

The Phoenix Suns may now do the same with Bradley Beal…to save money this year?

Beal is owed $110.8 million over the next two years. Because teams can only use 15 percent of the salary cap on stretched money, the veteran guard would need to give back at least $13.8 million since the Suns are already paying Nassir Little and E.J. Liddell $3.8 million in dead money.

If Beal agrees to that, the Suns could save $230 million on this year's team alone, as this dramatic drop in salary for 2025-26 would take Phoenix from being a second apron team to out of the tax altogether. Of course, it would also mean paying Beal nearly $20 million each of the next five years to play for someone else.

If Beal hits free agency, the 32-year-old will have suitors, especially since he'll come at a discounted rate. Even in a bad situation with the Suns, Beal averaged 17.6 points, 4.3 assists and 3.9 rebounds per game while shooting 40.7 percent from three over two years.

Beal going to Milwaukee to be the Bucks' starting point guard would be a fascinating turn of events. The Los Angeles Clippers' starting shooting guard spot just opened up after they traded Norm Powell to the Miami Heat. The Boston Celtics could be a possible wild-card destination, as Beal and Jayson Tatum are childhood friends who still share a bond.

Beal is a few years removed from his peak, but he's still a good starting shooting guard in the NBA.

Damian Lillard, Chris Paul and Russell Westbrook have a combined 30 All-Star games, 27 All-NBA nods and are all members of the NBA's 75th Anniversary Team. All three are also free agents still looking for a home.

Injuries (Lillard) and age (Paul, Westbrook) have removed the shine from the future Hall of Famers, although where they sign can still make a big impact in the right situation.

Paul played in all 82 games for the San Antonio Spurs last season with an impressive swing rating of plus-9.0 (92nd percentile via Cleaning the Glass), yet he's apparently considering retirement now at the age of 40. 

Westbrook is 37 but averaged 15.3 points, 7.0 assists, 6.1 rebounds and 1.7 steals per game while shooting 50.4 percent overall in 36 games as a starter for the Denver Nuggets last season. His ceiling is higher than Paul's, although his floor is much lower.

Lillard is the youngest of the group at 35 and has been an All-Star the past eight straight seasons when healthy. A torn Achilles will likely sideline him for the entire 2025-26 season, but with the Milwaukee Bucks paying him nearly $113 million over the next five years, Lillard could become an absolute steal in 2026-27.

All three have given so much to the game and will go down as some of the greatest point guards in history, all with uniquely different styles of play. Seeing where they sign next season and beyond (or if all) are big questions that need answering.

Under the NBA's previous collective bargaining agreement, the luxury tax did little to break up superteams as long as the team governor had deep enough pockets.

However, the second apron is picking apart contenders as we speak.

We saw the Los Angeles Clippers and Denver Nuggets let Paul George and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope leave in free agency for nothing last offseason. The Boston Celtics have ripped apart a roster that won a title just 13 months ago by trading Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porziņģis, and they're now "actively trying" to trade Anfernee Simons as well, according to ESPN's Brian Windhorst.

We're likely going to continue to see teams be far more careful with their current and future spending. A flurry of trades could happen as a result.

A Bradley Beal buyout would drop the Phoenix Suns below the second apron (they're currently $13.8 million above). The Orlando Magic could blow past the second apron line now with four players (Paolo Bancherlo, Franz Wagner, Desmond Bane, Jalen Suggs) all making north of $30 million in the 2026-27 season. Max rookie extensions for Chet Holmgren and Jalen Williams have the Oklahoma City Thunder projected to be $34.8 million above the second apron line in two years, and that's before Shai Gilgeous-Alexander's own four-year supermax deal kicks in ahead of the 2027-28 campaign.

Some NBA teams are going to feel some real financial stress for the first time. We're going to see a lot of money-saving deals over the next 12 months, perhaps including a few more this summer.

We now know February 2, 2025 as the date that shook up the NBA world, with Luka Dončić joining the Los Angeles Lakers in a deal that sent Anthony Davis to the Dallas Mavericks.

It also marks the first time in his 40 years on this earth that LeBron James wasn't the best basketball player on his own team.

For James, it appears that reality is finally settling in.

Dončić is now the prettiest girl at the party, the center of attention that the franchise revolves around. It's become clear that James isn't interested in taking a backseat to anyone, even at this stage of his career.

The Lakers' offseason decisions to let 32-year-old Dorian Finney-Smith walk in free agency while signing 26-year-old Deandre Ayton and 23-year-old Jake LaRavia proves that the team is trying to get younger and build around the 26-year-old Dončić's timeline instead. James choosing not to reach out to Ayton gives us "not including Andrew Wiggins in his coming home letter" vibes as well.

A James trade should be viewed not just as possible at this point, but probable.

It wouldn't be easy for the Lakers to move $52.6 million salary and still keep together a roster that can compete for a championship, but a handful of possibilities exist. James and the Lakers would have to work together on any potential deal since he has a no-trade clause. A buyout would be ideal for James, but that would make no sense for Los Angeles.

Seeing how James handles the remainder of his legendary career will be one of the NBA's most intriguing storylines.

Giannis Antetokounmpo is the king of the 2025 NBA offseason regardless whether he wants to be or not.

The two-time MVP and nine-time All-Star is still very much in the prime of his career at age 30 and did little to put to rest any talk of him leaving the Bucks. When IShowSpeed recently asked him about whether he planned to stay in Milwaukee, Antetokounmpo said, "Probably. Probably, we'll see. Probably, I love Milwaukee."

A slight endorsement, although his pauses said about as much as his words.

At some point, Antetokounmpo or the Bucks need to issue a public statement definitively stating that he is completely off-limits in trade talks and that Milwaukee has done enough to satisfy him.

The Bucks desperately need a point guard. Players like Chris Paul, Russell Westbrook, Malcolm Brogdon and even Bradley Beal (if waived) would be an upgrade over what they have now, but why would any of them sign with Milwaukee if there's a chance that Antetokounmpo won't even be there?

The NBA world has its eyes on Wisconsin (and Greece, currently) to see what Antetokounmpo will do.