Some of this is subject to change before 2027 and somewhat hypothetical. Player - Contract status(UFA/RFA/Player Option) - Age in 2027 Damian Lillard - PO - 37 Stephen Curry - UFA - 39 Anthony Davis - PO - 34 Victor Wenbenyama - RFA - 23 Giannis Antetokounmpo - PO - 32 Nikola Jokic - PO - 32 Jimmy Butler - UFA - 37 Luka Doncic(1) - UFA - 28 Karl-Anthony Towns - PO - 31 Paul George - PO - 37 Donovan Mitchell - PO - 30 Kawhi Leonard - UFA - 36 Zach Lavine - UFA - 32 James Harden - UFA - 37 Brandon Ingram - PO - 29 Kyrie Irving - PO - 35 Rudy Gobert - PO - 35 Julius Randle - PO - 32 Jrue Holiday - PO - 36 Tyler Herro - UFA - 27 Draymond Green - UFA - 37 Jerami Grant - PO - 33 Andrew Wiggins - UFA - 32 Demar Derozan - UFA - 38 Kyle Kuzma - UFA - 31 Klay Thompson - UFA - 37 Bogdon Bogdonovic - UFA - 35 Deandre Ayton - UFA - 29 Marcus Smart - UFA - 33 Gary Trent Jr - UFA - 28 Bradley Beal - UFA - 34 Gary Harris - UFA - 32 (1) Doncic is eligible for a contract extension, and has a player option for 2026 free agency. Full list - Spotrac 2027 NBA Free Agents
As we've seen for almost a decade now very few real difference makers ever hit free agency anymore. They just make way more money staying with their current teams. I think the more interesting summer will be 2028 when a bunch of these guys who get super max extensions demand trades. As for the guys who will definitely not be getting supermax deals, I guess two summers from now might be interesting as far as where all of the role players go but again their teams will have the best shot at keeping them because they'll be able to re-sign them using Bird rights without triggering hard caps. The last CBA made free agency far less significant than it had been, the current CBA makes free agency almost insignificant.
Shouldn't we first be looking at 2026 free agents? Even many of those will sign extension. Some might sign one year deals. If you looked at the 2025 free agent class two years ago it would look nothing like what we just had at the start of this month. Luka can sign an extension a week from tomorrow. Wemby shouldn't be on this list as he will sign a max offer next summer.
This looks more like a list of who was good a decade ago back in 2015, than a list of who will help a new team in the 2028 playoffs.
Yeah, going down the list of UFAs I think there's a better than 50% chance that Steph retires, that Jimmy retires, that PG retires, that Kawhi retires, that Harden retires, that Draymond retires and that DeRozan retires. I mean a little better than 50% on each one of these guys individually, I would think it's a very small chance that all 7 of these potential hall of famers all retire the same summer.
