The Oklahoma City Thunder have claimed a spot in the Finals, sending the Minnesota Timberwolves into the offseason. In the Eastern Conference, the Indiana Pacers hold a 3-1 lead over the New York Knicks, making it very likely that we will soon see NY going home and Indiana advancing to meet OKC in the Finals.
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For the 28 other teams whose season is finished, preparations for 2025-26 are now underway. The upcoming season will have tons of moving parts, as many high-level teams will likely make major shakeups. In the East, the Celtics will be looking to lower their record-setting payroll, especially after the injury to Jayson Tatum, and the Bucks may be forced to trade Giannis Antetokounmpo.
While there are certainly other things to keep an eye on, like Kevin Durant’s tenure in Phoenix ending or the Houston Rockets chasing a star, those two question marks led NBA insider Brian Windhorst to put some pieces together.
In a guest appearance of The Rich Eisen Show, Windhorst laid out why this offseason could get so ridiculous and how one single trade could set it all off. “I think the conditions are right. I would say for Blockbuster watch,” started Windy, in response to a mention of a Shams Charania report calling the next offseason volatile.
“I’ll say that for two reasons,” Windhorst continued. “One, you know we’re in an era where the salary cap has gone up very little in the last couple of years, so we’ve got a logjam with salaries … and you’ve got some star players who may want to move.”
As the salary cap has failed to rise, more teams, especially those who went all-in on their cores and became extremely expensive, have now been stuck between a rock and a hard place. This includes the Boston Celtics, Minnesota Timberwolves, Cleveland Cavaliers and Phoenix Suns, all of whom are likely to make big changes due to financial and roster-building constraints.
“If [Giannis] does [request a trade], that’s gonna have a lot of fallout,” Windhorst said. “Beyond Giannis, I think you’re going to have KD. Wherever he may go, it will cause a lot of fallout.”
Windhorst asserts that one big trade may set off a powder keg of other big moves and smaller ones as well, using Jrue Holiday as an example of the effects of a Dame Lillard trade.
“Two years ago, I could argue that the most impactful trade that happened in the NBA was when Jrue Holiday became a Boston Celtic. If I told you on May 28, 2023 … you’re gonna say how does Jrue Holiday become a Boston Celtic? He plays for the Bucks.”
Holiday was moved as part of the package to get Damian Lillard to Milwaukee but was then rerouted to the Celtics. As good as Lillard was, he was not at the level of a prime Giannis, so that is why the “conditions are right,” as Windhorst puts it.
Still, exciting offseasons are the stuff of dreams. This year may see fans as engaged as they were in the 2019 offseason, when we saw the pursuits of free agent Kawhi Leonard reach baffling levels of engagement and excitement.
