Checking In On Top Remaining NBA Free Agents

Still, a few of the free agents who still don’t have a contract agreement in place are ones who ranked at or near the top of our board. Here are the players from our list who remain available:

1. Jalen Duren, C (Pistons RFA)
2. James Harden, G
3. Peyton Watson, F (Nuggets RFA)
4. Jonathan Kuminga, F
5. Bennedict Mathurin, G/F (Clippers RFA)
6. Brandon Williams, G

After the Lakers, Nets and Bulls used the majority of their cap room, no team is currently in position to put pressure on Detroit with a maximum-salary or near-max offer sheet for Duren.

The Kings and Duren reportedly had mutual interest when free agency opened, with Sacramento looking to make a sign-and-trade deal involving Domantas Sabonis, but the Pistons are said to have little enthusiasm for that concept — or for a sign-and-trade in general. They’ve indicated that they want to keep the All-NBA big man, and at this point, they appear to have the leverage to wait out the process and hope Duren decides to eventually accept their offer.

The last real update on Duren came last week, when Marc Stein reported that the 22-year-old was considering accepting his $9.6MM qualifying offer to become an unrestricted free agent next year. Shams Charania also reported that Duren and Detroit remain at an impasse in contract negotiations, adding that Duren could remain unsigned “well into August” or even September.

Several reports over the past handful of weeks have indicated that Harden remains on track to re-sign with the Cavaliers on a two- or three-year contract. The delay is due to the fact that Cleveland reportedly has sign-and-trade interest in both Watson and Kuminga.

In fact, there’s a good deal of overlap between the rumored suitors for the two athletic forwards. In addition to the Cavs, the Bucks, Hawks and Clippers have all been linked to Watson and Kuminga.

Watson has reportedly received contract offers from Denver in the range of $14-18MM per year, but he was said to be seeking a deal worth $25MM+ annually early in free agency. The Nuggets, who are currently over the second tax apron, are in a difficult financial bind, as our Luke Adams recently detailed in a Front Office story.

Kuminga, who finished last season with Atlanta, has also drawn interest from the Lakers and Timberwolves, though Minnesota can basically only offer the veteran’s minimum and the 23-year-old is said to be dissatisfied with Los Angeles’ contract proposals.

Mathurin is the third and final restricted free agent left on the board. We hadn’t seen much chatter about the former No. 6 overall pick until recently, when he was connected to the Pelicans, Bulls, Bucks and Mavericks. Subsequent reports suggested Dallas hadn’t expressed “serious” interest in the 24-year-old and that Chicago’s interest in the Montreal native was “overstated.” The Clippers are also said to have interest in retaining Mathurin.

Williams, who’s coming off a solid season with the Mavs, was expected to draw interest from Phoenix, Golden State, Boston and Dallas, but there hasn’t been much buzz about him since free agency began. The 6’1″ guard may no longer be in the Mavericks’ plans due to the team’s roster crunch.

DeMar DeRozan, a six-time All-Star who turns 37 years old on Friday, almost certainly would have been on our top-50 list if he had been a free agent at the time, but he didn’t hit the open market until July 8 after he was waived by Sacramento a couple days prior. While he has been linked to several different teams — including Miami, Detroit, Toronto, Golden State, Denver, Cleveland and Washington — he has yet to find a new club.

Russell Westbrook, Bruce Brown and Bradley Beal are among the other notable veteran free agents still on the board.

All of the free agent deals agreed upon so far can be found within our 2026 free agent tracker. The full list of free agents still available can be found right here (or here, if you prefer to sort by team rather than by position/type).