With the trade deadline and NBA All-Star come and gone, it’s buyout season. Let’s identify the top names who have already found new teams — and those who could move next.
The 2022 NBA trade deadline brought more than just its share of fireworks. The long-discussed James Harden-Ben Simmons trade came to fruition after months of speculation, Kristaps Porzingis left Dallas for the nation’s capital, and while the Lakers and Knicks stood pat, they may have simply been looking ahead to what always comes next.
It’s that curiosity of the league’s salary rules as written into its collective bargaining agreement with the players: The NBA buyout market.
Once the deadline comes and goes, under-contract players seeking a new home can agree to be bought out, making them free to sign elsewhere — and this doesn’t just apply to guys on expiring deals. And while the players available via this route aren’t always the biggest names in the league, making the most out of the buyout period can constitute that extra push a contending team needs to get itself over the top.
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All contract and salary figures via Spotrac. Buyout players who relocate by a deadline of March 1 will retain playoff eligibility with their new teams.
SG Kent Bazemore
Current team: Los Angeles Lakers
Current contract: 1 year, $2,401,537
2021-22 salary:$2,401,537
Age: 32
PG/SG Eric Bledsoe
Current team: Portland Trail Blazers
Current contract: 4 years, $70,000,000
2021-22 salary: $18,125,000
Age: 32
SIGNED: PG/SG Goran Dragić
Released by: San Antonio Spurs
Signed with: Brooklyn Nets
Age: 35
Could this end up being the single biggest move of the NBA buyout market for 2022? GoranDragić isn’t the attacking force he was at the top of his prime as a member of the Phoenix Suns, but he can play both guard positions and provide spark plug scoring for a Nets team that has every intention of winning it all sooner rather than later.
PF/C Derrick Favors
Current team: Oklahoma City Thunder
Current contract: 3 years, $29,162,700
2021-22 salary: $9,720,900
Age: 30
PF Blake Griffin
Current team: Brooklyn Nets
Current contract: 1 year, $2,641,691
2021-22 salary: $2,641,691
Age: 32
SG Gary Harris
Current team: Orlando Magic
Current contract: 4 years, $84,000,000
2021-22 salary: $20,482,143
Age: 27
Last year’s Nuggets-Magic Aaron Gordon trade sent Gary Harris from the Mile High City to O-Town, and he’s an intriguing wing option for teams that wouldn’t have otherwise been interested in a steep cap number up above $20 million.
C DeAndre Jordan
Current team: Los Angeles Lakers
Current contract: 1 year, $2,641,691
2021-22 salary: $2,641,691
Age: 33
SG Jeremy Lamb
Current team: Sacramento Kings
Current contract: 3 years, $31,500,000
2021-22 salary: $10,500,000
Age: 29
C Robin Lopez
Current team: Orlando Magic
Current contract: 1 year, $5,000,000
2021-22 salary: $5,000,000
Age: 33
PF Paul Millsap
Current team: Philadelphia 76ers
Current contract: 1 year, $2,641,691
2021-22 salary: $2,641,691
Age: 37
SG Tomáš Satoransky
Current team: San Antonio Spurs
Current contract: 3 years, $30,000,000
2021-22 salary: $10,000,000
Age: 30
PG/SG Dennis Schröder
Current team: Houston Rockets
Current contract: 1 year, $5,890,000
2021-22 salary: $5,890,000
Age: 28
SIGNED: PF/C Tristan Thompson
Released by: Indiana Pacers
Signed with: Chicago Bulls
Age: 30
After starting the year with the Sacramento Kings, fortunes have improved for Tristan Thompson. A brief stopover in Indianapolis as part of the Tyrese Haliburton trade led to a buyout, and the former Cavalier and Celtic now finds himself with Billy Donovan’s surprisingly punchy Chicago Bulls. He’s a free agent at the end of the season.
PG John Wall
Current team: Houston Rockets
Current contract: 4 years, $171,131,520
2021-22 salary: $44,310,840
Age: 31
There’s no one in the NBA in quite the same situation as John Wall. He’s in the penultimate year of a supermax contract, which obviously makes him difficult to move via traditional means. But if he were amenable to leaving an admittedly huge amount of money on the table in exchange for the promise of a fresh start elsewhere, he might just become most intriguing buyout case we’ve ever seen.
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