The NBA’s offseason logjam still starts with LeBron James, but plenty of other business is simmering underneath it. And right now, the latest batch of rumors points to stalled talks in Detroit and Los Angeles, plus a tense arena negotiation in Portland that has people around the league paying attention.
One of the bigger names still floating around is Jonathan Kuminga, but the Lakers and Hawks are not close to anything. Dan Woike of The Athletic reported that “it appears that momentum has stalled with the sides far apart on terms and L.A. not overly motivated to push significant draft capital into sign-and-trade scenarios.
Still, he appears to be the biggest upside play left on the table, and could re-emerge as a target if his market remains tepid. Cleveland, according to league sources, is the team most-often connected to Kuminga other than the Lakers.”
Atlanta reportedly wanted the Lakers’ 2032 first-round pick swap, the only first-round pick the Lakers can trade right now, and that was not on the table. Kuminga’s next deal is also part of the problem.
He is rumored to want about $25 million per season, while the Lakers reportedly offered two years and $20 million total. Los Angeles has already filled all of its roster spots, so any move would require clearing room first, including in the case of the rumored interest in Matisse Thybulle.
Detroit has its own unresolved situation with Jalen Duren. The Pistons’ All-NBA center is still technically the best free agent available, but he is a restricted free agent and the market isn’t giving anyone the kind of leverage that would force Detroit’s hand.
The Pistons have no interest in moving Cade Cunningham’s running mate in a sign-and-trade, and no team has the money to make a max offer that Detroit would simply match anyway. Marc Stein of The Stein Line reported that the two sides have made only “modest progress” toward a deal.
That leaves the Pistons in an awkward spot after an offseason that brought in John Collins, Isaiah Joe, and Gary Harris. Their two main goals were to add a high-level secondary shot creator next to Cunningham and to re-sign Duren.
So far, they’ve missed on both. It’s been a rough summer in Detroit.
Another name that continues to surface, even if the buzz has cooled, is Trey Murphy. The Pelicans have changed coaches to Jamahl Mosley, but otherwise they’re running back a 26-win team and hoping for a different result.
Several teams have checked in on the two-way wing, but New Orleans’ asking price has been high enough to keep a deal from happening. John Hollinger of The Athletic noted that “Chatter about a Trey Murphy trade, while lessened, hasn’t vanished and is one of many potential pieces of league business that could resurface once LeBron James’ next destination becomes clear.”
For now, though, the most unusual subplot may be in Portland. More than one person around Las Vegas Summer League pointed to new Trail Blazers owner Tom Dundon and the team’s fight with the city over Moda Center upgrades.
Jason Quick of The Athletic reported that one team source said, “I think we are very far apart,” and another called the city’s proposal “The term sheet is a non-starter,” adding, “I don’t know why they sent it to us, because they know very little of the stuff we would agree to. They are playing politics at this point.”
The city sent the Blazers a term sheet on Friday for a 20-year lease agreement. If the team accepts, it would receive $600 million in public funds for Moda Center renovations.
The city wants the Blazers to pay $3 million annually for a property tax offset that would rise over time, and the agreement would also require union labor and caps on project-cost overruns. The city and the team have until the end of the year to reach a deal, or else another $365 million in state money for the renovations disappears.
Dundon has not talked about moving the team, and team sources in Quick’s story denied any intention to relocate. Even so, the way this is playing out has raised eyebrows. A move out of Portland still looks highly unlikely, but this is the kind of negotiation the league will keep an eye on.
In Other News...
Blazers Fans Have Every Reason To Watch This Ownership Situation Closely
Tom Dundons arrival as the Portland Trail Blazers owner earlier this year has already changed the tone around the franchise, and not in a way that has made fans feel more comfortable. The cost-cutting moves have been unpopular, but the bigger issue hanging over the team is what comes next, because ownership questions in the NBA rarely stay limited to the balance sheet for long.
The Moda Center lease runs through 2030, which gives the Blazers a real deadline to sort out whether the building gets renovated or the franchise ends up looking elsewhere for its long-term home. A number of cities have been floated in the broader relocation conversation, but there is still no clear solution, and for Portland fans the uncertainty is the story itself. [Read more 🡒]
Blazers Just Lost A Key Defensive Wing In Free Agency
Matisse Thybulles time in Portland ended the way so many roster decisions do in the NBA, with the Blazers weighing whether a reunion made sense and ultimately leaving enough uncertainty for a defensive specialist to look elsewhere. The wing brought real value when he was on the floor, and even with his Portland stint interrupted by injuries, he remained one of the more important pieces in the teams late-season push toward the playoffs.
Now the Blazers have to replace a player whose impact often showed up in the less glamorous parts of the game, from disruptive defense to timely shooting when the season tightened. Portlands offer never got to the point where it could keep him in place, and that leaves the front office with another familiar summer question: how do you preserve the identity of a team that leaned on Thybulle so heavily when the games mattered most? [Read more 🡒]
Blazers Suddenly Have A Wing Problem Fans Wont Ignore
The Blazers have a familiar offseason issue on their hands after losing one of their better defensive wings, and the ripple effect reaches straight into the second unit. Portland now has to sort out who can soak up those minutes on the perimeter, and the early answer appears to be Vit Krejci, who is expected to get a much larger opportunity as a backup wing heading into 2026-27.
Krejcis path back into a meaningful role is not exactly smooth, either. His first stint in Portland last season was uneven, with his shot fading and his minutes drying up late in the year, so the Blazers are asking for a rebound at a position where they already lack certainty. With few obvious fixes available on the open market, this is the kind of roster hole that can linger unless someone inside the building proves ready to claim it. [Read more 🡒]