NBA insider analysis: Westbrook & Kumingga and other seven free agents final destination and contract insider

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As the 2025-26 NBA season approaches, most teams are finalizing their roster. Yet, there are still a handful of free agents waiting to be sold – some are deadlocked in contracts while others are still open for which team they will play for the new season.

Jonathan Kumingga, Josh Gidey and Russell Westbrook are all seeking their future.

Our NBA insiders will analyze the remaining seven most important players in the free agent market, their situation in negotiations, and how limited cap space affects the league’s landscape.

Russell Westbrook

It seems that Westbrook, who spent the first 11 years of his career, will play for his sixth team in seven seasons. He won't be back in the Nuggets after a roller coaster-like season, where Westbrook finished seventh in the Sixth Person of the Year vote. The historical triple-double king will not be able to perform a fairytale return of the future Hall of Fame point guard like Damian Lillard and Chris Paul. The Thunder will hang his No. 0 jersey over the stadium after Westbrook retires, but the defending champions have no place in the roster, let alone the rotation, and they don't want to adjust the chemistry during the championship.

league sources believe that the Kings are Westbrook's most likely next home, and he will turn 37 in the first month of the new season. If that's the case, Westbrook could be the backup again and share the ball-handling responsibility with new aid Dennis Schroeder, who signed from free agent market.

Jonathan-Kuminga

Sources said that there has been no substantial change in the situation on Kuminga in the past two weeks.

Kuminga recently returned to his home country, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and then returned to Miami (his current offseason training location), and his views on the Warriors' two-year $45 million offer are still the same.

Sources said the Warriors initially proposed a deal to Kumingga's brokerage team was a tradeable contract so that when he was eligible to be traded again in January, the long-term wishes of both parties could be met. That's why the Warriors want to join the team option in their second season and ask Kumingga to give up his inherent trade veto.

But this is also the reason why Kuminga has always refused. Sources said he didn't want to sign such a contract that would be good for the team and he felt unattractive when he thought it would be easier to be traded in the middle of the season after signing. Sources said Kumingga’s goal this summer is to seek a commitment contract that shows that the Warriors or other teams see him as the cornerstone of the future team building. His agency team proposed a three-year, $82 million contract, but was rejected by the Warriors. As of last weekend, there were no signs of a compromise between the two sides.

So, everything is still in the state of 10 days ago. The Warriors did not raise their offer, and Kumingga has told those around him that the $7.9 million qualification offer is more attractive to him than the Warriors' current offer. Before the October 1 deadline, one party must make concessions.

Ben Simmons

Simmons is facing the dilemma of quota of lineups.

He is one of nearly 75 players who are still on the roster at the end of the regular season but still have nowhere to go next season. What is the main reason for

?

First, 41 players selected in the draft signed first and second round rookie contracts. These players replaced veterans, including Simmons, and occupied the roster spots for next season.

In addition, except for the Warriors, most teams have basically completed the lineup formation for next season, or are unable to sign players due to restrictions on luxury taxes. For example, the Lakers have a free roster spot, but they won't sign a player until January 18.

Of the 442 players who have contracts next season, 393 hold full guarantee contracts (average 13.1 players per team).

Al Horford

League insiders generally believe that when the situation in the free agent market finally settles, Horford will join the Warriors. Kumingga's situation continued to delay their operations, leaving Horford in a state of waiting.

But Horford didn't mind waiting. Retirement remains an option, sources said, but the Warriors seem determined to operate as a key member of the plan for next season.

Horford is expected to serve as the starting center, reducing Draymond Green's burden in the regular season, a priority. Horford's passing and defensive abilities are very consistent with the Warriors' system. His shooting ability as a center is exactly what they have always lacked.

Horford is 39 years old. He no longer plays back-to-back games. The Warriors can't expect him to be a stable choice to play 25 minutes every night. But their desire is to get him on the court at a critical moment to open up space for the roster on the court, which will especially benefit players like Kuminga who hit the rim.

Cameron Thomas

Of the four well-known players in the restricted free agent market this summer, Thomas is most likely to accept his qualification offer next season.

The value of the 23-year-old shooting guard has been difficult to determine since the 23-year-old scorer fell to the end of the first round in the 2022 draft. He averaged 24 points per game last season, but it is not clear what offer he received, which has also affected other restricted free agents such as Kumingga, Grimes and Gidey this summer.

If an agreement is reached with the Nets, its contract structure is expected to be similar to the contracts signed by the Nets with center Deron Sharp and forward Zaire Williams earlier this offseason: a one-year guarantee contract, and the second year is the team option. The contract negotiations between Josh Gidey and the Bulls have been delayed for months, but the two sides will almost certainly reach an agreement before the end of the summer. Last summer, the Bulls traded Alex Caruso for Gidey from the Thunder, and he remains part of the team's long-term plan. Giddy started off slowly, but after the All-Star weekend, the Bulls saw his efficiency as a main playmaker, when he averaged 21 points, 10 rebounds and nine assists per game.

Gidy has been looking for a contract with an annual salary of around $30 million, and the team has not agreed to the price yet. With the league's cap space scarce, especially for restricted free agents, the Bulls insist on a contract that is more favorable to the team.

Qentin Grimes' situation is the same as that of the Warriors' Kumingga, Bulls' Gidey and Nets' Thomas. He is a talented player and deserves to receive a quote. But he is a restricted free agent and there are few teams with the cap space to pursue him, which puts him in a difficult negotiating situation.

Grimes will also face competition for playing time in the 76ers lineup. The team's first-round picks in the past two years - Jared McCain, who was the leader in the year's rookie of the year before undergoing meniscus surgery and season reimbursement last season, and this year's third pick VJ Edgecome - both played in the same position. And the 76ers will build the team around another defender, Teres Maxi. There is also uncertainty about the health issues of

Joel Embiid and Paul George. If Grimes accepts a qualification offer from the 76ers—rather than a long-term contract with an eight-figure annual salary—the 76ers could be millions of dollars beyond the luxury tax line as they enter the new season. This allows them to retain their operational flexibility: once the new season repeats the mistakes of last season, the team may still reduce their total salary to below the luxury tax line through trading and other means in the middle of the season.