We are now down to the last week of the trade deadline, and although we have grown accustomed to a much busier transfer market in the past, we expect great exchanges to happen in the next couple of days. In case you were wondering which NBA players were only months away from becoming free agents, we decided to create a list for the current best athletes in this situation.
The first, and probably the biggest name of a player who was involved in this predicament was former Nets star Kyrie Irving. And just as we suspected, he wasn’t going to survive as a Brooklyn player before the trade window closed, as now he has just become part of the Dallas Mavericks roster.
Key players such as James Harden, Bogdan Bogdanovic and Fred VanVleet each have player options in their contracts for the 2023-24 season, still giving them the choice of entering free agency. This means there will be no shortage of stars available, but whether or not there will be a lot of movement remains to be seen.
Furthermore, there are also numerous cases of players having career-high stats this season and are in demand as they are soon to become unrestricted free agents, such as Washington’s Kyle Kuzma and Jerami Grant from the Trail Blazers.
Here is our list of top players who could be available in free agency this year, along with their current salary and contract status:
James Harden, Philadelphia 76ers
James Harden was one of the players who wanted out of Brooklyn just a year ago, but was only traded to the Sixers for a year-contract. Even though his deal has a player option so he can decide his future, his salary is still very high ($33 million), considering he is 33 years of age.
Although we haven’t heard about too many rumours surrounding his trade outside Philly’s borders, it hasn’t been because of his performances. Harden is currently in great form and extra-officially holds the best average for assists per game at 10.9.
Maybe the only thing we can complain about his stats this campaign, is the fact that he has only played 36 games so far this season, which is the direct reason why he isn’t the official best assister in the league, because for a player to be eligible for the stat leaders list, they must have played at least 70% of his team’s matches.
Russell Westbrook, Los Angeles Lakers
Russell Westbrook, on the other hand, is a player who’s been headlining the trade speculations news in the past week. The…