Ranking the NBA's Top 9 Unsigned Free Agents 1 Week Before the Season

If you're an NBA free agent still hoping to land a job before the 2025-26 season tips off, time is running short.

We're only a week away from most teams' season-openers.

As you'd expect this late in the offseason, the landscape of unemployed NBA talent is pretty barren. Most of it is made up of high draft picks who underwhelmed in their early careers or mid-30s veterans hoping for one more crack at a roster spot before retirement or an overseas gig beckons.

With one sharpshooting, rankings-topping exception, there's not an in-prime rotation player in the bunch. And even he comes with some baggage.

Before we flip into regular-season mode, let's highlight the 10 best available free agents one last time.

2024-25 Stats: 2.9 points, 1.0 rebound, 1.3 assists, 0.5 steals, 0.1 blocks, 41.8 FG% 50.0 3P%

2024-25 Salary: $1.0 million

The results in 21 games with the Sacramento Kings last year weren't great, but Markelle Fultz is only 27 and isn't so far removed from his days as a full-time starter with the Orlando Magic.

Two years ago, the former No. 1 overall pick appeared in the Magic's first unit 60 times, averaging 14.0 points and 5.7 assists while hitting 51.4 percent of his shots from the field.

That was Fultz's age-24 season, which makes it hard to argue the normal downward forces on production—age and injury—rule out something close to those numbers in a similarly large role.

Fultz may never be able to stretch the defense from deep, but that's less of an issue if he has the ball in his hands. On the other end, the point guard's size and quickness allows him to be a positive contributor defensively.

Sacramento needs a point guard and decided Fultz wasn't worth bringing back for a second season. That's not a great sign, but surely there's a team out there that believes he can run an offense and help out on D as a third or fourth guard.

2024-25 Stats: 3.8 points, 0.8 rebounds, 0.9 assists, 0.4 steals, 37.5 FG%, 34.7 3P%

2024-25 Salary: $3.3 million

Patty Mills spent his age-36 season with the Utah Jazz and LA Clippers, making a grand total of 29 appearances and serving mostly as a spacing threat.

It's been nearly a half-decade since the Australian was a rotation fixture, but he could still provide spot minutes and command defensive attention beyond the arc.

Even if Mills only shot 34.7 percent from distance in 2024-25, he's at 38.5 percent for his career and has over 1,500 career triples. All that shooting and championship experience counts for something.

Retirement is very much on the table, and Mills' acceptance of a GM job for the University of Hawai'i men's basketball program suggests he's already looking toward life after the NBA.

It also suggests he has things figured out. All things being equal, a position that requires you to spend at least some of the year in paradise is a pretty good one.

If the right team needs an adult-in-the-room presence and some occasional spot-up shooting, Mills could be coaxed back to the league.

2024-25 Stats: 5.7 points, 1.5 rebounds, 0.6 assists, 0.3 steals 40.6 FG%, 44.6 3P%

2024-25 Salary: $3.1 million

As a purely speculative, reclamation-style gamble, 2023 No. 22 pick Dariq Whitehead is worth a look in free agency.

The 2021-22 McDonald's All-American and Duke product had his early career (and once-elite athleticism) ruined by injuries. Foot, shin and knee issues limited the 6'7" wing to just 22 games across two seasons with the Brooklyn Nets.

Now loaded with even younger prospects, Brooklyn waived the 21-year-old on Oct. 13.

It's possible the physical tools that made him such an exciting prospect aren't coming back. And it's discouraging that a rebuilding team like Brooklyn—which should have more interest than most in long-shot, high-ceilinged talent—decided it's not going to be in the Whitehead business.

At the very least, Whitehead's amateur career suggests he's worth a two-way look or an end-of-bench trial. He shot 42.9 percent from deep and just a hair under 80.0 percent from the foul line in college.

Wings who can score that efficiently while also having a little something in the off-the-dribble department are hard to come by.

2024-25 Stats: 4.2 points, 2.8 rebounds, 0.7 assists, 0.5 blocks, 42.2 FG%, 36.4 3P%

2024-25 Salary: $2.8 million

The rising demand for multi-dimensional offensive weapons means pure three-and-D wings aren't as prized as they used to be. Torrey Craig is a good example of those changing market dynamics.

The 34-year-old is without a team after splitting last year between the Chicago Bulls and Boston Celtics, despite posting a positive Defensive Estimated Plus/Minus and hitting at least 39.0 percent of his threes in two of the last three seasons.

Age probably has something to do with it, but Craig's unemployment also owes to his limited game. A non-threat off the dribble and a limited passer, the 6'7" wing might not have what it takes to thrive in a modernized game that requires more creativity and processing power from every player on the floor.

Craig has good size at a combo forward spot, and he's established a strong track record of reliable long-range shooting. Even if only as a ninth or 10th man, he improves most teams' rotation.

2024-25 Stats: 3.5 points, 1.5 rebounds, 1.4 assists, 0.5 steals, 40.3 FG%, 36.4 3P%

2024-25 Salary: $3.3 million

You know you're doing something right if you last 14 years without ever seizing a full-time starting job. In Cory Joseph's case, "something" is reliable game management with just enough three-point shooting to keep defenses honest.

He saw 50 games of action for the Orlando Magic last season, mostly in the wake of Jalen Suggs' injury. He shot 36.4 percent from deep and improved the team's offensive rating by 4.5 points per 100 possessions when on the floor. Overall, Orlando won his minutes and took far better care of the ball whenever he was in the game.

At 34, Joseph might not be able to replicate that level of impact. The Magic, who declined his team option for this season, are among the unconvinced.

Still, the veteran's helpful play last season suggests he can occupy a third-string role and hold down the fort when rotation-caliber guards miss time. That's worth a minimum salary.

2024-25 Stats: 10.6 points, 2.2 assists, 3.0 rebounds, 1.0 steal, 38.9 FG%, 31.4 3P%

2024-25 Salary: $2.2 million

A first-round pick in 2021, Keon Johnson led the Brooklyn Nets in total minutes last season. Despite his draft pedigree and relative durability, he still finds himself out of a job after Brooklyn waived him to clear the decks for even younger players.

The 23-year-old has never scored efficiently and, despite striking athleticism, has only hit 42.9 percent of his career two-point attempts. He offers little defensive resistance due to his thin frame and has already cycled through three teams in four years.

Anyone signing him will have to push past those negatives to see Johnson is a strong rebounder for his position who also disrupts with high steal and block rates. None of that has translated to positive on-off differentials, but athletic guards who at least hold good shot-diet principles (mostly around the rim and from three) are often worth fliers.

An early-20s wing who logged over 1,900 minutes on a Brooklyn Nets team that defined itself by playing hard deserves another shot to prove himself somewhere else.

2024-25 Stats: 5.0 points, 4.7 rebounds, 5.6 assists, 0.7 steals, 0.5 blocks, 52.0 FG%

2024-25 Salary: $40.3 million

Ben Simmons is 29 years old, plays multiple positions and holds career averages of 15.2 points, 8.4 rebounds, 6.8 assists, 1.5 steals and 0.9 blocks per game.

If you stopped the analysis there, he would rank No. 1 on this list by a mile, and you'd be wondering how in the world a player that productive wound up a free agent in the first place.

We know there's more to the story than that, with the key piece of information being that Simmons has spent the last half-decade acting as if he's through playing NBA basketball.

The pivot point seemed to be the 2021 postseason, when his fear of getting fouled produced one of the most infamous passed-up shots in recent memory. Long reluctant to shoot threes, his unwillingness to attack the basket made him a tricky player to fit into any offense and, more importantly, a pariah among fans.

He sat out all of 2021-22, bounced between the Nets and Clippers across the next three years and looked nothing like the three-time All-Star he used to be.

Simmons' agent dropped him this offseason, and it's unclear whether the former Rookie of the Year intends to continue his career.

The long-odds potential of Simmons rediscovering his desire is enough to land him at No. 3 in a weak class of free-agent leftovers. If motivated, he could easily be the most productive, versatile and sought-after player in this group.

2024-25 Stats: 7.3 points, 2.5 rebounds, 1.1 assists, 0.6 steals, 42.4 FG%, 42.5 3P%

2024-25 Salary: $3.3 million

Alec Burks started 14 of the 49 games he played for the Miami Heat last season, and he sustained the strong three-point shooting that has defined the latter stages of his career.

The 34-year-old hasn't hit less than 38.5 percent of his threes since 2018-19 and has topped 40.0 percent in four of his last five seasons.

That accuracy hasn't stopped Burks from bouncing around the league. His next team will be his ninth in 15 years.

Though mainly a spot-up threat after starting his career as a slasher, he is still a serviceable passer with turnover rates below 10.0 percent in each of the last six seasons. That ball security pairs with efficient outside shooting to make him a legitimate value-add on offense.

The Heat scored 3.4 more points per 100 possessions with Burks on the floor than off last season. Two years ago in Detroit, he added 8.8 points per 100 possessions to the Pistons' attack across 1,122 minutes.

Any team in need of a scoring boost off the bench would benefit from signing Burks, even if he probably shouldn't play more than 15 minutes per game at this stage of his career.

2024-25 Stats: 16.3 points, 1.7 assists, 2.6 rebounds, 0.9 steals, 43.0 FG%, 41.6 3P%

2024-25 Salary: $6 million

Malik Beasley was the best shooter on the market when free agency started in July, and he still holds that distinction in mid-October.

Last year's second-place finisher in Sixth Man of the Year voting isn't still available due to doubts about his production. Instead, he is unsigned because of an offseason investigation into gambling allegations. Though his attorney claimed his client was no longer a target of that investigation, the entire scenario came with a major cost.

The 28-year-old was in negotiations to sign a deal worth up to $42 million with the Detroit Pistons, the team for whom he canned 319 triples in 2024-25. Now that virtually all of the league's cap space is gone, he'll likely have to settle for a fraction of that number.

Though not a regular starter, Beasley showed last season he can have a major impact on a winning team. He's head and shoulders above the rest of the free-agent field.

Stats courtesy of NBA.com, Basketball Reference and Cleaning the Glass. Salary info via Spotrac.

Grant Hughes covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Bluesky and subscribe to the Hardwood Knocks podcast, where he appears with Bleacher Report's Dan Favale.