Premium list! Five people who are about to receive high salaries!

The 2024-25 season is about to end after the Pacers and the Thunder 3-3, but even so, the good show that belongs to the NBA will not end. After the finals, the draft will be taken over on June 25 and 26. After the next wave of young forces landed in the league, the next big drama in the free market will be staged.

Compared with the past, the situation in the free market this year is slightly special.

On the one hand, there are not many teams in the market that have salary space. Basically, only the Nets can directly sign maximum-paid free agents without performing other operations; but on the other hand, there are many outstanding players who are about to usher in expired contracts this summer, or waiting for the next high-paying contract.

Combined with the new version of the labor-capital agreement, the big-name players who appear in the free market this year will most likely choose to return to their original parent team, but in addition to this, what price will return at the end is another topic worth discussing. Below

, we list five free agents who may receive premium contracts, combining their respective advantageous chips in negotiations, and the direction of the league.

Fenney Smith

In the mid-2024-25 season, Finney Smith traded from the Nets to the Lakers. The 3D forward happened to fill the role vacancy that the Lakers needed. In the 43 games after the transfer, when Finney Smith was on the court, the Lakers' net efficiency value was as high as +11.1. By this standard, comparing Finney Smith's 15.4 million player option this summer is definitely a low-cost contract.

From the perspective of players, Finney Smith can directly execute player options, but based on the Lakers' urgent need for him, he still has a negotiating advantage, so he can naturally sit down and re-negotiate with the team.

Of course, Finney Smith is unlikely to get a contract worth over 100 million yuan, but if the operation is right, he will have a chance to win a beautiful enough contract for his 30-year-old player career.

Josh Giddy

Giddy is the only restricted free agent on this list, and he is about to receive a large contract.

Bulls sent Caruso to the Thunder last year in exchange for Josh Giddy. Although the team did not go smoothly in the 2024-25 season, for Giddy, he still played a brilliant enough recovery performance in his new club.

Judging from the recent news, Gidey's brokerage team is looking for a super-large contract with a total price of more than 150 million yuan. Although the team's salary cap is rising year by year, for Josh Gidey, if it cannot continue to grow with time, such a contract price will definitely cause the Bulls a headache in the end.

Kyrie-Irving

The situation facing Irving is quite complicated.

First, he had just finished his anterior cruciate ligament surgery and needed to wait until the second half of the 2025-26 season before he could return to the team healthily. Even so, his condition after his comeback is worrying. Previously, the 33-year-old veteran had the player option in hand, which could be used as a bargaining chip for Irving to negotiate contracts with the team. Especially considering the current championship goal of Nick Harris and the team's senior management, the backcourt core, that is, combat power, is naturally more important to the team.

Of course, from the team's perspective, Dallas is unlikely to be willing to give up Irving, who is currently the only qualified starting point for the ball-holding offense. Combined with the impact of injuries and the potential risk of age growth, it can be confirmed that by the last few years of Irving's next new contract, his contract price will inevitably exceed his performance on the court, and it is likely to become a premium contract that will make the Mavericks headache.

Julius Randall

Timberwolves have reached the Western Conference Finals for two consecutive years. This is a team with sufficient competitiveness, so they should not have much action this summer. This situation is quite optimistic about Randall. With the player options in hand, he is highly likely to choose to join the free market.

End the Timberwolves' first season, Randall delivered a brilliant enough performance, and he is about to reach the age of 31 in the 2025-26 season. Considering that the Timberwolves' team's salary has already hit the top, it is unlikely that the team will find a replacement player of the same level as Randle. In this case, Randle is likely to get a contract with a maximum salary or even a super maximum salary price.

But the question is, will he continue to maintain his abilities this season in the next few years?

Miles Turner

Pacers made it to the finals as a dark horse this season, which is definitely good news for Miles Turner.

Although there have been rumors about him for several years before, from this point of view, Turner is the starting center of a championship team, especially by the Pacers' standards, they basically cannot find a second candidate to replace him.

For Turner, who is 29 years old this year, has never been selected as an All-Star in his career, but even so, for the Pacers, he is still an irreplaceable part, which is enough to allow Turner to seize the negotiation advantage when negotiating a new contract. Although other potential competitive teams on the market do not have much salary space to take over him, looking at the 3D attributes that Turner has shown in the past, he should be able to get a long-term contract with a sufficient amount of money.

According to previous assumptions and the content revealed by reporters, if the Pacers offered a contract that conforms to the ideas of Turner's team, with a period of four years and a contract amount of nine digits, then when the last few years of the contract are in, they will face the same problem:

"Can his performance match his value by then?"