The 2026 NBA free agents small forward market is so thin that no unrestricted option there clears about $15 million. That leaves teams hunting for a starter with few clean upgrades and pushes more value into trades, exceptions, and internal holds.
Tari Eason and the Rockets
Tari Eason sits near the top of that weak group anyway. He played 60 regular-season games and all six playoff games last season, his most since his rookie year, and shot 35.8 percent from 3-point range on respectable volume.
The valuation attached to him points higher than the rest of the field. The projected market is around three years and $75 million, a number that puts him well above the position’s free-agent floor even as the overall class lags behind the league’s other wing markets.
The Rockets are expected to tender him his $8 million qualifying offer, and they would likely match reasonable offer sheets. That gives Houston a built-in retention path even while the broader market says the same position offers little immediate help to teams looking to shop among the 2026 NBA free agents.
Luguentz Dort and the Thunder
The Thunder add another layer to the same shortage. The team is projected to be $40 million over the luxury tax line, and Luguentz Dort has one year left on a $17.7 million contract that also carries $1 million in unlikely incentives that count toward the apron.
If a deal has to happen, Dort could be moved for a second-round pick or two and generate a $17 million trade exception. If The Thunder cannot make that kind of move, another endgame would be to decline the option on Dort and let him get offers for the full non-taxpayer midlevel exception.
That is the pressure point for this market: the best names may be more useful as trade chips or exception targets than as straightforward free-agent wins. For teams built around need at small forward, the clearest path may be waiting for a tradeable salary or a cap tool rather than expecting a clean market sale.
Marcus Morris Sr. and Kevin Huerter
Marcus Morris Sr. sits on the other side of that same math. It is highly unlikely the Pistons would waive him from his partially guaranteed $2 million deal just to create cap space, even though they owe him nearly $16 million for the coming season.
If he were waived and presumably stretched, he likely would have a market at the full MLE. Kevin Huerter closes the evaluation with a D, a blunt finish that matches the broader read on a position group with few impact names and little room above the projected non-taxpayer midlevel exception.
