NBA free agency 2025: The 7 best contracts of the summer, including a

We brought you the NBA offseason’s seven worst contracts, and we know you could not possibly feel complete without the summer’s seven best contracts. Never fear, my friends. Here, we complete you.

Kudos to general managers for once again not doling out dozens of overpriced deals in free agency. Of course, it helps that only one team, the Brooklyn Nets, entered July with significant salary cap space, and they were more interested in accumulating other teams’ bad money in exchange for more draft capital.

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Instead, NBA executives mostly had mid-level exceptions and minimum contracts to address their needs, and that served them well in the open market, where a number of them were able to identify some gems.

THE 2025 OFFSEASON’S 7 BEST CONTRACTS

1. Dorian Finney-Smith, Houston Rockets ($13.2M AAV)

• Contract: 4 years, $52.7 million ($26 million guaranteed)

• Percentage of the 2025-26 salary cap: 8.21%

• 2024-25 (63 games): 8.7 PTS (45/41/67), 3.9 REB, 1.4 AST

The Rockets took a big swing at the reigning champion Oklahoma City Thunder, trading Jalen Green, Dillon Brooks and a handful of draft picks for Kevin Durant, going all in on their quest to win the Western Conference. Durant’s scoring represents a massive upgrade from Green, but the trade did leave a whole on the wing, where Brooks served as a high-level defender who could knock down shots in open space.

So, the Rockets targeted Finney-Smith, one of the best available 3-and-D role players on the market. He joins Amen Thompson and Tari Eason for what should be a ferocious defensive wing rotation.

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In the process, Houston hindered the Los Angeles Lakers, a conference rival, who dealt D’Angelo Russell, Maxwell Lewis and three second-round picks for Finney-Smith in December. The Lakers must have made that move with the intention of re-signing Finney-Smith, whose history with Luka Dončić dates back to their days on the Dallas Mavericks. But the Rockets made a more…