NBA careers can end faster than people realize, even for guys who spent many years considered stars. One year a player’s still logging 25 minutes a night, and the next he’s on a minimum deal, playing 12 minutes, and scrambling to find a team the following summer.
This season’s got a handful of pretty clear candidates for that. Some of it’s just age, guys old enough that retirement is on the table whenever they want it. Others are a lot younger, but their value around the league has fallen so far that another guaranteed contract isn’t a given anymore.
Nobody on this list has said 2026-27 is it, so obviously this is a projection, not a report. But between age, contract length, on-court production, and where their roles seem to be heading, these seven guys have a real shot at this being their last go-around.
7. D’Angelo Russell
D’Angelo Russell showing up here at just 30 sounds strange at first, and honestly, that’s what makes it worth talking about. This isn’t about age. It’s about how fast his stock around the league has crashed over the last two years.
He played only 26 games last season, finishing at 10.2 points, 2.3 rebounds, and 4.0 assists in 19.0 minutes, on 40.5% shooting and just 29.5% from three. His effective field-goal percentage sat at 47.6%, about as bad as it’s ever been for him, and he wrapped the year with 0.0 Win Shares. DLo was sent to the Wizards in the Anthony Davis trade, but somehow, he never managed to see the court for Washington at all.
It’s a rough look next to where he was not that long ago. This is a guy who made an All-Star team in 2019, signed a four-year, $117.3 million max deal, and was still shooting 41.5% from three for the Lakers in 2023-24. Now he’s making just $6.0 million after picking up his 2026-27 option, and he’s been shipped to Memphis in a big multi-team trade where the Grizzlies acquired Isaiah Stewart from the Pistons. He’ll be an unrestricted free agent again next summer at 31, and it really doesn’t seem likely that another contender will come calling at his door.
Memphis maybe gives him another shot, and who knows, maybe it clicks again. But we’ve heard the rumors about a potential buyout from the Grizzlies, who are now in complete rebuild mode, and maybe that’s the last we hear about Russell in the NBA. For now, he remains on their roster, but a sudden overseas move if he gets waived wouldn’t shock me.
6. Andre Drummond
At only 33, the league has moved around Andre Drummond for more than a decade. There was a stretch where he was a 16-and-15 guy every night, an All-Star, the league’s rebounding leader. Now he’s heading into 2026-27 on a one-year, $3.9 million minimum with the Knicks.
The rebounding is still absurd, for what it’s worth. He put up 6.4 points and 8.4 rebounds in just 19.5 minutes for Philly last season, a 15.6-rebound pace per 36 minutes. He grabbed 200 offensive rebounds across 63 games and still finished with a 16.4 PER, so there’s clearly a real skill still there.
The issue is that centers built like him get squeezed in the biggest moments now. He doesn’t stretch the floor consistently, teams attack him in space, and his playoff role in Philadelphia shrank to almost nothing with barely eight minutes in Game 7 against Boston, and seven minutes in the Sixers’ last playoff game against New York.
New York only needs him to soak up some of the backup-center minutes lost with Mitchell Robinson gone, so this is a fine landing spot on paper. But another summer at 34, back on the open market, could get ugly fast if the role keeps shrinking. He’s already played 14 seasons and nearly 1,000 games. This could easily be the last one.
5. DeMar DeRozan
DeMar DeRozan’s probably the strangest name on this list because he genuinely can still score. This isn’t a guy hanging on for five points in 12 minutes a night. He played 77 games last season and gave the Kings 18.4 points, 2.9 rebounds, 4.1 assists, and 1.0 steals on an excellent 49.7% shooting.
Even the efficiency numbers held up with a 59.4% true shooting and 5.6 free-throw attempts a game at an 86.8% clip. The problem is the same one that’s followed him his whole career: 32.0% from three on just 1.9 attempts, and not much left defensively.
Sacramento eventually decided the fit and the salary weren’t worth the production and waived him in July after they couldn’t find a trade partner. More than a month later, he’s still a free agent at 37. Shams Charania had the Heat, Nuggets, and Cavaliers showing interest back in late July, and Denver’s reportedly the strongest suitor now after moving Peyton Watson.
I still think DeRozan finds a team somewhere because scoring like that doesn’t just disappear off the market. But the market itself is telling us something. A six-time All-Star coming off 18.4 points a game isn’t exactly getting teams to throw money at him right now. If he lands somewhere as a contender’s short-term scoring punch, playing 15-20 minutes a night, it’s not hard to picture this being his last real run.
4. Brook Lopez
Brook Lopez is basically the opposite case. Teams still know exactly what to do with him, but the problem is the age factor. He’ll be 39 by the time his current deal runs out, and there hasn’t been much interest in him for a while.
The Clippers picked up his $9.2 million team option for 2026-27 after he played 75 games last season, putting up 8.5 points, 3.6 rebounds, 1.3 assists, and 1.2 blocks in 21.8 minutes, hitting 36.0% from three on 4.6 attempts a game.
Still a genuinely useful backup center. He can pull the opposing big man out to the arc, hold up in drop coverage, and he doesn’t need post touches to be effective. He even had a few flashes late last season: a four-block game against Dallas, a 21-point, five-three night against Portland.
But the decline is real. Just two seasons ago, he was at 14.7 points and 2.1 blocks; now it’s 8.5 and 1.2. His 42.8% shooting last year was also his worst mark since 2015-16. This is the final year on his current deal, and he hits unrestricted free agency in 2027 at 39.
He’s been in the league since 2008, made an All-Star team, won a championship, and completely reinvented his game from post-up scorer to stretch five along the way. If the Clippers’ season fizzles out, this feels like a very natural stopping point.
3. Mike Conley
Mike Conley’s basically starting a one-year test of how much he has left. The Celtics signed him after losing Anfernee Simons last season, and 2026-27 will be his 20th NBA season. He turns 39 in October.
Last season was the first time the drop-off really showed up in the numbers. He finished at career lows across the board: 4.5 points and 18.4 minutes, with 1.7 rebounds and 2.9 assists across 54 games. He shot just 33.5% from the field and 33.7% from three, a real fall from the 41.0% he was hitting from deep the year before.
Boston doesn’t need much from him, honestly. Derrick White and Payton Pritchard are handling the bulk of the guard minutes, so Conley’s job is more about organizing second units, knocking down open threes, and bringing some veteran calm when things get chaotic. For 15 minutes a night, that’s still real value.
But the contract tells its own story. Just one year, $3.9 million, and back to unrestricted free agency next summer at 39. If the shooting doesn’t come back, there’s not a strong basketball case for another team handing a 40-year-old point guard a rotation spot.
He’s played more than 1,200 games and waited his entire career for a real shot at a title. Getting one last run in Boston would be a pretty fitting way to close it out.
2. Kevin Love
As of August 20, a five-time All-Star like Kevin Love is still an unrestricted free agent after spending last season in Utah. He wants to keep playing, and ESPN’s Dave McMenamin reported his agent has been talking with Philadelphia about a possible reunion with LeBron James. A return to Utah hasn’t been fully ruled out either.
He wasn’t bad last year, to be clear. In just 16.6 minutes a night, he gave the Jazz 6.7 points, 5.8 rebounds, and 1.8 assists while shooting 37.3% from three on 3.8 attempts. His 14.7 PER was right around league average, and he was still grabbing 12.6 rebounds per 36 minutes.
But there’s a real gap between “can still play” and “teams actually need him.” He turns 38 in September, played just 37 games last year, and has now been on the open market for close to two months. The shooting and rebounding can still help somebody, but guarding faster players, obviously, is another story at this point.
If he gets the Philadelphia deal he’s chasing, it’d honestly feel like a perfect way to close things out: reunite with LeBron, take one more shot at a title, and wrap up an 18-year career without having to bounce around chasing minimum deals at 39. And if nothing materializes at all, then 2025-26 might already have been the end.
1. Al Horford
Al Horford tops this list for one simple reason: he’s 40. The wild part is he can still genuinely play. He gave Golden State 8.3 points, 4.9 rebounds, 2.6 assists, and 1.1 blocks in 21.5 minutes last season, shooting 42.6% from the field and 36.1% from three. Even at 39, 74 of his 138 made field goals came from deep.
The Warriors clearly still believe in him. They brought him back on a two-year, $14.0 million deal. He’s making $6.8 million this season with a $7.2 million player option for 2027-28. Technically, that means he could play all the way to 42 if he wants to.
I wouldn’t bank on that, though. His minutes already dropped from 27.7 in 2024-25 down to 21.5 last season, and he only played 45 games. Golden State’s also got Kristaps Porzingis and some younger frontcourt pieces now, so there’s no real need for Horford to carry a heavy regular-season workload anymore.
He’s done just about everything there is to do anyway: five All-Star nods, an All-NBA team, an All-Defensive team, more than 1,100 regular-season games, and the 2024 title with Boston.
Maybe he picks up that option and plays another year anyway, because Horford genuinely doesn’t seem to age like everyone else. But heading into his 20th season at 40 years old, nobody on this list is closer to deciding one more year is enough.
