Ranking the 10 best available small forwards in NBA free agency

Free agency is a time for teams to upgrade their rosters, bring in some fresh energy, and potentially find the missing pieces to their puzzles as well as for players to chase lucrative contracts. For fans, it is an exciting time, too, involving plenty of predictions, hopes, and visions for the next season.

This year’s free agency class does not feature many stars but there are plenty of interesting names (potentially) hitting the market. Nowadays, pretty much every team is looking for a capable wing or forward to boost their rotation, so let’s take a look at the 10 best free-agent small forwards.

10. Kenyon Martin Jr.

Kenyon Martin Jr. is part of a very small group of Rockets’ players that could possibly enter free agency. This summer, the Rockets have a choice to make regarding Martin’s team option. The 22-year-old quickly established himself as one of the core rotational pieces when he came to Houston, but it seems that he might not want to be there anymore.

Yearning for more minutes and worried that the arrival of new lottery picks would negatively impact his time on the court, Martin issued a trade request last summer. That trade never happened, and Martin still averaged 28 minutes throughout the 2022-23 season. Nevertheless, there is still the possibility that the Rockets decide to move on from Martin and focus on Jalen Green, Kevin Porter Jr., Jabari Smith, and Alperen Sengun as their building blocks for the future.

If that is the case, Martin could attract quite the attention in free agency. He is young, explosive, great in transition, and a capable defender with room to grow. While he shot efficiently on field goals with 56.9 percent – including 72.7 percent on field goals very late in the shot clock and 58.4 percent against very tight defense – the question of how he will look in a more organized system with potentially less margin for error still exists.