Ranking the top 5 NBA revenge games in 2026-27 after offseason player moves

If you hate how buddy-buddy NBA players have become with one another in recent years, you're in luck. This offseason should help restore some bad blood across the league.

Thanks to the current collective bargaining agreement, a handful of teams made financially driven moves that frustrated the players involved. A pair of former teammates were already involved in a fracas this offseason, which might be a harbinger of what's to come when certain players match up with their old teams during the 2026-27 season.

While LeBron James is holding up the NBA schedule-makers by dragging out his free agency, we already know the following five matchups will be must-watch affairs thanks to what went down this offseason.

5. LeBron James (Team TBD) vs. L.A. Lakers

When LeBron James informed the Los Angeles Lakers that he would not be re-signing with them in free agency, it felt like a quintessential "You can't break up with me, I'm breaking up with you."

The Lakers had the ability to create $50-plus million in cap space this offseason, but doing so would require them not to re-sign any of their own free agents, including LeBron. This was their best chance to reorient around Luka Dončić, and they did exactly that by splurging on Walker Kessler, Sandro Mamukelashvili, Quentin Grimes and Collin Sexton.

LeBron still hasn't chosen his next team, and he said all the right things following his departure from L.A. But this is the first time in his 23-year NBA career that a team didn't fall all over itself to re-sign him.

No matter where he lands, LeBron will likely look to exact some revenge on the Lakers whenever they cross paths next season.

4. Boston Celtics vs. New York Knicks

Fresh off helping the New York Knicks win their first championship in 53 years, Mitchell Robinson was shown the door this offseason because of the second apron. He wound up signing a three-year, $47.4 million contract with the Boston Celtics in free agency.

When the Celtics posted a picture of their new center on Twitter, Knicks wing Josh Hart replied, "Yo admin delete this." Robinson fired back on an Instagram story by sharing a photo of Hart's tweet with the caption, "F*ck off @jhart yall ain't want me."

The Knicks sent the Celtics packing in the 2025 Eastern Conference Semifinals after Jayson Tatum tore his Achilles in Game 4 of that series, which already helped reignite one of the NBA's oldest rivalries. Robinson appears eager to get back at his former team after the Knicks allowed their fear of the second apron to outweigh re-signing him.

Granted, Robinson doesn't do much offensively unless he's right under the basket. He isn't likely to outduel Knicks center Karl-Anthony Towns in that regard. But he might set some particularly bone-crunching screens whenever the Celtics and Knicks lock horns this year.

3. Toronto Raptors vs. L.A. Clippers (?)

This revenge game was seven years in the making.

In 2019, Kawhi Leonard chose to sign with the Los Angeles Clippers in free agency after guiding the Toronto Raptors to their first championship in franchise history. Seven years later, the Clippers agreed to trade Leonard right back to the Raptors amidst an investigation into potential salary-cap circumvention.

That investigation is still somehow ongoing, which led the Raptors and Clippers to hold off on officially completing the Leonard trade. According to the Clippers, "the trade can only be finalized if the Raptors' ownership group assumes the risk of penalties related to Kawhi's contract that could theoretically result from the ongoing investigation," which the Raptors are unsurprisingly not keen on doing.

The Raptors were already salty about losing Leonard to the Clippers in 2019, especially with cap-circumvention allegations floating around back then. The Raptors' beef may lie more with the NBA right now, but more drama between the Raptors and Clippers should add some fuel to the fire whenever these two teams meet.

2. Miami Heat vs. Milwaukee Bucks

The 2025-26 Milwaukee Bucks were a toxic morass largely due to Giannis Antetokounmpo. Despite him spending the entire year telegraphing that he wanted to be traded—without actually requesting a trade, of course, can't damage the brand—the Bucks refused to part ways with him and tried to gaslight him into thinking that they could still build a championship contender around him.

Eventually, they cried uncle this offseason and traded him to the Miami Heat. Despite their lack of leverage, they managed to get back a surprisingly decent haul. But whenever they cross paths with the Greek Freak and the Heat, they'll likely be out for blood given how his tenure in Milwaukee ended.

They aren't the only ones, either. Heat center Bam Adebayo and new Bucks guard Tyler Herro—who went to Milwaukee in the Antetokounmpo deal—recently "got into a physical altercation" at a practice court in a Las Vegas hotel over comments that Herro allegedly made via Instagram direct messages, according to ESPN's Shams Charania.

Herro later told ESPN's Ramona Shelburne that he's "just trying to move past all of it," and he said it's "all love in Miami" during an interview on the Prime broadcast of summer league. But there does not appear to be much love lost between Herro and Adebayo, which should add some extra spice to Heat-Bucks matchups moving forward.

1. Boston Celtics vs. Philadelphia 76ers

Jaylen Brown hasn't exactly hid how he feels about the Celtics trading him to the Philadelphia 76ers this offseason.

Celtics president of basketball operations Brad Stevens framed it as a financial decision, saying the team's path back toward championship contention "looked a little bit more challenging with 70 percent of our cap and such a high percent of our usage tied into two players." That explanation presumably won't do much to assuage Brown's frustration with how everything went down.

In his statement after the trade broke, Brown said he was "still processing how this all went down" and was "excited and disappointed at the same time." He added, "I'm big on respect, and actions speak louder than words."

When the Sixers and Celtics battle this year, Brown won't just be looking to shut analytics nerds up. He'll be on the warpath to prove that the Celtics made a huge mistake by trading him to a division rival.

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