NBA Trade Rumors: Latest on Trail Blazers, Rudy Gay and More

The first week of the NBA's 2016-17 regular season has been packed with huge individual performances, impressive debuts, surprising outcomes and, of course, rumors.

It's the one constant throughout the year for the NBA, and now is no exception.

In recent days, we've learned that the Portland Trail Blazers and a trio of well-known players from other teams may be in the trade market, as well as a nugget on the future of Kevin Garnett.

Trail Blazers a Player in Trades?

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Portland features one of the league's most explosive up-and-coming stars in Damian Lillard, and it has a wealth of potential assets at its disposal.

As currently constructed, the team has a good chance to make the postseason, but ESPN's Marc Stein thinks it could shoot for more:

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The Blazers have an aggressive front office and more wings (Allen Crabbe, Evan Turner, Moe Harkless) and bigs (Mason Plumlee, Meyers Leonard and Festus Ezeli) than they need.

So keep an eye on them.

The suspicion among numerous league observers is that the Blazers' non-stop spending this past offseason was asset collection as much as anything. Scan through all those names again and it's clear Portland has no shortage of options to thrust itself into all kinds of trade talks as GM Neil Olshey continues to shape the roster around backcourt bedrocks Lillard and C.J. McCollum.

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If a star big man becomes available, don't be surprised if the Blazers are able to flip some of those assets mentioned by Stein into a pick-and-roll partner for Lillard.

Who Will Be the First Big Player Dealt?

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In the same piece for ESPN, Stein listed three players he expects to be dealt at some point this season: Rudy Gay, Nerlens Noel and Ricky Rubio.

Prior to the start of the season, The Vertical's Adrian Wojnarowski reported that Gay is likely to opt out of his contract next summer "and considers himself unlikely to negotiate a new deal to return to the franchise."

If they know they're not going to get him back, the Sacramento Kings may want to trade the scoring forward to make sure they don't lose him for nothing.

A similar situation is emerging in Philadelphia, where 76ers big man Nerlens Noel has also expressed concern about his future.

"Don't get me wrong. We all get along great on the court and off the court," Noel said to Philly.com's Keith Pompey while discussing his team having three centers (including Noel, Jahlil Okafor and Joel Embiid). "But at the end of the day, it's like having three starting quarterbacks. It doesn't make any sense."

With the way Embiid has played to start the season, Noel may be able to get to a team that makes more sense to him sooner rather than later.

Finally, any noise surrounding Rubio is obviously connected to the presence of rookie point guard Kris Dunn. But considering Minnesota Timberwolves head coach Tom Thibodeau's history of not trusting rookies, this one could take a while to materialize.

Kevin Garnett to Work for Multiple Teams?

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News is starting to come together concerning the next phase of Garnett's life, following his retirement this past offseason.

Wojnarowski shared details on Twitter:

The idea of one person coaching multiple teams is interesting. There's certainly cause for concern on a conflict-of-interest basis, but it's not likely to be a problem if the teams are OK with it.