Ten NBA Players Who Could Be Moved by the Trade Deadline

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If the title of this article looks familiar it's probably because I wrote an article with the same title just before the 2008-09 NBA season started.

Just a few days after my article was posted, Chad Ford of ESPN.com wrote his own article with his own list.

I'm proud to say that my list turned out to be more accurate than that of an ESPN expert. Of the ten players that I listed, five were traded either by the deadline (Allen Iverson, Shawn Marion, and Chris Wilcox) or during the off-season (Jamal Crawford and Darko Milicic) and another was bought out of his contract and released (Antoine Walker).

While last year's list was mostly made up of upcoming free agents like Iverson and Marion, there were also guys on the list like Kirk Hinrich that I felt could be traded because it seemed as if the team had already drafted his replacement.

This year's list has it's share of upcoming free agents but there are also players on the list who could be traded either because they don't fit on their existing squads, their team is trying to free up more cap space for next summer's free agent bonanza, or because the down economy has forced some teams to shed salaries—even if the player(s) coming back don't equal what the team is giving up.

So here's this year's version of what looks like what will become an annual event.

1) Zydrunas Ilgauskas

Ilgauskas is heading into his 14th season as a member of the Cleveland Cavaliers. Along with Kobe Bryant, there isn't another player in the league who has been on his current team as long as they have.

Big Z is in the final season of a contract that pays him $11.5 million and could be used to net the Cavs the final piece to not only make a run at a title this year but also to keep LeBron James from fleeing to another team next summer.

But there's a catch.

The only deal that I can envision the Cavs making is the type of deal where the team that trades for Ilgauskas buys him out immediately, making him an unrestricted free agent—free to re-sign with the Cavs just like Brent Barry did in 2008 when he was traded to Seattle for Kurt Thomas and re-signed with the Spurs after sitting out the mandatory 30 days.

The rumor that has floated around for the past few weeks had Ilgauskas headed to Golden State for guard/forward Stephen Jackson.

While this deal makes a lot of sense for all parties involved, the only way that the Warriors would buy out Ilgauskas would be if the trade was made close enough to the deadline so that Golden State wouldn't have the time to either see if Ilgauskas fit in with the current squad or to see if they could flip Ilgauskas again before the February 18 deadline.

2) Stephen Jackson

Jackson has made no secret that he wants to be traded out of Golden State. After crying about wanting an extension last season, despite having two seasons left on his current deal, Jackson has now asked the Warriors to move him to either the Cavs or one of the three Texas teams.

The problem is that Jackson's three-year, $28 million extension doesn't begin until next season. Teams interested in Jackson would only be willing to do so if it meant they could give up substantially less talent in return or an unwanted contract.

Jackson doesn't seem to understand that the more he keeps his name in the media for the wrong reasons the harder it will be for the Warriors to grant him his wish.

In a perfect world, the Warriors would love to get one or two expiring contracts and another player on a rookie contract in exchange for Jackson.  That way they would at least have something more than salary relief to show for the trade after this season.

Even if the Warriors traded Jackson for expiring contracts they would still be over the salary cap next season. So there's no sense in just trading him for expiring contracts.

3) Andre Miller

I can't say with certainty whether or not Miller will be traded before the deadline. What I can say is that there's almost no chance that Miller plays out the maximum three years on the $21 million contract he signed with the Blazers in July.

Miller has already expressed his unhappiness with having to compete with Steve Blake to be the team's starting point guard. He claims he was misled by general manager Kevin Pritchard and head coach Nate McMillan when he signed his contract.

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