Ranking the 10 Best NBA Trade Chips This Offseason
So long, 2023 NBA Finals. Hello, Offseason Mode.
We begin our silly-summer prep with an annual tradition: Ranking the 10 best trade assets most plausibly available. Emphasis on plausibly.
These rankings will heavily weigh franchise directions and track record. The San Antonio Spurs aren't dealing the No. 1 pick and the right to select Victor Wembanyama. Nikola Jokić is not a trade asset for the Denver Nuggets. It would be out of character—and, frankly, timeline—for teams like the Detroit Pistons (No. 5, Jaden Ivey), Orlando Magic (Nos. 6, Jalen Suggs) and Indiana Pacers (No. 7, Bennedict Mathurin), among others, to dangle their top picks and prospects.
This exercise will instead focus on players and picks who have the most appeal as centerpieces in aggressive blockbuster buys. Perhaps the Portland Trail Blazers (Damian Lillard) or Toronto Raptors (Pascal Siakam) are ready to shop their stars. That amounts to selling. We want only the assets teams will use to bag flat-out stars or win-now blockbuster packages.
Certain players have graduated from last year's place on this list after transitioning to untouchable territory (shout-out, Desmond Bane). Also: Please don't interpret inclusion as a "Team X should trade Player Y or Pick Z" endorsement.
10. LA Clippers' 2028 or 2029 1st-Round Pick
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Urgency remains the default mode in which the Los Angeles Clippers operate. With a new arena set to open for the 2024-25 season, they will presumably do anything to sustain the peak of their powers.
Distant firsts should be on the table in deals that upgrade their preferred closing lineup. Assuming the Clippers remain inside the second luxury-tax apron, they can trade a first that doesn't convey until 2028 or 2029. Other teams should absolutely be trying to snare one of them.
The Clippers' core is shaky enough in real time. Paul George just turned 33. Kawhi Leonard turns 32 at the end of June. Their collective durability remains in question. There's no telling how much value they provide past their current contracts, which both contain 2024-25 player options, let alone three, four, five or more years down the line.
L.A. has maxed out its payroll. It doesn't control another one of its own first-rounders until 2027. Terance Mann, 26, is the closest this organization has to a future building block.
Though the front office has proved ultra-creative, a loosely or unprotected first in 2028 or 2029 should have mass appeal to rivals with the patience to wait it out.
9. Los Angeles Lakers' 2029 1st-Round Pick
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Go ahead and throw the Los Angeles Lakers' 2030 first-rounder here if you're so inclined. But they could brush up against the second luxury-tax apron if they reinvest in enough of their own talent, which would preclude them from moving a pick that far out.
Defaulting to 2029 safeguards against that scenario. The Lakers can move this pick no matter what, largely thanks to the one-and-done protection assigned to the 2027 first-rounder they sent to the Utah Jazz at the trade deadline.
Shorting L.A.'s future can still be tricky. There's always the chance this franchise stumbles into red-carpet free agents and avoids total long-term implosion.
At the same time, LeBron James is entering his age-39 campaign. Anthony Davis just turned 30 this past March. The Lakers have no operable building blocks on the roster, aside from maybe Austin Reaves. The post-AD and -LeBron era is coming, sooner rather than later, and could get ugly.
Front offices that have the stomach to remain (and sell) patience would do well to ask for a loosely or unprotected version of this pick in prospective trade negotiations.
8. OG Anunoby, Toronto Raptors
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OG Anunoby's value ranking is complicated by his expiring contract (2024-25 player option) and the aims of the Toronto Raptors. The latter, in particular, induces logistical pretzel-twisting.
Is the 25-year-old someone the Raptors trade to acquire a marquee name or is he the marquee name himself?
He's both. Toronto can move him to restock the rebuilding-asset cupboard. It can also use him to headline start acquisitions of its own.
Acquiring Anunoby on the brink of his free agency dulls some of the shine, but it becomes a non-risk if you know he's staying. And while every team, including the Raptors, must account for an overaggressive market, it's virtually impossible to overpay universal scalability.
For all Anunoby still doesn't do on offense, he just knocked down 40.6 percent of his catch-and-shoot triples. And those looks accounted for over one-third of his total attempts. He's not someone who has to monopolize on-ball possessions—though, teams with better half-court spacing can and should explore his catch-and-drive and bully-ball touches.
Plug-and-play offense mixed with suffocating five-position defense puts Anunoby in rarefied air. He is the ultimate finishing touch but also a worthwhile starting point—a fringe star who, going on 26, fits any timeline.
7. Jonathan Kuminga, Golden State Warriors
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Sources told ESPN's Jonathan Givony the Golden State Warriors are "exploring the option of acquiring a high draft pick in exchange" for Jonathan Kuminga.
The No. 7 pick from 2021 is also open to a change of scenery if his role doesn't expand next season, according to The Athletic's Anthony Slater and Shams Charania.
This is proof of availability. But can the 20-year-old be the front-and-center asset in a trade that lands the Warriors another big-time rotation weapon, super-duper-luxury-tax implications be damned?
I lean toward yes.
Kuminga's inconsistent usage has short-circuited some of his appeal. But he doesn't turn 21 until October, has two more years left on his rookie scale and is worth more extensive run than he's received.
His 99th percentile athleticism is accompanied by immense strength, and it translates to relentless rim pressure, both in the open floor and half-court, and the chops to switch across four positions on defense. He has improved his off-ball navigation in crowds and hinted at a set jumper. During Andrew Wiggins' midseason absence, Kuminga drilled 44.4 percent of his threes on close to four attempts per 36 minutes while playing a larger role.
Much of his armory, at both ends, remains unpolished. But this is a prospect with core-player mystique.
6. Keldon Johnson, San Antonio Spurs
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Victor Wembanyama's impending arrival creates something of a perimeter logjam at the top of the San Antonio Spurs roster. Between him, Devin Vassell, Jeremy Sochan and Keldon Johnson, they have four players who should vie for three primary slots across the 2-3-4.
This is a small issue, verging on a non-problem. Positional designations are mostly overrated. Wembanyama, Vassell and Sochan should offer enough secondary creation for this quartet to play together.
And yet, Johnson has odd-man-out potential. He was overtaxed in a larger offensive role this season, and his limited size and length allows for only so much portability on the defensive end.
San Antonio may be better off bringing him off the bench in grand scheme. It can also sell ultra-high.
Johnson can still bust out brute-force drives when given enough room and is a good enough set shooter to stretch defenses. It's easy to envision him thriving on a team with a more proven primary creator and dependable three- to four-out spacing.
Extracting value from outside admirers, meanwhile, will be a breeze. Johnson turns just 24 in October, and his four-year, $74 million deal is a bargain, without a player option, that unfolds on a declining scale through 2026-27.
5. Tyrese Maxey, Philadelphia 76ers
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Tyrese Maxey finished atop this exercise last year. His standing drops only because the clock's running out on his rookie scale. He is extension-eligible this summer and will likely be making max money in 2024-25 ($35.8 million).
This invariably thrusts Maxey below mystery-box draft picks and glittery prospects with more years left on their rookie deals. Fifth place is also the extent of how far he can fall.
Maxey turns 23 in November and has already proved to be one of the league's most lethal offensive players. He can torch defenses with blinding speed going downhill, and his three-point efficiency scales to both off-ball situations (45.3 percent on standstill triples) and pull-up jumpers (38.7 percent).
Questions about his capacity to run a half-court offense persist. He has plenty of time to answer them. The Philadelphia 76ers churned out roughly a league-average half-court attack this season when he played without Joel Embiid or James Harden—no small feat.
Just about every team in the league would be happy to bankroll his next contract. That includes the Sixers. Maxey has inched his way toward untouchable, but if the Harden-Embiid duo sticks, he remains Philly's best and only crack at adding another caps-lock STAR.
4. Utah's Bounty of 2025-and-Beyond 1st-Rounders
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I've just decided combining multiple assets together is totally allowed. You'll understand why when looking at the Utah Jazz's bounty of first-round goodies in 2027 and beyond:
- 2025: Their own, Cleveland's (unprotected), Minnesota's (unprotected)
- 2026: Their own, swap rights with Cleveland or Minnesota
- 2027: Their own, Cleveland's (unprotected), L.A. Lakers' (top-four protection), Minnesota's (unprotected)
- 2028: Their own, swap rights with Cleveland
- 2029: Their own, Cleveland's (unprotected), Minnesota's (top-five protection)
Distant first-rounders lose some of their luster when factoring in the lack of job security for most NBA front offices. But 2025 is right around the corner, and betting against the long-term futures of the Lakers and Timberwolves, specifically, will appeal to even the most shortsighted organizations.
Whether Utah will be on the blockbuster prowl is debatable. The emergences of Lauri Markkanen, Walker Kessler and Ochai Agbaji do not essentialize acts of immediacy. And the Jazz, for their part, skewed decided win-later at the 2023 trade deadline.
Still, this team has high-end future firsts in excess, arming them with the firepower to juggle the longer haul alongside any imminent blockbuster-acquisition opportunities.
3. Shaedon Sharpe, Portland Trail Blazers
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Shaedon Sharpe is held in high regard by the Portland Trail Blazers—so much so that there doesn't appear to be a scenario in which they'd deal both he and the No. 3 pick, according to Yahoo Sports' Jake Fischer.
That mostly tracks. The Blazers must consider Sharpe short of untouchable if they plan to maximize the remainder of Damian Lillard's heyday, which is why the former appears here at all. But his overall value necessitates an incredibly steep return—which, well, is also why he's here.
Last year's seventh overall pick just turned 20 and has three seasons left on his rookie scale, and he's already played well enough to warrant cornerstone interest. His physical tools are out of this galaxy, he gets to the paint almost on command, and he's incisive when moving both with and without the ball.
Teams will drool over the 67 percent he shot at the rim, as a rookie, on some truly difficult finishes. They will melt at the 45.5 percent clip he posted on catch-and-fire threes. And they will go absolutely gaga over the flashes of brain-bendingly tough perimeter shot-making he's already delivered.
This is someone worth treating as the centerpiece of a star trade.
2. No. 4 Pick, Houston Rockets
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Any James Harden (player option) reunion begins with the Houston Rockets consolidating some combination of picks and prospects into more immediately impactful running mates. A soon-to-be 34-year-old Beard isn't rejoining his previous digs to play mentor.
Whomever the Rockets select at No. 4 will undoubtedly be peddled around the league if Harden comes back. There's also a chance this pick gets peddled around the league no matter what.
Oklahoma City controls Houston's 2024 and 2026 first-rounders (top-four protection) and has the right to swap selections in 2025 (top-10 protection). The Rockets have spit out a bottom-three record in each of the past three seasons, as well. There's real, irreversible urgency for them to improve by leaps and bounds and to do so fast—with or without Harden.
Dropping just outside Scoot Henderson and Brandon Miller territory detracts from the value of this pick. But only by a hair. Top-four selections are seldom readily available, and Houston is a particularly tantalizing trade partner given its stable of prospects and other future first-rounders.
1. No. 3 Pick, Portland Trail Blazers
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On a post-draft lottery episode of The Woj Pod (12:10 mark), ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski said the Portland Trail Blazers could be "willing" to trade the No. 3 pick in a deal that bags them a "pretty elite player." Unless the Charlotte Hornets (inexplicably) start hocking No. 2, this immediately becomes the juiciest available first-rounder—and asset at-large.
Third-overall selections are building-block material, especially in this draft. Prospective suitors know they'll end up with Scoot Henderson or Brandon Miller, both of whom have the skill sets necessary to jump-start entire rebuilds.
Convincing teams to part with such a prized, potentially franchise-altering pick would typically be a futile endeavor. The Blazers are an exception. They are obligated to shop the ever living life out of No. 3 if they're serious about operating within a soon-to-be 33-year-old Damian Lillard's window.
Portland's standard for dealing this pick remains fairly ambiguous. A "pretty elite player" is open for interpretation. Does Pascal Siakam count? How about Mikal Bridges? Or the apparently kind of available Zion Williamson?
Who's to say, really? Regardless, if the Blazers are open to talking shop, the No. 3 pick is glitzy enough to forge trade markets inaccessible to the rest of the league.
Unless otherwise noted, stats courtesy of NBA.com, Basketball Reference, Stathead or Cleaning the Glass. Salary information via Spotrac.
Dan Favale covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter (@danfavale), and subscribe to the Hardwood Knocks podcast, co-hosted by Bleacher Report's Grant Hughes.
