10 Potential NBA Trade Ideas Nobody Is Talking About
Trae Young to the Los Angeles Lakers has been floating around the rumor mill for months. Donovan Mitchell to the New York Knicks is a years-old idea.
But every summer, we're surprised by plenty of moves. Some of the biggest trades come out of nowhere.
Here, we'll search for those out-of-nowhere transactions that could dramatically change the landscape of the league.
Nuggets Move MPJ for Depth
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Michael Porter Jr. for Jonathan Isaac, Cole Anthony and a 2025 first-round pick
The dreaded second apron makes team-building significantly more difficult for the teams over that line. The Denver Nuggets, fresh off a disappointing loss to the younger and more athletic Minnesota Timberwolves, don't have many easy options to get under that threshold or otherwise improve their roster.
A painful but possibly necessary consideration is trading Michael Porter Jr., whose $35.9 million salary for next season could be broken up into multiple rotation players.
The Orlando Magic would be a logical suitor for the 6'10", 25-year-old sharpshooter. They had the league's second-best defense this past season but finished 30th in threes per game and 24th in three-point percentage.
Having MPJ's shooting to space the floor around Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner would make Orlando's offense significantly more difficult to defend. The length of lineups with those three would make it one of the league's most switchable.
For Denver, moving on from a high-end talent whom it developed and won a championship with would be painful, but the Nuggets have a pair of interesting potential replacements in Christian Braun and Peyton Watson. Adding Cole Anthony's heat-check scoring and Jonathan Isaac's lights-out defense would be a boost to the bench, too.
Under the NBA's new collective bargaining agreement, first-round picks will be important for veteran teams looking for depth. The prices on those rookie-scale contracts are locked in, so finding a contributor on one can improve a team's flexibility.
Nuggets Get a Backup Playmaker
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Zeke Nnaji for Vasilije Micić
Trading Michael Porter Jr. would be a dramatic shakeup for the Denver Nuggets. But young players like Peyton Watson and Christian Braun could develop enough for Denver to keep its starting lineup together and remain in title contention with nothing more than fringe moves.
One such option would be moving 23-year-old forward/center Zeke Nnaji for veteran playmaker Vasilije Micić.
Beyond adding one of Nikola Jokić's countrymen, this deal would give Denver something that it has desperately needed throughout the Jokić era: a steady creator when the big man is off the floor.
While Nnaji didn't play enough this season to have much trade value, he's a young big who has shown flashes of outside shooting ability. He could still develop into an interesting pick-and-pop partner with LaMelo Ball.
Grizzlies Move Jaren Jackson Jr. Back to the 4
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Nikola Vučević for Luke Kennard and Ziaire Williams
Steven Adams' surgery and eventual trade allowed Memphis Grizzlies big man Jaren Jackson Jr. to play the 5 more often this past season. Injuries across the rest of the Grizzlies' roster, including star point guard Ja Morant, gave Jackson more opportunities to explore his scoring game.
While both of those were probably pluses for the long-term development of the 24-year-old big man, this campaign also reinforced the idea that he's a more natural 4.
Jackson doesn't seem like he'll ever be an above-average rebounder relative to other centers. He's also more effective defensively when a burlier big takes the post presence while he's allowed to roam.
Nikola Vučević doesn't check the defensive boxes the way Adams does, but he is more functionally a 5 than JJJ. Having a starting five with two shooting bigs—Vooch made a respectable 35.9 percent of his triples over the three seasons prior to this one—could give Morant wider driving lanes then he's ever seen.
This price may seem steep, but losing Kennard stings less when you consider the ascension of Vince Williams Jr. and GG Jackson. And Ziaire Williams is effectively the functional equivalent of including a second-round pick in the deal.
Trae Young to the Heat
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Trae Young and Kobe Bufkin for Tyler Herro, Jaime Jaquez Jr., Terry Rozier, a 2028 first-round pick swap and a 2030 first-round pick swap
The Miami Heat don't have a ton of draft capital to offer in trades, but they might not need it after the way some of their young players performed this season.
Given his point forward potential, Jaime Jaquez Jr. should be worth more than most of the first-round picks in this year's draft. Tyler Herro is a proven 20-plus-point-per-game scorer. And though Terry Rozier isn't a prospect, his salary is necessary to make the trade work. Caleb Martin could've helped on this front, but he has a $7.1 million player option that he seems likely to decline.
The Hawks could get more draft compensation from other teams, but they might want more immediate returns. A rotation with Dejounte Murray, Herro, Jaquez, Jalen Johnson and Clint Capela, with Rozier, Onyeka Okongwu and Bogdan Bogdanović coming off the bench would remain in the hunt for a playoff spot without having the bad fit between Murray and Young.
For Miami, this would be a talent play. The Heat ranked 21st in offensive rating this season, and Young, despite his flaws and the steady flow of criticism he's faced over the years, remains one of the NBA's most dynamic offensive engines.
The Heat would have to scour free agency or the undrafted-free-agent market to find depth around Young, Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo, but they've proven adept at that in the past.
New Orleans Moves On from Zion
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Zion Williamson for John Collins, Walker Kessler, another young talent and a boatload of Utah's picks
Apologies for the lack of specificity on this one. The Utah Jazz have a mountain of future draft picks, and the New Orleans Pelicans could get aggressive about how many they'd want for Zion Williamson (despite his robust injury history).
But Jazz CEO Danny Ainge said the team is ready to go "big-game hunting" this offseason. Making a run at Zion would certainly qualify.
With Williamson's ability to dominate the paint and Lauri Markkanen's outside shooting, that duo would be one of the NBA's more dynamic inside-out frontcourt combos. If Keyonte George can develop into a star (or near-star) playmaker, the Jazz would have the foundation for a contender.
For the Pelicans, who already have their own fairly stout trove of draft assets, this deal would depend on their confidence in Zion's health. Injuries have been a problem throughout his career, and though he played a career-high 70 games this season, he suffered a hamstring injury during the play-in tournament that sidelined him for the playoffs.
New Orleans could insist on more incoming talent in this deal, but the picks (whether for actually drafting players or including in trades for different stars) would be more important.
Orlando Gets Offensive
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Darius Garland for Jalen Suggs and a 2025 first-round pick
There's been plenty of chatter about a possible Donovan Mitchell trade this summer, but the Cleveland Cavaliers could convince themselves that splitting up their small backcourt could convince Mitchell to stick around long term.
Turning Darius Garland into a bigger and more tenacious defender such as Jalen Suggs could make the Cavs a more viable playoff team.
Cleveland was plus-8.8 points per 100 possessions when Mitchell played without Garland this season. This trade could make Mitchell the full-time lead ball-handler that he's perhaps meant to be (despite his teams continuing to deploy him as a 2).
This deal would still leave the Magic with plenty of the defensive talent that made them so good on that end (including Jonathan Isaac, Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner), but it would give them a far better table-setter and outside shooter than they've had at the 1 in years.
Brandon Ingram Helps Atlanta Break Up Its Backcourt
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Brandon Ingram for Dejounte Murray and AJ Griffin
Like the Cleveland Cavaliers, the Atlanta Hawks also have an ill-fitting backcourt that seems destined to be broken up this offseason. And much like the Cavaliers, the Hawks could surprise everyone by trading the player who seems less likely to be moved.
In this case, that's Murray, whose playmaking and defensive versatility could bump CJ McCollum back to his natural shooting guard position. He could help create more easy buckets for Zion Williamson, Trey Murphy III, Herb Jones and AJ Griffin, a young potential sharpshooter who fell out of Atlanta's rotation this season.
For the Hawks, this would be a bet on Young, who's been their cornerstone since they drafted him in 2018. While Ingram's mid-range-heavy shot diet isn't the most modern approach, Young has the playmaking ability to get him more open looks all over the floor.
Spurs Speed Up the Timeline with Donovan Mitchell
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Donovan Mitchell for Keldon Johnson and a boatload of the Spurs' picks
If Cleveland's primary concern in a Mitchell trade is collecting draft capital, the up-and-coming San Antonio Spurs are a team to call. Their stash of future picks can rival anyone's, so they could offer five or six firsts (or swaps) without batting an eye.
Keldon Johnson, who averaged 22.0 points per game in 2022-23, would be an interesting piece to play alongside the young duo of Darius Garland and Evan Mobley, too.
This trade would likely make the Cavs worse in the short term, but it would be a far better outcome than losing Mitchell for nothing as a free agent in 2025.
Meanwhile, this move could put the Spurs in the hunt for a playoff spot as soon as next season. Victor Wembanyama had a borderline All-NBA season as a rookie, and when he shared the floor with Devin Vassell and Tre Jones, the woeful Spurs outscored opponents by 10.2 points per 100 possessions.
Add Mitchell to that mix, and San Antonio would instantly have one of the NBA's best one-two punches and a potential foundation for contention.
Spurs Slow Down the Timeline
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Ben Simmons and two second-round picks for Keldon Johnson
On the other hand, there's a real argument for the Spurs to try to stay bad. They already have a generational talent in Wembanyama, but the 2025 draft class includes a pair of top-flight prospects in Cooper Flagg and Ace Bailey, both of whom would fit seamlessly alongside him.
While one more year of losing might be painful for fans who grew accustomed to winning over two decades with Tim Duncan, a future with Wembanyama and Flagg would be worth it.
This deal would put the Spurs in slightly better position to land another top pick in 2025, considering Ben Simmons has averaged only 19 appearances per year for the last three years. When he has played in that stretch, he's averaging 6.7 points while shooting a horrific 43.1 percent from the free-throw line.
The Spurs would also get two second-round picks just for taking on the last year of Simmons' contract. The Brooklyn Nets could justify that because he's given them almost nothing since coming over from the Philadelphia 76ers in February 2022.
Johnson may not be a surefire future star, but he's at least a rotation player. Since the Nets can't really tank—the Houston Rockets have control of their first-round picks through 2027—replacing Simmons' minimal contributions with another rotation wing to pair with Mikal Bridges and Cameron Johnson would make sense.
Pistons Give Cade Cunningham a Receiver
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Deandre Ayton for Evan Fournier and a 2030 first-round pick
Even if they pick up their team option for Evan Fournier, the Detroit Pistons can get to almost $50 million in cap space. Trading Fournier's expiring contract and a first-round pick for Deandre Ayton would be a good use of about $15 million of that space.
Ayton wouldn't turn the Pistons into an instant contender, but he'd make them more respectable than they've been over the last five seasons.
During that stretch, the Pistons have won only 24.5 percent of their games. The Spurs have the second-worst winning percentage during those five years, and they're a whopping 12.3 percentage points better.
While a lot of the shine has worn off Ayton since the Phoenix Suns took him with the No. 1 overall pick in 2018, he's still only 25 years old. He has also averaged a double-double in each of his six NBA seasons, and he could be an interesting pick-and-roll partner for Cade Cunningham.
For the Portland Trail Blazers, this deal would be about continuing the teardown that they started with last summer's Damian Lillard trade. The Blazers don't have a single player on their current roster who's guaranteed to become a star, so they should still be aiming to turn Ayton, Malcolm Brogdon and Jerami Grant into as much future draft capital as possible.
