Buy or Sell Early 2025 NBA Trade Rumors and Offseason Buzz
With over a month of separation from the 2025 NBA trade deadline, another transactional cycle is already ramping up. Teams in search of superstar additions are monitoring the whispers about the next wave of available talent while taking stock of their own rosters and determining potential plans.
Here, we'll collect some of the juicier recent reports that could hint at what's coming during the 2025 NBA offseason. Without questioning the messengers themselves, we'll also analyze the message for plausibility.
If all of these rumors come true, the league will look vastly different in just a few months.
Suns Want 3 Firsts and More for KD?
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Per Duane Rankin of the Arizona Rebublic: "Sources informed The Republic the most ideal return on a Durant trade is regaining three first-round picks and a young player as part of a multi-team deal tied to getting under the second apron."
Rankin also noted the likelihood that Kevin Durant's time with the Phoenix Suns will end this summer, but we'd already seen enough reporting on that front to know a split is inevitable. The newsworthy tidbit here is the price.
Phoenix sent out Mikal Bridges, Cam Johnson, Jae Crowder, four unprotected first-round picks and a first-round swap to acquire Durant from the Brooklyn Nets in 2023, so netting just three first-rounders and a young player in return would leave the Suns less than whole. That's before considering a chunk of the necessary matching salary coming back might not be of positive value. (Durant will earn $54.7 million in 2025-26.)
Also of note: This hypothetical return would be unusual for the Suns in that it doesn't include a win-now superstar replacement. Maybe they're finally admitting defeat on the superteam front and rebuilding?
Verdict: Buy
KD is still among the league's most efficient high-volume scorers, but he's finishing out his age-36 season. The Suns probably can't expect to get more than three firsts in return for him, especially given suitors' understandable questions about how long it'll take before Durant is ready to move on again.
Kyrie Irving to Opt Out?
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An NBA executive told ESPN's Tim Bontemps that he expects Kyrie Irving "will opt out of his contract this summer and sign a longer-term deal for a number starting below his $44 million player option to give the Mavericks some wiggle room below the first apron."
Since Irving is likely to miss most of his age-33 season while recovering from a torn ACL, he may not be in the strongest negotiating position. With few cap-space teams available to drive up his price upon opting out, Irving is also short on outside leverage. If he's hoping to keep his new salary as close to that $44 million figure as possible, the best case Irving can make to Dallas is that it desperately needs him.
There may be no coming back from the Luka Dončić trade, but the Mavs risk worsening fan sentiment by not putting a competitive team on the floor for the next several seasons. By trading for Anthony Davis, Dallas eschewed the typical "haul in picks and tank" approach favored by many teams that deal away superstars.
Irving remains hugely important to any hopes the Mavs might have of being competitive—perhaps not so much next year, but in 2026-27.
Verdict: Buy
Keeping Irving around at a discounted rate makes sense for both sides.
Mavs' Interest in Durant Overstated?
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The Dallas Mavericks' interest in Kevin Durant, both before and after the trade deadline, was "overstated," NBA insider Marc Stein reported in The Stein Line.
Stein went on to note that Dallas isn't interested in adding KD to form a three-star look alongside Kyrie Irving and Anthony Davis.
If we've learned anything about the Mavs and general manager Nico Harrison, it's that even the biggest moves stay under wraps. That Dallas managed to move Luka Dončić without so much as the faintest tidbit of news leaking will forever remain incredible—and it should also keep everyone on their toes.
Who's to say the Mavs' interest in KD was overstated? That organization keeps everything close to the vest. No one should put it past Dallas to announce that a Durant deal is done on the first day of the new league year.
What's more, the Mavericks should be operating in panic mode. They don't control their own first-rounder from 2027 to 2030, they just gave away a cornerstone who would have sustained them for a decade, and their prioritization of AD over picks means they're firmly in win-now mode.
Verdict: Sell
The Mavs are among the teams that should be most interested in landing Durant. What have they got to lose?
Hornets Selling Off This Summer?
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In a report that also listed Miles Bridges and Mark Williams as offseason trade candidates, sources told HoopsHype's Michael Scotto that "LaMelo Ball is one of the stars several executives ... will be monitoring this summer."
The Charlotte Hornets are a lock to finish with one of this season's four worst records and will pick near the top of a well-regarded 2025 draft. That's "they're rebuilding" giveaway No. 1, and it's followed by several decisions—trading for bad money with picks attached, nosing their way into three-team deals in order to pick up assets—that suggest the Hornets believe they're still in the early stages of reconstruction.
Moving Williams (again) and Bridges would make perfect sense, but trading Ball would be a bigger surprise. He's only 23, nearly made his second All-Star team this season and is exactly the kind of offensive engine who could foster growth in young, supporting pieces.
However, he's also on the books for an average of $40.8 million through 2028-29 and might not be the cultural tone-setter that Charlotte wants.
Verdict: Buy
Under executive vice president of basketball operations Jeff Peterson, the Hornets have operated with extreme patience and an eye toward the distant horizon. Moving on from Ball and any other young vets would be on-brand.
Sabonis to Follow Fox Out the Door in Sacramento?
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Domantas Sabonis is expected "to seek clarity" about the Sacramento Kings' plans this offseason, according to Sam Amick and Anthony Slater of The Athletic.
League sources also told Amick and Slater that "several" core Kings players are "watching and wondering where this is all headed."
De'Aaron Fox engineered his exit from Sacramento because he wasn't convinced the franchise had gotten past its dysfunctional ways. Sabonis is now reportedly entertaining the same concerns. That should send a chill down the spines of Kings fans who've spent the better part of two decades watching capricious ownership and a revolving door of decision-makers consign the team to purgatory.
With three more years and $140 million left on his current deal, Sabonis can't apply the same level of pressure as Fox, who'll be extension-eligible this summer and could have hit unrestricted free agency in 2026. Sabonis can seek all the clarity he wants, but Sacramento is under no pressure to appease a potential trade request if the market isn't favorable.
Verdict: Sell
The Kings tend to prioritize staying competitive in the short term rather than making the tough decisions necessary to build a real contender. Moving Sabonis would actually be the right decision, and it would serve the latter, more ambitious purpose. That's why Sacramento isn't going to do it.
Stats courtesy of NBA.com, Basketball Reference and Cleaning the Glass. Salary info via Spotrac.
Grant Hughes covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Bluesky and subscribe to the Hardwood Knocks podcast, where he appears with Bleacher Report's Dan Favale.
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