5 Teams Still Looking to Make Their Big Move During the 2015 NBA Offseason

Roughly two weeks into NBA free agency, just about all of the top-tier options are already off the market. While a majority of teams have already completed their biggest splashes of the offseason, those that missed out must now turn to trades as their main avenue of improvement.

Unfortunately, being armed with only bloated expiring contracts hardly means what it used to under prior collective bargaining agreements. While such players were hot commodities on the trade market a half-decade ago, they're now being shipped off for future second-round picks (Roy Hibbert) or bought out entirely (Deron Williams).

To truly be in position for a major trade, teams must have some combination of non-guaranteed or expiring contracts, a wealth of future draft picks, open cap space or young, desirable players on cheap deals. Without such assets, blockbuster negotiations will break down quickly.

Based on those four factors, five franchises in particular stand out as those primed to make their big offseason move now that the opening wave of free agency is a thing of the past.

Honorable Mention: Cleveland Cavaliers

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Brendan Haywood's time in Cleveland is coming to an end within the month.

The Cleveland Cavaliers have already been plenty busy this summer: re-signing Kevin Love, LeBron James and Iman Shumpert while bringing former Cavalier Mo Williams back into the fold. However, James isn't yet satisfied with Cleveland's offseason progress, per ESPN.com's Dave McMenamin:

"

It's been good so far, but we have a lot of work to do. We still got to re-sign Tristan [Thompson]. Hopefully we can bring back J.R. [Smith] as well and see if there's some other free agents out there that'd love to come here and play if we're able to do that.

We definitely don't want to come back the same team. We want to come back better. But right now, we've been doing so far, so good.

"

Luckily, the Cavs have one major trade chip in their pocket: Brendan Haywood's non-guaranteed $10.5 million salary for the 2015-16 season. If he's not waived by or on Aug. 1, that salary becomes fully guaranteed, so he figures to be a highly sought-after asset on the trade market between now and then.

A number of teams, including the Los Angeles Lakers, Phoenix Suns and Los Angeles Clippers, have expressed interest in acquiring him, per Sam Amico of Fox Sports.

Since Cleveland is already well beyond the luxury tax, flipping Haywood for a wing to back up James—something general manager David Griffin mentioned as a priority when speaking with reporters Saturday—is the franchise's only real means of improving beyond re-signing its own free agents.

The Cavaliers' biggest offseason priority, of course, was simply ensuring they re-signed both Love and James, as losing either one would have been catastrophic. Now that they've accomplished that goal, they could use Haywood's non-guaranteed contract to either add a productive rotation member or gain a $10.5 million trade exception to use later.

Boston Celtics

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The Celtics badly need a true rim protector to complement guys like Jared Sullinger and Kelly Olynyk.

If Boston Celtics President of Basketball Operations Danny Ainge is to be believed, his team nearly pulled off a blockbuster on the night of the 2015 NBA draft.

According to ESPNBoston.com's Chris Forsberg, Boston offered "as many as six draft picks, including four potential first-rounders," for the Charlotte Hornets' No. 9 pick, to no avail. In a recent appearance on 98.5 The Sports Hub's the Toucher & Rich show, Ainge conceded the Celtics were "probably offering too much" in their attempt to trade into the lottery.

That treasure trove of draft picks has the C's well-equipped to pull off a megatrade sooner rather than later, however. They own unprotected first-round picks from Brooklyn in 2016 and 2018, a top-seven-protected first-rounder from Dallas in 2016, the right to swap first-round picks with Brooklyn in 2017 and a top-12-protected first-rounder from Memphis in 2018, along with all of their own first-round selections.

Boston further bolstered its case for a blockbuster in free agency, as the team now has David Lee's $15.5 million expiring contract to dangle in negotiations. Beyond that, the newly signed Amir Johnson and Jonas Jerebko both have fully non-guaranteed contracts in 2016, meaning Boston has $17 million in salary it can eventually ship out to a cap-space-needy team. (The two can't be traded until Dec. 15 at the earliest.)

Given the Celtics' glut of guards and non-rim-protecting big men, a truly dominant frontcourt presence should be atop their wish list, with a three-and-D wing also a priority. If the Sacramento Kings ultimately decide to trade DeMarcus Cousins this offseason, Boston will have quite the war chest with which to negotiate a deal.

Denver Nuggets

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After drafting Emmanuel Mudiay with the No. 7 overall pick, Denver has no real need for Ty Lawson anymore.

The Denver Nuggets find themselves in a state of inertia at the moment. Rather than conducting a full-scale teardown at this past February's trade deadline, they seemingly dipped their toes halfway into the rebuilding waters, trapping them in "no man's land" for the time being.

If their decision at the 2015 draft is any indication, however, the Nuggets plan on conducting a fire sale shortly. After selecting point guard Emmanuel Mudiay seventh overall, incumbent floor general Ty Lawson saw the writing on the wall, saying, "Told you. I'm going to Sacramento, bro."

Lawson is just the first in a series of dominoes likely to fall over the coming months. Danilo Gallinari ($11.6 million), J.J. Hickson ($5.6 million) and Randy Foye ($3.1 million) are each on expiring contracts, which gives Denver plenty of flexibility in trade negotiations even after signing Wilson Chandler to a multiyear extension.

Meanwhile, the only player signed through the 2018-19 season, Kenneth Faried, is likewise no lock to remain on the roster. According to CBS Sports' Ken Berger, Sacramento Kings head coach George Karl—who led the Nuggets from 2004-05 through 2012-13—is "enamored with the idea of a deal that would send Kenneth Faried, Ty Lawson and Wilson Chandler to Sacramento."

At this point, the Nuggets have few, if any, foundational pieces on their roster, perhaps outside of Mudiay, Jusuf Nurkic and Chandler. Given their wealth of expiring contracts and Mudiay making Lawson expendable, they figure to be aggressively shopping a number of their current players over the next few months in pursuit of additional long-term building blocks.

Houston Rockets

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Kostas Papanikolaou's non-guaranteed 2015-16 salary makes him an intriguing trade chip.

After advancing to the Western Conference Finals this past spring, the Houston Rockets weren't in need of a major overhaul. True to form, the Rockets haven't made a big splash during the offseason just yet.

To date, their marquee moves have been re-signing Patrick Beverley and Corey Brewer while taking advantage of draft-day slides for Sam Dekker and Montrezl Harrell. They also "hope they can (re-)sign Jason Terry and Josh Smith," per Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle, and still plan on matching an offer sheet for restricted free agent K.J. McDaniels, too.

However, the Rockets have yet to add another playmaker who can reduce some of James Harden's ball-handling duties. Following the Rockets' conference finals loss to the Golden State Warriors, Harden made clear his desire for such a player, telling reporters, "That's one of the conversations that me and [general manager] Daryl [Morey] are going to have, and the coaches, is one of the pieces we need to have."

According to Feigen, the Rockets do still "hope to add another playmaker at point guard or another position, but no deals are considered close." With both Terrence Jones and Donatas Motiejunas one year away from restricted free agency and Kostas Papanikolaou owning a $4.8 million salary that won't be guaranteed until early October, Houston has a few intriguing trade chips to dangle.

While someone like Denver's Ty Lawson might be out of reach—the Rockets don't have the salaries to make such a deal easily work—Miami's Mario Chalmers could be a far more realistic trade target. According to Grantland's Zach Lowe, the former Kansas star is "available for nothing," so the Heat could be interested in flipping him for Papanikolaou's non-guaranteed contract in pursuit of tax relief.

Los Angeles Lakers

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The newly acquired Roy Hibbert could help facilitate a megatrade, thanks to his massive $15.5 million salary.

In D'Angelo Russell, Jordan Clarkson and Julius Randle, the Los Angeles Lakers appear to have their post-Kobe Bryant core in place. After striking out left and right in free agency, however, the Lakers could be eyeing one more big push to send Bryant off in style as he enters perhaps his final NBA season.

According to Yahoo Sports' Adrian Wojnarowski, the Lakers and Sacramento Kings "exchanged possible frameworks of a trade centered on All-Star DeMarcus Cousins" heading into the draft, although nothing came to fruition at the time. Sacramento team president Vlade Divac reportedly sought the Lakers' No. 2 overall pick—which they used to select Russell—along with Clarkson, Randle and "other draft assets."

L.A. did make lemonade out of its free-agency lemons by trading a future second-round pick to the Indiana Pacers for two-time All-Star center Roy Hibbert. Though the 7-footer has badly struggled with inconsistency over the past 18 months, he's only a season removed from finishing second in Defensive Player of the Year voting.

While this is purely speculative, there's always the chance the Lakers acquired Hibbert as a steppingstone to a larger maneuver, too. Having their most productive players on rookie contracts limited their trade avenues, but Hibbert's mammoth $15.5 million salary this season could help facilitate a larger deal.

The Lakers aren't allowed to flip Hibbert or either of their two first-round picks—Russell and Larry Nance Jr.—until later in the summer. However, if Cousins' relationship with the Kings passes the point of no return—during a recent appearance on The Jim Rome Show, Divac dubbed the big man's relationship with head coach George Karl as "not pretty right now"—having Hibbert's salary on the books puts the Lakers in better position to facilitate a megatrade.

Portland Trail Blazers

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After losing four starters, the Blazers need to reload around Damian Lillard.

The Portland Trail Blazers will enter the 2015-16 season with four new starters, having traded away Nicolas Batum and lost Wes Matthews, Robin Lopez and, most importantly, LaMarcus Aldridge in free agency. For a franchise coming off back-to-back 50-plus-win seasons, that's not great, Bob.

To the Blazers' credit, they've done an admirable job rebuilding on the fly, acquiring Gerald Henderson and Noah Vonleh from Charlotte in the Batum swap and signing forwards Al-Farouq Aminu and Ed Davis in free agency.

Portland also flipped its first-round draft pick, Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, to the Brooklyn Nets for Mason Plumlee and traded a future second-round pick to the Orlando Magic for Maurice Harkless, according to Yahoo Sports' Adrian Wojnarowski.

However, the Blazers' biggest swing of the offseason—signing Enes Kanter to a four-year, $70 million offer sheet, per Wojnarowski—fell flat when the Oklahoma City Thunder matched it Sunday. That leaves Portland with a wealth of cap space and no big-name free-agent target on which to use it.

As team President of Basketball Operations Neil Olshey reminded reporters Thursday, that cap space can be used as a weapon beyond free agency. "We've got months now where we are going to be one of the major players with cap room, and it's not about buying power in free agency, but how you can construct deals going forward," he said.

Philadelphia 76ers general manager Sam Hinkie recently demonstrated the power of open cap space by pillaging the Sacramento Kings in a lopsided salary dump. If Olshey can pull off a similar move between now and opening night, it would put a silver lining on an otherwise dispiriting offseason for the Blazers.

All statistics via NBA.com or Basketball-Reference.com. All contract information via Spotrac. All future draft-pick information via RealGM.com.

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