5 Teams Most Likely to Make 2025 NBA Draft Night Trades
The NBA Draft is supposed to belong to top prospects like Cooper Flagg, Dylan Harper and Ace Bailey, but history tells us that trades involving established NBA stars will steal attention from the incoming 2025 class.
Last year was a light one for deals, as Deni Avdija was the biggest name moved on draft night. But 2023 saw Chris Paul, Kristaps Porzingis, Bradley Beal, Jordan Poole, Marcus Smart and several other vets change teams.
So in addition to monitoring which clubs will look to move up or down the draft order, we need to be ready for bigger, bolder deals to get done. That's doubly true with the lack of spending power and dearth of free agents in a summer dominated by tax and apron concerns.
Here, we'll run down which teams are most likely to get involved in what might be an all-time draft-day trading frenzy.
5. Charlotte Hornets
1 of 5
Maybe it feels like small-time thinking, but whenever a team has a pair of early second-rounders, a trade into the first round feels inevitable. The Charlotte Hornets are in that position in 2025, toting No. 33 and No. 34 to go along with their fourth overall selection.
The Boston Celtics will be looking to shave as much cash as possible off their books as they try to duck the second apron and limit their brutal repeater tax penalties. If they send Charlotte the No. 28 selection for that pair of second-rounders, it'd enable them to sign those later picks to cheaper, partially guaranteed or two-way deals.
Given their depth issues, the Phoenix Suns might also view a pair of early seconds as more valuable than a single late first (No. 29).
Even if Charlotte doesn't flip its picks, it's still a great trade candidate. It already traded Mark Williams once. Even though the Los Angeles Lakers voided the deal, you'd expect the Hornets to move the center again, if only to avoid the awkwardness of keeping him around.
Thinking bigger, LaMelo Ball may not be Charlotte's cornerstone and could address major offensive issues for teams like the Houston Rockets or Orlando Magic. He might even look good with the Portland Trail Blazers in a package that yields multiple young, cost-controlled assets.
Keep an eye on these Hornets. They're going to get up to something.
4. San Antonio Spurs
2 of 5
The San Antonio Spurs' trade for veteran De'Aaron Fox at last year's deadline offered two important insights into their thinking.
First, the team isn't necessarily going to build a supporting cast of early-20s projects around Victor Wembanyama. And second: This is an opportunistic franchise that will capitalize whenever it has leverage—even for an imperfect asset.
Fox made it clear he wanted to go to San Antonio, and the Spurs used that advantage to land him for a below-market rate. Even if he's not a ideal fit, the former All-Star was too good of a value at that price.
Knowing that, we should expect the Spurs to run headlong at Giannis Antetokounmpo on draft night if it's clear by then that he wants to leave Milwaukee. Other veteran stars should also be in San Antonio's sights.
Even if the Spurs stick to everyone's draft board and take Dylan Harper at No. 2, that could mean a Fox trade is imminent. More broadly, it's hard to see San Antonio going into next season with all three of Harper, Fox and Stephon Castle on the roster.
Windows are shorter than ever in the league these days, and Wembanyama was on track to be an All-NBA first-teamer before he was shelved by deep vein thrombosis in his right shoulder. San Antonio is right to be thinking of the present, and it could chase aggressive upgrades on draft night.
3. Oklahoma City Thunder
3 of 5
The Oklahoma City Thunder have 13 players under fully guaranteed contracts for next year, plus team options on two more—Ajay Mitchell and Jaylin Williams—they'd very much like to keep in the fold.
So where are they going to fit the players they'd add with two more first-round picks in the 2025 draft?
OKC is a great candidate to move No. 15 and No. 24 for future assets or second-rounders it can sign to two-way deals or stash overseas. Maybe that's not the most exciting use of first-round capital, but Oklahoma City is likely to be coming off a Finals victory when the draft rolls around, and its main focus should be on preserving the status quo while kicking the first-round-pick can down the road.
Last year, the Thunder got great value by snagging Nikola Topić at No. 12, securing a major talent that most lottery teams avoided because a torn ACL meant he wouldn't be able to help in 2024-25. OKC knew it was already loaded and could afford to wait for Topić to get healthy. It'll reap the rewards next season.
If the right opportunity arises, the Thunder could operate similarly. But that'd still mean clearing a roster spot via trade.
2. Houston Rockets
4 of 5
The Houston Rockets' sheer volume of assets, combined with the trade chatter already rising in volume, makes them a no-brainer draft-night needle-mover.
More than that, Houston is poised to be involved in what should be the offseason's first big moves. Everyone is going to wait and see what happens with Giannis Antetokounmpo and Kevin Durant before moving on to other options, but the Rockets can be at the front of the line for those two.
The Athletic's Kelly Iko reported: "Since the conclusion of the season, Houston has fielded several calls from Phoenix, who have since gradually lowered their asking price for Durant."
Per Iko, Antetokounmpo also "remains a target" for the Rockets.
The three-year, $105 million extension Jalen Green signed last summer seemed designed to be traded, and Alperen Sengün is now an All-Star on a sub-max contract. Throw in a glut of players on rookie-scale deals, the No. 10 pick in the draft and a heap of incoming future firsts headlined by Phoenix's unprotected 2027 selection, and Houston has every imaginable trade tool at its disposal.
With a defense that is already elite and a need for a star-level scoring upgrade, the Rockets are primed for a blockbuster. Don't be surprised if they pull one off on draft night.
1. Brooklyn Nets
5 of 5
If any deals of consequence get done on draft night, odds are the Brooklyn Nets will be involved.
Depending on what Brooklyn does with its own free-agent cap holds and qualifying offers, it will have somewhere between $40 and $80 million in room below the cap. That'd be a powerful trade tool in any offseason. In this one, where nobody else comes anywhere close to that level of financial flexibility, it's like a combination of a magic wand, a skeleton key and the Infinity Gauntlet.
The Nets are all-powerful facilitators, capable of taking on unwanted cash (with picks attached, of course) in order to grease the skids for other teams' exchanges.
Add to that four first-round picks of their own (No. 8, No. 19, No. 26 and No. 27), and the Nets profile as a team that could easily trade up in the draft while awaiting desperate calls for help from squads that can't transact with out a willing third party.
All trade roads go through Brooklyn, both during the draft and throughout what should be a movement-heavy offseason.
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.
.jpg?w=480)
