1 Player Most Likely To Be Traded On Every NBA Team
If the blockbuster Desmond Bane deal between the Memphis Grizzlies and Orlando Magic proves only one thing, it's that this NBA offseason will likely be teeming with trade activity.
A perfect storm of circumstances assures it, if not mandates it.
Cap space around the league is sparse. Certain teams are attempting to clean up their books and either duck the second apron or avoid starting the repeater-tax clock.
Meanwhile, Eastern Conference squads are sensing a power vacuum near the top of the pecking order following Jayson Tatum and Damian Lillard's Achilles injuries. Plenty of teams in the Western Conference will also be a combination of desperate and see an opening just below the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Add it all up, and we have a recipe for complete and utter chaos. That means it's a great time to run through the player from each squad who's most likely to be traded this offseason.
Atlanta Hawks: Terance Mann
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Terance Mann is about to start a three-year, $47 million deal and is probably the Atlanta Hawks’ most expendable mid-level-or-larger sized salary. He fits the scrappy defensive motif they are constructing around Trae Young, but they shouldn't hesitate to move him if it helps upgrade their secondary ball-handling or frontcourt rotation.
Whether he has any standalone value is a different story. Mann’s contract is far from onerous, but his see-sawing offensive impact caps how many minutes he can sponge up.
Other candidates here include Georges Niang and Young himself. The latter’s extension eligibility will be an inflection point for both himself and the franchise, but two potential suitors—Orlando and San Antonio—have come off the board since February.
For now, Young and the Hawks are better off sticking together. And Niang’s floor-stretching ability is too valuable to cast off unless he’s being shipped out for a higher-end option who provides just as much spacing.
Boston Celtics: Jrue Holiday
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Everyone outside of the injured Jayson Tatum is on the negotiating table as the Boston Celtics inevitably look to trim the $25-plus million required to duck out of the second apron. Jrue Holiday’s remaining contract—three years, $104.4 million—is simultaneously the toughest to move and most likely to go.
Having just turned 35, the backcourt defensive ace isn’t going to be part of the next great Celtics team. Next year is kaput while Tatum recovers from his Achilles injury, and Boston may need a feeling-out season in 2026-27 when he returns. Holiday will be entering his age-37 campaign by the time this team is anywhere close to whole again.
Shipping out Holiday may require adding a sweetener, but it shouldn’t be anything major.
Moving him should be even easier knowing the Celtics won’t be trying to extract value. Just breaking him up into multiple smaller contracts that are easier to reroute can go a long way, and at least one suitor should be enticed by the idea of exchanging filler for an All-Defense punch.
Brooklyn Nets: Cam Johnson
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This comes down to Nic Claxton or Cam Johnson by default. As of now, the Brooklyn Nets’ third-highest guaranteed salary for next year is Noah Clowney’s $3.4 million. That won’t hold, but it’s a reminder that Brooklyn's focus this offseason will be on its cap space rather than most of its players.
Johnson is the right answer at this point in the process. His combination of shooting and size render him a fit on any roster, and the balance on his contract (two years, $44.1 million) is more alluring than Claxton’s remaining money (three years, $69.4 million).
Netting multiple first-rounders is a foregone conclusion if Johnson is on the table. The same can’t be said about Claxton. The Nets are not in a position where they have to move either of them, but the sheer volume of interest in Johnson should end up forcing their hand.
Charlotte Hornets: Josh Okogie
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Josh Okogie technically may not be on the Charlotte Hornets’ books this offseason. His $7.8 million salary for 2025-26 is entirely non-guaranteed, and while he provides real defensive pressure, he doesn’t profile as an active participant in the team’s future.
Charlotte would be wise to keep him anyway.
Trading Okogie’s contract alone would allow the Hornets to take back more than $15 million in salary so long as they’re fine with getting hard-capped at the first apron. Spoiler alert: They will be.
This framework should be more attractive to rival teams trying to slash salary than taking on Josh Green, Grant Williams, Miles Bridges or even Jusuf Nurkić's larger expiring deal. It’s also waaaay easier than the Hornets trying to reconcile the trade value of the uber-cheap, injury-prone and extension-eligible Mark Williams.
Chicago Bulls: Ayo Dosunmu
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Plenty of good options are peppered up and down the Chicago Bulls roster. There would be a more obvious answer if this team wasn’t the mother of unpredictable self-evaluation.
Ayo Dosunmu is the best bet. He is entering the final year of a contract on a salary that’s not large enough to realistically extend ($7.5 million), and Chicago has Josh Giddey (restricted free agent), Coby White and Lonzo Ball to populate its backcourt.
Nikola Vucevic’s own expiring contract deserves some consideration. But his $21.5 million salary isn’t quite afterthought money, and the Bulls don’t have other options at the 5 beyond Zach Collins and Jalen Smith.
Cleveland Cavaliers: Isaac Okoro
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Evan Mobley's Defensive Player of the Year victory (and All-NBA selection) bumps up his salary and leaves the Cleveland Cavaliers nearly $13 million above the second apron before any attempts to re-sign Ty Jerome or Sam Merrill.
That isn't going to stand. Collateral damage is inevitable. Even if the Cavs decide to stay above the second apron, they'll likely be looking to move salary in favor of bringing back Jerome.
Isaac Okoro seems like the odd man out. Offloading his $11 million salary into some team's non-taxpayer mid-level exception would also help slash Cleveland's tax bill.
However, teams aren't interested in swallowing the final two years and $22.8 million of his deal so far, according to Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com (h/t Fear The Sword). That makes someone like Dean Wade (non-guaranteed) a safer pick.
This is instead a bet on Okoro's market shifting once other matters are settled, or on the Cavs sweetening a deal to get him off the ledger.
Dallas Mavericks: Daniel Gafford
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Winning the Cooper Flagg sweepstakes plops the Dallas Mavericks into second-apron territory. It'll be a genuine surprise if they don't escape it.
The Mavericks' margins are thin enough that they could try compensating some team to take on Dwight Powell's $4 million salary (player option) to skirt the second-apron line. But their need for another ball-handler, particularly while Kyrie Irving recovers from an ACL injury, will compel president of basketball operations Nico Harrison to think bigger.
Enter Daniel Gafford.
The 26-year-old is heading into the final year of his contract, and his future with the Mavericks is dicey at best. Anthony Davis may fancy himself a power forward, but Flagg should be deployed at the 4 for stretches.
AD and Dereck Lively II are more than enough to get Dallas by at center, and even if it wants another big, exploring more cost-effective options than Gafford's $14.4 million salary makes too much sense not to happen.
Denver Nuggets: Dario Šarić
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Few things are more certain in life than the Denver Nuggets moving on from a player whom they signed the previous offseason using the taxpayer mid-level exception.
After winning the title in 2023, they couldn't afford to keep Bruce Brown, who they landed with the taxpayer MLE the prior summer. After signing Reggie Jackson with the taxpayer MLE during the 2023 offseason, they greased the wheels of a salary dump in 2024 to get rid of his player option.
They're about to do the same thing with Dario Šarić if he picks up his $5.4 million player option, which he will because... duh.
Granted, the Nuggets must be more creative this time around. They don't have a kabillion second-round picks that they can attach to Šarić. Their only movable second will be in 2032. Perhaps that's enough.
If it's not, they may need to fold Šarić into a larger deal that sees them give up a first-rounder, swap and/or young player.
Detroit Pistons: Simone Fontecchio
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Tobias Harris and his $26.6 million salary is the answer here if you expect the Detroit Pistons to go big-game hunting. Yours truly does not. Harris also fills an important need on the frontline for now.
Simone Fontecchio looked like he might as well. But his role noticeably shrank inside a deeper regular-season rotation, and he didn't see the floor in the playoffs. Though he was laboring through a dislocated finger on his shooting hand that he suffered in February, Detroit no longer seems like a long-term spot for him.
Other teams should be intrigued by the value that Fontecchio previously provided as a chaos-inducing shooter with the size to hold up on defense. His expiring $8.3 million salary should only render him more appealing.
And because the Pistons have plenty of room beneath the first apron, they will be able to take back nearly $17 million in any trade that involves Fontecchio alone.
Golden State Warriors: Moses Moody
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Jonathan Kuminga is the answer here if we're talking about the players who are most likely to get jettisoned before the February trade deadline. But this is focused on the offseason.
Base Year Compensation rules coupled with a lack of flexibility on the open market make it more difficult for the Golden State Warriors and Kuminga to find sign-and-trade partners. He seems more likely to ink a new deal or sign his qualifying offer and then perhaps get moved later.
Moses Moody slots into Kuminga's place for now. His contract (three years, $37.5 million) is eminently digestible for a three-and-D wing, and if the playoffs are any indication, he still doesn't have the full trust of Warriors head coach Steve Kerr.
It isn't clear how much standalone value Moody will have if the Dubs shop him. But he's young and cheap enough for teams to envision evolution in a more prominent role, and Golden State has other assets to attach if the right target comes along.
Houston Rockets: Jalen Green
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Going with Jock Landale would be the more cautious approach here. The Houston Rockets can guarantee his $8 million salary and then use him to match money as part of another deal.
Traveling this direction would make more sense if the Rockets weren’t so close to the tax (Fred VanVleet's future pending). Plus, anything they do feels like it’ll be bigger than acquiring someone who makes a mid-level-type salary. That brand of move requires a larger contract.
Jalen Green’s three-year, $105.3 million extension was seemingly negotiated just to trade. It may be underwater at this point due to his inconsistency, but he is only 23 and has shown plenty of scoring dynamism at his peak. Even if he’s not the meat and potatoes of the value heading out, he is galaxies from immovable.
So consider this a dual prediction: If the Rockets make a trade, it’ll be for a marquee name, and if they’re getting a marquee name, Green’s salary will be part of the outgoing equation.
Indiana Pacers: Bennedict Mathurin
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The Indiana Pacers are prepared to pay the luxury tax so they can re-sign unrestricted free agent Myles Turner, according to ESPN’s Shams Charania. This is the right call, but it won’t prevent the front office from gussying up the cap sheet.
That process is already underway. Indiana shipped out the No. 23 pick this June for the rights back to its own 2026 first-rounder, a move that makes it easier to trade future picks but also wipes a $3 million-ish cap hold from the ledger.
Jettisoning Obi Toppin’s contract was previously painted as fait accompli in service of this bookkeeping. If the NBA Finals are any indication, he’s too important to Indiana’s identity, particularly when weighed against what he’d net in a deal.
On the other hand, Bennedict Mathurin continues to vacillate between stark highs and lows. His fit within this core remains murky, and his extension eligibility could accelerate the Pacers’ attempts to deliver a final verdict on his future.
Los Angles Clippers: Bogdan Bogdanović
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Bogdan Bogdanović’s stay with the Los Angeles Clippers may not last very long. The two years and $32 million left on his contract are an ideal trade chip because the final season is a team option, and his $16 million salary for 2025-26 will be a tidy money-matcher in larger moves.
Similar logic applies to Norman Powell. He’s entering the final year of his deal and is making $20.5 million. Los Angeles could get out in front of paying him past his age-32 season and instead use him as a salary anchor in larger trades. But he feels more important to the Clippers' immediate timeline, if only because he’s coming off a career season while Bogdanović struggled to find his footing amid injuries.
Los Angeles could explore smaller salary dumps to increase its wiggle room beneath the tax and first apron and open easier access to the $14.1 million non-taxpayer mid-level exception. Barring an inexplicable overpay for James Harden (player option), the Clippers should already have enough to capitalize on that spending tool.
They seem more likely to be on the prowl for a deal that nudges their needle closer towards the top of the Western Conference—an approach that requires money like Bogdanović is making.
Los Angeles Lakers: Maxi Kleber
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This one comes down to the expiring contracts of Maxi Kleber ($11 million) or Gabe Vincent ($11.5 million). The latter is more appealing because he’s younger and can guard at the point of attack, which is precisely why he won’t be the first deal the Los Angeles Lakers look to include in any trade.
Unless Austin Reaves is on the table, outgoing players are unlikely to account for much of the value in any package. The Lakers will view most contracts as a vehicle to match money alongside draft equity and Dalton Knecht.
To that end, Knecht himself could be the answer. But he makes so little that he almost certainly won’t be moved on his own if Los Angeles is swinging for someone making more than rookie-scale money.
Kleber wins out as a result. The Lakers need big men, and his fully healthy profile of a tall human who moves his feet on defense and provides some offensive dynamism holds plenty of appeal. But he’s about to enter his age-34 season, is rarely healthy and is unlikely to shoulder a higher minutes workload even when he’s available.
Memphis Grizzlies: John Konchar
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Sending Desmond Bane to the Orlando Magic actually eats into the Memphis Grizzlies’ cap space. They go from a projected $7 million in room to under $5 million. That may not seem like much, but it matters a ton when the plan for said spending power is to renegotiate and extend the contract of Jaren Jackson Jr.
Shaving more money off the payroll to get that deal done feels like an inevitability. Removing Brandon Clarke (two years, $25 million) or the newly acquired Cole Anthony (two years, $26.2 million) is the cleanest way of increasing Memphis’ cap space to a number that lets it extend Jackson at a price point in line with what his max would be next summer.
John Konchar is nevertheless the prediction here. Clarke is too difficult to move given his injury history, and Anthony has real utility to the Grizzlies with Bane gone and Ja Morant’s availability frequently in question. Konchar’s contract is easier to move without taking any money back since he’s on the books for each of the next two years at only $6.2 million a pop.
Getting his salary off the ledger entirely positions Memphis to bump JJJ’s 2025-26 salary to around $33.4 million and offer a four-year, $209.5 million extension that is at least in the ballpark of the four-year, $228.6 million max deal they can offer next offseason.
Miami Heat: Terry Rozier
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The Miami Heat exist in this weird sort of limbo in which their contracts are sized either to make a big-time move or no move at all. If we can agree they won't hold serve, it becomes a matter of asking one question: Will they buy or sell?
Selecting Terry Rozier is a vote for buying. Whether that's the right call is a separate matter. But the Heat have always operated in a way that prioritizes immediate reinvention over a gradual rebuild that sees them ship out Bam Adebayo or Tyler Herro.
Rozier's contract is ideal for splashy swings. He is coming off a year to forget, but his $26.6 million salary ($24.9 million of which is guaranteed) washes off the books next summer, and it's pricey enough to be the salary anchor of a blockbuster package.
You could say the same for Duncan Robinson, who will make $19.9 million next season if he bypasses his early termination option. His partial guarantee ($9.9 million) also gives the Heat more flexibility to futz with his outgoing salary value. But his number ultimately isn't large enough to be the main financial attraction of a glitzy acquisition.
Milwaukee Bucks: Pat Connaughton
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Giannis Antetokounmpo is firing off tweets (xeets?) like he's planning to stay with the Milwaukee Bucks. That leaves Pat Connaughton as the Bucks' obvious choice—assuming he picks up his player option, which he will, because nobody's paying him $9.4 million on the open market.
Moving him figures to be somewhat challenging because his value lies almost entirely in his expiring contract. Unless the Bucks are taking back a contract that the other team deems less desirable, they'll likely need to pair Connaughton with sweeteners to push any deal past the finish line.
Scrounging together those additives is its own chore. Milwaukee can currently trade a maximum of one first-round pick (in 2031 or 2032) and one second-round pick (2032). Kyle Kuzma (two years, $44 million) will perhaps usurp Connaughton if a 2031 or 2032 Bucks first-rounder is in play, but the path to jettisoning the latter is cleaner.
Minnesota Timberwolves: Donte DiVincenzo
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Running through this process for the Minnesota Timberwolves is weird. They don't appear headed for major roster changes unless it involves acquiring Kevin Durant or losing players to free agency.
Choosing Naz Reid or Julius Randle isn't fair without knowing how they'll handle their respective player options. Rudy Gobert's availability seems specific to landing a superstar. Mike Conley could be a dumpable expiring contract, but his offensive connectivity still has value.
Settling on Donte DiVincenzo is the right call. He figures to be sent out in any blockbuster to help make the money work but is also ideally priced at $12 million next season to be unloaded in a smaller deal or as part of a straight salary dump.
Just so we're clear: The Wolves have no business dumping DiVincenzo for tax relief. His inclusion is more so about the optionality he provides as an asset relative to everyone else.
New Orleans Pelicans: Kelly Olynyk
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The New Orleans Pelicans are awfully close to the luxury-tax line when factoring in cap holds for the No. 7 pick and recently acquired No. 23 selection. We all know they aren't going to let that stand.
Compensating another team to take on Kelly Olynyk's $13.4 million expiring salary would be their most efficient way of increasing flexibility. He can fit into a squad's $14.1 million non-taxpayer mid-level exception or be rerouted for someone making less, all without requiring New Orleans to grease the wheels using a primo asset.
CJ McCollum's own expiring salary deserves an honorable mention. But while he has more utility than Olynyk, his $30.7 million salary figures to be harder to move.
Even if something like McCollum-for-Tobias Harris-plus-seconds is on the table from the Detroit Pistons, the Pelicans currently need CJ more than Olynyk when factoring in Dejounte Murray's recovery from a ruptured right Achilles tendon and—*gestures wildly*—all things Zion Williamson.
New York Knicks: Josh Hart
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If the New York Knicks are going to do anything substantial this offseason, it will require parting with one of their top six players. Process of elimination narrows it down to Josh Hart or Mitchell Robinson.
Jalen Brunson isn't going anywhere. OG Anunoby is this team's second-most important player relative to his defensive workload and is therefore close to indispensable. Karl-Anthony Towns is a dark-horse candidate if the Knicks want to join the Kevin Durant sweepstakes, but they apparently do not. And Mikal Bridges won't bring back nearly enough value to justify moving him after all New York gave up to get him last summer.
Hart wins out over Robinson because he's making $6.5 million more ($19.5 million versus $13 million), but also because he's less of an anomaly. Nobody else on the roster brings Robinson's combination of size, interior deterrence, offensive rebounding and (when healthy) mobility.
Frankly, for his ability to insulate Towns on defense in the playoffs alone, the Knicks should be looking to extend him, not trade him.
Oklahoma City Thunder: Ousmane Dieng
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Ousmane Dieng is already buried under the Oklahoma City Thunder's avalanche of depth, and cracking the rotation won't get any easier next season. A healthy Nikola Topić could contend for reps, and OKC has two first-rounders (Nos. 15 and No. 24) in the upcoming draft.
Executive vice president Sam Presti may have to move someone just to create roster spots. The Thunder will have 15 players under contract if they guarantee deals for Ajay Mitchell and Jaylin Williams before factoring in those two first-round picks.
Oklahoma City could decide to flip its selections for picks in later years, like it has done before. But that doesn't change Dieng's status either way. He doesn't profile as part of the future and is entering the final year of his rookie-scale deal. The Thunder seem destined to send him elsewhere no matter what.
Orlando Magic: Goga Bitadze
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Though the Orlando Magic have already made their big swing of the summer, more moves are on the horizon. They already declined team options for Gary Harris and Mo Wagner as they plan around their newer, top-heavier cap sheet and still have some bookkeeping to do and additions to make.
Goga Bitadze is a good bet to start next season elsewhere. So many teams are in the market for a solid backup center, and he wasn't a featured part of the Magic's playoff rotation.
Orlando has Wendell Carter Jr. and Jonathan Isaac to take on most of its big-man reps, and Wagner is a good bet to be back in town on a cheaper deal if he's fully recovered from his left ACL injury. The Magic can even experiment with more Paolo Bancher-at-the-5 arrangements.
This is all to say: Bitadze's salary slot (two years, $16 million) is better off being rolled into another floor-spacer.
Philadelphia 76ers: The No. 3 Pick
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Movement this high in the lottery is relatively unusual, but the Philadelphia 76ers' situation almost demands they do something.
Integrating a top-three pick into a roster built with the intention of winning now is a ridiculously tall task. Even settling on who to select is a funky proposition. There does not appear to be a consensus third-best prospect.
Flipping the No. 3 pick is typically associated with bagging another star, but it doesn't have to be that way for the Sixers.
Team president Daryl Morey and general manager Elton Brand could look to move down the board while acquiring a veteran role player. They could try using No. 3 to get off unwanted money (i.e. Paul George) while potentially recouping a lower pick in the lottery.
Trading down can also be the vessel through which they snag additional future draft assets while nabbing someone they like from this year's class with a later selection. And yes, the third overall pick could be the primary asset in a blockbuster-sized swing as well.
Phoenix Suns: Kevin Durant
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Kevin Durant and the Phoenix Suns are working together to find him a new home, making him the clear choice here.
Alternatives aren't hard to come up with, but why bother? You'd have to believe that the Suns are prepared to keep Durant if they can't find an offer they deem worthy. There's no reason to believe that.
This situation is too far gone. Phoenix tried trading him to the Golden State Warriors in February. He stopped it. There is no coming back from that.
Plus, if the Suns do keep him, they risk losing him for nothing as a free agent in 2026. That scenario is far more of a nightmare than accepting 70 to 80 cents on the dollar for him now.
Portland Trail Blazers: Robert Williams III
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Deandre Ayton, Jerami Grant, Anfernee Simons, Matisse Thybulle (player option) and Robert Williams III all deserve consideration for the "Most Likely Portland Trail Blazers Player to be Traded This Offseason" title. Landing on RW3 is an attempt to balance the movability of salary with value to the roster.
Ayton (expiring $35.6 million) and Grant (three years, $102.6 million) almost have to be relocated in blockbuster deals due to the size of their contracts. The same sort of goes for Anfernee Simons (expiring $27.7 million). But more than that, the Blazers offense can't afford to displace his shooting from the rotation. Thybulle is probably the most expendable and will have the trade market to prove it.
Williams' checkered health bill will scare away plenty of teams, but he's a versatile, two-way 5 when healthy, making him worth a flier to any number of squads. For its part, Portland doesn't need another center in the rotation if it's hanging onto Ayton and Donovan Clingan.
Sacramento Kings: DeMar DeRozan
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Nobody will be kicking down the door to pry DeMar DeRozan and the two years and $50.5 million left on his deal from the Sacramento Kings. But he's shaping up to be the best salary-matching option in a trade that nets them a floor general.
Zach LaVine's contract (two years, $96.5 million) will have a finite market. Malik Monk is too important if the Kings are looking to remain relevant in the West. Jonas Valančiūnas' $10.4 million salary probably isn't large enough on its own. And Sacramento isn't dealing Domantas Sabonis unless it's burning everything to the ground.
That leaves the soon-to-be 36-year-old DeRozan.
Drumming up suitors for his services could prove difficult. The Kings basically need to hope the Miami Heat lose the Kevin Durant sweepstakes and then don't consider a gap year. Failing that, only $10 million of DeRozan's $25.7 million in the final year of his contract is guaranteed.
Sacramento should have little trouble sweetening packages built around him while peddling the potential cap relief in 2026.
San Antonio Spurs: Malaki Branham
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Harrison Barnes, Keldon Johnson or Devin Vassell should earn the spotlight here if you're convinced the San Antonio Spurs will make a blockbuster trade. I'm not so sure.
ESPN's Shams Charania recently said the Spurs are waiting to land a bigger star than Kevin Durant who's more in lockstep with Victor Wembanyama's timeline. San Antonio also has to get a better feel for what it has in its current core, mainly between Wemby and De'Aaron Fox. The duo played just five games together before deep vein thrombosis ended Wemby's season.
For the time being, the Spurs seem more likely to move on from one of their bit prospects with no clear path to playing time.
Malaki Branham is entering the final year of his rookie-scale deal and is about to get more buried in the depth chart if San Antonio selects Dylan Harper with the No. 2 overall pick. Whether it's to open up an extra roster spot or save a few million bucks, the Spurs can send him to a team that views him as a classic second-draft opportunity.
Toronto Raptors: RJ Barrett
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Following the addition of Brandon Ingram, RJ Barrett is now the Toronto Raptors' most expendable top-of-the-rotation player. He has improved his off-ball movement a great deal since coming over from New York, but there is plenty of redundancy between him, Ingram and Scottie Barnes.
This overlap isn't impossible to overcome, but it is harder to navigate with Jakob Poeltl as your primary 5. Too many of Toronto's core lineups currently contain up to three shaky shooters or non-spacers.
It also just so happens that the Raptors are reportedly in the market for a bigger fish. Any trade along those lines will require at least one heftier outgoing salary. The two years and $57.3 million left on Barrett's deal is perfectly sized to fill that quota.
Poeltl himself is the runner-up here, as he also has a contract balance (two years, $39 million) that can facilitate splashier acquisitions. But the terms of his departure must be more specific. The Raptors either need to be flipping him for another 5 or have a starting-center replacement lined up elsewhere.
Utah Jazz: John Collins
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Jordan Clarkson, John Collins (player option) and Collin Sexton are all quality options here. Each of them is on an expiring contract, and none of them figure to be on the next really good version of the Utah Jazz.
Sexton has the most standalone value of the three, which only makes him harder to move. The bar should be higher on his return. If offers don't bowl the Jazz over, they have enough future draft picks to let the situation ride into February's trade deadline.
Rerouting Collins is a borderline necessity when looking at the sheer number of tweener forwards and pure 4s on Utah's roster. Head coach Will Hardy will need to incorporate Lauri Markkanen, Kyle Filipowski and a healthy Taylor Hendricks into the rotation next season. (Cody Williams warrants a look at power forward, too.)
Markkanen and Hendricks can be moved around the positional spectrum a little bit. On the other hand, nudging Collins and Filipowski up to the 5 or down to the 3 is more of a stretch.
Washington Wizards: Richaun Holmes
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Join me out on this limb, won't you?
Richaun Holmes' 2025-26 salary is completely non-guaranteed, so the Washington Wizards could tell him to take a hike and cleanse his money from the ledger. But the Michael Winger- and Will Dawkins-led front office has trafficked in subtle creativity. Holmes himself is proof.
The Wizards tacked on this extra year to his deal last summer to preserve trade flexibility. They now have the ability to guarantee all or part of his salary to continue their accumulation of talent and/or unwanted contracts attached to assets and prospects.
The Wizards could use the expiring contracts of Marcus Smart and Khris Middleton (player option) in the same vein. But those two have more utility to Washington, both as players and veteran mentors. There's also a chance either one of them rehabilitates their value enough during the season to bring back more value at the trade deadline.
If the recent past is any indication, the Wizards will use Holmes to keep stockpiling assets. And because they have so much room beneath the first apron, they can take back up to roughly $21.8 million if they guarantee his entire $13.3 million salary.
Dan Favale is a National NBA Writer for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Bluesky (@danfavale), and subscribe to the Hardwood Knocks podcast, co-hosted by Bleacher Report's Grant Hughes.
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