Predicting the Next Wave of NBA Stars to Request a Trade
It has been nearly six months since the last NBA star requested a trade. And that star, De'Aaron Fox, maintains he didn't actually ask for one.
Regardless of how his time with the Sacramento Kings unraveled, the overarching point remains the same:
We're overdue for a high-profile trade request, polite demand, James Harden-level nuclear melodrama—whatever the heck you want to call it.
Another one is coming down the pipeline, somewhere, from someone. That is how #ThisLeague works. Especially in the R.I.P. Free Agency age.
Which standout hooper(s) will be the next to orchestrate their relocation to a different team? That is the question we will fearlessly, heroically attempt to answer here.
Giannis Antetokounmpo, Milwaukee Bucks
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Between the Milwaukee Bucks waiving-and-stretching Damian Lillard, the arrival of Myles Turner, and then Giannis Antetokounmpo tweeting (Xeeting?) about taking the team back to the NBA Finals, it sure seems like the 30-year-old will be staying put through the offseason.
After that, though? Who knows?
Midseason star trades are becoming more common, and Giannis' most recent update on his future was commitment-phobic. The Bucks are not out of the woods just yet.
Even if they are, it's only temporary. Their summer has unfolded like a team trying to buy one more full year with Giannis, before trying to parlay the three available first-round picks they'll have to trade next June into someone who buys them yet another season or two.
If that plan proves unsuccessful, or if Milwaukee stumbles through the first part of the 2025-26 campaign, it could be the tipping point that nudges the two-time MVP to do what 29 other teams have been waiting on him to do for years.
Devin Booker, Phoenix Suns
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Devin Booker just signed a two-year, $133.3 million extension with the Phoenix Suns that technically keeps him on the books through 2029-30. Yet, the final season of that deal is a player option.
Even more notable, he put pen to paper early enough that he'll be trade-eligible before February's deadline. His restriction lifts on Jan. 10, 2026.
Side-eyes emoji, anyone?
Including Booker is not specific to this season. He clearly wants to make it work in Phoenix. But this extension, player option and all, feels like hush money.
The Suns have taken the league's most inexplicably shortsighted view under team governor Mat Ishbia. That might be changing, if only because they have no other choice. At the very least, the buying out and then waiving-and-stretching of Bradley Beal that keeps over $19 million in dead money on their books for the next half-decade is nothing if not proof they're preparing to go absolutely nowhere special anytime soon.
Maybe Booker is cool with going along for that wildly underwhelming ride or hopeful Phoenix will pull a gaggle of unicorns out from the terms and conditions of a United Wholesale Mortgage agreement.
This complicity won't last forever. And it certainly isn't going to last as long as the Suns stay in the middle of nowhere.
LeBron James, Los Angeles Lakers
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LeBron James' future with the Los Angeles Lakers is simultaneously being treated as completely certain and entirely ambiguous.
"Sure, the Los Angeles Lakers are clearly planning for a future that might not include a star in his 40s. But no, LeBron hasn't and isn't going to request a trade. Wake me up when you're done pretending something might come out of this."
Well, according to The Athletic's John Hollinger, there was real buzz at Las Vegas Summer League about the four-time champion having googly eyes for the Dallas Mavericks before opting into the final year of his contract and his agent, Rich Paul, made what read like "Thanks for the memories, Lakeshow!" comments to ESPN's Shams Charnia.
It's fine if you don't think anything will come from all this jibber-jabber. But please don't pretend like it's not a thing.
The Lakers appear to be reorienting themselves around the 26-year-old Luka Dončić and may have made it clear they don't intend to pay LeBron beyond the 2025-26 season. Do we really expect LeBron to sit through this quietly? Especially when, despite deepening the rotation this summer, Los Angeles doesn't profile as a top-tier contender?
This could be a matter of LeBron exerting his leverage as the owner of a no-trade clause. It could entail his making a request and the Lakers attempting to do right by their star.
This could also be one of those "Both sides have mutually agreed it's better if they mutually part ways, a mutual decision they came to mutually" divorce reports that Charania must re-post three to six times before it's typo-free and includes all 37 team and player-agent representatives involved in the mutchual-est mutual decision in pro sports history. We can't rule out anything.
Lauri Markkanen, Utah Jazz
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Speaking of hush money...Lauri Markkanen is set to begin the first season of a four-year, $195.9 million extension he signed last summer as part of a renegotiation that always felt like it was doled out at least in part to keep him quiet and happy while the Utah Jazz went about their full-scale rebuild.
That rebuild remains underway. It is even fuller-scale now after president of basketball operations Austin Ainge jettisoned most of the team's veterans.
Still, the Jazz would like us to know that the 28-year-old Markkanen is totally a cornerstone for the future, and that they're totally not trading him, but that he's also clearly not untouchable. Sure.
Utah doesn't have to deal Markkanen right now. It also doesn't seem like he would demand a trade one-year after getting his windfall. This is a dynamic that will erode over a little more time.
Perhaps Markkanen gets frustrated with the emphasis on youthful development. Maybe he just tires of hearing his name in trade rumors and decides to formally join them to end the suspense. Utah could even be the initiators but allow it to be framed as mutual so everybody saves face.
No matter how it happens, unless the Jazz inexplicably and improbably fast-track their position in the Western Conference, Markkanen's exit at some point over the next year seems fait accompli—an issue of if, not when.
Domantas Sabonis, Sacramento Kings
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This past March, on the heels of De'Aron Fox getting shipped to the San Antonio Spurs, The Athletic's Sam Amick and Anthony Slater reported that Domantas Sabonis would "seek clarity" on his future with the Sacramento Kings. We haven't heard a whisper of his plans since, but the team hasn't given him much reason to feel good about the immediate or bigger picture.
Trading into the draft and scooping up Nique Clifford is shaping up to be a steal. The rest of the offseason? Not so much.
Sacramento is oversaturated with guards, none of whom are an actual floor general. Sabonis specifically called for the organization to add a point guard this summer. The Kangz responded by overpaying the point guard-adjacent Dennis Schröder.
It's only a matter of time before Sabonis joins Kings fans everywhere and reaches a breaking point. When he does, it'll be interesting to see how the market for him pans out. His defensive limitations and offensive proclivities make him a very specific type of building block, and he has three years and $136.4 million left on his deal, which comes out to about 29.7 percent of the salary cap each season.
That's a discussion for another day—though, I suspect he'll fetch more than people realize, given how many teams seem willing to run double bigs, even at the expense of spacing, so they can use one to cover up for the other if they're a defensive liability. Right now, all we need to know is that the Kings have given little indication they're charting an inspiring path forward.
If that doesn't change, we might hear murmurings or outright declarations of Sabonis' frustration—and the wandering eyes that come with it—prior to February's deadline, if not before the start of next season.
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.
