These 5 NBA Stars Will Get All the Attention at Next Year's Trade Deadline
NBA teams are in a constant cycle of renewal, with one transactional milestone quickly giving way to the next. So, as we move further beyond the flurry of activity triggered by free agency, it's only right that attention is already on the next deal-making opportunity.
That'd be the trade deadline.
And if you think teams aren't already positioning themselves to act in six months, when the cutoff point for trades in 2025-26 arises, you haven't been paying attention.
Just last season, the Golden State Warriors cobbled together a bunch of movable deals over the summer, almost surely for the purpose of swapping them for a superstar. Jimmy Butler arrived in February.
Which names should be top of mind as we try to imagine the big moves in early 2026? As you'd expect, the list involves a collection of expiring deals and stars with wandering eyes—plus a surprise or two.
Trae Young, Atlanta Hawks
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Trae Young still has two more years on his current contract, and the Atlanta Hawks' remade roster feels purpose-built to function around him.
For Young, that's apparently not enough.
The Hawks have yet to offer him a contract extension worth up to $229 million over four years. The San Antonio Spurs just gave that exact deal to De'Aaron Fox, and the Los Angeles Lakers inked Young's draft classmate, Luka Dončić, to a three-year, $165 million agreement.
Frustrated as Young may be, there's really not much urgency on Atlanta's side. It can offer him an extension at any point between now and June 30, 2026. But with his peers signing deals, Young is feeling left out.
Will he be annoyed enough to ask for a trade? Is Atlanta's hesitancy evidence that its future plans don't actually center around the three-time All-Star? We'll get more clarity on the dynamics in Atlanta as time goes by, but it's fair to say that not everyone's on the same page at the moment.
Which is why it might be worth keeping an eye on Young if he doesn't sign an extension ahead of the trade deadline. Holding a player option for 2026-27, Trae could effectively be an expiring contract this season. The Hawks may not want to deal with unrestricted free agency if it comes to that, and Young is already moderately peeved.
Giannis Antetokounmpo, Milwaukee Bucks
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Giannis Antetokounmpo's status as a deadline trade candidate worth monitoring has nothing to do with his tendency to be non-committal. It's all about the on-the-ground reality for his Milwaukee Bucks.
The two ideas are linked in that Giannis' penchant for "probably" and twice-reported openness to looking at other situations owes to Milwaukee's bare asset cupboard and status as non-contenders. But it's the "non-contender" part that matters most.
Barring a shocking over-performance, a roster led by Antetokounmpo and recently acquired center Myles Turner should keep the Bucks in the mushy middle of the East playoff race without any real shot at being better than that. For Giannis, a two-time MVP with a ring, that's just not good enough.
Maybe the Bucks deserve credit for acting desperately to give Antetokounmpo the best possible supporting cast. Stretching Damian Lillard so they could sign Turner was brazen, not to mention the deal that landed Lillard in the first place, or the one that onboarded Jrue Holiday a few years prior.
Despite valiant efforts, Milwaukee hasn't built a title threat this season. The Bucks got their ring in 2021 and don't seem capable of earning another with Giannis as the focal point. As that becomes clearer this season, trade chatter will intensify.
LeBron James, Los Angeles Lakers
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Shoehorning LeBron James into any list is good business because his name drives traffic and interest. But his inclusion here isn't about clicks. It's fully warranted because the Los Angeles Lakers are clearly no longer his team, and because he's playing out the last year of his deal before 2026 free agency.
Though his $53 million salary and outsized presence make trade scenarios tricky, James' status as a ring-chasing star with an expiring contract requires that he be seriously viewed as a candidate to move at the deadline. Excluding him would be a major oversight.
Old stomping grounds like Cleveland and Miami should be particularly attentive, though veteran-led operations hoping for one more playoff run (looking at you, Warriors) should also have their antennae up. James isn't what he used to be, but there still aren't more than a dozen players you'd rather have in a title chase than him. Coming off a sixth-place finish in MVP voting and his 21st consecutive All-NBA season, LeBron can obviously still impact winning at the highest level.
James may want to control his destiny via a trade request, and from the Lakers' perspective, it'd make sense to get something for him if the alternative is losing him for nothing in free agency.
Jonathan Kuminga, Golden State Warriors
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Jonathan Kuminga and the Golden State Warriors only seem to be getting farther apart as they try to work out a deal in restricted free agency, to the point that the drastic step of Kuminga accepting a one-year qualifying offer is actually on the table.
That disconnect is just one reason why Kuminga profiles as a deadline trade candidate. The other is that he'll be so much easier to move in February than he is right now.
Six months from now, the base-year compensation rules currently limiting sign-and-trade options won't apply. If the Warriors still have Kuminga in early February, they can move him without the obstacle of his outgoing salary counting for double the money they take in.
This relationship is deeply fractured, the result of Kuminga and Golden State holding vastly different opinions on his ideal role. If there were a reasonable trade to be made or deal to be signed this offseason, this stalemate would have been resolved a long time ago.
The deadline will afford the Warriors more options. If Kuminga is on the roster to start 2025-26, it won't be because everyone has mended fences. It'll be because Golden State knows trading him will be much easier later in the season.
Coby White, Chicago Bulls
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The only argument against the Chicago Bulls shopping Coby White at the deadline is that this franchise almost never does the shrewd, difficult thing. Every other factor points to the 25-year-old guard changing teams.
Playing out the last year of his contract, White is in line to make just $12.9 million in 2025-26. The most Chicago can offer him in an extension is $89 million over four years, based on a starting salary worth 140 percent of that $12.9 million figure. That's not nearly enough for White, who could easily fetch $25-30 million per season on the open market.
The Bulls could be the team to offer him that much in unrestricted free agency. But unless White is really keen on winning a maximum of 44 games, why would he ever prioritize re-signing with Chicago when he could aim higher elsewhere?
Chicago probably should have dealt White at last year's deadline, or even the one before. It was immediately evident that his bargain contract was going to be too small for a realistic extension, and that unrestricted free agency was nearly inevitable.
Acquiring teams will offer less now than they would have when White had more years of team control on his deal. But Chicago faces the possibility of losing him for nothing next summer, and it should therefore look to move him to the highest bidder by February.
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.
