Potential NBA Trade Targets Nobody Is Talking About
The NBA trade market is fully loaded with notable names, shiny stars and premier players.
There's still room for more impact talent to make its way to the rumor mill.
The cases are less obvious than the ones you've all heard about time and again, like Giannis Antetokounmpo, Jaylen Brown, Anthony Davis and Kyrie Irving. That's probably because the players aren't necessarily on the market right now. Not publicly, anyway.
Still, the right amount of tea leaf-reading and future-focused speculating could lead you to believe these high-end hoopers might wiggle loose at some point.
Devin Booker, Phoenix Suns
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Suns governor Mat Isbhia will scoff at this suggestion, since he's already on record unequivocally saying, "Devin Booker's not getting traded." There's just one minor issue it'd be great if Ishbia could clear up: Why not?
Booker is 29 years old. He'll turn 30 in October. His time to win is right now—if not a little sooner. Or rather, this would be his time to win if the Suns handed him actual win-now support. Like, the kind that could allow him to compete for something more significant than a Play-In Tournament invitation and a first-round knockout.
Phoenix can't give him that kind of assistance. It has tried in the past and failed miserably, leaving an asset shortage, a dearth of young, ascending talent and limited financial flexibility in its wake.
There is no blueprint for turning this team into a contender. Booker isn't the tier of star that champions aren't built around, and even if he was, he's missing a capable co-star. The Suns are too good to land in the range where drafting and developing one is a viable strategy, and the only way they could afford a co-star candidate on the trade market would be taking a major risk-reward gamble. They could probably stretch the budget far enough to acquire Ja Morant, but would they even want to?
It feels like a no, which feels like an if-not-that, then-what? type of quandary. The only reason the Suns don't feel totally stuck is because trading Booker offers a way out. But you wonder how much longer that'll be the case, since trade values don't exactly keep climbing as 30-somethings grow older and unconscionably expensive.
Stephen Curry, Golden State Warriors
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The Warriors wouldn't dream of fielding any offers for Curry. If they were remotely interested in that kind of restart, Steve Kerr never would've signed on for two more seasons as head coach. And the pricey pacts with Draymond Green and Jimmy Butler probably would have been jettisoned, too.
But the group is still together, still tied at the ball-moving, jump-shooting, defensive-switching hip. It's sort of a last stand, only there are more eyeballs on the future than that typically implies. The full-throttle pursuit of another title push is...apparently over. As ESPN's Anthony Slater relayed on The Ryen Rusillo Show, the Warriors "aren't chasing championships" and are instead" just kind of trying to guide out the Steph Curry era."
Say what, now? Was this information relayed to Curry? Is this generational great suddenly good with being on a team that's striving for OKness? Maybe it's just the reality of the Warriors' situation and their standing in a Western Conference that has passed them by, but are they really about to devout multiple seasons toward chasing the No. 6 seed?
Legendary careers almost never end how we want them, but this feels like a particularly meaningless way for such a transcendent talent to go out. Especially when that player still appears so close to the peak of their magical, game-breaking powers. The 30.9 points per 36 minutes he posted this season were the third-highest of his career.
The Warriors will never admit this, but a trade could be best for their future and Curry's. At the very least, rival front offices should be feverishly working to convince them of that.
Jaden McDaniels, Minnesota Timberwolves
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Since the Timberwolves spawned a full-fledged superstar in Anthony Edwards, they've put themselves right on the cusp of championship contention. It's just crossing that final threshold that they can't figure out.
While they've won five playoff series in three years, the ending of each of those runs has been decisive. And that has left Timberwolves president of basketball operations Tim Connelly feeling this group has "way more good than bad" but is still "not good enough right now."
That's why the Wolves keep working the phone lines in search of something big: Kevin Durant, Giannis Antetokounmpo—if there's a co-star candidate out there for Edwards, Minnesota has probably pursued them. Which makes you wonder, how exactly do the Wolves expect to land an elite? Because there basically are no draft picks to dangle and no potential-rich prospects to sweeten an offer. Just a lot of support pieces that aren't giving Edwards enough support.
The one real wrinkle is Jaden McDaniels, a 25-year-old all-purpose defender showing, in essence, perpetual growth on the offensive end. He is a player virtually any club would covet, since he can contribute to winning right now but also shows enough flashes to think there could be a lot more in his offensive arsenal by the time he peaks.
The Wolves would prefer not to lose him, but if they're serious about getting Edwards more help, they may not have another option. Getting a needle-mover requires giving up something good, and as far as Timberwolves' trade chips, McDaniels is clearly as good as it gets.
Franz Wagner, Orlando Magic
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Last summer, the Magic placed an all-in wager on Desmond Bane, surrendering four first-round picks and a first-round pick swap to land the scoring guard. As a result of that aggressiveness, Orlando wound up...winning four more games than the previous season and suffering a third consecutive first-round loss.
This inability to elevate already cost former skipper Jamahl Mosley his job, and you wonder whether the Magic will be content stopping with that change. While they don't sound interested in breaking apart the Franz Wagner-Paolo Banchero duo just yet, they don't really have other "Get out of first-round jail free" options to explore.
This roster is expensive and set to get more costly. The Bane blockbuster created a serious shortage of draft capital. Young sweeteners are hard to find, particuarly if they want to hang onto 22-year-old big guard Anthony Black, the sixth overall pick in 2023. Noah Penda and Tristan da Silva aren't pushing huge trade packages across the finish line.
So, maybe it's time to hold a Banchero vs. Wagner debate. While there are arguments for both sides, the draft investment and subsequent sky-high expectations attached to Banchero, the No. 1 pick in 2022, might have him looking like the keeper.
And, honestly, there might be a richer trade market for Wagner, anyway, since he'd come with less ball-dominance, more defensive utility and superior efficiency—aspects that could all make him easier for a win-now shopper to mix him in with what it already has.
Derrick White, Boston Celtics
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Who knew that this offseason could be just as active—and perhaps a whole lot stranger—than last summer was for the Celtics? Back then, they had a clear directive to cut costs, which made sense when it seemed like Jayson Tatum's torn Achilles had taken title contention off the table.
Fast-forward to the present, though, and now there's a whole of weirdness. Like all of the trade winds swirling around Jaylen Brown, who just authored his most productive (and apparently favorite) season to date. Or their surprise connection to the Giannis Antetokounmpo sweepstakes.
It feels like there's at least an appetite for exploring significant changes, which is perhaps a natural response to blowing a 3-1 lead in the first-round loss to the Philadelphia 76ers. Subtracting Brown would certainly qualify as a major move, but there is an option that would allow the Celtics to shake things up without sending a star swingman packing: Use a Derrick White deal to reshape the roster around the Jays.
Shamrocks fans won't like this, as White's steadiness, two-way impact and willingness to play his role are endearing—and important—qualities. But those are also the reasons why he should hold major value on the open market. If the Celtics covet a needle-mover, coughing up White might be the only way to add one without losing a star wing.
This all assumes, of course, Boston feels like it needs to do something dramatic, but there are a lot of tea leaves trending that direction. The Celtics already know that the Tatum-Brown pairing can pilot a title run with the right pieces around them. Now, they have to decide whether a painful trade of White is the only option for solving that puzzle.
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