5 NBA Teams That Should Already Be Looking to Make a Trade
Not every struggling NBA team needs to panic just yet.
Take the Boston Celtics for example. Even though they've won only three of their first six games and have been so porous that their defensive rating tops only the New York Knicks', they know they can hold course and improve organically. Once Al Horford, Jae Crowder and Marcus Smart are all playing at the same time, they'll naturally become more competitive.
Other squads don't have that luxury, and those are the ones we're focusing on here.
They don't need to push the red button this early in the season, but they should already be thinking about it. Some may even have opened the glass case surrounding it.
Each featured squad has at least one current dilemma that seems unsolvable, and it can be best fixed by bringing in new pieces.
Dallas Mavericks
1 of 5
The Dallas Mavericks have been an abject disaster through their first six games, and not just because they've managed to emerge victoriously only once with an 86-75 defeat of the Milwaukee Bucks. They rank No. 29 in offensive rating and No. 10 in defensive rating—a combination that won't lead to much success, even if their schedule grows easier.
Not even their individual pieces offer much to boast about.
Harrison Barnes is starting to justify his exorbitant salary after recently dropping 34 points against the Bucks, but his offensive contributions still feel rather empty. Outside of his scoring efforts, he hasn't added much to Dallas' cause.
In fact, he's No. 3 on the roster with a minus-1.3 offensive box plus/minus, indicating that a league-average offensive player would still have been an upgrade thus far. Only J.J. Barea and Nicolas Brussino have better scores, and the former is the lone Maverick in the positives.
Until that's solved, Dallas won't have even the faintest hope of advancing past the regular season. And given the construction of this roster—aging veterans, injury-prone contributors and unproven talents thrust into bigger roles—there's no guarantee the current collection can fix the issues.
"Time is on the Mavericks' side; depth and durability are not," Dan Favale wrote for Bleacher Report. "The Mavs are more susceptible to a single absence than in years past and figure to lean heavily on a starting lineup consisting of injury risks (Andrew Bogut, Deron Williams), an almost-40 star (Dirk Nowitzki) and the ultimate wild card (Barnes)."
Stability is needed, and that can only be found in the trading market. Dallas desperately needs a steadying force capable of modest but consistent contributions—a player who can alleviate the immense pressure on Barnes and Williams' balky knees.
Houston Rockets
2 of 5
"It feels a lot different," K.J. McDaniels told CBS Sports' James Herbert. "Everybody seems to enjoy playing defense, talking to each other. And it's great just to have another year, be in another season, get an opportunity to do something big."
Enjoyment is one thing. Effectiveness is another.
To nobody's surprise, a team with Mike D'Antoni coaching James Harden is struggling immensely on the preventing end. Through seven games, only the New York Knicks (114.5), Boston Celtics (114.3) and Indiana Pacers (111.4) are allowing more points per 100 possessions than the Houston Rockets (111.2). But somewhat troublingly, Harden isn't the primary culprit.
Though his defensive woes necessitate cross-matching and still produce a number of lazy possessions, his off-ball work has been solid during the season's opening salvo. According to Basketball-Reference.com's defensive box plus/minus rating, he's been one of the better defenders on the roster.
It's Ryan Anderson and Eric Gordon who have struggled to handle major defensive minutes. That, coupled with a lack of depth and a stagnation from Clint Capela, has torched any hope of maintaining even defensive mediocrity. It also squanders the MVP-caliber offensive performances already produced by Houston's bearded guard.
Per NBA.com's SportVU data, Capela has faced 7.4 shots per game at the rim and allowed opponents to shoot 51.9 percent, proving he's not yet capable of handling such a large role. Last year, he gave up a 49.3 percent clip at the hoop.
Especially with Nene struggling in the same area, the Rockets haven't boasted an effective last line of defense. Unless they're going to shore up their wing contributions by upgrading from Gordon and Corey Brewer, they need to add a rim protector.
Otherwise, they run the risk of wasting one excellent showing from Harden after another.
New Orleans Pelicans
3 of 5
Tim Frazier hasn't been terrible, and the New Orleans Pelicans have realized they should hand more minutes to Terrence Jones. But the lack of talent around franchise centerpiece Anthony Davis is still stunning, as these early-season numbers from NBA Math help illustrate:
| Anthony Davis | 16.69 | 14.78 | 31.47 |
| Terrence Jones | 6.76 | -2.32 | 4.44 |
| Tim Frazier | -7.56 | 9.35 | 1.79 |
| Cheick Diallo | 0.33 | -1.73 | -1.4 |
| Solomon Hill | 4.83 | -9.99 | -5.16 |
| Langston Galloway | -2.67 | -6.79 | -9.46 |
| Alexis Ajinca | -2.34 | -7.3 | -9.64 |
| E'Twaun Moore | -4.1 | -6.7 | -10.8 |
| Omer Asik | 7.56 | -20.33 | -12.77 |
| Lance Stephenson | -6.78 | -7.12 | -13.9 |
| Dante Cunningham | -2.91 | -11.41 | -14.32 |
| Buddy Hield | -5.27 | -13.55 | -18.82 |
It's not just that Davis, Jones and Frazier are the only net positives or that Davis is the lone player with above-average contributions on each end.
Far more concerning is just how few pluses—on either side—are scattered throughout the roster.
Davis, Jones, Cheick Diallo, Solomon Hill and Omer Asik have served as the only beneficial defenders, while just Davis and Frazier have helped on offense. It's why the Pelicans as a whole rank No. 28 in offensive rating, which makes winning a near impossibility.
If the Pelicans don't add worthy sidekicks, they run the risk of turning Davis into a disgruntled superstar. And no one wants that.
Orlando Magic
4 of 5
As Zach Lowe explained for ESPN.com, the Orlando Magic's grandiose ideas about their ultra-sized, ultra-deep frontcourt have not been too promising:
"[Aaron] Gordon looks nothing like Paul George, as the Magic promised he might; he's 0-of-6 out of the pick-and-roll across four games, per Synergy. The offense has cratered with Bismack Biyombo on the floor; the Biyombo-[Nikola] Vucevic double-center look has predictably been a disaster, and the vaunted Biyombo-[Serge] Ibaka combo hasn't worked -- yet.
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An above-average percentage of the Magic's field-goal attempts has come from beyond the arc, but that doesn't mean they've been successful. The team has hit just 30.4 percent of its deep tries—better than only four other organizations—and that basically dooms an offense already struggling for spacing.
No one has any room on pick-and-rolls; Isolation ventures have been deterred by traffic in the paint; Few open opportunities at the rim have presented themselves, as it's too easy for the opposition to crowd around the hoop and dare the Magic's non-shooters to, well, shoot.
This would be more palatable if Orlando had morphed into a dominant defensive outfit capable of grinding out wins on nights that feature a lid over the basket. But that hasn't been the case whatsoever, as it ranks just No. 25 in defensive rating.
Predicting the Magic's offseason ventures would fail wasn't particularly daring, but it was a bit unexpected that the failure would be so obvious so soon. It's already time for the front office to begin shopping Nikola Vucevic or setting up homes for some of the new arrivals once the collective bargaining agreement allows for their departures.
Washington Wizards
5 of 5
"I think coach is pretty fed up with the way we're playing, and I think he's going to start playing guys who want to play and guys who want to show up," Bradley Beal said after a loss to the Orlando Magic, per Candace Buckner of the Washington Post.
As Buckner noted, the shooting guard was (not so subtly) referring to a specific quartet of bench players who head coach Scott Brooks has been careful to defend:
"Beal’s commentary was meant for the fourth quarter when the Magic erased a 10-point deficit, running off 16 straight points while making 10 of 20 shots. It’s no coincidence that four players from the Wizards’ much-maligned bench — Trey Burke, Marcus Thornton, Kelly Oubre Jr. and Jason Smith — formed the unit when Orlando’s rally began.
In this opening stretch of the NBA season, Coach Scott Brooks has consistently tried to shield the reserves from absorbing most of the blame. Brooks promotes team togetherness and will say that the Wizards are not just a first unit and a second unit, but 10 rotational players pulling together. However as Brooks defends the bench, the statistics make a convincing case against them.
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The Washington Wizards have won just a single game in 2016-17, beating the Atlanta Hawks by three points on Nov. 4. But it's hard to pin the blame on the starting five. It's indeed the bench causing issues—HoopsStats.com has the Wizards' second- and third-stringers ranked dead last in both offensive and defensive efficiency.
Fixing that has to be a priority, and the Wizards may not have the internal pieces necessary to make substantial changes. There's no one buried on the depth chart who needs to play far more, unless Sheldon McClellan is somehow ready to be a Sixth Man of the Year candidate. (Note: He's not.)
Washington doesn't currently owe any first-round picks to other organizations, so it may be time to change that. Because this team desperately needs to avoid another lottery-bound failure.
Adam Fromal covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter @fromal09.
Unless otherwise indicated, all stats are from Basketball-Reference.com, NBA.com or NBA Math and are current heading into games on Nov. 8.
