Just over one month to the Feb. 5 NBA trade deadline and trade talks are picking up some momentum. Here is the latest around the league.
Expect slow trade deadline
There will be trades. Maybe a lot of smaller trades around the Feb. 5 deadline.
However, if you’re expecting another NBA blockbuster in February, well… sorry. The vibe in league circles has become to expect trades centered on tax/cap relief with some role players on the move, but the bigger names — Giannis Antetokounmpo, Anthony Davis, Trae Young — are likely stay put due to a combination of a limited market and the restrictive tax aprons. ESPN’s Tim Bontemps talked to an Eastern Conference executive and got this quote:
“I don’t see an eventful trade deadline, but that could set up for a crazy summer.”
That said, there will be trades, and the name to watch is…
Michael Porter Jr.
Player most likely to be traded before the Feb. 5 deadline? Brooklyn’s Michael Porter Jr.
The former Denver Nugget, 27, is in the middle of the best season of his career, averaging 25.8 points and 7.5 rebounds a game while shooting 41% from 3-point range (having the full-time green light in Brooklyn helps). That has drawn interest from a number of teams.
• Milwaukee has interest as it looks to upgrade around Giannis Antetokounmpo, reports Sam Amick at The Athletic. Porter Jr. is seen as potentially superior and certainly less expensive than bringing in Zach LaVine.
• The Warriors have had internal discussions about adding Porter, Jake Fischer reports at The Stein Line. That’s a long way from getting a deal done, but it shows the Warriors’ mindset of adding to their core.
• With Utah apparently not making Lauri Markkanen available, Detroit could kick the tires on a Porter trade, Fischer adds.
Where he lands is up in the air, but MPJ is the hottest name on the trade rumor mill right now.
Bucks interested in Anthony Davis? Dejonte Murray?
While Atlanta is still considered the team at the front of the line for an Anthony Davis trade, that line is long. Miami and Toronto are in it, with a lot of teams, such as Sacramento, at least considering a move.
Enter the Milwaukee Bucks.
They meet all the criteria of a team that might chase Davis, something Zach Lowe talked about on his podcast.
“When Dallas fired Nico Harrison and I went through all the fake Anthony Davis trades, I said right away, you’ve got to look at teams that are desperate to win and underperforming and can bundle some expiring salary. And I said like I’d look at the Bucks... To me, if the Bucks continue on this stance of buy buy buy, they’re just a lock to end up with one of these sort of distressed high leverage high salary players like a Zach LaVine, Michael Porter Jr., I mentioned AD.”
Milwaukee also may consider bringing in Dejounte Murray, a player they looked at previously, reports Fischer at The Stein Line.
The bottom line in Milwaukee is simple: It is not trading Antetokounmpo at the deadline, but to avoid having to do it this summer, the Bucks need to find a way to win more and are considering every option to make that happen.
Stop talking LeBron to Warriors
LeBron James and Stephen Curry had such great chemistry playing alongside one another while winning gold at the Paris Olympics. The Warriors are trying to add players to win now, the Lakers are moving on from the LeBron era to the Luka Doncic era, so what about…
No. LeBron’s agent and long-time friend Rich Paul shot down the idea emphatically on the latest episode of the Game Over with Max Kellerman and Rich Paul podcast. It started with Kellerman trying to stir things up, saying, “Bill Simmons said a couple of days ago… he said, look, the numbers work… LeBron and Steph have always said that they wanted to play together. What about Jimmy Butler for LeBron James?”
Rich Paul was emphatic in shooting it down.
“Because I don’t like to get into that. It’s not going to happen. So why are we talking about things that are not going to happen?”
Welcome to the world of sports talk, where making up fake trades — usually wildly unrealistic fake trades — then arguing about why a team should do them is its lifeblood.
Warriors not trading Butler, Green
While Golden State is testing the market for Jonathan Kuminga (who can’t be traded until Jan. 15), the reality is that to land a real difference maker the Warriors would have to package Kuminga with another player and picks.
That has led to some speculation about a Draymond Green with Kuminga trade — or maybe Jimmy Butler straight up for Anthony Davis — but the Warriors aren’t doing any of that, reports Sam Amick at The Athletic.
Team sources say they’re staunchly against the notion of trading either Draymond Green or Jimmy Butler, which creates quite a predicament when you’re trying to match salaries of high-level players.
The Warriors are still actively looking at trade options, which brings us to…
Jonathan Kuminga
The Warriors are talking to teams about a potential Kuminga trade, and Sacramento still has some interest. However, after another unimpressive season in Golden State — he has been on the court in just one of the team’s last 10 games — there isn’t much of a return coming back to the Bay Area in any deal, The Athletic’s Sam Amick said on Sactown Sports Radio 1140:
“For one, the Kings and everyone else, the price has gone down, it just has. So what does that look like in a possible Kings deal, because the Warriors are known to not have interest in Malik Monk, and he was front and center in those discussions in the offseason. So is it a [DeMar DeRozan] thing potentially? Who knows? I don’t probably see that happening.”
Teams are willing to take a flyer on Kuminga, but they do not give up players or picks of real value in those trades.
Clippers not trading stars
We’ve written in this space before that the LA Clippers were not going to have a fire sale, they have not been looking to trade James Harden or Kawhi Leonard at all. That is especially true with the team on an impressive six-game win streak.
If you doubt me, here is what Amick wrote at The Athletic.
If anything, league sources say the Clippers are expected to explore the prospect of adding an impact player around Harden and Kawhi Leonard as a way to revive their season in the second half. They can match a star-player level salary with expiring deals, with the contracts of John Collins ($26.5 million), Bogdan Bogdanović ($16 million this season; team option worth $16 million next season), Brook Lopez ($8.7 million this season; team option for $9.1 million next) and Nicolas Batum ($5.6 million this season; team option for $5.8 million next) all potentially handy on that front.
While the Clippers are open to a big move, they would not take on long-term salary that extends past 2027 (unless the player were a young star who could be part of their future). That lack of wanting long-term money on the books is why trading for Anthony Davis — who wants a massive contract extension this summer — is highly unlikely. (Plus, the one player the Clippers love and have on the books past 2027 is center Ivica Zubac, and he and Davis would be an odd fit next to one another.)
