The Athletic has live coverage of the 2024 NBA trade deadline. Follow along for updates.
It’s finally here: NBA Trade Deadline week. Pencils go down after Thursday.
The first dominos fell early this year with the New York Knicks and Toronto Raptors setting aside their ongoing litigation to complete a deal involving OG Anunoby, RJ Barrett and Immanuel Quickley. The second big one fell in January as the Raptors traded Pascal Siakam to the Indiana Pacers for a package centered around Bruce Brown Jr. and three first-round picks. Those deals took two of the biggest names off the market.
Then, someone other than Toronto finally made a move, Detroit and Washington completed a deal, and the Miami Heat acquired Terry Rozier for Kyle Lowry and a first-round pick. And of course, it’s worth noting we got an enormous one in the opening weeks of the season, as James Harden was moved to the Clippers from the 76ers. Because of all that action earlier in the cycle, it’s felt a bit quiet heading into the deadline. There does not seem to be a lot of star power available to be moved. Several team and league sources, who were granted anonymity in order to speak freely, do not expect a particularly wild deadline.
Having said that, there is a lot for teams to gain and lose over this week. While it’ll mostly be role players on the move, these guys could play critical roles in shaping the rest of the season.
Teams like the Los Angeles Lakers and Golden State Warriors should look to shake up their rosters to make a run. The title picture seems open, which means contenders like Oklahoma City, Denver, Minnesota, Boston and others should look to iron out their flaws. Others, like the Charlotte Hornets and Washington Wizards, will look to sell as they continue to fall further out of the race. With so much at stake, I wonder if we see some floodgates open as we get closer to Thursday’s 3 p.m. deadline.
So let’s take a look at some of the remaining players available on the market. After starting with 25 names, then moving to 40, we’ve expanded out to 50, and we could have added more. (This list will also be updated as players are traded and/or more intel comes in.)
Before we get to the names on this list, I want to address a few that aren’t here — at least not yet.
- You won’t see all-stars Donovan Mitchell or Lauri Markkanen. My impression from talking to league sources is that the Cleveland Cavaliers are planning to ride out this season with Mitchell, especially given their hot run over the last month. Meanwhile, the price tag on Markkanen is so high that it effectively takes him off the market.
- You also won’t see Zach LaVine. After featuring highly on the first two iterations of this list, he has been removed due to his season-ending foot injury. It seems exceedingly unlikely he will be traded while hurt.
- Jerami Grant is not on here. It remains tough to gauge the Portland Trail Blazers’ willingness to move him, as well as how other teams value his five-year, $160 million contract.
- There are four Brooklyn Nets players on this edition, with Dorian Finney-Smith, Dennis Smith Jr. and Spencer Dinwiddie joining Royce O’Neale. However, Mikal Bridges does not feature here, as the Nets have been telling teams they want to hold onto him. Nic Claxton was another player under consideration, but I did not place him because he has been vocal about how much he enjoys Brooklyn, which makes him more of a likely candidate to re-sign this summer. It’s not impossible he could move if someone blew them away, but it doesn’t exactly feel like he’s on the block, either.
- Jalen Green remains off this list for now, despite Houston’s desire to upgrade its roster.
Click on each player listed below for a detailed explanation of their current trade situations and some of their best potential fits.
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