Top 10 players on NBA trade block? Brandon Ingram, Zach LaVine among those who could be dealt this season |Max Sporty|

Remember how boring 2024 is NBA trade deadline was? Well, there are two schools of thought about what comes next. It’s a scenario where the new CBA has restricted player movement so much that we can now expect what we saw in 2024 to be the norm. Right now, there are 11 teams, those currently above the first apron, that basically cannot trade with each other. There are a handful of others facing different restrictions, and not coincidentally, these are mostly the kind of good teams that would want to make significant upgrades during the season.

That is the pessimist’s opinion. The optimist’s view is that the CBA is an obstacle to be removed, not a roadblock. Historically, this tends to be what happens when new CBAs go into effect. It takes a year or two for teams to learn how to navigate them. Later, player movement returns. When the stakes are high enough, teams create. In a year in which seemingly half the league is all-in on winning a championship or coming close, the stakes have reached sufficient heights. Teams want to trade. Logically, that means they will find out how.

We cannot predict the “how.” We can, however, poke at the “who”. Given the complications this CBA creates, true superstar trades are likely off the table this offseason. Let’s use Jimmy Butler as an example of why. The Heat is one of those 11 first-apron teams. It stands to reason that most of the teams that would be interested in an older star like Butler would be teams with immediate championship ambitions. Most of those teams are also among the 11 first apron teams, and each team above the first apron cannot bring more salary than they send in business. This effectively means that two such teams cannot trade with each other unless they send two exactly even dollar figures back and forth, which is nearly impossible at the level of a Butler trade.

Apply this to most of the NBA’s best players. Could we see surprises in which a team grows especially desperate, a star grows particularly anxious or a surprise suitor emerges? Certainly. But most likely, we are looking for players who have cleaner routes to trades. Maybe they make less money. Perhaps they are younger and could attract a wider range of suitors. Maybe their team is just desperate enough to move them to take less than the sticker price. With those conditions in mind, let’s dive into the top 10 players who could be traded this season by the CBS Sports top 100 as our rank and file.

The Pelicans tried to trade Ingram all summer and failed. He it seems very aware of that fact. New Orleans traded for Dejounte Murray this offseason, who plays a very similar offensive role as an individual shot creator. He shares a position with Trey Murphy and Herb Jones, younger and more versatile players who fit more easily next to franchise player Zion Williamson. Oh, and he apparently wants a very hefty contract extension at a time when belts are tightening around the league. He is no longer a long-term fit in New Orleans. The Pelicans desperately need to find a center, as they will either leave the position this offseason or deal it to minimum-salary free agent Daniel Theis. An Ingram trade is their best hope to fill that hole. They’d rather move him for fair value, but when push comes to shove, he’s also a strong expiring contract. The Pelicans can’t afford to lose the salary cap, so if they have to treat him more as a cap figure than an asset in a February trade, they might just do it.

Randle is also due a new contract, but unlike Ingram, there is still a reasonable argument for his fit in New York. While naysayers will argue that New York’s best look going forward would be built around Jalen Brunson and all of their wings, someone else has to serve as a secondary shot creator. Randle will get the first crack at that job. But if Mikal Bridges or someone else can fill it, New York has another major hole at center. Isaiah Hartenstein left as a free agent and Mitchell Robinson just never stays healthy. Even if the Knicks would prefer to keep Randle as a secondary creator, the need for a rim-protecting center could supersede that desire. At the end of the day, teams only have so many sizable salary slots. If the Knicks look like anything less than a bona fide contender early in the season, Randle’s salary will be floated as the ballast needed to land a replacement for Hartenstein.

The Athletics reported after the season that Darius Garland’s camp would prefer a trade if Donovan Mitchell were to extend. That noise died down after Mitchell actually stretched, but it came from a genuine place. Fundamentally, Cleveland has two point guards when it only needs one. Mitchell is the better player and therefore had to sacrifice less. Garland struggled to fit into an off-ball role, and injuries exacerbated those problems last season. Cleveland won’t trade him just to trade him. He’s so good and so vital as long-term Mitchell insurance that he should just move in a deal for an equivalent wing. But if the Cavaliers can find one? Yes, it probably makes sense to share their backyard.

Most of what I wrote about Garland applies to Jarrett Allen. He is redundant. Both he and Evan Mobley are non-shooting big men. You can’t really build around two of them in the modern NBA. Mobley is younger and better. There are so many center-needy teams right now that Cleveland could probably generate a strong offer if it made him available, but remember that the Cavaliers just hired their former Nets coach in Kenny Atkinson. They seem to want to make one last swing at making this foursome work before they really revamp their flawed roster. Allen’s availability likely depends on where the Cavaliers stand in February. If they aren’t genuine contenders in May and June, however, he becomes an obvious trade candidate in July.

Our first four players range from “we’d trade him if we could” to “we could trade him depending on how things go.” But Zach LaVine? He’s firmly planted in “Would you please just take him off our hands for us? We’ll give you stuff!” territory The Bulls may have had a moment in which they could be removed from his contract relatively harmless. That ship has sailed a long time. He has three years left on a five-year max and he just played 25 games in a season that was disappointing even when he was healthy. Point-first guards who don’t defend or help their teammates are out of style right now. Good luck moving him, Chicago. You will need it.

Jerami Grant really shouldn’t be on the Trail Blazers, but this is what happens when you re-sign a veteran to a five-year deal one day before your franchise player asks to be traded. Portland is now stuck with a handful of veterans who should probably be moved. Robert Williams III probably will, as long as he can prove he’s healthy. Deandre Ayton is too expensive. But Grant is the most valuable of the three, and there’s a bit of a clock here, given his contract and age (30). Advanced offensive wings who can hold their own defensively are rare. Portland can get a first-round pick and knock a few wins off their total this season the moment they decide to move Grant. It’s just a matter of accepting the rebuild they’ve fully entered.

The Warriors tried to trade for Paul George and Lauri Markkanen that offseason. By all accounts, Brandin Podziemski was out of bounds. Do the math here. Golden State is willing to trade for a veteran superstar for one last Stephen Curry-centric title push. You’ve got to give something to get something, and even though draft picks are the center of any trade, players need to be involved for both financial and practical purposes. Kuminga is the valuable young player Golden State is open to hanging on to, and since he is extendable, the Warriors are encouraged to decide on his future sooner rather than later.

Remember the whole “scoring guards who don’t defend or help their teammates” point we covered with LaVine? Well, there is context. Simons makes half as much, is four years younger and has a relatively clean bill of health. He won’t command the price of a superstar, but he’s a pretty desirable player, and just as it makes more sense for Portland to trade Grant, the Blazers would likely be best served cashing in on Simons now while he’s still young and comes with significant team control. . Scoot Henderson and Shaedon Sharpe make up the backcourt of the future here, and if they’re not, Portland will tank long enough to find another high-end guard or two. Simons can help a lot of contenders (Orlando mainly), so there will be good deals out there if he ever hits the market.

Green is the slightly worse version of Kuminga for our purposes. He is extendable, and his team wants to trade for a star soon. The Rockets have no shortage of backcourt alternatives. They used back-to-back top picks on Amen Thompson and Reed Sheppard, both of whom have more clearly defined roles on the team. Fred VanVleet is still here and on a max contract. The Rockets probably wouldn’t mind locking Green up to a reasonable contract right now, but he’s still probably in a place where he wants to bet on his vast upside. If there is no middle ground, it makes sense to trade him before that upside is obscured by his actual production.

We went past the former All-Stars and the exciting young players to the veteran role players. Bogdan Bogdanovic is a reliable bench creator who could fit in almost any offense. He’s 32, probably too old for a Hawks team getting young, and while the Hawks are light on guards after trading Murray, several of their forwards (Jalen Johnson, Dyson Daniels and Zaccharie Risacher) will need the ball in their hands a bit. . With Trae Young in place, it just makes more sense to turn Bogdanovic into assets that fit that core rather than the older one that is being removed.