1 Trade Target for Every Eastern Conference NBA Team
With the trade deadline less than 1 month away, some players are going to get dealt. And with the East being as wide open as it is right now, the conference could look quite different heading into April.
Detroit Pistons — Nickeil Alexander-Walker
The Pistons might have one the messiest salary books for a team that has less than 10 wins. Because of $35 million they owe Blake Griffin, it feels almost impossible ship him away to get any high valuable young capital in return. Instead, the Pistons are gonna have to try real hard to find any young talent on the market for cheap.
After seemingly breaking through in the Pelicans backcourt rotation, Alexander-Walker has once again found himself back towards the bottom of the pecking order. Before it was due to lack of experience, but now it seems to be the emergence of Kira Lewis Jr that has taken a big hit in his development. He hasn’t logged over 10 minutes in the last seven games, and with the Pelicans struggling for some shooting, they may opt to get a short term fix instead of holding a young piece they seemingly are reluctant to develop.
Cleveland Cavaliers — Frank Ntilikina
After a blistering start to the season, the Cavs now find themselves in a familiar position, towards the bottom of the East. With Andre Drummond’s fat $28 million expiring deal on the books, they don’t necessarily have to find a suitor for him. And considering his value isn’t especially high, maybe continuing to shed some salary while getting younger makes them an intriguing place for the summer of 2021.
On the bright side, Cleveland has seemed to figure out it’s backcourt of the future, with both Colin Sexton and Darius Garland playing well. Their next order of business is to beef up the depth in the backcourt around them, while alleviating the log jam in the front court, and getting better defensively in the process. Taking a flyer on Frank Ntilikina while also taking advantage of the Knicks (somewhat blind) hopes of making the playoffs ticks all those boxes.
Washington Wizards — Myles Turner
Despite sitting 13th in the East and with an 11–18 record, the Wizards are starting to show some form, winning 6 of their last 10. With an aging Russell Westbrook and a clearly more disgruntled Bradley Beal, the Wizards might be desperate enough to take a big risk at the deadline. With a season long injury to starting center Thomas Bryant, the 5 spot seems like the logical place for them to upgrade.
Myles Turner currently leads the NBA in blocks per game at 3.5. For a team that is 27th in defensive rating, and 29th in points allowed per game, Turner would be a welcomed edition. As for the Pacers, they get another shooter that helps fit into a new pace and space offense. On top of this, they get more spacing for Domantas Sabonis to do more work in the paint. Finally, if the Wizards do implode and not make the playoffs, they get a lottery pick out of it.
Orlando Magic — Cam Reddish
For the past few seasons, the Magic have been married to the 7–8th seed of the playoffs. With the combination of Evan Fournier and Nikola Vucevic, the Magic are just good enough to crack the East playoffs, but at the cost of having no real future. With Fournier coming off the books this year, and with Markelle Fultz, Jonathan Isaac both out for the year, maybe this is the year the Magic decide to break apart some of that core.
Cam Reddish is having one of the worst starts to his NBA career he could’ve imagined. Shooting an awful 26% from 3 this year, Reddish’s spot in the Atlanta pecking order has been fully overtaken by De’Andre Hunter. And with the plethora of wings in that Hawks team all getting healthier or playing better, he might find his spot in the rotation taken away. In a fresh situation in Orlando, maybe he can find some of that value that made him a top 10 pick in a very loaded 2019 draft class.
Atlanta Hawks — Alec Burks
Speaking of the Hawks, they have been very disappointing this year. With so many new signings, there was always going to be struggles fitting everything together at first. But most of those signings have been injured for large parts of the season (Danilo Gallinari, Kris Dunn, Rajon Rondo, Bogdan Bogdanovic), and the lackluster performances come down to regression from pretty much every player on the roster not named Clint Capela or De’Andre Hunter. On top of this, the Hawks suffer from having little to know shot creation on the wings next to Trae Young, making it harder for him to get good looks.
To top everything off, John Collins wants out, and Atlanta seems to want him to leave. The Hawks are looking for reportedly a first round pick for Collins, and this feels like the perfect opportunity to turn Collins into a piece that may not be as talented, but surely fits the Hawks needs more. Alec Burks has seen his minutes cut after a strong start to the season, and would help alleviate some of the ball handling duty from Trae Young. Finally, they get the Mavericks pick from the Kristaps Porzingis trade, and with the current form of Dallas, that pick may be more valuable than first thought.
New York Knicks — Buddy Hield
I don’t know how the Knicks have done it, but they’re in a playoff hunt over 30 games into the season. Tom Thibodeau has ran his players into the ground with their minutes, but so far it’s working. With that being said, there are still some issues with the Knicks. Firstly, there are way too many guards on this roster, and very few of them can shoot. New York currently sits 19th in 3 point percentage this season, which isn’t awful. But if they are actually serious about competing (which they seem to be considering they traded for Derrick Rose), that needs to improve.
There’s always been some disconnection between Buddy Hield and Sacramento. And with the rise of rookie Tyrese Haliburton, maybe Hield’s time in California is up. This trade would clear some of the clutter in the backcourt, while also making this New York team more attractive to potential suitors in 2021 free agency. New York has 2 max cap slots, and using some of that money to get Hield, coupling that with new All Star Julius Randle and some new found success, maybe New York becomes the free agency destination they think they are.
Boston Celtics — Nikola Vucevic
This deal makes too much sense. As discussed on a previous article about “5 Bold Predictions about the Trade Deadline”, there are so many reasons why Vucevic could end up in Boston. To recap, in that article it talks about how Boston has that big trade exception after the Gordon Hayward sign and trade in the summer. A trade exception that’s $28 million, just $2 million bigger than Vucevic’s salary. On top of this, Boston has one of the best 4 man cores in the NBA when healthy (Kemba Walker, Marcus Smart, Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum). They’ve been longing for a center to complete their roster. Finally, the Magic are getting closer and closer to fully rebuilding, and getting as much value for their All-Star center when he’s putting up gargantuan numbers (24 and 11 per game) seems smart.
In the previous article, the trade was Robert Williams, Romeo Langford and 3 firsts. But since then, Vucevic has played even better, and the Celtics have continue to stumble even more, finding themselves outside the playoffs and with a losing record somehow (15–17). Boston might find themselves even more desperate than before, and add in some salary relief in Daniel Theis, as well as an extra second round pick. If New Orleans can get 3 first round picks from the Bucks, surely Orlando can get 3 from Boston. The Celtics have a treasure trove of draft picks and the means to get Vucevic financially, it’s time Danny Ainge makes a deal happen.
Miami Heat — Victor Oladipo
This feels like the billionth article that has mentioned Victor Oladipo. But for good reason. He’s an expiring contract and has stated he wants to play in Miami. And on the other side, Miami is struggling this year, sitting in the 8th seed at 15–17. Maybe the slow starts in both Houston and Miami is what accelerates a potential deal.
Even though Oladipo is a free agent this summer, and would probably sign with Miami regardless, the Heat may feel inclined to make a move in order to save their season. And it may not take much to get him. Because he is about to test free agency, Houston doesn’t actually have much leverage in negotiations. Kendrick Nunn feels like an inevitable piece to be moved, as he doesn’t seem to play when everyone is healthy ever since contracting COVID-19 prior to the bubble. Past that, another young piece in Precious Achiuwa and an expiring in Kelly Olynyk might be enough to get this deal done.
Charlotte Hornets — Andre Drummond
The Hornets might be one of the few teams willing to take on Andre Drummond. The list of suitors is almost non existent, but Charlotte does make some sense.
Much like the Celtics, it feels like Charlotte has figured out their core group of guys they want to develop. And even more like Boston, that list does not include a center. Between Bismack Biyombo and Cody Zeller, there is decent production there, but also an opportunity to roll the dice a little bit to take advantage of a clearly weak Eastern Conference. To get Drummond, Charlotte doesn’t have to give up much. The Hornets get to try out Drummond for half a season, and if they don’t like what they see, they don’t need to bring him back. Cleveland gets Zeller and Biyombo for relief and a young piece in Monk, who could be something down the road, but clearly won’t get minutes over Ball, Rozier and Graham in Charlotte.
Chicago Bulls — Lonzo Ball
There have been murmurs that Lonzo Ball could be on the way out in New Orleans, and there have already been talks within both the Bulls and Pelicans about bringing the guard over. And for what it’s worth, he would fit perfectly in the Windy City.
The Bulls haven’t been amazing this year, below .500 at 15–16. But they find themselves 6th in the East currently, and have the pieces to lead a surprise playoff run. Led by new All-Star Zach Lavine, the Bulls definitely need some defense in the backcourt. After losing Kris Dunn in the offseason, this problem has been amplified even more. To get Ball, it shouldn’t take much, some shooting in the form of Garrett Temple and a pick should be enough. Though that pick could be considered a lot, if the Bulls do end up making the playoffs, it won’t be falling in the lottery anyway.
Toronto Raptors — Hassan Whiteside
Like Andre Drummond, at least 20 teams in the NBA shouldn’t bother looking at Hassan Whiteside. But unlike Andre Drummond, Whiteside might be even worse. What Whiteside does have going his way is that he is on almost no money at all. That alone might make Toronto desperate enough to try him out.
It feels like losing all those players from their 2019 title run has finally caught up to them. In just two summers, Kawhi Leonard, Danny Green, Serge Ibaka and Marc Gasol have all left Toronto and despite having a solid team on paper, their paper thin front court rotation is really letting them down. Bringing in a player with such little effort and energy like Whiteside would normally be a high risk, low reward situation, but considering it would probably take a second round pick and the bottom of their rotation to get him, maybe it’s worth it.
Indiana Pacers — Grant Williams
The Indiana Pacers have transformed their offense this season from a traditional slow grit and grind style, to a pace and space 3 point shooting heavy team. Within that, Indiana has also found a way to get Myles Turner and Domantas Sabonis to co-exist together at the same time. But outside of those two, their front court depth is a little lacking.
Grant Williams at 6'6 is as versatile as it gets as a defender. He’s able to defend 1–5 and because he’s a smaller power forward, can get up and down akin to what a pace and space team needs. With Boston shuffling up their bench rotation from game to game, maybe he can become available for a decent price. Indiana would be giving up Justin Holiday, and while he is a good scoring option, with the return of Jeremy Lamb and Caris LeVert eventually, his skills feel a little obsolete.
Milwaukee Bucks — JJ Redick
The Milwaukee Bucks aren’t doing awful, but they aren’t looking too great either. At 19–13, it’s a clear step down from the team that at one point before the lockdown, could’ve maybe given the 73–9 Warriors record a run for their money. Though it’s their defense that has slipped up this year, it’s been cited that this is down to a change in philosophy and not personnel, which is backed up by the film. Because of this, it feels futile to make a trade to adjust their defense, as they are still learning it and could feasibly turn it around before the playoffs.
JJ Redick this season has been … awful. He is very clearly a one trick pony, shooting 41% from 3 for his career. But this season he’s shooting a league average 36% from distance. However, this can be down to playing around other players in New Orleans who can’t shoot, giving defenses the ability to help off and hassle him. In Milwaukee, that shouldn’t be an issue. As the fourth best 3 point shooting team in the NBA, Redick should benefit from the spacing and get better looks. And when you have a team with Giannis Antetokounmpo on it, you can never have enough shooting.
Brooklyn Nets — Bismack Biyombo
The Nets have been fantastic ever since acquiring James Harden. Going 14–6 ever since the trade and boasting the greatest offense of all time since then. The one kink in their armor is that even though they have the best offense, they also have the worst defense ever. And most of that has to do with their non-existent rim protection.
With almost no cap space, it’s going to be almost impossible to find impact players to play the center, but Biyombo might be able to fill that void. With the Hornets still in semi-rebuild mode, pawning off a pick and a couple young pieces should be enough to get this deal done, considering Biyombo should be nowhere near Charlotte’s long term plans, and was probably not gonna be back next season.
Philadelphia 76ers — Kyle Lowry
Despite sitting atop of the East, the Philadelphia 76ers are by no means a lock for the NBA Finals. Even with Joel Embiid playing like an MVP, Seth Curry having one of the most efficient seasons in NBA history, and Doc Rivers finding a way to play both Ben Simmons and Embiid, there are still lots of questions for Philly to figure out. The biggest one being their perimeter creation.
Kyle Lowry would solve those creation questions. Outside of maybe Shake Milton, there are 0 players on this 76ers roster who can reliably get shots and make plays out of the pick and roll. And with Kyle Lowry reportedly wanting to play in Philadelphia, and with Philly looking as close as ever to competing for a title, now might be the time to pull the trigger. However, amongst all the trades mentioned, this is hands down the most risky. Philly would be compromising a good chunk of their rotation, as well as part of their future in Tyrese Maxey and next years pick to get a 30 year old undersized guard who is a free agent next summer. But to counter that, if it brings them a title, there’s no question it’s worth it. At the end of the day, this move is a massive risk, but NBA title aren’t won on playing it safe.
*all stats were found on basketballreference.com unless stated otherwise
*game footage and photos used are not owned by me, they are property of the NBA is used for educational purposes
