NBA Trade Deadline Looms: Who Could Be On The Move?
Plenty of Stars Are On The Block
The 2023-24 NBA regular season passing through January means that the February 8, 2024, NBA trade deadline looms only a few weeks away. With the season pretty much at its halfway mark, by now, the league has pretty much assorted itself into elite teams, legitimate playoff contenders, fringe play-in squads, and bottom-dwellers. For the most part, teams know what they are at this point of the season.
Now, it’s time for teams to really crack down and determine whether they will be buyers or sellers at the deadline, what kind of player they want to target (or what type of player they can afford to part with), and what the potential opportunity cost of not making any moves is. Teams like the New York Knicks (OG Anunoby) and Indiana Pacers (Pascal Siakam) have already jumped the market by nabbing productive players from the Toronto Raptors to help them in NBA games today.
Who else could be on the move? Let’s take a look at some oft-rumored trade pieces with an eye toward where they could wind up tomorrow or in a few weeks from now:
Dejounte Murray
Now that Anunoby and Siakam have already been dealt, Dejounte Murray might be the best likely trade option on the board. His Hawks are floundering in the NBA standings at 17-23 and look like a team that desperately needs a shakeup, as it’s pretty clear that Atlanta’s big swing for Murray after the 2021-22 season was a smart risk. Still, it just hasn’t worked despite him continuing to put up solid scoring numbers.
The issue is that he hasn’t been able to be as much of an on-ball playmaker next to Trae Young — Murray averaged 9.2 assists per game during his final year in San Antonio and is only averaging 4.8 dimes per contest now. Also, while he’s a great individual defender, that hasn’t translated to improved team defense for Atlanta that is giving up 123 points per game (second-most in the NBA).
The Los Angeles Lakers (-175 to be Murray’s next team) have been linked to him for awhile now and it makes a lot of sense from an on-court perspective. He’ll begin the first year of a four-year, $120 million extension next season, and Atlanta would have to get a sizable haul to part with a guy they recently traded multiple first-round picks for. The Warriors (+500) and Nets (+900) could be good landing spots for Murray as part of a multi-team trade for a 27-year-old lead guard in his prime.
Andrew Wiggins
Now for another change-of-scenery candidate who seems likely to be moved as the NBA trade deadline looms. Just two seasons removed from his only All-Star appearance, Andrew Wiggins’ production has cratered this season, and Golden State seems ready to move on from him in the first year of a four-year, $109 extension.
He’s averaging just 11.9 points per game on ugly .422/.296/.685 shooting splits and doesn’t bring much to the table outside of scoring. Golden State is desperate to reshape its roster to get the most out of its aging core, led by the ever-dominant Stephen Curry. They can attach picks and some out-of-favor young pieces, like Jonathan Kuminga and Moses Moody, to entice another team to take on Wiggins’ contract.
The Hawks and Bulls (+200) are the co-favorites to bring in Wiggins. Chicago could work via a Zach LaVine trade for salary-matching purposes, but that would require the Bulls assuming a lot of future financial obligations for a struggling player. Wiggins’ hometown Raptors (+250), the Pelicans (+500), and the Mavericks (+600) are other possibilities.
Bojan Bogdanovic
The veteran Bogdanovic is having a great season on a terrible Pistons team that has pretty much been eliminated from NBA playoff contention since the middle of November. Every contender with tradable assets should strongly consider going after Bogdanovic, who scores 20 points a night and shoots over 40 percent from three.
He won’t add much defensively, but as a pure scorer who can stretch the floor as well as anyone on the trade market, the 34-year-old Croatian should garner a solid return with his reasonable contract that expires after next season. The shooting-needy Magic (+250) are the favorites and a perfect landing spot. If the Celtics (+300) and Nuggets (+450) want to add even more to their elite offenses, they have the assets to make the trade with Detroit, too.
Zach LaVine
LaVine has been in seemingly endless trade rumors over the past few season and, when the Bulls looked like they were bottoming out at the beginning of the season, a deal felt inevitable. However, Chicago has stabilized, and the LaVine market hasn’t taken shape as the NBA trade deadline looms. He has missed 18 of the Bulls’ 43 games with various foot, back, shoulder, and ankle injuries, and when he has played, his production and efficiency have been down.
Will NBA teams give up multiple high-level assets for an oft-injured and very expensive guard who might not even be a playoff team’s No. 2 option? That remains to be seen. Right now, the Lakers (+110) are the favorites since they have been heavily linked to LaVine. Otherwise, none of the potential options — Heat (+300) and the Kings (+400) are contenders looking for another piece — are likely to be particularly inspired.
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