The six most anticipated trades expected in the NBA for 2024/25

The 30 NBA franchises have their rotations ready for the new season. But that doesn’t mean they won’t keep working behind the scenes, keeping an eye on everything that happens and being ready to pick up the phone. It will remain that way until Thursday 6 February 2025, when the winter transfer market closes and the option of adding reinforcements that can contribute in the next playoffs, in spring, is put on hold. Until then, there will be conversations, rumors... and movements.

Teams that have a realistic chance of becoming champions and want to add the definitive piece to their roster, or pull off a last minute master stroke; Others that are left without them and are desperately trying to change everything. And that’s just in terms of buyers, because there are also those who, as always, will try to sell: franchises in reconstruction that will try to get rid of big contracts or acquire toxic ones in exchange for assets (draft rounds, young players...), situations of little chemistry or bad fit that will want to be resolved...

Things always happen, of course in the fine line but sometimes also in the big headlines. And these, if you take off your fortune teller costume, could be some of the most important names that, given how things are at least now, could change teams this season.

So let’s take a look at some of the big names who could be on the move.

Jimmy Butler

A remote option now... but possible, perhaps the most realistic (within the difficulty) among the NBA stars. Here’s the situation: Butler is already 35 years old, and has been with the Heat since 2019, an idyll that experienced its worst moment last season, when the team went from finalist in 2023 to being eliminated in the first round of the playoffs. Butler stayed in 60 games, and after the elimination it was leaked that he wanted a maximum extension of two years and 112 million. But Pat Riley came out to rescue him, saying that there would be no new contract for now and that what Butler had to do was play more, lead a project that is beginning to run out of steam.

Now everything points to the fact that the forward will exhaust himself this season (he will earn $48.7 million) and will give up a juicy player option ($52.4 million) in 2025 to look for a new contract that could be four years and up to $208 million. He has assured that he is ready to return to being the Butler of always, but we will have to see if that is the case... and how things go with the Heat who cannot afford another equally mediocre season. If things go badly, there may be a scare before the market closes. Teams like the Warriors have already hinted that they would be delighted if they could get one of the best competitors in the NBA in recent years.

Brandon Ingram

Bad times for a player who was an all star and the NBA’s Most Improved Player in 2020. Not so much in terms of numbers, at least in the regular season: an average of over 20 points, 5 rebounds and 5 assists per night last season. But yes because of the big playoff setback (without Zion Williamson by his side): 14 points on average with 34% shooting in the Pelicans’ resounding defeat against the Thunder in the first round.

Ingram, who also had a very bad time at the 2023 World Cup with Team USA, has injury problems and questions about whether he can be one of the two best players on a championship team. Because he sees himself as such: his contract ends this season and he is looking for a four-year extension for around 208 million that no one wants to give him, neither the Pelicans (he has not extended it) nor the rest of the teams (there have been no transfers although he is on the market). If he starts the season at a good level, everything could change with his (appealing or dangerous, depending on how you look at it) last year of his contract.

Zach Lavine

After nearly two years on the market without any dissimulation, LaVine remains linked to the Bulls. Injuries haven’t helped: he played just 25 games last year and has only reached a minimum of 65 in four of his ten seasons in the NBA. He is still a great offensive player (almost 20 points per night when he was able to play last year), but he still has to earn $138 million in four years, an outrage given his level, and he is surrounded by unknowns about his physical condition and doubts about his ability to defend and play winning basketball at the head of a team with high aspirations.

The Bulls, now in reconstruction, would welcome an exit. And if he can stay healthy and play at his best, LaVine has the talent to be a real option for an important transfer, especially if there are no other scoring stars on the market.

D’Angelo Russell

The point guard exercised his $18.5 million player option for this season, so he will be a free agent next summer. He has thus postponed the resolution of his strange situation in what is his second stint in LA: always in exit rumors but also a starting point guard and a player who transforms the team when he is at his best. That was the case in January, for example, when he averaged more than 22 points and 6 assists. In the playoffs, however, he was again (although less than in 2023) far from what was needed of him in the clash with the Denver Nuggets.

In the final year of his contract, his salary makes him a perfect piece to be moved if the Lakers see the option of doing something really important on the market.

Jerami Grant

Always on the way out, never leaving Portland: Grant is 30 years old and doesn’t fit into the Blazers’ rebuilding arc. He’s still a top-level forward (21 points per night last season with 40% on three-pointers), but he still has to make $132.4 million over four years and hasn’t played more than 63 games in four seasons.

His prime as a market pearl has already passed, but he has the capacity to be an important secondary player on a team with high aspirations. And if anyone needs a player of his profile before the end of February...

The Nets and the Wizards

The sixth is not an actual player but rather two teams in the middle of a deep reconstruction that have veteran players and, a priori, attractive candidates for the ring, the most propitious situation for there to be many rumors about all of them... and, in the end, news about some.

At the Wizards, the clearest cases are Kyle Kuzma, who was about to go to the Dallas Mavericks last February, and Jonas Valanciunas, who has signed a new contract and cannot be transferred until December 15. His salary ($9 million, $20 million for the next two) and his proven ability in the zones make him a clear target for teams with needs at the pivot position, like the Lakers.

The Brooklyn Nets are also in for a complete makeover, and that could lead to the bargain-price sale of forwards who in theory could interest almost any top-level team: the already very veteran Bojan Bogdanovic, Dorian Finney-Smith and, surely the one with the highest ceiling of all, a Cam Johnson who played in the 2021 Finals with the Suns but has yet to explode.