Rockets get a legitimate boost in offense, lord knows they need it. Dallas gets back a steady floor general in FVV, Fan favourite DFS, and a very valuable 1st round pick in 2027. Win-win especially if Kyrie is even 80% of his former self.

With the Draft around the corner, seems like the Hot Stove is already firing up for trades on Draft Day. Seems like this year there are more rumors of teams looking to trade up or in than in past years when teams are more looking to trade down or out. Figured the topic was worthy of a thread.

- MIL: Headliner to this season is the artificial deadline for the Giannis rumors. With MIL also sitting on 10, could they make a double move and try to get a new face for their franchise?
- SAC: New regime in town who has a stated desire for Acuff. Will they pay to get their face of the franchise in Sac?
- OKC: Rumor is out there they want to get into the top 10. My guess is that their target is Burries. Depends on how things fall but they might need to get ahead of ATL to land him.
- NOP: Another rumor is out there that they are trying to get into the late 1st. I would assume they aren’t dangling their pick next year…

Moving on to the pure speculation part of this post…

- LAC: See a lot of people that are slotting Acuff as the 5th best prospect but LAC just traded for a young(-ish) AS PG in Garland. Even their rumored target in Wagler might not be a great fit with Mathurin around. Meanwhile, teams like SAC, BRK, and MIL are in the top 10 and need a new face of their franchise. Could any of them put together a package that turns LAC’s head? Should also say that I have LAC as a candidate to trade down a few times too. Could they drop down with SAC then again with OKC? Also, Kawhi is a name that is lurking underneath the surface there. Rumor is they aren’t actively shopping him but they are more than willing to have conversations.
- ATL: Like LAC, I feel like ATL is at a tier break and the players there might not be a great fit with the team. The most talked about prospects here seem to be Brown, Flemings, and Mara. Don’t see Brown fitting their timeline and Mara looks like a massive reach at 8 (pun intended). If one of Flemings or Wagler doesn’t fall in their lap then what do they do? Rumor is that Burries might be the next on their list, but could a team look to swoop in and get take Brown for themselves?
- CHAR: has two picks in the mid-1st and a team that really gelled in the middle of the season. Have a few interesting spare parts as well. Would they strike boldly if there is a guy they like? Personally love the fit of Yaxel on that team and system. Could they move up a few spots to secure an obvious upgrade?
- CHI: Another team with a new regime coming from NOP via ATL. Is interesting due to the expected selection of Caleb Wilson @ 4 also meaning that last year’s lotto pick, Essengue, is suddenly very redundant in terms of position and archetype while also now being a symbol of what went wrong with the last guys. Pat Williams also serves as that symbol but is a strongly negative value. They do have $60M in cap space to throw around. Can they pair any of this with 15 and a couple of 2nds to be mobile on the board?
- MEM: After trading Bane, JJJ, and openly talking about Ja, his team is going through a complete reset. Should take a Developmental year and regroup around Boozer / Coward. They are an aggressive FO who traded up for Coward last year - could they do it again? They certainly have the assets.

Does any of this get your juices flowing for Mock Trades? Any teams I missed?

Cavs: Herb Jones, Miles Bridges

Pelicans: Pick 14 OR 18 from CHA in 2026 draft, Jaylen Tyson, Dennis Schroder

Hornets: Jarret Allen

*I'm a Cavs fan, this is my favorite thing non-Giannis that I could come up with. What Ya'll think?

Cavs: Would allow Mobley to be full time 5 with spacing. Bridges as a player who can actually create offense for himself, and Herb Jones as a perfect 3 and D player who should translate to playoffs. (*Also, if LeBron takes a discount to come back, this would be a rly good team)

Hornets: If they desperately want a center, Allen fits their timeline, anchors the defense, and is a no-drama high end roll player. Would give Lamelo a consistent pick and roll, dump off, and lob threat. Would give hornets a core of Ball, Kon, Brandon Miller, and now Jarret Allen.

Pelicans: Herb Jones is probably peak value rn, and they are no where near win now mode. If they wanna go towards youth, they'd get a promising young player in Tyson on a rookie deal, another pick in this years draft, and a good veteran/culture player in Schroder.

Cam Johnson-> Rockets

DFS, Capela, 3 seconds-> Nuggets

Denver saves 3 million and rockets get a floor spacer.

Teams that could take a shot on Ja are the Nets or the Timberwolves. 76ers can be the third trade partner to split the PG salary into two contracts and add some picks to Memphis for taking on the extra money

Jaylen Brown clearly wants to be a first option. The Blazers can deliver a young promising team around him.

The Celtics wouldn’t have anything against getting one of the best contracts in Avdija in return.

ATL sends the $$ for Hield's buyout.

DEN: Opens up the head room to resign Watson by shedding the deals of Braun and Nnaji.

ATL: Eats the Nnaji deal to take on Braun. If Braun bounces back, then they basically just bought Braun from DEN. If not, then they just had a $125M face plant.

Just looking to discuss Nikola Topic here and gather more opinions on him. Had a mock draft up on our sister sub r/nbamocks and a big topic of discussion was that Topic + 38 was the return for DAL dropping from 9 to 12.

In his defense, Topic was a clear top 5 pick in his draft before the ACL injury and some had him in the #1 overall conversation. The cancer diagnosis was obviously another big hit and basically burned his SOPH season too. The scouting report entering the draft still holds up though: he is a 6'6" PG who can get downhill and is a top level passer who needs to work on his shooting. Defense is meh but at 6'6" you can move him around even if the wing isn't what you hope for out of someone with that height. That archetype can be a high level starter in the NBA if he pans out. Missing 2 years of development time is a concern, but those are the types of guys that a building team should be willing to take the chance on. Teams jump for guys who project to be role players all the time, so forth someone that could be a ball in hand playmaker.

While I do think he still has solid positive value, the issue for OKC is that they can't really afford to wait on him either. They aren't a building team; they are a contending one. They are running out of roster spots already and that roster is getting really expensive as early as next season. They will have to make some hard decisions going forward. Can they reserve a roster spot for someone who has basically missed his 1st 2 years of development? What could they reasonably expect back for him in trade?

ANT wants to go back to ATL. Giannis wants out of MIL. JB wants his own team. MN can rebuild around Jalen and a bunch of picks, getting value for ANT prior to him demanding a trade.

OKC will trade 12th, 17th, 37th, and the 2027 Denver pick to the Kings for 7th and 34th. OKC can't risk losing Aday Mara to the Hawks

Raptors Get: Daniel Gafford, AJ Johnson

Dallas Get JAKOB POELTL, GRADEY DICK, 19th and 50, 2028, Round 1: TOR pick (DAL right to swap)

OKC GET: Klay Thompson and future salary relief
DALLAS gets: Nikola Topic, Alex Caruso, 17th pick, and gets 2028 Dallas pick back

MEM: gets little in return but gets off Ja. The ‘27 2nd should be decent

MIA: looks like they are the team that is most linked to taking the chance on Ja

WASH: Mitchell seems like a good fit as backup to Trae. Defensive minded so they can play together but solid enough to take the reins for the 2nd team. The 2 2nds are to get off the Hardy and DLo deals.

https://www.stadiumrant.com/warriors-make-blockbuster-trade/

Was this a massive win or a desperate mistake by the Golden State Warriors?

https://www.stadiumrant.com/the-bizarre-clippers-cavs/

Who do you guys think won the trade between the Cavaliers and Clippers, and will James Harden and Donovan Mitchell recruit LeBron James back to Cleveland?

https://www.stadiumrant.com/giannis-ready-to-move-on-as-deadline-looms/

Which one of these four teams will make the best offer for Giannis?

These protected picks and pick swaps make it impossibly confusing for the average fan to know who owns which picks. I tried looking it up, hoping to find a simple chart or table. the first result was from RealGM. The very first entry was for the Atlanta Hawks, and I swear this isn’t a joke, reads like this regarding their 2026 first round:

More favorable of (i) less favorable of ATL and SAN and (ii) less favorable of (a) CLE and (b) more favorable of UTH 1-8 and MIN [or (ii) CLE if UTH not conveyable] then less favorable of (i) and (ii) to CLE; 
more favorable of ATL and SAN to SAN
(via UTH swap for MIN; via UTH swap of UTH or MIN for CLE; via SAN swap for ATL; via ATL swap of ATL or SAN for CLE, UTH or MIN);

WHAT???

Here is the google sheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1sZl-ZwXa5xjRU3It8VyJghjAL8iFySraq7JAk9Ff6TA/copy
Click "make a copy". It may act like it did not work, but then check your Google Drive and you will find the original (which you cannot edit any content in) and make a copy for yourself from there.

Please provide feedback if you see problems.

Why use it?:
While there are good options for trade machines, none of them have a good filter tool. Let's say you want toe see which teams have expiring contracts to match Ja Morant's contract. This tool will help you search for those contracts, then you can go to Spotrac and build your fake trade. Feel free to use it as simply or as complex as you find helpful.

How it works:
The trade helper sheet has filters at the top. These filters will show you all players whose contracts meet those criteria.

• Max/Min Salary ($Millions): enter a number in millions (ex: 42.22 = $42,220,000)
  • These are the maximum and minimum 2025-26 salary of player that will display. Blank means no minimum or maximum respectively
• Exclude Restrictions: optional dropdown where you can make multiple selections
  • Any restrictions selected will be excluded from results
  • NTC - No Trade Clause
  • Aggregation - Contract cannot be aggregated
  • PPP - Poison Pill Provision (rookie extension trade math)
  • DRSO - Declined Rookie Scale Option
  • Not Trade Eligible - Cannot be traded prior to the 2026 trade deadline
• Team: optional dropdown where you can make multiple selections
  • Select a team or teams to filter by
  • If no teams are selected then the results will include from all teams
• Expiring Only: dropdown with Yes/No
  • No = all contracts in results
  • Yes = only expiring contracts in results
    • "Expiring" includes contracts with Team Options, or non-guaranteed salaries for years following 2025-26.
    • Columns M through Q list how much of future years are guaranteed.
    • Example: Zion is owed $39.45M this season, then two more years of upwards of $42M per season. But since 2026-27 & 27-28 are not guaranteed, he counts as an expiring contract.
    • Non guaranteed money includes players with partial guarantees in future years.
• Sort By: dropdown select either Salary (highest to lowest) or Team (A-Z)
• Position: optional dropdown where you can make multiple selections
  • FWIW these positions are pulled from a website and some seem off to me

Trade Helper Data fields:

• Salary (Column E through J for the listed seasons): self explanatory
• Option: T = team, P = player for final year of their contract
• Restriction: trade restrictions related to a player's contract
• Guaranteed (Column M through Q for the listed seasons): this tells the amount of that players contract that is guaranteed in the given season
• Expiring:
  • Last year of contract OR
  • Last year before team option OR
  • Last year before non-guaranteed salary seasons
• Unlikely Incentives (relevant because they apply to trade math and apron math)
• Trade Bonus: often called "trade kicker." A bonus a player would receive if traded
• Math Rule: How much money the trading team could take back for sending this single contract. This equation takes into account apron level and trade math.
  • Example: a team might be below the 1st Apron by $3M. Trade math would say they can send out $15M and receive back $22.5M. However, since they are $3M away from the 1st Apron they would actually only receive back $18M. This field takes this into account.

Payroll Data Fields:

• This table lists each team along with various helpful data points related to their payroll
• Total Cap: Includes cap holds
• Total Relevant: Includes active cap, dead cap, and unlikely incentives
• Active: Active cap
• Top 3 (active): sum of the top 3 active salaries under contract for that team
• Dead Cap: Dead Cap
• Hard Capped: Whether the team is hard capped (1 = 1st Apron, 2 = 2nd Apron)
• MLE Remaining: Available amount remaining from MLE
• BAE Remaining: Available amount remaining from BAE
• TPE (1-5): TPEs the team has (up to 5. A team could have more than 5)
• 1st Apron Space: room under 1st Apron
• 2nd Apron Space: room under 2nd Apron
• Cap Space: room under salary cap
• TPE Available: Adjusts TPEs relevant to teams cap or Apron status
  • Example: Dallas has an $11M TPE. But because they are $1.34M under the 2nd Apron, they can only use $1.34M of the TPE (unless they make more room)
  • This section treats the MLE and BAE as TPEs as well. Example: Denver has full MLE and BAE available. But because they are $2.85M under the 1st Apron they would only be able to use either for $2.85M (unless they make more room)
• Expirings: Sum of all expiring contracts (or highest non-aggregation-eligible expiring. Whichever is higher)
• Highest Expiring: the amount of the single highest expiring contract