5 NBA Players Most Likely to Hit the Trade Block Next

The NBA trade market has made its annual trek into hibernation mode.

It won’t stay dormant forever, though.

Once the checkered flags wave on each team’s 2023-24 season, the market will reopen and could be flush with activity this summer. Between the limited movement at this past trade deadline and this free-agent crop looking light on difference-makers, this offseason offers the opportunity for organizations to radically reshape themselves.

While no one can say for certain who will be on the move, a bit of tea-leaf reading leads us to believe the following five players could be in line for scenery changes.

At the past two trade deadlines, the Utah Jazz have adhered to one guiding principle: being kinda good isn’t nearly good enough. Despite hovering near the play-in race each season, Utah abandoned ship both times, shipping out a total of seven rotation regulars for future-focused packages built around draft picks and financial relief.

“I’m not going to compromise long-term joy and success because you want to avoid short-term pain and short-term disappointment,” Jazz general manager Justin Zanik told reporters.

Utah is playing the long game, which effectively attaches a ticking clock to 31-year-old scoring guard Jordan Clarkson. The Jazz have him under contract for two more seasons, but if the aim is to eventually reach championship contention, it’s virtually impossible to picture that happening before his deal expires.

The smart move would be another of those likeminded swaps involving a small step back now for a potentially a big step forward down the line. The Jazz aren’t winning big with Clarkson, but they might eventually get there by flipping him for roster-building assets while also freeing up more minutes and touches for young perimeter players like Keyonte George, Collin Sexton and Brice Sensabaugh.

Clarkson won’t command a king’s ransom, but win-now teams looking to beef up their backcourt production and bench should covet his scoring punch and secondary playmaking. If Utah moved him this summer, those buyers would get two full seasons with Clarkson, which should motivate them to give up more for him than they would at next season’s trade deadline or during the 2025 offseason.

The Brooklyn Nets are in a brutal spot. They aren’t nearly good enough to win—they’re on the outside looking in at the play-in tournament—but they’re also unable to really bottom out since they owe two of their next three first-round picks to the Houston Rockets.

As tempting as it is to put Mikal Bridges in this spot, there aren’t any arrows pointing that direction. Brooklyn is seemingly trying to talk itself into the chance of leveling up before the 27-year-old swingman exits his prime.

The same can’t be said for Dorian Finney-Smith, a role-playing wing who’s approaching his 31st birthday and could enter free agency in 2025 by declining a $15.4 million player option for the following season. The Nets are deep enough on the wings to get by without him, so they could use the assets he’d bring back more than DFS himself.

Since virtually every win-now team could use more two-way wings, Finney-Smith should fetch a healthy return. His numbers have sagged a bit in recent seasons, but so has the strength of the roster around him. He is a support player who hasn’t had much to support.

The last time he did, he was supplying dominant, versatile defense and lights-out long-range shooting (career-highs of 172 triples and a 39.5 three-point percentage) on the 2021-22 Dallas Mavericks team that won 52 games and reached the Western Conference Finals.

Finney-Smith is a winning player, so long as he is in a winning environment. The Nets reportedly declined an offer of two first-round picks for Finney-Smith at this past trade deadline, per Brian Lewis of the New York Post, and his value could be just as strong this summer.

For Zach LaVine, it’s less about hitting the trade block than it is returning to a familiar spot.

The high-priced scorer spent the bulk of his season there only for Chicago to fail to find a workable trade offer. However, the Bulls “will look to trade” him once again this offseason, per NBC Sports Chicago’s K.C. Johnson.

LaVine’s trade value remains among the trickiest to calculate. He routinely posts big numbers—he was one of only five players to average 24 points, four assists and 2.5 three-pointers each season from 2019-20 to 2022-23—and has made a pair of All-Star teams, but he’s also struggled mightily with injuries, doesn’t have a history of winning and is still owed nearly $138 million over the next three seasons.

What is all of the above worth in totality? Great question. While it’s safe to assume Chicago won’t see the kind of return typically associated with a multi-time All-Star who’s still in his prime, there are enough teams in need of an offensive jolt that the Bulls might not have to incentivize someone (i.e., include additional assets) to take LaVine off their hands.

It’s all a guessing game without having transcripts from any trade calls that have transpired to date. But if LaVine’s value was straightforward, he’d probably be on a different roster by now.

This is sure to draw the biggest of eye rolls from Northeast Ohioans, which is fine. The Cleveland Cavaliers have established themselves as one of the best teams in the Eastern Conference, which is the best argument for convincing Donovan Mitchell to stick around.

However, it still might not be enough. That’s particularly so if Cleveland—which has a losing record (7-8) and a bottom-half net rating (minus-1.5, 18th) since the All-Star break—falls apart in the playoffs again.

At that point, the Cavs would have two early postseason exits to show for Mitchell’s first two seasons there. Would he really be onboard with the idea of a third? Because with free agency likely awaiting him next summer—he has a $37.1 million player option for 2025-26 that he’s all but certain to decline—he could effectively force the Cavs’ hand if he wants out.

Cleveland has long known that its September 2022 acquisition of Mitchell, a New York native who’s been frequently linked to his hometown teams, could wind up as a temporary partnership. The Athletic’s Joe Vardon reported in February that “the pressure to make the case to Mitchell to stay long term had been affecting every corner of the organization.”

If the Cavs have any hope of keeping Mitchell, they’ll likely have to convince him that they’re capable of making a championship run. A few strong—though not spectacular—regular seasons isn’t cutting it. Cleveland must deliver this postseason to make that happen.

Given the unanswered questions regarding the viability of the Jarrett Allen-Evan Mobley frontcourt, a backward step (in volume and efficiency) by Darius Garland, the still-choppy play of the wings and the Cavs’ recent swoon, a deep playoff run may not be in the cards.

If it isn’t, expect the volume of Mitchell trade chatter to exponentially increase this summer.

The Atlanta Hawks made it to the 2021 Eastern Conference Finals, but they haven’t remotely resembled even long-shot championship contenders ever since. They were play-in participants (and first-round losers) each of the past two seasons and are almost surely headed back to the play-in, probably as the No. 10 seed.

This is not at all how things were supposed to go when Atlanta placed a massive wager—in the form of three first-round picks and a first-round swap—on Dejounte Murray being the missing piece. However, that June 2022 blockbuster continues to appear like a massive misfire due in large part to Murray’s poor fit with Trae Young.

Those two are theoretically supposed to be pushing the Hawks into championship contention. Instead, they’re getting skewered every time they share the floor. Atlanta’s worst backcourt combination this season is that very pairing:

It appeared for a time that this twosome’s troubles would force Murray out, but maybe Young—one of this league’s most extreme one-way players—gets squeezed instead. One Western Conference executive told The Ringer’s Howard Beck the Hawks “would love to trade Trae,” while NBA insider Marc Stein relayed that “Trae Trade Talk has a more tangible feel than ever before.”

That one conference finals trip, which Atlanta traversed as a No. 5 feed, comprises the totality of its playoff success since acquiring Young during the 2018 draft. The Hawks could reach the conclusion sooner than later that it can’t win big—or competently defend—with Young on the roster. The second that happens, they could start fielding offers for the three-time All-Star, and those overtures could be strong.

For all of his shortcomings on defense, he’s a brilliant offensive talent who piles up points, assists and threes at a nearly unprecedented rate. Some team will convince itself it can field a more formidable roster around Young than the Hawks ever have, and as long as the incoming assets are where they need to be, Atlanta might grant them that chance.

Zach Buckley covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him on X, @ZachBuckleyNBA.