NBA Trade Rumors: Exploring four of the bigger questions heading into this year's trade deadline.
Every year at the time of the NBA Trade Deadline, teams have an excellent understanding of where they stand in their respective conference and the entire league. With plenty of speculation over the past few weeks, we still have until February 8th when teams are set for the rest of the season.
Let's explore four of the biggest questions heading into this week's deadline.
Will the Los Angeles Lakers make a big move?
At last year’s NBA Trade Deadline, the Los Angeles Lakers made drastic changes to their roster removing Russell Westbrook and adding a package of role players that fit perfectly next to LeBron James and Anthony Davis.
They were able to make it to the Western Conference Finals last year and retain much of that core for this season. However, even with their star duo being healthy for much of the season, the team is still struggling and is currently outside of the top 8 in the West.
Dejounte Murray is somebody on their radar with ties to the team as he is a part of Klutch Sports Group. Would they go that route or will they try to acquire a couple of role players to fill defensive and shooting holes in their rotation? Heading into the deadline, there are many eyes that will be locked on what the Lakers end up doing.
Will the Chicago Bulls go in full rebuild mode?
In 2021, the Chicago Bulls put all their eggs in one basket with a team that has seemingly reached its ceiling as a unit. This core of DeMar DeRozan, Zach LaVine, Nikola Vucevic, Alex Caruso, and Lonzo Ball has only had the playoffs once and has battled injuries throughout the run. They've been completely healthy for basically half a season. To say the least, it hasn't been an ideal run for this core in Chicago.
They already lost Ball before the season even started due to injury and just recently lost LaVine with a season-ending foot surgery. The team currently stands as a 9th seed in the Eastern Conference standings with a chance to make the playoffs but even if they make it are most likely and first-round exit.
Would it be worth it to trade their star players while they hold value or ride out the season and reevaluate in the summer? At one point, the expectation was that the Bulls would be one of the more active teams at the deadline. Now, that is far from a guarantee.
What role player can elevate a playoff contender?
With not many stars currently on the trade market, teams are mainly looking into smaller moves that can make a massive impact on their season. An example last year was Josh Hart being traded to the New York Knicks and how perfect that fit was for them. At the time, it was viewed as an afterthought of a move. However, Hart played a key role in helping the Knicks pull off a first-round upset against the Cleveland Cavaliers and taking the eventual Eastern Conference champion Miami Heat to six games in the semifinals.
Players to look at that can make a massive impact are guys such as Andrew Wiggins, Bruce Brown, and Jerami Grant. They can all play good defense and do not need the ball all the time to be effective, which will allow the stars to play their best.
What teams will trading for guys such as these and what trade will we look back on as a home-run deal for a playoff contender? It's certainly something to keep an eye on, especially if there isn't much movement when it comes to the bigger names.
What teams won't make moves?
At last year’s deadline, of all the 30 teams in the NBA, only two did not make a trade at the deadline: the Chicago Bulls and the Miami Heat. Both teams had drastically different outcomes to their season as the Bulls got eliminated in the Play-In Tournament while the Heat made it to the NBA Finals.
Making a trade at the deadline is not indicative of how your team will perform the rest of the way but it can be a good indicator of how management feels bout how the team stands. Both the Bulls and Heat front office felt confident in the teams they had last year. It'll be interesting to see how this year's activity ends up playing out.
Heading into this year's trade deadline, will any teams stand pat at the deadline and if so, how will the rest of their season pan out? The NBA Trade Deadline offers plenty of opportunity for teams. At the same time, not every team takes the bait.