10 NBA Stars Who Will Dominate Trade Rumors This Offseason

Ready or not, here comes a summer chock full of blockbuster NBA trades.

Every offseason injects a level of chaos into our lives. In this league, another star trade is always just around the corner. Whether they are driven by a request, outright demand or organizational teardown, marquee relocations are a summer staple around these parts.

Widespread inaction isn't about to start now. On the contrary, we should all be bracing for more seismic moves than usual.

Between a relatively quiet deadline this past February, a lackluster free-agency class, pivot-point contract situations, certain cores growing stale and further integration of more punitive luxury-tax penalties, the stage is set for a wild Woj-and-Shams-notifications-on-until-further-notice-and-beyond summer.

The fireworks, of course, begin with the rumor mill.

Chatter and conjecture go all the way up to 11 before moves ever get made. We are gathered here today in hopes of preempting this scuttlebutt—to speculate on forthcoming speculation, if you will.

Not everyone who populates this list will get dealt prior to next season. That's not the point of the exercise. This is instead a look at the biggest, most impactful names who will definitely define and dominate the summertime gossip grill, even if they end up staying put.

Jarrett Allen was never going to evade the rumor mill unless the Cleveland Cavaliers made an unexpectedly deep playoff push. They didn't, so he will be embroiled in it.

Blame the dual-big setup. Injuries limited his court time alongside Evan Mobley this year, and there have been flickers of synergy between them. But two seasons into the experiment, it's clear both he and Mobley are most optimized on offense within a spacier half-court ecosystem.

And if the Cavs feel like they must or should choose between the two, they're not picking Allen.

Other teams know this. General manager Koby Altman's phone, texts and inbox will be flooded accordingly with Allen inquiry after Allen inquiry.

Following their second-round exit, though, the Cavs suddenly seem like they could be initiating talks more often than we might have foreseen. Consider this tidbit from The Athletic's Shams Charania, Jason Lloyd and Joe Vardon:

"Allen played in 81 consecutive games counting the regular season and postseason. He was initially hit in the ribs in Game 1 against Orlando, and in Game 4 of that series, an elbow by Franz Wagner 'pierced' a rib on Allen's right side, according to multiple team sources. The team listed him as "questionable" to play in every game after that, which means there is a chance, though he was never close to getting back into uniform. Few if any, members of the organization doubted the discomfort Allen has been in since the injury, but the frustration among some members of the team was that he refused an injection to try and numb the pain and play."

Um, yeah. This isn't something you let loose, without a stone-cold rebuke, if you're married to—or even planning to keep—a player.

And even if internal frustration is being overblown in the throes of the moment, the whole "Evan Mobley is much better off on offense at the 5" reality isn't going anywhere. So, Allen might.

This is a classic case of outside forces creating a rumor mill on the fast track to nowhere.

General manager Sean Marks doesn't sound like someone who's prepared to shepherd the Brooklyn Nets through another rebuild. That implies Mikal Bridges is a non-starter in trade talks. So, too, does the team's apparent interest in entering the hypothetical Donovan Mitchell sweepstakes, as alluded to by ESPN's Brian Windhorst during a recent appearance Get Up.

All of this tracks from the Nets' perspective. Shipping out the closest player they have to a cornerstone is wildly unappealing when they don't control their own first-rounder again until 2028. They are more likely to buy or tread water than burn everything to the ground.

But that won't stop the bids from coming in droves.

Rival teams understand the unsettling complexity of Brooklyn's situation. The franchise occupies a weird space in which it's nowhere near good enough to believe it's a heartbeat away from contention yet incentivized to act in stark contrast to that actuality.

Immediately, this is an existence that lends itself to overly aggressive trade pursuits rather than selloffs. But it's also a state fragility—vulnerability on which organizations with assets will try to pounce.

Whether anyone's successful is immaterial for our purposes. We will hear tales of grand offers made for Bridges. Hell, we already have.

And unless the Nets go out and bag one of the big names on the trade market, those overtures aren't going to stop.

Darius Garland is something of an 11th-hour entrant into these proceedings.

Yes, you could always envision a path to him hitting the chopping block. The Cleveland Cavaliers' roster feels imbalanced in the backcourt, with two small guards on top of their frontline redundancies.

If Donovan Mitchell agrees to an extension, the idea that the front office might dangle Garland in search of a glitzier wing is hardly farfetched.

But that scenario leaves (country miles' worth of) room for debate. A recent report from The Athletic's Shams Charania, Jason Lloyd and Joe Vardon does not:

"Furthermore, rival executives believe the Cavs will have to seriously evaluate the fit of Mitchell and Garland and ultimately may have to choose one or the other. Should Mitchell decide to stay long term, sources briefed on the matter say Garland's representation, Klutch Sports CEO Rich Paul, would have a conversation with Cavs officials on potentially finding a new home for the one-time All-Star."

A plot twist.

Garland has four years left on his contract, so the Cavs aren't obligated to move him if he asks for (or demands) out. But he's coming off a down season in which he battled numerous injuries and his fit beside Mitchell deteriorated, and allocating two maxes to guards who can't defend up comes with inherent challenges.

Both Garland and Mitchell are quality enough off-ball shooters to make the dynamic work in time, but this presumes Cleveland has it. Mitchell and Mobley are about to get more expensive, and Jarrett Allen isn't too far behind. The honeymoon phase for this core is officially over, and that report from The Athletic suggests the organization is contemplating wholesale changes.

In the event Mitchell signs his extension, Garland's name will take off inside the rumor mill—perhaps more meteorically than Allen's own inevitable cameo inside the speculation factory.

Maybe Garland's down seasons functions as a scare tactic to prospective admirers. Generally speaking, though, teams won't shy away from ponying up for a 24-year-old with an All-Star nod under his belt, particularly one who can't reach free agency until 2028.

Executive vice president of basketball operations David Griffin sounds like someone who's ready to shake up the New Orleans Pelicans. The quest for upgrades—or even simply roster diversification—could refer to any number of scenarios.

But it probably just means shopping packages built around Brandon Ingram.

His situation checks all the necessary boxes. He is eligible for a four-year extension worth up to $208.5 million and could try holding out for all of it or most of it. Shelling out that much cash for a star-not-superstar whose fit with the team's best player (Zion Williamson) is workable but not ideal is bound to make the Pelicans' decision-makers queasy. Moving him prior to next season could be simpler and cheaper.

There is also an element of "If not Ingram, then who?"

Good luck sussing out Zion trades that don't nudge back New Orleans' competitive window a year or three. The Pelicans have other salary-matchers at their disposal (CJ McCollum, Larry Nance Jr.) but not many, and none of them have anywhere near the same standalone value as Ingram. Herb Jones and Trey Murphy (extension-eligible), meanwhile, may be more off limits than Zion at this point.

Mash it all together, and you have the ingredients for rumors, tough decisions and, possibly, awkwardness galore.

Zach LaVine is the most obvious trade candidate of anyone to appear on this list. He and the Chicago Bulls were seemingly collaborating on his exit this past November.

The Windy City's front office may pride itself on inexplicable inaction, but it sure feels like LaVine would already be elsewhere if right ankle and foot issues didn't plague him for most of the year before officially ending his season in early February—right before the trade deadline.

Then again, his departure may not be the mother of all givens. And not just because the Bulls are the Bulls are the Bulls are the Bulls.

LaVine's injury history is dotted with lower-body issues, and he's coming off a season to forget, if not lament, even when grading it on a curve against its premature end. Springy shotmakers who can drill ridiculously difficult off-the-bounce triples will always be in demand, but with three years and $138 million left on his deal and a 30th birthday on the horizon (March), his value is likely approaching its nadir.

There should still be a reasonable amount of outside interest, particularly among teams desperate for floor-spacing and/or hoping LaVine can settle into a third option's role. But that interest may be contingent upon Chicago selling low to medium.

Are the Bulls at that point? A more self-aware organization would be. Chicago's view of itself, as we know, is a wild card.

Perhaps the Bulls are coaxed into action by DeMar DeRozan leaving in free agency and taking any semblance of hope they can make a rollicking run at the eight-seed with him. Or maybe Chicago pays him and runs it back because sub-mediocrity is, apparently, one helluva drug.

Whatever direction the Bulls choose, this offseason will be inundated with LaVine rumblings. That much is beyond debate.

Chicago's appetite for moving him or ability to suss out an offer good enough to save itself from itself? Now that's a different story.

Dejounte Murray proved after the Atlanta Hawks vaulted up to the top spot in the 2024 NBA draft lottery that he unequivocally knows what's up:

Granted, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to reach this conclusion. And Murray's inclusion here has virtually nothing to do with Atlanta holding the No. 1 pick in June's prospect pageant.

The 27-year-old spent much of the run-up to February's trade deadline at the center of the rumor mill. Especially after the Toronto Raptors shipped out OG Anunoby and Pascal Siakam.

No deal materialized by the 3 p.m. EST buzzer, but his staying put wasn't proof of Atlanta's attachment. It was more like a sabbatical from the inevitable.

Moving forward with both Murray and Trae Young is a big fat no-no for the Hawks. The experiment is a flop after two seasons. Atlanta was outscored by more than six points per 100 possessions when they shared the floor and doesn't have the defensive infrastructure to try floating the duo for a third go-round.

That doesn't mean Murray's the one who has to go. But it does feel like that's how this will end.

Young is imperfect. He's also actualized an All-NBA ceiling Murray has never approached. Bake in his easier-to-match salary, team-friendly extension (four years, $114.1 million) and a skill set that's not quite as predicated on ball-dominance, and Murray's name is guaranteed to get spammed up and down the rumor mill. Again.

Donovan Mitchell never exactly left the rumor mill. His prospective departure from the Cleveland Cavaliers has floated around the ether ever since they swooped in and surrendered a king's ransom to get him from the Utah Jazz in 2022.

That speculation has verged on egregious for the past two seasons. The Cavs didn't pay through the nose to land him just so they could pull the ripcord less than two years into the process.

Now, however, the conjecture carries merit.

Mitchell is eligible to sign a four-year, $208.5 million extension this summer. Cleveland must (and will) offer it to him. If he turns it down, general manager Koby Altman and friends have no choice other than to gauge his market value when he's one summer away from free agency (2025-26 player option).

Fortunately for the Cavs, it sounds like Mitchell is ready and willing to put pen to paper. The Athletic's Shams Charania, Jason Lloyd and Joe Vardon reported as much in their gossip-gushing postmortem on the heels of Cleveland's semifinals loss to the Boston Celtics.

Still, neither the intentions of the Cavs nor Mitchell will stop the whispering campaigns. His name will be pinballed around the rumor mill until (or unless) he signs his extension. And even then, the "Will he simply agitate for out in a year or two?" talk figures to continue.

In case you need proof of concept: While making a recent appearance on ESPN's Get Up, Brian Windhorst reported that "there are a number of teams that have their [Mitchell trade] offers ready," a list of circling vultures that "absolutely" includes the Los Angeles Lakers and "certainly" features the Brooklyn Nets.

The New York Knicks' potential run to the Eastern Conference Finals in the face of myriad injuries can be viewed one of two ways: Either they're ready to contend as currently constructed given better health, or their search for a co-star to pair with Jalen Brunson is about to hit Defcon 1 urgency over the offseason.

Arguments can be made from a multitude of stances. Julius Randle will be at the center of them all.

Brunson's ascent into All-NBA territory and MVP contention opens doors previously thought to be closed off. Their second star no longer needs to be better than him. That offers them cover for running it back, because they already have a second star in Randle.

At the same time, Randle's stardom is not universally accepted. Players don't make two All-NBA teams by mistake, but his defensive limitations, less-ball-dominant-but-still-ball-dominant style and ghastly playoff track record invite the Knicks to explore alternatives—which is really just a nicer way of saying upgrades.

Will New York aggressively look to shuffle the deck, again, this summer? Debatable. But if they're not sold on the current nucleus as a genuine title threat, now's the time to wheel and deal.

OG Anunoby and Isaiah Hartenstein (Early Bird free agent) are about to command hefty raises. Brunson and Randle will be on below-market deals for just one more year. (Both have 2025-26 player options.) The Knicks are only getting more expensive. And their future-draft stash is only inching closer to becoming actual players with (at least) slightly less appeal once they lose their could-be-anyone shine.

Standing pat much longer isn't an option unless they believe they're a finished product at full strength. And if they decide they're not, Randle and Bojan Bogdanović are their best and most likely salary-matching tools in any blockbuster trade.

Four-time All-Stars in their primes about to begin a four-year mega extension on a viable title contender seldom find themselves among collateral-damage candidates amid cap-sheet balancing acts.

So, uh, I guess welcome to the Second Apron Era, everyone...

The Timberwolves will begin the summer inside $1 million of the Supertax. And that's without baking in potential new contracts for Kyle Anderson and Monte Morris. By the time Minnesota goes through the usual offseason motions, it will blow past the projected second apron ($190 million) and be on the hook for way more than $225 million in player salaries and tax payments.

That shouldn't matter too much technically. The Timberwolves are really good—very clearly the biggest threat to the reigning champion Denver Nuggets, both this past season and beyond. If controlling team governors aren't prepared to withstand even one year's worth of massive expenses to field a contender, then, well, they shouldn't be in the controlling-team-governor business.

Of course, Minnesota's situation is complicated by the battle for organizational power. Put another way: Who will actually be the controlling governor next season? Glen Taylor? Marc Lore and Alex Rodriguez? Josh Hartnett, Jessica Biel and Vince Vaughn?

Karl-Anthony Towns' future will be in limbo regardless of how the C-Suite jockeying plays out. His floor-spacing is functionally critical, but his day-to-day performance remains uneven, and more notably, his salary is about to go from $36 million to $49.4 million.

With Rudy Gobert and Naz Reid on the roster, Minnesota could view Towns as expendable, the vehicle through which it boosts and deepens the offense's wing shooting and ball-handling or both.

Maybe whoever's running the Timberwolves pleasantly surprises us. Unearthing shooters for the minimum or with smaller trades isn't impossible. Frankly, though, Towns' entry into the trade rumor mill is a scheduled appearance—one put on the books basically the moment he signed his four-year, $221.1 million extension.

Welcome to the other side of the "Atlanta Hawks must bust up the backcourt" coin.

Trae Young has mutated into a divisive figure around the league, both because of behind-the-scenes rumblings that pre-date the arrival of head coach Quin Snyder and because of the challenges he poses as a primary cornerstone. The latter almost always refers to his defense, but over the past couple of seasons, a spotlight has been cast onto his ball dominance.

This year saw Young spend more time away from the rock, and over 70 percent of his made buckets still went unassisted. Heliocentrism has its place and value in the NBA, but can the Hawks meaningfully contend with him monopolizing offensive control? And if not, can he make the level of adjustments required to blend his own stardom with complementary elements?

Atlanta's draft-pick situation could, in theory, end Young's rumor-mill stay before it starts. Jettisoning him when it doesn't control its own firsts in 2025, 2026 (swap) and 2027 is a hard-to-swallow proposition. Doing so would suggest the Hawks believe it's not merely time to move on, but that they're actively better off without him. Sans the ability to prioritize lottery odds, that's surely not the case. Right?

Well, sources told Yahoo Sports' Jake Fischer following the 2024 draft lottery that there's a "healthy expectation" Atlanta will "consider dealing" Young anyway. And if that's the case, it'll be fascinating to see what he could fetch.

Sure, the going rate for 25-year-old All-NBA players at least two seasons away from free agency skews astronomical. But would Young's functional baggage dissuade certain, if not a majority of, suitors from emptying their coffers? We may—will?—find out this summer.