Building 5 Trades from NBA Offseason Rumors

With 14 NBA teams having already officially entered the 2024 offseason, and several others getting there soon, the trade market is slowly but surely picking up steam.

If recent rumblings are any indication, it could be an awfully busy—and seriously splash-y—summer in the Association.

That's more than enough motivation for us to move around some chess pieces and start brokering summer blockbusters based on these latest rumors, which we'll detail before laying out each hypothetical deal.

The Rumor

If the Golden State Warriors are going to squeeze anything of significance from the remainder of Stephen Curry's tenure, they have to upgrade their roster around him. Since they don't have money to spend in free agency—and won't even if they let Klay Thompson and Chris Paul walk—they'll have to hit the trade market to make that happen.

Folks around the league think that's what they'll do. They see Andrew Wiggins being "included in trade talks this summer," per The Ringer's Logan Murdock.

The Trade

As poor as things went for Wiggins this season, the Warriors will do their best to remind other teams he was an All-Star and their best defender during their 2022 title run. That was a while ago, but he is only 29 years old, so his sagging stats shouldn't necessarily be a sign of any age-related decline.

Maybe a change of scenery would help get him back on track. He doesn't have much (if any) trade value on his own, but package him with promising prospect Trayce Jackson-Davis and a few future first-round picks, and Golden State might be onto something. Maybe that's even the package that gets the Cleveland Cavaliers to cough up Jarrett Allen, who's never been an easy fit with Evan Mobley.

Get Allen to Golden State, though, and he could be the anchor who gets the defense back on track and the automatic lob finisher who ups the potency of this attack. To flesh out the deal, the Warriors could also add Georges Niang, whose three-point shooting and quick processing skills should make him a snug schematic fit.

Perhaps that's all wishful thinking for the Warriors, but there has to be a scenario in which Mitchell expresses a desire to stick around if the Cavs can fix their frontcourt spacing issues and improve on the wing. The subtraction of Allen, a bounce-back from Wiggins and a few first-rounders to go searching for more might do that.

The Rumor

The Atlanta Hawks seem destined to break up the Trae Young-Dejounte Murray backcourt this summer, but it's unclear which guard they'll part ways with. Teams are reportedly hoping it's Murray, who doesn't have as much star power as Young but apparently holds more interest.

"From people I've talked to around the league these calls often go something like this, 'Trae Young, yeah, what would that [trade] look like?'" NBC Sports' Kurt Helin told Sportsnaut. "'By the way, is Dejounte available?' People in the league just like Dejounte's game better."

The Trade

The Orlando Magic have found a win-pretty-soon pairing in Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner. However, their ceiling will be capped until they find a way to add more oomph to their 22nd-ranked offense.

Murray could provide that lift. He's been second-in-command to Young in Atlanta over the past two seasons, but Murray has averaged 21.5 points, 6.3 assists and 5.3 rebounds per game. For reference, Banchero paced the Magic with 22.6 points, 6.9 rebounds and 5.4 assists. In other words, Murray could walk into a 1A-1B partnership with Banchero, allowing Wagner to fall into the tertiary role he's perhaps better equipped to handle.

The Hawks, meanwhile, might accept a package featuring a pair of first-round picks, Jalen Suggs and Cole Anthony. That package is a bit backcourt-heavy for a Young-led team, but Suggs could be the backcourt stopper whom Young desperately needs alongside him, and Anthony could keep the offense humming when Young needs a breather. Atlanta's offense was 3.4 points worse per 100 possessions without him, and that was actually on the low end of his annual on-off splits.

The Rumor

While the Miami Heat are always a candidate to go whale hunting, they may be extra motivated to reel in that big fish this summer. With Bam Adebayo firmly in his prime and Jimmy Butler on the back end of his, this feels like the right time for Miami to strike, and the organization is reportedly hoping to do just that.

"Players want to be a part of that organization," ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski said. "So I think Miami will be in a position again to use the assets they have to go out and get another All-Star-level player that maybe connects more on the timeline of Bam Adebayo and his age."

The Trade

When scanning the list of potential South Beach targets, New Orleans Pelicans swingman Brandon Ingram comes to mind.

He's the same age as Adebayo (26), and he's a skilled enough scorer and secondary playmaker to get Miami's offense, which ranked 21st in efficiency, out of the mud. He could conceivably become available if an early playoff exit propels the Pelicans to rethink the Ingram-Zion Williamson tandem.

The fact Ingram isn't a top-tier star also likely helps the Heat, who aren't overloaded with trade assets. They should have enough for him, though, especially if there are fans of Tyler Herro in the Pelicans front office. A package of Herro, a young player (Nikola Jović or Jaime Jaquez Jr.) and an unprotected future first-round pick should at least merit a call back.

The Rumor

The talk for much of 2023-24 trade season revolved around whether the Atlanta Hawks would deal Dejounte Murray. The fact that they didn't move him at the trade deadline was perhaps revealing.

While Atlanta could still go in that direction this offseason, there is "a growing belief in many corners of the league" that the Hawks would prefer to trade Trae Young instead of Murray, per NBA insider Marc Stein.

The Trade

The New Orleans Pelicans had three 20-plus point scorers in Zion Williamson, Brandon Ingram and CJ McCollum, yet they finished only 11th in offensive efficiency. A lack of three-point volume was an issue, but so was the lack of a go-to shot-creator. Williamson, Ingram and McCollum are all capable of generating clean looks for others, but it isn't a go-to strength for any of them.

Could that propel the Hawks to probe the Young sweepstakes? His numbers—specifically his 3.2 three-pointers (on 37.3 percent shooting) and 10.8 assists per game this season—would certainly give them reasons to look.

If dropped into McCollum's place, Young would give New Orleans more off-the-dribble pep and a huge step forward in passing. Defense could be an issue for that trio, but it already is for the Williamson-Ingram-McCollum troika, so maybe that wouldn't be a deal-breaker.

This trade would come down to cost, and it's hard to say what would constitute fair value since Young is simultaneously a huge offensive asset and a glaring liability on defense. McCollum would obviously have to be involved, but would him, Dyson Daniels and a first-round pick be enough for both sides?

That feels fair, as it would give Atlanta pieces for both the present and future.

The Rumor

Donovan Mitchell has the option of entering free agency next summer, and that possibility might already be keeping Cleveland Cavaliers fans (and front office members) up at night. B/R's Eric Pincus previously relayed that Mitchell is "all but certain to decline his $37.1 million player option for the 2025-26 season," and "barring a run to the NBA Finals," he is expected to "decline an extension and look elsewhere."

The latest whispers added more fuel to the Mitchell-is-a-major-flight-risk fire.

"That (Mitchell situation) is very real," an anonymous NBA executive told The Athletic's Josh Robbins and Sam Amick. "Teams will definitely clear out a bunch of (assets) for him. We'll see. But if they face Boston in the second round, they'll probably lose. And yeah, that doesn't bode well (for his future in Cleveland)."

The Trade

If the Cavs move on from Mitchell, they'll need to find a trade partner capable of refilling their asset collection. Why not the Memphis Grizzlies? They still have several unpaid draft credits, plus they could dangle a possible plug-and-play replacement for Mitchell in Desmond Bane, who's young enough (25) to grow with this core and established enough (23.7 points and 5.5 assists this season) to help lead it.

Memphis and Cleveland could quibble on the pick total—three future firsts feels about right, maybe a fourth if the Grizzlies get a long-term commitment from Mitchell—but if that gets ironed out, there would be win-win potential.

A healthy Ja Morant might be the best sidekick whom Mitchell has had to date. Those two prolific, turbo-charged guards could put immense pressure on opposing defenses. While neither is exactly a shutdown stopper, they'd have sufficient protection around them in two recent Defensive Player of the Year winners, Jaren Jackson Jr. and Marcus Smart.

Meanwhile, Cleveland could remain plenty competitive with Bane in Mitchell's place. Bane, who's less ball-dominant and better as both a three-point shooter and defender than Mitchell, could prove to be a better backcourt fit with Darius Garland. The Cavaliers would also land multiple picks to either keep and develop or flip in separate deals to cover up weak spots elsewhere.

Unless otherwise noted, statistics courtesy of Basketball Reference and NBA.com.

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