We’ve had one big trade involving a former All-Star already this month, but beyond Trae Young, the deadline market has been relatively quiet. That should change in the coming weeks.
Every year, I’m asked to come up with a few realistic trades that I’d like to see happen at the deadline. In a market where a few stars could potentially be on the move, I decided to come up with three that I think could, in some way, impact the 2026 NBA Finals race, as well as one fun pure basketball trade that would be interesting between two teams that are on the outside of the playoff picture.
These aren’t necessarily deals that have been rumored or that I think have a chance to occur. Rather, they’re just deals that I think would be fun to see happen. (Shout out to Keith Smith and folks over at Spotrac for their trade machine, which always helps to confirm that deals are valid according to the collective bargaining agreement.)
Trade No. 1: Pistons get secondary ballhandler
• Detroit Pistons acquire: Coby White
• Chicago Bulls acquire: Detroit’s 2026 first-round pick, two future second-round picks
Why the Pistons make this move: Detroit still hasn’t figured out the best option for a secondary ballhandler next to Cade Cunningham. Jaden Ivey doesn’t look like he’s 100 percent following his broken leg last year. Even if the team is still invested in him long-term, he probably can’t be trusted at this stage in his recovery for a big playoff series. Additionally, the Caris LeVert signing hasn’t gone smoothly. He’s averaging just eight points per game in 20 minutes per night, with a true-shooting percentage that is 5 percent below league average. The offense tends to be worse when he’s on the court, both with and without Cunningham. And while two-way guard Daniss Jenkins has shown great flashes, the Pistons shouldn’t feel great about him as an option, either.
Detroit also has a $14.1 million trade exception from a sign-and-trade it executed last summer for Dennis Schröder, giving it some options to get a player who could help. The Pistons can feel at ease using the entirety of that exception, as they’re about $18 million away from the luxury-tax line. President of basketball operations Trajan Langdon also has his full complement of first-round picks available to trade for the first time since he’s been in charge, as well as a large cache of second-round picks.
That’s where White would come in. An unrestricted free agent at the end of the year, White could become a serious option for the Pistons both in the short- and long-term. Last year, the team acquired Schröder late in the year to be that secondary ballhandler, and he thrived. White would bring many of the same traits as an explosive scorer who can get paint touches and is also very comfortable firing from 3. He’d also bring an added shooting dimension for a Pistons team that is 27th in 3-point attempt rate this season and could use another floor-spacer next to their superstar guard.
One point that could be made against this acquisition would be that White has dealt with three separate calf injuries this season that have brought him in and out of the lineup. But if White can get right, he represents the best cost-efficient scoring guard option on the market for a team that holds the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference. And if he played well, White could give Detroit insurance if it’s not comfortable paying Ivey in restricted free agency.
Why the Bulls make this move: The feeling around the NBA is that trying to predict what the Bulls will do at the deadline is a fool’s errand. The organization has been unpredictable under president of basketball operations Artūras Karnišovas. However, it would make sense for Chicago to cash in on a few of its unrestricted free agents this summer to bring in draft capital. The team is 18-20 and isn’t going anywhere this year. A traditional selloff of assets would better position the organization long-term to build around Josh Giddey and Matas Buzelis.
In this deal, they’d get a pick that will likely be slated in the ballpark of No. 25 to 27, along with a couple of second-rounders. The Bulls would lose White’s Bird rights this summer by making this move, but as a team that is projected to have a large amount of cap space, it wouldn’t make much of a difference to either keep White’s $24.5 million cap hold on the books or simply sign him back via free agency.
Given that White is essentially a two- to four-month rental and his calf injuries, I’m not sure the Bulls should expect much better in return than a late first-round pick.
Trade No. 2: Knicks add big bench wing
• San Antonio Spurs receive: Guerschon Yabusele, Pacôme Dadiet, future second-round pick
• New York Knicks receive: Jeremy Sochan, draft rights to Adam Hanga
Why the Knicks make this move: New York could use one more bigger body at forward who can actually play minutes. Unfortunately, Yabusele has proven unable to do that this season. He has only played 316 minutes after being the team’s big offseason signing in its taxpayer midlevel exception slot, and he looks like a poor fit for what the Knicks need from their four when either Mitchell Robinson or Karl-Anthony Towns are off the court. Opposing teams have taken advantage of his lack of mobility, with the Robinson-Yabusele minutes particularly hemorrhaging points. The Knicks lose their minutes by 15 points per 100 when Yabusele is on the court with Robinson and by eight points per 100 when he’s out there with OG Anunoby, the team’s other option in the frontcourt.
Sochan fills gaps for New York. The things that the Knicks lack the most off the bench right now are size, athleticism and defensive play. Their best bench players are the two of Miles McBride, Josh Hart and Robinson who don’t start, Landry Shamet, Jordan Clarkson and Tyler Kolek. That isn’t much size beyond Robinson. Sochan is certainly limited offensively because he can’t shoot, but he’s a 6-foot-8 athlete with real length who has proved that he can take on tough defensive assignments. He would give the Knicks another option if the semi-injury-prone Anunoby missed time and would also give the Knicks another big body to throw at opposing players in the playoffs across the positional spectrum, hopefully alleviating wear-and-tear over the course of a two-month playoff endeavor. Sochan has experience defending bigger initiators like Cunningham as well as bigger scoring wings and is also a sharp cutter on offense who has a strong sense of how to play off bigs who can pass and space the court.
The Knicks don’t have a ton of options at the deadline because they lack tradable assets they can afford to deal. They can’t move any of their own draft picks because of the Stepien rule following the Mikal Bridges deal. They have a top-eight protected 2026 Washington Wizards first-rounder that becomes two second-rounders if the Wizards keep the pick this year. But while I’m sure that the Wizards are going to do everything they can to end up in that range to keep their pick, I would probably hold onto that asset in case other teams out-tank them. Perhaps the lottery gods will look kindly upon the Knicks and they’ll fall backward into a top-10 pick in a loaded 2026 draft. In other words, it’s going to be hard for New York to make a big swing. Sochan might be the best option.
Sochan could actually increase the Knicks’ optionality this summer. He’s a restricted free agent, and New York could end up over the second apron if it retained Robinson in free agency. If the Knicks went over the second apron, they wouldn’t have access to their taxpayer midlevel exception and could only give out minimum contracts. Sochan likely won’t end up on a minimum deal next summer, giving them a bit of a potential cap arbitrage opportunity by buying now for a player who could keep improving. On top of it, Knicks’ cap guru Brock Aller gets to add another set of draft rights to his collection. It’s not a home-run deal, but it plugs a hole for an NBA Finals contender.
Why the Spurs make this move: It feels like it’s going to be difficult for the Spurs to retain Sochan long-term, both because of their available roster spots on the wing and their cap situation. Stephon Castle, Devin Vassell and Keldon Johnson are certainly ahead of him on the depth chart, and Julian Champagnie has surpassed him on the wing with his shooting ability from the wing. The team also drafted Dylan Harper and Carter Bryant last season, players who might eat up time at the two through four spots. Particularly, Bryant seems like a replacement for Sochan’s defensive capabilities, with potential to shoot it. That’s six guys ahead of Sochan in the pecking order, with quite a few of those players either already making real money or slated to get expensive down the road.
In terms of price point, I’m cognizant that this isn’t a lot. But I’m not sure there will be a robust market for Sochan, either, unless San Antonio attaches a first-rounder to his contract to swing for a more established player. His offensive game just hasn’t grown enough over his three and a half years in the league for him to be considered anything beyond just taking a flier. Indeed, that’s what this price point is.
Yabusele plays with Victor Wembanyama on the French national team, and the Spurs were thought to be considering a deal for him last summer before he signed with the Knicks. And while Yabusele hasn’t played well this year, maybe a reunion with Wembanyama would change that. Taking a flyer on Dadiet would be the appeal of this deal, though, beyond the second-round pick. Dadiet was a major project entering the NBA as a French player plying his trade in Germany. He hasn’t even really put up G League numbers that are all that impressive. But maybe the Spurs’ player development system can unlock something with him in the next 10 months before the team would need to make a choice on his fourth-year option. He’s still only 20 and can score, even if he doesn’t have the shine of a past first-round pick.
Essentially, the Spurs would at least get something of value for a player in Sochan who no longer feels required.
Trade No. 3: Warriors go for one last ride
• Golden State Warriors receive Michael Porter Jr.
• Brooklyn Nets receive: DeMar DeRozan, Moses Moody, Buddy Hield, Devin Carter, Warriors’ 2026 first-round pick, 2028 first-round pick swap with Warriors
• Sacramento Kings receive: Jonathan Kuminga, Haywood Highsmith, Ziaire Williams
Why the Warriors make this move: This is their all-in move for one last ride with Stephen Curry, Draymond Green and Steve Kerr. Porter has been All-Star quality this season, a monster scoring threat averaging 25.9 points, 7.4 rebounds and 3.4 assists while shooting 49 percent from the field, 39.7 percent from 3 and 83.3 percent from the line entering Monday night. No one around the league really believes that Porter could be the primary scoring threat like he is for the Nets on a team with real playoff aspirations, but he has silenced a lot of questions regarding what his output would be away from the Denver Nuggets and Nikola Jokić. It’s hard to find a better fit for Golden State than Porter, too. We know that he can be an integral part of a title team, and his skill set is exactly what the team needs between Jimmy Butler and Green as a real shooter who can also occasionally create his own shot. He’s also played with a creative passer within a movement/cutting-based system before in Denver with Jokić, meaning there might be a bit less of an adjustment here for him.
As far as price point? It’s rightfully expensive. The Kings get involved as a third team and take back Kuminga, and the Nets land DeRozan, Moody, Hield, Carter, a 2026 Warriors first-round pick that will likely land in the 20-to-25 range and an unprotected 2028 Warriors pick swap. The pick swap could be the real value add there, as Curry, Green and Butler’s contracts all expire in 2027. Given that, I would think the Warriors would want to, on some level, mitigate potential value loss there by receiving the Nets’ pick that year in return. But Golden State has to give something serious if it expects the Nets to move Porter. That might be just enough of an enticement to do it along, with Moody and this year’s late first-rounder.
If the Warriors want to make this one last push, Porter is the perfect player to chase and makes the most sense of any player on the market from a scheme, talent and fit perspective.
Why the Nets make this move: I think the Nets should look at retaining Porter and extending him this offseason at the right price. But there are good reasons to move Porter at the deadline and cash in at the top of his value. Namely, Porter’s injury history is quite real; he was medically flagged at the NBA Draft Combine back in 2018, which led to his fall toward the end of the lottery. If Brooklyn wants to mitigate the risk on Porter, this would be the time to cash in.
Indeed, the 2026 first-rounder and 2028 pick swap with the Warriors would be pretty interesting assets to get back, given Golden State’s timeline. Even if Curry, Green, Butler and Porter all re-sign for another year in 2028, you would think there would be seriously diminishing returns two years from now when all their core guys outside of Porter would be in their late-30s. The next-most valuable asset here is Moody, who has turned into a solid 3-and-D player at 6-foot-6 with a 7-foot wingspan. The Nets could use a guy like this for the next few years as they build out the rest of their roster. Moody makes sense next to a wide variety of players and is an established rotation player whose presence could help develop younger guys that Brooklyn already has and continues to bring in. Carter is also a lottery pick who’s terrific on the defensive end but whose jumper has been very messy since he injured his shoulder before the 2024 draft. He’d be a pure lottery ticket instead of taking the expensive Kuminga back.
DeRozan has a $10 million guarantee next season that won’t really dent the Nets’ cap space if they shed Porter’s money, and Hield has a rare contract that only has $3 million guaranteed next year but has essentially a mutual option on the 2027-28 season. All in, the Nets would only add about $250,000 to their cap sheet this year and actually end up saving a bit more money on next year’s sheet, assuming that they let go of Hield and DeRozan and open up even more flexibility.
Why the Kings do this: They’ve been connected with Kuminga for quite a while, and here, they get to take a swing on him at a low price. To do so, they send out the DeRozan deal (something they seemingly want to do pre-deadline anyway) and Carter and take back the $11.8 million cap hit owed to Highsmith and Williams for the rest of the year to make the deal relatively cash-neutral for Brooklyn. Neither Highsmith nor Williams is guaranteed any money beyond this year, meaning the Kings could easily fit Kuminga’s full salary into the fold right into the slot they had for DeRozan.
Should they want Kuminga? If the price point is this low, I at least understand taking the chance. I’m not a massive fan of his game, but he’s bigger and longer than Carter and has more of a track record of success as a scorer. He has shown the ability to play with downhill force, which gives him a bit more upside if he can ever figure out the work he needs to do on his jumper to make it more consistent and thus get defenders even more off-balance. But given the poor feel for the game that Kuminga has shown outside of scoring, this is probably the most I would want to pay to take a chance on him.
Trade No. 4: Pacers get a center
• Indiana Pacers receive: Daniel Gafford
• Dallas Mavericks receive: Bennedict Mathurin
Why this makes sense across the board: The Pacers lost Myles Turner in free agency and still have yet to fill the center position long-term. The Mavericks have several bigs in the frontcourt and could use another perimeter player who can create his own shot to help ease the burden on rookie Cooper Flagg. This deal helps everyone.
The Mavericks still have Anthony Davis on the roster and have their long-term center of the future in Dereck Lively II, as long as he returns healthy from his right foot injury. Gafford would be useful to have around as insurance for a Davis deal or if Lively’s injury ends up impacting his career. But he’s also going to be 28 before the start of next year and isn’t quite on the same timeline as Flagg and Lively. Mathurin at least fits that age timeline a bit better at 23 and is a talented shot-maker, even if the other aspects of his game leave something to be desired. He didn’t quite take the leap that he hoped for this season, entering a contract year with Tyrese Haliburton out with an Achilles tear, but he’s still an 18-point-per-game scorer who can slash to the rim, get to the foul line and knock down 3s. The 2022 No. 6 pick still has his ups and downs, something we saw extensively in the playoffs last year, but the ups remain tantalizing.
For the Pacers, Gafford is a great uptempo big man who would fit well within their system as a player who runs the court with ease and can rise for lobs. He proved that he can work in tandem with a terrific ball-screen playmaker in Dallas with Luka Dončić, and I would expect a similar result with Haliburton. Indiana would still be about $500,000 below the luxury-tax line with this deal, something that was seemingly important when it let Turner walk last year. But more importantly, this would give the team cost control at the center position and reshape the cap sheet while utilizing money that could be earmarked for Mathurin on a center. The Pacers are about $16.5 million under the tax line for next year with 13 players signed. Gafford would make it 14 and would put them right about at the tax line before their commitment to the likely top-five pick they have incoming. That would mean all they’d have to do is trade away Jarace Walker and Isaiah Jackson to get under the tax heading into the year while maintaining much of the depth that saw them make the 2025 finals, including T.J. McConnell and Obi Toppin. Gafford would also be locked in for the next three years at a fairly reasonable $54 million, giving them cost control on a good player.
Maybe the two teams involved here think they could do better for these respective assets either at the deadline or in the offseason. But what’s wrong with just an old-fashioned fair basketball swap?
