Three NBA Teams That Should Get Active Before 2025 Trade Deadline

As the many contenders and wishful thinkers ponder the price of imports over the next few days, several NBA teams at the other end of the standings wait beside their garbage bins, praying their trash is another GM’s treasure.

Certainly, some of what these so-called rebuilding clubs have to offer appears to be recyclable. But the league’s stringent salary-cap rules can make these types of transactions difficult.

Still, a serviceable backup big man, a double-digit-scoring forward who can come off the bench and a veteran guard with playoff experience could be attractive to any team that believes it’s already within arm’s length of a spot in the conference finals. And at last count, that was about 20 of them.

Here are three sellers these glory-seekers should be contacting … before the competition does:

Utah Jazz

For a bad team, the Jazz sure have a lot of ready-for-prime-time pieces. The problem is they have a general manager who isn’t, and that trumps a lot of creative thinking.

So far in his regime, Danny Ainge has done a good job of selling off star-quality talent for decent role players and a ton of draft picks. The picks are still playing out, but the role players are just getting old.

It’s time to sell … and time to start losing more often. The battle royale between the Jazz, Wizards, Hornets, Nets and maybe even Pelicans and Trail Blazers for the three front-row seats at the Cooper Flagg lottery figures to be fierce.

Let’s start with Jordan Clarkson. Every contender could use him off the bench. With a $14 million salary that’s easy to match … He’s all yours, Knicks, for Steven Adams, Reed Sheppard and a first-round pick.

And who wants John Collins? Tough big man who helps you match up with Nikola Jokic, Alperen Sengun, Joel Embiid and Anthony Davis.

Hey, Lakers. Who’s your big man these days? If you can pry Luka Doncic from the Mavericks, you should be able to figure out a path to Collins and his $27 million deal.

New Orleans Pelicans

One of the biggest fish in the deadline pond is Brandon Ingram, a desirable combination of pending free agent and All-Star talent. Every wannabe banner-raiser should be touching base on him.

With that kind of competition, it would be boneheaded for the perennially disappointing Pelicans to stand pat.

Ingram comes with a $36 million contract to be matched, which makes him untouchable for most teams without getting a third party involved. But, heck, we’ve got 72 hours, so how hard can that be?

Plus, the good news from a buyer’s perspective is the Pelicans aren’t like most teams at the bottom of the NBA heap. They have a win-now roster that will gladly accept play-now talent rather than prospects and/or picks.

And you get him relatively cheaply because he’s likely to walk from the Pelicans at season’s end if they hold onto him.

The Grizzlies just might offer up Marcus Smart and Brandon Clarke. Would the Timberwolves rather have Ingram or Julius Randle? In a three-way, the Suns would snatch him in a heartbeat if the Warriors would agree to take Bradley Beal while the Pelicans got Draymond Green or Andrew Wiggins. Dallas has now made PJ Washington expendable and could be packaged with a redirected Max Christie.

As good as they’ve been, the Thunder would benefit from a guy like Ingram. He’s a proven go-to scorer for late-game situations when Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is suffocated. He’d be a far better option than bright-lights-inexperienced Jalen Williams or Chet Holmgren.

If this were football, the Thunder could dangle five first-round picks in order to make a championship-level addition. But in the NBA, a third team would have to get involved … which shouldn’t be a problem because Oklahoma City has enough picks to make multiple teams happy.

One player. Many options. One conclusion: Get it done.

Portland Trail Blazers

As noted with the Jazz, teams dreaming of a future relationship with Flagg need to hoist the white flag ASAP. Thanks in large part to a youth movement already making positive strides, the Trail Blazers must go immediately into desperation mode.

And that means lowering the price on Jerami Grant.

Grant is a poor man’s Ingram—good enough to start for a good team, but ideally deployed as a very productive reserve.

Like Clarkson, every contender in the league could use Grant. Neither the Cavaliers nor the Celtics has that type of player coming off their bench. But Grant makes $30 million, and those teams don’t have that kind of money to throw around.

He could help the Pistons sneak past an unsuspecting first-round opponent, and Detroit has the expiring contracts to make it work. He’d be a godsend to the Nuggets’ bench, but the contract-matching is an issue. That helps open the door for the Knicks, 76ers, Suns, Clippers and Mavericks, all with below-average reserve crews but big-time dreams.

If nothing else, the Trail Blazers and Pelicans should talk. Ingram for Grant and Shaedon Sharpe works financially.

It wouldn’t garner the attention of a contender-involved deal, but does that really matter? Headlines can be overrated—just ask the Mavericks.

Which leads to a question: Can bad teams initiate trade calls? Or do they have to wait for the phone to ring?