Black Friday sales are everywhere… except the NBA.
There will be no day-after-Thanksgiving trades in the NBA — but that doesn’t mean the shopping hasn’t started. Trade talks have started to slowly warm up around the league, although discussions rarely get serious before Dec. 15 — when many of the players who signed new contracts this summer become eligible to be traded — and it usually takes the pressure of the Feb. 6 trade deadline to get anything done. How much will actually get done this year remains to be seen, as the new salary cap apron rules hamstring nearly every. But those teams are talking.
Where will front offices do their Black Friday shopping? Here are three teams that could be selling.
BROOKLYN NETS
It’s not a surprise that the rebuilding Nets are open to trading away veterans, despite their solid 9-10 start under new coach Jordi Fernandez (who deserves a lot of credit for getting buy-in from this roster). When writing about potential trade partners before the season, I gave Brooklyn its own section. Pretty much every player you can name in Brooklyn — Dennis Schroder, Dorian Finney-Smith, Bojan Bogdanovic, Cam Thomas, Cameron Johnson, Nic Claxton — is available for the right price.
However, as a source told Brian Windhorst notes at ESPN, don’t look for rebuilding Brooklyn to take back a bad, long-term contract in return.
“Just about everyone on their roster is available as long as they don’t take back long-term money,” one source told ESPN of Brooklyn, which also could have up to $70 million in cap space next summer. “They’re not giving anyone away. At least not yet.”
Nets GM Sean Marks has shown previously he is patient and knows how to build a team from the ground up, he’s not going to change course and take on bad contracts. However, teams looking for a playoff push will come around to the Nets’ asking price.
CHICAGO BULLS
Currently, the Chicago Bulls are tied for the No. 8/9 pick in the 2025 NBA Draft (obviously dependent on lottery results). That matters because the Bulls owe their pick to the Spurs as part of the DeMar DeRozan trade, but it is Top-10 protected — if the Bulls play well enough behind a hot shooting Zach LaVine, they could move up the standings and suddenly have the No. 11 or 12 pick. Which means they have no pick. There has been an expectation around the league that the Bulls would make trades and pivot to losing at some point to ensure they hold on to that pick in a deep draft.
All of which is a long-winded way of saying teams expect the Bulls to be sellers at the trade deadline, something Jake Fischer talked about writing for The Stein Line. The Bulls are particularly interested in moving LaVine, Nikola Vucevic and Lonzo Ball.
“No surprise, then, that Bulls executives, according to league sources, have been messaging to rival front offices that they are willing to discuss the majority of their roster in trade talks leading up to the Feb. 6 trade deadline. Most notably, sources say, Chicago has expressed a desire to move LaVine, Vučević and Ball — who collectively command nearly $85 million in salary this season.”
Chicago tried to trade LaVine and Vucevic this summer and that has not changed, although Fischer adds that teams that had shown interest in LaVine — Sacramento and Golden State among them — no longer do. If a team is going to take on those big contracts, they will want a sweetener, Fischer adds.
To take on any Chicago player earning a significant salary, more than one rival team told The Stein Line that they would be seeking former first-round pick Dalen Terry and recent second-round selection Julian Phillips as part of any package.
Bulls decision maker Arturas Karnisovas has held onto players longer than other GMs would have, it’s possible we’ll see that again this trade deadline. However, the Bulls need to decide if they want to hold on to that draft pick, and if so they need to find some deals in the next couple of months.
WASHINGTON WIZARDS
This is the least surprising team on this list — the Wizards are in a full-on rebuild, tried to find trades for veterans such as Kyle Kuzma and Jordan Poole this offseason, brought them back but started this season 2-15, and will try to be sellers at the deadline again.
The most likely Wizard to be traded is center Jonas Valanciunas, league sources told NBC Sports. Considering that several teams — Lakers, Suns, maybe the Pacers or Heat — will be looking for a big to add frontline depth at the deadline, Valanciunas should have a market. Beyond him Malcolm Brogdon is a veteran who could be on the move, along with Kuzma and Poole. One way or another, expect the Wizards to be sellers.
