The Charlotte Hornets have agreed to trade 7-foot-2 center Mark Williams to the Los Angeles Lakers in exchange for Dalton Knecht, Cam Reddish, an unprotected 2031 first-round pick and a 2030 pick swap. Williams is exactly the type of lob-catching, rim-protecting center that Doncic flourished alongside in Dallas.
Meanwhile the Hornets add Knecht, who has shown flashes of brilliance in his rookie season with the Lakers, along with draft capital that will help them down the road should another superstar ever hit the market.
The New Orleans Pelicans are trading Brandon Ingram to the Toronto Raptors, according to Shams Charania. In exchange for the former All-Star forward, the Pelicans will receive Bruce Brown, Kelly Olynyk, one first-round pick and one second-round pick.
The deal marks not only the end of Ingram’s six-year tenure with the Pelicans, but the single biggest shakeup the Pelicans have undergone since dealing Anthony Davis to the Lakers in 2019.
Brandon Ingram trade: Pelicans send former All-Star to Raptors for Bruce Brown, Kelly Olynyk, picks
Knicks trade Jericho Sims to Bucks as part of Khris Middleton deal, per report
Jimmy Butler trade grades: Warriors get ‘B+’ for major swing, Heat sell low after saga with star
Brandon Ingram has been on the trade block for a long while. And it looks like he very well could be leaving New Orleans before tomorrow afternoon. The Pelicans forward is reportedly being coveted by the Hawks and Raptors, per The Athletic. The two teams in pursuit are “neck-and-neck.”
The Golden State Warriors have acquired six-time All-Star Jimmy Butler in a massive trade involving the Miami Heat, Utah Jazz and Detroit Pistons, according to Shams Charania.
As part of the deal, the Heat will receive Andrew Wiggins, PJ Tucker, Kyle Anderson and a protected 2025 first-round pick from the Warriors. The Pistons will get Lindy Waters III and Josh Richardson and the Jazz will add Dennis Schroder.
This deal ends a months-long saga between Butler and the Heat, who suspended the star forward multiple times for conduct detrimental to the team. The latest suspension, an indefinite one, came on Jan. 27 after Butler walked out of shootaround after being told that he would be removed from the starting lineup.
Because the suspension was handed out by the team, and not the league, Butler will be eligible to play with the Warriors immediately once the trade is finalized. He has not played since Jan. 21, so his new team may want to give him a ramp up period.
The Warriors had been desperate to acquire another star to pair with Steph Curry and Draymond Green, and had reportedly called numerous teams to inquire about the likes of Kevin Durant, Paul George and even LeBron James. They finally got their man in Butler, who will give them a much-needed secondary scorer and proven playoff performer.
Notably, Butler has already agreed to a two-year extension with the Warriors, per Charania. Per Bobby Marks, Butler is eligible to sign for $111 million. To do so, he is declining his player option for the 2025-26 season. Butler’s long-term plans had been a major hang-up in trade negotiations between the Heat and other teams.
As for the Heat, this brings an era of basketball in Miami to a close. Butler led the team to two surprise NBA Finals trips in 2020 and 2023, and another Eastern Conference finals in 2022. Ultimately, though, the relationship between him and the organization became strained, due in large part to his cavalier approach — a common story throughout his career.
According to Yahoo’s Kevin O’Connor, “‘Jimmy Butler to Golden State’ is about as loud in NBA circles as ‘Kevin Durant to Golden State’ was yesterday at this same time.” Obviously no deal is done. Phoenix is likely still desperately exploring any last-minute paths to Butler if they exist, and Miami won’t make this deal if there’s even the faintest chance it can turn Butler into Kevin Durant, but for now, the Warriors seem to have the momentum to make a deal happen.
So, what does a Butler-to-Golden State trade look like? Andrew Wiggins would probably be the primary matching salary, and he could slot easily into Miami’s lineup as Butler’s replacement at small forward. Dennis Schroder, who can now be aggregated, stands out as an obvious bit of matching salary as well. The real question here is if the Heat would prefer draft picks or young players like Jonathan Kuminga and Brandin Podziemski. By all accounts, the Heat want to save cap space for the summer of 2026, but Wiggins is already owed money for the 2026-27 season, and Kuminga is going to be a restricted free agent this summer. If that is their return, they’d likely be taking themselves out of the 2026 cap space derby… at least for now.
The Washington Wizards are trading Jonas Valanciunas to the Sacramento Kings for Sidy Cissoko and two second-round picks, according to ESPN’s Shams Charania. The Kings have a trade exception that can absorb Valanciunas, so they didn’t need to send out money to make the deal work. The calculus for them is straightforward: Valanciunas is an upgrade at backup center for them over Alex Len and occasional small-ball option Trey Lyles.
For Washington, the deal is a bit more interesting. Off the bat, they effectively turned a free-agent signing over the summer into some free second-round picks. Not a bad bit of business. But in the broader landscape, it’s worth pointing out that they didn’t have to absorb any salary to make this deal aside from Cissoko, who makes less than $2 million. That means they just opened up some more money under the luxury tax.
Granted, they took on money this morning when they turned Kyle Kuzma into Khris Middleton, but with their backup center gone, could they now be a team that absorbs Jusuf Nurkic from the Suns? We’ll find out by tomorrow, but the Wizards loom as a financial facilitator in bigger deals that might be coming.
With Kevin Durant now seemingly off of the table for Golden State, it looks like the Warriors have turned their attention to Jimmy Butler as their next preferred trade target, according to Marc Stein. A possible Butler-to-Golden State deal was scuttled over the weekend because Butler, at the time, was not interested in re-signing in Golden State. Has that changed?
It’s worth wondering here how engaged Miami is on this sort of trade. There have been rumblings that the Heat would like to use Butler to try to land Kevin Durant from Phoenix. Just because Durant is off of the table for the Warriors does not necessarily mean he won’t be traded at all. If the Heat have their way, they would surely prefer to get Durant than anything the Warriors have to offer. So now, the Heat are negotiating on two fronts.
The New York Knicks are “expected to move” Jericho Sims before the deadline, per ESPN’s Tim Bontemps. It’s not yet clear which of the “several teams that have expressed interest” in Sims will get him.
It is not surprising that the Knicks are going to trade one of their centers. On Jan. 13, the New York Post’s Stefan Bondy reported that they were shopping the 26-year-old Sims. The big question, though, is what will happen to the other big men on the roster. Mitchell Robinson has been a popular trade candidate, but SNY’s Ian Begley reported Wednesday the team is unlikely to trade him before the deadline. Is New York confident enough in Robinson staying healthy once he returns from his ankle injury (or rookie Ariel Hukporti holding down the fort) to trade Precious Achiuwa? Achiuwa is on a $6 million expiring contract.
For the last two months, Sims has been mostly out of the rotation. He’s an incredible athlete, though, and he’s tough to keep off the offensive glass. He wasn’t able to establish himself as an every-night backup under coach Tom Thibodeau, but it could potentially happen elsewhere.
Sims is on a $2.1 million expiring contract. The Knicks’ payroll is right up against the second apron, so, if they get a player in return for Sims, said player must have a lower salary than that.
Things are no longer looking good for the chances of Kevin Durant rejoining Stephen Curry with the Warriors. But the Suns still have KD on the trade block. And Jimmy Butler still wants to go to Phoenix. So why not kill two trade deadline birds with one stone and swap Durant for Butler? It’s possible. ESPN’s Brian Windhorst said Wednesday afternoon that if KD is, in fact, traded by tomorrow afternoon, the current most likely destination is Miami.
We are exactly one day away from the 2025 NBA trade deadline. Eyes continue to be on Kevin Durant and Jimmy Butler, but there should be dozens more deals before 3 p.m. ET Thursday. You can catch up on all the moves so far in our trade tracker:
NBA trade tracker: Follow every deadline deal as Jimmy Butler, Brandon Ingram find new homes
There was serious momentum for a Kevin Durant-Warriors trade in the last day. It seemed like KD returning to the Bay to play with Stephen Curry was a serious possibility. With 24 hours until the deadline, however, recent reporting indicates that deal is “highly unlikely.”
Wednesday afternoon, reports started surfacing that Durant was not interested in rejoining the Warriors.
Jake Fischer and Marc Stein included two important nuggets:
- “There is a distinct sense percolating now that Durant does not want to be traded at all this week … to the extent that he can control it,” according to Fischer and Stein. Notably Durant, unlike Bradley Beal, lacks a no-trade clause in his contract. He is also under contract next season with no player option, so he cannot use the threat of free agency to steer the process like Jimmy Butler has.
- “It is believed that Durant has some serious reservations about a second Warriors stint if he were to be shipped there,” again according to Fischer and Stein. Notably, they mention that when he left the Bay the first time, there was a sense that he no longer wanted to play with Draymond Green. Well, Green could theoretically be included in a trade package that nets the Warriors Durant. One source told Fischer that he could even see the Warriors trading for Durant despite these reservations.
ESPN’s Shams Charania added Durant has “no desire” in a reunion. Arizona sports radio host John Gambadoro says a deal is “highly unlikely” and momentum has been lost.
This doesn’t necessarily mean Durant will stay in Phoenix through Thursday, but it’s poured cold water on the most discussed rumor of the deadline. The Warriors, meanwhile, might have to move on to other trade targets (Jimmy Butler? Paul George? Brandon Ingram?).
In what is becoming an annual tradition at this point, the New Orleans Pelicans have ducked the luxury tax at the trade deadline. Last season, they needed to dump Kira Lewis Jr. to do so. This season, they’ve traded Daniel Theis to the Oklahoma City Thunder to escape the tax’s wrath and set themselves up for a hefty distribution payout after the season.
Meanwhile, the Thunder pick up a spare big as insurance. Both Chet Holmgren and Isaiah Hartenstein have dealt with injuries this season, so the Thunder give themselves one more big body in case those injuries pop up in the postseason. This is as simple a win-win trade as you’ll see at the deadline.
KD is out tonight with what the Suns are calling ankle soreness. The question now is: Has Kevin Durant played his last game in Phoenix? We’ll find out in the next 25 hours.
Yes, Kevin Durant is still a Phoenix Sun. Though he’s doubtful for Wednesday’s night game (in Oklahoma City of all places), KD was at shootaround Wednesday morning.
Remember how, a million years agofour days ago, it seemed like the trade deadline was going to be pretty boring? There were valid reasons for that! Many would-be buyers are constrained the rules of the new collective bargaining agreement and/or previous win-now trades in which they surrendered most of their draft capital. As a result, many would-be sellers may conclude that they’re better off waiting until the draft or later to make their moves.
Even though the Dallas Mavericks made a move so shocking that Brooklyn Nets forward Ziaire Williams literally bet his teammates it wasn’t true, even though there are some ripple effects of that trade and even though the Golden State Warriors are reportedly star-hunting again, this underlying dynamic remains unchanged. For this reason, Cam Johnson could wind up staying in Brooklyn beyond Thursday’s 3 p.m. ET deadline, despite Johnson being A) available, B) in the middle a career season and C) on a team-friendly contract ($22.5 million this season, $20.5 million next season, $22.5 million in 2026-27).
According to the New York Post, a Johnson trade is not likely, as the Nets aren’t shopping him and none of the offers they’ve received have been appealing. The Post reported in Wednesday’s wee hours that they have not talked to the Warriors about him, and that the Los Angeles Lakers and Sacramento Kings are no longer in the mix, having already made their big moves. While The Stein Line has reported that Brooklyn has told teams it will take at least two first-round picks to get Johnson, the Post quoted a source saying that “there isn’t an asking price” because the team isn’t actively trying to move him.
On Tuesday, SNY also reported that no Johnson suitor is expected to make the kind of offer that the Nets would accept, adding that center Day’Ron Sharpe is still a player to monitor. Drafted No. 29 by Brooklyn in 2021, the big man did not sign an extension leading up to this season, so he’ll be a restricted free agent in July. Sharpe is 23 years old and a monster rebounder, and the Los Angeles Clippers have at least “done background work” on him, per SNY.
Are the Golden State Warriors going to bring back their old buddy Kevin Durant? Are they, weeks after an apparent existential crisis about “mortgaging the future,” going to trade 22-year-old forward Jonathan Kuminga? It’s the day before the deadline, and questions are swirling.
All that we know for sure is that Golden State is not content with hovering around .500. Stephen Curry wants the team to “be in the conversation,” even though he doesn’t know what that would take, and the franchise would like to honor him, if that is possible. From the sounds of it, Golden State is open to just about anything that would vault it closer to championship contention. And I mean anything.
“They’re in the middle of this desperate time,” The Athletic’s Sam Amick said on Wednesday’s episode of “Run It Back” on FanDuel TV, “where they’re trying to get another star, and, as of yesterday, we’re looking at it, going, ‘Oh, boy, they might actually get off Draymond.'”
Yes, Draymond. Draymond Green. Seven months after Klay Thompson left the Bay Area, could the Warriors really move another another four-time champ, another future Hall of Famer, another player who has spent his entire career with them? They drafted him No. 35 overall in 2012, having no idea that he would become one of the best defenders who has ever lived and no idea that he would supplant an injured David Lee in the starting lineup, a franchise-changing — and game-changing — event that seems inevitable in retrospect. Green has said he would like to play in Golden State until he retires; even if that’s still likely, Golden State merely exploring the idea of trading him is noteworthy.
Amick did not come close to implying that the Warriors are on the verge of trading Green, who turns 35 in March but remains one of the league’s best defenders and smartest players. In fact, he said that he doesn’t think it’ll happen, “but it’s 100% been discussed internally.”
On Tuesday, in a story co-bylined by Amick, David Aldridge and Anthony Slater, The Athletic reported that Phoenix Suns owner Mat Ishbia, who was a walk-on at Michigan State and “has an established relationship” with Green, who starred for the Spartans, is “known to covet” the eight-time All-Defensive team member. How exactly this piece of information fits in with the Suns’ ongoing pursuit of Jimmy Butler is a mystery to me, but it’s interesting.
Is there a world in which the Warriors reunite with Durant but Green isn’t a part of it? I genuinely don’t know, and the Dallas Mavericks just traded Luka Doncic, so, as far as I’m concerned, up is down, right is left and pigs are flying. As much as I’d like to completely dismiss this profoundly weird possibility, I don’t feel like I can.
The defending champion Boston Celtics are trading Jaden Springer and a 2030 second-round pick to the Houston Rockets, per ESPN’s Shams Charania.
Here’s how CBS Sports’ Jack Maloney explained the Celtics’ potential approach last week:
Each dollar over the luxury tax costs the team about four dollars in tax payments, which means someone like Jaden Springer, whose salary is just over $4 million, actually costs about $16 million. While Springer has gotten more of an opportunity lately, he’s rarely played outside of garbage time this season and won’t be in the playoff rotation.
Giannis Antetokounmpo and Khris Middleton were teammates from 2013 until this morning. They won a title together in 2021. Saying goodbye to Middleton can’t be easy for Giannis, but, at least in a basketball sense, he was supportive of the move, per Jake Fischer. Fischer reports Giannis gave Kuzma “a large vote of support” before the Bucks made the deal.
A day after trading Caleb Martin to the Dallas Mavericks for Quentin Grimes and their own 2025 second-round pick, the Philadelphia 76ers are trading KJ Martin to the Detroit Pistons, as first reported by the Philadelphia Inquirer’s Keith Pompey. This is a salary dump; the Sixers are sending the Milwaukee Bucks’ 2027 second-round pick and the Dallas Mavericks’ 2031 second-round pick to the Pistons, who will absorb Martin’s contract. (Martin is making $8 million this season, and he’s on the books for $8 million in 2025-26. Next season’s salary, though, is fully non-guaranteed.)
From Philly’s perspective: Daryl Morey got the team under the first apron with Tuesday’s trade, and Wednesday’s gets it out of the luxury tax. This saves ownership more than $20 million, per ESPN’s Bobby Marks, and it resets the repeater clock, which means the Sixers will be dealing with less punitive tax rates if/when they go back into tax territory in the coming seasons. Is a cost-cutting move like this exciting for Philly fans? No, but, when a team has a 20-29 record, it’s probably going to try to avoid paying the tax that season. Morey’s front office now has a trade exception worth $8 million, and it has a couple of open roster spots. Flexibility is good.
More broadly, Sixers fans should be pleased that the team appears to be trying to put itself in position to re-sign Guerschon Yabusele. The 29-year-old French forward was a steal in free agency last summer, but, since he signed a one-year minimum contract, Philadelphia doesn’t have his Bird rights. In order to make him a competitive offer a few months from now, it will need access to the non-taxpayer midlevel exception. (To be clear, this latest Martin move does not affect the Sixers’ ability to re-sign Yabusele, since the Sixers could have just waived Martin at the end of the season to get out of his 2025-26 salary. If they trade Andre Drummond and/or Eric Gordon before 3 p.m. ET on Thursday, though, that’s probably the motivation.)
From Detroit’s perspective: The Pistons just picked up two second-rounders and a good, 24-year-old role player who is owed no guaranteed money after this season. This is a great use of cap space, and they still have $6 million left. (Alternatively, they could acquire Martin using the room exception, which would mean they’d still effectively have $14 million in cap space, provided that they use that space before officially executing this deal.). If I were grading this trade, they’d get an A. The only question I have is about the opportunity cost: Had they taken on a more onerous contract, they could have potentially gotten a first-round pick for their trouble, and maybe more than that. If Martin can’t carve out a role in Detroit, then this probably won’t look like it was the optimal move, but it’s hard to fault Trajan Langdon’s front office for trying to thread the needle here — the Pistons are .500 and have a chance to qualify for the playoffs the old-fashioned way, rather than dealing with the uncertainty of the play-in. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to improve their stockpile of draft picks and add a rotation-caliber player who has a chance to stick around.
I must also note that we could soon find out that Martin actually has no chance to stick around. Detroit might flip him elsewhere before the deadline, according to the Detroit Free Press’ Omari Sankofa II. If the Pistons execute this trade with cap space (rather than the aforementioned room exception), then they can aggregate Martin’s salary in a subsequent (and presumably larger) deal. I’d like to see them keep him, as he’d immediately be one of their most versatile, switchable defenders, and I anticipate that Cade Cunningham will like throwing him lobs … but maybe they have a better idea.
Eyes are on the Phoenix Suns this deadline. A Jimmy Butler pursuit might only be possible if they end up moving Kevin Durant. They can’t find a home for Bradley Beal and his no-trade clause. So what will things look like Thursday afternoon when the dust settles? Per ESPN’s Brian Windhorst, the “only guarantee” is that All-Star guard Devin Booker — who recently became the franchise’s all-time leading scorer — will still be on the roster.
On its face, swapping a former All-Star in Khris Middleton for Kyle Kuzma in the middle of his worst professional season seems a bit iffy. Sure, Milwaukee might be afraid that Middleton can’t stay healthy, and yes, Kuzma could easily bounce back on a winning team, but there’s got to be more to this trade, right?
Well, yes, there is. By turning Middleton into Kuzma, the Bucks have ducked below the second apron. This is critical because it allows them to aggregate salaries in any follow-up trades they might make. Essentially, that means they can now combine multiple smaller salaries to get to one bigger one.
So, who could that mean? Bobby Portis, Pat Connaughton and Marjon Beauchamp have all been fixtures in the rumor mill throughout this deadline cycle. Together, they make nearly $25 million. The Bucks just got a 2025 second-round pick in this deal. They also still have their 2031 first-round pick at their disposal. What could they get with all of those tools at their disposal?
A pretty solid defensive-minded guard or wing comes to mind as the obvious target. Here’s a name that makes sense: Lonzo Ball, who is in the middle of a bounce back year after missing the last two seasons due to injury. He’d give the Bucks a major defensive upgrade while adding a dose of transition playmaking for a team that never scores on the break anymore.
The Milwaukee Bucks are trading Khris Middleton to the Washington Wizards for Kyle Kuzma, CBS Sports NBA insider Bill Reiter confirmed Wednesday. In addition to Kuzma and Middleton, the deal also includes AJ Johnson and a pick swap going to the Wizards. The Bucks will also receive atrick Baldwin Jr. and second-round draft compensation. Middleton, who was tied with Giannis Antetokounmpo for the title of longest-tenured Buck, joined the team in July of 2013 as a low-profile addition to the Brandon Jennings for Brandon Knight trade. He proceeded to become one of the greatest players in franchise history, reaching three All-Star games and helping Milwaukee win the 2021 championship.
It’s been nearly four whole days since the Dallas Mavericks made a shocking trade. So could they stun the NBA world again this deadline by going out and getting Kevin Durant? Reports indicate the Mavs have some interest, and the fit with the newly acquired Anthony Davis and KD’s old running mate Kyrie Irving does make a lot of sense (a lot more sense than trading away your MVP-caliber 25-year-old superstar).
But how would a KD-to-the-Mavs deal look? CBS Sports’ Sam Quinn has you covered with a complicated mock trade so crazy it just might come true.
Kevin Durant mock trades: How Warriors, Rockets, Mavericks and others could land Suns superstar
The entire sports world has been consumed by the Luka Doncic-Anthony Davis trade for the past few days, and much of the discussion has centered around LeBron James: Did he know ahead of time? What did he think of the deal? How will it affect his present and future?
Late on Tuesday night, after James put up 26 points, eight rebounds and nine assists to lead the Los Angeles Lakers to yet another impressive win, this one a 122-97 destruction of the Los Angeles Clippers, we finally got to hear from the man himself.
Like everyone else, James didn’t believe the story was true at first.
“Saturday night, well, my emotions were all over the place, obviously,” James said. “We had just come off a big win, huge win in [Madison Square] Garden. I was out — you guys have seen the reports — I was out with my family to dinner and got the news and the first time I heard it I thought it was for sure fake. I thought it was a hoax, people messing around, whatever.
“But then when AD called me, AD FaceTimed me, and I talked to him for quite a while. Even when I got off the phone with him it still didn’t seem real. It didn’t seem real until I saw Luka today and I saw a clip of AD at the Dallas shootaround. That’s when it finally hit me, like, oh shit, this is real.”
Kevin Durant remains a Phoenix Sun and Jimmy Butler is still in Miami… for now. The two biggest names in rumors on Trade Deadline Eve could sure seem like they could have an impact on one another. John Gambadoro, an Arizona sports radio host, says he’s hearing that KD “will most likely” end up back on the Warriors and Butler will wind up in Phoenix.
The Suns have no path to add Butler to a roster with KD and Devin Booker if Bradley Beal doesn’t waive his no-trade clause. So would the Suns really ship out Durant and bring in Butler to play alongside Booker, Beal and whatever the return is from a possible KD deal? It seems possible. Buckle up.
We are less than 31 hours away from the 2025 NBA trade deadline. And as the league still tries to wrap its mind around the fact that Luka Doncic is now a Laker and Anthony Davis is a Maverick, attention has shifted to another huge name: Kevin Durant.
The Suns are reportedly listening to calls on KD, with the Warriors, Rockets and Mavs among the interested parties. Jimmy Butler remains on the block, too. We’ll see what happens in the next day-plus.
Philadelphia 76ers forward KJ Martin was inactive for their game against the Dallas Mavericks on Tuesday. Officially, he is listed as “not with team,” but PHLY’s Kyle Neubeck reported that he was taken out of the lineup because of a pending trade and he was seen leaving Wells Fargo Center less than 45 minutes before the game tipped off.
According to The Stein Line’s Jake Fischer, Martin is indeed getting traded, but it’s not clear where he’ll land up, as the Sixers are “weighing multiple options.” They are expected to complete a trade on Wednesday, per The Stein Line.
When Philadelphia signed Martin to a two-year, $16 million deal (non-guaranteed in Year 2) last summer, it was widely assumed that it would trade him around this time in a win-now move. The contract could effectively function as a trade exception, allowing the Sixers to add a player on a mid-sized salary that it could not have otherwise acquired easily. According to PHLY, though, they could instead end up dealing him in a trade that creates more financial flexibility.
By trading another Martin (Caleb) to the Mavs for Quentin Grimes earlier Tuesday, Philadelphia got below the first apron. It is now only $6.5 million over the luxury-tax threshold. Trading this Martin could potentially get them out of the tax entirely and put them in a better position to improve the roster in other ways before the deadline. For example, as long as they stay below the first apron, the Sixers are allowed to take back more salary than they send out in a trade.
