NBA Trade Board 2023-24: Latest news on Pascal Siakam, Zach LaVine and more big goals

As the NBA calendar turns to December 15, the start of the NBA trade season kicks off in earnest.

Why is December 15 so important? This is the date when many players who agreed to free agent deals over the summer are eligible to be transferred, opening up a much greater number of trade possibilities. As my colleague John Hollinger often says, in the NBA, you trade contracts, not players. The December 15 date therefore creates more contractual flexibility.

The other reason why December 15 is a crucial day is that it leads into the G League Showcase, scheduled for December 19-22 this season. This is the first event of the season to feature a large number of the league’s power brokers all in the same place, allowing them to sit down — perhaps over a few drinks — and chat about the status of their rosters. Armed with nearly two months of a sample season, executives will feel like they have a better handle on predicting the future of their teams this season.

With that in mind, it’s time to launch the NBA Trade Deadline Big Board, our annual list of potential trade targets across the league ahead of the February 8 trade deadline.

This first version is somewhat conservative. As you will notice, it includes a lot of players who have a combination of the following traits:

• Their names have already been floated in trade talks between teams.
• They play for teams that already look out of the playoff picture.
• They have contracts that expire after this season.
• They are not currently in their team’s playing rotation.

As you’ll see, it doesn’t have many All-Star level players, with a few exceptions. For example, Lauri Markkanen isn’t here because, despite the Utah Jazz’s poor record, there’s no evidence (yet) that they’ll actually look to move him since he’s under a bargain contract for the next two years. One could easily make the case for jazz He should We are looking to move Markkanen, with the belief that his trade value will never be higher than it is now. Ultimately, if Markkanen continues to improve, he will be signed to a contract twice as expensive as this one. But there’s no real necessity for the Jazz to look to move him now, even though they lost, and they still have time to figure out his long-term situation. Unlike Markkanen, though, Utah has several options at its disposal, from moving veterans under contract like John Collins and Collin Sexton to simply moving expiring deals.

On the other hand, a team like the Toronto Raptors doesn’t have time with Pascal Siakam and OG Anunoby because they are both free agents at the end of the year (Anunoby has a player option for 2024-25 but will almost certainly opt out). These two players top our first panel as the Raptors ought to Take a look at what’s out there and understand their options moving forward.

This Board of Trade will be smooth sailing over the next couple of months. Featured names may now change based on additional reports or additions being signed that take a player off the trade market. But this is where we’ll start now.