Ranking the Top 10 Realistic NBA Trade Targets This Season

The NBA trade market might be dormant at the moment, but it can awaken at any time.

And as soon as it does, it is capable of immediately impacting the league's balance of power.

Because, from our vantage point, this year's pool of realistic (or at least logical) trade candidates runs deep with potential difference-makers. From sharpshooters to stoppers, from rising stars to future Hall of Famers, this player pool is capable of scratching virtually any itch.

Without knowing what's ahead of all 30 teams, we are applying a liberal definition of the word realistic, but we're still focused on players who either have been mentioned in trade buzz or have a reasonable path to get there. Then, we're ranking these 10 players based on possible trade value, weighing everything from age and ability to contract commitments and ease of adjustment to a midseason move.

Chicago's two-year, $45 million pact with Norman Powell felt like a short-term arrangement from the moment he signed it this summer. It carries a team option on the second season, for starters, so the Bulls have an easy way out of this if it's obvious the pairing just doesn't work.

In a perfect world, though, Powell will play well, impart veteran know-how to his young teammates and attract a host of win-now suitors between now and the deadline. He is not at all a timeline fit for this rebuilder, but he could be a great plug-and-play option for a team in need of a scoring boost.

His peak has arrived later than most, but it's here now, and it's pretty awesome. He has netted better than 21 points per night each of the past two seasons, compiling a 47.7/40/81.6 shooting slash over this stretch. He also debuted as an All-Star in 2025-26.

There were some rumblings about Brooklyn aiming to accelerate this season, but things didn't really materialize. Sure, they added Julius Randle, but they sacrificed their starting center (Nic Claxton) and gained a first-round pick in the exchange.

Their future still holds more intrigue than their present with recent top-10 picks Egor Dëmin (No. 8 in 2025) and Mikel Brown Jr. (No. 6 in 2026) hopefully ushering in that next chapter.

If the Nets, losers of 118 games over the past two seasons, aren't dramatically more competitive, they should be aiming to flip Michael Porter Jr. for long-term assets.

Dubbed a "player to watch" in trade talks by ESPN's Brian Windhorst , Porter has an expiring contract, a coveted (and translatable) skill set as a perimeter sharpshooter and high-stakes playoff experience from his days in Denver.

Porter is overpaid ( $40.8 million ), and his numbers with the Nets (24.2 points per game) overstate his overall impact, but he'd still boost any offense struggling with spacing and secondary scoring.

The Blazers have too many guards to maximize their talent base.

There just aren't enough touches to go around in an offense featuring Jrue Holiday, Damian Lillard, Ja Morant, Scoot Henderson and Shaedon Sharpe, especially when considering that star swingman Deni Avdija works best on the ball, too.

Someone—or perhaps more than one player—is getting squeezed out of the Pacific Northwest, and Holiday could be the odd man out. His best days are behind him, but he still provides value through his intelligence and versatility on defense and his ability to contribute on or off the ball offensively.

Holiday has been productive with all five of his NBA employers, so he knows how to navigate a scenery change. He also shouldn't cost a ton in trade assets since he is set to collect $72 million over his age-36 and -37 seasons.

Every NBA Team's Top 3 Trade Targets This Season 🎯

Anthony Davis and the Wizards are taking a wait-and-see approach with any contract extension talks, which makes sense for myriad reasons.

They both have plenty to learn about one another, like how Davis looks after being limited to just 20 appearances last season and how close Washington is to competing on the heels of three consecutive 64-plus-loss campaigns.

This wait could also be huge for Davis' possible trade suitors, since they'll want reassurance about both his two-way impact and his availability.

As one Western Conference executive told ESPN's Brian Windhorst , Davis is "going to be playing for a contract or maybe playing to get traded," so he'll be incentivized to be at his best.

From a strictly talent-based perspective, Davis ranks favorably among all players on this list, but a few things hold back his ranking. His availability concerns, for one, are...well, concerning, as he has reached 60 games in just one of the past six seasons. He's also owed a boatload of money ($58.5 million this season with a $62.8 million player option for 2027-28) and reportedly has hopes of securing another max commitment .

The Mavericks might be genuine in their stated desire to keep Kyrie Irving around, and his connection with Dallas may be pure and authentic.

None of that will stop trade speculation, since none of that can bridge the timeline gap between the 34-year-old point guard and the franchise's 19-year-old centerpiece, Cooper Flagg.

"If [Irving] comes back healthy for a significant sample size that shows every other team around the NBA that he is still capable of being an All-Star talent and a playoff game-changer especially as a halfcourt ball-handling creator, the Mavs, I believe, are going to get trade offers that ultimately they are not going to be able to refuse," Jake Fischer said on a Bleacher Report live stream.

"They can keep saying right now and projecting publicly and saying it behind the scenes that they are not interested in moving him, but things do change very very quickly in the NBA."

As Fischer noted, Irving needs to prove himself a bit after missing the last season-plus with a torn ACL. Even when he does, his age and uncertain future (player option for 2027-28) will limit his market a bit.

That said, any win-now shopper hoping for more offensive oomph might make him their top priority.

Admittedly, there aren't direct trade winds swirling around Darius Garland at the moment. Still, it doesn't take much dot-connecting to see how they could get moving.

The Clippers have no hopes of contending any time soon, but their future might be even bleaker after the NBA ordered them to forfeit five first-round picks following its salary-cap circumvention investigation . The team has disputed the findings and said it would challenge them. L.A. may want to scoop up assets wherever it can find some, and no one on its roster would deliver more than Garland.

He'd sit higher up this list without availability concerns or defensive limitations, but they don't change the fact that he's a two-time All-Star with a knockdown three-point shot and a wealth of offensive creativity off the bounce.

Garland wouldn't be the easiest player for every team to add since he needs the offensive keys to thrive, but he does up his market appeal by fitting both win-now and win-soon suitors.

Kevin Durant feels virtually impossible to rank here.

A number of factors play into that, starting with the fact that Houston probably has no interest in giving him up. Then again, if the Rockets can't get off the launching pad and into the West's top tier by the deadline, they probably need to choose between going all-in on a co-star for Durant or trading Durant to reset their timeline around their young core.

If Houston seems outside of the inner circle of contenders, there may not be a midseason move to make to gain entry. So, Durant has a realistic chance of surfacing in trade talks again.

Who would want him? Great question. On the one hand, he is a generational scorer with the kind of game that fits any system. On the other, front offices might be wary of some of the messier exits in his past, and he isn't young (38), cheap ( $43.9 million salary ) or guaranteed to stick around past this season (player option for 2027-28).

There is an argument to be made that of all the players ranked here, Franz Wagner might be the toughest to pry loose—for now.

But that might all go out the window if Orlando struggles out of the gate and quickly concludes that its offseason coaching change (Jamahl Mosley out, Sean Sweeney in) wasn't enough to lift this core's first-round ceiling.

The Magic have struggled to maximize star wings Wagner and Paolo Banchero together, and their shared on-ball strengths and off-ball weaknesses (both sub-33 percent three-point shooters) might prevent it from ever happening.

At 25 years old, Wagner perhaps hasn't reached his peak, which is an exciting thought for someone with this much size (6'10", 220 lbs) and skill.

That said, he has had trouble staying on the court of late (94 games over the past two seasons), he could be prohibitively expensive in both trade assets and salary , and teams with ball-dominant stars could wonder whether they'd encounter some of the same issues he's had fitting with Banchero.

Maybe we're not indulging in enough October optimism, but things could really spiral if the Magic get off to a slow start.

After paying such a heavy premium for Desmond Bane last offseason, they can't really afford another huge addition. Their most consequential remaining option could be a substantial subtraction.

"Every player on the payroll could be considered a trade candidate if the team does not get off to a fast start," Heavy.com's Sean Deveney wrote of the Magic.

Financially speaking, Paolo Banchero could be tricky to move, since he's just starting a five-year, $239.2 million deal . At the same time, teams rarely have a chance to trade for someone this young (24 in November), this well-regarded (No. 1 pick in 2022) and this productive (career 22.3 points, 7.4 rebounds and 4.8 assists).

He would need an offensive system tailored around him, but a system with better spacing than Orlando's could launch him toward superstar status. Not everyone can afford that lottery ticket, and some that can won't bother to try, but the teams that do want Banchero would really want him.

1. Trey Murphy III, New Orleans Pelicans

These rankings feature players who have earned some of the league's highest honors. Trey Murphy III's main distinction through five NBA seasons has been…finishing second in the 2023 Slam Dunk Contest, maybe?

So, how does he claim the No. 1 spot? Because we're measuring trade value, and Murphy's stands taller than the rest due to his blend of perhaps universal appeal (young enough for even rebuilders to target, established enough to convince contenders he has instant-impact ability), a wholly reasonable pay rate (three years, $87 million ) and a wealth of supplemental skills that could be easily integrated into any kind of system.

The Pelicans, of course, want a fortune in return for Murphy. Per HoopsHype's Michael Scotto , the asking price this summer was "the equivalent of...three first-round picks." In that same report, Scotto identified five different teams as being "in the mix for Murphy." In other words, that steep cost isn't scaring folks away.

Murphy really is the ideal trade candidate on the market right now. He feasts on an analytically friendly shot diet of powerful dunks and long-range threes, holds his own as a versatile defender and fits into virtually any budget or system. He isn't the biggest name on this list, but his trade value is unrivaled.