It took a while, but the NBA trade season is officially here now that the Trae Young deal came together rather quickly. As usual, this post will be constantly updated to serve as a one-stop shop for every trade that happens up until the deadline.
Like last year's edition, the confirmed salaries come from Keith Smith's work at Spotrac, previously traded draft pick details come from RealGM, and I always make sure to list which reporter was first on the news. The latest deals will be added at the top of the post so that you don't have to keep scrolling to the bottom for updates, and salaries are color-coded based on whether they're player options, team options, or non-guaranteed.
Hawks add center depth (Shams 2/4)
Hawks receive:
Jazz receive:
Cash considerations
Atlanta needed a backup big man with Porzingis' status often in doubt and N'Faly Dante out for the season, and Utah has plenty of depth, along with a need for a roster spot for the trade below. Sometimes it's that easy.
Cleveland sheds more salary (Shams 2/4)
Jazz receive:
2028 2nd round pick
2032 2nd round pick
Cavaliers receive:
TBD but likely a fake 2nd or old draft rights
This saves Cleveland $65 million in luxury tax payments, per Gozlan, and they're pretty close to getting out of the Second Apron even. This also creates a nice Trade Exception, likely for next year's roster building.
Even with yesterday's big trade, Utah still had flexibility under the tax to take on a contract like this, likely via the rest of the Collins TE, in order to add more draft picks, with these being the last two that Cleveland had to trade. With next year a team option, it's expected that Ball will be waived and free to join a contender, though his production this year has taken an unfortunate nosedive.
L.A. and Toronto shed salary (Shams 2/4)
Raptors receive:
Nets receive:
2032 Raptors 2nd round pick
Cash considerations
Clippers receive:
Vanja Marinkovic (60th pick in 2019)
This gets the Raptors under the luxury tax line while trimming the Clippers' tax bill after their franchise legend was sent home from the team earlier in the season. Shams is already reporting that Paul is not expected to report to the team as they discuss another home for him.
As soon as I pressed update with my speculation on L.A.'s return, Fischer added which former draft pick it was. This deal is really just about the $7 million or so in tax payments, with Haynes reporting that they're sending Brooklyn $3.5 million to facilitate this, and clearing space under their First Apron hard cap to convert the Two-Way contracts of Kobe Sanders and Jordan Miller.
Charlotte picks up former UNC guard (Shams first, Siegel on the three-way 2/4)
Hornets receive: $23,662,927 total (sent out $21,271,274)
OKC needed to clear a roster spot for McCain, so they'll likely execute this first, immediately waive Plumlee, and then do the Philly trade. The difference in Dieng's and Plumlee's salaries, $4,374,608, matches perfectly with McCain's $4,221,360 to keep them from going into the tax, and since Plumlee can be taken into the Minimum Exception, they should create a Trade Exception worth all of Dieng's salary. They would then likely use the MLE to take in McCain and leave that new TE since it would have a longer shelf life of a full year.
Like with Saric, Chicago is able to re-trade Conley immediately since he's not technically being aggregated here: the two for two trade can work as two separate one for one trades. As I speculated yesterday, there's already talk from Fischer and Brett Siegel that he could get bought out, and now that he's been traded again, he could technically return to Minnesota.
This might end up as two separate transactions for Charlotte with them first using part of their MLE to take in Dieng, and then sending him to Chicago. Since they likely won't be using the MLE, I believe doing it that way is most beneficial to create a Trade Exception worth the difference in Sexton's and Conley's salaries, $8,200,962. Doing it as a three-way deal would preserve the MLE but only create a TE worth Plumlee's minimum contract.
OKC adds another guard (Shams 2/4)
Thunder receive:
76ers receive:
2026 Rockets 1st round pick (protected 1-4, then becomes 2026 2nd)
2027 2nd round pick (Best of Heat, Pacers Rockets, or Thunder)
2028 Bucks 2nd round pick
2028 Thunder 2nd round pick
I thought that the reigning champs might add another forward instead of a guard since they already have Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Lu Dort, Cason Wallace, Ajay Mitchell, and Isaiah Joe, but this could just be a value that they thought they couldn't pass up. They were looking at having three or four 1st round picks in this coming draft (from the Clippers, Rockets, 76ers, and maybe the Jazz, with their own going to Dallas), so moving the Houston one for a more known commodity who can help the current campaign makes a ton of sense.
It's a little funny that Oklahoma City have Philadelphia's 1st rounder but instead gave them Houston's since they have a better record right now, along with three 2nd rounders, whose details were first reported by Fischer. Philly bailing on McCain so quickly after the fast start to his career last season before he went down with a torn meniscus is surprising but not a total shock after the additions of VJ Edgecombe and Quentin Grimes since then. Now they are out of the luxury tax, no longer out a 1st rounder in this draft, and have a roster spot to convert Dominick Barlow's Two-Way after his emergence as a regular starter for them.
Washington makes it back to back days with a shocker (Shams 2/4)
Wizards receive: $68,107.724 total
Mavericks receive: $43,645,083 total
2029 Rockets 2nd round pick
I guess the new trend for rebuilding teams is to make their big moves at the deadline when they have more flexibility than competitors will have in the summer. I wonder how many games we'll actually see with Trae and AD together this season as they recover from their respective injuries, but it could be a dynamic pick and roll partnership down the line.
This gets Dallas out of the luxury tax this season in addition to restocking their barren stock of draft picks. The 1st rounders lack upside, but this at least helps make up for the fact that they likely won't control their own 1st between 2027-2030. The '27 pick is only top-2 protected, they owe pick swaps in '28 and '30, and the '29 pick is gone outright, though they have the Lakers' 1st rounder that year. They also didn't have 2nd round picks in 2026, 2027, 2028, 2029, and 2031 before this either.
Even the trade mechanics of this are similar to yesterday's Jackson deal with Dallas creating a large Trade Exception (the difference in salary between Davis and Middelton, $20,830,154) and Washington needing to use their own Exceptions to take back the smaller pieces. All four players they're sending out were needed to salary match with Davis, and then Hardy will likely go into the Jonas Valanciunas TE (that was going to expire tomorrow), Russell probably eats into the Kelly Olynyk TE (leaving $7,760,122 left), and Exum into the Minimum Exception.
L.A. and Cleveland swap guards (Mannix had first news 2/2; Shams the deal 2/3)
Cavaliers receive:
Clippers receive:
Cleveland being the team to concede draft compensation is really surprising given the 10.5 year age difference, so they must have really been worried about Garland's health. The near identical salaries make this pretty straightforward otherwise, with Harden waiving his implicit no trade clause and most of his trade bonus to facilitate this. I believe he'll only get bumped up to the same salary as Garland since Cleveland is an Apron team who can't take back more salary than they're sending out. I've listed his player option as purple since even if he picks it up, it's only guaranteed for $13,317,307 until July 11th, but there could be an understanding that they will guarantee all of it (or give him a new deal after opting out).
After missing the first seven games of the season following surgery on his left big toe, Garland has now missed the last nine games with a sprain to his right big toe, in addition to other time missed in between. In the 26 games he has been able to play, his shooting is a tick down, particularly from 3 (36% compared to 39.2% on the basically same amount of attempts), but his per minute stats are about the same as the prior four seasons, aka since he made his first All-Star team. There's definitely a chance that L.A. was just gifted a core piece of their long-term future if he can get past the various maladies that have been problematic in recent years.
The timing of Harden wanting out is pretty crazy since Mannix first broke the story last night when the Clippers were on a 17-4 stretch after starting the season a dreadful 6-21. The Cavs are on an 8-2 run in their own right, though, and being on more stable ground in the playoff picture thanks to residing in the East could give The Beard more reasonable hope of attaining his first title. Based on the two guards' play and availability this year, it's fair to say that Cleveland got a short term upgrade as they try to maximize their window of contention before Donovan Mitchell could potentially opt out in 2027, which could dovetail with the end of Harden's current contract. We will see just how long this new partnership lasts as Harden joins his fifth team in the past six seasons.
Boston adds more size (Shams 2/3)
Celtics receive:
2027 Nuggets 2nd round pick
Bulls receive:
Neemias Queta and Luka Garza have done an admirable job at center for Boston, but this deal gives them more experience in addition to shaving around $20+ million off of their luxury tax bill. And if they can shed about $6 million more in salary, they could get out of the tax completely. Starting with their summer trades of Jrue Holiday and Krisptaps Porzingis, this is like the opposite of the old "trade a paperclip for..." sequence. As Gozlan pointed out on Twitter, Vucevic fits almost perfectly into the Porzingis Trade Exception, so now they can create a new, even bigger TE worth Simons' salary.
Chicago is getting a pretty good draft pick to help them out since it will likely be near the very start of the 2nd round thanks to New Orleans being so bad (with the details via Keith Smith). They now have an absolute logjam at guard between their moves, but I expect that they're not done dealing yet, with Coby White (and to some extent Ayo Dosunmu) in a lot of rumors.
Guards get swapped around the midwest (Shams 2/3)
Bulls receive: $20,881,201 total ($23,417,471 sent out)
Pistons receive: $23,417,471 total ($10,774,038 sent out)
Timberwolves receive: $0 total ($10,774,038 sent out)
Cash considerations
I'm still waiting on more news about what Minnesota is getting out of this, but for now they're still just above the luxury tax line if taking no salary back. Detroit had a lot of flexibility under the tax to make an uneven trade like this, and I think they're using part of the Schroder Trade Exception to take in Saric in order to get a small jump at the end of the 1st round. As of this morning, the Pistons hold the #29 pick while the Wolves own #23 to make that a worthy proposition.
Although Huerter isn't as dynamic of a trade target as I expected for them to add offensive reinforcements, he is a 37.1% career 3-point shooter on 5.6 attempts in 27.8 minutes. That's down to just 31.4% this season, so hopefully he has a post-trade bounce back like last season when he went from 30.2% with the Kings to 37.6% with the Bulls.
In theory, Ivey would've been that more explosive force to help take pressure off of Cade Cunningham, but after missing the end of last year with a broken fibula and the start of this season with a minor knee injury, it kind of seemed like that ship had sailed. He's only averaged 16.8 minutes in 33 games, almost exclusively off the bench, so a trade ahead of restricted free agency this summer made sense. I thought that Detroit might get more for him, but instead Chicago gets a nice test drive before a potential deal.
This is another sneakily nice move by the Bulls to actually take on a little money for once in order to add value. They don't have much need for a veteran like Conley, especially with all of the guards they already have, so I wonder where he might end up. If bought out, it would be cool to see him try for his first ring with his fellow 2007 top-10 picks Kevin Durant and Jeff Green since Houston could use a proven organizer, but I'm just speculating here.
Update: Fischer reports that the Wolves are receiving cash in the deal, so this move is all about financial flexibility, potentially setting the stage for a bigger trade. I'm surprised that they weren't interested in Ivey themselves since they've been looking for guard help all season, but I guess all else is on hold while they pursue the Greek Freak.
