Zach LaVinePhotos by Michael Gonzales/NBAE via Getty Images
But first, a word on what exactly a “trade asset” is for purposes of this slideshow.
If we considered every player in the league to be one, the Denver Nuggets would be in a much different position. Nikola Jokić is the best player in the world, and he’s in his prime. His trade value is immense, but we’re not going to include players like him in this slideshow.
For players, there’s a lot of guesswork in play, in that we’re trying only to include those we can reasonably see being moved between now and February. That doesn’t mean we’re predicting they will get traded, just that there’s a world in which it makes sense.
Teams might also be slightly higher or lower in the rankings below based on the likelihood of a move. For example, the Utah Jazz would be a few spots lower if we thought Lauri Markkanen was staying put. Without giving too much of a spoiler, their current position suggests a decent chance he’s traded.
There’s obviously some subjectivity there, but that’s unavoidable in this exercise.
As for picks, for the most part, we’re not worrying about second-rounders, at least not when listing everyone’s assets. They’re certainly worth mentioning for teams that have already exhausted (or nearly exhausted) their supply, like the Phoenix Suns or Denver Nuggets, but we’ll focus on firsts. They’ve traditionally had significantly more value.
One more thing, the NBA’s Stepien rule doesn’t allow teams to make trades that would leave them without first-round picks in consecutive years. We’re still going to list those seemingly untradeable assets, though, mostly because of pick swaps. For example, the Milwaukee Bucks only have a 2031 first-rounder left (another rule prevents teams from moving picks further than seven years into the future), so they can’t trade it outright. They can, however, give another team with its own 2031 pick the right to swap picks with them that year.
Got it? Phew. Now that we’re all on the same page about what counts, let’s get into the teams themselves.
