Less Than 31 Days To Go

The 2018 NBA Trade Deadline is February 9, so that puts the league under 31 days before the window to complete trades will come to a close.

With the clock getting a little louder with each passing day, there are a few things worth talking about.

The Knicks Have Choices

Yesterday, word leaked that the New York Knicks are likely going to bring up minor league guard Trey Burke from their G-League affiliate. Burke has been playing incredible basketball and has been eligible to sign with any team in the NBA as a full G-League roster player. Word is his camp was getting serious interest from other teams and basically told the Knicks if they were not going to sign him, they’d sign elsewhere.

The prevailing thought is the Knicks would waive guard Ramon Sessions to open the roster spot to sign Burke. However, the Knicks seem to have been kicking the tires on trades. Word is the Knicks have heard interest on forward Kyle O’Quinn, who holds a player option for free agency and second-year big man Willy Hernangómez, who has fallen out of the rotation in New York.

Sources close to the situation have been saying for weeks that Hernangómez is growing increasingly frustrated that he doesn’t have much of a role in New York. While Hernangómez loves the team and the city, he wants to play, and his camp has been urging the Knicks to make something happen either way—play him or trade him.

There have been reports that the Knicks have heard from playoff teams that are open to the idea of a rental type trade for O’Quinn, which could yield a low-level draft pick.

The challenge in moving O’Quinn is his $4.08 million salary. Most teams can’t absorb that kind of contract money without sending back something, meaning the Knicks would have to take back a player which wouldn’t solve the immediate issue of opening a roster spot.

The Knicks are on the clock in some regards, but they don’t have a hard deadline on Burke. If push comes to shove, they can simply waive a player to open the roster spot, but it seems the Knicks have at least looked at bigger options before pulling the trigger.

The Jazz Want To Add

There has been talk in NBA circles that the Utah Jazz are angling to make some moves before the deadline.

The Jazz are sitting on two sizable ending contracts in Derrick Favors ($12 million) and Joe Johnson ($10.5 million), with NBA insiders saying both could be had before February 9, especially if they return solid younger options.

ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, dropped that the Jazz have eyes for Bulls forward Nikola Mirotic who will become trade-eligible on January 15.

The Bulls seem more than open to the idea, despite how well Mirotic has played. The prevailing thought is if the Jazz were to package some draft picks, along with ending contracts the Bulls might be willing to deal.

The Jazz have also been linked to talks regarding often-injured guard Alec Burks, who has one more year on his deal after this season and has become somewhat expendable with the emergence and dominance of rookie Donovan Mitchell.

With the Jazz four and a half games out of the playoff picture, they seem like a team open for business, especially if it yields talent today.

Orlando Isn’t Sitting It Out

However you’d like to characterize it, the Orlando Magic are open for business.

Sources close to the situation said recently that the team had heard interest on virtually every player on the roster, including their injured guys.

The Magic’s new front office isn’t eager to dump anything, so anything the Magic do will have to be meaningful.

There has been a lot of talk that the Magic would like to move guard Evan Fournier, but they have yet to be offered anything that’s worth doing, according to sources.

The Magic also don’t find draft pick based offers overly appealing, mainly because of the youth on the roster already and the likelihood their own pick will land in the top five. Too much youth, especially mid-to-late first round youth, would likely stall forward progress.

Injuries have defined the Magic’s season, so there is at least some consideration internally that. if healthy, the Magic would be better than their current 12-28 record. But that’s not stopping the Magic for engaging on ideas.

The prevailing thought in Orlando as the deadline approaches is that no one is offering the proven All-Star it would take to pry Aaron Gordon away. Equally, no one is going to bail them out of Bismack Biyombo’s remaining two years and $24 million.

The Magic have arguably some of the more team-friendly deals in the NBA in Fournier, center Nikola Vucevic and injured swingman Terrence Ross. The Magic do not seem eager to cash those favorable chips in unless it returned something significant in terms of a roster upgrade.

The team is absolutely open for business; the problem is the market doesn’t seem to have anything they’d consider doing.

Bucks Looking For Size

The Milwaukee Bucks have been sniffing around for frontcourt help most of the season. They have been linked to Clippers big man DeAndre Jordan, they have been linked to Phoenix’s Tyson Chandler, and it seems they have been kicking the tires on recently waived Laker center Andrew Bogut, according to Gery Woelfel.

The Bucks have been actively looking for frontcourt help in trade, but have found little to no interest in deals built around John Henson.

There is at least a sense that the Bucks would entertain the idea of packing in Jabari Parker (who is expected back soon), but a deal involving the former number two pick would have to solve the frontcourt issues, and that seems unlikely.

With Mirza Teletovic on the shelf indefinitely due to a second occurrence of blood clots in his lungs, the Bucks don’t have a lot of offer in trade for a big salary that wouldn’t include what is deemed a core piece.

The Bucks do have some promising youth in last year’s rookie of the year Malcolm Brogdon (who they like a lot) and the blossoming Thon Maker.

League sources have pegged one or both as needing to be included in anything involving a big-name player, which may be why the Bucks are still on the outside looking in. It also likely explains why they are exploring Bogut—signing him wouldn’t cost them a critical roster piece.

Lakers Are Active

This should not be surprising, but the LA Lakers are active in the trade market.

ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, has been reporting that the Lakers are not only shopping the $11.56 million contract of guard Jordan Clarkson, but they also have pending free agent Julius Randle and forward Larry Nance Jr on the market, as well.

Sources close to the situation caution that the Lakers would rather not trade Nance, Jr., but in order to move off the contract money they are trying to shed, it will take inducement, and Nance seems to be that.

The Lakers have thoroughly explored ways to trade forward Luol Deng and have found almost no interest in a deal that wouldn’t include mortgaging their future first round picks, which is something the Lakers do not seem open to doing.

There has been considerable talk about combining assets with Deng, but league sources said that is not nearly as favorable as some think and that anything like that wouldn’t clear the space the Lakers are looking to clear.

Because the salary cap is only expected to increase marginally next July, there is a prevailing thought that ending contracts are again in demand and coming with a hefty premium for teams hoping to clear cap space.

The Lakers do not appear to be close to a deal with anyone, but they do appear to be one of the teams with notable players that are available. The question is who has the right combination of ending contracts to get something done in LA?

It’s a Soft Market

While there is no shortage of trade chatter in NBA circles–and it will likely only increase next week when the NBA converges on Mississauga, Ontario for the 2018 G-League Showcase–the prevailing thought is there are a lot more teams interested in making a deal than there are players worth dealing for. Most are classifying this as a seller’s market, meaning the teams with assets to trade seem to be asking the moon for them, making it more likely that fewer impact deals get done.

Historically, there are 8-12 deals that happen at the deadline, the majority of those deals are cap “housecleaning” type deals or, as Houston’s Daryl Morey labeled them, “outside the rotation” deals.

At the last deadline in 2017, there were 11 deals that could be characterized as deadline deals, with seven happening on deadline day. Sacramento’s trade of DeMarcus Cousins dropped three days before the deadline and was arguably the biggest deal of the cycle.

At the deadline in 2016, there were nine deals that could be characterized as deadline deals, with seven of them happening on deadline day. Orlando’s deal to send to Tobias Harris to Detroit was arguably the only major transaction of that cycle.

Historically, the majority of deals that matter happen well before the eleventh hour and, based on what’s out there now, this might be another snoozer of a deadline in terms of real roster change.

Basketball Insiders will be dropping a series this week looking at the trade situations for all the teams in the NBA. Trade Watch: The Atlantic will drop today, with Trade Watch: The Southwest slated for tomorrow, so make sure to swing back and check them out all week.

More Twitter: Make sure you are following all of our guys on Twitter to ensure you are getting the very latest from our team: @stevekylerNBA, @MikeAScotto, @LangGreene, @EricPincus, @joelbrigham, @TommyBeer, @MokeHamilton , @jblancartenba, @Ben_Dowsett, @SpinDavies, @BuddyGrizzard, @JamesB_NBA, @DennisChambers_, and @Ben__Nadeau .