The list of NBA players that might get traded before the 3 p.m. Eastern deadline on Thursday is a long one, according to Milwaukee star Giannis Antetokounmpo.
It includes ... well, basically everybody.
“This is the world we’re living in,” Antetokounmpo said. “It’s a business. You have to understand this. Nobody’s safe. Nobody’s safe.
After this weekend, he might be right.
It's hard to envision a bigger stunner than the first deal that went down over the weekend — Luka Doncic is now with the Los Angeles Lakers and Anthony Davis is now with the Dallas Mavericks, the first time that two reigning All-NBA players were traded for one another in-season. That move overshadowed another one that, under normal circumstances, would have been seismic: De'Aaron Fox leaving Sacramento for San Antonio to join All-Star Victor Wembanyama, with Zach LaVine leaving Chicago for the Kings.
Fox was an All-NBA selection two years ago. LaVine is a two-time All-Star. And when adding in D'Angelo Russell getting moved by the Lakers to Brooklyn in late December, that's five current or former All-Stars that have been traded already this season.
“Normally when you trade a star you get a bunch of junk back," Hall of Famer and NBA analyst Charles Barkley said on NBA TV, reacting to the Doncic-Davis trade. "This is the first time I can remember when you’ve got two All-NBA players traded for each other.”
To Antetokounmpo’s point, if Doncic — the clear face of the Dallas franchise until now, the player who replaced Dirk Nowitzki in that role with the Mavericks, someone who took his team to the NBA Finals last season — can get moved, then yes, it can be argued that any player can get moved.
The Spurs probably won’t be trading Wembanyama anytime soon, especially now that they’ve landed Fox to play alongside the French center. Golden State would only trade a franchise icon like Stephen Curry if he asked to be moved, which doesn’t seem likely. The Lakers’ LeBron James and Phoenix’s Bradley Beal have no-trade clauses, meaning they control their own destinies to a certain extent.
But for everyone else, getting a middle-of-the-night call from a general manager — like the ones Dallas' Nico Harrison tried to place to Doncic in the wee hours of Sunday, all of them going unanswered — is at least possible.
“At the end of the day, and I’ve said this in the past, you get evaluated every single day,” Antetokounmpo said. “You don’t take nothing for granted. Being an All-Star, you don’t take it for granted. Being able to go out there and put on the jersey and represent your team, you don’t take that for granted. Being out there and representing your family, you don’t take that for granted. Every second that you play an NBA game, I love it. I try to play with joy.”
Speaking of joy, or lack thereof, another past All-Star and All-NBA selection in Jimmy Butler is still out there and desperately seeking a way out of Miami. He has as many game appearances in the last month as he does team suspensions — three games, three suspensions.
For Butler to get moved, with Phoenix believed to be his preferred destination, it’s very possible that another All-Star-caliber player — or at least someone with a big salary — would have to be changing addresses as well simply to make the contract math work.
“It’s surprising, for sure,” Philadelphia coach Nick Nurse said of superstar-level players like Doncic and Davis getting traded. “But I think there’s been a lot of stars moving in recent years that we’ve all been surprised by and all that kind of stuff.”
More big things could still happen. Some teams that are out of the playoff hunt, like injury-plagued New Orleans, could make deals to collect assets and think about the future. Others might add a piece or two in an effort to win now.
Nobody knows what other surprises might be looming, especially with a slew of teams that are in the playoff — or play-in — chase thinking about which players could be acquired to help their postseason odds.
“The play-in part of it lets the competition last longer," said Detroit coach J.B. Bickerstaff, whose Pistons are squarely in the Eastern Conference play-in mix. "And more teams are competing for those spots longer into the season. The past, what, four or five years, we’ve had a different champion. So now, everybody feels like they’ve got a shot at it. They're making moves so that they can go and get it. I think that’s great for the league.”
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AP Sports Writer Steve Megargee in Milwaukee and AP freelance writer Matthew DeGeorge in Philadelphia contributed to this report.
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AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/NBA
Tim Reynolds, The Associated Press
