Draymond Green: Things are great between Steve Kerr and me (2:18)Draymond Green explains his argument in the middle of a timeout with Warriors coach Steve Kerr. (2:18)
Howdy Partners: The Spurs’ trio of guards leading them up the West, plus AD intel in Dallas
Hoop Collective: Are the Spurs officially contenders?
Can the Nuggets make a move to help deal with their injury issues?
Hoop Collective: How the NBA is approaching tanking and Boston’s potential this season
Bucks are looking to add ahead of the trade deadline
Hoop Collective: Can the Cavaliers turn around their season? And OKC stumbles
Hoop Collective: The first MVP straw poll of the season
Giannis says agent talk with Bucks out of his hands
Mitchell and Mobley the only ‘untouchables’ on the Cavaliers’ roster
Howdy Partners: Similarities between the Spurs and Rockets and Flagg’s historic performance
The Bulls front office has discussed the possibility of adding Anthony Davis
The NBA trade deadline is Feb. 5 at 3 p.m. ET, and we have you covered on all the buzz around the league as the 2025-26 season heats up.
From a 12-time All-Star leaving his team to franchise stars weighing their options, this season is already delivering the drama … and we haven’t even hit Christmas Day. What could happen in the days and weeks before the deadline? While there hasn’t been a trade just yet — the unofficial kick off to trade season happened on Dec. 15, with nearly 90% of players becoming eligible to be moved — it’ll get only hotter from here.
Check back here for all the latest trade buzz, news and reactions from our ESPN NBA insiders, with the latest info at the top:
Quick links: 30 questions | Who can be traded? | Transactions Depth charts | More trade deadline coverage
On ESPN’s “Howdy Partners” podcast, Tim MacMahon and Michael C. Wright discuss the Spurs’ ongoing eight-game winning streak, which included three wins over Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the Oklahoma City Thunder, and how it’s being fueled in large point by their defense.
The duo then pivots to the latest on Dallas Mavericks star Anthony Davis, who has already missed 16 games this season and on Christmas Day suffered a minor groin strain and will miss a few more, sources told ESPN.
“It just reinforces, unfortunately, that AD is not a guy you can rely on,” MacMahon said. “This does not help the trade market for him, obviously, because it’s just a blatant reminder to the rest of the league as well.
The Nuggets are now down three starters, with Cameron Johnson joining Aaron Gordon and Christian Braun on the injured list. Johnson suffered a right knee injury on Tuesday and will be reevaluated in four to six weeks, sources told Shams Charania. The injuries will test the resolve of the Nuggets’ rookie front office, which is led by Ben Tenzer and Jon Wallace.
For short-term relief, Denver has an open roster spot to sign a player or could wait until Jan. 5, the first date a team can sign a player to a 10-day contract. The Nuggets also have two trade exceptions ($6.9 million and $5.4 million) available to use in a trade. Because the exceptions were created after July 1, they are allowed to use either exception and still exceed the first apron.
Denver is $402,000 above the luxury tax, and signing a player or using the exception further will put it over. For a fourth straight season, the Nuggets are projected to pay a luxury tax penalty. The one thing they do not have available is draft capital. They sent their last available first-round pick to Brooklyn to acquire Johnson in June and have only two second-rounders. — Bobby Marks
The Milwaukee Bucks have lost three in a row and are three games out for the final play-in spot in the East. Despite their struggles in the first quarter of the season and speculation around the future of Giannis Antetokounmpo, Milwaukee is looking to add players ahead of the trade deadline. Multiple teams at the G-League showcase in Orlando confirmed to ESPN that the Bucks have been canvassing the league looking at trades that can improve their roster.
Milwaukee has one first-round pick available to trade, either in 2031 or 2032. It has a 2026 second-rounder from Utah, but that pick is unlikely to convey because it is protected Nos. 31-55.
Brian is joined by ESPN’s Tim Bontemps and Tim MacMahon to discuss Bontemps’ first MVP straw poll of the season, including Victor Wembanyama’s potential in the MVP race, the newcomers on the list and the historic race between Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Nikola Jokic at the top of the poll.
Milwaukee Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo told reporters that he’s “locked in” on the Bucks and that any trade conversation is between his agent and the franchise.
“At the end of the day, I personally have not had the conversation with the Bucks. I’m still locked in, locked in on my teammates, most importantly locked in on me getting back healthy.”
ESPN’s Shams Charania reports that the Cleveland Cavaliers have been getting “a ton of incoming calls from on their players” as the team’s struggles have continued.
“When I talk to rival teams, Donovan Mitchell and Evan Mobley are really the two untouchable players on this roster,” Charania said on NBA Today.
The next month will influence how aggressive Cleveland is ahead of the trade deadline, per Charania.
ESPN’s Tim MacMahon and Michael C. Wright cover the recent NBA news across the state of Texas, including the San Antonio Spurs’ recent win over the Oklahoma City Thunder in the NBA Cup semifinals and the comparability of the Spurs and Houston Rockets. The hosts also discuss the consistently historic performances of Cooper Flagg and his case for the best season from an 18-year-old in NBA history.
Brian is joined by ESPN’s Tim Bontemps and Tim MacMahon to discuss the New York Knicks winning the NBA Cup over the San Antonio Spurs on Tuesday night. They also break down what the Spurs showed the rest of the league during their run to the Cup final before moving on to big updates from NBA commissioner Adam Silver on NBA expansion, the potential future of the NBA Cup and the Terry Rozier investigation. They close on the recent impressive play of Cooper Flagg.
The Dec. 16 deadline for teams to trade for a player and then aggregate his contract prior to the Feb. 5 deadline came without any transactions.
Unlike last December, when Brooklyn traded Dennis Schroder to Golden State, there were no trades. Because the Warriors acquired Schroder prior to the deadline, they were allowed to trade him again without any restrictions. Schroder was sent to Detroit as part of the Jimmy Butler blockbuster. Going forward, players are not allowed to be combined with additional salary in a second trade. — Bobby Marks
San Antonio has the right to swap first-round picks with the Atlanta Hawks in June’s draft and has an unprotected first-rounder from the Hawks in 2027. The Spurs can also swap with the Boston Celtics’ first-rounder in 2028 (if 2-30), swap with the more favorable first-rounder between the Dallas Mavericks and Minnesota Timberwolves in 2030 (if 2-30) and swap with the Sacramento Kings’ first-rounder in 2031.
The Knicks’ only tradeable first-rounder is from the Washington Wizards in 2026, but only if the pick falls outside the top 8. (The pick will become second-rounders in 2026 and 2027 if not conveyed.) — Bobby Marks
But endings are rarely clean or painless in the NBA. And this one — for both player and team — was born out of the most flammable combination in sports: misconceptions and dysfunction.
The reunion was more than simply doomed from almost the beginning; it might also serve as foreshadowing of a future for the Clippers even more challenging than their present.
Will the Dallas Mavericks look to trade Anthony Davis? What will it take to acquire Giannis Antetokounmpo if the Milwaukee Bucks open trade talks for the two-time MVP? Those are two of the many questions NBA front offices will need to discuss leading up to the Feb. 5 trade deadline.
And with Monday marking the unofficial start of trade season — nearly 90% of the players are eligible to be moved — those questions will begin to be answered.
The three then discuss the Knicks as elite contenders in the East as well as the struggling Cleveland Cavaliers before Brian details his travels last week.
The trade season expanding on Dec. 15 was a primary topic on Brian Windhorst’s The Hoop Collective podcast on Friday. Will there be any action in December?
“Eighty-two players starting on Monday are eligible. December is relatively somewhat of a quiet month, tradewise,” Marks said. “Certainly we start hearing more rumors, but we had a trade last year on the first day players were eligible and Dennis Schroder was traded from Brooklyn to Golden State.
“And I think going into Monday we’ll have eyes on Chris Paul as far as to figure out … if it eventually gets resolved here. But I think the total number is 90% of the NBA is trade-eligible as of Monday.”
Dereck Lively II, Dallas’ starting center, will undergo season-ending surgery to address lingering discomfort in his right foot, ESPN’s Shams Charania reported Wednesday. The news comes after Lively had surgery in July to clean out bone spurs in the same foot.
Several teams are expected to be interested in trading for Anthony Davis, including the Detroit Pistons, Atlanta Hawks and Toronto Raptors, sources told ESPN’s Shams Charania.
Dallas is open to exploring trades for Davis as well as veteran guards Klay Thompson and D’Angelo Russell, per sources.
The Mavericks are currently 10-16 and holding on to the last play-in spot in the Western Conference.
The Warriors will be open to discussing trades for Jonathan Kuminga when he is eligible to be moved on Jan. 15, sources told ESPN’s Shams Charania. Golden State hopes to improve the roster and Kuminga’s $22.5 million salary could lead to a larger trade haul.
Sources told ESPN’s Shams Charania that the Pacers are in the market for a center after losing Myles Turner to the Milwaukee Bucks during the offseason.
The Kings and first-year general manager Scott Perry are open to trade talks throughout the roster, sources told ESPN’s Shams Charania. Teams around the league are keeping their eyes on veterans Domantas Sabonis, Zach LaVine and DeMar DeRozan, as well as 25-year-old guard Keon Ellis.