3 days Ago By Andy Bailey
NBA training camps are right around the corner. And with a few exceptions highlighted by occasional babbling from the rumor mill, rosters are mostly set. But we know that mill never stops churning.
And the players who find themselves in rumors now probably aren't going to escape it any time soon. As teams all over the league start to trickle back into town for involuntary workouts, it's time to examine those few players whose current situations don't seem all that stable. The best and worst landing spots for each, assuming they're traded, are below.
Best Spot: Golden State Warriors This idea hit the internet last week, when The Athletic's Sam AmIck mentioned the possibility of the Golden State Warriors being interested in Jimmy Butler. It'd be costly to actually make it happen, and the ages of Butler (35) and Stephen Curry (36) would leave the team with a pretty short runway to contention, but it's a possibility that's easy to be excited about. Curry's unparalleled outside shooting would give Butler more room to operate in that short- to mid-range territory he already dominates.
Butler's playmaking and in-between game, in return, would make it harder to sell out on Curry's off-ball movement. There'd be some potential for crowding in lineups with Butler, Draymond Green and Trayce Jackson-Davis (or whatever other bigs are left after the trade), but Golden State has two of the ultimate spacers in NBA history in Curry and Buddy Hield. Worst Spot: Brooklyn Nets Butler and the Brooklyn Nets were already linked this summer, but this union wouldn't have made much sense prior to this year's trade deadline.
After reacquiring control of their own 2025 first-round pick and sending Mikal Bridges to the New York Knicks, Brooklyn should be in teardown mode. The 2024-25 season should be about piling up losses and ping-pong balls for the draft lottery. Of course, if the Nets land Cooper Flagg and maintain the cap space necessary to add Butler to him through free agency, the connection is a little easier to wrap your head around.
This possibility just requires some patience. Best Spot: Los Angeles Clippers Shortly after The Chicago Sun-Times ' Joe Cowley mentioned the Los Angeles Clippers as a possibility for Zach LaVine, ClutchPoints' Tomer Azarly wrote, "the reported interest has not been coming from the LA Clippers' side." Whether that interest is there or not, the connection does make a little sense.
The Clippers lost Paul George in free agency, and because they were over the salary cap, they didn't have a meaningful way to replace him. That leaves the oft-injured Kawhi Leonard and 35-year-old James Harden as the only real dynamic offensive players on the roster. If (or when) either (or both) is out, the attack could get awfully ugly, awfully quick.
And while LaVine has garnered plenty of criticism over the last couple years, he's still just 29, a consistent 20-point-per-game scorer, a high-volume outside shooter and an underrated distributor. As a third option who gets to spread his wings a bit more in Leonard or Harden's absence, LaVine could quickly rehab his value. Worst Spot: Golden State Warriors That game, which is more "hooper" than "basketball player," would be trickier to assimilate into a Warriors scheme that has long emphasized ball and player movement.
There's a lot less "your turn, my turn" in Golden State. And though that offense probably needs some juice, too, LaVine probably isn't the right source of it. Best Spot: Miami Heat If the Heat lose Butler, the wisest path forward might be a slower build focused on Bam Adebayo, Tyler Herro and Jaime Jaquez Jr.
That team already has a pretty intriguing core beyond its superstar. On the other hand, there may be value in taking some pressure off those three. And Brandon Ingram's mid-range game and playmaking game could make him sort of a Butler facsimile.
Of course, he's not quite on the same talent tier, so having Ingram as a potential Butler replacement would require steps up from Herro and Jaquez, but Miami might be stylistically consistent. Worst Spot: Cleveland Cavaliers The Cleveland Cavaliers possibility has floated around the internet for much of the summer, and it's not hard to see why. The Cavs are currently starting two centers in Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen (barring some dramatic development from Mobley), and the New Orleans Pelicans need a center more than any other team in the league.
If the season started today, they might have to start Zion Williamson there. Allen would make plenty of sense at the 5 for the Pelicans, but it's kind of hard to see Ingram's usefulness for Cleveland. As a pure talent play, he doesn't make much more of an impact than Allen (if he does at all).
And his need to have the ball to score or create might make him clash with Donovan Mitchell and Darius Garland. There's already tons of usage tied up in those two, and Mobley's development might require some more too. Best Spot: Memphis Grizzlies Few players make less sense on their team's organizational timeline than Jerami Grant on the Portland Trail Blazers.
They should be devoting as much playing time and reps as possible to Scoot Henderson, Shaedon Sharpe and Deni Avdija, but they have a 30-year-old Grant making $29.8 million this season (on a contract that runs through 2027-28, when he has a player option). There's value in having a veteran presence around a rebuild, but the Blazers should at least be seeing what's out there for Grant.
And one team that would make plenty of sense for him is the Memphis Grizzlies. Right now, they might have to start Ja Morant, Desmond Bane and Marcus Smart at spots 1 through 3. And while that's a pretty versatile trio, it's also small.
Smart, whose contract expires two years earlier than Grant's, could be the veteran presence Portland needs, while Grant would add significant length to Memphis' starting five. Worst Spot: Los Angeles Lakers Grant and the Los Angeles Lakers have been linked to each other for much of this offseason, but spending their limited trade assets there doesn't make much sense. Rui Hachimura is four years younger, makes about half as much money and was arguably more productive last season.
Best Spot: Charlotte Hornets Technically, the best move for Julius Randle would probably just be going from the New York Knicks' starting five to the bench. Obviously, he's a starting-level talent, but New York stumbled into something magical with Jalen Brunson as a heliocentric playmaker surrounded by shooting and defensive versatility. OG Anunoby and Mikal Bridges probably aren't as good as Randle in a vacuum, but they fit that mold a little better.
And as the primary ball-handler and scorer against reserves, Randle could absolutely feast. If Randle can't accept a role like that, or he just doesn't quite fit with the starters this season, New York could look to move him for other players who fit the 'Nova Knicks philosophy a little better. Of course, that means finding teams that make sense for Randle, too, and that's not the easiest task.
Both literally and figuratively, his game takes up a lot of space. He handles the ball a lot. He doesn't shoot well.
But he can put up big numbers in a "force of nature" sort of way, and his volume of scoring and playmaking could take some pressure off a playmaker who may be overtaxed. The Charlotte Hornets probably fit the description of a team in need of what Randle does well, but they also just need talent. And a healthy LaMelo Ball, Brandon Miller and Randle might be able to put them in the mix for a play-in spot.
Worst Spot: Golden State Warriors Again, the Warriors probably just need to make any kind of talent play this offseason, but trading for Randle isn't the one to make. He's productive, but it wouldn't get much more "square peg in a round hole" than Randle's ground-and-pound game in Golden State's read-and-react offense..
