NBA AM: Five Trades That Make Sense

The best possible Christmas gift for NBA fans is a flurry of trade rumors in the month of December, and that’s exactly what we’ve gotten in recent weeks. Big names are being tossed around in trade rumors on an almost daily basis, which is amazing considering the trade deadline is still a full two months away.

While it could be awhile before any actual blockbusters go down, now is a perfectly appropriate time to look at some of the bigger names reportedly on the trading block and what deals might make sense for the teams interested in (or forced into) shopping them.

Of course, Pat Riley has said that Hassan Whiteside isn’t going anywhere, and Danny Ainge won’t come out and say how badly he wants DeMarcus Cousins on his team. The Rockets aren’t likely to trade Dwight Howard unless it’s a no-brainer win for them (or they feel they’ll lose him in July when he can opt out), and the Markieff Morris issues in Phoenix still have plenty of time to be resolved.

Despite all of that, here are five trades that could make a lot of sense if all the names currently in the rumor mill did actually find their way to a new team:

The Sacramento Kings trade DeMarcus Cousins to the Boston Celtics for David Lee, Jared Sullinger and Brooklyn’s 2016 and 2018 first-round picks.

Without actually coming out and saying the name “DeMarcus Cousins” in an interview with a local Boston radio station, Celtics President of Basketball Operations Danny Ainge made it known that his team is looking to buy on the trade market this year and that his number one priority is “a go-to scorer… another player that’s a reliable scorer at the end of games, night in and night out.”

He went on to say that “ideally, it’d be a big man,” qualifying that “it doesn’t have to be,” but we can all read between the lines. There’s no bigger, possibly obtainable talent right now than Cousins and with all of the assets Boston has to offer, they absolutely should go after him hard.

Sacramento is going to want a lot back in exchange for the game’s most talented all-around center, but a package centered on what could be two very high first-round picks and a solid young big like Sullinger is far from the worst they could do. They could also ask for Marcus Smart, which would be a steep price for Ainge, but still one he’d have to consider. Players as good as Cousins don’t come available often, and his acquisition would be a coup for a team seemingly on the brink of big things. They’re just one star away, and that star could be Cousins.

The Miami HEAT trade Hassan Whiteside and Josh McRoberts to the Dallas Mavericks for Dwight Powell and Zaza Pachulia.

As much as Pat Riley says that he intends to hold onto Whiteside, the league-leader in blocks per game and one of better defensive players in the NBA right now, the reality is that it’s going to prove very challenging to keep him considering the HEAT’s cap situation. Whiteside will be an unrestricted free agent in July and Miami doesn’t have his Bird Rights, so they must use cap space to re-sign the big man and can’t offer more money or contract years than any other interested team. The HEAT won’t have the advantages a team typically has when they’re trying to retain a free agent. It’s very possible that Whiteside bolts to another team this summer, so cashing him out for some assets now would be a whole lot better than losing him for nothing by the time July rolls around.

Pachulia isn’t a long-term building block for Miami, but he is among the league-leaders in rebounds per game and is a tough-as-hell veteran that absolutely would hold things down for a Miami team hoping to make it back to the NBA Finals this year. His presence would keep those dreams alive even after losing Whiteside, though the payoff would be considerably shorter-term.

Powell, meanwhile, is one of the league’s more underrated up-and-comers and at times has looked like he could be a very good player in the relatively near future. Getting a piece for now and a piece for the future out of Whiteside is far from a bad deal, and it keeps Miami competitive.

Dallas, meanwhile, gets the borderline All-Star center they wanted (and almost got) this past summer without having to give up any of the pieces on that roster they consider part of their foundation. This gives the Mavericks the chance to show Whiteside what their organization is all about for the remainder of the season, with the hope that he’d be impressed and choose to re-sign this summer. It’s a risky move since there’s no guarantee he’d stay beyond this campaign, but it could pay off in a huge way. And at the very least, Whiteside makes Dallas more competitive this season as a rental and the team didn’t have to give up too much to acquire him.

The Houston Rockets trade Dwight Howard to the Washington Wizards for Marcin Gortat and Nene.

The Rockets only want to deal Howard if they are overwhelming winners in the swap, and this admittedly doesn’t appear to be that. Gortat, who once backed up Howard in Orlando, looked like a burgeoning All-Star at one point in his career, but he has sort of leveled off in the last couple of seasons. He and Nene don’t necessarily represent the sort of haul Daryl Morey would want out of the team’s second biggest name, but it’s still a reasonable return for a guy who has been truly disappointing this season and seems to be struggling as a personality in the Houston locker room. Not to mention, Howard can opt out of his contract after this season so the Rockets could find themselves in the same boat as Miami with Whiteside, wanting to get something back for the center rather than potentially losing him for nothing.

If nothing else, Nene and Gortat keep the Rockets a veteran-laden team but shake things up enough to put some energy back into a club that has fallen so short of expectations. As for the Wizards, Howard is a perfect fit for them defensively assuming he stays healthy, and he could possibly help take the team to the next level as they look to contend in the Eastern Conference.

The New Orleans Pelicans trade Ryan Anderson to the Phoenix Suns for Markieff Morris

There will be plenty of Phoenix Suns fans who look at this proposal and wonder aloud whether Anderson is the best they can get for Morris, a player who looked like a borderline All-Star just a season ago. While Anderson is a great three-point shooter who could be effective in Jeff Hornacek’s offense, he is an older player on the last year of his deal, and our own Eric Pincus is hearing Anderson is poised for a enormous pay day this summer.

I spoke to someone with a non-LA NBA franchise who said he expects Ryan Anderson to be a max player this summer, just based on market

— Eric Pincus (@EricPincus) December 8, 2015

It’s hard to see him as a max guy, but he’s going to pull big money in free agency, probably more than the Suns are going to want to pay to hold onto him. This is a mostly young team that should be looking to add players on the same career arc as Eric Bledsoe, Brandon Knight and the rest of that young core.

With that said, Tyson Chandler is there too, and this team could use a veteran presence like Anderson, even though they already have a couple of stretch bigs in Mirza Teletovic and Jon Leuer. At 27 years old, Anderson could still fit in better than expected, and at this point he certainly would give them more than a disgruntled Morris has this year. It would be easy to see Phoenix hold out for more than Anderson, but they could certainly do worse, while New Orleans has been so bad this season that any sort of change would be a welcome one.

The Minnesota Timberwolves trade Kevin Martin and Adreian Payne to the Memphis Grizzlies for Brandan Wright, Courtney Lee and two future second-round picks.

Easily the least sexy of these hypothetical trades, this one also could be the most realistic of the batch. The reports that Minnesota is shopping Martin make a ton of sense considering they want to give as much playing time as possible to Andrew Wiggins and Zach LaVine, but they’re going to have to find an older playoff team amenable to acquiring a 32-year-old shooting guard with an injury history.

The Grizzlies are pretty much exactly that, and it’s no secret that they really have struggled to get consistent scoring out of the backcourt this season. Martin would help remedy that and also likely would play rather nicely off of starting point guard Mike Conley. The Wolves don’t really need Wright or especially Lee, but the picks would be a nice parting gift for their time with Martin, and the deal certainly would free up minutes for the young guys on the roster.

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Are there other trades that you believe make sense right now? Do any of these five look particularly realistic or interesting to you as the NBA trading season approaches? Throw in your two cents and know that somehow, someway, a big trade is coming, and it could very well be one of the five trades mentioned here.