The end of the first round of the postseason often marks the unofficial beginning of NBA trade season. The deals don’t come in earnest until later, but the seeds are planted now. Major NBA trades start with unhappy stars. Stars are unhappy when they lose early in the playoffs. We’re in the all-in era, but only one team actually gets to win the championship. Every few years, a couple of the stars playing for the teams that don’t start to get frustrated with their early exits, and rumor season begins.
That’s where we are now. More than half of the league has been eliminated now, and more teams will soon join them. Some of those teams are asking how they can make it further next season. Others are panicking as they try to convince their stars that they can actually do it. The deck is about to get shuffled, so before the chaos begins, let’s take a look at five stars who could be on the move this offseason.
Antetokounmpo tends to get antsy every few years. The Bucks have responded by making a blockbuster deal every time. Jrue Holiday won them a championship in 2020. The Damian Lillard follow-up deal hasn’t been nearly as successful. Now, the Bucks are out of bullets, and Lillard has a torn Achilles. They don’t have another star veteran to trade. They don’t control their own first-round pick again until 2031. They’ve cultivated no youth whatsoever. This era of Bucks basketball, from a competitive standpoint, is over.
The ball is in Antetokounmpo’s court now. If he wants to retire as a Buck, regardless of what that means for him on the court, Milwaukee will gladly allow it. If he decides he wants to go compete for more championships, though, it isn’t happening there. His quotes in the past have hinted that he’d lean towards the latter. Antetokounmpo is only 30, still more than capable of competing for years to come. Every team in the league will ask about him if he does indeed pull the trigger on a trade request.
There’s less mystery here. The Suns made their bed when they shopped Durant to the Warriors at the deadline. He squashed that…
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