The most desperate NBA teams on the deadline for changes

The most desperate NBA teams on the deadline for changes

Two weeks after the deadline of exchanges of February 6, the contestant teams of different levels show how motivated they are to bet.


This is the time of the season of the NBA in which despair can begin to permeate central offices.

Two weeks after the deadline of exchanges on February 6, concerns about job security, contracts and positioning in the playoffs begin to exert pressure. The contenders of different levels show how motivated they are to bet, while some begin to make plans to capitalize both the flexibility and the stellar power of the free agency period of this summer.

With that in mind, this is what we are listening to nine teams that the league decision makers have pointed out as potential players in the final stretch of the exchange season, and how desperate each one is to close a deal.

Desperate for a deal? Where nine teams are recorded

Phoenix Suns

Level of despair: Extremely high

Phoenix, who struggles to position himself in the race for the west play-in, showed how desperate he is when negotiating his first unprotected round of 2031 by three first round selections of lower value: Selection number 29 or 30 of the Draft This year, plus the worst selections of Utah, Cleveland and Minnesota in the Drafts of 2027 and 2029.

Tuesday’s agreement gave the Suns some flexibility in their negotiations now, but at the cost of mortgageing their future even more. Maybe doing so help Jimmy Butler I arrive at Phoenix; Sources said that getting the 35 -year -old striker is still the main objective of the team. But the 2031 selection had a real value in the league: “In my opinion, (it) the most valuable asset in the market at this time,” said Utah general manager Justin Zanik, Wednesday during the jazz transmission -Tuger, which makes it difficult to imagine how this agreement increases the probability that the Suns can convert to Bradley Beal and his non -exchange clause in Butler.


Milwaukee Bucks

Level of despair: High

Bucks have been active this extent season, sources said, and it is expected that Khris Middleton, Bobby Portis and Pat Connaughton are available in possible movements to bring an impact player back. Like Phoenix, Bucks only have their first round of 2031 to redeem, but they also need to part with around $ 6.5 million in an agreement to arrive below the second round to combine players in a exchange.

As the Bucks have demonstrated since they made the exchange of Damian Lillard Last year, they are determined to maximize each part of the title window of Giannis Antetokounmpo. And, with Antetokounmpo playing at a MVP level again this season, Milwaukee hopes to make improvements in the coming weeks to challenge the cavaliers, Celtics and Knicks at the top of the conference, against whom the bucks have a mark of 0-8 this this season.


Miami Heat

Level of despair: Half

Sources from both sides of the Butler saga say there is motivation to close a deal between now and the deadline. The Heat has had conversations with other teams, but so far, the offers that arrive have not included what Miami is looking for: players who can help now, young talent, draft capital and salary that expires in the summer of 2026.

While we have not seen that free agency is an important factor in the league in recent years, that summer could see stars as Kevin Durant, Luka Doncic, brings Young, De’aaron Fox and Jaren Jackson Jr. Become free free agents. With the increase in the salary stop due to the new television agreement of the League, there is at least the possibility that next summer there are several renowned players changing equipment. The Heat is trying to position yourself to get one.

But there is a real possibility that this awkward situation extends to summer. At that time, there will be more paths to find an agreement for a player with Butler’s salary, as well as more teams willing to participate in great success.


New York Knicks

Level of despair: Half

Although the Knicks are on their way to winning 50 games in consecutive seasons for the first time in 30 years and have their best opportunity in a generation of breaking a 52 -year -old titles drought, a topic of conversation throughout the season around the Knicks It has been the large number of minutes played by New York headlines. Four of them are among the top five in total minutes played: Mikal Bridges (1st), Josh Hart (2nd), Og Anunoby (3rd), Jalen Brunnson (5th), while Karl-Anthony Towns It is in the 23rd position. Part of that is due to its availability: Bridges, Hart, Anunoby and Brunson have lost two games together, and Towns has only lost five.

But while that has revived long -standing debates about the trend of coach Tom Thibodeau to rely on his main players, he has also highlighted the lack of depth of New York, something with which the Knicks were prepared to deal with when they decided to acquire Towns on the eve of the training field.

The only real road to change that, according to the sources, is the injured pivot Mitchell Robinsoneither through his return to the court after having lost the whole season so far due to problems in the foot and ankle, or through its inclusion in an exchange.


Memphis Grizzlies

Level of despair: Half

The Grizzlies have returned to the contest after the injuries derail them a season ago, since General Manager Zack Kleiman has gathered quality depth around the star escort Ja Morant.

But that has not prevented Memphis from working on the phone before the deadline. The Grizzlies asked for Dorian Finney-Smith to the Brooklyn Nets, and both parties had extensive conversations before Brooklyn finally made a deal with Los Angeles Lakers. Memphis has the Capital of Draft and medium -level salaries (players such as Marcus Smart ($ 20 million), Luke Kennard ($ 9 million) and John Kontancha ($ 6 million)) to close deals.

The Grizzlies are on the stalking in Butler’s exchange conversations, the sources said, and have been in contact with the Heat during the process. The rival league executives believe that Memphis is trying to combine an influx of talent with the discharge from the future salary to facilitate a contract extension for Jaren Jackson Jr. as soon as this summer.

Butler, in the meantime, has made known that he could choose to get out of his contract this summer and seek free agency. Some sources have theorized that if Grizzlies can acquire it to participate in the playoffs and also release salary space this summer, that is where their interests could be.


Chicago Bulls

Level of despair: Half

Several executives who have spoken with the Bulls this month have described their motivation as “seeking change.” But what does that really mean?

At least, it would serve as a drastic change after three years of inactivity in the deadline of exchanges. The bulls have a protected selection among the 10 best owed to the San Antonio Spurs, but there are currently three “ahead” games of the Spurs -and four ahead of the Heat, Suns and Golden State Warriors– In the column of defeats, and are in the ninth place in general.

No one, for example, would have realistically thought that the philadelphia 76ers were below the bulls in the classification at this point in the season, but it is difficult to see the bulls putting that selection endangered by overcoming the teams that are by In front of them. The bulls have also made known that they will accept offers both for Zach Lavine as for Nikola Vucevicthe sources said, and Lavine is linked to several permutations of multiequipo exchanges extremely complicated by Butler and Vucevic is linked to the Warriors and others, according to our Colega de AM850 Shams Charania.


Brooklyn Nets

Level of despair: Half

For a team in asset acquisition mode, Brooklyn has not yet moved to the player that the league decision makers have labeled as the most likely to be exchanged in the next two weeks: the striker Cameron Johnson.

Johnson has a reasonable contract (approximately $ 65 million during the next three seasons) and is having a race season (19.4 points per game with 41.9% from the line of 3). Johnson has been sitting a lot of time during the last two weeks for a problem in the ankle, a movement that seems very protective and very convenient, from the perspective of the opposing teams. However, some sources said that the price that Nets have offered for Johnson’s services is still high and that they will be content with it if that price is not reached. That is something that Brooklyn has shown his willing Second Round Selections.


Los Angeles Lakers

Level of despair: Low

For the second consecutive season, the two stars of the Lakers have been remarkably healthy, losing a combined total of six games. But there are still 2.5 games of the 11th place in the west.

While Charania reported Wednesday that so much LeBron James as Anthony Davis They are “worried” about the team’s ability to make improvements in the workforce, James himself described the reality of what the team could do about it after Sunday’s overwhelming defeat against the clippers, their city rivals.

“Thus our team is built,” James said. “We have no margin of error … for much error.”

The recent conversations of the Lakers with the teams show few signs of aggression, the sources say, and those actions speak of their level of concern for their stars at this time. The Lakers have shown reluctance to put their future first -round selections in exchanges in recent seasons, and there are no indications that this position has changed. The transfer of D’Angelo Russell It actually made it difficult for Lakers to get a larger agreement because he eliminated from his books a great salary that was about to win. It seems more likely that if a transfer is materialized, it will be in the line of another smaller movement such as the one they did Finney-Smith.


Golden State Warriors

Level of despair: Low

What is the level of despair of the Warriors, who occupy the 11th position? Ask him to Stephen Curry.

“In desperate transfers or in the desperate movements that exhaust the future, there is responsibility to allow or maintain the franchise in a good space and in a good place when it comes to where we leave this when we finish,” Curry said recently. “It doesn’t mean you’re not trying to improve. It doesn’t mean you’re not active …

“Nobody wants to be stagnant or be in a situation where you are letting opportunities pass. But that does not mean that you are desperate for throwing assets everywhere just because you want to do something.”

Would Golden State love make a great impact movement now? Of course. During the last decade, the Warriors have demonstrated their willingness to make a movement for a star, and the sources have said that it has not changed.

What is clear: there is no player available through an exchange at this time to change the fate of Golden State enough to cause a race towards the best six in the west.

Instead of the approach that the Suns are adopting, the Warriors are willing to wait until a true player is available. While they could make a movement similar to the one that brought Dennis Schroder from Brooklyn last month, they have shown little inclination to do something bigger.