The trade deadline is fast approaching—teams have until 3pm today to move players. After a few quiet years in a row, last year was an absolute bonanza, with 10 percent of the league’s players changing teams. So what will happen this year?
An argument for a quiet trade deadline: The Warriors (and Spurs) are so good right now that teams may see any move as being futile, since they’ll just get whooped in the playoffs anyways. And the salary cap is supposed to jump tens of millions of dollars thanks to a new TV deal in the offseason, so most teams will have tons of space to chase players, which should discourage sacrificing assets. There are buyers, sure, but relative parity across both conferences means that they probably won’t be willing to spend much to acquire talent, especially with the cap jumping.
An argument for a crazy deadline: Here are some players who have been mentioned in rumors: Blake Griffin, Kevin Love, Dwight Howard, Al Horford, Mike Conley, Jeff Teague, Pau Gasol. The Warriors (and Spurs) are so good right now that teams that feel their window is now may be willing to make bold moves to build a contender, while others may want to wait out the Warriors reign of terror by ditching veterans and collecting assets (and/or cap space).
Prediction: Regardless of what happens to him, I will still not understand why so many teams are interested in Ryan Anderson.