The Bucks, Lakers, and Grizzlies are all exploring the trade market for potential deals as they look to address their roster crunches, according to Jake Fischer of The Stein Line and Bleacher Report (Twitter link).
Milwaukee, Los Angeles, and Memphis are the only three NBA teams currently carrying more than 15 players on fully guaranteed contracts. They have until Monday, the day before the regular season tips off, to make the necessary moves to reduce their roster to 15 players on standard deals.
The Bucks actually have 17 players on standard contracts, though Pete Nance’s minimum salary is non-guaranteed, making him one of the two probable odd men out in Milwaukee.
Veteran swingman Caris LeVert is another player to watch for the Bucks, since he’s on an expiring $14.8MM contract and was acquired in a trade that also netted the club a pair of second-round picks (in other words, he wasn’t the primary target in the deal). LeVert has struggled in three preseason games for Milwaukee, scoring just three points on 1-of-7 shooting in 37 minutes while committing seven turnovers.
2024 first-round pick Dalton Knecht has been considered the most likely release candidate for the Lakers if they don’t make a trade before the season begins. He fell out of the rotation in his second NBA season and hasn’t been effective in three preseason contests, scoring 11 points on 3-of-11 shooting with six turnovers in 40 total minutes of action.
The Lakers have reportedly explored the possibility of making a consolidation trade to clear their roster logjam. In that scenario, Knecht, Jaden Hardy, and Jarred Vanderbilt would likely rank among the team’s top trade candidates.
As for the Grizzlies, while they have 16 players on fully guaranteed salaries, a 17th player – Jaylen Wells – is on track to make the standard roster despite not having a guaranteed deal, which means the team will need to trade or waive two players in the coming days. Offseason trade acquisitions Kris Murray and Micah Peavy have been viewed as possible odd men out if Memphis doesn’t make a trade.
As Fischer and Marc Stein (Twitter link) point out, the Hornets and Mavericks are two other clubs worth monitoring, since they would each have to part with a player on a guaranteed contract in order to keep locker-room leaders Pat Connaughton and Dwight Powell, respectively.
While Connaughton’s minimum salary is fully non-guaranteed, the veteran guard is a “Kon Knueppel favorite,” Stein notes, and is well-liked in Charlotte. Still, there are no other obvious release candidates on the Hornets’ roster.
Powell, meanwhile, has a partial guarantee of $1MM that would increase to $1.5MM on opening night and has been with the Mavs since 2014, but retaining him might require the team to part with a promising young player, such as Moussa Cisse, or someone with multiple guaranteed years left on his contract, like Caleb Martin.
