20 best players who could be available at NBA trade deadline
By John Buhler
There is usually not a lot of activity heading into the NBA trade deadline, but here are 20 big name players that could be moved before Thursday, Feb. 23.
Given how difficult the collective bargaining agreement makes it for NBA teams to trade, having to match salaries and all, don’t expect an absurd number of moves heading into the NBA trade deadline on Thursday, Feb. 23.
That being said, at least one or two big names will be switching teams in the next few weeks. Some teams are very much out of contention in their respective conference’s playoff races. Others are looking for that one piece or two to better contend for a deep playoff run.
With the 2016-17 NBA trade deadline rapidly approaching, here are 20 notable players that could be moved in the coming weeks. Name recognition and likelihood of being traded are the two components that set this score of players apart from the rest.
Bojan Bogdanovic
Small Forward, Brooklyn Nets
There Brooklyn Nets are living in hard times. They will be last team in the NBA to get to 10 wins on the year, still looking for double-digits entering the middle of February. While they seem to be in good space with the salary cap and have potentially a good front office partnership between head coach Kenny Atkinson and general manager Sean Marks, Brooklyn won’t even have its much-needed draft lottery pick this spring.
That pick belongs to the Boston Celtics via an ill-advised pick swap with the Nets only a handful of years ago. Needless to stay, Marks and the Nets front office will need see if it can’t land any more future assets with the handful of veterans on its lackluster roster.
One player that Marks and Atkinson could conceivably part ways with is small forward Bojan Bogdanovic. The Bosnian jump shooter is a fixture in Atkinson’s starting lineup. Bogdanovic is shooting 36.2 percent on 3-pointers, averaging 14.3 points per game on a terrible team.
Since Atkinson’s speciality is player development, the Nets can afford to part ways with their soon-to-be free agent small forward. Bogdanovic could help space the floor a playoff team in need of efficient jump shooting. Brooklyn could land a second-round pick or a younger player that Atkinson can develop in the coming seasons.