Useful players contenders can target on the NBA trade market

Most NBA teams have now played somewhere in the neighborhood of 25 to 30 games, which means we’re pretty close to exactly a third of the way done with the regular season. Including the games played last night, 33.9 percent of the 1,230 regular season games have already happened. The season is also now 58 days old, and with the league having moved the trade deadline up by a week, there is almost exactly that same amount of time remaining for teams to decide which players they want to target in order to make improvements before the postseason. (Including deadline day, there are 56 days left on which to make deals.) Being that today is Dec. 15, pretty much every player in the league is now eligible to be traded as well.

Luckily for the teams looking to make playoff-specific improvements, there are already several teams that are clearly not going to be in contention for anything but lottery position; and many of them also happen to have players that can both prove very useful in specific ways, and not clog up your salary cap space far beyond this year — if they have deals that run beyond this year at all. Below, we’ll run through a bunch of those players, and the reasons why they should be attractive to the top teams in the league.

Marco Belinelli, Ersan Ilyasova — Atlanta Hawks (or similar players elsewhere)

Atlanta’s veteran shooters are both working on extremely reasonable expiring contracts. Belinelli is drawing a $6,606,060 salary this season while Ilyasova is making $6 million flat. Playoff teams can always use more shooting, as well as players capable of slotting in at multiple positions.

Belinelli has made 36 percent of his 3s or more in four of the last five seasons, with the lone exception being the year he spent in Sacramento. (Shocker.) He’s canning 38 percent of five attempts per game while coming off the bench for the Hawks, and he could easily slot into a playoff rotation as a designated shooter on a team like, say, the Timberwolves, replacing the minutes that are currently going to Shabazz Muhammad. The Blazers, Pelicans, and 76ers could use shooters like Belinelli as well.

Side note: The Nets’ Joe Harris fits the same mold, and if they team decides it doesn’t want to pay him this offseason, he could be similarly gettable. He’s also only making around $1.5 million, which could make a deal easier or more difficult, depending on the cap situation of the team trying to acquire him.

Ilyasova brings a similar skill set, but in a power forward-sized package. He’s made better than 35 percent of his 3s in four of the last five seasons, and is also shooting 38 percent this year — albeit on 3.5 attempts per game. Stretch bigs are always going to carry value, and there should be several teams interested in his services that closely watch whether he keeps things up over the next eight weeks or so.

Side note: The Suns’ Jared Dudley fits the same mold, but on a more expensive contract that also runs through the end of next season. ($10 million this year, $9,530,000 next year) Dudley’s a better defender than Ilyasova, though, which could make up the difference in salary commitment.

Garrett Temple — Sacramento Kings

Temple has quietly turned himself into a really solid player over the course of the last several seasons. He can play on or off the ball, credibly guard both wing spots and occasionally work against slower point guards as well. (He’d be a good option for a playoff team looking for somebody that can protect against the Warriors repeatedly posting Shaun Livingston for a few possessions in a row and sparking a second quarter run, for example.)

He’s on a affordable deal as well, making $8 million this year with an $8 million player option for next year. That’s not necessarily ideal, but having a versatile player that can start or come off the bench, knock down catch-and-shoot 3s, beat closeouts off the dribble, and chip in with defense and rebounding, it’s a reasonable price to pay.

Sacramento may have thought it could challenge for a playoff spot with the George Hill, Zach Randolph, and Vince Carter signings, but at this point, it’s clear that’s not happening. They may not want to ship Temple out because he’s a great locker room guy and one of several vets teaching the new Kiddie Kings how to be professionals, but if the price is right, maybe you can nab him.

Lou Williams — LA Clippers

For all the same reasons the Rockets snagged Lou last season, someone should try to do the same this time around. The Clips are only a game and a half out of the playoffs as of Thursday morning, but Blake Griffin is still out for the foreseeable future and DeAndre Jordan all but has a “FOR SALE” sign on the back of his jersey. The rebuild-jumpstarting fire sale can and should happen between now and the deadline. Lou could bring back a nice piece from a team looking for a microwave scorer off the bench.

Nerlens Noel — Dallas Mavericks

Noel is still out for a while after having surgery to repair a torn ligament in his thumb, but he should be back in a month or so, which will give him about a month of lead time ahead of the deadline. Considering how the Mavs had been using him prior to his injury (read: almost never) and their seeming total lack of interest in keeping him in the fold beyond this season, the cost to obtain him probably would not be all that high.

He’s making only $4,187,599 on his qualifying offer, and he’s still a 23-year old, 6-foot-11, hyper-athletic big man that has shown himself capable of patrolling large swaths of the floor defensively. At his best, he creates vertical spacing with his hard rolls to the rim — a helpful skill for any team with a pick-and-roll heavy point guard. (That includes almost every team in the league.) There are questions relating to his seriousness about basketball, but if the right team gets its hands on him and puts him into a sizable role, he’s capable of making a significant impact.

Robin Lopez — Chicago Bulls

The piping hot Bulls may never lose again now that Nikola Mirotic is back, but assuming order is restored at some point in the near future, the rebuild should continue apace. The Bulls don’t necessarily seem to know what they’re doing in this rebuilding process (they did sell Jordan Bell to the defending champs for $3 million when they have like four real NBA players on their team, after all), but if they get a clue between now and the deadline, maybe they’ll realize that Lopez is way more valuable to a good team than he is to them.

Next: LeBron's path to the top goes through Houston

RoLo has this year and next left on his contract at a combined $28,146,250, a perfectly reasonable salary for a starting center capable of spending 25 to 30 minutes a night protecting the rim, setting perfect screens, and doing the dirty work on both ends of the floor. There aren’t necessarily any teams that jump out as “needing” a center right now, but injuries happen, and the Bulls should be open to offers if and when they do.