The 2025 NBA trade deadline is set for Feb. 6. And as the days tick away, the rumor mill has been heating up. Below are the latest NBA trade rumors.
Nets don’t plan to pursue Butler this summer
Jimmy Butler, by all indications, has his heart set on the Phoenix Suns. The Miami Heat star is so determined to land in the desert that multiple teams, including the Milwaukee Bucks and Memphis Grizzlies, have reportedly been instructed not to trade for him. There are, of course, a number of obstacles between him and Phoenix, including Bradley Beal’s no-trade clause and his onerous contract, but there’s another that has slipped through the cracks lately: Butler’s limited leverage. For Butler to successfully convince other teams not to trade for him, those teams need to believe he has a plausible way of leaving them for nothing over the summer.
Yes, he technically has a player option for this summer. The problem is that he has no home lined up if he does reach unrestricted free agency. The only team currently slated for max cap space this offseason is the Brooklyn Nets, but according to Marc Stein, the Nets are not planning to pursue Butler as a free agent this offseason. Their plan, which had been previously reported, is to keep their bullets chambered for an eventual run at Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo through trade. Milwaukee is not currently interested in trading its two-time MVP, but at 20-17 with an aging roster, the Nets are betting that he will eventually force the issue.
As for Butler? Without the Nets, he has no obvious landing spot as a 2025 free agent. He could opt out and take a discount to go somewhere else, but considering all of this started in large part because of Miami’s hesitance to give him an extension off of his current, max deal, that seems unlikely. The Suns will surely continue to try to land him, but with no deal in sight and the Nets off the table as a possibility, he may need to make peace with the fact that Phoenix isn’t plausible before the Feb. 6 deadline. At that point, other teams would presumably have a better chance of trading for him.
Suns eyeing Hornets big man
So let’s say the Suns can’t make a Butler deal. Where might they look for reinforcements? How about the Charlotte Hornets, who are seemingly open to dealing athletic big man Nick Richards now that Mark Williams is finally healthy and Moussa Diabate has emerged as a viable backup. Center has been a sore spot for the Suns all season, and that weakness has only gotten worse since they admitted defeat on the Jusuf Nurkic experiment and benched him recently. Richards is not only a younger, more athletic option in the middle, but has a reasonable $5 million salary that even a second-apron team like the Suns could afford to trade for.
The problem for the Suns in this case would be draft capital. Phoenix has only one tradable first-round pick left at its disposal, its unprotected 2031 selection. Is Richards worth such a hefty price tag? Only time will tell, but the cap severely restricts Phoenix’s options for upgrades, so if they aren’t willing to pony up for Richards, they don’t have that many realistic pivots left in front of them.
