Feel that? It's the NBA trade winds blowing, fast and furiously, through your hair, gradually yet unrelentingly giving you goosebumps.
Or is it actually the sensation of me holding a portable cold air fan, set to its top speed, right in front of your face?
Who's to say? Either way, we have a fresh, piping-hot of NBA trade ideas ready for delivery.
Speculating this far out from the draft and the end of the playoffs can be tricky. Teams that have already wrapped up their season will be the primary focus, since their intentions seem a little more concrete. Inferences about current/soon-to-be-eliminated playoff squads will still be made, though, because that's how this works.
Assume every one of these deals is completed as part of the new league year, even if they're agreed upon beforehand. That's how we're able to ship out current first-round picks without regard for future draft obligations.
Let's make some waves.
Utah Hits Reset, Part 1
The Trade
Portland Trail Blazers Receive: Rudy Gobert
Utah Jazz Receive: Eric Bledsoe, Keon Johnson, Justise Winslow, 2022 first-round pick, 2025 first-round pick (top-four protection, via Milwaukee), 2025 second-round pick (via Detroit)
Failing a surprising run to, say, the Western Conference Finals, just about everyone expects the Jazz to shake things up over the offseason. That could entail attaching future picks to role players in hopes of prying an impact wing loose from his current digs (Jerami Grant?). Or it could mean what most think it'll mean: a rebuild, or a retooling, around Donovan Mitchell that starts with rerouting Gobert.
This package is a befitting start to their hypothetical teardown. They aren't walking away with a king's ransom, but that's the reality of jettisoning a soon-to-be 29-year-old big who cannot serve as your offensive focal point and is owed another $169.7 million over the next four seasons.
Snagging the Blazers' pick, currently slated to land at sixth, is a big deal. It allows the Jazz to tap into the future with more immediacy. They get a second first-rounder down the pipeline, and Johnson, the No. 21 pick in 2021, parlayed his speed and explosion into some entertaining moments after getting dealt to Portland. Bledsoe's deal must be guaranteed for this to go through, which should be fine with Utah. He and Winslow are both on expiring deals.
The Blazers shouldn't give this a second thought unless they're committed to competing with Damian Lillard. And if they're not going to move him, they need to be. He turns 32 in July. Urgency is intrinsic.
Interim general manager Joe Cronin (or his replacement) will must still beef up the perimeter defense, but Gobert is a generational stopper that counts as a system unto himself. His arrival spells the end for Jusuf Nurkic; the Blazers can explore sign-and-trade possibilities with him in a cap-starved free-agency market. Utah could even try negotiating with him if it prefers adding a big on a new deal to Bledsoe's expiring money.
Utah Hits Reset, Part 2
The Trade
L.A. Clippers Receive: Mike Conley
Utah Jazz Receive: Brandon Boston Jr., Terance Mann, Marcus Morris Sr., 2027 first-round swap
Other deals will invariably follow if (when?) the Jazz move Rudy Gobert. Maybe one will include Donovan Mitchell. But he's 25, with three guaranteed years left on his deal (2025-26 option). Utah seems more likely to keep him and deal everyone else.
Finding secondary trades gets weird fairly quickly. The Jazz have a handful of impact players—Conley, Bojan Bogdanovic, Jordan Clarkson, Royce O'Neale—but none who will command surefire first-round compensation.