No Untouchables In Bulls’ Trade Talks
Zach LaVine, Nikola Vucevic, and Lonzo Ball have been the Bulls players most frequently cited this season as trade candidates, but head of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas would be open to moving just about anyone on the roster if he thinks the deal is in the team’s best long-term interests and helps Chicago keep its top-10 protected 2025 first-round pick, says Joe Cowley of The Chicago Sun-Times.
Cowley identifies Matas Buzelis as the only exception, but clarifies that the rookie forward isn’t “completely untouchable” either.
The report doesn’t come as a real surprise. Chicago has also reportedly made forward Patrick Williams available, and Cowley suggested last month that guards Coby White and Ayo Dosunmu aren’t off the table in trade talks.
The Bulls also aren’t likely to be especially attached to reserves like Jalen Smith, Jevon Carter, Chris Duarte, Torrey Craig, and Talen Horton-Tucker, while youngsters Dalen Terry and Julian Phillips haven’t established themselves as long-term keepers.
That leaves Josh Giddey, who was viewed as Chicago’s probable point guard of the future when the team acquired him last summer from Oklahoma City in exchange for Alex Caruso. Giddey didn’t sign a rookie scale extension last fall and has had an up-and-down first season as a Bull, but I’d still be a little surprised if he’s moved by next Thursday, given that his value on an expiring contract would be limited.
A source tells Cowley that Karnisovas has come down to some extent on what teams viewed as “unrealistic” asking prices for his top trade chips earlier in the season, though that doesn’t mean he’s simply willing to sell off players to the highest bidder.
Discussing the latest on Vucevic within a trade rumor round-up on his Substack, Marc Stein of The Stein Line reports that the Bulls are still seeking a first-round pick in return for the veteran center. Stein describes the Warriors as “at the front of the line” of Vucevic suitors, but says Golden State has been unwilling to offer more than second-round capital to this point.
As for LaVine, he was at the center of one of the season’s earlier notable trade rumors when a report in mid-December indicated that the Nuggets had real interest in the Bulls guard. However, LaVine has been on a tear since then, further increasing his value by staying healthy and averaging 27.0 points per game on .524/.467/.786 shooting over his past 18 games. Nuggets guard Jamal Murray has heated up too, putting up 21.3 PPG and 5.9 APG with a .485/.404/.913 shooting line during the same time frame.
As Bennett Durando of The Denver Post writes, Murray’s resurgence will likely make “big-game hunting less of a priority” for the Nuggets, while LaVine’s heater will make it more difficult for Denver to meet Chicago’s asking price. So the odds of a trade sending LaVine to the Nuggets look slimmer than they did a month ago.
In case you missed it, we wrote about another Bulls-related rumor earlier today, passing along word that Chicago has talked to the Suns about Bradley Beal.
Pacific Notes: Curry, Fox, Richards, Dunn
Stephen Curry has a right thumb injury, but the Warriors superstar won’t use that as an excuse for his recent subpar shooting, Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN writes. Curry missed all eight of his second-half field goal attempts in a loss to the Lakers on Saturday. He’s averaging 16.5 points per game over his last four outings.
“It sucks, but it’s not an excuse for anything,” Curry said. “Got to play through it. I went 8-for-8 with it [against the Sixers). It’s just something that has been lingering to the point that it gets hit every once in a while. It’s one of those things. It is almost gone, and then it gets knocked again. I will deal with it, but it shouldn’t bother me like it did (Saturday).”
We have more from the Pacific Division:
- De’Aaron Fox has a sprained right thumb but, like Curry, the Kings guard says he can play through it. Fox went 6-of-20 against the Knicks on Saturday and has shot 32% from the field over his last six games. “People can make up the excuse they want,” he said, per Chris Biderman of the Sacramento Bee. “Sometimes you just don’t play well. I’m just missing shots. That’s the way the game goes sometimes.”
- In his fourth game since being acquired by the Suns, Nick Richards had a 20-point, 19-rebound outing against Washington on Saturday. “I’m just taking full advantage of it,” Richards said of his opportunity to be Phoenix’s starting center, per a tweet from PHNX Sports (video link). “It was a great time in Charlotte, I had the most amazing time with some of the best people in the world. But I’m here right now, and I’m taking full advantage of every single thing that the Suns are giving me.”
- Suns rookie forward Ryan Dunn won’t play on Monday against the Clippers. He’s listed as out due to a left ankle sprain, Gerald Bourguet of PHNX Sports tweets. Dunn, who has started 24 games, played just two minutes against the Wizards before suffering the injury.
Warriors Notes: Kuminga, Podziemski, Anderson, Trades, Post
Jonathan Kuminga has been out since January 4 due to a right ankle sprain and the Warriors forward remains weeks away from returning to action, tweets Anthony Slater of The Athletic. According to Slater, Kuminga still has his ankle wrapped and hasn’t been able to do any real on-court work yet.
While Kuminga is around the team and is in “positive spirits,” he may not suit up for Golden State until after the All-Star break, says Slater.
Still, as Slater notes in another tweet, the Warriors’ injury situation on the whole is improving. Brandin Podziemski made his return on Thursday following a 12-game absence due to an abdominal issue and was effective in his first game back, scoring 10 points on 4-of-6 shooting as the Warriors outscored Chicago by 22 points during his 21 minutes. Kyle Anderson has been cleared to return on Saturday vs. the Lakers after missing the past five games due to what the club described as left gluteal bursitis.
Although Kuminga and Draymond Green (left calf strain) remain on the shelf for now, Golden State may have everyone else available on Saturday. Podziemski, Andrew Wiggins (back soreness), and Gary Payton II (illness) are the only other names on the injury report and they’re each listed as probable to play.
Here’s more on the Warriors:
- While the Warriors would love to acquire an impact player via trade, they’re unlikely to make a significant splash at this season’s deadline, according to Tim Bontemps and Brian Windhorst of ESPN (Insider link). ESPN’s duo anticipates Golden State will wait until a “true difference-maker” hits the trade market and expects any move the Dubs make by February 6 to be on the smaller side, like last month’s Dennis Schröder acquisition.
- Mark Medina of RG.org is also skeptical that a major in-season move is on tap for the Warriors.
- Meanwhile, Marcus Thompson II of The Athletic considers whether it makes sense for Golden State to do something bold at the deadline, focusing specifically on Bulls guard Zach LaVine as a potential target, which seems like a long shot to me.
- The Warriors’ staff has “gained increasing belief in recent weeks” that rookie center Quinten Post might be able to address the club’s need for a floor-spacer in the frontcourt, Slater writes for The Athletic. After making three brief appearances in the first 41 games of the season, Post has averaged 11.3 points in 16.0 minutes per night over Golden State’s past three games, making 7-of-18 (38.9%) three-pointers during that stretch. “He picks and pops,” head coach Steve Kerr said. “That means the other team’s big guy has to go with him. That means that defender’s not in the paint. Steph (Curry) was the happiest guy in the building tonight with all that room to work with. The game got a lot easier for all of our guys.”
NBA Unveils 2025 All-Star Game Starters
The 2025 All-Star Game starters were revealed on Thursday during Inside the NBA’s pregame show and confirmed by the NBA on social media (Twitter links).
In the Eastern Conference, a pair of Knicks made the cut, with Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns – in his first season in New York – earning nods. Joining Brunson in the backcourt is Cavaliers guard Donovan Mitchell, while Celtics forward Jayson Tatum and Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo secured frontcourt spots.
Lakers star LeBron James extended his all-time record to 21 consecutive All-Star selections in the Western Conference. Warriors guard Stephen Curry and Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander accounted for the backcourt spots in the West while Nikola Jokic of the Nuggets and Kevin Durant of the Suns joined James as frontcourt starters.
The starters are selected by a weighted voting process with the fan vote accounting for half of the final outcome. The player and media portions of the vote each counted for 25 percent. Three frontcourt players and two guards were selected from each conference.
The reserves, who are picked by the league’s coaches, will be announced on Jan. 30. LaMelo Ball of the Hornets narrowly missed out on being a starter after ranking first in the fan vote, having finished third in player voting and seventh in the media vote. The Spurs’ Victor Wembanyama also barely missed out, finishing second in media voting but fourth for both players and fans.
Luka Doncic, Anthony Edwards, Ja Morant, Kyrie Irving, James Harden, De’Aaron Fox, Devin Booker, Norman Powell, Anthony Davis, Jalen Williams, Alperen Sengun, Trae Young, Damian Lillard, Cade Cunningham, Darius Garland, Tyrese Maxey, Tyler Herro, Evan Mobley and Jaylen Brown are among the names who could be voted in as reserves.
The 74th NBA All-Star Game on Feb. 16 will feature a new format, complete with a mini-tournament composed of four teams and three games. Two teams will meet in a semifinal while the other two will play in another. The victors in each of those games will meet in a final. The winner of each game is the first to 40 points.
The format change means that the 10 players named starters on Thursday won’t be the only players who actually start on All-Star Sunday. The 24 players ultimately named All-Stars will be split among three eight-man teams, with the roster’s drafted by Inside the NBA’s Shaquille O’Neal, Kenny Smith and Charles Barkley.
The draft will air on Feb. 6 on TNT. The fourth team of eight players will be made up of the winning team from the Rising Stars event.
The four teams participating in the NBA All-Star Game will compete for a prize pool of $1.8 million. Each player on the team that wins the final will receive $125,000, while members of the second-place team earn $50,000. Players on the third- and fourth-place teams will receive $25,000.
The full voting results can be found here.
Pacific Notes: Durant, Leonard, Zubac, Post, Schroder, Hield
The Suns’ pursuit of Jimmy Butler has been big news for weeks in NBA circles. They also acquired center Nick Richards last week and made a draft-pick trade with Utah this week, seemingly with an eye toward additional deals.
The best thing the Phoenix players can do is tune out all the trade chatter, Kevin Durant told Duane Rankin of the Arizona Republic (Twitter link).
“It’s just a part of the game now,” Durant said. “We know it’s important. The locker room is sacred. The bus is sacred. Hotel, walkthrough, all that stuff is sacred. It’s stuff we don’t talk about. It’s a brotherhood in here, but we know the noise is going to always be going on around us. As much as we can bunker down and focus on one another, the better we are as a group.
“It’s a business, though. We understand it’s a business. Anything can happen in this business. We traded one our brothers, Josh (Okogie) to Charlotte and that happened pretty quickly. We’ve just got to focus on in one one another and keep grinding.”
We have more from the Pacific Division:
- The Clippers almost defeated the Celtics without four of their starters on Wednesday. Kawhi Leonard, James Harden, Norman Powell and Ivica Zubac all sat out, yet they took the Celtics to overtime (story via The Associated Press). Leonard sat out due to right knee injury management but he has shown flashes of his old self in recent games. He scored 19 efficient points in 24-plus minutes against the Lakers on Sunday. “I’m happy with the progress,” Leonard told Broderick Turner of the Los Angeles Times. “For me, it’s just about how I’m feeling and I’m coming out of the games feeling great. But I still got work to do and we’re going to keep taking each step.”
- Zubac, who missed Wednesday’s game due to an eye injury, is averaging a career-best 15.0 points, 12.7 rebounds and 2.6 assists per night. He’s been a steadying force with Leonard sidelined most of the season. “I’ve been confident in my game. I always knew what I could do. It was just not my role (previously),” Zubac told Janis Carr of the Orange County Register.
- Warriors two-way player Quinten Post got some court time on Wednesday, contributing five points and six rebounds in 15 minutes, Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN tweets. Coach Steve Kerr says he’ll continue to hunt opportunities to play Post, as he gives the offense a different look with his ability to help spread the floor. Kerr moved Dennis Schröder to the bench in favor of Buddy Hield, who contributed 17 points in 25 minutes. Schröder, who had started in his first 17 games since being acquired from Brooklyn, had seven points and five assists in 21 minutes. Kerr wants Schröder on the floor when Stephen Curry is getting a rest and also likes the chemistry between Curry and Hield, Youngmisuk adds in another tweet.
Pacific Notes: Green, Poole, DeRozan, Nurkic, Finney-Smith
Draymond Green offered another apology over the weekend for the punch he threw at former Warriors teammate Jordan Poole during training camp in October of 2022, but he also indicated that he wants to stop talking about the incident, writes Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN.
The latest apology came after Poole and the Wizards visited Golden State on Saturday. Asked about his relationship with his former team following a positive reception from the Bay Area crowd, Poole said he loves “most of those guys over there.” Green understood the message from Poole and posted “I really am sorry” on social media.
“I responded because it’s been three years,” Green said Wednesday on the podcast he hosts with Baron Davis. “Like, let’s move on. We’ve moved on. I really am sorry. That statement [by Poole] was kind of like it was looking for some sympathy … kind of keep on make me out to be the bad guy. Move on, bro. It is what it is. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have punched him. But it happened. Let’s move on.”
The punch marked a turning point for the Warriors, who were coming off an NBA title in 2022. They weren’t able to repair the chemistry of the team, and Poole was traded to Washington after the season.
There’s more from the Pacific Division:
- DeMar DeRozan came to Sacramento to play for Mike Brown, but the Kings fired their head coach in late December. In an interview with Marc J. Spears of Andscape, DeRozan said it’s a first for him in his long NBA career. “That was the first time I ever dealt with the firing of a coach in the middle of the season,” DeRozan said. “It’s new for a lot of the guys who played for him for multiple years. It’s much different from my standpoint of still being new having to adjust to that. It’s hard to process it when you’re still going through it.”
- Suns coach Mike Budenholzer doesn’t believe “benched” is the proper word to use with veteran center Jusuf Nurkic (Twitter video link from Duane Rankin of The Arizona Republic). Nurkic was removed from the starting lineup on January 6 and hasn’t played since the following night. He’s currently getting back into game shape in Phoenix following a bout with the flu. “It’s a long season,” Budenholzer said. “He didn’t play a couple of games and now he’s been sick. He’s home reconditioning. We’ll see how he comes through when we go back.”
- The Lakers have relaxed their minutes restriction for Dorian Finney-Smith, whose playing time has been limited by an ankle issue since he arrived in a trade with Brooklyn last month, per Khobi Price of The Orange County Register. Coach J.J. Redick talked Tuesday about the difficulty of getting Finney-Smith comfortable with his new teammates. “It’s been hard because he’s been on a minutes restriction since we got him, so just having to kind of navigate that and try to save him, save those like four or five minutes for the end of the game, it’s been challenging,” Redick said. “We got word [on Tuesday] that we can up his minutes from 20 to 24. So that helps, that helps.”
Pacific Notes: Warriors, Curry, Green, Sabonis, Beal, Nurkic
The Warriors endured a 40-point beatdown at the hands of the Celtics on their home floor on Monday and they admit that the 2022 Finals, in which they defeated Boston, feels like ancient history, Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN writes.
“Yeah, we have an entirely different roster pretty much, obviously,” Stephen Curry said. “Especially without Draymond [Green] out there (due to injury). But you look [at what] they have, besides [Kristaps] Porzingis, they have pretty much the whole rotation still, and they are the defending champs. So, they’re coming in with a level of confidence and swagger about ’em, and it’s the exact opposite of what we have right now. So yeah, obviously great memories, but definitely feels like a long time ago.”
“Seems like an eternity ago,” Warriors center Kevon Looney added. “We have had a lot of iterations of the team since then. Each season brings on a new challenge. That year seems further and further away. But hopefully, we can get back to that feeling of being a champion. But we got a long way to go.”
We have more from the Pacific Division:
- Is it time for the Warriors to hit the reset button? Kevin O’Connor of Yahoo.com endorses that approach, saying they should look to deal Curry and Green while they still have a lot of value. O’Connor explores a number of trade possibilities involving Atlanta, Houston, Detroit, the Lakers and Orlando to demonstrate what the return could be for each player.
- Domantas Sabonis has knocked down 48.4 percent of his 3-point attempts this season, far above his 34.9 percent career average. The Kings big man told Jason Anderson of the Sacramento Bee that he has gradually developed his long-range game. “It’s something I’ve been working on ever since I started playing basketball,” Sabonis said. “Sometimes it doesn’t happen overnight. You’ve got to keep doing it one summer, another offseason, another offseason. You just hope at one point you’re going to break through, and so far this year it’s been going in, so I’ve just got to keep sticking with it and shooting with confidence.”
- The Suns list Bradley Beal as questionable to play against the Nets on Wednesday due to a left ankle sprain (Twitter link). Beal returned to action on Monday at Cleveland after a two-game absence but contributed just five points and four assists in 25 minutes. Jusuf Nurkic, who last played on January 7, remains out due to “return to competition reconditioning.”
Community Shootaround: Western Conference Playoff Race
Of the 15 teams in the Western Conference, only two are clearly focused more on the 2025 draft lottery than the 2024/25 standings. The 10-31 Jazz and 14-28 Trail Blazers don’t have realistic postseason aspirations this season, with management prioritizing the development of young players and the possibility of landing another high draft pick.
Those two teams are sandwiching the 12-32 Pelicans, who definitely didn’t expect their season to play out like this. Plagued by injuries since top offseason acquisition Dejounte Murray broke his hand on opening night, New Orleans has won its past four games but likely dug too deep a hole in the first half to seriously vie for a play-in spot this season, even if the roster gets (and stays) fully healthy.
Still, that leaves 12 teams in the hunt for eight playoff spots in the Western Conference.
We can safely pencil in the Thunder for one of those spots — and it will almost certainly be the top one. At 35-7, Mark Daigneault‘s squad has a seven-game cushion on the next-best team in the conference.
The Rockets (28-14), Grizzlies (28-15) and Nuggets (26-16) round out the current top four in the West and appear well positioned to claim playoff berths. That’s not necessarily a lock, given how competitive the conference is — a single injury could be all it takes for one of those teams to fall back to the pack. But they’re in strong positions.
After the top four, things gets interesting. Here are the current Western Conference standings from five through 12:
- Los Angeles Clippers (24-18)
- Los Angeles Lakers (22-18)
- Dallas Mavericks (23-20)
- Sacramento Kings (22-20)
- Minnesota Timberwolves (22-21)
- Phoenix Suns (21-21)
- Golden State Warriors (21-21)
- San Antonio Spurs (19-22)
These eight teams are separated by a total of 4.5 games. The gap from No. 6 to 11 is just two games. A five-game winning streak or losing streak for any of these clubs could significantly change the perception of how their season is going.
To that point, as recently as January 4, the Kings were 12th in the conference at 16-19, while the Spurs were in eighth place at 18-16. A Sacramento hot streak and a San Antonio cold spell have resulted in those two clubs swapping places in the standings just seven games later.
The Spurs are probably a little ahead of schedule in their rebuild and didn’t necessarily expect to make the postseason this year, so if they continue to slump, it wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world for them. But the rest of the clubs listed above had serious playoff aspirations this season. The Clippers, Lakers, Mavericks, Timberwolves, Suns, and Warriors are all spending into the tax on their rosters, and the Kings aren’t far off.
Barring a major collapse from one of the top four seeds, one of these clubs (or two, if San Antonio sticks around) will finish outside the top 10, missing out not just on the playoffs but on the play-in altogether. Two more will be eliminated in the play-in tournament and will fail to clinch one of the eight playoff spots in the West.
What happens at the trade deadline could go a long way toward determining how this race plays out down the stretch, but we want to know what you’re thinking at the halfway point of the season.
Which teams do you expect to finish outside of the top 10 in the West? Which teams will be eliminated in the play-in? Which clubs besides the Thunder are the most serious contenders to represent the conference in this year’s NBA Finals?
Head to the comment section below to weigh in with your thoughts!
Windhorst: Recent ‘Uptick’ In Jimmy Butler Trade Talks
Jimmy Butler has appeared in two games for the Heat since his team-imposed seven-game suspension ended last week, but the front office hasn’t slowed its efforts to find a trade involving the disgruntled star. In fact, ESPN’s Brian Windhorst suggested on the latest episode of his Hoop Collective podcast (YouTube link) that Miami has actually gotten more serious within the past few days about trying to get a deal done.
“Since Jimmy had his meeting with (team owner) Micky Arison on Thursday, there is no doubt an uptick in discussions around Jimmy Butler,” Windhorst said. “The Heat shifted into a new gear after that meeting.
“I even had a team on Friday call me and say… ‘Hey, we were just talking to a couple teams. We’re trying to dump a salary. And they all of the sudden had to end our phone calls to do something bigger, they said. What’s going on?’ And I go, ‘Well, I don’t know.’ But I speculate that it has to do with Butler. And not just a direct Butler trade, but three- and four-team trades. The point is, I do think the Heat are actually trying.”
The Heat still have over two weeks until the February 6 trade deadline to try to figure something out, and there’s reportedly no shortage of clubs expressing interest in potentially getting involved as facilitators in a three- or four-team scenario.
However, as has been well chronicled in recent weeks, moving Butler is a challenge due to his salary ($48.8MM), contract situation (he holds a $52.4MM player option for next season and reportedly wants an extension), and age (35). Many of the teams rumored to be most interested in the veteran forward, including the Suns, are most restricted in their ability to offer the sort of pieces Miami would want, including win-now players on short-term contracts.
Any Phoenix deal for Butler would almost certainly have to involve guard Bradley Beal, who has an even pricier cap hit than the Heat star and is under contract for two more seasons beyond this one, which isn’t appealing to Miami. That means the two sides would have to find a third team willing to take Beal, who in turn would have to sign off on the deal due to the no-trade clause in his contract.
According to Fred Katz of The Athletic, the Suns still haven’t asked Beal for his thoughts about any potential trade. A source familiar with Beal’s thinking confirms to Katz that the three-time All-Star would consider waiving the no-trade clause for the right situation, adding that winning would be his top priority in that scenario.
When Beal was traded from the Wizards to the Suns back in 2023, he was also open to the Heat, as well as West Coast teams like the Warriors, Kings, Lakers, and Clippers, says Katz, but none of those clubs appear to be likely suitors at this point.
Draymond Green Out At Least One Week With Calf Strain
Warriors forward/center Draymond Green has been diagnosed with a mild left calf strain and is expected to be reevaluated in one week, reports Anthony Slater of The Athletic (Twitter link). The team has officially confirmed Slater’s reporting (Twitter link).
As Slater notes, that means Green will miss at least Golden State’s next four games, including Monday’s matchup with the defending champion Celtics. He’ll also be unavailable for games vs. Sacramento (on Wednesday), Chicago (Thursday), and the Lakers (Saturday) before being reexamined.
Green, who previously missed three consecutive games due to a back injury and an illness, made his return on Saturday vs. Washington, but was on the court for just three minutes before sustaining a first-quarter calf injury that sidelined him for the rest of the night.
Green has averaged 8.4 points, 6.0 rebounds, 5.5 assists, and 1.1 blocks per game through 34 contests this season for the Warriors. As usual, his impact goes beyond the box score — Golden State has a +3.9 net rating during his time on the court and a -3.0 mark when he’s not on the floor.
Buddy Hield and Gui Santos earned starts during Green’s absence, but it will be Gary Payton II elevated to the starting five on Monday vs. Boston, tweets Slater. Moses Moody has also played an increased role as of late and should continue to see regular minutes with Green on the shelf.
In more positive Warriors injury news, Stephen Curry will be active on Monday after spraining his left ankle in Saturday’s game.