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Welcome to this week’s edition of What We’re Hearing, NBA Trade Deadline edition. Each week leading up to the Feb. 5 deadline, I, along with our other league insiders and beat writers, will give you the latest trade intel and insight from around the NBA. Here’s last week’s edition.
This week, we tackle Ja Morant’s actual trade value, the potential impact of Bucks fans booing Giannis Antetokounmpo and more.
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The hottest question in the league this week
Who really wants Ja Morant? Does anyone?
There was a shocking development in the NBA this week: Professional basketball players do, in fact, enjoy the city of Miami.
Who knew?
Yet when it comes to fallen Memphis Grizzlies star Ja Morant and his known interest in playing for the Heat, it’s not really about what he wants so much as it is about what Miami — or any other interested team — might actually want to give up to get him.
And in the interest of full journalistic transparency, that’s the biggest challenge with rumor-mill reporting this time of year. There is a big difference between a team being intrigued by a player and legitimately pursuing him, even if that doesn’t always get conveyed in the intel that makes its way around the league this time of year.
Morant is a great example of this dynamic. The initial ESPN report about his availability was met almost instantly with an unofficial list of teams, from a number of outlets, that appeared to have interest. Truth be told, though, that doesn’t tell you whether or not a deal might truly be possible with any of the teams that get mentioned along the way.
Take the Heat, for example.
While it’s certainly interesting that Morant reportedly bought a $3.2 million house in the Miami area a few weeks ago, and that the Miami Herald reported on Wednesday about the Heat having “preliminary discussions” with the Grizzlies on a deal, that still doesn’t clarify whether Pat Riley, Andy Elisburg and the rest of the Heat’s stakeholders are willing to give Grizzlies general manager Zach Kleiman what he’ll be seeking. Especially considering Memphis’ messaging in the lead-up to the Morant sweepstakes tipping off.
In the wake of the Grizzlies trading Desmond Bane to Orlando in a June deal that landed them four first-round picks and a first-round swap (in addition to Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Cole Anthony), league sources say Kleiman indicated that — if he ever were going to trade Morant — it would require serious draft capital in return. And considering the Bane context, one can imagine how that framing was received by rival teams.
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With that in mind, one could understand why the possible price point for Morant right now remains a mystery of sorts. As related context, let’s remember the Atlanta Hawks just sent four-time All-Star Trae Young to the Wizards for an aging, though still impactful, CJ McCollum (now 34) and fifth-year small forward Corey Kispert, with no picks to speak of.
That’s why, admittedly, sharing the list of potentially interested teams is often just a small part of the tale.
To cite another alleged suitor, team sources say the Sacramento Kings would only do a Morant deal if it didn’t involve giving the Grizzlies any significant draft capital. That’s … sort of a big obstacle. What’s more, it appears the Kings — who insist they’re not currently pursuing Morant — don’t see him as a good fit for their current timeline. (If you haven’t noticed, that roster needs a whole lot of work.)
From Milwaukee to Minnesota (both of which I’m told are unlikely) and beyond, there are surely other versions of this same story elsewhere around the league. Toronto is also floating in league circles as a possibility, though the Raptors are tied to a number of high-profile situations (among them Anthony Davis’ in Dallas). But draft capital has become a precious commodity in the Association these days. And the Grizzlies’ desire for it could make finding a move quite challenging.
If you’re the Heat, Timberwolves or Raptors, there’s another huge factor to consider too — a 6-foot-11, 243-pound one, to be exact. Giannis Antetokounmpo’s unstable situation in Milwaukee is widely expected to escalate (again) in the offseason, and it would be ill-advised for any potential suitor to give up any assets in another trade now that might come in handy later. Miami, by the way, is often mentioned as a place Antetokounmpo would be amenable to landing.
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All of which takes us back to Morant’s list of favorite cities. And amid all the smokescreens on that front, this much seems clear: Berlin didn’t appear to be one of them.
Whether it was his press-conference interaction with our Joe Vardon about his uncertain Grizzlies future, or his apparent disagreement with teammate Vince Williams at shootaround, Morant did not seem to enjoy his short time in Germany. Most of all, the fact that he didn’t play made the optics surrounding his trip so much worse. While Morant had a calf bruise, Vardon reported that Morant, per league sources, “suggested to at least two teammates, and other NBA players, that he wouldn’t play for Memphis anymore.”
Yikes.
For the purposes of this international trip, which featured Morant as the promotional Grizzlies face on the Amazon Prime poster, this is the sort of thing that surely frustrates the league office (commissioner Adam Silver, in fact, said he was “disappointed.”). For the Grizzlies, who must now find a way to extract real value out of a Morant deal, none of this negativity helps.
Giannis boos back
Right about the time you thought we could (finally) stop talking about whether Giannis Antetokounmpo might get traded before the deadline, with the Bucks star telling me on Jan. 7 that he has no plans of pushing his way out anytime soon, there’s this.
Bucks fans, just six days later, booed their home team so loudly during a blowout home loss to Minnesota (without Anthony Edwards and Rudy Gobert) that their beloved franchise centerpiece responded in kind.
“I was definitely booing back,” Antetokounmpo said. “When I get booed, I boo back. I’ve been doing that all season. You guys haven’t been with me on the road. Whenever I get booed, I boo back.”
Does this change anything with the relationship between Giannis and the Bucks? Only he truly knows. But as former NBA player Chandler Parsons put it on FanDuel’s Run It Back, “Bad idea, Milwaukee.”
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Now is not the time to take the big fella for granted. While Antetokounmpo might have said in that aforementioned interview that he’ll never ask for a trade, he also spent quite a bit of time discussing the reality that human beings tend to change their minds from time to time.
Breaking: Giannis likes scrambled eggs (as of today). https://t.co/uWUQmGmlW0 pic.twitter.com/IzxhiXAuJT
— Taco Trey Kerby (@treykerby) January 8, 2026
Then came Thursday night, when the Bucks (17-24) dropped their third consecutive game in humbling fashion — 119-101 at San Antonio, where the Spurs led by as much as THIRTY … NINE … points.
League sources say Milwaukee, which is now 2 1/2 games out of Play-In Tournament position, remains focused on improving its roster around Antetokounmpo rather than entertaining the prospect of trading him. But the fact remains that the two-time MVP desperately wants to compete for another NBA title, something this Bucks team looks utterly incapable of doing.
Adding boo-birds to the mix only makes matters worse, even if Bucks basketball has been really, really bad of late.
The Kuminga Konundrum
So despite the widespread Warriors fan exhaustion that comes with the Jonathan Kuminga story, which dominated the headlines in the summer and really never stopped, we published a behind-the-scenes piece on the situation Thursday that came in around 4,000 words.
Sorry, not sorry.
But of all the insight and intel that we uncovered, it was this anonymous quote from a Warriors player that I thought captured the conundrum best.
“What’s that, $33 million just sitting on the bench, not playing?” one player said in reference to Kuminga and veteran Buddy Hield.
It’s $31.7 million this season, but who’s counting?
As owner Joe Lacob, general manager Mike Dunleavy and all the rest of the Warriors’ front office decision-makers approach Feb. 5, it’s still hard to imagine them not finding a new home for Kuminga, if only because of the harsh truth that player highlighted. They desperately need players who actually play, and produce, for the home stretch of Steph Curry’s 17th season.
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So while I understand the Warriors won’t do a deal for the sake of doing a deal, with team sources making it clear that they’ll hold onto him past the deadline if there’s nothing they like available, there will be an unavoidable uptick in angst from all parties — fans, Warriors players, Kuminga’s camp et al — if that scenario actually comes to pass.
More from my colleagues this week
A fake trade enters the news cycle
By Joe Vardon
In an entirely different set of circumstances from the ongoing Morant saga, Memphis Grizzlies big man Jaren Jackson Jr. was mentioned as a trade candidate for the Los Angeles Lakers by LeBron James’ agent, Rich Paul.
Paul floated the idea of the Lakers acquiring Jackson (to pair with Luka Dončić) via trade for Austin Reaves on his podcast.
Jackson said he saw Paul’s proposed trade and laughed it off.
“There’s just a lot of podcasts,” Jackson said. “At first, I didn’t think it was real. You have to figure out if it’s real, usually now, and I’m not as versed technology-wise as these people younger than me. I was figuring out if it’s AI, deepfake, all that stuff. That’s all I had, I didn’t really have much of a reaction.”
A Lakers source told The Athletic that Reaves didn’t pay much attention to Paul’s comments, but one of Reaves’ agents approached Paul at halftime of Tuesday’s game against the Atlanta Hawks to discuss.
What if Minnesota doesn’t need to do anything?
By Jon Krawczynski
The Timberwolves have been combing the trade market for weeks, evaluating possibilities both big and small. At this point, making a major move for a player like Morant or LaMelo Ball is highly unlikely, team sources told The Athletic, for several reasons. The Wolves are just a few million dollars under the second apron, a threshold they are determined to avoid in 2025-26 so they don’t have to deal with the most severe roster-building penalties for repeat big spenders. They are also concerned about liquidating their depth to match salaries for a star player, sources said.
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It seems more likely that general manager Tim Connelly will look to add a bench piece, a wing or a ballhandler who can help take some of the pressure off Anthony Edwards late in games. If youngsters Joan Beringer and Bones Hyland play like they did in Tuesday night’s surprising blowout win over the Milwaukee Bucks, those needs become less acute.
“We don’t need anything,” one player told The Athletic in the middle of the party after Tuesday’s win. “We’re a really, really good team.”
The latest on Anthony Davis
By Christian Clark
Anthony Davis will not have surgery on his injured left hand and “is expected to heal” from the injury in about six weeks, the team announced Tuesday night.
While there’s interest from several teams in trading for a healthy Davis — we reported last week that the Atlanta Hawks and Toronto Raptors are two of those teams — the 10-time All Star is owed $120 million after this season, although the final year is a player option and Davis wants to negotiate an extension with a new team, if he is traded.
Davis has been a Maverick for a little more than 11 months and has already dealt with four significant injuries. He suffered a left adductor strain in February and then had offseason surgery to repair a detached retina in his right eye.
This season, he suffered a left calf strain in an Oct. 29 game against the Indiana Pacers, which forced him to miss a month. Then last week, Davis sustained ligament damage in his left hand, which won’t require surgery.
Davis has been unable to play more than five consecutive games in a Mavericks uniform — a brutal irony to Mavericks fans who watched the team’s front office trade Luka Dončic with concerns about how his body would hold up long-term.
Knicks looking to upgrade?
By James L. Edwards III
There is a realistic chance that New York will make a trade. As I’ve previously reported, per league sources, the Knicks are open to moving both Guerschon Yabusele and Pacôme Dadiet. Together, those two players will make $8.3 million this season. So, for example, New York could trade them for a player or players who make that exact amount.
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Now, do I think those two players, based on their current play (or lack thereof), would get the Knicks anything good in a deal? I don’t. However, maybe New York sweetens the deal by attaching draft picks to try to get someone who can play rotational minutes. The Knicks still have that protected first-round pick via the Wizards, which most certainly will turn into multiple second-round picks. It’s not out of the realm of possibilities for the salaries of Yabusele and Dadiet, along with that pick and/or other second-round picks, being enough to land New York a player of some quality.
More reading material
• So far this trade season, only Trae Young has been dealt. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t plenty of deals we’d like to see. Sam Vecenie breaks down four trades that would shake up the league.
• This was supposed to be a “gap year” for the Boston Celtics. Instead, they’re one of the best teams in the Eastern Conference. Jaylen Brown is having a breakout year and there’s a chance Jayson Tatum returns from his Achilles injury this season. Jay King examines five starting-caliber centers the Celtics could pursue.
• How aggressively should the East-leading Detroit Pistons look to add to their roster? Hunter Patterson and John Hollinger examine that question and more.