Those who can and those who want to

Expectations are growing, fans’ dreams continue to multiply and questions are increasing. A little less than three and a half days remain until the NBA trade deadline.

Until next Thursday at 3 p.m. Eastern time, franchises will have time to try to improve their teams with different objectives.

Some will look to improve in order to have a chance to fight for the title, others will prefer not to make changes for the sake of change, and some will try to make trades with their minds focused more on finances than on improving on-court performance.

And within the rules of the game, there are teams that want to and don’t have too many assets to improve, while others can and don’t want to. That’s the way this business is.

By now, phone calls and video conferences between general managers will be the order of the day, but which teams are expected to try until the last minute to change the course of their season?

Here are some questions and statements ahead of next Thursday:

Los Angeles Lakers: want to but can’t?
It is true that in the NBA there is no player who is untradeable, but there are several who are more difficult to trade than others. Such is the case of Russell Westbrook in the Los Angeles team.

The experiment has so far brought more headaches than solutions and his $44 million salary this season and the option in his favor for $47 million more, make the possibility of trading for a player who in the middle of the season has not found the way back to play in a different role than the one he was used to, unattractive.

The problem for the Lakers is that their roster is loaded with minimum contracts with veterans who don’t contribute much (with the exception of Carmelo Anthony and young Malik Monk). And with the commitment of a third star (in this case Westbrook), they have lost all salary flexibility and their only assets that could generate some interest among some rivals are Talen Horton-Tucker (9.5M) and Kendrick Nunn (5.0M).

General Manager Rob Pelinka, will try his best to find a way to add players to help on defense (Stanley Johnson was a find) but if they can’t move Westbrook for at least two or three players, the possibility of finding someone to really help them improve will be difficult.

Prognosis: management will try everything without trading LeBron James or Anthony Davis. But the coaching staff will have to find solutions within the current roster and not outside of it.

Sacramento Kings and New York Knicks are souls in pain
Kings (20-35) and Knicks (24-29) are 1.5 games out of 10th place in their respective conferences, making the possibility of getting into the playoffs a certainty. But if we look at their play and their records, the possibility starts to fade.

Both need changes and their managements know it. In Sacramento they have decided that De’Aaron Fox (28.1M), Buddy Hield (22.4M), Harrison Barnes (20.2M) and Richaun Holmes (10.3M) will be the bargaining chips. The primary goal was to try to bring in Ben Simmons, but Philadelphia’s back and forth made them give up on him.

In that context, the Knicks appear as a team that could negotiate with them: in the last days there was talk of a possible trade with Fox and Julius Randle (19.8M) and maybe Kemba Walker (8.7M) as main pieces, but for the moment they are just rumors.

On the Knicks’ side, we hear that Randle is a difficult player to manage and doesn’t have the best relationship with his teammates, which makes it somewhat more difficult to acquire a good buyout should they decide to trade him and find an interested team.

After all, the idea of a Westbrook as the main figure on a team is more intriguing than having him as a third or fourth option as he currently is with the Lakers.

Sixers: A dilemma called Simmons
Is it true that Brooklyn is willing to listen to offers for James Harden as we hear or should we listen to Steve Nash who said this Sunday that they are not going to trade the Beard?

The truth is that Daryl Morey (Philadelphia’s president of operations) has had the shooting guard as a target since he came to the Sixers. But to imagine that such a change could happen in three days seems like a very difficult mountain to climb.

There is an $11 million difference between the salaries of Harden ($44.3M) and Simmons ($33.0M), so it would have to be Philadelphia adding players to the transaction for the deal to be in accordance with NBA rules.

The problem is that the Sixers do not want two of their top emerging stars like Matisse Thybulle (2.8M) and Tyrese Maxey (2.6M) to be part of a potential deal. Would Nets agree to receive Seth Curry (8.2M) for example?

Beyond these speculations, the truth is that so far Philadelphia has listened to offers for Simmons, but now it would have to become a bidder. And as it is known, the bargaining power is held by those who listen to offers without having to accept them (as in this case the Nets) and not by those who make them.

Portland and Indiana: are they bidding?

The Trail Blazers decided to gain flexibility and salary reduction by sending Norman Powell (4 seasons for 80.2M) and Robert Covington (free agent in 22/23) in exchange for Eric Bledsoe (2 seasons for 224M total guaranteed), Justise Winslow (4.1M for 22/23) and Keon Johnson (Team Option for the next two seasons).

On Sunday, Indiana decided to go the same route by sending Caris LeVert (18.8M next year) and a second round draft pick Cleveland, for Ricky Rubio’s expiring contract (17.8M), a protected first rounder in the upcoming draft and two future second rounders.

The question is: will both franchises continue down this path in an attempt to rebuild their roster? If so, both have players that could be attractive to many teams, including the Dallas Mavericks who are looking to upgrade or the Golden State Warriors themselves if a good possibility comes along.

Among the names that could be traded by the Pacers are Domantas Sabonis (18.5M) and Myles Turner (17.5M), while on the Trail Blazers’ side the list would include CJ McCollum (30.8M), Jusuf Nurkic (12.0M) and even Damian Lillard (39.3M), although it is said that the franchise’s intention is to keep Lillard on the roster and surround him better.

It would not be unreasonable for both teams to decide to rebuild from the ground up after having spent many seasons in NBA “purgatory”, i.e. not being able to reach the Conference Finals.