When it comes to NBA trade rumors, it’s a good time to need a point guard. Unless, that is, you don’t want a highly overpaid and currently injury-prone point guard on your roster.
Maybe the most available is LaMelo Ball of the Hornets, who has not gotten better as a player since he came into the league. Ball is currently dealing with an ankle injury and is in the second year of a five-year, $205 million contract, making him all but impossible to move.
Ball is averaging 19.4 points, fewest since his rookie year, and 8.5 assists, which is a career high. He’s shooting 38.6% from the field and 28.5% from the 3-point line, and in the end, those numbers are the reason teams wouldn’t have much interest in him. There’s a sense that the issue with Ball is that the Hornets have been too laissez faire with him, but there doesn’t appear to be much self-motivation on the part of Ball, either.
“He might be a reflection of that organization,” one NBA GM said. “Put him on a more competent team, I would like to see what he does, whether he responds to tough love. But at that money, there’s too much risk. If you gamble that you could get him to turn his career around and you’re wrong, you’re sunk.”
NBA Trade Rumors Led by Injured and Expensive Stars
Ball is just the poster child for the current NBA trade rumors market on point guards, though. There is a cadre of point guards that appear to be available, though teams are pushing back against the notion that they’d actually be willing to pull the trigger on any such deal.
Here’s how that market is shaping up:
Kyrie Irving, Mavericks. Irving is coming off a torn ACL, and as the disappointing Mavericks try to peel off veteran players in hopes of retooling around youth, he makes sense as a candidate to get traded. But Irving is in the first of a three-year, $120 million contract and not likely to return until January. There just won’t be time to showcase him before the deadline. “He’s 33, 34, and has a long list of injuries,” one Eastern Conference executive said. “You don’t trade for him before you see him healthy.”
Dejounte Murray, Pelicans. Murray is coming back from an Achilles tear suffered in January, but he would be someone teams might consider trading for even if he is not fully back. He is in the second of a four-year, $114 million contract. “If you can get him without giving up much, he could be a bargain,” the East exec said.
Dejounte Murray #5 of the New Orleans Pelicans could be a surprise entry on the NBA trade rumor mill.
Teams Could Hold Onto Ja Morant, Trae Young
Ja Morant, Grizzlies. Morant has been out for nearly a month with a calf injury and he has struggled when he has been on the floor. There’s not much appetite out there to make a trade for him—but he is also an explosive player who could rip off a brilliant month and change perception of him quickly. As of now, the Grizzlies are not looking to move him, but that’s a reflection of the fact that his market is so low.
Trae Young, Hawks. He has played only five games because of a knee injury, and though he could come back soon, the Hawks will want to see how he plays before deciding on his future. Young, in five games this season, averaged 17.8 points on 37.1% shooting and 19.2% 3-point shooting.
Darius Garland, Cavaliers. The Cavaliers have resisted all urges to trade Garland in recent years, even as Donovan Mitchell has secured his place as the face of the franchise. Garland’s toe issue—he had surgery in the offseason—continues to be troublesome but there is no indication that the Cavs are now considering moving Garland. “They get a lot of calls about him, there are plenty of teams that would be serious about a package, but they’ve not budged on him, not yet,” the exec said.
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