The NBA offseason is here, and trades are already being agreed to across the league.
The trade window kicked off on June 15 wh en the Memphis Grizzlies agreed to trade guard Desmond Bane to the Orlando Magic for Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Cole Anthony, four first-round picks and a future pick swap.
On Sunday, the most highly anticipated offseason trade took place as Phoenix Suns forward and former MVP Kevin Durant was traded to the Houston Rockets for Jalen Green and Dillon Brooks along with draft picks.
Jrue Holiday was also traded from the Boston Celtics to the Portland Trail Blazers on Monday for guard Anfernee Simons and two future second-round picks.
While we wait for more trades to hit, catch up on the latest trade grades from ESPN’s Kevin Pelton.
New Orleans Pelicans get:
G Jordan Poole
G Saddiq Bey
2025 second-round pick (No. 40)
Washington Wizards get:
G CJ McCollum
F Kelly Olynyk
Future second-round pick
Pelicans: C-
Essentially, this four-player deal involving a pair of draft picks boils down to a challenge trade of contracts: Would you rather have one year of McCollum at $30.7 million or two years of Poole, making $31.8 million and $34 million plus incentives he’s unlikely to reach?
The last season of McCollum’s extension — signed by New Orleans under former lead executive David Griffin in the wake of acquiring McCollum at the 2022 trade deadline and traversing the play-in to give the top-seeded Phoenix Suns a tough series — was a big factor in the Pelicans needing to move Brandon Ingram at the deadline for financial reasons.
Even without Ingram on the books, New Orleans still entered the offseason pushing the luxury-tax line. Although Poole makes slightly more than McCollum, the Pelicans did save about $6 million total based on the undercard flip of Olynyk for Bey, opening them up to use the majority of their non-taxpayer midlevel exception without exceeding the luxury tax.
I like Bey as a pickup for New Orleans. He missed all of last season recovering from an ACL tear in March 2024, the big reason Washington was able to sign him to a three-year contract worth a little more than $6 million annually — not much more than the taxpayer midlevel exception. As a combo forward off the bench, Bey should outproduce that if healthy.
The important part of this trade is the Pelicans betting on Poole to become a contributor to a winning team once again. He played that role with the Golden State Warriors’ 2022 title team, averaging 17.0 PPG in the playoffs on outstanding .654 true shooting primarily off the bench. Since that championship, and his subsequent preseason altercation with Draymond Green, Poole hasn’t been the same player.
After a dismal first season with the Wizards, Poole did bounce back to shoot a career-high 38% from 3-point range in 2024-25, surpassing his previous best with 20.5 PPG. On a young team, however, Poole’s defensive lapses and shoot-first style weren’t magnified the way they will be in New Orleans.
In theory, the Pelicans are trying to get back to the playoffs after a season lost to injuries. The worst of those, an Achilles rupture for Dejounte Murray in February, will linger into 2025-26. That makes Poole the favorite to start at point guard in his place. Pending New Orleans reinvesting the savings from this deal using the bulk of the non-taxpayer midlevel exception, I’d consider that a downgrade from McCollum.
While the Pelicans could have moved on from McCollum next season when his contract expires, they now have an extra year of Poole’s deal to handle. Assuming the team retains Zion Williamson, whose salary is non-guaranteed, New Orleans could be pushing the tax again in 2026-27. I would have passed on that scenario.
Wizards: B+
On paper, trading a 26-year-old guard for one who will turn 34 by the start of training camp is an odd move for a rebuilding team. Washington now has a perimeter trio of McCollum, Khris Middleton (also soon to be 34) and Marcus Smart (31), which looks like a strong NBA 2K fantasy draft in 2021.
The reality is none of those players should be expected to stick in with the team past the trade deadline as the Wizards continue accumulating young talent and draft picks. This deal didn’t accomplish that in and of itself, but sets up Washington to add more in the future either using McCollum as an expiring contract or the $40-plus million this deal added to the Wizards’ 2026-27 cap space.
With Poole gone, Washington now boasts the league’s cleanest books going forward. Wing Corey Kispert is the only Wizards player not on a rookie contract signed for more than $3 million in 2026-27.
McCollum and Olynyk should fit with a rebuilding environment so long as they stick around. Both are dangerous outside shooters, creating space for Washington’s young talent to develop offensively. Although taking back Poole’s contract in the Chris Paul trade did not work out the way the Wizards hoped, this is a useful mulligan for them to take.
Boston Celtics get:
G Anfernee Simons
Two future second-round picks
Portland Trail Blazers get:
G Jrue Holiday
Celtics: B-
We knew financially motivated trades were coming for the Celtics, who entered the offseason more than $20 million above the NBA’s projected second luxury-tax apron with an incomplete roster.
The transaction limitations created by the second apron, plus a tax bill projected north of $200 million, might have been worth it had Boston been favored to bring Banner 19 to the TD Garden. With Jayson Tatum’s status for 2025-26 unclear after an Achilles rupture, the time was right for the Celtics to retrench financially.
Holiday was an obvious trade candidate because of his $32.4 million salary and age (35). Unlike the other three players making more than $11 million — starters Jaylen Brown, Kristaps Porzingis and Derrick White — Holiday isn’t on a similar timetable to Tatum. By the time Tatum is fully healthy in 2026-27, Holiday is unlikely to be the same two-way player he was as the final piece of Boston’s 2023 championship team.
Swapping Holiday for Simons doesn’t necessarily provide massive savings for the Celtics, but it gets them incrementally closer to the second apron while also becoming much younger in the backcourt. At 26, Simons is nine years younger than Holiday and just hitting his peak.
On the court, Simons is an interesting fit in Boston. This trade is a major defensive downgrade for the Celtics, who excelled by giving opponents no weak links to attack in their starting five. The 6-foot-3 Simons has historically been rated as one of the league’s worst defenders in terms of plus-minus impact, adjusted for teammates, opponents and shooting luck.
Even last season, when the Blazers dramatically improved defensively and ranked just ahead of Boston at third in points allowed per 100 possessions over the second half of the season, Simons rated near the bottom of the league in luck-adjusted defensive RAPM (regularized adjusted plus-minus) from BBall-Index.com. Simons’ estimated impact of 2.0 points per 100 possessions is worse than that of an average defender ranked in the bottom 20. No Celtics player was in the bottom 170.
Based on that track record, it wouldn’t be surprising if Boston proves to be a waystation for Simons, who spent his entire seven-year career in Portland. The Celtics could use his shot creation when Tatum is sidelined; they will have less need for it and be more focused on perimeter defense by 2026-27.
In particular, Simons should help Boston replace Tatum’s penchant for making 3s off the dribble. His 135 unassisted 3s ranked fourth in the NBA last season, according to GeniusIQ tracking. No other Celtics player made more than 51. Simons was tied for 14th in the league with a career-high 84 unassisted 3s, hitting pull-up 3s at a 35% clip per NBA Advanced Stats — slightly better than Tatum’s 32% accuracy.
Between Simons, White and Sixth Man award winner Payton Pritchard, Boston should be able to put two guards on the court who are dangerous shooters and capable ball handlers at all times. While Simons may not entirely compensate for Tatum’s absence, he should at least give the Celtics a reliable offensive building block.
Based on extend-and-trade rules, Simons is eligible to add three years and up to $104 million to the one remaining season on his contract over the six months after this trade is made official. After that, he could add up to $173 million over four years. Either way, it’s doubtful Boston will be in any hurry to commit to Simons. It’s possible he could ultimately be most valuable to them as matching salary in a trade that draws upon the Celtics’ stockpile of their first-round picks to provide a better two-way fit.
For now, saving a little less than $5 million by swapping Holiday for Simons leaves Boston $18 million from the tax line with 13 players under contract, including salaries for Nemias Queta and Jordan Walsh that are not fully guaranteed, and the team option for JD Davison. The Celtics will need bigger moves to avoid the second apron, but already stand to cut $40 million or so from their tax bill, according to ESPN’s Bobby Marks.
If Boston could have built a deal with the Dallas Mavericks around forward P.J. Washington, a better defender who could complement Tatum when he returns, it would’ve been better. However, this imperfect trade nonetheless accomplishes important goals for the Celtics to kick off a complicated offseason.
Trail Blazers: C-
Patience is the most valuable commodity in the NBA. Despite the Blazers’ second-half run securing new contracts for coach Chauncey Billups and GM Joe Cronin, this trade reflects urgency to get back to the playoffs after a four-year drought.
Holiday’s contract, which pays him $104.4 million over the next three seasons, loomed over trade negotiations. Because of his versatile skill set and self-awareness, Holiday is unlikely to be a harmful player throughout that contract. But it’s possible by the time Holiday reaches a $37.2 million player option in 2027-28 that he is no longer a starting-caliber player at age 37.
Already, there are worrisome signs. Holiday’s usage dipped slightly last season to a career-low 16% despite Boston’s starting lineup having less shot creation with Porzingis sidelined for 40 games. The hope was that Holiday might turn it up once the playoffs began. Instead, he averaged just 9.5 PPG while battling a hamstring strain, including four points on 1-of-8 shooting in his final Celtics game in Round 2.
It’s more challenging to evaluate statistically, but Holiday didn’t feel like the same difference-maker at the defensive end. Injuries made Holiday ineligible to end his run of four consecutive All-Defensive appearances and top-10 finishes in Defensive Player of the Year voting. Absent that, I still would have had White higher on my ballot.
Concerns around Holiday’s age would be less important to a contender he could help push over the top immediately. He did it with Boston two years ago after being acquired from Portland in the Damian Lillard deal with the Milwaukee Bucks. The Blazers aren’t that team.
It seems unlikely Portland would make this move without going 23-18 over the second half to flirt with a play-in appearance before running out of time to catch the Mavericks. That success was built in large part on poor opponent 3-point shooting that the Blazers will have a difficult time repeating. Teams shot just 34% from 3 against Portland in the second half, the second lowest in the league.
There’s no doubt the Blazers improved defensively down the stretch. Their opponent’s shot quality went from 13th-best in the first half to eighth in the second half (as measured by GeniusIQ’s quantified shot quality metric that considers location and type of shot as well as distance to nearby defenders). But Portland’s jump from 27th in opponent effective field-goal percentage in the first half to sixth over the last 41 games overstated the magnitude of that progress.
With Holiday and All-Defensive second-team pick Toumani Camara on the perimeter, plus the rim protection supplied by 2024 lottery pick Donovan Clingan, the Blazers have the potential to be a top defense next season. Without Simons, however, it will be much more difficult for Portland to field a competitive offense.
I could buy a win-now move for a team in the Blazers’ position if they were in the East where the conference is wide open because of Achilles injuries to Tatum, Lillard and Tyrese Haliburton that will affect their 2025-26 availability. There’s no such dynamic for Portland in the West. The Blazers finished tied for 11th in the conference and have to worry about being caught from behind by the New Orleans Pelicans and San Antonio Spurs, who both can expect better health next season.
Monday’s post-Finals Power Rankings for 2025-26, already affected by this deal, had Portland 12th in the West ahead of New Orleans, the Phoenix Suns and Utah Jazz. This deal probably pushes the Blazers ahead of the Sacramento Kings but still leaves them outside the West’s top 10. A play-in spot, if likely, is not assured. And making the playoffs remains worse than a 50-50 proposition.
Holiday’s professionalism and championship experience should benefit Portland’s young guards. The trade would be graded differently if the Blazers were getting paid in draft picks by Boston for the privilege of saving $40 million in luxury taxes. Instead, the draft picks (albeit second-rounders) are heading the Celtics’ direction, which doesn’t seem to accurately reflect the difference in the two contracts.
In a worst-case scenario where Portland wanted to move on from Simons and hand 2023 No. 2 pick Scoot Henderson the keys to the offense, taking on Holiday substantially curtails the team’s cap flexibility for 2026 and 2027. The Blazers could have extended the contract of shooting guard Shaedon Sharpe and still had max-level cap space next summer by letting Simons walk. That scenario is now off the table, and it’s worth considering whether Portland would have offered Holiday his current contract as a free agent using cap space.
The hard reality of NBA rebuilding is the easiest way to short-circuit things is to push in too early, capping the group’s potential in favor of modest success that eventually feels hollow. Trading Holiday alone won’t do that for Portland, but it’s not an promising indicator of the team’s priorities.
Houston Rockets get:
F Kevin Durant
Phoenix Suns get:
G Jalen Green
F Dillon Brooks
2025 first-round pick (No. 10)
2025 second-round pick (No. 59, via OKC)
Two 2026 second-round picks
2030 second-round pick (via BOS)
2032 second-round pick
Rockets: B+
Although Durant is no longer as singular a scorer as in his prime, when he posted a true shooting percentage (TS%) at least 15% better than league average nine times according to Basketball-Reference, he’s still as good as just about anyone creating his own offense. Among players with a usage rate of 28% or higher in at least 500 minutes last season, only Denver Nuggets three-time MVP big man Nikola Jokic surpassed Durant’s .642 TS%.
The contrast with Green especially favors Durant. Also a No. 2 pick, Green had Houston’s highest usage rate last season with a below-average .544 TS%. (All-Star center Alperen Sengun, who had the team’s second-highest usage, wasn’t any better at .545 but makes more plays for others and has scored more efficiently in the past. Green’s TS% was a career high.)
All the Rockets’ young stars faced a tough adjustment to the playoffs, but none more so than Green, who averaged 13.3 PPG on 37% shooting. His 38-point Game 2 was the only time Green surpassed 12 points or shot better than 40% in the series. Essentially, Golden State condensed all the fears about Green’s weaknesses as a leading scorer into one, salient seven-game sample.
The bigger loss for Houston in the short term will surely be Brooks, whose arrival was key to the Rockets’ rapid evolution from 60-plus losses in both 2021-22 and 2022-23 to 52 wins last season. Along with VanVleet and coach Ime Udoka, Brooks helped transform Houston’s defensive culture. And as much as the Rockets utilized depth to finish atop a crowded pack of West contenders during the regular season, they’re suddenly thin on the perimeter.
Suns: B
This Durant trade is surely the beginning of a roster makeover rather than the completion of it. Phoenix got back a pair of wings, exacerbating the imbalance of a roster whose five highest-paid players (Bradley Beal, Devin Booker, Green, Brooks and Grayson Allen) could all be called natural shooting guards.
Pending those future moves, this Durant trade seems pragmatic for the Suns, who never stood a chance of recouping the value they gave up to get him from the Nets at the 2023 trade deadline. Durant is more than two years older now and a year away from free agency, meaning Phoenix had far less control of negotiations. And after the team’s relationship with Durant frayed when the Suns discussed trading him in February, bringing him back wasn’t a realistic threat.
The worst-case scenario for Phoenix was trading Durant for veterans who fit better alongside Beal and Booker in a misguided attempt to win now. Again, let’s not rule out that happening down the line, but for now the Suns got what could be the best 2025 draft pick to change hands and the 23-year-old Green.
Brooks would immediately become the Suns’ best perimeter defender, and it’s amusing to see him finally land in Phoenix six-plus years after the miscommunication over which “Brooks” the Suns were getting in a deal involving Trevor Ariza, long since retired. If Phoenix is going to cut payroll to avoid exceeding the second apron and having another first-round pick frozen from trades, however, Brooks is a likely candidate given his value throughout the league.
View the full trade grades
Orlando Magic get:
G Desmond Bane
Memphis Grizzlies get:
G Kentavious Caldwell-Pope
G Cole Anthony
2025 first-round pick
2026 first-round pick (swap rights from Phoenix or Washington)
2028 first-round pick
2029 first-round pick swap
2030 first-round pick
Orlando: C+
In many ways, this unexpected beginning to the NBA trade season is the spiritual descendent of the New York Knicks giving up five first-round picks and a swap for Mikal Bridges on the eve of last year’s draft. As in that case, it’s a massive amount of pick value to give up for a player who has never been an All-Star and might never get there.
In that context, this trade makes the Bridges swap a fascinating Rorschach test. From the outside perspective, I’d view it as an overpay a year later. Bridges shook off a perplexing early shooting slump to provide the secondary offensive contributions the Knicks expected but wasn’t a defensive difference-maker.
New York’s uncertainty about whether the core they’d built with the subsequent Karl-Anthony Towns trade is good enough to win the title undoubtedly played into the decision to fire coach Tom Thibodeau. Yet to a team like the Magic, the Knicks getting back to the Eastern Conference finals for the first time in a quarter-century might have looked like a huge win.
It hasn’t been that long for Orlando, which is 15 years removed from its latest conference finals appearance and lost in the NBA Finals the year before that. The Magic’s last playoff series victory was in 2010 before they lost to the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference finals, a drought that now spans multiple rebuilds. In the wake of a disappointing season that ended with a five-game first-round loss to the Celtics, Orlando is surely eager to change that.
The Magic were also undoubtedly influenced by the sudden power vacuum atop the East. Although the Indiana Pacers have impressed in the NBA Finals and might yet win the championship, they don’t inspire the fear in other East contenders that a full-strength Boston team might have before Jayson Tatum’s Achilles injury. With the second-round exit by the 64-win Cleveland Cavaliers leaving questions about their playoff viability, there’s an opening for an unexpected East winner again next year.
The question then becomes whether Bane is good enough to get Orlando into that mix. He checks a lot of boxes for the Magic. Bane, who turns 27 next week, fits the timetable of Orlando’s core of Paolo Banchero (22), Jalen Suggs (24) and Franz Wagner (23) better than most players of his ability the Magic could have realistically acquired.
Bane’s shooting should be a godsend for the Magic, who shot a league-low 32% from 3-point range last season and somehow got worse in the playoffs. It was borderline sorcery that Orlando was remotely competitive with the Celtics while making 26% from 3. Bane’s 2.4 3-pointers per game this season are more than any Magic player has made since 2019-20, just before the team’s last teardown. They’re also the fewest he has averaged since his rookie season.
Beyond that, Bane’s development as a secondary pick-and-roll playmaker fits well alongside Banchero, Suggs and Wagner, all of whom are dangerous with the ball but aren’t full-time ball handlers. Benefiting in part from Memphis’ superior spacing, Bane averaged more points per direct chance out of ball screens (.988) than any Orlando player who ran at least 250 last season, per GeniusIQ tracking. Wagner was the only high-volume Magic player to surpass 0.92 points per chance as a ball handler.
Before the rest of the offseason plays out, I’d probably have Orlando fourth in my preliminary East rankings for 2025-26, behind Cleveland, Indiana and New York, but ahead of Boston based on the likelihood of the Celtics shedding a core player for financial purposes.
A deep playoff run by the Magic will be contingent on Suggs staying healthy after missing all but one game after Jan. 3 due to a cartilage injury that required season-ending surgery. It will probably also require development from Banchero and Wagner, with Banchero needing to show stronger efficiency with more help on offense and Wagner needing to get his 3-point shooting back near league average to be a viable floor spacer.
Internal improvement is critical to Orlando’s postseason upside because this will likely be the team’s last big swing via trade. The Magic are already looking at potentially paying the luxury tax in 2025-26, and will in fact need to decline at least one of their team options on four players (Gary Harris, Caleb Houstan, Cory Joseph and Moritz Wagner) to complete this trade without running afoul of a hard cap triggered by aggregating players.
The Orlando salary crunch will get worse in 2026-27, when Banchero begins his next contract. Having made the All-Star team at age 21, the former No. 1 pick is sure to get a max extension that could increase to 30% of the cap if he earns All-NBA honors next season. Either way, that will give the Magic four players making at least $32.4 million in 2026-27, forcing difficult choices.
Well down the road, Orlando could benefit financially from the combination of the salary cap rising the maximum possible 10% annually as the NBA’s new national TV deals are phased in. The Magic’s stars have smaller year-to-year raises and Suggs’ extension begins at its maximum point before descending. That will be especially important if Orlando hits the repeater tax by 2028-29, the last year of Bane’s contract.
Ultimately, the finances are the biggest reason to be skeptical of the Magic giving up nearly all the first-round picks they could trade. (Orlando did retain this year’s No. 25 pick, which came from the Denver Nuggets to complete the trade sending Aaron Gordon to Denver.) The Knicks gave up five first-rounders for Bridges in part because he was on a bargain contract, making a combined $48.2 million this season and next. That trade might also have factored into Jalen Brunson’s willingness to sign a below-market extension last summer.
Bane’s contract, which averages $40.8 million over the next four seasons with an additional $1.35 million average bonus for winning a championship (per ESPN’s Bobby Marks) is certainly reasonable but not a notable value. Orlando, already paying its other stars appropriately, is betting on fit and internal development to win big and justify this move.
Memphis: B
The Bridges analogy doesn’t hold on the other side of this trade. Whereas the Brooklyn Nets were clearly motivated to move Bridges at the peak of his value and rebuild after missing the playoffs, what comes next is harder to tell for Memphis.
It’s hard to believe just three months ago, the Grizzlies were tied for second in the West with Taylor Jenkins as their coach. A 2-8 skid later, Memphis had replaced Jenkins with Tuomas Iisalo en route to getting swept in the first round as the No. 8 seed. Now, the Grizzlies have broken up the core of Bane, Jaren Jackson Jr. and Ja Morant that won 50-plus games in both 2021-22 and 2022-23 and Memphis’ only playoff series since 2015.
Bane obviously wasn’t the issue with that group, which hasn’t really been the same since Morant’s suspensions for conduct detrimental to the league relating to his use and display of guns. Even last year’s run was more about the Grizzlies’ depth than their star power. Jackson was Memphis’ only All-Star, and no Grizzlies player has made an All-NBA team since Morant in 2021-22.
If Memphis was convinced this group was no longer good enough, resetting around Jackson with three extra first-round picks plus one to replace this year’s first-rounder (sent to the Washington Wizards at the deadline to shed Marcus Smart’s salary) makes some sense. But trading Bane only deepens the Grizzlies’ need for top-end talent.
In the short term, Memphis should be even deeper after this trade. Although Caldwell-Pope struggled as a shooter in Orlando, hitting 3s at his lowest accuracy (34%) since 2015-16, he was outstanding defensively and should be an upgrade for the Grizzlies at that end of the court. And Anthony would give them an additional ballhandling option behind Morant and Scotty Pippen Jr. Having seen his efficiency decline after two seasons as a high-end backup point guard, Anthony is probably due to bounce back as well.
Another move is likely coming for Memphis, which added to its 2025-26 salary with this trade. The Grizzlies had seemingly been targeting cap space with an eye toward renegotiating Jackson’s contract in conjunction with a long-term extension, the only way to realistically get him signed long term after he missed out on All-NBA and supermax eligibility. Moving John Konchar’s $6.2 million salary would give Memphis sufficient room to bump up Jackson’s contract by about $10 million and offer him an extension starting at nearly $48 million.
As picks in a deal like this go, the Grizzlies got some with reasonable upside. In addition to this year’s No. 16 pick — higher than either of the two 2025 selections the Nets landed in the Bridges deal (No. 19 and No. 26) — Memphis also moves higher in the pecking order for next year’s Phoenix Suns first-rounder.
The Grizzlies already held swap rights with the Suns, but only after potential swaps with both the Wizards and Magic. Now, Memphis moves up a spot, ending up with the better of Orlando’s 2026 first-rounder and the worse of ones belong to Phoenix and Washington. If both the Suns and Wizards miss the playoffs, the Grizzlies will yield a 2026 lottery pick from this trade.
Still, none of this solves Memphis’ fundamental issue. Until or unless Morant gets back to playing like a star, the Grizzlies might be shuffling deck chairs through the expiration of his contract in 2028.