{"id":117219,"date":"2025-01-10T12:25:49","date_gmt":"2025-01-10T17:25:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=117219"},"modified":"2025-01-10T12:25:49","modified_gmt":"2025-01-10T17:25:49","slug":"2025-nba-trade-deadline-targets-who-improve-contenders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/01\/10\/2025-nba-trade-deadline-targets-who-improve-contenders\/","title":{"rendered":"2025 NBA Trade Deadline Targets Who Improve Contenders"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 2025 NBA trade deadline is a little under a month away! That means these next few weeks will be some of the most important ones of the NBA season. When it comes to contending for NBA championships, the trade deadline<\/a> is rarely when champions are made. That being said, minor adjustments to already great teams can make the difference between early playoff exits and a shot at a title. Until someone proves otherwise, the Boston Celtics are still the team to beat. There are a few teams<\/a> however that have shown they are contenders. We\u2019re going to look at one Cavs trade target and one Thunder trade target that could put either team over the hump to become NBA champions.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

2025 NBA Trade Deadline Targets Who Improve Contenders<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Cavs: Cam Johnson\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The Cleveland Cavaliers have been the league\u2019s best team this season. They are 33-4 and dominating everyone in their path both offensively and defensively. The Cavs have the number one offense<\/a> in the league and a top-10 defense<\/a>. They certainly will be hard to beat come playoff time. That being said, they still haven\u2019t proven themselves in the playoffs and are having great injury luck so far this season.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The small forward position has been a weak spot for the Cavs in the last few years. With a core starter group of Donovan Mitchell<\/a>, Darius Garland<\/a>, Jarrett Allen<\/a>, and Evan Mobley<\/a>, picking up a great small forward would make their starting lineup unstoppable. Their weakness at the forward position also makes their matchup with the defending champion Celtics all the more difficult.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

One NBA trade that could fix this is a Cam Johnson<\/a> Cavs trade. Getting Johnson as a sharpshooting defender to play small forward would be enormous for the Cavs. Johnson could match up well with either Jaylen Brown<\/a> or Jayson Tatum<\/a> in a playoff series. Unfortunately, the Cavs might not have quite enough assets to pull off the trade.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Thunder: Herb Jones<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The Thunder are the best team in the Western Conference. They are by far the best defense<\/a> in the league and have a top-10 offense<\/a> behind MVP candidate Shai Gilgeous-Alexander<\/a>. What could make the Thunder even more dangerous? For one, the return of Chet Holmgren<\/a> will make the Thunder\u2019s defense all the more lethal. Another thing that could vault them to the championship favorites would be making a big trade during the 2025 NBA trade deadline.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

One player that fits in perfectly with the Thunder is Herb Jone<\/a>s. This trade would bring even more length, defense, and three-point shooting to their roster, which would strike true fear in the rest of the league. The Pelicans are having a season from hell and could lean into a rebuild by trading one of their strongest assets. The Thunder have all the draft picks necessary to make an enticing offer. It could be a match made in heaven.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

One More Fun Contender Trades<\/strong><\/h3>\n

It could be a longshot but a trade where Memphis Grizzlies land disgruntled superstar Jimmy Butler<\/a> could create a new top contender. Even though Butler has made it clear<\/a> he didn\u2019t want to be traded to Memphis, stranger things have happened during trade deadlines. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The 2025 NBA trade deadline is a little under a month away! That means these next few weeks will be some of the most important ones of the NBA season. When it comes to contending for NBA championships, the trade deadline is rarely when champions are made. That being said, minor adjustments to already great […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5284,"featured_media":117230,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"1","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4721,1608,5,6,9,2,33],"tags":[1781,4112,1382],"class_list":["post-117219","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trade-rumors","category-basketball","category-celtics","category-nets","category-cavaliers","category-featured","category-pelicans","tag-cam-johnson","tag-herb-jones","tag-nba-trade"],"modified_by":"Eamon Cassels, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5284"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117219"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117219\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":117231,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117219\/revisions\/117231"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/117230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}