The Oklahoma City Thunder are expected by most NBA executives to trade up from No. 12 in this year's draft.

The Thunder have a surplus of first round picks and a shortage of roster spots.

Last year, the Thunder traded three future first round picks to acquire the No. 11 pick from the New York Knicks.

The Denver Nuggets acquired Kentavious Caldwell-Pope from the Washington Wizards last offseason, but they previously pursued a trade for him at the 2022 trade deadline.

There was a three-way trade discussed that also involved the Oklahoma City Thunder that would have sent Caldwell-Pope to the Nuggets in time for last year's playoffs.

The Nuggets traded Monte Morris and Will Barton as part of the package for Caldwell-Pope.

“You have to have positionless guys, guys who can contain the ball and make shots,” Calvin Booth told Yahoo Sports. “Everybody wants two-way players, but [Jokić] likes to play with guys who know how to play basketball the right way.”

The 2023 NBA Draft is less than a month away. With the combine in the rearview mirror, teams are hosting player workouts. It's also the time when draft trade chatter picks up.

The Indiana Pacers, who hold three picks in the first round of the draft, are reportedly looking at trading up. Indiana is looking into packaging the #7, #26 and #29 picks together to move up in the first round.

The Pacers are continuing the rebuild their roster around a core that includes Tyrese Haliburton, an extended Myles Turner and roster and cap flexibility. Indiana could have over $27 million in cap space this summer.

The Toronto Raptors appear to be at a crossroads with their roster and that is manifesting itself with their continued search for a new head coach. The Raptors appear to be considering whether they should attempt to be competitive immediately by keeping their roster together, or if it would make sense to trade away some of their pieces to rebuild around Scottie Barnes.

Fred VanVleet is an unrestricted free agent, while OG Anunoby has been one of the NBA's most popular trade candidates over the past two transaction cycles as he enters the final season of his contract. 

"So I think you have a fascinating situation happening in Toronto right now," said Brian Windhorst on his podcast. "And the reason it is fascinating is in talking to folks that have been in touch with the Raptors recently, the Raptors don't seem to know which direction they're going to take. Whether or not they are going to focus on re-signing Fred VanVleet, extending Pascal Siakam, potentially making other roster upgrades. Or whether or not they're going to send Fred VanVleet in a sign-and-trade, maybe investigate moving other players be it OG Anunoby or Pascal Siakam."

The Raptors also had a similar dilemma at the trade deadline, but stayed pat with their core while adding Jakob Poeltl.

"I think they're kind of back there," said Windhorst.

"They've been in this holding pattern for a while, basically," replied Tim MacMahon.

"They've interviewed a bunch of different coaches and it's not clear which way they're going to go. They probably have to make a decision about whether or not they're going to keep these guys together and that is going to influence the kind of coach you hire."

The New York Knicks attempted to acquire Malik Beasley and Jarred Vanderbilt at the trade deadline in a deal with the Utah Jazz that would have sent out Evan Fournier, sources tell Jake Fischer of Yahoo.

The Knicks previously pursued Beasley in 2020 when he was a restricted free agent.

Gersson Rosas, who is now with the New York front office, signed Beasley to a four-year, $60 million deal when he was running the Minnesota Timberwolves. 

The Boston Celtics resisted the idea of trading Jaylen Brown during the 21-22 season when they were struggling before they turned around their season and ultimately reached The Finals under Ime Udoka.

But there was at least some level of reported interest from the Celtics that next offseason in trading Brown in a package for Kevin Durant. 

With the Celtics possibly falling short of The Finals this season and Brown eligible for a supermax extension, the idea that they could consider trading him has been speculated about at least in the media. If the Celtics do make Brown available with one season remaining on his contract, there would likely be a lot of teams interested in gambling on their odds of extending or re-signing him.

"There would be robust demand for Jaylen Brown from a lot of teams if Boston ever actually started making or listening or picking up the phone or whatever you do with your phone when you maybe investigate a trade," said Zach Lowe on his podcast between Games 3 and 4.

Brown can only receive the supermax from the Celtics and would be ineligible to be traded for one season.

The Los Angeles Lakers have been widely expected to re-sign Austin Reaves, Rui Hachimura and possibly D'Angelo Russell while eschewing the cap space route this offseason.

But because Russell's play was uneven, the Lakers could consider free agent options such as Kyrie Irving and Fred VanVleet. Irving and VanVleet are unrestricted free agents with connections to the Lakers. Irving previously played with LeBron James for three seasons with the Cleveland Cavaliers, while VanVleet is represented by Rich Paul.

If Irving were to leave the Dallas Mavericks, it would 

"The Lakers do have other options beyond Kyrie Irving and not only just Fred VanVleet," said Brian Windhorst on GetUp. "The reason Fred VanVleet comes up is because it's not clear whether the Raptors are going to move forward with the team that they have. It's possible the Raptors can let him walk. And Fred VanVleet is represented by Rich Paul.

"If the Lakers open up the $30 million in cap room, they also have first round draft picks they can trade. There's a whole bunch of other options open to them via trade that wouldn't necessarily be just Kyrie Irving."

Jovan Buha of The Athletic reported that the Lakers have held internal discussions on trading for Trae Young of the Atlanta Hawks.

The Los Angeles Lakers season ended in a four-game sweep in the Western Conference Finals at the hands of the Denver Nuggets. Now, the Lakers are figuring out how to pick up the pieces and move forward.

One option for Los Angeles is to trade for high-profile point guard to team with LeBron James (if he doesn't retire) and Anthony Davis. One player the team has had internal discussion about is Trae Young of the Atlanta Hawks.

Young is set to make $40 million next season. The Lakers could send the Hawks several players in a sign-and-trade deal to match salary in a trade for Young.

Los Angeles is also expected to consider a sign-and-trade for Kyrie Irving. That would be difficult to pull off, as it would result in a hard cap for Los Angeles, but it's possible the Lakers believe they can fill out their roster with minimum signings around a James, Davis, Irving and Austin Reaves core.

The Dallas Mavericks are considered the "likely destination" for Deandre Ayton, sources told Eric Pincus of Bleacher Report.

"The Suns need depth. I can see them getting Tim Hardaway Jr., JaVale [McGee] back, Josh Green and No. 10," added another source.

Ayton and Luka Doncic share the same agent (Bill Duffy of WME Sports) and are on good terms.

The news contrasts Marc Stein's report from earlier in the weekend that the Mavs' interest in Ayton was "overstated."

The Suns are expected to "aggressively" shop Ayton this offseason. 

The Dallas Mavericks want to evaluate their draft options at No. 10 before they commit to trading away the pick, sources tell Marc Stein. Dallas retained their selection when no teams jumped ahead of them in the lottery as their pick was top-10 protected to the New York Knicks.

Rival front offices, however, continue to expect the Mavericks to eventually trade the pick with a combination of Tim Hardaway Jr., Davis Bertans and JaVale McGee in hopes of adding a player that can help them immediately.

The Mavericks enter an offseason in which they hope to re-sign Kyrie Irving and improve their roster around Luka Doncic after missing the playoffs.