In the modern NBA, stars don’t get traded for stars as often as they used to.
The trade market has changed. Today, it’s more common to see a star get traded for a cache of young players and draft picks. This has been the standard for a number of years now.
Typically, that’s because a team looking to trade a star is looking to start over.
If you’re losing your top player, it’s difficult to find an avenue to short-term improvement.
Is it impossible? Could there be a situation where two teams are looking to trade stars without sinking to the bottom of the standings? We think so.
For example, look at this deal that sends Pascal Siakam to the Minnesota Timberwolves.