BS Meter on Latest NBA Trade Rumors for Bradley Beal, Kyle Kuzma, More

The NBA trade deadline is less than two weeks away, and rumors are swirling.

The Chicago Bulls have entered the chat that already involved Jimmy Butler, Bradley Beal and the biggest potential blockbuster trade of the season. Meanwhile, the Philadelphia 76ers are assessing deadline plans with an eye on their top-six-protected first-round pick, and the Houston Rockets refuse to have any fun.

Plus, Los Angeles Lakers are coming up empty in their search for a center, and Kyle Kuzma is getting serious.

Here, we'll catch up on the latest chatter around the league before deciding how seriously to take it, viewing all the whispers and reports with a critical eye.

Report

"The bottom line is that the Bulls and the Suns have talked and the concept of Bradley Beal ending up in Chicago has been discussed," Brian Windhorst said on Monday's episode of The Hoop Collective (46:30 mark). "I'm not saying it's going to happen. I'm not saying it's close. Obviously Beal has a no-trade clause."

BS Meter: A curiously strong whiff

Windhorst made it clear he wasn't reporting anything concrete on Bradley Beal going to the Chicago Bulls in multi-team trade involving Jimmy Butler, the Miami Heat and the Phoenix Suns. But he and his co-hosts Tim MacMahon and Tim Bontemps conceded that there's no way for the Suns to acquire Butler without Beal changing teams and that Chicago's involvement could really only take so many forms.

One of those, curiously, would mean bringing Beal on board.

That'd be a shocking development for Chicago, a team most analysts think should go in the complete opposite direction. The Bulls are years overdue for a teardown, a path that would include sending out the likes of Nikola Vučević, Zach LaVine and anything else not bolted to the floor. Adding Beal and his albatross of a contract seems about as far from that approach as possible.

Perhaps the Bulls could get a heap of future draft picks in exchange for taking on Beal's deal, but it's hard to see where those would come from. Phoenix turned its 2031 first-rounder into three lesser firsts, but one would imagine most of those going to Miami for Butler. Then again, if Chicago's involvement includes LaVine going to Miami, perhaps it could expect to collect those picks instead.

Beal to the Bulls is hard to fathom, but maybe there's some convoluted way for Chicago to take him on as part of a rebuild.

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In the wake of scoring a season-high 30 points against the Phoenix Suns on Jan. 25, Kyle Kuzma outlined a change in mindset to reporters, via Josh Robbins of The Athletic: "I think today I just decided to be myself and not really just try to fit into everything that we're doing here, and just really played in the moment."

Also pertinent: Kuzma discussing this year's trade deadline for the first time. "We'll see how it goes," he said. "I don't know. I didn't think last year was the right time (for a trade) after signing the deal (a four-year contract in 2023). That was kind of more of a last-year thing."

BS Meter: None

Kuzma nixed a deal to the Dallas Mavericks at last year's deadline, which turned out to be good news for Dallas. The Mavs pivoted to PJ Washington and made the Finals. After another year spent in the Washington Wizards' rebuild, it seems Kuzma is ready to move on.

Who can blame him?

Washington is in the earliest stages of starting over, and its priorities are purely developmental. It cares about nurturing No. 2 pick Alex Sarr, fellow rookies Bub Carrington and Kyshawn George, along with second-year wing Bilal Coulibaly. Kuzma, a 29-year-old vet, is a long way down the list.

He's averaging fewer shot attempts per 100 possessions than he did last season, and his three-point attempt rate is at a career low. If he's looking to get traded, emphasizing his own production is smart on two fronts. First, it'll signal to other teams that he can still be a starting-caliber piece. Second, it'll actively get in the way of the developing young Wizards' growth, which should force the front office to more aggressively shop him.

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Per David Aldridge of The Athletic: "Despite their season careening out of control, with Joel Embiid again on the shelf and Paul George not yet having been able to transfer his game from the West Coast back East—and despite owing their first-round pick in 2025 to Oklahoma City if they aren't a bottom-six team—the Sixers are committed to waiting this out."

BS Meter: None...for now

It's tempting to tell the Sixers to ship out veterans like Caleb Martin, Kelly Oubre Jr., KJ Martin, Eric Gordon and others in an effort to effectively call it quits on the season. Joel Embiid's health is beyond uncertain, which means any path to postseason glory is purely speculative. Losing on purpose to keep that top-six-protected first-rounder seems logical on its face.

The problem: Philly handed out contracts worth over $400 million to Paul George and Tyrese Maxey this past offseason and almost certainly can't tank hard enough to ensure it'll keep that pick. The Sixers would have to finish with one of the two worst records to guarantee the pick will land among the top six. To have better than a coin flip's chance of retaining it, they'd need to finish with one of the league's five worst records.

Things have gone sideways for the Sixers, but they can't realistically win a race to the bottom with the likes of the Washington Wizards, Charlotte Hornets, Brooklyn Nets, Toronto Raptors, Utah Jazz, New Orleans Pelicans and Portland Trail Blazers all below them in the standings and more obviously incentivized to tank.

Maybe Philadelphia will re-evaluate if Embiid is eventually ruled out for the season or some other landscape-altering development forces a change of heart. But as it stands, the Sixers' best path is to stay the course, avoid selling off assets at the deadline and hope for the best.

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Despite climbing the West ranks and possessing tons of valuable assets to use in a deal, the Houston Rockets will not make a significant trade. That's been general manager Rafael Stone's position since December, and the league seems to be buying it.

"I ask other GMs like 'Hey, do you believe the Rockets?' and I haven't had a single person tell me 'no'," Tim MacMahon said on Monday's episode of The Hoop Collective (34:00 mark). "Like yeah, that's how they're operating."

BS Meter: Low

Well, this is disappointing.

Houston is poised to make a massive consolidation trade, but it's increasingly clear that Stone's stance is more than just posturing. Sometimes, it's smart to advertise you're not interested in dealing because it'll force potential trade partners to up their offers. But the consistency of Houston's position—particularly as it continues to knock off contenders and pile up wins—lends it an air of truth.

A team that would otherwise be ripe for major action doesn't seem ready to spice up a bland deadline.

The glass-half-full perspective: Houston is just waiting for the Suns to collapse like the dying star they are, at which point it'll offer to return their future first-rounders for Devin Booker. That may not happen until 2026, but at least there's a possibility of the Rockets eventually taking a big swing.

Report

Per Marc Stein on his Stein Line Substack, "the Lakers are not expected to join the hunt for either Vučević or Toronto's Jakob Poeltl ... while oft-suggested Lakers target Walker Kessler of the Utah Jazz is believed to be as close to unavailable as it gets."

Stein also noted there's been little momentum on Los Angeles adding Wizards big man Jonas Valančiūnas.

BS Meter: Moderate

Anthony Davis has spent years making it clear he prefers to play power forward, and he reiterated that stance in an interview with ESPN's Shams Charania last week.

The Lakers are going to make an addition at the deadline, and it stands to reason they'll aim to appease their best player in doing so.

As the deadline nears and sellers realize they're not going to get first-round assets for any of their available veteran bigs, prices should dip to a level the Lakers can handle. It's true, as Stein reports, that Los Angeles needs to be wary of taking on significant salary for 2025-26, which would be necessary to onboard Vučević or Poeltl. But if all it costs is seconds and expiring salary, one would imagine a deal could materialize.

One potential target who seems rightly off the market—at least at the current rates—is Kessler. The Utah Jazz should have no interest in dealing one of the best young rim-protectors in the game. In fact, you could make the case that he—not Keyonte George, Cody Williams nor any other recent Jazz draftees—is still the top prospect in the system. That matters in a rebuild, and Utah shouldn't listen to offers that fail to include at least one unprotected first-rounder.

Stats courtesy of NBA.com, Basketball Reference and Cleaning the Glass. Salary info via Spotrac.

Grant Hughes covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter (@gt_hughes), and subscribe to the Hardwood Knocks podcast, where he appears with Bleacher Report's Dan Favale.