No. 1: Golden State Warriors
The Golden State Warriors are going to aggressively pursue trades throughout the season to land another star to play alongside Stephen Curry.
That's the message that was declared on Media Day, and it fit the facts of the summer. The Warriors made a strong offer for Paul George, to the point that George thought he was going to Golden State, only for the LA Clippers to back out. Then they were at the front of the line all summer long in negotiations with the Utah Jazz for Lauri Markkanen, but Danny Ainge was unlikely to ever trade a star player who actually wanted to live in Utah.
If Giannis Antetokounmpo does hit the trade market, however, you can be sure that the Warriors will be involved and make a strong offer. Their start to the season has only strengthened that likelihood, as they are incredibly deep and look like a team that can afford to trade multiple players to take back a star like Antetokounmpo and still be good enough to compete with him once he arrives.
The most difficult part of a trade offer from the Warriors, in fact, is making the salaries work. They have nearly all of their own picks to trade, a couple of lucrative seconds from Atlanta, and a bundle of young players. As with most of the other teams on this list, however, they are close to a tax apron that is preventing them from taking on salary in a trade.
Knowing there needs to be a third team, therefore, the trade can be built from there. Unless the Warriors are open to trading Draymond Green, any deal for a star has to be built on Andrew Wiggins' contract as a baseline. From there, the Warriors can add on Jonathan Kuminga as the prime player sweetener, and a bevy of first-round picks on top of that. The Warriors' picks in the out years, such as 2029 or 2030, are more valuable than other teams trading for Antetokounmpo because the Warriors are going to age out of contention in the next few years.
The Bucks are going to ask for Brandin Podziemski, and the most likely construction to actually happen would include him. One trade proposed by the trade site Fanspo, however, proposes another path: if the Warriors can make it possible for the Bucks to get under the second luxury tax apron, that may be extremely valuable to them in freeing up trade flexibility in moving on from Damian Lillard, Brook Lopez and Khris Middleton. Could that exchange of value allow them to keep Podziemski?
Here's what that construction would look like:
The Washington Wizards take a flier on MarJon Beauchamp as the team in the league best positioned to take fliers on young, raw players, and in exchange for taking on Pat Connaughton and his two-years of salary they get a pair of second-round picks. Rerouting that much salary and keeping Podziemski out of the deal gets the Bucks under the tax apron.
Milwaukee then kicks off a massive rebuild with expiring, tradeable salaries they can move in Kevon Looney and Gary Payton II, and Jonathan Kuminga as the player to build around. That rebuild happens with a bevy of picks, as they would control the Warriors' draft for five consecutive years. It's possible another team offers a stronger package, but Kuminga is a really good player to get back and the financial flexibility is valuable.
For the Warriors, they unquestionably get much thinner in this trade, but that's a reasonable tradeoff to also land a Top-5 player and contend for a title. Starting Stephen Curry, Podziemski, Moses Moody, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Draymond Green gives them a fearsome two-way lineup, with Buddy Hield, Lindy Waters III, Kyle Anderson and Trayce Jackson-Davis filling out the rotation behind them. That's a team that challenges anyone in the Western Conference.
None of these trades are slam dunks for the Milwaukee Bucks, as trading a superstar in his prime is always a painful endeavor, but each has something compelling to offer. There will be other teams that step into the running, of course, but these initial four teams all have a path to getting a deal done.