{"id":483558,"date":"2025-12-19T21:03:11","date_gmt":"2025-12-19T21:03:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/483558\/"},"modified":"2025-12-19T21:03:11","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T21:03:11","slug":"trade-rumors-castle-suns-raptors-davis-kings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/483558\/","title":{"rendered":"Trade Rumors: Castle, Suns, Raptors, Davis, Kings"},"content":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s reportedly<\/a> a sense that the Spurs won\u2019t seriously pursue a Giannis Antetokounmpo<\/a> trade even if the Bucks make the two-time MVP available this season. While San Antonio seemingly has the assets necessary to make a compelling offer for a star-level trade candidate like Antetokounmpo, the team is very high on its young core and isn\u2019t eager to break it up to go all-in on an older player, writes Kurt Helin of NBC Sports<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Victor Wembanyama<\/a> is obviously untouchable and reports<\/a> have indicated that the Spurs have never shown any interest in moving rookie Dylan Harper<\/a>, dating back to lottery night when they won the No. 2 overall pick and the right to draft him. The team\u2019s unwillingness to discuss trades involving its rising young stars also extends to reigning Rookie of the Year Stephon Castle<\/a>, ESPN\u2019s Brian Windhorst said this week during an appearance on The Ryen Russillo Show (YouTube link<\/a>).<\/p>\n

\u201cI cannot tell you how much the Spurs loved Castle when they got him,\u201d Windhorst said (hat tip to HoopsHype<\/a>). \u201cLike, right out of the gate they were like, \u2018Oh my god, do we love this guy.\u2019 They are convinced that he is the perfect guy to have with Victor. \u2026 They love everything about his make-up. They love everything about the way he competes. They love everything about his willingness to improve. They love Stephon Castle.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Windhorst acknowledged that very few players in the NBA are absolutely untouchable, he stressed that the Spurs are extremely unlikely to move Castle anytime soon.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would be stunned if they gave Castle away for almost anything,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Here are a few more trade-related notes and rumors from around the NBA:<\/p>\n

Gerald Bourguet of Suns After Dark<\/a> confirms that the Suns and Raptors spoke about a possible trade<\/a> that would send Nick Richards<\/a> to Toronto in exchange for Ochai Agbaji<\/a> and a second-round pick, but says Phoenix isn\u2019t looking to make a deal quite yet, doesn\u2019t have a ton of interest in Agbaji, and didn\u2019t love the quality of the second-rounder the Raptors were willing to offer. While it\u2019s unclear which pick Toronto put on the table, neither of the 2026 second-rounders the team controls would be very valuable if the season ended today \u2014 the Raptors\u2019 own pick would be No. 52, while the Lakers\u2019 second-rounder Toronto owns would be in the 56-58 range.
\nMavericks big man Anthony Davis<\/a> sits atop the trade deadline \u201cbig board\u201d published today by Sam Vecenie of The Athletic<\/a>, who ranks potential trade candidates based on a combination of their potential impact and their likelihood of being moved. If Antetokounmpo doesn\u2019t get traded this season, Davis is considered the one player on the market who could \u201cswing the title race the most if he were dealt to the right situation,\u201d Vecenie writes.
\nEarlier this week, Yossi Gozlan of The Third Apron<\/a> (Substack link) published the first installment of his comprehensive guide to the 2026 NBA trade deadline, identifying possible trade candidates and potential goals for all 30 teams. For instance, in examining the Kings, Gozlan classifies Keon Ellis<\/a> and Dennis Schr\u00f6der<\/a> as likely to be traded, Russell Westbrook<\/a>, Malik Monk<\/a>, and DeMar DeRozan<\/a> as \u201cvery possible\u201d to be moved, and Zach LaVine<\/a> and Domantas Sabonis<\/a> as more likely to stay put due to their sizable contracts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There\u2019s reportedly a sense that the Spurs won\u2019t seriously pursue a Giannis Antetokounmpo trade even if the Bucks…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":483559,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3724],"tags":[495,7,123,7797,10513,930],"class_list":{"0":"post-483558","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-basketball","8":"tag-anthony-davis","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-giannis-antetokounmpo","11":"tag-nick-richards","12":"tag-ochai-agbaji","13":"tag-stephon-castle"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115748261408893344","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483558","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=483558"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483558\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/483559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=483558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=483558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=483558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}