We're back with another edition of our Trade Maching Rankings series, ranking the five players most often plugged into the HoopsMatic trade machine over the previous week.
This is perhaps the most loaded edition of this series yet, as it features a three-time league MVP, a two-time NBA finalist, a former championship-winning guard, a double-double machine center and a former No. 2 overall pick.
5. Jalen Green (Phoenix)
Share: 3.5 percent of trades on our trade machine
Jalen Green has continued his poor start to the season of late, averaging just 9.3 points on 41.4 percent shooting (0.0 percent from three) over his past three outings, a surprising 2-1 stretch for the Phoenix Suns. As such, Green has continued to be a popular player on our trade machine, as Suns fans look
for an upgrade to their starting backcourt.
17.8 percent of Green deals have him going to the Dallas Mavericks, 9.4 percent have him going to the Los Angeles Clippers and 6.4 percent have him getting sent to the Sacramento Kings.
Meanwhile, the player Suns fans have targeted most in exchange for Green has been Darius Garland, a playmaking, shot-making floor general with the Clippers who'd be a far better fit alongside Devin Booker than Green has been. Garland is averaging 21.2 points and 7.0 assists per game this season on 37.1 percent shooting from the floor; his quickness, passing and decision-making are just what the 3-6 Suns could use in their backcourt, which is what makes him so popular with Phoenix fans using our trade machine.
Use our trade machine to figure out the perfect Jalen Green trade for your team.
Check our website for the latest Jalen Green trade rumors and salary info.
4. Jimmy Butler (Golden State)
Share: 3.6 percent of trades on our trade machine
For the first time in a month, injured Golden State Warriors swingman Jimmy Butler did not rank first in this exercise. That probably has to do with the fact that the team is off to a torrid 8-3 start, giving Golden State fans a sense of peace and less of an urgency to swing a huge deal to improve the team around Stephen Curry.
Whether the start of this season for the Warriors has been a mirage remains to be seen, but the squad has been quite impressive, ranking No. 2 in offensive efficiency and No. 11 in defensive efficiency. Now imagine adding a healthy Butler to the mix? With how wide open the NBA has been since the new CBA rules came into effect, the Warriors could be in the running for No. 5 in the Curry era if they keep up this pace. In particular, it'll come down to whether super rookie Yaxel Lendeborg, who's averaging 21.4 points, 7.2 rebounds, and 4.0 assists per game on 44.3 percent shooting from three, can avoid the rookie wall, because as of now, he's playing like an All-Star.
Regardless, we're getting ahead of ourselves here.
Butler remains a popular name on our trade machine, with his primary landing spots being the Miami Heat (11.0 percent), Sacramento Kings (9.6 percent) and Denver Nuggets (8.8 percent). The players Warriors fans have targeted are pipe dreams of sorts; Giannis Antetokounmpo leads the way at 11.9 percent, while Anthony Davis and Nikola Jokic rank second at 7.1 percent. Of those names, the most plausible one is Davis, who's currently on a rebuilding Washington Wizards team with a 3-8 record, and who could be attainable considering the Warriors' draft capital.
Use our trade machine to figure out the perfect Jimmy Butler trade for your team.
Check our website for the latest Jimmy Butler trade rumors and salary info.
3. Derrick White (Boston)
Share: 3.6 percent of trades on our trade machine
A new name in our ranking this week, Boston Celtics guard Derrick White was very likely included in our trade machine this much due to frustration over his play, rather than frustration with the Celtics as a whole, as the team is currently 8-2 and Top 5 in both offensive and defensive rating.
White, though, is off to a slow individual start to the campaign; the one-time NBA champion is averaging just 12.9 points per game this season (his second-lowest total since 2019-29) while shooting a paltry 32.7 percent from three, the same clip he shot in 2025-26. What's more, White has made the Celtics 3.7 points per 100 possessions worse during his time on the floor in 2026-27, marking the first time in his career he posts a negative swing rating.
In such a what-have-you-done-for-me-lately league, that has led to an uptick in White's inclusion on our trade machine, with 9.0 percent of his deals sending him to the Houston Rockets, 7.3 percent sending him to the Atlanta Hawks and 6.8 percent sending him to the Charlotte Hornets. The top players returning to Boston in theoretical White deals have been Alperen Sengun (6.8 percent), Jalen Brunson (5.1 percent) and Green (4.8 percent).
Obviously, the first two are extreme wishful thinking on Boston fans' part, while the third name is Phoenix fans trying to get White on the Suns. White in Phoenix would make a whole lot of sense, as his two-way skill set would give the team a boost that Green simply can't.
Use our trade machine to figure out the perfect Derrick White trade for your team.
Check our website for the latest Derrick White trade rumors and salary info.
2. Domantas Sabonis (Sacramento)
Share: 3.9 percent of trades on our trade machine
Kings big man Domantas Sabonis remains a rebounding machine, averaging 15.3 points, a league-leading 14.6 rebounds and 6.0 assists per game on 67.9 percent shooting from the floor. However, his impact remains empty to an extent, as he has now made the Kings 6.0 points per 100 possessions worse over the last two seasons combined, while the team boasts a brutal 1-9 record.
As such, Sabonis might need a change of scenery, one that could benefit both parties.
The Toronto Raptors are the top landing spot for Sabonis on our trade machine at 16.2 percent, with Raptors center Jakob Poeltl being the most common player returning to Sacramento in those theoretical deals at 12.8 percent. This strikes us as Raptors fans trying to improve their frontcourt more than Kings fans trying to get Poeltl on their squad. Immanuel Quickley is the second-most common player going to Sacramento in those deals, as a two-for-one swap of Poeltl and Quickley for Sabonis works financially. Other landing spots for Sabonis have been the Hawks (11.0 percent) and the Suns (7.8 percent), with Dyson Daniels being the third-most common player going to Sacramento in these fake trades.
We're not sure when it will happen, but we think Sabonis' name will start to pop up more in concrete trade rumors as we get closer to the 2026-27 deadline, since the Kings need an entire reboot.
Use our trade machine to figure out the perfect Domantas Sabonis trade for your team.
Check our website for the latest Domantas Sabonis trade rumors and salary info.
1. Nikola Jokic (Denver)
Share: 4.4 percent of trades on our trade machine
This isn't the first time that Nuggets megastar Nikola Jokic has been a popular name on our trade machine, but it is the first time we decided to acknowledge it, as the team sits at a mediocre 5-4, just 13th in offensive rating and 21st in defensive rating. That, coupled with a recent rumor that Jokic re-signing with Denver is not a foregone conclusion anymore (via Tim Kawakami)...
“I’ve been hearing this for a little while. It’s an open thing. It’s an open thing. He’s very likely to go back to Denver, but it’s an open thing. There’s nothing guaranteed about him going back to sign a long extension with Denver.”
... led us to finally discuss Jokic's usage on our trade machine. It's also worth noting that this is the first time that Jokic ranks first in this exercise.
Denver's struggles this season can be attributed, at least in part, to Jokic appearing human for the first time in quite a while. After an astounding six straight years of Jokic ranking first in both metrics, the Serbian big man thus far in 2026-27 is just sixth in VORP (0.8) and sixth in BPM (8.0). His swing rating remains an impressive plus-10.0 points per 100 possessions, but that's also his lowest such mark since 2020-21.
Are these signs of regression for the future Hall-of-Fame center, or is the roster around him just such a poor fit that it has hurt his generational output? That remains to be seen, though the picture will get clearer over the coming weeks and months.
Even so, 16.8 percent of Jokic deals have sent him to the Oklahoma City Thunder, with the top returning player in such deals all being members of that team: Chet Holmgren (15.7 percent), Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (15.7 percent) and Jalen Williams (15.5 percent). Other top landing spots for Jokic have been Miami (14.5 percent) and Philadelphia (13.9 percent). That leads us to believe this is a matter of Thunder fans hammering Jokic into our trade machine in hopes of revamping their quite-injured roster with a former league MVP. Making that theory even more valid is the fact that two of those players, Holmgren and Williams, are facing extended absences, making it unlikely that Nuggets fans would be yearning to trade Jokic for them.
Nevertheless, we can say pretty much without a doubt that, barring something hard-to-fathom happening and Jokic demanding out, the eight-time All-Star will not be getting traded this year, or very likely any, for that matter.
Use our trade machine to figure out the perfect Nikola Jokic trade for your team.
Check our website for the latest Nikola Jokic trade rumors and salary info.
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This article originally appeared on Hoops Hype: NBA Trade Machine Rankings: Nikola Jokic, Domantas Sabonis, and more
