The 2024-25 NBA season featured two trades go down immediately upon the opening of the Dec. 15 window across the league. The Golden State Warriors acquired Dennis Schroder from the Brooklyn Nets, and the Indiana Pacers landed Thomas Bryant from the Miami Heat. 2025-26 had no sizzle.
Last year's maneuver from the Warriors exposed a loophole regarding the reaggregation of contracts in future deals. That could have been something the Los Angeles Lakers would have been interested in exploiting themselves. Jake Fischer explained it during a recent rumor mill round-up.
Fischer wrote, "[They were] taking advantage of a fresh wrinkle in the revised labor pact which states that acquiring a player via trade by Dec. 16 makes them eligible to be aggregated again with other contracts in a subsequent move before the NBA's annual in-season trade deadline every February."
Despite that, the Lakers stood quietly with the rest of the league and watched that opportunity expire. Why? To some capacity, the daunting success of the Oklahoma City Thunder could have played a notable role in that decision-making process.
Thunder's dominance forcing everyone else to stay patient
At 24-2, the Thunder look like a force to start the 2025-26 campaign. The experience feels largely reminiscent of the leap taken by the 2015-16 Warriors after winning the championship during the previous season.
The quiet part about all of that is that Golden State team eventually lost in the 2016 NBA Finals. However, that feat took a herculean effort from LeBron James, a masterful supporting act from Kyrie Irving, plus a few lucky breaks here and there.
Closing the gap on this year's Oklahoma City team will be tough. The other 29 franchises in the NBA may already be feeling that with this slow start to the trade season.
Giannis Antetokounmpo was back in the rumor mill ahead of Dec. 15. The Milwaukee Bucks superstar is a top-five player in the world and someone who is incredibly capable of giving the Thunder trouble.
Have any teams really bent out of shape in pursuit of Antetokounmpo thus far? Not really.
Granted, that also has to do with the Bucks' stubborn insistence on making things work in Milwaukee rather than seeing the writing on the wall. Even so, it would be easier to lean in on finally letting Giannis go if there was a worthwhile offer. It is unclear if anyone has really pitched as much.
The idea here isn't that 2025-26 is a lost season, by any means, due to the Thunder's dominance. However, the hesitation on pushing all the chips in now has certainly required serious evaluation of the landscape from the Lakers and the rest of the NBA.