Fred VanVleet, Houston Rockets
Fred VanVleet is perhaps the single most compelling potential trade target to consider in 2024-25. VanVleet signed a massive three-year, $128,539,845 contract with the Houston Rockets in 2023, and is owed $42,846,615 this coming season—the 20th-highest cap hit in the NBA.
If you're wondering why the Los Angeles Lakers would ever consider a move like this, look no further than the fact that he has a team option for the 2025-26 season.
If the Lakers are struggling ahead of the trade deadline, then shedding salary and potentially starting from some version of scratch in 2025 wouldn't be the worst idea. It would cost Los Angeles a hefty price, but it would also enable it to shed multi-year salaries if it hopes to do so.
That could include Rui Hachimura's $18,259,259 for the 2025-26 campaign, the $11.5 million owed to Gabe Vincent for 2025-26, and the entirety of Jarred Vanderbilt's four-year extension that kicks in this season.
This is a long shot, as the Lakers would have to give the Rockets reason to believe this trade actually works for them. That could require the inclusion of first-round draft compensation and the belief in Houston that some combination of Hachimura, Vanderbilt, and Vincent can improve the quality of the roster.
Even still, if the Rockets are looking to make a splash and the Lakers are hoping to shed salary, trading for VanVleet and declining his team option would change the entire outlook of the franchise.
Ambitious, but that's the entire point of looking at the way-to-early trade deadline targets.