NBA trade deadline: The 5 most interesting teams to watch, starting wi

Deadlines tend to bring action, the truism goes, and with the 2026 NBA trade deadline now just a week away, 30 NBA teams have the opportunity to show us — not tell us — where exactly they think they are in the grand scheme of the league, and what exactly they feel they need to get where they want to go.

Those who fancy themselves contenders might enter this final week searching for one last piece to complete the puzzle, fortifying their chances of playing into June. For teams living a bit lower in the standings, the deadline offers a shot at one last transactional closing kick that can separate them from the middle of the pack, avoid the play-in tournament and maybe even land home-court advantage in the first round.

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For others, it’s a chance to keep matriculating the ball down the field on your in-process rebuilding project by trying to snag some future picks or prospects on the outskirts of larger, more present-tense-focused deals. And if you’ve got nothing much else going on, maybe you can at least cut down your luxury tax bill and save your owner a few million bucks. (The Nets and Jazz, the two teams with more than $10 million in salary cap space still available, and the Wizards, who are nearly $30 million under the luxury tax line, will be more than happy to take those teams’ calls and assist … provided you pony up some of those aforementioned picks and prospects.)

Whatever game they’re playing, front offices across the NBA are working overtime trying to find the help they want at the price they need. Let’s take a look at the five most interesting teams — to me! — in the NBA as we approach the deadline, starting — where else? — with the current center of the NBA universe: The Good Land.

“I can’t wait until all the deadlines and stuff pass, because we’re rumor central,” head coach Doc Rivers told reporters Tuesday before his Bucks lost in Philadelphia — their sixth loss in the last…