The biggest NBA trades in history (through June 2025)
Two trades in the first six months of 2025 reshuffled almost everything a casual fan thought they knew about what was possible in an NBA transaction. The Luka Dončić-for-Anthony Davis trade on February 1, 2025 was the most-shocking trade in league history, a reigning All-NBA First Team 25-year-old moved straight-up for another All-NBA star in the middle of a season, without any obvious front-office tension to telegraph it. Four and a half months later, on June 22, 2025, the Kevin Durant trade to the Houston Rockets became the largest single transaction the NBA has ever processed, involving seven teams, 13 players, six future first-round picks, a draft pick swap, and a separately-timed contract extension. Both trades will anchor league history for the next quarter-century. Below are the fifteen biggest NBA trades ever, ranked.
1. Kevin Durant to the Houston Rockets, June 22, 2025
Size: Seven teams, 13 players, six future first-round picks, one pick swap, plus the No. 10 pick in the 2025 draft. The largest single NBA transaction in recorded league history.
Core swap: Phoenix sent Durant to Houston. Houston sent Dillon Brooks, Jalen Green, the No. 10 pick, and the bulk of the six future firsts to Phoenix. The other five teams (Golden State, Dallas, Atlanta, Memphis, Brooklyn) were involved for salary balancing and draft-pick rerouting.
Why it matters: The 2024–25 Suns were restricted by the NBA’s second-apron cap rules and needed to reduce team salary or lose future draft-pick control. The trade solved both problems. Houston, which had finished second in the Western Conference with 52 wins, landed the most-efficient high-volume scorer of the last twenty years for a package that did not cost them a title contender’s core.
The three-day paperwork process required unusual approvals from the league office, including the largest salary-matching calculation the NBA has ever processed within a single transaction.
2. Luka Dončić to the Los Angeles Lakers, February 1, 2025
Size: Three teams. Lakers, Mavericks, and Utah Jazz.
Core swap: Dallas sent Dončić to Los Angeles. Los Angeles sent Anthony Davis, Max Christie, and a 2029 first-round pick to Dallas. Utah took Jalen Hood-Schifino, two second-rounders, and cash.
Why it matters: This is the single most-shocking trade in league history. The front-office logic behind deals like this, why franchises trade away generational talents and what they expect to gain, is the subject of The Soul of Basketball by Ian Thomsen (Houghton Mifflin, 2018), which follows the 2013–14 season’s franchise decisions in detail. No reigning All-NBA First Team player age 25 had ever been traded straight up for another star plus modest additional assets mid-season. The trade was executed without being previewed in local Dallas media. The Mavericks’ front office has not fully explained the reasoning to the public even a year later. The Dallas fanbase has, on multiple occasions, staged public demonstrations at American Airlines Center calling for GM Nico Harrison’s resignation.
The downstream effect: the Lakers added Dončić to a roster led by LeBron James; the Mavericks retooled around Kyrie Irving, Davis, and Klay Thompson; and the NBA’s media and fan assumptions about how untouchable a 25-year-old All-NBA star was broke overnight.
3. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to the Los Angeles Lakers, June 16, 1975
Size: Two teams. Milwaukee Bucks to LA Lakers.
Core swap: Milwaukee sent Kareem (and Walt Wesley) to Los Angeles for Elmore Smith, Brian Winters, Dave Meyers, and Junior Bridgeman.
Why it matters: Kareem had been an active trade request since 1973, when he asked Milwaukee to move him to either New York or Los Angeles. The Lakers had the better package to offer and the larger media market. The trade made possible the Showtime Lakers of the 1980s (Kareem paired with Magic Johnson starting in 1979), five championships between 1980 and 1988, and Kareem’s move past Wilt Chamberlain’s career scoring record. Milwaukee has not won a championship since.
4. Shaquille O’Neal to the Miami Heat, July 14, 2004
Size: Two teams. Lakers to Heat.
Core swap: Lakers sent Shaq to Miami for Lamar Odom, Caron Butler, Brian Grant, and a 2006 first-round pick.
Why it matters: Ended the Kobe-Shaq three-peat Lakers and delivered Miami the 2006 championship two years later, with Dwyane Wade as Finals MVP. The trade is the clean example of an interpersonal-friction-driven superstar move where neither side’s business case was clearly better, the trade happened because the two players could no longer share a locker room.
5. Kevin Garnett to the Boston Celtics, July 31, 2007
Size: Two teams. Minnesota Timberwolves to Boston Celtics.
Core swap: Minnesota sent Garnett to Boston for Al Jefferson, Ryan Gomes, Gerald Green, Sebastian Telfair, Theo Ratliff, and two first-round picks.
Why it matters: Paired Garnett with Paul Pierce and (via a separate July 2007 trade with Seattle) Ray Allen. The Big Three Celtics won the 2008 championship and reached the 2010 Finals. The Garnett trade is widely treated as the template for every subsequent “three-star roster” construction, up to and including the 2016 Warriors adding Kevin Durant.
6. Moses Malone to the Philadelphia 76ers, September 2, 1982
Size: Two teams. Houston Rockets to Philadelphia 76ers.
Core swap: Houston sent Moses (and a second-round pick) to Philadelphia for Caldwell Jones and a 1983 first-round pick.
Why it matters: Moses had just won the 1981–82 MVP. He was traded because Houston could not fit his contract renewal into their salary structure (pre-salary-cap era, but still). Philadelphia won the 1983 NBA Championship the following June, sweeping the Lakers in the Finals. Moses famously predicted “fo’, fo’, fo’”, four, four, four, the Sixers’ path to the title, and they went 12-1 in the playoffs, almost vindicating the line.
7. Pau Gasol to the Los Angeles Lakers, February 1, 2008
Size: Two teams. Memphis Grizzlies to LA Lakers.
Core swap: Memphis sent Pau Gasol to Los Angeles for Kwame Brown, Javaris Crittenton, two first-round picks, and the rights to Marc Gasol (Pau’s younger brother).
Why it matters: The trade restored Kobe Bryant’s title contention window and delivered the Lakers’ 2009 and 2010 championships. The trade also happens to include the funniest sub-plot in modern NBA trade history, Memphis acquired the rights to Pau’s younger brother Marc in the same trade that moved Pau out. Marc would go on to become a three-time All-Star in Memphis and the 2012–13 Defensive Player of the Year. Memphis got the better long-term deal in the fraternal component.
8. Charles Barkley to the Phoenix Suns, June 17, 1992
Size: Two teams. Philadelphia 76ers to Phoenix Suns.
Core swap: Philadelphia sent Barkley to Phoenix for Jeff Hornacek, Tim Perry, and Andrew Lang.
Why it matters: Barkley won the 1992–93 MVP in his first Phoenix season and led the Suns to the 1993 NBA Finals against Michael Jordan’s Bulls. Phoenix lost the Finals 4-2, and the trade has been discussed as the single-best one-year pickup in league history by multiple statistical composites.
9. Kawhi Leonard to the Toronto Raptors, July 18, 2018
Size: Two teams. San Antonio Spurs to Toronto Raptors.
Core swap: San Antonio sent Kawhi and Danny Green to Toronto for DeMar DeRozan, Jakob Poeltl, and a top-20-protected first-round pick.
Why it matters: Kawhi’s one season in Toronto (2018–19) delivered the Raptors’ first and only championship, with Kawhi as Finals MVP. The trade was executed with no guarantee Kawhi would re-sign in Toronto, and he didn’t, leaving as a free agent the following summer. The trade is the most-valuable one-year rental in NBA history.
10. James Harden to the Houston Rockets, October 27, 2012
Size: Two teams. Oklahoma City Thunder to Houston Rockets.
Core swap: OKC sent Harden (and Cole Aldrich, Daequan Cook, Lazar Hayward) to Houston for Kevin Martin, Jeremy Lamb, two first-round picks, and a second.
Why it matters: The trade is the most-debated front-office decision in Oklahoma City’s history. Houston turned Harden into an MVP (2017–18) and multiple conference finals runs. OKC’s compensation was good but not great. The Thunder’s championship window, with Durant, Westbrook, Harden, and Ibaka, closed that week and did not reopen until the 2023–24 Shai Gilgeous-Alexander team twelve years later.
11. Paul George to the Los Angeles Clippers, July 6, 2019
Size: Two teams. Oklahoma City Thunder to LA Clippers.
Core swap: OKC sent Paul George to the Clippers for Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Danilo Gallinari, five first-round picks, and two first-round pick swaps.
Why it matters: The seven future first-round picks OKC acquired became the single largest draft-asset stockpile in NBA history at the time of the trade. OKC used the picks and SGA’s development to rebuild into the 2023–24 Western Conference top seed and the 2024–25 Shai Gilgeous-Alexander MVP team. The Clippers never reached the Finals with George and Kawhi; the 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023 playoffs were all early exits.
12. Anthony Davis to the Los Angeles Lakers, June 15, 2019
Size: Two teams. New Orleans Pelicans to LA Lakers.
Core swap: New Orleans sent Davis to Los Angeles for Lonzo Ball, Brandon Ingram, Josh Hart, and three first-round picks (including the rights to one that became Zion Williamson’s No. 1 overall pick in 2019).
Why it matters: Set up the 2020 championship alongside LeBron James. New Orleans used the Lakers’ picks and Brandon Ingram’s subsequent All-Star season to rebuild around Zion Williamson, though the Pelicans have not yet reached the conference finals as of 2026.
13. Dwight Howard to the Los Angeles Lakers, August 10, 2012
Size: Four teams. Magic, Lakers, Nuggets, Sixers.
Core swap: Orlando sent Howard to Los Angeles. Los Angeles sent Andrew Bynum to Philadelphia. Philadelphia sent Andre Iguodala to Denver. Denver sent Arron Afflalo, Al Harrington, and Aaron Brooks to Orlando. Plus a dozen bench players rerouted and four first-round picks distributed.
Why it matters: The trade was messy, the four-team structure was unusual at the time, and none of the four teams got what they wanted. The Lakers (Howard + Nash + Kobe + Gasol) missed the playoffs in the following spring. Orlando’s rebuild took seven years. It is the textbook example of a “superteam forming” trade that completely failed in its first year.
14. Chris Paul to the Los Angeles Clippers, December 14, 2011
Size: Three teams, following the infamous “basketball reasons” veto.
Core swap: After commissioner David Stern vetoed an earlier three-way trade that would have sent Paul to the Lakers (citing “basketball reasons” in a league-ownership-operated New Orleans Hornets), the Hornets renegotiated and shipped Paul to the Clippers for Eric Gordon, Chris Kaman, Al-Farouq Aminu, and a first-round pick.
Why it matters: The “basketball reasons” veto episode produced one of the most-controversial commissioner interventions in league history. The Clippers became instantly competitive (four consecutive 50-win seasons from 2012 to 2015 with Paul and Blake Griffin) but never reached the conference finals with the Paul-led core. Paul’s career eventually landed him at the Finals with Phoenix in 2021 and, as of 2025–26, still without a championship.
15. Kevin Durant to the Brooklyn Nets, February 10, 2023 (first of the KD trade dominoes)
Size: Two teams. Brooklyn Nets to Phoenix Suns.
Core swap: Brooklyn sent Durant and T.J. Warren to Phoenix for Mikal Bridges, Cam Johnson, Jae Crowder, four first-round picks, and a first-round pick swap.
Why it matters: The February 2023 Durant trade, which moved him from the Nets to Phoenix, was the largest Durant-centered transaction until the June 2025 Houston deal eclipsed it. Phoenix was a conference finalist the year he arrived; by 2025 they had torn the roster down to accommodate the second apron. The Durant-Suns window was shorter than any of his prior stops.
What the 2025 trades reveal
The February Luka trade and the June Durant trade, happening within five months of each other, marked the end of the “untouchable superstar” era of NBA transactions. The framework that had governed star-player movement since the 1975 Kareem trade, that superstars move on their terms, typically via trade request or free agency, was not replaced, but it was joined by a new pattern: CBA-driven front-office roster-reconstruction decisions. Both trades were structured around cap-apron considerations. Both were processed with a level of surprise that previous eras did not tolerate. Both generated front-office controversies that will define their franchises for the next decade.
The next apron year starts July 1, 2026, with a higher cap, different thresholds, and a renewed set of pressure points. The list above will likely grow before the decade is out.
Related reading
- Kevin Durant biography, the full trade history, including the six moves from 2007 to 2025
- Luka Dončić biography, the February 2025 trade reconstruction
- Shaquille O’Neal biography, the 2004 Lakers-to-Heat move
- How the NBA salary cap and aprons work, the mechanical explanation of why 2025 was such a heavy trade year
Gear
The books behind the trades.
*The Soul of Basketball* by Ian Thomsen (Houghton Mifflin, 2018) →
*The Book of Basketball* by Bill Simmons (Ballantine, 2009) →
Sources
Linked in the frontmatter. Trade-date and trade-participant detail is cross-referenced against Basketball-Reference’s transaction database and ESPN’s trade tracker. The 2025 Lakers-Mavericks trade reconstruction is built from Shams Charania’s ESPN reporting starting February 1, 2025 at 11:13 p.m. ET and Tim MacMahon’s Mavericks-beat reporting in the days that followed. The seven-team Durant trade mechanics are from NBA.com’s June 22, 2025 press release and from Bobby Marks’ cap-mechanics walkthrough on ESPN the following week.
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