Sam Vecenie of The Athletic recently released the NBA Trade Board for the 2025-26 season, highlighting the top candidates that could be moved by the Feb. 5 deadline. Coming in at No. 12 is former Portland Trail Blazers star CJ McCollum.
Now with the Washington Wizards, McCollum is averaging 18.8 points, 3.5 assists, and 3.3 rebounds on 45/40/79 shooting splits. Those numbers don't tell the whole story, as he's overcome a slow start and seems more comfortable in his new home, playing substantially better as of late.
"If you remove the first eight games of his season, McCollum has killed it, averaging 22.6 points while shooting 48.3 percent from the field and 43.3 percent from 3. He's dropped a couple of 40-point games, essentially winning games for the Wizards against Atlanta and Milwaukee over the last month," Vecenie writes.
Could the Wizards trade CJ McCollum?
Despite McCollum's strong play, the Wizards unsurprisingly find themselves at the bottom of the NBA with a 5-22 record. The differing timelines between the rebuilding Wizards and their 34-year-old guard make him a logical trade candidate. He's also on an expiring contract, which should make finding a landing spot easier.
As Vecenie notes, the price point is the biggest hurdle. Although McCollum is proving to have plenty of gas left in the tank, he's still overpaid at $30.7 million this season, especially after looking at how the market played out his offseason for offensive-minded, score-first guards.
"McCollum can clearly still help quite a few teams out there, but his market will be limited because not everyone can take back that money. One avenue that could make some sense is if the Wizards are willing to consummate the kind of deal that we've seen them do recently, where they take back multiple years of bad money in order to acquire draft capital. For instance, would they take on one or two of the Kings' backcourt veterans if Sacramento threw some draft capital their way? Still, deals might be difficult enough to construct for McCollum that it becomes hard to trade him."
Portland could desperately use more help in the backcourt with no imminent returns for Scoot Henderson or Jrue Holiday. But with Holiday and Jerami Grant both owed north of $100 million, it doesn't make sense financially for a McCollum-Blazers reunion. They could offload Grant as the salary filler, but general manager Joe Cronin is high on Grant and doesn't appear willing to attach draft capital to dump him at this point.
Perhaps a contender views McCollum as the piece to put them over the top, or someone like Milwaukee is desperate enough to look past the contract if primary options like Zach LaVine don't work out. It's much more challenging to move a salary of that size midseason compared to the offseason, as teams have much less flexibility.
We'll see how this plays out, but given how McCollum has played as of late, the likelihood of the Wizards trading him has increased. Vecenie lists his trade value as just second-round picks and salary fillers, but the Wizards would be better off getting something in return before he potentially walks in free agency.