5 Teams In Pursuit of Trade Target Jonas Valanciunas

When the bottoming-out Washington Wizards pulled off a surprise signing of center Jonas Valanciunas on a three-year deal this past summer, most observers felt it was more to give them a nice trade chip at this season's deadline. That theory is being proven out, as five teams are now known to have JV on their trade radar:

Five teams in the Western Conference have recently shown trade interest in Jonas Valanciunas:

Lakers
Nuggets
Rockets
Suns
Warriors

Valanciunas is averaging 11.9 points and 8.0 rebounds in only 19.9 minutes for the Wizards this season. pic.twitter.com/XHfWb8SWES
— Evan Sidery (@esidery) January 1, 2025

According to insider Evan Sidery, the following five teams are interested in Valanciunas when he becomes eligible to be traded as of January 15th:

LA Lakers
Denver Nuggets
Houston Rockets
Phoenix Suns
Golden State Warriors

The Lakers have been linked to JV for months now, and they are a team that has had a goal of upgrading their center spot all season. They'd like to be able to move Anthony Davis more often to the 'four'.

The Nuggets need more of a presence down low and some more rebounding, aside from MVP-favorite Nikola Jokic. According to Tony Jones and Sam Amick of The Athletic, Denver has held preliminary trade discussions with the Wiz about not only Valanciunas, but scorer Jordan Poole as well.

The Rockets, making a big-time push this season, could stand to upgrade their backup center spot, as Steven Adams has had a much smaller role than expected in his first season back from a year off to injury.

Per The Arizona Republic, the Suns are actively looking to trade starting center Jusuf Nurkic, and Valančiūnas is one of the replacements they've been eyeing.

The Warriors are definitely in need of a big man to beef up their frontcourt and rebounding.

With all of this interest, it looks like the Wizards will make out pretty well after all on their summer gamble of signing the Lithuanian big man.