Fantasy Basketball Trade Advice: Players to Buy & Sell (2025)

Welcome back to fantasy basketball trade advice. This is a weekly article of player recommendations designed to help you capitalize on the opportunity in your league’s trade market.

After an incredible first two weeks of NBA action, the fantasy groundwork for the 2025-26 season is just being laid. With over- and underreactions at their most prevalent early in a campaign, now is a great time to improve your team.

Let’s get started.

Check out the latest fantasy basketball expert consensus rankings

Fantasy Basketball Trade Advice (Week 2)

Trade For

Karl-Anthony Towns (C, PF – NYK)

Karl-Anthony Towns has been battling a quad injury that is obviously hampering his production through his first four games. A career 52.3% shooter from the field, Towns is hitting just 35.2% of his 13.5 attempts per game thus far.

Coming off of an incredible first season in New York, it would be unrealistic to expect this type of efficiency to stick. Giannis Antetokounmpo, Anthony Davis, Nikola Jokic and Victor Wembanyama were the only big men to outscore Towns in fantasy points per game last year — don’t lose sight of that.

Better days are ahead for the seven-foot center who still needs time to adjust to a new coaching staff and fully recover from his nagging injury.

Players to Trade Him For Who Are Ranked Higher: Evan Mobley (PF, C – CLE), Domantas Sabonis (C, PF – SAC)

Trade Away

Austin Reaves (PG, SG, SF – LAL)

It’s not hyperbole to say that, on an individual basis, Austin Reaves has been the story of the season.

In just five games, the Lakers guard has a 51-point outing, a game-winning buzzer-beater and a 16-assist performance under his belt. Reaves is outscoring Jalen Brunson and Victor Wembanyama, out-assisting Cade Cunningham and James Harden and out-shooting Devin Booker and Kevin Durant from deep.

With that said, Lakers coach JJ Redick recently stated that LeBron James is expected to make his season debut in the second or third week of November, and Luka Doncic should return within the “next couple of games.”

On a team without those two stars, Reaves is effectively the only player capable of facilitating the offense on the Lakers’ roster; hence the ridiculous production.

Explore sell-high moves with Reaves unless James or Doncic suffer setbacks.

Players to Trade Him For Who Are Ranked Lower: Jimmy Butler III (SG, SF, PF – GSW), Ivica Zubac (C – LAC)

Trade For

Derrick White (PG, SG – BOS)

The case to trade for Derrick White is similar to that for Karl-Anthony Towns.

White is currently averaging a career-best 17 points. He’s doing so on abysmal, career-worst shooting marks of 31.1% from the field and 25% from three on a league-leading 11.2 attempts per game. Meanwhile, his rebounding, assist, steal and block numbers are all in line with or exceeding his career numbers.

White may be the best buy-low in all of fantasy basketball right now.

Players to Trade Him For Who Are Ranked Higher: Jalen Johnson (PF, SF – ATL)

Trade Away

Kelly Oubre Jr. (SG, SF, PF – PHI)

Lost in the hype surrounding the undefeated 76ers and their burgeoning guard duo has been the play of Kelly Oubre Jr.. Oubre is posting 17.8 points, 6.5 assists, 1.8 assists and two stocks (steals plus blocks) per game on scorching 51.1/45.0/94.1 shooting splits.

Unfortunately for Oubre, it’s unclear if he’s even a starter in two weeks. Paul George appears set to return from offseason knee surgery in early November and Jared McCain is nearing his season debut. Both George and McCain practiced in full on Thursday.

While a gifted interior scorer, Oubre is out-shooting his career three-point rate by nearly 13%. Combine that with an incoming hit to his volume, and Oubre becomes a much less appealing fantasy asset.

Players to Trade Him For Who Are Ranked Lower: Quentin Grimes (SG, SF – PHI), Ryan Kalkbrenner (C – CHA)