Fans who have been accustomed to a lot of activity at the NBA trade deadline might be in for some disappointment this season.

On the latest episode of The Hoop Collective Podcast (h/t Real GM), ESPN's Brian Windhorst explained there will likely be "less action" at the deadline in part because there are "fewer bad contracts" around the league and teams have gotten smarter about the moves they are willing to make:

"I think we're going to see at the trade deadline there's going to be less action because there's fewer bad contracts because teams are a little bit smarter and I just think the intelligence into the game and the way teams are operated and the gameplay is taking some of the stuff fans kind of like at least some of the older school fans."

Even though the season is only a little over a month old, it's notable there haven't been any marquee names mentioned as trade candidates thus far.

It looked at one point like there might be a scenario in which the Milwaukee Bucks at least entertained the idea of moving Giannis Antetokounmpo, but that is all but gone now that the team has won nine of its last 11 games to get over the .500 mark (11-10).

The Chicago Bulls are still a team that everyone is going to be monitoring, though they don't seem all that pressured to make a deal involving one of their top players. Michael Scotto of HoopsHype noted on Dec. 2 that rival executives still deem their asking price for Zach LaVine and Nikola Vučević as "too high."

Another issue is the overall mediocrity of the Eastern Conference, which has made it difficult to rule out almost any team from playoff or play-in contention. The Philadelphia 76ers, who recently won back-to-back games for the first time all season, are only 2.5 games out of the final play-in spot despite a 5-15 record.

Ben Simmons has the best bad contract that could make him attractive in a trade. He is playing this season with a $40.3 million expiring salary. The 28-year-old has also looked effective in his role for the Brooklyn Nets so far this season, averaging 5.5 points, 6.7 assists and 5.8 rebounds per game.

No one is going to count on Simmons being a huge difference-maker in a playoff race, but the fact he's been useful at all this season after playing just 57 games in the previous three seasons combined is a positive sign.

The Nets are probably winning too much for their own good with a 10-13 record. They spent the offseason making moves in an attempt to get a lot of their own draft picks that had been used in trades back in order to rebuild their roster.

While the Nets haven't exactly been good, they aren't close enough to the bottom of the standings to be as firmly in the mix for the No. 1 pick in the 2025 draft as they would probably like.

It wouldn't be a surprise if they try to move on from key veterans like Simmons and Cam Johnson, who were both available during the summer, to start losing more games in the second half of the season.