2024-25 Team Developments: Trades / Free Agents / News / Rumors / Ideas

I don't think you can give up that much for an expiring contract with no guarantee of resigning unless it's agreed to in advance. Even then, is Ingram the missing piece? Most think no.

 

they don't seem to like the Lakers, so I doubt a deal in the same conference

but that may not be a bad deal for the role he can play

I'm not up to date on his contract or how he's been playing, but I don't doubt someone is getting squeezed out of Memphis with their overall talent level.

 

I would like this trade.

 

I seriously doubt a Valanciunas trade is being held because of a 2nd rounder. Like...really? Makes no sense lol

Smart would be great here but Memphis would not trade with us.

I don't want to pay Ingram 40 or 50 million for several years

 

agree with others that a second 2nd rounder seems like a weird holdup. if you're really motivated, you find a way around that like the gs deal where they traded 3 for 1 or whatever. this tells me we're looking at other options.

i said the other day that i'm not sure why the nets would trade johnson unless they were upgrading. everyone looks at these tanking teams as if they don't want to keep any good players. that's not true. i'm not sure i move johnson for two 1sts if i'm them, unless i'm pretty certain at least one is a lotto pick. even then--how many lotto picks are going to outperform johnson?

DFS is going for seconds, but not to us because we don't have the right-sized expiring. if we're moving dlo to the nets for DFS, we need something else back. if schroder was still there, it makes sense for us, but he's not. sharpe/DFS for dlo/wood works and gets us a little breathing room under the cap, but i'm not sure it improves our roster that much.

i'd definitely kick the tires on zion. i put him in the lavine "big swing before blowing it up" category.

i don't think i give up a 1st for lavine, and i'm not sure i want to include max. dlo/rui/gabe does it salary-wise, but bulls have to cut two players to make it work.

jj's latest talk about rui makes me think we won't just toss him into deals lightly, either.

and kuzmo's rumor can't work because we don't have a 2026 1st to trade due to our owing this year's to NO.

 

Murray in theory would help in terms of defense (used to be better in San Antonio, but still gets a lot of steals)

Lakers could talk themselves into LaVine if Chicago adds one of their young players, like Terry or Phillips. Sure, they would like to keep them for a rebuild, but they have numerous other young players too, like Buzelis and Giddy. More important for them, they would be able to get off of LaVines contract, so they might consider it.

 

I’m currently not a big Zion Williamson fan. Saw him multiple times in high school over the years here in South Carolina, and by all accounts he was a high character kid. New Orleans changed him, and not for the better. HOWEVER, if we could bring him in and let Lebron and AD show him how to be a pro on and off the court, we may be able to find a real jewel at a low cost. At the end of the day he’s averaging 25/6/4 over his short career and would be a major upgrade over Rui no matter how you slice it.

 

Nobody posted that Buha article yet?

One of the things Buha is reporting is that if we don't make any moves, it could lead to bigger moves in the offseason, which might lead to AD and LBJ asking out. I could have mistaken that.

We might be rebuilding next year if Rob doesn't make a move. As the Tank Commander, I'm always ready. hahahahahahaha.

 

It's a great point about Johnson. The Nets want to be bad, get a good draft pick and draft the next star of their team. If all that happens, you don't want that guy playing with four G League caliber players out there. You need some good players to create an environment in which that guy can develop.

Hesitancy to give up the multiple 2nd rounders for Val tells me we're looking to make multiple trades and won't pull the trigger on Val until the other(s) are locked in as well.

 

Have you seen what drones are doing to tanks these days?

 

I haven't watched him much the last couple of years either, but if they're trying to get rid of him when they're 18-9 and in 2nd place in the conference he's probably not playing awesome.

Not sure how I'd feel about this one. First of all he's a C bag, but we got over that with Rondo. On the one hand, he's always played with effort, confidence and physicality. He's been a really good defender at times in the past (although the DPOY was nonsense) and while his offense can be erratic, he's sometimes been a nice connecting piece on that end of the court. On the other hand, I thought he was starting to break down physically at the end of his C Bags tenure and I'm not sure he has the quickness to be the primary POA defender anymore.

It could really pay off if he has more left in the tank and feels like sticking it to the C Bags for trading him away when he came up with Tatum and Brown and was the emotional leader of that team. But I'm concerned he'll spend half his time here in street clothes and won't be able to fill the defensive role we need him to at this stage of his career.

 

Here's what matters in there

JV

Nets

Others linked and not linked

We ain't moving Bron or AD

Who will we likely move and why it isn't Rui

And if you just want a couple of the cliffnote headlines...

 

not much surprising in there except the nets's willingness to move johnson. i personally don't get it from their standpoint unless they're getting a guy they think can grow to eventually be a better player (not just draft picks and cap relief). i also don't really get it for us if it costs rui and two 1sts (i think 2 1sts is much more reasonable for johnson than jerami grant).

 

Annual trade season reminder that this FO has actually been pretty good at covering its tracks. Didn't hear anything about a Russ trade until the day of. Didn't hear anything about Nunn for Rui. Didn't hear anything about DLo as the piece coming back for Russ. I think the Gabe for Val stuff is real, but it makes me think that a DLo trade, if it happens, will be more out of left field. Either a lesser mentioned target like Smart or Bruce Brown, or something we're not talking about at all.

 

lfr's pod setting stage for trade season.

advocates for moving later picks with the hope that when lebron retires, AD is moved for picks. i get the idea, but i'm just not super sure it's going to go down like that (i don't see AD asking out, nor us trading AD if he doesn't).

 

I'm not sure why people are clamoring, for some kind of tear down and rebuild. We suck at that exercise.

 

they're sort of not. they're suggesting we use the picks to improve now and sort of not worry at all about later, tbh.

they go off the rails a bit when they start bashing the FO for not making trades by talking about good trades they've made (e.g., rui) and then bashing the FO for extending AD if we're not willing to move picks.

and they're wise to hold off on the hard part--and what i always ask--who's the guy that changed hands for what our picks would have gotten?

there's just nothing there, and they kind of finish by admitting that.

i don't think you can't trade a first round pick, but i don't think a lack of activity means that we're afraid or something.

 

It's silly to tank without your picks. Even if you have other teams' picks, it makes no sense. And the picks from the AD deal are probably later on. And if they're not, that team is a contender with AD so they're bad picks.

 

Zion is a guy you take a risk on especially with an old Lebron around who hopefully can mentor him a bit.
Yeah he may blow his knee out but if he can actually take his fitness seriously especially now that Ozempic is around and legal? in the NBA he's the only available guy who is a legit MVP level talent on par with the AD/Lebron types of the world