2026-27 Team Developments: Trades / Free Agents / News / Rumors / Ideas

neither okc nor denver will give us anything. denver and cleveland still need to get off some money, i think. wonder what their plans are.

 

https://x.com/ChrisBHaynes/status/2070532060981473513?s=20
Detroit telling teams Duren will not be traded.

 

we'll see. it's all posturing right now. det doesn't think we'll make the full RFA max offer, and i actually think we'll call their bluff. they may still match, but it's going to be at a figure WAY above where they wanted to go.

edit: if their goal was to get him signed before FA starts...why isn't he signed? two possibilities: they're haggling on price because they don't know what it is OR they're haggling on price because they DO know what it is and are iffy on matching it. i think it's the latter.

we just went through this with reaves. open negotiations hoping for less, learn he'll get more, close the matter out by beating the offer.

all detroit has to do to shut this down is sign duren to the same offer we have. then it's all over and we all move on. so why isn't the deal announced? detroit just wants to punish us? because if they match, it means they took joe into the mle, and i'm pretty sure that's the only way they can improve their roster. pretty sure to have any useful cap space, they'll have to let harris walk. dumping stewart put them at 118 (~40m in space). if they go the space route, joe eats 12 of that, and duren's cap hold eats 20. they could get a little more space by cutting duncan robinson, but now you've lost two key contributors from your team.

double edit: IF milwaukee agreed to the three-team framework i outlined above, but detroit didn't, and we got kawhi-ed, we could just take turner for ourselves as a consolation prize. not plan A, but a very danny green-ish plan B.

 

yeah, the difference--and why they're probably big mad right now--is that we were likely to max reaves anyway, tbh. they had ZERO intentions of maxing duren and didn't think it would come to that. dare i say...scrambling?

 

And you will Debate Luka don't foul bait? Yes he has a fade away however his next go to move is bait. Shai falls because he is more athletic more nimble. Both still baiting you no matter how it's done. Austin said he practiced the art of drawing fouls. We are not debating who is better at foul baiting.

 

If you can get a young building block at center who actually fits alongside Luka in Duren or Kessler, I think you have to do it no matter what the market dictates as their value.

The risk of tying up our cap in an RFA offer sheet only for them to get matched and other free agent targets dry up though, that would be absolutely brutal.

I can only hope that the FO is savvy enough that they would only go the Duren/Kessler route if they had intel that gave them confidence it would actually work out.

I do like the idea of a S&T where we dump salary like some combination of Vando/Knecht/LaRavia so that after you give the big contract to Duren or Kessler, you still have wiggle room under the cap to retain some combination of our other free agents and maintain depth.

I know it would be extremely unsexy, but I also don't think it would be the worst thing in the world if we essentially just run it back and operate above the cap, but add Mitchell Robinson with the MLE (I think this would be viable)? Yes he's injury prone and has limitations, but I think the overall combination of Robinson, Ayton, and Hayes would be a perfectly adequate center rotation. The other pathways that yield a more significant upgrade at center might be flashier, but I think some of us are underrating the hit to our depth if we had to essentially give up Rui, Smart, Kennard, Ayton, Hayes, etc to make it happen.

You keep your trade assets, retain Lebron on a reasonable deal, and then you have more options during the season where you have all your picks and so much tradable salary to make another swing depending on where the roster needs end up shaking out. I think it would be much easier to find a mid-season trade partner for Lebron once he's at a more reasonable salary than trying to figure out a sign-and-trade). Or maybe that squad has what it takes to level up and be a real contender when healthy, and we let it ride out. I don't think it's out of the realm of possibility that our roster from last year with more continuity/development, a healthy Luka, and Mitchell Robinson could contend.

 

very bad. but we did it before with kawhi. not exactly the same, but similar. and the theory was the same--the upside was too big to not at least try.

again, like the kawhi pursuit, they have some logic on their side. in this case, i'm also guessing they have duren on their side. it's why i didn't want to lowball reaves and why boston is in a slight pickle right now. these guys have egos, and they don't like hearing that you think they're worth less than they do.

that said, i'd still put the odds of duren being here next week as 30/70. my fake trade may not be something milwaukee would agree to, or detroit may just be so mad about the process that they want to hurt us/send a message that they won't be bullied.

if detroit agrees with duren prior to the opening of FA, we still have the ability to just forget it all and operate over the cap.

i don't, either. i'm not as down on the prospect as it sounds. i just think we're going to take a bigger swing first, and i think we're willing to lose some of the secondary guys from last year to attempt it.

 

How did they get all those picks and players … the years of tanking and sucking and the Snake forced Paul George trade … right? We had a bunch of picks and players that were worth something too from our lottery years and sucking and they got traded for AD … one championship same as OKC … so far. I know more to it than that with decisions since then and Jeanie’s mom and pop purse strings, anti lakers tax and whatnot.

 

Damn, Brown for Duren makes so much sense. We'd really need Duren to love us more. Cmon buddy, LA loves you

 

I love that the East will trade with each other to "unofficially" help each other, but the West is like "SCREW YOU" and will only trade with teams in the East.

 

yeah, we can't beat brown for duren, but i feel like brown's trade value is actually higher than a maxed-out duren?

i view the supermax on duren to be a pretty substantial overpay. i'm willing to do it because we'd be adding talent. boston would be treading water.

 

Boston would be silly to trade Brown. If they trade Brown that would mean a closed championship window.

 

i think they have to, tbh. i just figured they'd try to get two starters instead of another supermax. they also don't currently have the guard play to make duren as useful as he can be, imo. almost reeks of "screw the lakers", lol.

 

This what I am talking about with Lakers. Rather than playing around with LeBron a man soon to retire. Make a solid offer to Durden. Make Pistons match or let him walk.

 

A brown for Duren trade would have to be Duren maxed out and multiple picks Boston’s way.