2022-23 Team Developments: News / Trades / Free Agents / Rumors

We have 2 assets. An expiring Russ and an underwhelming talent on THT. No way we get all those guys lol

Beverley/Conley and Bojan is a great deal for us. With an unprotected pick too. Russ is unplayable and such trade would allows us to be a lock in the top6. Then rely on AD and LeBron to do their thing

 

Yeah I was with them on being pleasantly surprised that there even are multiple teams for which a Russ trade might be viable (originally coming into the summer, I didn’t really see any situations that made sense other then maybe the theorized Charlotte packages).

But that trade proposal is all kinds of pipe dream lol. The “whatever” in “THT + whatever for Hield and Turner” isn’t mathematically possible.

And I also think people are underrating the value of the Utah roleplayers. They’re all productive players on very reasonable short term contracts. Yes Utah is heading into a rebuild if they trade Mitchell, but that doesn’t mean they’re just going to hand out their roleplayers to us for nothing. These guys likely have value around the league. I’d find it unlikely that the Jazz would take on Westbrook’s salary AND give us their roleplayers without being properly incentivized. I think they would ask for one FRP to take on Russ, and another to send out 2-3 of their roleplayers. Not to say I’d do that trade, but I think that’s what they’d ask for, and it wouldn’t be that unreasonable. Maybe you could haggle them down to one FRP and a few seconds.

MAYBE a best case scenario would be Russ + 1 FRP + a second rounder or two for a few of the Utah roleplayers, and then THT + Nunn + the other FRP and a second rounder for Turner, but I think even that’s a bit unrealistic.

 

agree with helljumper, and that's why i still think a conley-based deal with utah makes more sense than the full expiring package--it sound like ainge may be looking to get draft picks in exchange for taking on some salary from multiple teams (someone will give a 1st for bogdanovic, especially if ainge will eat a little salary to boot).

but he's not going to get anything of real value for conley, imo, so simply getting off his salary a year early might be more enticing. then we're just giving a pick for whatever useful role player accompanies him.

 

This is all playing out in the most annoying way possible for fans lol. If KD is traded before the season, Kyrie will be on the Lakers' opening night roster. If Durant is not traded before the season, Kyrie will be on the Nets' opening night roster. After weeks of leaks and leverage plays I think its still, and has always been, that simple. The reporting seems to indicate Durant still does want a trade, so it will come down to how far he's willing to go to make that happen. The Nets are doing a good job of dragging this out, making timely leaks (the Jaylen Brown thing) to give the appearance they're still working on this in some capacity, and banking on Durant's fickleness and unwillingness to pull Jimmy Butler or Ben Simmons-esque antics to force his way out.

In the meantime, we get all of those other rumored trades even though everyone knows nothing is happening until the KD thing is resolved. So we'll continue to debate what level protection we put on a FRP to get Conley and Bogdanovic until KD makes up his mind.

 

Yeah Conley is the piece on Utah that makes the most sense because his contract situation is probably the least appealing. Utah may legitimately value being able to get off his contract.

My understanding is that the way his partial guarantee works is that he can get cut next year and be fully removed from the books, but the team will still have to pay the ~$20 million he’s guaranteed for. (I’d be curious if I’m mistaken and that actually the amount he’s partially guaranteed for still counts toward the cap, in which case his value is even less)

If that is how it works, sure if whatever team ended up with Conley wanted to, they could treat him as a one year guy and count on some extra cap room next year. But it’s still expensive to do so. Not as straight forward as just having Russ fully expire.

Also wonder if the Jazz may be more willing to let go of Clarkson too for the similar reason that he has a player option for next season. Most likely I think Clarkson ends up opting out and securing a longer term deal, but there’s still that chance that things shake out such that Clarkson accepts the player option and that’s an extra $14 million towards the cap for Utah.

Same idea for Rudy Gay who also has a player option.

And why would Utah want to maximize their cap room next year if they’re rebuilding and have never really been an attractive free agent destination anyways? Well because then they could then use their cap room next summer to acquire even more picks by serving as a dumping ground for other teams bad contracts.

So I’m thinking something like Westbrook + 1 FRP for Conley, Clarkson, and Gay. May end up even being one of the best packages we could get from Utah basketball wise, but by helping their contract situation by taking their 2 year contracts instead of the expirings like Bogdan and Beverly, we’re able to avoid giving up both first rounders.

We potentially push back our own cap flexibility by a year, but that may very well align with Lebron taking a 1+1 max extension anyways.

Then by virtue of that package bringing back two good guards in Conley and Clarkson, it frees you up even more to try to dangle THT + Nunn and the other first round pick for another difference maker. Ideally Turner.

You probably have to add a second rounder or two to the above packages to make them more plausible.

Turner / Bryant / Jones
AD / Gay / JTA
Lebron / Stanley / Brown Jr
Reaves / Walker
Conley / Clarkson

Still lacking the shooting I’d want, but a pretty solid team with good depth IMO

 

lol, he'll go bananas from three to beat us in one or two games next year. and be absolutely terrible in the rest. book it.

 

sounds about right

 

iirc, he woke up briefly to whip our a** a couple times during the bloated contract he earned after we cut him loose the first time. i think spite is baze's primary and, based on general performance, perhaps only reliable motivator.

 

At least he gets to stay in Cali. That's the only positive spin you can put in joining that s*** show of a franchise.

 

I guess he couldn't bear not having Malik Monk continue to take all his minutes.

 

Well I think for Bazemore, just to stay in the NBA is a positive spin that frankly I didn’t expect.

Crazy that Deandre Jordan and Bazemore are two of our only veteran free agents to get signed. Wonder what’s going on with Dwight and Melo.

I think they both have enough left in the tank to help out a team in the right situation. I can’t imagine that nobody wants them. Guessing they’re just waiting to see how things shake out, (ie maybe if the Knicks trade for Mitchell, Melo would be interested in a reunion, and maybe Dwight would be a good fit for Brooklyn but he’d only want to go there if they keep KD and remain a contender).

 

yeah, the two worst players from last season's team are the only ones who have signed elsewhere so far. funny

melo still being unsigned is surprising, but i'm more surprised at bradley and ellington. last year's team tanked everyone's value by a ton

 

Yeah, I think for Melo he's just waiting to see how the dust settles around the league. There's definitely offers on the table for him. For Dwight, there might not be offers yet. I think teams might want to go into camp with what they have and if one of their bigs isn't what they thought, then his phone will ring.

I think a team like Minny or Cleveland could use Ellington because they have so much mobile size up front they can get away using a specialist more so than most teams.

Bradley will go unsigned until Vogel finds his next team. Then the phone will ring.

 

hmph. i wouldn't have guessed he'd get a deal, tbh.

 

…. smack.

:THT Heart Hands:

 

Gotta love Durant [/s]