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

If he was on the floor with Gabe,DFS,Sharpe and DK who would you want shooting?

 

Yeah Here not in Oklahoma.

 

I think Kessler's worth taking the protection off the 1st rounder of ours coming up and hopefully some other than 1st round draft considerations and anyone not named AR, Dalton, Max, Rui hopefully not either but OK. Slick made the case be becomes redundant. But no gurantee at all DFS is here next year and going forward. Rui has to be nowhere near what he can be .... at peak prime Rui. All of it just needs continuous polishing and repetition so it's more consistent. Keep at it in the weight room. There's reasons JJ singled him out for praise a few days ago.

 

It's very simple: we need a center. We're getting killed in the non-center minutes. Absolutely killed.

 

Same as it ever was.

 

I would love Kessler, but I’m sure Ainge would demand both Dalton and Max along with a first, pick swap and salary ballast.

 

He can go pound sand. Those guys we should be so lucky to draft again in the future and now are on controlled high value contracts going forward.

 

Yeah. We need a big man. It’s been clear for awhile

 

They also need another guy who can get buckets

 

Thats the reason I think the Kessler/Sexton trade has a real chance of happening. Not a fan of Sexton but the salaries aren't that hard to match, Lakers can dump the draft protection as an enticement.

I admire Ainge and think's he's going to come around to that he's not going to get that much draft capital for those two so the Lakers make sense.

I think you don't even have to give up Max or Rui (Knecht probably has to go along with JHS, the protections on the first). I love Knecht as a prospect but he's been bad for the most part if you look at actual production and not potential. Realistically you can get a rotation of AD/Kessler at C with Rui/DFS/Lebron at the forwards and AR/Sexton/Gabe/Max at guards. That is a tough 9 man rotation with players who bring different skillset, correct positional size, and verstality.

 

I believe Sexton’s salary will make it difficult unless the Lakers want to part with Rui.This is why I bring up Cam Thomas and Sharpe.Total salary for both is 8mil which can get done with JHS and two min contracts which would also free up a roster spot.I have no delusions of that happening though

 

I’d send Rui out before I’d let go of Dalton. He’s the equivalent of a fairly high lotto pick.

 

Another brutal injury

 

Vando is 10 and JHS get you another 4. Need only 6 to get to the 20 combined Sexton/Kessler number

 

What GM who is in total control of his faculties would trade for Vando right now? The guy hasn’t played in a year you don’t know when/if he is ever going to play again and he has 3 years left on his contract.Stranger things have happened but seems highly unlikely anyone would want Vando right now.

 

Yeah H Town hustle, is pretty much off the board as a trade piece

 

Same reason why anyone ever trades for a bad contract, because enough assets are attached to it. Vando is locked in through 2026-2027 at around $10-12 million APY and then has a PO for 2027-2028. His annual salary isn't that difficult to swallow, its the two (and likely three) years left for a guy that has barely played the last season and a half. That said, if we took the protections off the pick we already traded them, and also sent them the other two firsts unprotected, I'm actually pretty confident we could get Sexton and Kessler for Vando + JHS + whatever, or even Vando + Gabe. I'm not saying I want to send both firsts unprotected for those guys, just that I genuinely believe the Jazz would do that deal. The Jazz are 7-25 and are going to be in renting their cap space mode for the next couple of years, they don't want to pay Kessler this offseason or Sexton next offseason. They're in asset collection mode and everyone knows we're probably going to be awful when those picks convey.

So I think its a matter of how far we're willing to go and what the Jazz are willing to settle for, because again I do believe there's a good chance our maximum offer would get it done. Remember how the line from every insider was that it would take at least one 1st to dump Russ's expiring deal at the 2023 deadline (which was always ridiculous, no expiring deal in the history of the league has been treated like that) and Ainge ironically ended up being the one who caved. I'm also coming around to the idea of trading Rui in a Jazz deal because that would mean we're playing AD more at the 4 anyway.

 

unless we're taking on what's perceived as bad salary and/or paying a huge draft tax to get it done.

i'm interested in just kessler by himself. does ainge bite on jhs/lotto protected 26 swap/top-8 protected 2029? he gets a recent first rounder (who can be cut if they agree he sucks and thus is just expiring money in that case), and two nominal firsts for optics?

once kessler signs a big deal, he's not likely to be as movable for them, and it doesn't seem like he's part of their long-term plan.

anyway, if that kind of deal isn't possible, i'm moving to nick richards, dropping the 2027 first, adding wood or hayes and seeing if they'll just take our two 2025 2nds instead of the 2026 swap--honestly, it's charlotte, no matter how bad we are, they're probably going to be worse, so 2nds would probably be better for them.

i like the possibility of a 2 for 1 here while dropping more salary, too. in fact, i might prefer the hypothetical richards deal here to a kessler trade.

i think the only sensible path the robert williams now is by including rui.

rui/jhs/wood for williams/thybulle works. i like this because we keep hayes (who's playable if williams continues to be largely dead), gain a spot, and get thybulle as another perimeter defender option.

 

I'm not mad at that idea, but I'll do you one better. Rui,JHS,and 1 unprotected FRP, and 1 unprotected pick swap for Myles Turner and Furphy.That's a chip chasing move there buddy.

The Pacers aren't a serious title threat in the East. Turner is on an expiring contract, Haliburton has a shaky injury history, and they can flip Rui or Toppin, and get a PG prospect, a FRP, a swap and only lost 1 player, that's really not going to raise their ceiling any higher, than it is right now.