I’m excited about this. Trae and Murray in the backcourt is going to be fantastic - and his defense is incredibly important right now to the Hawks. And to have Galli instead of JC be the player being sent is great.
It’s amazing someone with so much talent has so little backbone.
Man, poor fucking Brooklyn. I kinda hope they get enough back to salvage something from this debacle, but what an epic collapse into the ash heap in just three years.
They’ll get multiple 1st round picks. Of course that limits his potential destinations. Who has that much draft capital to spend, and a star player they’re willing to part with?
Free-agent negotiation period has begun.
New Acquisitions:
Jalen Brunson is indeed leaving Dallas and going to the New York Knicks. Four years, $104 million.
Gary Payton II is expected to join the Trail Blazers on a three-year, $28 million deal.
Andre Drummond: Two years, $6.6 million with the Chicago Bulls, with Year 2 being a player option.
Re-Signings:
Two-time reigning MVP Nikola Jokic is signing the largest contract in NBA history with a five-year, $270 million supermax extension with the Denver Nuggets.
Ja Morant has agreed to a five-year, $231 million extension with the Memphis Grizzlies.
Devin Booker: 4 years, $224 million to stay with the Phoenix Suns. I guess he’s not being traded to Brooklyn for Durant. This deal will kick in upon the conclusion of his current contract in 2024-25.
Karl-Anthony Towns: 4-year, $224 million supermax extension with the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Not sure most of this really moves the needle all that much for these teams. Of course you can’t let a guy like Jokic go, and the Blazers got better, but the rest of these feel like just treading water.
Beal has re-signed, and in doing so resigned himself to a career of mediocrity and obscurity. But he sure got paid! But hey, if that’s his priority, then good for him. He has a lot more faith in the Wizards than I do, I’ll tell you that much. I suppose you get jaded to losing when you do it for 10 years.
Brunson’s a good player, but #1 option to carry the team, and without Luka do draw all the defense away? I think the Knicks will struggle to replicate last year.
Drummond and the Bulls are an interesting match. He’s like the anti-Vucevic.
The Utah Jazz have traded Ruby Gobert to the Minnesota Timberwolves in exchange four players and four first-round picks, three of them unprotected. Gobert will team with Karl-Anthony Towns. This is your blockbuster needle-moving deal, so far.
The Boston Celtics have acquired point guard Malcolm Brogdon from the Indiana Pacers in exchange for a 2023 first-round draft pick and five players.
Pacers really are Tyrese Haliburton’s team, now.
Mitchell Robinson signed a four-year, $60 million contract to remain with the New York Knicks.
An average of $15 million a year for a guy who averaged less than 10 points a game? “That’s our Knicks!”
I take it back. He was fourth in the league in blocks last year, and also averaged about 8 rebounds.
Obviously, the entire NBA will be on pins and needles waiting to see where Kevin Durant will end up. Here’s an interesting article I found.
Because of Jalen Smith’s unusual contract situation, it looked like he had played himself out of the Pacers’ price range for re-signing him, but we got a deal done for two years! What?! WHAT?! I’m freakin’ ecstatic!
That is shocking. Gobert’s a good player and all, 3-time DPOY is nothing to sniff at and he certainly improves the Wolves immensely on D, but that is still a ridiculous return. He has a humongous contract. They now have TWO $200M+ guys. None of the players they gave up were key players except maybe Beverley, but who do they have left on the bench, and how do they replace those players with no draft picks? I’m not confident Rudy’s the missing piece that gets them over the top. Seems like they’ve painted themselves into a corner where they now have to win a championship right now with what they’ve got, and I don’t think they’ve got enough.
Well, the Timberwolves only gave up every other year’s draft picks; they still have them in the even-numbered years, I think.
But ESPN is not bullish on this trade for the Timberwolves. They gave it a D for Minnesota and an A for Utah.
(Paywalled link.)
Darius Garland has re-signed with the Cavaliers for five years, $193 million. It could be worth as much as $231 million if he gets on an All-NBA team this coming season.
T.J. Warren, who’s been injured for the better part of the last two seasons, has signed a one-year deal for the veteran’s minimum with the Brooklyn Nets. He was All-Seeding Games First Team for my Pacers in 2020.
Zion Williamson has signed a max extension with the New Orleans Pelicans.
Hearing rumbling about a Kyrie-for-Russ swap in the works.
Now that would be funny, sending Irving to LA to stick him back with LeBron. Maybe he’ll be happier with the pairing a second time, now that LeBron is aging and diminished and Kyrie is still in the tail end of his prime.
Win-win for LA. They might arguably be better off just dumping Westbrook without adding Kyrie - addition by subtraction as it were. Getting Kyrie back for him would be a coup and frankly a bad deal for Brooklyn with Westbrook’s larger, though granted expiring contract. The only reason for Brooklyn to pull the trigger is if they are desperate to unload him. But frankly I think just grimly holding on to even a non-productive, pissy, cancerous Kyrie for a year would be a better idea for Brooklyn than making LA stronger in exchange for a larger tax bill and Westbrook’s questionable value. The man gets stats, but an easily-integrated team player he is not.
The Utah Jazz are now entertaining trade offers for Donovan Mitchell.
I’m very curious to see what Jazz can get for Mitchel.
Also, besides Miami and NY, I don’t see any other team that can put something in return for Utah. Maybe Phoenix can send Ayton to them?