BOS/CHA/NOP/CHI

[HornetJail]

Scenario:

Tatum is ruled out for most of next season due to what appeared to be a torn Achilles. The Celtics use the wasted 2026 season to completely reset the salary books and completely duck the tax altogether.

Charlotte, weary of the perennial tanking, take advantage of an extremely weak Eastern Conference and try to make a step forward.

The Bulls still want to compete.

NOP have the MLE (or roughly that much cap space) to absorb salary for assets

--

Celtics trade:
Kristaps Porzingis
Jrue Holiday

Celtics receive:
Herb Jones
Nick Smith Jr
Tidjane Salaun (cut and stretched, if necessary to duck tax after other moves)
2026-28 POR 1st (lotto prot)

The Celtics get completely out of the luxury tax in one move, slashing $45M in salary ($50M if Salaun is stretched), and returning a good player in Herb Jones, resetting the impossibly expensive supporting cast. Boston would receive a TPE of $32.4M, which probably doesn't get used during 2025-26 season but depending on timing of the trade could be of value in the 2026 offseason.

The next iteration of the Celtics is built around Tatum/Jaylen/White/Herb/Pritchard/Hauser and a C TBD probably in the 2026 offseason.

--

Hornets trade:
Jusuf Nurkic (1/19M)
Grant Williams (2/28M)
Josh Green (2/28M)
Tidjane Salaun (1/8M + TOs)
Nick Smith Jr (1/3M)
#4 pick

Hornets receive:
Kristaps Porzingis (1/31M)
Jrue Holiday (3/$103M)
#12 pick

The Hornets leverage their many worthless salary fillers and high draft pick to build an actual roster. While both Jrue and KP are pricey and risky due to age or injury, the Hornets need players that understand the game and contribute at a high level. Jrue is a hand in glove fit for LaMelo and Porzingis the versatile big man the team desperately needs in the frontcourt with Mark Williams. LaMelo/Jrue/Miller/Porzingis/Mark + Bridges/Mann/Okogie/Diabate/#12/#33/#34 is a team with real options. #12 probably should be used on a backup playmaker.

--

Pelicans trade:
Zion Williamson
Herb Jones


Pelicans receive:
Zach Collins
Jusuf Nurkic
Kevin Huerter
Grant Williams (using MLE)
#4 pick


The Pels get almost complete cap relief (only Grant on the books after 2026) and a top 4 pick blowing up their team. Trades for McCollum, Olynyk, (maybe Murray?) follow, and the Pels build around Murphy/Missi/Hawkins/#4/#7, a top 7 pick next year, and future picks.

---

Bulls trade:
Zach Collins
Kevin Huerter
#12 pick
2026-2028 POR 1st (lotto prot)

Bulls receive:
Zion Williamson
Josh Green (using MLE)


The Bulls keep on keeping on, and make a splash with Zion in the frontcourt. White/Giddey/Matas/Zion/Vucevic could be a competitive team, with Ayo/Lonzo/others off the bench

[yosemiteben]

No as a Hornets fan. Not to be reductive, but Jrue is old and Zinger is perpetually hurt. That's just not an interesting package for me.

[Mavrelous]

CHO are overpaying through the nose...
Cut everyone and find a dumping groung for CHO contracts and KP/Jrue are yours...

[HornetJail]

CHO are overpaying through the nose...
Cut everyone and find a dumping groung for CHO contracts and KP/Jrue are yours...

do you see the Celtics straight up salary dumping Porzingis and Jrue without anything real coming back? I didn't... makes it way easier if they do though.

Charlotte and Boston have a combined 4 picks between #28 and #34, think the teams could find takers for two or all three of Nurkic, Green, and Grant Williams?

[giberish]

I don't see the appeal of this for Charlotte.

Porzingis hasn't had one healthy playoff run in his career (I think, it's certainly been rare) and Holiday looks to be declining and overpaid going forward. Not really the pair to take on going forward.

If NO is willing to deal Herb and Zion for that return than Charlotte should just make that deal. Obviously it's not a sure thing either but Zion's at least as likely as KP to be healthy (and has more upside when he is) and Herb is a better option than Holiday.

[Mavrelous]

CHO are overpaying through the nose...
Cut everyone and find a dumping groung for CHO contracts and KP/Jrue are yours...

do you see the Celtics straight up salary dumping Porzingis and Jrue without anything real coming back? I didn't... makes it way easier if they do though.

Charlotte and Boston have a combined 4 picks between #28 and #34, think the teams could find takers for two or all three of Nurkic, Green, and Grant Williams?

They absolutely sould, they'd want some rotation player back but that's about it, they would want the money saving.
KP and Holiday are negative value deals, I suport CHO targeting player like Holiday, but no need to overpay for him.
Wizards will take Grant Willams into MLE for a late 1st, Salaun into TPE for 2 future 2nds.
Lakers will give you Vincent for Josh Green for free, maybe 2nd, Vincent can fill 15 minutes backup PG on the Celtics, Pritchard exta 15 minutes will cover for Jrue role.
So Celtics turn KP + Holiday to Vincent + Nurk, that's 30M drop, they can decide what to do with Nurk, waive and stretch, trade for someone else, dump...

[hugepatsfan]

Other teams besides BOS/CHA aren't needed here. If CHA is interested in Porzingis and Holiday as vets to help them try to push for the playoffs without costing any assets then that can work...

CHA gets: Porzingis, Holiday
BOS gets: Nurkic, Okogie, Grant Williams, Josh Green

Break it down into two trades...

#1: Porzingis for Nurkic/Okogie. I would say this is fair. CHA sends back deadweight expiring filler salary that totals to a bit less than Porzingis. BOS saves some money and trades the Porzingis upside they don't need with Tatum out. CHA is taking on the health risk, but that's why he's basically free to them.

#2: Green/Williams for Jrue: For 25-26 and 26-27, Green/Williams total up to close to Jrue's salary and Jrue brings much more on court value. CHA pays for that value via taking the third year of Jrue's deal to offer BOS financial relief.

BOS probably owes some additional incentive for CHA in deal #2 there because the year 3 salary is pretty big. But if CHA wants land some win now vets for no long term asset cost then this could make sense.

If BOS wants more financial savings by dumping some of these smaller deals, that's on them to figure out. CHA doesn't owe the pick cost of that.

[GoBobs]

Other teams besides BOS/CHA aren't needed here. If CHA is interested in Porzingis and Holiday as vets to help them try to push for the playoffs without costing any assets then that can work...

CHA gets: Porzingis, Holiday
BOS gets: Nurkic, Okogie, Grant Williams, Josh Green

Break it down into two trades...

#1: Porzingis for Nurkic/Okogie. I would say this is fair. CHA sends back deadweight expiring filler salary that totals to a bit less than Porzingis. BOS saves some money and trades the Porzingis upside they don't need with Tatum out. CHA is taking on the health risk, but that's why he's basically free to them.

#2: Green/Williams for Jrue: For 25-26 and 26-27, Green/Williams total up to close to Jrue's salary and Jrue brings much more on court value. CHA pays for that value via taking the third year of Jrue's deal to offer BOS financial relief.

BOS probably owes some additional incentive for CHA in deal #2 there because the year 3 salary is pretty big. But if CHA wants land some win now vets for no long term asset cost then this could make sense.

If BOS wants more financial savings by dumping some of these smaller deals, that's on them to figure out. CHA doesn't owe the pick cost of that.

How about even simpler and you guys just get Nurkic for Holiday. Boston gets a little beef in the middle which they need and saves 10 mil right away. Charlotte gets the vet guard we need in our backcourt to give LaMelo some help.

[theBigLip]

There are going to be a lot of bad Boston trade proposals this summer. Tragic what happened to Tatum. But Celtics are left with some aging pieces and an overpaid 2nd man in Brown. KP is a negative contract. Brown is actually a negative contract. Jrue maybe neutral. It’s going to take some magic to keep that championship window open.

[hugepatsfan]

Other teams besides BOS/CHA aren't needed here. If CHA is interested in Porzingis and Holiday as vets to help them try to push for the playoffs without costing any assets then that can work...

CHA gets: Porzingis, Holiday
BOS gets: Nurkic, Okogie, Grant Williams, Josh Green

Break it down into two trades...

#1: Porzingis for Nurkic/Okogie. I would say this is fair. CHA sends back deadweight expiring filler salary that totals to a bit less than Porzingis. BOS saves some money and trades the Porzingis upside they don't need with Tatum out. CHA is taking on the health risk, but that's why he's basically free to them.

#2: Green/Williams for Jrue: For 25-26 and 26-27, Green/Williams total up to close to Jrue's salary and Jrue brings much more on court value. CHA pays for that value via taking the third year of Jrue's deal to offer BOS financial relief.

BOS probably owes some additional incentive for CHA in deal #2 there because the year 3 salary is pretty big. But if CHA wants land some win now vets for no long term asset cost then this could make sense.

If BOS wants more financial savings by dumping some of these smaller deals, that's on them to figure out. CHA doesn't owe the pick cost of that.

How about even simpler and you guys just get Nurkic for Holiday. Boston gets a little beef in the middle which they need and saves 10 mil right away. Charlotte gets the vet guard we need in our backcourt to give LaMelo some help.

I think CHA needs to include a small contract or partially guarantee Okogie to complete, but small details and BOS can dump that piece separately.

If CHA wants Jrue as a vet leader/mentor/win now piece then BOS has to do this now that Tatum is out. Too financially beneficial not to. I do think that between the solid pieces CHA already has along with the weakness of the East and how a serious shot at the playoffs can be good for a team to develop, I do think it makes sense for CHA to pursue "win now" pieces if they can be had for free. I think the long term money on Jrue's deal is simply too much for them to commit to that role though.

I think Nurkic plus a small filler contract that CHA pays the modest freight to dump on a 3rd team for Porzingis makes way more sense. It's so much more fiscally responsible for CHA long term since KP is expiring and the very modest freight cost to dump a small contract is probably worth the upgrade from Nurkic to KP even with the injury risk. KP probably wants another sizable deal next year so he's incentivized to give a good effort for 1 year and CHA could really benefit for that. That's a more responsible gamble to take than Jrue's 3 year deal IMO.

[ChettheJet]

I don't see the Bulls wanting Zion because he likely stunts the growth of Buzelis, they ain't doing that. They finally have their pick back from SAS they want to use it because everybody still has nightmares about trading 2 picks for Vucevic and the one they're getting back for DeRozan. Green is close to nothing and he's signed for WAY too long. The Bulls are a lot better off with Collins and Huerteer who are good candidates to resign and #12. In fact if PORT makes a couple of good deals that pick might show up as #15 in a year or 3