BOS/LAL/WAS - Boston dumps salary, LA gets a scorer

[djFan71]

I think it works better with Kuz to Lakers instead.

LAL: Kuz for Vandy, Vincent, LAL 2032 2nd
MIL: Simons, Tillman for Kuz, 28 swap to BOS (after existing swaps)
BOS: 28 swap, Vandy for Simons, Tillman
WAS: Vincent, LAL 2032 2nd for fake 2nd

BOS giving up the best player, but saves money. Still $1Mish over the 2nd, but that's easy to fix by the time JD Davison becomes guaranteed on 1/1/26. If not, let him go.

MIL saves money and picks up scoring.
LAL send out guys they don't want for one that could be useful.
WAS picks up a distant 2nd since they have so many upcoming ones for eating not much money.

NOTE: You could argue about who sends WAS the 2nd. I could see BOS instead of LAL, but since it's Vandy, I had it be LAL. If BOS sends it, then it's Kleber instead.

[psman2]

I think it works better with Kuz to Lakers instead.

LAL: Kuz for Vandy, Vincent, LAL 2032 2nd
MIL: Simons, Tillman for Kuz, 28 swap to BOS (after existing swaps)
BOS: 28 swap, Vandy for Simons, Tillman
WAS: Vincent, Tillman, LAL 2032 2nd for fake 2nd

BOS giving up the best player, but saves money. Still $1Mish over the 2nd, but that's easy to fix by the time JD Davison becomes guaranteed on 1/1/26. If not, let him go.

MIL saves money and picks up scoring.
LAL send out guys they don't want for one that could be useful.
WAS picks up a distant 2nd since they have so many upcoming ones for eating not much money.

NOTE: You could argue about who sends WAS the 2nd. I could see BOS instead of LAL, but since it's Vandy, I had it be LAL. If BOS sends it, then it's Kleber instead.

A distant unknown 2nd is likely valued at around 5m in eating salary. I think Washington is owed a least 2 if not 3 for eating 14 million here.

[SlimShady83]

Sorry Op not happening, Lakers don't need scorers.

Realtalk has it, Lakers after KCP as of late.

[djFan71]

I think it works better with Kuz to Lakers instead.

LAL: Kuz for Vandy, Vincent, LAL 2032 2nd
MIL: Simons, Tillman for Kuz, 28 swap to BOS (after existing swaps)
BOS: 28 swap, Vandy for Simons, Tillman
WAS: Vincent, Tillman, LAL 2032 2nd for fake 2nd

BOS giving up the best player, but saves money. Still $1Mish over the 2nd, but that's easy to fix by the time JD Davison becomes guaranteed on 1/1/26. If not, let him go.

MIL saves money and picks up scoring.
LAL send out guys they don't want for one that could be useful.
WAS picks up a distant 2nd since they have so many upcoming ones for eating not much money.

NOTE: You could argue about who sends WAS the 2nd. I could see BOS instead of LAL, but since it's Vandy, I had it be LAL. If BOS sends it, then it's Kleber instead.

A distant unknown 2nd is likely valued at around 5m in eating salary. I think Washington is owed a least 2 if not 3 for eating 14 million here.

I moved Tillman at the last sec and forgot to take him off WAS, so it's only $11.5M. But yeah, I originally had both BOS 31 2nd and LAL 32 2nd going. That's fine. When it gets down to the level of seconds on here, I'm usually fairly happy with the framework.

[Celts17Pride]

Celtics are not trading a 1st round pick to get rid of Simons, they will just keep him.

[enzino]

Hat tip to ledell_gumbo on the Wizards board

Boston trades:
Anfernee Simons
2026 FRP (top 4 protected)

Boston receives:
top 55 protected SRP

LA trades:
Gabe Vincent
Maxi Kleber:

LA receives:
Anfernee Simons

Washington trades:
TPE and MLE
top 55 protected SRP

Washington receives:
Gabe Vincent
Maxi Kleber
BOS 2026 FRP (top 4 protected)

Basically, Boston dumps Simons into Washington's TPE's using the Lakers as an intermediary. Boston saves $28M and bunch more by avoiding luxtax payments and getting out of the repeater tax.

The Lakers turn two scrubs into a good player. This might give them flexibility to trade Reeves for a defensive wing. If nothing else, it gives them more firepower to get through the regular season without taxing Lebron.

Washington buys a FRP.

1 FRP (top4prot) to dump an expiring deal of a 20ppg player? are we serious?

[gswhoops]

Boston definitely can get under the tax in less painful ways than this. Like others have suggested just do the Simons for Vincent/Kleber part and then shop some combo of Vincent/Kleber/Niang/Hauser/2nds into teams' MLEs or TPEs.

[Patsfan1081]

2026 pick is probably going to be the singular most valuable asset Boston has to add to their core of Tatum/Brown/White. They can duck the tax if they wanted to by dumping Niang and Hauser instead. Or even just by not overpaying to dump the entire Simons deal which is already in excess of what they need to duck the tax and even more excess if they combined a Simons deal with one of the dumps above.

Basically, even if the value is fine for this, the Celtics front office would have to be pea brained simpleton morons to do this even if they did want to duck the tax. It’s just stupidly inefficient to pay to dump a $27M salary when you only need to clear like $18M and also have other easier to move contracts.

Do you expect the Celtics to blatantly tank for a high lotto pick this year? Or do you expect merely an off year without Tatum where you win 44 games instead of 60.

I was assuming the later, and that the pick conveyed would be something in the late teens. If you are thinking the Celtics will be in the lottery, then I understand your reservations. Normally, I'd be okay with full lotto protection. The problem is, the Celtics have future picks encumbered so the pick obligation can't be rolled forward to 2027 if not conveyed in 2026.

Have you’ve seen Boston’s current roster? On paper they probably have the worst frontcourt in basketball now. Brown/White/PP is still a nice core but they’re one injury from a high lottery pick. No way they trade that pick, and I doubt they would need to. They would most likely trade Simons for a better fit or move off one of Hauser/Niang.

[nate33]

Relax, Boston fans. Hugepatsfan already explained to me why this trade doesn't make sense for Boston. I ceded the point.

Do you expect the Celtics to blatantly tank for a high lotto pick this year? Or do you expect merely an off year without Tatum where you win 44 games instead of 60.

I was assuming the later, and that the pick conveyed would be something in the late teens. If you are thinking the Celtics will be in the lottery, then I understand your reservations. Normally, I'd be okay with full lotto protection. The problem is, the Celtics have future picks encumbered so the pick obligation can't be rolled forward to 2027 if not conveyed in 2026.

It doesn't make sense for them in either scenario. See my last post. It's just a silly way for them to shed salary. You have them paying to dump Simons at $27M when they can just cut WAS out, keep the LAL guys and salary dump one of them for what would obviously be less than their '26 1st. No matter where their pick lands this is just awful value for them to expand the deal to include WAS.

Yeah, I see your point.

The Wizards could just absorb Niang and get Boston most of the way there. I'd probably do that for your ORL/DET/MIL SRP.

[Apz]

Boston definitely can get under the tax in less painful ways than this. Like others have suggested just do the Simons for Vincent/Kleber part and then shop some combo of Vincent/Kleber/Niang/Hauser/2nds into teams' MLEs or TPEs.

How is it easy? Lakers iirc is 1m from cap, simons make about 5-6m more then those 2. Would need to send out all 3 which kills the idea for boston and i cant see lakers want to send 3 of their squad that already had bad depth for a guard that doesnt bring anything they dont already have covered

[enzino]

Boston definitely can get under the tax in less painful ways than this. Like others have suggested just do the Simons for Vincent/Kleber part and then shop some combo of Vincent/Kleber/Niang/Hauser/2nds into teams' MLEs or TPEs.

otherwise, stretch & waive his salary

[brackdan70]

Relax, Boston fans. Hugepatsfan already explained to me why this trade doesn't make sense for Boston. I ceded the point.

It doesn't make sense for them in either scenario. See my last post. It's just a silly way for them to shed salary. You have them paying to dump Simons at $27M when they can just cut WAS out, keep the LAL guys and salary dump one of them for what would obviously be less than their '26 1st. No matter where their pick lands this is just awful value for them to expand the deal to include WAS.

Yeah, I see your point.

The Wizards could just absorb Niang and get Boston most of the way there. I'd probably do that for your ORL/DET/MIL SRP.

Our star is out for the season with a torn Achilles…how can you expect us to relax…we need empathy and compassion, not bad fake trades