Official: Shams/Woj/Shelbourne: It's Brooklyn for the Beard

[Prokorov]

I'm really suprised the Nets were able to retain Joe Harris in this deal. They didnt give up 1 single valuable player when you consider health/term.

-Allen is young and healthy. but he is a pending free agent who turned down a big extension and looking to break the bank
-Levert has some term but cant stay healthy and is horribly inefficient and has yet to show he can play off the ball or put 50 games of solid play together

The picks are high in number.... 7 outgoing for the nets. but 2021 is a swap that is a lock not to convey. making it 3 picks and 3 swaps from there. The rocks Owe i Believe 4 firsts to OKC (2 swaps, 2 picks) with 2021 being a swap a lock to convey.

I'd expect KD/Harden/Kyrie to tail off or split after 2 years, but rockets are not in the best rebuild spot with their own picks owed. I can see 2 or 3 of those 4 swaps from Brooklyn to the rockets not conveying

Somehow this story seems all too familiar! Trio of big named stars comes to Nets, projections of multiple NBA championships, one star is 32 the other is 31 and the 3rd doesn't know if he still wants to play basketball.

The Nets may get an NBA title this year or next. But 2024-25-26-27 is a long time from now and those picks and swaps might end up being as bad as that other deal. Oh sure everyone says the Nets are in Brooklyn now and they'll be a perennial contender so even if star A or star B goes down or retires who cares we'll just get a new one. We'll see.

it would be near impossible for those picks to "be as bad as the other deal"

As it is, what happened was like all 500 things that can go wrong going wrong including an unprecidented fall from grace from Dwill in his prime.

Nets are much more insulated as it would take 3 guys to turn into bench scrubs overnight AND it would require the rockets to become a top 6 team....without owning their own picks the next 3-5 years.

no way that happens.

[basketballwacko2]

Im surprised more people are not seeing a Simmons Kyrie swap as reasonable for both rosters
https://basketball.realgm.com/tradechecker/saved_trade/7381392

I wouldn't touch KI with a ten foot pole!

[basketballwacko2]

I'm really suprised the Nets were able to retain Joe Harris in this deal. They didnt give up 1 single valuable player when you consider health/term.

-Allen is young and healthy. but he is a pending free agent who turned down a big extension and looking to break the bank
-Levert has some term but cant stay healthy and is horribly inefficient and has yet to show he can play off the ball or put 50 games of solid play together

The picks are high in number.... 7 outgoing for the nets. but 2021 is a swap that is a lock not to convey. making it 3 picks and 3 swaps from there. The rocks Owe i Believe 4 firsts to OKC (2 swaps, 2 picks) with 2021 being a swap a lock to convey.

I'd expect KD/Harden/Kyrie to tail off or split after 2 years, but rockets are not in the best rebuild spot with their own picks owed. I can see 2 or 3 of those 4 swaps from Brooklyn to the rockets not conveying

Somehow this story seems all too familiar! Trio of big named stars comes to Nets, projections of multiple NBA championships, one star is 32 the other is 31 and the 3rd doesn't know if he still wants to play basketball.

The Nets may get an NBA title this year or next. But 2024-25-26-27 is a long time from now and those picks and swaps might end up being as bad as that other deal. Oh sure everyone says the Nets are in Brooklyn now and they'll be a perennial contender so even if star A or star B goes down or retires who cares we'll just get a new one. We'll see.

it would be near impossible for those picks to "be as bad as the other deal"

As it is, what happened was like all 500 things that can go wrong going wrong including an unprecidented fall from grace from Dwill in his prime.

Nets are much more insulated as it would take 3 guys to turn into bench scrubs overnight AND it would require the rockets to become a top 6 team....without owning their own picks the next 3-5 years.

no way that happens.

Maybe. The one that makes me think is Irving, he's acting pretty darn squirrelly right now. He needs to get out there and play some basketball. I don't know what happened with DWill but he did have a meteoric fall from grace. Was it physical or mental? I've always felt like Kyrie was a head case, maybe he can get it together and play the game we'll see.

[Prokorov]

Somehow this story seems all too familiar! Trio of big named stars comes to Nets, projections of multiple NBA championships, one star is 32 the other is 31 and the 3rd doesn't know if he still wants to play basketball.

The Nets may get an NBA title this year or next. But 2024-25-26-27 is a long time from now and those picks and swaps might end up being as bad as that other deal. Oh sure everyone says the Nets are in Brooklyn now and they'll be a perennial contender so even if star A or star B goes down or retires who cares we'll just get a new one. We'll see.

it would be near impossible for those picks to "be as bad as the other deal"

As it is, what happened was like all 500 things that can go wrong going wrong including an unprecidented fall from grace from Dwill in his prime.

Nets are much more insulated as it would take 3 guys to turn into bench scrubs overnight AND it would require the rockets to become a top 6 team....without owning their own picks the next 3-5 years.

no way that happens.

Maybe. The one that makes me think is Irving, he's acting pretty darn squirrelly right now. He needs to get out there and play some basketball. I don't know what happened with DWill but he did have a meteoric fall from grace. Was it physical or mental? I've always felt like Kyrie was a head case, maybe he can get it together and play the game we'll see.

it doesnt matter.... Kyrie could retire tommorow and the Nets still would not be a 65-70 loss team in '24-'27.... in order for this to end up like the boston thing:

-Kyrie AND harden AND KD would all need to turn into bench players by 2024
-Kyrie/KD/Harden will all need to be bought out or cut or let get with 0 asset coming back (nets got nothing in return for deron/joe)
-The Nets would need to choose to lose despite not having their own pick. they had the WORST pick on purpose without getting a pick for it
-Houston would need to become the better team by 2024, and so much better that the picks they swap with the nets dont help... like picks in the mid 20's. The boston thing wasnt just bad because we gave them high picks, the picks we got back were super late
-Houston does not have 4 of their next 5 first rounders. So they wont get great overnight through the draft they can be bad and not get their lotto pick for being bad

i dont see a scenario where the nets either stay at 30ish wins with the corpses of their big 3 OR sell off their big three for capable players to win 30ish games AND at the same time houston builds a contender through FA and d-league.

[Stillwater]

Im surprised more people are not seeing a Simmons Kyrie swap as reasonable for both rosters
https://basketball.realgm.com/tradechecker/saved_trade/7381392

I wouldn't touch KI with a ten foot pole!

yeah I know, but Philly is under pressure imo to do something or they would not have considered moving Simmons for anyone to begin with. Kyrie isnt Harden but they both have screwy personalities that are distracting etc and it didnt stop Philly from pursuing Harden and being willing to ship Simmons to get him. I think they would LOVE to get Kyrie to team up with Embiid for a couple seasons, and the Nets maybe would not be willing to pull the trigger right now on it until they see how it works out, but imo they should do it and do it now before the dust settles or KI is hurt again etc.

[Scoot McGroot]

Still waiting for the Oladipo/Levert swap to be called in.....

[K_chile22]

Still waiting for the Oladipo/Levert swap to be called in.....

Waiting on all the physicals from the first deal is probably the hold up. Imagine it gets bogged down with covid and all

[Scoot McGroot]

Still waiting for the Oladipo/Levert swap to be called in.....

Waiting on all the physicals from the first deal is probably the hold up. Imagine it gets bogged down with covid and all

Oh, absolutely. It’s normally up to 48 hours after the trade call for physicals to be finalized, but I can’t remember if they lengthened that due to Covid.

[vincecarter4pres]

I don't understand why people calling Cleveland winners, they gave up a first and took a bad contract for a garbage man center they're going to have to overpay this summer

Allen has got better every year he has been in the NBA. If you think he's a garbage man center then that's probably where your assessment misaligns with others.

Better how? His production has been the same basically the last 3 seasons only difference is his efficiency has increased because obviously he gets to play with elite offensive players

It’s pretty obvious you haven’t seen him play much the last 2 seasons.

[R-DAWG]

The last time the Nets leveraged their decade for a short term run, they ended up with Kevin Duranrt, James Harden and Kyrie Irving 6 years after the other roster imploded. Kind of hard to argue with putting all the chips in the middle of the table again.

Also, this time it's different. Kevin Durant looks like he's back to being a top 3 player, and at age 32 and with only 1 more year until he can opt out of his contract, you don't know how long the window of having a top 3 player on your roster is. These opportunities don't come around that often, so you have to take advantage of them when they come along.


The Indiana component of this deal looks to be more financial - LeVert is signed for 2 more seasons averaging around $18MM per year. Oladipo is looking for a 4 year contract worth close to the max. Both guys have injury concerns - Oladipo looks more like the guy he was prior to joining Indiana and hasn't quite hit that all-NBA level yet and LeVert is one of those guys who always misses 20-30 games a season.


From Houston's perspective, they might have overplayed their hand asking for too much additional compensation in a Simmons trade. While Simmons has some flaws, he's still a 24 year old 2-time all-star that you can build around for the next decade. Looking at the picks they got - 2 of the 4 are likely in the 25-30 range in 2022 - there is a risk that (a) they end up in the lotto and (b) the player picked becomes a star. Sure, in theory they have multiple shots, but is it hard to see both Durant and Harden resigning in BK and them being a playoff teams through 2025? Personally, I would trade all the picks and pick swaps they got for Simmons - but Philly would never do the same.

Oh yeah I don't blame the Nets for pushing in their chips here, but those 6 years were truly brutal for them, I don't think it should be forgotten just how bad their purgatory was. I'm way more on board with this trio than what they tried to do with KG/Pierce/Deron. This is clearly a far far superior team.

But this strategy only really works if you're in LA or New York or Miami. The Nets landed this trio basically because 2/3 decided to team up and wanted to do it in NYC, it wasn't like they manoeuvred into a stud lineup. This could have easily been the Knicks instead of the Nets. That being said BKN is probably in a good spot to manage to land superstars again regardless of how this works out for them because tons of guys will want to be in NYC. And they had the balls to push it all in for Harden, which not everyone would, so hats off to them for that.

There was a "would you rather" on the GB the other day about being guaranteed a championship, but be in the lottery for 9/10 years or in the conference finals 10 years straight, but no guarantee of winning anything and I'm all about door #2. Although the Nets could end up with best of both worlds here, but just saying my personal preference is always to be competitive (other Celtics fans are having a meltdown because they're the opposite, but to each their own).

Yeah I'd take Simmons as well. I could see both Harden/Durant re-signing, but just as easily could see them walking or Durant going down again and being an albatross for a season or two. I'd take the bird in the hand, being Simmons, but the more I think about it the more I realize Philly never had a chance. No way the Rockets were gonna let Morey take his 2 week "break" from basketball and then pick up Harden to pair with Embiid and a likely Finals appearance. I think they were always the fluffer here.

Even if Brooklyn didn't sign Durant/Irving they had a young playoff team built around D'Angello Russell, a young core of Allen/LeVert/Harris/Dinwiddie and all their picks plus cap flexibility going forward.

Of the 6 years you referenced - starting with the 14/15 season and ending with the 19/20 season - Brooklyn made the playoffs 3 times. Sure, they had 2 years where they were a dumpster fire with Boston getting top 3 picks, but by the 3rd season of the rebuild they had something interesting going on, then they were a playoff team in back to back years (in year 2 Durant didn't play and Kyrie missed a ton of time, not sure the results would have been much different with Russell instead of Kyrie).

Looking around the league, teams were very hesident to give up draft picks in 2017-2018 but the past few offseasons teams have been more willing to trade the same. Can the attitude towards trading picks be related to the success and failures of Brooklyn?

[K_chile22]

I'm starting to think the Levert physical did not go well...


Process of elimination says its him. Harden passed, apparently Kurucs and Exum passed, JB Bickerstaff said Allen and Prince can't play because a player hasn't passed physicals yet... Outside shot this falls through?

[loserX]

I'm starting to think the Levert physical did not go well...


Process of elimination says its him. Harden passed, apparently Kurucs and Exum passed, JB Bickerstaff said Allen and Prince can't play because a player hasn't passed physicals yet... Outside shot this falls through?

Can't imagine it falls through. Physicals can be waived, right? Even if LeVert fails his and Indiana refuses to take him, Houston likely just says "fine, we keep him" and cuts the Pacers out. They can't afford to cancel the entire trade now.

[K_chile22]

I'm starting to think the Levert physical did not go well...


Process of elimination says its him. Harden passed, apparently Kurucs and Exum passed, JB Bickerstaff said Allen and Prince can't play because a player hasn't passed physicals yet... Outside shot this falls through?

Can't imagine it falls through. Physicals can be waived, right? Even if LeVert fails his and Indiana refuses to take him, Houston likely just says "fine, we keep him" and cuts the Pacers out. They can't afford to cancel the entire trade now.

I really doubt if he fails his physical Houston would be fine keeping Levert at $18M a year. They didn't even want him healthy. He becomes a big negative. Brooklyn has nothing else to sweeten the pot. They could null it and go back to Philly

[K_chile22]

Well, an additional second appeared to be good enough for Indy

Read on Twitter

?s=19

[loserX]

I'm starting to think the Levert physical did not go well...


Process of elimination says its him. Harden passed, apparently Kurucs and Exum passed, JB Bickerstaff said Allen and Prince can't play because a player hasn't passed physicals yet... Outside shot this falls through?

Can't imagine it falls through. Physicals can be waived, right? Even if LeVert fails his and Indiana refuses to take him, Houston likely just says "fine, we keep him" and cuts the Pacers out. They can't afford to cancel the entire trade now.

I really doubt if he fails his physical Houston would be fine keeping Levert at $18M a year. They didn't even want him healthy. He becomes a big negative. Brooklyn has nothing else to sweeten the pot. They could null it and go back to Philly

And if Philly says "actually you know what, we good fam" or "we changed our mind, now that Brooklyn is out, the offer is Tobias Harris", then what? Having LeVert might be negative...but so might having this huge deal blow up.

When Isaiah Thomas failed his physical in the Kyrie trade, it was resolved by throwing in a 2nd. Looks like this one was similarly addressed.

[Scoot McGroot]

Well, an additional second appeared to be good enough for Indy

Read on Twitter

?s=19

Well, yikes. Guess it's not too terrible of a ticking time bomb. Likely just something that wasn't communicated from Brooklyn's medical department, since Brooklyn gave up the 2nd they were receiving from Cleveland?

[K_chile22]

Can't imagine it falls through. Physicals can be waived, right? Even if LeVert fails his and Indiana refuses to take him, Houston likely just says "fine, we keep him" and cuts the Pacers out. They can't afford to cancel the entire trade now.

I really doubt if he fails his physical Houston would be fine keeping Levert at $18M a year. They didn't even want him healthy. He becomes a big negative. Brooklyn has nothing else to sweeten the pot. They could null it and go back to Philly

And if Philly says "actually you know what, we good fam" or "we changed our mind, now that Brooklyn is out, the offer is Tobias Harris", then what? Having LeVert might be negative...but so might having this huge deal blow up.

When Isaiah Thomas failed his physical in the Kyrie trade, it was resolved by throwing in a 2nd. Looks like this one was similarly addressed.

You said if indy refused to take him though that's a completely different scenario lol luckily it doesn't appear to be too serious so it was fine

[K_chile22]

I didn't mind the oladipo and Levert swap even though others hated it but I feel even better about it now

[Texas Chuck]

I didn't mind the oladipo and Levert swap even though others hated it but I feel even better about it now

I always liked it more for Houston than Indy. I don't really get the LeVert hype at all. So them getting cash and another pick helps, but some sort of physical concern isn't great though it must not be serious for them to move forward.

Guess the Dipo situation was worse in Indy than I thought.

[Wizop]

Guess the Dipo situation was worse in Indy than I thought.

Trade also avoids luxury tax. But it does feel like acknowledgement that this was his last year here if you want to call that a worse situation.

Sent from my phone.