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I've been thinking about the trade rumor mill that began spinning around December 15th, when recently signed players are trade-eligible. According to sources both within the Nets beat writer community and around the league, teams calling to see who's available are astonished at how open Marks is to moving Joe for the right price. It makes sense, since luxury tax implications around a Big 3 are major.

Not long after that wave of rumors, another surfaced, that Cleveland wanted Joe. At first, I thought that scrubs and filler would be their offer, which is an easy no for us IMO. But then I asked myself, "who became tradeable for the Cavaliers on December 15th? Lauri Markkanen!" A young stretch big could help us.

The more I thought about it, with the timing of this rumor right on the heels of the other, the following deal could be in our near future:

Harris/Carter for Markkanen/Windler/2nds

The downside is of course losing Joe, a symbol of our rebuild and the last vestige of the old Nets. He's also a deadeye shooter. Carter is a capable deep bench G in the right system, but at this point, I trust Bembry and Brown more to run spot PG duty.

The upside is getting younger, more confident shooters. The future 2nds help restock the war chest of picks since we own so few over the next 5 drafts. Windler is in the Harris mold, and we'd have 1.5 years of his role deal left to decide whether he's a keeper.

So, what are your thoughts?

Harris is a better player than Lauri.

MrDollarBills wrote:Harris is a better player than Lauri.

This is irrefutable fact, at least for the time being.

However, teams trade better players for worse players all the time. Sometimes, it's about positional need. Other times, it's about roster fit, mindset, youth, skill set, franchise direction or contracts. Joe and Lauri have similar contracts, Markkanen's being slightly smaller per year and extending longer into the future. He's also 6 years younger, and a much better and more versatile defender. He's markedly worse as a shooter (though no less shy), and not nearly as durable.

I'm at least interested in the thought experiment of this trade, because as I mentioned I think it's the logical nucleus of a trade that it sounds like it's reaching advanced discussion. The rumors could be hogwash, but you and I both know that nothing leaks from this organization on accident.

In my opinion, Lauri is one of only a few bigmen that I could envision playing alongside both Kevin and Nic. That allows us to keep Durant at the 3 for a majority of the time, his preference, and gives us a stretch 5 with size to close games.