Official Trade Thread Part XLVII

[keynote]

Is there a way to get CJ to Houston as a stopgap, in light of FVV's season-ending injury?

[payitforward]

ooooh! a great idea, keynote!

I'll be interested to hear what nate will do with this notion. & others.

[gambitx777]

Wonder if H would be interested in CJ?

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[penbeast0]

Wonder if H would be interested in CJ?

Sent from my SM-S926U1 using RealGM mobile app

Are you assuming a trade? If so, unless someone talks FVV into agreeing, he has a no trade clause and the rest of Houston's equivalent salary players are not likely to move.

IF you are assuming we buyout CJ, what incentive do we have/could we get to do that?

[doclinkin]

Wonder if H would be interested in CJ?

Are you assuming a trade? If so, unless someone talks FVV into agreeing, he has a no trade clause and the rest of Houston's equivalent salary players are not likely to move.

IF you are assuming we buyout CJ, what incentive do we have/could we get to do that?

Damn that no-trade clause. Monkey-wrenches the idea I was forming where we somehow pack Tari Eason into the deal and extend him before the season.

https://basketball.realgm.com/wiretap/282062/Kevin-Durant-Likely-To-Extend-With-Rockets;-Tari-Eason-Less-Certain-To-Extend

That's fine though, with $80m in cap room and Houston likely to have cap issues, we can wait until after the season and put in a bid on him. Eason is strong enough on D that he might endanger our tank position with a few good games.

[payitforward]

Tari Eason would be a top target as far as I'm concerned. But, they'd be nuts not to extend him....

[doclinkin]

Tari Eason would be a top target as far as I'm concerned. But, they'd be nuts not to extend him....

Sure. But KD is going to cost upwards of $60m/year in his extension. The Rockets are $13m away from the 2nd apron this year. $25m of their cap is FVV who won't play. They haven't been able to extend Tari yet, since they will likely do KD's deal first. Eason is playing behind Jabari Smith, and may be salty about play time and his role a la Whitmore. Especially as they just acquired Dorian Finney Smith who plays the same position. Not to mention KD who often fills that spot. Tari likely wants a starting role or a chance at it and is not trying to save the Rockets $ to continue in a diminished role. But PT is probably shrinking. Here he would be our only true Power Forward. Drama there, less drama here.

Tari + FVV is about exactly equal to CJ McCollum, who will expire next year, saving the Rockets $30m, or half a year of KD's salary. We have a billion 2nd round picks. How many of them are worth it for the Rox to relieve a migraine and tax pressure.

[penbeast0]

Tari Eason would be great; some defense from the team would make me very happy but yes, it might make us lose our pick to the Knicks if our low efficiency kids from last year start getting better on shot selection and finishing.

[nate33]

Tari Eason would be a top target as far as I'm concerned. But, they'd be nuts not to extend him....

Sure. But KD is going to cost upwards of $60m/year in his extension. The Rockets are $13m away from the 2nd apron this year. $25m of their cap is FVV who won't play. They haven't been able to extend Tari yet, since they will likely do KD's deal first. Eason is playing behind Jabari Smith, and may be salty about play time and his role a la Whitmore. Especially as they just acquired Dorian Finney Smith who plays the same position. Not to mention KD who often fills that spot. Tari likely wants a starting role or a chance at it and is not trying to save the Rockets $ to continue in a diminished role. But PT is probably shrinking. Here he would be our only true Power Forward. Drama there, less drama here.

Tari + FVV is about exactly equal to CJ McCollum, who will expire next year, saving the Rockets $30m, or half a year of KD's salary. We have a billion 2nd round picks. How many of them are worth it for the Rox to relieve a migraine and tax pressure.

Tari Eason is an interesting target for next year, but I don't see Houston making a deal until then. They can afford him for this season because they are under the 2nd apron and the 2025-26 salaries of both Durant and Eason are already set for this year. (The contract negotiations are for extensions starting NEXT season.)

Houston has $81M in space under the 2nd apron in 2026-27 with 8 players under contract: FVV, Sheppard, Amen, DFS, Jabari, Adams, Sengun, Capela. So that $81M will have to pay for Durant, Eason, plus 5 more players (either minimum salary vets or their 2026 draft picks; they have one FRP and one SRP).

Assume Durant costs $59M, which is the max he can be paid. Also assume that the 5 end-of-bench players will cost $2.3M a piece. That's a total of $70.5M of that $81M in 2nd Apron space, leaving just $10.5M to sign Eason. He will definitely cost more than that. And they don't look set up very well to simply bite the bullet and live with the tax penalties for a year, because the problem gets worse the following year when Amen has to be resigned at presumably max money and only FVV's $25M comes off the books.

It really looks like they will have to make a cap saving move. They have an extraordinary amount of redundancy at both center (Sengun, Adams, Capela) and forward (Amen, DFS, Eason, Jabari) so they will be looking for a way to dump salary instantly. As it turns out, we will have $100M in cap room next summer so a deal could certainly be worked out. I don't know if they will want to make a S&T involving Eason, or give us a pick to absorb somebody like Capela, Sheppard or FVV, but I'd say the chances are pretty good that we will be having a lot of discussions with Houston next summer.

[9 and 20]

Tari Eason would be a top target as far as I'm concerned. But, they'd be nuts not to extend him....

Sure. But KD is going to cost upwards of $60m/year in his extension. The Rockets are $13m away from the 2nd apron this year. $25m of their cap is FVV who won't play. They haven't been able to extend Tari yet, since they will likely do KD's deal first. Eason is playing behind Jabari Smith, and may be salty about play time and his role a la Whitmore. Especially as they just acquired Dorian Finney Smith who plays the same position. Not to mention KD who often fills that spot. Tari likely wants a starting role or a chance at it and is not trying to save the Rockets $ to continue in a diminished role. But PT is probably shrinking. Here he would be our only true Power Forward. Drama there, less drama here.

Tari + FVV is about exactly equal to CJ McCollum, who will expire next year, saving the Rockets $30m, or half a year of KD's salary. We have a billion 2nd round picks. How many of them are worth it for the Rox to relieve a migraine and tax pressure.

Tari Eason is an interesting target for next year, but I don't see Houston making a deal until then. They can afford him for this season because they are under the 2nd apron and the 2025-26 salaries of both Durant and Eason are already set for this year. (The contract negotiations are for extensions starting NEXT season.)

Houston has $81M in space under the 2nd apron in 2026-27 with 8 players under contract: FVV, Sheppard, Amen, DFS, Jabari, Adams, Sengun, Capela. So that $81M will have to pay for Durant, Eason, plus 5 more players (either minimum salary vets or their 2026 draft picks; they have one FRP and one SRP).

Assume Durant costs $59M, which is the max he can be paid. Also assume that the 5 end-of-bench players will cost $2.3M a piece. That's a total of $70.5M of that $81M in 2nd Apron space, leaving just $10.5M to sign Eason. He will definitely cost more than that. And they don't look set up very well to simply bite the bullet and live with the tax penalties for a year, because the problem gets worse the following year when Amen has to be resigned at presumably max money and only FVV's $25M comes off the books.

It really looks like they will have to make a cap saving move. They have an extraordinary amount of redundancy at both center (Sengun, Adams, Capela) and forward (Amen, DFS, Eason, Jabari) so they will be looking for a way to dump salary instantly. As it turns out, we will have $100M in cap room next summer so a deal could certainly be worked out. I don't know if they will want to make a S&T involving Eason, or give us a pick to absorb somebody like Capela, Sheppard or FVV, but I'd say the chances are pretty good that we will be having a lot of discussions with Houston next summer.

What about Walker Kessler? We should throw 20 mil at him to just to mess with the Jazz in return for messing up our Ace Bailey plans.

Jalen Duren is also a restricted free agent.

Capela and 2 2nds is probably more like what we'll see though.

[payitforward]

Detroit isn't extending Jalen Duren? Is that what you are saying? That's hard to imagine, but if so... Duren would be an enormous get for us! But, I really doubt he's going anywhere....

Utah/Kessler can't come to an agreement right now, but he's under contract for next year obviously. I really doubt he's going anywhere either.

[9 and 20]

Sure, there is a chance both make it to RFA next year. Why not throw a big offer out there, especially if we have a chance to draft a really good guard in the draft.

[Silvie Lysandra]

What about Walker Kessler? We should throw 20 mil at him to just to mess with the Jazz in return for messing up our Ace Bailey plans.

Jalen Duren is also a restricted free agent.

Capela and 2 2nds is probably more like what we'll see though.

Honestly, if we secure one of the top PGs in the upcoming class, I'd go for both Eason AND Kessler. Push our chips onto the table and start trying to win games while getting above average players (both under 24!) at cut rate prices.

Something like:
Peterson or Mikel Brown with a top 5 pick
Riley and Johnson + 2nds for Eason and FVV
Champagnie + Kispert + 2nds for Kessler S%T (assuming an extension doesn't get done)

C: Kessler/Sarr/Eason
PF: Sarr/Eason/Whitmore
SF: Coulibaly/George/Whitmore
SG: Johnson/George
PG: Peterson (or Mikel Brown)/Carrington

That's an exciting young team with ridiculous depth especially on the wings, and can go big with Kessler/Sarr or small with Sarr/Eason or Sarr/George or even Eason/George depending on matchup. Peterson projects as the next great heliocentric lead guard, but "Trae Young with actual size" is a hell of a consolation prize.

[nate33]

What about Walker Kessler? We should throw 20 mil at him to just to mess with the Jazz in return for messing up our Ace Bailey plans.

Jalen Duren is also a restricted free agent.

Capela and 2 2nds is probably more like what we'll see though.

Honestly, if we secure one of the top PGs in the upcoming class, I'd go for both Eason AND Kessler. Push our chips onto the table and start trying to win games while getting above average players (both under 24!) at cut rate prices.

Something like:
Peterson or Mikel Brown with a top 5 pick
Riley and Johnson + 2nds for Eason and FVV
Champagnie + Kispert + 2nds for Kessler S%T (assuming an extension doesn't get done)

C: Kessler/Sarr/Eason
PF: Sarr/Eason/Whitmore
SF: Coulibaly/George/Whitmore
SG: Johnson/George
PG: Peterson (or Mikel Brown)/Carrington

That's an exciting young team with ridiculous depth especially on the wings, and can go big with Kessler/Sarr or small with Sarr/Eason or Sarr/George or even Eason/George depending on matchup. Peterson projects as the next great heliocentric lead guard, but "Trae Young with actual size" is a hell of a consolation prize.

I don't think I'd include much in a trade for Eason except a vet like Kispert. A healthy Eason is awesome on his rookie deal, but on a full market value salary with his injury history, he isn't worth sacrificing picks/prospects. I'd just throw a fairly high contract offer his way and bet that Houston will decline to match given their existing depth at the forward position.

Kessler is definitely worth considering, but I wouldn't be too hell bent on trying to find a center who is on the same timeline as the rest of our young guys. Rim-running centers aren't that hard to find. I'd be just as happy with some 28-year-old vet as I would a 24-year-old coming off his rookie deal. It might be worth throwing big money at one of the RFA's like Kessler or Duren, but if that fails, I'm fine with a guy like Mitchell Robinson.

[doclinkin]

I like the Kessler Eason plan. The only other free agent I like in this class is Dyson Daniels. He will probably extend with the Hawks no matter what but it’d be worth a bid on him just to mess with their cap.

[payitforward]

This is a very creative, interesting discussion -- well done guys!

Much as I like Eason & Kessler, the guy I'd put at the top of this list of targets is Jalen Duren. 3 years under his belt, incredibly productive, not even 22 years old yet.

If you want to understand the impact of an outstanding, world-class Center, first take a look at Houston's record in 2019-20 then in 2020-21. Now take a look at Atlanta's record in 2019-20 & 2020-21.

Who moved from Houston to Atlanta at the 2020 trade deadline?

[doclinkin]

True but you’d have to demonstrate that Duren is gettable.

Houston has cap issues coming up. Utah may be nickel and diming and committing to a longer haul in the rebuild.

But Duren is the centerpiece of that team. 2nd only to their star PG. They’ll pay to keep him.

[nate33]

True but you’d have to demonstrate that Duren is gettable.

Houston has cap issues coming up. Utah may be nickel and diming and committing to a longer haul in the rebuild.

But Duren is the centerpiece of that team. 2nd only to their star PG. They’ll pay to keep him.

Agreed. I'd be willing to throw a max offer his way, but I'd expect Detroit to match. (Even so, at least we'd be forcing a rival to weigh down their cap sheet.)

[payitforward]

Amazing what you can get all the way down there at 12, 13, 17 & 22, huh?

[Silvie Lysandra]

That's an exciting young team with ridiculous depth especially on the wings, and can go big with Kessler/Sarr or small with Sarr/Eason or Sarr/George or even Eason/George depending on matchup. Peterson projects as the next great heliocentric lead guard, but "Trae Young with actual size" is a hell of a consolation prize.

I don't think I'd include much in a trade for Eason except a vet like Kispert. A healthy Eason is awesome on his rookie deal, but on a full market value salary with his injury history, he isn't worth sacrificing picks/prospects. I'd just throw a fairly high contract offer his way and bet that Houston will decline to match given their existing depth at the forward position.

Kessler is definitely worth considering, but I wouldn't be too hell bent on trying to find a center who is on the same timeline as the rest of our young guys. Rim-running centers aren't that hard to find. I'd be just as happy with some 28-year-old vet as I would a 24-year-old coming off his rookie deal. It might be worth throwing big money at one of the RFA's like Kessler or Duren, but if that fails, I'm fine with a guy like Mitchell Robinson.[/quote]

The injury history is scary, but we wouldn't be giving up much at all here, and while I like Riley, there's going to be a huge log jam that depending on who hits. And sure we can just throw big money at him, but we might get a better deal/save money in a S&T than in a bidding war.

The thing with Kessler is that for the most part, we're swapping Kispert's money with Kessler's money. And while JC is good, if he's one of our starting wings, we're in big trouble anyway. And Kessler is a cut above guys like Robinson as a rim protector, and would facilitate shifting into a "win games" mode.