Trade: (x3) 2nd Round Picks + Filler Players to Charlotte For Cap Space

[JMAC3]

This feels like a pretty easy win of a trade for the Hornets.

We were going to lose the MLE for nothing. Instead we traded it (first year you can do this) and a bust of a 2nd rounder for 3 2nds.
The players we got in the deal aren't making the opening day roster, so yeah you could say we spent money for nothing... but we didn't because Knicks gave us 7.2 million to pay for those salaries.

The only way people can view this as a bad trade are the ones who delusionally thought we were getting Mitchell Robinson or Miles McBride.. when they were never mentioned in any reporting... what were the chances they just leave that player out but then report Daquan Jeffries.

[JMAC3]

Nanji went from playing 12 mpg for Barca 2 years ago to playing 8mpg this year.
His only saving grace is he can be stashed. If we had to give him a roster spot this year he would have likely been cut.
He isn't an NBA talent right now and likely would have went undrafted in the most recent draft and not improving at all.

[Diop]

This feels like a pretty easy win of a trade for the Hornets.

We were going to lose the MLE for nothing. Instead we traded it (first year you can do this) and a bust of a 2nd rounder for 3 2nds.
The players we got in the deal aren't making the opening day roster, so yeah you could say we spent money for nothing... but we didn't because Knicks gave us 7.2 million to pay for those salaries.

The only way people can view this as a bad trade are the ones who delusionally thought we were getting Mitchell Robinson or Miles McBride.. when they were never mentioned in any reporting... what were the chances they just leave that player out but then report Daquan Jeffries.

ahk, so its not cap space, its creative use of the MLE. i dont mind it at all then.

[Luv those Knicks]

Nanji went from playing 12 mpg for Barca 2 years ago to playing 8mpg this year.
His only saving grace is he can be stashed. If we had to give him a roster spot this year he would have likely been cut.
He isn't an NBA talent right now and likely would have went undrafted in the most recent draft and not improving at all.

Nnaji had back surgery in June. Not sure if it was health issues that cut back his minutes. I don't know a thing about him other than he's young, he likes to dunk in highlight reels and he's got freakishly long reach.

The 3 players you got from the Knicks are nothing. fringe end of the bench / G-league types. Maybe (just barely) Washington is something, as he missed a lot of last year, but I've seen the other two and very end of the bench types.

The 3 2nd rounders isn't much but it's something. I'd assumed you would get the Washington pick in this swap but apparently not. That pick could easily turn into 2 2nd rounders because the Wiz are pretty bad, so it's not like that pick has a ton of value and it's the only tradable first rounder NY has.

[fatlever]

3 free 2nd rounders. hard to pass that up. nnaji was never gonna be anything. we dont need his player-type anyway. we need 5s who can stretch the floor.

[EmpireFalls]

I really think we could’ve played garbage collector on another deal, but whatever. Moves like this around the margins don’t matter much.

[SWedd523]

Nnaji is more likely to never play in the NBA than he is. He's already had (back?) Injuries and reportedly didn't want us to draft him.

We traded that trash second rounder for 3 new seconds and cash.

How anyone can view that in a negative light baffles me.

[luciano-davidwesley]

How y’all like that? Think giving up Nnaji is worth those 3 stinker 2nds and those 3 trash players?

Can I judge this deal now guys?

In my most humble opinion…it is crap. Three more guards, who all do nothing for this team. Throw away one player of modest possibility for a passel of dumper picks. Oh well.

Nnaji didn't want to play for us, better to get something out of the asset.

We traded a guy who wasn't going to play for us and get 3 meh 2nds plus cash. I don't see that as negative, crap, stupid move, etc.

Nnaji was a Mitch Kupcake special. Remember he traded something like #34 and #39 to move up to #31 to draft a guy that didn't want to play for us. What a waste of two early seconds and awful asset management.

And yes this deal is very whatever.

[Bassman]

Nnaji is more likely to never play in the NBA than he is. He's already had (back?) Injuries and reportedly didn't want us to draft him.

We traded that trash second rounder for 3 new seconds and cash.

How anyone can view that in a negative light baffles me.

OK, forgot about his back issue, and acknowledge he wasn’t likely to be retained, so indeed not a crap trade. Wouldn’t call it a good trade per se, just using up cap space to help other teams become even better. Hopefully those seconds will get us something good a few years from now.

[LofJ]

Reading that this is the first time any team has ever traded their MLE space to help facilitate a trade.

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[Rich4114]

Jeff is obviously looking for any opportunity to stockpile draft picks, 1st and 2nd's. The cost of doing so was nothing but time and effort, so why not? I think they're gearing up for a bigger trade in the future when someone impactful becomes available and now we've got a stash of picks to use towards it. Or, we can just use the picks over the years and have more cracks at prospects even though that's the very long game.

The C issue is totally separate. Whether Mark is healthy or not, the C position is a hot mess and I think the biggest mistake of this regime so far is the draft where two were available and both have better projected NBA careers than who we took. Nnaji was never in the mix. He's got a bum back and couldn't crack the rotation in Spain either.

Anyway, this trade is a W but it won't change much one way or another except give us a little more ammo for the future.

[JMAC3]

Just to add more context, the reason we moved Nnaji is because in order to make the trade legal we needed to give up something. Usually teams give up a top 55 protected 2nd round pick, which means it is not getting traded. The only issue with that is that pick becomes locked from being involved in any other trade...

This isn't the type of trade that puts in the playoffs, but in 2-3 years when we have 10+ future 2nds we can use to dump salaries, pick up deadline rotation guys instead of constantly being first round pick poor we won't be complaining.

[Luv those Knicks]

Just to add more context, the reason we moved Nnaji is because in order to make the trade legal we needed to give up something. Usually teams give up a top 55 protected 2nd round pick, which means it is not getting traded. The only issue with that is that pick becomes locked from being involved in any other trade...

This isn't the type of trade that puts in the playoffs, but in 2-3 years when we have 10+ future 2nds we can use to dump salaries, pick up deadline rotation guys instead of constantly being first round pick poor we won't be complaining.

What I'm reading, is that the question for Charlotte is whether they might have gotten more if they'd waited. They could have used this MLE trade exception at the deadline and possibly gotten more. The downside to that way of thinking, is it's possible they get nothing at all.

NY lost their 2025 2nd rounder for the Brunson tampering . . (worth it), so that pick doesn't exist. I haven't been able to look up which pick it is. NY has a (Boston or Memphis whichever is more favorable, so probably Memphis) 2nd rounder in 2025, with some protection I think. That's probably the 2025 pick. NY also has Detroit's 2025 2nd rounder top 55 protected which isn't going to happen.

2026 pick from Mini is Golden States 2nd rounder. That could be reasonably well positioned.

And 2031 pick is NY's 2nd rounder.

Anyway, I come in peace. I just find trades interesting. Leon has been very creative for NYK. I'm surprised Mini gave up a 2nd in 2026 which could be in the 30s to low 40s. The Detroit pick they got could also become a 2nd, so Mini didn't get much draft capital at all in this swap.

I guess they really wanted to trade Kat and shed his salary going into 2025-26.

[fatlever]

Regarding the stockpile of second round picks, important to note that if we don't make the playoffs this year the owed pick to the Spurs becomes two second round picks

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[LofJ]

We tried to hire the Knicks CBA/cap guy, Brock Aller, that came up with this. I can see why our new owners wanted him. I imagine the Knicks also gave him a raise because of that.

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[luciano-davidwesley]

Just to add more context, the reason we moved Nnaji is because in order to make the trade legal we needed to give up something. Usually teams give up a top 55 protected 2nd round pick, which means it is not getting traded. The only issue with that is that pick becomes locked from being involved in any other trade...

This isn't the type of trade that puts in the playoffs, but in 2-3 years when we have 10+ future 2nds we can use to dump salaries, pick up deadline rotation guys instead of constantly being first round pick poor we won't be complaining.

I honestly think the Knicks being a second apron team probably asked for Nnaji, as they'll need cheap defensive center depth in a year or two. We had draft rights to other players in their 30's or older we could have used for that purpose otherwise I'm pretty sure.

[wilson115]

Damn it, really wanted to see Nnaji develop here. Well, glass half full, between trading away James, apparently declining Mitchell Robinson when the Knicks were shopping him, and passing up Clingan, probably says something good about the confidence in Mark coming back strong.

[Chapelchilla]

Damn it, really wanted to see Nnaji develop here. Well, glass half full, between trading away James, apparently declining Mitchell Robinson when the Knicks were shopping him, and passing up Clingan, probably says something good about the confidence in Mark coming back strong.

He better, lol

[Walt Cronkite]

Charlotte trades for Charlie Brown Jr and no one bats an eye...

[Snidely FC]

Has anyone else noticed that if you mix DaQuan Jeffries first and last names you make Daiquiris?