Free Agent/Trade/Waiver Thread, 2025-26, part 2

[Dogen]

Who’s a defensive guard we could get for Hauser and picks basis? Add x, Boucher, if you need salary. Maybe Baylor if needed. I like Anthony Black for that, but doubt ORL goes for it. Any other ideas?

Keon Johnson. He's already here in Maine, but Hauser or someone would need to be moved to sign him.

[brackdan70]

Who’s a defensive guard we could get for Hauser and picks basis? Add x, Boucher, if you need salary. Maybe Baylor if needed. I like Anthony Black for that, but doubt ORL goes for it. Any other ideas?

Keon Johnson. He's already here in Maine, but Hauser or someone would need to be moved to sign him.

We have an open roster spot.

[Dogen]

Who’s a defensive guard we could get for Hauser and picks basis? Add x, Boucher, if you need salary. Maybe Baylor if needed. I like Anthony Black for that, but doubt ORL goes for it. Any other ideas?

Keon Johnson. He's already here in Maine, but Hauser or someone would need to be moved to sign him.

We have an open roster spot.

But already in tax penalty. A larger contract needs to move for smaller if the team fills another spot.

[hugepatsfan]

Simons (and picks) for Zubac with other LAC players need to make the math work rerouted to other teams

Dump Tillman/Boucher and replace with pro rated minimums. Amari Williams being one of them

White / Pritchard
Brown / Hugo
Walsh / Hauser / Scheierman
Tatum / Minott
Zubac / Queta / Williams / Garza

Plus one more pro rated minimum. That team is below the tax this year.

All 13 of those listed guys are here next year too. And they’d be in position to duck the tax again with some mid season dumps of third unit guys again to totally reset the repeater taxes.

Resetting the repeater rates would give them flexibility to re-sign Queta/Walsh/Minott the year after which pushes them up close to the 2nd apron. Then they can re-sign Pritchard the year after which pushes them back into the 2nd apron but they can stay in there for two seasons and then go back under before repeater penalties kick in like we just did.

Probably the best of all worlds scenario IMO. You have a great 10 man rotation that you can feasibly keep together for the rest of the Tatum/Brown/White/Zubac window.

[31to6]

Simons (and picks) for Zubac with other LAC players need to make the math work rerouted to other teams

Dump Tillman/Boucher and replace with pro rated minimums. Amari Williams being one of them

White / Pritchard
Brown / Hugo
Walsh / Hauser / Scheierman
Tatum / Minott
Zubac / Queta / Williams / Garza

Plus one more pro rated minimum. That team is below the tax this year.

All 13 of those listed guys are here next year too. And they’d be in position to duck the tax again with some mid season dumps of third unit guys again to totally reset the repeater taxes.

Resetting the repeater rates would give them flexibility to re-sign Queta/Walsh/Minott the year after which pushes them up close to the 2nd apron. Then they can re-sign Pritchard the year after which pushes them back into the 2nd apron but they can stay in there for two seasons and then go back under before repeater penalties kick in like we just did.

Probably the best of all worlds scenario IMO. You have a great 10 man rotation that you can feasibly keep together for the rest of the Tatum/Brown/White/Zubac window.

CBA experts, is the red part feasible? I thought Cs would have to take back as much as they send out, meaning you get some tag-along(s) (hello CP3) along with Zubac if Simons is going out. But I could certainly be wrong -- I know each team can structure their 'side' of a trade independently

[Fierce1]

Simons (and picks) for Zubac with other LAC players need to make the math work rerouted to other teams

Dump Tillman/Boucher and replace with pro rated minimums. Amari Williams being one of them

White / Pritchard
Brown / Hugo
Walsh / Hauser / Scheierman
Tatum / Minott
Zubac / Queta / Williams / Garza

Plus one more pro rated minimum. That team is below the tax this year.

All 13 of those listed guys are here next year too. And they’d be in position to duck the tax again with some mid season dumps of third unit guys again to totally reset the repeater taxes.

Resetting the repeater rates would give them flexibility to re-sign Queta/Walsh/Minott the year after which pushes them up close to the 2nd apron. Then they can re-sign Pritchard the year after which pushes them back into the 2nd apron but they can stay in there for two seasons and then go back under before repeater penalties kick in like we just did.

Probably the best of all worlds scenario IMO. You have a great 10 man rotation that you can feasibly keep together for the rest of the Tatum/Brown/White/Zubac window.

CBA experts, is the red part feasible? I thought Cs would have to take back as much as they send out, meaning you get some tag-along(s) (hello CP3) along with Zubac if Simons is going out. But I could certainly be wrong -- I know each team can structure their 'side' of a trade independently

Yes, that's possible.

Both Clips and Cs are 1st apron teams, so involving other teams in the trade works.

[hugepatsfan]

Simons (and picks) for Zubac with other LAC players need to make the math work rerouted to other teams

Dump Tillman/Boucher and replace with pro rated minimums. Amari Williams being one of them

White / Pritchard
Brown / Hugo
Walsh / Hauser / Scheierman
Tatum / Minott
Zubac / Queta / Williams / Garza

Plus one more pro rated minimum. That team is below the tax this year.

All 13 of those listed guys are here next year too. And they’d be in position to duck the tax again with some mid season dumps of third unit guys again to totally reset the repeater taxes.

Resetting the repeater rates would give them flexibility to re-sign Queta/Walsh/Minott the year after which pushes them up close to the 2nd apron. Then they can re-sign Pritchard the year after which pushes them back into the 2nd apron but they can stay in there for two seasons and then go back under before repeater penalties kick in like we just did.

Probably the best of all worlds scenario IMO. You have a great 10 man rotation that you can feasibly keep together for the rest of the Tatum/Brown/White/Zubac window.

CBA experts, is the red part feasible? I thought Cs would have to take back as much as they send out, meaning you get some tag-along(s) (hello CP3) along with Zubac if Simons is going out. But I could certainly be wrong -- I know each team can structure their 'side' of a trade independently

No team is ever required to take back any salary in a trade. You can always “dump” a player and take back nothing if that’s the deal. You’re allowed to take back “up to” a certain number of salary depending on what the outgoing salary on your side is and what your apron/hard cap positioning is, but there’s never any minimum you need to take back.

In this case Clippers need to send out more salary to meet the matching rules. And then because of they’d hard capped at the first apron they’d have to send back enough to make the deal work. But nothing stops us from rerouting those players to other teams who have TPE/MLE available to fit them. That may require us sending additional second rounders to those teams besides what we send to LAC to get Zubac.

[Fierce1]

With the way the Bulls are spiraling right now, I think Vuc is a low risk, high reward guy.

Vuc is an expiring, that's why it's low risk.

Cs don't need another Center to replace Queta as the starter because Queta's doing well.
Just need another quality Center to supplement the Center spot.

[Celts17Pride]

With the way the Bulls are spiraling right now, I think Vuc is a low risk, high reward guy.

Vuc is an expiring, that's why it's low risk.

Cs don't need another Center to replace Queta as the starter because Queta's doing well.
Just need another quality Center to supplement the Center spot.

Garza is a better defender than Vucevic. Celtics have no need of Vucevic. Mazzulla wouldn’t play him. Vucevic can’t defend

[FlatearthZorro]

With the way the Bulls are spiraling right now, I think Vuc is a low risk, high reward guy.

Vuc is an expiring, that's why it's low risk.

Cs don't need another Center to replace Queta as the starter because Queta's doing well.
Just need another quality Center to supplement the Center spot.

The fact that he's expiring is kinda bad, cause what's Bulls' incentive to trade him to us for Simmons- another guard, they are good at guard position, imo. And we aren't sending a 1st for an expiring Vuc.
I'd say Zubac or bust.

[Fierce1]

With the way the Bulls are spiraling right now, I think Vuc is a low risk, high reward guy.

Vuc is an expiring, that's why it's low risk.

Cs don't need another Center to replace Queta as the starter because Queta's doing well.
Just need another quality Center to supplement the Center spot.

The fact that he's expiring is kinda bad, cause what's Bulls' incentive to trade him to us for Simmons- another guard, they are good at guard position, imo. And we aren't sending a 1st for an expiring Vuc.
I'd say Zubac or bust.

Cs can offer 2nd round picks or it's a multi-team trade that has Simons ending up elsewhere.

It's just one option.

Claxton is intriguing.

Another could be Robert Williams, if the Cs think he's healthy.

I would love Zubac on the Cs, but I think it's too good to be true.

[cl2117]

I like the Zubac option if we're going to make a play for a big man.

He's not my ideal option for who we're investing in to pair with our core because he can't stretch the floor at all, but his age/contract fit right in and he's great at what he does do so he's definitely a solid option. I'd probably prefer to try and break Simons into smaller contracts that are neutral and can preserve those salary slots and then try to aggregate those plus Hauser into a bigger name in the off-season with all our draft capital. That's still somewhat viable with Zubac but albeit less likley because of what we'd have to invest to get him.

Something like Simons/Garza plus our 2026 pick and an unprotected future pick for Zubac/Lopez could be appealing to LAC if they are truly open to moving Zubac. It's not the best draft capital but the '26 pick still has upside given how reliant on the Jay's we are and then something like the 2031 pick you could argue is an unknown. Plus Garza is a few tiers below Zubac, but if you squint you could confuse the two out there and he's a fine placeholder for a lost season. They'd clear a ton of cap space this summer and could either blow it up selling of Kawhi/Harden or find a new 3rd banana and hope Beal comes back as a steal on his deal.

I'd also take CP3 to help out LAC if that's on the table. He's 40 but he's actually still got some on court value. After getting kicked to the curb by LAC he should be on his absolute best behaviour in Boston and a locked in CP3 as a bench mentor/emergency depth is nothing to scoff at.

I also would look to loop in our good friends over at the Jazz and see if we could swap BroLo for Kevin Love for a mediocre 2nd. It'd kick us below the 1st apron and get the Jazz above the salary floor. I'm not trying to start a retirement home but Love has been solid for Utah so far and is a decent depth big.

Alternatively if you can pay someone to eat BroLo entirely, I think they could maneuver below the tax line altogether by dumping Tillman/Boucher and pro-rating Amari and another G League body, but I worry how many 2nds in total it'd cost us to dump all those big men.

BOS in: Zubac, CP3, Love
BOS out: Simons, Garza, 2026 unprotected, 2031 unprotected, 2032 2nd

LAC in: Simons, Garza, BOS 2026 unprotected, BOS 2031 unprotected
LAC out: Zubac, Lopez, CP3

UTA in: Lopez (bought out)
UTA out: Love

White/ Pritchard/ CP3
Brown/ Gonzalez/
Walsh/ Hauser/ Scheierman
Tatum/ Minott/ Love
Zubac/ Queta/ Tillman/ Boucher

That team can win the East this year. I think it gets slaughtered by OKC but that should tell you more about the juggernaut that is the Thunder than it does about us.

[flintsky21]

With the way the Bulls are spiraling right now, I think Vuc is a low risk, high reward guy.

Vuc is an expiring, that's why it's low risk.

Cs don't need another Center to replace Queta as the starter because Queta's doing well.
Just need another quality Center to supplement the Center spot.

I've always been in the Vooch train, but this year seems to be the first in which he's finally starting to go downhill. He's 35.

My dream targets are still Jaylin Williams and Isaiah Stewart but their teams are just doing so well right now that they're probably not very realistic.

Zubac would be great but I'm not convinced he's being shopped around and I'm not sure we can top offers of other teams when we can't really give back a promising young player in return (not named Jordan Walsh).

[brackdan70]

Simons (and picks) for Zubac with other LAC players need to make the math work rerouted to other teams

Dump Tillman/Boucher and replace with pro rated minimums. Amari Williams being one of them

White / Pritchard
Brown / Hugo
Walsh / Hauser / Scheierman
Tatum / Minott
Zubac / Queta / Williams / Garza

Plus one more pro rated minimum. That team is below the tax this year.

All 13 of those listed guys are here next year too. And they’d be in position to duck the tax again with some mid season dumps of third unit guys again to totally reset the repeater taxes.

Resetting the repeater rates would give them flexibility to re-sign Queta/Walsh/Minott the year after which pushes them up close to the 2nd apron. Then they can re-sign Pritchard the year after which pushes them back into the 2nd apron but they can stay in there for two seasons and then go back under before repeater penalties kick in like we just did.

Probably the best of all worlds scenario IMO. You have a great 10 man rotation that you can feasibly keep together for the rest of the Tatum/Brown/White/Zubac window.

I’ll-co-sign. Send it to the league.
Interesting to think about Pritchards next contract. North of 20 million per? Probably right.
Walsh and Queta? At least mid level types. Might really be worth trying to extend them early ( if that’s possible).

[brackdan70]

Are Kevon Looney or Goga Bitdaze guys we should look at. Hauser could be the trade with salaries close enough .
Looney behind the younger guys in rotation and Orlando seems they have too many bigs especially with Mo Wagner coming back.

[Fierce1]

Are Kevon Looney or Goga Bitdaze guys we should look at. Hauser could be the trade with salaries close enough .
Looney behind the younger guys in rotation and Orlando seems they have too many bigs especially with Mo Wagner coming back.

Waste of money for both.

We don't need a backup Center.

What the Cs need is someone as good or better than Queta.

[hugepatsfan]

Simons (and picks) for Zubac with other LAC players need to make the math work rerouted to other teams

Dump Tillman/Boucher and replace with pro rated minimums. Amari Williams being one of them

White / Pritchard
Brown / Hugo
Walsh / Hauser / Scheierman
Tatum / Minott
Zubac / Queta / Williams / Garza

Plus one more pro rated minimum. That team is below the tax this year.

All 13 of those listed guys are here next year too. And they’d be in position to duck the tax again with some mid season dumps of third unit guys again to totally reset the repeater taxes.

Resetting the repeater rates would give them flexibility to re-sign Queta/Walsh/Minott the year after which pushes them up close to the 2nd apron. Then they can re-sign Pritchard the year after which pushes them back into the 2nd apron but they can stay in there for two seasons and then go back under before repeater penalties kick in like we just did.

Probably the best of all worlds scenario IMO. You have a great 10 man rotation that you can feasibly keep together for the rest of the Tatum/Brown/White/Zubac window.

I’ll-co-sign. Send it to the league.
Interesting to think about Pritchards next contract. North of 20 million per? Probably right.
Walsh and Queta? At least mid level types. Might really be worth trying to extend them early ( if that’s possible).

Pritchard's deal is tough to gauge because he'll sign it going into his age 31 season. o be totally blunt, we might not even want to re-sign him for big money when this deal is up now that I really think about it. Small guards don't usually age well, so his next negotiation could be tricky.

Definitely should explore extensions with Walsh/Queta/Minott this offseason. They have options to do what they did with Hauser and just tack on extra years. They also have the option to decline the minimum deals and make them RFAs this offseason instead of unrestricted the following year. That might get you a lower overall contract value because you pay up a year earlier, but it would blow up any repeater reset and that would end up costing more money anyway even if the value on the contract is lower. But if they are planning to go over the tax next year anyway then it makes sense.

[playa-hater]

Maybe Ainge will finally lower the asking Price for Kessler. Hauser, a 1st and 3 2nds .. Probably not,, but you never know.

[brackdan70]

Are Kevon Looney or Goga Bitdaze guys we should look at. Hauser could be the trade with salaries close enough .
Looney behind the younger guys in rotation and Orlando seems they have too many bigs especially with Mo Wagner coming back.

Waste of money for both.

We don't need a backup Center.

What the Cs need is someone as good or better than Queta.

I think someone better than Garza and almost as good as Queta would suffice, if those guys that are better than Queta are not available.

[Celts17Pride]

Maybe Ainge will finally lower the asking Price for Kessler. Hauser, a 1st and 3 2nds .. Probably not,, but you never know.

I suspect Brad Stevens and the Celtics have absolutely no interest in giving Kessler a $25+ million per year extension.