CHI/LAL/BOS

[redslastlaugh]

Boston
In: Dalen Terry, 2025 LAC 2nd (from LAL)
Out: Payton Pritchard

Chicago
In: Payton Pritchard, LAL 1RD Pick 2029 (unprotected), D’Angelo Russell
Out: Dalen Terry, Coby White, Ayo Dosunmu

LAL
In: Coby White, Ayo Dosunmu
Out: D’Angelo Russell, 2029 1RD pick, 2025 2nd from LAC

Why?
Lakers get a pair of athletic guards on good contracts who still have upside
Bulls get a future 1st for a D’lo a rental and PP fits longer term with Giddey. Bulls rebuild to try to keep their 2025 first round pick.
Celtics get off Pritchards four years money and maybe Dalen Terry can thrive with all the spacing/shooting in Boston.

Everybody wins, correct?

[Skybox]

Easy no for BOS…Pritchard is their best bench player…this is a gift to LAL

[brackdan70]

Boston
In: Dalen Terry, 2025 LAC 2nd (from LAL)
Out: Payton Pritchard

Chicago
In: Payton Pritchard, LAL 1RD Pick 2029 (unprotected), D’Angelo Russell
Out: Dalen Terry, Coby White, Ayo Dosunmu

LAL
In: Coby White, Ayo Dosunmu
Out: D’Angelo Russell, 2029 1RD pick, 2025 2nd from LAC

Why?
Lakers get a pair of athletic guards on good contracts who still have upside
Bulls get a future 1st for a D’lo a rental and PP fits longer term with Giddey. Bulls rebuild to try to keep their 2025 first round pick.
Celtics get off Pritchards four years money and maybe Dalen Terry can thrive with all the spacing/shooting in Boston.

Everybody wins, correct?

A for effort on this one. Terry has the kind of upside that might be worth gambling on…but unless the Cs don’t exercise his option next year there is really very little savings and it’s just salary dumping a key rotation player.
I don’t see the Celtics doing anything like this for this year. For 2025-26 as they hit the repeater tax I could see them making moves to bring that bill down though.

[hugepatsfan]

Easy no for BOS…Pritchard is their best bench player…this is a gift to LAL

Horford and Hauser are obviously better.

BOS's motivation here would be cost savings. Doesn't seem to be a priority motivator for them right now, but in time it may be one (probably will be) at which point this would make sense.

[hugepatsfan]

If the Celtics salary dump Pritchard this year, I don't think this is the route they'd go. With 14 players signed, they're $7.6M over the 2nd apron. If they salary dump Pritchard and Jaden Springer midseason and backfill by signing Lonnie Walker (or some other vet) and converting one of their 2-ways to an NBA deal (presumably 2nd rounder Anton Watson) then they can avoid the 2nd apron.

Basically I don't see them doing a half-*** salary dump this year with Pritchard. If they go that route, it'll be a whole-*** salary dump with him to push off repeater penalties for the 2nd apron.

[ChettheJet]

Unless you think the Bulls are in love with late draft picks 5 years down the road I don't see anything good about this.

The Bulls plan and it's the right one is to move on from Zach Lavine. I don't know how keeping him and trading away 2 of their 3 future looking guards for an expiring DLo does them any good. Now Giddey is going to start at PG, so are they starting DLo for a year or starting Pritchard as basically a sort of SG double PG? This just makes no sense

[JRoy]

This might be a little too good for LAL and a little rough for everyone else.

[redslastlaugh]

To elaborate a little bit on the idea from each side:

The Lakers had basically three net positive players in the playoffs last year and they need more depth to do LBJ right and make one last run at the Finals with him & AD. Maybe they are not giving up enough draft capital to entice the Bulls, but LAL just is hopeless as a contender right now with extremely limited depth and basically serving a subsidiary of Klutch Sports Inc., rostering Klutch clients who don’t help winning and are just basically stealing money from Jeannie Buss. And it’s just time to move on from D’lo, you don’t want to see him walk in FA or you will lose the salary ballast to match in trades.

From the Chicago point of view. Y’all are so badly stuck in the mud. By far your best course going forward is to move some vets to ensure you finish with a top 10 pick because the 2025 draft is so good. You may just keep Zach LaVine to the deadline or even until next offseason, let him eat minutes, stack counting stats, and let some time run off his guarenteed years. Coby White and Dosunmu aren’t more important building blocks than a chance to have a top five pick in the draft, Giddey, Matas, Pat Williams and letting Lonzo and then Vooch fall off your cap. And unprotected Lakers picks five years out when LeBron is literally turning 40 this season are not likely to be late first round picks. When Kobe retired the Lakers picked in the top five for almost five straight years, lol. I don’t get why Chicago clings so much to mediocrity. By far y’all’s best strategy is to move vets for future picks to protect your first round pick in the upcoming draft. And Pritchard is a positive player, top 100 in WAR, coming into his prime on an awesome contract.

And then for Boston…

The Celts are for sale and facing hundreds of millions in luxury taxes especially starting in 2025-26. Celtics fans are fooling themselves if they think there is more than a tiny % new owners keep this core together beyond this season. Pritchard is owed $30 million over the next four years. Taking Terry into PPs roster spot, picking up Dalens next year option, is $8.8 guaranteed. If Terry shows promise in Boston, you could look to renew him at 4/$32 or something. And if Terry flops he’s a $5 million expiring, you attach a 2nd or two and dump him into a cap space team in the 2025 offseason.

The difference this season between PP ($6.6) and Dalen Terry ($3.5) gives room in the budget to guarantee Lonnie Walker for this season.

Objectively, a big part of new ownerships solution to the luxury tax will be moving off Jrue next offseason. So you bring in Dalen Terry, you’ve got JD Davison, and Jaden Springer. You’ve got Lonnie Walker as well. You give those four Payton’s minutes and hope for enough improvement that you can extend one or two of them long term at a favorable price.

Out of a young athletic guard core of Walsh, Springer, Davison, & Terry who are 20, 21, 21 & 22, you hope two of the four can develop into something to pay off down the road. Then you go forward into the second half of JT/JB prime with D White, Hauser, hopefully Scheierman and the athletic defensive guards you hope can take over for Jrue Holiday.

The Celts have such an advantage with JB/JT/Hauser on the wings… they have decent pick stable going forward. But it’s probably not realistic to keep Jrue (and probably KP) after this season. KP and Jrue are owed roughly $195 million over the coming four seasons and even with the cap going up, that’s all the lux tax ($300-$500 million with the 4x, 5x, 5.5x repeater tax) right there.

So anyway, that’s the thinking, finding and developing a defensive guard to replace Jrue to keep the team in legit title contention until JT is out of his prime basically, and doing so within the lux tax and 2nd apron constraits.

[patman66]

To elaborate a little bit on the idea from each side:

The Lakers had basically three net positive players in the playoffs last year and they need more depth to do LBJ right and make one last run at the Finals with him & AD. Maybe they are not giving up enough draft capital to entice the Bulls, but LAL just is hopeless as a contender right now with extremely limited depth and basically serving a subsidiary of Klutch Sports Inc., rostering Klutch clients who don’t help winning and are just basically stealing money from Jeannie Buss. And it’s just time to move on from D’lo, you don’t want to see him walk in FA or you will lose the salary ballast to match in trades.

From the Chicago point of view. Y’all are so badly stuck in the mud. By far your best course going forward is to move some vets to ensure you finish with a top 10 pick because the 2025 draft is so good. You may just keep Zach LaVine to the deadline or even until next offseason, let him eat minutes, stack counting stats, and let some time run off his guarenteed years. Coby White and Dosunmu aren’t more important building blocks than a chance to have a top five pick in the draft, Giddey, Matas, Pat Williams and letting Lonzo and then Vooch fall off your cap. And unprotected Lakers picks five years out when LeBron is literally turning 40 this season are not likely to be late first round picks. When Kobe retired the Lakers picked in the top five for almost five straight years, lol. I don’t get why Chicago clings so much to mediocrity. By far y’all’s best strategy is to move vets for future picks to protect your first round pick in the upcoming draft. And Pritchard is a positive player, top 100 in WAR, coming into his prime on an awesome contract.

And then for Boston…

The Celts are for sale and facing hundreds of millions in luxury taxes especially starting in 2025-26. Celtics fans are fooling themselves if they think there is more than a tiny % new owners keep this core together beyond this season. Pritchard is owed $30 million over the next four years. Taking Terry into PPs roster spot, picking up Dalens next year option, is $8.8 guaranteed. If Terry shows promise in Boston, you could look to renew him at 4/$32 or something. And if Terry flops he’s a $5 million expiring, you attach a 2nd or two and dump him into a cap space team in the 2025 offseason.

The difference this season between PP ($6.6) and Dalen Terry ($3.5) gives room in the budget to guarantee Lonnie Walker for this season.

Objectively, a big part of new ownerships solution to the luxury tax will be moving off Jrue next offseason. So you bring in Dalen Terry, you’ve got JD Davison, and Jaden Springer. You’ve got Lonnie Walker as well. You give those four Payton’s minutes and hope for enough improvement that you can extend one or two of them long term at a favorable price.

Out of a young athletic guard core of Walsh, Springer, Davison, & Terry who are 20, 21, 21 & 22, you hope two of the four can develop into something to pay off down the road. Then you go forward into the second half of JT/JB prime with D White, Hauser, hopefully Scheierman and the athletic defensive guards you hope can take over for Jrue Holiday.

The Celts have such an advantage with JB/JT/Hauser on the wings… they have decent pick stable going forward. But it’s probably not realistic to keep Jrue (and probably KP) after this season. KP and Jrue are owed roughly $195 million over the coming four seasons and even with the cap going up, that’s all the lux tax ($300-$500 million with the 4x, 5x, 5.5x repeater tax) right there.

So anyway, that’s the thinking, finding and developing a defensive guard to replace Jrue to keep the team in legit title contention until JT is out of his prime basically, and doing so within the lux tax and 2nd apron constraits.

Even if they dont keep the team together after this year, why break it up now? I like AYO and think he will fit better than pritchard even. Pritchard and a First for Ayo?

[Mamba4Goat]

I don’t think there’s a deal to be had here. Nobody involved can give up the realistic value needed for Chicago to give up their guards.

[brackdan70]

To elaborate a little bit on the idea from each side:

The Lakers had basically three net positive players in the playoffs last year and they need more depth to do LBJ right and make one last run at the Finals with him & AD. Maybe they are not giving up enough draft capital to entice the Bulls, but LAL just is hopeless as a contender right now with extremely limited depth and basically serving a subsidiary of Klutch Sports Inc., rostering Klutch clients who don’t help winning and are just basically stealing money from Jeannie Buss. And it’s just time to move on from D’lo, you don’t want to see him walk in FA or you will lose the salary ballast to match in trades.

From the Chicago point of view. Y’all are so badly stuck in the mud. By far your best course going forward is to move some vets to ensure you finish with a top 10 pick because the 2025 draft is so good. You may just keep Zach LaVine to the deadline or even until next offseason, let him eat minutes, stack counting stats, and let some time run off his guarenteed years. Coby White and Dosunmu aren’t more important building blocks than a chance to have a top five pick in the draft, Giddey, Matas, Pat Williams and letting Lonzo and then Vooch fall off your cap. And unprotected Lakers picks five years out when LeBron is literally turning 40 this season are not likely to be late first round picks. When Kobe retired the Lakers picked in the top five for almost five straight years, lol. I don’t get why Chicago clings so much to mediocrity. By far y’all’s best strategy is to move vets for future picks to protect your first round pick in the upcoming draft. And Pritchard is a positive player, top 100 in WAR, coming into his prime on an awesome contract.

And then for Boston…

The Celts are for sale and facing hundreds of millions in luxury taxes especially starting in 2025-26. Celtics fans are fooling themselves if they think there is more than a tiny % new owners keep this core together beyond this season. Pritchard is owed $30 million over the next four years. Taking Terry into PPs roster spot, picking up Dalens next year option, is $8.8 guaranteed. If Terry shows promise in Boston, you could look to renew him at 4/$32 or something. And if Terry flops he’s a $5 million expiring, you attach a 2nd or two and dump him into a cap space team in the 2025 offseason.

The difference this season between PP ($6.6) and Dalen Terry ($3.5) gives room in the budget to guarantee Lonnie Walker for this season.

Objectively, a big part of new ownerships solution to the luxury tax will be moving off Jrue next offseason. So you bring in Dalen Terry, you’ve got JD Davison, and Jaden Springer. You’ve got Lonnie Walker as well. You give those four Payton’s minutes and hope for enough improvement that you can extend one or two of them long term at a favorable price.

Out of a young athletic guard core of Walsh, Springer, Davison, & Terry who are 20, 21, 21 & 22, you hope two of the four can develop into something to pay off down the road. Then you go forward into the second half of JT/JB prime with D White, Hauser, hopefully Scheierman and the athletic defensive guards you hope can take over for Jrue Holiday.

The Celts have such an advantage with JB/JT/Hauser on the wings… they have decent pick stable going forward. But it’s probably not realistic to keep Jrue (and probably KP) after this season. KP and Jrue are owed roughly $195 million over the coming four seasons and even with the cap going up, that’s all the lux tax ($300-$500 million with the 4x, 5x, 5.5x repeater tax) right there.

So anyway, that’s the thinking, finding and developing a defensive guard to replace Jrue to keep the team in legit title contention until JT is out of his prime basically, and doing so within the lux tax and 2nd apron constraits.

Even if they dont keep the team together after this year, why break it up now? I like AYO and think he will fit better than pritchard even. Pritchard and a First for Ayo?

He makes more than Pritchard though so Cs can’t take him back due to being over the first Apron.

[Karmaloop]

The difference between D'Angelo Russell and Coby White isn't an UNP FRP in a post-LeBron era. Lakers pass on this offer pretty easily.

[pipfan]

The difference between D'Angelo Russell and Coby White isn't an UNP FRP in a post-LeBron era. Lakers pass on this offer pretty easily.

You ignore Ayo in this deal-he's just as good as Coby, and is an awesome 3rd guard. You'd love him in LA

[cl2117]

If the Celtics salary dump Pritchard this year, I don't think this is the route they'd go. With 14 players signed, they're $7.6M over the 2nd apron. If they salary dump Pritchard and Jaden Springer midseason and backfill by signing Lonnie Walker (or some other vet) and converting one of their 2-ways to an NBA deal (presumably 2nd rounder Anton Watson) then they can avoid the 2nd apron.

Basically I don't see them doing a half-*** salary dump this year with Pritchard. If they go that route, it'll be a whole-*** salary dump with him to push off repeater penalties for the 2nd apron.

Are you sure on that because I've run the numbers and I've got them still being over the 2nd apron by $173k. I might be wrong on the minimum contract numbers I used though.

Per Spotrac we're at $196,574,991 for the current 14 guys on the roster. 2nd Apron is $188,931,000.

Pritchard and Springer make a combined $10,714,792. So if you manage to move them for nothing you've got $3,070,801 in headroom to add 2 players and get back to 14.

Convert Watson to a rookie minimum deal ($1,157,153) and Lonnie at vet minimum ($2,087,519) and they still end up $173,871 over the 2nd apron. So either they would need to add a minimum player with 0-1 years experience instead of Lonnie or they need to make another tweak in moving Queta or Kornet for a guy making slightly less.

Still doable, but it'd certainly be a hit to the depth chart. I'd be more on board if you could keep Lonnie because he can give you a decent bit of what Pritchard gave you, but if they've got to add two guys with 0-1 years experience it starts to feel like the corners that'd be cut might come back to bite them in the ass.

[redslastlaugh]

From the Celts perspective, I wonder if they want to sell the team first and that’s driving priority decisions. Then next offseason, they bite the bullet and cut salary to drop under the 2nd apron.

If Brad & Zarren knew Wyc was going to sell them team, you wonder if they’d even trade #41 for Jaden Springer in the first place. At 41 you could get another guard (Jamal Shead or whoever) and have that player multi year at a fraction of Jaden’s salary number.

[hugepatsfan]

If the Celtics salary dump Pritchard this year, I don't think this is the route they'd go. With 14 players signed, they're $7.6M over the 2nd apron. If they salary dump Pritchard and Jaden Springer midseason and backfill by signing Lonnie Walker (or some other vet) and converting one of their 2-ways to an NBA deal (presumably 2nd rounder Anton Watson) then they can avoid the 2nd apron.

Basically I don't see them doing a half-*** salary dump this year with Pritchard. If they go that route, it'll be a whole-*** salary dump with him to push off repeater penalties for the 2nd apron.

Are you sure on that because I've run the numbers and I've got them still being over the 2nd apron by $173k. I might be wrong on the minimum contract numbers I used though.

Per Spotrac we're at $196,574,991 for the current 14 guys on the roster. 2nd Apron is $188,931,000.

Pritchard and Springer make a combined $10,714,792. So if you manage to move them for nothing you've got $3,070,801 in headroom to add 2 players and get back to 14.

Convert Watson to a rookie minimum deal ($1,157,153) and Lonnie at vet minimum ($2,087,519) and they still end up $173,871 over the 2nd apron. So either they would need to add a minimum player with 0-1 years experience instead of Lonnie or they need to make another tweak in moving Queta or Kornet for a guy making slightly less.

Still doable, but it'd certainly be a hit to the depth chart. I'd be more on board if you could keep Lonnie because he can give you a decent bit of what Pritchard gave you, but if they've got to add two guys with 0-1 years experience it starts to feel like the corners that'd be cut might come back to bite them in the ass.

Your numbers are correct but you're not factoring in my point about doing it midseason. In this scenario, they'd keep Springer and Pritchard for now. Then make the salary dumping deals at the deadline. For simplicity sake, let's just say midyear instead of exactly at the deadline. At that point is when they'd convert Watson and sign Walker. So the minimum salaries you have would be pro rated for only half the year. That's what would count in their tax calc and when you slash you minimum salary numbers in half, they more than make up the $173K. They'd actually be able to sign another pro rated minimum deal as well for the 15th spot.

The contract they signed Walker to allows them to give him a bonus if they assign him to Maine out of camp. They can also massage the numbers by signing him to a couple of 10-day deals as well prior to actually executing the Pritchard/Springer deals. If they think Walker can be a viable replacement for Pritchard as the 8th man in the playoff rotation then honestly, it's probably the smart move to duck the tax via trading Pritchard/Springer.

[hugepatsfan]

From the Celts perspective, I wonder if they want to sell the team first and that’s driving priority decisions. Then next offseason, they bite the bullet and cut salary to drop under the 2nd apron.

If Brad & Zarren knew Wyc was going to sell them team, you wonder if they’d even trade #41 for Jaden Springer in the first place. At 41 you could get another guard (Jamal Shead or whoever) and have that player multi year at a fraction of Jaden’s salary number.

Getting under the apron next year requires moving a starter. Even letting Horford/Springer go and dumping Pritchard/Hauser both wouldn't have them under next year. Everyone's contract has raises in it so the math gets tough. It's much more realistic to do it this year where it only takes moving Pritchard from the rotation and Springer from the deep bench. If they get under this year, they'll put off any repeater penalties even going over the next year and then Porzingis' contract expires to give them relief.

[redslastlaugh]

From the Celts perspective, I wonder if they want to sell the team first and that’s driving priority decisions. Then next offseason, they bite the bullet and cut salary to drop under the 2nd apron.

If Brad & Zarren knew Wyc was going to sell them team, you wonder if they’d even trade #41 for Jaden Springer in the first place. At 41 you could get another guard (Jamal Shead or whoever) and have that player multi year at a fraction of Jaden’s salary number.

Getting under the apron next year requires moving a starter. Even letting Horford/Springer go and dumping Pritchard/Hauser both wouldn't have them under next year. Everyone's contract has raises in it so the math gets tough. It's much more realistic to do it this year where it only takes moving Pritchard from the rotation and Springer from the deep bench. If they get under this year, they'll put off any repeater penalties even going over the next year and then Porzingis' contract expires to give them relief.

This is interesting, I haven’t dug into what teams have open roster spots and suitably sized trade exceptions to take PP in without sending back salary. I think Detroit is the only team far enough under the cap, to just take Pritchard, any other team would need to have a roster spot and a TPE. I think PP is positive value but also I’ve heard this is the year that teams don’t want positive players (even for free) because they want the tanking odds. So it’s gonna be interesting …

EDIT: not entirely relevant at this point, but why did we trade #41 for Jaden Springer in the first place. Seems like we don’t have it in the budget to extend him so he’s gone after the year. He didn’t help last playoffs, & probably isn’t helping this upcoming playoffs. We could use him if we need a salary to trade for deadline playoff reinforcements, but we coulda got Jalen McDaniels salary for the rights to Josip Sesar or whatever (lol) a top 55 protected 2nd, ie “NOTHING” to just take dead money off another teams books, u don’t have to give them the 41st pick.

A mid-second, like 41, could be flipped for a future second or, in light of the budget restraints, we just take a flier on a stash, like Nikola Djurisic who isn’t coming over and some scouts felt he had late first potential. Brad and Zarren have hit an awesome percentage but Jaden Springer… I just don’t get it, especially if we end up moving future draft capital to dump him to get under the apron.

[Dez]

It's a straight up f*** off from Chicago, horrendous for the Bulls.

[redslastlaugh]

I think fans off all three teams in the trade said their team was getting jobbed, lol

It's a straight up f*** off from Chicago, horrendous for the Bulls.