Bucks-Celtics-Nets :: Take two

[zimpy27]

Bucks get Jrue, Porzingis
Bucks give Lillard, Connaughton

Nets get Lillard, BOS26FRP
Nets give fake 2nd

Celtics get Connaughton, fake 2nd
Celtics give Porzingis, Jrue, BOS26FRP

Bucks give up Lillard to bring in help for Giannis now. Porzingis is expiring but the Jrue deal is negative. They will be able to use $14m MLE and $5m BAE after this trade to add to the team.

Nets take on Lillard in to space instead of Jrue and Porzingis while keeping the pick compensation. They keep Lillard because he ensures a clean tank in 25-26 season while rehabbing. They also look to trade Lillard in 26 offseason as expiring and back from injury.

Celtics aim for a tax reset this season with Tatum down.

[hugepatsfan]

Nets and Boston should cut MIL out of this. Nets are better off with Jrue and Porzingis who both can be moved for positive value this year if they take back offsetting money. The reason Boston probably has to pay to get off of them is because they can’t take back enough offsetting money - that wouldn’t apply to Brooklyn. And on the face of it, the contract structure of the Boston guys gives BRK more flexibility in the future.

MIL’s contributions are giving Brooklyn less movable salary and Boston a contract they don’t want, even if it’s small-ish. They aren’t adding any value to anyone.

[Celts17Pride]

Celtics give up two good players in Jrue, Porzingis and a possible lottery or better pick in 2026 for Connaughton? Are you serious? Celtics are not having a fire sale. Celtics won 61 games last year. Porzingis comes off the payroll after 1 year. If the Celtics keep getting garbage offers like this then they won't trade anyone. Again, Celtics are not having a fire sale.

[hugepatsfan]

Celtics give up two good players in Jrue, Porzingis and a possible lottery or better pick in 2026 for Connaughton? Are you serious? Celtics are not having a fire sale. Celtics won 61 games last year. Porzingis comes off the payroll after 1 year. If the Celtics keep getting garbage offers like this then they won't trade anyone. Again, Celtics are not having a fire sale.

Eh, whether “fire sale” is the right word is semantics. But Boston is absolutely going to clear $24M in salary to avoid the second apron and if they can they’ll try to clear $44M to duck the tax altogether. I’d expect that to take priority over any competitive aspirations.

These type of one stop salary dumps are unlikely though. Porzingis and Jrue are still very good players so there’s better valie in making multi step deals and working the money down deal by deal.

[Celts17Pride]

But Boston is absolutely going to clear $24M in salary to avoid the second apron and if they can they’ll try to clear $44M to duck the tax altogether. I’d expect that to take priority over any competitive aspirations.

That's your opinion, you have no idea how much the Celtics are willing to spend next year.

[zimpy27]

Nets and Boston should cut MIL out of this. Nets are better off with Jrue and Porzingis who both can be moved for positive value this year if they take back offsetting money. The reason Boston probably has to pay to get off of them is because they can’t take back enough offsetting money - that wouldn’t apply to Brooklyn. And on the face of it, the contract structure of the Boston guys gives BRK more flexibility in the future.

MIL’s contributions are giving Brooklyn less movable salary and Boston a contract they don’t want, even if it’s small-ish. They aren’t adding any value to anyone.

I think Nets prefer Lillard over Jrue+KP

Lillard let's them tank strong for 25-26. Jrue contract is hard to move, paid long for a 35 year old athletic guard.

[zimpy27]

Celtics give up two good players in Jrue, Porzingis and a possible lottery or better pick in 2026 for Connaughton? Are you serious? Celtics are not having a fire sale. Celtics won 61 games last year. Porzingis comes off the payroll after 1 year. If the Celtics keep getting garbage offers like this then they won't trade anyone. Again, Celtics are not having a fire sale.

Tatum is done for the season most likely.
You're not a serious contender next season.
You think the Celtics are a lottery team, you said yourself.

Trading away these salaries gets Boston under tax, resets their ability to trade when Tatum is back.

[Celts17Pride]

Celtics give up two good players in Jrue, Porzingis and a possible lottery or better pick in 2026 for Connaughton? Are you serious? Celtics are not having a fire sale. Celtics won 61 games last year. Porzingis comes off the payroll after 1 year. If the Celtics keep getting garbage offers like this then they won't trade anyone. Again, Celtics are not having a fire sale.

Tatum is done for the season most likely.
You're not a serious contender next season.
You think the Celtics are a lottery team, you said yourself.

Trading away these salaries gets Boston under tax, resets their ability to trade when Tatum is back.

Not going to happen. Brad Stevens won't give very good players away. Pretty much said so in his press conference.

Celtics will be contenders in the East next year. Celtics easily could be a 5/6 seed. East has question marks all over the place. Celtics won 61 games last year and were 10-3 in games Tatum didn't play. If Brown or White goes down with an injury Celtics could become a play-in or lottery team. That's why you down trade the 2026 pick.

Celtics will try to cut costs if there are decent deals. They won't be giving players away. This isn't a video game.

[Netaman]

Nets and Boston should cut MIL out of this. Nets are better off with Jrue and Porzingis who both can be moved for positive value this year if they take back offsetting money. The reason Boston probably has to pay to get off of them is because they can’t take back enough offsetting money - that wouldn’t apply to Brooklyn. And on the face of it, the contract structure of the Boston guys gives BRK more flexibility in the future.

MIL’s contributions are giving Brooklyn less movable salary and Boston a contract they don’t want, even if it’s small-ish. They aren’t adding any value to anyone.

I think Nets prefer Lillard over Jrue+KP

Lillard let's them tank strong for 25-26. Jrue contract is hard to move, paid long for a 35 year old athletic guard.

I don't think Nets would have any interest in Lillard unless it's helping to move up in the draft. If MIL gets #2 for example from Spurs, Lillard + #2 for #8 or something like that would get Nets thinking. I'm not sure they even do that though, because $112m+ of cap space over 2 years for a guy currently injured may be a complete non-starter for anyone in the new cba. It may need to be #19 + cap space for #2 + Lillard. Same applies for PG3/PHI/#3 (maybe even more so since he has an extra year left).

In any case, I think the Nets only take on that much salary if it's for a specific young asset they can't get any other way. Harper fits that description but I'm not sure anyone else would (even at #3).

broadly I could see the Nets interested in Jrue. He is the type who could bring back an extra 1st to them at the deadline from a winning team looking for a final piece and the salary is manageable enough. good veteran leader who can fit a bunch of different roles and the type of team they are trying to build, though i think first they are probably trying to actively find a way up for Harper if it exists.

[brackdan70]

It’s probably fair, but I would be really surprised to see the Celtics trade that pick unless it’s lotto protected.
With Tatum out, it’s obviously the Cs most valuable excluding Tatum, White or Brown.
As mentioned I don’t see get it all done at once salary dump.
My personal thought is they won’t try to get under the second apron this year. They will try to cut salary to at least drop a tier or two in the repeater tax. I think they target 26/27 to get under the aprons and possibly duck the tax.
For this trade if you change it to 28 and 32 attached it might make more sense. I still don’t see something like this happening.

[Texas Chuck]

But Boston is absolutely going to clear $24M in salary to avoid the second apron and if they can they’ll try to clear $44M to duck the tax altogether. I’d expect that to take priority over any competitive aspirations.

That's your opinion, you have no idea how much the Celtics are willing to spend next year.

Yes, literally all of us are giving our opinion. Just as you did when you were adamant that despite losing Tatum for next year, they would pay enormous tax penalties for a non-contender. You might be right. But the other side of not badly overpaying for a 1st round exit also has merit.

Especially since KP isn't worth his money on availability alone. Jrue might be worth his money next year, but if Boston can gain some flexibility and forestall his decline, that might be worth looking into.

I know for some casual fans they just go I don't care about a billionaire's money, but with the new CBA its not just about money anymore. Having payrolls this high actually hurt your future ability to compete. It make financial and basketball sense for them to cut costs this year.

[Netaman]

But Boston is absolutely going to clear $24M in salary to avoid the second apron and if they can they’ll try to clear $44M to duck the tax altogether. I’d expect that to take priority over any competitive aspirations.

That's your opinion, you have no idea how much the Celtics are willing to spend next year.

Yes, literally all of us are giving our opinion. Just as you did when you were adamant that despite losing Tatum for next year, they would pay enormous tax penalties for a non-contender. You might be right. But the other side of not badly overpaying for a 1st round exit also has merit.

Especially since KP isn't worth his money on availability alone. Jrue might be worth his money next year, but if Boston can gain some flexibility and forestall his decline, that might be worth looking into.

I know for some casual fans they just go I don't care about a billionaire's money, but with the new CBA its not just about money anymore. Having payrolls this high actually hurt your future ability to compete. It make financial and basketball sense for them to cut costs this year.

this offseason is going to be a fascinating one for the nets for exactly this reason, they are going to have a long list of players to choose from with incentives to take those players into their cap space, and there's very little in FA unless they really like Kuminga (maybe they do, maybe they dont, but it's well within their negotiating position to say they do to any team trying to get them to eat $30-50m that they need some asset good enough to make it worth it for them to forgo just going after Kuminga).

I do think Jrue could be someone towards the top of their list depending on what happens in draft. It sounds like (and makes a lot of sense) that they are going to be aggressive trying to package their way up for Harper. Jrue + KP's with an unprotected 2026 is highly appealing though. They might even be able to somehow offload KP's expiring elsewhere by attaching one of their late 2025's.

[Netaman]

Not to miller the thread but NOP only has the 1 pick in the draft this year and their cap is in ok shape so they seemed like a 3rd team that might be open to taking on an expiring KP to get an extra pick or two. To do it they'd have to move out Herb Jones salary, which may be a non-starter even though he's been in trade rumors, but in that scenario I gave them the 2 late firsts from Brooklyn to even out the value.

Boston gets their get out of cba jail free card but it costs them the 2026 first unprotected.