Official ‘24-25 Off-season Thread

[Netaman]

Here's an interesting one, or at least so I think anyway.

Boston obviously needs to cut salary to get under apron, NO only has 1 pick in the draft so it's plausible they'd be a willing team to take on an expiring if incentivized with a FRP. To make salary work in checked they needed to send out Herb Jones, who seems like he'd fit well with Nets/Jordi and is obviously young enough to be appealing, so I added an extra FRP to give them both the late ones this year.

Basically Nets get Jrue/Herb and BOS26 unprotected for $50m of cap space + the 2 late firsts this year.



Jrue
CamT
Herb
CJ
Clax

plus whatever they do with #8/#19 and Clowney/Wilson/Watford/Keon/Whitehead is an interesting group that would be a real pain in the ass to play against if Jordi can get everyone competing as hard as last season. And they'd have 2 unprotected potential lotto picks in 2026 since Boston is going to be in a transition year.

[NYG]

Kyle Kuzma, Pat Connaughton and 2031 Unprotected Bucks First Round Pick for Cam Johnson?

[Netaman]

Kyle Kuzma, Pat Connaughton and 2031 Unprotected Bucks First Round Pick for Cam Johnson?

pass for me. that's a claxton level offer.

[Karate Diop]

Kyle Kuzma, Pat Connaughton and 2031 Unprotected Bucks First Round Pick for Cam Johnson?

pass for me. that's a claxton level offer.

Even Claxton is worth more than that. It should take at least 1 first to get off Kuzma. Terrible player with a terrible attitude.

[Decipher]

Bad enough watching the team lose without being forced to watch Kuzma

[Netaman]

thinking a bit more about Sean Marks and his whole history here, I'm finding myself more and more convinced that Cam Johnson has played his last game as a Net. Johnson's value is at an all time high, the contract looks like a value, he fits for almost any team. He's also 29 and injury prone, meaning there is some risk in not moving him. It all kind of reminds me of the Thad Young trade Marks' first year as Nets GM.

with picks 8 + 19 + 26 + 27 + camJ + cap space, it's not hard to think the nets could manipulate their way to getting 2 of the top 10 players on their board, who will likely be young and high upside even if not ready right away (like fears or maluach or demin or essenge), and maybe some 2026 draft assets as well since it will be hard to roster more than 2 or 3 rookies this year from their 5 picks.

I also suspect they will find a way to poach kuminga who is still just 22 on opening night and can step right into a big usage role and development opportunity here right away. Camt/kuminga/clax may not be long term pieces here when things get turned around, but for now all 3 have high upside to be worth developing even if it's just to trade them higher 1-2 years down the road like they did with Bridges and i suspect they will with CamJ.

one of the best ways to raise the upside next year both for lotto odds and franchise trajectory is to cash in whatever they can to get as much upside as they can be it cap room, draft picks, veterans, etc.

[Netaman]

Really hope im not getting over my skis, but it really seems like events are setting up perfectly for Sean Marks to cook over the next month or so.
https://basketball.realgm.com/wiretap/280607/NBAs-Second-Apron-Creating-Sandwich-Effect-With-Offseason-Trade-Surge-Anticipated

Few things are certain, but based on his history of doing each of these things, I think we are going to see him:

1. Eat veteran salary for draft assets (someone like Jrue?)
2. Consolidate/optimize his draft assets (at minimum it seems like getting to #6 could only cost #26)
3. Opportunistically add some young players to develop in a bigger role (like Kuminga)

the maximum flexibility strategy seems to be coinciding with teams learning the hard way on the new CBA's quirks.