Official Trade Thread Part XLVII

[nate33]

And they are ready to compete today:

PG: Young/Krejci/Bufkin
SG: NAW/Kennard
SF: Risacher/Daniels/Djurisic
PF: Johnson; Newell/Gueye
C: Porzingis/Okongwu

They have two picks in the '26 draft. Their cap situation is in a pretty good place and now they have a set of forwards (Johnson, Risacher and Newell) to anchor them for quite some time to see if the Young experiment with defenders around him works out.

To me - they had the best off-season in the east this year.

I'm nitpicking here, but Daniels definitely starts over NAW.

But your overall point is well taken. They are a good, deep team.

[dckingsfan]

And they are ready to compete today:

PG: Young/Krejci/Bufkin
SG: NAW/Kennard
SF: Risacher/Daniels/Djurisic
PF: Johnson; Newell/Gueye
C: Porzingis/Okongwu

They have two picks in the '26 draft. Their cap situation is in a pretty good place and now they have a set of forwards (Johnson, Risacher and Newell) to anchor them for quite some time to see if the Young experiment with defenders around him works out.

To me - they had the best off-season in the east this year.

I'm nitpicking here, but Daniels definitely starts over NAW.

But your overall point is well taken. They are a good, deep team.

Yeah and he is the better defender too... and NAQ isn't a stiff on D. It is going to be an interesting experiment that could lead to the ECF.

[nate33]

Read on Twitter

The Wizards have pretty good flexibility to absorb a salary or two by the Trade Deadline in exchange for a pick.

[Benjammin]

^That would be from a team getting under the tax or something but it would need to be an expiring deal unless the compensation was significant.

Sent from my Pixel 9 Pro XL using Tapatalk

[ledell_gumbo]

Read on Twitter

The Wizards have pretty good flexibility to absorb a salary or two by the Trade Deadline in exchange for a pick.

Wouldn't they need cap space to absorb it, rather than just tax room? They can use the Olynyk expectation for $13M, but I don't think they can go higher without sending matching salary.

I guess maybe if it's three separate players -- one for the MLE and others in each exception. Which I guess is what you meant!

[payitforward]

Welcome to the board, Ledell.

Do we have 2 exceptions?

[nate33]

Welcome to the board, Ledell.

Do we have 2 exceptions?

We have two large TPE's: a $13.4M one and a $9.9M one.
We also have our MLE, which, under the new CBA, also works as a TPE so it can be used in trades as well as free agency.

Unfortunately, none of these exceptions can be combined. We can't take on one big contract. It can only be a couple of little ones.

We could still make some interesting moves at the Trade Deadline. For example, Cleveland is currently $37M over the luxtax threshold and will have to pay $141M in luxtax fees. If Lonzo Ball gets injured, we could absorb his $10M salary into our TPE and Cleveland would save roughly $50M dollars. Would you trade a protected FRP in the distant future to save $50M dollars?

[payitforward]

Personally, nate, I sure would.
Maybe not even so distant a future, $50m being a sizable piece of change....

[ledell_gumbo]

I'm wondering about something like: Celtics send Anfernee Simons to Lakers, Lakers send Vincent and Kleber to Wizards. Celtics send this year's 1st to Wiz, Lakers send one or two 2nds to Celtics (or some other arrangement of picks). Lakers get some shooting without adding longterm contracts, Celtics save a ton of money, Wizards basically repeat the Smart deal from last year.

[payitforward]

Hard for me to see why for Boston.

[ledell_gumbo]

Well, last year Memphis gave a 1st in exchange for paying Smart 20M. In this case, Boston would save 26M in salary, plus much more in tax (since they're in the repeater. They'd surely like to get under the tax this year, and there aren't many ways they can dump over 20M without taking salary in return.

[pcbothwel]

Hard for me to see why for Boston.

As Ledell stated, Boston is in the repeater tax, which means that the $20M in Luxury tax salaries actually cost $108M (20M + 88M penalty)!!!
As bad as that is, its even worse when you consider that they wont have Tatum this year and will pay EVEN MORE next year when they try to compete again.
The repeater tax this year was increased (and the standard rate decreased). Meaning, the NBA is incentivizing teams to try and retain talent and compete, but only within reason.
We saw the Bucks, Warriors, Nuggets, and Suns all get out of the repeater tax this year with these increased penalties. I cant imagine that Boston, Dallas, Miami, and both LA teams are going to keep their current salary structure.

Im not saying we'll see a pure sell off, but probably something closer to what we saw in Denver with the MPJ + pick for Cam Johnson type trade

[nate33]

I'm wondering about something like: Celtics send Anfernee Simons to Lakers, Lakers send Vincent and Kleber to Wizards. Celtics send this year's 1st to Wiz, Lakers send one or two 2nds to Celtics (or some other arrangement of picks). Lakers get some shooting without adding longterm contracts, Celtics save a ton of money, Wizards basically repeat the Smart deal from last year.

This is a real good trade idea. Nice job!

And even if this isn't the exact trade, the idea of using the Lakers as the 3rd team to effectively combine two of our exceptions into one bigger salary makes a ton of sense since the Lakers have two expiring contracts smaller than our TPE's.

[payitforward]

Ok... got it!
Well done, Ledell!

[ledell_gumbo]

You all are too too kind. And even if it does make sense for the Celtics, possibly the Jazz or Nets could undercut the offer. Still, dare to dream! (What else is there to do...)

[nate33]

I was just playing around with the Trade Checker and realized that we are hamstrung in our trade flexibility because all the guys we received recently can't be moved until September. Once that restriction is lifted, I wouldn't be surprised to see one more trade.

The guy that interests me is Georges Niang. The Celtics need to dump salary, and we could use one full-sized PF veteran on an expiring contract. It's a pretty easy fit. Ideally, we trade Dillon Jones for Niang and absorb the $5.5M salary differential in exchange for a SRP. Better yet would be trade Branham for Niang, but that only saves the Celtics $3M so they probably won't pay much. We could also just cut Branham and absorb all $8.2M of Niang's salary into our TPE and save the Celtics even more. They could send cash to pay for Branham's salary.

The Celtics currently own the best 2026 SRP among ORL/MIL/DET, so probably something in the early-to-mid 40's.

[ledell_gumbo]

Niang makes a lot of sense. I think it'd maximize value if he went to a third team, getting Washington another 2nd or two. (Otherwise the Wizards would likely just end up with a midseason buyout.) Eg, another Lakers 3-way, with Vincent going to the Wizards and LA and Boston each sending one or two 2nds. Or the Bulls, for Jevon Carter. Or the Kings, for... who knows.

If they actually do want another big body, I bet Boston would be happy to send Tillman, right?

(I'm guessing Washington doesn't want Nnaji without a 1st, which Denver might not even have -- but otherwise that'd have potential too.)

[pcbothwel]

I was just playing around with the Trade Checker and realized that we are hamstrung in our trade flexibility because all the guys we received recently can't be moved until September. Once that restriction is lifted, I wouldn't be surprised to see one more trade.

The only restriction is aggregated salaries for CJ, Branham, and Cam... But they can each be traded individually, so I dont think restrictions are the holdup.
I think they view CJ as the perfect mentor for Bub. Combo guard with elite AST:TOV ratio, wide array of shot making bag, and doesnt get to the lane/draw fouls. Bub could learn a TON from CJ and the FO knows it. Same with Middleton and George/Bilal.
Both will be kept until the deadline, at which point they will be moved if they are healthy & productive.

[doclinkin]

If they actually do want another big body, I bet Boston would be happy to send Tillman, right?

Send me Neemias Queta instead.