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

[Shak_Celts]

Everyone stay on topic. Within rules, they have a right to voice their opinion. Do not gang up on posters by using personal remarks. Thank you.

[djFan71]

Here's another Anfernee Simons, cutting salary without paying draft capital idea.

Washington trades Corey Kispert, Aj Johnson, Malachi Branham and WAS receives Anfernee Simons

Boston trades Anfernee Simons and BOS receives Corey Kispert, AJ Johnson, Malachi Branham

Washington moves off Kispert who is 3 years at $14 million per year, Malachi Branham who is a $5 million expiring, and AJ Johson who had an intriguing rookie season last year and will make $4 million this year.

Boston reduces salary by $8 million without trading picks, gets a look at AJ Johnson, and gets a $5 million dollar movable chip in Branham. If Celtics can use a second round draft capital to ship Branham into another teams TPE, Boston will be under the tax. Celts also get a salary ballast in Kispert's $14 million over the next couple of trade cycles to use as salary matching in potential trades.

It reduces the tax bill, but if it's really just about the tax then Simons would have been long gone.

Would have to send X too, if that works on WAS end to handle the roster spots. But, that's a decent return. A playable guy, and an up shot flier on a young guy. Enough that, I'm not sure WAS agrees. But, if they do, I like it for the BOS side.

[djFan71]

Here's another Anfernee Simons, cutting salary without paying draft capital idea.

Washington trades Corey Kispert, Aj Johnson, Malachi Branham and WAS receives Anfernee Simons

Boston trades Anfernee Simons and BOS receives Corey Kispert, AJ Johnson, Malachi Branham

Washington moves off Kispert who is 3 years at $14 million per year, Malachi Branham who is a $5 million expiring, and AJ Johson who had an intriguing rookie season last year and will make $4 million this year.

Boston reduces salary by $8 million without trading picks, gets a look at AJ Johnson, and gets a $5 million dollar movable chip in Branham. If Celtics can use a second round draft capital to ship Branham into another teams TPE, Boston will be under the tax. Celts also get a salary ballast in Kispert's $14 million over the next couple of trade cycles to use as salary matching in potential trades.

It reduces the tax bill, but if it's really just about the tax then Simons would have been long gone.

100%

If reducing the tax bill was STILL a main concern, Hauser would be gone because he's easier to trade and he fits right into MLEs.

I don't think it's THE main concern, but Brad will take opportunities if they arrive that don't cost assets. A trade like this would qualify as something he'd look at, imo.

I give up on the timing thing, lol, but will (henceforth) silently maintain that a trade won't happen because it didn't already happen is an argument straight out of Catch-22 or Don Quixote.

[Hal14]

Plus simply entertainment value on my end keep him for three months and just see what happens. That angle seems more fun than just salary dumping him for some cheap old guy or flier or whatever in September.

I wouldn't mind seeing what a team that has Tatum, Brown, White, Simons, Pritchard, Queta, Boucher and Hauser can do.

There's a non-zero % chance that team could win a championship.

We would likely be the favorites to win the east in 2027. And perhaps by that time OKC has had to move some of their key guys because of the 2nd apron could make it hard to keep their guys together..

And before anyone says "oh, they'd give up 150 points a game" well, out of those 8 guys, only 1 of them is a subpar defender (Simons), you've got an all-defensive guy (White), a borderline all-defense guy (Tatum), a guy who shut down Luka defensively in the finals and (when he's locked in) is a very good defender (JB).

Simons could improve defensively in a different environment and with more development/coaching.

And think about how potentially explosive that squad could be offensively. Pritchard/Hauser/Boucher off the bench, coming in to bring energy, getting after it on D and hitting 3's. Queta (26 mins) and Boucher (22 MPG) isn't an ideal center rotation but the hope is they could be serviceable enough while there's also a chance that someone like Garza, Amari or a guy we draft in the 1st round of the 2026 draft could end up being a solid rotational big as well.

Then of course there's a chance that 1 of Hugo/Baylor/Minott/Walsh ends up being a really solid 8th/9th man..

I get the reasons for trading Simons. But there's also a world where he fits well here, puts up some big numbers, signs a team friendly 3 year contract and helps us win Banner 19 imo.

That’s a really good team with just a couple believable ifs. Simons tightens up the D a bit. Queta improves enough to be a quality starter. Boucher can thrive in a larger role, Minotts positive impact extends to a larger role. I think that’s all realistic…now is it likely that all those things happen at once? Maybe not. But if we focus on developing this year I could see it for 26/27

Yup, and it's not that many if's.

Boucher has already proven himself as a solid 7th/8th man for several seasons. That's all we'd be asking him to be - a solid 8th man.

Queta has proven himself as a solid backup big. And I think most would agree that with his showing at EuroBasket this summer, he looks like a guy ready to have a breakout season and prove himself as a decent 5th starter.

We wouldn't' be relying on Minott for much in the scenario I outlined. You really just need a good 8 man rotation to win in the playoffs. So anything we get from Minott would basically be a bonus, since it'd be him, Hugo, Baylor and Walsh competing for mins as a 9th/10th man.

And while I don't think it's very farfetched at all for Simons to improve on D here (better coaching, he wanted to get out of Portland for awhile so will likely play better and harder now that he's out of there, he'll be further along in his development, etc.) him improving on D is basically just a bonus as well. I mean, basically every guard who is a really good scorer with moderately high usage is not so good on D. Darius Garland, Lamelo Ball, Jordan Poole, Tyler Herro, Damian Lillard, Steph Curry (for the first half of his career), Kemba Walker, Trae Young, De'Aaron Fox, Ja Morant, CJ McCollum, Bradley Beal, John Wall, Jalen Brunson, Tyrese Haliburton, Harden, Kyrie, Luka, Jamal Murray, Donovan Mitchell, Tyrese Maxey, etc.

Sure, Simons might not be as good offensively as a lot of those guys but if we extends here we'd be paying him way less than these other guys who are mostly max contract guys..plus he'd be playing less mins than these other guys who mostly play 35+ mins a game so it hurts your defense less if you've got a subpar defender playing around 27-31 MPG.

[redslastlaugh]

Here's another Anfernee Simons, cutting salary without paying draft capital idea.

Washington trades Corey Kispert, Aj Johnson, Malachi Branham and WAS receives Anfernee Simons

Boston trades Anfernee Simons and BOS receives Corey Kispert, AJ Johnson, Malachi Branham

It reduces the tax bill, but if it's really just about the tax then Simons would have been long gone.

Would have to send X too, if that works on WAS end to handle the roster spots. But, that's a decent return. A playable guy, and an up shot flier on a young guy. Enough that, I'm not sure WAS agrees. But, if they do, I like it for the BOS side.

Yea, I meant to put Xavier Tillman in the trade, I tested this idea on spotrac and put Tillman in but when I posted this post, I forgot about him. Good catch!

[redslastlaugh]

Here's another Anfernee Simons, cutting salary without paying draft capital idea.

Washington trades Corey Kispert, Aj Johnson, Malachi Branham and WAS receives Anfernee Simons

Boston trades Anfernee Simons and BOS receives Corey Kispert, AJ Johnson, Malachi Branham

Washington moves off Kispert who is 3 years at $14 million per year, Malachi Branham who is a $5 million expiring, and AJ Johson who had an intriguing rookie season last year and will make $4 million this year.

Boston reduces salary by $8 million without trading picks, gets a look at AJ Johnson, and gets a $5 million dollar movable chip in Branham. If Celtics can use a second round draft capital to ship Branham into another teams TPE, Boston will be under the tax. Celts also get a salary ballast in Kispert's $14 million over the next couple of trade cycles to use as salary matching in potential trades.

Why would Washington do it?

They just drafted a guy with the 6th pick overall who is pretty similar to Simons - Tre Johnson. And they traded for CJ McCollum.

I just don't see why they would do this. Out of all the players in this deal, the one Washington probably values the most is AJ Johnson.

Sure, Kispert has a few years left on his deal. But they're in the same position as a team now as they were when they signed him to that contract. It's not a bad contract. He's a decent player and he helps give them some spacing so that their younger guys have a better chance to develop into good players.

I'm sure they are probably open to moving Kispert - if it's the right deal. Like, if they are able to get an attractive amount of draft compensation. But they're not getting any draft compensation here - all their getting is a guy on an expiring contract who they probably don't want..

Washington would do it to get off Kispert's remaining years. But if this trade was going to happen before training camp, it'd probably just have happened already because BOS can aggregate Tillman with Simons now.

But maybe closer to the trade deadline, if Washinton is comfortable with their tank, they might be interested in something like this. And as for AJ Johnson, he is interesting young prospect, but the Wizards have so many young guys, they are eventually going to have to pick and maybe they are more focused on some other prospects and wouldn't mind moving Johnson if it gets them off Corey Kispert's contract

[Hal14]

Here's another Anfernee Simons, cutting salary without paying draft capital idea.

Washington trades Corey Kispert, Aj Johnson, Malachi Branham and WAS receives Anfernee Simons

Boston trades Anfernee Simons and BOS receives Corey Kispert, AJ Johnson, Malachi Branham

Washington moves off Kispert who is 3 years at $14 million per year, Malachi Branham who is a $5 million expiring, and AJ Johson who had an intriguing rookie season last year and will make $4 million this year.

Boston reduces salary by $8 million without trading picks, gets a look at AJ Johnson, and gets a $5 million dollar movable chip in Branham. If Celtics can use a second round draft capital to ship Branham into another teams TPE, Boston will be under the tax. Celts also get a salary ballast in Kispert's $14 million over the next couple of trade cycles to use as salary matching in potential trades.

Why would Washington do it?

They just drafted a guy with the 6th pick overall who is pretty similar to Simons - Tre Johnson. And they traded for CJ McCollum.

I just don't see why they would do this. Out of all the players in this deal, the one Washington probably values the most is AJ Johnson.

Sure, Kispert has a few years left on his deal. But they're in the same position as a team now as they were when they signed him to that contract. It's not a bad contract. He's a decent player and he helps give them some spacing so that their younger guys have a better chance to develop into good players.

I'm sure they are probably open to moving Kispert - if it's the right deal. Like, if they are able to get an attractive amount of draft compensation. But they're not getting any draft compensation here - all their getting is a guy on an expiring contract who they probably don't want..

Washington would do it to get off Kispert's remaining years. But if this trade was going to happen before training camp, it'd probably just have happened already because BOS can aggregate Tillman with Simons now.

But maybe closer to the trade deadline, if Washinton is comfortable with their tank, they might be interested in something like this. And as for AJ Johnson, he is interesting young prospect, but the Wizards have so many young guys, they are eventually going to have to pick and maybe they are more focused on some other prospects and wouldn't mind moving Johnson if it gets them off Corey Kispert's contract

Kispert's not on a bad contract, though. He's a good player, he's in his prime, he never gets hurt..$13 mil a year for a guy like that is pretty reasonable. And it's not like Washington is in salary cap hell. They're under the luxury tax line. So they don't need to be trying to just offload a guy's contract who's a good player and get nothing in return.

Again, he gives them spacing which increases the odds that their young guys reach their potential if they are able to play with adequate spacing.

Again, I think Washington is open to moving him - if it's the right deal. They probably would prefer a deal where they get some attractive draft compensation. But in this deal, they not only are not getting any draft comp but they are losing a good young player here as well (AJ Johnson) and they're also doing Boston a favor by allowing them to salary dump Simons.

I don't see Washington doing it.

[Curmudgeon]

Other teams know the Celtics are stuck so the asking price is high now. It may come down later.

[redslastlaugh]

Yea, I agree. When our front office extended our guys so deeply into the apron & tax, and then Wyc went on the radio and said we wouldn't stay in the second apron for another year... what were they thinking?

In the NBA contracts are guaranteed (obviously) so if you want to cut salary you have to trade for players making less (money and/or years) than your players. But trades need two parties and how can you get a good deal when your counterparty knows you have to sell and, frankly, feels like they're the one doing you the favor.

I think Brad will, after this experience, never book so many simultaneous extensions ever again. He's just not gonna let this happen, we'll see a lot of Perk for Jeff Green and a 1st style trades before he extends a veteran player that far into the tax again.

Other teams know the Celtics are stuck so the asking price is high now. It may come down later.

[djFan71]

Giddey agrees to terms. Kuminga the last one that could affect the rest of the trade market - directly or indirectly. Not sure Grimes matters a ton.
https://bsky.app/profile/shamsbot.bsky.social/post/3lyggeokvco2j

[Hal14]

Yea, I agree. When our front office extended our guys so deeply into the apron & tax, and then Wyc went on the radio and said we wouldn't stay in the second apron for another year... what were they thinking?

In the NBA contracts are guaranteed (obviously) so if you want to cut salary you have to trade for players making less (money and/or years) than your players. But trades need two parties and how can you get a good deal when your counterparty knows you have to sell and, frankly, feels like they're the one doing you the favor.

I think Brad will, after this experience, never book so many simultaneous extensions ever again. He's just not gonna let this happen, we'll see a lot of Perk for Jeff Green and a 1st style trades before he extends a veteran player that far into the tax again.

Other teams know the Celtics are stuck so the asking price is high now. It may come down later.

I don't see the problem.

Signing those extensions was simply the cost of doing business to retain those players in order to be title contenders through the 24-25 season. We won a title and were legit title contenders each of the past 4 years. With slightly better luck and if a game or 2 go our way, we could've just won 4 titles in a row. But at least we got 1 title.

Then the goal was to get under the 2nd apron and we were able to successfully do that. Brad was able to move Jrue and KP without losing any draft compensation. We saved more $ on the tax bill by moving Niang and signing Boucher at a fraction of the cost.

Sure it takes 2 parties to make a trade but Brad was successfully able to execute the Jrue, KP and Niang trades. It's not like he was unable to find trade partners..

Now we're in a good spot. We dipped under 2nd apron (like Wyc said we would) and the goal this season is to save $, develop our young guys and load manage our vets - with Tatum on the shelf..then add some more good pieces to put the roster in position to be back in title contention in 26-27 season when Tatum is (hopefully) back fully healthy.

Everything is working out fine.

I mean, it's kind of a bummer we had to move Jrue and KP and couldn't resign Al and Kornet. But that's life in 2025 with the 2nd apron. We knew this was gonna happen. And besides, Jrue is getting old, KP is never healthy. Al is getting old. Both Jrue and Al would want to be on contending teams this season, rather than toiling in Boston in a bridge year. And it wouldn't make sense for us to pay Kornet the type of $ San Antonio is paying him during a bridge year. Kornet came here as a nobody. He was on a g league contract in Maine..we turned him into one of the best backup bigs in the league and he was so good here that he got a contract that pays 8 figures a year. That's a success story, not anything for us to feel bummed out about.

And besides, Jrue, Pritchard, KP, D-white and Hauser all signed extensions with Boston for *less* money than they were eligible to sign for. All signed team friendly extensions.

Hauser - signed for 4 yrs, $45 mil but could have gotten like 4 years, $80 mil
Jrue - signed for 4 yrs, $135 mil but could have gotten like 4 years, $221 mil
KP - signed for 2 yrs, $60 mil but could have gotten more..how much more is unclear
White - signed for 4 yrs, $126 mil which was max we could sign him to on the extension but could have gotten like 5 years, $232 mil if he declined that extension and went to free agency in 2025
Pritchard - signed for 4 yrs, $30 mil but could have gotten like 4 years, $48 mil

Plus we signed Queta, Kornet and Tillman to vet min deals last summer. All 3 of them could have made more $ elsewhere.

[Fierce1]

The closest thing to a mistake was extending Jrue.

All the other extensions were the right move.

It was a case of saving money for 2024-25.

If Jrue was not extended and Jrue picked up his player option, the tax bill for 2024-25 would've been higher as Jrue's salary for 2024-25 was 37.5m.

[Curmudgeon]

They were hoping for two championships but last year's team fell short.

[djFan71]

They were hoping for two championships but last year's team fell short.

I'd argue 3 even. They could have tinkered (Sam for a min) and paid the tax/penalties for a 3rd shot this year if everyone was healthy.

[redslastlaugh]

The problem is that we went so far into the tax/aprons that we had to pay 2 seconds to turn KP's $30 million into Boucher's $2.2 and Luis on a 2-way.

We weren't able to remove Jrue's money for this year (though we got off the two years after this) we just reduced it by $5million or so into Simons. We may yet still pay more picks to dump Anfernee or maybe we will keep him. We'll see.

Ideally if you are signing players with the intent to flip them, then you should receive value for them when you trade them, not pay more to dump them. I think it would have been better if Brad had traded or let somebody go, rather than re-sign everybody and then have to undo those moves.

The Jrue extension in particular I find fault in given our circumstance (and Jrue is one of my favorite players). In my opinion, we needed to either let Jrue become a FA, sign him to a more reasonable market value deal, or trade Derrick White and commit to Holiday as the 30-something veteran guard going forward.

Just extending everyone isn't necessarily the wrong move. If the contract is a great value, it's always good. Nobody faults Brad for Pritchard's deal for instance. But extending guys at negative value when your owner has said you are not going to be in the 2nd apron, this is not so smart.

It's a very tough negotiating position to be so overbudget that your trading partners feel like you are over the barrel, desperate to take any deal and aren't offering you much value. Tough negotiating spot to be in, and I doubt Brad will repeat this scenario as GM over the coming years. Thats my take.

Yea, I agree. When our front office extended our guys so deeply into the apron & tax, and then Wyc went on the radio and said we wouldn't stay in the second apron for another year... what were they thinking?

I don't see the problem.

Signing those extensions was simply the cost of doing business to retain those players. We won a title and were legit title contenders each of the past 4 years. With slightly better luck and if a game or 2 go our way, we could've just won 4 titles in a row. But at least we got 1 title.

Then the goal was to get under the 2nd apron and we were able to successfully do that. Brad was able to move Jrue and KP without losing any draft compensation. We saved more $ on the tax bill by moving Niang and signing Boucher at a fraction of the cost.

Sure it takes 2 parties to make a trade but Brad was successfully able to execute the Jrue, KP and Niang trades. It's not like he was unable to find trade partners..

Now we're in a good spot. We dipped under 2nd apron (like Wyc said we would) and the goal this season is to save $, develop our young guys and load manage our vets - with Tatum on the shelf..then add some more good pieces to put the roster in position to be back in title contention in 26-27 season when Tatum is (hopefully) back fully healthy.

Everything is working out fine.

I mean, it's kind of a bummer we had to move Jrue and KP and couldn't resign Al and Kornet. But that's life in 2025 with the 2nd apron. We knew this was gonna happen. And besides, Jrue is getting old, KP is never healthy. Al is getting old. Both Jrue and Al would want to be on contending teams this season, rather than toiling in Boston in a bridge year. And it wouldn't make sense for us to pay Kornet the type of $ San Antonio is paying him during a bridge year. Kornet came here as a nobody. He was on a g league contract in Maine..we turned him into one of the best backup bigs in the league and he was so good here that he got a contract that pays 8 figures a year. That's a success story, not anything for us to feel bummed out about.

And besides, Jrue, Pritchard, KP, D-white and Hauser all signed extensions with Boston for *less* money than they were eligible to sign for. All signed team friendly extensions.

Hauser - signed for 4 yrs, $45 mil but could have gotten like 4 years, $80 mil
Jrue - signed for 4 yrs, $135 mil but could have gotten like 4 years, $221 mil
KP - signed for 2 yrs, $60 mil but could have gotten more..how much more is unclear
White - signed for 4 yrs, $126 mil which was max we could sign him to on the extension but could have gotten like 5 years, $232 mil if he declined that extension and went to free agency in 2025
Pritchard - signed for 4 yrs, $30 mil but could have gotten like 4 years, $48 mil

Plus we signed Queta, Kornet and Tillman to vet min deals last summer. All 3 of them could have made more $ elsewhere.

[Fierce1]

Jrue's salary last season was 30m.

If the Cs didn't extend him and he picked up his player option, his salary would've been 37.5m.

Being a 2nd apron team, the jump from 30m to 37.5m would've been a lot of money because of the 2nd apron and where the Cs were in the tax bracket.

The Cs ended up winning a championship, so it's all good.

Just try to build another championship team.

NBA fans kept complaining about the Laker dynasty in the past because the Lakers kept getting star players.

This new CBA is to prevent that from happening again.

It's just unfortunate that this will also apply to the Celtics.

[Fierce1]

Let's also not forget that Sam Hauser has yet to start his new contract.

Last season Sam was just a 2m player.

This season his new contract will start.

So extending Sam was not a mistake.

[redslastlaugh]

4/$100 always seemed like a likely settling point.
I wonder when/if Kuminga gets settled??

The only Grimes news I've heard is that Philly may pay to salary dump Drummond's $5 million to open some space to close the deal on grimes. It'll be funny if that happens because Morey is in the midst of one of the great GM slumps right now. Other than getting lucky and picking #3 in the draft, his recent decisions have been blowing up in his face.

Signing Drummond to a 2 yr deal and then having to pay to get off it 12 months later, this is par for the course of late for ol' Darryl

Giddey agrees to terms. Kuminga the last one that could affect the rest of the trade market - directly or indirectly. Not sure Grimes matters a ton.
https://bsky.app/profile/shamsbot.bsky.social/post/3lyggeokvco2j

[djFan71]

4/$100 always seemed like a likely settling point.
I wonder when/if Kuminga gets settled??

The only Grimes news I've heard is that Philly may pay to salary dump Drummond's $5 million to open some space to close the deal on grimes. It'll be funny if that happens because Morey is in the midst of one of the great GM slumps right now. Other than getting lucky and picking #3 in the draft, his recent decisions have been blowing up in his face.

Signing Drummond to a 2 yr deal and then having to pay to get off it 12 months later, this is par for the course of late for ol' Darryl

Giddey agrees to terms. Kuminga the last one that could affect the rest of the trade market - directly or indirectly. Not sure Grimes matters a ton.
https://bsky.app/profile/shamsbot.bsky.social/post/3lyggeokvco2j

yeah, I've kinda always thought Morey was a touch overrated - but without thinking about it too much, iykwim.

No idea on Kuminga. Seems like GSW price for facilitating a S&T is just crazy (good players and 1st). He just doesn't seem worth that. But, maybe they get someone to bite, who knows?

[phincsfan]

Kispert to the Wiz is what Sam is to the C's IMO.

Both solid bench guys who can start at a bargain basement contract.

The Wiz are driving that M1 Abrams for this season.

Taking on a player who can eeek out a few extra wins isn't in their plans IMO.