Free Agent/Trade/Waiver Thread, 2025-26, pt 3 – (Trade Deadline = Thurs, Feb. 5, 3pm, ET)

[Celts17Pride]

Read on Twitter

No-brainer but the article said the Clippers are asking for two firsts and are hesitant to move him

Los Angeles Clippers 28-year-old center Ivica Zubac has drawn significant interest from several teams on the trade market. Predominantly, teams heavily called while the Clippers were in the midst of a 6-21 start to the season. However, amid winning seven of their last eight games, the noise around the Clippers selling off players has lessened for now.

During earlier trade inquiries, it would have taken at least two first-round picks for the Clippers to consider parting with Zubac, league sources told HoopsHype.

Among the notable teams to express interest in trading for Zubac were the Indiana Pacers and Boston Celtics, HoopsHype has learned.

[GoCeltics123]

Read on Twitter

No-brainer but the article said the Clippers are asking for two firsts and are hesitant to move him

Los Angeles Clippers 28-year-old center Ivica Zubac has drawn significant interest from several teams on the trade market. Predominantly, teams heavily called while the Clippers were in the midst of a 6-21 start to the season. However, amid winning seven of their last eight games, the noise around the Clippers selling off players has lessened for now.

He's honestly had a huge down year for the Clippers

Aka it's time for Brad and Joe to save him from the shackles of Ty Lue

[Celts17Pride]

Read on Twitter

No-brainer but the article said the Clippers are asking for two firsts and are hesitant to move him

Los Angeles Clippers 28-year-old center Ivica Zubac has drawn significant interest from several teams on the trade market. Predominantly, teams heavily called while the Clippers were in the midst of a 6-21 start to the season. However, amid winning seven of their last eight games, the noise around the Clippers selling off players has lessened for now.

He's honestly had a huge down year for the Clippers

Aka it's time for Brad and Joe to save him from the shackles of Ty Lue

Honestly, given how well Queta/Garza have been doing and the Celtics cruising with a 23-12 record, I have a hard time believing Brad Stevens would give up two 1st round picks and Simons for Zubac. That's if he was available, which it sounds like he isn't.

[Celts17Pride]

I would definitely call New Orleans about Yves Missi. Who knows? Would be a nice young big to add to the mix.

[redslastlaugh]

No-brainer but the article said the Clippers are asking for two firsts and are hesitant to move him

Los Angeles Clippers 28-year-old center Ivica Zubac has drawn significant interest from several teams on the trade market. Predominantly, teams heavily called while the Clippers were in the midst of a 6-21 start to the season. However, amid winning seven of their last eight games, the noise around the Clippers selling off players has lessened for now.

During earlier trade inquiries, it would have taken at least two first-round picks for the Clippers to consider parting with Zubac, league sources told HoopsHype.

Among the notable teams to express interest in trading for Zubac were the Indiana Pacers and Boston Celtics, HoopsHype has learned.

Simons straight up for Zubac doesn't work, the deal would have to be expanded.

A possible structure that would work is:

Boston trades: Anfernee Simons, Josh Minott, Chris Boucher, Xavier Tillman, 2026 1st, 2031 1st
Boston receives: Ivica Zubac, Bogdan Bogdanovic

Clippers trade: Zubac, Bogdanovich, Chris Paul, 2031 2nd round pick
Clippers receive: Simons, Minott, Boucher, TIllman, 2026 & 2031 BOS 1sts

Brooklyn trades: top-55 protected 2nd
Brooklyn receives: Chris Paul, 2031 LAC 2nd round pick

works on spotrac... i'd be happy to have Zubac but Id prefer to keep Simons and our draft capital... I also don't think LAC is going to trade him, they are more likely to add some talent... maybe they want Simons and will give us draft picks?

[Hal14]

I think the thing sports fans do nowadays is many get so attached to their players (for understandable reasons) that it's hard to see the long-term sometimes. And I get, why think about the long-term when things are going well in the moment?

Simons is having a great stretch, won the team the game yesterday, but we are talking about this team winning at the highest levels of basketball. His game doesn't translate well to the playoffs (same with Garza tbh) because he's going to get picked on on defense. It's great that these guys can be regular-season innings eaters, but the Celtics aren't about winning regular season games.

Brad knows this better than anyone. He saw Josh Richardson's production being fake for us and was right (as he pretty much always is), and flipped him for DWhite. If he sees the right player for this team, I'm pretty sure he's going to do the same thing for Anfernee

JRich prob played a little three but go back to that mid-year '22 team - has Brad employed a single player that could only play the 2 guard spot?

It's been good to see Simons playing better but he's still the least valuable player archetype in the league so agree if they can spin him for something better then they do it.

1) J-Rich played tons at the 3 when he was here. He was essentially a combo 2/3.

2) It's not accurate imo to say Simons can only play the 2 guard spot. He can also play the 1, which he has done at times in each of his 8 NBA seasons.

3) Other guys who play mostly the 2: Ant Edwards, Donovan Mitchell, Tyler Herro, Coby White, Cam Thomas, Jalen Green, Malik Beasley, Austin Reaves, Shaedon Sharpe, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Norman Powell, Alex Caruso, Cason Wallace, Dyson Daniels, Tre Johnson, CJ McCollum, Jordan Poole, Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Donte Divencenzo, etc.

Lots of good players in there plus others I didn't put because it would have been too time consuming to look up more..

Edit: I know your question asked about players who Brad employed but I think that is too narrow of a lens to look through..why would we only look at players Brad has employed during a 3-4 year window..I'm sure Brad isn't that narrow minded. I'm sure he takes players into consideration who played on other teams and during other years than just the past 3-4 years..

[165bows]

I think the thing sports fans do nowadays is many get so attached to their players (for understandable reasons) that it's hard to see the long-term sometimes. And I get, why think about the long-term when things are going well in the moment?

Simons is having a great stretch, won the team the game yesterday, but we are talking about this team winning at the highest levels of basketball. His game doesn't translate well to the playoffs (same with Garza tbh) because he's going to get picked on on defense. It's great that these guys can be regular-season innings eaters, but the Celtics aren't about winning regular season games.

Brad knows this better than anyone. He saw Josh Richardson's production being fake for us and was right (as he pretty much always is), and flipped him for DWhite. If he sees the right player for this team, I'm pretty sure he's going to do the same thing for Anfernee

JRich prob played a little three but go back to that mid-year '22 team - has Brad employed a single player that could only play the 2 guard spot?

It's been good to see Simons playing better but he's still the least valuable player archetype in the league so agree if they can spin him for something better then they do it.

1) J-Rich played tons at the 3 when he was here. He was essentially a combo 2/3.

2) It's not accurate imo to say Simons can only play the 2 guard spot. He can also play the 1, which he has done at times in each of his 8 NBA seasons.

3) Other guys who play mostly the 2: Ant Edwards, Donovan Mitchell, Tyler Herro, Coby White, Cam Thomas, Jalen Green, Malik Beasley, Austin Reaves, Shaedon Sharpe, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Norman Powell, Alex Caruso, Cason Wallace, Dyson Daniels, Tre Johnson, CJ McCollum, Jordan Poole, Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Donte Divencenzo, etc.

Lots of good players in there plus others I didn't put because it would have been too time consuming to look up more..

Pretty hard to misread a question that badly but kudos nonetheless

[jfs1000d]

There is a reason why guys like Nurkic and Vucevic are available, they suck.

Keeping Simons is a much better option.

Hah.

Simons is so good, but we keep on getting caught up in the Portland narrative of inefficient player who doesn’t play D. If he is your best player, it’s a problem. As your fourth best? Dear god.

Didn’t say Simons is so good, he is just light years better than Vucevic or Nurkic

Simons is terrific. That scoring and explosive shooting ability is rare. Only if handful of guys in n a dan do what Simons does.

He is an avalanche player. He gets going nothing you can do.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[jfs1000d]

No-brainer but the article said the Clippers are asking for two firsts and are hesitant to move him

Los Angeles Clippers 28-year-old center Ivica Zubac has drawn significant interest from several teams on the trade market. Predominantly, teams heavily called while the Clippers were in the midst of a 6-21 start to the season. However, amid winning seven of their last eight games, the noise around the Clippers selling off players has lessened for now.

During earlier trade inquiries, it would have taken at least two first-round picks for the Clippers to consider parting with Zubac, league sources told HoopsHype.

Among the notable teams to express interest in trading for Zubac were the Indiana Pacers and Boston Celtics, HoopsHype has learned.

Simons straight up for Zubac doesn't work, the deal would have to be expanded.

A possible structure that would work is:

Boston trades: Anfernee Simons, Josh Minott, Chris Boucher, Xavier Tillman, 2026 1st, 2031 1st
Boston receives: Ivica Zubac, Bogdan Bogdanovic

Clippers trade: Zubac, Bogdanovich, Chris Paul, 2031 2nd round pick
Clippers receive: Simons, Minott, Boucher, TIllman, 2026 & 2031 BOS 1sts

Brooklyn trades: top-55 protected 2nd
Brooklyn receives: Chris Paul, 2031 LAC 2nd round pick

works on spotrac... i'd be happy to have Zubac but Id prefer to keep Simons and our draft capital... I also don't think LAC is going to trade him, they are more likely to add some talent... maybe they want Simons and will give us draft picks?

Too complicated.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Bill Lumbergh]

I'm having trouble getting too worked up about what we do or don't do. I trust Brad implicitly and feel like we're playing with house money this year. My only hope is we, as Brad suggested, don't sacrifice long term roster building for a marginal upgrade this season.

My guess is Brad Stevens is going to add someone like Duop Reath of Portland while shedding Chris Boucher and call it a day.

I'm totally fine with that.

[165bows]

Read on Twitter

No-brainer but the article said the Clippers are asking for two firsts and are hesitant to move him

Los Angeles Clippers 28-year-old center Ivica Zubac has drawn significant interest from several teams on the trade market. Predominantly, teams heavily called while the Clippers were in the midst of a 6-21 start to the season. However, amid winning seven of their last eight games, the noise around the Clippers selling off players has lessened for now.

He's honestly had a huge down year for the Clippers

Aka it's time for Brad and Joe to save him from the shackles of Ty Lue

Kind of negative on his value imo in that article. Maybe he’s worth less than I thought.

[jfs1000d]

Why are we willing to get rid of Simmons so easily? We have to re calibrate salary. We are 23-12 and Tatum is coming back, most likely. They need a big, but could they jettison Tillman, Boucher and maybe a future first for a big? We trade Tillman and Boucher into cap space. Then use a first round pick and the TPE for the entire amount up to the 1st apron.

[GoCeltics123]

Why are we willing to get rid of Simmons so easily? We have to re calibrate salary. We are 23-12 and Tatum is coming back, most likely. They need a big, but could they jettison Tillman, Boucher and maybe a future first for a big? We trade Tillman and Boucher into cap space. Then use a first round pick and the TPE for the entire amount up to the 1st apron.

They don't have to trade Anfernee Simons, but one stretch isn't going to move Brad like that. Simons had no suitors outside of us this offseason for a reason, he had a rep of being a TERRIBLE defender and inefficient shooter.

He wasn't playing very well early on here honestly, recently he has been much better though. Maybe Brad decides to keep him, it wouldn't shock me, but I think they've been leaning to move on from him for a while. They tried to trade him as soon as they got him last offseason, his archetype isn't really their type and he's an expiring salary to move for a higher-paid big like Claxton or Zubac

[chrisab123]

Simons if he’s willing to come back on a MLE deal for a chance to win a ring could be a key cog. The question is will someone else overpay?

[vwoodruff]

This is threading the needle to make the team appreciably better… if LAC decides to be a seller.

Trade 1
Absorb Zubac into TPE
Zubac fits into the Cs $22.1M traded player exemption. By packaging that TPE with this year's FRP and the Cs 2028 FRP, you give LAC an asset they can benefit from immediately in a draft that is strong and where the Cs have an early SRP through NOP. In a separate swap, you trade Boucher for Paul. This gives LAC a roster filler and Paul can come deal with a coaching staff that isn't threatened by his experience, where he can be a "break glass in case of emergency" player off the bench, and get a shot at a ring.

Trade 2
Trade Hauser to Detroit for 2 SRPs
Hauser fits into Detroit's TPE and fills a need for DET. It's a bit difficult to stomach trading Hauser to an up-and-coming Eastern Conference team, but the trade here is really freeing up the space for Zubac - who can bang with the Durans and Stewarts of the world - by trading away a player at a position of strength for the Cs. The Cs add Tillman to the deal. In exchange, Brad pockets a 2027 Milwaukee SRP and a 2029 LAC SRP.

Transaction 3
Extend Simons at a more team-friendly contact
Simons is eligible for an extension through 1/7/2026. He provides the deep shooting that Sam provides with the ability to find his own shot in a way Sam can't. While there is a drop-off at the defensive end, Simons has been showing improvement there and the Cs have a number of players who can help cover many of his mistakes. Given the market for Simons, I bet he could be extended at an $18-20M/yr level contract. Given Brad's and Zarren's track records, I bet they could pull this off. This would help absorb impacts of this series of deals on the 2026-27 season.

Transaction 4
Sign PF free agent following trade deadline
While the roster has some versatility, it could use another strong forward for depth. There are likely to be a few candidates on the market following the trade deadline. Who doesn't matter too much - cost does.

Roster following transactions (and Tatum's return):

Starters
White/Brown/Walsh/Tatum/Zubac -- puts Walsh where he best excels and nothing is needed from him for scoring while getting Pritch floor leadership off the bench in a manner where he's not competing for touches

Playoff Bench
Pritchard/Simons/Queta/Gonzalez

Deep Bench
Paul/Scheierman/Minott/Garza/FA

Cap implications
LAC deal: +$18,102,000
DET deal: -$12,591,319
FA signing: +$2,296,274
NET: +7,806,955

Tax implications
Current payroll: $199,981,489
Payroll following transactions: $207,788,444
Second apron: $207,824,000

[Fierce1]

This is threading the needle to make the team appreciably better… if LAC decides to be a seller.

Trade 1
Absorb Zubac into TPE
Zubac fits into the Cs $22.1M traded player exemption. By packaging that TPE with this year's FRP and the Cs 2028 FRP, you give LAC an asset they can benefit from immediately in a draft that is strong and where the Cs have an early SRP through NOP. In a separate swap, you trade Boucher for Paul. This gives LAC a roster filler and Paul can come deal with a coaching staff that isn't threatened by his experience, where he can be a "break glass in case of emergency" player off the bench, and get a shot at a ring.

Trade 2
Trade Hauser to Detroit for 2 SRPs
Hauser fits into Detroit's TPE and fills a need for DET. It's a bit difficult to stomach trading Hauser to an up-and-coming Eastern Conference team, but the trade here is really freeing up the space for Zubac - who can bang with the Durans and Stewarts of the world - by trading away a player at a position of strength for the Cs. The Cs add Tillman to the deal. In exchange, Brad pockets a 2027 Milwaukee SRP and a 2029 LAC SRP.

Transaction 3
Extend Simons at a more team-friendly contact
Simons is eligible for an extension through 1/7/2026. He provides the deep shooting that Sam provides with the ability to find his own shot in a way Sam can't. While there is a drop-off at the defensive end, Simons has been showing improvement there and the Cs have a number of players who can help cover many of his mistakes. Given the market for Simons, I bet he could be extended at an $18-20M/yr level contract. Given Brad's and Zarren's track records, I bet they could pull this off. This would help absorb impacts of this series of deals on the 2026-27 season.

Transaction 4
Sign PF free agent following trade deadline
While the roster has some versatility, it could use another strong forward for depth. There are likely to be a few candidates on the market following the trade deadline. Who doesn't matter too much - cost does.

Roster following transactions (and Tatum's return):

Starters
White/Brown/Walsh/Tatum/Zubac -- puts Walsh where he best excels and nothing is needed from him for scoring while getting Pritch floor leadership off the bench in a manner where he's not competing for touches

Playoff Bench
Pritchard/Simons/Queta/Gonzalez

Deep Bench
Paul/Scheierman/Minott/Garza/FA

Cap implications
LAC deal: +$18,102,000
DET deal: -$12,591,319
FA signing: +$2,296,274
NET: +7,806,955

Tax implications
Current payroll: $199,981,489
Payroll following transactions: $207,788,444
Second apron: $207,824,000

Edit:

2 1st round picks and Chris Paul?

On 2nd thought, I don't like it.

[Fierce1]

I like the idea of trading Sam and not Simons for a big man.

Just not sure if Brad is willing to give away 2 1st round picks for Zubac.

[CelticFaninLBC]

The Clippers have won 7 out of their last 8 games and owe their FRP to OKC. They're aren't selling.

I've seen Trae Young linked to the Clippers, so perhaps Boston can get involved in a 3-way deal, with Young going to LAC, Zubac going to Boston and Hauser, FRP's and salary fillers from Boston going to ATL.

[Fierce1]

The Clippers have won 7 out of their last 8 games and owe their FRP to OKC. They're aren't selling.

I've seen Trae Young linked to the Clippers, so perhaps Boston can get involved in a 3-way deal, with Young going to LAC, Zubac going to Boston and Hauser, FRP's and salary fillers from Boston going to ATL.

If it's Harden and Trae as the guards, the Clips will be absolutely trash on defense.

[CelticFaninLBC]

The Clippers have won 7 out of their last 8 games and owe their FRP to OKC. They're aren't selling.

I've seen Trae Young linked to the Clippers, so perhaps Boston can get involved in a 3-way deal, with Young going to LAC, Zubac going to Boston and Hauser, FRP's and salary fillers from Boston going to ATL.

If it's Harden and Trae as the guards, the Clips will be absolutely trash on defense.

Give Steve Ballmer a call.