Free Agent/Trade Thread Offseason 2026, Part 9 (Brad, You are the Mayor of Shark City!)

[dortmunder]

Brad Stevens is an employee.
His boss, who just spent 6.000M to own the club, told him to cut money no matter the way and get draft picks.
And he did it.
We are angry. We all are.
Lets wait and see what he has to say.

[Bad-Thoma]

I remember DA saying if he was in charge he would have traded Bird and McHale in 88 when they both were in decline and had lingering injuries. The 90's might have been better if he was in charge but that's a whole lot of subjective and not my point. My point is Brad heard that and said, "Hold my beer."

[Larry_Russell]

Which given how horrible he was last postseason is a problem. Counting on a White bounce back year to take you to the promise land is nuts. He is more likely to continue to regress.

Based on absolutely nothing.

Tatums back.
White is back.

Based on typical age regression of NBA guards. His shooting ability has dropped 2 years in row. Especially bad when he has to create for himself in isolation, bottom 3rd of the league ranking.

There is no need for him to create for himself ever.

That was on the system.

Tatum is back, White will be back.

[hugepatsfan]

Brad Stevens is an employee.
His boss, who just spent 6.000M to own the club, told him to cut money no matter the way and get draft picks.
And he did it.
We are angry. We all are.
Lets wait and see what he has to say.

They don't cut any real money until 2028. If that was the goal have to imagine they'd have taken expiring money and no picks. Or they'd have made it a 3-team deal to give up the picks to flip PG's deal.

And before this deal they offered him for Giannis who would have been a supermax extension anyway, longer term.

I don't understand why people need to make up narratives instead of looking at the clear and obvious facts and accepting them. Brown got traded for less than everyone thought because the league doesn't value him highly. They were willing to accept that because they share that evaluation. That's what it was.

[Celticlifer]

I don't get the cut money angle. we are paying PG the same as Brown the next two seasons. Is Chisholm really that concerned about finances in year 3 that he would force Stevens to make the team worse? Calling BS.

[NotAKnicksFan]

This trade creates the possibility of landing Cooper Flagg in free agency. Stevens is playing the long game.
So, are the Sixers going to give JB his extension?

What’s the long game , 8 years ? Lol

This isnt happening, he is in dallas for next 6-8 years at minimum , guaranteed to sign the max next contract

[NotAKnicksFan]

We need to stop living in the past and future

The present is now

[meatball sub]

Yeah, I don’t buy this was a money move. It’s a JB has negative value bc of his contract, analytics & personality move.

Sucks we didn’t get anywhere near the value of what he puts up statistically on the court, but analytically & locker room/organization wise he’s apparently addition by subtraction

[cloverleaf]

Brad Stevens is an employee.
His boss, who just spent 6.000M to own the club, told him to cut money no matter the way and get draft picks.
And he did it.
We are angry. We all are.
Lets wait and see what he has to say.

They don't cut any real money until 2028. If that was the goal have to imagine they'd have taken expiring money and no picks. Or they'd have made it a 3-team deal to give up the picks to flip PG's deal.

And before this deal they offered him for Giannis who would have been a supermax extension anyway, longer term.

I don't understand why people need to make up narratives instead of looking at the clear and obvious facts and accepting them. Brown got traded for less than everyone thought because the league doesn't value him highly. They were willing to accept that because they share that evaluation. That's what it was.

It did save enough to slip them under the tax, and an expiring deal still has a year on it. In a year, the C's could very likely trade away PG on his expiring deal.

[Gant]

Brad Stevens is an employee.
His boss, who just spent 6.000M to own the club, told him to cut money no matter the way and get draft picks.
And he did it.
We are angry. We all are.
Lets wait and see what he has to say.

The baffling thing is, this didn't cut any real money, not for the first two years. So it wasn't that.

There was an urgency to it that forced it to happen now instead of waiting. I have no idea why.

[celticgreenie]

Pritchard become Brunson is hard to believe when even just based on this year's playoffs. Way too streaky for him to reach Brunson's level. Certain types of defenders can bother him too more than Brunson.

[cloverleaf]

Brad Stevens is an employee.
His boss, who just spent 6.000M to own the club, told him to cut money no matter the way and get draft picks.
And he did it.
We are angry. We all are.
Lets wait and see what he has to say.

HIs boss didn't have $6B to spend. Chisholm put together an ownership group to scrounge up the dough.

[winsomme2]

Getting star players in the NBA is like trying to get QBs in the NFL.

And if you don’t have stars you don’t win at a high level.

You can squeak in in other sports but in the NBA you have to be legit good in order to win

[hugepatsfan]

Brad Stevens is an employee.
His boss, who just spent 6.000M to own the club, told him to cut money no matter the way and get draft picks.
And he did it.
We are angry. We all are.
Lets wait and see what he has to say.

They don't cut any real money until 2028. If that was the goal have to imagine they'd have taken expiring money and no picks. Or they'd have made it a 3-team deal to give up the picks to flip PG's deal.

And before this deal they offered him for Giannis who would have been a supermax extension anyway, longer term.

I don't understand why people need to make up narratives instead of looking at the clear and obvious facts and accepting them. Brown got traded for less than everyone thought because the league doesn't value him highly. They were willing to accept that because they share that evaluation. That's what it was.

It did save enough to slip them under the tax, and an expiring deal still has a year on it. In a year, the C's could very likely trade away PG on his expiring deal.

No it didn't save them enough money to duck the tax. They are now further over the tax actually. PG's trade kicker makes his cap number higher than Brown's would have been.

They could trade PG's expiring deal next year but salary dumping a max contract of an undesirable player is unrealistic. They can shed some of it but they'd have to take back money.

[Curmudgeon]

Pritchard become Brunson is hard to believe when even just based on this year's playoffs. Way too streaky for him to reach Brunson's level. Certain types of defenders can bother him too more than Brunson.

He can become more like Brunson, though. With the clock winding down, there's no one on the team I trust more to make the big shot. And he will make his free throws at the end of a close game.

[Bad-Thoma]

Brad Stevens is an employee.
His boss, who just spent 6.000M to own the club, told him to cut money no matter the way and get draft picks.
And he did it.
We are angry. We all are.
Lets wait and see what he has to say.

They don't cut any real money until 2028. If that was the goal have to imagine they'd have taken expiring money and no picks. Or they'd have made it a 3-team deal to give up the picks to flip PG's deal.

And before this deal they offered him for Giannis who would have been a supermax extension anyway, longer term.

I don't understand why people need to make up narratives instead of looking at the clear and obvious facts and accepting them. Brown got traded for less than everyone thought because the league doesn't value him highly. They were willing to accept that because they share that evaluation. That's what it was.

I agree, and it's not about this season. If it was this season in a vacuum I think JB would be here, it's the looming extension and how much of the cap he'd cost after we clear the repeater tax and are in a position to go all in again. People are complaining about cheap owners and while I despise venture capitalists as much as any rational person the cost cutting has been dictated by the structure of the CBA. Once we are clear of the repeater tax and can spend for a bit without the penalties being as crippling we'll see what the ownership is made of. The JB move was crap in the short term but I think the maneuvers are all about the seasons after resetting the repeater tax.

[WeLikeOurGuys]

I’m really starting to think this is all on ownership because I refuse to believe Brad is this bad at his job.

I’m also just going to flat-out say it: I think Brad has brads trades to shed salary have been abysmal.
The Jaylen trade is not very good. He traded KP for Niang in what was basically a salary dump, traded Jrue for Simons, then flipped Simons for Vuc, who sucked, and now we have nothing to show for it.
KP, Brown, Simons, Vuc, and Jrue out… in Paul George.
His trades have been straight-up disastrous

[chrisab123]

I’m really starting to think this is all on ownership because I refuse to believe Brad is this bad at his job.

I’m also just going to flat-out say it: I think Brad has brads trades to shed salary have been abysmal.
The Jaylen trade is not very good. He traded KP for Niang in what was basically a salary dump, traded Jrue for Simons, then flipped Simons for Vuc, who sucked, and now we have nothing to show for it.
KP, Brown, Simons, Vuc, and Jrue out… in Paul George.
His trades have been straight-up disastrous

To be fair if your goal is to shed salary then your trades are generally terrible because the return isn’t the goal.

[celticgreenie]

Pritchard become Brunson is hard to believe when even just based on this year's playoffs. Way too streaky for him to reach Brunson's level. Certain types of defenders can bother him too more than Brunson.

He can become more like Brunson, though. With the clock winding down, there's no one on the team I trust more to make the big shot. And he will make his free throws at the end of a close game.

Big difference being the main scorer on a team and 3rd or 4th offensive option on a team. Plus even though PP works extremely hard during the summer and brings in different guys to stop him defensively, his workouts pale in comparison to Brunson. The latter had worked on shots to challenge guys like Wemby. It's just a different level of skill.

https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/knicks-star-jalen-brunson-wemby-162229103.html

[hugepatsfan]

Brad Stevens is an employee.
His boss, who just spent 6.000M to own the club, told him to cut money no matter the way and get draft picks.
And he did it.
We are angry. We all are.
Lets wait and see what he has to say.

They don't cut any real money until 2028. If that was the goal have to imagine they'd have taken expiring money and no picks. Or they'd have made it a 3-team deal to give up the picks to flip PG's deal.

And before this deal they offered him for Giannis who would have been a supermax extension anyway, longer term.

I don't understand why people need to make up narratives instead of looking at the clear and obvious facts and accepting them. Brown got traded for less than everyone thought because the league doesn't value him highly. They were willing to accept that because they share that evaluation. That's what it was.

I agree, and it's not about this season. If it was this season in a vacuum I think JB would be here, it's the looming extension and how much of the cap he'd cost after we clear the repeater tax and are in a position to go all in again. People are complaining about cheap owners and while I despise venture capitalists as much as any rational person the cost cutting has been dictated by the structure of the CBA. Once we are clear of the repeater tax and can spend for a bit without the penalties being as crippling we'll see what the ownership is made of. The JB move was crap in the short term but I think the maneuvers are all about the seasons after resetting the repeater tax.

They offered him for Giannis on a supermax extension. It's not even about long term. Even the angle of they don't want two long-term supermax deals doesn't hold any weight. It's been disproven by their pursuit of Giannis.

We don't know how much total money ownership is willing to spend over the long haul. But whatever that amount is, it's been proven they are ok with two supermax deals included in that spending.

They just flat out don't think Brown is that good and don't value him as one of the guys making that money. It's a basketball thing.