2026 NBA Trade Discussion Thread

[jom2003]

Suggs is the most likely to get moved.

Why pay to move off of Suggs toxic contract when you can actually get something positive in return for Black while his value is at all time high?

No one wants to take on a player with a big contract while being only available for about 40% of the games unless they get some draft capital to make up for it. And the Magic don't have any as they burnt it all on Bane.

 

[jom2003]

Funny how some are taking about paying 45mil a year for the likes of Morant & Trae & Zion as "buy low".

If you wanna see a textbook buy low, look no further than Deni Avdija. A perennial all-star/all NBA level player in his prime locked up at 12mil a year till 2028.

And all they gave up was... Bub Carrington? That's how you do it. Invest in a breakout candidate who only needed the right enviornment and an opportunity.



View: https://youtu.be/8bjo6MNFDfw?si=zZywGyEHr0HZ5EZD

 

[sip]

Unfortunately the odds of a Deni type trade are basically zero percent. That will go down as an all time trade for the blazers. Now if we were to target a buy low player then I'd probably go after Grady Dick.

 

[jom2003]

Unfortunately the odds of a Deni type trade are basically zero percent. That will go down as an all time trade for the blazers. Now if we were to target a buy low player then I'd probably go after Grady Dick.

I've been an advocate for this type of deal for years. There are plenty of good prospects that got cast out due to bad coaching & tight rotation. Grady is one. Dosunmu is another. I'd also include Yves Missi and Jaylon Tyson in that conversation. Less so for Black and Watson since they are breaking out already and about to get paid. But there are many potential high level starters & borderline stars that got misprofiled as role players & fringe players by their coaches but shown plenty of flashes in limited opportunities.

 

[Saint Cy of JFC]

I've been an advocate for this type of deal for years. There are plenty of good prospects that got cast out due to bad coaching & tight rotation. Grady is one. Dosunmu is another. I'd also include Yves Missi and Jaylon Tyson in that conversation. Less so for Black and Watson since they are breaking out already and about to get paid. But there are many potential high level starters & borderline stars that got misprofiled as role players & fringe players by their coaches but shown plenty of flashes in limited opportunities.

I will give you credit for being right on Deni. You were saying he could be more, and he was able to. Good call.

But holy **** you are not calling it right on anything else. For one thing it's going to be tough to buy low on anyone with the idea that the Jazz can simply increase their role. The Jazz dont have that. The star roles are already occupied by the likes of Keyonte and Lauri, with whoever gets picked this upcoming draft potentially occupying that space as well, or even Ace developing into that space. There simply isnt a lot of rotation minutes where a guy can go get a big bump due to role like Deni did in Portland.

Grady Dick? How is the Raptors coach bad? How is he being used incorrectly? It would truly be a buy low, but there isnt much upside there and I dont see what Utah does that Toronto doesnt that would unlock him. Logically speaking, one of the Raptors biggest needs is for floor spacing, so the fact they arent playing the 3rd year player who was thought to be a shooter is pretty concerning.

Donsumu. Of course, but he isnt really a "buy low" type player. He's going to be a UFA and he will be heavily sought after from teams with cap-space. He's playing essentially the same role in Chicago that the Jazz would probably sign him for. I do think Utah could lure him with the promise of a starting job, which would be very do-able if they dont draft a Peterson/Dybantsa. But I wouldnt expect his role to drastically change or his stats to drastically improve.

Jaylon Tyson? How is a 2nd year player who starts buying low, a product of bad coaching, or tight rotations?

Miss would play the same role on Utah that he does currently. Backup 5 to a more talented young player.

THERE WAS NEVER A BUY LOW OPPORTUNITY FOR ANTHONY BLACK JUST BECAUSE THE MAGIC DIDNT PLAY HIM ALL THE MINUTES THE FIRST TWO YEARS (and they still played him a lot of minutes, there was never signs they werent happy with the pick). Asking to trade for the 6th overall pick isnt some genius stroke of buy low shopping.

 

[jom2003]

I will give you credit for being right on Deni. You were saying he could be more, and he was able to. Good call.

But holy **** you are not calling it right on anything else. For one thing it's going to be tough to buy low on anyone with the idea that the Jazz can simply increase their role. The Jazz dont have that. The star roles are already occupied by the likes of Keyonte and Lauri, with whoever gets picked this upcoming draft potentially occupying that space as well, or even Ace developing into that space. There simply isnt a lot of rotation minutes where a guy can go get a big bump due to role like Deni did in Portland.

Grady Dick? How is the Raptors coach bad? How is he being used incorrectly? It would truly be a buy low, but there isnt much upside there and I dont see what Utah does that Toronto doesnt that would unlock him. Logically speaking, one of the Raptors biggest needs is for floor spacing, so the fact they arent playing the 3rd year player who was thought to be a shooter is pretty concerning.

Donsumu. Of course, but he isnt really a "buy low" type player. He's going to be a UFA and he will be heavily sought after from teams with cap-space. He's playing essentially the same role in Chicago that the Jazz would probably sign him for. I do think Utah could lure him with the promise of a starting job, which would be very do-able if they dont draft a Peterson/Dybantsa. But I wouldnt expect his role to drastically change or his stats to drastically improve.

Jaylon Tyson? How is a 2nd year player who starts buying low, a product of bad coaching, or tight rotations?

Miss would play the same role on Utah that he does currently. Backup 5 to a more talented young player.

THERE WAS NEVER A BUY LOW OPPORTUNITY FOR ANTHONY BLACK JUST BECAUSE THE MAGIC DIDNT PLAY HIM ALL THE MINUTES THE FIRST TWO YEARS (and they still played him a lot of minutes, there was never signs they werent happy with the pick). Asking to trade for the 6th overall pick isnt some genius stroke of buy low shopping.

Too many mouths to feed. Raptors, bulls and Cavs simply have too many guys who can shoot and playmake, which prevented Dick, Dosunmu and Tyson from reaching their full potential. We only have George. Lauri is unique in that he doesn't require the ball a ton to be effective which we could use to our advantage. Bulls for example had Giddey, Vuce, White, and Buzelis all taking more shots than Ayo this season. And take a guess at who took the third most shots for us behind Key and Lauri this season? It's Nurk. Ayo could easily be the third option on offense for us right away and how is that not an instant upgrade?

Or just look at what Brice has done over the last few games when we actual sat Svi and trusted him with the ball. We definitely have the room for those guys to have the bigger role they needed.

Missi playing the same role how? We all know Nurk is nothing more than just a placeholder and no one knows what's gonna happen with Kess' extension. He's at least a good plan B who could provide the rim protection that we desperately need.

And you kinda answer the question on Tyson&Missi being the second year rook with Black. You buy a guy just on his second year because by year 3 they might actually break out and the buy low window would be closed. Like what if a team jumped in and offered us a late 1st or multiple 2nds trying to buy low on Key last year when he was struggling mightily, could you have fell for it? Teams could bought low on Black up until last summer when they paid the kings ransom for Bane and Suggs salary kicked in. But teams waited and look at where we are now.

I've got Tyson on my fantasy team so I watched him a ton this year and I can tell you Atkinson clearly doesn't trust him as he put Merrill and Dean Wade over him in crunch time and often benched him for an entire quarter for no reason. The kid averaged almost 20 & 7 per 36 while shooting 52% from the floor and 47% from deep(good volume too, over 4 attempts a game). But in reality he's only playing 27min a game while taking the 5th most shots on the Cavs this season. That number should be much higher.

Buy low is a concept that teams are buying on the potential of a player becoming way more than they are valued now. Even if it doesn't pan out, so what? We didn't pay much at all cuz those are rookie scale contracts that could easily have been dealt with afterwards. Like Portland only gave up Bub Carrington for Avdija who was paid 12mil a year. It's the lowest risk for the highest reward possible. Much more so than paying 45mil a year for Zion & Trae & Morant.

 

[Megadoo1]

View: https://x.com/bballforever_/status/2013000674293027161?s=61&t=5x3vadM2-QgdcTb1VKPOjw

 

[NUMBERICA]

I present the most diabolical trade ever concoted:



For the Celtics:
-Balance out their roster this season
-Get out of the tax and save a gajillion dollars in the aggregate (I'll need to run an analysis later)

-kills the LT repeater clock to reset their contention window (they have demonstrated they care about their cap sheet as they gutted their supporting cast in the offseason)​

For the Pelicans:
-Get an actual NBA player right now that fills a need (Simons)
-Save a gajillion+ dollars by ducking the tax right now and >$64 million in what might be dead future salary + potential future tax ramifications
-Take a flier on Flip (and his dirt-cheap deal [this could also be Kevin Love depending on what the Pelicans value more])
-Get a nice 2nd

For the Jazz:
-Get an A+ asset that New Orleans might not understand and probably will not realize it's potential value

-This has a very good chance of being a high pick​

-This is a super hostage pick for Giannis (as its value is much higher for the Bucks than anyone else as re-acquiring it would allow them to tank [OR NOT!])​

-Totally nukes the center rotation for our tank right now (!!!)
-Makes the Pelicans better right now (!!!)
-If Dejounte returns to form, we get a useful player that might even be worth his salary. If not, we rented our capspace for a killer return.

-But we're doing this under the assumption that Dejounte doesn't return to form otherwise NOP has no incentive to make the move. In which case, that's just the price you pay for an asset of this quality.​

-We should still have enough cap space to sign a Ayo or Keon Ellis type player and maybe another player.​

​

Obviously this can be tinkered with and it's tilted heavilty towards the Jazz but the deal simply cannot happen without them saving these organizations hundreds of millions of dollars. And the Pelicans are run by MIA ownership with the biggest idiot in the sport at the helm, so I will allow myself to dream big.

 

[NUMBERICA]

I present the most diabolical trade ever concoted:

View attachment 19976

For the Celtics:
-Balance out their roster this season
-Get out of the tax and save a gajillion dollars in the aggregate (I'll need to run an analysis later)

-kills the LT repeater clock to reset their contention window (they have demonstrated they care about their cap sheet as they gutted their supporting cast in the offseason)​

For the Pelicans:
-Get an actual NBA player right now that fills a need (Simons)
-Save a gajillion+ dollars by ducking the tax right now and >$64 million in what might be dead future salary + potential future tax ramifications
-Take a flier on Flip (and his dirt-cheap deal [this could also be Kevin Love depending on what the Pelicans value more])
-Get a nice 2nd

For the Jazz:
-Get an A+ asset that New Orleans might not understand and probably will not realize it's potential value

-This has a very good chance of being a high pick​

-This is a super hostage pick for Giannis (as its value is much higher for the Bucks than anyone else as re-acquiring it would allow them to tank [OR NOT!])​

-Totally nukes the center rotation for our tank right now
-If Dejounte returns to form, we get a useful player that might even be worth his salary. If not, we rented our capspace for a killer return.

-But we're doing this under the assumption that Dejounte doesn't return to form otherwise NOP has no incentive to make the move. In which case, that's just the price you pay for an asset of this quality.​

-We should still have enough cap space to sign a Ayo or Keon Ellis type player and maybe another player.​

​

Obviously this can be tinkered with and it's tilted heavilty towards the Jazz but the deal simply cannot happen without them saving these organizations hundreds of millions of dollars. And the Pelicans are run by MIA ownership with the biggest idiot in the sport at the helm, so I will allow myself to dream big.

Go ahead and throw NOP the LA pick as the negotiations get deeper.

 

[NUMBERICA]

I present the most diabolical trade ever concoted:

View attachment 19976

For the Celtics:
-Balance out their roster this season
-Get out of the tax and save a gajillion dollars in the aggregate (I'll need to run an analysis later)

-kills the LT repeater clock to reset their contention window (they have demonstrated they care about their cap sheet as they gutted their supporting cast in the offseason)​

For the Pelicans:
-Get an actual NBA player right now that fills a need (Simons)
-Save a gajillion+ dollars by ducking the tax right now and >$64 million in what might be dead future salary + potential future tax ramifications
-Take a flier on Flip (and his dirt-cheap deal [this could also be Kevin Love depending on what the Pelicans value more])
-Get a nice 2nd

For the Jazz:
-Get an A+ asset that New Orleans might not understand and probably will not realize it's potential value

-This has a very good chance of being a high pick​

-This is a super hostage pick for Giannis (as its value is much higher for the Bucks than anyone else as re-acquiring it would allow them to tank [OR NOT!])​

-Totally nukes the center rotation for our tank right now (!!!)
-Makes the Pelicans better right now (!!!)
-If Dejounte returns to form, we get a useful player that might even be worth his salary. If not, we rented our capspace for a killer return.

-But we're doing this under the assumption that Dejounte doesn't return to form otherwise NOP has no incentive to make the move. In which case, that's just the price you pay for an asset of this quality.​

-We should still have enough cap space to sign a Ayo or Keon Ellis type player and maybe another player.​

​

Obviously this can be tinkered with and it's tilted heavilty towards the Jazz but the deal simply cannot happen without them saving these organizations hundreds of millions of dollars. And the Pelicans are run by MIA ownership with the biggest idiot in the sport at the helm, so I will allow myself to dream big.

If you can pull this off, you can piece together a particularly compelling package for Giannis that shouldn’t require any of our new Core Four. Our pick this year (maybe), the NOP/MIL ‘27 super 1st, another 1st or two, their choice of the 2nd tier young players, and absorb much of Giannis’ money with the remaining capspace to provide immediate cap/penalty relief. Hell, maybe you can use Dejounte for the remaining matching salary.

 

[KqWIN]

Something is wrong with the Knicks and I think they will eventually be a player for Giannis. In order to get it done they pretty much have to trade 2/3 of Towns, OG, and Mikal. I think we could be a third team that receives one of those players and sends future focused assets to MIL as those players would have no use there.

Watch for something like that this summer.

 

[Hedda Gambler]

If we ever were to trade Lauri, now would be the time. We could take on Jimmy Butler and give GSW a chance for Curry and Green to get a send off with a decent team if they are willing to include future first round picks in the deal.