Cavs
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Obviously Cavs would love Mikal, and taking on Cam Johnson’s bloated contract is factored into the price… he’s a good fit with the roster and good friends with Mikal, so the Cavs can’t complain too much.
Trade allows Cavs to switch back to a huge, one guard lineup.
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Spida . Bridges . Johnson . Mobley . Allen
Strus . Merrill . Okoro . Wade … Porter . Morris . Liddell . TT . #20
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Cavs can take an upside swing on a big guard in the draft… Carlton Carrington would be a perfect fit.
Another option would be to take a senior, point forward like Dillon Jones (hoping he’s a bigger, cheaper version of LeVert).
Or we just keep stockpiling big wings and grab Terrance Shannon.
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Cavs are about 4.5M under the first tax apron with 14 roster spots filled.
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$$$ money matters = Cavs throw Niang in the deal to save money and duck the tax again…
4y/60M seems about right for Okoro given his elite defensive and continued development on offense…
And then I have Morris and TT coming back for the vet min.
Tough decisions will come up next year with Spida and Mobley both getting significant raises… Do we just blow past the 2nd apron? Or do we need to dump one of our wings (Strus, Okoro, Johnson) to maintain flexibility? … Bridges and Allen extensions/raises the year after also come into play… Do we trade Allen for a pile of picks to move Mobley to the 5 and save money, while keeping all the wings?
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Pelicans
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Trading talented, but expensive and ill-fitting pieces for cheaper, young, perfect fitting pieces… BI, CJ, and 2 Milwaukee picks (1 pick and 1 swap) for the perfect fits around Trey, Herb, Zion makes sense for the Pelicans.
DG = young all star to run the show … Carter = young, cheap, stretch 5 for Zion
And maybe most importantly, $$$ money matters… getting Orlando to swap CJ and Carter opens up the necessary cap space to pay up for Trey Murphy and continue to duck the tax.
I gave Naji Marshall the Dean Wade extension, which I think is fair value.
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DG . Trey . Herb . Zion . Carter
Alvarado . Hawkins . Daniels . Marshall . Niang . Nance
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Nets
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Get better short term bc LeVert and BI can both create offense, plus they add another valuable unprotected pick (2027 from Milwaukee) = best case scenario for a Mikal trade.
Nets get off Cam Johnson’s contract = free up space for the Claxton extension…
Nets are about 10M under the tax with 12 roster spots filled… Simmons, LeVert and BI all expiring gives Nets options and flexibility moving forward.
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Schroder . LeVert . BI . DFS . Claxton
Cam Thomas moves to 6th man role.
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Magic
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Magic basically take CJ for free and then get that unprotected 2026 MIL swap for Carter.
Carter was the odd man out this year with Issac returning, but I still think he has significant trade value given his size and shooting… there just aren’t many young, big stretch 5s (which everyone seems to want next to Zion).
Taking on CJ’s 2 year contract (compared to a 3 or 4 year deal with a free agent) makes sense given the big extensions/raises coming up for Suggs/Franz/Paolo… trade gives them a vet shooter to slide right into the starting lineup for 2 years, and his deal expires when Paolo’s extension will kick in… $$$ money matters.
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Suggs . CJ . Franz . Paolo . Issac
Cole . Black . Howard . Ingles . Wagner
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