The trade is probably a lot more understandable for people but I'll still put this here for reading people.
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Trades/Moves
5 Team Trade - ATL: John Collins, Jarred Vanderbilt, Simone Fontecchio, 2027 MIL 2nd, 2028 CHA or LAC 2nd / UTA: Zeke Nnaji, Dominick Barlow, Hunter Tyson, 2027 1st NOP or MIL swap rights, 2029 1st via ATL / DEN: Garrison Mathews, Jordan Goodwin, Caris Levert / LAL: Georges Niang, Mouhamed Gueye, Dario Saric, Larry Nance Jr. / DET: Terance Mann
Hawks Sign-And-Trade Caris Levert to Nuggets for a 3 year contract worth $13.4M
Hawks Sign-And-Trade Larry Nance Jr to Lakers for a 3 year contract worth $8.7M
Hawks Sign-And-Trade Garrison Mathews to Pistons for a 3 year contract worth $2.8M
Hawks Resign Jacob Toppin to a 1 year contract worth $2.2M
Hawks Resign Clint Capela to a 2 year contract worth $8.6M
Hawks Resign Keaton Wallace to a 1 year contract worth $2.0M
Pistons Resign Dennis Schroder to a 2 year contract worth $14.8M
Pistons Resign Tim Hardaway Jr to a 2 year contract worth $14.6M
Pistons Resign Malik Beasley to a 2 year contract worth $10.3M
Pistons Resign Paul Reed to a 1 year contract worth $2.6M
Nuggets Renounce all Cap Holds
Lakers Renounce all Cap Holds except Koloko and Hayes
Hawks Renounce Cap Holds on Trent Forrest, Wesley Matthews, Dylan Windler
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Now why do these teams agree to the trade? I'll go through them one by one, starting with the Hawks, who are sadly my favorite team in all of basketball.
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I'm drawing a line in the sand here for my Hawks, they have two frps in this years draft and one in the lottery. After this years draft is done, the other firsts they have in their inventory should not be invested in actually drafting players, use them in trades, add depth to your rotation, but God forbid if by 2027 we still feel the need to surround a then 29 y/o Trae Young with yet another raw 20 year old talent who just needs a little bit more time to develop. It was excusable 3 years ago when Trae was 23 and actually closer in age to the 20 y/o's this team would constantly shuffle around him, it's a whole 'nother level of different now that he's gonna be 27 and they're still just constantly shuffling a revolving door of 20 y/o's who aren't ready to help him compete yet so he's stuck carrying them, again. And if it's not the youth they're bringing in it's the 31 y/o veterans who bring "culture" to the locker room and their 7-10 points per game to the court, in 28 minutes of playing, meanwhile the guys they traded them for end up rejuvenating their careers. I'm sick of it man, this F/O sucks ass, wtf is Terance Mann, Caris Levert and fucking Georges Niang doing here??? Meanwhile you traded away Bogdan and Hunter and look they're actually helping competing teams win playoff series', wtf are we doing here?? I'm getting in my feelings rn, just let me. Alright so going back to the matter at hand, JC and Vanderbilt. JC is a no brainer in terms of what he does for this team, hell we in the A have already seen it. Uber Athletic, can stretch the floor really well, pick and roll dream with Trae, we know what he can do here, getting him to play backup center minutes say like 20-24 mins a night, also the ability to pair him with Onyeka at the 4 and run a potential small ball death lineup would be amazing for this team's frontcourt depth. Vanderbilt on the other hand is a tougher nut to crack, pause. There's a reason his playing time in Los Angeles was so limited, his defense is amazing and his hustle is unmatched, he can crash the glass amazingly on both sides of the ball and it just seems like he has relentless energy, however the offense just gets so much harder to run with him on the floor. But I will say, if Vando can just channel his inner Josh Hart and just not be unplayable levels of bad on the offensive end, then he can really be an amazing piece to add to this Atlanta team, a really important one even. And the thought of having him, Onyeka and Dyson on the floor would undoubtedly make Atlanta one of the best defenses in the league for that short span of minutes together, the offense wouldn't be breathtaking but the defense man, it would be incredible. Fomtecchio's a cool pick-up ig, things wouldn't really change though whether he was part of the trade or not, the two 2nds they'd get back from the Pistons are pretty awesome in terms of trade value though.
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For Utah, well I mean I can psychoanalyze every little thing the players they get back do and say oh this guy has potential, but you can do that with just about any young piece in the league y'know? Let's be real here, those 2 picks are the real selling point here. Knowing Danny Ainge though, he'd probably look at the return and say Johnny Juzang, take it or leave it. But looking at it realistically, Utah is still very much a rebuilding team. The return isn't eye poppingly great because, duh, it's not like you're trading Lauri, it's John Collins who I know is a lot more attractive to suitors at the moment, but that's more of a contract thing than it is player production. Considering Utah's timeline is still leaning towards developing their guys below 25, a 28 y/o John Collins wouldn't be high priority to keep and 2 first round picks, even if one of them is a less favorable pick, would be immensely valuable to a rebuilding team. And you never know maybe Hunter Tyson is just that guy, and Zeke Nnaji was a real nice 3&D piece as well until the Denver management fucked his entire physique, maybe he can bounce back to his rookie/sophomore season type production and then his contract looks a little more appealing to sell or keep even, hey man who knows.
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For Denver, it's pretty simple, you offload your bad contracts and somehow get actually functional bench players in return, one heck of a maneuver, and in this scenario you hang on to your top 6 meaning no MPJ trade and you really just add bench scoring and ability. Goodwin can be like a Bruce Brown lite, Caris can focus on just getting buckets, and Garrison Mathews provides nice shooting depth with his elite spacing, really cool stuff to get back for Zeke Nnaji, Dario Saric and Hunter Tyson.
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For the Pistons, well I just really love the idea of him in motorcity a lot. Terance Mann honestly just fits that Detroit style and mold perfectly, he's gritty and willing to do the dirty work, playing any style that the team needs him to as we saw when he was on the Clippers. And two 2nds that aren't even their own is a pretty chill price to land him ngl.
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And yeah that's pretty much my thoughts on all this, redux. See ya (x2).