Jimmy Butler’s trade situation remains the headliner, but other talks are bubbling around the league, even in this tight trade market. Here is the latest.
Suns eyeing Hornets’ centers
It’s no secret Phoenix wants to trade for Jimmy Butler. It’s also no secret that it feels increasingly unlikely to come together.
The Suns are considering its backup options, focusing partly on the Charlotte Hornets and their centers Nick Richards, Mark Williams and Moussa Diabate. The Jusuf Nurkic experiment in Phoenix has seen him not only moved to the bench (for Mason Plumlee) but also racking up some DNPs lately.
Ideally, the trade would be some version of Nurkic to Charlotte for Richards and picks, reports Forbes’ Evan Sidery and confirmed by well-connected Phoenix reporter John Gambadoro. It only works under the cap if Charlotte sends out a second player to balance salaries (like Vasilije Micic) and throws in picks. The Suns need to ask if that price is worth it to try and improve on the margins this season, but the sides are talking.
Zach LaVine trade talks stalled, talked Laker trade
Chicago continues to look for a Zach LaVine trade, but talks have reportedly stalled.
The Los Angeles Lakers and Chicago Bulls talked trade earlier this season, but the Lakers pivoted and made a deal for Dorian Finney-Smith, reports Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times. Since then the Bulls have talked LaVine to the Nuggets — with Michael Porter Jr. coming to Chicago — but those talks have stalled, according to the report.
LaVine is doing his part to spark interest, averaging 33.3 points a game on better than 58% shooting in January. He is attacking the rim, hitting his jumpers, plus grabbing 5.7 rebounds and dishing out 4.8 assists a game. LaVine said this to the Sun-Times about the trade rumors:
“People are supposed to talk about you, have opinions about you. If you’re not at that level, they wouldn’t talk about you at all… I’ve done a better job this year of just canceling out a lot of the noise.”
It remains more likely that Chicago trades Nikola Vucevic at the deadline before LaVine, but they are still looking (same with for Lonzo Ball, who could be the best deal of the three).
Grizzlies, Nets talks on Johnson “not substantive”
Memphis was very close to a trade to land Dorian Finney-Smith from Brooklyn until, at the last minute, the Nets pivoted and traded him to Los Angeles. That left bad blood between the teams.
Despite that, the sides are talking again, this time about a possible Cameron Johnson trade, but there is “nothing substantive” to the talks, according to Damichael Cole of the Memphis Commercial Appeal. He describes this as more industry noise than reality.
There’s a lot of interest in the 6’8″ two-way wing averaging 19.5 points a game and shooting 43.6% from beyond the arc. Because of that — and the fact the Nets would be happy to keep him — the price is high and reportedly starts at two first-round draft picks. We’ll see if the Grizzlies, or any team, wants to go there.
Pistons seek roster upgrades, not renting cap space
The Detroit Pistons are the only team under the salary cap — by about $14 million — heading into the trade deadline. Traditionally, that puts them in a strong position to rent out that cap space: Detroit could be the third team in a trade, taking on players with bad or unwanted contracts, and reap the rewards of draft picks to help their rebuild.
Except the 20-19 Pistons, led by should-be All-Star Cade Cunningham, sit eighth in the East. They are letting teams know they do not want to take on bad contracts, they are looking for roster upgrades to help them win more now, Brian Windhorst reported at ESPN.
That means don’t expect Detroit to take on Bradley Beal in a multi-team trade to get Jimmy Butler to Phoenix — Detroit will not be your dumping ground. However, Detroit might still be willing to rent out its cap space in some trades, but understand that the price just went way up.
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