The NBA draft was this week so I figured we could dive into the news and notes that have come out of the league surrounding the draft and the league overall.
Let’s start in Brooklyn, dive right into the deep end. Kyrie Irving can opt-out of his contract and become a free agent, the issue is that there are not a lot of teams with cap space so Irving does not have a lot of options. He could opt-in and force a trade to a team like the Los Angeles Lakers like Chris Paul did in 2017, forcing a trade to the Houston Rockets after he opted in. ESPN NBA insider Adrian Wojnarowski reported that Irving would be interested in going to the Lakers, the Clippers, the Knicks, the Heat, the Mavericks, and the 76ers. It is not clear that all of those teams would be interested in Irving but some of them would be blown away by his talent and bite the bullet. I think Irving signs a contract extension with the Nets in some form because Irving is close with Kevin Durant and the Nets cannot risk Durant requesting a trade, which The Athletic’s Shams Charania reported is on the table. Irving could try to create a sign and trade but that triggers the hard cap which limits the amount of money that a team can spend in a season leading to taking a bunch of the teams that I listed off of the table. A Kevin Durant trade would be crazy and my brain is not ready for that so let’s move on.
The next thing I want to dive into is the weirdness of the top of the draft. The Orlando Magic held the number 1 pick and everyone was reporting they were going to draft Auburn forward Jabari Smith Jr. Then about 30 minutes before the draft it was reported that they were seriously looking at Duke forward Paolo Banchero, who they drafted. Banchero did not work out for the Magic but if Orlando believed that he was the best player on board they had to draft him. When you have the number 1 pick, you always have to go with the best player disregarding fit, there is a reason you have the number 1 pick. The Magic need a superstar and all the draft experts seem to think that Banchero has a better chance at that than Smith, so it was a home run night for the MagicYea .
On Wednesday, the Portland Trail Blazers and Detroit Pistons agreed to a big trade sending Jerami Grant and the 46th pick (which they traded to Denver) to the Blazers for a 2025 first round pick from the Bucks (which was traded to Charlotte), the 36th pick (Gabriele Procida was drafted), and 2 future 2nd round picks. Let’s start with the Pistons. Troy Weaver took the 2025 Bucks pick and sent it in a 3 team trade with the Hornets and Knicks and got back Jalen Duren (the 13th pick) and Kemba Walker’s expiring contract, who they will waive. It’s a great job by the Pistons to get this haul for Grant, it opens up a lot of cap space, which they can pursue a bunch of young free agents like Deandre Ayton or Miles Bridges with and they found their way back into the lottery using the pick from the trade. I also really love this deal from a Portland perspective. Jerami Grant is really good and though he is an expiring contract, I think Portland made out really well in this trade. Grant is a big, long, athletic wing who can create his own shot, shoots well from 3, and is a really good on ball defender. No, he is not a number 1 option on any kind of postseason team, but going to Portland he can be a 2nd or 3rd option next to Damian Lillard while guarding the best wings in the Western Conference. They traded the pick they got for C.J. McCollum so they essentially turned McCollum and Larry Nance Jr. into Grant, Josh Hart, and other stuff, which I think does a good job turning over a roster that had become stale. Overall, I think this was a win-win trade and both sides are better coming out of it.
The Knicks had an active night on Thursday as they traded the number 11 pick to the Oklahoma City Thunder for 3 future protected first round picks. In another deal they traded one of those picks and 4 second round picks to the Hornets and sent Kemba Walker to the Pistons in a 3 team trade. Their goal is to sign Mavericks guard Jalen Brunson who is a free agent. The question is can they get him and if so how much will he cost? I think Brunson has a chance, and a good one at that, to sign a 9 figure contract over a 4 year span when he hits free agency. That is more than what Fred VanVleet, a player who was in a similar situation that Brunson is in when he was a free agent, in 2020 signing a 4yr/$85 million dollar deal with the Toronto Raptors. Brunson is really good and he certainly would help the Knicks in a big way. However, is he worth trading the number 11 pick in the draft to sign? That’s the question and frankly I am not sure of that answer. Another trade I think the Knicks should pursue, even if they land Brunson, is a swap of Julius Randle for Malcolm Brogdon. The Pacers want to trade Brogdon and the Knicks need guard help. Either they get to create a really good backcourt with Brunson and Brogdon or they fill their need at point guard with Brogdon. Indiana needs to move Brogdon and Randle would fit their team really well. However, Brogdon has had injury problems during his career so that is a risk but I think it’s a risk the Knicks should make.
The last thing I want to dive into is the free agency’s of Deandre Ayton and Miles Bridges. They both could sign a max 4yr/$130 million contract come next Thursday and the question is do the Suns or the Hornets have the wherewithal to match the contracts or those numbers are too big for them. Ayton is going to get a max from someone, it will probably be via sign and trade, but let’s say the Pistons dare the Suns to match the contract. Would they? They were not willing to pay Ayton last summer, so has that changed? Probably not after this year's playoff run, or lack thereof, where the Suns were embarrassed at home in a game 7 in the second round, a game that Ayton only played 17 minutes in. A sign and trade is the most likely scenario but the Suns would likely not get enough. A return could be a replacement center (who is worse than Ayton), another player of some sorts, and a protected pick. For Bridges, it has been reported that the Hornets have expressed a concern when it comes to extending the 24 year old forward to a big contract. So if you are the Detroit Pistons who have a boat load of cap space and a need on the wing, you could dare the Hornets to match a 4yr/$130 million offer sheet and see what happens. Is this an overpay, probably, but Bridges, like Ayton, is a restricted free agent and an overpay is what it will cost to pry him away from Charlotte. And it is not like the Pistons are attracting any other big free agents anytime soon, so why not overpay for a 24 year old forward who is extremely athletic, progressing as a 3 point shooter, and has the size to develop into a good defensive player. Force the Hornets to make a decision on either paying Bridges all that money or lose him for nothing.
Though there were not a lot of answers provided to us at the draft, we still got some hints to what teams are planning to do this summer and with free agency starting Thursday at 6:00pm/EST, we should get more answers as the week unfolds.
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