RealGM

Trade 1:

Chicago in: Ben Simmons

Brooklyn in: Lonzo Ball, Nikola Vucevic, and PDX 1st (lottery protected through 2028)

Bulls get Simmons' expiring contract in exchange for Ball (at worst an expiring at best fits them really well. total wildcard), Vucevic (big man depth and minutes eater. Think he'd thrive in a bench role behind Claxton), and the small chance of every receiving that Portland pick



Trade 2:

Chicago in: Chris Paul, Andrew Wiggins, and Jonathan Kuminga

Golden State in: Alex Caruso and Zach LaVine

Bulls get a veteran point guard leader in CP3, young talented forward in Kuminga, and they eat Wiggins's deal.

Warriors get Caruso whom they've shown previous interest in. They also add LaVine as a Klay replacement/scorer who can actually score. Think Zach could thrive on a team with better coaching, and a clear player hierarchy that he is not at the top of. Deal also gets Warriors $8m below the tax with 10 committed salaries/roster spots.


Bulls re-sign Patrick Williams (hopefully to a nice value deal like Coby and Ayo)

Bulls let DeRozan walk

Bulls:

CP3/Ayo/Carter
White/Terry/Bitim
Williams/Wiggins
Kuminga/Craig/Phillips/Simmons
???

Plus whatever they do in the draft, would probably also have the MLE to spend. Clear need at center with those assets - i'd go hard after Hartenstein.

$70m in expiring money between CP3 and Simmons coming off the books in the summer of 2025.

brooklyn wants 2025 capspace for a bigger fish than vuc

GS isn’t giving up Kuminga for LaVine.

BRK would take anything, even the outside chance of Ball playing to get rid of Simmons. The Bulls have no desire to help them in that search for a miracle.

Why would the Bulls want to swap Wiggins for the same length of contract as Lavine, end up with an aging Paul, even if Kuminga has found his way. All Paul does is back up White and Dosunmu, they aren't children they will be 6 and 4 year players, they either get it or they never will.

I'll take the cap space for letting DeRozan walk, as my second option behind trading him for a pick to a contender who doesn't want ti draft anybody

Yeah you leave the undersized team without any center at all, you're not looking at Javonte Green to be the 5 are you?

Both trades are turned down by the other teams.

ChettheJet wrote:BRK would take anything, even the outside chance of Ball playing to get rid of Simmons. The Bulls have no desire to help them in that search for a miracle.

Why would the Bulls want to swap Wiggins for the same length of contract as Lavine, end up with an aging Paul, even if Kuminga has found his way. All Paul does is back up White and Dosunmu, they aren't children they will be 6 and 4 year players, they either get it or they never will.

I'll take the cap space for letting DeRozan walk, as my second option behind trading him for a pick to a contender who doesn't want ti draft anybody

Yeah you leave the undersized team without any center at all, you're not looking at Javonte Green to be the 5 are you?

This simply isn’t true.

Simmons is an expiring contract and Brooklyn is under the luxury tax.

Sunk costs are sunk costs. No reason to move him.

TheBrooklynKidd wrote:

ChettheJet wrote:BRK would take anything, even the outside chance of Ball playing to get rid of Simmons. The Bulls have no desire to help them in that search for a miracle.

Why would the Bulls want to swap Wiggins for the same length of contract as Lavine, end up with an aging Paul, even if Kuminga has found his way. All Paul does is back up White and Dosunmu, they aren't children they will be 6 and 4 year players, they either get it or they never will.

I'll take the cap space for letting DeRozan walk, as my second option behind trading him for a pick to a contender who doesn't want ti draft anybody

Yeah you leave the undersized team without any center at all, you're not looking at Javonte Green to be the 5 are you?

This simply isn’t true.

Simmons is an expiring contract and Brooklyn is under the luxury tax.

He expires just in time to chase free agents in 2025.

Sunk costs are sunk costs. No reason to move him.

Yep the opposite of the truth. Do I think the Nets FA 2025 plan has a high chance of succeeding? No but as of right now that is clearly the path they are on and Simmons' expiring contract in no way hampers that plan. While trading for a quickly fading Vuc with GTD money in 2025 is about the last thing I could see Brooklyn doing this offseason, especially if they are planning on fully paying Claxton his market value. The Bulls are dumping unwanted contracts not providing a miracle here.

Is there a team willing to give up an expiring for Vuc and that heavily protected Portland 1st? If so, you could probably salvage the Nets deal. Or maybe the Nets and Bulls each kick in some 2nds/cash and you get a cap space team to take Vuc for that first and a bunch of 2nds.

I am not a LaVine fan, but one of the more plugged in beatwriters did mention him as an option recently. Wouldn’t be my choice. And Kerr loves him some Caruso. Seems there’s a deal that could be made between the two teams. Not sure this is it though. Wiggins and Kuminga leaves too big a hole at SF imo

I don't see the reason for the Bulls to make the 1st deal. What's the point of using an asset to dump Vuc? He's not making that much for that long. He's not in the way of other guys. Better to just ride him out. (The Nets with their 2025 cap space plan don't do this either but someone takes Vuc + Portland 1st for junk EC).

I don't like the 2nd deal for GS. First because the salary/payroll hit just isn't plausible. GS paid to dump Poole for an EC to let the EC expire and have a sane payroll going forward. Second because LaVine isn't a good addition. Certainly not worth the long-term salary and moving Kunminga (even if most of Kunminga's value is going for Caruso).

I'd ask about something like Wiggins + 2025 1st (+ Looney if necessary for salary matching) for DDR (S&T) + Caruso. There's a chance I'd even consider swapping in Kunminga for the 1st. But I wouldn't pay to take on the burden of LaVine.

The Warriors aren’t doing this. Lavine’s contract isn’t something the Warriors will want, especially after his lacklustre season and health status.

If the Nets can get off Simmons like this, they should absolutely do it.

Reading this thread a trade built around Andrew Wiggins and Ben Simmons crossed my mind. Not because Simmons is a good fit in Golden State - he is not, but I see a path here to get Golden State off of Wiggins money and Brooklyn

Does Wiggins + Moses Moody + insert a contact (GPII) for Simmons make some sense? Combined, the 3 players make about $900k more than Simmons, and GPIII is likely released from Brooklyn.

Brooklyn gambles on two things - (1) a change of scenery helps Wiggins regain enough value where the last 2 years on his contract (after this season) are deemed manageable for a big, 2 way wing and (2) Moody can develop into a starting level player.

Golden State would be using Moody to clear the books making 2025 essentially a gap year, giving GS the opportunity to rebuild around Curry, Green and Kuminga (along with Podo, TJD and a 2025 lotto pick).

Coxy wrote:The Warriors aren’t doing this. Lavine’s contract isn’t something the Warriors will want, especially after his lacklustre season and health status.

If the Nets can get off Simmons like this, they should absolutely do it.

The Nets don't need to get off Simmons at this point. He's an expiring contract and there is no one worth chasing cap space with this summer in Brooklyn's posiiton.

R-DAWG wrote:

Coxy wrote:The Warriors aren’t doing this. Lavine’s contract isn’t something the Warriors will want, especially after his lacklustre season and health status.

If the Nets can get off Simmons like this, they should absolutely do it.

The Nets don't need to get off Simmons at this point. He's an expiring contract and there is no one worth chasing cap space with this summer in Brooklyn's posiiton.

I thought Simmons had another year after?

Nets should be praising the lord for that.

NW wrote:I am not a LaVine fan, but one of the more plugged in beatwriters did mention him as an option recently. Wouldn’t be my choice. And Kerr loves him some Caruso. Seems there’s a deal that could be made between the two teams. Not sure this is it though. Wiggins and Kuminga leaves too big a hole at SF imo

Caruso played a majority of the year as a forward for Chicago while guarding wings and still providing his elite defense and shooting +40% from three. I think a Curry-LaVine-Caurso-Green 1-4 works both offensively and defensively.

I think there's connections there.

Golden State clearly were interested in Caruso this deadline.

Kerr did coach LaVine during the 2020 olympics and has seen him up close.

For fixing the Bulls/Nets trade in order to maintain 2025 cap flexibility for Brooklyn does bringing in Washington as the third team to take Vuc and the PDX pick fix it?

Chicago in: Ben Simmons

Brooklyn in: Lonzo Ball, Richaun Holmes, and Marvin Bagley

Washington in: Nikola Vucevic and PDX 1st (lottery protected through 2028)


Same end result for Chicago

Brooklyn gets big man depth and maintains their 2025 cap space

Washington eats a contract for a potential future first

Does Washington have that kind of cap space and is a lottery protected 1st through 2028 the best they can get for this kind of Bring Out your Dead deal?

NW wrote:I am not a LaVine fan, but one of the more plugged in beatwriters did mention him as an option recently. Wouldn’t be my choice. And Kerr loves him some Caruso. Seems there’s a deal that could be made between the two teams. Not sure this is it though. Wiggins and Kuminga leaves too big a hole at SF imo

I'm torn. It isn't the worst idea I've seen here. It probably leaves SF looking like Moody/Caruso. I do tend to think Kuminga should carry more value than this (he's still very, very young).

Curry/Podz
LaVine/Caruso/Payton
Moody/Caruso
Draymond/Saric
TJD/Looney

Yeah... that doesn't look great. We would be in a much better position financially, but I'm not sure better in a way that would give us options to meaningfully improve.

jayjaysee wrote:Both trades are turned down by the other teams.

This.
Brooklyn wouldn't want to cut into their 2025 cap for Vuc and GS wouldn't throw in Kuminga.

Chris Porter's Hair wrote:

NW wrote:I am not a LaVine fan, but one of the more plugged in beatwriters did mention him as an option recently. Wouldn’t be my choice. And Kerr loves him some Caruso. Seems there’s a deal that could be made between the two teams. Not sure this is it though. Wiggins and Kuminga leaves too big a hole at SF imo

I'm torn. It isn't the worst idea I've seen here. It probably leaves SF looking like Moody/Caruso. I do tend to think Kuminga should carry more value than this (he's still very, very young).

Curry/Podz
LaVine/Caruso/Payton
Moody/Caruso
Draymond/Saric
TJD/Looney

Yeah... that doesn't look great. We would be in a much better position financially, but I'm not sure better in a way that would give us options to meaningfully improve.

I'm in a similar boat. I don't instinctively hate the idea of making a big swing for Lavine/Caruso. But I wouldn't include JK in that offer.

Something like Wiggins/Moody/Looney/GP2 (the last two for salary reasons)/2025 1st (top-4 protected) for Lavine/Caruso is about the max I'd offer. Not including CP3 means we don't end up over the apron again. Spend the MLE on a legit 5 and go from there:

(MLE big)/TJD
Draymond
Kuminga/Klay
Lavine/Caruso
Curry/Podz