Trade Deadline: February 6, 2025

It's becoming very difficult to imagine any scenario where any team is willing to take on Grant or Ayton and their contracts.

 

In our dreams.

 

Suns want Butler, Butler wants Suns, Heat don't want Beal. Bucks MIGHT want Beal... (Add picks to taste - I say going FROM Bucks and Suns TO Heat and Blazers.)



Just noticed that this trade appears to be magic, because every team involved cuts salary!

 

Right. I would try Grant and Banton for Smart and Konchar. We would save $5 million and then Smart expires after one year. Just be happy to get rid of Grant and his crazy contract.

 

God I don't know why anyone would want Beal. He's washed.

 

And his contract is an albatross.

Too bad he spent his prime years wasting away with the Wizards

 

Portland takes on salary here & puts us in the tax. The green number at the top is incorrect because the software is using a trade exception for Highsmith.

Besides, this trade isn't legal because the Bucks can't aggregate salary like this.

 

Yeah, was confused by that. We clearly take in more salary. And dunno why it said successful, because Milwaukee has to aggregate to get Beal, and they don't end up far enough below the 2nd apron here to do that.

 

The trade wouldn't work for exactly that reason (it said s0) until I made the number of players going out and coming in equal (3) for the Bucks. So the program interprets that as being enough - dunno if it's right to do so.

 

Sure doesn't feel that pleasant to have this mindset. But with the moves we've seen since Olshey it seems the most realistic mindset.

I wish I had a bunch more positivity and hope but I don't see any logical reason to expect that.

 

# of players doesn't matter, it's $.

 

Then maybe adding the extra player brought them below the apron? For whatever reason, the program said it wouldn't work for the "aggregating" reason and then when I added a player, it worked.

 

Flip Lopez to get under the tax? He's a lot more desirable than Ayton...

 

For the record I don't see Jimmy Butler agreeing to play in Portland's tankathon. I doubt any GM is going to trade for Ayton's salary this season either....Ant and Grant are the guys I expect to be dangled and I don't think Joe sells cheap on either guy...maybe on Ant.

 

How would ADDING a player drop their salary?

 

Yeah, I haven't seen anyone propose any deal that would have Butler ending up here but maybe I missed it.

I agree with you though that Jimmy will not end up here, that I don't see a lot of situations where Deandre is moved and that Ant and Jerami are being shopped right now but definitely not at a bargain price.

This could mean all three guys (Ant, Jerami and Deandre) end up here for the rest of the season, probably sitting nearly every game if not every game after the deadline. It will be such a waste of Jerami's waning prime if that's the case. I think Ant and Deandre have a lot of time before they start having to worry about that though. If the team doesn't just sit them especially if the team continues to play Ant, I think he will hinder the development of Scoot and Shaedon and probably win us a game or two that will hurt our lotto chances.

Who knows with this front office? They've been mismanaging the team worse since Joe took over than the team was mismanaged by Olshey but maybe, just maybe Joe will shock us all and make some moves that make a lot of sense for the direction the team should be headed in. Should be interesting and hopefully fun instead of infuriating.

 

I would think just the opposite. Ant's contract is not a big deal as he will have an ending contract next year. Grant on the other hand should be the one Joe sells cheaply despite what he tried to get last summer. He tried to get 2 and failed. Now he just needs to dump him.

 

Its an error in the software...

Bucks are $6.5M i to the second apron.
https://www.spotrac.com/nba/milwaukee-bucks/cap/_/year/2024/sort/cap_total

They have to send out $6.5 before they can aggregate salary. Even after dropping into the first apron- they would have to send out more money than they receive.

Basic test is:
1) Do the Bucks receive any players who makes more money than for a corresponding player that they send out? (yes - Beal -> go to step 2)
2) Do the Bucks drop salary by > $6.5M? (No -> therefore trade is not legal).

 

Let a team that was relevant not that long ago win the trade and both teams remain under the cap.

PTD trades Ayton, Grant, Simons
BRK trades Ben Simmons, Nic Claxton, Noah Clowney, Bogdanovic and draft capital

Brooklyn improves significantly. They win the trade.
Portlands wins by eliminating the contracts of Simmons and Bogie next season. 2 young, athletic bigs added. Claxton on a descending contract like Avdija. Draft capital returning is reasonable.

BIGS — Clingan, Claxton, Time Lord, Clownie, Reath
FORWARDS — Camara, Avdija, Murray, Walker
GUARDS — Scoot, Sharpe, Banton, Rupert, Thybulle

… with trades Thybulle (February trade, or summer opt-in and trade, or opts out) … Bogie traded if a contender wants him for the playoffs for different expiring contract(s) …

 

Elaborate on this “draft capital” because the rest is a joke