A handful of players frequently mentioned as trade candidates in the weeks leading up to the deadline stayed put today, according to various reports.
The Clippers have held onto center DeAndre Jordan through the deadline, a league source tells ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link). The team had privately maintained throughout the process that it was fine hanging onto Jordan if no appealing offers surfaced, so this isn’t a huge shock. The next key deadline for Jordan will arrive this summer, as he decides whether to exercise his $24MM+ player option or turn it down to hit to the free agent market.
Tyreke Evans is staying put in Memphis, according to Chris Haynes of ESPN (Twitter link). This decision is a little more surprising, since the Grizzlies had held Evans out of action for the last week in anticipation of moving him. However, it appears they never received the first-round pick they were seeking. Wojnarowski reported earlier today that Memphis may try to re-sign Evans using its mid-level exception this July.
The Hawks made some small deals today, but trade candidate Marco Belinelli remains on the roster, per Sam Amick of USA Today (Twitter link). There were reportedly a handful of teams with interest in Belinelli, but perhaps the offers Atlanta received risked adding salary to the team’s cap for 2018/19.
We’ll wait to see if word of any other deals trickles in now that the deadline has passed, but for now it looks like several other trade candidates aren’t going anywhere either. That list includes Avery Bradley, Kenneth Faried, Derrick Favors, and Evan Fournier, among many others.
Grizz blew it as usual
I’m sure the C’s were close and the Grizz tried to get greedy. They were lucky Evans had a good of a year as this one, with a super cheap salary which benefits contenders near the limit. Take a 1st round and move on. They’ll look real silly if Evans goes elsewhere in the off-season.
They seemingly never got offered a 1st round pick. So it makes sense as to why they didn’t move him.
It was reported days ago that they had multiple offers of a 1st round pick.
If so, the first probably came with salary.
Surprising that Evans couldn’t net a 1st rounder. This makes the mid 1st rounder(potentially a lottery pick) that the Bulls got for Niko even more impressive. They were even able to flip Jameer to the Pistons.
More likely that Memphis wasn’t offered a high enough pick than no 1st rounder at all.
Maybe Clips didn’t really want to move Jordan and Bradley (still in playoff picture). Memphis and Atlanta, it’s on the GMs. Great to be tough, but these players had to be moved – I don’t buy that neither could net a 2nd rounder or more with only expiring contracts coming back.
Not surprised DJ didn’t get moved. Supposedly he wanted a team to negotiate a new contract with him if he got traded or he would waive his player option and become a free agent. I would’ve called his bluff because he’s not going to get $20m+ on the market this offseason.
Also, since the Clippers seemed to be unwilling to take back any bad salary (not that I blame them), they were limiting themselves with the deals they could make. DJ’s cap hit meant the Clips were likely going to have to take back at least one bad contract to make a deal work.
I’m surprised the Cavs did not get more from Utah, like Favors.