The Cavaliers, Lakers, and Knicks have officially completed the trade sending Rajon Rondo to Cleveland, the teams announced today in a series of press releases. The deal, which was first reported las Thursday and was expanded today to include New York, breaks down as follows:
Cavaliers acquire Rondo (from Lakers).- Knicks acquire Denzel Valentine (from Cavaliers), the draft rights to Wang Zhelin (from Lakers), the draft rights to Brad Newley (from Lakers), and $1.1MM in cash (from Lakers).
- Lakers acquire the draft rights to Louis Labeyrie (from Knicks).
It’s a straightforward swap from Cleveland’s perspective — the Cavaliers simply acquired Rondo in exchange for Valentine. Both players are on minimum-salary contracts, but Rondo’s deal is guaranteed (Valentine’s isn’t) and he fills a greater need for a Cavs team that just lost veteran point guard Ricky Rubio for the season due to a torn ACL.
The Knicks waived Wayne Selden in order to make room on the 15-man room roster for Valentine. Both players are on non-guaranteed contracts, so if New York also cuts Valentine, the amount of money the team ended up paying to Selden and Valentine would work out to just over $800K, which is less than the $1.1MM in cash acquired from L.A.
The Knicks could also hang onto Valentine if they so choose, but that’s reportedly considered unlikely. Waiving him would open up the club’s 15th roster spot.
The Lakers, meanwhile, essentially decided to move on from Rondo and pay the Knicks a little money in order to reduce their end-of-season luxury tax bill and open up a roster spot. The exact amount of money Los Angeles saves will depend on how quickly that roster opening is filled, but the savings will exceed the $1.1MM the club sent to the Knicks. Stanley Johnson, who has played well on a 10-day contract, is a good candidate to become the team’s new 15th man.
The Lakers and Cavaliers will both create small traded player exceptions in the deal. L.A.’s will be worth about $1.67MM, while Cleveland’s will be worth approximately $858K.
This is the NBA’s first trade since October 6.
Feels like Rob Pelinka is out of his depth and scrambling to fix the unbalanced and ancient roster he built to start the season.
Only LeBrons ability to play all 5 spots and adapt to his teammates styles of play can save their season.
I think the only way the Lakers can “save” the season is if they reach te WCF. I know that they aimed finals and it was like champs or bust, but the roster its poorly constructed, they suffered a lot of injuries, that’s why i think WCF its an acceptable achievement.
That being said, im not sure they can beat one of the top 3 teams in the west in the second round.
GM BRON BRON has messed this years team up pretty badly. Pelinka has nothing to do with who plays for them. He is just a puppet for BRON BRON.
Doesn’t seem true. I think Lebron would have brought Caruso back for example.
Only in the NBA. NYK effectively get 1.1 mm to rent a roster spot for 1 day. LAL pay the 1.1 mm to avoid tax on the amount paid (by CHI) to Valentine to date. That alone has to greatly exceed 1.1 mm.
Can Rob afford to waste another year or 2 years of LeBron? After next season just AD and THT on the roster. Rob may not even be the GM at that point if he makes zero moves.
The burning question that they need to seriously answer internally: Is AD a Top-5 player Today or Next Year? If the answer is ‘no’, they need to trade him the the East.
If they can upgrade the team by dealing Westbrick then do it. Can’t be a this year move everything has to be this year and next year. This year is probably lost already.
The Lakers have 0% chance of winning, if LeBron is the best player on their team. A healthy Anthony Davis, at the top of his game,is much better than LeBron, and would need to be the focal point of the team, both offensively and defensively,w/ LBJ and Carmelo/Bazemore playing the 3 and 4. Russ and K.Nunn/Malik Monk manning the guard positions.That would be the best lineup the Lakers can run out with the current roster, but I don’t think that gets them more than possibly 1 series win in the playoffs. I’d expect them to try to trade Westbrook if they can, and knowing Adam Silver/Magic Johnson/LeBron’s influence in the league, they will probably land Ben Simmons out of the garbage they have to use in a deal. Probably some 3/4 team trade where Westbrook, Lakers 1st rd, Phi 1st rd goes to Portland, Lillard to Philly,SIimmons to LA ….something along those lines.