Trade Deadline Primer
It’s only a matter of hours until today’s 2pm Central trade deadline, and Hoops Rumors has you covered. We have several resources to help you prepare for the action that’s about to unfold and enjoy the deadline to its fullest:
- Our Trade Candidate Series goes in depth on more than a dozen players who have decent chances of changing teams today.
- Trade exceptions allow transactions that otherwise wouldn’t work to take place, and they can be powerful tools for the teams that possess them. Check out our complete list here and the exceptions expiring at the deadline here.
- Our round-by-round look at traded draft picks provides a glimpse of who owes valuable draft assets to whom and when those debts will come due.
- Nearly half the league is either paying the luxury tax or within $5MM of the tax threshold. See the teams courting the tax, many of which figure to be especially wary of finances today.
- Draft-and-stash prospects commonly end up in trades. See a complete list of all the draft rights held players and their whereabouts, courtesy of Mark Porcaro.
- Catch up with a list of trades that have taken place so far this season.
- Find out how teams have fared after making major trades in the past with Eddie Scarito’s Trade Retrospective Series, which examines landmark swaps with in-depth historical analysis.
- Our team-specific and transactions-only feeds help you customize the trade deadline news so you get only the information that’s relevant to you.
- The free Trade Rumors app is also highly customizable and now lets you set up notifications to keep you in the loop no matter where you go.
Goran Dragic Rumors: Wednesday
The ultimatum that Goran Dragic‘s agent, Bill Duffy, issued to the Suns late Wednesday when he told them his client wouldn’t re-sign with the team this summer set in motion of flurry of trade rumors surrounding the league’s reigning Most Improved Player. We’ll round up the rest of today’s Dragic news here, with any additional updates added to the top:
- The Suns are trying to attach Zoran Dragic to any trade packages involving his brother, Goran, Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports reports. The Suns signed Zoran to a two-year contract last summer, largely as a way to make Goran feel more comfortable with re-signing with the organization, Wojnarowski notes.
11:20pm update:
- According to a league source, no deal appears likely between the Lakers and Suns for Dragic, Broderick Turner of The Los Angeles Times reports.
9:18pm update:
- Dragic’s concern in regards to being dealt to Boston is that he would be walking into a similar situation as the one he is caught in in Phoenix, a roster with an abundance of guards, A. Sherrod Blakely of CSNNE.com writes. The Celtics already have Marcus Smart, Avery Bradley, Evan Turner, and Phil Pressey, all of whom share the ball-handling duties for the team.
8:20pm update:
- The Suns’ asking price for Dragic is a young player with significant potential and a first-round draft pick or two first-round picks, Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports reports.
7:24pm update:
- Coro’s full piece has more of Dragic’s input. “They give promises, OK. It’s hard. But at the same time, I wish them all the best,” Dragic said of the Suns. “They were great to me the past five years. I’m always going to have a good memory about Phoenix fans and the city. I just hit that point of my career that it’s better for me and my family to move on.”
3:53pm update:
- The Suns are still resisting any Dragic deals and remain active in their attempts to trade Thomas instead, a source tells Sean Deveney of The Sporting News. Still, Dragic’s camp has complained to GM Ryan McDonough multiple occasions this season, Deveney hears.
2:01pm update:
- Dragic told reporters today that he wants out of Phoenix because his role changed, according to Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic (Twitter links). “I don’t feel comfortable with the situation,” Dragic said. The guard also called out the Suns front office. “I don’t trust them anymore,” he said.
1:39pm update:
- The Knicks and Lakers lack the motivation, as well as the assets, necessary to make a competitive offer for Dragic because they know they have the cap flexibility to sign him in free agency this summer even without his Bird rights, Wojnarowski writes.
12:43pm update:
- The Suns are more focused on talking with the Celtics, Rockets, Kings and others than with any of Dragic’s preferred destinations, sources tell Wojnarowski (Twitter link).
11:47am update:
- There’s a decent chance the Suns would attach Miles Plumlee to Dragic in a trade, Stein reports (on Twitter). The Knicks and Lakers reportedly have interest in both Dragic and Plumlee.
10:55am update:
- Teams that have spoken with the Suns remain unconvinced the team will trade him, as it appears Phoenix is willing to call Dragic’s bluff and tempt him with the five-year deal that no other team could offer if the Suns keep him through the deadline, reports Chris Mannix of SI.com (Twitter links).
10:15am update:
- The Lakers and Knicks top Dragic’s preferred locations, sources tell Marc Stein of ESPN.com. Phoenix offered Isaiah Thomas instead to the Lakers last week after the purple-and-gold made a pitch for Dragic, but the Lakers rejected that idea, as Ramona Shelburne of ESPNLosAngeles.com adds to Stein’s story. The Suns this week showed a willingness to talk about a Dragic deal with the Lakers if they removed the top-five protection on the pick L.A. owes Phoenix, but the Lakers turned down that idea, too, Shelburne also reports.
- The lack of minutes that the Suns are giving Zoran Dragic is believed to be part of Goran’s frustration with the team, Stein writes in the same piece.
8:34am updates:
- The Pacers are conveying the sense that they want to stand pat, and while the prospect of a Dragic trade will be tempting, it’s hard to see Indiana putting together a package that convinces the Suns to trade him there, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports (Twitter links). Wojnarowski on Tuesday noted interest from the Pacers and heard that they were a team that Dragic might be willing to commit to.
- Ric Bucher of Bleacher Report hears a somewhat different story on the Pacers, whom his sources say are instead looking to move one of their high-salaried veterans to create the cap flexibility necessary to sign Dragic this summer. They’re believed to be willing to trade anyone aside from Paul George to accomplish that, Bucher writes. Bucher suggests that the team would be less willing to trade Roy Hibbert than David West or George Hill.
- The Suns want a first-round pick as part of any package for Dragic, sources tell Bucher for the same piece.
- Dragic is the No. 1 target of the Rockets, Bucher hears. It’s likely that the Rockets would give up Patrick Beverley in a trade for Dragic, according to Ken Berger of CBSSports.com.
- Assuming Beverley wouldn’t head out in a trade that brings Dragic to Houston, Beverley’s free agent stock would go down, and Beverley and Dragic are both BDA Sports clients, Wojnarowski notes (Twitter link). Dragic has signaled an unwillingness to make a long-term commitment to the Rockets.
Latest On Kevin Martin
9:24pm: Martin is happy in Minnesota, and out of the teams reported to be eyeing him, Martin would only be interested in playing for Dallas, Amick tweets.
8:29pm: The Rockets and Wizards are also interested in Martin, Sam Amick of USA Today reports (Twitter links). It’s also highly unlikely that the Wolves agree to a buyout with Martin if he remains on the roster past the trade deadline, Amick adds. The Mavs are also a team that likes Martin, Amick confirms.
3:50pm: Teams are still inquiring about Martin, but the feeling is growing that he will remain with the Wolves past the deadline, Chris Mannix of SI.com reports (Twitter link).
2:32pm: The Bulls and Kings among teams with interest in Kevin Martin, as Chad Ford of ESPN.com writes in his chat with readers, though he adds that it wouldn’t be a surprise to see the Timberwolves hang on to him. Ford also lists the Wizards as a team eyeing Martin, though there were conflicting reports about their level of interest earlier this month. Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports heard that Wolves coach/executive Flip Saunders has little interest in parting with Martin, though Ken Berger of CBSSports.com seemingly refuted that and put Martin on a list of players that teams are attempting to trade. Martin would be headed for a buyout if a trade doesn’t happen, according to Berger, but rival executives are surprised at the notion that Minnesota would consider a buyout, tweets Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders.
The Mavericks are another team that’s been linked to Martin, though it’s unclear if they truly have interest in trading for him. He’s making almost $6.793MM this season and $7.085MM next year, with a player option worth almost $7.738MM for 2016/17, so his contract figures to dissuade teams on the fence about pursuing before the deadline. The same clubs would figure to have greater interest in Martin should he buy his way off the Wolves and become available more cheaply, though that’s just my speculation.
Saunders said after making a pair of trades last week that he didn’t expect to be active again in advance of the deadline. The Wolves haven’t given the impression that they want to part with Martin, according to John Krawczynski of The Associated Press. The 32-year-old shooting guard is Minnesota’s leading scorer this season at 20.2 points per game.
Mavs Waive Ricky Ledo
WEDNESDAY, 4:20pm: The Mavs have officially waived Ledo, the team announced in a press release.
TUESDAY, 3:20pm: The Mavericks have told Ricky Ledo that they are releasing him to make way for Amar’e Stoudemire, reports Shams Charania of RealGM (Twitter link). Stoudemire has committed to joining the Mavs should he clear waivers, as expected, following his buyout deal with the Knicks. The move is a signal that the team intends to keep Bernard James, who’s with the team on a 10-day contract. Ledo is one of 14 other Mavericks with deals guaranteed through the end of the season. The guard is making the minimum this season and has non-guaranteed minimum salaries for 2015/16 and 2016/17.
It’s not altogether surprising that the Mavs would cut ties with Ledo, even with Rajon Rondo out indefinitely with facial injuries. Ledo, the 43rd overall pick in 2013, has played in only five NBA games this season and has spent significant time on D-League assignment. The Mavs have sent him down eight times this year, as our D-League assignments log shows, and he hasn’t put up dominant numbers for the Texas legends, averaging 16.0 in 33.4 minutes per game.
Dallas chose to keep Ledo over James and fellow backup guard Gal Mekel earlier this season, though it appears at least for now that James has become the greater priority. The Mavs’ 10-day contract with James lapses after Friday, two days after Stoudemire is set to clear waivers, but Dallas could have terminated the 10-day deal early if it wanted to.
Carmelo Anthony To Miss Rest Of Season
2:11pm: Anthony is indeed out for the season, the Knicks announced (Twitter links). Team president Phil Jackson told reporters that he estimates it’ll be four to six months until Anthony is ready for action again, tweets Adam Zagoria of SNY.tv.
10:48am: The Knicks are set to declare Carmelo Anthony out for the rest of the season, reports Marc Stein of ESPN.com (Twitter links). He’ll be having surgery soon on his troublesome left knee, Stein adds. The news is no surprise, particularly since Anthony acknowledged last week that it was “very likely” he’d stop playing after the All-Star break, hinting that the All-Star Game would be his final action in 2014/15. Marc Berman of the New York Post wrote recently that the “prevailing theory” has been that the All-Star Game would be his season finale.
Two sources close to the veteran forward have confirmed that Anthony has elected to have surgery on his knee, Sam Amick and Jeff Zillgitt of USA Today report. The procedure is a knee debridement, which will remove scar tissue and calcification and other debris that is causing pain and discomfort, Amick and Zillgitt note. With the Knicks’ season a lost cause, having Anthony out for the remainder of the season should increase New York’s chances of securing the No. 1 overall pick in the 2015 NBA draft. The Knicks further improved their lottery odds when the team agreed to a buyout arrangement with forward Amar’e Stoudemire earlier this week.
Anthony is in the first year of a five-year, $124MM contract that he signed last July. In 40 appearances this season, ‘Melo has averaged 24.2 points, 6.6 rebounds, and 3.1 assists in 35.7 minutes per contest. His career numbers are 25.2 PPG, 6.6 RPG, and 3.1 APG. His career slash line is .455/.345/.811.
Reggie Jackson’s Agent Asks For Trade
2:05pm: The Pacers, Celtics, Rockets and Nuggets are all interested in Jackson, sources tell Chris Broussard of ESPN.com (Twitter link).
1:56pm: Jackson refused to give a direct answer when reporters asked him at practice today whether he wanted to remain in Oklahoma City, saying only “I would love to play basketball,” as Darnell Mayberry of The Oklahoman relays.
12:33pm: Agent Aaron Mintz, the representative for Reggie Jackson, recently asked Thunder GM Sam Presti to trade his client, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. Several opposing teams have become aware of the request, which took place in the last seven to 10 days, league sources told Wojnarowski. Jackson has let the Thunder know that he’d resist the franchise’s efforts to keep him in restricted free agency this summer, Wojnarowski adds, which falls in line with a report last month from USA Today’s Sam Amick that he was open to signing his qualifying offer. That maneuver would allow him to hit unrestricted free agency in the summer of 2016, just when Kevin Durant would have a chance to leave the Thunder, too. Still, Presti hasn’t committed to trading Jackson even as he’s shown a willingness to listen to pitches from other teams, according to Wojnarowski.
The Thunder are still likely to match a reasonable offer to Jackson should they have him when the summer rolls around, tweets Chris Mannix of SI.com. They’re not about to part with him for an insignificant return, a point both Mannix and Wojnarowski make. Jackson and coach Scott Brooks have had their ups and downs this season, Wojnarowski writes, and Jackson’s role has shrunk since the arrival of Dion Waiters. Jackson believed he had been traded to the Knicks in that deal that brought Waiters to Oklahoma City before realizing that wasn’t the case, and the Knicks have reportedly been likely to try to trade for him again. The Kings and Thunder have apparently held preliminary talks about Jackson, while the Bucks and Heat seem to have interest, too.
Durant reportedly hasn’t been enamored with Jackson, and teams around the league have been expecting the Thunder to deal the combo guard. Jackson made it clear before the season that he’d like to start at point guard, which won’t happen with Russell Westbrook around. Jackson, Mintz and the Thunder failed to come to terms on an extension before the October 31st deadline, and Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports reported around that time that teams around the league thought he’d command offers of $13-14MM this summer. Oklahoma City is above the tax threshold for this season, and concerns about the tax for this year and beyond are apparently what have rival teams believing the Thunder will ultimately deal Jackson before the deadline.
Pelicans Sign Toney Douglas To Second 10-Day
FEBRUARY 18TH: The deal is official, the team announced.
FEBRUARY 13TH: The Pelicans and Toney Douglas have reached agreement on what will be the guard’s second 10-day contract with the team this season, a league source tells Shams Charania of RealGM. His first expires tonight. New Orleans still has an open roster spot even with Douglas on the roster. The signing will come after the All-Star break, Charania notes.
The 28-year-old point guard has seen plenty of action for the Pelicans so far, averaging 9.0 points, 4.0 assists and 1.7 turnovers in 22.0 minutes per game across three appearances. The team is short at the point with Jrue Holiday out indefinitely because of a stress reaction in his right leg. The stint with the Pelicans represents a return to the NBA for Douglas, who’s spent most of the season playing in China.
This will be the last short-term arrangement the sides can make between now and the end of the season, so New Orleans would have to sign the sixth-year veteran for the balance of 2014/15 if the team is to keep him beyond his latest deal. The Pelicans had brought in guard Nate Wolters on a pair of 10-day contracts earlier this year but declined to sign him for the rest of the season.
Wolves Talk Anthony Bennett Trade, Eye Seraphin
The Wolves have brought up Anthony Bennett‘s name in trade discussions, league sources tell Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN Twin Cities (Twitter link), and they’ve been in pursuit of Kevin Seraphin, according to J. Michael of CSNWashington.com. It’s unclear if there’s any link between the Bennett talk and Minnesota’s attempts to trade for Seraphin. In any case, it’s unlikely that Seraphin will leave the Wizards, Michael adds, noting that he has a de facto no-trade clause and suggesting that it would make little sense from a basketball standpoint for Washington to part with the center.
Bennett arrived in Minnesota this past summer via the Kevin Love trade, a little more than a year after the Cavs made him a surprise No. 1 overall pick. The combo forward has notoriously failed to live up to that distinction, though this season has been somewhat of an improvement, as he’s shooting a higher percentage on more shot attempts in increased minutes, and his PER is up to 11.0 from a woeful 6.9 last season. Still, Bennett’s PER is indicative of below average efficiency, and the Wolves just acquired Adreian Payne to play at power forward, Bennett’s primary position. Bennett is on a rookie scale contract, but it’s a relatively expensive one that gives him nearly $5.564MM this year and almost $5.804MM next season.
The Wizards are willing to give up a first-round pick to make a trade of some sort before the deadline, a source tells Michael, who nonetheless cautions that a free agent addition is still more likely for the team than a trade is. As Michael writes, Washington continues to prioritize cap flexibility for the summer of 2016, when D.C. native Kevin Durant is a free agent, and that would complicate potential trades.
Seraphin is set for unrestricted free agency this summer after signing his qualifying offer, worth nearly $3.899MM, this past summer. The 25-year-old has the best back-to-the-basket game of any player on the Wizards’ second unit, Michael observes, and he’s seeing 15.8 minutes per game this season after only getting 10.9 MPG last year.
Bucks, Larry Sanders Expected To Reach Buyout
9:57am: A buyout deal is “all but done” and is soon to become official, Stein reports (Twitter links). Sanders will hit waivers by March 1st, Stein says, so he’d be eligible to play for another team in the postseason, but Stein adds that there’s been no indication that he’ll be back on the court soon, which jibes with Bucher’s report that he’s likely to miss the rest of the season.
WEDNESDAY, 8:43am: It’s unlikely that Sanders plays again this season as he continues to deal with personal issues, according to Bleacher Report’s Ric Bucher.
TUESDAY, 11:12am: The Bucks and the representatives for Sanders are making progress as they move toward a buyout, a source tells Sam Amick of USA Today (Twitter link). An agreement is “expected,” but there’s no deal yet, Amick says.
MONDAY, 8:20am: The Bucks and Larry Sanders have begun discussions about a buyout of his four-year, $44MM deal, reports Marc Stein of ESPN.com. Sanders is not expected to play for Milwaukee again, Stein writes, so it appears the team has every intention of offloading him one way or another. The 26-year-old last week came off a drug-related suspension that lasted 12 games and cost him $1.2MM of his $11MM salary, but he did not appear Wednesday in Milwaukee’s final game before the All-Star break, his first after the league lifted the suspension.
Sanders is in the first year of his deal, which came in the form of a rookie scale extension he signed in August 2013 after a breakout performance in the 2012/13 season. It’s been downhill since for the 15th overall pick from the 2010 draft, as he suffered a broken hand in a nightclub fight early in the 2013/14 season and missed the latter portion of that season with a fractured orbital bone. He also garnered a five-game drug suspension in April.
There were numerous trade rumors surrounding the 6’11” center throughout last season, and there was reportedly serious interest in him at draft time. Later in the summer, assistant GM David Morway insisted that Sanders was in the team’s plans for the future. There hasn’t been much trade chatter since, though that may have as much to do with his lackluster play and limited minutes as any pronouncement from Bucks management. Sanders has seen action in only 21.7 minutes per game across 27 appearances, and he hasn’t played since December 23rd because of the suspension and what the team has called “personal reasons.” Amid his absence, he denied a report that he was contemplating retirement.
Buyouts rarely happen with deals that extend as long as the one Sanders is on. It’s unclear how much Sanders, a client of Relativity Sports agents Dan Fegan and Happy Walters, would be willing to relinquish, but the Bucks could elect to use the stretch provision to help ease the burden of the contract for 2015/16 and beyond.
Celtics Pursuing DeMarcus Cousins?
WEDNESDAY, 9:24am: Steve Bulpett of the Boston Herald hears “strong word” that nothing has happened regarding the Celtics and Cousins.
MONDAY, 3:12pm: The Celtics are rumored to be trying to pry DeMarcus Cousins from the Kings, according to Sam Smith of Bulls.com, but the Kings have given no indication that Cousins is available, Smith cautions. Boston would appear to be basing any such effort on the notion that Cousins, who’s been frustrated with Sacramento’s coaching changes, and new Kings coach George Karl won’t get along, Smith indicates. However, Cousins has expressed enthusiasm about working with Karl.
The C’s have a deep reserve of draft picks and the sizable expiring contracts of Marcus Thornton, Tayshaun Prince and Brandon Bass, and president of basketball operations Danny Ainge has made it clear for months that he’d like to package his assets for a star. However, stars don’t come easily, and Cousins, who played in his first All-Star Game on Sunday, is having his finest season to date in the first season of a four-year maximum-salary extension.
A more realistic target at the center position for the Celtics would be Enes Kanter, in whom Smith suggests the Celtics also have interest. A. Sherrod Blakely of CSNNE.com heard from a source last week who said Boston wasn’t expected to make a run at Kanter (Twitter link), though Blakely wrote in a full piece this weekend that the C’s were expected to “keep tabs” on the big man who’s requested a trade from the Jazz. He’ll be a restricted free agent this summer.