2025-26 Team Developments: Trades / Free Agents / News / Rumors / Ideas

Correct about Powell. He was due an extension. Love is only owed $4.15 million and will likely be bought out. We don't know if they keep Wiggins. Arison is cheap and there's kind of a logjam there?

 

Utah has 4 centers now? Hmmm

 

One thing to keep an eye on: Jazz can create the cap space to go after RFA's; My Utah Jazz buddy said they wanted to go after Grimes a few years ago; it's something they might pivot toward, just FYI.

 

My guess is we are keeping track of what happens with Vucevic (another Duffy guy I believe) and Marcus Smart.

 

Have to give the Clips some credit, they keep managing to churn the supporting cast with fairly limited assets. I thought they were done a couple of years ago but they're set up to win 50+ games again next year. Looking forward to picking against them in the first round and another Harden no-show critical playoff game.

 

i often push back on the lue idolatry, but he's good at getting more from less. where he's failed is when he had the talent advantage, interestingly. as long as he's there with ballmer's money, they can field competitive teams. but they have no shot at a ring at this point, imo--just can't count on leonard to be healthy, so they should have blown it up, but ballmer's ego can't take it.

sucks that nobody in the west (except utah) is cashing out.

in addition to the clips, memphis and sac should have read the writing on the wall, imo. same with NO, though dumars paradoxically do it for them.

i get why gs is hanging on, but if we hadn't landed luka, i would have been calling for the teardown this summer, tbh.

just too many teams going all in in the same conference.

now watch one of those teams i mentioned win it all next year, lol.

 

I just feel like someone is going to bail out the Heat and they will end up with Beal in one of those “funny money” situations I spoke about a few days back.

we will see though.

 

Makes sense Klutch Bill Duffy Rob used to be an agent.

 

Utah is tanking hard for Diabetes the BYU kid. They will do everything to have him.

next year is also Boozers son Cam Boozer lots of talent. Next years draft is supposed to be loaded. Utah has no interest in competing.

 

uh oh...

i do now have a few questions.

 

Wait...what

 

How is it non-guaranteed with PO? How does that work? Whoever sends the email first?

 

Umm that doesn't sound like a bad deal at all - sigh. I just can't make myself trust this FO.

 

third is essentially a team option (i'm not sure why the designation is different)--if houston keeps him, then i guess either side has an opt out the next year? so it's essentially a three year deal with a team option, just dressed in a 4-year deal's clothing.

ok, so i went swimming right after i read this, and a picture of what probably happened is forming.

i think we never offered DFS any contract. we probably had some discussions with his agent after the season, figuring we might be able to sign him and trade for a center. i'm guessing we were offering two years with enough wiggle room left to keep us under the first apron maybe? either way, two things probably happened. first, DFS's agent/DFS were pissed we weren't discussing 4 years. guessing his agent trolled the league for such offers and found none (this might be the point at which accusations of rob's serpentine price fixing--which i think aren't true, tbh--arose). meanwhile, ainge and company are holding us over barrel in trade talks, so much so that we open discussions with portland about ayton (like some of us thought we should). but we were trying to move vando in any ayton deal, and portland said no way. but all other offers for ayton involved the same thing--portland eating undesirable salary. duffy knows all this is going on, knows of our interest in laravia, and he and rob hatch the scheme to get ayton and laravia into DFS's vacant salary slot.

this explains several things, but it just leaves me with one remaining question: what was the plan going to be if DFS opted in? we'll never know. maybe a dayron sharpe s&t?

 

again, pretty sure this salary structure has occurred to rob. i think we just didn't offer it. or potentially we floated it, DFS got offended by the suggestion, and to save face for taking the same deal, houston added two fake years to it. but to suggest that an nba gm just couldn't fathom this contract structure is wild to me.

 

I try to wait until the dust is settled before judging moves and will continue to do so. I don't think we are done.

Edit - will also add that there are some reasons things may have not taken this direction for us with DFS. so again, I am content to wait until things play out fully.

But, the internet will be unkind to this news...lol

 

i know what anthony irwin will say, but it may just come down to the fact that we weren't going to get a starting center via trade unless we got absolutely hornswoggled, so retaining DFS and getting a center was impossible. at which point, it becomes would you trade DFS for laravia and ayton, and that answer is yes. pretty sure any team that didn't have a starting center makes this deal 10 times out of 10.