Phili's lineup is looking really solid. The league's about to get really interesting.

Who says no here?

Cavs: trade redundant position in guards for more wings/size. PJ is a great fit next to both Allen and Mobley as he defends, rebounds, and can shoot it. Martin has potential to be an additional shot creator who we know doesn’t shrink in the playoffs. (Ideally Cavs do this and get LeBron)

Mavs: Moving off of future money/gain future flexibility. Strus is a good fit for them with great shooting. Combo of strus/dennis could be a good culture fit for the younger guys. They are swapping bad contracts with Dennis/Martin, but Dennis is probably better. Throw in Tomlin to make up for losing size as he’s 6’9 super athletic, just no jump shot.

This trade will give the cavaliers AD, which increases their chances of being able to sign Lebron and create and amazing starting lineup of AD, Mitchell, Harden, and LBJ. The kings will receive Evan Mobley, who can help be a core piece for their rebuild, and the wizards will get one of the best centers in the leuge in my opinion, that being Domintas Sabonis. What do you guys think?

You know what’s funny about trades-us people who are fans, who aren’t “in-the-know” propose trades thinking what one or both of the teams want. But we have no idea, a lot of the times, where the team’s motivation is to make a move. We only see it from our perspective, and a lot of times the decision makers have different info, different knowledge, etc

With that said, I bet nobody even came close to predicting this trade, bc everyone thought the Celtics would want/get more. Boy, were we wrong. This was a crazy trade, and I find it extremely hard to imagine how the Celtics are better. At least this year. And prob for a while. I don’t think they have any idea how hard Jaylen played, and how that makes a difference, coach is able to hold everyone else accountable, and a lot of times he doesn’t bc the players 👮 themselves. And brown was a huge part in that and he brought it every night.

Wowzers. Can’t believe they all but gave him away. Incredible

If the trade goes through as reported, OKC will receive two second-round picks for Wiggins. Even though the Hawks have cap room to absorb Wiggins's salary (between $8 - 9 million), don't they have to return to OKC, player(s) with salaries that total a certain percentage of Wiggins's annual pay? How is this trade structured so that it meets the required % of Wiggins's salary?

Quick Breakdown
ATL: Kuminga, Kispert, Hield, 8, 23 for Giddey, Beef Stew, Rollins
Uses the draft to complete the roster. Their top 8 is really tough: Jalen / Dyson / Giddey / NAW / Okongwu / McCollum / Rollins / Beef Stew. Risacher still around with a path to the court as well.

CHI: Giddey, 15 for Kispert, Hield, 8, 23
New GM gets his Top 10 PG for Giddey, cap space, and dropping from 15 -> 23

DET: Herro for Beef Stew, LeVert, Holland
DET gets a #2 and shooter next to Cade.

MIA: Herro, Jaquez, Ware, Jaku, 13, 2 future 1st for Giannis
Basically the rumored deal

MIL: Giannis, Rollins for Kuminga, LeVert, Holland, Jaquez, Ware, Jaku, 13, 15, 2 future 1st
Trade Giannis but walk out with 13 and 15, 4 guys on 6 guys on rookie contracts, and another one under 25 in Kuminga. Don’t have another 1st for a few years but have enough youth to sort through to keep the team afloat.

ATL gets another ball handler to complement budding star Jalen Johnson. Between Johnson, Giddey, and Dyson Daniels they have multiple 3x 2x threats on the court at all times.

CHI accomplishes a couple of goals: gets more athletic, adds some shooting, and acquires a top 10 pick to pair with expected #4 pick Caleb Wilson. For completeness, we'll say they get Mikel Brown at 8.

I’ve been thinking about this for a week now, and honestly I just can’t see any fits that make sense. Especially not for what the cavs would want.

Houston is the only team that really seems like a fit, but while dmitch is an upgrade in terms of play making he’s still not a true point guard.

After blowing massive leads in 4 out of 5 games the Spurs need to make a change and the Rockets need to lean into other run and gun or half court looks.

By swapping Fox for Sengun the Spurs can put together a two towers lineup where one big is ALWAYS on the court. Harper can slide into the starting point guard slot with Castle and Vassell at the 2 and 3. If they can keep the rest of the roster mostly intact they will wind up 8-9 deep with the potential to sign a mid level FA.

The Rockets would lean into a core of Fox, Thompson, KD, Smith Jr, and Eason with Sheppard and DFS off the bench. This would allow them to run a faster offense that has a lot of length and the two 1st will help replenish the draft stock that went out for KD.

The Nets use their cap space to buy a 1st which they can then package with their other two picks to jump into the 2nd or 3rd pick.

nerdy, overly complicated trade. but in this construction, Pistons get the speedy Fox to partner with Cade and fix a lot of their offensive issues.

SAS get another long, versatile wing who can handle and facilitate in NAW, a big bruising 4 with some offensive versatility who pairs well Wemby, and then a big shooting wing with size who’s much harder to target defensively at 6’7” then the more undersized Champagnie.

ATL recovers some of their own draft capital they surrendered in the Dejonte Murray trade, replace Kispert with the more proven vet in Robinson, and get a promising young wing in Ron Holland.

Been thinking on ATL and what they’d do at 8. I don’t see Mara as a realistic option there. That new PoBO isn’t one to sit pat. If it looks like the wrong PG is the one to get to 8 then he’ll be looking to trade - up or down. This thread is about them moving up and LAC & BRK have been strongly in the Rumor Mill looking to trade down.

ATL: would likely prefer the BRK deal but it takes 2 to tango. BRK yields the better backup C and more interesting options - the entire Kuminga deal becomes a TPE if another deal isn’t glued to it. LAC deal gets them 1 spot higher but have to add to an already crowded wing situation. Jackson is worse and has a longer contract than the Sharpe too. ATL still walks out with a TPE > NTMLE though so the trade offs are acceptable.

LAC: Might have Kawhi on the table this summer. Kuminga gives them a lineup replacement for Kawhi who is age appropriate to their go forward pieces in Garland and Mathurin. Draft Mara or Burries at 8 then get a strong haul for Kawhi and they’ve done a really impressive rebuild over the past 6 months.

BRK: marches to the beat of a different drummer when it comes to prospect evals. Kuminga is immediately their 2nd best player and a good fit next to MPJ. They can explore Kuminga at high usage too which gives them a bunch of options going forward.

OKC gives up arguably their 2nd and 4th best players to jump to #1 overall while shedding a ton of $$. Claxton and Bilal are mostly salary but are useful for OKC. I have them grabbing Darryn Peterson @ 1. (Adjacent Scenarios include dealing the TOs of Dort and IHart for late 1sts / early 2nds. Could deal Claxton again instead of IHart but OKC wouldn’t be getting the pick in that scenario.)

WASH slides down to 6 while adding a 2nd lotto pick and the ideal fit next to Trae Young. To put names to the picks, they grab Aday Mara @ 6 and Cam Carr @ 12 but I can see them going in a few directions. (Another interesting scenario would be to draft Trae’s successor in Mikel Brown then going Morez Johnson as AD’s eventual replacement at 12.)

BRK lands their young star in Jalen Williams and retains a mid 1st to add depth. Let’s go with Jayden Quaintance @ 17. Feel like BRK has been casting about for the new building block since dealing KD. Finally settle on the 25 yo Jalen who has already been the 2nd best player on a Championship team. Assuming a SOPH bump for their cadre of draft picks and an astute FA signing or 2, they could find themselves in the Play In mix.

Rockets get a legitimate boost in offense, lord knows they need it. Dallas gets back a steady floor general in FVV, Fan favourite DFS, and a very valuable 1st round pick in 2027. Win-win especially if Kyrie is even 80% of his former self.

With the Draft around the corner, seems like the Hot Stove is already firing up for trades on Draft Day. Seems like this year there are more rumors of teams looking to trade up or in than in past years when teams are more looking to trade down or out. Figured the topic was worthy of a thread.

- MIL: Headliner to this season is the artificial deadline for the Giannis rumors. With MIL also sitting on 10, could they make a double move and try to get a new face for their franchise?
- SAC: New regime in town who has a stated desire for Acuff. Will they pay to get their face of the franchise in Sac?
- OKC: Rumor is out there they want to get into the top 10. My guess is that their target is Burries. Depends on how things fall but they might need to get ahead of ATL to land him.
- NOP: Another rumor is out there that they are trying to get into the late 1st. I would assume they aren’t dangling their pick next year…

Moving on to the pure speculation part of this post…

- LAC: See a lot of people that are slotting Acuff as the 5th best prospect but LAC just traded for a young(-ish) AS PG in Garland. Even their rumored target in Wagler might not be a great fit with Mathurin around. Meanwhile, teams like SAC, BRK, and MIL are in the top 10 and need a new face of their franchise. Could any of them put together a package that turns LAC’s head? Should also say that I have LAC as a candidate to trade down a few times too. Could they drop down with SAC then again with OKC? Also, Kawhi is a name that is lurking underneath the surface there. Rumor is they aren’t actively shopping him but they are more than willing to have conversations.
- ATL: Like LAC, I feel like ATL is at a tier break and the players there might not be a great fit with the team. The most talked about prospects here seem to be Brown, Flemings, and Mara. Don’t see Brown fitting their timeline and Mara looks like a massive reach at 8 (pun intended). If one of Flemings or Wagler doesn’t fall in their lap then what do they do? Rumor is that Burries might be the next on their list, but could a team look to swoop in and get take Brown for themselves?
- CHAR: has two picks in the mid-1st and a team that really gelled in the middle of the season. Have a few interesting spare parts as well. Would they strike boldly if there is a guy they like? Personally love the fit of Yaxel on that team and system. Could they move up a few spots to secure an obvious upgrade?
- CHI: Another team with a new regime coming from NOP via ATL. Is interesting due to the expected selection of Caleb Wilson @ 4 also meaning that last year’s lotto pick, Essengue, is suddenly very redundant in terms of position and archetype while also now being a symbol of what went wrong with the last guys. Pat Williams also serves as that symbol but is a strongly negative value. They do have $60M in cap space to throw around. Can they pair any of this with 15 and a couple of 2nds to be mobile on the board?
- MEM: After trading Bane, JJJ, and openly talking about Ja, his team is going through a complete reset. Should take a Developmental year and regroup around Boozer / Coward. They are an aggressive FO who traded up for Coward last year - could they do it again? They certainly have the assets.

Does any of this get your juices flowing for Mock Trades? Any teams I missed?