Making J.R. Smith a competitive offer might not be a bad idea for the Celtics, Chris Forsberg of ESPN.com argues. Boston could use another shooter and Smith made 40% of his 3-point attempts with the Cavaliers last season, Forsberg points out. The Celtics could renounce their rights to Tyler Zeller and craft a one-year deal somewhere in the ballpark of the $15MM that Smith is seeking. Smith opted out of the final year of his contract in June, though Cleveland still holds his Bird rights. The Celtics could weaken their chief Eastern Conference rival by signing Smith to a short-term contract while not sacrificing any of their future flexibility, Forsberg adds.
In other developments around the Eastern Conference:
- Bryan Colangelo’s overt attempts to trade either Nerlens Noel and Jahlil Okafor has backfired, Mike Sielski of the Philadelphia Inquirer opines. The Sixers’ GM should have taken a more low-key approach and now has undermined his ability to trade either big man, Sielski continues. Both young players know that Colangelo is shopping them, and while it makes sense to now keep them into the regular season to improve their trade value, that might lead to discord in the locker room, Sielski adds.
- The Knicks are one of three teams pursuing point guard Chasson Randle, Marc Berman of the New York Post reports. Randle, who went undrafted in 2015, made a favorable impression on the Knicks’ brass while playing for their summer-league team. He could be New York’s No. 3 point guard behind Derrick Rose and Brandon Jennings but the club is out of cap space and can only offer the rookie minimum of $565K, Berman adds.
- Combo guard Tomas Satoransky expects to go through a significant adjustment period when he joins the Wizards this season, Gene Wang of the Washington Post reports. The 2012 draft-and-stash prospect officially joined Washington Thursday on a three-year, $9MM deal. “The game is quicker,” Satoransky told Wang and other media members during a conference call. “For sure, it’s better athleticism in the NBA than what I’m used to Europe, so I’ll have to adjust as soon as possible for that.” Satoransky could emerge as John Wall‘s primary backup at point guard, Wang adds.
Signing Smith now closes off many trade options for the Celtics. Unlikely to happen anytime soon.
I keep hearing this rumor that the Lakers have offered Smith a 16 million a year contract and they are working with the Cavs to do a sign and trade where the Lakes send Young to the Cavs and they get JR Smith in return. Lakers get rid of Young and Cavs get a cheaper replacement to Smith. Not sure if this is true or not but I’ve been hearing it is a possibility and that’s why the Lakers are holding off on a few of their signings.
salary don’t match between Young and Smith.
I believe Young is owed 10 million the next two years. That’s 5 Million a year. Lakers have 13 million left I heard. So if they dump Young that would give them 18 and when they get Smith in return that leaves them with 2 million. Not sure the exact numbers but that was what read and that’s the deal they mentioned. Never really know what to believe in the internet so this could be completely false and those numbers could be wrong. In just wondering if it’s true and if anyone else has heard the same thing..
JR has had a bad rap from some folks for some of his off court antics. In Cleveland he’s been an outstanding 3D player. Young on the other hand was a total misfit off the court and not much on the court. Inconstant would be a positive thing to say about Young but that’s simply nuts.
Why would the champs trade a proven 3D player for a guy that has shown little to nothing for the same price? The Cavs would match any offer and keep JR.
I’m not at my desktop at the moment to check Larry coons faq vs the cavs current cap situation but this seems like it would cause the cavs to be hard capped in which case the trade would be highly unlikely. The cavs worked out a sign and trade for Delly in order to keep their exception for the varejao trade so I would imagine they would have no interest in becoming hard capped for such an undesirable player. Perhaps a mod with access to more info at the moment could drop in and clarify.
Include Zellar in a trade for Okafor.
It wasn’t really much of a secret that the 6ers were gonna shop a big even before Colangelo said anything.saying something don’t mean he has to rush to do anything,it’s not as if we’re competing for a deep playoff run now.teams we’d negotiate with,they are.its not as if there’s an unlimited supply of bigs available.