JULY 13, 8:42pm: The trade is official, according to a Nets press release.
JULY 12, 5:18pm: The Nuggets have found a team willing to take on their unwanted contracts, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, who reports that Denver is sending Kenneth Faried, Darrell Arthur, a protected 2019 first-round pick, and a 2020 second-round pick to the Nets in exchange for Isaiah Whitehead.
It’s a salary-dump deal for the Nuggets, who intend to waive Whitehead after acquiring him, Wojnarowski adds. Whitehead’s salary guarantee deadline was recently pushed back, so his $1.54MM salary for 2018/19 remains non-guaranteed — Denver won’t be on the hook for it.
Having reached a deal with Isaiah Thomas earlier in the night, the Nuggets were poised to have 16 players on guaranteed NBA contracts and were well into luxury-tax territory. Their deal with the Nets will solve both issues, reducing their roster count to 14 players after Whitehead’s release and getting their total team salary below the tax threshold.
Bobby Marks of ESPN.com has the full details, noting that the Nuggets should be about $8.7MM below the tax line after the trade, giving the team room to use the rest of its mid-level exception to fill the last spot on its roster, if it so chooses. So far, Denver has committed $2MM of its MLE to Torrey Craig and is believed to have used about another $1MM on Jarred Vanderbilt.
As Marks observes, trading Faried, Darrell Arthur, and Wilson Chandler (to Philadelphia) projects to save the Nuggets approximately $90MM in salary and tax payments. The team gave up a first-round pick and two second-rounders in those two deals.
The Nuggets have also created three sizable traded player exceptions to work with — those TPEs are equivalent to the salaries for Faried ($13.76MM), Chandler ($12.8MM), and Arthur minus Whitehead ($5.92MM)
Meanwhile, from the Nets’ perspective, they’ll rent their cap room in order to add a pair of draft assets. The big prize is the 2019 first-rounder, which is top-12 protected, according to Wojnarowski (via Twitter).
Coming into the day, Brooklyn didn’t have the cap room necessary to absorb both Faried and Arthur, but the club created that space by trading Jeremy Lin to the Hawks in another deal. It’s not clear whether Faried and/or Arthur are in the Nets’ plans for 2018/19 or if they’ll become buyout candidates.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Yet the Kings wouldn’t do this to get back in the first round next year. Idiots
The Kings might’ve been asking for another pick. Or maybe the Nuggets just preferred to send Faried out of conference first. Also, while the pick would’ve helped, the last thing the Kings need is another big. Flipping him would’ve been redundant since the Kings’ would’ve needed to attach a pick and they probably had no interest in buying him out. Depending on the protections of that pick, it might not even turn out to be a good pick.
Its protected but i feel ya
The Nets are becoming pro’s with deals like this…lol
So they actually got someone to take both Faried and Arthur and still sent out Chandler?
On a side note, I actually think both players fit the Nets
Both Faried and Arthur have expiring contracts. Nuggets essentially sold their first rounder for one year of tax.
Yupp!
Maybe further moves are to be made. They did make some trade exceptions.
It’s a top 12 protected pick. It’s a nice get for the Nets for taking on salary, but it’s not exactly a huge haul either. The Nuggets are likely to be a playoff team this year with the Spurs and Clippers likely to take a step back. The Lakers will probably jump forward, but I am not convinced they are going to be THAT good. I’d say the Nuggets will probably be between the #4 and #8 seed which will probably put the pick in the 20-23 range. Decent for the Nets, but unlikely to get a game changer there either.
Atlanta should have taken this package instead of J-Lin. Last thing they need is another PG as it’d be impossible to trade Schroeder without taking back even worse salary.
They will get something good for Dennis, lin is just an insurance policy for a season
Wow that is becoming an absolutely smashing summer for Denver, they managed to get rid of Faried, Arthur & Chandler, all for just 1 1st round pick, which won’t be anywhere near the lottery, they re-sign specially a very good deal with Jokic, also Barton & sign IT, man this team can really rock next year, I am very excited to see what they can do, I am convinced they are a playoff team, maybe around the 4-6 range, I only see been much better GSW, Lakers, maybe Houston, but after that I can see them competing with OKC, Minny ,NOLA & Portland, for sure ahead of Utah, Clippers & San Antonio that all these 3 will miss the playoffs. While Phoenix, Sacramento, Memphis & Dallas still don’t count to be anywhere close to the playoffs
Lakers? You think LeBron is going to give them a +20 in wins? I think you are overselling the Lakers and underselling the Jazz.
Agreed, Jazz are 2nd or3rd best team in the West
cant stand the jazz but they are a top 4 team in the west, really underrated team.
Cavs won 50 games last year. Do they win more than 30 without Lebron?
LeBron also played 82 games and led the league in minutes. Do you expect him to do that again at 34?
In the East, yes they probably do. If they resign Hood, the Cavs could be around 35-40 wins.
Also, this comes after the IT signing, making me feel that Nuggets cheated him. Should have used some of the cap space to give IT more than a minimum.
They didn’t cheat anything. He didn’t have to sign a minimum deal, but chose to.
They still don’t have cap space. They could’ve given him the remaining 2.2 million or so of the taxpayer MLE, but he already knew that before the trade.
So.. in order to make that cry baby Jokic happy, they got rid of all their depth and are basically playing for the #14 overall pick again. Am I wrong? Bc IT ain’t taking them to the playoffs. They have 3 nice young players, Milsaps your vet, and no bench. You hope Porter is that superstar tho.
They didn’t need Faried or Arthur because both were replaced in the draft with Porter and Vanderbilt.
Ya I dont understand why they moved Chandler, but their loss is your gain
Jokic is a cry baby?
You’ll find any star talent is called a cry baby or a diva by casual fans. Never understood it but it seems to always be the case
Threatening to leave if they picked up his team option was a crappy move
Cry baby Jokic???? lol???? This sounds like someone from Nurkic’s fan club upset that Jokic got 100 million more than he did. FYI, they didn’t get rid of “all their depth.” Farried and Arthur weren’t in the main rotation for the nuggets last year, you would know this if you paid any attention. Also, Arthur was throwing a fit last year because Farried wasn’t getting playing time. Both of them needed to go. The nugs have plenty of young players to fill out the roster.
1 – Murray – IT
2 – Harris – Beasley –
3 – Barton – Craig – Juancho – Porter – Vanderbilt
4 – Milsap – Lyles – Lyndon
5 – Jokic – Plumlee
The west is so good i have no idea where they will finish but hopefully make the playoffs this year.
I would put Juancho at the 4 there, but nice job by the Nugs. They can bring in IT for a whole new offense if they get bogged down, and IMO Lyles is on the rise.
Yes, you are wrong. They got rid of these guys to save nearly $100M in salary/luxury tax payments. They have a notoriously cheap owner, but most owners would have done the same thing
Z-A, they’ve been looking to move Faried for a long time now, and this wasn’t the first time Arthur was up on the block either. This trade is not about keeping “cry baby” Jokic happy, this is a deal I’m sure they would have made even if they weren’t able to resign him.
No one needs to feel bad for IT. No one held a gun to his head and said take the minimum or else. He could have held out for more. I’m sure he took this deal because there is a real possibility he could start in Denver.
Neither Faried or Arthur played much. IT gives them 30 minutes. They missed the playoff by a game and Milsaps missed a great deal of time. They are in with these moves. What has Minny done to get better. No Crawford will hurt.
Good job by Nugs to get out from under that tax bill without overpaying
I agree, Nugs making some great moves. Also like this move A LOT for the Nets. Faried returning to east coast (Newark NJ guy) might bring back some of the Manimal. Nets were weak at the 4, this really helps. Arthur, if kept, can help stretch the floor as he has developed a decent 3 point stroke. Win Win IMO for both teams.
Now that the Nets traded away Lin and Whitehead, they will now go for a sign and trade with Boston to get Marcus Smart.
Boston will sign Smart for around $13mm.
They’ll trade him and Abdel Nader to the Nets for Joe Harris.
The nets dont have the cap space for it
No one is signing Smart for 13 million. Seriously?
Wrong….
I think they could have gotten under the tax line by shedding Arthur for a 2nd, and stretching Faried. They’ve been exploring deals with everyone for these 2 guys since before the draft, so they obviously felt this was the cleanest way to not just avoid the tax but perhaps provide some operating room. Next year’s draft (considered likely to shallow right now) and the number of guys they already have on rookie scale could be other factors. Still, I’d have kept the 1st if only to trade later.