Bulls executive VP John Paxson insists that Kris Dunn still has a role despite the addition of North Carolina point guard Coby White with the team’s lottery selection, K.C. Johnson of Chicago Tribune reports. “We still value Kris very much,” Paxson said. “But competition is a part of this business. You have to have that. The goal for us is to be deeper, more talented. You see in our game today, the successful teams have versatile rosters. … And, hey, if he comes in, as we hope, in training camp in great shape and ready to roll, he has every chance to earn any spot he wants — just like any of our guys do.”
We have more from the Central Division:
- It’s uncertain whether veteran power forward Jon Leuer will play for the Bucks, Matt Velazquez of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel tweets. Milwaukee traded Tony Snell and its first-round pick to the Pistons for Leuer in an effort to clear cap space. Leuer is in the final year of his contract. GM Jon Horst told Leuer and his agent that he could be included in a future trade, Velazquez adds. Leuer appeared in 41 games last season after injuries limited him to eight games the previous season.
- The Pistons were stunned that forward Sekou Doumbouya slipped just outside the lottery, allowing them to pick him with the No. 15 selection, according to Rod Beard of the Detroit News. The Pistons watched him work out in Dallas but were convinced they had no chance to draft him. “He kept dropping and we had Plan A in place and we didn’t expect him to be there. Then Plan B came into place and it was the best plan of all — because we had him ranked very high on the board,” coach Dwane Casey said. “We were there at the workout in Dallas and we thought we were wasting our time because we saw all the teams in front of us.”
- The Bucks didn’t get any players in the draft but it was for lack of trying, Velazquez reports in another tweet. The Bucks made calls on every second-round pick but didn’t want to give up future picks and discovered that it’s much tougher to simply buy picks now.
- The Cavaliers were unable to unload J.R. Smith on draft night and it’s likely he’ll be waived before his contract becomes fully guaranteed at the end of the month, Joe Vardon of The Athletic reports. Cleveland doesn’t want to go over the luxury-tax line. Acquiring a player on a multi-year contract whose salary pushed them over the line was a deal breaker. Only $3.87MM of Smith’s $15.68MM salary is guaranteed.
Huh? If the Cavs fail to cut a deal with Jr’s contract… gotta fire the GM or Owner?
How the hell do you fire the owner ?????????????????????????????????
Fire the owner?
The NBA did it with Donald Sterling.
If the owner said, on video, “damn. why can’t we get rid of this ” “? then maybe. otherwise this doesn’t rise to the level of Sterling’s wrongdoing.
Yo that would be legit amazing. I bet there is some kind of video of Dan Gilbert saying something similar somewhere.
Vardon cites two reasons for not trading Smith– no external interest and frugality. It’s hard to believe frugality because Knight could be stretched to avoid the tax and probably will be anyway.
So nobody called? Well wait until July when new signings deplete capspace. Don’t waive him July 1!
Disappointing. All those explanations to the confused!
If they wait until July, Smith loses all of his value because his entire becomes guaranteed at the end of this month. The point of his trade value is that he counts as $16 million in trade value, but really only have to pay him less than $4 million. After June 30th, you’ll have to pay him his full salary so he would no trade value at all.
“Don’t wave him July 1”
Waive him June 30! Ha! I was right after all. Not really.
Silver lining, maybe they keep the bubble players and Nwaba learns shooting & Stauskas, defense. If they could be grafted together, Nwabastauskas would be pretty good.
There are other ways to stay under the tax line.
Sorry it’s a fall if they are unable to use Jr’s contract to gain an asset. Too many teams looking for cap space and it was said that Gilbert gave him the ok to take on salary.
Pretty simple deal really, trade with the Heat.
Heat: Smith, Knight
Cavs: Whiteside, Nunn
All 3 are expiring contracts and Nunn is a throw in.
Who is nunn?
Damn all these people told me JR was a valuable trade chip
His contract absolutely should be for teams looking to create cap space. That why it should be punishable if it’s not used. It has nothing to do with how Smith plays. The point is to acquire him by trading another bad contract, releasing him before June 30 and save money
Kris Dunn would look really good in a Miami Vice Nights jersey.
He’s in wrong system with Bulls.
Agreed. He reminded me of a bigger Wade in college, a little bit of John Wall. Fred Hoiberg was his coach his first couple of years, which isnt his fault. That dude shouldn’t have ever even been hired, and was only surviving b/c of the length of his contract
Dunn will mope but apparently he has no trade value. He could be real valuable off the bench. For his sake, he should just keep his injury-prune mouth shut and play hard.
Dunn never moped so idk what you are talking about. And he always played hard. Do you even know his story?
Do you know anything?
Super sinker: I told you that no one wanted this Thug on their team. The cap money benefit doesn’t matter. What GM will proudly welcome this knuckle head? OK…. Robbie pelinka. He can’t play any more….just cashing checks. Bum.
you really don’t pay attention. the benefit of trading for his contract is this. @) team a trades contracts worth up to $16 mil (might be up to $18 mil depending) for JR before July 1. that team releases JR immediately (before July 1) and they only owe him just under $4 mil. they can thrn stretch that $4 mil out too i believe but even if they don’t they got rid of $16-$18 mil off the books and only pay JR $4mil. pow… they just created at least $12 mil in cap space.
NO ONE IS TRADING FOR JR WITH THE INTENT ON EVER PLAYING HIM. It only works if you release him before July 1st.
CLEVELAND has a top 5 GM who is now leading NO to a Championship. Cleveland has no guidance now. I hope Kevin Love sees that and gets to play for a Championship again.
JR’s contract was never that valuable. It was the Cavs apparent willingness to take on a large bad deal using it that gave it apparently value. But it’s still not as effective as cap space (and there will be a bunch soon) or a TPE because of the 3.87 mm in dead money. It could only be used effectively for a deal around 18 mm. The best chance to get a 1st for it was during the draft.
of course they do. Kobe Altman who worked under Griff. still i wish we had Griff. Kobe’s done a good enough job thus far. but he needs to use this JR contract snd im surrrrre he will before June 30.
why would you say it was never valuable? of course it is and you know the reason. he can still trade for future draft picks or current nba players. not sure if a 2019 drafted player can be traded now tho. i don’t think that would work.
I do understand it’s value, but I’m guessing you may not. Inherently, it’s far less valuable than some other contracts, like George Hill’s contract for instance (which is for 20 mm this year, and 19 or 1 next year). JR is 14.7 mm this year and 15.7 or 3.8 next year). Yet, nobody is talking about the Bucks failing to extract value for that.
OK, put yourself in the position of a team that wants to dump a bad 18 mm contract. Do you hurry up and trade for JR before June 30 so you can release him by June 30-? It will save about 14 mm. Or would you wait a couple of weeks when there will be a boatload of cap space around, and a trade into it will save you 18 mm. Price would have to be much lower to save less and rush to do it. 14 mm is likely too low a savings to warrant a lotto protected future 1st. However, it might suffice if it was the current draft at the bottom. That’s why there best chance to get a 1st was draft night.
Look at what the Nets got from the Nuggets for taking on 21.8 mm in bad money. A top 12 protected 1st, and a 2nd. That was in a cap space starved market, no less (only about 3 teams could have accommodated the Nuggets).
Condescension aside, not sure why you can’t understand logic. I said that Jrs contract WAS valuable. i never said it was the MOST valuable. Also, i said 1 future 1st. i never claimed that it would be a lottery pick. Lastly there are more teams looking for cap space than those that have cap space. Regardless, almost every team has a bad contract it wants to get rid. Several reports said the Cavs were willing to take on salary as long as it was attached to draft picks. Where am i wrong in that?
It’s a risk to rely on another team to take your disposable contract.
Last year Sacramento saved their space for February. The trading-into-open-capspace plan will cost.
Well if nobody called, nobody called. Maybe they did and it was only good for a second-rounder so Altman/Gilbert decided it wasn’t worth it.
Hill’s contract is under a different CBA (the current one).
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A team could have locked in their capspace saving before free agency begins. There may be more capspace buyers than sellers in July.
FYI, a player’s draft rights can be traded at any time before he’s signed. No salary is included for matching purposes.
JR on his way to LA to join LBJ