The Raptors 905, the G League affiliate of Toronto, acquired Derrick Walton, Tremont Waters and a future first-round pick in exchange for David Johnson and a second-round pick from the Grizzlies‘ affiliate, the Memphis Hustle, according to Sportsnet’s Blake Murphy (Twitter link).
The trade marks an end for Johnson’s Raptors organization tenure after being selected with the No. 47 overall pick in the 2021 draft out of Louisville. Johnson played for the Raptors in his rookie season on a two-way deal. After that expired, he signed an Exhibit 10 deal with Toronto last season but didn’t crack the opening-day roster. He spent the remainder of the 2022/23 season with the 905. There were hopes that Johnson could develop into a lead guard off the bench for the Raptors, but that didn’t happen in Toronto and now he’ll get a chance to develop in Memphis.
Walton and Waters are both guards with 40 or more games of NBA experience. Walton made his debut in ’17/18 with the Heat and had stints with the Clippers and Pistons. He averaged 16.8 points and 9.4 assists in his last season in the G League, ’21/22, in 25 regular season games.
Waters played on a two-way deal with the Celtics for two seasons in a row as the No. 51 overall pick in the 2019 draft. He spent some time with the Raptors and Wizards on 10-day deals as well. The 5’10” guard holds career NBA averages of 3.7 points and 2.1 assists. Waters is currently tearing it up for Puerto Rico in the 2023 FIBA World Cup, averaging 16.7 points and 8.7 assists through three games.
G League trades that happen before the NBA’s training camps are worth noting. Usually, a trade such as this indicates one or more of the players involved will sign an Exhibit 10 contract with the parent club of the team trading for them. For example, Alondes Williams was traded from the Long Island Nets, Brooklyn’s affiliate, to the Sioux Falls Skyforce, the affiliate of the Heat, and then signed a training camp deal with Miami about two weeks later.
It’s to be determined whether or not any of these players will spend training camps with NBA teams, but it is something to monitor going forward.
We have more from the Atlantic Division:
- A second G League trade took place on Thursday, with Long Island trading the returning player rights to RaiQuan Gray in exchange for the returning player rights to Jordan Hall from the Austin Spurs, San Antonio’s affiliate, according to a press release. Gray signed a two-year, two-way contract with Brooklyn at the end of the ’22/23 season but was waived this offseason. In his lone appearance with the Nets, he put up 16 points, nine rebounds and seven assists. Hall began last year with San Antonio on a two-way deal but he was cut shortly after the season began. He was then re-signed by the Spurs and subsequently waived again later that season. Hall averaged 3.1 points in nine NBA games last year.
- The Celtics made several big moves this offseason after being eliminated from the 2023 Eastern Conference Finals. Jay King and Jared Weiss of The Athletic are taking the pulse of Celtics fans entering a season with high expectations in their annual survey. King and Weiss pose 30 questions in an expansive survey that’s open to The Athletic subscribers, including how fans feel about the Marcus Smart trade and Kristaps Porzingis‘ fit with the team. The results of the survey will be shared soon.
- In a recent mailbag, Kyle Neubeck of the PhillyVoice discussed several topics related to what has shaped up to be a busy Sixers offseason. Despite Ben Simmons recently leaving the door open for a possible reunion with the Sixers, Neubeck doesn’t see that happening anytime soon. Neubeck also goes over Tyrese Maxey‘s All-Star candidacy for next season and beyond, as well as how he thinks Nick Nurse will develop the team’s young players like Jaden Springer.
Just thinking here… I can see (and would like to see) a day when NBA trades can include G Leaguers, much like baseball allows minor leaguers in trades. Once everyone has an affiliated G League squad, (I think we’re close or already at that point), I don’t see why this wouldn’t be a natural next step.
Unlike baseball, the NBA doesn’t have that control over most G-League players, a lot of these guys are year to year different squads anyway. Anyone legitimately good is already in the NBA on a guaranteed contract or a two-way.
You would need a system in place where guys sign multi year G League deals, which isn’t the case currently.
Ben Simmons realizing that the grass wasn’t always greener on the other side. Ngl I want the dude to succeed, but if he doesn’t comeback this season attempted atleast 1 (or maybe 2) 3s a game. Then his career is over.
“The Celtics made several big moves this offseason”
several big moves???
Outside of the Smart/Porzi trade what kind of big moves they had?
Their No.1 Free agent priority O’Shae Brissett would have been out of the league without Boston calling and they barley did anything outside of that…