Appearing on SportsCenter, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski confirmed a report from his ESPN colleague Brian Windhorst stating that the Warriors are among the teams with interest in trading for Jazz forward Lauri Markkanen (YouTube link).
“Utah is not sure it wants to trade (Markkanen), but they have to listen; they’ve been listening,” Wojnarowski said. “And a lot of the teams that missed out on Mikal Bridges from Brooklyn have transferred over to try and see if they can land Lauri Markkanen from Utah. Golden State is one of those teams.”
Here are a few more trade and free agency rumors from around the NBA:
- According to Harrison Wind of DNVR Sports (Twitter link), three-time MVP Nikola Jokic has “pushed behind the scenes” for the Nuggets to trade for Clippers guard Russell Westbrook, himself a former NBA MVP. Wind hears Jokic has wanted to play with Westbrook for multiple seasons. Joey Linn of Sports Illustrated confirms (via Twitter) Wind’s reporting, adding that DeAndre Jordan has been supportive of the idea of adding Westbrook as well. According to Linn, the Clips are exploring “several” trade possibilities for Westbrook, and even if he isn’t traded to Denver directly, it’s possible he might eventually land with the Nuggets.
- The Bulls and DeMar DeRozan appear destined to part ways, with a source telling Joe Cowley of The Chicago Sun-Times that the six-time All-Star will be landing elsewhere. According to Cowley, DeRozan made up his mind to leave once Chicago traded Alex Caruso to Oklahoma City for Josh Giddey. The Bulls have been targeting younger players in free agency, re-signing restricted free agent Patrick Williams and agreeing to a three-year deal with big man Jalen Smith.
- While the Knicks chose not to tender a qualifying offer to forward/center Precious Achiuwa, they are still open to a potential reunion with the 24-year-old, a source tells Fred Katz of The Athletic. Ian Begley of SNY.tv hears (via Twitter) interest in a reunion is mutual, but the young big man is also drawing interest from “several” contenders, so he could have multiple options to choose from.
- There hasn’t been much news related to Raptors guard Gary Trent Jr., a 25-year-old unrestricted free agent who earned $18.6MM last season. As Michael Grange of Sportsnet.ca writes, GM Bobby Webster said before free agency opened that a return to Toronto was still possible, assuming the terms were agreeable for both sides. “You want to be strategic about what’s tradable, what’s not tradable,” Webster said of Trent. “We have some big contracts coming up in the future, so it’ll just have to be something that makes sense for everyone.”
The Bulls are free from Demar DeFrozen
Yeah. Like he was the problem
Never said that, but he clearly doesnt fit their timeline and he also clearly wasnt leading them to much success.
Nor does Niko or Zach really, but they’re still there.
Love DeRozan but Bulls never won a thing with him, time to clean house…including some of the front office.
Bulls haven’t won anything since MJ left. Does that mean those players were bad? No. It just means that the overall team wasn’t good enough. MJ won nothing his first 7 years. Why? Because those teams weren’t good enough.
Denver, Phoenix, Indiana, Charlotte, Washington kind of all make some kind of sense for Westbrook
I think I mentioned Denver 2 years ago as well, and this most recent year. I think it fits well actually.
Knicks need a floor spacing big first, but then Precious as a backup smallball 5 behind Randle/as 1 option to play with the floor spacing big in bigger lineups also makes a lot of sense, as we saw when he paired with Hartenstein, or just as the backup 5 in the matchups that make sense….
But I could see other teams having interest
I think Thomas Bryant is among those that would be a potential fit with the Knicks
If I were a small town owner, I am worried about luxury tax distribution income.
Clippers and Warriors are unlikely to pay luxury tax.
Lakers are still Lakers. They are not looking for young stars like Lauri, Ingram and Young. These guys will have huge contracts
Why wouldn’t the Lakers want them? Affording then it’s obviously an issue.
I think inquiring on Collin Sexton could be a low key win. That guy is a bucket and can create his own shot. His handles aren’t nearly as good but I think he can be every bit of a scoring threat as Kyrie.
49/39/86 with 5 apg. Owed about 2/36 mil
Lakers and Clippers are the butt of every joke after missing on Klay Thompson and losing on Paul George
Precious come back home to NY. Please
Clippers got better by the end of the day
Sixers should have went with DeM DeR.
Mistake ……….
I think he goes to Clippers.
Be great news to get Precious back. That would ease the pain of losing IHart.
Losing Hartenstein was a massive loss and it will show even with Mikal. Big mistake.
Now we will see the ball move around more in the Bulls offense since Demar is gone.
Oh yeah …….. I think