Raptors Clinch Final Guaranteed Playoff Spot In East
The Raptors have clinched a playoff spot in the East after beating the Nets 136-101. This will be Toronto’s first playoff appearance in four years.
Scottie Barnes closed out his season with an 18-point triple-double, while RJ Barrett and Brandon Ingram contributed 26 and 25 points, respectively.
“It’s a big relief,” Barnes said about reaching the playoffs for the first time since his rookie season, per Michael Grange of Sportsnet (Twitter link).
It wasn’t all good news for Toronto though. Immanuel Quickley left the game after just 17 minutes with right hamstring tightness, according to TSN’s Josh Lewenberg (Twitter link). Quickley has been battling plantar fasciitis in recent weeks, but avoiding the play-in will allow the point guard more time to get healthy before the Raptors’ first-round matchup.
Because they won on Sunday and the Hawks dropped their regular season finale to Miami, the Raptors will enter the postseason as the East’s No. 5 seed, with Atlanta slipping to No. 6.
The Sixers and Magic were also in the hunt for a top-six spot in the East entering Sunday, and while Toronto’s victory kept both teams in play-in territory, the 76ers finished their season with a win over Milwaukee to claim the No. 7 seed. Despite facing a Celtics team sitting their entire starting lineup, Orlando lost on Sunday to slip to No. 8 and will visit Philadelphia in the play-in tournament, with the No. 9 Hornets hosting the No. 10 Heat.
Injury Notes: Wemby, Castle, Nuggets, Bulls, Tyson, Barrett
Spurs star Victor Wembanyama has been upgraded from questionable to available for Friday’s game vs. Dallas, per Tom Orsborn of The San Antonio Express-News.
Orsborn’s colleague Jeff McDonald wrote on Thursday that San Antonio was privately optimistic that Wembanyama would be active Friday. The third-year center needs to play at least 20 minutes against the Mavs to qualify for major postseason awards. He left Monday’s game early due to a left rib contusion, an injury which sidelined him for Wednesday’s win over Portland.
Reigning Rookie of the Year Stephon Castle, who also missed Wednesday’s game, will be out again Friday, Orsborn adds. Head coach Mitch Johnson said Castle is dealing with multiple nagging injuries; he was listed as having right knee soreness two days ago, while Friday’s designation is left foot soreness.
“Eighty games and the way he plays. It’s real. We’re not just sitting him just to sit him,” Johnson said.
Here are a few more injury updates from around the NBA:
- The Nuggets will be playing without all five of their normal starters on Friday against Oklahoma City, as Bennett Durando of The Denver Post tweets. All five players (Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray, Aaron Gordon, Christian Braun and Cameron Johnson) had previously been listed as questionable. Jokic sitting out means he’ll need to play at least 15 minutes in Sunday’s finale at San Antonio to be eligible for year-end awards.
- After missing three games with an illness, Bulls forward Matas Buzelis will return to action for Friday’s penultimate game vs. Orlando, according to Will Gottlieb of CHGO Bulls (Twitter link). Isaac Okoro (left quad contusion) will be out Friday but there’s a chance he could return for Sunday’s finale vs. Dallas, while Josh Giddey (left hamstring strain injury management), Guerschon Yabusele (left shoulder and left elbow sprains), Nick Richards (right elbow sprain) and Anfernee Simons (left wrist fracture) will miss the final two games of Chicago’s season.
- Jaylon Tyson is in the Cavaliers‘ starting lineup on Friday, tweets Danny Cunningham of Locked on Cavs. The second-year wing has missed Cleveland’s past 10 games due to a left great toe bone bruise. Tyson is starting in place of Donovan Mitchell, who is out with what the team calls right ankle injury management.
- Raptors wing RJ Barrett was a late scratch ahead of Friday’s contest vs. New York, as Blake Murphy of Sportsnet.ca relays (via Twitter). Barrett is dealing with right knee soreness. It’s the second night of a back-to-back for Toronto, which will also be without Immanuel Quickley and Collin Murray-Boyles. The Raptors can clinch a playoff spot if they beat the Knicks.
Raptors Notes: Barnes, Walter, Quickley, CMB, Barrett
The Raptors picked up an important victory over New Orleans on Friday as they look to claim a guaranteed playoff spot in the Eastern Conference, per Michael Grange of Sportsnet.ca.
Jamal Shead had started two games in a row with Immanuel Quickley sidelined, but head coach Darko Rajakovic replaced Shead with Ja’Kobe Walter on Friday. That left Scottie Barnes as the team’s primary offensive initiator, and he had an excellent all-around game, finishing with 23 points (on 10-of-14 shooting), 12 assists, six rebounds, three blocks and two steals in 36 minutes.
“First of all, he’s a pass-first player,” Rajakovic said of Barnes. “He likes to move, to pass, he likes to find his teammates in transition. He’s scanning the floor and it really allows him with his size and his athletic ability to play over the top of the defense.”
Second-year wing Walter also had a strong showing, recording 18 points and four assists in 34 minutes.
Here’s more on the Raptors:
- It’s unclear when the plantar fascitiis in Quickley’s right foot began to really bother him, according to Grange, but he’s out for the fourth straight game on Sunday vs. Orlando. “It is at the point now that it needs to be managed. The best and the only way to get it completely healed is to not do anything for two, three, four weeks. Obviously that’s not going to be the case with IQ. He’s going to get better through this,” said Rajakovic. “This is going to help him recover. He’s going to be available to play. We’ve just got to get him off his feet right now. It was there. It was kind of nagging. He was able to play through it through recovery and therapy and everything. It just flared up quite a bit and put him in a situation where he has to sit out a couple games.”
- Collin Murray-Boyles was a late scratch for Sunday’s contest due to lower back spasms, tweets Blake Murphy of Sportsnet.ca. The rookie big man was previously listed as questionable and had been expected to play before he was ruled out.
- RJ Barrett sustained a left shoulder injury in Friday’s win and is a game-time decision for Sunday’s matchup with the Magic, according to Murphy (Twitter link). Barrett was able to play through the shoulder issue, which is being referred to as tightness, on Friday. His former Duke teammate Zion Williamson was the cause of the injury, Grange notes. “I was just trying to box him out,” said Barrett, demonstrating how he put his forearm on Williamson’s shoulder. “And when he jumped, he took my arm up with him. He didn’t even know he did it. He’s a force, man.”
Raptors Notes: Barnes, Ingram, Shead, Murray, More
The Raptors picked up a much-need win over Phoenix on Friday after dropping six of their previous eight games, per Michael Grange of Sportsnet.ca. Scottie Barnes, who entered Friday with a questionable tag due to an illness, was under the weather but made the biggest play of the game, blocking Jalen Green‘s dunk attempt from behind after Green initially drove past him.
“Got out there. Was a little tired and a little winded,” Barnes said after logging 14 points, six rebounds, four assists, two blocks and a steal in 31 minutes. “Fight through and make it to live another day.”
Toronto was clinging to a four-point lead with 43 seconds remaining at the time, and the block led to a fast-break dunk for RJ Barrett, resulting in a four-point swing. It was the Raptors’ first victory over a team with a winning record since January 25, Grange notes.
“It’s pretty amazing. We hit adversity,” said Barnes. “We had two options, to either quit (or) go out there and fight. This just shows the character of this team. We went out there and fought and got a dub. This was a great game. They had us in that first half. We fought back; we made winning plays.”
Brandon Ingram, who had been in a slump in recently, had a game-high 36 points (on 13-of-20 shooting) while chipping in seven rebounds, three assists and a steal, Grange adds.
“I think it was an urgency to compete and most of all stay together,” Ingram said. “We’ve been through some times where the other team was scoring offensively and we weren’t able to stop the bleeding or find a rhythm on the offensive end. At those times, we would put our heads down a little bit and sort of take it upon ourselves to try to fix it. I think tonight we just stayed connected.”
Here’s more on the Raptors:
- As Eric Koreen of The Athletic writes, Friday’s victory was important for a number of reasons. Not only did it improve Toronto’s position in the postseason picture after the team had fallen into play-in territory, but it showed the group wouldn’t just lay down after falling behind. Head coach Darko Rajakovic said before the game he was not happy with how the team responded to an incident involving Dejounte Murray and Jamal Shead near the end of Wednesday’s loss at New Orleans. Murray made a three-pointer to put the Pelicans up 18 points with 1:24 remaining, then stood over Shead, who had stumbled, and taunted him (YouTube link). Only Immanuel Quickley halfheartedly came to Shead’s defense. “I thought that we did not handle the situation the way we want and how we were supposed to,” Rajakovic said. “Our players had conversations with each other. They know that’s not the true picture and image of our team. They all agreed that’s never going to happen again.” Both Koreen and Grange observe that the team quickly rushed to aid Barrett after a flagrant foul by Grayson Allen on Friday.
- For his part, Shead seemed more bemused by Murray than upset, Grange writes. “I think in the moment I was just like, ‘Oh snap, he’s over me.’ That was about it,” Shead said before chipping in six points and eight assists in 25 minutes off the bench against the Suns. “We were really focused on the outcome of the game. We just weren’t happy with that. It got blown out of proportion a bit. We weren’t really focused on that. … I don’t think I responded in any type of way … (but) if it comes up again, I think we’ll respond a little differently.“
- In another story for Sportsnet, Grange details how the bond between Ingram and Shead has been symbolic of the team’s chemistry this season. “I think I’m connected to the underdog’s personality,” Ingram said. “People that bring the energy in the room, that have high character. (Jose) Alvarado’s like that, Jamal’s like that. And he (Shead) loves the game of basketball, like, I feel like he really loves the game of basketball. He has the knowledge, and he wants to get better. He wants to learn. He has an open ear. He listens, but he also responds well, too. So, I think it’s just easy to connect.”
Raptors Notes: Barrett, Fultz, Murray-Boyles, Jackson-Davis
RJ Barrett returned from a long injury-related layoff in late January, but the Raptors forward is just starting to get back to normal, writes Michael Grange of Sportsnet. After scoring a season-high 31 points on 13-of-19 shooting in Sunday’s win over Dallas, Barrett said the lingering pain in his knee has calmed down and he’s beginning to get his conditioning back.
“That’s why a couple of weeks ago it didn’t look great,” he added. “Just got to continue to work through it.”
Barrett has been far more efficient over the last six games, averaging 21.7 points and six rebounds while connecting at 56.7% from the floor and 46.7% beyond the arc. Grange notes that he was attacking the basket repeatedly on Sunday, getting a dunk and a layup on off-ball cuts.
“I think we know what he’s capable of, we’ve seen it the last two-and-a-half years,” Scottie Barnes said. “He’s able to score the ball and help us out in that area and in different ways. Once he gets his stuff going, he’s pretty hard to guard, especially going downhill (to the rim), for himself and kicking the ball out.”
There’s more from Toronto:
- Markelle Fultz, who was recently claimed off waivers by Raptors 905, had four points and five assists in his first game with the G League club on Sunday. Sources tell Grange that Fultz was given the opportunity as an audition for Toronto’s open roster spot, which the team will be looking to fill starting March 15. Grange states that nothing has been promised to Fultz, but the former No. 1 overall pick could turn out to be a good low-cost addition late in the season.
- Collin Murray-Boyles has been ruled out for the upcoming road trip to Houston and New Orleans due to an in injured left thumb, Grange adds. Trayce Jackson-Davis won’t play on Tuesday after dislocating his left middle finger while dunking in the layup line. “I hit my finger on the rim perfectly (to dislocate it),” Jackson-Davis said. “And I looked down (at the suddenly crooked finger) and almost started laughing.”
- The Raptors’ poor record against the league’s best teams is a concern as they battle for playoff position, notes John Chidley-Hill of The Canadian Press. They’re just 1-12 at home this season when facing an opponent with a better record and have lost 14 of their last 15 games against top-10 teams. “We’ve got to figure out our fourth-quarter execution, exactly what we want to go to,” Brandon Ingram said. “I think every time we play a good team, they know exactly what they want to go to in the fourth quarter, and they do it over again and over again. The good thing is we’re in the games, but we’ve got to figure out how to finish the game.”
And-Ones: Fizdale, Gambling Trial, VanVleet, Extensions
In an appearance on the Run It Back podcast (Twitter video link), David Fizdale claims that he and Knicks management worked out a plan to tank when he was their head coach during the 2018/19 season to improve their chances of drafting Zion Williamson or Ja Morant (hat tip to NJ.com). Fizdale also states that management promised him that Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving would be joining the team as free agents the following summer.
“The plan that we came up with, I was all in on that, and I was like this is the deal and this is the way to go about it. It just didn’t come to fruition,” Fizdale said. “… Losing all them damn games, donating my record to get Zion Williamson or Ja.”
No part of the strategy worked out, as New York landed the third pick in the draft after going 17-65 and wound up taking RJ Barrett, who was later traded to Toronto. Durant and Irving opted to team up in Brooklyn, believing they had a better shot to win a ring with the Nets instead of the Knicks. Fizdale was fired 22 games into the following season after the team got off to a 4-18 start.
“If I was doing it over again, I would have fought more to build a team early on and not cash in my record,” Fizdale added. “That’s the hard part for coaches when you agree to the … tanking. When you tank, you’re supposed to build something bigger. It’s not supposed to be a tank to whatever happens. … That’s not the formula.”
We have more odds and ends from around the basketball world:
- A federal judge has set a trial date of November 2 for Chauncey Billups, Damon Jones and nearly three dozen co-defendants in a federal gambling case, according to Aaron Katersky of ESPN. A status hearing was held Wednesday at the U.S. Courthouse in Brooklyn, and federal prosecutors and defense attorneys are working out how to handle proceedings with so many defendants. Prosecutors expect to extend plea offers at least 12 defendants over the next few days, and they said nine others are having “productive conversations” about pleading guilty. It’s not clear if Billups and Jones are among that group.
- In addition to working his way back from an ACL tear in his right knee, Fred VanVleet has the responsibilities of running the NBA Players Association. Tania Ganguli of The New York Times talks to VanVleet about getting the players united again after many felt betrayed by the latest collective bargaining agreement, which introduced the apron system.
- Yossi Gozlan of The Third Apron (subscription required) examines a few players who may receive extensions before reaching free agency this summer, including Trae Young, Keon Ellis and Dean Wade.
Raptors Notes: Barrett, Ingram, Shead, Barnes, Dick, Battle
The Raptors blew a double-digit lead en route to Wednesday’s loss to San Antonio and only managed to score 17 points in the fourth quarter. Toronto’s half-court offense has been a major reason why the club is now 4-15 against the teams with the 10 best records in the NBA, per Eric Koreen of The Athletic.
As Koreen writes, RJ Barrett certainly isn’t solely to blame for those half-court struggles, but he hasn’t been helping matters lately. The 25-year-old wing has averaged 14.8 points, 6.1 rebounds and 3.3 assists on .401/.308/.734 shooting in 12 games since he returned from an ankle sprain. His scoring, FG% and 3PT% over that stretch are well below his full-season averages.
Unless Toronto reverses the trend of falling to the league’s top teams and Barrett starts playing better, using Barrett as a primary salary-matching piece could be the team’s best chance at improving in the offseason, says Koreen. Barrett will earn $29.6MM in 2026/27, which is the final year of his contract.
Rival teams didn’t seem interested in the long-term contracts of Immanuel Quickley or Jakob Poeltl ahead of the deadline, Koreen writes, and the only other high-priced player the team might consider using in search of upgrades would be Brandon Ingram. But Ingram makes more money than Barrett, has taken pressure off Scottie Barnes, and holds a $41.9MM player option for ’27/28, Koreen notes.
Here’s more on the Raptors:
- In another story for The Athletic, Koreen details how second-year guard Jamal Shead has become a beloved member of the Raptors not just for his play, but for his leadership as well. General manager Bobby Webster likened Shead to Fred VanVleet, while Shead’s head coach at Houston, Kelvin Sampson, said he was the “best point guard defender I’ve ever coached and he’s also the greatest leader I’ve ever had.” “He’s intense. You can tell he means every word he says,” said LJ Cryer, who lived with Shead during the latter’s senior year with the Cougars. “He’s not gonna let you slack. If he sees you not playing hard, he’s gonna call you out on that. He doesn’t hold his tongue. He practices what he preaches. He picks up the ball full court. He’s hounding guys, diving on the floor, all that. Whenever he’s playing with that intensity, you’ve got to match him. You can’t just have one guy out there playing balls to the wall and the rest of us chilling.”
- Head coach Darko Rajakovic said Barnes was “playing through pain” and “on one leg” in Wednesday’s loss to the Spurs, according to Josh Lewenberg of TSN.ca (Twitter link). That was Rajakovic’s rational for why Barnes was resting to open the final period, Lewenberg adds.
- Third-year wing Gradey Dick, the 13th overall pick of the 2023 draft, was out of the rotation entirely on Wednesday, receiving his first DNP-CD in more than two years. Rajakovic discussed it after the game, per Lewenberg (Twitter link), stating that Dick was still adjusting to his role, which is much different than it was over his first two seasons. Jamison Battle may have leapfrogged Dick in the rotation, notes Michael Grange of Sportsnet.ca, though the second-year small forward is still playing limited minutes.
Domantas Sabonis Likely To Remain With Kings Through Deadline
1:42 pm: The Kings view their Sabonis talks with Toronto as having “flat-lined,” according to Sam Amick of The Athletic. With the caveat that there’s still 24 hours for the situation to evolve, Amick says it now appears highly likely that the big man will remain in Sacramento through the trade deadline.
10:53 am: Talks between the Raptors and Kings have paused for now, according to Michael Scotto of HoopsHype (Twitter video link), who says Toronto has concerns about how much draft capital it would have to give up to move off of Poeltl’s contract.
10:02 am: The Raptors are known to have interest in Kings center Domantas Sabonis, but it’s been hard to get a feel for just how serious the talks between the two teams are, according to Michael Grange of Sportsnet.ca, who gets the sense that some of the Sabonis trade chatter has been driven by the three-time All-Star’s representatives, who would like to get their client off a rebuilding roster.
While Grange was still hearing from people close to the Kings on Tuesday that Sacramento would be open to making a trade centered around Sabonis and Raptors forward RJ Barrett, he writes that the connection between Barrett and Kings general manager Scott Perry – who drafted the forward as a member of the Knicks’ front office – has been “overblown.”
There also appear to be at least two obstacles in the way of a trade sending Sabonis to Toronto.
One, Chris Haynes said during an NBA TV appearance (Twitter video link), is a gap between the draft compensation the Kings are seeking as part of the return (a first-round pick) and what the Raptors are willing to offer in their package (second-rounders).
The other complication is that the Raptors would likely want to send out center Jakob Poeltl if they’re going to acquire a starting center who has an even more lucrative long-term contract, but Poeltl’s value is extremely limited due to the $100MM+ left on his deal, as well as his health — he has been dealing with back issues all season long.
The Kings reportedly have zero interest in acquiring Poeltl in a Sabonis deal, so the Raptors would have to find a third team willing to take him on and send that team sweeteners (likely draft assets) separate from what Sacramento would want for Sabonis.
“He’s a really hard guy to trade right now,” one source told Grange. “He’s hurt and he’s locked in for five years.”
According to Grange, the Celtics have been fans of Poeltl in the past, and the Pacers – who are searching for a long-term answer at center – are another team he has heard connected to Poeltl.
However, Boston just made a move for another center, agreeing to send Anfernee Simons to Chicago in a deal for Nikola Vucevic, and Jake Fischer of The Stein Line (Substack link) hears that Indiana hasn’t registered any interest in Poeltl.
The Grizzlies, with their newfound cap flexibility as a result of Tuesday’s Jaren Jackson Jr. trade, are considered one possible landing spot for Poeltl, but they’d likely need to be well compensated to take on his contract, especially given his current health situation.
“There’s nothing structural,” a source said of Poeltl’s back injury, per Grange. “There’s no nerve issue, it’s just a confusing injury.”
Sam Amick of The Athletic suggested earlier this week that it wouldn’t be a surprise if nothing happens with Sabonis this week and the Raptors and Kings renew their conversations in the offseason. Grange also thinks the Sabonis rumors “could all add up to nothing,” writing that Toronto may be better off hoping Poeltl gets healthy and can rebuild his value, either as a trade chip or the Raptors’ center of the future.
Trade Rumors: AD, Mavs, Bridges, Sabonis, Pistons, More
In their initial trade discussions with teams earlier this season about big man Anthony Davis, the Mavericks were seeking multiple first-round picks or an impact player, sources tell ESPN’s Brian Windhorst. However, there were no takers at that price, even prior to Davis’ most recent injury, a hand issue that will keep him sidelined through the deadline.
While a pre-deadline Davis deal is no longer considered likely, it’s not impossible, Windhorst writes — but it would almost certainly require Dallas to drop its asking price and settle for perhaps one solid asset, plus matching salary. With no urgency to make a move right now, it probably makes more sense for the Mavs to wait until the offseason to make a decision on the 32-year-old.
Rival teams anticipate that Dallas will pursue trades involving other players in an effort to reduce their team salary for 2026/27, Tim Bontemps of ESPN says within the same story. Klay Thompson, Daniel Gafford, and D’Angelo Russell are among the Mavs’ trade candidates who have guaranteed salaries or (in Russell’s case) a player option for next season. Turning any of them into a player – or players – with expiring salary could help the Mavs manage their cap situation for next season, reducing the need to move off Davis’ maximum-salary contract, Bontemps observes.
Here are a few more of the latest trade rumors from around the NBA:
- Hornets forward Miles Bridges likely won’t be moved at the trade deadline, writes Sam Amick of The Athletic. Amick reported in January that Bridges was drawing legitimate trade interest from a handful of teams, but Charlotte has been in a roll since then, registering seven consecutive wins and moving within one game of a play-in spot. A league source tells The Athletic that the forward – for whom the Hornets were reportedly seeking at least one first-round pick – is “highly likely” to remain in Charlotte.
- In their discussions about Domantas Sabonis, the Kings have explored three-for-one or four-for-one frameworks with the Raptors, according to James Ham of The Kings Beat, who suggests such a package would start with forward RJ Barrett and may include players like Ochai Agbaji and Gradey Dick. Sacramento would also want rookie Collin Murray-Boyles, but he’s someone Toronto would “fight to hold onto,” Ham adds. Michael Scotto of HoopsHype (Twitter video link) has also heard that Barrett and Agbaji have come up in the Sabonis talks between the Raptors and Kings.
- Checking in on the Pistons‘ approach to the trade deadline, Hunter Patterson of the Athletic suggests the team seems unlikely to make any major moves and hasn’t engaged in discussions involving veteran forward Tobias Harris, whom head coach J.B. Bickerstaff refers to as his “security blanket.” Detroit will be opportunistic if a favorable deal arises and still has a $14MM trade exception available, but that exception doesn’t expire until July 7, so the team could end up hanging onto it until the offseason, Patterson writes.
- Following up on a HoopsHype report that suggested the Sixers were among the team to express exploratory interest in Celtics forward/center Chris Boucher, Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer (subscription required) says a source downplayed Philadelphia’s interest, despite Boucher’s connection to 76ers head coach Nick Nurse.
Cavaliers, Kings Actively Looking To Make More Deals
The Cavaliers and Kings made a splash over the weekend, completing a deal that saw Cleveland acquiring Keon Ellis, Dennis Schröder, and Emanuel Miller, with De’Andre Hunter headed to Sacramento. The Bulls were also involved in the transaction, acquiring Dario Saric and two second-round picks to facilitate it.
According to Brett Siegel of ClutchPoints, the Cavaliers and Kings aren’t through wheeling and dealing.
The Cavs’ top executive, Koby Altman, is aggressively pursuing trades involving Lonzo Ball and injured wing Max Strus. The Hunter trade took the Cavs from $22MM to just $13.9MM above the second apron and brought their total payroll down to $221.7MM.
Altman is hoping to move his team out of the second apron, thus giving him more flexibility to make significant roster changes over the summer. Shedding Ball’s contract — he’s making $10MM this season with a $10MM club option for next season — would help the Cavaliers achieve that goal. Ball has only averaged 4.6 points and 3.9 assists in 20.8 minutes per game, so dumping his salary would likely cost the Cavs some draft capital.
As for Strus, he’s still recovering from offseason left foot surgery. Strus has become a focal point in talks surrounding the Cavs in the aftermath of Saturday’s trade, according to Siegel.
He’s become even more expendable with the acquisitions of guards Ellis and Schroder. Strus is making nearly $16MM this season and has $16.66MM more remaining on his contract for next season. If the Cavs can’t move him this week, he will be a prime trade candidate in the offseason, Siegel adds.
As for the Kings, they’re continuing to look for any takers for Malik Monk, DeMar DeRozan, and Domantas Sabonis. While it’s unlikely DeRozan or Sabonis will be dealt before Thursday’s deadline, one intriguing suitor remains in the mix the big man — the Raptors.
Jakob Poeltl‘s ongoing back problems have led Toronto to consider the possibility of adding an impact frontcourt player. They’ve cooled on the idea of trading for the Mavericks’ Anthony Davis but adding Sabonis would be less complicated, especially since the Kings are interested in RJ Barrett.
The Kings could also help to facilitate other trades around the league with Monk’s contract. He’s in the second year of a four-year, $78MM deal. The Timberwolves have expressed exploratory interest in Monk.
Whatever the Kings may do this week, they will likely soon convert Dylan Cardwell‘s two-way contract into a standard deal.
As for the transaction that was completed, the Bucks and Lakers held trade discussions with the Cavs regarding Hunter.
The Lakers’ package revolved around Rui Hachimura and Dalton Knecht but they balked at not receiving any additional assets or draft compensation for the final year of Hunter’s contract. The Bucks made both Kyle Kuzma and Bobby Portis available to Cleveland.