- Wizards forward Chandler Hutchison, who was acquired from the Bulls on Thursday, won’t play for his new team until he participates in a full practice, tweets Ava Wallace of The Washington Post. Chicago had been listing Hutchison as out indefinitely for personal reasons, and he hasn’t been in a game since February 5. However, he told Wallace his conditioning is “off the charts.”
One of the NBA’s most reliable trade-deadline traditions is hearing after the fact which big-name players the Celtics came close to acquiring. Although Boston was active at this year’s deadline, adding Evan Fournier in one deal and moving Daniel Theis in another, the team didn’t let that annual tradition fall by the wayside.
League sources tell Adam Himmelsbach of The Boston Globe that the Celtics were a finalist in the Nikola Vucevic sweepstakes, having included multiple first-round picks in their offer to Orlando before the big man was sent to Chicago.
Additionally, Himmelsbach reports that the Celtics offered a first-round pick and a young player (believed to be Aaron Nesmith) to Orlando for Aaron Gordon, and were prepared to increase that offer, but the Magic accepted Denver’s offer before Boston had a chance to do so.
Here’s more from around the Eastern Conference:
- Another post-deadline tradition? Teams insisting they didn’t offer players whose names were repeatedly mentioned in trade rumors. The Heat did that today, issuing a statement stating that they never offered Tyler Herro, Duncan Robinson, and Precious Achiuwa in any deals. “They were asked for, but an offer was never made,” the team said, per Ira Winderman of The South Florida Sun Sentinel. While the Heat’s reluctance to part with Herro was widely reported, at least one of Robinson or Achiuwa – and perhaps both – would’ve had to be included in any viable package for Kyle Lowry, so saying they were “never offered” is likely just a matter of semantics.
- Although they were the subject of several trade rumors prior to the deadline, the Pacers were one of the few teams to stand pat. According to J. Michael of The Indianapolis Star (subscription required), that inactivity can be attributed in large part to the team’s belief in Caris LeVert. Indiana, encouraged by the early returns, is satisfied letting LeVert get back up to speed and seeing how he meshes with the club’s current core.
- Addressing the Wizards‘ acquisition of Daniel Gafford, general manager Tommy Sheppard cited the youngster’s shot-blocking ability and athleticism, as Ava Wallace of The Washington Post relays.
6:27pm: The trade is now official, per a press release from the Wizards.
2:57pm: Ryan McDonough of Radio.com provides the full details on the trade, explaining (via Twitter) that it’ll be folded into the previously-reported Bulls/Wizards swap that involved Wagner. The breakdown is as follows, per McDonough:
- The Bulls will receive Theis, Green, Troy Brown, $1.3MM in cash from the Celtics, and $250K in cash from the Wizards.
- The Celtics will receive Kornet and Wagner.
- The Wizards will receive Daniel Gafford and Chandler Hutchison.
The C’s will end up $950K below the tax line as a result of their series of moves, tweets Marks.
2:31pm: The Celtics and Bulls have agreed to a deal that will send Daniel Theis to Chicago and Moritz Wagner to Boston, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter links). K.C. Johnson of NBC Sports Chicago first reported the talks between the two teams (Twitter link).
According to Johnson and Mark Murphy of The Boston Herald (Twitter links), Jeff Teague and Javonte Green were also discussed leading up to the deadline, with the possibility of a third team joining the mix. Teague will be sent to Orlando as part of the Evan Fournier trade and will subsequently be waived, per Josh Robbins and Jared Weiss of The Athletic.
It’s not clear if a third team will take on Green or if he’ll be end up going to the Bulls, but the Celtics are believed to be acquiring Luke Kornet from Chicago in the deal, tweets Murphy.
The move will get the Celtics get out of luxury tax territory following their acquisition of Fournier, as Bobby Marks of ESPN tweets. Meanwhile, it gives the Bulls a solid backup center following their earlier deal for Nikola Vucevic.
3:00pm: The trade has been expanded to include the Celtics as well. The full details can be found right here.
11:32am: The Wizards will send Troy Brown and Moritz Wagner to the Bulls in exchange for Daniel Gafford and Chandler Hutchison, tweets ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. Washington will create a $2.1MM trade exception in the deal, tweets Bobby Marks of ESPN.
Brown, 21, was the 15th pick in the 2018 draft, but he has appeared in just 21 games this year, averaging 4.3 PPG. Brown is under contract for $5.2MM next season and will be extension-eligible this offseason. Wagner, 23, who has a $2.2MM expiring contract, was a part-time starter in Washington, averaging 7.1 points and 2.9 rebounds in 25 games.
Since the Wizards declined Wagner’s team option for 2021/22, Chicago won’t be able to offer him a starting salary this offseason higher than what that option would have been worth ($3.89MM).
Gafford, a second-year big man, has a $1.8MM non-guaranteed salary for next season. He’s averaging 4.7 points and 3.3 rebounds in 31 games. Hutchison, also a first-round pick in 2018, has appeared in just seven games this year. He will make $4MM next season and will also be eligible for an extension this offseason.
Wizards All-Star Bradley Beal mentioned that team GM Tommy Sheppard presents potential club transactions to him ahead of time, Chase Hughes of NBC Sports Washington tweets. At 15-26, the Wizards are currently 3.5 games behind the tenth-seeded Pacers for a play-in berth. Washington may have to determine whether to be in buyer or seller mode as the trade deadline looms this week.
“Whenever he brings something to the table, he always asks me or incorporates me, so I appreciate that,” Beal said of Sheppard. Beal, 27, is averaging a career-best 32.1 PPG, the top scoring mark in the NBA, across 38 contests for the Wizards.
The Pistons recently turned down an offer from the Kings that would have sent rookie forward Saddiq Bey to Sacramento in a deal involving Marvin Bagley III, league sources tell Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports.
After Jake Fischer of Bleacher Report suggested earlier today that Bagley would welcome a change of scenery, Haynes reiterates that point in his latest report, writing that the Kings and the third-year big man are “keen on discovering a corridor toward separation.”
A deal for Bey would be a long shot though, as the Pistons have shown little to no interest in parting with any members of their rookie class, according to James Edwards III of The Athletic, who says all four of those rookies (Bey, Killian Hayes, Isaiah Stewart, and Saben Lee) are considered building blocks for the team’s rebuild.
Here’s more from Haynes:
- Rockets players thought the team was on the verge of acquiring Magic forward Aaron Gordon a few days ago, but at least one source with knowledge of trade talks disputed that a deal was at the finish line, writes Haynes. Sources tell Yahoo Sports that Gordon doesn’t want to go to a rebuilding team, preferring to join a club with the potential to make a playoff run. While Gordon doesn’t have the ability to dictate his landing spot, he’ll be a free agent in 2022, so any team giving up assets to acquire him would want to be relatively confident it could sign him beyond then, Haynes observes.
- As other reports have suggested, the odds of a John Collins trade this week appear to be declining. Haynes says the Hawks haven’t been overly impressed by the offers, including a Mavericks package featuring Maxi Kleber.
- Cavaliers center Jarrett Allen isn’t going anywhere before the trade deadline, but Cleveland is expected to have plenty of competition for him on the restricted free agent market this summer. Haynes reports that the Pistons, Raptors, Spurs, and Wizards are expected to be among the teams with interest in Allen, who turned down a four-year, $48MM extension offer from the Nets before the season.
- A buyout is becoming a more likely outcome than a trade for Cavaliers center JaVale McGee, league sources tell Yahoo Sports. A buyout would be a bit of a surprise if there’s any interest in McGee, since he’s on a very movable $4.2MM expiring contract.
A total of 17 traded player exceptions around the NBA will expire if they’re not used by the end of the day today, as Bobby Marks of ESPN tweets.
Traded player exceptions allow a team to acquire a player without any outgoing salary, as long as the incoming player’s salary fits within the amount of the TPE (plus $100K of wiggle room). Trade exceptions are generated in certain deals and expire after one year if they haven’t been used.
We go into far more detail on the concept of the traded player exception in our glossary entry, so be sure to check that out if you want more info.
Most – if not all – of the 17 TPEs expiring today won’t be used. Many of those exceptions are worth less than $2MM, limiting their usefulness. The Warriors, for instance, have four trade exceptions set to expire today, but the most valuable one is worth just $1,925,880.
However, there are a few more notable TPEs worth mentioning. Here are the five most valuable traded player exceptions expiring today:
- Miami Heat: $7,533,867
- Memphis Grizzlies: $4,185,185
- Los Angeles Clippers: $3,567,720
- Sacramento Kings: $2,673,334
- Portland Trail Blazers: $2,338,847
The Nuggets, Rockets, Timberwolves, Sixers, and Wizards also have small exceptions expiring today.
Most higher-value trade exceptions, including the Celtics‘ $28.5MM TPE and the Thunder‘s $27.5MM TPE, won’t expire until the offseason.
The full list of current trade exceptions can be found right here.
Throughout the season, Hoops Rumors takes a closer look at players who will be free agents or could become free agents this off-season. We examine if their stock is rising or falling due to performance and other factors. This week, we take a look at players from the Southeast Division:
Moritz Wagner, Wizards, 23, PF/C (Down) – Signed to a three-year, $5.99MM deal in 2018
Wagner’s younger brother Franz is pursuing a national championship with Michigan and could be a lottery pick this summer. Moe Wagner, who played in the national championship game with the Wolverines in 2018, is currently biding his time on the Wizards’ bench.
Despite the season-ending injury to starting center Thomas Bryant, Wagner has fallen behind Alex Len and Robin Lopez in Scott Brooks’ rotation and hasn’t gotten his number called in the last four games. Washington declined its fourth-year option on Wagner in December, so he’ll be an unrestricted free agent this summer. A first-round pick by the Lakers in 2018, Wagner can only hope he’ll get a fresh start after seeing his career stall in Washington.
Kris Dunn, Hawks, 27, PG/SG (Down) – Signed to a two-year, $10MM deal in 2020
Dunn left Chicago and signed a two-year deal with the anticipation that he’d be a second-unit mainstay in Atlanta. Hawks fans are still waiting to see Dunn take the court. He underwent right ankle surgery in late December and has yet to make his team debut, though he has returned to practice. For a team intent on making the postseason, the Hawks may not have the luxury of waiting for Dunn to get into a rhythm. Thus, there’s no guarantee he’ll be in the rotation when he suits up. Dunn likely agreed to a $5MM player option with the aim of playing well enough to test the market again this summer. It’s a safe bet now he’ll exercise that option.
Duncan Robinson, Heat, 26, SF (Up) – Signed to a three-year, $3.1MM deal in 2018
Robinson’s name has been linked to some trade rumors, but whether or not Miami retains him, he’ll be making way more money next season. Robinson is expected to command an offer in the $15-$20MM range annually as a restricted free agent. That’s the value of a wing who can consistently knock down 3-pointers. Robinson established himself as a big-time shooter when he made 44.6% of his 3s last season in his second NBA campaign. That percentage is down to 38.9% this season but he’s still receiving around 30 MPG as a starter in coach Erik Spoelstra’s rotation.
Devonte’ Graham, Hornets, 26, PG/SG (Down) – Signed to a three-year, $4MM deal in 2018
It’s been a rough season for Graham after his breakout sophomore campaign in which he averaged 18.2 PPG and 7.5 APG. He’s dealt with some injuries, including a sore knee, and now he’s lost his starting job to rookie phenom LaMelo Ball.
The less he plays, the more time he spends hanging around the 3-point line rather than attacking the rim. With Ball leading the pack for the Rookie of the Year award, there’s speculation that Graham – a restricted free agent after the season — is available in trade talks. If Charlotte doesn’t deal Graham, it will have to decide how much it’s willing to pony up to retain him if he receives an offer sheet.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
Wizards forward Davis Bertans is expected to miss two weeks after suffering a right calf strain, according to a team press release.
An MRI on Friday revealed the extent of the injury, which he suffered against Utah on Thursday.
Bertans was one of the biggest free agent signings during the offseason, as Washington lavished the stretch four with a five-year, $80MM contract to retain his services.
Bertans picked a good time to have a career year last season, averaging a career-high 15.4 PPG and 4.5 RPG while shooting 42.4% from 3-point range. In 35 games this season, he’s averaging 10.8 PPG and 2.9 RPG while making 38.2% of his threes.
Bertans had a 35-point game in mid-February but he’s struggled lately, scoring in single digits the last four games. Rookie Deni Avdija and Isaac Bonga should see an uptick in minutes with Bertans sidelined.
- Fred Katz and John Hollinger of The Athletic teamed up to break down some hypothetical trade deadline deals involving the Wizards, including swaps that would send players such as George Hill, Spencer Dinwiddie, and Wayne Ellington to D.C.