After more than a dozen trades at the deadline, there are still many moves to be made, with lingering free agents, buyouts and executive contracts in the balance.
All the trades have been made. This season’s roster shuffling, barring a free-agent signing or three coming soon, is complete.
It’s time, then, to take a tour around the league for some post-trade deadline fallout, rumbles, analysis and storytelling:
Don’t be surprised that the Los Angeles Lakers were prepared to trade Dennis Schröder.
One of the Lakers’ prime off-season acquisitions, Schröder featured in trade talks with the Toronto Raptors for Kyle Lowry. The discussions broke down over the Lakers’ unwillingness to include the blossoming Talen Horton-Tucker in a deal for Lowry, 35, who will become a free agent at season’s end.
Schröder, 27, was available because of the gulf between player and team in contract extension talks. He has rebuffed extension offers from the Lakers in the range of $80 million over four years, according to two people familiar with the discussions who were not authorized to discuss them publicly. Schröder’s efficiency has slumped since his productive 2019-20 season in Oklahoma City, but he is said to be seeking more robust compensation in free agency this off-season. His previous biggest deal was a four-year, $70 million contract extension signed with Atlanta in October 2016.
More surprising than Schröder’s availability was the Lakers’ willingness to package him with Kentavious Caldwell-Pope after Caldwell-Pope was such a key contributor to last season’s championship — and when Caldwell-Pope, like Anthony Davis and LeBron James, is represented by the influential agent Rich Paul.
Lowry’s future isn’t the only free-agent drama looming for the Raptors.
Masai Ujiri, Toronto’s president of basketball operations, is also in the final year of his contract. There were strong rumbles last summer that Ujiri, General Manager Bobby Webster and Coach Nick Nurse were all poised to receive new five-year deals from the Raptors. Nurse and Webster have since signed long-term contracts, but Ujiri has repeatedly deflected questions about his future.
Like Lowry, Ujiri has been regarded by fans and the organization as Raptors royalty since the team’s championship run in 2018-19. It is widely presumed in league circles that only an overwhelming offer in a highly desirable market could lure him away from the influence and affection he has amassed in Toronto. Yet these many months without a deal and Webster’s rising profile as a natural successor have raised the question: How much longer will Ujiri be running the Raptors?
For a Canadian public edgy about the prospect of Lowry and Ujiri potentially hitting free agency at the same time, this counter question should provide some measure of comfort: Where would Ujiri go?
He was known to have interest in the Knicks’ job before James L. Dolan, the Knicks’ owner, abruptly decided last spring to abandon the pursuit of Ujiri to instead hire Leon Rose, a prominent former player agent. A worthy post-Toronto landing spot is difficult to pinpoint unless the Washington Wizards, who vehemently denied being interested after the Raptors’ championship, amend that stance.
Some around the league, though, have wondered about a potential down-the-road option that does not yet exist. The group heading expansion efforts in Seattle features the longtime sports executive Tim Leiweke, who brought Ujiri to Toronto for the 2013-14 season.
It only seems like the Nets make every roster upgrade they want.
The recent bargain signings of Blake Griffin and LaMarcus Aldridge, after the January acquisition of James Harden, have further entrenched the Nets as villains. Coach Steve Nash leaned in to the criticism with some humor when he spoke to reporters on Monday, letting out an Uncle Scar-like roar.
“It’s kind of funny to me, because for the last couple years, all I’ve heard is how bad I am,” Griffin said. “You sign with this team and everybody’s like, ‘That’s not fair.’”
The volume on complaints surely would have been higher had the Nets been successful in their attempts to trade the injured Spencer Dinwiddie for a wing player. Among the options they explored, I’m told, was sending Dinwiddie to Golden State for Kelly Oubre. Golden State rejected those overtures because it is still desperate to make the playoffs. While numerous Oubre trade scenarios came up, Golden State was not going to trade him for someone who couldn’t help the team in the short term.
“I think a lot of people thought he might be available, but we value him, too, as evidenced by not trading him,” Bob Myers, Golden State’s president of basketball operations, said of Oubre on Friday.
I liked seeing these three franchises take the biggest swings: Chicago, Denver and Orlando.
The Bulls, Nuggets and Magic are known (and sometimes criticized) for not pursuing trades as aggressively as fans would like. So you applaud Denver for making the most ambitious move in the West by trading for the Magic’s Aaron Gordon, which not only enhances the Nuggets’ ability to win the conference but also shouldn’t hinder them in the Bradley Beal sweepstakes if (when?) Washington reaches the point of making Beal available.
The Nikola Vucevic trade, furthermore, was bold for both Orlando and Chicago. The Bulls, who had no All-Stars when Chicago hosted last season’s All-Star Game, packaged two future first-round picks and Wendell Carter Jr. to get Vucevic, who played in his second All-Star Game this season — as did a first-timer: Chicago’s Zach LaVine.
The Magic turned heads, too, by initiating a total tear down and trading Vucevic, Gordon and Evan Fournier after they had been pretty convincing in the weeks leading up to the deadline that Vucevic was staying put. With Vucevic, at age 30, in the midst of his most productive season and seemingly getting better offensively, I thought he was the one Magic pillar they were bound to keep to lead younger players like Jonathan Isaac and Markelle Fultz when they return from injury. Several teams were convinced Orlando wouldn’t part with Vucevic unless it received a substantial offer; Chicago duly put more on the table than anticipated.
You never know who you’ll meet in Miami.
Trevor Ariza and Andre Drummond, two of the league’s most prized veterans as title contenders fortify their rosters for the playoffs, worked out in the same Miami gym in recent months.
Ariza and Drummond are among the prominent players who have been practicing at The Miami Perimeter with Stanley Remy, who trains Miami’s Jimmy Butler. Ariza made it his base while on leave awaiting a trade from the Oklahoma City Thunder, who dealt him to the Heat on March 17. Drummond trained in the same gym after he and the Cleveland Cavaliers agreed in February to seek a trade. When the Cavaliers couldn’t find a desirable deal, they negotiated a buyout with Drummond, who signed on Sunday with the Lakers.
Other veterans who have been spotted in Remy’s gym include the veteran center Greg Monroe and, in a surprise, Amar’e Stoudemire. As a player development assistant for the Nets this season, Stoudemire, 38, works with the team at home. Yet he does not travel with the Nets and has made occasional trips to Miami to see family when the team is on the road. Stoudemire has also been pursuing an M.B.A. through online classes at the University of Miami.
The Scoop @TheSteinLine
Corner Three
You ask; I answer. Every week in this space, I’ll field three questions posed via email at marcstein-newsletter@nytimes.com. Please include your first and last name, as well as the city you’re writing in from, and make sure “Corner Three” is in the subject line.
(Questions may be condensed or lightly edited for clarity.)
Q: Remember when people were complaining that the Nets traded away all their depth for James Harden? They’ve filled that depth out with LaMarcus Aldridge and Blake Griffin, rising young studs in Bruce Brown and Nicolas Claxton and an emerging Landry Shamet — plus Jeff Green has been excellent. — @MoneyDre123 from Twitter
Every time someone says that they expect the trade deadline to be super active, it never is. The one deadline that all of you said there wouldn’t be much movement, we get trades for guys like Victor Oladipo, Aaron Gordon, Evan Fournier and Nikola Vucevic. — @MoneyDre123 from Twitter
Stein: You sent me multiple tweets in the past few days that hit on two newsy topics, so let’s address both.
The Nets were always expected to be active in the buyout market to address their depth issues.
Surprising as it was to see Aldridge choose to join the Nets over Miami, it is no surprise that the Nets have made multiple signings. A free-spending title contender will always hold appeal to former All-Stars like Aldridge and Griffin, who not only covet the chance to compete for a championship but are also trying to rebuild their value as they head to free agency in the off-season.
The surprise here is the development of Brown and Claxton. I don’t remember many touting them to both become dependable rotation players so quickly — whether that’s because of faster-than-anticipated development or the natural benefit of the extra space created by offensive threats like Harden, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant. Or both.
I am pretty sure you were promised a frantic deadline day in last Tuesday’s newsletter. I never bought suggestions to the contrary.
This was the fourth consecutive season in which deadline day delivered a double-digit number of trades, and I expect the trend to continue. I can still vividly remember deadline day in 2000, when Atlanta’s dealing Anthony Johnson to Orlando was the only sad little trade to go down, but this is a different N.B.A.
You have to go back to 2009 for the last deadline day that featured fewer than eight trades. Although that certainly doesn’t mean we’re going to see landscape-changers every year, I will concede that last week’s activity exceeded even optimistic expectations like mine — even with Toronto’s Kyle Lowry staying put.
Q: As a lifelong Dion Waiters stan, I spend every waking moment wondering when our lord and savior of Philly Cheese will eventually make his return to the N.B.A. — Johnny Tse (Hong Kong)
Stein: Last seen in the league playing a minor role off the Lakers’ bench during their championship run last summer, Waiters is another one of the free agents who has been working out at the Miami Perimeter gym discussed in this week’s lead item.
Though that doesn’t mean that Waiters, 29, will get another N.B.A. shot, Brandon Knight has also been working out there and, according to a report from my longtime colleague Marc J. Spears of The Undefeated, recently earned an audition with the Milwaukee Bucks.
Among the factors working against Waiters: There are a lot of proven N.B.A. players competing for roster spots. I asked a noted salary-cap guru and transaction tracker, @KeithSmithNBA, to help me compile a list of well-known free agents without regard to position. A partial list from what he came up with: DeMarcus Cousins, Jamal Crawford, Yogi Ferrell, John Henson, Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, Damian Jones, Mfiondu Kabengele, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Jeremy Lin, Kyle O’Quinn, James Nunnally, Jabari Parker, Andre Roberson, Iman Shumpert, J.R. Smith and Isaiah Thomas.
Q: I love your newsletter and always read every word. But isn’t it possible to say that the baseball-style series you wrote about have contributed to the diminished state of home-court advantage in the league this season? — Bruce Klutchko (New York)
Stein: I love hearing how much you enjoy it, and we are very much on the same page on this, but perhaps that didn’t come through as clearly as I hoped in last week’s Numbers Game.
Various coaches and players have said that the advent of baseball-style series this season, in which teams play host to the same opponent in consecutive games to reduce travel, has been a factor in lessening home-court advantage in today’s N.B.A. Pinpointing exactly how much is not possible, but there are presumed sleep and rest benefits for players on visiting teams when they get to stay in one city longer. Put it on the list as a factor in the road teams’ favor along with the more inviting arena atmospheres for visiting teams given the reduced crowds (or empty buildings).
We will keep tracking the numbers all season, but I don’t see how anyone can dispute that playing the same opponent twice in a row, especially with a night off in between, results in more favorable conditions for the visiting team.
Numbers Game
31
The worst might be behind the N.B.A. in terms of dealing with the coronavirus — at least during the regular season. If the league can get through two more days, it will have made it through the entire month of March without postponing a single game in accordance with the league’s health and safety protocols. The league postponed 31 games in December, January and February because at least one team could not field the minimum required eight players in uniform because of either positive coronavirus tests or contact tracing.
3
The Nets and the two Los Angeles teams (Lakers and Clippers) are the only teams to avoid a game postponement according to the league’s health and safety protocols.
27
Twenty-seven of the league’s 30 teams made at least one trade during the season, including 23 last Thursday on deadline day. The only teams that did not make an in-season deal: Memphis, Minnesota and the Los Angeles Lakers.
21.5
The Knicks were the first team to surpass their projected over/under win total, according to the preseason odds compiled by Basketball Reference. The Knicks’ over/under was a league-low 21.5 victories; they entered Tuesday’s play tied with the Charlotte Hornets for fourth in the Eastern Conference at 24-23.
19.1
Blake Griffin and LaMarcus Aldridge, both represented by Excel Sports, surrendered an estimated $19.1 million in combined salary to become unrestricted free agents and sign veteran minimum contracts to join the Nets. Griffin (who gave back $13.3 million to Detroit) and Aldridge ($5.8 million to San Antonio) have joined DeAndre Jordan, Jeff Green and Nicolas Claxton in a suddenly crowded Nets frontcourt. With Joe Harris no less a fixture in the Nets’ closing lineup than their big-name stars, five big men are vying for limited minutes.
Hit me up anytime on Twitter (@TheSteinLine) or Facebook (@MarcSteinNBA) or Instagram (@thesteinline). Send any other feedback to marcstein-newsletter@nytimes.com.
Source: Basketball - nytimes.com
