With the NBA’s trade deadline fast approaching, GMs around the league are taking a hard look at their rosters, meeting with their cap experts, and working the phones in order to improve their team, be it for the long or short term.
We already saw one deal transpire over the weekend, with the Denver Nuggets sending young centre Jusuf Nurkic and a first-round pick in the upcoming loaded 2017 draft to the Portland Trail Blazers in exchange for big man Mason Plumlee. Here’s predicting it’s the first trade of many over the next two weeks. Without further ado, here’s a look at the latest trade rumours around the NBA:
EZELI ON THE BLOCK
It appears the Blazers aren’t finished tweaking their frontcourt rotation. ESPN’s Marc Stein reported that Portland is looking to unload centre Festus Ezeli, who is in the first year of a two-year, front-loaded deal that sees him making $7.4 million this season but is guaranteed for just $1 million in 2017–18.
Ezeli, a defensive-minded big, shone for the Golden State Warriors over the past couple of seasons, but has yet to play at all in 2016–17 due to a knee injury. There is no clear timetable for his return, but the 27-year-old could make an impact when he does get back on the court for teams looking for help protecting the basket.
I SAID GOOD MORNING TO THE ROOSTER
The Denver Nuggets likely aren’t done on the trade front, either. Though they’re fighting for a playoff spot in the weak bottom half of the Western Conference, the Nuggets are thinking long-term with a young core building around budding star centre Nikola Jokic and Canadian guard Jamal Murray.
The Nuggets roster currently boasts a number of veterans on decent contracts, including Wilson Chandler and Danilo Gallinari, who are expected to be available to the right suitor. Gallinari (aka “The Rooster”, though admittedly I don’t know if anybody still calls him that) is the more coveted player of the two, and will have a number of teams angling to add him to their roster.
Enter: the Toronto Raptors, who, along with the Los Angeles Clippers, are reportedly monitoring his trade status closely. Gallinari, who is averaging a team-best 17.2 points per game this season, has played most of his career at small forward, but is comfortable playing the four in today’s NBA. Though he’s not known for his defence — the Raps’ most obvious area of need — he represents a clear talent upgrade over Toronto’s current forward crop.
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He’s also a player Raptors President Masai Ujiri is quite familiar with — Gallinari was the centrepiece of the Ujiri-orchestrated trade that sent Carmelo Anthony from Denver to New York back in 2011. Gallinari has a player option for $16 million next season that many are expecting he will decline in order to enter free agency this summer.
SIXERS LOOKING TO DEAL OKAFOR
It’s not exactly news that the Philadelphia 76ers are looking to clear up their muddled frontcourt, which features four players — Joel Embiid, Nerlens Noel, Dario Saric and Jahlil Okafor — who deserve significant playing time.
The odd man out appears to be Okafor, who has seen the floor for more than 30 minutes in a game just three times all season. The rumours of his Philly departure picked up over the weekend, and especially Sunday night when it was learned he didn’t travel with the team to Charlotte for their next game:
The third-overall pick in the 2015 draft, Okafor has been most closely linked to the New Orleans Pelicans, who can use all the help they can get. Okafor could form a formidable duo alongside Anthony Davis, who could help mask his defensive inefficiencies while benefiting from his solid low-post scoring production.
Pelicans point guard and former 76er Jrue Holiday has been rumoured as a potential piece headed back to Philadelphia — in my opinion a would-be coup for a rising 76ers team looking for scoring and talent in the backcourt as they build around Embiid.
IBAKA TALKS INTENSIFYING
Orlando Magic power forward Serge Ibaka. Ibaka has already been linked to the Raptors, where he would fill a most-glaring need in terms of both position and attributes, but expect a fair bit of competition for his services as any team looking to shore up their roster for a post-season push would, justifiably, be targeting the playoff-tested forward.
Ibaka was acquired from the Oklahoma City Thunder in an off-season trade for guard Victor Oladipo, but the deal has been a near-disaster for the Magic who now boast a crowded, dysfunctional frontcourt rotation and at 20-36 on the season are second-last in the East. The 26-year-old earns $12.25 million and is in the final year of his contract.
Ibaka’s availability, from the Raptors’ perspective, will come down to asking price — Toronto has two first-round picks in this year’s draft and wouldn’t benefit from adding more young projects to the roster heading into next season, making those picks prime assets to move before the deadline.
The question comes down to what else Orlando might want in terms of talent currently on the Raptors roster. Would you trade, say, Terrence Ross and two first-rounders for two months of Ibaka? Those are the debates likely going down right now in Toronto’s war room.
