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Trade Deadline Open Thread – BRUNO dealt, Cavs land Hood and Hill in 3-trade overhaul

So much for it being quiet.

3:15pm: We’re done here, I have to head to the ACC. Thanks for following along all day. RIP, Bruno.

3:05pm: From different reports, Marco Belinelli, Tyreke Evans, DeAndre Jordan, and the Celtics are all staying put.

3pm: It is 3pm. Deals sometimes trickle in late, but it looks like the Bruno trade is it for the Raptors today.

2:55pm: Some early buzzer-beaters, one quite surprising:

2:20pm: Some more smaller stuff, with a tax-ducking move from Portland and whatever the intent of New Orleans is here:

2:10pm: Emmanuel Mudiay is headed to New York in a 3-way deal.

1:25pm: It’s the end of an era: Bruno has been traded.

1:10pm: IT KEEPS COMING

These guys legitimately just traded LeBron James’ best friend. And it’s a straight dump just to get Wade back to Miami. This is incredible. I realize this post is now just Woj’s timeline with me reacting, but this is insanity.

1pm: More WojBombery!

My head is spinning. So the Cavs have turned Thomas, Crowder, Shumpert, Rose, Frye, and a first into Rodney Hood, George Hill, Jordan Clarkson, and Larry Nance.

12:20pm: This takes one of my trade targets off the board. A nice get for Detroit.

12:05pm: And we’ve got a WojBomb!

The full details appear to be Isaiah Thomas, Channing Frye, and their own first (not Brooklyn’s) to the Lakers for Jordan Clarkson and Larry Nance, per Woj and Shams. This is just…woah. It’ll be interesting to see how the rest of the day shakes out for the Cavaliers from here, especially since the Brooklyn pick can no longer be dangled (they already owe their 2019 first). This gives the Lakers salary flexibility this summer and an extra first to play with while flipping two useful rotation pieces to the Cavs. Fun one. Way to spice things up!

Ramona Shelburne adds that the Lakers are likely to keep both players, so eyes off of Frye, everyone.

The Hawks also flipped Luke Babbitt to Miami for Okaro White, per Marc Spears.

11:50am: Okay, here’s something: Marc Stein is reporting that the Raptors have tried to get into the mix for DeAndre Jordan, a framework that would require a third team to get involved. We’ve heard slight rumblings of this before, and I’m a little skeptical that it’s much more than noise. Jordan is a great player, but he’s also an impending free agent hoping to get a serious pay-day, and a trade would require either the Clippers loving Jonas Valanciunas (possible, but they’re clearing the deck and he has long-term salary obligations) or the two sides finding a third team who loves him and has assets the Clippers covet.

Stein is as well-tapped in as anyone, so it’s not entirely smoke, but this may be a matter of kicking the tires to see how low the asking price is. The Raptors also notoriously do not leak, so this could be angling from the Clippers’ side to increase value, or from the side of an agent to try to push a deal along. Maybe Masai Ujiri is even trying to push the price-point higher, knowing Cleveland has been linked to them.

If it’s legitimate interest, it would be a heck of an all-in play with the window open. Valanciunas is playing the best ball of his career and is four years younger than Jordan, but Jordan is an elite defensive rebounder (even better than Valanciunas, who is terrific), a better offensive rebounder, and a better lob threat (though Valanciunas is elite as a dive-man). He’s also better defensively by most metrics. At the same time, these are small gains with the trade-off being Jordan’s less seamless fit with the Raptors’ new offensive identity – he isn’t the passer Valanciunas is or as dynamic a post-up threat, and he turns the ball over a lot more despite fairly limited usage. Valanciunas has shown great growth this year, has some upside left to tape into given he’s just entering the peak of the big-man aging curve, and Jordan’s about to get a lot more expensive.

This would seem, then, like an all-in push for this season, and if Jordan walks afterward, the Raptors open up some flexibility they were looking for when shopping a lesser version of Valanciunas last summer, precluding them from needing to unload salary this summer. That’s justifiable, but if it costs one or two more pieces in terms of picks and prospects – and they’d need to send out two other salaries to make a deal work and remain under the hard-cap – that’s probably too rich a price. If Jordan opts in – he has a player option for $24.2 million next year that he seems unlikely to pick up even in a cool market – then the Raptors cap sheet could be a damn mess. The Raptors would have to be fairly certain they could move off another piece or make a run to a competitive finals to take on that kind of tax risk for 2018-19.

It’s a lot of risk and a lot to surrender for a change that doesn’t even address the team’s biggest need and carries over some of their current fit issues. (The deal could also be constructed with Serge Ibaka outbound, and the Raptors going twin-towers is all kinds of fun to think on.) It’s interesting, but yeah, I don’t think there’s a ton here. But at least we have something to talk about.

11:10am: OH MY GOD A TRADE! Jameer Nelson to Detroit, per Shams, because…sure. The Bulls get Willie Reed back.

10:50am: In not entirely unexpected news, Woj passes on that some teams have already turned their attention to the buyout market, which figures to play out between today and March 1 (players waived by March 1 remain playoff eligible). Some of this could be posturing – although with no teams named, the value of doing so is diminished here – and teams could still change direction (the fewer teams in the market for an addition, the less leverage the few sellers have). It sounds like it’s going to stay quiet, though.

10:45am: DeMar DeRozan did not even know it was the trade deadline. Again, the tone is very different from a year ago. Not that DeRozan has any say in things, but the team is clearly more confident in what they have than last season.

10:10am: Still not much going on. Jeff Zilgitt, Sam Amick, and Howard Beck have all mentioned keeping an eye on DeMarre Carroll. A Carroll deal would probably feel a certain way for Raptors fans, but it’s awesome that he’s recouped his value enough to where he’s a legitimate piece a team could add now. Sometimes health and a change of scenery are underrated.

9:40am: Still incredibly quiet. Sounds like DeAndre-Cavs talks have heated up and Spurs are kicking the tires on Avery Bradley, but nothing picking up steam. This is how it goes today, we might be mindlessly refreshing/scrolling until 1:30 or so. I’d guess with a lot of guys in the tier the Raptors could dabble in, the trading team is willing to sit until close to the buzzer and see if they get a better pick, better protections, or whatever.

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The NBA trade deadline goes down Thursday at 3 p.m.

It figures to be a little quieter for the Toronto Raptors than last year, when they acquired P.J. Tucker for a pair of second-round picks (on the heels of landing Serge Ibaka). As a reminder, the Raptors aren’t in a particularly great space in financial terms to make a huge move, not because they’re cheap but because of the rules that govern the league. They’re also far more content with their roster and performance than a year ago – at this time last year, Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan weren’t exactly hiding that they thought the team needed help, and they sung a completely different tune at practice on Wednesday, essentially saying “an upgrade would be cool but we like what we’ve got.”

Just how quiet has it been? Last year we had a rumor roundup post every day of the week and a nearly 2,000-word open thread by the end of the day. This year there hasn’t been one solid enough rumor worth more than a blurb in the pre-game news and notes.

We’ll update this post throughout the day with any Raptors-specific rumblings or any league-wide deals that are consummated.

Raptors/Relevant Rumors

  • 1:30pm: The Raptors have traded Bruno Caboclo to Sacramento for Malachi Richardson.
  • 11:50am: Okay, here’s something: Marc Stein is reporting that the Raptors have tried to get into the mix for DeAndre Jordan, a framework that would require a third team to get involved. We’ve heard slight rumblings of this before, and I’m a little skeptical that it’s much more than noise. Jordan is a great player, but he’s also an impending free agent hoping to get a serious pay-day, and a trade would require either the Clippers loving Jonas Valanciunas (possible, but they’re clearing the deck and he has long-term salary obligations) or the two sides finding a third team who loves him and has assets the Clippers covet. Stein is as well-tapped in as anyone, so it’s not entirely smoke, but this may be a matter of kicking the tires to see how low the asking price is. See above for full analysis.
  • 8am: The feeling around the team, via beat writers, conversations, and national writers, is that the Raptors seem more likely to be quiet but continue to search for ways to upgrade. A standard deadline-morning position.

Completed Trades

  • Orlando trades Elfrid Payton to Phoenix for a 2018 second. (Feb. 8, Adrian Wojnarowski)
  • Washington trades Sheldon Mac to Atlanta for __. (Feb. 8, Shams Charania)
  • New Orleans trades Dante Cunningham to Brooklyn for Rashad Vaughn. (Feb. 8, Shams Charania)
  • Portland trades Noah Vonleh and cash to Chicago for the draft rights to Milocan Rakovic. (Feb. 8, Adrian Wojnarowski)
  • Denver trades Emmanuel Mudiay to New York and a second to Dallas, New York trades a second to Denver and Doug McDermott to Dallas, Dallas trades Devin Harris to Denver. (Feb. 8, Adrian Wojnarowski)
  • The Raptors have traded Bruno Caboclo to Sacramento for Malachi Richardson. (Feb. 8, Shams Charania)
  • Cleveland trades Dwyane Wade to Miami for a second. (Feb. 8, Adrian Wojnarowski)
  • Utah trades Rodney Hood to Cleveland, Joe Johnson to Sacramento; Cleveland trades Jae Crowder and Derrick Rose to Utah, Iman Shumpert, a 2020 second, and cash to Sacramento; Sacramento trades George Hill to Clevleand. (Feb. 8, Adrian Wojnarowski)
  • Memphis trades James Ennis to Detroit for Brice Johnson and a 2022 second. (Feb. 8, Adrian Wojnarowski)
  • Cleveland trades Isaiah Thomas, Channing Frye, and their own 2018 first to L.A. Lakers for Jordan Clarkson and Larry Nance. (Feb. 8, Adrian Wojnarowski)
  • Atlanta trades Luke Babbitt to Miami for Okaro White. (Feb. 8, per Marc Spears)
  • Chicago trades Jameer Nelson to Detroit for Willie Reed and the right to swap 2022 seconds. (Feb. 8, per Shams Charania)
  • New York trades Willy Hernangomez to Charlotte for Johnny O’Bryant, a 2020 second, and a 2021 second. (Feb. 7)
  • Brooklyn trades Tyler Zeller to Milwaukee for Rashad Vaughn and a 2018 second. (Feb. 5)
  • Chicago trades Nikola Mirotic and a 2018 second to New Orleans for Omer Asik, Tony Allen, Jameer Nelson, a 2018 first, and a 2021 second-round swap option. (Feb. 1)
  • L.A. Clippers trade Blake Griffin, Brice Johnson, and Willie Reed to Detroit for Tobias Harris, Avery Bradley, Boban Marjanovic, a 2018 first, and a 2019 second. (Jan. 29)
  • Brooklyn trades Trevor Booker to Philadelphia for Jahlil Okafor, Nik Stauskas, and a 2019 second. (Dec. 7)
  • Phoenix trades Eric Bledsoe to Milwaukee for Greg Monroe, a 2018 first, and a 2018 second. (Nov. 7)

Resources

Here are some potentially valuable resources to color today’s discussion:

Please be kind and respectful to each other in the comments. This post will be updated throughout the day with rumors and official deals.

Photo credit: Trung Ho / TrungHo.ca

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