NBA 2026-27 offseason trades, signings & rumors

[slamtheking]

Kelly Iko - Yahoo
@KellyIko

The Memphis Grizzlies and veteran guard D'Angelo Russell are expected to work towards parting ways - either via buyout or trade - this offseason, sources tell @YahooSports.

Memphis is going to be bad.

"going to be"?  they already are

[Who]

Kelly Iko - Yahoo
@KellyIko

The Memphis Grizzlies and veteran guard D'Angelo Russell are expected to work towards parting ways - either via buyout or trade - this offseason, sources tell @YahooSports.

Memphis is going to be bad.

Going be a 3 team race for worst record: Memphis, Sacramento, New Orleans

I expect Memphis to be better than those teams.

They have good depth. Good balance. They should be a competitive team. A below average team but a decent outfit.

G: S Pippen Jr, Ty Jerome
G: C Coward
F: Jaylen Wells, Kris Murray
F: Cam Boozer, Jerami Grant
C: Z Edey, I Stewart

Others: W Clayton Jr, KCP, Cam Spencer, Karim Lopez, Q Post

I mean just look at those bigs. Z Edey, Cam Boozer and Isaiah Stewart are 3 quality big men. That should push them out of the cellar by themselves. Q Post as a 3rd stringer to deal with injuries. Jerami Grant as a combo forward who can play PF minutes where needed. That is a competitive group.

MEM do not need D Russell. They have S Pippen Jr, Ty Jerome, Walter Clayton Jr and Cam Spencer. So 4 PG options already. Whether D-Lo is on the team or not should not effect them. I would like to see a proper SG on the team especially since KCP is likely to be bought out although that process has been dragging on for almost 3 weeks now.

Lots of SF type talent. J Wells, Coward, Jerami Grant, Kris Murray, Karim Lopez. Coward will play SG. All natural SFs though. So good talent there as well. Low quality but serviceable talent at PG. The SG depth is the only real hole on the team.

You can go a long way without top tier talent with decent to average players throughout your team. Having quality depth. They should be closer to the 30-35 win range than the the 20-25 win range.

[Donoghus]

Kelly Iko - Yahoo
@KellyIko

The Memphis Grizzlies and veteran guard D'Angelo Russell are expected to work towards parting ways - either via buyout or trade - this offseason, sources tell @YahooSports.

Memphis is going to be bad.

Going be a 3 team race for worst record: Memphis, Sacramento, New Orleans

You're forgetting Brooklyn

[Goldstar88]

Kelly Iko - Yahoo
@KellyIko

The Memphis Grizzlies and veteran guard D'Angelo Russell are expected to work towards parting ways - either via buyout or trade - this offseason, sources tell @YahooSports.

Memphis is going to be bad.

Going be a 3 team race for worst record: Memphis, Sacramento, New Orleans

I expect Memphis to be better than those teams.

They have good depth. Good balance. They should be a competitive team. A below average team but a decent outfit.

G: S Pippen Jr, Ty Jerome
G: C Coward
F: Jaylen Wells, Kris Murray
F: Cam Boozer, Jerami Grant
C: Z Edey, I Stewart

Others: W Clayton Jr, KCP, Cam Spencer, Karim Lopez, Q Post

I mean just look at those bigs. Z Edey, Cam Boozer and Isaiah Stewart are 3 quality big men. That should push them out of the cellar by themselves. Q Post as a 3rd stringer to deal with injuries. Jerami Grant as a combo forward who can play PF minutes where needed. That is a competitive group.

MEM do not need D Russell. They have S Pippen Jr, Ty Jerome, Walter Clayton Jr and Cam Spencer. So 4 PG options already. Whether D-Lo is on the team or not should not effect them. I would like to see a proper SG on the team especially since KCP is likely to be bought out although that process has been dragging on for almost 3 weeks now.

Lots of SF type talent. J Wells, Coward, Jerami Grant, Kris Murray, Karim Lopez. Coward will play SG. All natural SFs though. So good talent there as well. Low quality but serviceable talent at PG. The SG depth is the only real hole on the team.

You can go a long way without top tier talent with decent to average players throughout your team. Having quality depth. They should be closer to the 30-35 win range than the the 20-25 win range.

If we are assuming guys are healthy the Pelicans should be quite a bit better than Memphis, Sacramento, Brooklyn.

Starters: Murray, Murphy, Bey, Zion, Missi
Bench: Fears, Poole, Herb Jones, Queen,

[Who]

If we are assuming guys are healthy the Pelicans should be quite a bit better than Memphis, Sacramento, Brooklyn.

Starters: Murray, Murphy, Bey, Zion, Missi
Bench: Fears, Poole, Herb Jones, Queen,

That will depend on their young guys and whether they can make a big step / leap forward. In particular Derik Queen.

I am not confident in their big man rotation right now. Queen was one of the worst if not the worst starting center in the league last year. Missi stagnated in Year 2 and remained a below average backup center. So 2 weak-links ... but weak-links with upside to become quality players.

Zion is not a true big. He is more of a forward. So they are dependent on those 2 young guys to carry them in the paint. Especially in terms of interior defense & rebounding.

Trey Murphy is their only reliable two-way wing. Herbert Jones is great defensively but he has only had 1 good offensive year in his 5 year career and is coming off the worst season of his career. S Bey is a solid offensive backup PF/SF but struggles defensively.

J Poole is a wild card. You never know what you are going to get with him - whether he will be efficient or not on offense because he is going to shoot either way. His defense is consistently terrible.

A full season of Dejounte Murray will help but it is debatable how much he impacts winning. Likely more of a smaller positive / smaller improvement than a big improvement for NOP. Then there is Fears and whether he can make a leap forward or not. He has a lot of flaws to fix.

-------

To me, this is a team with a lot of question marks / a lot of doubts. Not much you can hang your hat on (other than Zion & Trey Murphy and to a lesser degree Dejounte Murray).

If a lot goes right for them -- if their young guys have breakout years -- I could see them surpassing Memphis but I am more a doubter. I think that will be a longer process of slow and steady development rather than guys primed for a huge season.

So it is possible but I wouldn't bet on them.

I would bet on Memphis finishing ahead of them. They got a lot of pieces you can bank on.

[No Nickname]

Now that LeBron has announced, I assume all the other dominoes this offseason will start falling quickly.

Peyton Watson and Beal are the most interesting stories left, to me at least.

They're not that interesting, but for what's left of free agency those are the subplots I'll give at least passing interest to.

[Celtics2021]

Now that LeBron has announced, I assume all the other dominoes this offseason will start falling quickly.

Peyton Watson and Beal are the most interesting stories left, to me at least.

They're not that interesting, but for what's left of free agency those are the subplots I'll give at least passing interest to.

The Duren saga is the most interesting to me.  How far apart can they actually be?  Would he dare take the qualifying offer so he can be unrestricted next summer?

[Donoghus]

So what's Harden's contract gonna look like now?

[DefenseWinsChamps]

SAN ANTONIO -- San Antonio Spurs star Victor Wembanyama has agreed to a five-year, $252 million maximum rookie-scale contract extension, sources told ESPN's Shams Charania on Friday.

The deal includes a player option in the fifth season, sources said. Wembanyama decided on the 25% maximum instead of the 30% supermax escalators to $303 million after he and the Spurs went through multiple frameworks, sources said. The deal could potentially save the Spurs roughly $50 million over the next five years.

"Spurs family, I'm here to stay," Wembanyama posted on social media Friday. "Whatever it takes."

I can't believe that agents and players are alllwing owners to cry poverty and give back deserved compensation like this.

Awful for the league. SAS already have a huge advantage with Wemby on a max contract given he is far more valuable than what the max allows.

This is a form a cheating as far as I am concerned.

Players should be shamed for doing this. Not celebrated.

In light Lebron James taking way less than his market value, I'm curious about your and other's take on the Wemby contract.

[Who]

In light Lebron James taking way less than his market value, I'm curious about your and other's take on the Wemby contract.

There is also a difficult with what LeBron's actual market value is today. His market value is different from his value on the court. He is still playing at a max contract level (or close to it) ... however, nobody was offering him the max. The Lakers were the only option to do so and they chose not to. Nobody else offered him that money.

Nobody else was offering him $40+mil per year. Or $30+mil per year. We didn't ever hear about anyone offering him $20+mil a year. There was no market for LeBron.

LeBron's market value was closer to an MLE contract. It is not even clear how many teams were willing to offer him the full MLE. It doesn't appear that any team he wanted to join / was willing to join had the full MLE to offer.

So his market value was closer to taxpayer MLE or a minimum contract. He took the minimum.

[Who]

Oops. I edited my first comment by accident. I meant to make a 2nd comment about what LeBron's market value actually was but ended up eating my Wemby response. Anyway ....

In light Lebron James taking way less than his market value, I'm curious about your and other's take on the Wemby contract.

Same as before. This is a form of a cheating. Wemby is a cheat.

I do not see what Wemby did as being comparable to what LeBron has done this summer at 42 years of age. Wemby is an MVP candidate / franchise player. LeBron isn't. LeBron is at the end of the career. I see what LeBron has done as similar to Karl Malone joining the Lakers in 2003-04 for a year.

Now while I do not see what LeBron has done this summer as comparable to Wemby's situation ... LeBron has actually done the same thing as Wemby in the past.

When LeBron went to Miami, he took a paycut at below a max contract (along with D-Wade and maybe Bosh as well) in order to free up extra money for Miami to use on role players. I believe they used the money on U Haslem and/or Mike Miller. LeBron was heavily criticised for this and was so heavily criticised that he swore never to do it again. That he agreed with the criticism. That as an MVP level player he should not be taking less than the max. And he only took max contracts from then on. He kept his word.

I have no issue with not doing so this summer. He is no longer and MVP candidate / franchise player. He is 42 years old. He is looking for one last job before he is retires.

[Boston Garden Leprechaun]

Now that LeBron has announced, I assume all the other dominoes this offseason will start falling quickly.

Peyton Watson and Beal are the most interesting stories left, to me at least.

They're not that interesting, but for what's left of free agency those are the subplots I'll give at least passing interest to.

meh

[Who]

Spencer Jones and the Oklahoma City Thunder have agreed to a two-year, $12 million offer sheet.

The Denver Nuggets will have the opportunity to match the offer sheet as Jones is a restricted free agent.

Jones appeared in 64 games last season with the Nuggets, averaging 5.5 points and 3.3 rebounds in 22.1 minutes while shooting 39.6 percent on three-point shooting.

I don't think much of Spencer Jones but he would give OKC something different off their bench. They already lacked some size at the wing / forward positions which has increased with the loss of Lu Dort.

Their bench is rather small.

G: Ajay Mitchell, Nikola Topic
G: Jared McCain, B Stirz
F: Alex Caruso
F: Kendrich Williams
C: Jaylin Williams, T Sorber, A Mara

So Kenrich Williams is the only true forward on their bench. He is more of a hustle player. I would play him ahead of Spencer Jones. Kenrich more of a defender / rebounder with a low level jump shot. Spencer Jones is the opposite. A good shooter who is a dodgy defender & rebounder.

If I were DEN, I'd let him go. They have tax issues. 2nd apron issues. Not worth the money he'd cost them. Plus, just getting Spencer Jones off the team so that stupid coach doesn't overplay him would be an addition by subtraction. 

[Who]

The Miami Heat are expected to renew talks with free agent DeMar DeRozan after LeBron James chose the Philadelphia 76ers on Friday. Miami and DeRozan have held mutual interest in the past

DeRozan averaged 18.4 points on 49.7 percent shooting across 77 starts for the Sacramento Kings last season, adding 4.1 assists and 2.1 rebounds per game.

A veteran Eastern Conference scout offered a candid assessment of DeRozan's potential fit in Miami.

"He's had years in San Antonio where he passed it more," said the scout. "He's a midrange guy and on a given night, he can get you points. He doesn't do much else. If he accepted the role off the bench, and then finishes the game, he could be fine."

Shams added

ESPN's Shams Charania indicated Friday that DeRozan and free agent Bradley Beal represent Miami's most realistic remaining targets following James' decision.

"Now they will now shift their focus to players like Demar DeRozan, Bradley Beal," said Charania. "Could you find a player like Klay Thompson on the buyout market?"

[Roy H.]

I like all of DeRozan, Giannis and Bam.

I think they would be horrible in the same lineup together.

I'm hoping that DeRozan goes back to Toronto.