NBA 2026-27 offseason trades, signings & rumors

[Vermont Green]

BREAKING: The Cavaliers, Nuggets and Clippers have agreed on a trade to send Peyton Watson to Cleveland, Max Strus to Los Angeles, and an unprotected 2031 Cavs first-round pick and a 2032 Kings second-rounder to Denver, per Shams Charania.

Cavs receive: Peyton Watson (to sign a new 4-year, $88M deal)
Clippers receive: Max Strus
Denver receives: Unprotected 2031 Cavs first-round pick & 2032 Kings second-rounder

Mitchell
Harden
Watson
Mobley
Allen

That is a heck of a starting five.

CLE have finally gotten a starting SF.

It only took them 3 years.

This was my first thought also. Maybe this is finally the guy. I don?t know. He has had a lot of injuries for a young player. I don?t know his game all that well. But seems to have all the ingredients for a good wing.

[Who]

Yes Denver bench is awful. Cavs just got better. Wizards getting Mann is good, they have a solid team

The Cavs bench is fairly bad as well. They have lost their best backup big in Dean Wade. They lost D Schroder and M Strus to necessary cap dumps. That is 3 of their top 4 (Sam Merrill) backups. And they lost Keon Ellis in free agency as well.

With Tre Mann gone, does that leave Tyrese Proctor as their backup PG?

G: Tyrese Proctor
G: Sam Merrill, Meleek Thomas
F: Mario Hezonja, Cam Whitmore
F: Jaylon Tyson, Nae'Qwan Tomlin
C: Thomas Bryant

Tyrese Proctor is an interesting prospect. Not proven but interesting. Big guard who can defend & drive. If he pans out, their bench will be fine. If he struggles, their bench will be dodgy.

Sam Merrill is the only plus bench player. It is been a few years for Hezonja but I would expect him to be a middle of the pack bench piece. Same for J Tyson. T Bryant a below average one. T Proctor most likely a below average one as well. So no high level bench pieces, 1 good bench player, 2 average, 2 below average. A below average bench.

Meleek Thomas was interesting in SL but he plays the same spot as their best bench player in Merrill. Neither guy is a multi-positional player. James Harden is though.

[Goldstar88]

Shaquille O'Neal: It's not going to work in my opinion. You just said him, right. Tyrese Maxey just worked his ass off to become the man. Jaylen Brown comes out. So now for Tyrese Maxey, do you back off or do you say no, I'm still going to do what I do. Then Bron comes. Now we got Joel Embiid. Too many? it?s too many egos. Three or four people going to have to say, All right, you go.

[Redz]

Yes Denver bench is awful. Cavs just got better. Wizards getting Mann is good, they have a solid team

The Cavs bench is fairly bad as well. They have lost their best backup big in Dean Wade. They lost D Schroder and M Strus to necessary cap dumps. That is 3 of their top 4 (Sam Merrill) backups. And they lost Keon Ellis in free agency as well.

With Tre Mann gone, does that leave Tyrese Proctor as their backup PG?

G: Tyrese Proctor
G: Sam Merrill, Meleek Thomas
F: Mario Hezonja, Cam Whitmore
F: Jaylon Tyson, Nae'Qwan Tomlin
C: Thomas Bryant

Tyrese Proctor is an interesting prospect. Not proven but interesting. Big guard who can defend & drive. If he pans out, their bench will be fine. If he struggles, their bench will be dodgy.

Sam Merrill is the only plus bench player. It is been a few years for Hezonja but I would expect him to be a middle of the pack bench piece. Same for J Tyson. T Bryant a below average one. T Proctor most likely a below average one as well. So no high level bench pieces, 1 good bench player, 2 average, 2 below average. A below average bench.

Meleek Thomas was interesting in SL but he plays the same spot as their best bench player in Merrill. Neither guy is a multi-positional player. James Harden is though.

Tyson showed some flashes, but also disappeared some games. 

[Roy H.]

Shaquille O'Neal: It's not going to work in my opinion. You just said him, right. Tyrese Maxey just worked his ass off to become the man. Jaylen Brown comes out. So now for Tyrese Maxey, do you back off or do you say no, I'm still going to do what I do. Then Bron comes. Now we got Joel Embiid. Too many? it?s too many egos. Three or four people going to have to say, All right, you go.

This is one of those "time will tell" things; I don't think it's necessarily predictable.  We've seen various Big Threes full of gigantic egos mesh quite well, including Curry/Durant/Thompson; Pierce/KG/Ray; Lebron/Wade/Bosh.

Or, maybe we get Hakeem/Barkley/Pippen.

[Neurotic Guy]

Shaquille O'Neal: It's not going to work in my opinion. You just said him, right. Tyrese Maxey just worked his ass off to become the man. Jaylen Brown comes out. So now for Tyrese Maxey, do you back off or do you say no, I'm still going to do what I do. Then Bron comes. Now we got Joel Embiid. Too many? it?s too many egos. Three or four people going to have to say, All right, you go.

Yes, but I wouldn?t mind having those four. And Edgecombe.  I?d take my chances.

[Donoghus]

Our long national nightmare is over. Harden finally signs.

Shams Charania
@ShamsCharania
?
7m
BREAKING: James Harden has agreed to a new three-year, $97 million contract to return to the Cleveland Cavaliers, with a player option and a trade kicker, agents Mike Silverman, Troy Payne and Brandon Grier of Equity Sports told ESPN.

[Roy H.]

Shaquille O'Neal: It's not going to work in my opinion. You just said him, right. Tyrese Maxey just worked his ass off to become the man. Jaylen Brown comes out. So now for Tyrese Maxey, do you back off or do you say no, I'm still going to do what I do. Then Bron comes. Now we got Joel Embiid. Too many? it?s too many egos. Three or four people going to have to say, All right, you go.

Yes, but I wouldn?t mind having those four. And Edgecombe.  I?d take my chances.

Yeah, and Shaq could actually offer some insight into this if he went below surface level.

He played on teams with Kobe, where they won three titles but probably should have won more.  It took Phil Jackson to get them on the same page, and ultimately, they still couldn't co-exist.

But, Shaq also played on a team with Pierce, KG, Ray, Rondo, and Jermaine O'Neal.  That team was 41-14 at the trade deadline, and went 28-9 in games when Shaq played.  But for injuries / a bad trade, that team would have seemingly cruised to a title, despite the egos.

We'll see where Philly lands, but I'd love to see Shaq actually try to analyze the individuals involved, rather than just sticking with a one size fits all approach. 

[snively]

Denver choosing Jones over Watson looks bad.

[slamtheking]

Shaquille O'Neal: It's not going to work in my opinion. You just said him, right. Tyrese Maxey just worked his ass off to become the man. Jaylen Brown comes out. So now for Tyrese Maxey, do you back off or do you say no, I'm still going to do what I do. Then Bron comes. Now we got Joel Embiid. Too many? it?s too many egos. Three or four people going to have to say, All right, you go.

Yes, but I wouldn?t mind having those four. And Edgecombe.  I?d take my chances.

having those 5 to close out a game puts them ahead of pretty much everyone else.

[Donoghus]

Gotta give Cavs front office some props with cap management.  They should be hovering right around the 1st apron with the Harden signing. They're hard capped at it so it shouldn't take much to get under if need be depending on how the Harden deal is structured.

[Roy H.]

Denver choosing Jones over Watson looks bad.

I'm sure they'd prefer to have Watson, but they're a second-apron team. 

[DefenseWinsChamps]

Gotta give Cavs front office some props with cap management.  They should be hovering right around the 1st apron with the Harden signing. They're hard capped at it so it shouldn't take much to get under if need be depending on how the Harden deal is structured.

If you look at the advanced stats they actually should win the championship next year.

ahem* Kenny Atkinson *ahem

[Donoghus]

Gotta give Cavs front office some props with cap management.  They should be hovering right around the 1st apron with the Harden signing. They're hard capped at it so it shouldn't take much to get under if need be depending on how the Harden deal is structured.

If you look at the advanced stats they actually should win the championship next year.

ahem* Kenny Atkinson *ahem

Out of general curiosity, who did the advanced stats have winning the title at the beginning of last year?