The Memphis Grizzlies have agreed to trade Jonas Valanciunas to the New Orleans Pelicans for Steven Adams and Eric Bledsoe.

Memphis will acquire picks No. 10 and No. 40 in this week's draft along with a protected 2022 first round pick via the Los Angeles Lakers. The pick from the Lakers will be protected 1-10. The Pelicans will get picks No. 17 and No. 51 back from the Grizzlies.

The move clears cap space for the Pelicans in free agency and have been linked with Kyle Lowry.

Chris Haynes of Yahoo! Sports reports that Bledsoe is not expected to remain with the Grizzlies.

Only way for this move to make any sense is if the Pelicans are plannong on renouncing their cap holds and entering free agency. MEM using their space means only NYK, SAS, OKC and now NOP will likely have space.

Tough pill for Lonzo to swallow. Despite a much improved 3 pt. shot he could be looking at an mle gig. Josh Hart may be lucky to get even that.

The Toronto Raptors have extended qualifying offers to guards Gary Trent Jr. and Nando De Colo. Both players will now be restricted free agents when free agency opens on August 2.

Toronto acquired Trent from the Portland Trail Blazers at the 2021 trade deadline in exchange for Norman Powell. Because Trent met starter criteria, he was eligible for an increased qualifying offer. Trent's qualifying offer and cap hold will be $4.7 million.

TOR has about 25 million in unguaranteed contracts for Rodney Hood, Aron, Baynes, and Chris Boucher. Dropping all 3 and renouncing Lowry gives TOR about 20 million in FA money only until Trent signs a new deal.

The decision to extend the qualifying offer to Nando De Colo is actually far more significant. As a basketball move it makes zero sense; De Colo isn't coming over and if he did he wouldn't help. The move does make it unlikely that TOR will try to get under the cap. If they were, they would cut every salary to make as much room as possible.

A better way to interpret it is in relation to the Pelicans earlier move. The Pels gave up 7 spots, a pick, and Bledsoe to open enough room to sign Lowry. Toronto signals they will hold on to Lowry's bird rights and that a sign and trade is possible. Lowry's market price was set by the Pelicans, now other teams can try to beat it.

Philly makes sense as a candidate. They can send out Simmons. Philly will be hard capped but no one in the league is better than Morey at finding bargain bin players. NOP might be wise to set their sights on Conley. A big offer puts lots of pressure on Utah.

There's still a strong expectation that OKC will search for avenues to move up in the first round, with a swap centered on the Thunder sending pick Nos. 16 and 18 to Charlotte for No. 11 as a deal structure to monitor, sources said. There's a sense among team officials that Oklahoma City and Toronto are exploring options on swapping the No. 4 and No. 6 picks as well.

Talks between the Raptors and Sixers are considered to be the most advanced of any early conversations Philadelphia has had for the 25-year-old All-Star.

And to clarify: Sixers brass have indeed maintained contact with Simmons and his representatives, most notably meeting in Chicago during the combine, but not too dissimilar to offseasons past, Philadelphia has thus far been unable to collaborate with its Defensive Player of the Year candidate on a summer player development plan, sources said. The overwhelming expectation around the NBA remains that Philadelphia will trade Simmons before the start of training camp.

OKC trades 16 and 18 for 11 and then 11 and 6 for 4 with Toronto. Toronto sign and trades Lowry and one of the picks to the Sixers for Ben Simmons.

A couple notes:

- Just hilarious that they have been unable to collaborate with him. Its Australian for "F off mate."

- Masai and Morey are both scared the Pelicans will do something silly like throw a bag of money at Lowry. A Simmons for Lowry trade is ecactly the kind of face saving move those GMs need to make to justify the big bucks.

- I love the Texas Hold Em aspect of NBA FA. The NOP were the first team to show their hand. David Griffin is some kind of Rumple****skin gifting AD and Jrue ringz and spinning them into Spencer Dinwiddie and Brandon Ingraham and a late 1st round pick. No way Masai and Morey let Griffin outsmart them.

Chandler wrote:not really interested in dinwiddie or fournier

sometime back one of the UK members put dinwiddie at least on my radar when he was extreme value (was it with the Bulls). But that much money with that many health questions no thanks. Screams buyer's remorse. plus i'm immature and still want to say F U to any player who made a hobby of kicking the Knicks when they were down.

Fournier is a nice player. I'm just way greedier looking for a killer on both ends and he isn't on either. Is he worth the extra dough over the bullocks and burcs of the world. i think our FO can get commensurate production at lower cost for a guy like him

Problem is Dinwiddie or Jackson are the most realistic shots we have at actually upgrading at pg

Windhorst: “So I’m not sure we’re gonna get a star on the market.” Spears: “But I’m gonna be at Golden State headquarters just in case.” Windhorst: “Well. The rumor out of Team USA is that Draymond is doing work [laughter].” Spears: “[Laughter] GM Green?” Windhorst: “[Laughter] That’s all I’m gonna say. The team building going on — the team building is that Draymond is doing work.”

Being that Beal is stateside and Lillard in Tokyo, its pretty clear who is getting their ear chewed off. The fact that KD might be in the same room is hilarious.

A deal is most likely to get done before the draft and Golden States pile of goodies will start to lose their shine. They need to play POR and WAS off against each other to create some urgency.

gradyandrew wrote:https://www.inquirer.com/sixers/sixers-among-teams-interested-kyle-lowry-nba-free-agency-20210727.html

The Knicks appear willing to offer him a two-year deal somewhere between $20 and $30 million per season, according to a source. However, the Knicks want to make sure Lowry isn’t just concerned with securing another lucrative contract.
New York will pursue Evan Fournier in free agency and are considering making a push for Spencer Dinwiddie, according to sources. Dinwiddie declined his player option for $12.3 million with Brooklyn Nets to become an unrestricted free agent.

The Boston Celtics acquired Fournier from the Orlando Magic in March. He’ll become an unrestricted free agent. The French guard, who helped his native country upset the U.S. in the Olympics earlier this week, is expected to ask for around $18 million per season, while Dinwiddie’s asking price is $25 million per, sources say.

So the Knicks, who could also re-sign Derrick Rose, have some options.

25 million for Dinwiddie sounds steep, even if it's WiddieCoin. If its less than 40 million for the two we could retain Rose and try to retain Burks or Bullock.

I think Perry was the Orlando GM when Fournier was drafted, so that could be something. Oladipo and Elfrid are a UFAs, so maybe Perry brings the band back.

Let’s be clear, Perry was the assistant GM in Orlando to Rob Hennigan. Rob was one of those fresh face wunderkind many fans clamor for. He was a 30 year old handsome assistant to Sam Presti in 2012 and Orlando bought him in with Perry as his assistant. He lasted 5 years and he is back with the thunder.
It is rare to promote from within when a team is not doing well.
Does that mean Perry was not compitant to take the role? DOes it mean the DeVoss family did not want a black GM for the team? Did Perry have a voice and was it listened too? Did he make the decisions that did not work out? Did he make suggestions that Hennigan did not listen too?

I don’t know. But I read over and over here that Perry was the GM and has “his guys”.
Let’s just say that Elf at 4mm on a team that turned it around as we did to get the 4th sees looks like a freaking bargain on paper. If that was “his guy” then so be it. We paid him 12mil over two seasons and nobody could take his job. Not that we did not try!

xavier wrote:

Philc1 wrote:Would Fournier want to come here after watching us blacklist his buddy Frank?

Then no player would come to any team because there is no team in which some player has not been given the opportunity that someone thinks he deserve.

Not to mention that a player you pay 18 million per season usually doesn’t have to worry about not getting a chance

Yeah it’s not like Kevin Durant just stiffed us after his manager told us he was signing here for over a year after his buddy Kyrie signed with another team

And we aren’t offering Fournier $18 million per year or Perry should be fired

Jerry Colangelo explained what happened with Love.

"I didn't think Kevin Love was going to play. I wasn't even sure he had much left to play," Colangelo said. "He reached out to us and said he was in shape and said he felt he owed us. And on the basis of that, we're looking at someone with international experience who at one time was a heck of a rebounder and could still shoot the ball. You know, being like a 12th man on a roster.

"Well, it didn't work out. He wasn't in shape. And he was way behind as it turned out. So you move on. Call it a mistake. Call it giving someone an opportunity. Someone who had equity with us."

This story reminds me of the time I was moving and my neighbor volunteered to help. Dumb **** threw out his back and I had to tell everyone in the neighborhood about what an out of shape loser he was. Funny thing is, that guy thought we were friends.

I hope Jerry gets some pushback. If I was Dan Gilbert I wouldnt let any Cavs play on the Olympic team again. You cant have a guy volunteer and get paid back by sinking his career and trade value.

My only working theory? K Love wants a buy out so he can join his buddies on the Lakers.

For those of us thinking about Sexton, he isnt worth all that deadweight.

gradyandrew wrote:I missed the Plumlee trade during the draft. It adds enough salary that CHA probably wont enter Free Agency. That's good news for anyone hoping to land Lonzo- I felt that if LaMelo wanted his brother there and vice versa, CHA had the sibling trump card. After drafting Bouknight, I don't see how they could find playtime for him, Monk, and Graham.

Article I read said Charlotte has 13mm left.

With them drafting Bouknight, I mean, you have to assume Devonte Graham, Terry Frazier and/or Malik Monk become more available. Devonte Graham is very high on my list.

gradyandrew wrote:Why is no one talking about the Spurs in free agency? They should have 40 million in space. I havent seen them mentioned anywhere as a potential destination for a specific free agent.

Utah saves some but not a ton by trading Derrick Favors to OKC. Knicks need a back up center so the fact that the Knicks didnt get involved makes me think they have bigger plans in free agency.

ESPN mentioned it among the 4 teams with Cap Space. When you consider they are losing Derozan, their $40mm has to replace his output. Meanwhile, the Knicks cap space comes from a variety of expiring vets and role players. Comparatively, I think our space is more likely to cause us to improve from a better spot where they will be struggling to use their cap space to be the same level of bad.