While the eyes of the NBA world shift to San Antonio to see if the Knicks can complete their historic playoff run and bring home a title, the NBA rumor mill keeps churning as we move toward the NBA Draft in 10 days. Here are the latest rumors from around the league.
If Boston is considering trading Jaylen Brown — and multiple reports have said they are at least open to the idea — it almost certainly would be part of a deal to land Giannis Antetokounmpo. The idea being that Boston president Brad Stevens wants to force coach Joe Mazzulla to focus more on attacking the rim than shooting 3-pointers by giving him a star player who doesn’t really shoot the 3.
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Except, the rebuilding Milwaukee Bucks don’t really want Brown — a player in his prime and not on their timeline — something Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel got into during an interview on 104.3 WQAM’s The Joe Rose Show (hat tip Bleacher Report).
“They don’t want a mid-career player if they’re trading Giannis. So from what I’ve heard, they are looking at Jaylen Brown in terms of flipping him to another team. I’ve been told possibly Atlanta. … I’ve been told possibly New Orleans, who have young players.”
Marc Stein at The Stein Line confirmed that the Hawks are interested in Brown, if he’s available, as are the Portland Trail Blazers and Houston Rockets. Then he gets into the real challenge: Brown is set to make $57.1 million next season and has two fully guaranteed years beyond that for $126 million. Brown is worth the money, he is coming off an All-NBA season where he averaged 28.7 points, 6.9 rebounds and 5.1 assists per game. The problem is just making it work under the salary cap rules in a world where teams are scared of the tax aprons.
If the trade is Antetokounmpo to the Celtics for Brown, there will be at least three, and maybe four or more, teams involved in a very complex deal. And complex deals with a lot of moving parts are much harder to pull together.
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Agent says “10-12″ teams interested in LeBron
The most likely outcome of the LeBron James saga this summer is that he remains with the Lakers for a ninth season. However, maybe that idea is premature if you ask LeBron’s agent, Rich Paul, who said on ESPN he has not spoken to LeBron about this, and that “10-12” teams expressed interest in the 41-year-old.
I don’t doubt that many teams may have expressed some level of interest in Paul. However, there are other factors that narrow down that list: How many of those teams does LeBron want to play for? How many of them can pay more than the minimum? Can that team compete for a title (or at least be a playoff threat)? Does it keep him close to home and his family in Los Angeles?
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Put those parameters on the list, and you get the Lakers, maybe the Warriors (who might be able to use the $15 million mid-level exception), and… not much else.
Pelicans listen to Murphy offers
While teams have called for more than a year, every time another GM asked about Trey Murphy III’s availability, the Pelicans essentially hung up the phone.
No more, reports NBA insider Marc Stein at The Stein Line. He adds that the Pistons and Pacers have expressed interest, but you can bet the line is longer than that — these playoffs have shown how much versatile two-way wings/forwards are critical to teams that want to advance in the playoffs.
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Murphy is a solid wing defender who averaged 21.5 points and 5.7 rebounds per game, shooting 37.9% from 3-point range last season.
It’s likely the asking price for Murphy will be steep, but for a Detroit team looking for a secondary shot creator to put next to Cade Cunningham, it might be worth it.
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