re: Pelicans Trade Rumors and Chatter

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the 2024 2nd we have is a worthless pick, so you don't even have to put fake protections on it. Boston has the right to swap with us, which they will do, so that pick will be the last pick of the draft.

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Good point. If we move Kira and only give up that pick, it’s a win

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I still think we should move Naji if it means we can aquire assets for him, even though I love Naji.

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I think there’s at least a 50/50 chance we move him too. He should be actually worth something to a wing-deficient playoff team or contender. His salary is nothing and the new team would get his bird rights, which could be extremely attractive to cap-stretched teams that want to compete this year and next. Teams like the Suns, Mavs, LAC, Bucks, Nugs, etc., would all probably be interested in having Naji.

But moving Naji just for a pick doesn’t get us under the tax, so no way we do that without moving Kira first/too. If we package him, Kira, and Zeller, we can take back about 7.5 million in salary and still dodge the tax.

What we decide to do with Naji and Kira could give us a potential glimpse into the plans this offseason. If we do just a straight dump and take back no players, it could point to us not making any real major shakeups. Taking back longer term salary, even for as little as 7 million, makes it really tight bringing back JV and keeping Nance next year.


So with that in mind, would the 76ers consider Naji, Kira, and Zeller for Paul Reed?

His MPG have gone up a little every month but that has mostly been due to Embiid injuries and he only averages 13 mpg when Embiid is healthy. They have given him the start in games where Embiid has been injured, but he’s still 11th in mpg since the Harden trade and they have played Batum and Morris some as a small ball 5.

This gives them another bigger wing that is a better shooter in Naji for a guy who may not be in their playoff rotation if everyone is healthy. For us, it gives us another big who is more defensive oriented. He makes 7.7 next year and 8.1 the year after which is very affordable. Also, his contract is not fully guaranteed for the next two years, so we would have an out:
“2024-25: non-guaranteed, fully guaranteed if win opening round of 2023-24 playoffs or 1/10/25

2025-26: non-guaranteed, fully guaranteed if win opening round of 2023-24 playoffs or 1/10/26”