re: Pelicans Trade Rumors and Chatter

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Im really liking Onyeka Okongwu as our trade target

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He’s got a poison pill contract so it’s difficult to make it work, but I’d love to get him, but don’t want to give up Larry.
If you can’t make it work with Kira/Naji then don’t do it.

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Y’all need to get off this trading Larry horse because it won’t happen.

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Correct. I like Okongwu too, but between our contracts and roster construction, the only way we make any type of significant move in-season is if we have a major injury, and even that seems unlikely with us needing to pay Trey soon.

The only move we are making is dumping Kira for tax purposes. I had assumed we would be for sure paying for the dump, but after listening to Hollinger and Duncan talk about Kira briefly made me a little more hopeful we can come out close to a net neutral.

If you missed it, they were talking about the G-League showcase and guys who impressed and mentioned Kira. Both agreed that he looks good, okay size, quick with the ball, and has a good looking shot, but for some reason it hasn’t translated whenever he’s on an NBA court. Hollinger basically said that if he was still in a front office, he’d be very interested in taking a flier on him.

The Nets and the Wizards are two teams I could see being interested. Both have a TPE or space to take him without needing to send out matching salary or go into the tax.

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Hollinger basically said that if he was still in a front office, he’d be very interested in taking a flier on him.

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Part of Kira’s problem is a lack of minutes because of injuries and then getting passed by Dyson and GTA.

A team like Detroit, San Antonio, Washington, etc, could be interested simply because they have a lost season anyway and want to see what they have.

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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”

I understand that we would have to do a little more work to avoid the tax and there are roster limit considerations, but I’m just giving a general framework for a trade. We obviously would need to get a third team involved or do two separate transactions. Everyone knows that if teams want to make a trade happen, these are very minor things that always get worked out.

I'm shocked that Hollinger or anyone sees anything in Kira because I see nothing.

He has no real skills outside of being fast.

Can't shoot. Can't finish. Can't really defend. Not a great facilitator. He's just not a good player imo.

Actually let me take back what i said in earlier posts, Kira, Zeller and Naji going out with Reed coming back only saves 1.9 million, we are 2.9 over the tax, so we would still have to shed another million to get under the tax.

Even if we send out EJ and take no salary back, then we are about 900k under the tax with only 11 rostered players, which means we need to sign 3 players to contracts, which would have us right back into the tax.

We cannot take back anything more than around 4 million and still duck the tax if we use those 3 players as salary going out, unless you want to lose one of Larry, Jonas, Trey or Dyson

In season you are only allowed to be under a 14 man roster for 2 weeks, so we would have to convert JRE and Ryan along with signing another guy.

And I don’t know where you got your information from, but minimum contracts do count against the cap, the NBA just pays whatever is above league minimum for veteran players with so many years.

And also, converting 2 ways does count against the cap, which is exactly the reason why we had to wait so long a couple years ago to convert Jose, because otherwise it would’ve pushed us into the tax.

Not trying to go back and forth here, but throwing shite that would never work against the wall based on false information is not going to help anyone.

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If you are a veteran player with more than three years of experience and you sign a one-year minimum contract, the deal will only count for $2,019,706 against the cap. This is done in order to entice teams to choose older veterans over younger, cheaper players.

The money in a minimum contract becomes prorated to the day a player signs if they choose to ink a minimum deal in the middle of the season.

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It would have to be for a player that we think clearly upgrades the team now and in the future.

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Who would that be?
I don't want to trade Larry either, but i'm curious as to who this upgraded player would be, b/c Larry when healthy is pretty damn awesome for us.