Tag: NBA Free Agency 2020

NBA teams won’t stop trading veteran Trevor Ariza this week

Trevor Ariza is the new Luke Ridnour.

Does anyone actually know where Trevor Ariza is set to play basketball right now? Are we even sure Trevor Ariza knows where Trevor Ariza is supposed to play when the season starts?

Honestly, if he doesn’t, no one can blame him. This man has been traded three times already in six days.

On Sunday, he was a Portland Trail Blazer. He was traded on Monday to the Houston Rockets as part of the Robert Covington deal. Then he was traded again to the Pistons on Wednesday night for the 16th overall pick in the draft.

Earlier on Saturday, Ariza was rerouted again. This time to the Oklahoma City Thunder as part of a 3-team deal that ended up netting OKC Delon Wright.

Now, all of a sudden, Ariza is on the verge of making some really weird history.

One more trade by the end of Saturday and Ariza could become the first player traded four times in a seven day span since Luke Ridnour in 2015. Back in 2015, Ridnour went from 5 teams in 6 days.

If the Thunder can trade Ariza one more time, he’ll have a chance to pull a Ridnour. Of course, NBA fans had their jokes.

Honestly, with the way Oklahoma City has been shifting players around? There’s definitely a non-zero chance that he actually pulls a Ridnour.

Honestly, I have no idea if that’s a good or bad thing at this point. It’s just a thing.

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NBA Free Agency 2020: The biggest winners and losers of free agency so far

No, it’s not too early for this.

Yes, NBA free agency just started on Friday night. No, it has not even been a full 24 hours quite yet. Yes, it’s probably too early to judge what teams are doing right now when there are still deals being made.

But guess what? We’re about to do exactly that.

This is a way-too-early breakdown of the winners and losers of the NBA’s free agency period so far. There’s still plenty of time and still plenty of players out there looking for new homes, but things have been intense.

Some teams have made moves for the better, some for the worse and some just not at all. Here’s your quick look at who did what.

Lakers free agency: JaVale McGee exercises $4.2 million option to stay

Los Angeles Lakers center JaVale McGee hopes to be back in a Lakers uniform as he exercised his player option on Thursday.

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The Los Angeles Lakers have one less hole in the frontcourt to think about filling now that they’ve received notice that their starting center for the majority of last season, JaVale McGee, has exercised the $4.2 million option on his contract, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic.

McGee was an integral part of the Lakers plan and success last season. His production at the starting center spot per minute was excellent and he also helped the Lakers accomplish their goal of trying to keep Anthony Davis fresh in the postseason by not having him play center all the time in the regular season.

McGee continues to be a very effective finisher at the rim and he was the recipient of many assists for LeBron James in the pick and roll. McGee should feast even more as a diving roll man next season with the addition of Dennis Schröder.

Barring a major acquisition, McGee should be expected to be the starter for the Lakers again in 2020-21.

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LeBron James recently shared a drink with free agent Tristan Thompson

The Los Angeles Lakers could be in the market for another center this offseason with Dwight Howard’s contract expiring.

Nobody knows quite exactly when free agency will begin, but an educated guess put it starting a few days after the 2020 NBA Draft on November 18. While the league and the player’s union are still discussing the details around how the next season will look like, teams around the league are already starting to prepare free agency plans. That, of course, includes LeBron James. While Lakers president Rob Pelinka will execute the plans for the Lakers, LeBron’s presence as a recruiter and approver looms over the process. That’s why it’s no small thing that LeBron tweeted last week about having a drink with his former Cleveland Cavaliers teammate and 2020 free agent Tristan Thompson. He also tweeted a reply to Thompson later that said “more to come.”

One of the potential side-effects of the NBA’s short term losses in revenue due to the coronavirus is that contracts may not be what they appear in writing, because team owners are hoping to hold more of the salaries in escrow due to the drop in revenue. This may result in more players taking cheaper deals to potentially win a championship, a category that Thompson absolutely falls into. He is coming off a pretty big contract with the Cavaliers but after two seasons in which the Cavs struggled, he may want to get back to the bright lights of big games.

Lakers center Dwight Howard, who was key in the season and the playoffs, is a free agent again and is expected to have interest from other teams, including the Golden State Warriors. DeMarcus Cousins has also a popular solution at center now that he should be recovered from his torn ACL and his friendship with Anthony Davis. Thompson, a better defensive player and offensive rebounder at this stage of his career than Cousins or Howard, is a longtime client of Klutch Sports Group and Rich Paul.

We also have to discuss that Thompson has a daughter who lives in the Los Angeles area with her mother, Khloe Kardashian. So a move to the Lakers would not only be a reunion on the court with LeBron James and a return to relevant basketball, it could also potentially be the preferred move for Thompson’s personal life.

 

Free agency expected to start ‘soon’ after NBA Draft on Nov. 18

The NBA hasn’t decided on a new start date but reporting suggests the offseason will come together rather quickly.

There appears to be a great deal of momentum surrounding a potential quick start to the 2020-21 NBA season, with the league eyeing a proposal of a start just before the Christmas Day holiday. While the NBPA still has to agree to whatever the NBA’s Board of Governors proposes, they do have one concrete date that they can work around: the November 18 NBA Draft.

According to the latest reporting from ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski and Brian Windhorst, it’s expected that free agency will occur soon after the draft is done. Typically there is about a week between those two dates but with a compressed offseason, it could be even shorter. The Lakers have the No. 28 pick in the first round of the 2020 Draft, which they cannot trade until after they’ve made the selection on draft night. They currently do not have a second-round pick.

As for free agency, they have plenty of key players who are planning to opt-out and become free agents. While Anthony Davis is a lock to re-sign on a new deal, other free agents Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Rajon Rondo, and Dwight Howard may find interest, and perhaps more money, from other teams around the league.

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