Biggest NBA Trades That Almost Happened
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Derrick Rose, Jeff Teague, and others have been traded. Whos next?
The NBA Draft is still a day away but we had two trades of note today.
First the Hawks, Jazz, and Pacers completed a 3 team trade. Jeff Teague goes to the Pacers, George Hill goes to the Jazz, and the 12th pick goes to the Hawks.
Marc Stein noted that the Hawks are now shopping their 12th and 21st picks in an effort to convince Al Horford to stick around in free agency. If they do keep the 12th pick theyll likely target one of the bigs that are likely to be available in that range.
An interesting note from the Celtics perspective is that the Sixers were in those discussions up to the last minute - per Jonathan Givony.
If the Sixers really want a veteran PG, does that mean rumors of their interest in Dunn are overblown? Or will they now be more motivated than ever to make a move for any point guard? Complicating matters (at least in my mind) is the growing sentiment that Ben Simmons will operate mostly as a point forward anyway.
The other big news today was that Derrick Rose was traded (along with Justin Holiday and a future 2nd) to the Knicks for Robin Lopez, Jose Calderon and Jerian Grant.
Unless the Bulls are going into full blow-up mode, this would seem to indicate that they are focused on building a team around Jimmy Butler. So the Celtics might have one less star player option to pursue on draft night.
That doesnt mean that Ainge will be any less active on the phones tomorrow. He apparently hasnt gotten very close to anything as of yet, but it sounds like hes prepared for several different scenarios.
All eyes are on the Celtics as the draft approaches. My final mock draft is as follows:
Source: http://www.celticsblog.com/2016/6/22/12009908/nba-trades-have-already-started---when-will-the-celtics-get-involved
