NBA trades NOT involving the Celtics

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/houston-rockets-trade-rumors-nba-draft-robert-covington-portland-trail-blazers-trevor-ariza-043326360.html



Report: Houston trading Robert Covington to Portland for Trevor Ariza, draft picks


Ryan Young

Mon, November 16, 2020, 8:33 PM PST



Trevor Ariza is headed back to Houston.

The Houston Rockets are finalizing a deal that will send Robert Covington to the Portland Trail Blazers in exchange for Ariza and two future first-round draft picks, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.

The Rockets will get a first-round pick in Wednesday’s draft and a future first-round pick. The deal will be finalized after Wednesday’s draft.

Adrian Wojnarowski
@wojespn
The Rockets are finalizing a trade to send Robert Covington to Portland for Trevor Ariza and 2020 first-round pick and 2021 protected first-round pick, sources tell ESPN.
8:26 PM · Nov 16, 2020

Ariza averaged 11 points and 4.8 rebounds per game last season in Portland, where he landed midway through the year after starting the season with the Sacramento Kings. The 35-year-old will join the Rockets for the third time, after a one-year stint during the 2009-10 season and then from 2014-18. He has played on four different teams since leaving Houston two years ago.

Covington averaged 11.6 points and eight rebounds last season in Houston, where he landed after starting out the year in Minneapolis. The 29-year-old just wrapped up his seventh season in the league.

[Create or join a 2020 Yahoo Fantasy Basketball League for free today]

Rockets still dealing with Russell Westbrook, James Harden
While the Rockets made a trade move on Monday night, it wasn’t either the ones that have been getting all of the attention in recent days.

Rockets stars James Harden and Russell Westbrook have made it clear they both want out of Houston. Westbrook requested a trade, and Harden reportedly turned down a massive extension — one that would have paid him a record $50 million per season — while making it clear he wants to be traded to the Brooklyn Nets.

So far, though, it seems as if trade talks for either star haven’t developed much at all. Houston may end up keeping both Harden and Westbrook to start the season — which kicks off on Dec. 22 — or even well into the year.

For now, the Covington-Ariza deal will have to do.


Bob


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https://www.masslive.com/celtics/2020/11/milwaukee-bucks-trades-raise-the-already-high-hurdle-in-front-of-boston-celtics-john-karalis.html


Milwaukee Bucks trades raise the already high hurdle in front of Boston Celtics


Updated 2:29 PM; Today 2:29 PM


By John Karalis | JKaralis@masslive.com



Like an unexpected crash of thunder outside your window at midnight, the Milwaukee Bucks crashed the opening of NBA business under cover of darkness, delivering a big jolt to the NBA.

The Bucks emptied their stash of draft picks for the foreseeable future and landed Jrue Holiday from the New Orleans Pelicans. They then cashed in role players to bring Sacramento Kings sharpshooter Bogdan Bogdanovic, improving the starting lineup around MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo and delivering on a promise to pursue a championship rather than rest on their laurels.

On one end of the equation, it seems ludicrous to suggest a deal that sends five players (Eric Beldsoe, George Hill, Dante DiVincenzo, Ersan Ilyasova, and D.J. Wilson) and what could be five first round picks (This year’s pick from Indiana, unprotected 2025 and 2027 first round picks, and pick swaps in 2024 and 2026) for Holiday and Bogdanovic is fair for the Bucks at all. If you look at it from the perspective of everything going out, it’s an outrageous price to pay for those two players.

However, he big prize in all of this isn’t those two players. It’s keeping Giannis Antetokounmpo and making sure he believes this is a team that will fix what is broken to pursue a title.

Marc Stein of the New York Times tweeted “The last two weeks have been filled with chatter that Giannis Antetokounmpo indeed plans to sign his five-year supermax with the Bucks before the Dec. 21 deadline to do so. The Bucks just made a trade that suggests they must believe it.”

The Milwaukee Bucks don’t get many Giannises floating through town. Even when they have salary cap room to spend, it’s pretty unlikely they’re going to be a star’s first choice. Now that they have Antetokounmpo there, and it seems he’s willing to stay, they have little choice but to make some high-risk moves in order to make him happy. It’s hard to win a championship without an MVP candidate on the roster, and he’s won two straight. Milwaukee’s time is now.


What the Bucks to get in Holiday is a proven performer who can defend just as well, or better, than Bledsoe but who doesn’t fear playoff moments. He can drive and distribute, and the Bucks hope is that with more space created by Antetokounmpo and others, he can improve his outside shooting. Earlier in his career, he shot somewhere between 36% and 38% but that has tailed off in recent years.

Losing Hill’s 46% shooting will hurt a little but Bogdanovic is certainly going to make up for some of that and he is a much more willing shooter, taking a 3-pointer 25% of the time he was on the floor as compared to Hill’s 13.8%. Again, playing alongside Antetokounmpo will give him more open looks, so he’ll likely see a little bump in his 37% shooting.


Add to this mix Khris Middleton, who was an All-Star for the past two seasons, and Brook Lopez, who has mastered patrolling the paint and protecting the rim, and the Bucks have now solidified a better starting lineup than they have in years past.

Yes, they have a bench to build, but they’re good enough now to find potentially cheap help from ring-chasing veterans who can fill some gaps. It’s not a perfect team, but it’s a team that seems to be able to keep Antetokounmpo around for a while.

And that’s what raises the hurdle in front of the Boston Celtics. The Brooklyn Nets and Philadelphia 76ers are already addressing weaknesses and the Nets seem to have an inside track on trading for James Harden. Now the possibility of Antetokounmpo leaving, and maybe even being a player in that sweepstakes, seem to be disappearing. Any playoff run the Celtics are going to make over the course of the Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown era is going to be a rough gauntlet from start to finish, and that’s now magnified with Antetokounmpo seemingly spending his prime years in Boston’s way.


Danny Ainge surely has moves that he wants to make, even though he didn’t have the assets to compete with what Milwaukee just pulled off. It will be interesting to see how Ainge responds, or if he can even come up with a counter-move. If he can’t, Boston might be stuck in the middle of the pack for while.


Bob


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Just for comparison:


https://www.yahoo.com/sports/nba-rumors-celtics-offered-pelicans-204416871.html



NBA Rumors: What Celtics offered Pelicans for Jrue Holiday


Justin Leger

Tue, November 17, 2020, 12:44 PM PST



The Boston Celtics' hopes of acquiring Jrue Holiday from the New Orleans Pelicans were dashed Tuesday as the veteran guard was traded to the Milwaukee Bucks instead.

Milwaukee sent Eric Bledsoe, George Hill, three first-round draft picks, and two future pick swaps to New Orleans in exchange for Holiday. So how did the Celtics' offer compare?

Kevin O'Connor of The Ringer said on WEEI's "Ordway, Merloni & Fauria" Danny Ainge and Co. put Gordon Hayward and a first-round pick on the table, but the Pelicans chose the Bucks' lucrative offer.

OMF
@OMFonWEEI
.@KevinOConnorNBA on #Celtics and trades heading into the draft:

The talk yesterday was Gordon Hayward + 1st to Pelicans for Jrue Holiday. Didn't materialize

KOC: "I heard Chicago asked about Kemba"
11:38 AM · Nov 17, 2020


It's no surprise to see Hayward as the centerpiece of the proposed deal. With the 30-year-old reportedly wanting out of Boston and mulling his $34 million player option, he's a prime candidate for a sign-and-trade.

Hayward and the Celtics agreed to extend his player option deadline from Tuesday to Thursday, which indicates a trade still very much is a possibility. All-Star guard Kemba Walker also has been a prominent name in C's trade rumors recently.

We'll likely know much more about Hayward and Walker's futures in Boston by the end of the 2020 NBA Draft, which is set to begin Wednesday night at 8 p.m.


Bob


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Don't be even mildly surprised if Horford never even has a chance to buy himself a Thunder hat before OKC flips him.  Ssm Presti is making Danny look like a draft pick lightweight when it comes to accumulating picks.  They are in full-blown rebuild mode.  NO WAY they keep an aging player with that big a contract.


Bob


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