GM: Sam Quinn, @samquinncbs

Salary Cap: $168,793,389

Luxury Tax: -$18,526,389

GOAL: Don’t make a desperation trade! You can dangle those coveted 2027 and 2029 1sts and see what you can get, but at this point, is it worth hamstringing yourself into a win now move when AD and LeBron have injury and age concerns?

But at the same time, LeBron’s clock is ticking and AD’s prime is closing, so you need to decipher if its worth making one more move involving those picks

Priorities

• Assess the value of Westbrook’s expiring contract with those ‘27 & ‘29 picks attached to see if there’s a long term solution

o   I’m going to sound like a broken record here but:

• Buddy Hield & Myles Turner package?
• Gordon Hayward & Terry Rozier package?
• What about the Bulls guys? LaVine, DeRozan, Vucevic?

• Or, in the alternative, do you trade just one of the picks for an upgrade rather than go star hunting?

o   Bojan Bogdanovic
o   Jakob Poeltl & Josh Richardson

• Lakers are projected to have over $30 million in cap space this summer… determine whether you’re willing to cut into that by taking on long term salary or if you want to keep the books clean to sign free agents

• Assess what Patrick Beverley + Kendrick Nunn package is worth, without a pick or not

o   Beverley salary: $13,000,000
o   Nunn salary: $5,250,000
o   Can salary match up to $22,912,500 in salary if combining those two guys

• Suggested trade: Beverly+Nunn+minimum to Knicks for Evan Fournier & Cam Reddish…

o   It’s conceivable Lakers can get this done without giving up any assets, as they take on Fournier’s money next year and send back two expiring deals to clear the Knicks books
o   Lakers have reportedly long coveted Reddish
o   Obviously, Fournier would cut the Lakers cap space in half and Reddish is also a pending RFA so he’s due to be paid too

• May be better off just going off Reddish in free agency without Fournier attached, but Fournier does a lot of things well that LeBron teammates need to be able to do

Players to Dangle

Russell Westbrook (1/$47)

o   Salary: $47,063,478

o   Salary match up to $58,929,347 in a deal

Patrick Beverley (1/$13)

o   Salary: $13,000,000

o   Salary match up to $16,350,000 in a deal by himself

Kendrick Nunn (1/$5.3)

o   Salary: $5,250,000

o   Can salary match up to $6,662,500 in a deal by himself

o   See priorities to see how much he can be combined with Beverley

o   Suggested trade: How protected would the 2027 1st have to be to pry Buddy Hield away from Indiana in exchange for Nunn + Beverley + 1st?

Assets Owned

• 2023 1st (NO has swap rights)
• 2024/2025 1st (NO has right to defer 2024 pick to 2025)
• 2026 1st (can’t trade because NO can defer to 2025)
• 2027 1st
• 2028 1st
• 2029 1st
• 2023 2nd
• 2023 CHI 2nd
• 2024 2nd (less favorable of MEM & WSH)
• 2025 2nd
• 2027 2nd
• 2028 2nd (less favorable of LAL & WSH)
• 2029 2nd

Results

Be sure to check back in over the next few weeks with the trade deadline window open now in our first annual mock trade deadline to see what mock transactions have been executed. The Mock Trade Deadline will conclude on February 2