Knicks, Nets among teams that need to make trades after NBA Draft, but before free agency frenzy begins

Historically speaking, the peak of trade season comes at the NBA Draft. There’s a common sense to that. Win-now teams frequently want to turn their picks into immediate players, and that becomes harder once the pick becomes an actual player who other teams may not be interested in. Free agency offers the chance to replace players who were dealt. Teams are at their most flexible on draft night. They have the whole offseason in front of them to figure out any roster problems that arise that night.

But, at least from a veteran standpoint, the 2024 NBA Draft was relatively light on the trade front. No active players were traded during the first round. The Mikal Bridges blockbuster came before, as did the Deni Avdija trade, but once the picks started coming, the player-based trades largely stopped. Thursday’s second round saw no-names like Wendell Moore and Lindy Waters move, but nobody of real substance.

And so, trade season has yet to peak in the NBA. All 30 teams could probably afford a tune up or two, but five teams stand out at the moment for specific reasons. These aren’t the five teams that need trades most in the entire NBA. They are the five teams that, as a direct result of their choices before and during the draft, have a specific sort of trade they need to make sooner rather than later. Ideally, these moves will come either before the free agency frenzy begins or soon afterward, because the longer these teams wait, the harder things are going to become.

The Knicks made their splash already when they landed Bridges. Now comes the more tedious part: filling out the roster around him. In theory, the Knicks could stick with what they have. They are currently below the first-apron hard cap that the Bridges trade, in its current incarnation, set for them. The only rotation piece from last season missing would be free agent Isaiah Hartenstein, who they were going to struggle to re-sign anyway because of Early Bird Rights restrictions. As it stands right now, the Knicks have a path to a starting lineup of Bridges, Jalen Brunson, OG Anunoby,…

Source link : https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/knicks-nets-among-teams-that-need-to-make-trades-after-nba-draft-but-before-free-agency-frenzy-begins/

Author : Sam Quinn

Publish date : 2024-06-28 15:31:12

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