NBA trade, free agency rumors: Trae Young trade talk cooled down, Markkanen trade ‘difficult’

NBA: APR 17 Play-In – East – Hawks at Bulls

Saturday is when it gets real for the NBA — the moratorium ends at noon Eastern and all the deals already announced around the NBA can become official. (It’s also the first day of the California Classic in Sacramento, the first of the Summer Leagues, and the Lakers will see Dalton Knecht and Bronny James make their debuts.)

That’s not stopping the NBA rumor mill. Here are a few rumors from around the league heading into the weekend.

• Lakers, Spurs showing little interest in Trae Young. Once Dejounte Murray was traded to New Orleans, the question became whether the Hawks would retool around Trae Young and try to win now or trade him and start a rebuild. The expectation was always rebuild, but a comment from Zach Lowe of ESPN — that there is little interest in a Young trade from the Lakers or Spurs, two potential suitors — may decide for them.

Part of the reason the Hawks traded Murray instead of Young was that there was much more interest in Murray around the league.

• Markkanen trade is difficult to put together. As soon as Paul George came off the market, the hottest trade rumor became teams trying to lure Utah into trading Lauri Markkanen, with the Warriors reportedly at the front of that list. However, a Markkanen trade is hard to put together for a couple of reasons. One, Danny Ainge runs the Jazz and that means the price will be steep — they are not eager to trade him, they may just re-sign him in August (they can’t extend him until then). Then there is Markkanen’s contract, a steal for Utah at just $18 million for next season (the last on his current deal), a price so relatively low it’s hard to give the Jazz the return Ainge demands, reports Marc Stein in his latest newsletter.

“More than one rival team has shared the observation that it would be difficult for the Jazz to trade him in the short term — even if they wanted to…

“It obviously complicates Jazz efforts to get a trade package in return for Markkanen on the level of Brooklyn’s haul for Mikal Bridges when Markkanen is not under team control for more than a season and when his salary is…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/nba-trade-free-agency-rumors-074335032.html

Author : NBC Sports

Publish date : 2024-07-06 07:43:35

Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.