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The Hornets‘ trade involving LaMelo Ball and Naz Reid appears on track to be officially finalized sometime on Friday, according to Rod Boone of The Charlotte Observer (Twitter link). The expectation is that, for salary-matching purposes, the deal will be combined with the Timberwolves‘ separate three-team Julius Randle trade with the Nets and Bulls and will be completed as a single four-team transaction.
The Suns‘ major offseason moves have been on hold until that trade is completed, since a draft pick Phoenix is acquiring from the Hornets in the Miles Bridges deal is tied to one that Charlotte is acquiring from Minnesota. According to John Gambadoro of Arizona Sports 98.7 (Twitter link), the Suns expect to complete both the Bridges trade and their signing of Luke Kennard early next week.
While free agent signings typically aren’t held up trades, Kennard can’t sign until after the Suns finalize the Bridges deal because the team is using the taxpayer mid-level exception on him. Using that exception hard-caps a team at the second tax apron, and Phoenix is too close to that threshold to fit Kennard’s new deal until after the team swaps out Royce O’Neale‘s and Grayson Allen‘s salaries (totaling $29MM) for Bridges’ $22.8MM figure.
We have more on trades and free agency from around the NBA:
- Nuggets restricted free agent Spencer Jones said in a video posted to social media that he’s “currently fielding offers, as we speak,” noting that his agent is talking to teams besides Denver (Twitter video link via Harrison Wind of DNVR Sports). “Any of these days could be the very last time I’m going to this facility,” said Jones, who recorded the video during his walk to the Nuggets’ practice facility. “Or not. We’ll see.” According to Darren Wolfson of 5 Eyewitness News and SKOR North (Twitter link), the Timberwolves have checked in on Jones but probably don’t have a realistic path to landing him due to their cap situation.
- The Clippers explored Kawhi Leonard‘s trade market for several weeks before reaching an agreement with Toronto, according to Jake Fischer of The Stein Line (Substack link), who says L.A. was under the impression from the league office that the NBA’s Aspiration investigation wouldn’t have any impact on a potential deal. It wasn’t until the two teams scheduled a trade call this week that the NBA told the Raptors they’d assume the risk for any penalties Leonard faces as a result of the probe, separate from possible sanctions for the Clippers, Fischer writes. That’s what led to Toronto deciding to hold off on officially finalizing the trade, though both sides remain confident it’ll happen eventually.
- ESPN’s Bobby Marks takes a look at 10 unresolved offseason storylines, including examining how LeBron James‘ free agency has affected a handful of teams and players. Marks also checks in on the top restricted and unrestricted free agents still on the board, evaluates possible extension candidates, and considers which teams still have open roster spots to fill.