Trade & Free Agency 2026/2027

[DanSchwartzgan]

Given the reasonable speculation on the 3-to-5-team trade, tho, that seems to have “BE PREPARED FOR MATHURIN MEDIOCRITY” written all over it.

I think this is reasonable.  I'm taking the position that we have 15 players at this point.  Sergio is signed and there are reports we are trying to sign Tarik (and it will cost us something to do it...which is logical given his history and the cost of his buyout).  You can put players whereever you like.  This is how I like to do it currently:

Lively/Gafford/Morez
PJ/Aldama/Martin
Flagg/Naji/Tarik
Christie/Klay/Sergio
Irving/Sasser/Nembhard

We also have access to moving Cisse from 2-way to third center and Morez up to a spot more befitting his draft status by trading Gafford.  Multiple places have reported many times that Gafford is on the trading block and one of the teams in our reasonably speculated 3-5 team deal has nothing at center at this point.  Look folks, this is going to be a large multi-team deal.  The players and puzzle pieces fit too nicely.  I believe Gafford will end up somewhere else and most likely in LAC.  It just makes too much sense.

So, what comes back?

1.  It could be nothing more than trade matching Aldama and we preserve the TPE
2.  It could be someone from LAC (and Mathurin makes sense as we've not heard anything about him and fits the bench self-creator/scoring guard role that is open on this roster)
3.  It could be someone else from one of the other teams in the group.
4.  It could be a trade match for Gafford from another team outside the group.  

No one is making making serious trade proposals for Robinson.  Some people didn't seem enthralled with Mathurin (option 2 above), so I simply suggested a more efficient player from option 3 above.  It was meant to be instructive more than a statement of ideal fit.  

Note that under #1 above, we still have the ability to use the MLE or TPE.  Under #4, we can potentially send out additional players and trade match whoever we wish (including Dejounte under a combo of #1 and #4).  Note also that in these scenarios the BAE is available as Sasser was trade matched in the larger deal by AJ Johnson.  If flexibility is a desire, then #1 provides it assuming there is something reasonable in terms of draft compensation that might come back from LAC if it isn't Mathurin.