The Chicago Bulls, Portland Trail Blazers, and Cleveland Cavaliers have agreed to a three-team trade that will send Lauri Markkanen to the Cavs, according to reports. Markkanen was one of the last big-name restricted free agents left on the market.
Adrian Wojnarowski broke the story, with Shams Charania adding additional details.
Cleveland is acquiring Chicago restricted free agent F Lauri Markkanen on a four-year, $67M deal in a sign-and-trade, sources tell ESPN.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) August 27, 2021
The Bulls, Cavaliers and Trail Blazers are close on a three-team deal sending Lauri Markkanen to Cleveland, Larry Nance Jr. to Portland and Derrick Jones Jr., a first-round pick and additional draft compensation to Chicago, sources tell @TheAthletic @Stadium.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) August 27, 2021
ESPN Sources: Cleveland’s acquiring Chicago’s Lauri Markkanen in three-way sign and trade with Portland. Bulls get Derrick Jones Jr., POR’s lottery protected future 1st and Cavs’ future second-rounder. POR gets Larry Nance Jr. https://t.co/CgN3mhaLHY
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) August 27, 2021
This is an interesting trade that moves three players who seemed to have all fallen out of favor in the previous homes. Markkanen was lottery pick for the Bulls, but never established himself and had been drafted by the previous Chicago front office. He should provide the Cavaliers some much needed spacing to go with Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley.
Larry Nance Jr is a versatile big man who I’ve always been a fan of, but was the odd man out in Cleveland’s backcourt. He should help Portland with the depth issues in the front court.
Derrick Jones Jr was signed by the Blazers last summer (after reportedly also being pursued by the Kings), but fell out of the rotation in Portland pretty quickly.
This seems like a solid trade for all sides, with each hoping to succeed with another team’s reclamation project. The Cavaliers are taking on the biggest risk with Markkanen, though. He could be a great fit with Cleveland’s young core, but if he continues to disappoint his contract could quickly become an albatross.
As I said in the other thread, I’m glad the Kings didn’t had out a contract like that for Markkanen.
But how are we going to feel when Vivek makes Monte make an offer like that to Bagley?
How dare you put that into the universe.
I fluctuate between chaotic neutral and lawful evil at this point in 2021.
I’ll let you decide which is which.
????
Bullet dodged. Holmes deal looking better and better.
I bet we see Lauri posting 20ppg in Cleveland. His minutes dried up in Chicago and so did his stat line. At 32mpg he was averaging 18ppg/9 boards his second year. Cleveland spent money and will likely make Lauri one of their high usage guys. When he is averaging 20ppg/9 boards, I bet people will start wanting him at his contract. That being said, I doubt his usage level on the Kings would be the same as in Cleveland, so around $8 to 9 million per year would have been justified for the Kings, if they made an offer.
This is definitely the year the Kings players transformed into superstars during the offseason, they will be signed long term instead of leaving, and then the recruitment of free agent superstars will begin.
Definitely.
Because Markkanen?
Absolutely! This is the year everything changes and the franchise is completely transformed!
I think you mean Simmons.
They don’t need Simmons! Their young players are budding superstars, we just need to be patient.
We need Simmons.
Who we don’t need is Buddy and Bagley.
Marty is a Sixers fan (in case you’re unaware). He’s under the delusion that Philly is getting a superstar return for a guy who can’t shoot the ball outside of 5 feet and is a mental midget at the FT line. As many Sixer fans are, I suspect. The same guy likely worth 4/170 when he’s gets traded (that includes the trade kicker Marty, I know what the base salary is).
At the same time, he typically says cynical things about potential success for the Kings. Based, in fairness, on historical precedent.
I would suspect Barnes, Bagley, and 2 FRPs (I waffle on potential protections) is the best deal the Kings will make for Ben Simmons. Whether Morey can hold on or get a better offer (doubt it on both fronts but I’ve been wrong before), that remains to be seen.
Maybe Marty can throw in 1.21 gigawatts to sweeten the deal.
Roads? Where Ben Simmons is going, there are no roads!
Super team, just not super.
Damn you Marty.
I’m really surprised someone was willing to pay him almost 17 million a year. I’d like to know if the last year has a player or team option.
The athletic reports the last year isn’t fully guaranteed. Only 5 million is guaranteed for the last year. Interesting.
Still, that’s $56 million tied up in a guy who is often injured an doesn’t do any one thing particularly well. That kid is fool’s gold, good on the Bulls to spin it into assets with value.
He’s an
eliteabove average three point shooter at 40% on 8 attempts per game. Agree that that isn’t worth all that much given his injury history.Which really highlights how good Hield is on far higher volume, and missed games that you can count on one hand.
Yeah, I’m surprised they got a first for him that’s likely to convey and an expiring contract.
That type of player sounds familiar?
Maybe the Kings front office should pay attention to how it is done.
You and your overly-simplistic analogues.
I think that’s about as good of a sign and trade as Chicago could’ve hoped for. They were already having a good off-season. If Markkanen is worth this, what will Bagley be worth if he hits 40% from 3? Maybe McNair read the room right on Bags as well. It’s a contract year for him now, and his career can’t afford to see him red-shirt any longer. Maybe his Dad will give him a green light to play through a couple of bruises this season?
Bagley isn’t going to jump from 34% to 40%, but I agree that Markkanen’s deal as a pretty much offense only player probably helps Bagley at the end of the season. In theory, it also helps McNair deal him, but he keeps not doing that, so who knows what he’s thinking.
He’s not likely to, and maybe it’s overly optimistic but, I think he could. In fact, all the signs are there, and I predict he should come close to splitting the difference at about %36, which is a winning percentage. Markkanen also shot twice as many, but he doesn’t do much else, and can’t run the floor. After comparing their stats just now, it seems to me Bagley is more likely to earn his $11 mil. than Markkanen is to earn $17 mil.. Maybe that’s not sayin a lot…
Agreed. The price that Markkanen got bodes will for Bagley. Both are often injured and offense only players. Both are full of promise but have so far disappointed. Lauri may have the slight edge due to 3 point shooting, but the market price has been set.
Trade value for more than 3 bags of chips
Three stale potato chips. Not three entire unopened bags of chips.
It’s always great when bad deals by other teams give us hope.
So much better than bad deals by our own FO.
Bagley isn’t even an average NBA player, but McNair is deliberately declining the apparently many offers for him?
Who knows what you’re thinking?
Markannen just got $17 million per year. How much better is he than Bagley? If Markennen is worth that much, Bagley has at least some value, but the team can’t or won’t deal him, even though he clearly wants out. It’s certainly fair to wonder what they’re thinking.
And your “declining offers” strawman arguments are weak. Why are you so compelled to constantly defend this (so far) feckless front office?
You’ve said that McNair hasn’t traded Bagley for some reason. Are you not able to think of any at all? Other than not being offered adequate return (which is my assumption), what’s left? I can’t imagine that he has any connection to a guy that he didn’t draft, and whose family is a pain in his ass.
This isn’t strictly a defense of the the front office, but a desire to understand what it is that you took the time to type. I won’t even ask for proof. If it’s your deeply-held conviction that McNair has some reason for not having traded Bagley, then you should just say that. It won’t make me respect you any more than I respect anyone with unsubstantiated beliefs, but at least we can stop having this dumb conversation.
We can still have our other dumb conversation about McNair’s fecklessness as a general manager, because so far, he hasn’t created a playoff contender with the ten million in cap space that was available. I can also repost the ESPN graphic again if you want to get into the five-centers-on-the-roster canard.
I’m fine talking basketball, but I’m not going to engage your weird fixation on me as a person any more.
hah, the inflated sense of self it must take to type something like that. As if my interpretation of your comments was somehow different than anyone else’s. Is there anyone else on here that you should warn about my being weirdly fixated on them? Or in their cases, is it just me disagreeing with them?
I don’t know a single, useful thing about you Carl, which is to your credit in a medium that strains with the weight of people oversharing personal details. The only thing that I can ascertain is that you dislike answering questions when asked, and when you deign to do so, their main function is to change the subject in order to avoid answering questions. Calling any query a strawman is pretty hacky stuff, and lazy to boot.
You post so many thoughtful remarks, and I suppose I can’t square them with the steady dose of conspiracy theories as they relate to the front office. I’d guess that it’s a result of being hurt and disappointed so many times, but since I don’t know a single useful thing about you, I’d like to point up that I don’t know what I’m talking about.
Weird barely describes the man.
He wants out but he has zero leverage. McNair can take nothing for him or simply let him sit on the bench and see what might eventually pop up.
Unfortunately Bagley is useless as a player and in the trade market. People in the NBA talk to each other. They know this about Bagley.
Until Bagley shows value or someone offers a little more than a dog turd for him, Bagley remains a King.
“Bagley isn’t even an average NBA player” People on this site are way too hard on Bagley. People are just pissed off over his Twitter comments and projecting that anger onto his production on the court. At 14 points/7.4 boards per 26 minutes, he is pretty average. He does have some value and potential left.
I agree with you, my remark was largely based on the fact that he’s missed so many games that a full assessment isn’t really possible. If he’s healthy, 17 & 9 aren’t unrealistic numbers for him, but if his defense remains terrible, that greatly undercuts his value.
Can you prove McNair hasn’t dealt him? Show me one story that even backs that up
Wit: It’s not for everyone.
More fake news, I’d guess.
Deep, deep fall into that ‘casm.
Got me on that one Roaddog. 😉
I could see Bagley shooting 2 of 5 from three in the first game and then missing the next 81 games.
His groin has to be weak still after his last attempt at playing in consecutive weeks.
To be fair, Bagley makes Markkanen look like he’s got Lou Gehrig dependability with a bit better defense.
Seems a good trade for Blazers and Bulls ! Cavs just got a over paid version of Bjelica!
They’re going to make Allen earn every penny of that 20 million making up for all the mistakes on d from everywhere else on the court.
I like the deal for all teams in theory.
Cavs love overpaying bigs that are at best average NBA players (Love, Allen, Lauri).
We’re so getting a bought-out Love as our all-star, big swing, PF now, aren’t we?
This actually makes sense if your motivation is a desperate swing for the 10 seed.
Go on….
The Bulls made out like bandits. I think that Jones will be the best player among them sooner rather than later, and they picked up an additional first-rounder.
Absolutely grateful that no one around here was willing to pay that much for Markkanen. A lousy defender who can’t stay healthy? Hard pass.
Agreed. The Bulls come out that one smelling pretty good. They’ve turned that team around pretty quickly up there. They really didn’t need Lauri and got something for him (unlike Bogi) Right now they’re starting 5 looks to be:
PG: Ball
SG: LaVine
SF: DeRozan
PF: Williams
C: Vuc
I think they are a playoff team in the East. They’ve gone from two seasons as the #1 seed a decade ago, to near dead last for two seasons winning 22 and 27 games in consecutive seasons to back to being relevant again. I feel like every team in the league has lapped the Kings in the competitive, to rebuild, to competitive cycle.
Yeah, I don’t love their roster and don’t know if they’re a winner necessarily, but they look like they will definitely compete for a spot. They also managed to build with Otto Porter eating a quarter of the cap and giving them basically nothing and not really hitting stars on any of their draft picks. Pretty good work.
They could be a playoff team in the East if things click. If nothing else, they should be fun to watch.
At the very least they’ve assembled an interesting, fun team. The East has sneakily become kind of deep, albeit top heavy in terms of the actual contenders (Bucks, Nets) and a few bottom feeders as well. The Nets’ trio will likely be banged up and the Bucks are beatable. The second tier teams like Philly, Atl and Mia will have a shot.
Funny how much their GM, Eversly, managed to do in little time compared to Monte.
He started in May 2020, Monte in September 2020…
I was going to say something similar, but I’ve beaten that dead horse ad nauseam. Just look at what Stevens has done in Boston in 4 months.
What HAS Stevens done exactly?
Got rid of the last 1.75 years of Kemba’s contract (If you count Horford’s partial guarantee coming back for next year) by giving up the 16th pick this year. Ostensibly this was to free up cap space.
He then signed Josh Richardson to an extension for an extra 12 mill, because…well I don’t really know. He has been terrible last 2 years.
He gave Robert Wiliams an extension that’s similar to Richaun Holmes contract, which might work out great. Pretty talented. But he has never played in 70% of games in a season, averaged less than 20 mins a game last year and played behind Tristan Thompson and Daniel Theis for much of season. I don’t hate the deal, but it’s a gamble.
So there goes a bunch of the cap space. Walker, Theis, Fournier out and Schroeder, Horford and Richardson in as the big pieces moving around. Are they better? Is that off season a big win when you don’t actually create much cap space for the future? And you gave up a pick this year to do that. I just don’t see that as some brilliant maneuvering. Feels like running in place to me….which maybe is fine.
Not saying the Bulls and Celtics are morons, I don’t hate all the moves individually, but the inclination to state these guys are swimming circles around Monte, seems based mostly on the fact they are making “bigger moves”, rather than the actual quality of what they are doing and building.
Managed to make a lot of moves, yes…I would be curious to see this boards take if Monte had given up Bagley and 2 first round draft picks (One in the top 10 this year) for Vuc and then signed a 32 year old Demar Derozen to 3 years 85 mill. Would we be singing his praises? I personally wouldn’t be, I guess mileage varies.
Lavine isn’t signed to an extension yet, it’s coming and when he does (hopefully for them) for all intents and purposes, that IS the team the next couple years. I’m not positive that’s a playoff team in the East. Likely could be, but wouldn’t shock me if not. Be surprised if they weren’t right in the 7-10 seed scrum like we all crap on the Kings for attempting.
I think acting like the Bulls are on some great timeline for success because they made a bunch of moves is a bit premature. They have that team for two years basically, without this years draft pick or one in 23′ to help or facilitate trades. They don’t have cap flexibility or much depth. They might be a little better than the Kings this year, but I don’t really envy them going forward, especially since Lavine isn’t even locked down.
Well, I was indeed refering to the amount of turnover (“how much”) and not the quality, as some people seem to defend Monte’s lack of activity so far by saying that he had barely time to put his mark on the team. On that particular argument, I call bullshit, and that was the intention of my post.
I assume you are talking in general, and not trying to put words in my mouth.
But let’s look at it differently; the Bulls got a certified All Star big who rebounds, passes and stretch abilities and fits the modern game, at a decent price. It baffles me how Kings fans acknowledge that we need more star power, but are unwilling to pay the price and part with members of our underperforming core to acquire it.
Is Vucevic perfect? No, of course not. Can you get a near-perfect star without breaking the bank? Of course guys like Simmons and Siakam have their questionmarks.
The Bulls got DeRozan. Is the price high? Sure. But can he bring veteran pressence and smarts like CP3 did for the Suns? Possibly, and at least partly. He’s become a very good facilitator in recent years, with last season an assist rate similar to Fox but at much lower usage and lower TO% and a much higher TS% than Fox.
Some here were interested in Ball, and I think he may also be a very good get for them. Caruso is a nice player off the bench.
They have some intruiging young guys in Coby White and Williams, and managed to parlay Markanen into a nice haul.
In the meantime, we appear to be completely banking on development of our youngsters and the knowledge that our D can’t get much worse and should be a bit better. Unless Monte manages to swing a deal, I think acting like the Bulls are on some great timeline for success because they made a bunch of moves is less premature than acting like the Kings are moving in the right direction.
It’s absolutely baffling to me how you can give credit to the Bulls for acquiring Vucevic and managing to hold on to LaVine in the process while being critical of the Kings for holding onto Fox trying to acquire Ben Simmons for example.
You seem to have a far more positive open mind towards one team stemming from a wider lens, while viewing another franchise through the lens of a keyhole resulting in a more often than not negative approach towards the other team in this conversation.
You aren’t the only one baffled by others opinion on this topic, that’s for sure. I find your opinion just as baffling as you probably find mine.
Guru! Are you telling me you don’t think this community would be open mined and understanding if Monte had traded for Vuc and then the team proceeded to go 12-18 and miss even the ten seed?
You have little opinion of your fellow members 😉
There are fans, not necessarily on TKH, who think acquiring Ben Simmons is a bad idea. Even if we’re talking about Barnes, Bagley and 2 FRPs.
You can always find someone against anything regardless.
And no, I don’t think many around here would be too forgiving if the Kings did what the Bulls did. Alot of people here aren’t happy with any of the decisions made by Monte McNair as is.
To be fair, I think plenty of the tune changes if a trade happens for a Simmons type player without using Fox, Haliburton or Mitchell in the deal (but mainly the first two). I can guarantee my opinion of this FO would improve, if nothing else.
Agreed. We already have that spot filled.
Yes, but for six million less this season, and on an expiring contract.
Advantage: Sacramento
Man, if that isn’t the definition of a low bar.
Larry Nance Jr. is really good when healthy. I’m not as high on Markkanen as others. He doesn’t put up any defensive numbers.
He puts up DNP-INJs like nobody’s business, though.
Yeah, would have picked up Lauri at 8-9mil/season. 4 years at $67 mil is way too much. Bet Lauri finds success in Cleveland, since they’re willing to spend and probably make him their main guy.
Main guy? I think he’s likely behind Allen, Mobley, and Love in their front court rotations.
Success = 26 wins
Philly just waived Anthony Tolliver. Perhaps they’re making room to send one out and get two back?
Ahahahahahhahaahahahhaahha. That could never happen. Silly Sims, optimistic thoughts regarding the Sacramento Kings is like Trix! It’s for kids. And that lame brain ripoff of Bugs Bunny. But I digress.
Even in a wild speculation like this, I’d not have given any extra weight to Sacramento being involved, unless Morey’s price has dropped by a couple of first-rounders.
Of course not Sims. Abject silliness, however, is the spice of life.
Tolliver had his contract guarantee date guarantee Saturday. That’s probably why they did it now knowing there wasn’t a team out there who wanted Tolliver in trade. Whether it’s a precursor to anything, well, we’ll find out won’t we!
Badge Legend