Harrison Barnes and Boston Celtics have been intertwined for what feels like months now as we approach the March 25th trade deadline.
Brian Scalabrine, the color announcer for the Celtics has talked about Barnes being the guy for Ainge. He mentioned that the Jerami Grant and Nikola Vucevic rumors are all smoke.
This time of year is filled with such smoke and purposeful leaks from front offices, and Monte McNair has kept a close hand. Sam Amick has now reported that the assets Boston has to offer Sacramento may not be enough to pry the 6’8″ forward out of Sactown.
While this is most assuredly a gap year, as myself and Jason Jones wrote recently, the combination of Barnes’ play, his professionalism and his declining pay ($20.2 million next season; $18.3 million in 2022-23) is such that it will take a significant offer to pry him away. And the Kings’ ability to remain competitive, it seems, will be a factor in the decision.
Translation: A combination of late first-round draft picks and young players like the ones wearing green in Boston, it appears, likely wouldn’t be enough to get it done. The Kings are clearly still pondering the possibility of adding the kind of impact piece that they believe would put them in the playoff mix.
This may be McNair attempting to pull more assets from Ainge. Perhaps something along the lines of Grant Williams and a first is the current offer, but the Kings are more interested in Robert Williams or Aaron Nesmith to go along with a first-rounder.
The reporting that Sacramento is “clearly still pondering the possibility of adding the kind of impact piece that would put them into the playoff mix” is weird to me. The team is currently sitting at 13th in the Western Conference and 3.5 games out of the 10th seed. I am unsure what type of impact player would be available on the market that would enable the Kings to make that kind of jump.
If the Kings do not move on from at least one of Harrison Barnes or Buddy Hield, it will be tricky to retain big man Richaun Holmes in this coming offseason. In all likelihood, a deal will need to be made in the near future unless McNair is content with letting an asset walk for no return in his second consecutive offseason.
I expect rumors to keep flooding in with 10 days remaining until the trade deadline. With how often Harrison Barnes and the Boston Celtics have been linked over the last month, I’d bet this is not the last time either.
WWVD?
Trade Barnes, a 2021 first, and a 2022 pick swap for Bogdan Bogdanovic and a pack of Marlboros.
Or, just the Marlboros.
He’d go all-in for Mo Bamba.
“Yeah, but kind of deal did you have 2 days ago?”
I’d guess that the playoff talk reportedly coming from Sacramento is a nice bluff to the league to indicate that Barnes won’t be had for a ham sandwich. Saying out loud that moving Barnes this season is not a do-or-die situation for the Kings has the virtue of being both smart, and 100% true.
Trading Barnes for less-than market value in order to retain Holmes doesn’t seem like smart management, and I say that as a huge fan of Holmes’ game. HB remains the more valuable asset, particularly when given the nature of his contract. He won’t be a rental to whoever ponies up.
I find it disturbing we agree on anything, but we really agree on this point Sims. To me Barnes and Holmes are relatively equal in value as assets (as crazy as that seems). That said, if the Kings chose to move on from Buddy to get Haliburton more minutes and to free up cash to resign Holmes, I wouldn’t be upset at that at all. Especially if you can get an useful piece in return for Buddy beyond an expiring. (That’s almost certainly a pipedream though, I know.)
Eh, it is what it is. Guess we’ll find out what’s what here in the next week and change.
I think that is my ideal scenario as well. Move Buddy, keep Barnes, hope to re-sign Holmes. I agree the options to move Buddy are few and far between without taking on salary.
One that I keep going back to is Orlando. Fournier is an expiring and they are rumored to want to move Ross. Maybe they are looking for more long term solutions at SG to go along with Vuc?
Buddy and Jabari Parker for Fournier and Ross?
Kings get a backup wing in Ross for the coming years and Parker and Fournier are just expirings. Orlando gets Buddy long term.
Yes, if that’s what the Kangz are doing. This could also be Vivek and Co still trying to make a playoff run. In that case…..we are fucked.
Hope this is McNair being smart. I’m dubious
This would make me question McNair’s sanity.
The play-off talk is so stupid that it is clear that it’s a bluff. I doubt it will trick any GM into panicking.
If this is indeed floated, it sounds more like a typical hedge from ownership to use if no deal occurs: “we kept Barnes because we believe we can make a playoff push.”
The return is not just the actual assets that we get for Barnes, it is also the impact it may have on getting a top 5 pick and the one thing that Monte has been stressing so far: cap flexibility.
Totally agree. The moving of Barnes (or Buddy and Holmes), even if the return isn’t ideal, is addition by subtraction when it comes the lottery and the cap sheet.
But the Kings have an ace up their sleeve when it come to these types of rumors: Vivek.
It is plausible that other GMs would believe Vivek wants to make a charge to the playoffs.
lol. It wouldn’t be the worst strategy to use the Vivek wildcard aspect to manipulate the narrative.
Vivek finally becomes useful!
Depends on the young players.
Grant Williams or Edwards is a hard pass for me if that’s all you get plus the 1st.
Easy pass !
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This would make me question McNair’s
sanitycompetence.Not sure Richaun can’t be retained with the mid level. I’d say it’s half or chance better he gets no more lucrative offer
I think he gets between $11 and $13M per year, but may take a bit less to go to a title contender, much like Montrezl Harrell.
Some guy in the local media said he walks if he is offer less than $12M on his podcast.
I would love to know what Ainge’s current offer is. If it’s 1 or 2 of G Williams/Edwards/Langford plus a pick, then I could see why a deal hasn’t been made. As I said in the other thread I get the impression that McNair is looking for a young player who can contribute now, plus a future asset or two. That seems like the best mix of assets to make a push for the playoffs next season. It’s also probably what it would take to get Vivek to sign off.
Yeah it has to start at a minimum of Nesmith plus the 1st.
Would love to get Pritchard, but I don’t think Ainge even considers it.
I love how the Boston media just assumes that by leaking such details of firstly how smart Ainge is and secondly what great talent the Celtics have and why wouldn’t every team want these players.
It seems that Boston is under more pressure here to push for a title than the Kings are. I’d suggest this may well help the Kings should they want to make a deal Its not like Kings fans will be upset that the team gets more bad press if they turn this deal down as that never happens
I think we’re overvaluing Barnes. He’s an average player having a great year and is overpaid on a long term deal. If you can get a mid first and nothing else, without taking on long term salary, get up from the table and walk away. You’re a winner.
I think we are, as well. If he was on another roster with his current contract and the rumor mill was talking about the Kings acquiring him – I doubt many would want to give up much to get him (considering the length of said contract).
Obviously, Boston has different needs right now, but they also have a pretty busy cap sheet for this year and the next two seasons.
Not reading too much into this. The only thing Monte has given us fans is that he wants to have financial flexibility in order to make a big swing when the opportunity arises. If he is sticking to his vision than one of Barnes or Buddy is gone at a minimum.
I think for Monte the biggest goal is that he can get out from Buddy’s contract. I don’t think him or many other GMs (if any) view the Barnes deal as bad.
Agreed. I think he’d happily hang onto Barnes if he could move Buddy. The reality is, I think he feels the need to move at least one of them for cap purposes. I could see him reluctantly pulling the trigger on Barnes at the 11th hour if nothing materializes for Buddy.
I’m conflicted on this one. I have to assume Barnes’ value is at it’s peak. Buddy’s value has never been lower. If the goal is to buy low and sell high, then one would think the highest priority is to trade Barnes.
If Barnes continues to play at a similar level, I think his value is highest next season around this time.
Maybe. It just feels like conventional wisdom is Barnes is one of the best players available going into the deadline for teams with championship aspirations. That could be unique to this year because of the dearth of available alternatives.
We’ll see. I think most of this “conventional wisdom” is being done in a vacuum, and not looking at his contract.
Could be that the Kings are standing pat on Barnes because they would need to take back at least another season of similar salary (at least, to get other assets of value).
Trading Barnes for a better chance at this year’s playoffs?? That makes no sense. Trading Barnes would be to make the 2024 playoffs. Trading FOR Barnes is the type of move a team would make to improve their chances this year. I am in no rush to rid ourselves of Barnes and will be perfectly satisfied if he goes nowhere. It would take a pretty solid haul of future assets for that to make sense. I think the Kings should be targeting one of the next two years to make a playoff run and Barnes could easily be part of that effort. This year has shown the Kings primarily lack depth, defense and toughness. I don’t think that puts them that far away from a playoff run and the gaps may very well be filled in free agency and this year’s first rounder. I wouldn’t mind seeing Buddy and/or Bagley moved though. Preferably for players that bring defense and toughness.
Yeah, that math doesn’t really check out.
Clearly no team wishing to win a championship sees Barnes as that valuable of a player. It is clear Sacramento has overpaid for his talents.
Clearly as mud.
There are 491 players under contract in the NBA. Barnes paycheck puts him at #50. It is clear to me.
So, the more a player is paid, the less value he has? That’s an admittedly fresh take.
Overpaying for a mediocre product does not make the product better. Barnes is a mid-level player. Not in the upper echelons.
Any thoughts as to why several teams appear to be interested in acquiring Barnes? Additional mediocrity for a title run?
They will get him, but not offer big time assets for him. He is a Kyle Kuzma. Nice off the bench player for a championship team. Kyle Kuzma is much, much cheaper over the next two years.
That’s an interesting notion, given that their career DRtgs are the same, and Barnes is four points better on ORtg, and his VORP is 5.2 to Kuzma’s 1.1
And if the Barnes comp is Kyle Kuzma, a nice bench player for a championship team, did you happen to notice that The Lakers won a championship last season with a guy who comps perfectly with Kyle Kuzma?
I can’t seem to recall his name for some reason.
I don’t think the Barnes/Kuzma comparison is unfair. They’re both scorers that struggle at times to provide value outside of their scoring. Barnes is probably better right now, simply because he knows who he is at this point in his career.
And Kuzma costs $3 million this year and $13 million each for the next 3 years. That is four years as less than the price of Barnes for 2 years.
Kuzma costs $3 million this year and then about $13 million from then on out.
That is value; price matters.
Agree that Barnes (somewhat) is better than Kuzma, but I also agree with Bill that Barnes is middling and overpaid, while also being a great guy and having a very good year.
Considering the trade deadline is a week and a half away I don’t know why anything should be clear about who wants what…all this crap is smoke and mirrors by all sides at this point. We will know when March 25th actually shakes out. Fun to guess and surmise, but until the deadline passes nothing is clear and stating anything with absolute certainty is a fools errand.
I hope Monte is not showing his hand.
I am not sure what the level of meddling is Involved between Vivek and Joe at this point.
These next 10 days will say a lot about McNair as a GM.
The narrative I keep on hearing is the Kings are 3.5 out of the play in and 5.5 out of 8th.
This roster as currently constructed is no better than .500, if everyone is healthy and available. That is the ceiling. What if the only players moved are Bjelica, Joseph and Whiteside? Even if the team goes .500 the rest of the way. They will still be 8 below .500.
7-10 pick again!
Hopefully some team gets desperate at the 11th hour for both.
Waiting for the off-season to get better deals for both may be shortsighted.
Sure, both will have one less year on their contract. But, will Barnes ever be more valuable then he is now? Will Hield return to form or will his 3pt shooing remain as is?Thus, not being very attractive at 20 Plus mil.
I am hoping McNair is no just a figurehead GM.
I don’t understand wanting to trade Barnes.
Buddy? Bagley? Sure.
But Barnes is in the top half of players at his position and is coming in to his prime … we don’t have a ton of guys like that.
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