NBA Trade Deadline: Available Big Men
Who could be on the move with the Trade Deadline looming?
It’s NBA All-Star Week, and that means the Trade Deadline is just a week away. Things started to heat up with the Plumlee-Nurkic swap over the weekend and the Birdman trade Monday, then burst into a #WojBomb ball of flames when Ibaka was moved to the Raptors Tuesday.
What other names could be on the move over the next week? Here’s a sneak peek with a three-part series previewing the point guards, wings, and bigs that could be on the move by the trade deadline. Not everyone below will be moved but they’re probably the most available.
So if you’re shopping for your team and hoping to add a piece, you’ve come to the right place…
The big names
ATL Paul Millsap
BKN Brook Lopez
A lot has already been said about Paul Millsap. He is perennially underrated and does a little bit of everything, a perfect stretch four. But Atlanta says he’s not going anywhere, and he’s about to sign a massive max extension this summer at age 32 that’s almost certain to age poorly. You want Millsap on your team this year and next but you’re going to pay dearly for it after that.
There are a lot of things Brook Lopez will not do for your team, thing like “rebounding” or “playing defense.” That sours most of us on him and makes us forget he’s scoring 21 points a game in 29 minutes and that he’s making almost two threes a game this season at 34%, suddenly a rare stretch five. Just Wednesday, Lopez hit six threes and had eight blocks. How many other players in the league can have that game? Lopez is good, good enough even to be worth his 2-year $44-million deal. Brooklyn is years away from contending so it’s hard to see what the right trade is, but it feels like a decent first round pick might get the deal done.
Take a look at these two 7-footers on Basketball Reference:
The top one is Brook Lopez. He’s a slightly worse defensive rebounder but much more efficient overall, a better passer, and just as useful defensively as the guy below him. That guy is the unicorn, Kristaps Porzingis. Now let me ask you again — are you sure you can’t find a role for Brook Lopez on a winning team?
The versatile stud defenders
UTA Derrick Favors
CHI Taj Gibson
ORL Bismack Biyombo
MIL John Henson
There’s no real reason to believe Derrick Favors is going anywhere in a deal — call it a complete hunch that he might be available. Favors is an absolute stud defensively, anchoring an awesome Utah defense last season even when Rudy Gobert missed a lot of time. And he’s on a huge bargain of a contract for another year and a half, but the Jazz may not be able to re-sign him after that if they keep everyone else. Favors has never fit right next to Gobert and he’s struggling through injury and unable to find much playing time at just 23 minutes a game. Now he’s losing closing minutes to Joe Johnson at the four some nights too. Would Utah really trade him now? Maybe not, but isn’t this what the Jazz do — keep totally silent and then drop a bomb trading a guy before they have to for real value? We’ll see.
Taj Gibson is a tough one. He’s an excellent defender and is very versatile, and he could absolutely be valuable in the right spot on a contender — think Tristan Thompson, a guy that can defend the pick-and-roll and play in crunch time. The problem is that he’s about to expire from a solid contract and will likely look for his shot at a big payday this summer. Do the Bulls really want to keep him and fork out $75 million in July? Are you sure you want your team to trade for him and keep him around at that tag? He might end up being a better rental for a team like Boston that just wants to make a run.
It was only May when Bismack Biyombo was breaking out before our eyes. This is a guy that hung a 17/16 in a win over Miami and then 26 boards and 4 blocks a week later against Cleveland. Now we’ve already forgotten him in Orlando but he’s still only 24 and looks like a possible monster defensively on the right team. He’s not playing enough for the Magic, so maybe they’d take a small return on a guy that was essentially free this summer.
Henson isn’t the same caliber as the other three defensively, but his contract is a real bargain at 4 years, $44 million with an added bonus that his salary actually decreases each year, making him more valuable over time. The Bucks have one big too many right now after their Plumlee trade, and Henson is a versatile defender worth a look.
Cheap veterans your team should target
NYK Kyle O’Quinn
MIA James Johnson
POR Ed Davis
MIN Cole Aldrich
MIA Willie Reed
Everyone loves Kyle O’Quinn by now. The beard gives him a little extra grit, and he looks like a versatile defending big. That’s a theme in this section. James Johnson has been a Swiss army knife for the Heat, who won’t trade him if they really think they’re making a run. But he’s expiring so he might be a cheap target worth gauging.
Ed Davis and Cole Aldrich have long been useful efficient bigs. Ed Davis always posts strong offensive rating numbers but can never seem to find a home. Aldrich was fantastic for the Clippers last year but can’t get any playing time in Minnesota. He’s a difference maker on defense.
Reed is less of a sure thing but has flashed some nice potential, especially last year for the Nets. The problem is his contract expires this year with a $1 million player option, so if he does show up at all, he’ll surely leave for a fatter payday.
Young upside talent that shouldn’t get traded
PHI Nerlens Noel
SAC Willie Cauley-Stein
PHI Richaun Holmes
CHI Cristiano Felicio
PHX Alan Williams
I’m still very much in the Nerlens Noel and Trill Stein camp. Both of them look like players that fit the big man mold in 2017. They’re quick and super athletic, guys that can guard the rim and switch on the pick-and-roll. When healthy, there’s a chance either of these two can be a modern-day Marcus Camby and guard one to five, providing the right team a Draymond-Green-like presence in the middle. These two guys have Defensive Player of the Year upside. They can ruin an entire game plan. They need to find a useful spot on offense, and that’s hard to see with WCS, but if they can at least learn the DeAndre roll to the rim, there’s a big future for each.
The other three are among my favorite cheap contracts in the league.
Richaun Holmes is the forgotten big man in Philly, and he’s on a contract Hinkie must have blackmailed him into signing. He makes only $1 million this year and then has two more $1-million-a-year team options. There’s a versatile big man lurking here. Felicio might be the best-playing Bulls big man this season. Alan Williams makes only $875,000 but is out of a contract this summer. He had 14 points and 11 rebounds in 24 minutes just a week ago but can’t find playing time. He’s gonna get paid this summer.
PHI Jahlil Okafor
CHI Bobby Portis
POR Noah Vonleh
There’s a decent chance none of these three are actually good.
There’s also a decent chance that the pendulum has swung too far the other direction in 2017 and that some team will find a way to use a non-defending big with stud post moves like Jahlil Okafor. For now, he hasn’t done anything, but watch out if a savvy team figures out how to use him right.
Bobby Portis might be what baseball players call a AAAA player, too good for Summer League but not good enough for the big leagues. Not that the Bulls would know, since he averages the fewest minutes on the team.
Vonleh probably sucks, but you’re welcome to pay him the next two years and find out for yourself.
Cheap trade targets that can fill a role
BKN Trevor Booker
DEN Darrell Arthur
MEM Brandon Wright
CHI Nikola Mirotic
SAC Kosta Koufos
LAL Tarik Black
ATL Kris Humphries
DET Aron Baynes
Everyone in this section together is under $100 million over the rest of their contracts, which is to say they make less combined than Chandler Parsons. None of them are great, or probably even starters, but they’re all useful and cheap, both by cap ramification and likely by price in a deal.
Trevor Booker is a really nice player that no one really knows. He’s an excellent defender and good enough offensively. But, like with Brook Lopez, Brooklyn is so bad for so long still that there’s no huge point in trading him.
Darrell Arthur fills a similar role for Denver and is useful there. He probably only gets traded if the Nuggets go in for a bigger name to fill his minutes. Brandan Wright has always been an efficiency monster. He’s just finally back healthy and may be superfluous now in Memphis with JaMychal Green starting and Z-Bo coming off the bench. Wright could be an incredibly valuable big off the bench or even a starting five for some teams.
Koufos and Black are useful bench big men who are buried on their team. Mirotic, Hump, and Baynes are all expiring deals that don’t look likely to re-sign this summer, so that makes them movable in a cheap deal.
Useful veterans, just not as useful as their contract
DEN Kenneth Faried
DAL Andrew Bogut
PHX Tyson Chandler
MIL Greg Monroe
ORL Nik Vucevic
POR Meyers Leonard
BOS Amir Johnson / Tyler Zeller / Jonas Jerebko
It’s not totally fair to put Kenneth Faried in this section. The dude won gold at the 2014 FIBA World Cup and was on the All-Tournament team, for crying out loud. And his 3-year $39-million contract is totally palatable. He can’t contribute defensively but he makes up some for that on the boards and in sheer energy and effort. Poor Faried is 8th on the Nuggets in playing time at just 23 minutes a game. He deserves a home where he’s appreciated.
Andrew Bogut looks like one of the most likely guys in this series to move. He’s still a very good defender that can help a contending team — look how the Warriors struggled once he went out last June — and Dallas is playing Dirk at the five now so Bogut’s expiring deal should be on the move.
I’m still a Tyson Chandler believer. He appears to like his mentor role in Phoenix and maybe his athleticism has evaporated enough to leave only that role, but he’s still the prototypical center in 2017 and at 3 years and $39 million, that’s hardly an unusable deal.
Monroe and Vucevic are the opposite. They’re the centers of old in a league that has left them behind, with a useful array of post moves, scoring, and rebounding skills. They’re certainly not useless but their defense makes them difficult to play starting — or closing — minutes against most teams so they are sixth men now. Monroe will likely pick up his $18 million option, so Milwaukee may be motivated to move him.
The Boston guys are all expiring. They’re not bad, they’re not good, they’re mostly makeweights in any deal Boston pulls off.
Meyers Leonard is owed more money than anyone else in this section. Maybe he should’ve moved down a spot.
You’d have to pay us to take them
WAS Ian Mahinmi
NYK Joakim Noah
IND Al Jefferson
LAL Timofey Mozgov
NOP Omer Asik
In a league overflowing with big men in need of playing time, there are hundreds of millions of dollars rotting on these contracts. And all but one of them were signed just this last summer, $264 million combined when they should be playing for just $264. We could’ve used them to build the wall or to pay for the wall but we can’t even use them in a defensive wall.
Mahinmi is the least useless of the bunch. He could still be useful on another team, just not Washington where he’ll never be able to play minutes next to Gortat. Everyone else is a sinkhole. Jefferson is what he is and has been for awhile. He was devastating for a few stretches in the playoffs last year and still has some of the best big man moves in the league. We deserve to let Jahlil Okafor learn from Jefferson somewhere for at least half a year. Noah and Asik are terrible former Bulls. Mozgov signed one minute after free agency opened and was mocked for it every minute since.
And a solemn shout to Wizards teammates Jason Smith and Andrew Nicholson, whose combined $41 million owed couldn’t even get them on the court enough to help Washington avoid paying Mahinmi.
Apparently Brooklyn would have -5 wins if they traded for Nicholson. Welp.
Don’t forget to check out the point guards and wings that could be on the move…
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