The 5 NBA Trade Candidates Who Have to Move Before the Offseason Ends
Let's not waste time beating around the bush: Certain NBA trade candidates just need to go.
Like, right now.
Patience is the operative word when it comes to brokering trades, especially during the offseason, when the Association's February trade deadline is more than six months away. Teams looking to offload assets aren't wont to rush into any big decisions when given such an extensive timeline.
But some players should be shipped out earlier, before the regular season even starts.
Most of the time these are players who have been married to the rumor mill in recent months. Other times, it's a matter of logistics. Player X is being loosely linked to the gossip factory and doesn't fit his team's style of play anymore.
In one particular instance, a trade candidate needs to be moved before the 2015-16 campaign, otherwise there's little to no value in moving him at all.
The important thing to remember: There must be a reason why forthcoming names shouldn't start next season on their current team.
With that we step into the speculation salt mines. Hard hats are optional but strongly recommended.
Jamal Crawford, Los Angeles Clippers
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Re-signing DeAndre Jordan shouldn't stop the Los Angeles Clippers from finding a new home for two-time Sixth Man of the Year Jamal Crawford.
Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders first reported that the 35-year-old combo guard was available. But that was way back when Jordan was committed-but-not-really-committed to the Dallas Mavericks. The Clippers no longer have to feverishly search the trade market for a big man.
Still, league executives think Crawford can be pried out of Los Angeles, according to the Akron Beacon Journal's Jason Lloyd. And that makes sense.
When all is said and done, the Clippers will flirt with $95 million in salary commitments for 2015-16, most likely putting them more than $10 million above the league's $84.7 million luxury-tax line. Dumping Crawford's $5.7 million pact would save them a boatload in penalties.
Say the Clippers are $10 million above the luxury threshold. They would owe nearly $16.3 million in taxes, per the information provided by Larry Coon's CBA FAQ. Shedding Crawford's expiring deal would pin them to a new tax bracket, cutting their bill by more than 60 percent, assuming they don't take back any salary in return.
Tack that discount on to Crawford's actual salary and moving him could, in theory, save the Clippers more than $15 million.
Though he provides an instant scoring punch off of the bench, Crawford isn't worth that kind of coin. Not even to the Clippers.
Especially when they have two other guards set to come off the bench in Austin Rivers and Lance Stephenson.
So even if they're not concerned with footing an exorbitant tax bill, it behooves the Clippers to see if they can use Crawford to fill another need—such as a real backup for Chris Paul or Blake Griffin.
Taj Gibson, Chicago Bulls
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No one's trolling your Chicago Bulls, Chicago Bulls fans.
Taj Gibson just doesn't fit the power forward mold under new head coach Fred Hoiberg. He doesn't shoot threes, and while he can spend time jumping center, the Bulls still have both Pau Gasol and Joakim Noah in their employ.
Plus, Chicago is just plain stacked up front. Nikola Mirotic and Doug McDermott should both see minutes at the 4, and rookie Bobby Portis is using the NBA Summer League to flash three-point range. He shot 3-of-4 from downtown in his debut against the Minnesota Timberwolves, and the memory of his 46.7 percent clip (14-of-30) as a sophomore at Arkansas isn't yet six months old.
Hence why, back in May, Grantland's Zach Lowe pegged Gibson as Chicago's frontcourt outcast. The Bulls don't need him. He's a commodity no doubt, but one who could find himself chained to the bench for long stretches if Gasol and Noah stay healthy.
Capitalizing on Gibson's market value as soon as possible becomes paramount if the Bulls decide to move him. He's now on the wrong side of 30 and working off of left ankle surgery. The longer the Bulls wait, the more likely they are to compromise his stock by not playing him enough or watching him underachieve.
They have no such problems right now. Gibson is a contractual steal in the new salary-cap climate. He's owed a super-reasonable $17.5 million through 2016-17, and his rim protection is stingy enough to help anchor an entire defense.
Opponents shot just 45.5 percent against Gibson at the iron last season, which ranked in the 89th percentile of all players to face five such shots per game. He fared better than even Jordan (48.5 percent), who earned All-Defensive First Team honors.
Nabbing a first-rounder or another impact player in exchange for Gibson won't be an issue at this point. The Bulls could also try attaching Hinrich's $2.9 million salary to any deal in hopes of ducking the $84.7 million tax line while parting ways with a player they have no use for anymore.
Either way, it's best that the Bulls act swiftly, if only to maximize Gibson's value and give him the chance to play the prominent role they just can't offer.
Brendan Haywood, Cleveland Cavaliers
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Brendan Haywood isn't just among the NBA trade candidates who need to be dealt by offseason's end.
He headlines the list of players who need to be moved before July's conclusion.
Any team that acquires him before Aug. 2 has the option of waiving his non-guaranteed contract. That's a huge deal for squads looking to cut costs.
As a taxpaying team, the Cleveland Cavaliers can take back up to 125 percent, plus $100,000, of their outgoing salary in any deal. That means they could absorb more than $13.2 million in commitments if they ship out Haywood on his own.
But the ability to save interested suitors more than $10 million hasn't been enough of a draw. Although the Cavaliers have been linked to Joe Johnson and Crawford trades, according to Marc Stein of ESPN.com, nothing ever materialized.
And that Johnson scenario is now dead. It was always unclear whether the Cavaliers would agree to move Anderson Varejao, LeBron James' buddy, to make the salaries match. Now, per Stein, the Brooklyn Nets are no longer willing to talk shop after parting ways with Deron Williams.
Short on trade options, the Cavaliers could elect to reap the benefits of Haywood's uniquely appetizing deal themselves. They're capped out beyond comprehension on the heels of an offseason spending spree, and that's before factoring in the still-developing futures of Matthew Dellavedova, J.R. Smith and Tristan Thompson. Waiving Haywood would save owner Dan Gilbert some serious coin.
This presupposes that the Cavaliers are looking to save some serious coin. They've shown a blatant disregard for tax penalties all summer, and so long as they have James, they'll be in the market for good basketball players, no matter the cost.
To that end, with rival teams refusing to bite on a blockbuster-ish salary dump, Lloyd details another scenario that would be equally beneficial to Cleveland:
"By trading Haywood to a team like the Philadelphia 76ers, who have made similar moves with the Cavs recently, they can turn Haywood into a $10.5 million trade exception to hold for another year as sort of an insurance policy in case anyone is injured.
The Sixers would immediately release Haywood (or trade him again), not owe him a dime, and probably gain a future second-round pick for the paperwork.
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Exceptions north of $10 million are especially handy leading up to February's trade deadline. Teams have a better idea of where they're headed, and the seller's market is exponentially bigger. The Cavaliers could swoop in and stomach an unwanted contract from a lottery-bound squad looking to cut immediate costs or create extra wiggle room ahead of next summer's free-agency bonanza.
Or, in the case of the Sixers, they could just be hoping to build upon their collection of second-round picks.
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Ty Lawson, Denver Nuggets
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Ty Lawson and the Denver Nuggets have been dancing around a divorce for some time.
Sources told Lowe that Lawson wasn't untouchable ahead of last February's trade deadline, and CBS Sports' Ken Berger heard that he was available for the taking leading up to this year's draft.
Denver's decision to select fellow point guard Emmanuel Mudiay at No. 7 and re-sign Jameer Nelson, per Stein, only complicates matters. Lawson, in fact, was caught on video reacting to the Mudiay pick in real time.
His response, per the Washington Post's Des Bieler: "I told you. I'm going to Sacramento, bro."
Reuniting with Sacramento Kings head coach George Karl is almost assuredly out of the question now. The Kings have Darren Collison and Rajon Rondo to run point, so bringing in Lawson would be superfluous—and that's assuming they can even put together a package that catches Denver's attention.
Losing that Sacramento outlet doesn't make Lawson any less available, though. The relationship between the Nuggets and their point guard is tenuous at best, and they weren't happy with his unsettling draft-day visual.
"There's often times poor judgment used by all of our players," Nuggets general manager Tim Connelly said of the video, per the Denver Post's Benjamin Hochman. "It doesn't excite me."
Another driving-under-the-influence violation isn't going to excite the organization either.
According to TMZ, the 27-year-old floor general "got busted for DUI in Los Angeles" on Monday night. The Nuggets confirmed they were aware of the incident, via CBS Sports. It's Lawson's second DUI citation in less than six months, the first one coming in January.
It's unclear how or even if his fast-plummeting off-court cachet will impact his trade value. Yahoo Sports' Adrian Wojnarowski writes his market mystique has "cratered," but he's still an asset on the hardwood.
Undersized at 5'11", Lawson makes up for his defensive detriments with incisive drives and superior court vision. He ranked fourth in assist percentage and second in assist opportunities last season and is owed a flexibility friendly $25.6 million through 2016-17.
Some team will still gladly add him to its roster. The Nuggets, given recent events, are just now better off finding that team sooner rather than later.
Markieff Morris, Phoenix Suns
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Markieff Morris and the Phoenix Suns are not the spitting image of a functional business relationship.
Jordan Schultz of the Huffington Post is "hearing" that the Suns are ready to deal their power forward because he can't make nice with head coach Jeff Hornacek.
Oh, and Phoenix also traded his twin brother, Marcus, to the Detroit Pistons. And if Markieff is even half as angry at the Suns as Marcus, the team has a problem.
"Everybody knew how bad I wanted to play with my brother," he told reporters, per the Detroit Free Press' Perry A. Farrell. "Phoenix knew. For them to trade me without consent or telling me was like a slap in the face, because of the contract I took from those guys and the money I took from them."
No, Marcus isn't Markieff. But the latest developments don't bode well for the Suns. They're still caught in the middle of rebuilding and trying to win now, and the last thing they need is another player-brass feud.
(Goran Dragic says "hi," by the way.)
Now is the time to deal the remaining Morris brother. He just wrapped up a season in which he posted career highs in points (15.3), rebounds (6.2) and assists (2.3) per game, and his annual salary won't exceed $8.6 million in any of the next four campaigns.
Signing Mirza Teletovic also renders him expendable insofar as the Suns no longer need to demand another stretch 4 in return. Teletovic is one season removed from draining 39 percent of his long balls and allows the Suns to open trade doors they otherwise wouldn't have been keen on exploring.
If things really are souring between Morris and the team, the Suns needn't wait this situation out and risk it getting any worse. They should move Morris soon—as in immediately.
Stats courtesy of Basketball-Reference.com and NBA.com unless otherwise cited. Salary information via Basketball Insiders and Larry Coon's CBA FAQ.
Dan Favale covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter: @danfavale.
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