Account
NBA Trade Rumors: Final Outlook on Post-Draft Reports
June 21, 2019
The 2019 NBA draft is done, and to no one's surprise, the New Orleans Pelicans kicked off Thursday night's action by picking Duke's Zion Williamson with the No. 1 overall selection.
The first curveball of the draft came quickly, though, as the Pelicans traded the fourth overall pick to the Atlanta Hawks, who scooped up former Virginia standout De'Andre Hunter.
In return, New Orleans received a handful of draft picks and forward Solomon Hill.
There were several trades executed on draft night, and more will certainly come to fruition in the coming days. Free agency is slated to kick off on June 30, and with it will come the open trade market.
What might that market look like? Let's examine some of the latest trade buzz coming out of draft night. First, though, a look at how the draft unfolded:
Lakers Looking to Make Davis Trade a Three-Team Deal
Williamson immediately becomes the new face of the Pelicans after the trade of forward Anthony Davis to the Los Angeles Lakers. This gives L.A. a pair of stars in Davis and LeBron James.
However, the Lakers are hoping to add a third major name to the mix before the end of the offseason.
This problem is that the Davis deal, as it stands, doesn't leave the Lakers with enough cap space to pursue a max-level free agent in July. Los Angeles is projected to have roughly $23 million in cap room, according to Spotrac.
To remedy the situation, the Lakers are looking to amend the Davis trade, making it a three-team deal that also involves Atlanta.
"They're gonna try to engage Atlanta to try and get them involved and make it a three-team deal," ESPN's Dave McMenamin said on SportsCenter (h/t Lakers Outsiders). "They've got to dump some salary here, Isaac Bonga, Moe Wagner [and] Jemerrio Jones' non-guaranteed contract to try to open up the space for a max-level free agent they can go after."
If Los Angeles is able to move the contracts of Bonga, Wagner and Jones, it could go after a player like Kyrie Irving or Kemba Walker in free agency—or possibly take another stab at the trade market.
According to ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski, getting a third team involved in the deal will likely ensure the trade is finalized on July 6:
Wizards Unlikely to Move Beal
The Lakers—and, presumably, a lot of other teams—could have interest in dealing for Washington Wizards guard Bradley Beal.
The 25-year-old averaged an impressive 25.6 points per game this past season while shooting 47.5 percent from the field and 35.1 percent from three-point range. He would make sense for virtually any team looking to add some perimeter scoring to the offensive end of the court.
The Athletic's Jordan Brenner mentioned Beal as a possible trade target for the Boston Celtics, for example.
Of course, for a team to acquire the Florida product, Boston would first have to make him available. At this point, it appears highly unlikely this will happen.
According to Stadium's Jeff Goodman, the Wizards have "no intention" of opening the door for a trade:
Not only do the Wizards want to keep Beal around for this season, but they also intend offering him a three-year, $111 million extension, according to Wojnarowski (h/t Wizards Film Room's Kevin Folli).
So, unless something big changes between now and July, he is a name you can scratch off the trade market.