Trades, trades, trades

The Wizards' role in Washington's trade is quite clear, Washington acquired C.J. McCollum and Kelly Olynyk for a recovering Saddiq Bey and whatever you think Jordan Poole will turn into.

I'm on Poole's side, but creating a sensible career turnaround with the Pelicans franchise is rough rowing. And hiring Joe Dumars as GM, geez.

Joe Dumars hasn't drafted for a while, he hasn't been able to wheel and deal, and he wants to surround himself with toys, y'options! It is understandable, the urge that hits after you're paid outta nowhere for opinions, man. Let's try to pay as many opinions as possible.

Joe Dumars is the guy who let loose "the Pacer pick" for a selection with certain value on Wednesday: No. 23. It isn't his fault the Pacer selection will jump in value with Tyrese Haliburton's injury, but his eagerness to jump into a thin first-round pool worries me. It is a fine draft, maybe not at No. 23, but Joe's got a guy.

Dumars did not do poorly. The Pelicans had to make a move with McCollum, Olynyk, the team was up against luxury tax concerns. But they didn't have to make a move with the pair, each could secure something further in singular deals, especially on draft night, when teams suddenly want to jump out of or into the first-round.

Bey is a fine pickup but he is exactly what Washington thought they could get with his ACL recovery, value based off pre-injury play. New Orleans wants to be the one to take that chance on Bey's base and Poole's willingness to settle everyone in front of him down. The players may make this work, but I wonder if Dumars could have compiled more while cutting those costs.

What Olynyk's hips and McCollum's elbows teach the Wizards will be worth so many handshakes. I love this setup, with Marcus Smart and Khris Middleton. It might be the best way to turn so-so prospects – Alex Sarr and Bub Carrington have much to show after showing much in many minutes in 2024-25 – into stellar all-around professionals.

Poole is fine, way different than he was. Roll on, Boston next.

JOE DUMARS

By the way, waive Zion Williamson.

Mr. Dumars, you are in that position to represent the NBA, and the league's values.

Be the man that steps up.

BOSTON NOW

The time for an Anfernee Simons trade was ages ago. Like, three apartments ago. Think of where you were when an Anfernee Simons trade first popped up.

Back when teams thought they could make him into a two-way player. Now the only team that thinks that is the haughtiest of all, the full of themselves Celtics, holding their nose and slumming and seeking out the Anfernee Simons' of the world in Jayson Tatum's 2025-26 absence.

What a grab for Boston, a super-Nate Robinson. The man can score. Anfernee's defense is terrible, but Portland's overall defense in 2024-25 proved a sound foundation will survive Simons' presence.

Jrue teaches about defense better than he plays it at age 35, worth his price alone, but there will be a point where the charges he's telling to move have to do the moving for him. Not because Holiday is yelling, but because the he can't and/or shouldn't get over there anymore.

Yes, it betrays Portland's hand, or what the Trail Blazers think they have hidden and its relative power to the rest of the table. A lot of things betray GM Joe Cronin's thinking, maybe he thinks Jerami Grant played or plays awesome defense. Joe thinks this team is ready to win now and I want to let him, even if he is probably incorrect.

Did anyone watch Portland last season when the Trail Blazers truly went for it? When the postseason (in the West!) became possible and PDX pushed in for the playoffs? They were revealed. Great individual two-way play, Deni Avdija splashed, but Portland lost games that playoff teams win. Fell right out of the race even without its competitors correcting course. Which their competitors did, leaving Portland well behind.

Holiday, if healthy, changes this. He cannot defend as well as he used to and will miss over 40 percent of his shots but he will be a positive because the Blazers need to know what the heck Scoot Henderson is made of. By the time Holiday falls off, possibly within 2025-26, others will have learned and grown and accepted their own limitations.

It's a bad trade, but for basketball? It helps.

Not enough, though, the West is unreal and Holiday's camp already needs assuaging, Jrue is reportedly "pissed," and Jrue's not a drinker.

I made it this far without mentioning the salary due to Jrue Holiday over the next three seasons, $104.4 million, the first thing any of us thought of when news of this trade slid under our thumbs.

That's a good line. I can't believe I wasted it on the Jrue Holiday/Anfernee Simons trade.

The cash owed is fine. Portland works with house money due Avdija's contributions – 17 points, seven rebounds, four assists in 30 minutes – on limited dime.

Three-years and $39 million and the damned deal descends: $11.875 million owed in 2028. So, yeah, Jerami Grant is still around for another three-years and $100 million and technically they have to pay Scoot soon, doesn't matter, they have Deni and Jrue combining to work for but thirty percent of da cap.

Boston picked up the second-round picks it needed in the deal to successfully swing Kristaps Porziņģis' contract ($30.7 million in 2025-26, expiring) to Atlanta, earning Georges Niang in exchange ($8.2 million in 2025-26, expiring). The Hawks sent Terance Mann (three-years and $47 million remaining) to Brooklyn along with the rights to the No. 22 pick (the Lakers', via New Orleans).

We don't know if Kristaps can stay on the court, maybe he can't, but Trae Young does stay on the court, and in the 2025-26 East that will be enough. Atlanta has two of the slickest forwards in the game, the NBA's record setting steal maven, and a unicorn to shine the point. I gotta get to that building in 2025-26.

The No. 22 in the NBA draft pick in exchange for any NBA player capable of contributing? Yes. Do that.

If KP is in and out of the lineup again in 2025-26 again, so it goes, the Hawks have (and could) collect depth to work alongside and without Kristaps' many, many talents. Porziņģis' absence is survivable, but his presence in a playoff series (against the competition the 2026 bracket will field) should loom large.

Ter. Mann had his moments last season but his contract was pushing it, he'll be great for whatever iteration the Nets take in 2025-26, or whatever team takes his contract on between now and July 6.

Niang sops minutes, plays hard, communicates. He worked terrifically down the stretch for Atlanta but they'll pack his bags: Kristaps' cutting and touch in Quin Snyder's hands could be enough for a major Hawk run.

Boston's ability to field two players – slight in overall contribution, nearly transparent with the holes making up mitigating factors – while cutting tax commitments nearly equaling the payroll obligations of the 2024-25 Phoenix Suns? Strong work. The Celtics committed big money to win-now players and were able to survive the comedown everyone saw coming, Tatum injury or otherwise.

They won a title, spending. Obviously off the clock in my opinion.

Niang and Simons can stink, but they can play. Play big and important minutes on a team with real players, not mercenaries, Jaylen Brown and such. There is no ascendent Eastern Conference team, and its uneasy defending champion just lost its best player for all of 2025-26. Home-court advantage in the 2026 Eastern playoffs will be won on the backs of players like Georges Niang, Anfernee Simons, whatever the heck Philly does in a few hours.

And the All-Stars stepping into greatness. Jaylen Brown, Trae Young, the players these teams aren't supposed to worry about (but will).

THE DRAFT

It is in a few hours and I am not ready. I'll be ready by September, I'll have read all the stats and watched exactly three YouTube videos on each player (one college, one scouting, one Summer League) and gone up and down their Wikipedia page and paid close attention to the raw rebounds and steals and blocks at Basketball-Reference.

I'll know enough to like each prospect and then doubt them and then like them again enough to make a joke. When the corny joke hits I read it is the voice of Mother Nature, telling me I can blog.

You may trust me by then. Thursday morning, overnight, not so much. A few podcasts on the way home, Ricky O'Donnell and Sam Vecenie and a few of the other fellas and the road, that's it. I've got a stack of emails to enjoy in July, newsletters from April, telling me all about these prospects before they turn pro.

Good thing we may have more NBA veterans traded between Mohave King and the end of Thursday's draft night than we'll have actual guaranteed contracts available for the players drafted in the 2025 NBA draft. We will have much to learn and have fun with over the next few days, the Friday draft recap is one of my favorite things to write.

It is Wednesday? Ah, cool, I've another day to draft prep.

Oh, wait.

OK, column on Friday. Thursday, I mean. Which is also draft day. I'll send you an email!

Sorry, I've a lot to unpack. We all do:

Something to keep in mind on Wednesday, Thursday even, when ESPN mentions actual NBA players, incumbents on NBA teams, and the first-round pick that is suddenly going to take their minutes.

They won't. I'm an NBA guy and it is absolutely professional to not mention any NBA context in NBA draft analysis, need and position and who played there last season. Just tell me about the new guy, not the vet ahead of him. None of that will ever matter.

For NBA teams the NBA draft is the chance to draft the best player available (that we're OK with, personally). Let's not overwork ourselves with thoughts of veteran small forwards.

AL HARRINGTON TO THE BULLS

At the 2004 NBA draft I wanted the Chicago Bulls to trade its No. 3 pick to Indiana for Al Harrington. Three months later I was re-introduced to the work of John Hollinger and decided, woof, probably not the best idea to trade youth for another so-so Pacer swingman.

It is many years later, the Cubs and Cardinals are still playing on the same night of the NBA draft, and the Bulls might be up to something else. Can't really trade a low lottery pick for a restricted free agent – unless you're Sam Smith, working up pre-draft columns – but the Bulls might figure it out by July, land Jonathan Kuminga.

Kuminga, he's ready to score 30 for Charlotte, or Chicago:

“Things take time, but I feel like I’m at the point where that has to be my priority, to just be one of the guys a team relies on. Aiming to be an All-Star. Multiple times. Aiming to be great. … Wherever I’m going to be at, it don’t matter if it’s the Warriors or if it’s anywhere else, it’s something I want. I want to see what I could do. I know I got it. So I want to really see. I’ve never got that chance.”

So he's working, with his hat on, in full view of whoever wants to swing by:

Kuminga’s shooting numbers in these workouts are being tracked. During a nine-day snapshot in mid-June, he took 3,145 3s and 3,251 shots inside the arc, making 56 percent of his 3s — some catch-and-shoot, some off-the-dribble — and 72 percent of his 2s. He’s working on his paint pull-ups, short floaters and mid-post moves. Those around him say he’s shooting it better than he ever has before.

He bloody well better be, he missed some really good Finals games wafting those floaters.

Kuminga is exactly the sort of player whom the Bulls front office thinks is pretty good, we know this because they traded a multi-time podium participant in the NBA Finals for the ability to pay Josh Giddey $30 million a year.

Instead of trading for Al Harrington in 2004 the Bulls went cheap, correctly, noticing the Suns' bid to clear cap space in advance of the Steve Nash free agency chase.

Bulls GM John Paxson told Suns GM Bryan Colangelo that "we're both only here because of our dads, in more ways which are obvious" and also "that $2.273 million salary slot might be the difference between your team and Steve Nash. And you and your father."

These recollections might be approximate, but the Suns traded the No. 7 pick to Chicago for the Bulls' 2005 first-rounder. Chicago's selection was set to be the top pick in the draft in November before falling to No. 22, where the Suns would select Nate Robinson before trading him to New York with Quentin Richardson for Kurt Thomas. And then trade Kurt Thomas to Seattle to start a championship dynasty in Oklahoma City from 2025 through 2035.

What happened to the Bulls after they kept those draft picks? Selected Ben Gordon and Luol Deng with No. 3 and No. 7, some other stuff happened, but then they ended up signing Nate Robinson so it all turned out.

DRIVIN' WHEEL

Thanks for reading!

Back home, thank you for one final hotel, Elvis stayed in it, didn't know that until I turned up and it said ELVIS STAYED HERE in big, red letters.

Trades and draft on Thursday.