It’s just after 3:00 p.m. ET on Tuesday. So we are within 48 hours of the NBA trade deadline and although there have been two trades, only one a blockbuster. That one between the Grizzlies and Jazz starts a tank in Memphis and a move toward contention in Utah.
The two others are more common place at the deadline, one is to fill holes, the other to manage cap space.
None has a direct or short term effect on Brooklyn although the Grizzlies could soon fall deeper in the lottery after dumping Jaren Jackson
Jr. Right now, the Grizzlies are in ninth, six games back of the Nets. It’s hard to imagine Memphis getting much closer with the Nets sinking deeper and deeper but Memphis will no doubt pick up more ping pong balls.
Also, over the long term, the Grizzlies now have a significant cache of assets to work with going forward. They have 12 first round picks, compared to the Nets 13, nine tradeable firsts compared to 10 for the Nets. The Nets cache of firsts looks at the least for the moment, the cleaner of the two with fewer protections and swaps. The Grizzlies have eight seconds as well, a compared to as many as 20 for the Nets. Memphis does have a $28.5 million trade exception, the largest in NBA history that won’t expire for a year. .
The other trades revealed so far is a three way deal among the Bulls, Timberwolves and Pistons and salary dump in Boston. The latter would seem to eliminate the long-held rumor the Celtics and Day’Ron Sharpe. Instead they’ve gone with Nikola Vucevic.
Here’s Shams tweets announcing the deals…
We’ll be updating as things go along but when the Nets start getting involved, we will of course post separate stories, analysis, trade grades, the usual.
As of now, there’s little indication that the Nets are much interested in big deals. Their interest in Giannis Antetokounmpo didn’t even rise to the level of making calls to Milwaukee, Brian Lewis reported Monday and it appears that the Nets aren’t interested in moving Michael Porter Jr. or Nic Claxton. Instead, word from everyone from Shams Charania to Michael Scotto to Jake Fischer is that Sean Marks & co. hope to parlay a top pick in the 2026 draft into bigger moves and some level of contention in 2026-27.
Let the comments begin
