Report: Warriors in ‘serious talks’ to acquire Sixers’ Buddy Hield via sign-and-trade report,warriors,in,serious,talks,to,acquire,sixers,buddy,hield,via,sign,and,trade,liberty,ballers,front-page


The Sixers are still basking in the afterglow of having signed Paul George. But doing so — offering the 34 year-old small forward out of Fresno, a $212M four-year contract, has left them in a bit of a cap crunch. They were able to lock up Tyrese Maxey on a $204M deal of his own, one that the first-time All-Star deserved.

But the reason the team was able to sign PG in the first place was because they didn’t take on any long-term salary either last offseason, or around the 2024 NBA Trade Deadline.

Our Paul Hudrick wrote about the guts it took Daryl Morey to thread the needle there, doing what it took to help the team last season, without costing themselves the chance to pursue bigger fish last week.

One “needle-thread” move they did make, however, was when they acquired former Kings, and Pacers guard, Buddy Hield last February. Hield had his moments in a Sixers’ uni, but once Joel Embiid went down with a torn meniscus, he didn’t really deliver what coach Nick Nurse was hoping for.

And now it appears as if the Bahama Mamba may be departing for the Golden State Warriors.

Per Shams Charania, of The Athletic and FanDuelTV:

We’ve yet to get more details, but you can be sure that Philadelphia would love to recoup any type of asset, even if it were merely a future second-round pick or a trade exception.

We won’t expect miracles here but anything like that would be better than letting Hield, acquired for a couple of second-round picks, (while also parting ways with Marcus Morris, Sr. and Furkan Korkmaz in a three team trade that also included the San Antonio Spurs) walk for nothing return.

The Golden State Warriors recently bid fairwell to future Hall of Famer, Klay Thompson, a four-time champion with The Dubs, so apparently their newish front office wanted to bolster the shooters that Steph Curry can work with.

Earlier on Tuesday, current Warrior, Draymond Green shared his thoughts on the Warriors push to land Paul George that fell apart when the Clippers didn’t want to play ball with a Conference rival. That was just one of the things Daryl Morey and the Sixers needed to go their way.

Philly still has a few first-rounders and some cap space to work with. There was recently a report from Hoops Hype’s Michael Scotto that Philadelphia could be interested in acquiring Brooklyn Nets’ wing Dorian Finney-Smith, or potentially Warriors’ Lester Quinones.

So we’ll see if LQ might not be exchanged for Hield. The Sixers have already had sad goodbyes with De’Anthony Melton (a Warrior) and Nico Batum (a Clipper once again). Now it sounds as if Buddy could be bound for the Warriors, joining Melton.

New York Knicks acquire Brooklyn Nets’ Mikal Bridges in blockbuster trade ahead of NBA Draft, free agency new,york,knicks,acquire,brooklyn,nets,mikal,bridges,in,blockbuster,trade,ahead,of,nba,draft,free,agency,liberty,ballers,front-page,76ers-analysis,nba-rumors-news


Boom. In the quiet, with less than 24 hours before the start of Wednesday’s 2024 NBA Draft, the New York Knicks have pulled off a blockbuster trade with the Brooklyn Nets.

According to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, the Knicks are shipping out four future unprotected first-round picks, a protected first-round pick via the Milwaukee Bucks, an unprotected swap, a second-rounder and Bojan Bogdanovic for Mikal Bridges.

In a follow up tweet, Woj added: “The Knicks pay a steep price to land one of the league’s most coveted trade assets and the Nets get a massive haul to replenish assets and embark on a rebuild with mass cap space and future draft picks.”

With Jalen Brunson, fresh off his first All-Star bid, the All-NBA Second team, and having finished fourth in MVP voting, along with Josh Hart and Donte DiVincenzo, Bridges will now round out the Villanova Knicks.

The Nets once depleted their draft warchest for James Harden, who they then traded for Ben Simmons back in 2022. So this allows Brooklyn, who has reportedly turned down numerous other offers for the quintessential 3-and-D stud in the past, to restock and then some.

The next major question for the Knicks is what this could mean, if anything, for OG Anunoby’s future?

The former Raptor recently opted out of his one-year player option. And all insiders seem to agree that he’s all but certain to re-sign in New York. Would adding Bridges, someone who essentially plays the same small forward position as OG, change the equation? Could this be a form of “insurance” should Anunoby somehow walk? There have at least been rumors that OG’s camp was not satisfied with the extension offers he received from Knicks’ President Leon Rose — fueling rumors out of Philadelphia, a team named by numerous sources as having interest.

But there is still plenty of room to keep him around in New York if they trim in other places.

According to Yossi Gozlan, previously with Hoops Hype, the Knicks are now hard-capped yet could still theoretically retain both Anunoby and Isaiah Hartenstein.

Where would they cut costs then? We’ve already seen rumors that Mitchell Robinson could be on the move, with the Wizards being one team named.

Another former All-NBA Second Teamer, Julius Randle, also has a hefty salary, and should offer back some value if the Knicks looked to move the former Lakers and Pelicans power forward too. If they truly want to avoid the hard cap, then it makes sense why SNY’s Ian Begley had this to add:

As far as the Sixers are concerned, well, you can figure out the bad news rather quickly. Not only does Bridges’ name go off the trade market, he lands with the very team that just knocked Joel Embiid and the squad out of the playoffs back in May.

In many ways, Mikal would have made a perfect fit playing alongside Joel Embiid and Tyrese Maxey — and it doesn’t make things any easier to swallow remembering the Sixers once drafted the rangy wing before quickly trading him on Draft Day 2018.

As for Paul George? Well, the Knicks were one team that had been rumored to potentially have interest in PG should the nine-time All-Star opt in to his one-year player option. Brian Windhorst, Marc Stein and other reporters had previously named the Knicks as a team to watch should the Clippers’ former All-NBA forward pass up the chance to hit free agency — where Daryl Morey and the Sixers would almost certainly have a $212M max four-year deal waiting for the Palmdale native… assuming they don’t surprise us between now and July 1 like the Knicks just did.

With this move, George may lose one option he may have had in an opt-in and trade scenario. That is likely the one part of this move that Morey will — at least momentarily — enjoy. But the Golden State Warriors have already been named as another team to keep close watch on if PG doesn’t wind up hitting free agency but rather seeking trade from his native L.A.

The Athletic’s Fred Katz has been reminding fans that Anunoby is likely re-signing with the Knicks. And with this news bomb, Katz doesn’t appear to be changing his tune much:

Same goes for SNY’s Ian Begley:

If the Knicks really started to feel a cap crunch, in the instance they do keep Anunoby on a deal somewhere in the (rumored) $35M annual-range, perhaps Hartenstein would ultimately become New York’s casualty of this Bridges blockbuster.

The Nets were not done either.

More fro Woj on X:

“Another massive deal: Brooklyn has a deal with Houston to return the Nets’ 2026 first-round pick for a 2027 Phoenix Suns first-round pick, sources tell ESPN. Rockets also acquire 2025 right to swap Houston/OKC first for 2025 Suns first-round pick. More details coming on picks deal.”

So not only do the Nets “make up” for some of the picks they lost in that Harden deal by moving Bridges to the Knicks, they recouped some of their own picks they once moved in 2020-2021.

That means… wait for it… you guessed it… the Nets can finally tank and “improve” their own picks — something they couldn’t do back when the Boston Celtics possessed Brooklyn’s lottery picks — helping Danny Ainge and subsequent execs like Brad Stevens begin building the current 2024 champs back in 2016.

On the Rockets side of things, Woj had this to add:

So now Morey and co. can keep watching the clock hoping that there isn’t a news bomb that PG has opted in; unless of course the Sixers have one of these shockers brewing themselves.

And oh right, maybe Kevin Durant could be available too, I guess? Add Durant to your wish list along with PG, Jimmy Butler, Anunoby and Brandon Ingram.

Must be nice….