I think it made sense before they got Dort, but now idk

It’s the City of Atlanta, you can always have more wingz

Yeah that was my exact thought - how many guys do the Hawks have now at the guard / wing?: Jalen Johnson, Dyson Daniels, NAW, Lu Dort, CJ McCollum, Aaron Wiggins. I understand they’ll likely start CJ at point and JJ at the 4, but that’s still a lot of guys. They could use some dept at the 4, but that’s not Watson.

They would have to give up something pretty decent for the Nuggets to take back a bunch of salary and send Peyton Watson.

Bucks seems more reasonable, they can still take on \(8 mil and Watson is likely not getting \)25mil at least in year one.

I think we’re hoping he takes the qualifying offer and then we have plenty of cap space to throw at him in 2027

We are an injury factory though

Damian Lillard

Kuzma, Lavert and Herro are around 65M combined with 1 year left, then it’s another 65-ish combined for Turner, Trent and Dame’s stretch.

For the Bucks this is not really an issue b/c they have a huge TPE to get Watson and then can get out of the tax level by the deadline without much difficulty.

Gary Trent

As the person above said, Myles Turner.  Add in Dame’s buyout cap hit of over $20 million.

Dame…

Gary Trent jr is making like 16 mil a year in a crazy cap circumventing deal.

Myles Turner

Lillard, Turner, Kuzma

Tyler Herro has a sizeable expiring contract

Dame and Gary Trent lol

Possible? Yes, but I wouldn’t say “fairly easily” to be honest. That’d only be with the assumption that Milwaukee is [potentially] willing to attach draft capital to the contracts of Kyle Kuzma (\(20M), Caris LeVert (\)14M), or AJ Green ($10M) so that another team can absorb them into their TPE. The team helping Milwaukee sign Watson would presumably want to get compensated for that on top of the value of taking on a generally negative-value contract (if it’s Kuzma or LeVert).

And I doubt any team with a TPE that big enough, who also have to consider their own financial restraints, would be busting down Milwaukee’s door trying to absorb one of those guys.

All the “conventional” cap space around the league has dried up. Does a team who just started rebuilding 2 months ago want to forfeit a key starter (Rollins, Jaquez Jr.), pay draft capital to dump a negative-value contract (LeVert, Kuzma), pay Denver for the price of Watson (a first-round pick?), and then give Watson a contract north of $100M over 4 years? Doesn’t seem rational.

Yeah Myles turner is worth a lot.

The cavs have their own issues being only 22 million below the 1st apron and still needing to give Harden a new contract

Damn Cavs just confirmed they’re backing out LOL

There’s basically nobody else on the market right now though, that’s why.

Kuminga, I guess? But I think most people are kind of over him.

His agent is lol.

There’s nothing else to talk about

he showed a lot of potential when all of our starters were down.

40% from 3 will do that

Rich Paul trying to do slimey tactics. That’s why he pushed for Watson to get a hammy injury and sit out to retain value

Slimy tactics.

Probably the best promising young player that’s an RFA (besides Duren)

Watson taking the QO, in the context of who he is a player (trying to bank off one month of elite play) and the money given up, would be one of the biggest individual financial risks in NBA history

There’s just no way Rich Paul allows his guy to take the QO again after what happened with Nerlens Noel.

I think it’s more likely that they come to an agreement on a deal around $20-22M

Hawks have been interested for a bit now

Watson is an RFA, we saw this literally last year with Kuminga, Grimes and Giddy.

A lot actually. RFA drags. Each day that passes is good for the team that has the RFA.

The report of the Clippers waiting for the Kawhi trade to expand it into a 3-teamer with Denver could make some sense.

First send Zeke Nnaji to the Clippers into the John Collins exception. Then expand the Toronto trade, send Gradey to a 4th team, DJJ to Denver along with cheap 2nd round contracts (Baba Miller, Broome, Christie) and S&T Watson to the Clippers.

I believe this way, the math works to leave the Nuggets below the 2nd apron and give Watson the money he’s looking for. Plus it gives the Nuggets a good veteran two way wing on a good contract.

You then have to send some picks from the Clippers to the Nuggets, and which and how many is probably where the disagreement will come.

…brother, I love PWAT, but if the Clippers make him a monster overpay offer, it’s not the Nuggets getting boned.

That’s the Atlanta “only team to take the Knicks to 6 games in the 2026 playoffs” Hawks to you

They can they’re just choosing to be cheap and avoid any tax.

Both the Hawks and Bucks can acquire Watson, they’d just have to be willing to pay the tax and/or be willing to pay the price to dump some unnecessary salary.

At this point its a Math Problem. There is more money being handed out than there is room. The Second Apron is very much serving as a hard cap and it will take time for the contracts to adjust.

Our owner is just a cheap fuck. It’s not like he doesn’t have the money to pay the tax, he just refuses to do so.

The hawks cap sheet is filled up with too many players. They don’t have their own pick this year either, and the owner absolutely will not pay the tax. They arent in the best of positions. 

Bro Atlanta is 100m over the cap lmao

They cant get Watson over their own incompetence, not the cba

Mid team paying 9 mid players \(14M+ each (and \)10M for Buddy Hield in 2027 lol?)… but sure, blame the CBA

We’re trying to use the trade exception we have to get Watson tho, wouldn’t put us into the luxury.

And in addition to the trade exception detail, what OP’s also leaving out is that Denver wants a 1st as well, which is why there hasn’t been a deal.

The backup center market was hyper inflated this go around. I’d rather them do 14 for an expiring Landale than other ones that were out there.

The Buddy one was a screw up because it kinda looks like they might have tried to get involved in the Kessler running before the Lakers blew the door off the hinges with their offer. So instead of being off Buddy for only $3M, now they have him and owe him nearly 10m

the Hawks can’t just “let him sign the qualifying offer” lol

This is not aprons this is the luxury tax line which existed long before aprons. It’s the line just before the first apron, basically the actual salary cap.

Just make it a hard cap

Lol dont blame the apron. Its not even apron blame yourselves signing braun with a large contract like that

Nuggets flair complaining about a system intended to help small/medium market teams stay relevant 🙄 would you rather the Lakers/Celtics/Knicks just outspend everyone and have permanent super teams forever?

lol of course you would say that in your situation. Basically into the second apron and that’s without Watson on the books