Don’t you feel like we need to make another move?
Maybe I’m overthinking this after the Klay-to-Miami news, but it’s got me running the trade math again.
With Thompson bought out and off the board, it feels like our own front office decision is coming into focus. We’re still sitting on the $27.7M traded player exception from the Simons/Vucevic trade back in February, and it doesn’t do anything for us gathering dust — TPEs expire unused more often than not, and ours is on the clock for the 2027 deadline.
There are four paths that are feasible and make sense:
- Myles Turner — signed for three more years at roughly \(80M total. Rim protection, floor-spacing five, still under 30. Milwaukee hasn't been shopping him hard, but reports suggest little incentive to keep him either.
\- Cam Johnson — one year, \~\)23M left. Denver’s reportedly been quiet on moving him “yet,” but he’s been a fixture on the rumor mill for years and still carries enough reputation to draw interest.
- Trey Murphy III — three years, ~$88M. Clearly the best player of the three, but New Orleans has zero pressure to sell, and the exec-quoted asking price has been in “Desmond Bane territory” (multiple firsts), even if it’s reportedly softened some.
- Sit on the TPE until the deadline and see if a cleaner opportunity surfaces.
Turner or Cam Johnson both feel like realistic Hauser-plus-a-second-rounder type framework, which is a clean, low-cost swing. Murphy is a real inclusion of assets and picks and honestly might not even be gettable at our price point right now.
My hesitation is that none of these upgrades look like more than a +2 win swing on paper. But if we’re legitimately trying to win a title and the East keeps adding firepower around us, is “modest marginal upgrade for cheap” actually the right bar, or do we need to be pulling every lever available before this TPE just expires unused?
Curious how everyone else is thinking about this — hoard the exception for a cleaner shot later, or take the swing now even if the marginal value looks small on paper?