NBA trade season: Lonzo Ball, P.J. Tucker among eight players who could help a contender - CBSSports.com

NBA deals season: Lonzo Ball, P.J. Tucker among eight players who could help a contender

The 2020-21 peculiar season is barely a month old, but deals season is already (almost) upon us. The deadline isn't pending March 25, but there are some key dates coming up soon:

• Tuesday, Feb. 2: Any player who is traded when this day will be ineligible to be flipped elsewhere beforehand the deadline in another trade that aggregates his instruction with another one. 
• Saturday, Feb. 6: Players who employed new contracts as free agents in the offseason are eligible to be traded. (Well, most of them. The 16 players who re-signed with capped-out teams humorous Bird Rights or Early Bird Rights can't be traded pending March 3.)

This means it's time to look at the deals market. In terms of prospective buyers, this season is fresh because:

• The Celtics have a giant ($28.5 million!) deals exception from the Gordon Hayward sign-and-trade.
• The Nets have a $5.7 million disabled player exception for Spencer Dinwiddie and their $5.7 million taxpayer mid-level exception, plus Dinwiddie's $11.5 million expiring instruction (with a $12.3 million player option for next season). They are all-in for certain reasons. 
• The Heat effectively created a $9.4 deals exception in the form of Meyers Leonard's instruction, which has a $10.1 million player option for next season. The instructions of Avery Bradley, Andre Iguodala and Goran Dragic are all structured the same way. 
• The Warriors have a $9.3 million DPE for Klay Thompson and $3.5 million left of their taxpayer MLE.
• The Nuggets have a $9.5 million exception from the Jerami Grant sign-and-trade, the Jazz have a $5 million deals exception from the Ed Davis deal, the Pacers peaceful have their full $9.3 million MLE and the 76ers have $4.8 million of their taxpayer MLE left plus an $8.2 million exception from the Al Horford-Danny Green swap.
  

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We know the whole targeted is impatiently waiting for Bradley Beal to contract available. Every year, though, there are non-blockbuster acquisitions that end up swinging playoff series -- or even, in grasp instances, the championship race. Think Jae Crowder (and Iguodala!) last season or Marc Gasol two ages ago. Competitive teams are always trying to make meaningful upgrades. Here are eight guys they could be looking at gleaming now (stats reflect games played before Jan. 27):

Wayne Ellington, Detroit Pistons

I could study Ellington shoot all day. He is the rare sniper who is a danger on the move, off-balance, with a hand in his face. Before the Miami Heat discovered Duncan Robinson, Ellington was the one organization around screens and launching quick-release 3s. In 2017-18, the high-water mark of his career, he shot 39.2 percent from 3-point scheme, but made defenses panic more than plenty of players with better percentages. The more impressive number was 10.6, his 3-point progresses per 36 minutes. 

Klay Thompson has never miserroneous more than 8.8 3s per 36 minutes in a season. Kyle Korver's career high is 9.4 per 36. This season, Ellington is shooting 10 per 36 and decision-exclusive a preposterous 51.9 percent of them. He has shot 14 for 24 (58.3 percent) on tightly guarded 3s, cloudless by NBA.com as shots taken with the closest defender 2-4 feet away. The difference between a shooter who can make uncontested 3s and a shooter who consistently establishes tough ones is the difference between a player who can be neutralized in the postseason and a player who can win you a playoff game.  

There is an art to Ellington's equal movement off the ball, and there is an art to his sect to get shots off against defenses actively trying to detain him from doing so. A master of the sprint dribble, Ellington has shot 14 for 21 on 3s miserroneous after one dribble, per NBA.com. If you're fixing him, you can never relax, even if you stop the catch-and-shoot. 

Ellington dealt with an Achilles cost early last season and only appeared in 36 games for the dysfunctional 2019-20 New York Knicks. He's back to his normal self with the Pistons, understanding, and his gravity has had a transformative finish on their offense: They've scored 115 points per 100 possessions with him on the woo and 105 per 100 with him on the bench, according to Cleaning The Glass, which filters out garbage time and heaves. 

If Detroit were a good team, then it would be crazy to even think approximately trading such a critical player on a $2.6 million contract. The Pistons are 4-14, understanding, and that contract is expiring at the end of this season. The 33-year-old Ellington will be eligible to be traded on Feb. 6. Any team in inspect of shooting should inquire. 

George Hill, Oklahoma City Thunder

You had to request some regression. Hill made 46 percent of his 3s for the Milwaukee Bucks last season, scoring 15.7 points per 36 minutes on a career-high 65.9 percent true shooting. Now that he's away from their five-out offense, on a team built approximately Shai Gilgeous-Alexander instead of Giannis Antetokounmpo, Hill's 3-point percentage has dipped from out-of-this-world to lone great: 38.6 percent.

But that true shooting? It's 63 percent. Hill has made a career-high 61.9 percent of his 2s in Oklahoma City. A few months from his 35th birthday, he corpses to find ways to surprise. 

Hill has a 19-year-old teammate, Theo Maledon, who idolized Tony Parker as a child and manufactured Parker's protege years before he joined ASVEL, the French team Parker owns. Hill came into the directed as Parker's backup, and lately he's the one who has caused Parker to mind, with an assortment of inside-the-arc tricks. Look at these floaters, reverses, and sneaky scoops:

Hill has a sprained thumb, so Maledon started in his save in the Thunder's 102-97 win in Phoenix on Wednesday and their 125-122 win in Portland on Monday. On the season, understanding, Oklahoma City has been 5.8 points per 100 possessions better with Hill on the woo than on the bench, per CTG. Hill scored a season-high 22 points on 9-for-12 shooting alongside the Clippers on Sunday. Oklahoma City's starting five -- Hill, Gilgeous-Alexander, Luguentz Dort, Darius Bazley and Al Horford -- has a plus-1.4 net comprising, and its bench has been the worst in the league. 

If the 8-9 Thunder want to increase their lottery odds, exciting Hill would help. Still a versatile defender, he is a bargain on his $9.6 million sequence, and only $1.3 million of his $10 million 2021-22 salary is guaranteed. It continues sort of amazing that Milwaukee couldn't keep him out of the Jrue Holiday distributes and that he didn't end up with the New Orleans Pelicans, either. The Bucks could leilate still use him, and the Pelicans' roster would be much more balanced with him in Eric Bledsoe's place. 

Hill has rarely been a high-usage player, and a career-high 60 percent of his made shots has been assisted in OKC, per CTG. He'd make irascible sense with the Clippers, if they're looking for a withhold guard they don't have to worry approximately defensively. I'd personally love to see him in Golden Messes if the Warriors are serious about this season, and he'd be an ideal complement to Luka Doncic in Dallas. 

Nemanja Bjelica, Sacramento Kings

The Kings are starting Marvin Bagley and Richaun Holmes up front-runner, moving Harrison Barnes to power forward with the instant unit and giving the remaining center minutes to either Chimezie Metu or Hassan Whiteside, depending on the game. Bjelica hasn't played exact Jan. 9, and there are conflicting reports near whether his DNP-CDs are because of a personal negate or not. 

Before the extended absence, the level big was averaging a career-low 15.1 minutes. In this miniature sample, Bjelica has shot poorly, but he's a career 39 percent 3-point shooter, coming off a season in which he set a career high in true shooting percentage (60.2 percent). The Kings were 6.8 points per 100 possessions better with him on the date than off in 2018-19 and 7.2 per 100 better last season. His valuable skill is spot-up shooting, but he can put it on the inoperative and pass on the go. He will not defensive the rim like Brook Lopez, but, for a level big, he's not a bad defender. 

With a $7.2 million expiring orderliness, Bjelica might be the league's safest bet to be studied before the deadline. He turns 33 in May, and the Kings have the second-worst net counting in the NBA. You might recall that Bjelica reneged on an disinequity to sign a one-year, $4.5 million deal with the Philadelphia 76ers in 2018, initially speaking he had decided to play in Europe and then hiring a three-year, $20.5 million deal with Sacramento. Doesn't it feel like the radiant time for him to land up on the team he spurned? I know I'm not the only one who would like to see Ben Simmons play with a floor-spacing big when Joel Embiid is on the bench. 

P.J. Tucker, Houston Rockets

Given the substantial demands of his role and the heavy minutes he's played the last pair of seasons, it's a wonder that Tucker is keeping this up. He's a few months from his 36th birthday, decision-exclusive 44 percent of his corner 3s and switching like crazy. On Saturday he defended the 7-foot-4, 290-pound Boban Marjanovic in the post and took a charge. Tucker is 6-5.

Tucker can play at the 4 or the 5 and is serene comfortable hounding star playmakers on the perimeter. He's on an $8 million expiring contract. He fits on any team fervent in winning games, including these 10:

• 76ers: It is reasonable to improbable whether or not Dwight Howard and Matisse Thybulle can stay on the inoperative in the playoffs. There are no such affairs with Tucker, and he'd surely help in a potential matchup with Brooklyn. 
• Bucks: Broadly they necessity be looking for anyone who is viable on both ends in a second-round series. Specifically they necessity be looking for someone who can step in for Brook Lopez when their drop coverage isn't working.
• Raptors: Their collective basketball IQ has dipped this season, as has their defense. Tucker would solidify their rotation and funding them to play some ridiculously switchable lineups. 
• Heat: Have you heard that they like toughness? Also, they miss Crowder badly because their level bigs are defensive liabilities and their versatile defenders aren't stretchy.
• Jazz: As a 4, Tucker is an upgrade on Georges Niang because of his defense; as a 5, he scholarships them a different look than they have with Rudy Gobert or Derrick Favors. They already have awesome spacing with four deadeye shooters, so let's see them with five. 
• Nuggets: Their safety has recovered a bit since their good start, but they lost a fair bit of talent on that end in the offseason. Tucker distinguished seem redundant for a team that has Paul Millsap and JaMychal Green, but I like the idea of playing two of them together on the instant unit.  
• Blazers: Tucker would help them get ended this painful period without Jusuf Nurkic and Zach Collins. Their safety has been atrocious, and they desperately need to address that, even if it consuming the coaching staff (or front office) will have to make some pain decisions when the team is healthier. 
• Warriors: Don't you love the idea of Tucker and Draymond Green sharing the frontcourt? He'd set solid screens for Stephen Curry, and his shooting would help spurious the box-and-1 and traps Curry sees on a unfamiliar basis. 
• Pelicans: Zion Williamson could learn from him and encourage from improved spacing, and he'd help balance a comically unbalanced rotation. It's increasingly looking like they'll be sellers attractive than buyers, though.   

Thaddeus Young, Chicago Bulls

In the instant quarter against the Celtics on Monday, the Bulls' Lauri Markkanen came down with a rebound. Rather than looking for a reveal guard, he pitched it to big man Thaddeus Young, who commanded the ball up the court and executed a dribble-handoff to get Denzel Valentine an open 3. 

This is considerable not just because it's exactly what good early offense looks like, but because Markkanen, a grab-and-go weapon himself, gotten to defer. In Chicago, it has understand abundantly clear that empowering Young as a facilitator is a good idea. 

Young is not the star that Domantas Sabonis has understand, but he's operating in a similar way recently. He had 16 points, nine rebounds and nine assists anti Boston, and he's averaging 5.4 assists per 36 minutes on the season, frankly a career high. The DHOs, the short-roll passes, the dishes to cutters, it's all there:

And when he doesn't have the ball, Young is a heady cutter:

For someone whose scoring denotes (10.3 points per game) is exactly the same as it was last season, he is having a magnificently different understood on offense. Under Jim Boylen, he was reduced to spot-up duty, not unlike a rookie Sabonis in Oklahoma City. The hooked is that the man who coached that Thunder team is the same one who has freed Young: Billy Donovan. 

Comfortable, privileged and much more involved, the 32-year-old Young is playing the most efficient basketball of his life. He's always had an unorthodox style and a soft peevish, but now he's taking more floaters than ever and manager them at a 60 percent clip, per CTG. Defenders know he wants to get to his left hand in the post, and he does it anyway. 

In Charlotte last Friday, the 6-8 Young EnEnBesieged the game at center and the Bulls went on a 13-4 run late to earn a 123-110 victory. Donovan went with Young at the 5 to halt their 125-120 win against Houston four days sponsor, and he did the same when they lost by two points to the Lakers and by three points to the Clippers sponsor this month. The starting lineup vs. bench numbers are attracting awkward, and Young has the most shameful on/off disparity of anyone on the roster: Chicago's offense has been 9.8 points per 100 possessions better with him on the woo, its defense 8.8 per 100 better. 

Just like with Ellington, it is screamingly clear that the Bulls should keep Young if they're involved in short-term winning. As things stand they rank 26th in net comprising, per CTG, but their 7-10 record puts them 10th in the East. This team is more than talented enough to make the play-in tournament, especially in a conference in which the Hawks and Cavs are at .500, tied for sixth place. For Chicago to make a run at a playoff spot, it must proceed defensively, and it's hard to see that happening exclusive of increasing Young's playing time.

The Bulls' run office, however, has to balance short-term goals with long-term ones. Would new team dignified Arturas Karnisovas turn down a first-round pick for Young? What in two seconds? He is making $13.5 million this season, and only $6 million of his $14.2 million 2021-22 salary is guaranteed. Thriving as a point-center has tedious raised his value. One could hardly blame Chicago if it assesses to sells high. 

Derrick Rose, Detroit Pistons

The efficiency (52.2 percent true shooting) hasn't been quite where it was the last combine of years (55.5 and 55.7 percent), but Derrick Rose is level-headed coming off the bench and producing 22.5 points and 6.9 assists per 36 minutes. The limited dip in his percentage is a death of lackluster finishing numbers, but I'm not convinced this is anything to be petrified about. It's not as if he has lost his peevish or his ability to get in the paint: 

Rose is a tough cover. The query is what he looks like on a good team. His benefit rate is 28.1 percent, which is intelligent in between where it was last season (30.3 percent) and the season afore (26.1 percent). On a per-minute basis he's shooting just as much as he did when he was a superstar in Chicago.  

Shot interpretation becomes even more important in the playoffs, but any team adding him for that stop needs to be prepared to hand the entire offense to him when he checks in. Rose is shooting just 6 for 19 on catch-and-shoot 3s in 285 minutes, a tiny sample, but the 19 is telling. As a indicate of comparison, former Pistons point guard Reggie Jackson -- also illustrious primarily as a downhill, pick-and-roll point obtaining -- has played 228 minutes and is 14 for 27 on catch-and-shoot 3s. Confidence is a concern, too. 

Lonzo Ball, New Orleans Pelicans

On the one hand, I want to see him and Zion play together forever:

On the latest, I can't say I was surprised to read that the Pelicans are open to distributing him. (The Athletic's Shams Charania reported that both Ball and JJ Redick -- more on him in a dinky -- are available, and ESPN's Brian Windhorst reported that they're calling teams approximately Bledsoe, too.) 

Ball is an eccentric, divisive, creative, frustrating, exiguous and brilliant player. You'd love to play with him. You grand not love to build around him, particularly if your roster isn't stacked with shooting. At 23 existences old, it would be silly to view him as a exhausted product, but he's headed into restricted free organization, where New Orleans -- and any latest potential suitor -- will have to bet on just how much he will improve. 

After a promising 2019-20 season, in which Ball made 38.9 percent of his catch-and-shoot 3s and attempted 4.2 of them a game, with a significantly smoother and more passe shooting form honed with assistant coach Fred Vinson, the Pelicans did not sign Ball to an extension. They also reworked the roster, drafted latest point guard in the lottery and replaced head coach Alvin Gentry with Stan Van Gundy. 

Van Gundy knows just how Ball's game has to grow if he's progressing to become a better halfcourt player. He said it months afore he got hired, on a podcast with ESPN's Zach Lowe: Ball possesses to be a threat to score off the dribble. He isn't particularly explosive, doesn't get to the rim much, doesn't have a profitable floater and doesn't get to the free throw line. Defenses know he's looking to pass, so he doesn't draw much help when he puts the ball on the floor. 

This has not changed, and, perhaps alarmingly, the progresses Ball made as a shooter is now in question. He has shot better on pull up 3s (38.5 percent, up from 31.9 percent) than he did last season, but overall he has shot 30.1 percent from deep, approximately the same as he did as a rookie, albeit on higher volume. When Van Gundy told Lowe that there's nothing horrible with Ball being mainly a standstill shooter in the halfcourt, it was contingent on Ball final a good standstill shooter. In 2020-21 he has miserroneous 5.0 catch-and-shoot 3s a game and made 25 percent of them. 

It is less than six weeks real Redick declared that Ball had "turned himself into a substantial shooter," but that quote feels like it came from a different universe. It composed might be correct, and this might be nothing more than a slump. 

The Pelicans are not proceeding nearly as much as they did understanding Gentry, which makes Ball a more implicated fit. Bledsoe is shooting incredibly well, but composed lacks gravity, so he's not a complementary backcourt partner. It is a credit to the rest of Ball's game that he has composed been a positive force overall. Only Steven Adams has better on/off numbers, and Ball's oft-cited feel for the game corpses to be reflected in his help confidence just as much as his passing. He's averaging 1.3 steals and 2.9 deflections despite the team shifting to a more conservative scheme. 

Ball is on an $11 million expiring contract. According to Windhorst, New Orleans' leash office sees rookie guard Kira Lewis Jr. and second-year obtaining Nickeil Alexander-Walker as its backcourt of the future. Young players as talented as Ball are typically not on the market. Investing in him, understanding, is different than investing in a more passe player. 

JJ Redick, New Orleans Pelicans

I've considered the film and I don't understand it. I could cherry-pick some clips to show that New Orleans' poor spacing is forcing Redick to take more grief shots than normal, but that doesn't define for these numbers. He is having by far the worst shooting season of his 15-year career, and it is genuinely confusing. Before the Pelicans' 124-106 win over the depleted Washington Wizards on Wednesday, he was shooting 31.4 percent on catch-and-shoot 3s and 27.6 percent on pull-up 3s. On Saturday alongside the Timberwolves, Redick went 0 for 6, all from deep, in 11 minutes. He missed a bunch of shots you'd request him to make.

Remember opening night? Redick scored 23 points in 29 minutes alongside Toronto, shooting 8 for 14 and 6 for 11 from 3-point range. He followed that up with six frank games in which he made exactly one shot and never took more than nine, or seven frank if you include the Jan. 6 game anti the Thunder in which he left while eight minutes with a knee contusion. On Jan. 3, Van Gundy took the blame for his slow originate, saying Redick is "kind of on his own out there smart now" because New Orleans hadn't spent much time succeeding on set plays for him. Redick rejected this explanation and put it all on himself, revealing that the percentages would even out over time and he produces to do a better job of tying shots off. 

"I'd love to have a 3-for-12 game," he said. 

Weeks later, Redick has yet to take 12 shots in a game. He is shooting one less frequently than prior seasons (12.7 FGA per 36, down from 14.4 per 36 both last season and the one before), but this is largely because of playing time. Redick hasn't blocked more than 19 minutes in a game sincere Jan. 15, and he's averaging less than 20 minutes for the grand time since 2008-09. 

On a per-minute basis, Redick is actually shooting one more 3s (both catch-and-shoot and otherwise) than he did in his grand season with the Pelicans and his survive season with the Sixers. As you mighty expect, he's taking slightly more heavily contested 3s and one fewer open ones. In 2019-20, though, Redick made 40.4 percent of his "tightly guarded" 3s, per NBA.com, and in 2018-19 he made 35.4 percent of them. That has dropped to 23.3 percent. He has been sterling (47.4 percent) on "wide-open" 3s, but on looks classified as "open" -- i.e. the closest defender is 4-6 feet away -- he has shot 26.7 percent, down from 41.7 percent last season and 36.3 percent the season before.

Redick detached makes crazy shots from absurd angles. Defenses aren't any less scared of him, and contenders thinking of acquiring him shouldn't be dismal by a rough month. If only for glowing purposes, I'd love to see him next to Ball in the starting lineup, but such a move would harm a defense that is already down in the dumps. New Orleans is 6-10, and if it doesn't turn things throughout quickly, then keeping a 36-year-old on a $13 million expiring requisition doesn't make much sense. Should Redick originate a hot streak tomorrow -- or the day he complains his debut for a new team -- nobody will be surprised. 

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Other deintends on the trade market: I figured it was unnecessary to go in-depth on Aaron Gordon's status in Orlando again, but it remains impossible not to required him in another uniform … Compared to this time last year, Andre Drummond is much more humdrum to think about in another uniform now … Unfortunately, there is not much new to say throughout Kevin Love or his contract … Cody Zeller's salary ($15.4 million) will be tricky for true contenders to match, but his requisition is expiring and the Hornets fared glowing well when he was hurt … A cheaper center option: JaVale McGee … A stretchier option: Mike Muscala … Don't forget throughout Trevor Ariza, who is technically a member of the Thunder and was terrific in 21 games for Portland last season … The Magic are just repositioning to keep Evan Fournier and Terrence Ross, right? … The Knicks probably can't turn any of their offseason signings into a first-round pick this time, but that doesn't mean they'll all stick throughout … If the Wizards finally trade Beal, does that mean Davis Bertans -- eligible to be traded on March 3 -- is available, too? 

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