TLDR: If the Tigers do nothing at the deadline, they are projected to be over the tax and Skubal's 1st round comp pick turns into a 4th round. They would have to sell someone else off to reduce the payroll.
Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown would have made 70%+ of the cap together.
What do you think is the highest a duo can make in this 2nd apron era?
Here are the highest paid duos this season
Curry/Butler: 72.39%
Embiid/Brown: 70.15%
Tatum/George: 68.25%
Jokic/Murray: 66.16%
Giannis/Bam: 65.44%
Davis/Young: 65.44%
Mitchell/Mobley: 60.74%
Tyler Herro - Probably their best guard on the roster, certainly the most expensive and will want playing time as he plays for his next contract.
Ryan Rollins - Voted 5th in Most Improved Player of the Year
AJ Green - Sniper from 3 on a good contract
Kevin Porter Jr - Averaged 17/7 in limited games
Brayden Burries - Rookie high draft pick
Kasparas Jakucionis - 2nd year player that the Heat really favored
Gary Trent Jr - LOL, but he does have a big contract
Caris Levert - Expiring contract
They are also interested in signing Peyton Watson (not a guard), but if it's a sign-and-trade, it might be a way to alleviate the guard glut.
Not really familiar with farm systems, but here's the latest rumors.
"billable hours"
Brown is extension eligible starting July 26th. Many people agreed he shouldn't be guaranteed that extension if he's on the Celtics, and it's even understandable why they traded him to get off his money early.
Which brings me to Philly having 2 players making 70% of the cap (they had almost that with PG and Embiid.)
Does Philly now "have" to give Brown that extension? Why? Doesn't that just put them in a similar position as Boston was with the Jays, and now down 2 picks?
Not saying it's a good or bad thing, but we traded with the Bucks and didn't involve Herro, while we've traded out most of the matching salaries we could have used to get him. So I don't think he'll be coming at least to start the season. Maybe at the deadline they revisit.
On X and ESPN https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/48377855/2026-nba-buzz-latest-live-updates-news-intel-nba-draft-offseason
The max is 4/177, but I'm wondering if the Pistons think another team won't actually offer that in the first place.
Hawks get to keep the pick if it's 5-10, but they let Milwaukee have it back if it's 11 or later.
The common narrative this past year was "Jaylen Brown carried this team to 56 wins, they had no business getting to that."
But now, going along with the analytics discussion "JB has a bad RAPM and on/off numbers because the supporting cast/bench is one of the better ones in the league."
So is the supporting cast good or not?
Might as well get this out of the way. He seemingly has negative value, but how negative is negative?
I've shared this with the Pistons sub before; the "he's only 22" comment gets brought up a lot about Duren's development. So it made me curious about how he stacks up with other big men in recent times.
Duren this past playoffs averaged 10.2 points / 8.5 rebounds / 1.2 blocks a game. Also remember this is his 2nd playoff run, not first.
Jarrett Allen (age 21): 10.3 / 14.8 / 1.8
Evan Mobley: 16 / 9.3 / 2.2
Alperen Sengun: 20.9 / 11.9 / 0.4
Bam Adebayo: 17.8 / 10.3 / 0.8
Joel Embiid (age 23): 21.4 / 12.6 / 1.8
Deandre Ayton: 15.8 / 11.8 / 1.1
Yea he's still just 22 years old, but he has 4 years in the league already. Development is not linear, but it is also not guaranteed. I don't think it's ridiculous at all for the Pistons to want to ask for a discount based on Duren's playoff drop.
Next we look at a center that the Bucks may not keep around now that they have Kelel Ware.
Turner's FG% and Rebounds has declined for 4 years straight. That being said, he is still a center who can shoot from distance and block shots, which is a rare archetype that many teams could desire. What his trade value?
