The Waive and Stretch: De'Aaron Fox Is A Spur
Welcome back to another edition of The Waive and Stretch Newsletter. A quick shameless plug to note that I am looking to work in basketball in any capacity and would love to connect with anyone in the industry or trying to break in. Please feel free to share this with anyone who you think might find it interesting. Let's get into it!
The Spurs Land De’Aaron Fox In Three Team Deal
We have a conclusion to the De’Aaron Fox/San Antonio Spurs mini saga. The Kings have sent Fox to San Antonio in a three team deal that landed them Zach LaVine. The full details:
San Antonio Spurs Receive: De’Aaron Fox, Jordan McLaughlin
Sacramento Kings Receive: Zach LaVine, Sidy Cissoko, CHA 2025 1st (Top 15 protected, converts to 2 seconds), SAS 2027 1st (unprotected), MIN 2031 1st (unprotected), 2025 CHI 2nd, 2028 DEN 2nd, 2028 SAC 2nd
Chicago Bulls Receive: Zach Collins, Tre Jones, Kevin Huerter, 2025 CHI 1st
Lets break it down for all the teams involved.
San Antonio Spurs
On Saturday I wrote on here about all the motivations of a potential Fox to the Spurs trade.
The Spurs were able to land Fox without giving up Stephon Castle or really any other meaningful rotation player for that matter. They gave up three firsts (I don’t count Charlottes), but still have eight more for future deals while holding onto both of Atlanta’s unprotected picks. This has to be the case best scenario of all the of the potential deals. They are now able to renegotiate and extend Fox this offseason and got off Zach Collins bad money next year. Now the next step is building around that Wembanyama/Fox pairing, but they still have plenty of picks/contracts to do it. They also have opened up a roster spot for this season and still sit $11.3 million under the tax and have the full Room MLE to use as a trade exception as well, roughly $7.9 million. Here is what their cap sheet looks like post trade.
Sacramento Kings
I think the Kings did okay, given their motivations to stay competitive and not bottom out. I still think they should’ve held out for Stephon Castle and isn’t great that they didn’t get the 2031 swap removed, but to land Zach LaVine and two firsts and five seconds isn’t bad. Now, the fit with LaVine does seem a bit odd. Is the plan to just play him, Monk, DeRozan, and Murray all together with no point guard? Does Monk move back to the bench with Huerter gone and Ellis starts? Do they have another move lined up to bring in a point guard? That Minnesota unprotected 2031 first could have some real value on the trade market.
Sacramento should be able to create a trade exception for Huerter’s outgoing $16.8 million, as they can bring in LaVine for Fox/McLaughlin for trade matching purposes with LaVine reducing his trade bonus to $3 million per Bobby Marks. They currently sit about $10.5 million under the luxury tax line for the current year, with access to the full Non Tax MLE ($12.8 million) and a presumed Huerter TPE and have two open roster spots. They are $30 million under the luxury tax line for next year. Here is what their cap sheet looks like post trade.
Chicago Bulls
This returning is pretty disappointing from the Bulls. They traded away LaVine, took on two bad contracts with money next year in Huerter and Collins, and even sent out a 2nd just to get back Tre Jones and their 2025 first round pick that was already Top 10 protected. I get that the protections dropped to Top 7 in the next two years, but still. Its not like they were just helping facilitate a deal, they gave up their best player who had value! The Bulls still need to clear two roster spots to pull off this deal, so either there are more trades coming or they will just waive two people (likely THT and Torrey Craig). They still have a logjam at the guard spot with Coby White, Ayo Dosunmu, Josh Giddey, Lonzo Ball, Tre Jones, and Jevon Carter. Its a likely bet that the Bulls will make more trades before the deadline, with guys like Nikola Vucevic and Lonzo Ball likely on their way out of town. Assuming those two waivers, they sit $4.9 million under the luxury tax line. They should be able to generate a ~$17 million trad exception. Here is what their cap sheet looks like post trade.
