Some more notes:

Ja Morant is apparently “flagrantly available” which is funny - that’s how I would describe some of my friends who need to go on a date. But the contract is a tough pill to swallow (very similar to LaMelo - two years left at about $40 million a year). If the Grizzlies were so desperate to get rid of him that they waived and stretched his contract, a plethora of teams would be lining up to sign him to a cheap, short-term contract - Miami and Toronto come to mind immediately. But until then, Morant is a negative asset to which draft capital would have to be attached to convince any other team to take him. Unless that team is the Sacramento Kings.

The Jaylen Brown rumors continue to abound, especially for the Portland Trail Blazers, who were linked to Brown as far back as 2023. Brown, having now been dangled twice as trade bait (first for Kevin Durant, and most recently for Giannis), is not happy with Boston and probably wants to be the top dawg on his own team. But his contract is massive. The Portland package looks like Jerami Grant (big contract), either Scoot Henderson or Shaedon Sharpe (young, athletic guards who have a lot of upside that might not materialize), and those lucrative Milwaukee Bucks draft picks. Even by the admission of Boston sports reporting (masslive.com/celtics/20…), All-Star Deni Avdija and dominant big man Donovan Clingan are off the table for the Celtics. I would be happy to trade such a package for Brown (I would rather keep Scoot than Sharpe, given what he showed this season), but I’m so high on Clingan that I might not even trade him for Brown, straight up. Will our new owner make a splashy move for our new head coach? Or will Portland stand pat and tinker around the margins like we usually do?

OKC continues to offload their roleplayers for second round picks (Aaron Wiggins to Atlanta and Isaiah Joe to Detroit) as they face the harsh realities of the second apron. They dumped those two so they could resign Isaiah Hartenstein. Lucky for them, they are just starting to dip into their treasure chest of picks.

I’ll continue to keep my finger on the pulse.