{"id":2012728,"date":"2026-06-26T14:15:56","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T11:15:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2012728"},"modified":"2026-06-26T14:15:56","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T11:15:56","slug":"the-bounce-pistons-clippers-among-teams-facing-crucial-summer-decisions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2012728","title":{"rendered":"The Bounce: Pistons, Clippers among teams facing crucial summer decisions"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Bounce Newslette<\/b>r<\/strong>\u00a0\":basketball:\"<\/span>\u00a0| This is The Athletic\u2019s<\/em> daily NBA newsletter.\u00a0Sign up here<\/a>\u00a0to receive The Bounce directly in your inbox.<\/p>\n

We all consume a lot of media platforms in a lot of different ways. I\u2019m definitely not someone who watches Twitch streams or live YouTube shows. It just isn\u2019t in my rotation of platforms I frequent for content, let alone for sports. However, right now, if you told me that Jaylen Brown was going live, I might drop everything to see what he has to say.<\/p>\n

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Fork in the road<\/h3>\n

How do these 5 teams spend their summers?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The draft is over, and we\u2019re headed toward an eventful offseason within the normal chaos of the NBA summers. We\u2019ve already seen Giannis Antetokounmpo moved to Miami, the Celtics\u2019 Brown be offended by trade rumors<\/a> and LaMelo Ball shipped to Minnesota<\/a>. We\u2019re still four days away from free agency actually opening.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Pistons: <\/strong>Remember the Pistons? It feels like they\u2019re gearing up for something big with their offseason moves so far.<\/strong> They sent Isaiah Stewart to Memphis to clear up some cap space. Now we\u2019re monitoring whether they\u2019ll land Tyler Herro (if Milwaukee flips him), Brown (if Boston decides they need to move him), Kawhi Leonard (if he and the Clippers don\u2019t work out a deal) or Norman Powell (if Miami is truly losing him to free agency). The Pistons desperately need some offensive help for Cade Cunningham. They proved that the hard way in the playoffs.<\/p>\n

Also, don\u2019t forget they still have a very important restricted free-agency for Jalen Duren, who had an awesome regular season and then ruined all that public goodwill with a disastrous postseason. Duren\u2019s Detroit future is in doubt as he and the team remain far apart on extension talks<\/a>, Sam Amick reports.<\/p>\n

Offensive creation and shooting are musts for the Pistons now.<\/p>\n

Celtics: <\/strong>Speaking of Brown, what in the heck is going to happen in Boston? They tried to get Giannis from Milwaukee, and the only way to do that was to dangle the 2024 NBA Finals MVP. That didn\u2019t work. Now Brown seems pretty perturbed by the trade rumors and the reaction online. I would also add that Brown seems to be too online right now.<\/strong> It may benefit him to just relax with online content and reading comments. That\u2019s tough to do as a Twitch streamer, though.<\/p>\n

The Celtics are roughly $13 million under the tax, $21 million under the first apron and $34 million under the second apron. So they have some wiggle room if they want to add a significant player. It may behoove them to give Brown that $142 million extension for two years to ease some of the tension and then figure things out from there.<\/p>\n

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Thunder: <\/strong>Oklahoma City has to make some kind of cut to its roster for a few reasons. It went into this offseason with 15 players under contract, two first-round picks and a second-round pick expected to be good enough to make the roster. The Thunder were also $28 million into the second apron and $41 million into the first apron. <\/strong>They\u2019re sending Aaron Wiggins to the Hawks to dump one roster spot. That will also shave $9 million off those aprons.<\/p>\n

The Thunder have team options on Isaiah Hartenstein ($28.5m) and Lu Dort ($17.7m). They selected Aday Mara 12th and Bennett Stirtz 16th in the first round. They are not expected to move on from Hartenstein, so it looks like Dort might be the odd man out. They can pick up that option and send him out for second-round picks. They\u2019ll still be in the second apron if that happens, but it\u2019ll be something they can navigate out of before the trade deadline is over.<\/p>\n

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Clippers: <\/strong>There is so much to be determined. We still do not have a resolution to the investigation of alleged cap circumvention by Steve Ballmer, the team and Kawhi Leonard. Assuming we don\u2019t get a punishment that includes voiding Leonard\u2019s contract, the Clippers face some important decisions. Leonard is going into the final year of his contract and is seeking an extension. If the soon-to-be 35-year-old doesn\u2019t get that two-year extension, might we see the Clippers move him in a trade?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Could that be a move to Detroit? Do the Raptors want to have a reunion? The rumor mill is going to get pretty wild if Kawhi becomes a trade asset. Yes, he still has injury and availability concerns, but with the way he played this past year, teams will want to roll the dice.<\/p>\n

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Heat: <\/strong>Their work is not done yet, as acquiring Giannis was just the beginning of this roster reshaping. Because of some CBA stuff that I won\u2019t bore you with because it\u2019ll take too long to explain, the Heat are hard-capped at the first apron. So they have $18.1 million to fill four roster spots. That\u2019s not a lot of money in 2026! That\u2019ll make it tough to re-sign Powell, unless he\u2019s feeling incredibly generous.<\/p>\n

Miami can figure out a longer-term deal with Andrew Wiggins and have him decline his $30 million option to sign at a lower salary. Maybe that could net the Heat an extra $5-to-10 million to utilize?<\/p>\n

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With Bobby Portis on the roster, they could try to move Nikola Jovi\u0107\u2019s contract for a lower-salaried player or just for space. That would help them re-sign Powell and still fill out the roster. Miami needs some help for next season, though.<\/p>\n

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The risk behind trading for LaMelo Ball<\/div>\n
Esfandiar Baraheni<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
{“@context”:”https:\/\/schema.org”,”@type”:”VideoObject”,”@id”:”https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/video\/eI8g1cTJNFyFPvo\/”,”url”:”https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/video\/eI8g1cTJNFyFPvo\/”,”name”:”The risk behind trading for LaMelo Ball”,”description”:”Esfandiar Baraheni breaks down the trade the sends LaMelo Ball to the Minnesota Timberwolves. “,”uploadDate”:”2026-06-25T19:27:17.008Z”,”duration”:”PT2M34S”,”thumbnailUrl”:”https:\/\/cdn-media.theathletic.com\/video-stream\/auto-thumbnail\/eI8g1cTJNFyFPvo\/eEnfzgHVQTF9.0000000.jpg”,”contentUrl”:”https:\/\/video.nyt.com\/athletic\/streams\/eI8g1cTJNFyFPvo\/eEnfzgHVQTF9\/eEnfzgHVQTF9.m3u8″,”transcript”:”Lamelo Ball has been traded to the Minnesota Timberwolves, but did you notice just how much of a risk this move is? The Timberwolves have never been afraid to make a trade. Under the current president, Tim Connolly, they have constantly tweaked their core around Jaden McDaniels and Anthony Edwards. When the team needed a center, they sent a hall for Rudy Gobert. When the roster became too expensive, they traded Karl-Anthony Towns for Julius Randall and Dante Di Vincenzo. And just a few days ago, they flipped Randall to shed more salary, which made this. Deal for LaMelo Ball possible, completely restructuring their team overnight. And much like the other trades, this is a huge gamble, one that could bear fruit or become an absolute disaster. LaMelo, in theory, is perfect for what the Timberwolves need. A big ball handler with unlimited range who’s one of the best passers in the NBA, a star guard who plays well off of the ball, the perfect complementary player next to Anthony Edwards, who for all of his Improvements needed help when it came to playmaking and creating. Time and time again, in the playoffs, the Timberwolves were burned because of the burden Antt carried as the number one offensive threat. With LaMelo on the roster, Ant’s life should get a lot easier. And defensively, Gobert, McDaniels, Edwards, and Ayo Deumu, who they just re-signed, is a lot of versatility that should theoretically cover for some of LaMelo’s lack of awareness on that end. So the theoretical fit is good. But the risk is huge. LaMelo has only played more than 60 games twice in his six-year career. Chronic ankle injuries have become a legitimate long-term question for him, and that’s exactly why the Hornets are cashing in after he just played 72 games last season. If LaMelo can’t stay healthy, the Wolves can’t compete in a stacked Western Conference, and now, because of this trade and all the other ones they’ve made, don’t have control of any of their picks moving forward. That. Could accelerate how quickly Anthony Edwards gets frustrated and eventually wants out of Minnesota, but LaMelo could be the missing piece to help them win a championship. As with anything LaMelo Ball related, there is both a low floor and an incredibly high ceiling to this trade. And like the Wolves have done in the past, they’re taking a risk because of their belief in their franchise superstar, Anthony Edwards, and that is something you have to respect.”,”ineligibleRegion”:[“BI”,”BY”,”CD”,”CF”,”CU”,”IQ”,”IR”,”KP”,”LB”,”LY”,”ML”,”NI”,”RU”,”SD”,”SO”,”SS”,”SY”,”UA”,”VE”,”YE”,”ZW”],”publisher”:{“@type”:”NewsMediaOrganization”,”@id”:”https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/#publisher”,”name”:”The Athletic”,”url”:”https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/”,”foundingDate”:”2016-01-25″,”logo”:{“@type”:”ImageObject”,”@id”:”https:\/\/theathletic.com\/app\/themes\/athletic\/assets\/img\/the-athletic-wordmark-black.png”,”url”:”https:\/\/theathletic.com\/app\/themes\/athletic\/assets\/img\/the-athletic-wordmark-black.png”,”contentUrl”:”https:\/\/theathletic.com\/app\/themes\/athletic\/assets\/img\/the-athletic-wordmark-black.png”,”creditText”:”The Athletic”,”height”:”60″,”width”:”435″},”publishingPrinciples”:”https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/edit-guidelines\/”,”sameAs”:”https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/The_Athletic”},”author”:[{“@type”:”Person”,”name”:”Esfandiar Baraheni”}]}<\/p>\n
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