According to ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski, the Dallas Mavericks sent Tim Hardaway Jr. and three future second-round picks to the Pistons, and got backcourt star Quentin Grimes from the Pistons. The three second-round picks are the 2025 Toronto Raptors second-round pick and the two 2028 second-round picks (the details are unknown). Also according to a report by Adrian Wojnarowski, a well-known ESPN reporter, the Denver Nuggets sent Reggie Jackson to the Charlotte Hornets for three future second-round picks. The three second-round picks are the 2025 Nuggets second-round pick, the 2029 Nuggets second-round pick, and the 2030 Nuggets second-round pick.
Both the Mavericks and the Nuggets have the same goal, they want to get rid of Hardaway Jr. and Reggie's contracts and help free up more salary space for the team. Hardaway Jr. will be paid $16.19 million next season and Reggie will be paid $5.25 million next season, both with expiring contracts. As a result, the Mavericks sent away Hardaway Jr.'s large expiring contract with 3 second-round picks, and also exchanged for a 3-and-D type No. 2 star Grimes who played well in the Knicks, and the Nuggets also paid 3 second-round picks to send Reggie's small expiring contract away. Comparing the two near-simultaneous trades between the two teams, we can also conclude that the Nuggets general manager Kelvin Booth is indeed a little too poor and completely not up to the basic level of a qualified general manager.
Booth unbelievably offered Zeke Nnaji, the team's backup interior player, a four-year, $32 million contract extension last summer, with a player option for the 2027-28 season. It is simply unimaginable to be able to provide such a "humiliating" contract to a substitute player. Nagy's contract will then reach around $8 million every season, and he is also the sixth-highest contract player on the Nuggets roster, with the result that the team's sixth-highest-paid player can't even make the rotation.
In this season's NBA regular season, Nagy played a total of 58 games for the team, averaging 9.9 minutes per game, averaging 3.2 points, 2.2 rebounds, 0.6 assists, 0.3 steals and 0.7 blocks per game, shooting 46.3% from the field, 26.1% from three-point range and 67.7% from the free throw line. In the playoffs, Najib's playing time has been further reduced, he only played 3 times in total, averaging only 4.7 minutes per game, and his average data per game was also as low as 1.7 points, 0.7 rebounds and 0.3 blocks, shooting 66.7% from the field and 50% from the free throw line. Najib's playing time and stats also show how low his status in the team is.
At the moment, the Nuggets still have $8 million of room to be around the first line, and there is only $19 million of space between them and the second line, and the team still has to sign rookies and base-salary players, so the space they can actually use is still insufficient. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope (Kentavious Caldwell-Pope) wants to renew the contract and will still break through the second local tyrant line, which will also directly affect the team's further operation. It will take three second-round picks to send Reggie away, and we would like to see how many first-round picks it will take to send away Nagy and the Nuggets.