Exclusive Around the NBA: January, 2026! HAPPY NEW YEAR!

[Cugel]

I’m happy for him and for the Celtics! I’m glad he’s who they needed. I also don’t miss him.

Online BOS fans want him gone, like yesterday.

 

[Everything Beagle]

I was wrong about why OKC is struggling!

 

[SlyPokerDog]

HOLY SHIT!

 

[e_blazer]

HOLY SHIT!

Yeah, I’d say Wemby is a karate chop (or kick) to the balls of the rest of the league.

 

[SheedSoNasty]

Apparently Trae Young’s preferred destination is… Washington?!? Has anyone ever said that?

 

[BoBoBREWSKI]

Apparently Trae Young’s preferred destination is… Washington?!? Has anyone ever said that?

No doubt. I was thinking the same thing. They've been a dumpster fire for many years. Shows you how much he cares about winning.

Sources: Hawks' Young prefers trade to Wizards

Hawks star Trae Young has the Washington Wizards as his preferred destination as player and his current team work together on a possible trade, sources tell ESPN.

www.espn.com

 

[SharpesTriumph]

No doubt. I was thinking the same thing. They've been a dumpster fire for many years. Shows you how much he cares about winning.

Sources: Hawks' Young prefers trade to Wizards

Hawks star Trae Young has the Washington Wizards as his preferred destination as player and his current team work together on a possible trade, sources tell ESPN.

www.espn.com

It's funny because Ace Bailey was saying similar at the draft and trying to avoid Utah as well as other lotto teams to end up in DC. Year prior Sarr really wanted DC.

Must be something the Wizards are doing to get agents steering their guys there.

Is Aspiration in DC?

 

[BigGameDamian]

 

[HailBlazers]

I could see why Trae would want to play with Sarr etc. They need offense.

 

[THE HCP]

Online BOS fans want him gone, like yesterday.

“Online Fans!!??”
You mean like the circus freaks on here? Yeah THIER opinion means a lot.

 

[tlongII]

“Online Fans!!??”
You mean like the circus freaks on here? Yeah THIER opinion means a lot.

Their, not thier.

 

[SharpesTriumph]

Considering they've lost 4 of the last 5 and don't have Jokic for awhile - maybe he should first aim to make the playoffs.

 

[THE HCP]

Their, not thier.

On the go dawg! iPhone typing FAMS! Nice find though. Back to your CHEETOS now.

 

[Cugel]

“Online Fans!!??”
You mean like the circus freaks on here? Yeah THIER opinion means a lot.

He has played well as 6th man. That bench of theirs is generally outperforming the competition. Not a star studded bench but they git er done. Nobody had BOS with a snowball’s chance to do anything and now Tatum may be back by the playoffs.

 

[THE HCP]

Trae to the Wiz

 

[JfizzleBlazer]

 

[SharpesTriumph]

Sources: Hawks end Young era, send G to Wiz

The Hawks are trading four-time All-Star Trae Young to the Wizards for CJ McCollum and Corey Kispert, sources said.

www.espn.com.au

"
The Atlanta Hawks are trading four-time All-Star Trae Young to the Washington Wizards for CJ McCollum and Corey Kispert, sources told ESPN.

The trade ends Young's stint as the face of the Hawks franchise after seven-plus seasons and sends the 27-year-old to his preferred destination in the nation's capital to be the lead guard for the Wizards. Top Washington officials Michael Winger and Will Dawkins have searched to anchor their burgeoning young talent, and the franchise believes the trade is the next step in the organization's development process amid a rebuild. It also reunites Young with the Wizards executive, Travis Schlenk, who drafted him No. 5 overall in 2018.

The Hawks are now poised to turn the page on a new era with the emergence of Jalen Johnson, Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Dyson Daniels, Onyeka Okongwu and Zaccharie Risacher, bringing a much more fluid style of play around their wings and depth. McCollum serves as a valuable plug-and-play veteran leader for the Hawks while holding a $30.6 million expiring contract.

Moving Young also provides Atlanta with added financial flexibility to pursue a large salary over the next several months -- with Dallas Mavericks star Anthony Davis as a prime trade target -- ahead of an incredibly valuable most-favorable of New Orleans and Milwaukee first-round pick in June.

At 17-21 entering Wednesday's home game against the Pelicans, Atlanta was 10th in the Eastern Conference, but the Hawks were 2-10 with Young in the lineup this season. Young's agents -- Aaron Mintz, Drew Morrison and Austin Brown -- worked with Hawks general manager Onsi Saleh on a trade over the past week. The Hawks and Young's representatives maintained dialogue about his future over the past several months, ever since the franchise elected not to offer a contract extension to Young.

Young has $95 million remaining on his deal through the 2026-27 season, with a player option in the offseason. After acquiring Young, the Wizards move $30 million below the luxury tax, open a roster spot to continue pursuing further moves and assets, and clear $46 million in cap room for the summer.

The Wizards are not expected to have immediate extension talks with Young, and both sides will evaluate his health once he arrives in Washington, sources said.

Young, who dealt with a right MCL sprain early in the season and has managed residual pain from the injury, has been sidelined because of a right quad contusion that has kept him out of the past six games.

Young is the Hawks' all-time leader in 3-pointers (1,295) and assists (4,837). He has led Atlanta to the postseason three times, including a run to the Eastern Conference finals in 2021. Okongwu is now the only player left on the Hawks' roster from that team.

In 10 games this season, Young averaged 19.3 points, 8.9 assists, 1.5 rebounds and 41.5% field-goal shooting and 30.5% from 3-point range in 28 minutes per contest. McCollum, meanwhile, has averaged 18.8 points, 3.6 assists, 3.5 rebounds, 45.4% shooting from the field and 39.3% from 3.

Kispert has averaged 9.2 points and 39.5% from 3 in 19 games this season and adds depth to the Hawks wing depth.

An All-NBA selection in 2021-22, Young has career averages of 25.2 points and 9.8 assists. He led the league in assists last season with 11.6 per game. Young has averaged 25 points and 10 assists in two seasons in his career (2022-23 & 2023-24), tied with Russell Westbrook for the second-most such seasons in NBA history (Oscar Robertson lead with five). Young has also scored or assisted on 48.1 points per game in his career, second-most in NBA history behind Luka Doncic (48.9).

Young is the second player since the 1976-77 merger to average 25 points per game for a single team in his first 400 career games, and be traded away before reaching game No. 500. The first was the man Young was traded for on draft night in 2018, Doncic.

The Wizards get the sixth-fewest points per game (50.0) and the fourth-fewest assists per game (11.9) from guards this season and currently rank 27th in offensive efficiency. The Hawks' offense with Young on the floor has ranked as a top-15 offense in every season since Young's second campaign in 2019-20, including the No. 1 offense in 2020-21 and 2021-22.

McCollum led Washington in scoring this season at 18.6 ppg, with second-year big man Alex Sarr right behind him at 17.2 ppg. The Wizards are 10-26 and 14th in the East, but had won five of seven games before Wednesday's road loss in Philadelphia. They have not made the playoffs since losing in the first round in the 2020-21 season.

The Wizards' 2026 first-round pick is top-eight protected from a previous trade with the Knicks. If their own first-round pick is retained, they will send New York 2026 and 2027 second-rounders.
"

 

[JfizzleBlazer]

Holy crap. Trae Young was sold so low.

 

[BigGameDamian]

So much for the Blazers going after Corey Kispert

 

[blazerkor]

If the Wiz didn't have to give up any draft picks then that seems like a good deal for them and the Hawks get to move on building around Jalen Johnson.

 

[SharpesTriumph]

Holy crap. Trae Young was sold so low.

CJ and Kispert. No Picks!

Scoring guards with crappy D have no buyers. Simons and Young traded for basically nothing. Clarkson signs for the minimum. The Jazz have to give up a pick to trade Sexton for Nurk!

 

[SharpesTriumph]

Any chance CJ gets bought out and comes here? He's still got his winery I believe. We could really use a guard right now.

 

[BigGameDamian]

I wonder if CJ gets bought out?

 

[Jelloman]

I would give him 3 yr/ 40 - 45mil this off season and have him come off the bench and be our main scorer off the bench. Or even have Dame and CJ both come off the bench to play other team's beach while our young guys play great defense with other teams starters.

 

[THE HCP]

Garbage stat chaser!

 

[KingSpeed]

Considering they've lost 4 of the last 5 and don't have Jokic for awhile - maybe he should first aim to make the playoffs.

Or be available to play. He missed his last game

 

[Everything Beagle]

Who the hell is Egor Dëmin? He went off on the Magic in the 4th and OT. The Nets lost, but wow!

 

[SharpesTriumph]

Who the hell is Egor Dëmin? He went off on the Magic in the 4th and OT. The Nets lost, but wow!

Egor is the grandson of Larry Demic who played with the Knicks from 1979-82 scoring 976 points in a 3 year NBA career before he went to Russia, corrected the spelling of his name and had a boy Vladimir Dëmin - Egor's father. Or not.

 

[Cugel]

MPJ will be a big move at the deadline. Guy is just lights out. Not convinced DEN should have dealt him.

 

[Hoopguru]

16 of 30 teams 500 or above.