I think RJ will improve from here but won’t be a star. I expect him to level out as an average offensive player with a high usage with defensive shortcomings. He won’t be a disaster but will still be a market value or worse asset.

I would take Murphy over him in a second.

I don’t recall any mention of Jimmy Butler, so we don’t really have to go there.

It was mentioned by strat, who confirms all media reports with his own direct sources, so I went there. Was that wrong?

Sounds like it’s basically us and Miami monitoring

If Embiid wants out there are going to be a lot more than two teams monitoring

Not necessarily, especially in light of the way I qualified it. I trust you can see past the semantics and understand what the intended meaning was. For example, if you traded him for Max Strus straight up, that would be equivalent to “dumping” him as it was intended. The Hawks “dumped” Cam Reddish but got a protected first for him.

By the way, I think RJ’s trade stock has increased considerably since game 2 of the CLE series and continues to rise with every good performance in FIBA.

i would trade rj for trey murphy, who is lower on partnow’s magic list. i wouldn’t trade him for deandre hunter, who is higher.”

First, I don’t think you can ever ignore the cap. For example, I wouldn’t have traded Obi for the garbage we got in return ignoring the cap, but in consideration of cap maneuverability it was fine. Also, RJ, Trey and De’Andre are all 5A and Partnow specifically states that “players are not ranked within sub-tiers” so he values them essentially equally.

That said, I wouldn’t trade RJ for any of Hunter (almost 3 years older, BPM even worse than RJ for both last year and career, injured all the time) or Strus (4 years older, smaller, overrated offensively, poor defensively) unless an unprotected future first rounder was included. If straight up, I think ATL and CLE would jump at that deal.

On the surface, Trey Murphy is a fine return in a straight-up swap. His low usage bothers me a bit, but I would do it mainly due to the salary difference. I’d have to do a lot more research to be sure, though. And if Murphy was signed to the same contract as RJ, I would definitely say no. If NOP asked for an additional asset to make up for the salary difference I would be tempted but would probably still say no.

My preferred approach is to build up RJ’s value, i.e to establish a significantly higher floor for him, and hold off on trading him until a disgruntled star becomes available. I am bullish on Playoff RJ being the floor for the real RJ, and that he will actually keep improving from that level for the next couple of years. I’d like to see how he benefits from another year of Brunson and Hart before risking selling low on him. In other words, I think that the risk of regretting trading him for what he would command right now is greater than the risk of regretting not trading him at that price…unless it’s part of a package for an all-star type.

I would also trade him for Trey Murphy, but Im pretty high on Trey Murphy.