NBA Props: Will the Nets Trade for Andre Drummond?

While this year’s NBA trade deadline is a little later than usual, we’re still entering #TradeSZN. The deadline this year won’t come until March 25, but it’s never too early to start talking trades. Every player that signed a free-agent contract this past offseason officially became eligible for trades on February 6, so we can expect the rumors to start heating up.

On Monday, we heard that a pair of former All-Stars may well be on the move. The Cleveland Cavaliers made it known Monday morning that they plan to sit center Andre Drummond until the team can consummate a trade. Shams Charania of The Athletic reported that the Toronto Raptors are among the interested suitors, but no deal is close as of yet.

A short while later, we learned that Drummond’s former team, the Detroit Pistons, plan to take the same approach with Blake Griffin. Griffin has a player option for next season that will pay him nearly $39 million, which could complicate his trade market. It’s also clear that the 31-year-old is well past his athletic prime, but he still has the skills to be an impactful veteran player on a contender.

BetOnline.ag is letting you bet on where Drummond may land next. Let’s read through the options and find his next stop, shall we?

Andre Drummond’s Next Team

• Toronto Raptors (+225)
• Dallas Mavericks (+350)
• Boston Celtics (+450)
• Charlotte Hornets (+600)
• New York Knicks (+600)
• Brooklyn Nets (+700)
• Portland Trail Blazers (+800)
• Golden State Warriors (+800)
• Los Angeles Clippers (+1200)
• Los Angeles Lakers (+1200)

Drummond is an interesting case. If you just looked at his counting stats without knowing anything else about him as a player, you’d probably assume he’s a perennial MVP candidate. Through 25 games for the Cavs, the big man is averaging 17.5 points, 13.5 rebounds, 2.6 assists, 1.6 steals, and 1.2 blocks per game. Drummond has led the NBA in rebounds per game four times in his career, including in each of the last three seasons.

Drummond’s desire to rack-up rebounding numbers may also have a negative effect on his team’s rebounding performance. It’s also worth noting that he’s earning nearly $29 million in salary this season, which makes a potential trade quite the hurdle. Any team that trades for Drummond will have to try and match that number in outgoing salary, which is a tall order. That’s especially the case for a player whose value is rather questionable to begin with.

Toronto Raptors (+225)

The Raptors have a need at center. Aron Baynes was signed to replace the departed Serge Ibaka and Marc Gasol. Baynes has improved over the years, but he has struggled so far this season. Toronto has already jettisoned Alex Len, while Chris Boucher doesn’t have the physical strength to capably defend opposing centers.

The Raptors and Cavaliers are engaged in active talks on potential Andre Drummond deal to Toronto/Tampa, per sources.

Details about that and more on Inside Pass at @TheAthletic: https://t.co/TkABHOgrFp

— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) February 15, 2021

The salary-matching issue is a problem for Toronto. Baynes is only earning $7.3 million this season, which means the Raptors will have to find a lot more outgoing salary if they want to trade for Drummond. A Kyle Lowry-for-Drummond deal works moneywise considering Lowry is earning $31.5 million this term, but the Raptors are never trading Lowry for Drummond, of course.

The Raptors would have to add a number of young players to any two-team Drummond deal. That likely includes Norm Powell, which might be a non-starter for Toronto given their lack of depth on the wing. The Raps will presumably need to add another team to any deal in order to help fund a Drummond move. With odds of +225 from NBA betting sites, the Raptors are the favorite to land Drummond.

Dallas Mavericks (+350)

The Mavs haven’t taken off as many expected they would this season. Luka Doncic has been outstanding for the most part, but Dallas has issues. The Seth Curry-for-Josh Richardson trade is looking like a loss already, while Kristaps Porzingis has struggled after undergoing offseason knee surgery. Porzingis’ offensive numbers are fine, but his lack of mobility on defense is a concern.

Rick Carlisle has been deploying Porzingis at center, which isn’t something that will work in every matchup. It makes sense that Dallas could have interest in adding a player like Drummond, and the Mavs do have more tradeable contracts than the Raptors do. Dallas can easily absorb Drummond’s hefty salary if they send some combination of Maxi Kleber, Dwight Powell, Tim Hardaway Jr., and James Johnson to Cleveland, for example. The Mavs would presumably throw-in a draft asset or two to sweeten the pot for Cleveland.

Boston Celtics (+450)

The Celtics have been floundering lately, so perhaps Danny Ainge will seek a change. Boston does have a trade exception worth $28.5 million that was created via the sign-and-trade deal that sent Gordon Hayward to Charlotte this past offseason. Unfortunately for Boston, Drummond’s $28.9 million in salary doesn’t fit in that exception, so they can’t simply absorb Drummond for nothing.

Remember when the Celtics could’ve gotten an elite defensive center in Myles Turner for Gordon Hayward, but chose a trade exception instead

— Matt (@sixringsofsteeI) February 16, 2021

The Celtics’ needs may not lie in the frontcourt, anyway. Daniel Theis has given Boston solid minutes at both frontcourt spots this season, while ex-Cav Tristan Thompson has proven to be a nice fit. It seems more likely that the Celtics would try and upgrade the guard and wing spots before they would look to bring in a big like Drummond. A Drummond-for-Kemba Walker trade works from a salary perspective, but the Celts won’t be giving up on Kemba quite yet.

Charlotte Hornets (+600)

All of a sudden, the Hornets seem to be a team on the rise. The offseason additions of Hayward and LaMelo Ball have Charlotte’s trajectory trending sharply in the right direction. If the season ended today the Hornets would be a playoff team. Charlotte does have some needs up front, though. Cody Zeller has fared well as the starting center, but the team could stand to add some depth behind him. Bismack Biyombo is borderline unplayable at times, and he’s the only other true center on the roster.

The Hornets do have something of a glut in the backcourt thanks to the quick rise of LaMelo. They signed Terry Rozier to a lucrative deal in the summer of 2019 before the emergence of Devonte’ Graham, which preceded Ball’s arrival. Rozier is making nearly $19 million this season, so it would be pretty easy for Charlotte to send Rozier and a bunch of lesser deals to Cleveland if they really wanted to add Drummond.

Rozier isn’t a great player, but he’s probably still a more useful commodity than Drummond at this point. Rozier is shooting nearly 45 percent from three-point range on high volume, and he’s still only 26. This is easily the most efficient campaign of Rozier’s career, so Charlotte can probably do better than Drummond if they were to put the former Celtic on the market.

New York Knicks (+600)

The Knicks seem pretty set at center. The jury is still out on whether Mitchell Robinson has what it takes to be the Knicks’ long-term solution at the position, but he has shown enough promise to where New York likely isn’t aggressively looking to upgrade. Robinson did just suffer a broken hand that will keep him sidelined for about a month, but Nerlens Noel is a perfectly capable fill-in.

The Knicks can serve up a pupu platter of contracts including Frank Ntilikina, Elfrid Payton, Kevin Knox, and Reggie Bullock if they really want to get a deal done. New York could stand to shed some of the excess guards they have on the roster now that Derrick Rose is back, but I just don’t see the need for a Drummond trade here. The Knicks aren’t vying for a championship this season, and adding Drummond wouldn’t expedite the rebuild process at all.

Brooklyn Nets (+700)

The Nets definitely need to upgrade the center position. They were forced to part ways with Jarrett Allen in the James Harden trade, which left a gaping hole in the middle. Of course, you trade Allen for James Harden 1,000 times out of 1,000. The issue is that DeAndre Jordan and Noah Vonleh are really the only centers left on the roster. Nic Claxton is injured.

Jordan is friends with the Nets’ superstars, which helps explain why he’s even on the roster. Kenny Atkinson’s decision to start Allen over Jordan last season may well have cost him his head coaching job. So, there’s obviously some risk here if Brooklyn is looking to upgrade over Jordan.

I’m behind in this BKN-DET game, in part because I’m still trying to figure out why DeAndre Jordan just stopped defending in the middle of a play. pic.twitter.com/eVEOHt93w4

— John Schuhmann (@johnschuhmann) February 10, 2021

Would Drummond be an upgrade?

It’s debatable. The Nets can’t realistically acquire Drummond without sending Jordan out in a deal. Would that cause a mutiny in the Nets’ locker room? Given the temperamental nature of their stars, it’s possible. A Jordan/Spencer Dinwiddie/Tyler Johnson trade for Drummond works moneywise. If the Nets can convince the superstars that it’s worth losing Jordan, perhaps Brooklyn pulls the trigger.

Portland Trail Blazers (+800)

The Blazers have issues of their own with Jusuf Nurkic sidelined. Nurkic broke his wrist last month, and the timetable for his return is uncertain. Without him, Portland is leaning heavily on Enes Kanter to fill Nurkic’s vacated center minutes, while Harry Giles has played sparingly as Kanter’s backup.

Portland is 16-10 and very much in the thick of the Western Conference playoff race even without Nurkic and CJ McCollum. Kanter has always been a defensive liability, but he has played exceedingly well so far this season. The 28-year-old is giving the Blazers averages of 13 points and 13 rebounds in about 30 minutes per game as the starter. Given Drummond’s own defensive question marks, it’s unclear whether the Blazers would actually benefit from adding the Cavs’ center to the mix.

Portland would likely have to part ways with Robert Covington in a prospective trade, which would make their already-weak defensive substantially weaker. I just don’t see a fit here.

Golden State Warriors (+800)

The Warriors are currently playing without both James Wiseman and Kevon Looney, which means Draymond Green is moonlighting as a hybrid point guard/center right now. Golden State is battling for one of the last playoff spots in the West, but a title likely isn’t in their immediate future. The offseason injury to Klay Thompson likely thwarted any dreams the Dubs may have had of rising back to the top of the conference this season.

Andre Drummond showed love to Draymond after the Warriors star called out the hypocrisy of how the NBA treats its playershttps://t.co/9oXDDYe1YP pic.twitter.com/UDLbsSB7n9

— Warriors on NBCS (@NBCSWarriors) February 16, 2021

Wiseman is almost surely Golden State’s center of the future. When he gets back from injury, he’ll reclaim his status as their center of the present, too. The Warriors could swing a one-for-one trade for Drummond if they decide to send Andrew Wiggins back to Cleveland, but even Wiggins has more value than Drummond at this stage of their respective careers.

Los Angeles Clippers (+1200)

The Clippers have a pretty good thing going with Serge Ibaka and Ivica Zubac splitting the center minutes. LA is off to a 21-8 start, and there is no clear weakness on this team. Once Kawhi Leonard and Paul George return to full strength, the Clips have an even deeper squad than we saw last season.

There have been murmurs that the Clippers could look to trade Lou Williams, but parting ways with Lou in a Drummond deal doesn’t make any sense. Williams has played exceedingly well lately after a slow start to the season. He’s also only making $8 million, which means the Clippers would have to find a lot more salary if they wanted to swing a deal for Drummond.

Los Angeles Lakers (+1200)

The Lakers lost both Dwight Howard and JaVale McGee this offseason, but they added the likes of Marc Gasol and Montrezl Harrell instead. Gasol is clearly past his prime, while Harrell’s defensive shortcomings are well-documented. Assuming he returns to full strength, it’s pretty easy to imagine Frank Vogel simply opting to give Anthony Davis the bulk of the team’s center minutes come playoff time.

The Lakers are another team that would likely have to bring in a third team in order to facilitate any Drummond deal. LA likely won’t want to part ways with Dennis Schroder or Kentavious Caldwell-Pope. Beyond those two and the two superstars, the Lakers can’t feasibly cobble together enough salary to swing a deal for Drummond by themselves.

What’s the Best Bet?

As you can see, the Drummond trade market is a complicated one. It’s not easy to trade players making $29 million in salary, especially if those players clearly aren’t even close to being worth $29 million in salary. There are plenty of teams out there that would be happy to pluck Drummond off the market if he were a free agent, but trading real assets for him is difficult.

Charania is a reputable enough reporter to where the links to the Raptors are likely real. It won’t be easy for Toronto to swing a Drummond trade, but the mere mention of Toronto as a destination makes them a viable bet here at +225.

If you’re looking for more upside, I think the Hornets (+600) and Nets (+700) are logical options. Both teams have enough ammo to make a deal happen. Brooklyn has shown a willingness to get aggressive, and getting rid of Jordan would make a lot of sense. The Hornets don’t have quite as dire a need for Drummond, but the +600 odds are still alluring enough.

If I were to wager on this, I’d side with the Nets. We know they’re doing everything they possibly can to build a winner right away. Take a shot on Brooklyn’s +700 odds here.