An interesting development to the Avery Bradley trade has occurred. Earlier, the Celtics traded Bradley to the Detroit Pistons for Marcus Morris. A few hours ago, the Pistons pulled their qualifying offer for Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, making him an unrestricted free agent. Caldwell-Pope spent the last four seasons with the Pistons, who drafted him eighth overall in 2013.
Interesting tweets
Jack Fischer tweeted that the Pistons' highest offer was a five-year, $80 million contract, which was apparently not even close to what Caldwell-Pope wanted. Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN tweeted that if he wanted to take a one year deal with the Lakers to give them cap room for next summer to pull in premiere free agents, then they were very interested.
He also tweeted that the Nets will make a run at Caldwell-Pope and try to sway him with newly acquired point guard D'Angelo Russell to make a very young backcourt.
Unable to have both
Bradley is set to be a free agent next season, and there would be no way financially to afford Bradley and Caldwell-Pope on the same roster. The Pistons want to move on from their 2013 first round pick. The 24 year old averaged just 11.7 points per game and shot 33.4 percent from three point range. Bradley has slightly better stats at the age of 26 and is a much better defender.
Why go to the Lakers?
Caldwell-Pope wants to cash in on his big payday. If he would have accepted the Pistons' offer, he would be making around $16 million a year.
Instead, he is on the market. If he cared about winning, he would have stayed in Detroit and played out this season with Bradley on the roster. If he goes to the Lakers, he would have to probably take a paycut in order for the Lakers to sign him. The Lakers want to go after two superstars next season, and Caldwell-Pope does not meet that description.
The Nets make the most sense
The Brooklyn Nets just made a $104 million offer to Otto Porter Jr., but the Washington Wizards intend to match the offer sheet. Its been a slow offseason for Brooklyn. The Nets acquired Russell and Timofey Mozgov as their big name players. The Nets will have enough money to make a large contract offer to Caldwell-Pope if Washington matches.
However, the only challenge is that the Nets recently re-signed two Shooting Guards. The Nets re-signed Sean Kilpatrick and Joe Harris. They also have Caris Levert and Randy Foye on the team. The Nets could look to trade some of those pieces if they like the idea of a Russell/Caldwell-Pope backcourt.
