What happened in the lead-up to NBA free agency: LeBron James contract

Jalen Brunson and Tyrese Haliburton took their rivalry from the NBA court to the pro wrestling ring Friday night.

The two All-Star guards made appearances on WWE’s “SmackDown,” which took place at Madison Square Garden, home of Brunson’s New York Knicks. It’s also the place where Haliburton’s Indiana Pacers won Game 7 of the Eastern Conference semifinals a few weeks ago, eliminating the Knicks from the playoffs.

That background was the perfect setup for a potential confrontation.

Before a match, United States champion Logan Paul — yes, that Logan Paul — introduced Haliburton, a well-known wrestling fan, to the crowd. Haliburton strutted down the aisle with Paul, embracing the chorus of boos and engaging in a short stare down with Brunson, who was seated at ringside.

Toward the end of the match, Paul asked Haliburton for a little assistance with the help of a pair of brass knuckles, a tactic Paul has used to win matches in the past.

That led to more jeers from the crowd — and Brunson jumping into the ringside area to prevent the interference, much to the delight of the MSG crowd, which showered him with “M-V-P!” chants.

Dejounte Murray is gone. Is Trae Young next?

Either way, the Atlanta Hawks have to feel a lot better today, because they finally ripped off the Band-Aid. One of Murray or Young had to go … at least. Today, the answer was Murray, whom the team sent to New Orleans for Dyson Daniels, Larry Nance Jr., E.J. Liddell and two first-round picks, league sources confirmed Friday.

Somehow, some way, it appears the Hawks have been able to salvage about 97 cents on the dollar from the reckless trade that brought Murray to Atlanta in the first place, one that thrust them into a crisis of being relentlessly mediocre yet unable to tank.

For a front office that went an entire calendar year without making a single transaction more meaningful than promoting Trent Forrest from a two-way deal, it’s a jarring and notable achievement.

I'll hold off on strong opinions on the New Orleans end of the Dejounte Murray trade until their offseason is more complete. But right now they're in a bit of an odd spot — they just traded all their best chips, they can only sign minimums to fill out the roster and still fulfill their annual goal of avoiding the luxury tax, and their only center is a 20-year-old rookie.

On the other hand … I can’t help but think that this is exactly the type of trade the Pelicans might make if they knew they could soon make another deal that turns Brandon Ingram into a center.

Ingram and Murray play different positions but are hugely duplicative offensive players, shot creators who zealously hunt mid-range jumpers. The lineup that makes the most sense around Murray and Zion Williamson doesn’t even include Ingram; you’d much rather roll with Herb Jones, Trey Murphy and either C.J. McCollum or a stretch five.

Additionally, extending both Ingram and Murphy will make it extremely difficult for the Pelicans to do just about anything else in 2025-26 in particular. That is, unless they have a landing spot for McCollum, whose two-year $64 million extension continues to be a thorn in their cap management side.

Either way, the Pelicans have a talented team for next year. But my opinion on the Murray swap is highly conditional on what other moves they have lined up for this summer.

Here are my grades for the Dejounte Murray trade:

Pelicans: A-

Considering what the Pelicans gave up for Murray, this is a no-brainer. While Murray’s defensive impact in Atlanta didn’t resemble that of his San Antonio days, his ability to get after it on that end is still there. The 27-year-old Murray is quick, athletic and really good at anticipating. He played on a horrendous defensive team and couldn’t fix it on his own. He’s joining a Pelicans team that thrived on defense this past season, finishing sixth in the league in defensive rating. Murray is more than capable of helping maintain that ranking.

The key for New Orleans will be how Murray factors into its offense. New Orleans had a good offense (ranked 11th last season), but it should have been a lot better.

Hawks: C+

If this was just about getting picks back for Murray and splitting up him and Tray Young, I guess it’s mission accomplished? This trade just feels like the Hawks sold low on a talented guard, even if you’re not a big Murray fan. Maybe Dyson Daniels has an ascension strong enough to make this trade look a lot better down the road.

Read my full explanation here.

The Detroit Pistons will not pick up Evan Fournier’s $19 million team option, team sources confirmed. The deadline for Fournier was tomorrow.

This is an expected move.

In trading for Dejounte Murray, the New Orleans Pelicans pull off a fascinating move that's been in the making for quite some time. The Pelicans and Atlanta Hawks were deep in negotiations on a potential Murray deal before the trade deadline in February, but both sides decided to walk away.

While New Orleans has featured in constant trade rumors involving Brandon Ingram as he enters the last year of his contract, acquiring a former All-Star in Murray without including Ingram is a massive win for New Orleans. Murray brings a true point guard with defensive chops to a team that struggled mightily to execute late in games last season. The Pelicans must figure out how to fit Murray next to CJ McCollum in the backcourt, but having another ballhandling option with size, vision and scoring ability should make life much easier for Zion Williamson.

The big question now: Is this trade an indication of Ingram staying in New Orleans, or is this just the first move before the Pelicans pull off another blockbuster at a later date?

Could an old friend make his way back to Detroit? On Thursday, The Athletic reported that the veteran guard will opt out of his $15.4 million player option and be courted by teams with “cap space.” Not “contending teams,” but, read it again, “teams with cap space.” The Pistons have cap space … a lot of it! Caldwell-Pope has played a big part in high-level winning everywhere he’s gone since leaving Detroit, the team that drafted him in 2013. He’s 31 years old but is one of the premier glue guys in the NBA. Caldwell-Pope has shot the 3-ball 38 percent or better over the last five seasons and is a very good defender. He’s low-maintenance on offense and is a prime cutter. Caldwell-Pope is everything the Pistons currently need. He’ll likely command a decent chunk of coin in free agency, hence why he opted out, but I could see a three-year, $80 million deal with a team option on the third year working out for both sides. That comes out to about $26.6 annually.

Miami Heat guard Josh Richardson is picking up his $3 million player option to return for the 2024-25 season, league sources said. Richardson was a key part of Miami's rotation before a shoulder injury in February. He is expected to make a full recovery for next season.

The Atlanta Hawks have traded Dejounte Murray to the New Orleans Pelicans, league sources said.

The Pelicans are sending Larry Nance Jr., Dyson Daniels, EJ Liddell and two first-round picks to the Hawks.

Read more here.

Canadian senior men's team general manager Rowan Barrett confirms Andrew Wiggins will not be in training camp to try to earn a spot for the Olympic team. While not getting into details, he said Wiggins wanted to play and seemed healthy. He said Golden State informed him a few days before training camp started that they would not allow him to compete.

"This is not an Andrew decision," Barrett said.

The Knicks are being punished for signing too good a contract. Hartenstein is on the second year of a deal that paid him just $9.2 million last season and isn’t extension-eligible. As an early Bird free agent, the Knicks can’t sign him for more than $16.2 million for next season, but his market is considerably more than that. If another team swoops in with a $100 million bag, what is New York to do?

One possibility is a one-plus-one deal that signs Hartenstein for $11.1 million for 2024-25 and has a player option for the next season; if he were to opt out next summer, he would have full Bird rights with New York and be eligible for a contract of any size up to the max and for up to five years. (His early Bird maximum of $16.2 million for next year requires at least a two years deal with no options; his max on a one-year deal is just $11.1 million.) I’m not saying there would be a wink-wink arrangement that New York would take care of him if he agreed to the one-year deal now, as that would be illegal and therefore we shouldn’t consider the possibility. But maybe things could just happen to turn out that way.

The Toronto Raptors are picking up the $23 million team option on Bruce Brown, who they acquired in the Pascal Siakam trade. The Raptors will continue to try to trade Brown and pick up a pick or two.

The immediate upshot: It seems less and less likely that Gary Trent Jr. will be back in Toronto. The shooting guard made $18.6 million last year. The Raptors would have to cut that salary in half to keep him while staying under the luxury tax threshold. You can safely wager the Raptors will not be a tax team.

With their franchise at a crossroads, it’s hard to believe the Chicago Bulls don’t know which direction they’ll take in free agency.

In a league in which new player contracts annually get announced the second free agency opens — which recently got the Bulls docked a second-round draft pick after the NBA investigated their acquisition of Lonzo Ball — executives are armed with plenty of intel well in advance.

But Artūras Karnišovas, the Bulls chief basketball executive, after selecting 19-year-old forward Matas Buzelis with the 11th pick in Wednesday’s draft, deflected all questions about what path the Bulls are on.

“You prepare yourself, but you just don’t know who’s going to be available in free agency,” Karnišovas said. “Once we know that, we’ll be able to tell more.”

That didn’t stop Karnišovas from making a promise to Bulls fans.

“I take my role of reshaping this team very seriously, and tonight was an important step in that direction,” he said. “As I’ve said, everything is on the table. I want fans to know we are committed to the process of building a team for long-term success. We’ve made some initial changes this offseason, and now our focus shifts on Friday to free agency.

“We can’t predict exactly what’s going to happen, but we’re determined to strengthen our roster.”

Karnišovas read from a lengthy, typed statement that helped keep his thoughts together and his message on brand. One couldn’t help but decode his choice of words. Three phrases stood out.

Everything is on the table. Long-term success. Initial changes.

With those remarks as the backdrop, keep an eye on the Bulls as one of the NBA’s biggest wild cards in free agency.

This is where the soft cap comes into play. You can go over the salary cap to re-sign your own players if they’ve been on your team for three or more years, or if you acquire them in a trade and they’ve been with that team for three or more years. You acquire their Bird rights, which was named after Larry Bird after the Celtics were allowed to exceed the salary cap in its inaugural implementation in 1983, when Bird was set to become a free agent. There are also Early Bird rights for a player who has been with you for two seasons, but there is a limitation of how much you can increase their previous salary to exceed the salary cap to re-sign them. If you do not have a player’s Bird rights, you must sign them into cap space or with a contract exception.