Vaughn Ridley/Getty Images
Atlanta Hawks Receive: TJ Leaf, Norman Powell, 2020 second-round pick (via Toronto), 2021 second-round pick (top-44 protection, via Indiana)
Indiana Pacers Receive: Kent Bazemore, Malachi Richardson
Toronto Raptors Receive: Tyreke Evans
The Raptors have been linked to Bradley Beal as part of their search for a playmaker, according to Deveney. That type of all-in play, while intriguing, is a long shot without an ironclad commitment from Kawhi Leonard. Even then, Beal isn’t what you’d call gettable.
Patrick McCaw’s arrival could halt the Raptors’ hunt for another prober. Or it could mean nothing. He is coming off a letdown season with the Golden State Warriors and hasn’t played much over the past year. Injuries derailed his 2017-18 campaign, but he was a bit player before they became a problem.
Tyreke Evans is having a roller-coaster year with the Pacers, but he’s a more reliable off-the-dribble weapon, shooting 37.7 percent from three since 2015-16 and far more likely to spearhead nightmarish bench units.
League executives opened December believing Indiana would move Darren Collison or Cory Joseph, according to ESPN.com’s Brian Windhorst. Shooting 37.5 percent from the floor, Evans has since become the expendable one.
Kent Bazemore’s $19.3 million player option for next season fudges up the Pacers’ cap-space projections, but he fits with their cast of plug-and-play go-hards. He has some off-the-bounce pizzazz, is no stranger to working away from the ball and grinds on defense.
Giving up cap space for Bazemore shouldn’t rattle the Pacers. They can carve out more than $25 million in room with him on books if they exhaust their options. More importantly, free agency isn’t as much of a priority if they’re inclined to re-sign some combination of Collison, Joseph, Bojan Bogdanovic and Thaddeus Young.
The Hawks are the hardest sell. Second-round picks and TJ Leaf aren’t elite sweeteners. They’d have to ascribe value to Normal Powell. And they might.
At 25, he has time to meet the bar set by his four-year, $42 million extension. Atlanta has more playing-time equity to invest in him than Toronto, and swapping out Bazemore’s 2019-20 salary for Powell and Leaf saves the Hawks $6.3 million—wiggle room they can use to supplement other cap-space leases.
Viewed this way, it could be the Raptors who feel most uneasy. Their 2020 second-rounder will be valuable should Kawhi Leonard leave, and they won’t have Evans’ Bird rights if everything works out. On the flip side: Pawning off Powell’s salary jibes with a potential reset, and having non-Bird rights on Evans—they can offer him up to 120 percent of this year’s salary—would be more than enough to keep him around when he’s working off a $12.4 million windfall.
Unless otherwise noted, stats courtesy of NBA.com or Basketball Reference and accurate leading into games on Jan. 10. Salary and cap-hold information via Basketball Insiders and RealGM.
Dan Favale covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter (@danfavale) and listen to his Hardwood Knocks podcast, co-hosted by B/R’s Andrew Bailey.
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