Hawks Among Teams Eyeing Peyton Watson

However, for either team to offer Watson the $25MM+ annual salary he’s reportedly seeking, a sign-and-trade would almost certainly be necessary. And so far, Fischer writes, Denver’s asking price has been too high for either L.A. or Atlanta to seriously consider meeting it.

As Fischer explains, the Nuggets are believed to want a return along the same lines as what the Jazz got from the Lakers for Walker Kessler (two first-round picks and two first-round swaps). Utah also didn’t take back any player salaries in that Kessler sign-and-trade, which could be an important factor for a Denver team navigating the tax aprons. Using Watson’s outgoing salary to take back salary would hard-cap the Nuggets at the second apron.

If the Clippers were to sign-and-trade for Watson, there’s a scenario in which they could fold an agreement into their Kawhi Leonard trade with Toronto, using Leonard’s outgoing salary to offer the Nuggets wing a starting salary worth up to about $23.1MM, as Yossi Gozlan of The Third Apron (Substack link) outlined earlier this week. With the Leonard trade on hold for now, L.A. has time to explore that possibility.

As for the Hawks, they don’t have any trade exceptions or pending deals that they could realistically fold Watson into, so they’d likely need to send out a combination such as Corey Kispert and Buddy Hield to make the math work, and it’s unlikely the Nuggets would be interested in taking on either player.

Considering possible trade structures may be moot though, if the Nuggets’ asking price for Watson doesn’t come down. According to Fischer, if the price remains as steep as it has been, the Clippers are expected to shift their focus to re-signing their own restricted free agent, Bennedict Mathurin.

The one team that does have the cap flexibility necessary to sign Watson to an offer sheet without requiring a sign-and-trade is Brooklyn. But Fischer writes that the Nets haven’t been “keen” on going up to $25MM+ per year for the 23-year-old and seem unlikely to aggressively pursue him.

Brooklyn is still trying to figure out whether there’s a way to maximize the club’s cap room before completing its Julius Randle trade with Minnesota, Chicago, and Charlotte, Fischer notes.