NBA Rumors: David Lee could get traded to Raptors, Rockets or 76ers
By Josh Hill
David Lee is an NBA champ, and is first request is to be traded away from the team he won with to a new team he’ll have a bigger role on.
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When you win the NBA Finals, you typically go into an intoxicated haze of celebration. But if you’re David Lee, you immediately try to cash in on the championship success and move on to et next venture.
Hours after winning the NBA Finals with the Golden State Warriors, David Lee asked for a trade out of Oakland and is working with the front office to make it happen. That’s a weird position for everyone to be in, but it means the Warriors roster is already on the verge of changing.
According to NBA scribe Chuck Myron, the destinations that make the most sense for David Lee are teams with non-guanteed money like Toronto, Houston and Philadelphia
"I think the most likely scenario involves a team with a lot of non-guaranteed money. Maybe the Rockets, with Kostas Papanikolaou’s non-guaranteed salary of nearly $5MM, would be a fit, though they have no shortage of power forwards. The Sixers always loom as an option to take him on via cap space, but they’d want picks that GSW probably doesn’t want to sacrifice. Lee would look great on the Raptors, but I don’t think they have the assets necessary to get him. So it could be tough for GSW here."
Lee is a great player but he’s not a superstar. That being said, Lee is a player that people have wanted din the past and now that he was part of a championship rotation he’ll be even more coveted.
The Raptors and Rockets make sense for Lee in that he can come in and immediately contribute to title contenders next season. Philly is a joke and there’s no way Lee would agree to be traded to the boneyards next season.
Something is going to happen with Lee and Golden State, and the Draft looming next week could mean a trade happens sooner rather than later.