Shake Milton, the veteran combo guard, and Mamadi Diakite, a rarely used forward, will be joining the Brooklyn Nets as part of a sign-and-trade with the New York Knicks. Also part of the deal, which will likely become official Saturday, Brooklyn will send Keita Bates-Diop, the power forward the Nets acquired in the Royce O’Neale trade, across the river to New York.
Shams Charania broke the news early Thursday — July 4 — afternoon…
Late Ian Begley of SNY reported that Milton won’t be the only Knick coming to Brooklyn.
Milton, a 6’5” combo guard, split last season among the Knicks, Timberwolves and Pistons, while Mamedi Diakite played a total of six games last season with the Knicks and Spurs. Milton averaged 1.8 points for the Knicks. Diakite did not score for the Knicks.
The trade was necessary to complete the Mikal Bridges deal. With the completion of the deal, the Nets are sending Bridges, Keita Bates-Diop to New York in return for Milton, Diakite and Bojan Bogdanovic as well as five first round picks, all but one unprotected, an unprotected first round swap and a second rounder,
Milton and Diakite are the essentially the players to be named later in the blockbuster trade agreed to the day before the Draft. The Knicks needed to add salaries in order to avoid the NBA’s new second apron and hard cap.
There had been early speculation that Deuce McBride, the Knicks 23-year-old backup point, or Precious Achiwura, their 6’9” could be inserted into the deal,
Yossi Gozlan reports that the Nets will also generate a new trade exception but will have only $13 million wiggle room below the luxury tax threshold.
The Nets also completed a trade of draft assets with the Rockets last week in which the Nets were able to retrieve their 2026 first rounder and swap rights to their 2025 first. In return, the Rockets received four future draft assets.
The Nets have also agreed to pay Nic Claxton $100 million over four years. They are reportedly also talking to teams about Dorian Finney-Smith and Cameron Johnson.
