The Philadelphia 76ers still plan to pursue Kyle Lowry in free agency via a possible sign-and-trade.

The Toronto Raptors and 76ers held trade talks on Lowry at the deadline but no deal was consummated.

The Miami Heat and Los Angeles Lakers also tried to trade for Lowry at the deadline. The Heat are the only team of the three in position to possibly sign Lowry outright.

“Really good,” one general manager told The Athletic when asked about Lowry’s market. “There’s teams with money and not a lot of players, so I think he’s going to do really well.”

The New Orleans Pelicans discussed Lonzo Ball with several teams before the trade deadline with the Los Angeles Clippers, Chicago Bulls, Denver Nuggets and Atlanta Hawks among the teams showing interest, sources tell ESPN.

Some executives came away from those talks with the impression that Ball might be made available in a sign-and-trade in the offseason as a restricted free agent.

The Pelicans, however, had indeed expressed interest in keeping Ball. 

Ball is averaging 14.5 points and 38.4% from 3 on 8.1 attempts per game, all career highs.

While Luka Doncic is the clear franchise player of the Dallas Mavericks, Jalen Brunson has emerged in his third NBA season as perhaps their second most indispensable player. Brunson was the 33rd overall pick in 2018 out of Villanova and is averaging 13.1 points, 3.5 rebounds and 3.3 assists in 25.5 minutes per game. 

"By the way, I heard that around the trade deadline the Mavericks got some calls about Jalen Brunson," said Brian Windhorst on his podcast. "And it basically like 'Luka's obviously untouchable and Jalen is pretty much untouchable. If you're going to offer LeBron, we'll listen.'

"He's being viewed as a foundational core piece going forward."