We didn’t expect the 2020 NBA trade deadline to feature much activity. We were wrong. The final 72 hours before trade season ended instead featured the usual flurry of activity we’ve come to expect from this league. Contenders leveled up, several young stars changed addresses just when it seemed like they would stay put, and deals flew out from left field that we’re still trying to process.
That said, this trade deadline paled in comparison to the seismic shifts we saw this summer in free agency. The rush of deals at the buzzer made this day seem more significant to the title race than it actually is. There were no superstar trades, nor was there a significant veteran joining as the final piece of a title contender, a la Rasheed Wallace to Detroit in 2004 or Marc Gasol to Toronto last season. The D’Angelo Russell-Andrew Wiggins trade between Golden State and Minnesota is interesting, but both teams are in the lottery. Otherwise, the biggest names that moved are role players that could provide a small, though useful boost to their new teams.
Let’s assess the damage.
WINNERS
Andre Iguodala
Iguodala will make an incredible agent if he chooses that path once his playing days are over. When he was last a free agent, he feigned interest from the Rockets and others to procure a three-year, $45 million deal from the money-conscious Warriors despite his advancing age. When the Warriors traded him to the Grizzlies last summer, Iguodala brokered an arrangement with Memphis that allowed him to chill on the sidelines and still get paid. Now, he’s back in the title race as a member of the Miami Heat, and got a two-year, $30 million contract extension to boot.
Must be nice to get paid not to work for several months, then get a multi-million cash advance from your new team before you even step on the court.
Bruh you’re a legend @andre . My guy sat half the season. Spent time with his family. Promoted his book. Sharpened up his post retirement plans and cashed out ✊ respect bruh.
— CJ McCollum (@CJMcCollum) February 6, 2020
Miami Heat
They didn’t get Danilo Gallinari, which would have cemented them a serious threat to win the East. But Pat Riley still did well to improve his team’s depth by swapping out three non-rotation players for Iguodala, Jae Crowder, and Solomon Hill. All three should shore up a defense that’s been mediocre this year despite the individual success of Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo. Imagine Butler and Iguodala at the top of Erik Spoelstra’s 2-3 zone. Good luck scoring on that.
Plus, Riley maneuvered the Heat into position to have cap space this summer without jeopardizing any room in 2021, which projects as a much stronger free-agent class.
Karl-Anthony Towns
It’s. Happening.
Well, not the Devin Booker part, at least not yet. Still, Towns gets to play with his best friend that also happens to be a quality point guard to pass him the ball. That should cheer him up after losing 13 games in a row.
Andrew Wiggins
Wiggins’ resurgence lasted all of a couple weeks this year before he reverted back to his bad habits. It’s possible he’ll be a tease the rest of his career. But the Steph/Klay/Draymond Warriors offer as good a landing spot as any to channel him into a defined role that gets the most out of his strengths. Harrison Barnes did quite well for himself playing off those three. Now, it’s Wiggins’ turn.
Creative Arts Agency
For years, the prominent sports and entertainment agency was the shadow ruler of the Knicks. As Ricky O’Donnell explains:
CAA represented Carmelo Anthony, who the Knicks traded for ahead of free agency and later re-signed to a max extension. CAA represented J.R. Smith, who became Sixth Man of the Year with the Knicks. CAA also represented his brother Chris Smith, who worked his way onto the Knicks despite lacking the qualifications to hold down an NBA roster spot. There were rumors that former Knicks coach Mike Woodson changed agencies to CAA in 2012 to keep his job. Former assistant general manager (and currently Knicks G League GM) Allan Houston and player personnel director Mark Warkentien were also represented by CAA.
In a 2014 ESPN story, one Knicks player told reporter Chris Broussard the franchise was playing favorites to CAA clients. ”You see how guys from CAA are treated differently,” the player said. “How they get away with saying certain things to coaches. How coaches talk to them differently than they talk to the other guys. It’s a problem.”
Their influence waned once the Knicks hired Phil Jackson, who vowed to remove their tentacles from the operation. But half a decade later, they’re baaaaaaack, and now in an official capacity. Congratulations to Leon Rose and William Wesley for taking over Knicks front office power that opened up when owner James Dolan fired Steve Mills two days before the trade deadline.
Toronto Raptors
They didn’t make a trade, but none of their other East rivals did either, save for the Heat. More importantly, the Knicks’ decision to return to the CAA well quenched the increasing risk that team president Masai Ujiri would leave Canada to save basketball in Manhattan.
LA Clippers
They beat out their crosstown rivals for Marcus Morris, a hard-nosed knockdown three-point shooter that will slide into their starting and closing lineups. He won’t help the Clippers’ shaky rim protection and isn’t a great passer, but his shooting ability should open the floor for a Clippers offense that can occasionally stagnate. All it cost was a first-round pick the Clippers didn’t need, a couple fringe prospects they weren’t playing, and a worse combo forward in Maurice Harkless that wasn’t fitting in.
Houston Rockets
Here’s more on why the Rockets’ all-in move on small-ball was smart. Would’ve been nice if they got another big man, though.
Clint Capela
Capela is a better player than he’s shown over the last couple years. Houston’s shift to more isolation plays instead of pick-and-roll took him out of his comfort zone, and swapping Chris Paul for Russell Westbrook shrunk the floor on the dwindling roll opportunities he did get. Now, he gets to play on a Hawks team that with a young pick-and-roll maestro in Trae Young that will spoonfeed him a half-dozen lob opportunities a game.
Kyle Kuzma
The Lakers refused to include Kuzma in a potential deal for Morris, though it’s unclear how they would’ve made the money work in such a deal anyway. They also didn’t deal Kuzma for Derrick Rose, Robert Covington, or any number of win-now veterans that could have fit more reliably with LeBron James and Anthony Davis. That’s a big bet on Kuzma rising to the challenge in his first deep playoff run.
(I also think it was the right call, especially if the Lakers also win the Darren Collison buyout sweepstakes).
MODEST WINNERS
Memphis Grizzlies
The Grizzlies should be praised for extracting some value out of a proud veteran that never suited up for them. They also deserve more credit than they’ve been given for locking up starting shooting guard and resident shit-talker Dillon Brooks on a reasonable three-year, $35 million extension instead of letting him test a barren restricted free agency market this summer.
But the specific trade they ended up making with Miami carries downside risk that may not have been necessary. I’ve been a Winslow fan for a long time, but he’s missed nearly half of all possible regular-season games since his rookie season and has only played in 11 games this year due to back trouble. He’s promising when healthy, but hasn’t been able to stay on the court. Excluding Iguodala, the price for taking a chance on Winslow was two useful rotation players this year (Jae Crowder, Solomon Hill) and $29 million in salary next year for two players (James Johnson and Dion Waiters) that fell out of favor in Miami. That’s a hefty cost, especially considering Memphis took itself out of having cap space with this move and the Brooks extension. Memphis is not a free-agent destination, but cap space has other uses. Having it allowed them to take on Iguodala last summer for an additional draft pick, for example.
Better hope Winslow stays healthy.
Philadelphia 76ers
The 76ers didn’t make any slam-dunk moves, but getting Alec Burks and Glenn Robinson III shores up a shaky bench at a minimal cost. Burks could be an especially nice fit as a second ball-handler when Ben Simmons plays without Joel Embiid.
:shruggie:
Golden State Warriors
Despite insisting otherwise, the Warriors did ultimately sign D’Angelo Russell to be a trade asset. How did they maximize that asset? In essence, the Warriors traded:
And in return, they received:
- Andrew Wiggins
- 2021 first-round pick from Minnesota, top-3 protected, then unprotected if it doesn’t convey
- 2021 second-round pick from Minnesota
That’s … OK I suppose. Obviously, Durant was a goner either way. Russell is better than Wiggins and on a marginally better contract, but I don’t think the difference is stark and Wiggins has less positional overlap with Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson. The 2021 first-rounder from Minnesota could be in the lottery and pairs nicely as a trade asset with Golden State’s own high 2020 pick. At the same time, losing that 2024 pick to clear Iguodala may come back to bite them if they are forced to rebuild down the road.
I probably would’ve held on to Russell until the summer, but there’s still a chance the Warriors come out ahead, especially if they can rehabilitate Wiggins.
Minnesota Timberwolves
The Timberwolves needed to do something to put a smile on Karl-Anthony Towns’ face, and best friend D’Angelo Russell certainly does that in the short term. They also got decent value for Robert Covington in the form of one first-round pick and two useful restricted free agents to be in Malik Beasley and Juancho Hernangomez. Their long-term outlook is better now than it would’ve been if they did nothing.
But this still doesn’t look like a team that can really contend in Towns’ prime. Russell and Towns should be a nice offensive pick-and-roll tandem, but they will get lit up on the other end. Losing Covington weakens an already terrible defense, though Beasley is at least on Towns’ age curve. They really need Jarrett Culver to turn into a building block, and early returns are mixed. Not having their own 2021 pick may hurt more than keeping their 2020 selection if draft experts are right about the weakness of this class. Losing Wiggins may be addition by subtraction, but the Wolves aren’t projected to have much cap space unless they move on from some of their new additions.
At least Minnesota got a point guard. That alone salvages the situation.
LOSERS
New York Knicks fans
To quote Posting and Toasting’s Jonathan Schulman:
Out of the frying pan and into the fire for New York. James Dolan hates learning lessons and is perpetually bent on repeating mistakes. As long as he’s in good company, he seems fine making his money hand over fist and succumbing to the will of more virile men. Eventually the mistakes of the past will echo into the Knicks’ future and Dolan will impose his petty vengeance on another friend. This time it’s Leon Rose.
The Knicks are spinning the decision to hand the keys to Rose, a prominent player agent, as a move that mirrors the success of recent agent/executive crossovers like Bob Myers in Golden State and Rob Pelinka with the Lakers. That’d be easier to believe if a) Dolan and the Knicks didn’t have a checkered history with Rose’s CAA, and b) the alternative of pursuing Masai Ujiri didn’t loom so heavily in the background.
Why is it so hard for Dolan to be patient and use his deep pockets to go get the smartest basketball executive possible?
Everyone involved in the Andre Drummond trade
What a sad ending to Andre Drummond’s seven-and-a-half years in Detroit. The Pistons held onto him for too long in multiple desperate attempts to achieve relevancy, then discovered he had no trade value once they finally realized they had to move on. They ended up accepting a trade package of dead salary and a low second-round pick, all because they feared Drummond would exercise his $27 million player option. That’s a paltry return for a player who was supposed to usher in a new era years ago.
And what’s the upside for Cleveland in making this deal? They “won” the trade today, but it’s hard to see how Drummond becomes a key part of their long-term future. Either he walks for nothing this summer, or he plays his way into a lucrative contract extension that puts him on a different timeline from their young backcourt. Perhaps the Cavaliers can rehabilitate his value and trade him again, but that requires the league forgetting how little they value him now.
As for Drummond … man. He needed a change of scenery, but now he’s walking into a franchise that’s miles away from contention and has horrible locker-room chemistry. He’s taking it as well as you’d expect.
If there’s one thing I learned about the NBA, there’s no friends or loyalty. I’ve given my heart and soul to the Pistons , and to be have this happen with no heads up makes me realize even more that this is just a business! I love you Detroit…
— Andre Drummond (@AndreDrummond) February 6, 2020
Denver Nuggets
The Nuggets’ involvement in Tuesday’s four-team Houston-centric blockbuster seemed like a setup for something bigger. Shabazz Napier for Jordan McRae isn’t what we had in mind.
I understand the Nuggets were unlikely to keep Malik Beasley and Juancho Hernangomez even if they did have their restricted free agent rights. I understand their rotation was too deep to accommodate everyone. But the return package of a late 2020 first-round pick and two unproven youngsters in Noah Vonleh and Keita Bates-Diop is still underwhelming.
Sacramento Kings
Just gonna leave this here.
The Kings signed Trevor Ariza and Dewayne Dedmon in free agency and traded both of them before the All-Star break.
— Paul Flannery (@Pflanns) February 6, 2020
No comments:
Post a Comment