Post by ashes on Jun 3, 2020 23:17:02 GMT -8
The Early Season Frenzy: Trades Galore!
Frenzy starts Day 80, correct? Well BBS thought something different these last 24-36 hours! There have been deals left and right, many of which included big time names with big time implications. Let's take a look at this frenzy before the frenzy and talk about the winners and losers.
Suns Trade:
Jumaine Jones
2 Vet Fas
2003 NYK 1st
Jazz Trade:
Richard Hamilton
Let's kick things off with a super exciting trade for...Rip Hamilton. Whoops. Just kidding! So the Suns are starting to feel the pressure a bit with the CY looming, so they send a late 1st for Rip Hamilton. Hamilton was known to have >85 Inside at one point, so he's not too shabby, but overall the deal is still a bit strange. Suns are going to miss out on the playoffs again this season, and while Hamilton is potentially solid for them, he is expiring. The Suns are looking at three key players currently on $6.5M contracts that may be testing the market this year. How much is going to cost to keep Rip Hamilton and is he worth that cost? Still, Rip is better than a late 1st, so if the Suns can somehow keep him at a reasonable price, this deal is fine. For the Jazz they get worse, don't have to worry about re-signing a guy potentially more expensive than he is worth, and they pick up a 1st while they rebuild.
Winner: Even trade
Will Hamilton be a long term fixture in Phoenix or is he one and done?
Knicks Trade:
Ernest Brown
Voshon Leonard
Tamar Slay
Celtics Trade:
Joe Smith
2004 BOS 2nd
2005 BOS 2nd
Now it's not a frenzy until Skillz starts wheeling and dealing! In a really strange looking deal, the Celtics somehow gave up the best player and felt compelled to add picks, albeit 2nd Rounders, to the deal. Smith averaged 20/10 with 2.5 stocks last season. Not really sure what the thought process was here. Brown is a solid back-up, but I think Boston jumped the gun here and gave up on Smith early in the season while thinking Brown was a bit better than he actually is. Brown has bird years at least, but it's going to be interesting to see what Boston thinks he's worth salary-wise. I have a feeling Brown bolts in FA and Celtics are left with nothing. Skillz with the pillage!
Winner: Knicks
The real reason Brian does this trade.
76ers Trade:
Stephon Marbury
Pacers Trade:
Kenyon Martin
Jared Jeffries
Michael Curry
Terry Mills
Dee Brown
2005 IND 2nd
Can both teams lose a deal? Pacers grab Marbury, a disappointment who has struggle in training camp and can't hold on to the ball to save his life, to play off the bench. Sixers get Martin, a disappointing big man who has fallen off hard since the inaugural season. Honestly, this deal is just a swap of expirings. I can't imagine either team wanting to pay their guy in the offseason, but I guess Martin would be the better bet if it's cheap enough. The only way I can grade this deal is the Sixers traded a perfect tanking PG. Should have kept Marbury to play through his contract and try to lead the team to another top pick.
Winner: Pacers
Did Steve toss in a pair of these badboys?
Knicks Trade:
Luis Scola
Kerry Kittles
Robert Horry
2004 BOS 2nd
2005 NYK 2nd
Wolves Trade:
Jerry Stackhouse
Etan Thomas
Another Skillz appearance! Scola for Stack. Stack for Scola. To be blunt, Stackhouse sucks. Given what Minnesota moved for him, it makes this look a little worse, but it was time to get rid of this bum. Scola is the best piece in the deal, and I'm surprised Skillz moved him before playing around with him in a DC. It's still a small sample size, but Scola is looking pretty nice. With some camps, he can possibly be a 20/10 guy with 2 stocks and very low turnovers. Clearly Stackhouse isn't going to be in New York for long, but Thomas is the sleeper haul here. 24 years old, solid contract, and completely uncamped. Might be able to get him to 2 stocks with double/double potential. Not too shabby.
Winner: Wolves
I once wrote an articled called "Cooking with Stackhouse." Felt like using this picture again.
Warriors Trade:
Chauncey Billups
Darius Miles
Heat Trade:
Jamal Mashburn
Chucky Atkins
2005 MIA 1st
The Golden State rebuild begins! Honestly, I would have tried to add a third piece first, but the Warriors committed and did what they said they would do. They traded both of their stars. Billups goes to Miami for Mash, Atkins, and an 05 1st. I feel like this is the kind of deal you could have explored if you were going to keep Dirk. Atkins, Mashburn, Dirk is better than Billups and Dirk, but I digress. The true value of this trade hinges on manas's ability to get value for Mash/Atkins because he's obviously not looking to keep them. I'd be a little nervous trading the 05 1st if I were Miami. Their team is one of the more vulnerable teams to losing key players in FA. They should be able to bring back Zo, but how much do they want to commit to a soon to be 33 year old? Davis, Outlaw, and Billups are all $6.5M-$8.5M guys, so if they don't offer to re-sign, kobe doesn't have a year-one salary advantage over the plethora of teams ready to throw maxes at guys like Billups and Davis. Billups is a stud though, and he has +15 still available. If the Heat can bring him back, this is a really nice deal for them.
Winner: Heat
Warriors Trade:
Dirk Nowitski
Blazers Trade:
Eddy Curry
Gerald Wallace
Sam Cassell
Obinna Ekezie
Vet FA
2005 POR 1st
Boom. In quick succession, manas tears apart his duo and fully commits to the tank. The deal is just nuts for Portland, but manas gets solid pieces. Curry is a good scorer in the paint, but there are questions if he will develop to be anything else. Word is the Warriors are looking to flip him as well. Wallace is the prize for Golden State. If he can keep improving in shot-blocking, and control his turnovers a little better, Wallace becomes one of the better stocks guys in the league. He had some iffy camps to his offense, which seems beyond saving at this point. For now, he is a Marion-lite, but if he can keep developing defense and rebounding, he is a very nice piece. Let's talk about Dirk, though, the man is a superstar and should pair really nicely with H20 for the Blazers. You don't really lose a deal when you get a guy like Dirk. Blazers still have work to do, but Dirk/Houston is a pretty damn good place to start.
Winner: Blazers
Every time Dirk landed after his jump shot, it made me instinctively flinch and rub my ankles.
Lakers Trade:
George McCloud
Erick Dampier
Antony Peeler
2003 NJN 1st
2005 LAL 1st (If pick is outside Top 10, GSW receive 2006 LAL 1st additionally)
Warriors Trade:
Jamal Mashburn
Three in a row for manas! In a shocking move, Warriors immediately ship Mashburn somewhere else! The nerve! Nanz picks up Mashburn for a few 1sts, the Nets 1st looked promising. Mashburn is a really nice scorer to pair with Gil and the Lakers offense is starting to look pretty potent. I was only critical of this deal because I felt the 03 Nets 1st should have been used in a package for Ben Wallace, but greeme shut that down quick informing everyone he would only have traded for his pick back before the season started (I think this was a bluff/trade tactic). Warriors likely end up with 3 1sts, with the Nets 1st probably falling anywhere from late lotto to mid 1st, and this draft is pretty solid in that range. Not a bad haul for Mash, but an easy price for Nanz and the Lakers to pay.
Winner: Even trade
This dude owns like 100 Papa John's franchises. Not joking. He is now called Papa Mash.
Pistons Trade:
Tim Thomas
Jazz Trade:
Shareef Abdur-Rahim
In a very Galonian move, Pistons swap Thomas for Abdur-Rahim. On the surface, it looks pretty irrelevant, but SAR will probably fit in with the Pistons team very well. The Pistons are finally on their last leg of winning games, in my opinion, and could easily slip out of the playoffs. I think small, but impactful moves like this is a solid way to go. Don't take on additional salary, don't trade any more picks, and do your best to stay in the playoffs to keep that CY clock from starting. For the Jazz, this deal is whatever. SAR probably wins you more games than Thomas, so dump him. Also, Thomas is the more complete player, so maybe you get him back on a bargain. He and SAR are still relatively young.
Winner: Even trade
Kings Trade:
Mehmet Okur
Joe Johnson
Tony Battie
Lonny Baxter
Nets Trade:
Ben Wallace
What mad man makes a major trade when his team is 16-4 with only 6 home games played? Me, I suppose. Ben Wallace is the guy I felt I was always missing. A true defensive/rebounding anchor who isn't taking shots away from my scorers. Moving a young, cheap core in Okur/Johnson hurts me a little inside, but I think a move like this has a better chance of putting me over the top. Kings were always vulnerable to big men, and I think that's changed significantly now. Battie was a solid rotation guy for me over the years, but with Walker and Wallace needing new contracts soon, getting rid of his salary was key. Plus I didn't have a whole lot of contract fillers. For the Nets I think this move lets them re-tool easily without their pick. Okur's versatility as a scorer, emergence as a plus rebounder, and efficiency with turnovers makes him a really fun player to have. Johnson is a low-TO scorer, there are a decent amount of them in the league right now, but he is young and cheap, and should always be a 20-25ppg guy depending on the option. I think the Nets should make the playoffs, but either way their pick isn't going to be great, so they are able to start their rebuild without gifting a top pick to someone.
Winner: Kings
Honestly forgot they were on the same team. Weird.
Hornets Trade:
Anthony Mason
Heat Trade:
Darius Miles
Billy Owens
Corie Blount
Brent Price
Nothing crazy, but Mason is a really unqiue player to have in the rotation. He can probably back-up every position on the court. He is a fantastic defender, and while he might not be a stocks guy, he is still going to be very valuable depth for a team trying to win the title. Picking him up for just matching expirings is a really nice deal for kobe. For the Hornets, I'm sure at this point pig just wanted a good player off his roster so he can lose more games. He probably could have gotten a bunch of 2nds somewhere, MAYBE a shitty 1st? I don't know, I doubt the market was booming for Mason, but he's a player I know I'd like to have on my bench, so this is a small but excellent move for Miami.
Winner: Miami
Knicks Trade:
Manu Ginobili
Sarunas Jasikevicius
Mavericks Trade:
Jermaine O'Neal
Dejan Bodiroga
2004 DAL 2nd
2005 DAL 2nd
The mad lad keeps going and here comes habes! Paying Jermaine O'Neal might be the scariest decision in the offseason. He is a good big man, with upside that could still be there, but he is going to need the max to keep, and that would worry me if he were my guy. Ginobili is a really nice wing, but he's almost camped out. If he has any development left in him, this is an easy win for the Mavericks. Sarunas is a guy I've been waiting to see get the chance, so hopefully habes shows him some love with camps and gives him a shot. If he can play, that's a really nice player on a great contract. Bodiroga is guy I've been on the fence about since Miami signed him. He dropped in ratings his first TC, and while I acknowledge that doesn't have a huge effect on his output, it raises concerns about his potential and longevity. He is almost camped out, but he had a great season last year, and should still produce well with the right opportunity. My main concern with him is his contract. Yeah it's nice right now given his production, but I worry in two years he is just an okay back-up soaking up space. The cap isn't a huge concern, but these next two offseasons are going to see major shifts in salary around the league, and flexibility is going to harder to come by.
Winner: Mavericks
Look at that smirk. Oozing confidence. It's his time now.
Knicks Trade:
Jermaine O'Neal
Glenn Robinson
Jerry Stackhouse
Chris Mihm
Lakers Trade:
Elton Brand
Andrei Kirilenko
Larry Hughes
Soumaila Samake
What better way to end this mini-frenzy than with another Skillz deal and a major roster-swap of a trade! Skillz and Nanz got together and made some magic happen, and the end result is an almost complete line-up swap across the two teams. Crazy stuff! Lakers end up with the best player in the deal. Glenn Robinson is insane and the Lakers offense of Big Dog, Mash, Arenas with Stack off the bench is going to be really fun to watch. Lakers should have little problems resetting their CY. Here's where I think Skillz actually comes out on top. Nanz now has to pay up big time to keep JO, and has a very real shot at losing Robinson, Mashburn, and Stackhouse (lol) in free agency if they don't offer to re-sign. I'm not a huge fan of Mihm either, but he can definitely be a pretty solid big man since he still has +15 left. The Knicks get a lot of security here. Brand and AK are still under contract. Brand is looking better and better each year. AK is finally looking like he might be a spicy player, still has +15 left and if he has natural development left in him, he could end up being very nice. Samake has a lot of promise as well! Still has camps left and he's gotten better every year. Skillz has birds on him, so if he can manage to bring Samake back on a nice deal, that could be huge for the Knicks. Hughes is probably the odd man out here, I don't think he'll stick around for long in NY. His Handling can still be camped, but given his production and turnovers, it's hard to see keeping him considering he probably needs to be overpaid to do so. Such a wild trade!
Winner: Knicks
She gives AK a once a year pass to sleep with any other woman. I heard she also slept with Carlos Boozer, so not sure who wins this deal.