Trade Deadline

Trade Madness:

Typically the NBA trade deadline comes around and there are a million rumors but ultimately little action. From a fans prospective this can be boring, especially if you’re like me and crave constant roster shuffle ups like it’s a 2k franchise.

This year has been a bit of a twist from what we have become accustomed to with the NBA. It all started with the “Free Agency of 2010.” There was lots of drama and hype building up to this past summer and it did not disappoint. Not only did we see franchises come up short and left forced to over pay role players, but we also saw All-Stars switch cities and even franchise players take their talents elsewhere. Once the smoke cleared and the roster movement settled, everyone couldn’t wait to see these teams play each other. David Stern predicted the NBA would have perhaps its best season ever. Thus far, I would say this has been a very entertaining year in the NBA. Outside of who is on who’s team, there has just been a very high level of basketball being played, specifically within the top half of the league. As the league storylines have played out (Miami Heat Big 3, emergence of Derrick Rose as an MVP candidate, Spurs with best record, ups and downs of the Lakers, Blake Griffin’s phenomenal rookie season, the fall of the Cleveland Cavaliers franchise, the consistency of Kevin Love’s game, career changing injuries to Yao Ming and Brandon Roy, attitude and immaturity as well as dominance of DeMarcus Cousins, lack of production by the 2nd and 3rd picks in the draft Derrick Favors and Evan Turner, the dominance by old and injury plagued Boston Celtics, and how could any of us forget…Melodrama) and the new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) has clouded over the league, there is one thing that has kept everyone intrigued…the trade deadline.

As previously mentioned one of the main storylines this season was the “Melodrama.” If you don’t know what that is, you must have completely shut sports and social networking out of your life for the past six months but if that is the case, I forgive you and will explain. The “Melodrama” is all the drama and media attention surrounding Carmelo Anthony’s potential expiring contract. Melo had another full season left on his contract but had the option to void that last year and test free agency if he wanted and also had the option of signing a 3-year contract extension worth up to $65 million on top of his salary for next year. Carmelo wanted a 3-year extension because it is believed that once the CBA issues are resolved he will not be able to make as much money as he would have if he signed a contract before the new CBA is in place. It became very clear early in the season that Carmelo had no intention of signing an extension with the Denver Nuggets so they were left with the option of keeping him for the rest of the season and then losing him for nothing in the offseason or trading him and trying to soak up as many assets and picks as they could. The catch in this is that Carmelo secretly told those close to him and Nuggets management that he would only sign an extension with the Knicks. This put Denver in an awkward situation because it limited who they could trade him to. There were very few teams if any that were willing to trade anything of value for Carmelo before he agreed to sign an extension. Ultimately, we were taking on a three team roller coaster ride that involved the New Jersey Nets and the New York Knicks pursuing Anthony. You have Melo secretly controlling his next destination, the Nuggets in need of assets to start over (quietly in denial that their superstar is leaving them), the Knicks in hot pursuit to get another star to pair with Amare Stoudemire, the Nets with a new owner (Mikhail Prokhorov—say that three times fast) and coach desperately looking for a franchise player, and throw in the media and you have “Melodrama.” As entertaining as this was at times, it got really old within the last few weeks. Not only was it holding up other teams from making deals because they wanted to see how the Melo deal worked out but it was also affecting the play of the players that heard their names in constant rumors all season. Thankfully, a deal was done late Monday night and became official on Tuesday that sent Carmelo to the Knicks in a 3-team 11 player trade (Knicks get Carmelo Anthony, Chauncey Billups, Renaldo Balkman, and Shelden Williams…Nuggets get Wilson Chandler, Raymond Felton, Danilo Gallinari, Timofey Mozgov, Kosta Koufos, three draft picks and cash…Timberwolves get Anthony Randolph, Eddy Curry ).

The Aftermath

We all figured that once Carmelo was traded the domino effect would be in place. As of right now, that ideology has stood firm because immediately teams got on the phones and started discussing potential trades before Thursdays deadline. I would assume most teams are picking through about 15-20 trade scenarios but it is not about scenarios or rumors, it’s about what is actually getting done. This morning the league was caught off guard by the announcement that the New Jersey Nets struck a deal with the Utah Jazz that included Deron Williams. The package sent Deron Willams to New Jersey for rookie Derrick Favors, Devin Harris and two first-round draft picks. There have been an enormous amount of rumors surfacing through the media but no one called this one. Two things happened in this trade. The Nets owner went from being the biggest loser, to possibly a genius in a matter of 48 hours. Not only did he stay competitive in the Melo trade, forcing to the Knicks to give up more players but then he landed a franchise player and gave up less than he offered for Carmelo. The only thing that stands between Prokhorov and his genius status is Deron Williams. He has Willaims on his team, now he has to sell him on sticking around long term. Next year, Williams will be in the same situation that Melo was in this year. If Williams agrees to an extension with the Nets, Prokhorov will have his franchise point guard to build around and he will prove he’s a lot more business savvy than many of anticipated.

What’s Next?

So in two days we have seen two franchise players switch cities and conferences. The East appears to be loaded for the future, but what really has changed…For now, not much. Carmelo joining the Knicks and Deron joining the Nets is fun and exciting to talk about but right now neither is a legit title contender. The Nets currently have just 17 wins and even with their new point guard they most likely won’t make the post season and the Knicks added another star and more offense but zero defense. As we have all learned, defense wins championships in this league. I can see the Knicks possibly giving a team like Orlando a run for their money if they were to meet in the playoffs but I don’t think they have a chance against the Celtics, Bulls or Miami. They aren’t at that level yet. Both The Knicks and Nets should be commended for the moves they have made, because regardless of whether they win a championship with their new stars, there is no question they are better than they were before the trade.

What About Everyone Else?

The biggest winners of the recent trades are the teams fighting to get the last two seeds in the west conference for the playoffs. Both Denver and Utah were guaranteed a playoff spot this year but now we are left with uncertainty. The rest of the league is scrambling to make last minute trades to bolster their team for now or gain assets for the future. Organizations that know their team isn’t going anywhere this season are most likely attempting to dump salary to contenders, while they gain cap space, young prospects and draft picks. Playoff teams realize that the playoffs will be extremely competitive this year and are trying to add missing links to perfect their rosters. At the end of the day there will only be two teams that make it to the championship and only one can be victorious. The real winner in all of this is the fans. The NBA has provided us with a season that hasn’t had a dull moment. People typically say (including myself) the NBA is a joke until the playoffs, because that is when the players really play but this year we have been fortunate to have an action packed regular season and a much anticipated postseason. So, kudos to the fans we are finally getting what we pay for.