Coming into Thursday’s NBA Trade deadline, speculations and rumors were circulating around many big-time players that could possibly be on the move. Guys like Al Horford, Kevin Love, Hassan Whiteside, Dwight Howard and even Carmelo Anthony could be traded around to a contenders.
Well a grand total of zero of those guys were traded and the major NBA landscape is pretty much the same as it was before the deadline. However, some moves were made that the hardcore basketball fan would appreciate, hate or LOL at.
One of the main stories of the deadline revolves around the Orlando Magic. On Tuesday, they traded a key asset in Tobias Harris to the Detroit Pistons for Brandon Jennings and Ersan Ilyasova.
This is likely to make for more playing time for slam dunk wizard Aaron Gordon, but the return they got is less than ideal.
Then on Thursday, they trade Channing Frye for basically cap space. Admittedly, Frye hasn’t been good for at least three years, but now they have about as much cap space as any team in the league going into the offseason.
That’s nice if they are in New York or Miami, but no one good is going to sign in Orlando unless they’re ten and want to go to Disney World everyday.
Locally, Oklahoma City made a smart, but boring move nonetheless. They acquired Randy Foye from the Denver Nuggets for Steve Novak, D.J. Augustin and a couple of second round draft picks.
Foye is not an amazing player but he’s a solid veteran, can hit some threes and plays pretty good defense. He probably won’t play a lot, but the savings OKC gets in return are huge. They are clearing a roster spot and saving up to ten million dollars in salary payments. That roster spot could be big considering some upcoming player buyouts including Joe Johnson, David Lee, Kevin Martin and Anderson Varejao.
Finally, the funniest deal of the deadline was between the Clippers and Grizzlies where Lance Stephenson and a first rounder were sent to Memphis in exchange for Jeff Green going to L.A.
On paper, it’s not necessarily exciting, but the narratives produced provide for some entertainment. On the Clippers’ side, it just reaffirms the notion that head coach and general manager Doc Rivers will only coach players that either have played well against him or for him. Green is added to this list of Paul Pierce, Austin Rivers, Eddie House and Glen Davis.
For the Grizzlies, they have a roster filled with all-NBA talent if that talent involves being thugs. They now have Tony Allen, Zach Randolph, Stephenson, P.J. Hairston, Matt Barnes and “Birdman” Chris Andersen all in the same locker room. One game of poker goes wrong between that group and there are no more Memphis Grizzlies.
Overall, the trade deadline was boring because everyone is so scared of the Golden State Warriors. Every NBA GM is in a weird state of depression, where they see no point in trying to make their teams better in the near future, because they really believe that they have no chance of winning the title this year.
