The best trade of the 2017 NBA Trade Deadline
By Jay Blackwell.
The NBA trade deadline is one of the best days of the NBA season. Fans everywhere drain their cell phone battery checking updates on trades that went down and playing the ESPN NBA trade machine to see what deals work out best for their favorite teams.
This year’s deadline promised to be an active one with rumors swirling around Bulls star Jimmy Butler, Pacers superstar Paul George, and the forever underachieving point guards Ricky Rubio and Derrick Rose of the Timberwolves and Knicks respectively.
Sadly, none of these stars were traded. In fact, no star was traded. To be clear I’m not counting the Boogie Cousins trade in this article because, like Isaiah Thomas said, NBA 2K wouldn’t allow that trade even with the trade override off.
Yesterday, we saw the Mavs get younger by dumping Andrew Bogut and replacing him with the much younger Nerlens Noel in a very savvy Mark Cuban type move. This trade will bode well for the Mavs in the future as they’ve secured their center of the future to play along their “star” Harrison Barnes. Factor in Dirk’s pending retirement and the Mavericks will have cap space to work within a year or two.
The Thunder made every move but the right one. Oklahoma City added Taj Gibson and Nikola Mirotic from the Bulls. Solid moves but not satisfying considering what the Pelicans gave up for Boogie the Thunder whiffed on probably forming the best one-two duo with Westbrook and Cousins (imagine that).
Toronto made its case for trade deadline winners by adding both Serge Ibaka and PJ Tucker at the expense of only Terrence Ross and some irrelevant second round picks. Ibaka gives them a versatile big who can defend and rebound. More importantly he stretches the floor for Toronto as he’s able to step out and shoot the three ball. PJ Tucker essentially replaces the production you lost by giving up Terrence Ross a solid move. These two moves alone make the Raptors better than the Celtics for the time being.
Still, there’s one clear winner from the trade deadline.
The Houston Rockets swapped Cory Brewer and a first round pick to the Lakers in exchange for “The 6 Man” himself, Lou Williams. I absolutely love this trade. Nobody’s losing any sleep over Cory Brewer being gone but just in case you were for Williams’ debut you missed out on a team leading 27 point performance in 25 minutes. Williams also shot seven of eleven from three point land and single handedly made Magic Johnson’s first big front office decision look just plain dumb.
Williams joins the new and improved James Harden who actually passes to go with shooters Trevor Ariza, and Ryan Anderson. He makes up for Patrick Beverley’s lack of ability to score and compliments his defensive abilities. The Rockets went out and added a shooter despite having problems on defense because it’s clear they don’t want to stop the Warriors they want to outscore the Warriors. Williams gives Mike D’Antoni another shooter in his arsenal.
Buckle up friends the West just got a little bit more interesting..
