In what happened to turn into a historic trade in NBA history, a smorgasbord (my nickname for yo momma) of players were exchanged in the first ever seven-team transaction that lead to one of the bigger names available being moved, and that is none other than THE Slim Reaper, Kevin Durant. Sure, nowadays he’s better known as a “Bus Rider” or just an emo social media content creator, but other than Giannis (and his annual off-season rumor windmill-tilting by the media), KD was the player we were all expecting to be on the move.
Even though there were about 25-30 players exchanged (I don’t do math in the room folks), let’s focus on the three prime guys that were part of the deal between, if you were wondering (takes deep breath…) the Rockets, Suns, Lakers, Warriors, Timberwolves, Nets and Hawks. And those three players were the aforementioned Kevin Durant, Jalen Green and Dillon Brooks. (Even though he is technically part of this deal, I’ll discuss Clint Capela in our Free Agent recap later in the month.)
So let’s start with Durant, and I’m going to slightly zag to the aggregated zig… I actually don’t like this move as much as others for both Houston and KD. I’ll admit, KD does fill a massive hole that the Rockets had last year, and that was an offensive weapon that can buoy one of the league’s toughest if not the toughest defenses. And obviously KD will most likely do that job well coming off a 26/6/4 year on his usual amazing efficiency, 53/43/84 for those wondering. I don’t have a metric for it, but my main concern is the locker room, the identity of the Rockets (of which Brooks played a large part) along with the added health concerns. (KD missed 20 games last season.)
Rockets added a lot of depth pieces, but they still really only have one pure scorer, albeit they found a lot of success last year without KD, but they’ll probably be in the same position if an older KD misses time or doesn’t have the same impact on the offense because of any other reason. Can Amen Thompson and Jabari Smith Jr. take another step forward? Sure. But in terms of fantasy, while I wouldn’t be surprised if Durant matched last season’s output, I’m just not sure his value on the draft board will match that.
For Jalen Green, I think we’ll get much of the same. Is 21/5/3 useful? Absolutely. Does he still have potential? A middling yes. So depending on how your league values him, I could see some upside here. He’s still just 23, and while his playoffs performance did him no favors, the Suns, whether forced or not, are invested in seeing him succeed and plenty of backcourt minutes to offer.
Lastly, Dillon Brooks remains your prototypical 3-and-D. Generally though, the gusto and energy he brings certainly has its own brand, and if the Suns are committed to developing a tough-defensive identity, they now have the personal to start applying it and Brooks will play an important part in that.
It’s not something we can really measure accurately, but identity is an affecting thing in the NBA. I only say this because the outlook of the Suns isn’t particularly great, and I would probably agree. Then again, if they start building a type of identity, they’ll all certainly make more of an impact (both in fantasy and the real world) versus similar teams that are missing a core concept. Take for example the Bulls or Pelicans (we’ll get to the them, but maybe NO does have an identify: oddballs). All I’m saying, it’s something to chew on.
Or maybe I’m just hungry.
So just to recap, I’m kinda meh to not super excited on the KD front, Jalen Green continues to get another “show me” season and Dillon Brooks is Dillon Brooks, but can also help create a team closer to Dillon Brooks which might cause better team cohesiveness. Or a lot of sh*t talking and bricked threes. WHO KNOWS?
Jay is a longtime Razzball everything who consumes an egregious amount of Makers Mark as a vehicle to gain wisdom and augment his natural glow. Living in the D.C. area, he also likes spending time visiting the local parks and feeding lettuce to any turtles he encounters, including Mitch McConnell.
