Razzball Nation! The Trade Deadline is here! Fantasy Basketball’s most interesting day south of the year change has arrived, and fantasy owners have itchy trigger fingers on their wires, ready to find that newly minted asset after a deal. Forge me some upside, fantasy gods! Wait, wait, in no way did I mean to compare NBA GMs to gods… Vlade Divac is like, “that’s the nicest thing anyone has ever said about me!”
I’m going to try and keep this post updating throughout the trades up through the 3:00 PM EST deadline, then Slim and I will record the Pod and post a little later tonight. Be sure and keep up with the comments, and break news if you see a deal done before I or another commenter! Let’s throw around the last-minute rumors, and turn this into a Trade Deadline hub! Here’s the trades that have gone down so far (not including the Cousins one, which I do think will end up being the biggest deal of the “Trade Deadline” period though…), plus updates throughout the morning and afternoon:
HAWKS GET: Ersan Ilyasova
SIXERS GET: Tiago Splitter
I dunno, there’s swap of 2nd round picks or some crap, but whatever. Pretty lame trade, all this does is salary dump, and kill Ghostface Ily’s value. Not that we didn’t expect The Six Foot Turkey to be dealt! What was the over/under I said for Ilyasova’s points while on the Sixers on the Pod? I think 16? Slim laughed! Ended up 14.8. Not too shabby!
WIZARDS GET: Bojan Bogdanovic, Chris McCullough
NETS GET: Andrew Nicholson, Marcus Thornton (waived), 2017 1st Round Pick
Ya know, pretty good trade all around. Wizards get a needed bench-scorer and added 3pt threat, the Nets – ravaged of their draft picks – get a first rounder, albeit probably one in the 20s. Eh, what can ya do?! Say goodbye to 12 or 14 team league ThrAGNOFfin’ from Bobo! St. Nicholson is actually where the intrigue lies here. If you click on his Razzball player page and scroll down to that awesome-n-handy little Spotrac widget, you’ll see he’s signed for another 3.5 years on that $26 mil deal. Maybe Wiz spent that on Markieff Morris insurance, but either way, the Nets have a piece they actually are stuck with and are likely giving him minutes. He might even start! They’ve shown they hate Trevor Booker (might even be dealing him today), and Rondae Hollis-Jefferson is most definitely more a wing, so we could see Ol’ St. Nick start sooner than later.
MAVERICKS GET: Nerlens Noel
SIXERS GET: Justin Anderson, Andrew Bogut, Future 1st Round Pick
Whew, sorry had to leave Razzball for my other “job” there for a minute… Well, Sixers move on from one of their bigs, and get a decent little haul! Bogut is meh, but Anderson should play some wing for him, and certainly will be in the rotation. Might even tinker with him starting until Ben Simmons is playing. I don’t think he’s a huge upside guy, but can sprinkle in some wing rebounding and D stats. Maybe RHJ-upside? Then of course to Noel, who hopefully everyone held on to even in the Sixers doldrums. 30+ MPG, going to get all the help defense he can handle helping out Dirk Nowitzki and getting D stats… Vault him into that 50-75 range with upside to be that top-50 value with a new home.
NETS GET: K.J. McDaniels
ROCKETS GET: Dat $$$$$$$$$$ back
Meh, maybe McDaniels plays a little bit in Brooklyn, but I’m not really that intrigued. Deep, deep, deep league flier maybe.
NUGGETS GET: Roy Hibbert
BUCKS TAKE: A salary dump
Says it all…
BULLS GET: Cameron Payne, Anthony Morrow, Joffrey Lauvergne
THUNDER GET: Doug McDermott, Taj Gibson, 2nd Round Pick
Bulls get their PG of the future! Def like Payne as a spec add in 12ers or deeper if needing a PG, could be the starter. Lauvergne should actually be fairly involved as well, with the Bulls getting rid of two forwards. Interesting for Nikola Mirotic, could he be seeing a big role again? I don’t see why not… And Bobby Portis should get a little more run as well, off playing some nice games lately. For OKC, meh, kinda blah. McBuckets will hit some 3s and be a scorer, I think he’ll fit more in the 6th man role though, and be just like he is on Chicago – inconsistent ThrAGNOFfy. Gibson… Man he’s gonna struggle for a consistent role once Kanter is back. Good big man depth for them though… But he can likely go in the majority of leagues. Nice real-life trade for OKC, although in fantasy this only really helps Payne of the guys in the deal.
RAPTORS GET: P.J. Tucker
SUNS GET: Jared Sullinger, two 2nd Round Picks
Apparently the Suns GM drafted Sullinger, so he might have a little role here. Although they’re going to of course keep developing Marquese Chriss… Raptors get another defensive SF/PF guy as they “super” load up.
LAKERS GET: Tyler Ennis
ROCKETS GET: Marcelo Huertas
Marcelo yawn-tas! Rockets get a vet, Lakers get a younger guy. Neither gonna play much.
SUNS GET: Mike Scott
HAWKS GET: $$$$$ and one less felon
Maybe Scott will play some backup minutes and shoot a little, but meh.
Man, what a brutal deadline! All the best deals happened many days prior! This is why you don’t bank on trades happening… Well, hopefully you were able to snag some Payne or Portis shares. or just happened to own Noel. Rejoice if so! Have a great weekend, Razzball Nation, and I’ll catch you Monday morning!
