NBA Trade Review.

I Cover The Previously Established Trade Agreements, so no Michael Porter Trade yet, And Stats/trade Details Via NBA.com.

I Have To Admit That When The NBA Conceived Their New CBA With an Overhaul Of The Cap System Back In 2023, A Wave Of Skepticism Rushed Over Me. For Most Of My Life, The NBA Existed In The Middle between The NFL’s Hard Cap And MLB’s No Cap, Holding What Sports Economist Called A Soft Cap Leaving The association Split Along The Lines Of “Competitive Balance” And Grinding Every Dollar The NBA Could Out Of Its Resources Such As Players And Big Market Teams. The NBA Team Owners and Brain Trust wanted Smaller Market Teams To Have An Equal Chance To Compete For Titles(Like The NFL) But The League Needed(Or Served Best) To Have Their Best Talents—The Talent That Swings The Competitive Balance But Serve As The General Attraction To The Game—To Play In the League’s Largest To Generate Buzz And Money(Don’t Forget About The Dollar): For A Long Time The NBA had To Reckon With These two Forces. Still, Now They’ve Pushed The System Closer To A Hard Cap With Two New Aprons That Penalize Teams For Over Spending.

Results, Teams Have To Forfeit Their Expensive “Glue Guys”, Missing Piece Types Like Marcus Smart, Bruce Brown, and Jrue Holiday, Who Get All-Star Money At A Lower Range Of Play.

A Hard Cap Could Result in A Team Like the Hornets or Pelicans Netting Kevin Durant In Free Agency, and He Could Lift The Team Out Of Competitive Poverty. Unfortunately, Charlotte as a market hasn't generated Enough Interest From NBA fans To Justify A Star Like Durant Playing In That venue. The Opportunity Cost remains too Great. If Kevin Durant Scored 101 Points In Charlotte, Your Average NBA Fan Probably Wouldn’t Have Watched The Game. The CBA Will Lead To An increase In The Value Of Draft Picks as teams begin To Covet Cheap, Productive contracts, and we’ll Witness A lot More veterans moving around In The off-season as Teams Seek To Offload Tax Weight. Streaming Services like Netflix, Apple TV+, Amazon‘s Prime Video, YouTube TV, NBCUniversal‘s Peacock, and CBS-affiliated Paramount+ Have Created A Shift In The Way Viewers Ingest Content and have also created The Ballooning Interest In Sports Media. These media Servers Each Seek To Gobble up Exclusive Rights To Sports Content On The Market, so the NBA’s New Media Deals( 11-year contracts with Disney, Amazon and NBC, worth a total of $75 billion )Cushion Or Mitigate The Blow The League Would Take In Revenue If Say A Star Like Kevin Durant Had To Play In A Market Like Charlotte—Nothing Against Charlotte But It’s A Small Market—Now The League’s Push For A Socialist Approach To Governance Could Work. The Trade Buzz Hasn’t Settled Down Since The Pre-Offseason Began, And I’ll Share My Thoughts On Some Of The Trades.

The Kevin Durant Trade, The Most Anticipated Trade Of The Year, Felt More Like The New Marvel Movie Installations, Less Than A Blockbuster's Closer To Just Plot Points in the Tapestry Of His Career As A Whole. The Suns exchanged Durant to Houston for a package that included Jalen Green, Dillon Brooks, and the Number 10 overall pick in 2025(A pick from the Rockets initially netted from Phoenix) and five second-round picks. Durant Remains A Force On Basketball Even as He Approaches Age 37 With Nearly Two Decades At Basketball’s Highest Level, But His Best Ball Will Always Remain Behind Him Even If He Has Good Ball Left To Play. He Can Still Activate Six Path Sage mode Shinobi. He’s Kevin Durant, You Know Who He Is, I Know Who He Is, The World Knows Who He Is. Last Season, Durant Had To Rely More on his Point Shot, posting the second-highest points per Point Attempts Of His Career while Drastically Pulling Away From His Strength On The mid-range, but still Generating One Of The Best Effective Field Goal percentages Of His Career. What The Rockets Hope To Get From Durant At This Stage In His Career, The Twilight Of His Age, and Why The Rockets Choose To Give Up Jalen Green So Soon? I Don’t Think Durant Puts The Rockets Over The Top Of The West, But We Will See. I Don’t Trust The Supporting Cast In Houston Outside Of Fred Van Vleet and Alperen Sengun. Nobody On The Roster Has A Proven Pedigree. Former Top Five Pick Jabari Smith Remains Something Of A Non-Factor, Amen Thompson’s Defense On The Wing Will Translate, But He Needs To Develop The Rest Of His Offensive Repertoire, Especially As a Shooter. Who Knows Exactly What To Make Of What Reed Sheppard Offered As A Rookie? The Suns Won This Trade In Not Only Getting Rid Of Durant’s Contract But Picking Up Jalen Green, Who Has Demonstrated Elite Scoring Potential Exiting His Third Season. He Plays A Redundant Position At Two Guard For The Suns, Who Already Have Two “All-Star” Scoring Guards. He’s Young, Cheap(For Now), But He averages 21 points on a Career 54% True Shooting. The Suns Could Use Green Or Any Assortment Of Those Draft Picks As Bait(Temptation) To Entice a Team To Take Bradley Beal off the Suns’ books. The Suns Get A Strong Veteran Wing Defender In Dillon Brooks, Who I Believe Fits Great Next To Devin Booker As Just A “Dirt” Doing Kind Of Guy.

The Pelicans traded CJ McCollum To The Wizards.

New Orleans Pelicans get:

G Jordan Poole G Saddiq Bey 2025 second-round pick (No. 40)

Washington Wizards get:

G CJ McCollum, Kelly OlynykFuture second-round pick.

The NBA’s Fixed, Not Fixed, But Fixed Draft Lottery May Have Shifted The Focus Of A Number Of The Worst Teams In The League. The “ Don’t Sit At The Bottom And Expect Losing For Savior To Bring You Out” Mantra May Have Hit Home As A Number Of The Teams With the Best Odds Received The Worst News From The Lottery Outcome. No Perfect Solution Exists For The NBA Draft and Tanking Issue, But The NBA Needs teams To Put Out A Better Product As THe Battle For Viewership Continues to Rage On In The Streaming Wars. The Wizards, One Of Those Bad Teams, Responded By Trading A Young Piece For a Veteran Who Doesn’t Fit The Team’s Timeline But Could Help Look Better On Offense and Could Become A Trade Piece Come The Trade Deadline Mid Season, with an Expiring Deal. CJ McCollum Played The Past Two Season In New Orleans After Coming Over From Portland. His Talents As A Scorer Couldn’t Inject ENOUGH Life Into The Pelicans Lineup To Reanimate Their Playoff Positioning, But He Remained The Consummate Professional Through And Through. He’s Still A high-level bucket Getter, averaging 21.1 Points Per Game At Age 33, But He Proved A Net Negative For The Pels Last Season With a -7.1 Net Rating. The Pelicans Get Younger And Slightly More Expensive With Jordan Poole, Who Never Established An Imprint Or Even Seemed Interested In Playing For The Wizards Long Term, But He Averaged A Career High 20.5 Points Per Game, a 59.1 True Shooting Percentage While Rocking A- -13.1 Net Rating. If the Pelicans Can Get A “Motivated” Jordan Poole, he’s A piece That Can lead The Franchise Towards The Trajectory Their Seeking Or a trajectory Counter To One They’ve sunk into. The Pelicans' backcourt Just Got A Little More Crowded With Dejonte Murray and The Addition Of Rookie Jeremiah Fears joining Poole.

The Other Part Of The Deal, Saddiq Bey Found Himself A Niche In The NBA, Shooting Threes At A 40% Clip In Atlanta Back In 2022-23, But He’s Falling Into The Low 30s Shooting 31% Last Season. If Bey Can Recover His Shot, He Can Prove An “Excellent” Addition To The Pelicans.  

Magic Trade For Desmond Bane. The Most Surprising Trade Thus Far, Less For What The Two Teams Exchange In Players and Picks, But More For The Two Teams’ Active Grizzlies And Magic, Two Teams When Their Playoff Runs Early Few Expected To Have Activity In The Offseason Jumped Out Of The Gate Early To Get A Deal Done. The Magic Trade Guards Kentavius Caldwell-Pope, Cole Anthony, and Four First Round Picks To The Grizzlies In Exchange For Desmond Bane. Bane Spent Four Years In Memphis After Joining The Team As the 30th Overall Pick In The 2020 Draft, And He Proved A Revelation, Generally Viewed As One Of The Best Players Of That Draft, Developing a Role As A Scorer Primarily Due to Off-And-On-Ball Shooting. Bane Has Averaged Better Than 18 Points Over The Past Four Seasons, and He’s gifted with having both A spot-up and a Catch And catch-and-shoot scorer. The Magic Struggled With Three-Point Shooting For The Past Number Of Seasons, And The Expectation Persists That Bane Should Help The Team Improve in That Area. The Magic Expected Their Point Numbers To Jump When they inked KCP To A three-year and $66 million Contract last Season After He Shot Nearly 41% in Denver, But He Never Delivered In That Area. KCP Thrived In Denver Playing Off Of The “Gravity” Of Nikola Jokic, Providing Him With Sumptuous Open Looks He Didn’t Get In Orlando, As His Three Shooting Dropped To 34%. The Magic tied in Unprotected

Fred Picks In This Deal Along with Former First Round Pick Cole Anthony To Entice The Grizzlies To trade Bane and Absorb KCP’s and Anthony’s Contract(Two Years $26.2 million; team option on the final season and $43.2 million over two years respectively). Orlando won’t Just Absorb Bane’s 40% Shooting As A Function Of His Name Now Existing On Their Lineup Data. He’ll Need To Mesh With The Rest Of The Magic’s Core, Primarily Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner. Bane Played In A Different Dynamic In Memphis as The Primary Second Creator Opposite Ja Maront. Can He Adjust To a More Ball Role? The Magic Sent Out Four First Round Picks, Near Insanity In This New Salary Cap Climate, And The Team Absorbs The Bulk Of Bane’s max Deal That Has Four Years With An Average Of Over $40 Million Per Year Left Running Through 2028-29. If Bane Works, The Magic Could Find Themselves As Contenders In The East. If He Falters, The Franchise Could Find Itself Hooking More Assets To Get Bane And His Contract Off The Books.

The Grizzlies Escape The Tax Barrier by Offloading Bane’s Contract. The Best Version Of KCP Could Replace Bane’s Shooting and Defensive Impact, But KCP Enters His Age-32 Season, So His Best Might Not Show. Cole Anthony also possesses elite shot-making and Playmaking Potential. He Just Couldn’t fit the Magic Rotation Consistently.

Celtics Trade Jrue Holiday To The Blazers For Anfernee Simons And Two Second-Round Picks.

The Celtics Traded For Jrue Holiday in 2023 from Milwaukee, And His defense and Leadership proved integral to Boston’s Run For an 18th Banner. Holiday Also Had His Imprint On Milwaukee’s Championship Run A Few Years Earlier, But Lost A Step Or Two As He Marched Towards His Mid-30s. In Boston, Holiday Regained A Step, Even A Step And A Half During Boston’s Historic Playoff Run, But The Fall Off Crept Back Over Him This Season as He Reverted To A Relic. His Box Plus/Minus Dropped From +2.8 In The 2024 Playoffs To Negative(-) 0.1. His Shooting Percentages dropped As Well From 40% From Three To Just 35% In Those Playoffs. Beyond His Decline In Play, Holiday Might Own The worst contract In The NBA, $32.4 million in his age-35 season, $34.8 million in his age-36 season, and a player option, $37.2 million in his age-37 season. What Could Have Possessed Portland to Make Such An Odious Deal? The Blazers Have One Of The Youngest rosters in Basketball, Even After Trading Away A Young Force like Simons, Who Served As The Team’s veteran after The Departure Of Dame Lillard. With Coach Chauncey Billups Still Making A Name For Himself As The Blazers' Head Coach, The Team Needs A Veteran—An Expensive Veteran—To Help Guide, Polish, and develop the Team. Everybody around The League knew The Celtics Had To Make Moves To Avoid Serious Luxury Tax Penalties. Fortunately, They Found the willingness to separate from Good pieces like Simons. The Celtics Net Simons A Former first-round pick Who has Decent Shooting Splits, 36% From three And 60% On Assisted Three Pointers, with Nearly 50% Of His Points Coming From Three Point Shots Converted But Simons Can Still Create His Shot With 81.4% Of Two Point Field Goals Coming Unassisted(Off Creation). Simons Has Just One Year Left On His Deal At 27.7 million. His shooting won't boost the Celtics' Playoff Or Championship Odds, But The Franchise Will Have A Step Ahead in Their Next Phase Of the Championship. The Two Second Round Picks Give The Celtics Ammunition To Sift The Veteran Market, SHOULD the need arise.

Celtics Trade Kristaps Porzingis and a second-round pick to the Hawks, Terance Mann and Atlanta's No. 22 pick to the Nets, and Georges Niang and a second-rounder to the Celtics.

The Celtics Continued Offloading Contract Stressors By Sending Kristaps Porzingis To The South, But Only Taking Back Georges Niang and A Second Rounder. Another Trade Created By The New Salary Cap System, Even With His Serviceability Issues, The Celtics Probably Wanted To Keep Porzingis Beyond This Season, But His Contract Made The Move Inevitable. Why The Hawks Made This Move Escapes Me. Porzingis put Together Some Solid numbers: 19.8 Points, 6.8 rebounds, 41% From Three, But He Only Played 42 games and is approaching 30. He’s Not Expected To Find A Stream Of Health. If Porzingis Does Manage To Stay Healthy, He Could Emerge As The Legit Second Or Third Punch The Hawks Need Next To Trae and Jalen Johnson. The Nets Pick Up Another First-Round Pick, Giving Them Five First-Round Selections, Putting Them In A Commanding Position, Armed And Dangerous To Attack During The Draft.