The NBA Trade Deadline usually brings a lot of action. This year brought some interesting trades. First, Golden State got rid of D’Angelo Russell after a couple months of being on the team. Russell made no sense for this team. I don’t know what they thought they were going to do when Klay Thompson came back. I don’t know who they thought would guard the #2 with Steph and Russell both on the floor. Turns out Klay and Steph were both out most of his tenure and they got Andrew Wiggins for him in return. Wiggins hasn’t lived up to his hype yet, but put him on the court with Steph and Klay next year and I will guarantee he has a spark in value. This should really benefit Golden State after a very questionable offseason deal, last year.
Next big move was the Andre Iguodola trade to Miami. I have always loved Iggy, all the way back to his rookie year when he played with Allen Iverson. He is a heart and hustle guy through and though. But he is 36 years old. He hasn’t been an every day starter since 2013. Maybe he can have one more playoff heroic and shut down The Greek Freak in the playoffs to get them to the NBA Finals. It would be a far stretch. What this trade does do, is free up money for the Heat to try to get a free-agent next season, like they always do. And get more reliable players (Solomon Hill and Jae Crowder) for James Johnson and Dion Waiters. Neither have been reliable assets for the Heat since being there. And Justise Winslow is too often injured.
But the mega trade was the four team trade with the Houston Rockets. Don’t ask me who all was involved or what everyone got because it will take me a month to figure it all out. What I can tell you is Houston traded their center. They are now playing the rest of the NBA season with a center listed at 6’5”. This is not a joke. They have no starters listed above 6’7”. They have no bench players playing reliable minutes listed over 6’8”. At first glance you would say “put a dagger in them, they are finished”. But this does allow Russell Westbrook free range to drive to the basket and either finish or kick a pass out. This does allow James Harden free range to dribble and get fouled or score. This does allow the Rockets to continue to shoot 60 three pointers a game, like they love to do. And they actually beat the Lakers last night! It looked like an elementary team playing against high schoolers when they came out for the opening tip. But the Lakers got sloppy and the short fast guys ran away with the game… Although LeBron did steal the show with his highlight reverse windmill.
But I regress. This Houston team may have just made a terrible mistake thinking they could play small-ball 100% of the time the rest of the season or we may see them actually run away with games on all these big guys. Either way, the Houston Rockets are going to be “MUST WATCH TV’ the rest of this season.
What To Watch For: While the Lakers didn’t make a trade before the deadline, Darren Collison was spotted at the game last night sitting next to Jeanie Buss. If the Lakers sign the free-agent point guard (which they desperately need) this could be all they need to for the final stretch to the NBA Championship.
Summers Sports Blog & Bets 