Trade Deadline Review

The Carmelo Anthony Trade

I could give a breakdown of all of the players and where they are going, but there are 12 players and three different teams involved and I just don't really feel like typing out all of those names.  All you need to know is that Anthony is now a member of the New York Knicks.  It's hard for me to dislike this trade for the Knicks because they were able to pair two of the top 30 players in the league together and might be able to bring in a third star next summer.

I've been bothered by a lot of the criticism of this trade (especially this piece from Jemele Hill) stating that the Knicks gave up too much for Anthony.  One of her main points centers around the fact that the Knicks are the second-highest scoring team in the league already and the addition of the offensive-minded Anthony will make little difference to a team that scores a ton of points.  This is a valid point.  I would tend to agree that the average amount of points scored by the Knicks will see little change, but with Anthony you would have to figure that the Knicks would become more efficient because Anthony is a much more effective offense player than Danilo Galinari or Wilson Chandler (or for that matter, both of them combined). 

What I do not agree with his Hill's assessment of Raymond Felton, Galinari, and Chandler.  She mentions that Felton and Chandler have become "very solid players", but doesn't really give any support of this idea.  Both Felton and Chandler are both "very solid players" in Mike D'Antoni's system, but if they play in any other system in the league would they look as good.  Were people clammering for Felton before he came to the Knicks?  Not really.  He was nothing more than a league average point guard, but throw him into the performance enhancing D'Antoni offensive system and he looks like a superstar.  The same ideas apply for Galinari as well.  Hill mentions that he is averaging a career-high 15.9 points per game this season, but it is hard to imagine he will be able to do the same thing in Denver where he won't be a part of D'Antoni's high-octane offense.

In the end, it's just hard for me to argue with a team that acquired one of the top 20 players in the league and a group of players that includes a veteran point guard when all they gave up were role players and picks.

Overall Grade for New York Knicks: A-

Though I degraded each of the former Knicks players in the first part of the trade review, each of the players they got are all decent players that will be able to contribute to a winning team at some point in their career, except Mosgov.  He's just not very good.  The only problem is this year will not be the year they will contribute to a winning team, but overall it was quite a haul for what they gave up.

Overall Grade for Denver Nuggets: B

The Deron Williams Trade

The Nets had long been a part of the Anthony trade discussions and with the Knicks acquisition of Anthony many assumed that the Nets would not make a move at the deadline, but the Nets had other plans as they acquired Deron Williams Wednesday afternoon.  To acquire Williams, the Nets gave up Devin Harris, Derrick Favors, and two first round picks, which is significantly less than what it took the Knicks to obtain Carmelo Anthony.

The acquisition of Williams is interesting for a few reasons.  The first of which is that Williams is currently in the last year of his current contract, which means that until the Nets sign him to a new contract there is no guarantee he will be in New Jersey next year.  For the Nets' sake I hope that they are able to get Williams signed to a contract extension because otherwise the trade doesn't make a lot of sense.  The second reason the trade is interesting is because of the value of Deron Williams.  As far as I'm concerned, Williams is better than Anthony.  It is much more important to have a great point guard who touches the ball on nearly every possession and dictates who gets the ball instead of a wing player that doesn't get the ball nearly as much.  Don't get me wrong, though.  Anthony is one of the best players in the league, but Williams is on the exact same level.  The fact that they're very similar players makes it very surprising to me how little the Nets had to give up in comparison to the caliber of players the Knicks were forced to give up for Anthony.

Overall Grade for New Jersey Nets: A-

While the Nuggets were able to obtain three strarters, a young center, and a bevy of draft picks, the Jazz were only able to obtain a young point guard and young power forward with two first round picks.  Not as impressive as the Nuggets package for Anthony, but you do have to credit the Jazz for not dragging out the process of trading Williams.  They decided to trade Williams and got it over quickly.  For that, you have to applaud them.

Overall Grade for Denver Nuggets: B-

Kirk Hinrich to the Hawks

This trade was a real surprise to me.  Kirk Hinrich's value is much higher than I thought it was because Hinrich and Hilton Armstrong are as valuable as Mike Bibby, Maurice Evans, Jordan Crawford, and a 2011 first round pick.  I don't feel like Hinrich is valuable enough to warrant a point guard that is about equal to him (Mike Bibby), two guards that have high upside (Evans and Crawford), and a first round pick.  I just don't understand how Kirk Hinrich could be worth this much to the Hawks.  He has yet to impress me in his NBA career, but the Wizards were still willing to give up four players for him and Hilton Armstrong.  I just don't understand this trade from either team's perspective.

Overall Grade for Atlanta Hawks: D
Overall Grade for Washington Wizards: B

Baron Davis to the Cavaliers

I saw this trade on my Twitter feed as I was going to sleep on Wednesday night and I could not believe it.  I just don't really understand the trade because I felt like the chemistry developed between Davis and Blake Griffin is something rare among players.  Baron Davis literally played for the sole reason to throw ridiculous alley-oops to Griffin.  (See Exhibit A, Exhibit B, and Exhibit C.)  I just don't see Mo Williams having the same chemistry with Griffin.  Mainly because Williams is a shoot-first point guard who has yet to figure out what it's like to be an actual point guard instead of a scorer. 

Obviously, the main reason the Clippers decided to trade Davis was to get rid of his atrocious contract and set themselves to sign a free agent to a big contract in the offseason, but this only makes sense if you are a delusional Clippers fan.  After this last offseason, it has become apparent that no free agent will sign with the Clippers.  There were multiple free agents last season that would have fit in with the Clippers who offered the best supporting cast of young and talented players (Griffin, Eric Gordon, Deandre Jordan, Eric Bledsoe), but still no one will even think about going to the Clippers.  If you can't attract any superstar free agents with that cast, it seems unlikely that you would be able to do it now.

Overall Grade for the Los Angeles Clippers: D

As Bill Simmons mentioned in his trade deadline review, the amount of weight Baron Davis will put on in the next few months playing for the worst team in the league is nearly unimaginable.  Davis has proved time and time again that if he has nothing to play for he will not play hard and likely put on a ton of weight.  From a player standpoint, it was a pretty awful trade, but it can't be forgotten that the Cavs also received a first round pick.  Since it is from the Clippers, it should be a relatively high pick.  It is still yet to be seen whether a high pick in this draft is worth that much.  This draft class has been characterized as one of the weakest in recent memory and few analysts are convinced that there are many high impact players to draft.

Overall Grade for the Cleveland Cavaliers: C

Jeff Green-Kendrick Perkins Trade

This was a move I truly did not see coming as the trade deadline approached.  The Celtics were a game away from winning the NBA championship last season and seemingly only improved their team with the addition of the O'Neals (Jermaine and Shaquille).  Their core group (Rondo, Allen, Garnett, Pierce, Perkins, and Big Baby) had been playing together for years and knew each other inside and out.  The Celtics also had great chemistry.  Those guys played for each other and always had the greater good of the team in mind, which makes this chemistry very unusual.  Perkins was their best post defender and was the key to their defense against both the Magic and Lakers.  The lack of another great defender to play for them leads me to believe that they are willing to lean on both O'Neals in the playoffs to give them good minutes which isn't something that we've necessarily seen to this point.  It also leads me to believe that they aren't as concerned about post scorers, but more concerned about shutting down the suddenly strong wing players in the East (Carmelo Anthony and Lebron James).  This does make some sense because without Green the Celtics would be forced to rely on Pierce and Allen to defend Anthony and James, which drastically affects their offensive effectiveness.  All in all, it seems a bit unusual to me to get rid of the league's best chemistry for a wing player that will help on defense and with some scoring, but the Celtics haven't missed on many of the moves they've made in the last five years.

Overall Grade for the Boston Celtics: B-

In my mind the acquisition of Kendrick Perkins and Nate Robinson have made the Thunder contenders for the NBA championship.  Last year, the Thunder were able to bother the Lakers in the first round, but ultimately lost due to a lack of size to defend Andrew Bynum and Pau Gasol.  With the addition of Perkins and the improvement of Serge Ibaka, the Thunder seem prepared to matchup against just about anyone in the West.  In the first half of the season, the Thunder's two weaknesses have been bench scoring and size and they filled both of these needs.  The addition of Robinson could prove to become invaluable come playoff time because as he proved last season with the Celtics he can absolutely fill it up.  Sam Presti just continues to prove why he is one of the best GMs in the league.  Absolute home run for the Thunder.

Overall Grade for the Oklahoma City Thunder: A