LATE NIGHT NBA TRADE BOMB!!!!
Oh you thought you could go to sleep? What are you some sort of idiot? We are well past the point where you should be willing to give up any thought of sleeping until Thursday at 3PM. There were rumblings all day about a massive four team trade, only we were led to believe it was going to involve D'Angelo Russell and Andrew Wiggins. The framework of this deal isn't all that different from what we were being told throughout the afternoon, the only difference being the Warriors backed out and Denver swooped in as a mystery team to get this thing over the finish line. We'll have to wait and see what the remaining moving parts are, whether they are picks or other players but for the most part we can consider this a done deal. Let's have a look
Atlanta Hawks
Added: Clint Capela, Nene
Traded: Evan Turner, 1st round pick
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May I remind you, it was just two days ago Trae Young tweeted this
is it safe to say maybe he had a heads up as to what was coming down the pipe? With Capela the Rockets now have another center they can run P&R with, and seeing as how he faired pretty well with that play while playing with James Harden, that should work out. This moves John Collins to the four, and honestly that's a pretty interesting frontcourt pairing, especially if Collins continues to improve his outside shot. They didn't give up much, Turner was out of the rotation and maybe they felt like they couldn't land any free agent center this summer with cap space so instead they had to give up some assets. At least Capela is under contract for a while, and remember they pretty much promised Trae Young they'd bring in help.
Houston Rockets
Added: Robert Covington, Jordan Bell
Traded: Gerald Green, Nene, Clint Capela, 1st round pick
Look we know the Rockets are trying to shed salary, Gerald Green I'm pretty sure is out for the year and Nene is whatever, so basically they traded a 1st and Capela for Robert Covington. They made it clear they wanted wing help, in theory Covington is a 3 and D two way player that comes on a cost effective deal, is relatively young and signed for a few more seasons. If he can help defend at a high level that takes pressure off Harden/Westbrook, and he loves to shoot threes so he should fit in. Not sure how well he shoots those threes, but he loves taking them.
Getting Jordan Bell as well is big for them because they would have been very thin in the frontcourt with only PJ Tucker and Tyson Chandler really.
Minnesota Timberwolves
Added: Malik Beasley, Evan Turner, Juancho, Jarred Vanderbilt 1st round pick
Traded: Robert Covington, Keita Bates-Diop, Shabazz Napier, Noah Vonleh, Jordan Bell
OK so this is interesting. I guess they can have Evan Turner run some point guard, and he's an expiring deal so that's good for future space. Just a reminder they traded Tyus Jones, Jeff Teague, and now Shabazz Napier. Do they still think they are getting DLo? Because they just traded every point guard they have. They also get a first from a team that isn't going to make the playoffs. That's good. The interesting part is Malik Beasley, because he's a RFA after this season. You make this deal so you can extend Beasley right? The Nuggets clearly didn't want to pay him this summer which is why he was such a popular trade candidate.
I guess I don't really get what the Timberwolves are doing, but that's not exactly a surprise.
Denver Nuggets
Added: Noah Vonleh, Shabazz Napier, Gerald Green, Keita Bates-Diop, 1st round pick
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Traded: Malik Beasley, Juancho, Jared Vanderbilt
Unloaded some guys they weren't going to pay, got a first round pick and some expirings. Not sure they upgraded in terms of talent but for a contending team to make a move like this sure is something. I guess they felt they needed to beef up their frontcourt? I dunno, I feel like I would rather have Beasley than Napier but if you weren't going to pay him you had to do something. That pick won't be worth much but it's better than nothing.
All I know is my blood is PUMPING. No chance I go to sleep now. This was only the beginning too. They said this was going to be a quiet deadline and boom there's a 4 team bomb right in your face and it's only Tuesday! God do I love the NBA trade deadline while also hating every second of it. What a rush.