The February trade deadline is rapidly approaching. There is reason to believe it will be fairly quiet in comparison to recent years. Nevertheless, here are nine trade scenarios that lottery-level teams could consider.
Phoenix fishes Alan Anderson, DeJuan Blair and two second-round picks
Washington winds up with Markieff Morris
Suns’ GM Robert Sarver sells Morris to the highest bidder. Morris gets his act together in the East, serving as a solid sixth man and helping the dudes in DC make the playoffs.
In the desert, the losing continues. The Suns end the season with the most L’s in the league, but everything feels fresh and new. Alan Anderson helps school the young wings while Blair works with the bigs. Spoiler alert: Phoenix wins the lottery and selects Ben Simmons.
Los Angeles Lakers land Darrun Hillard, Reggie Bullock, Steve Blake, Joel Anthony, 2018 second round pick
Detroit draws in Brandon Bass, Nick Young, and Marcelo Huertas
The best benefit of getting lost in the trade machine was finding a new home for Nick Young. He is the off-the-wall wonder who can’t be tamed—not by Doug Collins, not by Byron Scott, not by anybody.
Stan Van Gundy begs to differ.
In the cold, quiet, silent night of Auburn Hills, Swaggy P somehow realizes he is not Steph Curry. Off the bench, Young does the unthinkable—and starts to comprehend the term shot selection.
Brandon Bass is re-united with SVG, and he sets a good example for Andre Drummond. Detroit sneaks into the playoffs ahead of Boston by the hairs of Andre Drummond’s chinny-chin-chin.
Huertas is a pick-and-roll point guard at heart, and he starts to develop some chemistry with AD, albeit in practice. Huertas’ defensive shortcomings can be hidden with a little help from Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and company, and a couple years from now he is on the desired end of Vines.
Bass is a positive presence in the Laker locker-room, but at the end of the day he is still taking away minutes from youngsters Julius Randle and Larry Nance Jr. This is one way of forcing Byron Scott to play the kids.
Utah receives Randy Foye, Brian Roberts, and Tyler Hansbrough
Charlotte welcomes back Josh McRoberts
Denver takes Tibor Pleiss, Chris Johnson, Aaron Harrison, Jarnell Stokes, and Utah’s 2016 second round pick
Miami acquires JJ Hickson
Miami could really use some of the things McRoberts brings to the table. The only problem is he has been injured for the majority of his time in South Beach—and a shell of his Charlotte-self while healthy. McBob going back to North Carolina helps revitalize his game, and though the Hornets don’t make the playoffs, he nestles in well with the plethora of stretch-fours and fives in the hive.
J.J. Hickson helps fortify Miami’s bench with a vet who will bust his butt—bolstering the defense.
Denver adds another international center to its roster while opening up minutes for D-League sensation Sean Kilpatrick. They already have a host of seasoned players who can guide the group, so there’s no harm in shipping both to playoff-caliber clubs.
Utah has a million picks in the cupboard, so they acquire two guards whose contracts expire at the end of the season. This helps them finishing strong, hold onto a playoff spot, and steal a game in the first round from the Warriors or Spurs.
MIlwaukee gets Kendall Marshall
Philadelphia gets Tyler Ennis
The Marshall Plan was uprooted by the emergence of Ish Smith. K-Butter still seems to be working his way back to full speed, and I get the feeling his presence would be warmly welcomed back in Milwaukee—where Tyler Ennis is buried on the bench.
Ennis wouldn’t be likely to see much time right away for Philly either with Smith the sure starter and T.J. McConnell settled in as the primary backup. Nevertheless, there might be more opportunity for Ennis in the city of Brotherly Love than in Wisconsin.
New York gets Ed Davis and Gerald Henderson
Portland procures Jose Calderon and Kyle O’Quinn
The Knicks don’t need the rim protection that Kyle O’Quinn offers, but the Trail Blazers do. Phil Jackson would have to convince the Blazers to take on Jose Calderon—but his contract expires at the end of next season.
New York is also desperate for depth at shooting guard behind Arron Afflalo, and Henderson would be a nice one-year rental for the Knicks as they fight for a playoff spot. Davis’ toughness off the bench would make him beloved in the Big Apple.
This deal allows the Blazers to throw heavy minutes at the young core of wings—more time for Allen Crabbe, Mo Harkless, Al-Faruq Aminu and others.
Sacramento snags Mitch McGary, Dion Waiters, Josh Huestis, Steve Novak and OKC’s 2016 second round pick
OKC gets Marco Belinelli, Caron Butler, and James Anderson
Inspired by Wes Goldberg’s fun trade article at Hardwood Paroxysm, Waiters had to end up in Sacramento somehow. Belinelli rounds out the Thunder rotation, and Butler adds a familiar vet to the locker room. Meanwhile, McGary finally gets a chance to see the court in Northern California.
Orlando obtains Timofey Mozgov, Mo Williams, and two first-round picks from Cleveland
Minnesota gets C.J. Watson, Anderson Varejao, and Orlando’s 2017 second-round pick
Cleveland captures Evan Fournier and Nikola Pekovic
The Magic front office sours on the idea of re-signing Fournier at $15 million or more annually, believing Elfrid Payton and Victor Oladipo are the backcourt to build around. Mo Williams makes for a nice fit off the bench, doing the things a healthy C.J. Watson was supposed to. In Mozgov, Orlando finds a solid backup who provides the grit and rim-protection that Nik Vucevic doesn’t.
Over in Ohio, the Cavaliers are getting desperate. Realizing he has to do something rash in order for Cleveland to contend with the West’s best, Dan Gilbert ships off two future first-round picks to add the fiery Fournier.
Pekovic gives the Cavs a gritty inside presence, helping to make up for the loss of Mozgov. Maybe the Wolves have grand plans of a Towns-Pekovic front-court, but given Pek’s mileage it just doesn’t seem like that’s in the cards long-term.
Varejao’s contract is equally long, but the second-round pick plus Watson is enough to convince Minny to pull the trigger. Watson is on a reasonable deal, and his presence beyond this season theoretically allows Zach LaVine to play the two even after Andre Miller hangs up his sneakers this summer.
New Orleans nabs Joe Johnson
Brooklyn brings in Tyreke Evans and Eric Gordon
Eric Gordon suffered a broken finger on Tuesday night versus the Timberwolves. He is out for four-to-six weeks, so it’s possible he won’t return until March. Over the last three seasons, Gordon, Tyreke Evans, Ryan Anderson, Anthony Davis, and Jrue Holiday have been among the most offensively explosive five-man lineups in basketball.
Of course, even over three years this represents a short sample size—mostly due to injuries and coaching decisions. In any event, the experiment that barely got off the ground is almost guaranteed to end this offseason. Gordon and Anderson are both free agents, and even New Orleans isn’t nuts enough to re-sign them both.
Anderson fits in nicely in lineups with Jrue Holiday and Anthony Davis as the stretch-four. It’s possible the Pels will look beyond Anderson’s ability to score this offseason due to his defensive inadequacies, but Ryno seems much more likely to have a future in NOLA than E.G.
Gordon would easily be Brook Lopez’s best option on kick-outs for triples. Meanwhile, Nets’ owner Mikhail Prokorhov is probably naive enough to think Evans might help him attract free agents this offseason in order to compete for a championship in 2017.
At the very least, the Nets improve enough to avoid handing the Celtics a top-five pick. Short of Prokorhov taking over the world, Brooklyn doesn’t have much hope for improving its roster in the next couple of years—so Evans’ bully-ball gives Mr. Whammy something to get excited about before 2020.
Joe Johnson won’t be asked to do anything in NOLA except spread the floor. Undoubtedly, this would be a move the Pels make with an eye towards the future instead of trying to sneak into the eighth playoff spot.
Holiday has been orchestrating the offense beautifully, and his body seems to be responding well to the increased activity this month. His alley-oop pass to Davis with two seconds left against the Hornets last week represents what those two are capable of together. If I’m Dell Demps, Holiday and Davis are the only two players I’d refuse to trade.
Evans and Holiday has been a quality backcourt pairing over the years—so Demps may be hesitant to move Evans in exchange for nothing. Whether New Orleans makes a deal or not, going forward the Pels need to add as many three-and-D wings as possible. If they can handle the ball that’s a plus, but the focus should be adding high-IQ wings who willingly defend and shoot the three. Projected starting small forward Quincy Pondexter missing the entire season exposed the team’s lack of depth at the position—painful in hindsight given that they recently had Omri Casspi and Al-Faruq Aminu.
Boston brings in Kevin Love
Cleveland retools with Jae Crowder and Amir Johnson
Variations of this have been floating around the Twitter-sphere. The Cavs blows things up and add two very talented defenders who do all the little things. The Celtics defense takes a giant step backwards, but Love starts to look much more comfortable as a true top option in Brad Stevens’ offense.
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