Trade Grade: Bazemore And Brooks For Blake

The Golden State Warriors and Los Angeles Lakers swapped guards before the trade deadline, but the two teams still find themselves at completely opposite ends of the contender spectrum. 

Relax, Black Mamba.

We appreciate the tweet voicing your frustration about losing a teammate, but honestly, you think Steve Blake leaving the Los Angeles Lakers will hold that much weight moving forward? Nope.

In case you haven’t heard, the relatively quiet trading deadline saw the Lakers ship out Blake to an in-state rival, the Golden State Warriors, for Kent Bazemore and MarShon Brooks.

All Kobe Bryant opinions aside, let’s analyze this swap:

Los Angeles Lakers

The Lakers’ guard situation has been shaky without Bryant — excluding Kendall Marshall. Marshall’s averaging 10.7 points and 9.8 assists a game. Marshall could make up for Blake’s 9.5 points and 7.6 assists, though both are averaging about 33 minutes a game.

Mitch Kupchak executed this deal without this season in mind. At 18-36, the Lakers are tied with the Sacramento Kings for the worst record in the Western Conference. And unless Bryant can lead the Lakers on a 28-game winning streak, Los Angeles needs to focus on whom it will take with an impending lottery pick.

Blake’s $4 million coming off the books, when he enters free agency, wouldn’t make the much of a difference because Bryant and Steve Nash will be the only ones L.A. has to pay as of now. Plus, with a defensive rating of 110, Blake will not be missed that much. The fact of the matter is Blake was an irrelevant component of a Laker roster worthy of giving the Flint Tropic a run for its money.

Now let’s look at what Bryant and Mike D’Antoni get to look forward to.

Brooks really hasn’t had a fair shake since his rookie year with the Brooklyn Nets — formerly from New Jersey. In his first year, Brooks poured in 12.3 points a game in the 2011-12 season on about 43 percent from the field, and he shot 31 percent from three. Then Deron Williams walked into the Nets’ locker room, jump shots blazing, and Brooks saw his minutes cut from 30 to 12.5 in his sophomore season.

He was traded to the Boston Celtics and then to the Golden State Warriors, moving from guard log jam to guard log jam. He’s only 25 years old. The kid can still play ball. He went from being the Nets’ future to a “player to be named later” role.

With Bryant out, Brooks will get some quality minutes because — get this — the guy who’s scored the most points for the Lakers this season, Nick Young (a.k.a “Swaggy P”), is out with a non-displaced fracture and bone bruise in his left knee. It’s minutes galore for Brooks, and alongside Marshall, that could be the lightning in the bottle L.A. was hoping for.

Now with Bazemore, it’s a bit tricky. Though he is also fairly young — just 24 years old — he has more to prove than Brooks does. Bazemore was stuck behind Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson, so it’s not like he ever got a fair shake.

He’s 6-foot-5 and can get to the bucket, but he’ll need to flash a more complete repertoire if he wants to beat out Brooks for playing time. Yes, he’s only played in 17 games this year, but Brooks has defensive rating of 102. Bazemore, in 44 games this season, has a defensive rating of 101.

So if Bazemore is going to earn minutes, he’ll have to win them via his defensive ability. While Bryant is benched, Marshall will do all the distributing, so the battle is on for playing time at the off-guard position.

At the end of the day, the Lakers took a 34-year-old Blake and exchanged him for two young guards who can inject some youth into a fatigued roster.

Overall: B+ 

Golden State

The Warriors submitted rumblings about shaking things up before the deadline. At one point, Thompson was on the way out. Many suspected Harrison Barnes was on the way out. I think the bulk of my reasoning for my grade for the Warriors is based on the fact they didn’t give up either Thompson or Barnes.

Let’s be real, Marc Jackson is going to ask Curry to carry the team through the playoffs, so expect the young sharp shooter to be glued to the hardwood. But here’s what adding Blake means: key moments of rest. In case you forgot, Curry entered the league with injury problems and has been fortunate to stay off the bench since then.

Substituting Blake in will mean Curry can rest without worrying about the Warriors’ lead going down the drain or a deficit growing to an insurmountable point.It also allows Jackson to bump Curry to shooting guard and play two guys capable of bringing the rock up the court.

Blake isn’t exactly a “sexy” player, but he can spot up from three and and not make big mistakes with the game on the line. That’s what Golden State needs: security. They’re one of the better defensive teams in the league with a 99.4 defensive efficiency rating, so adding Blake won’t exactly cripple them when they don’t have the ball.

Overall: B