Even when I wasn’t covering the NBA, when I was a mere fan, I loved the week leading up to the trade deadline.
Now, it turns out that, in almost every occasion, what I actually loved was the theoretical idea of the trade deadline, because the actual reality of it usually tends to be a bit underwhelming, doesn’t it?
Before it actually happens, we’re inundated with incendiary rumors, we’re intrigued by all the incredible possibilities — which are limited only by our imaginations and the glorious “This trade is successful!” confirmation of the trade machine.
Alas, it turns out that deadline day itself is often something of a dud by comparison. Which isn’t to say there aren’t some significant moves. Last year’s deadline day, after all, saw the Jazz send away Rodney Hood and Joe Johnson’s contract in a trade that ultimately netted them Jae Crowder. And the Lakers convinced the Cavs to take on Jordan Clarkson and Larry Nance — a move that opened up enough salary cap space in L.A. for two max-level free agents.
The rest of the deadline acquisitions, though? Dwyane Wade back to the Heat; Elfrid Payton to the Suns; Emmanuel Mudiay to the Knicks; Noah Vonleh to the Bulls; Shelvin Mack to the Hawks; Jameer Nelson to the Pistons; Dante Cunningham for Rashad Vaughan; Malachi Richardson for Bruno Caboclo …
There were more, but my eyes had already rolled back in my head and I couldn’t read them.
Most of the crazy stuff we’ve been hearing about from the likes of Woj and Shams and other oddly-named people won’t come to fruition. That doesn’t mean none of it will.
After all, we’ve already seen the Knicks go off the deep end in trading Kristaps Porzingis. A surface-level analysis of the deal with Dallas would appear to be unkind to New York — the returning haul of disgruntled second-year point guard Dennis Smith, center DeAndre Jordan, guard Wesley Matthews, and two future first-round picks (possibly to be conveyed in 2021 and 2023) appears underwhelming.
The deeper analysis? They got rid of the expensive contracts of Tim Hardaway Jr. and Courtney Lee, and both Jordan and Matthews are due to be free agents — all of which adds up to … enough salary cap space in N.Y. for two max-level free agents this summer.
It’s a curious decision to jettison the 23-year-old, 7-foot-3 Porzingis — who was averaging 22.7 points, 6.6 rebounds, and 2.4 blocks while shooting 39.5 percent from deep last year before tearing his ACL — as the cost for shedding bad deals and opening cap space. After all, didn’t we see a parade of marquee free agents reject the Lakers’ glitz and max offers year after year after year due to the perception that the front office didn’t have the chops to build a coherent team around them? What then, might inspire an elite player to believe in horrific owner James Dolan and middling GM Steve Mills? And beyond that, isn’t Porzingis the very type of player that a team in the Knicks’ position typically seeks to add with that and of space?
So, how does this make sense? Why trade a sure thing in hand like Porzingis for the unknown potential of free agency? Don’t buy the Knicks’ line that Porzingis was deeply unhappy and demanded a trade. Because he blew off an exit interview two years ago with the long-since-departed Phil Jackson? Nope — that was a line put out there to placate the hysterical masses on the issue of dealing away a young, incredible talent.
The real reason is that there’s a rumor about that Kevin Durant has allegedly already promised the Knicks that he will ditch the Warriors this summer after he gets bored of riding Steph Curry’s coattails to another title and will be New York-bound. It’s quite impossible, of course, because such a scenario would entail tampering, and as we all know, the Lakers are the only team in the league that ever tampers.
Still … maybe this proves the catalyst for the rare wild week of wheeling and dealing, the tipping point for a chain reaction of one eye-popping move after another: The Knicks’ cap space and the associated rumor that Kyrie Irving will bail on Boston and head home to NYC prompts Trader Danny Ainge to jettison the point guard … then the Celtics, unshackled from the rule that prevents the acquisition of two players on “designated” contracts, are suddenly free to make their monster offer and acquire Anthony Davis from the Pelicans … and then New Orleans goes into full asset-acquisition mode and deals Nikola Mirotic somewhere … somewhere other than Utah, and the Jazz, desperate to make another impact move, convince the Grizzlies to pull the trigger on a Mike Conley deal.
It could happen! Oooooooorrrrrrrr … the Porzingis trade could lamely prove the high-water mark. After all, the Clippers shockingly sent Blake Griffin to the Pistons some 10 days before the deadline a year ago, and that hardly instigated a domino effect of “Holy [expletive]!” moves.
So are we likely to experience craziness this year? Maybe not. But we can keep hoping. And we can keep working overtime on the trade machine.
THREE MORE THOUGHTS
An awkward situation • Anthony Davis Sr. went on record Friday night as saying he did not want his superstar son to wind up in Boston because of how the Celtics treated Isaiah Thomas. There’s some validity to his point — Danny Ainge has a reputation of flipping the bird at “loyalty” if he believes he has a shot at a better player. Thomas killed it for the Celtics, and they ran him into the ground, ruined his hip, and then sent him packing to get Kyrie Irving. You’d best believe last season’s big acquisition, Gordon Hayward, will be out of there if he can help land Anthony Davis [Jr.]. Still … there’s a certain amount of irony involved when the dad of a player who’s trying to bail out on his contract a year and a half early starts invoking the premise of loyalty, isn’t there?
D-Wade and Dirk, rightly honored • A few fans of players who didn’t make the All-Star Game winced at commissioner Adam Silver’s announcement that he was creating a pair of extra roster spots in the game for retiring legends Dwyane Wade and Dirk Nowitzki. “Why should they get to play in the game over legitimately deserving players?” the argument goes. Why not? There’s some precedent for having past-their-prime players participate in the game as a means of honoring their extraordinary careers, going back to David Stern naming 10 ppg-scoring Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as an injury replacement back in 1989. These guys are legends as well. So maybe lay off the selfish resentment for a minute and just appreciate an extra effort to pay tribute to a couple of players who we’ll be missing before we know it.
Toxic masculinity overload • On Friday, I posted a video of Jazz center Rudy Gobert speaking emotionally about not being selected for the All-Star Game. At the end, he broke down in tears and walked away. Bleacher Report picked it up. Yahoo picked it up. ESPN picked it up. By Saturday afternoon, it had been viewed about a million and a half times. While the vast majority of resulting social media comments were positive toward and supportive of Gobert, there was also the eventual influx of keyboard warriors mocking him — including a few of his NBA colleagues. One reader angrily emailed me demanding I apologize to Gobert for exposing him to ridicule. Others jumped in to point out that Gobert’s tears were not from missing the game, but from remembering the sacrifices his mother made to help get him to this point, which Gobert later confirmed. I don’t really care either way — the underlying motivation for his emotion is unimportant to me. I simply appreciated that a professional athlete gave a genuine, authentic response, and had the emotional maturity to publicly admit he cares about something, and to have a reaction to that thing he cares about. If you’re one of those people who finds such a reaction insufficiently “manly,” well, I weep for your intellectual capacity.
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