With the NBA Trade Deadline a couple weeks away, we look at 15 Eastern Conference trades that need to happen before the deadline
(Editor’s Note: This article was written before Mason Plumlee’s trade to the Denver Nuggets)
Trades.
They can make or break an organization. In extreme cases (*cough NETS cough*) it can put your favorite franchise in NBA purgatory where they are forced to take fliers on reclamation projects and slightly above average players while having little to no chances of taking even a chance on the high(est)-risk, high-reward prospect.
Instead, teams can be left calling up players from the D-League. (The 76ers prior to this season).
Now, trades can (obviously) work out really well. Kyle Korver exploded for 29 points off the bench on 8-9 shooting from beyond the arc on February 8th. Granted, he plays on one of the best teams in the NBA with one of the greatest players of our time who draws in defenses like a magnet, but he’s showing how a team change can revive/make a good player even better.
On the flip side, trades can work for the remainder of the season it occurs, and then come crumbling down the following season. (See: last year’s Pistons to this year’s).
And then even still, you can have the classic lopsided trade. These can be done by the same team multiple times in the same season, or over the course of many. This can be due to an impatient owner/upper management (Billy King’s Nets), injury-prone (star) players/core (the Suns pre-Bledsoe’s improved play, Brandon Knight in Milwaukee), and/or fans pressuring upper management to take a gamble or get rid of a current player who used to be spectacular but is declining (Carmelo).
Whatever the case may be, or wherever your favorite team is in the conference standings/playoff race, they can look to improve in some facet of the game – rebounding, another playmaker (LeBrawn JAAAAMES), defense, bench depth, etc.
What I’m going to attempt to do is come up with a plausible ‘minor’ trade each team should look at making. For some this may be something as simple as a player-for-player trade, trying to dump excessive player salaries, or getting even one more draft pick for the future.
For others, it may involve 3-4 teams not so much because I’m trying to come up with crazy trade ideas (while those are fun to come up with), but (possibly) because the first two teams involved may need another team to complete the trade financially/logically (Carmelo to the Clippers for instance).
I will try to avoid being redundant with the players/teams involved.
I am going to be breaking it down by Conferences, so the East is up first.
With those parameters in place, let’s get started!