NBA Trade Rumors: 6 players (and one team) that will dictate deadline day

Andre Iguodala 

He is the league’s forgotten man. His absence has stirred up a little controversy recently, as his nominal team seems to be doing quite fine without him. Teams around the league largely know what they’re getting with Iguodala: veteran savvy, very good wing defense and almost no shooting.

The Lakers and Clippers would love to have him for their respective title pushes, but probably don’t have the tertiary assets to consummate a deal. I’m not sure the Clippers would part with that first-rounder for a half-season rental but it really is all about this season for them, isn’t it?

The Lakers are in the same predicament as the Sixers and Celtics. They just don’t have contracts that can grease the skids on these types of deals. The Rockets have reportedly expressed interest and some have guessed that the Mavericks will ultimately use the Courtney Lee chip to bring Iguodala to Dallas.

Iguodala is a great unknown. In so many ways, he’s a surefire bet to boost any team’s chance at a title, but we also haven’t seen him play since last year’s finals. In each successive Warriors-Cavs finals, Iguodala’s deficiencies became more pronounced. His shot betrayed him and he started to look his age more and more.

Maybe he’s found the fountain of youth in his downtime this year and will be sufficiently rejuvenated once he finds himself on a true title contender. But, as we all know, Father Time is undefeated. I think he can probably still help any team, but whoever ends up snaring Iguodala should probably temper their expectations just a bit.

We’re in for a fun, exhausting couple of days. We can only hope and pray that the actual transactions exceed even our loftiest expectations.