By: Trisity Miller
It
feels as if the NBA has awakened from a yearlong “Dwightmare”. Orlando finally
pulled the plug sending the best big man in the league to the Los Angeles
Lakers. The interesting part of the deal is the other two teams who stepped up
to get this deal done: Denver and Philadelphia. The trade consisted of a few
great moves, some good moves and a questionable deal.
Los Angeles: Whoever said the rich get
richer and the poor get poorer must’ve been a Lakers fan (or a Republican).
Once again, the Lakers have jumped from a 2nd round team to a legit
championship contender a la in 2008 after the addition of Gasol. Speaking of
Gasol, they managed get Dwight in a 4-team withOUT giving up Pau. I don’t know
how Buss continues to do it, but he does it. The Lakers have gone from Mikan to
Wilt to Kareem to Shaq to Bynum and now have Dwight Howard. After getting
bounced in the second round in the past two years, LA is now the best team in
the league. With Meeks, Hill, Duhon/Blake, and Jamison coming off the pine,
this team can be very scary. This may be the year we finally get Kobe v.
Lebron, because with this team around the Mamba, anything less than a
championship is a bust.
Grade:
A
Denver: This one is easy. Without giving
up much (Afflalo/Harrington), you’ve upgraded your shooting guard position
massively. In comes Andre Iguodala, one of the most underrated stars in the
NBA, to replace Arron Afflalo. He isn’t “build your team around him” good, but
with the way the Denver Nuggets have been constructed for the past two years, he
is the perfect player to come in and add to an already good team. Their
starting lineup will likely be Lawson-Iggy-Gallo-Faried-McGee. The only minus
you can get out of this is that Iggy is owed $30 million over the next 2 years.
This doesn’t make Denver a contender, but they can easily be seen as the fourth
or fifth best team in the Western Conference outside of the 3 powerhouses and
gives them a legit chance of upsetting a higher seed this year in the playoffs.
Grade:
B+
Orlando: This trade reminds me of
someone who’s been hassling you for so long for something that after a while,
you just give into to whatever demands they offer you. The Orlando virtually
traded Dwight Howard for…a core of Aaron Afflalo, Nikola Vucevic and rookie Moe
Harkless. Suddenly that Brooklyn offer of Brook Lopez and Marshon Brooks looks
of some quality. That Toronto pick they could’ve gotten from Orlando looks
better than this also. For a team that clamored that they wanted to take their
time on figuring out which trade to pursue, they’ve come out as the weakest of
the four teams. Of the four all-stars traded in the deal, Orlando came away
with none of them. I’ll give Hennigan and co. slack because when Gasol was
traded it looked similar to this though it turned out pretty good for Memphis,
but until then Orlando dropped the ball on this one.
Grade:
D
Philadelphia: This team has been
“trying” to trade Iguodala for the last 3 years, but never pulled the trigger
because of what they were going to get in return. Now, they’ve the center in
the NBA with the highest upside for the next 6-7 years in Andrew Bynum. Bynum
will join a young core of Evan Turner (23), Jrue Holiday (22) and Thaddeus
Young (24). Adding Bynum guarantees the playoffs as long as he’s there, but
that may be the only problem in this situation seeing that he will be an
unrestricted at the end of the 2013 season. This trade will also allow Philly
to be active at the trade deadline due to the logjam at the center position
(Allen, Brown, Hawes). Doug Collins will have a handful of work keeping
motivate Bynum to play at his best every night for Philly, but the future for
this team can be bright if handled properly.
Grade:
B
1 comments:
Denver - A
Los Angeles - B+ I think you meant...
Denver gives up basically nothing for a massive upgrade
Los Angeles gives up Bynum for a minor upgrade if that! Bynum and Howard are equal...
Denver is the winners.
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