The NBA Trade Deadline Changed Nothing

The trade clock struck midnight on almost every NBA team

The NBA trade deadline came and went with a whimper yesterday. There were bigger trades a week ago, Serge Ibaka, and the biggest one happened an hour after the All Star game on Sunday night, Boogie Cousins, but yesterday there was a ton of build up, but nothing really happened.

As far as winners and losers go, I do not do that type of thing because there is not enough time in the season to declare if a team "won" or "lost" a trade. Sure, the Pelicans may have "won" the trade, they completely robbed the Kings, but what is their prize? A possible first round sweep at the hands of the Warriors if they are lucky enough to grab the 8 seed from the Nuggets, Trailblazers, Timberwolves or Mavericks. Yeah, the Celtics may have "lost" because they did nothing, but they are currently the second best team in the East, so no big deal.

Look, I thought that maybe Paul George, Jimmy Butler and Carmelo Anthony would get moved, but it did not happen. So what. Sure, it would have been exciting if at least one of those guys moved, but like most trade deadlines, nothing big happened. It really looked like George or Butler were going to be a Celtic in the waning moments of the deadline, but as is their new norm, the Celtics would not give up any high picks and did nothing. Danny Ainge always claims to have some big deal in place for a super star, but he is becoming the boy who cried wolf. I just do not believe any reports I read about the Celtics getting a big named player anymore. Someone always floats a story that the Celtics are finally going to make the move, but when the time comes, nothing ever happens. I'm sick of the stories and I'm sick of Danny Ainge always claiming that he is going to make a move.

What better time than now for the Celtics? Imagine if they got Paul George or Jimmy Butler. That immediately makes them a legitimate title threat. Pairing up either of those guys with Isaiah Thomas and Al Horford gives them a legit team. Both George and Butler are top 10 defenders, and they can score. This would have made it so much easier to hide Thomas on defense in the playoffs. If they were to face Toronto in a series, stick Marcus Smart on Kyle Lowry and Butler or George on DeMar DeRozan. Then, Thomas can guard some random guy like Corey Joseph. This would have made the Celtics lethal. I know they would have had to give up the coveted Nets picks they own and some young, possible stars like Jaylen Brown, Avery Bradley or Jae Crowder, but the chance to get one of these guys that are already proven, you cannot pass that up.

Sorry, that is my long winded way of saying that the Celtics missed a golden opportunity.

But, as I said, I do not pick "winners" and "losers" from the trade deadline. I like to point out which teams possibly helped themselves and who hurt themselves. We all already know that the Kings are a garbage franchise run by people who have no clue what they are doing, but they looked so god damn stupid after this deadline. They're toast. Sure, they won last night, but just wait, they will be going on something like a 10 or 12 game losing streak real soon.

I was also confused by what the 76ers and Bulls did. The 76ers have this glut of big men, but the only one they traded was Nerlens Noel. I thought for sure that Jahlil Okafor was done in Philadelphia, but he is still a 76er as we speak. The return they got for Noel was nothing too. They got Andrew Bogut, who they will buy out and release, and Justin Anderson, who may be a fine role player some day, but who knows. The Mavericks got a great defensive and rebounding big. I like this move for Dallas and hate it for the 76ers. The 76ers also traded Ersan Ilaysova for Tiago Splitter and some picks to the Hawks. Again, they traded for a big man that they're going to buy out and some second round picks. Makes no sense to me.

The Bulls, who should have moved Butler, instead sent Doug McDermott and Taj Gibson to the Thunder for Cam Payne and some dude named Joffrey. What the hell is this trade? Taj Gibson is one of the most beloved veterans in the league, and Doug McDermott isn't great, but he will hit open threes. The Bulls got a second year point guard that never plays and a dude that was the 10th or 11th guy off the bench for the Thunder. It seems like something is missing here. This trade really helps bring some more toughness and shooting to OKC. It brings nothing but questions for Chicago. Much like the 76ers stuff, this feels like it was part 1 of a 3 or 4 part deal that didn't pan out.

The Rockets made some good moves I thought, at least for the regular season. They went out and got Lou Williams for Corey Brewer and a late first rounder, and trimmed some more cap space to possibly sign a guy like Andrew Bogut by trading Tyler Ennis to the Lakers for Marcus Huertas, who they will immediately waive. Williams gives the yet another shooter. Now, at most times on the floor, the Rockets will have James Harden, Eric Gordon, Ryan Anderson and Lou Williams shooting the ball. They could go for 130 a game and I would not be surprised. The only problem, none of these guys play defense, and in the playoffs, that could spell doom. Still though, good moves for the regular season.

Besides the trades I mentioned, nothing else that big happened. Some irrelevant guys got traded for other irrelevant guys. Carmelo Anthony is still a Knick, Paul George is still a Pacer and Jimmy Butler is still a Bull. The Boogie deal was the biggest deal no matter what else happened, but I expected more from this particular deadline after Boogie got traded. I thought, especially in the East that some big time, All NBA caliber players would get moved. As I stated, Boston should have made some moves, but they are the boy who cried wolf franchise to me now. I like what Toronto did with the Ibaka trade, and don't sleep on their move to land PJ Tucker, that should look good in the long run, especially the playoffs. But, the Wizards only added one bench guy, the Hawks only added Ilaysova and every other playoff team pretty much stayed pat. I still think the Cavs are a lock to represent the East in the finals, but Toronto, not Boston anymore, looks like their biggest threat.

As for the West, no matter what the Rockets or Thunder did, doesn't matter, the Warriors are winning. Even if the Clippers added Carmelo, they cannot beat the Warriors, they proved that last night, blowing a 12 point half time lead. The Spurs never make moves because they don't have to, so them doing nothing was not surprising. The Pelicans made THE move, but, as I said, if they make the playoffs, their "reward" is a thrashing at the hands of the Warriors.

We had another trade deadline that was very ho hum, but I expected more. I expected better. Oh well, I guess we will have to wait until summer to see if some of these big names finally get moved.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. Ty thinks the only hope for the Celtics now is if some crazy fans go out and try to kidnap LeBron James. It worked out so well in "Celtic Pride". Follow Ty on instagram and twitter.

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Ty tells you how each NBA team can win the title: 76ers, Lakers, & Trailblazers

I love the NBA.

So, for the next two weeks, I'm going to do an NBA season preview. There's 30 teams in the NBA and I will select three teams a day and point out why they won't win the title, and why they just might. I will rank these teams from worst to best, in my personal opinion. Not to worry, I will keep up with some other blogs, like Greatest American Bands and Irrational Hatred for Sports Teams, but this NBA preview will be my prime focus for the next two weeks. I'm also going to be a dad for the second time in two days, so these blogs may seem a little bit shorter, but they'll be packed with pertinent information. Everything will be as informative as before, but the NBA will take up the majority of my time, as well as the new baby, and will be the focus of my blogs. So, on with teams 30, 29, 28.

First, number 30. They've been the worst team in the NBA for the past three years, you may have read my previous blog about how they're the worst run franchise in all of professional sports, the Philadelphia 76ers. The 76ers roster reads like the exact difference of a who's who. They do have some players that could be decent, but this is a team of "potential". I put that in quotes because, when they get a player that looks like a decent NBA player with potential, a la KJ McDaniels or Michael Carter Williams, they trade him for "assets". That means draft picks. They've had top three picks the last couple of years and taken players like Nerlens Noel, he looks like he can be decent, but only on the defensive side of the ball, he plays zero offense unless it's a put back dunk. Two years ago they took Joel Embiid, and he has yet to play a single NBA game due to two different foot surgeries. This past season they drafted Jahlil Okafor and while he's a beast on offense, he doesn't play defense, so far as to not even hustle back because he's out of shape. Other potential starters include Tony Wroten, Nik Stauskas and Isaiah Canaan. Wroten is okay, but he's a bowling ball that looks out of control 90% of the time. Stauskas cannot play defense on the NBA level, and he hasn't shown his ability to drive to the basket like he did in college, he's relegated himself to being a corner three shooter. And Canaan is a great fantasy pickup only because he shoots almost 25 times a game. He puts up useless points for a team that's going nowhere. The rest of the roster is filled with has beens and never was players. This team is going to be bad once again. They'll be lucky to win 20 games.

How the 76ers will win it all.

I did say I'd give a reason that each team could win the title, so here goes for the 76ers. They will win the title if Daryl Dawkins and Moses Malone rise up from their graves and Charles Barkley goes back in time to his twenties, and they'd still be hard pressed to make the playoffs, let alone win the title. The 76ers are an embarrassment to the NBA and basketball in general. They stink.

My number 29 team is the Los Angeles Lakers. This is a team that thinks it's still the early 2000's. They don't shoot the three because their coach says it won't win games, they play no defense because they want to be a fast break team, but they don't have the horses to run fast breaks, and they're still led by Kobe Bryant. Sure, he's one of the greatest scorers of all time, but he doesn't pass the ball, he plays no defense, and instead of helping this young roster, what a veteran of his caliber should do, he berates them and calls them soft. His contract has crippled this team too. Not only that, but his attitude as well. They tried and tried to lure big time free agents, most notably LaMarcus Aldridge, but they all balked at the Lakers offer because they didn't like the "direction" of the team. They also questioned their leadership. If that's not attacking Bryant, I don't know what is. You may say, but they signed Lou Williams and traded for Roy Hibbert and Brandon Bass. So what is my response to that. First of all, there's only one basketball being used during game play and they have three guys that want to shoot 30 times each in Kobe Bryant, Nick Young and Lou Williams. Roy Hibbert hasn't been good in three years. The Lakers got him five years too late. And Brandon Bass, he couldn't crack the Celtics starting five. They have a really good, young player in Jordan Clarkson, but until Bryant either retires or goes to another team, he won't be able to develop his game, Bryant won't allow that. Julius Randle can become a very good player, but he won't get enough touches in the post, and he's coming off a horrific leg injury. D'Angelo Russell may end up being a good point guard, but he only played one year of college basketball and he disappeared at times. He didn't look too great in the summer league games either. But, he's young and will grow after Bryant leaves. The rest of the roster is either young, or veterans with little NBA playing time or experience. Until Kobe Bryant leaves, the Lakers will be, at best, a 25 win team.

How the Lakers will win it all

The only way this team has a shot at the Finals or even the playoffs is if everyone on every team in the West gets hurt and they have to bring in players from the developmental league. The Lakers are only slightly better than the 76ers and I never thought that two of the NBA's most distinguished franchises would be this bad this early in the 21st century. Like I said, Kobe is crippling this team with his contract, his need to shoot the ball and his unwillingness to help out the younger players. They will be bad until Kobe leaves.

My number 28 team is the Portland Trail Blazers. This team may have had the worst offseason of any team in recent NBA history. First, the night before the draft, they traded Nic Batum to the Hornets for two young, inexperienced players. Then, Wes Matthews and Brook Lopez signed with different teams, Matthews to the Mavericks and Lopez to the Knicks. They did some good in retaining Damien Lillard with a max contract, but their efforts to retain LaMarcus Aldridge were not good. No one expected him to resign with Portland, and of course, he didn't. I'll talk about his new team at some point next week. The Trail Blazers lost four of their five starters from a playoff team. That's brutal. They did retain Lillard, like I said, and he's a really good offensive player. He's unguardable at times and can put up close to 50 points any night. His weakness lies on defense. His weakness is, he doesn't care to play defense. He shows no effort and they didn't need him to with guys like Lopez and Aldridge clogging the lane. Now though, he's the franchise, and they need him to do All Star work on both offense and defense. A lot will be asked of Lillard, and while he may live up to expectations, who else do they have? Guys like Meyers Leonard, Mason Plumlee and Noah Vonleh don't make up the greatest front court in basketball. Meyers Leonard is an okay offensive player, but for a 7 footer, he's a pretty crummy defender and rebounder. Plumlee is sub par at offense and defense. The fact that this guy made a USA basketball team is laughable. And is he supposed to be Brook Lopez's replacement? I'd take Lopez any day over Plumlee, any day. Vonleh may be good, but he's a young, unproven player. One year of college basketball and one year spent mostly injured or on the bench in Charlotte does not make for a good start to your professional basketball career. Time will tell with Vonleh. The new back court consists of Lillard and younger, unproven players. Guys like CJ McCollum and Phil Pressey and Gerald Henderson will try to help Lillard out, but it won't work. Phil Pressey had little to nothing to do with the Celtics run to the playoffs last year, and he just doesn't seem like an NBA player to me. Gerald Henderson is a great dunker, a decent shooter and an average three point shooter, but he doesn't play defense. Damien Lillard is the better version of Henderson. I don't understand the signing of Henderson since he's a worse version of Lillard, but I'm not a GM. CJ McCollum has the tools to be a good NBA player, but he needs more time to develop and he won't help this team that much right now. In three years a back court of Lillard and McCollum could be great, but will the Trail Blazers have the patience? I don't think so. They did sign Al Farouq-Aminu, in what might be quietly one of the better offseason signings, but he seems to only thrive when he's a role player. We will see how well he plays as a starter.

How the Trailblazers will win it all.

As I said before, every other player is too young or past their prime. It was a very, very rough offseason for Portland. The only way they win the Finals is if Damien Lillard averages close to 60 points a game, McCollum becomes an elite point guard in one season, and the front court of Aminu/Leonard/Plumlee/Vonleh all become All Stars. Does that sound totally possible? It doesn't? No duh. Portland should go into full rebuild mode and try to get this team ready to be good again in about three years. They did the right thing in locking up Lillard, but they didn't put up much of a fight for Aldridge and lost three other starters and didn't get much to replace them. Portland seems like a 25 to 30 win team at best.

So, those are the first three NBA teams. Come back tomorrow for numbers 27, 26 and 25.

Ty 

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man podcast. He is looking forward to watching some west coast basketball this season while he is up with a crying baby. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.